The Shallow Soil

Rob Laukoter

Seeds of Change • Sermon • Submitted 4 years ago

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A look at Jesus' parable of the seed and the sower, in particular the seed that falls on shallow soil - our need to let the reality of Jesus and his love deep in our hearts.

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Transcript

Seeds of Change Initiative - goal to nurture a culture of flourishing church that makes disciples of Jesus

Sow seeds of surrender to nurture deeper commitment to Jesus as Lord in every area of lives and in church

Sow seeds of faith to nurture our desire to be disciples of Jesus who make disciples of Jesus

Sow seeds of love to nurture our conviction that we sent by Jesus into world to show and share his love

Finally, sow seeds of Gospel to more fully join this grand adventure (risk-taking!), God reconciling world to himself

Two weeks ago we talked about why we do that (story of Samaritan woman), what Jesus has done for us, because lives of other people matter, it nourishes us

Last week we started on how to sow seeds of Gospel - looking at Jesus’ parable of Seed & Sower in Matthew 13, looked particularly at seed that falls on hardened path

People whose hearts are hard, unreceptive to Gospel of Jesus

Challenged ourselves to be honest about our own hearts, how soft (or hard) they may be to Jesus

Sowing seeds of Gospel just begins with idea of connecting with others: Chat & Relate

This morning, look at second type of soil seed falls on, rocky soil

Prayer / Matthew 13:1-9, 18-21

Shallow Soil

We’re getting a lot of stories in news that would have been unimaginable just six months ago.

One recent story was the salon owner in Dallas, Texas who was arrested for continuing to operate her salon.

She was given warnings and opportunity by the judge to apologize and shut down.

Her response was, I can’t - I need to work to feed my children and so do my employees.

Can you imagine a business owner being arrested and jailed simply for continuing to run her business? I understand why she’s being punished, I’m just trying to point out how unbelievably circumstances have changed.

Here’s a woman who wants to be able to work and earn money needed to feed her families, and provide that opportunity for her employees.

Here are government and law officials who are trying to enforce rules to keep coronavirus from spreading.

Many of us are doing fine, thanks be to God, but for many, they are facing tremendous difficulties due to Covid-19.

There are parents trying to juggle working from home - or having to work outside home and providing schooling for their children…especially parents of special needs children who’ve been thrown out of their daily routine.

There are families who have been devastated by this virus - man in New Orleans who lost his mother and his three older brothers in a span of ten days.

Here’s where I think it’s going to be especially difficult for us, particularly for those of us in more developed nations, including the U.S. - I think as society we are ill equipped to handle this.

I don’t mean from political or scientific or economic basis - we have greater resources and ability to combat this than ever before. Point of comparison: Spanish flu epidemic of 1918, which also went global - estimates are that 500 million people contracted the disease, 25% of world population, with death rate of 10%, 50 million (much smaller global population).

I mean more from mental, emotional and I dare say, spiritual standpoint. We don’t suffer well. We don’t handle it well.

Listening to Justin Brierley (Unbelievable podcast), he was talking about the number of folks who have been shook up by this because it has made uncertainty and vulnerability of their lives so apparent (talking about atheists!)

one of illusions of modern age, about how much control we have over our lives

you can understand how we’ve fallen into this: there’s never been time like this in history, sheer amount of wealth and food and size and security of our homes, medical know-how…we have more, we’re better able to protect ourselves and be safe, better resources to manage problems

So when something like coronavirus comes along, it shakes us up - how do we stay safe? feed my family?

What do most people want out of life? We want to be happy. We want to have good life, one we can enjoy.

difficulties, trouble, have way of exposing what we’re relying on - and how secure it really is

Need for Depth

Brings us to Jesus’ parable - story of farmer sowing seeds that fall on four different types of soil

Today, we’re looking at seeds that fall on second soil - soil that looks good, but as it turns out, topsoil is shallow, underneath it’s rocky

In Jesus’ story, plant springs up quickly, but because the soil is shallow, it has no roots - so when sun gets too hot, plant withers and dies

Jesus explains that this refers to those who hear the Word, receive it with joy (they’re excited!)…but when trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fade away. Their joy - and their faith - wither.

