Dr. Roger Parrott, Belhaven University Chapel Series

Today's parable emphasizes the day by day of growth in the spiritual life. See thee more clearly every day, just a little bit better.

Love thee more dearly, closer to God, and follow thee more, nearly more obedient, more faithful every day, just a little bit.

If you had to make a list right now of all the things that are frustrating in your life, probably most of the things on that list would be that things go too slow, future plans just not moving fast enough. Maybe a relationship isn't developing fast. Spiritual growth feels like it's just inches along at best.

Your educational or your athletic milestones seem slow to achieve. You're being a witness for Christ and trying to bring others to Christ, but nobody seems to notice. Nobody seems to respond.

Maybe you're doing all the right things, but nothing seems to be happening. That's what the parable of the grower is about. Growth you can't control, but growth you can trust. We live in a world of the immediacy. I like it.

I like to track my packages. I like to track my Uber when a guy's coming to my house. I like that you refresh a page, expect it like that.

You put up something on social media, and if the likes don't move fast enough, you get nervous, like somehow you failed. Of course, AI is moving us into a whole new level of immediacy we've never seen before.

But the most important things in life refuse to develop on demand. They take time, character, faith, calling, leadership. They grow steadily. They almost grow out of sight.

And Jesus tells a parable that almost feels anticlimactic when you hear it. Unlike some of the others, there's no drama, there's no crisis, there's no villains, there's no tension point one next week.

There's going to be a lot of tension point in that one. But this one's just simple. It's a farmer who scatters his seed and then waits. That's all he does. He just waits for something to happen.

And Jesus introduces that parable with this phrase. He says, that is what the kingdom of God is like. If you ever wondered whether or not you're quiet or obedience matters, this is the parable for you.

And if you've ever wondered how you really fit into the Great Commission, that's our verse of the year. This is also the parable for you. Our verse of the year says, go make disciples, O all nations.

And be sure of this, I meet with you even to the end of the age. If we're to go to all nations, not Physical nations. We talked about that last semester. But to nations of influence.

Some of you are going to influence the arts. Some of you are going to influence medicine. Some of you are going to influence business. Some of you are going to influence education.

You are going to go into nations where if you don't have the right credentials, they won't let you in. And in those nations, you are going to have influence. Well, how do we build the kingdom of God in those places?

And this parable gives us four characteristics of kingdom evangelism and what our role and responsibility is in it. It's real short, so let me read it to you again. It was read nicely to us earlier, but here's the scripture again.

Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground night and day. While he's asleep or awake. The seed sprouts and grows, but he does not understand how it happens. The earth produces the crops on its own.

First the leaf blade pushes through. Then the heads of the wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens.

And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle for the harvest time has come. In this scripture, there are four important kingdom principles on which we need to build our lives.

The first one is kingdom starts with scattering seed. Jesus said the kingdom of God is like a farmer who scatters seed on the ground. The farmer doesn't manufacture life.

The farmer doesn't engineer germination. The farmer is not responsible for the growth. He simply scatters seed.

You see, faithfulness begins with obedience, not trying to force outcomes on you or anybody else. You and I are called to scatter the love and the grace and the joy and the justice and the goodness of God. Wherever we are.

That's our responsibility to scatter through our daily choices, through lifting up others instead of tearing them down through integrity, especially when nobody's watching. When you speak truth graciously, that's scattering through quality. Friendships were scattering by connecting to the people who were overlooked.

Even how you prepare for your future vocation. That is scattering seed for where you're going to have influence.

You scatter the peaceful presence in the world of fear and chaos and tension and danger. That's what the world is like. And here we come scattering the seeds of Christ and peace in that environment. And it's a night and day clash.

And Jesus was responsible for the outcomes. I think sometimes, maybe because we're at a Christian college, we tend to think, you know, it's not so rough out There.

No, it's pretty rough out there. It really is. It's pretty scary. It's pretty overwhelming if you don't know Christ. So let me illustrate this to you in kind of a different context.

Okay, I'll tell you a story from a long time ago. But it illustrates for me what the message of Christ and the love of Christ can do in a scary, overwhelming environment.

Long time ago, back before we had kids. So it was like 40 years ago, Maryland and I went to Africa. That's a picture from our trip. That's obviously hopefully me on the left.

