SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Pray with me.
SPEAKER_01: God, how silly are we that the God of the universe, the King that makes all things, calls us to Him with mercy and grace, and yet we'll still run from you.
SPEAKER_01: We'll still do what we want to do.
SPEAKER_01: We'll still do our own preferences.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, how silly are we.
SPEAKER_01: God, you've demonstrated that you've got a long history of patience.
SPEAKER_01: But Lord, that should not be an excuse for us to ignore what you've done for us or what you're calling us to.
SPEAKER_01: And so let us not ignore you today.
SPEAKER_01: Let us hear from you.
SPEAKER_01: Holy Spirit, I pray in each believer that our hearts are ignited with a white hot fire for you.
SPEAKER_01: That we conduct ourselves in the ways of you, the ways of your kingdom, the ways that you command.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that you would clear away the distractions by the enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Let us just be free and our hearts and our minds open and our eyes and ears fully ready to receive you.
SPEAKER_01: Let us hear and listen.
SPEAKER_01: Speak, for your servants are ready to do your will.
SPEAKER_01: For it's in your name, Jesus, that I pray these things.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning or good day from wherever you're tuning into this.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Wade Burgess, and I'm the executive pastor here at Grand Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: And during this summer, uh we have been, meaning the staff and I, have been preaching through the parables of Jesus, really just stories that Jesus told to further illustrate his teaching or his points.
SPEAKER_01: Now, today's parable comes from Mark chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: And as you're turning there in your Bibles or maybe in your devices, I just want to give you a warning that I've given before when I've preached from a parable, and that is this.
SPEAKER_01: If you grew up in church or you're a longtime reader of the Bible, sometimes what can happen is we can tune out this idea of Jesus' stories because we think, yeah, I've heard it all before, I've read all that, yep, I know it.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, I've heard great preachers preach on it, et cetera, et cetera.
SPEAKER_01: What I want to challenge you with today is that let's approach today's story with a fresh set of eyes and ears as we understand what the Bible has to tell us and what does the Holy Spirit want us to hear.
SPEAKER_01: Most uh Bibles have this parable titled the Parable of the Growing Seed, but I want to add a little bit of a subtitle to that.
SPEAKER_01: My subtitle is Turning Loose the Word.
SPEAKER_01: How does God turn loose the word?
SPEAKER_01: Now, this parable is unique to Mark.
SPEAKER_01: It's actually only found in Mark, and I think it may be one of the shortest parables we have, but I think it also has the potential of huge implications to our understanding of the kingdom of God, how God uses his word, and what's the role for us in that kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: That's the three things I want to accomplish today.
SPEAKER_01: I want to maybe us unpack a little bit, letting the word do that for us.
SPEAKER_01: What is this kingdom of God that Jesus is talking about?
SPEAKER_01: How does God use his word?
SPEAKER_01: And what's our roles and responsibilities as believers in him?
SPEAKER_01: Now, by way of background, let me just say this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has been healing and teaching, his actions have drawn quite a crowd.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he's got all kinds of people coming to this: those that are in need, those that are curious.
SPEAKER_01: He's certainly got religious leaders of the day coming and hearing what he has to tell.
SPEAKER_01: And he has offered some concepts that really have just blown the minds of his audiences.
SPEAKER_01: The reason that has happened is because it's almost foreign to them what he's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Some of these concepts that he's given.
SPEAKER_01: The reason is that over time, man has stepped in and said, Oh, there's all kinds of rules and there's all kinds of enforcements to how you're supposed to love God and relate to him and all these things.
SPEAKER_01: There's these rules and really this math that you've got to be worn down by in order to have the right relationship with God.
SPEAKER_01: And instead, Jesus starts preaching and teaching in ways that says, oh no, it's not about enforcement or about gaining power.
SPEAKER_01: No, instead, it's about the music that God is calling you to.
SPEAKER_01: A music that God wants us to live by.
SPEAKER_01: And so, through his teaching and giving illustration after illustration on what is the kingdom of God like, trying to impress upon anyone that would listen, here's the right way to think about and the right way to relate to God.
SPEAKER_01: And so let's read together and see what the text reveals to us.
SPEAKER_01: This is Mark chapter 4, starting in verse 26.
SPEAKER_01: He, meaning Jesus, also said, This is what the kingdom of God is like.
