The Wheat & Weeds

In Matthew 13 Jesus tells a parable about wheat and weeds. At first wheat and weeds look the same, but over time their distinctions become clear: wheat produces life, and weeds produce death. When he explains this parable to his disciples Jesus tells them that the wheat represents the people of His Kingdom, and the weeds represent those deceived by the enemy. Both exist in the world today, and like the weeds, those planted into the world by the enemy are difficult to spot. As we follow Jesus today, this parable teaches us that revival always has a rival—Satan sows deception, distraction, and division right alongside the work of God. And while we can’t always tell the difference right away, our call is to remain faithful, alert, and hopeful in Christ until the final harvest.

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 All right. Open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13, and please remain standing to honor the reading of God’s Word. As you are turning there in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13, verse 24, we want you to know God, the Father loves you. Jesus Christ is sufficient and supreme, and the Holy Spirit can transform your life today if you let him.

So let’s let him. Matthew chapter 13. We’re continuing in our series on the parables. Today. We’re gonna look Matthew 13, verse 24. Holy Spirit, come and teach us. He presented another parable to them. The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while people were sleeping, his enemy came sowed, sowed weeds among the wheats and left when the plants sprouted and produced grain.

Then the weeds also appeared. The landowner’s servants came to him and said, master, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the weeds come from? An enemy did this. He told them, so do you want us to go and pull them up? The servants asked him, no. He said, when you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time, I’ll tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and tie them in bundles to burn them, but collect the wheat in my barn. Let’s pray. God, we know you’ve used this parable to save people. We’re asking you to do that today. We know that you’ve used this parable to bring about repentance to those who are already in the kingdom.

Would you do that today? God, would you break our hearts for what breaks yours? Would you comfort us with? What can be comforted in this passage? God, just use it. We are clay. Lord, may you mold us into your image. In Jesus’ name, everyone says Amen. You may take a seat. So my first sermon of the year, I don’t claim to be a prophet, but I’m just saying the first sermon of the year, I said.

The clock determines the play. And at that moment in January, I was just trying to make the argument, I believe this year is a fourth quarter moment. In case you are skeptical of that in January, I get it. But more and more people are starting to sense. There’s something about this moment and just like in the team metaphor, as we’re playing in the final minutes of the game, it’s really important for us as a community to to lean into urgency, to consecrate ourselves to God.

And part of that is because all year long we’re seeking to be a fourth soil people, which really means we wanna be ready. When God sends revival.  Martin Lloyd Jones, he once described revival as God doing more in a day than we could ever do in years. Others have recently described revival as seeing what God would normally do in 10 years.

But doing it in the span of 10 weeks. And let me be clear, I don’t believe revival is about hype. Revival is about holiness, and we long for that at Passion Creek.  That’s why I’ve been so encouraged. Our prayer gatherings have been full on Saturdays. It’s because we are asking God as a community to break in and to transform our lives in ways that we could never manufacture.

And certainly we can never manipulate and we believe revival. It’s from the Hand of God, but also the beauty of our community is that we have some training to do because there is a part that we play. And so all year long, it’s okay if you’re new, but I’d love to tell you the story of our community. Just in 2025, we’ve been training to fast, in order to say no to cheaper desires and yes to deeper union with Christ.

It’s to confess our need for him, but also to contend for our neighbors. We’ve also been training to pray. We’ve been praying by delighting in God’s presence, discerning God’s heart, depending on God’s power and directing God’s hand. Just recently, we have been training about bearing witness by leading from our witness to talk clearly about the gospel and leaning into our weakness to invite others into God’s grace.

All of that is amazing and so true, and I am so grateful for you as you’ve been leaning in. But here’s what Jesus teaches us, and this is where our parable lands us today. 📍 There is a rival to every revival, the Jesus movement of the late sixties and seventies. Raise your hand if you were there or a part of it, or no.

