Work Your Field
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What a year it has been. Today is a special day. It is New Year’s Day, and the fact that it falls on a Sunday this year makes it even more special. When Christmas comes, we celebrate the birth of Christ, but then there is a week of anticipation as the end of one year brings the beginning of the next. It is a natural time to pause and reflect on the year we have had and look to anticipate what the next year will bring.
We have been through a lot this year. Our daughter was born just before the new year last year. She just turned a year old yesterday. If you include those who have begun regularly attending our church, four babies have been born this year: Christy, Tristan, Adlea, and Grayson. Our church saw its first baptism in a few years as we baptized Devan, who also took over the church secretary position. We have given somewhere around six to eight cases of bibles to the federal prison. We gave bibles to the entire fourth grade class in the Elementary school this year. We raised over $5,000 for the children’s home in the Philippines. We gave $1,950 to the Annie Armstrong Easter Offering. We are just shy of our Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. We raised $1,840 for Mission Dignity to help supplement retirement for retired pastors and their wives. We raised $1,325 for Reach Texas, which supports missions and evangelism efforts all over the state. We clarified our mission and values as a church. We have laid the foundation for what God wants to do next.
As we turn the page on a new year, we are going to turn the page on ministry as a church. In Luke 8, Jesus tells a familiar parable about a sower who goes out to sow seed:
When a large crowd was coming together, and those from the various cities were journeying to Him, He spoke by way of a parable:
“The sower went out to sow his seed; and as he sowed, some fell beside the road, and it was trampled under foot and the birds of the air ate it up.
“Other seed fell on rocky soil, and as soon as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture.
“Other seed fell among the thorns; and the thorns grew up with it and choked it out.
“Other seed fell into the good soil, and grew up, and produced a crop a hundred times as great.” As He said these things, He would call out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
A parable is a short story similar to a fable in that it strives to teach one specific life lesson. It is short and to the point. Interpretive mistakes are made when we try to work too hard to pick apart a parable and derive meaning from every little detail. When Jesus spoke in parables, he intended for his audience to understand one thing.
Parables differ from fables in that fables often employ characters and scenarios that just would not happen in the real world. Examples would be the Tortoise and the Hare or the Goose that Laid the Golden Egg. Geese never lay golden eggs and turtles and rabbits never race each other. A parable, though, uses true to life scenarios, something the audience can relate to. Jesus’ audience grew up in an agrarian culture. They knew what it meant to sow seed. Many of them undoubtedly had experience plowing and planting fields.
In many cases, we are reliant on the Holy Spirit to interpret the parable for us and give us understanding. Thankfully, in this instance, Jesus himself gives us the interpretation. We read it in the next verses.
His disciples began questioning Him as to what this parable meant.
And He said, “To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
“Now the parable is this: the seed is the word of God.
“Those beside the road are those who have heard; then the devil comes and takes away the word from their heart, so that they will not believe and be saved.
“Those on the rocky soil are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no firm root; they believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away.
“The seed which fell among the thorns, these are the ones who have heard, and as they go on their way they are choked with worries and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to maturity.
“But the seed in the good soil, these are the ones who have heard the word in an honest and good heart, and hold it fast, and bear fruit with perseverance.
The seeds are the word of God, the gospel, the truth. The soils represent receptivity. From the hard pathway which cannot receive the seed to the fertile soil that is ready to receive it and produce, the soils are varying levels of receptivity to God’s truth.
It is at this point that we preachers like to ask you which soil you think you are. Are you the pathway, hearing and rejecting the word of God? Are you the rocky soil, having received the word of God, but it dried up in your life because there was no moisture? Are you the soil with thorns? Did you receive the word of God, but it has been choked out due to the worries of what this life has to offer you? Or are you fertile soil, producing fruit a hundred times over? But today I want to ask you a different question.
What is the parable about? Every component of the parable is identified by Jesus except one. Did you notice what it is? He does not mention who the sower is. I believe he did this on purpose because his audience already knew the answer to that question. The sower is the one who has been entrusted with the scattering of seed. The sower is you. The sower is me. The sower is us.
Let’s focus on that for a moment. In all the talk about the quality of soils, let us not overlook the role of the sower.
Let me ask you a question. In a society that was keen on growing stuff, do you think people knew how to make the wisest choice of where to plant their seeds? Of course they did. They knew that they needed to clear a field, till the soil, remove the rocks and weeds, to give the crop its greatest chance at producing. So it would seem silly that the sower in this parable would scatter seed seemingly at random, throwing seed everywhere he went. But in this we learn a very important principle.
No matter the soil, scatter the seed.
No matter the soil, scatter the seed.
Gauging whether the sower was just ignorant or stupid for throwing seed where he knew it would not grow is probably an example of over-analyzing what is supposed to be a simple story. The emphasis seems to be that no matter the quality of the soil, the role of the sower, which is you and me, is to scatter seed. We scatter seed through evangelism and missions.
Let me tell you something you already know. You are not responsible for the receptivity of someone’s heart. You are not responsible for the conversion of a single soul. The Holy Spirit is. Even so, knowing this does not automatically turn us into evangelism power houses, but the time has come to turn our attention to that.
Church, it is time to place the focus on scattering the seed. We are to scatter that seed whenever and however the Lord leads us to regardless of our perception of the quality of soil. We all know our nation has strayed from God. We all know our community has strayed from God. How many people do you know who used to be active members of a local church who no longer go anywhere at all? We all want to see our community changed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Now is the time to invest everything we have in doing that.
Every town has a city limits sign when you are driving through. Many of them will indicate the size of that town by population. Our city limits sign reads 1,848 people. This number usually reflects the population of those within the city limits, so if you include those living outside the city limits, the number goes up. For the sake of simple math, we are going to round up and say 2,000. What does it take to reach Three Rivers with the gospel of Jesus Christ? We know that all 2,000 of those people matter to God, and he desires that none would perish. Yet, he has chosen you and I to join him in his work of reconciliation, to call people from darkness to light, to join this forever family called the household of God. What would it take to reach Three Rivers with the gospel of Jesus Christ?
We are a community church. We exist for the community in which our building is located. While we may get people from other parts of the county, our church is planted in the center of Three Rivers. Our primary focus is the city of Three Rivers. What we do beyond this should be an overflow of the ministry we have here.
Reaching 2,000 people with the gospel seems like a daunting task. Let’s simplify it. What is one percent of 2,000? The answer is 20. This is a more manageable number. What would it look like to reach 20 people with the gospel of Jesus Christ in 2024? What would it look like to baptize 20 people this year? What would it look like to see 20 more people sitting among you this year? That is not an impossible task! We may or may not reach that goal, but if we set that as a goal, it will change the way we operate. It will change the way we prioritize our schedules. It will change the types of conversations we have. This is where we are headed as we walk into 2024.
How are we going to do this? I have already told you the focus of this year must be evangelism and missions. We are building opportunities to get us out in the community more often over the next year. But where we go, the gospel must go with it. So we will have to commit to training in evangelism if we are going to see fruit. We will need to scatter the seed indiscriminately if we hope to see a harvest. Some seed may fall on the path. Some seed may fall on rocky soil. Some seed may fall among thorns. But some seed will fall on fertile soil that will produce a hundred times more.
Let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up.
The time has come. Will you do what must be done to see 20 people come to faith in Jesus this year? Will you prioritize training yourself to share the gospel? I am working on the schedule. Would you have the courage to say yes? This is the direction God has for us this year. The time has come. The foundations are laid. We know who we are. We know what we are calling people to. Our duty before our God and king is to go and tell to as many as who will listen. Will you join me?