Sexagesima February 16, 2020 The Sunday of the Sower

Sexagesima
Luke 8:4-15
February 16, 2020

“What Do You Expect?”

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

When you come to Church on a Sunday morning and you hear the three readings from the Word of God, and a sermon on the Word of God, what do you expect to happen from that? Or when you’re at home and you open your Bible and read part of it or do your Portals of Prayer devotions, what do you expect to happen? If we don’t ask that question, then we just might expect the wrong things. When you go home from church today do you expect to remember everything that was said and be absolutely amazed about it all the rest of the day? ‘Cause you’ll probably be disappointed then. When you open the Bible at home do you expect to hear angels singing? Or do you expect warm fuzzies every time you read it? Then you’ll be disappointed.

Some of our church have been doing a book study on The Screwtape Letters by C. S. Lewis. In the book the demon Wormwood has a patient that he’s in charge of tempting. And his patient has started going to church. This is a bad thing from the standpoint of the demons, of course. But Wormwood’s uncle, Screwtape, has some advice on how to get to people when they go to church. He says that when the patient goes to Church he sees just those people in the pews that he has often avoided. He hears his annoying neighbor singing woefully out of tune. He sees another neighbor in the pew over dressed in the oddest-looking clothes. He hears the squeaking shoes of someone in front of him. He’s given a hymnal where he can’t ever seem to find his place in it. He’s quite disappointed.

And Screwtape, the demon, says this is how you get those Christians. Don’t ever let them ask themselves what they actually expected. Because if we ever asked, “What did you expect?” we would see that what we expected was quite silly. What kind of people do you expect to find in Church? Angels? People in togas and sandals? Of course not. How ridiculous! And then we would laugh it off and say, “Of course, the Church is full of weird sinners just like me.”

So we must do the same with the Word of God. We must ask, “What do we expect to happen when we hear the Word of God?” And if our expectations are wrong, then we can just laugh them off and say, “Of course, what did I expect?” And actually, if we ask this question and listen to Jesus’ parable of the Sower and the Seed, we will find that the Word of God does far better than what we actually expect.

So let’s get to it then. What are some of the wrong expectations we have about the Word of God? First, that it’s magic. Jesus says the Word of God is like seed that’s sown by a farmer. Well, then, we often expect it to work like the magic beans that Jack got when he traded in his cow. His mom threw the magic seeds out the window and in the morning there was a giant beanstalk reaching into the heavens. And that’s what we expect from the Word of God—immediate results. We expect it to work like magic and fix all the problems right away and give all the answers right away.

We expect to just magically open to any random page of the Bible, like a book of spells, and read the incantation and, “Poof!”, God works a miracle in our life. I’ve seen many, many times someone come to Bible study one or two times and not come back because they didn’t get immediate results. Or I’ve known many people to come and talk to the pastor once and not come back because the problem wasn’t fixed at once like magic.

God’s word isn’t magic. It’s a lot of things but it’s not that. It must be heard. Taken to heart. The Spirit must work on us and teach us. It takes time. Like every good farmer knows. It takes time and tending for the seed to grow.

We also expect the Word to work like magic on other people. How frustrated we are when our family and friends and neighbors will not listen to God’s Word or take it to heart. We expect that they should magically know and believe everything we know even though it has taken us years and years to be where we’re at. How quickly we forget that the Word has been working on us for a long time.

And that leads right into the second wrong expectation we have. We expect that nothing is working against the Word of God. We expect that all of God’s Word will go undisturbed into our hearts. But it won’t. There’s too much working against it. Consider this for a minute. What does God expect of the Word of God? He’s the one who tells this parable. So God fully expects that only about one quarter of His Word is going to produce a harvest. ONE-FOURTH!! God has realistic expectations.

He knows that when He goes out and sows His seed, that a quarter of it will fall on the path and get trampled on by us and the devil will come and snatch it away from us. Then He knows that another quarter of the Word of God will fall on rocks. Rocks in our hearts. And it might sprout up a bit but it has no root and just dies away right away.

Then He knows that another quarter of His Word will fall amidst thorns and weeds. Then it might grow up but we’ll be so overwhelmed by the cares and concerns of this life that we’ll never produce anything worthwhile.

