29 Days of Assurance
WHEN THE SEED BOUNCES OFF
Subtitle: The Hard Heart/ The Wayside
Matthew 13:18-19
Intro: Let me take you back to Egypt. God sent Moses to Pharaoh with a clear message: "Let My people go." This wasn't vague. It wasn't complicated. Pharaoh heard it loud and clear. And his response? Ex 5:2 "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice?" That line says everything. Pharaoh wasn't confused. He wasn't curious. He was proud. Closed off. Hardened. Time and again, God gave him opportunities. A plague. A warning. A miracle. And again, Pharaoh said no. Sometimes he pretended to repent—but as soon as things calmed down, he went right back to resistance. Ex 8:15 "But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them." Eventually, God gave Pharaoh what he wanted: a locked-down heart, marching toward judgment. Jesus told a story about someone just like that. He called it the seed on the path. The Word is spoken. The truth is clear. But the heart is hard. Nothing gets in. Nothing takes root. The seed just bounces off. Let's look again at what Jesus said in Matthew 13:19:
Matt 13:19 "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."
Before we dive in, let me show you where this is headed. Because there’s a warning in this passage.
illus: Joseph Stalin was one of the most powerful—and brutal—leaders in modern history. He outlawed churches, executed believers, and sought to erase faith from his country. And yet, in his final moments, as his daughter Svetlana stood by his bedside, she described a chilling scene. Just before slipping into death, Stalin suddenly sat up, clenched his fist, and shook it upward—toward heaven. Toward God. Then he fell back, dead. No repentance. No softening. Just defiance. That’s what a calloused heart can become.
And it’s what Jesus is warning us about.
- The Seed is Good. The Heart is Hard.
Jesus isn't blaming the message. He's diagnosing the condition of the listener. "The seed isn't the problem. The soil is."
The ground had not been prepared, no plow had broken it up, and the seed had no chance to penetrate. It lay there where it fell, exposed and defenseless.
The wayside represents the unplowed, unreceptive heart—trampled by traffic, compacted by sin, hardened by pride.
It's the same heart condition described in:
2 Cor 4:4 "Whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them."
There’s more going on than pride. There’s spiritual warfare at play. Paul says the devil blinds the minds of those who refuse to believe.
This is the person who hears the Word but doesn't understand it—not because the message is confusing, but because their heart is closed. It's willful neglect.
The same truth that brings joy and freedom to one person may land dull and lifeless on another, not because it lacks power, but because it is unwelcome.
The wayside heart is not so ignorant as it is indifferent. “The fool has said in his heart ‘there is no God.’”
Rom 1:18-21 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.
God is holy and just, and He has made Himself known to all people through what He has created. He has left humanity without excuse, and yet mankind has rejected Him by human choice.
God has made Himself unmistakably clear — the tragedy is not that people can’t know Him, but that they won’t honor Him. People turn from Him, not because of a lack of evidence but lack of submission. Everyone has enough knowledge of God to be responsible.
Jesus is calling this the hard heart.
They might be the type to say:
- “I tried church once. It didn’t do anything for me.”
- “I just don’t think religion is for me.”
- “I don’t believe in organized religion.”
- “I’m spiritual, not religious.”
- “God and I have our own understanding.”
- “If God is real, why is there so much suffering?”
- “I’m not a bad person, so I think I’ll be fine.”
It's not that they can't understand. It's that they won't let the truth in.
The word of the kingdom is consistent, powerful, and life-giving—but not all hearts are ready to receive it.
- Satan Steals the Seed
Jesus gets very clear: when the Word is sown and not received, the devil shows up quickly.
Matt 13:19 "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."
Just like those birds on the gravel driveway—Satan steals truth before it has a chance to penetrate.
Luke 8:12 “Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved.”
Luke gives even more insight—Satan doesn’t just want to distract you. He wants to keep you from salvation.
Every time the Word is proclaimed, spiritual warfare begins. You may not see it, but heaven and hell are watching.
1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”
This isn’t neutral territory. Satan is hunting, especially in the places where truth hasn’t taken root.
"Satan's primary tactic isn't to make people bad. It's to keep them blind."
This is spiritual warfare—but it looks ordinary:
- A thought pops up: "This doesn't apply to me."
- A phone buzzes in a pocket.
- A memory, a doubt, a joke, a scrolling thumb—anything to block the Word.
This is not simply psychological resistance—it is demonic opposition to salvation. The seed on the path is not only ignored, it is attacked.
