WEBVTT 00:00:03.180 --> 00:00:05.860 Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity 00:00:05.860 --> 00:00:08.699 Sermons. This week we are continuing our teaching 00:00:08.699 --> 00:00:11.759 series called Growing Season, where we're going 00:00:11.759 --> 00:00:14.160 back to the farm to see what the farm has to 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.940 teach us about faith. If you ask any gardener, 00:00:17.940 --> 00:00:20.179 they will probably tell you the worst part of 00:00:20.179 --> 00:00:23.339 gardening is all of the weeds. The things that 00:00:23.339 --> 00:00:26.059 we didn't plant that pop up and get in the way 00:00:26.059 --> 00:00:28.640 of those healthy things that we really do want 00:00:28.640 --> 00:00:32.700 growing. We also have weeds in our lives, things 00:00:32.700 --> 00:00:35.020 that come up all of a sudden, things that we 00:00:35.020 --> 00:00:39.060 really don't want to see. But how should we deal 00:00:39.060 --> 00:00:41.619 with those weeds? That's what Rob is going to 00:00:41.619 --> 00:00:48.780 unpack for us in today's sermon. Today's reading 00:00:48.780 --> 00:00:52.439 is from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 13, verses 00:00:52.439 --> 00:00:57.780 24 to 30 and 36 to 43. Jesus told them another 00:00:57.780 --> 00:01:25.500 parable. An enemy did this, he replied. The servants 00:01:25.500 --> 00:01:28.359 asked him, Do you want us to go and pull them 00:01:28.359 --> 00:01:31.980 up? No, he answered, because while you are pulling 00:01:31.980 --> 00:01:34.799 the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. 00:01:35.060 --> 00:01:38.359 Let both grow together until the harvest. At 00:01:38.359 --> 00:01:41.459 that time, I will tell the harvesters. First, 00:01:41.540 --> 00:01:44.019 collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to 00:01:44.019 --> 00:01:46.879 be burned. Then gather the wheat and bring it 00:01:46.879 --> 00:01:51.079 into my barn. Then he left the crowd and went 00:01:51.079 --> 00:01:54.620 into his house. His disciples came to him and 00:01:54.620 --> 00:01:57.390 said, explain to us the parable of the weeds 00:01:57.390 --> 00:02:01.170 in the field. He answered, the one who sowed 00:02:01.170 --> 00:02:04.409 the good seed is the son of man. The field is 00:02:04.409 --> 00:02:07.450 the world and the good seed stands for the people 00:02:07.450 --> 00:02:10.490 of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the 00:02:10.490 --> 00:02:14.090 evil one and the enemy who sows them is the devil. 00:02:14.550 --> 00:02:18.030 The harvest is at the end of the age and the 00:02:18.030 --> 00:02:21.629 harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled 00:02:21.629 --> 00:02:24.909 up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the 00:02:24.909 --> 00:02:27.729 end of the age. The Son of Man will send out 00:02:27.729 --> 00:02:30.629 His angels, and they will weed out His kingdom, 00:02:30.669 --> 00:02:33.689 everything that causes sin and all who do evil. 00:02:34.270 --> 00:02:36.650 They will throw them into the blazing furnace, 00:02:36.949 --> 00:02:39.370 where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:02:39.930 --> 00:02:42.710 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in 00:02:42.710 --> 00:02:45.409 the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, 00:02:45.669 --> 00:02:50.409 let them hear the word of the Lord. A number 00:02:50.409 --> 00:02:54.409 of years ago, we purchased a goat. It was a boar 00:02:54.409 --> 00:02:57.610 goat. And these are goats that have white bodies, 00:02:57.729 --> 00:03:00.669 but they have brown heads and beautiful floppy 00:03:00.669 --> 00:03:04.550 ears. And we decided to breed this goat. And 00:03:04.550 --> 00:03:06.810 we were very, very excited about that. The prospect 00:03:06.810 --> 00:03:09.909 of having, you know, little baby goats, kids 00:03:09.909 --> 00:03:12.810 running around the farm was very exciting to 00:03:12.810 --> 00:03:15.830 us. And I made sure that I got a special pen 00:03:15.830 --> 00:03:20.250 ready for her to give birth. put bedding in there, 00:03:20.330 --> 00:03:23.370 a special manger, a special, you know, pail of 00:03:23.370 --> 00:03:26.150 water just for her, and kind of had it all set 00:03:26.150 --> 00:03:30.349 up. And yeah, after five months, it was a really, 00:03:30.370 --> 00:03:33.330 really exciting day when this goat gave birth 00:03:33.330 --> 00:03:37.909 to two little baby goats, and it was fantastic. 