Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew,
chapter 13, verses 1 to 9, and 18 to 23. That
same day Jesus went out of the house and sat
by the lake. Such large crowds gathered around
him that he got into a boat and sat in it while
all the people stood on the shore. Then he told
the many things in parables, saying, A farmer
went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering
the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds
came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places
where it did not have much soil. It sprang up
quickly because the soil was shallow. But when
the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and
they withered because they had no root. Other
seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked
the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil,
where it produced a crop, a hundred, sixty, or
thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears,
let them hear. Listen then to what the parable
of the sower means. When anyone hears the message
about the kingdom and does not understand it,
the evil one comes, and snatches away what was
sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along
the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers
to someone who hears the word and at once receives
it with joy. But since they have no root, they
last only a short time. When trouble or persecution
comes because of the word, they quickly fall
away. The seed falling among the thorns refers
to someone who hears the word, But the worries
of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth
choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the
seed falling on good soil refers to someone who
hears the word and understands it. This is the
one who produces a crop, yielding 100, 60, or
30 times what was sown. The word of the Lord.
That was my dad. Actually, that's my mom and
my dad, two of the nicest people you'll ever
want to meet. And there are my two older sisters,
Elaine and Kate, and my younger brother, John.
So that is the family I grew up in. But this
is the farm that I grew up on. on. And while
my parents surely raised me, this farm impacted
me in all sorts of ways as well. It's a dairy
farm. It's sitting on a couple hundred acres
on Concession 6 in Fisherville, Ontario. And
for our family, our whole life kind of revolved
around the rhythms and responsibilities of that
farm, right? So there was the cows, the crops,
the barns, the fields. I loved it. I hated it.
It was a great way to grow up, but it was also
a a whole lot of work. And looking back now,
I realize that that farm and farming gave me
a bit of an experience that not a lot of people
get to experience these days. So for example,
this is for example, did you ever go out to the
front field on a spring morning, still wearing
your pajamas with your brothers and sisters to
sit in the grass with a newly born calf? Probably
not. Probably not, right? So farming is interesting.
It gives you this very unique way of seeing the
world, soil and seasons, weather and work and
life, and of course, death. But also, it gives
you a unique perspective on faith. And so what
we're going to do for the next 10 weeks is that
we are going to, it's going to be something a
little unusual. I don't think you've ever done
this before, but we're going to go back to the
farm. We're going to go back to the farm in this
teaching series and we're calling it growing
season. Now you're probably thinking, oh my gosh,
10 weeks of a farming series. Why on earth would
we do something like this? I have never milked
a cow. I get my milk in a carton and I've never
collected eggs from a chicken coop. I get them
at no frills. I get it. But here's the thing.
You do not need to have grown up on a farm in
order to understand farming. And I want to share
four reasons, actually, why this is so important
for you and for me, whether you're a farmer or
you've ever lived on a farm or not. And here
is the first reason. You actually you are God's
field. The Bible says that your life and your
heart and your soil is a field, if you will,
and God is the farmer of that field. So when
the Bible talks about planting and pruning and
bearing fruit, it's not describing necessarily,
you know, ancient agricultural practices. It's
describing how God's spirit is working in you.
The soul of your soil, right? God is the farmer.
And even now, I want to tell you, even this morning,
he is at work in your life. In that soil, he
is breaking it. He is planting it. He is tending
it. He is growing something in you. That is the
premise of this whole series. It's not Rob saying,
hey, let me take you on a trip down memory lane.
Let me show you pictures of my childhood. No,
the point of this is, is God is the farmer. You
are his field. And this life of yours is your
growing season. That's the why. And if you came
through the front doors today, you will have
also noticed that you walked by four brand new
raised garden beds. I want to say a big thank
you to John Wallace, who built these for us.
Why are we doing this? Yeah, let's hear it for
John. Yeah. The reason we're doing that is because
every week when you walk into this place, we
want you walking past some soil, something green,
something pushing itself up out of the ground,
just to remind you and give you a picture of
what God is doing in all of us all the time.
