The Parable Of The Sower – Part 2 Lawson Perdue

The Parable of the Sower Part 2

In the Parable of the Sower Part 2, Pastor Lawson Perdue shares about enemies of God’s Word. Jesus is the sower and He sows the Word of God in your heart. Satan wants to steal God’s Word because he knows it has power to produce God’s promises in your life. Learn how to preserve the Word of God in your heart and overcome the devil in this episode from Grace For Today.

The Parable of the Sower CD Set

The Parable of the Sower CD Set

Understanding the truths in the Parable of the Sower can revolutionize the power of the Word of God in your life!

The seed of God’s Word will never lose its power. God wants His word to produce a harvest in your life! Your heart is the soil and you are responsible for the condition of your heart. God has given us His incorruptible, indestructible, ever-living Word!

The Parable of the Sower Part 2 Transcript

Praise the Lord, friends. I’m so glad that you’ve tuned in today for the broadcast. I’m gonna be talking today about enemies of the Word. And you know what? Satan wants to steal the Word out of your heart because he knows the power that it has to produce a harvest in your life. So, number one, we’ll talk about do not be distracted. There’s all these distractions that the enemy tries to bring. And number two, we’re gonna talk about do not be offended. Open your heart and receive the Word today. Praise the Lord, friends, and welcome to the broadcast. I’m so glad that you tuned in today. I’m gonna be sharing today from Mark chapter four. We’re talking about the parable of the sower. Actually, Jesus talks about the parable to sower in Matthew chapter 13, Mark chapter four and Luke chapter eight. And he says, “If you can understand this principle, if you can understand the principles that are laid out in the parable of the sower, that you can understand basically all the parables, or you can understand the things of the kingdom.” Because everything in the kingdom works like the parable of the sower. Now there’s a lot in it. And there’s some very basic principles that we see. And today we’re gonna be talking a little bit about the condition of the soil or the condition of your heart. And you’ve gotta guard the condition of your heart. Your heart is bringing forth the harvest. And the fact is if you don’t like the harvest that you’re receiving, you can change it. And you can change the harvest that you’re receiving by changing the condition of your heart. It’s just like if you’re growing a garden. If you don’t like what’s out there growing, you can change it. And you can change it by changing the seeds that are sowed. If you see weeds coming up, what do you do? You go pull ’em. You go chop ’em down. Different things that you do to deal with those certain aspects. So you are the one who is in charge of your heart. God is not gonna make you bring forth a good harvest. You know what? Your heart is designed to bring forth a harvest and it is bringing forth a harvest. But you are the one that determines whether your heart is bringing forth a harvest of good or a harvest of evil. So let’s open our heart and get into the Word of God. We’re in Mark chapter four, verse 13. Jesus says this, “Don’t you know this parable? And how will you know all parables?” In other words, if you can understand the very simple, basic elements of this parable, the parable of the sower, you can understand all parables. Then says, “The sower sows the Word.” Now, when we talked in our broadcast yesterday, we talked a little bit about the nature of the Word and how the Word releases the nature of God. The Word releases a harvest of good things, of salvation, sanctification, life, health, peace, righteousness, healing, provision. All these things come from the Word of God. And I can show you promises throughout the scripture. We talked about how the wisdom that’s from above, in James chapter three, verse 16 and verse 17, is, first of all, pure then peaceable, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits. Praise God. The nature of God is a good nature. And the Word of God, the sower, praise God, Jesus is sowing the Word and different people are sharing the Word, sowing the Word. But the Word is consistent. But we are the ones who determines what that Word ultimately brings forth. Now, as we begin to look at this, we talked about the nature of the harvest. We said