Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Welcome to the Karma Chaj podcast.
[00:00:15] So I think one of the most common discussions that I have with the Lord in my prayer time, I don't. I don't know about you.
[00:00:25] I also read this in the Psalms is the question of, why does it feel like evil prospers?
[00:00:35] Why is the church not having more of an effect on our society?
[00:00:41] Lord, Lord, why don't you step in and zap evil? You know those blue lights in kitchens, you know?
[00:00:51] And every now and again you hear this Z, and you know, a fly has just met its end dead.
[00:00:59] Wouldn't it be great if you're driving and that idiot cuts you up or comes up on your inside and there was a.
[00:01:10] And zap, they were gone. Wouldn't there be a sense of, oh, someone mocks you at work for your faith and they're gone?
[00:01:24] Or, you know, there's a moral failure in your family and somebody has an affair or something like that, and all the mess and they're gone. It's just a molten, burning bit of flesh with the incense going up to heaven or that leader or that boss, and they're just abusive. And you could hold out your hand and light would come from your hand and they would be gone. Can you not just feel the sense of, oh, Lord, if only.
[00:02:06] Wouldn't it be fun?
[00:02:10] Some of you are not sure. Am I allowed to nod? I know I feel like it would be, but I know I'm meant to be a Christian and I'm not doing that kind of stuff.
[00:02:20] What I want to say to you today is that God is more interested in the righteous than the evildoer.
[00:02:32] God is more interested in the righteous than the evil because the evil has been dealt with. It was dealt with on the cross.
[00:02:45] The enemy was disarmed. Evil has been dealt with. God's attention is on the righteous.
[00:02:52] Get your Bibles. Okay, we're doing sowing and reaping, and I want to start on a good foundation. So find Matthew, chapter 13, and we're going to pick it up. Verse 24. Why don't you stand as we read?
[00:03:09] This is Matthew 13:24, another parable he put forth to them, saying, the kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
[00:03:21] But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.
[00:03:28] But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.
[00:03:35] So the servants of the owner came and said to him, sir, did you not sow good seed in your field?
[00:03:42] How then does it have tares? He said to them, an enemy has done this.
[00:03:47] The servants said to him, do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, no, lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.
[00:03:57] Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, first gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them. But gather the wheat into my barn. And then just go on a few verses to verse 36. Because then Jesus explains the parable. Then Jesus sent the multitude away and went into the house. And the disciples came to him saying, explain to us the parable the tares of the field.
[00:04:26] And he answered and said to them, he who sows the good seed is the Son of man. The field is the world.
[00:04:34] The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one.
[00:04:40] The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.
[00:04:48] Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of the age. The Son of man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend.
[00:05:00] And those who practice lawlessness and will cast them into the furnace of fire. Then there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.
[00:05:17] Okay, take a seat.
[00:05:21] Here we go.
[00:05:22] I want to say again, Jesus is more interested in the righteous than he's interested in the evil doer.
[00:05:34] You know, I think what Jesus is saying at the start of this parable is, you know, when we all start out, when the seed is sown, when the field is laid, it isn't obvious between the wheat and the tears, you know, as we see things growing up.
[00:05:54] And I think this is a reflection of the goodness of God that Jesus says he will take every precaution to protect the fledgling wheat at the expense of burning the evil. Now, so the good seed, you can become all you are destined to to be.
[00:06:20] You know, why doesn't God remove evil dictators straight away?
[00:06:26] Well, probably because in the power vacuum, even more could be hurt.
[00:06:32] Yet in the midst, the Holy Spirit raises the righteous.
[00:06:38] You.
[00:06:42] Jesus says four things about you, the wheat.
[00:06:48] First thing he says is, you have been sown by the sower. God.
[00:06:53] God sowed you. I don't believe he makes a mistake when he places us where he places us, you know. Too often we want to be somewhere else too soon before we take root. But what he's saying is, I've sown you.
[00:07:09] You are where you are because I placed you there. The second thing Jesus says is, God is your father, therefore you are heirs to his kingdom.
[00:07:21] And he is raising you for royalty, sons and daughters who know their father.
