Parables Pt 1

to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13.

Matthew, chapter 13.

I don't know how your Bible, if you have a study Bible, I don't know how your Bible heads this, but my Bible heads this, Jesus teaches in parables. And so that's what we're about to move into. As we come into chapter 13, the entire chapter is filled with parables. And so I've entitled, the series we'll go through here in chapter 13, Parables, because I'm creative like that.

And so this is part one of the parables series. And we'll be looking today at the parable of the sower. Now, because this whole thing kind of flows pretty well together, we understand exactly what was taking place in Matthew chapter 12, as Jesus squared off against the religious leaders. And really the ultimate thing that took place in that chapter is that we saw the religious community in general reject Jesus.

That rejection will become ultimate and final when they crucify him, but they have begun to turn their back on Jesus and say, he's not one of us. He's not who we thought he was going to be. He's not the Messiah. He can't be. He doesn't come from the right town. He doesn't have the right upbringing. And quite frankly, his plan is not what we think the Messiah should do.

Therefore, we don't believe in him. And so as we see that, Jesus shifts the way he begins to talk to the people. He shifts especially the way he talks to the crowds, in particular the religious leaders. And as we see that take place, we'll see him begin to speak to them in parables. And so as we look today at really a pretty large section of scripture, hopefully we can get through the whole thing today.

We'll be looking at verses one through 23 because they all kind of go together with this parable of the sower that he discusses today. As a matter of fact, I think that the parable of the sower is somewhat foundational to a lot of the other parables that Jesus is gonna tell. Because it's just an important parable. It's an important one because some of the things that we pick up carry clues into some of the other parables.

And so as we pick up here in verse one of chapter 13, it says this. That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. And large crowds gathered to him, so he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd was standing on the beach. And he spoke many things to them in parables, saying, Behold, the sower went out to sow seed. Seed. As he sowed,

some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. Others fell on the rocky places where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up because they had no depth of soil. But when the sun had risen, they were scorched, and because they had no root, they withered away. Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out.

And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. Now, again, this section of Scripture that we'll go through, I think I got distracted, which I'll talk about distractions in just a minute. But anyway, it breaks down three ways. We're going to look at the parable. We're going to look at the purpose of parables.

And then we'll look at the explanation of the parable. And so the first thing that we see here is this parable that he gives. And we see that that day, Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. So you should probably automatically ask yourself the question, what day? Well, if you remember the very end of chapter 12, Jesus was in the house teaching.

And as he was in the house teaching, they asked him for a sign. And as they asked him for a sign, he said, no other sign will be given to you except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And as he was teaching and talking about these signs and telling them that a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after his sign, his mother and his brothers came up to see him. We said probably to take him home because they felt like he'd maybe gone a little bit too far.

A lapse of faith on the part of Mary, faith that his brothers did not have until after he rose from the dead. But they came to get him. And he said, listen, my mother and my brothers and my sisters are those who do the will of God. That's what the family of God looks like. But he was in a house on that day teaching. And so it's the very same day that all of that had taken place

that he decides it's time to leave the house of all these people. And I'm going to go down to the shore, the shore of the Sea of Galilee there. And as he's on the shore, large crowds begin to gather. And as the large crowds begin to gather, he has an idea. He says, I could probably speak more clearly to the crowds if I'm just a little bit further away and I'm in a boat.

You know as well as I do that things on the water sound just carries. And so that's exactly what he does. He sets up a pulpit in this fishing boat and he begins to teach the people. And as he begins to teach the people, it says that he teaches them many things in parables. Now that word parable means to throw down beside. The idea that's given to us is that he puts a spiritual truth

next to an earthly illustration. Now these parables are just a little bit different than what we would refer to as an illustration. If you were to look at the Sermon on the Mount, you would see that Jesus presented spiritual truth, he illustrated the spiritual truth, and then he applied the spiritual truth. Parables look a little different than that. When I was growing up in Sunday school,

the way that they explained them to us is they said, a parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. But I want you to think about something. You and I have the benefit, probably, of having read the entirety of Matthew chapter 13, including the explanation that Jesus is going to give of the parable of the sower. You and I also have the understanding that Jesus began to teach in a little bit of a different way, and we probably have the benefit of having someone taught us about the parable of the sower at some point in time.

But I want you to put yourself in the position of the disciples, in the position of all of the people that were there on the shore. They'd never heard Jesus teach this way. He had always also given a spiritual application to everything that he had to say. And this time, Jesus simply tells a story. You say, well, Jesus goes on to explain it to his disciples.

Yes, to his disciples. But to the large crowds that were gathered, he never gave the explanation of what this story was. He just simply told them, that a sower went out to sow seed. And there were four types of soil that it fell on. The first type of soil that it fell on is it says it fell beside the road. Now, if you remember, when Jesus' disciples got in so much trouble by the religious leaders,

they were gathering grain. Do you remember how we said they ended up gathering grain? That in the fields of that time, there were paths cut through the fields so that people could easily access the city without having to go all the way around some large grain field? Well, picture, if you will, a beaten down patch. A path through the middle of a field. He says, when he says some of it fell by the road,

that's what he's talking about. And you know as well as I do that what happens on a path when a bunch of people walk on it. It's really hard to grow grass there, right? It's really hard to grow anything there because people are constantly walking on it and the ground gets really, really hard. He says, when that seed fell on that type of ground, the birds of the air came

and they ate up all of that seed. Then he says, and then some of the seed fell on rocks. Rocky soil. And at first it took really good root but the roots were shallow and could never really take hold. And so eventually the sun came and it scorched and burned up that seed. And then he said, and then there was that third type of soil that got thrown out but there were lots of thorns.

