Kingdom Come - Why Does God Allow Suffering? - Jason Paredes

So we'll see what happens. It's going to be in Matthew, chapter

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

13. Grab your Bibles. Matthew, chapter 13. We're going to start

Matthew 13 · chapter mention

in verse 24 in just a second. But while you're finding Matthew

Matthew 13:24

13:24, I want to begin with a question for you. And I really want

you to wrestle with it. You don't have to raise your hand. You

can just nod or look my direction or whatever. But have any

of you ever wrestled with the question, why does a good God let

bad things happen to good people? Any of you ever wrestle with

it? Look at me and blink. Whatever. Just some way. Okay, there's

a few of you who've wrestled with that question. It is one of

the biggest questions that people outside the faith wrestle

with. How could God, if he's good, let bad things happen to people,

especially people we perceive as good? I'm praying that a friend

of mine is gonna watch this message. So, Charlie, this is for

you. I'm asking you to listen into this one. Cause Charlie and

I had this really long conversation about this particular

issue. He was with me when we went over to Tanzania, and we were

with Compassion International, which does a lot of good work of

providing food for children and families who don't have much

people in abject poverty. And we had had those visits. And then

we went up on the mountain and on our way down, we were talking

about Christianity and about faith. And he knew it was a bunch

of pastors on the trip. And he grew up all around Christianity.

But I'm just really struggling with this question. Like, I mean,

if we just. Jason went into people's homes and they were in abject

poverty, like dirt, floor, mud walls, so many of them hungry and

hurting, and he's going, if God is who he says he is, he's got

the power to help him. Why does he just sit back and do nothing?

It's a good question. Why? Why would God, a good God let. Why would

a good God let there be child slavery even today? Why does a good

God let there be cancer? Why does a good God let there be death?

Why does a good God let there be failure and broken relationships

and broken men? Why does a good God allow this? This is a question

that if you haven't heard, it's a philosophical argument called

the problem of evil or the problem of suffering. Let me tell

you how the argument goes. Now, I'm not trying to arm you with

unbelief. I'm trying to arm you with facing the questions that

you need to answer. So it goes like this. If God is who he says

he is in the Bible, then he's all good, all knowing, and all powerful.

And if those are true, then evil shouldn't exist. You say, okay,

if God is all good, then he shouldn't put up with evil existing

in the world. And if God is all knowing, then he should know

exactly what to do about the evil in the world. And if God is

all powerful, he should have the ability to do something about

it. So if evil exists in the world, therefore it must mean the

God of the Bible does not exist. That's the philosophical argument

called the problem of evil. Once you know, it sounds like an

ironclad argument, like, what you gonna say about that? But interestingly,

today, Jesus is actually gonna answer that question, not for us,

but for the original audience, and we're gonna see him deal with

this. Now, I don't know if you know this or not, but Bible interpretation,

like how to rightly understand what the word of God is saying, hinges

on one overarching principle. You have to know what the original

author is saying to the original audience. There's always

a context in which something is spoken. So Jesus is speaking into

a context, and you have to know the context to understand his

words. So he's speaking into a Jewish context that lives in the

middle of incredible oppression by the Roman regime. They

are living under the Roman Empire, and all they can do is look

around and see evil all around them. I don't know if you know much

about the Roman Empire, but they had so much evil and decadence

and sexuality, and it was just. They were oppressive people.

They would literally take Jewish people, throw them into an

arena, release dogs to devour them for entertainment for the masses.

These were people who had no moral code whatsoever. And they were

thriving in those false temples. And gods are everywhere

and they're wealthy, and they're just living it up while the

Jewish people are suffering and they're going, God, I thought

you were all powerful, all knowing, and all good. How can you,

Yahweh God let all this evil around us exist and you do nothing

about it. So the Jewish people at the time of Jesus are suffering

with the exact same questions. And Jesus speaks into that in this

parable that we're going to read. So last week we had the first

of what's going to be multiple parables. It was about the four soils

and the different ways that people respond and the heart that

they have. But he's going to come with another agricultural parable,

but this one is going to be about weeds and about wheat and how

to know the difference. And he's going to explain a way for us

to understand the problem of evil and suffering in the world.

