Podcasts about in psalm

What does your soul need today? Your body might need lunch or a good night's sleep. But what does your soul need? In Psalm 103, David says, Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being praise him. Forget not all his benefits. I believe that our souls need to honor God for who He is, and remember what He's done for us. Has He forgiven you, restored you, healed you? Has He brought you through some very difficult times? Has He comforted you in pain or sorrow? Has He provided for you in ways you never imagined? It's easy to forget, and it does our soul so much good to remember. Sometimes we just need to speak to our very own souls, Praise the Lord, O my soul. All my inmost being, praise Him. radio.hopewithgod.com

I needed two medications urgently. One was for my mom’s allergies and the other for my niece’s eczema. Their discomfort was worsening, but the medicines were no longer available in pharmacies. Desperate and helpless, I prayed repeatedly, Lord, please help them. Weeks later, their conditions became manageable. God seemed to be saying: “There are times when I use medicines to heal. But medicines don’t have the final say; I do. Don’t place your trust in them, but in Me.” In Psalm 20, King David took comfort in God’s trustworthiness. The Israelites had a powerful army, but they knew that their biggest strength came from “the name of the Lord” (v. 7). They placed their trust in God’s name—in who He is, His unchanging character, and unfailing promises. They held on to the truth that He who is sovereign and powerful over all situations would hear their prayers and deliver them from their enemies (v. 6). While God may use the resources of this world to help us, ultimately, victory over our problems comes from Him. Whether He gives us a resolution or the grace to endure, we can trust that He’ll be to us all that He says He is. We don’t have to be overwhelmed by our troubles, but we can face them with His hope and peace.

Do you believe that some sin is too big for God to forgive? Do you wonder if someone who has sinned can be restored and renewed? Can God use them again? Can God use you again? Be comforted. There is "life after sin," as Jill Briscoe shows us by exploring the life of David. In Psalm 51, David writes about turning around and running into the arms of the loving, merciful, compassionate God who was waiting for him, waiting to take him back. Do you need to turn and run in to the arms of God? He's waiting for you, too. To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1141/29

Psalm 145Depending on life situation, praising God can seem easy or impossible. So, how do you praise God when nothing in life seems to be going right? In Psalm 145, David grounds his praise of God in his character rather than our circumstance and shows how we can praise God with everything without ending.

Psalm 23, one of the most famous and well-known passages of Scripture, reveals God's name, “Yahweh Rohi,” meaning the Lord my Shepherd. David likely wrote this psalm during personal darkness while running for his life. “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want…”—Psalm 23:1 3 ways that Jesus is the Lord our Shepherd: 1. Jesus is our Peace. 2. Jesus is our Protection. 3. Jesus is our Provision. In Psalm 23, David talks about the rod and staff that comforts them. The Shepherd has both a rod and a staff to protect the sheep. The rod protects us from enemies, and the staff protects us from ourselves. Jesus is the Shepherd who came as a man to die for our sins as a sacrificial lamb. Have you placed your faith in Him to dwell in His house forever? Join Pastor Phil Hopper as he unpacks why we can confidently proclaim, “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want!” Don't forget to click the “bell” to SUBSCRIBE to get more videos like this to grow your faith! ● Connect with us on Social Media ↴ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/abundantlifels/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/abundantlifels ● Connect with Pastor Phil ↴ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PhilHopperKC Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/philhopper_kc/ Web: https://livingproof.co/about-us/pasto... ● Be a part of the Great Commission: https://livingproof.co/irresistible/ More information on our sermons: https://livingproof.co/sermons/ Do you want to see your life changed by Jesus? Visit our website: https://livingproof.co/ #AbundantLife #Sermon #NamesofGod #YahwehRohi

With the event of Thanksgiving in the US, I decided to share some thoughts on being thankful. An article I read gave information on some studies that have shown how a thankful attitude has definite health benefits. Conversely, a worried or sour attitude has detrimental effects on our health. In Psalm 136, David reminds us to be thankful for all the different ways that our Heavenly Father has demonstrated to us that He is taking care of us, no matter what is going on around us. Let's each take time to express our thankfulness to our Heavenly Father and to each other. Blessings. Produced by Steve Rees - Calming Harp If you like what you hear please subscribe: www.youtube.com/peregrinnatti To find us on social media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/peregrinnatti Calming Harp Page: https://www.facebook.com/Calming-Harp… If you would like to write a testimony of how this music has helped you email me at: steve@calmingharp.com To purchase CDs and MP3s go to our website: https://calmingharp.com/ To donate to the ministry of the Calming Harp: https://calmingharp.com/marketplace Steve Rees has been producing Harp Music from the Psalms of David for the past 20 years. He has discovered a connection between the Hebrew text of the Psalms and music notes that develop into chord progressions that form the basis for musical compositions that have been appreciated by thousands of followers. We invite you to join the many lives that have been positively affected by this wonderful music.

Thanksgiving Eve 2023. In Psalm 69:30, Jesus is the one offering a song of thanksgiving to God. In this meditation giving thanks, we learn the purpose of Christ's giving of thanks, the perfection of it, and our program for learning to give thanks as well. 

Daily Morning Prayer (11/22/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 107; Baruch 6; John 14 To read along, visit: ⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠ To own a Bible, visit: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Morning Prayer (11/22/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 107; Baruch 6; John 14 To read along, visit: ⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠ To own a Bible, visit: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

In Psalm 103, the writer says that God will crown us with love and compassion. We don't wear crowns much these days. But in ancient days, a crown was only worn by royalty with wealth and position. God offers you an everlasting crown. He offers an eternal position as a loved person. You're valued and treasured. You're a child of the King of kings. He also offers us a crown of compassion. That means He sees you not with pity, but with a sense of being drawn to you, to help you, to encourage you, heal you, strengthen you. This type of love and commitment is hard for us to understand, but it is true. It's an everlasting crown. Always remember, there is hope with God. radio.hopewithgod.com

In Psalm 65 we see- that God is to be praised for-- --his merciful kindness is in hearing the prayers of his people. ---his merciful kindness in atoning for the transgressions of his people. ---his merciful kindness in choosing his people to bring them near to himself by allowing them to dwell in his courts, to join in to congregational worship. --... his merciful kindness in dealing with his people in righteousness through the death and resurrection of his Son to bring us to salvation. --Praise Yahweh...Hallelujah-

In Psalm 100 the invitation to thankfulness is given; God invites us into His presence. We have so many reasons to be thankful to God this year. What are you thankful for?

Daily Evening Prayer (11/20/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 104; Baruch 3; 2 Timothy 3 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Evening Prayer (11/20/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 104; Baruch 3; 2 Timothy 3 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

In Psalm 34, our good God gave us four steps to cope with a crisis.-Step 1. Decide to praise God throughout the crisis. -v.1-3--Step 2. Learn about God early in the crisis. -v.4-7--Step 3. Teach others in the middle of the crisis. -v.8-9--Step 4. Hide from the crisis in The LORD, follow His way, and wait it out. -v.10-22--What do most people typically do in a crisis---When tempted to call on others to see how great our suffering is, how can we learn to instead show them how great our God is-- 1 Samuel chapters 17 and 21 -If we give up hope, what, specifically, have we forgotten-- Exodus 34-6-7-When trouble breaks our hearts, do we experience a closeness of God, or do we demand removal of the crisis-- 2 Corinthians 12-7-10

The most important part of a believer's life is the part that only God sees – the hidden life. In Psalm 91, believed to be written by Moses, we see the importance of hiding in the Lord and seeking His presence as a place of refuge. Why do we need a place of refuge? Because we have an enemy, Satan, and demonic forces constantly setting traps for us. Join our Bible study to learn more about hiding in the Lord in the midst of spiritual attacks.

November 20, 2023 Daily Devotion: "God Is Worthy of Our Adoration" Psalm 95:6 English Standard Version 6 Oh come, let us worship and bow down; let us kneel before the Lord, our Maker! The desire to give praise is hardwired in the human spirit—it's an impulse we can't ignore. And as Christians, we're called to direct that tendency to the One who made us. It's a beautiful truth that we are God's own people—created, chosen, and called by Him to live a life of praise, both on our own and with other believers. In Psalm 34, David says, “I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth” (Psalm 34:1). However, he's not content to be a solo act. He exhorts other believers to join him: “Exalt the Lord with me, and let's exalt His name together” (Psalm 34:3). When we start the workday and each evening as we lie down to rest. Also, let's remember to praise Him not only for what He has done but also for the excellency of His character. God truly is worthy of our adoration!   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gerzon-etino/message

In Psalm 23, David gives us a glorious view of God from a sheep's perspective. From this Psalm, Oren Martin shows how God's people experience His never-failing faithfulness, care, deliverance, provision and protection because the LORD is “My Shepherd.”

In Psalm 23, David gives us a glorious view of God from a sheep's perspective. From this Psalm, Oren Martin shows how God's people experience His never-failing faithfulness, care, deliverance, provision and protection because the LORD is “My Shepherd.”

How do you respond when suffering hits? You may be familiar with the call to trust God in the midst of difficulty, but how are we supposed to do that? When it seems like God is against us, not for us, how do we respond in trust? In Psalm 56 David shows us the path forward in suffering and crisis.

Daily Evening Prayer (11/17/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 89; Ecclesiasticus 48; 1 Timothy 6 To read along, visit: ⁠⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠⁠ To own a Bible, visit: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074⁠⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Evening Prayer (11/17/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 89; Ecclesiasticus 48; 1 Timothy 6 To read along, visit: ⁠⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠⁠ To own a Bible, visit: ⁠⁠https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074⁠⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/⁠ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

In Psalm 103, the writer says that God will redeem our lives from the pit. Have you ever been in a pit? It's a dark, deep place. You're trapped and dirty. God promises to redeem us from this type of life. The image is to be rescued—to be pulled out, and freed, and to be cleaned up. Jesus came to redeem us. The word redeem means to deliver—to purchase. And this is exactly what Jesus did on the cross. His life for yours—for mine. He went down to the pit so that we can be lifted out. Have you asked Him to redeem your life? Are you in a pit right now? Simply ask Him, Lord, I am in the pit. Will you rescue me? Always remember, there is hope with God. This is Wendy Palau. radio.hopewithgod.com

Daily Evening Prayer (11/15/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 78; Ecclesiasticus 44; 1 Timothy 4 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Evening Prayer (11/15/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 78; Ecclesiasticus 44; 1 Timothy 4 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

The latest research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention regarding our kids and suicides are quite alarming. With mental health issues like anxiety and depression on the rise among our kids, it should come as no surprise that more and more kids are opting to choose the darkness of self-inflicted death, over a life which to them seems inescapably darker. Since the start of the covid pandemic in 2020, the suicide rate by firearm among children and teens ages one to eighteen had risen by eleven percent. Parents, we need to teach our kids that on several occasions Jesus told his followers they could expect pain and persecution. The Psalms are full of the moans and laments of human suffering and emotional misery. But all of God's Word points to the fact that God does not leave us alone in times of trouble. In Psalm forty-six one we read these words of truth and comfort: “God is our refuge and strength, and ever-present help in trouble.” Teach your kids to lean into the hope of the Gospel.

In Psalm 2 we see the conspiracy of the nations' rulers against Yahweh and His Anointed, Yahweh's response to the rulers' plot, Yahweh's decree to His Anointed, and warnings of wisdom to the worlds' rulers.

Daily Morning Prayer (11/13/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 68; Ecclesiasticus 39; John 5 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Morning Prayer (11/13/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 68; Ecclesiasticus 39; John 5 To read along, visit: https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/ To own a Bible, visit: https://www.amazon.com/Reference-Apocrypha-Calfskin-Leather-Red-letter/dp/1107608074 To own a prayer book, visit: https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/ To own a hymnal, visit: https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Sunday, we continue in Hebrews 2 by examining verses 5-9. Though Hebrews 2:5-18 is a single unit, there is so much here that we will break it into two sermons. The overall point 5-18 demonstrates why it was fitting for the Son of God to become fully human and to suffer. The writer begins by showing God's intent for mankind. He says it is not to angels that God has subjected the world to come. Then he quotes Psalm 8:4-5 to illustrate this. In Psalm 8, David wonders at the grandeur of God's creation and marvels that God is mindful and cares for man. Even more incredible, God made mankind in his image (crowned with glory and honor) and gave humanity dominion over creation. Using this quote from Psalm 8, the writer of Hebrews anticipates an objection. Commenting on the Psalm, the writer says, "At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him" (Heb. 2:8). The Hebrew Christians were suffering for their faith. They were outcasts from their Jewish kinsmen and persecuted by fellow Jews and Rome. Dominion, glory, honor, and a crown seemed like the last thing they were experiencing. However, verse 9 is a pivot point in the chapter. Verse 8 says we don't see everything subjected to him (man), but then verse 9 tells us what we do see. "9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone." The ESV obscures the writers point a little bit. The text of v. 9 says "him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, We See Jesus crowned with glory and honor. Jesus is man as he ought to be. Jesus has been crowned with glory and honor. Jesus has been given perfect dominion as He sits at the Father's right hand until all His enemies are put under His feet. Jesus has accomplished what Adam failed to do. That is glorious news for suffering believers being warned not to drift from Christ. There is a world to come, a new heaven and a new earth, and by grace through faith, we are united with Jesus, who reigns over all. We are co-heirs with Christ. Holding to Jesus, even in the face of suffering, is better than any peace, rest, or comfort in this world. We don't yet see all the glory and splendor of God's intention for our lives and this creation, but we see Jesus...

“They Did Not Believe His Word”  Psalm 106:24-27 24 Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word, 25 But complained in their tents, And did not heed the voice of the LORD. 26 Therefore He raised up His hand in an oath against them, To overthrow them in the wilderness, 27 To overthrow their descendants among the nations, And to scatter them in the lands. In Psalm 106:12-23, we see the dangerous decline of the people of Israel soon after they were delivered out of their bondage in Egypt.  It started with, “they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel” (v. 13). Then notice in verse 21, the next thing they did was, “They forgot God their Savior”.  And after that now in verse 24, “Then they despised the pleasant land; They did not believe His word.”  When we forget what the Lord has done for us, we start leaving God out of our lives and then we even despised His promises of blessings and refuse to believe His word of victory over our enemies and problems. Now in verses 24-27, we see the tragic failure they experienced because of their unbelief. Israel had been out of Egypt about two years when the Lord brought them to Kadesh Barnea on the border of the Promised Land (Num. 13-14). Instead of trusting God to give them the land, the people asked Moses to appoint a committee to survey the land. The truth is that God had already done this for them according to Ezekiel 20:6, “On that day I raised my hand in an oath to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, ‘flowing with milk and honey', the glory of all lands.” But Israel did not need more facts; they needed more faith. It was a "pleasant [beautiful] land" (v. 24; Jer. 3:19; 12:10) and a "good land" (Deut. 8:7-9), but ten of the twelve spies reported that Canaan was a dangerous land filled with giants, high-walled cities, and formidable armies. The people reverted to their usual crisis mode of weeping, complaining, and planning to return to Egypt (Num. 14:1-10). Sounds a lot like most Christians today in our churches in America. How sad! The Lord announced that the generation twenty years and older would all die in the wilderness during the next thirty-eight years, and then He sent a plague that killed the ten unbelieving spies. What should have been a triumphant victory march became a tragic funeral march. That is what happens when we want our own way and refuse to trust the Lord and obey Him. May the Lord give us grace, strength, and courage to believe Him and His Word so that we don't have to wander around in the wilderness during our time on earth! God bless!

21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt, In Psalm 106:12-23, we see the dangerous decline of the people of Israel soon after they were delivered out of their bondage in Egypt.  It started with, “they soon forgot His works; they did not wait for His counsel” (v. 13). Then notice in verse 21, the next thing they did was, “They forgot God their Savior”.  This same thing can happen to us very quickly in our Christian experience! When we start enjoying the blessings of being saved from our sins, (peace, joy, forgiveness), so much that we don't take the time to remember the great work of our salvation, our suffering Savior on the cross and His resurrection, with grateful and thankful hearts, it won't be long that we tend to “forget God” too! I try to wake up every morning quietly singing, (at least to myself), a little chorus I learned years ago. “Thank You Lord for saving my soul, thank You Lord for making me whole, thank You Lord for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and so free.” Before I even get out of bed, I want to be reminded of how Jesus saved me from my sins and will continue to take care of me throughout the coming day! Romans 8:31-32 reminds us: “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?”    If we will take the time to daily remember our “great salvation through Jesus Christ”, maybe we will also be confident that the same God Who saved us, is willing and ready to give us everything we need to face the giants we might encounter throughout the coming day! When you think of this and our passage in Psalms 106 today, these verses in Hebrews 2:1-4 will come alive!  “Therefore we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. For if the word spoken through angels proved steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?”   The seeds of unbelief buried in the hearts of the Jewish people took root and bore bitter fruit in the years to come. I have often said, "The Lord took Israel out of Egypt in one night, but it took Him forty years to take Egypt out of Israel." The people were slow to remember God's past deeds but quick to rush ahead and ignore His desires. However, they did not hesitate to make known their own desires, for they craved water (Ex. 15:22-27), food (Ex. 16), and meat (Num. 11:4-15, 31-35). "What shall we eat? What shall we drink?" (See Matt. 6:25) God provided daily manna, water at an oasis and then from the rock (Ex. 17), and enough fowl to give meat to the whole nation. People who grumble and complain are people not walking by faith in the promises of God (Phil. 2:14-15). We must resist the temptation to yield to our fleshly cravings (1 Cor. 10:1-13).  The rebellion of Korah (Num. 16-17) followed soon after Israel's apostasy at Kadesh Barnea when the nation refused to enter the Promised Land. Pride and selfish ambition have always brought trouble to God's people (Phil. 2:1-11; James 4:1-10). Then for forty days, Moses had been on Sinai with the Lord, and the Jewish people were nervous without their leader, and In spite of what the Lord had taught them at Sinai, they wanted a god they could see (Deut. 4:12-19). They rejected the eternal God ("their Glory"—Rom. 1:26) for a manmade piece of gold that could not see, hear, speak, or act! Once again, Israel forgot what the Lord had done for them.  If we are not careful, we might quickly do the same!  God bless!

