Cultivate: Seed, Soil, and the Secret of the Harvest | Part 1

Welcome to the Awakening Church podcast.

We pray this message encourages you and provides the hope and light of Jesus Christ.

Thanks for tuning in.

Today, like I said, we're kicking off this series Cultivate.

We love growth as people.

It's woven into creation.

We see, you know, the springs of new life and something in our soul.

We just long for it and we see it, you know, all around us.

And the question that I think we wrestle with though is how do we experience growth that truly lasts?

Not just that temporary, not that flash, that moment of like, oh, we had a good start, you know, maybe last 2024 you had a good start.

You're like, okay.

But but how do you experience growth that truly lasts?

I mean, think about this.

Uh, what if this year wasn't just another attempt to reset, but to start something real, something that grows, thrives, truly lasts?

Maybe another question is how do you grow in a world addicted to speed?

We are obsessed with quick hacks, instant results.

And yet we get this, we know this, we need to be reminded of this.

The secret to lasting growth is neither flashy nor immediate, is it?

It's profoundly simple.

We're actually going to spend the next four weeks in a parable that Jesus told.

It's actually a parable that he said, um, this is the key to understanding all other parables and understanding uh life in the kingdom.

It's known by many called the parable of the sower, but I like to call it actually the parable of the soils.

And in this, we're going to discover how do you experience growth that really lasts, that's formational, and we become a people that really flourish together.

You'll find the parable of soils in three different of the gospels in Matthew 13, in Mark 4, and Luke 8.

We'll spend the lion's share of our time over the next few weeks in Mark 4 together and visit the other passages just to give some further insight.

And so if you got your Bibles or to open your notes, we're gonna dive in together Mark chapter 4, verse 1.

Mark 4:1

Um again, Jesus began to teach by the lake.

The crowd that gathered around him was so large that he got into a boat and sat in uh it out on the lake.

While all the people were along the shore at the water's edge, he taught them many things by parables.

A parable is just a story with a point, a powerful point connected to it.

And in his teachings, he said, Listen, a farmer went out to sow seed.

As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it.

Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil.

It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow.

But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root.

Other seed fell along among thorns, which grew uh up and was choked uh and choked the plants so they did not bear grain.

Still other seed fell on good soil.

It came up, grew, and produced a crop, some multiplying thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times.

Jesus said, Whoever has ears, let them ears.

Thank you.

I was just saying if you're still with me, and I you helped me know.

Whoever has ears, let them what?

Thank you.

When he was alone with the twelve, and the others around him asked him about this parable.

Then Jesus said to them, Don't you understand this parable?

How then will you understand any parable?

The farmer sows the word.

Some people are like seed along the path where the word is sown.

As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes the word that was sown in them.

Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word, at once receive it with joy.

But since they have no roots, they last only a short time.

When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

So others like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and desire for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful.

And others, like seed sown on good soil, the word accepts it.

Uh hear the word, accept it, produce a crop, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.

Would you pray with me as we begin?

Heavenly Father, as we begin a new year, we come with expectant hearts and invite you to have your way.

Father, would you speak to us?

Would you meet with us?

Would you give us a receptivity in our heart to you in this moment?

And as a result, may we grow and become more like your Son Jesus.

In his name we pray, and all God's people said.

Amen.

How do you experience growth that truly lasts?

Jesus tells a story, tells a parable about a farmer, a seed, and four types of soil.

Today, just want to talk about the farmer, the seed, and the soil.

Jesus tells about this farmer that sows extravagantly, generously, wastefully.

Think about this.

If he was a farmer in Napa, we would say he is the worst farmer on the planet, having this incredible seed, and he's going along and he throws it along a path.

Like, what's up with that?

You know, if you're walking by the street, you're not throwing seed out there, and then he sees a rocky place.

He throws it along the rocky place, and there's a whole bunch of weeds over here, he throws it over there, and then there's some good soil, and he throws it there.

You see this farmer, and in our context, we'd go like, ah, not a very good farmer.

But what I would suggest is he's a great father.

