Mark’s sermon on seeds last weekend touched on the idea of influence and statistics (quite a rare combination, in my experience!) When discussing the parable of the sower, he said that a pessimist (generally speaking, that’s me!) sees the ‘results’ of this parable in terms of failure, since only one of the four seeds planted actually bears fruit and in today’s society, a 25% ‘success rate’ is not considered worthwhile. However, he went on to point out that that one seed that falls on good soil bears fruit ‘a hundred fold’, so we could say that the success rate of the original seed is 101, which seems a much better perspective! He went on to say that we never really know what fruit our seeds will bear; if it’s our testimony that leads to an evangelist coming to know God and that evangelist then speaks the word that brings many others to faith, our influence has been much greater than we might otherwise think from the bare ‘statistics’.

I’ve been meditating on that thought all week. I agree that influence is hard to quantify and that our influence is often far greater than we realise. For example, I write this blog primarily for church members, especially those who are not able to actually get to certain meetings, and as a historical record of all that God is doing in and through Goldthorpe Pentecostal Community Church (and because I love writing, if I’m honest!) But recently I noticed that one of the blog’s followers is a Brazilian (hello!) and Dave pointed out that if you clicked on the globe on the blog, you discover where in the world people are reading these words. Amazingly, 26% of readers are American! The blog has been viewed from an astounding (!) 89 countries, including Senegal, Qatar, Tunisia, Oman and Yemen. Frankly, I’m completely stunned by that fact. I have absolutely no idea why people from these countries have viewed the blog, how they got to see it, or who they are. For some of the countries, I do know people who may be reading it (Steve & Katuska in Mozambique, for example). But overall, the blog is able to reach people far beyond my own capabilities. On the ‘Statistics’ page of the blog, there is a map of the world with areas shaded green that have viewed the blog and it’s stunning to see so many green areas! I know that 27% of people who’ve viewed the blog use Chrome as their web browser, 25% use Firefox (as I do), 17% use Internet Explorer and 7% use Safari (not to mention some others I’ve never even heard of!) Most people, apparently, find the blog either from the church website or via Google. In the last month, there were over 1000 views of the blog and contrary to my son’s belief, they weren’t all from me!

All in all, I think this backs up Mark’s point. Our influence can be much greater than we think or realise. We often feel insignificant and unimportant and as though our lives for God don’t really amount to much. Most of us won’t get our names in the history books. Most of us won’t be famous evangelists like Billy Graham or Luis Palau or famous worship leaders like Chris Tomlin or Matt Redman. Most of us will serve God faithfully in our locality and will maybe feel that our lives are not really shaping history. I would argue that we only think that way because we are viewing things from a limited perspective and can only see with our natural eyes right now. Jesus urged us to ‘store up for yourselves treasures in heaven’ (Matt 6:20 TNIV) and if we serve God faithfully in this life, we may well be surprised to find how far our influence has spread when we reach heaven.

“When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child.” (1 Cor 13:11 TNIV)

Last week we had the privilege of looking after a toddler for the day (an exhausting but enriching and fulfilling occasion!) and once again I pondered on language development. It always fascinates me to hear children learning to speak: from stumbling words, often mispronounced, to short sentences, not always grammatically correct, but understandable to their nearest and dearest, to full sentences, readily understandable by all. Language is such a powerful tool.

This week I have been back in the cut and thrust of school life, dealing again with fresh-faced Year 7s and discussing with them the origins of language (answering the question ‘Why doesn’t everyone speak the same language?’ as found in Genesis 11:1-9 TNIV) and the many reasons for learning other languages, as well as encouraging those pupils about to tackle GCSEs by showing them strategies for improving their fluency in another language. One of the keys to this, in the prosaic terms of the examiners, is to use ‘complex language’ or, less prosaically, ‘words that make you stand out from the crowd’.

When we are children, we use baby words. Our vocabulary is small and repetitive. The toddler we cared for has learnt the phrases ‘I’m tired’ and ‘I’m hungry’, but she hasn’t quite got to the stage of saying what she would like to eat! As we grow, we learn the great glory of new words, especially synonyms which are nuanced to give us a slightly different shade of meaning. Broadening vocabulary is, I believe, something that should continue throughout life. There are always new words out there to discover which can enrich our experience.

Language is all about communication. But, as Eugene Peterson points out, in ministry ‘communicating clearly not what we are after. What we are after is creating new life.’ (Eugene Peterson, ‘Subversive Spirituality’) He is not advocating confused language, incidentally (the plain English campaign has a lot to commend it!) But he is saying that words can be the doorway to creativity (God, after all, created our whole universe through words, saying ‘Let there be light’ and so on, and Jesus is known as the ‘Word of God’ – see Genesis 1 & John 1).