Maybe I've aged just a little bit. We went with my brother and his wife who are in the center. And that's his wife in the blonde hair.

So that's us in Africa with some missionary friends who took us on a three week photo safari of Africa. This was not going and staying in the big fancy lodge. This was going into the bush, into the back country of Africa.

And it was the most amazing experience of our lives. I've traveled the whole world. If I go back to one place, it's to Africa. I love it. There's never seen anything like was kind of an overwhelming trip.

Mary Lou had never camped in her life. She'd never camped out ever before. And the first time she goes camping is in Africa for three weeks. That's a little overwhelming.

When you go to Africa, it just enormous when you get out away from the city and you get out into the bush where the animals are first of all at night. The stars are something else. You've never seen anything like it. Never see anything like it. You know, in America we have too much light pollution.

You can't see the stars that God's creating. But then we saw all kinds of animals. We saw everything that there is, of course elephants and giraffes and.

And tons of zebra and wildebeests and lions and all kinds of things. But you know what it was? I think it was Disney who came up with that ad a number of years ago for Animal Kingdom.

Probably when you were younger they had this word sounded kind of African, but it really wasn't. It says it is not a zoo. It is not a zoo. It is not a zoo in Africa. It's the real thing.

In fact, one night we camped in a Little campgrounds area, not much of campgrounds, just a little clearing. And there was another group from us, from Germany, the youth group, and there were about 10 of them.

And our vehicle couldn't make it. So we had to go back and go around and it took us two days to get there.

They had vehicles that were four wheel drive and they got through and they got into that camp late that night and they didn't have time to set up a proper camp.

And in the night one of the girls, who was 17, just tossed and turned in her sleep, rolled with one foot that came out of the tent and a lion came by and grabbed her and took her across to an island in the river and sat there and devoured her while the group screamed and hollered and there was nothing they could do. It was a scary place. We would have been with them if our car had gotten through. It didn't get through. We heard about it later.

So we're in this very overwhelming place and we finally get to this Ukavambu swamp, which is really marvelous in Botswana. And the Ukavambu swamp is this huge wetlands area.

And of course, with the water, all the animals come there and so you can see everything that there is. But because of that, it is really teeming with activity and tons of animals. Now, in Africa, you don't see a lot of the animals in the daytime.

You see the animals at night. You see them early, early in the morning, at dusk, and you hear them in the night because it's so hot, they don't function much in the day.

So we get to this Ukavambu swamp and it's one of the places in Africa where you can see hippos. Now the only problem with that is to see the hippos.

They've got these guys, there are probably four or five of them, these little dugout canoes, literally primitive dugout canoes. And for a few dollars, they will take you out into the swamp to see the hippos. And they say, is it safe? Oh, yeah, it's safe.

We don't get turned over very often. But sometimes the hippos, which is the most dangerous animal in Africa, you may not know that hippos will attack.

And of course, if they do, the crocodiles are going to get you. If a Lion doesn't. I mean, if a elephant doesn't get spooked and come at you, it's like, we're not going out there. That's crazy.

So after my brother got back from his trip in the boat, he's nuts, Absolutely nuts. We were making our camp.

Now, at night, you make a camp, and the people experience in Africa, they know when we make the camp, we bring all the tents together, put the fire in the middle. We build fires around the edge. And then they also take shovels. They put them in all the corners.

They put white trash bags on them that blow in the breeze because they'll scare the animals away, because the hyenas will come in and they'll go at you. And so we kind of got this camp settled and it started to get dark and the stars were coming out. When the stars come out, so do all the sounds.

And you could begin to hear lions roar in the distance, and you could begin to hear the elephants pushing over trees. And you heard things. You felt like they were everywhere. It was pretty overwhelming. And all of a sudden, in the midst of that, we heard something.

It was far away at first. It was real quiet. And we could hear the sound of singing from a village that wasn't very far away. Amazing grace, there it is.

And in the turmoil and in the fear and the overwhelming of the whole environment, everything changed when we heard that song. And we grabbed our flashlights and we started to go closer to the camp and the village where these people lived.

And they were singing as we got into their fire. And I've never seen people singing so warm and welcoming. Of course, there's no electricity. There's no nothing.

