Pillars of Faith

The Crisis in the Heart

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Lomacang, Pastor

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Series Code: POF

Program Code: POF000009A


00:26 Well, hello,
00:27 and welcome to Pillars of Faith,
00:29 coming to you from the 3ABN worship center,
00:32 right here in Southern Illinois.
00:34 It's a joy to have our 3ABN family
00:37 from all around the world,
00:39 as well as from right here in Southern Illinois.
00:42 Coming to us and receiving this beautiful message
00:47 that's coming forth this evening,
00:49 we have a beautiful sermon title tonight.
00:52 It's coming from the series
00:54 that our pastor John Lomacang is doing.
00:56 The series title is the Anatomy of the Crisis.
01:00 And tonight sermon is The Crisis in the Heart,
01:04 as Pastor Lomacang shares the wonderful words
01:08 that God that has imparted into his heart,
01:10 that are to go forth and to touch everyone of you.
01:13 You know, this is the fourth sermon
01:15 in his five part series.
01:16 Let me give you the titles of the other sermons.
01:19 It was The Crisis in Heaven, The Crisis in the Garden,
01:22 The Crisis in the Family,
01:24 and tonight, The Crisis in the Heart.
01:27 And the word declares that faith cometh by hearing,
01:30 and hearing by the word.
01:32 So we want to encourage you to get the CDs,
01:34 get the DVDs, listen to them over and over,
01:38 for what it will do for you is give you faith
01:40 and overcoming victorious hope through God's word.
01:44 Before we pray,
01:46 let me give you the scripture reading
01:48 for this evening.
01:49 The scripture reading is Psalms 26:2,
01:52 and the word declares,
01:54 "Examine me, O Lord, and prove me,
01:57 try my mind and heart."
01:59 And you know, the word declares in Psalms 139
02:03 that we ask the lord just search us, O' God
02:06 and know our hearts, try us, know our thoughts.
02:09 See if there be any evil way in us
02:12 and lead us in that path that is everlasting.
02:14 Tonight, we're looking at the way to search our hearts
02:18 for us to stand before God
02:19 with clean hands and a pure heart.
02:22 Let's pray.
02:23 Holy father, we come before you in the name of Jesus
02:26 and we ask, O God,
02:27 that as your word goes forth tonight,
02:30 it will touch everyone of our hearts.
02:32 Father, that our hearts will be purified and perfected
02:35 by the power of your word as it goes forth.
02:37 And Lord, we will be conform not to this world
02:40 but we will be conformed
02:41 to your image and your likeness,
02:43 so the powerful word that goes forth through Pastor Lomacang.
02:47 And I praise you and I thank you for it,
02:49 in Jesus name.
02:51 Now our pastor, Pastor John Lomacang is coming,
02:53 he is my pastor,
02:55 the pastor of the Thompsonville
02:56 Seventh-day Adventist church
02:58 that meets right here in the 3ABN worship center.
03:01 So I want to welcome him as he comes.
03:03 Thank you, Pastor Lomacang.
03:05 Thank you, Mollie. I appreciate it very well.
03:07 Thank you very much.
03:10 Well, welcome again, friends.
03:11 Thank you so much for joining us in this program
03:14 as we continue our trek through
03:17 the Anatomy of the Crisis.
03:19 You know, what's wonderful about the series is
03:21 it is reminding me again of how important it is
03:25 to have our lives in the hand of Lord.
03:28 And thank you so much, Mollie,
03:29 for such a wonderful introduction.
03:32 But as you know, we have so many hats here at 3ABN,
03:35 we just give the Lord the glory for whatever he can do
03:37 and in through our lives.
03:39 Now, she did pray for us
03:40 and so I'm gonna allow that to be sufficient.
03:43 And I want to revisit that the scripture one more time.
03:45 I like the translation that Mollie used,
03:48 but I want to repeat that one more time
03:51 from the Book of Psalms 139:23.
03:55 The Book of Psalms, but this is a Psalm 139:23.
04:02 Look at what the word of God says to us today.
04:05 "Search me, O God, and know my heart,
04:11 try me, and know my anxieties."
04:16 We want the Lord to search inside
04:20 and to show us what we may be missing.
04:23 We want the Lord to try us and know our anxieties.
04:28 You know, the Bible uses different phrases
04:31 depending on the translation that you use.
04:34 But I think of the heart today,
04:35 and the crisis in the heart is a,
04:38 is one of insurmountable proportions.
04:42 We often don't consider the power
04:45 that takes place in the heart,
04:47 the transactions that happen in the heart and in the mind,
04:51 both used into changeably,
04:53 until something of great proportion happens
04:56 and we are completely unaware or out of control.
05:00 The heart is the seed of great affections.
05:03 The heart is the place where we hold
05:05 our feelings most dearly.
05:08 Now, many of you might say,
05:09 well, Pastor John, the heart only pumps blood.
05:12 But one of the reasons why
05:13 polygraphing is so important today is because
05:17 we know that whatever affects the mind,
05:20 its registered in the heart.
05:22 Whatever is taking place in the mind,
05:24 the heart either speeds up or slows down to a normal pace.
05:28 But if you're sad sometimes,
05:30 the heart can just drag along thump,
05:32 thump, thump, thump.
05:34 The heart is the place that works
05:36 in harmony with the mind
05:38 to really prescribe, or I should say,
05:42 to allow us to know what our condition is.
05:45 So when a person is excited, the heart speeds up.
05:47 When the person is depressed, or sad, or down-hearted,
05:50 the heart just tends to just chug along at a constant pace.
05:54 And praise the Lord, because this is the place
05:56 that we're going to discover today
05:58 that the heart has many conditions.
06:01 There is a parable in the bible,
06:02 we'll talk about it in a moment,
06:04 that outlines the conditions of the human heart.
06:08 But on the phase of 'search me,'
06:11 I remember searching, and some times
06:13 we can search, and search, search.
06:15 But some times we search for things
06:17 in places that we've never put them.
06:20 Sometimes things are right before us
06:22 but we cannot see them
06:23 because we search with eyes
06:25 that have pre-conceived destinations.
06:27 I remember searching one day for my wallet,
06:31 and I was just so pushed back
06:35 that I could not find my wallet.
06:37 I put it, I thought I knew where I put my wallet,
06:41 and so I searched.
06:43 And you know, sometimes we get to the point
06:46 where we begin to search almost
06:49 without any sense connected to it.
06:51 I thought I'd placed my wallet on the dresser by my bed,
06:54 and I thought to myself,
06:55 now what if it fell off of my bed,
06:57 off of the dresser onto me bed.
06:59 And I began to tear the sheets apart.
07:01 I said, what is it fell on the foot of the bed,
07:02 I began to remove the little seat
07:06 that's in front of the bed,
07:07 and I just began tearing the place up.
07:09 And all the time my wallet was just sitting there,
07:12 saying, here I am.
07:13 But it could not respond to me,
07:15 it couldn't call me out,
07:17 it couldn't draw attention to itself.
07:21 And that's a kind of how our lives are sometimes.
