When we turn on the news it seems that there is never anything good, all over the world it seems evil prevails. Even close to home we read and hear about murders, drive by shootings, drugs, and a host of many other crimes and atrocities being committed. Even in our own homes we have problems, we work all the time and still cant make ends meet, we stay stressed out and fed up with how things are going in our lives. We worry about our kids and loved ones as they go out into this cruel dark world, and things sometimes just don’t ever work out the way we planned.
You would think that after 2000 years of Christianity and the spreading of the good news that things would be getting better, but sometimes it seems that we are headed downhill fast and things are getting worse by the day.
Has life ever beaten you up so bad that you wanted to just give up? With all the things going on in the world today have you ever cried out to God “What’s the use?”
If Christians are planting seeds, where is the fruit of our labor? If we are sowing seeds and following the great commission found in Matthew 28:19 to “ Go ye therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit” why are our pews empty? Why don’t our brothers and sisters attend church more often? Sometimes I cry out “Lord I feel like im planting the seed but where is the harvest?” “When will it come?” Do you ever feel that way? Sometimes It seems that the seed just isn’t taking root. It seems that we are plowing the ground and planting the seeds but the harvest isn’t near. Maybe we as a church and as a nation are in a spiritual drought and the seed isn’t getting enough water. Or maybe we aren’t tending the soil and putting in the fertilizer and the nutrients, or maybe it just isn’t quite time for the harvest and we just need to be patient.
I know sometimes we can’t help but wonder why things aren’t happening in our churches or in our lives. We feel like we don’t see the results of our labors and sometimes we think the good stuff will never come. Hang on, there’s still hope.
Lets look at our text today Mark 4:26-29
Let me just say that the word of God , once sown produces fruit, sometimes slowly but always surely.
So how does a seed go from this (hold up squash seed) to this (hold up the fruit)? I don’t know it just does, Jesus even said that the farmer doesn’t know how it grows.
When we read the scripture it seems that the farmer isn’t worried about the crop at all. He plants the seed and just goes about his business, sleeping and rising, going about his day to day activities patiently waiting until the day comes for the harvest. He doesn’t know how or when the harvest will be but he knows it will come and that when its ready he will begin the harvest.
I remember when I was a young boy spending summer days at my grandparents just outside of Jonesville LA. In the Sandy Lake community on the Loop Road helping them on their 3 acre farm it seemed that sometimes it would take forever for those tomatoes and Pink eyed purple hulls to be ready to pick. I would look at them tomato plants every day eagerly anticipating the day that those juicy red tomatoes would be sliced up and placed between two slices of bread, and eagerly anticipated the day when we would set on the porch and shell those peas and talk about life and the good old days. Even though I was eager and impatient my grandparents seemed like it was no big deal, they just went about their day not worrying about it at all, but when the time was right the harvest began. Oh how I miss those days.
But fortunately I get to re-live some of those moments with my grandchildren, the shoe may be on the other foot but the moments are just as precious. Kaden looks at our tomato plants every day anticipating the day when he will go out to the garden and all those green tomatoes will be juicy and red. He and Gauge have watched eggs in a wrens nest anticipating the day that they would hatch. As I watch them I remember when I was just as impatient about things but throughout my life I have learned that good things come to those who wait.
That’s what Jesus is telling us in the scripture today, don’t worry about the harvest, just sow the seed and the harvest will come. It may come slowly, but it’s going to come. Friends I don’t know a lot but I know this if we plant the seed and tend the soil- The harvest will come right when its supposed to.
There may be days when we ask ourselves “why do I even bother?” “ Why do I even try and witness to people, they’re not listening?” We may look around our church today and wonder what is happening, why aren’t we experiencing more growth? Why aren’t more people coming to Christ? Why aren’t we bearing more fruit?
We get anxious and impatient and we just give up and quit inviting people to church, we quit telling people about what Jesus has done in our lives, and yes, some folks just quit coming to church all together. And our churches begin a slow steady decline. Why does this happen, why do we get down and out and begin to just settle.
You know what I think? I think we get disillusioned because we start worrying about things that are out of our control and above our paygrade. It’s our responsibility to sow the seed Think about this, It’s not up to us to make sure the harvest happen. It’s up to us to plant the seed. Do you hear what I’m saying? It’s not up to us to supply the harvest, it’s up to us to plant the seed and tend the soil , God is in charge of the harvest.
When we sow the seed of the gospel we just need to trust that it will come to fruition, because it bears fruit because of what God does and not what we do, we sow the seed and it sprouts and grows and bears fruit in Gods time, not ours.
The truth is we may plant seeds and never see the fruit from our labors first hand. Some seeds we plant may bear fruit in another state, another country or even long after we have left this world but rest assured the seeds that you sow will eventually produce a harvest.
1st Corinthians 3:6 - 8 the Apostle Paul says I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. It’s not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What’s important is that God makes the seed grow. The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. For we are both God’s workers. And you are God’s field. You are God’s building
As Christians we are all co-workers in God’s vineyards and His fields, we have been called to discipleship and each of us will be rewarded for our own actions and our own work but we must work together and have patience. We aren’t in charge of the speed of growth or the harvest God is. We just need to focus on the work we have been asked to do.
So how does this seed (show seed) grow to this (show fruit)? I don’t know, God took care of it. How does a person as lost as lost can be become the man that stands before you today? I don’t know, but God does!! But here’s what I do know, someone planted a seed and God provided the harvest.
Are you sowing the seeds?? Are you watering the seeds?? Are you doing your part?
Just sow the seeds let God bring the Harvest…
