Sermon Transcript

I’m grateful for your response in worship this morning. Let me invite you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 4.

Have you ever wondered where Harvest Bible Chapel got its name? The passage that you’re about to read is one of the reasons why we like to use the term “Harvest”—because that’s what Jesus is seeking this morning: He’s seeking a harvest. But, long before the harvest, there is something else that must happen. There’s a lot of planting and a lot of plowing, and a lot of cultivating that has to happen.

On Friday night, I went to the Penn High School football game. It was homecoming, so at halftime there were the ceremonies of crowning the queen and the king. And as the biographies of those potential kings and queens were read, they let us know what they were going to be pursuing as a career and what they were going to be studying in school. And so, they said this person is going to be pursuing a degree in nursing, and this person’s going to be pursuing a career in engineering—and, as they went through the list, I did not hear anybody say, “This person’s going to be pursuing a career in agriculture.” All the aggies are down South, I guess.

But, at the time the Bible was written, agriculture was the most important industry. Today, if you want to eat something, you just jump in your car and you go to Martin’s or McDonalds—or whatever—and you get the fruit of somebody else having planted and plowed and processed all that for you. But, in biblical terms—and every time we come to church—do you know what’s happening? There is a planting and a plowing and a cultivating. And what we long to see (and what Jesus longs to see in every worship service) is the harvest. And if there’s going to be a harvest, there’s going to have to be a seed that’s planted (can you guess my next word?) deeper.

We’ve been talking, in this series, about how we want to go deeper. Our church is getting bigger, some of us are getting bigger—that doesn’t mean we’re getting deeper. We’re going to be intentional this year about going deeper, so we talked about how the Scripture calls us, for Christ to dwell in our hearts through faith—so that we can know the height and the width and the length and the depth of the love of Jesus Christ. That’s what we’re going after.

So we talked about how we need to be deeper in the Word. Last week, we talked about going deeper in the church…if you’re just kind of on the fringes of the church, come on in to the deep end. No more toe-dipping in church. C’mon! The water’s safe; come on in! Get a little deeper in the church. . .and the deeper you go into relationship with Christ, the more you’ll have a desire to go deeper in relationship to His Body, the Church.

So, this morning, we’re going to look at one more concept related to going deeper. This is about the Word going deeper into us. So, let’s begin reading here in Mark chapter 4, verse 2. Jesus is going to tell us a parable: “[Jesus] was teaching them many things in parables. . .” Do you know what a parable is? It’s a story, it’s an analogy, it’s an illustration. The word “parable” means “to lay alongside of.” You’re laying one thing alongside of another thing, so that you can make comparisons between the two things. Jesus is going to lay a spiritual truth alongside a natural reality.

The natural reality is seed-sowing, harvesting, planting, and the truth is the response of the human heart to Jesus, so that there would be fruitfulness in a person’s life. So, He’s teaching them many things in parables. “In His teaching, He said to them: “Listen!” Now, if you’re a good mom, you use that word regularly in your home, right? There is some important truth that the kids need to understand!

So, this whole parable starts out with Jesus saying, “Listen! There’s important truth coming!” He says, “Behold, a sower went out to sow. . .” Thus, the parable begins. He’s laying alongside the spiritual reality an agricultural story—a parallel. He talks about a sower, who went out to sow. Now, in this story, we’re going to have discover the answer to three questions. The first question is this: “Who is the sower?” Secondly, “What is the seed?” Thirdly, “What is the soil?”

Jesus goes on to tell the story, beginning in verse 4: “’And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. [You see, going deeper has always been an issue. It had no depth of soil—it needed to go deeper.] And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.’”

            “‘Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.’ And he said, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’” How many of you have ears this morning? Aren’t you glad you got something right this morning? I mean, the ensemble might not have come together, but I bet you brought your ears!

            “He who has ears [what does it say?] to hear, let him hear.” The whole story starts with the word “Listen!” and the story ends with the word “hear.” Do you think Jesus is trying to communicate something? Now, you may have physical ears, but the question is, “Do you have spiritual ears to hear the truth of what Jesus is trying to convey?”

