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🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 🎵Piano Music🎵 Good morning, welcome to Shure Foundation Baptist Church. You find your seats and find a hymnal. Going to page one. 67, all hail the power of Jesus' name. 167. 167. 177. Hail him, O Lord of all, ye chosen seed of Israel's race, ye ransom from the fall. Hail him who saves you by his grace. And crown him, Lord of all. Hail him who saves you by his grace. And crown him, Lord of all. Let every kindred, every tribone, this terra-strobe all. To him, O majesty of scribe, and crown him, Lord of all. To him, O majesty of scribe, and crown him, Lord of all. Oh, that with yonder sacred throng we at his feet may fall. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him, Lord of all. We'll join the everlasting song and crown him, Lord of all. Amen. Brother Joe, can you open us with a word of prayer? Amen. Next hymn is 122, O God our help, O God our help in ages past, 122, and the red or the green. O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Our shelter from the stormy blast and our eternal home. Under the shadow of thy throne thy saints have dwelt secure. Sufficient is thy norm alone and our defense is sure. Before the hills in water stood, o'er earth received her frame. From everlasting the water got two endless years the same. A thousand ages in thy sight are like an evening gone. Short as the watch that ends the night before the rising sun. O God our help in ages past, our hope for years to come. Be thou our guide while life shall last and our eternal home. Amen. Good singing. This time we'll have the announcements. Good morning, everybody. Welcome to Sherriff Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements. If I could get a bulletin up here. Oh, there's one. Never mind. Sorry about that. False alarm. False alarm. If anybody needs a bulletin, just lift up your hand real quick and one of the ushers will bring you a bulletin. On the front cover, we have our verse of the week. It says, and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Romans 8 28. Very famous scripture there and great verse. On our inside page here, we have our service times. 10 30 a.m. for our Sunday morning service. Sunday evening service 3 30 p.m. will be in Joshua chapter 15 tonight. And our Thursday Bible study is in the book of 1 Chronicles. We'll be in chapter number 26 this coming Thursday, and that's at 6 30 p.m. on Thursdays. And I appreciate Brother Ramon for stepping up and being there for me on Thursday night. I've been dealing with a bad tooth. I appreciate everybody praying for me. And it's been it's been the worst one. So I've had tooth tooth pain before, but that one was like the Titanic of tooth pain. So it made me sink. So it was pretty bad. So but thank you for praying for me. I feel a lot better today. Every day I'm getting better with it. But it was like a lingering one. So anyway, I really do appreciate the prayers. And I'm not out of the woods yet. I still have to get some more work done on it. But it's it's getting better. So the praise report, you see the salvation's baptisms attendance totals from last week. And year to date and all that stuff for the stats on our events page there, we have the Lord's Supper coming up. That is next Sunday night at three thirty p.m. So please plan on attending for that. And on Saturday, the next Saturday, we're also going to do some extra soul winning. I didn't put that on the calendar there, but on the events page. But we are going to do some soul winning on Saturday if anybody's wanting to go just to do some extra soul winning. And it'll probably be maybe like two or three hours or something like that. But we'll post some maps. Anybody's wanting to go. Maybe do just a little extra soul winning the week before Easter. That'd probably be a good thing. I was thinking maybe the Gresham area someplace receptive. What do you think, Brother Sean? Yeah. And let's see. We got the all SFBC mega marathon that's kind of turned into a bigger animal. I got Pastor Stuckey contacted him and he's going to have all of his churches doing it. And then we have Pastor Weeb, we have Pastor Reyes, Pastor Shelley, Pastor Oz and just a bunch of other guys participating. So it's kind of like a soft roll out to get us going back in the right direction. And next year, we're going to do it real big. We're going to plan it for like three or four months in advance. But again, this is like the soft roll out to get it back to the splendor that it once was. So don't think that this is if we don't get all 50 states, we don't get all countries this year. Don't think that we're just failing in some way. It was just kind of a last minute thing that we threw together, which is not really something that we'd like to do, but we do like to go soul winning. So we're going to get like this is like how some people do like a soft start date on things, as they would call it. But this is like a soft re entry into the mega marathon. So and next year, like I said, we're going to we're going to go real big. And we're even without the people that have left us left doing the mega marathons. And it's a lot easier to do with more people. But regardless of whether those people are in it or not, we're still going to cover all 50 states next year, Lord willing. And that's the plan and try to get as many countries reached as possible. But this year there was some pastors that just couldn't do it for whatever. They already had plans. And, you know, there's already so many dates that they had set. So we just not everybody could be on board on such short notice. So that's kind of why it's not going to be like it was in times past. So it's not a failure. So any soul any done, any labor done, there's going to be profit in that. Right. So but we are going to do it on the 19th over church plants also. And we're going to hit it hard on the 19th, which is the day before Easter. And that's why I didn't plan for a potluck. But I was asked about it. And I know that if people just hit it hard so many all day on the next day, they're probably not going to want to cook when they get home and bring some kind of delicious Easter side dish. So the very few times that I allow us to vote on things, I'm going to just say, if you do want to do that, you may still do it if you want to bring dishes. And I can still supply some sort of delicious meal on Sunday if you want. But who would want to bring stuff? I see Crystal's hand went straight up. You still want to, even if we do the mega marathon. Raise your hand if you still would want to bring something and break bread and eat good food. Because that would kind of cut into our soul on Sunday. But a lot of people will probably be not receptive on Sunday. But what are you doing here on Easter? It's like, well, we're still going to go soul winning on Sunday. I mean, no doubt about it. But if we hit it real hard, you know, I just, okay, so we'll do a potluck, pot blessing, whatever you want to call it, on Easter Sunday. And is anybody willing to cooketh the ham? I see God bless you. I see that hand. Anybody else? I got two. Can I get three? That's the Trinity. Okay, so we'll need side dishes. We'll need desserts and stuff like that. So, Jew, will you make the list happen? All right, the list will magically appear by the Jew in the WhatsApp group. So, all right, well, I figured I said no at first. And I was like, you know, the Baptist eggs do sure sound good. And so, all right, well, I guess it's on then. The people have spoken, so we will go ahead and have some food on Easter Sunday. And we'll buy some hams for other people to cook and bring it here. So, all right, that sounds good. So, we'll have a meal in between services on Easter Sunday. So, I don't want to make this take forever. But the two-year anniversary for our church up in Seattle is going to be a big weekend up there. There will be a Sony marathon on Saturday. And I'll be preaching up there on Sunday. But Friday night, Pastor Anderson is going to be preaching up there at 7 o'clock. We changed the time to 7 o'clock just because of traffic and all that stuff. But that's going to be at our church building that we rent up there. Who's never been there and would like to go there? No? No hands? Okay. Who's actually planning on going there? Okay, cool. So, we have some goers. So, I'm guessing that room is going to fill up pretty fast. So, you're probably going to want to be there early. We're going to have some zoning going on at 2 o'clock. So, if anybody is just taking the day off and just wants to go up there and hear and preach or whatever, but you just want to get there early and beat the traffic, then we'll have zoning at 2. But the building can be opened up at 4. But if you just wanted to hang out there earlier, I can be there and unlock the door. Just don't trash the place. There's other people that rent there. But we have the room from 4 on. But he said we could get there a little bit earlier if we want to. So, anyway, yeah, that's going on. And then the King James Conference is coming quickly. It's a little over a month away. And so, as you can see, things are getting done in that direction. Things are being moved around. So, just be mindful of the decorations. Please don't tear them up, kids. Don't be picking at stuff. Don't be moving stuff around. Stuff is being moved for a reason, so please just be mindful of that and respectful. All right. That's all I have for announcements. All the other stuff you can just read about there for now. Oh, yeah, I want to say Brother Sean Conlon went on a Caribbean cruise and had 68 salvations by himself. So, 68 by himself. I mean, that's how receptive it is there. He went to, like, all these small islands. And I think he went to Grenada. And he said that just it was just super receptive. So, I mean, that's how great those mission strips are. You eat like a king. And if you can handle being on a boat for that long, you know, I don't know. I don't know if I have sea legs or not. But, you know, a couple of the days or whatever is like just getting out there on the boat. So, that's the times when you can eat lobster or whatever else they have on the boat and then go swimming or just check out the boat. But then, you know, you're on land and you're out soloing for as long as you can handle it. So, anyway, that's a great report from Brother Sean. And so, all the other stuff about being family integrated and all that good stuff you guys know. And the ties are down for, that's the total for the month of March at the bottom of the page. And Mikey, who's not, I don't think Mikey's here, but happy birthday Mikey. Brother Jesse is on the 12th. And Alina Richie, she's not here. But her birthday's on the 12th also. So, let's sing happy birthday to Brother Jesse. Brother Jesse. What? Why are you laughing? Why are you turning red? I'm not having my birthday yet. Yeah, but you're bolded on the thing. That just means I have to sing. You want to come up here and lead your own? Alright, let's sing happy birthday to Brother Jesse. Are you ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. How old are you young fella? 27. 27. Oh man, if I could go back in time. I'll throw this football over that mountain over there. I'm just kidding. Alright, that's all I have for now. So, let's go ahead and sing another song and then we'll receive the offering. Our next hymn is Psalm 150, Psalm 150. In your Bibles or in the folders. Praise the Lord. Psalm 150. All together. Praise ye the Lord. Praise God in his sanctuary. Praise him in the firm moment of his power. Praise him for his mighty acts. Praise him according to his excellent greatness. Praise him with the sound of the trumpet. Praise him with the sultry and harp. Praise him with the timble and dance. Praise him with string, instruments and organs. Praise him upon the loud cymbals. Praise him on the high sounding cymbals. Let everything that hath breath. Praise the Lord. Praise ye the Lord. Amen at this time. We'll collect the offering. And Brother Jesse, can you bless the offering? Lord, we thank you just to be out here this morning. Jesse, bless this offering. Let the good news come to serve. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. All right, go ahead and open your Bibles to Mark chapter 4. Be in Mark chapter number 4. If you don't have a Bible, there should be one underneath the seat in front of you. Mark chapter number 4. Mark chapter 4, the Bible reads, And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought forth some thirty, and some sixty, and some in hundred. And he said unto them, He that hath ears to hear let him hear. And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables. That seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand. Lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them. And he said unto them, Know you not this parable? And how then will you know all parables? The sower soweth the word, and these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown. But when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately, and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. And these are they likewise which are sown on stony ground, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and have no root in themselves, and so endure but for a time. Afterward, when affliction or persecution ariseth for the word's sake, immediately they are offended. And these are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful. And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word, and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. And he said unto them, Is a candle brought to be put under a bushel, or under a bed, and not to be set on a candlestick? For there is nothing hid which shall not be manifested, neither was anything kept secret, but that it should come abroad. If any man have ears to hear, let him hear. And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear, with what measure ye meet, it shall be measured to you, and unto you that hear shall more be given. For he that hath, to him shall be given, and he that hath not, from him shall be taken, even that which he hath. And he said, So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how. For the earth bringeth forth the fruit of herself, first the blade, then the ear, after that the full corn in the ear. But when the fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the sickle, because the harvest is come. And he said, Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God, or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth. But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches, so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it. And with many such parables spake the word unto them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable spake he not unto them, and when they were alone, he expounded all things to his disciples. And the same day, when the even was come, he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side. And when they had sent away the multitude, they took him even as he was in the ship, and there were also with him other little ships. And there arose a great storm of wind, and the waves beat into the ship, so that it was now full. And when he was in the hindered part of the ship, asleep on a pillow, and they awake him, and say unto him, Master, carest thou not that we perish? And he arose and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith? And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him? Brother Drew, will you pray for us? Amen. The title of the sermon this morning is Bringing Forth Fruit. Bringing Forth Fruit. I haven't preached the soul winning sermon in quite some time, so I figured right before Easter when we were doing some big pushes, and a big soul winning marathon, that it would be appropriate for me to preach about soul winning. So, bringing forth fruit, and maybe another title would be bringing forth fruit in its season. So, I have three points this morning, and I'll just get right into the sermon. The first point of the sermon is the parable of the sower. And this is, in this chapter there's several parables about getting, you know, about someone sowing seed. And Jesus actually explains to them why he preaches in parables, who is able to understand them, how they're able to be understood, and who is not able to understand them, and what this specific parable means. The parable of the sower is what it's called by a lot of people. It's also in parallel passages in other gospels. It's in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And the first point of the sermon is the parable of the sower. So, let's look down at our Bibles at Mark, chapter four, verse number one. The Bible says, And he began again to teach by the seaside. And there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea. And the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. So, I mean, just kind of get the picture. Jesus is surrounded by a huge multitude of people, and when he says he's by the seaside, he's at the Sea of Galilee. And there's so many people crowding around him that he gets in this little boat, and he kind of maybe pushes out a little bit so that his voice, and so that he's kind of alone, kind of out of pulpit in a way, but his voice is allowed to go across the waters and to this crowd of people. Everybody can probably hear him really well. And this is probably the purpose of why he does this, and so people aren't just kind of crowding him, and only the people standing there or sitting there or whatever can hear him very well. It's kind of like a natural auditorium in a way. And he taught them many things by parables and said unto them in his doctrine. So, what is a parable? Well, a parable is a simple or allegorical story used to illustrate moral or spiritual lessons. And the first definition that I looked up that came right up on the Google definition search was as told by Jesus in the gospel. So it specifically gives, and parables can be done by other people, but it specifically says in that definition as told by Jesus in the gospels. So, Jesus does this a lot, and it says in the end of this chapter that by parable, he didn't speak to them by anything but by parables. When he's teaching them, when he's teaching great multitudes of people, he's teaching them by parables. He's using a simple or allegorical style story to teach them or illustrate a moral or spiritual truth. And he does this a lot. And doctrine is basically just means teaching. So, he said unto them in his doctrine, in his teaching, the way Jesus would teach them by parables. So, now verse number three says, so he just gives the parable to them. And so this is just basically, I'm just gonna kind of