Transformed For Life In The Kingdom

Sermon Summary:

At the heart of Matthew 13 lies one of Jesus’ most powerful teachings: the Parable of the Sower. This isn’t just a story about farming—it’s a profound truth about spiritual transformation and flourishing. We discover that the gospel is like seed, powerful and life-giving, but its fruitfulness depends entirely on the condition of the soil it falls upon. What makes this message so compelling is its dual application: it speaks both to how we share the gospel and to the state of our own hearts. Are we prepared to receive God’s transforming work? The fruit of the Spirit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control—doesn’t come naturally to us. These qualities emerge only when the seed of the gospel falls on well-prepared soil in our lives. This requires intentional spiritual practices: reading Scripture, prayer, worship, and living in community with other believers. The beautiful promise is that change is possible for everyone. No matter how broken we feel, no matter what generational patterns we’ve inherited, the gospel has the power to transform us completely. When we prepare our hearts through relationship with God, we position ourselves to bear fruit thirty, sixty, even a hundredfold—fruit that others will recognize and that brings glory to God.

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Sermon Points:

FLOURISHING – Living life as God intended! Jesus Christ desires to absolutely, completely, and holistically redeem every part of you, transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you and through His redeemed community, to conform you to His image.

PARABLES – The word means, “a casting alongside.” In the parables of Jesus, a relatable story is “cast alongside” a spiritual truth.

PROCLAMATION – The message of the Kingdom of God is to be proclaimed (broadcasted like seed) so that people have the opportunity to hear the Good News!

PREPARATION – The soil that is prepared to hear the Good News will be the most receptive and will bear the most fruit.

POWER – Never underestimate the power of the Gospel! It is Good News! We can be completely transformed by its power at work within us!

Key Takeaways:

• Matthew 13 serves as the literary center and pivot point of Matthew’s gospel
• Christian flourishing means living life as God intended, with Jesus redeeming every part of a person
• Parables are relatable stories cast alongside spiritual truths to teach theology and prompt decision-making
• The gospel seed must be proclaimed and broadcast—it cannot bear fruit if left contained
• The condition of the soil (human heart) determines the fruit produced
• God’s first command to humanity was “be fruitful”—this remains His desire for believers
• The fruit of the Spirit doesn’t come naturally but results from gospel transformation
• Preparation of the heart happens through relationship with God: reading Scripture, prayer, worship, and Christian community
• People should be able to recognize Christians by their fruit in everyday life
• The gospel has power to change anyone—no one is beyond transformation

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Scripture References:

• Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23 (The Parable of the Sower)
• Galatians 5 (Fruit of the Spirit)
• John 15:5, 8, 16 (The Vine and the Branches, bearing fruit)
• Proverbs 11:30 (The fruit of the righteous)
• Matthew 7:20 (By their fruit you will recognize them)
• Psalm 78 (Speaking in parables)
• Isaiah (Prophetic fulfillment regarding parables)

Stories:

• The Parable of the Sower: A farmer scattering seed that falls on different types of soil—the path (eaten by birds), rocky places (scorched by sun), among thorns (choked out), and good soil (producing crops 30, 60, or 100 times what was sown)
• Personal confession about struggling with Christian behavior while driving, particularly when other drivers don’t merge properly
• Reference to Chris Hodges saying “I’m barely a Christian when I’m driving”
• Description of terrace farming in Nazareth where Jesus grew up, explaining the context of the parable
• Illustration about modern farmers investing in expensive seed technology and not leaving it in the barn
• Analogy of growing an oak tree from one acorn to illustrate multiplication principle
• The pastor’s early ministry experience in two country churches despite being a “city boy”

Sermon Transcript

Wow. And everybody said amen. You know, when Mackenzie was a little girl, she got in the way of a softball that I threw at camp. And I don’t think it did permanent damage. I don’t think it’s turned out okay.

Didn’t it? And wow. What a sweet day in worship already. Something I rarely ever get to do. It just doesn’t happen very often.

It is to introduce my brother and his wife to you all. But my brother Emerson and Mary are here today from South Carolina and so love y’all.

And their son Auburn just went real subtle today and Annalise are here. Auburn and Annalise have little Maverick and Xander in our worship care. And it looks like one more on the way. Am I right about that, Annalise?

I think I am. Okay. But we’re so glad to have our family with us today. And I hope you’ll get a chance to meet Emerson and Mary if you haven’t done that already. We know our theme for the lenton season is the real story.

