Faithful to the Process

Transcripts are AI-generated and may not be 100% accurate.

My name is Matt Moberg. This is an intimate crowd tonight, be it with Family Fest or cold weather or the wolves tipping off, B, in about an hour. Um, but I'm glad that we're here together. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for being in this space with us. We are as a community going through the gospel of Mark, we won't finish going through the gospel of Mark until I believe, what did we say early Advent 2024. So get cozy. We're gonna be here for a little bit 

Before we go into the text tonight in Mark chapter four, let me just state clearly what we state every time we step before you, regardless of whether or not you pick up anything that is helpful for your daily lives in this space that we have right here. We want to make sure that you go home tonight with this fresh awareness once again, imprinted upon you: Who you are is more important than what you do even if what you do gets more attention than who you are. Who you are as a person outweighs who you are as a producer or performer. Lock that in because even when we talk about like sitting our stories inside of the bigger story, that the tradition that we claim holds for us, we're doing so under these. This understanding that our, our story matters like that is kind of like presuppose in that, right? Is that our story matters. And so to nutritionally feed the story that we claim actually does matter. We sit inside this place, but I know it's easy to forget by Monday morning. So lock that in one more time. Who you are is more important than what you do, even if what you do gets more attention than who you are. 

Mark chapter four. Last week we were in the early parts of Mark four where Jesus was in the, uh, Cove of the Sower as it's known in modern day Israel. And he was telling this parable. Jesus has tried to explain the kingdom to different kind of folk in a lot of different mediums, both through like street theater, healing people on the spot, but also through like sermons in the synagogues and giving lectures and meeting with people. 

Now he's trying to do a different kind of thing. He's telling stories. He's holding up these things that we call parables. Parables as I said last week, they are like these refracting diamonds where they're not like, this is what that means once and for all. It's black and white. Say no more. I got it. It's actually like you hold the diamond up to the light, you twist it and it goes like this is what I once saw. Now when I move my hands slightly, it looks a little bit different, feels a little bit more received in me. There's something happening with it's alive, it's active. That is the idea of a parable. And so Jesus carries that on in the second part of Mark, 

I do wanna say, 'cause I think it's worth saying that most scholars are in consensus about this. That it's not like this is chronologically happening real time with Jesus and his story. Mark took, uh, the different parables of Jesus took these different moments and tried to say, here's, here's like Cliff Notes version. Here's the summary. It happened in this space so we can keep going with the story. I can keep walking with you, but like this is what you need to know. Boom, boom, boom. 

And so last week we started with the parable of the terrible farmer, but the wonderful father, right? The guy who has no idea how to farm plays the role of God, but is scattering seed recklessly onto concrete paths, in fertile soil both. And it, that's how God is. That's where we landed, right? That is the reckless prodigal love of God. It doesn't restrict itself from casting love upon all of us, whether we deem it necessary or deserving or not. This is part two. Let me read it to you right now and then we'll talk about it right after: 

And he, as in Jesus said to them, this is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed and not on a stand for nothing is hidden except to be made manifest. Nor is anything secret except to come to light. If anybody got ears, let 'em hear. And he said to them, pay attention to what you hear with the measure that you use. It'll be measured to you and still more will be added to you for the one who has more will be given from the one who has not even what he has will be taken away. Here's what I wanna lock in on tonight. And he said, consider part two of the farmer's story. The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground. He sleeps, he rises, night and day and the seed sprouts and grows. But he couldn't tell you how the earth produces by itself. First the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. But when the grain is ripe at once he puts in the sickle because the harvest has come. 

He sleeps, he rises night and day and the seed sprouts and grows, but he couldn't tell you how. All he did was scatter the seeds. I'm in this group with other, um, chaplains in the NBA and I got this email a couple weeks ago where we try to connect every week and just encourage one another. It can be a discouraging affair. Like the last game in particular, when I went into the visitors locker room, I went up to a guy and said like, “Hey, you coming to chapel?” And he lifted his head and he looked me in the eyes, but it was like he didn't see me, he didn't say anything. There was no facial expression whatsoever. It made me run to the bathroom, look in the mirror and make sure I wasn't invisible. It was very discouraging. That can happen. So we need this group to kind of give the pep talk every now and then. That's what this group does. The guy from the Toronto Raptors sent this article Our Way and he was about this Christian singer-songwriter. 

