(soft music) - Oh, wow. - Only a few minutes. (soft music) Go ahead. So we're doing after four, right? - Yeah. (soft music) (soft music) (upbeat music) ♪ Your floor is mine ♪ - Yeah, just a short intro like that. Yeah, okay. (upbeat music) All righty. (upbeat music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) - Okay, good morning, church family, happy Lord's Day.

I hope you had a good week in the Lord. As always, it is a joy and a privilege for us to gather together freely to worship our God and to remember what he has done for us in Christ Jesus. This morning, I'd like to begin by reading from Philippians 2, verses five to 11.

Have this attitude in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

For this reason also, God highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

Amen. Let us worship him. (soft music) ♪ O kneel me down again ♪ ♪ Here at your feet ♪ ♪ Show me how much you love ♪ ♪ Humility ♪ ♪ O Spirit be the star ♪ ♪ That leads me to you ♪ ♪ The humble heart of love ♪ ♪ I see in you ♪ ♪ You are the God of the broken ♪ ♪ A friend of the weak ♪ ♪ You wash the feet of the weary ♪ ♪ Embrace the ones in need ♪ ♪ I want to be like you Jesus ♪ ♪ To have this heart in me ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ ♪ O kneel me down again ♪ ♪ Here at your feet ♪ ♪ Show me how much you love ♪ ♪ Humility ♪ ♪ O Spirit be the star ♪ ♪ That leads me to you ♪ ♪ The humble heart of love ♪ ♪ I see in you ♪ ♪ 'Cause you are the God of the broken ♪ ♪ A friend of the weak ♪ ♪ You wash the feet of the weary ♪ ♪ Embrace the ones in need ♪ ♪ I want to be like you Jesus ♪ ♪ To have this heart in me ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ ♪ You are the God of the humble ♪ ♪ You are the humble king ♪ - All right, good morning.

Welcome to Breen Community Church. Let me get to a few announcements before we get started. I'm holding up here a Korean flag. So as you have seen as you're walking in, there is a lunch fundraiser that is prepared. And this is for the fundraiser going on for our Korea Summer Mission team.

And the gourmet hot dogs, and it emphasizes gourmet, okay, not Costco. There are four or five different kinds of chili. There's sauerkraut, there's special onion chopped in little pieces for you. That's all being sold for $10 for adults and $5 for kids. And this is after this service and also for the third service.

So that you have a members meeting that's happening at two o'clock and so that you don't have to go out, you can grab the lunch and then stick around. Right at two o'clock, we're gonna start. But let me explain a little bit about what's going on. Because for so many years, we've been coming in and out of China and short-term missions at our church was a crucial part of the life of the church.

But because of what was happening in China, obviously, we couldn't do that. There was an attempt at trying to, we did some short-term mission to India and we know we have missions that we have doing in Japan that we've done before. But now that the Korea is open and possibly Taiwan is also opening up in October, we didn't want to bombard, every time people went out to missions, bombard the church with support me letters.

And so after four or five rounds of that, it's gonna be, you're gonna be getting like from all these people. So in order to prevent that, what we've decided to do is try to raise funds for the short-term missions collectively. And so that's why we have all these fundraisers that's gonna be going to that.

We're hoping to raise about $40,000 that's gonna support our summer mission team. And so that's why we have these fundraisers and this also with the auction that's happening and we're hoping that if we can raise enough funds to do that to support our summer missions that we don't have to individually go send out letters to the church.

So they're raising funds if they can outside the church, but inside the church, we're trying to do it collectively and see hopefully this works. Otherwise we're gonna end up like sending letters and you're gonna be getting like 15 letters every two months, okay? And so that's what we're doing.

So hopefully if we raise enough funds, that'll be it. If not, we may ask for maybe an offering taken that'll kind of cover the rest of what we need, but that's going forward, not only for Japan, sorry, Korea and Taiwan and other mission opportunities that are gonna open up.

We're hoping to do it that route in order to consolidate the support, okay? The brain auction fundraiser, the bidding for it is starting today. And so just kind of give a heads up, you can go and ask or if you have any questions about that. During members meeting, there's gonna be a more of a thorough explanation of what's going on.

And then FIG ministry, this is the family ministry in our church. If you're not part of FAM245, the family ministry and the jubilee ministry is doing round two of the Bible reading fellowship together. So if you've been part of it and you wanna sign up for the second round, you can sign up for that.

If you haven't done it and you wanna participate, you can sign up for that as well. Yeah, in the first service, I said it was the Old Testament, but it actually is further New Testament Acts through Philippians. So please sign up for that, okay? And also for the special seminar that's going on in May 4th, abortion, birth control, and IVF.

If you haven't signed up for that, we wanna encourage, we wanna try to get as many of the church members into that as possible, okay? Outside of that, let me pray for us. And then our brother Caleb Sang is gonna come up, give his testimony and be baptized this morning.

All right, let me pray. Father, we thank you for your goodness. We thank you, Father God, for your patience beyond our comprehension, how you persevere with us, how you initiated your love toward us. I pray, Father God, that our worship that we give you would not simply be putting in our time or singing songs, but that it would be an overflow of gratitude in our hearts of recognition of what you've given us and what we continue to have in you.

I pray that you would bless this worship, bless even this giving, that it would be given to you in thanksgiving as an overflow of gratitude to you. May your name and your name alone be magnified. In Jesus' name, we pray, amen. (gentle music) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) (gentle music continues) - All right, would you please rise and take a moment to say hello to those around you, and we will continue our worship.

