Bobby Bosler: Welcome to the Thee Generation Podcast. I’m Bobby Bosler and I’m speaking to you today from Menominee Falls, Wisconsin, where many of us around here are getting prepared for the Thee Generation Youth Summit. I think you know this by now, but there are hundreds of young people from all around the country that are going to be gathering here in Menominee Falls over the next several days.

And we’re going to be competing in four-way competition and hearing what God wants to say to us out of the Word of God. That being said, though, we recognize not all of you can come and join us, but we hope you will join us digitally. We’re going to be having the sermons available online shortly after the Youth Summit has concluded.

But whether you’re here in person or whether you’re listening remotely, God wants to do something in your life. And as I’ve been thinking about this matter, as I’ve been thinking about the matter of our preaching being effective, I’ve been thinking about a parable that Jesus told in Mark chapter 4.

And he said this in verse 20, And these are they which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bring forth fruit, some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some an hundred. What we find from Jesus’ parable here is there are the intention of the sowing of the word is that it would fall upon the good soil of our heart and that what God does in our hearts would multiply exponentially.

In other words, God wants young people to come to this youth summit, and because of the word of God being preached and because of their receptive hearts. He wants them to go home, and he wants them to reach their generation with the gospel of Jesus Christ. God wants young people to go home and reach their schools for Jesus.

God wants young people to go home and impact their siblings for Jesus. God wants young people to go home and be a blazing light for Jesus Christ in the workplace, in their neighborhood, and all over their personal region. That being said, why is it that it doesn’t happen?

You know, the same people sometimes can sit around and hear the same preaching, and it impacts them very differently. And as a matter of fact, that was the very point of Jesus’s parable here. If you go back and look at the actual parable in verse 3, he says, hearken, behold, there went out a sower to sow.

So here’s a farmer, a guy that has seeds in his hands. He’s going and he’s spreading these seeds. Jesus makes it later clear that the seed is the word of God.

In other words, the point of his analogy here is there are some people that, like a farmer, are sowing the word of God’s into hearts. You know what we call that? We call that preaching.

And this week, there’s going to be preaching. However, if you’re familiar with the parable, you’ll know that the preaching of the word did not affect everyone the same way. And there’s a reason for that.

As he goes on and it says, And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the wayside. In other words, some of the seeds fell alongside the road, and the fowls of the air came up and devoured it up. Here’s the first kind of soil that is represented here, and this is untended soil.

Now Jesus makes it clear later on the soil is the heart. It’s the person’s receptivity to the word. And what happens here is this kind of an individual does absolutely nothing to prepare his heart for the preaching of the word of God.

He just goes through life. He just lets the ground be just like the ground next to the road. You know, nobody goes around and digs up the road and turns it up and purifies that soil.

It’s good-for-nothing soil. It just lays there. The rain hits it.

Grass grows on it. Maybe, maybe not. Maybe there’s rocks embedded in it.

But that soil is completely untended. And I find so many times I myself, and perhaps you can identify with me, I come into a preaching time and I’ve done nothing to prepare my heart. And I’d like to submit to you, maybe that’s why you don’t get much out of preaching.

Can I say this? If you don’t prepare your heart this week, we’re going to do our best to help plow up the soil. But let me tell you, you’re not going to get what God wants you to get if you leave your heart completely untended.

Well, Jesus goes on and he says, And some, some of the seed fell on stony ground where it had not much earth. And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched.

And because it had no root, it withered away.

Jesus made it very clear later on when he was explaining what that’s talking about It says these are the people who receive it with gladness, but they don’t have any root in themselves And it’s interesting that he uses the analogy of stones In other words, there are things in the soil that are preventing the word of God from taking root And you know what the stones are in your heart young people?

The stones are sin And you know, I’ve preached to young people saved and lost alike long enough to know that before the word of God can take root we’ve got to deal with the garbage, the junk, the stones that are going to ruin the effectiveness of that soil. And young person, can I say the best thing you could ever do in coming to this youth summit is deal with sin before you ever get here.

Oh, you know what things God is touching your heart about. You know the things you’re going to have to get right about if you come. Can you do yourself a favor?

Get right. Yank those stones, those rocks out of the soil before you ever get here. Because listen, you can go through a whole week, you can even make some decisions, but if there are still stones of sin in your heart, you may make a decision, but it’s not going to last.

That’s the point Jesus made here. When things get tough, when the heat is turned up, it says they are offended. In other words, they stumble.

They don’t keep multiplying and growing. Well, the next part of his parable here, he gives another kind of soil, and he says, and some fell among thorns. And the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Jesus explained this and made it very clear. He said, and these are they which are sown among thorns such as hear the word, and the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in. Choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.

See, this kind is a competing soil. In other words, we have a completely untended soil. That’s somebody who doesn’t do anything to prepare their hearts for the preaching.

We’ve got a rocky soil, an unturned up soil. That’s somebody that’s got stones that’s going to hinder the ability of the seed to catch root and to go deep. This one here, there’s all kinds of other plants in the soil.

There’s thorns, there are weeds, and lots of other things that are fighting to draw the nutrients out of the soil that really should be there for that seed. And this is the distracted soil. This is the overloaded soil.

Young person, did you know you only have enough time for the will of God? And while there are many hobbies and things that we could do and ways that we could spend our time, sometimes these other pursuits and the distraction of these other things, they choke out what God wants to do in your life. You know, young person, there might not be anything sinful or wrong with that particular hobby, but does it choke out your love for God?

Does it choke out your service for him? If so, young person, you can keep that weed in your life for the rest of your life, but don’t expect for your life to be fruitful 30, 60, and 100 fold. That’s competing soil.

The last kind of soil is obviously the kind of soil that we all want to have and that God wants us to have, and Jesus puts it this way. He says in verse 8, and other fell on good ground and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased and brought forth some 30 and some 60 and some 100. And Jesus basically said this is the good soil.

So what makes a soil good? It’s real easy. It’s tended to.

There is an intentionality ahead of hearing the word of God that says, I want my soil to be ripe for that seed to be received. It’s a soil that’s free from the rocks and debris that will make decisions shallow and not last. It’s a soil that’s willing to pull up any weed, no matter how precious it might be.

Any thorn, no matter how seemingly pretty and decorative it might be, it yanks everything out because you know what that soil is most interested in? Bearing fruit. And you know, young person, can I say, as you approach this week, and for those of you that are going to be listening digitally as you look forward to those recordings coming out, prepare your heart to receive the Word of God.

God wants to take what he’s doing in your life and he wants it to multiply 30, 60, a hundredfold. Do you realize that if every one of us would allow the word of God to impact our heart and our lives, if we would learn the truths that he wants to teach us here this week, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to lead 30 people to Jesus Christ before we come back next year.

There’s no reason why you shouldn’t be able to impact in a significant way 60 people. Listen, some of you here, and again, I recognize as I’m saying this, you’re thinking, there’s no way. Yeah, there is.

Because it’s not your power, it’s God’s. See, God wants to speak to you here this week. God wants to give you a vision that’s a whole lot bigger than you could ever imagine.

God wants the seed that is planted in your heart to multiply exponentially. Young people, I’m praying for you, praying for God to do a work in your life that won’t just impact you and your family, but will impact the entire world. That’s what we’ve been called to.

And you know what? As you’ll surrender to the will of God, as you’ll let the word of God speak to your heart, as you’ll depend upon him to do what he calls you to do, I’m telling you, we can turn this world upside down with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Thanks so much for listening, and we’re looking forward to seeing some of you soon.