When Watching the Krispy Kreme Donut machine, or as I like to call it the “Dream Machine.” I noticed something that made me very upset. At the end of the conveyer they were throwing away a bunch of the donuts.
First there is the dough plopper that makes the doughnut shape. But as I watched I was saddened by the fact that some of the time the dough comes out deformed, and those are then destined to be thrown away.
Next comes the fryer and as they go through the fryer they cook on one side, and then halfway through they are flipped over, again I observed that some of the those half cooked delicious pieces of dough did not flip over, and were then headed for the trash.
The last step in the process is the glaze, and it is just this beautiful river of glaze that pours over the donuts, but sometimes a donut is to far to the outside, and at other times a dry piece of glaze stops the flow in a certain area, and those donuts that had made it so far are then banished from the serving line.
Thankfully there are those that make it through this refining process and are served as the premium, perfect, and always delicious Krispy Kreme donuts.
I tell you about the life of a Krispy Kreme Donut because it is not to far from the life of a seed. The key element in a seeds life is the condition of the soil it is planted it.
Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23
1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed feel among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears let him hear.”
The question I want us to ask ourselves is how is our Soil? In the parable there is hard soil, rocky soil, weed infested soil, and good well kept soil.
I want to start with a sneak peak at the goal because know one starts any kind of worthwhile race of journey without a finish line in mind. In being good soil we will expect our seed to bears great fruit, the delicious Krispy Kreme donut. What is the Fruit of God’s Kingdom, what does he want more of? Now I cannot give that away yet, but just think about the fact that God is the creator of the world, and yet he wants us to be apart of producing some great fruit for Him. Amazing!
The first reason we may not be producing this fruit is because we are hard soil. In a field the soil gets hard when it is walked on many times. People usually do not become hard soil by choice. Many difficult situations seem to be putting them down. Until finally it seems that the world is out to get them, and their hearts become hard
“18Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed along the path.
These are the donuts that come out misshaped, and they did not do anything to cause it but they have had a raw deal from the beginning. Sometimes this snatching is because we do not understand how God could let some things happen, so we have decided to let the devil convince us that there is no God or that he is not very powerful.
Willy was a young man who had decided he was going to be an atheist when his prayers for his mothers healing feel on deaf ears. After his mothers death he felt there could be no God. He came to church camp and some seeds feel on that hard ground, he tried to understand what God wanted to do in his life, but he still could not deal with his mothers death leaving him with his alcohol prone father.
That is hard ground and Satan works to snatch away the seeds of the Gospel of hope like a bird, before they can take root.
Maybe our life is one of hard ground, and I pray this morning that we would ask God to give us understanding. We have heard these hard ground stories be turned around by God.
A man with the first name Vincent is invited into public schools all over the northwest to tell of his victory over drugs. After a hard childhood he became a user and a dealer, and many seeds feel on hard ground, but somehow God found a soft spot, and changed his whole life.
All bad things cannot be explained away, but that God longs to help us through bad times (to give us strength, and comfort). It is often difficult for those of us with the hard soil to give God a chance to prove himself loving. If some people like this are here this morning it maybe that God is starting to rote till up the ground right now and soften your heart
The next soil is that darn rocky soil. And it is not random rocks popping up in the field it is a layer of rock just below the surface. Sometime it looks like good soil, but there is not enough there for the roots to grab on to.
20The one who received the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, he quickly falls away.
In talking about shallow soil I want to talk about emotions. For those of us still dreaming about donuts these are the ones that cook on one side but fail to flip over. God has given us our emotions and they are a wonderful thing, and God sometimes works through our emotions, but they are not the only way God can work, and they are not an end in themselves. What I mean by and end in themselves is we should not come to church just to feel God. To get that warm fuzzy. We should feel the emotion of God calling us to something through sorrow or joy, but it should move us to action.
• If we feel compelled to deepen our relationship with Jesus, then we need to do so through praying more and entering into discipleship with other Christians.
• If we fell moved at the need in third world countries we need to do something about it.
What happens in the shallow soil is we are moved to receive God, but then we
• do not move on to discipleship,
• move to serving others
• we do not seek the life transformation Jesus intends for us.
If I have a back problem and I go to the chiropractor and he throws it back in line it feels allot better, but if I do not begin doing exercises to strengthen the muscles in my back it will not get better and stronger. I may go back to the Chiropractor, and he will make it feel better again for a while, but my back is not getting better.
The church is not a place to come and get those sins taken care of and then go out and live the same as we always have. Then come back and get the sin taken care of and feel a little better. We need to be exercising. Being a Christian is includes both faith and action or it is shallow or as James called it DEAD.
