Cultivating Readiness - The Parable of the Sower.
All I Needed I learned in Sunday School • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Good Morning, we are starting a New sermon Series on the Parables..
I have entitled the series
“All I Really Need to Know, I Learned in Sunday School.”
The title is a “Knock off” from Robert Fulghams book
All I Really Need to Know .. I Learned in Kindergarten--
It is interesting How he came up with this title..
Every year Fulghum made it his goal to write out a personal statement of Belief - a Credo…
When he was younger his statement ran into many pages -tying to cover every base, with no loose ends.. It read like a supreme court brief..
But as he got older the statement got shorter.. Until He realized He actually already knew what was necessary to live a meaning life..
When we think of the Parables - the first we time were most likely were exposed to them was in Sunday School…
What we find in the parables is a kind of simplicity …
There are life lessons like..
like... Be Kind to One another…
we can be like the Good Samaritan… who didNt ignore problems but he stopped helped the man that got hurt on the side of the road...
We can be wise…
Like the wise man who built his house upon the Rock — and when the storms of life came …. his house stood firm..
In the parable of the talents..We are taught that we ought to use Our gifts and talents — don’t bury them .. but use them to help others and make the world a better place..
What learn is that..
The Parable of Jesus are not just good for Sunday School lessons they are foundational for life....
In fact parables had profound impact first centuries of the church.
.. ONE of the most famous medical doctors in the second century was a guy called Galen —and he wrote around 140 AD.
He observed that-the first Christians built their faith on the Parables.. He wrote
the people called Christians drawing their faith from parables [and miracles] and yet sometimes acting in the same way [as those who philosophize]
What we learn is that..
Jesus was more than a simple Rabbi who taught simple lesson to simple fisherman.. Jesus emerges as an astute Theologian…
Out of all the teachings and philosophies of the world.. Jesus teaching still towers above them all.
what is intesting is that
Jesus primary method of teaching was through metaphors, similes, and parables -
Jesus knew that we might forget a lecture or a talk.. but it very seldom that we forget a good story…
This morning we are going to be looking at Parable of the Sower or some have called the Parable of the Soil....
Jesus is at the height of his public ministry -- he is on the shores of Galilee teaching--
Chapter 13 starts off..
Matthew 13:1 (ESV)
1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.
We need to stop at the phrase
“That same day” …because in chapter 12 we find all the things that happened on this particular day..
One that same day..
Jesus healed a man with a withered hand-
On that same day Jesus altercation with the Pharisees who accused Jesus disciple for working on the Sabbath…
That same day..Jesus delivered a sermon on Jonah and compared his generation to the evil generation of Nineveh..
On that same day...
Jesus left the House of Peter and Capernum and went shore line to teach —
We are told that it a great crowd had gather to hear him speak...
Luke tells that news of Jesus had spread and that people had travelled from surround cities and villages to hear Jesus teach...
It was a Large diverse crowd
There those who the religious .. the curious… … the undecided and then their were His followers..
The crowd was so large that people press into Jesus and he had to get into boat to teach—
Here----Jesus began to tell this story of The parable of the Sower...
JESUS TELLS OF a certain SOWER/ farmer...WHO went out to sow his seed.. He generously scatters his seed over his field... And in the process..
some OF THE SEED fell on the and beside the path —and the birds of the air came and devour the seed.
Then some OF THE ... seed fell on rocky places - this time the seed
IMMEDIATELY SPROUT but as soon the sun came OUT it scorched the seed and it died..
The sower continued to cast his seed.. and
THEN Other the seed fell among the thorns -
THE plant started to grow but then got thorns grew up and choked the plant..
Finally, some of the seed got to where it was intended on the the good soil -
And the Good seed fell on good soil
and produced a bumper harvest --- some produced a 100 fold, some 60, some 30 .
Then Jesus then …said ...-- let him who have ears let him hear...