But they had brought peace and joy to a place filled with fear and turmoil. And that's what scattering seed is like.

In the kingdom of God, in a world full of fear and turmoil and overwhelming and confusion and conflict, you can be that voice. You can be that voice of peace that brings people to you. You maybe can't sing. I can't either. I wish you could like these guys.

But whatever your voice is of peace. That's what the kingdom of God is like, and that's what the scripture's trying to tell us here. Secondly, we don't control spiritual growth in others.

The scripture says night and day, while he was asleep or awake, the seed sprouted and grew. But he doesn't understand how it happens. The farmer doesn't understand how it happens.

See, Jesus intentionally removes control of spiritual growth in others from us. Seeds grow night and day without supervision. Often we can't notice spiritual maturity. You can't rush formation. You can't engineer revival.

The kingdom grows because God is alive and active. And he makes it grow in his time and in his way.

And the most important growth happening in you and the most important growth in happening places where you're scattering the seed in others is probably not going to be very visible. The character is forming, convictions are deepening, roots are going down. Truth's becoming internalized.

Most transformations, seasons of life, are often pretty quiet. It's kind of an underground growth before it becomes noticeable. And that's what the kingdom growth is like.

Kingdom growth takes time, and we don't know how it happens. But God is always growing seeds that are planted. If you scatter seeds, God will honor it even when you don't have any control over it.

We had a student here a number of years ago, and he's gone long, long, long enough. Now nobody knows him except me. And he had troubles. He had big troubles, bless his heart. He came here to play on an athletic team.

I think he lasted on the team about three weeks before he got kicked off for multiple behavioral violations. He was having conflicts with everybody on campus. Seemed like no matter where the trouble was, he was part of it. Came from really tough background.

I don't blame him. I understand he was raised in an environment if you don't fight, you're not going to make it okay, but that's hard.

And so he felt a little bit like a fish out of water here. A little bit. I don't know exactly what was going on with him, but, you know, we tried to help.

And he wasn't responsive to any help or anything like that.

And one day in about late October in a fall semester, the people in financial aid had to meet with him because the money he thought he was getting in scholarship did not come through. And they told it to him. They didn't probably tell it to him too well, very bluntly. And he just exploded. He took a swing at the admissions person.

He tipped over chairs, he threw on tables. He threw a disaster. People were trying to fight back or run away. They didn't know what to do. And he was just absolutely out of control.

We tried to get it calmed down. It was a tough, tough moment. And in the process of that, he wanted to talk to me, which was great. And I talked to him.

He said, I feel like everybody here is out to get me. Everybody on this campus was out to get me.

And I told him, I said, they're not going to get you I promise I will watch out for you, make sure you're okay. And so I said, I'll give you my cell phone and you call me anytime you feel threatened. And he did. He would call me at midnight.

He'd call me at 2 o' clock in the afternoon. I remember he called me once at a basketball game. Somebody's looking really funny at me. I really don't like it. I said, okay, okay, we'll help.

And the day he walked out of here at the end of that semester, well, just kind of breathed a sigh of relief, said, oh, he's gone. I don't have to worry about him anymore. I thought when he left, I thought, he's never going to make it.

There's no real hope or nothing to hang onto there. There's nothing to build on. What are we? There's nothing. Well, he left. He did friend me on Facebook while he was here.

And so I kind of kept up with him through the years. And a few years later, I noticed he had a baby. And a little bit after that he got married.

And a little bit after that, he started coaching a youth league and he started a little business. He had another baby. He started posting pictures of his family. And one day a picture came up on his Facebook and I just lost it with tears of joy.

There was this picture being baptized. God was working in his life because seeds were planted even when there was nothing we could do to help him grow.

You see, God's preparing the harvest for his time and in his way. And like the farmer, we have no idea how night and day he lays asleep, seeds sprout. He doesn't understand how it happened.

I don't know how it happened in his life, but I'm so thankful it happened and God redeemed him. And God is using him because he's been in some hard places that he can speak into people's lives. I never could.

And I'm so thankful, even though it was a hard time when he was here. Well, the third thing we see from this scripture is that spiritual growth is progressive. The earth produces a crops on its own.

