The Parable Of The Sower

Open your Bibles to John chapter 10 and meet me at verse 10. John chapter 10 and verse 10. Over the last several weeks, maybe even months, your Bibles should just fall open to this passage of Scripture because this is where we have delved into. And Jesus says to us in this passage of Scripture, the thief does not come except to steal and to kill heal and to destroy, I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more. Abundantly. Somebody say life more abundantly.

And so over the last several weeks, we've been talking about this passage of scripture, Jesus giving us life, life more abundantly. some translations say satisfied life. Some translations say life to the full until it overflows. Some even talk about a life that is super abundant life. And so Jesus came to give us this kind of life, not just in heaven, but right here on the earth.

But then Jesus tells us This is his will, but there is a thief, there is an adversary, there is an opponent, there is an enemy that wants to steal, kill, and destroy. And so this thief is trying to take from us everything that Jesus has provided for us through the salvation process. When you gave your life to the Lord, you received everything that God had to give you. You are not waiting to receive anything any longer.

Jesus has given it to you all. In your spirit, you have all you need that pertains to life and godliness. And there is a thief. You can't earn this. Whatever Jesus gave, you cannot be earned. That's why it's grace, and you don't deserve it. This is why it's grace and mercy. He's not giving you what you do deserve, but he's also giving you what you do not deserve. And the thief is trying to steal it. And so this thief wants to steal this abundant life.

He wants to steal this life of overflow. He doesn't want you to enjoy life. He doesn't want you to experience this super abundant life that Jesus has set aside for us. And so the thief wants to steal. I use this analogy and example. The thief is not trying to steal my Lamborghini because I do not own a Lamborghini, right? The thief is not going to attempt to steal something you don't own.

Home, this thief, which is the adversary, Satan himself, wants to steal from us what Jesus has already provided for us. Yesterday, I was watching TV. Zarek J., my nine-year-old, comes in. He says, first thing he says to me, who's the bad guy? I was watching something on TV. He says, who's the bad guy? I said, well, there's the bad guy right there. He says, and what's the bad guy doing? And I had a revelation. The bad guy is stealing, killing, and destroying.

And I said, I told him, I said, well, the bad guy is stealing, killing, and destroying. And he was like, yeah. I said, that's what bad guys do, huh? He said, yeah, they always steal, kill, and always make a mess. I said, that's just like the thief. When he walked in the room, we both identified who the thief was right away. That's the thief. Why? Because he's functioning as a thief who is stealing, killing, and destroying.

If you look at your life or look around you, if it involves stealing, killing, and destroying, you can attribute it to the thief. Don't look at your life, and if you see stealing, killing, destroying, and say, well, that must be God's plan for my life. No, it's the thief. Don't attribute to God what deserves to go to Satan himself. If it's life and life more abundantly, if it's a good thing, because every good and perfect gift comes from the Father, man, that's God.

But if it's stealing, killing, and destroying, it's the thief. And we should recognize that as the thief. and a lot of us have actually allowed the thief to come into our home and we have given the thief a room in our home and we're feeding the thief and taking care of the thief and we're blaming God all the while, all this bad stuff is happening in our life.

If it deals with something being taken from you that belongs to you, if it deals with anything that's causing premature death like a sickness or disease, don't patty cake it. It's the thief trying to steal your health.

Destroying relationships it is the thief and let's identify who is behind this and then we could begin to fight the thief versus allowing the thief to continue to steal from us come on somebody say amen now Ephesians chapter 6 let's look at verse 10 through 12 in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10 through 12 Paul says here finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power power of his might.

Verse 11 says, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Look at verse 12, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. So humanity is not our enemy, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Now I want you to back up to verse 10 real quick, guys. Put verse 10 back on there. There it is.

We have to be strong in the Lord, not in our own power, but in the Lord and in the power of his might. Verse 11 is what I want you to focus on. It says that we're to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. That word wiles means strategies, schemes, tactics, and plans of the enemy. We are to stand against the tactics of the enemy. He wants to scam us, scheme us, and over the last several weeks, we've been talking about how to avoid scams.

