Matthew: Parables of Jesus 2023

Matthew chapter 13 verse 24. Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away, when the wheat sprouted and formed ears, then the weeds also appeared.

The owner's servants came to him and said, sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? An enemy did this, he replied. The servants asked him, do you want us to go and pull them up? No, he answered.

Because while you are pulling up the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time, I will tell the harvesters first collect weeds and tie them into bundles and to be burned, then gather the wheat and bring them into my barn. He told them another parable, the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field, though it's the smallest of all seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree so that the birds come and perch in its branches. He told them still another parable.

The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into about 30 kilograms of wheat, a flour until it worked all through the dough. Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. So was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables.

I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world. Then he left the crowd and went into the house his disciples came to him and said, explain to us the power of the weeds in the field. He answered, The 1 who sowed the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil 1, and the enemy who sows them is the devil.

The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels. As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. The son of man will send out his angels, and they will weed out of his kingdom, everything that causes sin and all who do evil. They will throw them into the blazing furnace where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.

Whoever has ears, let them hear. Tom. Alright. Thanks, Dean. And, my name's, Tom, if we haven't met before, and, I'm the assistant pastor here at the church and, it's lovely to be with you this evening and looking at this, this parable together.

As Dean said, we began this new series last last week and, Rory took us through the first parable, the parable of the sower. And, if you didn't get a chance to listen to that, if you weren't here, then I would really recommend that you download it at some point and listen to it over the course of the next week, partly because it was a terrific talk. But secondly, because Jesus says that the parable of the sower, is foundational to our understanding of all of the parables. If we don't understand that 1, he says, how then will we understand anyone? And so that has to do with how we listen to the word of god, how we take in the word of god, and that shapes and impacts how we listen to every other parable.

So we'd really, commend that talk to you from last week. But as we come to this 1, let's bow our heads and ask the lord to to help us father, we thank you that you do speak to us We thank you for your word, which you've, entrusted to us, which you've given to us, and, we thank you for these parables which do make known the secrets of the kingdom, which lay before us in very accessible stark language, the secrets of the kingdom of god. And, we pray, that you would, give us the ears that really hear this evening, that we wouldn't just, either switch off, or take your word in in a distracted sort of way where we both hear it and don't really hear it at all. Help us instead to have those proper spiritual ears that we might discern your voice speaking to us, warning us, encouraging us blessing us through this parable. In Jesus' name.

Oh, man. Well, this week, I was, I was sent a I was sent a picture over WhatsApp by by 2 2 people, actually, and, perhaps Steve, you'd be able to flick that onto the screen for us. This is a picture from, exactly 10 years ago, this weekend. 10 years ago this weekend, there's a lot more hair on on display generally. And, this was taken.

Does anyone know where this was? This was at Poly apes. And, these people here, so not Rory, but Chris, myself, Vena, Rose, and Steve, all got baptized on on that day. That was 10 years ago, exactly 10 years ago, this weekend. It was a funny sort of baptism, because there wasn't actually any any pool for us to be, submerged into, but rather about 4 elders, stood around us at different points with bucketfuls of water.

And at the same time on the count of 3, just threw them at at the same time. And so it was, you know, on reflection, it was less like a baptism and more like multi directional waterboarding, you know, experience. But it was great, you know. And, the joy the joy of this picture as I was looking at this week is that is that actually all of those people, are 10 years on, still in the church and loving the lord and serving the lord by god's grace, which is, which is terrific. Thanks, Steve.

You can, you can knock it off now. And, I was reflecting as I as I saw that picture this week, on on my own conversion and my own story, really. And thinking about the lord's goodness to me over my life and thinking that if if the lord, had chosen to return before 2013 or before 2009 when I was, when I was actually converted, if he'd chosen to come back before that day, then in the words of this parable, I would have been bundled up and and taken into the furnace. And so it's worth us reflecting, I think, for all of us who have become Christians in our lives, that for god to delay his judgment upon the world is a significant grace, isn't it? You know, sometimes people will ask, you know, why is it that god allows evil in the world?