[00:07:31] So he's sown you, he has made you heirs, and he is raising you to be his sons and daughters. The third thing he says is, you are righteous because of the cross.
[00:07:47] Your sin has been paid for, and you are the righteous.
[00:07:53] Romans 8 says this. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. If the Holy Spirit is in your life, if he is transforming, if he is leading you and you are yielding to his presence, there is no condemnation.
[00:08:17] You are righteous because when the Father looks at you, he sees the mark of His Son.
[00:08:25] Your sin has been paid for in full. You are the righteous seed. You are the kingdom of God.
[00:08:34] He has sown you. And the fourth thing he says is, you will shine like the sun.
[00:08:40] What God wants to do in your life will be so apparent to the world around you.
[00:08:51] They will have to agree the goodness of God, because you will shine like the sun.
[00:08:59] And then he says three things about the evil. He says, firstly, they're sown by the devil. The devil is sowing seed, and there will be evil around you. The second thing he says is that they do evil. They are lawless. The apostle John talks about the Antichrist, the spirit of Antichrist going into the world, the lawlessness.
[00:09:25] And then the third thing he says, their destiny. Their destiny is hell. You know, no one talks about heaven and hell anymore.
[00:09:33] It's like it's a taboo subject.
[00:09:37] No one talks about heaven and hell more than Jesus.
[00:09:42] And people will say to me, baba, how can a loving God send people to hell? He doesn't.
[00:09:47] God has never sent anyone to hell. The only person that goes to hell is the person that is running there themselves.
[00:09:56] But heaven, eternal life and hell are two very real concepts in the mind of Jesus.
[00:10:04] What is godlike? He will never uproot evil at the expense of righteousness, but rather he raises the righteous to have victory over evil. Let me say that again. He's never going to uproot evil at the expense of the righteous, but he is going to raise the righteous, you and me, to rise up and have victory over evil.
[00:10:42] See, David is one of my favorite characters. And I love the story of David and Goliath. You know, where he slays Goliath, but that's not where it starts.
[00:10:54] You know, it starts by Goliath coming out and defying the armies of Israel.
[00:11:00] And we read he comes out for 40 days.
[00:11:05] So he's a type of the devil in the wilderness.
[00:11:08] So when Goliath comes out and he defies the army of the living God, he comes out for 40 days. When Jesus is the Spirit comes upon Jesus. Jesus goes into the wilderness for 40 days and has an encounter with. With the devil and defeats him.
[00:11:23] So Goliath, I'm getting my stories mixed up. Goliath comes and defies Israel.
[00:11:35] He has been placed there by the devil. He is vile, he is defying God.
[00:11:42] He is lawless, and everyone fears him.
[00:11:47] And you can be sure that he's going to meet a certain end. End to David. Now, David is an ordinary young man, but he has been planted by the Lord.
[00:12:01] He's part of a big family.
[00:12:03] No one really notices him. David's the one that looks after the sheep in the field while the brothers are out doing the important work.
[00:12:12] The brothers are out with Saul fighting battles, but David is just looking after the sheep.
[00:12:18] But God, you see, David has a sling, and whenever a lion or a bear come to attack the sheep, he's got this sling and it's a bit like the kitchen zapper.
[00:12:35] And he can just sling and he hits them and zap and they flee.
[00:12:41] Do you know what? No one knows. And no one cares because no one knows who David is.
[00:12:49] No one sees the family, don't see the brothers, don't feed. The brothers are all doing the important work. The dad's at home. No one sees what David's doing. But David's learning how to slay lions and to frighten off bears.
[00:13:05] He just got a sling. But I tell you who does see? God.
[00:13:10] God sees him. And I want to say to you this morning, that could be you.
[00:13:16] The Father has placed you in your family. He's sown you your place of work, your neighborhood.
[00:13:24] And you might be thinking, why on earth am I here?
[00:13:29] But he has placed you for a reason.
[00:13:32] And he wants to teach you to become royal.
[00:13:40] You see the lions and the bears, the difficulties are for your benefit because he is preparing you.
[00:13:51] So the place where you are, the struggles you're going through, they are for your benefit.