Message puts it this way: This seed cast in the gravel, this is the person who hears and instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character, and so when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.

they move on to the next thing, looking for that excitement, burst of joy.

Here’s thing - seed that is sown is all same, it was good seed - it sprouted quickly, started growing

problem was not with seed, with Word of God, but with soil, heart of person who heard it, who received word.

According to another Bible, the Vegetable Gardener’s Bible, there’s solution to problem

Ironically, but fittingly, author uses acronym: WORD (Wide rows, organic methods, raised beds, deep soil)

Preach it, Edward C. Smith, preach it!

Here’s what master gardener Smith has learned: it’s all about loose soil. Wider and deeper your loose soil is, more your plants will grow and flourish. Because those roots have all room they need to spread.

Most simple garden tillers (ours included), go about 8” deep, he recommends going 18” deep with soil

Roots of carrots (yes, I know carrot is root), but it will go 3 feet deep if soil is loose enough

What’s this mean for us? Two things

If problem isn’t seed, the WORD, but with soil and how deep it goes, then one question we need to consider is what are we doing to cultivate soil of our hearts so roots can go deep. So it’s not just 2-3” or 8”, but 18”. So God’s word, his truth, his good news can flourish in deepest parts of our heart. So we don’t have superficial faith that withers when we endure difficult things.

Second - what this means for us as we sow seeds of Gospel - move along Spiritual Conversation Curve, go deeper

Let’s take a few minutes to talk about cultivating soil of our hearts, listen to words of Ephesians 3:14-19

Love this passage, it’s so rich and full!

Paul “kneeling before Father before whom every family in heaven and on earth is named” - Paul plays on Greek words here, word for Father is pater, for family is patria (first thought was “Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou” - I am paterfamilias)

Here’s what he’s saying: Every family comes from Father, we were all made by him and for him

God, Father, wants to pour all his glorious riches - his life / vitality, his goodness, his joy, his strength, his peace! - into our hearts, into our inner being.

God wants to dwell in our hearts, and he wants to go deep. That’s Paul’s prayer for us. Paul’s praying that we’d get rooted and grounded in God himself, in his love for us.

Another way of saying that is that he wants his Word, truth of who he is, that seed, to drop into soil of our hearts, sprout, take root within us.

And that those roots would just keep going deeper and deeper and spreading out more and more - as Paul puts it, that we would grasp, that we would understand how wide and how long and how high and how deep is Jesus’ love for us.

So that we could be filled with fullness of God! That’s what he wants for us, glorious riches that pour forth from God himself. His love and power and peace and joy in us.

Here’s problem - if soil is shallow, if just beneath surface it gets rock hard - when troubles or difficulties arise, then enthusiasm dwindles, emotions wear off and there is nothing to show for it.

But if we have cultivated soil of our hearts to understand more fully, to know God, to move to be face-to-face reality of God, then those truths will take root. They will not wither away because of difficulties or distractions.

Difficulties will come - they always do. In spite of how much we think we can control things, difficulties always come.

Life is hard, harder for some than others. But no one escapes pain or struggle or grief or loss or suffering.

Whether because of coronavirus pandemic or something else, we will all experience it.

Why it’s so necessary for us to take time and effort to cultivate our hearts to be receptive to God and his word - why Paul was on his knees praying for this.

We cannot develop deep roots on our own - but we can develop habits that prepare soil of our hearts in order for deep roots to grow.

Deep roots that will enable us to know, to experience riches of Father - his love and joy and peace - by experiencing Father himself, even in midst of persecution and difficulty.

We don’t want to be creatures of circumstance (that our sense of well being shifts with circumstances of our lives), we want to be creatures of conviction, rooted and grounded in God himself, so matter circumstances we can know joy and peace

This honestly is particular challenge for us today - because we have become surface level culture, topsoil only goes few inches.

