- You do YOUR PART. (Mk 4:21-25)
- FEAR
- SIN
- SHAME
- SELF-CENTEREDNESS
- COMPLAINING
- God does HIS PART . (Mk 4:26-29)
- God gets RESULTS . (Mk 4:30-34)
Ways We Hide the Light (Our Baskets and Beds):
Philippians 2:14-15 Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world...
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:06
Open up your Bibles to the Gospel of Mark and chapter 4.
00:08-00:14
In this section of Mark where we find ourselves, Jesus is teaching some parables.
00:14-00:20
If you were here last week, we see a parable that everybody finds themselves in.
00:21-00:26
Jesus was saying, "Here are four ways that people respond to the Gospel message.
00:27-00:31
Anytime the Word is proclaimed, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is proclaimed.
00:31-00:44
Remember last week we said, "Well, what is the Gospel?" God became a man, Jesus Christ, and He died on the cross so that our sins could be forgiven, and He rose from the dead so that we might have eternal life.
00:45-00:47
That's the Gospel message.
00:47-00:49
The question is, what have you done with that message?
00:49-00:58
You can't just not do anything with it, because not doing something with it is a choice to not receive it, to not embrace it.
00:59-01:02
But Jesus said that there are four ways that people respond.
01:02-01:04
Some people are hard-hearted.
01:05-01:15
They have said no to Him over and over and over and over, and their heart has become so hard that the word can't penetrate it.
01:15-01:19
It's like trying to plant a seed out here on the parking lot.
01:19-01:20
It's not going to penetrate.
01:21-01:24
It's not going to take root because the surface is so hard.
01:26-01:29
And Jesus said there are some people who are shallow hearted.
01:31-01:39
Some people hear the word and they get all excited about it and they seem like they're receiving it and growing, but they don't have any root.
01:41-01:49
And as soon as the sun comes up, as soon as there's a little heat, as soon as life gets a little hard, they bail.
01:49-01:55
I thought Jesus was going to make life easy, and He never promised that.
01:55-02:02
He promised He would be with you, but He promised that in this world we will have trouble.
02:04-02:32
And then we saw that some seed in the parable that Jesus told falls among thorny soil, and The thorns choke it out, and Jesus said that there are going to be some people that seemingly want to embrace the gospel, but they're so concerned about other things, the cares of this world and the need for other stuff and the love of money, the deceitfulness of riches.
02:32-02:38
And there are some people that don't receive Jesus just because there's just no room.
02:40-02:47
All the attention and focus and energy and priority is on other things.
02:49-02:58
But then Jesus said that a heart that is good soil, when the seed is sown there, it grows.
02:58-03:06
And you see multiplication, a hundredfold or sixtyfold or thirtyfold.
03:06-03:19
So, that's how the parable ended, and that's how the explanation ended, is that when you receive Christ, the natural result is fruitfulness.
03:20-03:20
It's natural.
03:24-03:26
Disciples reproduce other disciples.
03:29-03:32
But that parable kind of left us with some questions.
03:36-03:37
How is the fruit produced?
03:39-03:54
Like I see what you're saying, but the question is, "How can I produce fruit?" I understand you're saying that if I've truly received Christ, I should be a fruitful disciple of Christ, but how do I do that?
03:54-03:55
What does that look like?
04:01-04:04
Oh, I wish that that fruit referred to something other than evangelism.
04:07-04:11
But the truth is, Jesus was teaching multiplication happens.
04:13-04:18
And evangelism is such a scary and hard thing for most Christians.
04:19-04:20
Why do you think that is?
04:22-04:38
I think one of the biggest reasons many Christians feel a little uncomfortable in talking about evangelism, let alone doing the work of evangelism, is because there's a fear of no results, right?
04:40-04:43
What if I share the gospel with this guy and he's just not interested?
04:44-04:46
I mean, let's face it, we're not all Billy Graham, right?
04:49-04:58
And I think there's a little bit of fear in us to say, "Well, what if I go to that co-worker and try to share Jesus with him, and he's not interested?
05:01-05:02
What about this family member?
