LUKE 8:11-15 SOURCE OF BAD SOIL2012 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 8:11-15 Source Of Bad Soil

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You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2012.

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Well, we have been looking at the parable of the sower for a few weeks now and looking at a couple different aspects of it. And as we look once again at the parable of the sower this morning, I want to remind you that the point and the purpose of this parable is really for self-evaluation.

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That through this, Jesus is giving us a chance to identify and recognize what's going on with our own hearts. It's really not about doctrine. It's really not about theological discussions. It's really about where are you in your relationship with the Lord. And so the first week we looked at what we called the heart conditions.

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And the parable of the sower, if you haven't been here for the past couple of weeks, by the way, please check out the messages online or get a CD from someone in the sound booth. But the parable of the sower is the sower goes out to sow the seed. And he's casting out the seed and it's landing in different kinds of dirt. And there's the soil that's the wayside or the path that's trodden down, that's hardened and is not receptive to the seed that is sown.

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And then there's some of the seed that falls on the rocky soil. And then there's some of the seed that falls amongst the thorns. And then there's the seed that falls on the good soil.

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Now the good soil is the one that is productive, that is able to produce much fruit from the seed that is sown. And we saw the first week that that represents for us the conditions of our heart. There's different heart conditions we can have in our relationship with the Lord. And the first one is a hardened heart.

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Where we are not receptive to the word of God. That we don't hear what he's speaking to us. That we don't listen to what he's saying. And so our hearts are hard like the path that the seed fell upon. But then we also saw that the second heart condition was the shallow heart. And the shallow heart was a little bit different than the hard heart. Because while the seed did get planted, it did begin to grow again.

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The problem was it just didn't last very long, and so it died very quickly. And the shallow heart, represented by the shallow soil here, the rocky soil, the shallow heart was the soil that responded to the Word of God, that responded when God spoke, but it didn't last very long. They responded with joy, there was excitement, but...

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They gave up or they fell away in a time of temptation when it got hard. And so you can have that condition of shallowness of heart.

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Then we saw the third heart condition is divided heart. This was the seed that fell amongst the thorns. And as the thorns choked out the seed that grew in the parable, in the same way, things of this life and things of our hearts choke out the word of God when our heart is divided.

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And then finally we have the committed heart, which of course is the good soil, which is listening to what God is saying and then putting it into practice and being faithful and obedient to it. And so we have these different conditions of heart, these different heart conditions that

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Well, we need to be aware of because every one of us can fall in any of these heart conditions. Of course, we all want to think that we're the good soil, we're the committed heart, that we're right with the Lord, where we need to be. And yet, oftentimes, we, well, we have a hardness of heart or a shallow heart or a divided heart. And we need to address it. We need to deal with those things that are going on in our heart.

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We saw last week, Proverbs chapter 4 verse 23, where God tells us there, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. And so because we are able to have these different heart conditions, we need to keep our heart with all diligence and to keep a close eye on what's going on in our hearts and keep a close eye on what's happening within so that we make sure that

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that we don't begin down the path of the hardened heart or the shallow heart or the divided heart. And then if we identify, if we see, actually I do have some hardness of heart or I do have some division in my heart. Well, last week we talked about how to work the soil, how to soften the hardened heart, how to deepen the shallow heart and how to devote the divided heart.

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And we saw some tools that God gives us in his word to work the soil, to turn it over, to soften it, to develop it so that we have, well, good soil that is prepared for the word of God, that we are responsive to the things that he is speaking to us. Well, this morning as we look at the parable of the sower, we're looking now at the source of life.

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bad soil or the source of our heart conditions? What is it that causes our hearts to be hard or to be shallow or to be divided? As we look at the source of these different kinds of soils, we need to understand that it really is bad to have bad soil.

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To have these conditions of our heart is bad, well, because of what John tells us in 1 John 2, verse 16. Now, I'm going to be referring to this verse throughout our study this morning, and so you want to make sure that you take note of it. 1 John 2, verse 16 says this,

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For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And so John tells us there in 1 John 2.16 that everything that the world has to offer falls into one of these three categories. And it's not of the Father, it's not of God, but it is of the world.

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And so there's three categories he gives us, and it corresponds with the three types of soils that we have been studying, the bad soils here that we find in the parable of the sower. And so we see here the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. And so what we want to do this morning is understand what causes the different conditions of our hearts, what the source is, and recognize that it's, well, it's something from what the world has to offer.

