Parable of the Soils

Parable of the Soils

All right, good morning. Glad you’re here. Glad to be with you. If I haven’t met you, my name is Shane and one of the pastors and I’m gonna jump right into where we’re going today. We each fall, we cover a portion of Luke, the book of Luke. And so the last two falls, we’ve worked through a handful of chapters. We’re gonna be in Luke eight today. So that’s where we’re gonna start. Technically. I’m covering versus eight, Sorry, chapter eight verses 1 through 21, but we’re going to really focus on the parable of the soils. And so if you have a bible with you, you can open it up. We’ll throw the words up on the screen. But I’m going to just get us going so luke. Chapter 8: verses four through 8 says as a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to jesus from every town, he said in a parable, a sower went out to sow his seed and as he sowed some fell along the path, it was trampled on and the birds of the sky devoured it. Other seed fell on the rock and when it grew up, it withered away since it lacked moisture. Other seed fell among the thorns. The thorns grew up with it and choked it still, other seed fell on good ground. When it grew up, it produced fruit 100 times what was sown and he said this, he called out, let anyone who has ears to hear. Listen. And so here it is parable, The soil is a lot of times people know this as the parable of the sower actually. Um, but I think it’s more fitting that it’s called the parable of the soils when you look at the beginning of it and you think about the sewer and you think about the seed, they’re really not described. It doesn’t say the good sewer, it doesn’t say he was a great farmer. It doesn’t say it really doesn’t describe it. It doesn’t describe the seat either, because that’s not the emphasis. The details are not there about the seed or the solar, particularly because it takes the time to talk about the soils. The four types of soils are really what this parable is about. And so this parable of the soils really represents the condition of someone’s heart. Right? So the parable, the soils is looking at the condition of the human heart in response to the Gospel. And if you think about all the people, you know, you included, so you and your friends, your neighbors, your coworkers, your classmates. It doesn’t matter. Every single person at a macro level falls within one of these four categories. So, as you go through this, this is a broad picture of humanity in the way every person in one sense is going to respond to the Gospel. A parable though, right? He starts telling this parable and a parable is more common. Uh, back then, just as a way to tell a story, but it’s very common now to it’s a figure of speech. We probably all understand what a parable is. But in the book of luke actually, Uh there’s 24 parables. There’s the most parables out of any new testament book. In the whole bible is Luke And 18 of them are unique just to the book of Luke. So only a few of them are in another book. Generally there in one of the synoptic Gospels, which is Matthew mark and luke. And so this parable that we’re looking at today is it’s covered in all three of those gospels, Matthew Mark and luke. And so what I’ll do is we’ll look at it through luke. But I’m gonna reference back into particularly Mark to draw out some additional details but we all get what the parable is. Right? I mean think about just an analogy where someone says man, he’s as strong as an ox. It’s like, yep, you draw the conclusion, you get what it is parallel, the word means to lay beside. Think about a parable. The root word is where we get parallel like parallel lines. What happens if you lay something side by side? It’s easy to compare right there laying side by side. Now I can compare those things but a parable is more drawn out in a story form. And so there’s more than just two parts to it and it has a spiritual or moral meaning behind it, a lesson to be learned. So why speak in parables though this is important because the bible again is filled with parable, especially the new testament. So why why use parables? Well, think about some of the reasons why just in general as a as a literary devices? Well it gets our attention, right? You ever listen to a good story, someone who told a really good story, you’re kind of captivated you listen and you’re drawn and you’re like yeah, what’s next? What’s Right? So it’s a way to tell a story, it’s thought provoking, right? You have to you have to kind of draw the connections where it’s like okay this is meaning that this represents that. So it makes you think so it gets our attention. It makes you think and because of that it’s really memorable, it’s for some reason, easy to remember a story, a good story, you can kind of recall. It also adds some imagery, right? You have to, you kind of visualize it. If someone is telling a story, you start to visualize it and they say a picture’s worth 1000 words. And