ROOTS
By Pastor Jim May
How many of you have a green thumb? I can’t make that claim. It seems that I have a hard time making anything grow the way that it should. Last spring I decided to plant a small garden. I don’t have a tractor or a tiller so I had to break up the ground with a shovel. My neighbor loaned me a tiller but the ground was so hard that the little tiller just bounced on the top so I still had to break it up with a shovel before I could till it.
After I finished tilling, the garden looked like it was lower than the ground around it so I went down and bought a truckload of topsoil to add to it, then tilled all of it together. After all that I finally formed several short rows with a hoe. It was a fine looking garden and I was proud of its appearance.
Then I started planting. In this little garden space, that measured about 12’ by 10’, I had 5 small rows. There was pretty good variety of 3 types of tomato plants, watermelon, squash, 2 types of cucumbers, two types of pepper plants and a half-row of sunflowers for my grandson. I planted the seeds, and the seedling plants; watered them nearly every day and prepared myself for the great harvest.
We did manage to get a few squash, there were plenty of tomato and a fair amount of cucumbers, but the harvest wasn’t nearly what I had hoped for.
I wondered why some of the plants didn’t produce? Why was it taking so long for some to grow? Then things began to grow that I didn’t recognize. Then I discovered what had happened.
My daughter thought that the rows were empty so she came in behind me and planted on top of what I had planted. Cucumber seeds, watermelon seeds and squash were all together. Pepper plants by the handful sprang up where cucumbers were supposed to be. And to top it all off, most of the topsoil washed down into the middles leaving the plants to grow in a row that was mostly a mulch of tree bark and wood particles.
I was blessed to get what I was able to get because the whole garden was in a state of confusion. The squash thought it was supposed to produce watermelon and the peppers were so thick that they were fighting for space and nutrients to grow. The only things that grew like they should were the sunflowers. They took over the garden and grew to be about 6 to 8 feet tall, casting a shadow over the other plants so that they couldn’t even get enough light at times.
Does that tell you about my green thumb? It isn’t green. It’s more of a deep brown shade because I am not much of a gardener. Even fake plants are in trouble with me. I just don’t have the time or the desire to be a real farmer.
I was thinking about all that this morning when I ran across the passage in the Book of Luke where Jesus tells the Parable of the Sower.
Luke 8:5-8, "A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up with it, and choked it. And other fell on good ground, and sprang up, and bare fruit an hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear."
Some of you may be thinking that you already know where this message is going and you may be right. But it never hurts for us to look again at the lessons that Jesus taught. The Word of God is a living word and it can still speak to us right now.
In this parable it is easy to identify whom the “Sower” is. The Sower is God. He is the one who by His own mercy created the seed within us that desires to know Him. Jesus Christ went to the cross and died, then rose again, that we may have the gospel, the good news that we can be cleansed by the blood of Christ. The Holy Ghost leads us into all truth and helps the seed of the gospel to grow in our hearts until it produces faith that grows into a great life for Christ that produces fruit for the Kingdom of God.
We can look at this parable this morning and we will all see ourselves, and identify with something that is said about the seed and how it grows.
I know that all of you have been given the “seed”. You have heard the message of the gospel. You have responded to the call of God and you are here this morning, listening to this because you want that seed to grow into a mighty tree of faith.
How many are satisfied with the progress that they are making, or have made, in their walk with the Lord? Do you believe that you have become all that you can become in Christ? Is that seed in you life producing fruit that is pleasing to God?
As I look at the church today I can see that God’s garden really is producing some fruit but I also know that God expects so much more from all of us.
But like that little garden of mine, not all the seeds are growing, and not all the people are bringing forth the fruit that they are intended to produce.
There has been a lot of gospel preached in our church, and in our community. The Word of God has been taught in Sunday Schools and all kinds of meetings, preached from behind hundreds of pulpits, printed in tracts, in Bibles and in all sorts of literature. It has been distributed freely to all who wanted it and the seed of the gospel has been broadcast over radio and TV in Gonzales, Ascension Parish and this whole nation like no other nation on the face of the earth. We have had all the opportunity that God could give us to have the seed planted in our hearts.
Thank God for those who have received the seed but I still am concerned because there are so many that won’t allow it to grow.
Those who are hearing this message this morning, or who come to church and are serving the Lord, are not part of this number. You will fall into another category later on in the parable. It is those who hear the gospel but refuse to allow it to become a part of their lives that are described first.
