Are you without or are you in?
By: Pastor Ron Crandall
Mark 4:1-20
1 And He began to teach again by the sea. And such a very great multitude gathered to Him that He got into a boat in the sea and sat down; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.
2 And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching,
3 "Listen {to this} Behold, the sower went out to sow;
4 and it came about that as he was sowing, some {seed} fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate it up.
5 "And other {seed} fell on the rocky {ground} where it did not have much soil; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of soil.
6 "And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.
7 "And other {seed} fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no crop.
8 "And other {seeds} fell into the good soil and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
9 And He was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
• Revelation chapter 2 & 3 is filled with the following “ he who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
10 And as soon as He was alone, His followers, along with the twelve, {began} asking Him {about} the parables.
His followers: were people that stayed around
The twelve: were his disciples and they stuck through thick and thin
The multitudes; are just crowds
The crowd doesn’t understand the motives that move Jesus
But I am not a crowd person if you have followed my ministry for any length of time you would have heard me use this saying that the Lord gave to me one night in prayer “stop seeking my hand and start seeking my face.”
I want to be at the feet of Jesus capturing the secrets of the Kingdom
• Numbers are elusive
• You show me one man or woman that is willing to climb a tree that they might see Jesus and I will show you a person that God is going to use mightily.
• I don’t know about you but it was a crowd that came out of eygpt, a multitude of people
• But it was a remnant that went into the Land of promise, I want to be a part of the remnant
• The multitude got tired of waiting on God
• The multitude got tired of long services and seeing God move in their midst
• So the Multitude built their own God, it is kinda like a Burger King God called the golden calf, but, I can leave whenever I want because I control it and He doesn’t control me. I can go when I feel like blessing my god with my presence.
“Church Revival fire does not come on our whims or demands”
“When Jesus shows up he comes to rock the house, we better learn to facilitate an almighty God or his habitation will be come a visitation and we will be like Mark 4:6 withered and have no one to blame but oursleves.”
I have watched people come and go, I am now praying God send us people that are truly hungry for a move of your Holy Spirit through this land…. It doesn’t matter who is missing, you showed up so let God do in you tonight what he wants to do!
Be a part of that remnant!
We don’t know the exact number of his followers but they were not the multitude, they, along with the twelve disciples were the remant….
Jer 23:3-9
3 "But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase.
4 "I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking," says the LORD.
5 "Behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness; a King shall reign and prosper, and execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.
6 In His days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell safely; now this is His name by which He will be called: THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.
7 "Therefore, behold, the days are coming," says the LORD, "that they shall no longer say, ’As the LORD lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt,’
8 "but, ’As the LORD lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them.’ And they shall dwell in their own land."
9 My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the LORD, and because of His holy words.
(NKJ)
Jesus talking to those that stayed around refused to give up, He said to you!
Has been given the secrets or mystries of the Kingdom of God.
But the crowd, I speak to them yet they refuse to hear what I am saying and they are on the outside.
They see, but do not perceive
They hear, but do not understand
11 And He was saying to them, "To you has been given the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside get everything in parables,
12 in order that while seeing, they may see and not perceive; and while hearing, they may hear and not understand lest they return and be forgiven."
“When He was by himself, those near him, with the twelve, inquired about the parables and He told them, “The secret of the God’s Kingdom is committed to you; but to outsiders these matters come in parables.”
• So to those that are in, they have the ability to know what God is doing in the land today!
• They may be surrounded by the sea of circumstance but they have perfect peace that cast away all fear.
13 And He said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? And how will you understand all the parables?
14 "The sower sows the word.
15 "And these are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word which has been sown in them.
16 "And in a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky {places,} who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy;
17 and they have no {firm} root in themselves, but are {only} temporary; then, when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.
18 "And others are the ones on whom seed was sown among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word,
19 and the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 "And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word and accept it, and bear fruit, thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold."
(NAS)
You may not always like what you hear, but, the word of God is good to the tearing sown of strong holds and it bears fruit!
INVITATION:
