Wednesday In The Word

Who sowed the Word of God into your life? Wow!

Some amazing calls. We gave out a bunch of mustard seeds today on Truth Talk Live, but listen, be encouraged, and maybe send a copy of this program. Just copy, paste, send a link to someone who's blessed you and sown God's Word into your life. And hey, we're encouraging you to sow God's Word into the lives of others all around you.

Start right there in the home. Thank God for the people that sowed His Word into my life. Enjoy today's edition of Truth Talk Live, and we will talk to you culture. Current events and theology all come together. Speak your mind. And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host.

Hey, so we have mustard seeds to pass out. Oh my! If you're watching us on the Facebook, if you're watching us on StuTube, either one, I'm Stu Everson, this is Truth Talk Live. You can see this amazing little cross medallion from our friend D. White Gollian at ForGospel.com.

That's the number ForGospel.com. These are going to you if you call me and tell me who sowed the Word of God into your life. You today are calling on the name of the Lord because this person, person blank, sowed the Word of God into your life. That's right, you were that little wiggle worm in Sunday school who couldn't keep quiet, hypers all get out, your parents couldn't wait to drop you off, and that dear science school teacher put up with you and sowed the Word of God into your life.

And look at where you are today. I want that person's name that sowed into your life. 86634 Truth. It's Wednesday in the Word edition of Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson, and I want to introduce Pastor Chris Griggs, who sowed the Word of God into my life, who's been a mentor to me. David Parsons has been a mentor to me.

David Parsons has been lighting my phone up. Why, who's he? Because I was a tiny little guy. He was living upstairs in my parents' house going to Piedmont Bible College, working on the rescue mission, and mentoring me. I was just a tiny little kid, and I was riding on the lawnmower with him. And he took me fishing. He taught me about Jesus. And to this day, 50 years later, he's still doing it, and he's burning my phone up, talking to me about how I need to have a Paul, a Barnabas, a Timothy in my life. Chris Griggs, that's the nature of this discipleship thing. It never ends, does it?

Never ends. Stu is talking about discipleship. We meet, just have a cup of coffee and ketchup, talk about life and Jesus and marriage and ministry.

That's what we were just hanging out doing, pouring into each other. And drove over to the radio station real quick. I want to show you something, give you something, whatever. And now here I am on a microphone. You're on a national radio show.

Look into that camera. Smile big. Do you have a face for radio? You've got a voice for radio.

I have a voice for radio. Little did you know, Parsons bails on it. He's got a doctor's appointment.

He's supposed to be sitting there. Now you're here, but you're also a mentor. You qualify as a mentor. How many times have I called you, Pastor Chris?

I need some help. Let's get coffee. You're a pastor in Lake Norman.

I'd swing through. You knew the coffee spots. That one barbecue spot was unreal.

Unbelievable. And then we just had coffee again to ketchup. You came over, and we're talking about who sewed us.

We had some mutual people sew into us. Yeah, exactly right. Mark Quartz, Guy Hipp.

Yes. If I think about the people that made the investments in my life, it would be, first of all, my parents, of course, family. But then my pastors. And Dr. Quartz at Calvary.

Huge. Influence. Mentor. And then my youth pastor, Guy Hipp. Guy Hipp would come over to Reynolds High School when I was a student. I was in 11th grade. I was 15.

I couldn't drive. And he would come meet me at Haynes Park, and I'd eat a sandwich with him, and he would just pour into me over there at Haynes Park during the school. And then on Tuesday nights, I was in his house Tuesday nights, and he was showing me how to read the Word, how to share my faith, how to pray, how to journal, how to have a quiet time. Just pour it into me.

Just the basics. Who does that anymore? Here's how you pray. It was 35, 40 years ago when I'm sitting in his house, and he's pouring into me. And those things, not only did the seed take root, but it's still bearing fruit today from his investment in my life. And the question is, who are you discipling?

Who's discipling you? Who sowed the Word of God into your life? Now, we just shared a few people. I'm going to share a couple from my life.

I've already done some here. We had some mutual sowers. Our dads are together right now in heaven, having a great time at the throne of Jesus.

