Welcome to the Bethel Church Sermon of the Week. We hope you enjoy this message by Pastor Bill Johnson.

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I want to talk to you today about the parable of the seed and the sower.

I've not talked about it in several years that I recall.

I'm going to take a little different angle today anyway.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus says,

if you don't understand this parable, how will you understand any parable?

He's identifying something, that this parable is actually key to unlocking all the others.

In this parable is the illustration of the nature and the purpose for the word of God.

I value the voice of God, just more than anything in life.

But my value for the voice of God has to be represented in my value for Scripture.

If I value the voice above Scripture, then I'm very open to deception.

The voice will never contradict the word.

In a day when it's so easy to have the Bible in print and various translations, there's no

excuse for biblical illiteracy. So we give ourselves to the study of Scripture, but it is a voice

that brings, causes things to come alive. The scripture, excuse me, the word of God is the seed.

The heart is the soil.

Tender soil receives a word deeply

and the life of God then brings about the change that God intended.

In Thessalonians, Paul uses this phrase.

He says that the Word of God actually carries in it. The Greek word actually represents the

energy of God, that the Word of God has the energy of God in it. So when God speaks to you, it comes in seed form to produce in us,

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