Good morning. My name is Matthew Capone, and I'm the pastor here at Cheyenne Mountain Presbyterian Church, and it's my joy to bring God's Word to you today.
A special welcome if you're new or visiting with us. We're glad that you're here, and we're glad that you're here not because we're trying to fill seats, but because we're following Jesus together as one community.
And as we follow Jesus together, we become convinced that there's no one so good, they don't need God's grace, and no one so bad that they can't have it, which is why we come back week after week to hear what God has to say to us in His Word.
We're continuing our series in the Gospel of Mark. You'll remember that the Gospels tell the story of Jesus and His life and His death and His resurrection,
and we're continuing in chapter 4, where Jesus has been teaching us about the kingdom of God.
He's been using this agricultural image, the image of the seed that is sown. Last week, we saw the power of the seed, the resilience of the seed.
This week, we're going to look at the seed from a different angle. We're going to see its initial smallness.
And so we'll look at the growth of the seed, the ultimate size of the seed.
Last week, we were encouraged by the reminder that the kingdom is working, even when we don't see it.
This week, we're encouraged that the kingdom is powerful, even when it doesn't meet up to worldly standards,
even when it would appear to be small and insignificant.
And in fact, my guess is if you're a Christian, you feel that at times.
If Jesus is the king, why isn't the church more effective, better funded, more powerful?
If the kingdom is so powerful, why are we still here 2,000 years later?
Why don't we see more of a victory over evil?
Why is there such a big difference, a big gap between what we've been promised is to come
and what we see right now in this world?
There may be times where we're discouraged or confused by the smallness of God's kingdom.
It's with that challenge that we come to God's word.
And so I invite you to turn with me.
You can turn in your Bible.
You can turn in your worship guide to the sermon passage.
You can turn on your phone.
No matter where you turn, remember that this is God's word.
And God tells us that his word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path,
which means that God has not left us to stumble alone in the dark,
but instead he's given us his word to show us the way to go.
And so that's why we read now Mark chapter 4, starting at verse 13.
And he said,
With many such parables, he spoke the word to them as they were able to hear.
He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples,
he explained everything.
I invite you to pray with me as we come to this portion of God's word.
Father in heaven, we thank you that your word is powerful and effective.
It's your word that brings something out of nothing.
And it's your word that brings dead things to life.
And we confess this morning that without the help of your spirit,
the power of your word, we are dead on arrival.
So we simply ask for those things this morning,
that you would give us your spirit to use your word in a powerful way,
that we would be challenged by it, encouraged by it,
and that we would see Jesus.
We ask that you do these simple things
as we look at what you have to say to us here in the gospel of Mark.
We ask these things in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
Amen.
It's common knowledge, I think, or at least I hope,
that we now know that redwood trees are the tallest of all trees in the world,
and you'll find many of them on the coast of California.
You may also know that National Geographic ran a documentary series
for about 25 years called National Geographic Explorer.
And in 2009, they ran one episode called Climbing Redwood Giants,
which tracks a variety of people who interact with these redwoods in California.
One of them is a man named Michael Nichols,
who was a photographer for National Geographic,
and he was frustrated by the fact that none of the photos of these redwood trees did them justice.
People would come to the redwood forest,
and they would be overwhelmed with this sense of awe and transcendence.
But when they looked at a picture, they would just think,
ah, that's a nice tall tree.
And so he wanted to fill that gap between the in-person experience
and the viewing of a picture.
The problem is that these trees are typically over 300 feet tall.
And he wanted to take a picture that showed the tree all the way from the top down to the bottom.
Turns out this is more challenging than you might expect.
He spent 21 days camped out in the forest trying to get one picture.
They would set up every morning with his crew before dawn,
and he'd have someone at the top of the tree
who would give them the go signal as soon as he saw the sun.
They had a camera that they had to back up 50 feet away from the tree
because the crown of the tree at the very top was 100 feet wide.
And this robotic camera essentially had many different lenses on it,
and it would drop from the top all the way to the bottom.
And so they would try day after day after day
trying to get the right picture with the right sunlight at the right time.
He said this,
his goal is to capture the grandeur of a giant redwood tree in one image.
Day 14, they finally got the picture they wanted,
except it wasn't just one picture.
They took 84 different pictures and pieced them all together.
These 84 pictures that were pieced together into one image
formed a five-page foldout
in the National Geographic issue that came out in October of 2009.