And you may not remember this. You mentioned your dad and mom sowing into your life. My mom and dad sowed into my life. I'm doing what I'm doing now because of them, and God using them into my life. But your dad and mom were my science school teachers my junior year at Calvary Baptist Church. And they were amazing.

And I just loved them. And they sowed into us. And we'd have these tough questions. How do we handle this?

How do we handle the teacher that's talking about evolution? How do we share our faith? And they just worked that out. I was in there with Sterling, your brother. Our pastor is Guy Hipp. So thank God for those that sowed in our life. Now, we've got some Scripture. We're in Mark chapter 4. It's Wednesday in the Word edition of Truth Talk Live. We've got some callers.

We are in a quicker segment, this first segment. I'm going to let some callers jump in. We're going to start with Laura, a Raleigh listener, who's going to get our first mustard seed, this cool little faith mustard seed.

We're going to talk about that mustard seed from Mark 4. Laura, you're on Truth Talk Live. If you want to call in and tell us who's sowed into your life, the lines are open.

Please be as quick as you can. Mention their name. Just say their first name, maybe.

And call us at 866-348-7884. Laura, who's your sower? Oh, is this thing on? Hello? You're on the air.

You're live. Definitely Pastor Grant at a Capital Community. I had coffee with him last week. He sowed into me at coffee. Praise the Lord.

But my dearest friend Mary and Kiri and my mom, there's been so many, a lady that lives next door to me. That was the first time that I knew about Jesus. I was about 13. Yeah. Yeah.

She took the time to take you through the Word. A few years later. Yeah. Yeah. What a blessing.

I hung out with her after school. Yeah. That's awesome. Amazing. Laura, we're going to send you a mustard seed. Okay. We're going to get your address. Hang on the phone. God bless you.

866-344-TRUTH. Bucksman from Ohio. Tell us real quick who sowed into your life, Bucksman. We're going to put you on the air real quick before the break. Jump in here.

Absolutely. Xenia Christian Day School. Then it was Lowell Beam. Then dear Pastor Russ Wyd. And right now, believe it or not, it's Lowell Beam again. He's over 80 years old. And he's still discipling me. He's still sowing. He's still farming. He's still throwing those seeds into this guy's life at over 80 years old. No retirement in the Bible for him. What a blessing.

Man, thank you for sharing that. Hey, hang on the line. We're going to send you a mustard seed.

You may want to give it to one of them. We want to hear who sowed into you, into your life. You're walking with God today because somebody sowed the Word of God into your life.

What adopted older brother or sister or even that child? 866-344-TRUTH. It's an all-mustard seed hour on Truth Talk Live. Stay tuned.

Coming right back. The Gospel of Mark. Jesus launches into the parables. He tells these parables. What is a parable? It's a earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Mark chapter 4, you have this famous, really ground foundation parable of the parable of the soils.

And then he goes into three, like a trifecta of parables right after that. The lamp and the seed, and then the mustard seed. Pastor Chris, read the Scriptures, will you, real quick for us? Pastor Chris Grish, our special guest today, go ahead and read those for us real quick and set the groundwork. Then we'll go through these questions, and we'll take your calls on who sowed the Word of God into your life at 866-344-TRUTH. Passing out mustard seeds today. Maybe the only talk show in the world that's passing out mustard seeds today on the airwaves to those who call in.

We've got a few oil supplies left. Jump in, read the Scriptures. What passage is it, and read it. Chapter 4, 21-34. And he said to them, Is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed?

Is it not to be set on a lampstand? For there is nothing hidden which will not be revealed, nor has anything been kept secret, but that it should come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear. Then he said to them, Take heed what you hear.

With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you. And to you who hear, more will be given. For whoever has, to him more will be given.

But whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. And he said, The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow. He himself does not know how, for the earth yields crops by itself, first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come. Then he said, To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth.

But when it is grown, when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all the herbs, and shoots out large branches so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade. And with many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. But without a parable he did not speak to them. And when they were alone, he explained all things to his disciples.

Well, so that's God's word. We've got questions right there on the next page. The first one has to do with the context of what's going on in these parables, and Jesus jumps right in. Over and over again, he talks about the importance.

