Understanding the Kingdom of God (Pt 6) : The Power of a Seed: How God's Word Grows Into an Extraordinary Harvest

My preach in the next four minutes. Now I can do.

I can do eight minutes.

Is this the power of a seed? Now, Jesus, think every as I'm preaching now,

please think on when God spoke a word to me 14 years ago.

Think of words God has spoken of this church, the power of a seed.

And think what's coming.

Ephesians 3:20. Paul writes, now all glory to God.

Ephesians 3:20

This is, by the way, is my verse for our church going forward into this new season.

It's the word God gave me. Now all glory to God, who is able,

through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish infinitely more

than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church

and in Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever.

We're going to be a multicultural, multi generational church

able to influence the city to the glory of our God.

Would you agree that this king we talk about here,

glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus.

He had a way of saying surprising things.

Who would have thought that the kingdom of God is like an ordinary tiny seed?

When Jesus comes and says the kingdom of God is like a seed,

he might as well have said, it's like a can of Coke. It's like, Sorry.

He was correcting the mistaken impressions people had about the nature of God

and his kingdom.

And even today people struggle with the nature of God

and the nature of God's kingdom.

And Jesus used parables like this. Mark 4:26.

Mark 4:26

The kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground

night and day while he's asleep or awake.

The seed sprouts and grows, but he doesn't understand how it happens.

The earth produces the crops on its own.

First a leaf blade pushes through.

Then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens.

And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it

with a sickle, for harvest time has come.

Now, this is not the parable of the sower,

where God the farmer is specifically putting seeds.

Now he's saying, you and I are like farmers. We take seed.

Seed is given us from God. Word, quiet time.

Preach a book.

Somewhere a word is coming and you just sow it.

You just throw it out there.

And what tends to happen is you're like just tossing it.

And what you don't understand is that it starts to grow.

It's like throwing an old tomato thing out and you come back

and suddenly there's a tomato plant.

We've got birds, right? So we give them those black, what they call baby sunflower.

Seeds, we give them sometimes some.

Some sunflower seeds and every now and then we throw them in the garden.

Just taken out our most recent this high.

Sunflowers. Rather plant sunflowers.

Don't even want them.

Just find a place to throw my seeds. But the soil was right.

And the point, as I said to you last week, when your soil is good,

when God starts to get gives you seed, it takes root in the good soil.

And so last week I wanted to talk to you about good soil being your heart.

This morning I want to talk about the power of the seed that you can hold on to.

What can that seed do? And so Jesus used this image of a seed that's thrown.

And whether the farmer understands it or not, something begins to happen.

He's trying to say to us that the word, the logos of the kingdom

has a power and life of its own.

In fact, the farmer doesn't cultivate it.

He doesn't even know how it works. All he does is throw it in.

Jesus puts it like this, mark 4, 30.

How can I describe the kingdom of God?

What story should I use to illustrate it?

It's like a mustard seed planted in the ground.

It's the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all the garden plants

that's in that area. It grows long branches

and birds can make nests in its shade.

Jesus was saying, a very small seed takes root, grows into a large bush,

and things take residence in it and can rest within it

because something's happening with the seed.

In Luke's account, Jesus uses follows the mustard seed parable.

Another story.

Luke 13:20. Jesus asked, what else is the kingdom of God like?

Luke 13:20

It's like the yeast a woman used in making bread.

Even though she only put a little yeast in three measures of flour,

it permeated every part of the dough.

Now, I know stuff all about making bread.

I buy it at spa.

But apparently yeast gets kneaded into dough and it works unseen

until the dough has life in it.

And I had to Google it. This is what Google says.

Yeast and dough work together through a process called fermentation,

where yeast consumes sugars in the dough, producing carbon dioxide gas

that causes the dough to rise, creating the characteristic flavors and aromas of bread.

I'm sure all the girls knew that.

Point is this. Get some dough, chuck some yeast in, it grows and takes over.

What's the point? The kingdom of God is a kind of life that keeps growing

like a mustard seed.

And like leaven, the kingdom of God grows beyond what we call the church.

Because what we call church is people like now meeting on Sunday.

Hey, I'm coming to church. We're coming to the building.

Church is who we are.

The church isn't the kingdom of God. Are you good with that?

The kingdom of God is separate. The church is the ecclesia.

It is the gathered men and women and children of God together being a family.

The kingdom is not the church.

The church is the manifestation of the kingdom, where God is at work.

But can I tell you, the kingdom of God is at work in other areas of life too.

Business, science, sport, social care, politics, the arts.

He's as busy there as he is in the church.

Wherever you and I go, the kingdom advances. Are you alright?

And so the point was, he wants to show us that the kingdom works like a seed.

And point number two, and I'll close with this, it is a very powerful and mighty seed.

Seeds are wonderful things.

