Sounds Like A Plan IX, For Spiritual Development

North Way notes, if you're a guest today, we use these little outlines to kind of help us through the message. Just while you're doing that, I want to say three things I'm very proud of about and there is a there is a place for biblical pride, spiritual pride. Paul even talks about that where he says that he says things like, you know, follow me as I follow Christ because he he sees such value and having a model. There's three folks I just want to mention. First of all, the Promise Keepers event this weekend was a great success. There was, I think, 12,000 men there. How many of our men were there? Just put your hand up, man. Stand up. These are the men were there. Let's give these guys a hand for giving up a weekend. And I particularly want to acknowledge and thank Alan Pettengill and Don Priestley and Curt D'Augustine and a whole lot. I think we had 40 or 50 folks from North Way who were the the primary servant leaders behind the scenes who did all the ushering and handing out and and these folks really made a big difference. In fact, I was told that the the folks from headquarters of PK said this was the best run event they have had in the nation so far this year. So let's give Alan and those guys a hand. They did a great job. I haven't seen Alan this morning. Is he is he in recovery? What's up? Alan stands out in the auditorium or the Mellon Arena just like he does here with his red hair, but he had shorts on. So he was really trucking. It was just a great event and I know God did a lot of things and it was awesome. So praise God for moments like that where we could go. Second, I was just so moved this week. I've been talking to some of our missionaries and you know our teenager group, the teen group rather, that went to Mexico is doing some great things and having a wonderful time. I think they come back today and we'll be hearing more from them. I was just so impressed listening to Andrew Tellop who's in full-time mission work in Laos and Thailand and I mean folks we're talking about really unreached people. So Shannon McCabe's on from China. Hearing these people tell their stories, these young people, it still moves me to think that we're sending people out, our best people out to parts of the world where they're not hearing the gospel in Malaysia and places like that where Tibet and you know places we just don't even have a clue as to how remote some of these things are and it's just stirring and they're going because we're supporting them and encouraging them. And finally more locally and yet every bit as inspirational to me was the report I got from a proud grandfather. Wes Dawson gave me just a little two-page copy right here of his granddaughter Julia's valedictorian speech at Mars High School and in it I won't take the time to read it, but she references two of her favorite scriptures and reads them in the speech. And of course she had to get the speech pre-approved. Well her teacher said no I can't approve that you have to go to the principal. The principal said no I can't approve that you have to go to the superintendent and good old Julia she wasn't gonna take no for an answer. She went to the superintendent and he said okay. And so she gave her valedictorian speech with two scriptures in it and I read it. It's a wonderful, it's a very very clear expression declaration really of the truth of God's presence for all who call upon him. So I you know just passionately these people I mean they just fire me up and they're bearing such great fruit, and we ought to all be proud. Now my question as we begin the message today is Are you going to be bearing fruit this summer? Is this going to be a fruitful summer for each one of you? Will you deepen in your faith? Will you grow? Will you bear some fruit that brings glory to God? Or will you just maybe drift along? The summer can be a time, you know it, of just kicking back and sort of letting God and everything else sort of just go on by. And Pastor Jeff mentioned the beach and some of you lit up and said man I just can't wait to go because I can forget about everything. And maybe that's okay for a season but you know what if that's your whole summer, I think you might be missing something. Now the Bible talks about three common barriers to spiritual growth and I'm going to flip it over and say there's three keys to spiritual discovery. And I want us to look at it in the context of what's called the parable of the sower in Luke chapter 8. Now it's called the parable of the sower, but it's really the parable of the what? It's the parable of the soil. It's why? Well because the sower is very clear. Who's the sower? It's God. Everyone say God. The sower is God and he cast his seed. What is the seed? Right? His seed is the Word of God. Everyone say Word of God. I'm trying to get you folks together here. So there's God and he's casting out his seed which is the Word and the only variable in all of this story is the kind of soil that the seed falls upon. And the seed falls on four different kinds of soil and the kind of soil that the seed falls on determines whether or not the seeds go to waste or whether or not they produce a great harvest. And the question today that all of us are going to look at is what's going to happen as the seed falls into your life as it's going to right now. The first seeds coming your way. You ready for it? There you are. Number