Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 1:00pm to Sun, Sep 5 at 8:00am EDT

Pastor John is preaching a three-part sermon series on negativity, neutrality and positvity as attitudes within the church.

Today we are going to look at the scripture of the trampled path, rocks and thorns.

In the scripture below, Jesus described clearly how these attitudes would prevail in His church.

Luke 8:4-15 NIV84

While a large crowd was gathering and people were coming to Jesus from town after town, he told this parable: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path; it was trampled on, and the birds of the air ate it up. Some fell on rock, and when it came up, the plants withered because they had no moisture. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up with it and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up and yielded a crop, a hundred times more than was sown.” When he said this, he called out, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.” His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He said, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, “ ‘though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand.’ “This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God. Those along the path are the ones who hear, and then the devil comes and takes away the word from their hearts, so that they may not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away. The seed that fell among thorns stands for those who hear, but as they go on their way they are choked by life's worries, riches and pleasures, and they do not mature. But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.

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This is probably one of the easiest parables to understand. Note first of all, that the seed is the same seed in all four examples- "The Word of God."

So, what is different? It is the hearer.

Three of the examples describe the people of the church who choose the neutral route.

Note - They all heard the Word.

The first group allows the devil to steal the Word from their hearts. The second is not rooted, lacking faith that overcomes testing, The third is so caught up in today's society that these Christian's growth is at a standstill.

Who are you?

Examine your hearts. Do you resemble any of the above three attitudes of the church? Have you failed in your promise to Jesus and "wandered from the pathway?"

God gave His all - His Son as a sacrifice for our sins and His Holy Spirit to give us a "noble and good heart, who hear the Word, retain it and by presevering produce a crop." (verse 15)

Meditate on this.

Is your life bordering on a crop failure?"