2026-05-03 | Hidden Kingdon: Seeing What Others Miss | Keep On Sowing

Transcript

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Hey, I'm Kevin. Thanks for listening to our message. We strive each week to bring you relevant, practical, biblical teaching and meet you where you are. Hope you enjoy the message.

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Uh, today for this uh actually this entire month, and uh we're gonna be talking about um hidden hidden uh kingdom messages, seeing what so many others miss in um in some of the parables, specifically in the book of Mark. And so um, if we could uh if you turn to Mark chapter four, and uh we're actually for the next couple of weeks we'll probably be in this chapter. There's only um five parables of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Other other gospels have lots of his parables, but Mark zeroes in on uh only a few of the parables, and uh we're going to look at one of those today, probably one of the most familiar uh parables in scripture. And um I'm going to read this now, and then we're gonna break it down and focus on it. Mark chapter 4, beginning with verse 1. Is this on the screen? Yeah. Again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake, while all the people were along the shore at the water's edge. He taught them many things by parables, and in his teaching said, Listen, a farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell among along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so that they did not bear grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times. Then he said, Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear. When he was alone, the twelve and the others around him asked him about the parables. He told them, The secret of the kingdom of God has been given to you. But to those on the outside, everything is said in parables. So that, and he quotes from Isaiah here, they may be ever seeing but never perceiving, and ever hearing but never understanding. Otherwise, they might turn around and be forgiven. Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable? How then will you understand any parable? The farmer sows the word, some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. Others, like seeds sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. 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. Still others, like seeds sown among thorns, hear the word. But the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Others, like seeds sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown. This past week, as I was studying this passage, God made me fall in love with the name Water's Edge Church of God. I was never a huge fan of it. Not not because of it being a traditionalist and and Shorewood Church of God was the best name ever before you changed your name. And I see I see sometimes churches, not just this one, but churches, they they they want to change their name or they they want to remodel something or they want to get a new logo. And those are horizontal things. They want to change the bylaws, they want to change the structure. And and those things don't produce change. The only thing that really produces change and and can flip a church around from moving forward in a direction and having new life, it's not a new logo or it's not a name change. It's when mission becomes priority and when relationships are good. So you could call you could call yourself any name at all. And if relationships and mission isn't on target, it doesn't matter. Took me a long time to figure that out. It probably took me consulting with dozens upon dozens of churches. Because I used to think that if you just changed the name and you got chairs instead of pews, you could rock this community. Or if you got rid of the organ and the piano and you brought in other instruments, then and all of those things may help, but it doesn't bring lasting change. As a matter of fact, I I helped uh uh with a video of a recording it of why why the the idea of water's edge carried with it submission behind it. But this week, this week God changed my heart. He changed my heart because of what happens on the edge of the water. It starts off Mark chapter four, verses one and two. It's he's the the first word that Mark uses is again. Again. He was on the land and he was right at the edge of the water. Specifically, it wasn't just water, it was the sea. And the sea in scripture represents chaos. Not living water. Living water is a good thing. But if you look at this the scripture and when it talks about the sea, it's it's we are not in control when we're on the sea. We can fish all night and not catch anything. A storm can come up and make us think that the end of the world is coming. We can get pulled out in an undertow in the sea. The sea represents chaos. The land, the land is secure. The land is where ordinary life happens. The land is where we can run and we can sit and we can walk and we can build a house and we can drive on land. But when we get in the sea, when we get in the water, it's a different story. And life begins to become chaotic. And it's a different kind of respect that you have to have when you're in the sea or when you're in a lake or when you're in the ocean. Swimming in the ocean is to be done carefully. It's to be done carefully. It can be done, but it can be done carefully. You need to pay attention to the color of the flags that are on the beach and the signs that are on the beach. They're there for our safety because if you step out beyond those boundaries, it can become chaotic. Things happen. I don't know if how many of you are have a boat or you've done any type of boating or anything, but you have to be careful in a boat. You you just can't, because you can drive a car, doesn't mean that you can drive a boat. You've got to get used to it because you have to respect the sea. Some of you have been on a cruise before where you've had a night that that the the this huge ship that you think there's no way this thing's even gonna move. But