There were lots of weeds that grew up around it and eventually all of those weeds choked out that seed and it couldn't do anything. But then there was this good soil and on this good soil the farmer threw his seed. Man, it produced all kinds of fruit. It produced all kinds of crops and it was a beautiful thing. And then Jesus stopped there. And if you were sitting there,

you would go,

so, like was this an agricultural lesson? Is this like, what are we doing here, Jesus? What is this all about? Because that's what he left it at. And I think sometimes because we have the benefit of having the entire chapter, we forget that all of the crowds sitting there probably, we kind of went, right. You know there were a handful of them that were like, good word.

When really they had no idea what he said because they didn't want to look funny in front of all of their friends. They didn't want to look embarrassed and they were like, good word. What did he say? I don't know, but it felt right. Right? And so that's what took place. And so as Jesus gives this parable to them, his disciples have a question and so then he teaches them

the purpose of parables. Because look at what it says in verse 10. He says, and his disciples, came to him and said, why do you speak to them in parables? Wait, I missed a verse. I missed a really important verse there that must segue into this next section. Because the important verse that I missed there was verse nine when Jesus says, he who has ears, let him hear.

Forgive me for failing to give that verse because that's an important verse. Because what Jesus gives in that verse is he gives an invitation to anyone who is willing to dig deeper. To anyone who is willing to seek out further information to seek out the further information. Because I guarantee there were a handful of people that were like, I want to know what he means by this.

I want to know what this means. We know that his disciples were part of that group because they're going to ask him about it. But I think that what he did was create a little bit of interest in the hearts of some people. That segues into this explanation of the parables. And so his disciples come to him. They're like, Jesus, what's the deal with the parable thing?

Like, I feel a little lost in this whole situation. What are you trying to do here? It feels like you just made it really, really hard on the people. And then Jesus begins to explain. Notice what it says in verse 11. Jesus said, answered them, to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. But to them it has not been granted. For whoever has to him

more shall be given. And he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have even what he has shall be taken away from him. Therefore, I speak to them in parables. Because while seeing, they do not see. And while hearing, they do not hear, nor do they understand. In their case, the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says, you will keep on hearing,

but you will not understand. You will keep on seeing, but you will not perceive. You will keep on seeing, but you will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull. With the ears, they scarcely hear. And they have closed their eyes. Otherwise, they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and return. And I would heal them.

But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. For I truly say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see and did not see it. And to them it has been granted to hear what you hear and did not hear it. Can I just be really frank with you all this morning and say that I've really wrestled with this set of verses this week?

This has been a little bit of a wrestling match for me and I've done the best I can to come to a settled conclusion on what I feel like Jesus is saying here. Just understand that my opinion on what I say may change at some point in time. But I feel like the gist of what Jesus is saying is what the Lord has sort of revealed to me here. Jesus says something interesting when they ask him this question.

Why do you speak in these parables? Because again, even the disciples are kind of going, I wasn't picking up what you were putting down there. And Jesus answered and said, to you it's been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it has not been granted. Now from this, I have drawn a conclusion. Parables are told for two reasons. Parables are told to reveal truth,

but parables are also told to conceal truth. What? See, this is where the wrestling match begins, right? Because that feels counterintuitive to who Jesus is as a teacher. It feels counterintuitive to who Jesus is as one who is constantly reaching out to the seekers. So let me see if I can explain it just a little bit better. Jesus says, to you it has been revealed

to see the mysteries of the kingdom. Now a mystery is a truth that in the past has been concealed and now in the present has been revealed. He says, to you it's been given to know all of those mysteries of the kingdom. So why has it been given to these disciples? To know this. I think the key to this is actually given to us in Matthew chapter 11. I want you to go back

to Matthew chapter 11, verse 25.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 25. And it says this, I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this was very well pleasing. In your sight. All things have been handed over to me by my Father and no one knows the Son except the Father nor does anyone know the Father

except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and humble in heart and you will find rest for your souls. So when He says to you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom, why is it that to the disciples it has been granted?

Well, on one hand, you could say, well, because God sovereignly chose them to be the ones to whom He would reveal the truth and I don't disagree with you on that. I think that it is because God sovereignly chose them. But it's also because they had a heart to learn. You see, He said, I thank you that you have hidden these things from the wise and the prudent, from the wise and the intelligent.

And may I throw a little word of my own in there from those who think they are wise and those who think that they are intelligent? You see, what was Jesus facing with the religious leaders? Jesus with the religious leaders was facing a bunch of people who knew a lot about the Old Testament. They could quote to you all of the scriptures. They could quote to you

all of the idioms. They could quote to you all of the teachings. But in all of their learning, they had become so impressed with their own learning that they had missed the point. They were the wise and intelligent, at least wise in their own eyes and intelligent in their own estimation. And because of that, when you move into Matthew chapter 12, what happened with the religious leaders?