Psalm 106:12-23 12 Then they believed His words; They sang His praise. 13 They soon forgot His works; They did not wait for His counsel, 14 But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, And tested God in the desert. 15 And He gave them their request, But sent leanness into their soul. Psalm 106 is one of the great history lessons for the people of Israel for generations to come. And at the same time, it is a great chapter to teach us today that the sin of unbelief is a terrible sin that will keep us from experiencing and enjoying the victories and blessings of the Lord in our lives! That is what we read about over and over again in the Old Testament. We read the same warnings repeatedly in the New Testament, especially in the book of Hebrews.   We should heed the warning given in Hebrews 3:12-19: “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said: "Today, if you will hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion. For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.”   Jesus promises us this rest in Matthew 11:28-30: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light." It is so sad that instead of “coming” to find our satisfaction and strength in the Lord Jesus, we labor, we work, we run from here to there, we run in circles, and we are overwhelmed with the burdens of life. This is one of the great invitation words of the Bible – “Come”!   The Bible ends with the reminder that Jesus is the only One Who can truly meet all our needs and the invitation to “Come”.  "I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star." And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come!" And let him who hears say, "Come!" And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:16-17)   In Psalm 106:12-15, we are told that no sooner than the people of Israel finished singing and rejoicing that they were delivered out of the bondage and slavery of Egypt and saved from the armies of Pharoah at the Red Sea, they forgot what He had done for them when they got hungry and thirsty (Exodus 15-16). At Marah the bitter water was made sweet by the tree that was cut down thrown into it by Moses. This is beautiful picture of the tree of Calvary where Jesus took our guilt, shame, and suffering for our bitter sins.   My friend, when you come to Jesus in faith and in obedience, you will find the rest that you so desperately need! Today, He is waiting to give you grace and strength for whatever you are facing! Simply Come!!!!!   God bless!

Many feared that church attendance would decline as a result of the COVID pandemic. But, according to a study by the Pew Research Center, “a remarkably steady share of Americans” (40 percent) have continually attended at least one religious service per month (online or in person). For those who identify as Christian, that number rose to 56 percent. God always continues to preserve His people. Psalm 116 is a celebration of that truth.  Collectively, Psalms 113–118 comprise the Hallel (“The Praise”). These psalms are used together as a traditional communal reading during Passover, Pentecost, and other Jewish celebrations. Running through all six psalms are themes of deliverance, protection, and provision, as God's people praise Him for His sovereign and compassionate care. A clear and compelling progression of worship flows through the Hallel. Psalm 113 proclaims the glory and majesty of Lord, “enthroned on high.” In Psalm 114, God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt is pronounced, and the earth trembles in response to His glory. Psalm 115 declares the lovingkindness and truth of a sovereign God, who “does whatever pleases him” (v. 3). Today's reading, Psalm 116, describes the people's love for the Lord, who hears and acts when His people call. That word qara (call) appears four times in this psalm (vv. 2, 4, 13, and 17), as God's people “call on the name of the LORD.” They call on Him for salvation when they are in distress and with thanksgiving in ongoing, lifelong, two-way communication. The Hallel finishes with Psalms 117 and 118, thanking God for His deliverance. It is good to join with our brothers and sisters in Christ to thank God for how He has provided in the past and to ask Him to protect us in the future. >> While yesterday's passage (Psalm 17) was a personal cry, Psalm 116 is a corporate call. Look for opportunities to join with fellow believers in prayer.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Daily Evening Prayer (11/7/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 37; Ecclesiasticus 28; 1 Thessalonians 3 To read along, visit: ⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ 17653181-1630428515946-9b603dc0e3ca5.jpg --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

Daily Evening Prayer (11/7/23) from Trinity Anglican Church (Connersville, IN): Psalm 37; Ecclesiasticus 28; 1 Thessalonians 3 To read along, visit: ⁠https://ie.dailyoffice1662.com/⁠ To own a prayer book, visit: ⁠https://anglicanway.org/product/the-1662-book-of-common-prayer-international-edition-hardcover-march-2-2021/⁠ To own a hymnal, visit: ⁠https://anglicanhousepublishers.org/book-of-common-praise/ 17653181-1630428515946-9b603dc0e3ca5.jpg --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/1662pod/support

All Saints: Blessed are… St. Matthew 5:1-12 & Revelation 7:2-27 by William Klock The Feast of All Saints is one of the oldest holy days on the Christian Calendar.  We have evidence of sermons preached on this occasion going all the way back to the Third Century.  It took a while for our different communions to settle on dates.  The Eastern church still celebrate it on the Sunday after Pentecost, while we celebrate it November 1st.  And the purpose of the day has evolved.  In those early centuries, the church observed All Saints' Day as a way to commemorate and honour the martyrs—the men and women who stood firm and who, when the time came, took up their crosses and followed Jesus.  Just as the enemies of God thought they had silenced Jesus when they crucified him, the enemies of God thought that could silence the gospel witness of those first Christian.  But the opposite happened.  The blood of the martyrs fertilised the soil of the empire and through their witness, the gospel put down deep roots, growing and spreading, eventually bringing even mighty Caesar to his knees before the cross, confessing his faith in Jesus the Messiah.  In the words of our Old Testament lesson from the Wisdom of Solomon, “in the eyes of the foolish they seem to have died” and “in the sight of men they were punished”, but the reality is that their hope was not in vain, “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will touch them…They will govern nations and rule over peoples, and the Lord will reign over them forever.”  Apocryphal that text may be, but it highlights the truth of God's kingdom and its conflict with the world.  The kingdom of God seems upside-down, but only because the values of fallen humanity were upside-down already.  It's not an easy thing to follow Jesus and to take up your cross, but the Lord will vindicate his people. And this is just what Jesus is getting at in our Gospel today from Matthew 5.  Blessed are, blessed are, blessed are…nine times Jesus says and each time he connects the blessing with people whose values are right-side up in contrast to the upside-down values of the world.  It's language straight from the Lord's covenant with Israel, going all the way back to Abraham.  Remember how the Lord call Abraham and promised to bless him, but the point wasn't just to bless Abraham.  The point was that Abraham would then be a blessing to the world.  Through Abraham, the Lord would reveal himself to a world that had forgotten him, to a world that would, through his people, see his goodness, his grace, his faithfulness, and one day give him glory.  Through Abraham and his family, the Lord would remind the world that he will not leave it as it is, broken and fallen.  One day he would come himself to set humanity and the rest of his creation to rights, one day he will wipe away sin and death, and with them all the tears.  His people were—and still are—the witnesses of his faithfulness to that promise. Israel mostly failed at that mission.  Instead of glorifying the God of Israel, the nations looked at Israel's faithlessness and mocked her God.  But there were always some—like the people the Gospels start with—people like Mary and Joseph, Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna.  Faithful people, believing people, people with precious little blessing, but still committed to and still longing to see the Lord set this broken world right-side up.  It was to them that Jesus came and it was in their midst that the gospel started doing its work.  And as people like these gathered around him, Jesus exhorted them.  The Lord would not tolerate the faithlessness of Israel for much longer.  The axe was set to the root of the tree.  Judgement was coming.  The long-awaited age to come, God's great plan to set the world right-side up was about to start unfolding, and here Jesus is saying, “This is how you have a share in it and it starts by forsaking the upside-down ways of the world and following me.  It means being the people who will finally witness the Lord's presence with them.  It means being the people who will lift the veil on the Lord's new creation to show the nations what it looks like.  And so he begins in Matthew 5:3, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”   Before we go any further, we need to understand what it means to be blessed.  It's the Hebrew idea of shalom—something so broad, it's hard to nail down exactly, but it's the sense of completeness, and wellness, of peace with God and in the community.  It's about being set to rights and living in a community or a world set to rights.  That last bit is important.  It's not just an individual thing; it's a community thing—a covenantal thing.  It goes back to Abraham and to the exodus and to God's creation of a people who would know the blessing of living in his presence and then witness that blessing to the world around them—that they would witness it until the knowledge of the Lord's glory covers the whole world as the waters cover the sea.  The very next thing Jesus goes on to preach about after the Beatitudes is being a people who are salt and light to the world.  It's another illustration of what it looks like not just to be God's people in the world, but to be God's people for the world.  To be and to live out God's new creation here and now.  To be the dawn that drives away the darkness of the long night. That's what being blessed is about.  The people Jesus describes in these blessings are people who are already living the life of the kingdom, even if imperfectly.  Their desire is to see the Lord set his people and his world to rights and they're already living that way.  They're prepared for the kingdom—unlike so many others who were still invested in the ways and values of fallen Israel, fallen humanity, and this broken world.  Jesus starts out with the poor in spirit and I can't help but think of Mary.  When she finds out that she's going to bear the Messiah—the one who will set everything to rights—what does she do?  Instead of the news filling her with pride, it humbles her.  She bursts out in song: “My soul doth magnify the Lord…for he hath regarded the lowliness of his handmaiden.” Most people though that God would usher in his kingdom and set the world to rights by coming like a great warrior-king to the important and the wealthy, to the powerful and politically connected.  Instead, he came to a young girl in a backwater village.  And people like Mary flocked to Jesus and through them the kingdom of God burst into the world.  The humble came in faith and he opened their eyes, healed their diseases, cast out their demons, and forgave their sins.  And all the while the powerful and connected, people like the Sadducees, fumed that Jesus was offering forgiveness apart from the temple.  The Pharisees fumed that he was healing on the Sabbath and welcoming tax collectors and sinners.  But Jesus says that judgement is coming and those who will see the kingdom will not be the powerful or the self-righteous, but those humble enough to recognise the kingdom in Jesus and to follow him. The rest of the Beatitudes go the same way.  Jesus says: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” (Matthew 5:4-9) These don't come out of the blue.  All through these sayings, Jesus is drawing from the prophets and, especially, the psalms.  He began his ministry preaching in the synagogue in Nazareth with the words of Isaiah: “The Lord anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor…to comfort all who mourn.”  Isaiah was announcing judgement on Israel and so was Jesus.  But those who mourn the sins of the people, those who mourn their broken fellowship with the Lord, they will be the ones to pass through the fires of the coming judgement to live in that new messianic community of the age to come. In Psalm 37, David declared, “the meek shall inherit the land and shall take delight in the abundance of peace”.  It's ironic, because so many people expected the Messiah to come like mighty David, crashing into Jerusalem to put the enemies of his people to the sword.  They expected the kingdom to come by violence.  But David himself had declared that it's the meek who would inherit the land—the kingdom, life in the presence of God. Jesus draws on Psalm 107 when he says that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness or justice will be satisfied.  The people longed for justice, but for far too many people in Israel that justice looked more like vengeance than justice and that's not the way.  Violence begets violence.  It always has and it always will.  But Jesus shows the way of the kingdom as he let violence do its worst and then forgave, breaking the cycle and turning evil back on itself.  Humility, gentleness, mercy, forgiveness—and a desire to see the wicked repent—that's the way of the kingdom.  And, of course, that's why only the merciful can ever truly know God's mercy. And the pure in heart.  Jesus echoes Psalm 24:3-6.  “Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord?  And who shall stand in his holy place?  He who has clean hands and a pure heart…He will receive blessing from the Lord, and vindication from the God of his salvation.  Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek the face of the God of Jacob.”  To see the kingdom, to live before the face of God, means you have to value that kingdom.  You have to want to be part of the world set to rights—not just to receive its benefits, but truly be part of it.  And so outward piety won't do.  The people of the kingdom love it, they long for it, they want to be part and parcel of the world set to rights, to contribute to it, and so they don't go through the motions—they're truly pure of heart. And the peacemakers.  The Messiah came to make peace.  To make peace with God by bearing in himself the sins of his people that they might be forgiven.  And to set us right so that we can be at peace with each other.  The vengeful, the violent, the proud—they'll be the ones swept away in the coming judgement.  Only the peacemakers—following in the footsteps of their peace-making Messiah—will have a place in the kingdom of peace. But Jesus also warns these people.  To see the kingdom, you're going to have live out it's values in the present evil age, and for that you will be hated, mocked, scorned, and even killed.  He goes on in verses 10-12: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” To follow Jesus and to live for the kingdom is costly.  It means taking up your cross—sometimes very literally.  As Jesus would say: The servant is not greater than his master.  If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.”  When he preached in his hometown of Nazareth, the people were so angry with him that they tried to throw him off a cliff.  Before too long the religious leaders would be scheming to have him killed.  He knew from the beginning that that was the path he had to take.  And he knew his people would suffer for the sake of his name.  At the cross the present evil age was dealt a death blow.  In rising from the grave Jesus inaugurated the age to come.  The present age is passing away and the age to come is breaking in, but Jesus knew that his people would live in the overlap.  God brought salvation and renewal this way for a reason.  The people of Jesus' day wanted it to come all at once, but God chose to bring it slowly.  People today have the same sort of expectation.  They ask how a good God can allow so much evil in the world.  But in asking that question, in asking why God doesn't come and deal with evil we're showing the same sort of self-righteous mindset that dominated Israel.  We're forgetting that for God to come and deal with evil means that God will not only have to deal with our enemies and the people who cause us grief, but that he'll also have to deal with us.  We're all sinners.  We're all responsible for the mess this world is in—some more, some less—but we've all contributed to it.  And so God sent Jesus to deal with that sin and to inaugurate his kingdom, but he also delays, and in that he gives sinners a chance to repent and turn to him.  It also means that those who, in this in-between time, insist on revealing the kingdom, those who insist on confronting the sinful systems of the old age through their poverty of spirit, through their meekness, through their mercy, through their peace-making will face the same backlash that Jesus faced.  As God's people show the world set to rights, those invested in the way things are will fight back.  When God's people declare that Jesus is the world's true Lord, the Caesars of this age and their supporters will lash out to silence the challenge. The martyrs are a testimony to Jesus' promise.  And when you see your brothers and sisters being carried off to die—whether by the Jewish authorities, or the Romans, or Communists, Islamists, Hindus, Buddhists, or radical secularists in our age, it's easy to fear.  Are we really blessed when we are persecuted for the sake of righteousness?  This was the purpose behind St. John's “revelation”.  The church was on the verge of being plunged into violent persecution—a time of great trial and tribulation.  Would their faith hold?  And what about those who died for the sake of faith in Jesus?  And so God gave John a vision.  Just as Jesus had promised, judgement was coming, first on unbelieving Israel and then on the pagan word of the Greeks and Romans.  The scroll of judgement announcing judgement on Jerusalem and Judah is brought forth.  The redeeming lamb is now the great lion of Judah.  The wrath of God is about to be poured out.  And then everything is paused.  What's to happen to the faithful, to Jesus' people in the midst of the storm.  This is where our Epistle picks up in Revelation 7:2-3. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” The imagery here is drawn from Ezekiel.  The prophet was shown a vision of Israel's idolatry and then a vision of a “man clothed in linen” who was directed by the Lord to “put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it” (Ezekiel 9:3-4).  In the divine judgement to come, no one was to touch those market out for the Lord.  What the Lord did in Ezekiel's day was about to happen again, but the Lord would spare the faithful.  Those who are sealed by the angel are announced in verse 4: And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel. The text goes on to list specifically twelve thousand from each of the twelve tribes.  This is the remnant of faithful Israel, much like those marked out in Ezekiel's vision centuries before.  This is the Jewish church of Jerusalem and Judea, those Jews who heard the good news and trusted in Jesus.  Those Jews who were appalled by Israel's abominations.  Those who were about to face violent persecution at the hands of their fellow Jews.  The Lord would not abandon them, even though they die.  He places his mark on them and seals them as his own.  And their faithfulness to Jesus the Messiah, is the means by which the nations are brought to the cross.  They are persecuted for righteousness' sake, and they know blessing as a result, because it is through their faithfulness to Jesus that they fulfil the Abrahamic covenant's call to be a blessing to the nations. John hears the announcement of the sealing of the Jewish church, and then he sees a vision of a multitude that could not be numbered, drawn from the nations: After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” (Revelation 7:9-10) And jumping down to verse 13: Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?”… And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.  (Revelation 7:13-14) John's vision now draws on the imagery of the prophet Daniel, who wrote of another time of great distress through which the Lord saw a faithful remnant of his people.  The wise amongst them were refined through persecution that they might “shine like the brightness of the sky above” (12:3) so that they would “turn many to righteousness”.  Faithful Israel, through her unwavering allegiance to Jesus in this time of trial would serve as the witnesses that will bring the nations to faith in the Lord.  The faithfulness of the 144,000, of the Jewish martyrs, their robes soaked in their own blood, brings that multi-ethnic multitude to Jesus that he might wash their robes in his blood and make them part of his people.  As Zechariah had prophesied, ten men from the nations, of every tongue, will take hold of the robe of a Jew and say, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you!” (8:23) Brothers and Sisters, because of the faithful witness of the martyrs, you and I are here today in the house of the Lord.  Our lessons today remind us their faithfulness to the Lord Jesus, their faithfulness to his kingdom, even in the midst of persecution, was the means by which God brought the nations to himself.  It's also a witness to the faithfulness of God, who fulfils his promises.  He gives his own Spirit to his people that they—that even we—might face persecution in faith.  Today we see him embracing his people and wiping away their tears.  Revelation tells us the story of our brothers and sisters who lived in the First Century—of those Jewish believers who faced persecution and martyrdom at the hands of unbelieving Israel and of that multitude drawn pagan Greco-Roman world because of their witness.  They, too would face persecution at the hands of an empire that would, because of their witness, eventually be brought in submission to the lordship of Jesus.  And yet there's obviously more to the story of Jesus' people.  What we see in John's vision is intermediate and temporary.  The martyrs held close by God as saints on earth and in heaven await the consummation of history, that day when the faithful will follow Jesus in his resurrection, when all things are made new, when heaven and earth are rejoined, and when men and women once again dwell in the presence of the Lord. Brothers and Sisters, we don't know what will happen between now and then.  We may face our own time of great tribulation one day, but even if we don't, we continue in the ordinary fight of Christians in every generation against the world, the flesh, and the devil.  We face the ordinary troubles of life in an imperfect world and the difficulties of being faithful witnesses of Jesus in a culture that worships its own versions of Caesar and Mammon, Mars and Aphrodite.  Let us, like the saints who have gone before, stand firm in faith as stewards of the good news of Jesus and his kingdom, knowing that our God is faithful to his promises.  Let us be the people blessed to be a blessing, living out the life and values of Jesus' kingdom.  Let us confront the upside-down values of the world in poverty of spirit, with mourning and meekness, and mercy; let us hunger and thirst for justice as we serve the Lord with pure hearts—lifting the veil on God's future, showing the people around us what a right-side up world looks like.  And no matter the trials and tribulations that come, remember that Jesus has promised to hold us close, even in death, until that day when he makes all things new. Let's pray:  Almighty God, you have knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son Christ our Lord: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those inexpressible joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.  Amen.

