Thank you for listening to this message from
Lifehouse Church. Morning. Good morning, good
morning. Man, this was a good morning. Listen,
that was some awesome praise and worship. You
could feel God's presence. So if the message
stinks, you already have a good reason to be
in the house of the Lord, right? You can go home
and say it was a good day. Come on, can we give
God glory? I never... We should never, ever take
the presence of God for granted. When you feel
God's presence, step in, because He's there.
I know He's always with us. The Word of God tells
us this. We're the temple of the Holy Spirit.
We're the temple of God. But at the same time,
when you feel God in a corporate setting... Just
step in and praise and worship because God moves.
He really does. Well, it's good to be with you
this morning. My better half is not here with
me today. She and her sisters are actually ministering
at her brother's church. They're there singing.
They all get together once about every five years,
it seems like, and do praise and worship together,
and they're there in Man's Choice, the metropolis
of Man's Choice. How many of you have ever been
to Man's Choice? Raise your hand. There's about
300 people in Man's Choice, so it's huge. Her
brother has a great church there, a thriving
church, and they're there ministering this morning.
But this morning, if you've got your Bibles,
you can go to the book of John. We're going to
continue on in the gospel of John chapter 12.
I hope you've enjoyed working through the book
of John. There's so much great truth. There's
so much great word in John, and we're just going
to continue on. And where we're picking up today,
we're going to follow up. really kind of a time
when Jesus was going into Jerusalem. Now, I preached
about this on Palm Sunday, about Jesus going
into Jerusalem, and they were laying palm branches
and crying out, Hosanna, Hosanna, right? Glory
to God, right? King of Israel. They were just
saying, Hosanna. And it's super interesting because
my... One of my grandchildren, Mia, she's two
and a half years old. She's in Atlanta. Her mom
was teaching them about Easter this year. And
she did this little box of things that she put,
just different things that represent Easter.
She had a rock in there for the, you know, the
tomb, the rock that got removed from the tomb.
And she had some different things in there that
went along with the Easter story. And one of
the things that she put in there was like this
little leaf, right? Little plastic kind of palm
leaf thing. And she would have the girls, they're
two and a half and four, and she'd have them
get them out and she would tell the Easter story
and they'd repeat it back. And they'd get that
little thing out and they'd go, Hosanna, Hosanna,
right? And, you know, really what Jenna was trying
to do is just to get it. the story of Easter,
to stick in their heart and mind. And she said
they went to a restaurant, got at the restaurant,
and apparently Mia has a salad close by or something
on her plate, a garnishment. And she picked up
a leaf, and Jenna thought she was going to say,
ooh, yuck, I don't want to eat this. And she's
going, Hosanna! Hosanna! Yeah, in the restaurant.
She said it was awesome. It was great. But really,
that's what we're picking up in Scripture today,
is where right after the time when Jesus comes
into Jerusalem, they're crying out, Hosanna.
This is before he goes to the cross. And they're
crying out, Hosanna, because they know this.
They know this guy that's named Jesus has been
traveling from place to place, and he has the
power to heal. They know he has the power to
speak over nature and nature listens. They know
that he has power over the demons with just a
word. They even know that he has power over death
because he calls Lazarus back to life after four
days dead. And the crowd was yelling out. And
really what took place is he came into Jerusalem.
Following this, Jesus almost hit celebrity status.
He was in a place where everybody in that region
heard about him, knew about him, and he was almost
at celebrity status, and everybody wanted to
talk with him. Everybody wanted to meet with
him. Everyone was curious about this powerful
man. Everybody wanted something different from
him. Some believed that he was Messiah. Some
wanted just a healing. Some just maybe wanted
his autograph. I don't know. Probably if the
Today Show would have been around, they'd have
been calling him up for an interview. But among
these curious people, were people called the
Greeks, right? They were a Greek group of people
that were there in Jerusalem, and they wanted
to meet with Jesus. That's what we're going to
pick up today. John chapter 12, verse 20, it
says this. Now, there were certain Greeks among
those who came up to worship at the feast. Then
they came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida of
Galilee, and asked him, saying, Sir, we wish
to see Jesus. Philip came and told Andrew, and
in turn, Andrew and Philip told Jesus. So picture
this in your mind. It's this group of Greek people.
