Presented at Curwensville Alliance on 3/23/25 by Pastor Steve Shields.
The kingdom contains contaminants. Weeds are growing in the wheat. Birds are inhabiting a growing spice plant. There is yeast in the baking flour. There are carp in the net with walleye.
The kingdom will never be perfect until the harvest.
God allows things to happen in the kingdom for His own reasons.
Maybe God allows what he allows because He patiently loves people.
The good, the bad and the ugly. Some things are best left in God’s hands. These parables don’t say we should ignore someone who is struggling with sin. But they do show us that zealously purging the kingdom of weeds is not our job.
Guarding your heart is your full time job. When you demand that the kingdom look like something God doesn’t demand it look like, you suffer. And you fail to grow because you feel like you are doing a lot of work fixing other people. Real spiritual growth is fixing yourself – taking your own sin and brokenness to God. So guard your heart against thinking that contamination elimination is your job.
Live in such a way as to show the good – the goodness of God.
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