Telling the Truth for Women

Jill Briscoe: Picking up from where I left off, the sower and the seed. Jesus spoke about this. Three of the evangelists picked up this parable. That's why there are different nuances and different things in the parable. If three of you were watching Jesus teach a story and then you all wrote your account of it, would it be the same in essence? Yes. But there would be a fact that Matthew saw that Luke missed. Luke's always the one that picks up the human part. He would see a mother and child or a relationship, mostly, probably, in his observation of what's happening around Jesus teaching.

Matthew would be the man who would get all the details right. Fascinating really. But we have three accounts of one parable. And if you read the three accounts and just make a list of all the things the other one doesn't say. So you've got it all. It's rich. And as I've been hanging my heart over this, we traverse the fields if you wished. We talked about where are the fields, the world, go into all the world, and scatter the seed, preach the gospel to everybody.

We talked about the farmer in the first session. The farmer goes out. Don't scatter seed necessarily in the farmhouse or the barn. It's for the fields. It's for the fields. A little bit for the family in the farmhouse, you can do that. But the farmer goes out, out, out. Right. And what does he do when he goes out? He's generous. He just throws it, throws it. And remember, I talked about some people just take one little seed and three weeks somebody's life. No, throw it. Be generous. He that sows generously will reap generously.

And you never know where it's going to fall. In the parable, we talked about the fields. Some, it's obvious, they've been plowed, they've been prepared. A great cost to someone. One plows, another reaps. One plows, one waters, another reaps, says Paul in 1 Corinthians. It's just one of those things. You go out and you scatter that's obvious. You're going to get something coming out when the sorrow's been prepared. So some people say so that's where you sow. What's the point of sowing over here or sowing over there or sowing in another place? Well, the point is you and I don't know where there's a little patch of good soil screaming out, "Sow me!" In the most amazing places.

I have a friend, a doctor's wife in South America. They were our doctors when we came years ago. And they came into such a wonderful relationship with the Lord and took off halfway through his practice and his vigorous years to South America. And there they have done many, many things. They served a radio station there, HCJB. But he started a clinic in the slums, which was very near that mission center. And I remember years ago, Doris always handwritten, she never learned to type, but in those days, certainly both of us hadn't learned to type. And she wrote me a card and she said, one of the hardest things is to go with Jack, that's her husband, down into this unspeakable slum and one of the hardest things is to get by the garbage pile, which is at the door. It is absolutely huge. Huge garbage pile. It smells. It's steaming, and nobody ever removes it. It's just added to and added to. And I'm so glad when I get by it.

But the other day, as I walked by it, to my amazement, there was an orchid that had grown in the garbage pile. Only God can grow an orchid, she said, on a garbage pile. And so you never know underneath the garbage pile. There's a little patch of soil ready and saying, "Please, don't think you're wasting seed. Please, please, please. But who would sow me? Who would come here?" Etc., etc. I love that picture and I'm in the middle of a poem about an orchid on a garbage pile to cement it in my own mind. So the farmer goes out and sows generously. Only God knows. And that's our job, just to go out. Maybe it's to plow. That's the hardest bit, just to plow. And then to pray that the next person comes. If we don't do our job, whatever it is, and some of the farming must be done by all of us. Maybe it's plowing.

When I have somebody in front of me or I'm sitting on a plane or I get into conversation, which I do so often, on an airport, I'm saying, "Lord, do they need plowing? Do they need seeding? Do they need watering? Do they need harvesting?" It's so exciting. And when the spirit nudges you, then do it. Your part, because the next person can't do theirs, unless we do ours. And we talked about the farmer going out, he was natural, he was generous to a fault, in all weathers. You can't miss a sowing season because it's raining or snowing. Maybe. We're so fond of ourselves. I want to stay in the farmhouse and put another log on the fire, watch TV. And wait till the weather comes out. Right? No, all weathers, folks, all weathers.

We talked about the seed itself, that the seed is the word of God. The farmer is the son of God. The seed is the word of God. There's life in the seed and it must be sown and God will grow it. Paul said in Corinthians, "I plant it, Apollos watered, but only God can make things grow." So what is Paul and what is Apollos? Only servants, farmers. That takes in everybody who knows Jesus. And so the last piece I want to address is the foes of the farmer. The farmer, the fields and the foes, the enemies of the farmer. Why isn't there a bigger harvest? Because there has been seed sowing.

