Wednesday Night Service 7PM -

Well, good evening. Pray you're all doing well. I got another chair this time. Gets me a little higher instead of being like this. Oh, I need this chair. I need to get my legs better. So we'll get there. God is good all the time. He is awesome. So tonight, we're going to continue in the book of Mark. And where we left off last time, a couple weeks ago, was chapter 3.

So we're on chapter 4 this week.

And just to remind you, chapter 4, the book of Mark, it was the first of the Gospels to be written. And if you remember, way back in November, I think I shared. That was written really from the eyewitness perspective. Peter gave him all of that information. So although Mark was around in parts of it, he was a young man, young boy. And he was the son of Mary, one of the Marys.

And if you remember, we are. We're going to be in it anytime soon. But at the end of the book of Mark, there's a young guy who is going to, when the soldiers come to get Jesus, all the disciples scattered. And John Mark was this little boy. At least that's the story that's told. That. He was a little boy that someone grabbed the linen clothes that he had on, the linen sheet, whatever.

And to get away, he ran away naked. Now, just a piece of information. But kind of ties it in. Mark has been around for a long part of the disciples. And Jesus. His ministry. But he was a young boy. So anyway. That's. The. Old information that I have. So. This week. We're going to be looking at chapter four, which is, you know, I'm going to call it. Jesus is communicating.

With the masses. And with true believers. And I say that. Because.

He's changing. At least. To a point. He's changing the way he's going to teach. The. The masses. Because. He has. A. Good. Number of folks that are going to be following him around from now on. And they want to get really close to him. And. Because they want to touch him. And they want him to heal them. And although that's a piece of Jesus. His ministry. That isn't the ministry.

That is his focus. His focus is to change hearts. Because there have been so much. Misteaching. By the Pharisees and Sadducees. And so. He's trying to get these folks to.

Hear the word. And hear what he's trying to share. And. And most folks just really aren't prepared for that. Because they. Had so much misteaching. About what the Messiah was going to do. And he was going to come. And. Save them all from Rome. And take over. And. Which. You know. From our perspective. Two thousand years later. We know that didn't happen. From their perspective.

They're still expecting it. You know. Here's the Messiah. And. And he's doing things that clearly are Messiah like things. But. They just. Aren't able to grasp that. And I don't know. Maybe you've. You've been taught something. Improperly before. And. It really takes a while to get that. Out of your system. And I think that's what's going on with so many folks.

So. But anyway. Let's. Let's open in prayer. And let the Lord. Lead us. Through his word. The Holy Spirit. Touch all of our hearts. And. So let's open. Lord. Good day. I want to lift up each and every person here and online this evening to you. We need your love and your touch to help us. Be the children. You would have us to be. Open up your word to us Lord.

Through your Holy Spirit. Prepare us to take away. What you want us to leave with tonight. As we study your word. Grow us Lord I pray. Amen. Okay. So. Anyway. So Jesus is going to be teaching. Parables. Using parables. And. And so. What is a parable? Well it's an earthly story with a heavenly lesson. That's. One definition. And. And. And. Why is he doing that?

Well. Jesus. If you. Have. Read back through. Chapters two. Chapters three. You see that Jesus has had kind of a difficult time. Over the past few days. The Pharisees and the religious leaders have been hassling Jesus. And his disciples for not following their traditions. And interpreting. The law the way they. They say it should be interpreted. So if we go back a few chapters.

You've got the religious leaders were claiming Jesus. Was blaspheming. When he told the paralytic his sins were forgiven. He and his disciples. Were called out for eating. With sinners and not fasting. Doing what the Pharisees called an unlawful act. Picking heads of grain. On the Sabbath on their way to the synagogue. When they arrived at the synagogue. Jesus Jesus healed him.

With a man with a withered hand. Much to the dismay of the religious leaders. Who are so frustrated with Jesus. Not following their interpretation of the law. That they were planning. How they might destroy him. After calling out the twelve of the followers. To be his disciples. Hymns and. He he came home. And the crowds that. Followed him. Were gathering. To such an extent.

That eating a meal was. Very difficult and in fact they weren't able to. Eat their meal. And in fact because of that mom. And the brothers. All wanted to come get him. Because he had. Was out of his mind as far as they were concerned at that point. They just. They didn't know what was going on. But they knew that wasn't good for him. And then next you've got.

The scribes were saying Jesus was only able to cast out demons. By being in charge of them. I E being Satan. So even though Jesus was seeing some good being accomplished. With a lot of folks being healed. And definitely folks who were followers. Following and listening. And trying to learn. There are a lot of any enemy attacks. And. In the feeling you know when you think about it.

