A Talk on The Parable of the Sowers

When my husband Kody informed that we had been asked to speak in church on the Parable of the Sowers he also added that the bishopric wanted us to focus on doctrine.  When I logged on to the church’s website to find some information for my talk I saw a quote  from Russell T. Osguthorpe stating, “We teach key doctrine, invite learners to do the work God has for them, and then promise that blessings will surely come.”
And that’s what I pray for as I speak today that I may impart the key doctrine and that you and I may do the work God has for us so we may enjoy the blessings that will come.

The Parable of the sowers is found in Matthew 13.  The Savior  is sitting by the seaside and a great number of people gather. The crowd is so large that Jesus gets into a ship and speaks to the multitude on the shore.

He speaks of a sower who goes forth to sow seeds. Some fall by the wayside, some on stony ground and some on fertile ground.

James E. Talmage in Jesus the Christ explains:

“Though commonly known to us as the Parable of the Sower, the story could be expressively designated as the Parable of the Four Kinds of Soil. It is the ground upon which the seed is cast, to which the story most strongly directs our attention, and which so aptly is made to symbolize the softened or the hardened heart, the clean or the thorn-infested soil.

The first seeds fall by the wayside and fowls devour them. The Savior explains “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and ^aunderstandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and ^bcatcheth away that which was sown in his heart.”

The first type of soil, that of the “way side,” represents those who hear the gospel but never give the truth a chance to take root.

Elder Marvin J. Ashton of the Council of the Twelve, in his October 1978 general conference address, spoke of the parable of the sower and gave prevalent conditions that cause people today to "lose the harvest.”

Elder Ashton said that some are “unwilling to accept human qualities.” He stated "Today some are sowing seeds on stony places because they, too, doubt the authority of those who give counsel and direction. We, too, should not be deceived by doubters who would use the same tactics by planting thorns to destroy the harvest. How can we avoid crop failure in this area of concern?

Mosiah 26:1-3 tells us what might prevent us from understanding God’s word?

 1 Now it came to pass that there were many of the rising generation that could not understand the ^awords of king Benjamin, being little children at the time he spake unto his people; and they did ^bnot believe the tradition of their fathers.

 2 They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ.

 3 And now because of their ^aunbelief they could not ^bunderstand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened.

We also read in Alma 32:27 what we must do to be able to understand the word of God:

 27 But behold, if ye will awake and arouse your faculties, even to an experiment upon my words, and exercise a particle of faith, yea, even if ye can no more than ^adesire to believe, let this desire work in you, even until ye believe in a manner that ye can give place for a portion of my words.

The second set of seeds fell on stony places where they had not much earth and were eventually scorched by the sun. The savior explains he that received the seed into ^astony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

 21 Yet hath he not root in himself, but dureth for a while: for when ^atribulation or ^bpersecution ariseth because of the word, by and by ^che is offended.

The second type of soil, “stony ground,” represents those in the Church who, at the first sign of sacrifice or trial, run away offended, not willing to pay the price.

Elder David A. Bednar addressed this topic in his talk And Nothing Shall Offend

“When we believe or say we have been offended, we usually mean we feel insulted, mistreated, snubbed, or disrespected. And certainly clumsy, embarrassing, unprincipled, and mean-spirited things do occur in our interactions with other people that would allow us to take offense. However, it ultimately is impossible for another person to offend you or to offend me. Indeed, believing that another person offended us is fundamentally false. To be offended is a choice we make; it is not a condition inflicted or imposed upon us by someone or something else.

Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin also gave us great insight in his talk Come What May and Love It
He stated: If we approach adversities wisely, our hardest times can be times of greatest growth, which in turn can lead toward times of greatest happiness.

Learning to endure times of disappointment, suffering, and sorrow is part of our on-the-job training. These experiences, while often difficult to bear at the time, are precisely the kinds of experiences that stretch our understanding, build our character, and increase our compassion for others.

"If our roots are deep, we will welcome continuing revelation, change and direction. We will develop the ability to accept releases, callings and new challenges with enthusiasm. We will be too busy to be offended . . . too big to be hurt. We will serve wherever we are called. . . . We will accept people for what they are and what they can and do become. Change will not only drive our roots deeper but cause them to grow into new and fertile soil."

How can we allow the word to establish deep roots in us? Alma 32:41–43 gives us the answer:

 41 But if ye will nourish the word, yea, nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with ^apatience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree ^bspringing up unto everlasting life.

