A Parable of Promise

[0:00] God of waters. God of the sky.

[0:12] God in the morning. God in the night. God of the desert. God of the rain.

[0:26] God in the busy. God in the mundane. God of the mountain. God of the plains.

[0:38] God in the laughter. God in the pain. He's God of the promise. What he says remains true.

[0:49] He does what he's promised. For me and for you. All right, faith family.

[1:02] If you've got your Bible, go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 is where we're going to be this evening. We're continuing in our kind of New Year series that we're starting the year off called the God of promise.

[1:15] We're looking at different promises that God has given us in his word that are meant to encourage us. Kind of, again, our big idea has been, even with all the uncertainties of life, and there are lots of them, there is one thing that is certain, and that's the promises of God.

[1:33] The things that God has given us to be the foundation of our life. The last few weeks, we've kind of looked at promises that are maybe a little bit more personal, like no matter what you go through, nothing can separate you from the love of God.

[1:49] Jesus is our eternal high priest. Last week, we looked at Jesus' words to the disciples that God will provide for you. He takes care of not only the birds of the air, the flowers of the field, and how much more valuable are you.

[2:05] And so, you have a heavenly Father that will take care of you. That's really good news. Amen? And tonight, I want us to look at really a promise that, yes, it's to us personally, but it's also kind of to us collectively as the people of God that Jesus gives his disciples here in Matthew 13.

[2:26] And so, if you are good and comfortable, I'm going to ask you to stand again. One, to honor the reading of the Word of God. Secondly, is to keep you warm. All right, so, Matthew 13, and we're going to look at a parable that Jesus teaches here, beginning in verse 24.

[2:42] It says, He put another parable before them, saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. And while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.

[2:59] So, when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, The master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

[3:11] How then does it have weeds? And he said to them, One enemy has done this. So, the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them.

[3:26] Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the harvest time, I'll tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first, bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.

[3:39] Now, Jesus, he doesn't do this with every parable. We'll later go on in this chapter to tell you exactly what that parable means. Look at verse 36. Then he left the crowds and went into the house, and his disciples came to him, saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.

[3:57] And Jesus answered, The one who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one.

[4:10] And the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the close of the age, and the reapers are angels. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.

[4:23] The son of man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace, in that place where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[4:37] Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear.

[4:48] Would you pray with me? Father, thank you so much for this time together tonight to study your word. And Lord, I do pray that it would be an encouragement to us as your people, certainly as we look around, Lord, that we would be encouraged not just by what we see, but tonight we would be encouraged by what we hear, as we hear from you.

[5:10] And we pray it in Jesus' name. And God's people said, Amen. Amen. You can be seated. Jamie Hunter was just doing what she loved to do, which was hiking the rugged slopes of Mount Adams in Washington State.

[5:25] It was a clear summer day, the kind that makes danger feel off at a distance. The trail was very familiar to her, and so she confidently moved up the mountain, having no idea that her life would soon hang in the balance.

[5:42] As Jamie hiked up the mountain, a massive boulder broke loose and began tumbling towards her. When it hit her, it launched her several hundred feet down the mountain.

[5:56] When her body came to a stop, so did her heart. Jamie laid there on the side of the mountain, clinically dead for several minutes.

[6:07] Some of the hikers that were nearby who had observed this called for help. It just so happened that there was an ICU nurse and an army officer close by, and they were able to give her CPR and somehow, miraculously, got her heart to beat again.

[6:27] Jamie was then airlifted to a nearby hospital where this medical chaos continued. Her injuries there were very significant. She had crushed bones, massive internal trauma, oxygen deprivation, which put her brain at damage of having permanent brain damage.

[6:49] At one point, her heart even stopped beating again, and it just so happened that a heart surgeon, who usually did not work that particular day, was there at the hospital, and he was able to massage her heart back to life.

[7:05] Jamie spent the next several months in the hospital, enduring repeated surgeries, infections, organ failure, and an excruciating rehab.

[7:18] But slowly, and quite remarkably, Jamie survived. That young woman, who was declared dead twice in the same day, made a complete and full recovery.

[7:37] Faith family, life is full of comebacks. That is, people that face impossible odds, and yet they're somehow able to rise above.

[7:48] People that are left for dead, and yet they find a way to live. And comebacks are a very common experience in life. I mean, how many of you remember when the Bears were down at halftime, 21 to 3 to the Packers?

