Listen! (Mark 4:1-20)
Introduction
Listen!
The main point of this sermon is that you need to hear the word of God. The Greek word for “hear” is akouo. No fewer than 9 times is it used in these verses. 4:3 – “Listen!” 4:9 – “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” 4:12 – Literally “and hearing they might hear and not understand.” 4:15 – “when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word.” 4:16 – “when they hear the word.” 4:18 – “They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world…” 4:20 – “the ones who hear the word and accept it.”
Yet again, in the same section, Jesus will go on. 4:23 – “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.” 4:24 – “Pay attention to what you hear.” 4:33 – “As they were able to hear it.”
Alongside the constant exhortation of hearing are many other concepts that point to the same thing. There is the repetition of the phrase, “And he said” (4:2, 11, 21, 24, 26, 30). Jesus’ speech dominates this chapter of Mark, which is a rarity for this gospel. The section begins with a threefold repetition that Jesus was teaching. 4:1 says that he “began to teach” and v2 says he was “teaching them many things, and in his teaching he said to them.” Featured in the middle—a kind of parenthesis meant to help us know why he is telling these stories—he asks his disciples, “Do you not understand this parable? How will you understand all the parables?” The citation of Isaiah 6:10 in Mark 4:12 is all about seeing and perceiving and hearing and understanding. Mark 4:11 indicates that in order to understand the meaning of these parables, one must be let into the “secret [lit. mystery] of the kingdom of God.” 4:20, the good soil not only hears but also accepts or embraces the word of God. This passage is very clearly about hearing, seeing, understanding, perceiving, receiving, embracing, accepting, believing the word of God.
Why is this such an important point for Mark to make? Two reasons I will bring out. The first is theological. This parable teaches us this fundamental reality: we hear God’s word according to how we are. Not all hearing of the word is created equally. Many hear, but few hear. What makes the difference? Our hearts. The state of our heart is the preset which creates a certain kind of hearing the word. Our hearts are spring-loaded to respond to the word a particular way. Our hearts are conditioned to either hear the word and accept it, or to hear the word and reject it. Thus, Jesus’ great concern—which is also Mark’s—is that we would listen and pay attention to how we listen, lest we deceive ourselves. As we shall see, it is only fruitful hearing which is saving. James 1:22, “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” None of us is beyond self-deception, and so we must pay very close attention to how we hear God’s word. Are we dismissive? Are we shallow? Are we emotional? Are we crowded? Are we prepared? How we listen is a proof of who we are.
The second reason why Mark includes this story at this point is contextual. Just as Jesus lets the disciples into the “secret of the kingdom of God,” we also have already been let into the biggest “secret” of the kingdom in 1:1—Jesus Christ is the Messiah, the Son of God. But within the world of Mark’s storytelling, the people don’t have that master-key. Instead, Jesus’ revelation of himself to them is oblique, obscure, veiled, indirect, and often understated. That is not to say that it is unclear. It is to say that it is not direct—and we often make very clear points indirectly. Mark instead points to the OT (Isaiah and Exodus and Malachi) and leaves us to infer the meaning of those citations. He points to John who just so happens to be dressed like Elijah, speaking like him, eating like him, in his last known location. He points to Jesus’ baptism and his wilderness wanderings.
Jesus’ public presentation of himself in Galilee is shrouded in the same kind of mystery. Rather than coming onto the stage and shouting, “I am the Messiah! I am the Son of God,” He chooses fishermen as his disciples (a symbol of judgment from the OT). He expels a demon. He heals. He cleanses a leper. He heals the paralytic. He very clearly, but very indirectly offers himself to Israel and demonstrates that the kingdom of God is at hand in his own presence, and therefore the people of God must repent. But rather than being received, he is challenged, rejected, and blasphemed by his own people. They simply don’t understand. So, the beginning of the major division we are in says 3:7, “Jesus withdrew.” Yet as he withdraws from the crowds he calls certain men whom he desired to himself. And it is to them that he discloses himself. But everyone else is either interested only in the show, or the benefits, or thinks Jesus is crazy, or thinks he is demonic.
This is the context for the parables. Parables are not nice illustrations for simple-minded Jews. They are not interest-grabbing stories to help keep our attention. They are not allegorical stories demanding whimsical interpretations. They are not simply earthly stories with heavenly meaning. They are an act of judgment on unbelief and they are an act of revelation to those who believe and ask.