Does everybody understand all the analogies, all the parallels in the story? Apparently, the disciples didn’t understand, either, because down in verse 13: “[Jesus] said to them, ‘Do you not understand this parable?’” And the disciples say, “No, we do not understand this parable!” And Jesus goes on: “How then will you understand all the parables?” Jesus is saying, “If you don’t get this one, you’ve got no chance of getting the other ones right. This truth is so important it unlocks the meaning of so much other Scripture. You’ve got to get this one right! Serious as a heart attack. You’ve got to understand the truth in this story. And, if at the end of this story, you can’t say ‘yes’ and ‘amen,’ everything else in Scripture is going to be locked for you!” Jesus goes on to describe the story, and we’re going to find the answers to these three questions.

First of all, what is the sower—or, more appropriately—who is the sower? The Bible tells us in Mark 4:14, “The sower sows the word.” Jesus begins to explain. . .the Sower, simply, is Jesus! Jesus is sowing seed because He wants a harvest! He is still sowing seed.

What is happening right now, in this service, is Jesus Christ throwing out—scattering—seed! Jesus is the Sower. Do you know who else is the sower? Those of us who have come into relationship with Jesus Christ, and we’re followers of Jesus Christ, and the only reason He has left us on this planet is to cooperate with Him in scattering the seed! God makes His appeal through us to a world who has yet to hear. This morning, if you’ve not yet come into relationship with Jesus Christ—if you’re not yet a follower of Jesus Christ—God wants to produce a harvest in you. Jesus is trying to get the seed deep inside your heart.

If you are a follower of Jesus Christ—you’ve got that box checked, you love Jesus and you’ve surrendered to Jesus, you’re a Christ-follower—God is still sowing seed; He’s still scattering seed. Every time the Word is spoken, God’s truth is to be planted deep within my heart, and there is to be a response that produces life. Jesus is the Sower.

Here’s the next question that we’ve got to ask: What is this seed? Jesus tells us that in verse 14: “The sower sows the word.” Now that word, “word” is a summary word for a lot of words. It’s the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ. When we share the story of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection—when we share the truth that God is holy and man is sinful, and Christ is a Savior and we must repent and believe—that is the capsulization of the words of the gospel that the world desperately needs to hear!

Back in the day, when a sower was scattering seed, they used a word for that process. Do you know what it was? “Broadcasting.” Long before there was radio and television, when Farmer Brown went out to the field to scatter the seed, he was “broadcasting.” And you, as a sower, are to be broadcasting the good news of Jesus Christ, and the Word that we are to share has power; it has life!

As a matter of fact, in 1 Peter 1:23, the Scripture says, “You have been born again. . .” How many of you are in that category? Raise your hand, don’t be ashamed—you’re born again. Did that happen? Do you know how that happened? It happened, according to this verse, “. . .not [because] of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God. . .”

You see, God compares His Word to seed. It is power-packed, life-giving source that is to be planted deep within us. And for those of us who broadcast that seed, scatter that seed, what we need to understand is, we never know the condition of the soil upon which the seed lands. Our confidence is not in our ability to throw the seed. Our confidence is not in the soil—our confidence is in the seed, in the Word of God!

I recently was meeting with a pastor and we were talking about what was going on in our churches—like pastors would do—and he was a little frustrated because his church wasn’t growing. We kind of talked about some things, and we asked him, “What’s happening in your church?” He said, “Well, we’ve made a lot of changes. We went to church growth conferences and we’ve read church growth books, and we’ve done everything that the church growth experts tell us to do, to grow our church!”

And we asked, “What is that?” He said, “You know. . .we went from hymns to choruses, and we’ve got a contemporary praise band now, and we went from Sunday School to small groups. . .” And he was shocked that that didn’t produce life in his church. That’s not the life-giving power in a church. It’s not the life-giving power in your life. These are non-essentials, up here.