00:03:38.710 --> 00:03:44.050 But what I didn't realize, to my shame, was just 00:03:44.050 --> 00:03:49.240 how unbelievably curious baby goats are. And 00:03:49.240 --> 00:03:53.039 the next day, one of those little goats somehow 00:03:53.039 --> 00:03:58.020 managed to squeeze itself under the gate into 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:02.900 the cow pen, and it was trampled to death. The 00:04:02.900 --> 00:04:08.159 day after that, when I came out to the pen, I 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:12.539 was shocked to discover that the other... baby 00:04:12.539 --> 00:04:16.980 goat had somehow climbed into that water bucket 00:04:16.980 --> 00:04:21.079 I mentioned and drowned itself in about three 00:04:21.079 --> 00:04:28.300 inches of water. And I was so, so angry. In fact, 00:04:28.319 --> 00:04:30.600 you can ask my family members. They probably 00:04:30.600 --> 00:04:34.040 never seen me so angry as I was that day. And 00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:39.480 I was angry at myself because I should have known 00:04:39.480 --> 00:04:42.720 better. I thought I had everything ready, but 00:04:42.720 --> 00:04:45.399 I'd obviously made some pretty big mistakes. 00:04:46.139 --> 00:04:50.639 But that's how life goes on the farm, right? 00:04:50.759 --> 00:04:53.519 Farming, the farm is a place of growth, but it's 00:04:53.519 --> 00:04:58.079 also a place. of loss. And growing up on a farm, 00:04:58.139 --> 00:05:00.620 you kind of see it all. I've seen it all. I've 00:05:00.620 --> 00:05:04.660 seen a stillborn calf pulled from a cow, only 00:05:04.660 --> 00:05:10.040 to have the cow die as well. I've seen a fox 00:05:10.040 --> 00:05:14.079 trotting out of my driveway with a chicken in 00:05:14.079 --> 00:05:17.920 its mouth. I have seen a field full of soybeans 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:21.040 get rained on and rained on and rained on until 00:05:21.040 --> 00:05:26.370 every last bean rotted. the ground. But perhaps 00:05:26.370 --> 00:05:30.209 the saddest loss for me that I remember was one 00:05:30.209 --> 00:05:34.230 year, it was discovered that among our many barn 00:05:34.230 --> 00:05:39.629 cats, one of them had rabies. And so the officials 00:05:39.629 --> 00:05:44.689 came and they collected all the cats and had 00:05:44.689 --> 00:05:48.550 them all destroyed, including our favorite cat, 00:05:48.790 --> 00:05:52.959 Tiptail. who was this gray cat who had just a 00:05:52.959 --> 00:05:57.420 little, a bit of white tip on his tail. That 00:05:57.420 --> 00:06:02.879 was just devastating as a kid. So tip tail, this 00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:07.740 sermon's for you. We're in the middle of a teaching 00:06:07.740 --> 00:06:10.730 series called Growing Season. Where we're exploring 00:06:10.730 --> 00:06:13.269 the connection between farming and faith. Agriculture 00:06:13.269 --> 00:06:17.110 and spirituality. And learning that God is a 00:06:17.110 --> 00:06:20.490 great, great farmer. And he is growing something 00:06:20.490 --> 00:06:24.089 in us. And he is growing something among us. 00:06:24.290 --> 00:06:27.449 But you can't talk honestly about farming without 00:06:27.449 --> 00:06:30.290 talking about loss. And the thing is, here's 00:06:30.290 --> 00:06:34.310 the thing about losses on a farm. Sometimes losses 00:06:34.310 --> 00:06:36.769 that happen on a farm are because somebody was 00:06:36.769 --> 00:06:41.709 careless. A gate got left open. A bucket of water 00:06:41.709 --> 00:06:44.250 was left in a position where a little goat could 00:06:44.250 --> 00:06:48.129 get into it. And when you ask the question, oh 00:06:48.129 --> 00:06:50.290 my gosh, how could this happen? Or what went 00:06:50.290 --> 00:06:52.730 wrong? You know the answer. The answer was you 00:06:52.730 --> 00:06:56.269 went wrong. You made the mistake. You should 00:06:56.269 --> 00:06:59.949 have been more careful. But there are other losses 00:06:59.949 --> 00:07:03.350 that are actually much harder to explain. Because 00:07:03.350 --> 00:07:07.149 at other times, you can do everything right. 00:07:07.949 --> 00:07:10.269 And still lose a calf in the middle of the night. 