They come to the disciples. They start asking,
and these two disciples are going back and forth,
and they decide to go to Jesus and let Jesus
know, hey, there's this group of people who want
to talk to you, interview you, meet with you
for some reason, right? Verse 23 says, And Jesus
answered them, saying, The hour has come that
the Son of Man should be glorified. Jesus doesn't
even respond to the request. He isn't even worried
about the interview. He's got something completely
different in mind. He says, the Son of Man is
to be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground
and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it
produces much grain. He who loves his life will
lose it, and he who hates his life, in this word,
will keep it for eternal life. If anyone serves
me, let him follow me, and where I am, there
my servants will be also. If anyone serves me,
him my Father will honor. These group of people
want to interview Jesus, and Jesus is like, nope,
today I'm going to teach my disciples something.
I'm getting ready to leave. I'm getting ready
to be out of here after the resurrection takes
place, the crucifixion, the resurrection. And
my disciples need to know something, and my people
need to know something. He's not concerned with
an interview. He's on mission. He's on point
for the bigger plan of God. And instead of penciling
in an appointment, he teaches the disciples a
key kingdom of God principle. A key kingdom of
God truth, and it's this. We need to know what
it takes to produce fruit in the kingdom of God.
If you don't like the word fruit, you can say
profit, eternal profit, right? Eternal increase
of some kind. Kingdom dividends, whatever you
want to give it, whatever you want to call it.
He was teaching them what it takes to have increase
in the kingdom of God, and it might not be what
you think. Because Jesus lets the disciples know,
lets us know that you have to, if you're going
to get kingdom increase, you've got to put something
in the ground. Spiritual production begins with
putting something in the ground. Now, I need
to clarify right here. Notice I said put something
in the ground and not someone in the ground.
I don't want any, how many know the Bible still
says thou shalt not kill? Right? Physically or
in your mind, either one. Right? And some of
you might be like, a name raised to your head
when I said that. Like, yep, yeah, come on. That
would be profitable. I'll put them in. That's
not what we're talking about here. We're going
to put something in the ground to produce anything
of eternal value in our lives. Many times it
involves putting something in our life in the
ground, burying that thing, covering that thing
up. Because Jesus said it in 1224. He said, most
assuredly, I say unto you, unless a grain of
wheat. right, a seed falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it produces
much grain. Last week, 14 individuals stood across
this stage and they professed their faith and
their commitment to Jesus Christ. It was an amazing
week. Each one of them told a portion of their
story and each one of them really talked about
something that got buried in the ground, that
they put in the ground and out of that came life
through Jesus Christ. Jesus said, unless the
grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies,
it remains alone. It's this idea of burying something
that is not of God so that something of God can
come to life. And let me give you a little example,
a little experiment you can go home and do if
you think you don't fully understand this. I
want you to go home today, and if you want to
get the full effect of this, I want you to take
a seed of some kind. Find a grain of wheat, find
a kernel of corn, find some kind of seed. I want
you to place it on your living room table or
your kitchen table, place it on a plate, and
then I want you to wait and see if any production
happens with that grain. 365 days, leave it sit
there, and I want you to see if any kind of fruit
gets produced out of that thing, if there's any
kind of production. How many of you get back
there in 365 days? What's it going to look like?
Yeah, it's going to look like a seed sitting
on the plate, right? It's going to be, whether
you put it in a cup or a plate, it's just going
to be there. But until it's already dead, it's
already dry, but until you put that thing in
the ground, it's not going to produce anything.
It's got to be put in the ground. It's got to
be buried. If you take out same seed, you throw
it in a hole in the ground, you cover it back
up, right? You bury that thing. Less than 365
days from then, you're going to see fruit that's
produced. A kernel of corn will go into the ground,
and a corn stalk will shoot up. And it'll have
ears of corn on it. And you won't have one kernel
of corn. You'll have dozens and dozens and dozens
of kernels of corn. If you're going to have fruit
in the kingdom of God, eternally, spiritually
in some way, you've got to put that thing in
the ground. There are going to be things you're
going to have to bury, and you're going to have
to give it to Jesus and put it in the ground.
the ground. We want spiritual fruit in our lives,
but sometimes we don't want to put the thing
in the ground. Amen? That's true. If you want
humility in your life, guess what you got to
bury in the ground? Pride, right? You got to
put it in the ground. You got to kill that thing
off, cover it over. And because, how many know
the Word of God says, God gives grace to the
humble, but he resists the proud. You don't want
to be prideful. You don't want God resisting
you. You really don't. We confess. We repent.