Now, there are some things that can happen when we do some things right in church—we try to get things right in church, but our confidence is only in the power of the seed! We’re not interested in improving our “throwing techniques,” we’re not checking our completion percentage, we’re not trying to figure out whether we need to scatter the seed overhand or underhand and through the leg or around the back. You can change all the throwing techniques you want; it is the confidence that we have in the seed that produces the result.

Other people would say, “Well, maybe you need to improve the seed! I mean, churches are in decline, and Christianity is becoming fewer and fewer in response—and so, maybe, we need to get a genetically altered seed. Maybe we need to change the Word; maybe we need to change the message and make it a little more encouraging. Don’t be so negative all the time. Don’t talk about sin, just talk about grace. That’s genetically altered Seed, and it only produces a genetically altered harvest.

And, as a result of people tampering with the seed, do you know what’s happening in churches? Churches are filled with millions and millions of people who have a false assurance in a false conversion, because they have believed a false gospel. May it never be! We can’t tamper with the seed, and we can’t get cute and clever about how we throw it. The Word is what has power to change a life, and our responsibility is to get it right and to get it out of the seed Bag. . .those of us who are committed to sharing this good news of Jesus Christ.

So, we know who the sower is. Who’s the sower? And, on a secondary level, who is that? That’s us. And what is the seed? The Word, according to verse 14. That leaves us with one more question: What is the soil? And, simply put, as we read this parable we understand that the soil is the human heart.

Your heart, this morning, is dirt! Aren’t you glad you came to church for an encouraging word from the pastor, right? “I’m nothing but a big bag of dirt!” Well, in a sense, my heart is soil. The question is, what kind of soil is it? Do you understand that the human heart, like a field, is lifeless and barren until the seed penetrates the surface and brings a harvest?

So, the soil and the seed were made for one another. This good news of Jesus Christ was prepared to penetrate the soil of your heart. And your heart will never be what God intended—full of life and fruit—until you allow the seed to go deeper where it germinates and springs up, producing the harvest. And so, as we read this story, we’re going to let Jesus explain it for us—we’re going to understand that there are four different kinds of soil. That means that, right now in this auditorium, there are people with four different kinds, or conditions, of heart.

You need to diagnose your heart this morning. You need to find out, “Where am I? What kind of heart do I have in relation to the seed?” How deep does the seed of God’s Word go in your heart? You can tell that based on how your heart responds when the seed is scattered! We’re going to see four different responses, and there are four corresponding prayers that we can pray in relation to those four responses.

Here’s the first one:

 

• A surface response (v. 4, 15) – “Soften my heart.”

 

If you have a surface response to the Word of God, you need to pray this prayer: “Lord, soften my heart!” We saw in verse 4 that, as this sower sowed, some of the seed fell along the path, and Jesus said the birds came and devoured it. He’s using a parallel; He’s laying this story at the side of something else. The birds are parallel with something else, so we need to ask the question: “What are the birds?”

Does anybody think you know? Say, “No, I do not know. That’s why I need you to tell me, from God’s Word. . .what are the birds?” Just let your eyes fall down to verse 15. It says, “These are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear [it], Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.” So, Jesus uses birds in this story to teach us something about the activity of our archenemy, Satan.

Do you understand that Satan hates the Word of God? Right now, as I am scattering this seed, the one job of Satan is to try to prevent that seed from taking root in your heart! As the seed is scattered, this verse tells us, some of that seed falls along the path. What is a path? In those days, obviously it was a place where people walked—and many times it was the path that bordered the field where the sowing took place.

So, this path would have been something that was trampled upon; it was hard-packed—it was a hard surface. And, of course, the analogy is this: some people have a hard heart. And every time the Word of God goes out, when it hits that heart, it bounces off.

Can I be honest with you? On Saturdays and Sundays, when we come to this place in the week and I open my Bible, and I begin to scatter this seed, I can see the words bouncing off foreheads in this place. I can’t see it literally happen, but I see blank stares—and I see people thinking about their pot roast, and thinking about their favorite football team, and thinking about their algebra exam that they’ve got coming up next week. And you are totally disengaged. And do you know what is happening? As that seed bounces off your heart, Satan immediately comes in and snatches away that which God intended to bring life into your heart. And so, there is no life and there is no fruit in your heart because of the hardness of your heart.

