“WHAT KIND OF CHRISTIAN ARE YOU?-Living Your Life In A Material World”
All Christians share one thing in common. We are all one way when we get saved and change over time as we strive to live out our Christian faith. I along with most every other Christian have read the “Parable Of The Seed” in the Books of Matthew and in Luke 8. This parable, in its correct exegetical interpretation speaks to one how one receives the truth of Jesus Christ through the Word of God.
And Today, I want to look at that truth and then in application, look at how we can vacillate between the different types of seed throughout our life as we work out our salvation in a fallen world. Let’s get started. Let’s jump right in.
I first started studying “THE PARABLE OF THE SEED” found in Books of Matthew and Luke as a teenager, and I have always tried to humbly imagine myself as the good soil that received the seed, yielding a hundredfold. I can tell you straight up that I received the seed/Word of God decades ago and never looked back-but I like all human beings, I have gone through different seasons of life in terms of income levels and other scenarios that have ebbed and flowed my walk with Christ to one degree or another.
Are you currently, or have you ever made a lot more money then when you first trusted in the Lord as Lord and Savior-as the seed that bared 100-fold? Have you ever allowed the “Cares and riches and pleasures of life stifle or “choke out” your spiritual fruit from maturing further in your faith? There are four kinds of seed, but for American’s especially, (vs. 14) this is an interesting seed category to look at for the authentic believer who, as a saved believer, has now made quite a bit more money, experienced a great more deal more pleasure, and who have been blessed by God materially. How has that effective your life as such?
INITIAL RECEIVING GOD’S WORD
In Luke 8:4-18 illustrates with great detail exactly how people receive the true Word of God through Jesus Christ. Jesus himself breaks this down into four kinds of people and how they respond to receiving or rejecting God’s Word in great detail. While this may seem like a rehashing of an old parable that we have heard over and over through the decades, I want to challenge us to rehash it afresh, once again from a new perspective perhaps here in May of 2024.
THE THORNS THAT RUINED AMERICA
As the world’s superpower, the United States of America is in a rapid state of decline due to our spiritual roots shifting from the “good soil” to the “thorns”. American leadership and citizens alike have taken God’s great blessings, provision and protection for granted, and even abused His provision for personal gain over proper stewardship for the Kingdom of God.
As a result, much of our “actual” wealth is dissipating. With our nation debt at levels impossible to pay back and the interest rates on that debt and social obligations in the “trillions”, we have violated God’s principles and commands regarding taking on debt we cannot repay. More than that, the debt we have amassed has been spent on immoral, unbiblical things such as corrupt contrast, unjust wars, unbiblical welfare, and the list goes on. While this may sound hopeless, it’s not. WHY? Because it’s not about “America” but about God and God’s people. Let’s take ourselves out of current thought process of our own wealth levels and patriotic mold and place our personal minds, lives and families as well as mission within the pages of the biblical Scriptures. Once we do that, we will see that nations rise and they fall, but God is ALWAYS on the throne. He always has been, is, and will be on the throne. That should be comforting for you and I. Furthermore, it should instruct each of us NOT to get caught up in the temporal above eternal. That being said, let’s move in to God’s word and see what He has to say about how we are to look at living out an authentic Christian life in an affluent and material-driven world.
IT’S TIME TO LOOK
It’s a good time for all of us to take a fresh look at the “Parable of the Seeds” in light of what kind of ground you might be standing on in the current moment. I’m not speaking about one’s salvation which cannot be lost by the way-but more so regarding the seed that fell “among the thorns”. Most American’s have amassed a great deal of wealth in light of the average person around the globe. But as America fails and is falling more and more into socialism, each of us is threatened by “LOSS”. Loss of freedom, freedom of speech, wealth, and the like. If not careful, in application, we will shift from living our life as a person saved by the blood of Jesus Christ, but shifting from living a life in the good soil to the thorns as the pressures of this world, including our wealth strangle us.
SHIFTING SOIL
It has been abundantly easy for most of us to consider ourselves to be the good soil over the past 30 years. Over the past decade or two, things in America have been changing. America is now a country which lacks patriotism, our outlook on America and the Christian ethos of America has changed forever. If not careful, those riches or better yet are interfering with how we are living out our faith in this fallen world. Let’s read the parable below and break the parable down using the words of Jesus Himself in order to figure out which soil you are at in the present.
As a disclaimer, once one is saved, they cannot lose their salvation/eternal life in Jesus Christ. That being said, for many, while they are saved, they might be living out their faith and life in a category of seed they didn’t start with when they were first saved.
THE WORDS OF JESUS CHRIST HIMSELFThe following are the words of Jesus Himself (red letter) as found in Luke 8:5-8).
5 “A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed, some fell along the path and was trampled underfoot, and the birds of the air devoured it. 6 And some fell on the rock, and as it grew up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. 7 And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up with it and choked it. 8 And some fell into good soil and grew and yielded a hundredfold.” As he said these things, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” (Luke 8:5-8 ESV).
WHAT IS JESUS SAYING?
Jesus is explaining in private to His disciples what each of these categories mean. Jesus explained in verse 10 that this parable is a secret to the masses and that He is sharing with them (His disciples) and of course, all of who read this parable through the Scriptures in years to come.
WHAT ARE PARABLES? It’s always good to explain your terms. As such, a parable is a figure of speech in which a moral or spiritual truth is illustrated by an analogy drew a from everyday experiences. These parables present truth about the kingdom in this present day. These truths are called “SECRETS” (Matthew 13:11) because they were never revealed in the Old Testament, and they are revealed here by Christ only to those who are properly related to Him (vss. Matthew 13:11-13) and Mark 4:11-12).
In Mark 8, verse 10, Jesus uses the word “SECRETS” to describe what He is about to tell them in terms of the meaning of this parable. By “SECRETS”, He is speaking of Truths not revealed in the Old Testament (in this case the characteristics of the time erwiesen the first and second comings of Christ, the church age), but revealed to those rightly related to Him. Others would not understand. So, WHAT exactly did Jesus tell His disciples about the seeds and what did the mean?
While this concludes today's epsiode, we will will pick up answering that question in PART 2. To RECAP, all Christians share one thing in common in that we are all one way when we get saved and change over time as we strive to live out our Christian faith. Today, we looked at the true meaning of what Jesus was saying trough correct interpretation and looked at how we can vacillate between the different types of seed throughout our life as we work out our salvation in a fallen world in application. In PART 2, we will look more deeply through interpretation but also illustrate that out of all the seeds, the third seed that fell upon the “THORNS” can be a shorn that takes an authentic Christian off-center from their faith walk, mission, and plan God has for their life.
