Hans Hopgood teaches on the Parable of the Sower at Rivers Apostolic Centre
A sermon by Hans Hopgood exploring the Parable of the Sower, arguing that the parable's core message is about the power of the seed — the Word of God — rather than the condition of the believer's heart.
Summary
Hans Hopgood delivers a sermon at Rivers Apostolic Centre drawing on Matthew 13 and the Parable of the Sower. He opens by placing the parable in its historical context — Jesus deep in his ministry, proclaiming himself the promised Messiah to a sceptical Israel — and explains why Jesus shifted from plain speech to teaching in parables. Hopgood then challenges the most common interpretation of the parable, which focuses on the believer's responsibility to cultivate good soil in their heart, arguing that this reading leads to unhelpful measurement, comparison, and condemnation. His central claim is that the parable is not primarily about the condition of the soil but about the ferocity and power of the seed — the Word of God — which is capable of producing a harvest in even the most barren, rocky, or thorny ground. He supports this with examples from Scripture, from Sarah's barren womb to Peter's repeated failures, and closes with an invitation for the congregation to offer their hearts to God honestly, in whatever condition they are, and trust the seed to do the work.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and Context
Hans Hopgood: Today I want to teach from the Parable of the Sower. It's a famous passage, and that parable is found in Matthew chapter 13. So if you'd like to turn there, I'll give you a moment. The Parable of the Sower. I'm not going to try to be tricky, or find things that are not in the passage, but I've seen some things that I really like and I want to unpack them. Hopefully it is what you've heard before, and hopefully it gives some revelation here in this room this morning.
So who wants to pray from where you are? Pray for the Word. Pray that the Word, like a seed, is sown into your heart.
Thank you, Lord. Yes. Thank you for the seed of the Word, Lord, that is powerful. We want it sown into our hearts this morning, Jesus. We pray that the wonder-working power that is found in the seed would be at work in our hearts this morning, Lord. In the mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty name of Jesus Christ, we pray.
Reading the Parable
Matthew chapter 13, verses 1 to 9:
"That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. And great crowds gathered around him, so that he had to get into a boat, and he sat down to teach. The whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, 'A sower went out to sow, and as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.'"
Jesus Deep in His Ministry
To place this parable in context first — Jesus is deep in his ministry. He's been ministering around the whole of Israel for quite a while now. He's been preaching and releasing the power of God all around Israel, doing mighty miracles, raising people up out of sickness, healing the lame, the deaf. There's power flowing in the nation of Israel. And he now has a crowd that is following him everywhere.
What he's been preaching is that the kingdom of heaven has come, and that the time for the fulfilment of Israel's history has arrived. Jesus is preaching that the fulfilment of a promise made all the way back in the garden of Eden — when God promised that a seed would come forth from a woman that would crush the head of a serpent — that promise is now fulfilled.
Genesis chapter 3, verse 15:
"I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel."
That promise. So Jesus has been preaching to everyone who had ears to hear — anyone who would hear it — that the fulfilment of Israel's promise has come. Everything that Israel was hoping for had arrived. Israel knew that the fulfilment of the promise was only possible when the Messiah arrived. When that seed arrived. The promise would be fulfilled when the seed of the woman had come. So Jesus was busy preaching and teaching that the Messiah had arrived. And that he was that Messiah. The seed was here. And Jesus was that seed.
And Israel are watching him do miracles that the Messiah would do, and they're like, he's here. The Messiah is here. But trying to convince the people of Israel that he was the Messiah was also his greatest obstacle. Because the form that the Messiah had arrived in wasn't what they were expecting. Their own expectations of how the Messiah was going to arrive and bring the kingdom of heaven was becoming a stumbling block to them. They're like, okay, we're willing to believe you, but you don't look like the package we were expecting. And they were unable to line up what they were seeing and hearing from Jesus with what they had in their mind.
