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This is The Oaks Equipped, a podcast from The Oaks Church in Liberty Hill, TX where Pastor Josh Mings talks through the stuff he didn’t have time to say on Sunday, answers the questions people are actually asking, and keeps things way more real than polished. Expect biblical truth, practical takeaways, and just enough humor to keep you guessing whether he meant it.
If you want to follow Jesus with clarity (and laugh at least once), you’re in the right place.
The Power of a Non-GMO Seed
00:00:17 Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Oaks. Equipped with Josh Mings and Glen McGordy
00:00:22 Speaker 2: Howdy, everybody. How are we doing?
00:00:23 Speaker 1: Doing good. How about yourself?
00:00:25 Speaker 2: Living that dream.
00:00:27 Speaker 1: The American dream. All right, so we've been doing a little mini series called The Parables, and you've walked us through various parables at this point. So give us kind of a quick overview of what is the mini series and what are we driving towards on this one?
00:00:42 Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been one of the most life giving couple of weeks in my ministry career. I've just loved this. I've always wanted to do a deep dive on the parables, and Mark's use of the parables seems to be different than the others in that. Here we kind of have this unified theme, and there's four, maybe five parables that are different, but they're all connected to a big idea. And so that's been fun. But what's cool about this is, as I've said, every time we started one of these sermons, is that what we have going on here is Mark seems to slow down And, and really emphasize this section because it's kind of a, it's kind of a glimpse into how the kingdom of God works. And, um, so here Jesus uses the analogy of seeds and farming and agriculture to really define how his kingdom has a small beginning, but is going to explode into something so powerful and so amazing.
00:01:48 Speaker 1: Yeah. Can you kind of recap, you talked about the use of parables and Jesus using the parables, but you said that they were there to kind of disguise the the truth to the non-believer or those who are just casually coming to listen to Jesus, but had a real purpose and meaning for those that did believe and followed him.
00:02:07 Speaker 2: Which doesn't make any sense. Um, we, we love to use parables or illustrations in all of our communication to help us prove a point. Parable. The Greek word there means to lay aside. Lay, lay alongside something. So it's like you have this complicated idea, like the kingdom of God. So I'm going to lay something alongside of it so that you can have an analogy, something that will help you understand it. So that's the intention of a parable, is that it brings about clarity on what it means. But Jesus tells us in every gospel in with the exception of John, in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that the parables are meant to conceal. And so we have to keep that in mind. Um, you know what, what Mark records is Jesus saying, those who have ears, let them hear. So Jesus is simultaneously. And this is to fulfill an Old Testament expectation of Messiah. He is he is speaking in a way where he's bringing judgment. So for those who are not his true family, for example, the religious leaders that Jesus has been going back and forth with, they don't understand the parables. That's a form of judgment on them. And the kingdom is being concealed from them as judgment. But for his family, and we see this personified in the disciples, they come to him afterwards, afterwards confused. Hey, what does this mean, Jesus? We're not tracking with what is the seed and all this. So Jesus has to interpret it for them. And so we have the benefit of having that interpretation. And then but the question becomes he who has ears, let them hear. Yeah. And so the parables on one hand for some are confusion. What does this mean? This is crazy talk. This doesn't make any sense. It's condemnation for those who reject Jesus. Uh, but for those who are his family, who belong to him, it's it's clarity. It's truth. And so that's why I say this for me, these last three weeks, as we've done these three sermons, it has been so life giving in in. I feel like it's. It's Jesus helping us understand how his kingdom works here and now. And so it's been a blessing.
00:04:26 Speaker 1: And his kingdom works a little bit different than what we would expect using seeds you think could use a microwave or some sort of fast acting kind of agent. Rather, you talk about seeds that require water or require planting than watering and then growth.
00:04:41 Speaker 2: Yeah, I've said it before. Jesus needs a PR guy like this is it's not the way you would do it, or I would do it and think about modern, just think about modern church growth strategies. I remember years ago, there was this marketing group. I read this in a book, uh, there was a marketing group for a million dollars. They promised that they could grow your church to ten thousand people.
