Water the Bamboo

For the sermon, Mr. Lee.

Well, thank you, Mr. Pate. Good afternoon, everyone.

A quick question this morning. How many of you have ever read the children's book, The Carrot Seed?

That is the equivalent of a hand-raising of crickets. So, uh, nobody. So let me, let me just quickly kind of give you a gist of the carrot seed. The book was originally written in 1945, and it is an immensely popular children's book. It's one of those little children's board books, and it's, it's got a good reason why it's so popular. It's a really neat story. It's got a good kind of moral to it and a backdrop. For those that are unfamiliar, the story basically relates the tale of a young boy and his attempt to grow a carrot from seed. So you have the young boy in the book. He plants the seed. He puts it in the ground. He waters it. He weeds it, and then his mom comes up and tells him, well, I'm afraid that it's not going to come up. So he goes back, and he waters it some more, and he weeds it some more. And one by one throughout the board book and throughout the story, his family and others begin to tell him, look, it's not going to grow. You're spending all this time, you're putting all this effort, you're pouring the water in, you're weeding the ground. It's not coming up. You're wasting your time. 2000, translation of 1945 for you there.

But he faithfully continues to water it. He faithfully continues to weed it. He continues to care for it. And nothing happens. He keeps at it still. Nothing happens. And then one day, he goes outside, and the top of the carrot, the green part that's up outside of the ground, is twice as tall as he is. And when he digs it up, the next frame you see, he's hauling this carrot in a wheelbarrow, and it's extended over one end of the wheelbarrow and extended over the other. So, you know, if only gardening were that easy, right? I mean, if only it were that easy. If we could just, you know, put in the effort, so to speak, and it would just be this huge, bounteous crop. Well, we all know that's not how it works. We all know that gardening is work. It takes time for plants to grow. It takes time, and it takes the right conditions. They have to have the right amount of sunlight. They have to have a little bit of, you know, very little competition. You've got to make sure that the weeds are gone. You've got to make sure that you've got good soil. But most importantly, most importantly, they need to have water. And while the children's book, The Carrot Seed, is a work of fiction, there is an actual plant that operates not unlike it. There is an actual plant that operates not unlike it. It requires an incredible amount of patience and care, but when the conditions are right and the proper preparations are taken, it grows like no other. The scientific name of the plant is Philostachys edulis. The common name of the plant is mosso, and it is known as Chinese timber bamboo. Anybody familiar with Chinese timber bamboo? So Chinese timber bamboo is absolutely enormous stuff, and it's probably the only grass variety in the world that has actually grown for wood production. They grow it for production. And you get, you know, you see at the store, you see the little bamboo utensils and some of those different things. They have bamboo flooring. There's wooden utensils. And what's cool about bamboo is it's naturally antifungal and naturally antibacterial. So it's a really good thing for kitchen utensils and housing and other things. In fact, more than one billion people worldwide live in homes built entirely of bamboo, Chinese timber bamboo. It's an extremely versatile material with an unbelievable growth rate. Growing it from seed, however, is an exercise in patience and in faith.

When the timber bamboo seed is planted, the farmer irrigates it for an entire year, waters it for an entire year, week after week after week. And during that year, absolutely nothing happens. Absolutely nothing happens. There is no visible growth whatsoever. Absolutely nothing happens. You're watering a bare patch of dirt week in, week out for the entirety of the year.

There's no shoots. Nothing comes out. The second year, continue to water it, continue to irrigate, irrigate it regularly. Still nothing. The third year, week in, week out, pouring water on this bare patch of dirt, and still nothing happens in the third year. In the fourth year, however, if the farmer has not completely given up on his Chinese timber bamboo, if he has continued to irrigate it, the seed begins to germinate, begins to sprout, and the bamboo can grow between 60 to 90 feet in 60 days. Four years of nothing, and then 60 to 90 feet in 60 days. Some varieties have actually been reported to grow as much as 36 inches in 24 hours, three feet of growth in a single day, but 12 to 18 inches a day is more realistic. Look, either way, 36 inches, 12 to 18 inches, that's an incredible growth rate on a plant. I mean, that's amazing. Really is an amazing growth rate. However, that incredible growth doesn't happen unless there's been four years of diligent irrigation and work. In other words, you've got to put the prep work in up front. You have to put in the prep work, and that growth isn't accidental. It's intentional, providing that plant with its needed resources for quite a while before you begin to see results. Greg Bell, a motivational speaker from the Portland area, has actually coined this concept into a phrase, which is the theme for our school's 2015 track season. That's where I actually heard about it, was from one of the other track coaches. But it also happens to be the title of our message today. The title of the message today is Water the Bamboo. Water the bamboo. So for a moment, I'm going to have you put yourself in the shoes of the farmer that we described above. Okay? Weekly. Week in, week out, here you are irrigating your field. You're pouring that absolutely precious water onto that soil week after week after week after week, year after year, and you have absolutely nothing to show for it. Absolutely nothing to show for it. There's nothing going on at the surface level. The crop doesn't appear to be growing at all. It really doesn't appear to be doing anything. In fact, you're thinking, okay, the guy who sold me the seed, I'm going to go down there. I'm going to give peace to my mind because he sold me rotten seed.