SPEAKER_01: A man scatters seed on the ground, night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he doesn't know how.
SPEAKER_01: All by itself, the soil produces grain, first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come.
SPEAKER_01: Now I think a definition of the kingdom of God would be in order here.
SPEAKER_01: If Jesus has been telling his followers for a little while now, here's what the kingdom of God is like, and he's using story after story to illustrate that.
SPEAKER_01: I think maybe we would do well to understand, well, what is exactly a kingdom?
SPEAKER_01: Well, a kingdom is just an area or territory where a king reigns.
SPEAKER_01: It is the kingdom of.
SPEAKER_01: And so these folks were certainly familiar with that, with Rome's uh empire, with Rome's kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: They certainly knew what that meant, but it's the area by which a king reigns.
SPEAKER_01: So if we ask, well, the kingdom of God, so where does God reign?
SPEAKER_01: Well, God reigns everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: God's been demonstrating that to us since Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_01: God was in the beginning before anything else was formed, and he formed it and created it, and so therefore God's reign is everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: So the kingdom of God would demonstrate that that kingdom, that territory, is everywhere God is.
SPEAKER_01: And God is everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus is not so focused on, let's talk about the kingdom itself as to where is God's reign.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, what is the kingdom's characteristics?
SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_01: And it's the characteristics of the kingdom that Jesus is focused on.
SPEAKER_01: And I think this, I think it would stand to reason that the characteristics of the kingdom are certainly going to match the characteristics of the king.
SPEAKER_01: And so that's what Jesus is trying to demonstrate with these stories, with these parables.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus knows that the people have a wrong understanding of God's character.
SPEAKER_01: And he's trying to impress upon them, here is the right way to understand the kingdom of God and relate to it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, by the way, here's the crazy thing about the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: If God is everywhere, and if you're a believer in him, therefore he is in us.
SPEAKER_01: John 14 says that.
SPEAKER_01: So if we take that logic of if God is everywhere, and everywhere he is is the kingdom of God, and if God lives in us, then the kingdom would be in us.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, I think, in a sense, what Jesus is saying is when he says, this is what the kingdom of God is like, I'd go so far as to say, this is what you're supposed to be like.
SPEAKER_01: If the kingdom reflects the character of the king, and wherever the king is, that's where his kingdom is, then why wouldn't the kingdom of God be reflected in its believers?
SPEAKER_01: Now, the audience, as you probably know, mostly consists of fishermen and farmers, and Jesus talks to them in examples and analogies that they fully understand.
SPEAKER_01: He never uses anything that goes over their heads or that they're not intimately familiar with.
SPEAKER_01: With that in mind, Jesus uses this theme of seeds and planting and harvest, not only because it's familiar to the audience, but it's a theme that Jesus has been using for, well, really, quite some time, this kind of consistent analogy that he's given to be helpful.
SPEAKER_01: Now, to better understand this short parable, I think we do well to reference the previous one.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not going to read that one, but the previous one that he gives is called the parable of the sower.
SPEAKER_01: And it's one that's probably very familiar to most of us.
SPEAKER_01: And it's talking about the four soils where seeds get planted and what happens when you have those different kinds of soils and what that looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And so Jesus' followers are asking him, Well, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: And he unpacks it for them in Mark about verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: And but he's continuing this idea of, well, what does the seed do?
SPEAKER_01: And what's the kingdom of God like?
SPEAKER_01: And what does that mean to us?
SPEAKER_01: And so the way I want us to go through that is I want to take maybe not each word, but I want to break down these verses almost looking word for word.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, I think that could teach us how to better read the Bible too, but it'll finally get me to my goal of how does God use his word and what's our role and responsibility.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's a footnote.
SPEAKER_01: When I said better read the Bible, here's a little demonstration of how I think sometimes we should be studying the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We should be asking about five questions when we read a section of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: We should ask, what is it saying?
SPEAKER_01: Just what does it read?
SPEAKER_01: What are the words actually saying?
SPEAKER_01: Two, we ought to be asking, what was its original context to that original audience?
SPEAKER_01: What was its meaning to the original audience?
SPEAKER_01: Three, what does it mean to us today?
SPEAKER_01: Four, and more personal, what's it saying to me?
SPEAKER_01: And then five, how do I apply what it's saying?