 42 And because of your ^adiligence and your faith and your patience with the word in nourishing it, that it may take root in you

Faith, Dilligence, and Patience.

The Third Group of Seed fell among ^athorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.

I love Elder Talmage’s explanation of this, he wrote “even so with a human heart set on riches and the allurements of pleasure—though it receive the living seed of the gospel it will produce no harvest of good grain, but instead, a rank tangle of noxious weeds. The abundant yield of thorny thistles demonstrates the fitness of the soil for a better crop, were it only free from the cumbering weeds.”

Fertile soil is fertile soil but as sure as beautiful flowers can grow so can weeds.

The third type of soil, “sown among thorns,” represents some members of the Church who are distracted and obsessed by the cares, riches, and lusts of the world.

Elder Ashton explained  these are those who have shown an unwillingness to follow instructions. "These are they who may forfeit the harvest because they will not be obedient. `Hearing they hear not, neither do they understand' is the description the parable of the sower uses. . . . "

And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit ^aeternal life?

 19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is ^agood, save one, that is, God.

 20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit ^aadultery, Do not ^bkill, Do not steal, Do not bear ^cfalse witness, ^dHonour thy father and thy mother.

 21 And he said, All these have I kept from my youth up.

 22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the ^apoor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.

President Spencer W. Kimball in a talk entitled The False Gods We Worship talks of these riches: “The Lord has blessed us as a people with a prosperity unequaled in times past. The resources that have been placed in our power are good, and necessary to do our work here on the earth. But I am afraid that many of us have been surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship them as false gods, and they have power over us. Do we have more of these good things than our faith can stand? Many people spend most of their time working in the service of a self-image that includes sufficient money, stocks, bonds, investment portfolios, property, credit cards, furnishings, automobiles, and the like to guarantee carnal security throughout, they hope a long and happy life. Forgotten is the fact that our assignment is to use these many resources in our families and quorums to build up the kingdom of God—to further the missionary effort and the genealogical and temple work; to raise our children up as fruitful servants unto the Lord; to bless others in every way, that they may also be fruitful. Instead, we expend these blessings on our own desires, and as Moroni said, “Ye adorn yourselves with that which hath no life, and yet suffer the hungry, and the needy, and the naked, and the sick and the afflicted to pass by you, and notice them not.” (Morm. 8:39.)

His talk was given in 1976…how many more good things do we have today that take our time and attention. Are we allowing things to take priority over our families and our callings?

President Kimball goes on to talk about an article he read some years ago about a group of men who had gone to the jungles to capture monkeys. They tried a number of different things to catch the monkeys, including nets. But finding that the nets could injure such small creatures, they finally came upon an ingenious solution. They built a large number of small boxes, and in the top of each, they bored a hole just large enough for a monkey to get his hand into. They then set these boxes out under the trees and in each one they put a nut that the monkeys were particularly fond of.

When the men left, the monkeys began to come down from the trees and examine the boxes. Finding that there were nuts to be had, they reached into the boxes to get them. But when a monkey would try to withdraw his hand with the nut, he could not get his hand out of the box because his little fist, with the nut inside, was now too large.

At about this time, the men would come out of the underbrush and converge on the monkeys. And here is the curious thing: When the monkeys saw the men coming, they would shriek and scramble about with the thought of escaping; but as easy as it would have been, they would not let go of the nut so that they could withdraw their hands from the boxes and thus escape. The men captured them easily.

And so it often seems to be with people, having such a firm grasp on things of the world—that which is telestial—that no amount of urging and no degree of emergency can persuade them to let go in favor of that which is celestial. Satan gets them in his grip easily. If we insist on spending all our time and resources building up for ourselves a worldly kingdom, that is exactly what we will inherit.

The last set of seeds fell into good ground, and ^abrought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.

Finally, those on “good ground” are those members of the Church whose lives reflect their discipleship to the Master, whose roots go deep into gospel soil, and thereby produce abundant fruit.

A few weeks before President Heber J. Grant passed away, one of the Brethren went to visit him in his home. Before the man left, President Grant prayed, “O God, bless me that I shall not lose my testimony and keep faithful to the end!” ⁹ Can you imagine President Grant, one of the great prophets of the Restoration, the President of the Church for nearly 27 years, praying that he would keep faithful to the end?