Year after year, you water it, though. You care for the field. You do the necessary maintenance. You weed it. You amend the soil. You keep watering it, and still nothing. Your neighbors think you're crazy. After all, you have been tending a bare patch of dirt for the last three years and pouring water on it day in and day out. But then suddenly, in that fourth year, the little seeds you've been so faithfully taking care of, so diligently watering in the space of two months or the height of a six-story building. To me, that's incredible. That is incredible. It's an incredibly apt analogy to what we need to be doing in our spiritual lives day in and day out. Because while the plant may appear to be doing nothing on the surface, while the growth may not be visually apparent, so to speak, there's an incredible amount of growth going on underneath the surface of the soil. Incredible amount. During the first few years, what those seeds are doing is they're sending out an unbelievable network of roots. And they're a runner-type plant, so some bambi. There's clumping and then there's runner plant. And what they'll do is they'll send out runners like a strawberry, and then you'll have new ones that'll start. So not only will the one seed that you planted start, you'll also have maybe three or four that have come off of that single seed sometimes that have come out and maneuvered through. But those roots are digging deep for the structural support that they're going to need when that thing hits six to nine stories high. Imagine the amount of structure, especially the wind blowing on those things pulling them, just the amount of strength that needs to be there. The water supplied to that plant at the early stages of its life is absolutely critical for its future growth. And brethren, growth in our spiritual life is an expectation for us all. God is clear. We're not intended to languish in the place where we're called, never really ever progressing. We're called to do some amazing things with our time on this planet. Let's start today by turning over to Matthew 25. Let's start by going over to Matthew 25 today.

Matthew 25. And I'd love to tell you we're going to be hitting some really obscure passages, but we're going to be in some ones that are pretty familiar today. Matthew 25.

Matthew 25. We're going to pick it up in verse 14. Matthew 25, verse 14, pick it up here with the parable of the talents. Matthew 25, verse 14, says, For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. To one, he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to each according to his own ability, and immediately he went on a journey. So we see they didn't really have a chance to ask any questions. Immediately he went on a journey. Here you go, here you go, here you go. Bye. Okay, well, I don't know if it will happen that way or not, but it does say immediately on the journey. But what we see here is we see the Master delivering his goods to these three servants, and what was interesting to me is he had them divvied up and divided up based on what each servant was capable of handling. And at first when we read this we might go, wait a minute, this is unfair. One guy got five, one guy got one. How is that fair? I mean, what's the fairness in that? But no. He didn't give the most responsibility to the least responsible servant. All received responsibilities commensurate with her capability. They weren't, in other words, they weren't given more than they could handle. God didn't set them up for failure by giving them more than they could handle in this case with this parable, the Master in this case. Verse 16, 25 verse 16, then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them and made another five talents. Likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money.