That's got to be taking its toll. I mean Jesus was God. Jesus could. Handle things a whole lot better than we can handle things. But still. This was tough on him and you could tell. By the way he'd get frustrated. By the way folks would. Just not be listening. Not showing love or care and concern for other people. So. And I know that many of us in this room.

And online. Don't ever deal with this all the time. We've got people who are giving us grief. Just because we're believers. And we want to share. Jesus with them. We need to remember that the enemy is strong. And he is going to give us grief. But our God is a whole lot stronger. And he's on our side. So. Let's jump into. Mark four. We'll read the first nine verses.

And then we'll kind of discuss bits and pieces of it. And he began to teach again by the sea. And such a great multitude gathered to him. That he got into a boat. In the sea and sat down. And the whole multitude was by the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things. In parables. And was saying them to. In his. And they were saying to them in his teaching.

Listen to this. Behold. The sower went out to sow. It came about that as he was sowing. Some seed fell beside the road. And the birds came and ate it up. Another seed fell on the rocky ground. Where it did not have much soil. And immediately it sprang up. Because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen. It was scorched. And because it had no root.

It withered away. Another seed fell among the thorns. And the thorns came up and choked it. And it yielded no crop. And the other seeds fell into the good soil. As they grew up and increased. They yielded a crop. Produced thirty. Sixty. And a hundredfold. And he was saying. He who has an ear. To hear. Let him hear. So. One thing. That. As we dig into this. You know there's.

At this point. Jesus hasn't. Hasn't shared what. That parable means. And I don't know about you. Maybe you're like me. And you're going. What in the world does this all mean? But. Make a suggestion. Use scripture to understand and interpret scripture. We know that. The more we know God's word. And the more we're in the God's word. That he's going to give us clarity.

On what some of these things mean. Some of it makes just sense. Other parts of it. It's like hmm. I don't know. So. Anyway. When you think about this. You get into. Verse four. And. In verse four. It says. After the sower went out to sow. He came about. That he was sowing. Some seed. And fell among. By the side. The road. And the birds came. And ate it up. So.

You got a couple words there. That we're trying to figure out. Seed. And what's the birds doing. Coming up and eating it up. Well we know that. If you throw. If you throw seed. Down on hard soil. It's going to be left there. It's not going to go into the ground. And. Birds love seed. And. So birds will come. And get the seed. And then he said in verse five.

The other seed fell in rocky ground. Where it did not have much soil. And immediately it sprang up. Because it had no depth of soil. There the soil is. It's almost like it's been worked. But there's rocks in it. And the rocks take up the space. That really. Hinder the growth of the seed. And. Rocks. Take. You know when the sun is out. Pretty bright. Rocks can get pretty warm.

And dry the ground up. So. Um. We understand that. It just had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen. And it scorched it. Because it had no root. It withered away. So. Next. Was. Some seed fell among the thorns. The thorns came and choked it. And it yielded no crop. Okay. So. So we're dealing with. Rocks and thorns. That kind of hinder the growth of the seed.

And then. Verse eight. And other seeds fell. On the good soil. And they grew up and increased. They yielded a crop. Producing thirty. Sixty. And a hundred fold. So. And just. If you're a little. Garden. Farmer. We know. A lot of these things. These are common sense kinds of things. Don't leave a lot of rocks in the soil. Make sure you. Weed. When. You're trying to grow your.

Your plants. And. And if you. Prepared your soil. Well. And you get some rain. You're going to have some. Good crop. Or at least some of the time. You're going to have. Your. I'm a little bit old. Marianne's growing. She's. Got a little garden going. And right now. We can. Get in. I guess. So many. Cucumbers it's crazy. Everything else. Is. Kind of just sitting there.

Going. I don't know whether I want to grow. But the cucumbers are going nuts. And that's wonderful. Because I like cucumbers. Jesus' explanation of this. So let's read verses 10 through 20. So, and as soon as he was alone with his followers, along with the twelve, began asking him about the parables. And he was saying to them, to you it has been given the mystery

of the kingdom of God. But those who are outside get everything in parables, in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive. And while hearing, they may hear and not understand, lest they return and be forgiven. And he said to them, do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones who are beside the road

where the word is sown. And when they hear, immediately Satan comes, takes away the word which has been sown in them. And in a similar way, these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary. Then, when affliction or persecution arises because

of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones on whom seed is sown among the thorns. And these are the ones who have heard the word, and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires of other things, enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. And those are the ones in whom seed was sown on the good soil, and they hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.