(gentle music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) ♪ In the darkness of the night ♪ ♪ When my heart was grave within ♪ ♪ In the darkness of the night ♪ ♪ When my fears are passing in ♪ ♪ I will trust in you, O Lord ♪ ♪ In the silence I remain ♪ ♪ I will stand upon your Word ♪ ♪ For my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ For you ♪ ♪ My stronghold and my shield ♪ ♪ In the midst of every threat ♪ ♪ Though the wicked will ever come ♪ ♪ They will vanish like a breath ♪ ♪ Yes, I know they have no shore ♪ ♪ They can be your transverse wall ♪ ♪ And your power I can ignore ♪ ♪ For my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ When my bones are broken, I feel forsaken ♪ ♪ My refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ This is love I can't explain ♪ ♪ This is mercy unreserved ♪ ♪ Through your sacrifice so dear to me ♪ ♪ I have peace that's undeserved ♪ ♪ For the battle has been won ♪ ♪ And I've been no shame or loss ♪ ♪ Now the sin of death is gone ♪ ♪ For my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ When my bones are broken, I feel forsaken ♪ ♪ My refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ Pouring out our hearts before you ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Perfect savior, strong defender ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Pouring out our hearts before you ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Perfect savior, strong defender ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ My hope is built ♪ ♪ My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus ♪ ♪ Blood and righteousness ♪ ♪ I dare not trust the sweetest frame ♪ ♪ But wholly lean on Jesus' name ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (upbeat music) ♪ When darkness fills his lovely face ♪ ♪ I rest on his unchanging grace ♪ ♪ In every high and stormy gale ♪ ♪ My anchor holds within the veil ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (upbeat music) This oath, this covenant, this blood ♪ ♪ Support me in the whelming flood ♪ ♪ All around my soul gives way ♪ ♪ To his awe, my hope, and stay ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ (upbeat music) (upbeat music) ♪ He shall come ♪ ♪ He shall come with trumpet sound ♪ ♪ Oh may I then in him be found ♪ ♪ Dressed in his righteousness alone ♪ ♪ Wallish we stand before the throne ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ On Christ the solid rock I stand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ ♪ All other ground is sinking sand ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.

- Good morning, church. My name is Caleb Tsang, and this is my testimony. I was born in a Christian household, some might even say a very Christian household. I went to church, youth group, Awana, retreats, and I even grew up in a Christian private school from kindergarten to eighth grade.

My grandparents were also missionaries in China, living in persecution under a communist government. My grandfather was imprisoned for over 20 years for being a non-compliant youth pastor. But even being after told, sorry, but even after being told incredible stories of faithfulness, memorizing countless Bible verses, and hearing the gospel many times, I did not see the slightest application to my own life.

It all seemed like a story for the adults to talk about. That is, until seventh grade, I was afraid of dying. I would lay in bed and count the seconds, thinking of the possibility that I would never wake up again. One night, I became restless and woke up my mom around 12 a.m.

I frantically explained to her my fear of death and asked her how I might be able to save myself. She lovingly shared with me the verse 1 John 4:18, which says that God's perfect love casts out fear. I found comfort in this verse, but only because I wanted God to cast out my fears for me.

I did not care about loving God back or serving him. I was a prideful young kid who thought he was smart. In Bible class, I imagined the hardest questions in hopes of stumping my Bible teacher in front of my classmates. My arrogance overflowed whenever I would judge my hypocritical, so-called Christian friends.

When I transitioned into a public high school, I basked in the title of being the good kid who had good morals. It was sweet to hear people call me good. And on the side, I would secretly find ways to indulge in my flesh and worldly pleasures. As I became busy with schoolwork and extracurriculars, I began hating going to church.

My church, or sorry, my heart was continually hardened, and God did not seem to exist in me anymore. There'd be times where I would be in the shower after a long day, whispering out loud, "God, if you are truly real, "why don't you just show yourself to me?" And in his fatherly patience, God revealed himself in his word.

During the college ministry's Galatians Bible study, we discussed justification by faith. But James 2.26 says, "For as the body, "apart from the spirit, is dead, "so also faith, apart from works, is dead." After studying this verse, I was severely offended. For many years, I thought I knew what it meant to have faith.

After all, I believed there was a creator who made the universe and sent his son to take away the sins of the world. But even the demons believed this, and I could not think of a single time in my life that I had wanted to live for God out of a love for him.

I'd hated God, and I realized my faithless life was truly fruitless. It was during one sermon from Pastor Peter Kim that I felt ruined. He played a video of an 18-year-old boy in the courtroom who was speaking to a woman. She had murdered his older brother by violently gunning him down in his own home.

But the younger brother spoke lovingly to her. I clenched my fists, and I gripped my teeth as I watched this boy forgive the death of his older brother. How could he forgive her? How could he be so loving? If... If someone had killed... If someone had killed my older brother, I knew what my first thoughts would be.

Hatred, anger, revenge. And for the first time in years, I cried with my hands in my face. I came to the realization that Jesus forgives these sins like no other. I have sinned against him too many times for him to count, but he has forgiven every one of my sins.

In Romans 7, Paul writes, "Wretched man that I am, "who will deliver me from this body of death." Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus, our Lord. (sniffling) I deserve to be punished, and if anything, I could have died sooner and been thrown straight into hell, and this would have been just.

