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Let's go. Who's excited for Sunday? Sunday, Sunday, right? Big day. Who's getting baptized? If you're getting baptized this Sunday, raise it. Keep it up. Look at that. Praise God. Boom. All right. I don't ever do this stuff. This ain't my style. I want you to look at the person on one side of you and be like, you come to come watch me get baptized. Go ask them. Ask them right now. Ask them. If they say no, they ain't your friend, man. I want you to look at the person you don't like as much on the other side of you, and I want you to say, have you been baptized? And if they say no, I want you to later, after the service. Why not? And if they say, because I ain't a Christian, then lead them to Christ after the service. All right? Or I'm gonna do my best during the service. So we'll work on this thing together, this beach baptism weekend. And here's what's even cooler about this, man. It actually starts tonight at 7:22pm because at Marion Correctional, we are baptizing 21 inmates right now at Marion Correctional. They ain't waiting on us. All right? We're not primarily talking about baptism because we're in Matthew, chapter 13. If you got your Bible over to Matthew, chapter 13, if you don't have one, there's one right in front of you. Take it home with you. If you don't have one of your own, if you got eight of them at home, bring us seven back. Keep one for yourself. Talking about the parable of the Sower, one of the questions I want you to ask yourself, if you've never been baptized, as a believer, should I? Maybe, maybe not. We're going to talk about it. If you are a believer, the answer is yes. We're going to dig into this. Chapter 13, verse 1, that same day. That's why you got to back up a little bit. So we're in the same day as Matthew, chapter 12, where we were last week. The last few weeks, as we've been studying through the Book of Matthew, it's been miracles on miracles on miracles, right? Everywhere he goes, at one point he just said he just healed everybody. Then he's casting out demons. Then you remember at the end of Matthew 11, there's this incredible invitation. I can't get over this. Jesus says, come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden, and I'm gonna give you rest, Rest for your soul. For I am gentle and lowly. My burden is easy. My yoke is light. And the yoke that he's talking about is this. Here's what it takes to be a follower of Jesus. Just repent and believe. You're like, that's it. That's it, man. Just repent and believe. Now here's a head scratcher for me. We've seen this now for weeks and weeks and weeks. Jesus is bringing dead girls back to life and healing the woman that he calls daughter and casting out demons and healing people and teaching the gospel. And some people get it. Some people say, this is the son of David. That's. That's the equivalent of saying, this is God himself in the flesh. Some people completely get it. And with the same evidence, other people are like, nah, we think he's possessed by a demon, that he casts out demons by the power of Beelzebub. And so maybe a little speculation on my part. Okay, this is the, like, how Chosen plays in my head. All right, maybe some of the disciples, they're going to ask it directly here in a second. But maybe some of the disciples are like, hey, boss, can you help us understand something? I mean, you would think the people that were rooted in the old covenant, that were rooted in the sacrificial system, the Jewish people, you would think they had been waiting and studying Ezekiel and Elijah and Isaiah and Malachi, and then you show up on the scene and you go, I am him. You would think they would grab onto that. So help me understand, boss. Why do some people get it and others not get it? I ask the same question. I mean, I stand up here week after week after week, and this might shock you. I can see you. You'd be amazed. There are times where I'm up here just doing my best to unpack the word. And. And there'd be like, one brother right here, and he's just like. I mean, he's crying and he's into it, and the spirit of God is convicting him, and the person next to him is asleep. Somebody just snorted on the front row. See, somebody's into it. I appreciate that. That's like, amen. Just appreciate. Some people get up and leave angry. I'm telling you, like, I'll be up there just like, again, man, I'm the mailman. I don't make this stuff up. I'm just delivering it. And somebody be like, amen. Another person, you say, get their things. Just. I'm so tempted to be like, hey, I'm not done every time. But I don't do it. But you can leave if you want to. That's fine. So why. You ever notice, like, the same message goes out and some people receive it as solid gold and truth, and other people, they just don't get it? And this is what's been happening now for chapter after chapter. So you remember Jesus is in the house in Matthew chapter 12. And his mom and brothers and sisters might want to jot that down. Catholics, that he had brothers and sisters. Mary was not a virgin forever. Somebody made that up. They had a moat meeting on it. They. They just didn't read the Bible. But that's okay. It's not okay at all, but you know what I mean? I ain't got time for that. I'm already picking enough fights. And they said, hey, your mom's here. And he's like, I'm gonna tell you who my mama is. I'm gonna tell you who my brothers and sisters are. It's those who believe. So there were insiders and there were outsiders, right? And so that same day, Jesus went out of the house and he sat beside the sea. That's the Sea of Galilee. And great crowds gathered about him. So that he got into a boat and he sat down, and the whole crowd stood on the beach. Anybody got a boat, raise your hand high. Praise God. Jesus got in a boat. I'm not gonna beat you up. Praise God. Did a lot of ministry on a boat. I maybe should do some one on one discipleship with all you boat owners out there. Cause this is how it happened in the Old covenant into the first century. When the rabbi would teach, he would sit. When he'd go to the. When he'd go to the synagogue, he would sit on this seat. It's called the seat of Moses. And he would sit down. Everybody else would stand up. We should do that one