Barren or Bearing?

As we are faced with the truth of having a barren heart or having a heart that bears fruit, the first truth that Jesus plays out for His disciples is this, that bearing hearts replace someday with today.

As you read the explanation that Jesus gives of the parable of the sower, as he preached this parable, he was not in a farmland, some corn, some soybeans, but he was in a boat on the shores of the sea preaching to a crowd of people.

And if you can imagine the thoughts that go through Jesus' mind as he stood before these people, guess what he could see? He could see the very condition of their hearts.

He could see those that were lost but present.

Those who were struggling with sin.

Those who were on the verge of believing.

And so Jesus gives them this sermon.

And the point of this sermon is actually at the very end where he says, those who receive seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it.

So all these different types of soils are different, but there are some constants.

And what are the constants in this parable? The first is the sower.

The sower.

So the sower is good, is always good.

The seed, does it change? It does not.

The only changing factor is the receptivity of the soil.

And if you look in the scripture here, he speaks about the first condition of the first soil.

And it says in verse 19, when anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was on his heart.

This is he who received the seed by the wayside.

So if you went and researched the agricultural practices of people in that day, they did not have all of these beautiful robes.

But what they would do, they would have a sack of that seed and they would just start throwing it out this way, that way.

And Jesus in this parable, he speaks of this seed that falls on the wayside.

And the dirt on the wayside was trampled.

It was hard ground.

And Jesus says what about this part of the ground? He says, this group of individual are those who do not understand the wicked one comes and falls.

snatches it away.

What Jesus is getting at in this passage here is that this group of people did not understand this one central truth to everyone's life, and that is that the devil's favorite day is tomorrow.