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    Aug 21, 2022

    What Kind of Soil Are You?

    Passage: Matthew 13:3-23

    Preacher: Steven Munson

    Keywords: productivity, heart, harvest, fruitfulness, soils

    Summary:

    In this message we're confronted with the reality that we are one or more of the soils talked about in Jesus' parable. How are we to deal with ourselves and others given these different soil types?

    Detail:

                Let’s pray before we get started.

                For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Steven, my wife Katie and daughter Ellie have been coming to Mosaic for about 5 years. Most of my time is spent teaching music to all grades of kids down in Rosalia south of town about 1/2 hour. I met Andrew and Katie back in 2010 at Whitworth, so that’s how we ended up here. Pastor John asked me at some point last year if I would be interested in preaching at some point. So here I am. And I’m actually preaching on the same passage that John did about 4 years ago, so there will be some overlap (for those of you who keep track). But it’s an incredibly relevant passage our current state of Christianity in America, and to me, and also to you. We’ll be looking at an unusual, yet familiar, passage of Scripture that represents every person in this room. I’m hoping it will be very practical in the end. Here we go!

                In the beginning of July I went with Katie and Ellie and Katie’s parents to visit her grandma in Minnesota, and on the way back, driving across the miles and miles and miles of ranches and farms in Montana, we found my great-grandfather JD’s homestead outside of Conrad. My grandpa Merwin, the youngest of 9 kids, ended up with the farm and that’s where my dad was born.

                Well, Grandpa Munson had a couple bad years in a row in the late 50s. 2 years where they planted their wheat and they barely got enough of a harvest to make ends meet. When a farmer plants a crop, he knows not every seed will germinate, and not every year will yield a bumper crop, but he does expect there will be a harvest so he can 1) feed his family (literally); 2) pay for household and farm expenses; and 3) plant the next year. If a crop doesn’t produce, he can 1) Try again the same way and just pray for better weather conditions; 2) Try again, but do something different to amend the soil get rid of weeds or sow a different variety; or 3) Up and leave and get into construction business in southern California. Which is what Grandpa did.

                In a way, a sown seed is symbol of hope for the future. Something that will reproduce. Life goes on. There will be another harvest.

                In Matthew 13, Jesus was staying at a lake house on the Sea of Galilee, and as so often happen, was surrounded by people. There was such a mess of people he was forced to hop into a boat in the water, tethered to the shore, where everyone could see and hear him, and he tells this everyday story about a farmer and how the seeds grew. Matthew 13, verses 3-8:

    Matthew 13:3-8; 18-23

    “3b ‘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. …

                So a farmer is planting seeds, and some of them don’t grow at all, some grow for awhile but aren’t productive, and some are very productive. And THIS, this is great: Jesus gives us the insider scoop just a few verses later. Sometimes I wish every verse in the Bible had an explanatory footnote, but usually they don’t. Verses 18-23

    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.”

                So the sower is someone who spreads the Gospel (the word of the kingdom), and some people don’t believe at all, some people seem to believe but don’t stick with it when the going gets tough (and it WILL get tough, Jesus tells us this in John 15), some stick with it but don’t produce fruit, and some are extremely fruitful and multiply dozens of times over. But all of the people here have had an opportunity to hear the Gospel, and all of them respond to it in some way. Let’s dig in to each of these responses, and see if you can determine where you fit in this parable, and what you need to do going forward.

    1. The first response is the one who hears but doesn’t accept the Gospel. The first guy might be the coworker at work who, when you share about how God has changed your life, says, “Huh. Good for you.” and goes back to typing on his computer. OR, it may be someone who hears the Gospel but just doesn’t understand it and needs someone to explain it to him. It could be someone who heard a one-off presentation of the Gospel in their village but has questions that remain unanswered.
            According to this passage, it’s not just that they are unreceptive in that moment, but there is a spiritual battle going on. Verse 19 “He does not understand it and the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart.” The devil is involved, and the devil (or evil one as this passage calls him) doesn’t want the seed of the Gospel to take root. So, at least at the moment, there is no response to the Gospel. We might call this person the “hard-hearted” hearer of the word. Many of these people don’t go to church since they get nothing out of it and aren’t interested in hearing what the preacher has to say. Or, perhaps, they simply need it to be explained in terms that they can easily understand.
      1. Can you think of anyone you know who fits into this category? Anyone who has maybe heard but not received the Gospel at all? A family member, a coworker, a neighbor. That person should be on your prayer list, by the way. We’re fighting a spiritual battle and THEY likely don’t know it. The devil is fighting for their soul and we should be too.
    1. The second type of hearer identifies what we might call “cultural Christians.” Christianity is just what they believe because it’s convenient to them, or what they grew up knowing. They maybe even had an emotional experience at one point when they first responded the gospel and were excited about all that God was going to do in their life. And it even looked like an authentic conversion - the seed in the parable grows. Actually it doesn’t just grow; it “Rapidly sprang up.” WOW! What a conversion! They started going to church, they stopped cussing and cheating on their taxes, maybe, and, God bless ‘em, they even started serving in kids’ They shaped up and things looked GREAT. Green and growing. Until things got tough. Affliction and persecution came in. The Greek word for affliction here means any kind of pressure or outside burden. Persecution, of course, has to do with painful circumstance BECAUSE OF following Christ.
            There didn’t seem to be an authentic inner transformation, no “real root” as Jesus puts it. Because when the going gets tough - when external pressures like sickness, harassment for their faith, changing cultural norms, highly intelligent professors mocking Christian beliefs, any kind of pressure that could put a wedge between them and God - they fold. They don’t stick with it. They jump ship. They decide that, for whatever reason, it’s just not worth it.
            But wait a minute. Weren’t they convinced that God had saved their souls from eternal damnation? Didn’t they see that Jesus gave his LIFE to rescue them? Don’t they know that God loves them and will work out every thing, good and evil, for the good of those that love Him? And yeah, things got tough, but haven’t they read Psalms? The book of Psalms preaches over and over about the incessant difficulties of life, and yet also remind us of the ever more powerful steadfastness and faithfulness of God in the midst of those difficulties. What happened to these believers? Did they truly believe at all, or was it just a façade? Well, God knows.
            There’s been a lot of talk over the past 50 years, and especially the past 10-20 years, about people abandoning the church. Young people, especially. All these Pew and Gallup research polls that show that people are less and less likely to go to church, and WAY less likely to believe the truth of the Bible, than 50 years ago. Why is that? Most of you are older than me and have been able to see the shift happen in cultural values over time. I’m not going to dive into my guesses as to why, but one thing is for certain: People are less likely to believe in the transformative power of the saving life of Christ, the exclusivity of the Gospel, or the value and dependability of His word the Bible. I think Adam Ford might be on point with this comic though. This is the guy who started the Babylon Bee made Christian comics before he got into the Fake News Biz.
            We all know people who fit into this category too: The seed that grows well at first but eventually seems to peter out when life gets tough. One standout in my life is a younger student in grad school, an amazing horn player, a sweet young lady from Minnesota, who won an audition at a major symphony orchestra by age 23. Her dad was a pastor. She grew up in the church. But in high school her parents got divorced, and in college she decided that since God couldn’t keep her parents together, God must have been a fraud, so she was going to explore other belief systems, other avenues. She was going to live her own life. A seed was sown, but that divorce wrenched her life apart. The seed had even been grown and nurtured for years, but the plant seemed to just shrivel up and die. Did she believe at all? Maybe. God knows, and we have to let Him be the judge.
            Maybe this describes you. If it does, I’m so glad you’re here. Take courage: God isn’t done with you yet. God is in the business of healing broken people. And for all of us, I’m sure we all know someone like this too. Maybe someone close. It is heartbreaking to see someone abandon their faith. PRAY for them. And stay connected, especially if it’s someone you’ve known for a long time. They need to see that the power and love of Christ is in YOU. It could be that they are looking for evidence that the Cross is real. That the life of Christ is powerful and can change lives. That we can trust God at His Word. That we, as professing believers, actually care enough about them to live out the Christian life that we claim to believe in. Which takes us to the third seed.
    2. The third seed, the third hearer of the word, is the one sown among the thorns. It actually grows pretty well; it takes root, it endures, looks like it’s growing, and, at least as far as we know, it doesn’t die; it just gets choked and never really produces any fruit. I think this one describes the majority of churchgoers in our culture. We could get into a whole discussion as to whether this represents Christians at all, but for the sake of this sermon, let’s just agree that these are people who would at least confess Jesus as the Messiah and say that they believe in him.
            These are the people who hear the word, and “the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.” The worry of the world, and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Notice what is different about this compared with the second type of seed: The second one experiences outside pressures: persecution and affliction. Here, though, it’s not so much those outside pressures as it is attitudes and personal priorities. It’s unfruitful due to worries and money. Doesn’t that sound like us? Honestly, that sounds a lot like me. Maybe it sounds like you, too.
            Mark’s Gospel reads this way in 4:18-19: “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 it becomes unfruitful.” Did you catch that? What’s the other thing Mark’s account includes? _____ The desires for other things… We aren’t being fruitful because of what? Is it because we are so possessed by the pursuit of the comforts of life, getting richer, could we even say pursuing the American Dream, building our retirement portfolios, worrying about whether the government is going to crack down on this or that…. All of us, if we’re honest, have some weeds that keep us from bearing as much fruit as we could. So let’s dig into this one a little deeper.
            The worry of the world, or the cares of this world. Anybody here worried about anything? Name some things. What are you, or your family members or neighbors, worried about? What have you heard recently? ___ ______ _____ We have so many things to worry about. In fact, we could spend all day obsessing about the uncertainties of the future. We hope things will go a certain way, but it looks like they might not go that way. And that’s really what worry is: If a measure of our hope is in something uncertain, then we open up our hearts to worry.
            Where is our hope? If it’s in anything besides God, we will be worried. If our hope is in personal safety and living a long life, we’ll be worried about the threats of criminals, lack of support for law enforcement, and civil unrest. If our hope is in living comfortably, then anything that negatively impacts our stuff or our portfolio will cause worry. If it’s in being able to live out the Christian life without pushback from our neighbors: well, unfortunately, we’ll probably be worried that people WILL push back, and in all of these cases, we will not produce the fruit that we could. Those weeds will hamper our spiritual growth. Our production value will be less than anticipated. What does God say about worry? “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself” (Matthew 6:34). Here’s another familiar verse, that instructs us to pray in the midst of being worried: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, worry late into the night since God doesn’t care about you….. no, present your requests to God.” (Philippians 4:6).
            So worry chokes out this seed. How about the deceitfulness of wealth, or the desire for other things? Some of us may be tempted to think that wealth or financial gain are inherently evil. After all, “Money is the root of all evil.” Right? Actually… who can fix that. How does that verse actually go? _________ The Bible also says in 1 Timothy 6 that God “richly supplies us with all things to enjoy”? Here’s how the whole verse goes. “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.” Not to set their hope on the uncertainty of riches. (1 Timothy 6:17)
            Jesus doesn’t say to beware wealth or things: what does he warn us about? ____- _______ He warns us about the DECEITfulness of wealth, and the DESIRE for other things. And Paul warns rich people not to think highly of themselves because of their status. Wealth deceives. When we’re deceived, we don’t usually notice unless someone points out the truth. Money lies to us. It tells us that it can take care of us. Right? That it can supply our every need. That it will be there when we lose our job or the house burns up or XYZ. That it can get us food and health care. But that’s a lie. Even if our money doesn’t get stolen or lose its value, it’s still uncertain. Proverbs 18:10-12 says this about the deceitfulness of riches “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe. 11 A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, And like a high wall in his own imagination. 12 Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, but humility goes before honor.” The rich man is proud of his status and trusts in his wealth, but what happens to him? Destruction. Not good. Who is the only one we can trust to take care of us? ____ God, of course. 1 Timothy, again: Set your hope on GOD, who supplies. Don’t be deceived. God loves you, and will take care of you. Trust in Him, not your stuff.
            Back to our passage - what about the DESIRE for other things? Does it say the desire for bad things? The desire towards sin or evil? No, no it doesn’t. There are so many interesting, cool, inspiring, and in many cases GOOD things in this world. Beautiful, wonderful things even. But if our desire for those other things chokes out our fire, restricts us from doing the most good in this world, then isn’t it…. not actually so good? That’s a mismatched priority.
            So the real problem here is that all the other stuff going on in life is keeping us from producing fruit. What kind of fruit is Jesus talking about? Well, it appears from this parable that the fruit is spiritual reproduction. That is, producing more seeds that can be planted so the harvest can be multiplied. The believer in effect becomes a sower - proliferating the life of Christ in others. Let’s dig into this idea of bearing fruit with the fourth seed, which falls on GOOD soil.
    3. The sower expects that when he sows a seed, there will be a crop worth sowing. Grandpa Munson was expecting a good harvest but 2 years in a row there was very little to harvest. But this 4th seed lands on good soil, this is the man who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and brings forth, some one, some two, some three….. no! a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty.” Bearing not just a little fruit. Bearing serious fruit, so there is NO QUESTION that it was productive. And some bears more or less, but all substantial.
            The Bible has all kinds of things to say about bearing fruit, which often has to do with good deeds generally, but in this passage, it appears that it is specifically dealing with spreading the Gospel further. The seeds that are harvested are the very same seeds that can be used to plant a new crop. And in Mark’s account, it is followed immediately by the parable of the lamp: “And He was saying to them, ‘A lamp is not brought to be put under a basket, is it, or under a bed? Is it not brought to be put on the lamp stand?” (Mark 4:21) It is ridiculous to think of a lamp being brought out and lit only to be covered up, because it can’t spread its light that way. A light needs to shine so that others can see. It’s equally absurd to think of a seed being planted to grow into a useless stalk with no fruit. Fruit is the means by which many plants reproduce, and without fruit it’s impossible for the plant to spread to new places. So the question is: are you bearing good fruit, faithfully sharing the Good News of the Gospel with others? Or, are you being throttled in your spiritual walk and bearing just a little fruit, if any? We need to exhort one another unto good works. Be encouraging each other, holding each other accountable for having spiritual conversations. It’s hard, but is truly essential, is the ESSENCE, the REASON, the PURPOSE, for us to continue living.
            Does anybody here know the Great Commission from Matthew 28? How does it go? ________ 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to… _______ obey everything I have commanded you…” And of course that’s not quite all that’s there. There’s 2 other important things in the Great Commission. 1) Jesus says, “I am with you ALWAYS” and 2) Jesus sends His disciples with the Authority that has been given to Him. ALL Authority, He says. Having been given all authority in heaven and earth, Jesus sent out His disciples to make disciples, baptize them, and teach them to obey His commands. And in case they get nervous about all of this, Jesus promises to be with them always. And by the way, this isn’t just when they are in clusters together. We often thank God when praying together that “Where 2 or 3 are gathered” He is there. But the believer has the Holy Spirit within him or her. He is with YOU, individually, whether or not someone else is there. When Richard Wurmbrand, the founder of Voice of the Martyrs, was being tortured alone in a Romanian communist prison, there is no question that God was with Him. You don’t need multiple Christians together to have Jesus with you. But I digress.
            Bearing fruit for Jesus is to walk with Him alongside you, and there are many promises associated with this. Quickly, Matthew 10 has many things to say about this:
      1. We need not be afraid, but we will be tempted to.
      2. God promises to take care of us, whether or not we feel adequately prepared
      3. We will need to endure… Which also means that we will have trials to endure as a result of a life lived publicly for God.
      4. Every day that we are still living, God has a purpose for us. He WILL sustain us until he’s ready to take us home.

                The ultimate reason for us to go on living is to live out this Great Commission, sharing the Gospel so that others may know that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing they may have life in His name. Becoming a new sower of the seed we’ve been entrusted with, that has taken root in our own lives.

    So many of us have piles of weeds that are hampering us from bearing the fruit that God has called us to bear. He’s sent us into all the world as his ambassadors, his emissaries, even rescuers, to take His official message to others who need to hear it. I’d like to leave you with an excerpt from this book by Ron Hutchcraft called, “A Life That Matters,” which I highly recommend. Mosaic gave away a bunch of free copies a couple years ago, and I never got around to reading it until just recently. In fact, confession, It’s been sitting on my nightstand, and I knew it would be super convicting, so I just ignored it all that time. The Holy Spirit, I believe, had been tapping on my heart to open it up and see what Ron had to say… Let’s not keep hardening our hearts to being open to share the Gospel and learning how to do it. Here’s what this book says:

    Moviegoers and book readers will remember [the images of the Titanic sinking beneath the icy Atlantic waters]. But of all the mental pictures of what author Walter Lord called A Night to Remember, none is more unsettling to me than what happened after the Titanic disappeared below the surface. The survivor accounts of that night tell us that there were only 20 lifeboats aboard–about half the number required to fully evacuate the ship. Most of them were only partially full; some were actually half-empty! As the Titanic was sinking, many passengers were able to put on a life jacket, but they could not find an available lifeboat. They jumped or fell into the ocean, left floating in the frigid waters, crying into the night for help.

    Again, there was room in the lifeboats for hundreds of them! That is why their fate is perhaps the most shocking human tragedy of that heartrending night when fifteen hundred people died. As those in the water continued to cry out for someone to rescue them, the people in the lifeboats just kept rowing away. They thought rescue was too risky. So out of those twenty lifeboats, only one finally turned back, in time to save only six passengers. Three days later when the funeral ships arrived from Nova Scotia, they were greeted by…: 328 life-jacketed men, women and children, floating in the water, frozen to death. And why did they die? Not because the Titanic sank, but because the people who were already saved would not go back to rescue others. ……..

    That image cuts through my soul like cold steel. Could this be a spiritual picture of us: the people who are already saved doing nothing about the dying people all around us? By God’s grace we are in the Jesus lifeboat, saved and headed for heaven. But all around us — where we work, where we live, where we shop or go to school — are people who will die spiritually unless someone rescues them. Some of them are people you know, people you love, people within your reach.

    Who is within your reach? Where are you called to sow new seeds? Let’s close in prayer

     

    Sermon brainstorming for August 21st

    Matthew 10:24-42 (and whole chapter)

    • Value, cost and reward of obedience to the Great Commission
    • “Do not fear” - and there seems to be a very real reason to fear (severed relationships, death threats, pain) - “as sheep among wolves” “but WHEN they hand you over, do not worry…” “you will be hated by all”
    • God promises to take care of us - trust him
      • At that time, disciples were told to take NOTHING with them (except clothes on back) as they went throughout towns and villages.
    • Confessing, PROCLAIMING before men, no matter the cost
    • Question: Do I love them enough to risk my feelings, comfort, job, my very life - to share the good news with them?
      • Follow-up: Even if I don’t, am I willing to obey God, who has called me to love him and others in obedience?
      • Do I love God EVEN MORE than my family? (vs 37)
    • The one who endures. Endures what? The trials that come from a life lived publicly for God. If we’re not living for God, Satan is content to let us do our thing. If we’re making a difference for God, then trials will come.
    • Every day that we are still living, God has a purpose for us. He will sustain us until he’s ready to take us home.
    • Taking up your cross

    Parable of the soils (Matthew 13)

    • Most of us are choked by “deceitfulness of wealth, worry of the world”
    • What weeds

    Proverbs 18:10-12 deceitfulness of riches “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous runs into it and is safe. 11 A rich man’s wealth is his strong city, And like a high wall in his own imagination. 12 Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, but humility goes before honor.

    Parable of the Talents (Mt 25) - God has given each a talent. A seed to sow. He expects that we  will use it and be fruitful!

    Proverbs 11:24-26, 30(?) “There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. 25 The generous man will be prosperous, and he waters will himself be watered. 26 He who withholds grain, the people will curse him, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it. … 30 The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise wins souls.”

    Life that Matters

    • we are on a rescue mission (like Moses, and Jesus), which may involve abandoning personal comfort and safety
    • God has hardwired us to want to live for Him
      • This leads to restlessness in many of us, or a “holy discontentment,” where we feel like we’re missing some of our purpose in life, when we AREN’T actually living for Him. Sure, we live for Him here and there, and make him part of our routines in life, but our life isn’t centered on serving him
    • Bottom of 19. “Who am I?” says Moses. God says, “No, Who am I?”
    • Greatest difference we can make in this life: to help someone get to heaven
    • Proverbs 24:11, -12 “Deliver those who are being taken away to death, and those who are staggering to slaughter, Oh hold them back. 12 If you say, “See, we did not know this,” does He not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does He not know it who keeps your soul? And will He not render to man according to his work?”
    • pg 22-23 Many, many people on Titanic died b/c the lifeboats being rowed away were 1/2 empty
    • WHY? Why are we more interested in being comfortable, improving our own lives than rescuing others? pg 24
      • 2 Cor 5:15 (pg 24) “that we might no longer live for ourselves…”
      • pg 25 We don’t see lost people physically dying from their sin
    • Am I actually following Jesus?
    • top of 28: Destiny of those around me apart from God
    • Spurgeon quote on 29
    • Christ’s ambassadors (30)
      • Given AUTHORITY, and ABILITY, by GOD to carry his message, purpose to others
    • Most people become believers as children… but could we be involved in helping more adults in the world, in the workplace, in our neighborhood come to know Christ? (35-37)
    • Esther 4:16 “If I perish, I perish” (40)
    • 44-45 Clever disguise worksheet. “I’m an ambassador of Jesus Christ cleverly disguised as a music teacher and professional musician.”

    We need to exhort one another unto good works

    Not even a crop compared with the 4th soils. A farmer would ask, is it even worth trying to harvest? We sometimes hear about farmers who don’t harvest because it would cost more to harvest than they could make from selling the produce. I’ve never experienced that, but it sounds pretty demoralizing.