Luke chapter eight, beginning in verse four, hear the word of God. And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable, a sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot. And the birds of the air devoured it. And some fell on the rock, and as it grew, it withered away because it had no moisture. And some fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew with it and choked it.

And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold. As he said these things, he called out, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant, he said to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God. But for others, they are imperables, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Now, the parable is this.

The seed is the word of God. The ones along the path are those who have heard. And then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart so that they may not believe and be saved. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they heard the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root.

They believe for a while, and in the time of testing, fall away. And as for those who fell among the thorns, they are those who hear. But as they go on their way, they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. As for that, in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart and bear fruit with patience. That's the word of the Lord.

You may be seated. Let's pray together. Our God in heaven, we come to this word appropriately at the beginning of a new year, appropriate a time where we take stock and we renew vows and commitments. And here at solely church, Lord, we desire for 2024 to be a year in which we look out from ourselves, a year in which we look away and look out onto the world. And as we do that with an outward look, Lord, that we sow the word this year, that we sow the word outside the confines of worship, outside the confines of the church gathered, that this very parable, Lord, would be a parable for our church for the year.

That all of us would be given a heart to turn to those in the circumstances of our lives and to sow the seed of the word indiscriminately and sparingly and faithfully and unashamedly. So I pray that we would draw encouragement and help and guidance today from you in this passage for the very mission of the church. Give us understanding as to the mystery of the kingdom that Jesus is talking about here. May we be those who have understanding. May we be those who are faithful to the mission that you called us to.

We pray all this in Jesus name and amen. In order for us to really get the lay of the land in terms of this parable, we need to back up to Luke chapter two. And so back up in your bibles to Luke chapter two. There is a prophecy that comes from Simeon when Jesus was being presented at the temple. That really sets the stage for the next thousand or 2000 or 3000 or 4000 years of church history.

Certainly set the stage for the time of the life of Christ, certainly set the stage for the book of acts, and certainly continues to set the stage for the days in which we are living in what our expectations can be because of the incarnation of Jesus Christ. Simeon said this in Luke chapter two, verses 34 and 35. He said this, and Simeon blessed them and said to Mary, his mother, behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel. And for a sign that is opposed and a sword shall pierce through your own soul also, so that thoughts from many hearers may be revealed. Jesus has come into the world.

And his presence in the world and his life in the world and his preaching in the world and his kingdom in the world will mean the rising up of some and the falling down of others. But it will mean opposition. It will mean a division in humanity. And as we move our way through the gospel of Luke, we have already seen the falling and opposition of some. We have seen Herod already in his opposition to Jesus and the kingdom of God.

We have seen the hometown of Jesus, reject him as he reads the scriptures in the synagogue and says, today this is fulfilled in your hearing. And they seek to kill one of their own. And then we see it among the Pharisees already scheming and plotting behind the scenes. You see, Jesus has come and his kingdom is being preached, and it is creating opposition, and it is creating the fall of those who will not submit to and who will not follow Jesus. On the other hand, the presence of Jesus and the preaching of the kingdom is bringing about the rising of many as well.

We see the rising of the paralytic. Get up. Take your bed and go home. Your sins are forgiven you. We see the gentile centurion.

We see Levi, the tax collector. We see the unnamed, scandalous woman. We see the eleven who are going to bear mature fruits. And Judas will be one of these other soils, as we will see. And then we see the women that Pastor Jeremy preached on in the last sermon, Joanna and Mary and others who were followers of Jesus.

We are already witnessing in the ministry of Jesus, the fall of some in opposition and the rising of some to salvation. You see, this is the way the kingdom moves throughout history. Some rebel against it and oppose it, and some get in on it and become a part of it. And as we come to the parable, go back to Luke chapter eight. As we come to the parable in verse four, we need to understand that Jesus is preparing his disciples for a few things.

Number one, Jesus is preparing his discipleship that not all church growth is true growth. Just because things are always growing and exploding does not necessarily mean that the soils are good and that these things are bearing fruit in the way that we think. Look at verse four. Says when a great crowd was gathering, and people from town after town came to him, like this thing's like, moving, like this is the ministry you want to be a part of. Twice in verse four, it says, the great crowd was gathering, and people from town to town were flocking to Jesus.

