It’s all about where you are planted.

How is your root system?

Your Spiritual Roots

Spring is upon us in Ellsworth, at least the evidence was here today.

As I write this, my boys are frolicking with their dog in the current rain shower. It’s beautiful, but will likely lead to a mess upon their return indoors…that’s okay though.

I love the coming of Spring and the beauty it brings- the contrasting earth and sky in an impending thunderstorm (that dark blue with golden and green hills), the blooming of trees, flowers and grass, the smell of rain on the concrete…

However, I’m not referring to the root systems of these Spring beauties sprouting their buds. My focus today (and several weeks following) is about believers taking heed of where they are planted- in the world or in the Truth of God’s Word- and asking themselves, “How’s my root system?”

If you want change in your life. If you want to see a powerful movement of healing in your family, marriage, church, work, community, and school, you need to ensure you’re “rooted deep” in the correct source to see it come to fruition.

Grounds to be Planted

Much like a flower or tree, its vivaciousness is dependent upon the ground in which it is planted and nourished. This sets the foundation for how fruitful and long-lasting it will be.

We are the same, spiritually.

Jesus speaks of four different types of ground in which a believer can be planted in His Parable of the Sower, found in Matthew 13:1-9 and 18-23.

It’s important to note, though, that this passage is speaking to two kinds of believers- the new believer (the new seed) and the believer who has matured to being a disciple of others by becoming a Sower.

Furthermore, it’s important to know that a disciple is defined not just as a student or follower of a teacher, one who constantly receives wisdom and knowledge from the teacher, but one who takes what he or she is learning from the teacher and applies it to their life. It is then, the actions of the disciples’ belief become evident to others, bringing others to a place of faith too.

I hope you’re thinking already where I’m going with this…

A disciple can be of anything, a follower of any teaching. Agnosticism, Atheism, Buddhism, Humanism, Legalism, Hinduism, and Christianity are all teachings that people become disciples of.

But Jesus’ disciple and apostle of the New Testament church, Paul, tells us in Ephesian 4:4-6, “There is one body. And One Spirit, just as you [believers and followers of Jesus Christ] were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.”

There is only one God. There are many “little g” gods, but only One True God who can save you and give you life.

The Bible gives warning to disciples who are followers of anything else except the Lord Jesus Christ, “For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.” (2 Tim. 4:3-4)

“But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them- bringing swift destruction on themselves. Many will follow their depraved conduct and will bring the way of truth into disrepute. In their greed these teachers will exploit you with fabricated stories. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them…They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed- an accursed brood! They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Bezer, who loved the wages of wickedness… For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of the flesh, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity- for ‘people are slaves to whatever has mastered them.’” (2 Peter 2:1-3, 13-15, and 18-19)

Those aren’t my words. It’s written in scripture!

Are you grasping how significant and important it is for a believer of Jesus Christ and a Sower (or disciple) of Him to be planted in the proper grounds, and for there to be a healthy root system!?

I’ll ask again, how is your root system? What ground were you planted (or sowed) in? And what ground are you sowing new seed in?

One must first be a seed planted in the proper ground with a growing, healthy root system before he or she can be a Sower of new seeds (or believers) in Jesus Christ.

This is so important, critical even, in the body of believers, and teachers of Jesus Christ. What a shame it would be to lead someone astray in a false doctrine or way of life?

There are different maturity levels of believers. The Bible compares our level of maturity to babies- “Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.” (Heb. 5:13-14)

One must grow from a seedling, to one being watered and nurtured, to one budding new seeds or fruits to sow into others.

Back to the Parable

“A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop- a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” (Mat. 13:3-8)

The Well-Trodden Path
This first ground Jesus speaks of in this parable isn’t even fertile ground to be planted in, it’s a path. It’s where people walked and commuted from town to town. It had been travelled along so much the ground had become to compacted and hard, nothing could grow from it. The seeds would only be scattered on the surface, susceptible to be consumed or brushed off the path by traffic.

The Rocky Ground
The second ground Jesus gives an analogy of is the rocky ground. There’s a little bit of earth, or at least a thin layer of soil atop a rocky shelf. A seed planted among a rocky path will sprout quickly, but because of the shallow root system, the sun scorches it.

The Prickly and Thorny Patches
This patchy ground has fertile soil but among the fruit grown, there are also thorns. Therefore, the good fruit was choked out by the bad, thorny plants because they were too harsh, and because they sucked all the nutrients from the soil intended for the good.

Good Ground
I love how simple Jesus identified this last soil. Much like faith in Him, He doesn’t make it complicated. Jesus describes this final ground as the fertile, weed-free, ground. The perfect ground for fruitful production.

What happens, then, when seeds are planted in each type of these foundations?