Ask that first question, Chris. Yeah, why does Jesus emphasize the importance of hearing? He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

Why does he say that? That's something. That's why I love, by the way, I love radio. Because everyone out there, you're a listener. We talk about our listeners. You are so important.

Those two or three or two or three hundred million. And I had to prep you today. I said, You know, Chris, you can't see the millions of people that are listening to the radio right now, so don't be nervous. But the importance of hearing. This idea of broadcasting, the word so, literally we get from that Greek word the same word we have, our modern English word broadcast. You know, that first parable, there's four different soil types, but the words never changed. But you can't have faith, Romans 10, 17, the classic verse on hearing, faith comes by hearing. Yeah, faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. But anyone has ears to hear. Well, we all have ears to hear, right? He says, Let him hear. He's saying, Understand. Don't just listen. You need understanding.

That's why he's talking in parables. How do you understand? What's the point? What's the meaning?

What is it that we need to understand? I saw a fellow baller on the court the other day, and I said, Hey, did you get that text this morning? He said, What? I said, God Almighty has been texting everyone this morning, all morning long. He says, What are you talking about?

Like he missed something, like he started getting frantic. I said, Do you have a Bible? He said, Yeah, man, I got a Bible. I said, Well, did you open it today yet?

He said, No. I said, Well, every time you open the word of God, God's texting you. He who has ears to hear, let him hear. That phrase in some variation is in the book of Revelation eight different times.

Really? Let him who has ears, let him hear. Let him hear what the Church, what the angel is saying to the churches, right? Over and over again in the Gospels, Christ says, Let him hear. Look at that very next verse. After he says that, look at that very next verse. Verse 23 of Mark 4. Look at verse 24. Take heed what you hear.

Isn't that something? Man, there's so much phlegm and horrible false doctrine and prosperity nonsense out there. Take heed what you hear. Not only listen, but have a filter, but you have a biblical lens through which you receive that word.

How am I hearing the word? How am I putting myself in a position to listen to God's word? Am I listening to God? How do you listen to God? And so those of you who want to call in and share who sowed into your life, at some point, Laura shared a neighbor.

She's 13 years old. A neighbor started sharing the word of God with her. Thank God Laura listened. If you don't hear the Lord, you can't fear the Lord. Proverbs. Listen, my son. Give ear to my words.

Incline your heart to my instructions. There's a difference between knowledge and wisdom. We can know some things, but the Bible calls us to have wisdom. And there's a difference between listening and hearing. You can listen to somebody, but not really understand. And Jesus is saying, you need to understand who I am and what my word is. You've got to understand it.

Not just open your ear to it, you've got to open your heart to it. Wow. Now let's hit this next question, because the first parable he hits on is the light. He says, no one... A lamp is not to be put under a basket.

A lamp is to be put on a lampstand. Yeah. So the question is, what's significant about light? It's all over the Scripture. First thing created.

What is it? Everyone finish this sentence. Genesis 1, 3. And God said, first thing created, let there... Let there be light.

Wow. Yeah, let there be light. We've got John 1, chapter 1, verse 3. In him was life. The life was the light of men.

Right. The light shines the darkness. Darkness can't comprehend it.

First John 1, 5. God is light. In him is no darkness at all. So this idea of light...

So what's interesting, he says this first parable, or the second after the sowers. His seed, the word of God, is like light. He came to give us light. He came to bring light. But John 3, 18, 19, men love darkness. They walked in darkness because they loved... their deeds were evil.

Right. And Jesus said, I am the light of the world. So in this context here, when he says, is a lamp brought to be put under a basket or under a bed, he's talking about himself. He's the light. And he didn't come to be hidden. He came to be known. He came to be seen. Now, there's another passage where we're told to let our light shine before men, right?

So they may see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Different light here. The light here is Jesus.

Wow. He is revealing himself as the true light come down from heaven, and he's not to be hidden. He's to be seen. What about that psalm, the entrance of thy word gives light and gives understanding. Another, you know, it opens, you know, though men walked in darkness, what's the Isaiah prophecy? Yet they have seen a great light, which we talk about with the birth of Christ, where the light of the world came in to our poverty and to our darkness to bring light. So you've got this idea of light. Then you've got this significance.