so you have this mental image that it draws out. So these are all benefits of a parable of why we would use parables or why jesus would use parables but one that’s overlooked is that a parable both conceals and it reveals it conceals and reveals if you don’t understand what’s going on, then it’s concealing Which is why as he moves down to this next verse vs nine and 10 listen to what he says in Luke 8, 9 and 10. Then the disciples came to him and asked him what does this pair will mean? So he said the secrets of the Kingdom of God have been given to you to know. But to the rest it is in parable. So that and now he’s going to refer back to the book of Isaiah in the old testament says looking, they may not see hearing, they may not understand. So back where he’s referencing in Isaiah. This is a portion of time where God is like, hey, I need someone to go speak to my people in Isaiah says, here I am, God send me right, I’ll go, he’s like, okay, good, I want you to go share this message but they’re not going to understand. Well that’s great, right go share. And no one’s gonna respond to it. But I’m gonna keep aside a small portion. There’s gonna be like a tent, this remnant of the of Israel and so they were looking but they were not seeing So a parable has the ability to both conceal and to reveal. So to those people who have hard hearts, it was a concealment. It’s a judgment from God that it was concealed. They did not get the truth. But to those who believed, who sought after God it was revealed. And so there was truth being revealed. Think about again an old testament story where there’s a David in the profit Nathan. So David ready chiefs, uh, he takes his wife from this guy, your idea and that’s bathsheba. We probably all know the story of David bathsheba. But Nathan comes and he says, hey, David, I got this situation here. He says, uh, there’s this really rich farmer, got tons of sheep and cattle and then there’s this really poor farmer, he’s got one new lamb and they love it. It’s like a member of the family. Like it’s with the kids, it’s with everybody. They love it. And a traveler came through and visited the rich man and the rich man didn’t want to use his own means. So he went and he stole the u lamb from the man, took it from him to then present it to the traveler. And David is just upset. Right? He’s just furious and he’s angry and he cast this judgment on, he’s like, this is what should happen. And Nathan says, David, that’s you, that’s you, David, do you not get it? So he tells this parable. And until he gives him the key he can unlock the truth. So jesus is unlocking the truth here through this parable. But he’s also giving a judgment to those who are refusing to see him and believe him. So it conceals and it reveals there’s a judgment and a revelation in this parable and it’s it’s a foundational parable. So if I refer back to Matthew where this story is also told, Matthew 4 13 says, then he said to them, don’t you understand this parable? How will you then understand all of the parables? If we don’t understand this parable right here? And the truth that is being laid out in this parable about the Gospel and about Evangelism and sin and connecting the dots here of God’s sovereignty and all of this, we’re not going to understand all the parables that he’s going to continue speaking from here on out. I think we’ve got to get this right, this is the foundation. And he says, if you don’t get this, you’re not going to get all the other parables that I must speak in. So you might not get the other parables, or if you don’t get this parable right, you might start to doubt the wrong thing, right. If you don’t understand this parable, you might start thinking well, as the seed not effective is the sewer a bad farmer? Is he a bad sewer? Is this right? You’re gonna start doubting the wrong things and that’s not part of this parable. And as they’re going to come to see, I mean, God is the sewer the seed is the gospel, There’s nothing wrong there perfectly powerful and effective and all that they do. The point is about Evangelism that we’re going to run into people that are going to fit within these four categories, and it’s not because of the Gospel being ineffective and it’s not because the solar is ineffective, so God is the arc type of the sewer and we were called to also be sowers, but he’s the perfect sewer and he’s still telling a parable that this sewer runs into these four soils. So the gospel is sharper than any double edged sword, it is powerful to pierce our hearts, there’s no fault in that and there’s no fault in the sewer. So it’s easy to kind of look at that from our point of view right now where you know we have all this bible information, bible knowledge, we can look back on something where it’s being told in live right in person, live where it is and so they didn’t have all this information that we have that we can say yeah this is what this means, this is what this means, but just