Jesus continues by explaining this parable in verses 18-23:

“Listen then to what the parable of the Sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Understanding the Parable

The Well-Trodden Path
If you are sown or sow others on the well-trodden path, it’s as if you’ve heard the Word but didn’t listen, it didn’t soak in and saturate your life. Therefore, the enemy came and “snatched away” any seed or Word that may have been sown.

“The god of this age [aka Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4)

Jesus tells us in Matthew 7:13-14, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Entering through the narrow gate means to walk on the less traversed path, the less popular and convenient path. To attempt to walk (or in this analogy, to be planted in) on the well-trodden path, or on the wide gate path, it only leads to destruction to where the enemy of your soul snatches the Truth from you, or worse, blinds you so that you cannot even receive the Truth of God’s Word.

The Rocky Ground
The one who receives the seed or pours into the seed planted on rocky places is like a man or woman who hears the word and responds enthusiastically with joy, receiving the Truth. But because it isn’t planted deep, that enthusiasm, that spiritual fervor, withers and dies.

I believe one trouble with this type of sowing is a person may receive the Truth in partiality- assuming that all will be made well and life will be hunky-dory moving forward- but when the natural consequences of the choices made in the flesh come, because they will, the person is not rooted deeply enough with other believers, and the trouble or persecutions causes them to give up, assuming it wasn’t real.

The Prickly and Thorny Patches
The man whose seed was planted among the thorns is like a man who hears the Word, but the worries of his life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful.

David Guzik writes in his commentary of Matthew 13, “some respond to the word and grow for a while, but are choked and stopped in their spiritual growth by competition from unspiritual things.” [more on what is considered unspiritual at another time, in another post]

The dangers, I believe, with these three grounds, or foundations of sowing, is it leaves so much opportunity for people to turn away from faith in Christ because “it didn’t work.” This is when disbelief or searching in other beliefs like I mentioned in the beginning develop.

My heart hurts for these people. I get it, I understand their feelings of lost hope, but if you’re one reading this now, I hope you’ll be encouraged-

It wasn’t Christ that “didn’t work.” His truth is the only Truth in this world.

“I [Jesus speaking] am the way, the Truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6)

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.” (John 3:16-18)

“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers- and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God…” (1 Tim. 1:8-10)

It was our fallible humanity that made Christs’ Truth seem broken. There are some followers of Jesus who shouldn’t have planted in the grounds they knew wouldn’t be most fruitful, in fact detrimental to your growth. There are disciples who began sowing seeds sooner than they ought to have before they themselves reached a point of bearing fruit to assist in the growth of your faith.

I’m sorry. I’m so sorry someone has led you astray or has caused you to doubt God’s goodness extended to you.

But I plead with you, come back. Run back to Your Father’s arms, the One who created your inmost being; who knit you together in your mothers womb; who knows when you sit and when you rise, and who is familiar with all your ways. (referencing Psalm 139)

The Good Soil
Come and be planted in the “good soil.” For Jesus says you who are planted and grown in good soil “hears the word and understands it.” For from it you will “produce a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

It is here you and I, and Sowers of Truth will begin to bear fruit, in differing proportion.

It’s critical here to not compare your fruitfulness to the fruitfulness of another. Remember, we all start as babies, needing nurturing and “milk” as scripture says. A day will come when you have matured to “solid food,” bearing your own fruits to sow in to others.

Like every plant, tree, flower, and living thing on this earth, everything has a different growth cycle. Similarly, the nutritional needs of each differs and changes as they grow.

We must take the time to let our roots grow deep and wide in the good soil so in due time, called upon by our Heavenly Father (the gardener), we might produce a bountiful harvest of fruit.

Think of a tree, for a moment. When it is planted in good soil and is nourished well, with a deep and wide root system, it is able to withstand the elements of the earth- weather, creatures, etc. It’s able to produce fruit. But what’s the purpose of the fruit? Read more about how God revealed to me through a sermonette the similarities of an oak tree and our growth in maturity in faith in Jesus Christ.

Fruits of Your Growth

How do we know we’re planted in good soil, growing deep roots in God’s Truth?

“A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.” (Mat. 7:18,20)

When a believer, a disciple of Jesus Christ our Lord, is growing in wisdom and knowledge of Him AND living out their beliefs of His Truth, we bear Fruits of His Holy Spirit.

“So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit was is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want… Since we live by the Spirit [we are sown in good soil and planted deep, with strong, healthy roots], let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.” (Gal. 5:16-17, 25-26)

The Parable of the Weeds– Matthew 13:24-30

It’s not up to the disciples of Christ, or Sowers of seeds, to pluck out the unfruitful seeds, though. The enemy was given dominion over this earth, even while we live and serve here. We will face troubles, but with our deep root system and growth from fertile, holy ground, we can withstand the troubles of the “bad seeds” with Christ, pressing towards the goal in which He has called us.

Perhaps this is why Jesus says, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other...” It will be His job in due time to sort out the harvest. Not ours.

“Jesus told them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared’.

The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’

‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’

‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

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