So, now we get a little bit of an explanation to what Jesus is trying to communicate. And he's being careful about sharing what's going on, because you know, what's happened is so many of these folks just want to come to have Jesus heal them. And that isn't the most important thing from Jesus' perspective. We need a changed heart. If we don't have a changed

heart, a heart that is focused on the Lord, and more importantly, that we've accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior, then what's going to happen is you may get healed physically, but it's what's that when you consider eternity? Eternity is forever. We're only around for 72, I don't know, lately I've seen some old folks around, about 120 or so. So, you can get up there, but not eternal.

Not until you have Jesus, and then we get to live for eternity. And even the sad part is, is even those who don't accept Jesus get to live for eternity. They just don't get to live for eternity where we get to live. And how important it is that we share what we know so that maybe the Lord would just touch their hearts and change their hearts and get them to come to know Him.

So, when you look at this, He needed to teach in such a way as that some would grasp. Those who want to understand and want to come and ask Jesus for more information, and want to dig into His Word, because what you notice here is that as we read through this, Jesus has actually told them, you know, to you it's been given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, get everything in parables. And He gets in verse 13 and He says, Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all parables?

Well, you think about it. The way that you can understand parables is to read God's Word, listen to good teachers, and compare the Word. Compare what you're hearing with what you're reading. And the more you do that, the more the Lord is going to fill you with what you're really wanting, which is more of Him. But, anyway, you get to verse 14 and He explains

what the seed is. The seed is the Word. And the hard soil in verse 15 is going to be heart. So, we can kind of imply here that the soil is our heart, is our body, is how we, how prepared are we to hear God's Word? Are we desiring to hear God's Word? Or is it just, we'd really just like to watch Jesus do some miracles and go do our own thing, our way, and definitely

not what you're wanting to do. I mean, you may feel like it's the right way to go, but as you read through this Word, you know what's the best way to go, is time with the Lord, time in His Word, time under the Word, and just drawing close and seeking His Holy Spirit and just letting Him do a mighty work in you. So, in this case, in verse 15, the soil is hard. And because the soil is hard, the heart doesn't hear the Word.

It just doesn't even, I mean, it's kind of one of those blah, blah, blah, blah, blah things going on. You just, you're not really hearing what's being shared. And when you get into verse 16, it mentions in a similar way, these ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places who hear the Word immediately, receive it with joy. So, they're hearing the Word, but because they don't have a, because they don't have a prepared heart, they got rocks in their soil, the rocks in their lives, things interfering with what's going on. So,

they aren't able to get firm roots. And so, persecution and affliction causes them to be distracted and focused on worldly issues that they face rather than on God's Word. And then you go down to 18 and 19, and these are the folks who have the Word sown among the thorns. Now, what are the thorns? Well, the thorns seem to be the weeds, the worries of the world,

the deceitfulness of riches, sometimes even good things, but not the best thing, which is God's Word. And because of that, even though you've heard the Word, the Word is unfruitful. You may hear the Word, you may believe the Word, but you aren't really following the Word. And, you know, there are a number of folks following Jesus who probably would fit these last two groups, and probably some of us at times.

So, something to ask God about. Lord, how am I doing with this? Help me to seek Your Word so that I can be like it talks about in verse 20, a crop properly attended to. So, a well-prepared heart, one that is seeking after our Lord and Savior, Jesus. One that's desiring to glorify God in everything that we do. And when we're doing those sorts of things, we're

God is able to do amazing things through us. He can do amazing things no matter what. But, it glorifies God when we are able to be the people that God wants us to be. Because God uses us to share His Word and to encourage others. And, God can make them very fruitful, just as He can make us very fruitful. So, with that, on to the second of the parables. And this one is the lamp.

Parable of the lamp. And I'm going to read through the parable of the lamp. And then we'll break it down to verse 21. And He was saying to them, A lamp is not brought to be put under a peck measure. Is it? Or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put? On a lampstand? For nothing is hidden except to be revealed. Nor has anything been secret but that it should come to light.

If any man has ears to hear, let him hear. And He was saying to them, Take care what you listen to. By your standard of measure, it should be measured to you. And more shall be given you besides. For whoever has to him shall more be given. And whoever does not have, even what he has, shall be taken away from him. So the parable of the lampstand and the lamp.

You know, when we know, and the common sense thing here is, you don't put a light, light a lamp and stick it under something that makes it dark in the room. That's just not why you turn a light on. It's kind of like using a flashlight and putting your hand over it and going, okay, I got a flashlight on. No, it's not. No, we want to see something with that light.

And so, He's saying, is it not to be brought to put on a lampstand? And then He mentions in 22, for nothing is hidden except to be revealed. So His desire is that for the believer that all things can be revealed. That He's going to give the light to show that thing. And who is the light? We know our Lord Jesus is the light. And so, as we draw closer and closer

to Jesus, then we're going to be able to understand things that were hidden.

