Losers Weepers: Why Most Christians Never Produce

0:00:00 – (Steve Gray): Hey, have you heard the saying, finders keepers, Losers weepers. Are you a loser? I’m going to help you find out on the next More Faith, More Life podcast. Hello, everyone. Welcome to another More Faith, More Life podcast. Your voice for revival. So glad we could be together today. We’re going to talk about some great things right out of the Word of God from Matthew 13. And I’m calling it Losers Weepers.

0:00:22 – (Steve Gray): And I used that title in another podcast or broadcast, I did. And I like that title called Losers Weepers. And you go like, what is. Where are we going with that? Well, we’re going to talk about the sower of the Word. And in Matthew 13, it says, the farmer sows the seed. And it begins to, in the parable, tell the story of it. But as we go through it, we’ll kind of talk about it here a minute. And it talks about four kinds of, I guess, ground soil. Four kinds.

0:00:49 – (Steve Gray): And out of that, three out of four are losers. Yeah, three out of four are losers. You have to think about that when you think about the church you attend, or if you’re a pastor, the church you pastor or a leader or you’re a worship leader or whatever, or you don’t go to church at all now, but you have to think about that you might be sitting in church. And just for a minute, don’t go overboard with it, okay? For just a minute, look around and think, huh?

0:01:15 – (Steve Gray): Three out of four of these people ain’t getting it. You know, they don’t get it. But they’re here. Now. The question is, you look at yourself, well, do I get it? I’m here. Am I getting it? And so let’s talk about the parable for a moment. Anyway, so we got the seed that is thrown on the path. And that is. Then the birds come. And the path is like a walking path. So, you know, walking path is beaten down.

0:01:40 – (Steve Gray): So the seed just lays there. And it says the birds come then and eat the. Eat the seeds. And then the other kind is rocky ground where there’s no root. It’s shallow soil and there’s no root. And sort of the same thing. Can’t get the seed down in there. Cause of the rocks and the soil. And the seeds are then scorched, burned by the sun, so they die in the heat of it. And then the third one is seed that’s sown among the thorns.

0:02:08 – (Steve Gray): And in that one it is the. You maybe, I don’t know if you’ve ever seen these thorns that they. They can outgrow everything else, you know. And we Used to have in our yard, kind of a thorny vine or something up over here, you know. And we planted. And then pretty soon the thorns and the. The vines are overtaking it. I’ve seen them over take a tree. Oh, down in. I was down in Guatemala and in the forest there we were down in the jungle and I can’t remember something vine, I forgot what it was they’re called. But like a vine that chokes you like that.

0:02:47 – (Steve Gray): And it starts. And these are huge trees, like, you know, wide trees. But this vine would start and it goes up and it just takes over and it squeezes and squeezes and takes the minerals out or whatever a vine does. But anyway, the tree will eventually die. And they were everywhere. They were these vines that were strained. They were kind of, you know, strangled. Oh, yeah, got it. Strangle vines. Just took me a second to think about it.

0:03:15 – (Steve Gray): Strangle vines. And it strangled the church. So this is kind of the idea. These thorns come in and strangle. And so it says, it chokes. It chokes out. And then there’s the good soil, of course, the one out of four, the good soil. And that soil produces good fruit. It’s producing. And so there we have that. And the disciples, they not sure what all this is about, you know. Oh, and by the way, after the beginning of this parable, it’s real interesting that Matthew throws in before he gets to explaining the parable. He throws this in. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have abundance.

0:03:55 – (Steve Gray): Whoever does not have even what they have will be taken away from them. And we were just talking about that, how Americans, especially what’s happening in certain cities today, that’s totally against what they believe. And they would probably not believe that’s even in the Bible, because they want to take it. And if one person has more, then you take from the more and you give it to the one who has nothing.

0:04:21 – (Steve Gray): And Jesus does just the opposite. He says, the one who has more will get more. And the one who has nothing, even what they do have, if they have anything low amount, even what they have will be taken away from them and given to the one who has more, which is more and more. Well, that sounds un American. It sounds like, you know, it’s against humanity almost, you know. But the reason that is is because God looks at the situation and he says, I want to find people who produce.