07:23 We search for things that we think of one place
07:27 when in fact they are at other places.
07:29 Our emotions are that way,
07:31 we're continually searching
07:32 and try to find meaning and the emotions
07:34 that we have in our hearts and our lives.
07:38 The other thing we also discover about the heart,
07:40 the Bible says in Mathew 6:21,
07:43 and this is a powerful verse, a tremendous verse.
07:49 "For where your treasure is," the Bible says,
07:52 "there your heart will also be"
07:55 or "there will your heart be also."
07:58 I was raised on the King James version
08:00 and I'm reading the New King James version.
08:03 So sometimes I combine the two with the King James
08:06 and the New King James version, but the point is the same.
08:08 Wherever you find the things that are most important to you,
08:11 your treasures are there, your affections are there.
08:16 And I've discovered that the things
08:17 that we spend our time on the most
08:19 are the things that come out of our mouths the most.
08:22 The things that take up most of our attention,
08:24 if you like computers,
08:26 you read magazines about computers,
08:27 well, you talk about computers.
08:29 If you are a mechanic, you talk about cars,
08:31 you might like motorcycles, you talk about that.
08:34 Or you might like shoes,
08:35 as a women, you talk about that.
08:36 Now guys, some guys have a fixation for shoes also,
08:40 so I'm not gonna make that a gender exclusive category.
08:44 But there are those who may love crocheting and knitting,
08:47 and quilting, and they talk about those things.
08:50 Wherever your treasure is,
08:52 that's where your heart is going to also be.
08:54 Today, we want to focus in a very specific way
08:59 as to what the condition of your heart is,
09:02 because the difference between where we are
09:06 and where we can be really is
09:08 all about the condition of our hearts.
09:10 The place we find our self is often the place
09:13 where our heart longs for.
09:15 We have an affection in our hearts and in our minds
09:18 that often drive our daily agendas.
09:21 It drives the first thing we do in the morning.
09:24 If our heart is for the word of God,
09:26 we find ourselves reading the word of God.
09:28 If our hearts are thinking about our iPads and our phones,
09:31 we find ourselves, first thing in the morning,
09:34 looking at our phones, opening our iPads,
09:37 and our iPods, and our tablets,
09:40 whatever the device may be.
09:41 Wherever your treasure is, there is your heart also.
09:46 The other thing is, wherever your heart is,
09:49 that's where you spend your money.
09:50 One person once says,
09:52 if you want to know what a person's God is,
09:54 just look at their checkbook
09:57 and you will discover that the very item
09:58 that they worship the most.
10:00 But if this texture is very clear,
10:02 it is saying in a specific sense,
10:04 it speaks about money, in the general sense,
10:07 it speaks about the place of our affections.
10:09 The things that are dear to us are close to our hearts.
10:14 I spoke to a group of young people a few days ago
10:17 and I said,
10:18 whenever you are saying to somebody, I love you,
10:20 you don't draw a picture of your brain,
10:22 you don't say, I brain you,
10:23 you say, I heart you, to see to our affections.
10:26 Whenever we see a heart, we call it the heartland,
10:29 we are in the mid west, we call that the heartland,
10:31 we don't call that the brainland.
10:33 Because this is the place of the affection
10:35 of many of those that live
10:37 in the south central locations of the United States.
10:41 The heart and the mind, however,
10:43 are used interchangeably in scripture.
10:46 Matter fact, go to Hebrews 8:10,
10:48 and notice how this is used in a very interchangeable way.
10:52 Hebrews 8:10.
10:55 I will turn to my Bible,
10:56 and I wanna give you more of the text than
10:59 I actually have here in my notes.
11:01 So I'm gonna look at the text with you.
11:03 Hebrews 8:10,
11:05 notice the word of the Lord.
11:07 The Lord says, "For this is the covenant
11:10 that I will make with the house of Israel
11:13 after those days" says the Lord,
11:16 "I will put my laws in their mind
11:20 and write them on their hearts.
11:22 I will be their God and they shall be my people."
11:26 Notice, he will put his laws in our mind
11:31 and he will write them on our hearts.
11:33 As David in the Psalm says,
11:35 write them on the tablets of our hearts.
11:37 You'll also notice that
11:39 when a person is going through a struggle
11:41 as Paul the apostle talked about in Romans 7.
11:44 He said, what I want to do is not what I do,
11:49 and I what I don't wanna do is exactly what I do.
11:52 He says, I see, I know about the law of God
11:55 but there's another law in my members
11:58 warring against the law of my mind
12:01 and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin and death.
12:06 And sometimes people read about the law of sin and death
12:08 and they thinks that's the commandment.
12:10 No, that's not the commandments of God.
12:12 The law of sin and death is that property in nature,
12:15 kind of like the law of gravity,
12:17 the law of physics.
12:18 You know somebody once said,
12:20 you can defy the law of physics
12:22 if you fall, if you jump off of a hundred stores building,
12:24 you can defy the law of physics for 99 stories,
12:28 but on the very last one you will discover
12:30 that the law of physics cannot be denied.
12:32 Gravity is always in force,
12:35 the law of physics work the way
12:37 that God intended for them to work.
12:39 So God's law also has the same affect on us.
12:42 It cannot leave us to our own devices.
12:45 And so in this passage,
12:47 speaking about the crisis in the heart,
12:49 the Lord is saying,
12:50 the reason why some of us are battling,
12:52 the reason why some of us are in struggles
12:54 in our daily lives is because his law is in our minds,
12:58 reminding us of the things we should and should not do,
13:01 and then they have made their way to our hearts,
13:03 bringing convictions of the places
13:06 we should and should not go.
13:07 But the law that's in our members
13:09 that war against God's law
13:11 is that law of the nature of humanity.
13:14 That law that says that we're slaves to sin,
13:18 that law that was passed on to us from Adam,
13:21 as in Adam all die,
13:22 even so in Christ all shall me made alive.
13:24 That law that makes us pre-dispose to bad habits,
13:29 bad choices, bad deeds, awful sayings,
13:32 bad decisions, corrupt ideas,
13:35 that's the law that wars
13:36 constantly against the law of God.
13:40 It's in our hearts and it's in our minds.
13:43 Isaac Watson once said or Isaac Walton,
13:46 who lived during the 1600 said,
13:49 God has two dwelling places,
13:52 one in heaven and the other in a meek and thankful heart.
13:58 God has two dwelling places, one in heaven
14:00 and the other in meek thankful heart.
14:04 You know, there's a need for more people to thank God.
14:07 We often look at God as the grocery store.
14:09 "Lord, I need, Lord, I need, Lord, I need."
14:11 Whenever we have a difficulty in our families,
14:13 we call on God.
14:15 But sometimes we have to pause and thank God
14:17 in our times of prosperity,
14:19 not just call on God in our times of adversity.
14:22 When we have a need that has been met by God,
14:25 it does as well to sometimes pause and say, thank you Lord,
14:29 so that we can have a heart of gratitude
14:32 and a heart of thankfulness.
