Thorny Ground - The Cares Of This World Series

The Parable of the Sower – 7

“Thorny Ground: The Cares of This World”

Luke 8:11-14

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity.”

So far we have learned, in this parable, that:

➢ God is the sower

➢ The Word of God is the seed

➢ We are the ground.

We have also talked about the power of the seed, the supernatural, dynamite power of the Word of God. Then we discovered that we don’t want to become wayside ground, which is the type of person who doesn’t really listen to the instruction of the Word. We don’t want to listen when God tries to lead by that still, small voice. We also discovered that we don’t want to be stony ground, which is the kind of person who is easily offended by affliction and persecution.

Today, we are going to talk about the thorny ground individual. Our text gives us a clear picture of what the thorny ground person is all about. Just like the stony ground person, the thorny ground person hears the Word. They know the power of the Word. They receive the Word, but because of the cares of this life, the Word gets choked out. The busyness and the stress of life overrides the promises found in the Word. It is easy to become overwhelmed by our problems and struggles. It is easy to get so caught up in the day-to-day busyness that we let it supersede the power of the Word. It is so easy to become this type of ground and hardly even realize it.

A Scripture comes to mind that we need to hold on to. Maybe you are stressed out at life, maybe your circumstances are overwhelming at this point. We need to take care of our ground, especially in these stressful times.

I know we live in a world full of sickness, a world full of grief, a world full of violence. We live in a world that is truly messed up. But there is hope, but the only hope is found in God’s Word. We cannot allow ourselves to grow full of care.

Paul tells us not to allow anything to cause us to be full of care or worry.

Philippians 4:6-7; “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. 7 And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

The word translated keep is a military term in the original Greek. It means to keep with a military guard. The word Christ in the Greek means anointed. Therefore, since we know from John 1:1 that Jesus and the Word are the same, we could paraphrase that verse this way:

➢ “The peace of God which passes all understanding shall keep, as a military guard, your hearts and minds through the anointed Word of God. (or through the seed)”

Seeing it that way makes it easier to apply to our own situations. I can now use the anointed Word of God as a military guard, to keep, or guard my mind and my heart. Remember, my heart is my ground. It may be difficult for me to keep my peace in times of trouble and tribulation, but the anointed Word acts like a military guard to keep my mind stayed on the Word and on the peace of God when trouble comes. We cannot allow the cares of this life to choke out that anointed Word.

John 16:33; “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” (KJV)

In the world we are going to have trouble and tribulation. There are going to be hurts in the world. There will be disappointments in the world and obviously there will be cares of life in this world, but Jesus encourages us by telling us that, yes, these things will come, but even through these things you can experience peace because of the anointed Word of God, but we have to be good ground. There is a perfect example found in Scripture of the stony ground person.