In this sermon Duke explains that how we hear the word about the kingdom depends on the "soil" condition of our hearts. We can have hard hearts, closed to God; shallow hearts with no root; strangled hearts crowded with worries and distracted by wealth; or good hearts when we ask God for new soil, ask him to remove the weeds, and when we "prepare him room" in our hearts.
1. What’s one thing, whether big or small, that you may have forgotten to thank God for?
2. Which of the “soils” from today’s passage best describe your heart lately?
O God, thou knowest how to melt the hardest heart with the precious blood of Jesus. Do it now, we beseech thee, and thus magnify thy grace, by causing the good seed to live, and to produce a heavenly harvest.”
Charles Spurgeon
The whole life of a Christian should be nothing but praises and thanks to God; we should neither eat nor sleep, but eat to God and sleep to God and work to God and talk to God, do all to His glory and praise.
Richard Sibbes
If we do not abide in prayer, we will abide in temptation. Let this be one aspect of our daily intercession: “God, preserve my soul, and keep my heart and all its ways so that I will not be entangled.” When this is true in our lives, a passing temptation will not overcome us. We will remain free while others lie in bondage.
John Owen