The Word of God

Key Verse: Luke 8:11

“This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is God’s word.”

Additional Reading: Luke 8:4-15

I had a precious older saint of God walk into my church one Sunday that had never attended our church before. As I got better acquainted with her, I finally asked her: “why did you leave your last church, since you attended there for so many years.” I have never forgotten her answer because it became a great reminder to me in my ministry for years to come.

She told me that her previous pastor had started using the Bible less and less in his sermons. Then the “straw that broke the camel’s back” happened on the last Sunday she ever attended that church, the pastor got up and read from the USA Today newspaper as his text for that day’s message.

This saint of God knew that the only words worthy of a pulpit in God’s House would come from the Bible and should be based on the Biblical truths it teaches. I had always felt that way, but that testimony helped me to never apologize for using the Bible as my only foundation for any message I would preach from the pulpit in God’s House.

In our Scripture reading today, Jesus is talking to the people about the Word of God. He wanted them and us to know several unchangeable facts about God’s Word.

Jesus reminds us that the Word of God is like a seed. When a seed is planted in good soil, it grows and becomes a great benefit to anyone who encounters it. So, it is with God’s Word. When we allow our minds to receive it as truth and obey its instructions, our lives are like “good soil” that will produce a huge “harvest” in God’s Kingdom.

Unfortunately, God’s Word is not always given the chance to produce such a great harvest in people’s lives. Jesus’s parable list three other kinds of soil that wrecks the benefits of the wonderful seed of God.

The first thing Jesus tells us is that sometimes the seed is stolen from the person by the evil one before it can take hold in their lives (Luke 8:12). Jesus said this is like a seed that has fallen on a hard path and the seed can’t penetrate that kind of soil.

The second kind of bad soil is described by Jesus as “rocky soil” which is a soil that doesn’t allow the seed to form any deep roots. The people that have this kind of reception to God’s word believe it for a while but then when temptations come their way, they turn their backs on God in order to live the way they want to (Luke 8:13).

Thirdly, Jesus says some people’s hearts look like “thorny soil”. These people quickly receive the message of God’s word but then allow the cares, riches, and pleasures of this world to crowd out the message given the by God’s Word. These people never grow into mature believers (Luke 8:14).

This brings us back to good soil, the kind that produces a great harvest in God’s Kingdom. These people are described by Jesus as “honest, good-hearted people who hear God’s word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest” (Luke 8:15, New Living Translation).

Can you find what kind of person you are represented by these four types of soil?

Has the word of God had any affect in your life? If not, then perhaps the evil one has stolen it from you. Or perhaps you have not allowed God’s Word to go deep into your life, keeping it a Sunday thing only. Maybe you find yourself the type of person who has allowed God’s Word to be crowded out by the less important things of this world!

It’s never too late to turn your life around to become “good soil” by being honest and seeking God’s help!

Father, help me to see my life as you see it, I asked this in Jesus’s Name, amen.