How Is Your Soil

When Watching the Krispy Kreme Donut machine, or as I like to call it the “Dream Machine.” I noticed something that made me very upset. At the end of the conveyer they were throwing away a bunch of the donuts.

First there is the dough plopper that makes the doughnut shape. But as I watched I was saddened by the fact that some of the time the dough comes out deformed, and those are then destined to be thrown away.

Next comes the fryer and as they go through the fryer they cook on one side, and then halfway through they are flipped over, again I observed that some of the those half cooked delicious pieces of dough did not flip over, and were then headed for the trash.

The last step in the process is the glaze, and it is just this beautiful river of glaze that pours over the donuts, but sometimes a donut is to far to the outside, and at other times a dry piece of glaze stops the flow in a certain area, and those donuts that had made it so far are then banished from the serving line.

Thankfully there are those that make it through this refining process and are served as the premium, perfect, and always delicious Krispy Kreme donuts.

I tell you about the life of a Krispy Kreme Donut because it is not to far from the life of a seed. The key element in a seeds life is the condition of the soil it is planted it.

Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23

1That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7Other seed feel among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. He who has ears let him hear.”

The question I want us to ask ourselves is how is our Soil? In the parable there is hard soil, rocky soil, weed infested soil, and good well kept soil.

I want to start with a sneak peak at the goal because know one starts any kind of worthwhile race of journey without a finish line in mind. In being good soil we will expect our seed to bears great fruit, the delicious Krispy Kreme donut. What is the Fruit of God’s Kingdom, what does he want more of? Now I cannot give that away yet, but just think about the fact that God is the creator of the world, and yet he wants us to be apart of producing some great fruit for Him. Amazing!

The first reason we may not be producing this fruit is because we are hard soil. In a field the soil gets hard when it is walked on many times. People usually do not become hard soil by choice. Many difficult situations seem to be putting them down. Until finally it seems that the world is out to get them, and their hearts become hard

“18Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed along the path.

These are the donuts that come out misshaped, and they did not do anything to cause it but they have had a raw deal from the beginning. Sometimes this snatching is because we do not understand how God could let some things happen, so we have decided to let the devil convince us that there is no God or that he is not very powerful.

Willy was a young man who had decided he was going to be an atheist when his prayers for his mothers healing feel on deaf ears. After his mothers death he felt there could be no God. He came to church camp and some seeds feel on that hard ground, he tried to understand what God wanted to do in his life, but he still could not deal with his mothers death leaving him with his alcohol prone father.

That is hard ground and Satan works to snatch away the seeds of the Gospel of hope like a bird, before they can take root.