Parables both conceal and reveal. They conceal the kingdom from unbelievers and those who have no desire to understand. But they reveal the kingdom to those who believe and ask because they want to possess the kingdom of God. How does this work? Imagine that I got up on Sunday morning and only spoke in riddles. Nothing that I said was without an analogy. And they were drawn from all sorts of random, apparently disconnected areas of life—family, business, farming, traveling, vacation, nature, the heavens. Would any of that make sense to you? Probably not. You might be able to catch glimpses of what I intended, but you wouldn’t really understand. Now let’s say, after the sermon, I stand by the door so everyone has to walk past me on thew way out. Most of you might look at me kinda weird and think I was off my rocker and you quickly hurry out the door. But maybe there are 3 or 4 of you that really wanted to know what in the world I was talking about. So you come up and ask me, and I walk through and explain the answer to each riddle.
This is very similar to what is happening with parables, particularly in Mark. Nearly all of the parables Mark reports are concentrated here. In fact, Mark specifically says that there were “many things” he taught them, more than what is recorded. Why put them here? And why choose these ones? Because the nature of a parable is the point. It’s not just what the parable means. It’s what the parable is. The kingdom is revealed to those he calls, those who are “around him” (4:10), those who want to know and understand. They have the secret. But then there are “those outside” (4:11). They have everything in parables. Everything is obscure, mysterious, shrouded, impenetrable.
This is how all revelation works. Every sermon is a sifter. Every time we read the Bible, we are being tested. Do we believe? Will we receive it? Will we humble ourselves and obey it? Or will we prove preoccupied with the benefits that Jesus gives so that we miss his word? Will we conclude that he is crazy or that his teaching is demonic and wrong? This is why 1 Corinthians 2:14 says “the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.” But for those who have the Spirit of God, it is different. 1 Corinthians 2:12, “We have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.”
In other words, we need to hear the word of God, and whether or not we hear depends on our relationship to Jesus. If we come to him, we will understand his word because he will explain it to us, and it will prove delightful to us to obey it. We will be fruitful. But if we do not come to him, but remain outside, his word will remain obscure, confusing, nothing more than a long series of random, sometimes-immoral stories and oblique headscratchers. They will be nothing more than a nice morality to follow which makes my life better, or a list of rules I follow to give me a sense of superiority over others. But they will not prove to be the life-giving, sap-providing, fruitfulness-creating word of life to our souls.
This first parable Jesus tells is reported in all three synoptic gospels. It is the master-parable, the key to unlock all the other parables. And that is because of the meaning it carries: not everyone will hear and accept the word of God unto fruitfulness. Not everyone hears. Remember, Jesus has called 12 men whom he will commission to preach and extend his kingdom authority through their ministry (3:14-15). This is part of their preparation for that ministry. And so he through them is also testing us to see whether we will hear his word, as well as training those who do hear his word to preach that same word to others without discouragement. Let us look at this passage in four parts: The Setting, The Parable, The Purpose, and The Explanation.
I. The Setting (4:1-2)
The setting is a common one for Jesus. He was beside the sea. This recalls 3:7-9 where the same scene plays out. Here, Mark includes the fact that they actually used the boat as a floating pulpit. Before the crowd was a “great crowd” (3:7). Now it is a “very large crowd” (4:1). Jesus’ popularity continues to grow as he continues to heal.
Yet we must remember that the sea is a place of mystery. Even in popular thought, the sea is a place of the unknown, a place where sea monsters dwell, a place that is vast and unknown, easy to get lost and of which we know a very small portion. And it seems that whenever Jesus is near or on the sea in Mark, people seem to misunderstand him. The more the crowds gathered around him for healing, the further away they pushed him, until he withdraws into the very sea which symbolizes their ignorant unbelief.
Yet even from here, he teaches them. Jesus is always gracious to the crowds. Even though he knows that they are enduring his teaching to get to his healing, he still taught them and then healed them. He was compassionate, unwilling to hold his tongue because people pursued him for the wrong reasons. He, in that way, is the perfect sower. Always teaching. Always healing. Always loving those who do not love him back.
