You can have confidence in the growth and progress of God’s work (in you and others), even if it seems insignificant at the time.
Talking Points:
- Jesus told two parables to encourage his people not to give up on God. These parables suggest three ways that we should trust in how God does his work. Mark 4:26-32
- We can’t always tell how God is at work. In 4:27, the seed grows invisibly. There is a mystery to God’s work! Like the farmer, we have a part to play. In v26, he plants, and in verse v29, he harvests. But whether he is asleep or awake (v27) – no matter what he does – the seed grows. Eventually, there will be a harvest, but it comes in its own time.
- These parables encourage us that God’s work will progress, but we can’t always make sense of how it happens. Like a seed, God’s work has its own intrinsic power. When you look at what God is doing, it may seem small and insignificant, but like the tiny mustard seed (v31), God’s kingdom will grow (v32).
- You might feel as puny and unimportant as a tiny mustard seed. But these parables show that God often starts things small. No matter how you feel about yourself, you can trust God to work through you in the lives of others – if you’re available to him.
Discussion:
- Initial reactions to this topic? What jumped out at you?
- How have you seen God’s timing to be right in your own life or in the lives of others?
- Why is hard to wait on God’s timing?
- Have you been in situations where you prayed earnestly and didn’t see the results you wanted? What happened?
- Read Matthew 13:53-58. Jesus didn’t fit people’s expectations. How have you seen that God’s work doesn’t always look how we would expect?
- Jesus’s earliest disciples left everything to follow him (Matthew 4). What steps must you take to be available to God for him to work through you?
- Read 1 Corinthians 3:6-8. How can you trust God more and more to finish the work he begins?
- Is there a step you need to take based on today’s topic?
This is part 1 in the Perplexing Parables series. Find this and other pursueGOD.org sermons on YouTube here.
