Mark 4:23-33

²³Let all who have ears to hear with hear.

²⁴“Take care what you listen to,” said Jesus. “The standard you use will be used for you, and more will be added for you.

²⁵For, to those who have, more will be given; while, from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.”

²⁶Jesus also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like — like a man who has scattered seed on the ground,

²⁷and then sleeps by night and rises by day, while the seed is shooting up and growing — he knows not how.

²⁸The ground bears the crop of itself — first the blade, then the ear, and then the full grain in the ear;

²⁹but, as soon as the crop is ready, immediately he puts in the sickle because harvest has come.”

³⁰Jesus also said, “To what can we liken the kingdom of God?

³¹By what can we illustrate it? Perhaps by the growth of a mustard seed. This seed, when sown in the ground, though it is smaller than all other seeds,

³²yet, when sown, shoots up, and becomes larger than any other herb, and puts out great branches, so that even the wild birds can roost in its shelter.”

³³With many such parables Jesus used to speak to the people of his message, as far as they were able to receive it;