Well, it could be because nobody came along and watered it and the sun scorched it, remember? Let me read it and remind you in Mark 4. As he, the farmer, was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, the birds came and ate it up. The farmer sows the word. Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes, takes away the word that was sown in them. When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. Another translation. Matthew 13:18.

He's a snatcher. We have a snatcher at loose in this world. And this is a picture of Satan himself. We have an enemy. There is an evil one, the enemy of our souls. The wicked one. And the whole earth lies in the wicked one. And he has his own colony of crows, of birds, snatchers. When you think about the picture Jesus uses, he uses crows. He uses birds that wait and watch the farmer. We were in Switzerland last year with people who'd come out of North Africa, who are translating the Bible. And they live in very primitive places in those hard desert areas. But on the edge of the desert where they came from for this conference, they live on farmland. It's sort of almost green, boom, and then desert.

And they said that when the fields are sown, it's only a matter of hours before the sky is black, absolutely black with crows. And they're coming, and they're coming, and they're coming. And she said, it's so discouraging for the farmers. But they expect it. And all the farmers take it and turn out there to farm their fields, because all the farmers come to scare away the crows. So one family sows, and you see the sky become black with their wings. How terrifying. And then it's a question, and the kids love doing it. They're the ones running up and down the field with pieces of material frightening the crows away. And that's in a very primitive part of farming community in our world.

So the crow is a great example. And Jesus, of course, 2000 years ago, would have that picture in his mind. I have no idea. I'd like to look it up and find out what did the farmers in Jesus' time use when the crows who'd been watching the seed going in swooped down. But what a picture of a snatcher. He's a snatcher. Stuart and I were in Israel quite a few years ago and we were going in and out of Jordan and Israel. And for some reason we had to do it one day, twice. And to get out of Jordan through the soldiers letting you out, and then into Israel through the soldiers who are Israeli letting you in, took hours. And we had to do it two or three times. And so the whole day is in this place of getting into Israel and out of Israel or into Jordan.

And when we were in Jordan, the believers there gave us books to take to the West Bank, to Christians, to believers in the West Bank. They said, "Maybe you can get them through, but they'll probably take them off you." And so they gave us Bibles and different books. And we came in, or we came out of Jordan, and I thought, "Well, surely it'll be the Israelis that give us the problem getting them in." But it was both. And actually, soldiers letting us out were more diligent than the Israelis letting us in with that material. And so there's a line of these girls at the Jordanian side. And we had a whole big, just a big bag of books. And many of which actually were Stewart's, either in that language or in English, as well as other things.

And so they get them all out and there's three or four girls and the head girl is here in front of me. And as they come out, they all pick one or two up and start noting it and look at it. And the leader picked up Stewart's book and opened it. And so I just leaned over and tapped her on the hand and turned the book over with a picture on the back. And I said, "He, he wrote that book." She opens it again and starts reading and can't stop. So everybody's waiting and she's there. And I realize that she's either going to get moved on by her superior or something. So again, I tap her on the hand. And I just said, "Take it. Please, take it." And I watched the struggle begin. And I swear it, I heard the wings. And she took it, looked around and ran into her little room like that, just off to the side. Came back without it. And then was pretty lethal with the rest of the books. I don't know how many we got through, Glenn Paul. But all I could think about, "Yes, she's got the book. She's got the book in there."

Well, then we get stuck getting in. And I'm looking over my shoulder all the time. And it was harder to get into Israel than it's ever been for us for some reason. And we have to go through the whole thing again with the few books that we have left, etc. And Stewart is she's giving Stewart a really hard time because his passport was full. "Well, what do you mean you've been, what do you, you know, who are you?" Etc., etc. "Oh, just a poor preacher, you know." I'm sorry, he didn't say that. Anyway, I'm, I'm saying, "Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up." And I'm looking over my shoulder. She's disappeared. The leader's disappeared. And then I see her coming out. And I say, "Oh, Lord." And she's got his book in her hand with her supervisor. And she comes around with the supervisor. And she says to me, "I can't have it." And she's hanging onto it. And I'm hanging onto it saying, "Please, take it." And the supervisor just taps her on the shoulder. And she pushed it in my hand. And I tell you, I just wept. I heard that crow come down. As truly as I'm saying.

