New Year's Revolution

Egg Cooker - No use for it. I cook eggs in a bowl. However, my wife and I got 6 of these as wedding presents. It was given to us by some family friends.

Egg Cooker

Mariner’s autographed baseball - This was cool, but it was so cool I didn’t want to use it. Its a decoration. My late grandpa gave it to me. It has more sentimental value to me now that my grandfather has died, and it was he who gave the ball to me, but it serves no practical use apart from the emotional attachment and the memories I associate with it.

Mariner’s autographed baseball

Matchbox 57 Chevy - My uncle gave this car to me. Now this I played with alot. It was my favorite car when I was a kid, and I wanted a real on when I grew up. That didn’t work out. I ended up with a Pontiac Phoenix (quick story).

Guess Who Greatest Hits Cassette - This gift has the best story. My mom gave this to me when I was maybe 10 years old. I was already into bands like The Beatles, Buddy Holly, the Monkees, and stuff like that, so she bought me this cassette (tell the young ones what cassettes were). I hadn’t heard of the Guess Who before, and I didn’t recognize any of the songs. How could this be a greatest hits album if I don’t know any of the songs? Granted, I was 10 years old, but I thought I had heard every song that mattered up to that point in history. So I put it in a drawer and left it there. I didn’t even take it out of the plastic cellophane packaging. It wasn’t until I was 21 years old that I would eventually open the cassette and listen to the songs. And what I heard was AWESOME!!!!. (play some samples).

But I digress.

This was like the best kept secret. How could I have ignored this for so long? Its so good!

Isn’t the Word of God and the Gospel much like that?

How many of us have left God’s richest truths in the plastic packaging, put it in a drawer or on the shelf, and then decades later we take another look at it and find out how amazing God’s truth really is. How many of us tend to forget that its not the church that gives us God’s Word, it’s God Himself! God Himself is both the giver AND the gift! And God has commanded us, that is, the recipients of the gift, to be like Him, to be like the giver so that we might share Him, the gift, with others.

Today’s message is called New Year’s Revolution because I believe that’s exactly what God wants to do in through all of us here at West Side Church so that we might win some in our community to Christ in 2018.

A revolution is not a resolution.

A resolution is something that I decide to do to change me.

A revolution is a powerful force that transforms me.

And of course that powerful force is Christ Jesus.

And today we are going to examine 3 sections of Scripture and see how they connect and how they are God’s blueprint for a New Year’s Revolution in you and me.

Before we get too far into this, I want to give you the broad stroke of where West Side Church will be headed through the first half of 2018.

(Read supplemental page - marked section)

We want to be desperately intentional about proclaiming the Gospel in 2018 as a church body. Its very easy for believers to leave the Gospel wrapped in plastic and put it in a drawer, or to put the Gospel on the mantle and only use it as decoration, because we forget how amazingly powerful, how amazingly awesome, how amazingly merciful, how amazingly essential, how amazingly truthful, how amazingly faithful, how amazingly wonderful, and how amazingly amazing the Gospel is.

Its easy for us as Christians to piggy back on the evangelistic work of others and say that because that person shared their faith, and I go to the same church as that person, and since we are all one in Christ, that I am active in proclaiming the Good News, when really I’m just passing the buck. And in that mindset we have clearly forgotten that every time we pass the buck, we pass on an opportunity to point someone who is under God’s wrath to rescue in God’s love and mercy.

Its easy for us as Christians to write people off and declare them un-savable. Maybe they have wronged us greatly and we don’t want them to be saved and grow in the knowledge and love of the Savior. Maybe we disagree with their politics. Maybe we dislike them as a person. Maybe we dislike people like them. Maybe we dislike their sin more than we do other sins and thereby dismiss them as too far gone.

Its easy to be afraid of proclaiming the Gospel because we think we don’t know enough.

Do you know Jesus?

You know enough to proclaim Him then!

Its funny. Jesus said “Go and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” But we get too caught up in wanting to make a point about Christ rather than making a disciple of Christ.

God has given us such a gift in Christ, but He has also equipped us spiritually to be able to proclaim Christ, and our responsibility, then, is to do something with what God has given us, just like how God gave us the gift of Himself, we are to be like the great giver and share Him with a lost and dying world. I’m not talking about using the talents that God has given us, I’m talking about doing something with the treasure that is Christ Himself. Because is it precisely Jesus Himself who gets drowned out amidst the noise of our talents, and preferences, and so-called human intellect.

The American Christian has become embarrassed of Jesus, and we’ve become deceived into thinking that He is not enough. That’s why when we do an outreach, we spend more money on bouncy houses and bratwursts than we do on getting a Bible into the hands of every single person who attends. We think we have to spice Him up or people won’t want to hear about Him. We want church to be exciting, we want to be personally all-knowing theological Jedis, we want to provide the best worship experience, when what need to do is help people experience Jesus Himself.

Are you with me?

So, as we examine the Scriptures today:

We will see exactly how beautiful the Gospel is by investigating just what the Gospel is.