Can you believe that? Those are God’s expectations! That ¾ of His Word that’s sown will not produce a harvest. So what do we expect? Perhaps we should have realistic expectations. We probably won’t remember every word of the sermon. We probably will continue to do stupid, sinful, evil things even when we’re going to Church and hearing His Word. We will be tested. We will be choked by thorns. We should expect it.

And the last wrong expectation we have is that the success of the Word of God is in our hands. That is depends on us. “Oh no, if we don’t make Church exciting enough and interesting enough people won’t believe! Oh no, if we don’t live a good enough Christian life ourselves then people won’t see how awesome God’s Word is and they won’t believe! Oh no, if we don’t have the right arguments and reasons to defend our faith then others might not believe!” Silly Christians. Do we really expect that God would put that in our hands? No.

So now we get to the better part. What SHOULD we expect from the Word of God? And I’m not going to tell you to lower your expectations. Not at all. Jesus is asking us to change our expectations and, in some cases, to expect far more than we do from the Word of God.

First of all, you can expect the Word of God to hit home for every single person that you ever meet in the world. You should not ever expect that anyone anywhere does not need the Word of God. Everyone needs it! God spoke it for everyone. That’s why the farmer scatters His seed everywhere! On the paths. On the rocks. In the thorns and weeds. He throws it everywhere because everyone needs it.

Do you ever expect that you’re going to meet someone that’s not a sinner? That doesn’t suffer? That doesn’t have pain? That doesn’t struggle over the problem of evil in the world? Do you ever expect you’re going to meet someone that doesn’t fear what might happen to them after death? The Word of God has something very important to say to every single person on the face of the planet. Every celebrity movie star, pop star, every pro athlete, every congressman and congresswoman, every one of your friends, every one of your bosses, your employees, your customers—they all need the Word of God. They all need to hear of Jesus who died to give us forgiveness and new life.

Secondly, you can expect that when the Word of God hits good soil—it will produce! And not just a little bit—Jesus says it will produce a hundredfold! Like a kernel of corn that hits the ground and produces a seven foot tall stalk with an ear that has a hundred kernels on it. That’s what happens. Remember it takes time. Remember it depends on God. But it will produce. You can count on it.

For instance, if you are in Church every Sunday and you are regularly hearing the Word of God and praying—you should absolutely expect that you will start to see fruit. That you will have more peace. That you will be more humble. That you will be more thankful and appreciative of God’s gifts. That you will be more generous. That you will be kinder and more forgiving to others. And the best part is that it happens without you even knowing it. Because it’s God doing the work through His Holy Spirit.

Finally, I hope to end these expectations with a bang today. What you can and should expect from the Word of God? THAT YOU CAN STAKE YOUR LIFE ON IT! Jesus told this parable to His twelve disciples. He wanted them to have the right expectations! He didn’t want them thinking the Word would work like magic or everything would be perfect and glorious and rosy and they would just throw the seed out and magic beanstalks would grow up to heaven.

No, He wanted them to know that the Word would be tested and tried and yet it would stand against anything! He wanted them, amidst all the enemies of the Word of God, to stake their very lives on the truth of God’s Word. And they did. Of the final twelve disciples, eleven of them went confidently to their deaths standing on the Word of God. Only one, John, wasn’t specifically martyred for the Word of God and he was even exiled to an island for it.

Just like the disciples, here’s what you can expect from the Word of God. It will never, ever, ever fail you. It will always, always, always be true. It is absolutely reliable. 100%. Everything the Word of God tells you is true and you can stake your life on its truth. And it is powerful. You can expect the Word of God to bring you exactly what it says—forgiveness, new life, and the kingdom of heaven!

So what did you expect when you came to Church today? Did you expect a magic beanstalk to heaven? Did you expect to remember 100% of everything you hear? Did you expect all your problems to go away and all your questions to be answered? Don’t be disappointed by the wrong expectations.

Be patient. Expect God to be true because He is. Expect His Word to produce a harvest because it will. Expect God’s Word to be the one thing in this world you can stake your life on because it will never fail you. God grant that the good seed of His Word would take root in your heart today and do far more than you would dare to expect. In Jesus’ name. Amen.