Services | Parable of the Sower

Bulletin

Hymn # 208 “Like a River Glorious”

SCRIPTURE READING – John 7:37 - 39
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Pru Hungate

Praise and Worship
“Your Promises”
“God so Loved”
“Resurrection Power”

Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Parable of the Sower”

“Your Love Awakens Me”


Sermon Notes
Mark 4:1 & 2 Jesus teaches
Mark 4:3 A Sower sows
Mark 4:4 – 8 4 kinds of ground: Beside the road; rocky ground; ground with thorns; and good soil
Mark 4:9 If you have ears, and you do, hear what is said
Mark 4:10 – 11 Disciples ask for an explanation of the parable. Jesus says they are granted the knowledge on the kingdom of God, but others – no
Mark 4:12 Why? The unpardonable sin – While seeing they may not perceive and while hearing they would not understand
Mark 4:13 Jesus starts the explanation of the parable
Mark4:14 The Sower sows the word of God
Mark 4:15 Those beside the road – Satan immediately comes and takes away the word
Mark 4:16 & 17 Rocky soil receive the word with joy, but have no root. When affliction or persecution arises they immediately fall away
Mark 4:18 & 19 Thorny ground hear the word, but the worries of the world, deceitfulness of riches or desiring other things, the word is choked off and become unfruitful
Mark 4:20 Seeds on good soil bear fruit at different amounts
John 15:1 & 2 The results of bearing or not bearing fruit
Galatians 5:22 & 23 The fruit of the Spirit

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Scritpures

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Transcript of Service

initial parable is entitled the "Stolen," although I might call it the "ground." In that parable he says that this parable is necessary to understand the other parable. Fortunately he gives us an explanation of the parable. So let's take a look. So if you have your Bible, you should, turn to the Gospel of Mark. And we're going to start with chapter 4.

So it says, "He, being Jesus, began to teach again by the sea. In such a very large crowd gathered to him that he went into the boat in the sea and sat down. And the whole crowd was by the sea on the land." Now probably why I do that is because of the force of the crowd by being in the boat in the water. They can't continue to press upon him, but also oftentimes the water allows it to act as a good amphitheater so people can hear. So he's teaching by the sea.

"And he was teaching them many things in parables, and he was saying to them in his teachings,

"Listen to this, behold the salt sore went out to sow.

And as he was sowing, some seed fell besides the road, and the birds came and ate them up. And other seeds fell on the rocky ground where it did not have much soil, and immediately sprang up because it had no depth of soil. And after the sun had risen, it was forked, and because it had no foot, it withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it yielded no froth. Other seeds fell into good soil, and as it grew up and increased, they yielded a froth and produced 30, 60, and 100 folks. And he said, he was saying, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." So he presents this parable. It talks about a sower going out and sowing seed, which shows somewhat as the sower is sowing the seed, he's not frugal with it. He's casting the seed out in a large area. He's not careful where it goes, he's casting it out. And it's landing on four different types of soil along the roadside in an area that has very little depth of soil, another place that thorns and grow up, and then finally it furls and heals. And so he's teaching this, and there's an essence, the sowers, the seed, and these four different types of soil. And he tells them, "If you have ears," last I checked I did, "we're supposed to hear, which means to understand and to listen." So he says, "This is something somewhat obvious, so you should hear this parable." And as soon as he was alone, his followers along with the 12 began asking him about the parable. So if you've never heard of this parable before and you don't quite understand what it means, don't feel too bad, because those who have been following him, Jesus, not only the 12, but other people who were following him, didn't have a clue what he meant.

