Your Soil...god's Soil?

YOUR SOIL…GOD’S SOIL?

Let us read a well-known parable taken from

Luke 8:5-15

A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the wayside; 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 bear fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, what might this parable be? And he said, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear; then cometh the devil, and taketh away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.

So, in this parable it says that the sower sowed his seed and it fell in all different kinds of soils. When we look at this, we need to understand that the seed spoke about here is the ‘Word of God’. We need to take every opportunity to understand the word of God, to hear it, to listen to it, to look for it, to study it, to start reading the bible.

Most people do not want to go to ‘church’, or even hear about Jesus, now why is that, is it not because we as Christians criticise, judge the word given, the pastor giving it? We moan about how the sermon was or speak out against the pastor instead of asking what I can take from this sermon today and apply it into my life. Do not look at me like that, each one of us is guilty of this, the church will never grow until people’s hearts change, until they HUNGAR and WANT the WORD OF GOD.

The next part that we can take from this is that Jesus is saying ‘all of this is given to every type of person, it is never withheld, it is given again and again in every possible way’. So, what motivates us to be receptive?

I mean everyone has the capacity to become good soil. It requires our assent, our willingness to co-operate with the word of God. Just like there are different types of soil, there are different types of people.

So, what type of soil are you?

I want to speak about your soil today, even you are a leader, a pastor with a ministry of your own, I would like to know how is your soil? Is it prepared?

The first soil that we are going to look at, is the seed that fell on the hard-packed path between the fields, the seed never sinks into the soil and the devil, represented in the parable by birds that gobble up the seed before it has any effect. Now these people are the unbelievers who hear and have closed minds, they are unteachable, unreceptive, the words just bounce of them, their hearts are not open.

Zechariah 7:12

Yea, they made their hearts as an adamant stone, lest they should hear the law, and the words which the LORD of hosts hath sent in his spirit by the former prophets: therefore came a great wrath from the LORD of hosts.

Soon the devil takes the truth away, their opportunity will be stolen.

The second soil that we are going to look at is where some of the seed fell on rocky places, there is just enough soil for a seed to take hold, has a early growth when the soil is moist however dries up when the summer heat comes, the little plant looks lovely, beautiful green leaves, maybe a flower or two yet it has no roots, no system underneath in the ground, the rock has stopped its growth and it dies.

These people hear the message with great joy and excitement but there it ends; they seem happy to hear about Jesus, but it does not sink into their hearts. They express great enthusiasm yet no heart behind it. Remember that there were great crowds who followed Jesus however only a few were His true disciples. When these people face pressure or find themselves in a difficult situation, they quickly forgot God’s word.