Matthew 13: 47-51, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. that is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Do you understand all these things?”

So, Jesus is saying in the end there will only be 2 categories of people and they will be separated out by the angels. There will be the wicked and the righteous. The wicked’s fate is the fiery furnace of misery. The righteous will be kept and carried off. We know from earlier parables in this chapter that the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.

So, it’s clear who we don’t want to be – we don’t want to be the wicked. And it’s clear who we do want to be – we want to be the righteous. Now, how can we be sure because this is eternity we’re talking about. There will be no undoing this.

After sharing this story, Jesus says, “Do you understand all these things?” No – I honestly don’t at this point, Jesus, help me understand. Explain this to us. He wants us to understand this, so let’s dig deeper here for understanding.

When I’m trying to understand scripture, I do a few things:

Looking at other translations of this parable, they all say it in the same words – there are the good and the bad – the righteous and the wicked, and in the end they are getting separated. Until then, they will be in the same waters living together. God doesn’t separate us now, but the day will come when he does.

Now, let’s look at the original text. These spoken words of Jesus were recorded by the disciple Matthew after he personally heard them. The language was Greek. In Greek, the two groups people will be separated into are the ponēros and the dikaious.

The ponēros are the wicked ones. The word means evil, bad, harmful, morally corrupt. It describes one who is not only bad in character, but produces bad effects. This isn’t the person who messes up in their life and fails – this is the person who is truly bad. This isn’t about just doing bad things – this is about BEING bad. It’s a moral corruption from within. It’s a genuinely rotten, poisonous fruit.

Religion has warped this word to make us think we’re going to Hell if we sin. Well, here’s the really bad news about that teaching – WE ALL SIN. Every single one of us. There has only been one without sin and that was Jesus. The rest of us aren’t good enough – but that doesn’t mean we are wicked.

This word ponēros is used when Jesus teaches us how to pray in Matthew 6. Verse 13, “deliver us from the evil one.” That’s the ponēros one. Satan. So his people, his followers, his devoted workers are the ones who Jesus tells us are wicked. They are the ones who will meet the fate of the fiery furnace.

These are NOT the ones who have made wrong choices and wandered off the path occasionally. These are the ones who are inherently evil.

——

Then there are the dikaious. Here’s what that word means – those who are in right standing with God. Here’s what that word doesn’t necessarily mean – a good person.

We try to make this all about us, about our acts, our deeds, and our track record. And if we do, we always fall short. We simply are not righteous. No matter how good you are, it hasn’t made you right with God.

There is one thing and one thing only that has made you right with God – that’s the man on the middle cross. Jesus gives us right standing with a Holy and perfect God. JUST JESUS.

2 Corinthians 5:21, “For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be MADE RIGHT WITH GOD through Christ.”

This is how we are the diakious – the righteous – the ones who will get to shine bright in the Kingdom of God forever! Jesus did that for us.

Romans 5:17, “God’s wonderful grace and his GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.”

Righteousness is a gift of God’s grace. No, we don’t deserve it, but he gives it to us anyway. You can stop thinking you have to make yourself good enough and receive the grace that completely covers you.

Romans 3:22, “We are made RIGHT WITH GOD by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. yet God, in his grace, freely makes US RIGHT in his sight. People are made RIGHT WITH GOD when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.”

It just couldn’t be any clearer than that. We are made right with God through one thing and one thing alone – BELIEVING IN JESUS! And no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve come from or how wrong you’ve been, this is true for YOU. YOU ARE RIGHTEOUS THROUGH JESUS.

So my friend, your destiny is sealed. If you believe in Jesus, you are in the diakious, the righteous, the ones in right standing with God. And your future is secure in Jesus – you get to shine in God’s Kingdom forever!

So let’s go back to Jesus’ question: “Do you understand all these things?”

I think I finally understand what He’s trying to show us. One day, the net is going to come ashore. One day, there will be a separation. One day, this life will be over, and eternity will begin.

And on that day, the question won’t be, “Were you perfect?” Because none of us were. It won’t be, “Did you make good choices every day?” Because none of us did. It won’t even be, “Were you good enough?” Because none of us are.

The question is: What did you do with Jesus?

Because there are only two categories in the end: the wicked and the righteous. And here’s the incredible news for every person who has put their faith in Jesus: Jesus makes you righteous.

Not your performance. Not your religious résumé. Not how many Bible verses you know. Not how many times you’ve gotten it right.

