Parable Of The Weeds Series

Sowing Seed; Life, Faith, and Service

Parable of the weeds- Sermon #2

Matthew 13:24-29

Introduction-

We continue in our series Sowing Seeds; Life, Faith, and Service.

If you remember, we looked at the parable of the sower. We saw that the Word of God can be planted into 4 different soils. Results are dependent on what kind of soil that you are.

Path- heavily traveled, packed down ground that is not receptive to anything being planted into it. The Word tells us that the seed is quickly stolen away before it can take root.

Rocky- quickly springs up, but has not root. The sun scorches it and burns it up. They have excitement but no commitment.

Thorns- again shallow, not taken care of and the Word of God gets choked out. (More about that in a minute.)

Good Soil- well fertilized, well taken care of, enriched soil prepared to grow a crop. God says taking care of that soil can bring a harvest of 30, 60, or even 100 times what you plant.

I told you last week, and will repeat again… the principal that God gives us here concerning the Word of God and the soil that we allow it to grow in applies to everything and every aspect of our lives. (repeat)

Life is funny isn’t it?

We had no say on coming, but God very clearly states that we have a responsibility to live life.

We weren’t there when we were conceived, but from the time of our birth to our death, we have a responsibility to God and to ourselves.

King Solomon records in book of Ecclesiastes

That wisdom is meaningless.

Pleasure is meaningless.

The things we accomplish and our riches are meaningless.

That everything is meaningless without God!

He goes on to say that everything is under the guidelines of time. In other words, everything has a time period.

For us- we call it life.

The time from our birth until the time of death or Jesus returns.

Everything in life between becomes our journey and what we do with it will determine our outcome.

Some want to believe in a God that basically says, journey and live how you want too and at the end of it all, I’ll just take you in and we will all live together just like it was here on earth.

In a way that would be nice, but unfortunately God’s Word does not tell us that.

Just like the parable of the sower, it is not what we necessarily like, it is what God’s word says and the only way to get it right is to take God’s word and plant it in the right soil and allow God to direct every aspect of your life.

Matthew 13:24-29

Again red words are Jesus own words.

Jesus gave us this parable.

It is a familiar verse about wheat and Tares.

About what is planted and wanted and what grows up around it by itself.

We can all understand that there are things that grow up around us and choke the lfie out of us if we would let it.

We can understand that what grows sometimes does not take root, and dies. We have all sensed over and over again the pain of the planting process to see a good harvest, to see good fruit for our labor.

We can all understand that it is hard to pull those weeds once they have grown because they are hard for several reasons. They choke us, they have taken over, meaning more weeds that crop, and sometimes if we are honest, we like it, and it is hard because we battle between what is good and right and what we like. Sometimes they are not the same thing.

Jesus gives this example to the crowd of people gathered and walks away.

Then Jesus is in the house with the disciples and gives them the meaning of the parable.

Read Matthew 13:37-43 (do not need to put up on screen)

Here are some points to grab (write down)

We have an enemy who hates us.

Not everyone will make heaven.

Hell is a bad place, and the only way to escape is through Jesus Christ.

What can we do to keep the weeds away?

In every field, there are weeds.

The first thing you hear from some about coming to church- “I don’t want to go there, there are hypocrites there.” Zig Ziglar made the comment to one that had said that, “it’s okay, there is always room for one more.”

Think about this-

The church has a responsibility to throw good seed.

The church has a responsibility to teach people what it will take to enrich their life.

BUT EACH ONE MUST TEND TO HIS OWN FIELD, TO KEEP THE WEEDS OUT.