0:04:53 – (Steve Gray): And if they produce, then that’s a good investment. I’ll give them more. Because if I give them more, they will produce more. Give them more, they will produce More. Well, those that have not. That means the ones that are not producing are not producing. Then he says, I’m going to. I don’t. I don’t. Like, I’m going to take what they have, what I even maybe gave them, and I’m going to give it to the one who produces.

0:05:17 – (Steve Gray): So the problem we have today in Christianity is people didn’t come into the kingdom. They came in for different reasons. They gave their life to Jesus. You know, they prayed the sinner’s prayer. They, you know, repented of their sins, they went down to the altar, every head was bowed, everybody was peeking and looking around, right? So you that have been in church a long time understand that. But anyway.

0:05:43 – (Steve Gray): But they did not come in thinking production. They came in not to produce. They came in to consume. They came in, they became millions, millions and millions, became a Christian for themselves, for a selfish reason. What’s that selfish reason? They want to go to heaven when they die. Who wants to go to hell? Who wants to. Who wants to burn for eternity? So somebody convinced him that if you would say this prayer, you can get your sins forgiven and Jesus will be your savior and he will save you from hell and you’ll get to spend eternity in heaven, which is not true.

0:06:22 – (Steve Gray): No. Heaven comes down to the earth, and we come back to the earth and rule and reign. But that’s another story. But anyway, that’s why. And so that’s why they prayed the prayer. That’s why they came to the altar. That’s why they bowed their head with no one looking around. That’s why he said, raise your hand if you. If you want to know Jesus. Okay, I see that hand and all these things that we do. But when you clear the air and clear the clutter, realize people do those things because they’re doing it for themselves.

0:06:52 – (Steve Gray): It’s a wise decision. And why not? Why not just take a chance that it works? And so they come and the idea, then they’re going to do that for themselves. Then they’re going to come to church, but that’s not going to change. They’re not all of a sudden going to change with that. So they’re going to listen to the sermon for themselves and they’re going to find out something that will help themselves and make them feel better about themselves, make them feel more valued about themselves, right?

0:07:22 – (Steve Gray): Help them to love themselves, all these things. So when you start off as one who comes to consume the gospel, consume the promises, I’m a consumer, so that’s what I do. Rather than I come in to produce and so you get, you know, a sermon then comes out and somebody teaches a Bible study or something on. This is what you should be doing. You need to produce, you need to serve, you need to give, you need to sacrifice. You know, all those words.

0:07:50 – (Steve Gray): You need to die to yourself. You need to be loyal. You know, all these. No compromise, all these big, big things that were supposed to be. And the early believers were. And it tells us to do it in the Bible. And you’re going like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Put the brake on here, put the brake on. You know, I didn’t come in this to do all those things. I didn’t come in to serve, to be loyal, to be a tither, to be a giver, to be generous, to be sacrificial, to be loyal, to live an uncompromised life.

0:08:20 – (Steve Gray): Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on here. I came in for reasons that were important to me, about me, about my spiritual future. Would be better if I would go ahead and do this and give my life to Jesus, and then I have that blessed assurance that when I die that I will go to heaven for eternity. Okay, so now we can’t turn people in. So that makes. That’s why we’ve got three out of four. Are these kinds of people this different kind of soil?

0:08:51 – (Steve Gray): And they came into the kingdom to be that kind of soil. All right, so then the parable comes in, explains the. I’ll explain the parable to you. And those that hear the Word. The first one is the person who hears the word of the kingdom, of God, of the kingdom. And that’s important. It doesn’t say just the word of. I don’t know, what are they, salvation, prayer or whatever about the kingdom. But they don’t understand it. They don’t get it.