At the beginning of this documentary,
the narrator tells us,
even giants start small
with modest cones packed with seeds no bigger than tomatoes.
And so this giant redwood tree,
the tallest of all trees in the world,
over 300 feet tall,
some of the tallest ones much larger than that,
starts with a seed no larger than a tomato.
He is comparing for us the beginning and the end.
And that's the same thing Jesus does for us in this passage.
He wants us to feel the difference,
the contrast between the beginning and the end of the kingdom of God.
We see here, verse 30,
there's something difficult about understanding the kingdom.
It doesn't meet our expectations.
It's counterintuitive,
which is why he asks this question,
with what can we compare the kingdom of God
or what parable shall we use for it?
In other words,
it's hard to find the right example
because this is such a strange, unusual thing.
The kingdom operates in such a way
that's different from our expectations and our experience.
So what in the world are we going to have
that would actually help us
begin to wrap our minds around it?
And he tells us,
well, it has to be something,
verse 31,
that starts out as the smallest.
Verse 32 ends up as the largest.
Whatever our parable is,
it has to be something that starts out as the smallest,
ends up as the largest.
Before we dive deep into that, by the way,
our points this morning are very simple.
One, the smallest.
Two, the largest.
I want to make sure we review and understand
what it is that we're talking about
when we use the phrase,
the kingdom of God.
I talked last week about this temptation
to use what's called God talk,
which is when we throw all these phrases around
that sound spiritual
and we have no idea what we're talking about.
Kingdom of God can fall into this category.
People throw it around and use it.
If you ask them to define it,
would they actually be able to tell you
what in the world they're talking about?
There's all sorts of books and articles
written trying to define this,
and I'm going to give you this very simple definition
that I gave you last week.
When we talk about the kingdom of God,
we are simply talking about the place
where Jesus is king.
When we are talking about the kingdom of God,
we're talking about the place where Jesus is king.
This is the place where Jesus is loved
and worshiped and obeyed.
We see the kingdom only in part right now
because not everyone loves, obeys,
or worships the king.
We will one day see the kingdom in full
because one day everyone will worship
and recognize Jesus as king.
In fact, this is what Paul tells us
in Philippians chapter two.
He says,
at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow in heaven and on earth
and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
We will see the kingdom in full
when every tongue confesses Jesus as Lord.
We don't see that yet.
And so now what we see,
and this is the quote I gave you last week
from Martin Lloyd-Jones,
is the kingdom shows up in the hearts
and lives of his people.
Jesus' kingdom shows up in the hearts
and lives of his people.
In fact, if you look on page five of your worship guide,
you'll see I gave you that same quote all over again.
It's the best quote that I've ever found
on the kingdom of God.
And he uses that phrase,
the very last sentence,
he is certainly ruling in that way,
in the hearts and lives of all his people.
And so we prayed this morning in the Lord's prayer
that God's kingdom would come on earth
as it is in heaven.
And what we are praying when we pray that
is that you and other people would worship and love
and obey Jesus as king more and more.
We don't have to give in to God talk.
We can clarify our terms.
That is what we mean when we talk about the kingdom of God,
the place where Jesus is king.
And so jumping right back in,
remember our two points are very simple,
the smallest and the biggest.
First of all, this kingdom,
this place where Jesus is king is the smallest.
Verse 31,
it is like a grain of mustard seed,
which when sown on the ground
is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.
The kingdom of God is small in many different ways.
I'll give you guys some ideas,
but it's small from a worldly perspective.
The things that this world expects
and demands of a kingdom,
the kingdom of God does not meet up to those expectations.
It does not rise to the height
that one would think it would.
And it doesn't do this in a variety of ways.
First of all, the logic of the cross is the smallest.
The cross is weak and foolish from a worldly perspective.
In fact, Paul, the apostle,
says this explicitly in 1 Corinthians 1.
He says,
the cross is foolishness to the world.
And here is the sense in which it's foolish.
It is foolish, as is often said,
because it is an instrument of torture
that's used as an instrument of salvation.
It is foolish because it's an instrument of torture
used as an instrument of salvation.
It is scandalous.
The cross does not make sense to the world.
It does not make sense that strength would come through weakness.
The image of the cross that we have now
has been domesticated over time.
Initially, it was extremely shocking.
In fact, there's this book called Dominion,
How the Christian Revolution Remade the World
by a man named Tom Holland,
and he notes that artists were not willing
to use the cross as an image until AD 400.
It took 400 years for people
to even be willing to use the image.