And so to the disciples, it looks like we're on the cusp of something great. We're on the cusp of a move forward. But this is not all going to stick the way the disciples think it's going to stick. And so Jesus needs to give them an explanation that just because of this explosiveness, there's a fickleness here, this is not always going to be the way that it's going to be. But Jesus is also preparing them for a mission he's about to send them out on.

This parable is going to help them understand not only what's happening around him right now, the rising of some and the falling of some, the opposition of some, and the submission and getting in on the kingdom of some. But they themselves are about to be sent out, and they need to understand what they're going to face as Jesus sends them out. That they're going to face this opposition, they're going to face the persecution, they're going to face rejection. Not everyone is going to receive the word of the kingdom, but some will. And when they do, they need to understand the miracle that it is.

And so, in chapter nine and verse one, after he had given them this parable, it says, and he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God. And he sent them out recognizing that not everyone was going to listen to them, not everyone was going to hear them, not everyone was going to say yes to their preaching. Some will and some won't. To some, it'll just roll off. To others, it will create opposition.

Others will get in on it. And how are they to understand that? And how are we to understand that? And so, listen, church, even though Jesus is speaking into a specific historical situation at this time, that is especially hinging on some judgment coming in ad 70, as we're going to look at in a moment, the fact of the matter is that this plays itself out all throughout the book of acts. We remember that Luke and acts go together, right?

Part one is Luke. Part two is the book of acts. They go together. It's one movie, right? With an intermission.

Dave, you got movies on my mind these days. So it's got an intermission in the middle. And Luke is part acts, is part two of that. And what happens in the book of acts? Well, the same thing, right?

The apostles preach, they sow the word. And what happens? Some fall, some oppose, and some get in on the kingdom. The whole book of acts is an unfolding of the parable, of the soils, and so is the rest of church history, and so are the days in which we are living in today. And I think, church, I want to just hear you.

We sometimes forget this parable, and we get discouraged because we want to know, if the kingdom of God is arriving, why is it not grabbing everybody? Right? If the kingdom of God is arriving, why is it not grabbing everybody? And then even take a step back from that, you ask yourself the question, why is it grabbing who it's grabbing? Like, I wouldn't have expected that one to get in, and I wouldn't expected that one to come in.

And why is it not grabbing those I thought it should be grabbing? All of our expectations are turned around by the parable of the soils and by the way that it manifests itself in history and in our own very lives. But what I want you to understand, and what Jesus wants his disciples to understand, is that when the church is appropriately outward looking, when we receive the commission at the end of the service to go out from this place today, it is not the responsibility of the sower to close the deal. Many of you live under a false guilt, that you have a responsibility to close the deal when it comes to sowing the word, and that you're a failure if you share the gospel of the kingdom. With people, and they don't come to know the Lord Jesus Christ.

You feel like, well, I'm just a failure. And if you do it a few times, you're like, well, everybody is rejecting the message, so it must be me. Well, the parable of the soils is here to tell you that it's not you, okay? You don't know the condition of the soil that you're sowing the word in. And your responsibility is not to close the deal.

Jesus will close the deal. Your responsibility is simply to indiscriminately sow the word. That's it. Indiscriminately. Not concerned about the condition of the soil.

Because guess what? You don't know the condition of the soil. God has not revealed that to you. He's not telling you this is hard ground. He's not telling you that this one's only going to grow for a little while and then bail because of trial and temptation.

That's not what he tells the disciples here. And that's not what he's telling us. He's telling us that we are simply to sow the word. But in addition to telling us that, that not all who hear are going to jump on board, not all who begin are going to remain, and not all who stay for a long while are going to stay the long haul. And I know that hurts us because we love those many times who we share the word of God with, and they reject it.

Or we get excited about the fact that someone received the word with great joy. And then a month later, we don't know where they are. Or that we share the word of God with something. We sow the word, and that person seems to get on with the kingdom. And they last like a Judas for three and a half years.

And it looks like he's one of the twelve. And then all of a sudden, in the most backstabbing of ways, we find that all along was never going to last. That hurts. It is painful. It is hard.

But Jesus tells us this parable so that we will be ready. That we will be ready for these things to actually happen when we sow the word. But we'll also be ready for the miracles. We'll also be ready for when the kingdom power takes root in someone's life, and it produces a hundredfold. And we are in awe of what Jesus is doing.