14:34 Another saying goes this way,
14:36 our trouble today is that we have
14:39 our heads filled with knowledge
14:42 but our hearts and our minds empty of God.
14:45 The trouble today is that we have our heads
14:47 filled with knowledge
14:48 but our hearts and minds are empty of God.
14:52 We've been fighting for world peace,
14:54 when the only peace that we can really have
14:57 is the peace found in our hearts,
15:00 the peace that Jesus gives.
15:01 And as a matter of fact, he says,
15:02 the peace that passes all understanding.
15:06 Matthew 22:37
15:09 shows us another important factor
15:11 about the heart and the mind together.
15:13 Jesus said, "You shall love the Lord, your God with..."
15:17 how much?
15:18 "All your heart, and with also all your soul
15:21 and with all your mind."
15:25 You know when the heart and the mind are divided,
15:28 when we say to God,
15:29 I'm gonna give you this portion of mind and heart,
15:32 and I'm gonna give my studies this portion,
15:34 and my entertainment this portion.
15:37 Our hearts are divided, our minds are divided,
15:40 but God's desire is that we give him our all of our heart,
15:45 all of our mind,
15:46 like the young man that's falling head over heels
15:49 in love with the young lady he met.
15:51 Or like the bay that takes the piece of candy
15:52 for the first time and just falls in love
15:55 with the sugary taste of that peppermint piece of candy
15:58 that they just had.
15:59 When we fall in love with God,
16:01 we discover that we make room for him.
16:03 Anything that we love, any one that we love,
16:05 we make room for them.
16:07 The Lord is saying, give me your whole heart,
16:09 give me your whole mind.
16:12 It is when the heart is not fixed on God
16:13 that the affections are in jeopardy.
16:16 And until we make up our minds
16:18 our hearts can constantly be in trouble.
16:21 But when hearts are trusted to God,
16:25 every area of our life is affected positively.
16:30 Think about that.
16:31 The reason why that's important is because
16:33 we live under the constant drama
16:34 of the Great Controversy.
16:36 There's never a time that God is not calling on our hearts.
16:40 There's never a time that God is not appealing to us.
16:44 And on the other side of that, there's never a time
16:46 that the devil is not seeking to interrupt the work
16:49 that God is trying to do in our hearts and in our lives.
16:53 And so if we stop for a moment
16:56 and consider what Satan has done to us,
16:59 only then do we realize
17:01 how much we are in constant need,
17:05 I'll say it again, in constant need of Jesus.
17:09 Not temporary need, not once a week.
17:12 That's why lives surrender to Jesus
17:15 will experience trouble but will always be delivered.
17:20 The Bible says, "Many are the afflictions of the righteous
17:23 but the Lord delivers him out of them all."
17:26 So let's pause for a moment
17:28 and consider why the heart and the mind
17:31 and are always under constant challenge.
17:33 Let's consider
17:35 four areas in the Bible that talks about
17:37 how important the heart is.
17:38 Four areas that God speaks to the decisions
17:42 of the heart and mind, four areas in the Bible.
17:45 Four conditions, I would say
17:47 that outline the condition of every man,
17:51 woman, boy, and girl on the planet.
17:54 Every corporate executive, every pastor,
17:57 every lay person, every preacher,
17:59 everyone making a decision has these four areas
18:02 that are in constant challenge with his heart and his mind.
18:06 Let's go to the Parable of the Sower
18:08 in Mathew 13.
18:10 Parable of the Sower in Mathew 13.
18:14 If you have your Bibles, turn here with me.
18:16 The Parable of the Sower.
18:18 Beginning in verse one and two,
18:20 notice this parabola, a beautiful parabola.
18:23 It brings towards, you know, this parabola,
18:25 if I could give it a different title,
18:26 this parabola is like a check, it's like a check.
18:29 It's like the dip-stick in our oil.
18:33 We see if we are low, or if we need new oil,
18:36 or if the oil is dirty, or if it's clean.
18:39 It's like checking our break-pads
18:41 to see in the next emergency
18:43 whether not we are prepared to stop
18:45 just before the tragedy.
18:47 It is like checking the kind of fuel we put it in our tanks,
18:51 is it low grade, is it the proper grade.
18:54 It's a check on the human condition
18:57 of the human life and the human heart.
18:59 Notice Mathew 13, beginning in verse 1 and 2.
19:04 "On the same day,"
19:06 that the same day of the ministry of Jesus
19:08 with the great multitudes,
19:10 "Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea.
19:15 " And verse 2, "
19:16 And great multitudes were gathered together to him,
19:19 so that he got into a boat, and sat,
19:23 and the whole multitude stood on the shore."
19:28 Now when Jesus sat,
19:30 you'll discover this in the Bible,
19:32 this is very interesting comparison.
19:34 Whenever Jesus sat, HE taught,
19:38 when he stood up, he preached.
19:41 Often times he would stand up and preach in the synagogue.
19:44 But whenever he was in a more relaxed environment,
19:48 he would sit down and speak to the multitudes.
19:51 And then the other thing he did was
19:52 he would use his surroundings
19:54 as an object-lesson to the multitudes.
19:57 In other words, if there was a storm brewing,
20:00 Jesus would talk about the vehement power
20:02 of the waves and the wind
20:04 that will beat on the foundation of our houses.
20:06 In the approaching clouds
20:09 people will never forget the message of Jesus
20:12 when he talked about the storm.
20:13 If it was a family dispute, he'll say,
20:15 I have come not to bring peace but a sword
20:18 to set mother against daughter and father against son.
20:21 And they would never forget
20:22 as long as they are in the family circle.
20:23 But in this particular sense,
20:25 Jesus talked about the four conditions of the human heart.
20:29 Let's start with the first one,
20:31 Mathew chapter 13:3-4,
20:34 "Then he spoke many things to them in parables."
20:39 Now, parables are not obvious messages,
20:41 they are messages locked up in symbols,
20:43 and signs, and codes.
20:46 "Saying, 'Behold, a sower went out to sow.
20:52 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside,
20:56 and the birds came and devoured them.
20:59 Some seed fell by the wayside,
21:02 and the birds came and devoured them."
21:05 Now when you look at Mathew 13:3-4,
21:10 you go on further to understand the definition of this parable.
21:15 Let's just take a little time to break that down
21:18 before we get to the definition of what that meant
21:22 by seeds falling by the wayside
21:25 and birds coming and devoured them.
21:27 I call this the wayside hero, the wayside hero.
21:33 Let me make a few points.
21:34 The time that we need to be most cautious is
21:36 when we perceive that God is speaking to us
21:39 through his word.
21:42 At no time, does it bring greater concern to the enemy
21:46 than when God is trying to draw us to himself.
21:49 The wayside here is the person listening
21:51 to the word of God.
21:52 But that person, whether a male or female,
21:54 whether young man or young lady,
21:57 whether educated or undereducated,
21:59 whatever the case maybe,
22:01 that person listens to the sermon going forth.
22:04 But because they don't allow the seeds
22:07 to penetrate their hearts, think about that.