Matter of fact, I've received several texts and emails from you about identifying scams that are taking place. You're seeing it now. I want you to see scams that are taking place because the thief wants to steal from you. And in, let's say, 2 Corinthians, let's go there, 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11. 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11, it says, Satan should take advantage of us for we are not ignorant of his devices. Another translation says that we are aware of his schemes and his tactics.

God does not want us to be unaware of his devices or his plans or purposes to steal and kill from us. I want you to experience true life. I want you to live this life on earth the way God designed for us to live. I want you to excel and succeed and to thrive and to walk in health and to walk in prosperity and to walk in a level of faith that God has designed for us to walk. I want you to receive answers to your prayers.

I want you to see people minister to and be a vessel that ministers to others, to be a beacon of light in your community.

That's God's plan for you and that's my plan for you as well but there is a thief that wants to steal from you and I want to expose him today let's go to Mark chapter 4 and don't put on the screen yet guys because I want to build this in Mark chapter 4 and we're gonna we're gonna take a look in Mark this is the parable of the sower and at the beginning portion Jesus is preaching a sermon and he's telling the people that a farmer is sowing some seed and some seed landed by the wayside.

Some seed landed on stony ground, some seed landed on thorny ground, and some seed landed on good ground. And he preaches this message to the people and his disciples come up to him in verse 13 and they essentially say to him, hey, tell us more about this parable. We don't understand. Enlighten us, share with us more about it. And in verse 13 in Mark chapter four, he says to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all parables? Let's pause right there, guys.

If you don't understand this parable, how will you understand all parables? And so Jesus is telling them that this parable is the grandfather parable. It is the parable that if you don't get any explanation or understanding or revelation after I show you what I'm talking about in this parable, you won't understand anything else in the kingdom of God.

So we gotta understand this parable. And I think this is interesting where this parable is concerned because more often than not, the people critique the preacher. I don't like that preacher. He's too long-winded. He's boring. He's too excited. I don't like anything about this preacher or that preacher. And guess what? There are a handful of preachers I don't like either, okay? So I get it, right? This and that and the third. We always are critiquing the message or we're critiquing the minister.

But in this parable, we're going to find out that Jesus is going to critique the audience. He's going to critique the hearer. he's critiquing the listener and so we're used to critiquing the preacher but Jesus is saying in this parable I'm going to critique the hearer of the parable and he says here in verse 14 the sower sows the word and so he's relating a farmer to a sower and the farmer or the sower is sowing the word.

For example, I am sowing the word into you today. I am a sower sowing the word into you. And verse 15, he's going to describe what type of hearer and listener you are. He says, and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately.

And takes the word that was sown in their hearts now listen to this he's describing a listener and this listener is a person that hears the word and all of a sudden satan comes instantly and snatches the word that was sown in their heart how does satan do that what trump translations say maybe they didn't understand the word that was sown but the lord enlightened me over this past week as I've been studying this, a lot of times Satan snatches the word that's sown in our heart by this word

that I wanna call offense.

A lot of times, and I know this has happened to you, if you are a married couple, for example, as soon as church gets done, everything is great, what a powerful church service, you get in the car and all of a sudden you and your spouse get into it over something silly or something the minister said and y'all are arguing about it and you're fussing and fighting about it, that is Satan stealing the word.

He came immediately. Immediately. Matter of fact, Satan right now has dispatched demons from hell. He's like, get out there and sit on every car out there so I can start some mess. Because I can't, he's not welcoming here. So he said, get out in the car. I want to start some mess when they leave the church and get you arguing and get you fighting and get you offended. And then he steals the word immediately from your heart.

One of the best tactics that the devil uses in order to steal the word and cause you not to experience true life is he wants to use this tactic called offense. He wants you to be easily upset and then you cut off. The relationship that you have. Are you easily hurt? Just ask yourself, are you easily hurt? Do people easily get on your nerves and hurt you? Are you looking? I know people that are looking to be offended.

