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Aug 18, 2019

Rude Awakening

Rude Awakening

Passage: Matthew 13:24-30

Speaker: Patrick Lafferty

Series: The Stories In-Between: Parables

In this world you will have tribulation. That’s Jesus promise (John 16:33). Some of that trouble will arise from forces expressly arrayed against those who are in Him? What then? What response does that call for?

Order of Worship

Pre-Service Text: John 16:33
Call To Worship: Psalm 28:1-2, 6-9
Old Testament Reading: Psalm 73:1-17
Sermon Title: Rude Awakening
Central Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Response: Communion!
Confession of Sin: (see below)
Assurance of Pardon: Matthew 11:28, 1 Timothy 1:15
Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26
Post-Service Text: Romans 12:19-21

08.18.19 Sermon Notes

Illustrations

YouTube - Charlie Bit Me

Munich - My Soul

Readings & Scripture

Pre-Service Text: John 16:33
I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”

Call To Worship: Psalm 28:1-2, 6-9
LEADER: To you, O LORD, I call; my rock, be not deaf to me, lest, if you be silent to me, I become like those who go down to the pit,
PEOPLE: Hear the voice of my pleas for mercy, when I cry to you for help, when I lift up my hands toward your most holy sanctuary.
LEADER: The LORD is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped;
PEOPLE: my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him.
LEADER: The LORD is the strength of his people; he is the saving refuge of his anointed.
ALL: Oh, save your people and bless your heritage! Be their shepherd and carry them forever.

Old Testament Reading: Psalm 73:1-17
Truly God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled,
my steps had nearly slipped.
3 For I was envious of the arrogant
when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

Psa. 73:4 For they have no pangs until death;
their bodies are fat and sleek.
5 They are not in trouble as others are;
they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.
6 Therefore pride is their necklace;
violence covers them as a garment.
7 Their eyes swell out through fatness;
their hearts overflow with follies.
8 They scoff and speak with malice;
loftily they threaten oppression.
9 They set their mouths against the heavens,
and their tongue struts through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn back to them,
and find no fault in them.
11 And they say, “How can God know?
Is there knowledge in the Most High?”
12 Behold, these are the wicked;
always at ease, they increase in riches.
13 All in vain have I kept my heart clean
and washed my hands in innocence.
14 For all the day long I have been stricken
and rebuked every morning.
15 If I had said, “I will speak thus,”
I would have betrayed the generation of your children.

Psa. 73:16 But when I thought how to understand this,
it seemed to me a wearisome task,
17 until I went into the sanctuary of God;
then I discerned their end.

Central Text: Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 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.”’”

Matt. 13:36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40 Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41 The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, 42 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43 Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear.

Confession of Sin:
ALL: O my Savior, help me. I am slow to learn, prone to forget, and weak to climb; I am in the foothills when I should be on the heights; I am pained by my graceless heart, my prayerless days, my poverty of love, my sloth in the heavenly race, my sullied conscience, my wasted hours, my unspent opportunities. I am blind while the light shines around me: take the scales from my eyes, grind to dust my heart of unbelief. Make it my highest joy to study you, meditate on you, gaze on you, sit like Mary at your feet, lean like John on your breast, appeal like Peter to your love, count like Paul all things but dung. I believe, help my unbelief. Amen

Assurance of Pardon: Matthew 11:28, 1 Timothy 1:15
LEADER: Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. . . .The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.

Benediction: Numbers 6:24-26
LEADER: The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.
PEOPLE: Amen!

Post-Service Text: Romans 12:19-21
Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” To the contrary, “if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Related Scriptures

  • Genesis 3:14-15
  • Genesis 50:20
  • Psalm 73:1-17
  • Matthew 26:47-56 / Luke 22:35-53
  • Luke 9:51-56
  • Romans 5:6-11
  • Romans 12:19-21
  • 1 Corinthians 15:40-46, 50-55
  • 2 Peter 3:1-11

Discussion Questions & Applications

  1. Can you remember a time when a lot of hard work went ruined? What happened? How did that unfold? How did you respond?
  2. What impulse(s) do you see the parable encouraging? What impulse(s) do you see it pushing back against? Why?
  3. Where, if at all, have you seen attempts to overturn what seems like malice backfire? Even if you haven’t witnessed something like that, in what ways can you imagine the effort to fully remove an evil presence end up making things worse?
  4. How does Jesus demonstrate, in what fulfilled his good news of the kingdom, the principles he’s outlining here? In other words how did He practice later what He preached through parable here?
  5. Here’s the rub: How do we exercise the restraint he emphasizes here while still seeking to show the love that seeks to help those (if not ourselves) under the weight of ideas or forces opposed to God?

Quotes:

  • Convincing us to believe he doesn’t exist might be the finest trick the devil has ever played. - Elizabeth Bruenig
  • Chewie. This can't help me. There'll be another time. The Princess. You have to take care of her. All right? - “Han Solo,” The Empire Strikes Back
  • Evil must be fought; but the how of the fight determines everything. . . .We are incapable of “doing good” by violence without doing a great deal of harm. - F.D Bruner
  • If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
  • All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well. - Julian of Norwich
  • For love to be truly be loving, there must be judgment. If there is no judgment, then there is no hope for a slave, a rape victim, a child who has been abused or bullied, or people who have been slandered or robbed or had their dignity stolen. If nobody is called to account before a cosmic judgment seat for violence and oppression, then the victims will never see justice. We need a God who gets angry. We need a God who will protect His kids, who will once and for all remove bullies and perpetrators of evil from his playground. - Scott Sauls
  • When Robert M’Cheyne met his dearest friend Andrew Bonar one Monday and inquired what Bonar had preached on the previous day, only to receive the answer “Hell,” he asked: “Did you preach it with tears?” That we cannot do until we have come to recognize our own great need of grace to save us from the wrath to come, the terrible nature of that judgment, the provision that God has made for us in Christ, and the calling he has given us to take the gospel to every creature in the name of the One who did not come into the world to condemn it but to save it. - Sinclair Ferguson
  • . . .if God were not angry at injustice and deception and did not make the final end to violence God would not be worthy of our worship. - Miroslav Volf
  • So long as the Church is on pilgrimage in this world, the good and the sincere will be mixed in it with the bad and the hypocrites. So the children of God must arm themselves with patience and maintain an unbroken constancy of faith among all the offences which can trouble them. - John Calvin

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