In Matthew 13: 1-9 and 18-23, Jesus tells the parable of the “Sower”.  He tells the story of the farmer casting seeds; some fell near the road and the birds ate them; some fell in the rocks, but because the soil was thin, when the sun came they withered away; some fell in the thorns and the thorns choked them out; and some fell on fertile ground and they bore fruit, 30, 60 and 100 times as much as was planted.

I want to talk about the seed that feel in the thorns; in verse 22, Jesus says, “Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and he becomes unfruitful.           Seems like most of the people I know who claim to believe in Jesus, here in 2015 America; fall in ‘Category No. Three’ of this parable: “Those who hear the Word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word, and they become unfruitful.”

What cares?  Work. Busy-ness. Stress. Taxes.  Fear. Sickness. Worry. Sometimes we’re like Chicken Little, running around saying , “The sky is falling. The sky is falling!”.  Sometimes it seems like the sky really IS falling.

What deceit? (lies from the devil)  The lies about how money will solve all our problems.  Then we can have cattle in the bank and money out West.  We can travel, and dance and sing and party to our heart’s content.  We can have all kinds of stuff we can use for 15 minutes and then stack in the closet or the garage to get in the way.  We can have big stuff that requires care, maintenance, repair and expense on a regular basis, so much that we don’t know how we’ll pay for it.

What’s wrong with all this?  It distracts us from God.  Cares and lies.  How do we fix it?  We quit focusing on the cares and stuff and start focusing on God.  We “trust the Lord with all our hearts and lean not to our own understanding, in all our ways acknowledge Him and He will take care of us.” (See Proverbs 3:5-6)  Then we really can ‘bear fruit’ to the glory of God.