A seed is a little dry thing, no bigger than your fingernail.

You put that thing in the ground and soon the plant springs out of the earth.

You water it, you fertilize it, and after a while something emerges out of that seed

that doesn't look like a seed.

The seed is a power to organize reality.

Think about that for a moment.

When that seed is put in the ground, God has engineered that seed in a way

that what comes out of that seed is massive potential.

And all the ability and fruitfulness and future fruitfulness of that plant

is in that seed.

But the seed looks nothing like the plant.

The power contained within it cracks the shell of the seed,

puts out the little roots.

And we all know that things start to happen.

That's why the Logos is portrayed by Jesus as a seed.

It is spiritual power to organize reality.

When you wait on God, when you need a word from God, when you seeking God.

God wants to plant seeds.

And within that seed is the potential of what a future can look like

and who can receive it.

Any old farmer.

As long as your soil is good, whatever word gives, whatever word God gives,

don't you just want to throw it in the good soil?

And when you throw it in the good soil, you don't stand there and fast and pride.

It says that even though the farmer tosses it into the soil,

whether he's asleep or awake, he doesn't even know it has power of its own.

The promises, the words that God gives you, the Logos,

the actual scripture God gives you, it contains a power of its own.

Jesus refers to himself as the seed of Abraham.

Genesis 3:16. God gave the promises to Abraham etc.

Genesis 3:16

Abraham was a man of faith.

He propagated after his own kind.

That's why we are children of Abraham, aren't we?

Because Abraham was a father of faith.

And every follower, true follower of Abraham down through the generations

has become a man or woman of faith.

He has propagated faith as a seed inside you and I.

Jesus, in a sense, was a seed because when he died and rose from the dead,

and even at his birth, when the seed of the Holy Spirit was put into Mary,

the seed, the potential was there for the Savior of the world to come into being.

And then Jesus died as a seed and rose again.

And you and I, every time someone's born again, you die and you rise again

and a new seed is planted from which the kingdom of God can grow,

from which the kingdom of God can benefit.

You have no idea the potential of God wrapped up in every single believer.

And, and Jesus, my last point is he sends the seed into the soil of our hearts.

The seed comes alive, it begins doing what God wanted it to do.

And I want to close with this scripture for this morning.

When God speaks or plants a seed into your life that came from him

and the soil is good and you agree with him, a harvest is guaranteed.

Isaiah 55, verse 8.

Isaiah 55:8

My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts, says the Lord.

And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.

For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,

so my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.

The rain and the snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground

to water the earth.

They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer

and bread for the hungry.

It's the same with my word, my Logos.

I send it out and it always produces fruit.

It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper wherever I send it.

I close with these words.

C.S. lewis, in the book Mere Christianity, wrote these words.

Good and evil both increase at compound interest.

That is why the little decisions you and I make every day

are of such infinite importance.

The smallest good act today is the capture of a strategic point

from which a few months later, you may be able to go on to victories

you never, ever dreamed of.

And I want to say to you this morning, God is planting seeds of faith.

He deposits seeds of promises in you, me, in us, for the future,

but even for your individual life.

And God says the words I give you, I look after it, to perform,

will accomplish exactly what I want for it.

Friends, we are going into an incredibly fruitful prayer answering season

hold on to the seeds he gives you.

Let them grow in your heart and reap a harvest for the kingdom of God.

Stand with me, please.

Thank you so much for being a part of our meeting today.

Can I just ask two things?

The first is if today the message is in any way been useful to you,

would you mind just maybe liking it or putting perhaps a statement down

or a comment down that we can know how the ministry has helped you,

Maybe a thumbs up, maybe you can subscribe to the channel,

do whatever, just so we can know what impact this message may be having on you.

And secondly, you may be someone who's saying, greg, I hear you.

And this hope that Jesus has for us can come into my heart and it can change me.

But the reality is that I don't even know if I know Jesus.

I want to say two things to you right away.

The first is he's near you right now.

The Bible says if you believe in your heart that he is the Lord,

and if you confess him with your mouth, you will be saved.

Which means you just need to where you are.

Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ even now and just say, lord, here I am.

I recognize who you are, confess my sin to you.

I acknowledge you as Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, the Son of the living God.

And I want to follow you.

I want to become a disciple of yours.

I want to, I want to give my life to you, Lord.

And you can pray that prayer right now between you and the Lord.

Secondly, you can get hold of us.

You can see the telephone number.

You can get hold of us and say, hey, I've given my life to the Lord.

Can you help me from here on out?

And we could either send you some material,

we can put you in touch with a really good church near you.

If you live in our area, you can come to us, you can follow us on YouTube.

But it is good to get connected into the family of God,

to get connected into a local church that your life changes

being surrounded with the family of God.

Please stay in touch. God bless you.