give this to you on the surface level here like he did. It says in verse three, harken. So he's basically saying, listen to what I'm saying. Behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground where it had not much earth. And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. Some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some 100. And he said unto them, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. So he just basically just tells this story and most people, and some Christians, obviously the disciples were already saved, and they're asking him later, what does this mean? They don't even understand what he's saying. And some of the parables and some of the hard sayings of the Bible, even Christians don't understand. Sometimes you just have to read the Bible multiple times before you get some of the hard sayings, like the hard sayings of Paul. So what this is on surface level though, you have this person who's spreading seeds like a farmer would. And is anybody here a farmer or has been a farmer before? Anybody? Has anybody planted a garden and sowed seeds before? Okay. Or is there anybody in here that's like someone that just plants, plants, and keeps care of plants in here? So you kind of understand a little bit that plants come from seeds. I think everybody, if you went to public school in kindergarten, they'd give you little plants and teach you how, they'd put them in the window sill. At least I remember doing this. And then they'd spring up and it's kind of like little projects that you would do and take them home to your parents and then they'd throw them away or whatever. But after they died, because you didn't take care of them. But you have this person who's, it says there's a sower that went out to sow. So that's what it's talking about. It's talking about someone that's just going out, the earth is already plowed, and they're just flaying seeds into, everywhere that they can go. And it seems like they're not being super careful. It would, as, because they're just falling all over the place. He's losing stuff. It says that they fell on the wayside. So it's not like he's just like, it's like he's got a couple bags of seeds maybe on his hips or something is what I kind of imagine. And just seeds are just falling everywhere. He's probably grabbing handfuls and kind of just throwing them or whatever. It's kind of what I envision. But some are falling on the wayside where it wasn't intended to go. Nobody just throws the seeds on the side of the road where it's not, it's not going in the dirt where he's planning on putting it is what basically is happening here. And it wasn't intended to go there and it's eaten by birds. Fowls are birds. That's what they're called. So also fell on spots. Some also fell on spots not great for growing fruit-producing plants on stony ground. Or they're just landing on rocks, places where it's difficult to grow plants that are bringing forth fruit because in the end of this parable, it's like some 30, some 60, some 100. He's trying to grow things that produce things to eat, fruit, things that are delicacies, right? So and because they fell on stony ground, they didn't have roots and they were scorched to death by the sun. And that's what happens to plants when they don't have a good root system, they die. When any kind of hot sun hits them, they die. And some fell among thorns or weeds and everybody knows that when you have weeds, you need to pull those weeds up and get them away from your plants or it's gonna kill your crop. So you don't plant seeds next to blackberry bushes. You don't try to grow a crop next to thorn bushes or any kind of weeds. Those plants attach to the plants that are good plants and they suck the water out. Sometimes they wrap themselves around those types of plants and then they just choke them out and they can't produce the fruit that they're supposed to produce. Some on good ground and it sprang up and increased and brought forth the fruit like it's supposed to. Some 30, some 60, some 100. So some of them increased some and so it's just kind of unpredictable. He just didn't know, you know, some are gonna grow better than others. Some are gonna produce a lot. It's that way with any kind of trees or fruit trees. Sometimes you'll get ones like Jesus came to the fig tree and he wanted to eat something off of it and there was no fruit on it. But what is that a picture of? That Israel was supposed to have fruit when he came and he found no fruit and that's why he rejected them and then he cursed that fig tree and said let no fruit, you know, come forth on this henceforth and forever and the tree withered away and died by the time he came back to it. It's a picture of hey, Israel was supposed to be going and getting fruit and so that was another kind of a parable or a way to teach the children of Israel and the disciples he had that they were not doing their job. So and if anybody's kept plants though, they understand these principles. So this is what a farmer that sows seed wants. He wants the plants that they sow in the ground, the seeds that they sow, they want them to produce fruit. You don't want birds to eat your seed. You don't want the sun to scorch them and kill them. Any farmer wants the crop to produce fruit, whatever that seed is. And so that's really not a lot of explanation of the parable but I just wanted to kind of get your mind into what is happening here and it's really not that difficult to follow but I just want you to kind of understand the story and some of these words like fowl and stuff are not really generally what we call birds and stuff like that. But this is the parable. So number two this morning, the purpose of the parables. Jesus explains this to us in verse 10. It says and when he was alone, they that were about him with the 12 asked of him the parable. So there's other people besides just the 12 and he said unto them unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables. So and this is the way it is in our world today. In church when we're all together the Bible is for us to understand. That's why we gear church towards believers. We don't have all of our service geared towards unbelievers because everybody in here is pretty much saved. And so we gear the services towards people that are saved and then we go out and sow the seeds, right? So it's given to us to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God but unto them that are without all these things are done in parables. People out there don't even understand some of the most simple things in the Bible let alone parables. And it says that seen they may see and not perceive. They can see the Bible. How many times do you go to people's doors and they say well I've read the Bible even though most of the time they're lying but don't ask them if they've read the book of Hezekiah unless you're willing to listen to them lie to your face but Jesus said that he said that seeing they may not see and not perceive and hearing they may hear and not understand. This is the unsaved mind cannot understand the things of the Spirit of God. There are foolishness unto them. So they need the Spirit of God to be able to understand these things. It says less at any time they should be converted and their sins should be forgiven. That's kind of a strange thing to say. Wouldn't you think that he wants them to be converted? But sometimes there's people that he just doesn't want to be converted. That flies in the face of everything you hear from the evangelical movement. That oh well Jesus wants them to be forgiven. Is that what it says right there? No it says that there's some people that he wants them to hear and not understand. He wants them to see but not perceive what he's saying. Even when he preaches unto them in Matthew chapter 21 when he says that the kingdom of God is taken from you a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. The fruits thereof. Then they perceived that he was preaching against them but they still didn't understand what he was saying. They're just like I think he's preaching against us. Let's kill him. So the unsaved will not understand the proverbs is what Jesus is saying. Sometimes even the saved are having a hard time with it because saved people are walking up and don't understand this. The proverbs are called also, this is what the proverbs are, is also they're parables. So the proverbs are called the book of wisdom and a lot of times the proverbs are hard things to interpret. But they're also called, there's also hard sayings in the Bible and they're called dark sayings. So proverbs, parables, and dark sayings are things that are a little more difficult to get and grasp even with sometimes believers. Let's look at some verses here. Let's look at Proverbs chapter one. Proverbs chapter one. The second point of my sermon is the purpose of parables. What is the purpose of parables? Well the purpose of parables, Jesus said, is for, they're for us to understand things as believers but the unsaved are not gonna believe them. They're not gonna understand them so therefore they can't believe them. But Proverbs 1 says, So isn't he calling a proverb a dark saying? There's something that we can't necessarily always grasp but to understand them in the interpretation, the words of the wise, so they're wise words aren't they? But they're also hard and dark sayings sometimes. Turn