Review:

We lose more when hear and understand but don't act than if we hear w/out understanding. Why? 'Cause if have heard and understood, something happens. A plant springs up. A spiritual life sprouts. Now we have more to lose than if we remain dead soil.

Let's look more closely at this.

1.	How would you describe the spiritual life of those depicted here who don't act?

a.	Get's scorched, withers, dies 'cause of lack of space and sunlight

b.	What word would you use to describe a life that would get scorched and withered or crowded out

2.	We noticed that the weedy and rocky soil couldn't support a plant even through normal stresses–sunlight, right?

a.	What do we call a person whose spiritual life (plant) is easily discouraged under the normal stresses of life?

b.	Weak, unstable

3.	Is there any plant here that is not weak and unstable? Yes. The one in the good soil. What is the only difference between the good soil and the weedy and rocky soils?

a.	Continuing to act on conviction.

4.	Look in the context for examples of instability. No need to go back further than the last half of chapter 12 (after verse:22)

a.	A house divided

b.	Wicked and adulterous generation

c.	7 evil spirits

5.	For the sake of time what principle can we learn from the house divided? What is it about the way God's creations work that we become unstable if we are understanding and not acting?

6.	What part of our being is involved in hearing? understanding? acting?

a.	Mind and body. We were created whole creatures–mental, social, spiritual, physical and if the mind is saying one thing and the body doing another we become divided and unstable. –Bill's story w/ his daughter.–Coreena and a stressful paper.

b.	How does this help us understand why there are so many unstable people in the church?

i.	They are the ones in a position to be hearing and not acting.

c.	What's the first thing to go? Mental–the other areas usually take time to show signs, but the mind knows something isn't right–preacher who was spending 3 hrs a day with someone else's wife.

7.	James 3:1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, knowing that as such we will incur a stricter judgment. You must do everything in your power to not create unstable people. When someone is hearing and understanding you must give them opportunity to act. This is the one element that is most missing in sermons. And difficult to put into sermons 'cause we don't want to offend and we have no way of holding people accountable.

8.	The care and keeping of a spiritual life is only the concern of those who have received the seed, and are continuing to do so. Some of you tonight may recognize that you have been hardened to the message of the kingdom, like the path. You have a hard time believing that you are God's pearl of great price. We did this last time, but it bears repeating. Turn to the person next to you and simply engage in a little evangelism. Say, "You are God's pearl." and respond "You are a priceless treasure." Some of you probably had a hard time hearing that. You might have felt silly. The words come in, but you have a hard time believing that they really apply to you. If that's you tonight, maybe you simply need to ask God to plow up the soil of your heart to make you receptive. Or maybe that's happened and you need to simply respond in faith. Even those of us who have responded need to continue responding–the good soil continues to act. So before we get specific with the weeds and rocks, let's just stop and apply what we've already heard. Jesus is coming to Your heart tonight and He's dying to gain entrance. He's throwing away His entire universe, His very life to have the privilege of living in Your heart. What are you saying to Him tonight. Let's not hear about you and all your struggles, talk about Him.

9.	Now having His spiritual life growing in you, what are some elements of the root, the invisible part of the spiritual life which feeds you spiritually and anchors you? Anything that is not public.

a.	Personal Bible study

b.	Personal prayer

c.	Accountability

10.	What are some elements of the plant, a healthy public spiritual life, the part that is visible?

a.	Participation in ministry and service

b.	Church attendance

c.	Publicly praising God

11.	What are some examples of weeds which may crowd out the public things, and rocks which crowd out the private ones?

a.	Weeds

i.	Cares of this world and deceitfulness of wealth.

(1)	TV

(2)	School

b.	Rocks

i.	Injuries, depression

ii.	Grudges

iii.	Loneliness

iv.	Fearfulness

12.	Look at the list, pick three areas in which God is convicting you that the soil of your heart needs change. Write them down. For future reference.

13.	Pick most urgent one. Which do you need more, feeding (which would imply rock removal) of your spiritual life weeding of the soil of your heart? What would be the first step you'd have to take? Write it down.

14.	When will you take step 1? Who will ask to hold you accountable–if possible choose someone here who you can check with immediately.

15.	Anyone willing to share?

How to teach: point is to hear, understand, and act. That means step one is prayer. We do not naturally understand the Bible.

Hear:

Read passage from several translations, be prepared to look up words in a dictionary.