22:10 They don't allow the word of God
22:11 to find a the place to begin to put down roots,
22:15 to begin to grow.
22:17 And so they stay on the surface,
22:20 they stay on the surface, they never find any root.
22:23 And so the birds,
22:25 whose natural tendency is eat up
22:27 whatever is on the ground,
22:28 they come by and snatch away
22:30 the words that could've been sown,
22:33 and so they don't find any root.
22:35 Listen to the definition for that,
22:37 Mathew 13:18, it talks about, its gives the definition.
22:41 It explains the parable,
22:43 it explains the what happened in that person's life.
22:47 Verse 18,
22:49 "When any one hears the word of the kingdom,
22:52 and doesn't understand it,
22:55 then the wicked one comes, and snatches away
22:58 what was sown in the heart.
23:02 This is he who received seed by the wayside."
23:04 Now, you might think, that seems unfair,
23:07 but this person is victimized
23:09 because they dint understand it.
23:10 Well, there's a deeper context to this.
23:13 it's not that they didn't understand it,
23:15 it's that they hinder themselves
23:19 from understanding.
23:20 Let me give you an example.
23:22 When Jesus had a conversation with Nicodemus,
23:24 and Jesus said to Nicodemus,
23:26 "Nicodemus, you must be born again."
23:28 Nicodemus, very well educated, a Pharisee,
23:32 highly educated in the ways of the Jewish economy
23:36 as well as in the educational system.
23:37 Then he said to Christ something ridiculous.
23:39 "How can a man enter his mother's womb
23:42 when he's old?"
23:45 And you know, you think about, he almost wanna pause and say,
23:48 Nicodemus, I mean, give me a break.
23:50 You know that's not what Jesus meant.
23:52 He doesn't say, you have to go back and start
23:54 all over in this physical cycle of birth.
23:57 And Jesus said to him,
23:58 "Don't be surprise that I say to you,
24:01 you must be born again."
24:04 You know, there are things that we hear on the word of God
24:06 that we resist so much
24:10 that if we won't resist them,
24:12 if we don't resist these things,
24:14 then they would be able to take root in our lives
24:17 and begin to make a difference.
24:19 If we don't submit to them, we resist them,
24:22 we don't draw here to God,
24:23 we draw near to the opposite side
24:25 of what God is trying to say to us,
24:27 and so therefore,
24:28 the reason why they don't understand that is
24:30 because they don't want to understand it.
24:33 I had a Bibles study ones with a,
24:36 I won't tell you what denomination he was,
24:37 a young man.
24:39 And when I go to this very critical topic,
24:41 he said, "I don't wanna hear it
24:43 because if I wanna hear it, I'll be responsible for it."
24:46 And I thought to myself, that's ridiculous.
24:49 You can close your to the red light
24:50 and keep on driving,
24:52 you don't have to see it, but drive through it
24:53 and you will be responsible,
24:55 may be for your life and somebody else's.
24:57 There's this misconception that if I don't hear it
25:00 I'm not responsible for it.
25:02 Nothing could be further from the truth.
25:04 When you don't want to hear it
25:06 then you won't understand it,
25:08 but you will be accountable for the outcome,
25:11 you will pay the Piper's price.
25:14 You will be the victim of your own
25:17 orchestrated ignorance.
25:19 You cannot say, you didn't know
25:22 when God was clearly saying to you, "Listen."
25:25 That's why in Revelation, you find seven times at least.
25:27 The Bible says, "He who has ears to hear,
25:31 let them hear what the spirit is saying to the churches."
25:34 They're some people that don't want to hear it.
25:36 So what happens?
25:38 As the Bible says the 2 Timothy 3,
25:40 in the last days, one of the conditions.
25:42 There are people that they turn away from the truth
25:45 and they turn to fables because they find teachers,
25:48 because they have ears that are that are itching.
25:50 You know, you're saying that,
25:51 "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy."
25:52 What?
25:54 What?
25:55 They keep on acting like they didn't hear.
25:57 So what they do is they look for preachers and teachers
26:00 that say to them exactly what they want to hear.
26:03 They look for the people that, so to speak, as we would say,
26:06 tickle their fancy.
26:07 They look for people that say exactly
26:10 what they want to understand.
26:12 And then they say, wow
26:14 that's your interpretation, that's another one.
26:16 That's your interpretation.
26:18 Well, how many ways can you interpret,
26:21 "If you love me, keep make a moments?"
26:23 Well, that's your interpretation,
26:25 those are your commitments.
26:27 I remember having a conversation
26:29 with a pastor once and he said to me,
26:31 I have my scriptures to back up my beliefs
26:34 and you have your scripture to backup your beliefs.
26:38 And I said let me stop you right there, pastor,
26:40 I don't have any scriptures and neither do you.
26:43 This is the word of God and the word of God
26:44 never supports to controversial views.
26:48 God's word never support two views
26:51 that are in conflict and fighting with each other.
26:56 And so the best thing to do is not to hesitate
26:59 when eternal issues are at hand,
27:01 not to drag your feet when God is bringing
27:03 conviction to your heart.
27:05 Don't assume that there will be a more favorable time.
27:09 James 4:7-8,
27:11 notice how James encourages us.
27:14 Notice what he says,
27:17 verse 7 of Chapter 4, James.
27:19 He said, "Therefore, submit to God."
27:22 What's that word again? Submit to God.
27:25 What's that word again? Submit to God.
27:26 Then he goes on to submit to God
27:29 you have to do the very next thing,
27:30 "Resist the devil."
27:32 Now, why should you resist the devil?
27:35 Get this in mind,
27:36 when the word of God is preached,
27:37 its just like in the garden of Eden,
27:39 when God spoke to Adam and Eve,
27:41 Satan came to twist what God had said,
27:43 and he said, "Hast God said,"
27:44 And the very same way
27:46 when God is communicating a message
27:48 from his word, people will say,
27:50 I know what God's word says, but my pastors says,
27:53 but my denomination says, but this what I always start,
27:56 but this is what my parents tell me,
27:58 but this is how I was raised.
28:01 That's how you can tell the difference
28:03 between a sheep and a goat.
28:06 A sheep would follow the shepherded
28:07 but a goat will always have a but.
28:09 I know what the Bible says, but.
28:11 I know what God's word says, but.
28:13 They're always seeking to conflict
28:16 and to fight against
28:17 what the God is trying to communicate to them.
28:19 That's why the Bible says, submit to God.
28:21 Then you have to resist the devil,
28:23 and here's the promise,
28:25 and He will flee from you.
28:27 Verse 8,
28:28 "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."
28:35 You got to make a decision where you gonna stand.
28:37 You know, and I'm gonna finish the text in a moment,
28:39 but you know there is no center line
28:43 in the Great Controversy.
28:44 There is no yellow highway line in this Great Controversy
28:48 between light and darkness, God and evil.
28:52 There is no rest area,
28:54 you're either with God or you are against to God.
28:59 You are either making your decision to follow the light
29:02 or you are making the decision to follow the darkness.
29:05 There is no middle ground.