00:07:10.550 --> 00:07:14.350 You can plant good seed into good soil. And as 00:07:14.350 --> 00:07:19.050 my dad said, the hailstorm still comes and ruins 00:07:19.050 --> 00:07:22.300 it all. You know, those losses start to raise 00:07:22.300 --> 00:07:25.259 deeper questions in us. Not just, you know, what 00:07:25.259 --> 00:07:27.519 went wrong, but questions like, well, where did 00:07:27.519 --> 00:07:31.560 this tragedy even come from? Or how did this 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:36.439 happen? Or what do we do now? And it's not just 00:07:36.439 --> 00:07:39.660 farmers who have those kind of questions rattling 00:07:39.660 --> 00:07:41.839 around in their minds. Chances are you've known 00:07:41.839 --> 00:07:47.750 some loss in your life too. A job loss. financial 00:07:47.750 --> 00:07:51.750 loss, maybe loss of health, or maybe you've lost 00:07:51.750 --> 00:07:56.430 a loved one yourself. And the thing is, it wasn't 00:07:56.430 --> 00:07:59.670 because of anything you did, right? Or it wasn't 00:07:59.670 --> 00:08:02.329 because of any mistake that you made. You did 00:08:02.329 --> 00:08:04.889 everything you knew to do. You were faithful, 00:08:05.069 --> 00:08:09.269 you prayed, and yet still something went wrong. 00:08:09.949 --> 00:08:14.209 And now you're left asking all of these questions. 00:08:15.790 --> 00:08:19.490 Jesus tells a parable this morning about a farmer 00:08:19.490 --> 00:08:23.689 who sowed good seed into a good field and he 00:08:23.689 --> 00:08:27.509 did everything right. But when the wheat began 00:08:27.509 --> 00:08:32.610 to grow, a whole crop of weeds appeared too. 00:08:33.370 --> 00:08:35.629 And so the servants came to him and asked, they 00:08:35.629 --> 00:08:38.629 said, master, didn't you sow good seed in your 00:08:38.629 --> 00:08:41.889 field? Where did all this mess come from then? 00:08:42.129 --> 00:08:44.590 And this actually is one of the most honest questions, 00:08:44.649 --> 00:08:48.230 I think, in the whole Bible. If the seed is good, 00:08:48.330 --> 00:08:51.389 what went wrong, right? If the field was good, 00:08:51.590 --> 00:08:56.129 why the tragedy? And if the farmer was faithful, 00:08:56.450 --> 00:09:02.100 why did the crop still suffer loss? This is one 00:09:02.100 --> 00:09:04.419 of the oldest questions that human beings have 00:09:04.419 --> 00:09:11.259 asked. Why do bad things happen? And philosophers 00:09:11.259 --> 00:09:13.279 might call it, you know, the problem of evil. 00:09:13.559 --> 00:09:18.059 Theologians call it theodicy. You know, if God 00:09:18.059 --> 00:09:21.700 is good and if we are faithful, why is there 00:09:21.700 --> 00:09:24.159 still so much trouble in the field, in my life? 00:09:24.669 --> 00:09:28.590 Or in the world? Why so much pain? Why so much 00:09:28.590 --> 00:09:32.970 suffering? It is a very deep question. And there 00:09:32.970 --> 00:09:36.490 have been books and essays written trying to 00:09:36.490 --> 00:09:38.909 answer it. But here's the interesting thing. 00:09:39.090 --> 00:09:42.090 When Jesus is asked this question, his answer 00:09:42.090 --> 00:09:47.029 is actually blunt and short. Jesus' answer is, 00:09:47.210 --> 00:09:52.889 an enemy has done this. It was an enemy. There's... 00:09:53.100 --> 00:09:56.220 An enemy out there. And that's the explanation. 00:09:57.220 --> 00:10:00.740 And it actually tells us. Something quite essential. 00:10:01.039 --> 00:10:04.899 About the world. According to Jesus. And that 00:10:04.899 --> 00:10:10.279 is this. Evil is real. And there is an enemy. 00:10:10.399 --> 00:10:13.980 There is someone at work. Against you. There 00:10:13.980 --> 00:10:17.980 is someone at work. Against God. The purposes 00:10:17.980 --> 00:10:22.909 of God. The field. Is not evil. The seed is not 00:10:22.909 --> 00:10:26.909 bad. The farmer is not incompetent. You're not 00:10:26.909 --> 00:10:30.830 to blame. It's just that there's an enemy and 00:10:30.830 --> 00:10:34.149 he's evil. And it's very interesting for us to 00:10:34.149 --> 00:10:37.070 remember that because so often when things go 00:10:37.070 --> 00:10:39.669 wrong, our first instinct is to find someone 00:10:39.669 --> 00:10:43.350 to blame, right? Who failed? Who sinned? Who 00:10:43.350 --> 00:10:48.509 screwed up that caused all this? And even in 00:10:48.509 --> 00:10:50.090 this story, it seems like the servants almost 00:10:50.090 --> 00:10:52.549 blame the farmer. They're like, hey, you were 00:10:52.549 --> 00:10:54.429 supposed to sow good seed. You know, did you 00:10:54.429 --> 00:10:58.669 screw up? No. That's often how we think that 00:10:58.669 --> 00:11:03.350 there's got to be human error. But Jesus knows 00:11:03.350 --> 00:11:07.250 that you can't explain all loss that way. You 00:11:07.250 --> 00:11:09.309 can't explain suffering. It's not just as easy 00:11:09.309 --> 00:11:12.490 as finding out who to blame. The presence of 00:11:12.490 --> 00:11:15.730 the weeds doesn't mean that the farmer failed. 