Scripture reading today is from Mark 4, verses 26-32, and he was saying, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil, and he goes to bed at night and gets up by day, and the seed sprouts and grows. How he himself does not know. The soil produces crops by itself, first the blade, and in the head, then the mature grain in the head. But when the crop permits, he immediately puts in the sickle because the harvest has come.
And he said, how shall we picture the kingdom of God? Or by what parable shall we present it? It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the soil, though it is smaller than all the seeds that are upon the soil, yet when it is sown, it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and forms large branches so that the birds of the air can nest under its shade. All right, good morning.
For all of you who don't know me, my name is Mallory Aiken. I am the worship leader here at Foundry, I want an honor, it's been, it's been since January, I've been able to be here with you all, and that has been a blessing. I come to you today to bring a little word about the power, the potential, and the purpose of a seed. And before we get started, I do want to show a little clip of a video so that you can get an idea of where things are going.
So I'll go ahead and cue that, please. Keep it right, another. Really? Well, you're the first.
I'm the king of different, nothing I do works. It works? Great, one success. Me, do you, boy, wait, wait, wait, wait, I can't even fly yet, it's too little.
Being little is not such a bad thing. Yes, it is. It's not, it's not, it's not, it's not. It's not, it's not, it's not.
Oh, see, and you see that. Pretend that that's a seed. It's a rock. Oh, I know it's a rock.
I know it's a rock. But let's just pretend for a minute that it's a seed, all right, we'll just use our imagination. Now, do you see our tree? Everything that made that giant tree is already contained inside this tiny little seed.
All it needs is some time, a little bit of sunshine and rain and voila. It's rock, it'll be a tree. It's a tree, you've got to work with me, all right? Okay, you might not feel like you can do much now.
But that's just because, well, you're not a tree. Give yourself some time. You're still a seed. But it's a rock.
I know it's a rock. Don't you think I know a rock when I see a rock here? Awesome. This time we're actually going to be passing out a mustard seed.
So if everybody will make your way, you're going to be holding, it's really small. So I figured an actual holding, the actual seed would have more context to you than trying to see a picture of a 1 to 2 millimeter seed. Someone who takes some time to pass those out. While they're doing that, I want to make you aware, there's two things that you need to know about me while I'm here.
I wanted to share a couple of things. One is that I won't stay in still. So I apologize for the media team. It's going to be a little challenging.
But I will be moving around. The second thing that you need to know, is I wanted to give some context to why I say, amen, good job, or wow, that's good when you all hear me on this front row over here. Because I'm sure that you all have been like, wait, why did she do that? So I come from the tradition that whenever you have a good meal, what do you do?
You compliment the chef, right? So I do that in the same thing whenever I'm getting a good spiritual word and I'm eating good spiritually, I like to compliment the person that is giving that thing. So I'm giving that praise and that honor for the fact that I'm getting something good out of what they're saying. So saying that, feel free today if you get something good to compliment, I'm not the chef, the Lord is, but know that this is a safe space and a safe place to be able to just give commentary.
So I wanted to give you some context as to why I do it. I do because it can sound like I'm a crazy person sometimes. But when you're hearing something good, I want to make sure that I'm giving compliments where they're due. So yes, come on, somebody got the word.
So as you can see from the clip, that we're going to be talking about the power, the potential, and the purpose of a seed. No, I didn't plan all of those three P's, but they're kind of cool that they all end up having the same first letter. But you're holding in your hand the tiniest of seeds as the scripture of the text today talks about the mustard seed being the smallest of seed, yet it grows to the largest of trees. And I wanted to give you a definition of a seed.
And it is that the grains of a ripened ovule of a plant used for sowing or a fertilized ripened ovule of a flowering plant containing an embryo and capable normally of germination to produce a new plant. And in our text today, it talks about two different parables in that text, two different parables that Jesus is using to describe the kingdom of God. And that I don't know about you if you've ever wondered, what does the kingdom of God look like? What does the kingdom of God sound like?
What does the kingdom of God feel like? We hear it talked about a lot because I believe Jesus was made flesh. He was the word that was made flesh to bring to us the representation of who God the Father is. And in that, he was also creating the atmosphere.
In Luke, it talks about how John the Baptist was the one preparing the way for the Lord that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, at hand meaning that Jesus was going to be there present with him. And so I really loved this passage where it was describing that the kingdom of God is like a farmer who sows the seed, that when he puts it in the ground, and he goes about his business day in and night, just doing his normal routines, that he doesn't know how it happens, but that plant begins to sprout, and it begins to grow. But the farmer was diligent with just putting action upon that seed. And then the second parable, talking just as like that, says the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed.