Have you ever had a season where day after day you find yourself asking: Why am I so blue? Why do I feel so empty? Why am I so angry all the time? King David understood that feeling all too well. In Psalm 38 he describes that season for him. His body and soul literally ached. Why? Because of his “sinful folly.” (v. 5)There can be various triggers for our internal struggles. Physiological and psychological factors play into it. But many times the cause for our season of discontent is rooted, like David, in “sinful folly.” Like sand in your car's gas tank, eventually, sin will foul up your system to the point where there's performance breakdown.  And internal dissonance – anger, apathy, depression, lethargy – is like the flashing light on your dashboard telling you something is wrong.  David's sinful folly is described in 2 Samuel 11. It was spring, the time of year when kings of that day went off to war. But David stayed home. He sent his armies off, while he remained in his palace in Jerusalem. Alone one night, he got up from bed and went out on the roof terrace. Looking out over his city, he notices something. A woman bathing. A beautiful woman bathing. David sent someone to find out who she was. “She's Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah, one of your loyal soldiers.” David sent for her. And he slept with her. And she got pregnant.Hearing of the pregnancy, David goes into cover-up mode. He calls her husband home from the front and tries to coerce him into sleeping with his wife. But the soldier had more integrity than the king. When his plan fails, David acts with cold-blooded calculation. He sends Uriah back to the battle carrying the orders for his very own murder.With Uriah out of the way, David marries Bathsheba, and she bares him a son.You hear this story and it's easy to think: This is the man after God's own heart? How could this happen?I think there are three warnings we can find in this story that we would do well to heed for our own lives.  1.     David stopped doing what he should have been doing. He should have been on the battlefield with his soldiers. When we are engaged in doing the Lord's work, temptation often loses some of its leverage. David was also alone when this happened. As far as we know, he had no community or accountability. He was vulnerable.Have you stopped doing what you should be doing? 2.     David failed to heed the warnings God provided. “She's someone's wife!” But David ignored the warning. Are the people you know and love noticing signs that something is off in your life?  Have you ignored the warnings you've been given? 3.     David refused to face up to what he had become. The consequences of sin will lead to one of two results – either confession and repentance or cover-up and more sin. Sadly, for David, it was the latter. David thought the great danger of his life was that somebody might find out.  But, his greatest danger was that no one would find out, and his soul would be destroyed.Will you face up to the state of your heart and seek to understand it? Text: Psalm 38; 2 Samuel 11 Originally recorded on June 18, 2006, at Fellowship Missionary Church, Fort Wayne, IN.

In Psalm 46, we are encouraged to be still and to trust God. So, what does that look like practically? And how can we learn to trust in the Lord as our refuge and strength when the storms of life are raging and the presence of God feels distant?//NEXT STEPS: http://rockcity.churchPRAYER REQUESTS: https://rockcitychurch.tv/careGIVE: https://rockcitychurch.tv/give// Rock City Church has multiple locations throughout Columbus, Ohio. Whether you're spiritually restless, new at discovering who God is or you are a veteran of the faith, you are welcome here! //WEBSITE: https://rockcitychurch.tvFACEBOOK: https://facebook.com/rockcitychurchINSTAGRAM: https://instagram.com/rockcitychurch