Why does he put up with evil? Why doesn't he do something, about evil? And, there are lots of ways of answering that question, but this little collection, of parables would say, well, firstly, it won't it won't go on forever. He won't go on forever, but 1 day Jesus is gonna come again, and he is gonna do something decisive and final about evil. He's gonna uproot it and take it out of his world forever.

But this parable would also say to us that for a time Jesus will allow good and evil to grow together. Not because he doesn't care about evil, not because he's indifferent to it growing in the world, but because he's patient. And he wants to give people like me the time to turn away from my stupid sin and find a new life in Jesus, and he wants to give people like you if you're a Christian to grow and to mature and to be as fruitful as you can be before the end comes. And in this age of same day delivery, instant, want it now, in this age where we want quick spiritual growth, rapid spiritual growth, measurable results by tomorrow, maturity on demand, growth on the upward trend. It has been a refreshing challenge for me to remember this week that the victory of Jesus Christ over evil is absolutely certain and is coming in a full and final form but that he will give time for the mustard seed to grow and for the yeast to work and for the crops both good and evil to come to maturity.

And as I say, I think that perspective is both challenging to us and is very is very freeing for us. And so let's see it as it comes together in this in this in this parable. Have a look with me at the start of the parable. Jesus told them another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

And then on to the interpretation, verse 36, then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field. Now, last week, if you did hear that, hear that sermon, you'll understand why that's a really significant thing for the disciples to do. In many ways, it's what distinguishes them between the rest of the hearing crowd. They listen to the parables which Jesus teaches, and they choose to either drug their shoulders or go home or be excited for a little bit, but the disciples want to discern the spiritual meaning of the parable.

They're not happy just to leave it as a story, they go to him and they seek out an interpretation. They want to apply the mysteries of the kingdom to their life And so they go to him and they ask, please, will you explain that to us verse 36? The parable of the weeds in the field? And wonderfully, Jesus just walks through this parable for us, telling us what every single part of it means. You know, those times when you buy a piece of flat pack furniture or something that you need to build at home, and the instructions are just absolutely naff.

I mean, you look at the picture, you read the words, and you wonder if these instructions are even for this product at all, and so you dismiss them pretty quickly. Jesus' instructions, Jesus' interpretation, is not like that. It's crystal clear, word for word concept by concept. He takes them through what this parable means, which is super helpful when it comes to preaching it and, and teaching it. And verse 37, he says, the 1 who sowed the seed, The good seed is the son of man.

The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. And so if tonight, you are here, and you are trusting in the lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior, that's the reason why That's the explanation for the spiritual life that you enjoy. Who is it that planted you in this world? And who is it that makes you grow in this world? And if there is any fruit or any harvest, or any maturity in your life, who is the 1 responsible for that?

The 1 who sowed the seed verse 37. Is the son of man. It's Jesus. It's Jesus. It's Jesus.

The son of man. The 1 with all authority on heaven and earth, the source of all goodness and beauty and salvation and holiness in this world wherever it is found is Jesus. Jesus is the sower. Jesus sows the sons and the daughters of the kingdom. And in every part of this world, which is the field, He is working to that end.

He wants to plant, and he wants to water, and he wants to sow, and he wants to bring to maturity, and he wants to progress his kingdom. It's lovely if you were at the prayer meeting at the beginning of this month, we heard 2 stories. We were rejoicing together as a church family in stories of salvation. Chinese girl who's been with us for some time attending the international cafe and the services and has now gone back to China has recently given her life to the lord and wants to follow Christ. And we were hearing the story of Scarlet as well who's gonna be baptized, lord willing first of October in this very back to street, on Sunday, the first of October, and just lovely to hear the story of the way that god has worked, not just in her life, but throughout her family just toppling 1 by 1, a family of unbelievers, and bringing each 1 to to Christ.

And both would say although they've lived different lives and will go on to live different lives, both would say that the lord has done this. The lord is the source of this. It was not me. I did not make the decisive change in my life. The 1 who sowed the seed in my life was the son of man.

That's what Jesus says. And yet verse 25, you can see he's not the only worker in this field. But while everyone was sleeping, His enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. And then on to the interpretation, first 38, The weeds are the people of the evil 1, and the enemy who sows them is the devil. Now the bible actually doesn't tell us a great deal about where the devil came from.

