The Parable Of The Sower – Part 4 Lawson Perdue

The Parable of the Sower Part 4

In the Parable of the Sower Part 4, Pastor Lawson Perdue concludes his teaching of Jesus’ parable in Mark chapter 4. In this Grace for Today lesson, discover how your heart is producing a harvest. Your heart is going to produce fruit based on the seed that you put into it. If you don’t like the fruit in your heart, you can change that by sowing God’s Word instead!

Part 4 Transcript from The Parable of the Sower

I’m so glad that you’re connected today. I’m teaching today on the sower sows the word, and this is the last day this week that I’ll be sharing this special message with you. And we’re gonna talk specifically today about your heart is producing a harvest. And if you don’t like the harvest that you’re receiving, you have the power to change it. So, open your heart and receive God’s good word today. Blessings. We’ve been teaching all this week from Mark 4, and we began in Mark 4:13 talking about if you could understand the parable of the sower, that you could understand the entire kingdom. And we begin to really focus on the sower sows the word, and the word is consistent, the seed is consistent. The word will produce a harvest. The word’s gonna produce a harvest of life, of health, of healing, of peace, of prosperity, physical and financial prosperity. We see these promises in the Word of God. And the Word of God is gonna produce a good harvest. But what determines the harvest that the Word produces is the soil that it’s sown into. And so we’ve been talking about these four types of soil that Jesus talked about. First of all, he said there was the wayside soil. So when the farmer was on the way to the field, some seed fell out of his planter and the birds ate it before it ever got in the ground. And you know, Jesus said, “that’s like, you know, Satan comes to steal the Word immediately out of your heart.” You know, I don’t know if you’ve ever, when you first got a revelation, for instance, of healing, that immediately you were attacked in the body. Maybe you weren’t attacked like that before, why? Because you were no threat to the enemy, but you get a revelation of healing then Satan will try to come and fight you, you know what? He’s no match for you. He’s no match for the word of God in you. He’s no match for the Spirit of God in you. He’s no match for the body of Christ. So you can rise up against that and you can win this battle. Or you get a revelation for instance, of financial provision and the promises, my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory, by Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:19, and immediately you get attacked in the financial realm. I’ve had people that do that when they come to my church and you know what? I pray for. ’em, in fact, I prayed for a couple last year, they came here and immediately they were attacked. They were making about a hundred thousand dollars. They lost their jobs, different difficulties came, but with it, I prayed for ’em, within two weeks, they had new jobs and they were making 120,000 a year. So God just turned it around, you know, and blessed them beyond what they were doing when they made a decision at a heart level that I’m gonna believe God, no matter what this attack is, I’m not gonna focus on the problem, I’m gonna focus on the promise. Then we talked about not only that, we talked about the rocky soil and that’s how, when the farmer goes in the field and he plants his seed and it grows really quickly, and the vine looks beautiful, you know what? The flowers look be beautiful, but then it produces no fruit, and that’s because it has no root in itself, and Jesus said, “when you’re afflicted and you’re persecuted for the word sake.” You know, religious people sometimes will persecute you for the word and you know what? You gotta hold onto the word, why? Because the word has the power to produce a harvest that looks like God, hallelujah. Now the third thing we talked about, the third type of soil is the weedy soil, and you can’t plant your seed, your good seed in the weeds, why? Because the weeds will choke it out because they’re taking the moisture from the soil. So when we farm, part of the aspect of us farming is getting rid of the weeds and keeping the soil clean, so the good seed can produce a good harvest. And so Jesus said, “that’s like when the deceitfulness of riches, the lust of other things, and they come and they choke the word so that it becomes unfruitful.” And so we gotta watch for those different things. But the last thing that he talked about, which we didn’t talk about in verse 20, he said, “these are they, which are sown on good ground, such as hear the word and receive it and bring forth fruit, some 30 fold, some 60 and some 100 fold.” You know what? The good ground brings forth fruit. I like what the scripture says, actually in Luke 8:15, it says this, “in an honest and good heart having heard the word, they keep it with patience.” If you have a honest and good heart, you say, “I have a good heart”, praise God, and you hold onto the word. Did you know what? The word of God is gonna produce a harvest. I have a question for you. Are you hearing the word of God? Are you receiving the word of God? If you’re hearing the word of God, and receiving the word of God, you gotta hold on to the word of God. So the word will bring forth harvest in your life. Now, the