Dealing with Weeds

Throughout history we dreamt of a golden age, an ideal society of perfect peace and freedom and righteousness and equality.

Plato talked of his republic. Sir Thomas More spoke of his utopia. William Penn of his city of brotherly love. Karl Marx of his egalitarian communist society.

Martin Luther King of his perfectly integrated United States of America. We all long for these idyllic paradises and we're tired, aren't we, of a world of injustice and poverty and inequity and violence and war. Our leaders make great plans.

Politicians make high sounding speeches. Grand initiatives are launched and international peace and economic conferences are held which promise so much and yet we still live in a world of violence, a world of unrest and poverty and injustice and inequity. None of these political, economic, philosophical, religious utopias talked about have ever, ever materialized.

History teaches us that we will never build a perfect society. All the kingdoms of this world have ended in failure. The Babylonian empire. The great empire of Alexander the Great. The Roman empire. The Ottoman empire. Yes, the British empire which at one time extended almost over a third of the world. The empire of the Third Reich of Nazi Germany.

The communist societies of Marx and Lenin. All have come and all have gone. Winston Churchill said, the shores of history are strewn with the wrecks of empires.

They perished because they were found unworthy. How true. Isn't it exciting to be a follower of Jesus Christ? And in our study of Matthew's Gospel, we are learning about a kingdom. Yes, a kingdom. The kingdom of God where there will be perfect justice and peace and righteousness. And this kingdom, the kingdom of heaven will never end. And through the grace of God and through the love of God, you and I as followers of Jesus Christ are part of that kingdom. And what an incredible future we have that we will participate in this glorious kingdom which will never end.

No, we don't set it up. One great day, one glorious day, as the Old Testament said, and as the New Testament prophesied, one great day, God, our King, will set up a kingdom. Here it is from Daniel. Behold, the clouds of heaven, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a son of man. That's our Lord Jesus. And he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which shall not pass away.

And his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. Do you believe that? Do you believe that?

We do. That there will be a future day when all of the enemies of God are going to be destroyed. And the whole earth, the whole earth will acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the sovereign Lord.

And he will rule with perfect power and majesty and glory. We've been learning in our study of Matthew that with the coming of Jesus, his kingdom, yes, the kingdom of heaven, has come to earth. But we're also learning that that kingdom has not yet come in its fullness. That there is a future aspect of this kingdom. When our Lord Jesus Christ returns, the visible kingdom of God will be established throughout the world. If I talk about the kingdom of heaven now, people say, well, where is it? Our world is unjust.

Our world is evil. There doesn't seem much sign of the kingdom of God. But the word of God is telling us that that kingdom is going to come. The kingdom of God.

Here is a chart, I think, which gives an overview of this concept of the kingdom of God, which I know admittedly we can sometimes struggle with. Notice number one, that King Jesus has come. That is his incarnation.

We celebrate that not only at Christmas, but every day of our lives. That in Jesus Christ, the kingdom has come. Repent, says John the Baptist. The kingdom of God is at hand. Now King Jesus has returned. He's ascended.

He's in heaven. And we're going to read that he describes us as the sons of the kingdom. We are here. We are sons of the kingdom, as we'll learn today from the parable.

This is the age of the church that we're now in. We look forward, number three, to the return of King Jesus. He's coming back.

What's he going to do? Number four, he's going to usher in his great millennial kingdom, a reign on earth of a thousand years, when he reigns and we, his saints, will reign with him. And then there will be the great, eternal kingdom of the new heavens and the new earth, described so eloquently by John in Revelation 21 and 22. Now last time, as we looked at these parables last Sunday, we read of, in the first 23 verses of Matthew 13, we read of the parable of the sower. Today we're going to look at three fascinating parables. One of them we're going to look at closely, the other two rather briefly, but they will help us to learn about the kingdom of heaven. Jesus, in Matthew 13, is teaching us about the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven.

