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I love the universe this way. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. When through the woods and forests, late I wonder, and hear the birds sing, singing in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur, and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze, then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. And when I think that God is some God's fairy, then sings to Thee, my Savior, God, to Thee. And on the cross, my hurting, gladly bearing, be glad and kind to take away my sin. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. And on the last now, when Christ shall come, resound the back of nation, and take me home, what joy shall fill my heart. Then I shall bow in humble adoration, and there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Then sings my soul, my Savior, God, to Thee. How great Thou art. How great Thou art. Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart. Not be all else to be safe, that thou art. Thou my best thought, by day or by night, waking or sleeping, thy presence my light. Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true word. I am true with Thee, and thou with me, Lord. Thou my great Father, and I my true Son. Thou with me proudly, and I with me one. Which is, I need not forget's ending grace. Thou mine inheritance, now and always. Thou and thou only, first in my heart. I, King of Heaven, I treasure Thou art. I, King of Heaven, my victory won. May I reach as well, joys of bright heaven's sun, part of my own heart, whatever befall. Still be my vision, O ruler of all. There's the royal mannered, bitter for display to the soldiers of the King. As an ensign, there he lifted up today, while the transom ones we see. Marching on, marching on, for Christ held everything but us. And to growl and gale, toil and sin, he made the banner of the cross. Though the fold may rage and gather as the flood, let the standard be displayed. And beneath this fold, ask, soldiers of the Lord, for the truth be not displayed. Marching on, marching on, for Christ held everything but us. And to growl and gale, toil and sin, he made the banner of the cross. Over land and sea, wherever men may dwell, make the glorious tidings known. Of the crimson banner, now his story tell, while the Lord shall claim his own. Marching on, marching on, for Christ held everything but us. And to growl and gale, toil and sin, he made the banner of the cross. When the glory dawns, his primary year, it is facing day by day. Then before our kingdom grows, he'll disappear, and across the world shall slay. Marching on, marching on, for Christ held everything but us. And to growl and gale, toil and sin, he made the banner of the cross. I'm a message from the Lord, hallelujah, a message unto you I'll give. Just before the end is heard, hallelujah, it is only that you love and live. I'm a message from the Lord, hallelujah, a message unto you I'll give. Just before the end is heard, hallelujah, it is only that you love and live. I'm a message from the Lord, hallelujah, a message oh my great for you. Just a message from the Lord, hallelujah, Jesus said it and I know it's true. To live, my brother, live, to Jesus, now and then. Just before the end is heard, hallelujah, it is only that you love and live. Life is offered unto you, hallelujah, the eternal life and soul shall live. If you only look to Him, hallelujah, look to Jesus, you alone can see. This church looks like a little bit of a sparse crowd tonight. It's probably that traffic. Looks like you're all seated. If you go ahead and grab a hymnal, we'll go ahead and get started. We're going to start in song number 44, We'll Work Till Jesus Comes. Song number 44. Sing it out nice and loud. We'll Work Till Jesus Comes. Song number 44. O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, O land of the free and the home of the brave, He made me cease to roam And he forced the poor of his friends to leave Do not behold We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And will we ever go I saw at once my Savior's sky No more I shall show With him I'll pray death till he died And reach my heavenly home We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes We'll work till Jesus comes And will we ever go Excellent singing, everybody. I love that song. Let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for everyone that's gathered here. We thank you for the work that you've given us, Lord, and we will work till Jesus comes. Lord God, we ask that you bless this service and that you bless everyone here, that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit so we can preach an edifying sermon unto us so that we can walk out better Christians for your honor and glory. It's in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, next up we have song number 86. In the Garden. Song number 86. On the first. I come to the Garden alone While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear calling on my ear The voice of God disposes And he walks with me and he talks with me And he tells me I am his own Another has ever known He speaks and the sound of his voice is so sweet the words much they're singing And the melody that he gave to me within My heart is beating And he walks with me and he talks with me and he tells me I am his own And the joy he shares as he carries Another has ever known I've stayed in my garden with him On the night of round me he called me But he did speak And his voice to me is calling And he walks with me and he talks with me And he tells me I am his own And the joy he shares along the earth has ever known Thanks for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you didn't already get a bulletin or you need another one just lift your hand real high real quick and we'll get you a bulletin. On the front we have our Bible memory passage and then on the inside we have our service time, soul winning times, church stats. Keep up the great work on our soul winning and then on the right we have a list of expecting ladies please be in prayer for those who are expecting our upcoming events our kids choirs should God willing begin this upcoming Sunday our Spanish soul winning marathon is this Saturday and so if you haven't signed up please do just so we have a good count but we are excited about that marathon please pray that it goes smoothly we have a Spanish breakfast this upcoming Sunday morning and then we have a Spanish prayer and so even if you don't normally come on Wednesdays I really encourage you to come be a blessing unto Avengers Urbanic and hear him preach and just be here to support him he is flying all the way from the Philippines and coming back out with his family and so it's definitely a long journey for him and it would be really special for you guys to be here and to get to see them. Small town soul winning marathon is going to happen next Saturday March the 15th it's going to be in the Azle area brother Urbanic is organizing that and so they're going to be meeting out there in Azle at a park if you'd like to get those details you can either just email the church or contact brother Ryan and then that Sunday so not this Sunday but the next we're going to have a barbecue luncheon and so we're very excited we'll be celebrating again with the Urbanics and with everybody and it will be a good time of just fellowship so highly encourage you to come and join us for that Sunday as well. Spring recital is going to be our March 22nd and then down below is some church reminders there is a sign up sheet out here in the foyer for the recital is a time where you can try out so there's times where you can just put your name and it is to try out to make sure that you're capable of playing the song correctly and doing a good job and we have our recital the following week so please make sure to sign up we do need everybody to do the tryouts but there is opportunity to do it a couple different times so just make sure to sign up whatever makes the best time for you guys. On the back is our prayer list we'll go ahead and go through that now we have the names of you been pray for their grandmother pray for the Carlson's mother continue to pray for the Miller's friend's mother also pray for the Scott's for both brother Horace and Miss Grace and their health continue to pray for the Garcia's and brother Tony's health continue to pray for brother Foley and his fiance we're also praying for the Goodwin's friend Miss Sarah been praying for brother Nick's mother and his co-worker been praying for brother Billy which he had a praise report about his co-worker there and then also we've been praying for brother Stewart's stepmother had passed away so continue to pray for them and then also pray for his father there's a couple other ones that were submitted this week if you'd pray for the Carlson's father-in-law David had had a stroke and then if you pray for brother Jared Green for his job interview tomorrow so we have a couple other prayer requests there we'll just say a quick word of prayer as a church family now thank you father so much for our church thank you so much for our ladies that are expecting those who are pregnant I pray that you just please be with them during their pregnancy please help those that are trying to conceive as well please help those that are recently given birth please bless their children and their development I pray that you would also be with our church family that's struggling with cancer or struggling with illness please just grant them grace please give them health I pray that you could help our family and friends that we're also praying for their sicknesses and illnesses I pray that you could please be gracious unto them please give them healing also give us opportunity to present the gospel to those that still need to hear please help us to have the boldness and the courage and the opportunity please soften their hearts so that they would be receptive and give ear to the gospel I pray that you'd also give us favor for those that need it for their travel or their work and I pray that you'd also just bless our upcoming missions trips that you'd bless our upcoming soul wanting events that you'd help us to reach many people with the gospel and also compel them to want to come to church and serve you and in Jesus name we pray Amen. That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements we're going to sing our psalm of the week psalm 11 it's in our special binders so if you get out our psalm binders psalm 11 alright that is psalm chapter 11 I know I'm not the only one that loves this one so I expect you all to sing real loud alright baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby baby great singing everybody as the offering plates are going around would you please turn your Bibles to Matthew chapter number 13 Matthew chapter number 13 Matthew chapter 13 Matthew 13 the Bible reads fell by the wayside and the fowls came and devoured them up some fell upon stony places where they had not much earth and forthwith they sprung up because they had no deepness of earth and when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them but other fell into good ground and brought forth fruit some in hundred fold some sixty fold some thirty fold who hath ears to hear let him hear and the disciples came and said unto him why speakest thou unto them in parables he answered and said unto them