[8:04] Any of you remember that? And who came back and won that game? That's right. The Bears did, right? Too soon? Too soon? I figured I'd get some pushback by Packer fans, but maybe not.

[8:16] What about how you'll see neighborhoods that get devastated? Maybe a hurricane or a tornado, and yet they're able to somehow eventually rebuild.

[8:26] Sometimes businesses will be on the verge of bankruptcy, and yet they're somehow able to bounce back. Sometimes life feels like it's completely over, and yet it is restored.

[8:41] Life is full of comebacks, correct? But there's one thing that's true in every great comeback story. It's true in Jamie's story.

[8:52] It's true in every single one of those examples, and that's at some point in the process, it feels certain that you're going to lose.

[9:03] You're down too many points. There's not enough time left. The opposition is too strong. The disease is too advanced. The relationship is too damaged.

[9:14] There are way too many challenges to overcome. And you know this feeling. You're like in the locker room of life at halftime, and you're just convinced that it's over.

[9:28] And if we're honest, let's be honest tonight. Sometimes as Christians, we feel the exact same way when you look around the world in which we live.

[9:39] Amen? Do any of you ever look around the world, maybe the state of Minnesota, and just feel like at times the kingdom of God is not winning?

[9:50] I mean, we live in a culture where people are confused about gender, and I'm surprised that's even a controversial topic. Listen, gender is not just a biological issue.

[10:02] Gender is a theological issue. And yet we see that in the culture as something that people are confused about. We see riots in our cities.

[10:13] We see fraud in our government. We see churches invaded. And that's just Minnesota, much less the rest of the world. Church attendance is down.

[10:24] Secularization of the world. Be honest. When you watch the news, do you not most of the time see more bad news than you see good news and all God's people said?

[10:36] There's a lot of bad things that happen in the world. And yet we have the audacity to show up to church on a Saturday night and sing songs about victory.

[10:51] Have you ever looked around and thought, I don't see any victory. I don't see anything that looks like winning as it relates to the kingdom of God.

[11:02] Listen to me, beloved. Listen to me, faith family. If you have ever felt that way, Jesus has a promise for you. It is a promise that was meant to encourage his disciples.

[11:15] And it is a promise that is meant to encourage us when life looks like you're losing. Look at the parable again in verse 24. Jesus puts this parable before them saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in the field.

[11:33] But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore a grain, then the weeds appeared also.

[11:45] Now, the problem in this parable is very simple. Again, you don't need a degree in New Testament to kind of understand what's going on here. You have an owner. That owner has a field.

[11:57] And in that field, he has sown good seed. And then during the night, an enemy comes in and sows a counter crop.

[12:07] Everybody with me? Say yes. That's a pretty simple story, pretty simple parable. Now, if you're living in an agrarian society like Jesus is teaching this parable in, and you understand that your life depends upon your crop.

[12:23] Again, in agrarian society, if something happens to your crop, if you lose the harvest, you've lost everything. Meaning, Jesus is telling a story about something that is a very serious problem.

[12:37] This isn't like a prank. You know, like your co-worker puts your stapler in Jell-O or something like that. Or your neighbor teepees your yard. You know, that kind of a prank.

[12:48] That's not what this is. This is more like somebody hacking into your bank account and putting all of your livelihood at risk.

[12:58] Are you with me? That's the seriousness of the situation. In fact, so serious was it that in the ancient Near East, Rome had a law against this.

[13:10] Much like, again, today, somebody hacking into your bank account. Then Jesus goes on to tell the disciples what that story represents, what he means by this parable.

[13:22] Look at verse 36. So as he left the crowds, he went into the house, and his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds. Like, we don't get it.

[13:33] We don't understand. This was often the case with the disciples and the parables that Jesus would tell. We don't understand what you meant by that. Would you explain it? And so he says, sure. The one who sows the good seed is the son of man.

[13:48] The field is the world. The good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.

[13:59] The harvest is the clothes of the age, and the reapers are the angels. So we understand here what Jesus is saying. You have a field, and in this parable, the field is the world.

[14:12] And God, the owner of the field, is sowing good seed. And that results in what? It results in the kingdom of God advancing.

[14:24] The sons of the kingdom. That is, you have people that are being saved. You have churches that are growing. You have relationships that are reconciled. You have people that are loving and serving one another.