So let's listen to his words jumping in Matthew 13, beginning

in verse 24, he put another parable before them, saying, 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 field? How then does it have

weeds? He said to them, an enemy has done this. So the servants

said to him, then what do you want us to do? 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 them 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

and. But gather the wheat into my barn. Okay, so just a parable

that Jesus gives. And if you know anything about the parables,

there's a lot of significance in the different stories. He's trying

to tell them an idea of something in a way they could understand.

But we don't live in the same agrarian society that they lived

in back then. And so there's some oddities of this parable that

we have to deal with. So the first oddity, if you're looking at

this parable, is that when somebody wanted to do something evil,

they. Their plan was to put weeds in somebody else's garden.

I don't know about you, but, like, if I'm gonna be evil, that's

not where I'm going. Other things I could think of doing that'd

be worse than, like, I got you, man. I can put some crabgrass

up in your garden. Yeah, but apparently this was a big deal. In

fact, there are records of Roman law around the time of Jesus

where it said, it is a criminal offense to sow weeds into

somebody else's garden. Now, the Romans didn't make laws like

that unless it was a problem. So apparently this is how you went

gangsta on somebody back in biblical times. You put some weeds

up in their garden. The reason why we don't feel the same way is

because our livelihood doesn't come from our gardens like we're

putting plant. Very few. We might have a little small vegetable

garden, but we can go to Kroger, we can go to some other.

So we can get our food that we need. But when it's your livelihood,

I mean, this was terribly destructive. And another thing I

didn't know was the kind of weed I got all kinds of instruction

as I was studying this passage I'd never seen before. But the weeds

that Jesus is talking about was a particular kind of weed called

darnel. And this was an interesting thing because it happened

to look a whole lot like wheat, but it was actually poisonous.

And so wheat, you know, it has a little head of grain at the end

that you could crush and turn into flour and make bread. But Darnell

had a very similar pod at the end of it. But if you were to consume

it, it would be poisonous, and the best case scenario would be that

you would be nauseous and begin to hallucinate. The worst case

scenario is it could kill you. So when you go sow this weed into

the garden of somebody else, and they harvest it and eat it, they

could die. So apparently, it really was gangsta, because this

is how you kill people in biblical times. So this is a big

deal that Jesus is talking about this. They would have been

familiar with this danger. But there's another part of this that

I don't really, for the longest time, didn't understand,

and I think it's really the point Jesus is trying to make. We

just miss it. So when the servants come to the master and they

see that there are weeds growing in the garden, they say,

master, owner, do you want us to go and pull up the weeds? And

the owner says, no, don't do it. Let them grow up together, and.

And then we'll separate them when they're fully grown. This is

where you and I would do things differently. This is where

we would say, that's not the right way. Like, how many of you

in here garden? Anybody? Raise your hand if you like to garden at

all. Like, four of us in the room. Okay? There's a few of us that

like to garden. There's a very simple rule to gardening that's really

important, and it's that you weed early and you weed often. You

gotta get the weeds when they're a little bitty and they don't

have much root. You just pull them out and. And you do it often.

You just pull them out and get it out so that it doesn't take up

soil and nutrients and choke out the plants. So weed early, weed

often. That's the general rule for gardening. Well, this is the

exact opposite of what the owner's doing. He said, no, no, no.

Just let the weeds grow up in there. Don't pull them out. Now,

again, I look at this and I go, that's not what I would have

done. This is the same issue that all of us have with God when

it comes to the problem of evil. Like, that's not what we would

do. God. I mean, if we were in control, we would rip out all the

evil so that there was only paradise and good on earth. We don't

understand what you're doing. And I didn't really understand the

parable until I studied it and realized why the owner was saying

what he was saying. So I had never seen a picture of Darnel before

until I studied it. I think we have one up here. Let's bring it

up. Look how similar the darnel looks to the wheat, down to

the little pod and the thing that sticks off. They're almost identical.

