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Adult II Couples Class
WELCOME
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Adult II Couples Class
Physical
-Tony: Cancer
treatments
-Cathy Laster: Cancer
treatments
Spiritual
-The Savages
-Country Haven
Church
-Heup Family
-Abraham Garcia:
Cancer treatments
-Griffith Goodyear
-Haraway Family
Practical
Church
-Global Missions
Offering
Misc
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Benevolence Fund
Pastor Appreciation
R.E.A.P. (P-Team)
Scripture Readers Needed
Monthly Fellowships
 November??
 December – Woffords
 January ??
 Dinner out Friday (30 Nov)
 5th Sunday Breakfast (30 Dec)
 Quarterly Service Project
 Ends of the Earth Project
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Olive Grove Terrace Visitation (28 Oct)
Harvest Festival (31 Oct)
Men’s Prayer Breakfast (3 Nov)
Goulde Shower (4 Nov)
Blood Pressure Checks (11 Nov)
Lantz Baby Shower (11 Nov)
Youth SNAC (11 Nov)
Thanksgiving Meal (14 Nov)
Mexico Mission Team (Nov 17-24)
Mid Week Service (20 Nov)
Church Offices Closed (21-23 Nov)
Olive Grove Terrace Visitation (25 Nov)
QUESTION OF THE DAY
Adult II Couples Class
Creation: God reveals His goodness through creation
and His mercy in response to sin.
Patriarchs: God reveals His response to the faithfulness
of men (Job, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph).
Exodus: God liberates Israel, and leads them to the Promised Land and shapes them into a nation holy to Himself.
Conquest: Joshua, relying on God’s presence and power,
leads Israel to possess and settle the Promised Land.
Judges: Every man does what is right in his own eyes, and
Israel falls into the sin cycle.
Kingdom: God raises up a suc-cession of kings from Saul to
Solomon who rule over a united Israel.
Divided: Israel divides into the northern and southern kingdoms and each descends into rebellion and idolatry,
inciting God’s judgment.
Captivity: A succession of wicked kings brings God’s judgment of captivity on first Israel, then Judah. God moves to
preserve a remnant of Judah for seventy years in Babylon.
Return: After the seventy years, God moves in the hearts of
pagan kings to authorize the rebuilding of Jerusalem’s
temple and allow His people to return to their own land.
Silent: After the Jews return, God is silent for 400 years.
Israel builds religious schools that evolve to teach religious
interpretations of God’s Law rather than the Law itself.
• The 400 years of silence are broken
• An angel appears to Zacharias the priest
announcing that he and his barren wife
would have a son named John
• The angel Gabriel appears to Mary three
months later and informing her that she
will bear a Son by the Holy Spirit
• When Jesus is 30, He asks John to baptize Him
• The Holy Spirit descends upon Him
• He is tempted for 40 days in the wilderness
• Jesus begins His public ministry as Isaiah prophesied
• Opens the ears of the deaf, gives sight to the blind, heals the sick
• Preaches good news, forgives sins, proclaims God’s kingdom
• Jesus commits no sin and always pleases the Father
Iva May and Dr. Stan May
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Jesus used parables often in His teachings, but parables were common in the Old Testament as well
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Balaam uses a parable about a lion to describe Israel to Balak
Jothan comforts Israel after Abimelech with his parable about a tree
Samson uses a parable-like riddle to confound the Philistines
Nathan confronts king David over the death of Uriah with a parable
about a lamb
The Old Testament prophets use parables to portray Israel’s sin and
coming judgment
 Knowing the common use of parables
through-out the Bible, it is no surprise that
Jesus Himself uses parables to teach
kingdom truths
• Parables were His preferred method of teaching
practical applications of heavenly concepts
 “And with many such parables He spoke the word to
them as they were able to hear it. But without a
parable He did not speak to them. And when there
were alone, He explained all things to His disciples.”
(Mark 4:33-34)
 Parable – Stories drawn
from everyday life to
convey a moral or religious
truth and is designed to
convey essentially a single
truth rather than a complex
of truths (George Eldon Ladd)
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“An earthly story with a
heavenly meaning.”
 Today’s lesson focuses on
the parable of the soils
God’s Word is
instrumental in man’s
salvation, and thus
God hold’s man totally
responsible for how he
responds to the Word.
