The Sower Series

“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.