the parable of the wheat and weeds sown by an enemy while men were sleeping
24 He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field,
25 but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds also among the wheat, and went away.
26 But when the blade sprang up and produced fruit, then the darnel weeds appeared also.
27 The servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where did these darnel weeds come from?’
28 “He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’
29 “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the darnel weeds, you root up the wheat with them.
30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the darnel weeds, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
Jesus explains the wheat and weeds parable to his disciples, identifying the son of man as sower and the harvest as the end of the age
36 Then Jesus sent the multitudes away, and went into the house. His disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the darnel weeds of the field.”
37 He answered them, “He who sows the good seed is the Son of Man,
38 the field is the world; and the good seed, these are the children of the Kingdom; and the darnel weeds are the children of the evil one.
39 The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels.
40 As therefore the darnel weeds are gathered up and burned with fire; so will it be at the end of this age.
41 The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his Kingdom all things that cause stumbling, and those who do iniquity,
42 and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be weeping and the gnashing of teeth.
43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the Kingdom of their Father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
On Mother's Day 2022, the pastor opened in Proverbs 1, drawing out how a mother's teaching shapes wisdom, integrity, and righteousness in her children. He then continued the church's series on the parables of the kingdom in Matthew and Mark, focusing on what grows when seed falls on good ground and what happens when an enemy plants counterfeits alongside it. The message carried a sobering weight: what we do with the gospel word has eternal consequences.
What was said
Proverbs 1 set the tone for the morning. Solomon, son of David and Bathsheba, wrote his proverbs to give wisdom, instruction, righteousness, justice, and integrity. The pastor noted that a wise person hears and increases in learning, even learning from the mistakes of others, and that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of that knowledge. The little sayings mothers pass down, the ones that take years to appreciate, fit right into that same tradition of passing wisdom forward.
From there he moved into Mark 4, a parable unique to Mark that sits right after the parable of the soils. A man sows seed, goes to sleep, gets up the next day, and the seed grows. How? He himself does not know. The pastor found that detail striking: the kingdom of God grows in ways the sower cannot fully account for, and Jesus identifies himself as that sower. The implication for the disciples, and for the congregation today, is simply to be faithful witnesses and trust that God produces what only He can produce.
Matthew 13 brought a harder parable. A man sows good seed in his field, but while his workers sleep an enemy sneaks in and sows darnel among the wheat. The pastor spent time on the word translated "weeds," the Greek zeizania, explaining that darnel looks almost identical to wheat through most of its growth cycle. It is not just worthless but poisonous, with an inebriating effect that can be deadly. The visual of two plants that appear nearly the same but lead to completely different ends was the center of the parable.
When the slaves want to pull the weeds immediately, the landowner tells them no. Pulling the weeds risks tearing up the wheat alongside them. Let both grow until harvest, he says, and the reapers will sort them out then. The pastor noted that Jesus does explain this one privately to his disciples, identifying the sower as the Son of Man, the field as the world, the good seed as sons of the kingdom, and the darnel as sons of the evil one planted by the devil.
The explanation Jesus gives ends with the weeds gathered and burned and the righteous shining like the sun, a picture the pastor connected to Daniel 12 and its language about those who lead many to righteousness shining like stars. He pointed out that universalism, the idea that everyone is ultimately redeemed, is what he called "the most attractive heresy," but that the New Testament and Old Testament consistently push back against it. The parable presents a binary: the way of life and the way of death.
The pastor closed the sermon by pulling the two parables together. The kingdom grows in ways we do not fully understand, so the call is not to figure it all out but to receive the gospel in humility, let it go deep, and not let wealth, superficiality, or distraction choke it out. He pointed to the coming parables about the pearl of great price as further pictures of why the gospel is worth everything, and he left the congregation with Jesus's repeated line: "The one who has ears, let him hear."
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Pastor John opened with Proverbs 1 and the idea that a wise person can learn from the mistakes of others, including imperfect parents. What is a piece of instruction from a parent or older person in your life that took you a long time to recognize as true?
In the parable from Mark 4, the farmer sows seed and then goes about his life, and the seed grows in ways he himself does not know. What does it look like practically to trust God with the growth of something you have planted, whether a conversation, a relationship, or a act of faithfulness?
Speaker 2Okay. Hi, my friends. Good morning. Oh, moms, happy Mother's Day. Glad to see you.