When we moved into our house we discovered that our yard was in need of some… nurturing to put it lightly.  As we looked at the beautiful yards surrounding us in our neighborhood my husband and I joked that we better working our they might kick us out of the neighborhood.

We de-thatched the lawn, put on fertilizer and edged the overgrown boundaries.  We adjusted how long we watered and took care of some grubs. Just as we were beginning to feel good about our work the hot temperatures of June hit.  The days of constant and relentless sun that caused our weeds to multiply, conversely scorched our flowers and caused dead patches in our lawn. We drug hoses from one patch to the next for weeks and put in new mulch to keep the weeds down. The temperatures subsided and we were starting to feel good about our yard again.  We went on vacation and when we came back we saw crab grass starting to grow…time to pick that out of the flower beds and lawn. Our lawn seems to be a constant battle for us. Once we got one thing taken care of another thing needed our attention.

As I thought about our lawn and the story of President Grant I came to understand that our conversion to the gospel is a constant process.  Nourishment and weed prevention not only applies to yard work but our testimonies as well.

Joseph B. Wirthlin put it best “No one is immune from Satan’s influence and temptations. Do not be so proud to think that you are beyond the adversary’s influence. Be watchful that you do not fall prey to his deceptions. Stay close to the Lord through daily scripture study and daily prayer. We cannot afford to sit back and take our salvation for granted. We must be anxiously engaged our whole lives. ¹⁰These words of President Brigham Young motivate and remind us that we can never give up the fight to endure: “The men and women, who desire to obtain seats in the celestial kingdom, will find that they must battle every day [for this sacred goal].” ¹¹

In our stake conference Elder Holland spoke and admonished us to ask ourselves What actual change have I made in my life as a result of ANYTHING I heard or was asked to do in the General Conference held just a few weeks ago?”. He reitereated the words of the Savior himself in this very parable reminding us that we must not only be hearers of the words but doers of the word as well.

“Two men may hear the same words,” wrote Elder James E. Talmage (1862–1933). “One of them listens in indolence and indifference, the other with active mind intent on learning all that the words can possibly convey; and, having heard, the diligent man goes straightway to do the things commended to him, while the careless one neglects and forgets. The one is wise, the other foolish; the one has heard to his eternal profit, the other to his everlasting condemnation.” 6

Have I overwhelmed anyone yet? Well take heart.

Elder Wirthlin suggest three attributes to help foster fertile soil in our day.

First, testimony. Testimony gives us the eternal perspective necessary to see past the trials or challenges we will inevitably face. Remember what Heber C. Kimball prophesied:

“The time will come when no man nor woman will be able to endure on borrowed light. Each will have to be guided by the light within himself. …

“… If you don’t have it you will not stand; therefore seek for the testimony of Jesus and cleave to it, that when the trying time comes you may not stumble and fall.” ¹⁵

Second, humility. Humility is the recognition and attitude that one must rely on the Lord’s assistance to make it through this life. We cannot endure to the end on our own strength. Without Him, we are nothing. ¹⁶

^{Elder Scott stated} Humility is a fertile soil where spirituality grows and produces the fruit of inspiration to know what to do. It gives access to divine power to accomplish what must be done. An individual motivated by a desire for praise or recognition will not qualify to be taught by the Spirit. An individual who is arrogant or who lets his or her emotions influence decisions will not be powerfully led by the Spirit.

Third, repentance. The glorious gift of repentance allows us to return to the path with a new heart, giving us the strength to endure on the path leading to eternal life. The sacrament thus becomes a key component of our endurance in this life. The sacrament provides a precious weekly opportunity to renew our baptismal covenants and repent and evaluate our progress toward exaltation.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie said: “Parables are a call to investigate the truth; to learn more; to inquire into the spiritual realities, which, through them, are but dimly viewed. Parables start truth seekers out in the direction of further light and knowledge and understanding; they invite men to ponder such truths as they are able to bear in the hope of learning more. Parables are a call to come unto Christ, to believe his doctrines, to live his laws, and to be saved in his kingdom.”

I am so thankful for this opportunity to talk.  Not that I think I have anything grand or important to say or like public speaking.  But I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more about the gospel to re-evaluate my soil type so to speak and to make some goals and changes to my life.

I am grateful to my parents, family and leaders…those who nourished me from an early age and helped keep out the weeds.  Now it is up to me to sow the seeds of the gospel in my life and that of my family.  I pray that I might follow the Savior’s example.

In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.