one. What do you have to have happen in your life? Number one. You must be receptive to God. Now look up here and you'll see on the screen a demonstration of the first kind of soil. It says a farmer went out to plant some seed. As he scattered it across his field some seed fell on a footpath where it was stepped on and the birds came and ate it. Well, you can see if we can drop that scripture off there. Let's just take a look at that path. That's a broad footpath actually comparatively speaking. Actually, it's like a small driving road. I live on some acreage near my home and there's a lot of little paths. Now, what do you think would happen if someone threw seed on that little road right there? Well, let's look at the next verse. It says the hard path where some seed fell represents the hard hearts of those who hear the words of God. And the devil comes and steals the words away and prevents people from believing and being saved. You see, what's going to happen on that soil is the birds are going to come and eat it, the devil's going to come and steal it and there's not going to be any fruitfulness. I'm going to say something that you may or may not agree with but I want you all to listen to this. The primary reason people do not grow spiritually is not what they normally tell you. It isn't usually that their families are at fault. You know, the spouse is getting in the way. Or, you know, it's my kids. You know, if I didn't have my kids, I'd really have time to grow. But my kids are just like, they're in the way all the time. And it's not your boss or your boss's boss. And it's not the media and it's not the government and it's not even your wonderful pastoral team. Or the church that you think maybe isn't hearing from the Lord or whatever it is. You know why? There's only one reason why you don't grow spiritually. And it's this. It's because you choose not to. And that may not be what you want to hear, but I'm firmly convinced that's what the Bible teaches. We have been given the will by Almighty God to grow spiritually if we so desire. And as you begin to look at your own heart honestly and say, am I responsive? Am I responding to the Word? Or am I indifferent toward this spirit? Am I simply kind of looking for a reason to do my own thing and just somehow justifying that? Because I want to just hang on there. Did you know that this morning tens of thousands of people aren't going to take the time or trouble to get out of bed and come to church? They're going to prefer to, you know, lay in their beds most of the morning. Maybe go have some coffee out on the deck. Maybe go golfing. Maybe go down to the mall already and start shopping or whatever they're going to do. Well, I want to first of all say, not you. You came here. You've already set yourself apart. So I want you to give yourselves a hand. You've already demonstrated that you have a bit of a soft heart and that's a great thing. That's a great thing. Now the question is, what's going to happen as that seed falls on you? See, if it falls on that hard packed soil, and by the way, here's what I see on that footpath. It's very hard packed down and it's also narrow. Against the backdrop of that huge field, you can see how narrow that road is. Most people that I talk to who are unresponsive to God are just that way. They're hard packed and they're narrow-minded. You know, don't confuse me with the truth. I already have my mind made up. I don't want to hear the truth. They have hardening of the attitudes. And if they have that, it's almost impossible to communicate with them. They've already made up their minds. And lest you think it's just talking about people who don't know Christ, may I just caution you a moment and say this. Some of us get this way. We get hard-packed and narrow-minded when God tucks at us about a specific thing in our lives. There might be an area someone will teach you about this summer. Maybe they'll talk about relationships in the home, and you've already had your mind made up, you know, my wife's the problem. Now my wife's not here today. I could talk all about my wife being the problem. But her daughter and my son JD, they're here, and I can't. But you know what? She's not the problem. And neither is your spouse. You know, we could say all kinds of reasons why somebody else is the problem. And people have their minds made up. They're not going to change. They're not going to grow because they've decided that they've got an excuse. They've got a reason. I want to say this. In your mind today, and in your heart, is there a place where God might be tugging? He might be saying, well, you know, it's about the financial thing in your life. Every time the pastor talks about finances, you bristle. Every time he mentions money, you just say, well, I wonder what he wants. But you know what? You might just have some hard-packed soil there. And you might need to just ask God, wait a minute, Lord. Help me to be soft-hearted. I just want to hear your heart in this. Maybe it's about, well, maybe it's something God's been tugging at you to do for the kingdom of God. Maybe it's a ministry history. Maybe it's miracles. Maybe it's, maybe it's just to believe him to touch a life through you. On your outline, the hardened path is a closed mind. And may God deliver us from closed mindedness. Three causes of a closed mind that I've seen, and I'll just touch on these quickly. The first one is