We will see what God has gifted us with to be able to sow the seeds of His glorious Truth and Life

We will see what our biblical motivation needs to be if we are going effectively Follow-Connect-Share, and in the case of 2018, Share, that is Proclaim the salvation of Jesus to those who have ears to hear.

Let’s pray as we open our Bibles this morning.

Mark 4:1–20 NIV

Again Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water’s edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said: “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.” Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” When he was alone, the Twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, “The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside everything is said in parables so that, “ ‘they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding; otherwise they might turn and be forgiven!’” Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.”

Mark 4:1–20 NIV

Verses 1-9 contain the parable of the sower as taught by Jesus. This whole section begins and ends with a warning to listen to this parable very carefully. And we are about to find out why.

Most often, when this passage is taught, the emphasis is the response of the recipient soil, and Christians, then, debate as to what kind of soil they are, and whether or not that soil is actually saved and so on.

And its true, the response of the soil is an important part of the text, but I suggest to you that its not the point of the text.

In the same way, it is important that we take a look at ourselves and consider whether or not our roots of faith are too shallow, or whether or not we are too worried and distracted by ourselves and by the world to obey God, the giver, and for the seed to actually blossom and we might bear the fruit of the Spirit. But again, I suggest to you that that is not the point of the text.

Take a look at this if you will. (Gorilla video)

Some of you may have seen that before, but I know that many of you were like, “holy smokes! i cant believe i missed a GORILLA!!!”

Well, get ready, here’s God’s Gorilla.

In verses 3 and 14, Jesus tells us what the parable is about: The Farmer - God.

In the same verses, Jesus tells us what the farmer does: sows seed.

And from those same verses we know that the seed is the word of God.

Jesus is talking about evangelism.

The soil, then, is other people, lost people, and there are examples of how different people receive the Word, and the results thereof.

Now, the great emphasis of the parable is the act of sowing the seed rather than on the soils into which the seed is sown. A theologian by the name of Lane notes:

“The Kingdom of God breaks into the world even as seed which is sown on the ground. In the details about the soils there is reflection on the diversity of response to the proclamation of the Word of God, but this is not the primary consideration.”

While the parable emphasizes the act of sowing, the interpretations, as I mentioned, emphasize the responses that are given to the proclamation of the Gospel.

Verse 15 shows the most shallow of hearers, who are easily deceived by Satan.

16-17 shows that persecution and trials will hinder proper reception of God’s Word.

18-19 talk about how often the distractions and worries of life get in our way. I would suggest that alot of believers fall into this category actually. We trust false securities all the time, don’t we? Our money, our health, our intellect, our strength, our capability to understand a situation, etc. For example, Jesus tells all Christians to go and make disciples, yet how many of us do not do that because we are afraid of one thing or another? Afraid of not knowing the answer. Afraid of doing something we don’t want to do at the moment, and so on. The anxieties of life choke out the Word and, the text says, renders the soil, the person unfruitful. Notice, this soil is not without root. I interpret that to mean that this is a believer, who is rooted, but the nutrients that flow through the root to the branch are quenched by fear and worry. As a result, the fruit that does appear, tends to be rotten.

This is why we can sing words like, Jesus, You are my everything, You’re all I need, Great is Your Faithfulness, and at the same time, we look like we are at an insurance seminar after having listened to 48 non-stop hours of Yanni. Something is choking out the joy of the Lord. Something is choking out His Word and so it doesn’t quite make it all the way to our surfaces.

20 of course is the good soil that bears endless beautiful fruit.

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary explains:

The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, Volume 8: Matthew, Mark, Luke 3. Interpretation of the Parable of the Sower (4:13–20)

Words may be sound and lively enough, but it is up to each hearer to let them sink in and become fruitful. If he only hears without responding—without doing something about it and committing himself to their meaning—then the words are in danger of being lost, or of never coming to anything. The whole story thus becomes a parable about the learner’s responsibility, and about the importance of learning with one’s whole will and obedience, and not merely with one’s head. (Gospel of Mark, p. 36)

Now, if the parable is about evangelism, and the contextual focus is on the farmer, albeit there is much to glean from examining the response of the soil, what can be learned from focusing on the farmer that might help us to be the good soil?

I offer three things:

Instead of worrying so much about the kind of soil we might be right now, we need to look at whether or not we are becoming more like the farmer. Jesus commanded us to sow the seed of the Gospel in . Jesus tells us of a farmer who sows seed on every kind of soil, not just the kind he thinks will be most receptive. We are to be seed sowers.

The more like the farmer we are, the better soil we will become.

The way to be like Jesus is to obey God. That’s what Jesus did, He obeyed the Father, the Farmer. He invaded this world with the seeds of the Gospel. Do you invade your world with seeds of the Gospel?

Why don’t we invade our worlds with the seeds of the Gospel?

A couple reasons come to mind.

We are afraid of sharing what we think we don’t know enough about to someone who doesn’t know what we’re talking about.

We do not readily understand the value of the seeds.

And this is where I want to spend the rest of our time today.

The value of the seeds.

Think of something that is easy for you to share with other people. Something that you really like and love to introduce other people to.

