INTO the dirt #4

Northside Church Into the Dirt #4

Jamey Mills 1/24/21

Good morning, my name is Jamey Mills, Lead Pastor here at Northside Church is always great to be with you. today we are finishing up our four-week sermon series that we've called into the dirt where we're looking at this illustrative story that Jesus used to help Ordinary People Like You and Me grasp something of great significance.

During this week, I came across this picture. I'm not sure it was supposed to hurt my feelings. But it did make me start to think a little bit. They know their lane… they realize that they might be able to help you with something… but really can’t do much for other things…

Would you agree with this statement? “Most people want to be better”. That’s been my experience… most people seem to want to do better or be better… I don’t know if it’s that we see deficiencies or problems… some area of our life that is out of place, in an area where change is needed or maybe it's an area where we know we are just flat-out wrong… But sometimes it seems like we are almost wired in that direction….

I dont think its a bad thing… but it did strike me with just how much of it is present in our culture… all the books, diets, gyms, classes, youtube…

I think, at the very least these feelings come from the belief that things are not as good as they could be.

We talked about this in week 1, but you can go all the way back to Genesis chapter 2, the beginning of creation. And I really do think it helps us understand a little bit about what it is that God desires for you.

In Genesis 2, we read that God created everything… including this amazing place where humanity would live out this favor… this relationship with Him, and you don't get very far into it when you realize that instead of listening and following through with what God said… they started listening to the wrong things… and it wasn’t long before sin… for the first time… hit the face of the earth… This going against God and what it is that he has for you. And the consequences were fairly immediate. Sensing something was wrong… they took things into their own hands… they felt the need to cover up… to conceal things… to hide from God.

But that wasn't all… Their choice to rely on their own way of thinking… to go against God would strain their marriage… their relationship with the kids… it talks about pain and childbirth… it says that even the dirt was affected. It would be the sweat of their brow… that they’d scratch a living out… tending the dirt that would produce thorns and thistles.

It helps us to understand how important it is to hear God… and to hear Him the right way. And maybe even showing us the

failure to hear and to respond in the right way just doesn't lead to good things….

It even helps us understand something Jesus said in the midst of the passage we have been looking at…. Jesus said… if we don’t understand this one, how will we understand the rest of what Jesus has to say… and I think its because Jesus is saying a lot rides on our ability… willingness… to hear Him and the kind of response we have.

Jesus talked about this farmer who went out to scatter seed, and some of it fell on the footpath where the birds came and at it quickly. Others fell on shallow rocky soil where it spouted up quickly but withered and died in the heat of the sun. Others fell among the thorns that robbed the seed of what it needed to grow and some fell in good soil and had phenomenal results.

A simple illustration that everyone could connect with… we know that soil matters… later Jesus explained what he meant to those who are closest to Him.

Mark 4:14–20 (NLT)

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!”

We talked about how this footpath represents those who are hard headed and hard-hearted before God, has to do with rejecting God and His truth.

We have talked about how the rocky soil represents those things that are going on in our lives just under the surface that keeps us from having any depth in our relationship with Jesus at all. Things we done that we can’t forgive ourselves for, things others have done to us, addiction… all kinds of things.

We talked about thorny soil representing those things that draw our mind, heart, attention, and our schedule away from God and His truth in our life.

Jesus gave three examples…

Worries of the day

Deceitfulness of worldly wealth

Desire for other things

And it would be easy to assume that in all of this, Jesus is talking about those outside the four walls of the Church… that don’t know Him… but Jesus is talking about how we respond… that means… we are in places and spaces where we are hearing it…

The truth is this stuff is alive and well within the American Church… in our church… and… honestly… I’d bet in each and every one of us.

And so if during this sermon series… or

Any other time we engage the Word and we come to this point where we sort of push it away or pretend like we've heard it, seen it and done it, we are actually committing the very thing that Jesus is warning us about.

Comparing the soils is pretty interesting. It makes me want to ask the question what is so different…

The good soil Jesus is talking about is just different…

The hard places have been broken up… the rocks beneath have been brought to the surface… the stuff around us that can rob our attention and divide our hearts are in check… but really the difference… is in the result.

Every other soil… ends in hard, dying and fruitless places…

There is only one soil that achieves the desired result…. In which the seed has the impact it is created and designed to have. This condition of the soil…

Jesus says the condition of your heart has an outrageous impact on how we receive God’s truth into our lives.

When you read this, if I were to ask you, what do you think God’s desire for you is, what would you say?

Which one does God desire for you and why?

I hope you hear that… Jesus has desires for you. Things he wants… for you.

He wants you to be the kind of person that Hears God with an open heart… with open hands. He wants you to be the kind of person that receives it… accepts it… and responds to it in a way that… brings fruit… brings life into every area of our life.

Relationships… financial stuff… schedules… all of it.

He wants to see the Word of God bear the fruit… to bring the life that God has always wanted and intended for us… that it would bring the sort of truth, Direction, purpose, wisdom, forgiveness, freedom, fullness and fellowship with Him… that we were created for.