They are looking for it. They have their neck stretched out like a giraffe looking to be offended, to be hurt so that they could cut off. And the enemy is very, very good at using offense to get you cut off from hearing the word that God wanted you to hear that's sown from a specific individual. I can't tell you, I've been pastoring now, July would make 13 years that our church has been open. Praise God. We started with absolutely nothing at all.

Nothing at all. And look what the Lord's done. Man, we're doing well. We don't owe no man anything. We're not in debt. God is good. Praise God. You guys are a part of it. Great testimonies over the decades. God has been gracious to us. But I've experienced people say, when I came to this church, I have grown in the word like I've never grown before. And I didn't return a phone call. And they left the church because I didn't call them back. Offended. They left because I didn't call them back.

I've had people, when I want to maybe bring some correction, hey, I see something in your life. I think if you pay attention to this, you can change the trajectory that you're on. I'm leaving the church. Pastor corrected me. I'm getting out of here they meet it immediate offense takes place because I'm not perfect guys I'm not gonna say everything correctly I'm not gonna say everything right. But offense will come and the enemy will get involved in that and then cause you to disconnect.

I had a person that left our church. I asked him, I said, have there anything that I've done to offended you? Why are you leaving? They said, you've done many things. I said, okay, well, can we talk about some of them? Nope, we can't talk about any of them. I'm out. I mean, what do you do? Offense calls them to be cut off. Cut off. and the enemy will use this. He's a pro at using offense to cause you to cut off from the seed that has been sown in your heart.

Offense will do that. There was a time that I got asked to be a part of a pastoral call. I was on a Zoom call. I think I've shared this story before. And on this Zoom call, they asked me to share something. And so I shared something on the Zoom, and I thought it was good, and I was very vulnerable in what I shared about how I was feeling about something. Immediately, the leader's wife on the Zoom call blasted me. Like, literally, I felt like I got blasted.

And whatever I said, I felt like she just said, all of that was wrong, and how dare you share that? That's how I felt, okay? And all of this. And my first thought was, I ain't joining this call no more ever again. I'm done with this call. I'm done. I ain't coming on here no more. I'm out. I'm done. And the Holy Spirit began to talk to me and said, that's the enemy. Trying to cause offense to come and cut you off.

This is a private group I got invited to. Here I am trying to run off because someone blasted me. And I ended up talking to Stacey about it. And she was like, are you sure she was talking about you anyway? I'm like, I don't know. It felt like it. She's like, she probably wasn't even talking about you. But we think too highly of ourselves. Come on, somebody. And somebody can't say something to us. And we get offended. And Satan comes right then and breaks up what God had designed to do.

I had to really battle it because I wasn't going back on that call anymore. I had to really fight and battle like, no, I will not be offended. I am joining. I'm going to make sure I'm on that next call that next week, right? I don't care. I'm changing all my schedule to make sure I'm on because I'm not going to be offended because of what happened. One particular time, I went to this event and this particular minister invited me, someone I respected.

I went to it and it was a handful of people there and I was his special guest. And I've noticed he didn't talk to me any of the time I was there. And I was like, well, that's fine. You know, we're all busy and that sort of thing. I mean, I don't need to be coddled or anything, you know what I mean? And so, but then he came up to me and he goes, I deliberately didn't talk to you because I wanted you to talk to some other people.

Well, offense tried to come. Well, why did you deliberately not talk to me, right? Why did I come to this thing if you deliberately didn't want to talk to me, right? A fitz tried to come in. Come on, somebody, are you listening to me? And I started thinking, well, he said he deliberately didn't talk to me. I was wondering why he didn't talk to me. I thought it was circumstantial, but it was deliberate. And I'm not, you know what, I'm not talking to this guy no more,

man. How you deliberately invite me but then not talk to me? The devil tried to come in. And I said, I'm done. I don't even want to talk to him no more. We're done. I don't want to, you know." And the Spirit of God said, this is the devil. Don't let him in because he's coming to snatch, to take away what I put on that man's life. I wanted you to be connected with him. Don't let the devil snatch it over something like this. Are you listening to me today?

