A New Beginning

Guest (Male): Success in the area of spiritual growth is no mystery. Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie reveals the truth.

Greg Laurie: People that do not succeed in the spiritual life end up that way because of choices over the course of their lifetime to not do the right thing. Listen, it comes down to this: if you want to grow spiritually, you will. If you don't want to grow spiritually, you won't. It's really up to you.

Guest (Male): This is the day when the lost are found. This is the day for a new begin. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound. Oh, can you hear the angels singing? This is the day, the day when life begins.

Dave: So much of life is a study of cause and effect. We wonder why we get so many speeding tickets. Could it be that we drive too fast? We wonder why it's so hard to get up in the morning. Maybe it's linked to how easy it is to stay up late the night before.

Today on A New Beginning, Pastor Greg Laurie helps us study cause and effect as it relates to success in the Christian life. Jesus paid the price for our salvation, but we'll see maturity and spiritual growth are up to us.

Greg Laurie: Let me begin with a question: why do some succeed while others fail in the Christian life? I mean, we all know people who have walked with the Lord for many years and God has used them powerfully. Then we know other people who basically crash and burn. Here's the answer: the people that do not succeed in the spiritual life end up that way because of choices they make. Not one choice necessarily, but hundreds, even thousands of choices over the course of their lifetime to not do the right thing and, by default, end up doing the wrong thing.

Listen, it comes down to this: if you want to grow spiritually, you will. If you don't want to grow spiritually, you won't. It's really up to you. In fact, God gives us a choice in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 30, verse 19. The Lord says, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses for you today that I've set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Now choose life." The Lord is saying it's up to you. You want a blessed life? You want a cursed life? That's your choice. But I give you the choice, and I love how he tells us the right choice. He says, "Choose life." Make the right choice. Do the right thing.

God has given you everything you need to know in the Bible about him and he's given you all the spiritual power to grow spiritually. We're told over in 1 Peter 1:3 his divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness. Okay, we're going to look at one of my favorite stories in the Bible. It's a parable. Now you know what a parable is. A parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Just think of it as a story.

We all love stories. We all love to watch movies. We love to read novels. We love to read fiction. We love a good story, and even better if it's a true story. Jesus told lots of stories. In fact, he told so many stories the Bible says the common people, or the regular folk, heard him gladly. He didn't speak over people's heads. He didn't try to impress them with theological words. He broke everything down in an understandable way so they could get it.

We're going to look at the parable of the sower, which is a parable that reveals to us the golden key to spiritual growth. Before we read from Mark chapter 4, let's get the backdrop. Jesus had had a long and emotional day. His mother and brothers showed up to where he was speaking and they wanted to take him home because, in their words, they thought he had lost his mind.

After that, he was accused by the scribes of being inspired by Satan. Not a good day, a lot of drama. So it's interesting as we come to Mark chapter 4, we read that Jesus has gone to the beach effectively. Now it's the Sea of Galilee, which is actually a massive freshwater lake. So he went to the water, and I don't know about you, but I love to be near water. I love to walk on the beach. It's a place where you contemplate things and you're surrounded by God's creation, and it's just a great place to sort of unwind and reflect.

I think Jesus loved to spend time in the water. We see a lot of his great teachings and activities right there near the Sea of Galilee. With that in mind, we come to Mark chapter 4 and we read these words: "Once again, Jesus began teaching by the lakeshore. A very large crowd soon gathered around him and he got into a boat. And he sat in the boat while the people remained on the shore and he taught them by telling many stories in the form of parables, such as this one: Listen, says Jesus, a farmer went out to plant some seed and he scattered it across the field. Some fell in a footpath and the birds came and ate it. Other seed fell on shallow soil with underlying rock."

I'm sure the Lord was probably gesturing as he was teaching. In the Sermon on the Mount, he says, "Look at the birds, they don't worry. Why are you worrying? Look at the flowers, how beautiful they are." Maybe he gestured and there was a farmer in the distance throwing seed out left and right. So he talks about this seed that goes on a footpath and the birds come and eat it, and other seed falls on shallow soil with underlying rock and it sprouted up quickly. But it withered under the hot sun.

He continues on: "Other seed fell among thorns or weeds that grew up and choked out the tender plants and it produced no fruit. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil and they sprouted, grew, and produced a crop that was 30, 60, even 100 times more than had been planted." Listen to this: then he said, "He who has ears to hear, let him listen." Okay, that's the parable of the sower. You say, well that's nice, what does it mean? That's exactly what the disciples said.