00:11:16.519 --> 00:11:20.179 I mean, can you imagine a child getting sick 00:11:20.179 --> 00:11:24.159 or a marriage falling apart or someone's dream 00:11:24.159 --> 00:11:28.279 that gets shattered? And one of the cruelest 00:11:28.279 --> 00:11:30.340 things you could possibly do is stand over top 00:11:30.340 --> 00:11:34.000 of that wreckage and say, well, you must have 00:11:34.000 --> 00:11:37.549 done something wrong. And, you know, it reminds 00:11:37.549 --> 00:11:40.710 me of what Job's friends did in the Old Testament, 00:11:40.789 --> 00:11:43.450 the story of Job. Actually, Job was a farmer. 00:11:43.529 --> 00:11:47.190 He had sheep and camel and oxen and donkeys and 00:11:47.190 --> 00:11:50.750 all that stuff. But one day, fire fell from heaven 00:11:50.750 --> 00:11:53.929 and burned up all the sheep. And the Chaldeans 00:11:53.929 --> 00:11:58.129 swept in and stole all the camels and so on and 00:11:58.129 --> 00:12:02.179 so on. But then, worst of all, Job's... own children 00:12:02.179 --> 00:12:05.799 died too, and his family fell apart. And in the 00:12:05.799 --> 00:12:09.080 aftermath of that, you know what? People assumed 00:12:09.080 --> 00:12:13.039 Job must have done something wrong, right? They 00:12:13.039 --> 00:12:16.639 said things like, well, Job, those who plow iniquity 00:12:16.639 --> 00:12:20.539 and sow trouble, they reap the same. Or they 00:12:20.539 --> 00:12:22.500 said, hey, well, if your children sinned against 00:12:22.500 --> 00:12:25.480 God, then he gave them over to the penalty of 00:12:25.480 --> 00:12:27.559 their sin. In other words, Job, it must either 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:30.200 be your fault or it must be your children's fault. 00:12:31.340 --> 00:12:33.720 But actually the whole book of Job is exactly 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:36.600 to make the point just the opposite of that. 00:12:36.639 --> 00:12:39.139 It wasn't Job's fault. Job was righteous. Job 00:12:39.139 --> 00:12:41.960 was good. Job was faithful. He did everything 00:12:41.960 --> 00:12:46.740 right. And yet still look what happened. The 00:12:46.740 --> 00:12:50.799 world is not the way that it should be. And the 00:12:50.799 --> 00:12:54.059 field has been invaded. And there's an enemy 00:12:54.059 --> 00:12:56.840 at work against your life and against the life 00:12:56.840 --> 00:13:01.220 of God. And you may think, oh, that sounds so 00:13:01.220 --> 00:13:04.080 old -fashioned or that sounds so superstitious 00:13:04.080 --> 00:13:06.480 and fine. But just know that Christianity doesn't 00:13:06.480 --> 00:13:09.039 just smile at suffering and say, oh, well, you 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.139 got to take the good with the bad. No, it gives 00:13:11.139 --> 00:13:15.620 us permission to name evil as evil and to say 00:13:15.620 --> 00:13:21.899 an enemy has done this. But if Jesus' first point 00:13:21.899 --> 00:13:25.059 is that evil is real, his second point is that 00:13:25.059 --> 00:13:29.289 evil is sneaky. And the enemy works under cover 00:13:29.289 --> 00:13:34.169 of darkness and he works through imitation. I 00:13:34.169 --> 00:13:37.669 mean, wouldn't life be great if evil was really, 00:13:37.710 --> 00:13:40.889 really easy to spot? I think of this line from 00:13:40.889 --> 00:13:43.889 1 Peter. Your adversary, the devil, is roaring 00:13:43.889 --> 00:13:46.830 like a lion. He's prowling around. You know, 00:13:46.870 --> 00:13:49.470 wouldn't that be, it's kind of hard to miss a 00:13:49.470 --> 00:13:52.330 roaring lion. And I suppose sometimes the enemy 00:13:52.330 --> 00:13:55.309 does roar like that, but in this parable, the 00:13:55.309 --> 00:13:58.289 enemy does not roar. The enemy sneaks. The enemy 00:13:58.289 --> 00:14:00.590 doesn't burn the field to the ground. He doesn't 00:14:00.590 --> 00:14:02.549 go trample through the field in the middle of 00:14:02.549 --> 00:14:05.730 broad daylight. No, he comes at night and he 00:14:05.730 --> 00:14:08.830 sows weeds among the wheat and then he goes away 00:14:08.830 --> 00:14:11.509 and it's quiet and it's hidden and it takes forever 00:14:11.509 --> 00:14:13.929 for people to actually realize what has happened. 