[00:13:59] He has placed you where you can learn to become a son or a daughter.
[00:14:06] You see, you are a son, but you need to learn to become a son. When no one's watching.
[00:14:12] You are a daughter of royalty. But you need to know, you need to become royalty when no one is watching.
[00:14:22] There are battles to win, things like integrity, courage, purity. Remember what Jesus says. Well done, good and faithful servant. You were faithful in a little.
[00:14:35] It was the little things you were faithful in that God saw. He says, now I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. You see, you have to slay a few lions before you move on to Goliath.
[00:14:55] You know, when I, oh dear, my life, when I got my first job, I was 16. I left school at 16. I didn't do A levels or anything. I went to a training college. I was learning engineering and all my friends said, you know Steve, you're a Christian now, you've got to blow your cover on the first day. So I did. I blew my cover. Everybody knew I was a Christian. And you know, I tell them about Jesus. I, it was about between 100 and 216 to 20 year old guys.
[00:15:27] They were vile.
[00:15:29] I mean this was a hard place. And I'm telling about Jesus, I'm going to go to heaven. I've got eternal life. I'm going to live forever. I remember one day, it wasn't long, we're only a few months in and one of them says, so you're not scared to die, right?
[00:15:43] And I went, no, no, I'm going to go to heaven. He said, okay.
[00:15:47] He had a Suzuki 250.
[00:15:50] It was when motorbikes weren't limited and you didn't have to have a license. All you had to do was stick airplanes on and you could drive this machine that was like sitting on a rocket. So he said, come on the back, I'll take you for a ride and we'll see if you're scared of dying.
[00:16:07] And it was as we were doing 100 miles an hour in a 30 mile an hour industrial estate.
[00:16:16] And when you sit on the back of a bike, you know, everything wants you to go like that. But that's what girls do, okay? That's why when, you know if your boyfriend has a bike, says you want to come back, guys aren't allowed to do that.
[00:16:32] There's a little bar on the back you have to hang on.
[00:16:37] There is nothing to hold you onto that bike and you just have to lean and go with it. How do you think I learned to pray? Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
[00:16:48] If you're going to come back, come back now, okay? And we are screaming around this Industrious day. And I remember, we got back, I could hardly walk.
[00:17:01] You know, every bit of blood has drained out of my body.
[00:17:05] And he turned around to them and said, yeah, no, he's all right.
[00:17:11] What I discovered that day is I am not scared to die, but I am scared of the process of dying.
[00:17:17] Okay, Every Christian is like, it, all right?
[00:17:25] But two of those guys are probably still my best friends. Friends.
[00:17:34] And they are probably watching this morning.
[00:17:37] And we endured some tears growing up around us and have walked together. You see, God doesn't take us out. He places us in so we can become.
[00:17:58] See, often we pray. Oh, Lord, I used to. I was at this train, oh, God, get me out of here.
[00:18:03] I honestly, you know, I would literally go home, lock myself in my room and go, God, you gotta get me out of that place.
[00:18:11] This is not a place for a Christian. And he's going, yes, it is.
[00:18:16] This is where we make kings.
[00:18:20] God doesn't take us out. He places us in so we can become.
[00:18:26] You know, why doesn't society change as fast as we would like?
[00:18:30] Because God is very patient.
[00:18:32] He will not uproot the evil because he doesn't want to damage the fledgling wheat, because he loves the righteous.
[00:18:42] You know, why doesn't God move the giants from our lives that intimidate us? Because the only way you get kings are, are by slaying Goliaths.
[00:18:53] And I want you to notice something. The devil plants. But you are already planted.
[00:18:58] God already knew you are in place.
[00:19:04] And sometimes the wrong. It is the wrong prayer to say, remove me from here.
[00:19:10] The Holy Spirit is saying, no, I'm not going to remove you until you learn to slay it.
[00:19:14] Learn to slay it. You know, you're a single parent and you find yourself with all the struggles of raising children on your own.
[00:19:25] And maybe your prayer, it would be rightly so. I don't want to be single anymore. Lord, send the right man or woman to come and help me through this.
[00:19:36] But right now, that's where you're planted.
