I have this against you, Jesus said, you have left your first love. Last week we learned about the carnal Christian, the one who has gotten off track, but how can it happen. How does one fall out of love? How does one transfer their affections to another?
Tonight lets look at the soil of our love. Turn to Luke 8. Jesus is teaching a parable about farming, and in particular, the soil in which the seeds are planted. He begins in verse 5, A farmer went out to sow his seed. With out the modern technology available today, the farmer in Jesus time somewhat like Johnny Appleseed, would take his mule and bags of seed, walk out onto his property and cast the seed to the ground. Can you picture this. He throws the seeds out, they go here and there, in fact everywhere. The idea was to saturate the land with as much seeds as possible so the farmer would gain some productivity for his efforts.
Jesus told his listeners, As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Here is the farmer, throwing the seed out, and as some of it lands, it ends up in the direct path the farmer is walking. Some of it being pressed into the ground by his steps, other seeds ground into the soles of his shoes. Birds were flying down and looking at and partaking in dinner.
Lets look on, verse 6. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. These seeds fell on land that had a thin layer of soil, but underneath was rocks and stones. These seeds were unable to get the moisture necessary in the ground for growth, their roots were unable to go deep in the soil to draw up the moisture, so their died because the soil they were planted in could not sustain life.
Jesus continued, Still other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Have you ever noticed that weeds grow faster than plants? These thorns grew so fast they choked out the life of the good plants.
Jesus said, Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown. Basically, this soil had the right balance of moisture, nutrients and care and therefore produced the desired results.
Jesus ends the parable with He who has ears to hear, let him hear. In essence, Jesus is saying, just because you have ears doesn’t mean you are listening, but I want you to pay close attention. When you hear a teacher in school tell you to pay attention, you know there will be a test with this information on it. And if you don’t understand, the teacher would want you to raise you hand and ask a question to clarify what he or she just taught.
Well, that is what Jesus was expecting, and sure enough, the students did not understand the parable. How do I know? Verse 9, His disciples asked him what this parable meant.
They understood the sower going out to sow. That was a regular sight seeing the farmer at work. But they knew Jesus was trying to say something else to them, and they were missing the point.
Now Jesus, instead of getting right into the answer, says something quite interesting, catch this in verse 10, The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, through seeing, they may not see; through hearing, they may not understand.
I hope you will see this important statement for what it means. The disciples had come to Jesus, heard the parable, and afterward, asked what does it mean. But the disciples were not the only ones present at the teaching. In fact, verse 4 informs us large crowds had gathered and people were coming from town to town to hear Jesus teach.
People are attracted to the ministry. The crowd assemble. But the crowd is along for the ride, they like the stories Jesus told, today many come because they like to hear the stories Jesus told repeated in church. They liked the way he put together the phrases, to hear him talk in a way the ordinary person could understand. Basically they liked hearing Jesus but they never got deep enough to ask the all important question, Jesus, what do you mean?
I want you to catch this principle, Your ability to perceive divine truth is related to how much you want to know. If you are satisfied with a story here and a story there, a good feeling here and a good feeling there, you will never understand fully all that God has for you in His Word.
If you are satisfied with showing up on Sunday, putting in an appearance, and that is the bulk you get from hearing the word of God spoken, then you will leave empty. You will miss a lot of what God wants you to do, and the benefits He wants to bring to you. In other words, in medical language, you will be an anemic Christian.
Do you see what they people really where. They loved to hear Jesus preach, but for the most part, they did not love Him because they never ventured past the face of what He was saying to understand the intimate details which were only available to those who drew near to Him. Jesus word was not their first concern, they never asked, Jesus, what do you mean?
How many of you are ready to stop here tonight? We heard the parable of Jesus, it has given us something to ponder and now we can go home and get on with whatever it is we have to do before we retire for the night. Are you ready to call it a day?
Jesus began to explain his parable, verses 11-12, This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 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.
Jesus gives the results of several people who have heard the word.
1. The first is the from the seed that fell by the road. It never took root in the persons heart. There it is lying in the road, the devil, represented by the bird, swoops down and takes the Word so that people in this condition cannot become Christians. They are not able to leave Christ, because they have never had a relationship with Him in the first place. The natural man. The word was available for a time, for a season, but life has snatched the opportunity out of their hands.
2. The next is rocky soil, vs. 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.
Jesus is not talking about a non-Christian. In fact from this verse on in His explanation, Jesus is not speaking on the ways different believers respond to God.
These people received the Word joyfully, they made a commitment to follow Christ, they became Christians. But they did not develop their faith, they remained spiritually weak--babies in Christ. And because they did not go into the deep things of God, when trouble showed up, when trials hit, what did they do? They ran, they reneged on their commitment to walk with God and returned to the death of the world. And I am sure we all know people who are like this.
I want you to understand something here. The reason they returned has nothing to do with the seed. God’s Word is complete and all sufficient. Hebrews 4:12 states, The word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
The word of God, the seed, is able to raise in your life a crop of spiritual vitality, victory, power and tenacity. Everything you need in order to be all that God created you to be is given to you at the point of receiving the Word. That is what James 1:21 urges us to receive the word implanted, which is able to save your soul.
Now, how do you know you life is in this condition, when your response to God’s Word is not what it should be? One way to know is if you have the tendency to run when adversity comes. In that adversity, God lets you know whether you are spiritually strong by bringing adversity into your life.
Understand, God does not send adversity so He can know how spiritual you are. He already knows what you are going to do. The test is for your sake, so you will know if your Amens on Sunday are as real as you thought they were when you said them. Hello.
