Parable of The Seeds

Matthew 13:1-9-Kirk Rupprecht 

Commonplace Church exists to glorify God, equip disciples & share the Good News of Jesus. Learn more at commonplacechurch.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:34

That's better. Wow. That's loud. Let's try this again. We're glad you guys are here. How's everybody doing? Happy Mother's Day. Let's start with that. That's a good one. That's that's gotta work, right? Happy Mother's Day. Um, yeah, that's good to be here together this morning. Um, if you're checking out our church gather for the first time, glad you're here. My name is uh Kirk, I'm the pastor of the church here, and um we are in the process of looking through a new series that we started last week called uh Parables. It's keys to the kingdom. And it's really we're looking at teachings of Jesus, really asking um how do we live as followers of Jesus? How do we how do we know what it looks like to walk uh in the ways of Jesus, in the ways of the kingdom? And and we saw last week as we started this uh unpacking of it, we we just recognized, well, what is a parable, right? What what is what is this whole thing? And we saw from what Jesus was sharing that um there the access of the keys to these parables, it begins really first and foremost with understanding who he is. It's our relationship with him. We also talked about uh the wonderful um experience of losing your keys, right? We talked about that. Um just pure joy, we all love when that happens. But uh we also said this when it comes to the kingdom of God, if you find yourself searching, you find yourself lost, you don't have to look far. Because Jesus is not hidden, he's present, he's available, and he's always inviting us in. So today, though, we're gonna step into one of the most parable, I or powerful parables, that's a fun one to say, powerful parables of Jesus, and it's found in um Matthew chapter 13, as Debbie just read. And now listen, I'd love to cover uh every parable that Jesus teaches, but um, we're gonna kind of stick with this one today. And so today we're gonna look at the parable of the seeds, and I think it's pretty timely, right? We're in spring, it's Mother's Day. Maybe you gave out some flowers today to mom or plants or something like that, right? So uh people around springtime, they do this, they tend to kind of flex that green thumb, right? They want to show off those skills. Uh, in fact, like um my house, or I'll just be honest with you, uh, I built the reputation of the guy who um goes out to help with like weeding and stuff, and somehow like pulls up every plant and flower my wife has tried to grow. Just like pure confidence that I can go out there and do it with just zero knowledge of how. And it usually leads my wife to lovingly say something like, hey, maybe maybe you should kind of stay away from like lawn-related activities. Um, and I've honored that that request, stayed away from like weeding. However, I'm not I'm not giving up my lawn mowing duty, okay? That's that's that's the hill I'm gonna die on for that one. That's my sanctuary. But now now, some of you um you actually know what you're doing when it comes to like soil and like planting and like growth. And so this parable is gonna hit home for you, I think, in a unique way. Yet for all of us, this parable is is foundational, I think, to how we understand the kingdom of God and how it actually works. So we're in uh Matthew 13, 1 through 9. I'm gonna read it real quick again. It says that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. Great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into the boat and sat down. The whole crowd stood on the beach. He told them many things in parables, saying, A power a sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path, birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they had not did not have much soil. Immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell on thorns, the thorns grew up and choked them, other seeds fell on good soil, produced grains, so uh a hundredfold, sixty, thirty. He who has ears let him hear. So, what we're recognizing in this parable of Jesus right here is first, listen, if you came in today uh hoping for some like lawn care tips from our Savior, um, I'm just gonna say that's probably not the point of this. Uh now Jesus uh does care about how we steward our land, right? But the parable is not uh Jesus offering us some like services as the lawn doctor or anything like that. So, but why the agricultural imagery that we see here? Here's the thing in the context, Jesus is teaching in first century Jewish culture that's at the time under Roman rule, and what they they used to survive in those moments are well, planting, things like sowing, cultivating the land. This wasn't just a hobby, or this was their livelihood, this was survival. And so it was how people provided for their families. So here's what Jesus does: He talks about seed, he talks about soil, but that's not abstract. That's that's he's stepping directly into the everyday lives of his audience. Just like we said last week, Jesus meets people where they are. And yet it's important he doesn't just call us to stay there. Because the goal of parables, as we spoke about last week, it's not about getting like better farming techniques, right? It's to use what they understand, what they what is around them, to reveal something they don't yet see, right? To point to this deeper truth. I would say to paint a picture that carries like a spiritual lesson. And that lesson is being aimed at a very specific audience. And so to understand that, we're gonna zoom back for a moment to Matthew chapter 12. In Matthew 12, Jesus is doing this, he's interacting with a group of religious leaders. They're called the Pharisees. Now, the Pharisees were known for their strict devotion to the law of Moses, they