week. You know how tired I get by the end of the weekend. Good gracious, man. And so he sits down in the boat and he pushes out a little bit so he could create, like, an amphitheater situation with the hills there in the Sea of Galilee, because there's so many people. Verse 3. And he told them many things in parables. So the word parable is actually two Greek words. It means to lay aside. That's what it does. And so Jesus was like the king of the illustration. Okay. That he would use a common experience. Like today, he's gonna talk about farming. Why? Cause in the first century, everybody's a farmer. And so he would take a common experience and he would lay it aside. A spiritual truth, an eternal reality. And I used to think it was to bring clarity so that people would understand what he's talking about. I mean, that's what I try to do. Like, you know, I tell stories all the time. It's just the way I was brought up. I'm just a country boy. That's just from a storytelling family. And if I could take you to be with my family people. I'm not even the top tier storyteller in my family. They tell the same stories all the time. They're all funny. They got a point. And when I do that, I'm just trying to illustrate a point. Take something. Cause you know, what do we know about a first century sacrificial system? And so sometimes I'll be like, it's like I got two dogs and got, you know, all the stories I tell same ones over and over, whatever. And what I'm hoping happens when I tell a story to illustrate a gospel point, that the spirit of God illuminates the revelation of the word in your heart. So you're like, oh, that's what that means. And for the longest time, that's what I thought Jesus was doing. But as you dig into this parable, he's going to teach a parable about parables. And he's not actually doing that. He's going to tell us why he teaches in stories and parables. And I don't think it's to make it clear. I think two things are simultaneously happening When Jesus preaches and teaches using parables, he is simultaneously revealing and concealing. So for some people, they will get a revelation of the truth of God, and other people will get more confused. That's what he's doing. He's going to explain it later. We'll look at his words. And so verse three, and he told them many things in parables, saying, here's his whole parable ready? Here's this whole sermon. This time it's very short. A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. And other seeds fell on the rocky ground where they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Literally. In Greek that means they were offended. Some people get offended. Did you know that? Another seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on the good soil and produced great grain, some a hundredfold, some 60, and some 30. End of the Sermon. That's the whole sermon. Can you imagine if I preached a sermon that short? Don't you? Amen. Right there. You better not. He doesn't explain a word. He just says, he who has ears, let him hear. Well, what's that? Who doesn't have ears? You know what I mean? That's a whole sermon. Can you imagine? We gather here like you come on a Sunday morning, and I'm like, the kingdom of heaven is like leaving church at San Pablo on a Sunday. And some went to Dick's Wings because the wings are crispy. And some went to Al's Pizza because they like pizza. Others went to McDonald's because it has a drive through. And some went to Chick Fil a and it was closed. He who has ears, let him hear. Be free. That's the whole sermon. And then the disciples came and said, what you talking about? Why do you speak to them in parables? They're confused. Okay? Be honest. I know this is church, no place for honesty. But be honest. You ever have somebody hear somebody teaching the Bible, Me teaching the Bible, or you read something in the Bible and you don't know what it's talking about? Can we? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Anybody? Okay, me too. Not you, you don't. We'll put you in charge. The rest of us, we're like, what? Hey, I got good news. You can make a great disciple. The disciples, they get one on one time with Jesus and they're like, hey, boss, you got to run that by us again, man. So the seeds, and there's four. Can you, huh? By the way, Jesus is not going to scold them for asking questions. Wise people ask questions. Fools think they know all the answers. And so they say, boss, you've been teaching straight doctrine for 1312 chapters. Now, we've heard every sermon you've spoken, and you have been just teaching, repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. You've just been slinging it straight. And now why are you gonna switch and teach these stories? And we don't know what you're talking about. And I think it has to do with the blowback of the scribes and the Pharisees. And in Mark's account of this same parable in Mark, chapter 4, verse 13, what Mark 4:13 says, Jesus said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? So the first parable he tells is a parable about parables. And he says, this is the one that will unlock the understanding of what all the other parables are. About this is, is what he says, this matters a bunch. And he answered them. So this is why I think Jesus isn't just telling common stories to be clear, but he is revealing what the Bible calls the mysteries of God to the faithful and simultaneously confounding the wise, because what they lack is faith. Keep that in mind, he says to this. He says he's talking to his disciples in the first century. This would apply to you if you were a disciple right now. He says to you, it has been given to know the secrets. The mysterion is the Greek word like the mysteries. To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. Who's the you there? Anybody that believes me, trusts me not, understands everything about God. But to you who trust God, it has been given to you to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. But to them, those who do not believe, those who do not trust in Me, it has not been given. And then listen man, if you're into fair, Jesus ain't fair. For to the one who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. Here's what he's talking about. For those of you that have put