After they found that their son had strung rubber bands across his dresser drawers and was replicating classical tunes by ear, moving the drawer in and out to vary the pitch. He was four years old. So began the musical career of Joshua Bell, one of the most accomplished, one of the greatest violinists of our time. Today he finds himself earning $100 per seat, per performance. He's traded the dresser drawers, can't even say that. He's traded the drawers for a $3.5 million strativarius at the age, the ripe old age of $5.39. Joshua Bell is a world-renowned virtuoso. One magazine said of his plane, it does nothing less than tell human beings why they bother to live. Choir like that. Those kind of over-the-top accolades have followed him his entire life. But the Washington Post wondered, would his talent be recognized in the DC subway during rush hour? He was open to it so they set it up. They asked the director of the national symphony, if an accomplished violinist plays in the subway out of a thousand people passing by how many of them would stop. He said, who is it? Joshua Bell. Joshua Bell? Well, I guess $75 to $100 will stop and listen. Probably only $35 to $40 will actually recognize the quality for what it is. That's assuming that nobody recognizes him and starts yelling so everybody comes. So dressed in blue jeans and a t-shirt, Joshua Bell steps into a DC substation, pulls out his $3.5 million fiddle and sets the saw in for 43 minutes. In that time, no less than 1,097 people walked through, but how many would stop? Seven. Only seven stopped to listen. And one of them was a woman who had attended a concert he did recently. She said, it's the most astonishing thing I've ever seen in Washington. There's Joshua Bell playing in rush hour and people aren't even stopping. They're not even looking. I mean, some of them are flipping quarters at him, quarters. I wouldn't do that to anybody. I was thinking, oh my gosh, what kind of city is it that I live in that this could happen? Is it really all that surprising then that the greatest preacher in history got a similar treatment? It was to his disciples, how can this happen? How can this happen? Let's find out. Matthew 13 is where we're going. Where we're going. It's page 818 in your Pew Bible. We're really getting underway in our series on the parables and what better place to begin in the parable Jesus began with. So Matthew 13 beginning at verse 1, here God's word. That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. He preached on the beach. And great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables saying, a soar went out to sew. But as he sewed some seeds fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, or they did not have much soil. And immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched and since they had no root they whithered away. Other seeds fell among thorns and the thorns grew up and choked them. All other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some 100 fold, some 60, some 30. He who has ears, let him hear. And now skipping the part that might cover it last week, Jesus disciples come and ask, what does this mean? Verse 18, here then the parable of the soar. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sewn in his heart. This is what was sewn along the path. As for what was sewn on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sewn among thorns, this is the one who hears the word but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sewn on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields in one case 100 fold and another 60 and in another 30. This is God's word. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, set your spade to work. Do what only you can do. Change us by the power of your word we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. I grew up with a field in woods behind my house, but it wasn't until we started building secret forts and clearing hidden patches in the field that I began to appreciate the phenomenon that is a trail. It took us hours with tools stolen from our dads to clear a little patch in the middle of the field and we had to go back and maintain it all the time if we wanted to keep it. But here are these trails through the woods that nobody's maintaining that are just cleared dirt paths. All these weeds and underbrush growing up everywhere, but not there simply because animals and people happen to walk that same way through the woods frequently, feet upon feet, beating down the path so that nothing could grow there. This may be the most ironic thing Jesus is saying here. Think with me. The sower goes back and forth casting seed everywhere he goes, but could it be that the places he walks the most are in the most danger? No soil has more encounters with the sower than the path itself. And it's for that very reason that the seed will not penetrate the ground. It's hard, it's compacted, it's already set. Think about what this means. What is Jesus saying? I mean he's not just waxing eloquent with some farmer analogy. He's talking about people who are right in front of him. He's standing in a boat, talking to people sitting on a beach, and what he's talking to them about is them, and most of them, most of them don't even recognize themselves in the story. Now, if I started telling a story from the pulpit right now and I named you in particular, you'd probably sit up and pay close attention, at least until you were confident that I'd moved on to some other topic. Jesus doesn't name names, he just describes their condition, and all these people that he's talking about are sitting there not recognizing themselves in his story. He is willing, he allows for them to miss it. This is what a parable is. It's literally laying two things alongside each other for the sake of comparison. It's like an analogy. He's using an earthly