- The Danger of a Calloused Life
Hard hearts don't start hard. They get that way. Slowly. Repeatedly. Through ignoring, resisting, brushing off the Word of God.
Heb 3:12–13 “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”
Hardness is never static. Hebrews warns that sin has a way of slowly deceiving and deadening your heart.
Prov 28:14 “Happy is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.”
"The same sun that melts the wax hardens the clay." Every sermon either softens or hardens your heart. Every rejection of the Word becomes a layer of callous on the soul. Eventually, the heart cannot feel at all.
Jesus is warning us: if the Word keeps bouncing off, it's only a matter of time before the enemy sweeps in and snatches away what could have saved you.
The tragedy of the hard heart is that it stops noticing it’s been hardened.
You can get used to resisting God. Your conscience gets quieter. Your excuses get stronger. Your walls get higher.
Let me show you what it looks like when someone gets all the way to the edge of eternity and still refuses to break.
illus: Voltaire, the famed French philosopher, spent his life attacking Christianity. He was clever, confident, and critical—mocking Scripture and boasting that within a generation, the Bible would be forgotten. But when death came knocking, his tune changed.
Witnesses described his final moments as frantic and filled with fear. Voltaire reportedly cried out, “I am abandoned by God and man.” In terror, he begged for more time and offered his wealth in exchange for just six more months of life. But no time came.
The nurse who attended him said, “For all the money in Europe, I would not want to see another unbeliever die.” No softness. No surrender. Just terror.
And that’s the warning of this passage: You can hear the Word so many times that you lose the ability to respond.
- What Can Be Done for the Hard Heart?
There is hope. But it’s not in trying harder. It’s in God doing what only He can do. Only divine plowing can break this soil.
The gospel never gives up. It keeps throwing seeds, even on the path. Grace doesn’t run out of tries as long as we live.
Even though there is no way to guarantee a positive response to the gospel, the Bible never tells us to stop sowing the seed.
Hard hearts can be softened—God is able to take out a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh.
Ways God Plows Hard Ground:
- The preaching of the gospel, urging the sinner to respond.
- Physical suffering—pain has a way of humbling pride.
- Emotional turmoil—when the props fall, people start searching.
- Social upheaval—when the world shakes, hearts often open.
- Personal relationship trouble—conflict exposes need.
God is faithful to disrupt hardened soil. If you're praying for someone like that, don't stop. And if you're realizing your heart has grown hard—don't wait.
We must not despair when we don’t see fruit right away—remember, even Paul the apostle resisted at first. He was soil #1 until Jesus came to visit him!
There’s a sober warning in Christ’s words that end the parable, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
Heb 3:15 "Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts..."
Conclusion:
So what about you? Has the Word been bouncing off? Have you been polite but unmoved? Maybe you’ve been listening, attending, even nodding—but never receiving. Never repenting. Don’t let your heart get any harder.
Jesus told this story to wake people up. To make us ask: “Is that me?”
It’s not too late to respond—but one day it will be. Don’t shake your fist. Open your hands. Bow your knees.
For Prayer Ministry:
- For the Person Who Recognizes Their Own Hard Heart
If you know you’ve been hard-hearted toward the gospel—maybe for years—and today you feel something stirring... don’t let it pass you by. Cry out to God and ask Him to break the ground of your heart. You may not know how to feel, but you can ask Him to move. That’s where the miracle begins.
- For the Believer Who Loves Someone With a Hard Heart
If someone you love seems to have no interest in God—maybe a spouse, a friend, or even your own child—and your heart breaks for them... you’re not alone. You can come forward and intercede for them. You can ask God to do what only He can do: break up the soil, plant the seed, and bring the life.
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Transcription
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Are we in Christ or not? Are we receptive soil that we receive the son of God or not? Are we playing church or not?
Holy Spirit, come do your work. Do what only you can do, God, in Jesus name, Amen.
All right, find Matthew 13 in your Bibles. We're going to be there for a few weeks here. Matthew 13.
I'm Trevor Davis. I'm GCC's pastor. Before I get into part two of 29 Days of Assurance, I want to make a plug for a very important ministry in our church. It's called Financial Peace University. Everybody repeat after me.
Live on less than you make.
It's the number one financial truth in all of the Bible, and we teach that. Financial Peace University, Dave Ramsey's course is built upon that idea. Our church does it. We live on less than we bring in every year. So we have a surplus and an emergency fund, and we're able to help people when unexpected things arise.
