THE SOWER WENT OUT TO SOW
It is Sunday morning and I am very excited to be sharing the Gospel in our little home group. We have a Muslim girl visiting for the first time. She has already heard some truth about our God through a girl on our team who is in her class in the University, the first Christian she has ever met, but today is the first time she will hear the whole Gospel explained to her, the plan of salvation and the restoration of all things.
I think about the weight of responsibility we carry in transmitting the wonderful message of salvation. And what a privilege it is to be the one sowing the seed!
In the fifteen years I worked in Mozambique, sharing the Gospel was a daily activity. As many times as I had the strength for, there were countless opportunities to share the Good News, people willing to listen, and often respond positively to the message. Now, Iiving in the Middle East, the reality is very different. Sharing the Gospel is not so spontaneous, not so freely done and not one opportunity to share can be taken for granted. As Paul exhorted Timothy:
Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.[1]
We are constantly looking for opportunities, convenient or not, to sow the Word. Sharing truth about who God is, what He wants, what He has done, and is going to do, becomes the challenge we face daily in our normal conversations with our neighbors, our friends and colleagues.
In Matthew 13, Jesus speaks of a sower who went out with seed to sow.[2] He tells us the seed is the Word of God and that the sower spreads the seeds wherever he goes. Not all of them bear fruit and even the ones that fall into good soil bear different amounts of fruit, but this does not discourage the sower. He knows what he has is precious and worthy of being distributed. It also doesn’t seem like he spends time analyzing soil, judging or studying the possibility of this or that soil bearing fruit. He simply goes his way and spreads the seeds and trusts in the life within the seed to bear fruit.
He follows the advice of Ecclesiastes:
He who observes the wind will not sow, and he who regards the clouds will not reap…
Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days.[3]
What happens after the seed has been sown or the bread has been cast is not in his power, it is not up to him. He can’t control it, it is out of his hands!
Jesus again speaks about this in the parable of the growing seed in Mark:
This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.[4]
And so it is with us. God has given us seed to spread out and we need to be faithful in doing so. This is the same challenge he gave his disciples as he was ascending into heaven:“Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation.”[5]
How many times do we look at the work that needs to be done, the challenges that work entails, and get paralyzed by the clear obstacles we see?! How many times do we lack faith in the power of salvation, in the preaching of the Gospel, and simply choose to not obey the great commandment!? We rationalize our disobedience in analyzing the soil and its ability of producing fruit. But none of that is part of God’s instruction to us. His commandment is that we GO and PROCLAIM.
There is something though that must accompany the preaching of the Gospel. Something that without it, our efforts are wasted. Prayer. Prayer is what keeps our confidence in God and not in our own diligence in obeying. Prayer is what increases the anointing in our words, what opens opportunities to share, what softens hearts and prepares the soil. Without prayer, we are just another religion trying to get new followers. But with prayer, we become partners with God in this beautiful mystery of how words can be carriers of God’s power for salvation and new birth in the hearts of those who receive them!
Our little team has experienced the power of prayer when we realized almost all opportunities we had for sharing the Gospel to our friends, or to new people, came the day after our team’s prayer meeting. We would pray about something specific and the very next day, “out of the blue” opportunities fell in our lap. This is no coincidence. It is the power of God at work, through our dependency on the Holy Spirit in prayer and our obedience in sharing the greatest story!
Going back to Sunday, did that Muslim girl become a believer? Unfortunately, no, this is not what happened. She listened attentively. She even asked questions. We prayed for her and we shared a meal together. She remains friends with us and we continue to sow truth into her life. This is the road many Muslims take until they can make a decision to follow Jesus.
Are we discouraged by this? This time we were not… but many times it can become discouraging, not seeing immediate results after sharing. But there is a word that has encouraged us through these times:
He who goes out weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. [6]
Sometimes the fruit is not immediate, or even not visible at all in our life time on this Earth. But we can be sure His Word does not return void [7] and our reward is not for this era. As we obey the Lord in sharing the Good News, “we are storing treasures where moths and vermin do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal.”[8] And we hold on to His promises because “the one who endures to the end will be saved.”[9]
So we continue steadfast and abounding in the work of the Lord, among the unreached, “knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain.”[10]
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
Do you think every believer can/should share the Gospel with others? Why?
How can we make sharing the Gospel a part of our daily lives, no matter where we live?
Can you think of other aspects of sharing the Gospel, besides prayer, that can make our work more effective?
How can you obey the Great Commandment in your personal life/situation?
[1] 2 Timothy 4:2
[2] Matthew
[3] Ecclesiastes 11:4, Ecclesiastes 11:1
[4] Mark 4:26-29
[5]
[6] Psalm 126:6
[7] Isaiah 55:11
[8] Matthew 6:20
[9] Matthew 24:13
[10] Matthew 24:13
Susana serves with her husband and children in the Muslim world.