to Psalm chapter 78 verse two. Psalm chapter 78 verse two. See people think that, they just think that well if we just get it easier to understand Bible or something, we get a dumbed down version. We get something that sounds like a robot regurgitated it from Grok or something or from some AI that it's gonna be better than like the King James but some things are meant to be hard. God sometimes just allows things to be hard and difficult and then he reveals things to us on a personal level as we read the Bible and we just like, oh I never saw that before. It's like yeah because God didn't want you to see it before but now he wants you to see it and that's why it's so important that we read the Bible so that we can understand things at the level that God wants us to understand them. So Psalm chapter 78 verse two says I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old. So this is of course, I think it's Asaph possibly, a psalm of Asaph. I'm not sure what it says in the heading in your Bible. Does it say a psalm of Asaph? Anybody's heading? Okay it does. So I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter dark sayings of old. So remember in our study in First Chronicles that it says that Asaph is a seer. He's like, he preaches through his music. So look at Psalm 49 verse four. Psalm 49 verse four. Is there a heading? I don't have my Bible open to there. I just have it printed on here. Is there a heading on that one? What's the heading say? It's the chief musician, a psalm for the sons of Korah. Okay yeah, so it doesn't say who wrote it necessarily, but it says, I will incline mine ear to a parable. I will open my dark saying upon the harp. So I preached a sermon about this not too long ago, a couple weeks ago in First Chronicles talking about how preaching is done through the psalms. But again, it's a dark saying. So some of the psalms are also dark sayings. A lot of the psalms are, because what are a lot of the psalms about? They're about the Lord Jesus Christ, aren't they? And Jesus expanded those things to the men on the road to Emmaus as he walked with them. Talked about how the scriptures had, in the psalms concerning him, right? Now turn to Second Peter chapter three. Second Peter chapter three. Second Peter chapter three verse 16. Now Peter is saying this about the apostle Paul specifically. He's talking about the apostle Paul here. It says, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable, rest, means twist basically, as they do also the other scriptures unto their own destruction. So not only do the unlearned and unstable rest, you know, just the sayings of Paul, but also other scriptures unto their own destruction. So this could be someone that's just unlearned and new to things, but it also could probably be talking about people that aren't saved and people that just don't understand, they're not learned, but it also, it could be someone that's just a bad person. And now turn to Proverbs chapter 26. Now people that are unsaved and are teaching proverbs, teaching dark sayings, a lot of times, and specifically in this parable that we're looking at today, they'll take and say that everybody in the list of this parable is unsaved except for the last one, which I don't believe that. Like Ray Comfort, everybody in this one is unsaved. They're all unsaved. Unless you're bringing forth fruit, they will say you're not saved. This is what a lot of even Baptists will say. Hey, if you don't have evidence of your life that you're bringing forth fruit, and they'll say the fruits of the spirit, well that's the fruits of the spirit, that's not your fruit. The fruits of the spirit are the fruits of the spirit, and they can manifest in our life, but that's still the fruits of the spirit. You're not the spirit. You have a spirit, and the spirit of God lives in you, and he works through us, but you are not the spirit of God. The spirit of God resides in you if you're saved. So Proverbs 26 verse seven says, the legs of the lame are not equal, so is a parable in the mouth of fools. And fool just means stupid or they're idiots, but also it's talking about people that are unsaved. So a lot of times the Bible, when it's saying fools, it's talking about unsaved people. So having one leg longer than the other basically can make you not walk right, and basically it's saying that they're lame. Maybe you just have part of your leg missing or something. And so you're gonna walk with a limp. It's gonna hinder you. It's gonna make you halt or not be able to walk or run the same as other people. It says so is a parable in the mouth of fools. So an unsaved person teaching a parable is equally as useless as having legs that aren't working or functioning correctly. So someone is trying to utter dark sayings of the Bible, preaching parables, preaching these things that Jesus is expounding here. If an unsaved person is trying to teach them, they're not gonna teach it the right way because they don't understand what they're even talking about. They don't understand the proverb, and so how are they gonna understand what Jesus, or expound on what Jesus is saying if they're not even saved and can't understand it themselves? So this is kind of just like a, I think it's important that we understand these things because when we go to parables, we should understand, try to understand them by the Spirit of God, not just on our own power, and we should really try to understand what, a lot of times Jesus will interpret them for us, but when he doesn't, we have to understand some things and use caution in teaching parables and hard sayings in the Bible. When we preach, we have a lot of men in this church that preach, just make sure you understand what you're teaching before you teach it when it comes to parables because you don't wanna look like a fool just because you didn't know what you were talking about on it. And there's some multiple interpretations of Bible passages. There's layers to the Bible. There's multiple interpretations for, and there's first and second interpretations for certain passages. There's primary and secondary, and sometimes third or even more, and that includes parables. Some parables you can teach the primary application out of it. A lot of them are against the Jews in reality. Even the prodigal son is probably talking about that because when the son, the first son, he's all mad because the brother got treated with the fatted calf and got the robe and the ring and all that stuff, and the father was happy because his son had come back to him, which represents what? The Gentiles who had lost, and now they're found. And the first son's like, you never slayed the fatted calf for me so I could make merry with my friends. He's all, what, envious of his brother instead of being happy that his brother's come home. He's envious, and he's like, hey, my son, you've been doing right this whole time, and everything that I have is yours. But what is that talking about, the Jews being upset about it? But what else can you apply it to? You can apply it to someone that's walked away or gone back to the world and now they're back. I mean, you can apply it to, I think he's a son when he left, so he's saved, and he's a son when he comes back. He never was unsaved, but you could apply it to someone that isn't saved and now is. I think you can see that there's three applications right there that you can use for it, but I think that it's obviously also ripping on the Jews. But you must actually be saved according to Jesus to understand the deeper spiritual things of these dark scenes of this book. And point number three, my last point, and we're already there, hey, it's early, but this is a long last point, okay? So it's the longest point. And it's the interpretation of the parable. So Jesus is gonna interpret the parable for us so that we can understand it. So let's look at verse number 14 back in our text and you'll wanna hold there, because I am gonna go to some different passages here, but not too much, not too much flipping around from here on out. But yeah, just a couple things here. But Mark 14, four verse 14, excuse me, says, the sower soweth the word. So he's interpreting for us. What does the seed actually represent? What is the farmer actually doing? He's sowing the seed of the word of God. The word, okay? And how do I know this? Well, in Luke 8, 11, it says now the parable is this. The seed is the word of God. So this is a parallel passage, and Luke says this, that the seed is the word of God. So the interpretation of him sowing the seed is the seed is the word of God. And you see this all throughout the Bible that seed is represented of preaching the word of God. Is the seed yet in the barn? We're not supposed to keep the seed in the barn. We're supposed to preach the word and let all that seed go out and be planted in all these different places. Look at verse 15, it says, and these are they by the wayside, where the word is sown. And when we go out sowing, we're not just picking one specific fertile ground only. Don't we go to the hard places? Don't we go to the places that are off the wayside that are less likely to get saved? We go everywhere. So we're not sparing of the seed. We don't just go to only one place. The fertile ground for us is what? Where the poor are, right? The people that are most likely to get saved, where the fertile ground is is where poor people