In this enlightening episode, Sharon Knotts dives deep into ‘The Parable of the Seed,’ unveiling its profound implications for gospel evangelism. What truly triggers the seed within us? Discover the transformative power of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus promised His disciples would not just receive the Word but become active forces of faith through His anointing. Through insightful teaching, this episode explores how the arrival of the Holy Ghost on Pentecost triggered a chain reaction that changed the world forever.
Greetings, friends and new listeners, and welcome to The Sound of Faith. I’m Sharon Knotts, thanking you for joining us on today’s program because we know that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Today’s message, The Parable of the Seed, holds a little-known truth that is a game-changer for gospel evangelism. In the seminal parable of the sower, Jesus clearly stated that the seed is the Word of God. But in the subsequent parable of the tares, he said the seed is something else. Find out what in the parable of the seed. If you wanted to go medical, you could talk a whole lot of things, but I’m not going to go there because we’ll get hung up. But you need something to trigger it. I’ll just make this one statement. My understanding is that we all have cancer cells in our bodies from time to time. But why do some succumb to it and others do not? Something triggers that cell to… begin to multiply and get out of hand and multiply and multiply. Something triggers it. It could be an exposure to a chemical. It could be exposure to foods. It could be an exposure to many things. And sometimes it can even be a genetic code in the family. So something triggers it where other people go their whole lifetime and never get the cancer. Amen? I just want you to see that something has to trigger it to reproduce itself. That’s a negative thing. We don’t like to talk about that. It’s bad stuff. But now we’re talking about the spirit. And we need something to trigger this word of God. We need something to trigger this, that we have this. And that’s what Jesus said. He knew they had the seed in them, but they needed something else. Turn to Luke 24, 49. This is after the resurrection. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry… Let’s make it English today. And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry, or wait… you in the city of Jerusalem until, somebody say until, until you be endued with power from on high. You see, they had that seed in them. They had that nature in them. They had the ability in them to reproduce children for the kingdom. But they needed something to trigger it. They needed the same thing that he had, the Holy Ghost and power. And so he said, I’m going back to the Father, but I promise you he’s going to send the Holy Spirit. He had already told them all about that in John 14, 15, and 16 before the cross. So he says, I promise you he’s going to come. Amen. But you need to go to Jerusalem and you need to wait there until he comes. Well, how will we know when he comes? Oh, you will know. You will know. He’s not going to come knocking on the door. He’s going to blow the house wide open. Amen. He’s going to come in like a mighty rushing wind. He’s going to come in like balls of fire. You will know it when he gets there. You just got to wait and tarry until he gets there. Amen? And so that’s what he told them. And you know, they started off, the Bible says 500 of them went in that upper room. But as the days clicked off and the days clicked off, some people got tired and got weary and well-doing and they began to go home. And that number began to go down until finally there was only 120 left. that were still there. Amen? But Jesus kept his promise. The Father kept his promise. Because on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Ghost showed up. Hallelujah. And that house began to shake. Amen. And that the walls began to tremble and the glory of God came down and the balls of fire that were in the form of cloven tongues sat over each of them. That’s 120 triggers. said over each of them, not just one big fire that came down, that would have been great, but over each of them, cloven means it was split in two, at least two, maybe more, because they got more than one tongue. Amen? And so the Holy Ghost came down and sat upon each one of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost. Amen? And of course, I’m quoting from Acts, the second chapter. And you know I got ahead of myself because that’s what happens when you want to get to the good stuff. And I skipped one of the main verses I got to have you look at. it actually dovetails with Luke 24, 49. It’s Acts 1, 8, written by the same author, Luke, says, but ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Now, I just talked about that. And that’s all the good stuff. And that’s the stuff they really focused on. But that’s not all he said. And you shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Acts 1.8. And so they received the power. They were endued, which means to be clothed. It came down on them like, you know, like… a robe almost, and covered them, and the fire, the tongues of fire was upon their head. Amen? He said, you’re going to receive it, and you are going to be my witnesses. And the Holy Ghost came. And when the Holy Ghost came with that power and that anointing, I tell you, saints of God, nothing but nothing was the same again after that. Amen? Nothing was ever the same again. Peter, who had denied Jesus three times and couldn’t even stand up to a teenage girl. He was so bold, he got out there and he preached like nobody had ever preached. He preached the Pentecostal sermon and when he finished, there were 3,000 men standing around and they said, what should we do? He