We Exist to Plant Truth
Same Home, Different Hearts
Have you ever seen two kids grow up in the same home? Same parents. Same house. Same rules. Same everything. And they turn out completely different. You look at them and think, how did you both come from the same home and end up so different?
I have often wondered the same thing about church. Why does the same message change one person's life and bounce right off another? Same room. Same sermon. Same verse. One person's whole life bends around it. The other one checks his phone.
I have been doing this long enough to tell you that I cannot predict which is which. I have sat down with people I was sure were ready, and nothing. And I have watched people I had written off in my own head walk into a life with Jesus that has lasted decades.
Jesus asked it too. And unlike me, he actually answered it.
The Season Behind the Story
Today's parable is found in Matthew 13. Before we read it, there is a piece of context that matters. This story comes right after Matthew 11 and 12. And those two chapters are rough. Jesus has been rejected by entire towns. He has been publicly accused of doing his work by the power of Satan. His own family has shown up thinking he has lost his mind.
So when Jesus sits down and tells this story, he is not teaching in a season of success. He is teaching in a season where by every visible measure, things are not working. This parable is his answer to what looked like an unsuccessful season of ministry.
Matthew 13:3-8: "Listen! A farmer went out to plant some seeds. As he scattered them across his field, some seeds fell on a footpath, and the birds came and ate them. Other seeds fell on shallow soil with underlying rock... Other seeds fell among thorns that grew up and choked out the tender plants. Still other seeds fell on fertile soil, and they produced a crop that was thirty, sixty, and even a hundred times as much as had been planted!"
A lot of us hear that and our first instinct is to think this farmer is terrible at his job. But that is us reading our world back into his. In that part of the world, at that time, a farmer scattered seed by hand across the whole field first and worked the ground afterward. He walked, and he threw.
He gives the same gospel to every single person in this story. Same seed. Same farmer. Same throw. The only thing that changes is the ground it lands on.
Four Kinds of Soil
Soil One: The Hardened Heart. Picture that footpath running through the field. It is packed down hard. When seed hits that ground it does not go in. Jesus says this person hears the message and does not understand it, and then it is gone.
The modern version is the person who has already decided before you open your mouth. You are not really talking with them. You are talking at a wall. And before we get comfortable and start thinking about somebody else, let me say this. Every one of us has been this soil about something.
Soil Two: The Fairweather Heart. Here is something that surprises people. This is not a field with rocks lying on top. This is a thin layer of good soil sitting on a shelf of rock. The seed goes in, the rock underneath holds the heat, and that seed comes up faster than anything else in the field. Read that again. The most enthusiastic response in the whole parable is the one that dies first.
I have been going to Christ In Youth conferences with our students for almost twenty years. Every year, I see students who are absolutely on fire for the Lord at the conference, and as soon as they get home, that fire goes out. I am not knocking the emotion. The joy is real. But our profession of faith is a great start, and perseverance is what leads to a harvest.
Notice what kills this plant. It is not an argument. Nobody talked this person out of anything. It was the heat. Its roots were not deep. It did not have anything to latch onto when hard times came.
Soil Three: The Distracted Heart. This person had faith. Real faith. Faith that was producing fruit almost ready to bring in. And then they got distracted. Jesus names two things. The worries of this world, and the desire for wealth.
Here is what I want you to notice, because I think this is the one we misread the most. Nothing is wrong with this soil. It is not hard. It is not shallow. This is good ground. Read that verse again and see if you can find anything in there about rebellion, or walking away, or deciding you do not believe anymore. It is not there. The seed died because it just got crowded.
I want to say this as plainly as I know how. This is the soil most of this room is in danger of.
How much do we fold to the worries of the world and our desire for wealth? To have more things. To make more money. To have the newer phone, the better car, that new piece of furniture, that vacation. Those things are not bad by themselves. But do we let our desire for them distract our hearts from the Lord?
And listen, it is not just wanting things. Some of you are not chasing anything at all. You are just tired. It is the second job. The calendar. Ball practice four nights a week. That is just life. But when was the last time the Word of God got the best part of your day, instead of whatever was left over at the end of it?
Soil Four: The Harvesting Heart. This is the heart that let God work. Three things, right there in the verse. They hear. They understand. And they bear fruit.
Stay on that middle word. In Matthew, understanding is not just getting the information. When Matthew says somebody understood, he means it got all the way in and it changed something about their lives.
Nowhere in this parable does the good soil strain to produce anything. The dirt does not work up a sweat. The dirt receives, and the seed does what seed does. Fruit is not something you manufacture by trying harder. It is what happens when the Word of God is allowed to stay.
The Two Things We Walk Right Past
Go back and look at all four soils, because there are two things in here we walk right past.
First. Every single one of them got the same seed. The footpath heard. The rocky soil heard. The thorns heard. The good soil heard. Hearing was never the variable in this story.
Second, and this is the one I cannot get away from. Three out of four fail.
Read it again and notice what is not in this parable. Jesus never once criticizes the sower. He never says the seed was defective. He never says the farmer should have used better technique. Not one word. The seed was never the problem.
Three quarters of it comes to nothing, and there is still a harvest of thirty, sixty, a hundred times what went into the ground.
And remember the season Jesus was in when he told this. Rejected by whole towns. Called a servant of Satan. His own family sure he had lost his mind. By every visible measure, a failed ministry. And this is his answer. He looks at all that apparent failure and says, no. This is not a disaster. This is just what a farm looks like.
The Seed Itself
I have said "the gospel" probably ten times already. Let me stop and say it plain. God made us, and every one of us walked away from him. Not some of us. Every one of us. So Jesus came and lived the life we could not live, and then he died the death we deserved to die. And three days later he walked out of the grave.
What he offers is not a reward for people who finally got their act together. It is a gift for people who never did.
