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
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