What do you have in your mind that might be a stumbling block to when Jesus comes towards you and says, "I'm here" — and you're like, hmm, the situation doesn't quite look like you, Lord. Are you sure?
Even John the Baptist Had Doubts
If we remember, even John the Baptist was having doubts. That's how much of an obstacle the form of Jesus was to Israel. John the Baptist, who famously pointed out the Messiah and said, "There he is. Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. The one who's going to crush the serpent. The one who is the fulfilment of the promise. There he is. Look at him." And Jesus is like, wow, what a proclamation. I am the Messiah. And then he starts his ministry.
John the Baptist gets arrested, put in prison. And it doesn't quite look like what John the Baptist expected. So he sends his messengers to Jesus and he's like, hey, you know, I know I made the announcement, but I just need to check — are you the Messiah, or are we waiting for another?
Jesus must have just been like, what? You're the greatest prophet of all the Old Testament and even you are questioning? And he sends the messengers back and says, "The deaf hear, the lame walk, the sick are healed, the dead are raised. That's all you need to know."
Jesus was doing Messiah-like stuff. And for some reason they were expecting more. Perhaps they were expecting more conquering. Perhaps they were expecting more expulsion of the Romans. Perhaps they were expecting more military action, more bloodshed, more sword. Jesus, you're the Messiah — we've read the Old Testament, you smite and take off heads. We were expecting more expulsion, more kick-them-out, more great and terrible day of the Lord.
Instead, Jesus was lounging around with sinners, being gentle, being kind, being loving — a bit hippie, a bit flowing robes, a bit walking on bare feet, a bit of, "I'm just going to go up on the mountain for a day and a night, I don't want to be with anyone, I'm just going to go up and pray." Just lounging around with sinners and prostitutes, hours on the mountain. Ah, I love being the Messiah.
Jesus Questioned About His Identity
Although Jesus was preaching with authority and showing the signs of the Messiah, he was still being questioned by teachers and scribes and by the general public of Israel as to his identity. John chapter 10, verses 24 to 27:
"So the Jews gathered around him and said to him, 'How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, just tell us plainly.' And Jesus answered them and said, 'I've told you plainly and you don't believe. The works that I do in my Father's name, they bear witness about me. But you don't believe, because you're not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me.'"
I've told you plainly and you don't believe. Jesus had been telling them plainly that he was the promised Messiah, the Son of God, and he'd been doing the works of the Messiah. The lame walked, the blind saw, the sick were healed and the dead were raised. And yet the people struggled to believe.
Why Jesus Switched to Parables
So Jesus switches methodologies. I'm not going to tell them plainly anymore. I've told you plainly. You didn't believe. So I'm going to get cryptic. You're going to struggle.
As a result of their unbelief, Jesus switches from speaking plainly to teaching in parables. And after sharing a few parables with all the people, his disciples come to him and question him. They ask him, "Why are you speaking in parables to the people?" And Jesus' answer is surprising.
Matthew chapter 13, verses 10 to 16:
"Then the disciples came to him and said, 'Why do you speak to them in parables?' And he answered them, 'To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away from him. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says, "You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them." But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.'"
So most of us have probably heard teaching that the parables were given to more openly explain what Jesus was saying — to make it easier and more accessible. I've probably taught that. I think I have taught that. But Jesus instead says he speaks in parables to further conceal his message. And the effect of that will be: to those who do see, they will get even more revelation out of the cryptic messages. Those who do see will be like, wow, this parable is packed full of revelation. I see and I know Jesus and his core message. I know exactly who he is, so this parable makes total sense to me. Wow, thank you for the parable, Jesus.
To those who don't see, they'll be like, what on earth does this even mean? What is he talking about?
Basically he's saying, if you haven't believed by now, then you'll never believe. So I'm going to start speaking in riddles. Sounds harsh. He's not harsh. He's kind. But this is counterintuitive to what we think Jesus should be doing. Shouldn't Jesus be making his message clearer and more accessible day by day? Isn't Jesus supposed to be doing all that he can to make it as easy as possible for people to understand? Isn't that what he's meant to do? You desire that none would perish, so make it easy for us to understand.
