The Fellowship of the Mustard Seed
God is big. Really big. But often God shows up in small, seemingly insignificant ways that we can miss if we’re not looking. His Kingdom is like a mustard seed.
If God brings His Kingdom in small ways, like planting a mustard seed and waiting for it grow into one of the largest plants in the garden, then God’s church must be willing to partner with Him in His process. We can’t try to mass produce and outproduce God. If he’s decided to work through small things that eventually have great impact, He needs a people who will join Him in that process.
He needs a fellowship of the mustard seed.
What is a fellowship of the mustard seed? It’s a people who are content to partner with God in small, seemingly insignificant ways, believing that if they do, it will lead to something greater, either in this age or in the age to come. The fellowship of the mustard seed is those who have abandoned the big show in favor of great faithfulness and love, whether the task is big or small.
This won’t be easy. Our world teaches us to want more, bigger, better all the time. In fact, we spend much of our time trying to amass more- more people to our cause, more money in our accounts, bigger more explosive events that attract the attention of more people.
The point of God’s Kingdom coming like a mustard seed is it weeds out those who are looking for anything besides Jesus. If you wanted to be the center of attention or be known for doing great things, mustard seed starts don’t give it to you. For those of us who are trying to be faithful to the Kingdom, being part of mustard seed beginnings is enough. We don’t gain our significance from our ministry, we gain it from the love of God. And that is enough.
The truth is the way to the big impact is through faithfulness in small things. Jesus tells us how that happens:
If you are faithful in the little things, you will be faithful in large ones.
You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things…
Think about Billy Graham, Bill Johnson, John Piper, or whatever other large scale Christian leader that you think has impacted this generation. Many people want to be like these men, doing great things and being recognized for leading people to Christ and teaching the masses. But hardly anyone knows the names of the men who faithfully discipled these men. They were just faithful men, planting mustard seed-sized truths of the Kingdom of God into soil and hoping that they would grow. These will be true heroes in the age to come.
Think about Johnny Appleseed, a bit of a myth at this point, but he was a real man who walked across the United States sowing apple seeds into the ground. He may have never seen the fully grown apple orchards from the seeds he planted. He definitely didn’t see the other apple trees that grew from the trees he planted. But he believed in the power of the seed to affect human kind, and he’s become famous for that belief.
We have a seed more powerful than an apple seed, but we must believe in it’s power to transform mankind. It might not happen overnight, but if believe in its power and sow seeds wherever we go, our seeds will take root in the hearts of men and will change the course of generations of humanity.
We just need to become the kind of people who trust the power of God’s seed.
Photo Credit: Mustardseed by Molly
The God of the Mustard Seed
God is big. All of time and space exist within Him. He created everything that exists, He sustains everything that exists, and He shows up in these big moments in the Bible like the parting of the Red Sea or Pentecost or Armageddon (the End Times). And because we have all of these gigantic, mind-boggling pictures of God, it can be easy to believe that God exists only in “the big things,” that some how only the big things are significant or if it’s not big, it’s not God.
I don’t want to argue that God isn’t in the big things. I believe there are some things so big that only God can pull them off, but I also believe that if we only see God in “the big things” we miss God regularly showing up in small but significant ways. Consider one of the teachings of Jesus:
Jesus said, ‘How can I describe the Kingdom of God? What story should I use to illustrate it? It is like a mustard seed planted in the ground. It is the smallest of all seeds, but it becomes the largest of all garden plants; it grows long branches, and birds can make nests in its shade.’
-Mark 4:30-32
The Kingdom of God, the place where the all powerful, omnipotent God of all creation rules, comes to the Earth like the smallest of seeds. I think many times this flips the script on what we believe God is like. We’re looking for explosions with fire and smoke. God plants a single seed in the garden of the Earth and watches it grow.
This should tell us a couple of things about the nature of God. He’s humble. He doesn’t need announcements and show. He’s secure. He’s not the Wizard of Oz, using special effects to inflate what we think of Him. He’s not scared of the smallness. He embraces it as a strategy. He’s patient. He will let His Kingdom grow, not insert the full version in one final, dramatic moment.
But we, especially us Americans, don’t like seeds. We like manufacturing and microwaves. We like getting things done. And so this seed-like way of God is often missed by us. Which is unfortunate, because eventually the path of this humble seed is that it turns into a garden plant that birds of the air can nest in. By ignoring the Kingdom in it’s small, seed-like form, we run the risk of missing the fullness of the Kingdom of God in the here and now. The God who brings the Kingdom through seeds also is a God who grows His Kingdom into a large plant right in front of our eyes, if we perceive it.
You see, God is large. He cannot deny His nature. Eventually the largeness of God is manifest in the way His Kingdom touches the Earth. Gideon’s 300 will win the war. The baby in a manger becomes the One to whom every knee will bow. The defeated 120 in an upper room will experience Pentecost. He just first comes in small, often hard-to-perceive ways, so that those who are looking for Him find Him and those who are only chasing greatness miss it.
More on that tomorrow…
Photo Credit: Mustard Seed by Liji Jinaraj
Why My Heart is Full Today
I know most days this space is filled with some truth I want to communicate and I feel is helpful for people. But today, instead of doing that, I want to tell you three reasons why my heart is full today.
Frank
I have a new friend Frank* who dedicated his life to Christ recently. Frank came into the orbit of our church, started meeting with my buddy Aaron, and as of last night was baptized and joined our churches. Every time this happens, it’s tempting to feel like you’ve seen it before, but tonight it was like having a new member of your family being born. I literally feel like I have a new brother and I’m rejoicing in the idea of that.
Aaron
Now let me tell you about my buddy Aaron. Aaron went down with some friends a few months ago to a church planting seminar called #NoPlaceLeft and came back excited about the Gospel. When Frank came into the orbit of our churches, Aaron jumped at the chance to talk through the Gospel and what it means to follow Jesus. Aaron has been faithful to walk with Frank up to this point, so it was only natural for Aaron to baptize Frank. So Aaron baptized him perfectly all while being himself, which is tough to do. My heart is almost as happy that Aaron has been stepping out on this journey as it is that Frank decided to follow Jesus in baptism.
Sean
A few weeks ago one of my best friends in the world called me and asked if I could help move his mom out of her house as she transitions to a new job out of state. That friend is Sean, and while helping people move doesn’t always float my boat, the ability to help my buddy Sean was something I couldn’t pass on. We’ve been like brothers for more than 10 years now, and just getting a chance to help him when he needed it brought joy to my heart. I got to serve another brother and sister in a real need that they had, an in doing so I got fulfill the law of Christ.
Things That Make the Heart Happy…
I think one of the reasons my heart is so full is that these three things are things that are so pleasing to the Lord! A new friend finding his way to God, another friend being faithful on the path of discipleship, and getting to help an old friend in a way feels right, like how family should help each other–all of these are things I believe that please the Lord.
The gospel going forth, disciples being made, and spiritual family happening regardless of distance are some of the things I signed up for so many years ago. Just getting to experience all of them together in one night has been an incredible joy. We aren’t seeing movements of people coming to Christ yet, but there’s reality in what’s going on. This is what we’re called to, saints. The lost coming to Christ, disciples being made, and spiritual family being birthed in human hearts.
It’s the stuff movements are made of.
*Frank’s name is not really Frank.
Cluster Map
Pursuing Glory 