And we have to know that's what the devil does. It doesn't matter if you're in a situation that's restricted like that, or unrestricted, the clouds of birds. That is scary to me. The snatcher hates the farmer's family. And the snatcher hates the farmer. He hates your children. And as soon as you sow that seed, and you water it with prayer and whatever it takes to help it to grow, he's around. He's watching. The snatcher. The birds are waiting. The birds are waiting. And then there's the withering. Jesus warned the sowers about the enemy, Satan himself and his children would encounter. And he mentions them in these accounts of the seed and the harvest parables. There are many harvest parables. I would suggest you go home and you look at all the harvest parables. There's wonderful sowing parables. The one with the seed and the tares and and the foxes. Somebody waited, an enemy of the farmer, until the harvest was about to be brought in. And then one night he got a whole lot of foxes, caught foxes, and set their tails a light. This is a parable of Jesus. Sent them among the harvest. And that haunts me what was said in the scriptures, "An enemy has done this."

Have you ever been in a situation where someone is really growing in the Lord and everything's fine? Or even one of your children? And suddenly there is this horrible attack. An enemy has done this. I have said that. An enemy has done this. An enemy has done this. An enemy has done this. And if it isn't, if it isn't the crows, and it isn't some enemy that burns up whatever you've put into the situation, it's the scorching of the sun, it's the withering. Jesus talked about that. He said in Luke 8, Jesus said, telling this story, that the snatcher instigates a trample. Somebody comes and tramples the seed, so it can't get any water, etc. Or he persecutes the seed. The withering, the scorching. Jesus uses this and says, when persecution comes, the little plant doesn't survive. When things get tough, when you go to work and people make fun of you, or you go to university and people decimate your faith with arguments that we have not prepared them for in church or Sunday school, then that's the scorching. And that is very, very real in America today that many of our students are facing the scorching of the sun.

When the sun comes, and Jesus said what that was, when persecution in any sense comes, maybe from their own family, that in other countries of the world. I have met women who have been divorced by their husband because they became a Christian, and worse. And they've still become a Christian. I'm praying for a mother that had a choice. "You are going to be thrown out of the home now and you can't take your children with you. What's it to be?" And she walked out the door. What would we do with choices like that? The scorching of persecution. Maybe a family member. And then of course, the snatcher and the trampler and all of that.

And lastly, the weeds, no root. We've got to get people past being shallow. We've got to get them grounded, basically. We've got to attend to this mind of people. We mind our minds, God minds our hearts. I find in America people want heart talks. "I want to feel better." And and so, "How can I feel better?" Well, I think only by feeling worse. Is where it begins, isn't it? Only by feeling worse first. Nobody wants messages like that. And so whether it's the withering, how do we weather the withering? I don't know. Well, I do know. So the sun scorches the seedlings, some fell on rocky places where it didn't have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched. The one who receives the seed that fell on rocky places is the man who receives the word and at once receives it with joy. But since he has no root, he lasts only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes.

And then there are the ones who are choked. Jesus said, with the worries of this life or the deceitfulness of riches. The deceitfulness of riches. Riches promise you what it cannot perform for you. What it cannot give you. That's what riches do. It is, "You'll only be happy if you could have this. You'll only be happy if you could have him or her," whether he belongs to somebody else or not. And the devil tells you that it is things or people or positions that will make you happy. And it cannot happen. We were in Thailand years ago. And we're given, as we arrive, huge things of insect repellent. And they run out before they gave me some and I got a kid's bottle. That was all right, it was just as good. She said, "I'm so sorry, but this will do. But just bathe yourself in this because the convention center is on a swamp." I said, "Why did you do that?" I never got an answer to why they had that convention on this swamp.

And we were in these, you know, these mosquito nets which I always managed to, it took me ages to get in and all wrapped up and then there was one in there with me, you know. It's not good. Then I'd have to unwrap myself and catch it and go back again. It took ages going to bed. Anyway, I looked at this bottle and it said, "Promises," this is little children's pictures on my stuff to take care of the mosquitoes. "Promises to make you invisible to mosquitoes." Not. I need to write to whoever said that. It did not make me invisible. It just seemed to attract them all the more. And that's what Satan does. "I promise you this will make you happy. I promise this." It promises what it is unable to perform. Satan always promises you what he cannot perform.