[00:19:40] You are his child, and he has a plan for you to thrive and. And bring down some giants. Not only you, but for your son or your daughter.
[00:19:53] And the question is, will you believe him now so he can raise you to become a king or queen?
[00:20:00] You know, one of the. I want to, you know, because I know we have a number of broken families. You know, one of the lifelines, especially if you have younger, younger children, is this Lion's Children's Bible.
[00:20:17] I just remembered it in the worship earlier. And I Just want to say to you, look, you find yourself, and I'm talking to single parent families at the moment, but I mean, you know, every family.
[00:20:27] But you might find yourself in absolute distress.
[00:20:31] But if you will read through this with your children and if you together will put your trust in the Lord, you'll read the story of the widow. When Elijah meets her, the oil will start flowing.
[00:20:49] But you have been sown in the situation you are now.
[00:20:53] And the Lord, the Lord wants to raise a king or queen.
[00:21:00] And if you will trust him, I promise you he will come through religion. You may have given your life to Jesus and come from another religion, Hindu, Sikh, Muslim, whatever, and you've told your family, or you're trying to get the courage up to tell your family, and there's anger and distance, but the promise is you will shine like the sun.
[00:21:28] The question is, you know, can you endure in the discomfort that. So that your whole family can come to Christ?
[00:21:37] Because that's his will, that the whole family will come to Christ. And I don't know what that looks like. And he will direct you, but suddenly you come to Jesus and now there's a giant in your life and Jesus wants to teach you to slay the giant or evil government.
[00:21:55] Oh, my goodness.
[00:21:58] You know, it's God who raises and removes leaders.
[00:22:03] Do you know there's a. Again, as you go through reading your Bible, you're going to come across the kings. And one of the worst kings was Ahab. And he was married to Jezebel.
[00:22:13] And this is what we read in 1 Kings 21. But there was no one like Ahab who told. Who sold himself to do wickedness in the sight of the Lord because Jezebel, his wife, stirred him up. It's always that wife's fault. Have you noticed?
[00:22:27] She was, she was a.
[00:22:29] She was a particularly difficult one.
[00:22:33] And Ahab was just a horrendous king. And the oppression that was on Israel. This is a king of Israel. This isn't Assyria, this isn't Babylon. This is God's people.
[00:22:47] And it comes to a head when he sees a vineyard he wants. And there's a guy called Naboth who owns the vineyard. He has him murdered.
[00:23:01] And the Lord speaks to Elijah and he says, elijah, go to Ahab. And Elijah goes and gets the kitchen. You know, the blue light, the thing.
[00:23:12] Cause Ahab has been a thorn in the flesh to Elijah.
[00:23:17] Actually, Elijah's been a thorn in the flesh for Ahab. But don't worry about it. You read the story. And so finally, Elijah has got the word that God is going to take out Ahab. And he's walking with his blue zapper, and he's thinking, yes.
[00:23:31] Do you know what happens?
[00:23:34] Ahab humbles himself.
[00:23:37] And Elijah can sit. He's standing. He's going, no, no, don't do it. I got the zapper. Don't do it. Don't humble yourself. Because why? Because he knows what will happen. God will show mercy.
[00:23:48] This is what we read.
[00:23:49] See how the Lord speaks to Elijah? See how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself before me. I will not zap him.
[00:24:00] It's not quite. That's a modern translation. In the days.
[00:24:05] But in the days of his son, I will bring calamity on his house.
[00:24:11] I can see, you know, Jonah. We wonder why Jonah got so upset. And Elijah's going, no. And I think, you know, pulling his hair out. And that's why Elijah was bored. Elijah, who comes after him, he's going, I don't want to go. I want to go to Elijah's way. I'm just going to shave my head.
[00:24:28] Yeah. It's like God is so merciful.
[00:24:33] Just so you know, Ahab does die in battle, and Jezebel is killed by Jehu, another king, and the dogs eat her, just as Elijah said.
[00:24:46] So they get their Jews. But what I'm trying to say is sometimes some of you go, oh, God, I don't know if I'm forgiven. I don't. I don't know if I've been too bad. I don't know if I'm righteous.