What does this mean? And now Jesus explains or interprets this story here in Mark chapter 4, verse 13. Then Jesus said to them, "If you cannot understand the meaning of this parable, how will you understand all the other parables? Here it is: the farmer plants seed by taking God's word to others. The seed that fell on the footpath represents those who hear the message, but Satan comes at once." You might underline that phrase: Satan comes at once and takes it away.

Now the seed that fell on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and receive it with joy, but they don't have deep roots and they don't last long and they fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word. Mark chapter 4, verse 18: "But the seed that fell among the thorns or the weeds represents those who hear the word of God, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the worries of this life and the lure of wealth and the desire for other things and no fruit is produced.

Now the final category: and the seed that fell on the good soil represents those who hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100 times as much as has been planted." All right, so what does this mean to us today? Answer: I have no idea. God bless you, goodbye. No, seriously, I have a few thoughts about this. I'm a preacher, of course I do. I actually have a whole message about these things.

These are four reactions to God's word, and you fit into one of these four categories. I want you to note that only one category was really legitimate, or what we might call people who were actually converted. Back in biblical times, the objective of the sower was to just take the seed and throw it out. Throw it out and let the wind pick it up. It's not like they planted a little crop ahead of time and carefully put the seed in and had modern farming equipment to work with. No, it was pretty primitive.

He just walked out, had his seed in his big bag, reached in, threw it, the wind would pick it up and the seed would go here, there, and everywhere. So the objective was you did the plowing later to see where the seed went. That's our job. Our job is to go into all the world and preach the gospel or sow the seed. You know, it's interesting that the word broadcast actually comes from the root word of sowing seed. We hear such amazing stories from people who've come to the Lord watching Harvest at Home or listening to our radio program or through one of our live events that we do that we call Harvest Crusades and so forth. But we just throw the seed out to as many people as we can.

Time will tell who the real converts are. The only way to tell if someone is really a Christian is through the test of time. I'll say that again: the only way to tell if someone is really a Christian is through the test of time. Because sometimes people come on strong in the beginning and then they walk away never to return. Other times, people have sort of a weak start but then they get stronger with the passing of time. So we just have to wait to see who the real believers are. Sometimes a person will make a profession of faith, they'll fall away, but then they'll return. That's a prodigal.

Here's how you know the difference between a prodigal and a person who's not really converted. If a person isn't really converted and walks away and never comes back, then we would just say they're like the seed sown on the roadside that was picked up by the birds. But a prodigal will always come home. You know, as I said earlier, sometimes you can have a weak beginning but a strong finish. Take Nicodemus. Remember him in John chapter 3? We read that he came to Jesus by night. In fact, that's mentioned multiple times: he came to Jesus at night.

Why is that important? Because Nicodemus was a celebrity. He was a well-known Pharisee, sort of the teacher's teacher, if you will. So for a man of his stature to go to this rabbi named Jesus and ask questions, well, there was a risk to that because he was the guy who was supposed to have all the answers. But he didn't, of course. So he went to Jesus at night. You remember the conversation: he opened with some compliments and Jesus just cut to the chase and said, "Nicodemus, you must be born again."

So that really impacted Nicodemus, but we don't read there in John 3 in that conversation of Nicodemus believing. But it appears that he did become a believer, because later on in the story, after Jesus was crucified and they were laying his body in the tomb, we read that a man named Joseph of Arimathea came to take the body and he was joined by Nicodemus, and the little detail is added who came to Jesus by night. So here's my point: sometimes people look like they're really strong and others look like they're really weak.

Example: Judas Iscariot was an apostle in good standing while Nicodemus was still groping his way in. But in the end, Judas revealed himself to be a full-blown hypocrite and not a believer at all, and Nicodemus, he came over that finish line with flying colors. So you may have a weak beginning, but a strong finish. What matters is how you finish. So if you started off following the Lord and you've stumbled and you've fallen and you're saying, it's too late for me, no it isn't. It's all about how you finish. Because some have a great start and they never get up again.

So if you've fallen, if you've messed up, get up again. There's still time to walk with the Lord and finish this spiritual race well. Okay, let's look at the different categories together. Category number one, I'm going to call them highway hearers. Highway hearers, and it's in verse 15 of Mark 4: the seed that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message only to have Satan come at once and take it away. I want you to notice something here: Satan comes at once, Jesus says. He comes at once.

