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.
In other words, the seed you plant today will also produce more seed that you will have to plant tomorrow. That is why the Bible clearly states when you sow a wind reap a whirlwind. Seed math deals with multiplication rather than addition. That is why it is so crucial that you plant the right seed because it will multiply and you will be dealing with that seed by the bushel! You have to carefully examine what you are planting today because it will multiply, compound, grow and explode into more of the same tomorrow.
Some think that if no one knows, you have escaped. Or if it’s in the past, it’s forgotten forever. Or if you try to make it up by doing good or being religious, you can avoid punishment. It is not so. God will not be mocked. Sin always leaves its mark in us and on us. You can shoot an arrow into the sky and repent while it is in the air, but that won’t stop the arrow from hitting the ground. Repentance pardons your sin, but it does not cancel its consequences.
That is why one man said, “Sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny.” Seed multiplies into more seed. Some of you are still dealing with seed that you sowed years ago.
There is good news here as well. The devil pays off in compound interest—and so does God. And His rewards far outweigh the “pleasures of sin for a season.” If we keep on sowing to the Spirit, we will reap the harvest of godly character, answered prayer, a life in harmony with the Lord, and many blessings that come only to those whose ways please the Lord.
The size of the seed does not determine the size of the harvest. Inside each seed you sow is the potential for a bumper crop! That has implications both good and bad. Understand the 60, 80, 100fold implication of your seed!
b. We must remember to make seed assignments.
Have you ever heard of a farmer that goes to the seed store and closes his eyes and just buys a bunch of seed? No, he buys a specific kind of seed for a specific purpose and result. Have you ever seen a farmer plant apple seeds in an attempt to grow oranges? No, the seed has built into its DNA an assignment that will cause it to produce after that assignment. Therefore, if the farmer wants oranges he will go to the seed store and purchase and plant orange seeds.
One of the most powerful lessons that I have ever learned about seed is that we must give our seed an assignment. Too many of us just fling seed haphazardly almost with a “what will be, will be” attitude. That is not good farming. Good farming dictates that you pick the right seed, put it into the right ground knowing that like will produce like.
Let me explain. When the offering bucket goes past, or you make a donation of your time to someone, or you work a particular job you should prayerfully and intentionally give your seed an assignment.
Sow for souls. Sow for financial freedom. Sow for promotion. It isn’t just generic seed or a grab bag of seed and you wait to see what it will produce in 3 months. Assign it. Label it. We have forgotten the power that God has given us! He told Adam in Genesis 2 to name the animals – give them their assigned name – and it says that whatever Adam called them that was their name! We have the ability and power to assign!
This also dictates what soil you sow into since like produces like. You don’t sow into chaos and give your seed an assignment of order. You don’t sow into a house that has poor or shady financial policies and practices and expect to get good financial return. We know this in life and fail to realize it in the kingdom. You need to constantly do a soil check and make sure that the soil is the right soil to receive your assigned seed. We will talk more about soil next week.
This farm law should change how you give in the offering! Don’t just mindlessly drop the check in. Hesitate a moment as you write it and assign your seed. Don’t just serve mindlessly and think I am just doing my duty as a believer. No, that is a seed! Serve with an assignment in mind. Every day of your life get up and assign the seed of that day to a specific harvest! I don’t know about you, but I don’t want a potluck harvest! Never knowing what you are going to get. Some of it you like and some of it you don’t! I want an assigned harvest that meets the needs of my family and my house!
c. We must practice seed security.
Tim Maloney, farmer and research agronomist from Janesville, WI says, “Yield potential is determined early in a plant's life.” That's why he advocates seed treatments that protect corn and soybean plants in their earliest, most vulnerable stages.
The Parable of the Sower reveals that seed can be vulnerable to birds, weeds, elements, etc. I believe that there are two areas that we must work on to make sure that we secure our seed.
1. Protect our seed from the enemy.
The enemy knows that if he can steal your seed he can deny your harvest. We must constantly protect our seed! He will work overtime to destroy your seed. He is on a seed stealing assignment. It is in his job description that he will kill, STEAL, and destroy. No seed – no harvest!
How does he do this? I think the number one way he does this is that he distracts your seed! He gets you to sow your seed in ground that will produce no harvest (dead end job, dead end relationships). He knows that if you spend all of your time, all of your energy, all of your heart on things or relationships that will not produce a good harvest then he has you defeated. He knows you won’t have enough energy or resources to sow again.
Many of you under the sound of my voice are playing into the enemies hands because you continue to waste your seed (your time, your talent, your treasure) on things that ultimately will not produce a great harvest. You’re wasting energy on a relationship that would give you a greater harvest if it was sowed on your relationship with your spouse. You are wasting efforts at work that would produce more harvest at church. You are wasting the seeds of your mind, thoughts, creativity on things that have no eternal significance. You are spending money on things that will never satisfy! And we will fight to protect the wasting. Someone comes along and says, out of concern for us, that the relationship isn’t healthy, or that we are becoming distracted, or that we are wasting our time and we go ballistic and want to fight them about it! We waste eternal seed on temporary things!
2. Protect our seed from us.
If we are not careful we are our own worst enemy. We will eat our own seed if we are not careful. We get so focused on us that we forget that our seed isn’t just about us and outlives us!
Don’t eat your seed! Elijah and widow. The widow had a choice to make. She could eat now and live today and die tomorrow. Or she should could sow it into the prophet and watch as the harvest impacts her and her family for months on end.
We have to gain some far sightedness when it comes to our seed. WE CANNOT ALLOW THE NEED OF THE MOMENT TO BECOME SO PRESSING THAT WE LOSE SIGHT OF TOMORROW’S HARVEST. We must learn the art of living with our feet into day, but with an eye towards what is coming.
Once seed is used it is gone. We can’t afford to waste the seed. Too many of us are so short sighted that we eat our seed! Our seed should reach beyond just us! Does anything you sow into outlive, outreach, or benefit someone other than you? If not, you are eating your seed.
We need to pray and ask God to help us protect our seed from the enemy of our soul! We also need to pray and ask God to help us protect our seed from ourselves.
III. Close