Okay. Shout out to y’all. This brought many to saving faith and birth, incredible movements like Calvary Chapel and the Vineyard that honestly still bear fruit today. But if you also watch documentaries online, you know, cult leaders like Jim Jones piggybacked on the spiritual hunger of that generation, deceiving many into destruction and for his followers death.

Or what about the Hebert’s Revival? In the 1950s, this produced an incredible hunger for God and whole communities fell under the deep conviction of sin. But one church on this island was left largely untouched by the revival. They spent their time pointing out the emotionalism of the moment and staying skeptical if God was really at work or not.

I can go on and on throughout history and it shouldn’t surprise us that every revival has a rival, but please hear this, it’s much easier than we think to get duped. Jesus knew this, which is why I believe he has this parable of the wheat and the weeds. So we just read this parable together. Let’s now see Jesus explain it to his disciples in verse 36.

Then he left the crowds and went into the house. His disciples approached him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. So this is pretty fascinating. He not only shares those parables, but he shares a couple more. But it’s that parable that confuses the disciples. So verse 37, he replied, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man.

The field is the world. And the good seed. These are the children of the kingdom. The weeds are the children of the evil one, and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the harvesters. Are angels. So let’s identify a few things to help us understand. Son of Man is actually a title for Jesus.

He hearkens that back to the book of Daniel, and so Jesus is the one who sows the good seed. Jesus is the one hear me, who’s the author of our faith. He’s the one who causes us to grow. The good seed is the church is the kingdom of God. It’s saints who have been saved by His grace. The field is the world.

And John 16, 17, 18 tell us, we as saints are supposed to live in the world, but not of it. The weeds are children of the evil one. Now, this is important for us too. Understand if you are not. In the kingdom of God, you are in the kingdom of the evil one. So it’s not just these really bad actors. Know everyone who has not put their faith and trust in Jesus are the weeds.

The enemy is the devil. The Greek word here is diabol, where you and I would get the word diabolical, liar. He’s a slanderer who’s come to ruin the harvest. Something else that’s fascinating about Matthew 13 here, this parable is one of only three that are given a detailed interpretation from Jesus himself.

Usually he shares a parable and he doesn’t quite tell you all of what it’s supposed to mean because he is allowing the Holy Spirit to work on your heart and mind. And a few weeks later, it just explodes in your heart and you realize that that parable was actually about you. But this parable. Must be very important.

He does not want you to miss or misunderstand it or misinterpret it. ’cause 📍 at the heart of this parable is the contrast between wheat and weeds, and we have to figure this out Before we go any further, the Greek word for weeds here is zania. Can you say that with me? Zania. It’s also known as darnal. Or you may in your translations say the terrors.

Everyone knew what this was at this time. It was the ultimate menace. In fact, it was so destructive. Uh, that the, uh, Roman law strictly prohibited for you to sow weeds among the wheats. It was one way to kind of, you know, stick it to the man to, to make it your, your neighbor, uh, have a their worst nightmare by in, at night coming and sowing weeds.

There would be a major punishment if you were to do that. So the crowd totally understood this. We are a bit separated, but I just wanna give you that context. So if we understand, first of all, between weeds and wheat, here’s what’s really important to know. They look exactly alike in the early stages.

They have the same color, it’s the same height, the same structure. And so when you were to, you know, plant wheat, just because it started growing doesn’t mean your anxiety is gone. You don’t quite know if it’s a perfect batch. You don’t know if weeds have infiltrated into your harvest, and so you just have to wait.

Then it starts to become more and more visible in the growth period. That the weeds are among the wheat. But here’s the hard part that we see in this parable. If you try to pull out the weeds, you will also pull out the wheat. Because the roots are so intertwined. You can’t pull one up without the other, especially if you do it too soon.

So you sit there, you’re bothered by it, but you have to wait until harvest. Then at the very end, the differences are beyond obvious. Here’s what happens. The wheat, as it grows, it begins to grow heavy and golden. And so the weeds, they are not heavy. They don’t carry any substance. They still stay upright and they produce at the end a black toxic seed.