Okay, so we see each one treats the talent a little bit differently depending on how much they received and maybe their savviness, so to speak, of being able to turn a profit on that. We saw two of the servants here go to work. The third one, well, he just kind of sits on it. Verse 19, after a long time, the Lord of those servants came and settled accounts with them. So he who had received the five talents came and brought five other talents, saying, Lord, you delivered to me five talents. Look, I've gained five more talents besides them. Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you were faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. He also who had received two talents came and said, Lord, you delivered to me two talents. Look, I've gained two more talents besides them. Verse 23, as Lord said to him, well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. Now, what's interesting with this is there's a difference in the amount of talents that each man got. Correct? I mean, we've got one guy who returned five, the other guy returned two. Now, they doubled them. Okay, there's the connection. They did double them. Okay, but both of them, notice, were considered to be good and faithful servants, even though the second one only managed to get two. He didn't trade it out and somehow build five. He ended up with two as well, but both men received the same message. And we see a little bit of a difference there in verse 24. Then he would receive the one talent, came and said, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you've not sown and gathering where you've not scattered seed. And I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground. But look, there you have what is yours. Here you go. Here's your talent back. I hung on to it for you. You didn't lose anything. We're good. Everything's fine. Here's what you gave me. It's all back. Everything's good. We're good here. You got back what you gave me. But we see the master in this case, the Lord here, is upset. Verse 26, his Lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, you knew that I reap where I've not sown and gather where I've not scattered seed. So you ought have deposited my money with the bankers, and at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Therefore take the talent from him and give it to him who has ten talents. For to everyone who has, more will be given, and he will have abundance. But from him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away, and cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness that will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. You know, the wicked servant did cost the master something. You know, think about it for a second. We go, well, no, he got his money back. He didn't lose anything. Sure he did. He lost an opportunity to gain on the down payment that he had been given. During that time, that money was sitting idle. It wasn't working. It wasn't doing what it needed to do. It wasn't going anywhere. It wasn't gaining interest. It wasn't building anything. It wasn't like a holding pattern. You know, just circling the airport, waiting to land, so to speak. But it lost the master an opportunity to gain anything from its investment.

Growth here was the expectation. Growth was the expectation. And not just temporarily. In fact, growth right up to the point when the master was to return. Now, in this particular parable, it didn't seem to matter how much growth per se. Okay? It didn't seem to matter how much growth per se. It was just important that growth occurred based on what they were given, based on their abilities. They were expected to do something with it. There's another parable in Luke 19, though, that tells a slightly different story. Let's go over there. Luke 19.

Luke 19. It's a slightly different story. Very similar in its setup.

Luke 19. And we'll pick it up in verse 12. Luke 19 and verse 12.

Luke 19 verse 12 says, Therefore he said, A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. And so he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, Do business until I come.

Verse, I'm sorry, verse 14. But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, We will not have this man to reign over us. And so it was, when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, Master, your mina has earned ten minas. It said to him, Well done, good servant, because you are faithful and very little, have authority over ten cities. The second came, saying, Master, your mina has earned five minas. Likewise, he said to him, You also be over five cities. Then another came, saying, Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, reap what you didn't sow. And he said to him, Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit, reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest? He said to those who stood by, Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten. But they said, Master, he has ten minas. For I say to you that everyone who has will be given, and from him who does not have, even he will not, or even he will be taken, even, sorry, I have a hard time seeing today, even what he has will be taken away from him. But bring here those enemies of mine who did not want me to reign over them and slay them before me. I see a slightly different situation here, slightly different situation here. Same basic principles, same basic setup, same basic everything else, except this time they were given a specific command to engage in business. This time they were told, Go and do this. There were ten of them, and there was a greater reward when he returned for those who achieved more growth.

Or at least more responsibility for those who obtained more growth. You know, based on putting these two parables together, if we take these two parables, we put them together, we can't conclude for certain that the amount of growth that we obtain doesn't matter. We can't just say growth for growth's sake. Growth is important. But when we put the two parables together, we see growth as a focus and it's expected. But the overriding moral of this parable seems to be that we should grow as much as we possibly can in the time that we've been given. We've been allotted a certain amount of time on this planet, and God expects that we should do his business until his return, that we should be growing, that we should be building up as much as we can in that point.

We should never reach a point where we realize and we look around and we say, Ah!

This is good enough. I've got it pretty well figured out. I'm in pretty good shape. This is good enough. We should be growing right up until our last breath. So what does it entail? What does it entail? What kind of factors are necessary for growth in our spiritual life?

You know, if we think back to the timber bamboo, that plant's incredible growth requires three primary factors. There are a number of other things that affect growth rates of plants. There's all kinds of hormones and other things that actually go on at a cellular level. But when it comes right down to it, there are three factors that any gardener recognizes are necessary for a plant to thrive. Not just survive, not just live, but thrive.

In the right combination, these three factors can bring about incredible growth. Likewise, spiritually, in order for us to create an optimal environment for our personal spiritual growth, we need these same three factors. The three factors we're going to examine today is light, ample light, good soil and regular watering, ample light, good soil and regular watering. And many of you garden, many of you have kept a garden for quite some time. You know the drill. When it comes down to it, you want to keep a plant alive.