They said, we don't like you because you don't fit into our understanding of scripture. We're too smart for what you've got going on. Therefore, when you move into chapter 13, what does Jesus start teaching in? Parables. Why? Because He wants to reveal the truth to those who are going, you're my only hope. You're the only place I can go for life. You're the only place

I can go for anything. And quite frankly, sometimes I don't get it. Quite frankly, sometimes when I get into scripture, I have to wrestle with it because I don't fully understand it. But I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, you're the only one who does. And so I'm just gonna keep seeking you. You see, Jesus told these parables because He wanted them to reveal truth.

But the ones to whom these parables would reveal the truth were the ones who were willing to keep seeking. Who would humbly come to Jesus and say, I need to know more of who you are. I need to know more of what you have to say. And I'm not giving up until I find it. And I'm not giving up until I can really understand exactly what you want from my life. You see,

He would reveal truth to those who would truly seek the truth. And I suppose that brings up a really good question for all of us this morning. Do you have a heart to seek the truth? Do you have a heart that says, I will not give up until I find the truth? Because listen, the truth may not agree with you. And you're gonna have to be okay with that. The truth may make you very uncomfortable.

And you're gonna have to be okay with that. But as I've quoted lots of times, there's gonna come that point in time where Jesus says, everybody else is leaving. Are you guys leaving too? And Peter said, where else am I gonna go? Because brothers and sisters, where else are we gonna go? He said, to you, it's been given to know the truth. Why? Because he chose to block these things

from the wise and intelligent and reveal them to babes. Therefore, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. But he goes on from there because remember we said there were two things that parables did. Number one, it reveals truth. But number two, it also conceals truth, which feels opposite. But it's what Jesus was willing to do.

Because notice what it says at the end of verse 11. But to them, it has not been granted. For them, it has not been granted. Why? For whoever has, to him more shall be given, and he will have an abundance. But whoever does not have, even what he has shall be taken away. To those who are rejecting the truth, it conceals the truth. You see, if you're not willing to accept Jesus,

if you're not willing to come to him and say you are the only giver of truth, then he tells this parable and you go, what an idiot. He's decided he's gonna be an expert on agriculture now. I'm not gonna listen to this guy. He doesn't have anything for me. This isn't the deep things of the Old Testament. This isn't the deep things of Scripture that I was hoping to learn from him.

I don't have time for him. And Jesus says, you're right. And as a matter of fact, even all the things that you've known up to this point in time probably won't even make sense to you anymore. You see, revealed truth is a progressive thing. Concealed truth is as well. My wrestling coach used to always have a saying. He said, if you're coasting, you're going downhill.

He said, you're either getting better or you're getting worse. There's no happy middle ground. And you know, the same is true in our relationship with the Lord. The same is true in our spiritual life. We are either going deeper in our knowledge of the truth or we're sinking deeper in the concealing of the truth. But there's no happy middle ground where I say,

I have achieved and I can just sit back and enjoy what I've learned up to this point in time. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. You can't do that because you'll go one direction or the other. That's why a lot of times when you see people start to fall away from the faith,

it's because it started with some sort of a little compromise in their life or it started with a little bit of laziness in their walk. And pretty soon, well, I've missed church. Oh, it's not that big of a deal. It's just church. And then pretty soon they miss church for a month or they've been out of the word for a month. And they go, oh, well. It's just church.

It's just the Bible. And then pretty soon they find themselves totally hard to the things of God. And you're going, what happened? It all started with a little apathy. Well, that's what Jesus says. So he goes on to say, therefore I speak to them in parables because while seeing they don't see and while hearing they don't hear, nor do they understand. I love this.

He says, I speak to them in parables because though they can see the truth that's right in front of them, they don't really see it. Though they can hear the truth that's right in front of them, they don't really hear it. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? That you can look at the events that are going on in the world, if your heart is at all tuned in to the things of God, and you can find yourself going, whoa, Jesus is coming soon.

You know how I know that? Because I see the things that are going on in the world. Meanwhile, you can talk to somebody else and they see the things that are going on. And they're like, man, we need to put somebody else in power. We need a better political leader. And you go, no, why can't you see? Well, because seeing they don't see. And hearing they don't hear.

It's amazing how when you're tuned in to the things of God, God reveals himself in all kinds of ways. I've always said that some of the greatest revelation of who God is I received when I was a groundskeeper. Because I would see how God would work in the soil. Just like here. And this parable helped really clue me into things that would go on with horticulture and things.

And I would really see the truth of God in it. And I would try to share that with somebody else. And they'd go, I don't see it. And you go, it makes sense. Because even though they can see the truth that's right in front of them, they can't really see the truth that's right in front of them. And so Jesus goes on to say that this is really the fulfillment of this prophecy from Isaiah.

And this prophecy from Isaiah is kind of an interestingly scary prophecy. Because in this prophecy it says, You will keep on hearing, but you will not understand. And you will keep on seeing, but you will not perceive. For the heart of this people has become dull. With their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they would see with their eyes, hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and would return, and I would heal them.

