Sermons

Title: How’s Your Reception? (Part 3)

Text: Mark 4:7-8, 18-20

Summary:

Jesus tells of seed that is planted in thorny soil. The plants grow but are quickly choked out by thorns. Jesus later tells us that the thorns represent the distractions and worries of this world that rob of us true life with God. In the text today, we will see several points that will be helpful for our walk with God. 

Mark 4:7-8; 18-20

1. The thorny ground represents those who are consumed by the cares and anxieties of this physical life and the deceitful enticements of wealth. 

2. The good ground corresponds to those whose hearts and minds are softened by God's calling and receive it genuinely. 

3. The greatest amount of fruit produced was not determined by how rich the soil was, but how yielded to the plow it was (all things were removed).

What we can learn from this

1. The anthem for our modern world: I’m too _________!

2. Part of our difficulty involves the unprecedented number of people and things that ________________ for our time. 

3. We know we should _______________ ourselves to God, but there is always something in the way.

4. The invasion of the “thorns” is an ever-present danger, and great care must be taken to cultivate the ground to clear away the thorns to allow the seed to grow and multiply.

5. This doesn’t mean that we are totally isolated from the society around us, it’s the question of what we _____________- for. 

6. The good soil bears fruit.

    

   7. There’s no discussion here of the sower, ______________ will do.

Title: How’s Your Reception? (Part 2)

Text: Mark 4:5-6, 16-17

Summary:

Mark 4:5-6

1. In Palestine there are large plates of limestone rock that lie beneath the surface and beneath the plow.

2. Seeds scattered in a place like this would  spring up quickly in the shallow soil that covered the rock. 

3. When the sun scorched the plants, they would die, because they did not have a root system.

Mark 4:16-17

1. Jesus’ teachings made them self evaluate, which was __________________. 

2. This is a person who has _______________ faith.

3. When problems or persecution arise, this person ______________ away.

4. They are all too concerned with saving their __________ skin than enduring persecution that comes from embracing and standing firm of the Word. 

Application Points

1. The parable actually encourages those who will be sowing the word in the future. Jesus was saying that we are to sow without looking at the ____________.

2. Trouble and persecution do two things: 1) they ___________ believers, and 2) they _____________ non-believers. 

    

   3. ____________ is reality to a true Christian, but just exuberant, emotional joy, excitement, enthusiasm doesn’t necessarily indicate true faith. 

    

   4. You can have joy without ______________ to the King. The roots are real short. It’s not the deep thoughtful profound joy of a devoted heart. It’s just a superficial deal.

Title: How’s Your Reception?

Text: Mark 4:1-4, 9-15 (NLT)

Summary:

In Mark 4:1-20, Jesus tells a parable about a farmer who scattered seed on the ground. The seed fell on four types of soil. Jesus was not commenting on farming problems but explaining the strange way in which the Kingdom of God was arriving. Jesus was trying to open their eyes and ears to see and hear what God was actually doing. This agricultural illustration is an explanation of why some people repent and believe the Gospel while others reject it. The soil represents the state of a person’s heart in hearing and responding to the Gospel. The first part of this text says the seed fell on the footpath (or road) beside the field.

Historians tell us the paths along the fields  were normally only about three-feet wide so that not an undue amount of land was wasted on pathways. As a result they were uncultivated. And Israel is very dry so they were unwatered. And they became hard, beaten paths, beaten down by the sun and the wind and the feet of those animals and people who walked on them. Seed falling on that kind of ground couldn’t penetrate it. And even though seed had a little point on it that allowed it to burrow its way into the ground, gradually it couldn’t penetrate that  hard beaten path which would have been like concrete. It would just lie there, verse 4 says, until the birds came and ate it.

Jesus gives the meaning of the parable in the latter portion of this text. God is the farmer and the seed is the Gospel. The message is about the fact that God is king over a spiritual kingdom, and He is inviting people to come into that kingdom. Since God has given Christians the task of inviting the world into God’s kingdom,, we can say that the farmer is anyone who proclaims the Gospel to others.  The footpath represents the hard-hearted person that hears God’s Word but is never moved by it. In other words, some people’s hearts are so hard, the Word makes no impression on them. The Gospel does not penetrate their hearts.. 

What can we do to sow the Word  more successfully? The first and most important answer is to ask ourselves how much mature growth, how much fruit, the Word is producing in our own lives. If we have ears, we must learn to hear. We have to look at our own hearts. Are we  that hard dry road at the end of the field? Has our lives been hardened by sins that we’ve constantly tread over our hearts so that the powerful, productive seed of God’s Word never can penetrate?

                      Sermon Audio 10/6/19 (Click Here)

Title: Are You My Mother?

Text: Mark 3:31-35

Summary:

In Mark 3:31-35, while Jesus is teaching, someone lets him know that his family has arrived to talk to him. Because of the way in which the family unit was valued in the first century culture, Jesus responded with what would have been a shocking answer. “Who is my mother? And who are my brothers? Jesus says that anyone who does God’s will is his mother and brothers.

