The Parable of the Sower – 6
“Redeeming Stony Ground”
Mark 4:16-17
“These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble.”
Last week we talked about the Stony Ground person. This is the person who is easily offended. They are offended by affliction, most of the time, because they are blaming the wrong guy for the cause of the offense. And they are offended at persecution.
➢ Affliction and persecution are very similar. The big difference is afflictions are circumstance related and persecution is people related.
So, if we recognized ourselves as the Stony Ground person last week, then the question is how do we overcome that? How do we become good ground?
I. REDEEMING STONY GROUND: MEDITATING
Once again, for every attack Satan brings, there is always an answer. What is the answer to having no depth, to being the stony ground individual? In order for us to be rooted and grounded in the word and be good ground, we need to water the ground on a regular basis. To do that, we need to meditate on it. The word meditation often makes us think of eastern mysticism; when some of hear the word meditation, we think of sitting on the ground, with our legs folded and repeated some chant over and over again. But meditation is a biblical word and a biblical practice. Remember, Satan is a counterfeiter; he can’t come up with anything original. He doesn’t create anything; he just mimics what’s already there.
In the book of Joshua we read that Joshua needed to be good ground. Even though it was God’s will for them to take the Promised Land, they could only do that by watering the seed God gave to Moses when He told him that the land was theirs. If they had no root, they would have been easily defeated.
This is what God told Joshua, which was the leader at the time:
Joshua 1:6-9, “Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them. Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may prosper wherever you go. This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”
➢ Meditate: “1. To dwell on any thing in thought; to contemplate; to study to turn or revolve any subject in the mind; a consideration of the great truths of religion. 2. To plan by revolving in the mind. (1828 Websters Dictionary)
If you only hear the Word of God on Sundays, it will be very difficult for the Word to take root, because you will not have watered it enough. The Word must be watered if you want to have good ground. The shallow, stony ground Christian does not meditate on the Word. David said, “His praise shall continually be in my mouth.” Remember, he didn’t go around shouting praise all day long as king and in the middle of major decisions, but he did make it a constant habit to meditate on the good things of the Lord.
Remember, Satan’s goal is to get you offended. We have to know throughout this series that God is a planter, Satan is a planter, and you are a planter. Your mouth is a planting tool, and we need to make sure that we are planting the right seeds in the right ground. Overcoming offense happens when we meditate on the Word.
➢ I can’t stress this enough, “You are the one who controls what happens, not Satan.”
Don’t go to church and shout, “I am good ground! I receive 30, 60, 100 fold supernatural power of the Word!!” when you have been too busy to plant or when you have been operating in offense. God will say, “You haven’t planted, and you haven’t watered.” With some of us, the little bit of harvest that we have been getting is simply from the hour a week that we spend planting and that’s why there isn’t much harvesting in our life.
Again, the law of the earth is found in Genesis 8:22, “As long as the earth is here, seedtime and harvest will not cease.”
If people haven’t planted the Word consistently, then they will have problems. Remember, everything happens for a reason. God is not hiding the reason. The reason is found in the Parable of the Sower. We need to meditate on the Word.
II. REDEEMING STONY GROUND: SPEAKING GOD’S WORDS
Proverbs 4:20-21, “My son, give attention to my words; Incline your ear to my sayings. (If you are attending to God’s words, you have already avoided being the wayside ground) Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart.” You keep them in the midst of your heart, by speaking God’s Word.
Proverbs 4:22-24, “For they are life to those who find them, and health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.”
We started out this series stating that God is the sower and the only thing that matters is the ground and we are the ground. But there is another issue. God is the sower in this parable, but He only sows one thing. He doesn’t sow everything, just one, and that is the Word. If we are going to live transformed lives, we need to be good ground to the Sower of the Word.
We also need to know that our mouth is a planting device and it is also a spreading device. The seed planter only plants the seed put in it. Let’s say that you are going to put a new lawn at your house. You fill the spreader with a bag of dandelion seed, spread it across your lawn and water it daily. After a time, you will see weeds coming up all across your lawn with yellow tops. You will then say, “How did those get here? I don’t understand what happened?” The problem is that you planted the wrong seed. You may have wanted grass, but you planted dandelions.
Sometimes when we face problems, God is trying to tell us that we planted the wrong seed. You planted seed, but it wasn’t the Word seed! When we plant seed that is contrary to God’s Word, it will still work, but it will bring the results that you don’t want.
That’s why Proverbs 4:24 says, “Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and put perverse lips far from you.”
Wrong words plant sickness, disease, death, doubt, poverty, fear, depression, anger and strife into the lawn of your life. Most Christians have a ground that is made up of mixed seed, a combination of God’s Word and bad words. They plant the Word of Sundays, but after they leave the church, they plant words that are just the opposite all week long.
In order to overcome the stony ground we need to meditate on the Word, speak God’s Word and:
III. REDEEMING STONY GROUND: DON’T BE LAZY
Hebrews 6:12, “That you do not become sluggish, but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.”
Another translation says, “slothful.” Sluggish and slothful actually means lazy. Laziness is a big problem in the body of Christ. We cannot inherit the promises of God by sitting aside and saying, “Whatever will be, will be. God is in control. He is going to do what He wants anyway.” That’s lazy! God gives us some instruction in His Word on how to possess the promises found in Scripture. In order to possess the land, you cannot be lazy. We cannot be easily offended and let the devil have our seed. It is time to redeem every seed and every promise that he has taken from us. We do that by meditating on the Word, speaking the Word and get busy and start applying and obeying the Word every single day. I don’t want to be stony ground! I want to be good ground.
