What Soil are you?| Austin K

This message was preached  by Austin Kudalkar at Word of Grace Church on June 12th, 2016. To listen/download the audio please click here. To listen to the Sunday's worship and prophetic contributions please click here

When we use the word of God, the enemy gets confused. Today I want share about the condition of the heart of man.

Jesus heard a lot of insults. But he is concerned about the kingdom of God.

In Mark 4- Jesus goes to the seaside and a crowd followed him. He stepped into a boat and preached this sermon. He probably saw a farm nearby. He starts speaking about the different soils that the seeds fell on.

When the disciples go to ask him for the meaning of this parable, Jesus says do you not understand this parable? This soil is like the heart of man. The seed is the word of God.

1.      Jesus says, the first kind of soil- the seed which fell on the pathway- they hear the word and satan quickly comes and takes it away from their heart. When you share the gospel with someone, some people don’t show any interest in it. That is satan taking it away from them. Satan is not taking the fruit but the seed.   

2.      On the rocky soil, they receive the seed, the word with joyful hearts. They say amen to everything! They are excited! But when persecution comes, they fall away immediately. Why? They don’t have strong foundations. They are superficial. When they have a bad situation, they become angry, their passion for God is gone. The things of God that used to interest them don’t interest them anymore.

3.      The other kind of soil that Jesus talks about is the thorny soil. They are worried about the cares of the world. Their priorities are different and they don’t seek God first in their lives. These are people who’s identity is in their talents or status. Our identity comes from God alone.

4.      Then you see the good soil- Jesus says that they are the ones who hear the word of God, accept it and bear much fruit- 30, 60 and a 100 times!

We need to have this kind of heart. The person who accepts and obey the word of God- Hebrews 10:24-25- “do not neglect meeting together”. These are people who give importance to the body of Christ. The kingdom of God is what matters and the rest falls in place. When we do this we will bear much fruit. The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Do we have these in our lives?

Hear the word of God and accept it, you won’t allow Satan to come and take away that word. The psalmist says, I have hidden your word in my heart so that I may not sin against you.

Jesus went through rejections in his life, Pharisees, Sadducees, even his own family made fun of him. We need to press on. When we seek the kingdom of God- we reach out to the lost and share the gospel boldy. We go through rejection, but we press on like Jesus. Jesus did good on the Sabbath. He healed the sick and cast out demons. He has given us this authority to do good.

Q. Where is our heart today?

My heart is all over the place. There are so many distractions. But we have a chance to change the condition of our heart. Proverbs 15:11- “Death and Destruction lie open before the Lord—how much more do human hearts!”. Our hearts are open before God. We have an opportunity to come before God to set our hearts right. 

 Word of Grace is an Evangelical (Born Again),  Spirit filled (Charismatic), Reformed, English speaking church in Pune that upholds the Bible as God's inspired Word for life. We are a church community that have people from every part of India and parts of the world. We are here to put the Great Command and the Great Commission into practice by equipping and releasing every member into works of service. To know more about us please log onto www.wordofgracechurch.org.