Here's what I know. In January of every year, when people are resetting and they're restarting, and some people don't like it because you're absolutely drowning in consumer debt. Every day that you wake up, you're concerned about money. Every day that you live and breathe another breath, interest is working against you. So you just owe more.
And it affects every area of your life, all your emotions, everything in your heart, how you treat people. It affects your moods. And so you look around at church and see people filled with God's spirit and filled with optimism. And you say to yourself, that's just never going to be me. I have $250,000 in indebtedness or whatever it is.
The amount is arbitrary. Here's what I want to say to you. If you will humble yourself before God, sign up for this course, Financial Peace University. Come to all the meetings and do all the homework. You will give yourself a raise.
Whether anything changes at work or not, you'll be thankful. You'll begin to see light at the end of the tunnel. You didn't even know there was a tunnel there. You'll see the tunnel and things will begin to change. And God will fill you with hope.
And here's a personal guarantee I'll make. If you sign up for Financial Peace University, you're in big debt. You got money trouble. You come to all the courses, you do all the homework, and at the end of it, you're dissatisfied. I will personally guarantee your money back for the cost of the materials.
Not out of the church budget, out of mine. I'll do that for you. And that's not a boast I want to make. I want to say that this changed my life and my wife's life together. We did this together.
And let me challenge some of you. Go. Well, I listened to Dave Ramsey's show and I've read the book, but I haven't done the course. But I'm good. That's what Angie and I said before we did the course.
When we did the course, that's when we got rid of our debt. And so our next Financial Peace University course is going to start Thursday, January 29th. And if money is a big obstacle in your life, this will be the most important thing you do all year. And so let me just make. I'm not trying to be overly dramatic.
I'm saying that I'm a satisfied customer. One time, we took our whole church through Financial Peace University in the summer, and we retired about a million dollars in debt in cash in about 10 weeks. It's amazing. So I want to help you get out of this money terror that you're in and do it biblically. So sign up for Financial Peace University.
You will thank the Lord and your pastor when you do. Okay, so let me say to you that the Bible says, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God. What does the name of the Son of God say? It, Jesus, that you may know that you have eternal life. The Lord Jesus saved me out of a false conversion.
I was a lost church kid, and he saved me out of that in July of 1989. Never been the same. Look, never doubted since then. And I'm not saying that to boast. I'm saying, here's what I'm telling you.
When the Lord saved me, some men came along beside me. My dad, my pastor, my youth pastor, the minister of music at my church. And they began to pour into me as a new believer. And they told me, read your Bible every day and believe it. And I took him up on the offer.
And so because of that, I found out what the Bible says about how you can be assured that you're gonna go to heaven after you die. But not just that. How you can know that God's real and he's your friend and you know him in a relationship like you have with your buddies and your wife and your spouse and whoever, that he's even realer than that. And see, there's nothing that'll give you more assurance of your salvation than a living, breathing, everyday relationship with the living, risen Jesus. Let me tell you something.
He's alive.
That's not just what we celebrate on Easter. It's not a fairy tale. It's not a myth. Jesus, not only is he alive if you're a Christian, he lives in you. Galatians 2, 20.
I've been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And so we're doing 29 days of assurance, because I want to remind our congregation and any of you who are new that you can know that you're a Christian. Not that you think that you are, not that you hope that you are, not that you might be. You can know it and never look back again. It doesn't mean that God's voice doesn't go silent in your life when it does.
He's disciplining you as a son or a daughter. Daughter. But that won't affect whether you know you have a real relationship with God and you have real forgiveness and that you're His. And some of you are going, well, that's foreign to me. That's why we're doing 29 days of assurance.
That's why we're teaching through the Parable of the Four Different Soils. That's why we overviewed it last Sunday. And it's why today and the next three Sundays, we're going to look at each soil individually and say to ourselves, is this me? Because if it is, then you'll hear the clarion call from heaven to get your heart right with God. So today we're going to read Matthew 13, 18, 23.
We read the parable verses 1 through 9. Last Sunday, 18 through 23, is when Jesus says, here's what my story means, so we don't have to guess. We don't need theologians to. To do all the data analysis. And tell us what it means.
Jesus told his disciples what his parable means. Verses 18 to 23 therefore hear the parable of 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 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 himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or or persecution arises because of the Word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who receives 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. But he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it.
Who indeed bears fruit and produces some a hundredfold, some 60 and some 30. My brothers and my sisters, the word of the Lord. Let's bow for prayer.