If you have your Bible, open it please to Matthew chapter 13, and I'm going to read from verse 24. He, Jesus, put another parable before them. All this parable of the sower, here's another parable.

Notice, the kingdom of heaven, he's teaching us about the kingdom, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. 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 grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, master, did you not sow good seed in your fields?

How then does it have weeds? He 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. Lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. And at 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. He put another parable before them saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man too can sow it in his field. It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it is grown, it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in his branches. He told them another parable.

Here's our third one today. The kingdom of heaven is like a leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. After these things, Jesus said to the crowds in parables, indeed he said nothing to them without a parable. This was to fulfill which was spoken by the prophet I will open my mouth in parables.

I will utter what has been hidden since the foundation of the world. He's revealing, as we saw last time in verses 10 and 11, he's revealing something of the mystery, something of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven. In the Old Testament, there is truth about the coming of the Messiah and he's going to suffer, and then there's also other scriptures dealing with the coming of the Messiah who's going to reign with power and glory. And what these saints didn't understand is between the first and the second coming, there is the age of the church and Jesus is talking about these truths now. Verse 36, then he left the crowds and went into the house. Notice he's giving the interpretation to his disciples. His disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.

When I read that you think, well what's it all about? Jesus is going to tell you, he's going to give us the interpretation. He answered them, 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 is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age and the reapers are angels. Just as weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The son of man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom 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. Then the righteous will shine like the son in the kingdom of their father.

He who has ears, let him hear. The marvelous teaching of the Lord Jesus in these parables. So as we look at the parable we call it the parable of the wheat and the tares. The harvest and the poisonous weeds in the present age now our Lord Jesus Christ has come but He's not yet come back. We're in this period, the age of the church.

What's happening now? In the present age, good seed and evil seed are being sown. Good seed is presently being sown by the Lord Jesus.

Verse 24, the man sowed good seed in his field. Verse 37, the one who sows the good seed is the son of man. Who's the son of man?

We saw that word in Daniel chapter 7. It is the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the son of man. Jesus is sowing this good seed. What does Jesus preach when He comes?

How does He begin? Repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. We saw in chapter 4 verse 17. The field, it's not the church, please notice. Jesus makes it very clear. Verse 38, the field is the world.

What's a good seed? Verse 38, it is the sons of the kingdom. Jesus comes and He preaches and He sows the good seed in the field. This word goes to all the world.

What is to be a response? How do we become part of this kingdom? How do we become a son and daughter of this kingdom? Listen to Jesus. Repent and believe in the gospel. Jesus Christ is truly king. And if Jesus Christ is truly king, if He's the son of God and the son of man, you cannot continue to live as you once lived. That's the message of John the Baptist as he prepares the people to receive the king, King Jesus. Repent, get right, turn from your sinful ways and embrace the Lord Jesus Christ who comes as our Savior.

Yes, the Savior of the world, the seed is being sown in the world through our Lord Jesus and His apostles and His disciples and continues to this day. Our Lord Jesus Christ comes as the Savior who dies for our sins and rises again and through the miracle of the new birth, we're born into the family of God. So Jesus says to Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you can't see, you can't enter the kingdom of God, but those who come humbly and place their trust in our Lord Jesus Christ then become, Jesus says, sons of the kingdom. I thought that I'm a son of the kingdom of heaven.

Incredible, isn't it? To be part of the kingdom of God. So this good seed now is being sown, usually it's being sown very quietly without any fanfare as it were. Here is a boy of 10 who comes to Calvary Church with his parents and he receives Jesus Christ as his Savior. He does that quietly.

He does that without any trumpet blowing, without any lightning in the sky as it were. He's never lived a life of wickedness, but in the heart of this boy, slowly, miraculously, God is at work. And in the 15 years I've been here, I've had the joy of seeing little boys seeing little boys and little girls grow and blossom. We see some of them helping us in our worship, playing an instrument, singing, singing in the choir, singing the praise team, singing in one voice as it were, as the seed of God was planted 10, 12, 15, perhaps 20 years ago.

