The Parable of the Sower – 10
“Characteristics of Good Ground”
Mark 4:20
“But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
We are going to wrap up this series on the Parable of the Sower today. If I took time to review this series, we would spend the whole morning on review because there is so much information on this subject. It is important to remember that Jesus said that we must understand this parable if we want to understand all the other parables.
So far, we have seen that Satan has five key strategies he uses to keep the Word from becoming deeply implanted in our hearts. If we don’t get the Word implanted in our hearts, then there is no way that we can live an overcoming life.
➢ Affliction - The Greek word for affliction is “thilipsis:” Meaning, “pressure of circumstances, anguish, or tribulation which can be financial, physical, mental or emotional in nature.”
➢ Persecution - “A pressure, anguish, trouble or a situation where people are used as the instrument.”
➢ Cares of this world
➢ Deceitfulness of riches
➢ Lust of the flesh
We not only have discovered all the strategies, we have also discovered how to overcome them and still remain victorious in spite of all his attacks. Both this morning and tonight we are going to talk about the fourth type of ground. “Good Ground.”
Mark 4:20, “But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirtyfold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
➢ The word “Good” in the Greek is “Kalos,” which means “beautiful, valuable, virtuous, better and worthy.”
The person who hears, receives and brings forth fruit are those who are beautiful, valuable, virtuous, and worthy in God’s sight. I want to be good ground. Luke gives the same parable, but in different words:
Luke 8:15, “But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience.”
The first thing Luke notices is that Jesus talks about the heart that these good ground people have. That shouldn’t surprise us. Jesus is always concerned with the heart more than anything else. Why does Jesus talk about the heart in relation to the ground? In order to understand what you need to do in order to be good ground, we must first understand that we need to hear, receive, and plant the Word deeply in our heart. Let’s go back to the first type of ground to understand the last type of ground.
Matthew 13:19, “When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside.”
In order to see why Wayside People don’t understand the Word we have to look at the first part of Matthew 13:15, “For this people’s hearts has grown dull or waxed gross.” In other words, their heart is hard; they don’t want to receive the Word. We must protect ourselves from growing hard.
I. HARD HEARTS
In order to really understand the problem of hard hearts, we have to look at two stories of two different miracles of Jesus. The first miracle is Jesus feeding 5,000 people with five loaves of bread. The second miracle is Jesus feeding 4,000 people with seven loaves of bread. In both miracles, there is lots of food left over. After the feeding of the 4,000, Jesus and the disciples get into a boat and head across the lake. Let’s read what happens next. Remember, this is right after Jesus feeds the 4,000 with seven loaves of bread and there is plenty of bread left over.
Mark 8:14-21, “Now the disciples had forgotten to take bread, and they did not have more than one loaf with them in the boat. 15 Then He charged them, saying, “Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod. 16 And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “It is because we have no bread.” 17 But Jesus, being aware of it, said to them, “Why do you reason because you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive nor understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18 Having eyes, do you not see? And having ears, do you not hear? And do you not remember? 19 When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments did you take up?” They said to Him, “Twelve.” 20 “ Also, when I broke the seven for the four thousand, how many large baskets full of fragments did you take up?” And they said, “Seven.” 21 So He said to them, “How is it you do not understand?”
The disciples were actually present to see Jesus perform these supernatural miracles. They didn’t just hear about it, they were actually there, they saw it with their own eyes. The problem was they were just onlookers. They were observers. They had no revelation of Jesus’ miracle working power. They had seen the miracle, but they didn’t receive anything from it because their heart was hard. I don’t want to be the person who reads the Bible because that is the Christian thing to do, I want to have a heart that is ready to be empowered by the Word. I don’t want a hard heart!
II. CHARACTERISTICS OF GOOD GROUND PEOPLE
A. ARE THOSE WITH HONEST AND GOOD HEARTS
The first characteristic of good ground people is the opposite of the nature of wayside ground people who won’t receive the Word. Good ground people are those with honest and good hearts, which means their heart is soft. What is a soft heart? A soft heart is when there is no area of your heart that the Lord deals with and our response is, “God, this is off limits.” God can talk to you about your families, your finances, your relationships, and your emotions. He can talk to us about any subject and our hearts will be open to receiving what God says.
B. ARE THOSE WHO MEDITATE ON THE WORD
The second characteristic of good ground people is the opposite of stony ground people where the scattered Word had no root. A good ground individual doesn’t just hear the Word on Sunday mornings and go home and forget about it. No, they go home with that Word and meditate daily on it. They read that Word of God out loud! They think about that Word! They talk about that Word! They plan how to respond to that Word all week long! When that happens, that Word will take deep root in our hearts and lives.
➢ A good ground individual not only receives that Word, they also comprehend it.
➢ A good ground individual will hold the Word in high regard.
➢ A good ground individual with confess the Word with their mouth in good and bad.
➢ A good ground individual will not be moved by evil reports, because his heart is fixed and he trusts in the Lord with all his heart.
➢ A good ground individual will walk in love and forgiveness! That is his lifestyle.
➢ A good ground individual refuses to allow themselves to be distracted by the cares of this world.
➢ A good ground person will not allow money, possessions, status, debt or the pursuit of wealth to ever dictate their obedience to God. They are givers.
➢ A good ground person will live a Spirit-led life, listening to and obeying the Holy Spirit instantaneously.
Good ground people are not deceived by riches. They are constantly giving to God. He can tell them to do anything and off they go. God says, “I want you to go over and bless that person and do it right now.” The good ground people don’t hesitate and they just do it because they realize that all their riches came from God anyway.
For good ground people, whatever belongs to them belongs to God, and whatever belongs to God belongs to them. The lust of the flesh doesn’t have a grip on them. They walk in the Spirit. They are always open and always listen to the Spirit’s leading.
We learned this morning what a good ground person consists of, tonight we are going to discover some benefits of good ground people and we are also going to learn how we receive a 30, 60, 100 fold harvest. How many want a 30, 60, 100 fold harvest in their lives? We are going to figure out how tonight.
