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.
1. Weeds and wheat grow in the field and one day God will separate the two.
2. Weeds tangle and choke the real harvest, and must be taken care of on a regular basis.
3. Weeds rob us of nutrients we need to be a healthy crop of wheat.
4. Weeds pulled out quickly come back if they are not killed and pulled out at the root.
5. From the fall of man in the garden, we have had to deal with weeds in our lives.
6. Weeds provide no fruit-
Like I said, you want watermelon, don’t plant cucumbers and be mad at God that it didn’t turn out right.
We have an enemy that hates us.
Hates when we do positive things for the Lord, positive things in our lives. He is there to steal as soon as it begins to grow.
We don’t like to talk about that. But many are choked out in their field because they are not taking care of it and have left the field to grow wild.
The weeds here are probably darnel. It is a weed, but it looks like wheat when it is young, but changes as it gets older.
You see where I am going here, we sometimes are not happy with our lives, but we are not willing to invest time and energy in keeping our field free of weeds.
Let’s nail this down-
Weeds are anything you don’t have to plant, water or fertilize. Weeds grow up on their own.
Beautiful wheat fields don’t just happen. They have to be tended too.
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
Website tells the story of a couple of families in the church that had gotten in the habit of listening to a TV preacher that came on in the wee hours of the morning. They shared the video of his teaching with me, and (aside from the cowboy hat and big cigar in his mouth) his doctrines didn’t sound far off… that is until you began reading his material.
It seems he was teaching that Cain was the offspring of Eve and Satan! And that Cain was a black man. Thus all black people were the offspring of Satan himself. It was a new twist on the old racial bigotry interpretation of Genesis. Of course that is heresy, and false, and a bit insane. It goes on to say that this preacher tried to tell this family it was wrong, but they would not listen. They had already been deceived into believing a lie.
Jesus warns us about false prophets. “They come in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.” Matthew 7:15
“False Christ and false prophets will appear and perform signs and miracles to deceive the elect.”
Mark 13:27
“Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father.” Matthew 7:21
That sounds to me like we have got to watch our fields, make sure that the weeds are dealt with as soon weeds begin to grow up.
Last point to drive home- stay with me! Don’t drop out yet.
Without God’s help, your field, my field, would all be weeds and thistles. (Repeat)
In Jesus parable (v28) Jesus servant asked, “Do you want us to go and pull them up?”
I believe they (righteous) were looking at other people’s fields and asking Jesus if they should go and pull their weeds.
(29) Jesus answers, “No, he answered, because while you are pulling the weeds, you may root up the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, at that time I will tell the harvester, first collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.”
Grab this spiritual truth- the next time someone tells you they won’t come to church because it is full of hypocrites, let them know they are welcome to come. Tell them that this is the way it is suppose to be. Jesus makes the decision of what is weeds and what is wheat. Our responsibility is to make sure weeds don’t choke the life out of us, so we can become what He intended us to be.
Seasoned saints should have less weeds in their field than new believers.
Seasoned saints should be taking care of their field because they know what is at stake.
They know what will choke the life out of them and they know the precautions they should be taking.
God doesn’t rush to judgment but waits to see if there is any fruit, and so must we as the church.
Make sure the weeds are out of your own field before you start wanting to weed and feed someone else’s field.
Closing ,
We don’t change God’s word.
We don’t water down the gospel.
The parable of the weeds is a warning to believers and a chance to change for a person that has allowed weeds to choke out their life.
It is to let them know that there is a better way.
It is not too late- you’re here this morning and you want God to weed kill. He will do it!
He shows you something that you need out of your life- let Him take it.
Things may seem out of control, but God has not given up on you.
Don’t let bad habits and hobbies rob you of the nutrients that come from good soil.
Weeds not controlled will take over.
Inspect your own life.
See what
God won’t do for you today, right now.
