This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and our look together at Mark chapter 4
this week, day 4. We're going to look at verses 30 to 34 today. We've been
looking at Jesus' stories, His parables about growth, the parable of the seed,
and how some seed did not sprout because it was in the wrong kind of soil, and
other did sprout because it was in good soil.

And then we looked at the parable of the harvest. And we talked yesterday about
the fact that God's kingdom is to be a growing kingdom. God is the one who
causes the growth.

And growth is a process that takes time and patience in our lives. And now today
we're going to look together at Jesus' story, His parable of the mustard seed.
And I'm glad this one is last because this is a story that is full of hope about
growth in your life.

Listen to what Jesus said in verses 30 to 34 of Mark chapter 4. Again, He said,
"What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to
describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in
the ground.

Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with
such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. With many
similar parables, Jesus spoke the word to them, as much as they could
understand. He did not say anything to them without using a parable.

But when He was alone with His own disciples, He explained everything. " We've
been talking this week together about growth. Now I want you to imagine with me
those who first heard these words of Jesus 2,000 years ago.

What are they feeling as they've heard His stories about growth? I would guess,
I would hope, I would expect that they're feeling, "I want to grow. " Jesus has
told a story about good ground about 30, 60, 100-fold.

Jesus has told a story to produce in them this excitement about growth, and
they're thinking, "I want to see this process of growth happening in me. " But
then the thought might come to those who heard this story of Jesus about growth,
and maybe the same thought has come to you. Who am I fooling?

I can't grow. I don't have the tools for growth in my life. I don't have the
abilities to grow.

I don't have the history of growth in my life. I don't have the faith to grow in
this kind of way. Who am I kidding?

30, 60, 100-fold? I haven't seen 1% growth in my life. How in the world could I
see this multiplied growth in my life?

And Jesus tells a story. He tells a story using a tiny mustard seed to say,
"Yes, you can grow. God can cause growth in you.

" He tells a story about a small seed, barely visible, that grows into a large
tree that birds come and make a nest in. And Jesus is telling this story as
saying, "Don't be deceived by small beginnings. Don't be deceived by small
measures of faith.

Don't be deceived by small acts of obedience to God. If you have just a mustard
seed of faith, just a small amount, maybe other people can't even see it, if you
have just the willingness to begin, then you have all that you need to grow. "
Because you see, when we put our mustard seeds of faith, tiny, insignificant,
they almost seem silly.

How could anything grow from this? When you put those mustard seeds of faith
together with God's ability to grow us, that's when the healthy, spreading tree
results, the tree of growth in your life. You can grow because of who God is,
because of the power of God's Word in your life.

Now, Satan wants to come and say, "You can't grow. " He wants to come and give
you all these doubts, but you can grow. Satan comes and says, "You can't grow.

" And maybe you pick up the refrain and say, "I can't grow. I have too many
problems. How am I going to grow with all these problems in my life?

" And God says, God says that he will cause even the problems to work together
for good in your life. That's the power of what he can do when I put a mustard
seed of faith in him. I look at my life and I say, "I can't grow.

I've got too many temptations. I say yes to too many temptations in my life,
temptations of greed, temptations of lust, temptations of selfishness,
temptations of self-centeredness. I've got too many temptations.

" God says, "With every temptation, I'll provide a way of escape so that in any
temptation, when you say yes to me and take that way of escape, I'm going to
grow you. Even through the temptations, I will grow you when you have the faith
to say yes to me. " You look at your life and you think, "I can't grow.

I know all these things you're talking about, Tom, but I have tried so many
times. I've tried a hundred times, a thousand times to get myself on a process,
a path of growth. " Well first, it's not your process, it's not your path.

For me, the place to start is to depend on God in a fresh new way and to realize
He is at work in you, even when you don't want Him to be at work in you. He is
at work to complete the work of salvation and sanctification in your life. God
has promised, when you feel like, "I've tried so many times," He has promised
that He will never forsake you.

He has promised that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the
day that Jesus Christ comes again. That's His promise. You can hang on to that
promise.

You may look at yourself and think, "I can't grow. It's not that I have too many
problems or temptations or that I've tried so many times, it's just I don't have
enough faith. I don't even have faith the size of a mustard seed.

" Well, a mustard seed was so small you couldn't even see it. And maybe your
mustard seed of faith is beginning by saying, "God, give me the faith to have
faith. I want to believe.

" Remember that prayer? "I want to believe. Help me with my unbelief.

" Start with faith the size of a mustard seed. Act on that faith and watch what
God can do. Don't wait until you have a big faith and then try to do big things
for God.

Start with a mustard seed of faith and then watch the big things that God can
do. Let me say that again. Don't wait until you have a big faith and then you
try to do big things for God.

Start with a mustard seed of faith and then watch the big things that God can do
in you. I want to take some time together today for prayer. For prayer that God
would change the expectations of our heart.

Our Father, we want to talk to you for a few minutes about our growth. We can
see all the reasons in our life why we couldn't grow, our problems, our trials,
our temptations, our own selfishness, the times we haven't grown. Those are easy
to see.

God, help me to see right now in this moment, not what's easy for me to see.
Help me to see what you see. Help me to see God that you put into my life the
moment I began a relationship with Christ.

You put into my life a process of growth. God, you see in me a faith that I
don't yet have. You see in me a trust in you, a direction in life that may not
have happened yet, but you see it.

And not only do you see it, but you're working for that to happen. God, I pray
that in this moment, this very day, I would be released from the bone-wearying
process of me trying to achieve my own growth. And I would be released into the
life-rejoicing freedom of knowing that you're at work for my growth.

God, when you give me a mustard seed of faith, help me to plant it immediately,
not to wait, not to say no, plant it right then, and then watch what only you
can do. Father, I look at my own expectations for growth, and I know they're so
low. So today, I pray, I take this mustard seed of faith, and I pray that you
would take that little expectation that I have, and you'd begin to grow it.

You'd begin to help me to see not what I can do, but what you can do in my life.
And I pray this, Jesus, I pray this change would happen in my heart, Jesus, in
your name. Amen.