There are several Canada goose families with baby geese at the pond near our apartment complex. The little goslings are so fluffy and cute, it’s hard not to watch them when I go for a walk or run around the pond. But I’ve learned to avoid eye contact and give the geese a wide berth—otherwise, I risk a protective goose parent suspecting a threat and hissing and chasing me! The image of a bird protecting her young is one that Scripture uses to describe God’s tender, protective love for His children (Psalm 91:4). In Psalm 61, David seems to be struggling to experience God’s care in this way once more. He’d experienced God as his “refuge, a strong tower” (v. 3), but now he called desperately “from the ends of the earth,” pleading, “Lead me to the rock that is higher than I” (v. 2). He longed to once more “take refuge in the shelter of [God’s] wings” (v. 4). And in bringing his pain and longing for healing to God, David took comfort in knowing that He had heard him (v. 5). Because of God’s faithfulness, he knew he would “ever sing in praise of [His] name” (v. 8). Like the psalmist, when we feel distant from God’s love, we can run back to His arms to be assured that even in our pain, He’s with us, protecting and caring for us as fiercely as a mother bird guards her young.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are God overall, and even over those who don't yet confess Jesus Christ as Lord, You are Lord over them as well. Lord, we thank You for regulating revelation of Your holy truth. By Your Spirit, you're the one that illumines the truth into our hearts, and we pray for more revelation in our church. We pray for more revelation given to us, not just so we can store it, or hold it, or keep it unto ourselves, but so that we can share it with others. As we get light, as we get knowledge and discernment and wisdom, I pray that You give us the unction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit to then share it with others.As we come to know who You are, let us be a people that wants to testify to the greatness of Your holy name. Lord, You are so holy, even Your name is holy, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed in our church, in our hearts, and our lives, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed and considered holy and revered in the city. Lord, there are many who don't yet follow You, don't yet even believe in You, and we pray for a revival. We pray for an awakening. We do believe that Your kingdom is unstoppable.You promised that there was nothing that is going to remain hidden, You will reveal all truth, and we pray, Lord, use us in the process of this harvest of drawn many to Yourself. Give us a zeal, a burning zeal in our hearts to do everything we possibly can to see people whom we love, come to faith, to receive eternal life, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and to receive forgiveness of sins and a relationship with You. Lord, we pray that You instill a hope in us, a hope that is unshakeable so people around us do realize there's something different about these people, they do believe, and they build their life on this hope. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series to do with the incredible gospel of Mark. We've called it Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom, and the title today is the Unstoppable Kingdom. Question, "What's one thing that grows the more you share it? The more you give it to others, the more you test it, the more you share, what is that one thing that grows?," and I would submit to you, it's your faith. The more you share your faith, the deeper your faith gets.The more you testify to the truth of God, the deeper your understanding of that truth is. Jesus Christ told us, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. I'll make you compel people to come into the kingdom. I'm saving you as an instrument of salvation for others." That's part of our purpose.1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." We should be such hope-filled people, that people around us are like mesmerized by this hope that we have no matter what the circumstances. No matter what the situation in the world, we have an unshakable hope. Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, it's because the Lord sent someone to you at some point to sow the seeds of God's word into your heart, and the fact that you're following Jesus today is evidence that the seed was planted into fertile soil.The seed goes deep and it germinates, and a root system goes deep into your heart, and that seed grows as it is nourished by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bears fruit through us, and the fruit that the Holy Spirit bears has seeds, and that's the seed of God's word, and we are then to take those seeds and we are to sow those seeds into the heart soils of other people. Then, by the power of God, they too are saved. They're saved from God's judgment. They're saved for God's kingdom and His mission, and the intention is clear from these parables that the Lord is giving us today. We are not only to receive knowledge, but do everything we can to impart that knowledge to others, and this is how the kingdom of God grows in your life and in the world.Today, we're in Mark 4:21-34. Would you look at the text with me? "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.'""And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.' And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.'""And He said, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.' With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples, He explained everything." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.May He write these truths on our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains, second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and third, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains. So Jesus, in the previous text, has interpreted the parable of the sower, and now, He gives us a few more parables, of the lamp, of the hidden in the manifest of having, and not having, and that the kingdom grows like seed.These parables, with their emphasis on revelation and the necessity of paying attention, extends the theme of the word and its hearers. Verse 21, "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?'" Jesus uses very similar phrasing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.""In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Now, the text in Matthew 5 is very clear. Don't hide your light. Be good witnesses to Jesus Christ, and this world do good works so people see the good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. It's tempting when you come across a text like ours to say, "Oh, there's a similar phrase that's used in a different text like Matthew 5," and just assume that Jesus means the same thing because He used the same phrase.Jesus, just like us, often uses the same expressions and different context to communicate different truths. So just because Jesus is using the same image, or the same expression, or the same phraseology doesn't automatically mean He's saying the same thing. We have to pay attention to the context. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus is urging us to do something. You shine your light to the world.Here, Jesus is promising us something wonderful. He's not just calling us to action, but He's giving us a promise, and the promise is about the destiny of the kingdom of God. The parable is teaching us that the future for the kingdom of God is bright, and I just want to point out a couple of things from the text. In our translation, the English standard, it just says a light. There's no definite article.The definite article is the. In the original Greek, there is a definite article before the word, lamp, so it's the lamp. A particular lamp is in view, and where the text says that the lamp is brought in, the Greek actually says, "Does the lamp come in?" It isn't brought in, it comes in all on its own. There's a personal agency ascribed to the lamp. Meaning, the lamp is a person.The lamp comes in. The lamp here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what Jesus taught us about His identity in John 8:12. "Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, 'I, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So probably, the best way to read verse 21 in our text is that the lamp is the revelation of God and His kingdom as has come in the person, the words, the works of Jesus Christ.It's a message, a revelation summarized in the message of the gospel. If the lamp is here and the gospel of the kingdom is here, Jesus is saying, "What's the intent?" It's here in order to be exposed. It's here in order to shine. This is what He's telling His disciples.He says, "Be patient. When it looks like the darkness in the world is oppressive, when it looks like there's so much darkness, that no light can penetrate that darkness, be patient. Continue to believe." Even with Christ, many were opposing Him. There was an antagonism that was growing amongst the Scribes and the Pharisees, and partially because they didn't want the light of God in their life.This is a lot of people, they want God's love, but they don't want God's light, but God is Love and He is Light, and you can't have one part of Him without all of Him. Many people love John 3:16, a verse that many have memorized even since Sunday school, but in the context about God loving the world, He does say like the world has rejected this love because they don't want the light, they want to continue living in darkness. Look at John 3:16-21, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.""And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." He's saying the light has come and the light has come in the form of Jesus Christ, and people reject Him because people loved darkness. This is what the difference between a believer and non-believer. A believer has a brand new heart.You're regenerated. When you repent of your sin, you're given this brand new heart that longs for God's light. You want to love the light. You love standing in the light, living in the light. You love being a child of the Light, and you love God's word because God's word illuminates more of your life. It shows you more of the ways that you are to walk in and the ways that you are not to walk in light that shows the way to live.Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So even in the short-term, God intends those outside even if He does intend that they misunderstand this word. It's not going to be hidden forever. The truth is here, and even if people suppress that truth, there will come a point where the suppression is no longer even possible. Mark 4:22, Jesus continues, says, "For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light."He did not come to have His light hidden away, and the whole point of His coming in this veiled form, often rejected form, was so that the light might shine, undim to the ends of the earth. He came in weakness and suffering. He came as a seed to be buried in the ground. Look at Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful, prophetic passages about the person of Christ. "Who has believed what He has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?""For He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed Him not." Just as in the past, nothing was hidden except in order to become manifest, so Jesus is saying this is true.Even now, in the present, all the hiddenness of the current age will ultimately serve the purpose of revelation. This is exactly what happened with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, the Son of God, King of kings, comes and He proclaims the word of the kingdom. "The kingdom is here. Repent and believe. Everyone who repents and believes is welcome."But the opponents of Jesus, they misunderstood His word, and they rejected it. The word didn't penetrate their hearts, it didn't transform them, but this rejection of the word led to Jesus' death, and as a result from the divine perspective, it led to ultimate revelation, more revelation. He was killed by those who refuse to believe His word, refuse to see His identity, but in this divinely will death, which is caused by their spiritual blindness, God ushers in a brand new age of revelation. After Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus now is proclaimed as the Messiah, as the Son of God, and after the Holy Spirit falls on Pentecost. Now, when the message of the gospel was proclaimed, the Holy Spirit takes that message and transforms people.He saves people. The obscurity of the word ultimately serves to lead to greater revelation. The lamp of God's word has come into the room and is casting its light into every crevice for everyone who would welcome the light into their heart. 1 John 2:8-11, "At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." At the same time, we look around the world and we say, "Well, if the light has come and the light is revealing the kingdom of God, why aren't more people Christians? Why aren't more people following the word of God?," and Jesus here says, "There will come a time when everything is revealed, and at that point, it will be too late." The kingdom will not remain hidden forever. It is seemingly hidden now, in that its full power is not evident, it's concealed in some way, but there will be a day when the kingdom is completely revealed because the light of function is to expose the darkness.The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ cannot stay hidden. Nothing can obscure it. No shadow can engulf it or eclipse it. Why are we believers? Because God shown His light into our heart so that the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ is understood.The light of the gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief, and the people who walked in darkness are beginning to see the light. And what's our job? Our job is to believe this promise, that the kingdom is unstoppable, that the gospel light will continue to shine and God will draw the elect, will draw His children to Himself. And what's our job in the process? We are to love the truth, hunger for the truth, and impart the truth for others. The light isn't just given to us so we enjoy our lives here on earth until we go to heaven.No. We have work to do to testify to Jesus Christ, that He alone is the Doctor of our souls, that He alone is the Way to salvation. There's no other name by which anyone will be saved. That day, the judgment day, or when Christ returns will reveal that to everybody, and for most people, will be too late then. I understand in a place like Boston, it's easy to lose your hope.You look around, you're like, "We are outnumbered. Big league, we are outnumbered. We are on the losing side," and that is a lie of the enemy. As soon as you begin to believe that lie, we lose the power. We are to believe that Jesus' kingdom is growing, will continue to grow, and sometimes it feels like our light just isn't enough.It feels like you're in Fenway Park, all the lights are out, you're by yourself, and you want to light up the night just a little bit. You take out your phone with a little flashlight, and you're like, "Yeah, the light of Jesus," and it looks pathetic, puny, flickering even. It seems like the darkness is absolute impenetrable. You say, "What can my little light do?," and then you realize, "It's not my light. It's not my light, it's not my lamp."The light is Jesus Christ Himself. The light is God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no one beyond the reach of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there is no heart so hard, that grace cannot soften it and change it forever?The light will pierce the darkness. We just need to proclaim that Jesus is the Light. He is the only Way of salvation. I'm confident of that because of the promise here, that the light came not to be hidden, it came to blaze forth and to give light to the world, and nothing can stop Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop the King.Last week, I shared that I had a toothache, and thank you for all your condolences. It was supposed to be solved on Tuesday. I woke up the happiest person to get a root canal ever. I even got a shirt, buttoned. I was like, "I'm ready to go."Did my hair. I'm like, "I'm ready to go to the endodontist." I show up, and they say, "Thank you for coming for your consultation." I was like, "What? No."So my dental appointment is on Tuesday. Tuesday is coming. Praise be to God. And so I was at a staff meeting. I came into the staff meeting on Thursday. We were praying for one another, and I shared about my toothpaste, and Raquel was praying for me, and Raquel starts praying, and it's just powerful, and then she's like, "Lord, you see the decay in Pastor Jan's tooth, just decay.""Decay. He's decaying. He's fallen apart. Decay, decay, decay." And that's all I heard.I'm like, "I am ... Yup." I said, "Amen." We are all decaying. I just want to just share that tremendous news. We are all mortal.We are all going to die. Time will be up for each one of us. The Lord knows when that is, but I'm telling you, dear soul, dear eternal soul, that moment will come, and you will stand before Jesus Christ, and you will stand before Him as forgiven, welcome into the presence of God, or He will stand before you like a judge. It's one or the other. This is what Jesus is saying, that the kingdom is inevitable.This is true. This is the greatest truth that there is. This is the truth underneath every single truth, that Jesus Christ is King, and the only way that we can be forgiven of our law-breaking, of our insubordination, of our rebellion against the King, is to fall on our knees and say, "Lord Jesus, please forgive me of all my sins. Lord Jesus, I repent," and Jesus Christ says, "The love of God will be poured into your heart. The light of God will be poured into your mind, and you will be transformed."This has to be real for every believer. When we meet friends who are not Christians, who are not followers of Christ, you need to believe that they are on their way to hell, eternal damnation apart from Jesus Christ, and this is why we proclaim the gospel, this is why we do what we do. This is the truth, and our job is to sow the seed of the gospel, and not to be afraid of it, not to be afraid of speaking the truth. There are proponents of other religions who are 10 times, 100 times more courageous than most Christians today. I watched the UFC.A lot of Muslim fighters are in there, and they're all, "Inshallah," and they're just saying, "Praise be to God. If God wills ..." They're just throwing in God in every ... I'm like, "Imagine if believers did that, just on a daily basis, speaking the name of Christ every opportunity that we get, no matter what cost." Why? Because that's how important it is.In Mark 4:23, He says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." He's saying that ears to hear this message are a gift from God. Repentance is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God, but using the ears that God has given us, that's our responsibility. We are to say, "Lord, tune our ears to hear Your voice and give us grace to hear."In verse 24, "And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." The wake-up call is repeated and reinforced, pay attention to what you hear. He's not saying that it's just hearing per se, you hear. No. It's hearing to understand.It's hearing with the commitment to obey no matter what it says. Also, he says, "See what you hear." That's the original. It's the sense of hearing doubled by the sense of sight, suggesting we're going to use all of our faculties to listen to the word of God, and significant in the wording, the call is to pay attention not just to how we hear, but to what we listen to. Be careful in the voices you'll allow into your life and to your heart in a world that is still, in some sense, Satan's house and his dominion.Not all voices who claim to be speaking on behalf of God really are. Many of the voices are deceitful, perhaps even satanic in claiming to be God's word. Later on in Mark 13, Jesus says that, "Satan does everything he can to lead astray if possible, even the elect." So we, as believers need to be careful, careful of the voices we allow. Listening sermons is important.You should listen to sermons, but I want you versed in the scriptures more than you are in sermons so that you can discern, "Is this truly the word of God or not?" On the other hand, when we listen to God's word with the intent to obey, God gives us more revelation, and as He does, He continues to draw us to the calling that He has for us to go and preach the gospel, to receive, and then also share the gains that we have. Romans 10:14, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?,' but they have not all believed the gospel, for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?'""So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ." In Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory." He says, "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." Mark here takes a phrase that was known in ancient literature, a phrase that had to do with giving. If you give to others, whatever you give will return to you, but here, he applies it to epistemology, knowledge of God, in particular.What He's saying is if you receive insight from the Lord, if you receive it with a welcome heart and a pure heart, you will get more insight, and the measure of our engagement with the word, the way we respond, our desire to grasp its message and digest its truth, no matter how hard to chew, will determine the measure of blessing we enjoy from it. Do you want more blessing? Of course we do. He says, "Pay closer attention." The word teaches clearly that if you come close to God, He will come close to you.He will draw near to you. If you take a tiny step toward God, God will more than match the movement. In verse 25, He says, "For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Now, Proverbs 13:4 says, "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied." Diligence.Are you diligent about your faith? The Christians that I know, that I've seen them grow spiritually by leaps and bounds, and the ones that have grown in spiritual prosperity are those who are diligent, diligent in their study of scripture on a daily basis, diligent over private devotions and private prayer, diligent over attending worship services and community groups, in the same way that exercise and use of muscles are strengthened with exercise so that the soul is strengthened when we exercise the means of grace that God has given us, and we are to expend all energy to listen to the word and the promises that we will be proportionally rewarded. Those who heed the message get more understanding of the message, get more revelation, get more blessing. Those who do not heed the message end up with nothing, and the idea of the rich getting richer applies to truth, that God gives wisdom to the wise, and He gives grace to those who long for insight and knowledge. For example, Daniel 2:19-23, "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.""Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.""He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To You, O God, of my fathers that give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for You have made known to us the kings matter." So we are to pay careful attention to how we listen, to what we listen in terms of the word of God, and let the measure of your response to the word be full, and complete, and heartfelt, and diligent, and real, and those who give themselves to the word like this, they gain much. What do you gain when you pay attention to the word?You gain eternal life. You gain a relationship with God. You gain energy and strength to persevere despite trials. You gain comforts that the world cannot even imagine and you gain a hope that no tragedy can touch, and you gain heaven itself. But to those who hear the word and do not respond like this, but respond with tepid indifference, "Oh, yeah, God," "Oh, yeah, God's word," "Oh, yeah, Christ dying on the cross, bleeding, crucifixion," "Oh, yeah, Jan, I've heard that before," well, Jesus says those who listen like that, even what they have will be taken away.So the word of God when proclaimed, no matter how familiar you are with the word, you can't ignore it. What a joy and peace we have in the word. In particular, watch for those texts in holy scripture where you are tempted to plug your ears with your fingers. "No, that's not for me. Yeah, they say that that's God's word, but that's not for me."Pay close attention to those texts. Some of you have been walking with Christ for years, and your relationship with the Lord has just grown cold. There's no obvious rebellion in your life, but it just feels like your faith is like stale bread, left out too long, dry, crusty, and moldy. The word used to come to you like fresh water from a rock in the desert, like manna from heaven, and now you just sit in services or you're reading scripture, and there's just nothing. There's no life, there's no interest.There's just boredom. At these moments, the Lord is speaking to you and say, "Pay attention. Pay attention to what you hear, how you hear because the stakes are that high," and Jesus today invites you to turn away from your lukewarmness and draw near to Him, and ask the, "Lord, send me this hunger. Send me a thirst for Your presence and for Your word, and give me this attentiveness, this desire to hear it no matter what and to obey," and the Lord will meet you there. Second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, and harvest is coming.Mark 4:26-27, "And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how." The emphasis in this parable is that God grows His kingdom, that God is the One that gives the growth. The farmer, all he does is plant the seed, and then how it grows eludes his comprehension. It's beyond his control.He can't control how it grows. All he does is cast the seed and weight, and the seed germinates and develops by itself even while he is sleeping. He has no idea how it grows, and the Lord here is saying, "I give the growth." This is from 1 Corinthians. Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth."Verse 28, "The Earth produces by itself, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come." Our job is to preach the word. Our job is to sow the seed of God's word. What God does with His word is His business. It's only for us to make sure we're faithful in our sowing.This is our responsibility, but God is the One that gives the growth. The soil can't produce life apart from the seed, but why? Because humans are dead in sin. Life must come from the outside, and it comes from the word of God. He says, "First, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."The children of God are not born in perfect faith or perfect hope, or perfect knowledge or experience, but the moment you become a child of God, even the weakest child of God is a true child of God, and the true child of God is expected by God to grow. If God began the process of salvation, He's promised He's going to complete it, and the process of salvation includes maturity and growth. Philippians 1:6, "And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He's the one that starts the work, and He will bring it to completion. What's our job?We are to grow ... In 1 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him, be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This is how the reign of God grows in your life.You grow in grace, grow in grace by the means of grace, studying scripture, and praying, and worshiping the Lord. We receive grace when we recognize that we've sinned. "Lord, give me more grace and power me with that grace," and that's how maturity, that's how growth come. The real cause of agent of the words fruition isn't the farmer, it's the seed. It's God Himself.He says, "Keep sowing, keep sowing, keep sowing until the day of harvest comes." The day of harvest in scripture from Joel, from Revelation we see, the day of harvest is actually an image of judgment. A time when evil is judged and righteousness is vindicated. For example, Revelation 14:15, "And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Out in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.'" The harvest is, in the Lord's parable, is a symbol of the end of the age, the last judgment, the consummation of history, and we have the same text in Joel 3:13, "Put in the stickle for the harvest is ripe.""Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." Jesus here is showing us a picture of the whole period of world history from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ, from His first advent to the next, and Jesus is saying that, "Kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing.Sow the seed, the kingdom is growing, but a day will come when finally, it's time for reaping and the harvest." Our job is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Were to sow the seed of the word of God. Our task is not to attempt to manipulate the seed, or force growth, or change the seed somehow. No, Jesus wants us to have complete confidence, that there's life in the seed itself, the word of God is living inactive, and the word of God is going to accomplish the work that God has for it.We are to trust in it, hope in it, and recognize that the kingdom of God is unstoppable, the kingdom of God is inevitable, and God is going to save all of the elect. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up." One of the reasons why this church even exists is because we believe this. We've believed this from the very beginning when we establish the church. We said, "What kind of church do we ..."We want to be a church that's faithful of God's word, and we want to do God's work God's way. Sometimes it does feel like the soil here isn't really soil, but it's kind of like concrete, and I remember a while back, I was walking my daughters to school, and I saw the pavement of a sidewalk with a little sprout growing. I was like, "Oh, that's cute," and I just walked by, and then a few weeks later, I'm walking ... I look at it, I'm like, "I can't believe it." It was a tomato plant, a tomato plant just out of the sidewalk with a little tomato, and I should have plucked it.I should have plucked it. I should have had it. I didn't plant it, though, and it was just an image of like, "No matter what, God's seeds can break through even the hardness of payment." Can God save people in Boston, Massachusetts? Of course He can, and He does, and we see it at this church, and we see it in the other gospel proclaiming ministries we support.The point of, and this is what Jesus closed it with, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Mark 4:30, and He said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? How do we understand the kingdom of God?" Here, He's quoting from Isaiah, "To whom will we liken God or what likeness compare with Him?" Jesus is saying that the kingdom is a kingdom that's going to grow.It starts and it looks like a tiny, little seed, as tiny even as a mustard seed, but it's going to grow because God promised the. Previous parable is a call to patience. The seed's going to grow surely, slowly, but surely. This parable is a call to hope. It's not only going to grow, it's going to grow massively, so we can confidently sow and not grow weary and not grow discouraged, not lose heart.But remember, the promise that God said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it." We are to be content with the growth that God sends us, but we are never complacent. We are thankful for all the people that God saved here in and through this church, and sanctify, but we're not complacent. We do believe that God wants this church to grow. He wants the kingdom of God to grow.We are a kingdom building force, and how do we build the kingdom? By sowing the seed, and the seed can be even as small as a grain of mustard seed. Verse 31, "It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth," and here, Jesus is hyperbolic. He's comparing something very tiny, mustard seed to something great, and that's the growth that comes from the mustard seed, over 700 mustard seeds to a gram, and the height of the bush or the tree can grow to 10 feet. What He's saying is that the kingdom of God grows like this.In the beginnings, there's small, paltry in appearance, but there's tremendous power, divine potency in the word of God. The mustard seed is chosen because of its commonness, and because of its smallness, but it grows into something vast and incredible. What is Jesus here saying? He's saying, "Well, look how the kingdom came into the world initially, and weakness." How did the King of kings, the King of the universe come into this world?He came as a baby, born in a manger, at Bethlehem, without riches, without armies, without attendance, without power. And who are the men that God chose to build His church? Who were the appointed apostles? Just average men. What was the last public act of Jesus' earthly ministry as the King of kings?Well, He was crucified between two criminals, between two thieves, and He was forsaken by His disciples, betrayed by one, denied by another. What was the doctrine that the first apostles, the first builders of the church ... What was the doctrine they preached? They preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks. It was foolishness, but because of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit took that message, that we have all sinned, we have all transgressed the commandments of God, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on our behalf, and then He died on a cross as our substitutionary atonement, and then He rose in the third day, and whoever believes in Christ has all of their sins blotted out, forgiven.It's as if God cast our sins as far from us, says the east is from the west. He chooses to not just forgive, but forget our sins. When that message was proclaimed and the Holy Spirit took and applied to people's hearts, lives were changed. The world was changed, in the same way that the gospel changed people's lives, then He does so today. In all this, the mind of man can only look at Christ, can only look at His disciples and see weakness and feebleness, but we, as believers, we understand that beyond the feebleness, beyond the weakness, is the power of God, a power that can truly save. Mark 4:32, "Yet, when it is sown, it grows up and it becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."Now, this phrase, birds of the air is used in Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4. It's to represent the multitude of the nations, that the kingdom grows and it's going to grow in vastness, and then people of all nations are going to come and build nests within this tree. Ezekiel 17:23, "On the mountain height of Israel, will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shadow of its branches, birds of every sort will nest." Every time this phrase is used in the Old Testament, describing a mighty kingdom, be it Israel or Egypt or Babylon, the kingdoms will gross in vastness, that the other nations will come and seek refuge in this kingdom. What Jesus is saying here is, "My kingdom is like that.""My kingdom, the kingdom of God is like this, though its beginnings are improbable, a small seed, a crucified Messiah, suffering church, preaching, baptizing, and holding holy communion, praying. Its beginnings are improbable, but its destiny is vast, and there's room for all." In the kingdom of God, there's room for every single one of you, there's room for every single one of your families, there's room for everyone in the world that will come and repent, and to build a nest. I like the idea of just building a little nest with your loved ones. In the kingdom of God, He's like, "Make sure you're building this home that you have in the kingdom of God.""Come and find shelter," Jesus is saying, "In the shade of this kingdom." The parable emphasizes the shelter that the kingdom brings. In Psalm 91, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.'"Jesus concludes our text in Mark 4:33. "With many such parables, He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately, to His own disciples, He explained everything," as they were able to hear according to their God-given ability to hear. What He's saying is, and He concludes with this, if you want more revelation, you do it by spending more time with Christ, by following Christ, by communing with Him and abiding in Him. Three points to summarize, and then we'll close with prayer, love the light, hunger for truth, and then share the gains.Sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Let us pray. Lord, we thank You for continuing to build Your kingdom in and through us in this city, in a place of stifling darkness, sometimes it seems, but Lord, You are the Light, and You're the Light that shines in the darkness. Lord, as you saved us, we believe that You can save others, and we pray that You use us in the process, even this week, Lord. Give us opportunities to speak of You, speak of the gospel, speak of Your grace.We pray that You open the door for the proclamation of the gospel here. We pray for revival in this city and beyond. We pray for an awakening, and we pray that, Lord, You save many and draw them to yourself and to Your incredible kingdom, and we pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

If you could ask God for one thing… just one thing, what would it be? In Psalm 27, David said, "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. David is reminding us that the presence of God is better than anything we can ask for. It's better than having the best job or a nicer home, a better self-esteem, or more popular friends. It's in the presence of God that we can be fully known and fully loved. That no sin and shame can hold us or bind us. It's the in the presence of God that we are healed and set free.