your faith in Jesus Christ, you have begun a journey that will lead to your eternity. And currently, the moment you put your faith in Jesus, you were justified. You are being progressively sanctified and one day you will be glorified. And when you get to heaven, you will see clearly and understand everything about everything about everything. That's where faith leads us. CS Lewis says, I can no more deny Christ than I could deny the Son. It's not just that I see him, I see everything by Him. It's like this, this is what he's talking about. But to the One who has not, the one who does not have faith, even what he has will be taken away. That the person that does not trust Jesus for their salvation, that person is also on a path and it leads to destruction. Because you're filled with either religious pride or self actualization manifested in self fulfillment that leads to destruction eternally. This is what, what he's talking about. And then he says, this is why I speak to them in parables. Because now you got to stick with me. These can be some confusing verses on the. On just at face value, he says, this is why I speak to them in, in parables, because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. He's like they, they understand the words that are coming out of my mouth. They just don't Understand what I'm actually saying. Indeed, in their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled. He's going to quote Isaiah, chapter six. Isaiah, chapter six is a very famous verse, chapter where Isaiah sees the manifest presence of the Lord. And he has that very famous call where he says, God, here I am. Send me. And everybody loves that part of it. Nobody keeps going because God's like, oh, I'm going to send you. And you're gonna preach the word for the rest of your life, and nobody's gonna listen. Good luck. It's a terrible calling. And so he says, this is what's happening. He quotes Isaiah 6. Check this out. You will indeed hear, but never understand. You will indeed see, but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear. And with their eyes they've closed. Now, you remember the thing that I keep bringing up about the teaching ministry of Jesus is the way he started his teaching ministry on the Sermon on the Mount. Remember this one? Blessed are the poor in spirit. And so if you don't have ears to hear and eyes to see, it's because you don't think you need a Savior, because you think, I got this. So you think Jesus stories are like tips and tricks of how to live a better life or be more virtuous. And you don't come like an empty beggar with open hands going, God, I need you. And if the poor in spirit, the people that realize I'm spiritually bankrupt, if they're blessed, then curse it or the proud in spirit. This is what he's saying. Then he says, lest this is like a negative conjunction. He says, for this people's heart has grown dull. With their ears they can barely hear, and with their eyes they have closed. Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their hearts and turn. And I would heal them. You're like, wait, hold on, Jesus, time out. I thought that was the point. So you don't want to heal them? Is that like, please explain when you use the word, lest it's so that something. Let me write this down, lest I forget you see what I'm saying? And like, well, I thought the point Jesus was the people would turn to you and he goes, whoa, whoa, whoa. The point is that they would trust me not be able to explain me. These are very different things. Like, God is not a math equation to be solved. He is a father to be loved. Do you see the difference? That Jesus primarily wants a relationship with you, not a rational argument of why it makes sense, and it does make sense. And there are rational arguments and there's a significant place for the apologist in the world to help explain all the things that are true, because they're true. But your relationship with God is not simply about truth. It is primarily about trust. Even though all the evidence is there and it's perfectly explainable and logical, all those things. But the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God, that we are saved by grace through faith, not because you can explain everything. I hope this is good news for you, not bad news for you, he says, but blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear. So, like, why do you think you're saved? Cause you're smarter than everybody else. You're holier than everybody else, and you figured out how to chase God down. Is that what you think? Or do you understand? It's by grace, and it is a gift of God. And though you were running as hard as you could, he came and got you. That's my testimony that I'm blessed. Not because I opened my eyes, but somehow, by the grace of God, he opened my eyes. I didn't know that I had ears to hear. I was running as hard as I could. And then he spoke so loud to my heart, I couldn't deny it. Because it's by grace that we are saved through faith, and not because we cleaned ourselves up. This is what he's saying, verse 17. For truly I say to you. 11:22. Listen to this. I say to you. Many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and they did not hear. Now to them what he's saying. He was like Moses begged that he could say the face of God. He was not allowed. And yet here we are, face to face. So you realize what you're seeing that Malachi prophesied about the coming of the Messiah. And now, folks, you get to see what they longed for, what they begged for, what they yearned for. And some people are face to face with the prayer, the answered prayers of the Jewish people, and the Messiah's on the scene, and you don't even have eyes to see. 11:22. Many have longed for what we are seeing. Good, faithful men and women of God. I have no idea why he's pouring out his spirit on us the way he is. I mean, bring it on, Lord. We want it. We want you. The spirit is welcome in this place. Do your thing. Okay, but we're standing on the shoulders of generations of faithful men and women who have gone before us. Listen, you know what? We have the opportunity to witness this Sunday more than 2,000 people get out in that water and declare Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Do you know how few times that's ever happened in all of Christian history? You know what I'm saying, man? And then Jesus, man, he does not explain many of his parables. And now what he's going to do is he is about to give a really good example of exegetical preaching. He's gonna go verse by verse through his parable and he is going to explain what everything means, line by line, verse by verse. And by the way, if you're new to 1122, that's what we do. If you're like, we're going to spend all year in Matthew. Uh huh. That's it. Just every word. All right, she says here, then the Parable of the soar, verse 19. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom. Okay, that applied when Jesus is preaching. This is applying right now too. Anytime the word of God is preached. And preaching is a big deal. You know what a big deal preaching is? The whole world got started with preaching like God spoke into existence, the heavens and the earth. Do you realize that this is a really, really big deal? The Bible has warnings about teachers and preachers of the Bible. You realize that the Bible says that if people like me get up in front of folks and open the Bible and share on behalf of like with the banner of God's appointing over your life, that we will be held to a stricter judgment. This is a really big deal. Now Jesus makes a big deal about it. And listen, what he's going to do now is he is going to talk about not primarily the role of the preacher, but the role of the hearer. So let me just put my cards on the table. I get to preach all over the place. All over the place. I was in. Where was I? I don't know where I was this week. I was in Oklahoma. Oklahoma City Life Church. Preaching this week. Praise God for Craig o' Shea, Life Church. Awesome. I'll be in somewhere tomorrow. Denver. Denver tomorrow. Preaching to Flatirons Church. Jim Burger Church. Great. This is my favorite place to preach on the planet. Because of you. Okay? Because of you. That's it. Give yourself a hand. We're the best. We are the best. Favorite thing about us is our humility. All right, So I take this very seriously. And because of the, because of your generosity, you pay me to do this. This is my full time Job. I spend the majority of my week, every week, getting ready to do the thing I'm doing right now. Every Monday morning, I drive up to a Sunday night. I would usually go up to the retreat center, spend the night. I'd get up early, four or five o'clock in the morning. I go get in the woods about an hour before the sun comes up. I want to be there in the dark before I can see my Bible. And I can't turn on my Bible on my phone because it's a dual purpose. Also, I'm trying to shoot an animal, but I'm up there and I just pray. Every week. Every week. Lord, they're your sheep. They're not my sheep. You're the chief shepherd. Chief shepherd, senior pastor, mean the same thing. You're the chief shepherd, I'm the under shepherd. What do you want to say to your sheep this week? That's what I do. I open the word. I just start reading through it. I beg God, God, would you give me a sermon? He does. He's so faithful. He doesn't owe me a sermon. And so far, since we launched the church in 2012, he gives me one every week. Okay. Sometimes I look at the text and I'm like. Like last week, Honest to goodness, when I got home last Sunday, I sat down on the couch, it was like kind of end of the night, and I opened up to Matthew 12. So like, two weeks ago, and I read it in my recliner and I was like, what was I thinking? How's it gonna be a sermon? It's like nine sermons. I said, gretchen, write me a devo on Matthew 12 so I know what to talk about. I had no idea where I was going. But yet Monday morning, when I sat down in the turkey woods and I hear the birds chirping, watch the sun come up, and I'm like, lord, they're your sheep. They're not my sheep. And then all of a sudden, I read through Matthew 12 on Monday, and I was like, there it is. This is what we're gonna talk about, okay? I didn't learn anything new. I just postured myself under the Lord to receive what he wanted for his people. I do it every week, okay? And you put up with me. Praise God for that. And I spend hours and I give it my all. So I am not abdicating my responsibility in this exchange. But what Jesus is going to talk about is your part. And in Jesus parable, it's going to be the condition of the soil, not the delivery of the seed that that makes all of the difference. That's what he's gonna do. So let me ask you this. I get ready for this. Do you? Do you? Cause some of you just roll in here casually and you don't realize what you're walking into. Can you imagine if you're on a football team and you waited to get ready to play the game once the kickoff started? You're a dead man. You're gonna be out there in your skivvies and they're gonna kill you with their helmets and stuff. You're trying to get dressed and the ball's in here like, oh. Some of you don't prepare to meet with the living God to hear from his Word, to worship him. I'm telling you, you gotta get ready, man. You gotta get ready. Then Jesus is going to lay out the four different responses to the preaching of the word. And every one of these four different soil samples are in the room right now. The first one is this verse 19. And when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in the heart. This is what was sown among the path. This is the hard heart. And here's the heartbreaking one about the hard heart. I can't change it. I don't care how much I yell at you, I don't care how sappy a story I tell at the end and make you cry. I cannot change your heart. So you gotta ask yourself, do you have a hard heart? Do you come expected to hear the word of God? Or as you're sitting here, you get a text from somebody and then the word lands. And now you're like, oh my gosh, we gotta change dinner plans. And you spend the rest of the time trying to get on open table to figure out where you're gonna eat or whatever. And then I'm just telling you, shoo. Gone. And it doesn't matter what I do, man. I can yell, I can cry, I can scream, I'll do all the things, but I do not have the ability to penetrate a hard heart. Only the spirit of God does. And if you've got a hard heart, I dare you to just pray. Lord, please soften my heart. Because