[14:36] Faith family, God is building His kingdom. God is growing His good work, His good kingdom. But at the same time, you have an enemy.

[14:49] You have an enemy that's at work. And that enemy is also sowing seed and sowing all kinds of evil in the world.

[15:00] Anybody relate to this tonight, right? Anybody see this around you? All kinds of false teaching, gossip and slander, oppression, hatred, abuse, racism.

[15:14] There's all kinds of evil in our world. Are you with me? Say yes. So what Jesus is saying here is that there are evil powers trying to prevent God's kingdom from growing.

[15:27] And both are happening at the same time. God is sowing sons of the kingdom and the enemy is sowing the seeds of evil.

[15:39] In other words, here's a summary, that namely in the world, what you're going to experience is that you have wheat and weeds that will both grow.

[15:49] both of these will be true in the world. Now, before you misunderstand, Jesus is not suggesting that these two kingdoms are equal, right?

[16:01] Let's notice this in the parable. The field belongs to the farmer. Amen? Let's be clear on that, right? This is our Father's world.

[16:12] Oh, let us not forget that though the wrong seems off so strong, God is the ruler yet.

[16:23] This is His field. It is His world. Let's not make any mistake as to who is in control. But now, the problem in the parable actually gets worse.

[16:35] It's not just that God is sowing good seed and the enemy is coming along and sowing bad seed. In addition to that, the bad seed can sometimes look like the good seed.

[16:50] Some of you probably studied this parable before. You know the Greek word here, zazania, is actually a word that speaks of a type of weed known as the darnel.

[17:02] It looks similar to wheat, but it's actually a counterfeit. But how do you know the difference? How do you know the difference between the wheat and the weed?

[17:14] You have to let it mature. You have to give it time. You have to be patient and eventually you'll be able to see what is real and what is not.

[17:25] In some ways, it's a lot like babies, right? Let's be honest. When babies are born, they all look like this. Every baby I've ever seen looks like that. Now I know you think your little baby is like the most precious possum you've ever seen, but they all look like possums, okay?

[17:44] And everybody will debate when a baby is born, well, I think they look like their mother. I think they look like their father, right? But how do you really know?

[17:54] You have to give it time. You have to let them grow up. You have to let them mature. And then as they get older, you'll begin to distinguish between which one looks like the mother or the father.

[18:07] You have to give it time to grow. In other words, what's happening here in the parable is that evil spiritual powers are not only sowing bad seed, but sometimes that bad seed is going to look like good seed.

[18:22] Now come on. You know the Bible has already warned of these types of things before. Earlier in Matthew, Jesus says this, Beware of false prophets who come to you in what?

[18:35] Sheep's clothing, but inwardly they're wolves. That is, they look like sheep, but in actuality they're wolves. Jude, and verse 3 says, Contend for the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints, for certain people have crept in what?

[18:54] Unnoticed. That's not always easy to see. And pervert the grace of our God and deny our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ. Right? Most false teaching doesn't slip in and say, hey, we're anti-Jesus, right?

[19:10] No, it comes in unnoticed. It looks like it's truth for a while, but you have to give it time. This is why Paul does not want us in Ephesians 4 to be children carried about by every wind of doctrine, human cunning, or deceitful schemes.

[19:29] So, in other words, the problem here in the parable is that you have on one hand, good and evil exist at the same time, and you can't always tell them apart.

[19:42] Are you with me? All right. Verse 27. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?

[19:54] And then does it have weeds? And he said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, we have a great idea. We have a really good idea. And here's our idea. How about we go and we gather them?

[20:06] And the master says, no, no, no, no, no. No, that's not a good idea. Lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them.

[20:18] So the disciples think they've got a great idea. Here's our great idea. We'll take out our weed whackers, and we'll just take care of the problem. We'll just go through the field, and we'll just take out all those evil people.

[20:39] We'll just wipe them out. And now keep in mind, in the context here, is that people assumed that Messiah would come in and overthrow Rome. So the disciples here are very ready to pull out their righteous swords and go out and conquer the world for Jesus.

[20:57] Now let's be honest. Have you ever felt that way? It was a good place for you to respond. I know you have, right? I know you felt that way. You see evil in the world.