In that seed that you're holding in your hand, there is potential, meaning the potential of reproducing the very thing that it represents. That seed is not the tree. You're not holding the tree in your hand, right? Because we wouldn't be able to fit that in this room.
But the potential of that seed is that it has the ability to reproduce what's on the inside of it, meaning that there is something greater on the inside of that seed. And if you misinterpret or overlook its power, then you could miss the opportunity of what is on the other side of that. Because within that one seed, the potential is that there's more than just one seed on the other side of that seed. There's a tree that is the biggest of trees, it says, not just that it's a big tree, but that birds provide shade, and it's a place where birds actually come and rest.
But it's the smallest of seeds. Why do you think that God chose to use this as the representation of what it means to look like the kingdom? We're going to talk about that later. But we're on potential.
I'm getting ahead of myself. Without planting that seed that's in your hand, the tree that's on the other side would never grow. It would never exist. It would never be.
Does that make that seed any less of a seed? No, it's what we do with that seed, right? So then we go into the purpose of a seed. The purpose of a seed is in essence to duplicate or replicate, reproduce the very plant that it represents.
And it doesn't just reproduce that one plant, but it is able to multiply beyond what it represents. Is that one seed? Like I was saying, the one seed doesn't produce just one more seed, getting into the power of the seed. When placed in the ground in good conditions, it has the capacity to grow well beyond its current size.
It enters one way into the ground and comes out a completely different way. But it doesn't happen instantly, right? There's time. There's resources that has to be given, an environment that is capable, a soil that is fertile.
But what is on the inside is actually what's powerful about that seed. It's not the capsule of it. It's what's on the inside of that seed. Mark 43331, Jesus said, how can I describe the kingdom of God?
What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. So what makes a mustard seed so unique and so such a beautiful representation of what the kingdom is like. So things that you need to know about a mustard seed is that it is one to two millimeters in size, as you can tell.
If you can easily get lost, it's that small. But the tree can grow up to 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. And if you were going to go and plant that mustard seed, you would need to give space for that mustard seed to be able to grow. You have to give it room for it to germinate, room for it to develop into the fullness of what it's called to be.
But also something that's unique about the mustard seed that I think is very evident in the spiritual application of this is that one article describes that the michemicals produced by this plant are allopathic, meaning that they prevent other seeds from germinating. That makes it spread even more aggressive. And native plants are often the ones affected. So it's the smallest of seed, yet is the most aggressive type of seed, meaning that when you put it into the ground, you're not going to see an orange tree pop up.
You're going to see that mustard seed come forth and nothing else is going to prevent it. There are other plants, which I don't have examples of. But if you were to put it around this mustard seed, they would be unable to choke it out. Weeds are unable to choke it out because of what is on the end, what it's chemical makeup has actually given it the opportunity to be the one when you put it in the ground, you give it great conditions.
It's going to come forth with exactly what it was intended. It is a place for birds to rest, as I mentioned. It creates space for shade. It's aggressive in its growth.
It may be the smallest of seeds, but it has a large, large expression. I want to get to the practicality of what I mean. I've said seed probably 100 times already, and you're probably annoyed by me saying it, but it's OK. I want to drive this home.
And I want you to realize that sometimes when it comes to spiritual application, we need an illustration or a picture of what that looks like. And Jesus knew that because it even talks about further down in the same chapter, that every time that Jesus spoke, he did it in parable form. Because the best way that we're able to receive information is by telling a story. And so I think it's interesting that he chose to use the seed, and that I want you to know that you have the power within yourself, to have seed within you.
You have seed in you to reproduce humans. You have the seed of time, of your friendships, of your resources, of your finances. These are all seeds that we have been given. And as Alan was saying earlier, that it's our responsibility to be good stewards of that very thing.
Because in Isaiah 55, it says, the rain and 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. How can we truly be a farmer or a person that's utilizing what we've been given, a good steward, if you will? We could introduce farmer and make it a steward, because farmers are, what are they doing?
They're sowing seeds. They're growing crops. They're doing what they've been called to do. And I think it's interesting that he chose to use agricultural things in the way that he represented spiritual dynamics.
Because farmers, that's not just something that you go to school for. And in five years, you know how to do. Farmers are people that take their lives learning how to do this. You see farmers, it's probably a generation of farmers.
It's never just, oh, I just decided one day to be a farmer. It is something that is a lifestyle of who they are. And when that farmer puts that seed in the ground, they're not just hoping, they don't just hope that it's going to come up. And it's like, well, it might show up something.
