I don't know that you have, but Mark chapter four, verse 26. This is, by the way, the only place you will find this parable. You have all sorts of parables in the scriptures. This is the one place you find this one. It's quite special. And I think it'll be special for a smaller church, but not just church, brethren who in varying degrees are at different places in their walk. And so, we'll read the text and then I'll pray. Verse 26, Mark 4, 26. And he said, Jesus, the kingdom of God. Now, pay attention. This is a picture. Don't just let these words go over your ears and not even think about what Jesus is saying. Again, he said in various places, the kingdom of God is Like this, soils. There's different people, they hear different, and this happens. But in this one, what is he saying? You think for yourself. We're gonna read it, but you think about the picture. Don't turn off your brains. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. Interesting. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. Some ignorance. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain. Sorry. Yeah. Then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once, he puts in the sickle or the chopper because the harvest has come. Father, I pray that you would tremendously, oh Lord, you know, again, there's so many reasons I feel like I've had hindrances to this, wanting to preach this text. I felt so blessed, Lord, on Friday and even more on Saturday. And Lord, you did things in my life to bring me to this text and bless me. And I just want to impart that to your church and to my brethren. Lord, would you build them up? Would you, Lord, I don't know the brethren here as intimately, so I don't know that they need this per se. I know they need it, and it's profitable because Scripture is profitable for all things, reproof, teaching, rebuke. But I want to encourage, and I don't know who needs to hear this, Lord, but you do. And so would you bless it to them? Would you take, oh, great God, Lord Jesus, I come to you. I have five loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many? Would you do what you do, Lord, and make it what it needs to be? Despite my deficiencies, Lord, I want to hide and get out of the way and just point to you and your glory and your truth. So please bless this to the brethren. Holy Spirit, please be in me. Be in my brethren. Let them hear. Let me speak clear. I pray, Lord. We're here. This is supernatural. We believe in an invisible God. We believe in a Jesus that literally ascended, floated in the air without wings, and is seated in heaven in a place not of human hands. This is his throne. We need that kind of reality. We need supernatural grace. And I pray for miracles to happen in this place. Please, as we look at your word, that's the thing you use to change people. I pray you also change people's minds. Do not let us come here thinking one way and leave thinking the same. Help us to think again. Lord, I'm asking you for all these miracles, and I trust that you're going to do it in Jesus name. Amen. So. A parable of a sower. I should have, uh, let's see. You know what? Apologies. I didn't, uh, here it is. Sorry for the delay. Okay, so the parable of the kingdom of God growing. That's my title. The parable of the kingdom of God growing on a macro scale that is, what comes to your mind when you think kingdom? What's a kingdom? It's a place. But is it a place? It's actually kind of like a realm. It's a realm of the reign of a king, right? It is the place or the realm or the area that a king, his domain, his dominion, his sovereignty, his authority, his everything is. And what Jesus is saying here is he's given us a picture of agriculture, right? Because it's not just a soil or a seed. But it's a kingdom that's expanding. It starts out really small, and it's getting much bigger. So what is the picture here? What I mean is, in the parables, you always have a picture, right? You got a story. You got a dishonest manager. And he's got a job. And oh, he's doing it wrong. And so you're going to lose your job. And so what does he do? He does everything that he can. He takes everything that he has. He invests it. He has foresight. He thinks about the future and says, I'm going to do stuff now to make my future better. That's the teaching of that parable. He's shrewd. You want to be shrewd? Take your money, your unrighteous mammon, which isn't yours. It's God's money. Give it toward efforts that are going to mean something for eternity. Give it. Pay your pastor. Pay your missionaries. Support one another. Care for orphans and widows. Give it to those in need. Do that, and you'll be like the one that Jesus teaches about there. Or you have the parable of the wedding feast, right? You have an invitation goes out, come, everything's prepared, you can come. You can be a part of God's kingdom, and you don't have to do anything, everything's prepared. Or you have the picture of, like I talked about earlier, soils, right? Bunch of different dirt, but they're not dirt. They're people. You guys are all dirt. Literally, we came from the dust. But in Jesus' eyes, when God looks at a man and a woman, he looks at you and he looks at your heart and says, when my word comes, what happens to it determines which one of those soils you are. Whether the demons come and gobble it up like those birds, or whether the sun and difficulties in your life make you, make the word unfruitful and it shrivels up that way because you didn't receive it deep enough. You know, we were watching this morning, Pilgrim's Progress, Pliable. Hey, Pliable, come with me. Okay. Hey, Pliable, you need to stay with obstinate. Okay. That's a superficial faith. He's just, okay. The word of God comes. Okay. Oh, no. And when things got difficult, he was out. Well, that's a picture, right? What is this picture? This picture is a story of agriculture. The kingdom of God is a whole, this whole thing, right? Everything you see in verses 26 through 29, that's the, it's not a soil, it's not just a seed, it's not just a man, it's not just the earth producing by itself, it's not just the fruit, it's this whole picture of growth, right? And that's very clear. Look at, what is this about? Look at it, verse 27. It's about growth. The seed sprouts and grows. The seed that the man planted, he knows not how. Verse 28, the earth produces by itself, first the blade. Okay, so first it was a seed, now it's a blade. Then it produces the ear. That's more. Then the full grain in the ear. OK, so this thing is growing. It's becoming bigger. It's advancing. And then finally, you have this fruit. Because fruit is not enough, right? If fruit stays green, like if my dad showed us a picture of some oranges in his yard, and he was like, let me show the kids my oranges. And he goes and takes FaceTime and shows us. I'm like, those are green. He's like, oh, well, they need time. They got to get ripe. But green oranges, well, yes, because they're growing. But when they're fully grown, when they're ripe, like in this parable, then he's gonna take his scissors or maybe he'll pull them off. They're ripe, he's gonna harvest them, right? And so then you have a harvest come. And that's the picture that Jesus has given us. And one of the things before I dive into the doctrine and the text and everything that's happening here, I think it's really profitable to think about this for a second. Do you guys realize that Jesus probably didn't always know how agriculture worked? Say what you mean. I mean, you realize there's a day where he's playing on his daddy's not iPhone or whatever, but like