Yet now his teaching, for the first time in Mark, takes on a different aspect. He teaches them “in parables.” He has already spoken “in parables” in Mark 3:23. But now he begins in earnest. A parable literally means to “lay beside.” It is a story that makes a comparison, an illustration, or anything like that. Very broad meaning. Yet in the technical sense, it is a veiled truth requiring personal instruction from Jesus to understand. This is Jesus acting in judgment on the people of Israel. They have heard his message more plainly, and now they will hear it more obscurely.
II. The Parable (4:3-9)
Jesus no doubt lifts up his eyes and sees the area surrounding him. It is mostly mountains around the Sea of Galilee, but beyond those mountains, in the region of Galilee, there would have been numerous farms growing all manner of crops. Wheat, barley, vegetables, fruits. And he draws on that common, every-day picture of the farmer sowing in order to teach this truth.
“The sower went out to sow.” He tells us nothing of the sower, or the seed. It is likely either wheat or barley because this is how you would sow barley. You would take your outer garment and hold it up to make a kind of pouch or bag (or you would have a special bag that you would sling around your shoulder) and you would fill it with seed. Then you would walk through the field scattering it as you went, and then you would plow the seed into the ground after you had sowed it. Most of the people in the crowd would have done this themselves, and certainly all of them would have seen it.
Yet, as all farmers know, not all soil is created equally. Jesus points out four different kinds of soil—all common to Israel and familiar to the crowd.
First there is the path. The birds came and devoured it. Lots of birds in Israel. In fact, it is a well-known aviation problem for planes that they have to land without sucking birds into their engines and crashing. The paths then would have run right next to fields. They were the local roads, trodden by people and carts and oxen. It was compacted and hard, almost like concrete. Any seed that landed there would never have had a chance to grow. It wouldn’t even germinate. It would rather just sit there until it was eaten by birds.
Second, there is rocky soil. This is not just soil with rocks in it. Rather, it is a shallow layer of topsoil which hides a bedrock of limestone. Israel is famously rocky territory. They often used to joke that when God put all the rocks in the world, he accidentally dumped them all on Israel. But you wouldn’t know until the plants put down roots. They would spring up immediately—shallow dirt means more water on the surface and more nutrients, and so it would appear to be alive and well. But the roots could not get down deep into the ground to draw the water and nutrients that are deeper in the earth. So they would look more alive than the other plants, but then the hot, dry season would come and the scorching sun would dry up those wheat plants. Deep roots would have helped it through that dry season, but without roots, the plant dies and withers.
Third, there is thorny soil. These are the same kind of thorns used to crown Jesus’ head at his crucifixion. They were everywhere, and they were nasty. These plants would grow. The soil underneath is good. Their roots go deep. They survive the sunny dry season. But these don’t have enough sunlight because of the thorn bushes. They have enough sun to create a lot of leaves, but no fruit. They are alive, but they don’t give the sower what he is looking for. It yields no grain.
Finally, there is good soil. Soft. Deep. Clear. The seed falls here and grew and produced grain. Everyone knows that not every plant produces the same amount of fruit. One tomato plant can produce 20-30 tomatoes in a season, while another only produces a few. But both are fruitful. The seed accomplishes its intended purpose.
Then Jesus stops the story. No explanation. On the surface, seemingly a story about a farmer and his grain. You can imagine the confused looks of the people as they glance at one another and wonder whether Jesus’ family’s assessment of him was correct. “Is he crazy? Has he lost his teaching faculty?” They did not understand. Now, that wasn’t a bother to them. They weren’t there for the teaching. They were there for the healing. So the crowd continued to swell. Nevertheless they did not understand what he was saying.
III. The Purpose (4:10-12)
Evidently, his disciples did not understand either. So, Mark inserts 4:10-12 into the story to explain the difference between the crowd and the disciples. In so doing, he explains why he is speaking in parables before he explains what this parable means.
The key contrast is that he was “alone.” That doesn’t mean he was solitary. He was with the twelve and others. Alone was a very different concept back then. He was alone in the sense that he was not with the crowds. He wasn’t in the public eye. He was not speaking to everyone in general. Beside the sea, he was public. He was before everyone. He was not “alone.” But now he is alone, where he will not be heard. In other words, this explanation is not for everyone. It was not widely preached by Jesus. He did not teach the crowds these truths. They were exclusively for those whom he had chosen and those who had followed him apart from the crowd.