So, the question must be asked: “How does a heart get hard?” We think about this path here. How does a path get hard? Well, it happens when people step on it. It happens when people travel. It happens when people use your dirt to get to the place they want to go. And maybe, somewhere in your history, somebody has stepped on you; maybe somebody has used you to get to where they’re going, and they’ve left you in the dust.

There are people here who are hardened, and it’s very hard for you to trust what anybody else would say to you. It’s very hard for you to listen to somebody who would confront your life and say, “I think something needs to change because you have a hard heart, because somebody has used you or hurt you.”

There’s another category of people here. The reason your heart is hard is because your heart has been trampled by sin and shame and guilt. And you know what’s in your past has hardened you so much that, for somebody to tell you there’s a better future for you, it’s very hard for you to believe that—because your heart is hard. You need to pray, “Lord, soften my heart.” It’s very hard for you to let anyone inside or very near to you.

You know the thing about this path? The path was right next to good soil. And so, here you are in church. You are so close to having the soil where the seed could penetrate your heart, and yet, if it doesn’t soften it will never produce a result. And so, it’s very easy for you to become vulnerable to spiritual attack. Satan, right now, is whispering in your ear. He’s trying to distract you from the Word of God. He’s trying to diminish the Word of God, he’s trying to dilute the Word of God in your mind right now; he’s trying to get you to doubt the Word of God or discredit the Word of God. At best, he’s trying to get you to disobey the Word of God.

That’s what the work of Satan is right now. . .to try to steal away that which God intended to bring life in the soil of your heart. That’s why Jesus said in verse 9, “He who has ears to hear,” use them! Let the seed go through the ear gate and into your heart. Let it produce the intended result God wanted it to produce. There’s a surface response.

Secondly, there is:

 

• A shallow response (v. 5-6, 16-17) – “Penetrate my heart.”

 

…a shallow response to God’s Word. Back up in verse 5, we’re told that, “Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.”

            What does that mean? Go down to verse 16, and we’re told the explanation: “And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.” They have this big emotional response. Maybe they cry because they’re so happy. . .somebody shared good news!  They can be set free! They don’t have to live in sin, they don’t have to live in shame, and they’re so excited: “Somebody loves me, and I can be forgiven, and I can have Heaven as my home. . .and I can have peace and purpose in my heart!” And somebody responds immediately to that truth.

I can remember when I was, I think, about eight years old. My family had just moved to a new town—we didn’t really know anybody in town. We didn’t go to church, we weren’t a Christian family, but somehow we found ourselves—I think on a Saturday night—in the big football stadium in town. Somebody had come in to do a big city-wide evangelistic crusade. As a matter of fact, I remember who it was. It was James Robison. Do you remember James Robison?

Everybody in town seemed like they were there. I was eight years old; I didn’t have a clue what was going on—I was just trying to endure it, you know. I remember, at the end of the message, everybody stood and a big choir sang, and there was this big gospel invitation, and I felt something—as an eight-year-old! Do eight-year-olds feel things? Yeah. Are their emotions kind of like a roller coaster? Yeah.

I remember, I felt something. . .something was attractive about this, like a magnet to metal. I noticed my mom and my dad, who were sitting there, they started to cry! They were holding each other and boo-hooing. Apparently, there was a big emotional response for forty-year-olds, too. I remember, at the end of that time, my dad grabbed my hand, my mom grabbed my hand, and we started walking down to the football field.

It seemed like everybody was coming out of the stands and everybody was responding to this big emotional appeal to the gospel. Now, I have no doubt that in that moment the seed was scattered, and I have no doubt that it took root in many people. But, can I tell you, looking back on that experience – it had zero impact on our family! The next day we got up and lived life like Saturday night had never happened. I didn’t meet the Lord, I wasn’t converted, my parents weren’t converted; we weren’t saved. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but it sure sounds like this verse.

