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“The Growth Rule”
A
sermon by Dr. James Flamming
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Virginia
Sunday, September 10, 2006
I
ask you to turn please to Mark 4. Jesus is doing what he loved to do best –
teach. That’s what they most often called him – teacher. In this case, he had
to make do a new teaching environment. He was doing it alongside the Sea of
Galilee and he had such a big crowd, and they kept pressing upon Him, the
disciples couldn’t even get close. I guess He could have just been ankle-deep in
water but instead, he got in a boat. Any of you done any teaching from a boat?
And from that boat, perhaps in the side of his eye, out in the field, he saw a
farmer. Doing what farmers love to do at the appropriate time, sowing the
seed. Listen as I begin reading with verse 3. “A farmer went out to sow his
seed and as he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path. The birds came
and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places where it did not have much soil. It
sprang up quickly but because the soil was shallow, and when the sun came up,
the plants were scorched and they withered because they had no root. Other seed
fell among thorns which grew up, choked the plants so that they did not bear
grain. Still other seed fell on good soil. It came up, grew, and produced a
crop, multiplying thirty, sixty, or even a hundred times. Then Jesus said, ‘He
who has ears to hear, let him hear.’ ” This is the word of the Lord.
There
are two times that are huge for a farmer. Putting in the seed and gathering in
the harvest. It’s also that way of a vegetable gardener. Some three years
ago, I went to Nebraska for the memorial service of a favorite aunt of mine. I
used to work for them when I was a teenager and would go to that Midwestern farm
place and drive a tractor all summer. She has lived in the same little rural
farming town since she was born, now past 90. Her son still lives in the area.
Lynn took what his dad left him and added to it, and now farms hundreds of
acres. While I was there, I asked him to take me out and show me what kind of
implements they were using these days. And he showed me some huge tractors,
enclosed, air-conditioned, radio. He said some of them even had television,
although I have never able to figure how you could watch television and keep
your eye on the row at the same time. One thing that was just utterly
fascinating to me was a farm implement that was huge and what it did was to plow
and drill… Drill is what wheat farmers call planting. And it would plow and
drill at the very same time with the same implement. When I was doing it, you
did it twice at least or sometimes, three times. But you know what, there is
one thing that is identical to the way we did it. You still have to plant the
seed. And that’s Jesus’ point. It’s all about planting seeds. Jesus draws a
picture of a man who is living out the first principle of growth. The basic
principle of growing. And that is “You can’t stop starting.” Hear it again.
You can’t stop starting. You have to begin again. If you want to grow
something, don’t stop starting. In spiritual things, starting is never easy.
Starting again is never easy. Admitting you need to start again is never easy.
But let me give you a warning and also an affirmation. The worst thing that can
happen to any of us is to get comfortable.
Comfortable of where we are. Absolutely comfortable with ourselves. And with
the deep feeling that there is nothing about us that needs to change. For those
of you who are in places of authority, listen to Henry Ford who said, “It isn’t
the incompetent who ruin an organization. It is the incompetent who never are
able to rise to where they could ruin an organization. No, it is those who have
achieved something great and are content to rest upon their achievements. These
are the ones, said Mr. Ford, who are forever clogging things up.”
George Romney, industrialist, even made a run for President, once said, “There
is nothing more vulnerable than entrenched success. You become a prisoner of
what has been done in the past.” A farmer can’t do that. The farmer in Jesus’
parable couldn’t do that. Last year’s crop won’t feed this year’s people. Last
year’s seed won’t bake this year’s bread. Last year’s spiritual growth won’t
provide this year’s spiritual energy. Jesus wants to get our attention. He
doesn’t want us to miss it, and so he begins with the word “Listen” and ends
with “If you’ve got ears to hear, hear.” “Don’t pass this over,” he’s saying.
He puts the key in our pockets. He puts results in our reservoirs. He puts the
harvest in our hands. “The farmer went forth to start over.” The primary rule
of growth, “Don’t stop starting.” Our church must not do that. The church must
not be comfortable. We have to keep starting. However great might be our
heritage, however many good things we’ve done in the past, this is NOW. We
promoted in Sunday School today. Great day. It is a new Sunday school year.