These offenses will come. Jesus even said, woe unto them to whom offenses come through or offenses will not come except offenses shall come. That's what he said. man. Offenses shall come. That's what I'm trying to say. Offenses shall come. And they're going to come. What are you going to do? How are you going to handle it when they do come? You have to recognize there is an adversary.

There is an opponent. There is an enemy that's trying to get involved and trying to get me to stop being a part of what God wants me to be a part of. And I'm not going to let him win. Amen. Offenses will come. And here's how you handle it. You either go up to the person and say, hey man, hey woman, that offended me when you did that. It hurt me. And you communicate your feelings. That's part one of if you get offended, here's part two. Or you just drop it and you just let it go.

You forgive and you move on. The two examples I gave of you about the two ministers? I never even approached them about it. I just let it go. That was me. It wasn't them. That was me. And I just let it go. And I'm not offended. I'm not going to allow myself to be cut off from what God has placed me. And this is what Jesus is describing in Mark chapter 4. One more time in verse 15, Mark chapter 4 and verse 15. He said, these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown.

When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away, one translation says, snatches the word that was sown in their hearts. Look at verse 16. These likewise, the next group of people, are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness.

Look at verse 17. And they have. So let's talk about this. This stony ground groups of people. Remember, Jesus is critiquing the people, the hearer. This word came on the stony ground, and they got excited by it. Woo, what a good word. That's powerful. That's enough to change my life. And then all of a sudden, tribulation comes. Testing and trials and pain comes. And then all of a sudden, persecution comes. Harassment from people begin to take place. And this testing and this harassment comes.

And because you only endured for a short period of time, that test, trial, and harassment was able to pull you away from the sower sowing the word of God. Now, what I want you to see in this passage of scripture, I'm not saying, I'm not talking about you sowing the word into yourself. I'm talking about the sower sowing the word into you. The farmer broadcasts and scatters seed.

Seed he just throws seed and this is how the seed is landing and there are people man I'm excited whoo I'm excited I'm excited about what the Lord's doing I'm excited about the word that Pastor Devon preached man I'm I'm thrilled I'm excited all of a sudden tribulation comes, all of a sudden harassment comes scripture says it was overwhelming to them and they disconnected, you go to that church over there how dare you go to that church over there that

man believes in prosperity oh let me disconnect from that you you how dare you how do you you connect with this or that or or you believe this and that and and then you begin to disconnect and when you disconnect, the seed dies I want to read it again let's look one more time in verse 16 these likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who when they hear they immediately receive it with gladness and they had no root. They didn't allow the word to take root in themselves.

And they endure only for a time afterward when tribulation or persecution arise. For the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Why did the persecution and tribulation arise? For the word's sake. It's not because of you. It was to get the word out of you. It was to get you disconnected from the one sowing the word in your life. It was to cause you to be offended. That word stumble also means offended and get you to quit. This group of people are the people that quit.

They were excited for a short period of time. They had a short burst, but then they quit. Why? Times got tough. Things got hard. They started to get harassed and they quit. They quit. I remember this was several years ago. We had a lady, a husband and a wife that were coming to our church. And they came because the wife had been diagnosed with cancer. And they heard about our church. They came to our church. We believe in healing in this house.

And they began to come, and I began to talk to them about healing and began to talk to them about God is going to do what his words say he's going to do. And everyone that came to Jesus got healed. And I began to show them scripture.

Well it wasn't happening fast enough just the healing wasn't taking in their mind it wasn't taking place fast enough and they told me they said you know what the healing ain't taking place fast enough we we're gonna leave we're just gonna stay home it's just not happening fast enough, these are people that get really excited for a short burst of time and then it didn't happen, in their time you know what really is testing your faith you know james talks

about the testing of your faith produces patience. You know what really tests your faith? Time. Time is what's testing your faith. I believe God for this, and time says you don't have it yet. That's the test. This is why you have to develop patience and let patience have its perfect work. Time is testing your faith. Faith is now, right? Now faith is, time says, wait.