And we are allowing Matthew to be our guide this year in our lenton’s journey. And today we find ourselves on the 13th page. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, I’d like you to look at that with me. I’ve entitled the Message transformed for life in the Kingdom. When scholars try to help you understand how Matthew laid out the story.

Many, many scholars, New Testament scholars say that Matthew 13 is the center of Matthew’s gospel. That there’s a literary technique that people use in the ancient world, still use it today, but particularly in the ancient world. And that kind of structure seems to be used by Matthew. And Matthew 13 is that pivot point, if you will. It is a lesson from Jesus.

It’s one of his sermons and it is filled with parables. And we’ll talk about that here in just a minute. So if you have your copy of the New Testament, let’s look at Matthew 13. I’ll invite you to stand if you’re able, as we honor the Lord Jesus in the reading of the Gospel. Jesus has been in Capernaum with his friends.

And Matthew says in verse one, that same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and he sat in it while all the people stood on the shore. Then he told them many things in parables, saying, a farmer went out to sow his seed. And as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up so thumb fellling rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil where it Produced a crop 160 or 30 times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear. Thank you.

You can be seated.

Than you all know, if you’re a part of our church, that we are on this journey learning more about flourishing, and we are participating in this study. At some level, we are connected to at least the Christian analysis of what it means to flourish. And you remember Tyler Vanderwil, who is a professor at Harvard. He’s an epidemiologist, and he is one of the leaders of the Global Flourishing Study. He gives a very simple definition of flourishing.

He says it is living life as God intended. And being an epidemiologist, he has spent most of his career in the field of public health. And so he talks about looking at these different domains of health, and if all of them are good, he refers to that as a state of flourishing. And you’re about to hear more about it because here in the next couple of weeks, they are actually gon to be publishing the first set of papers based on the research of the Global Flourishing Study. And so you’ll hear more about it.

I believe it’ll be reported in the media. But as I’ve given thought to it, I shared with y’all last Sunday. I spent a lot of time thinking about flourishing and how Christians flourish. And here’s the way I would put it when I think about flourishing as a Christian, I would put it like this. Jesus Christ desires to absolutely, completely and holistically redeem every part of you, transform you by the power of the Holy Spirit at work within you, and also through his redeemed community to conform you to his image.

That, to me, is flourishing. And as your pastor, that’s what I am praying over you. I’m praying toward that end in your life. That’s what it’s all aimed toward, for you to be in this dynamic relationship with Jesus. And we’re going to make our way through this journey.

I’ve been working now for a little while on a prayer for flourishing. It’s a comprehensive prayer for you to pray over yourself, to pray over the church, and to prayer over the community. And when I finish that prayer, I’m gonna share it with you. It’s a Prayer for flourishing. So with that said, I want us to look at this parable from Jesus today, and let’s talk a little bit about that parable.

The word parable in Greek, it means a casting alongside, uses that Greek prefix parah, which, it means to come alongside. And in the parables of Jesus, here’s how it works. A relatable story is cast alongside a spiritual truth. Jesus chose to use parables, that is his primary mode of teaching. And he actually refers prophetically in terms of fulfillment to Psalm 78, where the Psalmist says, I will speak to them in parables.

In fact, Jesus also says, if you still have your Bibles open there. Matthew 13, he says in verse 14, here’s the fulfillment. And he quotes this passage from Isaiah. Not everybody’s going to understand what he’s going to teach them through parables. But the disciples asked him, why parables in verse 10.

Why is it you’ve chosen to do this? Well, I dare say that in this room today, which is filled with a lot of veteran Christians, we probably could ask most of you, and you could tell us your favorite parable that Jesus told. Even if you were in a crowd of folks who weren’t Christians, the parables of Jesus, some of them are just so famous, people just recognize them. People know about the Good Samaritan, that even that phrase has made its way into our everyday parlance, our vocabulary as Westerners. Well, it’s one of the parables of Jesus.

Jesus parables were Marked by realism. He tells these stories. And basically what Jesus does in the parables, if you think about it, he just takes you on a journey through first century Israel and you meet a whole cast of characters. When you listen to the parables of Jesus, you meet farmers and widows and homemakers and servants and businessmen and fathers and sons, and they’re just doing normal things. They’re sowing seeds, they’re sending out waiting invitations, they’re investing their resources.