First the leaf blade pushes through. Then the heads of the wheat are formed and finally the grain ripens. You see, Jesus purposely, there are stages of spiritual growth.

The leaf comes up through the ground and then the leaf blade, the stalk pushes through and finally you get the wheat harvest. The kingdom life growth is a progression. Well, in our culture, as I said earlier, we're addicted to immediacy. We want it to happen right now.

But kingdom life grows Organically, not explosively. Depth takes time. In God's time. We gotta trust God's design. We gotta trust God's timing.

Whether it's your growth or somebody else's growth you're trying to influence in the seeds you're scattering. You see, we may not see the dramatic change we wish. Like that student years ago. I didn't see an ounce of change in him when he was here.

But eventually God got ahold of his life. So as you're scattering seeds of love and joy and peace and kindness, change may not happen tomorrow, but consistent obedience compounds.

And being consistent in your faith, God will honor it. The stalk, the growing part of the plant may not look very impressive, but without it, there is no harvest. It has to have time to grow.

And God does the growing well. The fourth thing we see in the scripture is that the harvest is certain. As soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvest it with a sickle.

For the harvest time has come, the kingdom of God will reach completion. God will finish what he started. He will finish it. Now. The parable holds two assurances. First of all, we don't have to be in control.

And secondly, the outcome is certain because it's in God's control. The harvest will come as soon as it is ready. Not early, not late. It will come right on time. So what's our action plan for scattering seeds?

Well, be faithful in the small things. Scatter them every day. Don't get discouraged in scattering. You don't have to see results. Our job is to be like the farmer. Scatter the seeds.

Secondly, trust unseen. Growth maturity is seasonal. It happens in seasons and sometimes there's a growth season. Right now we're in a no growing season.

Things don't grow up right now. You wait a few weeks and everything's going to start to bloom and grow. There's seasons for it.

Be patient with yourself and be patient with other people. Maturity just takes time. God's doing it in his way and his time. And then just rest. Rest in the assurance of the harvest. The harvest will come.

The farmer sleeps. He's not anxious, he's not overwhelmed. He's not wringing his hands. How do I get the seed to grow?

His job was to scatter it and then let God do the growing. Now, there are two facts.

If you feel tension about you're not growing fast enough or the seed you're scattering is not making any difference, there are two facts that will change your life from a life of tension to relaxing in Christ, enjoying it and growing in it, the first is, and I've told you this one before, and I'll tell you this one often in chapel. There is nothing in the world you can do to make God love you more. And there's nothing in the world you can do to make God love you less.

That's an absolute. There is nothing zero you can do to make God love you anymore. And there is nothing you can do that would make God love you less.

He may be heartbroken for you, but he doesn't love you any less. So know that. Second is this. It's not your responsibility or my responsibility to convict others that they need to come to Jesus.

That's the job of the Holy Spirit. It's like taking, you know, the Holy Spirit's part of the Trinity, of the Godhead, of God, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It's like taking God's job away. No, it's not our job. The scripture here is very clear. It is not our job.

Our job is to scatter, to be an example, to live a life of quality, to live a life that in the fear and confusion, that you can sing Amazing Grace in your spirit and people are drawn to you. That's our job.

And when you realize you don't have to bring them to Christ, you just have to scatter the seed, then you can have joy and relax in the spirit of what God's doing in your life. When. When you internalize those two facts, I see too many Christians that are just all bungled up about their faith. I got to get this right.

I got to get this right. I'm not doing it right. Whatever. And they're just so worried. No, God loves you. And God's job is to convict others. It's not your job.

You know, on our campus, we've got some amazing trees. People come up here to take wedding pictures among our trees. Live oaks. If you're not from the south, they're called live oaks.

So it's probably 50 years old already. But when those trees were barely planted and brand new, hardly anybody noticed. Nobody admired, nobody came to take pictures.

Nobody said, wow, look at this place. It's a beautiful campus. They probably looked at it and said, man, it's kind of a barren place.

Nobody applauded the early growth, and that's how the kingdom of God works. What you may do may feel small, may feel unnoticed. You wonder if your faithfulness even matters at all.

But every act of obedience plants something eternal. And it will grow. So live faithfully today and trust God for the harvest. Let's pray together. Our benediction.

No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. God bless. Have a good day.