Into the dirt #1

Northside Church Into the Dirt #1

Jamey Mills 1/10/21

Northside…. So good to be with you guys this evening, my name is Jamey Mills, I am one of the pastors here at Northside Church…

It’s great to be with you all… here and online… Today we are staring a brand new sermon series we are calling… INTO THE DIRT… and it it we will be looking at a story that Jesus told… to help us understand something important.

And to help us get there… How many of you all know what this is (broken clavicle xray) ? How many of you have had one? Has any of us never had one?

There are some interesting versions of this out there…

Dog fork… at least its pointed the right way

Painful foot…

high heels

Scissors

Nail

Xrays are a pretty great tool… they help us see what’s happening just below the surface… officially… it shows the internal composition or make up of something…

And that’s what Jesus is doing in this story… getting below the surface… getting into the dirt…

Humanity has an interesting relationship with dirt…

Genesis 2:7 (NLT)

7 Then the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.

God formed us, raised us up from the dirt to bear his image. Later in ch. 2 it talks about how God made this beautiful place for mankind to live out our relationship with Him… inside of that everything was as it should be… and God even gave some definition… some shape to our relationship with Him… We were to listen to Him… Trust Him… and take our cues from Him.

It wasn’t long at all and humanity found ourselves on the other side of that… hanging out where we shouldn’t… listening to things we shouldn't… finding ways to twist what God says… falling into all kinds of lies and allowing what we want to become the major force for our decision making… and for the first time… brokenness came to humanity. Sin brought brokenness… and it's still here. It says that it caused them to cover themselves… and to hide from God… to create distance between them and Him…

And Even though God is a God of deep love, deep grace, and deep forgiveness… there was and is… God ordained consequences to sin… and they faced them.

What are the consequences of sin mentioned in Genesis 2?

It says that man would be at war… with temptation, with satan and with each other.

Childbirth would be crazy painful

The dynamics between husband and wife… forever impacted

The ground would be cursed… contaminated… by sin

Instead of living out what God had planned… it says this…

Genesis 3:17–19 (NLT)

...the ground is cursed because of you.

All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.

18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,

though you will eat of its grains.

19 By the sweat of your brow

will you have food to eat

until you return to the ground

from which you were made.

For you were made from dust,

and to dust you will return.”

We really do have this special relationship with the dirt… formed and raised up from it… and one day… our physical bodies will return to it. 10 out of 10 of us. That is real.

And that’s what sin does… it brings brokenness into the world… into our world… and that brokenness exists right now in every one of us. We live out the consequences of sin… both ours and of others… it is a reality that you and I live in right now… even as we sit here… and that’s why Jesus came.

Jesus came to speak into the brokenness and show us the way, His truth, and lead us to the life God has always intended for you.

To speak into that brokenness… to show us the way...to show us truth, and to lead us to the life that God has always intended for you… a life that has become marred by, distorted by… and even uprooted by sin.

Part of what Jesus does is restoration… the avenue of God’s forgiveness… and grace… restoring our relationship with Him… restoring His image in us that has become blurred by sin…

We will be looking at one of the parables that Jesus taught…

Jesus often taught in parables…

What does the word parable mean?

The word actually means “to lay alongside of”, and that really helps us understand what Jesus is doing. He often would use common, everyday kinds of things to help people understand important, life changing biblical truths…

And that is exactly what He’s doing here.

In fact… within this parable Jesus gives us to things that help us realize how important this parable is…

He says.. Anyone that has ears… anyone that can understand… needs to hear this and pay attention.

He also says… if you can’t understand this parable, how will you get any of the others… which I think a couple mean two things…

This is the easiest parable to understand… and you’d be a dummy no to.

Or… more likely, the truth Jesus is trying to teach is essential in hearing and understanding everything else Jesus has to say in the right way.

That's what He’s doing here, so let's dive in.

Mark 4:1–10 and 13-20 (NLT)

Once again Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore. A very large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat in the boat while all the people remained on the shore. 2 He taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

3 “Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seed. 4 As he scattered it across his field, some of the seed fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate it. 5 Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seed sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. 6 But the plant soon wilted under the hot sun, and since it didn’t have deep roots, it died. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants so they produced no grain. 8 Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!” 9 Then he said, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

10 Later, when Jesus was alone with the twelve disciples and with the others who were gathered around, they asked him what the parables meant.

13 Then Jesus said to them, “If you can’t understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? 14 The farmer plants seed by taking God’s word to others. 15 The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, only to have Satan come at once and take it away. 16 The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. 17 But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word. 18 The seed that fell among the thorns represents others who hear God’s word, 19 but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life, the lure of wealth, and the desire for other things, so no fruit is produced. 20 And the seed that fell on good soil represents those who hear and accept God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

And so let’s quickly identify the players in this story real quick…

The seed… is the gospel… it’s God Word… His truth.

The Farmer or Sower in this passage isn’t God… but really anyone who has the Word of God and is sharing it.

The birds… are… well they are the devil.

And the soil… is you… It’s your heart.

This is often called the parable of the sower… but it really is the parable of the soil…

And its talking about the condition of your heart… the shape the God’s word finds your heart in…

And that’s a great question…

As God’s word hits your minds and hearts, what does it find?

