Sermons

Summary: Christ talks about 4 different soils, each representing a heart and how receptive it is to God’s Word. How receptive are you to God’s Word?

The next type of soil that Jesus dealt with was what we know as the rocky soil. Now once again, according to Barclay, "this does not mean ground that was full of stones but ground which was only a thin skin of earth over a shelf of limestone rock." (Barclay, p.99) I thought Missouri had rocky ground, burying your dead pets here is no easy task. But the soil that Barclay says that Jesus was talking about was even worse. It’s like the rock was the cake and the soil was the icing. Everyone knows there is a whole lot less icing then there is cake. You want to talk about being tough for a plant to succeed, that would be it. It might grow for a short time, but it would never be able to establish any real roots for continued growth. The message is this for people who compare to this soil. You listen to God’s Word and are encouraged but you never put down roots for endurance. Jesus put it this way in Verse 13: "Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away." One thing that you can be sure of, in this life you will have times of difficulty. For those who have never put down roots to their spiritual walk with God those storms are crippling to their faith. I’m reminded of the illustration that Jesus gave of the wise and foolish builders. He said in Luke 6:49 "But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete." You can come to church and be encouraged by the Word of God and take comfort in what God’s Word says, but if you fail to put His Words into practice it won’t do you a bit of good when the storms come. You see plants that stand the test of time are those who are rooted far enough into the soil that the storms that are happening above ground are not going to destroy them in the end. I believe there are a lot of people that can relate to this soil. There are some of them that may not even be going to church right now because they were coming to a church, at least on Sunday morning, they were encouraged and enjoyed the Pastor’s messages. But for some reason they never applied the Word to their daily lives, they never really had the personal relationship with Christ that He desires to have with us, and when the storm came into their lives they were devastated and blamed God. I believe there might be some like that here this morning. You come and for the most part enjoy the messages and the encouragement of the scriptures, but you have not set down any root, you are so shallow in your faith that if a good storm blew into your life we probably wouldn’t see you for a while. When your faith is rooted strong enough and you are really receptive to allowing the Word of God to change you it is evident because your life produces a crop. When you don’t it won’t. Jesus said in John 15:4 "Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine." If your faith is shallow and not rooted in a ongoing relationship with Jesus Christ you will be fruitless and you will be in trouble when storms come. Perseverance doesn’t happen when your soil is shallow! You can be encouraged and full of joy by what you hear from the scriptures all you want, but like James says, you have to do what it says because if you don’t you are just fooling yourself.

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