because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given for whosoever hath to him shall be given and he and he shall have more abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are of dull hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them hear ye therefore the parable of the sower when any one heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catcheth the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which receives seed by the wayside but he that received the seed in stony places the same is he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but jurith for a while for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word by and by he is offended he also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and he becometh unfruitful but he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruits and bringeth forth some in hundred fold some sixty and some thirty another parable put he forth unto them saying the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field but while men slept his enemy came and sowed tares amongst the wheat and went his way but when the blade was sprung up and brought forth fruits then appeared the tares also so the servants of the householder came and said unto him sir didst thou not sow good seed in thy field from whence then hath it tares he said unto them an enemy hath done this the servants said unto him wilt thou then that we go and gather them up and he said nay lest while ye gather up the tares ye root up also the wheat with them let both grow together until the harvest and in the time of harvest i will say to the reapers gather ye first the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them but gather the wheat into my barn another parable put he forth unto them saying the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field which indeed is the least of all seeds but when it is grown it it is the greatest among herbs and become at the tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof another parable spake unto them the kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal to the whole was leavened all these things spake jesus into the multitude and parables and without a parable spake he not unto them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying i will open my mouth in parables i will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world then jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house and his disciples came unto him saying declare unto us the parables of the tares of the field he answered and said it to them he that soweth the good seed is the son of man the field is the world the good seed are the children of the kingdom but the tares are the children of the wicked one the enemy that sowed them is the devil the harvest is the end of the world and the reapers are the angels as therefore the tears are gathered and burned in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the son of man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and then which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father who who hath ears to hear let him hear again the kingdom of heaven is likened to the treasure hidden a field the which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered gathered gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away so shall it be at the end of the world the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth jesus saith unto them have you understood all these things they say unto him yay lord then said he unto them therefore every scribe which is instructed unto the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is in householder when they say unto him is likened to a man that is in householder which ringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old and it came to pass that when jesus had finished these parables he departed thence and when he was come into his own country he taught them in their synagogue in so much that they were astonished and said whence had this man this wisdom and these mighty works is not this the carpenter's son is not his mother called mary and his brethren james and joses and simon and judas and his sisters are they not all with us whence then had this man all these things and went and they were offended in him but jesus said unto them a prophet is not without honor save in his own country and in his own house and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief let us pray heavenly father lord thank you for this chapter of the bible thank you for steadfast baptist church and the soul winning and the people who have gotten saved i just pray that you bless pastor shelley fill him with your holy spirit to preach this chapter unto us and help us to receive it in our hearts and i praise in jesus name amen amen matthew 13 is a very long chapter and it's really emphasizing several parables here the bible says in verse 1 the same day when jesus went out of the house and sat by the seaside and great multitudes were gathered together unto him so that he went into a ship and sat and the whole multitude stood on the shore now keep your finger here go if you would to mark chapter 3 for just a second the bible talks about the lord jesus christ withdrawing himself into a ship when there's a large multitude come out to him and it's described in mark chapter number three as well why this is happening look at verse number nine mark chapter three verse nine and he spake to his disciples that a small ship should wait on him because of the multitude lest they should throng him and thronging is talking about just a densely packed crowd and so the lord jesus christ taught in a specific manner where he would get on a little boat and he would just withdraw from the shore just enough so that he could then preach unto a large crowd of his disciples and you know if you think about it a modern day church many cases is set up a little bit like this where the speaker is kind of withdrawn from the crowd a little bit and separated so that he can then project and basically preach or teach unto a large crowd because if we were to all just stand in a big mosh pit we're all just basically stand together in some big circle we're all standing it wouldn't be very effective to teach unto a large group of people and so of course the lord jesus christ is getting on this little boat just going a little bit away from the shore and then preaching unto large crowds he would have obviously not been a soft speaker because a soft speaker back then would not have been able to be heard so the lord jesus christ would have obviously had to have lifted up his voice to project very loud and to be a loud speaker a loud preacher for these great multitudes to have heard what he had to say and I believe that we should follow that example now today in modern culture we have the ability through amplification of microphones and speakers to have an ability to speak softly and yet be heard by large crowds but I don't think that we should use that technology to get away from the tried and true of preaching loud of projecting our voices and essentially preaching in a manner that was consistent throughout the entire bible where men of god lifted up their voices and they preached loud they would cry which crying in our modern vernacular typically we think of weeping we think of sobbing but crying is yelling it's screaming it's being very dynamic and I think that preachers today should follow that same model of lifting up their voice of crying of sending an urgent message and often you'll get criticized when you do this people will say oh man you're just yelling and you're just screaming and you're just loud but that's the type of preaching that's in the bible and that's the type of preaching that I think that we should do as preachers is preach loud and cry and spare not it should be spicy it should be truthful it should be loud that's why it's done by a man folks it's not done by a woman it's done by a man with a loud male voice that can get up and project and thunder forth god is a man and of course we should represent god in a godly manner and we should represent him with reverence and we should be oracles of god that speak with power and might and aptitude and of course we should use the projection that god has given to us to preach the word of god with power and so you know I believe that we have to understand the practical things that are happening here but the message that's being delivered why would this even be included in the bible it's being included in the bible to help you recognize hey sometimes we need to lift up our voice we need to project we need to preach loud and yes I'm not going to get up here and just teach okay everybody let's now turn in our bibles to Matthew 13 you know you pretty much eliminate being effeminate when you're loud you pretty much just sound like a man when you're loud and you project and you're not getting up and hey I preach long I need you not to fall asleep so if I just get up here and I'm Bill Nye or something or Ben Stein I always mix up these names Ben Stein and it's just dry eyes you need to get clear eyes let's turn to Matthew 13 you know you're going to fall asleep a little bit more likely now inevitably at church people always fall asleep but you know hey I can't fix that go back to Matthew 13 you know you're welcome to sleep at home and there's coffee if you ever need it you know so I mean what would be the point of driving an hour to church just to sleep it's not that comfortable you know people do it and of course we like the lights on you know the nom churches where it's a movie theater seat and they turn the lights out I can see why you fall asleep I mean I would struggle too especially how boring the service is but you know at a church like ours you know just pinch yourself if you need to or something alright verse 3 they had no deepness of earth and when the sun was up they were scorched and because they had no root they withered away and some fell among thorns and the thorns sprung up and choked them but other fell and a good ground brought forth fruit some a hundredfold some sixtyfold some thirtyfold who have ears to hear let him hear now Jesus Christ he just gives these parables and then he just kind of makes proclamations like hey if you have ears why don't you hear this that's a signal to us to understand that there's something beyond just the surface meaning of this text there's something spiritual he's trying to communicate that's not just immediately obvious from the text that you have to have special ears in order to hear now it says in verse 10 and the disciples came and said unto him why speakest thou unto them in parables of course Jesus Christ isn't super interested in growing crops he's not like just so concerned with trying to teach people how to grow crops but he uses carnal truths and things that are true in our world to help expound spiritual truths and Jesus Christ is asked by his disciples why don't you just make things plain why don't you just tell us exactly what you mean verse 11 he answered and said unto them because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it is not given for whosoever hath from him shall be given and he shall have more abundance but whosoever hath not from him shall be taken away even that he hath God has decreed it God has decided that those who have ears to hear will not only get saved but then they're going to get things on top of that they're going to get more and