This parable in Mark 4:1-20 has never been called the parable of the soils. It is of the sower.
It is a parable about the sower. God is sowing his seed into the world. His sowing was behind all the past saints and behind the present and future saints of you and me. His sowing into the world.
God's persistent sowing:
We think about Moses: If we took a snap shot of his life when he murdered the Egyptian. Aren’t you glad (and Moses as well) that he was not defined on that day as one who the bird ate up the seed? But God kept sowing seed into his life and he became the deliver of Israel.
Gideon was in the pit, fearful, scared, afraid and cowardly. A snap shot of his life at that time and he would be defined as one who in the worries and anxieties of the day, the seed was snatched away. But God kept sowing seeds into his life and he became one that the Angel declared as a mighty warrior.
Saul of Taurus was holding the cloaks of those who stoned Stephen to death. If he was identified by that one moment in his life it would be a person of a hard heart. God kept sowing seed into Saul (Paul) and he became the great missionary of the Gospel of Jesus Christ into the world.
Peter,in the temple court yard denied Jesus three times. Defined by that moment in his life he would be labeled one who the thorns and persecution choked his faith away. But again, God kept sowing into Peter and he became the one who declared of Jesus, “You are the Christ, the Son of God, and who Jesus said, “Upon this Rock I will build my church.
The real story of Peter, Paul, Moses, and so many others in the Bible is not about a particular day and the soil of their heart, but the extravagant sowing of God into their lives.
Some of you have heard my testimony. I was 34 years old when I came to Christ. Many snap shots in my life the soil of my heart was choked, snatched, thin, unable to hear God. However God never stopped sowing in my life. And you are not defined by a particular time or act of the soil of your heart. God has never given up on any of you but he consistently is sowing into your life. Whether your heart is like a fertile plowed field not, or a hard parking lot.
Here is the thing: it is the weeds, thorns, rocks, shallow soil that are the target of the sower. He is we not sowing the seeds there carelessly, but on purpose.
I need his seed sowed in me when the soil in my heart is good to produce fruit 30, 60,10 times, Without the Holy Spirit I can produce nothing,
However, I need His seed sowed in me, maybe even more so, when my heart is hard, when I am chocking, and I am under pressure and persecution
Again, The real story about them and this story is:
That God’s sowing is more consistent than the Devil’s snatching
His sowing is more powerful than the devil’s eating
His sowing is more enduring than the devil’s tribulation
His sowing is more persistent then the devil’s choking
My family, I pray you remember this morning that who you are, how you are defined and your story is not defined by a snap shot of your life of the soil of your heart, but as one who is never abandoned of foretokened, and one in whom God is constantly sowing into His seeds of the Gospel of his love and grace. Please pray the same for me. God bless you my freinds!
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