he will. Because you need a move of the spirit of God in your life. Then the second heart is this. As for what was sown on the rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. And yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while. But when Tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word immediately falls away. This is the shallow heart. And the American church is full of shallow hearted people. I'm afraid 1122 has got a bunch of shallow hearted people because we respond at first. It's awesome. And you get caught up in all the awesome. Listen, man, our bands are awesome. I mean, they're so good and the music's so good and the lighting's so good and the videos are so good. And you can just kind of get caught up in all the momentum of it and you're like, yay, Jesus. But then you get offended by the Word. You're on account of the Word. And you've been looking at this like, well, I didn't know that was in there. And you're not deeply rooted in God's word and you're not rooted in godly relationships. And so you show up to everything at first. You come to a service, you get so excited and you show up and you raise your hand and you pray the prayer and you fill out a card and. And you join three disciple groups and you serve and you sponsor kids and you do all the things, man. You do all the things and then eight months later be like, where'd he go? He's gone. And the problem is, is you're not chasing Jesus, man, you're chasing entertainment. You'll find yourself saying things like, well, I didn't get much out of that. Well, what did you bring to that? Have you been rooted in the word of God or are you just showing up for me to entertain you? I'm not in the entertainment business. I don't want to bore you. I mean, that's sinful too. But I'm not here to just make you laugh and make you cry and let you have a good time. That's not what we're talking about here. There's a lot of folks too, and you're chasing goosebumps, not God. Just want a feeling. Well, go to a Taylor Swift concert. I mean, you'll go to hell, but boy, you'll feel fuzzy on your way. I mean that literally, by the way. And I get it. I get it because the engagement can be so high. So we're not in the crowd business. We're in the disciple making business. We want you. We want you to have an experience with God. We want you to encounter the living Christ. He's real. He's here. He manifests his presence. When the people of God get together and worship him in song and in word, it's Real man, you don't have to doubt those emotions. Jesus said we're supposed to love God with all of our heart. That matters. You should come to the altar and pray your face off. But then you got to get rooted in the word of God, around the people of God, because not if the tribulation comes, but when it comes, you just can't be blown over because you were chasing a feeling. That's the shallow part. Then he does another one. So if that one didn't offend you. The problem with this one is nobody thinks this one's them. Nobody. So I guess just talk to the wall. But here we go. As for what was sawing among the thorns, this is the one who hears the word. But the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. Choke out the word and it proves unfruitful. This is the divided heart. That you care more about the world than the word of God. And Jesus is the word of God. You have a divided heart. He says the two things will take you out. The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches. You might go, he's gonna talk about money again. By he, you mean Jesus? Yes, he talks about it more than everything else. Cause it's deceitful. It's so tricky. And what Jesus is saying here is if you have a divided heart, what will happen is you will try to like, invite Jesus to join your life while you hang on to the cares of this world and hang on to your riches. And he's not an accessory, he's not an add on. I mean, the number of people that say, I've surrendered my life to the lordship of Jesus Christ, you've just never surrendered anything to Jesus. You care more about what everybody else thinks than what he thinks. I mean, Jesus says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Jesus says, no one can serve two masters. You can't serve God. Jesus says, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things. And he's talking about the promises of money, satisfaction and security. The only way you're going to find it is in him. Money is deceitful. The cares of this world will choke you out. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. Let me tell you what will stuff up your ears and blind your eyes. Whether you're a believer or not. Here's the things that will make you deaf and blind to the word of God. Pride. Pride, bro. If you have pride. And pride can play itself out in one of two ways. One is you think you look at God. You look down like you stand in authority over the word of God. And you'd be like, who do you think you are to tell me? It almost always plays out sexually, by the way. You're like, who do you think you are to tell me who I can sleep with? That's pride, man. You just won't have ears to hear. Or if you're super religious and you think, no, I'm good. I've checked all the religious boxes. God, I don't need to submit and to surrender to you. Cause I'm good. Then you're full of pride. And you won't know that you need need. You won't have ears to hear. The other one's the fear of man that you know if you actually turn your life over to Christ, it's gonna change your whole friend group. Like, you just can't do that crazy that you've been doing. And then don't throw this at me either, and be like, well, Jesus went to parties. Yeah, dude, he went to parties. People got saved. You go to parties, people. You get drunk. We're not talking about the same ministry. What will my girlfriend think if I laugh? To look at her and be like, I can't not continue to take what's not mine. If I'm gonna put my faith in Jesus, she might leave me. She should leave you. What are my parents gonna think? They'll think I'm a crazy person. Okay, cool. The fear of man will make you blind to the truth of God, your flesh, you know. You know that if you put your faith in Christ, you just can't do the stuff you used to do. And you