07.17.2026 - Eastgate Service - God Brings the Growth

Scripture: Mark 4:26-29

Mark 4:26–29 NIV

26 He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. 27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. 28 All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. 29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”

God Brings the Growth

Movement 1 - Christmas Peppers

Have you ever grown plants in a garden? I bet some of you have, and you know firsthand how it feels trusting God for growth.

Several years ago, Bekah and I decided to grow some peppers. We'd never grown peppers like these before. They weren't big green bell peppers; they were supposed to be small, thin, chili peppers of some kind or another—something we expected to be a little more on the spicy side. We planted them in potting soil, watered them, and watched and waited. We kept them inside the house for a while, away from the animals or insects that might bother them, in hopes that they would grow faster and healthier.

As they started growing, we tried to put them outside for a little while to give them some good sunlight and fresh air. They would grow a little bit, and then they'd stop growing. There were several times when we thought the plant had died before it even had a little pepper on it. It went like this all through the summer, and we thought maybe we didn't know what we were doing with these kinds of peppers. Around September, I just gave up on them. But God didn't, and those pepper plants slowly grew, little by little, through the fall.

Finally, in December, long after all the other plants had given up their fruit and fallen asleep for the winter, our little plant gave us Christmas peppers. They were long, thin, and bright red. Some of them had no flavor at all, and others felt like a firecracker going off in your mouth. You couldn't tell what it was going to be until you bit into it. It was always a surprise with those Christmas peppers God gave us.

In our scripture today, Jesus tells us that life with God is often like growing plants. There are some things we know and some things that are a mystery. We have a part to play, but the actual growth always depends on God.

Movement 2 - Scattering Seed

The story begins with a farmer scattering seed. Seed is valuable to farmers and gardeners. If you've gone to the store to buy it, the package often tells you to dig down a couple of inches into the soil, plant it down there, and keep the seeds four, five, or six inches apart. There are a lot of ways that we have learned to try to plant seeds to get the best results.

But Jesus says this farmer isn't planting his seeds; he's scattering them. He's grabbing a handful of them and throwing them. And wherever they land, that's where they're planted. He knows they will get tilled under later. But scattering seed? That's like little kids picking up those dandelions and blowing the seeds all across the yard. They don't even pay attention to where they land. They know more dandelions will be growing up somewhere in the yard next week.

When you're with God, you don't have to be an expert. He can do His work with those who plant with great care and precision. He works with the toddlers who don't know what they're doing. He can work with those who just mow over last year's garden and say, "There's the seed scattered." He invites you to grab a handful of seeds and toss them out the window, or you can sit back and simply watch Him grow all the seeds that other people scatter.

Movement 3 - God Brings the Growth

You've seen it in the cornfields all around us: corn plants growing up from the soil, where the scattered seeds are nearly invisible. We start to see little green stems and leaves grow up. And what's the farmer doing? Taking a break from scattering seed, praying for God to send the rain and the sun in just the right amounts so those little plants grow up to be knee-high by the 4th of July.

Some of those farmers are ambitious, and they get out there every day with a measuring stick to see how tall the corn is growing and when it starts forming ears of corn. They are trusting God is bringing the growth, and they are looking for those ears to form. Other farmers spend most of their day watching the Weather Channel and praying that the weather stays good while they rest up, because they are trusting God to bring the growth, and they want to make sure they are ready when it gets there.

Back in Jesus' day, they didn't have air conditioning. And in the summer heat, those farmers were probably tired of being in the sun, tired of being tired—resting and trusting that God would take care of them. And Jesus tells us it doesn't matter if the farmer keeps busy in the fields each day or watches from the window of his house or the rocking chair on his porch, because God works with all of those scattered seeds. He brings the growth in them, and when those ears grow up and fully mature, those ears are filled with big kernels of corn.

At the end of the season, all the farmers have fields full of corn ready for the harvest because God brought the growth.

Movement 4 - The Harvest

The farmers watch, and when the grain is ripe, they go out and harvest it.

Jesus ends the story right there, and he can do that because most of us have some kind of experience with the way plants grow and produce food for us. There are things that we know about harvesting that he doesn't have to say in this story. We know that the farmer will harvest much more corn than they planted at the beginning of the season because that's the way God designs and helps plants grow.

We know that most of the time, farms and gardens produce much more food than the farmer can eat himself, and sometimes much more than he can even harvest himself. He has to get help to bring it all in and then sell it or give it away. That means there are always people out there who don't do any planting but are invited in at the end to come and be part of the harvest.

There are many people, like you and I, who may not have planted anything this year and won't have anything to harvest. But we're still going to have food in the stores and on our tables because God continues to make those plants grow. He leaves those invitations open for people to come and work with and watch him grow those fields.

Jesus says, "This is what it's like living with God." He's always taking small things, growing them, multiplying them, and turning them into blessings, one small miracle at a time. Sometimes we get to watch that growth happen; other times, we just experience the blessing. Sometimes we scatter our leftover blessings, wondering what God will do with them. Other times, he invites me to come in and harvest the blessing, to be filled and sustained by it, and to share it with others.

There are those little opportunities that sometimes God invites us into—to walk with Him and see Him work. And even when we get really close to that work, really involved, it's always a little bit of a mystery how God grows those tiny seeds of faith into something that multiplies and feeds the world around it. None of that happens because of what we do. It happens because of what God does. It happens because of who He is.

He loves you. He has been scattering his grace and causing it to grow and bear fruit in and around you for your whole life. He's been working with people he's put in your life who scatter and harvest around you. And there may have been some times that you accepted his invitation to walk with him, scatter, harvest, and see that growth yourself. He is still bringing that growth around you. He's still going to care for you. You are always invited to be with him, even if the only thing you can do is watch him work, watch him grow—that grace and that love around you and within you.

It all happens in God's timing. So keep your eyes open for what God is growing around you while you are awake, and keep your heart open to trust the way he is growing you while you rest in Him.

Closing Prayer

Lord, thank you that you are a God of life and love. Thank you for making us so that we are never too old to grow closer to you. Thank you for inviting us to walk with you, to watch you work, and to trust you to make those tiny miracles of growth all happen together so that there's a harvest. We want to see that harvest, and we want to be part of it. All that we have and all we are, our big and our small and our nothing at all, we offer to you today. Plant us where you want us. Grow us into the people you call us to be. Help us rest, trust, and grow in your grace so we too can bear fruit and be a harvest for you. In Jesus' name. Amen.