knew the scriptures, they practiced religious discipline, they they they were great, right? And in their eyes. But over time, their devotion turned into something like this. It turned into pride. And they began to measure themselves by things like this, by their knowledge, by their performance, by their outward obedience. And so, in doing that, here's what happened: they created a divide amongst God's people. There were the holy, the devout, the righteous, at least in their own eyes. And then there was everyone else: the sinners, the outcasts, those who were deemed less than. And so when Jesus tells his parables, he's speaking into a divided audience here. He's speaking to the Pharisees, but he's also speaking to those who the Pharisees have written off. So let's ask this question. If that's the original audience, first century Jewish listeners, well, the follow-up might be what does this have to do with us here today, right? Like, how does a parable about seeds and soil spoken 2,000 years ago, how does it connect to disciples of 2026 here in America? And then that's a great question. Because the goal, yes, of gathering here today as a church community isn't just to look back at history, right? It's like we talked about a few weeks ago, it's about discipleship, it's about being equipped, it's about being shaped, right? That's just where we're gathered here today. So let's just look at this question again. And I'll offer the perspective as an answer. It's this so although the audience Jesus spoke to, the audience of this account, although it differs from where we sit today, here's the thing the reality, the key of the key of this parable, it transcends time, it transcends culture, it transcends context. Now, here's what I mean: this parable, it's addressing a universal reality for every human being. You, me, all of us. What's that reality? It's the ground that we are living from, the foundation beneath us, the soil of our lives, our souls. Right? And just like anyone who knows anything about like gardening or lawn care, what determines the outcome uh doesn't start with the plants, it starts with the condition of the soil. Everything rises, everything falls on that. I'll give you a quick example. Uh, when we when we uh first bought our house, we were so we're, you know, well, my wife was excited to do landscaping, but um we had a vision, right? Planting, growing, making things really look good. But as we started working in this one section of my of our yard, we ran into a problem. So the previous owner did this. At some point, they had put pavement in the backyard. Like, and over time, like it kind of got covered up with like weeds and just things like that. But from the surface, it kind of looked like soil. Like, okay. And and yet the moment we started digging, we realized this soil wasn't for planting, this is soil for parking, right? It was very different. Underneath the surface, it was hard, it was rocky, it was impenetrable. In fact, it wasn't really soil at all, it was it was pavement. And so, no matter how good the seed was that we're throwing down, if if the ground isn't right, here's the thing: nothing grows. And that's exactly what Jesus is getting at in this parable. He's talking about the soil of the human heart, the ground of the soil, the place where something is received or this or rejected. So then the question becomes what is the seed? Well, according to Jesus, the seed is the message of the kingdom, the seed is the gospel itself, the seed is the word of God, it's the good news of what God has done through Christ. That's the seed. And here's the insight that Jesus is pressing into. It's it's not uh just about the power of the seed, it's about the condition of the soil that receives it. In other words, it's this way the issue is not whether the gospel works, the issue is how the human heart responds to it. So Jesus, he presents himself as the sower of the scattering of this seed. And in that he's proclaiming the truth of the kingdom. And what he reveals is this it's the same seed, it falls on different types of soil, and from there each one responds differently, which ultimately leads to the question Jesus is putting in front of all of us and his audience what type of soil are we? That's what he's asking. Now, now here's the thing Jesus asked this, but it's not an open-ended uh like question, okay? Where you need an open-ended answer. It's not essay style. What Jesus is actually doing, he's providing his listeners uh opportunity to answer through multiple choice, which I kind of like upon taking tests, right? I like multiple choice. But so here's Jesus, his question to his audience us today is this upon receiving the message of the gospel, what is the condition of our soil? How tilled are our hearts? This this personal characterization of Jesus that asks, how receptive are we to his message? And so that's the question. Now here's what we want to look at. Uh let's look at the choices that he gives us, right? Which of course we see in the parables of Jesus here as he he goes and further explains verses 18 through 23. So here's choice A. It's seeds on the path that are fallen on unreceptive soil. So this is the first example Jesus gives, right? It's not that the sower failed to scatter the seed, it's that the seed or the soil, sorry, wasn't open to receive it. Now, now there's something, um, there's some important context here, okay? At the moment, Jesus isn't speaking in general terms, he's speaking very specifically. This is a direct word to the Pharisees that are standing around him. And so why, why let's ask, does Jesus aim this at them? Well, here's the thing: they have cultivated a kind of soil that can no longer receive truth. Because at the root of it, beneath the soil was this. It was pride. They lacked humility to be open to the message of Jesus. Here's what they did they