How are we accountable for the light received? That's heavy. Yeah. You know, too much is given, right? And that's right there in this parable.

Oh, yeah. So now we've got to go into the sowed, the power of the Word of God. There's something powerful about the reason we're asking you to tell us at 866-344-TRUTH who sowed the Word of God into your life. Call us and tell us. Answer that question. Say their name, because there's something so powerful about the Word of God, it changes everything.

866-348-7884. More coming up. Hang on.

Back on. We're back live on Truth Talk Live, and we are going to blow it up tomorrow, because I have a solution. I don't know if I have a solution, but God gave me something this morning I want to share with you and invite you all in that's going to transform and mobilize missionaries to go out all over the world. And I really believe that we have an opportunity to seize with this immigration crisis. And tomorrow, you're going to help me solve it for the kingdom and glory of God.

And it's going to partly be returning to the roots of our country, and it's going to be not just reaching, but engaging and discipling all of these new folks coming in. Now, don't call in about that. Don't call in about Christians and reparations from yesterday.

It was just too intense. I'm still getting heat for that, from all kinds of corners. I'm still glad I have a job today in this ministry of Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Epperson. If you just joined us, we're asking you to say their name.

The first name only is fine. Of who sowed the Word of God into your life. Early on, later on, whatever. Recently, maybe they're in heaven, but you're still here. Who broadcast the Word for sowed perilous soils in the sower is broadcast. Who broadcast the Word of God into your life?

That science school teacher, that camp counselor, that older brother, that cousin, that nephew, that spouse. I got a crazy story for you later in the show. Pastor Chris Griggs is with us. He's in the hot seat helping us deliver these. We've planned this for months, right Chris?

Oh yeah, for months. God is something. My mentor was supposed to be in here today. This guy was with me.

I'm like, hey, you're the next closest person on the scene. You can be the Truth Talk Live bodyguard for me today, after all the heat we've raised on the show recently. And you can just go through Wednesday in the Word edition of Truth Talk Live with us. We've read the Scriptures, Mark 4, 21-34. Call in and tell us who sowed God's Word in your life. We will give you a mustard seed. We've got them in here.

They're really cool. Dwight Gulien, our friends at ForGospel.com, they provide us with some mustard seeds to bless you with for telling us who sowed the seed of God's Word in your life. How could a little thing become so big? We're going to get into that.

But the seed sower passage is amazing. We just talked about the lampstand. All things are going to come out. Light will expose.

Light will either reveal truth to you and change your life, Pastor Chris, or one day it will expose you in the judgment. That's right. Where all things, you know, nothing is hidden from his sight. Allah, a.k.a. Hebrews 4.13. Right. And it's also in this parable.

So there's a higher measure of accountability. To whom much is given, much more will be given. Yeah. Based on, it's like a muscle. If you're a believer, you've got muscles. Are you exercising your spiritual muscles?

Are they atrophying? Right. And that's this dangerous place to be, isn't it, Pastor? Absolutely.

Yeah, absolutely. So we're going to get into this more. We've got some more questions on this passage.

We want you to jump in here and share who sowed the Word of God in your life. And the number to do that, if you want to phone in, and we'll send you a mustard seed while supplies last. They're little bitty things, but, you know, we have many. But they turn into really big things, right?

They do. Big things. And so the number is 866-348-7884. Barbara, you are next, an Ohio caller, listening on the new 106.5 FM. You're on Truth Talk Live with Stu, asking the question, who sowed the Word of God in your life? Hello. Hey Barbara, jump on in here. Okay.

No one. When I was little, my grandmother prayed for me as a child. But as I grew up, I never had the Word of God in the house. And I led a very sinful life, very unhappy life. And I reached a point in my life when I said, Is this all there is? And that's when God came to me on his own.

He didn't send anyone. He came to me. The Holy Spirit came to me and brought me into the fold. Well, well, God sent a godly grandmother to pray for you. The power of prayer. How many of us have had grandparents and moms pray for us?

Some of us were out partying like crazy. Moms praying three in the morning. Lord, bring my daughter to you, you know? So, what a testimony. Thank you, Barbara, for sharing that. Wow. Absolutely.