So wheat, so think of the picture of gold versus black like in high versus drooped. Low. Wheat makes bread and produces life. When we consume it, the weeds, they actually cause dizziness and sometimes can lead to death if you consume it. So the crowd really leans into the story because they know it all too well.

Even if you work the hardest, have the greatest intentions, do everything right. Weeds never stop invading, and you never know while you were asleep, there could have been an enemy that planted weeds in your garden. But of course, this isn’t just an ancient farming problem, it’s our problem. We fill the tension, do we not?

Of wheat and weeds co coexisting in our world. And most of us, if we’re honest, don’t have the patience or perseverance to bear this tension that we must bear until the harvest. And so as followers of Jesus, there are at least 📍 three ways we must patiently endure the coexistence of wheat and weeds. Number one, wheat and weeds grow together in every season of life more and more, especially on Sunday mornings.

I find the question, how are you doing to be the most complicated question to answer? And I know nobody really cares. I should just say, good and move on. But it’s like. Like, how was your week or in group? Like, you know, how’s everything going? It’s such a complicated mess. Like this week was the best and worst week of my life.

I just feel like I’m getting prepped for having teenage girls in my house. They’re gonna be like, we get it. Like totally. I don’t know why I’m crying right now, right? Life is complicated and some areas of my life, I’m super content and other areas of my life, I just wanna quit altogether. And in seasons of life, you will always have wheat and weeds, and I think wisdom is being okay with that.

Wisdom is knowing I can live in gratitude today. Even though there are weeds in my life, I can’t pull them up yet. It’s not harvest time. The Lord hasn’t separated it out. And so instead of waiting, here’s what we do. We wait until every weed is gone and then we’re grateful to God. That just simply doesn’t happen.

We must understand in every season of life, in stage of maturity, there will be wheat and weeds. Now I think that’s worth mentioning, but that’s not the primary meaning of this passage. 📍 But number two is, gets a little more to the nose of this passage. Number two, we and weeds grow together in every saint.

When you first get saved by the grace of God, you rest in the fact that you’re forgiven. I remember, man, I got saved when I was six, but I was like, woo. Dodge that bullet. You know? Now I’m a great Christian and you’re just enjoying freedom from sin and you’re delighting in his favor. But many of us, we begin to fall away because we believe the lie that once we’re saved, everything’s supposed to be perfect.

But as time progresses, here’s what God does. He slowly removes your naivete and you see there are a lot of weeds still intertwined into your heart. Intertwined. Intertwined. It’s fine. Let’s keep moving. I’d argue the more mature we become in Christ, actually the more aware we are of just how much we still.

Desperately need the grace and mercy of God. Amen. You’ll see older saints who are so humble because they know I am still nothing without his grace and his mercy. And I think we should remember this by being patient with ourselves, but also hear me, we need to be patient with other saints around us. We are all a work in progress.

We all have weeds that still need to be purged. And I believe this is the worst feature of the internet. ’cause what it does is it flattens our timeline. It makes us judge you based off something you posted five years ago. It makes you think you still have those opinions, you still have that type of maturity and we condemn you for it.

I’m not who I was seven years ago. Go to YouTube, you’ll, you won’t come to my church again. If you see the kind of videos I posted seven years ago while we were starting this church, it was pathetic. And you still love me through it. Thank you. But we judge people for their immaturity and that, look, we’re all immature, we’re all growing.

And I, I just wanna say, I think what’s helpful here as I’ve been meditating on this, we can define people by their best moments or their worst moments, or we can just realize we’re all a mixed bag. Amen. Only Jesus is perfectly pure. And here’s the good news, though. We will be made perfect in heaven with Jesus Christ, our Lord.

So I think that’s the second application we need to see here. 📍 But the third is, is I think the most important to this text. Wheat and weeds grow together in every church. Many church fathers see this as the primary lesson. Jesus is teaching and warning to the church in this parable because it’s really difficult.

We are up coming up on 10 years as a church. I have so know this to be true. It’s really hard to know who the real saints are and those who are here for all worse reasons. Jesus and other places says eventually you will know them by their fruit. Eventually they do expose themselves, but look at verse 29 again.