No, farmers put the seed in the ground knowing that there will be a harvest and there will be a return. And we can have that same confidence with the seed that's in our hands to put it in the ground and begin to see a return of our investment. It's not, we don't look at farmers and say, oh, that's silly. You just put that seed in the ground and you're going back with expectation.
Why are you doing that? That's just, that's silly. No, that's the way that you do it. You're expecting a return of what you're investing in that in the ground, but you're doing everything that you can to create an environment that is conducive for that seed to grow.
And so I would encourage you today that you have a part to play. You are farmers. In the kingdom of God, you have been given seed within your life, with all of the resources, the gifts, the talents that God has placed on the inside of you. These are your seed and what are you doing with them?
It's not up to pastors, leaders who have, it's not up to them to be the people that are creating and cultivating an environment for seed to grow and for people to even be a part of this congregation. It's actually all of our part. Because if it was about a priesthood, that it was just about us coming and being led by someone and that they were the one responsible for bringing forth what we needed to be able to do this thing called Christian life, then there would have been no need for Jesus to come and rent the heavens so that we can actually step into the Holy of Holies and have our own personal relationship with God. So if I can have a personal relationship with God, that must mean that I have a part to play in his big story.
So what are we doing with what we have in our hands? That is my question to you today. What seed is in your hands? What has God given you?
And I'll also turn it the other way. What is it that you think that you don't have? What is it that you think that you don't have and starts sewing into that thing so that you can get the harvest of what you're looking for? Because if we have everything that we need according to life and Godliness, that must mean that God's given it on the inside of us.
So if we're not seeing a manifestation of that tree, that mustard tree, then where is the seed that I can get, that I'm given by God, that I can plant it in the ground and begin to see the harvest. I'll give you a perfect example of this, who's ironic that this week, there was a memory that popped up on my social media of this very story of me sharing. I remember there being a time in my life where I just did not have good friends. I didn't have what I would call those people that I could go deep with, people that I could trust.
It just seemed as if my life, the people would come in and then people would leave just as fast as they came in. And I remember being super frustrated and super aggravated at that. And it came out of my mouth more of like as a complaint that it's so aggravating, I don't have friends and it was just like a low is me pity party type thing. And then the Lord started reminding me and he began to say, okay, Mallory, let's do a self evaluation.
And let's see, are you the type of friend to others that you are wanting in a friend? And I was like, I don't know. I feel like you already know the answer to this question. So maybe you should answer it instead of me because I feel like I might have the wrong answer.
But he began to show me that I was a person that couldn't be, someone couldn't hold their confidence. I couldn't hold their confidence because I was sharing all the things that people would share with me. That I wasn't someone that was serving the relationship, meaning that it's not just what I can get from it. There is also a mutual component that I have to serve that relationship, that I need to be there and listen to them.
And I need to be available when they're having a hard time. That it doesn't need to be me dominating conversations. That I need to be willing to listen and be available. Do things that they want to do that.
It's not solely centered about around me as a person. And the Lord began to show me, he was like, now Mallory, if you begin to sew into that thing for your life, you're gonna begin to reap that thing in your life. And I began to do that. I began to change the way that I was being friends to the people around me.
I embodied, or I was the seed for the type of thing that I wanted to see in my life. And right now, I have very rich relationships. I'm not saying by any means that I had the full control of that or that I was responsible for that, by any means. Because just as the farmer at the beginning of the text, it says the farmer didn't know how those seeds grew.
He just was putting it into the ground. It's not my job to know how it happens or to be responsible for the rate of which it grows. But it's my job to be the one that puts it in the seed. Puts it in the ground, puts the seed in the ground.
So what is it that you're lacking today? We all have a part to play. And I want, if anything, I want this to be something that kind of brings us an awareness of like, where is it in my life that I've just been sitting around expecting something to come to me? When I've not put any seed in the ground.
Where is it that I've been expecting some type of return? Because I'm entitled to it. Whenever I've done nothing to put work to the ground. No, don't hear me wrong.
I'm not, there's no striving in this thing called the kingdom of God, right? But there is putting our hands to the plow and putting our work into action. So the potential of that seed in your hand will stay just potential energy unless we take action and actually put it into the ground. So what are we doing with the seed at our hand?
There's a couple of things before I close to share. When it comes to the kingdom of God, we don't have to try to reproduce the kingdom of God. With our own striving or our own working, we only have to be diligent with planting the seed. Jesus was considered a seed.
Genesis 3.15, it says, and I will put in and he between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head and you will strike his heel. He was, this is where the Lord is speaking to the serpent in the garden. Corinthians 15 verse 20, verse 15 verse 20, but Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.
