“Parable of the Sower”
Introduction
It seems odd to me that all Christians respond differently to God’s Word. It is weird to me that we can all come to church and hear the same sermon and even sit in the same pew, but some take something away from it and others don’t.
We all respond differently to God’s Word and each of us came to Christ for a different reason and we each grow individually in our faith.
The thing that bothers me most is that so many Christians come to church and play church and the reason for that is the way in which their faith is rooted.
When I started coming to church, my youth minister taught us the Bible, and that is all he did. I remember him telling me that we do not come to church to play games. He said, there is nothing wrong with games, but on Sundays and Wednesdays we are going to study God’s Word. I realized soon the reason he did that was to root us in God’s Word. I remember looking at other youth groups in the area and seeing that during church service the kids would be outside playing games or playing video games instead of having a Bible study. I learned that what you win them with is what you win them to. I think that we need to try to reach people by all means, I am all for programs that will attract people to the church, but we need to make sure our focus is Christ and whatever we do people can clearly see that he is the reason why we do that.
So many times I think that Christians are lukewarm, or Christians are not growing because their seed was not properly planted.
I am not a farmer or a gardener, but one thing I do know is that there are a few things that are essential for a seed to grow and to grow well. One thing that is important is the soil. The soil is important because the seed needs to build roots and if the soil is too tough it cannot develop good roots and the seed will soon die.
Our lived with Christ are very similar. Much of our spiritual lives are determined by the foundation in which we have. As you ask different people why they come to church they will all give a different answer. Some will say they come to church for the fellowship, some will say out of duty or obligation, some will say for an experience, and other will say they come to hear God’s Word and to grow in their faith. There is nothing wrong with coming to church expecting fellowship, because when the church meets together we naturally have fellowship, and fellowship is essential for growth. There is nothing wrong with seeing a duty to come to church; I believe that the scriptures teach that we have a duty to be in the Lord’s house on the first day of the week. I think it should be our motivation though to come and to learn more about Jesus. Jesus is the foundation of our faith, and so many people have weak and shallow faiths because their foundation is not Jesus.
When a building’s foundation is not properly made, the building will not stand. When a plant is not firmly rooted it will die because it cannot receive the nourishment it needs, and when a Christian does not have a good foundation they backslide.
The question for you this morning is, How well are you rooted? And what type of soil are you?
Text: Matthew 13:1-23
I. Pathway Soil
Jesus says that some people’s faith is planted in the pathway soil. These people Jesus said do not understand the gospel and Satan snatches away that which was sown in their heats.
I believe that many people fall away from their faith for many reasons, but I believe one is because people are not grounded in the Word and are not taught God’s Word very well. Satan above anything else wants to destroy our faith and he does that through many ways, but I believe that he works often from within to cause Christians to fall away.
A. many people fall away because of doubt
I believe that Satan causes people to doubt what they believe and cause them to fall away. Our faith needs to be solid. I do not think there is anything wrong with doubting things, but faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you do not see. I think that many people fall away because doubt is sown in their hearts. We do not have to doubt, but we must simply trust and have faith that God’s Word is true. We will not struggle daily with doubt if we are firmly planted on good soil. I believe that many people leave their faith in Christ because they begin to doubt the truthfulness of God. We must make sure that we are people of faith and not doubting God. Stop doubting and believe.
B. many people fall away because of false doctrine
I think that many people are snatched out of the kingdom because of false doctrine. It is difficult for us as Christians to look around at different churches and hear every church teaching something different. We can avoid Satan working on us by false doctrine by studying God’s Word. We need to have a good foundation in God’s Word. For years people were deceived and given to false doctrine because the people were forbidden to read God’s Word, only the priests could read the Bible. During that time people had know way to search the scriptures to see what was true. I believe that Satan uses false doctrine to lead Christians away from the truth. We must search the scriptures for truth. If our foundation is solid we will not fall. If we are grounded in God’s Word we will not be lead astray. We have a weapon against Satan and that is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
Do not let Satan come and snatch the word planted in your heart, but search the scriptures because in there we can find truth.
Satan is active in the world today and he is trying to destroy those seeds which have been planted, but he can only be effective on those that are not properly rooted. What type of soil are you? Is your faith planted along the pathway, where you cannot develop roots and where Satan comes and destroys you by pulling up the seed that was planted?
II. Rocky Soil
Many people have their faith built on rocky soil. The parable says the cares of the world carry them away.
I have seen many people who build their faith on the rocky soil. I have seen numerous times when bad times come in people’s lives they leave behind their faith. There began a movement in many churches that promised health and wealth to anyone who became Christians. People bought into this movement hook line and sinker. People converted by the hundreds because they saw Christianity as a sure blessed life from God.
The thing is Jesus never promised health and wealth to follow your Christianity. In fact He made it very clear that you must leave wealth to follow him, and he made it clear that people will persecute you because of Him.