Jesus says, the prophecy of Isaiah was absolutely true about you. And I think the key to this prophecy of Isaiah comes to us at the beginning of verse 15 when he says, The heart of this people has become dull. You know what that word dull means? Where dull literally means fat. It means their heart has become fat. What does that mean? Well, it means that their heart has become apathetic.

Right? When things are really good, when everything is going perfect, do you find that you're crying out to Jesus all the time? Now listen, don't give me the correct answer. Give me the real answer. The real answer is no. Why? Why? Because everything's going great. Why are all of a sudden churches filling up right now? And it's not just here. It's everywhere.

Why? Because people are going, things aren't good right now. I need some hope. And so they're going to the one place that they've always heard of has some hope. They're going to church. And that's a beautiful thing. But what caused it? The world going to poo-poo. Right? That's what's caused it. All of a sudden everything went crazy and everybody went, I think I need Jesus.

You're right. You're right. You needed him a long time. You needed him a long time ago, but better late than never. He said, but the heart of this people has become dull. And with their ears they scarcely hear and they've closed their eyes. Otherwise they would see and be healed. What's happened to those people? Unfortunately, the same thing that's happening in a lot of the churches that these people are fleeing to right now.

Their hearts too have become dull. And they've started being more impressed with their intelligence and their programs and their buildings and everything else. And they've stopped being impressed with Jesus. And that's what's happening here. He said, their hearts have become dull. Your hearts have become dull. And so seeing, you don't perceive. Hearing, you don't really take it in.

So then he goes on to say, but blessed are your eyes because they do see. And your ears because they do hear. Do you know, I find a great deal of comfort in that because who's he talking to right now when he says that? He's talking to his disciples. What will we read about soon about his disciples? They will say something dumb. And they will completely not get it.

They will completely miss the point of something that he says. And yet what does Jesus say about them right now? Blessed are your eyes because they see. Blessed are your ears because they hear. And we can read that and go, oh, these guys were so enlightened. No they weren't, they were morons. Okay? Listen, they were just like us. Because one moment they can be at the highest of heights.

And the next moment they can be at the lowest of lows. I can relate to that. Because Jesus may say to me, blessed are you because you're actually picking up on some things. And then later this afternoon he'll go, what are you thinking? You have completely missed the point. Because he's patient with us like that. He says, blessed are your eyes because they see.

And your ears because they hear. For truly I say to you, many prophets and righteous men desire to see what you see and did not see it. And to hear what you hear and did not hear it. He says, there are prophets and men that live by faith. Their entire life that are not seeing me standing right in front of you. They talked about it. They prophesied about it.

They looked forward to it. But they never got to see it. And you get to see it with your own two eyes. Well, now he goes on to explain to them the parable. He says, hear then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is the one on whom the seed was sown beside the road.

The one on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places. This is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. The one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns. This is the man who hears the word and the worry of the world.

And the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word. And it becomes unfruitful. The one on whom the seed was sown on the good soil. This is the man who hears the word and understands it. Who indeed bears fruit and brings forth some a hundred, some sixty, and some thirtyfold. Now, as Jesus explains this to us, we know that there are several characters in this. Several things we should pay attention to in this.

You have the sower, you have the seed, and you have the soil. In this particular instance, the sower is Jesus. But I think that the sower could also be any of us that give out the truth of the word of God. We know that the seed is the word of the kingdom. Perhaps we would just call that the word of God. And then the soil are those who would receive that word.

Again, this is really important as we move on into some of the other parables to pay attention to what some of these things mean. The central theme is, how does an individual think? How does an individual heart respond to the word of God? And so Jesus explains it to him. He says, Now, in this first seed, we see that the seed is sown either beside the road, on the road.

Perhaps some of the translations say along the path. The ground is too hard. The seed cannot penetrate the soil. And in the parable, the birds come and immediately eat up the seed so that it can't do any good. He said, Now, as we go through each of these, I want to tell you something. I know nothing about agriculture. But I do know about horticulture. I've never sown a wheat field.

I have planted an entire yard. And I've had success. That's a fact. So anything that I'm going to share with you, I'm going to apply from the process of having planted grass seed. Okay? Now, if you go to plant a yard, for instance, we need to sow a little grass seed that's out here right now. I know that what's going to happen is some of the seed will end up landing on the sidewalk.

Perhaps you've tried to seed your yard and you've seen that happen before. I don't know if you've ever tried to grow grass on a sidewalk, but it doesn't work very well. Because it can't penetrate the sidewalk. There's one exception to where grass will grow on a sidewalk. And that's in the crack of the sidewalk. Because that is the best soil anyone has ever seen in their entire life.

Right? I mean, I can get grass to grow in every crack in my driveway more than I can in any place in my yard. That's the most fertile soil ever. But for the most part, either the wind blows it away or the birds come and eat it or I use my blower and blow it up. And it doesn't do any good. Why? Because that sidewalk is so hard that that seed will never penetrate.

And you know what? Hard ground is the exact same way. If you have a path where a bunch of people have walked on and you throw grass seed on there without doing anything to break up the topsoil, nothing will happen with it. It will just sit there until something is done to break up the topsoil. And usually what happens is it gets eaten or taken away. That's what Jesus says happens here when someone hears the word of God, but they don't take it in.

