Parable of the Sower

Introduction

Today we get to step into a section of Jesus’ ministry that is rather exciting - the parables of Jesus. Jesus regularly taught in parables, but there are three times where He teaches parables one right after another. These groupings of parables appear at three different times throughout Jesus’ ministry, and since we are going through the life of Christ as chronologically as we can, we will go through the parables in these groupings as we get to them. So when you see this title graphic, you will know that we are studying on of Jesus’ Parables. But before we get into these parables, it is important that we understand what a parable is.

What Is a Parable?

The word “parable” comes from the Greek word paraballo meaning “I place beside” in order to compare. Therefore, a parable is a narrative describing ordinary events placed next to an implied spiritual narrative for the purpose of illustrating the spiritual meaning. Others have well explained parables as being “earthly stories with heavenly meanings.”

Why Parables?

Another thing that we need to understand is why Jesus spoke in parables. About 1/3 of His discourses recorded in the Bible are parables. But why exactly did Jesus resort to teaching in parables? That is a good question and one that we should be seeking the answer for. And this answer is not hard to find.

Matthew 13:10–17 KJV 1900

10 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 11 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 12 For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. 13 Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15 For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. 16 But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. 17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

The reason that Jesus spoke in parables was to enlighten those true disciples and to confuse the one who were hostile toward Him or had not inclination to truly follow Jesus. It was to reveal to His followers the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is why before many parables, you will read that Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like...” But it is also a way to conceal the mysteries from those who had no interest in it.

This is a defense mechanism for Jesus, on that He thought out and executed carefully. Remember, the Scribes and Pharisees are looking for Jesus to trip up and say something that will be grievous enough to kill Him. With these parables, Jesus gives some truths about the kingdom of God, the behavior of disciples, and differences between true disciples and those who only claim to know God. So, because His time is not come yet to die, then Jesus must act safely, teaching by using parables.

But then, there is the other reason - that parables would be able to be understood by the disciples of Jesus, but mere curios and casual followers, who had not placed their faith in Him, would not be able to understand. Jesus is making clear lines between those individuals that are saved and those that are not, and one of the ways that He does it is by pointing out the ability and desire to understand His teachings, specifically His parables.

It is important to note that there are a great number of things, not only in Jesus’ teachings, but throughout the Bible, that can only be understood spiritually. If a person is spiritually dead, they will not be able to understand them. If a person is spiritually immature, there will be things that they will not understand either, but as they grow in their walk with Christ, the Holy Spirit will begin to open their understanding.

Paul confirms this in 1 Corinthians 2:14-3:3

1 Corinthians 2:14–3:3 KJV 1900

14 But the natural man [the unsaved person] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him [think of the time when Jesus used the example of the Temple. When He said, “I will destroy this temple (speaking of His bodily death) and in three days I will rebuild it (His resurrection) and the Pharisees thought he was literally speaking of the Temple. They believed Jesus to be crazy!: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. [They are discerned through the spirit. Those without Christ are spiritually dead, so their spirit cannot discern these things. Those who are saved have been “quickened in the spirit,” their spirit has been made alive and they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God who teaches us and guides us in all things.] 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. 1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. 3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

Being spiritually immature hinders our understanding of the Bible. Maturity is gained through obedience. It is gained, not through knowledge, but through righteous experience. Every time you obey the Lord, you gain experiential knowledge of Jesus and His character, His law, and His purpose for you. That is what following Jesus is all about. As you grow in Him, you will be able to understand more about Him and His teachings.

John MacArthur said this about the parables:

While the parables do illustrate and clarify truth for those with ears to hear, they have precisely the opposite effect on those who oppose and reject Christ. The symbolism hides the truth from anyone without the discipline or desire to seek out Christ’s meaning. That’s why Jesus adopted that style of teaching. It was a divine judgment against those who met His teaching with scorn, unbelief, or apathy.

The parables that we will see will often be reflected in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, though there are some parables that are recorded only in one or two of the books. John does not record any proper parables in his gospel. We will not always look at all three versions of the parables when we study them, though the passages for all records of the same parable will be listed in the transcripts of these messages, accessible on our website.