those who don't get saved and don't have ears to hear even what they have is going to be taken from them and in some ways you would think like how is this fair I don't know it doesn't really matter if it's fair or not that's what God does God will often give to people that already have a lot he'll give them even more and the people that have almost nothing he'll even take that away from them you say well how is that fair well you know what's fair is that God can do whatever he wants because it's his stuff and think about it this way if you were someone that had great possessions and you are an owner a business owner a manager and you have these servants and one servant is doing great with your assets and another servant is not isn't it your opportunity to say hey I'm going to take away from this guy and give to this guy that's doing a great job is it fair I don't know if it's fair or not but it's his stuff to do whatever he wants with and if he's looking at someone doing a great job he's like I'm just going to give more to this guy because this guy is accomplishing the work that I have it's similar to there's another parable where you give it's kind of there's kind of two versions of it but there's one guy gets ten talents one gets five one gets one there's another one where there's five two and one same idea same concepts but when the guy with one just buries it and does nothing with it eventually the parable the master or the owner comes back takes the one and gives it to the ten and then they ask they're like Lord the guy that has ten already has ten and then he's just like yep so what now he's eleven and you know some people they'll get really mad at others for having ten but you know what it's not their fault for having ten and often what God will do is he'll look at the guy with ten and he'll say I want to give you even more and the guy that has one even loses the one that he has because you know what he's not doing a good job with the one that he has and so you know we should not be the type of people that are envious of people that have more than us but rather we should ask ourselves maybe I'm not a good enough steward maybe God's not giving me more because I'm not doing a good job with what I have instead of being focused on what other people have you should be focused on what you're doing with what you do have and if you're not being faithful with what you do have why would God give you more you know the Bible says very clearly that if you're not faithful in that which is least you're also not going to be faithful in that which is much and so according to the Bible we should just be very good stewards of what we do have and then hope that God will bless us and give us more but you know it's kind of funny that if you have a lot of your given stuff that God will just continue to bless you now keep your finger here I want to go on this thought for a moment because I just like it but go if you would to let's go to Acts chapter number five for a moment go to Acts chapter number five whenever you serve God and you do right the Bible teaches he'll just continue to give you more and sometimes people will get mad at you about what you have or what you're doing but we should not want to fight against people that are producing for God because the people that are producing for God God will just continue to give them even more and continue to bless them even more and the people that are fighting God will take away that what they have so you know you can see sometimes the rich get richer in a carnal sense but also I believe in a spiritual sense those who are doing great things for the God there's this like compounding snowball effect where they're just going to keep doing more and getting more and it just keeps going better and better you know like our church specifically if you think about it from day one the amount of work and effort that we were able to accomplish was very little you know we're doing some work but it's just it's very little then if you're faithful for a year you get more people more soul winners and you can accomplish more and then if you're faithful with that then hey God gives you even more people and more soul winners and you keep you just kind of keeps growing but what you'll notice about churches often is churches actually grow faster the bigger they are which I'm not saying that's fair I'm just going to tell you that's fact though like it's a lot easier to grow when you already have people in fact us pastors will often talk about this that is very hard to get to a hundred people it's very hard to get to a point where we have a hundred people but then once you have a hundred people it's like so much easier to grow because now you kind of have a little bit of every demographic you have people to make friends you have kids that can hang out with other kids and then it starts snowballing from there not only that when it talk about the work that we can accomplish we can go on bigger missions trips we can put more people out there we have more funds more assets I mean if you look at a comparison of what our church did last year this time compared to now we've had just an explosion of success we have more people coming to church services than we've ever had we have more soul winning than we've ever had more missions trips than we've ever had and you say like why because he that is doing good like the person that's producing God will even give to him even more and the person that's not producing or not doing good many times God will even take that away from that person now the Bible says in Acts chapter number 5 look what it says in verse number 34 then stood there up one in the council a Pharisee named Gamaliel doctor of the law had a reputation among all the people and commanded to put the apostles forth a little space and he said unto them ye men of Israel take heed yourselves what you intend to do as touching these men for before these days rose up Thuddus boasting himself to be somebody to whom a number of men about 400 joined themselves who was slain and all as many as obeyed him were scattered and brought to naught so Gamaliel is bringing up this parable it's a real story but he's bringing up kind of an analogy or metaphor saying hey we should be careful what we do with these apostles because remember this one guy Thuddus this guy thought he was super special he was praising himself 400 people started following him but then remember he got killed and everybody scattered and it just was total failure they just failed hard he's like we need to think about that like things are going to inevitably take a certain course of action it says in verse 37 after this man rose up Judas of Galilee in the days of the taxing and drew away much people after him he also perished and all even as many as obeyed him were dispersed and now I say unto you refrain from these men and let them alone for if this counsel or this work be of men it will come to naught but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it lest happily ye be found even to fight against God and to him they agreed and when they called the apostles and beaten them they commanded that they should not speak in the name of Jesus and let them go there's a similar story in Exodus where the Bible says the more that they afflicted them the more that they grew the more that they multiplied and the more that they grew and we have to understand that those that are of God it does not matter how much you fight against them or attack them or do evil to them God can continue to bless them and give them more and those that are not producing those are not doing things God can come and take away that which they have you know what we should learn from this? God is in control God is on the throne God gets to decide who is going to rise and who's going to fail God is the one that's determining who's going to have more and who's going to have less and he that have ears to hear God will just give them so much more than they can even handle he'll give them so they can have abundantly he'll just keep giving them more and more and more and more and the person that's not of God he'll just take away more and more away from that person and he'll just destroy that person because that person's not of God go over to Romans chapter number 8 instead of worrying about our environment or our own perception we just need to make sure that we're right with God God will take care of things God will manage things when the person's right God will make it evident and when the person's wrong God will make it evident we just have to believe in God and we need to follow God's commandments and we need to have ears to hear it's not about the circumstance it's not about what you think it's about what the Bible says and when you see what the Bible's clearly saying you want to get on that program you want to get on the program that's producing the fruit that the Bible speaks of that's talking about the things that the Bible emphasizes and you know what God will give even more to that group and the ones that aren't you know he'll take away that which they have but we don't want to fight against God Romans chapter number 8 the Bible says in verse 31 what shall we say or what shall we then say to these things if God be for us who can be against us who can be against us who can be against Steadfast Baptist Church no one you know why because God is with us because we have the Lord Jesus Christ on our side Matthew 28 very clearly articulates that he is with us all the way unto the end and lo I'm with you I am with you Jesus Christ where two or three are gathered together in his name there he is in the midst and when we are following God's commandments and we are doing what God says and we're emphasizing what God is saying let me tell you something God is with us no one can stop us no one can defeat us we will always get the victory for his name's sake and for his glory because he is our shield he is our rock he is our comforter he is our protector he is the one guiding us and leading us as long as we're following him we can't lose and so you should really be worried about this am I following this? because as long as you're following Jesus you will be successful and you know what you'll have even more you know what I notice? people that decide hey I'm not only saved I want to get plugged into a good church and I don't want to get plugged into a good church I want to go three times a week and I don't want to go three times a week I'm going to start going soul winning not only that I'm going to start working hard on my job and you know what I'm going to try and model my family off of what the Bible is saying you know what I've noticed? that after year after year after year of doing that they just seem to get more blessed and more blessed and having more and more and more and good things are happening to them generally speaking and I see people that go on a different path that start going less to church less soul winning less of these things end up just destroying their lives and we're talking about the worst ways you can destroy your lives I've seen it countless times countless times and it's just very frustrating and you know it's not about us as an individual it's not about our church specifically but it's about Jesus and it's about the church and it's about following God's commandments and when you're doing that you know what? God is going to bless you in your life and when you're