Mark: Ready for the word of the Lord today. I am man, I've just had such a beautiful week just in the scripture, and I'm excited to talk today. We've been in the parables of Jesus, and ⁓ we're gonna keep going until we stop. How's that? I don't know when that'll be, but it'll be at some point. We'll stop. ⁓ we've said this: the parables of Jesus. Parables are are stories, they're pictures, the everyday illustrations that Jesus used to. To reveal the kingdom of God. And Jesus, He takes things that people could see, that they could touch, that they could understand, and He uses them. Things like seeds and ⁓ oil and fields or vineyards, banquets, and He uses them to make invisible realities, invisible spiritual realities visible to us. How many are thankful that He does this so we can actually see? ⁓ ultimately, what he does is he opens our eyes to what the kingdom of God is like, to what the king is like, and ⁓ to what it looks like to live under his rule and his reign. And ⁓ if you're a believer and you're here today, if you're a follower of Jesus, what the Bible says is that you've actually been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness, and you've actually been brought into The kingdom of light, which is the kingdom of Jesus. And what we see Jesus doing all through the gospels is that he is announcing this kingdom. He's inaugurating this kingdom. He says it's at hand, it is here, it's begun. And because of that, since he was on the earth and began his kingdom, right now, all over the world, ⁓ the kingdom of God is advancing through people all over the world. Countries across the across the globe who are surrendered to King Jesus. He works through his people. He works through his church. And there's coming a day, hear this, when darkness and evil will not simply be pushed back, but will be completely overthrown. This day is coming where the kingdoms of this world, the scripture says, the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdom of our our Lord. Of our our of our God and of his Christ. And Jesus will reign forever. That day is coming. So as as Jesus is using parables, he's teaching us more and more and more about how the kingdom of God works. And that's what we're gonna see in today's parable. A couple of weeks ago, ⁓ how many thankful for last week's message with Pastor Gary? What a gift he is. So thankful for you. But the week before that, ⁓ We talked about the parable of the sower. We talked about the parable of the soil. And right after that parable, Jesus gives us this next parable that we're going to unpack this morning in Matthew chapter 13. And this parable is called the parable of the wheat and the weeds. Matthew chapter 13 is where we're going to be. So if you want to open your Bibles, you can open them. It'll be on the screen behind me. And ⁓ Jesus speaks really clearly to us today, and I'm excited about what he has to say. We're gonna start in verse 24. Jesus says this. It says he put on, I'm sorry, he put another parable. He didn't put on a parable. He's he's about all right, I can read, I promise. He put another parable before them saying, The kingdom of heaven may be compared to the kingdom of heaven. May be compared to now. Now, like I said, if you're a follower of Jesus, if you are a believer, we need to pay attention in this moment because Jesus is talking about the kingdom of heaven. And if he's talking about a kingdom that we're in, we should perk up and we should listen, right? Because he's letting us in on this kingdom that we're living in. He says, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to. To a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed seeds among the wheat and went away. 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 they said to him, Master, did you? Not so good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds? The farmer said to them, An enemy has done this. So the servant said to him, Then do you want us to go and gather them? But he said, No, don't do that, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. He says, Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn. Let's pray. Together. Lord, I just thank you for your word. I thank you that it's active right now. Holy Spirit, we welcome you to just speak to every heart. I pray that you would cause my mouth to only speak what your heart is for today. Lord, we welcome your word in this place. You say you put your word above your name. And so, Lord, today in this place, we take your word seriously. I pray that there would be even a hunger released right now. I pray that hearts would soften even now. And that your word would go down deep and it would spring up all kinds of good things, all kinds of good fruit in us today. I pray in Jesus' name. And everybody said, Amen. Amen. So in this parable, there are two sowers. There are two sowers. There, there's one farmer who is, we just heard it, is sowing good seed in his land, right? It's his land. And another sower comes and sows bad seed. Sows weeds in the farmer's land. I feel like somebody came and did that in our landscaping out here. An enemy came and sowed weeds. That's another story. I just needed to get that off my chest. We We're fixing that by the way in the next couple of weeks. Stay on track, Josh. So this enemy comes and sows bad seed. Jesus calls this this person an enemy. And notice how he works. Notice how the enemy works in the parable. He comes at night. He comes under the cover of darkness. And