Uh, his name's Jason Ingram. Anybody heard of him? A few of us. Okay. So I haven't listened to a lot of, uh, Christian music since Michael W Smith, DC Talk, not including Kendrick and Chance. Okay? I'm just not very familiar with the modern day Christian music landscape. But I read the article all the same 'cause we're gonna have the conversation about it that week. And in this article it tells the story of Ingram. And it was really interesting to me because this guy, I didn't know this, but apparently he is one of, if not the most successful songwriters in the Christian music industry today. Nominated for Grammys, has won Dove awards, from 2007 to 2013. He was the SESAC, uh, Songwriter of the year. I don't know what SESAC is, but I'd like to catch that award at some point. You know, I mean like, I don't know what, it matters enough. 

At some point though, in the early parts of his career as an actual like successful songwriter, he was asked by a reporter who said like, “Man, you kinda came outta nowhere. Like how do you make sense of all the success? Like you just showed up and all of a sudden you're popping out pure gold. Make it make sense.” 

And Jason goes like, that's not how it worked at all. Actually, let me back it up and tell you a story real quick before you say that. I was an overnight success that I came outta nowhere when I was in seventh grade. I felt a call from God in my life, couldn't explain it. Don't ask me why. Don't even ask me to articulate how I knew it was from God or what this particular call was. Couldn't do it. I felt a call from God that I was supposed to give my life to making music for people to sing in church. Just felt it. So I fiddled, I dabbled, I did this, I did that. I kind of like played with it a little bit and see what would come of it. And that was that. But it grew stronger and stronger over the years to the point where after I got married, I moved my family from California to Nashville to pursue this career as a songwriter. That's what he did. 

Now obviously, like if you feel like you have been compelled by God, you've been called by God to take on this path, and all you need to do is say yes. The expectation that I would have if I was Jason, is that once the bags are packed and I landed in Nashville, if I make that kind of sacrifice to get to where God says I need to go, abundance, it's, we're good then. Right? That's on the flip side of obedience is a blessing. That's what my pastor used to tell me, but I believe it. 

Shows up in Nashville. Singer songwriter decides like, I'm gonna take on this professional career path of being a songwriter. And so he says, I guess like the logical next step would be meet with as many producers and publishers in town and say, this is what I've done. This is what I can do. Are you interested in taking me on as a songwriter? He did that. His hands were bloody from knocking on so many doors, sitting down for so many meetings, sending out so many tracks, and every single one said no. 

For the first two years there he's, it's, it's a drought. There is no sign of success, there's no sign that this was a good idea of any kind. Matter of fact, their their Christmas, they realized like, we need to go home to California at least to see our family just this one time. And they, him and his wife both decided we're gonna sell plasma just so that we can afford enough of a travel fare to get back home. But then he goes, his wife goes like, there's only so much blood available. This is not a tenable solution. Like we can't just keep doing this again and again. 

But they went back home for Christmas, they had that time to recharge batteries and they came back to Nashville and he said, I'm just gonna keep on going because what I felt inside, even if it's not reflected on the outside, it still is real. I know it's real. It's too palpable within me to not be real. And so he keeps making calls, keeps some writing songs, keeps some meeting with people.

And then all of a sudden when they're at their lowest point, there's a lady named Cindy Wilt that comes into his life and says, I represent this agency. I represent all these different artists. I would like to give you a contract for a year. For one year, I would love if you could write whatever songs are in you for the artist that I represent. And so he does. He gives a year to this. And day in, day out at the end of the year, he writes a hundred songs. 

Do you know how much work goes into a hundred songs? I'm not talking about like on your iPhone notes, like you sang a diddle-daddle and like that's a song, I'm talking about like he wrote songs, went into the studio, got the different instrumentalists to participate and make a finished recording a hundred songs. And at the end of year one, not one was picked up hundred songs. Nobody likes anything he's put down. 