not there is going to be negative consequences to people that go away from God's commandments go over to chapter 14 verse number 4 and instead of us worrying about what other people are doing we should always be concerned with what we're doing we can't really affect other people hey the guy that has five talents I sure hope he uses them for God but I'm not him the guy that has one talent well I hope he uses that to serve God but I'm not him maybe you look at a guy that has ten talents you're not him don't worry about them worry about you and worry about what you're doing with your talents worry about what you're doing with what God has blessed you with and let me tell you something if you're faithful with what you have God will give you more and what I've noticed is that God can speed you up real fast if he wants but you know you usually don't get there just overnight it usually takes time and does take effort because he wants to see that you're faithful but God can speed you up real fast have you ever heard of Joseph? he went from the prison to second command like that I mean God can speed you up whenever he wants but you know when you take yourself out of the game then sometimes he can't use you anymore so you just have to stay in the game and be humble and just wait you never know when that quarterback you never know when Brett Favre is going to go down and then they're going to put Aaron Rodgers in and you know what I'll have to admit this Aaron Rodgers I think his first game was against the Dallas Cowboys and I made fun of him I thought he was a loser but he ended up being a great quarterback he ended up being really good you know he's just got to just wait his time be a backup and then at the right moment he comes in and he ends up being one of the best quarterbacks you know of his generation I'm not saying he's the best but I'm just saying he was on the bench nobody really cared about him and then his door finally opened his time finally came and sometimes when we serve God we're just sitting there on the bench we're just doing what we're supposed to be doing we're waiting and then God's going to open a door and he's going to give us so much more but we shouldn't be worried about what other people are doing Romans chapter 14 look at verse 4 who art thou that judges another manservant to his own master he standeth or falleth yea he should be holding up for God is able to make him stand you know we shouldn't be going around judging other people we should be concerned with ourselves go back to Matthew chapter 13 go to Matthew chapter number 13 you know the disciples are asking this question why are you speaking parables because God doesn't dole out information, truth, or blessing fairly from a human perspective you know from a communist perspective everybody gets the same thing no no no not to God hey you have ears to hear you get the gospel you get saved hey not only that you're serving me I'll give you a bunch of stuff hey you're doing good with that I'll give you even more and then I'll just keep giving you more he's going to dole things out indiscriminately at his own will and his own discretion but you know what he typically if you understand the Bible he's doing it to people that are faithful and godly and doing what's right and so we need to make sure and be careful that we're not worried about what other people are doing we're worried about what we're doing hey who cares if that guy doesn't if this guy doesn't have ears to hear that's his problem that's his fault but I do have ears to hear so I'm going to make sure that when I hear what God says I'm going to do it we need to take personal responsibility for what God has given us and it's given unto us to know things you have to also realize that God operates his kingdom on the earth right now in secret in a sense mysteries those of us that are saved it's like we have special vision where we can see things that no one else can see we look at the world not only carnally we can look through spiritual glasses too and when we're reading our Bible and we're going to church and we're in tune with the Spirit it's like we can see a whole other world that's out there whereas when we get really carnal and we go back to the flesh then we start losing sight of that again we become blind again and we just basically go back to the way everybody else just an NPC, a zombie a non-playable character basically and so we have to understand that God gives us the Bible too in a way where we have this secret code there's a secret language to the Bible where those who are saved and Spirit filled understand things that other people don't understand and so that's how the Bible works there's a whole set of information and knowledge that you can only get if you're saved and not only that typically you also have to be Spirit filled and be led of the Spirit to even then get that wisdom on top of that now he says in verse 13 therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not neither do they understand and in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which saith by hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive for this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them so Jesus is basically saying the Jews because they don't want to believe in Jesus Christ because they don't really love God because they actually hate the truth God has blinded them and God has caused them to have a spiritual lack of understanding so that they hear what Jesus said and it doesn't make sense it goes over their head now you can see this in today not just through Jews but also through Catholics and many unsaved people well they'll read the Bible and they somehow just don't understand what it's saying they'll read call no man on earth father and it's just like and then they'll just go up to father so and so what does this mean? it'll say do not your alms before men and they'll be like hey do you think we should give a bunch of money to the poor and make a big announcement about it? yeah it's like hey when you fast don't be as the hypocrites which disfigure their faces and then they're going to get black ash right now and they're going to put it all over their forehead to try and let everybody know hey I'm Mark Wahlberg here's my big black ash on my forehead to prove that I don't understand the Bible if you want more proof that someone just doesn't understand the Bible find the nasty ash that they put on their face for no reason the Bible is literally forbidding it and then they're doing it it's spiritual blindness it's like they read where Jesus in John chapter 6 where he's talking about eating his flesh and drinking his blood and they're like oh man we gotta really eat we gotta eat Jesus man it's like you think people that are high on marijuana would think or something you know like on a drug high oh man we gotta eat him bro it's like that's how these people act when they are spiritually blind or a child you know oftentimes children do not understand metaphors or symbolism and you say something to them and they think it's literal or someone that doesn't understand the language think about someone that's new to English you say hey it's raining cats and dogs and they're thinking like what are you talking about I didn't see any animals falling from the sky and it's because they don't understand that language they don't understand that metaphor they've never heard that being used and so it's confusing them in the same way these people that are unsaved the Bible's words just make no sense to them and they're just dull of hearing they can't understand it's just noise it's just noise to them at this point and so of course this is similar to many people in the world today but he says in verse 16 but blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for verily I say unto you that many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see and have not seen them and to hear those things which ye hear and have not heard them so number one he's trying to point out how the saved understand things that the unsaved don't but additionally for those at the time of Christ they had a special privilege and a blessing to see the miracles of the Lord Jesus Christ for themselves you know the Old Testament saints had to think about Jesus through dark sayings through all kinds of symbolism in the Old Testament so they had an idea they knew that Christ would come they knew that Christ would pay for their sins but they didn't fully understand what was going to happen the disciples had the great blessing to see Jesus literally perform miracles before their eyes and seeing the blind receive their sight and seeing the dumb speak and the cripple walk and just getting to experience those great blessings plus they got to hear the word of God expounded on by Jesus himself which was a great blessing they would have loved to have been able to see Jesus and to hear Jesus speak and for him to explain to them some of these mysteries that are coming from the Bible and we should then also apply this to ourselves because many people have wanted to have the whole Bible in their hand that they could read and they haven't I mean throughout the ages many men, great men would have loved to have known the things that we know and to have read the epistles that we've read and to read the book of Revelation and to read all of these I mean Daniel I guarantee he was sitting there thinking like can I please have the book of Revelation because this doesn't make sense to me you know Daniel's version of the end times is way harder than the book of Revelation John got a greater privilege to see those things in greater detail they were a lot clearer and we having the New Testament in our tongue in the English language we are so privileged to have this information you know be careful how you hear if you get this great privilege this great understanding hey you better use it then we better take advantage of what God has blessed us with because he's given us a great blessing here now it says in verse number 18 hear ye therefore the parable of the sower when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom and understandeth it not then cometh the wicked one and catch the way that which was sown in his heart this is he which received seed by the wayside so you know you kind of have to understand like the context of a lot of these situations when Jesus is going to preach to the large crowds he just only gives the parable and then when he's kind of alone or with his disciples he explains it really clear he just gives it really in plain speech he'll just explain the parable to them and you know some things that we can learn from this too is that when we go out into the world and we're talking to the world at large sometimes we don't need to necessarily be as blunt as we need to be sometimes we can just speak to them in a way that gives them enough information that if they're interested hey we'll explain it more you know to me church is where we become blunt church is where it's like hey let's make it plain now let's be really clear what we believe and of course that kind of causes a problem in the world today a little bit because we put our sermons on the internet so then when we start getting really blunt and really plain with what we believe well unsaved people start hearing that and they get real offended real fast but to me the good outweighs the bad because we have members that can't make it and people online