11-30-25 When Hope Sprouts

Good morning and thank you for the opportunity to share this morning.

I am not much of a gardener. At least not here in Bly. There are those here who have taken the time and energy to build a green house to make your gardening more fruitful in our Bly climate.

Me however, preferred the Kodiak Alaska climate.

It was always wet, it wasn’t great weather for everything, but I was able to grow potatoes, garlic, carrots, snap peas and a few other treasures. If I wanted to garden here, I would have to build a greenhouse, buy fertilizer, do several extra steps than I had to take in Alaska.

And I will tell you something. I admire ladies like Suzanne and Pat, who love gardening that much to do all that extra work.

I don’t love gardening that much. There are things I do love that much to put in the extra effort, I have passions. But If gardening isn’t easy, I don’t want to do it.

But what I want to talk to you about today has these two themes in mind.

The first is gardening, the second is loving something so much that you want to put in the effort to do it well.

I spent much of this year going through the first five books of the Old Testament to show Jesus was active and present in the lives of all people from Creation to Moses. And it doesn’t stop there. After the Advent season I look forward to diving into Joshua and Judges and seeing Jesus at work in their lives.

But today we talk about gardening and love.

Now, if you follow the advent calendar you’ll know this is the week of Hope, not Love and gardening, but bare with me. Hope is the focus today, but to get there we have to dig into the soil and love it.

Let’s look at our scripture for today. It comes from the book of Isaiah and it is not chapters 7 or 9, common Christmas passages, but way in the back of Isaiah is chapter 61.

If you’ve spent any time in Isaiah, you’ll know that it has very little narrative and a great deal of God talking. And chapter 61 is an 11 verse speech from the Lord about himself.

And while all 11 verses are very good and important. We are goin to start with verse 11.

Isaiah 61:11 ESV

11 For as the earth brings forth its sprouts, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to sprout up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to sprout up before all the nations.

When a gardener pushes that seed into the dirt and gives it a taste of water, the gardener doesn’t know that every seed it pushes down will grow. But they hope it does.

I remember watching the ground the first year I planted potatoes. I watched and watched for that first leaf to poke out.

I loved watching them grow. And at the end of the season I loved digging them out of the dirt.

But you know what I found a few of every year?

Duds. Spuds that did not sprout a leaf and did not grow. Now, my harvests were plentiful, but I was a little bummed out when one didn’t grow. That ment the water I gave it did no good. The seaweed and other fertilizers I put in did nothing. It was basically useless to give that spud anything.

But I didn’t know that at the time. I planted every seed and I watered every seed and I watched every seed.

Why, because I had hope they would sprout and I did everything I could. We don’t do something because WE know the result. We do things with the HOPE of a favorable result.

If a gardener had 100% knowledge that if he planted 1,000 seeds, that only 30 would produce. Would he plant?

No, he would not waste the resources on 1,000 seeds for a harvest of 30.

But a gardener who plants 1,000 seeds and gives all 1,000 seeds his full attention is satisfied with whatever harvest he gets, because he knows he gave it his all.

Let’s look at one of Jesus’ seed plantings.

Turn over to Luke 4, but keep a finger in Isaiah 61.

Luke 4:16–21 ESV

16 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, 18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” 20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. 21 And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

It doesn’t site chapter and verse here in Luke because the chapters and verses hadn’t been placed yet, but flip back to Isaiah 61. What did Jesus quote?

Verse 1 and part of verse two.

Luke 4 starts with Jesus being tempted by satan and then leads into his public ministry. And one of his first stops is Nazareth, his home town. Not where he was born, but where he lived most of his life.

He knows the people, the people know him. What better place to plant some seeds?

Someone shout out what the heading is about Luke 4:16?

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth. He planted in his own home town, and got nothing. Well, death threats and nearly being thrown off a cliff.

Has anyone ever tried something new, like gardening, knitting, a new sport. And you try it once or twice, aren’t immediately good at it, so you quit?

Aren’t you glad that Jesus didn’t do that?

We as humans like to do things we are good at. And if we try something and aren’t good at it. One of two things will happen.

We give up. Or we try again.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love puzzles.

Every piece you put together is a victory. So, if I put together a 1,000 piece puzzle. I get 1,000 victories.

Or, if I do this 60,000 piece puzzle, I will have 60,000 victories.

But, if I look at that pile of pieces and say, that’s too hard. It will take me forever, I’ve given up on something amazing.

Now, we all know I’ve given up on gardening because, it’s too hard FOR ME, in this climate to want to do it. So am I a hypocrite? A little, yes. But this is where the love comes in.

I don’t love gardening enough to put in the work to produce the foods I like.

I do enjoy putting together puzzles enough to put in the work of putting together even the hardest ones.

So, as Tina Turner once asked, what’s love got to do with it?

I’m glad she asked.

Jesus went from town to town. Planting seeds and getting either yelled at or accepted. He did all this because He loves people.