the sea can toss these cruise ships around like they're little toys. Again, Jesus is on the edge. Jesus is on the edge where ordinary life happens, where people live. And chaos is always close by. Chaos is where life gets messy. Chaos is maybe chaos is where some of you feel today. That the security that you know is possible to feel, you're not feeling that right now. It feels more like you're not on the land where it's secure and you know, you know what's happening on the land. Maybe it feels like life for you is on the sea, and it it feels somewhat chaotic and feels somewhat out of control. Where's Jesus? Well, he's on the edge. He's on the edge until the crowd begins to get too busy. And so Jesus, not afraid of the sea, steps into a boat and pulls himself or or pushes himself out so he can speak from the sea. Here's the actual translation of the Greek. And I'm going to I'm going to give you the real Greek to English translation. And it's rough, and that's why we have translators, because translators will take the real Greek translation and they'll smooth it out for us. But in the smoothing of it, we lose some things sometimes, and I think we do in this one. Here's what the Greek actually says, word for word. And again, he began to teach beside the lake and gathered together to him a huge crowd, so that he, into a boat, having gotten into sits on the lake. And all the crowd near the lake on the ground. Mark actually says Jesus sits on the lake. He doesn't say he sits in the boat. He doesn't say Jesus sits in the boat. I think it's on purpose. I think it's on purpose. Jesus, because what Jesus does is he sits on our chaos. And it is on the lake. It's on the lake that he walks on water. See, the chaos that comes into our life cannot be, can, cannot throw Jesus off balance. Jesus controls. He doesn't control the storm, he speaks to the storm. In another setting, he casts demons off of a cliff, and these demons run off the ledge and into the water, into the chaos. You want to see a strong Jesus? Watch him at water's edge. When I wrote that, I just had to stop and say thank you, Lord. Thank you for the wisdom that that the leaders that the leaders were pulled towards. Whether they knew it or not. Thank you for the wisdom that comes to me today from their decision to say, water's edge. See, I was looking at it, I was looking at it as, yeah, there's water, but it's over there. I mean, it to me, water's edge, it means we would have water right in front of the church. But but this week, all that changed for me. It all changed for me because I every time I'm gonna say water's edge, I think I'm I think I'm gonna be able to do a little subtitle to it. It's water's edge, where life is never the same. It's where Jesus meets us. And then and then in this text, Jesus says in verse three, listen. Does anybody else have a different translation of verse three with you today? Because there is a word that is missing in verse three. What do what what Janice, what do you have? Say it again. Harken, right? Okay, it I can I can't hear you. I think you said listen. There you go. Okay, okay. Harken. Harken means what? Listen, right? And that's and that's what our translation says. And then it says behold. The Greek has that as well. The Greek is listen and look. Listen and behold. But most of our translations take the word look out and they smooth it out so it makes more sense to us when we read it. And sometimes I like that, but in this case I didn't, because I mean, honestly, listen is the highest command. And I understand why translators do that and they're smarter than I am. So I'm not judging them, but I think it misses something. Watch this. Listen to Jesus and watch Jesus. That's what Mark is wanting you to say. Don't just listen to him. I want you to watch him. Because what he's about to tell you in this parable, in this story that he's about to tell you, he's talking about what he's doing. So he doesn't want you just to listen to the story because it's a good story. He wants you to watch him because he's going to demonstrate this story right now. Listen and watch because he's going to tell us something. He's going to tell us something that is hidden. It's a kingdom secret. He's about to tell us a story. A parable is different than an allegory, and sometimes we we kind of run them together. An allegory is meant to be studied. Allegory has lots of, the author writes an allegory, and you you're able to look at this allegory and pick out all these pieces of an allegory that mean something, but but a parable is meant to just be heard. And so you don't really sit down with a parable and dissect it. Now we do because we have it written down in front of us. But when Jesus told a story, it was just, it was a story that he was telling, and you would just, you would remember the part that you heard. And someone else could tell that same story, and they would remember a different part of that story. Here's the story. Some translations might say the farmer. But in this story, Jesus is the sower. On the water, and he's sowing seed. He says, on the path, a farmer sows the seed and nothing happens. And it's almost as the crowd would say, oh no. Like in the story, in the story, as Jesus is telling it, he would say, This sower is sowing seeds and he's throwing it on a path and nothing happens. And the crowd would say, Oh no. And then Jesus would go on and he'd say, Oh, and on the rocks, the seed would grow a little bit, and there was no root, and so it would wither away. There was nothing left. And the crowd would say, Oh no. And then among the thorns, the seed would would go and it would grow, grow, and and uh it would be choked out, and that and that plant would die, and the crowd would say, See, what happens, what happens next is it, it's like this is awful. It's it's getting it's getting worse. We have in in our collection of stories, we have the three pigs, right? On the third one, on the third one, when you tell a story, it's on the third one it gets better. So the first pig builds a house, and