are. And Jesus told us to do that. So that's why we would focus on those areas, but we also have to hit the wayside. We also have to hit the stony ground where they're less likely to get saved. So it says, where the word is sown, but when they have heard, Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts. I'm not sure how he does this. Maybe he entices them with something or lets them think about something, hey, you don't wanna do this because remember this then, how good this feels? Remember how, you know, this is what you're gonna have to give up. And, you know, he's lying to them because he's the father of lies. I don't know how he is accomplishing taking the word away from them like that, but he does. That's what the Bible says in all the parables concerning this specific passage. It's saying he taketh away the word that was sown in their heart. So we sow that seed. We preach the gospel to that person and that person gets the seed taken away from them. This person is the one person that isn't getting saved in this passage. This is what I believe about the passage. They don't get saved because the seed is taken from them, right? It says, and these are they likewise which are sown on the stony ground. Now, some would probably say that they believe that this person isn't saved either, but what's it say? Who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness. What happens when you receive the gospel? Well, you get saved, don't you? It says they immediately receive it with gladness. So when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's receiving the gospel. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. Once you receive that gift, it's yours for how long? Forever. So that means that these people are saved, right? In my opinion, that's what it's saying. You receive the word with gladness. But it says, and have no root in themselves. And so endure but for a time. Afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they're offended. So they have no root. They don't get grounded in the truth. They don't come to church. They don't get grounded. They don't read their Bible. They're not very spiritual. And they are like when the sun comes out. You know, when the sun comes out and it's a hot day and it scorches you and you don't wanna be outside, you just wanna go into the air conditioning, you wanna be comfortable, don't you? You don't want the sun beating upon the back of your neck. You know, when you're out sewing, you forget a hat that covers your neck. And you're like at that door and you're like, the person wants to receive the gospel, but like the sun is just right on you. Maybe you're in like a tropical place or in a place that is really hot. Even here it can get hot sometimes, right? So that's kinda what it's like for them that someone makes fun of them for believing in Jesus or that they go to church now or they're saved and they're talking about it and they start mocking them and teasing them and making fun of them and maybe it's probably their family members. It's probably their best friends. And because they're receiving that persecution, maybe it's just light persecution, which it usually is, then they get offended. It says when affliction or persecution, those things mean the same thing. Affliction, you're getting, and being mocked is afflicting. Jesus was mocked and ridiculed on the cross and he didn't like it. Persecution, when people are, you know, you're getting fired from your job or I mean, it could be moderate persecution, but it says when that happens, for the word's sake, immediately they're offended. So these people are saved, but they can't handle the persecution. It's time to wake up, I guess, no. But it says, and these are they which are sown among thorns. So this is the next group here. So okay, you got two, let's see, you got two groups so far. One, they didn't get saved because Satan takes away the seed out of their heart. You got the second one, they get saved, but they're offended over persecution, they fall away. They can't handle the persecution, but they are saved. So this is what we deal with as people of God, as soul winners, and you're like, well, why didn't they come to church? We don't know what happens after we leave their door. We don't know why they didn't come to church and get plugged in, and Jesus is telling us, these are the things that happen, we don't know. Why didn't they come to church and get baptized? Maybe they didn't really get saved, no. You shouldn't think that way. Maybe they're just not thankful. Maybe they're like the nine lepers that didn't come back and give Jesus praise for healing them from their leprosy. Only one came back, right? It says, and these, verse 18, are they which are sown among thorns, such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choked the word, and it becometh unfruitful. So, again, I believe this person is saved. It says they hear the word, but they care too much about the things of this world. They're worldly. And the deceitfulness of riches, they care more about making money and the things that they have instead of the things of God and the lusts of other things. They just can't get past their own lust, their own wicked heart in these things, and those things choke it. So that's what happens when we get wrapped up so much with the world instead of the things of God is that even anybody in this room, this can happen to you even years after being saved. You can just be like, well, this is just too hard now. I've been doing this for too long now, and then you kind of just get wrapped up in these things, and you're like, yeah, I've kind of done my tour of duty. I'm ready to resign from the military, and I'm ready to just take a hiatus or whatever. I'm done being in the Green Berets. I'm ready to be a citizen that kind of just is in the army still, but I'm ready to be a contractor now. But this is what happens sometimes when you get people saved. They just start caring more about things of the world. They don't care so much about the things of God. They care about the lust that they have. Verse 20. And these are they which are sown on good ground. These are the ones where the field is plowed, and it doesn't necessarily even mean that they were in the poor area. This is just someone who, you know, they get saved, and they do care about the things of God. There's just something, there's some character inside of them that they do care about the things of God, and they hear the word, such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit. What is this talking about? Well, it says some 30 fold, and some 60, and some 100. They receive it. That means they hear the word, they receive it, that means they got saved, right? And they bring forth fruit. I just kind of explained that the fruit of the Spirit is the fruit of the Spirit. Those qualities that the fruit of the Spirit has. But the fruit that we bring forth is mainly talking about winning someone else to the Lord. That's what the Bible consistently teaches throughout the Scriptures. Keep your finger here. Let's go to Proverbs 11, verse 30. And just kind of keep your finger right there so we can kind of look back and forth at these verses together. And of course we've looked at this many, many times, right? We're very familiar with this verse in our church. But they hear and receive and bring forth. So there's four seasons in a year. Summer, fall, winter, and spring. And in Vancouver, we have two seasons basically. It's rain and then cloudy and some sunny weather. But I'm joking. We do have a fall. We have all those seasons. It rains sometimes more than it does others in the spring. It does rain a bit, but it's definitely a lot nicer of a rain in the springtime than it is in the wintertime. In the dead of winter here, it's not fun, is it? It's just dreary. You can kind of see why Kurt Cobain killed himself. But he lived where it rains even more. Up in that area, it rains more than it does here for sure. And it can kind of get dreary. But the reason why I'm bringing seasons up is because I believe that when it's talking about the seasons, it's talking about in a year of life, fruit trees or any kind of producing plant has a season that they bring forth fruit also. Apples don't just grow on the tree all year round. During the winter, they go dormant. They have to kind of clip those branches. And then in the springtime, they start to bud again and apples start to grow again. I think that they bring forth in the fall season, maybe end of summer, fall season. And then all these apples come. They pick the apples. And that's why people just get these great apples. In Washington state, there's some great apples. That's one thing that you can be thankful for in Washington. I've gotten these mutant apples that are like this big. I'm like, how did this happen? This has to be Monsanto or, I don't know. I don't know how they got them that big, but they were good, too. And I've never seen any since, so I don't know where they were growing those. Probably by Hanford or something. But bring back Hanford. I want them apples. But anyway, so we're here in Proverbs 11, 30. Look what it says. It says, the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he that winneth souls is wise. So that word winneth there, that E-T-H there is kind of the old, or the, not old English, but it's, I don't know, what would you call it? It's