And I do mean all of us. There are some of you
here today where faith is very familiar ground.
It has been worked a thousand times in your life.
And there are others here today who the seed
of faith hasn't even begun to germinate in your
life. It doesn't matter. We are all God's field.
So that is the first reason why we're doing this
series. The second reason we're doing this, though,
is because the Bible itself is a deeply agricultural
book. If you open scripture almost anywhere,
you're going to find seeds and soils and vineyards
and harvests and sheep and shepherds and wheat
and rain and drought and fruit and so on and
so on and so on. Jesus himself was always pointing
to things like the earth or to a barn or to a
farmer or to a flock as a way of teaching people.
Now this, I admit, is a very hard world for most
of us to get our heads into today. Today, only
2 % people in north america live on a farm but
in jesus's day 90 of people were farmers this
was their world this was their world and so if
you want to understand the bible if you really
want to understand where it's coming from it
means you've got to start reading that bible
through an agricultural lens so that's the second
reason why we're doing this the bible is an agricultural
book the third reason we're doing this is because
summer is a growing season in many churches summer
is the spiritual off season even someone this
morning said to me well we're almost at the end
of june when things kind of shut down Things
slow down, people kind of drift away, which is
always so weird. Because if you look at the natural
world, just outside our doors, summer is the
time of the year when everything comes alive,
and everything grows, and everything greens up.
And farmers know this too. Farmers know that
summer is not the season of dormancy. Winter
is. You guys can take a break in winter. But
no, summer is the season of growth. No farmer.
in Haldeman County looks at his calendar for
July and August and says, oh, well, you know,
it's time to ease off. No, you make hay while
the sun is shining. And so this summer, we're
trying to impress this upon all of us that instead
of slowing down here at Trinity, let's follow
the rhythm of the farmer. Let's follow the rhythm
of nature. And let's make this summer season
a real season of growth for everyone, okay? The
fourth reason that we're doing this series is
that I truly believe that God is planting something
new here at Trinity Streetsville. I don't know
how many times people have told me since I've
been here, they say, oh Rob, when I first came
to Trinity, all of this around here was just
farmer's fields. And it reminds me actually that
Trinity itself is kind of planted on farmland.
And as we discussed last week, God is growing
something in us too. There's new vision. There's
a new strategic plan. There's new people coming
through our doors all the time. There's new opportunities
for ministry. So if you put all this together,
what do you get? You are God's field. The Bible
is an agricultural book. Summer is the growing
season. And God is planting and growing something
here at Trinity. And so for all of these reasons.
We are going back to the farm this summer. But
before you grow anything, you have to plant it.
And so we're going to begin with one of the most
famous. parables that Jesus ever spoke, and it
is a lesson all about planting. A crowd gathers
around Jesus. They're hungry for some more of
his teaching. They all sit down, and Jesus tells
them a story that begins with these words, a
farmer went out to sow his seed. And we need
to actually start this whole series right here.
Why? Because this parable is really telling us
how God's life gets into us, how God grows people,
how God's love and how God's power and how God's
hope gets into a human life. That's what this
story is about. This is actually telling us how
the kingdom of God kind of grows as well. You
know, Jesus says it all starts with a seed that
is planted in the soil of the human heart. I
just find it so fascinating that when Jesus wanted
to talk about one of the most important things,
the kingdom of God, he started by saying, let
me tell you a story about a farmer, which is
actually surprising because every other kingdom
in history has spread through power and force
and might. When Alexander the Great came to town
with his kingdom, man, you knew it, right? Armies
arrived. There were banners that were flying.
Any resistance was just crushed. Kingdoms come
this way. They come through soldiers. But Jesus
says, not my kingdom. My kingdom comes through
a farmer. The power of God gets into you not
through a sword, but through a seed. Not by conquering,
but by hearing. Not through a militia, but by
a message. Not by hammering its way into you,
but by taking root inside of you. God's kingdom
comes like a seed, not like a soldier. And you
might say, well, how on earth can that be true,
right? A seed is so small, it seems so weak.