and you know just generally speaking we still reach a lot of people so I like to put every single thing that we preach and teach online plus you know eventually the Bible came out and even the Jews got the explanation from Jesus didn't they we all got to hear the plain blunt teaching that's why they really hate the Bible that's why they really wanted to kill Jesus when they finally figured out hey I think this is about us we need to pass some anti-Semitism speech laws or something like that right they get really offended but at the end of the day you know we need to preach the truth but at the same time you know when I go into a workplace situation when I'm talking to friends or co-workers I don't have this need to persuade them of everything I believe and to go into every detail and to try and talk about every nuance of our faith you know to me it's better to focus on the big picture the big things try to get them saved try to win them over before I you know want to get into the nitty-gritty and so you know you should use a little bit of discretion when you describe things to people now in this parable of the sower I believe the correct way to look at this is that it's really everybody in the world you kind of have four categories and the first category is unsaved the next three are all saved so you kind of have like the unsaved now the unsaved generally speaking when it comes to the gospel being presented to them it really doesn't matter how they rejected it they just rejected it right it doesn't matter if they got really close and rejected it or weren't that close and rejected it if you don't get saved you're not saved it's that simple right but in general the whole world has the gospel sown to them in some way they've gotten at least some seed they've gotten at least some exposure to the gospel in some way and for many of them they even have the gospel inside of them that's what the Bible kind of teaches here did you notice in verse 19 when anyone heareth the word of the kingdom so they actually got the right word they got the right message it came unto them but then they didn't understand it then what happens is the devil the wicked one comes and he catches away that which was sown in their heart this is he which received seed by the wayside so that bird is a picture of the devil and the seed is the word of God now keep your finger go to Luke chapter 8 for a moment because I think that Luke chapter 8 kind of helps us with this specific one and getting some understanding of what it's trying to say but we go out we preach the gospel to tons of people that don't get saved I mean I go out all the time this evening I gave the gospel very clearly to somebody for about 20 minutes and they did not receive it they are Pentecostal they got mad they're saying oh you just like the comfort of once saved always saved yeah I do you just feel comfortable that no matter what you do you're still going to be saved yep oh you just think it's so comforting that you could go out and drink and smoke and whatever and you'd still go to heaven I said well you know I wouldn't feel comfortable because I would still receive a lot of punishment yeah yeah yeah but you just feel comfortable because you're going to heaven sure but you know I'm not super motivated to go do those things he's telling me oh there's this one guy I know that you know he got busted for drugs and now he's in prison and then he lost his marriage and all this stuff and he's like but this pastor is trying to comfort him with going to heaven and I'm like well but who would want to go to jail and lose their family and lose their house and I'm like is that not at least some motivation to not sin and he's just like ignore ignore that no no you just want that comfort of eternal life man yeah because I'm going to go to heaven now I want to do drugs right no that that's that's a silly argument there's plenty of people that don't want to do drugs that aren't even saved one of my bosses old bosses was a Mormon and he gave up Mormonism he said it was a complete false religion but he said you know what I hate drugs because they think it's bad and it hurts you and it harms you and it ruins your life so here's someone that's not saved but just recognizes drugs are bad okay I mean we should realize hey there's still a carnal punishment there's still a consequence plus the Bible literally says about those who are saved the Lord whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourges every son in whom he receiveth so according to the Bible you're pretty much guaranteed and locked in to suffer consequences when you sin as a saved person I'm not motivated to sin just because I won't go to hell now yeah is it comforting to know when I do screw up and when I do do wrong that I am still saved yeah but let me be honest with you I'll just be really honest if I got involved with criminal organizations and was busted for drugs and was gonna rot in prison for the rest of my life and you came up to me and just said well at least you're saved man I wouldn't feel that much comfort in that I'd be like I ruined my life I would be very upset and I already know I'm saved and I'm not saying that that isn't some level of comfort but I'm just saying in general that wouldn't even be that comforting to me I'd be like but I'm still gonna be in prison yeah you're still gonna eat slop for the rest of your life yeah you're still gonna have to be around criminals and do all this yeah I would be like well that's not very that's not very comforting for me now right so look just because salvation is a free gift does not motivate me to live a wicked life and of course this person it's not that they didn't understand what I was saying is they didn't like what I was saying they just didn't like what I was saying but you know it was being sown there was more seed being sown I showed him plenty of verses I showed him John 3 16 and Acts 16 so it's going into his heart but what can happen look at Luke chapter number 8 and this is the same thing but look at verse 12 those by the wayside are they that hear then come of the devil and take away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved so notice the devil wants to take this away because he knows if they believed it they would get saved the guy I talked to this evening if he decides you know what I think that's actually true I think it is actually a free gift yeah it is one saved always saved yeah it is what that guy was telling me yeah John 3 16 really does mean that and he believed he'd get saved but you know what the devil wants to do is he wants him to go back to his Pentecostal church and want some devil to come and lie to him to where he forgot what I said and confuse him and take away that seed that was sown lest he believe and get saved go back to Mark chapter number 13 and this is the devil's goal our goal is to go out and to preach the gospel and to reap and to reap meaning we get them saved whereas the devil's goal is to come behind us behind us sowing to those that didn't get reaped and try to pluck that seed that was sown and try to distract them and confuse them and cause them to not get it of course it says that in Matthew 13 it says in verse number 19 when anyone hear the word of the kingdom and understandeth not because if you understood it you would get saved no one that truly understands oh it's a free gift and I need to just accept Christ right now and get it no one that fully understands that would not want to believe in Jesus Christ and not get saved the reason why is because they're still confused they still don't get it they still don't want to accept Christ for whatever reason and of course the devil then prays on them for having decided not to believe not to be humble enough not to accept it verse 20 so it's saying immediately immediately he gets saved so there's people that when they hear the gospel clearly presented they just get saved right there on the spot so the first category is just everybody that doesn't get saved everybody that got saved they heard the word at some point they didn't get it, they didn't want to get it and the devil came and took that away the second group is essentially those who did get it but here's the problem with these people it says in verse 21 the phrase by and by means immediately so he's just saying this is someone that is so soft that they can't take any verse they can't take anything in the Bible that's negative and you have Christians like that there are Christians out there that hear something negative and they're just immediately turned off they're immediately not wanting to hear it they show up at church and they just don't like the environment and they're immediately offended I remember someone told me that they visited a fundamental Baptist church with their family and specifically their mom and all the ladies were dressed in dresses and skirts and she was wearing pants and so she was immediately offended and she said I never want to come back to that church and I said well did the preacher preach on it? no. did anybody say anything? no. everybody's really friendly but it just made them uncomfortable so just being in that environment just immediately made them uncomfortable just because they didn't like that I mean imagine just how many people and we've had it showed up at one of our church services when we had protesters and just didn't come they just saw the protesters and just immediately gone or they hear about it, gone or they look us up online they're like they got saved and they're excited and they type in steadfast Baptist church and they're like ah! never going there they almost if they could give back their salvation they would but they can't they're just like ah man those people got me saved? oh you know but they're just immediately offended and yet they're still saved they could never serve God they could be the nine where are the nine that never came back to say thank you? well they're in heaven that's where they're at they just don't have any rewards but they got they got saved and think about it this is like you literally just you're scattering seed and an area where it's mostly rocks well a little sprout comes up but then it's never gonna actually produce fruit it's never gonna become a tree it's never gonna do anything because those rocks are just there and it just immediately can't survive and so it just it just does nothing this is the vast majority of Christianity the vast majority of Christianity will get saved and do nothing for God they won't come to church they won't get baptized they won't dress right they won't really read their Bible they won't really do much for God at all the vast majority of Christianity is this camp and if you really think about this funnel we're just we said it's like a huge funnel of the human population the vast majority of people just not even saved and then when you funnel way down then you have that next largest group which are those who get saved but don't want to do anything for God then you funnel down to the next level which is essentially verse 22 he also that receives heed among the thorns is he that heareth the word and the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choked the word and he becometh unfruitful the third group is those who stick it out for a while so you know they start wearing the dresses and the skirts they start reading the Bible they flipped off the protesters or whatever they came in you