Jesus warns us not to snuff out the weeds too soon. Verse 29. No, he said When you pull up the weeds, you might also uproot the wheat with them. What I have learned in ministry is a lot of us we’re not wise enough to discern and distinguish what is weeds and what is just a young wheat figuring things out because they both look the same in the early stages.

Now I do with first and second Timothy and Titus. I do need to sh tell you with the biblical theology elders of the church pastors, we are required to discipline deliberate disobedience, but we’re also required to be patient because there’s a difference here, me, between wickedness and foolishness. There is a huge difference between immaturity and immorality and it requires the grace of Jesus for us to discern the difference.

And here’s what I know. There is danger in pulling out young wheat, thinking that they’re wheats. I am so grateful. My father, my mentors around me, gave me guys. I started preaching at 16. I had no right to do that. But they were, what they were doing is allowing me to grow up immature and be forgiving and understanding of some of my jokes and illustrations along the way.

’cause I was just learning what does it mean to eventually become a pastor? So side note, done. Pray for your pastors and let’s all be patient with each other. Amen. Okay, here’s where it’s gonna get a little bit harder. So buckle up if we and weeds grow together, the natural next question is, how do the weeds get there?

And Jesus gives us an answer. He says, it’s the enemy who sows them when nobody’s looking. Write this down 📍 in the dark. The devil sows seeds of deception, distraction, and division. Now I think this is what’s really helpful in this parable. What’s beautiful about parables is you’re supposed to just put yourself in that world and, and understand the world that he’s creating.

So in this parable. Darkness is less about being sinister and it’s more about being invisible. So in other passages, darkness means evil, which again, this means evil as well, but like menacing, this darkness is okay. No one’s looking. I’m going to plant these seeds of deception. What we need to know is that we are quick to think that every deception comes with horns and pitchforks that we’ll see every single time we’re getting deceived.

That’s not how it works. Paul tells us in second Corinthians two 11, don’t be oblivious to Satan’s sly ways. It is so much easier to fall into his trap than we’d like to think. And one reason why is one of his favorite tools is deception, which means he uses lies We’re prone to believe. Ephesians four puts it this way, that he, that we can be tricked with lies so clever that they sound like truth.

So if we’re confident in our ability to know the truth from a lie, I would argue the devil thinks you’re a really easy target. He loves when you’re overconfident. It’s why we approach the scriptures daily. I think it’s why we approach the scriptures with humility and, and, and it’s why we approach the scriptures in community.

What, what is the church father said about this? What is the commentary? What are you saying about this? Let’s make sure it’s not, well, this is my version. No. What is the holy word of God always said about this? And how do we submit ourselves under it? And it gets really difficult. I realize I’m coming in hot and heavy today.

Good morning everybody. Welcome to Passion Creek Church. But listen, Eugene Peterson and his book on the pers of Jesus puts it this way. 📍 Virtually every temptation that comes to those of us who are committed to Jesus and have thrown ourselves sacrificially into a life of following Jesus comes in the form of something right and necessary and obviously good.

The devil doesn’t waste his time tempting us to do something that we know is evil. 📍 He hides the evil and something good and then tempts us with the good. We have been well warned that the devil comes as an angel of light. So why do we continue to live in such naivete? I think this is why last week’s parable, we talked about the warning of the good things.

Remember money, work and family. What he does is he twists these good things. But he twists them in such a way, they become ultimate things. And so it steals away our trusting God, our time with God, the mission he has put us on. And that’s why another one of his tools is distraction. I think, uh, this is what Jesus meant in the parable of the four soils and the third soil that were choked out by the worries of this age.

I think the worries of this age are just distractions. Stuff that the world tells us we’re supposed to be so concerned about and worried about. And here’s what I so believe to be true in our modern age. If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll just make you busy, which leads to the same result I’ve been thinking through and processing.