Mom, if you're watching, happy Mother's Day. I got a verse from Proverbs 21 to lead us into worship. It says, no human wisdom or understanding or plan can stand against the Lord. Should we start by singing the lion and the lamb? Would you stand and we'll we'll let's stand and sing together.
And listen. Who can stop the Lord? Who can stop the Lord all night? Who can stop the word all mine? Who can stop the word all mine?
Who can stop
Speaker 1Amen. Y'all can have a seat. Few announcements this morning. Let's see what comes up on the screen. I'm betting Monday nights maybe?
Hey, no. It's Mother's Day. That's to remind me not to forget that it's Mother's Day. Happy Mother's Day. And Carl says, it it's it's weird we say hi mom on camera, right?
You ever see anybody there always mouthing hi mom and not hi dad? Hi mom. Happy Mother's Day to you all. I actually do have something in there. But first B, all stars.
What's happening this week?
Speaker 2I'm definitely not an all star. But we are down the hall tomorrow night, 06:00, meal, music, and message. We're in James 4, the last bit of four, the beginning part of five, and it's pizza night. And then at the same time in here
Speaker 1is Awana. Prayer groups happen on Wednesday, but Awana happens in here, but it's not just Awana. As you can see, there's more to it this time.
Speaker 2I think Mike's gonna share just a little bit about tomorrow. Yep.
Speaker 1Here he comes. Youth leader extraordinaire Michael Demetrius, everybody. Listeners and volunteers and council time people and game people. Awesome. Grand Prix, 06:00 tomorrow evening.
Same time as Monday nights but come on in. Actually, I want to volunteers have been, we've been having supper a little earlier than six for the Wana volunteers too. That's been great. I'm just glad that y'all are committed to doing it and it's just been a ball. It's on all fronts positive.
Are there other announcement slides up there? Okay. There's a French toast fundraiser that is next week. That's for Kaylee McClinaghan. She's heading to Senegal and like to raise some funds.
If you would come to that, that'd be great. And we've got Casey McCooey receiving a microphone right now. I hope she knows that she was going to do something. Okay. Good.
Would you? Anybody have anything else that I've missed, misplaced, forgotten, suggestions, anything? Good. Would you stand with us and we're going to sing?
Speaker 2There's a song in my soul. Oh, lord, we sing to you this morning as the you are the author of joy and peace. God, you're the well that doesn't run dry. Thank you. We look to you this morning.
We sing to you. We give you the praise and glory and honor that you deserve. Amen. Amen. Worthy of every song we could ever sing worthy of all the praise we could ever bring Worthy of every breath we could and pray.
We live for you. Jesus, the name above every young Here's a prayer from Ephesians. I think this is great for us, to hear this morning. It says that I pray from God's glorious unlimited resources that he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust him, and your roots will grow down into God's love and keep you strong.
God, I thank you for the firm foundation that we are building our lives upon you. God, just as the song has just as just as we've said in the song, God, would you fill us? Would you give us your spirit to lead us? Yes, lord. Amen.
And fill us with love to those around us. In Jesus name, amen. You can have a a seat here for a moment. This is the the worship through giving part of the the service. I'll invite the ushers to come on forward and we're gonna sing the goodness of God.
I see a theme kinda developing in our songs about God's faithfulness. From Psalm 89, it says, I will sing of the Lord's great love forever with my mouth. I'll make your faithfulness known through all generations. Pray with you.
Speaker 1Sure. Pray. God, thank you for the beauty of this spring morning, Lord, where new life is apparent beginning to bud, beginning to start up. Lord, we thank you for this seasonal reminder. And God, I thank you for those who are here gathered in your name this morning.
And each of those has a a prayer in their mind and in their hearts. For someone, Lord, who's not able to be here. Thank you, Lord, for Mother's Day for a good reminder to be caring and kind and nurturing and loving. Lord, whether we be mothers or not. Thank you for all that you have provided for us, lord.
In Jesus name, we ask that you would bless, that you would spread your good news through your faithfulness to us but our faithfulness to the world around us. Would you, lord, use us in your will, in your way this morning. We ask that you'd accept these offerings and that you would do with them as you will through this local little church but making an impact to the very uttermost parts. Lord, would you do your will and your way among us this morning? Amen.
