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We have spent some nine weeks or so in focus, focusing our efforts on the family, how the gospel is to be applied at home. And now we are back to the expository series through the book of Matthew, and this series is called the Secrets of the Kingdom.

Now, every one of you must be familiar with this word “secret”. Some of you have secret admirers, you don't know. What is a secret?

Well, a secret is something that is previously not known, but will be known if someone reveals it to you. So you may have a secret admirer, or you may have a secret recipe, your chicken, your fried chicken wing is always very tasty. And everyone asks you, what's your secret? And it's a secret as far as you don't reveal it, but once you reveal it, it's no more a secret.

Now, when it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to God and His kingdom, there are also secrets. Not that God doesn't know about them, but we don't know about them until God reveals it to us. So we are going to look at Secrets of the Kingdom because we believe that God has revealed wondrous things in His Word in the Bible.

And by the way, before I even get to the sermon proper, I want to remind this church, that the knowledge of God is not gotten or derived by human imagination. You don't know God by imagining about God, you don't know God by deducing from things that you observed around you, because the things of God must be understood and received by revelation. There’re many things hidden from us, and it is God's grace to reveal it to us in the Bible.

So as a church, I love for us to study the Bible, why? It's not an academic exercise alone, but it is the word of God that reveals the God of the word, secrets hearing.

So let's take a look at the setting about the Secrets of the Kingdom. In Matthew chapter 13, we read that same day, Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. That was the day he had a confrontation with the Jewish religious leaders who opposed him and accused him that all that he did was in the power of satan, of the devil. And the very same day he then departed from the house and he sat beside the sea.

And great crowds gathered about him so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. So there is an air of expectation, of anticipating what Jesus will speak of and teach them. And so we read in verse two or verse three, and he told them many things in parables, saying a sower went out to sow and he began to speak about some stories that you're familiar with, like the parable of the sower.

So he spoke many things in parables. This might be the first time you hear of this word parables. What is the meaning of the word “parables”? What does it represent?

Well, simply, a parable is an earthly story that speaks or teaches, heavenly truths. So it is something that you could see in everyday life is an earthly story. But it is not an ordinary story because these earthly stories are meant to teach you something about God and about His kingdom.

So parables are earthly stories that teach heavenly truths. Literally in Greek it means comparisons. So Jesus told them many things in comparisons. Actually, the word itself is very interesting. It is made up of two words compounded together, parables from paraballo, transliterated. So Para means beside, and Ballo means to cast, to throw, to place. So a parable is something that is put beside another.

So a parable is an earthly story that is put beside a spiritual truth. So when they are side by side, you see the comparison and therefore it's an earthly story that teach heavenly truths.

Now, there are in total seven earthly stories Jesus speak of in Matthew chapter 13. So the parables here all speak about the kingdom of heaven. These stories are meant to give you insight into the ways of God, the kingdom of God.

The first story first comparison is that of a sower, a story of a Sower. The Sower and what he did is put beside a spiritual lesson. And then you see next, the story of the Weeds. This story of weeds and wheat will be placed beside another spiritual lesson.

And then you have the story of the Mustard Seed, followed by the story of the Leaven, and then a story of Treasure, and then a story of a Pearl of great price. And then a story of a Net.

These seven parables, these seven earthly stories are put beside ballo para, beside spiritual truths, comparing spiritual truths. So you will learn about the kingdom of God, as Jesus opens up and explains to you what each of these stories represent.

Now, it's not so straightforward, isn't it? Because think about it, if you read Matthew chapter 13, Jesus spoke of these parables, spoke of these stories, but He didn't tell everyone what each story meant. He just said the story, but he didn't give the moral behind the story to all of them.

Therefore, after He spoke the parables to the crowds, the disciples then gathered and said to Him, why do you speak to them in parables? Because Jesus didn't explain to them. So when they looked around and saw the faces of the crowd, they could see that they were bewildered. They were confused. They were puzzled. They must be wondering, hey, you told us the story, but you don't tell us what it means.

So Jesus was asked by his disciples, if you're not going to tell them the reason, you're not going to tell them the explanation? Why do you speak in parables? And the answer of Jesus is very interesting. Jesus said in verse 11, to you, this is the reason to you, it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them, it has not been given.
In other words, focus on these two parts. There are two groups of people Jesus was speaking to then.

The first group, His disciples, His followers, and He's saying to them, I spoke in parables, because I want you to be able to understand some truths. But I spoke in parables, because I don't want them to know some truths. You see that? He is sort of separating His disciples from the rest. His disciples will get to understand; the others won't get to understand. And that's why He spoke in parables.

