The Parable of the Sower? Next, there is the crowded heart. That is the seed that falls on ground where weeds choke out its growth. Slowly and surely, these people, busy with the cares and riches of the world, just lose interest in the things of God. Finally, there is the fruitful heart that receives the Word. The seed falls on good ground and the plants produce a rich harvest. We are the ones who determine what kind of soil our hearts will be. We decide whether we will have a hard heart, a shallow heart, a crowded heart, or a receptive heart. This is exactly what James meant when he said, “Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21).

Some seeds fell on the pathway where everyone walks around. Our hearts may be like this pathway where anything can come and go without any restriction. But God doesn’t want it to be like that. He wants our hearts to be holy and a good ground that produces good fruits for Him. Let us not allow every teachings and the advice which leads us away from the word of God to fill our hearts and control our lives. Let us protect our hearts with the word of God which protects the field as a fence within which no birds or beasts that destroy the field could enter.

The Parable of the Sower (sometimes called the Parable of the Soils) is a parable of Jesus found in the three different Gospel books of The Holy Bible in Matthew 13:1-23, Mark 4:1-20, and Luke 8:4-15. Speaking to a large crowd, Jesus tells a story of a farmer who sows the seed and does so indiscriminately. Some seed falls on the wayside with no soil at all, some on rocky ground with little soil, some on soil which contains thorns, and some on good soil. In the first three cases, the seed is taken away or fails to produce a crop, but when it falls on good soil it grows, yielding thirty, sixty, or a hundredfold. Discover more information with the The Parable of the Sower video on YouTube.

Later, Jesus explains to his disciples that the seed represents the Gospel, the sower represents anyone who proclaims Jesus is the messiah and Son of God, God the Father himself. The various soils represent people’s responses to it, The first three representing rejection and not holding onto their faith while the last one represents holding and growing their faith until the end. The Parable of the Sower story begins with a farmer in this farmer who had a big huge bag of seeds. He decided one day that he was going to go into his field and he was going to start sowing seeds.

Now wait for a second here I’ve heard of sewing machines and sewing clothes, but I’ve never heard of sowing seeds. What does “The Parable of the Sower” mean? Well, sowing seeds actually just means to scatter or to throw seeds. So the farmer went to his field, he started to scatter seeds around and throw seeds around into the field. Some of the seeds fell onto a path while other seeds fell onto Rocky soil. Still, others fell into the soil with thorn bushes. And finally, some seeds fell into good soil. Now after some time, the seeds that fell onto the path were snatched up and eaten by birds.

Another kind of soil that Jesus tells us about, another kind of human heart is one where the seed falls and in thorny soil and the seed sprouts up and it would be someone who says yes I believe this gospel. I want to live according to this gospel. But then the thorns or the cares of this world, as Jesus says, rise up and just choke it out. The person begins to get distracted by money or by the pursuit of power or by the pursuit of worldly pleasures and before long, the plant that grew out of the seed of the word, just shrivels up and dies.