And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. 27 He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how. 28 The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
There is a Gahan Wilson cartoon of a king walking away from a sunset conceding, “Oh very well, go ahead and set.” No matter how powerful we are, there are some things that are just out of our control and Jesus illustrated that perfectly with the parable of the seed growing. It is the second of three seed related parables along with the sower and the mustard seed parables. A farmer who puts a seed into the ground has done his work and only waits for the rest to occur, he knows not how. But Jesus knew exactly how and it is by the grace of God.
This is an important lesson for us all but especially pastors and especially church planters. The very term, planter, denotes planting a seed but too many planters, myself included, have been guilty of thinking we had to stay up all night trying to get the seed to germinate and sprout. We have tried to build OUR church instead of planting it and watching Jesus build HIS church. This question applies to all of us who trust God. Do you truly trust God? Or do you think he made a nice start with the cross but you will take it from here be-gooding your way to heaven? We know not how he will guide our lives…
But he does.
Pastor Brad Boyer
Cape Community Church