The world never knows it. The world doesn't immediately see it, but that good seed blossoms and bears fruit. The good seed is being sown by our Lord Jesus Christ, but at the same time, bad seed is being sown by our enemy.

Did you notice that? When the servant's masters were sleeping, that's not wrong. You've got to sleep sometimes.

What happens, verse 25, when they're sleeping? His enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. Now, understand this type of weed.

In some translations, it's tares or darnels. It's a poisonous weed, and initially as it begins to grow, it looks the same as the wheat. You can't immediately distinguish the wheat from the tare, but as it grows, and the more it grows, the more apparent it is that it is a weed rather than wheat. In fact, these weeds are poisonous weeds, and if you take them, you can die.

Just think of this. Good seed is being sown. At the same time, bad seed is being sown. What's the bad seed?

Jesus tells us, verse 38, it is the sons of the evil one. Here is Jesus sowing the good seed. At the same time, these evil weeds are surreptitiously, stealthily planted beside the good seed. You say, who's sowing the weeds, the bad seed? In verse 39, the enemy who sowed them is the devil. You know, as there's always satanic opposition to the sowing of the good seed, to the teaching and preaching of the Word of God. We saw that last week with the parable of the soils. As the seed falls on the hard ground, the birds immediately take it. And Jesus said, that's the evil one.

You've got a hard heart, critical heart. As the seed is sown, the devil is immediately trying to take it away. He hates the Word of God. And as we at Calvary Church, as others, are preaching the Gospel throughout the world, whether it's in your neighborhood, whether it's overseas in Papua New Guinea, as we are sowing the good seed, our enemy is sowing the bad seed. And he's at work behind the scenes. He's subtle. Can I remind you, brothers and sisters, we've an enemy who hates the Word of God.

Absolutely hates it. He opposes it. He will distract us. He tries to confuse the work of God with false doctrine, with lies, with doubts, with counterfeits. He wants to destroy what God is doing. Whether that's in your home, you're trying to have a godly home, planting good seeds, be vigilant. The devil is trying to plant bad seeds. You're seeking to live for God?

At Calvary Church, we're committed to the Word of God. Let's always remember we have an enemy who is trying to distract us and disturb us and divide us by planting the evil seed. But as the wheat and the weeds grow, the difference between the two then becomes apparent.

And the servants see it. What are they to do? Gather the weeds? Well, the problem is, as the wise master, the farmer says, the problem is, if you root out the weeds, you're going to root out the wheat. No, let them grow together.

Let it come to fruition. You say, but these are evil weeds. We need to take action. God's judgment is going to come, but it's going to come, Jesus is saying, did you notice it?

At the end of the age. You know, as followers of Jesus Christ, we often get upset and rightly so with the evil weeds around us. Do you think our devil is sowing evil weeds in the United States? Is there any evidence that our enemy is at work? Open your eyes.

Listen to the news. Think of all the evil that goes on. Yes, in our own country, in our own city, in our own world, and we don't like, as followers of Jesus, some of the political and legal decisions that are made. In our nation, more and more, the word of God is being ignored. Not only ignored, but sometimes mocked.

Moral and spiritual standards decline. And we get very upset. Sometimes we get very angry and we want to pull out all of the weeds and pull out all of the evil, as it were, from our culture. I want you to learn something very, very important. That we who are sons of the kingdom are not anarchists, we're not rebels, we're not insurrectionists.

Do you hear me? Our allies, they were people who attacked the Congress, and they had texts of scriptures, and some of them called themselves patriotic Christians. Let me say that is inconsistent with being a follower of Jesus Christ. We who follow Christ, we who follow Christ are not anarchists, we're not insurrectionists. Yes, we do stand against evil. Of course we are. We're to be bold, we're to be firm. Jesus has already taught we're to be light and we are to be salt.

