Your Seed Encounter | Pastor Kami Palmer | Faith Church

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

Mark 2:13

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.