[21:08] You see injustice in the world. And every one of us would love to take out the righteous weed whacker and just let them all have it. Tell me, what do you do with witches?

[21:20] Burn them! And what do you burn apart from witches? Poor witches! I'm sorry, I couldn't help it. I couldn't help it. And is that not the rage that we see around us?

[21:33] Right? Burn them! Take them down! Destroy their life! Let's just wipe out everything that is wrong with the world. In other words, if we're honest, every one of us has this tendency, is that we would rather go pull out all the bad weeds than sow good seeds.

[21:55] There's a tendency in all of us to want to take matters in our own hands. And what does the farmer say? That is an awful idea. And that has been an awful idea historically.

[22:08] If you know anything about church history, this has not been the way that God has called His people to approach the world. Amen? Let me ask you that again.

[22:18] Amen? Amen. Because as much as you would like to think that you are discerning, we are not biased judges. And this is one of the reasons why God does not want His people to take this approach.

[22:32] And here's why. God does not wipe out the weeds because some of them will become wheat. And only the farmer knows.

[22:43] See, this is the thing. Is servants, you don't understand what God is doing in the world, in the field. You think you do. You think with your righteous weed whacker, you'll just go out there and you'll just show them all.

[22:59] And he's like, that's an awful idea. It's an awful idea. That is not how I want my people to be. Because think about it. What if someone would have pulled the weed that was the Apostle Paul before he was converted?

[23:15] Well, you wouldn't have a New Testament. Or, let's get a little closer to home, what if someone would have pulled the weed that is you before the gospel bore fruit in your life?

[23:30] Do you remember this passage we read a week or so ago in 2 Peter 3? They're going to say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.

[23:45] Do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord is one day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill His promise as some count slowness, but is what towards you?

[24:00] Aren't you glad God was patient with you? Right? What if it would have just been like, no, wipe them out! No, He was patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should what?

[24:14] Reach repentance. In other words, this is so important. This is so important. Notice. The farmer will take care of the weeds. You sow good seeds.

[24:25] The farmer will take care of the weeds. You need to sow good seeds. This is difficult to do, faith family, but we have got to find a way to hate evil, to stand against evil, while not seeking the destruction of evildoers.

[24:44] Why? Because we are followers of Jesus. We are not Jesus. You should all say amen to that, right?

[24:54] We are just workers in His good field. We are not the farmer. We are not the ultimate judge. And so we leave the weeds to Him, and we sow good seeds.

[25:10] We get to the mission that He has called us to do, which is to sow the good seeds of the gospel in an evil world. Are you with me?

[25:21] Now some of you are going to say, I just wish God would hurry up. I mean, if God's going to take care of the weeds, we'll do it already. In fact, many people in the Bible have looked around.

[25:32] Habakkuk's a great example. Habakkuk looked around at the world, and he's like, God, are you going to do anything about the injustices that are happening in this world? And he says, yes, I'm going to. I'm going to send Babylon.

[25:44] And Habakkuk's like, I wish I wouldn't have even asked, because that answer is even worse than my question. And so we often look around, and we think, when is God going to bring justice?

[25:56] Well, He tells you verse 30. Let them both grow until the harvest, and at the harvest time, I'll tell the reapers, gather the weeds first, and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.

[26:11] Now, listen, faith family, this is really important. Just because we are not the judge does not mean there is not a judge. This is a good place for an amen.

[26:22] Yeah, I know you're cold. Okay, it's all right. Let me say it again. Just because we're not the judge does not mean there's not a judge. God's patience does not equal passivity.

[26:37] Jesus goes on to explain what this means, verse 40. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the close of the age. The Son of Man will send His angels and will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and lawbreakers, that is all the evil in the world, and throw them into the fiery furnace in that place where there'll be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

[27:00] Now, I don't have time to go through all that imagery. By the way, all that imagery comes from the book of, anybody want to guess in the Old Testament? Daniel, from the book of Daniel.

[27:11] That's exactly right. This is apocalyptic language, apocalyptic imagery from the book of Daniel that is used to describe something that is real.

[27:21] What is real in this description is that there'll be a harvest day. There will be a day of judgment. Now, let's be honest tonight, faith family.

[27:32] The doctrine of hell, the doctrine of God's judgment is not a very popular one, even among Christians, is it? I mean, there's even a lot of Christians, they don't want to hear about the doctrine of hell or the doctrine of God's judgment.