fact is, did you know what? Your heart is producing a harvest. If we go back to Mark chapter four, and we look at this in Mark 4:28, Jesus said this, “the earth brings forth fruit of herself.” Your heart brings forth fruit of herself. Your heart is bringing forth a harvest. And in the Greek, when it says it brings forth fruit of herself, the word, atomos is used, the Greek word, it’s talking about automatic, whatever is sown in your heart it’s gonna come out. You sow weeds in your heart like a farmer, if you have weeds in your field, it’s gonna grow weeds. If you sow corn, it’s gonna grow corn. If you sow wheat, it’s gonna grow wheat. If you sow cantaloupe, it grows cantaloupe, watermelons, it grows. But if you sow thistles, it’ll bring forth thistles. If you sow bind weed, it will bring forth bind weed. And so, but your heart’s bringing forth the harvest. And if you don’t like the harvest that you’re having, you have the power to change it. That’s the good news. You know what? It’s not automatic, these things don’t, I’m talking about God’s will, God’s plan, the good things of God are not automatic. It’s what you put in your heart that’s automatic. Your heart brings forth the harvest, amen. He says, “first the blade, then the ear, after that, the full corn in the ear.” I just heard Andrew Wommack teach a tremendous message on this. But you know, years before this, I heard Smith Wigglesworth talk about the last part of this verse. Actually, I read teachings, but they ask him, “how does great faith come?” And Smith said, “first the blade, then the ear, after that, the full corn in the ear.” In other words, you know what? You sow the word and it brings forth first the blade, you can see just the blade, then the ear, right? We talked about wheat, how it comes up, it’s just like grass, it covers earth, then in the spring, when it comes in the boot, it’ll grow up a little bit higher, and if you open it up, you can see in there, right? He says, “then the ear”, you can open it up, you’ll see a little stock, and then at the top of it’ll be a little ear, just be a little flat thing, but then you pour the water into that and it grows up and it’ll get about two foot high, and then you, you know, it’ll bring forth harvest some 30, some 60, some you get a really good crop, you got 100 fold return. And so he says, “after that, the full corn in the ear, and when the fruit is brought forth, immediately, he puts in the sickle because the harvest is come.” So your heart is bringing a harvest. And did you know what? If you don’t like the harvest that you’re getting, if you don’t like what you’re receiving in life, you have the power to change it. Now, how can I change it? By what I believe and what I think, by what I believe in what actually, what I believe, what I think is kind of the same thing, and that affects what I speak. So in Joshua 1:8, there’s this principle laid out in Joshua 1:7-8 and in verse eight, Joshua says, “this book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall”, he says, “this book of law will not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate there in both day and night that you may observe to do according to all that’s written there in, for then you will make your way prosperous and you will have good success.” So when you meditate on the promises, right? You’ll begin to speak the promises. You begin to speak the promises and then you’ll begin to make decisions that are in line with that, and did you know what? That word will produce a harvest. You will make your way prosperous and you will have good success. God wants you to prosper, and God wants you to have good success. But you know, it’s up to you, what you meditate on, what you think on, it’s up to you, what you talk about, and if you meditate the word, you’re gonna talk about the word, and it’s up to you, what you do. But if you meditate the word, you begin to speak the word, you begin to become a doer of the word, the word will produce a harvest. You will be prosperous, it says, “and you will have good success.” So Jesus said it this way, he said in Matthew 12:34, he said, “out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.” And he went on to say, “your heart brings forth good things or evil.” It’s your decision what you allow to remain in your heart. It’s your decision, what you focus it on and what you talk about. But he goes on to say in verse 37, “by your words, you’re justified, and by your words, you’re condemned.” So you can control what you think about. And so if you’ve been thinking ungodly thoughts, man, get rid of them. Praise God, start thinking, God, it’s not a sin to have an ungodly thought, but deal with it in the thought realm. Don’t let it become an action. Don’t meditate on it. Praise God, deal with it. See Proverbs 23:7, says this, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” You see, your life is gonna go the way of your dominant thoughts. Your words are gonna go the way of your dominant thoughts. So if you want your life to begin to go in the right direction, you start meditating the word of God, you start speaking the word of God, you start acting on the word of God, and Joshua 1:8, “you will be prosperous and you will have good success.” Your life is gonna go in that direction. You see that Bible actually says this in Isaiah 26:3, it says, “you will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed upon you because he