This morning, this morning, you know I love seeds,
right? I love to plant seeds. I love to eat seeds.
And so today we're going to be talking about
a parable of Jesus that concerns seeds. And so
you're gonna want your Bible. So if you have
your Bible or if you have it on your phone, I
want you to pull it out. We're gonna go to Mark
chapter four. Today I wanna ask you what your
seed encounter will look like, okay? And so in
Mark chapter four, we have a very popular parable
that you may have heard, maybe not, of Jesus.
This is just a story Jesus tells to explain the
kingdom of God. And so we're going to be kind
of walking through this. As you hear people preaching
and teaching on this parable, you will hear different
perspectives. Some people focus on the types
of soil. Today, we're going to focus on the seed
encounter of the parable. And so in Mark chapter
four, we're going to read the first portion,
and then we're going to skip ahead to Jesus's
explanation. But starting in verse one, it says,
again, Jesus began to teach by the lake. If Darren
had his choice, this would be where he would
choose to preach from as well, by the lake. That's
right. The crowd that gathered around him was
so large that he got into a boat and sat in it
out on the lake, while all the people were along
the shore at the water's edge. Now, this is also
a dynamic thing because water carries sound.
And so this would help Jesus also to project
his voice to the crowds. He taught them many
things by parables. And in this teaching, here's
what he said. He said, listen, a farmer went
out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the
seed, some fell along the path and the birds
came and ate it up. Okay, so there's our first
encounter. The seed is scattered on the path
and the birds ate it. The second encounter, some
fell on rocky places where it did not have much
soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was
shallow. So initially it's like, wow, look at
that fruit. That's awesome. But when the sun
came up, the plants were scorched and they withered
because they had no roots. Other seed fell among
thorns, which grew up and choked the plants so
that they did not bear grain. Still other seed
fell on good soil. It came up, it grew, and produced
a crop, some multiplying 30, some 60, some 100
times. Okay, so this is the story that Jesus
tells them of this seed, and they're confused.
What are we talking about, Jesus? What does this
mean? Well, if we go down to verse 14, he explains.
He says the farmer sows the word. Some people
are like seed along the path where the word is
sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and
takes away the word that was sown in them. Others
like seed sown on rocky places hear the word
and at once receive it with joy. But since they
have no root, they last only a short time. When
trouble or persecution comes, because of the
word, they quickly fall away. Still others, like
seeds sown among the thorns, hear the word, but
the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of
wealth, and the desires for other things, come
in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the
word, accept it, and produce a crop some 30,
60, 100 times what was sown. Now, I love to hear
Jesus because if you go back a chapter, Jesus
is in the synagogue, the temple, preaching. And
now we find that Jesus is... by a lake where
a whole bunch of people have just, I love that
Jesus takes the word to wherever there are people.
Being in the church or on a lake somewhere outside
of the church, Jesus will go where people need
to hear his words of truth. And so today here
you are and Jesus is coming to you to share his
word with you where you're at. in your life and
in your journey. He cares and he comes to where
you are because he sees you. And so he will go
wherever people are. And Mark, if we go back
a couple chapters, we have a beautiful encounter
that Jesus has with a man named Levi. And I'm
gonna just read it to you because I want you
to see this Jesus who is sharing this story.
And so in Mark chapter 2 verse 13, it says that
once again, Jesus went out beside the lake. A
large crowd came to him and he began to teach
them. As he walked along, he saw Levi, son of
Alpheus, sitting at the tax collector's booth.
Follow me, Jesus told him. So Levi got up and
followed him while Jesus was having dinner at
Levi's house. Many tax collectors and sinners
were eating with him and his disciples, for there
were many who followed him. When the teachers
of the law, the religious leaders, when they
saw him eating with the sinners and the tax collectors,
they asked his disciples, hey guys, why is he
eating with the tax collectors and the sinners?
Why is he hanging out with them? On hearing this,
Jesus said to them, it is not the healthy who
need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come
to call the righteous, but sinners. We all have
needed to hear the call of Jesus. It says he
is calling, come, follow me. Without him, we
all carry spiritual sickness. Not one of us can
be alive and thrive without Jesus, without carrying
and heeding his call. We carry the sickness that
sin produces. Who is he hanging out with? The
tax collectors and the sinners. As I was working
on this yesterday, I was looking around my living
room at all of my plants. And I thought, oh,
because you see, without oxygen, Without water,
without food, we quickly fade and grow sickly,
don't we? And so in that moment, I thought maybe
I should do a plant check. Because you know,
I tend to forget to water my plants. I love plants,
but I get busy. And all of a sudden, I look up,
I'm like, oh, they look sickly. They don't have
water. Without oxygen, without water, without
food, we grow sickly, we are cut off from the
source of life. And when we're cut off from the
source of life, we become sickly, we become weakened.