29:06 That's why the apostle says with such passion,
29:10 submit to God, the right, resist the devil,
29:13 to the left, and He will free from you.
29:15 Draw near to God, the right, and God will draw near to you.
29:18 But how you have to do it is the following words,
29:21 "Cleanse your hands, you sinners,
29:23 and purify your hearts, you double-minded."
29:28 In the river, on the bank,
29:30 in the river, on the bank, purify your hearts.
29:34 When there's controversy,
29:35 only God can purify your hearts,
29:38 because there was a man in the Bible,
29:40 a governor by the name of Felix.
29:43 Very interesting story and Book of Acts 24.
29:47 Under, during the trial of the apostle,
29:51 the Governor Felix listen to the impassion words
29:53 of the apostle as he preach his hart out.
29:56 And you find these in Acts 24:25.
29:59 And at the point where conviction was coming in,
30:03 listen to the words of Felix, the governor.
30:09 It says in verse 25 of Acts 24,
30:12 'Now, as he reasoned about righteousness,
30:16 self control and the judgment to come."
30:21 Felix was afraid and answered,
30:25 and then he said, "Go away for now.
30:29 When I have a convenient time I will call for you."
30:34 At the moment of conviction,
30:36 at the moment when Felix could have made a decision
30:40 to turn his life over to the control of God,
30:43 the conviction was there, fear came into his heart.
30:47 Because he knew
30:48 where he was standing was not of God had approved.
30:51 And, instead of saying,
30:53 ok, Lord, I yield, I yield cannot hold out.
30:56 What must I do to be saved?
30:58 He said, "Okay, okay, enough for now,
31:00 get out of here, go away for now.
31:03 When I have a convenient time I will call for you.
31:07 Reminds me of Agrippa.
31:09 Agrippa said to Paul,
31:11 "You almost persuade me to become a Christian,
31:14 you almost persuade me to get my life to through out you,
31:17 you almost persuade me to give in
31:21 to those things that are right,
31:22 you almost persuade me."
31:24 You know, friends,
31:25 to be almost safe is to be entirely lost.
31:28 To be almost convinced of right
31:30 is to be completely convinced of wrong.
31:33 To stand on the fence when there's devastation
31:37 and destruction all around you,
31:38 and not to give your life to Christ
31:39 is to assure that when destruction comes
31:42 you will be a personally responsible victim.
31:45 Don't make the mistake like Felix did,
31:48 looking for a convenient time.
31:50 There is no more convenient time
31:52 than the right time, than the present time,
31:55 as the Bible says today is the day of salvation,
31:58 today is the acceptable time.
32:00 You may not live to see tomorrow.
32:02 So make your decision to live for the right today.
32:06 There's another kind of hero in the Bible.
32:08 There's another kind of hero in the Bible, the stony hero.
32:12 Mathew 13:5-6, look at this one.
32:16 Mathew 13:5-6,
32:19 speaking about the seeds that Jesus sowed.
32:22 And by the way, this was during
32:23 the sowing season of the year.
32:26 In the background of the multitudes
32:28 there were farmers just,
32:30 would putting their hands in their pouches
32:32 and just scattering seeds everywhere,
32:34 sowing these seeds.
32:36 The Bible says, "Some fell on stony places,
32:41 where they did not have much earth.
32:44 And they immediately sprang up
32:46 because they had no depth of earth.
32:49 But when the sun was up they were scorched,
32:53 and because they had no root they withered away."
32:59 They withered because they had no root.
33:01 Now this is a very amazing category,
33:04 it says that when the seeds fell on stony places
33:09 they immediately sprang up.
33:12 You know, when I read this passage
33:13 I thought about people that you meet for the first time
33:16 and they're enthusiastic,
33:17 they're excited about the world.
33:19 But one of the reasons I give people time
33:21 to settle into the fellowship
33:23 is because when people are excited,
33:25 some times it's the most dangerous time in their walk,
33:29 even if it's the beginning of their walk
33:31 because excitement is not the right thermometer.
33:35 Excitement is not the test
33:37 of whether or not a person is going to commit himself
33:39 or herself to the Lord.
33:41 They get excited for the moment.
33:42 And the world that shown immediately,
33:45 it looks as though
33:47 it's producing results right away.
33:49 And you see, it springs up.
33:51 There's some evidences that what you said is taking roots,
33:54 and you get excited, and you say,
33:55 "Wow, I preach one sermon,
33:57 that person gave his life to the Lord,
33:58 that person asked for baptism,
34:00 that person wants to join our church."
34:02 I have learned as I've continued in pastoring
34:06 to give people time to see whether or not
34:09 there are any roots in their relationship.
34:13 Because something happens to test whether or not,
34:17 the word of God has found any roots.
34:20 Don't settle for surface relationship, this tell us.
34:23 Don't neglect Bible study
34:25 and deep searching of God's word.
34:27 Don't allow difficulty to dictate
34:29 your dedication to God.
34:31 Don't look for the sun to come up
34:33 as it shine from God that He is always with you.
34:36 Don't await for the trial to pass
34:39 before you commits yourself to Christ,
34:41 because I tell you what,
34:44 a faith that is not tried is not a reliable faith.
34:49 I think about that for a moment.
34:51 If you've not faced the trial,
34:52 if you've not gone through difficulty
34:54 and be sustained...
34:56 As one person once said,
34:57 "When you get some scars, come back and tell me
34:59 what and what not to do."
35:02 Some young preachers try to dictate to the conferences,
35:05 into the church into the leadership
35:06 what they ought to do,
35:07 one preacher of 45-years said,
35:09 "When you get some scars,
35:10 when you get some beatings from your church members,
35:13 when you find difficulty
35:14 in administration in your church
35:16 then you come back and tell me how to run the conference,
35:19 then you come back and tell me how to guide this church."
35:22 There're some people that are too quick
35:23 in their shallow relationships to give direction to God.
35:26 But be very careful,
35:28 because the interpretation of this passage is very clear.
35:30 Look at verse 20 and 21 in Mathew 13.
35:34 Its talking about the Christians
35:35 that does not endure when difficulty comes.
35:39 Verse 20 of Mathew 13,
35:41 "But he who received the seed on stony places,
35:46 this is he who hears the word
35:50 and immediately receives it with joy."
35:54 That's the kind of people that pastors like,
35:57 they get excited, "Good sermon, Preacher."
36:00 But that all of sudden, you can find them
36:02 and here's the reason why, verse 21,
36:04 "Yet he has no root in himself,
36:06 yet he has no root in himself
36:09 but endures only for a while".
36:13 You'll see him...
36:14 Whatever happen to Brother so and so?
36:16 Whatever happen to that family?
36:17 Whatever happen to that individuals that came last week
36:20 that was all excited about this new fellowship?
36:22 He endures only for a while and here's the reason why?
36:27 "For when tribulation and persecution arises,"
36:32 wow, watch this
36:35 "because of the word, immediately he stumbles."
36:39 Some of the translations says,
36:41 "immediately he is offended, he stumbles."
36:43 You know why?