See, the farmer represents God's extravagant generosity.

Here's the incredible part of the story is God longs for you to grow.

He actually desires that for you.

Not just that you have that desire, he wants that for you.

And he's not waiting for you and saying you need to fix things up, get into the right place, or have it all together.

He's going, wherever you're at, I'm sowing, I'm spreading, I'm bringing it, I'm not withholding, I'm not stingy in any way, I'm just sharing it with you.

And this is so important because spiritual growth always begins with God and it flows from grace.

See, often when we think about spiritual growth, we begin with ourselves.

And it says, no, you begin with the farmer.

You begin with the father.

You begin looking up at the type of farmer and father that we have who sows so generously, extravagantly, even wastefully, and flows from grace.

I like how uh uh Stuart uh Townsend and Henry Cloud in their book, How People Grow, they say this.

Um next slide.

A key component of growth is grace.

Enough grace to open up and bring things into the light to be healed.

Let me ask you, what would it look like to believe that God is this generous with you?

That he's not holding back, he's not stingy.

I don't care how 2024 ended, and I don't care how what happened yesterday.

He's going, I'm still sewing, I'm still spreading.

It's not limited to those who are qualified or quote ready.

It's for every single person.

God's heart for everyone is for you this year, 2025, to experience deep, incredible growth.

Now, that's the farmer.

God sowing extravagantly generous.

Then we see the seed.

Well, the seed contains everything for a mighty oak tree, a sunflower, etc.

Right?

The seed, he says, in it is the word.

I believe it's in Matthew, he says it's the word of God.

He says, the word of God is the seed, and God's word is powerful.

Now think about this.

This little seed here.

This little seed right here.

Can you see it?

Just barely.

I mean, we're only feet away, you can barely see it.

It's so little.

This is a sunflower seed.

In this little seed contains everything for an incredible, beautiful sunflower that will grow taller than me, most likely, and reproduce thousands of sunflower seeds right here in this single seed.

And what Jesus is saying is the word of God, God's word is actually really powerful.

It's like a seed, it contains everything we need.

The apostle Paul would say it this way: that all scripture is God breathe and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the servant, the man or woman of God, may be thoroughly equipped for some good works.

For most of life.

To kind of just, you know, get through in certain seasons, but not in others.

No, no, no.

The word of God is useful so that you're thoroughly equipped for every good work, that he's given you everything you need for life and godliness.

He's already given it to you.

Now, here's what's interesting: we have more access to God's word today than ever before, and yet there seems to be more apathy to his word.

In fact, I would like to suggest, um, and it's not just me, but we live in an age, especially in the West, where we're biblically illiterate.

We don't get into God's word, we don't try to understand it.

We go everywhere else.

We're looking to someone else to tell us, to show us, to, and he's going, like, guys, I've already given it to you.

It's available, it's accessible, we carry it in our pockets.

And here's why this is so important.

What you sow determines what you grow.

It's the law of the harvest.

Um, we we miss this, right?

I didn't, I lost the seed.

Good grief.

There it is.

It's that small.

We miss this because we live in the age of supermarket.

No, take that back.

We live in the age of Instacart.

We go to the supermarket, you're disconnected from the process by which you get your food.

And now it's even worse than that.

You don't even have to go there.

You have it delivered.

We live in instant reality.

I want it today, I want it in the next hour, and if it comes in a day or two, what's wrong with Amazon?

Right?

We just live in this world that we don't understand.

When Jesus is reminding us this incredible law, the law of the harvest.

What you sow determines what you grow.

Another way to say it is you reap what you sow.

You reap what you sow.

So the question you need to be asking is, what am I sowing?

Well, if you want to know what you're sowing, look at your life today, look at what's growing.

What's growing reveals what you sowed a year ago, three years ago, five years ago.

Why?

Because you reap what you sow.

Now, here's the reason we often miss out on growth that truly lasts.

It's built into the fabric of the law of the harvest.

Not only you reap what you sow, but you never reap in the same season that you sow.

Right?

You never reap in the same season that you sow.