If Jesus had something to say, why didn't he say it plainly? Why would Jesus — a teacher with the world's most important message — choose to communicate this way? Wouldn't it be counterproductive to stifle his message with cryptic parables and mysteries that even his disciples didn't understand? They come to him and say, "Explain to us what this parable means."
So Jesus speaks out this parable that we just read to illustrate his point — that seeing and believing the message of Christ is harder than we thought. And the parable leads us to a place where we should be reaching out in prayer saying, "Lord, help us to see and to believe." Jesus speaks a parable and it's meant to go into our heart and cause us to reach out and say, "Lord, teach us how to see. Teach us how to believe."
The Parable Explained
So let's take a look at the parable again and try to decipher what it means and search for the answer to the mystery that it presents. I don't assume to know what this parable means. So I'm not giving you the answer. There are lots of ways to preach this parable. Many of them have been great ways to unpack it. I'm going to unpack what I see in here.
Matthew chapter 13, verses 1 to 9:
"That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea, and great crowds gathered about him so that he got in a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach, and he told them many things in parables, saying, 'A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path and the birds came and devoured them. And other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up since they had no depth of soil. But when the sun rose, they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seed fell among the thorns and the thorns grew and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.'"
Jesus shares this parable and then just leaves it with the crowd. And there must have been some confusion and mumbling going on, because the disciples pluck up the courage to ask him why he's doing what he's doing and to ask him to interpret the parable for them. They themselves are having a hard time understanding. What does it mean?
So Jesus explains the parable. Matthew chapter 13, verses 18 to 23. Thank God we have this explained to us. The writer Matthew probably was like, you know what, I'm writing the gospel, I'm going to write the parable in — should I write the explanation in as well? Maybe after Jesus has done all that he has done, we will finally see and we won't need the explanation. And then Matthew's like, actually, I should write the explanation in, because we found it hard.
"Hear then the parable of the sower, Jesus said. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy. Yet he has no root inside himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation and persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty."
The Problem with Preaching Soil Types
I know that I've heard preachers and sermons on this passage before. We've all heard sermons on this passage before. And the four soil types of the believer is what is usually preached. I've heard messages like this before, and they're good — I'm not discrediting that message. But the concluding remarks often tend to land on the condition of the heart of the believer, which sounds a little bit like this: "Make sure you tend to the soil of your heart. Make it as good as possible for the seed to be planted in, so that you can grow a good crop for the Lord." That's usually what we hear around this message.
I think that message can be extrapolated from the parable, but I also think it leads to some complications. The complication being measurement. Whose heart is good soil? Should we do a survey in this room? Would anyone like to say, yep, I've got the good soil — that's me? Anyone?
I mean, come on. We've been walking with Jesus for quite a while, haven't we? Survey — anyone got good soil? Anyone brave enough to say, you know what, actually, I think I've got some good soil? Raise your hand. Yep. Brave. Thank you. Yeah. Some good soil. There is good soil in this house.
Does anyone feel like they've got rocky soil? Oh, there's more hands than the good soil. Yeah. You don't have to be sheepish about it. You can stick it up boldly. Stick your hand up boldly and say, yep, I've got rocky soil. The word comes to me, it springs up really quickly, and then something happens, and there I go again. Yep. We've got other hands. Yes.
Can we feel the condemnation starting to lift off us now?
Whose heart is good soil? Is my heart good soil? What measure is there even to discern what good soil is? What measure is there? Who do I look to?
What about the other alternatives? Looking at my own soil — what if I start then to look at the soil of others? Oh yeah, no, my soil is good, but your soil — yeah. Have you seen the rocky soil going on over there? I think they're hard. You know, we've been sowing the seed at them for so long and nothing's taken root. You know, yeah, the parable's true. The soil is hard. It's their fault because their soil is hard. Poor seed. What a waste of seed. What a waste. Birds came and snatched them up. What a waste. Why would the sower even generously sow his seed? Didn't he know that your heart was rocky? Didn't he know? Surely the sower knew that your heart was rocky. Why didn't he withhold the seed and get you to do the work of churning over? Why didn't he bring in the plow rather than the seed?
