Sermon – “UN-lock The Potential”

³ Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. ⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. ⁵ Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. ⁶ But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. ⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. ⁸ But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. ⁹ He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

¹⁰ And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

¹¹ He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. ¹² For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³ Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

¹⁶ But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear;¹⁷ for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

¹⁸ “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. ²⁰ But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. ²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. ²³ But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

²² Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit^[d] in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, ²³ having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever,^[e]24 because

³ So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

¹¹ So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

¹⁴ For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,^{[c] 15} from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, ¹⁶ that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, ¹⁷ that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, ¹⁸ may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— ¹⁹ to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, ²¹ to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

That first course says we have a father than knows our name we have a father that more than knows our name he knows a number of the hairs on our heads knows our thoughts he knows our hearts we have such a wonderful father in heaven this morning my message out titled unlock the potential and I wanted to speak I am going to speak for Matthew chapter thirteen witness so are the seed but also I wanted to mix in Father’s Day and I believe the Lord help me to be able to twenty two together Bonnie’s two together and I think of will see how how well it goes but you know I do want to address our fathers tomorrow is Father’s Day It’s our day you know it’s a day for dads today to honor a father’s to to bless them with some This Blessing with a hug or bless him with a gift but it you know so I want to say happy Father’s Day to all those days are here in the all those dads and maybe watching via the Internet and you know I just I want to share a personal thing that I truly from the bottom on heart consider I have art on thought about these kind of things I get in the emotional because I consider being a father one of the greatest privileges of my life I really do. You know to be able to have watched our children grow up and enjoy all the amazing memories that that entails you know memories of taking them to Disney World and memories of them playing a piano and becoming a published author and becoming an educator Jennifer just so many amazing memories with our children over the years so what a great privilege What an honor that has been so as I’m looking at it from the other side just what a blessing that has been in ma life to be able to be a father and then the blessing to be a grandfather see my grandchildren to been begin to grow is almost a teenager one of them and the other one’s not far behind in the others or close behind there so what a blessing to be a father what an honor. And a privilege to be a father but you know fathers especially those with young children still at home but all fathers really what a tremendous responsibility rests upon our shoulders. Because the cond of father that we are to our children will have a tremendous impact on how they view. Our Heavenly Father. Do you realize that how you treat your children how you. Guide them and how strong your with them and how faithful you are reflects how they’ll look at her our heavenly Father because some people have had terrible dads and when they see the word father like who only want to go there because anything like my dad you know I don’t want to go there so that’s how some people will look at it so there’s a tremendous responsibility with being a father I found a very unique example of how important a strong father figure is even in the animal kingdom you’re going to like this some years ago South Africa’s game managers had to figure out what to do about the elephant herd at Kruger National Park the herd had grown well beyond the ability of the park to sustain it and so that is they decided to transport some of the herd to a nearby game park and now they were very young elephants they transported about a dozen years later however some of the young male elegance so they would be about teenage elephants about this time that they transported they begin to attack the parks white rhinos and they were an endangered species at the time so they you know they would use their trunks to throw sticks at the rhinos and they would chase him around for long hours great distances to finally they tire him out and they would stop and the death they killed a tenth of the herd. The white rhinos and for no apparent reason they just did this quick because they were teenagers I guess park managers decided that they had no choice but to kill some of the worst juvenile offenders they had to kill file after they had killed five of them someone come up with a bright idea. To. Go and bring some of the mature males that were still left at Kruger Park and hope that the bigger stronger males could bring the adolescence under control to the delight of the park officials that worked the big bulls quickly established the natural hierarchy and reduce the violent behavior of the young bulls the new discipline that turned out was not just a matter of size intimidation the young bulls actually started following the Big Daddies around yielding to their authority and learning from them proper elephant