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It's one of these, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, or the pride of life. And so the first point we have for us this morning is from verse 12, and I've titled the point, Pride Hardens the Heart. Look with me again at verse 12. Let's start again in verse 11, actually. It says, Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear God.

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Then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. And so here in the portion we have with us today, Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower. He says the seed is the word of God. And so as the word of God is being cast out, as it's falling upon our hearts, as we are hearing it, he says the seed that falls on the wayside, it's those who hear. It's not those who have never heard.

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So if you've heard the word of God, then you might be this type of soil. It's a possibility, but there could be the wayside soil within our hearts if we've heard the word of God. But then the important thing happens after they've heard. It says, "...then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved."

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And so the soil that this seed landed upon was the wayside or the path, which was hard. It was trodden down. It was packed down because they've been traveling back and forth upon it. And so the seed is not able to penetrate the soil. Instead, it just lays on top.

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And because it lays on top and because it's a path, it gets kicked around, it gets trampled on. And then ultimately, the birds come and take it away. And Jesus explains, this is what happens to a heart that is hard. That the word of God lands upon it, but it doesn't penetrate. It gets kicked around, it gets trampled. And then ultimately, the devil takes it away out of the heart so that it doesn't have an opportunity to be planted and to begin to grow.

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And so this is the hardened heart. And again, as we looked at last week, we can identify when we have a hardened heart when God says, do this, and we refuse. Or he says, don't do that, and we do it anyways. Or when we say, yeah, God's not speaking to me at all. Those are marks, those are indications that our hearts are hardened.

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When God says we ought to do something and we don't, when He tells us not to do something and we do, or when we would say God's not speaking to me at all, it's because we have this kind of condition. The Word of God is coming. It's landing on our hearts, but it's being removed before it can penetrate. What causes that kind of heart condition? What is it that brings us to the point that, well, God can speak and we don't respond?

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Or maybe we don't even hear. What brings us to that point that God is speaking, but the word is not taking root and it's not producing fruit? Well, again, 1 John 2, verse 16 says, For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. I would suggest to you that the cause of hardness of heart is what John describes as the pride of life.

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It's pride that produces hardness in our hearts. And it might be a complete and total hardness of heart in that we reject everything that God has to say. Or it might be pride in certain areas that causes us to be hard in those areas and not receptive to what God says about those things in our life. And so we need to talk a little bit about pride. What is pride? One dictionary describes it as

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Here's what pride is. It's empty and boastful talking or thinking.

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The talking or thinking is empty and boastful because, well, it trusts in its own power and resources. We are prideful when we trust in our own selves, in our own resources. When we're resting upon ourselves, when we're looking to ourselves, it is pride that is happening. When we are trusting in the stability of earthly things...

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especially when God has called us to do otherwise, it is the result of pride. This is what pride is in our lives. This is what it looks like. It's this empty thinking, empty boasting, and it's empty because we're trusting in ourselves. We're relying upon ourselves. We're relying upon the things that we have. We're relying upon the bank accounts, the plans and purposes, the way we figured it all out and put it all together.

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And when we're in a position where we are trusting in our own power and resources, it gives us this hardness of heart so that when God says something different, we are not receptive to it. This self-reliance, this trusting in our own thoughts, our own plans, our own resources, causes us to not receive what God is saying. It's the pride of life.

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And it brings about this hardness of heart. We know better than to disrespect God or to say bad things about God. But by relying upon ourselves, that is exactly what we are doing. We're disrespecting God. When we only look to ourselves, when we're trusting in our own resources, what we have and how we can figure things out,

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We know better than to say this, but basically here's what we're saying. God, I have it under control. I don't need your help with this. I don't need your instruction. I don't need your insight. I've got it figured out. This kind of pride, this trusting in our own selves and relying upon ourselves causes us to shut God out.

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And that's how it produces that hardness of heart so that as His Word is being cast out, as we hear what He says, we don't receive it. We don't let it penetrate because we've already got it figured out and we don't need God's help. Again, we know better than to say that, but that's what our actions demonstrate when we think that we do not need God or His Word. Think about it this way.

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If you are not crying out to God, then you are declaring that you do not need Him. If you're not saying, God, I need your help in this area, in that area, whatever area, my whole life. If you are not looking to God for the answer, for the strength, for the wisdom, for the insight. If you're not looking to God, you are declaring, I don't need God. That's pride.

