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The Seed, the Soil, and the Soul
A sermon by
Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Third in a series on “The Mirror Stories of Jesus”
Sunday, October 15, 2006
Let me ask you a question. Do you know the word fiat? Not
the car, the word. It means the creation of something instantly with no further
effort required. Fiat is the environment of our age. Instant gratification,
instant messaging, instant oatmeal. Instant and fiat are the opposite of faith.
Fiat needs a big picture, a full map, instantly created. Faith trusts the next
step, but understands that it is a path—a way. Jesus said, “Follow me.”
Some years ago a distinguished American Christian went to
visit Mother Theresa. He asked Mother Theresa if she could help him. She said,
“How can I help you?” And he said, “I’m trying to get clarification, I want to
try and figure out what to do with the rest of my life. And I look over here and
you have clarification. You know exactly what you are doing and why you are
doing it. And she said, “I won’t pray for you for that.” He said, “Why, all I’m
trying to do is to have the same kind of clarification and certainty that you
have.” She said, “I have never had clarification and I have never had certainty.
All I’ve had is trust.” Said she, “I will pray that God will give you the gift
of trust.”
Being a parent is not a fiat preposition. It is not
something that has a map rolled out from beginning to end, anymore than that
moment when that baby—at the very beginning—came into being. Microscopic!
Nine-months later was born a person. What a miracle! What an incredible gift!
But for that little baby, it’s only the beginning. You see it is a trusting,
faithing exercise to raise children.
The adventure itself, Jesus told about in a parable. Both
its wonder and its needs; plus its challenges. Listen as I read in verse 24,
Matthew 13. “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 and when the weeds sprouted
and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared. And the owners servants came to
him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sew good seed in your field? Where then did the
weeds come from?’ ‘An enemy did this,” he replied. And 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 root up the wheat with them. Let them grow
together until the harvest and then I will tell the harvesters, first collect
the weeds and burn them and gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
If you will look at the other side of the page in verse 37
when he explains what he means. “The one sewed the good seed is the son of man
and the field is the world. The good seed stands for the sons of the kingdom.
And the weeds are the sons of the evil. The harvest is the end of the age. And
the angels come and make it happen.
I’ve been privileged this morning to dedicate four little
babies. Babies are not born with a snap of a finger but by faith and trust.
These wonderful parents know the pattern. But I want you to notice that as Jesus
interprets the parable, that the seed happens to be people who are planting the
seed. Parents as planters, they are farmers. Just like all of us are with our
souls. We are the farmers, the planters, of our souls. As persons we have the
privilege of getting on one side or the other. Parents, as seed planters, plant
seeds in the souls of their children.
You may have read recently about the Barber brothers, Tiki
and Rhondi. Football players, par excellence. Both of them played their
football in college way here in Virginia. Both drafted by professional football
team, both have become stars. They have made millions of dollars; they are at
the top of the NFL ladder. In our paper recently was an interview and the
interviewer said, “How do you account for your success?” The two play on
different teams, different parts of continent. But they both came up with the
same answer. They said, “We are what we are because of our mother.” What they
were saying was exactly what Jesus said that a person has the incredible gift of
planting seeds in the soul of another. And the parent has the closes proximity
to bring that about.
Now, let me make sure that I make this clear. Sewing seeds
in the lives of children is not the same as living your life through your
children. Every once-in-a-while I hear a parent say, “Humph, I want them to be
what I wasn’t.” Which is another way of saying, “I’m going to live my life
through this person.” That’s not what it is. It’s the sower of God’s seed in
their behalf. Now, notice also the challenge, that the devil is the one who is
absolutely trying to plant the bad seed. An enemy is at work and has been since
the Garden of Eden. So, you parents, listen to me—don’t break your heart, when
your children turn out not to be perfect. You weren’t, they won’t be. And that’s
the reason Jesus came. If you no weeds and you have a perfect, you don’t need a
savior, you don’t need grace, you don’t need a cross, you don’t need forgiveness
and you don’t need the Holy Spirit.
