Mark 4:14-15 "The sower sows the word. These are the ones along the path where the word is sown: when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown to them." How many people have you observed in ministry settings (church, Bible study, etc.) who have walked away saying or obviously thinking, "That's the most ridiculous stuff I've ever heard."

Mark 4:16-17 "And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: when they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. But they have no root in themselves; they are short-lived. When affliction or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately stumble." How many people have passed through your life where their faith and excitement about God and His Gospel faded because they cared more about what people think and what they'd have to give up to follow Him whole-heartedly?

Mark 4:18-20 "Others are sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, but the worries of this age, the seduction of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful." How many people have passed through your life who have let the desires for "financial security", a relationship with another person, and/or selfish ambition enabled them to miss all the blessings God had for them in their time on earth? Perhaps they've missed out on all God created them to be?

Mark 4:20 "But the ones sown on good ground are those who hear the word, welcome it, and produce a crop: 30, 60, and 100 times what was sown."
Matthew 6:19-20 "Don't collect for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where theives break in and steal. But collect for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where theives don't break in and steal."
Romans 10:15 (Isaiah 52:7) "How beautiful are the feet of those who announce the gospel of good things!"

Daniel 11:32b (NASB) "The people who know their God will display strength and take action."

Mark 12:30 (HCSB) "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength."

"What the heart loves, the will chooses, and the mind justifies." -Thomas Cranmers, Archbishop of Canterbury