have built their identity on things like their knowledge, their knowledge of the law, their religious performance, their outward obedience. And so over time, that soil didn't produce openness, it produced resistance. You see, here's the thing: pride, pride all it does is harden the soil. It creates a surface where truth uh it can't it can land, but it can never like penetrate. And the reason is this to receive the message of the kingdom, here's what it would do: it would require them to let go what they trusted in, things like their works, things like their knowledge, their status. Because the gospel isn't isn't there to defirm affirm like self-made righteousness. It's what it does is it replaces it. See, receiving the kingdom would mean submitting, submitting to an authority higher than themselves. In this context, submitting to Jesus. And what that when that as a surrender would they would have to operate, that would be so different from their operating system, right? Because their operating system is built on earning, it's built on status, and and the kingdom of God is incredibly different, right? It's entirely different. The economy of the kingdom of God, right, looks so so just foreign. In fact, Jesus defines this for his disciples when he turns this whole idea that upside down. It says this Jesus called them together and said, You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord over it, and their high officials exercise authority over them, but it's not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. Whoever wants to be first must be your slave, just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, to give his life for a ransom of many. So this worldview would have called them to reframe everything that they knew at the time. Everything that was found in the kingdom of God. Because here's the thing in the kingdom of God, power does not come from our standing, it comes from our serving, from being humble. It's an economy that's not built on performance or production, but it's rather this invitation based upon the offering of God's grace. It's like what Paul shares in Ephesians chapter 2. He says, For it's by grace you are saved through faith. It's not from yourself, it's a gift of God. It's not by work so that no one can boast. And so here's what they're wrestling with. In the kingdom of God, hey, there's no there's no rankings, right? There's no top performers. There's no earning your way through your work, through your knowledge. There's only one way in. It's humility. It's lowering ourselves, lowering so that we can receive what God gives. But the tragedy for the Pharisees is this their pride, their pride made them unable to receive the very thing, the very thing they needed the most. Now let's let's bring it to our world today. Because while we may not see many like Pharisees walking around in Morris County this morning, um, the same kind of soil, however, still exists. Right? The same heart posture is alive and well in our culture, and hey, even even in our church. And here's what I mean. How many people, like when we have conversations and they talk about they turn to like things like eternity or heaven and hell, like what comes next? Many people respond with this, like, I think I'm good. And usually, right, what follows is the statement of like the list of good deeds, good intentions, the moral decisions, like I lived a good life, helped an old lady cross the street, right? I'm not a bad person, and and and listen, that that's I'm not gonna like go after people and flip tables and anything like that because of their thoughts here, but what I do want to be is I want to be honest. If if that's the foundation someone's standing on, that's not the path to the kingdom, right? According to Jesus, that mindset, self-righteousness, trusting in our own goodness isn't isn't the doorway, it's it's the roadblock. Let's let's unpack why then. Because that path is is at times just rooted in in pride, right? And what we have done instead of humility that states what God has done. Let's just think about it, right? If if my eternal standing is based upon my ability, my performance, my accomplishments, then then who gets the glory? Well, I I do, right? It's if my story is filled with my and me, right? I'm the one who's being elevated. But the gospel tells a completely different story. It says this in my own strength, I can never reach the standard that God requires. I can never achieve perfection. I can never earn my way. However, Jesus, Jesus, He lived the life I never could. He died the death I deserved, and through that, though, he made a way for me to be brought into the presence of God forever. And so now the question becomes who gets the glory? Well, God does. He's the one who should be praised, he's the one who is honored, he is the one who is worshiped, right? Because salvation isn't something that we could achieve, it's only something we can receive. And it really comes down to this maybe asking whose glory are we after? And are we willing to surrender our desire to earn it, to achieve it, to prove ourselves? Or are we humble enough to receive a gift that only God can give? Because here's the thing pride is only gonna keep us away from grace, right? Pride says, I'll earn it. Grace says, receive it. And for many of us, if we're honest, our instinct is still to earn, to build a case, to prove our worth, right? But that instinct, no matter how moral it looks, it actually keeps us. It keeps us away from the very life we're looking for. It's kind of like we've we've just settled for it's my way or the highway, right? And that phrase confuses me if you don't have like a highway near you, but um, which you know, uh but I think the point is we want it our way, right? We want to we want to do it our way, and and that becomes the default at times of the human heart. And here's the