The potential of the seed will stay in that seed until it is put into the ground. John 12 verse 24 says, I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat is planted in the soil and dies, it remains alone. But its death will produce many new kernels, a plentiful harvest of new lives. Verse 25 says, those who love their life in this world will lose it, those who care nothing for their life in this world will keep it for all eternity.
And the last one, it's not important who does the planting or who does the watering. What's important is that God is the one who makes the seed row. So it's God's job. It's God's job to bring us all into the full majority of Christ.
He said that he who began a good work in us is faithful to complete it. So what are we doing with what God has given us? What are we doing with what he's shown us? And how are we doing our part to be a part of the kingdom of God?
Because we're not here trying to build a church. Let me just, in fact, I was reminded of this of a good friend who said this this week, that we're not trying to build a church. We're here to build a kingdom. And that is true.
I think sometimes we in our Western part of the world, we can get it's not about doing church good. It's not about having a great Sunday morning experience. But it's really all about us day in and day out, being a part of building the kingdom of God. I think that's why he said that the kingdom of God is like a farmer who puts the seed in the ground.
The kingdom of God is like this mustard seed. It's the smallest. So even if you think, oh, I don't have much to give, or I don't have much to offer, look at that little seed in your hand. It doesn't have much to offer in size what it looks like in palm of your hand.
But it grows to a great tree, 20 feet tall and 20 feet wide. This is a picture of it right here. That little tiny seed that's in your hand grows to this, or one species of it. Don't quote me on that directly.
So if you put that in the ground and you grow it, it doesn't look like this. Don't sue me, OK? But there's many different types of mustard seed, which is most of trees, which is what I found in my research of this. But I just want you to know that there's no one just like Dot in that video clip that we saw, is that we can think that, oh, because I'm not a big, strong, grown tree, that I have nothing to offer the Lord.
Let me tell you something that you do, because he's placed all of the potential, all of the purpose, and all of the power on the inside of you. And all we have to do is sew our life into this thing called the kingdom of God, and doing it for the Lord. Because here's the thing, he doesn't ask us to do these things that he's not already done them before us, and that he's not willing to walk with us through them every single step of the way. We're the ones that put that pressure that is supposed to look a certain way, and then it's supposed to, I'm already supposed to be here to this stage of life, that I'm at this age, and I'm not measuring up.
But God doesn't put that pressure or that demand on us. He just asks us to be a part of this thing called the kingdom of God. We're always going to be his kids. It doesn't matter how old you get, how many times that you're going around the sun, or how many titles that you get in this life.
You will always be a kid in his kingdom. You're always going to be one of his kids that has access to knock on the door at 3 AM and ask him a question. I don't know about you, but not everyone gets that type of access in my life. You're not going to go to a moderate 3 AM, you will not hear anything, because I will not be getting up.
I may be calling the cops on you if you're coming at 3 AM in the morning, but someone like a child, some of you in the room have children, if they were to knock on your door at 3 AM in the morning, you would maybe groggy, a little groggy, but you would be ready to listen and to move, and God is the same, he's the same thing, he's the father. If we don't see him first as a good father, we've missed the entire thing. We've missed it all. He's not a taskmaster, late for us to do everything, just right?
He's a father who's giving us an opportunity to be a part of the family business. I want to be a part of that family business, and each one of you are being invited into that very thing. So I want to take a moment and just pray over us as we receive what the Lord has spoken. So Father, I just thank you right now that you are so good.
You're so good that you want to teach us your ways, you want to lead us and guide us and direct us in your ways. And Lord, you want to give us a good representation of what to expect in the kingdom of God. So what I just ask right now, if there's been any blinders, if there's been anything that has been hindering us to receiving the fullness of you, what I ask that you would just break those things down. Anything that tries to rise itself above the name of Jesus in our lives, what I thank you right now that you are ministering to each person, and you're allowing those things to fall, just like scales from our eyelids.
But I thank you that we've all been called to action today to be a part of the kingdom of God, and taking the seed that we've been given and putting in the ground and knowing Lord, it doesn't just reproduce one seed back, it's multiplication, that is the way of the kingdom is to multiply. So we're believing to receive all that you have in store for us. And where we've felt less than or unqualified to be a part of this, God, I thank you that you are rising each one of us up, and you are affirming us in the truth, that we are all your kids, we've all been given something to offer. Lord, we choose today, we choose today to be a part of that.
We want to be a part of your kingdom growing so that we can see the harvest. I thank you Lord for your presence, I thank you for your nearness today, and I thank you for reinforcing and making grow every seed that has been sown today more under the sound of my voice, because what it is for your glory and for your kingdom that we do even do what we do here. It's in your name we pray, Jesus, amen. Amen.