Jesus is introducing his spiritual family. He is starting a new family, a new holy people, and is doing so without regard for ordinary human family bonds. The only relationship with Jesus that matters is the relationship of one who obeys the Word of God---Who obeys the will of God as expressed in the Word of God, and therefore obeys the Gospel of Christ.

After we surrender our lives to Jesus Christ, we desire to do God’s will. Sometimes, however, God’s will can seem elusive. It can feel like trying to find bigfoot. In other words, God’s will sometimes feels out of reach or at least saved for the special elite. That leaves most of us with a sense of not feeling like we can find God’s will or know what it is.

If we want to do God’s will, we need to:

1. Obey His Word

2. Be continually aware of God’s presence and learn to respond to the Holy Spirit’s promptings

3. Look like Jesus

4. Understand God gives us say-so

5. Spend time with God through prayer, reading the word, and fellowshipping with others

Title: Unforgiven?

Text: Mark 3:20-30

Summary:

Mark 3:28-29 has caused many people great pain and anguish. This is where Jesus says that if you “blaspheme the Holy Spirit, you have committed an unforgivable sin.” It reminds me of a story of a lady that went through hard times when she was 19 years old. In her pain, she lifted her fist towards heaven and shouted some horrible things about God that she later deeply regretted. She went to her pastor, told him exactly what she said, and asked if she had committed the unforgivable sin. Her pastor said, “Yes, you did.” This lady spent the next 40 years in and out of  mental institutions. Imagine what it would do to your psyche if you believed that you were no longer able to be forgiven by God and destined for “hell.”

Title: Finding Your Calling

Text: Mark 3:13-19

Summary:

Jesus went up on the mountainside and chose twelve of his disciples for special service. Luke (6) tells us that Jesus disciples (large crowd) followed him to the mountain, but then he chose twelve  out of that large crowd of disciples. Why did he choose twelve? What is significant about that number? The twelve corresponded with the 12 tribes of Israel, sons of Jacob. Ten of the 12 tribes had been lost seven centuries earlier when the Assyrians invaded and carried them off. But the prophets had spoken of a coming restoration, and a great many Jews were longing for it. The time would come, they believed, when their God would turn everything around and make them a great nation once again. This did not happen physically, but spiritually. The number twelve recalls the twelve tribes of Israel and therefore symbolizes the new or restored people of God, which later came to be known as the church. 

These twelve were known as apostles, which means “one who is sent off.” Our English word ‘missionary’ is a variation of this word. It is one who is sent off on a mission. These twelve disciples were called out for a special mission. What was their mission? They were the new leaders of the new Israel (the church). Notice they were called to do three things: to accompany Jesus, preach, and cast out demons. Now, if they were going to be sent out to preach and cast out demons, first they had to be with Him to be trained. They weren’t going to be able to be sent effectively if they hadn’t been with Him and been trained effectively. We get our power to do ministry from Jesus. We cannot rely on our own source of strength. We have to be connected to Jesus. It is His power working through us. It is also important for us to see that these twelve disciples were ordinary people. They were farmers, fishermen, tradesmen, craftsmen, tax collectors, and zealots. They had faults and character flaws, yet they carried on a ministry after Jesus’ ascension that totally turned the world upside down. Their ministry is still going on today. We are a part of this legacy.

What about the calling God places on our lives. How do we find it? There are a few things we should consider from this text. 1)If we are going to discover our calling, we have to take time to get alone with God and seek this out. It won’t happen in the busyness of life (3:13). In the Bible, mountains are a place to meet with God (remember Moses and Elijah’s experiences in Exodus 3 and 1 Kings 19). 2) God calls us to Kingdom service, but this will look differently for us all. 3) God uses ordinary people. He can use all of us. We do not have to be someone special. We have to have a heart that is open to receiving what God may have for us. We have to have a heart that is willing to obey Jesus when He calls us to do something.

Title: Stale: It Happens to Everybody (Part 2)

Text: Various Texts

Summary:

Last week, we looked at Mark 2:18-22. The point in these early chapters of Mark is that God is doing something new through Jesus. Some of the first century audience couldn’t accept the new thing God was doing, because they were clinging to the old way of life (Judaism).  I want to go down a side road today. God wants to do something new in our life. When we do the same things over and over, they can become monotonous and lose their meaning. Sometimes our relationship with God feels stale, and we feel as if God is distant.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said, “Christianity, if false, is of no importance, and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing Christianity cannot be is moderately important.” Our relationship with God is not to be something we are to be half hearted committed to or approach with indifference. This morning we will address two questions: What can cause our relationship with God to become stale? What can we do to rekindle a passion for God? We will roll these questions into one discussion.

1. Ask God to ____________ our hearts- the good, the bad, and  the ugly (Psalm 139:23-24)

2. _____________________ the competition (Matthew 6:24 and 6:33)

3. Make a ________________________ to spend time with God (Mark 1:35)

4. _______________________ your daily schedule (Psalm 46:10)

5.Spend time with others who _____________________ you in the Faith  (Hebrews 10:25, 1 Peter 4:10-11)