0:09:18 – (Steve Gray): Just like trying to explain how the kingdom works. And you’re a citizen of the kingdom, but you’re not the king, and now you’re a servant, and all of a sudden you’re like, I don’t get it. I just don’t get the kingdom of God. But anyway, they don’t understand it and that. So this is the one that snatched away what was sown in their heart. This was the seed sowed on the path, remember? So these are people that are path people, right?

0:09:41 – (Steve Gray): And the Word of God is there, but it gets snatched away. And this is the interesting part. It says the evil one comes and snatches it away. Imagine that you’re sitting in church, you’re hearing the Word. I was explaining to someone that I have several translations. Say the evil one comes immediately and snatches what was sown in their heart. I don’t know. That might be King James. I’m not sure version. But anyway, think of that. There’s people there listening, they hear it. And that word doesn’t last, but just a little bit and. And it’s out. It gets snatched away. The evil one actually comes.

0:10:15 – (Steve Gray): We have to believe Jesus or not believe him. The evil one comes and snatches what was sown in their heart. And that’s going on. Do you think that’s going on on Sunday morning? Well, of course it is. Of course. Of course. Jesus says it’s when the word of God is sown. Most people, when they hear the word of God, when they go to church, then they go to church and it is snatched away. That’s the one that was sown on that on the path, then snatches away.

0:10:42 – (Steve Gray): This is the seed sown on the heart. The seed sown on the rocky ground is very similar. It’s rocky. It doesn’t. You can’t. Like I said, you can’t get down deep because of the rocks. And so because of that, they hear the word and receive it with joy, it says. But they only last a short time, you know, because of persecution. So we have the path where the scorched, you know, ground, the rocky ground, then have no root. They get snatched away. And then the next one is the thorns.

0:11:12 – (Steve Gray): We kind of explained all that. And the thorns and that’s. They also fall away from that is because the cares of this life. So I think that’s probably one of the biggest ones that’s happening among us as the community of Jesus is the cares of this life. The doesn’t say the love of money, just money, wealth, you know, getting things moving forward. So the cares of this life come and choke the word out of you.

0:11:42 – (Steve Gray): It’s choked out of you. So there we have it. The three out of four are all hearing the word. All three. We’ll get to the fourth one in a minute. But all three hear the word of God, right? All three are hearing the word of God, but due to different reasons. Because the path and the rocky places and the thorns, they don’t hang on to it. Now, basically, we could say they all fall away. One of them says that they’re snatched. The word snatched away, fall away, choked away. You know, but when I hear that word, away, I get the idea, like, fall away means, well, they’re going to not go to church anymore or they’re going to get choked away. They won’t go to church anymore, or they get snatched away. They won’t go to church anymore. And that’s not what’s happening. Because these are people.

0:12:33 – (Steve Gray): They’re in church in the first place. They’re in church now. Back then, Jesus is preaching the word by the lake or something. Okay, I get it. But now we’re a church culture, okay? Or wherever people meet to hear the word of God. And so they’re hearing the word of God, all right? And then we get the. I got. It’s me. I got the idea that, okay, when this happens, then they’re gone, they’re out. And then I’m realizing, no, they didn’t fall away from the church.

0:13:01 – (Steve Gray): They didn’t even fall away from God in a way. Cause they still believe in God. They didn’t even really fall away from Jesus in a way, because they still believe in Jesus. But they fell away from the Word. All of them fell away from the word of God. And that’s the word of God that produces. And it’s the word of God that then brings that abundance into our life. And of course, Jesus is the word. So I guess they are falling away from Jesus in some way. But in this parable, the idea is they fall away, but they don’t disappear.

0:13:35 – (Steve Gray): They might disappear. Cause some people get in this condition and they’re not getting it. The message doesn’t seem to be helping them be a consumer. It’s starting to preach responsibility, you know, offerings and giving, tithing, responsibility, loving, caring, serving, all those things. And all of a sudden, you know, it’s just not resonating with them. Because they didn’t come in to be a producer, they came in to be a consumer.

