The Sower

Introduction

Gardening is hard work. The conditions and the timing have to be right. Good produce is encouraging and exciting, while bad produce is frustrating.

Gardening experiences

Planted Blueberries, Watermelon Vine choked it out. Vine grew tall, but didn’t produce any edible melons.

Planted Cucumbers…Took off and produced way more than we knew what to do with.

Planted Tomatoes...

Planted Bell Peppers...

Planted Jalapeños...

Attempted seeds with no success, but seeds thrown out in the yard produced cilantro and leaf lettuce...

God wants his word planted in our hearts and in our lives. He wants to produce incredible results in us, but are our hearts in the right place to receive His Word and to produce His righteousness in us?

1) God’s Word is Available! (vs. 3)

"Listen! A sower went out to sow.”

The terrain of Galilee is very complex. There are all different kinds of soil and elevations. It would not be uncommon for a landowner to cast seed over all parts of his property hoping that some would find good soil and produce a good crop.

Likewise, we live in a self-imposed complex world. God sees all that we are doing and all that we are involved in and He wants to get His Word into the lives of people.

God’s Word is all around us. We have unprecedented access to the Word of God.

Do we receive the Word of God?

Often times this parable is used to talk about those who are saved vs. those who are not. While there is certainly application for that, when it comes to the Gospel message, the basics of this parable is that the Word is sown and how the Word is received. Regardless of who we receive it, we know that the word is sown…

If you are listening to this message…you can never use the excuse…How was is supposed to know? The Word of God never came to me. When it comes to God’s Word…ignorance is no excuse. Ignorance is irresponsible, but it is no excuse.

2) Two Kinds of Hearers! (vs. 10-12)

Jesus quotes for us out of Isaiah 6. We need to understand that God is not intentionally leaving people out from understanding.

If we are not careful, we can have a mindset to think that God is intentionally leaving some people in the dark about understanding His Word…or we may put it this way… “God doesn’t want some people to understand.”

This is not the case. Remember, when we explore scripture there are three things we must always seek to look at: “Context, Context, Context.”

Isaiah 6 is God’s commissioning of Isaiah to be His prophet to the people of Israel. God tells Isaiah that He will give him the words to speak, but that he is going to be engaging a stiff-necked, hard-hearted and hard-headed people. He will not be well received by most, because most will not want to receive God’s Word. They like to be told what they want to hear, not what God’s wants them to hear.

Not much has changed...

The two kinds of hears are those who are open to hearing what God has to say, regardless of whether it is pleasing to them or not, and those who only want to hear what they approve of. If God’s Word doesn’t fit their mold, they don’t want it.

For us this morning, which camp have we parked our RV in? Do you really want to hear from God, regardless of your comfort, or do you only want to hear from God if it fits your mold or preference? This is the question, we need to ask ourselves every day!

3) Responding to God’s Word (vs. 14-20).

If you don’t want to respond to God’s Word then you are like the hardened path. The seed comes your way, but you don’t care to even let it break the surface.

It’s easy for us to put those who are hostile to the Word of God in this category, but in reality, we all have times when our hearts are hardened...

Haven’t you ever been driving down the road, scanning through stations, come across a preacher, something pops out to you in the short little sound bite, you pause, then think… “I don’t want to listen to preaching right now…I want some music…where’s my favorite country station?”

…OR… Haven’t you ever recieved your verse of the day notification, and just deleted the notification without looking at cause we don’t have time for that right now… I’m in a hurry… I never even broke the surface...

If you do want to respond to God’s Word, then you need to check the terrain and soil content of your heart.

Sometimes we can receive the Word of God into our minds, but it doesn’t make it very far.

This is like the seed that falls among the Rocky Soil.

We hear the Word, we know it hits home with us, we get excitement that we connect with God through His Word, and we have good intentions to let it sink in. We start applying it to our lives, but pretty quickly we are stretched out of our comfort zone. What we were excited about and had good intentions about becomes difficult. Social pressures are causing us to second guess our commitment to God’s Word, because it’s taking away from our already established socially acceptable routines. We’re feeling pressure from our co-workers, our friends, or just societal norms in general to back-off. Pretty soon, what we once considered exciting and made us ready to change our lives, falls by the wayside, withers, and is less than an after-thought.

Sometimes we receive the Word and we let it sink in and really take root and be big in our lives, but it doesn’t actually produce God’s Righteousness and Kingdom perspective in us.

This is like the seed that falls among the Thorns.

We hear the Word, we know it hits home with us, it takes root and become imbedded in our minds, but it never really produces a transformation in our lives. We let the Word sink in to our lives enough to retain the idea, but we get distracted from its true application because we let “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things” choke it out. We like the taste of the Word, but don’t let it nourish our lives. We don’t get our fulfillment and passion from God’s Word…we let worldly, and godless things give us purpose and temporary fulfillment. When we let ourselves get entangled by the cares of the busyness of our lives, then the Word stays rooted into our minds, but never produces the righteousness of God in our hearts.

Sometimes we receive the Word in a way that is rich and fertile.

This is like the seed that falls on Good Soil.

We hear the Word, we know it hits home with us, it takes root, it sinks in deep, and it produces fruitful righteousness in our lives. Our lives are never the same. We don’t the rocky pressure of society, and the thorns of worldly engagement affect the truth of God’s Word in us. God’s Word is supreme, and all other things fall under His authority. We still deal with all the challenges of life, but God’s Word navigates us through these challenges rather than letting the challenges of life drive how we receive God’s Word.

Getting the good soil takes work, time, and intentionality. But the hard work pays off. The fruit produces and ripens to develop within us all that we need for life and godliness. The Lord become our righteousness and no matter the situation or the circumstance we enjoy God’s presence through the application of His Word in our lives.

Closing

What about you this morning? Do you realize that God is continuously sowing His Word in your life? What kind of hearer are you this morning? What kind of hearer do you want to be tomorrow and the next day and the next day? Do you want to receive the Word or is your heart hardened and callous most if not all the time? If you do want to receive the Word, how are you cultivating your heart? Do you receive the Word, get excited about it, but let it whither when it impacts your comfort level? Do you receive it and let sink into your mind, but it never produces fruits of righteousness because all of the nutrients are sucked away by busyness and life? Or do you receive the Word and let it shape you, mold you, and produce God’s will and His righteous in your life?