They’re just doing the things that normal people did when Jesus was alive on this earth. And he chose to use these stories, primarily stories, to teach these spiritual truths. Now, depending on how you define parables, you know, a parable could mean it’s just a really short saying or it’s a lengthier story. There are somewhere between 50 to 70 of them in the New Testament. In fact, Matthew’s gospel, over 40% of the teachings of Jesus are done through parables.

In fact, as he makes his way in Jerusalem, eventually he’s gonna tell parable after parable after parable. The 13th page of Matthew is just full of parables. It’s the teachings of Jesus. Here’s what he’s doing. He’s teaching us theology.

He’s stimulating our imagination. He’s helping you memorize because stories can be more easily remembered. But actually what Jesus is trying to do is lead you to make a decision. Jesus is asking the hearers of the parable to respond somehow to decide what to do with the lesson that you have learned. Now, let me just say this.

Every once in a while, Jesus will tell you what the parable means. So I told the folks at 8:30 this morning, if Jesus tells you this is what the parable means, that’s what it means.

Is that okay? So you don’t have to wonder, wonder what this means. Look at verse 18 of Matthew 13. Jesus says, Listen to what the parable of the sower means. Some people say, well, I think we’rehta call this the parable of the soils.

I’m good. Jesus called it parable, the sower. I’m good with that. And then he just basically tells you, the seed is the word of God. It’s the message of the kingdom.

It is sown. It is broadcast. Sometimes it falls on ground where it doesn’t grow, sometimes it s scorched. Sometimes the thorns and the thistles choke it out. But sometimes it falls on good soil.

And when it does, it bears fruit. In fact, he says, incredible fruit. So let me offer you an implication of this story and then we’ll talk about what I think the meaning of it is. Here’s one of the implications has to do with proclamation. The message of the kingdom of God is to be proclaimed, broadcasted like seed, so that people have the opportunity to hear the good news.

Jesus seems to be implying that this seed, the gospel, the message of the kingdom, is supposed to be broadcast. It’s supposed to be proclaimed so that it will have the opportunity to bear fruit. Now, you know, I pastored two country churches when I first started preaching. And if you know anything about me, there is nothing about me, this country, I don’t understand agricultural life. I don’t know how to drive a tractor.

I don’t know anything about farming seasons. That’s just not how I was raised. I’m a city boy is what it is. But here’s what I learned. I already knew this, but I learned it for sure.

I have sense enough to know this after pastoring two country churches. If you leave the seed in the barn, it will not grow. Okay? And if y’all have had anything to do with modern farming, there’s a whole lot of technology that goes into modern farming. That seed is very expensive.

And I’m just gonna tell you right now, these farmers that make a living with it, the last thing they’re gonna do is spend all that money investing in that technology and leave it in the barn. That’s not gonna happen. They’re gonna put it in the ground. Cause they know that’s the only way it’s going to grow. Well, guess what?

The Gospel is not meant for you and I to contain it. You and I don’t have the copyright to the gospel. The Gospel belongs to the Lord. And it is seed that’s supposed to be broadcasted. We’re supposed to sow it.

So think about it. I’ve had the opportunity to actually go to Nazareth. And when you’re in Nazareth, Nazareth is up on a hill. And so the farmers in Nazareth think about that’s where Jesus grew up. They were terrorist farmers.

What that means is they had to do their best to at least get somewhat of a level ground. And then they would cut these footpaths and then there’d be another set of a farm. Then there’d be some footpaths where they could get to their crops. Well, think about it. There were on the extremities of their farms, you had areas that just weren’t prepared for producing a crop.

So it might grow thorns, thistles, whatever footaths you get closer to them, they’d be a little more stonyier. There were stones because it was cut on. The city was built on the side of a hill. So what Jesus says is the farmer, for all we know, they could even see somebody doing this kind of thing. While he’s talking, he’s sowing the sea.

Well, guess what? Some of it’gonna fall on the footpath. Some of it’s gonna fall where the thorns and the thistles are. Some’s gonna fall in the real shallow dirt. But some of it is gonna fall in the really good soil.

But if you don’t proclaim it, if you don’t share it, it won’t happen. So that means you and I, as Christians, we’re supposed to tell share the gospel. We’re supposed to live the gospel, we’re supposed to show the gospel. We support the efforts of sharing the gospel. We bless that, we send people to share the gospel on our behalf, to places where we may not go.

We invest in gospel proclamation. Okay, now let’s get to what I think the gist of this parable is about. I would use the word preparation. The soil that is prepared to hear the good news will be the most receptive and will bear the most fruit. That seems to be the core message of this parable.