05:02-05:21
What if I invited my sister to this Bible study, and she's not interested?" Well, this next teaching that Jesus gives us takes the fear out of evangelism.
05:23-06:05
If you will tune in and listen to what Jesus said actually happens in evangelism, you will walk out of here absolutely fear-free." Like, all in favor of that? All right, let's go after it. Very simple. How does evangelism work? How does this seed growing and multiplying, making more, how does that happen? And here it is. You do your part, God does His part, And God gets His results.
06:07-06:09
That's what we're going to talk about this morning.
06:09-06:14
That's exactly what Jesus is going to teach in these next few teachings.
06:15-06:22
You do your part, God does His part, and God gets His results.
06:23-06:29
So first of all, real disciples are fruitful.
06:31-06:40
Jesus said in John 15, "By this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples." Do you want proof that you're a disciple?
06:40-06:44
Jesus said you'll see the proof when you bear much fruit.
06:45-06:48
You're like, "Well, I'm a follower of Christ.
06:48-06:51
How can I be fruitful?" First of all, do your part.
06:52-06:54
Look at chapter 4, verses 21 through 25.
06:55-07:13
He said to them, "As a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand, for nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light.
07:18-07:24
If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." That was like one of Jesus' favorite sayings.
07:24-07:25
He said that all the time.
07:26-07:35
If you're listening, if you can understand what I'm saying, if you're spiritually tuned in, you need to pay really close attention.
07:36-07:39
And right now in this church and in every church, that's what's happening.
07:39-07:41
There are some people that have tuned out.
07:42-07:47
But there are some people that have spiritual ears to hear that are tuned in.
07:51-07:55
And He said to them, "Pay attention to what you hear.
07:56-08:02
With the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
08:03-08:13
For the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." So first of all, you do your part.
08:15-08:19
You want to be fruitful and prove to be a disciple?
08:20-08:21
You do your part.
08:22-08:29
Verse 21, Jesus talks about a lamp or a light, which is actually a very common picture for God.
08:30-08:33
It's a picture used in the Bible for God's Word, right?
08:33-08:36
Remember the Pioneer Club verse, Brooke, we did it every week.
08:36-08:38
Psalm 119, 105, you remember that?
08:39-08:45
"Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path." We used to say that every week.
08:49-09:00
You know, the Bible also says, concerning light, not just referring to God, not just referring to God's Word, but also referring to us.
09:00-09:14
Ephesians 5:8 says, "You were darkness, but now you are light." And church, you have to let this thought rest in you.
09:17-09:23
Because I think sometimes we get so familiar with some things that we kind of take them for granted and we sort of lose the "aw" factor.
09:23-09:24
You know what I'm talking about?
09:27-09:33
God could advance the gospel any way that He wanted.
09:34-09:34
True or false?
09:36-09:36
True.
09:37-09:40
God could advance the gospel any way that He wanted.
09:40-09:49
Could God shout the gospel of Jesus Christ from heaven so that every ear on the earth hears?
09:50-09:50
Could He do that?
09:51-09:52
He could.
09:53-10:06
Could God write the gospel message in the sky with the clouds in every language so that everybody just has to look up and read the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
10:07-10:08
Could God do that?
10:09-10:09
Yes, He could.
10:13-10:16
But do you know how God has chosen to advance the gospel message?
10:17-10:20
How has God chosen to advance the gospel message?
10:23-10:23
Through people.
10:25-10:29
By putting His light in you.
10:33-10:39
And if that doesn't send chills up your spine, I don't know what will.
10:41-10:52
God Almighty wants to advance His eternal purposes through me, through you.
10:52-11:03
He wants to put His light, He wants people to hear the message of His Son, He wants people to see the love of Jesus Christ through you.
11:08-11:11
God wants to love people through you.
11:12-11:15
God wants to bless people through you.
11:19-11:28
And when we shine our light, actually allow Jesus' light to shine through us, that's exactly what's happening.
11:28-11:30
It's loving people with the love of Christ.
11:30-11:32
It's looking for ways to bless people.
11:33-11:37
inviting them to church or sitting down and sharing the gospel with them.