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are God overall, and even over those who don't yet confess Jesus Christ as Lord, You are Lord over them as well. Lord, we thank You for regulating revelation of Your holy truth. By Your Spirit, you're the one that illumines the truth into our hearts, and we pray for more revelation in our church. We pray for more revelation given to us, not just so we can store it, or hold it, or keep it unto ourselves, but so that we can share it with others. As we get light, as we get knowledge and discernment and wisdom, I pray that You give us the unction of the Holy Spirit, the power of the Spirit to then share it with others.As we come to know who You are, let us be a people that wants to testify to the greatness of Your holy name. Lord, You are so holy, even Your name is holy, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed in our church, in our hearts, and our lives, and we pray that Your name will be hollowed and considered holy and revered in the city. Lord, there are many who don't yet follow You, don't yet even believe in You, and we pray for a revival. We pray for an awakening. We do believe that Your kingdom is unstoppable.You promised that there was nothing that is going to remain hidden, You will reveal all truth, and we pray, Lord, use us in the process of this harvest of drawn many to Yourself. Give us a zeal, a burning zeal in our hearts to do everything we possibly can to see people whom we love, come to faith, to receive eternal life, to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, and to receive forgiveness of sins and a relationship with You. Lord, we pray that You instill a hope in us, a hope that is unshakeable so people around us do realize there's something different about these people, they do believe, and they build their life on this hope. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We're continuing our sermon series to do with the incredible gospel of Mark. We've called it Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom, and the title today is the Unstoppable Kingdom. Question, "What's one thing that grows the more you share it? The more you give it to others, the more you test it, the more you share, what is that one thing that grows?," and I would submit to you, it's your faith. The more you share your faith, the deeper your faith gets.The more you testify to the truth of God, the deeper your understanding of that truth is. Jesus Christ told us, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men. I'll make you compel people to come into the kingdom. I'm saving you as an instrument of salvation for others." That's part of our purpose.1 Peter 3:15 says, "But in your hearts honor Christ, the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect." We should be such hope-filled people, that people around us are like mesmerized by this hope that we have no matter what the circumstances. No matter what the situation in the world, we have an unshakable hope. Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? Well, it's because the Lord sent someone to you at some point to sow the seeds of God's word into your heart, and the fact that you're following Jesus today is evidence that the seed was planted into fertile soil.The seed goes deep and it germinates, and a root system goes deep into your heart, and that seed grows as it is nourished by the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit bears fruit through us, and the fruit that the Holy Spirit bears has seeds, and that's the seed of God's word, and we are then to take those seeds and we are to sow those seeds into the heart soils of other people. Then, by the power of God, they too are saved. They're saved from God's judgment. They're saved for God's kingdom and His mission, and the intention is clear from these parables that the Lord is giving us today. We are not only to receive knowledge, but do everything we can to impart that knowledge to others, and this is how the kingdom of God grows in your life and in the world.Today, we're in Mark 4:21-34. Would you look at the text with me? "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let them hear.'""And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you. For to the one who has more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.' And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, but when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.'""And He said, 'With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of the seeds on the earth, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.' With many such parables He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to His own disciples, He explained everything." This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible, authoritative word.May He write these truths on our hearts. Three points to frame up our time. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains, second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and third, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. First, love the light, hunger for truth, and share the gains. So Jesus, in the previous text, has interpreted the parable of the sower, and now, He gives us a few more parables, of the lamp, of the hidden in the manifest of having, and not having, and that the kingdom grows like seed.These parables, with their emphasis on revelation and the necessity of paying attention, extends the theme of the word and its hearers. Verse 21, "And He said to them, 'Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?'" Jesus uses very similar phrasing in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5:14, Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden, nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house.""In the same way, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." Now, the text in Matthew 5 is very clear. Don't hide your light. Be good witnesses to Jesus Christ, and this world do good works so people see the good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. It's tempting when you come across a text like ours to say, "Oh, there's a similar phrase that's used in a different text like Matthew 5," and just assume that Jesus means the same thing because He used the same phrase.Jesus, just like us, often uses the same expressions and different context to communicate different truths. So just because Jesus is using the same image, or the same expression, or the same phraseology doesn't automatically mean He's saying the same thing. We have to pay attention to the context. In Matthew 5:15, Jesus is urging us to do something. You shine your light to the world.Here, Jesus is promising us something wonderful. He's not just calling us to action, but He's giving us a promise, and the promise is about the destiny of the kingdom of God. The parable is teaching us that the future for the kingdom of God is bright, and I just want to point out a couple of things from the text. In our translation, the English standard, it just says a light. There's no definite article.The definite article is the. In the original Greek, there is a definite article before the word, lamp, so it's the lamp. A particular lamp is in view, and where the text says that the lamp is brought in, the Greek actually says, "Does the lamp come in?" It isn't brought in, it comes in all on its own. There's a personal agency ascribed to the lamp. Meaning, the lamp is a person.The lamp comes in. The lamp here is the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is what Jesus taught us about His identity in John 8:12. "Again, Jesus spoke to them saying, 'I, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.'" So probably, the best way to read verse 21 in our text is that the lamp is the revelation of God and His kingdom as has come in the person, the words, the works of Jesus Christ.It's a message, a revelation summarized in the message of the gospel. If the lamp is here and the gospel of the kingdom is here, Jesus is saying, "What's the intent?" It's here in order to be exposed. It's here in order to shine. This is what He's telling His disciples.He says, "Be patient. When it looks like the darkness in the world is oppressive, when it looks like there's so much darkness, that no light can penetrate that darkness, be patient. Continue to believe." Even with Christ, many were opposing Him. There was an antagonism that was growing amongst the Scribes and the Pharisees, and partially because they didn't want the light of God in their life.This is a lot of people, they want God's love, but they don't want God's light, but God is Love and He is Light, and you can't have one part of Him without all of Him. Many people love John 3:16, a verse that many have memorized even since Sunday school, but in the context about God loving the world, He does say like the world has rejected this love because they don't want the light, they want to continue living in darkness. Look at John 3:16-21, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him. Whoever believes in Him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.""And this is the judgment, the light has come into the world and people love the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God." He's saying the light has come and the light has come in the form of Jesus Christ, and people reject Him because people loved darkness. This is what the difference between a believer and non-believer. A believer has a brand new heart.You're regenerated. When you repent of your sin, you're given this brand new heart that longs for God's light. You want to love the light. You love standing in the light, living in the light. You love being a child of the Light, and you love God's word because God's word illuminates more of your life. It shows you more of the ways that you are to walk in and the ways that you are not to walk in light that shows the way to live.Psalm 119:105 says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path." So even in the short-term, God intends those outside even if He does intend that they misunderstand this word. It's not going to be hidden forever. The truth is here, and even if people suppress that truth, there will come a point where the suppression is no longer even possible. Mark 4:22, Jesus continues, says, "For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest, nor is anything secret except to come to light."He did not come to have His light hidden away, and the whole point of His coming in this veiled form, often rejected form, was so that the light might shine, undim to the ends of the earth. He came in weakness and suffering. He came as a seed to be buried in the ground. Look at Isaiah 53, one of the most powerful, prophetic passages about the person of Christ. "Who has believed what He has heard from us and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?""For He grew up before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him, and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by man, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, and as one from whom men hide their faces. He was despised and we esteemed Him not." Just as in the past, nothing was hidden except in order to become manifest, so Jesus is saying this is true.Even now, in the present, all the hiddenness of the current age will ultimately serve the purpose of revelation. This is exactly what happened with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. Jesus, who is God, the Son of God, King of kings, comes and He proclaims the word of the kingdom. "The kingdom is here. Repent and believe. Everyone who repents and believes is welcome."But the opponents of Jesus, they misunderstood His word, and they rejected it. The word didn't penetrate their hearts, it didn't transform them, but this rejection of the word led to Jesus' death, and as a result from the divine perspective, it led to ultimate revelation, more revelation. He was killed by those who refuse to believe His word, refuse to see His identity, but in this divinely will death, which is caused by their spiritual blindness, God ushers in a brand new age of revelation. After Good Friday and Easter Sunday, Jesus now is proclaimed as the Messiah, as the Son of God, and after the Holy Spirit falls on Pentecost. Now, when the message of the gospel was proclaimed, the Holy Spirit takes that message and transforms people.He saves people. The obscurity of the word ultimately serves to lead to greater revelation. The lamp of God's word has come into the room and is casting its light into every crevice for everyone who would welcome the light into their heart. 1 John 2:8-11, "At the same time, it is a new commandment that I'm writing to you, which is true in Him and in you because the darkness is passing away, and the true light is already shining. Whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness.Whoever loves his brother abides in the light, and in him, there is no cause for stumbling, but whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes." At the same time, we look around the world and we say, "Well, if the light has come and the light is revealing the kingdom of God, why aren't more people Christians? Why aren't more people following the word of God?," and Jesus here says, "There will come a time when everything is revealed, and at that point, it will be too late." The kingdom will not remain hidden forever. It is seemingly hidden now, in that its full power is not evident, it's concealed in some way, but there will be a day when the kingdom is completely revealed because the light of function is to expose the darkness.The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ cannot stay hidden. Nothing can obscure it. No shadow can engulf it or eclipse it. Why are we believers? Because God shown His light into our heart so that the knowledge of the glory of Jesus Christ is understood.The light of the gospel is chasing away the shadows of unbelief, and the people who walked in darkness are beginning to see the light. And what's our job? Our job is to believe this promise, that the kingdom is unstoppable, that the gospel light will continue to shine and God will draw the elect, will draw His children to Himself. And what's our job in the process? We are to love the truth, hunger for the truth, and impart the truth for others. The light isn't just given to us so we enjoy our lives here on earth until we go to heaven.No. We have work to do to testify to Jesus Christ, that He alone is the Doctor of our souls, that He alone is the Way to salvation. There's no other name by which anyone will be saved. That day, the judgment day, or when Christ returns will reveal that to everybody, and for most people, will be too late then. I understand in a place like Boston, it's easy to lose your hope.You look around, you're like, "We are outnumbered. Big league, we are outnumbered. We are on the losing side," and that is a lie of the enemy. As soon as you begin to believe that lie, we lose the power. We are to believe that Jesus' kingdom is growing, will continue to grow, and sometimes it feels like our light just isn't enough.It feels like you're in Fenway Park, all the lights are out, you're by yourself, and you want to light up the night just a little bit. You take out your phone with a little flashlight, and you're like, "Yeah, the light of Jesus," and it looks pathetic, puny, flickering even. It seems like the darkness is absolute impenetrable. You say, "What can my little light do?," and then you realize, "It's not my light. It's not my light, it's not my lamp."The light is Jesus Christ Himself. The light is God. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation. Do you believe this? Do you believe that there is no one beyond the reach of Jesus Christ? Do you believe that there is no heart so hard, that grace cannot soften it and change it forever?The light will pierce the darkness. We just need to proclaim that Jesus is the Light. He is the only Way of salvation. I'm confident of that because of the promise here, that the light came not to be hidden, it came to blaze forth and to give light to the world, and nothing can stop Jesus Christ. Nothing can stop the King.Last week, I shared that I had a toothache, and thank you for all your condolences. It was supposed to be solved on Tuesday. I woke up the happiest person to get a root canal ever. I even got a shirt, buttoned. I was like, "I'm ready to go."Did my hair. I'm like, "I'm ready to go to the endodontist." I show up, and they say, "Thank you for coming for your consultation." I was like, "What? No."So my dental appointment is on Tuesday. Tuesday is coming. Praise be to God. And so I was at a staff meeting. I came into the staff meeting on Thursday. We were praying for one another, and I shared about my toothpaste, and Raquel was praying for me, and Raquel starts praying, and it's just powerful, and then she's like, "Lord, you see the decay in Pastor Jan's tooth, just decay.""Decay. He's decaying. He's fallen apart. Decay, decay, decay." And that's all I heard.I'm like, "I am ... Yup." I said, "Amen." We are all decaying. I just want to just share that tremendous news. We are all mortal.We are all going to die. Time will be up for each one of us. The Lord knows when that is, but I'm telling you, dear soul, dear eternal soul, that moment will come, and you will stand before Jesus Christ, and you will stand before Him as forgiven, welcome into the presence of God, or He will stand before you like a judge. It's one or the other. This is what Jesus is saying, that the kingdom is inevitable.This is true. This is the greatest truth that there is. This is the truth underneath every single truth, that Jesus Christ is King, and the only way that we can be forgiven of our law-breaking, of our insubordination, of our rebellion against the King, is to fall on our knees and say, "Lord Jesus, please forgive me of all my sins. Lord Jesus, I repent," and Jesus Christ says, "The love of God will be poured into your heart. The light of God will be poured into your mind, and you will be transformed."This has to be real for every believer. When we meet friends who are not Christians, who are not followers of Christ, you need to believe that they are on their way to hell, eternal damnation apart from Jesus Christ, and this is why we proclaim the gospel, this is why we do what we do. This is the truth, and our job is to sow the seed of the gospel, and not to be afraid of it, not to be afraid of speaking the truth. There are proponents of other religions who are 10 times, 100 times more courageous than most Christians today. I watched the UFC.A lot of Muslim fighters are in there, and they're all, "Inshallah," and they're just saying, "Praise be to God. If God wills ..." They're just throwing in God in every ... I'm like, "Imagine if believers did that, just on a daily basis, speaking the name of Christ every opportunity that we get, no matter what cost." Why? Because that's how important it is.In Mark 4:23, He says, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." He's saying that ears to hear this message are a gift from God. Repentance is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God, but using the ears that God has given us, that's our responsibility. We are to say, "Lord, tune our ears to hear Your voice and give us grace to hear."In verse 24, "And He said to them, 'Pay attention to what you hear, with the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." The wake-up call is repeated and reinforced, pay attention to what you hear. He's not saying that it's just hearing per se, you hear. No. It's hearing to understand.It's hearing with the commitment to obey no matter what it says. Also, he says, "See what you hear." That's the original. It's the sense of hearing doubled by the sense of sight, suggesting we're going to use all of our faculties to listen to the word of God, and significant in the wording, the call is to pay attention not just to how we hear, but to what we listen to. Be careful in the voices you'll allow into your life and to your heart in a world that is still, in some sense, Satan's house and his dominion.Not all voices who claim to be speaking on behalf of God really are. Many of the voices are deceitful, perhaps even satanic in claiming to be God's word. Later on in Mark 13, Jesus says that, "Satan does everything he can to lead astray if possible, even the elect." So we, as believers need to be careful, careful of the voices we allow. Listening sermons is important.You should listen to sermons, but I want you versed in the scriptures more than you are in sermons so that you can discern, "Is this truly the word of God or not?" On the other hand, when we listen to God's word with the intent to obey, God gives us more revelation, and as He does, He continues to draw us to the calling that He has for us to go and preach the gospel, to receive, and then also share the gains that we have. Romans 10:14, "How then will they call on Him in whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him of whom they have never heard? How are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news?,' but they have not all believed the gospel, for Isaiah says, 'Lord, who has believed what He has heard from us?'""So faith comes from hearing and hearing from the word of Christ." In Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of His glory." He says, "With the measure you use, it will be measured to you and still more will be added to you." Mark here takes a phrase that was known in ancient literature, a phrase that had to do with giving. If you give to others, whatever you give will return to you, but here, he applies it to epistemology, knowledge of God, in particular.What He's saying is if you receive insight from the Lord, if you receive it with a welcome heart and a pure heart, you will get more insight, and the measure of our engagement with the word, the way we respond, our desire to grasp its message and digest its truth, no matter how hard to chew, will determine the measure of blessing we enjoy from it. Do you want more blessing? Of course we do. He says, "Pay closer attention." The word teaches clearly that if you come close to God, He will come close to you.He will draw near to you. If you take a tiny step toward God, God will more than match the movement. In verse 25, He says, "For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away." Now, Proverbs 13:4 says, "The soul of the sluggard craves and gets nothing while the soul of the diligent is richly supplied." Diligence.Are you diligent about your faith? The Christians that I know, that I've seen them grow spiritually by leaps and bounds, and the ones that have grown in spiritual prosperity are those who are diligent, diligent in their study of scripture on a daily basis, diligent over private devotions and private prayer, diligent over attending worship services and community groups, in the same way that exercise and use of muscles are strengthened with exercise so that the soul is strengthened when we exercise the means of grace that God has given us, and we are to expend all energy to listen to the word and the promises that we will be proportionally rewarded. Those who heed the message get more understanding of the message, get more revelation, get more blessing. Those who do not heed the message end up with nothing, and the idea of the rich getting richer applies to truth, that God gives wisdom to the wise, and He gives grace to those who long for insight and knowledge. For example, Daniel 2:19-23, "Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision of the night.""Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, 'Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons. He removes kings and sets up kings. He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding.""He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness and the light dwells with him. To You, O God, of my fathers that give thanks and praise, for You have given me wisdom and might and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for You have made known to us the kings matter." So we are to pay careful attention to how we listen, to what we listen in terms of the word of God, and let the measure of your response to the word be full, and complete, and heartfelt, and diligent, and real, and those who give themselves to the word like this, they gain much. What do you gain when you pay attention to the word?You gain eternal life. You gain a relationship with God. You gain energy and strength to persevere despite trials. You gain comforts that the world cannot even imagine and you gain a hope that no tragedy can touch, and you gain heaven itself. But to those who hear the word and do not respond like this, but respond with tepid indifference, "Oh, yeah, God," "Oh, yeah, God's word," "Oh, yeah, Christ dying on the cross, bleeding, crucifixion," "Oh, yeah, Jan, I've heard that before," well, Jesus says those who listen like that, even what they have will be taken away.So the word of God when proclaimed, no matter how familiar you are with the word, you can't ignore it. What a joy and peace we have in the word. In particular, watch for those texts in holy scripture where you are tempted to plug your ears with your fingers. "No, that's not for me. Yeah, they say that that's God's word, but that's not for me."Pay close attention to those texts. Some of you have been walking with Christ for years, and your relationship with the Lord has just grown cold. There's no obvious rebellion in your life, but it just feels like your faith is like stale bread, left out too long, dry, crusty, and moldy. The word used to come to you like fresh water from a rock in the desert, like manna from heaven, and now you just sit in services or you're reading scripture, and there's just nothing. There's no life, there's no interest.There's just boredom. At these moments, the Lord is speaking to you and say, "Pay attention. Pay attention to what you hear, how you hear because the stakes are that high," and Jesus today invites you to turn away from your lukewarmness and draw near to Him, and ask the, "Lord, send me this hunger. Send me a thirst for Your presence and for Your word, and give me this attentiveness, this desire to hear it no matter what and to obey," and the Lord will meet you there. Second, sow the seed, trust God for growth, and harvest is coming.Mark 4:26-27, "And He said, 'The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows, he knows not how." The emphasis in this parable is that God grows His kingdom, that God is the One that gives the growth. The farmer, all he does is plant the seed, and then how it grows eludes his comprehension. It's beyond his control.He can't control how it grows. All he does is cast the seed and weight, and the seed germinates and develops by itself even while he is sleeping. He has no idea how it grows, and the Lord here is saying, "I give the growth." This is from 1 Corinthians. Paul says, "I planted, Apollos watered it, but God gave the growth."Verse 28, "The Earth produces by itself, first, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear, and when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come." Our job is to preach the word. Our job is to sow the seed of God's word. What God does with His word is His business. It's only for us to make sure we're faithful in our sowing.This is our responsibility, but God is the One that gives the growth. The soil can't produce life apart from the seed, but why? Because humans are dead in sin. Life must come from the outside, and it comes from the word of God. He says, "First, the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear."The children of God are not born in perfect faith or perfect hope, or perfect knowledge or experience, but the moment you become a child of God, even the weakest child of God is a true child of God, and the true child of God is expected by God to grow. If God began the process of salvation, He's promised He's going to complete it, and the process of salvation includes maturity and growth. Philippians 1:6, "And I'm sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." He's the one that starts the work, and He will bring it to completion. What's our job?We are to grow ... In 1 Peter 3:18 says, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him, be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. This is how the reign of God grows in your life.You grow in grace, grow in grace by the means of grace, studying scripture, and praying, and worshiping the Lord. We receive grace when we recognize that we've sinned. "Lord, give me more grace and power me with that grace," and that's how maturity, that's how growth come. The real cause of agent of the words fruition isn't the farmer, it's the seed. It's God Himself.He says, "Keep sowing, keep sowing, keep sowing until the day of harvest comes." The day of harvest in scripture from Joel, from Revelation we see, the day of harvest is actually an image of judgment. A time when evil is judged and righteousness is vindicated. For example, Revelation 14:15, "And another angel came out of the temple calling with a loud voice to him who sat on the cloud, 'Out in your sickle and reap for the hour to reap has come for the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.'" The harvest is, in the Lord's parable, is a symbol of the end of the age, the last judgment, the consummation of history, and we have the same text in Joel 3:13, "Put in the stickle for the harvest is ripe.""Go in, tread, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their evil is great." Jesus here is showing us a picture of the whole period of world history from the first coming of Christ to the second coming of Christ, from His first advent to the next, and Jesus is saying that, "Kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing. The kingdom is growing.Sow the seed, the kingdom is growing, but a day will come when finally, it's time for reaping and the harvest." Our job is to proclaim the gospel of the kingdom. Were to sow the seed of the word of God. Our task is not to attempt to manipulate the seed, or force growth, or change the seed somehow. No, Jesus wants us to have complete confidence, that there's life in the seed itself, the word of God is living inactive, and the word of God is going to accomplish the work that God has for it.We are to trust in it, hope in it, and recognize that the kingdom of God is unstoppable, the kingdom of God is inevitable, and God is going to save all of the elect. Galatians 6:9, "Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up." One of the reasons why this church even exists is because we believe this. We've believed this from the very beginning when we establish the church. We said, "What kind of church do we ..."We want to be a church that's faithful of God's word, and we want to do God's work God's way. Sometimes it does feel like the soil here isn't really soil, but it's kind of like concrete, and I remember a while back, I was walking my daughters to school, and I saw the pavement of a sidewalk with a little sprout growing. I was like, "Oh, that's cute," and I just walked by, and then a few weeks later, I'm walking ... I look at it, I'm like, "I can't believe it." It was a tomato plant, a tomato plant just out of the sidewalk with a little tomato, and I should have plucked it.I should have plucked it. I should have had it. I didn't plant it, though, and it was just an image of like, "No matter what, God's seeds can break through even the hardness of payment." Can God save people in Boston, Massachusetts? Of course He can, and He does, and we see it at this church, and we see it in the other gospel proclaiming ministries we support.The point of, and this is what Jesus closed it with, there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Mark 4:30, and He said, "With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it? How do we understand the kingdom of God?" Here, He's quoting from Isaiah, "To whom will we liken God or what likeness compare with Him?" Jesus is saying that the kingdom is a kingdom that's going to grow.It starts and it looks like a tiny, little seed, as tiny even as a mustard seed, but it's going to grow because God promised the. Previous parable is a call to patience. The seed's going to grow surely, slowly, but surely. This parable is a call to hope. It's not only going to grow, it's going to grow massively, so we can confidently sow and not grow weary and not grow discouraged, not lose heart.But remember, the promise that God said, "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not overcome it." We are to be content with the growth that God sends us, but we are never complacent. We are thankful for all the people that God saved here in and through this church, and sanctify, but we're not complacent. We do believe that God wants this church to grow. He wants the kingdom of God to grow.We are a kingdom building force, and how do we build the kingdom? By sowing the seed, and the seed can be even as small as a grain of mustard seed. Verse 31, "It's like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on the earth," and here, Jesus is hyperbolic. He's comparing something very tiny, mustard seed to something great, and that's the growth that comes from the mustard seed, over 700 mustard seeds to a gram, and the height of the bush or the tree can grow to 10 feet. What He's saying is that the kingdom of God grows like this.In the beginnings, there's small, paltry in appearance, but there's tremendous power, divine potency in the word of God. The mustard seed is chosen because of its commonness, and because of its smallness, but it grows into something vast and incredible. What is Jesus here saying? He's saying, "Well, look how the kingdom came into the world initially, and weakness." How did the King of kings, the King of the universe come into this world?He came as a baby, born in a manger, at Bethlehem, without riches, without armies, without attendance, without power. And who are the men that God chose to build His church? Who were the appointed apostles? Just average men. What was the last public act of Jesus' earthly ministry as the King of kings?Well, He was crucified between two criminals, between two thieves, and He was forsaken by His disciples, betrayed by one, denied by another. What was the doctrine that the first apostles, the first builders of the church ... What was the doctrine they preached? They preached Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and to Greeks. It was foolishness, but because of the Holy Spirit, when the Holy Spirit took that message, that we have all sinned, we have all transgressed the commandments of God, Jesus Christ lived a perfect life on our behalf, and then He died on a cross as our substitutionary atonement, and then He rose in the third day, and whoever believes in Christ has all of their sins blotted out, forgiven.It's as if God cast our sins as far from us, says the east is from the west. He chooses to not just forgive, but forget our sins. When that message was proclaimed and the Holy Spirit took and applied to people's hearts, lives were changed. The world was changed, in the same way that the gospel changed people's lives, then He does so today. In all this, the mind of man can only look at Christ, can only look at His disciples and see weakness and feebleness, but we, as believers, we understand that beyond the feebleness, beyond the weakness, is the power of God, a power that can truly save. Mark 4:32, "Yet, when it is sown, it grows up and it becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade."Now, this phrase, birds of the air is used in Ezekiel 31 and Daniel 4. It's to represent the multitude of the nations, that the kingdom grows and it's going to grow in vastness, and then people of all nations are going to come and build nests within this tree. Ezekiel 17:23, "On the mountain height of Israel, will I plant it, that it may bear branches and produce fruit and become a noble cedar, and under it will dwell every kind of bird in the shadow of its branches, birds of every sort will nest." Every time this phrase is used in the Old Testament, describing a mighty kingdom, be it Israel or Egypt or Babylon, the kingdoms will gross in vastness, that the other nations will come and seek refuge in this kingdom. What Jesus is saying here is, "My kingdom is like that.""My kingdom, the kingdom of God is like this, though its beginnings are improbable, a small seed, a crucified Messiah, suffering church, preaching, baptizing, and holding holy communion, praying. Its beginnings are improbable, but its destiny is vast, and there's room for all." In the kingdom of God, there's room for every single one of you, there's room for every single one of your families, there's room for everyone in the world that will come and repent, and to build a nest. I like the idea of just building a little nest with your loved ones. In the kingdom of God, He's like, "Make sure you're building this home that you have in the kingdom of God.""Come and find shelter," Jesus is saying, "In the shade of this kingdom." The parable emphasizes the shelter that the kingdom brings. In Psalm 91, "He who dwells in the shelter of the most high will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, 'My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust, for He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with his pinions, and under his wings, you will find refuge. His faithfulness is a shield and a buckler.'"Jesus concludes our text in Mark 4:33. "With many such parables, He spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately, to His own disciples, He explained everything," as they were able to hear according to their God-given ability to hear. What He's saying is, and He concludes with this, if you want more revelation, you do it by spending more time with Christ, by following Christ, by communing with Him and abiding in Him. Three points to summarize, and then we'll close with prayer, love the light, hunger for truth, and then share the gains.Sow the seed, trust God for growth, harvest is coming, and there's room for all in the kingdom of God. Let us pray. Lord, we thank You for continuing to build Your kingdom in and through us in this city, in a place of stifling darkness, sometimes it seems, but Lord, You are the Light, and You're the Light that shines in the darkness. Lord, as you saved us, we believe that You can save others, and we pray that You use us in the process, even this week, Lord. Give us opportunities to speak of You, speak of the gospel, speak of Your grace.We pray that You open the door for the proclamation of the gospel here. We pray for revival in this city and beyond. We pray for an awakening, and we pray that, Lord, You save many and draw them to yourself and to Your incredible kingdom, and we pray this in Christ's holy name. Amen.