know it and you know it. And you'll have a divided heart, man. You come in here, you sing the songs, you know when to raise your hands, you come down, you say the prayers, and then you continue to be the Lord of your own life and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke you out. And then Jesus money, you will not truly follow Jesus until your heart has been seized by a greater affection. So we're doing beach baptism this weekend. And I love it, man. I love it. And it would be real easy for me, and probably even the right thing, like organizationally for me to talk you into getting baptized. And so I'm going to tell you why you should not get baptized. If you have a divided heart or you have a shallow heart, you shouldn't get baptized. You shouldn't. You shouldn't do it if you just can't. Like, if it's so exciting. And you're like, I want to ride the bus and I want a red shirt. And you're getting. I'll get baptized. You're getting. Let's go. Let's go. Whoo. But you're not ready to root yourself in the Word and root yourself into God's family. This ain't for you, man, I hate to tell you. And listen, I'd like to baptize 10,000 people, no problem. I mean, if the people that teach on the jewels and the crowns in heaven are right. Dude, I'm going to be loaded. You understand? If this is a big Amway scam, when I get to heaven, cha ching, let's go. But I don't want you to go through the motions, because that water ain't gonna do nothing for you. It's just the Atlantic Ocean. And even worse, man, if you have a divided heart, you shouldn't get baptized. Now, I'm not saying you gotta be perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but if you know in your own mind, I'm gonna walk out in that water and I'm gonna come back and I'm gonna just be the same, you shouldn't do it. If you got one foot in the water and one foot on the land, you shouldn't do it. You shouldn't do it. Now, I'm not saying that you're gonna be perfect, but if, you know, God, I need some stuff to change in my life. I don't want to do these things. I hate the sin that's trying to kill me. Yet I'm still tempted to do it. And some of it, I've been in the habit of it for so long, I think it's going to take a minute. But, God, would you please do something in me? I give up. I surrender, God. I want you to do something in me. Then you're the prime candidate. But if you look at Jesus on the beach and be like, I don't care what you say. I'm about to go out there and get baptized, and I'm going to keep doing me. I'm gonna spend money the way the world tells me to spend money. I'm gonna do sex and sexuality however I want to. I'm gonna do power however I want to. But I think I'm gonna go out there and get wet in the water, and somehow I get to go to heaven. You shouldn't get baptized. And here's why. Here's why. Here's why I don't want to make you. You're Already a liar. But I don't want to contribute to you lying to Jesus. Because here's what we're gonna ask you in this water, man. Every single one of us, we're gonna. You're gonna come out there, we're gonna be so happy. I ain't gonna yell at you in the water. I am a little nicer. One on one, you could have. Amen there, Vinki. That's fine. No, that's okay. You missed it. We're gonna greet you out there, man. I'm so glad you're here. Tell me your name, tell me your story. You know, we'll do the thing, and then I'm gonna ask you this. Are you ready to renounce? You know what renounce means, man? Turn away from. Be severed from the sins of your past, the ways of this world, and anything dark or demonic that you've ever been connected to, and pledge your allegiance to Christ and Christ alone. And if you go, no, we ain't baptizing you. But if you tell me, yes, but you don't mean it. I don't want you to lie to Jesus in the act of the ordinance of baptism, man. And again, I'm not saying you gotta be perfect. Listen, I didn't ask this girl for permission, so I'm definitely gonna use this one in the sermon. Dude, last week after the service, I don't know who this girl is. She's little, she's not that tall, but she's like 25 or 30. I forget, and she comes up and she just says to me, I need help. I need help. I'm addicted to marijuana. I love Jesus. I've been praying, and there's so many chains in my life that are broken, but I just don't know how to break this. And I don't. And then I just keep going back to it, and I don't want to. And I say, hey, well, I'm gonna pray with you, but you need some more help than that. I'm gonna pray with you, but I need to get you some professional help. And then she's like, I've just been doing it since I was 15, like, so long. And it's just got this grip on me. And I said, okay, listen, I'm not gonna beat you up. And she went, beat me up? That's what she said. She's this big. Beat me up. And I just. I knew it. You're gonna have victory right there. Cause you know what she's doing. She's come with a humble heart. She's not Justifying something that the enemy's using to kill her in her life. She's just saying, I'll do whatever. So should she get baptized? 100%. Because she's like, the evidence of the struggle in her life is the evidence of the work of the spirit in her life. Discipling her and convicting her, that's what we're talking about. But if you got the divided heart and you like, all my money's mine, and I'm gonna claim Jesus as Lord. You can't do that, man. I'm gonna sleep with whoever I want, and Jesus is my Lord. Yeah, he said, you can't do that. So which one is it? That's what I'm saying. Cause that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna ask you, you ready to turn away? Renounce the sins of your past, present, and future man, the ways of this world, anything dark or demonic that you've ever been connected to, and pledge your allegiance to Christ and Christ alone? I am. And then we're gonna say, who is Jesus? And we put it on the shirt so you can answer the thing, right? Drives me crazy, people. He's my Father. That's theologically incorrect. The Son is not the Father. The Father is not the Son. Okay, I don't have time to explain the whole trinity to you. And you declare Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. And then we will say, upon your public profession of Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I baptize you, my Christian brothers. Sister. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And the reason we dunk is because that's what the word means. Baptizo. It don't mean sprinkle a little bit of water on you from a clamshell. That's not what it means. It means to drown, to sink. That's what it means. And it's a picture we don't like. Dunk your head first, we bury you. That's what we're doing. This is like Romans 5 and 6, man. We bury you to your old self. The water doesn't save you. Christ's finished work on the cross has already saved you. You're just declaring it to the world. And just like the blood of Christ washes away the sin of the person that believes in him, that water washes over you. And just like Christ was resurrected from the grave, and as the proto toco from the dead, the prototype of the one who came out of the grave, then you too will be resurrected to a newness of Life. And we go wild. Cause heaven goes wild. And that's. That's what we're gonna do. So should you get back. Did I talk you out of it yet? Should you get baptized? It's not for perfect people. It's for forgiving people. If you're poor in spirit and you trust Jesus, not your performance, and he is your Lord and Savior, get baptized. And you're like, yeah, but I was baptized as a baby. It's not what it means. You should get baptized. And if your parents, like, what are you doing? You say, mom and Dad, I love you so much. I thank you so much. I'm just ratifying what you prayed for. When you sprinkled me with that water in the clamshell thing, like, this is what you wanted, right? You wanted me. You wanted me to follow Jesus. I'm following Jesus. And the plain reading of the text is every single time a person in the New Testament got baptized, it was post conversion every single time. So, man, we ain't trying to hate on your tradition. God bless it. You just want to do it this way. And then there will be some of you that be like, should I get baptized again? Maybe. Maybe. I'll give you this. Maybe. In Acts 19, Paul goes to. I think it's Ephesus. Was it Ephesus? I think so. Anyway, he shows up in this town. I think it's Ephesus. And he bumps into these guys, and he basically, he's like, y' all are saved. Yeah. He goes, do you have the Holy Spirit? They go, who's that? And they weren't Baptists. They just didn't know. He said. And he said, well, hold on. Did you get baptized? And they're like, yeah, we got baptized by John. And they're like, oh, that was a baptism of repentance. But the one that he said was coming, the lamb that came to take away the sin of everyone who we believe. I don't know if you've known this because you've been up here in Ephesus this whole time. He came, he lived, he bled, he died, he resurrected. And if you put your faith in him, he will send the spirit of God to live in you. They were like, oh. So they dunked him again. So here's what I mean. If you got baptized as not a baby, but you just kind of did it because that's what everybody was doing. You know what I mean? Like, you were a little kid, you were not following Jesus, and now you are. Go for it, man. This is not a thing that you do every year. This is not what you do. And if you're like, yeah, but I know him more now. I know him more now than I did last year. But I don't get baptized every year. You understand that? It is a declaration that Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior. So let me ask you, church, how's your heart? Because there's one more, and this is the good one. As for what was sown on the good soil, Dr. Luke explains it this way. In Luke 8. 15, he says, as this is Jesus, he records this part of Jesus sermon that Matthew doesn't. Luke is a doctor, so sometimes he'll have a few more details because that's what doctors do. So Luke 8. 15 records Jesus saying this about the good soil. As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. How do you have an anybody got an honest and good heart? Only if he has ripped out your heart of stone and given you a heart of flesh, which is his heart. This is the saved person who has surrendered their life to the lordship of Jesus. Not the good person because you have done good things, but the person that is in good standing with God because you trusted when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for you. That's what that means. You know what it takes. You ever plant a food plot? Probably not. You have good soil. Doesn't become good soil just on its own. You realize this. It takes work, that one of the things that you have to do is plow and till and add ph and fertilizer. You have to prepare the soil in order for it to be good. And primarily what you have to do in a hard and rocky place is you've got to break that thing and turn it upside down. This is the fertile soil of the heart that is ready to hear the word of God. That when God gets in there and he begins to break up your heart in a positive way, convict you of sin, speak deep into your soul. He's doing what looks like punishment, but it's actually preparation for him to save you, to plant his word in you. As for what is sown on the good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. Not because you're so smart, but because you trust Jesus. Jesus. Jesus is not a math problem to be figured out. He is a savior to be loved. And when you love him, when you trust him, when you trust that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me, then the understanding begins. To follow and follow, because he will send you the Holy Spirit to teach you everything that he has commanded you. You know who the real preacher of 11:22 is? It ain't me. It's the Holy Spirit. This is why I've told you a million times, when I preach, it is moderately delivered and exceptionally received. I'm telling you, I'll throw out a C minus sermon and people will get saved. And you're like, how's that happen? I'm telling you, it's because when that seed lands on the soil that has been prepped by God to be broken and contrite, then he does immeasurably, more than any of us ever hoped or imagined. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case, a hundredfold. This would be like an agricultural miracle. And another 60 and another 30. That's what I mean by moderately delivered and exceptionally received. I don't care how hard I preach, I can't make you here. And yet some of you right now, the Spirit's doing that work in you, man, and I don't know how to explain it, but you can't deny it. It's not about your good works. It's about Christ's finished work. And the Spirit begins to do the miraculous. Now, what is this fruit he's talking about? Is it the fruit of your life that is a part of it? The moment you put your faith in Jesus, he plants the seed of salvation in you. And over time, not overnight, you begin to produce, not manufacture, the fruit singular of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, general self control. So is there sanctification and development in you? But that's not how it works in farming. The fruit is not for the plant. The fruit is for the farmer, right? And this fruit that you produce is all for him. Your obedience, you sharing of your faith, it's all for him. So Jesus says, farmer goes out and he sows some seed. Some people wouldn't hear it. Some people got real excited. They were chasing goosebumps. So it didn't last. Some people were just trying to used the gospel as like an accessory to their life. That wouldn't work. But there were some people, and they had ears to hear and eyes to see. And God gave them this little seed of faith. Later, Jesus, we're gonna get here in a few weeks or months. Jesus is gonna say, it's not the amount of faith you have have is the object of your faith that matters. And the thing that he uses is a seed like faith, of a mustard seed. And he Says you can have the faith of like a tiny mustard seed and say to this mountain, get out of here and you ain't got no choice. And some of you, right now, today, for the very first time, while I've been talking, the Spirit has been preaching to your hearts. And your eyes are being opened and your ears are being opened and you realize for the very first time, being a follower of Jesus didn't do better. Try harder. It's not even a theology exam at the end that you've got to get a passing grade on. It just comes down to one thing. Do I trust him? Do I believe? Do I trust that when Jesus died on the cross, somehow that counted for me. And so if that's you, if you know that the spirit of God has tilled up your heart and the word of God has landed on good, fertile soil, and for the very first time, you are ready to put your faith, your trust, and you're like, yeah, I got about 100 questions. Great. You can make a great disciple. Stay tuned for the rest of the book of Matthew. They asked the dumbest questions you've ever heard of in your life. Two weeks at Sunday school would have answered most of the disciples questions. And they're like, what? And yet they trusted and followed Jesus. And so that same invitation is true right now. He says, come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened, and I'll give you rest for your soul. For my burden is easy and my yoke is light. What's your yoke? What are the conditions to follow you, Jesus, he says this. Just repent and believe. I'm gonna sever my life from that old dead me, the ways of the world, my own sin, the dark and demonic things of this world. And I'm gonna turn to you, Jesus. And he goes, I got you. I want you to bow your heads and close your eyes. And if that's you right now and you don't like, you can't explain it, you just can't deny it. But today, for the very first time, you have eyes to see and ears to hear. And you know that the spirit of God is speaking to your heart and you hear the invitation of Jesus and he says, come to me with all your questions and all your doubts and all your, what about this? But you are ready to put. Put your faith in him for your salvation for the very first time. Then I want you right now to lift your hand as high as you can. And you just simply tell him in your own words, lord Jesus, save me. And he promised that he will do that 100% of the time for all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Our good and gracious heavenly father, God, we love you like crazy because you love us first. And you came on a rescue mission, not to give us a set of rules that we had to follow to declare ourselves righteous before you. But God, you lived the righteous, perfect life. And then you went to the cross, not just for us, but instead of us. You paid the full price. You endured the full judgment of all of our sin. And yet, if we would just believe we received the right to be credited with your perfect life, that the Father would look at us and say, behold, because of your faith in Jesus, behold my son, my daughter, in whom I am well pleased. And so, God, I thank you right now for the miraculous. It's even better than blind eyes seeing. It's even better than deaf hearing. God, this day, this day, through the proclamation of your word and the work of your spirit, God, some people who were spiritually dead have been rescued out of the kingdom of darkness and planted in your kingdom of. Of the marvelous light. And so, God, we give you glory because you're the only one worthy of it. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Church, would you please stand to your feet? And this is preparation for we're about to do Sunday. Every single one of you that raised your hand, I can't count up here. I can't count that good anyway. But no, everybody that said, hey, I'm in. I surrender my life to Jesus. Your next step is go get baptized. Don't wait. Because the longer you wait, the quicker the enemy is going to try to steal that thing away. Okay? And right now we're going to sing, man. We're going to sing. We're going to sing like saved people. We're going to get after this. The Bible says that when somebody gets saved, it says all of heaven rejoices. I used to think that was just the angels. Guess who else is in heaven? Jesus himself sitting on the throne. He's rejoicing, too, because somebody lost has just gotten found. Praise God. And we're going to bring our tithes and our offerings because we are going to say the deceitfulness of riches is not going to rob us. It's not going to rob us for what God has for us. And we're going to pray. You got some cares of the world. Jesus said, cool. Cast them on him because he cares for you. Let's sing. Let's bring. Let's pray. Let's respond.