Getting grass to grow around our new church building has been a work in progress, to say the least; but we have come a long way since last year this time when it looked like our building had landed on the surface of Mars. The hard, orange clay is not the best soil to work with, but with a lot of aerating, fertilizing and water, we are going to get there! Jesus spent some time one day teaching about different kinds of soils and the challenges they create for growth. In the Parable of the Sower or Four Soils (Matthew 13:1-9), Jesus says there are four types of soil where seed may land as a farmer sows… hard, rocky, thorny and good. Only one out of 4 of these soils is “good” - rich and deep
I asked a simple, but compelling question on Sunday… “If you inherited one million dollars, what would you do with it?” How you answer that question says a lot about what you value, what matters to you, what you consider priority in life. One day, Jesus encountered a man who asked Him to help settle a dispute the man was having with his brother about their inheritance. The man asked Jesus in front of a lot of people, so Jesus took the opportunity to teach about greed and to let us know what He expects us to value or make priority. As He taught, He shared a parable about a man for whom possessions became priority. (Read Luke 12:13-21). I want to be clear that there is nothing wrong with
Jesus called us out last week. In the Parable of the Fig Tree, Jesus makes a clear, simple point to His Followers: Produce fruit! He doesn’t pull any punches in this parable (Luke 13:6-9) about a fig tree that hasn’t produced fruit in three years. The vineyard owner is ready to cut it down, but the gardener convinces him to let him fertilize it and work with it with one more year; then if the tree still isn’t producing, it can be cut down and burned. This is a pretty simple parable that carries a big challenge. It builds on what we talked about last week - the faithful must be fruitful! Jesus expects us to be producing fruit in our lives. He talks about this often - see John 15:1-5. S
What are you doing with what God has entrusted to you? Maybe you haven’t given much thought to it, but the truth is that there is A LOT that God has entrusted to you! In the Parable of the Talents, Jesus makes clear what His expectations are for us. In Matthew 24:14ff, Matthew records Jesus’ parable about three servants who were given various amounts of “talents” or bags of gold by their master before he left for an undisclosed period of time. Two of the servants doubled what the master had given them; but the third servant chose to dig a hole and bury what he had been given because he was afraid of his master. When the master returned and discovered the excellent return two of the serv
