Matthew 13:3 ”And he spake many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow”
There is much in the Bible about sowing and reaping. All that we do and say is a seed that is sown either to the flesh or to the Spirit.The Bible tells us that when we sow to the Spirit we will reap life but when we sow to the flesh (base human nature) we will reap corruption.
The word of God itself is called by Jesus a “seed”. When it is preached it is being sown, ready to accomplish its purpose when it lands on good ground. Its purpose is to multiply and bring life to all that receive it. Life is what Jesus is about as he claimed of himself “I am the way the truth and the life” (John 14:6) He never desires to bring death to people. The Bible teaches us that even though many will end up rejecting the Savior and end up in Hell, it is not God’s will that any should perish and end up in there but that all should come unto repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That is the will of the one who gave up his life for us. Jesus Christ the Word (John 14:1) is the seed that died, was placed in the tomb, and he is risen again.
What are the seeds of our life? Do we sow to the Spirit or is our sowing to the flesh? Would we plant a tomato seed and expect to reap corn? Would we plant corn and expect to reap wheat? Since we have sown that man is not under God’s authority. Since we have sown that man evolved from nothing. Since we have sown that there is no absolute truth. Why are we now surprised at the insanity that we see around us? We have reaped a selfish society because we have sown the wrong seed making man the center and authority rather than God. Our planting speaks of what we truly desire to reap in our lives. What seeds have we planted in our relationships? How about our finances? Are we planting financial seeds in the Kingdom of God or do we believe that the Kingdom of God is not good ground (2 Corinthians 9:6)?
What we do with the seed has the power to save and set free. The following passage explains this principle to us;
Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap”
We are now in a dangerous time in our nation. We have sown seeds over the last 50 years that have multiplied and now we are reaping the harvest. The harvest of abortion, divorce, drug abuse, family strife, high crime, poor education, usurpations of parental authority, and the list goes on. I am not only speaking of the secular society. Many of the Churches have been sowing the wrong seed. Weak on truth and accepting all kinds of things in a misunderstanding of what love and mercy is. There is this idea that accepting every behavior is somehow the way to show love. We have all heard the misquote of “judge not lest ye be judged.” Secularists and uninformed Christians take that verse totally out of context. In fact Jesus once said “Get the spot out of your own eye you will be able to help your brother get the spot out of his eye.” Jesus never said not to make any judgment. He simply said not to judge another when you are doing the same thing he is doing. Churches must be the standard bearers for what the Bible lifts up as proper and clearly teach what is not. Too many pastors are afraid to speak truth because people will be mad at them for doing so. Being a minister is not a politically correct position that dances around truth because of fear. Let me make this clear…if you are called of God to be a preacher, many people will lie about you, besmirch your character, and hate you with all of their being. Others will believe any lie told about you. That is just the way it is. It was like that concerning the Old Testament Prophets, in the New Testament Stephen (the first martyr of the church), and it is the same today.
How can we expect to reap good things in our country or churches when we as a nation have turned our backs on the Biblical foundation that this society was founded on? How can we expect to be an influence on our society as the body of Christ when we have decided all that matters is numbers of people sitting in church, and being “seeker sensitive”? America has created numerous wimpy believers that believe that they are the center of church life. Rather than pleasing God, they want a pastor that will agree with everything they want and do things the way they want. Any church that thinks it has hired its pastor is sadly mistaken. Any pastor that thinks he is a hireling has no clue of his position. Preachers are called of God and set in place to preach the Bible with passion. That passion must never be quenched with fear of losing a job!!
“Seed by the way side”
Luke 8:5 “A sower went out to sow his seed: and as he sowed, some fell by the way side; and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it”
A sower looks for the proper ground to disperse seed in hopes of reaping a good crop. It is a truth that not every seed finds good ground and so it ends up eaten by birds or blown by the wind to a place where it cannot germinate. What a sad thing it is when seed is wasted and finds no place to grow.