It says that they asked him about the parable. This tells us some very important things. First, it shows us that without Jesus help we are in the same position as everyone else. The crowds did not understand the parable, and neither did those around him nor the twelve. We all need Jesus to explain himself to us.
Second, it also shows us that the difference between the disciples and the crowd was not that the disciples were more intelligent or spiritually adept than the crowd. It wasn’t that they had a seminary education or came from a religious background. Rather, the difference is that they were around Jesus even when he wasn’t doling out his healing—even when the benefits of Jesus were not being offered. They were “around him.” They followed him. They were with him when he was “alone.” And not only this, but they asked him. They took the initiative to understand what Jesus had said by asking him. As James 4:2 says, “You do not have, because you do not ask.”
Bible study and hearing his word and listening to sermons is more a matter of humility and faith than it is of academics and intellect. The simplest people can understand the most profound insights if they but ask. And the most sophisticated and nuanced academics will completely miss the point if they don’t. Hearing the word, understanding the Bible, listening to sermons is a matter of faith and prayer before it is a matter of study.
What does Jesus say? “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables.” This sets up a contrast. There is the “to you,” that is those on the inside, and then there are “those outside.” Mark used the same phrase back in 3:32 to describe his own family as being “outside, seeking you.” Being outside doesn’t mean you don’t seek Jesus. It means that you have not yet received the secret of the kingdom of God. How does that happen? It’s all grace. “You receive my grace because I have given you the secret. You are my chosen people, and I do not withhold anything from you. But those who do not receive my grace, those who are outside, they don’t have the secret. They do not understand. It has not been given to them.”
What is this “secret”? The original Greek is literally the mystery of the kingdom. We know about the mystery. It is the only time this word is used in the gospels, but it is used a lot in Paul and we talked about it in Ephesians. It is a truth that requires revelation to understand. It is that which is hidden until it is revealed. So what is Jesus saying? You understand because I reveal it to you. Part of being called is being enlightened, being given understanding. We know this. Before we were saved, the gospel was a riddle to us, a head-scratcher, befuddling. Then, on day, God turned on the lights and you “got it.” All true saints know what I’m talking about. You were given the mystery of the kingdom of God, but until then it was just a riddle to you.
This is always how it has been with God’s people. Jesus quotes Isaiah 6:10 to prove his point. He speaks in parables to confirm their blindness. He speaks in parables to make it clear that flesh and blood do not inherit the kingdom of God. He speaks in parables because he has come not only to reveal the kingdom to those who trust him but also to conceal the kingdom in judgment from those who don’t.
Here we touch the unfathomable purposes of God. “Lest they should turn and be forgiven.” Does this mean that God intentionally excludes some? We can’t unfold that mystery. In an amazing way, God’s decree and providence coincides with man’s rejection of him so that they are only getting what they justly deserve, all while they fulfill the eternal plan of God.
IV. The Explanation (4:13-20)
So, Jesus has explained the dynamic of the parables, and differentiated between those inside and those outside. Now, he unfolds the parable itself to teach us some vital lessons about hearing and sowing the word.
“Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables.” In other words, I need to explain this one to you because it is the key to understanding all the other ones. But once you have the key, you can unlock all the other ones. You will notice that Jesus does not explain every parable in inspired Scripture. Does that mean he hasn’t given us the key? No. He’s given it to us, but in this one place. He’s teaching us to fish. He’s showing us how to understand the parables. So he explains.
“The sower sows the word.” No details about who the sower is, what he is like, what their personality is, male or female, God or man, anything. It’s just the sower. Anyone who sows the word. And the word is the message which Christ is preaching, the gospel. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. Anyone who proclaims the gospel, anyone who shares the word to anyone else is the sower. And the sower sows onto four different types of hearers.
First, there are pathway hearers. These are the careless hearers, the dismissive hearers. These are the hearers who may listen to what you have to say, but dismiss it out of hand. “Oh, that’s nice, but we all just need God.” “I’ve got my own church, thank you very much.” “I’m not worried about that. I’m a good person and God loves me how I am.” Immediately, before the word even has a chance to take root, Satan snatches it away from them. The gospel seed bounces off the heart like seed off concrete. Satan so conditions hearts, and is so actively working in the heart of unredeemed people, that he snatches away the gospel before it has a chance to germinate.