We put that dead thing in the ground. And it
could be a sin thing that we put in the ground.
It could be shame we put in the ground. It could
be my anxiety and the depression that I'm walking
through. I want to start putting that thing in
the ground. Start covering that thing up and
see what Jesus can birth out of that thing. You
bury the dead thing in Jesus, and you're going
to start to see production in your life. It was
so awesome last week when everybody was up here
giving their testimonies. We heard from so many
people from different sides telling us and letting
us know the power of those testimonies. And Tony
Brandt, we were walking out. Tony, I don't know
if you remember this or not. We were walking
out of the sanctuary, and Tony looked at me,
and he said, this is fruit. This is fruit that
you see here. And he nailed it. All right? He
nailed it. Put it. in the ground. And I can tell
you in Scripture, this is not the only place
that Jesus talks about this. This isn't the only
place where he talks about planting something
in the ground for production. As a matter of
fact, we're going to go to Matthew chapter 13.
If you've got your Bibles, you can flip over
there. Jesus, again, teaches a parable. And I've
taught on this parable many, many times. And
there's multiple layers to this parable. And
you'll find it in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, all
three Gospels, where Jesus talks about this seed.
And he says this, One out of the house, and he
sat by the sea. Picture this. Picture what was
being read here, right? He goes out and sits
by the sea, and great multitudes were gathered
together to him. So that he got into a boat and
sat, and the whole multitude stood on the shore.
Then he spoke many things to them in parables,
saying, Behold, a sower went out to sow, and
he sowed some seed, and it fell by the wayside,
and the birds came and devoured them. Some fell
on stony places where they did not have much
earth, and they immediately sprang up because
they had no depth of the earth. But when the
sun was up, they were scorched, and because they
had no root, they withered away. Some fell among
thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them,
but others fell on good ground. Say good ground.
Good ground. And yielded a crop, some a hundredfold,
some sixty, some thirty. Jesus said that there
was one and only one soil condition that's going
to produce fruit. 30, 60, and 100 -fold. Three
other conditions are going to not produce fruit.
Verse 9 said, he said, who has ears to hear,
let him hear. And the disciples came and said
to him, why do you speak to them in parables,
right? Why do you tell stories? And he answered
and said to them, because it has not been given
to you. It has been given to you to know the
mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them
it has not been given. Redeemed, saints of God,
sons and daughters of God, it has been given
to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom.
This is one of the mysteries of the kingdom.
One of the mysteries is that you have to bury
something for God, something that's not of God.
You've got to put it in the ground so God can
raise something out of it. This is a mystery
that is given to you but has not been given to
them. He says this in the Scriptures. Who's they?
Us, the saints, those who are redeemed. Who are
them? Those who reject Christ don't understand
this. The world doesn't get that you have to
take something and put it in the ground. They're
just grabbing for everything they can get. Jesus
goes on to explain a little more in 12. He says,
for whoever has, to him it will be given, and
he will have an abundance. But whoever does not
have, even what he has will be taken away from
him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables,
because seeing they do not see and hearing they
do not hear, nor do they understand. And in them
the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says,
Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
and seeing you will see and not perceive. For
the hearts of this people have grown dull, and
their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes
they have been closed, lest they should see with
their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they
should understand with their hearts and turn,
so that I should heal them. But blessed are your
eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
For surely I say to you that many prophets and
righteous men desired to see what you see and
did not see it, to hear what you hear and did
not hear it. I want you to live and understand
the mysteries of God. There is a life in this,
and Jesus explains this parable. We're going
to read just a few more portions of Scripture.
