Are you wasting seed? Luke 8:1-18
Gladstone Baptist Church – 30/10/05 am
I love big machinery. I’m an engineer still at heart and I love to figure out how machines work. One of the fascinating areas of machinery I think is agricultural machines. Have you ever seen a combine harvestor working through a field of sugar cane? I mean – it drives along – you’ve got these great big screws on the front to pull in the cane, then the tops are lopped off and the cane sliced off at the bottom, The leaves are stripped off and then the juicy stalks are cut into pieces about 20cm in length. Then the cut cane is taken up a conveyor belt and thrown out into a truck that is driving next door. All that in one machine.
Another type of machine I am fascinated with is planting machines. You drive it along and it digs a trench, pops a seed in and sometimes some fertilizer in also, then covers it up. Some are even clever enough to plant a little seedling instead of a seed, or a whole potato instead of a seed. Talk about clever – How do people come up with such nifty inventions as these. It is all scientific now – a certain number of seeds go in a certain distance apart and they make sure the soil has all the nutrients that it needs to produce a great crop.
But that wasn’t always the way things were. These modern practices are a far cry from the days when a guy used to walk along, throwing seed around.
Tonight, I want to have a look at the parable of the Sower. I’m sure for most of you, you know this story, but have you really looked closely at the meaning behind it and the implications for us? That is what I want to do. I want to ask you tonight the question – are you wasting seed? You see, the seed in this parable represents the truth of God that is taught to people and the parable is all about what people choose to do with that truth. The parable was told to challenge people that they need to be fruitful with what they do with the truth they receive. The question is “Are you wasting God’s Truth?”
Let’s pray before we read through this familiar story.
Luke 8:1 After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; 3 Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.
4 While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable:[This passage actually forms a bit of a watershed in Jesus’ ministry. Up until this point he seemed to be doing more miracles than teaching, but from here on, Jesus’ attention seems to transfer to teaching. You see – Jesus had become a popular teacher and people were coming from everywhere to hear him. His focus now turned to weeding out the casual onlookers from those who were serious about finding out more about his teachings and so he begins to teach in parables. He told them this parable] 5 “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. 6 Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” [4 soils, 1 seed. 4 different results. Sowing seed was definitely nothing unusual to the people who had gathered around. In fact the results that Jesus explained were not unexpected either – I mean – they had enough experience to know that seed wasn’t going to last long on a path or on rocks and it was not going to thrive among weeds. I’m sure the people gathered wondered why Jesus was telling them something so obvious. What was the purpose of this little story? Surely there must be more to it? And so … ]
9 His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10 He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, ”
‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’
[Jesus was speaking in parables on purpose. Remember that he was moving into the phase of his ministry where he was trying to separate out the serious followers from the crowd looking for entertainment. So he says – I speak in parable so that although they see and hear, they don’t really understand. Literally – The parable is going to separate out the sheep from the goats. If you want to understand, you have to think a bit harder, you have to delve a bit deeper – I’m not going to spoon feed you! - But he did on this occasion! Jesus explained …]
11 “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12 Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. 13 Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. 14 The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life’s worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. 15 But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.
16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. 17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. 18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”
This parable is often called the Parable of the Sower, but actually should be called the parable of the 4 soils. Because the focus is on the response of the soils to the seed not what the sower does. You see, the sower is just throwing out the seed on the ground. To us it really doesn’t make sense that he is throwing it on rocky soil or on a path. Why would he waste it like that. But you’ve got to realise that in our day and age, we till and plow and prepare the soil before the planting. Then we plant the seed and then you cover it over again. In Jesus’ day, the practice of agriculture was not as scientific as it is today, there were no fertilizers or additional minerals available to get the pH or the nutrient level correct. No, they would scatter the seed and then come along with a hoe and hoe it into the ground. The path that is talked about is probably just a track compacted in the field from people walking on it. The rocky soil, may have looked all right, but have rock just under the surface. The weedy ground wasn’t necessarily full of weeds, the weeds grew up with the good seed and choked it. So the sower was just spreading the seed which Jesus identifies as the word of God - his truth, his gospel, his life giving message. The message goes out to all manner of people around about, but not all respond to it in a way that bears good fruit.