And so that's why he gives the parable of the sower. And he begins this way. Look at verses four through eight again. This is just a normal, ordinary agricultural parable. That would have been common in this culture with no apparent meaning.

So if you read this, there's no apparent meaning to what Jesus is saying or why he's saying this on the surface, okay? And so he says, here's a parable. A sower goes out to sow. He sows on four different kinds of soil. There's reaction in various ways.

One, the birds come and take away because it's just hard ground. The other, there's a limestone underneath the dust. It takes, root hits the limestone, no moisture, it dies. The next one grows along with the thorns, and the thorns eventually choke it out. Then the last one falls on good soil.

And it's amazing because it yields far beyond what any soil should yield, a hundredfold for the seeds. Okay? So Jesus tells this parable, which would have been a common, ordinary way of doing agriculture in the day in which Jesus himself lives, in the way in which they live. But Jesus doesn't attach any meaning to it. He just tells the parable, okay?

That's all he does. He doesn't say anything that it means. He just tells them the parable. And then he does this. This is what is different.

Jesus says this at the end of verse eight, after he tells a parable with no explanation, he tells a parable that they all understand the agricultural part of it. They don't understand the spiritual part of it because he hasn't said anything yet. Jesus yells. Jesus actually screams out. The greek is very clear.

He's not being quiet. Okay? So all of a sudden, at the end of this parable, with no explanation, Jesus, he called out. He cried out, he who has ears to hear, let him.

Okay? They don't know why. They don't know the significance of what jesus is saying. So if you look at verse nine, the disciples say, can you tell us what this means? If this is so important that he who has ears to hear should hear, and that, Jesus, you should raise your voice.

And I come from a home where we don't raise our voices. Not a deutsche home, of course, but some of your homes are that way, right? You're really getting loud here, Jesus, about hearing this. What is so important about this? And then jesus gives us verse ten.

And church, verse ten is extremely important for us to understand and for you to understand, because this is the theological reason for the parable, okay? Everything that Jesus says after this comes out of a proper understanding of verse ten. So look at it with me. He said to you, it has been given to know. And the ESV doesn't do the best job here.

The secrets of the kingdom. It's like we've got this secret crypt and we, no, it's mystery, okay? It's mystery to you. It has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God. But for others, they are imparables.

So that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. Jesus himself really reiterates. Simeon, here I have come, the king has come, the kingdom is coming, and it will be for the falling and rising of many in Israel. And now pretty much Jesus says the same thing now himself. The kingdom is coming.

And some, it will be granted to them to get in on it, and others, the kingdom will mean judgment for them. But listen, it means something for all. It doesn't leave anybody out. It's either blessing and engrafting and salvation or it's judgment, okay? This is what's important.

And you'll notice the way this is phrased is that Jesus phrases this to those who are brought into the mysteries of the kingdom of God. By the way, including, it includes what this parable means. Part of the mystery is understanding this parable. Part of the mystery is being made a part of and a participant in the kingdom of God. Part of that mystery is being swept up and becoming like the paralytic and becoming like the centurion and becoming like the eleven, becoming a part of that which has already been happening.

Jesus, you'll notice, uses a divine passive, a divine passive. He does not say, you woke up one day and you made the choice to get in on the secrets of the kingdom. We don't have that ability because apart from the kingdom, we're in another kingdom. That's a kingdom of darkness. And we don't just move from darkness to light on our own.

And he uses a divine passenger because God must do something to us, to you, it has been granted. This did not come from you. Your involvement in the mysteries of the kingdom, your participation in the kingdom, your grafting into the kingdom, the salvation that comes with the kingdom, it has been granted to you. And the assumption here in the divine passive is that it's been granted to you from above. It's been granted to you from heaven.

So there are those who will come into the kingdom, who will come into the mysteries of the kingdom, who will come to participate in the kingdom. And when they do, it will be because of God's grace and kindness alone, with nothing of themselves, it will have been granted to them. But then there's another side, and the other side is the judgment part of the kingdom come into the world and Jesus says in verse ten, but for the others, they are imparables. Now, this is not the only reason for parables, but this is the reason for this parable. Okay?

So that, which is the purpose clause, so that seeing they may not see and hearing they may not understand. In other words, judgment. You see, this is a quotation. Jesus is borrowing from Isaiah, chapter six. And if you remember Isaiah, chapter six is one of the most powerful chapters in all of the Bible.

