Sermon Central
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Prepared For Abundance
Contributed by Stephen Funderburk on Feb 16, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: The four soils of life, hardness, shallowness, distraction and soil prepare for Christ
Intro: in reading the parable of the sower, the soil and the potential of the seed for harvest, a thought comes out of this story, no one wants to miss heaven, no one wants to fail God, everyone would love to realize their full potential in Christ. There is no problem with the seed, no failure in the promise for harvest, but bad soil cannot produce great harvest. Our hearts are where the seed is sown, and how we respond to the seed will determine our destiny in Christ. One amazing thought from the Word of God, the sower and the seed are one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and we beheld His glory.
Today, let’s look at 4 types of soil, and realize everyday we must make sure that the soil of our heart is made ready or we will never multiply our lives 30, 60 and 100 fold.
Prepared for Abundance
background: Jesus is the sower of the Word. This gospel will be preached into all the world. All of our lives must respond to this seed, either in a positive or negative way. No soil is left unsown. Jesus gives everyone the opportunity to respond in faith. The only way to get good results is good soil. We must all realize that everyday things in our lives will impact our soil. There is a soil of hardness, a soil of shallowness, a soil of distraction or a soil that is yielded to Christ.
1. Soil of Hardness–v.12–this is a sad scenario that is played out over and over again. People in this world do not realize that every day in this world without Christ, is one more day that your heart will become harder. The proof of this is that 85% of those who come to Jesus do it by the age of 18. The longer you walk as the prodigal, the harder it will be to make the trip home. This world is Anti-Christ, it works to develop hearts of stone. Jesus gives a picture that when the Word is sown into these people’s lives, that the Devil quickly comes and steals the seed away, and they walk away from Christ.
Sometimes even religion can harden the heart. Jesus marveled at how the religious leaders had become heartless in their dealing with people. They didn’t care that people were hurting and bound up. People get heart check ups for blockage or hardening of the arteries. Every day we must check our heart to make sure we are receptive of what God is speaking into our lives. Jesus said, they have eyes that don’t see, ears that don’t hear, and hearts that won’t receive, that is why they aren’t saved.
II. Soil of Shallowness–v.13 this is the modern day Christianity. People try to base their relationship with Christ on feeling and emotion, in times of trial or suffering they give up.
As one person said, I don’t care how high you jump, but that you walk straight when you land.
Jesus says this is the type of person who when the going gets tough, they get going. One translation uses the word offended. If I could name one of the real killers of harvest it is those who walk away from Christ because of an offense in their life.
We need to be careful not to be a mile wide and an inch deep in our walk with God. We need to move to the deeper things of the Word instead of spending all our time looking for some new revelation on how to avoid the cross. So many people use the Lord to be the fixer of all their problems, and when he allows problems to be faced, they retreat saying, I tried church but it didn’t do anything for me. There is a great truth in that statement, if your heart is unprepared it will not receive anything of value, if it is prepared how easy it becomes for God to speak into our lives.
III. Soil of Distraction–v.14 I guess living in America this is the most common of all soil. Even for those who are very earnest in their walk with Christ, this worldly, carnal, Godless system has multiple distractions offered to everyone.
Jesus puts it this way, some people will just get too busy for God. If you are too busy for God than you are just too busy.
As a pastor I have seen this occur over and over again. Someone comes to Jesus and their life begins to really be blessed of God. He takes them out of the pit and plants them on higher ground. But in time the blessing becomes more important than Christ. So other things take the place of Jesus. As a college professor I had said, “any thing between you and God is your idol.” Always remember, the harvest of sin is only one season, the harvest of Christ is for eternity. Why invest in something that is passing away. Solomon said, why spend your life chasing the wind.
