Father’s Day 2026
June 21, 2026
Matthew 13: Parable of the Sower- I urge you to pray for faith that has good soil. Pray this for yourself and your descendants.
Happy Father’s Day!
Timothy Keller writes:
Dr. Lloyd-Jones has this incredibly interesting illustration that really changed the way I thought about a lot of things when I heard it. Dr. Lloyd-Jones was himself a very powerful preacher, and one evening he was preaching a set of evening services. They were evangelistic evening services. One evening he was preaching, and he could feel the Spirit working through him, and he was preaching up a pretty good storm. He noticed a particular man in the balcony who seemed to be very emotionally affected. He was pretty obviously upset, pretty obviously weeping.
Dr. Lloyd-Jones finished the sermon, and at the door, the man came on through, and he said, “Hello.” It looked like the man was going to say something, but somebody else came on up and asked him something else, and on the man went. The next night as Dr. Lloyd-Jones was walking to church, the man was coming the other direction, not going to church at all. He said, “Hello, Reverend.” Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, “How do you do?” He remembered him. He said to Lloyd-Jones, “I’ll tell you something. You missed your chance last night.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, I went to hear you preach. I’m not a religious man. I’m not a Christian. I went to hear you preach out of curiosity. And you know, gosh darn, you are pretty good. You really had me there for a while. If you had given some kind of invitation to respond to Jesus Christ last night, I probably would have done it. In fact, at the door, if you had just said, ‘Come with me, and let’s sit down and talk,’ I probably would have prayed some kind of prayer or something, but you didn’t.”
“Well, that doesn’t matter. I have time now. Everything is fine right now. This is matter of most urgent importance, so come with me right now. We’ll go and talk.”
“No, no, no. I’m sorry. You didn’t hear what I said. That was yesterday. I woke up this morning. I realized, “Gosh, I was just really upset yesterday, and I don’t know what came over me.” The fact is, if you had done something yesterday, you would have had me, but you missed your chance. I hope that teaches you a lesson, Dr. Lloyd-Jones.”
Dr. Lloyd-Jones looked at him and said, “My dear friend, I don’t know what happened to you last night, but if it didn’t last 24 hours, it was not the work of the Spirit of the living God. If you want to come with me right now, I’d be very happy to, but I didn’t miss anything, and you didn’t miss anything either.” Now you know what he is trying to say. It lasts. It works. You obeyed from the heart the form of teaching.
So, do we pray that our faith sticks?
Do we pray that our children and grandchildren will have faith that sticks?
What does this mean? Does our faith have deep roots? Is it in good soil?
We are in a year-long focus on prayer.
My theme: Today, I urge you to pray for faith that has good soil. Pray this for yourself and your descendants.
I. The parable of the Sower (Matthew 13:1-8)
Matthew 13:1–9 (ESV)
That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat beside the sea. 2 And great crowds gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat down. And the whole crowd stood on the beach. 3 And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. 4 And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. 5 Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, 6 but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. 7 Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. 8 Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”
a. A farmer sows grain, which falls upon four different kinds of soil, producing four different results.
b. Swindoll points out that Matthew 12 was a long day for Jesus. Now, He sits by the sea to rest but they won’t let Him.
c. Notice verse 1 says, “that same day…” This is the same day as His previous teaching.
d. The verse also says that He went out of the house… So, He was in a house.
e. In the previous chapter, Jesus had a confrontation with the Pharisees over plucking grain on the sabbath; healing a man with a withered hand, and casting out a demon. He was told that He casts out demons by the prince of the demons. Jesus had also been teaching in the previous chapter.
f. Jesus gets into a boat…
g. Jesus gets in the boat for the purpose of relieving the overcrowding, but this would also make him easier to hear; a speaker to a crowd on shore would produce an ideal acoustic situation.
h. Several other parables follow.
i. In church history, they would try to allegorize parables. Then they would try to give a single meaning, but sometimes Jesus gives more than one.
j. They cannot be allegorized.
k. Roadside soil (13:1–4): This seed is soon devoured by the birds.
l. Shallow, rocky soil (13:5–6): This seed springs up quickly but soon withers, being scorched by the sun.
m. Thorn-infested soil (13:7): This seed is quickly choked by the thorns.
n. Fertile soil (13:8): This seed produces a thirty, sixty, and even hundredfold crop!
o. A receptive heart will bear fruit –
p. good heart;
q. good soil;
r. good hearing; and a
s. good mind.
t. This is not about us, but God bearing fruit for the Gospel. We must be in the Word. We must be focused on spiritual disciplines to be more like Christ, not just for legalism…The soil cannot change itself… Pray the Holy Spirit would soften our hearts, provide us with roots, dig us deep…
u. Review:
v. The path: the birds ate it,
w. The rocky places: grew and then died;
x. The weeds or thorns grew and then is suffocated;
y. Good soil- grew and multiplied.
z. Robert Murray M’Cheyne said our hearts are like a smoking furnace. Nobody can really see more than a foot or two into them. The fact is, the Word of God can blow a lot of that away and help us really see what our hearts are made of.
II. The interpretation of the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:18-23).
Matthew 13:18–23 (ESV)
18 “Hear then the parable of the sower: 19 When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what has been sown in his heart. This is what was sown along the path. 20 As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, 21 yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away. 22 As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. 23 As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”
a. The seed (Matthew 13:18–19a): The seed represents the Good News about the Kingdom.
b. The roadside soil (Matthew 13:19b): The hard soil represents those who hear the message but do not understand it, thus allowing Satan to steal it from them.
c. The rocky soil (Matthew 13:20–21): The shallow, rocky soil represents those who have no depth and thus drop out upon encountering any trouble or persecution.
d. The thorn-infested soil (Matthew 13:22): The thorny ground represents those who allow the lure of wealth to snuff out the Good News.
e. Fertile soil (Matthew 13:23): The good soil represents those who truly accept God’s message, producing an abundant harvest.
f. It seems to me that the parable makes sense. It is easy to understand, but there are major applications.
III. Applications:
a. We want to have good soil in our hearts to grow spiritually. We talked about this earlier.
b. We must be active in the Spiritual Disciplines.
c. We partner with the Holy Spirit.
d. As we share the Gospel, we must pray that the Lord casts the seeds that we plant into good soil.
e. Are we praying for faith with deep roots?
f. Are we praying for faith in good soil?
g. Are we praying that our descendants walk with the Lord?
h. Are we praying that our descendants have faith with deep roots?
i. Are we striving to encourage and uplift our children and grandchildren?
j. Can we pray for them?
k. Can we love them?
l. Can we encourage them?
m. Can we always do that “in Christ”?