36:45 Because when preach and all...
36:47 When you preach a message
36:49 that is only saying, Jesus loves me,
36:51 this I know for the Bible tells me so,
36:53 that's a beautiful, that's an enduring message.
36:55 But the Lord didn't say stop there, he said,
36:58 preach or teach, baptize,
37:01 and continue to teach them to observe
37:03 all things that I had commanded you.
37:05 There are some people that accept
37:07 the elementary message of Christianity,
37:09 the milk of the word.
37:11 But when it comes down to meat of the word,
37:14 all of sudden they don't want to digest that.
37:17 It's too difficult, its too hard.
37:19 So we find preachers nowadays
37:21 that preach prosperity messages.
37:23 You can get yours, you can have a financial,
37:25 strong financial future, you can have a big house,
37:28 God can give you what have you asked for.
37:29 And then, some time they say,
37:31 you don't have what you asked for
37:32 because you don't have enough faith.
37:33 That's shallows Christianity.
37:36 The Christianity that endures persecution,
37:39 the Christianity that keeps you strong through temptation
37:42 is not a shallow Christianity.
37:45 It has roots that are way down deep
37:48 in the soul of God's word and in the trust of God's word.
37:52 So what is our need?
37:53 We need roots in the words.
37:55 Amen to that.
37:56 We need roots in the word.
37:58 If we are shallow we are in crises.
38:01 Some can't hang on amidst the stuff
38:04 that Christian development is made of.
38:07 I said to somebody just a few days ago,
38:10 and I've been to many weddings,
38:12 I've officiated in weddings,
38:14 I've been to wedding receptions.
38:16 We celebrated our 25th anniversary
38:18 a number of years ago
38:19 and I've walked into some of the reception halls
38:22 and I see this beautiful ice sculpture.
38:25 And sometimes it's a swan or a dove or something,
38:28 some symbol of a love, and ceremony,
38:31 and some symbol of the great passion,
38:33 the wonderful celebration of the event.
38:36 And people say, wow, how beautiful that is.
38:40 Who did that?
38:41 It's so smooth and sculpted.
38:43 And then they try to keep it on the bed of ice
38:46 so it doesn't melt away too quickly.
38:49 But I often say to people, you like the way that looks?
38:52 You should have seen it when it was just a block of ice.
38:55 Hear me carefully,
38:56 you should have seen it
38:58 when it was just a block of ice,
38:59 you would not have envisioned
39:00 that something so beautiful can come out of a block of ice.
39:04 Well, friends, here's the point,
39:05 when Jesus finds us,
39:07 when we are first introduced to the word of God,
39:09 we are nothing but a block of ice.
39:11 A big old square, heavy, tongs on the side,
39:15 carried around, dropped on the ground,
39:16 block of ice, that's what we are.
39:19 But God begins the process of chiseling,
39:22 of filing, of cutting away, of hammering away
39:27 all the things that do not resemble him.
39:32 And when the tribulation comes through trials,
39:34 when the chiseling comes through trials,
39:37 when the chiseling comes through illness,
39:39 or loss of job, or family falling apart.
39:42 Lot of people say that, you know what,
39:44 if God can't keep me through difficult time,
39:46 I don't want that kind of God.
39:48 You know, brothers and sisters, the Lord said,
39:50 in the world you will have tribulation.
39:52 As a matter of fact, Jesus went through tribulation
39:55 and he came out victorious
39:57 because He had the purpose,
39:59 He had the connection with his heavenly father.
40:01 The way that we can survive the tribulation
40:03 and the persecution of this life,
40:05 and come out on the other side as a beautiful swan
40:07 through the trials, not in the absence of trials.
40:11 In the furnace, impurities are taken away,
40:15 in the lion's den our faith is strengthened.
40:18 Not in the sunny days,
40:20 not in the warm beaches of life,
40:22 not in the smooth white sand places
40:25 of the path of Christianity
40:27 but on the rugged side of the mountain.
40:29 In the vehement rain that'll beat your faith,
40:32 don't be a shallow hearer of God's word.
40:37 If God were sending us,
40:39 he's only doing it to get rid of the rough places.
40:42 You know, I thought about the white shirt I have on,
40:45 and most of us wear a white shirt.
40:47 But if a white shirt can complain,
40:49 if the white shirt can tell a story,
40:51 just imagine if the shirt had feelings and experiences.
40:55 We would take this shirt off
40:56 after wearing it and after soiled
40:58 and throw it in a washer with hot water and detergent,
41:01 and the shirt would say, what have I done
41:05 to be thrown into such hot water,
41:07 and not only that, they put stuff in here
41:09 and my eyes are burning me.
41:11 And then it's their being agitated going through
41:14 the difficulty of its journey,
41:16 not even knowing for a moment
41:18 that that's the process of purification,
41:20 that's the process of cleansing.
41:22 Then all of a sudden the machine stops,
41:24 and then it begins another cycle,
41:26 the rinse cycle,
41:28 and then some more added into the washing machine,
41:30 then it gets into the spinning cycle.
41:32 It's pinned to the size of the washing machine
41:35 as the washer machine attempts to bring out
41:39 every drop of impure water contained in that shirt.
41:44 That's how the Christian life is,
41:45 sometimes we're pinned against the wall
41:47 and we're going through cycles that we cannot control.
41:49 But when it's done, I guarantee you,
41:51 if you hold onto the Lord when it's done,
41:53 every impurity of that present trial
41:56 will be removed from your life.
41:58 And then the shirt is taken from the washing machine
42:00 and then it says, I am so glad
42:03 that I'm out of there,
42:05 only to be thrown into the dryer.
42:07 The fire of trials and temptations,
42:10 the fires that separate us, the fires that try us.
42:14 And then finally, in the heat of the battle
42:16 he is taken out only to say,
42:18 wow, I thought I'd never survive that,
42:20 only to be pressed,
42:23 to be pressed on the ironing board.
42:25 You know friends,
42:27 that's just like the Christian life.
42:28 Because, when the Lord comes back,
42:30 he's coming back for not just to a purified church
42:32 but a church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing.
42:36 Amen, somebody.
42:38 That's the kind of God, that's the kind of condition
42:40 that we must be in when the Lord comes back.
42:42 So, endure the trials, hang on,
42:46 Jesus is working a work in your life.
42:49 Proverbs 30:5 says,
42:51 "Every word of God is pure;
42:53 he is a shield to those who put their trust in him."
42:57 Just trust God, it's gonna be tough,
43:00 but just trust God.
43:01 And that's why if there is something
43:03 in the Bible that offends you,
43:05 what do you do? Do you slam the Bible shut?
43:08 No, you don't do that.
43:09 You got to pray and ask the Lord
43:11 to soften your heart that you can receive the word,
43:14 to soften your heart because if it's stony,
43:17 it is nothing wrong with the word,
43:19 there's nothing wrong with the God's word,
43:20 it's the condition of the human heart.
43:22 If there's some teaching that you know is true
43:25 but you are having a difficult time accepting it,
43:27 ask for the softening, presence,
43:30 and power of God's Holy Spirit.