And Jesus said, those are the people. So the devil is going to use everything. He's going to snatch. He's going to scorch. He's going to promise you things that, "Surely that would make me happy." If only, right? And all of it, Jesus said, "No. None of it." If you're going to be good seed, if you're going to be good seed, you've got to, if you're a farmer, patiently wait for the harvest. Read James 5. The farmer patiently waits for the harvest. I think waiting is the hardest thing about farming. Waiting for the somebody to seed somebody I love very much. If only someone would seed somebody I love very much.

I'm so excited about telling the truth in UK because there's so many people I love very much that I never got a chance to seed because we came 42 years ago to another country. But now I do have a chance because the seed of radio and the seed of internet and the seed is being scattered. And when I'm here, I'm there. Today, people all over UK have a chance. Now the snatcher is working overtime. And the preventer is doing everything he can to stop that internet connecting or to stop somebody informing them of what they can hear or to stop them hearing it if they know what it's about. The whole thing here. It's happening. But it's possible. It's possible. What a joy.

Got into a taxi one day when we were in UK. And the taxi driver turned on, we'd just come from America. Turned on his radio and it was Premier Radio. It was our program. And I can't remember, I think it was Stewart on there. And he didn't know who we were. He turned around and he said, "Have you ever heard of Christian radio?" I said, "Well, actually, yes, that's my husband." "Really? That's wonderful." He told us the most amazing story that through Premier Radio, driving his taxi, he had come to faith. And he found other taxi drivers that had as well. And so they petitioned the airport that they would be the ones who waited for the VIPs coming into UK from all over the world. And there is a certain place and you've got to be a taxi driver, how many years to get that privilege. And four of those Christian taxi drivers got permission. So they start with a Bible study and prayer meeting every morning for whoever is getting in their taxi. And then whoever does from all over the world, important people, they turn on the radio and do what he was doing with me. And say, "Have you ever heard this before?" Etc., etc. And the stories they told us, isn't that wonderful? You scatter the seed and you expect God to work.

So, I don't know where you are in the story. Where are you discouraged, perhaps? Don't be discouraged. I planted, Apollos watered, but only God can make it grow. Who is Paul? Who is Apollos? Who are we? Only servants. And the word can be farmers. Only farmers. That's all we are. But farmers we are. What a privilege. And then it's a question of waiting patiently. We've done our part and the prayer is the thing. The praying for your children, the praying for your congregation, the praying for your Bible study group, the praying for your mother, the praying for your father.

I have somehow this month been in touch with so many parents who have heartache over their children, their Christian children. Missionary families. It's so hard to listen to. Everything was fine. They were growing and growing and growing. And then the snatcher came and the scorching came and the weeds choked it and what a tragedy it is for their heart. John the Apostle, hearing some very good news from his dear friend Gaius, whom he loved in the truth, speaking of his spiritual children, I haven't even touched on that. Speaking of his spiritual children said, "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." What a verse. You can't buy that.

Spiritual joy, exuberant joy is ours when our children and grandchildren, natural or spiritual, walk in the truth. Love the Lord, know the Lord, obey the Lord, and joy of joys, serve the Lord. To this great end we pray. No greater joy when my children walk in truth. No greater sorrow when they don't. No greater joy when they love the Lord I love. No greater heartbreak when they won't. No greater joy when persistent prayer is answered. No greater privilege to pray. No greater work as we fight the battle for them. Trusting he will answer one great day. No greater joy when they tell us they are praying, reading the word and digging in. No greater news when they choose a godly lifestyle. No greater battle can they win. No greater wonder when we watch the Holy Spirit power and equip them for their days, and no greater joy when they'll stand with us in glory. As we offer our Lord Jesus all the praise. No greater joy when my children walk in truth. No greater sorrow when they don't. No greater joy when they love the Lord I love. And no greater heartbreak when they won't.

Pray with me. Father God, hear our hearts. Thank you for the privilege of being your farmer and your farmhands. Thank you for the watering and the planting and the things you entrust into our grubby little hands. Why didn't you use angels? But you chose to let us belong to the family on the farm. Sometimes life in the farmhouse is tough, Lord. And life on the farm is tougher. But what a privilege. So help us to go out bearing precious seed, perhaps weeping, knowing we will one day come home to the heavenly barn rejoicing, bringing our sheaves with us. Thank you, Lord, for this privilege. Amen.