Therefore, hear the parable of the sower. Jesus
explains this to his disciples. When anyone hears
the word of the kingdom and does not understand
it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away
what was sown in his heart. This is the seed
that falls by the wayside. This is he who received
that seed on the hard place by the wayside. But
he who received the seed on a stony place, this
is he who hears the word and immediately receives
it with joy, yet he has no root in himself. but
endures only for a little while. For when tribulation
or persecution arises because of the word, immediately
he stumbles. Now he who receives seed among the
thorns is he who hears the word and the cares
of this world and the deceitfulness of riches
choke the word and becomes unfruitful. But he
who received the word on good ground is he who
hears the word, understands it, who indeed bears
fruit and produces some a hundredfold, 60 and
some 30. Three conditions that seed does not
produce, does not produce, but one that produces
30, 60, and 100. First condition that yields
no spiritual fruit. If we are ignorant of God,
we will produce nothing. Turn to somebody that
you know and love sitting beside you and tell
them, don't be ignorant. Tell them right now,
don't be ignorant. Come on. Some of you have
been wanting to say that for a long time. Make
sure you know them and you love them, because
if you say it to somebody else, it's weird. All
right? Don't be ignorant. Ignorance of God, right?
Lack of knowledge of God. will produce nothing
in your lives. Lack of understanding of how he
works will produce nothing. Not knowing what
he expects, ignorance of his attributes, ignorance
of his authority, and the power that he produces,
and the power that can be in our lives. If we
want increase in Jesus, if we want fruit in our
lives, we cannot be ignorant of who God is. We
must know who God really is according to his
word. and not what our possible perception of
what God is. We sometimes make up in our minds
who God is, right? One of Satan's tactics is
to keep you ignorant of God. Keep you from understanding
who God really is. If he can keep you in the
imagination lane of who God is versus what God's
word really says, he can get you confused, he
can mess you up, and you will not have any fruit
in your life. He'll keep you fruitless as a Christian.
Man, I hear people talking all the time about
Jesus, and I'm thinking, are you reading the
same Bible that I'm reading? Right? You'll hear
them say something about Jesus, and I'm like,
I've never heard that anywhere or seen that anywhere.
Sometimes they talk about Jesus like he's the
man upstairs. Anybody ever hear that? Oh, he's
just a guy up in the attic. What? Where's that?
Like, what chapter and verse did you get that
out of? Jesus is in the attic somewhere. The
enemy wants to keep us ignorant. He wants to
give us a warped, perverted view of God, something
that's in our imagination. And this lack of understanding
of who God is will reduce God to something little
or narrow or something that doesn't look anything
like him. Satan doesn't want you to bury your
ignorance in the ground. He wants to keep you
in the dark. He wants to keep it unclear. He
doesn't want you reading the Word of God. He
doesn't want you involved in Bible recaps so
you're listening and reading the Word of God
every day and then getting a video to help you
understand. He doesn't want you involved in that
because if you start to know who God really is,
you're going to start to understand how big God
really is. You're going to start to understand
what He can really do. You can start to understand
the power that He really possesses. He doesn't
want that. at all, right? So we got to put ignorance
in the ground. You got to bury that thing. You
got to dive into understanding. And when you
do that, when you start to really understand
who God is out of his word, you're going to see
the fruit start in your life. You're going to
see what God can really do in your life. It's
true. What's next on this? What needs to die?
What needs to go into the ground? Shallow commitment
will produce nothing of eternal value. But godly
shallowness in your life will produce nothing.
If the roots don't run deep in Jesus, I will
produce nothing. He said this, but he received
the seed on the stony place. This is he who hears
the word and immediately receives it with joy,
yet he has no root in himself. But he only endures
for a little while. For when tribulation or persecution,
right, difficulty arises because of the word
of God, immediately he stumbles. This is faith
in God that takes root, but is not rooted. I
mean, I know there's a difference between the
two, right? There's a difference between taking
root and actually being rooted. This is the person
who understands some things about Jesus, but
they're not deeply rooted in Jesus. They may
understand some basics. They may have a few memory
verses, and that's great at the beginning. They
may even know a few Bible stories, but there's
no depth of root, no understanding. No serious
commitment to understanding and following who
Jesus is. It's just shallow. This is the person
who looks a little bit like a pine tree in a
windstorm. I don't know if you've ever, Travis
Hench is in the house. He's seen this plenty,
right? A strong wind comes along and blows a
pine tree over, you know, and it just flops over
on its side. And you can go by that thing. And
what does it look like on the end down by the
earth when that thing flips up? It's like a big
pan, right? It's just flat. Because on pine trees,
the roots tend to go out, and they just span
out in a circle. And if it doesn't have any kind
of root down it, when a good breeze comes, a
good heavy wind comes, a little adversity comes
its way, it begins to push against them. Poof!