Without Jesus, this is our spiritual state. And
yet Jesus says, I've come not to help those that
are already healthy, I've come to help the sick.
And so, Jesus hangs out with tax collectors.
He does things like hang out with sinners. You
say, well, what's so bad about tax collectors?
I work for the IRS. Let me just say, back in
Jesus' time, they were notorious for stealing.
And so, they were, nobody wanted to hang out
with the tax collectors. You say, well, what
is a sinner? It's very simple. One that has missed
the mark of God. One that God has set the standard.
Why does he get to set the standard? Well, he
created everything. So I think that gives him
a say in the standard. And so he sets the standard,
and we all have missed the mark. In Romans, it
says we all have fallen short of the glory of
God. That's what sin is. And we all have done
it. We all have been that, right? We all have
been born into this thing called sin. And the
beautiful thing is that Jesus is not afraid of
that. Jesus comes in and takes care of the problem.
And so we see Jesus eating with the tax collectors.
You see this little picture up here. This is
while you all were at your faith groups on Wednesday,
This was the faith group that was happening here
at the church Wednesday night. And so if you
were to ask Jack and Kyrie, you can see they're
working on a paper there. And what were they
learning about Wednesday night? They were learning
about Adam and Eve disobeying God. Disobeying
God. This is what sin is it's when we have disobeyed
God's standard and the the result of it is sickness
and death and So today in this parable Jesus
He calls to us Christ calls to us and how will
we answer? How will we answer? Well, we're gonna
look at here Jesus's example in this parable
and so The farmer that is sowing the seed that
would be God God is the farmer. He sows the seed
and in this case we are talking specifically
about the seed that is the Word of God Jesus
the gift of salvation that we all have to answer
to. And so here, if we look at this passage and
we see that the seed is being sown on all of
these different places, you know, what is God
trying to do? He's trying to just get the seed
anywhere that man will be. And it looks like,
God, you're not a very good sower of seed. I
wouldn't waste my seed here. I wouldn't waste
my seed there. God is after all man. He's after
anybody defines the seed of salvation. And so
in John chapter one is what tells us that Jesus
is the word. And so in John chapter one, it says,
in the beginning was the word, and the word was
with God, and the word was God. Jesus was there,
the creation at the very beginning. when we needed
this plan of salvation because we disobeyed God.
It says in verse 14, the word became flesh in
the form of Jesus and he made his dwelling among
us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the
one and only son who came from the father, full
of grace and truth. And so what is the seed?
The seed is the living word, Jesus. Okay? And
so, here we are. Four. Four encounters with seed.
How will you handle your encounter with seed?
The first one is the seed along the path. This
is the one that Jesus said, Satan comes and he
does what? He steals it away. I understand this
pain because I work hard in the years that I'm
gardening to buy seed. It costs me something.
I have to sit down when I place my seed order
and be like, okay, this is a week's worth of
groceries. That's all this is. You plant this
and you're gonna have a whole summer full of
food. But it cost me something that seed does.
It cost me something in time and effort to put
that seed in the ground. And then I watched these
little God -given made creatures called birds
and rabbits and squirrels steal my seed. I know
what those robins they made going for the worms,
but I know they get some of my seed too. I understand
this pain. Listen, you have an enemy. And the
word says that he is out to steal, kill, and
destroy you. He's out to steal, kill, and destroy
the seed that has been given to you in the gospel
of Jesus Christ. And so what happens is you receive
the word of salvation, and then the enemy, he
never stops talking. He will not stop talking
to you. He will not stop whispering in your ear.
Did you really receive the gift of salvation?
Did really Jesus come and save you of your sins?
Did he take your punishment? Did he really? Do
you know where else he did that? It was in the
garden. Did God really say to you, Eve, don't
eat this? He's always whispering in your ear.
And so how will you handle this seed encounter?
You got to learn how to say no to that voice.
You gotta know how to resist the devil and he
will flee from you. To say, no, you can't have
my seed. I have received this seed. I have received
the good news of Jesus and his salvation and
you cannot have it. How will you handle this
seed encounter? Because I don't care who you
are, every last one of us that receives the seed
of the gospel, the enemy will seek to steal,
kill, and destroy it. How will you handle it
when it happens? How will you handle this encounter?
The second encounter is the seed sown on rocky
places. You've heard the good news on Sunday
morning, yes! Jesus has come to give me life.