Jesus identifies 4 soils which all have a different response to the word of God that comes into their lives …
The first response is the path. The hear the word of God, but it doesn’t penetrate them at all. Their heart is HARD. What God has says, just sits on the surface, making NO IMPACT, bringing no conviction of Sin. Jesus says, the devil comes and takes the word from their heart so they can’t believe. People with hard hearts may be in this building now. They come to church because it is the thing to do. The come to church because their friends are here. But during the Sermon or the prayers, they are fiddling, thinking about what they are going to do when they leave here. The word of God hits them, but doesn’t soak in at all. They don’t follow God whole heartedly because they are hard.
The second response is the rocky ground. These people hear the word of God and take it in. They receive it as an impulse with joy and excitement, but there is no depth to them. They have SHALLOW hearts. They believe in what they hear – for a while, but when they are faced with a tough choice, they don’t have the roots to stand. Their faith WITHERS WHEN PUT UNDER PRESSURE. These are the sort of people, that come to church and show a lot of emotion in worship and seem really excited about the faith, but when they go to work and someone asks them whether they are a Christian, they deny it because they are scared to admit up to it in case they get teased. They are the sort of person that if something bad happens in their life, they ditch God and throw in their faith because they can’t believe God would allow bad things to happen to them. They don’t follow God whole heartedly because they are shallow and don’t understand.
The third response is the thorny ground. These people hear the word of God and take it in. It is growing nicely, but then weeds grow up around it and they suck away the nutrients from the soil. They shade the seedling and prevent it’s growth. What sort of hearts are these? They are DISTRACTED hearts. They believe, but their faith is stunted because they are distracted by other things in this world. Instead of making their relationship with God a priority – instead of reading God’s word and praying and coming to church, they choose instead to chase a promotion at work, to get absorbed by a hobby or a sporting pursuit. Their faith is SQUEEZED OUT BY OTHER CONCERNS OR INTERESTS. They focus more on the worries in their lives than on the God who can help them sort out their problems. They focus more on the pursuit of money, possessions and a comfortable life, than about the one who can provide them with an eternal life in a place where even the streets are made of gold. They don’t follow God whole heartedly because they are distracted.
The last response God talks about is the good soil. These people hear the word of God and take it in. It grows into a strong healthy plant and it bears fruit – 100 times what was sown originally. They have a PRODUCTIVE heart. This kind of person, hears. They seek to understand the mysteries of God and their faith grows to an extent that they are able to spread the word of God themselves. God’s truth has TRANSFORMED THEM AND THEY ARE BEARING FRUIT. They are bearing witness to God through their actions and by what they say.
Which soil does your lives represent? Do you have a
- Hard heart – what is said doesn’t get to first base. It doesn’t make an impact at all on you.
- A shallow heart – you don’t really have a strong faith – you are all froth and bubble, following the crowd, but not really having a relationship with God of your own.
- A Distracted heart – what is most important for you – is it God? Or do you spend all your time worrying about other things in this world?
- A Productive heart – the truth you hear is applied, it grows and it transforms you and it in turn bears much fruit.
Which soil does your heart look like. Circle it on your sheets now.
If you have circled a hard heart, you need to work to soften it – you need to PLOW it up, turn it over. How? By REPENTING. If you have a hard heart, you have been shutting God out for a long time. You need to say sorry for that and surrender yourself afresh to God. That is what repentance is – stopping walking down the road that leads away from God, turning around, and starting to walk towards God. Ask God to break up the hard surface of your heart. So if you have a hard heart, you need to turn it over, break it up you need to start afresh.
If you have a shallow heart, you need to PREPARE the ground. You need to first dig the rocks up. But that is not all, Rocky ground is renowned for having poor soil so you may need to then fertilize it and water it. SPEND TIME WITH GOD reading God’s word, developing a deep relationship with Him. Join a home group – get into reading about God and thinking about it – that’s what Meditation is. If you need to find some bible reading material, let me know, there is heaps of good stuff out there. Josh 1:8 “Do not let this Book of the Law depart from your mouth; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.” Meditate on God’s truth and allow it to transform you deeply.