trusts.” Fix your mind on God. You fix your mind on the promises of God. You fix your mind on the things of God. You begin to meditate on him. You’ll begin to speak him. You’ll begin to act on him and they will bring forth a harvest in your life. James says it this way in James chapter one, he says, “of his own will he begat us with the word of truth.” You’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God. He goes on and says in verse 21, “receive with meekness, the engrafted word, which is able to save your soul.” You take a meek attitude towards the word of God. Say whatever the word says, that’s the direction I’m going. That’s what I’m doing, praise God. I’m going God’s way. Then it says in verse 22, “be doers of the word, not hearers only.” And finally in verse 25, “but whosoever looks into the perfect law of Liberty.” He calls God’s New Testament, the new covenant, the perfect law of Liberty. “This person not being a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the word, this man shall be blessed in his deed.” Same thing, you see, you’re born of the word, right? You receive with meekness, the engrafted word. You begin to meditate the word. You begin to speak the word. You become a doer of the word, and you will be prosperous and you will have good success. Friends, I wanna take just a moment to share with you something that I believe has the power to change your life. I’m talking about the word of God, and I’ve got a special package that I’m making available. I’m calling it, “The Word Package”. In the first teaching that I have, is a three CD teaching on “The Parable of the Sower.” The other one that I have is a multiple CD teaching on “The Power and Life of the Word.” And then I have the book, “The Power and Life of the Word”. And you know what? These are principles that I have found in my life that work, you know, the Bible says in Isaiah chapter 55:10-11, “that the word of God that comes from heaven produces a harvest, it does not return void, it accomplishes what God pleases and it prospers the thing he sends it to.” And we have a special offer, you can get either one of the CD teachings or the book itself, or you can get all three and you know what? The best deal’s to get ’em all three. We know if you get this, that it will bless you and help you. Thanks so much. Praise the Lord friends. We’ve been talking about how the word produces a harvest in our life. And our heart is producing a harvest. And you know what? If you don’t like the harvest that you’re getting in life, you have the power to change them. And you have the power to change the harvest that you receive in your life, by meditating the word, by speaking the word, and by acting on the word of God. You know what? Your life is going the direction of your dominant thoughts. And so if you wanna prosper, you gotta quit thinking negative, poor thoughts. You gotta quit saying negative, poor things. Praise God, I remember this story about Leroy Thompson. He was a preacher in the south, you know, kind of down by where Jesse Duplantis is from, their near New Orleans, Louisiana. And he went to the grocery store one day. Of course, he had a lot of debt, had a big, nice car, but everything was on credit. He owed money for his car, money on credit cards, money on his house, money on everything, and he went into the grocery store and the man in front of him, when he got in the line to go out of the grocery store was buying a six pack of beer. And that man said, “that money sure goes.” And he said, “I just chimed in with him, that money sure goes.” But he said, “when I got to my car, just before I opened the door, the Spirit of God convicted me of saying that money sure goes.” And because he knew the power of his words, he knew that death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat the fruit there of. And he caught himself and he said, “money comes” praise God and he actually wrote a book on money comes. I actually heard him, he was powerful minister. And you know what? He turned his whole life around when he began to speak the word of God and say what God said about him, praise God. He became very prosperous. He paid off his credit cards. He paid off his car. He paid off his house and he traveled all around the world preaching the good news of Jesus when he understood the power in his words. So if you don’t like what you’re receiving, you can change it by what you think on, what you speak, what you do, and that determines where you go. Now, who’s responsible for the condition of your heart? That’s what we’re gonna talk about now. We are responsible for the condition of our heart. Do you know what nobody else is responsible? Barbara Perdue, my wife, is not responsible for the condition of my heart. My staff is not responsible for the condition of my heart. My son, Aaron is not responsible for the condition of my heart. I am responsible for the condition of my heart. You know, the Bible actually tells us in Proverbs chapter four and let’s go there today, and read Proverbs chapter four, we’ll begin in verse 20 and we’ll read through verse 23, Proverbs chapter four, beginning in verse 20 on down through verse 23, he says, “my son give attention to my word, incline your ear to my sayings, let them not depart from your eyes, keep them in the midst of your heart, for they are life unto those who find them, in health to all their flesh. Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” The issues of life, the issues of God’s kingdom flow out of your heart. Listen to what he says, “give attention to my word, incline your ear, listen to the word of God. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep the word of God before your eyes.” He says, “keep them in the midst of your heart for they”, the words of God, “are life unto those who find them and health to all their flesh.” If I’m correct, the Hebrew word for health here is marpe, and it means medicine, a cure, to heal, to make whole. Thank God, the word of God is medicine, it’s a cure, it’s health, it heals us and makes us whole. He says, “not only for our spirit, but also for all of our flesh”, he says, “keep your heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.” We are responsible for the condition of our heart. We’ve gotta guard our heart. You remember in the garden? You remember when Adam was there, God gave him only one command, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil”? “For God said, the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die.” And man was there in the garden, right? It was Adam, Eve, God in the garden. And you know, Adam was there and it says, “Satan came as a serpent.” He was the most deceitful of all the creatures. And he came and he lied to Adam. Satan came in the form of a serpent, he lied and he said, don’t, you know, actually lied to Eve first, he said, “if you’ll eat of this tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you’ll be like God, knowing good.” You know what? He used a lie and the lie he used was really a lack mentality. If you do this, then you’re gonna be like God, you’re missing out. Some people think, man, if I don’t get involved in something, I’m gonna miss out. You know, Satans used that lie on a lot of people and really deceive them, and they’ve brought a lot of heartache to their families and to their lives. And so you don’t wanna listen to that lie of lack, of not enough. You wanna listen to the God, who’s more than enough. Praise God and you keep listening to the words of God. And so as they were there, you know, Satan came and he lied and he deceived Eve, and he twisted the word of God and outright contradicted the word of God, and she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and then she gave to her husband, Adam, and he ate too, and when he ate, then they saw that they were naked and they clothed themselves with fig leaves. You see more than likely, what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with that tree of knowledge of good and evil, more than likely, wasn’t an apple tree. You know, Jesus calls us the apple of God’s eye. The scripture calls us the apple of God’s eye. And when we think about that we’re the apple of God’s eye, and Jesus cursed the fig tree, and it was probably an old rotten fig that they sold out for. “And then they saw that they were naked, so they clothed themselves to hide themselves from the presence of God.” That’s not a good idea. You can’t hide from God, no matter where you run, he’s there. But you know what? God came walking in the cool of the day, He said, “Adam, where are you?” Where are you? You know, and he was asking that question. And Adam said, “we hid ourselves.” And God said, “did you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The tree that I told you not to eat of?” And Adam said, “the woman that you gave me, she gave me and I ate.” You know what? He blamed, first of all, the woman, and then he blamed God, the woman you gave me, you know, that’s a blame game. As long as you’re blaming somebody else for the condition of your heart, as long as you’re blaming somebody else for the condition of your life, you’re not gonna get better in a long term sense. If you wanna get better, you need to take personal responsibility for the way that things are, quit playing the blame game, quit blaming God, quit blaming your wife, quit blaming your boss, quit blaming your teacher, quit blaming other people, take personal responsibility and start making good choices. You see, your heart is a garden. But my question is, what kind of seed are you allowing to remain in your garden? Are you allowing seeds of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance? Are you allowing the seeds of the fruit of the Spirit, or are you allowing the seed of the works of the flesh envy and strife, adultery, fornication, lasciviousness, hatred, what’s lasciviousness? That’s striving, you know, lusting after other people’s stuff, amen. All these things, you know, don’t let those things rule you, let the word of God rule you, let the good things of God rule you. And so are you allowing the works of the flesh or the fruit of the spirit? Really, it’s our choice. You know, the Bible says, you know, “the Spirit works against the flesh and the flesh of against the Spirit, and these things are contrary to one another.” You can read about this in Galatians 5:16-26, it talks about the works of the flesh, and the fruit of the Spirit and it talks about this battle. So if you’ll let the Spirit rule, you can begin to overcome, and you can begin to move into the harvest that God has for you. You see in first John 4:4, the scripture says, “greater is he that’s in you than he that’s in the world.” You see a lot of people in Christianity think the goal of Christianity is to overcome sin and overcome Satan, but we could not overcome sin, and we could