Amen. And I think it's time for children's church downstairs right now. There they go. Mother's Day. That's another one to remind me.
Mother's Day twenty twenty two. So, it just in the past week, I mean, I'm reminded all the time. I I I love my mama, obviously, I guess but just this week, I have been walking through difficult times with a mother who is trying to get custody of her kids. And I've sat bedside with a matriarch, an 87 year old matriarch of a family who is, we thought, actively dying, but she is very actively living. I've thought of my mama.
I've thought of Tanya's mama. I've thought of a lot of your mothers because I've done since I've been here, I've done a lot of funerals for mothers. I've done a lot of funerals for children, and it is very, very nostalgic. I'm gonna get to the scripture in just a minute. Trust me.
But usually, on Mother's Day, think, what am I gonna do for Mother's Day? And I start off with a song. I've sung Mama Tried by Merle Haggard. I've sung Simple Man by Lynyrd Skynyrd. I thought about Folsom Prison Blues today, but when I was just a baby, my mama told me, son, don't ever always be a good boy, don't ever play with guns.
But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die. That's Folsom Prison Blues. It's not taking mama's advice. Right? And I was thinking about which song, what thing could I throw out there that I haven't done before because you wanna keep it fresh.
And I started searching. And the very beginning of Proverbs is what hit me. Oh, it's so good. It's so so good. Proverbs.
These are the Proverbs of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel. Son of David, but also son of Bathsheba. Okay? And these are the proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. To know wisdom and instruction.
When he was asked of God what he wanted more than anything else, could ask for anything and he said, I want wisdom. To know wisdom and instruction, to discern the sayings of understanding. There are a lot of little quips that our mamas share with us all the time. That sometimes it takes growing up before you figure out, yep, they're right. Then you start saying them yourself.
To receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and integrity. Every sermon lately has been thumping the drum of righteousness, justice, and integrity. An upright person walks in integrity. It's not hypocrisy. It is oneness.
It's singularity of being. And to receive instruction in wise behavior, righteousness, justice, and integrity. To give prudence to the naive, to the youth knowledge and discretion. A wise person will hear and will increase in learning, and a person of understanding will acquire wise counsel. Now I know not every mama is the best.
I know that. And somebody sent me a card. Why they sent me this card, I don't know. On the outside, it said I probably shouldn't share this. On the outside, it said, There's no one I'd rather talk about in therapy.
And on the inside, said, happy Mother's Day. Isn't that terrible? It's absolutely terrible. In general, Proverbs are in general, right? This is the way that it should go.
A wise person will hear and will increase in learning. It's a wise person that can learn from the mistakes of others. A mother or a father who has walked wayward. And then when they are older says to their child, do as I say, not as I did, is a good parent and a good teacher. But do as I say, not as I do, is a hypocrite.
So a wise person can learn from the mistakes of others whether they be their parents or others. Wise person will hear and increase in learning. A person of understanding will acquire wise counsel. To understand a proverb and a saying, the words of the wise and their riddles. There are some paradoxes and some riddles that are thrown out there.
My mother loved lean not on your own understanding. You know, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he'll direct your paths. That's good.
That's good advice. To understand a proverb and a saying that the words of the wise and their riddles. The fear of the Lord, of course, is the beginning of knowledge. Start off with a grounding that the fear of the Lord. Reverence for God is the beginning of knowledge.
Fools actually despise wisdom and instruction. They don't wanna hear anything from anybody else. I gotta learn this on my own. You just let me have my way, but I turned 21 in prison doing life without parole. Right?
You do that to your peril. The next says, listen to my child. Listen my child to your father's instruction and do not ignore your mother's teaching. Ain't that good? For they are a graceful wreath for your head and necklaces for your neck.
These are adornments that if you can learn the lessons from your folks, it's a really, really good thing. Now, I'm gonna switch gears here. Happy Mother's Day. I'm gonna go to the parables of the kingdom. That's what we're gonna continue with.
Last week, we talked about the four different types of soil and I'll quickly run through that. Just the parable itself and then one slide. So he told them many things in parables. Behold, the sower went out to sow and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road. That was really hard packed ground.
They did not enter in. They don't grow up there, And others fell on the rocky places. They didn't have a whole lot of soil. There was not a lot there. Didn't go profoundly down, but sprang up immediately, but then walked away from it.