the nature of the harvest, again, salvation, sanctification, truth, freedom, life, health, provision, peace, righteousness, all of these things, the Word produces. Now, when Jesus begins to explain the parable of the sower, in Mark chapter four, verse 15 to verse 19, Jesus explains how this seed brought forth different harvests in different places. And as he talked about the sower he said the sower first of all sowed by the wayside. So this is like the farmers on the way to the field. And some of the grain fell out on the road, right? Fell out, and before it could even get in the ground, the birds came and ate it. And he said, “These are they,” in verse 15, “that are sown by the wayside. Where the word is sown. And when they have heard, Satan comes immediately and takes away the Word that is sown in your heart.” Do you know what? Satan wants to come immediately and steal the Word that’s been sown in your heart. Because the Word has the power to change your life. The Word has the power to produce a harvest of salvation, sanctification, truth, life, peace, provision, health, blessing. Good things come from the Word, right? So Satan wants to steal that Word before it ever brings forth the harvest, because he knows the power of that Word in your life. Then He says, “These likewise are they who sown on stony ground.” Now the farmer then went into the field and he sowed some seed in rocky soil. And it grew up really quickly, but then, because it had no root in itself, when afflictions came and persecutions came, for the Word’s sake, right? Then immediately they are offended. That’s what this talks about. You know, if you’ve ever sowed seed, I remember when we first moved to Colorado Springs, I grew up in southeastern Colorado, in the valley. And you know what? We had good thick soil down there. We could plow it and water it. We could grow almost anything that would grow in this climate. And we would plant these summer squash. We had a garden plot that we planted. And you know those summer squash, you didn’t have to plant ’em. They’d come up year after year. They’d just grow. And I love these yellow crookneck, I call ’em summer squash, yellow crookneck squash. If you want to know how to cook ’em, slice ’em thin, you know, cross ways. Boil ’em for about nine minutes and then pour the water off. Then put a lot of butter, the secret of French cooking’s butter, and then, you know, salt and pepper ’em, to your taste. Ah, they’re delicious. Praise God. So I love those summer squash. So when we moved to Colorado Springs, over 20 years ago, I thought, “I’m gonna grow some of those.” I was living in the southwest side of the city. And so it’s really on the side of Cheyenne mountain. And so, I went out in my front yard where there was a parking space between the oak trees and thought, “Well, the sun shines in here good from the south and from the west, it’ll grow good.” And I dug a little ditch on the side of that, where it was right in the sun. And I planted some of those summer squashed seeds and I watered it real good. And it grew up and it grew these great big, beautiful vines. And then they had great big flowers, like this big around. I mean, there were giant flowers. I could just, I could smell those squash cooking in the pot. I could taste eating them as they cook. And then it grew squash. They were about this long and about a quarter inch, not even a quarter inch in diameter. And they died on the vine? Why? Because there was no earth there. The earth there was basically ground up granite. And so that’s what Jesus is saying. This seed that’s sown in the stony soil is like that. It might look pretty. It might bring forth big flowers. But it doesn’t have anything that’s lasting. It doesn’t have anything with sustenance or substance to it. Why? Because it has no root. And He says, “These are they that are sown in the stony soil. When they heard the Word immediately, they receive it with gladness.” But verse 17 says, “They have no root in themselves. And so after they endure for a time and then affliction and persecution arises for the Word’s sake and immediately they are offended.” I’ve seen believers like this. I’ve seen people that come from traditional churches. And I came from a traditional church. I’m not against a traditional church. I got saved in a traditional church. But they come over into our kind of side of the gospel for a while. And then people