This is arguably ONE OF JESUS greatest teaching moments … Jesus had a captive audience… andpJesus chose to teach in parables..
This stumped the disciples … They wondered why — Jesus chose chose h tell a story about — farmer sowing seed...
Jesus could have used logic and reasoned
… he could have clearly outlined the plan of salvation — He could have talked about his the Kingdom of God — he could have explained the role of the Messiah in saving Israel…
afterwards..
The disciples pull Jesus aside and ask a question private. Why Do you speak in Parables?
let’s read our txt..
10 Then the disciples came and said to him, “Why do you speak to them in parables?” 11 And he answered them, “To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 13 This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
THE DiSCIPLES ASK WHY PARABLES -
Jesus responds to that there were those in the crowd who had been granted to know the secrets of Kingdom and those who have not been granted…
SOME SEE THIS AS DOCTRINE OF ELECTION… but I believe what Jesus was getting at was the issue of Readiness …
There were some that were simply not ready to receive the message of the Kingdom…
Remember the long that Day Jesus had just had… He had experience huge resistance …they were not ready Hear the very words that would save them....
Jesus Highlights the problem …by Quoting the prophet Isaiah…
Who said that ... Israel was always hearing but never understanding.. always seeing but never perceiving…
What was at the Problem?
15 For this people’s heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.’
The heart of the Problem was the Problem of the Heart..
God is always willing to work with us… but at the same not everyone is ready…
Jesus did not teach in parables to confuse or condemn the people. Rather, He sought to excite their interest and arouse their curiosity....
Let me give you an example..
We have been using Home Chef meals to supplement a few meals at home..
Each meal comes with specific ingredients for each meal.. all you have do is follow the recipe your meal will turn out just fine…
When Jesus taught in parables..
It was like opening up your Home Chef box ....and instead of finding a recipe.. you find is a note.. that says…
Before you start.. think about the ingredients… don’t just throw them together.. figure out what meal you about to partake in.. It is going to take some time but in the end it will be worth it...
That’s How parable function… God always wants to reveal himself through his word… but we have to apply ourselves.
Jesus said If only they would Listen - they would have understood and heard and been healed..
Parables force us to go deeper..
Parables have two primary purposes: parables conceal and reveal.
T/s what we learn from the parable of the sower is how to cultivate a heart of readiness
A heart that is responsive to the word.. first we need to..
1 . Be Aware of the Condition of your Heart.
1 . Be Aware of the Condition of your Heart.
This past week we learned more about the Fires in Maui — … The fire happened so suddenly and within two hours the fire destroyed the town of … Lahaina … It is one of the most devastating fires in more than a century..
So far 111 people have lost their lives and over a 1000 people are still missing..
One the question of the Emergency response team — was..
Why they didn’t sound the Tsunami warning system?
They used the emergency texting system …
but not every one got the message.. The officials said that the reason ..
they didn’t use the Tsunami warning system is that …they believed people would evacuate to higher ground.. towards the fire..
Who knows.. in this kind of situation..
At the end of the day the Real issue was they were not prepared for this kind of fire...
This parable of the Sower is about preparedness.. …or the readiness of person heart to receive the seed of Gods word..
lets read our text. Where Jesus explains the parable..
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower.
19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom seed was sown beside the road.
Jesus explains the parable.. This time Jesus doesn’t begin with the word Behold - Which Kind of attention getting like listen… But now he says ..HEAR… Or understand what the Parable means..
The parable of the Sower is really a parable about the parables… It is about how we Receive the seed of God’s Word..
In the Hebrew culture the Heart represented inner most self.. it the seat of our thinking - it is center of our personality — The heart is where decisions are made.....
Jesus says Pay attention to the Soil…the heart of the matter is the matter of the heart..
The Problem is the seed of Gods word fell on the path of INDIFFERENCE…
Jame Edward
The greatest enemy of divine love and justice is not opposition, not even malice, but hardness of heart and indifference to divine grace, to which not even disciples of Jesus are immune.
