"Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket;
    they are regarded as dust on the scales;
    he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust." Isaiah 40:15

So many people fighting among themselves. All saying, "Look at me!"

"What has been will be again,
    what has been done will be done again;
    there is nothing new under the sun." Ecclesiastes 1:9

Everything is meaningless without God. When God comes into the equation, there is great significance.

"I also said to myself, “As for humans, God tests them so that they may see that they are like the animals. 19 Surely the fate of human beings is like that of the animals; the same fate awaits them both: As one dies, so dies the other. All have the same breath[a]; humans have no advantage over animals. Everything is meaningless. 20 All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return." Ecclesiastes 3:18-20

It's not about us.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." James 4:14

If we change our focus to God rather than ourselves things change.

"Guard your steps when you go to the house of God. Go near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, who do not know that they do wrong.
Do not be quick with your mouth,
    do not be hasty in your heart
    to utter anything before God.
God is in heaven
    and you are on earth,
    so let your words be few.
A dream comes when there are many cares,
    and many words mark the speech of a fool." Ecclesiastes 5:1-3

"Look at me!" separates me from God. If I try to be significant I'm separating me from God. It's the heart that matters. Give from your heart. It isn't about us. God cares about each one of us.



 "For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. For,
“All people are like grass,
    and all their glory is like the flowers of the field;
the grass withers and the flowers fall,
 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[a]
And this is the word that was preached to you." 1 Peter 1:23-25

Significance of Who He is. We can't earn His love or His grace or anything from God. Nothing we can do is enough without God. God loves us so much.

"If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?" Matthew 6:30

"This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins." 1 John 4:9-10

God took Adam from the dirt and made him. We make ourselves back into dirt in a sense when we sin...

The broken family breaks the individual. We all are broken. We are not the way God intended us to be. He sent Jesus so we could be part of the family.

"Even to your old age and gray hairs
    I am he, I am he who will sustain you.
I have made you and I will carry you;
    I will sustain you and I will rescue you." Isaiah 46:4

Our meaning comes through Him.

"Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care.[a] 30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows." Matthew 10:29-31

Yes, you are contributing because He wants you. He wants each and every one of us.

"This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth." 1 Timothy 2:3-4

All He wants us to do is accept Him. We can choose to be His children.

"For the Lord will not reject his people;
    he will never forsake his inheritance." Psalm 94:14

"The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.'" Deuteronomy 31:8

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38-39

Nothing can separate me from Jesus. We break things.Through Christ, we can become children of God.

"But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, 5 he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6 whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7 so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life." Titus 3:4-7

Come to the Father.

"Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Hebrews 4:16

Run to Me! 

Background for before Matthew 13 when the parables begin:

Sabbath is a day of rest. Jesus was again confronted by the Pharisees about Him breaking "their" rules. He had been giving them two years of direct quotes from Scriputre. He had to have constant arguments with the Pharisees. He healed on the Sabbath and all they could think is that he broke "their" rule. He finally was just done with them and their hard-heartedness. The parables were in a sense a kind of judgment on them.

“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters. 31 And so I tell you, every kind of sin and slander can be forgiven, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. 32 Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come." Matthew 12:30-32

"But I tell you that everyone will have to give account on the day of judgment for every empty word they have spoken. 37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” 38 Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law said to him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”39 He answered, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." Matthew 12:36-39

Why Parables?

Pride-- the mind of man: Science and theology and higher education. All these were created to bring us closer to God. But often man's pride will use them to feel like they are so important. Life becomes a theory, not a life application. When we are living in theories rather than really living there is a problem. 

"For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. 22 Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. 25 For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.26 Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong."
1 Corinthians 1:21-27

It's not about how smart you are, it's about how much God loves us.

Parables fulfil prophecy

"In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:
“‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding;
    you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.
15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;
    they hardly hear with their ears,
    and they have closed their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
    hear with their ears,
    understand with their hearts
and turn, and I would heal them." Matthew 13:14-15

Jesus is done arguing with them.

Parables: they are all reflections of the kingdom of God. It's all about the heart -- the soils parables. Parables -- unfinished, not logical. 

"I will open my mouth with a parable;
    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—" Psalm 78:2

They aren't just stories. 

Parables show the spiritual kingdom to Believers.

"With many similar parables Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could understand. 34 He did not say anything to them without using a parable. But when he was alone with his own disciples, he explained everything." Mark 4:33-34

Explanation to the disciples.

"But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous people longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it." Matthew 13:16-17

Blessed are we. We get to see it all.

"Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things." 1 Peter 1:10-12

It's to us they were written. We have so much potential that is unrealized. Am I being a Jonah? When I use my own "wisdom" I'm being a fool.

What are the parables to us today?

Examples of the kingdom of God.

God wants us to be hungry for Him. Then we will seek Him.

Through the discernment of study and the Holy Spirit, understanding.

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." Matthew 7:7

An "If" passage...If you do____________you wil get_____________.

If you don't seek it you will never find it.

The tools I have don't work if I don't use them. We can't fake our way through. We have to get to be one with God. 

Are you seeking?

Is your heart soft enough, are your ears and eyes open?

Are you willing to surrender your own pride to see what the Spirit is revealing?

In faith, the answers are waiting for you. 

"Because I said so" from God is enough.
​

(This sermon and sermon notes are from Sunday, October 6th. I wasn't able to post it until today, Saturday, October 12th. I'll post tomorrow's sermon tomorrow. The following sermon was a really good sermon. I hope you get a chance to listen to it.)

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake." Psalm 23:1-3

God is constantly trying to restore us. Always. He's the God of restoration.

The whole world awaits restoration.

"For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time." Romans 8:19-22

Why do we need restoring?

1. Willful neglect. It will fall apart. Our souls get the same way. If we don't do the regular maintenance our souls need they will fall apart. Do we expose it to the world?
        Temptation -- the devil and his demons constantly looking to tear us down. Can steal our fruit and testimony.

"We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all." Isaiah 53:6

Sheep are the most frustrating animals. They will stray. They fight their own best interests.We humans do the same thing. We will do things we know will damage us. God knows this. He knows sin would pull us from Him. David kept coming back to God (that is what we need to do). He accepted his sin and repented and came back to God. Surrender to temptation is a choice. 

2. Restoration from Complacency.  Complacent until loss occurs (physical, emotional or spiritual).  Shock of loss will do great damage to us if we aren't close to God.

"Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy." John 16:20

The world will go on partying even when you have great loss. The difference is coping or hoping.

No one can restore something better than the original creator. Going back to the Creator for our restoration makes sense. There is no restoration without God.

The world tells us to cope. God tells us to hope. 

Everyday we are one day closer to death.  

Don't hold onto decay.

"What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?" Mark 8:36

You can't buy salvation. God didn't heal Jesus on the cross. He resurrected Him. 

You can't fake the work.

3. Restoration from ourselves.

"The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing." Psalm 23:1

We take God's beauty and destroy it. We are taking blessings from God and distort them. A constant walking away from God when we insist, "Me, me, me!"

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come:[a] The old has gone, the new is here!"
2 Corinthians 5:17

Restoration is a process. We will always need His grace.

Be a mirror for God's joy. The world neeeds to see God's joy. Pleasure fades. It never lasts. Without God we have no security in the future. We were created for unification with God.

Joy comes from God. If we don't share our joy why would the world want what we have?

Every single promise from the world has a bill in the end.

"Restore to me the joy of your salvation
    and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me." Psalm 51:12