said, you’ve got to repent and believe on Jesus Christ. Amen. Oh, he preached that first day they had 3,000 souls saved. That seed was producing. Amen. And as each day went by, thousands more were saved. And it began to grow exponentially because Jerusalem was packed with people. Three feasts that God said that the Jewish men needed to keep in Jerusalem. And if at all possible, they were to go to Jerusalem. The Feast of Tabernacles, which is in the fall. Passover, which is spring. And Pentecost, which comes 50 days later. So Jerusalem was filled with people. You know, many of them came for Passover, and I would surmise that if they could do so financially and everything else they had to adjust in their life, if they traveled a ways to get to Jerusalem for Passover, why not just stay until Pentecost? Why go home and come back? If you have the means and the wherewithal, why don’t you just rent the Holiday Inn for a whole 50 days? or more to take in both of those feasts. But even if they went home, because the Feast of Pentecost was a happy feast. It was a joyful feast. Amen? Why not come back if you couldn’t stay? The place was packed and jammed with people. You know, I’ve used this before. I mean, think about, you know, when there’s a huge football game, especially something like Super Bowl. Every hotel room is filled. Amen? People are everywhere. And so that’s how it was into Jerusalem when the Holy Ghost came to town. And these people began to spill out. The 120 began to spill out into the streets. 120 triggers going off all at the same time. And they’re speaking in all kinds of languages. And the Bible says they were speaking the wonderful works of God. And people began to hear what they were doing, and the souls just began to come in. This, we’re seeing here, the principle of multiplication. 3,000 souls, and then I think it was 5,000 souls, and then people just kept getting saved. It became exponential. But more than that, now people were getting healed. Miracles were happening. Things were happening. The Bible says it’s like the city was turned upside down. Amen? It was revival. It was camp meeting. How many ever went down to the master’s retreat’s campgrounds when we had it? Amen. You came down to the camp meeting. It was camp meeting time. You didn’t have to worry about your job. And you know, back then we were not yet into the really, into the technology. Not everybody had cell phones back then. And you didn’t have your tablets and you didn’t have all of that. You weren’t getting texts and emails and such. And there was one phone down there for the whole place. Amen. So if there was a need for somebody to get in touch with you, it wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy to find people. Amen. You were down there to get in the spirit. You didn’t care what they were doing on the job. You didn’t care what was going on back home. Your boss couldn’t call you up and say, when are you coming back? We’ve got an emergency. Amen. You were at campground. You were seeking the face of God. You wanted to come up in a higher level. By the time we got to day 10, people were walking around speaking in tongues. Even the young people were falling out everywhere speaking in tongues. Amen. You know you got camp meeting when that happens. He said, I want you to tarry here. And so the word of God began to go out, and it began to fill Jerusalem. It was camp meeting, and you know when you’re at camp meeting, you don’t want to go home. You just wish it would last one more week. Can we make it one more week? Amen? But people had to get back to their lives. They could only stay away from their jobs so long. They could only stay away from their homes so long. Maybe one spouse came and the other stayed with the kids. Or maybe one came and brought the kids. Amen? But they had to get back to the business of life. They had to go home. And you see… It was the same mindset of these people here in Jerusalem. They did not want to go home, and they got stuck in Jerusalem. And what did God say? When you get this power, when you get this anointing, when you get this trigger, I want you to… Go to Jerusalem, but then I want you to go to Judea. That would have been the West Bank. That would have been the other areas, and Samaria, all that area. I want you to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. Well, back then, that would have been, what was known to them would have been the Eastern Hemisphere. Amen? I want you to go to the uttermost parts of the earth. But they were there in Jerusalem, and they were having camp meetings. You know, we used to always name our camp meeting Camp Meeting 1999, Camp Meeting 2010 or whatever. Well, this was Camp Meeting 33. Because that’s probably the year on the calendar, the year of our Lord, 33, somewhere around there. And they didn’t want to go home. But something happened to change that. The devil got stirred up and he grabbed Peter and John and threw them into prison. and told them, you better not preach in that name anymore. Amen? An angel came and got them out of jail, and they went right back and started preaching again. Amen? This time they got them and beat them, and said, we straightly told you, don’t you dare preach in that name. Since they went back to the people, they went back to camp meeting, and they told the people, and all they did was pray, Lord, let them preach bolder in the name of your holy son, Jesus. And that’s what they did. But then the devil rose up and grabbed a precious young man named Stephen, a man who was full of the Holy Ghost and power and had the Word of God too. Amen. He was only a deacon, a table waiter, but he was full of the Word of God, full of wisdom, full of knowledge in the Holy Ghost, and that was to wait on tables. I think if you think you’re called to the ministry, you