Look for Growth

7/12/2026

Order of Service:

Announcements

Opening Worship

Prayer Requests

Prayer Song

Pastoral Prayer

Kid’s Time

Offering (Doxology and Offering Prayer)

Scripture Reading

Sermon

Closing Song

Benediction

Special Notes:

Standard

Opening Prayer:

Gracious God, we confess that we do not always receive Your Holy Word with open hearts. We allow the cares of the world to choke our faith. Forgive us and help us to bear fruit for Your kingdom. We pray this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Call to Worship

Leader: The Lord visits the earth and waters it; He enriches it abundantly.

People: The streams of God are filled with water to provide the people with grain.

Leader: The seed falls on good soil and yields a bountiful harvest.

People: We come to worship the one who gives life and growth.

Leader: Come, let us lift our voices to the Lord of the harvest.

All: Alleluia! We rejoice in God’s provision!

Scripture: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

Matthew 13:1–9 NIV

1 That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the lake. 2 Such large crowds gathered around him that he got into a boat and sat in it, while all the people stood on the shore. 3 Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. 4 As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. 5 Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. 6 But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. 7 Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. 8 Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. 9 Whoever has ears, let them hear.”

Matthew 13:18–23 NIV

18 “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: 19 When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. 20 The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. 21 But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. 22 The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. 23 But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Look for Growth

Movement 1: Milkweed in the Driveway

It's growing season, which means many of us are busy trying to keep our plants growing and the things we didn't plant out of the way.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered one of those things I didn't plant growing right up out of a crack in the middle of our paved driveway. It had grown into a long green shoot with six or eight long green leaves, right there in the path we walk to our cars and in the way of taking the garbage can out to the curb. There were several times when I thought about pulling it up or even just kicking it over.

One day, I walked out, and there was a worm on that plant, clinging to one of the leaves. I thought, "Oh no! Is this the beginning of an infestation? Is this one of those worms that come through and decimate all the plants?" I could see that worm starting to nibble on the leaf he was attached to, but I walked on by and left him alone. The next day, there were a dozen worms on that little plant. The day after that, there was almost nothing left of it. The worms had gone, and there was barely a green stem left sticking up out of the ground. Those worms were gone, probably off finding another plant to munch on.

By this point, I had recognized what the plant was and had a good guess about those worms as well. It was a volunteer milkweed plant, probably from the patch we have growing in the flower bed on the side of our house. Those milkweed plants spread all over and will pop up anywhere, even in the middle of the driveway. They grow for a short season, spread their seeds and feed insects, and then rest underground for the rest of the year. Those little worms that I saw were not the kind of thing that gets in and decimates your gardens. They were the beginnings of the monarch butterflies that we will get to enjoy later in the summer. And because I let it go and protected that growth, it worked just as God intended.

I wouldn't plant the milkweed in a driveway, but our scripture today tells us about the God who does.

Movement 2: The Sower

As the crowds were gathering, Jesus begins to tell them this story about a ridiculous farmer, kind of like Old MacDonald, with plants everywhere instead of animals. This farmer takes the seed he has—the most valuable commodity he owns—and just scatters it everywhere, as if he's singing the song, "Here's a plant, there's a plant, everywhere is a plant."

He scatters seed on the road. He probably scatters seed in his driveway. He scatters seed in rocky soil. He scatters his seed among patches of weeds. After using all of that, he still has some left to scatter on fertile ground as well. Then he watched those seeds sprout and grow.

The seed on the road couldn't even get started, and the birds ate it.

The rocky soil looked ok on the surface, but it had no depth, and the seeds could not grow roots deep enough to mature, so they withered in the heat of the sun.

The seed in the weeds found good soil and started growing, but the weeds were stronger and choked their growth, robbing them of the light and water they needed, keeping them small.

Finally, that last group grew in the good soil. It put down roots, grew, and bore fruit. Some of those plants in the good soil brought a miraculous harvest, some brought a moderate harvest, and some just brought a little bit of harvest.

The way Jesus tells this story makes me think this farmer thought every seed he scattered was worth it.

I wonder what Matthew heard in this parable.

The ministry was already growing when Jesus began teaching in parables like this. Jesus had sent his disciples out to preach, teach, and heal, and to expect that they would not always be received. That was exactly what happened. Even though they faced challenges, word about Jesus spread, and crowds began to gather around them, despite the growing conflict with the religious leaders.

Honestly, if it were me, that's the point I would think about changing tactics and figuring out how to mobilize this crowd to do even more than what Jesus had been able to do with the 12. But as I read through these stories of Jesus, he seems to always have his eye on every individual person. Matthew gives me the impression that, no matter how big the crowd, Jesus was always speaking to him and to the other disciples he had called out of nowhere.

