"The slaves said to [the householder], 'do you want us to go and gather [the weeds]?'  But he replied 'No, for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest.'"   

Matthew 13:28-30  

Dearly Beloved in Christ,

The particular weed to which Jesus is referring was found in the grainfields throughout the Palestine of his day.  This is no ordinary, easily identifiable weed.  It is called "zizania" - sometimes translated as "darnel" or "cheat."  For this weed closely resembles the wheat, and it requires an expert eye to be able to tell the difference.  Consequently the householder forbids his slaves from pulling it out.  The probability of them mistaking the true wheat for the counterfeit was too great.  At harvest time the householder himself would instruct the reapers. 

The grainfield, explains Jesus, is the world.  The true wheat represents the children of the kingdom of God who have been seeded throughout the world by him; the "cheat" is the evil that has been seeded by the devil.  The harvest is the second coming of Christ when he alone will be able to identify the true wheat from the counterfeit, and will instruct his angels to harvest the one to be burned and the other to be gathered into the Lord's presence.

We are not to be about the work that is the Lord's alone.  He alone judges the heart - we judge by externals: "the Lord sees not as man sees; man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart." 1 Sam 16:7.  We think we see a saint, but they are only a surface saint, the Lord sees the motivation of their heart.  We think we see a profligate sinner, the Lord sees an embryonic saint.  He alone searches us out and knows us; knows our going out and our coming in, our rising and our sitting down, our thoughts before they are spoken. (Psalm 139) 

There are times in most of our lives when were the weeding to be done by anyone other than Lord  we could have been mistaken as the "cheat."  But the Lord sees the rootstock and knows that once in Him the true nature of the wheat will be revealed for "if anyone is in Christ - new creation." (2 Cor 5:17)  We have been remade (listen to the song below).  We have not received a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but we have received a spirit of adoption (Romans 8:15)  May we be led by the Spirit of God to live fully as children of the kingdom who ripen in the Lord's field so that at harvest time we are gathered into God's granary. 

Below is a YouTube video with words of the song I shared during the sermon on Sunday - "You are More" 

MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR OUR JULY FISH FRY  

Fish Fry Flyer