because we know mentally doesn’t mean we’ve accepted that And so back into mark, he says in 434 said he did not speak to them without a parable privately. However, he explained these things to his own disciples. So from here on out he’s speaking in parables because he has made that he is casting that judgment on those who have a hard heart who won’t believe and won’t accept him and he’s revealing the truth to those who will And the disciples here when he says he reveals to his disciples is not just the 12, it’s easier to think about the disciples and think the 12, this was a large crowd, in fact, this might be the largest crowd he had ever preached to. They talk about jesus as he preaches in homes and as he’s out on the mountain side, but this crowd is so big that he is now backed up onto the shore. He used to get into a boat and keep them out this way. All right, so this may be the largest crowd that he has spoken to and there are many disciples, Not just the 12 that he’s speaking to. So that’s before we even look at the soil. So I want to take a look at the soils on and look at what God is telling us as jesus tells us this parable, what he’s drawing out in all four of these soils. So in Luke eight vs 11 through 15, he explains, it says this is the meaning of the parable. The seed is the word of God. The seat along the path are those who have heard and then the devil comes and takes it away, takes away the word from their hearts so that they may not believe and be saved. And the seat on the rock are those who, when they hear receive the word with joy, having no route because these believed for a while and then fall away in the time of testing as for the seed that fell among the thorns, these are the ones who, when they have heard, go on their way and are choked with worries, riches and pleasures of life and produced no mature, no mature fruit, but the seed and the good ground. These are the ones who have hearing the word with an honest and good heart hold on to it. And by enduring produce fruit. So the first one is the path, right? Just that’s why this is not like a terrible farmer that’s out there. Like throwing seed on this path on purpose, right. They have a different method of farming than what we have now, where we have these machines that cut perfect lines, drop a seed every so often. And it’s like you look out at the feeling like that looks, that’s cool, right? It’s very different in this day, right there trying to take care of their field, get it all cultivated and they go out with this bag and they’re they’re throwing it, broadcasting it, right? That’s where we get the term broadcast right from radio, broadcast radio. It just is blasted out there just throwing it right there, throwing handfuls generously throwing. And so some of it does fall along this path and the path is not, you know, like us where we have these concrete paths that are designed and this infrastructure laid out a lot of times, it’s just the path where they designated to walk between these fields or how to get from point A to point B. So people weren’t just cutting through your fields and so people, animals, all kinds of just carts were being brought along on these past. And uh I mean it was last month or so we went to the Iowa State Fair 120,000 people walking on you know these paths and some of this dirt is so hard it might as well be concrete. I mean it is packed down tight and so you throw seat on that, it’s not going to penetrate, it does not break the soil, it cannot get in. So the birds of the air come and snatch it up. The devil snatches it away and the rest is just trampled on. So think about some examples in the bible where this would where this would be true. Think about pharaoh in the old testament where he saw these miracles in front of him and yet what happened? He hardened his heart. He would not relent, he would not let God’s people go, he would not obey him because he hardened his heart. Or the Pharisees Pharisees were very different though right through this upright religious respectable group. And that jesus said you are whitewashed tombs, you you have hard hearts. So the appearance didn’t matter. Their hearts were hard. And if you look in the book of revelation at the end, there’s gonna be these judgments that are being cast down and there’s terrible things happening and still in that day, people are going to say I will still not accept you, jesus, I will not. So there always has been and there always will be people who have just hard hearts. You’re gonna try to share the gospel with them. You’re gonna try to love them, you’re gonna do all these different things and but their hearts remain hard and it will not penetrate and change their life. It’s not the method, it’s not the tool that you’re using. There’s nothing wrong with what you’re doing it. The hard heart will not accept the gospel. So, for all of history, to the end of time, there will be those who reject christ But it gets a little bit more