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Because you're looking at the situation and saying, I have the resources. I have the know-how. I've got it figured out. This is what I'm going to do. This is how I'm handling this situation. I've got it taken care of. And that's pride. You're telling God, God, I know how to run my house. And I know how to raise my kids. I know what they need. I've got the resources to give them what I need. But really, you ought to be crying out to God for help.

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and raising your family and leading your home. If you do not cry out to God, you declare that you do not need him. If you don't spend time in the word of God, you're declaring that you don't need it. Now, if I were to ask for a show of hands, I'm not, but if I were to ask for a show of hands and said, you know, raise your hand if you don't need God's word, nobody would raise their hand.

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But if you go day by day and you're not spending time in God's word, although you know better than to raise your hand and say, yes, I don't need God's word, you're declaring by your life, I don't need God's word because you're not even spending any time in it. Every day you prove it. I don't need God's word. I don't need to hear what he has to say. There's nothing there for me. Again, it's relying upon our own self and our own resources. It's relying upon what we think.

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God says His ways are high above our ways. We don't know them. We have to receive them. We have to hear them. We can't figure them out. We have to follow what He says. But if we're not even paying attention, if we're not spending time with Him, it's like saying, God, my ways are high above your ways. That's pride. Pride.

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It produces in us that hardness of heart where even though God speaks and even though we can sit in a Bible study, we don't receive the word that is cast out. In the area of our heart that is hard, where we've got it figured out, where we don't need God, we're not receptive to what God says even though he's speaking directly to us. Now throughout our time together this morning, I want to share with you some examples of

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each of these points and all of the examples are going to come out of Luke chapter 9. So would you jump there with me? Luke chapter 9. We're going to look at verse 59 and 60 and here this portion we'll be looking at for example is the account of three people who come in contact with Jesus and they each have a little bit of a discussion with Jesus about following him. Do you follow Jesus? Do

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That's really the question this morning. Do you follow Jesus? What's the condition of your heart? Are you His follower? Are you His disciple? Well, these three people come into contact with Jesus. They have this discussion about following Him. And, well, we'll see that each of them has a different type of soil in their heart. A different type of heart condition. Here in Luke chapter 9, verse 59 and 60, we see...

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The guy who has a hardened heart. Verse 59 says, Then he said to another, Follow me. But he said, Lord, let me first go and bury my father. Jesus said to him, Let the dead bury their own dead. But you go and preach the kingdom of God. So here Jesus is having a discussion with this guy. Now, we're jumping kind of into the middle of it. There was another guy who came first and said, Jesus, I want to follow you.

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And Jesus dealt with him. We'll get to that later on in the message this morning. But here in chapter 9, verse 59 and 60, Jesus is there and he sees this man and Jesus says to him, Hey, you, follow me. You follow me. And the guy responds and says, Hey, that sounds pretty good, but I've got some things I have to do first. Let me first go and bury my father.

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And Jesus says, let the dead bury their own dead. Now, we're studying through the Gospel of Luke. We're in chapter 8 right now. We're going to get to chapter 9. So I don't want to go too in-depth here. But understand that Jesus is not just being mean. He's not just saying, hey, let the dead bury their own dead and being insensitive. The point here is that his father was not dead.

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For the Jews in their culture then as well as today, they bury someone the day that they die, as soon as possible. It's not something, you know, like sometimes for us American culture, you know, someone dies and sometimes it can be a couple weeks before the funeral, before they're actually buried. But that's not so in Jewish culture and customs. They were buried the same day. So it's not that his father was dead and, you know, Jesus was saying you can't go to the funeral.

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but the father wasn't dead. And so he's putting it off. He's saying no. Now, this may sound a little bit strange, but I would suggest to you, even if the father was dead, listen, when Jesus the creator says, follow, then you ought to follow. Even though we might think, hey, that's insensitive, or you know, that's kind of mean, that's kind of, doesn't he have a heart? Listen, when the creator of the universe says, do this,

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It doesn't matter what condition you're in or what you feel like or what's happening around you. You need to do what God is telling you to do. Jesus comes to him and he says, follow me. And to reject that and to not follow is to say, hey Jesus, you don't understand what I understand. You don't know what I know. I know better than you. Your timing is bad. So I'm not going to do what you want me to do.