James R. Edwards
Here is the thing.....
The problem with indifference is that deflects or resists truth...… what happens
the word of God can not take root…
In Africa every village has as series Paths they are interconnect … some paths go to the villages livestock - some go to their crops… and paths branch out to the market place or other villages. These Paths become well warn because they of the amount of traffic…
The heart is just like those paths… and the more walk on this those paths the more intrenched the y become..
walk on the path of failure.. disappoint…regret …blame..
The more we walk on
— these paths the harder the heart becomes .
And it begins to reflect in our attitudes or indifference.… an unreceptive attitude...
here is the problem..
When word is not received it gives opportunity for the Evil to steal..
To snatch away the very words of life…
We need to remember that Satan is a thief -- and opportunist and he will steal the benefits of the word..
I recently read about a family who were visiting San Francisco ..before they left for the airport… They decided to stop and get a bite to eat… They parked their car with all the luggage and travel documents … inside and went into the restaurant for a few minutes -when they got back they discovered that thieves broke in and took everything.. Can you imagine?
The Evil One is just like that ..He is a thief — And to steal the word of God and to keep people in darkness in regards to their understanding of the gospel -
Paul in 2 Cor 4. 5
2 Corinthians 4:4
the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
Application —
When we think about those he need the gospel.. Whether it is a friend of family member…
May be they are indifference.. and hardened but..
What is encouraging is the generosity of the Sower.. The sower kept on sowing on to path on the hard soil.. He sowing into the indifference.. The reason is that no body is out of reach of the life give seed of the Gospel..
We learn from the parable that we keep on sowing the Word, believing that the harvest will come…
We need to keep on praying for the right Soil..
T/s what we learn from the parable of the sower is how to cultivate a heart of readiness
A heart that is responsive to the word.. first we need to..
1 . Be Aware of the Condition of your Heart.
2. Don't settle for Substitutes (less)
2. Don't settle for Substitutes (less)
The story is told of a cow that grew bored with the fenced-in grazing fields. He thought to himself, “I’ve fed off this pasture my whole life.
I feel like a prisoner in this field … the grass sure does look greener on the other side.”
As he probed the fence, he discovered a place where he could finally get through.
With a hardy shove of his shoulder he was on the other side.
Once there, he came eye-to-eye with another cow.
“What brings you over here?” said the cow to his visitor. “I’ve come to try the grass on your side.”
“That’s funny. I was just on my way to try the grass on your side. The grass over here is artificial. It looks real pretty until you try to take a bite!”
Isn’t it true that it always seems that greener on the other side, AND THE TRAFFIC ALWAYS MOVES FASTER IN THE NEXT LANE.. the same in the grocery store...
We can spend our whole lives dreaming about the grass on the other side of the field and miss out what God has put right in front of us..
Jesus explains the parable..
20 The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy;
21 yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary, and when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away.
Jesus say seed sown on rocky places -
The stony ground was not ground littered with stones.. but rather where the bedrock came close to the surface… that meant that same seed had no depth of soil… There would have been a thin layer of soil but not enough to sustain growth..
THE ROCKY GROUND ..
Represents the person who hears the The word of God and responds AND immediately IS FILLED with Joy…
- There is this burst of Enthusiasm...
There is always a honeymoon in life…
There nothing wrong with Enthusiasm and excitement but it is not enough to sustain the spiritual life. …
Larry Osborne put it well — He said that
“it is easy to mistake enthusiasm for maturity” Larry Osborne
The issue with the rocky ground is shallowness.. When the sun came out it scorched the seed… because it had not depth..
… With out Faith that is rooted… the word “immediately” falls away…-
To fall away mens to - give up - to take offense… fall in to sin.. to cease believing
Application..
The problem with the Stoney ground is that
that there not enough depth.
