How to Cultivate a Deeper Faith
Sermon Notes
How To Cultivate A Deeper Faith
Mark 4:1-9, 14-20
This is the first Sunday in November, which means everyone got an extra hour of sleep last night so I shouldn’t see any bobbing heads this morning! That also means that we are now less than 1 month away from Christmas Fest! If you have not signed up to serve at Christmas Fest, I want to strongly encourage you to do so. It’s going to be an awesome event and we expect several hundred, maybe even 500-600 people to attend from the community. The goal is twofold: 1) Bring the joy of Christmas and the gospel to our community. We have a hope and a joy that we want to share. 2) We want to raise money to support Samaritan Village. This is an organization right here in Orlando that works to rescue women out of sexual trafficking and help them heal. They provide temporary housing, counseling, employment assistance, and other services to help these ladies heal and get re-established. And they are Christ-centered. All profits from Christmas Fest will go to support their ministry. So, sign up and help us make it the best Christmas festival in the greater Orlando area this year!
Now, this week we are in week 2 of our Sustaining Faith series. We’re taking 4 weeks to look at ways to have a lasting faith. Last week Pastor Louis taught about having a focused faith from the story of Zacchaeus. I encourage you to go back and listen to that message if you weren’t here. This week we’re going to see the importance of having a faith that runs deep. Sometimes our faith can just kind of sit on the surface, or maybe right below the surface of our lives. We might even say that our faith is important to us, but it still just doesn’t seem like much is happening, there’s not much fruit. Maybe some of you have had this experience with actual fruit trees in your yard. You planted some trees and tried to give them the best care that Google had to offer, but it’s been 4 years and you’re still not really getting any oranges….and maybe you’re about ready to give up. And some of you haven’t even tried. You’d love to have some fruit trees in your yard, but you’ve heard how hard they are to grow, and it just seems like too much work so you’re afraid to try, or maybe just too lazy.
The Bible uses a lot of gardening metaphors for our faith and the Kingdom of God. And today we’re going to study what Jesus had to say about getting some fruit from our faith trees. Turn in your Bibles to Mark 4, and I’ll even go ahead and give you the Big Idea: Cultivate the soil of your heart, and the seed of the Gospel will flourish. That sounds simple enough, but as we’re going to see there are some obstacles that we have to overcome. Look with me at Mark 4:1,
Again he began to teach by the sea, and a very large crowd gathered around him. So he got into a boat on the sea and sat down, while the whole crowd was by the sea on the shore. 2 He taught them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them, 3 “Listen! Consider the sower who went out to sow. 4 As he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. 5 Other seed fell on rocky ground where it didn’t have much soil, and it grew up quickly, since the soil wasn’t deep. 6 When the sun came up, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns came up and choked it, and it didn’t produce fruit. 8 Still other seed fell on good ground and it grew up, producing fruit that increased thirty, sixty, and a hundred times.” 9 Then he said, “Let anyone who has ears to hear listen.”
14 The sower sows the word. 15 Some are like the word sown on the path. When they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them. 16 And others are like seed sown on rocky ground. When they hear the word, immediately they receive it with joy. 17 But they have no root; they are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away. 18 Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20 And those like seed sown on good ground hear the word, welcome it, and produce fruit thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.”
This is one of the more familiar parables of Jesus, but I want to encourage you not to tune out because you know it or to assume you already know where you fit in the story. Any time we study Scripture we need to approach it with fresh eyes and an open heart.
What I love about this parable is that it ties in a theme that we see running all through the Bible and that goes all the way back to Genesis - being fruitful. In the Garden of Eden God told Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply, which meant to have lots of kids. But also, gardening was their profession! Adam’s job, even before the fall, was to tend to the garden. It was only after the fall that his work became toilsome and unenjoyable.
So now, here Jesus is in Mark 4 speaking to the crowd, most of which did some level of farming and gardening themselves. If not for a profession, at least to help provide for their families. They knew a thing or two about planting and growing. So, Jesus uses principles they are familiar with to speak to their hearts.
