Weekly Message | Harvest Time

Following last week's message, "The Abundant Sower," our weekly message continues with the parable of the wheat and the tares. To guide our understanding, this week's service included a reading from Matthew 13. In his message, Pastor Rich explains, "There will always be a problem of good and evil growing up around us in our world." As the parable teaches us, the weeds (tares) and the wheat both look so similar when they are young plants that it's difficult to tell the two apart. Therefore, he cautions us not to be quick to judge. He suggests that, "There are weeds and there is wheat growing within us, and God isn't uprooting. God is patiently letting us develop because it is only over time that we can allow the wheat to grow while the weeds die. It's only over time that God can manage us and manage our world so that His will is done on earth - and it will be. What He asks of us is to be kind to each other. What He asks of us is not to judge each other. And what He asks us to do is to give him the benefit of the doubt as well because He may be developing in us through our faults and developing in others through theirs something beautiful and good for His kingdom. Sometimes we need to be broken so that we understand how important it is to be fixed."