43:34 Lot of people have to give up old things
43:36 to accept new things,
43:37 lot of people have to give up traditions
43:39 to accept the word of God as their authority.
43:41 A lot of people are called out of darkness of 20, 30, 40 years
43:46 into God's marvelous light
43:47 that they may only live in for five years
43:49 before they're laid to rest.
43:51 Do it, because you're salvation
43:53 is dependent on the decisions you make.
43:55 But you can't make those decisions,
43:57 except, you ask for the Lord to soften your heart.
44:01 If you are waiting for hard times to pass
44:03 before giving your life to the Lord,
44:05 I wanna tell you, friends,
44:06 don't wait for the hard times to pass
44:08 because the devil will make sure that
44:09 you never have a break.
44:11 There's some people that say, Pastor,
44:13 I went through difficulty this week,
44:15 I prayed, and that left,
44:16 and all of a sudden my kids began to act up,
44:18 my car broke down, my husband left me,
44:22 I got fired, I got bitten by a dog,
44:24 my roof fell in, my television stopped working,
44:27 my check bounced.
44:28 If the devil knows that you're waiting for difficulty to pass
44:32 before you serve God, it's not gonna pass.
44:34 Serve God in the storm,
44:36 only then can you discover he can calm the waves,
44:40 he can cause the sea to hush, and there'll be a great calm.
44:43 Trust God in your stony times.
44:46 Then there's a third condition, the thorny hero.
44:50 Mathew 13:7, the Bible says,
44:53 "And some fell among thorns,
44:57 and the thorns sprang up and choked them."
45:03 Thorns, what are thorns?
45:05 What on earth do thorns represent,
45:09 now let me use the rose as an example.
45:11 Some people say, I have roses with thorns,
45:14 some people say, I have thorns with roses.
45:16 You're interpretation determines what you look at.
45:18 You can receive roses from somebody and say,
45:21 you can receive roses from somebody and say,
45:24 why did you give me thorns?
45:27 That's the focus of the mind.
45:29 Or you can receive the roses and say,
45:31 I wish these beautiful roses didn't have so many thorns.
45:36 What is that saying?
45:37 In the midst of the successes of life,
45:39 they are going to be thorns.
45:40 In the midst of the thorns of life,
45:42 they're gonna be beautiful things
45:44 that you can focus on.
45:45 But it is all about your focus.
45:47 Sometimes, in the difficult places of our lives,
45:50 the challenges of our lives try us at our utmost
45:54 but what does the thorns represent?
45:56 What do they represent?
45:58 Mathew 13:22, look at this,
46:00 Mathew 13:22,
46:04 "Now he who received seed among the thorns
46:08 is he who hears the word,"
46:11 he heard it but look what happens,
46:15 "and the cares of this world
46:18 and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word,
46:23 and he becomes unfruitful."
46:26 The cares of this world,
46:29 the deceitfulness of riches choke the word.
46:33 The cares of this world, let me tell you,
46:35 let's talk about the cares of the world very quickly,
46:37 the cares of this world.
46:41 In the armor of God, the whole armor of God,
46:43 the helmet of salvation,
46:44 the breastplate of righteousness,
46:46 the feet shod with the gospel of peace.
46:48 All the elements of the armor of God,
46:50 the Christian armor are of our defensive.
46:54 The only one that's offensive is the word of God,
46:56 the only one that we can trust to be
46:57 our point of defense in the battle
46:59 is the word of God.
47:00 It's the two-edged sword.
47:02 The devil knows that you can have on the entire armor
47:05 but you don't submit, or study, or live by,
47:09 or imbibe, or digest, or spend time in God's word,
47:14 he knows that you are no match for him,
47:17 when the cares of this world
47:19 begin to knock on your door.
47:22 Somebody once said, I think my good pastor,
47:24 Pastor CA said, if you've never been through trials,
47:27 just wait, they're coming.
47:29 They'll never say, I don't have trials.
47:31 Matter of fact, another preacher said,
47:33 I'm always concerned about Christians
47:35 that say they don't have trials.
47:36 It may be that they're not with the kind of life
47:39 that is even a threat to the enemy,
47:41 because the Bible does say,
47:43 all that will live godly in Christ Jesus,
47:45 together with me shall suffer persecution.
47:49 But the reason why some people are not persecuted
47:50 is because there's no, they're no threat to the enemy.
47:54 The enemy is not afraid of them because they have nothing
47:57 to bring fear to his kingdom.
48:00 That's why you don't,
48:02 don't waste your time looking at successful people.
48:05 There's a young man in the Bible,
48:08 they had a difficult time at the success of the wicked,
48:10 he said, there is no pain in their death,
48:13 their eyes bulged with abundance.
48:15 Even in their sorrow, there is joy.
48:20 Young man's name was Esa.
48:23 He said, Lord, when I tried to comprehend
48:26 what they go through, I just could not understand it.
48:31 Why does it seem as though the wicked prosper
48:34 and the righteous struggle?
48:36 Well, that's not true.
48:37 The Bible says, David said,
48:40 I was young and now I am old.
48:43 I've never seen the righteous forsaken
48:46 nor his seed begging for bread.
48:48 So don't believe that idea that the righteous struggle, no.
48:51 we may not have a 35-acre property
48:55 or a house with nine rooms in it,
48:57 but we don't struggle, we won't struggle.
49:00 The Lord says, I will never allow my children
49:03 to go without provision.
49:05 That's why the Bible says,
49:06 if we ask for a fish, will the Lord give us a stone?
49:10 So if we being evil give good gifts to our children,
49:13 how much more will our heavenly father give to us,
49:16 the Holy Spirit, if we ask?
49:18 But there will be come thorny times in your life,
49:21 those thorny times will come.
49:23 That's why, friends, listen to my advice.
49:27 Don't serve God for what you think he'll give to you.
49:31 That's a supermarket relationship.
49:34 Don't serve God as your promoter,
49:38 you are his promoter.
49:40 God will not exalt you, you exalt him.
49:43 If you're humble, he'll exalt you
49:45 but not for your glory but for his.
49:47 Don't think of Christianity as a road to riches,
49:50 Christianity is a road to eternal life.
49:53 And the Bible says,
49:55 there's a broad road and there's a narrow road.
49:57 Some Christians get on the road of Christianity
50:01 but they're looking for a different destination.
50:03 And so they come to church to see what God can give them,
50:06 what the church can give them,
50:08 what kind of success they can have,
50:10 what kind of position they can have,
50:12 what kind of recognition they can have.
50:14 Don't serve God for personal gain.
50:17 And one more thing, though,
50:19 don't give the devil more press than he already has.
50:23 Somewhere along the way
50:25 in our difficult journeys of life,
50:27 the shallow ground,
50:28 the stony ground, the thorny ground,
50:30 somewhere along the way we've got to blame the devil
50:34 for what he really is responsible for.
50:36 Don't call God, the one blesses us
50:39 and don't turn on God and begin to curse Him
50:42 when things begin to turn.
