DEEP - Week 2
Day 1
“The farmer sows the word.” - Mark 4:14
We are all being formed by something. Whether we recognize it or not, something is planting seeds in us, shaping our thoughts, influencing our decisions, and preparing us for what is coming.
Jesus makes that clear in the Parable of the Sower.
When the disciples struggled to understand the parable, Jesus told them, “Don’t we understand this parable? How then will we understand any parable?” Jesus was emphasizing just how important this teaching is.
This is Life 101.
Everything in life starts small and grows.
Good things start small and grow.
Bad things start small and grow.
A thought starts small. A habit starts small. A compromise starts small. But so does obedience. So does faithfulness. So does spiritual growth.
Then Jesus tells us what kind of seed we need to plant:
“The farmer sows the word.”
The best thing we can plant in our lives is God’s Word because God’s Word multiplies.
When we train our lives around the Word, it begins forming us into what God created us to be.
That matters because we are all being discipled whether we know it or not.
We are either being discipled by culture or by the Word.
Something is always trying to tell us how to think, what to value, what matters, and how we should live. If we are not intentionally allowing the Word to form us, something else will.
That is why we make sincere efforts to let God’s Word go deep and take root.
We read the Word every day.
We listen to Beyond Sunday.
We raise our kids in God’s house.
Why?
Because we are sowing the Word.
And sowing the Word helps us build for what is coming.
We do not know everything that is coming.
There will be hard times. There will also be blessings.
When God’s Word builds us, it sustains us in the hard times. And when the blessings come, the Word keeps us from losing what God has given us.
Whatever we commit to is what builds us.
If we want to become strong followers of Jesus, we have to become serious about allowing God’s Word to take root and go deep into our spirits.
This is more than hearing a sermon.
It is more than opening a Bible occasionally.
It is more than knowing a few verses.
We want the Word planted deep and packed down tight.
Why?
Because Jesus tells us that there is someone committed to stealing it.
Mark 4:15 says, “Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.”
Satan is committed to trying to steal the Word out of our lives.
So we need to become just as committed to planting it as he is to stealing it.
Jesus compares Satan to birds swooping down and stealing seed sitting on the surface.
The problem is not the seed.
The problem is that the seed never went deep enough.
That gives us a picture of the kind of life we want.
We want God’s Word hidden so deeply in our hearts that when the birds fly over, there is nothing left sitting on the surface for them to steal.
The seed has already gone deep.
The roots are already growing.
The Word is already building something in us.
And eventually, the only thing anyone will see is the harvest.
Our greatest danger as children of God is not ignorance.
It is neglect.
We can know there is a harvest available and simply fail to plant.
We can know what God says and fail to apply it.
But when we choose not to apply God’s Word, we are making a serious choice.
So today, we re-engage with the core idea:
The farmer sows the Word.
We sow it.
We protect it.
We take it seriously.
We allow it to go deep.
Because whatever we commit to is what builds us, and we want our lives and our families built by the Word.
WATCH THIS WEEK’S MESSAGE HERE: https://youtu.be/o2mLEz0ZpTo?si=dT6ZvLDylPv9Z7Sg