story to tell a heavenly truth. I mean, it's pretty obvious, we're not talking about soils here, but what are we talking about? Let me ask you more pointedly, do you see yourself in this story? If you look at verse 19, Jesus tells us what this first soil, the hardened path, what this first soil is, it's those who don't understand. Now before you kind of check that one off, we lean over and give an elbow, we know who that is, who is Jesus talking about? Ask yourself, who are these people that they hear about God so much, they've been down that road so much, they think they already know all of this stuff. And Jesus has a particular group in mind as he tells the story, a particular group of people there, the Pharisees, and who are the Pharisees? They're the religious right, they're the good, moral, upstanding people. So let's ask it again, who are these people today? I mean, at the outset of this morning, when you saw that this is a passage we are going to be discussing, did you assume, I already know what this is about, if so, this might be you. Let me push this a little harder though. In upstate New York, sections of upstate New York are historically called the burnt over district. And the reason they're called that is because from 1800 to 1850, a particular form of fire and brimstone preaching inundated that area, and even though it's been almost 200 years, people from that area still really aren't interested in hearing anything about Jesus. That area has been burnt over. There's no fuel left for the fires of Jesus.
Well, if that's the burnt over district, sometimes I wonder, I grew up in the south, but sometimes I wonder if the south isn't the walked over district. We grew up hearing this stuff. I can't tell you how many conversations have said, of course, of course I know Jesus. I mean, it's insulting us for you to imply that I don't know him. I mean, everybody's heard about him, everybody's heard about him since they were little. Of course, we know who he is. Well, how's that working for you as Tim Keller put it in the south? Even the prostitutes have walked an aisle at some point in their lives. Does it matter? So let's test it. Let me ask you some questions just to reflect upon for yourself. Have you ever been ambushed by the beauty of who Jesus is? I'm not talking intellectually. I'm saying, have you experienced the personal power of Christ changing you? Is your life changing because of him? I mean, if you're answering, if you hear this and you think, preach your out here, you'll try harder. You're missing the point entirely because we think we've already heard, we can't hear. That's the walked over district. The rocky soil. You know, the soil is not deep enough for the seed to get in there. It's too shallow. That's the problem. But that's not the thing that really scares me about this soil. The thing that scares me is what accompanies it. I mean, what's the sign that accompanies it? Joy, immediate joy. Well, isn't that the sign of true faith, Ross? I mean, isn't that the sign of a real relationship with Jesus? Yes. Yes, it is. So, how do you know the difference? One night, Martin Lloyd Jones was preaching and he noticed a man in the congregation who was particularly moved by the sermon and he went to the back door and as the man was coming out, he came up to him and he was starting to say something and somebody ran up and interrupted them and he didn't get a chance to speak to him, the man went on out. Now, the next day Lloyd Jones is walking down the street and he just so happens to run into this man and the man says, preacher, man, you really had me. You really had me the other night, but you missed your chance. He said, what do you mean, the man said, well, you know, I was curious to hear you. So, I came out the other night and let me tell you, you're pretty good. I mean, you really had me going. If you had made an invitation to come to Jesus, I mean, I would have come forward. Even at the door last night, if you had just said, hey, let's go sit over here. Let's go sit, come sit and talk with me. I probably would have prayed some kind of prayer with you, but you didn't. Lloyd Jones said, you know, that really doesn't matter. We're here now together. This is a matter of the utmost importance. I got time. Let's go talk. He said, no, I don't think you heard me. I said, that was yesterday. I mean, this morning I woke up and I realized, you know, I was just really upset about some things yesterday. And now I'm feeling, I'm feeling a lot better about myself. But the fact is, if you had done something yesterday, you would have had me. But you missed your chance. I hope that teaches you a lesson, preacher. And Martin Lloyd Jones leaned up to him and said, dear friend, I don't know what happened to you last night. But if it didn't last 24 hours, that is not the work of the spirit of the living God. Now, if you'd like to come to talk with me now, I'd be happy to. But I didn't miss anything last night. The Holy Spirit does not bring mere emotionalism. Emotions come and go. Some people who came into the faith in a really high emotional moment, sometimes when those emotions are gone, they think, well, they wonder. I mean, sure, if you come to Christ, there should be emotions. We're not robots. But to let your faith rely on emotions is to misunderstand. I mean, this is the reason that some people say, well, we fell in love. But the emotions gone is the love gone. Biblically love is not simply an emotion. It's about commitment and commitment transcends emotion. Commitment. Let me ask it this way. How does your relationship with Christ do? How does your relationship with Christ do when having that relationship makes your life more difficult, harder? At our old church in New Jersey, there were a lot of single women who attended the church. But especially in those parts, there just