So what's testing your faith is time. And so because time was testing their faith, because they were harassed, because there was a test or a trial, they stumbled and they quit. Look at the next group of people. Verse, what is it, verse 18? Verse 18, let's take a look. Now these are the ones sown among thorns, the third group of people sown among thorns.

They are the ones who hear the word and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful. Let's pause here. These people are distracted. All right, so the first people were offended. The second group of people were quitters. They just quit. These group of people are distracted. Notice what happened.

The cares of this world, the things that are going on in this world, the cares of, and I'm going to get real personal with you about this passage of Scripture. The cares of this world, the things that this world is asking you to do, the deceitfulness of riches, the deceitfulness of riches. I've always got to work. I can't come to church. I got to work. I got to work. I got to work. I got to work. I got to work. I got to work. I got to work. Got to work. Got to work. Got to work. Got to work.

That is cutting. That's deceitfulness of riches. Cutting you off from the sower sowing the word that can make a change in your life. Tenel and I were talking about this before service. there's a difference really in coming to the house of God versus not coming to the house of God. I mean, if you just look at your life, those that consistently come to church, hear the word of God, are going to experience a different life than people that don't.

There's scientific studies to prove that, but I got to work, I got to work, I got to work. The seafullness of riches, I got to work. When I first moved to Charlotte, I took a nickel-and-dime job because that was the only thing open, and I couldn't sit around, and I took this nickel-and-dime job, and they started saying, you've got to work on Sundays. And I said, well, I didn't move to work at your bakery on Sundays. I came to help a church.

God called me to help a particular church, and I've got to be at the church. That's game day. I've got to be there. And so I told them, I can't make Sundays. Y'all have to do another schedule. They said, okay. They said, okay. A lot of us don't even say that because, you know, they said, okay, okay, we'll change you around. And they changed it around. But the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, here's another one, the desires for other things.

Extracurricular activities cause you to not be a candidate to hear the word of God. I've got to run Run around here. I've got to run here. All these hobbies I got to do. And my children have all these extracurricular activities. And I got to be in part of all these things. And I can't come to church. I can't come. We just got all this stuff we got to do. I can't come. I can't come. Because we got a lot of stuff to do. All that begins to enter in.

Well, I got to play golf. You know, I got to play. The only time I can play is when we meet for church. I got to play golf. I got these things I got to do. My kid has a hockey game.

I got to be at all the hockey games. They got to be there. All this stuff gets us to the point where we're no longer hearing the word spoken by a farmer sowing the word. And then we begin to be the thorny ground. It says here that when all this stuff enters in, it will choke the word. Literally choke it to the point where you're so busy doing all this other stuff that you didn't prioritize sitting and hearing the word being preached.

Your sustenance, your guidance, Your life is wrapped up in the preached word of God. It really is. We are built to continue to hear the word over and over and over. And you say, well, I caught the replay. I kept it. That's fine if you're in prison. Okay. But if you are here, if you are local, you've got to be a part of a life-giving place that you are getting the word or you will eventually begin to slowly separate. I knew it would be quiet in here, but I'm telling the truth.

You'll begin to slowly separate from God, and you don't even know it. Then you begin to, well, I missed this week. I'm on seven straight weeks of missing church, you know, and now I'm on nine straight, and now I'm on 13 straight weeks, and you don't even realize it, but you're slowly separating from the preached word of God, which is your sustenance, which is your life, which is what God has orchestrated, the five-fold minister gift to preach into your life and cause strength to take place.

But this is what happens here. Let's go back to verse 18.

These are ones. They're sown on the thorns. they hear the word but the cares of the world the deceitfulness of riches and desires for other things entering in choke the word and it becomes unfruitful all the other stuff that life offers i like how this verse says jesus tells us in verse 19 the desires for other things i love how he just said that just throw everything in there the desire for other things i want something other than going to church and hearing the word,

there's something other than that that I've got to be doing. The desires for other things will enter in. It will enter in. And before you even know it, you are desiring these other things. And these things will begin to take control of your schedule. They will take over your schedule. This other thing, you don't even know what you're doing. You don't even know. I don't know what I'm doing next Sunday at 10 a.m. Because the desires for other things came in and took over your entire schedule.

