Thorny Ground Series

Soil Testing: Thorny Ground

"I’ll Serve the Lord as Long as It Does Not Interfere With Things That Are More Important"

Luke 8:4-8

There was a young man who was doing everything possible to move up in his company. Over the past 3 weeks he had built us 52 hours of overtime working on a new project. One night he slipped in at 12:30 and quietly crawled into bed next to his new bride. Upon feeling the movement of the bed his wife woke up long enough to say, "You’ve got to alphabetize,".

Not wanting to wake her up any more than he had to, but a little confused he asked her, "What do you mean?".

Without missing a beat she replied, "Wife comes before work.".

That is a hard lesson to learn but in marriage as with everything else there is an order or a progression. We have already discussed the first two soils, Pathway and rocky.

We said that pathway soil is the life that is hard and unreceptive. Whether it is a new idea or a new way of life this type of thinking is “I have already made up my mind and no amount of scripture will change it.”

We said that if this is your mindset God will have to break you in order for the seed to have a chance to enter.

Then we talked about the Rocky ground. About the lack of depth and that a sudden change may be more for manipulation than for transformation and spiritual healing. I may be bargaining with God. I may be trying to cut a deal with friends or family. If that is true, the wilting will be as fast as the sudden growth.

If this is where you are on the progression then with help handling and removing the rocks you can develop depth and provide stability .

I hope you have your bibles this evening because we are going to look at what God has to say on this subject of soil progression. Let’s read Luke 8:4-8, then we will pray.

We are supposed to continue the farming process, but we must advance with wisdom and work. Wisdom to know the difference between good plants and thorns. The work to pull out the thorns.

Robert Morgan tells about a time his family was leaving for an extended vacation, he asked a friend to water and spray his rose bushes. But when he returned, he couldn’t see the rose bushes for the weeds.

He told his wife that he had no idea where the weeds came from, since They were taller than the rose bushes.

He later found out that his friend saw the weeds starting to come up, and thinking they were bedding plants he’d planted among the roses, she sprayed and watered them, and doused them with a little extra fertilizer!

Ground that will nourish desirable crops will also develop undesirable thorns.

If we look back at Mark 4:18-19 we can see the weeds that are in your life and mine.

“Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful"

Thorny Ground soil is represented by folks who have not matured, they have moved from babies to teenagers, but have not made it into adulthood. Some Christians have mixed up priorities because their lives are tangled up in things they should not be messing with. Jesus says there are two things that are choking them.

The first is Worry.

We are in the "Age of Anxiety." Martha has many brothers and sisters in our day who are "careful and troubled about many things." (Lk. 10:41). Indeed, worry is the watchword of our world.

If we do not have a job, we worry about that. If we have a job we worry about losing it.

If we do not have any money we worry about that. If we have money we worry about "where it all goes."

If we do not have a car we worry about that. If we have a car we worry about it breaking down.

If we do not have an education we worry about that. If we are getting an education we worry about passing the course.

If we are sick we worry about that. If we are well we worry about getting sick.

If we feel a flutter of the heart or a pain in the abdomen we are convinced that we have heart trouble or ulcers.

A man was overheard once saying, "I have so many troubles that if anything happened to me today it will be two weeks before I can get around to worrying about it."