Some fell among the thorns. Specifically, when Jesus explains it, says that it's wealth, riches, the things of this world get in the way and choke it out. But other seed fell on the good soil and yielded a crop. Some a 100, some 60, some 30 times as much. And then he closes off with the one who has the ears to hear, let him hear.
Every message that we get, every message that we get, we have the opportunity of it falling one of these four places. Now, a lot of times, we take parables and we want to make em into this is about salvation. It's all about salvation and the good soil is the only one that saved here. The rest of em, I think that it's saying every time that a seed of the word is planted, we have an opportunity to cultivate, grow, and be obedient to it. Actually, Simon Kistemacher says this, and I like this.
It's not the same order, but it's I think that it's helpful. The word of God is proclaimed and causes division among those who hear. God's people receive the word, understand it, and obediently fulfill it. Others fail to listen because of a hardened heart, a basic superficiality, or a vested interest in riches or possessions. It's either gonna be living by faith or living by sight.
And the one who has ears, let him hear. There are things that can interrupt your reception of the message. Be aware of that. Jesus says, before he starts seven parables of the kingdom in Matthew, we're only gonna cover a couple of them. One extra one in Mark.
We'll cover Mark and Matthew. All of them are agriculture. I am not agricultural in any way. The thing that I despise more than any other household chores is cutting the grass and weeding the garden. I know some of y'all love that stuff.
It's great. Not for me. I just don't like it. I'll fix the lawn mower for you, but I don't wanna have anything to do with cutting the grass. Alright?
So continuing with the parables of the kingdom. I'll start with something that's unique to Mark. Mark four twenty six through 29 says this, and he, Jesus, was saying, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil. Okay. So he's just told us the parable of the sower in Mark.
And the very next thing he says is a very similar start off, but it's different. He's mixing his metaphors. Jesus is mixing his metaphors. He's changing one to the next, to the next, to the next, and the first several of them are all agricultural, which makes sense in that day and time. He was saying, the kingdom of God is like a man who casts seed upon the soil and he goes to bed at night and he gets up daily and the seed sprouts and grows.
Because if seed falls on good ground, what happens? It grows. And this is interesting. It says, how? How it does?
He himself does not know. It's kind of just the way things work. In God's infinite wisdom, if seed is planted and it has the right conditions, that's what happens. And the guy who said sows the seed doesn't know doesn't have to know everything about it. It just it happens.
The soil produces crops by itself. It's self propagating in some ways. First, the stalk and then the head and then the mature grain in the head. And now when the crop permits, he, the guy who sowed the seed, the farmer, immediately puts in the sickly because the harvest has come. That is so matter of fact and he does not explain it.
The thing that catches me is how how how God causes this to happen? We don't know. We're not sure. But the kingdom of God is like that. Jesus in the first parable of the soils, the sower went out to sow.
He says, the son of man is the sower in the first parable. Son of man is the sower. He started this thing. He said, I'm gonna build my church to his disciples. You're gonna be my witnesses.
If you'll just tell people what has happened to you, you won't even know how, but this is how the kingdom of God grows. One beggar telling another beggar where bread can be found. Right? Now I'm mixing my metaphors. So this was unique to Matthew thirteen twenty four through 30.
So it's not in Mark or Luke, but it's one of the more disturbing ones I think. And just as I said that four soils, it may or may not be about salvation. This one certainly seems to be. So, Matthew thirteen twenty four to 30 says this, Jesus presented another parable to them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. That sounds like the same start off for Mark.
Now, they're going to diverge right here because there's it's not just that. It's not just that. This is the way God works and it's going to grow. You just be faithful like I'm faithful. You go about sowing the seed that you know and I'll grow my kingdom.
You don't have to know everything. Just witness, right? In Matthew, it says, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. This is his field but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and left. Now that's a dirty rotten trick right there, isn't it?
Just after he's sown good seed, an enemy that cannot stand him comes along and with the same tilled soil, sows intentionally sows weeds among the wheat. We're not told why right here. He just did. And the weeds right there. So weeds in Greek is zeissania.
Zeissania is the plural for weed, weeds. It is a kind of darnel that resembles wheat. It looks just like it. It looks like it when it starts growing. It looks like it when it is in mid cycle.
