“He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”” (Matthew 13:31–33, ESV)
Impatient Gratification
It has become a cliche to say that we live in an instant gratification culture. So, I’ll change it up and call it an impatient gratification culture. We are programed to receive everything instantly. If we want food, we can run to the store and buy it—we can even order it from our phone and have someone else deliver it to us fully cooked. If we want to buy something, Amazon will deliver it to us the next day—they are even working on same-day shipping. If we want to know something we can say, “Hey Siri…” and have the answer spoken to us. We want things and we want them now.
Gospel Slowness
Yet, the power of the Gospel looks a lot more like the Turtle than the Hare. It slowly and steadily wins the race. Or, to use Jesus’ metaphor, it’s a small seed that slowly grows into a large tree—a little bit of leaven that spreads throughout the entire batch of dough. It’s not a quick process.
At one of the Desiring God conferences, John Piper was put on the spot in front of thousands of people. Someone asked, “When do you doubt God the most?” As the silence grew, and we wondered how he would answer, he said, “When I acknowledge how slow my sanctification has been.”
Deep down inside, we know that to be true, don’t we? When we turned to Jesus in faith, we experienced the tremendous freedom that comes through the forgiveness of sin, but we have continued to struggle against that sin for years. We often find ourselves, frustrated and despondent, wondering why we are still struggling with this particular sin. We want to be sinless right now. We don’t want to wait anymore. Yet, the power of the Gospel works slowly through our lives, slowly and steadily winning the race.
Impatient Churches
Even though we recognize the slow power of the Gospel in our lives, we are not willing to settle for that slow power in our churches. We want things to happen in our churches and we want them to happen now. We want our church to be spiritually mature, and we want it now. We want our church to grow large and vibrant, and we want it now. We want our giving to change, and we want it now.
Slow Gospel Power
Yet, the power of the Gospel doesn’t work that way. It’s slow and steady. It begins small and grows large.
We recognize this in our personal lives, but refuse to accept that reality in our churches—churches filled with people just like us, people who are slowly overcoming sin in their lives. That’s why change is slow in churches—they are filled with people who are slowly being formed into the image of Jesus Christ through slow Gospel power.
So, be patient—it’s a Fruit of the Spirit—and keep preaching the Gospel, trusting its slow, steady power to change your church and the surrounding community.