Cultivating a Fertile Heart for the Gospel
Devotional
Sermon Summary
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Sermon Clips
1) "Friends, can I tell you that unhealthy and distracted soil isn't a place for a seed to grow and it's definitely not a place to find a harvest of healthy fruit. Now, let me tell you, like I mentioned a few minutes ago, if you, when you leave the parking lot and you look at our front porch and you will, there's a plant on each side that little hanging basket looks good. It's been up there, Mother's Day will be two years because it's plastic." [55:01]
2) "The problem with some of our churches today are we're filled with plastic people. We look great. We know how to say amen. We know when to raise our hands. We know how to act churchy. We look good. But there's no fruit we're plastic. Well, pastor, I can't believe you said I was plastic. I didn't say you were plastic. I said some people." [56:00]
3) "Friends, if you and I are going to have ground that's receptive, that's fertile, we have to be willing to let the spirit of the living God bring correction because sometimes we miss it. Not you guys. Those other guys. Right? Sometimes we miss it. Sometimes we miss the mark. And when we miss the mark, the hardest thing for us to do is to understand that we've made a mistake and repent." [58:43]
4) "If you say to me, pastor, I can't get past this. My response is, then you've made it bigger than Calvary. Because anything we can't get past means Jesus didn't do enough for us. Well, pastor, I've been carrying this around for 15 years. How dare, well, exactly! Let it go! But if we're honest, most of us will come to an old-fashioned altar and we'll lay it down." [01:07:46]
5) "Friends, how we get past this is we have to be willing to say, God, I want the most fertile soil you can give me. I want the healthiest soil you can give me. As a matter of fact, I did a series of messages probably 20 years ago. And I talked to a farmer and he said that, you know when the ground is so hard, they call it that hard, hard pound, hard pan ground. He said, in order for that ground to be receptive to the rain, it takes seven rains to soften that ground." [01:09:18]
6) "Friends, if we're going to survive in our relationship with Christ, if we're going to thrive in our relationship with Christ, it takes having deep roots that go down and grow in healthy soil in order to weather the storms of the season. When you pass that part of the road, and you see that the trees have been blown and they kind of lean like this away from the water because the wind blows them that way, but they're still standing." [52:15]
7) "The third type of soil is a distracted heart. Friends, can I tell you that a distracted heart will bear no fruit? Well, pastor, that's a little judgmental. Well, not according to Matthew chapter 13, verse 22. You see, a distracted heart can't grow roots that it needs to sustain life because a distracted heart cares more about the things of this world than the things of the kingdom." [53:56]
8) "The only thing I can think of is that if I'm going to have the heart that Jesus wants me to, if I'm going to have the fertile ground that God wants me to have, if I'm going to have a ground that when the gospel falls in it, it brings life, not only life in me with deep roots, but life in me that brings deep roots, brings growth, allows flowers to happen, allows bees to pollinate, allows seeds to drop, allows other little apple trees to be produced and to be discipled." [01:10:49]
9) "A fertile heart is one that readily accepts the gospel. It does the hard work of nurturing it to grow. The heart is open to the truth of God. It is open to God's word and open to the transformation that takes place. The heart is made ready by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the participation of the individual." [57:47]
10) "The first one is a hardened or an oblivious heart. It's a barren wasteland. Have you ever met someone who, for whatever reason, there's a wall there. They don't want to hear anything new with the good news. They don't want to hear anything about Jesus. As a matter of fact, when you start to share something about your faith, the wall kind of goes up, and they kind of do that. That's a hardened heart." [49:24]
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2) "The problem with some of our churches today are we're filled with plastic people. We look great. We know how to say amen. We know when to raise our hands. We know how to act churchy. We look good. But there's no fruit we're plastic. Well, pastor, I can't believe you said I was plastic. I didn't say you were plastic. I said some people." [56:00]
3) "Friends, if you and I are going to have ground that's receptive, that's fertile, we have to be willing to let the spirit of the living God bring correction because sometimes we miss it. Not you guys. Those other guys. Right? Sometimes we miss it. Sometimes we miss the mark. And when we miss the mark, the hardest thing for us to do is to understand that we've made a mistake and repent." [58:43]
4) "If you say to me, pastor, I can't get past this. My response is, then you've made it bigger than Calvary. Because anything we can't get past means Jesus didn't do enough for us. Well, pastor, I've been carrying this around for 15 years. How dare, well, exactly! Let it go! But if we're honest, most of us will come to an old-fashioned altar and we'll lay it down." [01:07:46]
5) "Friends, how we get past this is we have to be willing to say, God, I want the most fertile soil you can give me. I want the healthiest soil you can give me. As a matter of fact, I did a series of messages probably 20 years ago. And I talked to a farmer and he said that, you know when the ground is so hard, they call it that hard, hard pound, hard pan ground. He said, in order for that ground to be receptive to the rain, it takes seven rains to soften that ground." [01:09:18]
6) "Friends, if we're going to survive in our relationship with Christ, if we're going to thrive in our relationship with Christ, it takes having deep roots that go down and grow in healthy soil in order to weather the storms of the season. When you pass that part of the road, and you see that the trees have been blown and they kind of lean like this away from the water because the wind blows them that way, but they're still standing." [52:15]
7) "The third type of soil is a distracted heart. Friends, can I tell you that a distracted heart will bear no fruit? Well, pastor, that's a little judgmental. Well, not according to Matthew chapter 13, verse 22. You see, a distracted heart can't grow roots that it needs to sustain life because a distracted heart cares more about the things of this world than the things of the kingdom." [53:56]
8) "The only thing I can think of is that if I'm going to have the heart that Jesus wants me to, if I'm going to have the fertile ground that God wants me to have, if I'm going to have a ground that when the gospel falls in it, it brings life, not only life in me with deep roots, but life in me that brings deep roots, brings growth, allows flowers to happen, allows bees to pollinate, allows seeds to drop, allows other little apple trees to be produced and to be discipled." [01:10:49]
9) "A fertile heart is one that readily accepts the gospel. It does the hard work of nurturing it to grow. The heart is open to the truth of God. It is open to God's word and open to the transformation that takes place. The heart is made ready by the prompting of the Holy Spirit and the participation of the individual." [57:47]
10) "The first one is a hardened or an oblivious heart. It's a barren wasteland. Have you ever met someone who, for whatever reason, there's a wall there. They don't want to hear anything new with the good news. They don't want to hear anything about Jesus. As a matter of fact, when you start to share something about your faith, the wall kind of goes up, and they kind of do that. That's a hardened heart." [49:24]
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