not old English, but it's more like the Elizabethan English word. The E-T-H is a plural. Like it would be, it's kind of now morphed into an S at the end. So the modern day of the E-T-H is S at the end. So he that wins souls is wise, is how you would say that. So that winneth is plural, correct? Everybody would agree with that? He that wins souls is wise. Is that wins past, present, or future? It's present, isn't it? It's not past. So Proverbs 11, it's given us the tense in which we should apply this to ourselves. He that wins souls is wise. Wins is a present tense. So I looked it up on Grok just to make sure I was right, because Grok knows everything, right? But it says, wins is the present tense of the verb to win. It describes an action happening now, such as she wins the race, or he always wins at chess. Past tense would be won. He that won souls is wise. She won the race. Present tense would be will win. She will win the race. So wins is firmly present. So when the Bible says he that winneth souls, or he that wins souls is wise, is a present tense. Now, notice the word souls. Now I know everybody in this room is smart enough to understand that that is also a plural term. The S at the end makes it plural. It's not he that won a soul was wise, is it? It's not he who will one day win a soul is wise. It's not he who won souls is wise. Now, I'm not saying that you're not, if you won souls at one point. I'm just caveating that. People will pick me apart and send me emails or whatever. Pastor Thompson, write comments on the YouTube or whatever. He who will win souls some days is wise. That is true, but I'm just saying that's not what the verse says, okay? The idea of this verse is that this is a present tense thing and it doesn't say soul. It doesn't say you win one soul one time and that makes you wise. This is something that is a lifestyle of a saved person. The fruit, what are we talking about here? What is Jesus talking about? You sow the seeds and at the end of the parable, it says, such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth what? Fruit. The fruit of the righteous. Who are the righteous? The saved people. What is the fruit? The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. So you're producing what? Another righteous person. That's a tree of life is someone that has everlasting life, right? That is what we are. So this is God's terminology for us so that we'll understand it. That's why Jesus is presenting it this way in the parable. That's why he's explaining it to us. He doesn't explain every parable exactly like that, but he does explain this one. Why do you think that is? I think he wants us to understand this so it's just plain as the nose on our face. When he says that Satan takes the word out of their heart, I think he wants us to understand that they didn't get saved. But the other people, there's millions of Christians out there that do not bring forth fruit. They do not continue to win souls. It's not a lifestyle for them. They won souls or maybe they never win souls. Some people just hate the term soul winning. I don't like that term soul winning. Well, you're not right with God then because the Bible actually says that term. They like to use a term like witnessing. Well, I like that term too. But if you're using it in lieu of saying soul winning just because you don't like Jack Hyles preaching or whatever or you don't like Pastor Anderson or you don't like the new IFB or whatever, it's just stupid. The Bible says the term. Well, you're saying it doesn't say soul winning. Wins souls. Soul winning. Winneth souls. He who winneth, he who wins souls. He whose soul wins. What is that talking about? It's bringing forth the fruit of the righteous. We are the sowers of the seed. Jesus is our Lord and Savior. He saved us. Doesn't it make sense that we go and try to see other people saved also? But the cares of this world are choking out a lot of Christians and some people have quit soul winning or some people... Look, everybody goes through seasons where they don't feel like going. I understand that. I've been doing it for a long time too and there's times when I don't feel like going too. And look, things happen. Life happens. Toothaches happen. Bad knees happen. Bad backs happen. Bad health happens. And apathy happens. But you know what? The further away that we get away from the door, the further our heart gets away from Jesus. It's just a fact, folks. I'm not trying to hurt anybody's feelings here. I struggle with the same things you struggle with. I'm not better than anybody else in this room. But I will tell you what. When we get back to the door, our heart will be better and more right with God than it was, okay? So it's not he who used to win souls is wise. It's he that winneth souls is wise. And it's a tree of life. We receive it and we become a tree of life. And the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. He that winneth souls is wise. So, and maybe in this town, it's some three, some six, and some 10. But I guarantee you this. If you go out, you will get people saved. Maybe in this town it's not 30, 60, 100 per year. I guess it just depends on how much time you put into it. Because the more time you put into it, the more you're gonna get. Maybe for some it's one, three, and five. Maybe for some it's a half a soul, one and a half souls, or two and a half souls. Because look, if you're a soul winning, if you're a silent partner, you're still dividing among the spoil. If you're kicking dogs and kissing babies and keeping back the reprobates that are trying to come and break up the other person's gospel presentation, and you know, don't kick their dogs please, unless they're trying to attack you, okay? Then you pull out the mace or the gun or whatever. But anyway, try to be nice to their dogs if you can. Pet their cat, whatever. Don't pet it backwards. But you see what I'm saying? Like, you're still getting, you're still part of that soul winning equation. Just because you're not the one speaking, you're still there. When you're still training, you're still winning souls. You're still helping. And so as more people come to this church and they start getting people to say, look, our church was built on soul winning. People could say, well it was built on this or that. No, it was built on soul winning. It was built on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now some are zero, zero, and zero. Let's not be that guy. Let's not be that gal. Have you been making excuses that you can't? That's easy to do. It really is. I just can't. Can't never did anything. Did you know that? Can't never did anything. I just can't. Yeah, I know. You can't do anything, can you? Maybe your heart's hardened to it because there's been a lot of soul winning sermons preached. I get it. And there was even like a compilation of soul winning, soul winning, soul winning, soul winning. And they're making fun of us for talking about soul winning so much. But it's just like it's important. There's people dying and going to hell. I mean just every second people are dying. This earth is just replenishing. People are dying. People are being born. But less people are being born in this country and other countries that are just promoting abortion on demand. I mean people are freaking out over abortion centers being closed down. But you know if our heart is saying hey I just don't want to do this anymore or you know I've done my time or maybe your stat line is zero, zero, zero. Well let's do better. Let's increase. You know we can increase those numbers. You're like well in this town it's just never gonna be 30, 60, 100. And maybe you're right. Maybe it is. But let me give you some equations here. More time equals more seeds sown equals more fruit. You put more time in, you're gonna get more seed out, you're gonna get more fruit. You're like how do you know that? It's just simple equations. It's just simple math. More energy put in equals more effort equals more fruit. More places you go equals more opportunities to give more seed equals more fruit. Equals more receptivity sometimes equals more opportunities equals more soul saved. Equals what? More fruit, right? What are we supposed to be doing? What are we supposed to be doing? Bringing forth fruit. Actually we're supposed to be sowing the seed. And when we sow the seed, we're going to bring forth more fruit. How about this one? More care. You know instead of just going and just going through the motions, which can be done, and you know what sometimes when you just go and you're like you have all these reasons in your mind why you can't go and then you just go, you're probably more happy that you win. And you get someone saved or someone else that you're with gets saved. Or you just get to talk to someone in a great conversation. But more care equals more precious seed sown. Because the more you care, the more they see it. And when they see that you actually care about their soul, they're more likely to get saved, aren't they? Equals more fruit, doesn't it? The chances are, and you know here's the thing, a lot of people are like well maybe if I just move to a different place or I move to a place that's more receptive, you know I'd get more people saved. And maybe that's true. But the chances are to move to a more receptive place in a tropical country isn't really an option unless you're independently