It is like the commitment of marriage. Your marriage cannot be tested on the honeymoon, that is too early, there hasn’t been enough time for all the stuff to come down. Your commitment to your marriage occurs when everything is going wrong, when it seems you have married the opposite person you thought you had married when you said I do.
This is when the husband finds out that his wife does not always look like he thought she would look when they got married. This is when she finds out that he had only given up sports on television temporarily. The depth of commitment is determined when people run into the trials of life.
Jesus teaches that people with no roots tend to fall away when times get tough. Instead of digging deeper into the things of God to find out how to deal with the adversity, the trials that James tells us come to all, to find out how they can be overcomers, these people want to run, to get out. They don’t want to be identified as having belonged to Christ. Their love for Him as seriously withered.
I had read this quote: Salvation is free. Discipleship is expensive. You can get to heaven for nothing, courtesy of the cross. But it cost a lot to get heaven down to you. God has already given you, free of charge, eternal life. But to get eternal life operating in history demands the price tag of loving commitment."
You must be committed to Jesus Christ, you must have roots that run deep and the only way to have that depth is for you to make a proper response to the Word of God, and take the application of His Word seriously in your life.
Do you know what the difference between a victorious Christian and a defeated Christian is? One has allowed the roots of the Word to go deep into the soil of his or her life, while the other is living on the topsoil and not sending the roots down.
How far down are your roots going? I can tell you right now. If the only time you spend in the Bible is during the Sunday teachings, well, that is shallow. Imagine a person only eating a big meal on Sunday. By about Tuesday, he is in trouble. One meal cannot last the entire week.
And this is the same with our spiritual nourishment. If there is no passion to learn and apply the Word, no desire to discover what the Bible says about the situations we face, we will become malnourished and emaciated and unable to handle the trials that will come.
Jesus moves on to explain the third kind of soil. vs. 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.
These folks have not matured, they have moved from babies to teenagers, but have not made it into adulthood. Some Christians have mixed up priorities because their lives are tangled up in things they should not be messing with. Jesus says there are three things that are choking them.
1. Worry. It is a sin to worry, Philippians 4:6 says Be anxious for nothing. Don’t worry. Don’t sweat it. Don’t allow anything to so control your mind that it keeps you from functioning.
You can control your mind, Philippians 4:6 goes on to say, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And verse 7 adds, And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension’s, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."
The word guard means to post a sentry, to set up a watch around your mind so that when you worry or anything else shows up, the sentry takes it out. So if you pray instead of worry, God will set up a guard around your mind. Understand this. I am not talking about having legitimate concerns. I am talking about coming to a place where you cannot function because you are immobilized by the thing called worry. Jesus says worry will strangle your growth. Are you gagging on your worries?
2. The second area Jesus said will choke out your growth is riches. When you love of money, not your having money, supersedes you love for God, you will start choking on your wallet.
How do you know you love money more than God? When you choose between God and money and money wins. In Matthew 6:19-21 Jesus basically states you will know what you love the most by what you invest in.
What are your spiritual investments? Some people like to do something big for God once a year. I think of the folks that come out on Easter Sunday. It is the nod for God crowd that comes out that day and they are proud of the fact they have made it. They show up on that day, but the rest of the year they have allowed things to choke out their relationship, their investment to God.
3. The third area Jesus says will choke out our relationship to Him is pleasure. We in Washington live in a pleasure driven culture. That is why this state is one of the most unchurched in the United States. With things like virtual reality and other pleasure technology getting more sophisticated and more readily available every day, I am afraid we haven’t seen anything yet in our cultures insane pursuit of pleasure.
Still with me? Jesus gets to his final point on soil, vs. 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.
These are the Christians who bear abundant, full grown fruit, lasting fruit. There are some characteristics of this fruit I want us to see.
a. It always bears the character of the tree is grows from. Simply said, oranges grow on orange trees, apples on apple trees.
When you are responding properly to God’s Word and your love for Christ is in its proper place, you are going to act, talk, look and think more like Christ. It’s inevitable, because Jesus is the vine to which you are attached so you will display His character.
b. Fruit exists for the benefit of someone else. A tree never eats its own fruit. Have you ever driven by and apple tree and seen it eating apples. The apples are not for the tree, they are for someone else.
One way you will know if you are spiritually growing is that other people will want to take a bite out of your life. They will start to say, I want to be like you, How can you help me to become a Christian like you are? Jesus said in Matthew 13:8 that the fruit of a Christian will multiply thirty, sixty, and even a hundredfold. The benefit of your life to others will go on and on. This is the result of a proper response to God’s Word, of letting His Word do its perfect work in your life.
You might say, well I am in bad soil today, so what can I do to get into good soil? You can begin by simply applying what you have learned in God’s Word. It is the application of the Word that produces maturity.
One day an angel and a man were talking. The angel asked him, "What can I do for you?" The man said, "Show me what the stock market will be one year from today so I will know how to invest and make a fortune."
The angel snapped his finger and out came a Wall Street Journal dated one year in the future. The man noted which stocks would be high and which ones would be low. The man was overjoyed.
But in the midst of his joy, a frown came upon the man’s face and tears began to roll down his cheeks. He had turned the page and seen an article about prominent business people who had died that year. His picture was among the dead.
Church, our lives have so much to offer. We have tonight just heard through the teaching on the soil how to live our lives today in the light of eternity. The question we individually must answer is what will our response be to His Word? This week I want to encourage you to examine the soil of your life and look to what you are producing, and if you need to make some changes, begin this week. Read the word, pray, confess your shortcomings to God and then get ready to really live.
