When Christ tells the parable of the sower and the seed, He is not inviting us to try to figure out what kind of soil we are. Rather, He is exhorting us to warn us against allowing anything to steal the Word of God from our hearts or to choke out the faith that His Word has brought forth. Of course, we want to think of ourselves as the good soil. But, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that each of these soils accurately describe us at times. When the Word of God is being preached and we don’t gather with the saints, we are allowing the devil to pluck the Word away from us so that the Word can’t be of benefit to us at all. Other times, we allow our struggles and our sorrows to scorch out the tender growth of our faith or we don’t daily nourish our faith, and it withers. And plenty of times we allow fun or work or sports to occupy the chief place in our hearts and our calendars so that what once filled us with joy is just another thing we have to do that gets in the way of the things we want to do. Children of God, let us be careful how we hear all of God’s Word and especially this warning from Christ. May God the Holy Spirit grant that we receive the Word of Christ with good and honest hearts and bring forth the fruits of faith and good works in abundance. I look forward to seeing you this coming Lord’s Day.
Pastor Ulmer