conduct the assaults on the right white rhinos ended. The point being that young males whether they are wild animals or human beings need dads. They need dads that are going to be a strong positive influence on them. Families need you know there are so many families today were dads are absent. So many families were dads or the wrong kind of influence on on their children. But hopefully that’s just a minority I truly believe most dads they want to be the best dads they can be. I hope that most dads. Teach their young children proper human etiquette. And moral conduct so let’s honor our fathers today and tomorrow let’s honor them tell them we love them and for dad to be the desk based dad we can be today scripture is all about unlocking potential. As fathers we need to so into our children we need to so into their lives we need to sow the Word of God into and we need to sow proper conduct into them and encourage them. Tuan lock the potential that lies within them so I’m going to read through this to us this morning from Matthew chapter thirteen versus three two through twenty three was quite a long one. Then he spoke many things to them in parable saying Behold a sower went out to sow. Now want to sow or in those days would go out to sow think of the sowing like wheat they would have a bag that would have the wheat seed in it and they would broadcast they would just broadcast the wheat so you understand why it says and as he so did some seed fell by the wayside inn the birds came and devoured it are you children listening because I’m going to have a question for us here so you might want to quit doing the first second lesson as a so or so some C. fell by the wayside and the birds came and devoured some buried them some fell among the Stoney places where they did not have much earth and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth but when the sun was up they were scorched because they had no root they withered away and some seed fell among the thorns and the thorns sprang up and choked them but others fell on good ground and you’ll know they crop some a hundred fold some sixty and some thirty he who has ears to hear let him hear and a disciples came and said to him Why do you speak to them in parables he answered and said to them because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven but to them it has not been given for whoever has to him more will be given the kind of touch tone that down is out of school and he will have abundance but whoever does not have even what he has will be taken away from him therefore I speak to them in parables because seeing they do not see and hearing they do not hear nor do they understand and in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled what says Hearing you will hear and shall not. And seeing you will see and not perceive for the hearts of this people have grown dogs their ears are hard of hearing and their eyes they have closed that’s they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn so that I should heal them but bless it are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear for surely I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it and to hear what you hear and did not hear it I want to pause for a moment just think about that Jesus said to the disciples There were many prophets of all there are many righteous men of old who desired to see what you say they desired to see the Christ how many prophets of old and great men of bold longed to see the Messiah but were not able how blessed the disciples were to walk with Jesus those three years to be just to be part of that ministry to witness all that to hear all the teachings how wonderful that would have been but do you long to see Jesus do you desire to see Jesus’ Second Coming or you longing for him Do you have that great desire in your hearts I pray that we do therefore hear the purple the sower when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart this is he who receives the seed by the wayside but he who received the seed on stony places this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy yet he has no root in him self but indoors only for a little while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word immediately he stumbles not he who receive the seed among the thorns is he who hears the word and the cares of this world. Into deceitful Nyssa riches choke the word and he becomes unfruitful but he who receive the seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it who indeed bears fruit to produce some a hundred some sixty in some thirty fold they got out as blessings to the here in the reading of His Holy Word let us pray Heavenly Father we thank you and praise you for your word your word you give us Father we believe that every word is inspired by you word it you spoke it through. Your own word or through the prophets or through the apostles we thank you for and father got our pray that your word would root deep into our hearts that it would produce much fruit for your kingdom that you would receive the glory for father just touch our hearts help us to be faithful to you in Jesus name Amen. OK children. I want see if all four children could gonna come towards a center here. You can sit in a pew become one over here. So my question for you was. It see if you was listen and what did the seed there speaking of the seed in that passage of Scripture what did the seed represent. The seed represent of the word the word of God So children I have a couple bags of seed here so I want to come a little closer sense you’re gonna sign away what kind of seeds that. Broccoli seed How about this. Kale see. Have one more. Break there have to flip it up or more see what kind of seeds that lettuce so OK now this is going to be a tough questions if we take this seed out and we scatter we find in the ground what’s gone. Happened to that seed. Is Going To what it’s going to grow so let’s get one of these out here once they’re just tiny little see. They’ve there they are they’re very tiny. If we get one of these will see just here and just look up tiny Look how tiny they are. Look. So that seed rate dare I say it will get