And here's what's crazy about it. The color change is different,

but as they're growing up, they're both the exact same green

as the Darnel. That's just when the wheat dries up on the left

side and they come out of the earth the exact same way with the

exact same look and a stalk that goes up and it has the same

color branches that go out to the side, and you don't know the

difference. So, like, go to the next picture, and you'll see

that when they're clumped together and they get kind of the

same color. Could you imagine these growing together? You don't

know which one is which. Now, that's incredibly important, because

the servants come up and they say, would you want us to go out

and rip up the weeds for you? And the owner knows. They have no

idea which one is a weed and which one is wheat. And if they were

to try, they would rip up the wrong plants. He knows that about

them. And he also knows that by the time you can recognize the

difference between the two when they're fully grown, that their

roots have intertwined completely. And so when it's full

grown, you're like, oh, okay, now I can recognize that's darnel.

That's not wheat. And you try to pull it, you would rip the wheat

right up with it. So the owner knows that to try to separate them

before the harvest time would kill everything. And he says, don't

do it. So let me tell you, Jesus point. I want you to write

this down. This is the most important point for you all morning

long. Whenever you're taking Sam. I hope you have your little

booklet. You gotta take your notes right there. Thank you. Here's

the note that Sam is gonna write on his little booklet. Trust

the owner. He knows what he's doing. Write that down. Trust the

owner. He knows what he's doing. See, our problem is we look

at this and we say, it doesn't make sense that I would do it differently.

But the owner knows things that you and I don't know. And when

I say the owner, I mean the owner. Isaiah 55, 9, one of the most

beautiful passages says, as the heaven is higher than the earth,

so are his ways higher than our ways and his thoughts higher

than our thoughts. Could it be that maybe, just maybe, God knows

things that we don't know? That maybe, just maybe, his ways

are higher and he knows what we don't know. And we could trust

him even when we don't agree with him because we don't know what's

going on. Trust the owners. Jesus is trying to teach this to

these people who are going, look at this Roman Empire right now

that is just hurting us and oppressing us. Yahweh, when are you

going to do. And he's going, trust the owner. He knows what he's

doing. And he's saying that to you and to me this morning, whatever

is going on in your life right now, however hard it may be, however

different you would have done it, he's saying, trust the owner.

He knows what he's doing. He's not making a mistake. Scripture teaches

that God actually causes all things to work together for the good

of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Not the things we agree with alone, but all things. Trust the

owner. He knows what he's doing. Jesus whole point in this

story is in God's perfect timing. You're going to see it's

going to work out exactly the way it should. This is the interpretation

that Jesus gives of this story. So I'm going to do something

I don't normally do. I'm going to skip over some verses. I'm going

to come back to them before the sermon is over. But we're going

to skip over 31 to 35. I'm going to go to verse 36, because

here the disciples go to Jesus and say, tell us what that whole

parable was about. So he gives them the explanation. So I want to.

I want to pick back up. I want you to see how much it has to do

with timing. So picking up in verse 36 of Matthew 13 says, 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. He answered, the one who sows the good seed is the Son

of Man. That's just talking about Jesus. 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 the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it

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 law breakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. And

in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then

the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

And he who has ears, let him hear. So he says, here's the interpretation.

I don't want you to miss any of the details. So you got the whole

world. That's the field. Jesus is the one sowing the seed, the good

seeds that becomes wheat. Those are believers, the darnel,

the weeds that come up. That's the Son of the evil One. That's unbelievers.

And he's saying, don't worry about it. They're growing up together,

side by side in this world. Even in the same churches, sometimes

in the same kingdom. It looks like it. But there's going to come

a moment at the end where God's going to send his angels to

work it all out. And those who have done evil will be punished.

And those who have done good will get eternal life and experience

the blessings of Almighty God. It's going to work out. Trust the

owner. He knows what he's doing. Now, there's some things that

I don't think you and I ever stop and consider that Jesus is trying

to explain to us through this passage to help us understand why

we must be patient. I don't know if you ever stopped and thought

about it, but I think the majority of us in this room, in fact,

in the last service, I said this, and I got some amens. It's

not what I wanted to be. Amen. Let me just go ahead and forewarn

you. But if we had our choice, we would say, God, rip out all the

evil people. Right now. We don't want them in this world, just

rip them out. But we don't stop and think about the implications

of that. The way the Father Does. Maybe you've heard of the concept

of the Rapture? I don't know if you've heard of that concept.

