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The Same Seed

One sower, one kind of seed, four kinds of ground, and a Gardener who asks for one more year

  • 📖 Adult Sunday School
  • Week 12
  • 📅 Sunday, March 21, 2027
🏆 Showdown
💡 The big idea

The word of God is the same good seed every time; what changes is the ground. With the Savior’s help our hearts can become honest and good ground that hears, keeps the word and bears fruit with patience.

I can notice what hardens, crowds or thins the soil of my heart, clear one thorn this week, and trust the Lord’s patience while my roots grow deeper.

Study it yourself firstRead Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13 in Gospel LibraryCome, Follow Me manualOpen this week (Matthew 13; Luke 8; 13)
Know the chapters

Matthew 13 is the Savior’s great chapter of parables. So many people gathered by the Sea of Galilee that He stepped into a boat and taught the crowd standing on the shore (13:1–2). In one sitting He gives the sower, the wheat and the tares, the mustard seed, the leaven, the treasure hidden in a field, the pearl of great price and the net. Luke 8 retells the sower and adds that women such as Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna traveled with Jesus and “ministered unto him of their substance” (Luke 8:1–3). Luke 13 adds a barren fig tree given one more year (13:6–9), a woman bowed over for eighteen years whom Jesus loosed on the Sabbath (13:11–17), and the question “Are there few that be saved?” (13:23).

This lesson centers on the parable of the sower, which the Savior explains Himself (Matthew 13:18–23). The seed is “the word of God” (Luke 8:11), and it is the same seed every time. The difference is the ground: a beaten path where the word never gets in, stony places where it springs up fast but has no root, thorny ground where “the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches” choke it, and good ground that hears, understands and bears fruit. Luke’s version adds three phrases adults will want to notice: good ground is “an honest and good heart,” it “keep[s]” the word, and it brings forth fruit “with patience” (Luke 8:15).

Between the parable and its explanation, the disciples ask, “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?” (Matthew 13:10). The Savior’s answer (13:11–17) suggests that parables reward seeking: those with “ears to hear” find more, while the careless walk away with a nice story. Alma later builds his whole sermon on faith around the same image: a seed planted, nourished “with great diligence, and with patience,” until it becomes “a tree springing up unto everlasting life” (Alma 32:28, 41).

Twenty-five minutes goes fast, and this block holds more parables than any class can cover. Resist the survey. Read the sower well, let people talk honestly about rocks and thorns, then end with the hope of Luke 13: a Gardener who pleads for “this year also” and a woman lifted after eighteen years. The treasure and the pearl, and the wheat and the tares, are ready as bonus steps if you have time.

Only have 5 minutes?

Read Matthew 13:1–23 and Luke 8:15 once. Open by asking why the same talk can change you one week and slide right off the next. Read the parable and the Savior’s explanation, then compare Matthew 13:23 with Luke 8:15 and ask what Luke adds. Spend most of the time on the Rocks and Thorns questions, read Luke 13:6–9 as the hopeful close, and invite each person to clear one thorn this week.

What to bring2 items

Tick what you have. Forgot something? Every step that needs a supply has a no-supplies version in the plan below.

Before class

  1. Read Matthew 13:1–23 and Luke 8:4–15 side by side. Mark Matthew 13:21, 22 and 23 and Luke 8:14–15; they carry the lesson.
  2. Ask one person ahead of time to be the Reader (the setting and narration) and another to be the Disciple (the question in Matthew 13:10). You read the Savior’s words yourself.
  3. Read Luke 13:6–17 twice. The fig tree and the bowed-over woman are your hopeful ending, so know them well enough to tell them simply.
  4. Decide your own honest answer to “Which thorn crowds my week?” If the room is quiet, you’ll go first, and your honesty sets the tone.
  5. Pick the two or three discussion questions you most want to reach. You won’t have time for all of them, and that’s fine.