Augustine, it seems to me said it well, “that the only
reason that God allows sin in the first place, is to allow us to understand what
it means to have a savior.”
Let me ask you parents. Are you perfect? Of course not.
Would you claim to be? Of course not. But would you also claim very sincerely
that in struggles of your life the Lord was there with you. And you see the Lord
plants seeds at very special times and very often they are challenge times. So,
what kind of good stuff can we plant in our children, in our souls.
Well, these are so basic and I mention them often. But
perhaps in the context of planting seeds in the soul, you will understand just a
little bit what this is about. They are like the air and the water is to the
soil. They are that to the soul.
The first one of which is “worship.” If we don’t worship
God we tend to worship ourselves. And if we don’t teach our children to worship
God, they wind up worshiping themselves or wishing away their situation. To
worship the self is to wrap oneself up in a might small package that really
isn’t capable of walking into the future with any confidence. I do not know the
future, you do not know the future, you do not know the future with your
children and grandchildren? God does. And to worship the God who knows the
future is to walk forward with confidence.
“Fellowship” means being with fellow Christians. Enjoying
what they enjoy, learning as they learn. It means not having to live alone. It
means part of the family of faith has become part of you. Children and youth
need to be with fellow Christians just as much as adults do.
“Scripture” - I told you once about a faculty professor
who, walking into a faculty lounge during a break time, found the rest of the
faculty being very cutting and very critical of anything that smacked of
religion and spiritual things. After a break he said, “You know, I’ve been down
lately, been depressed. Been trying to figure out what everything was about.
What was my place? What was the meaning of it all? Why was I here in the first
place? And doing some work at home, I walked to the books shelf. And next to the
book I needed was my Bible. I hadn’t looked at it nor touched it in years. I
took it down and I opened it up. And there were some notes that I had scribbled
there at a youth camp at a bible study, when I was a teenager. I wrote them. I
read the scripture they referred to. Then I sat down and all of a sudden it came
to me, what was wrong. I had no spiritual part of my being. There was no part of
me that was replenishing day-to-day challenges and I realized what was
missing—the piece that was missing was the piece that I knew early in my life
and threw it away and discarded it. Now, I’ve taken it back and everything is
beginning to fit into place. I’m reading the Gospels again. They have come alive
to me, scripture.
Scripture is followed by “Prayer.” Now, most of the time,
when it comes to prayer, we think that we’re the ones who are the initiators of
it. But the truth is Romans 8 says that the Holy Spirit is praying within us all
the time. Prayer is joining what God’s already doing with us and inside of us.
It is getting into the conversation. It is walking into the dialog. You say I
haven’t heard any conversation of God inside of me lately? Does that mean God’s
not doing it? See, He told a parable about a seed growing secretly and that seed
is the son of man and the sower of the seed is the son of man, Jesus Christ our
Lord. Just because you and not faithful in your praying, does not mean God does
not have some stuff working. And at a time, I just have to believe, if you are
one of his children, prayer will become as important to you as breathing. And as
important to you as the sun coming up in the morning.
Finally, there is “Service.” God gave you gifts to share.
You’re not a bank. You’re a pass through. And God giving us gifts to serve in
behalf of other people, maybe your children, is the way in which you give back
to God what he has already given to you.
Five things. As I have mentioned them to you and I’m going
to mention them again, I want you to listen with your heart. And as I mention
them and as you listen with your heart, what is God planting in your soul right
now? Worship, fellowship, Bible study (Scripture), prayer, service. Let me tell
you something. If you have an ear to the Spirit, there is something God is
wanting to plant in your life, right now. And there’s a map he wants you to
walk, right now. Would you be open to the possibility that the Holy Spirit is a
seed planter, that on the basis of this worship service has walked into your
life and planted you seed. And would you say, “Yes?”
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