We immediately received it with joy. “Amen! Yes and Amen! I loved the music!” Maybe you went to youth camp and—man, finally leaving the TV and the Play Station and the cell phone, and maybe some of that seed penetrated your heart, and maybe there was a big emotional appeal, and maybe somebody said, “Do you want to pray a prayer?” So, you prayed what they prayed, and you raised a hand and you walked an aisle and you signed a card and you got baptized and you joined a small group. And then you went to the training, and you began to lead that small group. And then, that wasn’t enough—maybe you entered ministry. You can do all of that without the seed of the gospel taking root in you—because there will be some, when the seed is sown, that will receive it with joy, but it’s only a shallow, emotional response.

You say, “Trent, why do you say that?” Because of what Jesus said in verse 17: “And they have no root in themselves. . .” And, where there is no root, there is no fruit. Scripture says, “[they] endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.” Do you know some people like this? Do you know some people who used to be seated next to you in church? Who used to be in your small group? Who used to respond with joy to the Word, but now they are nowhere to be found? Their life has no visible evidence that the Word of God has taken root, producing fruit in their lives? Is that you?

There was a shallow response at some point in your life, but you fell away and somehow, now, you’re kind of back? Do you need to examine whether or not you’ve only had a shallow response to the gospel, even as you hear it this morning? How do you reconcile this?

Now, a lot of people who don’t really understand the depths of the Bible message would look at people like that and say, “Well, they used to be a Christian, but they’re not a Christian anymore; they used to have salvation, but they lost it somewhere it along the way.” And if you just look at it on a surface level, that’s kind of where our minds would go. But, if you understand the totality of Scripture, you understand that that is an impossibility. It’s not that they had salvation and lost it, it’s that they never had it to begin with! Jesus said, the one who endures to end will be saved, and 1 John 2:19 says this, “They went out from us, but [because] they were not [a part] of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us [they would not have gone out from us].”

The totality of Scripture is this: salvation is entirely a work of God, and what God does, He does permanently. We have to understand that salvation is the changing of our legal status before God—to be declared legally righteous, legally innocent of all sin. That is a verdict that God does not stand there and change—back and forth—in Heaven, based upon your performance. When the root takes hold, the fruit blooms and blossoms.

But, for some, it rises up quickly. Before it can produce fruit, the sun scorches it. Jesus uses two words: tribulation and persecution. Tribulation is just the trials and the pressures of this life: you get sick, you lose your job, life’s hard. And you think, “It is just not worth it to follow Jesus!” Not only tribulation, but persecution. Persecution is when you realize you actually have to pay a price for being a Christian. It’s not just the popular thing to do. You’re ridiculed and you’re called names because you identify with Jesus. And when you realize you have to pay a price, you say, “I don’t think I want to pay that price! It’s not worth it!” That’s the way that some people respond—with a shallow response. If that’s you this morning, you need to pray, “Lord, penetrate my heart!”

Eastman’s Bible Dictionary describes this doctrine that I’m explaining to you; we call it “the perseverance of the saints.” It’s the fact that once a person is truly converted to Christ, he remains a follower of Christ. Eastman’s Bible Dictionary defines that doctrine this way: “A certain continuance in a state of grace. Once justified and regenerated, the believer can neither totally nor finally fall away, but he will certainly persevere therein and attain everlasting life.” That’s what we believe! The work that God does is a life that only He can produce and He produces eternal life.

Here’s a third response:

 

• A strangled response (v. 7, 18-19) – “Untangle my heart.”

 

A strangled response to the Word of God. If that’s you, you need to pray this prayer, “Lord, would you untangle my heart?”

Look at verse Mark 4:7: “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.” What does that mean? Look down at verses 18 and 19. Jesus explains it: “Others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

And so, a good farmer knows, if you want to produce a harvest, you not only have to love seed, you have to hate weeds. Because they are always growing faster than the good seed, right? And a good farmer has to go in there and pull the weeds out, if a crop is to be produced. The same is true for the human heart. Everything that you were involved in this week had the potential of choking out the most important thing in your life—namely, a relationship with Jesus and His Word.