00:14:14.029 --> 00:14:17.409 And the reason it takes so long and the reason 00:14:17.409 --> 00:14:21.330 nobody notices is because the Weed that Jesus 00:14:21.330 --> 00:14:25.429 is describing here is a weed darnel, and it's 00:14:25.429 --> 00:14:30.049 a mimic weed. It looks very much like wheat in 00:14:30.049 --> 00:14:33.649 its early stages, right? If you put it in the 00:14:33.649 --> 00:14:36.009 same field with wheat and you just let it grow 00:14:36.009 --> 00:14:38.610 there, it blends right in. Eventually, the difference 00:14:38.610 --> 00:14:40.690 becomes clear. When it comes to the harvest, 00:14:40.789 --> 00:14:43.009 one of them forms wheat heads and the other does 00:14:43.009 --> 00:14:45.509 not, right? But here is the point. Here's the 00:14:45.509 --> 00:14:50.690 point. Evil often imitates the thing that it 00:14:50.690 --> 00:14:55.230 wants to destroy. The enemy doesn't work always 00:14:55.230 --> 00:14:57.350 by making evil look evil. Sometimes he makes 00:14:57.350 --> 00:15:01.850 evil look good. He makes weeds look like wheat. 00:15:02.409 --> 00:15:05.809 He can make someone look like a strong leader, 00:15:05.990 --> 00:15:09.509 but underneath they're just a power -hungry manipulator. 00:15:09.690 --> 00:15:12.950 He can make someone look like they're your friend, 00:15:13.110 --> 00:15:16.789 but behind your back they're... and saying all 00:15:16.789 --> 00:15:18.830 sorts of horrible things about you. He can make 00:15:18.830 --> 00:15:21.590 someone look like they're helping the church, 00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:25.230 but actually what they're really doing is slowly 00:15:25.230 --> 00:15:31.570 tearing the church apart. It's not easy to tell 00:15:31.570 --> 00:15:35.009 which is which. You've got... To look at the 00:15:35.009 --> 00:15:37.730 fruit, actually. Not just the appearance. In 00:15:37.730 --> 00:15:39.929 fact, Jesus once said, beware of people who come 00:15:39.929 --> 00:15:42.889 to you in sheep's clothing. Another agricultural 00:15:42.889 --> 00:15:46.490 image, right? But inwardly, they are ravenous 00:15:46.490 --> 00:15:50.269 wolves. You will know them by their fruits. Not 00:15:50.269 --> 00:15:52.649 by their leaves, not by their stems. You'll know 00:15:52.649 --> 00:15:57.230 them by their fruit. And so, as people, you and 00:15:57.230 --> 00:16:01.490 me, who live in a world full of good and evil, 00:16:01.549 --> 00:16:05.110 full of wheat and weeds, need discernment to 00:16:05.110 --> 00:16:08.470 tell the difference. Not paranoia, right? Not 00:16:08.470 --> 00:16:11.269 scanning the pews to find out who's good and 00:16:11.269 --> 00:16:13.669 who's evil and who's a weed and who's wheat, 00:16:13.730 --> 00:16:18.409 but discernment. The ability to see what fruit 00:16:18.409 --> 00:16:20.789 is actually growing in that person's life because 00:16:20.789 --> 00:16:24.370 that's how I can tell who they are. That's the 00:16:24.370 --> 00:16:29.750 clue, the fruit. And let me just add this. And 00:16:29.750 --> 00:16:31.389 this matters especially, I think, for the church 00:16:31.389 --> 00:16:35.149 because the enemy rarely attacks a church through 00:16:35.149 --> 00:16:40.610 obviously wicked people or sinister plans. No, 00:16:40.629 --> 00:16:43.529 instead, what the enemy does is he grows things 00:16:43.529 --> 00:16:48.210 among us, things that look spiritual, but in 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:52.970 fact, And those things choke out the love and 00:16:52.970 --> 00:16:55.529 they choke out the honesty and grace of a church. 00:16:55.730 --> 00:16:58.190 That's how the enemy works. The enemy works through 00:16:58.190 --> 00:17:02.590 imitation and he imitates what he wants to destroy. 00:17:03.210 --> 00:17:07.410 Right? So be discerning. That brings us to the 00:17:07.410 --> 00:17:10.849 third part of this story. The enemy is real. 00:17:11.009 --> 00:17:16.190 Yes. He works by imitation. Yes. But the servants. 