Jesus. The man on the middle cross took what belonged to you so that you could receive what belonged to Him.

He took your sin. He gave you His righteousness.

He took your shame. He gave you His grace.

He took your condemnation. He gave you right standing with God.

So stop trying to earn what Jesus already died to give you. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life wondering, “Am I good enough?” You aren’t. Jesus is.

And that’s the whole point.

The Gospel isn’t that you finally became good enough for God. The Gospel is that Jesus was good enough for you.

So when the net comes ashore, I don’t want to be standing there hoping my good outweighs my bad. I want to be standing there covered by Jesus. I want to be found in Christ. I want His righteousness to be my righteousness.

And then—because I have received His life—I want that life to change the way I live here and now. Because this isn’t just about where we go when we die. It’s about who we become while we’re alive.

If Jesus has truly gotten into your life, He should eventually begin getting into everything. Your thoughts. Your words. Your relationships. Your decisions. Your money. Your marriage. Your work. Your habits. Your reactions. Your dreams. Your disappointments. Everything.

He becomes the center. And when Jesus becomes the center, He begins changing what your life produces.

So don’t spend your life trying to prove you’re good enough. Receive the righteousness Jesus freely gives you. And then spend the rest of your life letting Him transform you from the inside out.

Because someday the net will come ashore. And when that day comes, I want to hear Jesus say: “You are Mine.” And I want to shine like the sun in my Father’s Kingdom.

Not because I was good enough. Because Jesus was.

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Yesterday we studied the Parable of the Treasure. Now, Jesus continues his teaching with another similar story tied to it. They go together, so let’s read them together.

Matthew 13: 44-45, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man discovered hidden in a field. In his excitement, he hid it again and sold everything he owned to get enough money to buy the field. Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. When he discovered a pearl of great value, he sold everything he owned and bought it.”

Remember yesterday was all about a man who discovered hidden treasure in a field. He just found it there – stumbled upon it. But now in this story of the pearl, we have a merchant on the lookout for choice pearls. A merchant is on a mission to find something specific. He is trained, he is experienced, and he knows exactly what he is looking for.

One wasn’t looking and found hidden treasure. One was searching intentionally and discovered a pearl of great value. And isn’t it the same with finding Jesus. Some of us just stumbled right into Jesus when we weren’t even looking for him – while others of us found him after searching through every other religion, every other way of life and then we finally found Jesus.

Which one is right? BOTH because they both result in the same life changing encounter.

I didn’t go searching for Jesus. I had a beautiful childhood and lived in a sweet little bubble. At 15 my family started going to church and I was happy to go because in my tiny country town there wasn’t much else to do. I wasn’t expecting to meet a Savior, I didn’t even know I needed one – but there he was, so sweetly awaiting our encounter. It wasn’t dramatic. I didn’t have a bunch of bad decisions and regrets to lay on the altar. I just knew there was a prompting from within calling my surrender to his divine guidance.

I was the one who stumbled on hidden treasure in a field when I wasn’t even looking for it. That’s the kingdom of heaven.

Then there’s my friend Cat. In her 30’s she had walked down a path of addiction that had led her to a crashing end. While in rehab trying to get sober and regain her life, she was introduced to a variety of “higher powers” for the choosing. She began studying and trying them. Buddhism was surely it, so she tried it – but felt nothing. So on to the next one. How about Hinduism. No, that wasn’t it.

She left rehab now sober, but still searching. On the way out, her counselor handed her her own personal copy of ‘Jesus Calling’ and said, “At some point you’re going to need this.” Cat tucked that little devotional book away in a closet and returned to life. It was a better life sober, but not a whole life.

When the next big family catastrophe hit, she knew she needed something to carry her through and not return to the familiarity of her addiction, and she remembered the words of the counselor at rehab who had said, “At some point, you’re going to need this.” And Cat knew – if there was ever a time I need something, it’s now.

So, she found that book, ‘Jesus Calling’ in the closet, she opened the page to that day’s date, and there she found every single word she most needed. But more than words, she found the loving, forgiving, life-changing Savior she had been searching for all along. AND SHE KNEW IT. She knew this was THE ONE. Jesus was the pearl of greatest value and nothing would ever be the same for her.

Cat was the one who had been searching for years and finally found her pearl. That’s the kingdom of heaven.

