Changing Soils

Changing Soils

Week 1: Which Soil Am I on?

Big Idea: Jesus shared clearly in the parable of the soils that there is only one soil you want to be on. As Jesus followers, we want to be on the fruitful & good soil but honestly, we better identify with the thorns. We will look at how this isn’t just a “next best” option for life, but rather that the two soils are the difference between death and life for you and generations to come.

Scripture: Matthew 13:1-9 and Matthew 13:18-23

Introduction

America’s Got Talent has become a national sensation in our country. Tens of thousands of ordinary Americans send in auditions with the dream of being discovered as the next household name super star. While it’s fun to watch people of all ages amaze the audience and judges with their abilities to sing, dance, or swallow swords … there are always some cringe moments in every episode. This happens when someone with less than zero self awareness gets on stage in front of a television audience of millions and totally humiliates themself with an audition that is hard not to laugh at. Then Simon or Howie lower the bomb on an individual that wants nothing more than their approval. “That was terrible!” the judges exclaim… It’s painful to watch as the contestant’s facial expression shows it all. They are absolutely devastated and humiliated.

As horrifying as that scene is for someone, that’s not even the worst part. You realize in that moment that this person doesn’t have one true friend that could in love deliver a hard truth. “You’re not very good and if you go forward with this right now it’s NOT going to end well.”

You may be thinking, “What does any of this have to do with disciple making and more importantly what does it have to do with me?” Today we are going to explore a famous parable that Jesus shared that unfortunately reveals our own lack of self awareness that will result in way worse consequences than a thumbs down from Simon Cowell. The consequences for our misjudgment are quite a bit costlier and will impact our lives and those around us in this life and the one to come.

As you are turning in your Bible to Matthew 13, I’m excited to share that we are starting a new series today called Changing Soils.

Read Matthew 13:1-9

Main Teaching

Context is always key to understanding a passage. In this case it’s helpful to know….

- The idea behind the word parable, is “to throw alongside of.” It is a story thrown alongside the truth to help us learn it easier.

-This is one of multiple stories shared in this chapter known as the Kingdom Parables. Jesus is giving his audience a glimpse into how the Kingdom of God functions.

-Jesus spoke according to the agricultural customs of the day. Seed was scattered first and then it was plowed into the ground.

-In this parable, God is the farmer and the 4 soils represent the different responses people have when they hear and experience the gospel of the Kingdom. We can know this because this is one of the few parables where Jesus turns to his disciples and actually gives them his own explanation of what it all means. Wouldn’t it be insanely helpful if while you were reading the Bible, Jesus would sit in a chair next to you and explain all the parts you don’t understand? That’s exactly what we have here.

Read to Matthew 13:18-23.

From Jesus' own words here’s a simplified description of the four ways people respond to the gospel.

The Path = Not Interested. Some hear the amazing news of Jesus' sacrificial death for our sins and just don’t understand. We learn here in this case that the devil doesn’t sit passively by hoping that person doesn’t figure it out. He aggressively snatches the seed away so it’s out of sight and out of mind quickly. Can you think of anyone in your life who fits that description? Might that even be a part of your story in the past?

The Rocks = Too Shallow. Here the person appears to have received the good news. They often respond by praying a simple prayer and maybe even get their name embroidered on a Bible and check out some churches. Unfortunately, their new found joy doesn’t last when God doesn’t fix all of their life’s problems. When the storms come (and they always do) this person turns their blame on God and slides back into their old life. My guess is we’ve all seen this scenario play out many times as well. We’ve celebrated the new salvation of a friend but then painfully watched them return to their old life like their encounter with Jesus never happened.

The Thorns = Too Busy. Some people turn to Jesus and it’s not that they ever fully turn away, they just get so distracted by the stresses of life that they settle for only a fraction of the blessings God wanted to bring about in their life. He intended for them to have an orchard but they settled for having a shrub. The reason here is much more subtle than the rocks. They simply just got too busy. This can come in a lot of forms from a drive to make more money by working too many hours or falling for the rigorous schedule of kids competitive sports. This person hasn’t turned against God but their life doesn’t allow them to follow him fully. Jesus gave the thorny soil one other description…unfruitful.

Good Soil = Fruitful Jesus shares that some people respond to the gospel in such a way that it overflows from their lives onto others. This is dramatically different from the thorns or rocks in that dozens of people respond positively to the gospel because of this one person. There is a really good chance you are here today because you had someone who fits this description in your life at some point.

Books have been written on this passage alone breaking down the depth of Jesus' simple parable. In our remaining time I want to share with you just three simple observations that are pretty easy to understand but much harder to obey.

You want to be on the good fruitful soil.

Listen to the words Jesus uses to describe the person on the rocks. Shallow, scorched, withered, no root and they quickly fall away. We don’t set out at the beginning of our relationship with Christ hoping to be drifters who cry out to him when life is hard but ignore Him the rest of the time. That would be like standing on the altar at your wedding looking your soon to be spouse in the eye and vowing to love them for the next 6 months or your first argument.

The thorns are a bit trickier. We sometimes fool ourselves into treating business as a badge of honor to be proud of. If I’m busy then I must be successful and if I’m successful I must be important. Look at the words used to describe the thorns. Choked, worried, deceitful and unfruitful. It’s clear Jesus isn’t trying to get people to pick option three either. Here lies Bob, he was always busy and he really loved his stuff. You don’t want these words said about you at your funeral and honestly you don’t really want to live like that now.

