Sower and the Seed: Good Soil

Good Soil

Matthew 18:8,9; Mark 4:9; Luke 8:8

“Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”And He was saying these things, He would call out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

I've talked about roadside soil, rocky soil and thorny soil. Now I come to the good soil. It is the good soil that we want.

Good soil yields 30 60  and 100 fold.
What that means if you  plant a bucket of seed you will get 30, 60 or 100 buckets back when you harvest.

What is required to get this kind of harvest?
1 Hears it
2 Understands it
3 Accepts it
4 Honest heart
5 Good heart
6 Bears fruit with perseverance

Hears the word of God. To hear the word of God it is not just hearing with your physical ears. But also with the ears of your heart. Yes our heart has ears also.

To hear with our ears of our heart is to accept it as valid and true for us today and that means we will act on it. To accept something is to say it is true. It is valid and it is right.

Understand it. We can hear a teaching but not understand the meaning of what is being taught. It is the Holy Spirit that teaches us the word of God. To understand something of the spirit, we at times need to let the Spirit of God minister to us. This may take time. When we pray over a Scripture and think of it and consider it in our mind for a period of time we will gain the knowledge of what God is saying to us.

Honest heart. There are times when we hear a teaching but we have reasons why we can't do it. We have excuses for not doing it. We excuse ourselves because we say it is not directly for us. Honesty will admit wrong doing. Honesty will admit that we are wrong. Honesty will say, yes that's me and I need to change. Honesty will not make excuses but will accept and respond to the teachings of the Bible.

Good heart. What is being good? It is working for the betterment of others. It is building and not tearing down. It is blessing and not cursing. It is hoping for the best. It is acting in love that God provides. A good heart has God in mind when it listens. It has others in mind to help and minister to when it hears and receives. A good heart will at times go beyond what is asked or required.

Bears fruit with perseverance. To bear fruit is work. It takes many months to build a building. You can blast it down in an afternoon. Perseverance will build something over a period of time.

Trouble will come in bearing fruit. To build something you have to overcome the trouble. If it was no trouble to do it it would already be done.

Perseverance. Plans for the work, pays for the work, deals with the problems that stop the work. Is not discouraged because of set backs in the work. Perseverance sees the end result and keeps heading for that end.

Now we have a Savior that helps us and has sent the Holy Spirit to help and guide and encourage us. With the Word of God in our heart we have a light that guides us to finish the work God has before us.

Good soil will reject what is not good. A  good heart rejects what is bad and accepts what is good. A good heart will accept what is good and it is the Father that gives good gifts. James 1:17?

Good soil will admit that they have rocky soil and take steps to bust them up and set down roots of love.

Good soil will admit they have not give place and time for the word and will make time to receive the word in their heart to change them.

Good soil will reject the worries of the world the deceitfulness of riches. They will reject the abundance of things that eat up their time and money.

Good soil is made by making a place For the Word of God.

Sower and the Seed: Thorny Soil

Thorny soil has the worries of the world that crowd out the word of God, giving it no place in the heart. Worries about health, the worries of finances, the worries of politics. The worries of relationships.

We are told many times not to worry, but turn to God. A person that continues to worry instead of turning to God in prayer is not living in the word. Worry gets you out of the word. God will fulfill His word if we trust Him.

Seeking riches will get us out of following Christ. Yes we need money to live and provide for our family, but seeking riches beyond our needs will keep us from Christ.

1 Tim 6 says we should flee riches.

The lesson of the farmer that stored up crops in bigger barns is important. Luke 12:16-21

Matt 6:33 If we seek a life lived for God and faith lived for God God will provide. If we look after the things of God, God will look after us. The purpose of riches is to advance the kingdom of God. Deut 8:18.

We should store up riches in heaven instead of here where moth and rust corrupts. Riches on earth are elusive and deceiving.

Possessions are another thing the people in thorns seek. There seems to be happiness with acquiring things but there is always the next thing. There is never a sense of satisfaction. Going to the store to get the next thing. It depletes your cash, clutters your home, taking care of these things eat up your time.

