The Soil of Honesty and Confession
Phil Schaefer
3/8/09
Key Scripture:
Mark 4:9-34
Introduction:
We are continuing on our study of the book of Mark and John Burkes’ book No Perfect People Allowed, in this series titled, “This Beautiful Mess and The Shocking Embrace of God.” This morning we are talking about creating a culture of healing for an addicted generation. We struggle with trust, truth, tolerance, brokenness, and aloneness in the post-modern culture in which we live.
“Addiction is the hidden secret in the church today. It is everywhere but we hide it well, or at least we try. I long for Christ’s Community to be a place for healing for people like my father.”- whose deep wounds inflicted by his father’s brokenness, fueled the addictive behaviors that robbed him of peace and drove him to an early grave. Burke’s father died from addiction to smoking, which was a secret that he tried to keep from his family.
Addiction is a hidden sore in the world today. We are looking at an era of broken families, childhoods, lives, abortions, sexual compulsions, workaholism, addictions to pornography, tobacco, spending, sex, dieting, gambling, addictions to our children’s happiness. Addictions are rampant in our post-modern world.
Addictions are anything that controls us and controls our thinking. All these things leave us gasping for hope as we try to escape the pain of our brokenness. We may be living in one of the most addicted generations in the last 100 years. We are like the grade school kid who has to walk by a certain place each day knowing that the twin bullies, called Shame and Despair, are lying in wait to beat him up and take his money and his dignity.We are attacked by shame and despair through the news, the media, t.v., bill boards etc. And they will not leave us alone until we have someone stronger than us to defend us.(Jesus)
At Matthew’s party, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I’ve come to call sinners, not the righteous.”
1. The Teachings of Jesus: (Mark 4: 9-34))
- Jesus is calling His followers into a radical revolution called the Kingdom of God. It is a revolution that is going to change the world and humanity, but do it in a completely unexpected way. The disciples were awaiting a manifesto from a conquering king and what his kingdom would look like. Instead they get some simple lessons in gardening and room lighting! (the parables)
- Jesus says, “Pay attention to what I am saying. Then He says; ‘Sow in good soil. Put lamps in the open, not under a bed. Sow and a plant will grow. Mustard seeds are small, but they will grow a big bush.’ And the disciples think, “Huh? What’s He getting at? Tell us something we don’t know.’
- The parables are giving us the simple but hidden truth of the radical kingdom.
2. The Parable of the Sower
- When I read this parable, I am tempted to catagorize people into these four areas: the path, the rocky soil, the thorny soil, and the good soil. I, of course, quickly work through the soils 1-3 and identify myself as the good soil, and then hope I will produce somewhere between a 30-fold and 100 fold crop. Whatever that means. But, as I meditate upon this, I realize that my heart, my story, is the ground in all four examples.
- The 1st picture is the path that the birds snatch the seed from.
- It is Satan working his ways on mankind, stealing the seed of truth.
- It’s us living in deception and denial of our addictions and sin.
- It is us doing the Adam and Eve song and dance; of blaming others for our sin and hiding from God, and of believing the lies of the enemy:
- God is not out for my good.
- God wants me to be miserable.
- God is very displeased with me.
- God is not there for me when I need Him.
- God might deny my dreams.
- God might make me marry someone that I’m not attracted to.
- God might put me in a job I can’t stand.
- God doesn’t answer my prayers.
- God can’t be for me because of what I’ve done.
- I can’t forgive me for what I’ve done.
- The 2nd picture is the shallow soil.
- It is powerlessness in ourselves and on our own.
- It is our inability to conquer sin on our own.
- It is our pride not wanting to admit that we have this weakness; this chronic problem that would make us look bad in the eyes of others so we do all we can to cover it up.
- John Townsend tells the story of a Christian leader asking him about church small groups, “What difference do you see between groups for people with problems and groups for normal people?” His answer; “There are no differences.” My answer: “One group is pretending, the other is not.”
D. The 3rd picture is of thorny soil.
- It’s worries of life, and deceitfulness of wealth, difficulties, frustrations, disappointments, woundedness, hurts, and resentments.
- It’s all these things driving us into our addictions for relief, and yet never being satisfied or relieved.
E. This is what good soil is like:
- We admit we have a problem called sin and addiction, and we cannot overcome it.
- We are no longer going to hide in shame.
- We admit we are powerless on our own to overcome our addiction and sin.
- We are no longer going to fight it in our own strength which is due to our pride.
- We humbly admit that we need God’s help.
- God’s help is what the gospel is all about.
- We recognize that God has given us others to walk through the trials and addictions of our sin, to help us overcome.
- I have a problem.
- I admit I have a problem.
- I am powerless on my own.
- I need God.
F. If some of this sounds like AA it is because AA got these principles right.
3. The Crop
- The crop is not what is in me. The crop is what God does through me.
- The crop is what God does as I tell my story to another and that other tells their story to another. That’s my crop- me sending forth my story, that thing that is in me, that brings a return as I share it.
- What is your estimate of the crop of the Samaritan woman at the well, who had 5 husbands? 10 million fold?
- What is the crop of Mary Magdalene washing Jesus’ feet because her sins were many and she did not hide that? 10 million, or 100 million fold.
4. The Parable of the Lamp.
- This lamp is bringing our sin into the open. It is to bring light to our darkness.
- Mark 4:22 “For there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light.”
- It is bringing our sins into the open:
- Through our honesty and openness to others about our sin (addiction)
- That we are powerless on our own.
- That we need the help of others and have sought it out
- That we have received God’s forgiveness and live in it.
- The lamp is sharing our broken and honest story; being connected to people (the church) that God will use our lives to draw others to Jesus and give them hope.
- Jesus takes our story and says ‘let it be a light for others.’ Let it bring hope to others.
1. Don’t hide it.
2.Hold it up for others to see God’s grace at work in your life.
3.Say, “If He can work in my life, and break me free from my addictions, He
free you from your addictions.’
5. The Seed (Mark 4:27)
- “Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.” He says,’ Don’t give thought to how this seed sprouts or grows…just sow.’
- He says,’ When you think that there is nothing going on in that person’s life, or even in your own life, when you don’t see anything of substance…remember the seed.’
- Remember that the radical kingdom that is at work in a person can seem small and insignificant, but God can take the least and the worst, and cause many to sit under the shade of what He has done in their life. The healing for a broken and hope-seeking world comes because the church (the gathered-broken ones), understands that it is in our brokenness, our humility, honesty, confession, and our weakness, our leaning on one another and on Christ- that we are made whole and produce a harvest. 30, 60, 100 fold.
Discussion questions:
In the parable of the sower, what does the soil represent? What does the seed represent? Who does the sower represent?
Which of the lies of the enemy listed in point 2B have you ever believed in your life?
Why is it so difficult to admit your struggle with sin and your problems to others in the church?
What do you think of the idea that the story of your struggle being a lamp or a light to lead others to Jesus? Are you hiding your lamp or bringing it into the open?
In what ways can bringing our sins, or addictions, into the open bring healing to us.