Where he came from what his origin story is. But the best idea, the most common and accepted idea, is that some point before the very creation of the world, or perhaps very early on in the creation of the world, Satan, who was an angel of some form, chose to rebel against God. And so whether that was in just 1 moment of time or whether it was a settled conclusion that he came to, Either way, there came a point when everything that was good and holy and beautiful in the world, and in god became a stench to his nostrils. And he no longer wanted to live under god. He wanted to rule over god.

He no longer wanted to be a creature. He wanted to be a creator. He rebelled, and he fell. And since then, he has been working tirelessly in the field to lie about the lord Jesus Christ. And to lie about who we are, and to try to destroy the witness of Jesus Christ in the world, and to try to destroy and murder us by getting us to look in on ourselves and obsess about ourselves and cut ourselves off from the life, and he has been working to accuse Christians and to whisper in their ear day and night that what Jesus has done for them isn't enough that their sin isn't actually paid for and that no 1 could love them as much as god claims to.

And he opposes he opposes the progression of the gospel in the world. It's not something that Christians need to obsess unhelpfully about. But Jesus takes his existence and his work very, very, very seriously. He talks about the devil really quite a lot. And so if we want to accept all the good morals of the sermon on the Mount, we must also accept what he says about the existence and the work of Satan.

He is a vicious He is a vicious cunning enemy. I mean, look at him verse 25. When does he come in? While everyone is a sleep. It's an intrusion.

It's an intrusion. It's like a thief in the night. If you've ever had somebody break into your house, while you've actually been in there, you know, what is what is troubling about that? There's all kinds of things that are troubling about that. Firstly, are they gonna harm your family?

Firstly, what of your stuff are they gonna steal? But perhaps most of all, it's this sense that they have no right to be there. They've intruded into something that doesn't belong to them. They've come in, uninvited. They're not welcome, and they are introducing evil into your home.

And the master feels that. You see, verse 27? The owner's servants came to him and said sir, didn't you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from? Verse 28?

An enemy has done this. He replied. Where did they come from? An enemy has done this. A wicked thing has been done here something alien has been introduced into what I was doing.

It doesn't belong. An enemy has done this. And so what's the solution? Well, verse 28, the servants, you know, we can we can sympathize with them, can't we? The servants asked him want us to go and pull them up?

We've got our gloves ready. Should we go now? We've got the tools in the barn. Let's get the let's go get them. First 29, no, he answered because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them.

Now commentators think that this, this weed was something called Donald, and, there there were 2 problems with this particular weed at the time. 1 is that it was a pretty poisonous nasty weed to have growing in your field. But secondly, in the early stages, it actually looks very similar to wheat. Very similar. In the early stages, it's hard to discern between them.

And so if you went into the field In order to pull up the weeds, you might have plenty of experience. You might have plenty of enthusiasm in agriculture. But that would be a dangerous thing to do because in your zeal to uproot what was bad, you may unintentionally harm that which is good and worth keeping. And it's a tricky 1 because although, as I said at the start, Jesus does very helpfully explain all of these different elements in the story. Actually, this is the 1 beer that he doesn't expand on in his explanation.

And, you'll know if you've looked at the parables before, that it's often unwise or we need at least to be slow, before we make every detail in a parable into a spiritual lesson, we have to sort of be slow to press every detail. But the general point to these workers seems to be that if if you are too hasty to bring judgment on my field, if you are if you are so sure that you can decide here and now and make the separation, then you just need to slow down because it might be that in your zeal to do what is right, you actually do more harm than good. There's an amazing story in Luke chapter 9, and I'd love you to turn to it. Luke chapter 9, verse 53. Luke 9 verse 53.

This is Jesus on the road with his disciples, Luke 9 53. Jesus sent messengers on ahead who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him, but the people there did not welcome him because he was head for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them? But Jesus turned and rebuked them. It's amazing, isn't it?