Father, we're asking that you send the ministry of the master Evangelist, the Holy Spirit, Spirit, to speak to everyone in a chair in this room. God, that we might examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith, whether we pass the test or not. Lord, I pray that you would make those who need to doubt their salvation. I pray that you would encourage those who don't to be reassured. God, we pray that you would begin to take the battering ram of the gospel and break through hardened hearts.
We are desperate for this. Lord. This is our prayer. In Jesus name and a faith filled church said Amen. Today I want to preach a message.
I call when the seed bounces off. This is the hard heart. It's the wayside soil. And to do that let me take you back to Egypt. In the Old Testament, God sent Moses to Pharaoh.
You've probably seen the movie, Charlton Heston did a good Moses, right? He sent Moses to Pharaoh with one simple message. Do you remember what it was? Let my people go. That wasn't a vague sentence.
It wasn't unclear. It wasn't complicated. And Pharaoh in the Bible heard it loudly and clearly. Do you remember his response? Exodus 5, 2. Who is the Lord, who is Yahweh that I should obey his voice?
That line says everything, doesn't it? Pharaoh was not confused. He wasn't even curious. He was proud. He was closed off.
He was hard hearted. And time and again God had given this man, this world leader, opportunities. He had sent him 10 supernatural wonders to irritate agitate, and to cause them to suffer. We call them the plagues. And these were warnings, these were miracles.
And everybody saw this with their eyes. And this dispels the myth that if God would just show you supernatural things, you would come out of your unbelief. If you could just see it, you wouldn't have to doubt anymore. And again, Pharaoh said no.
Sometimes he pretended to repent. Do you remember the story?
But as soon as things calmed down, he went right back to resistance. Exodus 8:15 explicitly in the text. But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and did not heed them. Do you think anybody ever prays for God to get them out of difficult circumstances? And once he does, they forget about him.
Does that ever happen? Happen? It started in the Old Testament. Eventually, God gave Pharaoh what he wanted. And man, you should take no relief in that whatsoever.
God said, okay, Pharaoh, have it your way. And what he gave Pharaoh and what Pharaoh wanted was a locked down heart.
Tell me if you're following what I'm saying. Today, his lockdown heart was marching toward judgment. See, sometimes God says, okay, fine, have it your way. You never want to hear those words from God. Jesus told a story of someone just like Pharaoh, and it's this parable.
He called it the seed by the wayside, the seed on the path the word is spoken, that's the seed. The truth is clear, but the heart's hard, so nothing gets in, nothing takes root. The seed just bounces off. Let's look again at what Jesus said in Matthew 13:19. It's our key verse today.
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 seed by the wayside. Before we dive in, let me show you where we're headed, because there's a warning in this passage and we can illustrate it throughout history with world leaders. Have you ever heard of Joseph Stalin? Joseph Stalin was one of the most powerful and most brutal leaders in modern history.
He killed 20 million that we know of. But in his reign of terror, he outlawed churches, he executed believers, and he sought to erase faith of any kind from his nation. And yet, in his final moments on his deathbed, as his daughter Svetlana stood by his bedside, she described to the world a chilling scene, and we have it written down. Just before slipping into death, the dictator Joseph Stalin suddenly sat up in his bed, getting some strength that no one understood where he got it from. He clenched his fist and he shook it upward, snarling toward heaven and toward God.
And then he fell back on his bed, dead. No repentance, no softening. Just defiance.
That's what a calloused heart can become, and it's what Jesus is warning us about. In the First Soil I've divided my message today into four parts. Number one, Jesus wants you to know the seed's good. The heart's hard.
In this parable, is the Lord Jesus blaming the gospel message? No, he's diagnosing the condition of the listener. The seed isn't the problem. The soil is.
In the first soil, the ground has not been prepared. It's not had a plow to break it up. So the seed had no chance to penetrate that soil. It lay where it fell, and it lay where it fell, exposed and defenseless. The wayside sea.
The wayside soil represents the unplowed, unreceptive heart. It is trampled by traffic, it's compacted by sin, and worse, it's hardened by pride. It's the same heart condition described in the letter of Second Corinthians, chapter 4, verse 4. Whose minds the God of this age has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who's the image of God, should shine on them. Apparently earth has a small G. God, who has legitimate power and authority and ability.
And he can blind people whose hearts are already hardened from the light of the gospel. And if you're not a Christian today, that should terrify you, because you're not blindfolding yourself.
There's more going on than pride. There is spiritual warfare at play, and I'm not going to get too into the weeds of spiritual warfare just enough for me to say it exists. We should be aware of it. We shouldn't go crazy and make it the number one thing. Though Paul says the devil blinds the minds of those who refuse to believe, he's not blinding the minds of those who want to, and he won't let them.