Jesus told Parables for Practical Reasons
 Provided a simple container for conveying the mysteries
of the kingdom of heaven
 So intriguing that only those who were serious about the
things of heaven pursued an explanation
• Awakened the thirst in those who were truly spiritually
thirsty
• Still able to condemn those who did not understand
 The telling of them served to fulfill prophecy
 Conveyed a blessing to those who understood them
Jesus’ Parable-telling
Separated Him from the
other Religious Teachers of
the day
 They were more concerned with
appearing scholarly
 Sought to use their position to
control followers rather than
communicate God’s truth
 The meaning of Christ’s teaching is
concealed from these
• Does it seem unfair that Jesus taught
using parables instead of speaking
plainly, so that even the disciples had to
have them explained?
• Did he always teach in parables?
 No. Started about halfway through His ministry
 May reflect the need to relate to the greater
crowds of more common people we were coming
to hear Him
The Parable of the Soils contains Four Components
 Sower – the one bringing the gospel message
 Seed – the gospel message
 Soils - four types
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Hard-packed dirt of the roadside
Rocky terrain with thin layer of soil (poor growth environment)
Soil infested with other wild plants competing for resources
Good ground for growth
 Results – four types
• Seed falling on the hard soil are carried off by birds (snatched)
• Seed on stony soil produce plants that wither (scorched)
• Seed in thorny soil sprouts but is overwhelmed by the native
plants (choked)
• Seed finding fertile soil produces a harvest of varying degrees
(multiplied)
Anyone Living in the Agrarian Environment of Jesus’ day would be
able to Relate to this Parable
Those who don’t can Easily Grasp
the Picture of the Seeds’
Reproductive Process
• What modern example might we
come up with today to substitute for
the four types of soils?
 The hard-packed soil
 The shallow rocky soil
 The thorny soil
 The fertile soil
The Sower Spreads the Seed of God’s Word (13)
 In this case, Jesus is the sower of the gospel
 In the time after the resurrection, His disciples become the sower
God’s Word Sown on the Soil of Human Hearts (19)
 It is intended to be heard by all men in every heart condition
Heart (Soil) Conditions Vary (19-23)
 A hard heart – Gives the enemy opportunity to prevent reception of
the Gospel
 A heart unwilling to count the cost – Shallow heart response
aborts the Gospel’s work
 A divided heart – Competing interests destroy the Gospel’s
potential effectiveness
 A heart surrendered – Creates an environment of reception,
understanding and fruit in varying degrees
• Jesus uses the parable as a simple image that communicates a spiritual truth. How does the parable of the soils
force people to think about their spiritual condition?
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It forces the listener to identify with one of the four spiritual conditions
Helps to give the listener practical insight as to their spiritual condition
Every listener can identify with one type of soil
• What is the common trait of all the seed that fell on
fertile soil?
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What does that tell us about the spiritual status of those represented by the
other soil types?
• How does this parable help Christians to understand
those who are said to “fall away” after making
“professions of faith”?
 God’s Word is essential for salvation
 Man will be held responsible for how he responds to the Word
 Not all who respond to the Word are truly converted
 Deterrents exist that prohibit the Word from bearing
fruit in the hearts of hearers
 Satan’s power to disrupt
 The cost of following Christ
 Worldly distractions
 Those who are genuinely converted mature to
different levels
 The proclamation of the Word of God reveals the
condition of the human heart
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When Jesus warned His disciples to be wary of following after
false Messiah’s, to what natural phenomena did He compare His
real return so they would know what to look for?
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When the Scribes and Pharisees presented the woman caught in
adultery to Jesus, what did He do before and after proclaiming,
“Let he who is without sin…be the first to throw a stone at her.”
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“For just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part of the sky, shines
to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man be in His day.” (Luke
17:24)
“They were saying this, testing Him, so that they might have grounds for
accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the
ground. ” (John 8:6)
How long had Lazarus been dead in the tomb when Jesus raised
him back to life?
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“On his arrival, Jesus found that Lazarus had already been in the tomb for
four days?” (John 11:17)
 While Jesus was teaching in the temple, He
confronted the Scribes and Pharisees about their
‘true’ father, the devil. What two wicked attributes
did Jesus ascribe to the devil?
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“You are of your father the devil...he was a murderer
from the beginning, and…there is no truth in him.
Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own
nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” (John 8:44)
 In the parable of the hired workers, at what hour
did the landowner hire the last of the workers?
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“And about the eleventh hour he went out and found
others standing around; and he said to them, ‘Why have
you been standing here idle all day long?’ They said to
him, ‘Because no one hired us.’ He *said to them, ‘You
go into the vineyard too.’.” (Matthew 20:6-7)
Adult II Couples Class
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