That's how scandalous it was.
In fact, he says this,
divinity was for the very greatest of the great,
for victors and heroes and kings.
Its measure was the power to torture one's enemies,
not to suffer it oneself.
That a man who had himself been crucified
might be hailed as a god
could not help but be seen by people
everywhere across the Roman world
as scandalous, obscene, and grotesque.
That such a god of all gods might have had a son
and that this son, suffering the fate of a slave,
might have been tortured to death on a cross
were claims as stupefying as they were
to most Jews' repellent.
No more shocking a reversal
of their most avoutly held assumptions
could possibly have been imagined.
Not merely blasphemy,
it was madness.
The cross is the smallest.
It is small and weak from a worldly perspective.
It makes no sense whatsoever
to use an instrument of torture
as an instrument of salvation.
It's not just the logic of the cross, though,
that it's the smallest.
It's also the people of the cross
who are the smallest.
And by the people of the cross,
I mean you and me.
Paul does not pay us any compliments
in 1 Corinthians 1
because he doesn't just say
that the cross is foolish.
He says, you are foolish.
He says this, verse 26,
for consider your calling, brothers.
Not many of you were wise
according to worldly standards.
Not many were powerful.
Not many were of noble birth.
But God chose what is foolish in the world
to shame the wise.
God chose what is weak in the world
to shame the strong.
God chose what is low and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing things that are.
So when Jesus came to set up his kingdom,
he decided to pick a brain trust
of the smartest possible people he could find
with the greatest gifts that he had seen in advance.
And he picked them for that reason,
leaving out people who didn't meet up to his standards.
No.
The complete opposite.
Jesus comes in his kingdom
and he picks those who are not wise,
those who are not powerful,
those who are not noble birth,
those who are foolish,
those who are weak,
those who are not strong,
those who are low and despised.
The kingdom is the smallest.
The foolishness,
the smallness of the kingdom is this then.
There are many from Harvard that will reject it
and high school dropouts who will embrace it.
There are many who are rich who will reject it
and those who are poor who will embrace it.
There are those who are virtuous
who will reject it.
Those who are obnoxious
who will enter the kingdom of God.
Now having educated
of the kingdom doesn't shock us
as much as it does the Roman world.
Our values are different.
What's shocking for us
is that obnoxious people would get into the kingdom
and virtuous people would not.
Jesus chooses the smallest.
It's foolish and small
and weak in the sense
that Jesus presents to his followers
a way of suffering
rather than luxury.
The gospel does not fit into the expectations
and standards of this world.
It's not just the logic of the cross.
It's not just the people of the cross
who are small and foolish though.
It's also the king of the cross.
Jesus did not come as a beautiful person.
He came as small compared to the kings of this world.
Jesus shows up in a stable
rather than a palace.
Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a donkey
rather than a war horse.
Jesus has a crown of thorns
rather than a crown of gold.
Isaiah tells us, in fact,
that there was nothing attractive about Jesus
that would draw people to him.
Isaiah 53 too.
He had no form or majesty
that we should look at him
and no beauty that we should desire him.
If Christianity was a blind taste test,
remember you see these from time to time, right?
People will have Pepsi and Coke
but they won't tell you which is which
and you're supposed to taste it
and recognize what's correct and good.
Maybe you have a new product
compared to a name brand product
and without knowing what it is you're tasting,
you're able to pick up on certain things.
If there was a blind taste test of Christianity,
the normal flavor outside of God's spirit
would be this.
Obscure, weak, insignificant,
powerless, foolish, shameful.
That's what the cross tastes like to this world.
That's what Paul is telling us
in 1 Corinthians 1.
Others, on the other hand,
taste it and say this,
it tastes like the power of God.
God uses the small and foolish things
of this world.
Jesus teaches this parable
because it is something that's relevant
and real for these people
and for us as well.
It's hitting at something perhaps you feel.
Perhaps you feel at times
that the kingdom is in fact small
and little and insignificant.
It is corporations and governments
that have money and power.
If God is the king,
if his kingdom is the greatest,
why is it that Apple and Facebook and Amazon
have such great levels of influence and power?
If God's kingdom is the greatest
and he's the king,
why is it that Elon Musk
and Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates
are the ones with all the money?
Why isn't it the church?
Because the kingdom is small
and weak and foolish.
We saw the parable of the soils
a while back.
Chapter 4, verses 1 through 20.
Why is it that the world is so alluring?
Why is it that these thorns
are able to come in
and crush the seed of the kingdom?
