Passage
Matthew 13:3-9
[3] And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; [4] and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. [5] “Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. [6] “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. [7] “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. [8] “And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. [9] “He who has ears, let him hear.”
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
Some people receive a great amount of inheritance money from their parents, and others are envious of them.
But I believe you who are children of God are not envious of such people. Who is our heavenly Father?
The wealth of the wealthiest man of the world cannot even begin to compare with the wealth of God.
All the things in the universe belong to the Father God.
God is the master of not only this physical world but also the vast spiritual realm.
What you have to realize is that God made you and I the heirs of God.
But due to the sin of Adam and Eve, the first human beings, we all lost this right.
From being children of God, we became the slaves of the enemy devil.
But God the Father sacrificed His one and only Son Jesus and got us back from the enemy devil and Satan.
He redeemed us with the blood of the Lord. He made us heirs of the kingdom of God once again.
Galatians 4:6-7 says, “Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” [7] Therefore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God.”
What is the inheritance of God? It is the kingdom of God, the eternal Heaven.
But in order for us to become the heirs, we first have to learn the necessary things.
Some owners of big companies in this world train their children or the heirs for a certain period of time.
They give them certain tasks and make them achieve them so they can have the capabilities to run the company.
Likewise, God has given us the task to cultivate our hearts.
If we fulfill this task well, we will inherit the kingdom of Heaven and dwell in glory there forever.
Also, on this earth as well, we can rule over and control this world as God’s children.
The inheritance of this world has limited chances, duration of time, or the volume. But, the inheritance of Heaven is limitless.
Anybody can receive it, but yet, only if he meets the qualifications.
Also, because we have the Helper the Holy Spirit, anybody can have those qualifications by cultivating our fields.
Keeping this in mind, I hope you will have greater hope as you listen to these messages and cultivate your heart into a good soil.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will inherit the brilliant glory of New Jerusalem, in the kingdom of heaven.
[Main]
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in the last session, I talked to you about the characteristics of the rocky field.
When seeds fall on rocky fields, they sprout, but the soil is shallow and they cannot take root. So, they will soon be scorched by the sunshine.
This is the kind of person who receives grace when he hears the word, but soon falls into temptations and trials.
Namely, because they don’t have spiritual faith, but just faith as knowledge, they don’t have the deeds that follow their faith.
The “rocks” refer to their love for the world.
In a broader sense, it is the untruth that hinders them from believing in and loving God.
Especially, it refers to the untruthful elements that take their place very firmly like rocks, and that prevents the Word from taking root.
Also, according to the size of these rocks and how deeply they are placed, each person’s heart-field is different from each other.
For example, some people leave God and go back to the world even after experiencing God’s grace.
Also, some others attend church, but do not cultivate their heart-field.
Still others have partially rocky fields. So, they bear fruit in some areas while they don’t bear any fruit in other areas.
This is what I explained in the last session.
Now, what do we have to do to cultivate the rocky field?
First, we have to diligently follow the Word.
We have to do the things that God tells us to do, not do, keep, and cast away.
We must read, hear, and learn the Word, but the important thing is to do what we have read, heard, and learned.
The importance of practicing the Word cannot be over-emphasized.
Among the four kinds of commands that tell us to do, not do, keep, and cast away, the ‘don’t’ commands and ‘cast away’ commands are the processes of cultivating our heart-field.
To follow the commands that tell us to do and keep certain things is the process of sowing the seeds.
Is there anybody who thinks, “We haven’t finished cultivating, so do we still have to sow the seeds?”
Yes, we have to. We have to sow the seeds while we are cultivating the field.
It’s because we can finish cultivating more quickly when we sow the seeds at the same time. Let us see why it is so.
As we try to keep the commands that tell us to do and keep certain things, we can understand what kinds of rocks of untruths we have in our heart-field. Namely, we can understand what is hindering the seed of Word from taking root.
We can understand what is actually hindering us from practicing the word of God.
We can find out the untruths in heart while reading, hearing, and learning the word and while praying, but we can most easily find it out when we try to practice the word.
We can more clearly realize just how big and how hard this rock of untruth is, and how deeply it is imbedded.
For example, suppose a believer has heard about the beautiful heavenly kingdom.