Mentioned this last week, way of coping with sheer amount of information that comes at us...

We are Twitter world, we share thoughts 140 characters at time. News stories about someone posting on Twitter and then all responses to that twitter (grown up version of middle school gossip). And then I click on it and read it.

Our lives are inundated with constant distractions - TV is on, listening to music, checking out social media - one thing after next.

We get momentarily excited about lot of things…but it’s all momentary - then we move on, to next new thing to get excited about: to next bit of news, to next viral video, to next game we can watch, to next restaurant we can try

Sometimes that “thing” can even be faith in Jesus: camp or retreat high, motivated to start reading my Bible, begin praying more…quickly fades

Neil Postman saw this coming, he wrote back in 1985 (high school graduation) book called, “Amusing Ourselves to Death”. Consider word, amusement - muse means to think, reflect; amuse is negative, to not think, reflect. We are “not thinking ourselves to death”

John Mark Comer in his book, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry, writes that one of reasons we have hard time with nothing to distract us, with silence, is not just finding time & place of quiet, get away from all external chatter, but because of internal chatter - all thoughts and feelings that start running through our minds when there’s nothing to distract us. We don’t deal with that well. We don’t deal with our hearts well. They remain uncultivated.

Which often leaves us ill equipped to handle difficulty when it comes.

Last week I invited you to consider question honestly, how hard or soft is your heart toward God

This week, I want you to consider for moment where that space in your life is to truly be with God, face-to-face?

Where do you get away from noise and distraction and slow down enough to simply be with God, to hear him speak to you, to allow those seeds of God’s word to take deep root in your heart?

Part of that means willing to take good look at what may be hardening your heart to God?

???

Second question: What does this mean for us in terms of sowing seeds of the Gospel?

We’ve been talking in reference to tool called Spiritual Conversation Curve, way to consider spiritual conversations

Last week we began with addressing those who are unreceptive, seed falls on hardened path: Chat & Relate

This morning we’re considering those who are receptive, seed that falls on shallow soil, receive word with joy

Goal here is to nurture a deep faith in Jesus himself, want others to hear good news of Jesus so roots can grow, so they can be “rooted and established” in love of Jesus

Two great ways to do that (this is all with premise that we are investing in relationships with others)

Share: Talk about God’s work in our own lives

Great example of this is from story of Samaritan woman…come see a man who told me everything I ever did

If you take a look back at your life, you’ll often find that times you grew most, when power and faithfulness of God were most evident in your life, were during times of struggle and difficulty

Might be story of how you came to faith in Jesus or God helping you work through broken relationship

Here’s part of beauty of this: You don’t have to be able to recite Scripture or expound on theology of salvation, simply be friend who’s sharing story of experience of God’s presence and work in your life...

Seeds of Change lesson: Sharing Your Faith, walks you through process of these stories (three stories)

Second way to do this is Connect: Connect Jesus to daily life, how Jesus is relevant in our real-world lives

So many things you can touch on here: keep priorities - what’s most valuable in life, how we deal with hurts and wounds in our lives, how we should handle money, marriage relationships, our work, what genuine love looks like

So important, because this is one of areas that Gospel is easily dismissed, people cannot see why they might need God in their lives…might even believe he exists, but I’m fine on my own

Reality is, Jesus teaches us everything essential about life and how to live it - he is master teacher of life

When we connect Jesus to daily life in conversation with friend, we are sharing good news, sowing that seed of Gospel

Helping them to hear amazing truth that they have Father who longs to be reconnected so he can pour his glorious riches into their lives

Helping them to know Love of Jesus that is wider and longer and higher and deeper than they could ever hope for

That’s what we want people to know and trust, deep in their hearts!

Because times of difficulty hit us all. For a lot of people, that’s happening right now. What better gift could we give them than being rooted and established in love of Jesus.

Challenge

Your own heart work…how deep is soil of your heart? Where are you giving yourself time and space to be with God, to know him?

Go to www.lhm.org/learn and do lesson on Sharing Your Faith, really be helpful to think through process