He mentions three categories; first of all, the cares of this world. What do you care about? What did you fill your mind full of? What was it that produced worry, anxiety and stress? Is it something related to your career? Something related to your portfolio? Something related to your education? Your grades? Your favorite sports team, media, or, could it be Presidential politics? All of it has the potential for choking off the life-giving seed of the Word of God in your life.

Jesus mentions the deceitfulness of riches. And I know every one of you will say, “Skip it, because that’s not me. I’m not rich!” Yes you are. You are part of the richest people on the planet, and the richest people who ever have lived at any time on the planet—simply because you live in Granger, Indiana, or its vicinity. And the deceitfulness of riches has the potential to choke off the Word!

It’s not so much the desire to be rich, here—it’s just the things that you have that can lead to prosperity. It’s interesting, Jesus says that Satan will work to try to eliminate the fruit in your life through persecution. But if he can’t get you through persecution, he’ll get you through prosperity. He’ll allow things to go well for you, because—after all—who needs God when you have money?

And oftentimes, it is not until the money disappears, or disappoints, that you have a new level of appetite for the Word of God. Don’t let the deceitfulness of riches deceive you. Why do riches deceive? Because riches promise things they can’t deliver. It deceives you into thinking, “If I had more, I would be less stressed. If I had more money, I would have more security.” That is the deceitful lie of riches. Riches promise what God alone can provide! The evidence that is true is the fact that many of you have more than you have ever had at any time in your life, and you’re still stressed out! More stressed out. And you are less secure than you have ever been. That’s the deceitfulness of riches.

And then, Jesus just lumps a big “junk drawer” thing. He says, “. . .and the desire for other things.” That’s just the junk drawer of life; it chokes off the Word of God. And if that’s you, you need to ask God to untangle your heart, because the Word needs to go deeper.

 

• A supernatural response (v. 8, 20) – “Multiply my heart.”

 

There’s one more response, and it is the supernatural response. And if that’s you, you can pray this: “Lord, multiply my fruit!” Jesus tells us in verse 8: “And other seeds fell into good soil and produced [good] grain, growing up…” Don’t you wish some people would just grow up? You can only grow up when you allow the seed to grow deep! “…And increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

            He explains it in verse 20: “Those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” Can you look at your life and see the multiplying effects of the gospel producing things supernaturally that you could never produce on your own?

The fruit is mentioned as love. Can you love people who are unlovable? Do you understand that is a supernatural thing you cannot manufacture? Can you have joy in the midst of pain? That’s a supernatural response! Love, joy, peace. . .you can have a calm assurance that, “God has me!”—no matter what’s going on in Presidential elections or in the economy, or what’s going on in your marriage and family. A calm assurance—that’s a supernatural response. All of these are things that should be multiplying more and more. The deeper you grow, the more fruit you should show. And the great news is this: the deeper you grow, the more fruit you show, the more glory God gets in your life!

John 15:8 says this, “By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.” Do you see the proof that you’re a disciple is that you produce much fruit? He says, the more fruit, the more glory goes to God. And so, we should be multiplying ourselves and multiplying the life of God in us, so that God gets glory, and we prove that the root has gone deep.

Now, can I speak to you as your pastor for a minute? Some of you have only had a shallow, superficial response to everything I’ve been talking about. You come to church – maybe you grew up in church. Maybe you went to the big city-wide evangelistic crusade, and somehow, you are putting your assurance in some emotional experience you’ve had in the past. Is it any wonder that you don’t have assurance of your salvation?

You lay your head on the pillow at night and you wonder, “Am I saved? Am I okay? What if I die in the middle of the night, am I going to be in Heaven with God? Is my sin really forgiven?” Jesus said the proof that you are a disciple is the fruit that is evidenced in your life. If there is no fruit, it’s because there has been no root, and the root needs to go deeper.