A sower went out to sow and so he brought out the plow and plowed the ground. No, that's not what the parable says. He just scatters it everywhere.
I see that you have a speck of dust in your eye. That's what that kind of message can sound like. A measurement. As soon as we introduce measurement, we introduce the fine line of judgment. And if judgment is misplaced, then that leads to condemnation. The reason that you haven't got a tree of life growing in your heart is because you never tended to your soil. Sucks to be you. Sorry. It's your fault.
Is my heart stony? Is my heart shallow? Is my heart good? Who knows? I think this parable should lead us to be much more honest with ourselves. That parable is speaking about me. I'm the stony heart. So many times I heard the word of God and it was just stripped away from me. Ah, wretched man that I am, what should I do?
I have a stony heart at times. I've been through seasons where my heart has heard the word and it's been stolen. There have been seasons where the soil of my heart was good, but I don't know what's around the corner. The parable says that the good soil of my heart will only be tested when the scorching sun comes, or the persecutions and the trials come. That's when I know what the condition of my soil is. I might be walking around thinking, I've got good soil. Have you been through persecutions and trials? Have you stood before the cross? Have you stood before the lions? Then you'll know — oh no, I've got a stony heart. There's nothing good about my heart.
Do I even know what the state of my heart is without persecutions? I don't know what my heart's like until it's tested. Until you have a child — your heart gets tested. I thought my heart was good soil. Turns out it's pretty rocky and stony.
What am I comparing myself to anyway? Who do I look to even if I am measuring up? Do I look to the disciples? Do I look to the apostles? They are probably the ones I should look to. Surely they had the good soil. Jesus picked them. He picked them to walk with him. He's like, this is the good soil. I'm just going to put it into twelve people. I'm going to try to find some good soil here.
Peter as an Example
Well, as we look at the life of Jesus and the disciples, we see that even his closest, most loved disciples didn't have the condition of soil that was good for a harvest. Jesus had spent years with them, sowing the seed of the word into their hearts. And in the end, they also didn't understand what he was doing. They didn't believe either. And in the end, they all scattered. Some of them had their seed of belief stolen from them by the evil one. Some of them were scorched by the heat of the trials and persecution. And one of them, Judas, even had the word literally choked out of him — cares of the world and money.
In fact, Jesus would be super hard-pressed to find anyone on earth who has the condition of the heart described as the good soil. Anyone on earth.
If I was to pick Peter as an example — what soil type would I describe him to be? And he was a disciple of Jesus. We would think that it was good soil. But if we line it up to the descriptions of the soil that Jesus gives in his parable, Peter could easily be described as the first two soil types.
Because Peter was the one who heard the word, didn't understand it, and the evil one came and snatched away what was sown. On the night that Jesus was betrayed, Peter was busy denying the Lord. Get this seed out of me. He was calling down curses of Yahweh upon himself. "I don't know the man." That's how much he wanted that seed gone. "I don't know him." Aren't you one of Jesus' disciples? "I don't even know the guy." By the name of Yahweh, I call down the Deuteronomy 28 curses, all of them upon my head, should I confess his name. Wow, Peter. You could have just stored that seed away somewhere, but no, you wanted that thing gone.
And even more, he could be described as the rocky ground on which the seed was sown — which at first was joyfully received, and yet it had no root inside of itself, but endured for a while, and when tribulation and persecution came, he immediately fell away. That's Peter. That sounds like Peter to me. This was the seed that was sown on the rocky ground.
Jesus even named Peter the rock. "And on this rock, scatter some seed. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it." When persecutions and trials and tribulations come, then he falls away.
