Mon, Jul 25th - 11:54PM

Mark 4:3-9

The Sower

3 “Listen! A farmer went out to sow his seed.

4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up.

5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow.

6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root.

7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain.

8 Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.”

9 Then Jesus said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.”

Commentary

There are four types of seed "placement" in this story: "Wayside", "Stony", "Thorny" and "Good" ground.

 But before we can address the ground, the first thing to notice is what happened at the very beginning of this story.  Before there could be any "placement" of the seed, the farmer had to first “go out”.  The bible says this farmer began  by leaving the comfort of his living area to work a field.

 Next, notice the farmer's diligence.  The fact that seed landed in a variety of "grounds" denotes the farmer's repeated action in sowing.  Had the farmer stood in one spot, or perhaps spread only one handful of seed and then gone back in the house, all of his seed would be in one ground.  However, he spread across what must have been a vast field.   As a result, his seed found its way into multiple locations.

 Last thing to note before we look at the ground is to notice the most consistent part of the story;the seed.  The seed is the same from the beginning of the story to the end. Notice that, with no change in the seed, the results varied from one type of ground to the next proving that the farmer did not have bad seed... just some areas  of his field containing difficult and unmanageable ground.  In this story, produce is not determined by the seed; but by the ground.

 What is the seed?  The seed is the word of God. How do we sow it?  We sow with our mouths (or in this case, with a laptop computer).

 The Word of God is seed.  God sowed His Word in the beginning of this world... and now we have the opportunity to sow His word in our fields. God's Word will not return to Him void; however, once we sow it, the enemy of God will come to steal it (Matt. 13:19).

But Satan's effectiveness in stealing seed is not determined by the seed, but by our type of ground. So now lets look at the three types of ground....

 "Wayside" ground is ground that's far off of the path.  Jesus said this type of ground provides nothing but food for birds.  "Stoney" ground can't produce because it is too hard to receive seed; or at least, too hard to receive it deep enough to take root.  Any produce sprouting from stony ground will have a short shelf-life... it'll be short-lived produce.

 And "Thorny" ground is too cluttered to produce.  Clutter pulls all the  resources away from the seed chocking the life out of it.   But "Good" ground produces fruit in varying quantities: 30, 60 or 100 times what was planted.

 So the question is; #1). What kind of ground are you? and #2). What kind of ground are you placing your seed into?