This morning we continue our series entitled “Leveling Up with the Word!” We have been looking at the parable of the sower. Let’s get back to it today.
Setting the stage:
Jesus said:
(Mark 4:13-20 ERV)
“The farmer is like someone who plants God’s teaching in people. Sometimes the teaching falls on the path. That is like some people who hear the teaching of God. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the teaching that was planted in them.
Other people are like the seed planted on rocky ground. They hear the teaching, and they quickly and gladly accept it. But they don’t allow it to go deep into their lives. They keep it only a short time. As soon as trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching they accepted, they give up.
Others are like the seed planted among the thorny weeds. They hear the teaching, but their lives become full of other things: the worries of this life, the love of money, and everything else they want. This keeps the teaching from growing, and it does not produce a crop in their lives.
And others are like the seed planted on the good ground. They hear the teaching and accept it. Then they grow and produce a good crop—sometimes 30 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 100 times more.”
We are still dealing with the thorny ground. Today I am going to focus in on the line, “the worries of this life.” Other translations read, “the cares of this world.”
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. It’s your mind. Take responsibility for it.
— You get to choose what you meditate on. It’s your mind. You get to tell it what to think about.
— If you meditate and medicate on the promises of God, the Word will work in your life. However, if you choose to meditate on the cares of this world, the cares/worries will choke out the Word and keep it from working. You will receive Word over and over again, only to have the Word die in your heart because you have too many weeds growing in there.
— If you want to control what is going on in your heart, you must take control of your mind.
— A disciplined mind leads to a heart where God’s Word is free to do what it does!
2. Your life is constantly producing something. You get to decide what it will produce.
— Whatever you fill your mind with will impact what is going on in your heart.
— Whatever your heart is full is what will eventually come out of your mouth (out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks).
— Your mouth will tell on you. People can tell what is going on in your heart by simply listening to the words you speak. If there is garbage OUT, it is because garbage was sown IN.
— Whatever you think in your mind and speak from your lips will be what produces fruit in your life. In the case of the thorny ground, the only thing producing fruit is weeds. Since this person’s heart is full of weeds, their life is full of the fruit the weeds produce. Even when a Word from God gets down in their heart, the Word is not able to produce. It gets choked out by the weeds.
— If you don’t like the harvest (fruit) your life is producing, you have to check the seeds you are allowing in your heart. If you feed yourself a steady diet of God’s seed (His Word), the seed of the Word will eventually overtake the weeds in your heart. That is called “the renewing of your mind!”
— The day you were Born-Again, you were a new man, living in an old body, in need of a new mind!
3. God is simply looking for you to work with Him.
— When you decide (and I mean a firm decision) that you are going to change, and you go down the path of renewing your mind, God can work with and through you because you are giving Him something to work with. But if you choose to live life the way you always have, on your own terms, doing your own thing, God will not interrupt or override your decision. You will allow what you have allowed, and you will waste the ONE LIFE He gave you!
— There is nothing God cannot do through a person who is completely submitted to Him. But won’t do anything through a person who refuses to submit or cooperate with Him.
— God does not need your ability. He has all the ability in the universe. But He does seek your availability. If you make yourself available, God is more than capable of doing (through you) what you could never do on your own.
— This is why meditating on God’s Word is so important. If you meditate on the problem instead of the promise, you will take on the cares of this world, and you will not be in a position to be used. But if you meditate the Word and you give yourself over to God to be used of Him, for His glory, He will put His Super on your natural, and you will do things that exceed human ability. It won’t actually be you doing it. It will be the Father, living in you, giving you the words and performing the work (John 14:10).
4. Your is greatly impacted by your decisions.
— God is a Father who wants to teach His children so that they can make wise decisions because He knows that at the end of the day, your life is a grand-sum-total of your decisions. If you make good decisions, Godly decisions, then you will get Godly results. If not, you won’t. It’s that simple.
— Faith is a choice, just like fear is a choice. Faith is a choice, just like worry is a choice. If you choose to worry and carry the cares of this world, the worry, fear, doubt, and unbelief in your heart will CHOKE OUT the Word and keep it from working.
— In the parable, Jesus is clear that you must give the Word an environment that is conducive to it working in your life. Guess who has to prepare the environment in YOUR heart for God’s Word? YOU! YOU have to do it. No one else will. YOU must decide to stop feeding on the cares of this world. YOU must decide to give the Word of God first place in your life.
— You have a choice this morning. You can choose to set your mind on the things that are above or you can take on the cares of this world. If you take on the cares of this world, you will be limited to human ability and you will be confined by your limits. But if you choose to meditate on heaven and on the limitless God who called you, you will operate beyond your limits and experience heaven on earth! The decision is YOURS to make!
I don’t give a CARE, because my Father cares for me!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season of LEVELING UP for me! I LEVEL UP in 2021 by giving You and Your Word priority over everything else. You call me to do things I cannot do on my own. You call me to operate beyond human limits because You are poised to do the work through me. You are not looking for my ability. You are looking for my availability. I declare that I am available, and You are able! I will not allow the cares of this world to keep me from Your best. I will not allow the cares of this world to confine me to human limits. I clear my heart of all weeds. I feed my heart a steady diet of Your Word. I give the Word space to work, and it does what it does in my life! I refuse to take on the worries of this life. I don’t take care, nor do I give a care. I live by faith. My faith accesses Your grace, and I get to live the life I was born and Born-Again to live! GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