You know, what, where have I been distracted? And I’ve been really enjoying, I think I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of running like every day almost. And so recently, a few weeks ago, I signed up for the half marathon on December 13th. Uh, so, you know, I don’t know what time it starts, but come root for me, uh, ’cause I’m just pumped if I, if I finish.

But anyways, um, I’ve realized honestly kind of the this, this weekend and last. I’ve actually been, I, I needed to be reminded why did I start running in the first place? One is I did wanna lose some weight. Let’s just be honest. But number two was like, I needed time to pray. I needed more time to commune with God.

I needed, I, I, I can be such an addict to, to reading and to watching that I needed more and more space away from God. And it was just about God and what I have noticed and hear me, this is all a good thing. But me signing up for a half marathon trying to train for this, I have forgotten my first love. The reason I’m out there is just to talk to God.

Here’s what I’m also doing. There’s like five of us who are signed up for this half marathon. I am like spiritually making it where it’s, I’m gonna get last and I’m trying to make it okay that I will be last. I’m, it’s just me being spiritual. It’s just me loving God. I don’t have a training schedule. So anyways, that’s just my little backup plan there.

But, um. But honestly what I began to do and running and competition’s not bad, but like this is where Legalisms like you should never have a training plan. That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying for me, I did this for communion and now I’m replacing that with competition. I gotta get back to my first order.

I gotta get back to my first love. But that doesn’t mean the same for you, right? This is just what distraction can do. I can I say that to say it’s never like bad stuff, but beware of distraction. In fact, I wanna be a little bit more direct than normal. I believe the demonic and destructive activity we’ve all seen the past few weeks has been horrifying, but 📍 we are wasting this moment if it’s led to more fear, outrage and tribalism instead of more fasting, praying and witnessing.

Isn’t it easy to get caught up in narratives? Absolutely frustrated by opinions. I have been there. But Paul, as I’ve been reading Ephesians, he keeps asking, but what’s the best use of our time? Paul warns us in Ephesians five. He says, pay careful attention then to how you walk. Walk is just how you live your everyday life.

It’s things you do without even realizing it. It’s unintentional things. He says, be careful how you walk, not as unwise people, but as wise making the most of the time because the days are evil.

What if we stopped researching to see if these days are evil? I’m here to, it is. It’s evil. Case closed. What I’m saying is, let’s be wise. Let’s walk in the way of Jesus. Use the time God has given us to actually bear fruit. ’cause what I have seen and the temptations in my own life the past few weeks.

Fear. Outrage and tribalism that plays right into Satan’s hand, taking something good and flirting it, producing some weeds among the wheat. And I think his favorite weapon is division. Anybody else seen these moments where people should tell you that you shouldn’t come to our church anymore because of how we’ve handled things?

Anybody seen those things? No. Good. You guys are offline. Great. Good job. Good for you. Um, on every side, there’s been so many reasons people are saying to divide. Uh, division I believe breaks the heart of God. I believe division when we, when we don’t unite over the main things. But what, what tribalism is.

David Brooks define tribalism as unified over a mutual hate. The community of Jesus unifies over a mutual love does that. Of course. We hate, we hate wickedness and I’m about to answer that, so hold on with me. But what I fear is that we have, and again, it’s all from a good place. I think it’s good intentions.

We have given into a rhetoric that excludes people who we deem as irredeemable, and that is not the gospel I read, nor will it ever be the gospel that I preach. I love how John Thompson put it. I am brushing up on Demonology brothers and sisters. I am reading on all of it because of what’s going on. And his book Deliverance is really helpful.

Look at this quote. He says, 📍 human beings are not our true enemies. What inspires drives and twist them is make God grant us the wisdom to know the difference.

I’m not saying we are not in a revival moment. I’m praying it is, and I wanna be as hopeful and prepared as possible for it. I don’t wanna be a cynic, I wanna be leading the way, but I’m just saying. There’s also a rev, a rival at work. This parable has been so helpful for me this week as I have been breaking my own rules.