But God is patient and merciful, and he has opened my blind eyes. Jesus saw my lust, my arrogance, my bitterness, and he took it upon himself, upon his own life. And the good news of Jesus dying in my wretched place shows the greatest love of all. Romans 6.23 says that for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.

And throughout my first quarter at UC Irvine, God softened my heart. No longer is he just the God at church, or the God of my parents, or the God of my grandparents. He's my God that I love and that I will put my faith in. In his voice, I will trust and obey.

Psalm 73.25-26. Whom have I in heaven but you? There is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart will fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. I know that I will still fail. I know that I will still sin.

But what I do know is that a perfect man named Jesus has watched me clean on a cross. And I know that after I fall asleep for the last time, I will see him in paradise and I will walk righteously with my Savior. After being released from 23 years of prison, my grandpa and his family immigrated to the United States.

He passed away a little more than 10 years ago, but I remember my dad writing his last words on a piece of paper, showing them to me and my siblings. It reads, "To love the Lord, to serve the Lord, "and to please the Lord." Yeah, yeah, now I understand.

Jesus is my Savior and the master of my life, thank you. (audience applauding) (audience applauding) - You understand when you go into the water and you're the United Christ's life, Christ's death, then you're coming out the United Christ's resurrected life. I baptize in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit.

(audience applauding) - All right, thank you, Caleb, for that powerful testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter eight, I'm gonna be reading from verse four to verse 11. We're gonna begin at part one of possibly three messages in this text. Luke chapter eight, verses four through 11.

Now a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to him. He spoke by way of parable. The sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air ate it up.

Other seeds fell on the rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away because it had no moisture. Other seeds fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out. Other seeds fell on the good soil and grew up and produced a crop a hundred times as great.

As he said these things, he would call out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. His disciples began questioning him as to what this parable meant. And he said, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is a parable, so that seeing that they may not see, and hearing that they may not understand.

Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Let's pray. Father, we pray for deeper and truer understanding of who you are, and the very thing that you have ordained for the hearers, Lord God, of the first century, that you would help us to understand as well.

So we lift this time to you, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you can put up the picture, okay? Yeah, so I've shown you this before, but this is basically the picture of the wheat and the tares. And so on the surface, it's very difficult to tell, and Jesus gives a parable of the wheat and the tares, and how we have to be careful in distinguishing them two.

And so because it's hard to distinguish that if you do it too early, you're gonna end up pulling up the wheat instead of the tares. And so I've shared this before, that you can't really tell the difference between the two until it begins to bear fruit. So the wheat, when the wheat begins to come in, because of the weight of the wheat, it begins to basically bend down, and then tares, because the wheat doesn't come in, it continues to grow.

So you can't distinguish between the two until you see the fruit. And by fruit, it says you will know what they really are. Now, the reason why I show you this again is because the text that we're looking at tells us that a crowd is beginning to grow in larger and larger amounts.

So almost every event that Luke records up to this point begins by telling us that the crowd is growing. So by this time, a larger and larger crowd, probably in the hundreds, maybe in the thousands, are coming to Christ, and it is in that context that Jesus turns and gives this parable.

So the purpose of this parable is very clear. He is telling the crowd that is coming that just because they are gathering because of him doesn't make them true believers, that a lot of people are coming to him for all kinds of reasons. Some of them are gonna be rocky soil, some of them are soil that falls to the side, and it's not gonna bear anything, some of them are just gonna be on the thorn, and some of them, some of them will persevere through all of it, and they will bear fruit.

So he's telling the crowd that just because you're gathering here, like that this is not God's purpose, right? This is what God's main desire, Jesus' main goal in ministry, is not to gather the largest crowd possible. And that's a mistake that we make in the church, that we think that if the church is small, and it begins to grow, something must be happening.

And so most books that are written about church growth, or maybe that's a church that we need to model after, are churches that have grown. So whether it's 1,000, or 10,000, or maybe it's 50,000, so there must be something that they're doing that we must learn, and so what ends up happening is we think that the purpose of the church is to gather the largest crowd possible, and if we gather the largest crowd, we have greater audience, and books are written about us, and other people will model.

Well, Jesus looks at the crowd, and there is a concern that this isn't real fruit. In fact, we'll see that. And in time, many of them are gonna be weeded out, in time. Right now, they're not seeing it, but he's basically prepping them. He's also telling the disciples, because you can imagine how excited the disciples are.

You know, they connected with the right master, and more and more, it seems like he's the Messiah, and these are small fishermen from a small town, and all of a sudden, their master's a celebrity, and thousands of people are coming to him, and so obviously, the disciples are also getting known, and he's preparing the disciples that in due time, in due time, this crowd is going to be weeded out.

Many of them are gonna fall, even though right now, you don't see it, but many of them are gonna drift out, and time will test to see the quality of their faith. So not only is he warning the crowd, he's also preparing his disciples for what inevitably is going to happen.

The way we do evangelism, if we're not careful, that we try to gather as many people as possible, and thinking that if they're at church, they weren't church, and then now, they're church, and if we go from non-church to church, that somehow, we've done our job. We see clearly that that was not Jesus' focus.

Jesus' focus is to make sure that true fruit, true faith, is what they come to Jesus with. The common mistake that we can make is that because God has given us the Great Commission, and this is something that we wanna take seriously in church, but you cannot be a light with a church filled with people who are unconverted.