The wayside is not a good place to be for anyone who wishes to be planted. There are hosts of Christians who live by the wayside. They are ones who are tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine and yet are not able to receive the seeds that are sown by the Spirit of God. As James said of those who are not grounded in the wisdom of God, we find in his word;
James 1:5-8“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he thatwavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man” think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways”
The wayside is an unstable place to be. In order for seed to be sown and successful in its purpose it must land on ground that is settled. Seed cannot grow on ground that is unsettled because it upsets the seed and will not allow the seed to take root. People are a lot like that especially in our modern times, unsettled and tossed to and fro. One who is unsettled and trodden down by that condition will find that the seed of the Word of God will be stolen by birds that hover looking for any possibility of food to steal.Isn’t that just like the enemy of our souls? He attempts to get us in a place of dwelling by the wayside and then steals whatever seed may come our way. It is incumbent upon us to decide to get out of the wayside. We must find the place that we can become good stable ground in order to have the seed of God’s Word grow greatly in us. For God desires that we receive the wisdom that he gives liberally to all men who seek him.
We have all heard of the term “like a rock”. Perhaps there are people that you know who are like a rock when it comes to their disposition in life. Those are the ones that seem to never allow anything or anyone to bother them. These by their very nature seem to be able to rise above it all. People are drawn to such men because there seems to be stability in them and consequently they breed a certain confidence that is looked at as desirable. It is a good thing to be strong like a rock and yet planting seeds on a rock will not bring forth a harvest. The seed of God’s Word will not grow on a person who is hard of heart and self reliant concerning his spiritual life. We must rely of the Holy Spirit. God desires that we bring ourselves to Him with a contrite spirit (Psalm 34:18).
People can be funny in their differences. Some are extroverted and some are introverted. Some are analytical and some tend to do things without thinking. I have seen something many times in my years of preaching the gospel. A person comes to hear the word of God and receives it with boldness. People who are “like a rock” are often the ones that when enthusiastic about something, they go right for it. They are the no nonsense, black and white, right and wrong people. There certainly is nothing wrong with being clear in what is right and wrong however if a person is so much like a rock, they may receive something that at the moment they get fired up about, and then soon they fall away from their commitment to it when the seed can’t take root due to the hardness of their hearts.
A rock cannot hold moisture to feed a seed long term. A rock will not let anything permeate it and so what happens to the seed is short lived. The seed springs up due to the initial watering but then if finds that there was no substance to what is under it and thus it dies. For seed to grow you can’t plant it on a rock you must plant it on soft soil so it may take root and grow well. Hard ground must be tilled and worked in order to prepare it for planting seed. The heart of prideful man is like a rock.
The seed of God’s Holy Word was sown in this great land by the founders of America. When we use the term “founders” most of the time we mean our founding fathers. In this case I do not mean them particularly. I mean the people of this great nations founding. They were Christian in their world view. Theirs was a mind set of hard work, personal responsibility, private charity, respect for Christian morality, respect for God and family, and the profound understanding that our rights come from our Creator. The seed was sown and we prospered in family life and in community. There was a day when you could let your children play outside without fear, a day when young people respected their elders, a day when we stood together to fight against all enemies foreign and domestic. Over the last 50 years we have sown other seed. We have as a society sown seeds of weeds and those weeds have choked out the seeds that our founders planed as we have hardened our hearts against God’s Word.
There is always hope for a revival but it will not come from the latest Christian fad. It will not come from how many people sit in church. It will only come when we as a nation understand again that blessing only comes from God. The Church must return to fearless preaching of God’s Word. The Church must come back to its first love, Christ Jesus. I have said it before and I say it again; “as the bible goes, so goes the Constitution”, and I add to that the following; The seed of God’s word must be planted in the Church. The Church must be good ground in order to have that seed grow. If there is revival in the Church, I believe revival will come to our nation. Our beloved nation will not survive as our founders planted it if the Church remains in the state it is in. It is time for revival and all of us including myself must walk in repentance and passion for God’s desire that none parish without Christ. Truth must become the standard again. The seed of God’s word must be sown and received, the Church must follow the Saviors will, and only then will our nation again truly be “one Nation under God”. Remember beloved of God to sow that you may reap in due season. God sees all that we do. He hears all that we say. He has given us the precious gift of being the stewards of his Word. I end this with the following important passage for us to dwell on;