The first thing we notice about this parable is the Sower and the seed. The seed is the Gospel. It is the message of the Bible and the Kingdom of God that Jesus is the Son of God sent to earth to rescue sinners, of which all people are, by living a perfect life, dying on the cross, and rising again from the dead, therefore defeating death, and satisfying the wrath of God, and offering forgiveness to anyone that puts their faith in him. We call it the Gospel. And the Sower is representative of anyone who is spreading that message. What’s important to note is that the Sower is not careful or picky about where he sows. So, immediately we get a lesson about Jesus’ ministry and our own. Jesus was preaching to anyone who would listen. He knew that not everyone would believe in him, but he at least gave them the option…rich, poor, males, females, religious, non-religious,…it didn’t matter. For those of us who are Christians, we don’t need to be stingy with the Gospel. Sometimes, myself included, we act like there’s a shortage of seed….like if we share too much and waste it on the wrong people, we won’t have any left to share. How ridiculous is that? There is something to praying for discernment and asking the Holy Spirit to lead us to people of peace…people that he’s been prepping to receive the Gospel. But, why are we….why am I afraid to share the Gospel with someone that might not be ready to accept it? Isn’t it better to sow the seed on all the different types of soil and leave the rest up to the one who makes things grow?
That’s really not even the point of the message today, but I do think it is an important point that we don’t need to miss.
What I want to look at are the different soils that Jesus mentions. Does anybody here garden? What’s the first thing you do if you’re going to plant a garden? Prep the soil, right? If you want good fruit, you have to have good soil. Good soil needs intentional and continual cultivation for seeds to thrive. Where I come from it's mostly Alabama red clay. It is not good for gardening. When it’s wet it’s thick and sticky, when it’s dried it's rock hard. I’ve broken many shovels digging in clay. If you want a garden, you have to do a lot of work to get it ready for planting. Here in Florida, there is no dirt, it’s only sand. The first time I went to dig I jumped on the back of my shovel expecting resistance and I about broke my knees because it just sank in. The point is there are different types of soil, and the soil here in Mark 4 represents the condition of the heart. And Jesus points out four different conditions for us to consider.
The first soil is on the walking path. It’s hard and compact from years of travel. When the seed falls on this soil it just sits right on top. Several things can cause the condition of someone’s heart to be so hard. Often a hard heart comes from hard circumstances. You experience a tragic loss, you endure suffering, or you see terrible things that make you question how a good God could allow such bad things to happen. So, when the “good news” comes along, you just aren’t interested because it doesn’t seem like anything good could come from a God that allows the things you’ve experienced. It’s hard to understand those things, and we’ll never fully understand them. But we do know that evil doesn’t originate from God. It is the result of the fall and the effects of our sinful world under the authority of Satan. God loves you and wants you to experience His goodness.
Another reason for a hardened heart is intellect. Many people want to find the answer to everything through science. They want to explain away the supernatural with the natural, which poses a real problem when we start talking about a man rising from the dead. But the thing is that all science is built on theories and possibilities. Many scientists who set out to disprove God and the Bible have ended up putting their faith in Him because they found that all evidence points back to his existence.
Whatever the reason for a hardened heart, notice that in his explanation, Jesus says that “immediately Satan comes and takes away the word sown in them.” There is a very real enemy that is working to stop the growth of God’s Kingdom. He is watching and waiting (like a crow near a garden) to come and steal the seed. This is one reason for things we do like Christmas Fest. We believe exposing our city to Christian joy can help break up the hard ground just enough for the Gospel to have a chance to get below the surface….even if we never get the see the result of that ourselves.
The second type of soil Jesus mentions is the rocky soil. The seed takes root quickly, but there’s not much soil so the sun burns it up. You have ever seen someone’s yard where the grass is nice and green except for a yellow rectangle…right over the septic tank? That’s because the soil is shallow, and the temperature gets too warm, and the grass burns easily. This happens with people.
In his explanation in verse 17 Jesus says those with rocky hearts, “are short-lived. When distress or persecution comes because of the word, they immediately fall away”
Notice that this distress comes because of the Gospel. In other words, any pressure that we might face because we are choosing to follow Jesus. Our minds immediately jump to physical persecution like we read about in the Bible or like many Christians around the world are facing today. Being taken away from their families, going to jail, and even dying are very real possibilities for believers in some countries. And they may be very real possibilities for us one day; we don’t know. But there are other, less dramatic costs to following Jesus that we have to face. Sometimes I think we do a disservice to people by emphasizing that Jesus saves freely. It is true that we can never pay the price that Jesus paid to save us, and we shouldn’t try. Our salvation is a gift from God. But there is a cost to following Jesus. He even said, consider the cost before following me…you must take up your cross.