begin to question them, “What do you think about that healing stuff? What do you think about that message on prosperity?” And they begin to come to me and say, “Pastor, what about healing?” So I ask them, “What do you believe?” About healing, for instance. And I asked this question to one of these people who was being persecuted because he’d come to our church from a traditional church. And I said, “Well, what do you believe about healing? Do you believe, A, that divine healing is provided in the atonement? That Jesus provided divine healing when he died and rose again, by the stripes on his back. And sometimes people receive it and sometimes they don’t? Do you believe, B, that sometimes God heals and sometimes God doesn’t heal? It’s all up to God. Or do you believe, C, that God doesn’t heal anymore?” And now, I said, “Whatever answer that you give me, you have to answer that with the Word. And there’s only one of those that you can prove with the Word.” You see, because it’s really not up to God. It’s up to us. when you study the the healings in the life of Jesus. many times, Jesus said to them, when they were healed, “According to your faith, be it unto you.” You see, Jesus was the healer. He was the grace of God. He provided healing for everyone. There’s 14 times that it’s written in the New Testament that Jesus healed them, every one. They brought unto him all who were sick, of every kind of diseases. And he healed them, every one. Jesus healed them, every one. Every person and every kind of sickness and disease among the people. Now I realize that we’re not Jesus, but do you know what? The Bible says that He’s the same yesterday, today, and forever. But they had to come. They had to reach out to Him. They had to believe so that they could receive from Jesus. And at least 98% of those individual accounts where Jesus healed people, I can see, as I see in the word of God, that it was their personal faith that caused them to receive from Jesus. They came, Jesus said, “According to your faith, be it unto you.” And so there were these different things. So if you wanna receive these things from God, it’s important for you to believe ’em. And if you don’t believe ’em, you’re not gonna receive ’em. Or, so is it A, that divine healing’s provided for in the atonement? That he was wounded for our transgressions and by his stripes we were healed and sometimes people receive it or sometimes they don’t. Is it B, sometimes God heals, sometimes God doesn’t? It’s all up to God, you never know, right? Or is it C, God doesn’t heal anymore? Now, most of you are smart enough to know that God still heals people today. There’s a few churches that still believe that God doesn’t heal anymore, but they’re kind of out there. And you know what? I’d just bring some of those people to my church and I could give them all kinds of testimonies, people that were healed, given less than six months to live at Mayo Clinic and healed. We have a young man that was healed last year. He was on 11 different medications a day, when he had a good day. He had a very bad digestive disorder. The doctors said that he’ll die young, that he won’t live a long, healthy life. But one day he got up. He had been in our church about four years, and he said, “You know what, God healed pastor Lawson when he was a little boy. And I believe that God will heal me. I’m done with this sickness. I’m done with this disease. And I’m done with the devil. Praise God.” And that day, God healed him. Praise God. And he’s been back to the doctors. They say that he’s normal. That’s a wonderful testimony. Praise God. He’s gonna live a good, long, healthy life. I believe he’s gonna preach the gospel. I believe he’s gonna lay hands on the sick and they’re gonna recover. I believe he’s gonna see people healed and set free by the power of God. His mama asked him when he’s just 10 years old. She said, “Jackson, what would you do if you had a million dollars?” He said, “Well, I would build a church and I would support missionaries.” Praise God. And so I believe Jackson is going in the right direction. Praise God. And Jesus has taken his life in a good direction. But you know what? Jackson let the Word of God go down in his heart. And he believed that Word for himself. And that Word of God produced the harvest. And you know what? Nobody can argue Jackson out of it, praise God, because that Word is working in his life.

