The seed beside road

By Pastor Young Joon Park

Mark 4:3-4, 9-15

The Parable of the Sower

The field is our heart.

We have 4 different kinds of hearts according to Jesus’ teaching.

Four different Hearts

1. field beside the road: Hardened Heart

2. rocky ground: Stony Heart

3. among the thorns: Thorny Heart

4. Good soil: Good heart

I. The privilege of the chosen people of God

II. The Heart beside the road

1. The parable

  1) The seed fell beside the road

  2) The birds of the air came and ate it up

2. Meaning

  1) Sower sows God’s Word

  2) The birds of the air is satan

  3) satan’s action is to take away the word of God from people

  1) The sower sows the word.

The seed is God’s Word.

The seed being sowed in your heart means that every word of God is released to your life as the prophetic word for your destiny from the Lord.

I would like to make a challenge to you.

Why do you come to church every Sunday and the Cell Group Fellowship?

What is your purpose of doing it?

What do you expect from the Sunday Service and the Cell Group Fellowship?

For those of you who do not have any answer for these questions, you need to realign your heart with the Lord from now on.

In every Service and every Cell Group Meeting, God releases His Word to your life with His Prophetic Word for your destiny.

He releases the prophetic word during the worship, announcement, offering, testimony, prayer, the sermon, ministry and the fellowship time.

I constantly hear about two different responses from two different groups of people from the new people who newly came to One Glory Church, one with the positive responses and the other with the negative responses.

Ones were so blessed for the freedom and love throughout our services and fellowships.

The other ones are so distracted by the new environment than what they expected in church.

But sooner or later everyone will be one together, and there will be no more of the negative responses in their heart.

Here is my suggestion when you come to Sunday Service and the Cell Group Fellowship.

Expect that God will release the prophetic word to your life, and get ready to receive it.

God releases the prophetic word through the sermon, because God speaks to me to whenever I prepare the sermon, which is also true for other preachers.

  2) The birds of the air is satan

If we do not have hunger and thirsty heart to receive the word of the Lord, we will get bored, sermon will be too long, any mistaken word from preacher’s mouth or the power point screen will be noticed and  … so on.

Everything will be problem.

  3) satan’s action is to take away the Word of God from people

That is satan’s trick and determined to steal your heart from the Lord’s plan for your life.

Please do not open your heart to satan.

We have to focus on Him alone, worship Him, honor Him, praise Him, love Him, bless Him and receive all of Him.

Sunday Worship Service is the celebration time for the Lord with all our saints.

3. This field is the vulnerable heart with the world.

1) The road is hardened place because of many people’s foot steps (teach).

There are so many theories in the world, and people want to learn as much as they could and to follow. And it became their own possession of their life.

Even someone claimed that the knowledge is the power.

During the campus ministry, I reached out to a law school student. This student was full of his own theories, and his heart was so hardened.

Many cases, people make decisions by what they are taught by someone. As we are God’s children, we have to make decision according to His Will alone. That’s why we have to hear the voice of the Lord in every decision. We have to obey the Lord alone no matter what other people have taught us. Human teaching is not perfect.

Common problem about the tobacco

It is the understanding of many people that the tobacco is actually worse than drugs, however general public was not aware of it, because most people were manipulated by the tobacco industry misleading them into believing that tobacco was not as bad as it really is because the industry desired to make profit on the market.

One man stood firm and determined to correct this problem by exposing how bad this tobacco really is for human’s health. Right now you can see special note on each cigarette pack about the warning of the health. No one can smoke any more in the commercial airline flights now. And most places are obligated into adopting the strict regulation about tobacco on public health issue as you could see.

This is just one tiny tip of ice berg. And every one of us has to examine very carefully on what you hear and what you see. No exception!

2) Open space – all the streams flow

The road – people’s path – this is a path for many people

There are so many ways of the worldly belief.

Vulnerable place – all kinds of belief

Ephesians 2:2

in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.

3) Compromise place – Many Christians are falling into this pit.

According to many survey many Christians pay visits to psychics. This is really a sign of compromise. I believe that all these people will compromise to receive the beast number on their forehead or on their right hand when the anti-Christ comes.

Revelation 13:8

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

Some people believe that we are going through the tribulation period, and others believe that we are not. I believe that we are going through certain phase of this period.

One thing I am sure is that whatever you believe, as long as you do not compromise with the world today, you will have a chance to overcome for the distressful time of tomorrow.

If you do compromise with the world today, you will fail in the distressful time of tomorrow.

So it is very important to overcome the current distressful time of today.

So it is the time you have to overcome today and come out from the darkness. If you do not take care of it today, you cannot take care of it tomorrow.

This is the warning of the Lord.

James 4:4

You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

4) satan steals the Word of God from their heart before getting rooted

the birds of the air (NKJV) came and ate it up.

a)     when they hear the word of God,

b)     immediately satan comes

c)      satan takes away the word which has been sown into them.

I really encourage you to understand the satan’s strategy against us. Please memorize this verse to keep you from satan at its first stage.

John 10:10

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

The enemy’s plan is the destruction, but our Lord’s plan is abundant life, so please do not be deceived by satan.

God has a plan to give you the best for you, but satan is trying to destroy you.

satan’s strategy has 3 steps 1) to steal  2) to kill  3) and to destroy. This strategy has been never been changed since Genesis 3.

He always starts out by trying to steal in the first step.

He knows the right person to steal from and how to deceive.

The first woman

Let’s see his first temptation to the woman who is Adam’s wife.