You can hold a thousand of them in the palm of
your hand. Yet, what happens if you bury one
of these seeds? dark and deep down, and you give
it time, it will do things that armies could
never do. It can split a rock. It could break
through pavement. It could turn barren fields
into waving golden fields of wheat. It could
turn empty hillsides into a forest. Given enough
time, it could feed a family. It could feed a
village. It could feed a nation. A soldier tries
to change things by force from the outside, but
a seed changes things by life. On the inside.
And that, Jesus says, is how the kingdom of God
works. It comes as a word to you. It comes small.
It's a message. It's quiet. It's easy to miss.
But when that message gets deep down into the
soil of the human heart, it begins to grow. It
begins to grow. And something that was so tiny
now can eventually transform everything. God's
message has... From your life. I hope you hear
that it can transform your family's life God's
message when it's planted down can transform
a church it can actually Transform the world
and it all happens like through the power of
a seed Now, I know some of you are going to say,
oh, come on, Rob. If a seed is so powerful, why
don't we see more transformation happening in
the world? I mean, you know, why is it that someone
might hear your sermon this morning, might hear
the seed of God's word, and they might go away
totally changed, but another person will go away
completely untouched, right? Why do two people
hear the same message and go away completely
differently? That is a really good question.
is what this parable is about. Because it's actually
not really about the seed, if you think about
it. It's about the soil. The question is not,
does the seed have life in it? Of course the
seed has life in it. It's the word of God. It's
got life. The question is, what happens when
that seed lands? What's happening right now as
you hear the seed land this morning? Is the soil
ready to receive it? You know, Jesus would often
say these words. He would say, whoever has ears,
let them hear. In other words, lives are changed,
not just by what God speaks, but by how we listen.
You can scatter the same seed. The only thing
that's different is the type of soil that it
lands on, how it's heard. And so Jesus... tells
us today about four different kinds of soil.
It's really just four different ways that people
hear or do not hear God's word. And I want to
look at the first type first. Jesus begins by
saying, As the farmer was scattering the seed,
some fell along the path, and the birds came
and ate it up. See, in Jesus' day, A farmer's
fields were full of footpaths that crisscrossed
through those fields. That's how people got around.
And as people walked over these paths day after
day and day after day and year after year and
year after year, eventually they got packed down
and real hard. And of course, if a seed were
to land on those paths, it would just kind of
stay on the surface. It wouldn't get into the
soil and a bird could come and take it away.
This is the first way that people hear God's
word, Jesus says. It's actually not that they
didn't hear the message. Look, he says, when
anyone hears the message of the kingdom, it's
actually that they didn't understand it. It never
got beneath the surface. And the Greek word here
for understanding is not cognitively, did you
understand and grasp the depth and the definitions
of everything that you were hearing? No, it's
actually a personal understanding. The problem
here is the seed never penetrated the soil so
that the understanding sounded like this. Oh,
this is about me. Oh, this matters to me. This
is speaking to me. That's the kind of understanding,
right? But for the hard path hearer, the hard
path hearer, this never happens. The message
is always theoretical. It's never personal. They
have heard all the Christian stories. They have
read their Bible 10 times in their life. They
agree with all sorts of Christian doctrine. They
could even explain the gospel to someone who
has never heard it before. But it never became
personal for them. They know about Jesus, but
they don't personally know Jesus. Real hearing,
Jesus says, happens when you say, oh my gosh,
this is about me. God is speaking to me. I need
this. This isn't something intellectual. This
now changes my life. But for a hard path hearer,
they have never had that moment. It just stayed
on the surface and it never sunk in. And here
is the scary part. Guys, what creates a hard
path? A path. Becomes hard because it's been
walked over and over and over again, which means
the people who are most at risk of becoming hard
ground are the people who have been around the
longest, right? And they have been coming to
church the longest. They're the ones who know
all the songs. They're the ones who know what
the pastor is going to say before the pastor
even says it. You can become so familiar with
the message that it doesn't surprise you anymore.
It doesn't challenge you. It doesn't change you.