You start having a plant that starts going south one way or the other. It's one of these three things more often than not. It's either not got the amount of light that it needs, the soil needs some help, or you're not watering it regularly. Or, in my case, I kill plants because I water them too much. I'm always wanting to water them.

I always think they need more water than they really need, and I drown them. So, with the time we have left today, we're going to explore these three and kind of see how they impact our spiritual growth. Light. I don't think it's news for any of you, but it turns out you can't grow a plant in a dark cardboard box. You can't do it. If there is no light getting into the box whatsoever, you can't grow a plant. The plant can't grow. Light is absolutely essential. You can have all the water in the world.

You can have the best soil in the world, but if you plant that seed in the bottom of a cave, nothing's going to happen. It's not going to grow. It's a fun experiment that we do with kids. I don't know how many of you have done this in school. Most of you have probably all done it. How many are familiar with the term the concept of phototropism? What you do is you take a small seedling, you stick it down on the table, and you cover it with a box. But you cut one little small opening in the side of the box, and you let it grow.

You let it grow up. You let it do its thing. You give it time. And the kids always want to go check on it, and you're like, no, stop it. Don't touch the box. Leave the box alone for a little bit. Let the seedlings come up. Let them do the thing.

And what'll happen is eventually that seedling, if you leave it long enough, the seedling will grow clear out of the opening. But if you take it off just in time, you can open that up, and you'll see the seedling come up and then go, there's the light over here. And so phototropism is a term for the seedling growing towards the light. It's a thing that seedlings do.

What's kind of fun is, when it's done that, then you turn the plant around, you turn the box around, and give it another day or so, and then open it back up, and it'll go right back over to the opening again. Okay, so plants grow to the light. If it's a hard enough plant, like sometimes with bamboo, some of those little, you see them sometimes at the little things, kiosks in the mall where they've got them all twisted up and stuff. You can actually kind of do that with bamboo too, if you do it right. You can go in and have it grow in one direction for a little while, and then switch it and have it change or train it up in a lot of things.

But that plant will do a complete 180, and it'll grow towards the light. Again, I think we can stand to learn a lot from plants. I think we can stand to learn a lot from plants. Let's go to John 8, 12. John 8, 12.

John 8. And we're going to pick it up in verse 12. This is right on the tail end of the situation with folks that were accusing the the the prostitute in this case of harlotry, and Christ easily disarms them. But John 8 and verse 12, John 8 verse 12, John 8 verse 12 says, Jesus spoke to them again, saying, I am the light of the world.

He who follows me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life. Now, a group of Pharisees gathered here around Christ when this is done. The accusers dispersed. You know, he asked the woman at the end, well, where are your accusers? And she said, well, they're not here. I mean, they left. So, but there was a group of Pharisees still around that he was talking to at this point, and he tells him very specifically, I am the light of the world. Those who follow me will not walk in darkness, but they will have the light of life. He tells him he was the light towards which they should be growing. The example that he provided would lead them to the Father, that he was the model towards which they should conform themselves to. That if they knew him, it goes on a little bit further down, verse 19, that if they knew him, well, they would know the Father. We have to be actively working to grow towards the light. We have to be actively working to grow towards the light. We have to ensure that no matter how dark the world is around us, and it is an increasingly darkening world. You know, you spend some time watching the news in the next little bit with the rumblings and the things going on in the Middle East, you know, wars and rumors of wars and all kinds of other things. It is an increasingly darkening world out there, but we need to make sure that however dark that world gets, that we are trying desperately to grow towards that light. Even if every now and again that box opening keeps getting turned on us a little bit, and we have to kind of bend around and twist and find it again in the darkness. But we need to make sure that we grow towards the light, because, you know, when we look at the... you look at the world of the things around us, sometimes things seem like they make sense. Sometimes it seems like, oh, this... yeah, this seems like a good idea. This seems important. This seems like maybe something I should be doing, but we have to make sure that we can sense that light and we can find that light as we go. You know, Paul wrote to the people of Ephesus a number of times relating to this idea of living within the light and contrasting the way of life that Christ called us to lead with the darkness of the world around us. Go to Ephesians 5. Go over to Ephesians 5. We're going to pick it up in verse 1, but we're going to do this in the New Living Translation. No number of you have that. I really like the wording in the New Living on this. So Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5.