not overcome Satan in our own power, in our own strength, and that’s why God sent Jesus. And so since God sent Jesus, God did for us, what we could never do. So when you believe on Jesus, the Bible actually talks about, you’re born of God. First, John 5:4, says, “this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” Who is he that overcomes the world? But he that believes that Jesus is the Son of God. If you are a believer in Jesus, you are a child of God and you are made a world over comer by your new nature and you know what? When you begin to understand your new nature, when you begin to understand what you’ve been given, we talked about this in First John 2:12-14, “the things that we’ve been given”, we said, number one, we have a relationship with God. Number two, we’re forgiven. Number three, we’re strong. Number four, the word of God abides in us. And number five, we have overcome the wicked one. When you understand those things that are given to you in Christ, Satan, the world, the devil, the flesh, is no match for you. See, he goes on and says, “love not the world”, in First John 2:15, “for all that is in the world is lust of the flesh, lust of the eye and pride of life, and if any man love the world, the love of the Father’s not in him.” But you see when you understand that you are forgiven, you have a relationship with God, you are strong, you have overcome the wicked one, and the word of God abides in you. Do you know what? Satan is no match for you. You know what? The world, the flesh and the devil are no match for you When you understand what you’ve been given. You see, the problem isn’t that we’re in the world, the problem is we’ve got too much of the world in us as believers and so we gotta take time and let the word of God fill our heart. Let the word of God, fill our soul. And as we do, our heart will begin to produce a harvest. We need to meditate the word of God, as we meditate the word of God, that word meditate in the scripture means to utter, to mutter, to think on, to dream on, to ponder, to imagine, as you begin to imagine in your heart, the things of God coming to pass, as you begin to see yourself laying hands on the sick and them recovering, as you begin to see yourself prospering and given to other people, maybe you see yourself buying somebody a house, or buying somebody a car, buying somebody groceries. You know, you begin to see that you’ll begin to do that. My daughter-in-law man, she’s amazing, my daughter-in-law Heather, she is a amazing giver, you know, and she’ll give sometimes people $100 tip, and she’s just always blessing people. And you know what? Blessing comes back to her, the way she sows she reaps, good things are coming back to her, but you know what? This is not the only thing. Number one, we need to realize our heart is producing a harvest. If you don’t like the harvest that you’re receiving, you can change it. Number two, we are responsible for the condition of our heart. But number three, harvest takes time. And sometimes you get started in these things, and you know, a lot of people give up before their harvest. The Bible says, “don’t grow weary in well doing for in due season you’ll reap if you do not faint.” And so the Bible actually says this in Genesis 8:22, it says, “while the earth remains, seed time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winters shall not cease.” As long as we’re on this earth, this principle of seed time and harvest is gonna work. So if you’ll sow the word of God in your heart, you’ll sow the promises of God in your heart. And you know what? You can determine what promises you get by the promises you meditate on, by the promises that you sow in your heart. So if you need healing and health, meditate scriptures, meditate promises of healing and health. If you need financial provision, meditate scriptures of financial provision, if you need peace, meditate scriptures concerning peace, whatever you meditate on, whatever you put in your heart is gonna come out of your life. Now it happens in a certain way. First of all, gestation has to take place. Now, where does gestation take place? It takes place in your spirit. Then germination, now germination, well actually, germination that takes place first, and germination takes place in your spirit, forgive me, then gestation, gestation is the time from a seeds germination to a harvest. For instance, in the human person, it’s nine months, in corn, it might be 100 days or 120 days. Different seeds have different harvest. Watermelons take longer, they might take 150 days, but you know what? They will bring forth a harvest. And so there’s germination, gestation, and then there’s harvest. You know what? Abraham had some harvest that took over 25 years, but they came to pass because he stayed on course with God. And if you’ll stay on course with God, your heart will bring forth a harvest. Joseph had harvest in his life that took over 20 years, but you know what? They came to pass because he stayed on track with God. So you know what? You keep the word of God in your heart. You keep the word of God in your mind. You keep believing it. You keep speaking it. You keep acting on it and the word will produce a harvest. And you know what? You’ll like the harvest you see, because it will produce a harvest that looks like God, it will produce a harvest of good and not of evil. Blessings friends, thanks for being with us today.