SPEAKER_01: So let's go through this and see if we can break out some meaning here related to these words and see what exactly Jesus is talking about when he says the kingdom of God is like.
SPEAKER_01: This is what the kingdom of God is like.
SPEAKER_01: A man.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the man here in this is the farmer.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus refers to him back in early chapter four.
SPEAKER_01: It says a farmer went out to sow his seed.
SPEAKER_01: And so they're right with him.
SPEAKER_01: When he says a man, they're like, yep, I got you.
SPEAKER_01: A farmer, it's a guy planting.
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely, we understand where you're going.
SPEAKER_01: Now, who's the planner in this?
SPEAKER_01: I think it's those that believe in God and his word.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I think that?
SPEAKER_01: Because it says, a man scatters seed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, seed, a lot of times in the New Testament, particularly as Jesus is talking about it, is talking about the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: He also referenced that in verse 14 of chapter 4, where it says, He sows the word.
SPEAKER_01: And so the seed is just the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: So a man scatters seed on the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what is the ground?
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's the hearts of people.
SPEAKER_01: It's those soils that Jesus talked about.
SPEAKER_01: And so his hearers of this are certainly picking up what he's putting down.
SPEAKER_01: You've got a guy planting seed, which is really the word of God, and he's planting it in the hearts of people.
SPEAKER_01: So he says, verse 27, night and day, whether he sleeps, meaning the man sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though the man doesn't know how.
SPEAKER_01: All by itself, the soil produces.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's the soil here?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think it's the heart.
SPEAKER_01: I think if if the ground, if the uh soil, the it is the hearts of people that this seed is going into, obviously the soil is that also, but I think the soil changes from just ground.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know exactly how to describe this, other than think about ground unprepared and that seed landing on it, and then think about soil that's been tilled and worked, maybe a little fertilizer added to it, and we'll get into that in just a moment.
SPEAKER_01: But I think the difference between ground and soil is really maturity.
SPEAKER_01: In my mind, it's going from that heart that receives the word to a heart that starts to mature in the word.
SPEAKER_01: That's what soil is here.
SPEAKER_01: And it says, verse 28, all by itself, the soil produces grain.
SPEAKER_01: Now he gives a little description there as a little stalk, and then, you know, it's kind of growing.
SPEAKER_01: You can think of a maybe a stalk of corn, you know, it starts out as a little sprout, and then it continues to grow up, and then pretty soon it's got this kernel of corn on it.
SPEAKER_01: The grain in this parable is really the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: It's the outward expression of what that seed has produced.
SPEAKER_01: So track with me, if the seed is the word of God and that's being planted in the hearts of people, and that soil matures, now it's producing fruit.
SPEAKER_01: It's the outward expression of living as God has commanded.
SPEAKER_01: First the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it.
SPEAKER_01: Now the sickle is an instrument of gathering.
SPEAKER_01: Most of us know, you know, it's a blade to make sure that we can harvest whatever we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: Certainly uh folks in Jesus' day knew well what the sickle meant.
SPEAKER_01: It was this instrument of gathering, and in several places in the Bible, the sickle is an analogy of the harvest time.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, uh you can go as far as Revelation 14, about, I think it's about verse 13, an angel calls out, and the angel is calling to Jesus to say, gather your sickle.
SPEAKER_01: It is time for the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: And so sickle is just this instrument of gathering, and it says, because the harvest has come.
SPEAKER_01: The harvest is just the judgment time, the end time.
SPEAKER_01: This is when God is going to send Jesus back for his second time, and he is going to gather everyone for judgment.
SPEAKER_01: All right, so let's assume that makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: If you were here, I'd ask for a nod of heads, but let's just assume, for example, that this makes sense, and you might be saying, well, so what?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that all makes great sense.
SPEAKER_01: What now?
SPEAKER_01: Well, here's what I think all this means.
SPEAKER_01: I think it demonstrates to us how God uses his word.
SPEAKER_01: He plants it in the hearts of people, using his people.
SPEAKER_01: He lets it do its work.
SPEAKER_01: The sufficiency of the word, in and of itself, has power to do work all by itself.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the very few things, I'm not sure it's not even the only thing, that in and of itself has power to do the full work that it needs to, without any catalyst or help.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll talk about that in a moment.
SPEAKER_01: And then third, I think God uses his word by bringing people to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: That realization of his revelation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, let me just say a word about the sufficiency and necessity of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: This this quote comes from a book by Greg Allen, and the book is entitled 50 Core Truths of Christian Faith.