Fettucini Alfredo at Maggiano’s Little Italy.

If we understood the value of the Gospel as much we understood the value of Fettucini from Maggiano’s, maybe we wouldn’t be so afraid to share it.

Move over to Ephesians chapter 1 with me if you would.

I’m not going to read the whole section, but I am going to pull out what Jesus has packed into each seed that He commands us to sow. As I list these things off, I encourage you to read the passage for yourself and underline as you go.

From , the seeds of the Gospel contain:

God’s choosing of us

His intention for us to be holy and blameless

His love

His adoption of us into His eternal family

His freely given Grace

His redemption through His blood

Forgiveness of sins

The riches of God’s Grace

Understanding of the mystery of God’s Will for us

God’s purpose for our lives in the work that He prepared for us to do

The privilege of being able to have hope in Christ

Inclusion in Christ Himself

Security in and by the Holy Spirit

The Guarantee of eternal life through the Holy Spirit

Flip over to chapter 2 and look at verse 4

God’s mercy

God’s life

Raised with Christ

Seated with Christ

God’s Kindness expressed through Jesus Christ

God’s purpose for our lives expressed through His workmanship in creating us

Now, you don’t have to be a seminary educated theological ninja to share that with someone else.

You know, a new year’s resolution is all about me being something I am not, and getting there under my own power.

But a New Year’s Revolution is all about Jesus transforming me into what He created me to be in the first place, and getting there by the power of the Holy Spirit.

We quit our resolutions.

Jesus doesn’t quit on our revolutions.

I go back to this table of stuff. I missed the point of these gifts for a long time.

The point of these gifts was how much the giver loved me.

The point of any gift that matters is how much the giver loves you.

The point of the parable of the sower is how much the sower loves the soil.

And God has shouted as loud as He can about

The Guess Who doesn’t love me, my mom does.

Chevy doesn’t love me, my uncle does.

The Mariners don’t love me, my grandpa does.

Egg cookers don’t love me, my friends do.

So what do we take away from this examination of Scripture this morning?

Jesus doesn’t want me to be like other people, He wants me to be like Him. In other words, I don’t need to be like another patch of soil, I need to be like the farmer.

If I am going to be like Jesus, I need to obey God like Jesus did.

God’s instructions for my life are given to me in His Word.

I need to be bold enough to sow the seed on all kinds of soil, and let Jesus take care of the harvest. The farmer didn’t neglect to sow seed on the hard ground just because it was hard. He sowed seed there anyway.

We have a tremendous mission ahead of us in 2018. We have to sow the seeds of the Gospel in our city. We can’t be so comfortable with our current setting that we cease to invade our city with the salvation of Jesus Christ. And yes, we are going to spend some time as we turn 65 years old as a church celebrating what God has done so far. But we can’t be satisfied with our favorite memories. There is perhaps no greater obstacle to our mission than our memories. Our command is not to be content to remember the good old days, its to stay on mission. And our mission is to sow the seed of God’s Word in our city.

To close our time in the Word today, we are going to celebrate communion.

And just like how we examined what is in the seeds that we are to sow in our city, it is also important for us to gain a better understanding of just what Jesus had to bear on the cross so that we could be sowers of the seeds of His truth.

Brick under chair. Feel the weight of it. Take a couple bricks. Feel the weight of them.

Jesus carried all the bricks of sin for everybody in the world, past, present, and future, and make no mistake, those in our city who do not trust Jesus Christ today are trapped under the weight of sin, and thereby under the wrath of God. We must invade their hearts with His Word.

Exchanging the bricks for the seeds. Bricks = heavy. seeds = light.

Burden is easy, yoke is light.

We understand the value of the seeds when we give them away.

The more we realize the value of the seeds, the more we sow them in those around us.

As the ushers come forward to pass out the communion elements, I want to read two more sections of Scripture written by Paul that say almost the exact same thing.

Ephesians 2:1–10 NIV

As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Ephesians

Titus 3:3–8 NIV

At one time we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. This is a trustworthy saying. And I want you to stress these things, so that those who have trusted in God may be careful to devote themselves to doing what is good. These things are excellent and profitable for everyone.

Titus 3:3-8

John 12:24 NIV

Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Jesus’ body was broken, His blood was shed, so that you could have eternal life, and more than that, so that we might be able to proclaim His salvation to those around us.

Look around this room, you see all the pieces of bread, all the cups.

Jesus died. He was broken.

He rose again.

And He produced much fruit, He produced many seeds.

And every person in here who believes on Jesus Christ is one of those seeds.

And to every seed in here, you too have the seed of the Gospel that you are responsible to sow.

The One for the many. (pause for editing audio - message end here)

Let’s take a moment right now, quietly where you are and reflect on the truth of Christ in your life as we prepare to take the elements.

And in a moment, our elders will pray for the bread, and then the cup, and we will partake of each element together.

Elder Bread Prayer - take bread

Elder Cup Prayer - take cup

Now, we are going to see some fruit in action. We are going to see the results of the sowing of the seeds as we celebrate believer’s baptism.

After baptism, stand and sing one more song.

Close.

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