11:40-11:48
Look at what Jesus said, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand?" How foolish would it be?
11:50-11:54
How foolish would it be to purchase a lamp and hide it?
11:54-11:56
You get on to Ikea, what do you got there?
11:56-11:58
I got this lamp, I built it myself.
11:58-12:00
That's the great thing about Ikea, right?
12:00-12:00
Have you been to Ikea?
12:01-12:03
You feel like an engineer.
12:04-12:07
Meanwhile, my dog could probably put some of that stuff together, but that's another point.
12:07-12:11
But you feel like a super engineer once you put this thing together.
12:12-12:19
And would you get onto Ikea and buy some lamp and put the thing together and you're like, "Hey Bob, check out this lamp that I got.
12:19-12:19
"Like, where is it?
12:20-12:28
"I put it under my bed." "Oh, you're not gonna use it." "Yeah, it's on." It's pretty dumb.
12:29-13:42
You bought a lamp and plugged it in and turned it on you stuffed it under your bed." And that's the kind of reasoning that Jesus was taking people. Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Everybody's like, "No, that's... that'd be dumb." He says, "A knot on a stand." Of course you put it on a stand. We're totally tracking what Jesus is saying. You see, God is about bringing things to light. God's about revealing the truth. That's why Jesus said, "Nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor anything secret except to come to light." God is about revealing things. And you're like, "Well, back to my first problem. You know, what about the people that I invite to church or try to share the gospel with and they don't care? They don't want hear it. That's just a big waste of time, isn't it? Well, see, here's the thing. It's never a waste of time. Because even when the light of Christ is shining through you, you have to see that there's a personal benefit for you when you're ministering God's Word.
13:43-14:20
That's why Jesus said, "Pay attention to what you hear." Did you see that verse 24? "With added to you?" More what? More understanding, more truth, more satisfaction, more fulfillment. Like, what's he talking about? Actually, what he's talking about is the very thing that Mark Gort was talking about up here a couple of weeks ago. Do you remember when Mark got up and was talking about some guys from our church are getting involved in prison ministry? And Mark said one of the ways that the Lord really grew him in his walk was by being involved in the prison ministry.
14:21-15:19
How does that work? I can testify the same thing. I grew leaps and bounds in my understanding of God's Word through prison ministry, and it wasn't because at the particular prison that I went to they had a special cell block of incarcerated theologians. Yeah, like I go to do Bible study in prison, it's like John MacArthur, James MacDonald, John Piper, Francis Chan, they're like like Selly's and I go in there and they're all teaching me." No. Going in there and spending time opening God's Word and sharing the gospel, I feel like I benefited more than anybody that I shared the gospel with. And that's what Jesus is talking about here. The measure that you use is the measure that God's going to bring back to you and more understanding and fulfillment and satisfaction and just that deep grasp of the truth.
15:19-15:23
The more you give it out, the more you get it.
15:25-15:29
So, church, when it comes to evangelism, you do your part.
15:32-15:38
As far as I can see from Jesus' teaching, God has called you to do one thing in evangelism.
15:39-15:40
He's called you to do one thing.
15:42-15:47
And interestingly, that one thing that He's called you to do isn't even something that you do, but it's something that He does through you.
15:49-15:51
And that's to just let His light shine through.
15:54-15:54
Problem.
15:56-15:58
This is the problem that Jesus addressed.
16:00-16:03
Sometimes we hide the light, don't we?
16:04-16:05
Like what's that talking about?
16:05-16:06
Sometimes we hide the light.
16:07-16:08
Jot these down on your outline.
16:08-16:10
These are ways that we hide the light.
16:11-16:16
As I was preparing the sermon this week, I was running around the house looking for a flashlight.
16:16-16:19
I'm like, "Do we have a flashlight?" And we had this little keychain flashlight.
16:20-16:22
And then I realized there's an app for that.
16:27-16:31
So ways that we hide the light are in parentheses, are baskets and beds.