tricky as we start walking into the rocky soil. Alright, this is also known as the shallow soil. Again, it wasn’t like he was just throwing seat on rocks. It was there’s this thin layer of dirt, right? But underneath of it is this hard substrate, this rock. And so if you ever planted something on Iraqi like or are on thin shallow soil. All right. It goes, it’s real structure starts to go down once it hits that rock, it has nowhere to go. So it shoots up. So all of a sudden you see this plant and it’s growing really quickly and really fast. You’re like this is gonna be awesome. But a farmer may no, that’s not good because it’s supposed to spend a lot of his time getting down the foundation and then coming up. All right. So this is the this is representing the people who who hear the gospel and they just have this exuberant response to it. It’s it’s really emotional, really high, really a static, it’s just boom up really quickly, real dramatic. But then it quickly withers and fades is there’s there’s testing in their faith, right? As it came up and the sun scorched it. There was testing, there was trials. It withered away. So just because someone responds in a certain way with uh, you know, an ecstatic response. Very dramatic. That route shirt that truth has to penetrate the heart. And here it’s not it is not doing that. Some some will say this is somebody who goes up like a rocket and down like a rock, Right? It’s just dramatic. An old old bishop said, you know, this type of soil when someone responds is initially impressive, but it does not have lasting fruit, right? That’s the proof there that the fruit that is produced and many will fall into this category. Remember the people as jesus walked in on palm sunday and they’re like, they’re laying down these palm branches, they’re throwing their clothes to be trampled on by the by the messiah that’s coming in there is praising him. And then what happens a couple of days later, they’re like, kill the man, I’m done. Kill him, right? Crucify this guy. Look how quickly that was. Okay, just because it was a really dramatic response, doesn’t mean it penetrated his heart and that they accepted christ, right? And this is this can be the danger of some of the, some of the hyper charismatic stuff where it’s just like I have to chase one experience after another, right? I get this experience and it’s really high and then I’m back to normal, but I gotta keep going, right? Because that’s that’s what I’m chasing is that experience and that that emotional high. But God is a teacher of truth, right? There is an excitement. I think about when I married my wife. And it’s like beginning my race right there. There’s a there’s a unique uh, emotional experience where you’re just like your static and I’m still ecstatic to this day, but it’s very different one. I know my wife and my relationship is built on this loving truth of who she is far deeper than I ever knew her before. I got married. There’s a depth to it that comes out. And so we can’t just chase this emotional experience from one place to another. Our emotions will lie to us. Our heart is wicked and deceitful. Above all else. We have to know that emotions are not going to lead you to the truth. Now. The truth is going to affect your emotions, but your emotions are going to guide you to the truth. And that can not be your north star Charles Burton says it’s very often, very often happens that the converts that are born in excitement die when the excitement’s over. Yeah, just not that exciting anymore. That’s the rocky, shallow soil. If you think about jesus, he says many times over right, if you abide in my word and you are truly my disciples, you will know that the you know the truth and the truth will set you free. My emotions will not set me free. It is the truth of the Word of God that sets us free, right? It says in Ephesians eight or 289 photos by grace that you have been saved through faith, right? There is a faith aspect that is built upon the truth of the Word of God. Or in first john 3 16, I write these things to you who believe in the son of God, so that you may know, you may know that you have eternal life. There is a truth that we are seeking in our life, right? We want to know what is true in this world, jesus is the truth and that’s what affects us. That’s what’s changing us. And our emotions will follow. But then there’s also the thorny soil again, throwing out this seat. And if you ever uh there’s a root structure underneath here, it’s not like the thorns were just up fully grown, right? If you ever chopped down any weeds at your house alright? If you just chop off your like looks good, they’re done. You’re like, yeah right. You know that thing is coming back with a vengeance, right? You have to pull those weeds out from the root or they’re coming back and there’s something I don’t know right? Oh maybe I’ll know sunday, but I don’t get why those weeds I can plant good stuff and I can plant and