2 Chronicles 7:14 "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."
Dr. David M. Berman Senior Pastor, Author, Convention Speaker 211 Whitcomb Road P.O. Box 10357 Swanzey, NH. 03446 Phone 603 352 9471
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Well Dr. Therman a very intresting article, but I see alot of flaws with it. You speak of these pastors interpreting the bible and the gospels the way they want but you are doing the same thing. Jesus never talked about a "spot" in someones eye he talked, about a plank or a tree trunk, and his meaning was not judging someone when it comes to the same sin thats ridiculous he was saying before you are so to quick to judge look at the tree trunk in your own eye never did he mean you can't judge if its the same sin???? One thing I do agree with you about though is the pastors preaching on certain things in order not to anger their congregations, what I see quite a bit is pastos preaching on what I call the "hot button" sins that will get their people in a lather. One of these "hot button" sins is homosexuality which I feel is not gods ideal but it seems this sin is the deal breaker sin these days and these pastors who constantly preach about this to get there church's fired up say they are just preaching biblically. Well if thats the case the number one spoken about sin in the bible which by the way far exceeds the amount of times homosexuality is talked about is gluttony, but i can't tell you the last time a sermon in any church I have been to where this was the pastors topic. Instead we get these hipacritical churches that will only preach about sins they know there congregation isn't guilty of. How do we not preach about gluttony when America is the most disgustinly gluttonous country in the world instead we pick out one certain sin group and villinize them. Dr. therman this is what Jesus meant when he spoke about judging others and looking at the "spot" in your own eye.
Also your potrayal of our wonderful founding fathers is quite eliquint and hollywood like. If you know true american history you would know that this country in the way it was founded was not the way you say. Most of these founding fathers contributed to the murder of hundreds of thousands of native americans, and I may be wrong here but I remember somwhere in the bible it talking about thou shall not kill I don't think they were utilizing their "biblical principles" when it came to the native americans of this country. We murdered and lied and broke every treaty with them and then placed a beutiful title on it to make it ok by calling it the manifest destiny, but wow there motives were sure rooted in biblical principle. Aslo a lot of these "bibliclly principled" founding fathers were slave owners and influencers and supporters of the slave trade. The early years of this country was built on the blood and sweat of these slaves backs you give these founding father way to much credit they don't deserve. Lastly you talk about fighting our enemies foreign and domestic???? What did Jesus say about fighting we can protect are freedoms with force there is nothing wrong with that in a kingdom of the world sense but don't ever say were using force against our enemy and doing it in the name of christ. I find many of the writers on this web site are also guilty of intrepting the gospel their own way and americanizing it please stop. America is not the light and savior of the world Jesus christ is I think this was forgotten when this article was written. Click here to reply to this post
OVERFED AND UNCONCERNED
Posted On: 12/06/07 05:32:40 PM
Age 64, OH
This depends on who you consider the founding fathers. The pilgrims, Washington, and Lincoln did not slaughter the innocent but stood up for the poor and the weak. What you say about GLUTTONY is certainly true. We are told in the scriptures about the Ely priesthood and outward sign of it was that Ely was very fat. Ely ate the fat that was to be reserved for the Lord. The same is true in the church today. How can fat preachers preach on gluttony. Our nation has set a new record never before achieved in the history of man. Every civilization of man has lived longer the less LACK of food that they had. The more food; the longer they lived. The main thing that brought disease was lack of food; and so bring a early death. This is still true today; and in Africa some have only a life expectancy of 39 years, because of lack of food. But this year the life expectancy in the USA has gone DOWN 5 YEARS because of gluttony. This is the first time in human history that this has ever happened. Ez 16:49 " 'Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, OVERFED and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. 50 They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.- The church of this nation is so arrogant as to think the Lord would do away with the children of Abraham for being unconcerned and overfed but not do the same to them for the same sin even though they are only grafted in. Lou Click here to reply to this post
Re: The Seed The Church The Nation
Posted On: 12/04/07 09:02:44 AM
Age 61, MO
Thank you for the inspiring article. I consider your points well taken and accurate. One line from the article says, "Truth must become the standard again." I would add that greed must be put aside. Without the Christian ethics of honesty and willful giving, the American political and economic system will not work; much more not work than a totalitarian, socialist system. We, in order to be free, must be on the honor system. The closing prayer in this article is extremely appropriate. George Cancilla Click here to reply to this post
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