And it looks a lot like it when it is full grown. Not exactly, but really close. Spurious wheat. I usually use two or three different dictionaries. These are three different ones.
Zizanium, a kind of darnel resembles wheat. Spurious wheat, darnel, a plant that grows in this area which resembles wheat in many ways, but is worthless. It's worthless. A tear, the wheat and the tares, that's the way King James puts it. Figuratively, it is a pseudo believer, a false Christian, is a fruitless person living without faith from God and therefore is all show and no go.
It looks like something that would be good but it's not. That's the difference right there. One of those is wheat and one of those is darnel. And like I said, I'm no horticulturist, but that looks alike to me. Is that one wheat or is that one wheat?
Some of y'all are agriculturalists, but there they are. And looking at them, they look about the same, Darnell and wheat. But one of them is good for making bread and for living. And one of them is not just worthless, but also poisonous. Yeah.
It's poisonous. So the grains I'm told, I don't really know this stuff, but when one of them is ripe, it looks like wheat. Y'all know what wheat looks like. The other one, the grains themselves will turn black and they are poisonous. And if you prepare them in the way that you would prepare wheat, it's poisonous.
It has an inebriating and delusional effect. And if you get enough of it in you, causes death. Wow. Poisonous. What an image.
And he's only introduced good seed and bad seed so far. But I don't know that much about good seed and bad seed, so I wanted to share it with you all. When the wheat sprouted and produced grain, then the weeds also became evident. And the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Actually, one of the ways that Darnall is most likely to be sown is because when you reap it and you save the seed for next year's crop, it looks enough like it to just sneak in there with it, right?
And then you plant it deep. You say, now you checked out the seed before you sent it. You checked it closely to make sure. Sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?
We know you. We know that you're a good farmer. And he said to him, well, an enemy has done this, exclamation point. An enemy has done this. And the slave said, do you want us then to go and gather up gather them up, get all the that out of there?
And y'all saw how hard it was. Can you imagine a whole field of that? But he said, no. No. While you're gathering up the weeds, you're liable to uproot the wheat with them.
So don't do that. Allow both of them to grow together because where it comes out that one is wheat and one is darnel is in the harvest. When it gets to be harvest time, one of them is more obviously good for life and the other one is apparent now that it is poisonous and false. Allow both of them to grow together until the harvest. At that time of the harvest, I'll say to the reapers, first, gather up the weeds and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.
I want the good we're gonna discard the bad. Now, that one lands pretty heavy already, I think, but then Jesus does explain this one to his disciples. He doesn't explain it to the whole crowd but he does explain it to the disciples. Then, he left the crowds and he went into the house and his disciples came to him and explained to us that parable of the weeds in the field. I don't don't like that.
That's upsetting me. I don't really like it. In our day, I've said several times lately that universalism is the most attractive heresy. Right? It's something that, well, we know God's love endures forever and so Rob Bell's book is love wins.
Right? Love wins. Love wins. God's gonna redeem everybody including all the way down to Satan himself, the devil. The only problem with it is the New Testament and Old Testament just disagree with it at every turn.
Right? Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. And he said, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. So he is saying, I'm the one who sows the seed. This is interesting to me too because it said the man doesn't even know how it happens.
That that's interesting. Jesus, God, doesn't even, he's saying that he's the guy that he's sowing the seed and it grows up and he doesn't even know how it happens. He said, I don't know the hour. I don't know when the harvest is coming. I mean, you could tell when it's here but God let me know.
I'm just doing what I'm supposed to do while I'm here and he's expecting that the disciples there and even us today are going to be his witnesses. He said, the one who sows this good seed is the son of man and the field is the world. And as for the good seed, these are the sons of the kingdom. And the weeds are the sons of the evil one. They're his.
He's the one who planted them. An enemy who sowed them as the devil and the harvest is the end of the age. We see seasons and we can tell Jesus says towards I think it's in Matthew 24. You can see the seasons. You see what's about to happen.
You I don't know how many y'all saw snow on your thing this morning, but what near as deep as it was a week ago, right? We could see that it's starting to subside, and we know summer's on the way. We know tourists are on the way because we've seen this happen before seasonally. The enemy who sowed them is the devil and the harvest is the end of this age and the reapers are angels. Now, angel means messenger.
