e-votional
a message to encourage and uplift from College Heights Baptist Church
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
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1 That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.
3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 “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. 6 “But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 “Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 “And others fell on the good soil and yielded* a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 “He who has ears, let him hear.”
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower. 19 “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 seed was sown beside the road. 20 “The one on whom seed was sown on the rocky places, this is the man who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; 21 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. 22 “And the one on whom 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. 23 “And the one on whom 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 hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” - Matthew 13:1-8, 18-23 (NASB)
To this day, one of the things that I see that always makes me snicker is a sign advertising “clean fill dirt.” I understand what the sign is promoting, but it has always struck me as humorous that someone is either buying or selling “clean” dirt. Well, of course we realize that what the person is really promoting is dirt that is free from rocks and clutter. But still, it’s kind of funny to think about it.
Jesus teaches us a few things about dirt in this parable. As he paints a vivid word picture of a man sowing his fields, he tells us that the seed he is spreading lands on all kinds of soil. Some is hard soil, like that on the edge of the road. Some is rocky and some is full of thorns. Fortunately, some of it is good soil.
As He explains the parable to His disciples, Jesus identifies exactly what He means by these different types of soil. The hard soil doesn’t allow the seed to penetrate it. The seed sits on top of the ground and eventually the birds come and eat it. Usually at weddings nowadays, people throw bird seed instead of rice for this very reason. The seed sits on the hard surface of the parking lot and the birds eventually come and eat it all. There are people who simply let the reality of Jesus sit on the hard surface of their hearts until it goes away. It doesn’t change them because they are unopened to it changing them.
The second type of soil is full of rocks. It’s all cluttered and filled with other things so that when the seed takes root, and begins to grow, it quickly shrivels up. Too many of us have our lives filled with so many other things we do not give God room to move in our lives. Subsequently, when troubles arise we fade away. We have no depth to our faith and we stay infants. Many of us need to do some serious housekeeping in our hearts.
The third soil is filled with thorns. When the seed takes root in this soil and begins to grow, the reality of the world chokes it off and stunts its growth. When we allow the world to distract us from what God wants, we often see our spiritual growth stunted and stagnant. It’s sort of like a garden filled with weeds. The weeds take all the nutrients and resources the healthy plants need. As a result, the garden suffers. Our walks suffer when we allow the world to choke out the gospel working in our lives.
The final soil is fertile soil. Here, the seed takes root and flourishes. The Word takes root in these lives and the fruit is abundant in the life of this type of person. The gospel not only changes their lives, but it spills over and touches others too.
Isn’t it sad that only about one-fourth of the soil produced any type of harvest? Unfortunately, that seems to be the way things are. The world (and the church for that matter) is filled with people with hearts so hard the gospel cannot penetrate them. Our neighborhoods, offices, classrooms and pews are filled with rocky hearts so cluttered with other things that even if the Truth takes root, it does not develop like it should. Still more allow it to take root, only to choke off its growth because they are distracted by something the world throws at them. Finally, a few hear it and allow it to really control their lives. Jesus is more than an every once in a while thing to them. He is a life changing savior that has radically altered their lives and is using them to impact people all around them. It’s funny now that I think about it, but I guess Jesus is looking for “clean fill dirt” too. Got any to offer?
Pastor Darrell