I don't know, it's out of what? Straw? What? Straw, straw, and it and the wolf blows the house down, and the crowd would say, oh no. And then the second one, he would build it out of sticks, sticks, and the wolf comes and blows it down, and oh no. And then the next one he built it out of bricks, and the huffed and the puffed, and you couldn't blow it down. You have two ugly stepsisters, and they wanted to marry a prince, and the first one, oh no, the second one, oh no. But then Rindercella comes, or Cinderella comes. Right? Some of you old people remember Rindercella. But anyway, Cinderella. It's the third one. So when Jesus is telling the story and he gets to the third one, the people are listening to this, and it's like, it's like, now, please understand, they're not comparing it to the three little pigs, but they're comparing it to the third time in the story, there's usually a twist. But the third one in the story is an oh no, too. And then Jesus says, but there's some good soil. There's some good soil that the seed falls into and it grew and it increases and it yields 30 and 60 and a hundredfold. This is good soil. Now, most people will preach, or most preachers would preach this and they would say, So, what type of soil are you? Right? And and and we're supposed to kind of interrogate our lives. Like, we're we are we're rocky, we're, you know, but we don't go very deep, and our soil isn't good. And and you can do that. There's nothing wrong with looking at this message that way. Um, and if you look at the story, when Matthew tells the story, it certainly even yields itself to more of that kind of response. But in Mark, I think Mark is telling this story, and it's different because this story isn't about what kind of soil are you? It's about you being the sower. It's about you being the sower. Mark's focus is the secret to the kingdom and watching Jesus and the harvest. And remember, remember, Mark says, I want you to listen and I want you to look. You are on the land, Jesus says. But I'm on the chaos. And I want you to listen and I want you to watch me. This world has hard soil. We sing about it. We sing through many dangers, toils, and snares, I have already come, right? This parable is not in Mark. This parable is not about you making your soil better and having a better life. So make sure you weed your heart and throw the rocks away in your spirit, right? I think in Mark, Mark is saying, no matter how bad life gets, and no matter how hopeless the chaos in this world gets, you need to know this. Life is tough. Life is tough. I mean, just watch the news. Nothing but repeated failures, death, lies, people falling from power, people rising to power, then failing over and over and over again. Life is about corruption. Life is about the wrong of this world. It's horrible. But we have good news. And the good news is keep sowing because God is working. No matter how bad it gets, keep sowing because God is not finished. He's not finished. We keep sowing. Yes, we sow and there's some bad soil and we sow and there's some rocky soil and we sow and there's some weeds, but every once in a while we sow and it falls into good soil and it changes a life. I know, I know we want a Tony Robbins life or a Joel Olstein theology. Me too. But it's not life. It's not what life is about. It's not what it's like. If you just listen and look at Jesus' ministry, the same crowd that was following him and praising him and teaching, he said, Oh, teach us more. Hallelujah, hallelujah. They within 24 hours were saying, just crucify him. Same people. Peter, who followed Jesus so closely and said, I'll never deny you. And Jesus says, Yes, you will. And Peter said, No, I won't. And 24 hours later, he does. His buddy Judas, his buddy Judas, who followed him for three years, betrayed him, stole money. It's rocky soil. It's not good soil, but didn't stop Jesus from sowing. Because every once in a while, every once in a while you sow the seed, and every once in a while that seed falls on some good ground and it takes root and it produces 30 and 60 and a hundredfold. Yesterday, Lisa and I had uh a break in our schedule, and we were able to go to uh Levi and Ray's soccer game, and uh they're I mean they're just they're just out there, you know, they're so they're so tiny out there, and they just kind of all run in herds, and uh and Aaron's the coach. Aaron's the coach, and uh the the whole really the whole purpose is is keep your eyes on the ball and run towards run in the right direction, you know, and I heard parents so many times say, other way, turn around, you know, and they would just start running and they no wrong way and turn around and run in the right direction. Every once in a while, every once in a while, those kids they would take off running and get ahead of the crowd and they'd score. Ray scored twice, Levi scored once, we missed that, we missed Levi's. Every once in a while, you never know. The same Levi that was running in the wrong direction scored. Every once in a while you sow a seed, and a marriage is saved. Every once in a while you sow a seed and and you have a young person go all in for Christ. This church sowed a seed in a young man that he he could drive you crazy with his questions and his following you around, but today that young man he's pastoring a church in Danville, Illinois, community church of God in Danville. Because you sowed a seed in him. When he tells his story, I'm talking about Troy Bennett, when he tells his story, he he talks of Kevin and how Kevin would sow a seed in him, and how one day that seed just started to grow. Every once in a while. Every once in a while you sow a seed and it catches. You sow a seed and a confused and a misguided person shifts and they change and they find peace in their life. Every once in a while you sow a seed and a child remembers what their teacher taught them in Sunday school. Every once in a while you sow a seed, and a man for the first time hears that serving his wife is more fun than hanging with the boys, and that serving