Familiar ground and familiar ground is the hardest
ground of all. So that's the first soil. And
we might just ponder and say, hmm, does that
describe me at all? But let's move on to the
second soil because it's different. And at first,
this soil looks way better than the hard path
soil, right? The seed doesn't just... sit on
the surface it actually gets in and it springs
up quickly there's green shoots right away and
if you had walked past this field you probably
would have said like my dad said oh this is a
great crop this is really really good soil but
then the sun comes out and by the end of the
day all those bright fast -growing plants are
now scorched and withered and why is that It's
because under that thin layer of soil, there
was rock. And though the plant had height, it
did not have depth. And though it had growth,
it had no roots. And the first heat of the day
exposed all that. Jesus says that is the person
who hears the gospel. Or let's say, you know,
that's the person who maybe goes to church. And
when they go to that concert or they go to that
event, they are genuinely excited. They are super
pumped up. They come home and they're like, oh
my gosh, I feel hope that I never felt. I feel
peace and joy. And Jesus says, it's real. They
have real joy. They have real hope. They have
real peace. They really feel alive. But then
trouble comes. Some disappointment and suddenly...
That faith that sprang up so quickly just begins
to wither. And maybe you've met someone like
this, or maybe you even had a friend who went
away to some concert or conference, and they
came back so fired up, so energized, they wanted
to tell everybody about their newfound faith,
but then it passed. And you were like, well,
what was that? Was that just like a phase? No,
they were shallow -rooted hearers. And what they
were really hoping for from God was that God
would be a blesser, not a savior. They were looking
for a God to give them comfort, a God to give
them encouragement, a God to give them answers
to all their prayers, a God to give them blessings.
And when everything was sunny like that, and
when life was easy, oh my goodness, they seemed
so, so alive. But when the weather changed, and
when life got hard, And when that medical diagnosis
came and when that prayer went unanswered and
when your friends actually started uninviting
you to get together because of your Christian
faith, when following Jesus actually started
costing you something, man, oh man, that is when
you need deep roots to sustain you because excitement
and emotion are good, but they are not the same
as depth. and maturity and faith that depends
entirely on good feelings won't survive the hard
seasons. Maybe again, think of yourself. Was
there a time in your life where your faith just
sprung up fast and green, but yeah, it's been
withering in the heat of life. Maybe the word
has not gotten down deep enough beneath that
excitement because depth is something that you'll
need. When the hot days come. Jesus continues.
Remember there's four types of soil. He says
other seed fell among thorns. Which grew up and
choked the plants. Third soil. Thorny ground.
The good news again is something is actually
growing here. The seed gets in. Takes root. Plant
comes up. But it's not growing alone. Other stuff.
It's growing in the very same soil. And that's
the problem with thorny ground. Not that, you
know, nothing grows, but actually that too much
grows. A thorn doesn't kill a plant overnight.
They just crowd it. They block out the light.
They suck up the moisture. They steal the nutrients.
Until slowly, that plant just doesn't have the
room it needs to bear any meaningful fruit. And
Jesus tells us exactly what these thorns are.
They are the worries of this life and the deceitfulness
of wealth. Anxiety, ambition, money, possessions,
schedules, responsibilities, deadlines, notifications,
all these things that just fill up a modern life
right to the very edge of the field. And slowly
and quietly, they crowd out the faith. that God
is growing and it doesn't happen all at once.
Of course, it's not dramatic. It is simply keeps
taking up more and more and more room in your
life until there's no space left for God. That
is the crowded heart here. The word is alive.
It's alive in there, but it's crowded. And I
just wonder again, have you ever sensed this
happening in your own life? Jesus has to share
the soil of your life with so many things, your
money, your career, your calendar, your phone,
and sharing it with a thousand competing loves
and loyalties, most of which are actually not
bad in and of themselves, but together they just
fill the ground so completely that the... power
of God in your life is choked out. And year after
year, there's really no fruit to be seen. You're
just surviving, just trying to stay green, just
maintaining your life. But that brings us to
the fourth soil, the good soil. The seed falls,
it gets in, it goes down deep, it doesn't get
choked. The message is personal. It's not theoretical.