Coming to church doesn't mean you've converted. Being involved in being a member of a church doesn't mean that you've genuinely converted. You growing up in a Christian home doesn't make you converted. He says, there are many people who will come. Some will drop away early, some will look like fruit, and then they will drop away.

Some will even become leaders, and serve, and do great things, but eventually, life, and circumstance, and various things will choke their wheat out, but the problem is, in the church, that the third soil people never physically leave. Now, if we were in a church where we were persecuted, and your livelihood, and your physical health was threatened, it may weed out more people, but because we're not, we live in a post-Christian culture, and there's all kinds of benefit, even if you're not a Christian, even if you're not a follower of Christ, and so, the purpose of this parable is to warn, and to prepare his disciples for what is going to come, and eventually, as Jesus begins to head toward the cross, less and less people are gonna follow him.

They're gonna reject him. That's what it says in John 6, 66. Well, this morning, our attention is not going to be focused on the four seals, four seeds, or the soils. I wanna focus our attention on the agent in what God uses to distinguish the four soils, and which is the seed, and it clearly tells us that the seed is the word of God, like in verse 11, and I know some people may say, it's like, oh, you know, Berean's about the word, and the church down the street, we're about evangelism, church down the street over there, we're about counseling, we're about this, we're about that, as if God kinda set a set for us, a smorgasbord, and then whatever you're hungry for, you can choose.

No, the word of God is the agent that God uses to distinguish and to bring salvation, so what I wanna look at this morning is, before we jump into the details of the parable, the agent of the seed that God has given to bear fruit, number one, the primary agent through which fruit, when I say fruit, we're talking about salvation, is initiated, is the word of God, it's the seed.

Now, I noticed something really interesting in the creation of man in Genesis 2:7, after he created everything, he creates man, but he's not quite human yet until this happens, in verse seven, "Then the Lord God formed man of dust "from the ground and breathed into his nostrils "the breath of life, and man became a living being." He wasn't quite human being yet.

He was like creation, like everything else, but what distinguishes us from the rest of creation is that God put his very breath in us, but as you know, God said that if you disobey me, right, that you will surely die. How do we distinguish when somebody's living or not?

Now, I know we have technology and we hook them up to see, you know, the heartbeat and all the stuff, but generally, you can tell if they're breathing or not, right, even if things are working, if they're not breathing, we know right away, there is no breath, and so life has departed them.

The Bible says what gave us life is his own breath, but what's interesting in 2 Timothy 3:16, he says, "All scripture is inspired by God "and proffered for teaching, for reproof, "for correction, for training in righteousness." What's interesting is that word for inspired by God, the literal translation of that is God breathed, and if you have the ESV or the NIV, that's exactly how it's translated.

The ESV says it was breathed out by God, or the NIV just straight up says it is God breathed, so I don't know if you're already making the connection. What distinguishes us from the rest of creation is the breath of God. Now, because of sin, sin reigns and death reigns on mankind, and in order to bring regeneration to this man, God needs to breathe his breath back into man, and he has said he has ordained the word of God.

He has put his breath into the word of God so that through the word of God that the breath would be revived in us. Are you seeing the connection? So the primary agent in which life is given back to a fallen man is through the word of God, the seed, and Romans 10, 17, it says so faith comes from hearing, and the hearing, what, by the word of Christ.

So when you hear the word of God, something is reignited, and the breath of God comes into you, and that springs up into eternal life. John 17, 17, it says sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. And I can spend the rest of my time this morning just going over passage after passage after passage of the emphasis that God has given on the agency of the seed, of the word, to bring eternal life.

If we're not careful, we think that the word of God is kind of boring, it's theological, and there's some part of the population that kind of likes that kind of stuff, and then many churches have drifted away from the word of God because they say it's not effective. It's not effective because it's boring.

We live in a TikTok generation where their attention span is like, what, 15 seconds? And then to sit here every Sunday to exposit the word of God and to tell you the meaning and the history behind it, it's just not effective. So many people have drifted away from the teaching of God's word, thinking that if we have programs, maybe if we have, meet their felt needs, and maybe if we have clubs and various things, and maybe sinners will be more interested, that somehow that is going to reignite them.

Utter garbage. That's not what the scripture tells us. The scripture tells us that the word of God, not the most important, not one of many, only the word of God has been given as an agency to bring the breath of God back into a sinner. Not only is the word of God used to bring life, it also is given to hardened sinners.

That's what it says in verse nine, and in the other text, it's like, why are you speaking in parables? Jesus answers in verse eight, verse four, and he said, "To you it has been granted "to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, "but to the rest it is in parables, "so that seeing they may not see, "and hearing they may not understand." He says the word of God not only softens the heart of men and the breath of God is put back, but when sinners do not repent and they hear the word of God, it hardens them.

Now, if your ears have been opened and you've seen the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, do parables help you? Yes, of course it helps you. That's why whenever we give sermons, we try to give illustrations or stories or something to help you to connect. Connected thoughts, it's like, oh, okay, I see how that is applied.

That's why we tell stories. And so Jesus tells these stories because once your eyes get open, it makes so much more sense. But to an unconverted, uncommitted, unrepentant person, the word of God is hidden to them. And every time they hear the word of God, it hardens them even further.