In other words, parables are to hide truths from certain people. Now, let me just say this, for the next seven, eight minutes, it’s going to get a bit technical. So if you're very, very tired, and your brain is not with you, not working very well, I know you will fall asleep. But I can wake you up after eight minutes, okay the technical part is over pay attention now more, but if you really want to know what's going on, last with me, alright? Stay in there, hang in there, eight minutes, you'll be fine.

So the technical part is this. Jesus is saying, I spoke in parables to hide certain truths from people. It's like, the parables are like a riddle, a puzzle. You don't know how to solve it until I tell you the key to the puzzle to the riddle. It’s like a dream that the Bible speaks of in time past.

You remember Nebuchadnezzar? Nebuchadnezzar has a dream, right? His dream was that of a statue, gold head, silver torso, bronze, abdomen and, and iron with legs, with miry cleaved toes. What does it all mean? Nobody knows what it means until God reveals the interpretation to Nebuchadnezzar via the prophet Daniel. Until God reveals it, he would have no clue what this statue means. And until Jesus reveals it, the Jewish religious leaders and the Jewish people will have no clue what Jesus is teaching.

So parables are meant to reveal truth to those Jesus will give the key of the answers to, but it will be hidden to those who don't. When I was in the army, I was trained in the infantry unit. And in an infantry, you will have to walk very long distances. And then when you spot the enemy, you, you do make communications back to your HQ and say, we have spotted the enemy, please Fire, please shoot the artillery bombs at this exact location. So I thought the easiest way to do that is to just pick up my phone and say, Hello, sir. I found it. It is there, can you please fire? I thought that would be straightforward. But I realized in army, you can't do that.

Number one, the enemies are likely to disrupt all your phone lines. You can’t use your 4G or whatever phones, and you probably don't have Wi Fi signals. So in the army, you don't communicate via phones or internet. You communicate via signal sets. You know what’s a signal set? Okay for those in the army, I know for ladies, you're going to zone out here. But for guys, you use signal sets that look like this. Now I don't dare to use SAF pictures, classified. I may get into trouble. So I use foreign country pictures. So you have signal sets. These are things that you carry around, it’s quite heavy.

But there is antenna, there is battery powered, and it allows you to send messages over the airwaves. And the thing about using the signal sets is, whilst you may have this means of communications, you can't speak in plain lingo like we do now. But you got to speak in a secret coded message. Everything you say is with a code. So you will be represented by another term. Enemy will be represented by another term. So when you speak using this representative code words, your own soldiers, your own army will know what you mean. But the enemy, because they don't have these code words, will not have a clue what you are saying.
So I'm thinking about this when I read about parables, Jesus is giving signals a message to His own people, He will give them the code word. But to others, they have absolutely no clue. Now you think this is something novel; this is something new, never been done before. Actually, no, this is something that has been promised and prophesied of old. Because in verse 35, Jesus said, I'm doing this and it's not a new idea for me alright.

He's saying this was to fulfil everything Jesus did was to fulfil what God has said He will do, including this. This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet - I will open my mouth in parables I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. And this is quoted from Psalm 78.

The Psalm of Asaph, I will open my mouth in a parable, I will utter the dark sayings from of old. So this is not new. But the question is why? Why does Jesus want to hide the meaning of the Secrets of the Kingdom from others? I mean, as a preacher, I use illustrations. My purpose is certainly not to hide truths from you. I want to help you in the truths but Jesus hides them from the truth. Why? Reason is given in verse 15. For this, people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and turn and I will heal them.

So Jesus is saying the reason why I won’t let them know is because they have chosen to willfully close their eyes, shut their ears, and all their hearts. They have chosen to stubbornly reject me and therefore I will now judicially blind them. They do not want to hear, I will not let them understand.

Now, this is not new. This, again is a prophecy. Matthew 13 verse 14, look at how many prophecies Jesus is intentionally in fulfilling. Indeed, in that case, the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, you will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. This throws us back to the time of Isaiah hundreds of years ago.

Israel had been a rebellious people, no matter how many prophets God sent to Israel to warn them and to call them to repentance, they will not - they still worship other gods. So they have so harden themselves against God's people, God's prophets, God's word, that God says to Isaiah, now you go, tell them some more - tell them until their hearts grow so dull. You know, when you resist and you harden yourself against God's word, God gives you more of His word and you harden yourself even more. That's a kind of judgment on stubborn, rebellious people.