I don't know why I'm flipping to it in my New King James. I'm going to be opening the New Living anyway, trying to find it. Ephesians 5. And we're going to pick it up in verse 1.

There we go. Ephesians 5, verse 1, actually under a heading in the New Living of living in the light. Ephesians 5, verse 1, we're going to read through verse 9. Follow God's example in everything that you do because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love for others, following the example of Christ growing towards the light, who loved you and gave himself as a sacrifice to take away your sins. And God was pleased because that sacrifice was like sweet perfume to him. Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes. These are not for you. Instead, let there be thankfulness to God. You can be sure that no immoral, impure, or greedy person will inherit the kingdom of Christ and of God. For a greedy person is really an idolater who worships the things of this world. Don't be fooled by those who try to excuse these sins, for the terrible anger of God comes upon all those who disobey him. Don't participate in the things these people do. Verse 8, for though your hearts were once full of darkness, now you are full of light from the Lord, and your behavior should show it, for this light within you produces only what is good and right and true. Living in darkness doesn't produce growth.

We're not a partial shade plant. We're not a shade plant. We're a full-sun plant. You know, we live. We are a full-sun plant. A plant can't grow in complete darkness. In fact, when you look at the example of the timber bamboo that we started with, the growth, the incredible growth that that plant has, only begins after that sprout finally breaks the surface. Once it starts to get some hints of sunlight, it just absolutely explodes. It just absolutely explodes. It strives to reach as high as it possibly can, getting to that sunlight as close as it can go, growing straight up. When it gets some sun, it'll grow up to, again, 15 to 18 inches a day. 60 days later, you've got a six-story plant. It's an amazing, amazing thing. For us to grow spiritually, for us to make gains in our spiritual life, we have to remain in the light. We have to ensure that we're in the light. We have to work to grow to that measure of the fullness of Christ. You know, light may trigger the growth process. Light may start the process. Light may continue the process, and it's essential. But if it's not working in concert with the two other factors, the plant's not going to make it. The plant still needs good soil. The plant still needs lots and lots of water. So let's talk about good soil. You know, the Bible itself is replete with agricultural examples. I'm sure many of you have noticed that. There's a lot of agricultural examples. They were very agricultural people. And I find it's actually interesting having a direct lifeline to the age 13-14 kind of crowd because of my middle school kids. I use a lot of farming metaphors on my kids. And I know why, because they don't understand any of them. They truly don't understand any of them. In fact, we were talking about I was getting a little bit frustrated with the kids not too long back because they weren't taking their tests and things very seriously. They seemed to think that they didn't have to study, and yet they just somehow miraculously passed their tests. And so I made the comment, you reap what you sow. And what's reap and sow mean? You mean like when I'm making clothes?

Nope. So we took a moment. We explained it. They're like, oh, that makes a lot of sense.

And if you'd ever grown up on a farm or anywhere around anything other than thinking your food came from that magical room in the back of Fred Meyer, we would know these things. But there are so many of them in the Bible today dealing with harvest and dealing with, you know, even if you tell a kid to just plow through something. Well, it came through from like the idea of getting into tough soil and just plowing through it. You just got to get through it and get going and move on to the next thing. But they look at me like I've got two heads. There's just so little connection to it these days. But let's go over to Mark 4 real quick. We're going to take a look at an example that gives us some idea of a little bit of agricultural example again. Mark 4. On the plus side, when you teach the kids about reaping and sowing, they start using those words to sound smart, which is fun. It's always good. All right, Mark 4. Mark 4, we're going to pick it up in verse 3. Mark 4, verse 3. We're going to see one of these agricultural metaphors in action. A very well-known passage, parable of the sower. Mark 4, verse 3, listen, tells them very specifically, pay attention, Behold, the sower went out to sow. And it happened as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside, and the birds of the air came, and they devoured it. We had seed landing on the side of the road here. We've got the sides of the roads at that point in time, had some salted edges to them, gravel, rocky. All sorts of they'd pack down real nice and tight, so the roads would function. And they made it. There's no dirt there. There's no place where they can actually go in, so they don't have any kind of depth of soil. They can't become established at all. It doesn't even begin to grow. And the birds come in, and they get it. Verse 5.