That's why even in the church, people who've been in a Bible-teaching church all their life, unrepentant, are hardest people to reach. They are the hardest people to reach. Not the drug addicts, not the prostitutes, but people who have been hardened by the word of God week after week after week.

They hear the word of God, but they are unrepentant. They pick and choose what they want from Christ, and the things that they don't want from Christ, they just kinda sweep it under the rug. And so they live with uncommitted, unrepentant sins in their life, and they highlight the things that they are doing.

I'm committed to church, I'm reading books, I'm doing this, I'm faithful in Bible study, and yet they know they have not fully surrendered to God. There's unrepentant things that they want that they know that God does not want, and as a result of that, every time the word of God is preached, their hearts become harder and harder and harder.

You know what's interesting in Isaiah chapter six, when God calls Isaiah to go representing, who will go for me? And he says, "Here am I, send me." And then here's his assignment to Isaiah. After all that drama of seeing the glory of his throne, he said, "Here's the assignment." He said, "Go and tell this people, "keep on listening, but do not proceed.

"Keep on looking, but do not understand. "Render the hearts of this people insensitive." Like, "Here am I, send me." And then he says, "Render their hearts insensitive." Like, why, first of all, why would you send me to tell these people who aren't gonna listen, right? He said, "Part of the work is to warn sinners, "that when the judgment comes, "maybe later down the line, "they realize that God was pleading with them to repent, "that God left his witness." But he says, "Render their hearts insensitive." Like, how was he gonna do that?

What did God tell Isaiah to do to render their hearts insensitive? Was he speaking softly, right? Was he on his knees pleading with God, "Lord, harden their heart"? Is that what he was doing? No, he just told them to go preach what I tell you to preach. Judgment is coming because of your unrepentant sin.

And he's pleading with them to repent. And because they wouldn't repent, their hearts automatically become hardened. Render their hearts insensitive, because if you keep hearing the word of God, and you pick and choose, I will do what I want to do, and you remain the God of your life.

He's not king, he's just somebody that you admire from a distance, but he's not your king. And as a result of that, your hearts become more and more hardened every single year. You are more difficult to reach with the word of God than you were five years ago and 10 years ago.

You are much more hardened. You do not hear the voice of God. You hear information that's coming from the word of God, but you do not hear the voice of God. Your heart has become hardened, and you have willfully hardened your heart, because you refuse to surrender your life to Christ.

The word of God not only softens, but it hardens the heart of sinners who are unrepentant. The same sun that melts the ice hardens the clay. And so we need to be clear that what attracts sinners to Christ is his word. And what causes sinners to reject Christ is also his word.

And we need to make sure that our church isn't attracting people with anything less than the word of God. And if you choose to hate the church, not because of the program, not because we lack this, and not because we're not giving ourselves to a certain purpose, but it's the word.

Because that's the agency in which God has given us. I remember years ago, when I was in seminary, when the Seeker Friendly Movement was coming in, and we were being taught how to market the church, and how to brand our name, and they were saying there's different levels of people who have faith, and they identify seven levels of people who are not Christian, seven levels of people who are Christians, and they were telling us how to market the word of God, or the gospel in different stages.

And I remember, again, as a young student, just being wide open, I had no idea what this was, but this is what we're being taught. And I remember an older lady in the classroom standing up and saying, that sounds like manipulation. And it was weird, because many of us were thinking the same thing, but until she articulated, we were just like, something seems a little bit off.

That we're trying to get the gospel out like Coca-Cola is trying to sell Coca-Cola. And at that time, there was no writings, there was nobody who was saying anything against it, so we're just like, oh, okay. These are professors telling us that this is what we need to do.

And I remember that lady said, this sounds like manipulation. And then since then, we've heard stories of people who came into church, and maybe even supposedly committed to the church, who fell out once they saw how the church did evangelism. And I remember this one particular lady that there's an article written about her, saying that she left the church because she felt like she was manipulated into Christ, instead of presenting the truth.

The primary agency in which God has given us to bring people to Christ is a clear teaching of the word of God. That's why a pastor, an evangelist, must first and foremost be committed to the word of God. It is the seed that is planted that bears fruit. Not the planter, not the water, these are all agencies that God used, but it is the seed, the word of God, that either they reject or bears fruit.

Third, the primary work of the discipleship in the church must be the word of God. In 2 Timothy 4.2, Paul tells Timothy, as he is preparing to end his life, not by him, but obviously he knows that execution is coming, and he's preparing his disciple, Timothy, to go continue the work, and he says this.

Preach the word, be ready in season and out of season. You know what in season and out of season means? Whether people respond or don't respond. Whether people gather or they scatter. Whether you think it works or it doesn't work. He said, you preach the word in season and out of season.

If we evaluate everything based upon, did it work, did people like it? Are people more committed to church? Are people doing more of this because we did this? And we evaluate what is right and wrong based upon if it works by our standard, and then we will drift away from the word of God, which has happened in our generation.

When he says preach the word in season and out of season, he says whether the church grows or it dies. Whether people convert or they persecute you. Whether it makes you feel happy or discouraged. Whether you are rebuked or whether you feel encouraged. You preach the word in season and out of season.

The primary agent that God has ordained where he put his breath to bring life to repentant sinners is the word of God. First Peter 2.2, like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the word so that by it you may grow in respect to salvation. You know what's interesting here is when he says to long for the pure milk.

