He says: the thorny ground are good-hearted people. They hear the word of God. They allow it to be sowed into their life, but the thorns choke it out. Two things choke the word out of good-hearted people: the worries of this life, and the deceitfulness of wealth.
The word ‘worry’ there, in the Greek language, is something that causes us to split. In other words, I'm here, but I'm actually there in my mind. I'm here tonight, but in my mind I'm worried about how I'm going to pay my bills. I'm worried about the three meetings I have tomorrow. I'm worried about that new client that I'm - I'm thinking about the faxes I might be missing while I'm here. I'm worried about the fact that I had to turn my cell phone off, and I'm missing my emails. I'm worried about who might be trying to call me. I'm worried about that son that's away from the Lord, I've been thinking about him a lot. It's anything that causes us to split.
It's anything that makes us not be fully present. It's anything that says: I'm here, but I can never be fully present in the moment, and get what God wants me to get. I'm here; but I'm always here and somewhere else. That's the worries of this life.
The ‘Worries of this Life’ is: a ‘failure to be here’. I'm playing Lego with my kids, but all I can think about is the manager's meeting tomorrow. I'm being a wife or a husband, yet my mind is on another problem; so everything suffers because nothing gets my full attention. It's the worries of this life.
Jesus says: you could be a really good person, and the seed of the word of God can come into your life; but it'll never take root, if the worries of this life have choked it out. It doesn't mean you're not a good person - and all of us fall into this category at times. All of us have missed God, because of the worries of this life.
The ‘Deceitfulness of Wealth’: this is a lie that's future-oriented. It's a lie that says: if I just had this, I would be happy. There are people in the world who are worth $60 billion US -and they still get up and go to work every day, trying to figure out a way to make more - and we wouldn't be any different. It's the deceitfulness of wealth.
See there's a six and one rhythm built into creation (a circaseptan biorhythm). God did it, animals do it. They did a study years ago at a zoo: they put a certain group of animals out for seven days in a row; and they put another group of animals out six days, and let them rest the seventh day, and they did that for three months. The ones they let rest on the seventh day, actually were healthier, happier, better animals, and it was unbelievable what it did.
God set it up - you cannot go against a law that runs the universe. You can't do it. We're addicted to accomplishment, achievement, action. When we take a Sabbath, just to do it, we'll become depressed - because we miss the rush. You get so addicted to achievement actual chemicals are released in your brain (serotonin). When you first try to take a Sabbath, by two o'clock in the afternoon you are depressed, because we missed the rush. But when we take a Sabbath for the reasons God wants us to, it saves our lives.
Let me give you 4 definitions of Sabbath to the Hebrew person, and you just pick the one that means the most to you.
1) Sabbath was a day for you to get the energy you need for another six days.
2) Sabbath was a day for God to mend, and put back together again, that which was broken.
3) Sabbath was a day for complete honesty with God.