Some fell on stony ground, where it didn't have much earth. And immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up, it was scorched. And because it had no root, it withered away. So we see some of the seed fell in rocky soil. Not ideal soil. We have kind of rocky soil at our house. It's kind of rocky and clay. It's got clay and rocks all over it. You have to really do a lot of amending to it. Stuff just doesn't grow well in it. It has a hard time getting the roots down in and among all that rock.

But in this case, germinated, it sprang up, it came up quick. The nutrients in that pocket of soil were exhausted. Roots couldn't get any deeper, and the plant withered away in the sun and died. Verse 7. Verse 7 of Mark 4. And some seed fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. So other seed did fall in decent soil, sprung up, began to grow, but it ended up in a patch of thorns.

They fought over the light that they could grow so they could actually grow, and the thorns grew up. They shaded it out, choking it out. The plant didn't yield any fruit. Verse 8. Verse 8 says, But other seed fell on good ground, yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some a hundred. So some of the seed fell on decent ground, some of it fell in good places.

No birds, no rocks, nor thorns. It could root deeply, it could really get down in there, get the water, get the soil nutrients, grow up nice and strong, bring a really solid increase. Good amounts of fruits, some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred-fold. And again, we see in this case, growth rates are different. Growth rates are different here. Those that bore fruit bore varying amounts. The disciples, it's always interesting to see this because they did live in an agricultural time frame.

They understood these terms, they understood these concepts, but they would always ask him after the parable, uh, you want to explain that one? Tell us what's going on here. So we actually, we have Christ's own explanation of what he intended by this.

Let's go down to verse 14. Verse 14, he says, specifically, the sower sows the word, and these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground, who when they heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time.

Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns, they are the ones who hear the word. And the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word accept it and bear fruit, some thirty-fold, some sixty, and some hundred.

So we can see not all growth is ideal. Not all growth is ideal. Some of the growth didn't end up being a good solid growth at the end anyway. There is definitely one of these growth patterns outlined in this that is the more desirable one for our spiritual life. In the first example, the person who received the word here allows Satan to just take it away from it. It didn't really stick. It didn't really hold on. They can't give up their sin. Maybe they haven't struggled to fight off the temptations, the trials. They haven't difficulty seeing the benefit in changing their life.

They don't grow at all. Others burn bright, and they burn fast. Others burn bright, and they burn fast. And when things get hard, they don't have the depth of conversion to stick it out. Tribulation, persecution arises. They give in. They stumble. Still others hear the word. They begin to grow, but they can't get to the light because they've let the cares of this world. It's distractions. It's worries. It's stress, work, life. All those things start crowding in on top and choking out that light from getting to them.

All of these are all those things blocking out the light in their life. But the final and the more desirable group in this case were sown on good ground. They accepted the word that they heard, and they bore much fruit. Brethren, what soil type do you find yourself in?

Are we in the good, deep, rich soil? Are we among the thorns? Are we burning bright and fast?

Are we sitting on the side of the road? Good, deep, rich soil is extremely important, just like light is important. How well we receive that word is crucial.

Both soil and light mean nothing, though, if there isn't regular and plentiful water.

Let's take a look at water. I mentioned earlier we've taken the watering the bamboo concept and made it into our motto for our track team this season. We continually talk to the athletes this year about the importance of putting in the work up front. That you have to prep. You have to do this. You have to do this. You've got to make sure that you're putting your time in on the front end if you expect to do any kind of good on the back end. Kind of, again, that reaping what you sow concept. But we tell them, look, every spin in the discus ring, every shot put throw, every jump, every sprint, every block start, everything that you do in the first four weeks of this season are going to determine how things go at the end. And eventually it'll start to pay off. You're watering the bamboo. The bamboo will begin to grow. Eventually things will click and they just have incredible growth. And we've seen that in the last week. We're finally at the end of the season and the growth in some of these kids is unreal. I have one young lady who had never seen a discus before the beginning of this track season. For those that aren't aware, we throw in the middle school, we throw a 2.2 pound discus, a 1 kilogram discus, about this big around. And the kids, they've never seen them. They were, no, I've never seen it on TV. She's not even familiar. This is the thing. Never heard of this before. It's like a frisbee? Do we do this with it? So you're starting from the ground up. But I told her she was very encouraged to go out for track. Her PE teacher encouraged her because she's quite possibly the strongest young woman in the city of Salem. And I don't say that lightly. She works out with the strongest kid in our school and she can almost outperform him. But no one else can, none of the other guys can even come close. I mean, she was just an absolute machine from a strength standpoint. And so I thought about, ooh, yes, I want her to throw. I definitely want her to throw. When she first started, she couldn't get the hang of it at all. She couldn't get it figured out. She was trying to just do everything up her body, trying to throw as hard as she possibly, trying to just use her strength to do it. She was too stiff at one point in time. The next time you tell her, well, you got to loosen up a little bit now. Now she was too floppy. She just couldn't get the disc to come off flat. I mean, there was just a number of things.