fear. What if God asked me to do something I don't want to do? I mean, what if he asked me to become like a religious lunatic? You know, to dye my hair and hand out tracts if we were at a stadium or something, you know? Or what if he calls me to give up everything I've ever worked to acquire and sell it all and become poor? You know, what if he does? You know what? Last week I gave a whole message, shared my heart, that your heavenly father loves you more than any earthly person does. And if God calls you to do something really crazy, which I rarely see him do, you can bet this, in the end you're going to be blessed. Because he loves you. So fear, most fears are totally unfounded. They're based on aberrations of past experiences and people's stereotypes. Don't let fear rob you of God's best. The second thing is bitterness. It's resentment toward God over something that you thought God should have done, or something that didn't happen. Or maybe something that did happen that you blame God for. You know, this has been a season of funerals for us. Just yesterday, Keith Marshall's father passed away. We've been praying for him. Willie Flinchbaugh, a dear senior in our congregation, a prayer wearer, lost her daughter here just recently to an aneurysm very suddenly. Our own Amy and her husband JD lost JD's mom. She was buried last Monday morning at age 56 from cancer. And Marlene Westerman, I mentioned last week, we've had four deaths here in the last 10 days or so that they're very painful. And sometimes, and it's extreme, that can cause people. You see, pain causes people to do one of two things. You either get closer to God or move farther away from Him. Every painful experience will cause you to do that. You'll either blame God, you know, and just pull back from Him, or you'll embrace Him and say, Lord, I need you in the midst of this. Some of you have broken dreams. I talk to people all the time, you know, I was believing God for a great ministry and it never happened, and I don't know why. And you know what, you haven't been able to get over that. Someone stopped me after the first service and said, you know, I was hurt by the church. The church let me down, and they weren't referring to this church specifically, but a church. And I'm sure there's people that this church has let down in certain ways. But you know what, if you allow bitterness to keep you from a God who loves you, you're missing it. You're letting the devil come and steal the seed that God would want to plant. You say, well, why did it happen then, Pastor Jamie? If this God we talk about all the time is so loving, why did, you know, why did my spouse abandon me? Why couldn't I have kids? Why did my business go bankrupt? And whatever it is on your list. And I have to say, Kimberly, I just don't know. I know this, I know heaven is a perfect place, and God's going to answer. There's going to be a Q&A day in heaven. I'm going to line up for the Q&A day in heaven. Say, you know, God, I don't understand why you let this happen, and that, and this, and that. And you know what, the Bible says that every person will be silenced when they hear the answers of God. It's right in the scripture. They're going to be silenced. Now, here's the question for you. If heaven is perfect, what is earth? It's imperfect, isn't it? Just look at the person next to you. Okay, tell them you're just a little bit imperfect, okay? Now, here's the problem. Imperfect people, given the great, listen, the great blessing of free will, make imperfect choices. Are you following me? So, imperfect choices that I make at times hurt people I love. Imperfect choices that you make from time to time hurt people that you love. So, people hurt me. I hurt them. They may or may not intend to do so. But listen, the option is to not have free will. The option is to not be free enough to make choices. And I would rather live in a world where there's a risk of making the wrong choice than to have no freedom at all. How about you? So, that's the way God designed the world. And we won't know until the end why He allowed some things to be the way He did. In the meantime, I can say this. I know that the Lord Jesus hurts with you if you've been hurt. Every time I read the Gospels, which is frequently, I am astonished at how compassionate Christ is. Everyone that came to Him and said, would you heal my daughter? He came right away. You know, would you deliver my son from this? And well, why did the disciples couldn't do it? No, but I'll come. And He was always there. He hurts with you today, loved one. So, don't suffer alone and don't get bitter about it. Let God soften the soil of your heart. Because Jesus wants to do a new work. He wants you to grow. The last cause of hardness and closed mind is pride, but that's not a problem for anybody here. So, we'll just go on. Well, let me just read the next verse. It says, don't be proud, but accept God's teaching that is planted in your heart. That should be. This teaching can save your soul. Don't think you have all the solutions because you don't and I sure don't. Let's be humble and depend upon God. Second thing we got to do if we're to discover God's spiritual plan for our life is to, we must be resolved to grow. Now, I want to say it again because I know some of you missed it. I only said it once. Every one of us can make a choice about whether we're going to grow spiritually or not. Spiritual growth, maturity is a choice. The Apostle Paul said some amazing things. I remember how I used to stumble at some of his things when I was a young Christian, but he said this, this is one of the verses that links grace and effort together. It's not on your outline, but I want to jot it down. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am and his grace to me was not without effect. No, listen, I worked harder than all of them. Yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me. What's Paul saying? What's he saying there? He's saying, well, it's God's grace, yes, but then I cooperated with it. I threw my effort into it, and then even that was God in me, but I was working with it, and because of it, great things happened in my life. I want to say this morning, dear ones, if you want to grow, cooperate with God's grace. You got to just decide, you got to be resolved that you're going to grow with the plans of God in your life. Some people think, you know, it's just, there's just a chosen few folks. I mean, Dan's supposed to be, he's just, he's going to be a spiritual giant, or Allison back here, she's going to be really big in God, but not me. I'm destined to kind of be mediocre. Here's what I want you to hear. There's a spiritual giant in every one of you. If Jesus lives in you, there's a giant in you right now. Turn to someone right now and tell them, you can be a spiritual giant right now. Turn and tell them that. You can be a spiritual giant. Now, you know what? It's okay to laugh a little bit about that, but I have a library of like 6,000 books, and I read about the spiritual giants, and I've often asked myself a question. Why couldn't I be one of them? And the Lord rebuked me once about that, and He said, you can be. And so can you. Why? Because the same Jesus that lived in them lives in you by His Spirit. And so it's just a matter of us cooperating with the grace of God, growing together with what God wants to do. But you've got to resolve to do it. Now, what happens is, you see, that for some of us, when that seed comes, it falls in what's called rocky soil or shallow soil. And we've got a great picture up here. You can see that there's the soil, and it's got rocks all around. Now, what do you think is going to happen when the seed falls in that? Well, it's going to go down, and underneath most of that grass is a deep, deep layer of rock. Best analogy I can think of was just right across the street. If you were around here at all, I remember talking to the staff a couple of times. We were wondering why that beautiful corner lot over there just never had any trees on it, just this sort of kind of grassy, you know, weedy-looking thing. And when they got over there, if you were around, they scraped off maybe six or eight inches of soil, and then all of a sudden, rock. And they had to get those machines, you know, with the big drill, the pneumatic drill, and just boom, boom, boom. For six months, they drilled rock. And if you go over there now, it's one acre of concrete. You know why? Because they couldn't grow a thing over there if they tried, because underneath that concrete is rock. There's some little scrubby bushes that send down roots just about four inches this way, and that's it. Well, friends, for some of us, we have that in our lives. I mean, we've got this little layer of soil, but underneath it is some hard rock. Many people I talk to are like this. You see, they welcome the message of God. They'll say something to me, like today, they'll say, after this, they'll say, great message, Pastor Jay, or hey, that was the best sermon I heard all day, or something like that. Well, I'm assuming, of course, they listen to several television pastors. Or, I was really challenged, or, you know, this one always gets me, you were really funny today, like that's some sort of spiritual gift or something. Or, I really sensed this spirit in your life, or God was really present today, or something like that. You know, it was just a great morning, and they walk out the door, and as soon as they turn on their radio, and they hear one more lonely love song, they forget about everything they just heard, and they go back into their old way of thinking, and they make the fatal mistake of being a hearer of the Word, and not a doer of it. And I have to tell you, if you're thrilled every Sunday, but not transformed, you're not getting it done. If you're moved and stirred, but not making any progress, then, well, look on your outline, James 1.22. It says, don't only hear the message, but put it into practice. Otherwise, you're merely deluding yourself. Don't let that happen to you. Don't let it happen to you, okay? Don't delude yourself. You're worth more than that. It's very important. Every one of us needs to realize that God has a special destiny for you. And let me just say this, too. If you happen to be somebody that has tried this and failed, get up and try again! Because you've got new folks around you here. Every time I turn around, there's somebody new coming into your life that's going to make a difference for you. Now, what is that shallow soil? Well, fill in your blank. It's a superficial commitment. It's a superficial commitment. You know, what is that about? Let me just touch on this, because it's very important. There's a danger in coming to a church like this. You know what the danger is? You can hear teaching every week and say, great, or, you