Jump Start # 435

Luke 8:8 “And other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great. As He said these things, He would call out, ‘He who has ears to hear, let him hear.’”

  This is the final part of the parable of the sower. This is what the farmer was after. This is why he spent the time and money farming. He was after a harvest. Farmers live for the harvest. So does God.

  There is an interesting play on words in the text.

• V. 5 some fell BESIDE the road
• V. 6 some fell ON rocky soil
• V. 7 Some fell AMONG the thorns
• V. 8 Some fell INTO the good soil

  That’s the key—getting the seed INTO the good soil. Beside, on, and among, just didn’t get the job done. The seed belongs in the soil. That’s where things happen and where the plant begins its life.

 The soil is our hearts. In the explanation, Jesus tells us that the good soil, “these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.” The good soil is the good and honest hearts. Now, nearly everyone will say that they are good on the inside. It takes more than just saying that to be good. The good and honest heart is in relationship to the words that Jesus spoke. The heart is good because it receives Jesus’ words. It is honest because after listening, changes are made. An honest look within will show that a person isn’t right with God. They need forgiveness. They need to be molded by the master. They need help. Honesty and humbleness go together, especially here.

  Some hearts aren’t honest. They’re hard. There’s no changing them, no matter what is said, nor who says it. They are stubborn and thick between the ears. Why are they like that? They’ve chosen to be. Others are not like that. They quit deceiving themselves and have come to God realizing His way is the only way. They’ve quit trying to sit on the throne with God and make the rules. They realized that they’ve messed up things and they don’t have all the answers. God’s word in such a heart does remarkable things. It can take a selfish person who is addicted to substance and reform him and change him. God’s word is powerful. It can take a tightwad and turn him into a generous soul who is compassionate for others. God’s word is powerful. It can take a mean potty mouth and turn him into someone who is respectful, kind and whose words glorify God. God’s word is powerful.

  Why is it that God’s word can do that for some and others it can’t? It’s not the word, but it’s the condition of the heart. Anytime God’s word meets with good and honest hearts, great things will come about.

  The seed into the good soil produced. God’s word into an honest heart produces. There is a principle of farming and harvesting that is important to see here. A corn seed will only produce corn. If a guy plants corn with the hopes of getting tomatoes, he’ll be greatly disappointed. It won’t happen. Beans produce beans. This is not rocket science. God’s word, likewise, produces only one thing, a N.T. Christian. Nothing else. There’s no variety of Christians. There are no different flavors of Christians. There are no different kinds of Christians. To be a Christian means that you belong to Christ. You’ve believed and obeyed the Lord. All such believers belong to God and they are all disciples of Jesus. The good seed in the heart of someone living in India will make the same Christian as one who lives in England, or Atlanta, or, Nashville, or Southern Indiana, where I happen to live.

  Imagine three groups of people, living in three different places, say, England, Africa, and the U.S. They all play the game of Monopoly, the original one. They all go by the same rules, no deviations. It would be easy to think that the three groups are linked together somehow. The only connection they have is that they all happen to have an original game of Monopoly and they all are going by the rules.

  The same happens with God’s word. Replace the game of Monopoly with the Bible. Three groups—one in England, one in Africa, and one in the U.S. They all are following the Bible, and nothing else. No deviations. Although the languages may be different, the worship, practice and faith of all three groups will be the same. Why? They are all following the same standard, the Bible. Now, some will say that it is impossible to understand the Bible alike. Yet, somehow people could understand the rules of Monopoly.

  God’s word makes one thing, N.T. Christians. The little seed produces a crop a hundred times as much. We see that in nature. One corn seed will produce a corn stalk that may have several ears of corn. God’s word does the same. It produces N.T. Christians that will affect their families destiny forever. The good that can come from that first crop may be witnessed for many generations. That’s the power of God’s word.

  The parable of the sower is a great lesson about our hearts. It’s the good and honest that becomes what God wants. This is the kind of heart He wants you to have. Honesty often hurts. It hurts realizing that we have failed. It hurts realizing that we need help. It’s that honesty that will bring us back home to God where we belong.