he sows a countercrop among the wheat. As I was studying this, the Greek word for for weeds here isania, and it's likely. What is known as this weed called Darnell. And Darnell was the worst. I'm sorry if your name is Darnell. You have to talk to your mama about it. I don't know. I'm sure she didn't name you after a weed, but that that this is the case. And it we i farmers hated this weed, like because in in that part of the world at that time, because it was actually a degenerate form of wheat. And it's here's the thing, in its early stages, it looked almost identical to wheat. You couldn't always tell the difference between what was a weed and what was wheat. Not everything that looks like wheat is wheat, in other words. And I think what Jesus is, and we'll see even more as he explains the parable in a minute, Jesus is warning us that appearances can be deceiving. Not everyone who says you know the right things or uses Christian language or attends church or even claims the name of Jesus necessarily actually belongs to Jesus. And what he's getting at is that that eventually fruit reveals the root. The fruit reveals what kind of a plant that is, what kind of a seed that was. And as this darnell weed ⁓ matured, what made it different was there was no grain. Okay, there was no grain. There was no head, it was just a stalk. This is why Jesus repeatedly tells us to look at the fruit, to examine the fruit. What did he say? He says, you you will you shall know them by their fruit. So as the plants matured, the difference became visible, but you couldn't always see the differences immediately. I think Mark tried to get us some wheat and darnell here. That's you can see the differences a little bit in it. As they grew the weed and the wheat would get intertwined together in their roots. And this is why when the servant asked, Do you want us to pull the weeds? the master says, No. Because in your attempt to uproot the weeds, you may uproot the wheat. You might pull a wheat thinking it looks like a weed. In other words, I think what Jesus is saying here is you ain't the judge. You're not the judge. Jesus is saying you can't fully see right now all that's growing in the field. You actually have to wait until the harvest. And then he tells them a parable of the mustard seed and a parable about baking bread and the leaven. And we'll get to those another time, but I want you just to jump down to verse 34. It says, All these things Jesus said, talking about these parables, all these things Jesus said to the crowds in parables. Indeed, he said nothing to them without parables. This was to fulfill what was spoken by the prophet. This is what the prophet said. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. That's from Psalm 78, too. And that was. That was ⁓ a psalm of Asaph. And you remember who Asaph was? He was a worship leader for King David. He would be at the Ark of the Covenant and he was worshiping in the presence of the Lord. And and he prophesied this a thousand years before Jesus came. Can you imagine? He's worshiping the Lord, and all of a sudden he starts prophesying about Jesus. And a thousand years later, Jesus comes and he begins to speak in parables. How many think that's amazing? I do, man. Amazing. And here's Jesus. He's He's fulfilling this, revealing the mysteries now of the kingdom that have been there all along. And watch what Jesus does next. Jesus goes line by line, he goes verse by verse, ⁓ and he he does expository preaching and teaching to show them actually what this parable means. And we're gonna read that now. Verse 36. Says, then he left the crowds. And he went into the house, and his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field. And I love this. As the disciples, the disciples were paying attention, right? They they what's interesting, they didn't ask about the mustard seed parable that was just there. They didn't ask about the leaven. They're like, Can you explain to us this whole weed thing? Like, weed, what does this mean? And I as I was just kind of meditating on that, you know, I was wondering, I was wondering, if Jesus, if the disciples hadn't asked, would you explain this to us, would Jesus have explained it? Which then made me wonder, like, you know, what would he explain to us if we asked? Right? Like you're you're cruising through the scriptures, you're like, I don't know what that means. I don't know. Okay, Jesus, I don't know what that means. But what if you actually stopped and you're like, Jesus, explain this to me? Holy Spirit, speak to my heart. You know, he's the spirit of truth, right? You know, he said it was actually better that the spirit would come than if he would have stayed. It's actually better. The spirit of Jesus is in you if you're a believer and he will reveal things to you that you could never know. And so it just, I don't know, there was something that stood out to me. I guess maybe that might have just not been in the scripture. He may not have explained it, but he did, cause they asked. I think we should ask more. I think we should ask more. And Jesus responds to their asking, and he explains the parable, verse 37. He answered, The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. And the enemy who sowed them, get this. Is the devil? The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels. Verse 40. Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom. Get this all causes of sin and all lawbreakers. And throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears, let him hear. How many glad you came to church today? This is intense. This is intense. If you're new today you're like, wow, they're one of those churches. They're just We're really not one of those churches, we're just Jesus church. We just we we like the words of Jesus, right? And and we need clarity from Jesus. We need clarity from He's He's giving us, I think, right here, this cosmic truth, right? And the and the the first part of it is this: there are two kingdoms. Okay, and we need to get this. Whether you know this or you've you've heard this, I want you to get this. There are two kingdoms. There are two orders of reality side by side that are in operation, and they are opposed to each other. It's the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world. And the second thing is that there's absolutely nothing more important than to know the difference between these two crops. And there is absolutely nothing in your life more important than knowing which one you belong to. And he makes it really simple and he makes it really clear. He says, the one who's sowing the seed is the Son of Man. It's Jesus. Jesus is sowing the seed. He's sowing, sowing in his field. Notice it's his field, which is the world. Guess what? This world is his. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world is his. The world's isn't the devil. This world is my father's world. He created this world. Okay, the good seed represents the sons of the kingdom, which includes the daughters of the kingdom. Amen. He calls the sons and the daughters of the kingdom the good seed. So remember from a couple weeks ago, Jesus, we were imagining Jesus scattering seed on all of those different kinds of soil. That's what he's talking about. Now the sons and the daughters of the kingdom are actually the good seed that he's scattering. And I want you to catch this. It's very important. Last time in the parable of the sower, what did Jesus sow? You weren't listening. He sowed the word. The seed was his word. Do you remember this? It was the word of God. So he sowed the word. That was the seed that he scattered in the different soils. What did he harvest from sowing the word? Sons of the kingdom. What sprout it up? You. Me. If you're a believer. Get this. So first he sows the word, then he harvests followers and believers. Then he takes the followers and the believers, the disciples, and he sows them into his field, which is his world. I want to say this again. First he sows the word, right? The word of God pierces your heart, it goes in, it sprouts up. You you're born again, you come into the kingdom of God, right? Then he harvests you. Then he takes his followers and he plants them into the world. He scatters us all over the earth. All around the world. He sends us. So if you've been saved, you've been planted by the Lord Jesus Christ right where you are. To be salt and light. Are you guys with me? Is it am I okay on the explaining of this? Because this is really important that we get this. If you don't get this, you're not going to get it. And then that's my fault. Right? So you've been planted somewhere. How many know you didn't just spring up here in Springfield, Missouri just to attend church? This is good you're here. This is a very big part of this. You've been planted here because you're a son and a daughter of the kingdom of God. He planted you in the family, gave you the family because he planted you there. To see his kingdom expand. It's not a s a mistake that he planted you where you were. Where you are. He planted you on purpose and he wants you to be a part of the harvest. That's a good word. How many disciples do we have? But half. That's great. You ch if you're not a disciple, I'm glad you're here. I'm glad you're here. I hope you're here. I hope we have more people that don't know the Lord coming through our doors every single week. This is this is a place for you. This is a place for you. If you do not know the Lord, I want to tell you: if you're not walking with the Lord, this is the day for you to be here. This is the day. But if you're a disciple, your mandate from Jesus is to proclaim the gospel. Not just a preacher, your mandate is to go. To go to proclaim the gospel, to to baptize people in the name of the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, right? To teach them to observe everything that Jesus commanded you. That's our call. That's the commission, right? So the word got in you, it's sprung up. Now you're a son or a daughter of the kingdom, and he scatters you across the city for his glory. For his glory. All right. Next he explains the weeds. Okay? How many like weeds? I hate them. We have so many weeds in our garden, I gotta yank them up. He explains the weeds. He says, he says. The weeds are the sons of the evil one. Now I meant when I said I hated them, I hated the weeds in my garden. I don't hate people. Just to be clear. I feel like I'm gonna get some pushback on this message anyways, and I'm ready for it. Okay. He says, he says. So I mean, not right now, I don't want the pushback. After the service would be good. Maybe tomorrow or Friday. But So he says, the weeds, I gotta keep going here. My wife is in intercession now for me. She knows I'm struggling. He says, the weeds are the sons of the evil one, sons of the devil. Okay? He says, the enemy is the devil. Okay? There is a devil. And there are sons of the devil. Yes, there are. Okay? So the