⁹ But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of ^(A)darkness into His marvelous light;

The Parable of the Growing Seed

²⁶ And He said, ^(A)“The kingdom of God is as if a man should ^[a]scatter seed on the ground, ²⁷ and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and ^(B)grow, he himself does not know how. ²⁸ For the earth ^(C)yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. ²⁹ But when the grain ripens, immediately ^(D)he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

The Parable of the Mustard Seed^(E)

³⁰ Then He said, ^(F)“To what shall we liken the kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we picture it? ³¹ It is like a mustard seed which, when it is sown on the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth; ³² but when it is sown, it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs, and shoots out large branches, so that the birds of the air may nest under its shade.”