We're starting off here by talking about how many of us have this little voice inside our heads that asks the question: Am I enough? It sometimes gets louder after we've made a mess of things...and we've all made a mess of things. Since we all live with that voice I want us to sit with Paul's words, "There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." No condemnation. That isn't just good news, it's like a whole world being opened up in front of us.

But that's not the end for Paul; it's just the beginning. Jesus tells a story about a farmer who just sows seeds, like, all over the place. God scatters seed with reckless abandon. Everyone is invited. The seed lands on all kinds of ground just as grace arrives in all kinds of lives. Maybe we've spent years analyzing the soil of our lives. Rocky? Thorny? Hardened? Notice that Jesus never said any patch of ground is permanently doomed. Rocks and thorns can be removed. Hardened ground can be broken up.

Paul gets this when he talks about living according to the flesh and living according to the Spirit. It's like two different kinds of soil. Jesus loves to talk about plants and growth, and if there's one thing we know about growth, it is that it's slow.

The invitation here from Paul and Jesus isn't to try harder. It's to become softer. More receptive and less defensive. More open to change and less afraid of it. Because the promise of these two passages seems to be: when soil opens itself to grace, when the heart makes room for the Spirit, life begins to emerge where we thought only death existed. There is no condemnation. That's where it starts. Then growth and transformation happen slowly. And maybe, years from now, someone will find themselves standing in the shade of the tree that is your life that grew from a seed you don't ever remember being planted.

Speaker: Aaron Vis

Scripture: Romans 8:1-11; Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

http://bible.com/events/49636153