The idea. It's the whole Left behind series. So is there a moment

when the trumpet sounds and all the believers are whisked up

into the sky with the Lord and only unbelievers are left on earth?

Well, this is the opposite of that. This is like the opposite rapture,

where only the evil people are taken out and all that's left on

earth are the Christians. Now, that may sound like a good idea,

but let me tell you what the problem is with that. There aren't

nearly as many Christians on this earth as there are evil people.

Jesus talked about this back in the Sermon on the Mount. He was

very clear when he was saying, like, the gate is wide and broad

that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many, but

the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those

who find it are few. And he's saying the vast majority of people

are going to take the easy way to destruction. There's very few

people that actually find life and live. For me, let me tell you

what that means. If God were to rip out all the unbelievers from

this world, society as we know it would collapse. That phone you

have would stop working because the people who work behind

the scenes, a whole bunch of them, are not believers. They'd be

gone. You go to the gas station to pump, and guess what never

showed up. The gas truck that has the gas because the dude driving

the truck was an unbeliever, has gone. Society as we know it would

collapse because our lives are intertwined at the root system, and

he loves us too much to let us get what we want. He knows things

that we don't know, and so he's letting us grow up together

so that society doesn't collapse, so the word of God can

spread. Let me tell you another reason why he doesn't just

rip out all the evil people. Because you and I were evil before

we were redeemed, we would have been ripped out. I mean, the

craziest message of the whole gospel is that we were weeds that

got transformed into wheat. And if God Weren't Patient, 2 Peter,

chapter three talks about this. God is not slow in what he's

doing, but he doesn't want any to perish, but all to come to salvation.

So he is waiting so that more and more can come. You know the kind

of heart that says, yeah, rip all the evil people out of here.

Forget that they were once evil. It's the patient heart that

says, save more, God. Give us a little bit more time. Save some

more. Don't rip them out yet, God. Cause more might become wheat,

more might become your people. God is not wrong or evil or bad.

He's patient because he knows there's more transformation. He knows

what we need and what we don't. His ways are higher. He might

just know things, but we don't trust the owner. He knows what he's

doing. And because of it, right now, you and I live in this

weird already, but not yet kingdom of God. Like the kingdom

of God's already here, but it's not yet fully here. And so we

live in this intentional limbo, intention from God. And there

are a couple things we can learn from Jesus teaching that helps

us live a little better than we actually do in this limbo season.

So a couple more things I want you to write down. Here's the first

one I think Jesus is trying to teach us. Don't judge what you don't

know. I think the church could benefit so stinking much from this

simple word. Don't judge what you don't know. Let me tell you what

I mean by that. I find way too many Christians think they got it

all figured out, okay? You're not a believer. You are a believer.

You're not a believer. You are a believer. We know which one's which.

I don't know if you remember the story, but he actually says the

angels are the one of the inns who are gonna distinguish between

the darnel and the wheat. Like they're the ones who know who could

separate. The servants think they know. And the owner says, no,

don't. You're gonna mess up the harvest. Don't even try. I wanna

remind you, we're the servants, we're not the angels. Some

people have this wrong. They think that when they die, they become

angels in heaven. That's not how the whole thing works. We're

the servants, not the angels. We don't know which one is which.

And it's not our judge. Our job to go judge the world. And saying,

you're in, you're out. I think we're gonna be shocked by some people

who have eternal life that we didn't think, didn't. And we're gonna

be shocked by some people who aren't there that we thought were

gonna be there. Don't judge what you don't know. I think the

world would really appreciate it if we would start getting that

right. But there's another side to that same coin that I think

Jesus is trying to teach us. And this is where Jesus is gonna

do the little gut punch on us. So just remember, blame him, not

me. Here's what he's going to say. Looking like a Christian on

the outside does not make one a Christian on the inside. Yeah,

that's when I wrote that. I was like, ah, that's ugly. Looking

like a Christian on the outside does not make one a Christian

on the inside. Let me tell you what I mean by this is the thing

I'm probably the most concerned about. For a church our

size, with all the people who are part of this, it's really easy

to think, because I go to church, because I know the songs,

because I act like a Christian, I listen to Christian

music, I dress like a Christian, I give money away like

a Christian. I do all the things on the outside that look like

a Christian. I must be a Christian. But you can look like

a Christian, sound like a Christian, sing like a Christian,

act like a Christian, and still not be a Christian on the inside.