Hope none of you are still struggling along with only the King James. I'm not against the King James, but let me illustrate what a hindrance it can be to hearing. Someone read Eph 4:16. Language in many places is so far removed from our modern speech that it can be a serious hindrance. Consult it, it's a good translation, but make sure in this day and age when we have so many other tools and translations that you make use of them. NASB is probably the best for this sort of study. It's very literal but the language is updated. NIV is a little free in some places, but decent. RSV is good as well.

1.	How to ask fact questions:

a.	Key words for fact questions. Who, what, when, where, describe, find, list.

b.	Get strictly what the writer is saying, no more, no less.

c.	Min response/thought: For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever does what may have eternal life? Best for facts.

d.	Max response/thought: From John 3:16 name the conditions by which we may receive eternal life.

e.	No yes or no questions unless the first part of a two-part question. For example, "Did the seed that fell on the path take root? What did happen to it?"

f.	If the gospel is in there, make sure it gets heard.

Your task as a group: Take the text and pull it apart as a team–form questions to help the rest hear it. Just the facts, and one more question.

What issues are being raised in your mind as you hear what the author is saying in this verse?

Use as many questions as you need to get the facts out clearly.

Often it helps to break a text into three parts.

Jn 14:1

1.	Let not your hearts be troubled.

2.	You believe in God,

3.	Believe also in me.

Model one parable?

Tax collector and Pharisee? Verse by verse, facts 1 issue question?

One presenter/teacher in each group. You will work together to form questions, and then the teacher will move to the next group and ask his/her questions. Following that, go through the seven feedback questions with your teacher, then we'll hear highlights from each and you'll start the process over.

4.	Feedback: How effectively did the teacher do each of the following?

1.	Made sure the next was read in several translations if necessary?

2.	Asked effective questions?

1.	Clear language

2.	Not too complex

3.	No yes/no

3.	Showed willingness to listen to individuals?

1.	Gave affirmation

4.	Kept the group in the Word?

1.	no speculation

5.	Allowed discovery to take place?

1.	Did not answer his/her own questions

2.	No agenda

6.	How clear did the text become?

7.	Did the teacher lead the group?

Weeds

Always take notice of where we are in the parable. Let's ID the things explicitly given to us.Who is the man? Son of Man; Field? World; Good seed? Sons of the kingdom; Tares? Sons of the evil one; Enemy? Devil; Harvest? End of age; Reapers? Angels; What issues is this raising?; What does it mean to say sons of the evil one. Satan doesn't have children, does he?

Where are we humans? What are the two options?

Facts:

To what is the kingdom of heaven compared in this parable?

What kind of seed did the man sow?

In whose field did he sow it?

All is coming up roses (wheat) until when? At what time does the enemy come on the scene? While his men were sleeping. Hmmm. What an interesting time of day.

What does he sow, where did he sow them? Among the wheat, And in whose field is he sowing?

Not his own. Hmmm.

Issues:

According to the context, what do the field, the man, the enemy, and the different kinds of seed represent?

Why did he let his men sleep? Why does the enemy want to spoil his crop? What is going on here? (Devil planting evil in the world.)How did the enemy (devil) sow tares (his sons) in the Son of Man's field (the world)?

Why does the devil sow his tares in the Son of Man's field and not in his own field? What does this tell us about the devil's character and purpose?

Why does he sow them while the man's servants are sleeping? What additional insight do we gain from this into the devil's character?

What does it mean for the son of man's servants to be sleeping? Why is this significant?

Facts:

When did his servants first notice a problem? when wheat sprouted and bore grain

What do they do first? Come to landowner and say to him, "Sir didn't you sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?"

Issues?

Why does it take them a while to notice the difference? enemy worked at night, both plants finally mature enough to tell the difference.

Facts:

What is the man's response? An enemy has done this!

What is the servants' question? "Do you want us to go and gather them up?"

Issues?

--so where does evil come from, is God responsible for it? Many say God is all-powerful, etc. but don't realize that there is an enemy. God's universe is not as he created it, it has been infiltrated. (If God is all powerful how'd he get an enemy? Why'd he permit him to exist?--hold onto those thoughts)

Who are these servants? What would it mean to pull up the tares?

Jesus stood meek and humble before the infuriated multitude, while they offered Him the vilest abuse. They spat in His face--that face from which they will one day desire to hide, which will give light to the city of God and shine brighter than the sun. Christ did not cast upon the offenders an angry look. They covered His head with an old garment, blindfolding Him, and then struck Him in the face and cried out, "Prophesy, who was it that smote Thee?" Luke 22:64. There was commotion among the angels. They would have rescued Him instantly, but their commanding angels restrained them. (White, Story of Redemption, 214-215).

