Red Shirt #4 -- Good Soil: 052312

Tonight we completed our Red Shirt series by looking at the last type of soil talked about in Luke 8:4-8, 11-15.  This type of soil isn't a red shirt soil, but a gold shirt one.  They are the ones that grow and mature and produce.  It tells us about them in verses 8 and 15.  It says they are seed tha fall on good ground, which means they end up growing and reaching teh full potential that God created them for.  They grow, mature, thrive, and reproduce.  The people described here believe in Jesus, accept him as their Savior, make him their master, and then go out and convert others. 

It tells us that these type of people are defined by doing 5 different things.  #1.  They have a good and noble heart.  This comes by allow God, through His Holy Spirit, to transform us.  Then we resolve to do good and noble things, finding out what is good and noble, and actually acting on it.  #2.  They hear God's word.  This could be by going to church, reading the Bible, praying, reading Christian books, talking with people about God's word, etc...  #3.  They retain God's word.  We can do this by memorization and setting down markers to remind yourself.  #4.  They persevere. No matther what happens they hold onto their faith in God.  They spend time with Him so they can learn trust.  #5.  They produce a crop.  They actually go out and tell other people the good news about Jesus.  These are signs that accompany a mature Christian. 

I give tonight: B+
Favorite Moment: Evoke Video

Red Shirts #3: Thorny Soil -- 051612

We continued our study of Luke 8:4-8, 11-15 and our series entitled Red Shirts.  Tonight we focused on verses 6 and 13.  God's word goes out (as seeds) and lands on the soil (people's hearts) developing faith (plants).  Different people react differently to this gospel.  The type of soil we talked about tonight is thorny ground.  This seed falls in thorny soil, it starts to grow but never reaches its full potential because it is choked out by the thorn bushes that surround it.  The people described here believe in Jesus, accept Him as their Savior, but never really make Him their master.  They don't weed out the thigns that hinder them from growing in maturity and understanding of God.  Because of this their faith is never fully developed.  Theya re the people that you here about when it is said, "Wait, I thought _____(fill in a name) was a Christian but they ________(fill in a sin).  They act like veryone else around them and because of this no one knows they are "Christian" or if they do they think of them as a hypocrite.  They in no way help anyone else either in this life or for eternity.

The thorns represent life's worries, riches, and pleasures.  Each of these things makes us lose focus on the goal of growing our faith, they instead distract us, thus stunting our growth.  They are not all necessarily bad things, but if they are distracting us from focusing on the God and our relationship with Him then they are bad.  These things distract us and keep us from becoming mature, bearing fruit, whether that be good deeds, producing disciples for God, or just following the destiny God has for us. 

In order to avoid this fate we have to continually allow the Holy Spirit to weed our soil (hearts).  This must be done daily (weeds will grow constantly, vigilance is required), completely (therer can't be a par tof your life that is off limits to God, whether an action, an attitude, or a thought), and willingly (you must be willing to change that thing if God point sit out as crippling to your faith).  You can also find a friend that can help oint out those areas that you are not following God completely in and are distracted with. 

I give tonight: A-
Favorite Moment: How many army men were earned last week

Red Shirt #2: Rocky Soil -- 050912

Tonight we continued our seires on Red shirts, those who dont' survive and thrive in their faith.  Tonight we looked at the second type of red shirt talked about in Luke 8:4-8, 11-15 by looking at 6 and 13.  In this part we see seed that is trhown on rocky ground.  Those taht fall there grow up very quickly but just as quickly wilt under the heat of the son because of lack of moisture.  They don't have enough soil to become firmly rooted and bring up the moiusture they need to survive, so they die.  In the same way there are people who get very exciteda bout Jesus and what he means to them, believing very quickly in him, but they never go deeper in their faith.  They have an emotional response to Jesus but never deepen their faith in him  Wehn hard times come they turn their back son him, because following him is no longer easy or fun.

There are a lot of difficult things people have to go through,s oem physical, some emotional, some mental.  When those with no root encounter these difficulties they end up abandoning their faith because it isn't fun anymore, it isn't easy, so like a fat person faced with the choice of a lazyboy or a treadmill they go with the easier fo two options.

Jesus overs a very simple solution of how to avoid becoming a red shirt in this way, become rooted.  It is all about spending time with God and building trust in him.  We must become rooted in Christ.  This can happen by spending time with him, developing trust in him,reading your bible, praying, going to church, talking about him, reading books that have to do with, etc...

Don't Be a Red Shirt!

I give tonight: B+
Favorite Moment: STL Offernig--Give Boldly!

Red Shirts #1: Trampled Dirt -- 050212

Tonight we began our new series: Red Shirts.  Red shirts in Star Trek are the expendable crew members.  They are usually killed off quickly to show the danger of the situation.  They usually are wearing red shirts, thus the name, and have no name.  They are destined to die.  When it comes to churches we have red shirts too.  They are the ones who don't have a faith tht survives and they never end up growing in their relationship with Christ. Don't be a red shirt! 

We read the parable to the sower (or soil if you wish) from Luke 8:4-8, 11-15.  A parable is a story with a point, trying to cmmunicate the point through a comparison.  Jesus used them quite often in order to help those who were listening understand what he was talking about, using fimiliar images.  he also used them so that only true seekers could understand the true meaning of the parables.  This particular parabel can teach us 3 ways we can be red shirts (those that don't survive or grow in their faith).

The seed is God's word, going out through preaching, evangelsim, etc...  This is the gospel, the good news that Jesus died, came back to life, and we can get forgiveness for the bad things (sins) we ahve done through Him so we can havea  good relationship with God now and for eternity in heaven.

The soil is different types of people's hearts and how they respond to the gospel.  Some never grow, some grow but die, some grow but never thrive, and some grow, thrive, and hel others grow.

The Path soil (verses 5 and 12) represents a hardened heart that refuses to ever listen to the gospel.  It is trampled down and hardened.  There is no way the seed can ever get into the ground in order to grow, so instead it lies on top , waiting its fate without ever fulfilling its purpose.  Why is it so hard?  It has been trampled down by others, it has never been softened through plowing.  These are people that have beaten down by those aruond them, they ahve experienced pain and are now bitter and unwilling ot allow anyone in to heal their pain.  Maybe you are this type of person, abused, neglected, hurt by something in your past, bitter against God for allowing theings to happen in your life.  Your heart has become hardened to hearing that God cares for you and wants to heal you, so you never let the message sink in.

The birds that eat up the seed represents the devil, our enemy.  The ultimate fate of the seed on hard soil is to be eaten by the birds.  Satan desires to keep you away from God, so that you, as he is, will be condemned to an eternity in hell.  He watns you to be bitter and in pain and never experiece the freedom that comes through Christ.

You don't have to be a redshirt, you don't have to live in pain and ibtterness any more.  But you hae to allow God to soften your heart, by opening up your pain and bitterness to him, releasing the grip you have had on it and let God have it isntead so he can heal it for you.

I give tonight: B-
Favorite Moment: Group resplit!