6 The LORD executes righteousness And justice for all who are oppressed. 7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. 8 The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy. 9 He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor punished us according to our iniquities. 11 For as the heavens are high above the earth, So great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; 12 As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us. 13 As a father pities his children, So the LORD pities those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. 15 As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. 16 For the wind passes over it, and it is gone, And its place remembers it no more. 17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting On those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children, 18 To such as keep His covenant, And to those who remember His commandments to do them.   In Psalm 103:1-5, David wants us to remember all the wonderful benefits that the LORD has personally blessed us with in life. Now in verses 6-18, David is encouraging the nation of Israel to also remember and praise the LORD for His provisions, His protection, His power, His mercy, and His Fatherly care for them in times past.   Yes, not only as individuals should we bless the LORD and give Him praise, but we should also as a nation remember His help in times past and recognize our present need for Him. “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!” (Psalm 33:12). But how sad it is when a nation like America forgets God and puts Him on the shelf and goes chasing after other gods that are no gods at all!     In the verses before us today, David reminds his people how the nation of Israel was certainly blessed of the Lord and therefore obligated to express their praise and thanksgiving to Him. In verse 6, Jehovah was their righteous Deliverer. God heard their cry when they were in bondage in Egypt and He rescued them. He prepared and sent a deliverer by the name of Moses, who revealed God's power as he released the ten plagues upon Pharoah and the Egyptians.   Over and over again, throughout their history, when the people were oppressed and they cried out to the LORD for help, God would have mercy on them and send a judge or a man who would defeat their enemies and give them freedom. Even in David's time the people had experience the mighty power of God and gave them victory over their enemies.   The Lord also gave His people guidance (v. 7), leading them by His glory cloud, His Word, and His prophets. The people know God's acts, what He was doing, but Moses knew God's ways, why He was doing it. Moses was intimate with the Lord and understood His will. Jehovah was also the merciful and compassionate Savior who forgave His people when they sinned. In verses 8-12, we have a summary of what Moses learned about God while on Sinai (see Ex. 33:12-13; 34:5-9; and see Num. 14:18).   Being a holy God, He did get angry at sin, and the Israelites were prone to rebel against Him, but in His compassion, He forgave them. This was possible because one day His Son would die for those sins on a cross. (See 86:15; Isa. 57:6.) The picture in verses 8-12 is that of a courtroom in which God is both judge and prosecuting attorney. He has all the evidence He needs to condemn us, but He does not prolong the trial. When the judge is your Father, and when Jesus has died for your sins, there is full and free forgiveness available to all who will ask for it. If God gave us the punishment we deserved, we would be without hope (Ezra 9:13). The punishment that we deserve was given to Jesus (Isa. 53:4-6).   We can thank the LORD that “He knows our frame and He remembers that we are dust” and He had pity on us and has given us a Savior, Jesus Christ!   God bless!

In Psalm 103:1-5, David wants us to remember all the wonderful benefits that the LORD has personally blessed us with. He lists at least seven of them in these first verses. Moses had told the people of Israel in the Book of Deuteronomy that they should not forget the blessings of the LORD at least fourteen times, and nine times he cautioned them not to forget (Deut. 32:18). So often, as we get so busy with work, family, and life, we easily forget the blessings of the LORD and what He does for us every day!   David reminds us of the benefits of the LORD's forgiveness, of His healing, of His redemption, of His lovingkindness, and of His tender mercies. Today we want to look at the last two that he mentions in verse 5, satisfaction and renewal.   There is no real satisfaction in this world. The pleasures and things of this world might give us some temporary feelings of happiness and satisfaction, but they will not last. Money, fame, family, friends, education, achievements, success and a host of other things promise us satisfaction, but they always come short of fulfilling the deepest need of our souls. Jesus warned us in Mark 8:36-37, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”   We are born with a “void”, an empty hole deep in our soul that only God can fill. Remember the woman at the well in John 4? She had come to draw water and Jesus was there. He asked her for a drink, and this started a conversation with her. Then Jesus made an astounding statement. “If you knew who I am, and you would have ask me for a drink I would have given you living water.” She replied, “How can you, since you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep”. “Jesus answered and said to her, "Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:13-14).   This woman had desperately been drinking of the water of this world to find satisfaction! She had been married five times and was presently living with a man who was not her husband! All her earthly relationships left her empty. Only Jesus who is the Water of Life, and the Bread of Life (John 6:33-40), can satisfied our deepest need of salvation and hope! Jesus is the Good Shepherd who leads us into green pastures (Psalm 23:3). He alone can forgive us of our sins and give us life and give it to us more abundantly (John 10:10).   The LORD alone is the One, “Who satisfies your mouth with good things” (v. 5a). The word translated "mouth" is a bit of a puzzle since it is usually translated "ornaments" or "jewelry," words that hardly fit this context. Some students interpret the word to mean "duration" or "years". Which means, no matter how old we become, God can always satisfy the needs of our lives and the spiritual desires of our hearts. Jesus said, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled (satisfied)” (Matthew 5:6). Jesus is the “righteousness of God” (1 Corinthians 1:30).   My friend, the person who seeks and finds the true righteousness of God in Jesus Christ through His Word and salvation will also find renewal! “So that your youth is renewed like the eagle's” (v. 5b). Do you need “renewal” today? You will find it as you wait on the LORD! Isaiah 40:28-31 assures us: “Have you not known? Have you not heard? The everlasting God, the LORD, The Creator of the ends of the earth, Neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the weak, And to those who have no might He increases strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.”   God bless!

In Psalm 28, the psalmist said that Hell is silent as far as the voice of God is concerned. But there's much more to it than that. God's voice is in many things. On today's Sermon Sunday, we're going to examine what the psalmist had to say about Hell and the voice of the Lord. So, grab your KING JAMES BIBLE, some coffee and join us on our Sermon Sunday Broadcast. Support this podcast: https://swordofthespiritpodcast.com/support 