So it was the case in a time of Isaiah. And Jesus is saying, I am going to give them more parables, but they won't understand. And that's a kind of judgment upon them. And this is because earlier on you have already read in our series, that Jesus began to denounce the cities where most of His mighty work, His great miracles had been done. He denounced these cities, because they did not repent (Matthew 11:20).

Maybe some of you may say, oh, maybe His miracles are not fantastic enough, not conclusive enough, not spectacular enough. Jesus said, “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon - terribly wicked Gentile cities who know not God. If these miracles were done there, they would have repented a long time ago (Matthew 11:20).

But you are so stubborn, so hardened, you wouldn't repent. You have shut your eyes and shut your ears. In fact, you're so hardened that when I perform the miracles, this is what you say, it is only by Beelzebub, this is a name given to satan prince of demons that this man cast out demons. You are so stubbornly resisted me. And therefore Jesus says, your eyes you have closed, and therefore I speak to you in parables, so that you will not see. Otherwise, if I speak to you plainly, you would see and I would heal you (Matthew 13:15). But now I won't heal you.
I won't reveal these things to you. Because it is a judgment unto you. Now maybe I spent more than eight minutes, 10, I checked. But you can wake up now. You say, what did you all just do? Well, I actually ran through the text with you. And it really can be summarized in one slide. Okay, so wake up, wake up. Just one slide, alright, one slide. And it is this. The Kingdom Parables in Matthew 13 were a judgment against the unrepentant Jewish people then. In what way so that they were not able to see what the followers of Jesus were given to see. That's what Jesus is saying.

The Kingdom parables were a kind of judgment against these stubborn people so that now they can’t understand what Jesus will help His disciples to understand. It's a secret language. It’s a secret message. It's a secret communication so that they will know that they are judged.
Got that? Woke up already?

Now, I think that's the exposition of the text, I think meaningfully as I can help you with, but I think it's not just the purpose to understand the text, but also to ask ourselves, what then does this mean for you and for me? So a few applicatory thoughts as we conclude.

Number one, I'd like to say to you, as we think about the parables of Jesus, and the availability of the understanding of the parables of Jesus, we ought to be a thankful people.
Understand this, the Jewish leaders then could not figure out what Jesus was trying to say. But Jesus said to His disciples, He gave them the explanations and He said to them, blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear.

Jesus says it's a blessing, folks, it's a blessing, Peter, Andrew, James, John, Philip, it's a blessing for you to know of, the Secrets of the Kingdom. In fact, He goes on to say, for truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous people long to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.

Wow, hey guys, I know you are ordinary fishermen, I know you have never been to rabbinical schools. But do you realize that what I'm going to teach you is what prophets of old could not see nor understand, but it is given to you. Blessed are your eyes, blessed are your ears.

When you think about it in first Peter chapter one, it is also very stunning. first Peter 1 is rather long, but let me just read this, Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories (1 Peter 1:10-11). Well, look at the underlined words. Basically, the Old Testament prophets, they had to search, it was not so clear, it was not so apparent to them, how when Jesus or the Messiah would suffer and how He is going to be glorified.

They didn't have such clarity of knowledge as the readers during the times of Peter, and certainly, as compared to us today, we have so much more knowledge. And Peter goes on to say it was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you. They wrote all these things for you, in the things that have now been announced to you. The things into which angels long to look.

I've always been fascinated by the word angels long to look, it's, it's graphically, the angels craning their neck, stretching their neck, you know how it is, right? There's this wall and there's something beyond you want to see. And you can't get across. So you, you stretch your neck, so the angels long to see what's going to happen next. Hard for them to know, easy for us to know today.

We are blessed people who have access to God's word. I think many a times, we celebrate a promotion, we celebrate the birth of a baby, we celebrate the marriage of a couple. But how many of us celebrate the availability of God's Word? How many of us really sit down and say thank You, God, that in a world of darkness, You have given us the precious Bible.

I think in Singapore, we pretty much take it for granted. But many parts of the world, in many eras of time passed, people do not have the truth. Not in a way we do. But we are to be a thankful people because we are a blessed people. And by the way, the interpretation of the parables are already given, Jesus has taught that to us. They are recorded today in the Bible. We are blessed to learn. Now for you, as followers of Jesus Christ. Some of you may think about parables as something not so straightforward. And you say, why can't it be more plain? Why can't it be more straightforward? Well, I think about a certain dessert in Singapore. a certain kind of food in Singapore. Do you know what this is?