In this instance, he says they don't understand it. Or perhaps they don't perceive it. Is that the word of God is just, You can see this happen in people's lives. If you're giving out the truth of the word of God, perhaps you're giving the gospel message to somebody and you get this sort of a look on their face. You're like, yep, hard soil. Nothing's going through there.

Right? I think I've shared with you the time that, well, many times, and I enjoy doing this. Although now my phone says spam call and I'm like, no, thank you. But before it used to do that, I just said, no, thank you. I just said, no, thank you. I just said, no, thank you. I just said, no, thank you. I just said, no, thank you. I just answered all my phone calls and I would end up getting somebody trying to sell me something.

This was before my car's warranty was about to run out because now it's only about my car's warranty. But they would actually be trying to sell me something. It would be a real human being. And I remember one time I said, hey, I'll tell you what. You have a job that I bet a lot of people don't really appreciate that much. And they're like, that is the truth.

I said, okay, I'll tell you what. I'll tell you about Jesus. You tell me about what you do. You tell me about what you're selling. And at the end, we'll call it good. And she said, okay. So that's what we did. And we hung up the phone and moved on. But the best time that I've ever done this, when I really saw the hard heart on somebody's face, was when a guy came to sell me cleaning supplies.

Erin and I had been married about a month. And somebody gave us the largest basket of cleaning supplies ever when we got married. So those are all filling our shelves. And we've got a college Bible study going on at our house. We're trying to eat pizza and have a Bible study. And this guy comes up to our door and he knocks on the door and says, I'm going to sell you.

The cleaning supplies that will replace every cleaning supply you own. I said, bro, I've got an entire closet full of them that I already own. I'm not going to buy that. He goes, can I show you how it works? I'm like, feel free, man, but I'm not buying it. So he shows me on a piece of concrete. I'm like, ooh, sparkling white. Still not buying it. And so finally I wanted to get rid of him.

And I said, I'll tell you what. I've got a Bible study going right now. Can I tell you about Jesus? And I gave him the whole gospel. And he went from, this is him holding his cleaning supplies, by the way. He went from, in his face. His face just went completely blank. And I was like, hard soil. But I did the best I could. I gave him the truth. And he walked away as fast as he could.

He may have actually run. I can't remember. But you see that happen. It's because the enemy's snatching it away as soon as it comes down because that soil's too hard to receive. Now, the second type of soil that he tells us about is the seed that he tells us about, the seed that falls on rocky soil. Notice what it says. The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places.

This is the man who hears the word with joy. Or immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no firm root in himself, but is only temporary. And when affliction or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he falls away. Okay. So, I used to mow a yard in Johnson County. It was a beautiful yard. And in springtime, it looked amazing. But as the rains began to stop and the sun began to get hot,

there would be brown spots that would show up large, like the size of this table. And I said, Hey, what's going on? Do you have, like, maybe a disease in your grass or something? They're like, Nope. It's because we didn't pay for the excavation of all of the rocks. Apparently, if you've got rocks in your soil, you have to pay extra money to have them take those large rocks out.

Well, here's what had happened. Rocks, big rocks, limestone type stuff, got left in the ground. And so, it's got about that much dirt on top of it. And so, the roots don't go very deep. So, it looks really good when the conditions are perfect. In the springtime, when there's a lot of rain, there's lots of rain. But when the summertime really hits, it turns brown.

Why? Because the roots don't go deep. He says, This is what it means for the seed to fall among rocky soil. You see, there are some people who hear what God's word has to say, they take it in, and they're like, Yes! That's the best thing I've ever heard! I am so excited! I'm going to follow Jesus with all of my heart! But then Monday comes, right? And their roots haven't gone very deep yet.

And because their roots haven't gone very deep yet, they kind of go, Never mind. That's hard. You mean this means I'll have to make sacrifices in my life? This is the problem with many churches right now, is because they go, Of course it doesn't. You just follow Jesus and don't make any sacrifices because Jesus accepts us all. You mean I'm going to have to make sacrifices in my life?

You mean that I'm going to have to start getting rid of sin in my life? You mean people might not like me because I follow Jesus? And you're kind of like, Yeah! And then all of a sudden they start to shrivel up when difficulties come because those roots haven't gone down very deep because the soil's too rocky. There's too many barriers to their faith. There's too many barriers that keep them from really developing

a deep relationship with the Lord. Well, then the third soil comes along. This is the seed that falls among the thorns. And the one on whom the seed was sown among the thorns, this is the man who hears the word, and the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. If there is one thing that I despise more than anything in the world

when it comes to a yard, it's crabgrass, right? It should go, bum, bum, bum. Because crabgrass will absolutely destroy your yard, and it will take over your yard. You could have thrown out some wonderful tall fescue seed, and you, oh, look, that's so pretty. It's coming up so good. And then all of a sudden, what happens? It gets hot, and all of a sudden, the crabgrass comes up,

and you're like, where'd my grass go? Why is it all this garbage grass now? Why does it look disgusting now? Well, because that seed fell amongst a bunch of crabgrass, and the crabgrass came in and took over the entire thing. Because even if you've thrown seed out, that crabgrass is the strongest stuff in the world. It will completely destroy your yard. It takes over.