SPEAKER_01: And this is what Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Allen had to say about sufficiency and the necessity of God's Word.
SPEAKER_01: It says this sufficiency is an attribute of the Scripture whereby it provides everything that people need to be saved, and everything that Christians need to please God fully.
SPEAKER_01: The necessity is an attribute of Scripture whereby it is essential for knowing the way of salvation, for progressing in holiness, and for discerning God's will.
SPEAKER_01: If I had to boil all that down, I might let Jared Wilson, an author and pastor, in fact, I think Jared is scheduled to speak at our men's retreat this fall.
SPEAKER_01: Jared was in a podcast and he says, here's the crazy thing about the gospel, the good news that Jesus brings, the good news of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: He said, crazy thing.
SPEAKER_01: It's got the power to save, that power to convert from unbeliever to believer.
SPEAKER_01: But he said it also has all the deep stuff of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of times we get hung up on, hey, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: The gospel was good for my salvation, but uh, what else you got?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, you gotta spread the gospel, you gotta tell uh the word of God, you've got to be sure you're planning and doing, and once it does that, then, well, we're kind of done.
SPEAKER_01: No, no.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel not only has the power to save, but has the power to mature toward holiness.
SPEAKER_01: God's word is all-sufficient, and it's absolutely necessary.
SPEAKER_01: So, how does God use his word?
SPEAKER_01: How does God use his people?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I want you to try this on for size.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to imagine four types of specialized farmers.
SPEAKER_01: And uh see if you can stick with me on this.
SPEAKER_01: This will not be hard to follow, but see if this makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: There's four types of specialized farmers, let's pretend.
SPEAKER_01: There's the ground preparers, and then there's the planters, and then there's the caretakers and the harvesters.
SPEAKER_01: I want to unpack each of those to demonstrate how I believe God uses his people for this spreading of his word.
SPEAKER_01: First, the ground preparers.
SPEAKER_01: Now, these are folks that never see the crop, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Their job is to come in and get the ground ready, making it soil.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to add some things to it, uh, till it up, and really start getting it ready.
SPEAKER_01: Their job is the most important one first.
SPEAKER_01: Because if they don't do theirs, then no one else can do their job behind it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes you'll serve in this role if you're a believer in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: How do I know that?
SPEAKER_01: Because you'll never know who's watching.
SPEAKER_01: What message are you sending about how you believe and what you believe?
SPEAKER_01: How do you worry if you worry at all?
SPEAKER_01: Are you consistent?
SPEAKER_01: Can you be trusted?
SPEAKER_01: Those are the kinds of things I think we get to demonstrate as ground preparers.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a quick example.
SPEAKER_01: Um, in our missional relationships locally here in Sugarland, we've got a partnership with a local elementary school.
SPEAKER_01: And as we mentor there, uh, any of our mentors will spend only an hour a week with a particular student.
SPEAKER_01: Just an hour a week.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I've been doing that for about 10 or 12 years now, and that's not a brag on me.
SPEAKER_01: What that is is to say that I have yet to receive a thank you card from any of those kids.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Mr.
SPEAKER_01: Wade, thanks for spending time with me.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for teaching me how to, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: I've never gotten that, and I'm not looking for that.
SPEAKER_01: My point is we never know, though, the impact that we have as ground preparers.
SPEAKER_01: We'll probably never see those kids when they reach 20s or 30s or certainly not in their 50s.
SPEAKER_01: But the impact we'll have had on them at age 8 or 10 or 13, I promise you, is preparing them for what God is going to do in them.
SPEAKER_01: The second type of farmer that I imagine is the planter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, without the first one, the ground preparer, the planter has no business being there.
SPEAKER_01: But with the ground preparer, here comes the planter.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when their time comes, they're the most important one.
SPEAKER_01: And they're gonna plant the seed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, these folks never see the crop either.
SPEAKER_01: They never get to see the really the work of their toil.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a quick example of maybe a planter.
SPEAKER_01: This is uh perhaps you at a gas station, and maybe there's an exchange between you and and the other patron.
SPEAKER_01: Or perhaps you bought someone's gas.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know, whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: But it's something that demonstrates the kingdom, something that demonstrates the character of God.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a planter does.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the third specialized farmer in my mind is the caretaker.