He's blinding those who are already closing their eyes.
Most of the people with this heart aren't here today. Does that make sense? Listen, every Muslim is this soil. Every humanistic atheist is the wayside soil. Every person in a false religion, wayside soil.
And every person stumbling and bumbling through life with no purpose and never thinks about God. That's this soil. However, sometimes they go to church because they've got Christians that love them and they talk them into it. And it might be you today.
This is the person who hears the word. But Jesus says He doesn't understand it. And he is not referring to your mental capacity. Don't go, well, I'm not a smart person. I'm not a reader.
Guess I can never get out of this soil. Has nothing to do with intellect. In the Bible, understanding always leads to action. If it doesn't lead you to action, you didn't understand. That's understanding.
In all of the wisdom literature, this is the person who hears the word but doesn't understand it. Not because the message is confusing, but because their hearts are closed. Everybody, look at me. This is willful neglect. Understanding leads to action.
In the Bible, the same truth that brings joy and freedom to one person may land dull and lifeless to another. That's why you can go to church and your wife and go, that was the best sermon I ever heard. And she was right. But you go, man, it was just boring. To me.
It's just different. People receive things differently.
Not because it lacks power. Here's the worst part. But because it's unwelcome. Pharaoh didn't want Yahweh in his life.
And I know that some of you parents are going, man, my 28 year old, he's more like Pharaoh than he is like the apostle Paul. And you've been despairing about that. I think that this sermon series, examining this text is going to fill you with hope and you're going to believe that God loves your child more than you do and he's a better savior of your child than you could ever be. Are you following what I'm saying? Man, I want some to come out of this going, I thought it was impossible.
It's not impossible.
The wayside heart is not so much ignorant as it is indifferent. It's not that they don't know, it's that they really just don't care. And this was covered twice in The Psalm, Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53 or 52:1, I don't remember which. It's the same verse. The fool has said in his heart there is no God.
That word fool is Nabal, you know this. We've gone over this. It means the stupid fool and the stupid fool is the wayside soil. And they reverse evangelize themselves. They tell themselves, don't be saved.
They tell themselves, don't give your life to God. They tell themselves, you don't have any need, you're enough. The fool has said in his heart there is no God. And how do you preach on the wayside soil without going to Romans, chapter one. Romans chapter one, verses 18 through 21.
I'm going to read this whole text and I'm going to going to summarize it for you in a few sentences. You guys ready?
For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in the them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead. So that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Everyone with wayside soil has a darkened foolish heart. Now here's what those verses teach. First they teach that God is holy and just. And if you have a God who is loving like a grandfather, never, never stern, never corrects anyone, just happy all the time and he has no wrath. That's not the God of the Bible.
That's the God you made up to suit your own sins. God is holy and just and he's made himself known to all people through what was created. There's enough evidence in the world around you that God made it. It's enough to condemn you. It is not enough to save you.
That is general revelation. That all men have special revelation from heaven is what made you see the beauty of Jesus and come out of darkness and death into light and life. God has left humanity without excuse. There will be no one on Judgment Day that says God, you're unfair. I didn't even know.
Romans 1 pulls the rug out from underneath that. And yet, even though humanity is left without excuse, mankind has rejected him by human choice. I'm just summarizing what I just read. God has made Himself unmistakably clear. The tragedy is not that people can't know Him.
The tragedy is that people will not honor Him.
People turn from God not because of lack of evidence. They turn from God because of a lack of submission. Everyone has enough knowledge to be responsible before God. Jesus calls this the hard heart.
And the hard heart the hard hearted person. They're not real creative. They just have a bank of phrases they say and they just regurgitate them. You want me to give you some of them?
I tried church once. It didn't do anything for me.
I just don't think religion is for me.
I don't believe in organized religion. You know what the opposite of that is? Give me some disorganized religion.
Oh, young person, listen to me.
Here's the voice of the enemy.
I'm spiritual, not religious. Religious.
That's a distinction without a difference.
Here's the worst one of the list. It's not the last one I'm going to give you. It's the worst one. People say this in my hearing. God and I have our own understanding.
No, you don't. There's one way. There's a narrow road. It's the only one that leads to life. It's the only deal he'll make with you.
If God is real, why is there so much suffering?
If he answered that question, it wouldn't make a difference in your heart.
I'm not a bad person, so I think I'll be fine.