Now, I know what I'm doing next Sunday, right? Most people don't even know what they're doing next Sunday. because their schedule is all over the place because the desires for other things entered in. Now, I'm not talking about their seasons. There are certain seasons of pockets of things that take place, but a lot of this stuff becomes a lifetime, and that season turned into eternity. I had a busy season, and all of a sudden it went to, this is just kind of what happened.

It literally will choke the word, and then people are asking, why is this not working? Because the enemy has stolen from you. Why does it feel like my prayers are not getting answered? Because the enemy has stolen from you. Why does it feel like I'm having mental anguish and fatigue? Because the enemy has stolen. And I like to ask people those questions when I get there. I'm just struggling. When was the last time you've been in a church?

Oh, Well, it's been a while since I've been because the desires for other things entering in begin to choke the word. But how many of you want to be the next group of people? The last group of people.

Verse 20. You ready? These groups of people. These are the ones sown on good ground. They hear the word. They accept it. And they bear fruit. Some 30 fold, some 60 and some 100. the way I saw this passage this week is if you can avoid being offended if you can avoid quitting and if you can avoid distractions. You will be good ground and you will hear the word, receive it, accept it, and the word will cause you to bear fruit.

Amen. And how serious you are is determined what type of fruit you were buried. If you just kind of want to do it 30% of the time, you get 34, 60% of the time you get 64. But if you say a hundred percent of the time, I want to hear the word, I'm going to avoid being offended. And you have to really set your heart. I will not be offended. You know what I mean? Now, it's going to come, but I'm not going to be offended. And when it comes, I'm going to shoot it down because I want to be good ground.

And then, listen, the next group of people are the quitters. You've got to say, it's too early to quit. Say that. It's too early to quit. You're going to have to say, it's too early to quit. I tell myself all the time, I want to quit a lot. Y'all know that? I just want to quit sometime. How many of y'all, so be honest, you just want to quit? I just want to quit. I want to quit too. And I always remind myself, it's too early, Brad. It's too early.

It's too early to quit. I am going to continue because those that continue in the word will produce. And then if you fight against distractions, and this is the hard part of the day and age we live in, distractions.

Distractions we've got a lot that has distracted us a lot of opportunities to be distracted if we can fight against distractions. Then we can be a candidate to receive 30, 60, and 100 fold. All of us want production. All of us want results. All of us want to experience the life God intended us to live. And the only way to do that is we've got to be in a place that we are hearing the preached word of God.

This is how God designed it. says he gave gifts unto men the preached word are gifts and a lot of us are it's no you know being a part of listening to the gift it's no longer a priority maybe through familiarity or some different things it no longer becomes a priority and so therefore these gifts that god through christ jesus has given to you and i we don't see it as important anymore because of other things Things, distractions,

and all this other stuff that we got to do. And, you know, we got to do that. And hearing the word becomes secondary. Everything else becomes a priority. And when we do that, we are getting to the place to where we are disconnecting. I hear this in my heart. This example keeps coming up, but I need to share it with you. There was a friend of mine who had went through this process, strong Christian, went to Bible school with me.

Everything and then he got into the place after covid to where he stopped going to church he just stopped the hearing of the word and live stream and just stopped and he went years and years and years and he's got kids at home and and i end up talking to him i said man when's the last time he been oh man i ain't been to church in a while i said what is that communicating to your children.

He's like i got real quiet it's communicating that everything else is a priority and being a part of a local body and hearing the preached word is secondary. And he said, oh, my gosh, that next week he was back in church. He's I don't want my girls to grow up thinking this is secondary and staying home is priority. No, what's a priority is coming to a place and hearing the word preached. Something about the word preached is what's going to change your life forever. Do you agree with that?

This is how you and I experience true life.