There you go. Where do you get that from? Well, that was Jesus whole

point. They look the exact same coming up. It's not until you

see what the POD produces that you know which one is which. And

I'm just afraid. And I say genuinely afraid. There are people,

especially in a country like the United States of America, where

people grow up all around church. And I hear it all the time.

Yeah, I'm a Christian. I've always been a Christian. I grew up

in a Christian home. I mean, I've always been a Christian. You

know what that shows me? They think that because they look and

act like a Christian on the outside, they're one on the inside.

And we may. Oh, God forbid it, hundreds of people who come to this

very church may one day realize they're actually the weeds,

they're not the wheat. And I want you to know Jesus very clearly

says, and the weeds will be gathered into bundles and thrown

into the fiery furnace. If you don't know that that's a euphemism

for hell. And Jesus talks a lot about hell. This literally is

heaven and hell in the balance. And the most important thing

is that you know which one you are. Because what makes a person

a Christian isn't looking like a Christian on the outside. It's

a redeemed heart by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ on the

inside. That's what makes a person a Christian. And so you can

have all the trappings on the outside. And still not be it on the

inside. So which one are you? Heaven and hell depend on that answer

for you. Which one are you to which you're going? Jason? I. Don't

tell me. How do I know which you say they all look alike, act

alike. I thought that's how I knew what I was. By how I dressed

and how I acted. And going to church. How do I know what Jesus

has been telling us all along? All the way from the Sermon on the

Mount? By your fruit, you're going to know what you really are.

He keeps coming back to this idea that he brought back in the

Sermon on the Mount. He says every healthy tree bears good fruit,

but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot

bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every

tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into

the fire. There's that hell picture again. Thus you will recognize

them by their fruits. So how do you know a difference between

wheat and darnel? By what the pods the fruit accomplishes? Wheat,

when you grind it. And when you bake, it makes bread that gives

life. Darnel, when you grind it and you bake, it poisons. So what

does your life produce that will tell you what you really are?

Not how you dress, not if you go to church or not, not if you read

your Bible and not if you try to be a good person or not the fruit

of your life. So I think you need to ask yourself a question,

a very serious and I've been praying that the Spirit would reveal

to you what's really inside in this particular moment. So the Bible

tells us what fruit looks like the fruit of the Spirit. Perfect

example. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

gentleness, self control. So when I don't want to ask you to define

yourself, it would be better for you to ask the people around

you, what do they see? Do they see you being unbelievably loving

and forgiving and gracious? Do they see you filled with joy? Like

just breathing life into everybody? Are you patient? Are you

filled with peace? Or is there anxiety everywhere? Do you show gentleness?

Are you self controlled in how you love? And do you have the fruit

of the Spirit? Where people around you go, man, that person just

breathes life into everybody. They're just so life giving. Is that

what they say about you? Or do they say, dude's mean, that girl's

just bitter. Every time I'm around, she's talking bad about somebody

else. Every time I'm around, he's screaming at his kids. Every

time he's just like. He just tears people down behind their back.

Gossips everywhere. Golly, man. Every time I'm around him, I

feel worse when I leave life or poison. What do people say about

us when they spend time with us that will tell us who we really

are? So some of you right now are going, okay, I genuinely believe

and feel like God has allowed me to produce life to bless others.

I have joy, I have patience. These things come from the Spirit

of God and I see them in my life in ever increasing measure.