And He's going to reveal them so that they aren't secret anymore.

And then again, He says, if any man has ears, let him hear.

I think a lot of times we hear, but we don't hear. We aren't thinking of, we're hearing words, but we aren't thinking through those words and what they really mean. And why is it being told to me? You know, there's a lot of noise in the world right now. And if you listen to the news very much, you got a lot of noise. And you can be distracted by all that noise.

And if you're used to hearing that sort of noise, then it's very possible that as you try to hear these words and hear what Jesus has to share with you, that you may take on the same attitudes that you do when you're listening to the news, which is in one ear, out the other, and we're done with it. But here He's trying to get us to hear the news. To hear His word and hear what He's trying to say. Because He's got a deeper meaning in His word for us to take away and thus to apply to our lives so that then we can share with others.

Verse 24, He said, take care what you listen to. By your standard measure, it shall be measured to you. More shall be given you besides what you listen to. And as I read through that, I think about if we are careful about what we're listening to, if we're careful about what we're reading, and we're desiring to know God's word, He's going to help us know more and more and more as we dig into it.

And that's encouraging because sometimes when you read through God's word, your mind isn't, I don't know about you, but I have this wonderful ability that I get up in the morning and I want to read the word and I go, I've got to read seven chapters or whatever it is, you know, and even if it's one chapter, if I'm in a hurry, which I normally am, that being in a hurry actually hinders my ability to even hear what God's trying to say to me. And I pray that you don't have that same problem. But if you do, just ask the Lord for some help and some patience and He's going to work it for you as you decide to really dig into His word. It takes more time, but a few verses of really picking up what God's trying to get across to you is so much better

than just flying through the word, go, I got my reading done, let's go, rest of the day. Come on, Lord, let's make this happen. He's got so much for us and He follows that up with for whoever has to Him shall more be given. So the more that you really dig into His word and that you really apply His word in your life, more is going to be given you. And whoever does not have,

which is when you just are rushing through this stuff, you're going to get to a point where you don't have. And prayerfully, when you're rushing through, all of a sudden you realize you're rushing through and you're really not accomplishing this and you're really not seeking God's will as you're digging into His word. But He's got something for you every day. So, next section.

My section says the seed growing gradually. And I guess you could look at this section as being a seed growing gradually. As being God is going to who's doing the growing in you and who's doing the growing in the soil? God is doing the growing. It's not us. We just need to be willing people about His business. So, verse 26 through 29. And He, Jesus, was saying

the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil and goes to bed at night and gets up in the morning and goes to sleep by day and the seed sprouts up and grows. How? He Himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself. First the blade, then the head, then the mature grain in the head. When the crop permits, He immediately puts in the sickle

because the harvest has come. You know, when you kind of try to break that section down, who's doing all the growing? God's doing all the growing. In your life, in soil, in our world, anything that's going on that is life, it ends up being Jesus and our Father in Heaven who is making things grow. Whether it be us or natural things growing in the soil. He's the one that makes it happen.

And we don't understand. We can study it to the nth degree. They still haven't figured it all out. It just happens. It just happens because that's how God designed it to happen.

When the crop permits, He immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. And that has two-fold meaning. When we're growing crops, we want to put in the sickle so that we can harvest that. And, I mean, we grew it for a reason. We grew it so that we could eat it or have it for someone else to eat. But when you're dealing with our lives, God is growing us

and He's going to put in a sickle at some point. We don't know when that time will be because we don't know when is His time for us to be going home with Him. But He'll come and take us with Him.

And then we get into the mustard seed. Chapter 4, verses 30 through 34. Let me read that. And He, Jesus, said, How shall we picture the kingdom of God? Or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all seeds that are upon the soil, you know, when it is sown, grows up and becomes larger

than all the garden plants and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. And with many such parables, He was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear. And He did not speak to them without a parable, but He was explaining everything in private, everything privately to His own disciples.

So, when you think about the mustard seed, it is a small seed, almost not seeable. If you were to stick it in the ground and you went to go look for it again, you probably wouldn't find it. It's small. But it does grow up to be a big plant. I've never seen one that had branches that big, but I think that's because we were out in California and across the street from our house

was a tree. It was an almond orchard, I think. And they would come through and clear the land. Well, for some reason, mustard grew up in that field. And I know it grew up this tall. So, I mean, it was big. The dog would get lost in it. I don't know about birds, you know, landing and being on its branches, but it got big. And, you know, the kingdom of God is going to grow big.

