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Results Oriented
Luke 8: 4-15
I want to thank the Elders for allowing Jerrie to come and spend last
week with us. It was good for Trista, the boys, and I to get to spend
the time with them. You know when we agreed to work together this
meeting was one of the items that I brought to the table with me. And
the Elders trusted me even thought you didn’t know much about me, and
allowed him to come.
I know that those who took advantage of the time with Jerrie have a lot
to chew on and think about, and I know that your mustard seeds will
produce fruit in this church. I hope that you enjoyed the time half as
much as I did.
Several times during the week Jerrie, Gail, Trista, and I were able to
sit around and reminisce about the old times, and some of the people who
I remembered and who made an impact on our lives. We talked about a man,
who was sporadic in attendance at best, and I never saw him or his
family ever do anything but warm a pew while we were there. Jerrie told
us that two years ago this man came to the office during the week and
confessed to Jerrie that he had no idea how to read and study his bible.
Well he and Jerrie got set up on a schedule and now he is setting the
place on fire. He is involved in various ministries of the church and
even leading a charge in the congregation to get the members to study
their bibles at home. I was very pleased to hear about their spiritual
growth and progress and I asked about some other folks we knew.
"How's so and so?" "They're not going to church any more," they replied.
"Oh. I see. Well, how about the you-know-who family?" "Well, they attend
but aren't very involved."
"I see."
I asked about several families. Some were deeply involved, as they had
always been. Some were involved now, though in the past you couldn't
even count on them to come to worship regularly. Some, who had been
excited about working for the Lord, weren't attending church at all.
I came away from that conversation encouraged about some people,
discouraged about others. And it occurred to me that that's just how
life in the Christian walk is.
Jesus told a story about that, once. It's in Luke 8:4-15. I want to read
that with you, and then talk about it. But I want to talk about it from
a different angle than we usually take when we study the parable of the
soils.
Luke tells us that a large crowd was gathering around Jesus. He doesn't
tell us this, but it is likely that one of his disciples might have said
something like, "Look at all these people, master. Isn't it great to see
so many people coming to hear your message?" And Jesus might have said
something like, "Yeah, there are big crowds around us now, but let me
tell you a little story."
(Read text, pray).
The first question the disciple asked was, "What does this parable
mean." Since Jesus answers their question, we don't have to ask it. But
we should ask another. Who is this parable for? I think there are two
audiences.
Obviously, one audience is the crowd. Otherwise Jesus wouldn't have
spoken it to them. The other audience is his disciples. So there are two
levels of meaning here.
For the crowds, the question the parable raises is, "What kind of soil
is your heart? How are you going to receive the good news of the
kingdom?"
For the disciples, and therefore, for us, there is a different issue. I
think the question the parable raises for us is, “What kind of results
can you expect?” Let's look at the parable from the perspective of
disciples who are working to spread the good seed of the kingdom. Jesus
announces four principles for people who are doing his work.
Work hard, but realize that you will be frustrated at times. '
Some people, Jesus said, have hearts like the hard path; the word cannot
grow, their hearts are hard, their minds made up. The seed has no chance
to sprout. When we work with these people we get frustrated at best and
discouraged at the worst.
Theatre Arts magazine had a story about a subscriber who dialed
information and asked for the magazine's number. The operator said, "I'm
sorry, but there is no listing for a person named Theodore Arts.
The subscriber said, "It's not a person; it's a publication. A
magazine.”
The operator said, "Sir, I told you, we have no listing for Theodore
Arts."
The subscriber said, "I said the word is theatre -- T -h-e-a-t-r-e."
The operator said, "Sir that is not the way to spell Theodore."
Some people just have their minds made up. When it comes to spiritual
matters, they aren't going to listen. Maybe they were hurt by a
Christian once. Maybe they think that if you can't touch it, taste it,
smell it or hear it, it isn't real. Maybe they've completely bought into
a scientific view of reality.
William Willimon, dean of the Chapel at Duke University tells of a
student who came to him once and asked, "How could any intelligent
person believe that Jesus was conceived of a virgin?" Willimon writes,
"How am I to respond? The student is, like me, living in an accustomed
world where certain things happen with reassuring consistency. These
predictabilities we call laws of nature. For something more interesting
to occur, it's like breaking the law."
Jesus first principle is a rather blunt and honest assessment of how it
is sometimes going to go. Look, do all you can to sow the seed of the
kingdom. But realize that at times you are going to be extremely
frustrated. Some people simply are not going to believe. But remember
that we were called to sow and water, God provides the increase.
Principle number 2: Work hard, but realize that sometimes your heart is
going to be broken.
That's the seed that falls on shallow soil and springs up quickly,
giving great promise of a great harvest. "Don't be too quick to get
excited, though," Jesus seems to be saying. Some people hear the word
and believe immediately. They show great promise, great potential in the
kingdom. But as an old preacher once told me, potential is a nice way of
saying, "We ain't do in' nothin'. "
Some people respond so warmly, but they fail to count the cost. They
either don't hear the part of the gospel that says, "When Jesus calls a
man he bids him come and die," as Deitrich Bonhoeffer put it, or they
don't believe it.