Praise the Lord. We’re right here in Mark, chapter four. And we’re talking about the parable of the sower And Jesus’s explanation of the parable of the sower. We studied in verse 15 where he said that the seed that is sown on the wayside, that falls out of the planter on the way to the field, and the birds come and eat it, that’s like when Satan comes immediately to take the Word. because he knows the power of the Word to produce a harvest. We talk secondly about the Word that’s sown on stony ground. And it comes up and it looks pretty, but it has no root. It can’t produce fruit in the long term because it has no root in itself. And Jesus said, “These are those who, they receive the word joyfully, but afterward when persecution arises for the Word’s sake, immediately, they are offended.” Then he said, “The third type of soil,” he says, “these are they who are sown among the weeds, among the thorns, such as hear the Word. And the cares of this Word,” this is in verse 19, “And the deceitfulness of riches and the less of other thing choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.” You know, where I grew up in Southeastern Colorado, it’s a very dry climate. In good years they receive about 17 inches of annual moisture per year. But it’s a good climate to grow winter wheat. But they only grow crop generally every other year in southeastern Colorado, so they rotate the crops. And so what they do is, they farm, on a year that we’re gonna sew a field, we start farming early in the spring, as soon as the weeds come up, about the end of May. And we’ll farm that three or four times during the summer. And the whole reason for us to farm that is to keep the weeds down so that they don’t compete for the moisture that’s there. And then about the 1st of September, we sow that winter wheat, we plant that winter wheat. And it comes up and it looks like grass, and it just covers the ground. And then the next spring, when the rains come, different things that begin to shoot up. And it’ll grow about two feet tall. And after it grows about two feet tall in about the 1st of July, we send the combines in to get the harvest, praise God. But then we let it lay fallow for a year. And then we begin to farm again. So, it takes two years to grow one crop. But what we have to do is we have to, the whole reason that we’re out there plowing that and working that soil three or four, even some people work five times before they plant, that is to keep the weeds down so they’re not competing for the moisture. So that seed, right? That wheat seed can get the harvest. Now Jesus said, “There are those that are sown among thorns.” If we didn’t do that and we just went out there and we planted that field and we never worked the soil, the weeds would come up and they would choke the seed. And we wouldn’t even have enough harvest to run the combines through the field. But He says this. He said, “These are like, in the Christian life, when the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches and the less of other things choke the Word, and it becomes unfruitful.” There are things that the enemy wants to bring in your life, just different cares. Just you get so weighted down with just taking care of life. “And the deceitfulness of riches.” You’re trying to make money so bad, that you know what? You don’t even have time to really think sometimes. “And the less of other things.” Other things come in and they choke that Word and it becomes unfruitful, you see? But then he says, in verse 20, “These are they which are sown on the good ground.” Say, “I am good ground.” And what is good ground? “Such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 fold, and some 100.” You know what? When we would grow our fields in southeastern Colorado on the irrigated ground, we would sew that field about the same time, about the 1st of September. And then if everything was right, we would irrigate that seed and that seed would come up, again, it looks like little grass just covering the ground. And then in about April, we call it being in the boot, it would grow up about this high. And if you split that apart, you can see down in there a little stock. And at the top of it’s a little head. And you know what? But we would pour the water on it, when it’s in the boot, we call it, and then it would bring forth a hundred bushel wheat. That’s a hundred fold because we’d sow one bushel per acre, and we’d receive back a hundred bushels per acre. We did this numbers of times because we could control the moisture on it, praise God. We could control the irrigated ground much better than the non irrigated ground. So it was different. And we planted that year after year, after year, after year. And received harvest year after year, after year. Now, there were different things. There were still weeds. Sometimes we would spray those weeds. Different things would try to come. There’s still storms that would come. But we would do our best to get in the harvest every year. And, you know what? Your heart is designed to produce a harvest. In fact, your heart is producing a harvest. But if you don’t like the harvest that your heart’s producing, you can change it. And here’s how you change it. The first thing, you have to recognize the enemy. Satan is the enemy of the Word, and he’s the enemy of the Word because he knows the power of the Word to produce a harvest in your life. So the first aspect is you don’t wanna be deceived. You see, the enemy knows that the Word will produce a harvest. And some people are not doing much with the Word, and they don’t have a problem with the devil, but the devil is coming to steal the Word out of their life. You see? So as soon as you begin to sow the Word, you should expect challenges, difficulties, and problems. But you can overcome by the Word of God in you. Now, I wanna read from first Peter chapter five, because he talks about how the enemy comes to steal. And the enemy wants to steal that seed before it ever grows, before it ever really has a chance to grow, because he knows that that Word will produce a powerful harvest in God’s kingdom. He says this in, I’m gonna actually start in first Peter chapter five, verse five. “Likewise, you younger submit yourselves to the elder. All of you be subject to one another, be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God that He might exalt you in due time.” Did you know for a harvest to come forth, it takes time? It takes seed, time, amen. There’s seed, time, and harvest, right? So he says, “Humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. That God may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him. Don’t worry, for He cares for you.” He says, “Be sober, be watchful, be vigilant. For your adversary, the devil, Satan is your adversary. And he comes as a roaring lion.” He’s not a roaring lion, but he comes