know basically they got plugged in a little bit they started coming a little bit and they're like hey soul winning sounds kind of cool but the problem is in their heart they still have some thorns which are what? the cares of this world the deceitfulness of riches and they're choking this plant so it's just like that again that plant has sprouted up it's growing, it's doing fine but its environment is bad for it because there's other plants there with thorns and it's choking it it's causing it not to get enough nutrients and so as a result it's not going to produce fruit again this is the next largest group that you have you have the vast majority not saved the next group immediately offended the next group they're just too consumed with things of the world carnal pleasures, the cares of this life and they just don't last they don't last or they just stay in the thorny patch of life and they go to a thorny Baptist church or a non-denominational church where they're going to basically do virtually nothing for God then you have the final last group this is the small small tiny group of Christians that are saved and it says in verse number 23 but he that receives seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it which also beareth fruit and bringeth forth some a hundredfold some sixty, some thirty so this is the people that end up becoming soul winners and they actually go out and they actually preach the gospel and they get people saved now go back to Luke chapter 8 because I like how this is worded in Luke chapter 8 as well but this is how to understand the parable of the sower and Jesus made it really clear to us Luke chapter number 8 look at verse number 15 but that on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience so if you understand the parable the ground is your heart the soil is your heart of course without a humble heart you'll never even get saved in the first place you had to first receive that word and allow it to germinate and to spring up and that was that salvation but some hearts still have a lot of stones in them and that's where God wants us to die daily he wants us to break up that fallow ground he wants us to get out those stones in our lives so that we could end up producing fruit and we need to get those thorns out we have to get both out if we want to end up producing fruit and those who have a good heart are the ones that produce fruit some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred I guess God likes numbers he's saying some soul winners get thirty saved in a season some get sixty saved in a season some get a hundred saved in a season and then the vast majority get nothing saved in a season and who is the person that gets people saved? the one that has a good heart it's about your heart where is your heart? is your heart in money? is your heart in being offended? or is your heart in the things of God? and the person's heart in the things of God is going to get people saved, just fact the person that follows Jesus Christ will be a fisher of men and he will, he will, he will win souls he will gather people unto himself and so if you want to know who are the people in this world that have good hearts show me the soul winners now of course, go back this is what a lot of people want to turn this into they think that the fruit here is the fruit of the spirit which is mentioned in Galatians chapter number five but I would love to understand how someone can have a hundred joy or sixty gentleness in a season oh man, I produced sixty gentleness this season it was great in fact, if you think about it that second group was the one that's going after the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches he might actually be working really hard to make a lot of money this season and if you ask him he might actually seem really happy like on the outward if you went to talk to this guy he's like, my life's never been better it's going great I got a new car and it's like man, the fruits are just really stemming you know, because I've just I got all this happiness I got all this joy but you know what, that's not the fruit the Bible's talking about the fruit that the Bible's talking about is souls of men going to heaven otherwise, what would be the point of all of us Christians just going around just like, a hundred joy what does that accomplish? I just had sixty gentleness today I had thirty temperance you know, what does that even mean? it's meaningless it's meaningless and it's not what the Bible's really talking about you want to talk about a good heart? it's someone that cares enough to get someone saved that's the good heart someone to get thirty saved sixty saved, a hundred now again, it's a season it's not saying your whole life because we're going to all go through seasons you know, if you're a faithful soul winner you're going to produce fruit multiple seasons you could do this multiple times a year multiple years for the rest of your life God willing, you'll just constantly be producing fruit but you know what? the person that's producing fruit he doesn't care about the cares of this life he doesn't care about this evilness of riches and he doesn't care about being offended he doesn't care about being persecuted he doesn't care about his reputation he just wants to get people saved the person that cares about the reputation the person that cares about the normal things of life the cares of this life what? family I mean, the Bible says he that loveth father or son father or daughter more than me is not worthy of me if you love father or mother or son or daughter some people only care about their family and look, I'm not a down on family I love family but let me tell you something that's not the reason why we're here the reason why we're here is to get people saved and that's the spiritual family that we're supposed to care about and there's a lot of people that care so much about everything that the Bible doesn't say to care about not the things of God I mean, the harvest truly is plenty but the labors be few we're not talking about it's the few the few that are the ones that are going to serve the Lord Jesus Christ not the many we see the many don't get saved the less get offended easily even less they were on the right path but allowed something to get them off and then of course the few are out there actually doing the work getting a lot of people saved and the guy that's getting a hundred saved you know what? he's going to get even more he's going to be super blessed by God he's going to just keep getting more and more and more and more and more and the guy that's doing nothing he's going to lose what God even gave him I don't want to be that guy when you chase after money when you chase after money he'll take it from you when you chase after souls he'll give you that and the money anyways I'm just trying to be honest with you I've seen it with tons of different people their lives just go down track when they're chasing after those things or maybe he'll give you the money but he'll take away your family or he'll take away that hundred joy you thought you were getting okay I'd rather get the hundred people saved because that's joy every time I get someone saved anyways, all right? It says in verse number 24 but he said now let's skip ahead because he kind of brings up a couple other things and then later gives the explanation let's just go straight to the explanation for this one he says a little bit later look at verse number 37 so in verse 36 they're asking about the parable of the tares of the field man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father who hath ears to hear let him hear so he gives the explanation a little bit later in this chapter and so we don't have to wonder what these things represent the person sowing good seed Jesus the son of man the person that sows the tares the devil the tares are children of the devil the seed is the children of God the children of the Lord and so he's kind of showing like if you think about that parable they came and said like didn't you sow good seed? this is what people always often accuse God of they're like well if God exists then why is there bad? because of the devil he didn't sow any bad seed he only sowed good seed it was someone else that sowed wicked seed it was the devil this also helps you understand in Genesis when the Bible talks about how there's going to be enmity between him and his seed and the serpent and his seed we're talking about the enmity between Jesus and the devil and then those that are the children of God and then the children of the devil that's what it's talking about not a physical literal child there is a weird serpent seed doctrine out there if anybody brings it up run away from this person they're weird and creepy it usually goes into this reptilian doctrine too and they think that there's like half breeds and human alien things just ignore these people they're weird and they watch too much YouTube it's a spiritual thing someone that's a child of the devil is spiritually a child of the devil and they become reprobate so children of God are born again children of the devil die that way so it's called twice dead they weren't born that way they died that way so no one became a fag born that way they died that way they died that way because they hate the gospel and they rejected it twice in a sense and so now they're damned and now they're a child of the devil and as a child of the devil they are just evil and wicked now you have to ask yourself this question why does God allow these people to exist? he kind of gives an explanation lest the wheat gets rooted up with them and I think we have to understand when you back evil people into a corner well when they have nothing to live for nothing to lose then they become very dangerous individuals and so in a sense he's basically I believe trying to say if you try to just get rid of every evil person a lot of good people would die in the process because a lot of good people would be the ones that are there actually trying to do the work trying to actually accomplish this task a lot of them are going to perish and we're not really here to wrestle against flesh and blood we're here to fight a spiritual battle so instead of going out and trying to wrangle evil people physically and try to preserve a physical posterity in the earth we're here to save people's souls by preaching the gospel and getting people saved so instead of me worrying about gathering up people physically and trying to preserve our physical earth I should be worried more about just getting people saved and being a soul winner and going out and fighting with the sword of the spirit which is the word of God and going out and preaching the gospel and just ignoring the tears staying away from the tears now the tears will eventually get dealt with the bible says at the end they'll be bound together they'll be thrown into hell and those who are saved will be gathered into his barn it says that the tears are gathered first did you notice that? that they're bound first I think there's kind of two ways to look at that number one you could look at this as just completely end times in the sense of it's literally at the millennial reign of Christ and he just first deals with the wicked and throws them into the lake of fire that's one way to look at it another way I think you could look at it is maybe it's describing the mark of the beast because if you think about