Principles of How God's Work Grows | Mark 4:26-29 | Pastor Daniel Batarseh (Gospel of Mark Series)

Would you connect your faith with mine as we trust the Holy Spirit to help us? Lord, we do pray humbly before you. We thank you for this building, for this room, for the people that are here filling this place. Lord, we look to you as the living God. There's no doubt in us that you are the real God, the true God, the only God.

But we believe that what we have in our hands is your word. But we also understand that this word, apart from the spirit, will not move us, will not change us. And so we ask that the Holy Spirit's help, his power, the same Holy Spirit that anointed the Son while he was on Earth, We pray for that anointing to be known in this place. And so, Lord, we confess our weakness and our dependency on you. We know that what will make this time effective is not eloquence, nor will it be any personality.

It will be the power of the Holy Spirit. So we confess that and we trust that he will meet us here. May the son of God be glorified in our midst. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Mark four twenty six. And he said, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows. He knows not how. The earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. You can imagine the range of emotions that the disciples felt up to this point of hearing their messiah, the messiah, explain after one parable following the next, principles and foundational truths concerning the kingdom of God, the kingdom that was prophesied about, the kingdom that was long awaited, the kingdom that would establish a people, and redemption for the world. Here they are as these pupils soaking in everything that their teacher is saying, and, again, it makes you wonder what what they felt. Surely, there was excitement. Surely, there was curiosity, And perhaps there was even uncertainty.

Because as Jesus is teaching, it's not farfetched to imagine that these disciples are perhaps feeling concern. Concern. That could be one growing thought because with this revelation is coming the realization of the great responsibility that is being placed upon their shoulders. Here they are being prepared after being selected to launch out into the world with a truth, with the aim of saving souls, of seeing people converted, of seeing people who will also be included in this kingdom. I mean, imagine being a pioneer of a movement that has been planned from eternity past.

Imagine being one of the founders, so to speak, of this message going forth that will recruit and win people, the masses to salvation. These disciples perhaps thought to themselves, do I have what it takes? What is required of me? How can I ensure success? Do I need to adopt some kind of a method?

Do I need to make this message more palatable, more acceptable, more attractive? What is it that I can do to make sure that I will not fail in this grand task that the son of God is commissioning me to? And whether or not the disciples were thinking such thoughts, Jesus, the Lord, Jesus, the chief cornerstone, assures them through this parable of a truth that would bring them relief, bringing them a repose, a comfort, something that would not just last for the moment, but something that they can hold on to for the rest of their ministry on earth. Jesus gives this teaching to his disciples for the sole purpose of reminding them how success will come. How the growth of the kingdom of God will occur.

And you and I here today who are true servants of God will also benefit greatly from what the Lord here has to say. You and I here are eager to see fruit, whether or not you are part of a certain ministry, whether your family is your ministry, whether you're part of some kind of evangelistic endeavor outside of these walls, or you serve within these walls. Every true believer has a desire to see fruit in their labor. Every true believer truly wants to see the people that they come in contact with, that God providentially leads into their lives to be changed, to be transformed. They want to see souls rescued, and they also simultaneously wanna see the saved mature in Christ likeness.

And what we see here is that Jesus provides the formula. He gives them insight. And the goal of this, the emphasis of this, is that through this revelation, they would know an inward rest. That they would be able to battle discouragement, that they would be able to overcome doubts, that they would be able to silence all suspicion, and they would be able to with longevity to continue serving God knowing this truth is ringing in their ears. And there's many ways of dissecting these verses to help us understand how it is that God's work multiplies, how it is that God's word grows and brings about results.

But I wanna simplify it. I wanna make it as simple as possible. And I believe the simplest way of understanding what Jesus is trying to communicate here, not just to his disciples, but to us today, is that there is two sides to this thing. There is one human responsibility, and two, there is the realization of divine sovereignty. That's it.

If you can remember those two things moving forward, you will understand how it is that God's work multiplies. Human responsibility, divine sovereignty. And here's what impresses me of this parable that we just read. It's only found in Mark. This and another parable in Mark chapter 13 are exclusive to this gospel writer.