That is true. But remember this, brothers and sisters, it is God who judges the evil decisively and eternally. What's happening in the present age? This is the age of grace. This is the age of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And Peter tells us in his second epistle, yes, there's always mockers, but listen to this. The Lord is patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. Does our holy God see the evil going on in our world? Yes, He does. Does our holy God see the evil in your heart? Yes, He does. Does our holy God see the evil going on in our city and in our nation and with some of the decisions of our politicians and the decisions of our courts? Does God see that? Does it grieve Him?

Of course it does. He's holy. He's righteous. But aren't you praising God that God is patient? Hasn't God been patient with you? Did God immediately wipe you out because of your sin?

Did God immediately judge you because you rebelled against His law? No, God is patient. This is the age of grace. This is the age when we age of grace. This is the age when we as followers of Jesus Christ are to exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, which includes patience and love and gentleness.

No, we're not spiritual wimps. We take a strong stand against evil, but it is not for followers of Jesus to go around forcibly pulling out the weeds. The kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven does not grow through violence. It does not grow through rebellion.

It does not grow through insurrection. You remember Chuck Colson, the hatchet man in the White House when Nixon was president and then marvelously converted to Jesus Christ. Soon after I came here 15 years ago, there was a conference and I had the privilege of hearing Chuck Colson write where I'm standing. And Chuck Colson liked to say, and he was someone who knew about political power and knew about the evil of the power and absolute power. He liked to say that the kingdom of God, listen, the kingdom of God will never arrive on Air Force One.

Did you get that? Today we have some Christians who seem by their reaction to think that the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of God is going to come on Air Force One. No, it will never do that. History tells us, don't look to any president, don't look to a king or parliament or congress or the Supreme Court or any political party to usher in the kingdom of God.

That will never, ever, ever happen. Jesus says, listen to him, my kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting. What happens to our savior when evil men take him and mock him? Who when he was reviled, reviled not again? Who when he suffered, he threatened not? No, he commits himself to the righteous judge. Will God hold these evil men to account? Of course he can, but we as sons and daughters of the kingdom are part of the kingdom of God, not a political kingdom, not a national kingdom, something far greater, something far grander that as followers of Jesus Christ, we are sons of the kingdom of God.

Now who's going to divide the wheat from the weeds? Well, we'll get a great president. President Trump will do it. President Biden will do it. President Obama will do it. Or we'll get another president and he will do that. No, he won't.

No, he won't. God will do it. Notice what Jesus says in verses 14, 41. He's going to send his reapers, celestial reapers, angels from heaven. And they will gather the weeds, verse 40, just as the weeds were gathered and burned with fire. So it will be when?

With a change of political power, of course not. At the end of the age, the Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom 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.

That's fearsome, isn't it? Can I remind you, just because God's judgment isn't carried out immediately, does not mean that judgment is not coming. God is not mocked.

What a man sows, he reaps. In your personal life, you've deliberately rebelled against God and it seems that God is overlooking it. You're presuming on the grace of God. You think because God has not acted, you can get off with it?

Absolutely not. God is righteous. God is holy. Do you not think that judgment is going to come?

Of course it's going to come, but it will come at the end of the age. And notice verse 42, it's a judgment of fire, of fire. Yes, we believe at Calvary Church, we believe in eternal punishment. We believe in the lake of fire.

We believe that those who rebel against God, who reject Jesus Christ, will be thrown into the lake of fire. Listen to Paul. If you've got your Bible there, you can turn to it with me. Second Thessalonians, as he talks about this. Second Thessalonians 1, verse 7. And to grant, well, let me read from verse 5. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you're also suffering.

Suffering in the first century. Since indeed, God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire. Same picture as we have in the parable of the evil weeds being burned, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will suffer punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might when He comes on that day, the end of the age, to be glorified in His saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed. Is judgment coming?