Jesus says that's the way it is with some of you. He says, Can I use another phrase that I think very much fits with what Jesus is saying here? I'll call it the distractions of life. We live in a distracted world, don't we? We live in a world that's distracted by just about everything, and I really think this is one of the major issues we deal with. And the church today is the distracted life.

Gosh, there's so many things that want to claim our minds. There's so many things that want to claim our time. And I love the two phrases that Jesus uses here, the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth. Man, I bet what's going through your mind right now are the things that are distracting you. I bet you're thinking, man, I know that there's some things

that are distracting me right now. You know, I've got to think about, I've got to think about my job. I've got to think about my retirement. I've got to think about my bank account. I've got to think about how I'm going to buy groceries this week. And listen, all those things are important things. But if they begin to choke out what the Word of God wants to do in our life,

then they've become distractions. And those distractions of life keep us from the truth. I was thinking the other day about, you know, my daughter's getting older now, and so, Facebook keeps destroying me by giving me all these old pictures of her when she was like tiny. And so, I'm just like, stupid, right? And so, but it made me think about the way that she used to be

when she was very, very tiny. When she was just a little bitty baby, we got to where we could start feeding her the solid food, right? And so, we gave her this rice cereal. Most disgusting looking thing I've ever seen in my life. She loved it. But you know what? We could not feed that child fast enough. And so, this is what we would do. Scoop, feed, and in between us getting another scoop

and putting it in her mouth, she would get distracted by one of several things. First of all, her fist, which looked incredibly tasty. She would go, ooh, and stick her fist in her mouth, right? And so, you'd go, no, don't do that. That won't give you anything. And then the next thing that she would see is she would see her bib, and she would stick that in her mouth.

And then she would find something on the table that she would hurry up and grab and stick in her mouth. And we couldn't get her fed fast enough because she was constantly distracted by all of these other things. And I remember when she went through that going, oh, dear God, that's how I am, right? Like, I think that's how I am in my spiritual walk sometimes.

God is like, here's what will actually give you nourishment. And I'm like, ooh, my fist. Ooh, a bib. Ooh, a pencil, right? Like, we just get distracted by all these things, and it sounds super ridiculous when we talk about it from a baby, but imagine how ridiculous all the distractions of the world are when God's looking at us, and he's going, those will never fill you.

Another new car will not make you happy. A new job that makes more money will not be the thing that fills you up. More sex won't make you happy. You know, another relationship isn't what's gonna do it. Another raise isn't what's gonna do it. Those are not the things that are gonna make you happy, and yet the word of God gets choked out by all these distractions,

and we say, oh, Lord, you're so good, but that's so fun. And he goes, those are just distractions that'll end up choking you out. And perhaps you've seen it happen in other people's lives, or maybe you've seen it happen in your own life, and perhaps it's time to get rid of the distractions. We'll work on application in just a minute. And then we come to the fourth soil.

And the one on whom seed was sown on the good soil, this is the man who hears the word, understands it, bears fruit, and brings forth some 100-fold, some 60, some 30. The good soil. The soil that just simply takes in the seed and then produces a crop. The good heart. The one that takes in the word of God, applies it to their life, and then lives it out on a daily basis.

It's kind of interesting. It's kind of interesting, isn't it? That really all God desires for us to do is to seek after him, and the truth of what his word is, to seek his strength to not only apply that to, or seek his discernment to apply that to our life, and then seek his strength to live that out in our lives. Because that's what we're called to as saints, and yet, sometimes we struggle with being those other three soils.

Well, as we look at all of this, we realize that there's really only one question, that comes about if we're going to apply this to our lives, and the question is, what kind of soil are you? So as we look to apply this particular sermon, we know that the soil part is really important, but I think that there's three areas of application that we look at. The first one is, there's an application for the sower, right? Because we said that in its direct context, I believe that the sower here is Jesus, but I think that it really extends, to any of us, that try to give out the truth of what God's word has to say.

To give out the truth of the kingdom of God, because whether you're me standing up here, or whether you're you speaking with your friends and family on a daily basis, we're all hopefully trying to give out the truth of the word of God. And we realize something that Jesus tells us here. Not everyone is going to follow what the word of God has to say. As a matter of fact, Jesus gives us about a 25% chance to give out the truth of the word of God.

He gives us about a 25% return on giving out the word of God. For me, that gives me a lot of encouragement. Because if I were to look back over the last 20 years of ministry in my life, of working with a lot of young people, I can look and I can say, there's a lot of people that you would never know that I ever taught them a Bible study. That you would never know that I spent time pouring into their lives because they do not reflect the truth of the word of God.

And if I'm not careful, that can be very discouraging for me. My wife is always faithful to remind me of this parable. She's always faithful to say, but Ryan, you did your part in sowing the word. It's their decision what they're going to do with the word. Because while I could point to a good number of lives that I'm discouraged about, I can also point to some lives

that I'm really encouraged about. I'm reminded of some friends that we went on vacation with last summer who were a part of our college ministry and we got to see both of them come together and get married while they were a part of that college ministry. And now they're serving the Lord very faithfully together. And it's an amazing thing, raising their kids in a very godly way.