Well, take this, you know.

I take this um, get some soil.

I got my seed here.

Okay, great.

Put that in there.

Give it a little water.

Oh, that's awesome.

Right?

Put it next to this uh chamellia.

I know it's a chamellia.

We got a few in our yard.

Um got to pick this up because we need a new one.

The other one, uh one of them's dying.

We'll talk about that in a minute.

Okay.

Step back.

What's going on?

Wait a second.

I I planted the seed, why didn't anything happen?

Here's the interesting part.

Day one, I plant a seed, what do I see?

Nothing.

Soil.

Day two, I plant a seed, what do I see?

Nothing.

Soil.

Day three, what do I see?

Soil.

Day four, what do I see?

Some of you are like, I'm not sure, Ryan.

Would you tell me?

I'm not sure when the sprouting begins.

You know, help me out here.

You probably looked this up.

Chat GDP probably helped you.

Uh, sunflowers, about six to eight days, just so you know.

But it takes time, days.

This, I was asking the guy at Summer Winds Nursery where I was yesterday.

How long does it take for this camellia to grow this this size?

And he looked at it.

He's like, well, about two years.

Huh.

We have a few in our yard.

They've been there probably at least 20 years, and they're big trees.

Here's what we do: we look at where we're at, we look at where we want to be, and we go, what's going on?

What's wrong?

What's wrong with me?

And then we quit.

And so we don't see the growth.

We don't see the life change.

And by the way, God is not in a rush for your spiritual growth.

He is a God of process.

And we are in a hurry, and we're in a rush, and we live in our instant society, going, I'm not there yet, I'm not there yet, I'm not there yet.

He's going, I know.

And it's actually beautiful and wonderful if you'll sit in it and be present to where I have you and allow me to work in you right where you are.

Um, let me let me ask you this.

Okay.

If what you sew is what you grow, how do you know what you're sewing right now?

Would you just take out your phone for me?

I know it just got so personal.

I think they make calls, I'm told.

Um, but on an iPhone, all I do is swipe right, and it tells me how much time I spent on my phone, and how much time I spent on a particular app on my phone.

Friends, let's talk about this.

Where you spend your time and what puts you what you put into your mind is what you're sewing right now.

Where you spend your time, what you put into your mind is what you're sowing right now.

So, what are you sowing?

We spend hours on this thing scrolling, and we spend maybe seconds in this thing, and we're wondering why there's no growth.

And we love growth, by the way.

I don't know why on TikTok, I I I like to watch the guy that um he does the the weeding in the yard.

You ever seen that guy?

That guy's awesome, he does it for free.

I like get sucked into this thing, watching this guy make something beautiful, and that's what we do.

We spend our time watching someone else live instead of living our life and leaning into what God has us.

Stop watching other people live and begin to get into his word and grow for yourself.

What you sow determines what you grow.

The farmer.

The farmer, God is extravagantly generous.

The seed, God's word is powerful.

The soil.

The soil represents the condition of our heart, is what Jesus says.

Now, at Summerwind's Nursery, where I was just at yesterday, I saw this sign.

This was fascinating.

Success begins with soils.

I'm like, thank you.

It is literally a sign.

How good is that?

Success begins with soil.

I guess Jesus and today they do agree.

Jesus gives us four types of soil.

The soil is it determines our response to his word.

The first, the path.

It's just a hard heart.

The second, the rocky soil.

Jesus says it's a shallow heart.

Third, a thorny soil, a crowded heart.

Fourth, good soil, which is a receptive heart.

Did you not see?

Did you did you see that?

Not see that.

Did you see it?

It's a receptive heart.

Like I see God's word and I receive it into my life.

Where God's word actually becomes the final word for my life, not just advice that I get and kind of take or don't take.

I receive it into my life.

And here's what Jesus says: this is important.

Good seed plus good soil equals exponential harvest.

Good seed, good soil equals great growth.

It's not rocket science.

It's not like, gosh, I have to conjure up something and figure out something magical.

It says good seed.

Giving that to you.

Good soil.