In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw the Lord. Isaiah said, and when I saw the Lord, I saw the angels and the holy, holy, holy. And immediately I was confronted. Isaiah says, with my sinfulness, woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, right? I am Isaiah, the preacher.

And I am Isaiah, the dirty mouth man. Right? Isn't it normally true that our gifts are also our problems? Right? The things we're good at are the things we get in trouble with.

My mouth has been used for many a good throughout my entire life. And my mouth got me put on restriction for an entire summer between my junior and senior years because I mouthed my mom. All right? So I'm just telling you, my mouth has been simultaneously used for good and evil. Its entire.

I get. I get what Isaiah is saying here, all right? And then what happens? What does the scriptures tell us? One of those angels flew over to the altar.

I want you to watch this. And with a tongue, he took a coal. Do you get that? With a tongue. He's going to put that on Isaiah's lips, but it's too hot for him to handle.

So he uses a tongue. I want you to get the power of that, right? If this was like all fake, the angel would go over and just grab it with his wing and wing it over to his mouth. But it's too hot for him to handle. But it's not too hot for Isaiah's lips.

So God, that tongue, is taken over and burns the very lips of Isaiah. And God deals with the sin of Isaiah's mouth. And then God says to Isaiah, who will go for us? Who will go and take the word to this people? And Isaiah, after seeing the vision of the Lord, after acknowledging his sin, after having his sin forgiven, are you feeling the liturgy here?

Are you feeling our liturgy here on a Sunday morning? All right, at the end he said, who will go? Who will be commissioned? Isaiah says, I will go, right? And then God says this great.

No one's going to listen to you. Here's what's going to happen. I'm going to send you to preach to the people of God and no one is going to hear you with faith. They're all going to reject your mess. The word you bring, how's that for a job title?

Come work for us and be unsuccessful, right? That's what God told Isaiah. You will be totally unsuccessful in the proclamation of the word. Listen, not because the word will be unsuccessful, but because the word you've been called to bring is a word of judgment. Right?

Now, you've been called to bring a word of judgment. And so what Jesus is saying here, and this is important for us to understand, is that the understanding of the parable of the soils is that God's word never returns void. It either brings salvation or it brings judgment, but never neutrality, never nothing. And Jesus is saying that the same parable that the disciples are going to understand are the parables that the people are not going to understand, because there's a division in humanity. And when the word goes out, it either brings salvation or it brings condemnation, it brings kingdom or it brings anti kingdom, you see?

But the word never returns void. And so we have been given as a church along with the kingdom of God, along with Isaiah, along with the disciples and the apostles, we have been given a call to sow the word, to sow the word, recognizing that if that word is accepted, it is because it has been granted to that person to receive that word. But if that word is rejected, not rejecting you, don't be thin skinned about it has nothing to do with you. They are rejecting the king. And in rejecting the king, it's an act of judgment coming upon them as they reject the king.

Judgment's coming on them, you see, seeing they do not see, hearing they do not understand. So God's word will never return void when you sow it, because it's always a word of salvation and judgment simultaneously. You see, it's always going to accomplish the reason why God is sending it out. And for some it might be judgment, for others it may be salvation. But those are unfolded into God's eternal decrees, and they're not for us to worry about.

What is for us to worry about is the stewardship of the sowing of the word of God and leave, whether or not it's a word of judgment or salvation to God himself. You see? And so this is what it is that Jesus wanted his disciples to understand. And there's a little bit of a veiled issue here regarding judgment that is particularly focused here on the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. On the Jews who were rejecting Jesus.

There's a play on words here. If you look at verse five, it says, and the sower went out to sow his seed, and he sowed, and some fell along the path, and it was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. Those exact words, trampled underfoot. In other words, here is a soil that is receiving the word of God, but it's unto judgment. Turn forward to Luke chapter 21.