To many people though Christianity is a crutch. People feel obligated to go to church and go when they need God. I have heard of people beginning to come to church when they have health problems, because they think that their spirituality will make God stand in awe of their faith and He will bless them. Then God does bless and answer prayers and they have had enough church until their next problem.
Many people have their faith built on rocky soil. Hard times come and they leave their faith behind. What does it take to make you leave behind your faith? How shallow is your religion? Where is your faith planted?
As I look at churches across the country I see people leaving churches for every reason under the sun. I believe that is because people are more concerned about themselves. What would it take for you to leave behind a church? I have heard of masses of people leaving a Church because of the choice to put a kitchen in the building! I heard of a bunch of people leaving a church because they got mad at some things that were said to them, so they left the church and went to a denominational church where they abandoned all doctrine.
I was at dinner the other night and heard a woman say she left a church because the ministers were too young, so they left a local Christian Church and went to another big denominational church.
We should not be willing to give up our faith when hard times and persecution come, when bad health comes, but we should draw near to God during hard times and good times.
We should not be willing to leave a church because of trivial things that take place, but have unity in the essentials and liberty in opinions. There is very little that should cause a church split. We should make sure that we are not going to church for ourselves, but for the Lord. Many people in the world are what I call consumer Christians. They come to church to see what they can get, and if they do not get treated the way they want and do not hear what they want to hear and do not feel the way they want to feel they leave and shop somewhere else. I believe there are a lot of consumers Christians in the world today.
We should not be willing to leave behind sound doctrine for anything. What would it take to cause you to leave behind your doctrine and truth? Why do you come to church? Do you come to receive health and wealth?
What type of soul is you faith planted in? Is it planted in rocky soil where hard times come and carry away your faith?
III. Thorny Soil
The third type of soil that Jesus mentioned was the thorny soil, which the love of money and the worries of life carry away. I believe that many people have their faith planted in the thorny soil. Many people are given a solid foundation, but are tempted to fall away from the Lord because of the World. The scriptures make it very clear for us to avoid being a part of the world. Jude tells us to hate even the clothing stained by corrupted flesh, and John tells us not to love the world or the things of the world. I believe that the reason that the scriptures are so blunt and strict about being involved in worldy things is because the writers knew that many people would fall away from the Lord because of the love for the world.
Before we were Christians we all came out of the world, there were sins that tempted us and tormented us, and then we became Christians and were forgiven. So many times people want to live two lives. Many people want to play church. They want to come to church on Sunday and earn brownie points with God and then live the way they always have the rest of the week. I pray that there are none like that here today. Many things will drag you away from the Lord, but we must be sure to fix our eyes on Jesus. We cannot blame God for our struggles. James 1:13.
We can guarantee that we will face temptation, and we can avoid our faith being grown in the thorny soil. Do you want your faith to get choked out? Many people’s faith is choked out for many reasons:
1. Love of the world
The truth is many people love the world more than they love Jesus. How much do you love the Lord? Are you willing to leave behind your sins and live for Jesus, or would you rather indulge in sin and abuse God’s grace? Paul spoke of all his friends who has deserted him, and one he mentioned was a man named Demas. He said that Demas, because he loved the world deserted me. In my short tenure as a Christian I have seen many people come and go. They seem like they want to follow Jesus, but the pull of the world is just too much for them. Their faith is built in thorny soil
2. Love of Money
This may seem insignificant, but I believe that many people truly worship the almighty dollar. To many people money becomes more important than faith. This is clear by people leaving their faith for jobs that are associated with immorality. I heard a story of a man who was a faithful member in the church. He was asked one time to join in selling drugs; he declined and said that he could not because of his faith in Jesus. Then later he learned how lucrative of a business that was and left his faith for selling drugs. The scriptures warn against the love of money and we must be sure not to sell our faith for 30 shekels of silver as Judas did.
What type of soil are you? Are you thorny soil? Are you willing to give up your faith for worldly gain?
IV. Good Soil
The parable that Jesus gave said that one out of four seeds fall on good soil. I hope that today we are a church full of good soil. I believe that we have a large say in what type of soil our faith is planed in. By the studying of the Word, prayer, fellowship, and other things we can insure that our faith is built on good soil and solid ground.
I love the hymn that goes
On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground in sinking sand
And then the other:
The churches on foundation is Jesus Christ her Lord
If we make Christ our foundation we will surely be good soil. We do not want to be good soil simply because we get heaven, but we want to be effective in the kingdom. The parable tells us that those in the good soil bear fruit.
If our faith is planted in good soil, then we will bear fruit and bring people to Jesus.
So the question for you today is, is your faith planted in good soil? If it is not, you can weed out the rocks and the thorns and can become good soil. Build your roots deep and learn from God’s Word and you will produce fruit, because those who are planted in good solid do bear fruit.