tension, because our way, it's not God's way. Our way is about earning, God's way is about grace, our way is about what we do, God's way is what Christ has already done. And for many, this first type of soil, this this hardened uh path looks like a spiritual version of like karma, right? It's like if I do good, I get good. If I do bad, I get good. It feels it feels fair, it feels logical, it feels controllable. But here's the problem karma has no category for grace. Grace says something completely different. Grace says your entrance into the kingdom of God is not based upon your way, it's based upon Christ's way. It's not based upon striving, it's based upon surrender. It's not achieving, it's receiving. And this is what makes Christianity so unique. And so, in many ways, it's the most like, I would say, unreligious religion that is exists. Because every other system says this climb your way up, earn your standing, prove your worth. But the gospel flips that and says this you can never climb high enough. So God came down to you. Not because of how good you are, not because of how well you've lived, but because of how deeply he loves you. And that's the paradox, that's the scandal of grace. And yet, because it removes our ability to earn, it calls us to surrender. Many people do this, they reject it. They'd rather work their way to God than receive this gift that he's already offered. So that's option A. Here's option B rocky ground, shallow soil. I think the best way to define this one is is Christianity that's strictly based on an experience. Look what Jesus says. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word, immediately receives it with joy, yet has no root in himself. But he endures for a while. When tribulation and persecution arise on account of the world, immediately he falls away. So, yes, the seeds of the kingdom, the gospel, they're they're thrown into the ground, right? But but in this case, they only go so deep. And I and I think I think we see this play out in our world today, even within the modern church, where following Jesus can start looking more like a consumer experience than a call to discipleship. Where the gospel is presented, and that's a good thing. However, there's little follow-up, there's little formation, there's little depth, there's no real like watering of the seed. And what happens over time is we can create just like shallow soil. Now, now let me be clear, I'm not I'm not looking to like criticize churches for their approaches and how they do things, right? There's a lot of people working really hard to create environments where people can encounter Jesus. That that does matter, but there's a tension we have to be aware of. See, we live in a world that is full of options on Sunday morning, right? There's there's competition for the church, there's sports, there's brunch, there's just like sleeping in, right? And there's a lot of things that are pulling people's attention. And because of that, there can be a pull even in the church to like create the best possible experience, right? The best environment for kids, engaging music, the great communication, like moments that connect emotionally. And listen, again, those things aren't bad, but here's what we have to be careful of. If the foundation becomes experience over discipleship, well, then we begin and unfortunately to cultivate a shallow faith. Because experience, yeah, it can attract a crowd, but it doesn't sustain a disciple. If following Jesus becomes reduced to a moment, a feeling, an emotional high, well, what happens when that feeling fades? A lot of times we start looking for the next experience, the next moment, the next environment, the next thing that works, and slowly without even realizing it, we begin to treat the gospel like something that needs to be updated, refreshed, made more interesting. So it doesn't Gets stale. But the truth is the gospel, the gospel doesn't need to be improved. It needs to be rooted. Because Jesus, He didn't call people to an attending and experience. He called them to follow Him, to walk with Him, to be formed by Him, to be changed from the inside out. And that kind of transformation, it doesn't happen in shallow soil. I mean, look, just hop on the internet, okay? You'll find examples of like what I'd just say carnival Christianity all over. I I recently saw a dude come to the pulpit via a roller coaster, right? I'm not even lying. And this other guy came from like the rafters, like a WWE match. It was crazy. And I was thinking, like, maybe I need to get like a hype man up here, like, or challenge another pastor to like a dance battle, a rap battle or something. Um, but here's the point, right? Jesus didn't come to entertain the world, he came to save it. He came to save it. And his bride, the church, if our soul focus becomes creating the best possible experience, here's the thing: we we risk presenting a shallow version of the greatest message ever given. The gospel. Because here's what happens the service ends, Sunday wraps up, and then real life shows up. Monday through Saturday, right? Marriages face strain, finances get tight, sin shows up in our thoughts, our words, our actions. And when those realities hit, an experience isn't going to be enough. It doesn't sustain hope. What sustains us is the presence of Jesus. Not just in a moment, but the reality is with us at all times. I mean, listen, if Jesus came to offer an entertaining experience, his final words to his disciples might have sounded like a little bit different, right? But look what he says here in John 16, 33. He said, I've said these things to you that in me your heart you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I've overcome the world. Notice what he doesn't say. He doesn't say, Hey, I got a great experience lined up for you next week. Hang on, hang tight till then, right? No, he