Perhaps some of you are pathway hearers. You came to church this morning, dismissive of what you might hear. You’ve heard it all before. You think you’re good. I warn you now, that if you hear the word of God like that, you will be gobbled up by Satan and cast into the lake of fire with him. Wake up! Let the word of God break up the hardened soil of your heart. Repent! You are not too far gone while there is breath in your lungs. Give heed to your own soul and give the word of God a fair hearing, a considered hearing, an honest hearing. Reckon with yourself, lest you be lost forever.
Second, there are rootless hearers. Jesus says the word is sown and they hear and immediately receive it with joy. The emotional response. The one who rushes headlong into Christianity without counting the costs of sacrifice and labor and difficulty and battling with sin and persecution and tribulation. They set out to build a tower but didn’t both to find out whether they had all the lumber.
These hearers can be very convincing. They even receive it with joy. There are happiness and enthusiasm and exuberance and motivation. We all know the refreshing encouragement from a new believer. Yet, Jesus says, many people who receive the word like that have shallow roots. No root in themselves. What does that mean? There is no substantive and living connection to the nourishment needed to survive the Christian life. Life gets harder when you get saved. Way harder. If you don’t have deep roots into Jesus Christ, you will wither when they happen. The emotional high of making a profession of faith will not sustain you for a lifetime of faithfulness. Those who stake their Christian faith on how they feel, on how easy life is, on how positive they feel always will fall away. You may endure for a while, but not forever. They will shrivel up and die when the scorching trials come from behind the clouds.
And so, Jesus says, “immediately they fall away” when trial and tribulation come. They pack the worship hall, and they run for the exit when persecution or trouble comes.
There is a word to new believers here—heed this reality! The most important thing for you to do at the beginning of your walk with Christ is to put down roots. Particularly put down roots into Jesus through daily bible reading, daily prayer, and frequent church attendance. That is how your roots grow.
And there is also a word to evangelists here—don’t be too quick to affirm an exuberant response to the gospel. Cultivate an attitude of hopeful yet circumspect gratitude when someone professes Christ. Then get to work in helping them establish their roots. We are not only called to evangelism but discipleship.
Third, there are the crowded hearers. They hear the word, and the ostensibly grow up and are alive. This is a key observation. The rootless hearers end up dying, but the crowded hearers don’t. Their roots are deep. Their leaves are green. Their problem is not that the life is choked out of them but that the fruit is choked out of them. These are leafy Christians. Fruitless professors who remain in church with useless lives. All leaves, and no apples. Farmers cut those trees down.
I do believe that this is the greatest danger for church-goers, and particularly for American church-goers. We may look very much alive! We may hear the word, and even grow! Yet we do not bear fruit. Thereby we become useless like the thorns we grow among.
What are those thorns? “Cares of the world.” Those worries which consume us that properly belong to the world. We are filled with cares for our houses, our jobs, our families, our position, our status, our reputation, and it chokes out fruitfulness. We sit in church under the preaching of the word and we are so consumed with our own cares, the worries of our own lives, that the only thing we can hear in the word is a reflection of our own concerns. This way of hearing the word chokes out fruit and proves a false faith.
“Deceitfulness of riches.” The desire for money has condemned many a man. Money is deceitful. Many live what one man called a “hand-to-mouth luxury.” We always expand to fill our income. Nobody simply leaves money untouched. It isn’t in our nature. So we live in the slavery to things, or security, or comfort, or control. It is popular to say that our yearnings exceed our earnings—even when our income expands, our discontentment with the Lord’s provision leads us to expand our lifestyle to fit the new number, which only leads us to want more than he has given us. We are often dissatisfied with our income and satisfied with our godliness. Let us reverse this: let us be dissatisfied with our godliness and satisfied with our income. Why? Because excessive attention to riches leads to a lifestyle of pursuing them, when in turn crowds out the pursuits of God in the church. You cannot serve God and money. It was the folly of Israel in Haggai’s day, who gave excessive attention to their paneled houses while the Lord’s house lays in ruins. Do not be fooled by the deceitfulness of riches, for they will choke out your fruitfulness.
“The desires for other things.” In case he left anything out. Anything can crowd out the word. We lust after anything but God. These things can crowd out the word because they are sinful, or because they are too strong. A man might lust after another man’s wife, and this is sinful and crowds out fruitfulness. But he also might inordinately desire sexual intimacy with his own wife such that this too crowds out fruitfulness. Any thing may become an idol, and every idol supplants a fruitful life.