know, for example, we have, in this series, we have given you just some practical teaching on things like four keys to healthier relationships. How about this one? We talked about God's plan for financial management. Many of you said that was a great message. I understood grace in the context of my giving. We talked about turning failure into positive change. We talked about four ways to handle stress. How many of those principles have made their way into your life? Well, I do have the outline. I still have that. Well, that's good, but you see, you need to apply the Word of God. Because if you don't, it's not going to change you. Look at the next verse, 1 Timothy 4, 7. Take the time and trouble to keep yourself spiritually fit. Now, just this is an easy analogy. How many of you know it takes time and effort to stay physically fit? How many of you know if you just eat and sit, what's going to happen to you? Yeah, your body starts just changing shape right before your eyes, and you don't... If you don't take the time and you don't take the trouble to be fit, you will not grow. And I want you to know it's the same way spiritually. It doesn't happen automatically. And I want to give you five specific commitments that you can make for spiritual growth. And these aren't just random ideas. These are right out of the Scripture. This is what it means to be a balanced disciple. I'll jot them down real quickly. Number one, you need to be committed to connecting with others. You got to make a commitment. I want to say this categorically. Look up here for just a second. In all of my journey of 35 years of being a Christian, my greatest times of spiritual growth have always been when I've connected with other men and other couples. That's it. They're the greatest times of growth, and that's why it's number one up there. You can't make it as a Lone Ranger Christian. You're just not designed to do it. You can't do it. Second commitment you've got to make is a commitment to living in the spiritual disciplines and building them into your life. The habits, we call them, of prayer and worship and Scripture reading and being alone with God in moments of solitude and so on. You've got to build those into your life. But notice, I specifically put them second because I don't think you can do it on your own. You've got to be connected. And those of you who are nodding at me saying, oh, yeah, I got to do that. I got to do that. And you're still not connected. May the Lord help you to see that this is really serious. That's the part of your path right now that needs to be softened. This is the Word going into your life. Third, I got to be committed to developing my gifts and talents. Do you know you have a spiritual gift? You have a unique talent that God gave you that only you can exercise according to the way He's made you, and we're dying to see that baby come out. We need that around here. I saw Paul up here today doing the rhythm thing. I don't know where you get that, brother, but you're good. And that's a gift that he comes and serves using them, you know, all the different instruments back there to help bring us into the presence of the Lord. It's great stuff, and all of you have different gifts. Number four, a commitment to sharing my faith. A commitment to letting others know. Isn't it great that we have several hundred people here today to hear the Lord and come before Him, but how many of you know there are thousands of people who are clueless about this? I mean, I just take one walk into the mall, and I know, or one walk into a public place, and I know. And many of you work in places where the environment is so negative. Do you know how much people need the Lord? And finally, a commitment to fulfilling my purpose. The unique reason why God put me here. Now, what I want you to see about these five commitments is that these, and by the way, we have been quietly laying these as a foundation over the years here as a church, but these five commitments are the reason why we exist. To help you get these commitments into your life, because if you do this, then you're going to become a fruitful person in God. This is going to help you to blossom into fullness, and in the coming months, and listen to what I'm going to say, because it's going to eventually get to you. We're going to do a whole lot of things as a church to help highlight these five commitments, to help you get into them, and to discover them for yourself. In Acts 2 42, the Bible says that they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching, and breaking of bread, and prayers, and serving one another. Dear ones, we're going to do that as well, because we want you to be all because, you say, well, why are you so intense on this? I mean, I just want to be a laid-back church, you know. I want to just take, you know, take your jacket off and cool off. Well, it isn't about that. It's not about being intense. It's this, because I want to be able to stand alongside of every one of you. There's a day coming, by the way, when we're all going to stand before God. You know, a couple of you mentioned to me, a hot topic out there right now is Left Behind, Left Behind. I mean, the Left Behind series, have you heard anyone talking about that? It's the number one, the latest one, the number one seller on the New York Times best-selling list. A Christian book, Left Behind. Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins were on Larry King Live this week. That was pretty intense, and this is only number seven of a 12-series, 12-part series. People are saying, well, and it's interesting, you know, I don't want to be left behind. Now, religion's a crutch, but I don't want to be left behind. I mean, don't force Jesus on me, but I don't want to be left behind. There's only two questions you're going to have to answer when you stand before God, friends. First one is, why should I let you into heaven? And if you've been coming here for more than one week, you know the answer to that. It's not because you're religious, it's not because you've tried hard, it's not because your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds. It's because you have learned to trust in the grace of Jesus, demonstrated on the cross as the power to forgive your sin. That's the only way, and you've got to live that by the strength He gives you. And then number two, that's not the only test. The second question is this. He's going to say, what did you do with your life? And it's very clear. First Corinthians 3, Paul says it. Second Corinthians 5, he says it again. Over and over again, we read about God saying, you're going to give an account. Matthew 25, the parable of the talents. The Lord's going to say, what did you do with your life? Did you get connected with other believers? Did you mature in your faith? Did you learn to share with those that I put across your path? Did you serve someplace where your talents and gifts work? Did you fulfill your purpose? Or will you just stand and embarrass silence and say, well, yeah, Lord, I wanted to, but it was those kids you gave me. Those kids just kept draining me. I wanted to, but you know what? I had to work four jobs just to make ends meet. And seriously, I wanted to, Lord, but I didn't know if it really made any difference, and I don't know where to go. People say so often, if God would just make it really clear, if He would just tell me what He wanted me to do, then I'd do it. I hear people say that, and they're waiting for some great, like, trumpet sound. Okay, here's your mission in life. Go do it. And here's what I've discovered. God almost invariably speaks to us in a gentle voice, saying, this is the way to go. I've asked John to come and just encourage our hearts to listen to that gentle whisper of the voice of God. Are you hearing the Lord today? Is He speaking into your heart? Don't wait for that trumpet. Don't wait for that loud cymbal. Just listen to God, and don't let superficial commitments keep you from God's best. Just a couple of possible application points for some of you today. Pastor Dave's gonna have some days of reflection. They're in your notes. There's a couple of days already listed there that you can choose to spend a whole day of just getting before God. And the second thing is this. Pastor Scott's creating an opportunity for all the men. How many men are here? Put your hand up. All right. Are you sure? Okay. Men, if you're not in a small group, then you're missing one of the most important ways that God's provided for you to grow. Now, it doesn't have to be just a men's group, but I found men's groups are some of the best ways, because men get real honest with each other. And two weeks from yesterday, that's July the 8th, at 8 in the morning, Pastor Scott's gonna have a little breakfast and just a couple of hours to create and launch what's like turbo groups, basically, for men for about an 8 to 10 week commitment. And I want to encourage it. Men, think about how you might fit in there as a point of growth and connecting. There'll be more information next week, but it's just two weeks away. So keep that in mind as an opportunity where you can get to know men just like you who want to grow together. Let me just finally touch on this last point. I'll do it quickly. If you want to grow, you have to, first of all, be receptive to God. Second, you have to be resolved to grow. And finally, you have to be ruthless with distractions. We got it. You know what? We live in this bombarded society with more information and opportunities than any culture has ever known. How many know what multitasking is? You've heard that term, multitasking. Anybody that, you know, works with computers or... You have lots of jobs to do at the same time. For me, multitasking is driving my car on Route 19 in Wexford, going to a restaurant, eating a hamburger, drinking my Diet Coke, talking to my cell phone, listening to a CD and shifting my five-speed on checking my mirror, and wondering where do I put my squeezy ball to release tension? I mean, I had to have one more thing to do. That's multitasking. Distractions are everywhere. Some of you are into so many activities. I mean, you've got your whole list made up every week. Some of your kids are driving you crazy with all their things. And some are great opportunities, and there's certainly nothing wrong with that. But be careful because the devil will allow thorny weeds to grow up and choke the good plants, as your next verse says. Look at Luke 8, verse 14. The thorny ground represents those who hear and accept the message, but all too quickly, the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and so they never grow into maturity. The third barrier, the first is a closed mind, the second is shallow superficial commitment, and the third is an overcrowded life. How many of yo