Discussion tips

  • Quiet class? Parables invite everyone in because no one needs to be a scholar. Give thirty seconds of silence after each question, and use the pairs moment: people who won’t speak to the room will talk to a neighbor.
  • One voice filling every pause? Thank them warmly, then say, “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t had a chance yet,” or send the next question to pairs first.
  • Be careful that no one leaves thinking, “I’m stony ground, so I’m hopeless.” Every one of us has all four soils somewhere. Point to the fig tree in Luke 13:6–9: the Gardener asks for more time and does the digging Himself.
  • Someone may be carrying real grief about a child, spouse or friend whose faith withered. Don’t let the rocky-ground talk turn into a verdict on absent people. The Lord of the harvest knows the soil better than we do, and His patience is longer than ours.
  • Visitors and new members: say plainly that a parable is a short story with a spiritual meaning, give page numbers or tap the references on the shared screen, and never ask someone to read aloud without checking first.

The 25-minute plan25 min + bonus

Bonus steps are for when you have extra time. Each “On the screen” line is what the class sees on a shared screen in Teach Mode in the Gospel Sparks app; on paper, read it aloud or write it on the board. On the web you can play Scripture Showdown from this page.

1. Hook

Same Seed, Different Week

3 min

Opens with a real-life question about why the same words land differently, before anyone opens Matthew 13.

  1. Hold up the seed packet and the cup of soil.
  2. SAY“Every seed in this packet is identical. Whether it grows depends almost entirely on where it lands.”
  3. Ask: “Have you ever heard a talk or read a verse that changed you one week, and then heard the very same thing another time and felt nothing? What was different: the words, or you?”
  4. Give 20 seconds of quiet to think, then take two or three answers. Accept every honest one: tired, distracted, hurting, defensive, ready.
  5. SAY“Jesus told a story about exactly that. Today let’s look at the ground, not the seed.”

On the screen: 🌱 Why does the same truth change us one week and slide right off the next?

No supplies? Do this instead

Instead of: A packet of garden seeds, plus a small pot of soil or a handful of dirt in a clear cup

Same Talk, Different Week

  1. SAY“Picture two people sitting side by side in sacrament meeting, hearing the same talk. One walks out changed. The other can’t remember the topic by lunch.”
  2. Ask: “Have you been both of those people? What was different: the words, or you?”
  3. Give 20 seconds of quiet to think, then take two or three answers. Accept every honest one.
  4. SAY“Jesus told a story about exactly that. Today let’s look at the ground, not the seed.”
2. Story

Read It in Context: A Sower Went Forth

6 min

Reads the parable and the Savior’s own explanation together so class members can find its meaning in the text.

  1. Open Teach Mode to the scripture scene. The shared screen shows one scene at a time.
  2. Read each scene’s context yourself, then let the Reader and the Disciple read their verses. You read the Savior’s words; no one is assigned to speak as the Lord.
  3. Keep it moving: context, verses, next scene. Save comments for the discussion.
  4. After scene 5, let a few seconds of silence sit before moving on.

On the screen: ⛵ Matthew 13: one sower, one seed, four kinds of ground · Follow along in Matthew 13:1–23

3. Scripture

An Honest and Good Heart

4 min

Compares two accounts of the same verse so class members discover for themselves what makes ground good.

  1. Put Luke 8:15 on the shared screen and read it slowly. Then read Matthew 13:23 aloud.
  2. SAY“Same moment, two Gospel writers. With the person next to you, find what Luke adds that Matthew doesn’t.”
  3. After a minute, draw it out: “an honest and good heart,” “keep it,” and “with patience.”
  4. Ask: “Why would honesty be the first quality of good ground? And why would good ground still need patience?”
  5. If there’s time, note that Alma uses the same image and the same word: the seed is nourished “with patience” (Alma 32:41).

On the screen: 💚 Good ground: an honest and good heart that keeps the word and bears fruit with patience. · Luke 8:15 and Matthew 13:23 · What does Luke add?

4. Talk it over

Rocks and Thorns

6 min

Helps adults recognize what thins or crowds the soil in their own lives, without shame, and what deepens roots.