he's like messing with some stones or something and he goes out and he sees some dirt, he sees laborers maybe, and he's like, whoa, wow, birds eat that seed up, it's not going into the ground the right way. And oh, he comes out later, oh, that one sprouted up quick, he comes back, it's gone. He swipes to the side. Oh wow, there's rocks under there. It didn't get roots. Or maybe someone tells him. You realize like the Bible says that in Luke 2.52, you remember he was 12 years old, right? Jesus was 12 years old once. He had to listen to his mommy and daddy. And he did. And it says this, and Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. We should not cease to be amazed by the fact that Jesus Christ grew in wisdom and that he's a man and that he's made like you and me and that he had a belly button and toenails. I mean, there's, I love, Winslow says this, our humanity is represented in heaven on the throne at the highest place. That is glorious. He became a man, but he's a man still. He is a man and he's with us and He learned, and undoubtedly he saw these parables unfold, and as he saw them, he learned them, and as he became a rabbi and taught, he decided, I'm gonna take these things that we've all learned and been exposed to, and I'm gonna teach with them. I'm gonna teach you things about God's kingdom. And so he had the soils, and he had, oh, you know, he noticed maybe one sows, one person plants, But typically in the spring, that planter, they're not around in the fall. It's another reaper. And so he tells us, well, same thing with the church. I'm sure he came up and noticed, like, in our yard, we just, we have some grass we just planted. And at first, you see him growing up, and all of a sudden you start seeing, like, that one looks like St. Augustine grass, but it's a lot taller, and it's growing way faster. And eventually it's like, it's got purple now. I wanna pull it out. And then I go to pull it out. And it's like, oh, I'm pulling up my St. Augustine too. It's so hard, they're intertwined. And so I don't know what to do. How do I get the weed out? And Jesus says, well, just wait at harvest time. The reapers are going to separate all this, and those are angels. And that's going to happen. So he undoubtedly saw the same thing. And I've been working on my art. That's part of why I went to this text, is just this has been jumping out at me. Probably at some point, he realized, oh, there's this poor farmer. He's got a huge harvest. Look at that. Look at all those grain, all that corn, all those oranges, tomatoes, whatever. He's only got three people to go and get it all. That is hard. That is difficult. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And he tells us that's how it is in the kingdom. You know what? You guys know about the barren fig tree? Right? That tree, it grows, or it's planted. Guy has a vineyard. He speaks to the vine dresser and says, hey, what's up with this tree? Take it out. It's worthless. It's using up the ground. And the gardener says, wait, give it a little more time. I'll put manure on it. Give it a year, and we'll come back. And if it's not good, we'll get rid of it. I said, we planted grass. There's a section of my grass that actually was turning brown. It just kept turning brown. I called the people and said, hey, it's brown. And they said, we'll give you some more. And so I thought, cool. When it looked at it, me and Jack went out there, my son, and I said, what do you think? You think that's good? And he's like, oh, that one looks bad. So we pulled it up, threw it in the trash. What about that one? Well, daddy, that kind of looks good. And eventually, I lifted it a little, saw a little mold-looking stuff, and I'm like, uh-uh. And I just ripped all that stuff out, throw it away. We're not gonna use up the ground with that. Clean that ground up, start over, put some new grass down. That one was worthless. And Jesus is saying, that's a picture for you to know how his kingdom is. God's gonna do that to people. People are not grass, people are not trees, but people will be rooted up and not nicely, politely set down into the fire. It says angels are gonna throw people into the flames. Well, you also have, you will know them by their fruits, undoubtedly, right? None of us is a farmer, gardener, botanist, but you walk out on a tree in early spring and you say, I don't know what kind of tree. Daddy, what kind of tree is that? I don't know. Come back in fall. Oh, it's an apple tree. Wow. These are apples. You will know them by their fruits. Daddy, why are there thorns there? Is that an apple tree? No, no, no. Of course not, baby. Apples aren't gathered from thorn bushes. You don't get thistles on apple trees. Doesn't work. Jesus says men are like that. You can look at their life and say if they're godly or if they're not, can determine whether or not they love me, whether they're Christian. But you know what? This parable isn't dreary and sad like all those parables, right? There's no fiery furnace. There's no hell to pay in this one. There's not even any crop failures where you grab the grass and throw it into the furnace. In this one, it's all good. It's a really beautiful parable because this is talking about Christians. There's Christians. the kingdom, and it's your church on a macro level, on a big level, it's you guys as a body, but then it's also talking about you, how you're gonna grow and how you're gonna change over time. And so here's the key takeaway from this parable. I'm gonna give you, it's like a mission statement. Anytime you read a parable, come up with a primary teaching. What is the doctrine? What is the Lord getting at? Okay, I'm gonna give it to you, then we'll break it down a little bit, and then I'm gonna exhort you to do some things with it. Here it is. Seeds have amazing potential, but they look weak. But that potential, you have to plant or sow into the ground, and also be patient, and leave the results to God, who produces, who gives the growth, and his harvest always comes. However, and this is the annoying part of growth, it takes time. There's a process. It's not like you go from seed to apple. There's steps. But eventually, if you're patient, if you trust the Lord, usually in the fall, after several seasons of growth, maybe some pruning, it most certainly will come. because it depends not on man, but on God who gives the growth. Now that's the longest like parable summary I've ever given on the shortest parable that you could probably, one of the shortest you can preach on. But that is what's happening here. You say, prove it preacher. Okay. First, quickly, I just want to point out the obvious and it's an incredible thing, but it's, It's not so obvious all the time. Seeds have amazing potential, okay? Super potential. Look at verse 29. What does it say? But when the grain is ripe. What does a ripe piece of grain look like to you? Again, I alluded to an orange, right? Orange can be green, but when it's ripe, it's orange. Basically, what you have is, you guys ever think about when you get to, you go to Lowe's or Home Depot, right? I've been there a lot lately. Maybe you guys have too because of quarantine. You go there and you go in the gardening section and you go and they have this beautiful wall with all these colors and pictures and ooh, azaleas and flowers and it's beautiful, right? But that picture is only a promise of what that seed can do. Because you open it up, and you're like, I don't look like no tomatoes to me, right? You can't open the, what's, I'm thinking of, this may be one where my wife is like, you could have held that one in. Maybe I won't say it. But I'm thinking about, there's movies, right, where they have food in the form of like a little bean, like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. And they give you the gum, and there's a whole meal in the gum. It's like, mm, taste the gravy, mm, blueberries, and uh-oh, it's not working. But you have, it's not like that, right, like where you take the seeds and you, mm, apples, you know? Like, that's not how it works. You have to plant that thing in order to get the thing that's on the picture, right, that's on the front of the seed pack. But they have tremendous potential. But here's the reality. If you don't plant them, they will never grow. Have you ever walked into Lowe's and saw a seed package bulging because of all the tomatoes in there over time? They're just, they're bursting forth. They're like, we gotta throw away another pack, Jim, because the tomatoes are growing. No, that doesn't happen because you have to take those seeds, put them in good soil in order for them to grow. Look at verse 30 and 31. I want you to see this idea that sowing is what has to be done with seeds. 