16:34-17:51
Jesus said we don't put our lamp under a basket or under a bed, but unfortunately we do at and these are some ways that we do it. So here's how we do this. I want you to pretend with me, okay? But we're going to let this light on the phone represent the light of Christ shining through me, okay? Everybody with me so far? I'll back up. We're gonna let this light represent the light of Christ shining through me. That's what God wants to do. He wants to shine his light through you. Now, some of the obstacles to evangelism, they don't have anything to do with the light. The problem is us hiding the light. So the issue is, how do we hide the light? Well, here are some ways. Jot these down. The first way is fear. By the way, this is an acrostic. I tried. See, God wants to shine his light through you. One of the problems is, okay, so I'm like working with Bob and I want him to see the light of Christ in me, but the problem is I'm hiding the light out out of fear.
17:52-17:53
Like, what do you mean by fear?
17:54-17:54
Fear of rejection.
17:57-18:09
If you've ever asked anyone out, or thought about asking someone out, if you've ever had a job as a salesperson, you know a little bit about what it means to have the fear of rejection.
18:12-19:03
Okay, so Christ has put His light in us, and we are to show that to other people by loving them and by blessing them and by sharing the gospel with them, but sometimes we're hiding it under fear. And if we're completely honest, here's how we think it's going to go when we share the gospel with someone. Like, can I tell you like what Jesus Christ did and the way that he changed my life and the way that he can change yours, and you expect the person to be like, "No! You can't! You religious fanatic! I'm reporting you and calling your mom!" Like, that's what, somehow we think that's what's gonna happen. That has never happened to me.
19:04-21:41
I've had a lot of people say, "You know what, I'm really not interested in that." I'm like, "Okay, standing offer, if you ever change your mind, I'd love to talk to you, and the conversation's over. But the problem is we concoct this big scenario of fear, and we don't want to let the light of Christ shine through us because we're afraid of rejection. True or false? True. That's one of our baskets or beds. Here's another one. Here's another one, Christians. Sin. This is another way that we hide the light. Okay, so like we're wanting the light of Christ to shine through us and the light of Christ is in us but sometimes we hide it behind sin. Like what do you mean by sin? Well you see I really want to let my friend Ken here know about Jesus and I want him to to know about what the Bible says about forgiveness but you know what Ken sees in me instead of seeing the light of Christ? He sees that I have a bitter attitude about life and he doesn't see the light he sees my sin. Ken doesn't see the light he sees that I'm an unforgiving person. He sees that I'm the guy at work that is carrying grudges because somebody cut line at the water cooler like back in 1998, and I've never forgiven her for that. So instead of seeing the light of Christ, he sees my sin. Instead of seeing the light of Christ, he sees that I'm a resentful person constantly with a chip on my shoulder constantly think everybody's out to get me I'm always being wronged he doesn't see Jesus in me because that's not Jesus I've managed to cover the light of Christ with my sin Jesus said that's not what you do with light what's another way what's another way here's one, write this down, shame. So the light of Christ is in us, the light of Christ to shine to us, shining through us, to love people, to bless people, to share the gospel with people, and I would really, really, really like to tell you about what Jesus has done for me, Sue. I would really, really love to tell you what he's done. Quite frankly right now I don't have my act together, and I sort I feel like I'm such a hypocrite to try to tell you about Jesus, because right now I'm ashamed of some things that I'm doing in my own life.
21:43-21:44
Anybody ever been there?
21:45-21:45
I've been there.
21:47-21:50
Like I feel ashamed of something that I've done.
21:50-21:53
And I'm a lot less likely to share Jesus with people.
21:55-21:56
I'm hiding the light.
21:58-21:58
So what do we do?
21:58-22:02
Just what we were talking about last month through the depression series.
22:03-22:15
You know, sin got you weighed down, repent, embrace the provision of forgiveness that God has already provided through Jesus Christ and move on.
22:16-22:19
But see, this is one of Satan's tools, by the way, right?
22:20-22:27
Christ has removed our guilt and shame, and this is something that Satan would just love to have blocking the light.
22:31-22:40
Sometimes when I am feeling this, I remind people that I'm sharing with and also to remind myself that the gospel is for imperfect people, right?