wealthy. You move to Hawaii, and say I want to move to Hawaii and I want to go to such and such church. Good luck getting to church on time. If I know you, people at this church, you're never getting there. Because it's an island. There's no shortcuts. You take one, there's one or two highways there, there's no shortcuts. And everybody is trying to get to the same place at the same time. They call it island time there. People get places on island time. Brother Eli, haven't you lived in Hawaii? You know what I'm talking about. And people are always late to church there. So unless you're independently wealthy and you can just live in some island tropical nation and you're willing to just tough out, or you're just willing to tough out and go without luxuries that you have here in America, you can go to a third world country that's tropical. But guess what? Say goodbye to steak and hamburger say goodbye to certain kind of foods. If you're used to living a certain life here in America of luxuries, and look, a lot of people are willing to do that. People that go to the Philippines, I don't know how Pastor Stuckey does it. Because I was ready to kiss the ground and have a Big Mac as soon as I got home. Well I don't like Big Macs, but a quarter pounder. I'd rather eat anything at McDonald's than the food that they have there. Sorry. I'm just saying, I don't like, I'm not a big McDonald's guy, but like, I would have killed for a quarter pounder when I was there. But they do have some stuff that's okay, but it's always like American food. I don't know, I'm sorry, I'm not trying to be mean. I do like lumpia or whatever, the egg roll type things that they make. I was afraid to eat when I was there. Have you ever been to a place when you were afraid to drink the water? Or drink the soda? Because the ice might not be filtered? I would go to the people and say, I want to see that filter. I would not, I would just bring my own water places. I would, I was afraid to drink, because if they didn't have a filter, because they have the soda, but if you put ice in it, and it's hot there, so everything that you want, you want ice in it, but it's like, I don't know, man. I don't want to have the Montezuma's Revenge in the Philippines, you know? I'm just saying that like, but some people are willing to give up those luxuries, and that's great, but are you? I don't know. And, the most receptive places are the crime ridden poor areas of this country. Is that where you want to live? Do you actually want to live there? It's a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there. Have you ever heard that term before? Let's just face it, the places that we love to go so many, we probably wouldn't want to live in those places. Anybody want to live in Compton? Watts, Inglewood, Eight Mile, South Chicago, Philly, Florida anywhere, South Dallas, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, any place in Mexico, except for maybe, what do they have, the little luxury places where you can go and you're protected. They have tanks and stuff surrounding you just in case the cartel tries to kill you. Venezuela, I mean, Jamaica, South Africa, all these places, it's like, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life, you're risking your life possibly going there. Yeah, they're really receptive. I like to go there during the daytime. Congo, Sierra Leone, even the Bahamas, like, it's great, I'm sure it's great to go there and visit and get people saved, but do you want to live there? You probably, I mean, people are like, I'd love to live in paradise. Yeah, you probably would for like a little while, but then, you probably get tired of it if you're used to living in a certain place. How many times have you been out so many and people are like, what are you doing here? You are crazy, why are you here right now? Why are you here? Do you realize where you're at right now? And people say that to us, yeah, God's protecting us, we don't really care. And people are like, women will be out with their children in these crazy, hard neighborhoods where crack is being sold right in front of, you know, it's like there's all these hard gangsters, but they're all asleep when we're there for the most part. And they're not gonna do stuff to people in broad daylight for the most part. But I believe God protects us. But Jesus said to do things in the day, right? We're not supposed to be out doing things in the dark when the people of darkness are out doing dark things, right? But, you know, it's like, for our own, people literally say, don't be here after dark. Don't be here after dark. Who's heard somebody say that in a neighborhood that we've gone to? It's crazy. Hands all over the building. Don't be here after dark. Why do they say that? Because you gonna get killed. But during the daytime, or when we go to 80 city, and we get maps that are like, yeah, this is kind of like middle class. Brother Timo's like, it's eight mile, or die, homie. Give me another map. Or, in South Chicago, or Bustbuster, we're going to South Chicago, or we're gonna go to a way better neighborhood than this. Don't give me no wuss map, baby boy. It's ride or die, homie. You know, we're going to the ghetto. That's what we're doing. But nobody wants to actually live there. But we can be effective here, where we live, to get the some third, three, some six, some 10, probably more than that in actuality, depending on how much time we put in. We can go to Gresham or Longview for more, but do you go to those times? Do you go to those actual places? I mean, it can be difficult because of traffic and stuff. I get that. Maybe the times. I don't know. You go to Yakima for even better results. You go to Texas for like a little mini vacation. South Texas, or Indy. They're really receptive there. Or Southern California, and those other places I mentioned before. Or other places. We haven't even scratched the surface in the Midwest, or in the Southern states. We really haven't. We can go to all different places. And what's holding you back? Nothing's holding you back. So you go to the Bahamas. There's all kinds of trips going there. South Pacific, the Philippines for video game numbers. You want video game numbers? I just told you this morning, Brother Sean Conlon had 68 people saved in less than a week. And he's like, video game. He's just like racking them up. Game over. He's got the new high score. He's like putting his initials in it or whatever. You can make your quota. You can make the 30, 60, 100. You can do it on one trip, apparently. He's 68. I don't know what he's got from January, but he's probably on his way to the 100 mark. He's probably got the fever. He's probably gonna go back. So here's the thing. And this is something I learned when I moved away here for about seven years when I lived in Portland. I grew up in a small town in the high desert, actually in a prairie. And I wanted to go back there as an adult. And I was like, man, I'm so sick of the rain here. I can't wait till it's sunny. It's 90 degrees every day where I'm gonna be living. And I was just so excited about all that. And it is exciting for a while. But then when you realize that every time the sun comes out, the wind blows. And there's nothing but sand there. And that sand gets in your ears, in your eyes. If you work outside, every time the sun comes out, it's the east wind blows, and the gorge has that east wind. And the further down the gorge you live, the more the wind blows. And after a while, I grew to hate the wind. I hated working outside because my lips were always chapped. And sand was in every crevice of my body when I got off work. I hated that. I grew to hate it. And then when it rained, it's sideways and hurting. And I grew to hate the smell there. It smelled like agriculture. Onions, rotten onions. And I hated it. And every time I came back here, when I hit the Cascade Mountains, you'd smell the freshest air ever. Try it sometime. I mean, the air that you breathe when you hit this area is like none other. I like the trees here. You know, the reason why it's so beautiful here is because it rains. But it doesn't rain all the time, right? And so I grew to miss here, and I grew to hate that place that I thought was going to be so great and everything is going to be so cool because of the weather and how everything is different. But here's what I found. Is that every place you go, there's a downside to that place. Is there a downside to this place? Absolutely. I agree with you about the rain. It's expensive. But let me tell you something. The places that are cheap to live in are also, there's a reason why they're cheap to live there. You know why it's cheap to live there? Because it's ugly. Because it's not a great experience. Let me tell you something. Better or more expensive, higher quality of life. Less expensive, less quality of life. Less quality of life. It's just a fact. Why is it cheap? Because when you look out, you don't see mountains and trees and beauty and breathing fresh air and have cool things to do around there. It's because you can't see any mountains. Everything's flat. It's ugly all year round. And it stinks. And then, look. Ask my wife if every Walmart is the same. When she went to Texas, her Walmart experience was much different. I mean, yeah, at all Walmarts, you're gonna have some weird experiences. But she says she's never been