  Good and honest…that’s what God’s looking for. Do you have such? You can. Spend time with God’s word and it will work on you and change you.

Roger

Jump Start # 434

Luke 8:7 “And other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it, and choked it out.”

  Our look at the parable of the sower continues. Today we notice the seed that fell among the thorns, a tough place for the seed to be and to grow. The seed germinated and a small plant started to grow. The thorns grew more quickly and it squeezed the little plant out, stealing the sun, the rain and the nutrients from the soil.

  Most of us can relate to weeds. You find them everywhere. Interesting thing about weeds, they grow. In the midst of a long drought, the yard can be burned up and dry, yet the weeds will spread. In the early spring the weeds are there. Late in the fall, you’ll find weeds. Even in rainy times, weeds grow. Have you ever noticed dandelions? One day you see three or four in your yard. In two days you’ll have a dozen. If you don’t move quick, you’ll have more dandelions than you will grass. That’s just the way weeds work.

  In the explanation of this passage Jesus tells us, “these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are chocked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.” Matthew says this, “this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word and it becomes unfruitful.”

  This is very revealing to us. This explains many things. The heart has only so much room. If something doesn’t fit, it simply won’t fit. Pressures of life can squeeze out the hope and faith we have in the Lord. It also reveals to us that worries and pleasures can grow fast, even faster than faith.

  Worry does that. You don’t need me to tell you that, you know. Worry tends to think the worst of things, not the best. Worry exaggerates things and gets things out of proportion. One writer said, “worry makes even a little dog seem big.” In the sermon on the mount Jesus addressed the subject of worry or being anxious. Worry closes our eyes to the how God has blessed us. Worry eats away at faith. The greater our faith, the less we worry. The more we worry, the less we believe. That’s just how it is. And we tend to worry about EVERYTHING—from the weather, the economy, the kids, the out come of a ballgame, our health, our bills, our jobs, and even the kitchen sink dripping through the night. And without realizing it, as we worry, we are feeding those thorns. They grow and grow, especially over night. We worry more, fear more, doubt more, and trust less. Worry takes over our day. It’s hard to concentrate at work because of worry. The thorns grow even more. Soon, we find ourselves worrying during worship. It’s hard to focus on prayer, because we are worrying. And the thorns grow. We find our minds not listening to the sermon, the power of God’s word, because worry has taken over. And the thorns grow. Worry makes us cranky, tired, and negative. And the thorns grow. If nothing is done, before long our little faith dies from a lack of sun, rain and nutrition. We don’t mean for this to happen, but it does.

  The same goes for pleasure and riches of the world. Materialism fills our hearts and minds. Buying and buying consumes us. We begin to define our worth by what we wear and what we drive. Impressing others, turning heads seems to fill more of our time than what we are on the inside. And with this, the thorn grows.

  We see this. We understand this. We know this. What’s to be done? What’s the answer? Pull weeds. That’s it—just pull those stubborn weeds. When you do that, your hands get dirty. Some weeds have deep roots and you have to dig them out. You’ll sweat some, that comes with weed pulling. Your hands get green. That’s part of it. When you’re done, your yard looks better and your heart looks better and your faith starts growing, once the weeds are gone.

  Spend time with the Lord. Learn Him. Know Him. Trust Him.

 I’ve found that every year new weeds come up. I can dig ‘em out, spray them, and get the yard looking nice—until the next year and I have to do it again. I think the same thing happens with our hearts. We can get rid of the weeds for now, but they have a way of coming back each season. Stay at it and after awhile the faith grows so much that it chokes the weeds out—just the opposite affect.

  The Lord sure knew what He was talking about, didn’t He.

Roger

Jump Start # 433

Luke 8:6 “And other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.”

  We continue our look at the parable of the sower, which is a look at hearts. Our passage today again shows what happens when seed is broadcast, or thrown out by hand. Some of the seed lands on places that are not conducive for growing. No farmer would intentionally plant in rocky soil.

  The image is not a few huge rocks in a field, but multiple small rocks everywhere. Too many to pick up. The field is rocky.

  In the explanation, Jesus said this, “And those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word, with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away”  (13).