devil he comes in the night and he sows the weeds. It's something we actually don't really like to think about. ⁓ but Jesus is saying, there are children of the kingdom and there are children of the devil. And you you might be here, you might say, Pastor, that's not nice. We're all children of God. And I would just say to you, with grace and with truth, we are not all children of God. And I I don't find any joy in saying that. I I'm not trying to. To jab anyone, but it's just not the truth of the scripture. Okay? I I hear that often, like we're all just children of God. No, we are not. We are not. ⁓ all of our friends and family members who are not saved, just because they are moral does not make them sons of God. And I think we need clarity on this because it'll actually cause us to be more missional. There are people who have been attending church, I don't know about our church. Maybe in this room today, churches all over the world their whole life, who are sons of the devil. Every person who is not saved, who is not born again, who has not been sealed with the Holy Spirit, they are the sons of the devil. Those are my words. Those are the words of Jesus. Okay, and I I just said I didn't say it, Jesus did. Look what he said to religious leaders. In John chapter 8, look what he said. He was talking the religious leaders, the people who had the Torah memorized. He said, You are of your father the devil. And your will is to do your father's desire. When's the last time you tried that one? He was a murderer, he goes on from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Later on in that very same passage, he told those same people that they weren't of God. So if you're not of God, what are you? It's the truth. And I'm not ⁓ you know, I'll get into this in a minute, but. Y you know, they didn't like that. You know what they said a little bit later? They said, Jesus, you've got a demon. Do you see this like this this going back and forth? Guys, Jesus was Jesus was really clear about this. He was really clear about this. We need this clarity. We need this clarity. Not because we're gonna throw stones at anybody, we need this clarity because it will propel us into mission. Listen to what John chapter 1, verse 12 to 13 says. It says, but to all, get this, to all who did receive him, who believed in him, and who believed in his name. There are three things there. He says, To all who did receive him, so you have to receive him, who believed in him, and who believed in his name. He gave the right to become. That means they weren't something and then they became something to become children of God. Who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. It's talking about being born again. You must be born again. Unless you're born again, you can't see the kingdom of God. Unless the Spirit of God opens your eyes to see. When you turn to the Lord, He opened the veil is removed. And you see. So say all this because I think sometimes I it feels like there's there's much confusion in the church at large, but everything isn't just going to be okay for everyone. And everyone isn't a child of God. No. I'm certainly not suggesting that we go around calling people sons of the devil. Okay, do not do that. Do not do that. But we need this clarity. I I I feel that we need this clarity in this hour because I actually think it'll shift our heart and it'll shift our urgency for the hour we're living in. And it will shift our urgency for the lost. It will awaken our hearts to the lives and lives to the seriousness of what's at stake in the kingdom of God. So the wheat, the sons of the kingdom, the weeds, the sons of the devil might actually look alike for a while while they are growing. How many know that when you turn to Jesus, your heart is fully his, but sometimes it takes a bit for your life to catch up, right? As the weed and the weeds are growing, ⁓ They might look alike, but they are completely different. They are not the same. And what I love here is Jesus, He's He says, don't pull those weeds while they're growing. Church, I think this is one thing we can take from this: that we have to resist the temptation to believe that we can perfectly sort everybody and everything out right now. We are not experts in judging who's in and who's out. Who's real, who's fake. We're not here to police everybody's life. Can I hear an amen on that? There's a big difference, hear me on this. There's a big difference between accountability and being judgmental. Okay? I also don't believe that it's just, ⁓ we just don't judge anything. We actually do judge things. It's called accountability. Right? And accountability says, hey, if you're in the faith, in the church, in the body of Christ, there is accountability. Okay? If you're in the church, it is perfectly right if you're in relationship with someone to say, brother, brother, sister, this is sin. Turn from that sin. That is wrong. That is not called judgmentalism. That's called speaking the truth. And we need to do it in love. And you see this all through the New Testament. As you read the letters that Paul wrote to the churches, lifestyles of sin have to be addressed in the church. But here's the thing a judgmental spirit is something entirely different. And what Jesus is telling us is, hey guys, let the wheat and the weeds grow together because there is a judgment coming, but you're not the one who carries it out. There's a harvest coming, but you and I are not the Lord of the