I think about the young couple that's taken over the youth group starting next week, Rachel and Tristan, who came up through our youth group. And I go, the 25% return. The 25% of the good soil that took the truth of the word of God, applied it to their lives. And they're now living it out on a daily basis. What a beautiful thing, right? But for those of us that give out the truth

of the word of God, it's an easy thing for us to get discouraged when we see people not take that truth and live it out in their lives. And Jesus says, listen, even I am only going to get a 25% return. And so there is encouragement for the sower. But the second application that I see is for the hearers. When we look at the word that goes into the lives of the unsaved,

we realize that when a gospel message goes out, that only about 25% of the people, even if they're converts, will probably end up really taking that and being really good soil. Because remember, some will just reject it altogether because they don't even take in what you're saying and they're just like, it doesn't even make sense. It doesn't even make sense to me this Jesus thing is stupid. I don't need that in my life.

And then there's going to be 25% who get really geeked up and that lasts for about two or three weeks, maybe even a few months, but eventually they begin to fizzle out. And then there's some who look like things are going really great, but pretty soon the distractions of life pull them away. And then about 25% of the people that hear the message of the gospel will find themselves going, that is a life-changing message and I'm going to make a decision that I will commit all of my life to following Jesus. We see that in the unsaved.

It's pretty interesting to track numbers on things like that. But not only is there an application for the hearers that are unsaved, I think there's an application for the hearers that are saved. Because it's easy to say this is what we do with the message of the gospel. When I first hear the truth of the gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ, I'm a sinner, he's a savior, I commit my life to him.

But you see right now what's taking place is the seed is being cast out. The seed is being sown. And in each of your hearts, whether you realize it or not, there's a battle that's taking place for what kind of soil your heart's going to be. For some of you, there's a really good chance that the enemy's plucking this up. He does it in lots of ways. Our hearts get hard

through different kinds of things, through seasons of life. There can be a hardness of heart that we can develop and the enemy will come and pluck it away. And that's why sometimes when you hear a message, you're like, I didn't even understand what he said. It's not my fault. It's the enemy. I'm just kidding. Sometimes it's my fault. But a lot of times the enemy is just

plucking those things away when you hear a message from God's word because he doesn't want you to hear that. And then for some of you, you'll take in what God's word has to say. And like I said, everything will go great until Monday hits or maybe Thursday hits. This is true in my life. I can get really excited when I hear something, but eventually the excitement fades.

And if I've not really cultivated that soil to really let that truth take root in my life, pretty soon it'll begin to fizzle. And then for some of us, we'll hear what God's word has to say and it'll take us to that next level. Lord, I'm going to go deeper in my walk with you, but pretty soon the distractions come along. And we're like, never mind, shallow's fine.

Because deeper means more sacrifices. Deeper means there's things I have to give up that I don't want to give up. And so I'm content with a shallow relationship with you. And then for some of us, the word of God will take its root in our hearts and it will begin to change everything about who we are. See, I think that application does not just, the interpretation

does not just apply to the unsaved. I think we very much need to take it into our own hearts as well. Now, if that's the case, if really the question is what kind of soil are you, what do we do if we figure out that we have bad soil in our hearts? I remember being concerned about this at one point in time in my own life. And I was working at Lakeview Village

doing groundskeeping. It was a very hot, dry summer. Serious drought going on. And I remember I'd thrown a bunch of seed out in an area. I tried to water it, but eventually it just, nothing happened. It was too hot. Nothing would come up. And I thought, man, that's probably just bad soil. And I remember later that fall, I think it was Labor Day weekend, we got several inches of rain.

Just changed everything. And you know what happened after we got those several inches of rain? That soil softened up. It got all of the nutrients that it needed. And all of a sudden, all of that grass seed began to sprout. And I was like, that's amazing. And one of the few times that I felt like God spoke directly to me about something, I genuinely felt like

the Lord said, I'm bigger than bad soil. And I thought, what a beautiful thing. What a beautiful truth. And you know what he, as I was studying this, I thought, so how do we overcome bad soil? And I came up with three things. How do we overcome bad soil? Well, I want you to think about this. That's not the first thing. That's the whole thing right there. Overcoming bad soil.

We do so through cultivation. I want you to think about this. Anybody that has a nice yard or any farmer that has a great field, he doesn't just throw seed out and hope everything goes great. No. What does he do? He does the work necessary to make sure that the seed grows. He cultivates the ground in order for the seed to grow properly, in order to have the right kind of crop.

So what does that mean? Number one, break up the hard ground. Break up that hard ground. Do you know what we're told in I believe it's the book of Joel? He says, break up the fallow ground of your heart. Why? Because their hearts have become dull. Why have their hearts become dull? Because their hearts have become hard. We need to break up that hard ground of our hearts.

How do we do that? Well, I don't know any other way than through confession. We go to the Lord and start confessing the things that make us hard. What are the things that make us hard? It always leads back to sin. It may be a different aspect of sin. That sin in your life may be apathy. That sin in your life may be pushing down the conviction that God's given to you.