SPEAKER_01: This is the one that does some watering, maybe some weeding, protecting of the plant.
SPEAKER_01: They start to see an indication of what's to come, maybe a little sprout or even a full stalk, but they're starting to see kind of how this work has started to come to fruition.
SPEAKER_01: But again, they never see the crop.
SPEAKER_01: You hear the theme?
SPEAKER_01: Seeing the crop is not a requirement of us to plant the seed of God and to do his will.
SPEAKER_01: Many of us will serve in one of these three specialized roles, if you will.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to be comfortable, still motivated, that even though we haven't seen the crop come in, it doesn't mean the work's not getting done.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't change the job nor the trust that we have in the full sufficiency of God's word.
SPEAKER_01: And fully confident as to what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think a quick example of this idea of caretaker, a one that waters or weeds or does some things to protect that new stock.
SPEAKER_01: I think one example is a prayer champion.
SPEAKER_01: Last week you heard us uh in one of our video announcements talk about this pray for.
SPEAKER_01: Me campaign.
SPEAKER_01: And a prayer champion is someone that is going to take a name of one of our students from first through twelfth grade and they're going to pray for them for one year.
SPEAKER_01: That is the kind of caretaker I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe it's a small group leader in our warehouse, or maybe it's a volunteer in our kids' building.
SPEAKER_01: I think he could even be a participant in our adult Sunday school classes.
SPEAKER_01: Someone that is there consistently demonstrating their faith.
SPEAKER_01: That's what a caretaker does.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might say, well, wait, when I go to Bible study, all I do is sit there.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I listen to Tommy Hammer, he does a great job, and then I go, yeah, but your consistency, your presence, I promise you, is making a difference.
SPEAKER_01: And then the fourth type of specialized farmer, I think, that we have is God uses his people to plant his seed and to bring about that crop is the harvesters, obviously.
SPEAKER_01: These are the folks that see the crop.
SPEAKER_01: They participate in the harvest.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I I think maybe a quick example of this one is uh there's a man in our church, and part of his testimony is that he grew up kind of in a rough life, and it wasn't necessarily a safe house that he was in.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he and his mom had to move, and it was a difficult upbringing for him.
SPEAKER_01: And he said from early on, I was wondering, God, are you real?
SPEAKER_01: Are you even there?
SPEAKER_01: I I hear a little bit of a whisper that maybe you are a sense, but God, I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_01: I really need you to come through for me.
SPEAKER_01: Says he grows up, he goes through high school and college and on and on, and he's still kind of asking this question, God, are you there?
SPEAKER_01: Boy, if you just show yourself, God, if you just tell me that you're there, then that's when I know that I can count.
SPEAKER_01: If you just tell me that you're there.
SPEAKER_01: He says he's in adulthood and he's got a job and he's working in this bank of cubicles for this office.
SPEAKER_01: He says he's working one day, and literally he's thinking in this moment, he's thinking, God, if you're real, I just need to know it.
SPEAKER_01: I need to know you're there.
SPEAKER_01: And he says about two seconds later, his coworker, who he hadn't really talked to a whole lot, is behind him in a cubicle, and the coworker turns to him and says, Hey, God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Guy turns back around.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, What?
SPEAKER_01: What'd you say?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I don't know why I was supposed to say that.
SPEAKER_01: I just kind of felt this overwhelming sense I was supposed to say God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: And so my friend, he turned back around and he said, That's when I knew God was real.
SPEAKER_01: And he'd been with me all along.
SPEAKER_01: Because in that moment, I started recalling all the things God had done for me, the way he had protected me, all the ways he had said, Yeah, I was right there with you.
SPEAKER_01: The guy in the cubicle that said God loves you, I would argue as a harvester.
SPEAKER_01: Someone who, after God has uh planted the seed and worked the soil, after he's watered and taken care of it and cared for it, that person was just obedient to what God was calling them to.
SPEAKER_01: The harvest, I want you to notice this, it is a methodical process.
SPEAKER_01: It's not scripted.
SPEAKER_01: You cannot go in and say, okay, here's the things I'm gonna be saying because I'm gonna be a harvester today, and so I'll be taking my notepad.
SPEAKER_01: It never works like that.
SPEAKER_01: It also doesn't come and go in a blink.
