Preparing for the Harvest
Mark 4:1-20

Introduction

As a congregation, we are in a season of seeking our Lord’s vision as to what particular group of people we should target for new evangelistic outreach.  Using metaphors, we are asking our Lord what particular fish should we seek to catch, or what particular crop we are called to harvest.  I trust that all of you who are GracePoint members are in fervent and persistent prayer in this vision pursuit.  Our Bible passage this morning, speaks to our call of evangelism using the metaphor of a harvest.  So hear now God’s Word.  Let us pray…


Proclamation
    Mark 4:1-20


Illustration

Growing up in west Philly, and then living most of my adult life in the large urban setting of Anchorage, clearly qualifies me as a city boy.  So I am quite clueless about how farms operate and farmers live.  So when Christ uses agricultural illustrations in his parables, I miss many of the nuances and much of the fuller meaning.  

That is why I was so thrilled to come across a very well done short movie that has a seasoned farmer clearly explaining each type of soil in this parable.  We are now going to watch that movie.  As you view this movie, please do so with spiritual eyes.  Think about how each of the farmer’s explanations about wheat and soil also has application to the harvest of the unsaved, and even to your own heart.   
    The Sower     Video Drama (13 minutes) from Compass Cinema


Application

Now this parable, like all parables, operates on many levels of meaning and application.  This morning, we are going to explore briefly three applications of this Sower parable to our lives.

1. Assurance of a Super-Abundant Global Harvest: One application of this Sower parable is this.  
Christ is giving us the big picture of how humanity will respond to the proclamation of the gospel.  As people hear the gospel, their initial response will vary based on what season of harvest they are in personally.  
 -  Some are “seed along the hardened path” and will reject the gospel at first because sin and Satan has too much a hold on their heart.
“Some people are like the seed that falls on the hardened soil of the road.  No sooner do they hear the Word than Satan snatches away what has been planted in them.”   Mark 4:15
 -  Some are “rocky soil” who embrace the gospel, but then fall away in times of trial.
"And some are like the seed that lands in the gravel.  When they first hear the Word, they respond with great enthusiasm.  But there is such shallow soil of character that when the emotions wear off and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to show for it.”   Mark 4:16-17
 -  Some are “seeds among thorns” who allow the priority of the gospel to be pushed out by a pursuit of worldly pleasures.
"The seed cast in the weeds represents the ones who hear the kingdom news but are overwhelmed with worries about all the things they have to do and all the things they want to get.  The stress strangles what they heard, and nothing comes of it.”  Mark 4:18-19
 -   Some are “good soil” who live missional lives bearing the fruit of righteousness in their personal lives, and planting fruitful seeds of the gospel into many other lives.
“But the seed planted in the good earth represents those who hear the Word, embrace it, and produce a harvest beyond their wildest dreams.”  Mark 4:20

Now here is the most important point of this parable: None of the bad soil conditions is meant to be a permanent state.  This parable is not meant to teach that all humanity falls into one of four categories, and that this is their eternal destiny.  
 -  Each of the poor soil conditions describe a particular state a person may be in at any given time.  That condition explains why a person rejects the gospel at that particular time, not permanently.  
 -  But praise be to God’s glorious grace, the Holy Spirit is always at work to plow up a person’s heart and to bring them to a place where their soil is “good soil” so that they will embrace the gospel.
 -  The central focus of this parable is not on the failed seed, but on the promise that ultimately the harvest will be super-abundant!  This parable reveals that the innumerable harvest of people who are embraced by grace and gospel will far outnumber the few that reject God’s free gift of salvation.  The harvest will be “beyond our wildest dreams.”

This promise of a super-abundant harvest, leads us to the next application of this Sower parable.

2. Perseverance and Confidence in Sowing the Gospel:
 -  Because we have God’s promise that the proclamation of the gospel will produce a super-abundant harvest, we must abundantly share the gospel with perseverance and confidence.
 -  We must sow the gospel with perseverance, because we never know what the status of a person’s “soil” is at any given time.  
 -  Because the soil of each person’s heart can change, we must do two things always.  We must be in perpetual, fervent prayer that the Holy Spirit will change a particular person’s heart into good soil.  
 -  We must keep sowing the seeds of the gospel into that person’s life as the Lord gives us opportunity to do so.
 -  Since we have confidence that it is our Lord’s will that ALL be saved, and that salvation is God’s work, not ours, we can trust that God will indeed use the seeds we plant ultimately for good and gospel purposes.

3. Breaking Up Our Fallow Ground:  
 -  This truth that the “soil” condition of the human heart changes, has application to each of us as well.  Each of our hearts at any given season of life can fall into one of these “soil” categories.
At least this is true of me.  There are times when my heart is hard, and I live out of the fleshly, dark, sinful part of my heart.  Sometimes I allow the Evil One to lure me away from wholehearted obedience to Christ.  Sometimes I become overwhelmed with the sorrow and trials of my own life, or the lives of those I love, or just the unexplainable, pervasive, horrific suffering and injustice in the world, and I doubt God’s goodness, power, and plan.  Sometimes I desire and seek after the pleasures of this world far more the superior pleasure of intimacy with Christ and the promise of eternal rewards.

 -  What then should be our response to this tragic reality that our hearts can grow hardened, rocky, or thorny?  Just like we need to be in perpetual persistent, fervent prayer for others, so we need to do the same for ourselves.  We all need the Holy Spirit to bring to us perpetual personal renewal and revival!
Hosea 10:12 gives us this admonishment: “Sow with a view to righteousness.  Reap in accordance with kindness.  Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you.”  
This is our Lord’s call to you to live in perpetual repentance and utter dependence on the Holy Spirit.


Preparing for the Harvest in Dubuque:
  There is one more application we need to explore of this Sower parable.  

As God’s people of GracePoint, we need vision, persistence, and confidence in reaping a harvest in Dubuque!
 -  We need to partner with our missionary God through fervent prayer for every heart to become good soil, and through persistently planting seeds of the gospel at every opportunity.
 -  Because we can have confidence that God is at work on the hearts of every person that lives in Dubuque, we can proclaim the gospel in assurance that there is a super-abundant harvest still waiting to be reaped!
 -  We need divine revelation knowledge as to what specific field our Lord has already called and equipped us to harvest.  This requires seeking the “Lord of the Harvest” in prayer and Bible meditation for vision.