00:05:06 Speaker 2: Wow.
00:05:06 Speaker 2: And so it's like, think of all the things that we do. It's like add these programs, add these activities, do these gimmicks. You know, I've been a part of churches where elephants were brought out on stage. Elephants, Ferris wheels were put in the parking lot. And the idea is, let's put on a spectacle.
00:05:23 Speaker 1: Yes.
00:05:24 Speaker 2: And then people will come. Is that how Jesus says that the kingdom will be built? Yeah. So he doesn't talk about elephants or Ferris wheels. He talks about seeds.
00:05:33 Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:05:33 Speaker 2: Which is one of the most underwhelming, non exciting, uh, church growth methods. Yeah.
00:05:42 Speaker 1: Yeah. I was at a part of a participated in a Easter egg hunt. I think we had like something like ten thousand eggs. Yeah. The following two or three Sundays, we had zero people that we could account for in the neighborhood that we did the ten zero zero zero eggs for. So like you said, it's not a process where you can do a show or some sort of phenomenon. You're going to get a lot of people coming one hundred percent. Yeah.
00:06:05 Speaker 2: Uh, when I was a youth pastor, I learned this lesson. Um, I remember we, we wanted to do a big outreach and so we, a small little church didn't have, I think if I remember right, my my monthly budget was twenty five dollars a month. And so I saved all those months and then, you know, recruited people. The kids gave money, the parents gave money. I went to local businesses, hey, we're going to try to reach the community. And if I remember right, I think I bought three brand new Xboxes.
00:06:36 Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
00:06:36 Speaker 2: And, um, so we promoted, hey, come to this event, we'll be giving away Xboxes and that little church we packed out that room. I want to say there was like two hundred kids and we gave away those Xboxes and everybody was so excited. And you know how many people we had the next week?
00:06:53 Speaker 1: Fifteen. Yeah, the same.
00:06:55 Speaker 2: The same we had every week. You don't give an Xbox. They won't come. But that's not how the kingdom is built.
00:07:00 Speaker 1: So no GMO at the Oaks.
00:07:02 Speaker 2: No GMO. That's that's exactly what it is.
00:07:05 Speaker 1: Yeah. And that's, that's what you're talking about when you said GMO, looking for something. Be some super seeds, some sort of modifying way other than what the gospel is talking about. Well, the parable of the seeds is really about a planting the seeds. It's really about the soil you mentioned, not necessarily about the seeds or things along those lines. Can you expand a little bit on that?
00:07:24 Speaker 2: Yeah. So modern church growth strategies is about seed modification. What can we do to make the message palatable, acceptable, accessible so that more people will come? And what Jesus is revealing to us in this parable is the issue is not the seed. The issue is people's soils, their heart. Yeah. And so he walks through four different types of hearts that people have. And he goes, it doesn't matter what kind of there's there's, there's one seed. The seed is very effective. It's very powerful. The issue is not the seed. The issue is the heart. And so we have to keep that in mind. Um, whenever we're talking about and we can kind of use this interchangeable. It's not just church, but it's also personal evangelism. Yeah. You know, when we're talking to people, when we're we're trying to bless our neighbors. You know, we have to understand our responsibility is not to modify the seed. Our our responsibility is to be faithful. Sowers.
00:08:23 Speaker 1: That's right.
00:08:24 Speaker 2: And we can't even always identify the seed. You know, this this parable, as I mentioned in the sermon, is not to call us to be soil inspectors. Like we don't know a person's heart, right? Our, our call in this is to be faithful at sowing the seed. That's right. And being a blessing to our neighbors and to those around the world.
00:08:46 Speaker 1: And being faithful to share that, that, that seed. Right. And we're not responsible. I used to always have at a previous church, I had them tell me how many people came to Christ in the last week, last month, whatever, trying to capture metrics. And I, I can appreciate coming from the corporate world, you want metrics? I said, how about we just start measuring how many times we actually communicated the gospel? How many people we had conversations with. Then I can tell you what actually happened, but I can't. I can't count on the fruit. That's like you say. We don't know what the heart is. We don't know how receptive. We don't know what God's going to do in the future.