All right. Yes, ma'am. 86634 Truth, who sowed the Word of God into your life?

And we're glad she's listening. And by the way, we've got a pastor in here. Pastor Chris, how important is it that we have the Word of God, that people are in a church that is teaching? You teach the Word of God. You exposit God's Word.

You don't get up and crack jokes and tell stories. I mean, you may weave some of that in, but the text, the Word of God is central to what happens at your church, correct? Absolutely. That has to be. And that's what Barbara needs to be in a healthy, balanced, Bible-teaching church. We are to be disciples who are making disciples, and that's not possible without the Word. Yeah.

So that's critical. That's why Truth Network, that's why we exist. That's why we have Truth Talk Live to encourage that. Honestly, we're not a church, so people call in with all kinds of problems, Pastor Chris, and the first thing I say is, Okay, who's your pastor? Who's your church? Who's discipling your church? And not even put it on the pastor. Who are the godly men and women in your life from that church? You can't disciple all 300, 400, 4,000 people in your church. You're very funny. You just went from pastor to megachurch, pastor to mega-mega. Just like that. I'm at First Baptist Church, a welcome.

Well, in your massive TV audience, all over the world, people watching by that come in on Facebook. You know, Stu, you and I grew up in a church where every Sunday the pastor got up and he opened the Bible. Yeah. Every Sunday. The Word of God.

Every Sunday. And he said, This is the text. This is what the Word says.

This is what the Word means by what it says. But Pastor Quartz would get into food. He would get into all kinds of analogies. He would drop names of the people there.

Often, your parents and mine. Yeah, oh yeah. But the anchor was the Word. The Word drove it, and everything else was ancillary or secondary to affirming what was the Word, the text. We're going through books of the Bible. Yeah, exactly. But it takes the pressure off you.

You don't have to come up with all these whiz-bang things every week. Just go through Romans. Go through Colossians. Go through Philippians. Jump in the Old. Jump in the New. Jump in the Proverbs.

Jump in the Wisdom literature. You just talked through Ecclesiastes you were sharing with me earlier. Stella is in Durham, North Carolina, listening to us on 105.5 FM.

Wonderful affiliate of the Truth Network, Truth Talk Live. Stella, God bless you. Tell us who sowed the Word of God into your life. It was my mom. She was my father, and got divorced when I was very young. He was a Baptist. She was Catholic. And she eventually converted to a believer of Jesus and God, just totally. And I miss her guidance.

And, you know, I'm struggling right now trying to find a place in Durham that's a teaching church. But anyway, you know, she has definitely inspired me. I have a great niece now that, in my search of churches, she goes with me. She's four years old. And so we're trying to, I'm trying to pass over the same thing that she, my mom, gave.

But I need help for myself, too. Yeah, well, hey, did you hear what she just said, Chris? That's so powerful.

Because you said earlier, disciples who are making disciples. That's right. So it didn't end with her mom. Her mom poured into her. Now she's poured into her niece. That's exactly right.

That's the way it's supposed to work. But she said something that we all need to say. She said, I want others to pour into me. And she's obviously listening to a great station. And on that station, 105.5, I know for a fact there are some godly pastors that have churches not too far away from you, Stella, that won't cost you a lot of gas money. So you tune in during the day, you'll hear them, and you just ask the Lord to lead you to the right one. Maybe you go to a couple or a few, but go where you can use your spiritual gifts.

That's right. Where you get under their authority. You don't just walk into a church and say, I have a word from God!

You know, this is crazy. All these people are like, no, you are to be under spiritual authority. And I think it's very important to go to a church that's teaching, like you said, referencing the Bible.

Because some people just say anything and then you don't know where to find it, you know, to go back and research and look. So when my mom did, you know, transition over to just a believer in Jesus and God, you know, we always went to churches where it actually taught us. I loved the Bible study.

I thought it was very informative. So I'm trying to do the same thing, and I'm asking God to, you know, guide me on all levels, because I need help. God bless you. Well, thank you for sharing. You've blessed us today, Stella. Thank you so much.

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, Stella. God bless you.