22:41-22:43
The gospel isn't for perfect people.
22:43-22:46
Like get your act together, maybe Jesus will accept you.
22:49-22:54
My sin was so horrible that it took the death of the Son of God to pay for my sin.
22:57-22:59
So I get that right out before people when I share the gospel.
22:59-23:01
I'm like, "Look, I'm not perfect.
23:03-23:11
"I've made a lot of mistakes "and I've done a lot of things that I regret, "but the glorious truth of the gospel "is I'm saved not because of what I've done.
23:11-23:17
"I'm saved because of what Jesus has done for me." But one of the ways we hide the light?
23:18-23:19
Shame.
23:20-23:21
Shame.
23:22-23:23
What's another way that we hide the light?
23:27-23:28
Oh, here's a way that you'll hide the light.
23:29-23:42
being self-centered being self-centered So the light of Christ shining in me shining through me to love people to bless people to share the gospel with people That's what God wants. Hey, do you see the light of Christ?
23:44-24:10
One of the ways that you'll hide it is by being self-centered My way my preferences everything's about me Problem is people don't see the humility of Jesus. They don't see the "your needs before my needs" of Jesus. They don't see the self-sacrificing nature of Jesus. The agape love, you before me kind of love.
24:10-24:30
They don't see that. When you're self-centered, you're putting a basket over the light because they're not seeing Jesus. And then finally, what's another bed or a basket? This is a big one, church, complaining. This is a big one.
24:31-27:27
Like how do you know it's a big one? Because you know the Bible explicitly talks about this one. Philippians 2 verses 14 through 15 says, "Do all things without grumbling or questioning that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish, in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation," listen to this last phrase, "among whom you shine as lights in the world." That was a long sentence, but if you catch the gist of what he's saying, God wants to shine his light through you. You live in a dark world and God wants to shine through you. Therefore, do everything without what? What was the first part of that? Without grumbling or complaining. That is a testimony killer, people. That is a testimony killer. Like, Jesus wants to shine through you, and instead of people seeing the light of Christ, what do they see? All they see is my dissatisfaction with everything. I hate everything. Everything is wrong and bad. Everybody is wrong and bad. All of the circumstances that I'm facing are wrong and bad. Constantly expressing your dissatisfaction, your disapproval with everything. That's not Christlike. If there was ever anybody in the history of the universe that had reason to complain. How about Jesus, the perfect one who was treated completely unjustly? The Bible says that it was for the joy set before him that he endured the cross, that he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. The people you are hiding the light. The people that I work with like don't know I'm a Christian, and this is a big one. Because if you're always complaining, what is that telling people about your walk with Jesus? Like, "Oh yeah, I want to follow His God." Yeah, sounds like His God's really cashing in for Him. Sounds like His God's really meeting His needs. Sounds like His God's really satisfying the longings of His heart, because all He ever does is bellyache about everything. No thanks, not interested. Everybody at his church is probably just like him. This is a bed or a basket, complaining. So Jesus wants to shine his light through you. Don't cover it. Don't cover it. So you do your part, which is really God shining through you.
27:28-27:46
Don't cover it. Secondly, God does his part. Number two, God does his part. For the record, this is my favorite parable of Jesus. Look at verses 26 through 29.
27:47-27:51
And he said, "The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
27:51-27:58
He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how.
28:00-28:05
The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
28:06-28:18
But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come." God does his part.
28:20-28:21
Question, how does a seed work?
28:24-28:32
Okay, so you take a seed and you put it in the ground and it dies and then it produces life.
28:34-28:34
How does that happen?
28:39-28:41
Justin, you're like one of the smartest people I know.
28:41-28:41
How does that happen?
28:43-28:44
You don't know.
28:45-28:47
Would you like to phone a friend?
28:47-28:48
Poll the audience.
28:49-28:51
Paul Persick, how does that happen?
28:54-28:55
You know what?
28:56-28:57
Nobody knows.
28:57-28:58
Did you know that?
28:59-29:05
You can get any botanist or horticulturalist or whatever you call those other, what do you call those people?
