February 28, 2024

February 28th, 2024

“It’s All About Jesus!”
Matthew 13:24-30 (The Wheat & The Weeds)
“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked. “‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’” – Matthew 13:28-30 (NLT)
“The Lord of the Harvest”

I preached on this parable this past Sunday at church. (If you’d like to view it, go to shartelchurch.org or our Shartel Church Facebook page.) A couple of things I pointed out in the message was that it’s not always easy to tell the wheat and the weeds apart. That was one of the reasons why the farmer said to let it be. It would be easy for the workers, especially early on in the growth, to pull out a perfectly good stalk of wheat mistaking it for a weed. Also, as weeds and wheat grow side by side, their roots interlock, which means you can easily yank out the wheat that way as well. As I told my congregation on Sunday, sometimes you just need to be patient (don’t you just hate that word!) and let God work.
Give God TIME to work. Most of us who have walked with God for a while have discovered that He operates on a completely different timetable than us. God’s not in a panic. He’s not even in a hurry. Things we think He should do immediately are often taken care of over time. Sometimes people that we think are “weeds” are just wheat whom God needs to spend a little more time with. So slow down and give God time to work.
Give God ROOM to work. This is going to be a little harder for some of us. Often, we come to God with a situation or an individual that we’re struggling with and ask Him to take control. His Divine response is, “I’d love to. But YOU have to let go!” For those of us who struggle with control issues, that’s a challenge. We not only want God to do it in our time frame, but we also want Him to do it our way. Hear my heart with this. Some of us are actually preventing the abundant harvest God wants to give us in our lives and relationships because we won’t give up the control. We have to let go and let God. Give Him room to work.
Finally, we have to give God our TRUST to work. Sometimes it’s not about the harvest. It’s about US. God is using this experience to make US into the people we need to be. He not only wants our cooperation, He wants our FAITH. Once we yield to God’s Work, God’s Way, in God’s Time, we can relax and let God take care of the rest. In the end, Jesus promises that God will sort it all out. That’s why He’s called “The Lord of the Harvest.” That’s God’s Word for you today.