You will not find what we just read in John, Matthew. You will not find it in Luke. And that is by the design of the author. Because remember the whole construct of this book, the whole theme of Mark is to portray the son of God as the perfect servant of God. And how fitting is it for the Holy Spirit to include two additional teachings, two parables in Mark that are short, yes, but also dealing with the theme of work in this text.

It is because, yes, we are also going to see Jesus as the perfect servant, but as our example in service as well. And so with this book, we have something more for us in the lane of serving our God. So this is not this is not an accident here. This is for those who say, I want to I want to be effective for the Lord. I truly wanna bear fruit.

I don't wanna waste my time. I don't wanna waste my energy. This is for you. And as you look at it with me, you will realize that not only are there two sides, but there's an emphasis. The emphasis here is not human responsibility, though it is included.

It's God. It's God's work, God's hand. God's mind. God's wisdom. God's timing.

And so let's do this together. We will look at first the human responsibility. And he said in verse 26, the kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. You were there when we learned about the parable of the sower, were you not? Remember what Jesus said to his disciples when they proved that they could not understand what that parable was all about?

He said earlier in the same chapter in verse 13, and he said to them, do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? In other words, the parable of the sower, which deals with the responsibility of how we hear the word of God, holds key interpretational ideas for the parables that Jesus would teach from then on. And so we have to understand with the parable of the sower in our in the backdrop, that what we learn from that applies to this. So that helps us understand and crack a little bit of this code.

Number one, we know that the man here speaks of the one who has the truth and plants it, who has the truth and gives it and offers it and proclaims it. We understand that the seed is the word of God, incorruptible, pure. And we understand also that the ground here speaks of the hearts of men. And so here we have a sower going out planting the gospel, planting God's word in the hearts of people. And what we see here though is that Jesus brings us to our memory again to emphasize a very important point.

That growth in the kingdom of God, fruit in the people that we are ministering to, our ministries being blessed by the Holy Spirit, and people being blessed by it is completely inseparable from the implementation and the application and the faithfulness to the word of God. Growth ain't happening without God's word. That's why it's here in the forefront of this parable. You and I have to understand that Jesus is bringing this to our minds because for the servants of God, there will be a constant temptation to rely on secondary matters as the substance of our gospel persuasion. And so people think this from time to time and this obstructs that.

Well, you know, if I if I just dress a certain way, if I speak a certain way, if I'm more eloquent, if I if I'm more intelligent, if I have more of a philosophical flare, if, if I'm more funny, if I'm more laid back, if if I have more of a pedigree, if I am more educated with current events and politics, if I smile more, if I smile less, if my hair is this way, if my hair is that way, if, more approachable, whatever the case may be, now let's magnetize it corporately. If our service is geared towards more contemporary, if our service is more traditional, if we start at 10AM, if we start at 1PM, if we have more natural light, if we have more dim and cozy lights, if we have more activities, if the preacher dresses this way, if he dresses that way, if the worship team looks like that, the worship looks like this. If we do all these things, then surely the gospel will be more acceptable and there will be more growth. And what's verse 26 is all about is all you need is God's word. That's what Jesus is saying.

All you need is God's word. Prayed upon, faithfully handled, boldly declared, dealt with with patience and compassion and love. All you need is to scatter the seed, and that is the basis for the harvest to come. You can't have a harvest without this word. And the Bible testifies of itself concerning the great power and might that it has and what it can produce in the recipient's heart.

The recipient's heart. There was a time when there was a pastor or prophet who was ministering in a time when there were other so called prophets who claimed to speak on behalf of the Lord, and the Lord gives commentary on how these false messengers operated and what they depended on in comparison to those who were faithful messengers of his. I wanna show you that in Jeremiah 23. Let's go to the Old Testament briefly. Jeremiah 23, and meet me here in verse 28.