Jesus says that hearing God’s word… accepting it… hearing it… and allowing it to impact the condition of our heart… produces crazy results… 30, 60 or even 100 times what was planted…

They believe that annual yield in that day… and in that area was around 4 times less that 30%.

Jesus is not just saying that His word will bring life giving fruit into your life… It is mic dropping, mind blowing, shut the front door, you have my attention… kind of fruit.

It’s what happens when we allow God’s word to be what God’s Word is intended to be in our lives… more than a story… more than history… more than decent advice…

His word was never intended to make life easy… it doesn’t. But I do think…

It helps us make sense of life…

It points us not just in a good direction, but a life giving direction we are designed for.

It brings wisdom and informs everything I face.

It helps me see beyond myself and my present situation.

It brings me to the point of encountering the God of all creation… and… a glimpse of what it is HE DESIRES FOR ME.

KNowing that… that God desires me to be the sort of soil that hears Him, that responds to Him… and that bears fruit… knowing it’s what He wants helps us to know that if we come to God ready to hear… ready to respond… with open hands and open hearts… holding nothing back… HE WILL NOT DISAPPOINT.

Knowing that bearing fruit is God’s desire helps us to know that He will not disappoint.

Allowing His truth to break up the hard parts in us… allowing it to bring those things just under the surface to the surface, to bring focus in our relationship with Him that keeps us from chasing the things that would distract us from greater things… Him and His things…. It changes things…. It reorders things… and most importantly… it brings life…

Each of these soils represents a response to His truth… and so all of us will have to decide what that response will be.

Will be allow GOD to be the one that speaks, defines and motivates us in truth or will it be our culture, our desire for money, the hunger for attention…

I feel like Jesus is saying the truth, life, and satisfaction are not found in those things. But they are found in Christ, His truth and His way.

And we need to be clear…

1 Corinthians 3:6–9 (NLT)

6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building.

It’s God who makes it grow.

\… and to me that brings relief and confidence. It’s God who brings the growth…. I really do try hard every week to bring God’s Word in a way that will encourage… convict… challenge… but at the end of the day, I don’t have what it takes to bring the miracle that fruit producing life.

It’s God that brings that life… but God allows us to respond to Him and to His word in ways that helps cultivate the soil of our heart…. That allows us to partner with Him in bringing conditions that are favorable for the miracle that is growth… real life…

Most of the time… when the bible mentions fruit like this… it’s referring to the evidence of something. It’s like saying… because this is real… this happens.

Fruit often refers to the evidence of something in our lives.

And so fruit is the evidence of life… the evidence of the presence of God and His truth that are planted deeply in our hearts… heart… accepted… and given the sort of authority in us it’s intended to have.

And… here is the cool part.

Picture of a fruit tree

Does the tree bear fruit for itself? As a part of the way God created things… fruit bearing… is also live giving…

When God’s word bears fruit in us… it also begins to nourish those around us.

Reminds me of when Jesus tells us to be salt and light… we bring the light of His truth and the flavor of His truth wherever we go.

Friends, family, co-workers…

This is crazy…

That in the process of God and His word bearing fruit in our own lives… we become the farmer… scattering the seeds of His Word… not our word, His.

I don't think this means being a jerk on social media, wearing a sandwich board or having super cool bumper stickers… I think it means getting into the dirt… I think it means allowing His word to authentically impact and change our lives… because in it… it impacts the lives of others too.

And in that… I think He is encouraging us to know that as we scatter seed… we won't always get the result we want… and that He desires.

Sometimes we will experience the heart hearted complete rejection that comes with it… sometimes we will see potential that ends up withering because of things we don’t see. Sometimes we will see people chase the things of the world so hard they won’t even realize they are running from Him and His truth in the process.

Tonight I want to provide a couple opportunities.

Like most Sunday’s I want to provide the opportunity to take communion. It is one of those things He talks about and instituted in His Word as a way we connect with Him… remembinting His life, death and resurrection… and what that means for you.

Jesus himself said that he is the way, the truth, and the life and that no one comes to the father except through him and that is one of the things that we celebrate, remember, and think about in the process of communion I would encourage you not to take it lightly… do it with the condition of your soil… your heart in mind.

I also feel like this sermon series has the potential to almost require a response of sorts…

To me… the major danger in the hard, rocky and thorny soil… is that nothing changes.

The truth is… there are things in all us that probably need to be different when it comes to the way we hear… and respond to Him.

So… If there are areas where you have rejected God and His truth…

If there are things that are going on under the surface that keep you from trusting… or going deep with God… or if you really feel like you have allowed the worries of the day to become the purpose of your life, if you have allowed worldly wealth or the desire for other things pull you away…

Being open handed, open hearted and open minded before the Lord… hearing His truth and responding matters.

The worship team is going to play few songs… and during that time you participate in communion and… or… there will be a few people in the back that are willing to pray for you.

Brandi and I, Steve and Claudia, Jonathan and Elizabeth, Google, Bobby and Heather…

so if there's an area where you know you need prayer, please don't hesitate. We'll be in the back. You don't have to share anything you're not ready to share.

If you feel like God is asking you to respond if God is asking you the dig into the dirt it would be a mistake not to.

Pray