Hi, this is Dave Scherrer, and the last time we were together at One Hundred Fold Ministries Kingdom Offerings, we listened to the account of a young student who eventually came to understand that he wanted more of God. Some self-awareness on his part. If you missed that podcast, you might want to take a moment now, pause this one, and listen to the September 9th Kingdom Offering podcast, the one just before this.

It’s called A Parable of More. I want to build on a thought from that story today. You’ll remember that that student wanted more. His statement was, “If there is more than 30-fold, I want that. If there is more than 60-fold, I want that. In fact, if there is more than 100-fold teacher, I want that. I want it all.”

So I’m wondering if that seems self-centered to you, that sort of self-centered prayer they ask for more. I have to admit that this story is autobiographical in many ways. Probably forty years ago, I said to God in my prayers, “If you have more set aside for me, I would like it.” In my youth, when I said this prayer as a 25 to 30-year-old, I was thinking about blessings, mostly blessings for myself.

Things like peace and more joy and more hope and more faith. I wanted to be more powerful in my ministry. I wanted to see more results as a staff member with Youth for Christ. I wanted to lead more teams to Christ. I don’t think that’s actually a bad prayer, or even a selfish prayer. In fact, the name of this ministry, One Hundred-Fold Ministries, is an extension of that prayer.

This name and this conversation comes from a story that Jesus told to try and help us understand the one-hundred-fold reality of the Kingdom of God. It’s found in Mark chapter 4, it’s also found in Matthew 13 and Luke chapter 8. And Bible editors will sometimes label this story as the “Parable of the Sower”. But I think of this story differently. I think of it as the “Parable of the Soils”.

In this parable, the various kinds of soil are the center of the story. The sower, of course, plays an important role. But it is in the status of the soils we will find out the condition of the heart that is truly at play. Seeds of truth, sowed by the sower, they fall on the various status of the soils.

Some of them are rocky, hard surfaces, and birds come and eat the seed before they have a chance to take root. There are weeds and thorns that come up. There’s a blistering heat that wilts the plants. There’s all kinds of things that kill the seed before they can grow to produce good fruit. But the story says in one soil, the good soil, or the good heart, the seeds grow into an amazing crop.

The point of this parable is how the truths of God, His Word, can bring life and harvest into our lives. In a “more” sense, more than I can ask or think, overflowing and pressed down, we are told. And at one point, I prayed quite boldly for more. And I would also say naively, certainly, because the increased peace and joy and power that I was praying for, that also comes with a cost.

And to be frank, everything comes with a cost. If you make a bad choice, that’s easy to see it will come with a cost. But here is the Kingdom of God reality – even every good thing comes with a cost. In order to have patience in abundance, you have to build your patience muscles, usually by going through trying circumstances. You know this. You don’t get patience without a cost.

But it’s bigger than that. Learning to choose joy instead of raw happiness comes with a cost. Learning to employ forgiveness often comes with a broken-heartedness. It all comes with a cost. There’s a verse in Deuteronomy 30:19. I think I’ve shared it with you before.

It goes like this, “I call heaven and earth to witness before you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses, therefore choose life.” It seems to me that since everything comes with a cost, it stands to reason we should choose life. It’s going to be hard no matter what, and there should be profit at the end instead of ruin.

So maybe you’re finding this to be a discouraging conversation. Are you a little sorry you listened in today? Kind of sorry I brought it up, but I do remember my Savior. You see, He paid a terrible cost because of His love for us, His desire to save us from the plight of our sin. Scripture tells us, “This same Savior endured the cross, despising the shame, and that was all for the joy that was set before him. And he is now seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

We hear Paul speaking of this in the letter to the Church in Philippi. “Jesus, being in the very nature of God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage. Rather, he made himself nothing. By taking the very nature of a servant and being made in human likeness.” That sounds like cost to me. “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross.”

And that sounds like a terrible cost. But at the end of this terrible cost, there is this: “Therefore Jesus exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.”

Everything comes with a cost. We have to pay no matter what. So if we want more of God, we need to prepare to give up more of what we thought was ourselves, that we might now realize our true self that is found only in Jesus Christ. And we get that by giving up ourself and getting more of Him. This is Dave Scherrer, and this is Kingdom Offerings, the podcast environment of One Hundred Fold Ministries.

There is so much more in the Kingdom, so I’m asking you, “Don’t, please, don’t settle.” And I’ll see you back here in a couple of weeks to talk a little bit more about more. Take care.