Isn’t it amazing that we have BOTH? Both a Savior who will pursue us when we aren’t even pursuing him – AND a Savior who will patiently wait as we pursue everything that isn’t him and perfectly align an encounter with him when everything else has failed?

Jesus doesn’t fit in our little box. It doesn’t have to be one way. He is THE WAY, and he will make the way to you in whatever way that needs to be. He’s the hidden treasure you stumble upon without even looking – and he’s the pearl of great value you’ve studied and searched for your entire life. But remember this – either way, he’s worth giving up EVERYTHING for.

In both parables, when found, everything else was sold. Remember that. Jesus requires everything. He’s worth everything. He’s greater than everything.

For my sisters who are more like me without the dramatic story of searching for Jesus, and more just stumbling upon him when you weren’t even looking, remember you’ve found the greatest treasure of all!

And for my sisters who have searched their entire lives, here’s Jesus and he’s everything you’ve been looking for! He is your pearl!

And really think about Jesus being our pearl. How wild that he would use that as the example in his teaching. Do you know how a pearl is formed?

A pearl begins with an irritation. If an oyster never has an irritation, they simply never have a pearl. But if their little world inside their shell is penetrated by the irritation of a grain of sand, then that irritation creates something that becomes valuable.

The irritation of sand inside the shell causes the oyster to respond. Their response covers the sand with layers of naturally produced protection from within. Layer after layer, something beautiful is formed around something that originally caused great pain.

Think about that – the very thing that irritated the oyster becomes part of what makes the pearl so valuable. Of course that’s why Jesus uses the pearl as an example – he knows this is how God works sometimes!

Something you never asked for gets into your life. A disappointment, a betrayal, a loss, a failure, a terrible season, an series of bad decisions that turned into an addiction. Irritation grows. It gets worse. You’re so uncomfortable. But God is growing something within you. Something of great value. This is where Jesus shows up!!!!!!!

Don’t you see how God can use what was so painful to produce something so beautiful in your life? He wastes nothing.

Maybe that’s what God has been doing in you. You thought you were just surviving. God was forming you. You thought you were just getting through another hard season. God was adding another layer. You thought you were being delayed. God was developing depth. You thought the pain was ruining your story. God was making something beautiful from it.

And then you find your pearl. You find your Jesus, that is what you’ve been searching for all along.

And what do you do when you find that pearl – You don’t just keep looking for something else. You don’t keep trying other things. NO. You know this is what you’ve been looking for all your life. This is your answer. Here he is. And you give up everything else because you know there’s absolutely NOTHING better!

What if some of the things you’ve spent your life chasing were never the pearl? But Jesus says, “You found it.” The Kingdom is the pearl. Jesus is the pearl.

And when you finally understand His worth, you realize, I don’t have to spend the rest of my life searching. I’ve found what my heart was looking for.

Jesus is worth everything.

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Matthew 13:44, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

I want you to imagine for a moment coming to the end of your life, and standing before your Creator as he shows you a life of your movie. Everything you did in your entire lifetime. And imagine realizing you missed the whole point of life.

Sadly, that will be many of us. Oh we’ll make it to heaven, we’ll gain our ticket of entrance into the Holy Gates – not because of a single thing we did, but all as humble and unworthy recipients of what the man on the cross did for us. But the time we had here on earth was wasted. We focused on the wrong things. We stressed about things that weren’t within our control. We rushed through the important things. And we quite simply missed the point.

Here, standing with God having the experience of eternity and seeing our life as a movie, we would have a new found perspective of the time we were allotted on Earth. We would see that this entire time we were spiritual beings having our human experience. Really nothing more and nothing less. We were never bodies that just happen to also have a soul. We were first and foremost souls that were gifted these bodies for just a brief moment in the history of the world.

Seeing this, knowing this, understanding this – we would be able to return to this life and get it right. With Heaven’s perspective we would know what’s truly important and what isn’t.

And what is it we would have found – TREASURE. Hidden treasure. Right here in our own lives.

Now, let’s read Jesus’ Parable of the Treasure again. “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.”

Oh that God would give us a heavenly perspective, right here as our spiritual selves have our brief human experience. We would let go of everything we’ve been holding so tightly in order to obtain the real treasure. The treasure of the time and opportunities we’ve been given here of eternal importance. Once you recognize what is truly valuable, your entire definition of a good life changes.

WHAT IF YOU COULD SEE THE TREASURE NOW?

What if God could give you just a glimpse today of what you will understand when this life is over?

I think we would be shocked.

