The Parable of the Sower

A 17-year old was sitting in his truck one day, when another teen approached him with a Bible. During the conversation, the teen sitting in the truck was asked to read passage from Romans. He recalls that what he read made no sense to him and that he had little interest in it. A companion of the teen who gave him the Bible came over and ushered him away because he felt it was a waste of time. Then there is the young man who was going through difficult times in his life. He was engaged in a conversation with a Christian, but admitted that he wasn't trying to hear anything the Christian was saying to him, despite accepting a Bible tract to read. Another young man was raised in a Christian home and was confirmed in his family's religion. He really didn't know much about the Lord or even the Gospel, for that matter. The majority of the time he would sit in church daydreaming because he often didn't understand the messages being delivered. In explaining the meaning of the Parable of the Sower, Jesus said, "The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved (Luke 8:11-12)." The first two examples given reflect people who can be considered "those by the wayside," who hear the word of God, but who have it taken out of their hearts because of the devil. When someone doesn't feel they have a need for God, they have no interest in His Word or the things of God. Therefore, when they are approached by someone with the word of God and the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, at best they will just tolerate the message, but won't really allow anything to sink in and take root. Jesus would then say, "But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away (Luke 8:13)." The last example describes a person who received the word with joy, at least to the point he called himself a Christian, but it didn't take root. When they encounter the ups and downs of life, they abandon their faith.

What became of the three people mentioned in the examples above. There would eventually come a time in the life of the 17-year old where he would seek to have a relationship with God. His journey of discovery would start out with his desire to become a rabbi. However, he would be confronted with the testimony about Jesus Christ during this journey. One day, during a Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) ceremony, he would make his first, public confession that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. He has been a pastor since 2003 and has a radio ministry heard by hundreds of thousands of people around the world. One day, the gentleman from the second example, tracked down the person who gave him the Bible tract to read many years before. During their brief phone conversation, he said he called just to say thank you for sharing the gospel with him because he had since accepted Jesus Christ as his Savior. The last person mentioned is myself. Because I was the member of a denomination, I believed I was a Christian, but had never heard the Gospel and, thus, didn't realize that I was not a Christian. I wasn't born again. Then came a period of ups and downs in life that led me to accepting Jesus Christ as my savior about ten years after leaving that denomination. The key to remember is that a sower is a way to say someone is a farmer. Jesus said that the seed the farmer sows is the word of God. To those of us who are Christians, we are the farmers throwing out the seed. We shouldn't worry about how fertile the ground is that the seed falls on. The seed may fall by the wayside or on the rocks and not yield any results, but some may fall on fertile ground and yield a crop. The thing is that you many never know what time it is in a person's life. It has been said that, "The more manure a person has in their life, the better the soil." In other words, when the trials of life get a person down and start to overwhelm them, the more they are ready to receive the message of the Gospel. The key is that you may not know where a person is at in their life when you are speaking to them about Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus said, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear (Luke 8:8)!” While everybody has the capacity to hear, only when they are ready for the message of the Gospel will they be ready to listen to what you have to say about Jesus Christ. Keep sowing that seed.