Know this: when you share the gospel with someone, the devil is going to aggressively oppose it. And when someone makes a profession of faith to follow Christ, you need to be there to help them get grounded spiritually. You know, when I was a brand new believer, the Christian said to me, "Now Greg, be careful, you're going to be tempted by the devil." I'd never heard of such a thing. Tempted by the devil? I'm thinking of some guy with pointed ears and red skin with a pitchfork. Oh yeah, no, you'll be tempted by the devil.

Now I'd never really thought about temptation before because I think as a young kid I just sort of did what I wanted. Maybe I saw it more as opportunity than temptation. Okay, I'll be tempted by the devil. Then I said, "How will I know when I'm being tempted?" They said, "You'll know." So I'm still in high school, I'm in a class, and there was a very attractive girl in that class. So I'm a brand new believer in Jesus Christ and I've never talked to this girl before.

I'd noticed her, but I hadn't talked to her. So after class is over, this girl who never gave me the time of day, she didn't even acknowledge my existence up to that point, walks up to me and says, "Hi, what's your name?" And I looked into her beautiful blue eyes and I momentarily forgot my name. I said, "Uh, Greg." "Oh, hey Greg. You're really cute." I'm like, what? This, I mean actually that never happened to me. I know I'm cute, but I didn't really have girls come up to me and say you're cute. You're really cute.

I'm thinking, what is this girl saying? I have this little button with a little image of Jesus on it. I'm a brand new Christian. You're really cute. I'm thinking, what is going on here? And she says, "How would you like to spend the weekend with me up at a cabin that our family owns?" And I'm thinking, this is temptation for sure. Because you know why? That kind of thing never happened to me before. And out of nowhere this attractive girl comes up and with this enticing offer, and it was, of course, enticing.

Well, I said no, thank God. But I knew, okay, I think that was my first official temptation. That's what happens when you're a follower of Jesus. The devil is going to come and attack. So that's category one. These are the people that hear the word of God but it doesn't really penetrate their hard hearts. Jesus says the birds come and eat it. You know, you've been at McDonald's or some other place and the birds are hanging out because that's free food, man. That food hits the ground, boom, they swoop down and get it.

So that's what happened. These are people that hear the word of God but it doesn't really penetrate their hardened heart. Category number two, I'm going to call them rocky road hearers. Rocky road hearers, verse 16: the seed that went on the rocky soil represents those who hear the message and immediately, notice the word immediately, immediately they receive it with joy. But since they don't have deep roots, they don't last long, and they fall away as soon as they have problems or are persecuted for believing God's word.

So they start, they take hold of it, but then it doesn't take root in their life. Now the stony ground Jesus is speaking of is just speaking of the terrain of Israel. Remember years ago I was on a tour of Israel and I had my granddaughter Stella. She was very little at that point. And afterwards I said, "Stella, what do you remember most about your trip to Israel?" I thought she would remember some biblical site we went to. She said, "Rocks." What? Rocks. There were rocks everywhere, and that's true. There's a lot of rocks in the soil.

So the idea here is that the seed goes into the ground and there's a shelf of rock underneath, so it shoots up. But because it can't get root, it withers in the blazing sun. So this is a description of a person who hears the word of God and boom, they respond. I mean, they respond so quickly. You know, you talk to some people and conversations go on for weeks, sometimes months, even years. You feel like you're making a little progress. Other people, the first time you tell them, they say, "I want Jesus in my life."

Really? "Yeah, I want him in my life." So you say, "Let's pray." And they pray. And immediately they're like a mega-convert, right? They're like, they go and buy a Bible. Not just any Bible, they get a giant Bible they start carrying around and they're at church every day of the week and they're quoting verses and when worship is happening, they're lifting their hands higher than anybody else. They're singing louder and they're even critical of others who aren't growing as quickly as they're growing.

And you say to people, "That is the most dramatic conversion I have ever seen. It was like literally night and day." So maybe a month passes by and they're gone. You don't see them at church anymore. They don't respond to your phone calls or your texts. What's going on? They just walked away, they fell away. This is the category we're looking at here. So we wonder what happened to these people? Well, obviously they're having an emotional experience but it didn't take root.

