Parables // The Parable of the Soil

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Parables // The Parable of the Soil

August 4, 2024 • Matthew 13:22, Matthew 13:23, Matthew 13:1–13, Matthew 13:19, Matthew 13:20–21

Parables // The Parable of the Soil

Matthew 13:1-13 (NLT)

“Later that same day Jesus left the house and sat beside the lake. A large crowd soon gathered around him, so he got into a boat. Then he sat there and taught as the people stood on the shore. He told many stories in the form of parables, such as this one:

“Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock. The seeds sprouted quickly because the soil was shallow. But the plants soon wilted under the hot sun, and since they didn’t have deep roots, they died. Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted! Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Why did Jesus teach in Parables?

Matthew 13:10-13 (NLT)

“His disciples came and asked him, “Why do you use parables when you talk to the people?”

“He replied, “You are permitted to understand the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven, but others are not. To those who listen to my teaching, more understanding will be given, and they will have an abundance of knowledge. But for those who are not listening, even what little understanding they have will be taken away from them. That is why I use these parables:

What does all this mean?

Matthew 13:18-23 (NLT)

“Now listen to the explanation of the parable about the farmer planting seeds:

What is the condition of the soil of your heart?

1. Is your heart hard?

Matthew 13:19 (NLT)

“The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message about the Kingdom and don’t understand it. Then the evil one comes and snatches away the seed that was planted in their hearts.”

2. Is your heart shallow?

Matthew 13:20-21 (NLT)

“The seed on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately receive it with joy. But since they don’t have deep roots, they don’t last long. They fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God’s word.”

3. Is your heart strangled?

Matthew 13:22 (NLT)

“The seed that fell among the thorns represents those who hear God’s word, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth, so no fruit is produced.”

4. Is your heart soft?

Matthew 13:23 (NLT)

“The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted!”

Parables // The Parable of the Elder Brother

September 22, 2024 • Luke 15:25–32, Matthew 20:8–15

Parables // The Parable of the Elder Brother Luke 15:25-32 (NIV) ““Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he called one of the servants and asked him what was going on. ‘Your brother has come,’ he replied, ‘and your father has killed the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’ “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’ “ ‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”” Symptoms of “the elder brother syndrome” 1. Projects judgment towards others and God. 2. Inflated view of their own righteousness. 3. Misunderstanding of God’s grace. Matthew 20:8-15 (The Message) “’Call the workers and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first. Those hired at five o’clock came up and were each given a dollar.’ When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, ‘These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.’ [sound like the older brother?] He replied to the one speaking for the rest, ‘Friend, I haven’t been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn’t we? So take it and go. I decided to give to the ones who came last the same as you. Can’t I do what I want with my money? Are you going to get stingy because I am so generous?’” The loving father’s message to the elder brother. 1. It’s not your works I cherish, it’s you. 2. All I have is yours. 3. I want you to enjoy my party.

Parables // Lost & Found

September 15, 2024 • Luke 15, Luke 19:10

Parables // Lost & Found Lost & Found Luke 15 The Lost Sheep The Lost Coin The Lost Son Two Kingdom attitudes to embrace. 1. Compassion 2. "For the Son of Man [Jesus] has come to save that which was lost." LUKE 19:10 (NKJV) Celebration "The Lost Sons” God seeks sinners and wants them to come to Him. God and all of heaven rejoice when a sinner turns to God. Do you need to up your practice of Compassion and Celebration?

Parables // Jesus Wants To Do A New Thing In Your Life

September 8, 2024 • Isaiah 61:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Hebrews 3:7–9, Luke 5:27–39, Psalm 34:8

Parables // Jesus Wants To Do A New Thing In Your Life Luke 5:27-39 (NIV) “Jesus went out and saw a tax collector by the name of Levi sitting at his tax booth. ‘Follow me,’ Jesus said to him, and Levi got up, left everything and followed him. Then Levi held a great banquet for Jesus at his house, and a large crowd of tax collectors and others were eating with them. But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, ‘Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?’ Jesus answered them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.’ They said to him, ‘John’s disciples often fast and pray, and so do the disciples of the Pharisees, but yours go on eating and drinking.’ Jesus answered, ‘Can you make the friends of the bridegroom fast while he is with them? But the time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them; in those days they will fast.’ He told them this parable: ‘No one tears a piece out of a new garment to patch an old one. Otherwise, they will have torn the new garment, and the patch from the new will not match the old. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the new wine will burst the skins; the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins. And no one after drinking old wine wants the new, for they say, ‘The old is better.’” 1. Jesus came to give you a spirit of joy not burdensome sorrow. Psalm 34:8 (NIV) “Taste and see that the Lord is good;” Isaiah 61:3 (NIV) “to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” 2. Jesus came to do something brand new in your life. 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV) “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” 3. Resisting what Jesus is doing will cause your life to get messy. Hebrews 3:7-9 (NIV) “So, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.’”