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Can you understand how prideful that is? To say to God, to demonstrate, I know better than you, God. You don't know what it's like. You don't know what my emotions are experiencing right now. You don't know what's happening in my family. I know better than you. I understand better than you, God. And that's why I'm not going to do what you have just called me to do.

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What I think is interesting about this is there in verse 59, it says, Then he said to another, follow me. Now there's three guys in this passage. They all have this follow Jesus discussion. But the other two guys come up to Jesus and volunteer. They're like, pick me, pick me. I want to follow you. This man, Jesus picks him. He points him out. He says, hey you over there, red shirt, you follow me.

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Join me. Come on with me. Be part of what I'm doing. Jesus invited this guy. The others invited themselves. There's a couple perspectives you could look at that with, but think about it this way. The other two guys, they were responding to the word already. As Jesus was talking, as he was ministering, their hearts are receptive. They're responding to

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Now they might have a shallow heart or a divided heart, but that's beside the point. They're responding. The word's being planted. Things are beginning to grow. They're moved by what Jesus is declaring. They're moved by his teaching. And they're responding and they say, wow, I want to follow you. But this guy demonstrates the hardness of his heart because although others are being touched and responding, he's not.

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He's not as receptive as the others. And so Jesus has to call him out and says, hey, you follow me. While the others, they didn't need that because the word that Jesus was speaking already was doing the work in their hearts. And so this man, Jesus says, follow me, but he wasn't responding. Even to a direct invitation, he says, no, thanks for thinking of me, but I've got other things to do.

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I really appreciate the thoughtfulness, but I don't have time right now. First, I need to go take care of these other things. The pride that this man has, figuring, thinking, I know what's best for my family, and I need to bury my father first. I need to do what I think I need to do. And I'm not going to listen to you, Jesus, because I know better what my family needs.

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And what I need, I know what's best. It's the pride of life. And it produces that hardness of heart. So that first of all, he's not responding as Jesus is speaking, but then even as Jesus gives a direct invitation, he has reasons why he should not and cannot do what Jesus wants him to do. And so as we're looking for the source of the bad soil, we see the first one, the hardened heart, the source, what produces that in us is pride. Pride.

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And pride is an ugly thing. It's something that, well, we must repent of. Last week as we were talking about the hardened heart, we looked at softening the hardened heart in order to change it. You don't have to be stuck with a prideful hard heart. But you can soften it by submitting to God and doing what He says. And so if there are these issues of hardness of heart for you,

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Listen, you need to repent, but don't repent in pride. And by that, I mean, don't repent and say, you're right. Okay, there's hardness of heart. Okay, let me fix this. No, no, no. That's what got you in the problem in the first place. Repent and say, God, you fix this. Cry out to God for help with your pride. Ask God to break you. I know that's not a prayer we'd be really excited to pray, right? God, please break me.

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But listen, it's a serious condition because it causes you to not be receptive to what God is saying. It causes you to reject His Word. And you might think, well, it's just this one little area of my life. But it doesn't work that way. And you know that. But of course, we like to get away with as much as possible. It might be just a little area of your life right now. But that hardness will grow. And you will begin to reject more and more.

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Of God's word and his instruction. So repent. Ask God to break you. To take that hard heart and to soften it. Submit to him that you would be receptive to his word. Well the second point for this morning is from verse 13 of Luke chapter 8. And it is that the flesh limits the heart. Verse 13 says...

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But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy, and these have no root, who believe for a while, and in time of temptation, fall away. Now again, looking briefly at the kind of soil that Jesus is addressing, he's talking about the seed that is cast, and it lands upon what we refer to it often as the rocky soil, which is

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Makes my mind picture dirt with a bunch of little rocks in it. But what Jesus is describing here is big rocks with a little bit of dirt on them. And so this seed lands on the rock. This rock has a little bit of dirt on it. And so the soil is kept warm by the sun, which causes the seed to sprout quickly. It does penetrate. It does begin to grow and it sprouts quickly and

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But then because the soil is just a thin layer, it's not able to sustain the growth that is happening. And so he talks about in the parable when the sun rises, when the heat is on, that new growth, that new life dies. And we've been looking at this as the shallow heart. The heart of the person who says, wow, God's speaking to me. They're responsive. They hear what God says. They begin to respond.