In verse 6 it says when the sun rose that plant in the shallow soil is scorched. I think it is interesting that the plant in the good soil is aided by the suns rays, but the one in the shallow soil is scorched.
The best example of this is when we are tested through witnessing or our faith being questioned. If all we have to go on is an emotional conversion our faith might be shaken and even destroyed when it is brought into question. While on the other hand when a person who is seeking discipleship and trying to use their gifts is questioned it is an opportunity for deeper growth, and will likely result in a seed being planted in someone else’s life.
Maybe our soil is shallow this morning. When it comes to producing any fruit (our faith in action) it is like we hit a rock wall. And the FAITH comes first but if we want to cook the other side of our donut we need to combine it with ACTION. Truthfully it is when we start putting what we hear into practice that we begin to see the power of God in a real and personal way.
The next soil is the most sad to me, because it has the potential of being great soil. It is also sad because I know I have allowed weeds and thorns to grow up in the field of my life. This soil simple lets other things become more important then bearing fruit for God’s Kingdom.
22The one who received the seed that fell among the thorns is the man who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.
In the life of the donut it has come so far and had so many trials, but as it is about to become useful the icing gets plugged up. At times the weeds and plugs have been video games and sports, other times it has been relationships and money.
I would often have my devotion time at night. But after getting a Super Nintendo my Mom would tell me I needed to get ready for bed and I would always say, “one more game” and I would push my time so far that eventually I would eliminate my time for devotions. I was letting video games choke my relationship with God. Because we cannot expect to bear fruit and put God first unless we are committed to prayer, reading our Bible, we are just spiritually dry without those things.
I have also let money drive my actions more then God and his word. Some of you have heard my testimony about how God told me to be a minister, but I followed the pursuit of money to be an engineer.
The Devil can use any number of things to pull our attention away from the building of God’s Kingdom. Work, entertainment, hobbies. I want to tell you now a victory story about how God can pull out the weeds, because the Good News is that God can transform any of our current lives into rich fruitful soil.
In between Illinois and this truly beautiful place called Salem we stopped in Idaho for the Holidays. And while we where there I thought I was going to have to talk to an old time friend of mine about some weeds choking his relationship with God. He is my skiing buddy, and for about 9 months out of the year he is fairly dedicated to his relationship with God, but during Dec, Jan, and Feb, his relationship is choked out, by his need to ski all the time. He stops attending his cell group, he stops attending Church and Sundays school, and that is a huge problem when from the other months of the year he seeks to be a leader in those areas. So I thought that I could not act like this was ok, and that I should confront him out of love. But much to my surprise some weeding had already taken place. To God’s glory this year skiing had to be planned around the cell group, around Sunday morning, and around another ministry he was doing. The weed was not the act of skiing but the priority that it held.
Another thing about those who let weeds grow in their field is that they do not leave the church. They are not the ones on the out side, there are on the inside, but they are yielding not fruit, because other things have become more important.
Finally it is time for the good soil!
23But the one who received the seed that feel on the good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”
To be good soil we first have to put ourselves in a place to hear the word. That is coming to church, going to a small group, reading your Bible (just giving yourself a chance).
Then comes the understanding.
• To understand loving one another we have to try it.
• To understand why we should meet the needs of the poor we have to enter into their lives.
• To understand worship we have to experience it.
• To understand the power of prayer we have to give God a chance.
The first time I visited an older person who was a shut’in I was scared to death. What could I do to help them, they were about to die and could barely understand me. Besides being scared I did not know if it was worth the time to go out to their house. But I decided to do it. I came in and talked a while with the care giver and then I took the older mans hand. He was not able to say much to me, but I told him about myself and how his church was praying for him. Then I read him some scriptures, and after some more limited interaction I prayed with him, and as I closed with the Lords prayer, I could hear him trying to join in. As I ended I looked up and saw many tears streaming down his face. It wasn’t until that point that I understood the ministry God had asked me to do there
As we begin to understand what God’s kingdom looks like our lives will naturally produce fruitful action driven by Love for God and love for others. The fruit maybe very tangible evangelism, feeding hungry, encouraging others, but it will also look like common actions FILLED WITH Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self control (Gal. 5:22-23)
I want to make it clear that there is no exact fruit quota. Jesus give no more praise to the hundred then to the thirty. We do not need to serve 100 bowls of soap to starving children to get into the Kingdom of Heaven. There are going to be clear differences in the kinds of fruit we produce and the visible amounts, because there are many different needs in our community and we have many different gifts that God has given us, but the important part is that we are yielding fruit. Paul calls us to judge the actions of a person by the fruit they are producing.
Praise the Lord that with his help we can change our soil, take out the rocks, and rip up the weeds. And our instructions are to hear the word, seek to understand it, and act by bearing fruit.