there could be weeds in there and the weeds grow three times faster. They’re like bigger stronger, they’re just dominating everything, right? And that’s what these weeds are doing. They’re coming up and they’re choking the life out of the good seed. It’s taken away the nutrients, it’s covering it from the sun, it starves it out. And this is the half hearted. This is the people who believe that I can have all of God and all of the world at the same time and you can’t You have to choose one. There are endless examples in the bible, think about the rich young ruler as he came to jesus. If you remember this story comes and he’s like jesus, what do I need to do to inherit eternal life? And I like how jesus sets him up for this, right? He says Follow the 10 commandments Alright? He laid out a few of the commanders, he’s like I followed those since I was a youth right? In my youth from when I was young I’ve kept those all and jesus right? He said all right, so all your stuff and come follow me and the guy, what does it say? He went away sad he didn’t do that. He was rich and he wanted to keep hold of that. And Jesus knew that that had his heart. He said sell it all and come follow me, give me your heart. Not this stuff. He couldn’t do it. The rich young really couldn’t do it because it had him. It had his heart. Think about judas One of the 12. He’s walking with Jesus, he’s sharing meals with him. He’s he’s getting a teaching That no one else has A relationship and what has to do. He turns his back on him for 30 pieces of silver. The price of a slave. There was other things that had judas heart As we’ll see in Luke nine as we get to it. There’s a couple other examples where Jesus tells tells some guys, he says, Hey, come follow me and they make excuses. Ah let me go bury my dad. He wasn’t dead. He’s he’s just saying, well, you know, I want to take care of my family first before I can follow you. The other guy says, well I need to make sure everything in my house is all arranged and you know my everything’s taken care of. I’ll follow you like they make excuses, right, jesus is very for when he says come follow me, give it all up. But come follow me. So as for where your treasure is there? Your heart will be also. You can’t worship both God and money. You can’t worship both God and the things of this world you have to choose. And this is the danger of the prosperity gospel. Because they tell you you get you get both, you can have both. In fact, they tell you that if you have God, you get all the other things because he blesses you in that, in that way, I think, you know, if I could call back up joe and he was here with us, I think he would disagree pretty strongly, right? And it’s like, no, that’s not the way it is. It’s not because you don’t have enough faith that you can’t be rich. That’s not the way it is, jesus says, pick up your cross and come follow me. He doesn’t say take up your hand basket and gather all these nuggets of gold and be rich. No, it’s the cross. That’s hard. It’s not it’s not discomfort now what God does in response to that is his providence in his sovereignty and whatever he wants to do, if he wants to return that to you tenfold. Amen if he wants to use you in a way that your martyred praise God, as long as my life is given to God, it’s his prerogative as how he uses us. And blesses us in those ways. James 47. Give yourselves completely to God. Do not withhold, do not hold back. Don’t let any air of your life be cut off from God. Give it all to him, Paul says he was poured out like a drink offering. Think about pouring out a drink offering on the ground and then try to gather that back up. You can’t do it. He was saying, use me however you want whatever it is expand me, however, and that should be our Our lives totally submitted to christ. This one is difficult because it says it grew up and was choked out right? But we have to look at it says it produced no mature fruit. Mark has a Mark says it also like this. He says it was unfruitful. There was no fruit that was produced, that was being able to harvest. There was no production here. And that is going to be a distinguishing factor. As we look at now. The fourth soil. The good soil. All right, This is this is different. The 4th Soil is good. What? What makes soil good? It has been tilled up. It has been worked, it’s broken up, it’s moist, it’s fertile, It’s been prepared. Listen to how it describes the soil as having heard the word with an honest and good heart. See these other ones may have appeared like they looked good. The shallow soil or the ones among thorns, but but it wasn’t and this is pure good soil. There’s a genuineness to this. A genuine follower of christ someone who wants to know who actually wants to understand the truth and follow that and obey it. So we have to know that’s a distinguishing factor between the two. There are three types of soil, only one produces fruit that is significant. So when it comes to producing