  1. Pick two or three questions; don’t try to cover all of them.
  2. Start the second question in pairs: give one minute to talk with a neighbor, then invite a few to share with the room.
  3. Share Elder Neil L. Andersen’s words about the roots of our faith (in “From general conference” below).
  4. Let silence work. Count to seven in your head before rescuing a question.
  5. If the room is quiet, share your own honest answer first.
💬 Ask the class
  • Verse 21 says the stony-ground hearer had “not root in himself.” What does it look like when a testimony is partly borrowed, and how do roots become our own?
  • Luke 8:14 names three thorns: cares, riches and pleasures. Which one crowds your week most right now? (Talk with a neighbor first.)
  • The thorny-ground hearer never rejects the word; it just brings “no fruit to perfection.” Why might that be a more realistic danger for most adults than open rebellion?
  • A path gets hard because it is walked on constantly. What wears a path through our hearts, and what softens it again?
  • Every one of us has all four soils somewhere. Where have you seen ground change, in your own heart or someone else’s?

On the screen: 🌵 What thins our roots, and what crowds out the word? · Matthew 13:20–22 · Luke 8:13–14

5. Talk it over

This Year Also

4 min

Turns from the soil we worry about to the patience of the Gardener who tends it.

  1. Tell the fig tree parable briefly, then read Luke 13:8–9 yourself.
  2. SAY“The owner wants to cut the tree down. The gardener asks for one more year, and promises to do the digging himself.”
  3. Invite a volunteer to read Luke 13:11–13, the woman bowed over for eighteen years.
  4. Ask one or two questions, then move to the testimony on time.
💬 Ask the class
  • What does the gardener’s plea for “this year also” suggest about how the Savior feels about ground that hasn’t produced yet?
  • The gardener doesn’t just wait; he digs and feeds the soil. What digging has the Lord done in your life to help you bear fruit?
  • The woman “could in no wise lift up herself” for eighteen years. What bends people over in our ward, and how can we help the Savior lift them?

On the screen: 🌳 “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it.” · Luke 13:6–9, 11–13 · “Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.”

6. Testimony

The Lord of the Harvest

2 min

Ends with testimony of Jesus Christ as the patient Sower and a concrete invitation for the week.

  1. Press a few seeds into the cup of soil where everyone can see.
  2. Read Matthew 13:37: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.”
  3. Invite one or two people to share, in a sentence or two, how the word of God took root in them.
  4. Bear a short testimony that Jesus Christ keeps sowing good seed in every one of us and tends the ground with more patience than we have with ourselves.
  5. Invite: “This week, name one thorn that is crowding out the word, and clear a little space for Him every day.”

On the screen: 🌾 He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man. · Matthew 13:37 · This week: clear one thorn. Make a little room every day.

No supplies? Do this instead

Instead of: A packet of garden seeds, plus a small pot of soil or a handful of dirt in a clear cup

  1. Read Matthew 13:37: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.” Then read Luke 8:15 once more.
  2. Invite one or two people to share, in a sentence or two, how the word of God took root in them.
  3. Bear a short testimony that Jesus Christ keeps sowing good seed in every one of us and tends the ground with more patience than we have with ourselves.
  4. Invite: “This week, name one thorn that is crowding out the word, and clear a little space for Him every day.”
7. Talk it over

The Treasure and the Pearl

5 minBONUS

Asks what the kingdom is worth to us, using two short parables about giving everything gladly.

  1. Read Matthew 13:44–46 together.
  2. Point out the difference: one man stumbles onto treasure while working a field; the merchant has been searching for fine pearls.
  3. Point out the phrase “for joy thereof” in verse 44.
  4. Ask one or two questions.
💬 Ask the class
  • Is your conversion more like the man who stumbled onto treasure or the merchant who searched? Why?
  • The man sells everything “for joy thereof.” When has a sacrifice for the gospel felt more like joy than loss?
  • What have you given up for the Savior that you would never want back?

On the screen: 💎 One found treasure by surprise. One searched for the pearl. Both sold everything, gladly. · Matthew 13:44–46

8. Talk it over

Let Both Grow Together

5 minBONUS

Explores the wheat and the tares and the Lord’s latter-day explanation of it.