[27:47] But I would submit to you that even unbelievers know that there are things in the world that are so hellish, so evil, they must be dealt with if there is any justice at all.

[28:00] In fact, we should, I would go so far as to say that without the doctrine of hell, you have no good news of the gospel. Let me say that again.

[28:11] Without the doctrine of hell, you have no good news of the gospel. And what's part of the good news here? It's this, is that God loves the world so much, He wants to get the hell out of it.

[28:25] Okay? Now, I'm using a little bit of a turn of phrase here, but think about it. God wants to get the hell out of the world. He wants all those things that are the antithesis of His good world, His goodness, His love, His image bearers.

[28:44] He wants all that out. Why? Because you and I were created to live under His rule, under His reign, in a good creation where everything is right and everything is perfect.

[29:00] That's the kind of God our Heavenly Father is. Amen? And so, if you believe in any sense of good and justice, you have to have a doctrine of judgment and hell.

[29:14] Namely, that our God is such a loving, just God, He wants the hell out of this world. He wants to get all of this evil out. In fact, ever since Genesis 3, God's goal has been to get the, you ready?

[29:30] The hell out of you. He wants the hell out of you. He wants all those things that are a part of our fallen state, that is not good in His perfect image bearing capacity.

[29:45] He wants that out of us. That's what hell is. Are you with me tonight? Hell is an eternal place, but hell is also anything that is the antithesis of the kingdom of God.

[30:03] Preach, preacher. Hell is a place, but hell is also anything that is the antithesis of His good kingdom, and He wants all that out, not just of the world, but out of you.

[30:18] This is why Jesus will use this kind of language not just to describe a place, a future reality, which He does in this parable, and I'm not denying it all, but Jesus will even call the Pharisees children of hell.

[30:35] In John, He'll say, you are of your father, the devil. That is, the things in which you're espousing are the very antithesis of what the kingdom is about.

[30:46] You're children of hell in that sense. You're not representing God's good kingdom. You're representing the kingdom of the enemy.

[30:57] Notice what James says in James 3, verse 6. And the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life, and set on fire by what?

[31:16] That is, our tongue can be hellish. Amen? In fact, James will say because with it, we will praise God.

[31:28] That's a good thing. And we will curse image bearers of God. That's a bad thing. That is, even with us, that there is this hellish tendency to do evil, to say evil things, to speak things that are the very antithesis of what God is about.

[31:49] My point here, Faith Family, is this. Both in this passage in terms of a final reality as well as a current reality, Jesus came to confront hell and to get it out of us and to get it out of the world.

[32:05] And if you are someone who believes in good, who believes in righteousness, who believes in justice, you also believe in this.

[32:17] What I've been trying to do these last few minutes is show you while that may be an unpopular doctrine, it is a necessary one if you believe in anything that is righteous.

[32:29] So this is a good thing, right? I almost wanted to say, like, you want hell. I don't mean you want hell. I mean, you want the reality that God is going to get the hell out.

[32:42] He's going to get the unrighteousness out. He is going to deal with evil once and for all. So, we should be thankful there is a harvest day.

[32:56] We should be thankful that Jesus says, listen, I know when you look around you see all this evil. Don't think that all that evil is going to go unpunished.

[33:07] I'm the good, wise farmer. You're not. I know what weed will become wheat and I know what weed won't. And I will judge my world in righteousness.

[33:24] So, don't pull weeds, sow good seeds. This is His world. It's our Father's world.

[33:36] And we need to trust Him in this. Somebody say, preach, preacher. Are you still with me? I hope I haven't lost you. What this means is, we should be evangelists, not executioners.

[33:47] As the people of God, we should be evangelists, sowing good seed, trying to bring good in an evil world, not just making it our goal to destroy as many evildoers as we can.

[34:02] Yes, stand up against evil. Yes, stand up against that which is not right. But to understand, we are not the final judge. We are sowers of good seed in His good world.

[34:17] Now, you said, I thought this was a series on promises. Well, it is. It is. And now we get to the promise that Jesus gives that is meant to encourage His disciples, and I trust will encourage you this evening as well.

[34:30] Verse 43. Then, that is after the harvest, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

[34:46] Just set your mind on that verse for a while. After this, when the harvest is done, the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

[35:00] Here's what's interesting, faith family. This parable is not given as a warning to the world. Be warned, world.