I mean, messenger means angel. That's that's what it is. The word is that but the reapers are angels. Those who carry the message. Certainly could be and probably is a celestial being in this case.
But I just want to say, we are still responsible for carrying a message. Okay? So just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with the fire, so shall it be at the end of the age. Boy, that's upsetting. But it is biblical.
So just as the weeds are gathered up and burned with fire, so shall it be at the end of age. The son of man will send forth his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all of the stumbling blocks. And those who commit lawlessness, they are collecting the tares, the weeds. And they'll throw them into the furnace of fire. In that place, they'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
It's a gruesome picture. And then, the righteous will shine forth like the sun in the kingdom of their father. That actually is a quote from Daniel 12. Those who have insight. Remember back to Proverbs one.
What we're looking for is insight in righteousness and justice and integrity. And there is a message that can be carried forward. And it is the message of the gospel and the hope of the gospel. And those who have that insight, they'll show they'll shine like the glow of the expanse of heaven and those who lead the many to righteousness. They'll shine like the stars forever and ever.
His kingdom will have no end and the people who have in humility trusted in him will carry on forward with him. And if we reject that message, it is to our peril. The one who has ears, let him hear. That's that's the way it ends. That's the way it ends.
This is a solemn warning and an encouragement, to listen to the message that is out there and evident that God is always sowing good seed. And there is a gospel message. And either it's going to get hit a hard spot, sorry, hard spot, and it's not going to enter in or it's going to hit up against just something that's a mile wide but an inch deep. It just doesn't go deep. Because there are other things, impediments in the way.
Now, the rest of the parables of the kingdom will be about there's a there's a pearl. And once you found that pearl, you sell everything to go after that, right? And I'll I'll get to those. But there's something that is worthwhile. And if you get this and it sinks deep in your heart, what will happen with the gospel message?
If you receive it with humility, there's fertile ground right there. And the way that it will grow up will be God's doing. Don't allow wealth and riches to choke it out. Don't allow a superficiality about things. Consider eternal destinies.
And the way he presents is if there are two. It is binary. There is the way of life and there is the way of death. And you can read in lots of other places in scripture that it is God who takes you out of the kingdom of darkness and places you into his marvelous kingdom of light. I'm gonna present it to you to say, allow for God to know what he's doing.
Okay? Allow that he, you don't have to know how he does what he does to say, do it, lord, for me. Would you do it, lord, for me? I turn to you in humility. I don't know it all.
Would you show me your way? God almighty and allow me to walk in it. I wanna be a part of that wheat that is gathered up, that is producing more wheat. I wanna be able to be giving back to the kingdom. I wanna be a part of what's going on.
Lord God, please. Please. And he will. That's the way. That's what he said.
I think that's the last slide. Carl, would you and Florine come on back up? And the altar is always open up here. If anything that you're hearing is provoking you in any way of, Lord, I want that to sink deeper into my life. Please let us know.
I I want to help with that process. I want to I'm not agricultural, but I will cultivate and I will fertilize that soil, okay? The altar is always open here, and there are people who come in all week long and pray here and sit at the piano. It doesn't have to be in front of 200 and some people. I just want you to know that we love you and I'm thankful.
I'm thankful for the message that God has given for the platform that y'all have invited me into And I wanna pray before we sing this song. God almighty, I pray for our mothers, for those who are living, Lord, and for those who are passing, for those who have gone on. Lord, I pray that we would listen to their godly instruction, that we would not ignore it. In Jesus name, lord, I pray that you would remind us of things that are lovely and noble and good. And I know that there are some of us in here who have had problems and difficulty with, our moms.
Lord, I pray that you would allow us the grace to begin the process of forgiving them just as you have forgiven us. We're to be forgiven one another just as God and Christ has forgiven us. Lord God, I pray that you would allow us the the grace to do that. In Jesus name, I pray that you would be all around us and absolutely everything that we do and everything that we say. I pray that we would be bowing the knee consistently to you and that we would be above all of the pettiness that we see around us all the time.
That you would allow us to walk, Lord, a life of justice and righteousness and integrity. Lord, would you do it? In Jesus name, amen. Amen. Would you stand with us?
We're gonna sing, Christ Be All Around Me. And now, if any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God. Maybe ask your mama. I don't know. Ask God.
Who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you. In Jesus name, lord, I pray that we'd be turning to you. Amen. Amen.