29:06-29:07
Horticulturalists or whatever.
29:08-29:10
The people that do horticultural.
29:10-29:15
And gosh, I can't even say it.
29:17-29:19
Nobody knows how that happens.
29:19-29:20
Did you know that?
29:20-29:29
With all of our scientific advances and splitting the atom and putting people on the moon and all that stuff, we don't even understand how a seed works.
29:30-29:36
That thing dies and sprouts life and makes more just like it that die and sprout life and make more just like it.
29:36-29:39
And this has been happening since God spoke the world into existence.
29:42-29:43
How does that happen?
29:45-29:46
Nobody knows.
29:47-29:52
And that's why I love this parable, because this is a freedom for you to embrace.
29:53-29:56
These are two glorious truths, and you've got to write these down, okay?
29:56-30:00
Number one, you can't save anyone.
30:03-30:04
You can't give life.
30:05-30:06
You can't save someone.
30:07-30:09
You can't send anyone to heaven.
30:09-31:12
can't keep anyone from hell, you can't do it. Your boss, your co-worker, your sister, your mom, your uncle, your next-door neighbor, you can't save anyone. But too many Christians try to carry the burden of responsibility. You can't do it. I've talked to many, many Christians that are like, "You know what? I, you know, my mom died and like I know she'd been to church and I share the gospel with her but I still carry this guilt like maybe I should have shared the gospel with her one more time and I feel like I don't know if she's in heaven and I that is not up to you man you can't save anyone and there's freedom in that I would be a basket case if I thought people going to heaven or hell was dependent upon me." Could you imagine the pressure?
31:13-31:14
The pressure?
31:16-31:25
"Paul, this person is going to eternal hell unless you intervene." It's not up to us.
31:26-31:27
It is not up to us.
31:28-31:30
We cannot save anyone.
31:32-31:35
You do your part, and God does His part.
31:38-31:42
Getting back to the parable from last week, our part is sowing the seed, right?
31:42-31:44
We tell people about Jesus.
31:49-31:52
But here's the second thing, write this down, this is so freeing.
31:53-31:55
God works in ways that we don't understand.
31:59-32:03
think of that as cliche, really think of that the way Jesus is teaching it here.
32:04-34:00
God works in ways that we don't understand. That's why I love this parable. Jesus is like the kingdom of God's like this, like a seed goes in the ground and the farmer like waits a while and it grows and they're like, "Hey farmer, how'd that happen?" and he's like, "I don't know." God works in ways that we don't understand and we don't have to. We don't have to. You know my friend Joe he wants to be a farmer but he's like I'm not gonna be a farmer until I figure out how the seed thing works. Only then will I start to be... Nobody thinks that way. I have to understand it before I know how it works. I don't understand how my car works, but I get in and like turn the key and off I go. And so it is with God. I had to put this to bed a long time ago. I am 100% okay with saying, "I don't know. I don't know." And I get to these silly preacher meetings where they want to talk about Calvinism versus Arminianism, and they're like, "What do you think, Jeff?" And I'm like, "Pfft, I don't know." It doesn't sound very intellectual among your peers. But I'm like, "I'll be honest with you. I have no idea how that happens. Like, is it up to us, or is it like all God, or is it all us?" I'm just like, "Here's what I know. God says that we tell people about Jesus and He like takes care of the rest. That's really pretty much all I know about the gospel. That's exactly what Jesus is teaching here. It's okay to say I don't know. Why would God allow this to happen? I don't know. Why didn't God stop this tragedy?
34:05-35:01
I don't know. I don't know. God never, ever asks us to understand Him. He's told us to trust Him. You can plant, you can water, but the way that God works in a person's heart is something that we can't understand, and it's something we can't control, right? That's why church we don't need gimmicks or tricks. Just throw the seed, right? That's all we're doing here. We're just we're just throwing the seed out. We don't need gimmicks or tricks. Like next week we're gonna have a dunking tank. Tell all your friends, you know, we're gonna rent a hot-air balloon to give people rides and I hope that they're interested in sticking around the church long enough that maybe they'll find out about Jesus by accident.