There are people, even in America, who have gone to jail, lost their jobs, or have been sued because of their faith and how they are living that out. But many people have lost friends or been ostracized by their families. All Christians are expected to adopt a certain way of holy living, and living that way means not living other ways. When we face the pressure of those decisions it comes down to a benefit-cost analysis. Is the benefit of saying yes to the way of Jesus worth the cost of what I must give up? And for some people, for many people, the cost is too great, so they wither away.
I think of the 4 soils mentioned in Mark 4 I feel the most compassion for the rocky soil. I’ve seen this many times, people receive the gospel with joy, and they immediately start growing, but when it comes time to make some tough choices, they lose sight of the eternal benefit of faith in Jesus. The rocks in their lives make it impossible for their roots to grow, and they fall into the trap that Satan sets for them (which is the literal meaning of falling away; it means to fall into a trap), and they wither away.
The third soil in this parable is the thorny soil. Thorns are weeds, and weeds can grow just about anywhere it seems, including the cracks of our driveways, but they grow especially well in good soil. So, what do you have to do? Weed the garden. Weeds do a lot of bad things in the garden. They compete on every level. They look bad for one thing, but more importantly, they take up space, they rob your good plants of water, and they fight for the nutrients of the soil as well. And they are weeds because they grow even without being intentionally planted. Nobody plants dandelions or clover in their yard, but it grows anyway. Weeds are like super plants; they are very effective at surviving. That’s why they will choke out the good plants that need more care. Listen to the way Jesus talks about this in verses 18-19. He says,
Others are like seed sown among thorns; these are the ones who hear the word, 19 but the worries of this age, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
The phrase “the worries of this age” means to divide a person into parts. If I had to assign a soil profile to most of us, it would be weedy soil. There are lots of things dividing us into parts. The things of the world: money, jobs, relationships, education, politics, anxiety, personal comfort, you fill in the blank…are causing us to have divided affections. But the problem is that Jesus said no one can serve two masters. We can’t love the things of the world and love Jesus. He also said that wherever our treasure is that’s where our heart will be. That doesn’t mean all the things in the world are bad or that we can’t enjoy some of them. But if the question of the rocky soil is, “What are we willing to say yes to in the face of pressure?” The question of the weedy soil is, “What are we willing to say no to?” What are you willing to pull out of your life if you determine it’s fighting for the affection of your heart?
Weeding is a hard job. There’s a reason you use it as a punishment for your kids, or maybe your parents did it for you. It’s hard work. First, you have to be able to identify the difference between the weeds and the good plants, and then some weeds can be really hard to pull out. I hate it when the leaves just break off, but you don’t get the root! So unsatisfying! But if you don’t stay on top, those weeds grow up and take over before you even know it. The same is true in our hearts.
This leads us to the last soil Jesus mentions, and that is the good soil. There are two things I want to point out about the good soil. First, Jesus says in verse 20 that the word is heard and welcomed. The good soil is a heart that’s ready to receive God’s Word, ready to receive and welcome Jesus. If we go back again to our gardening analogy think about what has to be done for the ground to be ready to receive the seed. You want to make a hospitable environment for it, so you till up the hard ground, you rake out the rocks and break up the clumps of dirt. You pull out all the grass and weeds and even amend the soil by adding in things like manure, organic matter, and fertilizer. This makes a home for the seed where it can take root and thrive. So, the question is what does it look like for us to cultivate the soil of our hearts in this way? How do we welcome Jesus? There are probably a lot of different ways we could answer that question, but I want to give you five that I think are essential.
1. Community. Being with other Christians and having meaningful conversations, especially about the Bible, is a great way to help break up the soil of our hearts. It has a way of exposing areas where we need to grow, and if we’re willing to be transparent there will be people who know us well enough to ask hard questions and we feel safe enough to share our ugliest struggles.
2. Suffering. We really don’t like this one, but when we experience hardship it’s a great opportunity for us to cultivate our hearts. We usually doubt and question God along the way, but if we persevere in our faith nothing unites us more closely with Jesus than suffering. It breaks up any illusion that we can manage life on our own and highlights our need for a sovereign Savior.