harvest. Jesus says, let both grow until the harvest. So, how do you know the difference? Growth. Growth over time. Growth. It's all growth. It doesn't happen overnight, but you see it over time. And in the end, what happens is the true believer actually grows into the likeness of Jesus and bears fruit. We're saved by grace through faith, right? Not our own doing. But we enter into what is called sanctification. Okay? And and the the work of sanctification is this transformation internally that happens where he comes and he begins to heal our will. He begins to over time change our desires and our loves, and more and more and more we bear fruit that looks like Jesus in our lives. The counterfeit person, the person that's a weed does not grow more and more into the likeness of Jesus. And Jesus is saying, over time. It becomes clear who's who. I I just suggest to you today that that if you're not progressively we all don't work at it this doesn't happen at the same rate with everyone, but if you are not progressively l looking more and more like Jesus, you need to pay attention to what's going on in your heart and your life. Jesus is saying over time it becomes clear who the sons of the kingdom are and who the sons of the devil are. And it's at the harvest, at the end of the age, where He opens up the secrets of our hearts and they're laid bare. That it's in that moment that we see clearly, and it's in that moment that all will be judged. And I actually don't think we think about this enough. Right? This age has an expiration date. History is going somewhere. And Jesus is letting us in on it. There's coming a day when the patience of God gives way to the judgment of God. I don't know that there are more serious words than what we just read here in verse 41 and 42, but I I want to read them again. It says this. Jesus says, this is what's gonna happen. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom. This is so wild to me, all causes of sin. He's going to gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. And in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. That's sorrow and regret. Now hear me this morning, if you've been around a while, you know my heart. I don't talk about hell because I enjoy talking about hell. I talk about hell because Jesus actually continually warned about hell and final judgment. And we have to teach and preach the whole counsel of God. We cannot soften what Jesus refuses to soften. In fact, there's a part of me as I was in this, I was like, Josh, don't push past that one. Sit in it for a bit. And I thought about just turning this whole, just reading those two verses and then us just sitting for 40 minutes. And then I was like, that's a bad idea. But what the word of God, man, it will wake us up. You know, this. These little ideas get on us that aren't the word of God. These little vain imaginations and these things that kind of just settle on us and they're not the word of God. We got to come back to the word of God. You might be here right now, and this is unsettling to you. I'm just reading the word of God. It's not even my commentary, it's what he says. And we need this in this moment because it will break us out of passivity and lukewarmness, and it will cause our hearts to burn for Jesus. Jesus, the one who welcomed sinners, who touched lepers, who forgave enemies, who wept over Jerusalem and laid his life down on a cross for us. He is the one who is giving us this warning. It takes the whole Bible to read the whole Bible. Like you have to read the Bible in context to the whole Bible. And that's my biggest heart today. My biggest desire is that we would read this in context to who Jesus is. He really is the same Jesus that is the God of love. Think that there's this message that's being preached in the church of a version of Jesus who is loving enough to forgive us, but not holy enough to judge us. And it's a mistake, it's error, it's not accurate, and it's actually not loving. Loving is warning. The people that love me the most are not afraid to warn me. He is perfect love. He is perfect holiness. He is perfect mercy. He is perfect justice. And Jesus is saying that there is coming a day when evil will not simply be managed. It is going to be removed completely forever. Forever and ever and ever. And he's warning us, he's warning us because his warnings are an expression of his love. If you see somebody heading towards destruction and you say nothing, that's not love. That's not love. Jesus tells us the truth because he loves us. Because he loves us. And is he warning us, hell is real. Judgment is real. There's a final separation that's coming. A separating of the wheat from the tares, the sheep from the goats. Hell is a reality. Guys, I actually just want to apologize to you. I don't think I've talked about it enough. It wasn't intentional, but I'm in this passage and I'm like, this is important for us to get. That's what a loving shepherd does. I love you. I love you. I want these words to sit in you. That's not what people wanted to hear then, and it's not what people want to hear today. Jesus is not only savior, Jesus is judge. He's the most righteous judge, though. He judges everything perfect. You know why? Because unlike any judge on the planet, he knows everything about everything. Frightening and awesome at the same time. The same Jesus who says, Come to me, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, I will give you rest, is the Jesus that every