THE MUSTARD SEED

31 He told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. 32 Though it is the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds come and perch in its branches.”
Matthew 13:31-32 NIV

I. FROM SMALL THINGS, GREAT THINGS HAPPEN. WHERE POTENTIAL SEEMS LIMITED, THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS.

THE SON OF MAN GREW UP IN A DESPISED PROVINCE; HE DID NOT APPEAR IN PUBLIC UNTIL HIS THIRTIETH YEAR; THEN TAUGHT FOR TWO OR THREE YEARS IN NEIGHBORING VILLAGES, AND OCCASIONALLY AT JERUSALEM; MADE A FEW CONVERTS, CHIEFLY AMONG THE POOR AND UNLEARNED; AND THEN FALLING INTO THE HANDS OF HIS ENEMIES, DIED THE SHAMEFUL DEATH OF THE CROSS; SUCH, AND SO SLIGHT, WAS THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE UNIVERSAL KINGDOM OF GOD. (NOTES ON THE PARABLES OF OUR LORD) —R.C. TRENCH

OUT OF ALL THAT SMALLNESS, TODAY, WE SEE THE GROWTH AND INFLUENCE OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IN LIVES ALL AROUND THE WORLD!

II. WE HAVE THE SAME SEED OF THE KINGDOM THAT JESUS SPOKE ABOUT; THE WORD OF GOD! IT IS A SEED THAT IS UNCHANGING, THAT LIVES AND ABIDES FOREVER.

23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. 24 For, “All people are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field; the grass withers and the flowers fall, 25 but the word of the Lord endures forever.”[c] And this is the word that was preached to you.
1 Peter 1:23-25 NIV

WE NEED PEOPLE WHO LOOK NOT AT AN APPLE AND COUNT THE SEEDS BUT LOOK AT THE SEEDS AND COUNT THE APPLES!

III. LET THE PARABLE OF THE MUSTARD SEED SERVE TO ENCOURAGE US TO BELIEVE THAT THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN IS DESTINED FOR GREAT THINGS.

“Who dares despise the day of small things, since the seven eyes of the Lord that range throughout the earth will rejoice when they see the chosen capstone in the hand of Zerubbabel?”
Zechariah 4:10 NIV