fruit, that’s the, that’s the proof of whether someone is believed in christ three produce three, do not produce fruit, one produces fruit. And some of those you might say, well that guy was pretty close like they look like they’re these good things going on and but almost saved is completely lost. There is no almost saved person, right? You’re saved or you are lost. You’ve accepted christ or you’ve rejected christ. And so the production of fruit here is in the present tense. So it’s not like hey, this person produced fruit one time and that was it right now. There’s a continual production of fruit in their life. They continually produce fruit. This is an ongoing thing is someone matures in christ that they continually produce fruit. So how does the bible say, I mean jesus is very clear about this, it’s very common. This analogy of fruit and using this Matthew 3 8 Bear fruit in keeping with repentance, right. You have to repent of your sins and accept christ to then bear fruit of the holy spirit john 15 8 by this, my father is glorified that you bear much true and so proved to be my disciples. So you have to repent. Turn to christ accept christ and then you can bear fruit. That shows proof of you’re saving faith. Matthew 717 Every healthy cheery bears good fruit. There is not going to be one believer who does not bear good fruit. Every christian is to bear good fruit and that should be a litmus test on our lives. Are we bearing good fruit? Every christian will bear good fruit? And what are those fruits? We know these things from Galatians, fruits of the spirit of love, Joy, Peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. These are the things that God wants to produce in our lives by the power of the Holy Spirit that is pure and good. And and there is a difference because other people can do what looks to be good works and things that are good, but if it does not honor God, if it’s for their own glory that they look good, that they’re just for basic humanity, it’s not good like it is one is produced by the Holy Spirit, right? Good is what honors God in a person that does not believe in God cannot honor God in that way. So every believer will produce good fruit. And so this is not just normal a normal production of fruit. So anything that I could find out about a normal production is like if you plant seeds at this time, you get about a 7.5 fold return right That that would be a good harvest a good yield. And this is a hundredfold or again back to Mark, he says they produce 30 60 or 100 fold. All three of those 30 60 or 100 is a miraculous yield. This couldn’t be done on your own. You can’t just will that yourself, You can’t just produce that yourself. That is a miraculous thing that only God can do in our lives by producing good fruit of the Holy Spirit. So whether you’re 30 60 or 100 fold, it’s all a miraculous yield. We’re all miraculously used by christ as we obey christ to do far more than we can do just in our own terms. So it’s a byproduct of knowing christ. So what does he want us to know? Right, well, I think about this, this parable. What is the impetus of him telling it? And what does he want us to know? Well, it teaches us about evangelism, one that God is sovereign, but we have to remember, God is sovereign. There are we don’t we don’t doubt the seed, the Gospel is pure and good and powerful and effective. We don’t doubt the sewer in this portion. It is God as the sewer and we have been commissioned to be uh sewers alongside him sowing the seeds of the Gospel. And it’s not just because of like the method you use or what I do it. God has to draw them in, John 6 40 forces, no one can come to the father, no one comes to me unless the father who sent me draws them in. It is God who has to work on people. He has to draw them and there’s nothing I can do myself to save somebody. I have been commissioned. Like you have been commissioned with the power of the Gospel to go to people, but I don’t know who those are and I’m gonna go and and spread it to the entire world knowing that God has to prepare their heart to accept it. I can’t change it if they have a hard heart and God has ordained that to be and then I cannot change it because of my method or because I’m so slick in my presentation. There’s nothing I can do. God is in sovereign control of every aspect of the gospel. I also have to broadcast generously, I have to just spread like those like that farmer. I have to just spread the gospel generously and broadly, Mark 16 says, and he said to them go into all of the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized and saved, whoever does not believe will be condemned. I am to go and broadcast generously and broadly because I don’t know, I don’t know whose heart is soft and who is not alright, appearances are deceiving. And that’s really the third point, I cannot make assumptions. Think about paul And the day of the new testament. If I would have been around paul and I would