Here is one for the teachers in the crowd today!
It was at the end of the school year, and a kindergarten teacher was receiving gifts from her pupils.
The florists son handed her a gift. She shook it, held it overhead, and said, "I bet I know what it is. Some flowers."
"That’s right," the boy said, "But how did you know?"
"Oh, just a wild guess," she said.
The next pupil was the candy shop owner’s daughter.
The teacher held her gift overhead, shook it, and said, "I bet I can guess what it is. A box of sweets."
"That’s right, but how did you know? asked the girl.
"Oh, just a wild guess," said the teacher.
The next gift was the son of the liquor store owner. The teacher held the package overhead, but it was leaking. She touched a drop of the leakage with her finger and touched it to her tongue.
"Is it wine?" she asked.
"No," the boy replied, with some excitement.
The teacher repeated the process, taking a larger drop of the leakage to her tongue.
"Is it champagne?" she asked.
"No," the boy replied, with more excitement.
The teacher took one more taste before declaring, "I give up, what is it?"
With great glee, the boy replied, "It’s a puppy!"
Beware teachers! Teachers are a great blessing. Of course there was no greater teacher than Jesus. Teachers have many different methods of teaching. Jesus was known for being a storyteller. He often times spoke in what we know as parables, stories that make a point. Obviously, Jesus told stories and used examples that people could relate to in that culture, even though there were times that people still didn’t understand. Jesus often times used illustrations that dealt with planting and harvesting crops because that was something that those people had experienced and understood. There was a lot of great truths that Jesus taught using that imagery. At times other authors in the scripture also used imagery dealing with crops and sowing and reaping. We will take a look at some of that imagery in the next few weeks as we begin a series that we will call "The Garden Variety Series." Today’s text comes from Luke and Jesus shares a parable, the parable of the sower. After we read the parable portion we will jump to the portion of scripture where Jesus explains the parable to the disciples.
Luke 8:4-8,11-15
Now there are four different types of soil that Jesus mentions in this parable. Let’s first of all Jesus says that the seed represents the Word of God. It’s pretty obvious that the soil represents the hearts of people. Some soil, or hearts were much more open and receptive to the Word of God then the others. But let’s take a look at the four soils Jesus talks about and see how you compare. How is your heart for the gardening that God wants to do in your life?
Now this first soil that Jesus talks about He says some fell along the path and it was trampled on and the birds of the air ate it up. William Barclay describes this kind of soil in Palestine. He says, "The common ground in Palestine was split into long narrow strips; between the strips there were paths which were rights of way; when the seed feel on these paths, which were beaten as hard as the road, it had no chance of getting in." (The Daily Bible Study Series, Westminster Press, Barclay, p. 98) When I was growing up, we lived in what most of you would consider a big city, it was hundreds of thousands of people. We lived in the suburbs. Now at one time we got a dog and he was a border collie. Trying to keep a border collie in the city is probably not the best choice. These dogs were great for herding cows, but not just hanging out in a fenced in back yard. That dog ran up and down our fence line so much that we had no grass on the path that he ran repeatedly. That part of the yard was harder than the rest because of the traffic from the dog. There wasn’t anything going to grow there. It was similar to this first soil Jesus was talking about. This soil had been walked on and walked on to the point where it was so hard that when the seed feel along the path there was no way that seed was getting in. Because that seed just laid on the top of the soil, birds came and snatched it away. Translation for us is this: You have a hard heart and a shut mind for God’s Word. Jesus explained this portion of the parable to the disciples this way in verse 12. He said, "Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved." There is nothing worse than having a hard heart toward God’s Word. God’s Word is life and when you reject the words of life, that can only mean death. Proverbs 28:14 says, "Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble." Walking down the path of a hard heart always leads to trouble. Throughout history, Israel had it’s most difficult times when they allowed their hearts to become hard to what God wanted for them. Time after time the people of Israel paid a heavy price for hardening their hearts toward God and what He wanted. When Zechariah was trying to compel the current Israelites to make the right decisions he talked about the past mistakes of their forefathers. Zechariah 7:11-14 he says, "But they refused to pay attention; stubbornly they turned their backs and stopped up their ears. They made their hearts as hard as flint and would not listen to the law or to the words that the Lord Almighty had sent by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. So the Lord Almighty was very angry. ‘When I called; they did not listen; so when they called, I would not listen,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations, where they were strangers. The land was left desolate behind them than no one could come or go. This is how they made the pleasant land desolate." Israel experienced captivity by the Babylonians because of their hard hearts toward what God wanted for them. Zechariah used the word flint, and that was the hardest substance they knew. If you have hardened your heart toward what God wants for you, if you have hardened your heart toward His Word, it is a very dangerous path. I hope and pray that this first soil that Jesus refers to here doesn’t describe anyone here, because most likely if you are here, these words from God will most likely have no effect.