Whatever it is, there's sin that needs confessed in your life because, hardness of heart comes from sin. And so we need to break up that fallow ground by going to the Lord and confessing those sins. And you know what happens? Even if you don't feel like confessing the sins, if you know they're wrong, go to the Lord and say, Lord, my heart's really hard. I don't really feel like

confessing this to you, but I know the Bible says this is wrong, so I did this and it's wrong. Pretty soon, God starts that process in your heart and what may have started off as simply an exercise that you did because it was the right thing to do, it was the right thing to do, turns into an exercise that you're doing because it's the only thing you can do. And it's amazing how God begins to change your heart and soften your heart the more you confess those sins to Him because what separates us from God? Sin.

So number one, we break up the hard ground. Number two, remove the barriers. Remove the barriers. Now, some of those things are going to be buried a little deeper in your life. Those things that will keep those roots from growing deep. Just like the yard that I was telling you about. They had to dig a little to get those rocks out. But if you don't dig a little

to get the rocks out, then when the sun comes, when the difficulties come, when the affliction comes into your life, then it begins to fade. It begins to be scorched. And so we need to remove those barriers. I don't know what those are for you. Those things that are keeping you from going deep in your walk with the Lord. Sometimes it's fear. Sometimes, again,

we deal with sin issues. Whatever it is, we've got to start rooting those things out. Digging deep and saying, Lord, what's keeping me from going deeper in my walk with you? Sometimes it's just plain laziness. But we have to start removing the barriers in order to have the proper kind of soil. Any farmer will tell you that if they don't remove those barriers,

they're never going to have a good crop. Number three, get rid of the weeds. You've got to start pulling the weeds. Man, you know what I hated doing when I was a groundskeeper? I hated pulling weeds because it took time and it was hard. Now, if you look at a yard, people put down all their chemicals and stuff to kill the weeds. Farmers do the same thing out in their fields.

They put things down to kill the weeds or sometimes you've just got to get down on your hands and knees and do it. Whatever you have to do, you've got to start pulling the weeds. What does that mean? You've got to get rid of the distractions in your life. It's not a fun thing to do because they're distracting for a reason, right? There's a reason why those things

distract you. They distract you from your walk with Jesus Christ but if it's choking out the Word in your life, then it's probably time for it to go. Then it's probably time for it to get dealt with. We have to cultivate good soil so that we can take in what God's Word has to say. Amen? Well, this morning is Communion Sunday, a great time to break up the fallow ground.

We know that as we come together, we come together to celebrate the death of Jesus Christ. We come together to celebrate the truth of what He did for us on the cross. Jesus told us every time you do this, or excuse me, Paul told us every time we do this, we declare His death. So as we do so, we remember that on that last great night of the feast when Jesus took that cup, He said, this is my blood.

My blood of the new covenant that is shed for you. We know He took that bread and He broke it and He said, this is my body which is broken. It's been broken for you. And as we come into this month where the entire world is going to be looking at the fact that Good Friday is coming, what a wonderful time for us also to remember that Good Friday has been fulfilled in Jesus.

And so, we're told in Scripture to make sure that we do so in a worthy manner. And as always, there's two ways that we partake of communion in a worthy manner. Number one, to make sure that your heart belongs to Him. If you're here this morning and you're here this morning, and you've never invited Jesus into your heart, then this won't mean much to you. It'll be the saddest snack

you've ever tried to eat. And so, today is the day for you to give your heart to Jesus. To break up that fallow ground. To allow the soil of your heart to be good. To confess your sins. To receive Him as your Savior. But we know that the other way that we partake in a worthy manner is to make sure that our hearts are clean before the Lord. And there's only one way

that our hearts can be clean before the Lord. And that's through confessing our sins. Because I know that throughout a month, throughout a week, throughout a day, we can find that our hearts get separated from the Lord through our sin. Whether those be sins that we went into headlong, knowing exactly what we were doing, or sins that we fell into completely by accident, they need to be confessed to the Lord.

Scripture tells us that if we confess our sins, that He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So I'm going to invite the worship team to come on up. And they're going to share one last song with us. And as they do, you need to ask the Lord to search your heart. Search your heart to see if there's things that need dealt with

between you and the Lord. And as you deal with those things, the ushers are going to be handing out the communion elements. As they hand out those communion elements, I ask that you would stand and then we will all partake together.

Jesus, Lord of heaven, I have given. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for your body that was broken for us. Lord, for the stripes that you received on our behalf and for the promise that by your stripes we are healed. Father, I thank you for your blood that was shed for us. Lord, your blood that was enough to cover all of our sins. Lord, your blood that was enough

to wash us as white as snow. Lord, we praise you for that sacrifice that you made for us on the cross. And Lord, I pray that as we go into the rest of our day that we would be reminded of this wonderful sacrifice that you made. Lord, I thank you that the oneness, I thank you for the oneness that we have with you because of the cross and the oneness that we have with each other.

And Lord, I just ask that you would keep us ever in mind of it. In Jesus' name. Amen. Let's partake.

Would you bow with me one more time? Lord, Lord, I pray that as we depart from this place that your word would sink deeply into our hearts. Father, that it would do the work that you've sent it out to do and that you would help us to draw near to you, Father. In Jesus' name. Amen. Be blessed.