When you combine those two, it equals exponential harvest or growth.

On the flip side, it doesn't matter how good the seed is if the soil is bad.

Good seed thrown on the path, good seed thrown on the rocky soil, good seed thrown on the weed.

It doesn't matter how good the seed is if the soil is bad.

And so, good soil doesn't just happen by accident, it's cultivated.

This is what we're going to spend the next three weeks talking about is how do you cultivate the soil of your soul?

How do you identify, okay, where are the places in my heart that are hard?

Where are the places in my heart that are rocky or shallow?

How do I identify a crowded heart and what do I do about it?

How do I cultivate those soils?

Like I said, we were at Summer Winds in Nursery, and Jenny was going because we we have these camellia plants, and one of them, they're an evergreen plant, by the way.

I did not know that until yesterday.

One of them is like, it's not green, it's it's just branches.

It's just so it's it looks dead.

I don't think it's fully dead, dead, but it's it's it's on the way to dead.

So it's not dead, dead, but it's on the way to dead.

Um and we're sitting there, well, not sitting, standing, talking to the dude, um, giving him all the details about it.

And then he tells us this thing.

He's like, Well, you know what you need to do.

And it's like, no, that's the reason we're asking you.

He's like, you need to test the soil.

See, these plants, they like acidic soil.

And there's actually soil testers, and there's a pH test that we can do with the soil to see what do you need to infuse and put around it to help this plant flourish and grow.

So this is what we're gonna do together as a church.

We're we're gonna take, okay, what is the soil of your soul?

And by the way, I think I have all three of those soils in me.

I have some hard-heartedness, I have some shallow and some crowded-heartedness.

I think we have a mixture of it.

And begin to allow the word of God and with the Spirit of God and the community of God to begin to fertilize the soil of our hearts so that we begin to experience the growth that God longs for, that He's designed for, that just happens when good seed is in good soil.

Growth doesn't happen or good soil doesn't happen by accident.

It happens when it's uncultivated.

So what's your next step?

Let me just give you a couple more action steps first.

Would you evaluate your soil?

Be honest about the condition of your heart.

What needs to change?

Now next week we'll spend a little bit more time on the on the path, the hard heart.

We'll be able to do some better diagnostic together.

But right now, there's some things where you just invite the Spirit of God to speak to you and show you.

Yeah, somebody close to you and get a real honest feedback, not just uh like, no, you're great.

That's next week.

Oh, I almost started preaching next week's sermon right there.

Um that's next week.

Don't miss it.

Evaluate your soil, prepare the soil.

What habits do you need to cultivate receptivity?

Like the good soil receives the word of God.

What habits in your life?

We start the new year, okay.

I want some new habits.

This is a wonderful time to begin that.

What habits do you need to, whether it's prayer, repentance, worship, just to cultivate receptivity and then plant the seed.

Spend time intentionally in God's word daily.

We just get in.

And here's the problem is we often treat God's word a little bit like the gym, at least the way I do it.

I lift once and then go look in the mirror.

It didn't work.

But you begin to get into God's word daily and allow God's word to get into your heart.

Six days you're like, I don't know about this.

Seven, eight days, there's a little sprig.

You see something starting to pop out.

Then you see a month later, you're like, oh, there's a little, I'm sensing just in my attitude and my responses, something different.

There's a settledness in my soul.

I'm starting to experience peace where at one point, stepping into that, I was just filled with such anxiety.

And you just begin and you just keep planting, you just keep sowing, and you allow the word of God to do its work.

That's why we started this year, awakening reading plan, 50 days in Genesis.

We started in January 1.

Some of you are like, well, it's January 5.

I didn't start.

We started, it's just a chapter a day.

There's 50 chapters in Genesis.

You can catch up.

You can catch up.

But would you join us 50 days in Genesis?

Our theme this year is biblical literacy.

I talked about, you know, one of the things that was problems we have is we're just biblically illiterate.

How do we help you get to know God's word?

And how do you help you get God's word deeply into your heart?

And so we're actually gonna spend after this series the entire year preaching through the book of Genesis.