Isn't that a waste of word? Why pure milk? Just milk, right? He said pure milk because he's trying to get sinners to the word. I've preached sermons where I've had interpreters. You know, whether it was in a Vietnamese church or I was at a Hispanic church or in India with various interpreters.

And usually I can only tell if they're doing a good job based upon body language, right? So if I say something, I've had good interpreters. If I move left, they move left with me. And if I get loud, they get loud. If I get soft, they get soft. And I say, oh, they're a good interpreter.

And I can tell by the reaction from the people. They say, oh. But that's the only way I can see if they're interpreting well because I don't understand what they're saying. But lately I've been trying to improve my Korean and I've done some sermons where I preach. And obviously, my Korean is good enough to preach to Koreans here.

But in Korea, where they can't understand any English, I would have a native Korean speaker who would try to interpret for me. And I realize how difficult that is because I understand them. And I remember oftentimes I would say something and then they would say something and I did not say that.

(audience laughing) And so I have to force myself. Like, I don't wanna embarrass them. I just keep going. And I remember this one particular time and some of the Korean mission team was there and I was preaching and I said something very crucial to the sermon and the person who was interpreting said exactly the opposite.

And I say, if I don't correct this, my whole sermon's gonna not make any sense. So I had to stop and I was like, oh, let me explain what I just said. And I had to tell them in Korean, right? Now, the reason why I share all of this is now that had to be done because obviously they're not gonna understand what I say if I say it in English.

What you're hearing right now is an interpretation, what you're hearing now. Somebody who's read the Word of God and understood it and then now telling you what it says, it's an interpretation. So if your digestion of the Word of God is only through a preacher, you will understand so much.

Because you're hearing through a filter, from my filter, from what I've seen, what I understood. This is why we do inductive Bible study because we're trying to get you to see the Word of God. Is there a difference between hearing from me and hearing from the interpreter? Of course.

It's gonna be much more clear when you hear it from my mouth instead of through an interpreter. And so the Word of God, you can't just fall in love with the idea of being in love with the Word of God. I know so many people who grew up in churches where the Bible was taught and they love the idea of being in love with the Word of God without being in love with the Word.

They themselves are not studying. They themselves are not expositing. They themselves are not digesting. The only intake of the Word of God is through the preaching and teaching of other people who are interpreting for you. That's why the primary feeding has to be the Word of God yourself, your daily intake, the Word of God.

Not just on Wednesday, but Monday through Friday, Monday through Saturday, Sunday, that you yourself are in the Word of God. Some people love theology. They wanna hear systematic theology, how it's all put together. Now, it's great because that's the accumulation of the study of the Word of God that gets us to systematic theology.

But before we get to systematic theology, you must be in the pure milk of the Word. Or else, I'm just gonna have to tell you to trust me. Right? 'Cause I'm not a jerk, or maybe you don't think I'm a jerk, right? I trust him. Why would you trust me?

I don't trust myself, so why would you trust me? The Word of God is the primary agent that causes us to mature and grow. Second Timothy 3, 16, 17, all scripture is given by God, and God breathed, profitable for doctrine, reproof, for correction, instruction, righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thorough, equipped for every good work.

In season and out of season, and then Hebrews chapter 4, 12, therefore the Word of God is a living and active, living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword. The reason why the Word of God is not interesting to many people is because they don't see it as living and active.

And the reason why it's not living and active for many, I'm not saying for every single person, is because of unconfessed sins. When I say unconfessed, I'm not saying that it never came out of your mouth. You never really repented. You never really repented. And so you are holding on to a certain aspect of your life that you know that if you were in the presence of God, who knows all things about you, the first thing that's gonna come out of his mouth is why didn't you do this?

But you pick and choose, that these are things that I can give to God, and these are things I'm not gonna give to God, and so maybe down the road, if I grow more, maybe I can. But as a result of that, your heart has become hardened, and is no longer living and active.

You don't sense God speaking to you anymore. It is not because God is hiding. It is not because you're not exposed to the Word of God. It's because you have shut the door of your heart to the Word of God. And it says, it is sharper than any double-edged sword.

The vision of soul and spirit, both joints and marrow, unable to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. So the Word of God judges whose heart? Judges thoughts and intentions of their heart? No, you can only see what they're doing externally. The Word of God cannot judge for you the thoughts and intentions of their heart, 'cause you don't know that.

You can't see that. Only the Holy Spirit can see that. It judges thoughts and intentions of what? Your heart. So when an individual is intaking the Word of God, and he himself is not being convicted by it, the Word of God becomes a resource to judge the thoughts of other people.

And the more you take of the Word of God, the more critical you become in your life. Because I know the Word of God, and they're not applying it. They're not doing this. They're not acting like, they're not living like this. And so you are unaware of your own bitterness, your own critical spirit, your own pride.

Jesus, when he was preaching, had more compassion to the tax collectors and the sinners, because they knew that they were in sin, and they were in need of grace. And so God was more compassionate to them. The people that he rebuked sharply over and over were the Pharisees, who knew the Word of God.

And they didn't think it applied to them. They need salvation. They need to be freed, unlike us. The hardest people to reach are people who are in the church week in and week out, hardened in their heart because they refuse to allow the Word of God to penetrate deep parts of their hearts.