Hang on the line. We want to get your address. We want to send you a mustard seed.

Thank you. Because you're a reflection of that. Little did your mom know, I was pouring into you.

Look at who—you've just touched—she's just touched who knows how many thousands of folks listening to Truth Talk Live right now. Now Pastor Chris, let's hit this next question. Yeah.

Go ahead. I mean, read the one about the farmer there. Yeah, so the farmer spreads the seeds, right? Why can he sleep after he has spread the seeds? Love that question. Sow the seeds. That's a great question. You know, that first parable, the parable of the soils in the first part of Mark we covered last week, they're really focused on the nature of the soils.

Some are hard, some are thorny. And you know, Warren Wiersbe makes a great point. He says this parable here, which is unique to Mark, by the way, this is not in any of the other synoptic gospels, which the synoptic gospels simply means the gospels that have a lot of shared information, which are Matthew, Mark, and Luke. This is not in the other gospels, it's only in Mark. This parable, Wiersbe says, encourages the disciples more on the fact that the Word of God is powerful. The Word of God doesn't need your help.

Right. What did Luther say about the lion? You need to defend the lion.

What did he say? You remember this quote? No, just let it loose. Open that cage. That lion, the Word of God, will defend itself, right?

Yeah, exactly right. So it says the farmer sows the seed, he goes to sleep. Goes to sleep, yeah.

What in the world? Well, a farmer, like a regular farmer, he throws the seed out there, and then somehow it grows. How?

He doesn't know. God makes it grow. God's responsible for the growth, so he can go to sleep. Trust that God's at work. Wow.

We're going to take a break. Who sowed the seed of the Word of God in your life? Who was farming in your life with the Word of God? We'll talk more about that in this next segment. If you want to phone in, I've got one more mustard seed left to give to the next caller. 866-34-TRUTH. More Truth Talk Live. So in God's Word, after this. Hang on.

This is the Truth Network. Oh, we're mixing it up in the studio, out of the studio. I'm getting calls. I'm getting texts. We're making people mad. We are comforting the afflicted, and we're afflicting the comfortable right here, all over the world, on Facebook, on YouTube, on Instagram.

Pastor Chris Griggs is in the hot seat. He had no idea. I had no idea. We went to get coffee, and it's very obvious to me you drank too much coffee. I had a lot of coffee. Man, that's like petrol, even if it was decaf. They begged me to get decaf.

I didn't do it. I'm giving out mustard seeds. I think there's another mustard seed going out, because another caller's on the line.

If you want to phone in and tell us who sowed the Word of God into your life, who did it? I mean, I just—the testimonies are everywhere in the mustard seed. I don't want to forget about the mustard seed. There's a question here. Chris, how is the kingdom of God like a mustard seed? Well, you know, the mustard— This tiny little speck, it's like a fleck of pepper. But it grows into this gigantic plant, big enough for shade, right? Yeah, for birds to nest in.

I mean, you told me off the air that that doesn't happen. And you've got to think, when he's telling the disciples this, the following is so small. It's not going to stay small, guys. The gospel is going to grow. It's going to expand.

It's going to work. People are going to come into the kingdom. You think about in the little church in Rome, when Mark's writing to Romans, and you've got the Roman Empire and a very small number of believers. And Mark is saying, hey, let me remind you what Jesus said. Looks really small, but God's going to grow the kingdom.

And the birds, birds don't nest in mustard plants. And if you go back to the Old Testament to Ezekiel, the nations are compared to birds. And what Jesus is saying, look, this thing's going to get so big, all the nations of the world are going to be a part of this kingdom. God is at work. The gospel is at work. The kingdom is growing. And we can rejoice in it. If you want to leave a message on our recorder of who sowed the word of God into your life, if you want to call us live right now at toll-free 866-348-7884 and tell us who sowed the word of God into your life.

And you know what, Stu, doing this, I was just thinking about this. When we testify, hey, this individual poured into my life, you might be having a rotten day. You might be discouraged.

You might be going through a little bit of a downtime. But when you remember that person, that individual, you can be encouraged. That God has loved you and sent somebody into your life to encourage you, to help you. You're not alone in this. Not only is the Lord with you, but then He sent people to walk with you.