[35:11] A judgment day is coming. That is true, but that's not the reason the parable was given. The parable was given not as a warning to the world, but as a promise to His disciples who looked around and it felt like they were losing.

[35:29] And they were discouraged. They were anxious. They were afraid. And the two-part part of this promise was this.

[35:39] Number one, Jesus is assuring us, He is assuring His disciples, the kingdom of God will be realized.

[35:51] Are you with me tonight? One day, we will shine like the sun in the kingdom of God.

[36:01] Do you understand why, pastorally, I'm sharing this message tonight? I don't want you, when you watch the news and you look around the world and you see all kinds of weeds, to forget this.

[36:20] Jesus said, I will build my church. And the gates of hell will not prevail against it.

[36:31] And faith family, that is happening. I know you're not going to see that on CNN or Fox News or whatever. You're not going to see that there most of the time.

[36:41] But you'll see it in a Walmart break room, in an Uber ride, in living rooms, in churches, and in coffee shops all around Minnesota.

[36:54] The wickedness of the world cannot and will not stop the kingdom of God. The wickedness of the world has never stopped the kingdom of God.

[37:11] One day, you will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. There's your headline. Amen? The kingdom of God will be realized, and here's the second part of the promise, is that you will be glorified.

[37:31] But by that, I don't mean that you are going to receive glory. I mean you're going to experience glory. You will shine like the sun.

[37:45] Do you see the radiance of that? The glory of that? That is, faith family, right in the middle of your stress at work, right in the middle of your family situation, right in the middle of the suffering that you're going through, you cannot forget.

[38:00] You must not forget. I won't let you forget the promise that God has given you, and that is, you will shine like the sun. You see clouds now.

[38:13] One day, the sun will break through, and it will radiate for all of eternity. The kingdom of God will one day be the only headline the world knows.

[38:29] And you will be a part of that, and you will see it in all of its glory. I don't care how many points you feel like you're down right now, He's already determined the final score.

[38:46] He promises. And faith family, what that means for us is as His disciples, we are to be patient and trust His promise.

[38:58] I know you want the fullness of the kingdom now. So did the disciples. I know you want the person that hurt you avenged now. I know you want the persecution to stop.

[39:09] I know you want the healing to be immediate. But the kingdom of God is like sowing seeds. You have to be patient for the harvest.

[39:22] But the harvest is coming. Don't lose sight of that in 2026. Whatever the discouraging headline may be in your life, don't lose sight of the promise that God has given you as His own followers that you will one day shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father.

[39:50] Jesus is not just giving the disciples this promise for this particular moment. I think He's actually preparing them for something that would come not long after.

[40:03] You see, it won't be that long after this parable that the disciples will find themselves in a locker room. It's called the upper room.

[40:15] And everything felt like in that moment they had lost. The disciples were certain in the upper room they had been defeated.

[40:26] After all, their Messiah was not hit by a boulder. He had one placed over the front of His tomb. Their Messiah was not considered clinically dead.

[40:40] He had been actually dead for three days. And yet, they had no idea they were about to be eyewitnesses to the greatest comeback this world has ever known.

[40:52] The enemy of the field did not win then. And fate family, he will not win now. I promise.

[41:05] I promise. And all God's people said, Amen. Father, may our hearts this evening be encouraged in the truth of Your Word. This is Your world.

[41:18] You have called us to sow good seeds. As You have sown good seeds, the sons of the kingdom, Lord, we are to be about. How can we help bring good, help be a part of Your kingdom work in a world that oftentimes looks like there's far more wrong than right.

[41:41] But Lord, at the end of the day, we trust not in what our eyes see. We believe, we have faith that You are the farmer over this field and that the harvest is up to You.

[41:55] But the promise that we rest in is that one day when the harvest finally comes, we will rest in Your glory forever and ever and ever.

[42:08] The enemy couldn't defeat You at the cross and the enemy cannot defeat You now. You will build Your church and what a beautiful thing it is that we get to be a part of what You're doing in the world.

[42:22] May this promise this evening from Matthew 13 give us comfort. May it give us security when we walk out of this place throughout our week and look around us and it feels like we're losing.

[42:38] You've already won. In Jesus' name, Amen. Thank you.

[42:52] Thank you.