MiracleGrow

Miracle Grow

Matthew 13 NKJV

The Parable of the Sower

13 On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. 2 And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore.

3 Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: “Behold, a sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. 6 But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 8 But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears to hear, let him hear!”

The Purpose of Parables

10 And the disciples came and said to Him, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

11 He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:

‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should[a] heal them.’[b]
16 But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.

As I was working in my garden a while back, it occurred to me how much it had grown in the two weeks since I had used a container or Miracle Grow on it. It kind of got me to thinking about the fact that during that same couple of weeks, I had done quite a bit of growing in my spiritual walk myself. It made me happy to see a physical representation of the growth that I had felt like I had done, and I thanked the Lord and continued working. As I was watering the garden the Holy Spirit posed a question to me: “What was your Miracle Grow?” My answer was obedience. Putting God first with obedience to the Spirit no matter what I felt at the time. Obedience to God instead of obedience to my comfort level. Obedience to my King instead of obeying my fear and my timidity.

I smiled about that and thought, “Hey that would be a really awesome sermon!” And tried to move on with my evening. Because, well, you know me, I don’t give sermons! I wasn’t getting off that easy though; the spirit kept speaking. Even through a Facebook post from a friend about God’s gardens and fruits of the spirit. So here we are today with my first sermon. Now I get to ask you! What is your Miracle Grow?

So in sticking with our gardening theme, I chose the parable of the sower to illustrate the points I feel that God revealed to me. I consider this one quite fitting, because as a new Christian this parable scared the tar out of me. I prayed so earnestly, “God, please let me be the seed that fell on good ground.” It didn’t escape my notice that so much of the seed in the story never yielded crop.

⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. 

¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.

How do we overcome this? We keep trying! We pray and listen for our Daddy’s voice. Under no circumstances do we give up!

Proverbs 2:2-5

² So that you incline your ear to wisdom,
And apply your heart to understanding;
³ Yes, if you cry out for discernment,
And lift up your voice for understanding,
⁴ If you seek her as silver,
And search for her as for hidden treasures;
⁵ Then you will understand the fear of the Lord,
And find the knowledge of God.

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

You see, the seed that fell by the wayside has its problems, but the seed that fell into the fertile soil didn’t have an easy time of it either. It still had to struggle for growth. Just as in my garden at home, where there is fertile soil there are weeds competing for the nutrients; there are bugs making a meal of the leaves and fruits. There is always the possibility of drought; it still has to fight for its life. We as Christians are no different; there are so many things that can get in our way and many of those are of our own making. From our favorite T.V. show to screaming children and our smart phones. Do we always make time to hear God? Do we always stop listen?

I know I don’t. I know that I am guilty of being distracted and unconsciously putting things before God. It’s much easier to hear your child whine “Mom I’m bored!” at times than it is to hear the Lord speaking softly to you.

 ⁵ Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.

²⁰ But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

Studying the Word

As Christians, our root is the word. We’re like an apple tree. Our bodies are the trunk and the branches, but without a good root system we will wither away and die.  The word is our root system.

1 Peter 2:1-5

, ² as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby,³ if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious.

There are many scriptures about staying in the Word. But I felt this one fit best because of the visualization of the newborn baby. If a newborn baby does not eat, what happens? It will die. But that’s not exclusive to newborns, is it? As adults, if we don’t eat will we not also die? Will it take longer? Absolutely. But we will die nonetheless.

However, before we die of starvation, our last few days or weeks will be completely miserable. We will feel weak, we will have pain, and our stomach will literally eat away at itself. But in all that time, if we could just eat, our bodies could heal; there could be peace and the pain could be easily gone.

What’s so different about our walk as Christians? As newly born again Christians, I am sure that if we stay out of the Word, if we don’t have our “milk” then our fire will die out quickly and our roots will burn away. But the same goes for the seasoned Christians. Just because we are eating meat doesn’t mean that we are immortal in our walk with the Lord. It doesn’t mean that we don’t have to spend time in the nourishment that the Lord gives us. How much different would our outlooks on life be if we spent as much time in our Word as we spent preparing and eating food daily? I am not saying that everything will get magically better, only that the way we look at the bad things will improve greatly, and that our faith will grow with our knowledge of the Word.

⁷ And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. 

²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

Putting God First

Do you have any idols or gods before your Father in heaven? The Word says, “You shall have no other gods before me.” And I am sure everyone is thinking, “We know that, we don’t have any other gods!” We know there is one God, the Father the almighty, the maker of heaven and earth right? But wait! Now let’s think about Facebook, or that T.V. show you watch every week without fail. How about Twitter or the thirty notifications you get on your smart phone in an hour. When you wake up in the morning, what’s the first thing you grab for? Your Bible or your phone?  

You shall have no other gods BEFORE me. This means that NOTHING comes before God. Let’s break this one down a little.

Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word.

So Jesus is telling us that this person has heard His teachings. He knows the Word.

And the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

Q: What’s the first and biggest worldly concern for just about everyone?

A: Finances

So, what is Jesus then saying here? NOTHING comes before me. Not your finances, not your marriage, not your kids, not your social media or your T.V. programs. Jesus is saying, You shall have no other gods before me!

He is not saying don’t feed your children or make your marriage a priority, but that with God steering the boat everything else will fall into place.  

Proverbs 3:6

⁶ In everything you do, put God first, and he will direct you and crown your efforts with success.

No one is saying leave your kids screaming in their rooms for an hour while you read your Bible and pray. Get up an hour earlier so that you can spend time with Him. Taking the time for Him means that you will better be prepared for your day.

Exodus 20:3

³ “You shall have no other gods before Me.

 

Romans 12: 1 & 2

 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

As humans we are easily distracted by the things around us. We live in a broken world that screams “look at me! look at me!” all the time. So we look, but by giving our attention first to Christ, and then to the world around us we are better able to see through the right lense and understand it for what it is. By listening to God before we listen to man, we allow the Holy Spirit to speak into our lives and teach us in all that we do.