There are things that impact our ability to receive and respond to His Word in the right way… for the good and for the bad. Our attitudes, sin, past hurts, priorities, our schedules… impact our receptivity to God… and His Word…

It’s clear from what Jesus says that the issue is not the seed… (although it matters greatly) and it’s not the farmer (though… this matters too) but the issue that keeps the seed from producing what God intends… is what in the dirt… the condition of our hearts.

As Jesus told this parable, the crowd that was there knew exactly what he was talking about… something they likely all had done… in fact it was such an everyday kind of thing, many believe it was likely that as Jesus was teaching… they were actually watching someone doing part of this process in the distance.

In that day… the fields like this didn’t have fences… they had these footpaths that went through them… and divided them. About 3ft wide, they were used by the farmers, but also pretty much anyone that passed through… in fact some translations use the word road here… which I think indicates it was heavily traveled.

It was heavily compacted… hard as concrete…

Jesus said that as the farmer was scattering seed… some fell on the footpath… the seed bounced… it has 0 chance of penetrating the surface. Within moments the birds (satan) came and took it away before truth or hope had time to take root…

Jesus is talking about those who are so hard hearted… or heard headed… or maybe those who are so hurt that they are completely closed off from Him.

This hard ground is referring to those who have rejected Jesus and/or His truth.

Those who reject Him loud and proud… and those sit with it silently.

And… man, it feels like our culture is headed more and more in that direction, which makes what we are talking about incredibly important.

Jesus wanted them to know, wants you to know… that how His word finds your heart (what is happening just below the surface in you) will play a huge role in the fruit that it bears in you.

And so my hope is we’ll have open hearts, hands, and minds before God… and pray the same prayer that David prayed…

Psalm 139:23–24 (NLT)

23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

24 Point out anything in me that offends you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Asking God to cultivate our hearts in such a way that brings real health and healing, which is a work only God can do.

One of my thoughts is this…

How do we as people get to that point?

And one of my thoughts was this… just a footpath isn’t made hard when one person walks it, it takes time and several outside influences to get there… I think it's true of us too.

I think it can involve hurt, sin, shame, guilt, rejection, pain, anger, heavy influence from family or culture or classrooms… sometimes I think it can involve real hurts that have come from the church or those within it…

Postures like pride… not seeing our need or or brokeness… either consciously or subconsciously believing life revolves around me.

Fear… maybe as one example… we reject God or his truth or aspects of his truth out of fear of being rejected ourselves.

Hate… which is just so far from the heart of God.

One author said this… this hard path represents

Prov. 1:7 those who despise God’s wisdom and discipline.

Ps 14:1 that says in their heart there is no god.

2 Cor 4:4 whose minds are blinded to His truth

1 Cor 1:18 who see the message of the cross as foolish…

Ps 1 who follow the wrong leaders and advice

It would be so easy to think this has no place in us… but this same author pointed me back about 1\2 a chapter in Mark 3 to see something important.

It was the religious leaders of that day that stood among the crowds and rejected Him and His truth. That pointed people away… who never denied He did amazing things, they said he did it because he was possessed…

Religious leaders who were open to the concept of God… or at least their concept of God… who saw themselves as the model citizens of deep religion… that rejected him… and real truth… and pointed people away from Him.

And right there… is a warning for you and I. Honestly… there might be more of that in us than we are comfortable admitting.

Rejecting Him and his truth… sometimes it looks different than we think.

Rejecting Him because and His truth because we love other things more.

Because holding on to it might lead to our own rejection.

Because we aren’t willing to dig into it ourselves.

Because we were raised to believe other things… our follow the cultures leading…

Because sometimes… burying our hurt and guilt seems better or easier than dealing with it.

Rejecting his leading… pretending we didn't hear it… or by only hearing and never acting on it.

By pretending His is not the way to real freedom.

By learning on our own understanding… we know better.

Be not stepping out in faith…

Or by not taking that first step when we know He’s leading us to it.

Allowing things in our lives… over a period of time… that bring us to this place of being so hard hearted and hard headed before God that there is no place for His truth in us.

And the truth about

Hard ground, until it’s dealt with, only gets harder.

And if you’re like me and see more of this in yourself than you’re comfortable with… I think there are some things you can do. These steps came off a website that I added a little to it.

Identify the cause

Stop standing in it

Break it up

Introduce healthy things

Tend it properly

Identify the cause

… Be honest… ask God for insight and help

Stop standing in it

… realize things need to change.

Break it up

… hard ground… will not be fruitful. I needs to be broken up… to let air and other things in.

This breaking up is often painful, but isn’t it cool that God gives us that example in creation… so that we can understand how He works in us.

Introduce healthy things to it…

Tend it properly

And for me… this really can be summarized what it means to become a true disciple… or student of Jesus… our posture before Him. Do we take our yeses and no’s from Him… our cues from Him? Are we completely teachable… or do we hold on what we think… to pride, to fear.. To hurt… to lies…

God desires to cultivate the hard places of your heart… where we have allowed things we shouldn't… where we have rejected Him and His leadership.

Jesus is about restoration… bringing health and healing… and real life and real freedom.

Are you willing to be that open handed before God… to not just honestly pray… but honestly act on Davids prayer… God, show me the wickedness in me… point it out… those things that aren’t honoring you. Don’t let my heart and mind become hard toward you…