And then we would see the things we almost missed.

And we would realize: THAT was the treasure.

Not the bigger house.

Those things aren’t necessarily bad. But they were never the point. The treasure was hidden in the middle of the life God has already given us.

And isn’t that exactly what Jesus says? The man finds treasure hidden in a field. He doesn’t have to travel across the world to find it. He doesn’t have to manufacture it. He doesn’t have to earn it. He discovers something of incredible value that was already there.

I wonder how much treasure is already buried in your life.

THE TREASURE IS OFTEN ORDINARY

We tend to think God’s best things must be big things.

A big calling.

But some of the most eternally significant things God will ever do through you may look incredibly ordinary while you’re doing them.

A meal around your table.

These moments don’t look impressive on Instagram. But Heaven doesn’t measure life the way Instagram does. Heaven knows the value of things Earth overlooks. And that changes the question we should be asking.

Instead of: “How can I make my life bigger?” Maybe the better question is: “How can I make my life matter?”

Instead of: “What can I accomplish?” Ask: “Who can I love?”

Instead of: “What can I accumulate?” Ask: “What can I give?”

Instead of: “How can I protect my time?” Ask: “What is God asking me to do with the time I’ve been given?”

Because someday, every single one of us will discover that time was the most valuable thing we ever possessed—and we were spending it every single day.

WHAT ARE YOU TRADING YOUR LIFE FOR?

The man in Jesus’ story discovers the treasure and then does something radical. He sells everything he has. Why? Because he finally understands value. He isn’t making a sacrifice because he’s miserable. He does it “in his joy.”

That’s important. When you really understand the value of the Kingdom, surrender doesn’t feel like losing. It feels like trading up. You aren’t giving up your life. You’re finally learning what your life is for.

And maybe that’s the question Jesus wants to put in front of us today: What are you trading your life for? Because you are trading it for something.

Every day.

Your time is being spent.

The question isn’t whether you are spending your life. The question is: Are you spending it on what is actually valuable?

Because you can spend your entire life building something that disappears in an instant. Or you can spend your life investing in things that outlive you.

HEAVEN’S PERSPECTIVE CHANGES TODAY

And here’s the beautiful part: We don’t have to wait until Heaven to get Heaven’s perspective. We can ask God for it now.

“God, show me what I’m missing. Show me what I’m holding too tightly. Show me what I’m worrying about that doesn’t matter. Show me where I’m wasting time. Show me who needs me. Show me what I need to release. Show me the treasure that is already buried in the life You’ve given me.”

Because maybe your life doesn’t need a complete overhaul.

Maybe you don’t need a new house, a new job, a new relationship, or a new body. Maybe you need new eyes.

Maybe the ordinary life you’ve been overlooking is the very life God wants you to live intentionally.

SO WHAT DO WE DO WITH THIS TODAY?

Look at your life today and ask: What matters for eternity? Then do more of that.

Who matters for eternity? Love them.

What relationship needs attention? Give it attention.

What conversation have you been putting off? Have it.

What grudge are you carrying? Release it.

What’s keeping you distracted? Put it down.

What has God been asking you to do? Stop negotiating and do it.

What are you constantly worrying about that you cannot control? Give it to God.

And what ordinary, beautiful thing have you been rushing past? Slow down long enough to see it.

Because one day, we will see this life differently. We will understand what mattered. We will understand what didn’t. And I don’t want to wait until then. I want to recognize the treasure now. I want to live today like the woman I will wish I had been when I see my life from Heaven.

Because the Kingdom of Heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. And perhaps the most incredible thing about the parable isn’t that the treasure was there. It’s that the man found it. Maybe that’s what Jesus is inviting us to do today. Look again. Look at your life. Look at your people. Look at your time. Look at your opportunities. Look at this very ordinary Monday.

There is treasure here. Don’t miss it.

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Have you ever made homemade bread with yeast? How much yeast do you put in with the flour and water? Just a tiny amount. How much of a difference does the yeast make? ALL THE DIFFERENCE.

As Jesus was teaching, he knew everyone listening understood this because bread wasn’t something they picked up at the grocery store. It was made every day in their homes. The women especially knew exactly what He meant. They had watched a tiny handful of yeast disappear into a massive bowl of flour, only to come back hours later and find every bit of dough changed.

So Jesus said…

Matthew 13:33, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like the yeast a woman used in making bread. Even though she put only a little yeast in three measures of flour, it permeated every part of the dough.”