I mean, you have to admire their self belief that they think that they, just like the prophet of elijah, could could actually summon on demand The almighty fire from heaven just to consume burn up and do away with the enemies of god, they clearly think they're pretty powerful individuals. And again, we, you know, we might sympathize with them. I mean, to give them the most generous reading possible, they care very much about the honor of Jesus. Don't they? They don't want their lord to be rejected in the world, and they don't want evil to flourish in these villages, they want it to they want it to be dealt with.

But Jesus turns, and he rebukes them. Because he sees something ugly in what they're asking for. They're off to vengeance now and they want a pure world now, and they want judgment now, and they want weeds up now. And they want enemies burned now. Should we call fire from heaven lord?

Should we do it now? Let's cleanse the world. And Jesus says, no, I'm not doing that. I'm not doing that now. See, if I'd been saying in 2008.

God, if you're there, why don't you prove yourself and come and deal with evil in the world? Why don't you why don't you prove yourself? See if there is a god, then he wouldn't allow evil to come. You know, if there is a real loving god, he'd deal with evil in this world. If he'd answer said that prayer and come and dealt with evil in the world.

Well, I'd be in eternal eternal trouble. But he was patient. He was patient. He wasn't willing to bring it at that moment, and he's not willing to bring it at this moment. Because he's giving time for people to turn.

And that's an encouragement to us, isn't it? You see, it might be that we've got neighbors or family members in our life who don't follow the lord. And perhaps over the years, we've been trying to witness to them. We've invited them to church. We've told them a bit about what it means to follow Jesus, and they haven't been interested, and they've closed the door in our face.

Well, it's very easy, isn't it? In our minds, at least, to bring judgment day forward upon them? Well, that's it then. That's it. The separation has been made.

They belong to the weeds. That's it. They've had their chance. You know, that's it. And we we almost hyson forward in our minds, judgment day upon them.

Jesus says I'm not willing to bring it now. Let them grow together. For now, let them grow together or a different kind of illustration. Perhaps we've got a new guest at church. Someone who's coming and they're getting interested in Christian things.

They're not yet saved. They're not yet Christians, but they're coming. Well, if we in our zeal to do good, rush into their lives and try to pull the weeds out straight away. You know, you shouldn't be going there, and you shouldn't be watching that, and you should stop listening to that sort of music, and you shouldn't dress that way, and you shouldn't send your kids over there. And in our zeal to pull the weeds out of their lives, well, look, that might well intentioned, but in that haste, we may end up doing harm.

Jesus says there are times when we just need to let people listen and let people grow. And let people come to an understanding and let Jesus sort out the weeds and the weed. So he's not saying here that inactivity in the Christian life is godly, but humility is And very often, isn't it true that we really don't know as much as we think we do about what's going on in people's hearts and about god's timing in the world, that we just don't see things with the perfectly just eye that we often think we we own. And that sometimes, given that we are not all knowing all powerful and wisely discerning in every situation. There are times when it's good just to leave to leave things to the lord.

Verse 30, he says, look at verse 30, he says, let both grow together. Let both grow together. Until the harvest and at that time. When I'm ready, and at my word, At that time, I will tell the harvesters to judge the final sorting out belongs to him. And in fact verse 30, just that just those few words, let them grow together I think helps us in all sorts of other ways too.

You see the world's idea, and you hear it all the time in different forms. Is that as time growth goes on, we will be constantly improving as a culture, that the next generation, the ones who come after us, are always going to be more moral and more ethical and more tolerant than we are and praise the lord, they'll be able to purge us of all of our historical blindness, purge us of all of our historical sin, and will move towards a perfect wheat light, wheat light state of enlightenment. There's that sort of hope and that belief isn't there in the culture. But that cannot be squared with what Jesus says. He says that evil is gonna be with us, and it's gonna be in us until the end.

And so equally, any form of Christianity, and you do hear this in Christian teaching sometimes. Which says, well, look, you know, as long as as long as we can have, enough Christian children, and as long as we can have enough Christian schools, and as long as we can christianize all the secular institutions, then we in our own strength will be able to get rid of the weeds and we will be able to establish the kingdom of god here on earth. It's well intentioned, but it's guided. I mean, if we do have the opportunity to reform our workplaces and our schools, then great. And if we do have an opportunity to raise our voices in the public square, then gray.