30, and he said, with what can we compare the kingdom of God or what parable shall we use for it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which when sown on the ground. So it has to be sown. Look at verse three. He says, listen, behold, A sower, a planter, a farmer, went out to what? Look at seeds on a shelf? Sow. Verse 14, look at that. The sower sows the word. Verse 26, our verse. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. That's sowing, right? You even have Paul saying this about humans. Again, I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. But somebody planted. And I want you to think about what that seed is in so many of those other parables. What is the seed in the other parables? Many of them. Let's just say the parable of the sower. What is it? gospel. It's the word of God. It's his revelation, his communication. It's everything that God says, right? But particularly the gospel seed, yes. Now, let me ask you something. Let's take a little trip here. We're going to drive. Got to crank it up. We're going to drive a little crazy. All right, we're here. We're all together. We're at Lowe's. We look on the wall. Oh, look, gospel seeds. What's on the picture? Wow, this dude was a drug dealer. Now he deals gospel tracts to people. This lady was wild. She would never be in church on a Sunday. Now she's fellowshipping with the saints, washing the feet of the saints, whatever thing is good to do. This man was a liar. Now he speaks the truth. This person was so selfish and a thief. Now they work to labor and give something with their own hands. That's what's on the package. But you know what happens? We get curious. We open the pack, gospel seeds. Looks good. That doesn't look powerful. And we let the devil convince us that it can't do what the front of the package says it'll do. Romans 1 16. It is the power of God unto salvation to all who believe. But we look at it and say, wait a minute. And maybe the devil is the one who's actually saying this. You think that is going to save souls, save sinners? You think that's going to change people's minds? You think that's actually going to transform a sinner into a saint? You think you have to sow that? Well, you know, come on, somebody else will do it. You're not, you don't have the gift of evangelism. You don't have the gift of preaching. You don't have the gift of teaching, but brethren, What I wanna tell you is that if you don't plant, if you don't sow, that seed will never grow. God's kingdom won't be expanded through you or your church. If you guys don't plant it, think about this, Trump is not going to plant the gospel seed in anybody. Neither will Biden. Nancy Pelosi ain't planting no gospel seeds, and neither is Schumer with his sinful self. These people are not planting the gospel in our world. They're not. The media is not planting it. The CDC is not planting it. Black Lives Matter is not planting it. World Health Organization is not planting it. These people don't have the truth. They don't have the treasure. And you may look at yourself as jars of clay. I'm weak. I'm a seed package. How are you going to get gospel out of me to save them? Brethren, if you don't do it, nobody will. If you don't take that treasure, which is hidden in a field, which you sold to buy the whole field, meaning the treasure plus all the dirt and stuff that goes with it that you're not interested in, the trials, the tribulation, the difficult marriage, whatever's going on, if you don't take that treasure and reveal it to people through this mouth. It ain't gonna grow. Seeds need to get in dirty, dark places. So you have to go and take the gospel seed and preach it to people and believe the promise of the message that it can save the worst of sinners. Think back about some of you. Where did you come from? Whatever you were, even if you were saved as a child, you may not have been as bad as you could be, but you were bad to the core. You were totally depraved, totally wretched. You were. And where would you be on a Sunday morning? What would you be doing on a Friday night? How did you use your money? Who did you live for? Who did you love? Where did your feet take you? What did your hands do? What was your internet history like prior? What were you looking at, eyes taken in? What kind of things, if we had a recording of you 10, 20 years ago, what kind of things would we hear that you'd be ashamed for me to play on a loudspeaker? The gospel seed came into your life and changed all of that. It completely converted a sinner miraculously into a saint. It's the God that justifies the ungodly. So first point, got to plant that seed, right? Second point, growth actually takes time, right? Now here's the thing that's frustrating about growth of God's kingdom. There's an apparent slowness, right? One of the things a farmer has to have is patience. And you know what James says in James 5, 7? Listen to this. This is a command, by the way. Be patient, church. Be patient. Therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. And then he says, look at somebody, see how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains. You also be patient, establish your hearts for the coming of the Lord is near or at hand. But he gives a picture of agriculture again and says, guys, be patient, takes time. You know, if you went to my house a few weeks ago, so I said I planted some grass, right? If you went, I actually cheated, right? Okay, so I skipped the seed process. I went for a side because I was thinking we may go to the mission field or something and I just got to be ready. I ain't got time for that. I'm being a bit of, you know, I'm not doing what I said, but just understand, I don't see that we have the time to do that. So anyway, I planted sod, but when it first was down, I could show you a picture. There was dirt before it was planted. It was terrible. Our yard was bad. The kids and their bikes in the backyard, you guys. And then we planted and it was lush and green that first day. And then a couple of days later, it was brown, and some places were looking weak. And there's a spot where it's green, but then there's a brown in the middle. And I thought, and I'm like, oh, no, there's a rock. There's this big stone under there. They must not have moved it. Oh, Lord, do a miracle. Break up the stone. Make the roots go down. I know the parable. And you know what? I was discouraged and I knew water, water, water, keep watering and I had to