Sermon Tone Analysis

When we are evangelizing, we can learn from parables like this one that as we share, most people will not truly receive the Good News of the gospel.

I know what I’m preaching today is shocking because as I lead people in evangelism training and talk to church members throughout the country, many people are confused when confronted with what a believer looks like and that we have a mandate to share the gospel.

I know this because I hear the following:

I just don’t know any non-believers.

Just because I don’t go to church, read my Bible regularly, share the gospel, or have a concern for fellow believers doesn’t mean I’m not a Christian.

(No, but it’s a pretty good indicator!)

I know I’m saved because I prayed a prayer to receive Christ during revival.

(All the while not being able to explain in their own words how they became a believer OR being able to lead another person to Christ explaining faith and repentance, confession of sin, and believing and receiving the gospel.)

Listen about how Jesus begins this parable:

The first group of people are those who immediately reject the gospel.

Friends, please allow me to be myself as I preach today.

I may come across as very blunt; not because I want to be the preacher who shocks, but because our time is short and we need to hear this in order that we search our hearts to see where our affections lie.

Instead of blunt, my hope is that you’ll see a passion for evangelism.

I passion for lost souls-both within and without the local expression of the church.

Passionate statements:

If you are faithfully preaching/sharing/telling others about the gospel message, you’ll see 99% of those with whom you share reject the gospel.

Most Christians confuse the one time they shared and were rejected with an automatic pass from evangelizing.

I hope you’ll not

The first group of people are those who hear the gospel and immediately reject it (4:4).

This should be the most common experience we have.

We are regularly sharing the gospel and people are simply rejecting it through an outright rejection or in their indifference.

Next in the parable, we see the verses where we’ll camp out today:

We’ll see that we need to evangelize the evangelized because the problem of “false converts” is running rampant in our churches today.

This parable describes false converts in two ways; and this is where your notes will come in handy.

False Converts Can’t Endure Due to:

Outside Pressure (5-6, 16-17)

The Soil wasn’t deep, they had no root!

An implication of this is that you and I can’t see this immediately!

We see a fertile ground that has excitedly received the gospel and are ready to storm the gates of hell with a water pistol!

(or at the very least, someone who received the gospel and may think about baptism!)

Because of this, they fall away due to outside distress or persecution.

So what does this look like?

The word for “distress” here means “direct suffering.”

Biblical examples of direct suffering are found in:

and

Direct suffering comes as a result of the preaching of the gospel, not your Bible Facebook posts.

It comes when people want to verbally and physically assault you in such a way that causes you to lose your job, or be run out of town, not when someone uses ugly language toward you and moves on.

The kind of verbal abuse most Christians experience are a “no thanks” to a gospel tract or being the object of a Christian joke.

Most of us have not experienced direct suffering.

The other word here is persecution.

The meaning of this word implies that the outside opposition to your faith is such that you are getting hunted down and forced to renounce your faith, or that they are actively looking to destroy you.

Check out these two examples from scripture where this word was used and notice that the type of persecution is not what we would experience in Kentucky...

Friends, false converts WILL NOT withstand this type of pressure.

In fact, if the American church faced this type of Christian persecution tomorrow, you’d most likely see the vast majority of those who called themselves believers fall away from the faith.

False Converts also can’t endure due to:

Inside Pressure (7, 18-19)

Mark 4:

Notice Jesus isn’t talking about struggles inside the church-like the lady who doesn’t want you in her seat,

or the deacon who told you’d better keep those kids under control because there’s no running in the house of God,

or the “they’ve changed everything!” person has run off another new person.

The inside pressure Jesus is referring to is ourselves

“Worries of this age, riches, desires for things”-or other important stuff looks different to each of us.

Inside pressures include us exhibiting a lack of faith through worry.

Focusing on our own sense of financial security with little to no concern that God will meet our needs.

Or desiring and serving material things over a desire for the eternal things of the Lord.

In these verses we see that there is nothing wrong with the seed or sower, but in the ground.

Real Converts Endure and:

Hear and Accept (8, 20)

Listen to how Jesus describes a real convert:

Seed sown

Good ground

Hear the word

Welcome it, and here is the major difference between this description and the previous three.

Produce fruit (30, 60, 100 times!)

Bear Fruit (8, 20)

5. Produce fruit!

True converts produce fruit through multiplying disciples!

“I can’t multiply myself 100 fold!”

If you reached just one person for Christ this year and spent the rest of the year pouring into them, there would be two of you.

The following year, you do the same.

Take 6 months to reach one person while the other person does the same, there will be 4 of you.

By year 6 there are 64

Year 10 there are 1024

Year 20 there are 1,048,576

Year 30 there are over one billion!

All in focusing upon just 1 new believer a year and training this believer to do the same.

Friends, this type of ministry works!

John the Baptist told the religious people of his day in , that they needed to bear fruit worthy of repentance.

They were claiming that they were fine.

They had Abraham.

They had the scriptures.

They had tradition.

Friends, the fruit that Jesus is describing here is not the fruit of the Spirit as found in Galatians, but of soul’s saved!

Listen to the passion that Paul has to evangelize and see people saved!

1 Cor.

9:13-

Those who are born again, listen to this warning from John in Matthew’s gospel:

Matt.

3:10

Friend, I call out to you today to search your soul and see if indeed you heard the Word of God and it was planted within shallow soil.

If indeed you are relying upon yourself and your false sense of goodness to get you into heaven.

Friend, repent of your sin and put your faith in Christ!

He alone will give you salvation.

He alone will give you a burden for lost souls.

He alone will give you the boldness necessary to be the type of witness that multiplies 30, 60, or 100 fold.

Have you truly been Born Again?

Paul gives a great gospel presentation in

Have you repented of your sins, and received Him by putting your faith and trust solely in Him?

I want to invite you to do this today if you’ve truly never done this.

Church member, are you broken over the lost in your community?

Have you been challenged today to know that not all who claim to be Christians are?

Will you commit to asking people you don’t really know gospel questions with the intent of either sharing the gospel with them, or working toward discipling someone so they may better know Christ and the Good News of the gospel?