better have at least that. Amen? Amen. And so they grabbed him and they stoned him. Now I know that had to shock the people and had to break their hearts, but they still did not go home. But turn to Acts 8.1. We read Acts 1.8, go into all the… every part of the world, and they stuck in Jerusalem, even though all this stuff is beginning to happen. But Acts 8, 1 says, and Saul was consenting unto his death, that being the death of Stephen that I just mentioned. And at that time, there was a great persecution against the church, which was where? At Jerusalem. And they were… All scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria except the apostles. So God says you want to just stay in camp meeting. You want to enjoy the Holy Ghost and keep him all to yourself. You got Jerusalem saved and you’re happy with that. But I told you to go to Judea and I told you to go to Samaria and I told you to go throughout the Roman Empire and you haven’t left town yet? Amen. So there was a great persecution. And when there was a great persecution, they were scattered. And that is an agricultural term that means sow the seed. You know, you can take seed and dig one little hole and drop one little seed in. Whole seed, whole seed. Or you can take seed and scatter it on a field that’s been tilled. Amen. And that’s the agricultural word here. And when that great persecution came, the word of God was scattered as they were scattered abroad. It was not a bad thing. It was not a negative thing. It was the exact thing that Jesus had told them to begin with. Amen. Amen, to go forth and sow the seed. They were finally being pushed into action. They were being pressed into service. Amen. Oh, they got the Holy Ghost in chapter 2. And in chapter 3, they had the power of God move and begin to do miracles. And in chapter 4, God was doing miracles. In chapter 5, in chapter 6, in chapter 7, all these things were happening, but not until chapter 8. Did they fulfill God’s commandment to go out and scatter the seed? Because everybody wants to stay at camp meeting. But it was time for them to pack their suitcases and leave Jerusalem and take the word of God. And do you know what happened? Immediately in the next chapter, Philip went down to Samaria. And that city was under the spell of Simon the sorcerer, who had a great demonic power that kept that whole city bound to him. And Peter came, I tell you, I feel, oh my God, I feel it on me right now. Peter began to preach the word of God. And when he did, their eyes were opened. That spell was broken. People were set free. Amen. Until it was so powerful that word got back to the apostles. And they came down. They left Jerusalem. And they came down to Samaria to see what was going on. And they began to lay hands on the new converts. And they began to get the Holy Ghost power in speaking tongues. Amen? So let me tell you something. It was what God wanted because those people had that seed within them. And they needed to go out there, amen, and tell these people. And camp meeting was wonderful. And it’s great to be in church and get blessed and get revived by the word. But it’s not enough for you to sit here and get your spiritual senses scintillated until you feel so awesome. That worn out word. You need to get out there and show the awesome power of God. It’s time for summer block parties. It’s time for summer street meetings. Amen. It’s time to get out there and sow the seed. It’s time to get out there and be the seed of God. You are Christians. And if you are not producing Christians, you are spiritually sterile. When you give your testimony on the street, you’re sowing seed. If you never get a chance to testify because you never got your turn yet, but you’re giving out tracts. you’re sowing seed. If you just stand there and clap hands and sing in the background, you are sowing seed. Amen? When you go to the convalescent homes and the nursing homes, when you go to the prisons and you take the gospel, you are sowing seed. When you have the opportunity and it is an opportunity that you are allowed to do and it’s your time and it’s lunchtime and you’re on your own time and you testify and you give your testimony, you are sowing the seed. Amen. When you leave a tip for your waitress and you leave a little gospel track there, you are sowing the seed. And make sure you give her a decent tip. If you’re going to leave a track, if you’re going to leave a track and broadcast I’m a Christian, a child of God, make sure you leave a decent tip. Amen. Don’t let them think that, you know, because when they get those real pitiful looking tips, they go back in the other room and they talk about it to the rest of them. Can you believe that piddly little buck they left me? But if you leave a good tip in a tract, they’ll say, man, those Christians are generous people. I like to wait on Christians. Amen. Hallelujah. Because you may be thinking, I need that extra two bucks or three bucks. I’m going to Walmart. You know that that act is sowing seed. You are sowing seed. And as a child of God, you’re responsible. You have the seed in you and you’re responsible to get out of the church and disseminate it. We are blessed today with technology. We have satellites that preach the gospel over television and preach the gospel over the radio and over the internet. Amen. And when you give money to support those outreaches, you are sowing seed. Amen. When you pay your tithes to the house of God. That there might be meat in God’s house. And that we may send the magazine out. That we may send the word of God out through radio. You are sowing seed. Amen? He said, bring all the tithes into the storehouse, into the church, that there might be meat in my house. And when you give, we don’t say much about it. We rarely ever even tell you about it. But we