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To grow, they begin to put it into practice. But then it doesn't last. We talked about last week identifying that as when God says, do this and you do it until it gets hard. You're excited about it. You go forward with it. But then if it gets hard, then you fizzle out. Then you give up. Then it's over. The shallow heart. What causes the shallowness of heart?

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Well again in 1 John 2.16 He gives us three things there. We looked at the pride of life. This one would be the lust of the flesh. It's the lust of the flesh that causes the heart to be shallow. The flesh limits the heart. Our flesh limits our capacity to walk with God. To respond to His word and to be faithful.

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To what he has spoken to us. Now the lust of the flesh. You could describe it also as the bodily appetites. The cravings of your natural body. The cravings of your sinful nature. And so that could be. Well it could be sexual desires. As we often connect the idea of lust with sex. It doesn't have to be only related to that. But it's definitely one that is a battle for many people.

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The lust of the flesh, those sexual desires, and those things of our flesh cause us to be shallow. Because when you're holding on to sexual sin, well, you can only go so far with the Lord. When you're not willing to repent of that sin, you can only go so far. You try to do both. And so when God speaks in a different area, you're like, yeah, I want to be part of that. Yes, I want to do that. I just don't want to let go of this issue in my life.

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Of this fleshly desire. This lust of the flesh. And so essentially we say. God I'll do anything else except repent of this. I won't let this go. I'm not willing to do what it takes to turn from that. Instead you can speak to me about anything else. But just not that. And so you see we put these limits. It's like this thin layer of dirt on top of a rock. Because God will say. Hey seek me in my word. And you're like yes. Yes.

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But then as you seek God and His word, He begins to speak to you about that sin. And He says, look, I want you to give that up. And you're like, no. And so you spring to life. God says, hey, I want you to be involved in this. Go in this direction. He's giving you life. He's giving you opportunity. But because, well, there's that limit. There's that shallowness. We reach a point where we're not willing to go any farther. And we always think, listen, you're not alone in this, okay?

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All of us. We always think, I can hold on to this little area here. I've got under control. It doesn't have to affect everything else. So I'm going to hold on to this sin, but I'm going to continue to seek the Lord and pursue the things of God and everything else. It's just this one little area. And what we think of as one little area, Jesus says it's a boulder with a little bit of dirt on it.

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We look at it opposite, don't we? We're like, you know, there's just this one little spot, you know. There's all this dirt. God, you can work and you can do all kinds of things in my life, but there's just one little thing you can't do. Jesus says, you're looking at it wrong. You think it's just one little thing, but it's a boulder. You think you're giving me all this room to work, but you're just giving me a thin layer. God requires for us to fully surrender. Absolute surrender.

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We need to be given over to Him entirely. And when we hold on to the lust of the flesh, we're limiting what God will do or can do in our hearts. Even when we think it's just a little thing, God says, no, that's the problem. It's a rock. It's a boulder. Whether it be sexual desires or maybe less devious, it might just be comforts. You know, sometimes it's a lot easier to just be comfortable.

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And sometimes we will put our comforts ahead of God's Word. And essentially we say, God, I'll walk with you. I'll do what you say. I'll respond to your Word as long as it's comfortable. That's it, God. It's just a little thing. I just like to be comfortable. God says, this is a huge boulder. You're limiting what I can do in your heart because you're caving in to the lust of the flesh.

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And you're giving your own flesh, your own sinful appetites, your own bodily desires, a higher place in your life than the Lord. The comforts, the cravings. Sometimes it's just laziness. You know, we just don't want to work. We don't want to give of ourselves. It's too hard. As long as it's convenient, as long as it's comfortable, God, I'll follow you, I'll walk with you. But listen, that is not the picture that Jesus paints when he says, come follow me.

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He makes it very clear. You need to count the cost. It's going to be hard. There are going to be difficulties and you're going to have to deny the flesh. Now, that doesn't mean God's trying to make you miserable because as you walk with Him, you'll find, well, that's when you really experience life. That's where the joy is, the peace is. But we hold on to the things of the flesh because we think, I got to have this and I can't live without it.