Things will not satisfy. Relationships with other people of like mind and with Jesus is what satisfies.

People spend a lot of effort in acquiring things. The more you have the more you want. The more you have the more time you have to spend taking care of what you have.

Jesus is the one who gives abundance not things. Jesus gives us the inner peace we seek. Things will never meet that need.

The things we really need we can pray for and God will give us a plan to enable us to get them.

The deceitfulness of riches. Riches will give a satisfying life. Just as living in a wonderful area will turn sour without Christ. I can find happiness in the midst of an urban environment with nature. There are a lot of wild strips that I can visit and watch.

I say this to emphasize that enjoyment can be found in unlikely places.

What good is it if we gain the whole world and lose our soul? Jesus offers contentment not from abundance but from relationship. Matthew 11:28-30. Come to Jesus when we are weary and heavy laden and He will give us rest. Money will not buy true rest. To have riches is to always be vigilant. But with Christ we can truly rest. Because we can trust in Him

Romans 10:11

Heb 4:1-3

If you will not believe you will not last Isaiah 7:9

John 6:29 Our work is to believe

The sin of Baalm. He feared God but also desired riches. The desire for riches finally overcame his respect for God and he was destroyed.

Worries of the world. Things don't go right, and to worry about them keeps us from living a life directed by God according to the word.

If you want a solution for worry read Psalm 3 and Psalm 56

When things we rely on go bad, we can turn to Jesus for help and wisdom for the answer.

The desire for other things will dominate our mind so there is little energy for the things of God and His word. Paul says in Phil 3:13 This one thing I do, forgetting what lies behind I press onward to what lies ahead. This is the attitude we should take. Living for Jesus and being content with what we have. Philippians 4:11

What we have and what we do should be for the betterment of our walk with God. Now I'm not saying we can't have fun. It is wise to be refreshed. But use it as a means to the end of serving Christ and not as the goal itself.

Worry will choke the fruit in your life not letting it mature. Give up the worry and work towards accomplishing what God has given you to do.

Take health and sickness for example. We all desire health. So when sickness comes what are we to do? 2 Cor 1:20

Give your worry to God and follow the teachings concerning healing.

1. Repent

2. Seek after God

3. Meditate on His Word John 15:7

4. Believe that the promise is for you.

5. Confess the promise is God's will for you and He will give you the promise.

6. Act according to the promise with rejoicing.

use 2 Cor 10:3-5 as a way to deal with doubt in the promises of God.

With this you can rejoice in mind, you can rejoice in God as you wait expectantly for His answer.

Sower and the Seed: Rocky Soil

Rocky soil represents no ability to stick with what you start out to do. A seed sown on rocky soil will spring up before it has enough roots.

In a forest there are areas called glades. Glades are places of rocky soil. The trees that grow there are of poor quality and do not amount to anything. This is because rocky soil does not allow roots to acquire water. Water enables plants to cool in the heat as well as grow. Roots signify in the spirit the ability to withstand the problems of life we face day to day.

Love is what enables us to go through the hard times. How do we get this love. It is by allowing roots to grow in our life to get to the water of the Word of God.

A person that has rocky soil can be excited about the new life in Christ. They can sing and rejoice. But the test is when they go through trials. Will they turn to God in the trial, or will they give up.

When a person gives up it is because they did not prepare their heart to withstand trials of life.

Rocky soil can represent unforgiveness instead of love. It can represent a life dedicated to self instead of a life of self denial and taking up the cross of Christ. It can be a shallow life of not considering the teachings of Jesus. It is a life lived with no love for others.

Rocky soil people believe when it feels good, but fall away when their feelings go against them. They are living by feelings and not by faith. They do not lay down roots of faith and love in God and for others. A shallow life, a selfish life and a life of being unprepared.

Rocky soil people can't endure persecution because of the Word of God. They are trying to please themselves instead of God.

On the rocky soil we plow up the rocks and get down to deep soil by deciding to love others. Love is not an adjective it is a verb. It is not a feeling its action or decision. Decide to love others by helping them in ways you are led.

