Grow: Seed
Notes
Transcript
September 20, 2020
Dominant Thought: God intends for His kingdom people to grow.
Objectives:
I want my listeners to understand that God wants them to grow in the walk with Him.
I want my listeners to commit to one habit that will help them grow.
I want my listeners to understand the four stages of spiritual growth.
God intends for His kingdom people to grow. We observe growth throughout life. You have grown a little bit since your birth. We see growth happen in nature. The crops around us have grown. Those who have gardens have seen tomatoes and potatoes grow.
The challenge is that spiritual growth happens differently than physical growth. For people to grow spiritually, we must partner with God’s Spirit. When we give the Spirit healthy conditions, then growth will naturally occur.
Over the next four weeks, we will look at the four stages of spiritual growth. We use an analogy from nature. The four stages we use are: seed, seedling, tree, orchard. Greg Hawkins and Cally Parkinson wrote a book called, Move: What 1,000 Churches Reveal About Spiritual Growth. In that book, they identify the four stages of growth as: Exploring Christ, Growing in Christ, Close to Christ, and Christ-Centered. In that book, they share, “Spiritual growth is not linear or predictable. It is a complex process as unique as each individual” (page 26).
Our text today is a parable from Mark 4.26-29. This parable is unique to Mark. Whenever I read this parable, I think about my friend Wayne Shaw when he shared these verses with our leaders years ago when we started down the path of Natural Church Development. This parable in Mark 4 highlights that God’s kingdom is all about growth.
Let’s read our text.
He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.
Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.
All by itself the soil produces grain—first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.”
As we look at this parable, I want to think of it in terms of planting, growing, and harvesting.
First, a seed must be planted before it can grow.
We have witnessed this truth this year. Earlier this Spring, our farmers planted millions of seeds in the ground all around us. The seed must go into the ground before it can grow. Said another way, there is a starting point in the growth process. We all start somewhere and some time.
Here are some descriptions of the seed stage from our Deeper Life 101 notebook:
Love God’s Son: I develop a personal knowledge and relationship with Jesus Christ.
Love God’s Spirit: I receive Christ by faith—confession, repentance, baptism and obedience.
Love God’s Family: I get connected into a redemptive relationships and involved in some ministry.
Love God’s World: I see my life and my world in terms of its dire need for Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at the phrase in Mark 4.27 that describes the farmer, “whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows.” The word for “get up” describes waking up. It is used just a few verses later in Mark 4.38 during the storm on the Sea of Galilee and Jesus was asleep in the boat. Then, the disciples “woke him” (Mark 4.38). Some times the word is used to call people to action, as Jesus called out to the blind man, “Get up he’s calling you” (Mark 10.49). Still another use of this word for “rise” describes Jesus rising from the dead. It is resurrection talk. The Jews may have heard this word as God restoring their fortunes (N.T. Wright, Mark for Everyone). God will turn things around.
For those who are exploring Christ, those in the seed stage, the key question you need to answer is, “Did Jesus raise from the dead?” If that is true, then the claims he makes are true and we must respond. Our faith rises and falls with the resurrection of Jesus. So, if that is true, then Jesus calls you to follow. That is the first step of the journey, the seed stage.
The key relationship to establish in the seed stage is your relationship with Jesus. Scripture invites you to confess your faith before others (Romans 10.9). You tell others that you love Jesus. The Bible invites you to repent or to change your way of thinking (Acts 2.38). Repentance describes a U-turn. You turn away from Christ and turn back to Christ. The next step of the seed journey is to be baptized into Christ. You are not baptized into a church, but into Christ. When you are baptized, you unite with Jesus in His death and life (Romans 6.5). All of these steps are part of the seed stage.
The seed stage is not the end. In the same way, faith, confession, repentance, and baptism are not the end. It is the beginning of your journey with Jesus, a journey focused on growth.
Second, a seed must grow in order to produce fruit.
While planting and harvesting do take time, the longest portion of time in the plant’s life is the growth process. For example, the corn near our church was planted in April or May, four or five months ago. However, it only took a day to put those seeds in the ground and it will take a day with today’s technology to take that crop out.
The planting and the harvesting are the exciting parts of the process. It is quite boring to wait for the seed to grow.
This parable is about the kingdom of God. The kingdom was established when Jesus walked the earth. He started the kingdom and invites all people to join His kingdom reign. Yes, it is difficult to follow Christ, but He gives us help. He gives us His Spirit. He gives us the church. We are not alone.