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Last week, God put it upon our hearts as the board of the church to just get away for a night and just spend some time in prayer and fasting. It was a wonderful time, but it was interesting too because, you know, of course with a time of fasting, there comes these lusts of the flesh. And fasting is always good for that. Because for me, I love food. I love to eat. You talk about, you know, putting no limits on

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That's easy for me to do. I can easily put no limits on what to eat or how much to eat. Well, maybe what to eat because I don't like a lot of things. But I forget, honestly, listen, I forget that when my stomach growls, I don't have to feed it. I know that may sound silly, but I genuinely, I honestly forget. And

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before too long, I become enslaved to my stomach. They're like, oh, there's a little bit of discomfort there. Okay, I better go eat. And very quickly, I can be, well, just the servant of my body. And I forget. And so fasting is really good because it reminds me, hey, you don't have to be a slave. Just because you're hungry doesn't mean you have to eat.

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Just because you have this feeling, just because you feel this way, doesn't mean you have to do what your body is telling you to do. The lust of the flesh is dangerous because it causes us to put ourselves, our own physical bodies, our own fleshly desires above the things of God. Now we see the example of this, if you'll jump with me again to Luke chapter 9, verse 57 and 58.

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And here in this example, again, this is a man who comes to Jesus and says, hey, I want to follow you. Verse 57 of Luke 9, it says, now it happened as they journeyed on the road that someone said to him, Lord, I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to lay his head.

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So we see this guy who says, I want to follow you, Jesus. Pick me, pick me. I'll go. Where you go, I'll go. Where you stay, I'll stay. I'll be with you. I want to be your disciple. Lord, I'll follow you. Now,

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Compared to the guy we looked at first, this is good, right? Because the seed fell as Jesus was talking and teaching and this guy is responding. Jesus doesn't have to point him out and say, hey, I'm talking to you. Listen up right here. I'm right in front of you. Listen, I want you. Yes, you. Yes, yes, you to follow me. Jesus didn't have to be so direct. The Lord was working in his heart. The word was penetrating. It was beginning to grow. He's excited. Woo, I want to follow you, Jesus. Woo, I want to follow you, Jesus.

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And so that part of it's good. But then we get inside into the condition of his heart and we learn that it's shallow by the way that Jesus responds to him. Because there in 58 he says, Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. What does he deal with? He deals with comforts. Comforts of the flesh. Here you are saying, I want to follow you, but you've got to understand...

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This isn't a life of luxury. This will not be comfortable. Would you just put yourself in this man's shoes for a moment? Would you follow Jesus right now, today, if it meant that you would have nowhere to place your head? Would you still follow Jesus? If it meant that you lived on the streets, would you follow Jesus? If it meant that you barely survived life,

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On the food that God provided you. Would you follow Jesus? How far would you go? What would you be willing to endure? In order to follow Jesus. Could a comfortable bed. Keep you. From following him. You see again. This parable is for self-examination. This is something for us to. Understand our own hearts. Understand where we are. What would you be willing to endure? Or will you put the lust of the flesh.

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at a higher place and say, no, if it costs me my home, if it costs me my regular consumption of food, if it costs me my favorite clothing, if it costs me my comforts, my desires, if it means I have to give up this sin, I'm not willing. So we get insight into this man's heart by Jesus responding and saying, listen,

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This isn't just, you know, a nice, wonderful... We live in America today and we're so pampered, but we don't even know it. We complain about everything, but compared to the rest of the world, compared to the rest of history, we've got it made. Everything's great for us. The poorest here is... Well, still has abundantly more than many around the world. We're so distorted in our perspective from...

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From what we're so used to and accustomed to, what would you be willing to endure? To follow Christ. It maybe could be seen in your life by, what do you like in the workplace? It's easy to be lazy. It's easy to slack off, especially when nobody's watching.

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But God says in his word, Colossians chapter 3 verse 22, bond servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh, not with eye service as men pleasers, but in sincerity of heart fearing God. So are you faithful in the workplace to work hard, to be diligent, to obey even when they're not watching, even when they won't find out, even when they don't know what's going on? Are you faithful?

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catering to the lust of the flesh? Or are you being faithful? Now that's just one example, of course, but you can let God challenge your own heart. Where do you stand? Are you giving in to the cravings of the flesh? Are you only willing to obey God when it's convenient or comfortable? And again, you can see this by the springing up. And so

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God speaks. You're excited. You begin to read the word. And God says, read it every day. Join the Bible in three years. And you're like, yes, I'll go. Yes, I'll do it. Until it's not comfortable. Until, well, I'm tired. Until it's difficult. Until there's that conflict. Well, it means I'm going to have to give up this. It means I'm going to have to do away with that. Okay, never mind. I'm not willing any longer. God says, pray. Be committed to prayer.