The Lord speaks to the prophet and says, let the prophet who has a dream tell the dream, but let him who has my words speak my word faithfully. What a straw in common with wheat declares the Lord. So what you had in this time were false prophets who were claiming to speak on behalf of God, but the substance of their message was subjective experience. They would claim to have visions or dreams in the night, and then they would come to an audience and they would try to convey some kind of message from God that was for them that was obviously false and something that they came up with. It was something that they conjured up from their own imagination.

And for the naive and the superficial, it worked. It was attractive. There was something mysterious about it, and they seemed to be God's men because, look, God's speaking to them and through them to us, so surely they are someone special. And we see here that there is this great hype around phenomena, paranormal activity, supernatural things occurring. And this is what was drawing a crowd.

This is what was swaying the people away from the true and living God. And then he makes a distinction, the Lord says, but my messengers, my ministers, my servants, they rely completely on my word. On my word. They see that the word is sufficient. You see the struggle today among believers is not so much whether the word is infallible.

I believe today, the greatest struggle among believers is whether or not the word of God is sufficient. Is it enough? Is it enough to save my children and to preserve them throughout this wicked generation? Is it enough to draw in a twisted and corrupt culture to saving faith? Is it enough to see this local church grow with true disciples or does it need some help?

Should we not add some hint of subjective experience or some kind of a spectacle or some kind of cultural credibility? Jeremiah says, my word is enough. And those who are faithfully proclaiming my word are those who are mine. And then he makes this metaphorical picture. What is straw in common with wheat, declares the Lord.

Straw is the the waste that comes from wheat. It's the shell. It's the the stuff that you disregard. It holds no value. It's to be trampled upon.

In fact, it's it's supposed to be burned. There's no nutritional substance. There's nothing that can offer the consumer, and that is what he likens to these prophets who rely on dreams. It doesn't do anything for anybody. It doesn't produce life.

There isn't nourishment. There aren't ingredients in that that can actually bring about change. But, ah, my word, my word is like wheat. There is something in my word that actually can contribute life giving power to those who are willing to eat it and take it and receive it. My word has value.

My word has sustenance. My word can supply. My word can change. My word can make you grow. My word.

My word alone. And so you see that those who rely on anything but the word are really relying on nothing. And God adds to this. He expands on the thought of his word in verse 29. Is not my word like a fire?

Declares the Lord. And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces. What does fire do? Fire cleanses. It consumes.

It overwhelms. It brings warmth. It illuminates. Fire is a force with many many outcomes. It's hard to ignore.

It's hard to come in contact with fire without something happening to that very object. My word is like fire. Not your dreams, not your miracles. Miracles can't do this. Motivational speeches from secular entrepreneurs can't do this.

Pop psychology can't do this. My word is like a fire. Then he goes on to say, it's like a hammer. Like a hammer. What does a hammer do?

Well, we read it breaks. It breaks resistance. It crushes that which is undesirable. Undesirable in us. My word breaks down pride.

It shatters envy. It brings to nothing to find powder, lust, and covetousness, and jealousy, and impatience, and murmuring, and complaining. My word destroys that. It eradicates it. Oh, but a hammer does more than destroy.

If you have it in the right hand, it can also build. It can construct and erect. It can create. And surely the word of God does that. After it does destroy, it wants to build something in you.

And it wants to build in you that which nothing else can offer you, holiness, loveliness, godliness, and all those wonderful fruit of the Holy Spirit that we know of in Galatians. It builds. Again, let me say, nothing else can do what the Word of God alone can do. And and here's why this is important. God gives this truth in the book of Jeremiah.

Why? Because it has reached its peak. The nation has reached its peak of apostasy. You had the nation of Israel turning their back on God, bowing down before idols, and it's now reached a boiling point where God says enough is enough. I'm sending the Babylonians to take you out.

And it is at that time that the spiritual climate was so bad that this truth comes to us. Why? To reassure and reestablish the prophet and those who are faithful to God in their faith in the word of God. This is the only thing that's gonna work. This is the only thing that's gonna win.

This is the only thing that will preserve and produce. It's my word. And what you have And I have to understand in Mark chapter four verse 26. Remember, I am speaking to those who want to see God's kingdom grow. That's your desire.