Yes, it's coming. The judgment of God is coming. Now, it's the gospel of grace. Now, as a preacher of the gospel, I offer Christ to you. He'll save you, He'll forgive you, He'll transform you, receive Him, repent and believe in the gospel.

But I also have to warn you, if you don't, if you choose to continue to have a hard heart, to rebel, to say, well, it's not for me or maybe one day on my deathbed I'll get right with God, I have to warn you that God's judgment comes and it is eternal and it's eternal destruction. In contrast, did you notice the beautiful description in verse 42 of the righteous? The righteous, no, not the self-righteous, those who are declared righteous through the grace of God and who are living righteous lives, demonstrating the reality of their faith, then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

He whose ears let him hear. If you know your Bible, it reminds you, doesn't it, of Daniel 12 verse 3 where Daniel talks of those who will shine like the stars forever and ever. Imagine that, sons of the kingdom, shining like the sun in the kingdom of our father, shining forever and ever with the glory and majesty and beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a contrast, eternal destruction or being forever with the Lord.

What a brilliant, certain, unending future we have as sons of the kingdom. Now notice very quickly the other two parables that I read in Matthew chapter 13. Here's the second main point, that the kingdom of heaven, it begins in a small and seemingly insignificant way, but it's a great future.

Don't you love these two little parables? The kingdom of heaven begins in a very small way. Yes, like a mustard seed, a grain of mustard seed.

A man takes and sows in his field. It's the smallest of all seeds. Ah, but when it's grown, it's larger than all the garden plants. In fact, it becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches. Here's a mustard seed. Then the smallest, most insignificant seed, proverbial for its smallness, and it's planted. And it grows and it grows and it grows and becomes a plant. All right, it can be as much as 15 feet high.

So much that it gives shelter to the birds. But its beginning is small. Its beginning is insignificant. Or, verse 33, the kingdom of heaven is like leaven. A piece of yeast, as it were, that the woman takes and hides in three measures of flour till it was all leavened. The impact is of a little leaven, a little yeast. The word measure is, I read, is a translation of a term referring to 16 pounds. So, three measures total about 48 pounds, you might say, of bread. That's a lot of bread, isn't it?

I love bread, but imagine 48 pounds. That feeds a lot of people, but it begins very, very small with a little piece of leaven. But it grows into something large, something insignificant, something significant rather, something which blesses a lot of people. Do you get the point with these two parables? Little mustard seed, little piece of leaven.

What's the point? From a small and seemingly insignificant beginning, the kingdom of God grows and grows and grows and has a magnificent future. Think of the beginning.

How does God enter time and space? He's born, or saved, not in a palace, but stable. Laid in a manger in a small town of Bethlehem. He grows up in Nazareth, which was despised by the people living in large towns. They thought Nazareth was kind of Hickville, you know, unsophisticated people. Born in a little town, Bethlehem. Grows up in Nazareth.

He's no money, he's no home. And the death of a Messiah on a cross seemed the very opposite of the conquering and triumphant King. But in a small and insignificant way, the kingdom of God begins. From a very, very small beginning, the Gospel spreads and spreads and spreads. The Lord is in heaven, the Spirit descends on the apostles.

What are they told to do? To take the message, begin in Jerusalem, go a little further into Judea, venture into Samaria, but I want you to go to the remotest part of the world. A very small beginning, but the ripple effect grows and grows and grows and grows and continues to grow to this day so that we can calculate how many authentic followers of Jesus Christ there are in places like the former Soviet Union or in China. Yes, perhaps in North Korea, the kingdom of God grows and grows and grows. Now, I realize you look out at the world and it seems the evil is triumphing. It seems that the power and the influence today is with government.

It's with big business or it's with Hollywood or the universities or the media and those who reject God and we seem so powerless sometimes, the church, and we say, what can we do when all of this evil is going on? Jesus is saying, don't measure the importance and power of the kingdom of heaven from its small, insignificant and seemingly weak beginning. God's kingdom down through the centuries continues to grow often quietly, often steadily, but let me tell you irresistibly, and while God's kingdom today may seem puny compared with the kingdoms of the world, one day it's going to fill the whole universe.