wait and the other day I was walking out and I saw it and it was so lush and green. I'm walking and I'm like what happened? It took time. It took a while. It took longer than I thought. Just imagine this. Imagine I plant my grass, it turns brown, and then you come and you see me, and you say, Zeke, what's wrong? And I say, I planted the grass, but it's not growing. You say, when did you plant it? Yesterday. You would say, well, brother, you got to wait. It doesn't just sprout up like this. It doesn't, you know, I planted these tomatoes, tomato seeds, and there's no tomatoes. Well, brother, it takes time. You got to give it a little more time. OK, it's all right. Just keep watering it. Be faithful. It'll go well. Think about this. Tim Conway, you guys know his testimony? a little bit, you know what happened? Basically, the scriptures came, Craig Musselman actually, well, a man came at their workplace, and then later Craig and that man started evangelizing to him a little, and he got the gospel according to Jesus. So he got the gospel according to Jesus from John MacArthur, and it affected him, but it took him a while. The gospel seed got in, And he started mulling it over, he started thinking, and it dawned on him, you know what? I know what's happening. God's putting everything on the table. He's saying, Tim, give it all up. Give up everything. Follow me. Surrender your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. And I realized, I'm either gonna follow and obey, or I'm gonna keep kicking against the goads. And he surrendered all, and he was saved. But it didn't happen like, it actually, the seed came way earlier, took some time, He's mulling these things over. He's reading. And like Christian in Pilgrim's Progress, eventually he's at that victory at the cross and the burden falls off and he's forgiven and pardoned and he loves God. Do that. Put that gospel seed out there for people to mull over. But understand, it might take them some time. It might. A brother was telling me, my wife's testimony is more like a lightning strike, and mine's more like a sunrise. I mean, that's how mine is, more like boom. And then others, it's like, well, I was in church, and parents told me the truth all the time. And at some point, I just kind of believed. God changed me. And I loved his son. That's all I know. That's one thing. Growth takes time and so we have to be patient. Here's another point. You know how, like I said, you're sitting in the lawn chair, you're watching the grass. You know, if I could watch my grass the whole three weeks that I've been watering it, I would not see it grow, but it's growing. And someday I would see it's a lot longer, but I might not see it because I'm watching it, right? But my wife comes out who hasn't been watering it. I've been watering it by myself. And sometimes she watered it, sometimes she helped, but I've been watering it. And she says, wow, this looks great. I'm like, thanks. But I might also say, really? It looks bad to me. No, no, it looks great. Look at that over there. It's like, oh, I guess it does. And when Ethan walked in, when you guys walked in, it was like, oh, wow, look how big they've gotten. It's like, I remember when you were this big. But I bet for the parents, they're saying, he's still the same. It might be because you're sitting in a lawn chair watering, just watching it grow, and saying, you ain't never going to change, man. You know, that could be how we're doing with our kids and with one another. But it's imperceptible, the growth, right? If you stare and look at somebody every day, you're not gonna see any growth. That's something that we can learn, both for our churches and in our own lives and in the lives of others. You know, it's so funny, you know what happens, how it happens when you send out a missionary. Hopefully you guys send some of you guys out. But we sent, Kevin and Dan to Nepal, or sorry, to Lebanon. We sent John Seitzman to Nepal with others, and Justin Flores and them are going. And there was a point where we're like praying for seven churches, or a church in every province, or in Lebanon, praying for a church in Lebanon. And you know what happens, right? You're getting updates, and whoa, yeah, hey, it looks like the Lord might be working on someone's heart. And so-and-so believes now, and they're coming to the meetings. They're actually saying they believe in Jesus Christ. And you know what, actually three people are now saved, and they're being baptized, and they're kind of meeting together, having a little Bible study thing. And then, you know, yeah, we got like 25 people meeting in a building, and oh, well, you know, pray that God would establish a church. And before you know it, it's like, you guys have a church. You have a church. God did it. Why aren't we like raising the banner? Well, it's because they're in it and we're in it. But when they sent and said, it looks like, they actually did say, it looks like God has raised up a church in Lebanon. Nobody at the meeting was like, praise God. There's a church in Lebanon. We've been praying for this. We've been watering it with our prayer. We sent our brethren. We're planting with our money and God gave the growth. We're not rejoicing. Why? Because we get every single update. And so it's not that impressive, just like me and my lawn chair. It's not that impressive that it's green, because you know what I see? I see all the brown. That's what I'm looking at. That's what I'm watching. I'm watching for that to go away. I'm watching not just the church in Lebanon. Where's the pastor? Where's their missionaries? Where's all the other stuff that I know is coming? Just cool it, Zeke. It takes time. It's imperceptible. And you know what? The same thing happens in your life. You get all riled up. You think, I'm going to have a prayer time in the morning and I'm going to meet with God. And you wait. And it's three days later and you're like, I can't do this. This ain't working out. It's like he didn't give it enough time or you keep going, and it's a month later, and you say, I don't see any results. I don't see anything different. Well, you're staring at yourself in the mirror. Perhaps you're only looking at the brown parts. Maybe you need to look at what God's doing. Zoom out. Compare yourself to the old. Look at the new. Jesus does that. You know what he did to the church in Revelation? He said to the one in Ephesus, he said, you guys, you need to repent. There's some good things about you, but you need to repent and you need to get back to the things, the works you did at first. You need to go back to those, repent or remember where you've fallen, repent and return. Three R's, get back over there, right? But then he says to this other church in Thyatira, he says, I know your works and that your latter works exceed your first. You know, when he looks at you, he says, I can see a difference. And I like it. I like it a lot. And he looks at us and says, I do see a difference. Don't worry. Yes, I'm dealing with the brown parts. Yes, the closer you draw near to God and get in the light and you're in the scriptures, of course, you're going to see more as you're looking into the mirror. But don't just look in the mirror every time you get in the scriptures. This is a side note. Pray, God, show me the glory. You know what the glory is? It's that which changes us. It's that which transforms us. It's not verse 17 or verse 25 or chapter 10 or the book of Zephaniah in and of itself. It's the glory of Christ that comes forth from those things. That is what changes. That's God's means of grace to