If that's you, here's how you respond. You praise God louder than

you have ever praised him, because only the spirit of God could

produce that in you. When we get to the end and we sing our song,

you should be the loudest one singing because you know your end

is to be gathered into God's beautiful barn to enjoy eternal life

forevermore by his grace. But if you're hearing me right now and

the Spirit is bringing conviction, you're going, I don't

like what I think about. When I think about what people would say

about me, they see brokenness and bitterness and anger and short

tempered and, and cruelty. And I'm not life giving to the people

around me. What do I do? Well, that's a scary place and a beautiful

place to be because it allows you to make the most important decision

of your life. It allows you to say, confess. I'm broken. I'm the

weeds in this story. And when you come to that place of humility,

Jesus says, that's perfect. Let me kill that weed and let me

raise up a wheat in its place. Because I can transform you. I can

make you something new. I can make you what the Bible calls a brand

new creation in Christ Jesus. There's hope for you because Jesus

is in this world. This is exactly what Jesus was telling him

in verses 31 and 35. I just skipped over it. You didn't see it,

but he's about to show you and me how God can take our broken self

and transform it through his incredibly expanding kingdom. Go

Back to verse 31, read verses 31 and 35 and see what he has to

say here. Verse 31, he says he put another parable before them,

saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that

a man took and sowed 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 its branches. He told them another parable. The kingdom

of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures

of flour and till it was all leavened. All these things Jesus

said to the crowds in parables. Indeed he said nothing

to them without a parable. This was to fulfill what 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. So Jesus

is saying, I want to make known to you what's been hidden,

how this whole kingdom works. And I'm doing it through parables.

And he gives us two parables that actually have the same meaning,

about an external and internal expansion of the kingdom. So the

first thing he starts with is mustard seed. And so I believe we're

gonna have some help over here. There's a cameraman who's gonna

be coming. My brother Scott over here is gonna help out. But

I have right here mustard seed. And you really can't see it

all that well. So I had to bring this camera over here. Yeah,

come on down in there. Do I need to turn it for you? There you

go. That's what mustard seed looks like. There's like thousands

and thousands in there. Now I'm gonna try to get one right there.

That's one mustard seed. Itty bitty thing. I can throw it at Susan

down there and she can't even see it. Cause it's just so small.

This right here is the smallest seed that they would have

seen in all the land of Palestine back then in Jesus time.

But I want you to know. Okay, thanks, brother. I appreciate that.

I want you to know what this seed, I still have one in my finger.

You can't see it, but you saw me put it in there, what this seed

could produce. Now, if you've ever planted a real mustard seed

in the US our climate, it'll only grow about 2 or 3ft. It's a

little bush. But in the land of Israel, that arid climate over

there, it gets so much bigger. In fact, we have a picture of one.

This is basically life size. I want you to see this. Like, there's

a dude over here. Check this out. So this right here, this little

seed that you can't see in my hand makes one literally that's about

12 and a half feet. They get as tall as 15ft and they spread out

that way in the land of Israel. So Jesus is talking to his

audience and he's saying that little bitty seed that you could

barely see with your eye can produce a plant so big that it can

take over the whole garden. Now, here's what's interesting about

that. They're actually, they found fragments of notes written

to gardeners of people who had, you know, they were cultivating

land and they would say, do not plant mustard seeds in your garden

or it will take over the entire garden. This was known back

then, little bitty mustard seed. Now, what was Jesus point?

Now, remember, he's trying to convince people who are struggling

with the environment going, God, why are you allowing all this

evil? And here comes the Messiah on the scene, and he looks

about as big as this little grain of mustard seed, like from

Galilee, Are you kidding me? And you pick 12 people to ride beside

you, and you pick these guys, these little backwoods people who

don't have education and like, this is your plan. It's so small.

How is this gonna overtake the world? And they're looking out all

over the Greco Roman world with all these big temples to Artemis

and Athens and these massive buildings and all this wealth. And

they're going, there's no way. And Jesus says, trust the owner.

That little seed is gonna produce something so big it's gonna

take over the whole garden. And you wanna know what happens?

Exactly what Jesus said comes true. I've had the privilege of traveling

over to the other side of the world. And there was a number of

you who were with us when we went to Ephesus. And we got to be

right there where this massive temple of Artemis, one of the great

wonders of the world was. And all that's left is a couple of fragments

of pillars about this tall off the ground. Every once in a while

you can go to Athens and you can see remnants of what was once

a mighty empire. But you look over and all we do is we read about

fables of these Greco Roman gods and goddesses that are just

fancy stories to tell for entertainment. They're all gone.