He's come to bring health to me. You receive
it with great joy, but then you ignore it. And
you have roots that might grow quickly, but because
you ignore it, it withers and dies. I have this
problem myself. In fact, because I've had such
great intentions in the last two years at a garden
and it's failed every time, I haven't had time.
But I just keep buying plants anyway. Oh, look
at those tomato plants, they're on clearance
for $2. And I buy them because I'm shopping and
I have time in that moment to buy them. And they
have roots and I receive those tomato plants
with great joy, envisioning all these tomatoes
in my kitchen. And then I pull them out of my
car and I sit them in my yard with every intention
to take care of that and to plant them so they
can grow deeper roots. And do you know what happens?
I get busy. and I ignore it and I forget about
it. Every once in a while, I might throw a little
water on it to try to keep it alive. And then
there comes the day where I walked by, I was
like, well, it was nice having you while I had
you. I received it with great joy, but I did
not allow for the roots to grow. They had some
roots, but it wasn't enough to sustain. Tomato
plants like deep roots. They like to be planted
deep. For those where you you hear it and you
receive it with a joy. Here's what happens Troubles
hit and that's it Everybody say troubles hit
and that's it. I Know in my family some people
that have not my interview. I'm not talking about
my girls here, but I've known people that in
their effort to become healthy, like, I'm gonna
try this supplement. I'm gonna try not eating
sugar. I'm gonna try eating this way. And do
you know what happens? They give it up. When
they don't, within a week, see something from
it, they give it up. And do you know how many
people receive the seed of salvation? I'm going
to try Jesus out, but if he doesn't fix everything
in my life, I'm done for. When troubles hit,
that's it. How will you handle trouble? How will
you protect the seed that you've been given?
What will your encounter with the seed of salvation
be? We have to protect the roots. We have to
protect the roots. We have to move our seed from
the rocky places and get it into the soil, or
it's going to quickly wither and die. The third
area. And see, I'm watching the time, because
a chicken will be here in 15 minutes. But I've
got you today. The third encounter with seed.
is the seed sown among thorns. I feel like for
us in the Western church, this might be the most
significant. Because it is in this place, it
says, that Jesus says, you hear the word, but
the worries of this life and the deceitfulness
of wealth and the desire for other things, choke
it. When you receive salvation, when you decide,
yes, Christ has called to come and follow Him,
and I am saying yes. And it starts out good on
that path of following Him. But then, oh, wait
a minute, this thing of the world, I really don't
want to give that up. I had a conversation with
one of you this week about this. Am I gonna have
to give up some of my friends? Is it gonna affect
some of my friendships following Jesus? Well,
yes, the truth is it had already started affecting
some of her relationships. And it's in these
moments that we make the decision, am I really
gonna be a Christ follower? When it begins to
affect... how I spend my money, when it begins
to affect how I spend my time, when it begins
to affect what my relationships are. If we don't
make the decision ahead of time, then we're gonna
have trouble following Christ. I was listening
to, oh, the Bethel guy. Bill Johnson. And he
was sharing about a story he had heard about
a handball champion, a man that when he was seven
had been in a railroad accident and lost an arm
and had been very athletic. And so he wanted
to continue to be athletic. And so he figured
out he could do handball. I've never played handball,
but most of them use both hands to play handball.
And so he learned to do it and he became went
on. He's now in the Hall of Fame for handball.
And and so they were asking him what his cause
for success was. And this is what he said. When
the ball comes off of the wall. He said, I don't
have to decide which hand to use. That was his
cause for success. The choice had been removed
from him. And so mentally, in that quickness
of movement, the ball is coming toward him. And
if you look up handball, there are techniques
to know which hand to use. But for him, there
was no decision -making process. He had one hand.
And often, we have too many choices. This world
offers so many lures to us. It calls to us in
so many ways, so many options to give to us.
There's one option we must commit to when we
are receiving the seed of salvation. I will follow
Jesus. I will not get sidetracked. I remove all
other options. And you will have to make choices.
You will have to make choices. When my family
had received the gift of the seed of salvation,
it affected my parents. They had to make the
choice they were going to actually live together
in marriage and not, they were headed to divorce.
When we accepted this seed of salvation, it meant
that we had to eventually bring a bit of schism
in our family and leave the Catholic Church.
When we received the gift of salvation in junior
high, I did lose friends. I remember my closest
friend. It affected us. When we accepted the
gift of salvation, it affected our time. No longer
was my dad playing in the bars in the weekends.
We now were traveling a half hour to church.
Every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every
Wednesday night, and everything in between, we
were all in. It affected us. And so when we receive
this gift of salvation, this seed of salvation,
suddenly how we view the things of this life
and this world have a different perspective.