So, examine yourself, and get to weeding. What must go? What is choking out the fruit in your life? What is sinful and must be uprooted? What has grown unruly that must be pruned? Excessive worry and fretting over anything but Christ will lead you to a fruitful life. Think of the Pharisees and their excessive attention to the outer person and their external religious formalism. Think of the concern for family reputation, like the brothers and mother of Jesus. Think of the inordinate desire for physical health like the crowds who would starve Jesus just to get a piece of his healing power. Think of Judas who loved money and betrayed his master for silver. Think of the desire for power in the church that Diotrophes wanted to exclude whom he saw fit. Think of Pilate and his concern for personal reputation and political advancement. Think of Demas and his love for this present world. Think of all the desires beside—children, spouses, parenting, family, politics. Hell is full of freedom-loving Americans. What is it worth to gain the world and lose your soul?
Fourth, there are fruitful hearers. They hear and accept. To accept is to receive into your heart, to embrace it, to welcome the word with warm affection and eager desire for obedience. This embrace bears fruit. This is what the sower wants. He wants fruitfulness. Not just growth. Fruit. Jesus wants to sow seed that produces a harvest of righteousness, Heb 6:7, “a crop useful to those for whose sake it is cultivated.” Think of it. How are you being fruitful right now? How have you served your brothers and sisters in Christ this week? Have you prayed for them? Encouraged them? Welcomed them into your home? What sin have you repented from? What biblical truth have you rejoiced in? Are you filled with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and things like that? What fruit are you bearing?
Fruit takes many forms, but it requires at least three things: soft ground, deep roots, and no competition. So, plow the ground in repentance. Put down roots through the means of grace. Do the sweaty work of weeding the useless things from your life.
Concluding Applications
1. Be careful how you hear. Faithfully coming to church and hearing sermons is no sure evidence of saving faith. You must pay mind to whether or not you hear in order to come to Jesus. Do you hear and come to him? Do you ask him to explain his word? Do you ask him to apply his word to your life? Do you find a growing fruitfulness in your life which proves that you have heard and accepted the word?
2. Let us recognize our natural aversion to hearing his word. And let us further acknowledge how slow we are to ask Jesus to open our ears and repent. All heard the parable—and even the disciples did not understand it at first. They also did not have fully believing hearts.
3. Let us then go on to recognize that hearing the word is not an event but a daily process. It is cyclical, daily, ongoing, constant. We are either bringing ourselves into a frame of heart that hears, embraces, and receives, or we are hardening our hearts against him, being caught up in our trials, or being distracted by the glittering fool’s gold of this world. There is no such thing as a stagnant Christian—you are either hearing or you are not. You are either growing or you are dying. So go on to growth!
4. Let us further recognize that our only hope for understanding Jesus’ word is Jesus. The disciples, I repeat, did not get it! Until they asked. And when they asked, Jesus explained. Understanding the Bible is a gift. Remember James 1:5? “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him.” Or Peter in John 6:68, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.” Or 2 Timothy 2:7, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” Philippians 3:15, “Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.”
5. Look for fruitfulness, not just growth. We talk a lot about growth. That’s fine. But the more precise term should be fruitfulness. What fruit are you bearing right now? Can you name it? Are you growing in your dependence? Your repentance? Do you see more of your own sin? Are you bearing the burdens of others? Are you serving the church? Are you understanding more of the Bible? Are you exhibiting the fruit of the Spirit? Are you telling others about Jesus? We cannot be leafy Christians.
6. Let us learn to be prodigious sowers. We should so thick and wide. The sower did not care that his grain landed on the hard path, or the thorns, or the rocks. He sowed anyway. So thick and wide. Do not prejudge whether or not someone has a heart to hear or not. That is not your business. We are not wise enough to determine that. Sow anyway, and sow thick.
7. Let us leave the results up to God. As MacArthur always said, “Sow, then sleep.” Rest. Trust. You don’t cause seed to grow by screaming at your cornfield! Nor do you cause seed to grow by obsessing over the color and state of your fences. You simply put it in the ground and trust. Paul sows. Apollos waters. God gives growth. Don’t fret over your children. Don’t worry over your family. Don’t strategize for the “more effective way to get them to believe.” All that is out of your hands. Just sow, then sleep. Then sow again, then sleep again. And trust.