Worship Service on May 5, 2024
For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been talking, and I talked this morning about planting, buying flowers, planting a garden, and getting all the things ready to harvest our seeds that we purchased or the plants that we’ve bought. It’s so exciting.
The definition of a seed is a flowering plant unit of reproduction capable of developing into another such plant. If you use the word “seed” as a verb, it means to sow the land with seed or plant. A seed is a small object produced by a plant from which a new plant can grow. Seeds have always been considered a metaphor for survival or rebirth. Seeds are small but complicated and mysterious. They have the ability to pause their growth for months or years and yet still be alive and come out of their inactivity at the right moment. Think about that, a little tiny seed. Another reason to believe in God’s miraculous creation. We have not been able to do that in a laboratory, and they won’t be able to reproduce seeds either. I know AI is coming, but I don’t think that they’re going to have any AI seeds. So this is God’s creation, the seed.
This is what Jesus says about seeds in Mark 5:26-29: “And he was saying, ‘The kingdom of God is like a man who casts seeds 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. Does anybody know how that works? I don’t know. The soil produces crops by itself: first the blade, then 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.’ What a miraculous thing this little tiny seed can give us food.
We are like seeds that are thrown on the ground. We may find ourselves in a difficult situation throughout our lives where we need to maintain our faith and conviction in God, no matter what the circumstances present. The devil’s never going to come to you and say, ‘Hey, I have this chain here that I want to give you, for instance, I want to give you a lifelong addiction that absolutely makes you go bankrupt, causes you to be hurled into divorce, and makes your children hate you.’ The enemy is never going to come right up and say, ‘Hey, here’s a chain for your destruction.’ But what he does do, he brings us a choice. This is how the enemy works. He doesn’t come out with the chain; he knows we’re too smart; we’d run away from that. He says, ‘Oh no no no, there’s no chain, here’s the choice.’ The enemy sees and hears our “okay”. The enemy doesn’t bring us chains; he brings us links and he forces us to build our own chain. He makes us build the chain ourselves through the choices he presents. So what do you think those choices are? They’re earthly things. They are things like ‘Oh it’s okay go ahead gamble some more it won’t matter you’ve got a choice.’ ‘Oh it’s okay to run that red light.’ ‘It’s okay to do this and do that.’ And if we choose, we start putting those links together and we make our own chain. So ultimately it’s up to us to make the right choices in our lives. Worldly things are very enticing but we also must remember that they will fade away and the only thing that is important is our eternal salvation.
It may be very difficult at times to convince others who don’t believe and it may be frustrating but we mustn’t give up. If our heart is full of the word of God that’s what is going to come out of our mouth. It is much like a story of a teacher who took a fish out of the bowl and left a classroom of children as it flopped around telling them if anyone left their seats they would be expelled. All of the children sat and watched as the fish flopped around gasping for air not wanting to get up in order to avoid getting into trouble. Finally a girl sprang out from her seat ran to the fish placing it back in the bowl ultimately she was the only one who refused to watch the fish die when the teacher returned he told the class that this was a lesson that the fear of getting into trouble should never stop you from doing what’s right, that sometimes you may have to oppose authority and group thinking simply because it’s the right thing to do. You won’t be very popular but you know it’s the right thing to do. People may judge us for our faith in Christ. We may feel that we need to impress these people because we value them. Stop thinking that way. Focus on trying to impress God because in the end people will judge you anyways. So do not live your life trying to impress others. I’ve got to work on that one myself!
God’s opinion of you is the only one that matters. Our task of spreading the holy word of God is not an easy one. Matthew 13:31-32 and in this is he presented another Parable to the disciples saying, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed which a man took and sowed in his field and this is smaller than all other seeds but when it is full grown it is larger than the garden plants and becomes a tree that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. We are like that Mustard Seed. We may feel small and inadequate but because we have the ultimate gift of grace given to us by God our Father we are mighty! Each day we grow stronger through faith in Him. Our hearts were created by God to bring forth fruit when his word is planted in them. The seed is the word of God. Just as a seed has to remain in the ground over time to germinate, so the word of God has to abide in us. It germinates in us every day so we need to be the person who breaks the cycle. If we are judged – choose understanding. If we’re rejected – choose acceptance. If we are shamed – choose compassion. Be the person you needed when you were hurting, not the person who hurt you. Vow to be better than what broke you, to heal instead of becoming bitter so you can act from your heart not from your pain. Choose to be positive rather than negative. Choose to allow God’s word to be the seed in your heart to help you navigate through life’s ups and downs. Do everything with a good heart and expect nothing in return and you will never be disappointed. Amen.