Audio Transcript:This media has been made available by Mosaic BostonChurch. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston,or donate to this ministry, please visit mosaicboston.com. Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are good, and glorious, and gracious. And despite our sin, because of your loving kindness and grace, you sent your son, Jesus Christ, the word of God. Jesus, everything was created through you. Nothing was created apart from you because you are the word of God. God spoke everything into existence ex nihilo. And Jesus, you, the word of God, came to reveal yourself, and you do that. You reveal God to us through the written word of God. I pray, Lord, in the same way that everything was created, I pray that you recreate us by your word today. I pray that you give us tender hearts, humble hearts that are teachable, hearts that can truly pay attention to you, pay attention to your word, to listen in order to heed and obey. I pray, Lord, if there's anything in the soil of our hearts that is not conducive to the seed growing, be it thorns, or thistles, or rocks, or hardness, I pray today by your love and by the power of the Spirit, till, break the ground up. No matter how painful it is, I pray make the ground fertile by the power of the Spirit. Lord, prepare us now to hear from your holy scriptures, the holy Bible, your word. This is the seed that Jesus is talking about. And I pray this seed is planted deep in our hearts, that the root structures go deep so that the harvest may be plentiful, and make us a people who want to be fruitful, who want to bear the fruit of the spirit in our lives, and want to be fruitful by drawing others close to you by making converts, making disciples not of ourselves, but of Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, I pray that you send a hunger for your word in this nation, in the world at large. There's a famine of your word because there's a lack of hunger for your word. And I pray that you make us a hungry people, people that hunger, in desperation cry out, "Lord, speak to us. We're ready to do your will." Lord bless our time in the holy scriptures. Holy Spirit, come meet with us. Do the deep work. I pray, prepare us to hear from you, to hear from your holy scriptures, and give us power to then go and do what it says. We pray all this in the beautiful name of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen. We're continuing our sermon series through the incredible Gospel of Mark. We're entitling the series Kingdom Come, the Gospel of Mark and the Secret of God's Kingdom. The title today is Pay Attention to God. In the same way that there's a difference between just viewing and actually seeing, there's a difference between hearing and listening. Hearing is the process, and function, and power of perceiving a sound. Listening is to hear with thoughtful attention. Hearing is passive and involuntary. Listening is active and requires attention. You can hear without listening, in one ear and out the other. Listening requires focus, concentration, and effort. Listening requires paying attention. One time I was taking one of my daughters to school, one of the younger ones. I always say this. It got into just habit. My parting words, my parting blessing is pay attention. There was a mom standing right next to me, and she's like, "Hey, that's a good thing to say." She turns to her son, and she's like, "Pay attention." Because kids forget. They think it's just you go have fun and it's just a social thing. Well, a lot of us, we forget to pay attention to the word of God. Many people hear God's word but they don't listen to it. They don't seek depth of understanding. And to listen to God's word also means listening with the intent to accept it and obey it no matter how paradigm-shifting the implications. And that's when true understanding comes, when you receive the word humbly and you seek to do God's will. These are the words of our Lord Jesus Christ in John 7:17. He said, "If anyone's will is to do God's will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I'm speaking on my own authority." He's saying, "Do you want certainty that this is true, that this is truly true?" Well, do you listen with the intent to do God's will? And the more you desire to listen to God's word in order to do his will, the more understanding, the more certainty you receive that it's really God's word. Today we're in Mark 3:31 through 4:20. This paragraph at the end of chapter three, Tyler covered it last week. I'm just going to just make a few comments upon it because it does prepare us to hear the parable of the sower. Would you please look at the text with me? "And his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and called him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' And he answered them, 'Who are my mother and my brothers?' Looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother, and sister, and mother.'" "Again he began to teach beside the sea, and a very large crowd gather about him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea. The whole crowd was beside the sea on the land, and he was teaching them many things in parables. And in his teaching, he said to them, 'Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately it's sprang up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched. And since it had no root, it withered away. "'Other seed fell among thorns and thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold. And he said, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.' "And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables, and he said to them, 'To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables so that they may indeed see but not perceive and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. "And He said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word, and these are the ones along the path where the word is sown. Where they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And Others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold.'" This is the reading of God's holy, inerrant, infallible authoritative word. May he write these eternal truths upon our hearts, three points to frame up our time. First, the king's true family does the will of God. Second, the king reveals the secret of the kingdom of God. And hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit. The king's true family does the will of God. In the previous text, Jesus decisively puts down his most vociferous opponents, the Pharisees and the scribes. And Jesus now turns to a more intimate "enemy" of his opponents, his family who encounter him because they think that he is out of his mind. They grew up with him. They saw him on a daily basis. And as the phrase goes, familiarity breeds contempt. So they think he's out of his mind, that he's insane. This is verse 20. "Then he went home. The crowd gathered again so that they could not even eat. And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying he's out of his mind." Jesus in the previous context said that those who follow him are those who do God's will. And those who do God's will, that's who is part of his true family. And what happens is his family who is saying that he is outside of his mind, literally in the Greek, they find themselves to be outside of the inner circle of Jesus. They find themselves, the family of Christ, to be outside of the family of God. Verse 31, "And his mother and his brothers came. And standing outside, they sent to him and called him." His family find themselves outside of his circle of followers, which is emblematic of being in opposition to God's will. His mother was Mary. His father is not mentioned after the Christmas and the advent narrative of Jesus' birth. After that narrative, Jesus' father isn't mentioned at all. Most likely it's because he has already passed away. His mother and his brothers are here. If you remember, his brothers later get converted. James and Jude actually write the later books of the New Testament. They introduce themselves as the brothers of Jesus Christ. But here they're not yet believers. And instead of responding to Jesus' call, they actually try to pull Jesus away from his mission away from doing God's will. Why? Because they absolutely misunderstand the nature of his ministry. Why? Because God's thoughts and plans run contrary to all natural human inclinations. They weren't given the revelation just yet. They needed a move of the Holy Spirit to believe in the resurrected Christ. It wasn't until probably Pentecost and the Spirit came that James and Jude were converted. Who's in the kingdom? It's those to whom the mystery has been revealed. In Mark 4:11, in our text, "He said to them, 'To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables.'" Lesson here is friends don't let your family tempt you away from God, don't let your family pull you away from God. There are many people who have been saved at Mosaic and have been baptized at Mosaic. They say, "Look, no pictures or videos of the baptism. Because if my family finds out, there's going to be dire consequences." That's the world that we live in. And yet we are called to stand firm in Christ no matter what our family believes. We have to close our ears to the siren song even of family if they try to pull us away from the Lord. Matthew 10:34, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I've not come to bring peace but a sword, for I've come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. And a person's enemies will be those of his own household. Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." In Mark 3:32, "And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, 'Your mother and your brothers are outside seeking you.' He answered them, 'Who are my mother and my Brothers?' looking about at those who sat around him, he said, 'Here are my mother and my brothers. For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.'" How serious were the concerns of his family for Jesus? Well, where is Jesus? He is ministering in Capernaum. He's probably living out of Peter's house in Capernaum. Where did Jesus grow up? Where is his family based out of? In Nazareth? How far is Nazareth from Capernaum? 25 miles. They make a 25-mile trek, presumably largely on foot, which tells us something about how seriously their concerns were for Christ. But when they get there, the house is so filled they can't even get in. A little about his family, from Mark chapter six, we know that Jesus has four brothers, James, and Joseph, Judas, and Simon. He also had some sisters. Interestingly, in the parallel passage in Matthew 13, Matthew talks about all of Jesus' sisters, not just both of his sisters, so the implication is there's more than two. So he's got at least three sisters and at least four brothers, so there's at least eight of them. And they didn't believe in him. They didn't believe that this was the Messiah. They didn't believe that this was the son of God. In John 7:5, "For not even his brother believed in him." You and I have a savior friends that understands, totally gets it when family gets complicated, and sometimes family gets really complicated. But Jesus bore with them, and he continued to minister to them and told about the arrival of his mother and brothers. Jesus refuses to submit to their summons. Instead, he gestures to his followers with his eyes, and he says, "These people, these who are following me, and listening to the word of God, and doing the will of God, this is my true family." Indeed, this is another demonstration of Jesus' deity. He equates following him with doing the will of God. It is remarkable condescension on God's part to call us children. It's remarkable privilege, remarkable privilege for us to be granted a place in God's family. He doesn't just call us servants. He could have just left at that. He says, "No. When we repent of our sin and trust in Jesus Christ, he becomes our older brother. God becomes our father, and we become brothers and sisters." It's a point that the text makes here by adding the word sister in that culture, at that time, this was a significant addition which validates the equality of men and women in admission to the kingdom of God. As Jesus will say later point-blank in the Sermon of the Mount, it isn't just the one who believes in Jesus that enters the kingdom of God. Jesus says, "A lot of you'll say, Lord, Lord. We knew you as Lord." And Jesus said, "You didn't do my will." He says, "A lot of you'll say, 'We did religious works in your name. We even cast out demons in your name.'" Jesus says, "That's not what brings you into the kingdom of God. No, it's doing the will of the Father in heaven." This is what repentance is, and this is why repentance is so important. Repentance is saying, "Lord, I lived doing my will. I lived according to my terms, according to my values, according to my own truth. I repent of all of that. Now I want to follow you and do your will." And these are the true sons and daughters of God who seek to do God's will. Take Abraham for example, the father of the faithful. Scripture says that Abraham believed and it was counted to him as righteousness. But the story doesn't end there. His faith led to his obedience. Later, he proved willing to sacrifice even his son Isaac should the Lord demand it. And God solemnly repeats the promises he made to him, to bless him and to make his descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, to bless him above all nations. He said he would keep all of his promises to Abraham. Why? Because you have obeyed me. In other words, Abraham showed himself a true child of God by doing God's will. We see this same message to the very end of scripture. It says in Revelation, Christ says to the Christians in Thyatira in Revelation 2:26, "To him who does my will to the end shall be saved." In some of the very last chapters of the Bible, the beginning of account of the second coming, we're told that the bride, the church has been made ready for the wedding of the lamb. And her dress is fine linen given to her to wear. The fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. The saints, in other words, are those who do the will of God. They live in obedience to his will, his commandments, and his summons. They serve the Lord. Galatians 5:6 says, "For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love." Well, what is faith working through love? We have a parallel passage that defines it. 2 Corinthians 7:19, "For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but keeping the commandments of God." This new relationship with God is spiritual. It's inward. It's not outward. It's not natural, as was generally assumed by Israel in the time of Jesus. They assumed that the Messiah belonged to them by right. This was the attitude of Mary and the brothers of Jesus. This was the typical attitude of the whole nation. They confidently believed that they have a prior right to the kingdom of God because of their physical descent from Abraham. Jesus is saying physical descent in terms of kingdom of God, it actually means nothing. This is incredibly revolutionary teaching that Jesus brought in a Jewish context where the primary obligation was to one's own family. It's commanded, "Honor your father and your mother." But there's a commandment that is higher, more important than that one, which is, "Thou shall have no other gods before me." What's happening is that Jesus is acknowledging whatever claims of love and honor his natural family had on him, God, the Father, has a higher claim on him. Here, before we go into the parable of the sower or the parable of the soils, I want to meditate on Mary's faith for a bit. However bright and strong Mary's faith was when the angels came to her, when the magi came, when the shepherds came while she held infant Jesus in her arms, however strong her faith was then, somehow, the course of her journey between then and this moment has led her to a place where her faith has been eclipsed. Yes, she's had a very difficult journey. We don't know how long she's been a single mom, a single mom to eight children, no husband in the home to help. Her faith has been eclipsed because of suffering. Now we know from later on in scripture she doesn't stay here. She doesn't stay in this moment. She doesn't stay in this moment of disbelief. When her son Jesus Christ was hanging on the cross crucified and all of his disciples were scattered, bar John... One of his disciples betrayed him, the other denied him. And there she is standing there. She was there right to the very end watching her son die. The Lord Jesus Christ, in a very tender moment, speaks to her from the cross, and he entrusts her to be kept by his beloved disciple, the Apostle John. She seems to have come back to the place of trust in the Lord Jesus. But at this point in the story, her faith has suffered eclipse. At this point in the story, she's more like the first soil, hardened by suffering of life. She can't even hear the word of God. Just a moment just to meditate, I will say there are moments when we do suffer. There are moments when we go through darkness and it seems like the darkness is so thick that eclipses our faith. And friends, my pastoral encouragement to you is at those moments, do not allow Satan to steal the word of God from you. The word of God is the only nourishment to keep you going through those moments, and he will get you through. Point two is the king reveals the secret of the kingdom of God. This is Mark 4:1. "Again, he began to teach beside the sea. A very large crowd gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land." This is the very first time the adjective very large is used. It's the biggest crowd yet. His followers are continuing to invite people to hear the message of the gospel, and the size of the group thronging about Jesus is steadily increasing. He's beside the seas preaching from a boat, which is a floating pulpit so to speak. This picture of Jesus, God, on the sea, on the boat reminds us of Psalm 29. In Psalm 29, God is sitting in royal majesty on the waters giving utterance in his earth-shattering voice. Psalm 29:1, "Ascribe to the Lord, O heavenly beings. Ascribe to the Lord glory and strength. Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness. The voice of the Lord is over the waters. The God of glory thunders, the Lord over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful. The voice of the Lord is full of majesty. The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. The Lord sits enthroned as king forever. May the Lord give strength to his people. May the Lord bless his people with peace." He got into the boat. He sat on the sea, and the size and the urgent interest of the crowd is emphasized by the fact that they are not all here to listen to his word. Probably anchored in shallow water, shallow kind of like the hearts of many listeners. It's an impressive scene. Crowds are always impressive. Seeing a lot of people gathering to hear from one person is always very impressive. But large crowds don't necessarily mean that God's work is being done. Jesus knew the selfish and fickle hearts of sinful people. John 2:23, "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man for himself knew what was in man." People love a gospel that is good news as they define it. Especially nowadays, it's like there's an internal translator whenever even people are having conversations. Someone says something, and they're like, "So by saying that, you're saying this," and they say something completely different. This is what people do with God's word times infinity. Many didn't come to hear his word, but just to sample it, just to get a taste. You know charcuterie boards? I love charcuterie boards. They're incredible. A lot of people approach the word of God like that. They just say, "I like this part, I like this part. I don't like that part. I'm going to skip the rest," just like I usually skip all the vegetables. I go straight for the cold cuts. No, it's take it or leave it. It's the whole thing. Some people had no spiritual interests whatsoever. Crowds attract crowds. It's very entertaining. Go hear something. You've got something to think about, and you leave. By their repeated hearing Jesus's warning here, by their repeated hearing the word of God, and not believing, and not obeying, the word of God actually hardens them to make it even harder for them to believe. In Mark 4:2, "And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them." Now the word parable in the Septuagint, that's the Greek translation of the Hebrew text. In the Hebrew it is masal, and is a term related to the verb to rule. Therefore, it's talking about authoritative speech. Jesus here is using parables to say, "I have authority to regulate revelation." By using this form of teaching, he is regulating revelation where the same teaching reveals the truth to those who are willing to hear it and obey it, and it conceals the truth from those that do not have spiritually sensitive hearts. It's a system of instruction specifically designed to sift the wheat from the chaff among his hearers because he knew people had mixed motives. And his parables, they're designed to test not intelligence, but the spiritual responsiveness. Matthew 13:34, "All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world." Psalm 78:1-2, "Give ear, O my people, to my teaching. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings from of old." In verse three of Mark 4, we have the parable. He says, "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. As he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured it. Listen, this is verbal. Use your ears." Then he says, "Behold." He says, "Look." He's painting a picture with his words. This is a crucial parable, and it's bracketed with exhortations to listen on the front and on the back. He uses a very familiar agricultural image. Perhaps there was a guy sowing as he is preaching. It was a man, a farmer would take a bag of seed, tie it to his waist, and walk the fields, rhythmically casting the seed, broadcasting the seed. We do devotions with our daughters in the evenings and a scripture study, a little prayer. I call it community group for our family. Same thing we do in community group, we do with our group. I was just zonked yesterday. I was like, "Ah." I was like, "I'm going to re-preach my sermon to you real quick right now." As I'm going through, I said the word broadcast. One of my daughters is like, "What's broadcast mean?" I'm not talking about television. I'm talking about broadcasting. That's what he's doing. He's throwing it indiscriminately, just everywhere. He's got a lot of grain. He knows not all of it is going to produce fruit. Here in the beginning, some falls on a path, a path that was tread probably by villagers, worn down since the last time of the harvest. Birds eat that one. Verse five, "Other seed fell on rocky ground where it did not have much soil and immediately it spraying up since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched. Since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it and it yielded no grain." The landowner didn't cut back the thorns. He didn't uproot them. Or perhaps he just cut them back and they grow up even stronger, and they throttle, and choke the fruit. There's been a progression in the case of the first three seeds. The first never took root at all. The second started but died. And the third survived but bore no fruit. In the end, the first three are of no value to the farmer. What is he after? He's after the grain. He's after the fruit. Verse eight, "And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold." The yield was calculated by comparing the amount of seed that was sown with the amount of grain that was harvested. The yields of 30, 60, a hundredfold are considered remarkable, especially even in modern times in which yields of sevenfold to elevenfold are typical of countries using traditional cropping systems. The punchline is given verse nine. "He said, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'" Because of the mysteriousness of God's kingdom, a special sort of perception is required to understand, to register its presence. The parable concludes with another exhortation to hear. There is, however, progression between these two uses of the word to hear. In the beginning, he says, "Everybody hear. Everybody listen." Here he says at the end, "Let him who has ears to hear. Let him who has been given the gift of spiritual hearing, make sure you use those ears." Not all can receive Jesus' strange message about the arrival of God's royal power. In the midst of suffering, in the midst of weakness of this fallen world. Not everyone has ears to hear. The only ones who can hear this paradoxical message, rather, are those who have been granted the organ to do so by God. In verse 10, "And when he was alone, those around him with the 12 asked him about the parables. And he said to them, 'To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables.'" Jesus now retires with his disciples to a private place, giving his intrigued and mystified followers an opportunity to ask about the parable. And to speak about the arrival of the dominion as a mystery or as a secret implies that there is something elusive to it. The parable does not only describe successful seed, but three quarters of its space is devoted to unsuccessful seed. Because of this mysterious hiddenness, one needs eyes of faith in order to discern the presence of God's reign. Why didn't Jesus' brothers believe in him? Why didn't Jesus' mother believe in him? Especially his mother. I've been meditating on this. I think it's because she lived through incredible suffering for years. She's like, "You're the son of God? You're the son of... You're supposed to make everything better. You're supposed to alleviate the pain. You're supposed to remove the suffering and here we have years of suffering. You're saying you're the king of kings?" And When we proclaim that Jesus Christ is king, we understand the difficulty of believing that he's king. When you look around in the world and you're like, "What? Jesus is kingdom. Why are you allowing all of this to happen?" Especially moments of pain. This last Friday, our worship night, I was worshiping through pain because I got the biggest toothache I have ever had in my whole life, consequences of being a son of immigrants. It's mind-numbing. I wish it was mind-numbing. Mind-splitting. It's pain I have not experienced in probably ever. That was Friday, and then last. By the time I called... Long story. I'm going to the dentist on Tuesday, Lord willing. But moments of pain where you're just crippled. You're like, "Lord Jesus, I'm preaching that you're a healer. Could you please heal me?" I'm casting out demons from my... Whatever it is. In the name of Jesus. Moments like that, and it's fallen world, and it's fallen flesh where just pain, and suffering, and just evil and darkness. You're like, "You're the king?" Jesus says, "I'm a king that comes like a seed. I'm a king that comes like a seed. I need to be put in the ground. I need to die in order for that seed to bear fruit. Everything that I'm teaching here is along those lines. It's a mystery. It's truth, but it's shrouded. It's veiled revelation." And we do need the power of the Holy Spirit to see that God truly is King. Martin Buber once put it, "The true victories won in secret sometimes look like defeats." In the limelight, our faith that God is the Lord of history may sometimes appear ludicrous. But there is something secret in history which confirms our faith. This secret is most evident on the cross of Jesus Christ. On the cross of Jesus Christ, you have God who is dying. The author of life is being crucified. The blood from the author of life is dripping down the cross. It seems like the greatest defeat of all defeats. Then, Jesus is buried, and then he rises on the third day, and the greatest defeat turns into the greatest victory, God's victory in apparent defeat. Those outside only see the defeat, and the secret has not been revealed to them. Therefore, what is spoken to them is spoken in parables. "Jesus, why are you using parables?" And this is his answer, Mark 4:12, "So that they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." God does not intend for everyone to receive his word, so it should come as no surprise that some people reject it. It is not God's intention that Jesus' parables should enlighten the outsiders. Instead, it should blind them, close off their understanding, prevent them from attaining repentance and forgiveness. There is deliberate divine intention that some people misunderstand and remain impenitent. It's part of God's justice upon them. We see this in this text that's quoted by Jesus in the original context in Isaiah 6. Isaiah 6 begins with the revelation of God enthroned in awesome splendor, the king of the cosmos. Isaiah sees this. Isaiah is in the throne room of God. He sees the seraphim, the angels of God, serenading God, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty." Isaiah, realizing he's in the presence of God, he says, "Woe, that's God. Woe is me. Who am I, a man of unclean lips that lives amongst the people of unclean lips." God then sanctifies, forgives him of his sin. Then, God says, "Who shall we send? Who will go for us to preach the word?" Isaiah says, "Here am I. Send me." Then, the following verses, we see one of the deepest mysteries in all of scripture, that God sovereignly grants salvation to his elect, and sinners are fully responsible for their persistence in sin and their ultimate condemnation. Isaiah 6:9, "And he said, 'Go, and say to this people, 'Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and blind their eyes, lest they see what their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts and turn and be healed." How did Isaiah obey the strange commission? It wasn't by preaching obscure expressions or complex reasoning. No. You read his preaching. It's very plain, very systematic, very reason. People's reaction was they scoffed at him, and they scoffed at the message. When we read this and we realize to know the truth of the gospel, to believe the word of God is a gift. Why are you a Christian to dear saint? Why are you a follower of Jesus Christ? The only answer that is true is that Jesus saved me. God saved me. God changed my heart. God revealed the truth to me. It wasn't because of my ingenuity, it wasn't because of my studies, it wasn't because of my own reading. No, it was God saved me. God chose to reveal the secret to me. So what does that do to our pride? Absolutely decimates it. We have no pride. We're on our knees before the throne and we say, "Lord Jesus, thank you for revealing the truth." To me, the same word that comes as revelation to the insiders comes as blinding to the outsiders. The difference between the two groups is not that one gets parables while the other does not. No, it's one gets parables in order to understand and the other group gets parables in order to harden them in disbelief. Veiled revelation, just like God in Christ is both revealed and veiled. His siblings saw him and they're like, "You look normal. You look like us." Because his mother saw him like, "Can you unveil, please?" It's veiled revelation. I have sisters. One of my sisters, she's a tremendous gift giver, even better gift wrapper. Whenever you see her gifts wraps and the gift bags, I'm like, "Oh, this is going to be good." then you get the present. It's pretty good. Then, I have another sister who caress nothing for wrapping. She wraps all her presents in Trader Joe's bags. You get it, you're like, "What is this, Amazon? What's going on?" You know it's going to be good though because it's coming from her. Don't let the packaging keep you from opening the package. Don't let the veil keep you from unveiling the veil and seeing the revelation. I saw a video of this guy walking around offering people either $20 or an ounce of gold, gold coin. Everyone took the $20. I'm watching. I'm like, "No, don't take the $20." Then, he revealed. Someone took the 20 bucks, and he's like, "How much is an ounce of gold?" He's like, "I don't know, like $1,200 give or take." Everyone's like, "Is it too late?" A lot of people, they read the word of God, they don't have taste buds that value. There's taste buds of your soul. Their soul don't value that this is the word of God that leads to eternal life. We're not just talking about money or this... You can't quantify the value that you can get from the word of God. It's veiled, but it's veiled for a purpose, a purpose of those with humble hearts to go and to keep asking, to keep seeking, just like his disciples. The crowds all left. They didn't understand. The disciples, they come to Jesus like, "We don't get it." And Jesus gives them even more revelation. God has hidden his mysteries from the wise and discerning, but he does so only in order to accentuate the miracle that God has now revealed them to babies. The parables serve two functions, first to reveal truth to those who are spiritually responsive and, second, to conceal truth from those who are spiritually superficial or scoffing. One commentator says, "Parables are a mine of information to those who are in earnest, but they are a judgment on the casual and careless." Verse 13, "And he said to them, 'Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?'" Here, the word understand in the English, in both sentences, it's the same word, but in the Greek it's two different words, oidate and gnosesthe. The first one is to know as if by intuition. That intuition is a gift from God. You can only have the intuition, spiritual perception, intuition if you're gifted it. And the second one is knowledge that comes with experience. He's saying, "Do you understand? Do you have the intuition? If not, I'm going to give it to you." Then, that intuition must deepen with the experience, and only God can give you spiritual intuition which deepens with experience. Here, Jesus makes the cruciality of this parable clear. He's saying, "This parable is the key that actually unlocks the rest of the parables and the rest of the scriptures. To one who already has something more will be given some spiritual insight into the meaning of one parable will lead to further insight into the meaning of the other parables. And failure to understand this one continues to mystify and further and further brings people into the fog of disbelief." As in all spiritual matters, we either hear or we do not hear. And to see the spiritual truth, to hear is proof that we have received illumination from the Holy Spirit. Only the Holy Spirit can give us eyes to see spiritual truth. Why? Because we're blind by nature, blinded by sin. The more of God's revealed truth we assimilate, the more our capacity for assimilating truth grows. And further spiritual perception of God's truth can be perilous. It only condemns us unless we act upon it. Increased knowledge merely brings increased responsibility. In Luke 12:47, Christ says, "And that servant who knew his master's will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know and did what deserved a beating will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required. And from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more." This brings us to point three. Hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit. In verse 14, Jesus begins expounding his own parable. The sower sows the word. The seed here is a powerful symbol of the word of God that has power to sprout eternal life, bring forth eternal life. James 1:8, "Of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." 1 Peter 1:23, "Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God, for all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you." Four soils symbolize four hearts. The first is the hard heart. The second is the shallow heart. The third is the over-cluttered heart. And the fourth is the good heart. How does the seed, which is the word of God, release power? By going deep. What does the depth depend on? The condition of the soil. The soil represents the condition of each listener's heart. Are you listening with your heart? Are you listening with a soft heart? And how do you know that God's power has entered your life? Well, he's no longer a theory. He's no longer an abstraction. He's no longer a thing. He's no longer just a religious category. No, he becomes the priority. He becomes the center. He becomes number one in the hierarchy, in the org chart of your life. Everything revolves around him. The whole of the Christian life is one of continual and progressive response to the fresh spiritual revelation we get from God's word. Verse 15, "And these are the ones along the path where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them." This word falls on deaf ears. Perhaps the heart has been hardened with distractions. Perhaps not necessarily anything bad, just something that takes your mind off of God. It's like you're reading the Bible, and then you read a chapter, you read a second chapter. And if someone stopped you there and they said, "What did you just read?" You're like, "I have no idea. I have no clue." Or you're listening to the sermon, and you're like, "I've already heard this before." all of a sudden you think about how Mac Jones is terrible. The Pats are awful. And Belichick-Brady, it was clearly Brady, not Belichick. All of a sudden, you're not thinking about the word at all. And you know that's all true. Or you're like, "You know what? That's interesting." There's a lot of intellectuals in the city, and you're like, "This is very interesting. I'll just think about." But then you never think about, "Well, how should I respond? What does God want me to do with this word?" That's how you take it in. You receive it so that it actually changes you. The words that we read in holy scripture, in the holy Bible, these aren't just human words. This is the word of God, and it gives us power for life, and it gives us power to find eternal life. Deuteronomy 32:47, "For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess." This is Satan tempts Jesus, and Jesus says, "Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." There he's quoting the book of Deuteronomy. Every single one of those words is from the mouth of God himself. Or maybe you hear a sermon or you read scripture and you think about the implications of this for someone else, but never for yourself. Distractions send more people to hell than even doubt. Satan, what does he do? Satan's, by the way, not a figure of speech. Jesus knows who Satan is. He's taking Satan head on in the desert. There is a real spiritual battle raging for the souls of men and women, and Satan hardens people's hearts by the traffic of world philosophies. This is one of the main things that hardens people's hearts. Just years and years of indoctrination, of demonic ideologies, and it hardens your heart to the point where the word just bounces off. That's all Satan's work. Verse 16, "And these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who when they hear the word immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves but endure for a while. Then when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away." The seed falls on a thin layer of soil over hard limestone or other stone. This is people who are initially moved. They hear the word, and they make a decision that's short-lived enthusiasm. Perhaps it's very impulsive, but not always are they responding to God. Perhaps they're responding to a feeling. And as soon as that feeling is gone, so is the faith. What's proof of our faith? It's not the intensity in the beginning, but endurance to the end. Once saved, always persevering. The word for fall away here comes from the word skandalon or scandalized. Refers to someone who views the message of the cross as an offense, as a barrier to belief. And to fall away is to trip over an obstacle. Jesus points out in these cases the shame of persecution is greater than the person's embrace of the message, and they stumble over the message in times of trouble, when things get hard. Here, dear Christian, dear saint, we have to resolve. We have to make a resolution. No matter the persecution, no matter the trials or the challenges, I will stand strong on the word of God no matter what. God help me. Verse 18, "And others are the ones who are sown among thorns. They're those who hear the word. But the caress of the world, and deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful." Here we have the case of a divided heart, a heart infested with irreconcilable loyalties. Some of you won't follow through on obedience to God's word because the caress of the world begin to choke it out. It's not a conscious decision to reject God, but little by little God's word gets crowded out by other things. And all of a sudden, God's not that important. Reading scripture doesn't become that important, doesn't become... It's no longer imperative. Little by little, we lose our love for the Lord. Jesus said, "No one can serve two masters." And 1 John 2:15 says, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." This soil pictures those who get so encumbered with the basic enticements of this world that they produce no fruit. Again, the seed fails to accomplish its purpose. Think of someone like Judas, Judas who heard all of Jesus' sermons. He saw all of Jesus' miracles. Why, he even performed some miracles himself in Jesus' name. How could this man, how could it possibly be that this man would turn away from the son of God? And how could theologians, describes in the Pharisees, who knew God's words supposedly, and saw Jesus drive out demons, and do miracles, and heal the sick, and they call him an agent of Satan? Well, why didn't they believe? Because no one expected that the king of kings, the Messiah, the God of the universe would come like this. When the king came, all of Israel was to fall into his train and worship him, or so they thought. But the kingdom didn't come that way, not the first time. It comes the way of the seed. In John 12:23, "Jesus answered them, 'The hour has come for the son of man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.'" If you think about planting a seed, it's such a tender thing. It's so gentle. You take some soil, you take a pot of soil, and you place it gently in, you water it, you care for it. Jesus said, "This is how the kingdom enters your life." Jesus, in the same way that your body entered the ground, you are the living seed of God, the living word of God. You died in order to be raised again. Why? To give us life, to give us new life. In Mark 4:20, "But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who bear the word, hear the word, and accept and bear fruit thirtyfold, and sixtyfold, and a hundredfold." 30, 60, a hundred shows that different disciples have different levels of productivity, just like different people have different talents that the Lord gives one talent to some, two talents to another, five to another. But they're all productive. They do the best that they can with what they have. When the word reaches a prepared heart, it flourishes, and the seed does what the seed is supposed to do to, bear fruit. I urge you to aspire to greater fruitfulness. Where are you in this category? First of all, which soils are you? I urge all of you to join me in being number four. Altogether, all of us number four, please. Receptive to God's word, humble under the authorial intent. Focus on exegesis, taking the truth out of text, instead of eisegesis, infusing it into the text. But the whole goal is to be as productive as possible. By productivity, yes, I mean fruit of the Holy Spirit and being transported, be more and more Christ-like, but I also mean converts. And this is what this text is, that one seed led to 30 seeds, or 60 seeds, or a hundred seeds. In the same way that someone shared the gospel with you, you are to share the gospel with others. How many people have entered the kingdom of God thanks be to your witness? Now, let's aspire to do more. Whenever I see categories like this, I was like, "I want to be in the hundred mark. I want to be in the hundred mark." How do we get there? Lord, I come to your word with a humble and contrite heart. Lord, plant your seed in my heart. And Lord, bring the growth. When you have a receptive heart, I'm like, "God just does incredible things." I'm walking to church today, and some lady's walking her dog. She comes up to me. In Boston, no one really comes up to you. I'm like, "Oh, this is strange." She's like, "Do you know where the dog park is?" Oh, do I know. Because I have a daughter that wants a dog, and we won't get her dog, so we spent a lot of time in the dog park. So I told her. I gave her directions, the dog park. Then, I'm preaching, and I see her come in, like the first service. Then after the service, all of a sudden, she's weeping. She's like, "God brought us together." I'm like, "Yes, he did. You need to repent and trust in Jesus Christ." She's weeping and praying. When you say, "Lord, this is my posture of heart. Lord, use me. Lord, plant your word into my heart. Have a go deep. Lord, I want to be used by you so that other people meet you, lots of people, 30, 60, a hundredfold, even more." The word is not only the message about the kingdom, but also God's instrument for liberating humanity, and thus bringing in the kingdom. The people who really hear the word, listen to it continually, allow themselves to be broken apart and put together again by the word, as they're growing, plant shatters and transforms the earth in which it is sown. It no longer occupies a secondary place in their lives but has moved to the very center of existence. The word of God promises... When we seek him with all of our heart, we will find him. Jeremiah 29:13, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 'I will be found by you,' declares the Lord. 'And I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I've driven you,' declares the Lord, 'and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you into exile." Dear friend, if today you're not sure that you are a believer, that you are saved from your sins, from the condemnation that your sins deserve, today, in your heart of hearts, cry out to the God of universe, "Lord Jesus, have mercy on my soul. Lord Jesus, give me grace. Forgive me of my sin. Plant the seed of the gospel in my heart," and you shall be saved. Then, follow Jesus Christ. Study the good book, and do what it says. For us as believers, if there is anything in your life, in your heart that's choking out the productivity of the word, if there are any distractions today, remove them, and ask the Lord to cultivate a good soil in your heart. Amen. Let us pray. Lord God, we thank you for this time in the word. What a rich word this is. I pray that you make us not just hearers of the word but doers of it by your grace and by the power of the Holy Spirit. Lord, everything that you call us to do, we cannot do perfectly. But still, you say, "Be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." So Lord, we aspire to do your will perfectly. We thank you for the grace when we fall and don't do it perfectly. I pray, Lord, continue to tenderize our hearts by the power of the Spirit so that we can be evermore fruitful as individuals, as families, and as a church. We pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen. 