have said, I don’t know if that guy can get saved, right? I mean, you would never want to say that. That should not be, that should not be language that we as believers used. Because look what God did with paul, I would have never known. You would never know that that man is going to write much of the new testament and that he’s going to die for his faith and he’s going to be an incredible disciple of jesus christ. But the Pharisees who looked up right and good, you might be like, well they probably have a soft heart. They just, they just need to figure some things out. And he’s like, no, they are hard hearted. We talked about the rich young ruler or judas. We cannot assume the heart condition of somebody. We have to leave that up to God in our responsibility is to broadcast generously and broadly and let God do his work in the hearts of people and draw them in. It also teaches us about ourselves as a christian. We have to ask yourself the question is my life bearing spiritual fruit. Does my life bear spiritual fruit? There are people as the bible says that will come one day and say Lord Lord, he’s going to say, I didn’t know you like, but we did these great things. He’s like, I don’t know you you didn’t know me, this is my life bearing fruit of the gospel. Are you saved in? Are you bearing fruit as proof of that? As God says? Are you yielding your full potential? Okay, I don’t know if I’m 30 60 or 100 fold? I don’t know. But all I know is that the way God has made me, the way he’s designed me, he has a role and responsibility. He’s got a purpose for my life. And that is the exact same for you. And guess what? I want to do everything. I can not to quench the spirit but to submit and be as productive right to use that term in my bearing fruit. I want to be as useful as possible. I want to bring God the most glory as I can as I am possible to do. But romans 12 says to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God. I have to present myself wholly to God to be used to my utmost potential. I cannot withhold areas of my life. And then think God is going to use me to that ability. Well, I also think about the flip side and comparing what God has designed for me and what God has designed for you. I’ve been. I’ve been thinking about this verse for the last couple weeks, but in Galatians 64 says, let each of you test his own work and then his reason to boast will be in himself alone and not in his neighbor. And so I’m not to look at my neighbor and say, well man, that guy is a hundredfold and I’m a I’m 30 fold, I’m not that good, right? I could look at somebody and be like, oh my goodness, I’m not billy Graham. So well, I guess not that useful, am I? I’m not john piper, uh, location, you’re not that good. We’re not to compare ourselves to the people beside us, to our friends, our family, our brothers and sisters in christ. My responsibility is to meet my full potential in christ to serve him in the capacity that he has given me in whatever capacity has given you and potential he has given you, I have to cheer that on and help you reach that capacity because collectively, we are all aiming for the same thing. We want to see the Gospel proclaimed to the entire world and we want to see as many people as humanly possible, accept christ. And so it’s not about am I the most productive versus you? It is, am I as productive and my as useful in my as obedient as possible the way God has laid out my life in his providence. Okay. And it’s no, I mean we also have been given the responsibility just in general too. So the Gospel, Right? So that’s the last question that so are you sowing the gospel, you will not experience this parable. You’re not run into these situations if you don’t share the Gospel and if you share the gospel again generously and broadly, you’re gonna run into all four of these. Some people are just going to be hard, some people are not gonna accept the word, Some are gonna respond dramatically in times of testing fall away and some are gonna be choked out by the world. But there are going to be those who accept and their lives are changed and it is the most amazing thing to watch and experience the power of God change somebody from here to here, Right? As they repent as they turn into a 180 and change their life because of the power of the Gospel. And we’re going to be part of that. It’s no coincidence that we named our church, sewer church right to be a sewer and as a solar, we are going to experience these, these types of soils, that is what jesus is getting at when it comes to evangelism and the power of the Word of God Amen Lord jesus. We thank you for today, we ask that you would just continue to use us to our our maximum capacity in which you have designed us help us to be fully obedient to pick up our cross to follow you and Lord help us to share the gospel generously and as far and as wide as possible and Lord, we ask that you would do the work that you do and seeing people saved.