Teachers, you who plant the seed. Teachers and students met each other,
sometimes for the first time today. Only in eternity will the harvest truly be
known but you have lived out the first principle of growth – don’t stop
starting. Don’t stop promoting. Don’t stop growing. Baptism is a symbol of a
new start. Buried with Him in baptism, raised to newness of life. Some people
come to me and say, “I have been far away from the Lord. I need to start over.
I’ve been gone so long from the church. I’ve been gone so long from the Lord.
I and the Lord have gotten together again and I am confident that He and I will
stay together from now on until I am at the end. But I need a symbol. I need a
symbol of starting over. Will you baptize me, even though I was baptized when I
was a little child?” And I will say, “Absolutely.” Because we believe this is
the symbol – a symbol of the fact you have to begin and you have to begin
again. The primary rule of growth is this, “Don’t stop starting.” So let’s get
personal. What do you need to start? Or what do you need to start again? For
all of us, there are some things we thought about starting, of doing, of taking
a new commitment, a taking a new step, and we said to ourselves, “I’ll get
there. Some day. When I get around to it.” What if farmers said, “You know, I
don’t feel like planting today. I’ll put the seed in whenever I get around to
it.”
Let
me mention some things – maybe a start is in one of them, embedded in the folds
of the words as I say them. Maybe faithful attendance at worship is a place to
begin. So that it’s never negotiable. You’re going to be here. It isn’t
something you do if you don’t have something better to do. Or, how many people
during the past year have you invited to church with you? How about starting?
How many times in the past year have you shared your faith with somebody to let
them know how the Lord walked you through some really, really tough times? How
often have you prayed for your neighbors? How many Sundays did you truly
prepare to get here? And you prayed for the preacher and you prayed for the
choir and you prayed for all who would come, and you even prayed for those who
were deciding whether to come. Did you find a group this last year with whom
you can study the Bible? Did you decide to start giving a percentage of your
income to the Lord through the church so that it could be used here and
throughout the world? Listen to me. There is always in the spiritual life a
place to begin. For some of us, it is a place to begin again, but for most of
us, there’s an area we’ve never stepped out into. Here is the rule: Don’t stop
starting!
Now,
Jesus as he teaches pulls the curtain back, and he says, “This is what I am
talking about and this is how you could respond.” And later on in the chapter,
he tells us what the parable means. So let’s begin. Look at verse 15. Look at
verse 15. He says that some of the seed fell on a path and Satan, he says, is
like the birds and he comes and he takes the seed away. The enemy, friend, is
at work. Is at work in your life, in the world, and one of the things he can do
best is take the Gospel seed, get rid of it as quick as he can, so you never
have time to think about it, pray about it, or put it into action. Now, Jesus
brings in this culprit, Satan. Satan is alive and well in our world. There are
some people who don’t believe in the devil. Do they ever read the paper? Evil
flourishes. And one of the purposes of Satan is to make sure we do not take the
word seriously. Or that it quickly gets camouflaged by all of the things that
are going on in our lives. Listen to verse 15. “Some people are like the seed
along the path where the word is sown and as soon as they hear it, Satan comes.
As soon as they hear it, Satan comes. Takes away the word that was sown in
them. And the word, you see, never gets through. Now look at verses 16 and
17. You will discover that some of the seed fell on rocky ground and the seed
sprouted but had no root system, and therefore, it withered quickly. In
Palestine, there is a limestone layer of rock that is right beneath the surface
of most of the ground. The soil would accept the seed, but as soon as the roots
went down, hit the limestone rock, and could not get any rootage in the
process. Five years ago, September 11th, remember where you were
when you first heard the word, when you first saw the pictures, who can forget?
It was an amazing thing that happened to our country. Exposed was our fragile
insecurity. You see, in our secular society (secular means the organization of
God without life, without God in the middle of life), all of a sudden it was
pulled back and we re… we realized as a nation we needed something more than
ourselves. And people flocked to the churches. During that week, we had a
service Thursday at noon. This place was packed! Because people wanted to pray,
we opened the Chapel and people the first few days, flocked in. There was just
a running pattern of people coming to pray. Sunday services packed out. But
with inside a month, everything was back to normal. Nobody came to the Chapel
to pray anymore. Sundays’ attendance – back to normal. You see, there is a
kind of rooted-ness that is very shallow. Listen to how Peterson translates
this passage: “The seed cast in the gravel, this is the person who hears and
instantly responds with enthusiasm. But there is no soil of character and so
when the emotions wear off, and some difficulty arrives, there is nothing to
show for it.
