WEBVTT

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 So imagine that you've got a farmer who sows his seed.

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 It's good seed, it's wheat.

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 And his enemy comes along.

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 We're not told why it would be an enemy.

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 But you've got the good seed that goes in the ground.

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 And then an enemy who comes along in the night,

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 goes and takes another seed, bad seed, some wheat,

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 and sows it in among the wheat.

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 Now, when Jesus was telling this story,

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 he wasn't just talking about any kind of weeds growing in among the wheat.

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 He was referring, it is reckoned, to a very particular type of weed

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 that was known as the bearded darnel.

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 And apparently, it was poisonous.

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 But when it grew, it looked exactly the same as wheat.

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 Now, these two coloured beans here are obviously a different colour.

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 But if you imagine, you've got the good stuff,

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 and then you've got the poisonous stuff.

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 And it all gets mixed together.

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 Now, obviously, you can see there which is green and which is pink.

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 But you wouldn't be able to tell the difference

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 when all of the good stuff was growing up with the poisonous stuff.

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 And that was the point that Jesus was making,

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 that he was saying that actually,

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 when the wheat, which is good,

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 and the weeds, which is poisonous,

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 grow up together,

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 you can't always tell the difference.

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 And that's a warning to us.

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 Because as we go through our lives,

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 we can be presented with all sorts of things.

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 Sometimes they may seem good,

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 harmless,

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 but they can be quite dangerous.

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 And a challenge facing us as we go through our lives

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 is to seek out what is really good

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 from that which just has the appearance of being good,

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 but actually which can be quite dangerous.

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 And this is not something that was unique to Jesus' time and day.

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 This is something that is timeless.

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 Wherever we go in life,

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 in any age,

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 in any culture,

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 we will be surrounded by mixed messages

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 of what is good and what is not good.

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 And very often we can be presented with the message,

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 well, you know, do this because it's good,

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 it's harmless,

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 it won't cause any problems at all.

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 But actually, it can be.

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 Sometimes we just need to be prepared

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 prepared to say no to some things.

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 You see,

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 God's warning in his instructions

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 is there for a purpose.

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 And that's the amazing thing,

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 that whilst in life

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 some things are not always black and white

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 and it's not always clear,

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 we are actually given the scriptures

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 to help us.

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 And when we pray,

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 God can help us

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 discern which is good

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 and which is not so good.

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 There we go.