And in Luke, chapter 21, this is exactly what Jesus says is going to happen to an apostate Israel. And Jerusalem, as the word of God, has come against them, and they have rejected it, just like Assyria was going to come against Israel in the days of Isaiah. So the roman empire is going to come against Israel in these days. And the judgment that they were facing was actually very imminent. Luke 21 and verse 24, Jesus is speaking about the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

He says, they will fall by the edge of the sword that's of the Romans, and be led captive among all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled. And so this finds an immediate fulfillment in this destruction, but obviously it finds a greater fulfillment as we move forward into historic judgments, into the lives of people that we don't often talk about, ultimately leading to the final judgment on Judgment Day. And so, turn with me and look back. We'll go through the parable a little bit and bring this to a close.

Verse eleven. Jesus tells us what the parable is. He gives his disciples the mystery of the kingdom, the mystery of the parable. He says this. Now, the parable is this.

The seed is the word of God. It's just that simple. The seed is the word of God, and we sow the word of God. And when we sow the word of God, that word is going to land on different kinds of soils, as we do. But as it lands on different kinds of soils, we need to remember that it's either bringing salvation or judgment to those soils.

And it doesn't mean that we're going to be able to tell what that is right away, either.

We love in our day to make these snap rushes to judgment. Well, that must have fallen on that soil. Listen, let me just tell you right now, there's not one of you in this room, including myself, that when it comes to this parable, is a soil expert, because you didn't think the word of God was responded to in the way that you wanted to be responded to. Then it must be dot, dot, dot.

These are not the droids you're looking for, all right? Wash yourself of that nonsense. All right? Clear that out of your mind. You don't know and I don't know.

We just know that these soils exist, and Jesus knows the soils. He's not asking us to read the soils. He's asking us to sow the word, and the soils will manifest themselves. It's just that, okay? And so, one, the soil goes out, it hits hard ground, the devil comes and plucks it away.

That's devil opposition. The devil's opposed to the kingdom. Of course he's going to get in on it. It's a spiritual battle when you sow the word, and some are going to hear it, and they're just going to slough it off. And guess what?

That's part of being a sower. Jesus is telling you, the disciples, just so they won't get discouraged, so they'll understand this is part of what it means to be his kingdom, is to sow the word. And some people, it's just going to roll away. It's going to roll off, going to be done with it. Next, there will be people who believe for a time.

Okay? Verse 13. And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, they receive it with joy. There will be people who hear what you say, and they will respond, and with some type of conversion experience that's pretty explosive in nature, and we might be led to conclude automatically, that's a done deal. That's a done deal, but not necessarily.

Jesus tells us that those who, the ones on the rock, they receive it with joy, but they have no root. And listen this, they believe for a while, and then the crushing comes, the testing comes, the squeezing comes, and the reason they got in on it, it's no longer a reason to stay. That's what we see a lot of times with people who want to get in on this thing. They want to get on the relief of the christian faith. They want to get in on the benefit of the christian faith.

But when the cross comes home, when the cruciform character of being a Follower of Jesus Christ comes home, oh, you mean to follow Jesus? I have to take up my cross daily and follow him. You mean following Jesus doesn't mean my life is going to get better, my bank account's going to grow. I'm going to get more houses. Things are just going to go easier.

No, actually, following Jesus is probably going to mean that your life's going to be more complicated. More challenging, more difficult with more suffering. Well, that's not what I signed up for. I'm out. That's discouraging for us.

But Jesus says, it's a response. It hurts our hearts, but it's a response to the word. The other ones are a little bit more challenging in some way. If you look in verse 14, it says, as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way. So this is one who stretches a little bit further.

Okay. And there might be some of you in this room. That might think that verse 14 is talking about true converts. We had this discussion at our pastor's meeting the other night. That maybe this might be someone who just never grows very far.

I'm not willing to accept that. I think the three soils are referring to those who ultimately do not believe. And let's. Let me give you one reason why that is the case. Why I believe that's the case here in this particular situation is because in verse seven, it says, and some fell among the thorns.

And the thorns grew up with it and choked. It seems to be phoenix. Okay? And a fruit brought to maturity is not a fruit. That's ultimately fruit that could be brought to your table or sold for $25 at Whole Foods.

You throw it away, it can't be used. So I don't think this is genuine, but I think this is Judas. I think this makes it. Here's someone who's. For three and a half years, followed Jesus.

Nobody looked at him at year two and said, wondering about this cat. Wondering about the soil on this cat. No one did that until the very end when Jesus exposed it. But no one else along the way was like, I've always had my eye on that guy. That makes perfect sense to me that it was Judas.