See, it's not that they can't understand. It's that they won't let the truth in the word of the kingdom is consistent. It's powerful, it's life giving. But not all hearts are ready to receive it. This is what the Lord Jesus is teaching.
So here's what we just said. The seed is good. The heart is hard. Number two. Satan steals the seed.
Golly, Satan's best lie ever is that he doesn't exist.
Or that we caricature him in a red jumpsuit and a pitchfork and looks like some kind of demon from a horror movie. He masquerades as an angel of light. Brothers and sisters, you don't reject angels of light by appearance. Jesus gets very clear when the word is sown, but it's not received. The devil shows up quickly.
Look at our verse again. 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 the heart. This is he who receives seed by the wayside. Just like birds on a gravel driveway finding birds. Seed.
Satan steals the truth before it ever has a chance to get inside. In Matthew, this is not the only place Jesus told this parable. Here's Luke's commentary on the same moment. Luke, chapter 8, verse 12. Jesus interpretation goes this way.
Those by the wayside are the ones who hear. And then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts. Do you see that?
Why?
Lest they should believe and be saved.
Oh my goodness. Your enemy wants you to burn in hell, wants you to have a terrible life. And worst of all doesn't want you to know God. And he seeks to steal the seed. Some of you, your seed got stolen because of pure pressure.
Pressure. Because if that seed had been allowed to be Planted and taken root, you'd lose your ungodly friends. And you chose poorly, by the way. When you get saved, you get the best friends of all time. It's called the church.
Yes, the ones that they're better. They're not perfect, but they're better than the ones that want to lead you to darkness and flesh. So peer pressure stole it. Luke gives even more insight. Satan doesn't just want to distract you.
He wants to keep you from salvation, lest they should believe and be saved. You know, sometimes churches just got to stop and preach about being saved by Jesus. That's not just a Baptist term. The Baptist didn't invent saving faith. And that word salvation, Jesus said it.
And it's so easy in America to join a church and be involved and not be saved. This is why we're preaching on this this week.
You know, your life could take a turn for the worse. You could lose your health, you could lose your employment, you could lose everything. You could lose your freedom and go to prison. But if you get saved and you live the rest of your life in suffering and you die, you go to be with God forever and you won. Or the opposite of that could be true and everything could go right and you don't have Jesus and you live out the next 30, 40 years with everything the world has to offer and you die without Jesus and you lose everything he said.
What would a man give in exchange for his soul?
You can gain the whole world and lose it. It.
So we need to stop and go. Are you saved? I don't mind saying that word to you. It's so important. Did you know that every time the word is proclaimed, spiritual warfare begins?
You may not see it, but heaven and hell are watching.
And so we get to first Peter 5:8. Be sober. That means make sure your judgment's not impaired. Be vigilant. Make sure you're alert.
Because your adversary, the devil, the word Satan, means adversary. Your Satan, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. A couple years ago, me and three of my buddies from here went on a mission trip to Kenya in East Africa to see our work that we support over there. And you go and you serve. And it's hard at the end of the week, you know, you get to go on safari, right?
Because it's not a mission trip if you don't get to go do something fun. So we went on a real life African game park safari in a Land Cruiser. The Land Cruiser's got high walls. It's got this open Front. And our guide said, look, enjoy this.
Do not leave the vehicle. It's like, look, I'm real good with instructions. I did not leave that vehicle. We saw lions fighting. It was rough.
We saw the aftermath of the bloody fight. And this male lion that lost, limping away, bleeding, and the other one just kind of laying in the soil over there, you know, sunning himself. And you know what I thought about lions? I thought, I never want to be eaten by one of them. That was what I thought.
Staying in this vehicle right here. Got photos to prove it didn't get out, though, because it's not safe to be in contact with a hungry lion seeking whom it may devour.
And the devil plays for keeps.
And he's pretty convinced he can steal the soil of the seed. That I'm preaching from this message today and I'm pleading with you, don't let him do it.
This isn't neutral territory. Satan is hunting, especially in the places where the truth hasn't taken root yet. Satan's primary tactic is not to make people bad, it's to keep them blind.
How does he keep us blind? This is spiritual warfare. But it looks ordinary. He thinks all he's got to do is distract you and turn your heart back to things that you really love. It goes like this.
A thought will pop in your head in a sermon like this. This stuff doesn't apply to me. Or your phone buzzes in your pocket and you just can't help yourself. And at the paragraph of truth you need the most, you gotta see who sent you a message on Facebook or a memory or a doubt or a joke or a scrolling thumb comes calling. Anything to block the word.