That is the seed. That is what we are planting.
Our Mission
I told you at the beginning I cannot predict which soil is which. If I cannot tell good soil from a footpath just by looking, neither can you.
So what do we do? Do we walk the field first and decide who is worth the seed? Do we look around Colfax and sort people out ahead of time? That one is too far gone. That one is too busy. That one would never set foot in a building like this.
The farmer in this story does not do that. He does not survey the dirt ahead of time. He walks, and he throws. Path, rocks, thorns, good ground, he scatters all of it.
And that is exactly why, when our elders and our staff and our leaders sat down and prayed through what God has called this church to be, this is the very first thing we landed on.
We exist to plant truth. We are committed to putting the Word of God into people's hands, hearts, and lives, trusting that truth planted faithfully will take root and produce fruit that lasts.
Notice what that does not say. It does not say we exist to grow a church. It does not say we exist to convince people. Our job is the sowing. God's job is the growing.
What Soil Are You?
What soil do you find your heart most reflecting this morning?
Is your heart hard right now? Have you already decided, and you are just here because somebody made you come? Are you shallow? Was there a moment where it was real, and then life got hot and it did not last? Are you crowded? Is it in there somewhere, underneath the calendar and the worry and the wanting? Or is it taking root?
Hear this next part, because it is the best news in the whole parable. The soil of our heart is not set in stone. Hard ground gets broken up. Shallow ground gets deepened. Thorns get pulled. God has been doing that to people for a very long time, and he is not finished with anybody in this room.
Here is what I want to ask you to do this week. Put the Word of God in somebody's hands.
Buy a Bible and write their name in the front of it. Text somebody a verse that got you through something hard. Invite one person to sit with you next Sunday. You do not have to explain it. You do not have to close the deal. You are not the harvest. You are the sowing.
Somebody planted something in you. Somebody sat in one of these pews and prayed for a person they never saw come to faith, and here you are.
We exist to plant truth. So let's go throw some seed.
Small Group Questions
ICE BREAKER QUESTIONS
Pastor Nate opened with three pieces of media he described in unusual ways (Indiana Jones, Lord of the Flies, House). What's a story (book, movie, TV show) that has stuck with you over many years? Why do you think that story lasted with you when others faded?
Have you ever seen two people grow up in the same environment (same family, same church, same school) and turn out completely different? What accounts for the difference in your experience?
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Pastor Nate introduced our church's first mission statement: "We exist to plant truth. We are committed to putting the Word of God into people's hands, hearts, and lives, trusting that truth planted faithfully will take root and produce fruit that lasts." What stands out to you about this mission statement? What do you notice it does NOT say? How does it change the way you think about your role at Colfax Christian Church?
The context of the parable matters: Jesus told this story after being rejected by whole towns, accused of doing his work by the power of Satan, and having his own family think he'd lost his mind. Pastor Nate said: "This parable is his answer to what looked like an unsuccessful season of ministry." How does knowing Jesus told this parable in a season of visible failure change how you hear it? When have you needed this parable in your own season of feeling like nothing was working?
The first soil is the hardened heart, packed down like a footpath, where seed can't get in. Pastor Nate said: "Every one of us has been this soil about something. Somebody tried to tell us something true, and we had already decided, and it never had a chance to get in." Where in your life have you been "footpath soil" recently? What made your heart hard to something God (or someone) was trying to say? What breaks up that hardness?
The second soil (rocky/fairweather) had the fastest-growing plant, but it died first because the roots couldn't go deep. Pastor Nate shared: "I love going to Christ In Youth conferences... but every year, I see students who are absolutely on fire for the Lord at the conference, and as soon as they get home, that fire goes out." Have you ever had a mountaintop spiritual experience that didn't survive contact with real life? What's the difference between emotional enthusiasm and deep-rooted faith?
Pastor Nate said the third soil (the thorns/distracted heart) is "the one we misread the most" because "nothing is wrong with it. It is not hard. It is not shallow. This is good ground." The seed just got crowded out. Why is this the most dangerous soil for most of us in this room? What crowds out the Word of God in your life right now, is it the worries of the world, the desire for wealth, or something else like busyness and exhaustion?
Pastor Nate quoted John Piper: "I am more concerned about nominal hell bound Christians who feel loved by God, than I am about genuine heaven bound Christians who don't feel loved by God." Why is the distracted, crowded heart more dangerous than the openly rebellious heart? How do you tell the difference between a life that's just busy and a life where the Word has actually been choked out?
Pastor Nate asked: "When was the last time the Word of God got the best part of your day, instead of whatever was left over at the end of it?" Be honest, what gets the best part of your day right now? What one adjustment could you make this week to give God's Word room to actually take root instead of being crowded out?
The fourth soil "hears, understands, and bears fruit." Pastor Nate emphasized the middle word: "When Matthew says somebody understood, he means it got all the way in and it changed something about their lives." What's the difference between knowing what the Bible says and truly understanding it (letting it rearrange your life)? Where in your life has a verse or truth actually changed you, and where has it stayed as head knowledge?
Pastor Nate pointed out two things we walk right past: "Every single one of them got the same seed" and "three out of four fail." Yet "Jesus never once criticizes the sower... the seed was never the problem." How does this parable challenge our tendency to blame ourselves (or the messenger) when the gospel doesn't seem to "take"? What would change if we truly believed the seed does the work, not our technique?
Pastor Nate ended: "The farmer in this story does not survey the dirt ahead of time. He walks, and he throws. Path, rocks, thorns, good ground, he scatters all of it." Are you currently pre-judging soil before you throw seed? Who have you already decided is "too far gone," "too busy," "not interested," or "wouldn't come"? What would it look like this week to just throw seed without deciding ahead of time whether it will take?
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