July 2, 2017 - Parable of the Sower

TONY & MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit…

Mark 4:20a

Have you ever heard of a parable?  A parable is a story used to teach a moral or spiritual lesson.  Jesus quite often used parables to teach his followers a lesson that they couldn't have understood without the story.  Today, we are going to talk about a parable Jesus told His

followers as they came to hear His teachings by the sea. There were so many people that Jesus had to get into a boat and push it out into the water a little bit so He would have room.  

Jesus began to tell them a parable about a sower (someone who scatters seeds).  As the sower went along, some of his scattered seed fell on the path. Before they could grow, the birds came down and ate it.

Some of the seeds landed on soil that had a lot of rocks.  The seeds grew quickly but, since there wasn't much soil because of the rocks, the plants didn't have many roots and they died.

Some seeds fell on soil that had plants with thorns.  These thorns grew up with the sower's plants and choked them.  So these seeds couldn't grow well either.

Finally, some of the seeds fell on good soil and grew up strong and healthy.  These plants produced much grain. With that, the parable ended.

Afterwards, Jesus' Apostles came to him and asked what the parable meant.  Jesus began to explain that the seeds being scattered by the sower were actually the Word of God.  The different kinds of soil were the hearts of the people that heard it.

The seeds that fell on the path were like the times when people would hear the Word of God but then Satan would come and steal it from their hearts before it could grow.  Satan tries to convince people who hear that it isn't actually true so they ignore it. 

The seeds that fell on the rocky ground were like people who hear the Word of God and happily accept it for a while. Then Satan attacks them with hard times or sends someone to treat them badly.   Being a Christian becomes too hard for them.  These people's hearts were too hard and the Word of God could not grow many roots so they gave up on God.

The seeds that fell in the thorns were like people who accept the Word of God at first, but then they decide that other things are more important.  Instead, they decide to love money or things more than God.  The Word of God can't grow in their hearts either because the their love for God was choked by their love for other things.

The seeds that fell on the good soil are like the people who hear the Word of God, accept it, and whose lives produce the fruit of the Word of God.  The Bible says that the Fruit of the Spirit are Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, and Self-control.

We need to make sure that our hearts are good soil so

that the Word of God can grow inside of us.  Then we can bear fruit.  The fruit that we bear produces more seeds of the Word of God that we can spread to others.  Let us pray that the places we spread the seed is full of good soil.