Well, it's because the kingdom
is weak and insignificant
by the numbers.
It is not what is most alluring
and beautiful.
Jesus needs to teach this
to his disciples and to us
because the kingdom
is not what they expected.
Jesus' followers wanted
a rapid onset kingdom.
They wanted an immediate kingdom.
They wanted a powerful earthly kingdom.
And Jesus here instead
resets their expectations.
It is not going to be what you want.
It is going to be
the smallest kingdom.
The question, though,
that's still unanswered is,
why?
Why is it that the kingdom
comes in such smallness?
Why didn't Jesus come
with a royal train?
Why didn't he come
with a real crown?
Why didn't he ride in Jerusalem
on a war horse?
Well, Paul answers
that question for us as well
near the end of 1 Corinthians 1.
He says,
God chose what is low
and despised in the world,
even things that are not,
to bring to nothing
things that are,
verse 29,
here's the answer,
so that no human being
might boast in the presence of God.
God chose a small
and foolish kingdom
to highlight his grace
so that no one
could congratulate themselves
for being a part of it,
so that no one
could pat themselves
on the back
that they were smart enough,
powerful, and rich enough
to be part of the kingdom of God.
The kingdom starts
and looks small
to show God's glory.
It's meant to highlight
God's grace.
It's meant to show God's glory.
In fact,
we know this intuitively, right?
There is something
beautiful and marvelous
about small things
turning into great things.
The smallness of the seed
is part of what makes
the redwood
so majestic and impressive.
You think to yourself,
that large tree
came from that small seed?
It would make sense, right,
if it came from a big seed.
And yet,
that's not how it works, right?
That's why the narrator
of the documentary
mentions it.
He says,
even giants start small
with modest cones
packed with seeds
no bigger than tomatoes.
The redwood tree,
in other words,
is not large
because it started large.
It's large
because of the power
of the seed.
The kingdom of God
is not large
because it started large.
It is large
because of the power
of the gospel.
The smallness of the kingdom
shows us
the power
of God.
The gospel
is beautiful
and powerful,
just not
the way we expect it.
And so that's why
Paul also tells us
in 1 Corinthians 1,
the word of the cross
is folly
to those who are perishing,
but to us
who are being saved,
it is the power
of God.
It's smallness,
the fact that it's
insignificant and weak
is a feature,
not a bug.
Thankfully,
it's not just
the smallness
of the kingdom
that we see here,
though.
That was verse 31.
We also have
verse 32,
the greatest kingdom.
Yet when it is sown,
it grows up
and becomes larger
than all
the garden plants.
Yes,
it's a small
and foolish kingdom
and it will not
be like that
forever.
That's how it starts.
It's not how it ends.
We have the small
seed of the redwood tree
and then we have
the tallest tree
in the entire world,
well over 300 feet tall.
same thing is here
is true in the Bible.
We have what we see
of the kingdom
in the gospel of Mark
and we fast forward
in the Bible
to the very last book,
the book of Revelation
and we see the comeuppance
of the kingdom.
We see the final victory
of the kingdom.
There's this progression
between what is true
in Jesus' first coming
when Jesus came
as a baby
into this world
and what's true
in Jesus' second coming.
The coming
that we look forward to
when Jesus returns
to this world
as the victorious king
taking his kingdom.
And so we can compare
not just the smallest seed
to the greatest tree,
we can also compare
the smallness of the kingdom
in the gospel of Mark
to the greatest kingdom
that we see
in the book of Revelation.
We can have
a side-by-side picture.
Yes, Jesus has a crown
of thorns
in his earthly ministry.
In the book of Revelation,
he comes not just
with one crown
but with multiple crowns.
Revelation chapter 19,
verse 12.
His eyes are like
a flame of fire
and on his head
are many diadems.
Diadem being a fancy word
for crown.
And he has a name written
that no one knows
but himself.
Yes, in his earthly ministry,
Jesus comes in
on a donkey
and in the book of Revelation
when he returns
in his second coming,
we see Jesus riding in
on a war horse.
Revelation 19, 11.
Then I saw heaven open
to behold a white horse.
The one sitting on it
is called Faithful and True
and in righteousness
he judges and makes wars.
Yes, it's true
that Jesus in his earthly ministry
comes and appears
in a stable
and when we find him
after his second coming
in the book of Revelation,
he is not sitting
in a stable
but he is on a throne.
Revelation chapter 22,
verse 3.