He has learned that he has to try to save other souls while fulfilling his duties, to go into a more beautiful place in Heaven.
He has been touched by the message and came to long for the heavenly kingdom. So, he volunteers and begins to do the work of God.
But as he actually tries to fulfill his duties, it is not as easy as he thought.
When he was just a layman member of the church who didn’t have any title, other members served him.
But now, he has to serve other lay members.
Now, he is trying hard, but he has hard feelings when he works with somebody who does not really agree with him.
His ill-feelings such as resentment and hot-temper are coming up from his heart.
He gradually loses the fullness of the Spirit, and he even thinks of quitting his duty.
Then, these ill-feelings are the rocks that he has to cast away from his heart-field.
These ill-feelings are derived from the big rock called ‘hatred’.
As explained, when he tries to obey the word, ‘be faithful’, he now faces the rock called ‘hatred’.
When he finds it out, he has to attack this rock called ‘hatred’ and pull it out.
Only then can he obey the word telling us to love and have peace.
To attack the rock means you try your best to pull that rock out of your heart-field.
For example, you pray to cast it away whenever you pray, or when you give offerings to God, you ask God to answer your request on that matter.
Also, you don’t just give up only because it’s hard, but you hold on to your duty even more firmly and fulfill it more passionately. This way, you should change into a worker who is gentle.
In this process, you will naturally cast away the rocks of untruths such as resentment and anger.
Thus, by sowing the seeds, we can find what kinds of rocks we have. Let me give you another example.
A certain believer was touched by the message ‘The Law of Sowing and Reaping’.
He was especially challenged by the part that said ‘we will reap blessings when we sow a lot in prayer, faithfulness, and offerings’.
His heart has become passionate, and he makes a vow to pray and give offerings to God in a certain measure.
But he changes his mind mid-way, and he broke this vow before God.
It’s because this person has the rock called ‘craftiness’ in his heart-field.
This craftiness is derived from seeking one’s own benefit and advantage, namely greed and untruthful heart.
Therefore, this person has to pull out the stones called ‘craftiness’ from his heart.
More fundamentally, he has to remove the big rocks called ‘greed’ and ‘falsehood’.
Of course, it is better not to make a vow rather than breaking it, but if we make one and keep it, it is a blessing.
As latter part of Psalm 15:4 says, “He swears to his own hurt and does not change,” we must keep a vow even if it hurts us.
Therefore, it is better to make goals that we can surely achieve and keep the vow, and slowly increase the measure.
Then, we can also accomplish the unchanging heart.
Then, the seed of the word will take root deeply. The sprout will grow up quickly and bear the fruit quickly.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to cultivate the rocky field, secondly, we have to pray earnestly.
When we find out the rocks in our heart-field while practicing the word, we have to earnestly pray about them.
When the rain falls on the field, it will be wet and soft. It is a good time to take out the rocks.
Likewise, when we pray, we will be filled with the Spirit, and our heart will become soft.
Ezekiel 36:26 says, “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Here, the new spirit refers to the Holy Spirit.
As we are filled with the Holy Spirit by prayers, we should not miss that chance. We have to quickly take out the rocks.
Namely, we have to immediately put the things into practice that we couldn’t really obey before.
As we keep on doing this again and again, even the big rocks placed deep inside can be shaken and pulled out.
The rocky field can receive grace and the fullness of the Holy Spirit, so all these processes are possible.
The untruths in our heart can never be cast out with just our own strength.
Our effort is important in trying, but we can cast them away only with the grace and strength of God given from above and the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
It is especially the case with the things that have taken place deep inside our heart like deeply imbedded rocks.
I believe you experienced it yourself in opportunities of blessings like the Blessing Party or Lunar New Year.
Because God is pouring down special grace and strength, you were able to cast away the sins and evil that you wouldn’t have cast away by your own willpower.
Just like a strong rock breaks, the rocks placed deep inside your heart were pulled out and thrown away.
Some people joyfully testified that their long-lasting hatreds melted away and they came to forgive those whom they couldn’t forgive at all.
Many students also testified that they came to feel the worldly things were not fun any more and they could concentrate on their studies.
If God’s grace falls on us, we can cultivate even very rocky fields and change them into good soil.