They refuse to plow up the hard ground of their hearts. These folks would rather be hard-hearted and hardheaded than to break up the fallow ground of their hearts and allow the Word of God to have an effect in them.
On the day of judgment, they will have no excuse, for they had every opportunity to hear the gospel and be saved but they simply refused to hear it at all and allowed the devil to steal their only hope for salvation. Today, they give little or no thought to eternity. It never enters their mind that life will be over some day and that they will have to stand before God. They just go their merry way, to eat, drink and be happy, as though they didn’t have a care in the world. The devil knows how to blind those who will allow him to.
As I read the rest of the parable of the sower, I began to realize that it was talking about those who did receive the seed. These are folks that hear the gospel and allow it to enter their hearts, but from there we are all different.
First there is the one who receives the seed and accepts Christ, but it isn’t long until they are back in their old life of sin. Why does this happen?
They had to break up that fallow ground of their heart or they would never have received the seed in the first place. These dear folks will come to the altar, kneel before God, confess their sin and accept Jesus as their Savior, and for a short time they will attempt to serve Him. But something has to happen for that seed to keep growing. You just can’t put it in the ground, cover it up and then forget about it. Something has to happen to help it to grow.
If you have ever grown a garden you will know that you have to go back into that garden every once in a while and hoe up the rows, keep down the weeds, water it, fertilize it and tend to it. If you leave that seed alone for too long, it won’t be able to produce fruit.
In the life of a new convert there has to be something more done than just to lead them to Christ. We have to go back on a daily basis and break up that ground again and again. We have to get on our face before God every day and ask God to help us become what He wants us to become.
If we don’t stay on our face before God, continually confessing the sin our lives, it won’t be long before our hearts become hard again. Paul wrote these words to Timothy in
1 Timothy 4:1-2, "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;"
We say to ourselves, “It won’t hurt if I don’t read the Bible today, or if just miss this one time of prayer, or if I just miss church to watch TV this one time.” But the truth is that if we allow ourselves to accept any excuse one time, then the next time it just gets easier, and pretty soon we will allow any excuse to stop us from doing what we know is right.
That’s what the parable is talking about when Jesus says that the seed fell on rocks and died for lack of moisture. That seed of the gospel in each of us must be watered every day. How do we water it? We water it by prayer. We water it by gathering together with God’s people. We water it by encouraging and strengthening one another. We water it by hearing and reading the Word of God. The Word of God is referred to as though it was living water.
Ephesians 5:26 speaks about the Word of God and says that Jesus gives us His word, “that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word," In order for water to really cleanse and wash anything away, it must be moving, swirling about, and flowing.
You can throw a piece of dirty clothes in the washing machine and fill it with water, but if you don’t let the machine agitate the water and clothes together, the dirt won’t come out like it should.
The same is true with the Word of God. You can’t just read it, hear it and put it in your heart and then forget about it. You have to allow it to move you, to agitate you some and then the sin will be washed away and you will become a little more sanctified in your walk with the Lord. That’s when the seed is growing. But when the Word ceases to have an effect in your life, then the seed begins to die.
Too many people come to church and “zone out” when the message is being given. The Word of God enters in, but it is not allowed to have an effect so it does them no good.
But remember that the Word of God is a “Living Word” and Hebrews 4:12 says, "For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."
Even when we won’t allow it to work in us, the Word of God still accomplishes what it is meant to do. It will either cleanse us and change us by it’s power because we allow it to, or it will condemn and convict us, washing away every excuse and exposing our rebellious heart before God, and stand against us in judgment.
If we water the seed it will grow, but if we allow it to dry up, and not allow the roots of the gospel to grow ever deeper into our hearts, our lives and our spirit, then it will die and our eternal soul will die with it.
Jesus describes those who allowed the seen to die in their stony hearts in this way in Matthew 13:21, "Yet hath he not root in himself, but endureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended."
Isn’t that the way it is with those who don’t continually water that seed with reading, prayer and gathering together with God’s people? It doesn’t take long until the devil brings troubles into their lives, just like he does for all of us. We all have troubles in life. For those who love God and trust Him, those troubles only tend to make us grow in faith. But for those whose hearts are stony, the troubles cause them to doubt God and trust only in themselves, and sometimes to even blame God for their troubles.