The throne of God
and of the Lamb
will be in it.
Yes, the kingdom is small now.
It will not be small forever.
Yes, we struggle
with these doubts
in this world
just like these other disciples
wondering if Jesus
is truly the king
that he says that he is
coming to bring the kingdom
that's been promised.
Why does it seem
so underwhelming
and powerless?
And Jesus comes
with this parable
and encouragement
to his people
to remind them,
yes, it may seem small
and insignificant
and weak and foolish
and shameful now
but we are looking forward
to the day
when it will be great
and powerful and majestic.
Not just great
but the greatest
of all the nations
and kingdoms.
It starts
as the smallest of seeds.
It will be
the greatest of trees.
Jesus then
is giving us
his followers
the critical assurance
that we need
as we follow him
as our king
into his kingdom
in this world
which is this
that ultimate victory
is guaranteed
and it is coming.
God's power
is going to show up
in an even greater
and more majestic way
than we can imagine now.
It's the reminder
that we saw together
week after week
in the book of Daniel
that no matter
how bad things get
God is still in control.
No matter how bad things get
no matter how small
and weak
and insignificant things are
we can know
and trust
that God's kingdom
is still coming
and it will come
in full.
Jesus here
is giving us
a vision
of future orientation
that we look forward
to the great tree.
Brothers and sisters
as we live
as Christians
in this world
at times
feeling like
we're stumbling along
we also look forward
to the greatest tree.
We look forward
to God's kingdom
knowing that it will come
in its fullness
and it will be a place
of God's holiness
and justice
and goodness
and mercy
and love.
It will be
the great tree
to which
all the nations
come.
It will be
the kingdom
above
every other
kingdom.
In fact
that's also
what we see
in the book
of Revelation
which includes
in chapter 22
a tree.
Then the angel
showed me
the river
of the water
of life
bright as crystal
flowing from
the throne of God
and of the Lamb
through the middle
of the street
of the city.
Also
on either side
of the river
the tree
of life
with its 12
kinds of fruit
yielding its fruit
each month.
The leaves
of the tree
were for the healing
of the nations.
I'm going to read
that last sentence
again.
The leaves
of the tree
were for the healing
of the nations.
That's the same
imagery we saw
in our Old Testament
reading from Ezekiel
and the imagery
we see here
verse 32.
Yet when it is sown
it grows up
and becomes larger
than all the garden
plants
and puts out
large branches
so that the birds
of the air
can make nests
in its shade.
Remember we read
from Ezekiel.
I encourage you
by the way
if you look
in your worship guide
on pages 3 and 4
it's something
you can do
if you show up
early to our
worship service
and take a minute
to look at our
Old Testament passage
and how it relates
to our New Testament
passage.
I'm not going to go
into it all now
but you'll see
there's an explanation
there on pages 3 and 4
how it is
that Ezekiel 17
connects here
to our passage
and the main point
is this.
In Ezekiel 17
we see all these
different kinds of birds
finding shelter
in a tree.
Those birds represent
the nations of the earth.
In Mark chapter 4
we see all these
different birds
coming to take shelter
in a tree.
Those birds represent
the nations of the earth.
In other words
the kingdom's greatness
is expressed
in the fact
that all different people
from every type
and nation
and tongue
will come to be a part
of God's kingdom
and worship him.
This is the image
that we're given
throughout the Old Testament
that Jesus brings
into reality
in the New Testament
which is that
the kingdom of God
is not just for Jews
it is for anyone
and everyone
in this world
who comes
and recognizes
Jesus as the true
and great king.
All the nations
of the earth
will come
and be a part of this.
And so we begin
to see again
the logic
of why the kingdom
must be small
and become great
not just to highlight
God's greatness
and his glory
although yes
that is true
but also because
it is the smallness
that leads
to the greatness.
In other words
the only way
that Jesus can bring
all the nations
to find shelter
in his tree
is if he dies
for their sins.
It is by coming
as a suffering savior
that he's able
to enable
and empower
people from every tribe
and nation and tongue
to come and worship him
because those
who are finding shelter
under the tree
are those who have come
to Jesus Christ
as their Lord and Savior
recognizing that he
is the one
and true king
who they worship
and love
and serve
and obey.
And it's Jesus' death
that makes that possible.
It's the smallness
of the kingdom
that enables
the greatness.
It's because Jesus
came to die
that he's able
to provide shelter
for all the birds.
It's because of his death
that he's able
to come
and bring people
from all over the world
to be a part
of his kingdom.