in a Walmart like that ever. She just kinda ventured off into the Texas countryside or whatever and found a Walmart that was like no other. I'm not gonna explain it, but it was an experience that she will not soon forget. She's like, our Walmart is normal compared to that one. So all I'm saying is that that thinking and mentality that the grass is greener on the other side, and maybe it's greener. I don't see how I can get more green than it is here, but the grass is not always greener in the other place. The grass is not always greener on the other side. And there's lots of pitfalls in every city. Think about this. The weather is different. I mean, every once in a while, we'll have like a, remember a couple weeks ago, it was like tornado thunderstorm emergencies. It was like the wind kind of just, I was like, oh man, my wind chimes moved. Like there's more emergency that they don't tell us about, like where it hailed for like, I don't know, five minutes and then it melted away or whatever. They didn't even tell us that was coming. But the one that was like, I mean I had people texting me from Indiana saying, hey, have you seen anything like this before? And it was like a yellow band that wasn't even like really that severe. And I was like, well, I mean, I guess it looks like it is kind of severe. It was like, power didn't go out, nothing was wrong. I mean, it's like, I mean, we don't really have a lot of major disasters here except for the flooding when it rains a lot. Those are on like what El Nino years or La Nina, I don't know which one it is, but we do have some flooding here sometimes, but is it like flooding like you saw in South Carolina? No. Is there hurricanes here? The Columbus storm that happened when my mom was a little girl and some garbage cans flew over or something. Some roofs got ripped off. I mean, maybe a volcano blew up one time here, but we got ash on our cars. I mean, it's like, Nina got woke up the other night to thunderstorms that scared her half to death because she's never seen thunderstorms like that. In Texas, they have thunderstorms. It can rain, hail, snow, and have tornadoes and thunderstorms all in the same day. You just don't know. But it's also gonna be 115 degrees with full humidity there on a summer day. No thanks. It can be 120 degrees in places where you live and you're like, oh yeah, I can't wait to get to Phoenix. You get there, it's the winter time, and you're like, oh, t-shirts, it's 70 degrees, and it's like, when it's summer, it's like you're like in a car just running from one air conditioner to the next. Like, literally the signs there melted. The city signs that they put on the streets melted. The paint melted on them. Like, whoever was contracted to do those signs didn't believe the hype or something. It's like, I think they replaced them, but man, that's hot. So, I'm just saying that like, we have a great place that we live here, and yeah, are some places better? Maybe. But I just think that the mentality that people get sometimes is that, hey, it's lower cost of living. I guarantee you that there's something higher there, though. It all balances out, folks. It really does. Yeah, it's lower cost of living, but maybe the medical's higher there. Maybe the utilities cost more. I just can't understand why utilities cost more in certain places than they would do here and less in some things. I mean, it's a mashup, but you're probably not really saving much when you actually really pan it all out. Guess what? The wages are also lower in the places where it's cheaper. It's lower cost of living, but unless you have a great job, then it's not helping you. So, not every Walmart's equal. Not every neighborhood is equal. Hey, if you live in some place where it's just like, oh, yeah, I can't even walk down the street without someone trying to rob me at gunpoint, then, oh, maybe I shouldn't have moved here. I don't know. I thought it was gonna be receptive to soul winning. Well, I mean, it probably is, but maybe you should just have gone there for the day with the church and just, I don't know, maybe planned a trip to visit and knock some doors or something. But some neighborhoods, you can't walk through there even during the day and be safe. And let's just think about this. Not all bugs and animals are the same either because there's not one single poisonous spider in this area right here. I mean, all spiders are poisonous to a certain extent, but there's no black widows, no brown recluses, no yellow sac spiders. There's no wolf spiders. There's no tarantulas here. There's no poisonous snakes. Nothing like that. I mean, if you're going out hiking by yourself and there's a cougar, yeah, I mean, you should have carried a gun with you or something. But there are bear and things like that. But I mean, that's if you're just being adventurous and stupid not to carry a gun with you. But like, I mean, in reality, so there's some of the, I mean, the bugs. In some places in the south, you can't even step on the, my wife just stepped on like a, you know, what are those called? Between the curb and the sidewalk? Well, it's the grass strip. She just stepped there. We were out soloing and all of a sudden she's got all these fire ants all over her. It's like you can't do any, you can't spit without a fire ant being by you. And in Florida, I saw a bee this long. It was just buzzing up in this like, I was just going to the bathroom. I was like, eh. And I hate bees, but I hate giant bees even worse. One last verse while we're out of here, I'm sorry. Let's go to Psalm chapter 126. So I'm just saying that like every place the grass is greener. Don't have that mentality necessarily. You know, there's lots of pitfalls to every place. And every place has its ups and downs, its bad weather. I mean, I don't want to have a place where I have to build a storm shelter and have my family be in fear of their lives because of tornadoes drifting by Auntie Ham. I don't want to go back to Kansas. I don't want to click my heels three times, Dorothy. I just don't want to be in a place where I'm hearing alarms of tornadoes every five seconds. Sorry, just not my thing. I don't know, it's not my family time I don't want to spend in a storm shelter. Okay, Psalm 126 verse five. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. Shall. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed. See how when you actually care, it's precious seed, bearing precious seed. Jesus is precious, isn't he? Shall doubtless come again. That sounds like a promise, doesn't it? Bringing his sheaves with him. What are sheaves? That's the fruit, isn't it? You're gonna, if you go out and you sow the seed, you're going to get people saved. That's what this is talking about. So the part of the parable that people usually don't point out about is that that sower, yeah, some people didn't get saved, some people didn't work out, some people didn't bring forth, but they did get people saved, didn't they? Some 30, some 60, some 100. And how much you, effort and time and love you put into it is gonna depend on how much you bring forth in its season. So the season of your tree of life every year, how much effort and all that you put forth, how much love you put into it is gonna depend on how much you bring forth every year. That's the seasons. That's the season. Every year is a new season of your life. And every year you have the opportunity to bring in, sometimes it's gonna be less, sometimes it's gonna be more. And you can substitute your time here where it's not as receptive and go to more receptive places. There's nothing that's stopping us. It's you stop yourself, but the sky's the limit on going sowing. So let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for this lesson of the parable of the sower. Lord, I pray that you would help us to have a burning in our heart, to see people saved. And Lord, some of us have been going to this church for a long time and some people are new. I pray, Lord, that you put it in our heart to be zealous of good works and especially zealous for soul winning. Lord, let us never lose our fire. Let it never go out. Let not our oil lamp go out of our hearts. Let the Holy Spirit be filled in each one of us. Let us make sowing an important part of our life, Lord. And if anybody has just stopped or just has dialed a back, Lord, I pray that you'd help us to get that fire back and that love back in our heart for you, Lord Jesus, in your name we pray, amen. Closing hymn will be 103 under his wings, 103. piano plays softly Under his wings I am deeply abiding Though the night deepens and the hills are dry Still I can trust him I know he will keep me He has made me me and I am his child Under his wings Under his wings Through from his thorns ever Under his wings My soul shall abide Safely abide Forever Under his wings What a refuge in sorrow How the heart yearningly turns to his rest He often withers open for my healing There I find comfort and there I am last Under his wings Under his wings Through from his love can sever Under his wings My soul shall abide Safely abide Forever Under his wings What precious enjoyment There will I find till life's trials are o'er Sheltered, protected though we walk in harmony Lost again, Jesus, I'm safe evermore Under his wings Under his wings Through from his love can sever Under his wings My soul shall abide Safely abide Forever Amen.