Roadside Soil

The roadside soil represents soil that is hard packed by the busyness of life.

Roadside soil is represented by people busy with many worldly pursuits. These are not bad in themselves, but if there is no time to consider the seed or word of God then our heart does not produce anything of substance.

Roadside soil can represent people that don't accept the Bible as the word of God. They reject the word because they don't believe it. They think it's foolish and it's not worth their time to listen.

Life has 3 elements to it. Physical, mental or soulish and spiritual. Now all three need to be taken care of. The physical is the most obvious. We need food, clothing, shelter, transportation and a source of income to pay for these. The soul or our mind needs to be educated to function in society and procure work to provide for ourselves and those we love. It is our spirit that is the inner source of our life. Our spirit or what we call our heart is where we make our decisions. It is the foundation for what we want to learn and get for our life.

The Word of God is food for the spirit or our heart. Other foods for our heart that are not good could be evil spirits or self love. A starved spirit or depraved spirit will express itself in non productive ways or evil ways.

Salvation is needed to renew our heart to the place it was created for. Each of us has sinned and broken the rules God has set up for us. Romans 3:23

The result or wages of our sin is death. Death or separation from God which results in going to hell.

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

But God devised a way for us to be redeemed from this predicament. Jesus came to earth and lived a life free from sin and was wrongly put to death. This death paid for our sins which we would have had to pay with our lives.

Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His onw love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

The way we acquire this gift is to believe in Jesus instead of living our old life. We make a statement of a change and belief.

Romans 10:9,10 “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your that God raised Him from the dead you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. “

Eph 2:8,9,10 “For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. “

God's word at first brings us to salvation. Satan tries different methods to stop us from acquiring this new life. But if he doesn't succeed, he will try again to keep us from growing.

Understanding this parable is a foundation or prerequisite of understanding the Bible.

Are we busy with work? Yes we need to provide for our family but if we neglect the other 2 areas of life our foundation will come crashing down at some point.

Do we find more fulfillment in recreation rather than in God and His word? If this is the case we again are neglecting life's foundations.

Is our schedule such that there is no time for God?

We can get so caught up in the rush of life that our ability to hear God and grow as a person is hindered.

A seed planted in roadside soil has no ability to germinate because of the hard pack of travel. Then it is exposed for the birds to eat them before they have a chance. The seed then is gone and the possibility of new life is lost.

Many go to church to hear teaching but the moment they walk out the door they completely forget what they heard and the lesson is lost to them.

Take care with the Word of God and pray over it after you hear it. Pray for God to make it real in your life and plan to incorporate it into your life.

The Sower and the Seed

Sower parable combined. Mark 4:2-9; Matt 4:3-9; Luke 8:5-8

And He was teaching them many things in parables, and was saying to them in His teaching, “Listen to this! Behold, the sower went out to sow his seed; as he was sowing, some seed fell beside the road, and the birds of the air came and ate it up. Other seed fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil; and immediately it grew and sprang up because it had no moisture with no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it out, and it yielded no crop. Other seeds fell into the good soil, and as they grew up and increased, they yielded a crop and produced thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”And He was saying these things, He would call out. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

Sower Lesson Explained

Mark 4:13-20 Matthew 13:18-23 Luke 8:11-15 combined

And He said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables? Hear then the parable of the sower. The sower sows the seed which is the word God.

These are the ones who are beside the road where the word is sown; and when they hear the word of the kingdom and don't understand it, immediately Satan, the evil one, comes and takes away the word which has been sown in their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.

In a similar way these are the ones on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy; and they have no firm root in themselves, but are only temporary. They believe for a while, then when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they fall away.

And others are the ones on whom seed was sown and fell among the thorns; these are the ones who have heard the word, and as they go on their way the worries of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, pleasures of this life, wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. They bring no fruit to maturity.

And those are the ones on whom seed was sown on the good soil; and they hear the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast and accept and understand it and who indeed bear fruit with perseverance. Some thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold.”