And sometimes you just feel like that when you go to a class and they're teaching something and you just think it's over your head. And somewhat it's because they're used to talking about physical things, they're not talking about spiritual things, then Jesus is trying to use physical things to teach spiritual truth. And that's basically what a parable is. A parable is a story that has some spiritual truth to it. So at least the difference between his followers and the Pharisees and the scribes is guess what? When they didn't understand something, they asked him. The Pharisees and scribes, when they didn't like what Jesus said, argued amongst themselves. So the key thing for us to understand is when we don't understand something that Jesus is teaching, ask him rather than arguing with a bunch of non-believers. And he was saying to them, "You had been given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but those who are outside get everything in terrible." So he says, "You are going to be different than the others, because to you has been granted those mysteries. So I'm going to tell you what it means, but I'm not going to tell the other." And he's going to say, "Why?" So that while seen, they may not see and not perceive, and while hearing they may not

understand, otherwise they might return and be forgiven. Well, why is Jesus so harsh? I thought Jesus just loved us all. And I just thought Jesus just was this newly mount noble type of person who just so long as you thought good things about him, because they had committed the unpardonable sin. And God said, "I'm not forgiving you, so I'm not giving you the opportunity to repent because you're never going to understand anything." But because they've been given, the disciples have been given the information to reveal the mystery. And he said to them, "You not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?" So in essence, if will, this parable is kind of like a Rosetta Stone. It helps you to understand all the other parables that Jesus is going to teach. And if you don't have understanding of this one, then you won't necessarily understand the other. Kind of like I said, the reason the Rosetta Stone was so important because it had the language of the Greeks and the Romans and of the Egyptians. So they were able to figure out what the Egyptians meant because they had this translation ability. And so in essence, the parable of Thor is kind of like the translation authority of the other parables.

And again, if you don't understand this one, how are you going to understand the other?

Now, fortunately for you and me, Jesus is now going to explain the parable.

So I have in my studies earlier when I was reading various commentaries, there would be people who would talk about what the parable meant.

And they were wrong. Kind of reminds me of people who a person will write a story or a book.

And the author says the story is about duty versus love. That's the purpose. My theme is the tension between you being madly in love and your duty to do something.

And then the critics says, "No, that's not what it's about. It's about something else." Wait a minute. Who wrote the book? Who wrote the story? The person who wrote the book or the story is the expert on what the story is about. And so quite frankly, if you're reading a commentary and the commentary up to this point has anything other than read the rest of the chapter,

they don't know what you're talking about because Jesus is going to now explain this parable so that we will understand this parable and will help us to understand the other one. So he goes, "The Thor shows the Word." So it's a person who is delivering the Word and the Word is of God. It's the person who is in essence proclaiming that he's spreading the Word. And again, this Thor is not chintzy or cheap about his sewing. He cast it in a large area. It's kind of like in the various denominations there is people who are free will and people who are predestined. And so the people who are free will usually say, "Well, why do you preach to people if you believe that there's only certain people going to be saved? So why do you..." And then the people with other predestination people respond back, "Because I don't know who's predestined, so I preach to everybody." So it doesn't matter whether you're a free will or a predestined. The point is the sower sows the seed. And notice the responsibility of the sower. The responsibility of the sower is to sow the seed, not the growth. And now we're going to see what happens. And these are the ones who are beside the road where the Word is sown. And when they hear immediately, Satan comes and takes away the Word which has been sown. So the first group of people that we're talking about, the first type of the four types of ground is by the roadside, which usually the road is hard and whatever it is. In the parable, birds come and take it. And he goes, the birds represent Satan and he takes the Word away. If you've had any opportunity to ever discuss your faith with people who aren't believers, you probably run into these people.

You will have the same argument over and over and over as if you never had the first argument saying, "Well, the scripture says this." And then you have a discussion with them. It's like they never heard you say, "And the scripture says this," because they don't recall it because Satan has taken the Word away from them. They're constantly ignorant of the scriptures. So when you see that, the situation is this. It's not because you're a lousy communicator,

that they're by the throat side. You need to identify who we're talking to. So this group is one who Satan continues to take away. And in a similar way, these are the ones on whom the seed was sown on the rocky places. When they hear the Word, they immediately receive it with joy. Now we have all seen those people. They'll come to a Sunday night meeting or a Sunday morning or a worship time or whatever it is, and they receive the Word and they're all anxious and they're joyful and they're ecstatic in their response to who God is. And you think, "Wow." Now, if these people had real depth, those are outstanding because this may sound like a bad analogy, but you've ever heard about, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. You can, if you give them a puppy, get the old dog to be a little more moving. So sometimes in a church, new converts are great because they present energy because we don't... Praise God. Praise God. The new convertor goes, "Praise God." No, I can't believe what God is doing and they're excited about it. And that helps us out because we tend to just move along. But unfortunately, these people aren't, in essence, new converts because... And they have no firm root in themselves,

but are only temporary. Then when affliction or persecution arises because of the Word, they immediately fall away. So just because you see somebody responding, it seems emotionally and aesthetically, and what's happening doesn't necessarily mean they're a true believer.

That's why it is a mistake when churches will put a person who is a new believer or at least says he's the new believer into a role of authority. You don't take someone who's been at church three weeks and make them a Sunday school teacher. You observe them. You make sure that they're actually producing, that they're moving on, that they're not this person who... Because what happened? Because then the little kids who are there teaching all of a sudden were, "Where's my teacher?" Well, I saw them doing what they shouldn't be doing. Then all of a sudden, it's like, "Well, here's the Word of God." And so we need to observe. And so just because somebody seems to have some kind of positive response to the Word doesn't mean that they positively responded to the Word. Let life hit them. And others are the ones who have sown among the thorn. And these are the ones who have heard the Word, but the worries of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the Word and become unproof. Now notice there's three different possibilities of these thorns and that chokes off the Word. One may be the worries of the world. Now, if you do not have a worry of the world, you're probably not breathing because we all do. You may win the lottery Monday. I don't know if they do it Monday, whatever. It tells you how much I know. You win the lottery. Even if you win the lottery, what they say is over half the people win the lottery, go bankrupt. So apparently, they didn't know how to manage money, which was why they were dreaming to win the lottery to begin with or whatever, or they didn't have enough sense to manage their money and then worries back up. Or they win a bunch of money and they're worried somebody's going to take it. There's always worries. I remember I would settle a big case and get it and I'd pay all my bills. Thank you, Lord. I paid all the bills. I didn't have any left over. So now you worry again. That's life.

Except you shouldn't trust in the Lord, but there's always worries and the deceitfulness of riches. Well, if I just had

when is enough enough

take all the billionaires continue to make billions for all the millionaires to continue to take millions or the hundred thousand heirs. Nobody ever, it's kind of like you go out to dinner and you have a great meal and you're stuck. Then the server comes and says, "Would you like dessert?" And guess what you say, "Oh, I would love dessert," especially when they say, "On the menu is one of your favorite desserts." Let's say you like chocolate souffle.

Oh, they have chocolate souffle. I am stuck, but guess what? I'm not satisfied because I want chocolate souffle. There's always this deceitfulness that we can get more and it'll make us happy.

Billionaires can be more miserable than people with that barrier. So there's this deceitfulness of riches and the desire for others.

I would rather have this. That's why they all sound, "I would rather have Jesus

than riches." Who would you rather have? What would you rather do? And quite frankly, in this group of soil, the people opt out and say, "I would rather have other things than...

I would rather have Jesus and not know where my next meal is coming from. I would rather have Jesus and not know where my head is going to be laid. I would rather have him than these things."

But the desire for other things may be fame, fortune, power, all this. That's why...

And I'm not saying they're not believers, but it's so disappointing how many of the

popular artists that we listen to on the radio came from church.

They can bury fame. And I'm not knocking mean fame, but it seems that oftentimes they leave their roots and they get into involved in drugs and alcohol when their background in the church should have stopped them from doing that because of the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things. And while I'm glad they've been pursuing their dreams, maybe the opportunity to worship in church could present far more value. Because of that, they choke off the word and they become unfruit. They die. Just the difference between a weed and dead grass.