I actually, just so you know, I, I really do feel like I have been giving into distraction, and so I feel like I have to tell you this so that my phone doesn’t blow up over the next two weeks. I’m not on my phone. I’m actually seeking God. I’m going to a pastor cohort, and then I’m going up to the woods to plan out what 20, 26 looks like alongside Pastor Caleb, but Pastor Caleb’s available.

So hit him up if you need him for the next two weeks. I just am like, don’t talk to me about the world’s problems. I’m gonna be dead to the world for the next two weeks and live like a monk and then realize this is the best life ever. But anyways, this has been so helpful this week as I have seen some of the rhetoric and some of the things that people I love on, I, I, I just love, and here’s what I think, and maybe you feel this, I think this parable is so helpful because I think some people in this moment are saying, this is nothing but weeds.

Everything that’s happened is just evil, and it’s, and I’m cynical. God isn’t used. God is so far from this. It’s all weeds. Other people are saying, are you kidding me? It’s nothing but wheat. God is revival is already here. Get on the train brother. And I’m here reading it going. I think there’s just a lot of weeds and a lot of wheat and that’s how the kingdom of God has always worked.

And so if you’re saying it’s only weeds, I get it. Ask God to open your heart and eyes to see the wheat. If you are in a moment saying it’s nothing but wheat, ask God to open your eyes and hearts to see where there are wheats. ’cause it is ignorant of us to believe Satan is not also using this moment.

Because 📍 wherever God sows revival, Satan sows revival. And that’s not a word, but I made it up and you knew what it means. So it’s revival. Okay, revival Sows, division. Revival sows unity. Revivals. Okay. Making tenderers. Revival makes disciples. Revival glorifies the gifts. Revival glorifies the giver. Revival builds platforms.

Revival builds altars. Revival wants to go higher, revival wants to go deeper. Revival co-ops, the Holy Spirit, rev cooperates with the Holy Spirit. Revival produces celebrities, revival produces saints, revival, bears foolishness, revival, bears, fruitfulness. And hear me, we can’t tell the difference right away.

Let’s be patient. Allow the harvest to come and keep pursuing what God has called us to pursue. So I do want us to close with some application. How do we rest? Uh, excuse me. How do we resist the revive, the rival? I’m a mess. How do we resist the rivals of revival? 📍 Number one, stay alert to what’s happening in the dark.

And as Christians, what I mean is what’s happening. In us. In other words, what are you leaving yourself open to? Who or what is unintentionally forming you?

In other words, have you created or given into such a life where fasting, praying and witnessing, there’s, you just have no energy for it. Y you have no time for it. You, you, you’re so exhausted by the end of the day fighting these fights. God didn’t call you to fight that. You just can’t imagine praying.

Let’s reorganize our, Hey, that’s great. That’s what we do. We reorient our lives. What am I consuming that’s stirring hate for my neighbor? What am I consuming that is celebrating demonic ideology? What lies am I believing that must be combated with the truth of God’s word? So just be alert. I think this is a faithful way to interpret this passage.

Jesus is saying a lot of stuff happens in the dark. Just be beware. 📍 Which leads to the next thing though. Don’t judge prematurely. He says, don’t pull up the weeds yet because you’re gonna pull up the weeds. And so friends, can we just be patient with one another? Yes. I thank you. Um, can we, that wasn’t rhetorical, so I appreciate that.

But what I have learned is the journey of faith is not linear. It’s not up and to the right. It is so full of rollercoasters, it’s so up and down. And I think there’s a lot of beauty in that. I think it humbles us. I think it makes it about the Bain thing. And so let’s be patient with one another and ourselves.

And, and here’s what I would say. And, and if, and, and if you think this is me being cynical, you know, I’m not available the next two weeks. Hit up Caleb. But, but hear me. Um, let’s not be too quick to label the moment. Because here’s what, here’s what I think if revival’s here, we’re not talking about revival.

We’re talking about King Jesus and him crucified. We’re talking about the sins that we need to turn away from, and we are glorifying God, and we are making mens with people and forgiving and extending a hand to the least of these revival. You don’t talk about revival, you live it. So let’s not judge prematurely.