And you get to pour into other people and be an encouragement to other people as well. Send them a thank you letter. Call them up. Call that counselor up.

I mean, I've got science school teachers I need to call. And if I need to apologize for being a little obnoxious brat, A. And B, I need to say thank you for teaching me the word of God, even though you were barely keeping my ADHD going in there. And part of calling in and saying, hey, here's the person that poured into me is one way of giving praise to God for His goodness and grace to us. Yeah, and it's fascinating, Pastor Chris, how does an obscure Jewish carpenter born into a crisis pregnancy with 12 oddball, uneducated, ordinary men turn the world upside down? I mean, like, hospitals, institutions of higher learning, like the Salvation Army.

Think about all the impact. America. I mean, you know, we can argue, well, is it a Christian nation? Well, there are Christian anti-routes in our nation. And here's a fact, whether you say our founders a bunch, sure, some of them were corrupt and some were ridiculous and that and that. But the fact is, look at the Bible's impact on our culture, A and B.

We have sent more missionaries than any other country. Where did that come from? It came from that mustard seed, that tiny little thing, and the little David that God used to kill Goliath. Gideon's 300 men that destroyed all those Midianites, right? It goes all the way back to the whole nation. The nation of Israel, God's chosen people, there's 8 million of them. There's 800 million surrounding them.

They can't stand each other, but they hate those Jews, and they're trying to just—but how do they survive? The number one air force in the world. So you have the little—of something little comes something big. Yeah. And the birds nest in it. So what a picture.

The little mustard seed. Could you imagine, I mean, that if all the believers around the world said, not sowing anymore, not investing anymore, we're not going to care for people anymore, culture and society would collapse. It would absolutely collapse if the church just said, we're out of here.

It's going to collapse. Wow. If the Word of God is growing in you, the Word of God will be sowing through you.

Yeah. If you're growing, you're glowing, you're sowing. And one of the things about this seed and the kingdom growing, there are millions of unnamed people.

We'll never know them. They woke up this morning, they walked out into the dark world, and they took the light of Christ and have been sowing seeds into people. It's going to bear fruit.

I promise, one more mustard seed. I'm going to tell you who sowed into my life, a lady you'll have never heard of, but we've got a caller named Christian. We actually have a Christian caller.

Did you talk live? Can you believe it? Awesome. Great name. Christian in Ohio, 106.5 FM.

Go quick. Who sowed the Word of God into your life? How are you? Hey, Christian, jump in here.

An old college roommate of mine named Corey Mumey out of St. Louis, Missouri. How cool. He's a two-week-old Christian. He sat down and asked me where I was going to go when I died, if I thought I was going to heaven or hell. And I took a long, hard look at that, and he led me to Christ right there two weeks in.

And 30 years later, he's still my best friend, and he helps me with my walk just on a consistent basis. Hallelujah. Love him like a brother. Praise God. Corey! Corey, God bless you, man. We're going to see this mustard seed, Christian.

Maybe you can share it with Corey. And thanks for listening to us on 106.5 FM. Thank you, gentlemen. God bless you. What a testimony. Hey, Nick, let's get his address, and we'll send this to him. Man, what a cool report.

Hey, so this is kind of cool. Waco, Texas, a small little lady, maybe 4'7", named Susie Sleeper. For real?

You haven't heard this story. That's her name. Oh, okay. A missionary, a Presbyterian missionary. Somehow, God called her to Ararat, Virginia, to broadcast the Word of God, because that's what the word so means, broadcast, to the Eppersons in Ararat, Virginia.

Right? Little did she know that several of those Eppersons, and she helped them start the Unity Presbyterian Church right in Ararat, Virginia. Yeah. Little did Susie Sleeper know that some of those Eppersons would actually become literal broadcasters.

How about that? And one of those was my dad, my uncles, and from that crowd, the Word of God has been broadcast to millions. Crazy. And now here down the line, my cousins and I, through Truth Talk Live and all the stuff we're involved in, they're involved in, are broadcasting to everyone out there listening, and we're doing this show, to sow the Word of God. Yeah.

And so just the power of God's Word, just a little. So I thank God for Susie Sleeper. Praise God for Susie Sleeper. She knows your dad. Yeah.