it the mark of the beast is identifying and gathering together all the wicked and the reprobate and they're basically kind of bound in a sense prior to the rapture or us as Christians being gathered together I think either of those are valid ways to look at this as why you have the tears being gathered prior to but essentially you have the good and the bad they're going to be severed the wicked are going to be thrown in the lake of fire the righteous are going to be inheriting the kingdom of God with Jesus Christ and ruling for a thousand years so again these kingdom of heaven and kingdom of God parables can have a couple different explanations based on the context because in some ways it's talking about getting saved and of course that's how you get into the kingdom but then it's also just describing the kingdom in general and it's true Christianity and what's going to come in the future but we live in true Christianity we're part of that kingdom we're citizens of that kingdom right now and we're doing the work of that kingdom by going out and preaching the gospel and trying to get more people into the kingdom we have the keys to the kingdom and we have that passageway of opening the door by preaching the gospel to people and helping them enter into the kingdom with us that spiritual kingdom so that's what we're constantly doing and that's what we're living in is that kingdom of heaven now it says in verse 31 another parable put he forth unto them saying the kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field which indeed is the least of all seeds but when it is grown it is the greatest among herbs and become of the tree so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof now for sake of time I can't go through all this in great detail but I'm just going to give you this really quick I believe what it's trying to say is that Christianity will become the most dominant religion in the world which is exactly what happened Christianity spread over all the world and if you really understand kind of just history and a big picture perspective Christians and those who are saved are often building society they're building the civilized world and then you have evil reprobate people coming in cockroaches coming and infesting it and pushing those Christians out somewhere else and then they rebuild society and then the cockroaches follow them and really you can kind of see this in Matthew 24 that the Bible clearly teaches that the gospel is going to be preached into all the world and then the end shall come I believe if you understand history Christianity spread over over the whole world I mean you see the Christianity going into India going into Asia going the Mongolian empire going into Japan going into all these regions going into Africa going into North America going into South America and at this point we've pretty much gotten to a point where Christianity has reached the world at some point in human history at some point the gospel has been delivered and traveled to and taken to all these regions and now we've run out of geography in a sense and there's nowhere for Christians to go so what's gonna happen well the end's gonna come because when the cockroaches come well there's nowhere else for us to go okay that's my big picture understanding of this but notice even in Christianity the birds of the air able to lodge in it lots of people get to enjoy the benefits of Christianity it's called America why do you think so many people want to live in America because of the blessing of the gospel because of the blessing of Christianity we built our nation on Christian principles on the Bible on the gospel and because of that we have this great prosperous nation and that's why so many people literally live in the branches of America and people have benefited from the benefits of America I mean without America South Korea wouldn't exist folks without America many people in Africa would be dying of starvation and without water and without nutrition without America a lot of places would not exist or not have the luxuries and the benefits that they have today in fact if America didn't really exist Europe might be Germany whether you like that or not now some people think like that sounds like that was the right plan no I'm just kidding I don't agree with this okay but I'm just telling you that America's is a tree and many people are getting to enjoy that tree and are getting to enjoy the benefits of America even existing and it's not because America it's because of Christianity it's a tight coupling but you have to understand that it is because of Christianity now we've had a lot of people subvert this in the last hundred years and America's done a lot of evil in the last hundred years so don't hear me wrong it's not that I don't understand those points but I'm just saying in general America's also done a lot of good read about the Hungarian revolution and read about Americans and America specifically bringing all kinds of refugees from communism and a lot of evil that's happened in the world I mean America because of the gospel and because of Christianity has blessed a lot of people verse 33 the bible says another parable spake ye unto them the kingdom of heaven is like an eleven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal till the whole was eleven so again the gospel was like oh you got the apostle Paul just going out and it's the few apostles and then pretty soon it's the predominant religion in the entire world and it's just like that little bit of eleven and a piece of bread it spreads everywhere and how the gospel message spread everywhere think about when this is being spoken at the time that this is being spoken Christianity in a sense doesn't really exist you have the religion of the Jews which is an old testament religion new testament Christianity does not exist at all when Jesus is saying this and then shortly after in the next few centuries Christianity will be the dominant religion in the world that's amazing if you think about it I mean imagine somewhere in some random place in the world right now having no success and then becoming the most predominant religion in the entire world that's powerful and it's because the gospel is that powerful now it says in verse 34 all these things spake Jesus unto the multitudes and parables and without a parable spake ye not unto them that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet saying I will open my mouth in parables I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world then Jesus sent the multitude away so we already read this next section we'll skip down says in verse number 44 again the kingdom of heaven is like in a treasure hid in a field which when a man hath found he hideth and for joy thereof goeth and selleth all that he hath and buyeth that field so this is like hey when you find out that the Bahamas is super super ripe you like don't tell anybody and then you go back and you're like I'm gonna get a bunch of people saved now of course that's a little selfish so we tell lots of people but let me tell you something there's hidden treasure in the Bahamas there is hidden treasure in the Bahamas and it's not the gold pot somewhere under the rainbow no no no it's souls that are just ready for the plucking it's people that are ready to just get saved and you know what that is what we should really be focused on he's saying man if you just really understood the the treasure that exists on this earth today you wouldn't be worried about laying up treasure on earth because you wouldn't care about that you'd be selling your treasure on earth to get more spiritual treasure heavenly treasure getting more people saved you know someone like Avengers or Bannock going to the Philippines and just gathering all kinds of spiritual treasure unto himself because he recognizes the value and the importance of spiritual treasure and let me tell you something we need more soul winners and more missionaries and more people that need spiritual heaven spiritual treasures than the earthly treasures of today hey if you actually could see with those spiritual eyes you would just that's what I want verse 45 again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a merchant man seeking goodly pearls who when he had found one pearl of great price went and sold all that he had and bought it now again it's funny because this is the name of the book of Mormons so if you know anything about Mormon religion they have the pearl of great price who's heard about that as a book that they have they're basing it off of this it's because they believe this is talking about getting saved and so they're trying to say like oh yeah you know salvation is this great pearl that we have to work our whole lives for and hope that we obtain because even this is what's really sad for Mormons they think if they give everything up they dedicate their entire life to Mormonism and they follow all the commandments almost perfectly they still aren't even sure if they're going to be saved it's like then even after all that we've done you know now of course in a sense they think they're saved because they think everybody's saved but I'm just saying they don't think they're going to achieve the highest goal because they just can't quite know but they use this parable in Twisted about salvation rather than what? getting people saved isn't it funny they go out they come to sea and land and make a proselyte and they make them two fold more the child of hell than themselves and they don't even understand this whole parable why because it's not given unto them to understand these things because they didn't have the heart to receive the simple free gospel and because of that they're blinded and they can't hear and they can't see and in fact even if you come to a Mormon and you start talking to them if you start making sense they'll run away I've had it happen multiple times and I've even asked them about it and they'll admit it they are taught in their churches hey if someone's starting to evangelize you and proselytize you and starts making sense that's the devil and they'll tell you you need to run away from that person and I've literally seen it a few times where I was talking to somebody and they started clicking and they started making it and they're like we have to go and they just immediately just end the conversation and run away and I'm just thinking like whoa I talked to another Mormon and he's like I know you're not of God you must be of the devil because you're trying to compel me to believe what you believe and I'm just thinking like yeah I am I am trying to show you how to be safe I mean think about how much of a demonic religion that is to try and basically say hey when it makes sense it's lies no nope God is not the author of confusion that's the devil you know even Catholics there's a Catholic lady in the airport telling me point blank to my face she says transubstantiation does not make sense and it will never make sense we just have to believe it and I'm just thinking like no you don't you know why it doesn't make sense because it's nonsense like how could you differentiate between nonsense and something that doesn't make sense if your criterion is we just have to believe nonsense you know God doesn't ask us to believe nonsense praise God he's reasonable and it's logical and it fits with our reality yeah do we have to believe in miracles sure but those miracles actually