This is not simply psychological resistance. It is demonic opposition to your salvation. The seed on the path is not only ignored, it's attacked. Satan comes. The wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
Satan steals the seed. Number three. I want to talk to you about the danger of a callous life.
Did you know that hard hearts don't start that way? They get that way way. And they get that way slowly. They get that way repeatedly. Through ignoring, through resisting, and through brushing off the word of God.
Hebrews 3, 12, 13. Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily while it's called today. Lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Everybody say today.
See, today's the best day to get your heart right with God. You aren't promised a tomorrow, and you already have. You're done with yesterday. Today's the day of salvation. While it's still called today.
It's like God still saying, the clock's ticking down.
Is any of this making sense? Hardness is never static. It doesn't stay in one place. Hebrews warns that sin has a way of slowly deceiving and slowly deadening your heart.
Even the Wisdom Literature, Proverbs 28:14. Happy is the man who's always reverent, but the one who hardens his heart will fall into calamity. The same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay. Every sermon either softens your heart or hardens it. Every rejection of the Word becomes a layer of callus on your soul.
You know what? Eventually, when this happens, the heart can't feel at all.
The writer of Hebrews calls it having your conscience seared with a hot iron doesn't work anymore. Jesus is warning us. If the Word keeps bouncing off, it's only a matter of time before the enemy sweeps in and snatches away what could have saved you.
The tragedy of the hard heart is that it stops noticing that it's been hardened. This is so important. I want to put it on the screens. You can get used to resisting God. Your conscience gets quieter, your excuses get stronger, your walls get higher.
Let me show you what it looks like when someone gets all the way to the edge of eternity but still refuses to break. The French philosopher Voltaire spent his life attacking Christianity with his massive intellect. He was clever, he was confident, he was critical. He was always mocking scripture and boasting this. Within 100 years, the Bible would be forgotten and the Christian faith would be abandoned.
That was what he prophesied. But when his death came knocking, wouldn't you know it, his tune changed. Witnesses described his final moments as frantic and filled with fear and panic. He reportedly cried out, I'm abandoned by God. And man in terror.
Voltaire begged for more time, and he offered all of his wealth in exchange for six more months of life. But you know as well as I do that time didn't come. The nurse who attended him said this, and I quote, for all the money in Europe, I would not want to see another unbeliever die.
No softness, no surrender. Just fear and touch. Terror. And that's the warning of this passage. You can reject the Word so many times that you lose the ability to respond.
Number four, Pastor. What can be done for the hard heart? Well, I want you to know that there's hope but the hope is not in trying harder and doing better. The hope is God doing only what God can do do. Only divine plowing can break the soil around a hard heart.
But here's what I want you to know. The gospel never gives up. It keeps throwing seed even on the wayside. Because grace doesn't run out of tries as long as we're still alive. Even though there's no way to guarantee a positive response to the Gospel, the Bible never tells us to stop sowing the seed.
Hard hearts can be softened. Friend. Do you remember Saul of Tarsus? He wrote 13 of your 27 New Testament books. When he was still called Saul of Tarsus, he was wayside soil.
Let me tell you ways God plows hard ground. You need to think about this. How does God break a hard heart? First and foremost, the preaching of the gospel. Urging the sinner to respond.
I'm doing it today. Only Jesus can make you right with God. You have to come before him in faith and repentance. Humbling yourself before Jesus. You don't give your life to Jesus.
He gave his life for you. Don't get it backwards. Just come and surrender. It's the only way. And I urge you to respond today.
That's the preaching of the gospel. It breaks a hard heart. Invite your one so they can hear the preaching of the gospel. So it just begins to chip away at the hardness of the heart. But let me tell you, the receptive heart sound.
Seasons. Physical suffering, man. When people's bodies begin to fail and pain comes. Pain has a way of humbling. Pride makes people receptive, but it doesn't save them.
They still need the gospel. Another one. Emotional turmoil. When all the props and the crutches fall down, people start searching for something else.
Social upheaval. We've had some of that, right? When the world shakes, God often opens hearts. We've had a bunch of shakings in the last five years, haven't we? Covid shook.
Election nonsense. Charlie Kirk's murder. All this stuff happening this week. Look at the bigger picture. God shaking and then personal relationship trouble.
You know what conflict does? It exposes people's needs. So your marriage may be falling apart. You may have this something between your good friends. All that tends to make people receptive.
But they're seasonal. If they get through that season without the gospel, they're going to be worse off than before it. But here's what I want you to know. God is faithful to disrupt hardened hearts. I love that about him.