We are the beings that God breathed life into. We are the beings that have a relationship with our creator. We are the ones He loves.

So, because he loves us, he is going to put in the work to make sure we grow up right.

And one of the best seed planting narratives in all of scriptures comes from Luke 1.

Mary is alone and the Angel Gabriel comes to her and tells her she is going to have God’s son. I love this part of the narrative.

Luke 1:34–35 ESV

34 And Mary said to the angel, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” 35 And the angel answered her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy—the Son of God.

This is a big deal. Mary is a virgin. She has eggs, but no seed. Not a new concept. To make a baby a woman needs a seed. She doesn’t have her own. So the Holy Spirit plants a life in her.

And that word seed is very interesting.

It actually goes all the way back to the beginning in Genesis 3. When a curse is being place upon satan he is told these words about Mary and Jesus 4,000 years before their births.

Genesis 3:15 KJV 1900

15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

I put this one in KJV, because while some translations use the word offspring or children, and they are accurate translations. The word SEED is so significant.

Because women don’t have seed. The only time you see a woman have a seed is here in Genesis 3. And then we see it again in Luke 1.

Mary is given seed by the Holy Spirit. It is her seed. The only woman is the history of humanity to have seed and that seed grew into Jesus.

Believer's have the Holy Spirit living inside them, which is an amazing experience. But Mary, had the flesh and blood savior growing inside her.

She loves God so much that she gave up her life and reputation to carry the Son of God. To nurture that seed.

Jesus loves us so much that he’s willing to do the work of nurturing us and pointing us in his direction.

I said earlier that if we knew the results of our gardening and that the results would be bad that we might not even try.

Imagine how much you’ve gotta love something that you know the outcome, know it’s not going to be 100% favorable, and you do it anyway.

That’s Jesus. He knew going into Nazareth that it was going to turn out bad. He knew he came to earth to die for the very people who were killing him.

He did it anyway.

One of my favorite passages in the Bible comes from 2 Peter. It’s a verse that tells us how much Jesus loves us and how much hope he has in us.

2 Peter 3:9 ESV

9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.

Jesus didn’t die for some. He died for all. But it’s only those that believe and reach repentance. And God wants ALL PEOPLE to reach. But he also knows not all will.

But he still died for all. He knew the result and still put in all the work.

We are lucky that we don’t know the results of the seeds we plant. I try to plant with everyone I get to know. We’ve been here several years and there are seeds out there that have grown large and there are some that have sprouted. And there are a few, I’ve still hopeful for.

But you know what. I’m not going to give up. It is not time for the harvest yet. I’m not going to give up and call someone a dud spud because they haven’t grown in 7 years.

It is not time to dig in the dirt yet. Will I see everyone in heaven that I have spent time investing in? I HOPE so, but I won’t know until I get there. So until then, I’m not going to give up. You will never hear me say, that person is a lost cause.

A situation may come up where they reject the message I give and I have to walk away from them.

But, you know what is interesting about seeds? Once planted, they stay until they grow or decay.

I’ve planted lots of seeds. So even if someone rejects the message you bring. You’ve still planted in their life. you may never see them again, but maybe decades down the road, that seed you planted will sprout and grow. And you might never know this side of eternity. And that’s okay. You’ll know one day.

One thing I love more than anything else in the world is people.

It’s not a love I was born with. You see, years ago a seed was planted in my soul and it grew. It’s still growing. But my first love was not loving people.

It’s not a secret, though you may not know, but I am an introvert.

And there is a misconception about introvert. That we hate people. We don’t

If you don’t know much about introverts and extroverts. The basics are.

Extroverts gain dopamine and energy by being around people.

Introverts spend dopamine and energy by being around people.

I have a hard time in large groups of people. I tend to gravitate to the people I know and stick close.

And before I came to Christ, my go to was to avoid people at all costs.

But then I started to grow. I started to love people. Still all the same problems, but I love people.

I still feel really drained after being in a large group. I still shy away from large groups of people I don’t know.

But since I love people. I’m putting in the work. Just like the Bly gardeners.

Because when you love something, you put in the work. Not knowing the result, but hoping for a good result when the harvest comes in.

I don’t know where you are at with you walk with Jesus. Some have been at it a long time.

Some of you are new at it.

My only challenge to you this advent season is to plant a seed. Whether it’s with a family member, a community member, or a grocery clerk at the store you almost never go to.

Doesn’t matter. And you might say, but Pastor, I don’t know what to say.

“Jesus loves you and so do I.” That’s it. Well, it’s a seed. And maybe the person will ask you more. They might spit at you, or hug you. You never know until you plant. And once you do, that seed is there.

My hope is that every Christ follower in this room will plant a seed this season. You can think of it as homework if you have to to do it just once.

But once you start loving on people. It gets your heart growing. That’s a promise.

Let’s Pray