weren't that many single, godly men around. So it was interesting to watch these young ladies wrestle with trusting God. Sure, I'm excited about Jesus. But what if that means I remain single for the rest of my life? And some of them wandered away. Happens to your soil when the heat comes on. When the sun comes out to make you softer or harder. It's like butter or mud. See, because the same sun that softens butter turns mud into bricks. Does the testing of your faith make you softer or harder? Because that's going to decide whether or not it lasts. That's the rocks, the thorns. Third soil is full of thorns. Oh, May 9, 1980. My fifth birthday just so happens. Don't do the math. On May 9, 1980, Richard Hornbuckle was driving to work in the middle of a storm. He had three of his co-workers carpooling with him, going his way into Tampa. And because they were there in the seat with him because he was cautious as a driver, when the rain really started to get nasty, he slowed down. A few cars and a bus sped past him on this ill-fated, sunshine, skyway bridge. See, in the middle of this storm, there was a freighter out in the channel and visibility was so low, the captain lost sight of where he's supposed to be. And the freighter struck one of the structures of the bridge. A section almost a quarter of a mile long fell into the bay below 150 feet down. Now, during the morning rush hour, with limited visibility, 32 people died. But Richard, going slower, saw that there was no bridge in front of him slammed on his brakes, slid over and down the incline that led to the ledge where the bridge had broken off, and skidded, stopping with his left front tire just 14 inches from the edge. Immediately, all four doors opened up, the men jumped out, they put their fingers in the greats of the bridge, and start to crawl up the incline. About halfway up, one of them turns and looks back because Richard has turned around and is going back down toward his car. In any moment, another vehicle could come and careening over the top of that incline and game over. But he watches, Richard slides his way back down, gets right behind his car, pulls out his keys, opens his trunk, and he grabs his golf clubs. Now, before some of you men start high-fiving one another and saying, now that's a man with his priorities. Think seriously about what just happened there. Think about what he did. He risked his life for what? Is that really worth your life? That's what's going on with this third soil. The problem is priorities. You see, this soil lets the seed right in, but it also lets the thorns in. I mean, the seed is received, but only to the same depth as the thorns. Do you see what Jesus is saying here? He's saying, this soil welcomes the seed of life in, but they're already other plants there, competing for the same space. The only problem with this soil is the deadly problem of warning to worship both Christ and these other things. People say, just give me a little religion. Just, I just want a little bit of Jesus. Well, George McDonald has a famous quote, CS Lewis loved it so much he put it on the title page of the great divorce. George McDonald said, there is no heaven with a little of hell in it. There's no plan to retain this or that of the devil just a little bit in our hearts and our pockets. Out Satan must go every hair and feather. So what are we talking about? Well, look at what Jesus says. The worries of this life and the deceitfulness of riches. What's the deceit of riches? I mean, to be deceived is to be tricked. To be tricked into believing promises that can't be delivered upon. Your Polynesian islanders have a well-known trick for capturing monkeys. They make this long, thin-necked bottle. They tie it to a tree, then they drop a little morsel of food down in it that a monkey's going to want. And then they just leave. The monkey comes along eventually, finds the jar, sees the morsel, reaches in his little paw, grabs hold of the morsel. But he can't get his hand back out. Well, nobody's around. Could just let go, walk on about his business. But the monkey can't let it go. He clings to that little morsel. Even when one of the islanders shows up with a big stick in his hand, clinging will cost him his life. When Jesus says the deceitfulness of riches, he's not just talking to the rich. It's just as much of a problem for the riches it is for the poor. For one group, it's what we've already got. For the other group, it's what we wish we'd got. What are we clinging to? You can't worship both these things and Christ. It will choke the life out of you. The bottom line is this, is there room for the gospel in your life? Is it the most important thing or are you sewing something else? Because the deepest roots in your life will show up. Let's just talk about Russ for a minute. If you know me well, anybody who knows me well here knows that I went to Wake Forest. Why? Because if you're around me very much, it's going to come spilling out of my big mouth. I mean, it really shouldn't surprise us that in five and a half years, I've had the pleasure of pointing four of my students to my alma mater. You know, but those of you who push on me and some of you do frequently know that Wake, especially when they have a big game like they do today against Duke, when they lose, it actually affects my demeanor. It changes how my day goes. Why? Because the roots run too deep. I care about it too much. You know, but that's letting me off too easy. That's not a really big deal. Let's get more personal. For various reasons, it is incredibly important to me that people are pleased with me that I get people's approval. So much so that if I don't get their approval, I'm very tempted to put them on the bad list. You know the bad list? That's the list of people where you say, well, maybe it wouldn't be so bad if a piano fell on them. I