00:09:18 Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. That's God's work. Yeah. And so I think what's great about this is the is that the parables give us clarity on what what our responsibility is and what God's responsibility. We're sowers. That's it. And it's the Lord who brings the increase. And you just never know. You just never know what your faithful sowing will accomplish in fifty years. Yes. And what we want is we want short term gains. Let's modify the seed. Let's, let's do everything that we can so that we can just get the volumes of people here. And as someone who worked at a church that had fifteen thousand people a weekend but was built, this is my former places that I've worked but was built on gimmicks and spectacle. What I can tell you is there's a deep regret that I have. Um, because those people, they came for the show, the fun, the entertainment, but they're not disciples of Jesus. They're not walking with him. And as soon as crisis hits, if you don't have something fun to, to soften that and to engage that, then they're gone. Yeah. And all I can hope is that at some point, some faithful seed was sown. And then in the long run, the Lord will bring it to harvest in them.
00:10:34 Speaker 1: Yeah. So one of the conversations that came out after you presented that parable, your take on that parable was, can somebody lose their faith? And the implication is that there's a seed that grows among the thorns and it's choked out. What's your take on that?
00:10:53 Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a loaded question, man.
00:10:55 Speaker 1: Um, I'm supposed to do that. Yeah.
00:10:57 Speaker 2: So, so one of the soils that Jesus talks about, um, let me just walk through the three soils real quick. There's the hard heart. Yep. It's the word that never gets in. Yep. A best example of this is the, the, um, religious leaders that Jesus is encountering. You know, they just reject him. There's nothing that they could do. Jesus is healing people performing miracles, and they still reject him. So there's nothing that he can say or do. They have a hard heart. The next is a rocky heart. This is the word that excites but never takes root. Um, that's a cross reference. That would be John six, chapter six, verses sixty six to sixty nine. Um, uh, this is people who are a part of the family of God. Like they come to church, but when it gets hard, they leave. This is someone who follows Jesus early until discipleship becomes costly. Then they walk away. And then finally there's the thorny heart. This is where the word, uh, the seed competes with other affections, like the think the rich young ruler. Yeah, like he wanted it, but he loved money more than he loved God. Yeah. The example that you're talking about here is the rocky heart. Yeah. It's where it's it's the person who comes for a season and they're excited. They play the part. They look the part. And so I would argue that they're it's not true conversion.
00:12:20 Speaker 2: Right.
00:12:21 Speaker 2: And they, they don't belong. Uh, I don't subscribe to the idea that you can lose your salvation. Um, you can lose your keys.
00:12:30 Speaker 1: You can lose your keys.
00:12:31 Speaker 2: You can, you can lose your wallet.
00:12:32 Speaker 1: Yeah.
00:12:33 Speaker 2: Um, or let me say it this way to quote some, a pastor that I love dearly, he said this, if you could lose your salvation, you would.
00:12:42 Speaker 1: You would have lost it already.
00:12:43 Speaker 2: Yeah. So if it's if it's on me, then yes, I'll lose it. Yeah. But the reality is, is that true? Saving faith. That's the power of a non GMO seed. Right. It's keeping power is not has nothing to do with me or you. It has everything to do with God. Yeah. John says that he holds us in his hand and no one can pluck us out.
00:13:04 Speaker 1: That's right. And it's a spiritual situation. We're not saved just because we communicate that. It's a spiritual regeneration that occurs. There's not a never a mention of a regenerating process. Right. And God is ever faithful to make sure we're stayed in, in the in the faith. Yeah. So one of the things you talked about in the same thing, kind of wrapped it up, was us having the passion that we should have for, for the gospel with people. And you mentioned this lady at target trying to sell you a particular product. Oh, yeah. Which was kind of interesting. Um, but we need to have that same level of passion when we're out there talking to people. And it doesn't necessarily have to be. Here's the four things you need to know about the gospel, but just talking about what God's doing in your life and, and the, the things you see manifest day to day.