50:44 He'll allow it just to test your faith
50:46 but God does not use evil to reveal his righteousness.
50:50 But there's one last condition, the good ground.
50:54 Mathew 13:8, the good ground,
50:58 "But others fell on good ground,
51:01 and yielded a crop,
51:02 some a hundred fold, some sixty, and some thirty."
51:07 Oh, I like this part.
51:09 You know, the beauty about this is amazing.
51:11 The beauty about this is,
51:13 when you let the word of God work in your life,
51:17 and I want to just say this, I'm a living,
51:19 breathing example of this passage.
51:21 When you allow the word of God to sink in to your heart,
51:25 you will never even begin to fathom
51:28 the things that God will bring forth in your life.
51:32 When I was back in New York city,
51:33 back in the '70s and '80s, disc jockeying, and partying,
51:36 I had no clue that God would bless me
51:39 in the way he did.
51:41 That God would give me this kind of platform,
51:43 praise his name for the glory that belongs to Him alone.
51:46 That God will say, John, I'm going to allow you
51:49 not to be locked into some dark room
51:51 somewhere in Broadway in New York city,
51:53 but I want you to stand on the stages of the world,
51:55 but I'll only put you there to exalt Jesus Christ,
51:59 thirty fold, sixty fold, a hundred fold.
52:02 And you know what, friends,
52:03 when you give your life to the Lord,
52:04 you will never know the impact of your ministry.
52:07 You'll never know how many people are blessed
52:09 until you make it to the kingdom on day,
52:11 sixty fold, thirty fold, a hundred fold.
52:14 You'll never know how many people
52:17 have found hope, and found courage,
52:18 and found grace.
52:20 That's why when you serve God,
52:23 don't make the mistake to wait for God to serve you.
52:26 Seek to give to the Lord, not just to take from the Lord.
52:30 Don't just seek to be added to the kingdom
52:33 but seek to add to the kingdom.
52:36 Understand that the seed that is planted is the seed
52:39 that will produce a harvest.
52:41 If you do what God has called you to do,
52:44 you won't be stony, you won't be shallow,
52:46 you won't be thorny, but you'll be good ground.
52:49 And what made the difference?
52:50 What made the difference?
52:53 The person that received the seed on good ground,
52:57 there was no difference in the seed.
52:59 You know, if you read the Bible today,
53:00 it's gonna say the same thing tomorrow.
53:02 If you put the Bible down for five years,
53:04 it's gonna say the same thing
53:05 when you pick it up five years later.
53:07 If you put the Bible on the shelf to collect dust,
53:09 when you take it off and dust it off,
53:11 it's gonna say the same thing.
53:12 What made the difference?
53:14 The condition of the heart,
53:16 the crisis is not in God's word,
53:18 the crisis is not in what God has written,
53:20 the crisis is not in the interpretation of the Bible,
53:23 the crisis is in the condition of the human heart.
53:27 You don't want to be stony,
53:28 you don't want to be shallow,
53:30 you don't want to have the thorns
53:31 because of the focus of your life,
53:32 riches, and materialism, and fame, and fortune.
53:35 You don't want those things to choke out
53:37 the life that God is trying to place within you.
53:40 You want to be good ground.
53:41 And good ground, don't miss this part,
53:44 good ground takes time to cultivate.
53:47 Good ground takes time to cultivate.
53:50 There's a season of planting,
53:51 then there's a season of harvest,
53:53 there's the rainy season, there's the dry season.
53:57 You'll never know how good the ground is
53:59 unless you allow the Lord to dig out all the thorns
54:03 that can prevent you from being a mature Christian,
54:06 to dig out all the circumstances
54:08 that can choke off the word,
54:09 to spare you from the desire for riches,
54:11 and wealth, and fame, and fortune.
54:13 If that's your focus,
54:14 you're going down the wrong road.
54:16 If that's your desire then the seed is not producing
54:20 what God knows it could, not because the seed is changed
54:23 but because your heart is not right.
54:25 You wanna be a good ground hero,
54:27 you wanna produce some good crop.
54:30 And the good crop is because the Lord is in there, working.
54:34 He's in there tilling the soil,
54:36 he's cutting away anything from your life
54:38 that may hinder your growth.
54:40 And sometimes you know that, sometimes you experience that,
54:43 sometimes you wonder,
54:44 why is it that the desire that I used have,
54:47 I no longer have.
54:48 You know why, friends,
54:50 because God took away the desire
54:51 because it hinders the growth of his word.
54:54 That's why Mathew 13:23 gives us a further
54:57 understanding of this beautiful,
54:59 final condition of the human heart,
55:02 "But he who received seed on the good ground
55:05 is he who hears the word and understands it,
55:10 who indeed bears fruit and produces,
55:14 some a hundredfold, some thirty, some sixty. "
55:20 Some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.
55:23 Here's the other point
55:24 I want to bring out very carefully,
55:26 is don't be concerned
55:27 if somebody's producing more than you,
55:30 because God will bring forth from your life
55:32 exactly what he knows
55:34 you are capable of yielding, the harvest.
55:37 You may have a humble position,
55:38 that's what God has placed you.
55:40 Grow there, produce fruit there,
55:43 allow your light to shine there.
55:45 Don't contend with those that may have more ground,
55:49 and more fertile soil, and more abilities.
55:52 God chooses what seed to sow,
55:54 God also determines the outcome of the harvest.
55:58 You may only be able to handle a thirty fold,
56:01 praise the Lord for the thirty fold.
56:03 So you to pray the prayer.
56:04 What's the prayer?
56:06 To make sure that your heart is in the right place.
56:07 What's the prayer?
56:08 To make sure that God has done for you
56:10 what he intend to do for you.
56:12 Pray the prayer of David, the Psalmist.
56:14 Psalm 51:10, to be good ground,
56:17 you got to pray the prayer and you gotta mean it,
56:19 "Create in me a clean heart, O God,
56:21 and renew a right spirit within me."
56:24 Pray that prayer, pray that prayer,
56:27 make sure that you are giving God
56:29 all that God desires.
56:31 I remember a story written by Robert C Shanon,
56:34 in a book entitled A Thousand Windows.
56:36 He said this,
56:37 "A French soldier who had served the Napoleon's army,
56:39 lay dying on the ground, wounded in the battle.
56:43 As they probed his shattered ribs
56:45 to find the fatal bullet,
56:47 he said, he said," this is powerful,
56:49 "'If you dig deeper, you'll find the emperor.'
56:54 " Friends, here's the point, if we dig deep enough,
56:57 would we find Christ in your heart?
57:00 That's the question I leave with you today.
57:03 If somebody digged into the depth of your heart,
57:05 would they find the emperor, the king, Christ Jesus?
57:09 Make that your desire, make that your aim.
57:12 Lord, I give you my entire life,
57:15 remove from it anything that hinders my growth
57:17 because my only desire is that Jesus Christ is seen
57:22 and the harvest you desire for me would be produced.
57:25 God will bless you
57:26 if you yield your life to the Lord.


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Revised 2016-08-15