TEXT: Matthew 13:24-30
“Weeds in the Kingdom” – Part 2
Why Weeds Succeed
In the last message, we talked about what weeds are and why we should control them. Of course, the reason that we discuss weeds in our gardens is to understand part of the Kingdom of God. In this message, we will discuss why weeds succeed.
Weeds are notorious plants that are able to survive, persist, and multiply even under adverse conditions. How do these weeds survive under these circumstances? Their capacity to reproduce by many methods makes them amazingly versatile.
Weed Seeds
Consider their seeds. Most weeds can produce enormous amounts of seeds that are usually deposited on or in the soil. Often the smaller & lighter the seed, the more is produced by a weed plant. Common ragweed & Pennsylvania smartweed have been documented to produce over 3,000 seeds each. Pigweed is much worse, producing as many as 120,000 seeds per plant.
If you multiply the number of weed seeds that a mature weed might produce each year by the number of years the weed has been a problem, you begin to realize what a tremendous reservoir of weed seeds is in the soil.
I was interning at a church several years ago and there was a man that fits this description. He had been in the church for many years and had reached the status symbol of “Mature Weed.” When you first meet him, he acts like your best friend & is so hospitable. It’s like gazing at a beautiful dandelion flower, but not realizing what’s going on under the surface. The whole time he has been spreading his seeds everywhere he can find soil. If you take the number of years he’s been in the church & multiply them by the seeds he’s spread, you realize what kind of shape that church was in. What made it ever worse, is that he was a deacon in the church. Titus 1:7 says that an overseer in the church should be blameless, not pursuing dishonest gain. But that church never went to the community where this man lived to see what his reputation was. I was at a business one day and the owner asked if our church was the one that this weed went to. When we answered yes, the owner of the business let us know what his reputation was: “He is a scoundrel & a liar, and I wouldn’t pay a dollar for his life.”
People in the community knew he was a weed. Unsaved people knew he wasn’t leadership material, so why do churches ignore this fact? Because some churches are so desperate for leaders, that they will take anyone they can get. Also, if you have weeds in your congregation, they’re going to vote for the head weed.
When you cultivate or disturb the soil, you see so many new weeds form. You are bringing dormant seeds to the soil surface where they can readily germinate. Sometimes people get discouraged about weediness and they think they can correct the situation by digging up the lawn or garden and starting all over again – but it doesn’t work that way. Disturbing the soil brings more weed seeds to the surface where they can germinate and continue the problem.
Pastors come into a church and begin to cultivate the soil of that garden. It doesn’t take too long before some weed sprout begin to appear. They begin to have opposition & they get discouraged & frustrated. They just want to kick the weeds out of the church & start all over. But it doesn’t work that way. You can get rid of the weed blossom, but the root & seeds are hard at work underground.
Invasion Tactics
Different weeds have different invasion tactics. Most of us in Houston have come to either love or loathe bermudagrass. You love it because it, most likely, is the only grass in your yard. Or you loathe it because it is the weed that just keeps on creeping. Bermudagrass, ground ivy & white clover spread & reproduce by stolons – creeping aboveground stems. Besides forming mats, the stems root as they creep along. You can eliminate the older parts of the weed that are on the surface, but if bits of rooted stem remain, they will continue to grow and increase the size of the patch.
This creeping can also go on underground by a type of stem called a rhizome. These are a series of underground networks and connections. If one weed is pulled, a signal is sent to the taproot to produce more stems & seeds. You may have pulled one weed last week, but this week there are 5 in it’s place. Cultivating breaks up the soil & stimulates the growth of many more buds. A single weed that utilizes rhizomes can quickly form a whole colony.
In many churches, there are weeds that reproduce through these underground networks. There was a pastor who felt that the music ministry in their church needed to take a little different approach. So he went to the music minister and said that he would be doing praise & worship for a little while. Now if it had been me, I would have said, “That’s great. I could use some time off to be ministered to.” But that wasn’t the approach of this person. The music minister made some calls on her underground network. The next Sunday, the choir was all decked out in their robes, but most of them weren’t singing. The music minister had spread her seeds among the choir.
The $30.00 Dilemma
Have you ever had a group of guys come to your house & mow your yard? Have you ever noticed that they set their blade as high as it can be? That used to annoy me so much. I would have to pay them to mow it every week. If they would lower the blade, they would cut more & they would mow every other week. But then I started studying about weeds and I found out why they do that.
If you raise a mower blade, it will cut down the weed, but keep your grass at a good height. That way, the grass doesn’t have to compete as much with the weeds. They’re not be overshadowed by the weeds. The best way to get rid of weeds is not to pull them; don’t spray them; don’t lower you mower blade to cut them down. You choke them out by raising your mower blade. When you raise your blade, you thicken the turf.
So many times a pastor discovers weeds in his congregation & does the wrong thing. He pulls them aside after church & yells at them. But that just intensifies their annoyance. He has the ushers squirt them with pepper spray when they walk in the door, but they just come to church with goggles on. He starts singling them out in the sermons, but they just keep coming back.
All it takes is for him to thicken the turf. Ignore the weed and minister. Focus your energy on building up the body of Christ & you will do one of two things: (1) Make them so miserable that they’ll leave or (2) Cause them to be convicted & change their behavior & attitudes.
How many of you have someone come and mow your yard for you? You may not realize this, but if you have a group of guys mow your yard, you will pick up weed seeds from other yards. There are some weeds that have seeds that stick onto mower blades & the insides of mowers. So when those guys come mow your yard, you just got your yard filled with seeds.
When we first moved into our house, our front yard was plagued with white clover. It was getting a little high, so some guys came & mowed it for us. A few weeks later, white clover was gone but dallisgrass was all over. What happened? Their mower planted bad seeds on our lawn. The solution: use your own mower. You know where it’s been. It’s not going to plant bad seed on your lawn.
So many churches today don’t get it. (Transparency) This is a transparency of 10 years in a churches life cycle. If a church has one pastor he’s only going to face the weeds that are already in the church. His personality won’t conflict or create any weeds that don’t already exist. But if a church has had 5 pastors, each one of their personalities has brought weeds into the light. And the 5th pastor has all these weeds & seeds in the congregation. He become so occupied with dealing with them, that he feels he’s not ministering effectively.
My advice to you is to examine your life for any attitudes that are not pleasing to the Lord. Find a place where you can worship freely & where you can be encouraged & grow in the Word. Find a place that doesn’t change pastors every year at the annual business meeting. Find a place that will help you grow in the Lord and in the power of His might. Be committed to that body & to that pastor.
If that place is Radiant Life, then we would love to have you become part of our caring family. Here, we are trying to advance the kingdom of God. We’re not advancing our agendas, our careers, our popularity. We’re advancing the Kingdom of God. As long as we lift him up, He will draw all people to Himself.