It's rooted. It's not shallow. And Jesus is central
and has lots of space to operate. He's not crowded
out. And over time, we are told that when the
seed... encounters ears and hearts like that,
that it bears so much fruit, 30, 60, even 100
times what was sown. You know, I even asked my
dad, I said, is that a good yield, you know?
And he says, actually, yeah, even 100 -fold these
days is a pretty average yield. But to ancient
farmers who had no chemicals and no genetically
modified seeds or no machinery, That wasn't just
a good harvest. That was an astonishing abundance,
right? More than you expected, more than you
ever could have done on your own. And that is
exactly what the kingdom of God is like. When
God's word finds good soil, it produces more
in you than anyone could have predicted. As I
end today, though, I want to say three final
things about the soil of our heart. And they're
quite important. The first is this. You might
be tempted right now to start sorting people.
To say, okay, the hard path, that's my brother
-in -law. The rocky ground, oh, that's that friend
who used to come to church but doesn't come anymore.
And the thorny soil, that is definitely somebody
I know. But Jesus is not giving us these categories
so that we can diagnose everyone else. It's so
that we can examine our own hearts. And the truth
is, One heart can contain all four soils, right?
I have been the hard path at times, hearing God's
word, but not really letting it sink in. I have
been the shallow soil, getting really excited,
but actually not being that deeply rooted. I
have been the thorny ground, you know, saying
yes to God, but my life is just so crowded with
other things that there's really no fruit that
comes of it. And by grace, yeah, there have been
seasons of my life when there has been good soil
and growth. But the same heart can move between
these soils all the time. Over the course of
a life, even over the course of a week. So the
question to ask is not simply, which soil are
they? It's not even to ask, which soil am I?
But really, this morning. What is the condition
of your heart, the soil of your heart right now?
Okay, where are you right now? Second, that leads
us to one of the most freeing things I think
about the whole parable is that, guess what?
God is the farmer. Not you, right? You're the
soil. And the soil's job is not to reach down
and pull out its own rocks. It's not to bend
over and clear away its own thorns. A soil can't
plow itself open. That's not the soil's work.
That's the farmer's work. And so if you're sitting
here this morning and you're saying, yes, these
things are true. I am hard ground. And yes, there
are rocks under the surface. And yes, I have
filled my life with too many things. And I've
got no idea how to fix all this. Then just hear
me on this. You're never meant to fix it all
yourself, okay? Your part is to receive the seed,
to hear, to stay open, and to remain under God's
care and his word. And then to turn to the farmer
and say, Lord, please work this ground. Lord,
break. Open what needs to be broken. You know,
clear away what needs to be cleared and grow
in me what only you can grow. God is a farmer,
not you. But here is perhaps the most important
thing to remember this morning. In this parable,
who is the sower? I mean, I think it has to be
Jesus. He's speaking about himself. He's the
one who's going out, even at that moment, scattering
the seed, the message of God's kingdom, the word
of God. And that same word, as Al read it to
us this morning, and as I've tried to preach
it this morning, is being scattered out over
you this morning. Whether you're hard ground,
shallow ground, crowded ground, good soil, whatever.
God is sowing his word into your life right now.
Jesus is. But Jesus is also the seed itself.
You see, the night before Jesus died, he said
this. Very truly, I tell you. Unless a kernel
of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains
only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces
many seeds. He was talking about himself. He
is the seed who went down into the ground. He
was dead and buried, hidden in the dark. Jesus
was that seed. If you think you feel the thorns
choking you, Remember, Jesus wore those thorns
on his own head. And if you feel the rocks beneath
the surface of your life, remember, they rolled
a ginormous rock across the mouth of his grave.
And if you feel like your ground is hard this
morning, just remember, Jesus went into the hardest
ground that there is, death itself, and he broke
it open from the inside. rose from the dead so
that your ground can be broken open to by the
power of his resurrection. So let those who have
ears hear. What's the condition of your soil
this morning? Hard, shallow, choked. Open yourself
up to God's message. Receive what he has to say
because this. is your growing season. The seed
has gone out. The farmer is here. Bring him the
soil of your heart today.