Believe the word of God. Believe that it is enough. Believe that we don't need any other gimmicks. We don't need any other tricks. That if this is given to a people, then in due time something will happen.

This is the human responsibility. This is the human responsibility. Well well, is that it? Well, it's not it because we continue here and quickly go from human agency to something else that now comes into operation, and it's found in verse 27. He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows.

He knows not how. You won't find that in any other gospel account. Only here in Mark. And it is one of the most refreshing parables when it comes to serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's what happens.

The man plants the seed, he goes home, and he sleeps. And this is just a summarizing way of saying, he just went about his daily routine. He went to bed, he woke up, he had breakfast, he worked, he picked up the kids from school, he came back, spent time with his family, went back to bed, repeat. And day after day, night after night, he was doing this. And while this was going on, there was a seed that was buried some time ago, and it is germinating, and it is sprouting, and it is growing.

And the key phrase in this verse is, as we are now exploring the divine sovereignty aspect of God's work being multiplied and growing, he knows not how. He doesn't know. Even with our advanced science today, scientists can't fully comprehend the complexity as when this little seed that goes into the earth and the right soil can germinate and become this giant oak tree that It's just hard to comprehend fully. And we see here that there is an appeal to mystery. He knows not how is intended to tell us that he has absolutely, not just no knowledge of how it occurs, but no contribution to it.

He's going about his own affairs. He's doing what he's doing, and this seed is doing what it's supposed to be doing. And this is exactly what the Lord is trying to communicate. The growth that you wanna see in your ministry for the kingdom of God all over the earth is dependent upon a source outside of yourself. Upon a work and upon a hand that is invisible to your sight.

It is something that you must learn to rest in. And what we see from this is that the pressure of producing results is now off of us. The human responsibility has been taken care of now in verse 26. Parents hear this. Let the burden roll off your back.

Pastors hear this, and let there be relief as week after week you're going out and planting the word of God. The faithful evangelist that can't go anywhere without telling somebody about Jesus by seeing little fruit in it. Realize, realize that once you drop that thing, all responsibility now is off of you. This is what the Lord is saying. He knows not how.

He doesn't comprehend, and he doesn't have anything to do with it. Well, if that's true then who is in charge of the growth? Well, look at verse 28. The Earth produces by itself. The phrase there by itself in the Greek, I may say it wrong, so forgive me.

Forgive me, YouTube. Automatos. Sound familiar? Automatos. Where we get the word in English automatic.

The earth produces by itself, and there is only one place in the entire New Testament where this Greek word is used. Can I show it to you? Go to Acts chapter 12 quickly. This is the account when Peter was in prison. The church is praying, praying desperately.

Something supernatural happens. An angel from the Lord comes, wakes Peter up, tells him to get up, and as they make their way towards the exit, something occurs here in verse 10 of chapter 12. When they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading into the city. It opened for them of its own accord. That phrase, of its own accord, automatas.

And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left them. Two places in the entire new testament where this Greek word is used. And so in the same way that this giant iron gate moved on its own accord, implying what? There was no help, there was no assistance, There was no outside intervention. It just did its thing independently.

Yes, supernaturally, but independently. In the same way, that's how this seed works. The seed is unassisted. The seed is independent. The seed is moving and pushing and bringing forth life without anything else helping it.

It's automatic. You don't read of this farmer with a magnifying glass hanging over that bed of dirt, yelling at it to grow. He doesn't stick his hand in there and meddle with the affairs. He's totally unaware. He's going about his business while this seed it's doing his business.

It's moving, cracking, life is coming, drawing nutrients, pushing through little rocks and little pebbles, and it's coming to life. So does the word of God. So does the word of God. Here's what I'm trying to do. To restore our faith in the supernatural power of this book, of the truths laced in this book.