Jesus sets up option 4 as the only positive option. He actually calls it the good soil. If you’re not convinced already let me prove it to you very simply. If 1 equals the path, 2 is the rocks, 3 is the thorns and 4 is the soil, indicate with your fingers which number soil do you want to be on ... Look around. Besides ________ (someone in the congregation) trying to be funny you’re all holding up a number 4. We want to live our lives on the good fruitful soil.

This leads to simple point number two.

The only description Jesus uses for the good soil is Multiplication.

Jesus says you can know you’re on good soil by seeing a large group of people that have chosen to come to Him because of you. Imagine how incredible heaven would be seeing dozens of lives whose eternities were changed because you introduced them to your Savior. Notice that Jesus goes into numerical detail for the life of someone on the good soil and they are big numbers not small.

Also notice what descriptions are not mentioned for someone who is living on the good soil. It doesn’t say you’re on the good soil if you read your Bible daily, attend church regularly or even serve and give generously. These are all good things and evidence that Jesus is alive in you but none of them are mentioned here.

Why does Jesus put such an emphasis on us passing on our faith into others? It’s really simple, He cares about your heart AND every person’s heart on the planet. One of the ways we reveal what we’re most passionate about is what we talk about.

Francis Chan gave this illustration years ago…

Imagine you were at a fancy restaurant and as the waiter handed you a menu and recommended you order the steak because it’s delicious. You might trust them but you also might question their motives. Do they just want me to order something expensive so they receive a bigger tip? You expect the waiter to recommend something so it doesn’t mean that much. What if a minute later you heard someone from the table to your right say a little too loudly, “Wow, this steak is amazing! It’s the best I’ve ever eaten in my life!” A moment later you heard someone to your left say, “I was a vegan but not anymore. This steak is changing how I look at life!” It’s now a no brainer, you know what you’re ordering.

When we talk excitedly about our Savior it reveals how much we love him. When others hear all of us share (not just the pastors/waiters) they take notice as well and long to discover what we have. Jesus is looking for partners to work with him in spreading His Name around the world.

We can say that’s not fair or disagree with Jesus’ description of the good soil. When it comes to our relationship with God we must come to grips that when you disagree, He’s the one that’s right and you’re wrong.

Some of you are already dangerous disciple makers that are multiplying your life into dozens of others who have become disciple makers as well and this passage is confirming not convicting. That’s awesome!

Unfortunately, the Church at large in North America is not doing so hot in this area. Here is my simple point number three.

Most Christians relate with being too busy than spiritually fruitful.

Several studies have reported that Americans' most popular answer to “How’s it going?” is “I’m busy.” A Harvard study did research on busyness and titled their findings ``The Humble Brag.” Sharing that we are busy is consciously or subconsciously trying to convey that WE are important. This might not be your issue but let’s just make sure. Ramsey solutions came up with 8 ways to know if you’re too busy. Do you connect with any of these?

You’re always trying to multitask. You’re exhausted and overwhelmed. You have to schedule things weeks in advance. You have a hard time focusing and enjoying the moment. You never take time off. You feel out of balance. You feel guilty a lot of the time. You’re filling your calendar with things you don’t even want to do Bonus: I don’t need the previous 8 indicators. I ALREADY know I’m TOO BUSY.

Are you on the list at all? Maybe a few times? Is this a pretty good description of your life as you know it? Now I want to take another quiz and this one might be a little painful as well but if we are going to grow then it’s necessary. Here are some basic realities of someone who is living on fruitful soil.

You spend daily time praying for the salvation and spiritual growth of friends/family. You regularly engage in spiritual conversations with people that don’t know God. You view your neighborhood, workplace and friendship groups as a mission field. You have led people in your life into a relationship with Jesus. You know how to share your testimony and do it frequently. You are discipling at least one person in their new faith at any given time. You have baptized someone you led into a relationship with Christ this past year. You have seen people you’ve discipled go on to disciple others.

My goal in all of this is not to make you feel guilty but to help us have an honest assessment of which soil we are actually on. This is way bigger than having a lack of awareness in our singing ability in front of a nationally televised audience. The reality is that the thorny soil is not something we can laugh off as just being a part of our culture, it’s much more dangerous than that.

In the book The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry the author shares that Michael Zigarelli from the Charleston Southern University of School of Business conducted a survey of over twenty thousand Christians across the globe about obstacles to spiritual growth. He identified busyness as a major distraction from spiritual life. Listen carefully to his hypothesis.

It may be the case that (1) Christians are assimilating to a culture of business, hurry and overload, which leads to (2) God becoming more marginalized in Christians lives, which leads to (3) a deteriorating relationship with God, which leads to (4) Christians becoming even more vulnerable to adopting secular assumptions about how to live, which leads to (5) more conformity to a culture of busyness, hurry and overload. And then the cycle begins again.

If you relate with being too busy over being spiritually fruitful then your life path is on a trajectory towards walking away from God and the ramifications of this are even greater when it comes to your kids.

Whereas, if you’re truly on the fruitful soil your life trajectory is towards a greater dependance on God AND rescuing others to do the same. Can you see the massive difference between the two? One leads to death and the other to life for you and many others.

I know you’re thinking, I’m too busy for this right now. Isn’t that the point?

Just imagine 3 weeks into the future right now and we’ve all gone on this journey together. What if we took these same short quizzes again and we scored much better. What if God used these next 3 weeks to set us on a pathway where He starts using us to lead others to Christ, baptize them and disciple them to reach others as well.

Imagine conversation after conversation in heaven hearing about how God used our obedience of living on the fruitful soils to impact the lives of others.