First the Blade, Then the Ear, Then the Full Corn

Sermon outline

The devil only needs you distracted, but the word planted and protected in your heart grows by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn, until what you need becomes your own.

1. Be sober and vigilant: the enemy only needs you distracted

   Satan is a defeated foe who keeps trying his luck, like someone who must have the last say. He does not need you to renounce Christ; he needs you distracted from your calling, and he cannot touch you without your cooperation. That cooperation looks like repeating the narrative of the day, the cost of lights and water and which country to flee to, because the tongue is the pen of a ready writer. Pride is the gate opener; Satan is an egomaniac who takes the glory you do not give God. Busyness is the other trap.

   Illustration: Advising a young man in business, he says you can eat soup with a tablespoon and get everything from it, or with a fork: you stay very busy and very hungry.

   “Satan doesn't need us to renounce Christ. He just needs us to be distracted so we don't fulfil our calling, bottom line.”

   • 1 Peter 5:8
   • John 10:10
   • Psalm 45:1
   • John 17:16

2. Delivered from the fear that keeps you in bondage

   Jesus took on flesh and blood so that through death He might destroy the one who had the power of death and deliver those who all their lives were in bondage through fear. Many people are physically free but stuck in their minds. Therapy has its place, but for the believer the way out of fear is the word renewing the mind.

   Illustration: A circus elephant chained to a pole as a baby learns it cannot escape. Grown, it keeps walking in a circle even when the shackle lies loose on the floor.

   “A slave doesn't need the title in order to be a slave.”

   • Hebrews 2:14-15

3. None of these things move me

   Paul did not count his life dear, and the saints overcame by the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony and not loving their lives to the death. Once you resolve to go forward even if it kills you, the enemy cannot touch you. He wants you self-centred, convinced your problem is unique, but no temptation is uncommon and God does not allow more than you can bear.

   “Lord, I don't care. Even if this kills me, I'm going forward.”

   • Acts 20:24
   • Revelation 12:11
   • 1 Corinthians 10:13

4. The seed grows by itself: first the blade, then the ear, then the full corn

   In the parable the seed is the word and the ground is the heart. The earth brings forth fruit of herself, a word he links to autonomous, automatic: once the word is planted, what you need begins to come. The seed is incorruptible, but external factors, persecution and how you respond to life, decide whether it yields thirty, sixty or a hundredfold. Knowing a verse is not the same as having it in your heart.

   Illustration: A woman does not know she is pregnant for weeks, but once she knows, she changes what she eats, what she wears and her routine, and walks with a hand over the baby to protect it. That is how a believer protects the word once it takes root.

   “Just because I know a scripture doesn't mean I have that scripture in my heart. It must come off the page and it must be in my heart.”

   • Mark 4:26-29
   • Mark 4:20

5. Prepare and water the soil every day

   Some ground cannot grow anything because it has no nutrients or moisture, and a heart made callous and bitter by life is the same. You water it through the Holy Spirit, coming to church and giving yourself to the Lord, until the confessions you plant, God is love and greater is He that is in me, begin to sprout. This is daily work, not dusting off the Bible when things are bad.

   “I can't just go into the Bible when it's really bad.”

   • 1 John 4:4

6. Healing is the children's bread

   Bread is something already in the kitchen. Most believers want healing without the process, so the pastor, who paid the price to carry that gift, becomes a surrogate who hands them a baby they do not know how to keep. Many make God the last resort after the third doctor's opinion. Use the doctor if you need to, but sow the word into your heart until healing is yours to take, like bread with butter and cheese.

   Illustration: Asked what scripture they are standing on, people say, "Somewhere it says by His stripes we are healed."

   “The believer is responsible. We have to take that healing for ourselves. It's our bread.”

   • Matthew 15:26
   • Isaiah 53:5

7. Meditate day and night: the old man is gone

   Keep the word in your mouth and meditate on it day and night, and you will make your way prosperous. There are no exceptions: it is not the word that fails. When we were born again the sin nature was crucified with Christ, so the believer is not the cartoon man with an angel and a devil on his shoulders; what remains is to renew the mind so the fruit of the Spirit can grow in miraculous ground. Cut back the entertainment and plough into the word.

   Illustration: When blessings come that you did not work for, people ask whether you are selling drugs on the side. No: Christ in me, the hope of glory.

   “It's not the word that fails, it's just that we are not doing it right.”

   • Joshua 1:8
   • Romans 6:6
   • Galatians 5:22-24
   • Colossians 1:27
   • Psalm 91:1-2

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