That when this seed meets good soil, when it is welcomed by an open heart like we heard in the parable of the sower, this word is so powerful in that life that you can step away from it and trust that something will happen to that soul. And again, I don't know what that does to you, but it helps me a lot. First, it reminds me that I must concentrate and focus simply on being faithful in what I do with this word. That when I sit across that coffee table with a friend who is not saved, and everything in me is trying to tell me to persuade him to Christ with different ways or means, To just realize that if I give him the seed, yes, in wisdom, yes, in the right timing, but the seed nonetheless, that that thing can do wonders. It can do wonders.

I don't need to be clever. I don't need to manipulate. I don't need to appeal to the emotions. Just scatter the seed. You know what I love about this?

This man does not lay anxiously at night. He does not wonder, did I? Did I use the right scattering technique? Could I have been more precise? Could I have been more articulate?

Nothing of the sort. This neighbor doesn't wring his hands, and in that midnight hour go over to the fence and peek over and see what's going on in his neighbor's crop and compares. Nothing of the sort. He goes to sleep. He wakes up.

He works. Goes about his affairs and he sleeps again. Here's what I take from this. Here's what I take and here's what you take for the soul who frets, for the soul who wonders, because from time to time I know it. You can peek over into the little corner that God has designed for you in his grand vineyard, the one that he has called you to minister and the family that he has given to you, the children, the spouse, the homeless shelter.

Wherever you may be, wherever God has placed you and think to yourself, am I doing this right? Am I doing enough? Do I need to switch up my technique here? What why aren't things happening? Here's what you take from this.

Did you prayfully and faithfully plant the seed? Yes? Go to sleep. Go to sleep and go about your affairs and trust that the human responsibility has been performed and now divine sovereignty is at work. But I wanna know how.

Oh. You will never know how. Never. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, Proverbs tells us. There is a measure of glory in which God conceals things that offends the intellectual, but it is to the glory of God that he does not expose all his methods, all his ways.

There is some measure of mystery that brings pleasure to God and keeps God in that category of God and us as creature. So as that seed goes in, go to bed. Go to bed with a smile on your face knowing that you've done your part. And, yeah, you might have dirt underneath your fingernails, but there is a bigger and more mightier hand now taking over. Is it that simple?

Is that easy? I just yes. That's why it's here. Yes. But there's more to say.

There's more to add to this idea of the sovereignty of God. As much as it's so simple and straightforward, there's there's deeper realizations of the sovereignty of God in the work of salvation and sanctification that we must understand. Let me give you two sub points to this category of divine sovereignty. Number one, God's work, as you just heard, but I'm gonna expound on it, is mysteriously silent to us. It's mysteriously silent to us.

If you have the New Testament, which I hope you do, one of the most exciting studies, and maybe this is just for me now because I'm reading through it, one of the most exciting studies that you can go on is the life of Solomon with that New Testament dictionary by your side and to see how it relates to our current covenant. And one of the things that have moved my heart in reading those early chapters of first Kings, of not just the mind of Solomon, but the projects of Solomon, is how the Bible describes the construction process of the temple of God and how it relates to you and I being the temple of the Holy Spirit today. Can I show it to you? First Kings chapter six. Look at this one verse with its glorious description of how this building project came about.

First Kings chapter six. Look at this verse and pay attention to it. When the house was built, it was with stone prepared at the query so that neither hammer nor ax nor any tool of iron was heard in the house while it was being built. What an interesting thing for God to put in his word. So here's how it went in practical terms.

The team that Solomon gathered to build this project, which took many, many years to accomplish, Apart from the site of where this temple would be established, from a distance, he had his men work on the elements so that there would be no sound heard among the common people in Jerusalem. And so all the polishing, all the cutting, all the hammering, all the chiseling was done far away where those sounds were not heard. They were not heard, and at the right time they would bring the right portions, And with reverential rhythm, and with great elegance, one piece would be placed on another. One element was placed on another, and it was fashioned over those months and over those years. And if you had been living in Jerusalem at that time, and if you were a distracted person, you would not have realized what was going on most of the time because there was silence.

There was silence. Brother, why are you bringing this up? Solomon was behind this. You and I worship the one who is greater than Solomon. Whether you know it or not, he is and has been for the past two thousand years building a temple.