Bitterness, critical spirit, and pride is the greatest hindrance to religious people from experiencing the living and active Word of God. Fourthly, primary work of an evangelist is to make the Word of God known and to make it clear. You know, it says in 1 Corinthians 2, 1 through 5, and when they came, when I came to you, he's talking to, in Corinthians, brethren, I did not come with superiority of speech or of wisdom, proclaiming to you the testimony of God.

For I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and him crucified. Let me stop right here. He's talking during a period when wisdom and knowledge was put on a pedestal, where the celebrities of that time were people who studied philosophy. So they would come into town, and they would actually get paid to stand in a marketplace and debate other scholars.

This is before TikTok. This is before, you know, the internet, and they didn't have phones back then, right? So that was their entertainment, to see scholars come into town and give them a platform, a marketplace. So if you go to old, old area where Berea and Thessalonica, and when all those cities that you will, if they, the remains of their old cities remains, you will always see a little platform.

And that's where the scholars would stand. Philosophers would come and stand up. Well, this is my thought, and an opposing scholar would come, and they would debate, and people would sit there and just watch them. And they were the LeBron James of that generation, right? They were the ones who were getting paid.

They were the ones that people adored. And so Paul is speaking in that context. When I came to you, I did not come in persuasive words of wisdom, but if Paul wanted to, he could have, because his discipler was Gamaliel, who was the top scholar, top scholar of all of Israel, was his direct teacher.

So if Apostle Paul wanted to destroy people with philosophy, he could have easily, but he knew that's not where the power was. He said, I did not come with persuasive words of wisdom, but I determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ, and I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.

If anything, by human standards, he would have been disqualified. A weakling who had fear, trembling because of his past persecution, and my message and my preaching were not with persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of the power, and that your faith would not rest on the wisdom of man, but on the power of God.

Now we look at that, and we may first think, and project what we think he means by power. Did he walk on water? Did he heal people? There are records in the book of Acts where they did perform miracles, but if you look at the record in a year and a half that he spends in Corinth, there's no record of any miracle.

If anything, he says in Acts 18.5, and in Corinthians, that he devoted himself to the complete teaching of the word of God. We project what power is based upon our weakness. So we can't walk on water, so obviously that's power. We can't create things out of nothing, so obviously that's power.

But if you see it from God's perspective, all of that is nothing. He just, by his word, he can tell the weather to change. By his word, he created the universe. Just by saying, "Be it." And he wasn't exhausted, he didn't need to take a break. He just did it by his will.

And that's exactly what he said when they came to bring the paralytic to be healed, and Jesus says, "Your sins are forgiven." Everybody's offended. It's like, "That's not what we wanted." He said, "What is harder to do? "To say your sins are forgiven, or to heal this man? "But in order for you to know "that I have the power to forgive sins, "I will heal this man." The whole purpose of why he did it is so that they can see the real power.

The power behind Apostle Paul's preaching was not some magic, was not some healing, it was him. How the gospel changed this man. How was a man who had so much hatred in his heart, who was willing to murder for the name of God, and now is willing to be murdered to preach about this God?

The greatest of sinners, according to his own mouth, became the greatest witness. That's something that you cannot do. God could have easily slapped his finger and performed miracles, but in order for us to have the power of the Word of God to forgive us our sins, the Son of God had to empty himself of his glory, walk a humiliating life, and then to be mocked, and then to be crucified, and then to take on our sins upon himself.

He needed to go through all of that drama in order to change us. So the greatest miracle, greatest power behind the preaching of the Word of God is the changed life of the individuals who are preaching it. That's why we are called witnesses. We don't just regurgitate information. I went to seminary, and so I studied, and I can tell you 10 different ways to share the gospel.

That's not where the power is. The power is what happened to you. How did it affect you? How did the Word of God judge the thoughts and intentions of your heart? How is your life any different because you met Christ? That's where the power is. So when you share the gospel, you're simply being a witness of that power in the Word of God.

This is what happened to me. And if he can save and love and be patient with a sinner like me, he can save you too. He has ordained the Word of God and the witness of the power of the Word of God. Jews look for signs, miracles. Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

The power is not in the organization. The power is not in the giftedness. The power is not in our experience, in our education. The power is in the Word because that's what he has ordained. But let me summarize all of this with the fifth and I believe the most important part of understanding this seed.

The primary purpose of the Word of God is to bring us to Christ. You can spend all your life studying the Word of God and be more miserable because of the Word of God in your life than when you first started. If the Word of God does not bring you to Christ.

Some of the most miserable people to be around are people who know the Word of God well. They've studied it, they've dissected it, they've memorized it, and they know how to apply it to when, to whose life, and they know this is wrong 'cause of this, that's wrong 'cause of this, you didn't think right, this is the right theology, and they know how to apply and to judge what is right and wrong, but they themselves have not been affected by Christ.

It says in John 1:1 that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Jesus Christ is declared to us as the Word. And then in John 1:14 it says, and the Word became flesh. Jesus became flesh, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we saw his glory, glory as to the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.

So the Word of God is Christ. Jesus himself says in John 5, 39 to 40, you search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me and you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life.

The whole reason why so many of the first century Jews, the Pharisees, the scribes, the teachers of the law missed him is because they were so focused on how to become righteous through the Word of God. And Jesus said, you missed the whole point. You missed the whole point.

You're evangelizing, you're praying, you're tithing, you're making disciples, you're fasting, you're keeping the law, at least you think you're keeping the law, but you missed the main point. All of it, he says, was about me. If you come to a Bible teaching church and the intake of the Word of God causes you to be proud, you missed the whole point.