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.
Now the third soil that Jesus mentions is the soil that is full of thorns. Barclay said, "The ground which was full of thorns was ground which at the moment looked clean enough. It is possible to make any bit of ground look clean simply by turning it over. But the seeds of the weeds and the fibrous roots of the wild grasses had been left in it. The good seeds and the weeds grew together, but the weeds grew more strongly; and so the life was choked out of the good seed." (Barclay, p. 99) Once again the translation for us is this: You hear God’s Word but you have allowed the busyness and the worries to choke the things of God out. And once again Jesus put it this way in verse 14: "The seed that fell among the thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature." We live in a material world, there is no doubt. We live in a world that revolves around finances to be able to do things and purchase things. We also live in a culture that is obsessed with having more and more. For that to become a reality we must work more and more. Before you know it there are people that have become so strapped to their job and fulfilling dreams of riches and pleasure that they have crowded out room for God in their life. We talked about the importance of laying down roots for growth in our lives with God. But when you have crowded out your life with money issues and worries and sometimes just plain busyness, there is no way for you to lay down roots in your relationship with Christ. There is no time for you to be grounded in the Word and to be receptive to what it has for your life because you are simply too busy pursuing money, dreams or worrying if you can do what you need to do. Because of that there is no spiritual maturity in your life and the worries and concerns about money or the need to feel like you have to have more chokes the spiritual life right out of you. The truth is, we have to determine who we are going to serve. Are we going to serve God and go on to maturity in our spiritual life like God desires or are we going to serve material purposes for our life. I’m reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 when he said, "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." Now God knows that we need money to survive in this world that we live in. He knows that we have to have food and clothes and all of those things. But I don’t think He is convinced that we have to have all of the other things that we think we have to have. Especially when the desires for those other things seem to take us away from our time and devotion to Him. If we simply put Christ first in our life our needs in life will be met. We don’t have to worry so much that we choke the things of God right out of our life. Jesus also went on to say in the next few verses, Verses 25-27 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?" So why do we worry about having to have all of these other things, why do we worry about putting food on our tables or clothes on our children. If you put God in the proper perspective those needs will no doubt be met. What we really need to do is to slow down and meet with God on a regular basis, not only here on Sundays but throughout the weeks in our homes we need to slow down and meet with God. Whatever comes into your life and chokes out your spiritual walk with God is not worth it. Those things are nothing but weeds in our life and they need to be pulled so that real spiritual growth can take place. What are the weeds that are choking the spiritual growth right out of you?
The last soil that Jesus uses in His parable is simply really good soil. It was free of the weeds and shallowness and the other things that prevented the other soils from being productive. Matter of fact Jesus said this soil produced a hundred times more than was sown. So this means for us: You receive God’s Word and put it into action, laying down roots that last. Jesus said in Verse 15 "But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop." Jesus says this soil stand for those who hear the Word and retain it. When you retain it, you won’t just hold it in, you will put it into action for your life. When you retain the Word of God, when the storms come you will withstand the storms because you will depend on the promises from God’s Word. You aren’t like those who are encouraged and receive joy from the Word of God but yet never really apply it to their lives and set down roots. The more you retain God’s Word and put it in action the deeper your roots will go and the better you will be for the storms ahead. Instead of the storms being what finishes you off, it will actually even make you stronger. Because according to scriptures it’s the difficulties and storms that produce perseverance and to be fully mature you must develop perseverance. You remember the scripture, it’s James 1:2-4. It says, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." I go back to the story that Jesus was talking about with the wise and foolish builders. Jesus made it clear that those who hears His Words but fails to put them in action will not make it through the storms, perseverance will not happen for them. But He says in Luke 6:47,48 "I will show you what he is like who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice. He is like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built." When you have the spiritual soil of absorbing God’s Word and putting it into action you will withstand and persevere and it will help to make you mature and complete as a believer like James said. My hope and prayer is that this is the soil that best represents you this morning because this is really the soil that will make you productive as a believer. Jesus said it yielded a crop a hundred times more than was sown. My friends that is productive. If you really want to be someone who brings joy to the heart of God and be someone whose life plays a vital part in bringing others into the kingdom then you need to be like this soil. You truly soak in the Word of God and you then apply what you have soaked in by putting it in action. If this soil doesn’t describe you, you can change your dirt! You can simply ask God to change your heart and make you open to whatever changes He wants to make in your life.
So the question again this morning is simply this: "How’s your heart for God’s gardening?" Are you going to allow Him to do what He needs to do in your life so that you can be fruitful and productive for Him?