It's over on its side. It's laying there. And
you got this big round pan on the end of it where
the roots just went across the surface. That's
what it's talking about. If you don't have any
root in Jesus, the first wind of adversity that
comes, the first time you got to take a little
persecution for being a Christian, you're over
on your side. And all this is just this shallow.
And the interesting part of this is, this is
really hard to see in our own lives because if
you go by a group of pine trees, they all look
the same, whether they got shallow roots or they're
deep. You go by them, they're all green. They
all look the same until the wind comes, till
the versity hits. And there's no root there.
You got to bury the shallowness. Shallow Christianity,
you've got to put that thing in the ground, and
you've got to get serious about finding out about
God, digging deep, going to prayer, getting in
that personal time with God where he's speaking
to you and you're speaking to him. You're listening
to what he has to say, and he's listening to
what you have to say. Guard this. Be militant
about this. You've got to have this in your life,
because if not, there's no fruit. There's no
fruit. Worship team, if you'd come. I'm going
to give you the third one, right? There were
three conditions. They didn't produce any fruit.
Three things you need to put in the ground. Jacked
up priorities will never produce eternal fruit.
Jacked up priorities. If I'm too busy for Jesus,
I will not produce fruit. If I'm too busy with
the wrong things, I will produce nothing for
the kingdom of God. If I'm engaged in all the
things that are earthly in kingdom and not in
God's kingdom, I need to bury my jacked up priorities.
I really do. This is Matthew 13, 22. Now he who
receives seed among the thorns is he who hears
the word and the cares of this world and the
deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it
becomes unfruitful. Any activity and desire that
is prioritized over and above following Jesus
will stop production in your life. It'll stop
the fruit. This is one of the sneakiest attacks
and tactics of the devil. It really is. If he
can get you busy doing stuff, I mean, we get
busy doing stuff. Yeah. All right? I actually
said it this week. I do it all the time. Somebody
comes up, how's it going? Oh, I'm busy. Right?
That's my standard go -to answer. Oh, I'm busy.
I'm busy. But you can get so busy. And the enemy
loves this because for a lot of you who are walking
with God, he's probably not going to get you
with a deep temptation of some kind of sin, but
he can get you busy with something else. He can
get you sidelined with something else. And it
could be good things. It's not necessarily a
bad thing, an evil thing, or a sinful thing.
But if he can get you going enough and he can
get you busy enough, right, busy can actually
masquerade as fruitful. I don't know if you know
that or not. Busy can masquerade as fruitful.
It really can. We'll get so busy that it looks
like production. It looks like kingdom stuff's
happening. It looks like eternal things are going
on in our lives, but we're just busy. And there's
nothing eternal to it. Doing stuff and producing
nothing. Chasing the cares of life or chasing
after riches. All those kinds of things. Now
listen, I understand that you've got to go to
work. You should. That's biblical, by the way.
The Word of God tells us if you don't supply
for your family, you're worse than an infidel.
That's what the Word of God says. We've got to
go do all those things. But I'm talking about
priorities here. I'm talking about prioritizing
that over. If you've got jacked up priorities
in your life and you're chasing after those things,
kind of things, you're going to wonder why there's
no fruit in your life. You're going to wonder
where the production eternally is. And a lot
of times it's hard to gauge these things, but
you want to gauge where you're at with that,
I'm going to tell you something that only you
can do. If you want to know where your priorities
lie, take a look at your calendar and take a
look at your bank account. Take a look at your
calendar and take a look at your bank account.
It will reveal what you prioritize in life. It
really will. Take a look at those. We prioritize.
We spend time and money on what we prioritize.
We really do. And we've got to engage. And there's
sometimes we just got to put those things in
the ground. We got to bury them. We got to bury
them. end to this message from Lifehouse Church.
We pray that you were impacted powerfully by
this message. If you have been personally affected
by our ministry and you would like to partner
with us as we love God, love people every day,
visit our website at