All of you are quite good at food. I was like, I can't remember the name. I do not know the name. So I searched Google - that one with Gula Melaka syrup, blah, blah, blah. And I found it’s onde onde, alright. So I think about parables, like onde onde - because onde onde is this thing where you pop into the mouth, and when it's first in your mouth - nothing very special, right? It's quite plain Jane, it’s nothing very nice. But when you bite into it, then the Gula Melaka syrup just oozes out. Oooo, so there is an explosion of flavors and sweetness in your mouth. Wow then it coats with coconut oil becomes so nice. Am I making you salivate a bit?

But once I bite into it, it becomes flavorful and very memorable, isn't it? I think parables are like this. The genius of Jesus Christ teaching in parables is that superficially, it may look very ordinary, it may look a little bit plain, it may look a little bit simple, nothing fascinating. But once you get into it, and you understand it is like the Gula Melaka explode in your head, and it becomes very memorable. So we are a blessed people to have the teachings of Christ, the Bible, and I hope we will be a thankful people.

But secondly, I want to say, whilst we must be thankful for the availability of God's Word and the teaching of God's Word in our day and age today, it is not enough that you should say to yourself, I go to a church that preaches the Bible, it's not enough. Because it's very important. Secondly, to be careful, careful of what? careful of how you hear, you receive, you listen to the Word of God. It's very important that you take personal responsibility to how you interact with Scripture.

Jesus quoted from Psalm 78, remember, and in Psalm 78, it is said, Give ear, O my people, to my teaching, incline your ears to the words of my mouth! I will open my mouth in a parable, and so on, and so forth. So Jesus says, it's important you give ear, you incline your ears to my teachings. And then again, in Luke 8, somewhere else, it is said, Take care then how you hear, for to the one who has, more will be given (Luke 8:18).

In other words, how we hear makes a difference in our lives. All of us are in the same church, in the same service, hearing the same preacher, all of you will hear the same words. I guarantee you however, all of us will leave this place affected very differently. Some of you will go out totally unchanged. Some of you will go out totally angry with me. Some of you will go out, go out, totally excited about God's word. It's going to be different.

But why? Preacher is the same. Sermon is the same. But the way you listen is not the same. Take care how you hear. More will be spoken of in the parable of the sower. But I want to say in a very simple way. You really got to think about how you are listening to God's word. For example, some, every morning when you wake up to read your Bible, how do you read that? And maybe more particularly every Sunday when we gather to worship God and to hear God's Word in our services, how do you hear that? Some of you say I need a hearing aid. Okay, that's, that's an easy thing. You might want to do that. And that may be helpful.

But I think preparing to hear God's word begins not here, but begins at home. It begins with very simply, what time did you sleep? Did you have enough rest? It begins with something like, Are you here on time? Or are you trying to come into the service, sweating and feeling guilty about coming late and scared to shake our hands out there? And then you you're so sheepish about it and you, and you can't hear properly?

I think taking care how you hear involves preparing yourself the night before, involves coming here on time, involves you preparing your heart, settling yourself, and it involves praying that God, please teach me your word.

I love this simple statement in Proverbs that says, Yes, if you call out for insight, and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God (Proverbs 2:3-5).

I know of a man in this church, who grew up in church culture. For many years, the Word of God meant very little to him. He must have heard thousands of sermons. But he didn't really hear thousands of sermons. He was in an environment where thousands of sermons were preached but his ears, his heart was not really engaged.

But when he came to faith in Jesus Christ, his prayer, when he comes for worship services is, Lord, open my mind and open my heart to receive Your word and things begin to change. From then onwards. I see life change. I see a delight in his soul. I see a blossoming of God's Word in him. See, what's the difference? It's not the fact that he went to church, but the fact that he now takes care of how he listens, and he cries out, God, give me understanding.

Let me ask you, how do you hear God's word today?

I'm afraid many of us, we come to church service as a kind of a ritual, as a kind of empty ritual. We come here just to pass time, we come here just to show face, you know how it is, aiya my boss asked me to turn up in the event, so I show face lah. Your heart is not there, but you just show face.

And when it comes to church you also show face, as if God is interested in just seeing you appear in church. Oh, no. He wants your heart. And real meaningful hearing of God's Word involves your heart.

The Hebrews, the Jewish people have a good understanding of the word Shema, I pronounce it as Shema early on, I was corrected. It should be Shema, emphasis on the second syllable Shema. What does Shema mean? Shénme shì shenme? [What is in Mandarin). Okay. I just came out with that, sorry, alright. Shénme shì shenme, alright, you get what I mean?