With that, we come to our first major grouping of parables taught by our Lord.

Matthew gives us the setting in Matthew 13:1-2

Matthew 13:1–2 KJV 1900

1 The same day went Jesus out of the house, and sat by the sea side. [First off, let’s talk about “that same day” briefly. This has been an eventful day. Jesus healed the demon-possessed blind and mute man, he rebuked the Pharisees for blaspheming the Holy Spirit, he gets invited to breakfast by another Pharisee and rebukes the Pharisees and Scribes again, his family have come to quiet Him down, Jesus gives the parable of the man who planned to build his barns bigger to hold the great yield of crops he had that season, then he answers the question about tragedy and God’s judgment and still, there are yet hours in the day. And still, multitudes are following Him everywhere.] 2 And great multitudes were gathered together unto him, so that he went into a ship, and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

Jesus goes out to the Sea of Galilee, and before he begins to teach again, He boards a boat and from the boat, teaches the multitude that is standing on the shore listening.

The Parable of the Sower

Jesus then begins to tell a parable. The parable of the sower is found in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, but we will primarily be looking at the book of Matthew today.

Matthew 13:3–9 KJV 1900

3 And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; 4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: 5 Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: 6 And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them: 8 But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. 9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

The story of this parable is pretty straightforward, as all the parables were. Seeing someone go to their field and seed it was something that was common. It could be that there by the shore, the audience could look back and possibly see a sower going out to spread seed in his field.

This is a simple story. There is a man who goes to sow seed in his field. Now fields in first-century Israel were long, narrow strips marked off and surrounded by footpaths. They were not normally hedged or fenced in. The method of sowing seed in that time was different that what we would be used to seeing. Typically, the sower would take a handful of seed from a bag and cast it out evenly over a wide swath of ground. This method of dispersing the seed had the advantage that it could cover large areas of ground very evenly, especially for an experienced sower. The goal was to seed every part of the field evenly all the way up to, and including the corners, and not letting seeds go to waste by letting it fall in concentrated patches or piles. No margins around the perimeter were to be left unseeded.

Now, if you are going to be throwing seed in an arc and your goal is to not leave any area unseeded, then when you get to the corners and edges, some of the seed scattered will not stay within the boundaries of the field. Some of the seed would find the footpaths or even the hardened road, others would land in areas unprepared for agricultural growth.

So, this is exactly what happens in this parable. The seed finds its way onto four different types of ground.

Four Types of Soil

Roadside Soil

This kind of seed would never have a chance to sprout. It would be trampled and crushed. and what was left of it would be eaten by birds. The roadside soil would have been almost as hard as concrete with centuries of passing travelers either on foot or riding carriages or animals. Putting extra seed on this kind of ground does not help it to grow. This ground is incapable of growing fruit-producing plants.

Stony Soil

This is probably not the image that you are thinking of right now. This is not soil that has rocks mixed into it. No, no self-respecting farmer would leave these kinds of rocks in his field after he prepared it for seeding. As he plowed, any rocks that came up he would get rid of.

No, this soil is soil that looks good, but eight or ten inches under the topsoil, just under where the plow could reach, was a layer of hard rock. It would be invisible to the farmer, but after he had seeded that area, it would be evident. Seeds in that kind of soil will sprout pretty quickly, but because the soil cannot hold much moisture and because the roots of the plant are not able to go very dee to extract nutrients, the plant will wither away on a hot and dry day just as fast as if sprang up.

Can you imagine being the farmer of a field like this? You’ve plowed and removed rocks, and prepared the soil to grow seed, and at first, it seems like it will be a success, but then, on the first hot day, everything dies. A farmer would have known what the issue was, but not until after the seed was planted.

Weed-infested Soil

The third category is this weed-infested soil. In that region, there were 16 very common thorny weeds and bushes that were common. These thorns and thistles grew easily, but they are useless for agriculture. To give you an image of how badly these types of weeds could choke out crops, think of this - there are reports of thistles that grew so thick and tall that even horses had difficulty getting through them. And it’s not like the farmer would purposefully cast his seeds into the weeds. No, the picture that we must have is that there were areas where weeds and thorns had once grown. The farmer would have tilled that area and removed as much of those weeds and thorny plants as possible. He would have then plowed it, and then sown seed there.