00:17:16.979 --> 00:17:20.859 They want a quick fix. They want to sort this 00:17:20.859 --> 00:17:23.299 problem out right away. And you can understand 00:17:23.299 --> 00:17:25.880 why. They see weeds and they're like, hey, do 00:17:25.880 --> 00:17:28.160 you want us to go in and just like start pulling 00:17:28.160 --> 00:17:30.039 them out? Should we just go in and start cleaning 00:17:30.039 --> 00:17:32.160 up the field? And at first, that sounds like 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:34.700 a pretty good idea. If there are weeds, pull 00:17:34.700 --> 00:17:38.099 them out. If there is evil, you should deal with 00:17:38.099 --> 00:17:41.579 it. But the farmer says, no, don't do it. Don't 00:17:41.579 --> 00:17:44.569 do it. For in gathering the weeds. You're going 00:17:44.569 --> 00:17:49.369 to uproot the wheat along with them. Now, the 00:17:49.369 --> 00:17:51.430 farmer's not being a wimp here. The farmer is 00:17:51.430 --> 00:17:55.029 not scared of his enemy or saying, oh, evil doesn't 00:17:55.029 --> 00:17:57.049 matter, just let it grow. No, he is saying, you 00:17:57.049 --> 00:17:59.950 can't. You're just not capable of making the 00:17:59.950 --> 00:18:02.289 final determination between wheat and weeds and 00:18:02.289 --> 00:18:05.910 between good and evil. You can't do it without 00:18:05.910 --> 00:18:10.170 causing real, real damage. And that, I think, 00:18:10.170 --> 00:18:14.490 is because while the servants can see the weeds, 00:18:14.670 --> 00:18:18.650 they definitely cannot see the roots. They see 00:18:18.650 --> 00:18:20.329 what's above the surface. They don't see what's 00:18:20.329 --> 00:18:22.890 below the surface. And if they charge in there 00:18:22.890 --> 00:18:25.130 and start ripping out everything that looks wrong, 00:18:25.410 --> 00:18:29.089 then they will end up destroying the very wheat 00:18:29.089 --> 00:18:32.849 that they are trying to save. All those roots 00:18:32.849 --> 00:18:37.950 are tangled together underneath the soil. Man, 00:18:37.950 --> 00:18:40.289 oh man, and Christian history tells us over and 00:18:40.289 --> 00:18:43.130 over again how the church has been tempted to 00:18:43.130 --> 00:18:48.150 try to create this very pure field for God. And 00:18:48.150 --> 00:18:51.130 so we go hunting for the weeds. And we're convinced 00:18:51.130 --> 00:18:54.349 that if we just remove all the wrong people, 00:18:54.549 --> 00:18:58.410 then everything would be safe. But human beings 00:18:58.410 --> 00:19:02.829 are not good at final judgment. They get it wrong 00:19:02.829 --> 00:19:06.329 again and again and again. And when we try to 00:19:06.329 --> 00:19:10.390 sort things out too soon on our own, we end up 00:19:10.390 --> 00:19:15.059 pulling out the wheat with the weeds. Now you 00:19:15.059 --> 00:19:17.640 might say, well then, aren't we supposed to confront 00:19:17.640 --> 00:19:20.640 evil? Aren't we supposed to fight back against 00:19:20.640 --> 00:19:22.839 the enemy? And the answer is yes, we are definitely 00:19:22.839 --> 00:19:25.180 called to resist evil. We definitely have to 00:19:25.180 --> 00:19:27.900 protect the vulnerable from evil. We definitely 00:19:27.900 --> 00:19:30.839 have to speak truth where there are lies. But 00:19:30.839 --> 00:19:34.000 there is a big difference in assuming that it 00:19:34.000 --> 00:19:36.539 is our job to do the final sorting of the wheat. 00:19:38.730 --> 00:19:42.150 And to think that somehow that's our job. No, 00:19:42.210 --> 00:19:44.829 no, that is not our job. Our job is not to figure 00:19:44.829 --> 00:19:46.890 out what is good and evil. We're not called to 00:19:46.890 --> 00:19:50.789 play God. The church is called to be faithful. 00:19:51.049 --> 00:19:53.789 We're not called to finally sorting it out, but 00:19:53.789 --> 00:19:57.170 to be faithful in truth and love and holiness. 00:19:57.869 --> 00:20:01.859 We're not the harvesters, though. We are not 00:20:01.859 --> 00:20:06.039 the final judges of who is in and who is out. 00:20:06.140 --> 00:20:09.240 Even Paul says, he says, judge nothing before 00:20:09.240 --> 00:20:13.039 the appointed time. Wait until the Lord comes. 00:20:13.160 --> 00:20:17.059 Only God can bring to light what is hidden and 00:20:17.059 --> 00:20:21.039 sort out the field without destroying the good 00:20:21.039 --> 00:20:25.160 wheat. So the servants, yeah, they want to fix 00:20:25.160 --> 00:20:27.859 the field real fast. And the farmer says, wait 00:20:27.859 --> 00:20:30.619 for the harvest. And by the way, The harvest 00:20:30.619 --> 00:20:33.720 doesn't depend on you. It belongs to God. But 00:20:33.720 --> 00:20:36.759 here is another reason why those servants can't 00:20:36.759 --> 00:20:38.900 just race in there and start pulling out all 00:20:38.900 --> 00:20:41.900 the weeds. And that's because not all the weeds 00:20:41.900 --> 00:20:46.099 are out there, right? Some of them are in here, 00:20:46.220 --> 00:20:51.720 right? And so we should not talk as if the problem 00:20:51.720 --> 00:20:55.670 of evil. is always somewhere else or someone 00:20:55.670 --> 00:21:00.170 else. Because when I look honestly at my life 00:21:00.170 --> 00:21:03.569 in the field of my own heart, I find wheat and 00:21:03.569 --> 00:21:06.829 weeds growing a lot closer together than I like 00:21:06.829 --> 00:21:12.349 to admit. I can love God and I can still want 00:21:12.349 --> 00:21:16.869 control. I can serve faithfully, but I can still 00:21:16.869 --> 00:21:22.329 crave recognition. I can preach grace. But I 00:21:22.329 --> 00:21:26.230 can still be impatient with people's weaknesses. 