It starts small but has a great and a glorious and an eternal future. Ezekiel 17 talks of the Davidic kingdom. Think of King David. I mean, he comes from Bethlehem, the youngest of his brothers.

The other's brothers seem stronger and better leader than the king, David, but David is selected. And from that insignificant beginning, the Davidic kingdom comes. And Ezekiel 17 says it's like a little sprig, it's like a little twig of a tree and it becomes bigger and bigger until it becomes like one of the magnificent cedars of Lebanon. So big that the very birds will nest, Ezekiel says.

And the Lord is saying with the parable of the mustard seed, from that little seed grows a tree which is so big that the birds, the nations of the world find their comfort and their salvation in it. Point, the kingdom of God is powerful. The kingdom of God is certain and the kingdom of God has an unstoppable future. Don't despair when you see the evil. Of course, mourn, lament for it. Pray for God to bring righteous and wise leaders. Of course, we pray for that.

Pray for wise judges who understand what a judge is meant to do. Yes, continue to pray for that and be involved in that. And God calls God's people to be politicians and lawyers and judges and in the media and in every place of life to bring His grace and to be salt and light.

Yes, that is true. But when there is opposition, remember this, that that small, insignificant beginning with all of the opposition, with all of the evil seeds being planted, that the kingdom of God grows and grows and grows. In Daniel chapter 2, there is the vision of all of these, remember the big vision, with all of the kingdoms. And Daniel prophesies of a stone, a small stone, which comes and strikes the kingdoms of the world and it smashes them. It destroys the kingdom, the kingdoms of the world, all of them from that little stone. And that little stone then becomes a mountain and eventually fills the whole world.

Daniel 2, if you haven't read it for a while, read it this afternoon. And then Daniel says this, and in the days of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end and it will stand forever.

It will stand forever. Are you part of that eternal kingdom? I trust every one of us, listening on live stream on Facebook, sitting here in the sanctuary, I trust that each one of us is part of the kingdom. You say, John, how can I be part of that kingdom?

Entrance into the kingdom of God is through doing Christ. He's the way. He's the truth. He's the life. He's the door. He's the good shepherd. He's the savior. Come to Christ humbly, turning from your sins, confessing your sin, alluding to Christ, who on the cross died for your sins, paid the price for your sins, rose again and is alive.

And yes, he's coming back. And Paul says that our magnificent Lord Jesus has transferred us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's beloved Son. You want to stay in the kingdom of darkness?

Judgment is coming. That kingdom will not stand. And if you're a follower of Jesus Christ every day, afresh, bow to the authority of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And to our evil world, display and proclaim Jesus, for His kingdom, His kingdom, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven, His kingdom stands forever. Praise God. Will you bow with me in prayer? And praise God for such a King. And may each one of us be part of that kingdom.

Perhaps you're not. And as we close, as you bow your head, will you confess your sins? Will you look to Christ, ask Him to save you, to forgive you? Our magnificent Christ who stands and says, come to me and I'll give you rest.

Come to Christ and know His forgiveness and receive eternal life. Father, we bow before You. We thank You for Your kingdom. Sometimes we despair as we look out in the world. Sometimes we think we're so ineffective. Think of our Sunday school teachers. Think of our missionaries. Think of our students at college. Think of those in the marketplace seeking to live for Christ.

And it's sometimes tough, sometimes very difficult. And often we wonder if what we're doing is making any impact. Thank you for this reminder that the kingdom of heaven is growing, often quietly, but it's growing steadily and it will never, ever be resisted. And so today we reaffirm our hope in Christ that we're people of hope, that our hope is not in this world, is not in this kingdom, but our hope is in the Lord from this time and forevermore. May that grip us. May that encourage us as we seek to display and proclaim the Lord Jesus. In His name we pray. Amen.