Now, interestingly, we're going to start using what we talked about at the beginning, that you're going to use Scripture to interpret Scripture. Because he's talking about this kingdom of God is going to grow huge. But that's our church. And in our church, there are those who know the Lord and there are those who don't know the Lord. And those who feel they know the Lord,

but they're, excuse me, they're going to do it their way. Not the best way to go. But if you notice, it says, so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. Well, if you remember when we were reading about the parable of the birds of the air, we were reading about the parable of the birds of the air. We were reading about the parable of the birds of the air.

We were reading about the parable of the sower with the birds coming and eating up the seed. And that was likened until Satan. Those birds are seen as a negative, as a, I'm not going to say satanic, but at least led by Satan. And so these birds will come and join in in the church. And kind of hide in the church and be there with you. But, you know, it's interesting

that you read through this, the last couple of verses there. And again, he says, he was speaking the word to them as they were able to hear it. He did not speak to them without a parable. So that for those who wanted to understand and wanted to dig in, he would go privately and teach them. So the day is over. We're approaching over. And it's been a long day of teaching,

but he did get to teach. And he really wanted to teach and not be mauled by people wanting to just touch him to be healed. So then we're going to finish this section up with, um, Jesus over the storm. Verse 35 through 41. And I'll read that. And on that day, when evening had come, he said to his disciples, said to them, let us go over to the other side and leaving the multitude.

They took him along with them just as he was in the boat and the other boats were with them. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. And he himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they awoke him and said to him, teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?

And being aroused, he rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush, be still. And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And he said to them, why are you so timid? How is it you have no faith? And they became very much afraid and said to one another, who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?

You know, sometimes we can approach Jesus in the same light. We read about him. We know he's, he's the Messiah. He's the son of God. He's our savior. And he's promised so many things to us. And yet, when the situation comes up like a storm, how do we handle that storm? Do we go to Jesus? Do we go to Jesus with faith? Because they were going to Jesus going, Jesus,

we're going to die. Well, you got to remember, and I, and I've seen this a number of times in the word. Jesus said in verse 35, let us, let us go over to the other side. He already told them what was going to happen. But in our lives, things come up and keep us from accomplishing what we want to accomplish. In Jesus's situation, not the case. When Jesus says,

we're going to do something, we're going to do something. And that's what ended up happening here. I, you know, I can just imagine, being one of the disciples, because I'd be just as dumb as them. I'm, I'm going to, I know I would be just like them. And I'd be going, you notice the water's coming up in the boat and it looks pretty bad out there and we could sink.

And so Jesus is sound asleep on a pillow. And you're like, how can you do that? That's where your mind would be. How can he sleep through this rather than he can take care of this? And we've got to remember, he is the one who can take care of this and anything else that's in our lives. He can take care of it. And he wants to take care of it, but he wants us to know and believe that he can take care of it.

So, you know, the words in 40 says, why are you so timid? How is it? Did you have no faith? I guess I can be that person. And my heart desires, and I try to pray about this every day. Lord, help me have the faith I need to have to let you lead me no matter where it is taking me, no matter what situation I come across. Lord, I really want to have faith to trust you to get me through to the other

side. So in summing up this whole chapter, you know, when you look at it, Jesus is going to speak to people, but he's going to start speaking to people in ways that causes them to really think about what he's saying, whether it's a parable or whether it's just straight on teaching, think about what he's saying and then apply it to your lives. That's what we need to do. We need to apply his word.

To our lives. And he will help us do that. We don't have to think that we have to do this on our own. That isn't our job. Our job is to just be open to whatever the Lord has for us. Whatever. Sometimes that goes against the grain too, because I want to do it this way. And, uh, clearly as I go through my day, I can see that isn't the way this is going to happen.

It's not going to turn out. So then I need to go back to Jesus and go, help me to see things the way you want me to and be about your business the way you want me to. So a lot of teaching was done and it was done so that those who wanted to

hear could really learn, but those who didn't really care, they just wanted to go to church. They just wanted to be around Jesus. Um, they weren't going to get the word. So keep that in mind as you go through your day and you go through your reading and your time with the Lord, because he's got so much for us, so much for us. We just need to be open to it in his time.

So with that, let's close in prayer. Lord Jesus, thank you so much for your word. It's so rich. And so often it's over my head and I just need to allow your Holy Spirit to really work in me so that I can hear from you and that my heart is right where you want it to be so I can grow. Lord, work in each and every one in this room and online tonight. Help. Help them all to see and hear what you want them to see and hear.

We love you and we praise you. Lead and guide us this coming week. Just work in and through our lives, Lord. We want to touch people for you. We ask this all in your precious and holy name, Lord Jesus. Amen. Have a great rest of the week. Thank you.