Episode Transcript
CONSECRATE
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
HEAR
Matthew 13:3–9 ESV
And he told them many things in parables, saying: “A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear.”
CONSIDER
Who's ready to go Gospelling today? Let's break this seed calculus down to its most basic math.
Four seeds.
Four seedbeds.
The path. The rocks. The thorns. The ice cream.
Seed #1. Path. The birds devoured it. Can we be honest? That seed will pass right through the bird and out the other end, landing on another of four possible seedbeds. In other words, the seed lives to sow another day. Seed #1 = 0.
Seed #2. Rocks. The seed sprouts and springs up immediately. It looks like a win, but with no topsoil it can't take root and succumbs to the scorching sun. Seed #2 = 0.
Seed #3. Thorns. The seed sprouts and grows but the thorns grew faster and choked out the life. Seed #3 = 0.
Seed #4. Ice cream. That's what farmers call a good, fertile field. It flourishes into a mature crop multiplying the single seed exponentially. Seed #4 = 63 (average yield of 30 + 60 + 100).
So, this explains the tears of the sower. We face a 75-percent fail rate; 50 percent of our efforts start well only to fail. Though sowing be hopeful work and filled with possibilities, it is sad and discouraging.
Still, that one seed is a home run—every single time. It's just a question of how many people were on base. Guarantee me a home run every fourth at bat and I'll gladly strike out the other three. It brings to mind the Babe Ruth rule—who though he led the league in home runs, also led the league in strike-outs.
Put this in dollars and cents. Give Seedbed a million dollars to sow for a great awakening. One promise I will make you is to never turn that into an endowment fund. We will risk it all on Jesus. The first $250K will go straight to the birds. The next $500K will appear to generate a return only to go back to zero. That last $250K, by my seed math, will return over $15M in kingdom of heaven coming on earth outcomes. If I know you, you will take that deal all day long. (It will also work with $100.) And we will have the time of our lives sowing together.
Of course, many will challenge the sower to become more efficient and stop wasting the seed on bad seedbeds. This is to miss the point entirely. The rule of the kingdom is not efficiency. It is extravagance—sowing seeds everywhere all the time. The kingdom we seek is not about the seedbed (a.k.a. soil). It's not about the sower. It's about the Seed. The superpower is in the Seed. And the Seed is the Word of God—who is the Son of God—flourishing in the soil of you.
Be the seed!
PRAY
Father, thank you for the superpower of the seed of your Word, which we see in full flourishing in your Son, Jesus Christ. Sow this seed in our lives, in my life, to the end that my life might become a flourishing seedbed of your extravagant kingdom in this world. I want my life to become a demonstration plot for your kingdom. Praying in Jesus's name, amen.