She was very good at weights. She was very strong. And just, I can see it in her eyes. It was so frustrating that she wasn't good at this. And you may know what that's like. You get a couple of different things and you try this and you're not good at it. And it's just unbelievably frustrating. Well, for her, it was very frustrating. And we talked a lot about this concept of watering the bamboo. And she was going out there and she's just very muscular, very strong. She'd go out and throw. And then this little scrawny little kid would pop up behind her, couldn't bench press the bar and come out and out throw her. And she's just like, I don't even get it. I don't even get it. I don't know what is going on. I don't understand it at all. So she practiced. We kept telling her, look, you got to keep watering. You got to keep watering. You got to keep watering. And she did. She kept practicing. She was driven, just driven, wanted to be perfect over and over and over with the footwork, adjusting this, adjusting that, trying this, trying that. She was putting in the preparation very intently. And as she dialed it in, though, over the first like three weeks, she really didn't see any growth at all. And it was discouraging to her, very discouraging to her. I'm putting all this work in at practice. I'm doing all these things and I'm doing everything right. Why am I not growing? Why am I not throwing? Why is it not working? And she'd go out and throw and it was 50 feet. She'd come get beat by this little scrawny kid again. And she'd come out in the next one, maybe go 57. Well, okay, that's better. But then she'd get beat by somebody else. She's chasing one girl. One girl's throwing 86 feet right now. And she's chasing her. That's the one she wants. So she's been kind of keeping an eye on how she's been throwing. But last meet, she threw 76 and a half. Practice this last week. She threw 83. The bamboo is starting to grow. She's starting to get it all put together. The practice all the time, all the preparation has been put in. She watered it. She continues to water it. And now we wait. We wait for the growth. But you know, even after the plant begins to grow, watering it is absolutely crucial. You can't just stop watering it once the plant sprouts. That's when it needs to water the most. In fact, with timber bamboo, the water requirement actually gets worse as the plant grows. You have to water it even more later on. Lots and lots and lots of irrigation after they're full grown. They're very water-intensive type plants.

How many have ever killed a plant because you forgot to water it? You can admit it. We won't judge you. We'll judge you a little. I've killed unbelievable amounts. And like I told you, my other my what happens with me is more often the other side of it. Often I end up dumping way too much water on them and end up killing because it looks, oh, the soil's sort of kind of dry. Just pour some more on there. Shannon's screaming at me from the house, turn the water off! Don't do it! But, you know, you've seen it when you have that happen. When you have a plant that you can tell is starting to wither and when you have a plant that's starting to get a little droopy, they start to wilt a little bit. Maybe their shoulders slump a little bit if you can imagine them as a plant with their shoulders slumping. There's a look to it as the plant begins to wither somewhat. Eventually, if it's neglected long enough, the plant turns brown or yellow, leaves curl up, it dries out, and eventually it withers away entirely. You know, water's an essential factor in a plant's life. You can't live about it. It has to have it to get the energy that it needs to live. Photosynthesis takes carbon dioxide and the air around the plant, combines it with water from the soil, energy from the sun, and makes sugar, which is its food. You can't do it without water. You can't do it without water. Water is life in this case. In John 4, we see an interaction of Christ and the Samaritan woman. It's interesting. Let's go over to John 4.

John 4.