They certainly won’t stand the test of faithfulness when confronted by the world for their belief in Jesus and His Word. Even if they try to put on a front of being a Christian, their words and attitudes always expose the fact that they are nothing more than a hypocrite. Then, when a true Christian tries to reach out to them, they get offended because their sin is exposed. They get mad because someone calls them a hypocrite and it only serves to drive them deeper into that stony condition.
Others of us may fall under the next category. This is the seed that fell among thorns and was choked to death while trying to fight for its source of life.
Jesus tells us plainly what the thorns are all about in Matthew 13:22, "He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful."
This describes the majority of the church in America today. In Revelation 3:14-19 Jesus speaks to the church of today, "And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth. Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked: I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent."
Most of those who are saved today will fall into this trap of the devil. Satan knows our hearts and desires. He knows what will push our buttons and what will be our greatest temptation so he caters to those desires and uses them against us to destroy the seed of the gospel in us.
If you look at Christians today, what do you see? Do you see people that are truly “on fire for God”; burning like torches and spreading the gospel to people everywhere they go? Are they excited about church, excited about the Word of God, excited about serving the Lord? I’m sorry that I just don’t see much of that at all. I see people that are just satisfied with being saved. There’s no zeal to reach the lost. There’s no passion to share their testimony. They aren’t “on fire”; they are just lukewarm and barely alive. They are part of the “Laodicean Church”.
Do you see Christians that are willing to forsake all to follow Jesus? When Jesus called His disciples, they left their nets, they left their places of collecting taxes, they left their jobs, their families and their comfortable lifestyles and homes, and followed Jesus wherever He would take them and never looked back.
I just don’t see that anymore. So few of those who call themselves disciples today are willing to forsake all to follow Jesus.
We don’t want to hear the Words of Christ in Matthew 16:24-26 where, "… Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
Matthew 10:37-39, "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it."
Matthew 19:29, "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name’s sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life."
What’s more important to the modern church and most Christians today? Is it that seed of the gospel in their hearts, or is it the lifestyle they want to enjoy? Are we willing to give up everything for Jesus, or do we want to hold on to the things of the world instead?
God may never tell you to give up everything to follow Him, but He does expect you to give up some things. God may never call you to go to a foreign field and forsake your family, your home and your lifestyle, but He does expect you to go into the fields and reap a harvest where you live and give up your dreams and desires and take up the cross and follow Him wherever He may lead you.
Somehow, I just don’t see many of the Laodicean Church going in the rapture and making Heaven their home because their treasures are here in this world and not in Heaven and where their treasure is, that’s where their hearts will be. And where their hearts are, is where their soul will stay. To stay fixed on the things of the world, rather than on the seed of the gospel means that we will be burned with the things of the world as well.
I hope that all of us here right now are in the final category. I want us to all be a part of that “good ground”.
You can always tell where the good ground is and who is allowing the seed of the gospel to take root and grow like it should. They are growing in Christ and it seems that every time you see them, you can see more of Jesus in them. Their attitudes are improving, their hearts are broken before God, they are hungry for more of the Word, they love to come to the House of God, they love to be around the People of God and they love to talk to others about the things of God and to tell others about Jesus.
These “On Fire” Christians aren’t hard to find. They stand out like a bright light in a dark room because that’s just what they are. They talk different, act different and are different from the world and the difference is glaring and obvious. No one needs to ask, “Are you a Christian?” They know in an instant because the love of God flows from them. No one needs to ask them, “Did you go to church Sunday?” If you get around them for a moment you will probably hear them talk about what happened at church. You won’t have to ask them if they read the Bible because every thing they say will be laced with quotes from God’s Word.
Which category do you fall under today? Are you allowing your heart to become more stony? If so, it’s time to break up that fallow ground and allow the Holy Ghost to plow your heart up once again so that the seed will grow in you. Get on your face before God and begin again. Jesus will wash you again and then you can get on the right track to become the good ground.
Are you allowing the thorns to choke out the seed? Are you more concerned about jobs, family, lands, having fun and the pleasures of life, than you are about serving the Lord faithfully? It’s your choice, so make the choice to be willing to give up everything and anything that Jesus requires of you so that you can be free to serve Him. Be willing, ready and able to go anywhere that the Spirit leads.
Are you on fire for God? Then pray for those who aren’t and hold them up before God. Keep on burning for God and let the Holy Ghost reap a harvest through you.
What kind of roots are growing from the seed in you? Are you growing in Christ? Take stock of where you are today and make sure that the roots of the gospel are finding a fertile place to grow in your heart.