And you know what's been happening in these past two thousand years? God's been at work, and oftentimes it's silent. It's not immediately perceived. It's not easily calculated. See, what we have among the people of God is this strange idea that if the Lord is working it has to be loud.

There has to be a thunderous conviction. There must be a river of tears. There must be an explosion of miracles. Not so. Not so.

What we see here is that as this temple was being built, no sound was being heard. God works quietly a lot. And just like that seed was in the ground beyond perception, beyond the naked eye, so we see here that to the ear, it was not necessarily registered of what was taking place. All that you would have seen was from time to time, there was more wall, more ground taken over, more things being fashioned, more elements around the worship of Israel in that time being placed. You would see it periodically.

You have no idea what's happening in the people sitting beside you. You don't know what's happening in the people that you pass by and the people that you invest in or the people you have invested in at some point in your life. You have no clue. It's not always loud. Oftentimes, it is being done in secret and that blesses me.

That blesses me because God's work doesn't equate noise and immediate progress. It's incremental. It's slow. It's not always strong and in your face. It's not always calculable and measurable.

Now take that truth for your own life believer. Never mind the person that you're investing in. Take it in your life and for your life. You have other believers who are agitated about their own growth. They're not seeing, they're not perceiving, they're not being able to measure.

Oh, but what if God, and surely he is working quietly in you? What if he is slowly and steadily building you? What if only in increments of perhaps long periods of time will you look back and say, there is something different about me? There there is, there is more devotion in me, more love in me, more sacrifice, more consistency in me. Do not depend upon day to day evaluation of where you're at.

It's not the most encouraging thing to do. But trust that if your heart is good soil, that seed is doing something in you. It is. Why I can't hear it? I can't that's okay.

God designed it that way. God designed it that way, which brings me to the second sub point. That God's work is not only mysteriously silent to us, but God's work is always always a process. Go back to Mark four verse 29. Verse 28 rather, the earth produces by itself first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.

Spiritual success must not be gauged by suddenlies. By suddenlies. Sometimes if we're not careful, even when we come to the word of God, we can measure the effectiveness of our efforts with the stunning examples that God has given us to his word and in his word. So we look at the moves of God that swept over cities and regions like Nineveh, where Jonah in a few words saw revival break out, or we can look at instantaneous conversions like the great apostle Paul. And we have every right to be inspired by what God can do in a moment.

How he can change things miraculously in a split second, but if we're not careful, we can wonder, well, why why are we not seeing the same? Am I am I not doing enough? Am I not praying enough? Am I not fasting enough? Am I not living holy enough?

And yet Christ gives us, the son of God gives us a rule for service unto him. Slow and steady. Slow and steady. In stages, and God has no problem working in stages. If you want a clue, go to Genesis one.

One of the things you have to learn right from the beginning of God creating the world is he's a God that works in stages. And guess what? Every step of the way he goes, it is good. It is good. It is good.

For us, even the most faithful creator, it's not good. I'm still rough around the edges. That person, it's been a long time, there've been enough bible studies and what I see is not good. Not good enough at least. That's not how God thinks.

It is good. And we see here that these stages encourage us to be patient. To be patient. If God is a God of process, then we must be his servants who are patient. You know, people sometimes ask, what's preaching like?

What's preaching like? What is it about preaching? And they ask these different questions, and one of those questions has to do with the delivery. Do you always feel empowered by God? Do you always sense his grace and his assistance while you're declaring his word?

And I give different answers and stuff. But can I tell you over the years, when it comes to the ministry of preaching, and this isn't just limited to preaching, witnessing, whatever the case may be, any kind of conveying of the word of God, The greatest struggle is not inquiring of God for greater measures of power and wondering if it was powerful enough or not? I'm just being honest. The greatest struggle is what Paul told Timothy you want to know all the let's If you wanna know all the letters that begin with t are gathered together in the New Testament. So you have Thessalonians and Timothy, then Titus, second Timothy four two.

You know this. Preach the word. Preach the word. Be ready in season and out of season. Reprove, rebuke, and exhort with complete patience and teaching.

