Seeds by the Wayside (pt. 1)

Mark 4:3-4 "Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it." (ESV)

This is a familiar story to most us. Many of us have probably sat through several Sunday School Lessons on the passage, learning about the Sower and all his seeds, learning about all the different seeds and where they landed, how they grew, all culminating with the last one that sprung up, took root, and grew.

That being said, I hope in this series to take a new look at these seeds, a different look at the sower, and how this passage applies to Believers, church-goers. You see, I think that each one of these seeds can apply to us spiritually, even Believers.

In this first part, we will look at our first seed, the one that fell along the path.

For context, let's skip forward to Mark 4:15 "And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them." (ESV)

Most of the time, when this passage is taught or preached on, the application is made that this is a worldly person who won't receive the Word; a non-Believer. But honestly, Jesus doesn't explain it that way. He simply says that when the Word was sown, they didn't receive it. This applies every bit as much to a Believer as a non-Believer.

Consider it this way. How is your spiritual life? In the life of a Believer, we are to be constantly growing, drawing nearer and nearer to God spiritually. There is no reason why years after conversion, a Christian should still be acting, speaking, and thinking the same way as they did when they converted. In the Christian life, there should be constant growth, through ministry, outreach, and in your personal life.

There is a problem though, especially in the modern church, with Christian who show no growth, no passion, who are content to attend Church week in and week out, without any outward show of their 'faith.' If the Bible says, "You shall know them by their fruit," what does that say about so many people who claim to follow Christ yet never talk about Him, try to reach others with the Truth, or even act any differently from anyone else?

These are the seeds that fall along the path. The Word has been sown, but they are too busy checking Facebook during the sermon, passing notes, daydreaming, or too unwilling to grow, too selfish to give themselves to God, to be bothered to apply the truth being taught by the pastor. So the seed falls along the path, the Devil moves in, and by the time they reach the parking-lot at 12:05pm, the sermon has been forgotten. They check Sunday Service of their IOU list for God and move on.

If any of this strikes home for you, then some serious soul-searching needs to be done. Ephesians 4:17-24 "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." (ESV)