So if you're praying for someone like that don't stop. And if you're realizing that your heart has grown hard, don't wait. We must not despair when we don't see fruit right away. Remember, even the apostle Paul resisted at first. He was soil number one until Jesus came to visit him.
There's a sober warning in Christ's words that end the parable. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The writer of Hebrews echoed it in Hebrews 3:15. Today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. So what about you? Has the word been bouncing off? Have you been polite but unmoved?
Maybe you've been listening here. You've been attending. You've been nodding your head but never receiving, never repenting. Friends, don't let your heart get any harder. Jesus told this story to wake people up, to make us ask, is this me?
And it's not too late to respond, friend, but one day it will be so. Don't shake your fist, open your hands and bow your knees to Jesus. I wonder if that's good preaching. Alright, listen for prayer ministry today. Here's two ways you can apply this message and come from prayer.
Hey, resist the urge to put your things up right now. It might distract someone next to you. I'll give you a chance to do that. Number one, for the person who recognizes their own hard heart. You said, that is me.
If you know you've been hard hearted toward the gospel, maybe it's been for years and today you feel something stirring, don't let it pass you by. Cry out to God and ask him to break the ground of your heart. You may not know how to feel, but you can ask him to move. That's where the miracle begins. Number two, for the believer who loves someone with a hard heart.
If someone you love seems to have no interest in God, maybe it's a spouse that's heartbreaking. A friend, even your own child. And your heart breaks for them. Look at me. You're not alone.
You can come forward today and intercede for them with our prayer team. You can ask God to do what only he can do. Break up the soil, plant the seed and bring the life. I believe that God's going to start baptizing wayside soil. Here you receive that word.
All right, prayer team, if you'll come forward, anybody and everyone can receive prayer. We pray after the service. There's plenty of time so we don't rush. I gave you two ways you can receive prayer. Here's one of the best ways.
Everybody listen to this. I don't know what I need prayer for? Great God is a good communicator, and he'll speak to these people. Just say, would you pray for me? Whatever the Lord tells you to pray for, for me.
Come down and get that prayer and watch what happens. But at our church, we have a praying culture, and we pray for one another, and it's not weird. We just do it. Let's stand together. I want to thank you for coming today.
I preached way past my time. I'm kind of sorry for that. All right. But I hope that the Lord will bless you with the preaching of the word. We love you guys.
See it. Small group this week. You're dismissed.
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Come and join us this Sunday at the Great Commission Church for a truly remarkable and uplifting experience. Great Commission Church is a family-friendly church in Olive Branch, MS. Great Commission Church is not just any ordinary place of worship; it's a vibrant community where faith comes alive, hearts are filled with love, and lives are transformed. Our doors are wide open, ready to welcome you into the warm embrace of our congregation, where you'll discover the true essence of fellowship and spirituality. At Great Commission Church, we are more than just a congregation; we are a family united by a common mission – to follow the teachings of Christ and spread His love to the world. As you step inside Great Commission Church, you'll find a sanctuary that nurtures your faith and encourages you to be part of something greater than yourself.
We believe in the power of coming together as a community to worship, learn, and serve. Whether you're a long-time believer or just starting your spiritual journey, Great Commission Church welcomes people from all walks of life. Our vibrant services are filled with inspiring messages, beautiful music, and heartfelt prayers that will uplift your soul. Every Sunday at Great Commission Church is an opportunity to deepen your relationship with God and connect with others who share your faith and values.
At Great Commission Church, we believe that faith is not just a solitary endeavor but a shared experience that strengthens and enriches us all. Our church is a place where you can find purpose, belonging, and the encouragement to live a life in accordance with Christ's teachings. Join us this Sunday at Great Commission Church and experience the transformative power of faith in action. Be part of a loving and supportive community that is committed to making a positive impact in our world. Together, we strive to fulfill the great commission to go forth and make disciples of all nations. We look forward to having you with us at Great Commission Church this Sunday, where faith, love, and community intersect in a truly amazing way.
Great Commission Church is a non-denominational, family-friendly Christian church located in Olive Branch, Mississippi. We are a short drive from Germantown, Southaven, Collierville, Horn Lake, Memphis, Fairhaven, Mineral Wells, Pleasant Hill, Handy Corner, Lewisburg and Byhalia. Great Commission Church is conveniently located, making it easy to find and attend. Many people have even called it their go-to “church near me” or the "Church nearby" because of how accessible it is and how quickly it feels like home.
See you Sunday at Great Commission Church in Olive Branch, Mississippi!