  Although the results here are the same as in the first soil, the hard walked on road, there are some big differences. In the first soil (heart), the person heard but they never believed. Satan took away the word before it could generate faith. That’s not what we are reading here. In this verse, the rocky soil (heart), the person received the word with joy and became believers. This is the start that the sower looks for. A little sapling pokes it’s head up through the soil. Things are working exactly as they should. The sower rejoices. The believer rejoices. All looks good. It’s a great beginning. Each of us who walk with the Lord, started this way. The word was received in our hearts with great joy and we believed.

  The Romans were reminded, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God” (10:17).

  But something terrible happened. This little plant didn’t get taller and taller as it should. The sun beat down upon it, as Matthew’s gospel tells us, and because of all the rocks, the roots couldn’t grow. The hot days caused the little plant to dry up and it withered away. I’ve seen that very thing happen with yards. We lived in a place that had many huge rocks just a few inches below the surface. There was enough soil on top of the buried rocks to grow grass. In the extreme heat, dead spots would appear in the yard. When I dug into them, I found the layer of rock.

  There are three lessons I want to share from our withered little plant.

1. Satan is still around. The cause of trouble was “temptation.” That’s Satan’s department. He loves to tempt. Dangle the carrot of immorality, lust, pride or possessions before our eyes, and we can’t seem to look at anything else. This little guy started out fine. By receiving the word and believing the word, he had turned from Satan to Christ. His journey started. Satan wasn’t through with him yet. He returned. Our new Christian got confused, dismayed, disillusioned, disappointed and his faith died. Matthew’s gospel adds two other things here. He states, ‘afflictions and persecutions because of the word.’ That’s a different twist than temptations. Matthew paints a picture of a new Christian who comes home and is excited that he has come to the Lord, obeyed Him in baptism and is worshipping with a wonderful congregation. It’s awesome, expect for those at home who don’t share such joy and excitement. They start picking at his faith. They trash talk the church he belongs to. They mock the Bible. Pressure mounts. The ridicule accelerates until the new Christian crashes. Back to his old ways. Back to his old attitudes. Back to his lost condition. Satan wins. How sad.

2. This passage calls for all of us to have depth. Our faith must be strong and deep. Too much of what happens in many congregations is anything but depth. Shallow, mindless Bible classes where the same things are repeated over and over until everyone’s faith is set to autopilot. Shallow preaching that doesn’t stir the soul. Shallow leadership that is only concerned about the bank account. These things are shameful. Could we be partially at fault for the loss of new Christians? Have we not dug in and helped them grow. We’ve seen them baptized, and then we turn them loose on their own in open fields where they become the prey to wolves. Shame on us. Deepen the faith. Bible studies, fellowship and care is what is needed. Bible classes should be challenging. They ought to be taught to address all needs. Some need milk because they are new and that’s all they can handle. Others need depth, lots of depth. Jesus told the apostles to cast out into the deep and lower their nets. We need to do the same with our thinking and our faith. Classes that rival a masters level college class out to be taught. The Hebrew brethren were illustration of this passage when they were rebuked for not being teachers but needing milk. God’s word is a treasure hidden in the field. We must look for it, dig for it, sweat it out. Gone should be the days when we are spoon fed. Quit asking the preacher what something means, find it yourself!  He has everything you have—a Bible. Shallow minds fill pulpits. Shallow minds lead as shepherds. Is it any wonder, the congregation is shallow. Give us deep men and women!

3. Tough things happen to us. This little plant experienced the scorching sun. This little faith experienced temptation, affliction and persecution. Those things happen. They happen to Christians. They are not an indication of failure. They are not a sign that God no longer loves. These things call upon us to hang on to our faith, not give it up. Tough times call for tough faith. This little plant didn’t have it.

  Few things hurt more than to see you new Christian quit. Jesus is challenging the audience. Some would believe and follow. Among them, some would later quit. When Jesus stopped giving free meals, some left. When others didn’t like what Jesus said, they left. When they saw the Christ crucified most left.

  How about you? Where are you in this story? Got a young and new faith. Grow it. Know someone who is like that? Help them. Facing tough times, toughen up. Lowering your nets? Keep lowering them.

Roger