What is Shema? Well, the word Shema means, to hear. You say what's so special about what to hear? Well, the Jewish way of understanding hearing is very different from what we understand today. The Jewish way of understanding Shema is that it is more than sound waves entering your ear canal and bouncing off your eardrums. More than that.

The concept of hearing is not just listening as in the physical act of it, but also the paying attention to what you're listening to. So, Hear O Israel is not just listen, but pay attention, O Israel, Deuteronomy 6, and more than just paying attention. It is also inclusive of the need to respond to what you hear. So what is Shema? It means listening, respecting, and responding to the Word of God. It's holistic that way.

So the challenge here is how are you hearing God's Word in your life in a regular basis. Are you here just to sit here and pass time and tell yourself I've done my religious duty? Or are you here to say, God is worthy of all my attention, His Word is extremely precious, I will give my due attention to it and I’ll be careful, not just to hear, but to do God's will.

That's what James 1 says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only, deceiving yourself (James 1:22). That's what Shema means. That's what the Jewish people understand it to be. Don't deceive yourself by just talking about the Bible, reading about the Bible, but not responding with obedience to the Bible.

It's almost like I say to my son, Shawn. Shawn, you got to go and bath. Shawn tells me, Dad I understand the word “bath” means. It means to turn on the water, soak myself and wash away the filth. Dad, I love that. Dad, I actually checked out the Hebrew word for “bath”. And I also found the Greek word for “bath”. And I actually conducted a little Bible study on “bath”. I got my friends together. We talked about bathing. We were excited about it. We prayed about bathing. It was so fun. It was so good to learn about bathing. Shawn, have you bathed? No.

Is that what it is all about? Is that what me, I as a parent want? No. It's good for you to understand bathing, it’s good for you to understand a Greek word for bathing. It's good to talk about bathing, but please, at the end of the day, bath!

It's good for us to study the Bible. It's good for us to hear the Bible. It's good for us to pay attention to the Bible. But at the end of the day, obey the Bible, be ye doers of the word!

Now, of course, let's be very clear, we are not telling you to obey the commandments to get saved. No, you never get saved by earning your way to heaven. But we obey because we love God. And we love God because He first loved us and we know we are saved by the grace of God.

Take care, how you listen, be careful. Because for to the one who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not given what he has will be taken away. I observed a very simple phenomenon in church.

It really doesn't matter whether you're old Christian or young Christian. Really doesn't matter how long you've been a churchgoer. What really matters is this attitude of Shema, the Word.

Because I've seen very young Christians in this church, who has a wonderful, hungry, humble attitude. They may not know a lot about the Bible, but that's okay. They start studying, they start reading, they start learning and they don't just stop there. They say what must I do? How can I obey and they practically obey God, they don't make excuses for themselves. They don't do biblical gymnastics to work themselves out of commands of God, but they take God's word, they obey Him, and I see them grow and grow and grow and grow.

I mean, that's what Jesus said, for the one who has more will be given and he will have an abundance. And, and then I see another Christian, he may be respected, he may look good, but actually, he's just filled with head knowledge. And then, over time I see him shrivel as a Christian, less and less joy, less and less influence, less and less of Christ in him. It's sad.

Very simple today. It's not about your IQ. It's not about your academics. It's about your heart.

Are you careful? When it comes to God's word. Do you hear, not just to understand, but you hear with respect. And you hear with an attitude that says, I want to obey. It makes a big difference.

And then I say thirdly folks, when it comes to the parables - when it comes to the teaching of God's word, let us be thankful. Let us be careful. And then I say, I twist a little bit, I change gears. I say to preachers of God's word, you got to be faithful. I learned that from Jesus. I learned that from Isaiah who is quoted. You know, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Jesus, they were not very popular. Not at all. They were not popular for what they were preaching. Isaiah, Jeremiah - thrown into prison. Jesus, whoa, they shouted, Crucify Him.

And if you want to be someone who teaches God's word, don't aim to be a favorite preacher. Aim to be a faithful preacher. Because I can tell you people generally do not like the truth. The Bible tells us we are in living, we are darkness, we are living in darkness. And people in darkness do not like the light.

Jesus tells us that narrow is the gate that leads to everlasting life. and few there be that find it. So if you aim to be popular today, you will be very disappointed if you are to preach God's word faithfully. Don't add to God's word, don't subtract from God's word. Be faithful. That's the most important criteria. When I look for a preacher, I'm not looking for eloquence or charisma. I think. If he's unfaithful, he can be a super dangerous guy. What's most important is faithfulness.