  1. Read Matthew 13:24–30. Explain that tares are a weed that looks like wheat until it is fully grown, so pulling them early would tear up the wheat.
  2. Read Doctrine and Covenants 86:4–7, where the Lord applies the parable to the latter days and tells the angels to wait “while the blade is yet tender.”
  3. Ask one or two questions.
💬 Ask the class
  • Why might the Lord let good and evil grow side by side instead of clearing the field now?
  • Doctrine and Covenants 86:6 says the wheat is still tender. What does that suggest about how patient we should be with ourselves and others?
  • How do we stay wheat when the tares are growing right next to us, in the culture, on our screens, even in our own habits?

On the screen: 🌾 Pluck not up the tares while the blade is yet tender, lest you destroy the wheat. · Matthew 13:24–30 · Doctrine and Covenants 86:4–7

9. Game

Scripture Showdown

5 minBONUS

A light, friendly review if you finish early.

  1. Split the room down the middle into two teams.
  2. Launch Scripture Showdown on your phone or tablet and read each question aloud.
  3. After each reveal, read the reference so people can mark it.
▶ Play Scripture Showdown on the web

On the screen: 🏆 Scripture Showdown: how well do you know Matthew 13 and Luke 8 and 13?

Read it together

A Sower Went Forth to Sow

Matthew 13:1–23 ↗

Reading parts

  • ReaderReads the setting in Matthew 13:1–2 and helps set each scene.
  • DiscipleReads Matthew 13:10, the disciples’ question: “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?”
  • The ClassFollows along and marks the words that describe each kind of ground.

Scenes

  1. ⛵ A teacher in a boat, a crowd on shore

    By the Sea of Galilee the crowd grew so large that Jesus stepped into a boat, sat down and taught the people standing along the shore. He taught them in parables: short stories about seeds, bread, fish and farming that carry heavenly meaning.

    🎬 The Reader reads Matthew 13:1–2. Invite the class to picture the water, the boat and the hillside full of people.

  2. 🌱 One seed, four kinds of ground

    A farmer scatters seed by hand. Some lands on the hard path, some on rocky ground with a thin layer of soil, some among thorns, and some on good ground that yields thirty, sixty or a hundred times what was planted.

    🎬 The teacher reads Matthew 13:3–9. Hold up the seed packet on “a sower went forth to sow.”

  3. 👂 “Why speakest thou unto them in parables?”

    Later the disciples come with a question. The Savior’s answer suggests that parables reward seekers: those who come with ears to hear find more, while the careless keep only a pleasant story.

    🎬 The Disciple reads Matthew 13:10. The teacher reads verses 11–13 and 16.

  4. 🪨 The path and the stony places

    Now the Savior explains. The path is someone who hears without understanding, and the wicked one snatches the word away. Stony ground receives the word with joy, but it has no root of its own, so it gives way when trouble comes.

    🎬 The teacher reads Matthew 13:18–21. Ask the class to underline “not root in himself.”

  5. 🌿 Thorns that choke, ground that bears

    Thorns are the cares of this world and the pull of riches, which choke the word until it bears nothing. Good ground hears, understands and bears fruit. The seed never changes. The ground does.

    🎬 The teacher reads Matthew 13:22–23. Let a few seconds of quiet follow before moving on.

Key verse

Luke 8:15 ↗
“But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.”
In plain words: Good ground isn’t a perfect heart; it is an honest one that hears God’s word, holds on to it, and keeps growing, even when the fruit takes time.

More verses

Matthew 13:23 ↗
“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”
In plain words: Good ground hears and understands, and then it produces. Not everyone’s harvest looks the same, and the Lord counts thirtyfold as good ground too.
Luke 8:14 ↗
“And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection.”
In plain words: The thorny-ground hearer doesn’t reject the word. Worries, money and pleasures simply crowd it out until nothing ripens.
Luke 13:8 ↗
“And he answering said unto him, Lord, let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it:”
In plain words: The gardener pleads for one more year for a fruitless tree, and promises to do the work of loosening and feeding the soil himself.
Matthew 13:46 ↗
“Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.”
In plain words: Once the merchant saw what the pearl was worth, giving up everything else felt like a bargain, not a loss.