Jesus says the seed that falls in the good soil is’going to bear fruit. It’s going to be productive. Incredibly so he says, because here’s the thing you think about, the very first command in the Bible, if you go back to page one, the very first command that God gives to human beings, remember what it was. Be fruitful. Be fruitful.

He says in Multiply. Now I get it. There’s a connection there to the growth of humanity. But the bottom line is God is associating that with being fruitful. Jesus says, look back at this text, verse 8.

When the seed falls in the right kind of soil, it’s fruitful. It produces something, it does something. There’s a principle in the Bible, you reap what you sow. But there’s also the principle you reap more than what you sow. Because when you sow a seed, much more comes from that than just one seed.

You can grow an oak tree from one acorn. That’s just how it works. You’re going to produce way more than you planted bearing fruit. That’s God’s desire for you. He wants you to bear fruit in his kingdom.

Now I think there are two ways to look at how this applies to me and you, how it applies to the hearers. When Jesus says in verse 8, notice the seed fell on good soil. Well, if you look over where Jesus explains all of this, look at verse 23, the seed falling on the good soil. It refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. Then it produces a crop.

Now he doesn’t tell us what the crop is, he just says it produces one. And it’s an incredible crop. It multiplies. So on the one hand, you could look at this as an evangelistic message from Jesus, that these folks whoive this message going to be faithful to proclaim it and many, many others are going to hear it and respond as well. And I believe that’s one of the applications, but I don’t think it’s the only one.

I think there’s also a deeper message here that has to do with the individual person. Jesus is talking about the heart of a person. If you go back and read, Starting in verse 18, he talks about what’s happening in the side of the heart of a person. Well, what’s happening? Well, this is about the fundamental transformation of a person who encounters the kingdom of Heaven, they’re born again.

And life launches in a newaory, I mean trajectory whenever you’re born again and Jesus Christ becomes the Lord of your life and you’re redeemed and restored in into relationship with God. Nothing can ever be the same. Your life now holds so much potential, just like these seeds. There’s so much now that can happen to you and in you, through you, around you. You can bear so much fruit.

And that’s God’s desire for you. Let me just read this to you, this companion text in John 15. Listen to what Jesus says in John 15, verse 5. I’m the vine, you’re the branches. If you’ll remain in me and I and you, you will bear much fruit.

Thirty fold, sixty fold, a hundred fold. You can bear much fruit. As a matter of fact, verse 8 of John 15, Jesus says, this is to my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit. Showing yourselves to be a disciple is what he says. Showing yourselves to be a disciple.

Later on in chapter 15, verse 16 of John 15, he says, you did not choose me, I chose you. I anointed you so that you might go and bear much fruit. Fruit that will last. And so what’s happening here is, y’all is whenever you receive this message of the kingdom of heaven, the gospel, something happens to you on the inside. And you’re now in the process of transformation.

You’re being redeemed and God is changing you, and God wants you to bear fruit. Proverbs 11, verse 30 says, the fruit of the righteous is the tree of life, and the one who is wise saves lives. In other words, God wants you to be a fruitful person for the kingdom of God. Fruit that’s beneficial to others, fruit that saves people’s lives, fruit that leads people to life. Now the only way it’s going to happen is if that seed falls into good soil.

And that’s where you and I come in. That means that you and I need to be ready to receive the seed. And when that is received by me and you, everything can change. And God can start to redeem every part of you. So let me just ask you this.

What kind of fruit are you producing? What do other people see when they meet you on Tuesday morning at your office? They have no idea whether you’ve been to church or not. They don’t know about your weekend. They just happen to run into you on a random Tuesday morning.

What do they see? What kind of fruit is being produced in your life that would cause them to believe something is happening inside of you, something productive, something beneficial. If they meet you at the ballpark or if they meet you in your family or in a friendship circle or wherever it is, what are they seeing in you? Well, here’s what the Bible says. God wants to change you, and he wants to produce something in you.

What does he want toa produce in you? Fruit. What does the Bible say about it? Well, he wants to produce fruit that just doesn’t come naturally to us. He’s got to work inside of us so that we’ll bear the right kind of fruit.

Well, what is it? Well, you remember Galatians 5. Love, joy, peace, forbearance, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Is that what people see in you? Because those are all products of the work of the gospel in you.

They just don’t come naturally to you. In fact, it’s hard to do. One of the pastors that I enjoy is a guy named Chris Hodges. He passes in Birmingham, Alabama. He says, I’m barely a Christian when I’m driving.