John 4, we see an interaction between Christ and the Samaritan woman. He's come to this major watering hole, in this case Jacob's well, and he's waiting patiently for someone to come up to the well. He can talk to and it has a Samaritan woman approach. We see him break in, and we'll break into the account in verse 7. John 4, verse 7, says, A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, Give me a drink. Now, this is kind of a surprising thing at this point, because there really wasn't a lot of interactions between the Samaritans and the Jews at that time frame, so it was a little bit of a surprise. In fact, she mentions this a little bit later on. But, for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Verse 9, Then the woman of Samaria said to him, How is it that you, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman? For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. Jesus answered and said to her, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, Give me a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water. The woman said to him, Sir, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our Father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank from it himself, as well as his sons in his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. She doesn't quite catch what he's getting at right away. Yet as time goes on, after their conversation continues a little bit, she perceives there's a little more to this man than maybe she initially had thought of as he starts to tell her some things of her life that seems no one else really knew. But she goes into the city, she tells all the people in the city, Come out, you gotta come see this guy. I'm sure I found the Messiah. You've got to come. Everybody come out. Come on. They meet with Christ. We had a lot of Samaritans in that case that became believers in this account that we can see. Compare it to his words in John 7. Let's go over just a couple pages. John 7, he clarifies his statement just a little bit. John 7, he clarifies his statement just a little bit. We'll pick it up in verse 37. Verse 37 of John 7. We'll read through verse 39. John 7, verse 37. On the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. So again, he's referencing this idea of there being this living water, this water that constantly quenches individual's thirst. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. In verse 39, we see the clarification. But this he spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in him would receive. For the Holy Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified. So we see when he references this living water, the same thing he discussed with the woman at the well, he's referencing the gift of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in their life.

And as it mentions in John 4, verse 14, that Holy Spirit would become in them a well of water springing to eternal life. John 7, 38 tells us that it would flow from within us, that it would extend into every aspect of our lives. Let's turn over to the book of Galatians, as we begin to conclude today. Galatians.

We see that the Holy Spirit has multiple roles in our life. It's the mind of God, Spirit of God. It helps us to reveal the secret things, the deep things of God. It reveals to us the precious truth of God, but it also has some fruits that we can see on the outside of ourselves, some fruits that we can see and that others can see in us if the Holy Spirit is at work in our lives. Galatians 5, we'll take a look at verses 22 through 25. Galatians 5, 22 through 25 says, But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. In verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. God has provided us the gift of the Holy Spirit. He has watered us.

He continues to water us if we'll let Him. And our part is to yield to that Holy Spirit to allow ourselves to grow, to let that love, that joy, that peace, that patience, that kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control, humility be the fruit that we bear in our life as we grow. Those should be things that should be evident in our lives when people look at us from the outside. Those should be fruits that we see. In fact, scripture tells us we know a follower of God by the fruits that they display. We see that. We understand. We know. So as a result, the actions of our life speak so much louder than our words. You know, we can say so many different things and we can, we can, you know, write things down and say things, but do we show love? Do we live joy? Are we peaceful? Are we not quarrelsome? You see in 1 Timothy 2, verse 23 and 24, it talks about servants of God not being quarrelsome, being peaceful, you know, teaching and humility.

You know, are we peaceful? Are we patient? Are we kind? Are we faithful? Humble? Do we have self-control? You know, Galatians 5 is a tall order. It really is. When you sit down, you think about all of those different things and you analyze your own life. That's a tall order.

All of those things all at once being exhibited in our lives. It's a tall order, though, because it flies in the face of human nature. It flies in the face of human nature. Yet, despite that, they are our expectation. That is what God expects to see from us when the Holy Spirit is working in our life. And so we need to be striving to grow in these areas of life, to work to really bear this fruit. You know, as we go through the Passover season, as we go through the days of Unleavened Bread, as we start looking forward to Pentecost now, we're in that time of year where we focus really introspectively on our lives. And we do this year round, I mean, don't get me wrong, we do this year round. We do go through and spend a lot of time throughout the year looking at parts, but especially at this time of year. We really examine, we really dissect our lives, and we try to focus more purposefully on what parts of our lives need help, what parts of our life need improvement. We really look inwardly, we try to search out sin, we try to search out shortcomings, and try to really find the parts of our life that aren't in line with God's instructions and His expectations, and really work to improve those things. Sometimes, though, it seems we've gone year after year after year dealing with the same issues in our life. We're not making necessarily significant progress in that aspect of our life at all, and it can be really discouraging. It can be really discouraging. But what we maybe don't see is we don't see the growth that's occurring beneath the surface. We don't see the growth occurring beneath the surface. We may not see significant growth on the outside right now, but we have to keep watering the bamboo.

This year could be year three. This could be year three. This coming year could see an incredible amount of growth, given the right opportunity, given the right conditions, given ample light, good solid soil. This could be the year that you see bare dirt become a 60-foot tall plant.

Don't be discouraged. Don't give up. Water the bamboo.