Jesus is what a real man does. And you sow that seed. Discourage church, sow the seed. Discourage, friend, sow the seed. Because God is at work even when it doesn't seem like he's working. Sow the seed. Shouldn't we ask? What kind of soil are we? Another day. Another day. I don't want you to uninterrogate yourself today on whether you are rocky soil or have weeds or have too many things in your life that's stealing the seed. I I I want you to know something else today. I want you to know that we cannot experience the yes of God until we journey through seasons of no. I feel pain for pastors that experience lots and lots of success early in their ministry. I fear for young couples who are starting off that will not struggle, particularly with financial issues. I hurt for people who don't know how to struggle and remain faithful. Because it's my suffering that has refined me. It's the rejection that I have had in my own life from people that I was close to that refined me into the person I am today. It's the very painful things that I would cry out to God and say, How could you allow this to happen? Those are the things that have that have made me a calmer presence to be around. That has made our marriage of 41 years good. It's staying faithful in times when the church turns their back on you and you feel like you've been rejected. I think back over my life and I think of all the people that have come and gone and come and gone. I think of people who have who have come in and I've been so excited, and they kind of turn their Jesus on for a couple years. And then something happens in life and they turn their Jesus off. I thought of this week of the thousands of dollars that this church invested into young people and into missions and into ministries. And some of those individuals, they they've walked away from the church. They've turned their back on the church. I know some that even curse the church. And it could make us feel like, well, we're not sowing into those teenagers anymore. I remember that group from the 90s. No, you keep sowing. You keep sowing. We're gonna sow. We don't know what kind of soil is in everybody's life, so we're gonna keep preaching and we're gonna keep sowing. Because every once in a while, every once in a while that seed will fall into ground, and it'll reap. You see, the score of the harvest isn't about oh, they're rocky soil or where does the seed grow? It's about listening and watching Jesus, and he never stopped sowing. He never stopped sowing. And today, through the gift of the Holy Spirit in our lives, we continue that legacy of Jesus of just we continue to sow. That's what we do because we know greater is he that is in me than he that is in this world. So I want to say to you today, my friend, this world needs you. The church needs you. We have to keep sowing. We can never stop investing, we can never stop sowing, we can never stop teaching, we can never stop loving, we can never stop stretching our faith because Jesus is on top of it, He is on top of our chaos. So don't be discouraged. Your sowing is not in vain, your sowing is not in vain. Keep giving, keep speaking, keep showing up even when you don't feel like it. Keep talking to your friends, keep praying for the harvest. Because God is up to something. And he is moving. What's pulling your heart today? What what is it that's pulling your heart? I ask, I pray that you're giving in to the pull of Jesus. That that the things of this world, those things that can choke out that seed, you're you're giving in to the pull of Jesus. And Jesus's call is you keep sowing, you keep investing, you keep doing the right thing because it matters. It matters. Band will come up. I want to ask you just a quick question this morning, and I'll pray. And just a little while, I'm gonna give you an opportunity to respond. Because I want to pray for those of you who might just feel a heaviness or a discouraged being discouraged, or you're at a point where maybe you just feel like, is this really worth it? It doesn't seem like anything is is going in the right direction. I just want to I want to pray for you and I want to encourage you, I want to encourage you to just remain faithful. You remain faithful, keep keep sowing, keep speaking the word, because you never know where that seed's gonna fall. Jesus, I uh I thank you for this message and mark. I thank you, God, for the for the simplicity of such a powerful story of the lesson that of the lesson that reminds us as you were as you were so as you were telling this story, you were actually sowing seed, and some of those individuals heard that story, and maybe it flipped their switch for a little while, but then it kind of got turned off. Maybe it, maybe some of them they didn't even hear it. They didn't, they were like, I don't know what this guy is even talking about. But I wonder who else was in the crowd that day that caught the secret of the kingdom, that saw that that you were speaking into where they lived, and they watched your life. They not only listened to the story, but they watched your life and they saw how important it was to never give up, to not grow discouraged, to just sow. To just plant seeds. Father, I pray for those who have maybe someone in mind or a situation in mind today. I pray that you would minister to their heart. I pray that that they would find encouragement and not only in our worship, but in just being in your presence today, of hearing this message, of the importance of just staying with it, not giving up, not letting anything destroy or discourage or bring them down. Let's speak afresh, fall fresh on this congregation. May we today be reminded of how important it is to continue sowing that seed and children and in our students and in life groups and in in people that are wandering about this world, people who are overcome with the chaos of life. God, may we speak peace into their life. May they find that that seed grows 30, 60, and a hundredfold. In Jesus' name. Amen.

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