SPEAKER_01: This idea of a how do we plant and what does God do with his word and all of that, it's a measured process toward maturity.
SPEAKER_01: It's toward the maturity of a new believer, a maturing into a belief in Christ, but it's also the maturing of a longtime believer, just continuing to have people come alongside of you and invest in you.
SPEAKER_01: That is necessary as well.
SPEAKER_01: So please don't forget when we talk about the sufficiency and necessity of God's word, the gospel, we're also talking about that mature believer that may say, Hey, I've been a Christian for 30, 40 years.
SPEAKER_01: We still need people to come alongside of us and till that soil and be a caretaker and demonstrate how God uses his people.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if God does that by the planning of his word, what's the role and responsibility we have?
SPEAKER_01: Well, certainly we could be those specialized farmers in that, absolutely, no doubt.
SPEAKER_01: I think it comes down to two very simple and necessary words.
SPEAKER_01: The role and responsibility we have as believers in Christ is to tell and live.
SPEAKER_01: We are consistently broadcasting seeds, how we treat people in the drive-thru line, how we treat our spouse, how we raise our kids, how we are at work, how we are anywhere, we are broadcasting seeds.
SPEAKER_01: Every action is an opportunity for planning.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 27 tells us that night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he doesn't know how.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I think if you took just that verse, I think you could make an argument that, well, gosh, Wade, the man didn't even do anything.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it says right there, he doesn't need to do anything.
SPEAKER_01: So why are you telling me I need to do anything?
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't I just let God do what he does?
SPEAKER_01: The sufficiency of the word do what it does?
SPEAKER_01: Shouldn't that be enough?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, God will do it all, and I shouldn't have to do any of that, right?
SPEAKER_01: And I would say, yes, the word of God is not dependent on us, but we are a participating influence.
SPEAKER_01: Travis Dunham told me this week, he said, wait, it's kind of like God doesn't need your muscle, but he does need your cooperation.
SPEAKER_01: We are a practical model of the characteristics of the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's how I'll attempt to explain it.
SPEAKER_01: I'll see if this uh illustration uh hits home for you.
SPEAKER_01: Um let's pretend there's a hitchhiker, okay, and he's hitchhiking to Austin.
SPEAKER_01: Seems like that'd be a good place a hitchhiker would be going to.
SPEAKER_01: Keep Austin weird.
SPEAKER_01: And so this guy's on the way to Austin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as he's thumbing his way there, cars are passing and people are going by.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just pretend that he never gets picked up.
SPEAKER_01: He'll eventually get to Austin on his own, right?
SPEAKER_01: He'll get there weary and it took three times as long, or whatever it is, and he's worn out and all of that, but he'll certainly get there on his own.
SPEAKER_01: Or a driver could see him, pull over, they pick him up, they get him in the car, and oh man, now he gets to kind of rest, maybe take a little nap, gets the air conditioner, perhaps gets a little radio on the way.
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit more comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: Gets there a little bit quicker.
SPEAKER_01: He's protected from the sun and the heat and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I think it's like.
SPEAKER_01: The Word of God absolutely can do what it needs to do on its own, fully independent of us.
SPEAKER_01: But this great God of ours, this perfect God of ours, says, I'm gonna use imperfect people to continue to do what I want it to do as I plant this seed.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm going to use them to help people in their journey, to get where I want them to go.
SPEAKER_01: Us not being a part of a process of that process would be a direct violation of Jesus' command, the command that he gave in Matthew 24, 14, for us to share our faith.
SPEAKER_01: It says this, and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
SPEAKER_01: That proclamation that he's talking about is us, it's our lives, it's the way we live and demonstrate the kingdom.
SPEAKER_01: What's the kingdom like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you're a believer, the kingdom is like what's inside of us and how we demonstrate it.
SPEAKER_01: So, what role and responsibility do believers in God play?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we we tell.
SPEAKER_01: Notice this: Jesus talked to his audiences in ways they'd understand.
SPEAKER_01: He never went over their heads.
SPEAKER_01: He never talked in analogies that they're like, yeah, I don't get it, Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, he also never used math.
SPEAKER_01: But he never talked in ways they didn't get.
SPEAKER_01: I think it's a great point to us today.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to strain to explain anything.
SPEAKER_01: I think a lot of times, or at least for me, it's this idea of, well, let me tell you all the reasons why and let me give you all the arguments.