It's the foundation, and it'll help you understand not only the rest of the Old Testament, but the rest of scriptures and the New Testament in a new way.

And so we're gonna dive in together.

Uh, one way that I'm trying to just help us grow and and um keep us hopefully consistent in this, just posting daily one-minute videos.

It's just a minute, nothing crazy.

But if you want to just journey along with us, you can go to our Instagram at awakening sv or my Instagram at Ryan B Ingram and follow along with us.

Follow along, join us on this journey.

Uh, Brian, who's playing Keys, uh, he was messaging me yesterday, and he was just going, dude, I I love these one minute videos, and we're talking after service again.

He's like, it just helps me stay on track.

He's like, I actually do it a day behind you, so I get it right when I'm, you know, the morning, right when I'm wanting to read it, and and then I read the chapter, then I watch the video, and then I reread the chapter.

I don't know how you want to do it, but get into God's word together.

Would you do that with us?

So as we close, I I want to do, I want to do basically like a third grade project with you.

Is that cool?

Yeah?

You with me?

Okay.

Because I want a visual reminder.

Because we don't get this.

I want you to come up here, grab some soil, put a seed in, a little water, put this by your windowsill.

Now you gotta water it, Daily.

And keep that reminder of what you sow determines what you grow.

You never reap in the same season that you sow, and it takes a process, and I'm gonna watch this process grow.

And here's the funny part about it.

This is so wild.

It's gonna start to grow, and you're gonna get excited.

You are, you're gonna get excited.

And there's gonna be one day where you go to sleep and you wake up and it grew like an inch.

And you're gonna go, whoa, this is amazing.

It's just wild how we love, we're designed, we're hardwired for growth.

Now, when you're in it, you don't get to see that inch of growth so well from the inside.

Can we be a community that when we see that inch of growth in other people, we say it.

We go, like, look at you, look, I do you, I know you, I know how you normally respond, I know what you normally do, look at how you respond.

Let's just celebrate that where we begin to speak the growth that we're seeing in others and going like, Jesus is doing a work in you, he's doing a work in you, and it's beautiful.

And I know it's not all the way to this flowery, but that little sprig is amazing.

I I love New Years.

Um, and it's not because like my personality is like this, I'm naturally kind of pessimistic.

Realist, really, if you want to be.

But I love new years, I love new weeks, and I love new days.

But it doesn't have to do with my personality, it actually has to do with my God.

And I'm getting a little tired of the pessimistic rant and perspective that we have in our culture today, where it's like, why try?

And I get last year you got started and you're like, I don't want to go again, I don't want to set goals just to be disappointed and never, you know, arrive.

I I get all that.

There's a verse that I write almost every single day.

It says, I just went blank.

Your steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Your mercies are new every day.

Great is your faithfulness.

Steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

Your mercies are new every day.

Great is your faithfulness.

So today, Sunday, you woke up to new mercy.

You woke up to new mercy.

Today is a new mercy day.

Forget about tomorrow.

Forget about 2024.

Jesus, today I'm starting afresh.

I love this quote though.

You cannot go back and have a brand new start.

You can start today and have a brand new end.

And some of you, you the way you finished out or what's been happening in your past is hindering you in your future, and you're like, Ryan, I don't really get it.

I don't want to, I don't think I can start new.

No, you have a generous farmer, father, and today you can start and have a brand new end.

There's new mercy waiting for you.

So as we worship, come forward, get your cup, and begin to lean in the process of God.

God's heart for you, He longs for you to grow.

He's provided everything we need.

So we lean in this year, this season, this month, start today.

God, I pray for my friends.

Thank you for your grace, your kindness.

Thank you that your heart for us is of mercy and steadfast love.

That your faithfulness, even when we are faithless, you are faithful.

So Holy Spirit, right now, in this moment, would you reveal the things in our heart that we need to root out?

Would you give us the courage to step forward, to invite you in.

To begin to get our hearts deeply connected to you, rooted in your word.

In Jesus' name.

We hope you are blessed by this message.

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