The word that unlocks this parable for me is found in Mark 4.28, “all by itself.” It is where we get the word automatically. It is only used in this verse in the New Testament. It describes the mystery of growth.
The Apostle Paul describes God’s activity in growth when he writes to the church in Corinth in 1 Corinthians 3.6.
I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow.
When the environment is healthy, then growth will naturally happen. When it is toxic, illness and even death result.
Earlier this summer, we were enjoying our hollyhocks that are planted by our garage. Those beautiful flowers grew nearly seven feet tall. They nearly died out a few years ago, but this summer was their brightest in years.
One day, I found an old weed eater in the garage. I wasn’t sure it still worked. So, I put some fuel in and found that the pulley was stripped out and was not going to work. I was going to toss it in the trash but before I trashed it I dumped the remaining fuel out in the driveway. We had a heat wave come through that weekend. Then, as we pulled into our garage a couple days later, those beautiful hollyhocks had turned brown, almost like someone had burned them up. Then, I realized I may have burned up their roots when I dumped that fuel out in the driveway near them. When the environment is toxic death occurs.
My friends, let’s create healthy life giving environments for our souls to grow as members of God’s kingdom. What is one thing you can do this week to help create a healthy environment to grow in God’s kingdom? One of my teachers describes spiritual growth as “Word Intake.” What does your word intake look like? Is God’s Word finding its way to your heart? For those in the word, can you take it a step further and reflect, meditate, or memorize portions of God’s Word? I’m proud of our young people. I can see them reading and finishing plans on their YouVersion Bible apps. God’s Word is the surest way to growing in your walk with Jesus.
We will spend more time on the growth stages of seedling, tree, and orchard in the coming weeks. What I want you to see is that no matter where you find yourself on the journey, God wants you to grow because the harvest is coming.
Third, a seed that produces fruit will be harvested.
There comes a time in every seed’s life that the combine will roll through the field. That is the true test of the seed’s potential. The sickle of Jesus’ day has been sharpened and motorized. But the outcome is still the same. Bring in the crop. The sickle and harvest imagery of the Bible is a picture of judgment. The prophet Joel gives a picture of the harvest in reference to judgment in Joel 3.
“Let the nations be roused; let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side.
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full and the vats overflow— so great is their wickedness!”
In that context in the Old Testament, wickedness would be judged and held accountable. There are more images throughout the Scriptures that connect the harvest to the judgment of God.
To prepare for the judgement, we could benefit from what Stephen Covey teaches people. He instructs people to “begin with the end in mind.” That is true in your daily choices as well as how you live in the light of eternity. The harvest is coming. What type of crop will your seed produce?
Dominant Thought: God intends for His kingdom people to grow.
It is what Craig Groeschel calls a growth mindset. He applies it to organizations, but the same applies to individuals. People say, “I can’t do that.” He invites people to change their way of thinking by adding one simple word to that statement, “I can’t do that YET.” The word, “Yet” implies some time. It also implies some expectation. “She hasn’t finished her homework, Yet.” Give her some time and she will get it done. What statements of growth could you change from can’t to Yet? I haven’t memorized that verse YET. I haven’t invited my friend to church YET. I haven’t written down my prayer list YET. I invite you to turn your “Can’ts” into “Yets.”
The kingdom of God is both a present reality. We are members of God’s kingdom, now. And still there will be a day in the future when God’s kingdom will be completed at the second coming of Christ. Some people describe that as a now and not yet. There will be a day of reckoning. The harvest is coming. Will you be ready?
5 Day Devotional Guide on Spiritual Growth
Dominant Thought: God intends for His kingdom people to grow.
You may want to refer to the sermon notes for further discussion. Take a moment to read the assigned Scripture and then reflect or discuss the questions. Customize this outline to your situation. Here are some questions to ask from the Discovery Bible Method:
What are you thankful for today or this week?
What challenges are you facing?
Have 2 or 3 people read the scripture out loud.
Can you summarize this passage in your own words?
What did you discover about God from this passage?
What have you learned about people from this passage?
How are you going to obey this passage? (What is your “I will” statement?)
With whom are you going to share what you have learned?
Based on this passage, what can we pray about?
Day 1: Mark 4.26-29
Day 2: 1 Corinthians 3.1-9
Day 3: Galatians 5.22-26
Day 4: James 5.7-9
Day 5: Joel 3.9-16