It was like Jesus was always teaching on multiple levels. What he gave to the crowd, they received as good spiritual food to help them through the day, directing their attention to God. But in the very same words, what he gave to the disciples was something deeper—a kind of pulling back the curtain and showing them God behind the scenes. Not only what God does in everyone, but what God was doing in them.

What was God doing? Scattering seed everywhere and watching for the growth.

Movement 3: The Soils

The crowds may have been intrigued by the story. The religious leaders were looking for ways to pick apart Jesus' authority, and his disciples were recognizing that there was more going on here than they could see. So they went to Jesus and asked him why he was teaching in parables. Jesus told them that he taught in that way to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 6, verses 9 and 10.

There, Isaiah, along with the other prophets, was showing that we can't understand the things of God if our hearts are not open to receive Him. But Jesus encouraged his disciples and said, "You are blessed because you can see and hear." There were many people who longed to see and hear but did not get the opportunity.

And then, to show them how important it was to be receptive to God, he explained that parable to them. He says that the seed is the message about the kingdom. It's the word of God trying to get people's attention. When it falls on the path or on the road, that's a person whose heart is too hard to pay attention and understand it, and the evil one comes and snatches it away. When it falls under the rocky soil, it's received with joy, but it can't focus long enough to grow a root, and it only lasts a short time. As soon as trouble comes, that person falls away. The weedy soils are those whose hearts are filled with the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth. They find the word can take root and grow in them, but there is too much competition for attention, and it bears no fruit. We're going to hear more about them next week.

Then he says, "The one who receives it, whose heart has good soil, hears it and understands it, and produces a crop, yielding 100 times or 60 times or 30 times the seed that was sown."

(pause)

Nowhere in this parable did Jesus tell the disciples to do anything. The seed comes from God. The sower is God. And while each soil represents its own challenges and opportunities, the soil can't make itself one type or another. It simply receives God's word as best as it is able to.

Now, if we step back, what we see is a single picture —a frozen moment of a growing season. It is not just a picture of how some things naturally work out while others don't. It is a picture of a farmer who is intentionally scattering seed everywhere and watching for that growth, both in the good soil and in the places that we would never expect to see growth.

So the good news is that God shares his word everywhere, regardless of what type of soil it lands on. But I think there is more good news. This parable is just a picture of one growing season. It's not a history or a timeline because we know people can change. We know those disciples were not always receptive in a way that allowed it to grow in them with deep understanding and bear much fruit.

We, too, go through seasons where our hearts can be hard, lack depth, or can be filled with weeds. Most of the time, though, there's a little bit of everything all mixed together, with at least a couple of patches of good soil here and there. But seasons change, and those seasons change the soil. And God is in charge of those seasons. What we cannot receive, grow, and bear fruit from today, we may yet be able to tomorrow. Because God scatters his seed everywhere, that seed will still be there, and there will be more on the way.

Movement 4: Where Do You See Growth?

If God is using the seasons to work the soil of your heart to make it more receptive to His word, working on you from the outside and the inside all the time, and sharing His word, His love, His grace all over it every day, what are you going do with all of that?

I know we often come to church and expect a sermon to be like going to the doctor's office. We look for a problem and walk out with a prescription, then spend the rest of the week trying to decide if we're going to take that prescription or not.

But that's not what we have today.

Today, we are recognizing what God is already doing in us.

God knows we're not perfect. We all have our problems, and our problems aren't all the same. But He knows those problems better than we do, and He's already working on them. While those problems may bother us, they don't bother Him. The scripture today tells us that God doesn't only plant His word in good soil. He plants it in our problem areas as well, and everywhere He plants it, He watches for growth.

So what would it look like this week if, instead of looking for the problems, you looked for what was growing?

Where is your patch of good soil, and what does God have growing in it?

And if you feel lost in the weeds, what does God have growing right there in the middle of the weeds?

In the rocky soil of your heart, where things tried to grow and didn't last, what was God growing? And where is He still planting there?

And in the places of your heart that are too hard for anything, where do you see God scattering seed, trying to get your attention? Where do you see that ground beginning to break?

Our God is not an efficient farmer. He does not focus only on the good soil so that he can get the best out of it.

No, instead of strategy, our God chooses to show us His power, His love, His grace, and His faithfulness.

He is the God who is growing milkweed in the driveways, feeding the butterflies just to get our attention and remind us that He's still there. He's still in control. He's still working on the world around us, and He's still working inside of us. He's sharing Himself with us every day and watching for growth.

Where do you see that growth?

Closing Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for your mercy that you scatter upon us new each morning. Thank you for your love that reaches us in all seasons and uses those seasons to shape and mold us, and grow your grace in us. Thank you for your word that we do not deserve and that you so generously plant into us and watch for growth. Help us to watch with you. Help us to see what you see in others, and especially in ourselves. In those moments where we feel frustrated that we're not bearing the fruit we hope for, help us to trust you with the process and follow faithfully where you lead. We lift this up in Jesus' name. Amen.