0:14:03 – (Steve Gray): So now they’re going to go find another church that makes them feel more comfortable, right? So they’re looking for a comfortable church so they can be validated of who they already are without thinking about, I need to change or somebody’s trying to change me. So they don’t leave the body of Christ necessarily. And they probably don’t leave their church. They probably stay. And they’re going to stay in this condition until they decide not to stay in this condition.

0:14:31 – (Steve Gray): And then the fourth one, of course, is the one who hears the Word. It’s good soil, hears the word and produces. So all of a three consumers and one producer. And the producer then will have more. They produce a crop, and it’s good soil. So there’s where we want to realize what’s happening to me. We can look around, you know, if we want to. And we don’t want to be critical, right? But we could do. You know, you can look at people’s lives and give a pretty good guess.

0:15:00 – (Steve Gray): You don’t have to be a prophet and think, well, I’m a prophet. Just cause you’re guessing. You can look at people’s lives and see this is alive. These people over here, I can tell they’re consumed. They’re consumed by the worries of this life, by the cares of the world, by where’s the money coming from? And they’re all wrapped up in that. And they’re sitting there hearing the sermon just like everybody else.

0:15:24 – (Steve Gray): But it’s not going to produce in them because that’s not where their heart is and that’s not where their mind is. Their mind is on the cares of this life, okay? So you can look around and I’m not saying be judgmental. It’s just factual, you know, you just know, hey, that’s who they are. So they’re kind of this person. And then the rocky ground is that. And they don’t have root. And they only last a short time.

0:15:44 – (Steve Gray): Now the idea they only last a short time gives me the idea they’re only going to be in church or in the body of Christ. They’re going to drop out maybe, but I don’t. That’s not been my experience. They only last a short time believing that they need to do this. They hear the word and they kind of move forward, but they don’t last very long. And it’s gone, all right? They just don’t. What got into them didn’t last. And then the one on the path, of course, is that the birds come and snatch it away and Satan comes and the evil one comes and takes it away.

0:16:19 – (Steve Gray): And think about that somebody, that. And this is very, very common. I. I think one of the common ones is the cares of this life, okay, cares of the world. But it’s very common that Christians, churchgoers, they learn to hear the word of God and they give the appearance. Cause I’ve preached a lot of sermons, I’m looking and they give appearance. Like, man, I’m getting this, I can’t wait till he gets done so I can go out and do all these things I’m going to produce now.

0:16:48 – (Steve Gray): I get it. But the truth of the matter is I used to describe them guys. I used to. Guys here working with me, guys. I used to describe them as bobbleheads. You know what a bobblehead is? They have the TV sports figures and they’re dressed, and politicians probably, but sports figures. And their bodies are Solid. But then they put their head on a spring and their head just bobbles and that. They’re bobbleheads. Cause you’re preaching the word of God, you know, and you think they’re getting it and their heads are going up and down and they’re nodding up and down like, yeah, I’m getting this man, I’m getting it.

0:17:21 – (Steve Gray): But by the time the sermon is done and they get out the door, it’s gone. It didn’t last, it got snatched away from them. The evil one comes and snatches it away. So they do. And then they’ll come back next week and they’ll hear the sermon and they’ll bobblehead it and think, this is great, the church is great. But it’s not challenging them, it’s not trying to turn them into a consumer. They didn’t come in to be a consumer.

0:17:44 – (Steve Gray): They didn’t start coming to church saying, I’m going to church so I can give my life and serve and die to myself and clean the bathroom and you know, be there every. No, they didn’t. No, they’re coming to church cause they’re thinking like, I need to do something for myself. Which is, okay, we want you to do that for yourself. But if you start there and you never get out of there, this is for me. I don’t want to go to hell. I want to have a. I want to feel better.

0:18:10 – (Steve Gray): Maybe God will help me find a wife, maybe he’ll prosper me, you know. And so all these sub reasons are there. And so the reason is you’ve come to consume the word of God for yourself on some level, to improve yourself, promote yourself, make yourself feel better about yourself. Certainly it wouldn’t be to die to self. It certainly wouldn’t want to be. To serve others. It certainly wouldn’t want to be. To become generosity, be generous. I mean, in generosity. I was thinking about that. People ask a lot of times, they don’t realize they.