single human being is ultimately gonna stand before and give an account. And I'm thankful that I'm covered by the blood. I mean, we were singing that. I felt the Lord on that today. I was like, but if you're not covered by the blood, if you're not washed in the blood. This reality is will be your reality. If you've not repented and believed, you will be judged and a fiery furnace awaits. I want to talk about that just for a minute. I heard somebody talk about this and I thought, this is this is so good. The best way I can understand hell like this in context to this and in in context to all of Scripture is this. All right, can you all take a deep breath? Okay. Do you love the Word of God? Okay, good. Here it is. Jesus' kingdom is invading earth. Okay, he's coming back to rule and reign. Okay? The king is coming back to earth, and wherever the king is, when he comes to rule and reign, you cannot keep your sin. If you want to keep your sin, you can keep it, but you cannot keep it here. That's what Jesus is talking about. Like there's only one place that you can hold on to your sin. So when Jesus steps in as Lord, when he returns to be ruler of the entire earth, and he is going to, there must be a place for people who say, I don't choose you. There must be a place for people that say, No, I'm gonna choose my sin. I'm gonna choose what I want over you. Hear me. When Jesus comes to set everything right, the final harvest that we're reading about here, everything opposed to his kingdom must finally go. Like we love, we love the we love the scriptures that are like, you know, out of revelation and it's so good. There'll be no more, there'll be no more pain, there'll be no more crying, there'll be no more sadness, right? We're like, yes, there'll be no more death. It'll be no more. He's gonna wipe away every tear from every eye. How is that possible? The only way that becomes a full reality is if sin is no more. Just think about this. Think about this. Verse 41, he sent his angels to gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin, all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. Guys, this is just the truth. And so this parable is his love, because his warnings are his love. But you know what stands out to me as I read this, and it has from the second I started studying this, the farmer is patient. The farmer's patient. God is patient. He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. That's why he says, Don't pull the weeds. Do you see his love now? That's why he says, Don't pull the weeds. Because you can't see what I see. You don't see that that person's ending from where they're standing right now. Like the person that you're ready to write off. Just might be the person that God is getting ready to redeem. He says, let both grow together until the harvest. Don't mistake God's patience though for God's approval. The fact that judgment hasn't happened yet doesn't mean judgment isn't coming. And it's important that this is what the Word of God does. It brings this into full view for us, right? It means God is patient. He gives people time to repent. He's given us time to turn, time to hear, time to respond to grace. And if our Father is patient, guess what? We should be patient too. That that person that you're around that looks like a weed, they might become a weed. That person that you're ready to write off might be the person that Jesus is getting ready to. Redeem. What would happen instead of us wanting to destroy our enemies? We actually started praying for ⁓ So here's what I say, I'm gonna get ready to close. Charity can come. The final harvest has not happened yet. How many are thankful that that hasn't happened? How many have loved ones, people that don't know Jesus? Yeah, we're thankful it hasn't happened yet. We're still living, hear this, in the day of salvation. The door is still open. Today is the day of salvation. Can you can we go back to the joy song? They need joy. I'm just kidding. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of salvation. One day that door will close. I don't know when it's gonna be, but here's what I sense: we need the urgency of this church. The person who's far from God today can become a son of the kingdom of God, can become a daughter of the kingdom of God. The delay of judgment is not the absence of judgment, it's the mercy of God giving people time to repent and to turn. This is a good one we're gonna end on verse 43. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father. I love how Jesus ends this parable. He ends with sons and daughters shining. Shining, shining with the glory of God. There's coming a day when every everything that sin has broken, everything that darkness has touched is going to be put right. Everything that that that that's been corrupted is gonna be removed. And everything, you know, that that's that's sickness, disease, all of it's gonna be driven out, and the people of God are gonna shine in that kingdom. But right now, weeds and wheat, they grow together. But guess what? He planted you here. As a foretaste of what's coming, a foretaste of new creation reality, which means, guess what? We're shining now. We're shining right now. Until that harvest, we shine. Jesus said, You're the light of the world. We shine not only when we're worshiping today, we're gonna shine on Tuesday. We're gonna shine on Friday night, we're gonna we're gonna shine Saturday. So that they will see our good works and they will glorify our