Our church has never let the fire of prayers be extinguished since our opening, and for this reason the Holy Spirit is always moving through this church.
So, if you just pray with determination, you can be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Also, because we have Daniel Prayer Meetings, it is easier for you to receive the power of prayer than when you pray alone.
Brothers and sisters, anybody can pray. It is not that only some powerful servants or those who have become sanctified can pray.
The more shortcomings and necessary things they have, the more God wants them to ask of Him.
Psalm 103:14 says, “For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.” God the Father knows what we have to cast away from our heart-field.
He knows what we want to cast away, too.
Zechariah 10:1 also says, “Ask rain from the LORD at the time of the spring rain The LORD who makes the storm clouds; And He will give them showers of rain, vegetation in the field to each man.”
As written, God always wants to give us more than what we ask of Him.
If we ask this God for grace, He will give us abundant grace like showers of rain.
I hope you will pray and ask God to give you the grace to be able to cast away the rocks in your hearts.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, thirdly, in order to cultivate the rocky field, you have to keep the fullness of the Holy Spirit.
We can pull out the rocks that are placed deep inside the field only when the field is soft after rain.
If the ground hardens again, it is difficult to take out the rocks.
Some people try to cultivate their heart with fasting and prayer but go back to the world mid-way.
Then, it is difficult to recover their previous zeal.
Namely, if the ground becomes dry, the rocks can even go deeper into the field, so it is important to keep the field always soft.
And in order to keep the softness of the field, we must not lose the fullness of the Spirit.
Some people lose the fullness of the Spirit and stop cultivating their heart. But we must never stop cultivating somewhere in the middle.
If we stop in the middle, it will be even more difficult.
For example, once we stop cultivating, we will not be touched in our heart even though we hear many words of truth or see many signs and wonders.
Even though we hear spiritual messages, we don’t try to keep them in mind thinking we already heard them and know them.
Even though we may see amazing signs and wonders, we are not touched in heart thinking we have seen them before.
The heart becomes more and more hardened.
If the heart is hardened this way, it is more difficult to receive the grace later.
But rather, we may even accept the truth within our own evil and make a new framework of the truth.
We have to find our ‘self’ and ‘ego’ through the Word, but we make a new framework of the truth and pass judgment on others with it.
Now, in order to keep the fullness of the Holy Spirit, what do we have to do?
We have to diligently obey the messages we hear and the voices that the Holy Spirit gives to us. This is not something difficult at all.
God moves the heart of each person according to each one’s measure of faith. He never tells us to do something we cannot do.
Of course, sometimes He moves our heart to do something beyond our measure of faith.
This is a very special case, and it is for a very great blessing.
But usually, He moves our heart to do the things that we can do, such as reading the Bible and meditating on it every day, praying, doing good works, and speaking gracious words.
These things may seem trivial, but God gives us grace and fills us with the Spirit as we obey them.
The difference between those who are always full of Spirit and happy and those who are not does not come from something big.
In many cases it comes from small things such as the attitude or the words of the lips from moment to moment.
But as we try to obey the Word this way, we may sometimes find it difficult to obey.
But we must not lose heart in these situations.
It is very important not to lose heart in keeping the fullness of the Spirit.
Even if we falter in the middle, we must not be discouraged but keep on going.
If we believe that we can certainly cultivate our heart by God’s power and do not give up, it will certainly be done according to our faith.
We will eventually become good soil.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, God gave this “heart-field” only to human beings.
There are so many kinds of animals on this Earth but no animal has heart like that of a man.
In the spiritual realm, there are angels that are so beautiful and powerful, and are also ever-living, but they don’t have hearts like men.
The fact that we have a heart-field to cultivate shows us that we are God’s children. It means we are the heirs of the kingdom of heaven.
But according to how fertile a field each one makes, and how much fruit each one bears, the inheritance in Heaven will be different.
In Luke 22:28-30, Jesus said to His disciples.
“You are those who have stood by Me in My trials; and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you [30] that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.”
I challenge you to make your field the best quality field so that you will show abundant fruits standing before the Judgment Throne at the Judgment of Reward.
I pray in the name of the Lord that you will become the best heirs and the true sons and daughters of God who will always dwell near the throne of the Father in New Jerusalem.
[AMEN]
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