If you have a distracted heart, you need to PROTECT your plants. Any gardener knows that when you plant new seedlings, you need to keep weeding the soil around it because the weeds love broken up and freshly turned soil. If you don’t want the weeds to grow up and choke God’s truth, you have to WEED OUT THE DISTRACTIONS. What does that mean in practice. It means that you need to set the right priorities and set appropriate boundaries. God has to be the first priority – not friends, not family, not work, not sport. It means that you can’t play football on Sunday mornings and expect to go to church too. Football is a distraction so get rid of it – weed it out of your life if it is taking you away from God. Some of you are workaholics – you are trying to climb that ladder to the top, but what it is meaning is that your work is dominating your life and squeezing out God, his church and the things he has for you – you don’t have time for a home group, you don’t have time to come to prayer meetings, you don’t have time to read your bible. What do you need to do, you may need to tell your boss that you can’t work over time. You may need to accept that you aren’t going to get that promotion, because you decide not to sell yourself out to the distractions of life. Hard decisions, but that’s what it takes. If we are honest, we would all admit that there are weeds in our life which are trying to pull us away from God. What are the biggest distractions you face today? Write them down on your handout. The nature of weeds are that if they aren’t pulled out, they’ll grow bigger and bigger and without you even knowing it, they will stunt your growth. Pull them out now before they do any more damage.
If you have a productive heart, BEAR FRUIT by LETTING YOUR LIGHT SHINE
What do I mean by this? Remember that Jesus here is beginning that part of his ministry where he is looking to sort out those with good hearts from those with bad hearts, but he is also looking for those who act on the truth they have received.
Look again at vs 16, he says …
16 “No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.
Once we have received God’s Word, it should transform us so we can BEAR WITNESS TO GOD. We are transformed so we can have an impact on other people. No one lights a lamp and hides it in a pottery jar or puts it under a mattress, - A light is meant to provide light to all those around about it. In the same way, God’s truth and the changes it makes in people’s lives is meant to be a light shining in the darkness. It is not to keep to ourselves, but it is to attract other people just like moths so they can be transformed just like we have.
17 For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
God’s truth, while it is hidden in parables by Jesus at this time, is not meant to stay hidden. It is meant to be SEEN BY OTHERS. It is meant to radically change lives and be a light to attract others. When we receive God’s word, we are meant to let it impact us and impact others. Can you name the last person that God used you to impact with his truth? You may have given them some hope. You may have encouraged them. You may have pointed them to Jesus. You may have showed them love. God’s word is meant to transform you so that you can impact others.
18 Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.”
Jesus closes his parable with a warning. BE CAREFUL HOW YOU LISTEN. Be careful!!! Because who ever accepts some of the message will be given more. But whoever rejects God’s truth, will have it all taken from him.
Everyone in this room tonight has heard some of God’s truth. What are you going to do with it.
You can be like the path with it’s hard heart and let it all just bounce off. You’ll walk out of this door and won’t even remember what I said tonight. If you do this, you are wasting seed.
You can be like the rocky soil with it’s shallow heart. You can say – yes, yes, that is good, I’ll do something about it, but tomorrow when things get tough, the truth you heard tonight will just shrivel up and die. If you do this, you are wasting seed.
You can be like the weedy ground with its distracted heart. You can walk out of here with the right intentions, but when the busyness of life kicks in at 8:00am tomorrow you won’t have time for God. If you allow this, you are wasting seed.
Or you can be like the good ground and take God’s truth and the lessons it has – you can apply what you’ve learnt. You can go home and plow up some of the hard parts of your life by repenting to God. You can prepare the soil, dig up the rocks and fertilize the ground by spending time meditating this week on God’s word. You can pull up some of the weeds that will threaten to Choke out God. Do this and God will transform you and make you a bright light shining for his glory – you will be producing seed.
What are you going to do with the truth you’ve heard. Jesus says, if you hear it, but reject it, then God will take it away from you and ultimately reject you. If you receive it and allow it to grow, it will multiply and God will use you to bring a great harvest in other people’s lives. What do you want to be, wasting seed or producing seed. The choice is yours.