We live in a world of substitutes and and supplements.... We can settle for faith that is an inch deep and a mile wide … The problem is that it doesn’t hold up to the pressures of life…
…
T/s How we prepare Our Hearts for life of Fruitfulness?
1 . Be Aware of the Condition of your Heart.
2. Don't settle for Substitutes (less)
3. Watch Out for the weeds
3. Watch Out for the weeds
A number years ago , there was a certain weed that was causing havock f here in Richvale
The weed, was called a winged primrose willow… Some of you will remember — but it was a yellow weed that stood out — a few feet in the fields..
The reason there was concern was
The seeds were tiny and prolific
The could easily travel through waterways, and. irrigation canals. And cause havoc with the Rice Harvest... Luckily the experimental station and others figured it out....
We have to watch out for weeds..
Matthew 13:22 (NASB 95)
22 And the one on whom seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
What is interesting about the parable of the sower is that is written with alterations… meaning that there repetition words.. In the parable the word Sower and Sowed seed is reaped several times … And the repetition gives us the picture of the motion of spreading of the seed into the field..
As the seed is being spread
it is cast so are these weeds.. The weeds are going to grow up with the seed and eventually choke the life out of the plant.
What are these weeds.
Jesus explains that weeds are things Riches, pleasures, and our anxieties -
The weeds are the things that competes with the seed…just like the the the things of life compete for our attention… the problem is over crowding —
When our lives are filled with the interests of this world, materialistic ambitions and worries… these cares can choke out our convictions for the kingdom.
often Materialism is tied to anxiety..
Jesus warned against worry in his sermon on the Mount.. Jesus said in..
.. Matthew 6.25
Matthew 6:25 (NASB 95)
25 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Jesus goes onto say look at the birds they don’t sow or reap or gather into barns but the Lord takes care of them… Are you not worth much more than they..
27 And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life?
Just look at nature and see how God cares of these things..
Jesus said rather than worry about tomorrow make the Kingdom God a priorities
.. Put God first and he will take care of the rest…
33 But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
T/S What Jesus was teaching.. we should
4. Invest in What really Matters.
Jesus taught this same lesson on the Mount on the Mount.… Mat 6.19-21
19 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal.
20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal;
21 for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Lastly the Good seed that sown into good Soil produce Fruit... This is the one that hears and understands the message..—and then allows the Word to accomplish its result in his life.
23 And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it; who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.”
The good soil represents the one who hears the Word and retains it. “Retains” pictures
chewing the Word up and swallowing it until it occupies a place in our hearts...
When God’s Word is deliberately internalized, it will be authentically externalized because it’s no longer what we do—
it’s part of who we are.
We told that good soil in ground produces abundant harvest...
Jesus that some 30, 60 and hundred fold..
Jesus’ used hyperbole exaggeration to helps him make his point
30 fold was astounding ..60 was unheard of, but a 100 fold was off the charts!
When we cultivate an attitude of Readiness… We position our lives for fruitfulness.
A life that expresses fruit of the spirt, Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control..
Conclusion -
How is the soil of your heart this morning? One of the litmus test of what is going on your heart are the things we say...
When the heart is right, our words will be right.
When our hearts are out of step with the Lord, our words will reveal that too.
—We could find our selves in one four places...
indifferent to Gods word..
lack depth of heat
We can find our world is
cluttered..
or we can be experience the abundance of his kingdom
The solution is to Hear the word…
A few years back, there was a new ringtone that children younger than 18 were using.
It was called the "Mosquito Tone."
The reason young people used it was because it was too high for people over the age of 25 to hear,
so these kids could text and call each other and any teacher, parent, or boss over 25 wouldn't know any better..
In the parable of the sower Jesus says …
Jesus said, ‘He who has ears, let him hear’, …
We need to take off the mosquito…tone to hear the word..
the word ‘hear’ has the full meaning of shamar in the Old Testament.
He was asking not only for hearing in the physical sense, but for acceptance of his word and follow it to it…
Let’s pray..