transform us. And so if you're reading in Leviticus 25 and you're like, oh, I don't wanna read this no more. I'm so tired. And it says Jubilee. It's like, whoa, that's amazing. This is what it's talking about. Everybody set free. Jesus Christ set us free from our sins and made it so that our debts are canceled. Praise God for Leviticus 25. Hallelujah, right? There's the glory right there. Or Jesus says to His Father, I have made, in John 17, six, I have manifested your name to them. It's like, what does that mean? Did you tell them that the name was Jehovah? I don't see Jehovah said anywhere in John. Did you tell him his name is Jehovah Jireh? Jehovah Nissi? Any of these names? The Almighty? What? How did you? What are you communicating? What are you saying? How does the name? Oh. Philip, have I been with you so long and you don't know the Father? Oh, it's perhaps it's the glory of Christ revealed in how He is. The Father is revealed in how Jesus is. We can learn so much about the Father with that woman caught in adultery or with his mother when she says, hey, can, you know, they ran out of wine. Ah, this has nothing to do with me. Go do whatever he says. That doesn't sound like a woman who's used to not getting the Lord doing stuff for her. She doesn't sound at all deterred by what he said. You know what I think? I think it's possible that that was not the first time that the Lord had done something where she's just like, I got the Son of God in my house. I am going to ask him for stuff often. And it seems to me that he says, my hour has not yet come, because he means, I'm not going to publicly manifest my glory. But she had to have been seeing glory all throughout that little guy's childhood. She had to be going to him and saying, Can you pray for the meal? Can you bless this? Would you bless that? She had to be seeing the glory because she doesn't say, you know, you know, seasoned Christians who pray and believe God, they don't sound like they're at all deterred when it looks like it's an impossible event. They realize God is faithful and so they go to him. But I digress. I say that all just to say, give it some time. Trust the Lord. Seek him. It does take time and grow. But there's an imperceptibility of growth. We have to be patient. And so three things I want to tell you about that, about being patient. You've got to be patient with three people. One, you've got to be patient with one another. right, that brother or that sister that you are trying to help them grow and you're trying to teach them and it just seems like they just don't get it, zoom out, get out of the lawn chair every now and then, maybe let somebody else water, come back, maybe just take a snapshot, right? Maybe there's a prayer request. I have a list, I have 2020 prayers, 2019 prayers, and I go back every now and then, look at 2018 prayers and say, wow, there's a church in Lebanon. Brother so-and-so was praying that he'd love his wife, and now all his wife bears testimony about is that he's the most loving man she knows. God is growing him. Second, be patient with yourself. Kind of alluded to this, but you need to give it some time. You need to not get in the mirror too much. You need to be in the mirror, but not too much. Be objective. Where are you sinning? You know what? If your wife's coming to you and saying, you have an anger problem, and she's been saying that for 10 years, you have an anger problem. You do, and you need to deal with that. And you don't need to like, well, I get upset. No, you need to deal with that. But if you start to deal with it, and at some point you feel like it gets a little worse, don't be discouraged. Just keep going, keep trucking along. The Lord's gonna work all that out. And then finally, you need to be patient with the living God. You say, patient with God? Yes. He knows you want to grow. He knows you want to advance. He knows you want to be Charles Spurgeon or Elizabeth Elliot, Amy Carmichael. I want to go to the mission field and give my lives for widows and orphans. Yes, he knows. But first, first, Just care for your own kids for a minute. Make sure that they are cared for and the same kind of love that you want to pour into those people, do it here first. You got to get your stripes, so to speak. Take time and be patient with the Lord because He's letting this thing work out in His own time. Now, there's also in verse 27, I think it is, Yeah, verse 27, there's a mystery in growth in the kingdom of God, right? Look at this. He sleeps and rises night and day in his lawn chair, spraying the seeds. Ain't nothing going to happen. And then one day, what is that green thing in the midst of the sea of brown? Is that a piece of plant I see? The seed is growing. It sprouts, and it grows. He knows not how. That's how it is, right? So often, there is some growth. One day you're looking, and you know what? You actually notice it. I didn't respond wrong. I was just tempted. I resisted the devil, and he actually fleed from me. Like, I don't feel tempted anymore. Hallelujah. I mean, you get happy. Praise the Lord. It's like Martyn Lloyd-Jones says, the Christian is constantly surprising himself. That should be the experience of all of us. Constantly catching us off guard, like, whoa, I used to be such a selfish person and I just gave to those people. It's amazing. But he knows not how, right? This man's planting, he's watering, he's sleeping, he's waking, and all of a sudden, boom, growth. went from brown and insignificant to now it's green. And how did it happen? How did this little brown thing turn into this beautiful green sprout that I now see? I don't know. How did you go from whatever you were and whatever trajectory and path you were on to now the path that you're on? I could explain it. Oh, you were regenerated by the spirit. The wind blows where it wishes, and you don't hear it sound or where it goes. But you know when it's present. Yeah, but can you get a plastic bag, bag up some of that wind, and say, well, yeah, I did that. And then I opened it, and it blew on me. Can you control it? Can you? No. And so there's mystery associated with this thing. And that's a good thing. How did you guys get a church in Austin? Do you know the history of Austin, of the church? If you hear it, it will actually like, I mean, it blows me away. And now I look and it's like, you guys were single, I think, I remember, when you came to the church. How did you get people that are married who were single? How did you get babies? He's older. Like, how has all this, how did you get a faithful pastor? to come from San Antonio to pastor and watch over your souls? What'd you do? Did you just bribe him? No, you didn't bribe him. Did you trick him? No. Did you do something? Did you convince him? No. God moved. This church is growing and he's doing it. And that leads me to the other point. It's not just a mystery. It's also a miracle. It's an absolute miracle that any of us are here. You realize, go look on social media. Look at how people talk to one another. Hated by others and hating one another. You ever hated somebody? I have. You ever not love somebody? I have. You ever spoke evil out of your heart towards somebody? I have. How come I don't anymore? How come you don't anymore? How come you love people who hate you? How come you have love in your heart toward the very people who oppose you? It's a miracle. God in Christ sent forth his son and his spirit, changed your heart and convinced you that you actually ought to live in submission and surrender to him. That is an utter miracle. Look at, uh, or let me just, uh, verse, um, 