Date: Monday, 5th August, 2024
Text: Matthew 13:1-23
Author: Pastor Adedeji Fadehan
Exhortation:
Many are called but few are chosen. Why? Few are chosen because only those few responded to the call positively and remain obedient.
According to today’s text, when God gives a call to salvation, there are four categories of reactions that are possible from the called.
The first category is the one who does not understand and grasp the message. The word of God says the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing- 1 Corinthians 1:18a; it doesn’t just make sense, so the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart.
The second category is the one who hears the word and immediately welcomes it with joy; yet he has no substantial root in himself, but is only temporary because the message has not sunk deep in him; and when pressure or persecution comes because of the word, immediately he stumbles and falls away abandoning the One who is the source of salvation.
A third category is the one who hears the word, but the worries and distractions of the world and the superficial pleasures, delight and deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it produces no result or fruit.
Despite all these seeming failures of the word that has been preached, God cannot be stranded. There is still a remnant that will surely respond positively and produce the desired result. This is the fourth category- the one who hears the word and understands and grasps it.
He remains faithful and obedient to the word and eventually multiplies the seed by converting others to righteousness through soul winning, thereby yielding some a hundred times as much as was sown, some sixty times as much and some thirty.
To where do you belong?
Reflective Nugget: What is your attitude to God’s word?