that seed going to grow. I mean it’s so tiny How does that c grow. How does it grow. Nobody can explain it can we. But what do we have to do to this seed to make it grow. What do we do with it. We planted we planted it in the ground right we planted will pick them up don’t worry we water it and it’ll grow right through but this see what happens if we just leave in this bag. Nothing absolutely nothing will happen I mean let’s just plan right there and let’s come back next week and see if anything happened right. Nothing’s going to happen correct used to move back here places absolutely nothing will happen with that see if we do not plan it in the ground but when we planted in the ground something does happen that outer shell will begin to burst forth. It’ll burst forth into life won’t it it will sprout roots into the ground and then that sprout will come up to the through the earth through the ground to reach for the sunlight but there’s put ten Thirza potential in there for a miracle because we can’t explain how that happens can weigh. But the potential is there so how do we on lock the potential gang kids. We planted. We planted it in the ground we sew it we have to sew this see into the ground to unlock that potential. Each and every seed in that package has the potential for life you know we have the seed of a tree we planted in the ground it will produce it has the potential produce a tree if we have a corn seed and we planted in the ground it has the potential produce corn to produce fruit if we have a flower see what are we going to get. We’re going to get a flower the potential was right there but nothing absolutely nothing will happen if we leave it in the bag. Nothing more happened it must be planted it must become one with that soil to unlock the potential that is inside of it first Peter one works as twenty two through twenty three to twenty five says having been born again not of corruptible see. But incorruptible through the Word of God. Which lives in abides forever because all flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of the grass the grass withers and its flower falls away but the word of the Lord indoors forever now this is the word by which the Gospel was preached to you you know when Jesus explained that purple in Matthew to the disciples it’s very clear that the seed is the Word of God and the sewer represents the hearts of man so that you see the semblance there are the resemblance there Jesus said the seed must be taken out of the bag it must be taken out of the bag we must take the seed out and we must so it we must sell it into the hearts of men to unlock the potential. We have to unlock the potential that’s within the hearts of men and women. This is the seed it’s in here it is it is the word we must open it up we must openness word soul out that seed into our hearts in order to produce to the potential that God has for us. I don’t know what God has three I don’t know what kind of cds plan in your heart but we have to open it up we have to plan it that seed this seed has to become one with our hearts this is that seed has to become one with the soil to reach to potential that God has for us. The greatest potential is that of eternal life. It’s not just a possibility it is a promise it is a promise to those who allow these words to take root and to grow into their hearts John five four twenty four Rather says Most assuredly I say to you he who hears my word and believes in Him who sent me has everlasting life it doesn’t say you might have everlasting life but has everlasting life it is a promise friends and sound not coming to judgment but pass from death to life do you see the potential there that is the greatest potential that is found in this word if this word didn’t offer us anything why bother but it offers you eternal life that is the greatest gift of God is eternal life to a Son Jesus Christ this is the words of truth that is it is God’s promise to us Deuteronomy eight three says so he humbled you he allowed you to hunger and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your father’s know that he might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone but man lives by every word to proceed from the mouth of the Lord. Now I know I like to eat I get are I like to eat I’m not going to not going to lie I enjoy food I enjoy the wonderful meals that my wife fixes. But man does not live by bread alone yes we have to feed these bodies natural bodies or we will die but he’s talking about will not live for eternity you know we can eat the best food we can eat everything that we possibly could organic and meat the most healthy diet in the world but we’re still going to die. The only way that we can live for eternity is that we allow this word into our hearts and to take root in to and to into bear fruit of eternal life. No matter how long we live on a surfeit is a short time. But we want to live for eternity in the seeds of life or rate here in this word. Not only are we to so into our lives continually. Continually every day we should be sewn into our lies the word but we should also be so into the lives of others fathers not just the children but we should be so in the church so be so into two others lives so in the Word of God into others’ lives that’s what it means we just we broadcast we spread you know in a parable the Serwer Soden some seed fell by the wayside some fell on the stony ground some among the thorns others Phelan good ground we are to serve the sea. We are to sow it. So that every seed has a chance. To fall that of someone might hear we just so it you know sometimes we fall into the error of thinking we have to clean a person up we’ve got to straighten them out before we sow to Word of God until. Friends as not the way it works were to sow the word were to shared a word of God share the love of God and we let the Holy Spirit take care of the conviction in the cleaning up have you ever heard the saying you catch him he’ll clean him. I mean so often the command we want to go Malone list of do’s and don’ts you’ve got to do this you gotta do this you gotta do that before you’re right no no no Jesus loves you he