28, the miracle, the earth produces by itself. Okay. So the man doesn't know how it happens is a picture of agriculture. I'm going to throw a bunch of seeds out, cover them in dirt, water them, sleep, raise, sleep, raise. Whoa. There's a sprout. I don't know how, And it's like, I mean, if you really think about when you look at a tree, that that thing came from an acorn or a little seed, that is ridiculous. That is ridiculous. It's a miracle. The earth produces by itself, that word, by itself. This is the same word as in Acts 12.10. Listen to this. This is when the iron gate leading to the city when Peter was rescued from the prison in Acts. It says this, when they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord, by itself. In other words, there's a power that is outside of man that leads to this gate opening, and there's a power that's outside of man that leads to this seed sprouting. Man doesn't do anything. He's sleeping in the bed. He wakes up, sees it, and is like, whoa, how'd that happen? It's a miracle. God did something. He gave the growth, and that thing sprouted up. Jesus says this, or Paul says this about the Thessalonian believers. And we also thank God constantly for this, that when you receive the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but as what it really is, the word of God, which is at work in you believers. So you got a seed in your heart, And part of the reason why you're growing and not doing the things you used to do is because of that word in your heart. You received it as God's word and it's authoritative in you. Or John 15, three, Jesus says this, already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. It's like, what is that? That is amazing. I'm clean because of your word? Yeah. First John three, nine, no one born of God makes a practice of sinning. Why? For God's seed abides in him. There's the idea of the life of the living God within the Christian, within you, to keep you from sinning, and it's an absolute miracle. I already alluded to this, but I planted a polis water, but God gave the growth. He's talking to humans, not plants. He's saying, you guys are growing. You guys have a church now in Corinth. You guys are believers, and we did something, but it wasn't us that changed you. The only hope that I have or you have that will be any different from how we are today is that God gives the growth, and it's because it's an absolute miracle. There's also a few more things, and then I'm gonna give you some application. There is a progression of growth, right? There's actually stuff you gotta go through in order to get to the final result. Think about this. 28 again. The earth produces by itself and all of a sudden there was a seed and then there was a tomato. Right? You threw seeds in the ground and tomatoes, right? Is that how it works? No. What does God say? This is what God says about growth in you and in his kingdom. The earth produces by itself first, so that's a process, there's a prerequisite, the blade. It doesn't say first the ear, then later we'll add some blades, we might get some grain. No, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe, so you also got ripe grain, but you have a process to get to that place and you have to go through it. You know what happens? We know what we want. We want to read a book. Hey, you got to check out this biography. Really? Why? Oh, it's so fiery. There was a fire lit in my soul. Really? OK. And that was the book that changed everything for me. Oh, wow. That's great. I'm going to go check out that book. So you go read the book. And then something happens. Your wife walks in. It's like, you're still the same. My wife hasn't done this, by the way. I don't want it to seem like maybe I've done this. But that's what happens. And you're like, Lord, she literally just said, you're still the same. If I'm still the same, then you're not doing what I thought this would do. I felt the fire. But why am I not in Calcutta? Or why am I not more giving and more loving? Why do I not? Why am I so selfish? Or why am I this? Or why am I that? There's a process. Patience, little one. There's a process. If, you know what, if there was always one step, we'd all love it, right? Go do this, you'll be this. That's not how God does it. And the thing is, getting back to the time issue, you know what happens, right? You know what you've heard? You've heard this, and this is real scary, right? We think about this. You guys go to sleep, the devil doesn't. Oh, what's he doing while I'm asleep? Oh, he's trying to kill you. Oh, wow. But you know what? God doesn't sleep either. My father is working up until now, and I am working. The father doesn't sleep. He's also sovereign. Devil isn't sovereign. He's omniscient, omnipotent, all these things. And so while you're like, well, Lord, there's people dying, and it's urgent, and you should still pray like that, and you should still say that, and you should be as urgent, He's not saying, oh yeah, you're right. I need to send you to go and do it. He is perfectly willing to do things to transform you in the process of transforming others. And in fact, I would submit to you that he is more concerned with that, first and foremost, than he'll ever be concerned about other people. He's concerned with you being changed. And so, you can be William Tyndale. You guys seen the torchlighter's children? You seen the torchlighter of William Tyndale? What happened to him? What happened to all his translations? He's doing all this work. Can you imagine if your mom said, give me a book report where you change all these words into your own words, just transliterate it. That's not even translation. Just give me the Message Bible, your version. Go ahead. And you had to write all of that. And we're going to print it, and we're going to give it to other children to have a Bible that they can read. and you're on a plane or a ship, and a storm comes, and you come in your room, and a dog came in, got that book, your book report. and threw it over in the ocean. And you still gotta do it. Oh man, that is like, Lord, if this is your will, I'm gonna obey my parents and they want me to do this, then why would you send that? And this doesn't make sense. Well, you should count it all joy when various trials and tribulations meet you. because it's going to grow character. Well, why would God care about character? Because you need it. You need it for the future. You need it for glory. And ultimately, as important as this is, and He's going to use it, He's using it more by changing you first. And then you'll have some fruit later. You know what it is? You put all this work in, you plant all these seeds, you water the stinking grass, and it doesn't grow and it's brown, maybe that's a little projecting on my part, but it doesn't do anything, it doesn't do what you want, and you grow it, and you cut it, and you water it, and you plant your tomato seeds, and it comes up, and it takes time, and it's all painful, and it's like, oh, I just wish I would just make a tomato. We're gonna go to the store and buy tomatoes. We don't care about these tomatoes. All for one moment. a fall where you can go out and you can pluck off this little red thing and enjoy it. You go through all this labor and all these problems just for the end result, a moment. And God is saying, that picture, that's what life is about for the Christian in my kingdom. You're in here. I'm going to have all sorts of stuff going. We're going to break up some ground. We're going to put some seeds in there. It's going to grow. You're going to change. You're going to be, you're