You can become proud because of knowledge, because of experience, because of giftedness. Maybe even you think you bore fruit, but when you meet Christ, you can't be proud. Automatically, you get humbled in the presence of God. Automatically. Because we worship and follow a God who emptied himself of his glory.

How can you be proud in the presence of that God? How can you be any different if our whole purpose of salvation is to draw near to him and to reflect who he is to the world? You cannot. A proud man who is filled with the Word of God is more dangerous than a person who knows nothing because he uses the Word of God incorrectly.

Have you ever met somebody who knows the Bible so well and you hear people, it's like, I don't wanna go to that church that teaches the Bible because I don't wanna be like that guy. Instead of attracting people to Christ, that our knowledge and our presentation of the Word of God turns people off, not only to Christ, but the Word of God itself, because it is used to condemn.

It gives us a critical spirit. But the whole purpose of the Word of God is to bring us to Christ, more of Christ, to fall in love with Christ, to worship Christ, to obey Christ, to exalt Christ, to declare Christ. If you miss that, you don't miss something important, you miss the whole point of our salvation.

In 2 Peter 1, 2-3, it says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you "in the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord." Not only our salvation, but our sanctification, our continued growth, he says, "In the knowledge." The word knowledge here is gnosko, and then they would put an epi in front of it, and whenever you see an epi in front of a word, it means to be intensified.

So basically it means in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, and an epi means intensely. So your spiritual well-being, your maturity, depends upon your intimacy with Christ. I don't care how much Bible you know. I don't care how much theology that you can present. I don't care how much you know, I just don't care.

If Christ is not exuding, if you are not the aroma of Christ wherever you are, you're doing disservice to the Word of God. You know, I know there's quite a few Dodgers fans in here, and I know who you are, right? 'Cause you can't hide it. And I know who the Posers are, right?

'Cause the Posers know everything about Otani. They've memorized statistics, and they know all this stuff, but you know, I can tell if somebody is a true Dodgers fan is they get affected by the Dodgers when Otani's being investigated, and they're genuinely hurt. This is their team. There's an affection for this team, right?

It's a little bit inappropriate, but that there's an affection for this team, and you can tell. You can tell if somebody's in love with this team, or they love the idea of being in love with this team. There's a big difference, right? There's no different with Christ. There's a huge difference between somebody who has put it in their mind that I want to be known as somebody who loves Christ versus somebody who loves Christ.

There's a big difference. You could tell when the name of Christ comes up. You could tell in their eyes. You could tell by the way they listen. You could tell by the way they sing. You could tell how they're affected. I say all of this because our danger in a Bible-teaching church is where you think that if we take a lot of intake of the Word of God, that somehow we are maturing.

But if love for Christ isn't being added through the Word of God, you're missing the whole point. And let me conclude with this, John 17:3. "This is eternal life, that they may know you." The only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. This is eternal life, to know Christ, to love Christ, to honor Christ, to proclaim Christ, to worship Christ.

So as we open up this parable, I hope that that sets a good foundation in how people respond to this seed in the presentation of God's Word, who brings us to Christ, who perseveres to bear fruit in Christ, and who will fall away. And we'll dive into that starting next week.

Let's pray. Father, we come in weakness. We come often entangled, distracted, concerned and worried for the affairs of this world. So we pray, Father God, that you would lift up our eyes, teach us, guide us, mold us, rebuke us, correct us, that we may persevere, Lord God, on the right path.

Lord, where else will we go? You have the words of life. Help us, Lord God, in our weakness, to worship you in spirit and in truth. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. That's all. Stand up for the closing praise. (upbeat music) ♪ Your glorious cause, oh God, engages our hearts ♪ ♪ May Jesus Christ be known wherever we are ♪ ♪ We ask not for ourselves, but for your renown ♪ ♪ The cross has saved us, so we pray ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come, let your will be done ♪ ♪ So that everyone might know your name ♪ ♪ Let your song be heard everywhere on earth ♪ ♪ Tell your song will work on earth this time ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Give us your strength, oh God, and courage to speak ♪ ♪ Perform your wondrous deeds through those who are weak ♪ ♪ Lord, use us as you once, whatever the test ♪ ♪ By grace we'll preach your gospel to our dying breath ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come, let your will be done ♪ ♪ So that everyone might know your name ♪ ♪ Let your song be heard everywhere on earth ♪ ♪ Tell your song will work on earth this time ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come, let your will be done ♪ ♪ So that everyone might know your name ♪ ♪ Let your song, let your song be heard everywhere on earth ♪ ♪ Tell your song will work on earth this time ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Let your will be done ♪ ♪ So that everyone might know your name ♪ ♪ Let your song be heard everywhere on earth ♪ ♪ Tell your song will work on earth this time ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come, let your kingdom come ♪ ♪ Let your kingdom come ♪ - In the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, eternal love of God the Father.

Rest, restore, strengthen and encourage the people of God that we may be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. ♪ God sent his son ♪ ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ Heal and forgive ♪ ♪ He lived and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove my savior lives ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ ♪ Enthroned at God's right hand ♪ ♪ You shouted death and freedom from our fears ♪ ♪ And though we cannot see you ♪ ♪ You're coming back again ♪ ♪ And all will be made right ♪ ♪ When you appear ♪ ♪ And all will be made right ♪