But you know what's not gone? The message of Jesus Christ, which

has gone all over this world. That right now, in every single place

around this world, every continent, except I don't think the

penguins are over there in Antarctica, but all the other continents,

you got Jesus spreading and he's entering into new tribes, into

new cultures and the new languages, and it's spreading and

spreading and will not stop until it takes over this whole world.

Here was his point. Trust the owner. He knows what he's doing.

Nothing can stop the expansion of his kingdom in this world. But

the second illustration was to say, but nothing can stop the expansion

of his kingdom. And in your heart either. That's what the leaven

was about. I don't know if you noticed the leaven, but the leaven

part was you take a little lump of it and you put it into three

measures of flour until all of the leaven has spread. I don't know

if you know how much three measures of flour is that it talks

about. That's about 50 pounds of flour that could feed about 100

to 150 people. A whole village by a little. Little lump, a little

clump of leaven. I was talking to somebody else. A friend of mine

was explaining how, like, sourdough starters work. I don't

know if any of you have ever done that before, but, like, if you

have a sourdough starter, you put that into a lump and it spreads

all over it. And then you could pinch some of that and you

can hand it out to your friends. And as long as you keep

feeding it, like, it can last for decades, just going, you got

to keep putting more and more flour, more ingredients, and then

just keep spreading and spreading and spreading. Well, that's

exactly what Jesus is talking about right here. He's saying, the

advancement of the kingdom of God inside your heart is not about

how good you are. It's about how strong my kingdom is. And once

my kingdom gets inside of you, nothing's gonna stop it. There have

been so many of you who've been baptized over the last few years.

I want you to know that's really good news for you. Especially

when you look in the mirror and going, what am I gonna change?

Well, what's happening behind the scenes is that the spirit is

conquering more and more ground inside your heart. You can't

even see it happening. Here's how it works. It starts off small.

The way you used to think is beginning to change just a little

bit. You're having new thoughts that are coming from the

spirit and not from you. And those new thoughts begin to start

to change. Now your belief system, you believe differently about

yourself, about God, about the people around you. Well, that begins

to change your affections. Now you long for things that you didn't

used to long for. And the things you used to long for now begin

to go away. And that begins to change your attitude toward what

brings joy and what matters in life, which begins to change now.

Your motivation for everything you do, which changes your actions.

And now your approach, brand new person and God has conquered

your body, soul, mind and strength. How slowly spreading inside

you until that leaven goes to the very end. That's the power of

the seed of the gospel, when somebody brings it into themselves,

that itty bitty seed that's planted inside and spreads and spreads

and spreads and no one can stop it. So the question that you

have to ask yourself, if you're looking right now at yourself

going, I don't like what I see. I see too much poison, I see

too much bad. I, I don't see a redeemed heart, is have you let the

seed of the gospel take root? Have you opened yourself to it? And

I'm just, I'm afraid I'm come back to what I said before. I'm afraid

there are some of you who have hardened your heart toward God because

of what you've been enduring. And you have not let the seed penetrate

because you just can't get over the fact that you go, why would

a good God let me suffer? Why would a good God let that happen

to my family member? Why would a good God let that happen to those

people on the other side of the world? Why? Why? Why? And Jesus

is trying to tell us right now, trust the owner. He knows what

he's doing in your life. And if anything needed to give you trust

in the owner, let me tell you what it is. It's the Gospel of Jesus

Christ. We have this issue. Why would a good God let there be

suffering and evil in the world? And I want to remind you what

I've been saying all along. The reason you feel that way is because

you don't have his thoughts. You don't understand his ways. And

I can prove it. None of you would have chosen what the Father

did to his Son. Why does God let evil exist in the world? Well,

why would God let the worst evil of all happen to his own Son?

