Episode 1339: Life in the Dirt

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 1,339 of the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. Best, I'm

[00:00:08] Bas Lebesque: Bas Lebesque, and I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent, and your treasures to live out your calling. Having the ability to overcome your limiting beliefs is key, and one way to inspire to do that is to listen to this The Inspired Stewardship podcast with Scott Maderer.

[00:00:41] Scott Maderer: To break up the stones of the rocky soil to get rid of the hard. Let edges to begin to dig a little deeper, to rip up those thorns and let them not become such huge issues. But by spending time in service and in worship, and by listening and dwelling in the [00:01:00] word, we can begin to have that feeling.

[00:01:04] Welcome, and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to be, then you must learn to use your time, your talent, and your treasures for your true calling. In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast, you'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others, and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:36] In today's spiritual foundation episode, I talk about Matthew Chapter 13, verses one through nine and 18 through 23. I share how we get to choose what kind of dirt we are, and I also talk about why we are called to have sight for the future, the same as that, that God has for us. Matthew chapter 13 verses one through nine and 18 through 23 says [00:02:00] that same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea.

[00:02:04] Such great cow crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat there while the whole crowd stood on the beach. And he told them many things in parables saying, listen, a sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell on the path and the birds came and ate them up. Other seeds fell on rocky ground where they did not have much soil, and they sprang up quickly since the.

[00:02:27] 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 brought forth grain. Some a hundred fold, some 60, some 30. Let anyone with ears listen, hear.

[00:02:50] Then the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in the heart. [00:03:00] That is what was sown on the path. As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy.

[00:03:08] Yet such a person has no root but endures only for a while, and when trouble or persecution arises on account of the world, that person immediately 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 lure of wealth choked the word and it yields nothing.

[00:03:28] But as for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and yields in one case a hundred fold, and another 60, and in another 30. You know this passage. Is talking about dirt. And I guess if you think about talking about dirt, it could probably be perceived as an insult if somebody was to call you dirt.

[00:03:58] We say things like somebody's [00:04:00] dumber than dirt, and yet here Jesus is actually making that analogy in a way. Jesus is calling us dirt. Now he's not saying we're dumb as dirt, but he's pointing out that. We in a way have that same sort of quality or can have that same sort of quality.

[00:04:21] We, we've heard this parable, you've probably heard it before in Sunday school or other places, but it's one of those that I think a lot of times we just kinda read over and don't really think about it. But this is actually one of the few parables where Jesus tells a parable and then goes on and explains what he actually meant from the parable.

[00:04:41] You, you have to wonder if maybe he said the parable and everybody in the audience is kinda looking at him with their head tilted to one side going, what? What? What did you mean? Or maybe they heard it and they're like, wait a minute, are you saying we are dirt? And they got a, who knows? I don't know what the response was.

[00:04:59] [00:05:00] We don't say what the response was, but apparently someone somewhere maybe asked for an ex exclamation, they said, Jesus, what do you mean by that? And in fact, Jesus then goes on to explain it. He says, we're dirt, but he says The question that we have to answer is, what kind of dirt are we going to be? We get the opportunity to choose or act in a way that lets us choose our dirt qualities.

[00:05:29] What kind of dirt we are. I, is it? Dirt. That it's not really dirt, but rather it's just hard packed clay where everyone has walked over it and walked over it until it's almost as hard as cement you. You can hit it with a shovel and you're not even cracking it. A drop of seed there, and it's not going to grow.

[00:05:53] It's just gonna rot on the ground because there is no water, there is no structure there, there's [00:06:00] nothing for it to grab a hold of. Or are we the kind of dirt that's just this kind of thin topsoil? This is where I live. We don't really have depth of soil. I live on a rocky outcrop and most of our dirt is very thin over the surface of rocks.

[00:06:16] And because of that, if we plant something and we don't build up the soil first, it doesn't take root. And it may grow there for a little while, but as soon as it gets to the summertime and gets hot. It just scorches and turns brown and dies. And there's some of that, I think around as well. Or maybe we're dirt in a way that we're paying attention.

[00:06:43] We're listening, we're thinking about what's going on. We're smarter than dirt in some ways, rather than dumber than dirt. But we have different choices that we can make. Now, I think in my life, if I reflect on it, I know there are [00:07:00] times that I've been like that beaten down path and I can't accept another word, even a good word.

[00:07:07] It just bounces off my mirror, my weariness, my fear, my anger, my frustration, whatever it is. And at other times I know for a fact that I've been. So shallow that it, it startles me. I wanna take the easy route the cliched route, the unthinking route. I don't wanna be challenged. I don't wanna have any sort of real depth and wrestle with the difficult things that we're often asked to wrestle with.

[00:07:37] And in other times, I've been the kind of soil that Jesus refers to as the thorny type. I've got so many different things going on and so many different things, running different ways that I can't even remember what's next and I'm rushing off to do one thing or another, but I'm really forgetting the why and the wherefore behind it.

[00:07:56] The word gets choked out because of my [00:08:00] busyness, but every once in a while, every once in a while, I'm that soil that he refers to at the end that deep soil that allows. The word to take root in me and begins to show some level of fruit. I do bounce sometimes between these different, Types of soil.

[00:08:23] But Jesus is saying you can reflect on that and you can choose to break up the stones of the rocky soil to get rid of the hard let edges, to begin to dig a little deeper, to rip up those thorns and let them not become such huge issues. But by spending time in service and in worship, and by listening and dwelling in the word, we can begin to have that feeling.

[00:08:51] Where we have some depth to where we are and we actually live in the dirt in a way [00:09:00] that really reflects the growth and the fruit of the spirit. Thanks for listening.

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