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Be involved in this prayer meeting. Be involved in this prayer this way. And we say, yes, oh awesome, yes, I want to pray. But then it gets hard. It gets difficult. God says obey. God says share. Whatever it is, He's casting out the seed. We're hearing it. And we're beginning to respond. But the shallowness is revealed by the lust of the flesh. That when we get to the point where, hmm, it's going to cost me. It's going to cost me some comfort. I'm going to have to give up some sin.

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And now I'm no longer willing. Now last week, in order to deal with the shallow heart, we talked about deepening it by being diligent and disciplined in the Word of God, spending time with God. I would add to that this week, from Luke 9.23, Jesus says, If anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. The shallow heart is caused by the lust of the flesh. In order to deal with that,

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You need to deny the flesh. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. That's die to yourself. Remember again, you don't have to be a slave to your flesh. And just because it tells you to sin doesn't mean you have to. Just because it tells you to eat doesn't mean you have to. Just because it tells you this or tells you that, you don't have to obey. You put God first and obey Him first. Deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Jesus.

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Well, finally, the third point for this morning, looking at the third bad soil, is that the eyes distract the heart. The eyes distract the heart. Back in Luke chapter 8, verse 14, it says, Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.

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Now again, Jesus here is talking about the seed that's being cast out. And this particular seed lands on soil that has thorns in it. And the weeds begin to grow. The thorns begin to grow along with the word that is planted. And the thorns choke out the seed by stealing away its nutrients, its space, its sunlight. And so they don't have what they need in order to be able to grow because the thorns have choked it out.

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We saw this as the divided heart. And it's identified by, well, God says, do this and you do it until something else gets in the way. Until you get distracted. You lose focus and you begin to pursue other things instead of what God said. And I would share with you that this is the lust of the eyes. Again, 1 John 2.16 says,

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For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. The lust of the eyes. Again, these desires and the cravings, this time brought to us not by our bodily appetites, but by our eyes, by what we see. This speaks about covetousness, greed. Jesus says it speaks about the cares, the riches, and the pleasures.

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Cares are those burdens, those stresses. As John Corson said, cares are things that are dealt with in poverty. Riches are things that are dealt with in prosperity. And so it's not just the covetousness and the greed of, oh, I want that. That certainly can distract us. But it's also the cares of this life that can distract us. The lust of the eyes.

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Looking at our situation, looking around at our needs, looking around at the bills that need to be paid, looking at those stresses, those burdens, those obligations that we have. And we become focused on those things instead of focused on God. It distracts our hearts. You ever have that happen where you're, you know, maybe with somebody, maybe your spouse, you're having a conversation, you're spending time together, and you're

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And then something catches your eye. Maybe it's the game on the TV or something. And then boom, you're distracted. The same thing happens with our relationship with God. He's speaking to us. He's working. And we're like, yeah, we're beginning to respond. And then, ooh, what's that? We get distracted. Or, oh man, that's coming up. Oh, this difficult thing. And we turn our attention away. We focus on, we get consumed with that other thing. Whether it be a care or

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like a burden or a stress, or covetousness and desiring wealth or desiring that car, desiring or pursuing that career and those things. And none of those things in and of themselves may be wrong, but when they consume us and distract us from the Lord, well, it's the lust of the eyes and pleasures.

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Sometimes people get caught up in the lust of the eyes with just pursuing pleasure. Like the life is just about having fun, being entertained. And they're so caught up with, they're so consumed with those pleasures that they've forgotten about what God has called them to. The cares, it's when you look at what you have to do. These things that have to be met. The riches, it's looking at what you could have.

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And the pleasures is looking at what you could be doing or what fun you could have. These things are part of the lust of the eyes and they distract us from God's word and his work in us. And we see the example of it in Luke chapter 9, this time verse 61 and 62. It says,

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But Jesus said to him, no one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. The lust of the eyes. This third guy, he says, wow, what Jesus says is amazing. This is some incredible teaching. I've never heard anything like this before. Jesus, I'll follow you wherever you go. I want to be with you. Count me in with one exception or with one condition rather.