Father who is in heaven. We get to show the world who he is. My only concern should be: how do I be fruitful where I'm planted? And of course, that's all connected to being connected to Jesus because it all flows through him in intimacy and relationship, where we just begin to grow and mature. It's all in him and through him. He plants the gospel in the earth through you and me. And I actually believe there's a great challenge here, and it's a call to live in the kingdom, to be about kingdom work, kingdom business. Amen. Stand with me this morning. We just take a minute and just just as a posture, lift our hands and could we just begin to thank him for his word? And could you just ask him to let this word go deep in you? If that's in your heart, just say, Lord, let this word go deep in me. Keep speaking to me about your word. Keep keep letting this word come alive. Come alive. Come alive. I just declare, even right now, that there is still time for the prodigals to come home. There is still time for those who've been far off to come home, to return. There is still time for the one who's been bound in sin to be set free. Because of the gospel of the kingdom, there is still time for sinners to become sons and daughters of the kingdom of God. The person who is far from God today can become a son and a daughter of the kingdom of God today. He who has ears, let him hear what the Spirit of God. Says to the churches, I just have every eye closed right now. I just ask for a few ministry team people to slip out and just come to the front. But I want to ask this question today. If you're here today and you don't know if you are a wheat, but you'd say, you know what, I've never actually been born again. I've never actually surrendered my life to Jesus. Or maybe I've been far away from Him. And today I want to turn to the Lord. I want to repent from where I've been and I want to turn to Jesus because I'm hearing this word and it's it's piercing my heart. And you'd say, I want to turn my life over to Jesus. If you're here today, would you lift up your hand? If you'd say, I think I'm a weed and I need Jesus. If that's you today, I just want you to lift your hand. Everybody else, just eyes closed, just pray, church. This is a moment just to pray. Because the enemy would love to just. Not allow this word to go down deep. If you're here today and you'd say, I need Jesus, I've not been walking with him. I need to be born again. Lift your hand. Looking across the room. Okay. Okay. Yes. One hand over here. Thank you, friend. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? I just I just don't want to rush this. This is an eternal consequence. This is an eternal reality right now. I feel eternity right now. I I literally feel eternity in the balance this morning. And I'm not gonna rush this. Anyone else that just says today is the day of salvation for me. I need the Lord. I need to turn to the Lord. Lift your hand up. Don't be shy. Be bold. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Okay. Believe there were a couple of hands that were raised. This team up front is been praying for you. I want I would invite you to come. They want to share Jesus with you, they want to pray with you. But here's what I want us to do for the next like three minutes. I want us to pray that God would anoint us with boldness to be the sons and daughters of the kingdom that are planted in the world to see the good news of the gospel go forth. If that's you, would you lift your hand right now? I just want us to pray. If you pray in the spirit, pray in the spirit. I pray in Jesus' name right now, just a holy desire. To preach the good news, to declare the good news. I pray for every single believer in this room that you have planted in places all over this city, places of work, employment, places of school. God, you have called us as sons and daughters of the kingdom to declare who you are. I pray a boldness and I pray that we would see a harvest of souls. Come on, church. Let's ask Him. Just use us. Flow through us, God. I pray. Would you flow through us? Give us the urgency of the hour. Give us the urgency of this day. Give us an urgency even right now in us. Not a soulish, zealous kind of a thing, but an urgency for the truth. Lord, I pray that you would give us passion for our neighbors, for our coworkers, for people out in the marketplace, God, that we wouldn't just wait for some supernatural moment, but we would step out in boldness in the power of the Spirit. And I pray that, God, this would be a season of harvest, a season of great harvest. Give us this eternal consequence. Write it on our hearts this morning. Burn your words on our hearts today. I pray we would stop just playing church if we're playing church. I pray we would refuse compromise and mediocrity, and we would be the sons and the daughters of the kingdom that light up the world wherever we are. And I pray this in Jesus' name. I pray it in Jesus' name. I pray it in Jesus' name. All over this place. If you need prayer. You want to return to the Lord. Maybe you just say, I will, I just need something from God right now. God's doing something in you. Maybe it's something you need to repent of or turn from. Don't leave here without doing it. That's the anointing in the presence of the Lord. Encourage you to do that. Charity's gonna sing. The rest of us, we can go. God bless you. We love you. But I encourage you, don't leave. If you responded to receive him today, come on.