She's a little closer in height to your dad than my dad. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

My dad was a hobbit. Big Stu. Yeah. And Mr. Griggs, you know? Oh, yeah.

But what a legend. They both sowed into us. Your dad sowed into me.

I sowed into him. But if it weren't for the Susie Sleepers, and the question I asked Wednesday in the Word this morning at Dario, and you can see that on my Facebook page. Follow me. Like my fan page, Stu. I think it's Stu.Epperson on Facebook, and we're broadcasting this live there right now. Yeah. And you can meet Pastor Griggs, too, because he does have a face for radio.

Here he is right here in person. And you can see these little bitty mustard seeds. You can barely make them out even on the camera. But the crazy thing is, I asked the guys this morning, who was your Susie Sleeper? Right.

Right? I mean, she's buried in a small grave in Waco, Texas. I want to go visit her grave. Take the children there.

Take the grandchildren there. Thank God this woman came to Ararat, Virginia to help start this church. Amen.

In the graveyard where the bodies are sown in the ground that are in heaven with her now, but the gospel's still going out because that's the Word of God is powerful. Right. In Isaiah 55, it does not return void. That's correct. It's powerful. How are you sowing? So who is the Susie Sleeper in your life, and then who are you a Susie Sleeper to? Exactly right.

Yeah. Who are you sowing the Word of God to actively right now, even if you're having a bad day? Rachel is our last caller.

I think—you know what? We have one more mustard seed, Rachel. It's coming your way, calling us from Oxford. I think that's North Carolina listening to us on the Truth Network, Truth Triangle.

Truth Triangle. God bless you, Rachel. Tell us who sowed the Word of God into your life. Thank you.

I wasn't calling for mine. I wanted to give you a story because it has a great message and influence. I was speaking with a gentleman recently, and he was telling me that he was a minister, an associate minister at his church, and that he gave me his background. He wasn't thinking of God or Jesus. He said that his family, his friends and whatever would be praying, you know, that he would eventually want to go to church or whatever for years. So he was about maybe 35 years old, and he was a part of a basketball league. And what he said was they got a new person into the league, and immediately the new person invited him to his church, and he went.

How about that? And what he said to me was that nobody had ever invited him. He said that just shocked him. All the people that say he's going to go to hell and he needs this, nobody ever.

He said no one had ever invited him to church. Isn't that something? Chris, whatever happened to a simple invitation to church, that's always become like a bad thing, but that's a wonderful thing.

It's a wonderful thing. And maybe you're a bit bashful. Maybe you're like, I just can't.

I don't know how to just come to church with me because there's a bunch of people there that are messed up like me, but they want to tell you about a loving God who can save messed up people like me. Right, Rachel? He said that the gentleman didn't even preach to him. He just invited him. How about that? A little invitation. Yeah, and he said in all his years, everybody wanting this and that for him, no one had simply invited him to church. Wow.

Isn't that something? Well, that's kind of what happened to my mom in Southern California, a California girl from a broken home, and she had a friend. I call my Aunt Jeanette to this day, and Aunt Jeanette invited mom to her church, Jeanette MacArthur, and her dad, Jack MacArthur, also father to John MacArthur.

My mom heard the gospel and gave her life to Christ because a friend invited her to church. Just like Rachel. Rachel, we're going to send you a mustard seed, okay?

Maybe you can find that. I love giving mustard seeds to ballers, so maybe you can find that baller and share it with him, okay? God bless you. I'll tell you what, I can tell Rachel's someone that sows the seed. Chris, your final challenge to everyone. Read the final two questions and let those be the challenge.

Go ahead. Yeah, so the final two questions are to be thinking about the big things that God has done in your life from small things. Think about that and to praise him for it. And then wonder to yourself, ask yourself this, how am I shining forth the light of Christ?

How am I investing in others for kingdom purposes? Great challenges for us, Stu. Wow, and the beauty of it, we're all broadcasters because we're all to be sowing the seed of the Word of God. Broadcast.

Isn't that cool? Broadcast it out there. Romans 10, 17. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. How am I spreading God's Word? God bless you.