Suddenly they're not our priority, but the priority
is following Christ. Heeding the call come. I
love Levi didn't even sit there and question
Jesus. Well, Jesus, what will that look like?
What will that cost me? Because he left his current
job. Levi was making good money collecting taxes.
He didn't ask Jesus, am I gonna be reimbursed?
For the money I lose if I follow you, I was listening
to a book, an audio book, and he tells the story
of a man that worked for Microsoft. And he had,
as part of his job, received 16 shares in Microsoft.
Each share worth multiple millions of dollars.
And he had 16 of them. As he's working for Microsoft,
he hears the call of God to plant a church. And
so he quits his job at Microsoft. Microsoft is
asking, what can we do to get you to stay here?
He had heard the call. He had heard the call
of Christ and he said he resigned. And in the
resigning, he lost all 16 shares. to take a pastoral
job of 26, I believe it was, thousand a year.
And he said to God, he said, God, for every dollar
that I gave up, I want a soul. His church is
currently running 6 ,000 people. It's one of
the fastest growing churches. What did he do?
He heard the call and he said no to the things
of the world that would try to lure him in. Because
you know how we think, we think things like,
well God, what I could do with 16 shares for
the kingdom. All those millions of dollars, what
I could do for the kingdom, you know how our
minds work and how we justify. And he's like,
nope. Christ called to me to come and to follow,
and I say yes, I say no to those things that
would lure me, and I say yes, and 6 ,000 souls
later. And he's still, I mean, he has not finished
his race, who knows where he'll end up, right?
And who knows how many souls of those 6 ,000
are going to win, right? This is how multiplication
works in the kingdom of God. But we have to say
yes, we can't let this world and the worry and
the things choke out This gift of salvation There
was a rich young man that came to Jesus and and
he said good teacher What must I do? to inherit
life eternal life and I love it says Jesus looked
at him and loved him But then Jesus said, because
the man said, I follow all these laws, all the
laws of God. But see, Jesus looked at him and
saw the lacking thing, and he said, here's what
you lack. Go sell everything you have and give
it to the poor, and you will have treasure in
heaven. Then come follow me, Jesus said. The
man's face fell and he went away sad. It says,
because he had great wealth. Listen, I don't
care what your thing is. This was his thing.
We all have a thing that we have to say no to,
to heed the call, to embrace the seed. The fourth
seed encounter. This is the one that we want
to attain to. This is the encounter with the
good soil. This is the seed that hears the word,
that accepts it and produces a crop. In ancient
biblical times, a crop that was a crop of 10
times the seed would have been good. But what
does God say? I'll give you one of 30 and 60
of 100. This is the kind of crop I'll give to
you. If you will accept, if you will hear the
word, accept it, it'll produce a crop. Zacchaeus,
how many of you know him? If you grew up in the
church, you knew the song. Zacchaeus was a wee
little man. Wee little man was he. Yeah, you
all know that? Yes, you're all sitting there
singing it. It's now gonna be stuck in your head
all day. You're welcome. I love this encounter
because Zacchaeus has an encounter with the seed
Jesus in Luke 19. And it says that Jesus is entering
Jericho and he's passing through. And a man was
there by the name of... Interestingly enough,
in good company with Levi, he was chief tax collector
and very wealthy. It says he wanted to see Jesus.
He wanted to see who Jesus was. He couldn't look
him up on the internet. He had never seen him.
He wanted to know who Jesus was. But because
he was short, he could not see over the crowd.
I have had that happen to me. All the short people
are laughing. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore
fig tree to see Jesus, since Jesus was coming
that way. When Jesus reached the spot, I love
this, he reaches the spot, and you know, there's
all kinds of people crowding him, but somehow
Jesus knows to stop and to look up. And he looks
up and he says to him, Zacchaeus, come down immediately.
I must stay at your house today. All these crowds
of people. And I don't know, I'm kind of thinking
he looks up and he's like, there's a guy in the
tree. I feel like he's the guy I want to go stay
with. I know there's a crowd of people, but he's
in a tree. And so I think I want to stay with
him. I feel like there's just, he can sense this
guy's so desperate to see me, he's climbing a
tree. That's the one I want to go to. So he came
down at once, and it says that he welcomed him.
If we know the song, we know he served him tea,
right? I'm coming to your house for tea. We don't
get that from scripture, but. All the people
saw this and began to mutter. Again, he has gone
to a house of a sinner. Jesus liked to be there.
But Zacchaeus stood up and he said to the Lord,
look, Lord. Here and now I give half of my possessions
to the poor. And if I have cheated anybody out
of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.