On the surface, the soil looked ready to receive seed and grow, but underneath there is a harsh reality. The noxious weeds had left little seeds and roots still under the soil, alive and ready to spring up again. These weeds would spring up faster than the good crops, and they would suck up all the moisture and nutrients for themselves and block sunlight from reaching the crops. Thus, it would choke out every other thing growing there.

Fertile Soil

Lastly, there is the fertile soil. Seed landing here would be able to germinate well and its roots would reach deep. This soil is clean, free from weeds, roomy enough for the crop to give abundant yield. This crop would yield tenfold, which was a decent yield, other crops in this type of soil might yield 30 or 60-fold, which would be very good. And yet other crops may even yield a hundred fold, and this was considered a very special blessing from the Lord. By ten, 30, 60, and 100 fold we mean not how many seeds were gotten back, but how much money invested in seed was recovered.

So, if a farmer spent $10 dollars on seed and got 10 fold back, he would have sold the harvest for $100. But had he had a crop that yielded enough for 100-fold profit, then he would have $1000 for every 10 dollars spend on the seed.

Jesus ends this parable with this very important phrase: Matthew 13:9

Matthew 13:9 KJV 1900

9 Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.

This indicates that there is more to the story than meets the eye, or, the ear, in this case. There are some subtle points we need to notice.

As Jesus tells the story, a few things become clear.

First, nothing is said about the sower or his skill. There is only one sower in this story. The difference between the seed that bears 100-fold and the seed that gets devoured has nothing to do with the sower or the method that he uses to cast the seed.

Secondly, nothing is said about the quality of the seed. It is all from the same source. The seed that grows fruitful is the same kind and quality of seed that gets choked out by weeds.

What we do notice is that the teaching is all about the soil. The difference that made some seed flourish and others not is all in the soil.

Ears to Hear

This parable needs explaining to further understand. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

And with this phrase, Jesus indicates who it will be that will end up understanding the parable and who will not. After he teaches this parable, look at what Mark tells us that the disciples do. Mark 4:10

Mark 4:10 KJV 1900

10 And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable.

The disciples and those that stuck around asked Jesus about the parable. THEY were the ones that had ears to hear. See how Jesus is making a distinction now in who He reveals truth to and to whom He does not?

He is not bringing people into certain secret places and teaching them. No, in fact, He is out in the public, in the fields, on the shores teaching to multitudes. But now, those that truly are hungry for His words as opposed to those that are only hungry for His miracles actually follow up with Jesus and say, “Hey, so earlier you mentioned something about a sower and his field. Sounds like a pretty basic story, but you made it seem like there was more to it than just the story of Farmer Greg doing his farmer chores. What exactly did that story mean?”

Everyone in that crowd could have asked, they could have joined in one voice and cried out to know what Jesus meant, but only a few did.

And Jesus responds to them this way. Mark 4:11

Mark 4:11 KJV 1900

11 And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:

To you, those that have ears to hear, those that seek out the truth, I am going to reveal the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven. But to those that are outside, those that do not join me in seeking fellowship with me and my words, they will just hear the parable and not understand it.

For over half of His ministry, Jesus has used very few parables and has spoken very directly about things to crowds of people that have varying interests in the truth. From now on, however, Jesus is going to lean heavily on parables, especially when talking about the Kingdom of God and being a kingdom citizen. “You want to know what I’m talking about?” Jesus is saying, “Then you better pay attention and start asking the right questions.” No more of this passively receiving the truth. It is now time to listen intently, to seek the truth, and seek to understand it.

What is Jesus doing with these parables? He is uncovering the mysteries of the Old Testament that had been shrouded in symbolism and prophetic hints. He is subtly unveiling the truth, but only to those eager to hear truth.

The Parable Explained

Jesus gets asked what He means by that parable, and He begins to explain it.

Matthew 13:18–23 KJV 1900

18 Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. 19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side. 20 But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it; 21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the word, by and by he is offended. 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. 23 But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

The seed is the word of God, specifically, the word of the kingdom. The Gospel message. It is perfect and of the highest quality.

The sower is not specifically identified. Some say that it represents Christ, and while that is true to the extent that He preached the message of the Kingdom during His ministry, Jesus is not the only person who does that. The sower, therefore, is anyone at anytime that shares the gospel.

A note about the sower, he made an effort to sow into every corner and edge of his field. He was not concerned if some of his seed would take or not, he just knew that as a farmer, as a sower, he needed to spread the Gospel as evenly as he could onto his field.

The point of the parable is about the soi, however. The soil represents the human heart. This parable highlights four different types of soil to represent differing levels of receptiveness to the message of the Gospel.

The Wayside Hearer

This is the person who loves sin so much that they have made their hearts dense and unreceptive to the truth. The gospel cannot possibly penetrate the rocklike environment. This is not the atheist, it is a person who has heard from God so much in various ways but has hardened their own heart to the message. They have refused it for so long that it has no effect on them whatsoever. In the Bible we read of people who, as Jeremiah says (19:15), “Have stiffened their neck that they might not hear [God’s] words.”

Men like this are the ones that stoned Stephen for preaching the gospel. Stephen called them stiff-necked men who resisted the Holy Spirit.

Their hearts are so constantly traversed by the traffic of sin and rebellion that they have become hardened to the truth. Again, Jesus is not speaking of atheists. He is talking to a group of highly religious people in a highly religious culture. These were the ones with the hardest of hearts.

There is probably more hope for the salvation message to be heard and for the Holy Spirit to make a difference in an atheist’s heart than there is in the heart of someone who for decades has bought into the lie of self-righteous religiosity.

And what do we know about these hardened hearts based on the parable? They are at the mercy of the evil one. Satan just comes in an snatches the truth away. Pride, stubbornness, prejudice, and various sins divert the mind away from God’s truth, effectively catching away the Gospel message from a persons conscience after a short while.

The Shallow Hearer

This soil looks great, but it is spread thinly over a layer of rock. This is the shallow-hearted person that responds immediately to the gospel, but only superficially. Everything looks good, for a while. Without substantial roots (Jesus said in verse 21, “He has no root in himself), the plant cannot live long, however. When the heat of trials come, they whither away. He lasts for a little while until it starts to get uncomfortable to be a Christian.

These people seem receptive; they show interest in Jesus. They may seem very enthusiastic and emotional about the church and about God. But they do not have authentic faith.

Each person who responds positively to God’s word will face times of trial. Those without true faith will fall away. They will abandon the faith altogether. Those that have faith will abide with Jesus. Those that do are called disciples.

John 8:31 KJV 1900

31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;

Those who respond superficially and not in their heart may do so for some selfish motivation - thinking Jesus will fix their problems, believing that Jesus will make them wealthy or healthy. Perhaps worship makes them feel good, having a sense of belonging in a church is just what they need. These are not the reasons for following Jesus. This is not the right response to the Gospel. The Gospel deals with our sin on a deep level. Those that only have a superficial belief will experience, for a little while, some growth, but it is neither spiritual, nor is it permanent, nor is it fruit yielding growth.

They depart from the faith. 1 John 2:19 describes what happens to these individuals.

1 John 2:19 KJV 1900

19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

This talking of those that have departed a faith. And by the way, this is not talking about people changing churches. This is not talking about Christians leaving a spiritually abusive church and following the Lord’s leading to another church. Nor is it about members that leave a good church simply because of the fact that God wanted them somewhere else.

I am tired of hearing pastors and preachers use this verse to guilt people for leaving, or to turn a congregation against a person that has left said church. Departing an abusive church or a church that does not preach the sound gospel is not departing the faith.

So if you ever heard that said about you or about somebody else for that reason, whoever told you, lied to you.

And now back to our regularly scheduled program...

The Worldly Hearer

This is represented in the third kind of soil - the weed infested soil. This heart is too preoccupied with worldly matters. This person will seem to respond positively at first. There is evidence that they are walking the Christian walk. It looks like they have the potential to be fruitful, however, they have not let go of everything to follow Christ.

The worldly hearer of the Gospel holds deeply to a love of this world.

Yes, at first, this soil seems to be the perfect soil for a seed to grow. But underneath there lie remnants of sin and of the world.

Look how Jesus puts it. Matthew 13:22

Matthew 13:22 KJV 1900

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.

The cares of this world. The deceitfulness of the world’s focus on riches and materialism cause the word to be choked out and they become unfruitful.

This is not an unreceptive heart, nor is it a shallow heart with emotionally led responses. This soil has been plowed thoroughly, but this heart has not given up its impurities. Though at the surface it looks like they have gotten rid of it all, in their hearts they hold onto the seeds of sin that will grow fast. God’s word is a foreigner in this kind of heart. Weeds and thorns own that heart.

This is the person that is still in love with the world. They maintain a focus on having the pleasure of this life. The values of this world muffle God’s word so that when it looks like they are about to give fruit, the ugly truth of where they stand rears its head and cuts out any possibility of fruit.

This is the person who is trying to serve two masters -God and the world; God and themselves; God and riches/pleasure/ambition/ you name it.

This person will not bring forth fruit.

What fruit are we talking about? It will include the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. It includes all the fruit of righteousness which we have by Christ to God’s glory, as stated in Philippians 1:11. A truly believing heart will have fruit of thanksgiving and worship from their lips as it says in Hebrews 13:15 “15 By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name.”

And fruit also appears in the fact that we lead others to Christ.

And this is the kind of fruit that the next type of heart will have.

The Fruitful Hearer

This heart produces the desired crop. This is a truly prepared heart. It is the person that hears God’s word and understands it. Mark says that these people are the ones that receive it. This heart is ready and waiting for the word.

And it gives fruit.

And you know what? It gives fruit having gone through the same sun that beat down on the shallow, rocky soil. It endured the same rains, wind, and scorching summers, and yet, it endured because the truth had taken root. There was nothing there to choke out God’s word. They have true faith that is seen in their endurance of tribulations and their turning from the philosophies of this world.

They don’t bring out the fruit themselves, this is a work done by the Holy Spirit within them. But we must meekly receive the word that is implanted within us, as James 1:21 tells us.

I’ll close with this. King Solomon, son of King David of Israel, had a wicked son named Rehoboam. The Bible tells us in 2 Chronicles that Rehoboam did evil because he had not prepared his heart to seek the Lord. God split the kingdom of Israel in Rehoboam’s day. Eventually, the southern kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah, ended up hardening their hearts against God.

God sent them prophet after prophet, but they would not listen. Their hearts were not prepared to listen to what God had to say to them. So God sent the prophet Jeremiah. To the inhabitants of Judah, through the voice of Jeremiah, God said this: Jeremiah 4:3

Jeremiah 4:3 KJV 1900

3 For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and Jerusalem, Break up your fallow ground, and sow not among thorns.

The context of this verse is clearly commanding them to prepare their hearts to hear the word of God and receive it.

I wish I could say that that is what happened, but they hardened their hearts even more. God had to send the Babylonian Empire to destroy Jerusalem and everything that they held dear. The Jews spent 70 years in captivity before they were able to go back and rebuild. This was a turning point for Israel. But it could have been avoided.

This is the call for us today. Break up your fallow ground. Get the thorns out, roots and all. Don’t hold onto anything.

Invitation

I’m going to have Tahsha come and begin playing something on the piano. This is the moment that we call the invitation. This is a time where you get to respond to whatever God has spoken to you about. What kind of soil is your heart? There may be some kids, teens, or even adults that are here, but your hearts are unreceptive. You’re here because somebody made you be here. You came because you got guilted into it, but you have no interest in being here or hearing God’s word. That’s a wayside hearer.

And you might say, “Mike, I thought only unsaved people were wayside hearers.” And when it comes to the Gospel and the message of salvation, that is true. But I believe that there can be, and that there are hard-hearted Christians, shallow Christians, and worldly Christians. i don’t think that they will be that way forever. I believe that one of two things will happen:

They will either break up that fallow ground, or eventually, God’s going to take them out. Lot was a believer in the Lord. According to the Bible his soul was righteous before the Lord, and it is apparent that it was not because he was a good person. He was not. He lived in sin. But Lot was a hard hearted and worldly believer. And everyday he suffered for it. This man tried to live for the pleasures of this world in the most vile of places, so much so that God got him out of there, tried to give him a wake up call by allowing him to become a prisoner of war, and when Lot was rescued by his uncle, what did he do? He went right back to Sodom.

But Lot was miserable. The sin vexed his soul daily, the Bible says.

So yeah, I believe that there can be hard hearted, worldly, and shallow Christians. But I also believe that they will never be anything more than miserable until they prepare their hearts to receive God’s word and be fruitful.

What is your heart like today?

I’ll ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes. I’m going to ask some questions so that I know how to better pray for you, but I do not want to embarrass you. If you’ve been here any length of time you will know that I am not interested in calling out your name or making it known that you raised your hand, but I do want to know how to pray for you later.

My first question is for the Christians - those that know that they are saved, that have put their faith and trust in Jesus Christ for their salvation and for the forgiveness of sins.

“How is your heart today?”

Would you say, “Mike, if I’m honest, my heart is hard or is getting hard. There is sin in my life that has hardened my heart, there is pride in my heart that has made it unreceptive to what God has to say. But today, by God’s grace, I am going to start breaking up that ground.” Is there anyone like that?

Is there anyone that would say, “Mike, my faith is shallow, it is not deep. When troubles come and things get hard or uncomfortable, I give up, I quit, I through in the towel. Would you pray for me, because today, I am going to ask God to start deepening my faith?”

if this is you, know this, there is no better way to deepen your faith than through obedience. Find an area in which you are not being obedient to the Lord, then start following Him. Do it purposefully. But whatever you do, don’t go at it alone. You have a church. Talk to someone. Be accountable to someone.

Maybe this morning you would say, “Mike, if I am honest, I am constantly trying to serve two masters. I serve God, but there is sin I am hanging onto; or, there is a goal I am pursuing and am not willing to give up. I am driven, not by loving obedience to the Lord, but by ambition. I act one way here at church, but I have totally different behavior and interests outside this place and away from the church.”

Is there anyone like that? Listen, if that is you, you need to start doing some weed pulling, because God says that those things will choke out your ability to be fruitful, to be useful for the Lord.

Listen, if God has spoken to you about these things, will you deal with it during this time. Every single one of us needs to have the prayer that David had in his heart when he wrote Psalm 51:10 “10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; And renew a right spirit within me.”

We must approach God with trust and submission and allow Him to do the necessary work in our hearts. It will be God’s work, but you and I must willingly submit. Break up your fallow ground.

Life Groups

What, if anything stood out to you from the sermon? Any questions or comments?

1. How many of y’all have gardens? What is your favorite thing to plant? If you had a garden, what would you want to grow?

2. What makes stories or word pictures easier to remember than just a plain teaching?

3. Why do you think Jesus chose such an everyday picture (planting seeds) to tell a spiritual truth?

4. In Matthew 13, Jesus talks about four soils. Which soil do you think is most common in our world today? How about in churches?

5. Jesus says the seed is the Word of God. Why do you think the same seed produces such different results?

6. According to 1 Corinthians 2:14, some things are only understood spiritually. What does that teach us about the role of the Holy Spirit in understanding Scripture?

7. Have you ever felt like the shallow soil—excited at first but then discouraged when things got hard?

8. What “weeds” (distractions, worries, pleasures, busyness) sometimes compete for your attention and choke out God’s Word?

9. What is one way you can “break up the fallow ground” in your heart this week (Jer. 4:3)?

10. Jesus said, “He who has ears, let him hear.” What is one step you can take this week to not just hear God’s Word, but act on it?

11. How can we help each other keep our hearts fertile for God’s Word?