But brothers and sisters, the point of this story is to say, don't be discouraged when the weeds keep growing around you. Because Jesus says, until the end let them grow together until the end. Let them grow together. And so, therefore, our job is not mainly to christianize secular institutions. If we can have a hand in changing them, great, but that's not mainly our job.

Our job is to sow the seed of the gospel, to proclaim the son of man, to call people to price that they might be 1 for the new age, and they might be able to share in that great harvest 1 day. The perfect world doesn't arrive until verse 30. Do you see that? It doesn't arrive until Jesus says Let them both grow together until the harvest. And at that time, I will tell.

Only then will the separation come, and only then will things be seen perfectly for what they are? A friend of mine, during the pandemic, had a had a wellness seminar on Zoom. It was something that his company had put on for all the employees. It was a wellness and, mental health and positive thinking seminar to place over Zoom, and the company had very kindly sent all the different employees, a little box of gifts, which they weren't to open until they were live on Zoom, with each other. They were to open them before each other, and this was part of the kindness of the company and and the wellness.

And, 1 of the gifts that the company had given each employee, was a box of flour balls or flour bombs Have you ever seen those things? They're like little they're like little balls of soil that have all kinds of different wild flowers in them seeds. It's a little ball of soil. And so they opened it together on this on this zoom conference, and, you know, many of them were looking at it and knew what it was. Unfortunately, Sadly, there was 1 colleague who mistook them for chocolate truffles.

True story. And proceeded to have a mouthful of 1, live on zoom. And, the way my friend tells this story is just brilliant because you just see her face implode on it, implode on itself, you know, as she realizes she has just literally taken a mouthful of earth, into into her mouth very funny. But if you've ever had those things, you know, the the the principle, at least, as long as you understand what it is, you know, it's lovely. It's good.

You get these little spherical balls of soil and it got this wild flower and that wild flower and that wild flower and you sow it into the ground and as long as you water it and it gets the right conditions, you have a beautiful diversity, abuse of variety, all sorts of color, in your garden as a result of that 1 little 1 little seed. And you know, I think I think spiritually lots of people think that the world looks much much like that. You know, it's not as simple as just wheat and weed It's not as binary as that, that the world we live in spiritually is more like the flower ball that becomes the meadow. There are all kinds of beliefs and philosophies in modern Britain and all kinds of things that people treasure and hold to be true, and we must at all costs resist binary language. It's the worst type of language, isn't it?

We must say, no, it's not this or that. It's not good or evil. It's not right or wrong. It's not Jesus or nothing. It's a flower ball world.

Where everyone is entitled to have all kinds of competing contradictory, doesn't matter, views in their own lives. But that finds, as you can see here, no agreement in the words of Jesus. It's so it's so plain, isn't it? There is 1 world, there is 1 field, and there are only 2 types of crop. There are the weeds, and there is the wheat.

There are the sons of the devil, and there are the sons of the kingdom, There are those who are gathered into the furnace, and there are those who are collected into the barn. Only 2. For this flower ball world of philosophies and beliefs, there are in the end only 2 crops. The wheat and the weeds. You can see it in verse 38.

The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil 1. Verse 40 as the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. And if we're honest, I think lots of us would read that and think, wow. The weeds are the people of the evil 1.

That's quite a description for my non Christian neighbor who who largely and in many areas of their life seems like an altogether stand up sort of person I mean, he may not follow Jesus, but that's a lot, isn't it? That? And of course, on the 1 hand, it is true that because of god's common grace, we are not as wicked as we could be. There is a general kindness from god to the world, which he shows minute by minute hour by hour decade by decade, which blesses, and it restrains us, and it holds us back from being the monsters that we could be. But the point is if we have not submitted to Jesus as lord, if we are not sowing with him and seeking to advance his kingdom than we are against him.

That's the point he's making to not to not listen to or love or pray to or trust our creator is to align ourselves with the devil because he does not listen to or love or pray to or trust his creator. He wants to live independently from him and to oppose him with his independence. And so The lives may look the same, but you see the spiritual different rather, but the spiritual DNA is the same. The weeds and the wheat. Sons of the kingdom and the sons of the evil 1.