A story was told of an emperor who was aging. He needed to look for a successor. So he called his sons and said to them, son, sons, I'm going to give each one of you this pot with a seed therein. Take care of it, nurture it, love it. And I will select my successor when I call you back sometime later.

So all the sons went back. And there was this young man named Ling. Ling poured his heart out to care for this plant, or this seed. He watered it. He nurtured it. He sang to it. He did all he could for it. But after two months, nothing grew. After three months, nothing grew. After six months, nothing grew. After one year, still, nothing grew.

The Emperor called his sons back with the pots of seed. And they all gathered and Ling saw all his other brothers carrying pots. Now with beautiful plants, with luscious fruit, beautiful, glorious flowers. All his brothers were very happy with their produce. And Ling was the only one who could only hang his head in sadness and disappointment.

The Emperor came, looked at all their pots, and the emperor then said, “My dear children, I have found my successor”. All the sons were rubbing their hands thinking “it must be me. Look at my durian. No, no, not durian. But look at my plants, it’s so beautiful.” And the Emperor says, “my successor will be Ling.” What? Look at his pot. There's nothing. Why?

“Well, a year ago, I gave each of you a seed. But unknown to you, I have already boiled the seed. Only Ling was faithful to the seed I gave. Every one of you changed my seed.” One day, we're going to stand before God. He's not going to ask you how many beautiful flowers do you have? How big is your church? How fancy your church ministry is.

He is going to ask how have you handled my seed. Some of you here are Sunday school teachers, care group leaders, discipleship group leaders, Bible study teachers, you teach your kids at home, you teach in your office, you may not be very popular. But the key is that you must be faithful.

Jesus didn't live for the popularity of men, neither did Isaiah, neither did Jeremiah. I think if they had started a church, the church would be super small. But that's fine, right? That's fine. Do not add to the Gospel, don’t add things like the prosperity, health and wealth. Do not subtract from the Gospel. Don't take away necessary understanding of how sin, repentance, the blood of Christ. Let the offense of the cross stay. Because that's God's seed.

And maybe, as a last reminder, I hope as a church, we will be prayerful. I mean, this is so important. So important to pray for our own hearts. And so important to pray for the hearts of those around you.

Some of you have invited your friends, your neighbors, your loved ones, to come and hear God's word. Let me say this, you can't save that person, only God can save. But I think you can be very, very encouraged to know that you can pray that they will understand God's word. You can pray that their hearts will be like that of good soil, that they will be blessed as God's word is being declared.

So I pray as a church we would come to experience the delight of going through the parables in Matthew chapter 13. I hope that in these next few weeks, you have this onde onde experience, the explosion of sweetness and flavors in your soul, as you understand the secrets of the kingdom.
Let's bow for a word of prayer together.
It's not enough to come to church, it really is not. Because what God wants in worship is not just your attendance. He wants your heart, He wants your life. He wants you to Shema his teachings.

Would you pray today for yourself and for your family and for those all around you? That we as a people will have a heart that is tender and humble and receptive. That would say to God, Lord, speak, for thy servant hears, that I'll be quick to do your will. O let us have such hearts that hunger after Him and His truth.

And I pray for you, my dear friends, if you are here today, and you do not know Jesus as your Savior, I pray you have a heart that says, I will want to follow God's word and let me tell you the Bible's main message.

The main message of the Bible is what we call the Good News, the Gospel. And it is this, while we were yet sinners, while we cannot do anything of worth to save ourselves, God chose to send His Son Jesus to die on the cross. And with His blood that was shed on the cross, wash away the sins of those who would believe in Him.

This is the Good News. And this is what God commands men everywhere to do, to repent of their sin and believe in Jesus. I pray today, not only will you understand this, but you will respond with obedience, that, God, you will say, I repent and believe in Jesus Christ. I pray then, that as you respond in obedience, more will be given to you. And I'll see the life of Christ, flourish and blossom in many, many hearts and lives.

May God have mercy in the weeks to come, that the teachings of the Secrets of the Kingdom will be a blessing to our souls and to our families. Father, thank You for this time, bless Your church, bless Your people.

The Word of God, like a seed, has tremendous potential to bring forth a fruitful tree but Lord, let our heart be that of good soil please. So we commit ourselves to You, speak Oh Lord till your church is built. That the world may know Your glory. We pray all this in Jesus name. Amen.

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