How much of the dough was affected by only a little yeast? EVERY PART OF IT. And how many of you have personally experienced the impact of little things over your entire life? Really, that’s all of us. Looking back, we see how little things changed the entire trajectory of our lives.

Sometimes that can feel overwhelming because what if you mess up that one little thing that would make all the difference? Before you get all anxious about the enormity of this – please remember your life is under the divine direction of an all-knowing God, IF you surrender to his ability to guide you exactly where you need to be.

Surrender is the key. Without surrender – you’re a bowl of flour sitting flat wondering why your life isn’t rising up.

I wonder if you can see how in your own life some of your biggest blessings didn’t come from one big decision you made, but a combination of tiny turns left and right with split second perfect timing. Did you do that on your own? Oh no you didn’t girl. God was leaning over the rails of heaven, watching your life with great delight, aligning things you didn’t even know to ask for, and sprinkling in a little yeast to make his good plans for you grow. And as you grew, the angels cheered!

Here’s our problem – when we don’t surrender. When we think we don’t need God because we can make our own plans, force our own way, and direct the timing of it all to fit our liking. We try to make our own yeast, but guess what – YOU CAN’T.

Yeast has to come from a start. And you are not that start. GOD IS!

Here’s what surrender really is. It’s opening your clenched fists and saying, “God, you have permission to work anywhere you want.” IT STARTS THERE!!!!!

Most of us try to first hand God one part of our lives. “God, here’s my marriage, fix this. But, don’t touch my priorities. Don’t touch my habits. God, I just want you over here.” But Jesus says the yeast doesn’t stop at one corner of the dough. It permeates every part.

God loves you too much to leave any part of your life untouched. If you invite him into your marriage, he will be there – but he will also go right for YOUR HEART. All while you just want him to work on your husband’s heart, he first starts with yours.

You’ve been praying for your kids, and before he works on them, he works in YOU! Sometimes I wonder if my family’s 7 year journey to healing took so long because I was delaying the work in my heart first.

Which part of your life have you been asking for God to take over? You know that one very well, don’t you?

If you surrender your life to Him, He will begin working in places you didn’t even invite Him. But my sister, you can trust him. Remember, he is for you, not against you. His plans for you are to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11)

In this parable, notice what Jesus doesn’t say – He doesn’t say, “The Kingdom of God is like bread.” No, he said it’s “like yeast”. There’s a difference. Yeast gets INSIDE something before it changes anything on the outside.

My mama taught me how to make homemade yeast rolls as a young girl. You get the water and milk temperature just right, then you sprinkle in the tiniest amount of yeast. And then you lean in real close and you watch. Guess what – Nothing happens. You ever so gently stir in the yeast. Still nothing happens. Then you let it sit for a bit. Still nothing. Next you add in the flour and create this messy sticky dough. Nothing looks radically different. But you come back an hour later and your little ball of dough has risen ten times in size to overflow the edges of your bowl.

How did it happen? Gradually from the INSIDE.

That is exactly opposite of how most of us try to change. We start with the outside.

• I need to lose weight.

So we try harder. Jesus says, “That’s not how My Kingdom works. I don’t start by changing your behavior. I start by changing your heart.” Everything else grows from there.

He isn’t trying to improve your circumstances first. He’s trying to transform you.

I really don’t think God cares about the size of your butt or the jiggle of your belly. He’s not impressed by that tiny little ab you’ve been working on. Your bank account isn’t his primary concern. HE IS GOING STRAIGHT FOR YOUR HEART.

Why? Because the heart is the yeast. If he changes your heart, it will affect EVERYTHING!!!!

But here’s the warning – YOUR ENEMY KNOWS THIS TOO! Your enemy knows if he can make you insecure, it will affect everything. If he can twist the way you feel about yourself, he can keep you in the corner. He knows if he infects the way you think about everyone else, he can render you bitter, cynical and ineffective.

Bad yeast makes bad bread sis. Check what is growing in your life!

Finally, notice there’s something specific Jesus mentions in this story. He says the woman mixed the yeast into 3 measures of flour. Anytime you see something this specific, take notice – it’s a deeper lesson. Here, 3 measures of flour means about 40 to 50 pounds of flour. This large amount of flour when mixed with a little bit of east would be enough to feed a hundred people.

Why would Jesus mention that detail? Because the amount is intentionally extravagant. A tiny handful of yeast transforms an enormous amount of dough. That’s the Kingdom.