So at this point they're like, maybe we should pack it up. But then Cindy comes his way, inexplicably once again and says, we want to renew your contract. Could you do it once more? The emotional taxation that it takes to write a hundred songs? Get a hundred “no”s and say, yeah, I'll do that one more time. That was fun the first time around. Why wouldn't I double dip? That's a lot. But he doesn't have much more blood to give. So he says, yes, I'll do it.

Next year, he writes a hundred songs one more time for Cindy Wilt and the agency. This time one song does get picked up. Now before you like break out and praise and dance and you think I'm about to tell you, it's, “I can only imagine” or “you raise me up” and it was a smash hit single. This was what we know as a secret track. Those of you who are too young to know what a secret track is, this is like pre-digital revolution. This is like Alanis Morissette, your house. Anybody know that one? Nine inch Nails cover of physical, like that was the secret track. It wasn't listed on the album, but it was tucked on the last track about four minutes after anybody was actually listening. If you stuck it out that long, that's where the secret track was. That's the one, the one song that somebody said yes to. After multiple years now of plugging out and pushing forward all of these songs, the one song that gets picked up is now listed on an album. It's tucked in the weeds as a secret track. 

And then that third year comes and he connects with Joy Williams of the Civil Wars. Rest in peace. Anybody else still wounded every time you say Civil Wars? No, just my wife and I. Okay, and Hannah, sorry. And all of a sudden, like he’s SESAC 2007, 2013 Successful Artist, this reporter comes his way and says, “How does it feel to be an overnight success? How does it feel to suddenly just step into the town and break onto the scene?” He says, “This scene broke me first. I have been showing up again and again and again.” 

Jesus says that there is a farmer who goes out into the field every day, scatters seed, goes back to his bed every night, and then he sleeps, goes back into the field, scatters seed, goes back into his bed every night and sleeps every day. He scatters the seed not knowing if it will actually flourish into a bountiful harvest. He just keeps showing up. 200 songs in, one secret track. I will still plant my seeds. I will keep showing up. 

I'm bringing this up right now because I could say that of the past 10 meetings I've had in our community, it's dramatic to say seven, but I'd at least land at five. But five of 'em were around: I put myself out there, I got hit. I'm not gonna go for anything else unless I know how it's gonna shake out. I have seeds that God planted in me for me to plant in the soil, but I'm not going to sow until I fully know how it's actually going to shake out. I'm not going to bring out the best of me again even if I do so with a limp, I'm not gonna do that unless I know for sure that I'm not gonna get screwed this time, that it's actually gonna work out this time. 

But Jesus says, your job is not to be a finished product. Your job is to be faithful to the process. And the process that you've, that you've been assigned is, and I know I said the farmer last week in parable number one was God or representative of God. This farmer in particular in the second parable in Mark four, it says, Jesus says, this farmer doesn't know how the process of germination actually works. My mind tells me that Jesus, the wisdom of God, does know how the process of germination works. Therefore, he is not allowed to be the farmer at that point, which means there's the empty slot for you and I to play. 

You have seeds in your story. I know for most of us, we're still kind of caught up in the new year, new you vibes. And I think that's actually a beautiful thing. I know it can get a lot of shade and be treated, um, in belittling, in condescending ways. But every time, if the church moves in this spiritual biorhythm of sorts where we mark the days in different kind of ways, and this is a time where we do the exact, the same thing, where once again we get to ask if I, if who I am is more important than what I do. If who I am, if who God created me to be, if I'm an image bearer, a child of God, if God put seeds in me for me to put seeds out there in the world, then am I actually doing that? Am I showing up and planting the seeds, not knowing whether or not they will flourish? Or do I need to have it all perfectly mapped out, perfectly free, no kinds of like fears, anxieties attached, and then I'll put my, do I need to know before I sow? Do I need to have it all squared away first? 

I was so moved in my own life when I thought about that article that that guy sent my way because to write 200 songs as somebody who has written songs, that is a heartbreaking thing. You get so emotionally invested in a song you believe it's the best thing that anybody's ever heard to be told again and, and again and again for 200 times in a row that this seed will not yield a good harvest. That is an incredibly difficult task to do. 

