THEMATIC BACKGROUND from: A Farmer's Parable: The Wheat and The Weeds


KEY VERSES: Matthew 13:29,41
   (NRSV) But Jesus replied, 'No; for in gathering the weeds you would 
   uproot the wheat along with them.... The Son of Man will send his 
   angels, and  they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin 
   and all evildoers.'
   
     
COMMAND AND PROMISE: The command is not to get engaged in weeding evil
out of the kingdom.  The Promise is that the Risen Christ will command his
angels to do it.

 
OUR RESPONSE:  is to ask forgiveness for getting focused on rooting 
out evil; to repent by turning away from focusing on evil ones; if troubled 
by a source of evil then to ask Jesus and his angels to do the weeding; to 
step back take your hands off and leave it up to him.
 
									
CREATIVE CLOSING
There may be someone in your life or your church who does not seem to 
accept instruction of correction. All your attempts to set this person 
right have come to nothing.

Now you hear Jesus saying, “No. I do not want you to pull up the weeds. 
I know how messy that can get.  I want you to leave it to me.”

I want you to ask yourself: “ Am I willing to do this?  Am I willing to take
my hands of this person and let Jesus take care of them?”

If you are willing to do this and you really mean it, then tell Jesus.  
You can tell him that you can’t get through to this person; that you are 
going to stop all your efforts and leave this person in his hands.

We are going to have a time of silence for you to think about this and 
to tell Jesus what you have decided.  You might want to write down what you
decide to do.

I will pray and then we will have this time of silence. 

“Father guide us by Your Spirit to understand what you are saying to each 
one of us today.  Grant us humility to change our ways and faith to trust 
you, we pray in Jesus name.”

(Leave about three minutes for people to really think about this. An 
option is to have a piece of background music playing during these periods 
of silence.)



copyright - George Hartwell, 2002, 2005
            Rev. Richard J. Fairchild - Spirit Networks, 2002 - 2006
            please acknowledge the appropriate author if citing these resources.