Scripture Showdown6 questions

  1. Where did Jesus sit to teach the crowd in Matthew 13?
    • A. On a mountain
    • B. In a boat
    • C. In the synagogue
    Show answer

    ✅ B. In a boat Matthew 13:2: the crowd was so large that He went into a ship and sat, and they stood on the shore.

  2. In the parable of the sower, what is the seed?
    • A. The word of God
    • B. Good works
    • C. The Church
    Show answer

    ✅ A. The word of God Luke 8:11: “The seed is the word of God.”

  3. Why did the plants on stony ground wither?
    • A. Birds ate them
    • B. Too much rain
    • C. They had no root
    Show answer

    ✅ C. They had no root Matthew 13:6, 21: they sprang up quickly but had “not root in himself.”

  4. Which three things choke the word in Luke 8:14?
    • A. Cares, riches and pleasures
    • B. Pride, anger and envy
    • C. Fear, doubt and hunger
    Show answer

    ✅ A. Cares, riches and pleasures “Choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life.”

  5. How long had the woman in Luke 13 been bowed over?
    • A. Twelve years
    • B. Thirty-eight years
    • C. Eighteen years
    Show answer

    ✅ C. Eighteen years Luke 13:11: she had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years and could not lift herself up.

  6. What did the gardener ask for the fruitless fig tree?
    • A. That it be cut down
    • B. One more year
    • C. A new vineyard
    Show answer

    ✅ B. One more year Luke 13:8: “Let it alone this year also, till I shall dig about it, and dung it.”

▶ Play Scripture ShowdownTeams take turns on one screen.

From general conference

“We realize that as evil increases in the world, our spiritual survival, and the spiritual survival of those we love, will require that we more fully nurture, fortify, and strengthen the roots of our faith in Jesus Christ.”

— Elder Neil L. Andersen, “Drawing Closer to the Savior,” October 2022

Share in Rocks and Thorns, after the class talks about having “not root in himself.”

Read the talk ↗

Songs

  • Come, Follow Me Hymns, no. 116

    A hymn about following the Savior through ordinary days, a good opening for a lesson on what we do with His word. Find it ↗

  • I Need Thee Every Hour Hymns, no. 98

    A quiet hymn of daily dependence, fitting for ground that needs the Gardener’s care. Find it ↗

This week’s invitation

Clear One Thorn

This week, name one thorn that is crowding out the word: a worry, a habit, a screen, a schedule. Clear a little space from it each day for prayer and scripture, and notice what begins to grow.

Take it home

In Sunday School we read the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:3–23): the same seed fell on a path, on rocks, among thorns and on good ground. Take it home: plant a few seeds in a cup together, read Luke 8:15, and talk about what helps a heart become “honest and good” ground.

📝 After class

What worked? Who needs a check-in this week? Jot it here on a printed copy, or in the app’s private class notes.

Got extra time?

🍞 Small Beginnings · 4 min

  1. Read Matthew 13:31–33, the mustard seed and the leaven.
  2. Ask: “Both start tiny and hidden. Where have you seen the kingdom grow quietly, in a family, a ward or a single person?”
  3. Ask: “What small, hidden thing could you add to someone’s life this week that might work like leaven?”

🤲 The Women Who Ministered · 4 min

  1. Read Luke 8:1–3 and name the women Luke records: Mary Magdalene, Joanna and Susanna, “and many others.”
  2. Point out that they supported the Savior’s ministry “of their substance,” with their own means.
  3. Ask: “What does it tell you that Luke took care to record their names? How do quiet supporters make the Lord’s work possible today?”

🚪 Are There Few That Be Saved? · 4 min

  1. Read Luke 13:23–30.
  2. Point out that the Savior doesn’t give a number. He answers with an invitation: “Strive to enter in at the strait gate.”
  3. Ask: “Why do you think He turned a question about other people into counsel for the person asking?”

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tap or click a reference to open it in Gospel Library. Start with the official Come, Follow Me manual; these ideas are here to help it come alive.

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