The Confidence Is in the Seed
And yet, Jesus was pleased to plant the seed of the word on rocky ground, because the confidence that Jesus has is not in the condition of the soil of the hearts. Jesus doesn't put any confidence in the condition of the soil of our hearts. Why would he? He knows. Why would Jesus preach a message where he's placing confidence in the condition of our heart for the growth of the kingdom of heaven?
So what is the core meaning in the parable? Is the core message that we need to get some good soil happening in our lives?
I want to make a little disclaimer here. The epistles, the proverbs, the psalms — the word of God encourages us to tend to the soil of our heart. We are to work diligently on our hearts. We are to keep our heart with all diligence so that all the wellspring of life can come out of us. The epistles are all about your heart. Keep away from sin. Keep to the word of God. Keep your heart with all diligence. Tend to your hearts. Do that. I've put that disclaimer in. It is good for you to work on your heart. It is good for you to till the soil. It is good for you to pull out the weeds. It's good for you to tend to the garden of your heart. You must do that.
But it's not where Jesus puts his confidence when he plants his seed. So I need to lean into a different direction to find the meaning of the message.
If we're looking for evidence of people in the Bible who had good soil, then we'll be disappointed, because we don't find much throughout the entire Bible. But if we start to see that the core message of the parable is not about the condition of the heart — even though that is important — but that it is about the power of the seed, then the deeper meaning of the parable starts to emerge.
The sower is pleased to sow the seed on all kinds of soil because the sower isn't putting his confidence in the soil, but his confidence is in the seed. That no matter what soil it is planted into, the seed has the power to prevail. Jesus knows that the seed that is sown on rocky ground is still able to produce an incredible harvest, because the seed is powerful enough to pulverize rock. It is powerful enough to find moisture where there is none. It is powerful enough to survive a sun-scorched land.
In that way, the seed is a lot like a mustard seed. The smallest of all seeds, that only thrives in arid, desert, rocky places. And it turns out that one grows to be the biggest tree of all, with branches that go and cover shade, the animals come and find shelter under, and the birds find their nest. Wasn't that another parable that he spoke straight after this one?
The Seed Sown into Cursed Ground
How can we be sure that this is what the parable means? Let's look again at the prophetic declaration that God makes concerning the seed of the promise when Adam and Eve fell in the garden.
"The Lord God said to the serpent, 'Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts. On your belly you shall go and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.' And to the woman he said, 'I will surely multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you shall bring forth children. Your desire shall be for your husband and he shall rule over you.' And to Adam he said, 'Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, "You shall not eat of it," cursed is the ground because of you. In pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you shall eat your bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For dust you are, and to dust you shall return.'"
The seed is literally sown straight into the cursed ground — with thorns and thistles — and into the path of the evil one, who will continually try to steal the word away from us. That's where the seed begins.
And from there the seed goes on a wild ride through every possible type of soil. The seed prevails against the barren womb of Sarah. There is nothing in the womb of Sarah that is conducive for a seed to come to life. And Sarah knows this. She laughs and scoffs at the word. Unbelief, just like all the people. Scoffed at the word. But despite her unbelief and even her blatant mockery of the word, the Lord sowed the seed and it entered her barren womb. Produced a Messiah.
It's one of thousands of soil conditions throughout the Bible. Prevails in Egypt. Prevails in the wilderness wanderings. Prevails against the corrupt kings of Israel. Prevails against the soil of Babylon. And even when Jesus — the very word of God — was sown to the earth, it wasn't sown into the good soil of the world. It was literally sown into the worst and hardest soil in all of history. Jesus was sown into a land of hard religious hearts. He was sown into a thorny empire that literally choked out the word of God. Jesus was a seed that was sown and ultimately swallowed up by the birds of the air. The prince of the power of the air swallowed him up. And yet, he sprang out of the ground.
