This morning we continue our new series entitled “Leveling Up with the Word!” Yesterday I introduced you “The Mother of All Parables”. Let’s get back to it today. Jesus said:
Setting the stage:
(Mark 4:13-20 ERV)
“The farmer is like someone who plants God’s teaching in people. Sometimes the teaching falls on the path. That is like some people who hear the teaching of God. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the teaching that was planted in them.
Other people are like the seed planted on rocky ground. They hear the teaching, and they quickly and gladly accept it. But they don’t allow it to go deep into their lives. They keep it only a short time. As soon as trouble or persecution comes because of the teaching they accepted, they give up.
Others are like the seed planted among the thorny weeds. They hear the teaching, but their lives become full of other things: the worries of this life, the love of money, and everything else they want. This keeps the teaching from growing, and it does not produce a crop in their lives.
And others are like the seed planted on the good ground. They hear the teaching and accept it. Then they grow and produce a good crop—sometimes 30 times more, sometimes 60 times more, and sometimes 100 times more.”
We will study this parable line-by-line and statement-by-statement. But before we do, I feel led to share a few thoughts I have been meditating on since yesterday. To be honest, I am very excited about this series. As I was meditating on it, the Father began to speak to me about the importance of His Word and how I have allowed my excitement about it to wane over the years. As much as I love the Word, I have to admit that there was a time when my dedication to it was at an even higher level. I believe the Father will give me that excitement back in this series. I pray He does the same for you!
Let’s get into it!
So what does this mean for you today? A few things.
1. The sower went forth to sow.
I kept thinking about this statement last night: “The sower went forth to sow.” There is so much in this statement.
God is the sower. He sows seed. The seed is His Word. His Word is incorruptible, infallible, inerrant, and eternal.
The text says that He went forth to sow. God went forth to do what He does. He sows. He provides. He invests. He deposits.
God went forth to do what He does, and we are supposed to do what we do. Who are we in the text? We are soil. Our job is to receive what God is providing.
God goes forth to sow, and we are supposed to be in a position to receive. What are we to receive? WORD!
The power to produce is in the Word. No Word from God is without the power to perform it. Everything God speaks is packed with the grace to bring it to pass.
We don’t have to make the Word produce. The power to produce is in the Word. The power of God is in the Word of God, and God Himself watches over His own Word to perform it! Our job is simply to receive it.
In this series, I will teach you how important it is to live with a heart that is open to receive what God is saying. We don’t live by bread only. We live by every Word God speaks. We live by every seed God sows. We live by the seed God deposits in our hearts.
God does not give us the harvest initially. He gives us the seed. He speaks a Word down inside of us. The more we meditate and medicate on the seed of the Word, the more God’s Word produces seeds of divine ideas in our hearts and minds.
I don’t know about you, but I love God’s Word. And I am excited about studying how ONE WORD from God can change us from the inside out.
It’s time to LEVEL UP with God’s Word!
2. God pursues you.
God is the sower, you are the soil, and His Word is the seed. The soil can’t come looking for the sower. The sower goes out looking for the soil.
God is always pursuing you. He wants to see you prosper. He wants to see you maximize the purpose and potential He placed IN you.
Even when you don’t pursue God, He pursues you. He is committed to the plans He made for you before the world began. And He will never give up on you!
3. God is looking to produce fruit (or results) in and from your life.
When the sower approaches the soil, He does not come empty-handed. The sower comes with seed. The sower provides the seed that will cause the soil to produce a harvest. God is the source!
God loves you so much that He does not just pursue you. He pursues you with the intent of depositing down inside of you what you need to produce what He expects!
It would be unrighteous of God, as a heavenly Father, to expect you to do something He has not equipped you to do.
Whatever God expects you to do, He equips you to do, and whatever He equips you to do, He expects you to do!
God pursues you and then provides you what you need to produce a harvest. He sows His Word in your heart. It is His Word that will bring forth change and fruit. First, change IN YOU. Then, fruit FROM YOU!
God gives you everything you need to produce a life that will change this world. All you have to do is RECEIVE what He is giving you. Don’t fight against it. Your job is to believe and receive!
4. God will not allow your inconsistency to receive to cause Him to adjust His consistency to release!
There are four different types of soil in this parable. This represents four different types of people and different levels of maturity. But regardless of the type or maturity of the soil, the same sower provided the same seed to them all.
God loves us enough to continue to SOW into our lives, even when it looks like He is wasting His investment. He sows over and over and over again because He knows that there will come a day when we value the investment and allow Him to produce a harvest in our lives with it.
This speaks to God’s grace.
This speaks to God’s love.
This speaks to God’s commitment.
God is more committed to you than you are committed to you. God is so committed to you that He will not give up on you while there is breath in your body. If you are still breathing, then God is not through with you yet!
This reminds me of the potter and the clay (Jeremiah 18).
When the potter looked down and saw how the clay was marred in His hands, He did not give up on it. It was damaged but still destined! It was not perfect, but it still had purpose. So the potter made it again. He started over with the clay. He did not throw it away. He kept it on the wheel.
Bringing this back to Mark 4 and the parable of the sower:
There have been many times when you were like the ground by the side of the road. You received the Word, but you did not understand it, so satan came and snatched it out of your heart.
There have been many times when you were like the rocky ground. You received the Word initially, but since you did not hide it in your heart, when trouble came, you gave up on the Word.
There have been many times when you were like the thorny ground. You received the Word in the soil of your heart, but you allowed your life to become “full of other things.” The other things choked out the Word.
The good news is that, like the potter and the clay, God has not given up on you. He never will! You are still on the wheel! You are still in His hands. You are still a candidate to become good ground. Why? Because God loves you too much ever forsake you. That’s grace, and yes, it is amazing!
Declaration of Faith:
Father, this is a season for me to LEVEL UP my life! I am ready to allow Your Word to produce CHANGE IN ME and FRUIT FROM ME! I am ready for my life to produce a divine harvest daily. I declare that I am good ground. I gladly receive the Word You sow in my heart. I don’t get stifled by persecution. I don’t get consumed with the cares or affairs of this world. I don’t get derailed by selfish desires. I keep my eyes fixed and focused on You. My life produces fruit and my fruit remains. Not by my power, but only by Your amazing grace. I LEVEL UP my commitment to Your Word. GREATER IS COMING FOR ME! I declare this by faith. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is Today’s Word! Apply it and Prosper.