The ultimate greatness
of the kingdom
is for you.
The ultimate greatness
of the kingdom
is that Jesus
is able to bring you
to be a part of it.
The flip side,
however,
of the tree
is this.
Yes,
Jesus will rule
over the nations.
He'll provide shelter
for the nations.
And those who choose
not to find shelter
in him
will perish.
There are birds
who choose
to find shelter
under this tree
and those who do not.
And so,
brothers and sisters,
the choice
for us
is clear.
There are only two ways
to live in this world.
We can live
finding shelter
under the tree
of the kingdom of God
or we can
perish apart from it.
Those are the only
two choices
God gives us
in this world.
We have to embrace
the smallness
of the kingdom
to experience
its greatness.
We have to follow
the path
that Jesus gives us
in Mark 1,
verse 15,
that we repent
and believe
the gospel.
We recognize
that it is not
a path of victory
first but of suffering
just like our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ.
And that
is how
he provides
for the nations
to find shelter.
In the show
Climbing the Redwood Giants,
they don't just cover
that photographer.
They also follow
this forest ecologist
named Steve Sillett.
And Steve wants
to be the first person
to explore
the canopy
of redwood trees.
Turns out
people had not
gone up
into the top
of these trees
because the lowest
branches were
200 feet
off the ground.
And so he wants
to do what's called
canopy work.
No one had touched
it until 1996.
What he comes
and finds
when he climbs
200 feet up
is something
incredibly surprising.
there are limbs
on this tree
that are themselves
the size of trees.
And on top
of those limbs
there are
three feet
of soil.
There is a
whole world
living
200 feet
off the ground.
He finds
huckleberry bushes
with fruit
that he can eat
and there are
salamanders
that live
200 feet
off the ground
in these trees.
In fact,
they tell us
some salamanders
may live
and die
in a single tree
without ever
touching the ground.
There's a
whole other
world
living in the
canopy
of these trees
200 feet
off the ground.
In other words,
this tree,
just like
the kingdom,
provides life
to surprising
candidates.
This tree,
just like
the kingdom,
provides shelter
and protection
for all
sorts
of creatures.
Our greatest
illustration
of all
of moving
from
the small
to the great
is the cross.
We've seen
before that
the crucifixion
is the smallest
thing,
the most
shameful thing,
and it
leads to
Jesus'
glorification,
the greatest
thing,
the most
glorious
thing.
Again,
from Philippians
chapter 2.
At the name
of Jesus,
every knee
should bow
in heaven
and on earth
and under
the earth,
and every
tongue confess
that Jesus
Christ is
Lord to
the glory
of God
the Father.
Our passage
tells us
some simple
things.
the kingdom
of God
has a
beginning
and it's
small and
foolish and
unexpected.
The kingdom
of God
has an
end
and it's
the greatest
and the
most powerful.
And unlike
other great
and powerful
kingdoms,
it is loving
and benevolent.
It provides
shelter for
anyone
who will come
and find it.
the
photographer
I mentioned
at the
beginning,
Nichols,
said this
as he's
searching
this most
impressive
photograph
that will
finally help
people to
understand the
greatness of
the redwood
tree.
At the end
of the day,
all I'm
after is the
glory of
this tree.
And the
forest ecologist
Steve Sillett
says this,
if you're
lucky enough
to get up
into the
crowns of
one of
these trees,
it puts
your own
insignificant
existence
in perspective.
It makes
you realize
there's something
much greater
than yourself,
so much
vaster
than you.
Brothers and
sisters,
there is
something so
much greater
and so much
vaster than
us.
It is
the kingdom
of God.
God
may look
small now,
but it
will prevail
and be
the greatest
one day.
It is like
a grain of
mustard seed,
which when
sown on the
ground is
the smallest
of all the
seeds on
earth.
Yet when
it is sown,
it grows up
and becomes
larger than
all the
garden plants
and puts
out large
branches,
so that the
birds of the
air can make
nests in
its shade.
Let's pray.
Our
Father in
heaven,
we thank
you for
this
encouragement
from your
word,
this reminder
of your
kingdom that
is to come.
We ask
that you
would be at
work in
our hearts,
that we
would embrace
and love
the foolishness,
the weakness
of the gospel,
that it would
be our power,
and you'd give
us the hope
that comes
from looking
forward to
your kingdom
when it comes
in fullness.
We ask all
these things
in the mighty
name of our
Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ.
Amen.