00:13:51 Speaker 2: My reason for sharing that story is because I already know the objections that we're going to hear. Um, I think people's going assumption is, well, I need to. I want to share my faith, but I. What happens if I get asked questions I don't know the answers to. Um, and it's like, hey, I need to go to a ten week course on this and that and, and really be prepared to answer every one of the questions. And so the reason I told this silly story about the woman who convinced me about bath salts was, um, I truly believe that everyone is a natural evangelist about what they love. You know, you, you, you have something you care about. I'm just making up something. But it's like you found a new blender.
00:14:36 Speaker 1: Yep.
00:14:36 Speaker 2: That works. Well, you're going to tell your friends. Yeah. And it's just natural.
00:14:42 Speaker 1: It's like those crazy people that were caught up in that whole World Cup soccer thing. Yes, exactly. I mean, that's crazy. That's crazy. Why would you waste so much time on that, you know, kind of thing?
00:14:51 Speaker 2: So so that's, that's the point of you. And so since we don't have to modify the seed, um, our own personal story about what Jesus has done is a great testimony. Take, for example, the woman at the well. She had no seminary training, but she led her entire village. Think about that. Her entire village to faith and her. Here's her testimony. Come, let me tell you about the man who told me everything about myself. Yeah, like that's it. And so.
00:15:25 Speaker 1: And they came and they said, now we see for ourselves. And so we're. The disciples had just come from the town. She comes and she brings people. And then all of a sudden the place is on fire.
00:15:36 Speaker 2: So, I mean, I think it's safe to assume that there might have been objections or questions or need for clarification, and she may or may not have had the answers. But what she did is she told her own story. And so that's the point I'm trying to show, is if the true word has taken root in your heart, it has to have an effect on you to the place where you can just simply say, Jesus changed everything for me.
00:15:59 Speaker 1: Yeah. And you mentioned in another parable about the idea of giving the king his full weight, really giving paying attention to what you hear, putting that into place. And you use the analogy of taking your wife to a sports restaurant where you're listening and watching, you know, the cowboys at the same time, a divided heart. You're talking about when you're listening to what Jesus is saying in these parables, what he's talking about in terms of growing in our personal faith, that's that seed as well, would either be full on.
00:16:29 Speaker 2: So since the good news is that the seed or the word of God is powerful, and we're not required to manufacture, manufacture that power or to modify that power, like our job is just to sow it. So, so the command that, that I really saw in that message was give the king his full weight. Like specifically the context is he uses a different analogy of like letting your light shine, give that its full weight. Go all in on that because then the promise is with the measure that you shine that light, the more effective the seed is in your life, the light is in your life. And so all of us are divided. Attention, people like we can be having a conversation, but we're on our phone. We can be on a date, but we're watching TV at the sports Grill. Like we need to put our full weight behind lifting the light. We need to put our full weight behind, lifting the light and leaning into that. And so, I mean, just we just have to be honest that sometimes we were half hearted when it comes to, uh, letting the light shine through us to our neighbors and our loved ones and colleagues and coworkers.
00:17:44 Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:17:45 Speaker 1: And you talked about the idea of like, being faithful takes time. Just like a tree takes time to grow. Yeah, it takes time.
00:17:53 Speaker 2: The good news is, and there should be encouragement to the listener. Uh, the Lord is going to take your entire life to prepare you for heaven. He he's not wanting you to to be perfected today. Yeah, I wish you would. It's not the way I would have done it.
00:18:09 Speaker 1: But.
00:18:09 Speaker 2: That's the way he chose to do it.