tells the truth. It's like, hey, you're you're gonna go through it. Like it's it's gonna be hard. But then he gives them something deeper than an experience. He gives them himself. He says, Take heart, because I'm with you. I've overcome the world. And here's the danger with like shallow soil. A carnival Christ can begin to replace a crucified Christ. And when that happens, once the experience fades, once life hits, people begin to drift. They look to the next experience, the next emotional high because this Jesus thing didn't seem to fix their problems. So let me just say this clearly. Yes, we value what happens here on Sunday gatherings. We truly do, right? We want people to encounter God. We want people to experience His presence that matters. But we're not gathered here just for a weekly experience. We're gathered for something deeper: a lifelong relationship with God, a faith that carries into Monday, into Tuesday, into Wednesday, into every moment of our lives. And so here's the question worth asking. We can wrestle with this this morning. Does my desire for God extend beyond Sunday? Or maybe have I settled for just an hour-long experience of Him, right, instead of a daily relationship. And then listen, if you find yourself just struggling with that, right, that's not, we're not looking to shame people, right? That's just an invitation. It's an invitation to go deeper, to invite Jesus into every part of your life, to move towards him daily, to step into like intentional discipleship with others in this community so that soil can be deepened. That's option B. Here's option C. It's thorns, unsettled soil. Here's the premise of this next one. At first glance, it looks similar to like shallow soil, but here's an important difference because this group, they're not receiving the word for a moment, right? They're not just chasing experience. They actually know the truth. They're interested, they're engaged, they're leaning in. However, the seed doesn't just sit on the surface, it does, it takes root. But here's where the challenge comes there's a difference between hearing the word and living the word. There's a difference between understanding truth and then trusting it enough to apply it. Because at some point, the word of God doesn't just inform us, it confronts us. It calls us to change, to surrender, to trust God's way over ours. And that's where things can get difficult because following Jesus isn't about gaining just knowledge, it's about stepping into obedience. It's about taking what we hear and living it out in the middle of real life. And that's exactly where Jesus takes us to the next part of this parable. He says, as for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfaithful. So here's what he's acknowledging in this so this soil. It's not that the seed hasn't been scattered, it's not that the seed hasn't even been received. It's that the trust in this, it's it's in the trust in this message is slowly being choked out. And one of the things that's choking it out is this reality of lack of trust, of doubt. Now let me be clear here. I just want to be careful how we talk about doubt because not all doubt is is unhealthy, right? In fact, we see moments of doubt all throughout scripture. Think about Thomas, he was forever labeled this doubting Thomas, right? Or even in our own lives, right? There probably there can be moments where we we don't understand what God is doing. I've had those moments where I've asked, like, God, I don't understand why you would allow this. And that kind of wrestling, that's not what Jesus is condemning here. There's a difference between God, I'm struggling to understand, and this, God, I don't trust you. Right? One posture is of seeking, the other posture is just of rejection. And the kind of doubt Jesus is pointing to, it's the second one. It's the kind of doubt that hears the word of God, that sees the character of God, it's evidence. But when hardship comes, when suffering hits, when life gets heavy, instead of turning towards him, that heart turns away. It begins to let circumstance define what is true about God. It allows pain, it allows suffering, difficult to become the lens that determines whether God is trustworthy. And over time, what happens? The seed gets choked out. Not because it wasn't true, because it wasn't trusted. It's the kind of tension James even speaks into, right? This wavering, this instability, the divided trust. And what Jesus is showing is this when doubt moves from wrestling to rejection, it begins to suffocate the life that the word was meant to produce. Look what James 1 says. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by God by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in what they do. So here's what that looks like. We hear from God, we receive his word, seeds are planted, truth about who he is, but when hardship comes in those moments, that truth gets choked out. Now let me say this clearly. This isn't a call just to um not deal with uh hardships or or challenges with emotion, right? It's not a call to shut those things down, right? Jesus shared uh many times his his emotions, right? Um, and and and the the challenge though is when we we we look at the the world around us, instead of turning to him, we start to turn to other things in our lives to try to save us, to try to rescue us, right? We we look towards things that are not of God, for only what God can bring. Comfort, security, relief. We begin to lean into things that are called functional saviors, things that promise peace, but they can't actually deliver it. That's the idols of this world, that's the distractions, right? The comforts we run to when life gets heavy. And that's the warning of the soil. When life gets real, right? And many of us experience some real things, right? When the rubber hits the road moments, well, the question