Now,
look at verses 18 and 19. Some of the seed fell among thorns. You have heard
me describe the three Gods of this world. For purposes of memory, all of them
start with “A” – appearance, achievement, affluence, all of which are right in
their own place. But none of which, though good, can be God. And let me tell
you something else. Not one of them will you take with you to Heaven. When you
pass, they pass. And some of them pass ahead of time. Appearance: doesn’t it
make sense that you would want to invest your life in that which is beyond now
and reaches into eternity? Satan has so blinded us and we think if only we have
the right appearance, if only we have achieved the right goal, if only we have
the right money, we will be happy. And says Jesus, “these can become thorn
bushes which choke out the life that could be there.” But in verse 20, Jesus
gives us the good stuff. He says there’s good soil and the seed can find the
good soil. Jesus… for Jesus’ achievement is not a true test, but fruitfulness
is. As Jesus said in John 14:5, “I am the vine and you are the branches. If a
man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit and apart from me, you
can do nothing.” Jesus said, “When the word falls on good soil, it brings forth
amazing results. Thirty fold.” That means one seed has been multiplied thirty
times. Sixty fold. That means one seed has been multiplied sixty times. A
hundred fold. Multiplied a hundred times. Amazing. God will take care of the
multiplier. It is our job to plant the seed.
William Barkley, who lived of course in England, relates a story from H. L. Gee.
During World War II, it seems that in the church that H. L. attended, there was
an older gentleman, the oldest in the church. He’d outlived his
contemporaries. His name was Thomas, but because he’d lived so long, he had
come to be known as “Old Thomas.” Still lived alone. Lonely man. Came to
church by himself; left by himself. When he died and graduated to heaven, Gee
said to himself, “You know, I’m going to go to that service. He’s not going to
have very many people there. He needs me.” Gee went. He was right. Only a
scattered few were there to celebrate his home going. When they went to the
cemetery, he was astounded to see a solider at the gate. And as they drove into
the cemetery, he wondered why in the world, in the middle of the war, they would
be putting a soldier at the gate of the cemetery. Went on, had the committal
service, and the soldier had come from the gate and stood there throughout the
service and then at the end, when the prayers had been said and the scriptures
had been read, he stepped to the top of where he would be buried. He clicked
his heels, and in a salute that would be worthy of a king, he stepped aside and
headed for the gate. Dr. Gee rushed on and said, “I don’t know who you are.”
He introduced himself. About that time, because it was so windy and gusty and
cold, the wind took his raincoat and as it were, almost peeled it off. And Gee
understood as he looked at him all of the colorful medals and the insignia that
would indicate this man was a Brigadier General. He said, “What are you doing
here?” And the man stopped, he said with a tear in his eye, “Oh, Thomas was my
Sunday school teacher. For several years, he was my teacher. I was a wild
lad. He never could control me. As a matter of fact, I think he despaired of
me. But I can’t tell you the difference that man made in my life. It was
through him that I came to know Jesus. In fact, it was in Sunday school that I
gave my heart to Jesus. And it was through him that I was baptized, and it was
through him that he made me memorize scripture.” They both stopped now because
the General had stopped, and both eyes were moist. And he said, “I would never
have made it through this war had it not been for Jesus and for scripture. And
when I read he had died, I said to myself, ‘I am going to be there. And I am
going to salute him at the very end and maybe he will know how much he did for
me.’ ” Sowing the seed. God’s the one who takes it from there but we are asked
to sow the seed. More than that, we are asked to be the soil in which God in
Christ and through others can sow the seed in our lives.
Oh,
and one more thing, the rule is: Don’t stop starting. Some of you have never
started with the Lord Jesus. You’ve never said yes. You’ve never invited Him
into your life. Why not today? And if you need to come home, or if you need a
church home, why not today? Don’t stop starting.
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