What Kind Of Soil Are You?

LUKE 8:4While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told 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. 6Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. 7Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. 8Still 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."

Some of you may be familiar with this passage of scripture....it is called the parable of the sower. I felt like I knew what this parable was about....those who would receive the word of God for their salvation and those who would not...but, I believe it applies to all of us as Christians today. Our churches are full of these 4 kinds of people, and it is a good gauge of where your heart and soul is to compare yourself with these 4 types of people.

Jesus was asked to explain this parable......often even His own disciples didn’t have a clue as to what He was talking about! Remember, He told them several times that He would be killed and resurrected, and it came as a complete shock to them whenever it finally happened. Aren’t you glad that we have God’s written Word with us today so that things are absolutely clear to us...no guessing! The mystery has been revealed, Praise God!

Let’s look at Jesus’s answer whenever His disciples wanted an answer.LUKE 8:9His disciples asked him what this parable meant. 10He 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.’ 11"This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. 12Those 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. 13Those 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.14The 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 mature15But 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.

Here are the 4 kinds of people Jesus was talking about...and the 4 kinds that we will talk about today. You need to figure out what category you fit in. First, Jesus said the seed is the word of God. It is absolutely essential that we understand that the Bible is our life instruction manual. We cannot figure out ANYTHING without this inspired Word that came straight from God Himself. So, we see that the seed is the Word.....and when you come to church, what the Pastor does is plant the seed....the Word within your heart.

I can’t tell you how important this is. This is why you MUST have a pastor or minister that preaches God’s Word...all of it...and if a preacher is using any other book than the Bible to base his sermons on, then you need to find a church where the Word is taught. I am not saying that it’s wrong to read other books...there are a lot of good, helpful books out there written by Christian authors. What I am saying is that the Bible is literally the inspired word of God and as we say here..."it don’t get no better than that!" The Purpose Driven Life may indeed be a very good book....(I haven’t read it, my wife has).... but it is NOT good enough for me to preach out of. And if I ever do, I would hope and pray that the deacons and elders of this church would call me on it! The Bible is taught here!

By the way, we also see why Jesus taught in parables here, don’t we? He tells us in vs 10 " ’though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ This is one of the things that makes me realize that Jesus wasn’t just talking about unsaved people, but Christians as well. Paul said that the Word of God is foolishness to the non-believer...so that means that Jesus expected us believers to know and understand this parable. The first type of person ta ht the seed falls on is....The seeds on the path.