{"id":9487,"date":"2025-12-14T20:45:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-15T00:45:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=9487"},"modified":"2025-12-14T21:13:58","modified_gmt":"2025-12-15T01:13:58","slug":"hearts-and-soils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/?p=9487","title":{"rendered":"HEARTS and SOILS"},"content":{"rendered":"

HEARTS and SOILS<\/u><\/b><\/h1>\n

Luke 8: 4-15<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones<\/b><\/h2>\n

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Matthew 13:1-3 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

1\u00a0 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
\n2\u00a0 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach.
\n3\u00a0 And he told them many things in parables, saying: \u201cA sower went out to sow.<\/p>\n

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Matthew 13:34 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

34\u00a0 All these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables; indeed, he said nothing to them without a parable.<\/p>\n

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THE\u00a0 DIFFERENT DIRT<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n

Luke 8:4-8 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

4\u00a0 And when a great crowd was gathering and people from town after town came to him, he said in a parable,
\n5\u00a0 \u201cA sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it.6\u00a0 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
\n7\u00a0 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it.
\n8\u00a0 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.\u201d As he said these things, he called out, \u201cHe who has ears to hear, let him hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE PARABLE PURPOSE<\/b><\/u><\/h2>\n

Luke 8:9-10 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

9\u00a0 And when his disciples asked him what this parable meant,
\n10\u00a0 he said, \u201cTo you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of God, but for others they are in parables, so that \u2018seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.\u2019<\/p>\n

Matthew 13:13-16 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

13\u00a0 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14\u00a0 Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: \u201c\u2018\u201cYou will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive.\u201d15\u00a0 For this people\u2019s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.\u2019
\n16\u00a0 But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

THE HEARING HEARTS<\/b><\/u><\/h2>\n

Luke 8:11-15 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

11\u00a0 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. 12\u00a0 The ones along the path are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13\u00a0 And the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear the word, receive it with joy. But these have no root; they believe for a while, and in time of testing fall away. 14\u00a0 And as for what fell among the thorns, they are those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by the cares and riches and pleasures of life, and their fruit does not mature. 15\u00a0 As for that in the good soil, they are those who, hearing the word, hold it fast in an honest and good heart, and bear fruit with patience.<\/p>\n

1 Corinthians 2:14 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

14\u00a0 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.<\/p>\n

1 John 2:19 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

19\u00a0 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us.<\/p>\n

James 2:19 (ESV)<\/b><\/h3>\n

19 <\/span><\/sup>\u00a0You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe\u2014and shudder!<\/h3>\n

1 John 2:15-17 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

15\u00a0 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16\u00a0 For all that is in the world\u2014the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life\u2014is not from the Father but is from the world.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 17\u00a0 And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.<\/p>\n

James 1:17 (ESV)<\/strong><\/h3>\n

17\u00a0 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HEARTS and SOILS Luke 8: 4-15 \u00a0by Rev. Richard Jones     Matthew 13:1-3 (ESV) 1\u00a0 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2\u00a0 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,24,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-messages","category-sermon-series","category-sermons-by-rev-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9487"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9498,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9487\/revisions\/9498"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.crossroadchristianfellowship.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}