3. Generosity. Pastor Louis talked about this last week with the story of Zacchaeus, but giving away what we’ve been blessed with is a great way to keep the soil of our hearts soft. When we’re generous, we exercise trust in Jesus. When we’re stingy it feeds the weeds that choke out our faith. To help you stretch your faith in generosity, we’ve given you a card on your seat that you can pray over and fill out. Keep it in your Bible as a reminder of the kind of soil you want to be.
4. Read the Bible. It sounds basic because it is. We can’t welcome the Word if we’re not hearing the Word. We say it all the time here at City Awakening: we read the Bible and let the Bible read us. If you want to cultivate the soil of your heart, it starts with a regular habit of reading and studying the Bible.
5. Meditation/Prayer. Let your Bible reading flow into meditation and prayer. Sit with Scripture. Ask God to give you spiritual insight and understanding. Chew on its meaning and let it measure your life. The hardest part about this is that it takes discipline to be still and quiet. Because of the constant stimulation and distraction of screens and media, humans now have shorter attention spans than goldfish. When was the last time you sat for even 30 min without any noise or distraction and fought to give your attention to the Holy Spirit…to listen and to pray? I believe this is essential in cultivating our hearts. If you want help in these last two areas, I’ve given you some questions on your seats to help guide you through some meditative reflection and prayer. The questions are designed to take you from examining the fruit in your life and work backward to get to the root. It takes time to work through this process, but if only see the behaviors that we want to change without ever getting deeper to see what’s causing those behaviors, then it’ll be like pulling the leaves off weeds. Things might look better for a little while, but they’re just going to grow right back. You must get to the root of what you believe or don’t believe about God and what has led you to have that belief.
Cultivating is hard work, and it’s never done. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.” We have to continually work the garden of our hearts so that we are ready to welcome the gospel again and again. The soil of our hearts is never going to be perfect, but it can be fruitful. Matthew Henry said, “That which distinguished this good ground from the rest, was, in one word, fruitfulness. He does not say that this good ground has no stones in it, or no thorns, but there were none that prevailed to hinder its fruitfulness.”
Jesus said that the good soil produced fruit, “thirty, sixty, and a hundred times what was sown.” The point here is not that some were better than the others, but that even 30x what was sown would have been outrageous to those listening. The point is that the gospel is powerful and can produce amazing things when given the right place to grow. If you want good fruit, you must have good soil. Good soil needs continual and intentional cultivation for the seed to thrive.
This is the Big Idea: Cultivate the soil of your heart and the seed of the Gospel will flourish. Does anyone know what this is? It is used to take soil samples. You insert it into the ground and it pulls out a plug of dirt. Not only can you see what the ground is made up of, but you can take this sample of dirt and send it to a lab for an in-depth analysis. They’ll send you back a report that says what the composition is and what amendments you need to make depending on what you’re planning to plant. My challenge for you today is to take a soil sample of your heart. Is it like the path, hard and impenetrable? Is it rocky and shallow? Is it weedy? Is it good, but needs to be cultivated with deeper community, greater generosity, or meditation?
We want to allow you to respond to the word this morning. Hopefully, the Holy Spirit has already been exposing some things this morning and you need to confess those to God and repent. Maybe you’re ready to receive the Gospel for the first time, ready to welcome Jesus and submit to him as Lord. If so, then just voice a prayer admitting your need for him and that you believe that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
Before we sing, we are going to take communion together. This too is an important way for us to cultivate our hearts. It reminds us of the sacrifice Jesus made on our behalf, the sufficiency of his death and resurrection, our union together as brothers and sisters in Christ, and our hope in eternal glory. And in going to the cross, Jesus demonstrated what it looks like to have a life that produces much fruit.
He said in John 12:23, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 24 Truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains by itself. But if it dies, it produces much fruit….26 If anyone serves me, he must follow me.
This is the Jesus way. Cultivating our hearts is putting ourselves to death so the fruit of the Gospel can flourish. As our ushers come and pass out the elements, take a few minutes to let the Holy Spirit speak to your heart this morning. If you’re not a Christian, we just ask that instead of participating in something you don’t yet believe, you can let the plate pass but join us in a time of reflection and prayer.
