AfterThoughts: March 1, 2020

March 1, 2020

SERMON SERIES: The Gospel of Mark

SERMON TITLE: The Parable of the Sower (Mark 4:1­–20)

    This week, Pastor David described four types of hearts (soils) Jesus taught about in this passage:

1. A hard heart (v.15) is hardened by disappointment, trial or doubt.
2. A shallow heart (vv. 16–17) accepts Jesus' promises but faith never penetrates the heart.
3. A crowded heart (vv.18–19) wants Jesus to be an expert consultant instead of Master and Lord.
4. A cultivated heart (v. 20) lives deeply in God's word and leads a life that looks like Galatians 5.

• Pastor David explained that "saving" faith always endures and produces repentance and obedience. Have you accepted Jesus as your Savior, and let His sacrifice on your behalf capture your heart? If so, where are the places in your heart that tend toward “shallowness” in your walk with the Lord?
• The crowded heart wants the benefits of following Jesus without embracing the cross. What are some things that crowd your heart? How can you guard against those things each day?
• Pastor David explained that the cultivated heart “listens and lives” and “hears and heeds.” What spiritual discipline(s) do you need to adopt that help you listen/hear and live/heed?

To watch this week's sermon, please visit dawsonchurch.org/GospelOfMark

To learn more about knowing Christ as Savior and Lord, please visit dawsonchurch.org/becoming-a-christian.

To view the Lenten Devotional Guide online, please visit dawsonchurch.org/LentenDevo.

ADDITIONAL DISCOVERY:

Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land. And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:

 “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil. And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain. And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.'"

 And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? The sower sows the word. And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy. And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away. And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”

~ Mark 4:1–20

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

~ Galatians 5:22–23