going to grow fruit. And God's going to come over like a good vine dresser and snip it off. Whoa, what are you doing? I was good at that. No, no, you're not going to be good at it for a little while because we're going to grow more. We cut some, I had a flower bush in a house we had, and I didn't know what I was doing, but I just started snipping off little pieces. I was trying to shape it, and it's like, and I was trying to reduce the size of the bush, and every time I cut it, five new flowers would come back up. It was amazing. I was like, what? This doesn't, what is happening? Like, I didn't know. Like, oh, if you prune stuff, it becomes more fruitful as the plant surges and sends, I don't know if this is exactly how it works, but I believe it surges and sends, hey, help this part of the plant, it's bleeding, okay? Just like when you work out, you break down your muscles, they build back up stronger, and it sends stuff in there to build it back up so it can endure more. But that's how it works. God comes in, snips on your life. Boom. Pruning you. Why would you do that? Well, it's part of the process of being a Christian. You need that, and that can be discouraging, but it's good. There's a certainty of growth, and there is a full, final outcome of growth. Here's the certainty. Verse 29, read it with me. Let's read it out loud, but wait, because we can't all read out loud, just in your mind, out loud, okay? And I'm gonna read it with you. You ready? Verse 29. But if the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Is that what it says? No, I messed up, right? When? When the grain is ripe. Again, no crop failures, no certainty of it's not going to happen. Just because you were fruitful and he snipped off a piece doesn't mean that it's all going to end and it's all crashing down when the grain is ripe. Just be like that farmer in James 5-7, being patient with it. Seasons are going to come, seasons are going to go, and at the end, that fruit is going to come forth. There's a certainty, and then there's also an outcome. There's a fruitful harvest, and it's certainly coming, and that's the end of verse 29. There's gonna be a day when Jesus is gonna come and relieve us all and basically set us free from this terrible time and just this world that isn't our paradise, but he's gonna take us to our paradise. So here's some key takeaways, some application, real quick. We'll run through these. You're in here, you're in this application. So I thought specifically about you. When Satan attacks, what does he attack? Typically, when he looks at the body, let's just say if you're in war, when you look at the body, what's the best point you want to hit? If you're boxing, you want body shots because of strategy and points. But if you can get a nice, good blow to one other spot, oh, man, knockout. What's the guy, the boxer? I can't remember his name. Wilder? Knockout artist, right? He's wobbling. And people are like, yeah, but he's still got power. And that's happened, where he's wobbling. and the guy's out. Satan attacks the head, right? He attacks the husband. He attacks the leader. He attacks the parents. He attacks the pastor. And so, what I would encourage you to do is to pray for your pastor that he would grow like the kingdom says. but grow in a very particular way which you are commanded to help him to grow in. You know what that is? Hebrews 13, 17, you guys familiar with that verse? You need to memorize that. Yeah. He needs to have what in his life that's gonna benefit you? Louder. Joy, joy. But you know, God gives you a passive verb. He commands you. Well, you know what a passive verb? Let me cut your hair, right? Sit still. Don't do things that are gonna prevent me from cutting the hair. You know, sit still. Let your pastor have joy. Let him have joy. You say, what can I do to not give him joy? Well, you think about that. But don't do things that prevent him from having joy as he's keeping watch over your soul. Pray for him. Obey him. That's the context of that verse. Husbands, you need to grow, right? We need to grow. Love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, and you need to grow in your love for them. If you loved her more before you married her than you do now, shame on you. If you did things to get her that you will no longer do now that you have her, shame on you. Shame on you, go back to that. Just like Jesus says, go back to the works you did at first. She might say, go back to dates. Go back to just smiling at me. Go back to saying, wow, that's a beautiful smile. I like your hair. Take the time to grow in love in a verbal and in other ways. But also this, think about this. What if God, and I've heard this before, maybe you guys have heard this, what if God is gonna treat you just like you treat your wife? You say, oh, what if he deals with you as the bride of Christ, just like you deal with your wife? As it's measured to you, it's gonna be measured to you the way you measure. Then you ought to be very, very patient, very loving, very gentle. You ought to lay down your life often in ways that benefit her and help her and grow her. He also says you ought to die for her. Jesus says, imitate me. Paul says, imitate me as I imitate Christ. Let me ask you this question. Can you say to all the husbands in here, I'm gonna make you real uncomfortable. Can you say to the other husbands, imitate me as I imitate Christ in loving my wife? Or better yet, can your wife stand up here and say, my husband is the kind of man you ought to imitate. He ain't perfect, but he's a good man. He's a faithful man. He's a good husband and he loves me. Would you feel uncomfortable to do that? If you would, then you need to grow. You need to grow in that. Don't make excuses. Brethren, we're down here not for ourselves anymore. You ought to be writing up plans and schemes for how you can love people more, how you can love your wife, how you can grow. You ought to be having a five, 10-year plan of growth. You don't just start planting seeds and then all of a sudden you're researching, what do I need to do next? You come up with a plan, and then you apply it. Farmers have methods and plans. Wives. You guys aren't going to be left alone. Can you say to the other wives in the church, follow me as I follow Christ in respecting and submitting to my husband's my husband? The Lord says, submit to your own husband. as to the Lord. That's a significant charge. Do you know, that's not unique to Ephesians 5. Do you know what Jesus says in Matthew 25 in the parable of the sheep and the goats? Do you know why those people get to come into the glory and why other people don't? As you did it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto who? Me. He sees it as like, I am those people. You treat them how you would treat me. And as you don't treat them, you ain't treating me. And as you are treating them, you are treating me. And Paul comes along and says, wives, that husband you got, he's me. Well, Jesus says that. But as to the Lord, you need to submit to that fallible, imperfect, not all wise, flawed, sometimes lazy here and there man, you need to submit to him. Even if you don't know how it's gonna work out, you need to grow in that. You need to, when he comes and he says, let's turn the tables. If you came up here, if we said husbands, all of you come up here and stand, one on one, take the mic and give a testimony. Does your wife submit to you as to the Lord? Does she, the way that you, you know how it is, right? We first became Christians. You know how we submitted to the Lord. We thought, Oh, God's calling me to be a this or that. Or, oh, that man, he's homeless. I got to give him some money and some food and sit and have a talk with him. Do you know that you're going to hell? Or anything we thought the Lord wanted, we did it. Paul says, you need to do that. That needs to be something that you can say, I am doing that. I am striving. I am growing in that. I'm not perfect, but praise God I'm growing. Parents. Here you go, and especially fathers, but parents, anybody who's over children, you need to seek to grow in setting your children an example and training them because you realize the world isn't going to do that. If you set them in front of an iPad or a TV or leave them to themselves, they're just going to become worldly. That's all that's going to happen. You need to train them. Fathers, if you desire to preach, and I alluded to this earlier, or wives or moms, if you desire to preach or do different things, are you doing it now with your kids? Are you starting in the little places? Children, you guys got one primary charge from God. He writes to the saints in Ephesus and he says, children, which means there are Christian children in the church. Children do what? What does God call you to do? Ethan? What does God call you to do? What does he say to children? Children, what? Hey, at least he's got some of it. Isaac, what does God call you to do? Obey your parents. Is that it? Is it just obey your parents and do this and do that? You know what Paul says? He throws a little treat in there for you. He says, You know, when the Ten Commandments came, there is one that's special. It's the first one that actually came with a promise. If you do this, God says, not me, not mommy, not daddy, God says, you're gonna have a longer life. You're gonna be blessed of God in your life. Perhaps a lot of the problems in your life, a lot of the disappointment, discontentment is just because of your disobedience to your parents. And yet if you would submit and surrender to them, God would say, hey, I'm gonna grow you, I'm gonna bless you, I'm gonna be in your life, I'm going to do what I say I'm gonna do. Perhaps that is what children need to do. So often people lack answered prayer because they have unholy lives. John 15.7, you guys familiar with that? Or John 14.21 or 14.23? You know those verses? You should know those verses. Those verses promise manifestations of the living God. You just read them and say, well, that's never happened, so I'm not going to even worry about that. This is like the heart and soul of why we're Christians. We want God to come to us. We want God with us, Emmanuel. We want the reality. We want the glory to burst forth. We want God in our lives. What is the verse in Psalm 86? It says, God, hear my prayer. Well, We know he hears it, but how do we know that he hears it? Because he does something in time. He comes in and he invades our life and we say, Lord, help me with this. And then he comes and you're like, whoa, he did the impossible. He helped me with this. And so, but you know what Jesus says, if you love me, you keep my commandments. Whoever it is that keeps my commandments, me and my father, we're going to do something for that man. We're going to come and manifest ourselves. And then later he talks about abiding in my word, my word abiding in you. You know, people talk about that as though it's like this super mystical devotional kind of thing. I think that that's really just talking about living and doing what Jesus says. and he's associating answered prayer. If you abide in my word and my word abides in you, ask whatever you wish and it'll be done for you. You know, perhaps some of the reasons you don't have answered prayers or those prayers seem unanswered is because of an unholy life. That's very, very possible. Why am I crying out to God that he doesn't hear me? It's not that God's ear is dull or his hand is short and that he can't help you, but your sin has separated you and put a distance. Lastly, I mean, just a few more. Brother, sister, who work a job? Do you work as unto the Lord? Are you faithful? Your bosses, would they testify up here with the mic? Yeah. Let me tell you about so-and-so. They don't do jack. They don't do anything. Would they say that? Or would they say, this is my best worker? You know what God says? You need to work as unto the Lord, too. And he says, he throws a little carrot in there for you guys as well, knowing this, that you'll receive the inheritance as your reward. That's in Colossians 3 at the end. Or maybe you're a business owner. You have brethren working under you. You need to treat them right. I mean, God just over and over says, God shows no partiality. Treat those brethren right. Pay them their wages. If you withhold wages, God hears their cry and he's going to deal with you. Finally, brethren, I would just ask, in light of this text, do you sow the gospel seed as a church? In the midst of COVID, in the midst of everything going on, have you guys, have you done what everyone's doing? Even churches, even our church? Have you guys kind of closed up, constricted, probably not talking to people, not sure, will they want to track? Do they not want to track? Will they be offended? Have you done that? You know, there was a time. I remember coming up here. John Deas, I think, was here. And he was leading evangelism out. We were out near the Capitol. And I just remember the church. You remember going out there? Yeah, brother, you remember that? It was raining, yeah. And then I think somebody might have prayed for rain to stop or something. At some point it stopped. I don't know. I remember it not being rain. But yeah. And then Tony or somebody posted a picture of us out there recently. Anyway. But brethren, you guys are constantly planting the gospel seed. You are the only ones that have it, what I mean is Christians, but you are planting the gospel seed. Don't let COVID rob you of your fruitfulness. Grow, even in the midst of this pandemic, in sharing the gospel with the lost. I used to put tracts at the gas station. I used to leave it in chairs and benches in a kind of a tourist area. I would give it to people, and then I kind of stopped. and recently realized I need to be sowing seed or it's not gonna grow if it stays in that package. And so my lasting charge to you would be sow the seed, plant the gospel, and trust God. Pray for that growth. In summary of this teaching, and I know it's long and I'm sorry, but. In God's kingdom, you have all the necessary components for growth, men, seeds, time, mystery, and the results are initially amazing, but small. The finality, though, is both progressive and it's sure. It's certain, it will indeed happen. There's no chance of failure in God's kingdom, either for his entire crop or for any of his seedlings and you individually. He cares for them 100%, and Jesus is teaching us to be patient, to trust God despite how seemingly small and pathetic the seeds seem and how incredibly slow our growth may seem. He's in no rush. We gotta be urgent. but patient all the time. Invest the seeds potential in our lives and trust God for a miracle, not just the initial growth, but for the progressive and continuing growth in the knowledge and grace of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And we will make it to the harvest. We just need to go to him. We need to trust him. Amen. Father, thank you for this time with the brethren here, and I just pray that you would definitely be with us, grow us in the midst of a turbulent time, help us to be more united as a body, also help us to grow, Lord. In Jesus' name, we love you. Amen.