This morning, which one of those four kinds of soil describes your heart? Are you a genuine follower of Jesus Christ, and it’s evidenced by what we can see above the surface of your life? For some of you, you’ve tried to bury it way down deep inside, and “I just kind of want to be a secret follower of Jesus.”  What you’re saying is, “I don’t want anybody above the surface to know!” Listen, that’s not the heart of a genuine believer! We want the world to know. We’re to be not only bearers of fruit—we’re to be seed sowers, multiplying that in the lives of others.

If you don’t do that, if you have no heart to do that, if there’s no life-producing root, this morning you need a supernatural response to these words! You need to open up your heart and say, “God, penetrate, soften, untangle my heart so that I can see this life-giving fruit in my life! I want a relationship with Jesus Christ that’s not about religion. It’s not about just going to church; it is a walk with God and a relationship with Jesus Christ that I cannot explain! It’s supernatural!” If you’ve never had that, you can have that today! Allow that seed to take root this morning!

If you are a believer, but somehow you just kind of skim along the surface; the Word’s preached, and you just kind of, “Hmm, yeah, mmm, yeah,” you need to go deeper! If you come and let other people worship for you, if you just kind of hang out on the edges and you don’t want to go deeper. . .Why would you not want your life to give glory to God for all the supernatural results that are happening in your life?

Let me ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. With heads bowed and eyes closed, I want to ask you, “Are you absolutely confident, one-hundred-percent for sure that if you died this very moment, you would be accepted into Heaven—not because you are good, but because the seed is good and the fruit has been supernatural in your life? You’re absolutely certain. Some of you here may say, “You know, I think I’ve fallen away.” Well, you need to come back and—maybe for the first time—have a response to the gospel that’s more than surface, more than emotion.

In just a few moments we’re going to stand and we’re going to sing. Our pastors are going to be positioned up here, and they are here to receive those of you who would like to make a public profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We’re not going to embarrass you in any way; you’re not going to stand in front of anyone and say anything. It’s just a visible, above-the-surface response, to say, “You know what? I need to be a real Christian, who’s planted real deep!”

If that’s never been the case for you, even now—even before we sing—why don’t you just slip out of your seat, stand up, step on the few toes next to you—they’ll be so excited that you got up, stepped on their toes, to come forward and declare your faith in Jesus Christ! You know who you are: there’s a guilt in your soul right now; your seat’s hot, you’re nervous; you’re wondering, “What should I do? What will they say? Will they embarrass me?” We’re not going to embarrass you. We’ve got a new believer’s kit we’d love to give to you, and share with you some next steps. How you can go deeper with God. If you need to move, why don’t you come now?

For others of you, those of you who are followers of Christ: Have you just been skimming along the surface, or are you pursuing a vital, deep life-giving relationship with Jesus Christ—and every time you hear the Word it takes root, and it bears more fruit? If that’s not you, why don’t you tell the Lord, “God, I’m just so tired of being shallow! I see the life-giving truth of others producing fruit. I want that!”

I’m going to pray for us now, and then we’re going to stand and sing. When I say “amen,” those of you who need to come, why don’t you come to one of our pastors down front, and we’ll share with you how you can start a relationship with Jesus that is so much more than shallow, emotional response.

Lord Jesus, we thank You that You have been at work this morning sowing the good seed in our hearts. Lord, we acknowledge to you that so often our heart gets hard, and it bounces off. So often, we make ourselves vulnerable to Satan because we’re distracted or we doubt or disobey Your Word. God, this morning, we want to come back and open our lives to You! Soften our hearts! Penetrate our hearts! Untangle our hearts, so that we can see a supernatural fruit in our lives that can only be explained by Your Spirit. God, would you give courage to some who know they need to come? They’ve heard this truth, and they’re contemplating right now. I pray that You’d help them overcome their fears and their apprehension about coming. Lord, we want to go deeper together. Make us good seed-sowers! We pray in Jesus’ Name, Amen.