The Soil of the Soul | Trinity Sermons

Today's reading is from the Gospel of Matthew,

Matthew 13:1–9

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.