Sermon teaser–A New Feature…if I can remember it.  I hope to publish every Thursday a snippet from the upcoming sermon on Sunday.  This shouldn’t be too difficult for me because even though I preach everything from memory without notes, I manuscript everything and I am usually three weeks ahead.  This particular section is from about 2/3 through and comes after the outstandingly awesome visual I have planned and before the key application.

SOILS AND RESPONSIBILITY  

Most people call this “The Parable of the Sower” because it starts with the sower going out to sow and most people, myself included, believe the sower is God or the person who is bringing the gospel of God.  But I don’t like that title so much.  I much prefer the title “The Parable of the Soils” for this section of Scripture because it gets to the point.  The point is not the sower, the point is the soils.

The soils, are us and our heart.  The truth of this account is that different people hear and respond to the gospel in different ways.  In fact, Jesus uses four responses—four types of soils which match rather nicely the four responses we saw in Mark 3 last week.  If you will remember we found in Mark 3 that the responses ranged from very positive, positive, negative, to very negative.  It’s a match here.  The very negative is the path (eaten), the negative is the rocky soil (shallow), the positive is the thorns (at least they grow), and the very positive is the bumper crop.

I admit my bias toward liberty, freewill, and responsibility.  The only way I understand this text is if I believe that I have a constant and never ending responsibility in the context of the free will God gives to me to safeguard the soil of my heart.  Any of these troubles with the soil Jesus talks about can creep up on me at any time.

• I am always just a hairs breath away from letting the cares of the word choke off the spiritual oxygen.
• I am just one or two bitter tantrums from become hard and rocky and severing the roots that provide nourishment and hydration.
• I am never too far away from letting the world walk right over me and trample me into a hard and de-sensitized soul vulnerable to the attacks of the evil one.