like a roaring lion. “And he walks about seeking whom he may devour. He wants to devour you.” He says, “Whom resists, resist the devil steadfast in the faith. Stay steadfast in the faith.” You see faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. “Knowing that the same affliction are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” So we need to resist the devil. We need to be watchful. We need to be sober. Know where we’re going, what we’re doing. And we need to resist the devil steadfast in the faith. Why? So the word of God can bring forth a harvest. Now, just before this in first Peter chapter four, verse 12 to verse 14, it says, “Beloved, do not think it’s strange concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice in as much as you’re partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when His glory shall be revealed, you may be glad with exceeding joy. If you be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you.” You see, everybody in the world, sometimes people in the world don’t celebrate you, but you don’t have to worry if the world doesn’t celebrate you. What you really need to know is that God is celebrating you. Praise God. And so he says, “Rejoice, in as much as you’re partakers of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory be revealed, you may rejoice. You may be glad with exceeding joy. If you’re reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part, He’s evil spoken of, but on your part, He is glorified.” So God will be glorified. And we need to let God be glorified in our life. So he’s writing about this, be watchful, right? Be sober, because your adversary the devil. He’s talking about, there’s gonna be persecution, right? And when people come against you, a lot of times, what the enemy is really after is he is after the Word that is in your heart, because he knows that Word, if it’s left in your heart, and if it’s undisturbed, that Word is gonna produce a harvest. So do not be deceived. Satan is the enemy of the Word. The second thing is, you don’t want to be offended. You see, because the second type of ground we talked about was the stony soil. And, you know what? When Jesus explained that parable in Mark chapter four, verse 15 to verse 19, he said those that are sown on stony ground are those that immediately they receive the word with gladness. They’re really happy. “Thank God for the Word. Thank God for the Word. This Word’s good. It’s so good to hear this good news that he sent his Word and healed them and delivered them from their affliction. That by Jesus’s stripes that we’re healed, that beloved, I wish above all things that you might prosper and be in good health. It’s so good to hear these good promises that my God supplies all my needs, according to His riches in glory, by Christ Jesus,” Philippians chapter four, verse 19. It’s so good to hear these promises like Psalm 35 in verse 27 that says, “Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Yeah let them say continually, ‘Let the Lord be magnified who has pleasure in the prosperity of his servant, amen.'” It’s so good to hear the promises of God. But when somebody comes and said, “What do you think about that healing stuff? What about that prosperity stuff? I really don’t believe that’s for everybody. What do you think?” That’s really the enemy, because what’s he trying to do? He’s trying to sow seeds of doubt. He’s trying to sow seeds that will cause you to question that Word of God. So that Word doesn’t have the power then to produce a harvest in your life. Jesus said these are they, immediately they receive the word with gladness, but persecution and affliction comes for the Word’s sake and immediately they are offended. So number one, you don’t wanna be deceived. But number two, you don’t wanna be offended. Because what is this? This is really religion and tradition that’s coming to fight the Word of God. Jesus talked about this in Mark chapter seven, and I want to go over there. And he said in Mark chapter seven, “By your traditions, you make the Word of God of no effect.” Do you want the Word of God to be effective in your life? Then you have to guard against traditions of men that come against the Word. Now he talks about this in Mark chapter seven. He says this, “This people honors me in verse six with their lips. Their heart is far from me. How be it in vain? Do they worship me teaching for doctrines, commandments of men?” Are we teaching what the Bible says? Because a lot of times people persecute you because of religion and tradition, but they don’t even know what the Word says. And He goes on and says in verse eight, “For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men, such as the washing of pots and cups and many other things that you do.” And he said unto them, “Full well, you reject the commandment of God that you may keep your own tradition.” So, many times people come fight you for the Word’s sake. And they’re rejecting the Word of God to keep their tradition. “For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and mother. Whosoever curses father and mother, let him die the death.’ But you say, ‘If a man say to his father or mother, it is Corban, that is the gift by whatever you might be profited by me, he will be free.’ And if you suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother, making the Word of God of no effect through your tradition, which you delivered and many such things like this you do.” So, do you know what? You have to beware that you don’t make the Word of God ineffective by your traditions. So if we want the Word of God to bring forth a harvest in our life, number one, we can’t let the enemy steal the Word, because the enemy wants to come and steal the Word because he knows the power of that Word, and that Word’s gonna produce an awesome harvest in our life. And number two, we have to hold onto that Word and not let people, well meaning people sometimes, come and steal that word by persecuting us and come against us for the Word of God. So if you’ll hold onto the Word of God, amen, the Word of God will hold onto you. And it will produce a harvest of life in your life. Blessings.

Do you like to shop? Well we have some real helpful information for you.

You can go to CharisChristianCenter.com. Go to our store. We have many different teaching CDs. We have lots of books and good information. You can get it, you can give it as gifts. It will help people be built up in the faith. So check it out. CharisChristianCenter.com. Thanks so much. Blessings.

More Episodes

Free Confession Cards

Free Confession Cards

As you believe and speak God’s word over your life, you will activate God’s promises! God wants you to live in His financial provision, health, and identity! Order your confession cards as our gift!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.