Good Soil
2021-09-11 15:02
Scriptures
Luke 8:1-15
Intro
Last week we talked about obeying God’s commands.
Anecdote
Point 1
How you hear is more important than what you hear
The man is who does not have the Word in them is no threat to the devil.
Devil will just lead them higher and higher (status in church circles, impressive audiences, massive influence) and then one snap causes them to fall.
Point 2
Hear, Retain, Persevere
- Soil along the path: fell on hard places. Hardened in sin. The word never even took root. “Never sufferred to take root.” These people didn’t let the word deep in them. You may know the word but does the word know you?
- Rocky soil: Received with much outward expression and outward growth, but their heart was never changed. Ran off of emotions and seasonally advantagous seasons (only during good church leadership). Didn’t take root.
- Thorny soil: What takes up room in your heart? Story of QT during the day. Even though I had an amount of time marked out, there were so many other responsibilites taking room in my heart.
- Good soil: softened enough to let the seed go deep in the dirt. had room in the soil to not get choked up by weeds. was rooted deep enough where seasonal disadvantages did not kill it.
Hear, Retain, and Persevere are the missing steps in the path-side, rocky, thorny soils. You either didn’t hear the word with a softened heart, make room for it and retain it, or rooted yourself in it so you can persevere in times of testing.
Point 3
Jesus implies the soil isn’t dead
Story of woman on street watering front lawn that was all dead.
If you are not a Bible-believing, God-loving, sold-out Christian, you are dead soil. Your soul is wicked and only wrath and eternal seperation from God awaits you.
Don’t misapply blessings/teachings for Christians to unbelievers. Repent and believe. If you’re not assured of your salvation, repent and believe!
Conclusion
As a leader, I can only teach you so much. There is much I’d love to share corporately. I’m always available if you have questions about the Bible in your personal studies.
Being good soil sets you up for long lasting fruit. We can’t afford the cheap stuff in the times we’re living in.
Discussion
Read through Scripture together
Re-read and focus for 5 minutes (set a timer)
Share observations, questions, confusion.
Questions to help give any direction:
- At what step of hear, retain, persevere do you usually fall short in?
- Share about any time when Scripture spoke out to you in a very special way. What application did you take from it?
- What recent things have you read in the Bible that was interesting? Or encouraging and refreshing? Or even difficult to understand?