0:18:51 – (Steve Gray): Hundreds of times over the years they’ve asked me, pray for me Pastor. I want to know what my gift is. And sometimes you can fool them. Say, I don’t think I need to pray for you. I think, you know what I think your gift is generosity. And they go like, oh, generosity. You know that’s not what they meant, right? They wanted prophecy or healing or I don’t know what, maybe evangelism a little bit. But you know, and say, I think it’s generosity. So here, here’s an envelope.

0:19:19 – (Steve Gray): In fact, I’ll give you a whole stack of envelopes that have the church name on it and just get busy with your ministry. Get busy with what you’ve been called to do. And I’ve done it. And the people just look at you like what? And you realize you didn’t. You didn’t. You want to know what your. You want to know what you’re calling, what your ministry is because you want to consume something to make yourself feel better about yourself. I want to know what I’m supposed to be doing so then I can do it. And then I’ll feel more valuable.

0:19:49 – (Steve Gray): Because if you hear generosity and you’re here to produce and not consume, there you go. Well, that’s not hard. I can be generous all the time. So anyway, that’s what it is. That’s why I said, you know, weepers, losers, because you’re not going to like this, but sometimes we need to hear things. Therefore, according to Jesus, most people that hear the Word are losers. They’re going to lose what was sown, the farmer’s going to sow, but they’re not going to be able to hang onto it for different reasons, right?

0:20:24 – (Steve Gray): So most people, when it comes to the word of God turn out to be losers. They’re not receiving it to turn them into consumers. Probably because they really don’t want to be a consumer. I mean a producer. They want to be a consumer. They want to consume, you know, the word of God for themselves. Maybe to have a better blessed home. Maybe, you know, I’ll be a better person, I’ll get a better marriage. Okay, that’s all good.

0:20:50 – (Steve Gray): That’s all good. But you’re not going to get it by not getting the word. You get it by becoming a producer, I mean, consumer. And that as a consumer, it creates better marriages, you know, as a producer, it produces better marriages, it produces more prosperity, it produces better. You feel better, yeah, you feel better about yourself, but you feel better not cause you’re consuming everything, but because you’re producing what needs to be produced in your life.

0:21:21 – (Steve Gray): So anyway, that’s the weepers, losers. And I want you to get out of that. You have to be good soil, right? And stop letting the word be snatched away. The word. You hear the word and it doesn’t take root. It doesn’t get in you. It doesn’t produce. It doesn’t produce. And you can hear it if you need to. You’ll hear it like a consumer, like, okay, what’s this going to do for me? What’s this going to do? By the way, I was about ready to stop and go on by the way, though, you know, there’s a lot of people get trained in ministry to be a pastor, a leader, evangelist, whatever, and this is actually taught.

0:22:02 – (Steve Gray): So if you want to get the people to come and you want them to give and you want them to come back next week, then you’ve got to have something in there that says, what’s in this for me? If you don’t have a what’s in this for me? They’re probably not going to do it because they’re consumers. What’s in it for me? And you can imagine Jesus saying that to his father. Okay, I’ll go to the cross, but what’s in it for me?

0:22:31 – (Steve Gray): You’re doing it for everybody else. You’re doing it for the world. You’re doing it for the kingdom of God, you’re doing it for your Father. So just realize that’s being taught. And when it’s being taught, it’s also being preached. And that is not necessarily creating you as good soil. All right, so I don’t know, is this too rough of a sermon? I just want you to be good soil and start producing. And when you produce, more from the kingdom of God will be given to you, more will be given to you. And that’s the blessing of serving the Lord. Well, I hope it means something to you. If so, go to https://stevegrayministries.com – I’ve asked you to do that before, and like and share

0:23:11 – (Steve Gray): And if you want to give, then we’d sure appreciate it. Till next time, bye-bye.