And if Jesus wanted to tell us that in stronger language, I don't know how he I don't know how he would do it. Verse 41, the son of man, and these are so sobering these words, aren't they? The son of man will send out his angels. And they will weeds out of his kingdom. Everything that causes sin and all who do evil.

They will throw them into the blazing furnace where they will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And however it looks in reality, the least we can say is that that will be an experience of regret and pain and anger and disappointment with no end in sight. That's 1 possible destination. At the end of time. But he says verse 43, then the righteous will shine like the sun.

In the kingdom of their father. For god to delay his judgment upon the world is a significant grace, isn't it? The reason for 2000 years plus of patience is this The lord has a really, really big barn, and he has a really, really big heart. And he's very, very willing to gather as much wheat as will come into his barn, and to see it shine forever in his kingdom. And if you're not a Christian here this evening and you wouldn't say you're a follower of Christ all these things are just new to you.

Now is the time to make the most of that patience that the lord is giving you to come in before it's too late. You see the reality is in the great field of this world And for all the people who have ever drawn breath in it, there really has only been 1 stalk of wheat. Shining perfectly in the sun. Just 1. Everybody else has aligned themselves with Satan Everybody else has given themselves to rebellion against god and pursued a life of independence away from him.

There has just been in all history In every corner of this field, just 1, shining, perfect, golden ear of wheat. In a world of nasty weeds. And yet at the end of his life, instead of being gathered up and collect did safely into his father's barn. He was bundled up, taken outside of the city, and he was burnt. He was burnt.

He was thrown out even though he was the only good 1 that there's ever been. He was thrown out into the place of darkness and into the fire of the judgment of god and into the place of weeping onto the cross so that your sin could be dealt with. And so that your spiritual DNA could be changed, and so that you could avoid the furnace forever, and instead be gathered in to the barn. It's so wonderful, isn't it? That image of the barn because when you're in the barn, what are you?

You're out of the wind. You're safe. You're away from the predators. All the nasty climate things, the heat of the sun, and the floods, and the mean postures in the predator. You're safe.

You're safe. You're shielded. You're taken into the barn of god's kingdom. The Bible says let us not disregard the riches of god's kindness, forbearance and patience. But instead let us realize that god's kindness is intended to lead us to repentance.

The son of man is the only 1 who can make the change in your life today. From wheat to weed from a son of evil to a son of glory from the furnace to the barn, He stands with a ready and willing heart. He's not yet ready to come and to bring judgment on the earth because he stands. For 2000 years, he stands, And he says, come, come, be gathered into my barn. And I wonder if you're not a Christian tonight, would you take hold of that opportunity before the harvest comes?

Let's pray together. Father, we pray that you would, forgive us, that in our in our clumsiness, and our, and our half sidedness, we we often make hasty wrong decisions we we think that we know things and we think that we see things and we think that we have all the knowledge that we need to make the right decisions. And yet we can sadly do more harm than good. And we pray that you would help us to have this perspective that we would that we would really care about godliness. But that we would be content sometimes in the right times to leave things to you and to leave things to your perfect judgment and be willing to be a lot more patient than we would naturally like to be.

And we're sorry lord that we have all of us by nature, been weeds, not just in our nature, but by choice. We've chosen to grow away from you. We've chosen to despise your truth. And we know when we think most clearly that we we should've we should've rightly been gathered up, and we should have been thrown into that place described in verse 40. And yet we thank you that you you were merciful with each and every 1 of us.

Lord, if you'd come back any earlier, it may have spelled desire for people in this room. And yet we thank you that you gave time and you put people in our lives and you weren't willing to uproot us. But you loved us and you were patient with us, and we thank you for that. And we recognize today the the only reason that we've seen this day out really is because you want us to grow more like Jesus, and you want to save unbelievers in the world. And so we pray that you would help us to make the most of our opportunity to sow the seeds of the kingdom, to love each other to not waste our lives and we ask all of these things in the precious name of Jesus, amen.