Genesis 3:1

Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?

Let’s see how Eve started falling into his temptation.

Genesis 3:6

When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

1)     To steal: When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise,

2)     To kill: she took its fruit and ate;

3)     To destroy: and she gave it also to her husband, and he ate

Jesus Christ our Lord

Matthew 4:3

And the tempter came and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

As you can see, satan tried to use his strategy even to Jesus Himself.

The blessed person

Psalm 1:1

How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

Nor stand in the path of sinners,

Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

1) To steal: the man/woman who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,

The first woman – discussed it with satan continually

Jesus Christ – never discussed, but used the word of God and rebuked satan

2) To kill: the man/woman who does not stand in the path of sinners,

The first woman – stay in this stage – became a sinner mother of nations

Jesus Christ – was not in this stage at all – but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin as the light of the world.

3) To destroy: the man/woman who does not sit in the seat of scoffers!

The first woman – cast out from the garden and eternal death to all human being

Jesus Christ – sacrificed Himself on the cross to destroy all human beings’ sins and death once for all, and brought the eternal life to all.

satan always looking for the chance to steal – the birds of the air

1 Peter 5:8

Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

But we have to remember that we have the authority over the devil and the power to cast out the devil from us the same as what Jesus resisted the devil from His early Ministry.

Resist the devil whenever he comes to your life.

1 Peter 5:9

But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

James 4:7

Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

Flee means run for life.

As soon as you resist the devil, the devil cannot stand to fight against you.

Amanda’s testimony – her headache –she rebuked the devil - gone

Let’s go back to Jesus again.

satan tried to make to deceive Jesus’ heart to convince Him in using the power to feed Himself from the hunger.

He did not give up after the first temptation, but tried 3 times.

The reason for trying 3 times means that work is so hard to accomplish the purpose up to death. If you put it differently, meaning of it is never stopping until fulfilling the purpose.

The reason was to try to destroy Jesus’ redemption mission that e=will destroy satan’s kingdom.  That’s why he tried very hard to deceive Jesus Christ in using the power to do the miracle for Jesus Himself.

Jesus came on earth not as a God, but the Son of Man as the last Adam who is perfect Man in God. The perfect man means the original man who was created with holiness as God’s Image by the Lord, but this first Adam who was perfect man fell into sin, and he became a defiled man because of satan.

God had to create another perfect man to redeem all the defiled human being. God did not create another perfect man, but sent Jesus Christ who is Himself on the earth as the Physical flesh form of Perfect Man who is the last Adam for us.

Jesus Christ came on earth as the last Adam, not a second Adam, because there is no other Adam in God’s plan. One very famous Bible scholar whom I respect kept saying the second Adam, but I strongly disagree the word second Adam. Yes, we can describe the Last Adam as the second man, but the Adam itself should be the Last, but not a second Adam.

1 Corinthians 15:45

So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.

Jesus is the final redemption for all of us and done on the cross.

Jesus Christ proclaimed on the cross.

John 19:30

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.

He did not say, “Father, let me finish,” but He proclaimed, “It is finished.”

For the intercessors

Our intercessor’s prayer has to be changed because of Jesus’ Cross.

You should not begging the Lord and twist God’s Arms to answer to your interceding. It is the time to proclaim what Jesus has done for us and decree over the enemy with the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He has done everything for you on the cross.

He took all your curses on the cross, all your sins on the cross, all your sickness on the cross, all your poverty on the cross, all your failure on the cross, all your loneliness on the cross, all your sorrows on the cross, every single thing that does not belong to the Lord on the cross. All those things are no longer power over your life because of Jesus Cross.

Do you still carry them on your shoulder?

It is time to come to the Lord and lay them down under the feet of Jesus, and give your life to the Lord and commit your life to follow Jesus today.

He wants to give you the best thing for your life.

He already gave it to you, so what you need is to make your heart to simply receive His Gift with your hands.

Please do not wait until the end of this message. Come right now, and give your life to the Lord. And He will give you the access to receive all the spiritual blessings in heaven that is in Christ our Lord.

Only He is your Lord and your Savior.

Invitation!!!

how much more satan will tempts us, when satan tried tempting even to Jesus Christ our Lord, then? So we have to stay alert on satan at all times.

Please notice satan’s first step – Jesus was hungry, the first woman’s curiosity of the knowledge of good and evil, from Psalm the person’s problem

As you see from all these examples, satan tried to steal our heart from our weakness or needs.

So we have to know what our weaknesses are right now.

Prepare for your heart in that area if you found it.

One suggestion: do not fight it by yourself, but share your struggle to your brothers and sisters and receive support amongst yourselves.

When we overcome the first step, we can overcome the rest of them, but we need to be in covering.

4. The result of this heart

There is no capacity to hold the Word of God at all, and the enemy took it right away from their heart, so there is no way to understand the Word of God at all.

5. Symptom of this heart

You might need to check your heart when you receive the word of God through many different ways,

if you do not understand the Word of God that is released to you,

if you do not agree with the Word of God that is released to you,

if you are interrupted with many thought while the Word of God is released to you.

6. Encouragement

Hebrews 3:9-11

The example of the harden heart

In the wilderness

1) They provoked God

2) They tried God by testing God

3) Even after they saw God’s work for 40 years

The result of their harden heart

Wow!

“I was angry with this generation.”

“I swore in My Wrath.”

“They shall not enter into My Rest.”

Hebrews 3:7-8

Conclusion

God wants us to come in His Place, so He calls us today continually.

Romans 12:1-2