I’m not a big lover of cats, but one of the things I’ve noticed when visiting my aunt who loves cats is how a cat purrs contentedly when being stroked. A purr can be quite a loud noise, but it indicates contentment to the point of ecstasy. That’s precisely how I feel when I find words used which open my understanding and deepen my knowledge of God. Writers and poets who use words in ways that create ‘light bulb’ moments for me. ‘Ah, so that’s what it means!’ Those moments are to be cherished.

I love music, but it’s usually the lyrics of a song which create that purr of contentment in me, because I’m a person who loves words. It can be just a phrase which moves me from fog to clear understanding: ‘Embracing mundane’, ‘reckless abandon wrapped in common sense’, ‘manna became man’ are just a few examples (from the songs ‘Wondrous Love’ by Aaron Shust, ‘Somewhere in the Middle’ by Casting Crowns and ‘Final Word’ by Michael Card.) On Matt Redman’s album ‘10,000 Reasons’ it was just the one word ‘magnificent’ in the song by that title: a new adjective to describe God that helped me to see Him in a bigger way.

The spark for these musings came from the song ‘No One Higher’ by Aaron Shust. The chorus of that song goes:
“And, Lord, we stand amazed in Your presence,
Astounded by Your mercy and love,
Our hands are lifted high in surrender.
Your grace for me is always enough.
And there is no one higher than our God.
There is no one higher than You.” (‘No One Higher’, Aaron Shust)
‘No One Higher’, Aaron Shust)

‘Amazed’ is a word we often use when talking about our reaction to God. But ‘astounded’ is not one we use all the time. It means to be shocked or greatly surprised. And somehow, that seems exactly the right word to use to talk about my reaction to God’s mercy and love. I’m shocked by it. It’s not what I expected or deserved. It surprises me. It astonishes me. It takes the wind from my sails, bowls me over with gratitude. I’m a mere mortal, a sinner by birth, and yet the Almighty God lavishes His mercy and love on me!

So today, take the time to be astounded by God’s mercy and love. Don’t take them for granted, but let His majesty and greatness take a hold of your life and fill you with awe and wonder!

Mark’s sermon looked at the topic of seeds. Without seeds, there can be no harvest; we have to plant the seeds in order to have germinated crops to harvest. As the quiz demonstrated, seeds don’t always look like the thing they grow into.

The tiny acorn…

… grows into the mighty oak tree (the ‘quercus robur’, as our resident horticulturalist informed us!)

Mark spoke from Jeremiah 17:7-8 TNIV:

God’s word is like a seed in our lives which we need to pass on to others. The Parable of the sower (Luke 8:4-15 TNIV) reminds us that seed is sown in different circumstances. The pessimist looks at this and sees only a 25% success rate, since the seed that falls by the wayside, on rocky ground or amongst thorns does not bear fruit. Looking at it from another perspective, however, the seed that does bear fruit goes on to produce a hundred-fold crop and therefore one person saved through our testimony can have a snowball effect in God’s kingdom.

1 Cor 3:6 TNIV reminds us that there are different roles (planting and watering, for example), but it is God who gives the increase.

God’s seed is planted in us in different ways:
1) His Word
2) His Spirit
3) A vision (‘vision villa’)
4) A dream (‘dream factory’)

The seed that is sown in our lives will bear fruit. Phil 1:6 TNIV reminds us that God will complete (bring to perfection, lacking nothing) the work He has begun in us. God is good at nurturing fruit in our lives. The cycle can then be repeated, as the seed is sown, grows into a tree that bears fruit which produces seeds which grow into trees that bear fruit and so on.

Tonight’s family service was on the theme of ‘Seeds’. As with a traditional harvest festival, we brought a variety of foods to give to the community:

Then we had a quiz from the ‘Book of Seeds’ where we had to identify what the seeds grew into:

Some were obvious, like these sunflower seeds:

… or these coconuts:

Others were far less obvious, however! These were the seeds of the water caltrop:

… which grow to look like this:

… or the castilleja:

… which grows to look like this:

You can’t say we don’t learn new things! There were prizes to be received – fittingly, plaques and plants!

There are essentially two branches of mathematics: pure maths and applied maths. Pure maths deals with the development of the principles of mathematics for the sake of the principles of mathematics. It’s quite close to philosophy in that sense. The interest is in the subject itself. It’s a bit like ‘art for art’s sake’ in a way. It’s just there. It exists, therefore we have a duty to explore it and discover more about it. For most of us, though, to be honest, a lot of pure maths is just way beyond us. We can’t see the point. We glaze over when it comes to the beauty of the Fibonacci sequence or Pascal’s triangle, for example!

