Based on Mark 4:26-29

MEMORY TEXT:  “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease” (Genesis 8:22).

I am an impatient gardener.  After I plant seeds in my little garden, I stand there for a while and look at it.  Then every day after that, I stand and look some more.  I want to witness the first green shoots.

Jesus told a story about a farmer who planted a big field of wheat.  Of course he had to plow and prepare the soil; but after the farmer sowed the seeds, he couldn’t do anything more to make the seeds grow.  Standing and looking at the field wouldn’t help a bit.  He went to sleep at night, got up in the morning, and never even thought about the seeds he had sown, but went on with other business.  And yet the seeds sprouted and the wheat grew by the power of the God of nature.

Why did Jesus tell this story?  He didn’t want His disciples to be discouraged if they didn’t see immediate results from their preaching.  Neither did He want them to take the credit when people did accept the truth.  This parable was not just for His disciples then but for each worker for Christ today.

Those who work for Jesus choose where to plant, gather the materials needed, prepared the soil, planted the seed, and applied fertilizer.  But they can’t make the seeds grow.

The seed is the gospel.  When the Word of God is planted in faith and received it faith, it is a work of grace.  The Spirit of God helps it grow when we sleep, when we wake, and when we go about other business (Job 33:15-16).  The prophets are no longer alive; but the Word which they preached is doing its work, even while the prophets are in their graves (Zechariah 1:5, 6).

How the seed grows depends on the heart of the hearer.  Our job as workers for Christ is to sow the seeds into all types of hearts.  We can’t tell how receptive the hearts will be, and that’s not our responsibility.

We are to just keep on sowing.  God will bring the harvest.