In Psalm 139, the Bible says that He knew the days of my life and recorded them before I had even breathed my first breath. He knew what was best for me, more than I certainly knew for myself. Yet, it took many hard moments, such as being a military spouse and being states from home and my daughter being diagnosed with epilepsy, to realize that there were so many things I couldn't control. Instead of relying on my wit, I needed to truly learn the beauty of trusting in the Lord. - Victoria RiollanoSUBSCRIBE to our sister podcasts:The Crosswalk Devotional: https://www.lifeaudio.com/crosswalk-devotional/Your Daily Bible Verse: https://www.lifeaudio.com/your-daily-bible-verse/ Discover more Christian podcasts at lifeaudio.com and inquire about advertising opportunities at lifeaudio.com/contact-us.

(presented by Lisa Bishop) How do you respond to correction?   Think about a time when someone called you out for ungodly behavior. An impatient or reactive response, fudging something at work, wavering in your faithfulness in your marriage, or telling a white lie. Whether in the workplace, at home, or in your small group, what was your reaction when your behavior was confronted?  We all experience times when we speak, act, and live in ways that are not in alignment with how we are called to be as a follower of Jesus. Ways that are harmful to ourselves, to our relationships, and to our witness. The key is, are you open to correction, or do you respond with defensiveness, denial, or deflection when someone points out a shortcoming? In Psalm 141:5, King David prays,  “Let a righteous man strike me—that is a kindness; let him rebuke me—that is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it.”  David, a king, asked for correction and called it kindness. And when he says it is oil on his head he is saying that being confronted with the truth and having his flaws exposed is soothing medicine! What an attitude of humility. How often do we see people protecting themselves from correction, yet King David intentionally invites trustworthy men to shine a light on anything in his life that was not pleasing to God.   Do you invite that type of correction in your life?  To grow in your role as a co-worker, leader, friend, parent, or spouse; to progress and mature spiritually, you need a few faithful friends who are willing to point out when your life does not reflect who you are in Jesus.   When your words or actions do not align with those of a spirit-filled follower of Christ, rebukes from the righteous, offered in love, are one of the keys to holiness and living a faithful and fruitful life. Now this is not license for reckless criticism. As a mentor of mine once said, “We call out with the intention of calling someone up.” The attitude of heart is one of deep desire for a person to live from their true identity in Jesus. Who are the two to three trustworthy, spiritually mature (not perfect), men and women in your life you can invite to shine a light and help you continue to grow into the image you bear in Christ?  Ask the Holy Spirit to help you be open, eager, and grateful to accept, acknowledge, and learn from their correction. 

“Most people carry scars that others can’t see or understand.” Those deeply honest words came from Major League Baseball player Andrelton Simmons, who opted out of the end of the 2020 regular season due to mental health struggles. Reflecting on his decision, Simmons felt he needed to share his story to encourage others facing similar challenges and to remind others to show compassion. Invisible scars are those deep hurts and wounds that can’t be seen but still cause very real pain and suffering. In Psalm 6, David wrote of his own deep struggle—penning painfully raw and honest words. He was “in agony” (v. 2) and “deep anguish” (v. 3). He was “worn out” from groaning, and his bed was drenched with tears (v. 6). While David doesn’t share the cause of his suffering, many of us can relate to his pain. We can also be encouraged by the way David responded to his pain. In the midst of his overwhelming suffering, David cried out to God. Honestly pouring out his heart, David prayed for healing (v. 2), rescue (v. 4), and mercy (v. 9). Even with the question “How long?” (v. 3) lingering over his situation, David remained confident that God “heard [his] cry for mercy” (v. 9) and would act in His time (v. 10). Because of who our God is, there is always hope.