regularly send funds to the orphanage in Kenya, Africa. to Brother Ed Burimi that has the orphanage, that has the Bible school, that has a medical facility to help the people. We send them money all the time. We built it. We’re going to maintain it. Amen? So when you give to this church, you’re giving your missionary offerings even though you don’t realize that we are supporting. Amen? And we support other people. We give offerings like we did to Brother Joel June, who’s in Haiti. Amen. And we’re still in contact with his ministry. So even though you physically sometimes cannot go some places, amen, when you support the gospel and when you just give your testimony, the devil is a liar. You say, well, I don’t have a real, real wild testimony like that one who was on drugs and that one that was really bad and that other sinner that was terrible. You know, I had a rather boring, sinful life. Like that’s something, you know, to regret. Let me tell you, there’s a lot of goody-two-shoes out there that think I’m a good person. I never took drugs. I never got in alcohol. I never was a streetwalker. I didn’t sleep around. I certainly never been arrested and in jail. What do I need with the gospel? Your testimony is what they need to hear. Amen? You are the seed. And this summer is upon us. And Faith Tabernacle, we want to see this church grow. And we don’t have to go get other people’s sheep to grow. Because we might get some goats too. Amen? But we want it to grow because we bring forth lambs. And we bring forth Christians. Amen? So this is what we’re going to do as the music comes. I want everyone that’s a leadership in the street meetings, the block parties, the prison ministries… I want you to come up first. Amen. I want you to come up first. I need some singers. Amen. I want you to come up here. Stand here with me in the front. And then what I’m going to have, I’m going to pray with them first. And they’re going to turn around. And they’re going to pray for everybody else that wants to be a part of any of these. Block party, street meeting, convalescent homes, nursing homes, giving out tracts. Amen. And I’m going to pray an anointing prayer over you. And then you all are going to pray for the rest of the people. Everybody else that wants to participate in anything. Even if all you are is standing there and holding the microphone for somebody else or the tracts or the books. Amen. I want everyone to raise your hand to these leaders. Amen? Because sometimes you get frustrated. Sometimes you get discouraged. The first couple weeks, everybody shows up. You’ve got so many people, you don’t even have enough time to get to everybody. But as the weeks click off, it gets less and less, and sometimes you get discouraged. And so I’m going to ask the Lord to give you wisdom, to give you understanding, to give you discernment, to give you patience. and to give you courage so you don’t get discouraged when you see your ranks start getting small. Amen? Raise your hands to these leaders. Father, I lift up every one of these. I lift them up before you, Lord, and I’m asking you to give them a new and powerful trigger of your anointing for this summer coming up. Lord, that you will anoint them with wisdom and understanding. Give them a spirit of discerning to know how to handle people, how to encourage people, how to strengthen the weak, how to support those that need to have that encouragement, how to know when to be bold when they need it. need to be bold, to be gentle when they need to be gentle, but give them understanding and wisdom, Lord, how to deal with people to help other people fulfill their calling, fulfill their ministry. Lord, anoint them with the powerful anointing. Lord, when they get in that pulpit of the street and that pulpit of the block party or the prison or wherever it may be. May the anointing of fire fall upon them. Lord, may the unction of the Holy Spirit rise up strong in them. Let them open their mouth and speak great words that will cause the heart of sinners to be convicted, I pray. And I also ask you, Lord, to touch their bodies. Give them a supernatural touch in their bodies that they can carry this anointing, that they can fulfill this ministry until others can come up under them. In the name of Jesus, I command you to be… Amen. What a revelatory teaching on the parable of the seed. Most Christians are more familiar with the parable of the sower, which describes the four grounds that receive the seed of the word of God and how each responded to it. The determiner of whether it bore good fruit was the condition of the soil or men’s hearts. But in his subsequent parable of the tares, Jesus did not say the seed is the word of God, but rather the seed is the children of the kingdom. That is Christians who are born again of the incorruptible seed of God’s word. We become the seed. If you plant corn, you’ll harvest corn. If you plant tomatoes, you’ll harvest tomatoes. If you breed cows, you’ll produce cows. If you breed dogs, you’ll produce dogs. And human beings produce human beings because God said in the Genesis creation account, every seed after its own kind and every living thing has the seed to reproduce within itself. So Christians should produce Christians. And if they don’t, they are spiritually sterile. You need this message, the parable of the seed, in your spiritual library. Order today on CD for a love gift of $10 or more for the radio ministry. Request SK-186. That’s SK-186. Mail to Sound of Faith, P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203. Or go online at soundoffaith.org, where you can order on MP3. But to order by mail, send your minimum love gift for the radio ministry of $10 to P.O. Box 1744, Baltimore, Maryland, 21203, request SK186. Till next time, this is Sharon Knott singing, Maranatha.