I can relate to that. ###us here’s the deal, y’all. When I’m driving. Here’s the thing. If I’m driving and that lane on the right is running out, and I’m in the left lane, and you’ve already seen the sign that says merge left, and this’s blinking.

Here’s the deal. You pass me on the right, you ain’t getting in. I’m saying, say that right now. I saw that sign. You saw that sign?

I moved over. You didn’t. I ain’t letting you over. I’m just tell you right now, you can do what you want to do. You can slow down.

You can put that blinker on. You can really wind it down. And I’m thinking that sign way back on. You should have got over here like you’re supposed to. Sometimes my wife is like, you know, honey, they might be church members.

You, and I say to that good. They need to learn. Their pastor needs to be teaching them. You should be following instructions, what you ought to be doing. You wouldn’t be so miserable if you do what you’re supposed to do, like I’m doing.

Okay, maybe it’s not okay. It is kind of that bad. But I’m just saying I got a little work to do. So I’m just confessing it, okay? It is what it is.

I know what comes naturally to me and what doesn’t come naturally. Well, the fruit of the spirit is having that good soil where that seed is bearing fruit. Sure, it does point me to evangelism. Of course it does. People should be led to Christ by people who are already followers of Christ.

But there’s something else going on, and that is the power of God at work. Working. It s God’s desire. He wants you to be fruitful in every way. He wants the kingdom of God to advance, reclaim the ground that has s been stolen by the enemy.

So let me end with this. So what S o w, what did y’all get that? I’ve been waiting this whole sermon just to get to that one question. I’m so proud of it, you know? So what, what are you supposed to sow?

The gospel. That’s it. And guess what the gospel is power. Never underestimate the power of the gospel, y’all. It’s good news.

We can be completely transformed by its power at work within us. You see, the gospel’good seed is powerful. It’s going to bear fruit. It’s life giving. So guess what that means.

You can change.

Your husband can change. Your wife can change. Your son, your daughter, your mom, your colleague. Come on, y’all. You’pick somebody.

Don’t tell me. Well, they just can’t change. Give me a break. You know what? The gospel’s about change.

You say when I wait a minute. And preacher, you don’t know, see? You don’t know. See, our family has generational unhealth. You see, our family, we have cyclical pain.

Me, I’m deeply broken. I’m lost. Inna tell y’all, I got good news for all of you. The gospel is really good news. And you can change.

It’s powerful. But you gotta get the soil prepared, you see, you gotta be ready to receive it. You’ve got toa work with God in this. Well, how do you get the soil to be prepared? Well, they’re just.

There’s only one way to do it, and that is to live in a relationship with God. That means you’ve got to listen to him through his word. You’ve got to pray, you’ve got to ingest truth. You’ve got to read the scripture. You’ve got to live in community with the people of God.

You’ve got to worship God in his presence. For example, right now, let me tell you what I’m doing right now. This ain’t a podcast. This right here is a sermon based on the word of God, spoken in a sacred space to the people of God in a holy moment. Now, you may listen to it later, you may do whatever with it, but what I’m Telling what’s going on right now.

It is going on right now. What’s going on right now in this place with God’s people. And it’s a holy moment, and people are changed by it, because that’s how it works. It’s the word of God coming alive in people’s lives. We’ve got to practice this.

We’ve got to pray. We’ve got to work, give ourselves opportunities to grow so that we can change. Because the gospel is powerful. Here’s what Jesus says in Matthew 7, verse 20, Buy their fruit. You will recognize them.

So what do people see in you on Tuesday morning, on Friday night? I hope what they see in you is the fruit of the gospel, because that’s what Jesus wants for you and for me and y’all. If that good seed is planted in good soil, it’ll bear much fruit. And let’s just see what God can do to you, what he can do inside of you, what he can do with you. For his glory.

May it be so. Let’s pray together.

Well, Father, we want to thank you today for the gospel. It’s really good news, and we know that, and we thank you for it. I want to thank you for the fact that seed of the gospel was planted in my life many years ago by faithful people who broadcast that seed so that people like me could come to hear the message of Jesus. I pray that we’ll be found faithful to do the same, that we will make sure that this gospel is proclaimed, broadcast across our world, our community, so that everyone will have the chance to hear it. And I pray, Lord, that it will bear fruit in our lives and the people will see it and give you glory, because that’s the ultimate purpose.

And we pray that in Jesus name.