SPEAKER_01: And then if you'll just follow my 16-point chart here as to why you should become a believer, and this is.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, people just want to hear this.
SPEAKER_01: What changed you?
SPEAKER_01: What brought you to faith?
SPEAKER_01: And what changes has God done in you since then?
SPEAKER_01: That's all we have to do.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I mean by our role and responsibility is simply to tell.
SPEAKER_01: I think our final role and responsibility is to live.
SPEAKER_01: We're to be a fragrant aroma.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says salt and light, this idea of tasting and seeing and knowing that God is good.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God is like it's just like that.
SPEAKER_01: Being able to taste and know that God is good.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I would be naive to think that everyone listening to this is a believer.
SPEAKER_01: I think some of you may be asking, hey, Wade, what if I'm not a believer?
SPEAKER_01: What if this sermon really just didn't do it for me?
SPEAKER_01: Maybe I'm not sure God's even, I'm kind of like your friend that you mentioned.
SPEAKER_01: I've been asking for a long time, God, where are you?
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Reveal yourself to me.
SPEAKER_01: And I would just say this: I want you to consider three ways God has likely revealed Himself already.
SPEAKER_01: In nature, in people, and in experiences.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to consider, what about that person that offered to pray for you?
SPEAKER_01: Or what about uh that healing that you thought never would come and it did?
SPEAKER_01: Or what about that horrible situation?
SPEAKER_01: The one that was uh virtually going to end in disaster and instead it ended better than you could have imagined.
SPEAKER_01: I say to you that says, I don't believe in this, or I'm not sure about this, I'll say to you, you need to realize the planting and the watering.
SPEAKER_01: You need to go from listening to hearing and stop holding back.
SPEAKER_01: Give yourself to Jesus and start to live the life God is inviting you to.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: God, the crazy thing about you, the crazy thing about the maker of the entire universe that we can't even put our arms around, can't even get our heads around, our technology has not even found the end of it, is that you're also such an intimate, close God.
SPEAKER_01: You're beyond our understanding, yet we can know you.
SPEAKER_01: You gave yourself to us through being fully man and fully God.
SPEAKER_01: And you said, Hey, you want to know what my father is like?
SPEAKER_01: Let me demonstrate it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And you're still doing that.
SPEAKER_01: I think you're still talking to the unbelieving world, saying, You want to know what my father is like?
SPEAKER_01: You want to hear some music that he's playing, drawing you in, then just look at my people.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus, yes, that's a lot of weight for us.
SPEAKER_01: It's a lot of responsibility, but it's not impossible.
SPEAKER_01: Your word gives us those guidelines.
SPEAKER_01: Your Holy Spirit gives us the words to say and the motivation and the conviction to do that.
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we'll miss it sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: But thank God it's not completely dependent on us.
SPEAKER_01: Your word is sufficient and necessary.
SPEAKER_01: So, Jesus, let us be about it.
SPEAKER_01: And let those that have yet to say, I am a full believer, and I'm not sure, I pray that you would impress upon them what you've already been doing and reveal yourself.
SPEAKER_01: For it's in your saving name that I pray these things.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And normally at this time in our service, we'll give some questions for you to consider.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to give three of those.
SPEAKER_01: I want to read them to you because I also recognize that today being the day after July 4th, some of you may be listening to this along after we have sent out the live stream.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to read these three questions for reflection to you.
SPEAKER_01: Then Mark's gonna play and give us some time to consider them.
SPEAKER_01: Number one, what kind of seeds are you planting?
SPEAKER_01: Those that distract from God or those that attract people to God?
SPEAKER_01: Number two, are you satisfied not being the one to harvest?
SPEAKER_01: And third, have you been paying attention to when seeds were planted in you?
SPEAKER_01: Why would God do that?
SPEAKER_01: Consider those as Mark plays.
SPEAKER_01: Music, you can hear it and know that it's good.
SPEAKER_01: And it moves you.
SPEAKER_01: It gets inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what the Word of God does.
SPEAKER_01: Well, as we typically do, to close our services, I'd like to offer a blessing to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you're able, please stand just where you are.
SPEAKER_01: Hold out your hands as if receiving a gift.
SPEAKER_01: The kingdom of God is near.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it lives inside the hearts of his believers.
SPEAKER_01: And so I challenge you today to go out and live, demonstrating the characteristics of the King in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.