It's awesome. What soil, says the seed. I love this soil. Love this sinful, hard-hearted, rebellious lot. I love this soil. I love the soil of Logan. Thank God that the seed of Rivers Apostolic Centre has been planted in Logan. Seeds grow in Logan. The soil in Logan needs tilling up. But Jesus isn't going around just plowing the soil. He plants a seed. We produce some branches and the people come and find their rest under the branches. Power of the seed. The confidence Jesus has in the power contained within the seed. This is what the kingdom of heaven is like. Let him who has ears hear.
Isaiah 55 — The Word Will Not Return Empty
Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 to 11:
"For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it."
That's the confidence that the Lord has. As surely as rain comes from the clouds, my word when it goes forth — it doesn't matter where it is planted — it is going to succeed in its purposes and return to me with a bountiful harvest. Even if the enemy comes and steals that seed from right under your feet and swallows it up, I will emerge from the barrenness. I will emerge from the darkness. I will emerge from the wilderness. I will emerge from Egypt. I will emerge from Babylon. I will emerge from the crusty soil. And I will be like a sprouting shoot that comes out of the stump of Jesse.
So the parable is not really about soil type. The parable is about the ferocity of the seed. The seed can be planted into a dead stump that is chopped down and it will grow.
Placing Confidence in the Seed
So the answer to the meaning of the parable is that all confidence is to be placed in the seed. Place your confidence in the seed. Don't place your confidence in the condition of the soil of your heart. Don't do it. You might be sad about it. You might be grieving where your heart is. You might be convicted about where you are. But the power of the seed is working in you to produce a harvest. Put your confidence in the seed.
We all go through seasons where we are all the different soil types. I've been all of them and more, I'm sure. There are soil types that Jesus didn't even discover — he's like, wow, huh, you just created a new breed of soil. I don't even know what that is. I've been all over the place. You all have too. We're honest people. I've been in the worst of places. Look at me now. The seed. The seed has done the work.
Jesus scatters his seed every single day, no matter where we're at. If you're here one day and you're somewhere else another day, it doesn't stop him, because he is a generous sower. He's a generous God. He sows his seed wherever he wants. It doesn't matter where it lands. It grows. And Jesus scatters it into every situation.
So this should give us immense hope and give us a sure footing on which to stand. Because if it was up to the condition of my soil and how well I was doing to tend to my own heart, I would be on shaky ground. A lot of Christians are anxious because they've heard messages that maybe say, it's up to you, it's up to you. Sure, some of it is. I have a responsibility for my heart. But I know, and God knows, and you know, that I might be going for twenty years in the right direction and one traumatic event and all those twenty years is just undone and you're in the pit. You're like, ah, I've got to fight my way all the way back there. No, you don't. The seed will grow.
Closing Invitation
So let's celebrate the seed, boasting in the Lord and boasting in our own weaknesses. Does anyone here feel like they have a barren womb, barren promises? Does anyone here feel like the enemy has robbed their promise? Stolen their prophetic promise? Does anyone feel condemned by the state of their hearts? Come to Jesus. He will lift the condemnation off you. And he will plant seeds of love, peace, and joy into the heart, no matter what the condition is.
I want you to take a soil sample in your hand. Honestly. Take an honest look at your heart. Be honest with yourself. It's hard to be honest with ourselves because sometimes we think there are expectations of where my heart should be. I want you to grab a soil sample. Grab it in your hand and say, this is where my heart is at. Lord, this is the soil.
And I want you to just lift up the soil of your heart as an offering to the Lord. As an offering for the seed. And say — not, "Lord, turn my heart into good soil." Don't say that. It's counterintuitive. Don't say, "Lord, turn this crusty soil into good soil." Don't say that. Take what's honest. Bring it before the Lord as an offering of worship and say, here's my soil. Plant your seed in it. This is what I have. This is who I am at the moment. Plant your seed here, Lord. I worship you from here. I worship you. I lift up my eyes to you, Lord, and I give you my heart. I give you the soil of my heart in the condition that it is. And I say, Lord, plant your seed here.
In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Lord.