Start Planting Series

Our God is at work today, and His is a 24-hour a day, 7-day a week.

Jesus ushered in the Kingdom of God and ever since then, nothing has been the same.

He set in motion a spiritual force - the work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of man

- by His power people are brought back home to be with God.

- by His power people are delivered from the Kingdom of darkness into the light

Every day we see people dying and we see new birth. This is true also in the spiritual sense.

- People are dying and people are born again every day.

- There hasn’t been, and will never be, an inactive day in the Kingdom of God, until Jesus returns.

Jesus told 3 parables about the Kingdom of God - to let us know what is really happening

o the parable of the SHINING LIGHT

o the parable of the GROWING SEED

o the parable of the MUSTARD SEED

FIRST. Now, the light can no longer be hidden. You can’t shut off the light.

- Ever since Jesus introduced this Light into this dark world, it has been shining… and spreading.

- Nothing can stop it. Light dispels darkness. Darkness can do nothing against the light.

Jesus set in motion this “business of changing lives” and it’s still moving today.

And He tells the disciples to let this Light shines, in greater ways and more ways…

SECOND parable tells us that His Kingdom will grow. Man will not be able to stop it.

- It may be unseen or unnoticed, but it is working.

- Lives have been transformed and are being changed even right now as we are speaking.

- His Kingdom is growing.

THIRD parable tells us it’s going to grow so big - that it will surpass all garden plants.

- It will grow across boundary lines into the outermost parts of the world.

- It starts small - very small – the smallest seed you can find in Palestine – mustard seed

- But it will not remain small.

- The birds of the air can perch in its shade. The world benefits from it.

These pictures of the KINGDOM OF GOD are prophetic pictures of what is to come, and what is happening today. Jesus says the Kingdom of God will continue to grow until the harvest.

Today we are right in the middle of it. Let’s look at the parable of the growing seed:

26 He also said, "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground.

27 Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.

28 All by itself the soil produces grain - first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

29 As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."

We won’t get excited about the Word of God - about the seed - until we realize that it’s more than just a collection of verses.

- It is a living force - it has the power to make the promises (the Word) become a reality in our life.

- In order words, all that is said here can be real in our lives.

Can we really believe this? Is it tough for you to believe this can be true?

- Jesus says this happen in the natural world all the time.

- If I were to put a tomato seed in your hand and tell you that within that tiny, dry seed lies the power to produce a stalk thousands of times bigger than the seed, to produce leaves and roots and round, red tomatoes, you wouldn’t have any trouble believing that, would you?

- You know from experience that even though that tiny seed doesn’t look like a tomato factory, somehow, given the right environment, it will become one.

Jesus says the Kingdom of God works by that same principle.

- When we believe the Word of God, we experience a change.

- There is miraculous power in His Word. It is a seed that, once planted by faith in a human heart, will produce more blessings than you can imagine.

The seed grows, all by itself.

- Man may not have noticed. Night and day, we go around doing our own things.

- Above ground, nothing seems to be happening.

- Yet God is working and causing a change unseen by the naked eye.

- We are mistaken today if we think God is not doing anything.

- Growth is taking place, and the man does not even know how it takes place.

27Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.