Jesus is asking here is where do we turn? Do we turn towards a savior or do we turn towards substitutes? Because the direction in those moments reveals reveals the soil of our hearts, right? Do we cling to the word we've been given, or do we turn to the things of this world that we actually live in? So that's the third soil. Here's the last soil. Good ground, receptive soil. Of course, this this is the soil Jesus desires for everyone. Everyone who's offered the seed of the gospel to walk in, me, you, all of us here. It's not just about hearing of the good news, it's about understanding, and it's about living out the response to this good news. Once again, Jesus offers wisdom, or James offers wisdom to this. He says, Be but be doers of the word, not only hearer, not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. There's anyone who's a hearer of the word, not a doer, he is like a man who lives intently, as at his, looks intently his natural face in a mirror, for he looks at himself and goes away and once again forgets what he looks like. So here's what that practically translates to. It's this if it's living out, receiving the gospel from a space of secure standing, meaning acknowledging just what the truth of the gospel offers to us. And on a macro level, right, that we can seek our secure understanding in the gospel because here's the thing Jesus has done what we could never do. He's met the greatest need for each one of us who has placed our trust in him. He's provided us eternal security, standing in the eyes of God. And if we agree with the words of Hebrews, it says, and just as it is important for one man to die, what and after comes judgment, right? This is a universal truth that every heart is a type of soil, and our greatest need isn't just what happens in this life, it's also what comes after. It's the standing of our souls. Will we spend eternity in the presence of God, the fullness of life, a new heaven, new earth, or will we remain separated from him under the weight of judgment, the consequence of sin? Now, now let me be clear. This isn't some like scare tactic from God. Like, this is just the honest reality of who he is. God is love. And within his love is justice, because sin is real. We have all felt its effects. We've been wounded, we've been hurt. Some of us experience deep, deep loss, even things like abuse. And so, for God to simply overlook sin, to ignore its impact, that wouldn't be loving. That would be unjust. And so, yes, God judges. He judges, but here's the thing, and I pray this is heard. He also shows mercy. As James 2 13 says, mercy triumph triumphs over judgment. And that mercy is made known through this scene, through the gospel, that although every one of us has sinned and fallen short, God's message to us is not judgment, it's invitation. It's invitation to life because of Jesus, right? The one who took what we deserved. And we he offered, right, what we can never earn, this life with God. And the beauty of it's for it's now, here, and now, but it's also forever. That's the message of the Christian faith. Not just about warning about death, but it's an invitation for life. And that brings us to that final soil, the good ground, right? The receptive heart. The heart that receives the gospel and does this, lives from it. It's a heart that is rooted, it's soft, it's open. And from that heart, from that soil, here's the thing: you see growth. Life grows, right? Not just personally, but outwardly. Jesus describes this, it bears fruit. Some cases 30, 60, even a hundredfold. This isn't just about personal transformation, it's true. It's also about multiplication. It's about lives changed, disciples made, right? Hope that's extended to others. Because when soil is healthy, the harvest doesn't stay contained. And so, yes, there is joy in what God does through us through this soil, but there's also joy in what he does as he extends us out, as we live from this secure standing, we as we desire others to experience the same life. So here's the the encouragement let's be good soil, not from striving, but from surrendering. Let God do the work of tilling our hearts, stay rooted in his word, remain open to his leading, right? Walk in this daily dependence with him, prayer, just solitude, and and live, live out this good soil, right? In our homes, in our workplace, in our relationship. Be be willing, be willing. And that's my prayer for us, that we would be good ground. From that good ground, we would see multiplication of life, souls saved, disciples made, the kingdom of God on the move. That's our goal. That's what we get to be as a church. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today. Thank you for uh just helping us to understand uh the power of um of our soil, Lord, the soil of our hearts, the power of uh also the message of your gospel, Lord. Yeah, the the the power that comes, Lord, um just as you have have invited each one of us, Lord, to find uh just hope and and and find repentance and forgiveness, God, and just turn to you, God. And I pray that God we would live from that good soil, God. Yeah, if we find ourselves just being in a space of being choked out from the things of this world or just feeling anxious, Lord, help us to just remember your love and remember, God, just your your care uh for each one of us, God. God, send us out on mission to love, to share the good news of the gospel, Lord. And finally, Lord, I just do pray for um this day that uh we celebrate Mother's Day and just all the different emotions and different uh feelings that stir up, Lord, from different experiences, God. I just pray that your hand of comfort would be upon those who are seeking it, Lord. And also there would be a celebration where that's welcome as well, God. Um ultimately just reminding us, Lord, you are a perfect heavenly father. We love you in Jesus' name, amen.