Let’s not label too soon. Now I am. I love people saying revival’s coming. I’m, I’m on. I’ve been saying that all year. So please don’t misinterpret me, but let’s be patient. 📍 Number three, don’t be outraged by the counterfeits out. Love them and outlast them. See, in this parable, here’s what I love. We’re the wheat, okay?

We’re not the servants. We’re not the, the, the landowners we’re just the wheat. And you know what the wheat’s job is in all of this, just to keep growing. Don’t worry about the weeds. They’ll be taken care of. Just keep growing. What’s the next right thing God is calling you to do? The Lord is separating us, separating us to do his holy work.

We are called to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added unto us. Don’t be outraged. Outlove him. Outlast him ’cause true revival. Well, I love about the Jesus movement. You still see the effects of that revival. If this really is revival, you can’t judge it within the next few weeks.

It’s the next few decades. 📍 Okay, last thing. Put your hope in Christ alone for the coming judgment. You can’t escape this. When Jesus teaches parables, he’s always talking about hell. He’s always talking about punishment. He’s always talking about the purging of the weeds. See, my first step, as I’ve been wrestling with this passage is thanking God for his mercy and grace, because brothers and sisters, I deserve to be among the weeds.

Jesus’ is warning us of the final judgment. And on that day of the final judgment, it’s too late for the weeds to become the weed. Look at verse 40. Therefore, just as the weeds are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age, the son of man will send out his angels and they will gather from his kingdom all who cause sin.

And those guilty of lawlessness, they will throw them into the blazing furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the son in their father’s kingdom. Let anyone who has ears listen. There’s a way to hear what he just said, but not actually listen. Friends, there will be a final judgment.

And in Christ, we are the righteousness of God. At the end of all things, hear me, the question will not be, have your good works outweighed your bad works. The question will be, have you put your faith and trust and the person and work of Jesus? When that’s a yes, we will shine like the sun. Let’s stand and respond together.

Let’s just respond with some prayer and ask you if to pray. Hover you like it. If you need to kneel, if you need to open your eyes, if you need to close them, whatever it does, that eliminates distraction. Just wanna spend the next few moments in prayer together.

God, what a joy it is to be in your kingdom. What a joy it is to see some of the wheat that you’ve, you’ve been producing in the life of our church and the life of our community.

God, I ask that we won’t be cynical. I ask that we won’t be like that one church in the Hebert East that missed out on your move because we were critiquing every little thing. May we rejoice, God, that we have had people coming to saving faith, that we have had baptisms and God, we just believe it’s the first of the first fruits of what’s to come.

God, would you be so kind as to allow our church to be a part of it?

Would you be so merciful God to us?

Would you use our church to lead the way in repentance and humility and celebration and making it about you?

And alongside of that prayer, God, I, I, I pray for protection over our church. Would you protect us God from the evil one?

Would you deliver us from demonic oppression? God, would you keep us from deception?

Would you convict us of any of the ways we have been tried to be divisive?

God, we’re so sorry for getting caught up in the things you told us not to get caught up into,

but we also rejoice. There’s so many of us right now. No, we’re caught up in the right things. And so God, would you give us patience with each other?

May we be true Christian people by first emitting our own weeds.

God, we long for heaven. We’re bothered by the intermingling. We’re bothered that we’re still a mixed bag. We’re bothered God, that Satan sows in the dark. It’s so bothersome and we ache and we toil and we, we pray against it. But also we long for the second coming. Jesus, would you come?

We long for the day where there be no more tears, no more crying? God, we long for justice to roll like a river.

We long God for us to be mature in our faith that we can endure the purging and the fire. We can endure the heartache and the criticism God give our spines. A sense of stillness, but also give our heart softness. God, we’re not playing games here. God, I I don’t want us to miss the moment.

Use this time. Bring down your Shekinah glory. Let us lead the way in humility and love, and be bold in our witness for the truth. God, would you do it? In Jesus’ name, amen. Amen.  ​