died for you he died for my sins and your sins and we can have eternal life through him we let the Holy Spirit take care of the cleanup we are to sow the seed. Yes once someone comes in and believes yes we might have to cultivate and help guide them a mentor them but we sow the seed. We spread the word. Because Isaiah fifty five eleven says so shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth it shall not return to Me void but it shall competition what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it if we truly believe with all of our hearts that this Bible I keep holding it up today we believe that this is the inspired word of God and if we share it is His word going forth it’s not my word or your word it’s his word we are speaking his word and he says that My Word will not go forth void we might only have the opportunity to plant one word in the someones life but God can make it grow one word. It came forth from his mouth if the Zhou’s three verses fourteen for twenty one says For this reason I bow my niece of the Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ from whom the whole family in heaven and earth his name that he would grant you according to the riches of His glory to be strengthened with might through His Holy Spirit in the inner man that cry. May dwell in your hearts through faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all the saints What is the with and lick length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that you may be filled with the fullness of God Now to him is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that works in us to Him big glory in the church by Jesus by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever amen that we might be grounded and rooted in his love to know the love of Christ which passes all knowledge you know just as I emphasize with the kids we plant that seed in the ground we don’t know exactly how that miracle works but we know that it does. His knowledge it passes his love passes all of our understanding it passes our all our knowledge it is so amazing. I want to go back to addressing fathers really parents. You know may be hard for us to believe. As much as we love our children all of us and have children we know how much we love them. With all of our hearts. And it’s going to be hard for you to grasp but all of pales in comparison to God’s love. Let that sink in a moment it pales in comparison to God’s love. For we would not even know how to love if God in our first love us. In his book disappointed with God right or Philip Yancey relates a touching story from his. Life he said one time on a visit to his mother’s home who had been widowed for many many years actually she had been a widow from around the time of Philip’s first birthday. Will Philip and his mom this one particular afternoon spent the entire afternoon looking through a box of old photos. And a certain picture of him around the age of eight months caught his eye. And his photo was tattered and bent and it looked all banged up and really. Not worth keeping So you ask his mother was so many other better pictures of him around the same age why did you keep this particular picture Yancey writes My mother explained to me that she had kept the photo as a memento because during my father’s illness it had been fastened to his arm long during the last four months of his life Yancey’s father lay on his back completely paralyzed bipolar polio at the age of twenty four he was in case from the neck down in a huge cylindrical breathing unit with his two young sons banned from the hospital due to the severity of his illness he had asked his wife for a picture of her and their two boys because he was unable to move even his head the photo had to be jammed between two metal mobs that and they were hung there in view that’s the only thing that he could see for four months the last four months of his life were spent looking at the faces he loved. Philip Yancey writes I’ve often thought of that crumpled photo for it is one of the few link links connecting me to a stranger who was my father someone I have no memory of no sensory knowledge of spend all day every day think of him thinking of me devoting himself to May. A loving may. For four months nothing but looking at the faces that he loved the emotions I felt when my mother showed me the crumpled photo where the very same emotions I felt that the brewery February night in college when I first believed in God and the love of God someone is there are realize someone is there who loves me it was a starting startling feeling of wild hope of feeling so new and overwhelmed that it seemed fully worth risking my life on Philippians is one of the most important Christian writers living today obviously his mother’s influence was powerful but his father’s love even though he cannot even remember his father helped get him off to a good start. And as he would be the first to acknowledge any parent’s love regardless of how intense. Is but a pale reflection of God’s love for each one of us. What an amazing story. He had no memory of his father. Wasn’t even a year old when his father passed. But that one photo. Burst forth in his life an emotion. An emotional love to know how much as father loved him. My friends our father has his phone our photos right there. He knows. Who we are he knows what you look like he knows what’s in your heart and yet he still loves us. A man he knows what’s in our art and he still loves us. Philip and his father loved his children so dearly that’s what he wanted to look at the last for my. It’s of his life. Or God loves us so much. That he was willing to let his own begun son come and die. That we could have a life. Our love pales in comparison to God. Our love for own children pales That’s how great our Father’s Love is. Let his love pour into your heart open our hearts to Him just letting pour into it let him so into your hearts and may we then so into others hearts the love of God That’s the most important thing we have to so is the love of God the God so love the world that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. No an experience that love today Amen.