Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

Jesus loves a good parable. It's one of its favorite teaching tools. A parable is a short

story that usually has one main point or idea, though occasionally more, and it's often

generalized, meaning there are no specific people or places listed, just broad facts.

Today when we meet up with Jesus by the Sea of Galilee, he's got a lot of parables

for us. We'll only cover the main one today and tomorrow we'll talk about the others.

This is a parable about the gospel. Jesus compares it to a seed. The seed of the gospel

is spread all around and it falls on lots of different types of soil, for, to be exact.

So this is often called the parable of the sower or the parable of the four soils. The

soils represent four different ways the gospel can be received. The bad news is, three

out of the four soils don't receive the gospel very well. We'll look at why in a second,

but the good news is, the one soil that does produces lots of fruit from the seed, in fact

it's up to a 100-fold increase. The first soil is the path, but the birds come and devour

the seed. Jesus compares this to anyone who hears the gospel but doesn't really understand

it. Then the enemy comes and snatches it away. Jesus says it's not important for people

to just hear the gospel, but for people to understand it. Otherwise, the enemy will

come along like a bird and snatch it up before it takes root. The second soil is the rocky

ground. There's not a lot of soil there and what exists isn't very deep. Jesus compares

this to the people who respond to the gospel quickly and with joy, but as soon as tough

times come, that plant can't take the heat and it whithers. Those who follow Christ are

promised trials, and if someone claims to have faith but isn't rooted deeply, persecution

will wilt them. Persecution is one of the ways our hearts are revealed. Are we after

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