And those are the ones on whom the seed was thrown on the good soil. And they hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, 30, 60, and the hundredfold. He says the genuine believers are the ones who the seed hits rich fertile soil and they just don't grow, they produce fruit.

This is why this parable is so important for two understandings especially. Understanding number one, who we're ministering to. It is good for us to know that when we minister to other people, it doesn't matter so much about what we do. We are to sow the seed. The response of the various soils are the response of their various soils. It is not my fault that the seed falls on the roadside or my credit that it falls on good soil. I'm just supposed to sow the seed.

So stop taking on obligations that aren't yours. The growth of the seed is the Holy Spirit.

You may plant, other people may water and whatever, but the growth is not you and me. So stop and I think that's a part of the reason why we're oftentimes afraid. Well, maybe if I say the wrong thing, then whatever. Let me tell you, if a person is going to hell, what's worse than going to happen to them? They end up going to hell. So nothing you say

is going to necessarily harm that because they're going the wrong direction. Again, the responsibility is not yours. It is simply to eat the word.

And when we see genuine growth, then we praise God, but we also make sure that we don't get overly excited about the other two soils, about the ones that grow up immediately but then fall away or the others that get choked off by them. Again, not your situation. You presented the seed. They were the ones who decided that the peopleness of riches was what they were going after. Nor is it your claim to credit that they're producing fruit. You sow the seed. The seed produced the fruit. But then it's a personal thing as well. Not only do we use this parable to understand our ministry, we can also use it to look at ourselves.

If you keep going to Bible study after Bible study and you don't seem to understand what's going on, maybe you're along the road. Maybe what you ought to do is say, "Lord, come remove the road and start tilling the soil so that I might be good thought."

Or maybe if you see in your life that all of a sudden you were joyful about your initial response to Jesus, but now you've fallen away, maybe you should see yourself in that light and ask God to make you better. To do the things that none of us want. To toil the soil, to move it up, to make it more in depth

and no longer hard. Get rid of the rock. Or maybe say, "Lord, I need a gardener. I need these storm bushes out of my life so that I won't be choked off by the problems of life or the desires of life. Take those things away from me that I might be good thought."

And finally, "Are you producing fruit?

Are you producing fruit?" That's a question so many times we're all satisfied with saying, "Well, I went 100 Sundays without missing church." Wonderful. I'm glad. Lord knows it makes it a little easier for me for more people to be here than for less people to be here. So praise God, you showed up. But God's not oppressed with your attendance. Your attendance plus bearing fruit is what you need. Now, what fruit?

You guys get me back to John. Notice what Jesus says. "I am the true vine and my father is the vine dress. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. We as believers are vines, the purpose of which is to bear fruit, not to look pretty as a leafy branch. And so we are designed to be connected to Jesus to bear fruit. And if we don't bear fruit, he gets rid of us. If we do bear fruit, guess what he does? He prunes us. He cuts us back. Why? Because a plant, a tree, a vine, its desire is to grow itself. So it produces more branches and more leaves and more branches and more leaves. But the more branches and leaves, it's using all of its energy to grow, but not produce fruit. So when you prune it, it then cuts back so that it spends its energy producing fruit.

So when sometimes when things happen in our lives, we're going, "God, why me?" Because maybe he's pruning so that we don't spend all of our effort growing, but producing fruit.

So sometimes those tears may seem to hurt, but it's for our benefit. Now, what is fruit?

If you were to hear an evangelist, they'd say, "You're Christian." Why? Because they're evangelists, and they want to produce more Christians. And so their thought is, "The only thing I'm thinking about is fruit is you're Christian." That's not necessarily what the Bible says. It is true. The translation says this, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,

patience, kindness, goodness, faith, and gentleness, self-control." Those are the fruit of the Spirit. Those are the things that we should be looking at in our lives and say, "Do I love more than I did yesterday? Do I have more peace than I did yesterday? Do I have more joy than I did yesterday?"