I felt he was a little hinky all along. We don't get any of that. Okay? Judas is trucking right along with the disciples. But along the way, what does the Bible tell us?

Judas is being choked by the love of money. He had the purse. Judas is being choked by the pleasures of this world. They have one in their midst that manifests probably what looked like fruit, but ultimately never matured. It was the influence of being around Jesus, but it wasn't actually being a part of the kingdom of God.

And so there will be those who stick around for a long time. And they will track for a long time. But slowly the thorns of the pleasures and cares and mammon of this world begin. Just to keep it in a spot. And it never ultimately goes.

But then there's the amazing grace, the amazing grace of a soil that God himself prepares in verse 15. And as for the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, bear fruit with patience. And of course, the backstory to that is some fell into the good soil and grew and yielded 100 fold. We're dealing with a miraculous harvest here on a seed sown. This is something that only God can do.

Only God can do this. Only God can bring about 100 fold from a seed. Only God himself can create good soil. Only God himself can create an honest heart. Only God himself can create a good heart.

And only the holy spirit residing inside a person can bear fruit with patience. You see, but when you see it, it's a miracle. When you see it, it's wonderful. When you see it, God alone gets the glory. Amen.

So, let me close with this. Your pastors have been praying, and this year, we are hoping that our focus for 2024 is an outward focus. So this parable fits perfectly with what we are concerned about this year, that you and I and all of us will. Every Lord's day, when we receive the benediction, will understand that we're being commissioned. We're being commissioned to go out, and we're being commissioned to go out, and we're being commissioned to sow the word.

Wherever the Lord places us, we're being commissioned to go out and indiscriminately sow the word without concern for where it lands. Just that we sow it. That we take the good that we have here, that we receive on Sunday mornings together. We receive it. We turn around, we go, and we take it out, and we simply sow it indiscriminately.

And we let jesus close the deal. Let me give you a few directions here. Number one, don't expect the darkness to understand the light all the time. Okay? Don't expect that.

Don't expect everybody that you sow to to get it. This is what the parable of the soils is telling us. But it shouldn't hold us back. It didn't hold the disciples back from preaching the word. It didn't hold Jesus back from administering the word.

It didn't hold any of them back from sowing the whole book of acts. It didn't hold them back. Just because they knew the darkness was going to push back did not keep them from sowing. Secondly, let us recognize that the rejection of the word is judgment. The word does not return void.

It's either going to get its person or it's going to judge that person, but it's not going to return void. We never have to worry about God's word returning void when we sow it. Thirdly, we're going to face the same things that Jesus faced. We're going to face the same things as the apostles faced. And so we should be ready for that.

We should be prepared for that. It shouldn't be awkward for us to participate in the same responses that the church has always had when it has sowed the word. It is not for you to worry about the return. It is not for me to worry about the return, but it is for us to rejoice in the miracles. It is for us to welcome the miracles.

And you want to know what? You're one of them. You're one of those hundredfold miracles. You see, one of the encouragements of coming to church on the Lord's day is knowing that you're surrounded by many who are a part of that kingdom harvest, and so you should not be discouraged. Let us not be discouraged, you see, because you're surrounded by people to whom the work of God is working in.

And those who have been ordained to eternal life have believed and it has been granted to them. And so we have this great opportunity this morning and every Lord's day, and I want you to see how this works. We come to the table faced in, we don't face out. We come to the table as a church and we face into one another. And as we face into one another, we're looking together at the miracles of God's grace that say, yes, God is still saving people.

He is still blessing his word and his kingdom. And we come together and we receive that together as we pass the peace with one another. And we receive the bread and we receive the wine, and together we behold and we participate in the mystery and wonder of the kingdom of God. As we share at this table. Together we receive the gifts of God for the people of God.

And then after we've received the gifts of God for the people of God, we turn out and we take the gifts of God for the people of God that we've been given. And we go out into the places where God has put us, the circumstances that God has established for us, the world that God has put us in. And we simply, unsparingly, indiscriminately sow that word faithfully. And we let God be God, knowing his word will not return void. And when God calls someone to himself, we rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory.

Amen. Let's pray. Our God in heaven seal your word unto us today. For the glory and honor of your name we pray. Lead us out today as sowers of the seed accomplish your divine purpose.

In Jesus name we pray. Amen.