But if you are convinced, convicted, compelled by a vision of faith that says that your job is not to be the finished product, but to be faithful to the process. And so you have these seeds, will they go into your pocket or will they go into the soil? What are you going to do with your story? 

This is a sermon. Many of us, we hear sermons every Sunday. They go, if you like me in one ear, maybe there's something that will remind you of it some later point. But if I could just ask right now, take it seriously. 

If you're not dead, you're not done. God has marked each and every one of us for particular purposes in this particular season. And there are seeds within you. Jesus says this parable and he suggests inside of it that you hold these seeds and you hold 'em in your hands. If all they do is stay in your hands, that's all the seeds will be. That is as powerful as your hands can actually get. They carry the seed. 

But something beautiful, dare I say magical, mystical cause for wonder, every day it happens when you put the seed inside of the soil and it germinates matures over time, you have no say over the rate of growth. You have no say of how it'll actually shake out. You don't even know if that's a good seed that you put in there for sure. But if it's in your hands, it's just a seed. But when you let it go, it could become a tree. It could become something beautiful, something big from which you can eat and then live. 

What in your life are you putting the seeds in your pocket in as opposed to letting 'em go into the soil? I’m moved by this parable and I I hope that like you'll go beyond what I say tonight and actually dig into it for yourself. Because I look at you guys and I hope you know, like I certainly know that you all have a story that is worth telling. You all have a life that ought to be lived fully out. We don't operate from scarcity. We follow the Christ who calls us to abundance. What are the seeds in your store that need to be planted in the soil so you don't just leave them there, but they actually could become a tree and you don't need to know how it'll shake out. 

I had this moment a couple years ago where, uh, actually, honestly it was probably like 10 years ago, man. Do you ever, ever those moments, you're sharing stories from the past, you like, I am so freaking old. Like I, I know I'm getting older, but like I don't like citing stories from a decade ago, I was up in this, uh, small town church up near Brainerd and um, it was a crowded house that morning and this pastor was probably pushing like eighties or so and he was giving a sermon on the fidelity of God in spite of the infidelity of him. 

And at the end of it, he goes, you know, when I'm buried, when there is dirt above me and I'm the new seed inside the soil, if you want to know who I actually was, how I actually got to where I went, how my story played out the way that it did, my wife probably couldn't tell you, shoot, if I was still alive, I couldn't really tell you. I know I did this. And then that kind of happened. I know I did this. All of a sudden, the middle of the room, he breaks out and he goes, [sings] Great Is Thy Faithfulness Lord God Almighty. And he breaks out in that hymn and it fills the room. 

And I look around me. Every person above the age of 60 is in tears. Every person above the age of 60 is considering when you actually consider your own story, how you made it through that thing that you didn't think you could make it through, how that thing flourished in your life that you thought was just a seed inside of the soil. I don't know how it happened. I don't know how the seed germinated into full-blown apple tree. I don't know how this good thing broke through 'cause it was butt naked, empty on the surface. I saw nothing. [sings] But Great is Thy Faithfulness. 

When did I need to know it? Didn't need to know the end result. But morning by morning, God brings me something new. New piece of insight arrives into my life. The paradigm of faith that I would invite us as a community to take on is not this one that is driven by I'll sow when I know, but instead when I sow, I'll know. I'll get glimpses along the way. Threads, glimpses at what's next. 

Thy word is a lamp into my feet. It doesn't illuminate the whole path, but it shows me where my feet are. And I'll keep following step after step. I will keep showing up, trusting that the soil is sufficient to do the job with the seed in a way that I could never do with my hands. Pray with me. 

Jesus, God, you are good. I love these parables. God, I love the work they do. I love how they are these precious seeds that go into the soil of our own stories. God, I think that, I hope that, I pray God, that you would compel each and every one of us to, I know they're kind of plain stories, but if we allow them to actually sit within us, we're gonna catch that refracting diamond. It's gonna show us something brand new and we'll take the next step forward. It's a process, but give us the courage and the conviction to keep showing up and scattering seeds. It might take a hundred songs, it might take 200 songs, it might take 300 songs. But give us the courage and the conviction to keep scattering seeds, trusting that with you in the soil where we planted something good's about to sprout. In Jesus' name we all pray. Amen.