THE FARMER’S SEED
Season 3: Jesus the Storyteller
Episode 2: “The Farmer’s Seed”
Today’s Bible Bite: Matthew 13:3-23
Video Story:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guDeSYcwRYg (visual depiction - have the kids explain what is happening)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZEO_Ls2ERs (Saddleback Kids)
“The seed that fell on good soil represents those who truly hear and understand God’s word and produce a harvest of thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times as much as had been planted” (Matthew 13:23)!
The stories Jesus told used everyday life experiences so that the people would be able to understand better what the stories meant. In one story, he told about a farmer who planted his field with seed–some of it fell on the good soil, but some seed fell on the footpath, some fell on rocky soil and some fell among the weed patch. Where the seed fell determined what would happen next. Would the seeds grow and produce more or not?
Jesus told the disciples that the four different areas that the seed fell are like the different ways that people can believe God’s good news. They can reject what they hear (hard foot path); accept it but let worries distract them or don’t make the effort to build a relationship with God (weed patch and rocky soil), or they can accept it and grow in their belief so that they too share the good news (good soil). I want to be good soil, don’t you?
Think about it...
Who is the farmer who spread the good seed?
What is the good seed?
What happens to the seed on the different areas it may fall–foot path, rocky soil, weed patch or good soil?
How we receive the good news is determined by our attitudes and our actions. Do we really believe? Are we willing to spend time with God? Will be allow God to change us? Do others see a the difference that believing in God has made in our lives?
What kind of ground are you?
Prayer: Thank you, God, that we can be good soil. Help me to believe you are who you say you are. Help me to get to know you as my friend who is always there to help me and listen, as my Heavenly Father who loves me and as my boss who I need to obey. Help me to share the wonderful news that everyone can have a relationship with you!