00:21:28.339 --> 00:21:31.880 Alexander Solzhenitsyn, who survived the brutal 00:21:31.880 --> 00:21:35.640 Soviet forced labor camps, the gulags, he saw 00:21:35.640 --> 00:21:38.220 more loss and more suffering than most. And yet 00:21:38.220 --> 00:21:40.940 even he realized that the line separating good 00:21:40.940 --> 00:21:44.519 and evil passes not through states, nor between 00:21:44.519 --> 00:21:47.880 classes, nor between political parties, but right 00:21:47.880 --> 00:21:52.359 through every human heart. And you know what 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:55.460 he's talking about. You know what's going on 00:21:55.460 --> 00:21:57.299 in your own heart. You know that you want to 00:21:57.299 --> 00:21:59.779 love, but there's hate in there too. And you 00:21:59.779 --> 00:22:02.619 want to forgive, but resentment keeps growing. 00:22:02.759 --> 00:22:05.160 You want to trust God, but there's fear, right? 00:22:05.240 --> 00:22:07.299 You want to follow Jesus, but there's plenty 00:22:07.299 --> 00:22:09.420 of things going on in your heart that look nothing 00:22:09.420 --> 00:22:14.619 like Jesus. And so in other words, humility. 00:22:15.630 --> 00:22:19.009 toward other people begins with honesty about 00:22:19.009 --> 00:22:22.250 ourselves. Before I point out the weeds in my 00:22:22.250 --> 00:22:25.069 neighbor, I need to ask him, search my own heart. 00:22:25.190 --> 00:22:28.869 God, Lord, I see things growing in me that just 00:22:28.869 --> 00:22:33.210 don't belong there. Fear and pride and impatience 00:22:33.210 --> 00:22:37.289 or lust or whatever it may be. God, just, God, 00:22:37.369 --> 00:22:40.029 pull me closer to you and do the work in my heart 00:22:40.029 --> 00:22:43.049 first. And God is not surprised, by the way, 00:22:43.089 --> 00:22:47.019 what he finds growing. In your heart, he sees 00:22:47.019 --> 00:22:51.019 the wheat, the good stuff, and he sees the weeds 00:22:51.019 --> 00:22:55.279 and he sees the roots. And yet he's committed 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:02.099 to saving what he has planted. But how? How is 00:23:02.099 --> 00:23:05.900 this mixed field ever going to be saved? How 00:23:05.900 --> 00:23:09.660 can my divided heart ever be saved? Well, here's 00:23:09.660 --> 00:23:14.599 how. Here's how. Jesus. And Jesus does not stand 00:23:14.599 --> 00:23:17.640 at the edge of this field, at the edge of this 00:23:17.640 --> 00:23:21.299 world. No, no. He enters into it and he walks 00:23:21.299 --> 00:23:25.720 right in to the weeds, right into the loss. You 00:23:25.720 --> 00:23:29.720 see, Jesus actually knows what it's like to have 00:23:29.720 --> 00:23:33.319 people that he loves kind of hurt him and walk 00:23:33.319 --> 00:23:37.500 away. Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. The 00:23:37.500 --> 00:23:40.980 crowds turned back. He knows the pain of living 00:23:40.980 --> 00:23:44.490 in a mixed world. field of good and evil and 00:23:44.490 --> 00:23:48.170 the tangle of wheat and weeds. And so on the 00:23:48.170 --> 00:23:53.509 cross, Jesus took that whole weedy field onto 00:23:53.509 --> 00:23:57.049 himself. He took the thorns into his head, the 00:23:57.049 --> 00:24:00.690 nails through his hands. And like those little 00:24:00.690 --> 00:24:06.269 goats, Jesus was trampled. Jesus was drowned 00:24:06.269 --> 00:24:09.259 by death. And on Good Friday, you know what? 00:24:09.319 --> 00:24:11.259 It looked like the enemy had won. It looked like 00:24:11.259 --> 00:24:14.339 the weeds had overwhelmed the wheat. It was a 00:24:14.339 --> 00:24:20.519 total crop failure. But on the third day, Jesus 00:24:20.519 --> 00:24:25.700 rises again. And the resurrection is God's announcement. 