35:01-35:05
Like, that's not how God works.
35:05-35:06
You know how God works?
35:06-35:07
You know how God works?
35:07-35:08
I don't know.
35:09-35:12
But he said that when his word is sown, he takes care of the rest.
35:14-35:15
Jot this down too.
35:16-35:22
Not only does God work in ways we don't understand, and we don't have to, but God works the process.
35:24-35:25
God works the process.
35:25-35:27
Like, what do you mean by that?
35:27-35:34
Well, Jesus said, "Well, the earth produces by itself." that's where we get the English word "automatically" from that Greek word.
35:35-38:16
First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and then the grain is ripe. Notice Jesus talked about the process. The farmer doesn't like throw the seed out, go to bed, wake up the next morning like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, I planted a seed here last night, where's the crop?" God's working a process, and sometimes the process takes time. Sometimes we're throwing a lot of seed, and sometimes we're doing a lot of waiting, and sometimes it, church, sometimes it looks like nothing's happening. When the truth is, much is happening. We just haven't seen it yet. God works the process. That's why I love Philippians chapter 1, verse 6. We sang it this morning, did you catch it? When God starts something, He finishes it. Isn't that good news? When God starts something, He finishes it. To use another picture, you know I think of this every time at night when I see a full moon. I think, you know, that moon just hangs the sky as a testimony to our role as Christians. Because you know the moon, no matter how bright it looks to you, you know the moon's not producing any light of its own. Did you know that? All the moon does is reflect the light of the sun. The truth is you don't have any light of your own. You're just reflecting the light of the Son, S-O-N. So church, can we be okay with just doing what we've been called to do and trusting God to do what only He can do? Can we be okay with that? We're not supposed to vote at Harvest Bible Chapel, but we're going to vote. All in favor, from now on we're going to be okay with doing what God's called us to do, and we're going to trust God to do what only He can do. Like, all in favor? Takes the pressure off, doesn't it? It takes the pressure off. We sow the seed, God takes care of the rest.
38:19-38:24
Finally, you do your part, God does his part, God gets the results.
38:25-38:26
God gets the results.
38:29-38:32
Look at verses 30-34 as we wrap up.
38:32-38:37
And he said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God?
38:38-38:40
Or what parable shall we use for it?
38:41-39:12
like a grain of mustard seed which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth. But when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade. With many such parables he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable but privately to his own disciples, he explained everything.
39:13-39:14
So here's the good news.
39:14-39:18
We do our part, and God does his part, and God gets results.
39:19-39:30
After the parable of the sower, the disciples were probably wondering, "Okay, Jesus, so breaking that story down, three out of four people are going to reject you.
39:31-39:44
Three out of four people don't want to hear the gospel message, so with all this fruitless seed, how's this kingdom of God that you're talking about going to take off?" And that's exactly what Jesus is teaching about the mustard seed.
39:45-39:48
The small beginnings don't indicate the magnitude of where it's heading.
39:50-40:58
So much pressure for results, burden for that family member to come around, burden for that loved one to receive Jesus, burden for, pressure for the church has to be this big and we have have this many people and we put all this pressure when the truth is results are God's thing. Yes, we should be seeing results. Yes, we should be celebrating results. But we never pridefully own the results and we never take credit for the results because results are God's thing. No matter what things look like, no matter how hard things get, the Bible tells us that we are already more than conquerors in Jesus. So don't think of this as some sort of a teetering between winning and losing. We are more than conquerors in Christ. The kingdom is going to advance disproportionately Let's leave the results to God.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Mark 4:21-34
Sunday we talked about “Ways We Hide the Light (Our Baskets and Beds)” from Mark 4:21. Which of these 5 things get in your way of sharing the Gospel with people? How can each of these be corrected?
a. Fear
b. Sin
c. Shame
d. Self-centeredness
e. Complaining
When you think of evangelism, do you lean more towards Calvinism (God does what He wants with who He wants, period) or Armenian-ism (saving people is up to each of us)? What do you think Mark 4:21-29 says about the matter?
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another to be better lamps for Jesus!