That’s why I don’t preach for emotional commitments, or get discouraged
when we don’t have someone coming forward every service. You see when
you make an emotional commitment, it lasts about as long as the emotions
do. And we become so excited about their excitement. But then they begin
to fall away. Try as we may, we can't get them back. That can be heart
breaking.
I'm not telling you to let up one bit when it comes to reaching people.
I'm not telling you to hesitate when it comes to taking chances on
people. Sometimes, they'll surprise everybody and do great things in the
kingdom. But there are situations where you will spend enormous time and
enormous effort and maybe even enormous amounts of money because you
think someone is going to seize the opportunity the gospel gives them
and become great disciples of Jesus, only to be disappointed by their
flash-in-the-pan faith.
In college we were given a story about Jesus, a parable really trying to
let us in on how hard it would be if you gave your heart to God and His
church. I want to share it with you tonight.
Jesus was walking along one day and came upon a man who was crying. He
said, "My friend, what's wrong?" The man replied, "I'm blind; can you
help me?" Jesus healed him.
Then Jesus went on and came to another man who was sitting by the road
crying. "What's wrong friend?" Jesus asked. He said, "I can' walk. Can
you help me?" Jesus healed him.
Jesus continued until he came to a third man sitting by the road crying.
"Friend, why are you crying and weeping? What's wrong?" The man said,
"I'm a minister." And Jesus sat down and cried with him.
Now I don’t think for one minute that you have to be a paid preacher to
know what it is to cry over people who break your heart with their
vanishing faith. But if we are going to be evangelistic and reach out to
meet the needs of people we must understand that sometimes, no matter
how hard you work, your heart will be broken.
A few weeks ago a man came by the building and asked for some help
getting gas so he could get home. I listened to him for 15 minutes and
agreed to get him $10.00 worth of gas. We made our way to the Tesney’s
store and I put the gas in is car all the while listening to him promise
to come to church and worship with us.
As he left Bill approached me and said, “It’s your turn today huh?”
I asked him what he meant by that and he told me all the different
preachers who had bought he man gas in the last 3 months. I just smiled
at Bill and said that it was worth $10.00 to me.
That is not the first or last time that has happened to me. You know I
could get cold and hard and decide that I was never going to help anyone
else again, but you see it is not my job to provide the increase. God
says that I am to sow, and water He will provide the increase.
The third principle is more about us than them. Jesus spoke of the seed
that fell on soil filled with weed seeds. He said that though the plant
grew and showed great promise, that the weeds choked the life out of it.
He said the weeds were the cares of this world.
The third principle is this: work hard, but be wary of distractions.
I was in a convenience store one day in Atlanta when the lottery jackpot
was over 100 million dollars. I had my Quick Trip cup full of coke and I
waited in line as one by one the line in front of me paid their dollar
or ten dollars to buy their lottery tickets. The clerk rang up my coke
and said, "how many tickets do you want to buy today?"
I said, "None, if I buy a lottery ticket I'll win and it will ruin my
life." He said, "Then buy one and give it to me!" I left there that
morning looking at all of those people who were willing to spend their
food money, or water bill money taking the risk that they just might get
lucky and win those millions of dollars.
We live in a culture that celebrates distracting things. If we aren't
careful, we can forget the mission and focus on mansions. We can forget
the task and focus on treasures. Jesus warns us to be on guard against
things that can distract us from the mission he's given us.
It is an unfortunate reality that as we mature in our time with Christ
that all too often we loose our desire to be like Christ. We get so
bogged down by the things that are going on around us, and all the
different ministries that we feel we need to get involved in that we
forget the most important thing.
Tonight what are you doing that has taken you away from the mission?
What are you valuing that has devalued the call to sow the seed?
Paul told Timothy that a good soldier doesn't get entangled in civilian
affairs. He works to please his commanding officer. Sometimes, despite
how hard we work, the work will be frustrating. Sometimes it will be
heart breaking. But sometimes it simply won't get done because the
workers are distracted. But we must remember that we were never called
to provide an increase, all we were called to do was to sow and water,
God provides the increase.
Principle number 4: It wouldn't be fair to Jesus' story if we didn't
hear all of it because though he tells us that there will be many
disappointments and obstacles along the way, he ends it with an
extremely positive, even unbelievable alternative. There will be times
when we are overwhelmed by the harvest.
There's a wizard of Id cartoon which shows the king chatting with the
undertaker. The king says, "Doesn't this business get you down after
awhile?"
The undertaker admits, "There are depressing days."
The king says, "I would think so." In the last frame the undertaker
finishes his remark. " .... But then someone dies, and I snap out of
it."
Being a Christian is a little like that, except in reverse. We go about
trying to sow the seed of the gospel. Some people frustrate us with
their short-sightedness. Some break our hearts with their immaturity.
Still other times we ourselves get distracted and leave the work undone.
But then there are those times when we sow the seed and it takes root in
someone's heart. They embrace it and it grows. These people die to
themselves and live for God. They become a part of the army, assigned
the task of taking the world for Christ and they fulfill their calling
with courage and valor. And we are overwhelmed.
You see the great thing about our calling is that all God has called us
to do is sow and water, He will provide the increase, and when the
increase comes it is amazing.
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