Another possibility? Who's He talking to in this parable? Disciples–how well do they fit the description of the servants? 'Who might they want uprooted?' Romans.

How affirming is the landowner's answer? He says no.

What's his reasoning? "for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them."

Issues?

Why is it so important to him to not lose any wheat? Why isn't it more important to get rid of the weeds?

How much wheat is too much wheat to lose?

How could uprooting the tares kill the wheat?–Illustration. Gen 2:7–what causes Adam and Eve to die? So what happens if God destroys trust. We always say He doesn't want us to serve out of fear, but how well can we serve out of fear? Those who 'serve out of fear' are dead, and God doesn't want to lose any of us.

Instead of uprooting the tares and possibly uprooting, what radical thought does he suggest? "Allow both to grow together until the harvest;

But what will he tell the reapers to do at the harvest time?

and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, 'First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'"

How long will he let them both grow side by side? Until harvest.

Issue:

Isn't that a long time to let the weeds last?

Won't the wheat be damaged by growing alongside the weeds?

Who will finally clean them up? Angels

When is the harvest? What determines when harvest time is?

Issues:

Why is it okay to uproot the weeds and the wheat at harvest time? What has changed?

Why isn't the wheat in danger of being killed?

What will be the final outcome? The Son of man will send forth His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all stumbling blocks, and those who commit lawlessness, and will throw them into the furnace of fire; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the Righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. (Dan 12:3)

Application:

What does this tell you about God's character?

Anyone praising God tonight for His good plans?

Mustard seed–parallel Luke 13:19; Luke 13:32 fox=Herod, Birds of the air? Eze 17:23, Dan 4:12, 21-22; Matt 8:20 and Luke 9:58 (fox and birds)–If fox is Herod, and this guy is looking for political power, who might birds of the air be?

Facts:

What is the kingdom of heaven like? A mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field.

Who? A man. What did he do? Took it and sowed it. Where? In His field.

Issues?

Who is the man? Why did he take it and sow it? What's signif about it being His field? What is His field?

What chars of mustard seed are mentioned?

Smaller than all other seeds,

but when full grown,(Where have we heard full grown this before?) it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree,

so that the birds of the air nest in its branches. (Where have we heard this before?)

Issues:

Why is it significant that it is the smallest seed? In what way is the kingdom smallest, particularly at planting time?–when was planting time, is it at the beginning–at creation when it was still God's field? In what way was it small then? "What is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of man that you care for him, in light of all you've created."

?–the cross was the lowest most humbling experience ever. That is when the seed was planted.

What is significant about the phrase, when it is full grown, in the context? What does it mean for the kingdom to be full grown?–it means love has come to fruition in God's people.

Why is kingdom like something that starts small at first and when mature is big?

What is implied in the 'birds' comment?

Applic: In what ways have you observed the growth of the kingdom in your own life? In the world?

Yeast:

What is koh like? Leaven,

Not just any leaven, but leaven which had what happen to it? A woman took it, and what did she do with it? She hid it in a half-bushel of flour,

for how long? until it was all leavened.

Issues:

How is kingdom like yeast in dough.

In the way it spreads, grows?

In its visibility?

In its unstoppability?

In its unassumingness?

What is flour? Food? Sustenance (of life).

What does yeast do to flour? It leavens it; it makes it rise. What does that signify?

Why does Jesus represent the kingdom of heaven as yeast, in flour? Kingdom is to what as yeast is to flour?

What is signified in bread rising?

What is signified by unleavened bread? Jesus broke unleavened bread representing His broken body, unleavened 'cause it had not yet risen?

What is bread Biblically speaking? The staff of life? You shall eat bread by the sweat of your brow–you shall stay alive by work, no more eating of the tree of life to sustain your life forever.

Why is koh compared to a yeast which a woman hid in dough?

What is signif about woman?

Yeast?

Why does it say hidden? What else is hidden in the context? –things the psalmist speaks which have been hidden since creation.

What is represented by Flour/Dough? Why flour/dough?

How is dough/flour different from 'his field' as mentioned above?

What's Jesus' message in all this to His disciples? Why is he telling them these things?

The kingdom will look weak to you, but it is strong. Don't despair if it doesn't look strong and don't try to control it or force it on people.

Applic?

In what ways have I tried to control?

Why do I need to know that the kingdom operates this way as a disciple/discipler?

What are some possible ways that disciplers try to force the process or rush it?

What would my discipling look like if I understood the mustard seed and yeast principle?