mean, everybody's got that list, right? I hope not. I mean, this is what I see. I look at myself and I say, how did I get here? How did I get here? That I, that I sowed so much anger and bitterness in my own life. Hebrews 12 says, do not let any root of bitterness grow up among you. A root of bitterness. Think about that. A root starts as a seed and it grows. These thorns didn't just appear out of nowhere. There was a seed. I mean, another parable later in the chapter, let you know there's an enemy sower out there. These things have grown up. They've been nurtured by the very soil that was meant to produce life. They've been taking the nutrients that are energy to give life and they're using it as a destructive power. How does that happen? Let me say it this way, especially for those of you struggle with the same thing. Nurturing a root of bitterness takes daily affirmation. Daily. What does that look like? Well, these people don't realize how good I am. I mean, what are they thinking? Isn't it obvious how talented I am? I mean, anybody with any sense can see that I'm this talented. They must be evil people. They are. They're bad people. Now being kind of facetious, but that's not all that far from the truth. It's accurate. This kind of self-talk is a distortion of what sewing was meant to be. The problem here is that instead of preaching the truth into my life on a daily basis, instead of reminding myself of how evil I am and yet how great what he did for me was, instead of inviting in the kind of truth that gives life and kills off seeds of bitterness, I have a very different kind of sermon that I'm preaching. Very different substance, daily, nurtured, bitterness, over a period of time. That's the only way it can grow up like that. How in the world could I still need approval after the most important eye in the universe looks at me, loves me, treasures me, approves of me? That's the problem. I want Jesus and I want the world's respect. As a matter of fact, I want Jesus to get me the world's respect. You see how that works? Using God's kingdom to further my own kingdom. Jesus said, no one can serve two masters. You'll love one and hate the other. The divided heart, clings. That's the thorny soil. So what should we look like? We're going to ask ourselves, what should we look like? Jesus makes it clear it's fertile soil, fruitful soil. And clearly, just a quick overview of what he said. He wants us to receive the seed quickly before the bird swoop in. He wants us to receive the seed deeply so the scorching heat won't kill us off. He wants us to receive him exclusively with no other seeds. God wants soft, pliable hearts that yield quickly and only to him. So how do you know if that's you? Jesus says fruit and not just simply fruit. A supernatural bounty, 160, 30 times. When you understand modern mechanized farming doesn't get this kind of return. This is supernatural. It's as if God comes and says, Russ, where's your fruit? How are you doing with that? How are you doing multiplying my seed? I don't know about you, but I kind of look back sometimes and I think, well, 160, 30. And God, how low can I go? You know, 25, 15, 10, 5? One, as if he says, Russ, this is limbo. It's not how low can you go. You're missing the point. The power of the seed is only released through death. You notice your affirmation of faith? Hopefully the thing that might have been a little bit weird to read this morning as we did it. It's coming to a little more light. John 12, 24, Jesus says, if a seed drops to the ground and doesn't die, it remains alone. But if it dies, look out. Well, if you're assessing yourself this morning, you're saying, God, I just don't know. I don't know. I can't soften me. I've been trying for years. I can't get rid of these rocks. I can't get rid of these thorns. I don't know what to do. Help me. God says, of course, I want you to hear this passage. God is saying, do you see I am the sower. I am the gardener. That's my work. That's my work. You can't change what soil you are. I do that. And until you understand that I walked your hardened path with wood strapped to my back. Until you understand that I pulled out your thorns and set them on my brow. Until you understand that I took your rock. And they buried me under it. I died to make you fruitful. Joshua Bell said the scariest thing for him. It was the hardest time in his life in that DC subway because it was for the first time in his life that he knew I got to earn their love. I got to earn it. These people don't know me. Because he said every other time I step out to perform, they've already paid for the ticket. The people have already said by their presence, we love you. And it frees me just a play or pleasure. Until you realize that Jesus has already shown his love to you, you won't be ready to love others. Until you see something, a cause worth more than your own life. You won't be ready to die. Enjoy. And that's the great hope of a parable. That it comes back around, smacks us in the face. And we say, wait a minute, wait a minute. He's talking about me. He's talking about me. I got to go to him. And that's what the disciples did. He who hears, he who has ears here. Let's pray. Lord, we are blind. And we say it every week. And we don't really believe it. Give us sight so we'll know we were once blind. And now we've been set free. Lord, we are deaf. And we don't hear your words. Open our ears. Show us your love, Lord. You came and died to set your power to loose on this planet. Set it loose in us that we would want to go and die to show others your love and your power. And your name we pray. Amen. We stand for the benediction. Made a grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit drive the power of His love deep into our hearts. And send us out from here at peace and joy with Him, now and forevermore. Go and peace, amen.