Here he is, almighty God, pure in flesh, coming to save his own

people. And they crucify him. They torture him, they reject him,

they spit in his face. There is no greater evil than to treat

an innocent person that way. And the Father let it happen to his

own son. You want to talk about suffering? If any of you have

ever watched the Passion of the Christ, I've seen it one time.

I can't watch it again because it's so gruesome to think about the

crucifixion, that way of death for his own son. And that wasn't

even the worst part. The worst part was that he had been with the

Father before all eternity. And now he's separated by the way

hell means to be separate from. He's enduring hell not because

he deserved it. Because you and I deserved it. Suffering more

immensely than anybody ever could have suffered. And the Father

let him. I guarantee you, none of us would have picked that way

for any of our children. You look at God going, why would he do

that? Because God knew something that you and I don't know.

He knew that when his son carried that evil, it would destroy

evil in you and in me. You got Satan laughing his little face off

going, I beat him. And three days later he goes, holy moly. He

beat me. Put evil on his shoulders and he's crucified and

he raises up from the dead. And now evil is eradicated from all.

Who would believe in the Gospel of Jesus Christ? The Father

knows what he's doing. Trust the owner. He's not making mistakes.

And he's not making mistakes in your life right now either. God

causes all of it to work together for good. Maybe he's been

trying to break you down, to release you from whatever you've

been holding on to so you could cling on to Him. Stop hoping

in these things that can't satisfy, so you'll put your hope

in Him. Stop resisting because you think you can handle it. And

pulling yourself up by the bootstraps and raising your flag

going, I can't. White flag is up. Jesus save me. He knows what

he's doing. Trust him. Well, how do I trust him? You let him put

his seed inside you, the Gospel inside you, and take over.

That's what the Baptistery is all about. The Baptistery is a symbol.

It is a picture of poisonous wheat going down and being buried

in a brand new creation coming up, the weed that produces the wheat,

poisonous weeds going down, wheat that comes out that gives life

to the world. Baptism is an act by which you get to picture the

transformation that's really going on. You could have come here

today as one person and leave here a completely different person.

Not by your own doing, but by faith. What Christ can do in you

if you trust Him. The Baptistery is a symbol of trust.

I need you, Jesus. I confess I'm broken. I want to die and be

raised in Christ Jesus. If you're ready to stop letting the

excuses of not trusting God or the pain and suffering in your life

and all that to keep you but to say, okay, God, I'm going to trust

you, then you can come forward in just a moment and let us know

and we'll counsel with you and make sure you're ready. And if you're

ready, today is the day you become a brand new creation in Christ

Jesus. If you're ready for it, I'm going to open it up in just a

moment. One last thing I want to say. I know there are so many

of you here who are Christians, and you're suffering

because we live in a world where there's still evil and suffering

around us. And I want to remind you of this. Every time we

suffer, one of two things is happening in our hearts. We're either

growing hardened toward God or softer toward God. There's no in

between. It's so easy when things go bad to get angry with God,

cross our arms and saying, I don't even know if I can trust you.

Or we could say, God, I don't see your goodness yet, but I believe

you could. And by faith, I'm going to choose to come to you anyway.

I'm going to believe your ways are higher and you've got something

good you're trying to do. So my prayer is to bring it before you

and say, God, do your good work. Every single Sunday, we open

up the front for prayer, and it's a chance for you to exercise

faith. You can sit back during this next song and you can keep your

arms crossed. Just know what you're doing, or you can say, I'm

not going to do that. I'm going to. I'm going to come before

my God. I'm going to bring my knee before I'm going to receive

prayer. I'm going to trust that my God is good. I'm gonna trust

that one day I'm gonna see the good he's doing. So I want to encourage

you to respond in faith. Stand to your feet. If you don't mind,

I want to invite the prayer team to spread around the front.

If today you're saying, I'm a believer, but I'm suffering right

now, and I want to put my hope in a God who's good, then you can

come down front and you can let us know and we'll pray with you.

Or if today you're coming, you're going, I'm ready. I need to

place my faith in Jesus Christ. I need the old me to die.

I need a brand new me to come because God needs to transform me,

then we're ready to meet with you and pray with you. And today

can be the day that you declare your faith in Christ through

baptism. It's time to respond. Let the spirit move you.