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Let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house. Now Jesus responds there in verse 62. He says, look, no one having put his hand to the plow. That's what this guy did. He says, I want to follow you. He put his hand to the plow. I want to labor with you. I want to be involved in the work that you're involved with. But Jesus says, no one who does that, puts their hand to the plow and then looks back is fit for the kingdom of God. What is the guy doing? He's looking back.

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It's the lust of the eyes. Those eyes will get you in trouble. He's looking back at, well, some obligations, some cares. I want to follow you, but Lord, first, I need to deal with these cares. I want to follow you, but first I have to get there. I have to achieve that. Lord, this one's pretty common. I want to follow you, Lord, but

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But first I'm going to go have some fun, sow my oats, have a good time, and later on I'll turn and follow you. It's the lust of the eyes. Looking at those things we can have, looking at those obligations that we have, looking at the fun we can have. We're being distracted by our eyes. It distracts our heart. It divides our heart. So that, okay, this chunk here you can have, God, but this chunk over here I'm going to give to this, I'm going to give this chunk to that.

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Cutting it up, dividing it up. Alright, here's your portion God. You can work within that. Don't do anything more. Don't ask me for anything more. Because I got to get this job. Don't ask me for anything more because I just want to have fun. Don't ask me for anything more because I can't. I don't have time. I got to pay these bills. Don't ask me for anything more. The lust of the eyes distracts our heart. It divides it up. So that like...

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The parable, the Word of God gets choked out. Because again, God needs to have full access to you. Last week we saw that to address the divided heart, we need to devote it. I encourage you to let God and His Word be unrivaled in your heart. Going along with that this week, I would encourage you from Colossians chapter 3.

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Where Paul says in verse 1, If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Set your mind on things above. Set your mind. It's not going to automatically go there. It's not just going to happen, where just all of a sudden you're consumed. Set your mind. Redirect your mind. Where your eyes go, ooh, then remember and remind yourself, no.

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Life is not about those things. Jesus said, seek first the kingdom of God and the cares will be provided for. Remind yourself, it's not about those things. Set your mind on things above. And so as we look at the source of bad soil,

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We see that it's pride that hardens the heart. It's the flesh that limits the heart. It's the eyes that distract the heart. And all of these things, again, 1 John 2.16, he says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are things of the world and they're not of God. The source of bad soil is the world. It's the things of the present where Satan rules.

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The prince of the power of the air. He's in charge. And so it's the source. It's what causes the hardness of heart, the shallowness of heart, the divided heart. When we're caught up with the world, either in pride, either in the flesh, or with the eyes being distracted. Now it's amazing because, we're not going to get into it this morning, obviously, but Luke chapter 4, the temptations that Jesus faced, correspond with pride.

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These three types of soils and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and pride of life. The temptation that Eve experienced in Genesis chapter 3 line up with and are in parallel with these types of soils and these things that are of the world. This is the enemy's tactics. It's our natural tendencies. These things will be our battle. It's been the battle of all of history, of all of humanity. These things will be our battle.

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And that's why we're taking the time to work through the parable of the sower in this way, because it's not only for unbelievers and how they respond to the gospel. It's also for you and I, the condition of our hearts, and how to deal with and how to cultivate and keep our heart with all diligence so that we stay in that right relationship with God where we need to be.

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We'll finish it up in Luke chapter 8 verse 15. It says, But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience. The worship team is going to come up and lead us in one last song. As they do, think about this. The seed that fell on the good ground. Jesus said it's those who first of all hear the word of God. That is, they have a soft heart. They hear it. They're receptive to the word.

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They receive what God says. But then he also says they keep it. They're a devoted heart. They do what God says. They're not distracted. They don't let other things get in the way. But they keep it. They do the word that God has spoken to them. And then finally he says they bear fruit with patience. This patience talks about endurance. It's not shallow, but it's deep. You see, good soil...

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is not something else. It's, well, it's soil that is soft, that is devoted, and that is deep. It's soil that has been worked. It's a heart that has been surrendered to God. We looked at the example of those who Jesus had the discussion about following Him. And so this morning, I want to end with the song, I've decided to follow Jesus. And I want to encourage you, let it be your real prayer.

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Whatever issues going on in your heart, whether it be the pride or the flesh or the eyes, take this time, really ask God to deal with that issue. Repent from it. Turn it over to Him and decide to follow Jesus. Let's worship Him. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.