See, this is actually not a true conversion, though it looks like one. And sometimes people in this category, rocky road hearers, will say something along the lines of, "Oh, well, I tried the whole Christianity thing and it didn't work for me." Oh yeah, I was a Christian. Oh yeah, I went to church, I read the Bible, I did all that stuff, but yeah, it didn't work for me. Well, no, actually you never were converted. I'm sorry to tell you that. You had an emotional experience, maybe you had some sense of who Jesus was, but if it was a real conversion, you would still be walking with the Lord.

Christianity isn't like a product that works for some and doesn't work for others. Christianity simplified is a relationship with Christ himself. It was G.K. Chesterton who said, and I quote, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it's been found difficult and not tried." End quote. Good quote. So the problem with this person is their heart is shallow soil.

Dave: Pastor Greg Laurie is providing insight on the four types of soil we read about in the parable of the sower, or the parable of the soils. We've talked about highway hearers and rocky road hearers. There's more to come as this message continues here on A New Beginning. Now if today's message spoke to you in a special way, maybe it's time to respond to God. Maybe you came to the Lord and fell away or have never come to him at all. Pastor Greg, if you would, speak to the person listening who needs to make a fresh commitment to the Lord.

Greg Laurie: If you would like to return to the Lord, I'm going to lead you in a prayer right now. So pray this after me. In fact, you could even pray it out loud if you like. But please just stop what you're doing and pray this prayer if you want to make a recommitment to Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, I know that I've gone astray. I've been a prodigal child. But I'm ready to come home now. I ask you to forgive me of my sin.

I choose to follow you now from this moment forward. Fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to live a life that will bring honor and glory to your name. Thank you for your love and forgiveness and sending Jesus to die on the cross for my sin. I turn from that now and I turn to you by faith. Thank you for accepting me and forgiving me, in Jesus' name. Amen.

Dave: If you just prayed that prayer and made a recommitment to Christ, I want to say to you God bless you and welcome home. We'd like to hear from you. Write Pastor Greg an email and tell him of the decision you've just made. Write to greg@harvest.org and let us send you something to help you build a strong foundation for your faith. Let us send you Pastor Greg's New Believer's Bible. It's free of charge and it has so many helps that will answer your questions and help you along your way.

Just ask for the New Believer's Bible when you call 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number: 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or go online to harvest.org and click "Know God". You know, Pastor Greg, I've heard someone say that our checkbooks are diaries of the things that are most important to us. You know, where our treasure is, there will our heart be also.

And I wonder how many of us would be willing to take a yellow highlighter and highlight each of the entries in our checkbook that was for kingdom purposes? And having just said that, I'm feeling very convicted. But we have a great opportunity for people to make one of those highlighted entries right now, don't we?

Greg Laurie: Yes, you know, Paul wrote to the church and said, "I don't want you to give out of pressure or out of guilt." The last thing I want to do is ever make someone feel guilty if they don't give. We need to understand the privilege of giving and the blessing of giving. It is a responsibility. I do believe that every Christian should give of their finances for the work of the kingdom of God. But having said that, the Bible says that God loves a cheerful giver.

And Jesus said it's more blessed, or I could translate it "happy-making", to give than it is to receive. And I think a lot of believers have not discovered the joy and the happiness of giving. Did you know that there is something a person can experience when they give that has been described as the "helper's high"? There's literally a release of endorphins when people give of their money, give of their time, volunteer to help somebody else or just something as simple as doing a kind deed for somebody else.

There's this joy that comes from that. So it seems like medical science is catching up with what the Bible has been saying all along: the blessedness, the happiness, the joy of giving. I want you to discover that. And if you feel inclined by the Lord to invest in our ministry, we will use it to reach more people. You have our commitment to that. So if you can be generous in supporting Harvest Ministries, we would really appreciate it. And there's a great opportunity to invest in our ministry and it's called becoming a Harvest Partner. Dave, why don't you tell them a little bit more about that?

Dave: Yeah, our Harvest Partners are such an important part of this ministry. They pray for us and they support us each month. They have a passion for evangelism and discipleship just like we do, and we so much appreciate that partnership. If you'd like to be part of this inner circle, get in touch today at 1-800-821-3300. That's a 24/7 phone number: 1-800-821-3300. Or write A New Beginning, Box 4000, Riverside, California 92514. Or just go online to harvest.org.

Guest (Male): Well, next time, more solid biblical counsel on maximizing our Christian growth and fulfillment. Tune in for more from Pastor Greg's series in Mark called The Gospel for Busy People. Join us here on A New Beginning with pastor and Bible teacher Greg Laurie. This is the day, the day when life begins.