Self-control. We can put that last one to the list as it did. Gentleness.

So oftentimes we want to judge ourselves by what we do rather than who we are.

Jesus came to change who we are, not necessarily what we do. You can be a doctor, lawyer, baker, candlestick maker before you were a Christian and then after you were Christian.

But what type of doctor, lawyer, baker, candlestick maker are you now that you've been in front of the church? You have more love in what you do. You have more joy in what you do. You have more peace in what you do. You have more kindness. And again, kindness, you hear, they've kind of stopped it because apparently it's not in to be kind. But it used to be, "Commit random act of kindness." I'm going, "No, no. Be systematic. Always be kind."

Which means sometimes I have to be kind even if I don't want to.

You may deserve me not to be kind.

I certainly think so. But that's not the fruit of the Spirit.

That's such an underused word. That word always harken me back when I was a little girl. And early days in my family, it was just Libby, me and Joe who at that time was going to spot. He was a baby. We went to Virginia and my uncle had a chicken rack. Those of you from Nevada think something different. But it was where little chicks showed up. And then all of a sudden by the time they were grown, the whole building, we had like two of them, were full. And then you took them off and you would buy a foster farm or whatever and you'd eat them. Well, they delivered a bunch of little chicks. And Joe got, had one in his hand and he started to squeeze it. And our response was gentle because there was, you can't say gentle me. And so you're trying to communicate. Don't squeeze the depth out.

And that's kind of like we need, we don't want to break anything. We don't want to be against such things. There is no law.

No one tells you you can't love. No one tells you you can't be absolute. Now they may shut up.

You can tell me, but I can't do it.

Have self-control is something that's self-control. Gentleness is something that I am, these are the things that we are. And so again, this parable tells us

that we are to inspector what type of ground are we.

And then knowing, assuming that we are the ground that produces fruit, we say, hey Lord, thank you that I am the good ground. And I understand while I'm producing fruit

that you will prune me that I might produce more fruit. Because a lot of times we get stuck on things like that. We emphasize because again, Jesus says greater love than no man's in this, that he laid down his life for his friends and you are my friend. And Jesus says, I do commandment, I give you that you love one another as I love you. And Paul has told us the greatest of faith, love and hope is love. And so we concentrate on that. And we ought to, because that kind of sets a certain aspect to ourselves. But we then tend to forget about the other things about joy. Well, what does the word of God say? Rejoice always. Again, I say rejoice.

Why is it that they're having to tell us these things, that those are the things that we're supposed to be?

Pretental self-control. All of these things we are, there's no one says, okay,

I'm going to obey the speed laws and I'm going to drive my car on the freeway at no greater than 65 miles an hour because I'm following the law. I can tell you, God has told you to love one another.

Does the law, because God made the law, say that you're loving one another?

Something that we do in response to what's done, not because he's told us what he's expected of us, but that doesn't mean we do what he's expecting. There's no law. So this bearing of fruit is not because we do it, but because we are producing fruit. When you have an apple tree, it produces apple. It doesn't produce an ant. Have a lemon tree. Yes, you can make lemonade.

Have the things that they are what they are because that's what they are.

But maybe we should inspect what type of fruit we're having. Are we having the fruit of the spirit or are we having fruit of the fruit? The likes of disrupting, tilting, destroying, or are we ones who want to build love? Okay, the better not for us, the more down.

Spreading the seed, the word of God on good thought produces great.

Not a responsibility of what falls on the other side. And so, brothers and sisters, let God handle the apple.

Because his love awakens me, produces fruit that I might then so see.

Because an apple tree produces apple, yes, so that we might eat it. But what also does an apple tree produce? Seeds. Produce other apple trees. It produces fruit to be eaten and seeds continue. So as we produce fruit and spread the seeds, yes, it produces fruit, which then produces seeds, which then produces fruit, which then produces seeds. So I encourage you to not be discouraged by thought. Let God deal with the root of his soul.