The Sower And The Soils Series

Tell Me a Story

The Sower and the Soil

Understanding the Parable

What is your heart Like?

Hardened Soil = Resistant Heart

Rocky Soil = Party Heart

Thorny Soil = Vacation Hearts

Good Soil = Open Hearts

How to Bear More Fruit?

Cultivate the growth of your mind (Plow the field of your mind)

Prune the sin of your heart (Prune) (John 15:2-3)

Weather the storms of your life (Persevere)

Slide

Landscaping

If you hadn’t noticed, we got some landscaping this week.

It is really starting to look nice out there.

But as these guys came in this week to put in the landscaping, they didn’t just set it on top of the ground and leave.

They had to prepare the soil by digging holes and they dug up around it and put some top soil there and fertilized it so it would be good for the plants to grow in.

Not all soils will receive the plant material and enable it to grow so they worked to make the soil good.

Transition

This morning we are going to look at a story that Jesus told of a man who came to sow his seed and some different kinds of soil that received that seed and what happened to what was planted on those soils. In your Bibles it may have a heading called the Parable of the Sower, but it might more accurately be called the parable of the Soils.

Turn with me if you will to

Matthew 13:1-23 (p. 690)

Slide

This story is unique among the stories that Jesus told because it is one of only 2 where Jesus gives an interpretation of it. That makes my job this morning much easier, because I get to use his outline.

But after we take a look at this story, I want us to see how we can apply this to our own life so we might have hearts that produce an abundant crop for the Lord.

Let’s begin

Matthew 13:1-23

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop-a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 He who has ears, let him hear."

10 The disciples came to him and asked, "Why do you speak to the people in parables?"

11 He replied, "The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. 12 Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables:

"Though seeing, they do not see;

though hearing, they do not hear or understand.

14 In them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah:

"’You will be ever hearing but never understanding;

you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

15 For this people’s heart has become calloused;

they hardly hear with their ears,

and they have closed their eyes.

Otherwise they might see with their eyes,

hear with their ears,

understand with their hearts

and turn, and I would heal them.’

16 But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. 17 For I tell you the truth, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it.

18 "Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away. 22 The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. 23 But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown."