Cultivating Good Soil 04: Pulling Our Weeds 01

I. INTRODUCTION

A. Review of Series

B. Today’s Soil: The 3rd Soil

1. Description of Soil

a) “Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.”

b) This is deceptive soil. It looks good, looks clean, looks ready but down in the soil lie the roots of weeds ready to spring to life again. Hey, we’ve all weeded the garden, right? And the worst thing that could happen is you break the weed off at the top cause you know it’s coming back stronger than ever. You’ve got to get the whole thing out

c) Good seed and dormant weeds competing together, not good for the seed. The weeds squeeze out the life of the good seed. That was a very familiar situation. The thorn roots, or the weed roots restrict the good seed, drink its moisture, veil its sunlight and the good seed either dies or is unable to get enough nutrients to bring forth fr uit.

2. Explanation of Soil

a) " And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. " ().

b) What do we see in this explanation? What we see is that the good seed, the word of God, has competition for the attention of the person. This person is what the Bible calls “double-minded.” This is the person who wants salvation, wants Christ, wants the Kingdom but wants the world and wants riches and wants things. He wants the best of what both worlds have to offer. But what ends up happening is that the distractions of this age and the deceitfulness of riches occupy the heart, God’s word cannot bring forth fruit unless those weeds are radically removed by the root.

c) If there is a soil that I would say I most often fall into or that I have observed God’s people falling into, this is the one. Being in this world, we can become so preoccupied by what this world offers. All of the great and shiny things… and when that happens, we are not living in a Christ-like way. This is because the Gospel calls us away from the worries of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the burning desire for other things. The disciple is to cut ties with this world in the sense that we see that this life IS NOT what we are living for. This is a battle that we face every day trying to living as disciples in this country.

II. EXAMPLE OF THIS SOIL: THE RICH YOUNG RULER ()

A. Whenever we think of one who is the soil that Jesus describes here, the first person that comes to mind in the context of the Gospels is the rich young ruler. I think many of us at times can be like this man if we are not careful.

B. From the looks of things, when he comes to Jesus, he has many of good things going for him.

1. HE WAS A RELIGIOUS MAN. When Jesus told him what he needed to do to inherit eternal life: " 'DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER' " (v19), he answered by saying that he had been practicing these things since his youth. He had been taught the word of God and trained to obey it in these areas. Obviously he wasn't perfect at it. If you would have asked him, he probably would have said such, just as the majority of people would. But he was trying to do what was right. But in spite of this, there was still something missing. We are not told why he came to Jesus, but it seems to me that it was because he felt that there was still something missing in his life. There was still something that seemed to be missing to him. He still did not know if he had eternal life, and he wanted the answer to what he needed to do.

2. HE WAS EAGER. It is encouraging to see how he approaches Jesus. He didn't just walk up to Jesus. He ran up to Jesus. He wanted an answer to his question, and he wanted it quickly…

3. HE ALSO DISPLAYED SOME HUMILITY BEFORE JESUS. He knew that he did not have the answer to the question he asked Jesus, so he came to the One who he believed would have the answer. And when he got to Jesus, verse 17 tells us that the rich young ruler fell before Jesus. This would have been unusual with the difference in social status and dress between him and Jesus. Here the rich and powerful man falling down before the poor and lowly.

4. HE WAS YOUNG. He may have many years to work on all of these things. Just think, if he had risen to the position where he is at so early in his life, this man shows a lot of promise of being able to grow in all of these things and being a great servant of God.

5. HE WAS RICH AND HAD INFLUENCE. He had a lot of resources to use for the kingdom if he would dedicate it to the Lord, and because he was wealthy, many may have looked up to him at that time. He could have used his influence for kingdom work.

C. I think it is safe to say that if we met this young man, we would see him as a great candidate for the kingdom. He is a religious young man who could have made a difference in the kingdom. I think he would fit in pretty well amongst the people of God today.

D. BUT HE MISSED EVERYTHING!

1. He had some major issues and sin that got in the way of this happening. When Jesus says that this young man only lacked one thing, it may be easy to be tempted to think that this man was "pretty close" to being kingdom material. This one thing that kept him from choosing to follow Christ was a big thing. Surgery was required. He had to cut away his stuff.

2. His allegiances are divided, but in a sense, not divided. He was trying to serve both God and wealth, but was failing. The "one thing" he was missing was that he was an idolater. He loved his wealth and his possessions more than he loved God, and no matter how much he obeyed the other commandments, he could not make up for His idolatry. He was in serving his stuff while wearing the "I am a religious person" mask.

III. Examining Ourselves

A. This is one of those passages in which we can try to get ourselves as far away from it as possible. We can be quick to point out that Jesus is not talking to us or that he does not expect this of every disciple… I believe there is an application of this verse to us, but if you disagree, there is another passage we can point to…

B. Listen to the words of Jesus from :

1. "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions, and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with moneybags that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" ()

2. If we can find a way to say Jesus’ command to the rich young ruler does not apply to us, this one is a lot harder to escape. Jesus gives this to his disciples and to the multitudes he was preaching to about kingdom living. In this context, Jesus is trying to point our focus to the kingdom that God has added us to. This life is not what we are living for! Earlier in this passage, in , Jesus says, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions…” Then Jesus gives the parable of the rich fool to show how foolish a heart given to storing up our possessions is. He was filling his barns to make sure he would be able to take it easy for years to come… focusing on his own comfort and security in this life’s things… not knowing that that very night he would be standing before God in judgment… Where is our focus? Which life are we living for?

3. The ultimate test for us to challenge ourselves with to see if our possessions are choking the word out of our lives and leading us to be unfruitful is to consider the words of Jesus when he says in this passage to sell possessions and to serve others with the money God has given us. Would you do this if your brother or sister was in need?

a) The early church did… They took this instruction of Jesus to heart. Being part of God’s kingdom changed the way they viewed their stuff. Their stuff was not just theirs, it was now at the disposal of the Lord. If it needed to be sold for the good of God’s kingdom, they were willing to do it.

b) And it wasn’t just the first century church… this practice continued into the 2nd and 3rd centuries.

(1) This was an area where they took seriously Jesus’ instruction to cut off something if it is causing you to be tempted or sin. Clement warned Christians at his time, “wealth can single-handedly puff up and corrupt the souls of those who possess it and turn them from the path of salvation.” He also says that wealth is “a weight that ought to be removed and taken away as though it were a dangerous and deadly disease.

(2) Cyprian, another early church leader, said, “A blind love of one’s own property has deceived many. How could they be prepared for, or comfortable with, departing this earth when their wealth fettered them like a chain.” Cyprian says this as one who was known for selling his property as a disciple in order to serve others with the proceeds…

(3) These men understood the scriptures that show us how dangerous wealth is to our souls; how it can corrupt us and tear our focus away from the word of God and putting it on the world.

IV. CONCLUSION

A. This is a challenging topic because it has become common to think that being discontent and materialism are virtues in our society. It is the American way! We desire so many things, and since we have the resources to get what we want, we make sure we fulfill all our desires. And if we do not have the resources, we can use our credit cards and put ourselves heavily in debt to get whatever we want. And after we get what we want, we tend to waste so much time devoting ourselves and our time to our possessions…

1. And there is a danger here not only for our souls, but also for our children. We as parents need to make sure that we are not training our kids to be covetous and materialistic by our own examples.

B. May it be the case that we are guilty way too often of being covetous and materialistic? Do these passages and quotes make us feel uncomfortable or to immediately try to find a way to say that they don’t apply to us? If so, we may be the third soil… the soil of the thorns… It may be that our “religion” is just a mask that covers up our lives that are idolatrous towards our stuff, just as it was with the rich young ruler.

C. Our Lord Jesus said, 26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

1. What is it that you own that you are willing to forfeit your soul over?