And Jesus says to him, today salvation has come
to this house, because this man too is a son
of Abraham, for the son of man came to seek and
to save the lost. I love this heart of Zacchaeus.
He was good soil. He had a soil that was ready
to receive the seed of Jesus and begin to immediately
bear fruit, immediately. Unlike the rich young
man who said, what do I need to do to get saved?
This guy, he just needed Jesus to come into his
house and there's this immediate response of,
I am compelled. I am compelled to give what I've
had. I am compelled. I am compelled to pay back
what I have cheated. What was he? He was a man
that was truly repentive of his sin. He had an
encounter with Jesus and his immediate response
was, I have to make things right. He had good
soil to receive the seed of Jesus. And so this
morning, it's very simple. But sometimes you
have to go back to the simple. Sometimes you
have to be reminded of how you've answered this
call that Christ has given. Christ is calling
to us today. How will we answer? How will we
handle this seed that has been sown in our lives?
Because the truth is is that you all are sitting
here you Nobody's forced any of you to come well,
maybe the kids But you all today have heard there
is a gift of seed of salvation That Jesus wants
to give to you And the truth is that in these
four encounters, in these four seed encounters,
the choice is yours. is yours if you are going
to be a seed that is allowed to just you hear
the gospel and you allow the enemy to take it
or you have received the gospel and you ignore
the roots and they quickly die off or if you
are going to be one that yeah i want to follow
jesus but i don't know i i don't want to disturb
my family i don't want to disrupt because suddenly
i have ethics in my workplace and some might
not like that Or are you gonna be one that you
have the choice to say, I'm gonna create good
soil. I'm gonna nurture the seed that I've received
today. The choice is always ours. Free will that
God gives. He says, I have given the seed. I
have given my son Jesus. What will you do with
it? And that's the question for each of us today.
What will you do with it? And so I'm gonna ask
if the team will come back this morning. For
some of you, you might already say, I've been
following Christ for a number of years. Can I
say to you that, I don't know, I still have to
continually daily answer the call of Christ in
my life. And sometimes the Lord pinpoints something
in my life. It says you need to You need to give
that to me. You need to let go of that in order
to follow me better. Always I'm having to choose
to nurture my soil, to feed my soil, to create
good soil for this gift of salvation. And there
are some of you here today that you're saying,
I have never ever received this seed. This is
the first time I've heard that this gift of Jesus,
this call of Christ to come and to follow me.
I have never heard the call before, but I hear
it today. Today is your day. I am forever grateful
for the day that I heard Christ calling to me
saying, Cami, come and follow me. At the age
of 10, And now 40 years later, it is still my
joy to keep answering the call to follow Christ.
It has been the best thing I've ever done in
my life and I'm so thankful for the grace and
mercy of Jesus that enabled me to hear it. And
that call is given to you today. The fruit of
peace, the fruit of abundant life. Will you still
have trials and tribulations? You sure will.
You sure will. But this surpassing greatness
of following Christ, it produces peace in the
midst of it. It produces life, abundant life
in the midst of it. And the day that we stand
before Him, The day that we stand before him,
I guarantee you it'll be worth every yes that
you give to him. It'll be worth every yes. And
so I'm going to ask this morning, if we'll all
stand, we're going to in a moment just have a
moment of worship. But listen, Christ is calling
to you today. And today is the day for you to
give your yes. What did Levi and Zacchaeus have
to do? They had to actually get up and leave
and move to where Jesus was to follow him. And
I, in our Western culture, sometimes we like
to make it really easy for you to say yes to
answering that call. But friend, Jesus was raised
up publicly on a cross. He bore our sins. and
our shame before all the world to see, he was
beaten and naked before all the world to see
in order to give us this gift of salvation. And
so very simply this morning is the call, will
you say yes to Christ calling to you today to
come and to follow me, to come and to follow
me. And so this morning, here's what I'm gonna
do. I'm gonna ask if our elders will come on
up, I don't want to make it too hard. I want
to make it a little easy for you. Our elders
are going to go ahead and come down to the altar.
And as we begin to worship, if you need to say
yes to the call of Christ, today is the day to
do it. There is no better moment for you to say
yes to the call of Christ. And so as the team
begins to lead us, you need to say yes. and give
your yes and let the elders pray with you this
morning, amen? And so everybody's eyes are open
right now. If you are not responding, I want
you just to begin to worship Jesus. I want you
just to begin to give thanks that you were able
to say yes to the call in your life and be reminded
of that. And so come on up. Team's gonna lead,
but you begin to move even now and give your
yes to Jesus. Come on, give your yes to Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.