Luke 8:4-20 (New Living Translation) Parable of the Farmer Scattering Seed 4 One day Jesus told a story

in the form of a parable to a large crowd that had gathered from many towns to hear him: 5 A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it. 6 Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture. 7 Other seed fell among thorns that grew up with it and choked out the tender plants. 8 Still other seed fell on fertile soil. This seed grew and produced a crop that was a hundred times as much as had been planted! When he had said this, he called out, Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.

His disciples asked him what this parable meant. He replied, You are permitted to understand the secrets[a] of the Kingdom of God. But I use parables to teach the others so that the Scriptures might be fulfilled:
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When they look, they wont really see. When they hear, they wont understand.[b] This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is Gods word. The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved. The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they dont have deep roots, they believe for a while, then they fall away when they face temptation. The seeds that fell among the thorns represent those who hear the message, but all too quickly the message is crowded out by the cares and riches and pleasures of this life. And so they never grow into maturity. And the seeds that fell on the good soil represent honest, good-hearted people who hear Gods word, cling to it, and patiently produce a huge harvest.
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The Breakdown of this parable will give you your course of action in business and in life: Characters in the parable: 1. Merchandiser who supplies the farmer with Seed:

God is our merchandiser who provides the seeds for us to plant.

Deuteronomy 10:14
To the LORD your God belongs the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it
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Genesis 1:29
Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food.
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2. The Farmer: -

I AM the farmer a person who cultivates the land, he or she operates and manages a farm (a tract of land, on which crops and often livestock are raised for livelihood) A farmer goes out and sows seed for the purpose of reaping a harvest (abundance of fruits, etc.)

Matthew 13:3
Then he told them many things in parables, saying: "A farmer went out to sow his seed

Zechariah 13:5
He will say, 'I am not a prophet. I am a farmer; the land has been my livelihood since my youth. '

3. The SEED: -

Gods word is the seed, Seed, or Gods Word, can be used to grow whatever harvest you desire. "This is the meaning of the parable: The seed is the word of God.

Luke 8:11
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John 1:1
In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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THE MESSAGE BEHIND THE MESSAGE

4. The Seeds that fell on the footpath:

Parable passage: Luke 8:5

A farmer went out to plant his seed. As he scattered it across his field, some seed fell on a footpath, where it was stepped on, and the birds ate it.
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Meaning of Parable passage: Luke 8:12 The seeds that fell on the footpath represent those who hear the message, only to have the devil come and take it away from their hearts and prevent them from believing and being saved.
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My Take-away of this passage: Luke 8:12 As Farmers, i.e. believers of gods word, we plant the Seeds, Gods words, into Good Ground, our hearts, in order to grow a harvest of whatever fruits we want to obtain a harvest from.
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But our adversary, the devil, comes to steal, kill, and destroy the seeds that we plant to prevent our harvest from growing. Therefore, with every seed that we plant, we ought to prepare for the schemes of the enemy, as he will surely attempt to sabotage our harvest. The bible says that Gods word is incorruptible seed so no matter what the devil does; he can never corrupt the seed itself. He will always try to jeopardize the ground that we plant the seed in; we know that the ground that we plant the seed in is our hearts, so he will try to sabotage our hearts and deter our hearts from believing that the seed of Gods word can grow in it.

As farmers, once weve planted the seed of Gods word in our hearts, we must guard our hearts from anything that would lead us to doubt what we are believing for.

So farming is a 4 step process: a. Gather the seed, Gods word, from God, the merchandiser who provides the seed. b. Cultivate the ground that you intend to plant the seed in. Makes sure its Good Ground Before you plant it:

i. Plow the ground which is the process of pulverizing, or softening the

soil so that it is moist and ready to receive the seed. Plow also means to invest as in, to invest time in softening our hearts from a harden state to a softer state, that does not reject Gods word. Forgiveness is the key in this stage. When your heart is hardened towards somebody, you wont forgive them but when youre heart softens up, you will forgive them. Often times, un-forgiveness is the root to a hardened heart, and that tends to turn the grounds of our heart from good ground to bad ground.

ii. Harrowing the Ground is an agricultural instrument with spike like

teeth or upright disks, drawn chiefly over plowed land to level it, break up clods, root up weeds. etc. Think of it this way, a farmer uses the tools in his barn house to ensure that the ground, that he intends to plant seeds in, is settled.

therefore, before we plant gods word seed in our hearts, we must ensure that we use the tools that we have, which is thanksgiving, , praise & worship, Tithing, and Sowing into other peoples lives to ensure that our hearts our settled, and that there are no clods or weeds (i.e. un-forgiveness) routed in our hearts.

c. Planting Gods word seed into the good ground of our hearts.

This process requires the farmer to: i. Identify what he needs: by judging his life to see what he desires to grow in it ii. Obtain the relevant Seeds necessary to grow the desired harvest. iii. Take care of the Seed: once its planted, by watering it, pruning it, etc

d. Guard your Good Grounds, your heart, where the seed is planted. i. Prevent Outside interference from entering into your garden (I.e. scavengers, who roam the earth looking to see who they may devour) ii. Guard the gates of your ground (I.e. your eye gate, your ear gate, and your mouth gate)

5. The seeds on the rocky soil:

Parable passage: Luke 8:6

Other seed fell among rocks. It began to grow, but the plant soon wilted and died for lack of moisture.
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Meaning of Parable passage: Luke 8:13

The seeds on the rocky soil represent those who hear the message and receive it with joy. But since they dont have deep roots, they believe for a while, and then they fall away when they face temptation.
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My Take-away of this passage: Luke 8:13 As farmers even when we plant Gods word seed into our hearts we must ensure that we do everything in our power to have the seed deeply rooted in the soil of our hearts. That can only be done by constantly saying and practicing the word seed that we planted in our hearts. I learned this week that in a drought, the roots of a tree will grow deeper into the ground in an effort to find moist soil because without moist soil, the tree will be deprived of the nutrients necessary to bare good fruit. Therefore, the deeper the roots that gods word seed grows into our hearts, the stronger our tree (or faith) will be during the drought seasons and that tree wont ever be moved by its circumstances or its adversaries.