00:18:10 Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:18:11 Speaker 2: And so I think what I just know to be true is there's so many fits of spiritual activity that people go through. It's like, oh, I'm in crisis. Uh, my marriage is falling apart. My kids are rebellious. Oh, let's go, let's go. All in this week on all things God. And then we fizzle out and burn. When we don't, we don't automatically change after one week of intense spiritual activity every week. Can't be youth camp. And so I think what the parables are showing us is that, no, we just need to be faithful in sowing the seed in our own life. Those small, repeatable patterns, the rhythms of our daily life, both The beauty about these parables is I think these principles apply to our personal life, but also to evangelism. We just consistently. So the Word of God in our own study, God's going to change us from the inside out. We need to consistently. So God's word with our neighbor, with our coworkers, and God's going to bring about like we're not. We don't want to be a flash in the pan. We want to make a deep kingdom impact. And that comes with faithfulness instead of intense spiritual activity for this week. And then we fizzle out.
00:19:27 Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:19:28 Speaker 1: And you talked a little bit in the last last week with the man who cast the seed and goes to sleep. And then the growth happens despite him not watching the thing grow. Right. And you used the analogy of, of brushing your teeth, you know, like I reminded Kim this week when she's getting dressed, did you brush your teeth? But I was thinking back even later this week, like, how much of the sermon did I actually remember? And I remember you saying, it doesn't matter so much what you remember. It's how God actually will plant that seed and then grow it. Because that's the Word of God. It's never, never falls short.
00:19:58 Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:19:59 Speaker 2: Yeah. Faithfulness. I was trying to think of like, what's the best way to just communicate what this text is saying? Yeah. The farmer sows and goes to bed. Yeah. Um, he doesn't that Jesus says he doesn't know what happens.
00:20:12 Speaker 2: Yeah.
00:20:12 Speaker 2: You know, he didn't he didn't have the, uh, he wasn't blessed with the knowledge of us about photosynthesis and all the nonsense because it doesn't matter. That's a process that he he can't control. Only God can. And that's the big idea here. And so what's the what's a daily rhythm that we are supposed to do? Brush our teeth? Yeah. And the same is true. We need to just like we brush our teeth, we need to sow. And that through those ordinary means of simple tasks. This is how God changes us and how he's going to change the world. Yeah. And man, that's just the beauty of these these parables is this is how God is going to change. These are the ordinary means. It's not the way we would have done it. It's not flashy. It's not cool, certainly not modern. But this is how God is going to win the world.
00:21:03 Speaker 1: Little by little.
00:21:04 Speaker 2: Little by.
00:21:04 Speaker 2: Little. Yeah.
00:21:05 Speaker 1: Amazing stuff. Just the last part of this you talked about considering God's promises, um, worrying about fear or worries and fear, but claiming God's promises through this, staying in the word and recognizing what God has done in the past, what he's going to do in the future, that his word stays true going forward.
00:21:25 Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. This is this side of heaven. This is the eternal reality. Um, his word is the greatest resource is the truth in the unseen kingdom. We live by faith in His Word is how we're going to make sense of the craziness. And it's going to cast a vision of the future that we will have. And inherent in him. Some of those promises will experience now, but all of them will experience in the Kingdom.
00:21:52 Speaker 1: And it's not a blind faith. It's based on. We can just look back at our lives and see what God has done and what he's doing in other people's lives and what he's done in the past. Like we look at the Bible, we see things he's done, and we see it today in our everyday world.
00:22:04 Speaker 2: And we have the promise that that faith will not put us to shame on the last day. We will not look foolish to use this same language that we said earlier on the last day. We will not be foolish for putting our whole weight into him. Yeah, for trusting him with our struggles, trusting him with our loss, trusting him with our sickness. Fill in the blank. All the things on the last day we will look so wise. Yeah, we will not be put to shame for that hope.
00:22:31 Speaker 1: Key word there. Trust. Yes, that's the hard part.
00:22:34 Speaker 2: No doubt.
00:22:35 Speaker 2: No doubt.
00:22:35 Speaker 1: That's where God gives us the faith to to do that or the trust to do.
00:22:38 Speaker 2: That, no doubt.
00:22:39 Speaker 1: Thanks, Josh. Thanks for the insights and thanks for the mini series on the parables. We look forward to The Mustard Seed next week.