00:24:25.880 --> 00:24:29.769 Guess what? The enemy does not. own the field 00:24:29.769 --> 00:24:32.430 and sin does not get the final word and loss 00:24:32.430 --> 00:24:35.549 does not get the final word and death does not 00:24:35.549 --> 00:24:39.069 get the final word. And one day Jesus will return 00:24:39.069 --> 00:24:43.549 and he will gather the harvest and he finally, 00:24:43.589 --> 00:24:50.029 he will set the field right. Now, just before 00:24:50.029 --> 00:24:52.089 I end, I want to be honest about some language 00:24:52.089 --> 00:24:54.210 you heard in that reading that probably scared 00:24:54.210 --> 00:25:00.859 the out of you, right? Jesus says the weeds will 00:25:00.859 --> 00:25:04.900 be gathered and thrown into the blazing furnace 00:25:04.900 --> 00:25:07.039 where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 00:25:07.140 --> 00:25:09.500 We could do a whole sermon just on this image 00:25:09.500 --> 00:25:12.240 and it's very hard language and it might make 00:25:12.240 --> 00:25:14.480 us squirm. It might make us uncomfortable and 00:25:14.480 --> 00:25:16.240 I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't do that. 00:25:16.980 --> 00:25:21.319 But just notice again, who is doing this judging? 00:25:22.160 --> 00:25:25.319 The son of man will send out his angels and they, 00:25:26.200 --> 00:25:28.420 will weed out of his kingdom everything that 00:25:28.420 --> 00:25:32.000 causes sin and all who do evil. Jesus himself. 00:25:32.890 --> 00:25:35.849 Jesus and his angels will be the ones who finally 00:25:35.849 --> 00:25:38.849 determine what is a wheat and what is a weed, 00:25:39.029 --> 00:25:43.390 what is good and what is evil. And that actually 00:25:43.390 --> 00:25:47.250 should comfort us, not scare us because the judge 00:25:47.250 --> 00:25:52.529 of the harvest is the same savior who died in 00:25:52.529 --> 00:25:55.730 the field. And he is not cruel. We know that 00:25:55.730 --> 00:25:58.809 he is not careless. He is not eager to destroy 00:25:58.809 --> 00:26:01.970 anyone. He knows about every wound and every 00:26:01.970 --> 00:26:05.619 loss. and every hurt, every person in this room 00:26:05.619 --> 00:26:08.440 who has been harmed in some way, every tear that 00:26:08.440 --> 00:26:11.259 has fallen into the soil, he knows all about 00:26:11.259 --> 00:26:13.000 that. And in the end, he will make it right. 00:26:13.079 --> 00:26:18.119 The hands that will sort through the wheat still 00:26:18.119 --> 00:26:21.940 bear the nail marks on them. And that is the 00:26:21.940 --> 00:26:27.619 reason why we can face judgment without despair. 00:26:28.460 --> 00:26:32.549 Okay, and one day it's true. The righteous will 00:26:32.549 --> 00:26:36.690 shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. 00:26:36.869 --> 00:26:41.369 The harvest is coming. And that's not, you know, 00:26:41.369 --> 00:26:43.990 wishful thinking. That is the promise made by 00:26:43.990 --> 00:26:46.150 the same God who planted the field in the first 00:26:46.150 --> 00:26:48.710 place. He's not going to abandon the field to 00:26:48.710 --> 00:26:52.710 the enemy. So until that day comes, what do we 00:26:52.710 --> 00:26:58.049 do? We keep farming. We keep sowing good seed. 00:26:58.130 --> 00:27:01.799 We keep watching for fruit. We keep resisting 00:27:01.799 --> 00:27:05.380 the enemy and we keep trusting the great farmer. 00:27:05.500 --> 00:27:08.539 That's what farmers do. You heard my dad, right? 00:27:08.619 --> 00:27:11.839 After a hard loss, you get up the next morning 00:27:11.839 --> 00:27:15.220 and you go back into the field. And it's not 00:27:15.220 --> 00:27:17.380 because the loss didn't hurt. Of course it hurt. 00:27:17.539 --> 00:27:21.960 But this field, this world is still worth tending. 00:27:23.480 --> 00:27:26.380 If you've experienced loss, if you have weeds 00:27:26.380 --> 00:27:30.779 planted, Where you thought you planted wheat 00:27:30.779 --> 00:27:32.519 and you're saying, what went wrong? What do I 00:27:32.519 --> 00:27:35.980 do now? This parable doesn't answer every question 00:27:35.980 --> 00:27:39.700 you may have, but it tells us enough. The seed 00:27:39.700 --> 00:27:44.619 is good, but the enemy is real. The field is 00:27:44.619 --> 00:27:49.980 mixed, but the harvest is coming. And until that 00:27:49.980 --> 00:27:55.220 day, stay humble, stay watchful and faithful 00:27:55.220 --> 00:28:03.079 and hopeful. Thanks be to God. Amen. Thanks for 00:28:03.079 --> 00:28:05.839 tuning in to this week's episode of Trinity Sermons. 00:28:05.839 --> 00:28:09.000 This sermon was recorded at Trinity Church Streetsville 00:28:09.000 --> 00:28:13.339 in Mississauga, Ontario on July 12, 2026.