still match our reality and our world and the things that we see today hey does it take faith to believe that the whole world was flooded sure but is it also true that every single continent has flood legends yeah is it also true that if you just look at the topography of the earth it looks like a giant flood literally compass the entire earth yeah is it true that basically all of mankind is disseminated from that part of the world where Noah and his family got off the ark yeah I mean do we literally even have a place in the world today that's called Noah's Ark in the mountains of Ararat yes we do I mean like even it's not like we're just asked to believe something like these aliens came and they're literally phaetons or something and you have to do these counseling sessions to get them out of your brain or there's some spaceship on the dark side of the moon that we all have to drink poison kool-aid and then we'll get to it like that's nonsense okay God's word sure it does take faith you know we're not putting faith and nonsense and things that are unreasonable we're putting our faith in things that are clearly seen clearly seen and at the same time they're clearly demonstrated in the most popular book in human history that's if you think about it kind of easy to believe hey the most popular book in human history the best literature that's ever been written known to man the one that tells me everything that I'm gonna ever think and do that's the one I have to believe in yeah not the one that's hidden with a bunch of cult following weirdos that marry underage girls and are living in Utah by themselves no you don't have to believe in Mormonism you can believe in the word of God now when it talks about that great pearl of that great pearl of great price or whatever that pearl of great price this is the souls in this world that we could gather and he's saying if you actually understood that you would sell all that you have and you would go and you would try to get those pearls of great price go out there and get someone's soul saved which is far beyond any earthly human value of money now it says in verse number 47 again the kingdom of heaven is likened to a net that was cast into the sea and gathered of every kind which when it was full they drew to shore and sat down and gathered the good into vessels but cast the bad away so shall be at the end of the world the angels shall come forth and sever the wicked from among the just and shall cast them into the furnace of fire there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth Jesus saith unto them have you understood all these things they say unto them yea Lord so notice hey you can understand the Bible verse 52 then said he unto them therefore every scribe which is instructed in the kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that is an householder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old you know at this time they only have the Old Testament but you know what you could pull out the New Testament teachings from the Old Testament and those that were saved at that time were using the Old Testament to get people saved if you read Acts you see that the Ethiopian eunuch was saved in the book of Isaiah Isaiah and we see that those scribes instructed in the kingdom of God they're able to pull out both old and new from the word of God and you know we should be able to pull out New Testament teachings from the Old Testament and we should be able to pull out both old and new and you know as a preacher we should be pulling out the old doctrines in new ways that's a great way to preach the Bible verse 53 and it came to pass that when Jesus had finished his parables he departed thence when he's come into his own country he taught them in their synagogue and so much that they were astonished and said when said this man this wisdom and these mighty works is not this the carpenter son is not his mother called Mary and his brethren James and Joseph and Simon and Judas and his sisters are they not all with us whence then hath this man all these things and they were offended in him but Jesus said unto them the prophet is not without honor saving his own country and his own house and he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief now again it's funny because not only were the Jews offended the Catholics were offended because he had brothers and sisters hey isn't this the guy with brothers and sisters can't be Jesus but you know what Jesus had brothers and sisters and you know Mary's not a virgin it's okay she was she just isn't okay she was but she isn't and you know what Catholics immediately offended all kinds of people are immediately offended you know because Jesus is real he's a real person and you know he's saying if you didn't believe in Jesus think about this if you didn't believe in Jesus how much less are you going to believe in a normal guy that's of God you know the real preachers of God's word and the real men of God are never going to be respected of their own country are never going to be respected of their own house you know it's not like it shouldn't be like a huge shock that my whole family isn't here and I think that's done on purpose because if my whole family was here you think like well of course you're here it's your brother it's your son it's your dad or whoever you know whoever it is it's like of course you're there to support them because you're just related but you know that's just not how the things of God work it wasn't Jesus brother it was the Christian following him around it was random people that were following him around plus he was the carpenter son meaning you could come from basically nothing just from a humble home a humble upbringing and be greatly used of God God uses people from wherever they're at from a humble beginning hey you just work with your hands that is not stopping you from being the greatest Christian of all time just the carpenter son just a lowly blue collar worker could be greatly used of God but you know you have to do something you have to submit yourself to the word of God you have to dedicate yourself hey I'm going to start going to church three times a week I'm going to start reading the Bible I'm going to start memorizing scripture hey when the door opens I'm going to take that opportunity I'm going to use it and I'm going to do great things for God I'm not here to chase the pearls of this world I'm sold all those so that I can get this pearl of great price in the spiritual kingdom of God and at the end of the day you know don't think that you're going to be highly respected where you're at that should be an encouragement to want to go on a missions trip and I'll just be honest with you going on a missions trip people treat you different people treat you different that are also American like when we go on a missions trip we'll have people from other churches show up and they're like hey Pastor Shelley thanks for having me on the trip this is such a blessing this is so great to see you this is awesome thank you so much the person from my church where's the juice you're like hey nice to see you too you know it's like hey someone from another church they're just like oh you're so awesome and they're so nice and they're so respectful because they're not used to you right or they hear you preach they're like that was great whereas everybody else is like meh it's just Pastor Shelley we know him this guy you know plays golf or whatever it's like it's just because you know familiarity breeds contempt the more you hear something the less you realize how special it is and so sometimes you just have to get out of your own environment to realize how special things are to say like hey you know maybe I do have a good preacher why don't you just go to some of these other churches for a little while then realize like what you have here you know I'm not that worried about it okay it's like these really nice restaurants they're not worthy you try McDonald's out whatever they're like oh no he went to McDonald's you know it's like sometimes you got to go to McDonald's remember like what a good burger is some of you might not even realize how great a cook your wife is go to fast food and you're like whoa okay you know sometimes just familiarity causes us to not realize what we have and so that's just the reality that you know if you go out and you knock on doors in this area people are just like steadfast if you go to these foreign countries they're like whoa you're from a Baptist church you're from America I want to hear what you have to say and you're just thinking like this is weird I'm just I'm just here just an invite like okay I'm just telling you go to foreign countries go to other places people will treat you differently and it's just it's funny so why not use that privilege you know if you've never been I just can't recommend it enough go to a foreign country sometime preach the gospel it's a lot of you know I'm not really recommending Israel it's probably not the best but if you do it hey get someone saved maybe it's like an extra star bonus point or something I don't know how it works but at the end of the day you know you're usually just not that respected where you're at so just get used to it don't expect people to think that you're special where you're at it's just not going to happen you know serving God isn't for the fame it's not for the money it's not for the carnal world it's for the spiritual blessings that you get and you get them through faith but let me tell you when you serve God he's going to give you more than you wanted anyways the people that I know they're just dedicating themselves to God he just keeps giving them more and blessing them more and just giving them more and we'll see God continue to bless us as we follow him so let's close in prayer thank you Heavenly Father so much for these great parables and these great instructions that you're giving just to us you're giving us special wisdom you know it's for us to hear us that are soul winners us that care about the Bible I pray that we wouldn't allow the stones in our lives to come in and stop us from serving God that we would just get rid of them so we would not be offended I pray that if we have any thorns that are springing up trying to stop us and choke us any cares of this world or deceitfulness of riches that we would just pluck up those thorns and get rid of them and I pray that you would help us to have just gentle and soft and good hearts so that we could get many people saved every season and that we continue to be steadfast and realize the importance of the kingdom of God in Jesus' name we pray, Amen Amen, alright for our last song we're going to go to song number 375 it's a good way to end it work for the night is coming 375 work for the night is coming work through the morning air work work while the dew is sparking work in springing clouds work when the day grows brighter work in the glowing sun work for the night is coming when man's work is done work work for the night is coming work through the sunny dew filled by the stars with flavor best consurance to give everybody man something to keep in store work for the night is coming when man works no more work for the night is coming under the sun set skies while the returns are flowing work for the daylight flies work till the last peak faded made if we shine no more work for the night is sparking when man's work is on great, sing it everybody