Applied maths is maths that’s studied for the sake of application, however. It’s the application of mathematics’ techniques to everyday problems. For example, you could apply matrix theory to linear programming problems to solve problems of scarce resources. You need the actual maths bit to do this, but you apply it to something specific – computing, engineering, economics, whatever. It has a point. We can see its relevance. We may even use it ourselves in our everyday lives!

Theology is a little bit like that. I believe that it has a relevance all of its own, for it teaches us about God and surely there’s nothing more fascinating than learning about God! But faith is more than just knowing about God. It’s more than knowing the facts. It’s applying those theological facts to our situations and our everyday lives. Mary’s response to what she heard from the angel is a shining example of applied faith, because she responded to God’s word with confidence and faith.

When God speaks to us, He demands a response. What He says to us may not be as staggering as the angelic announcement to Mary that she was to become the mother of the Son of God, but to us, nonetheless, His words can be astounding, challenging us and leading us in new directions and new paths. Our response needs to be the same as Mary’s: ‘May it be to me as You have said; may Your word to me be fulfilled.’ (Luke 1:38 TNIV) As we submit to God’s word and allow His plans to shape our lives, we learn to apply faith in the same way that all the saints of old have done and we engage in His miraculous story.

This morning’s sermon looked at Mary’s response to the angelic announcement in Luke 1:38 TNIV: “May it be to me as you have said.”, “May your word to me be fulfilled.” (Luke 1:38 TNIV), “Be it unto me according to thy word” (Luke 1:38 KJV).

Faith and trust involve agreeing with what God says. That means accepting His assessment of situations rather than our own. It means accepting His assessment of people – including ourselves – rather than our own. It means accepting His assessment of the future rather than our own. Agreeing with God as Mary did involves a radical shift away from our own independence and mindsets so that we can surrender and submit to God.

By nature, we do not agree with God. We follow the desires and thoughts of the world (see Eph 2:1-3 TNIV, Rom 8:5-9 TNIV). We have to learn to think new thoughts (Rom 12:1-2 TNIV) and agree with God’s view of life if we are to know true life and peace. God is always right, so it’s pointless to fight Him, but we need to be convinced of who God is if we are to trust Him as Mary did (see Ps 51:4 TNIV). We have to be prepared to let God set the pace and to respond to Him (see Rom 3:27-28, The Message), knowing that He is the initiator in this faith life (John 15:16 TNIV).

God is not limited to natural processes; He created the universe from nothing (Hebrews 11:2 TNIV)and is able to call things that are not as though they were (Rom 4:17 TNIV). He is able to make the impossible happen, for nothing is impossible with God (Matt 19:26 TNIV). When we agree with Him, we get to see the invisble become visible and see the impossible become possible?

In order to agree with God, we have to understand that He will fulfil every promise He has made and speak faith into those situations, even when it doesn’t look like God is working. ‘For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us—by me and Silas and Timothy—was not “Yes” and “No,” but in him it has always been “Yes.” For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.’ (2 Cor 1:19-20 TNIV)

Every promise God has made is ‘Yes’ in Christ, but we have to speak the ‘Amen’ of agreeing faith to see that happen. As Aaron Shust sings:
‘Oh, and I will trust in only You.
For You will bring the victory.
You will bring the victory.
All Your promises are true;
It doesn’t matter what I see.
It doesn’t matter what I see. ‘ (‘Deliver Me’, Aaron Shust)
‘Deliver Me’, Aaron Shust

This is not mindless fantasy, but spiritual reality based on Scripture: ‘when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor 12:10 TNIV). As we wait patiently for what we do not yet have (Rom 8:25 TNIV), we speak faith into situations and see those situations change as God works.

Secondly, there is power in unity and in prayer (see Matt 18:18-20 TNIV). God has promised always to be with us (see Matt 18:20 TNIV, Phil 4:5 TNIV, Heb 13:5 TNIV) and there is power in the agreement of two or three people in prayer:‘whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.’ (Mark 11:24 TNIV) The church has been given spiritual authority by Jesus and victories come not because of our strength, wisdom or power, but because of God, whose power is unleashed when His people learn to agree with Him and use the authority He has given them. Remember ‘five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.’ (Lev 26:8 TNIV) and ‘One of you routs a thousand, because the LORD your God fights for you, just as he promised.’ (Joshua 23:10 TNIV)

As we learn to agree with God, accepting His will for our lives as Mary did, we allow His promises to shape our lives, fuel our futures and determine our destinies.