Farmville - Life On The Farm Pt. 2 Series

Farmville

Life on the Farm – Part 2

I. Introduction

I know there are some Farmville addicts in here! That is any easy assumption since there are over 75.2 million active Farmville users worldwide. Some of you spend a lot of time online building and taking care of your virtual farm. My question is how many of you have ever actually spent any time on a real, live, working farm? I grew up around farmers all my life. My home church had its fair share of farmers who attended regularly. There are some things you learn quickly about farmers. They tend to drive extremely slow and they don’t care if you are behind them or not. They are hard workers. They are typically simple people, but please don’t mistake simple for stupid. They are intelligent and seem to have extra doses of common sense and wisdom. They talk differently than most. The guys in my youth group used to imitate them all the time.

-You ont to?

-Might need to check your url.

-Your lookin at that all backards.

-You need to just take care of your own beniss.

I never actually spent too much time on a farm. I did however, have friends who did. I used to go ride in the tractor with one of friends and we would memorize Scripture while he plowed.

I have a feeling that Jesus was able to utilize farming terminology and lingo so easily because He probably had spent some time on farms. All around Him people were farming figs, olives, and different types of grains. Farming was one of the major means of livelihood in those days and He would have had many chances to gain access and intimate knowledge of farming. So, I told you last week that it is no major surprise that in order to effectively communicate, Jesus developed much of the content of His teachings around agriculture themes! In fact, if you go back and look through His teachings, especially the parables you see the Farmville theme running like a thread throughout each story. He told 9 agriculture parables. We read one of those parables last week as the backdrop for this series. It is the parable of the “Sower.”

Text: Matthew 13:1-8; 18-23

1-3 At about that same time Jesus left the house and sat on the beach. In no time at all a crowd gathered along the shoreline, forcing him to get into a boat. Using the boat as a pulpit, he addressed his congregation, telling stories.

3-8"What do you make of this? A farmer planted seed. As he scattered the seed, some of it fell on the road, and birds ate it. Some fell in the gravel; it sprouted quickly but didn't put down roots, so when the sun came up it withered just as quickly. Some fell in the weeds; as it came up, it was strangled by the weeds. Some fell on good earth, and produced a harvest beyond his wildest dreams.

18-19"Study this story of the farmer planting seed. When anyone hears news of the kingdom and doesn't take it in, it just remains on the surface, and so the Evil One comes along and plucks it right out of that person's heart. This is the seed the farmer scatters on the road.

20-21"The seed cast in the gravel—this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

22"The seed cast in the weeds is the person who hears the kingdom news, but weeds of worry and illusions about getting more and wanting everything under the sun strangle what was heard, and nothing comes of it.

23"The seed cast on good earth is the person who hears and takes in the News, and then produces a harvest beyond his wildest dreams."

II. Seed Lessons

Out of this Farmville backdrop I told you that you cannot escape the laws of the farm. Your seed limits, limit harvest! Your harvest is your fault – you get what you sow. Your harvest won’t change until your seed does. And I told you not to fight the fertilizer.

I want us to continue our discussion today with a few more seed lessons that we desperately need to learn.

a. We must learn seedy math!

First, seeds grow up, they mature, but that's not all they do. Seeds also multiply. Think about it: Have you ever seen a corn plant grow up and produce just one corn seed? Of course not, it grows up and produces ears with rows and rows of corn seeds.

If you haven't made the connection yet with what this has to do with your life, let me help you. Everything that we think, say, or do is a seed, and seeds grow up and multiply, that is, produce many more of their own kind, therefore, we'd better like the seeds we're planting.