God's Word, The Good Seed

The Seed is the reality of the Word of God that bears life.

IV. Practical Application

There are some things I want us to notice about this parable:

1. ¾ of the seed did not grow into fruit producing plants.

The Gospel is rejected more often than it is received by hearers.

The sower is the Lord Jesus Christ. Today, we have been left here after salvation, to stand in His place and sow seeds.

2. It is our job to share the Gospel; but, the Lord gives the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.

1 Corinthians3:7 So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. NKJV

3. A successful sower/farmer must have faith.

The Jewish Talmud taught that farming is an act of faith.

A farmer believes a seed sown will grow and produce a crop.

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. NKJV

The farmer invests a great deal of effort and expense to plow the land and prepare it for sowing. Then he casts grain into the soil, where it will rot and decompose.

Why does the farmer do this? Because he believes the Lord will make the land yield many times the quantity of his investment.

How does the act of farming demonstrate ones faith in God; because farming takes patience, trust, and believing the unseen, will someday be visible.

4. The sower liberally throws (broadcast) the seed everywhere.

The seed fell on all different soils; there was no favoritism while planting. What if we are tired of waiting for fruit?

5. The sower must have patience.

James 5:7 Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain. NKJV

In 1921 a missionary couple from Sweden went with their 2 year-old son to Africa to take the gospel to a remote area where people never heard about Jesus.

Unfortunately, when they arrived, the chief of the tribe in Africa would not let them live in the village.

Their only contact from the village was with a young boy whom the chief allowed to come sell them food.

The wife led that young boy to faith in Jesus; but, the couple never had contact with anyone else from the village.

Soon the wife, who was pregnant and contracted malaria, died several days after giving birth.

Her husband gave his newborn baby girl to some American missionaries there and said, “I’m going back to Sweden”.

“I’ve lost my wife. I obviously can’t take care of this baby. God has ruined my life.” And he took his son and left.

Missionaries adopted his baby daughter and brought her back to the United States to raise her.

The daughter was given the name Aggie and grew up in the United States with Christian parents; after she heard the story of her birth parents, she traveled to Sweden to find her father.

Turns out he had remarried, fathered four more children, and basically ruined his life with alcohol.

When Aggie found him, she walked into his tiny apartment, saw empty liquor bottles everywhere, and approached the seventy-three-year-old man who had deserted her years before.