So preach the word. Rebuke. That's uncomfortable sometimes. That's uncomfortable to look at a a sea of people in their faces and say, you need to repent. Teach every week trying to find gold, every week trying to prepare a meal for people to eat.

Reprove in season, out of whether you feel like it or not, you witness, you share, you declare. But those are not the difficult parts. You know what's the difficult part? With complete patience. That's the hard part.

With complete patience. Implying what? You're not gonna see what you wanna see right away. You're not gonna see all that you aspire to see, all that you dream to see in your children. I know we all want apostles by the age of 10.

We want a thriving ministry where everybody is discipling somebody and everybody's signing up to be a foreign missionary and everybody is sacrificially serving their community, all we want it. Paul says, be patient, Timothy. I've been in this preaching thing for quite some time and you're not gonna see everything you wanna see right away. Trust the process. Trust the process with your family.

Trust the process with your spouse. Trust the process with your friends. Trust the process with your congregation. Trust the process. Don't deviate from the word.

Don't deviate from the truth. Don't deviate from the principles of God's word. You have nothing else to bank on God's word and God's word alone. And then we come to the last verse of Jesus' words in this parable, But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts it in the sickle because the harvest has has come. In other words, the same man who sowed the seed and who stepped away and the increase came from God and he knows not how and he can't take credit and he can't comprehend it, that same man in full circle will come back and enjoy the harvest.

And he will benefit in some way of what he has done, of what God has done. And brothers and sisters, to some degree, you and I can relate to this verse. You're sitting in that reality right now. You you enjoyed hearing these people's voices. The voice of the redeemed, the fellowship of the saved, the comfort of the saints.

That is the harvest and it's a growing harvest. And you and I, if we have any contribution in this process, is that at some point a seed was placed. At some point the light of our witness touched somebody else. And as God is bringing the increase, we get to benefit from it. Although God is doing the most work, if not all work.

We know that. And here we are enjoying one another's presence and God is adding to this number and adding to the church globally until the final harvest is come. And that sickle comes over the whole globe and gathers us into the barn house of glory, and we enjoy what God has done for all of eternity as we are by each other's side forever and ever and ever. This is what I wanna drive into your heart as we close. In this day of age, with your family, with this ministry, with your coworkers, with those who watch your social media, whatever the case may be, all you need is the word.

And as you do that rest, smile a little bit, would you? Don't beat yourself up all the time. Don't believe everything you see. Believe that if this word was given and that heart is right, a harvest is coming. A harvest is coming.

And when it comes, God will receive glory. And in the meantime, worship while you wait. Love while you wait. Open your arms while you wait. And trust that the right time, you will see it.

And when you see it, you'll give God praise for it. Let's worship and pray. Lord, we come to you. We thank you for this parable. With such simplicity, we are reminded we are reminded that we can have relief, and we can lean on the sovereignty of God in all our efforts.

And, Lord, we think about this ministry, Maranatha Bible Church. And we pray that by your great mercy that you would keep us faithful to the seed, And that there would never be a time where we would rely on dreams. That we would rely on an outside force or power or persuasion or captivating tactic. Lord, keep us close to the word. Lord, for the parents who over the years or who are currently investing in their children with the word, and who perhaps lose sleep at night, especially as their children come to an age where they have more independence, I pray for rest.

I pray for trust. I pray that there would never be a thought from the enemy to say you did not do enough and you have failed your family. Lord, we just ask that not only would we be patient with the process of those who are outside of us, that we would also realize that you are silently working within us. And though we don't see this spontaneous works of growth, these spurts, when we day by day feed our souls with the truth, help us realize that it is never in vain and change is coming. You will renew us, and you will change us.

Thank you that this word has automatic power, that when it is delivered and planted, the DNA promises production. Well, we worship you as we have reinstalled our faith and trust in the sufficiency of the word of God. Be magnified as we worship you now, not just for what you've done in us, what you're going to do, what all those years of faithful teaching and preaching and studying and discipling and counseling will do, because you promise something will come. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

Let's stand and worship the Lord.