[00:24:58] Look, if God can have mercy on Ahab, how much more can he have mercy on you? By the blood of Jesus, when you come to him and goes, you are my kids.
[00:25:10] I love you. You go, you know my life. You know what I've done, what I'm thinking about doing. And the Lord says, I have you.
[00:25:17] I have you. You are the righteous.
[00:25:21] Paul writes in 1 Timothy. He says, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceful life in all goodness and reverence, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
[00:25:48] Why doesn't God remove them?
[00:25:52] Because his desire is that they're saved and they turn to him.
[00:25:56] But you know what?
[00:25:59] And you're not going to like this. There's Another reason why God doesn't move them.
[00:26:06] Why doesn't he just put Christians in place?
[00:26:10] And honestly, I don't want to be offensive this morning, but I want to explain to you why he doesn't. Because you're not good enough yet.
[00:26:17] You're not good enough to do the jobs yet.
[00:26:20] Jesus says this for the children of this world are in their genera.
[00:26:25] Sorry. The children of this world are in their generation, wiser than the children of light.
[00:26:32] Stinging words from Jesus. Why?
[00:26:34] Because the children of light have not yet learned to become kings, to pay the price, to pick up their cross, to enter the classroom of the Holy Spirit. Because praying, get me out of here. And the Lord's saying, no, I want to teach you how to slay giants.
[00:26:55] And then you shine like the sun in your Father's kingdom.
[00:27:04] You see, if you don't learn to slay the lions and the bears, how will you ever slay Goliath? And I'm talking to me.
[00:27:13] Will we learn to become the children of God?
[00:27:17] Heirs who have wisdom and rule righteously?
[00:27:23] See, what am I trying to say to you?
[00:27:27] You have been planted by the Lord. So have I.
[00:27:30] Where you are right now. Learn to be sons and daughters where you are.
[00:27:36] He has made you completely righteous by the cross.
[00:27:42] So we all have all of the resource of heaven at our disposal.
[00:27:50] If there are tares growing up. If there are tares growing up around you, rejoice.
[00:27:56] Because you're about to enter the classroom of the Holy Spirit.
[00:28:01] The devil may have sown them, but God has a plan of victory.
[00:28:07] You see, when you came to Jesus, you were scarcely distinguishable from one another.
[00:28:16] One day at the final judgment, the sons and daughters of the kingdom will shine like the sun.
[00:28:26] What starts off indistinguishable will become obvious because. Because of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
[00:28:36] Jesus wants to write your story.
[00:28:40] But as we learned last week, the word has to fall on good soil. And when it does, we get kings and queens like David and Esther.
[00:28:53] So when Goliath defies the armies of the living God, a single stone brings him down at the hand of David and a king is born.
[00:29:08] But Jesus has not only saved you for this life, you go, yes, but you don't understand.
[00:29:17] Life feels hard some of the time. He has saved you for eternity. Paul says, if this life is it, if we're living, if we've given everything for this life, we're to be pitied more than all men and women.
[00:29:33] He says he has saved you for eternity and we need to talk about eternity as much as we talk about how we're going to live our life tomorrow. Because Jesus, the Spirit of God, is preparing us for eternity.
[00:29:52] This life is where we learn to put our trust in the Lord.
[00:29:56] In heaven, we won't need faith because Jesus will light the city.
[00:30:03] It will be obvious everywhere. This is the only place we will be able to trust the Lord.
[00:30:11] However, this life is our opportunity to shine like the sun until he sends his angels to bring us before Him.
[00:30:21] And at that time the evil will burn and the judgment of God will come.
[00:30:28] But we will stand before our Father in heaven. Well done good and faithful servant. You were faithful, maybe over just a tiny thing, but now I I will make you ruler over many things.
[00:30:47] Enter into the joy of our Lord.
[00:30:51] Amen. Stand up.
[00:30:54] Thanks for listening to the Coma Church Podcast. If you enjoyed this message, you can like and subscribe. You can also join us in person or online every Sunday at Cromer Church. For more information about us, including our ministries, events, worship and how to donate, visit our website at. Chroma Church.