One life surrendered to Jesus can influence far more people than you ever imagined. One praying Mama. One teacher. One girl in the office who shares a devotional. One friend who points a hurting soul to Jesus. That’s just one little bit of Kingdom yeast. AND IT GROWS and grows and grows. Bigger and bigger and bigger.

Generations are changed as a result of one surrendered life. That’s yeast! And let me tell you something, I think God wants YOU to be that surrendered life. He wants to start with YOU. His Spirit at work within you, changing you from the inside out, starting with your heart then flowing onto every area of your life, every single relationship, in every way.

Imagine one day arriving to Heaven and meeting a whole line of people waiting to tell you how YOU helped them get there too. How the Jesus in you was the light showing them the way. How what God grew in you flowed over onto them and grew in them. And because of your surrender, they learned surrender, their children learned surrender, their grandchildren surrendered – and now there’s an entire corner of Heaven crowded – and it started with ONE.

And that my friends, is how the Kingdom of God is – It’s like yeast. Tiny, working in unseen ways from the inside, affecting EVERYTHING!

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The next parable Jesus tells is one of the most debated in Scripture. Unlike some of the other parables, Jesus never explains this one. That means faithful Bible scholars have reached different conclusions.

Let’s read it for ourselves.

Matthew 13:31-32, “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 has 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.”

So…what do you think?

Is this story about the beautiful growth of God’s Kingdom?

So what do we do when Scripture isn’t immediately clear? We go to Jesus. Because Jesus didn’t just tell the truth… He IS the Truth. John 14:6 says, “I am the way, the truth and the life.” So I asked Him, “Jesus, what do you want me to see here?”

Here’s what I believe the Lord showed me. This parable has two sides. Like a coin. If I flip a coin and it lands on heads, does that make tails false? Of course not. Both are always there. I believe this parable contains both a beautiful promise…and a loving warning.

So the heads side of this parable is a story of growth. The mustard seed is known as a tiny seed. This isn’t the only time Jesus talks about the mustard seed. There’s a much more familiar scripture many of us remember. Jesus says to his disciples in Matthew 17:20, “If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.'”

Throughout Scripture, the mustard seed represents something tiny that carries incredible potential. God specializes in starting with what everyone else overlooks.

A tiny seed.

Heaven has never been impressed by size. Heaven has always been impressed by surrender. The mustard seed is something that is so small and seemingly insignificant, but within it is potential for big things. Even the tiniest grain of faith can move mountains. So, this tiny grain of the mustard seed can be planted in a garden and become larger than all the other plants in the garden and grow to be a tree where birds make their nests.

What begins so small, with God, can grow to become greater than you can possibly imagine. Zechariah 4:10, “Do not despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.”

We all love the idea of doing something BIG for God. We dream about changing lives. Writing books. Starting ministries. Launching businesses. But most of us don’t love the tiny assignments that produce those things.

We want the tree. God hands us a seed.

“God, send me across the world as a missionary…” …but I don’t want to pray with my neighbor. “Lord, use me in powerful ways…” …but I don’t want to serve where nobody notices. We want significance. God offers faithfulness.

Most of us woke up today holding seeds from God. The problem is… Seeds don’t look impressive. They don’t look like the future God sees. And because we can’t see the tree… we underestimate the seed. We’re not willing to start small. We want big full blown trees, not tiny seeds.

People ask me all the time how to build their own mentoring, or a podcast, or retreats. They usually don’t like my answer. I tell them…

Start with the seed.

But we want to be great from day 1. We want immediate success. We want a full blown tree by day 2 please. But Jesus says, “from this tiny seed, something big can grow.” GROWTH TAKES TIME.

We all want overnight success. God almost always chooses faithful consistency. Trees don’t explode into existence. They grow. Slowly. Quietly. One ordinary day at a time.

There’s one way you grow something great … be willing to be bad at it long enough to get good!

I remember my first ever mentoring session in 2012. I was cutting edge hosting live videos before live videos were a thing outside of the nightly news. Facebook live didn’t exist. There was no zoom. I had a full blown studio set up in our master bedroom, special lights and cameras and programs. That first live mentoring session I had like 12 people watching and I was a nervous wreck. I taught my lesson, then I thought I was done. But there was one problem – we had practiced how to start the live broadcast, however we had failed to practice ending the broadcast. We literally didn’t know how to stop recording.

My husband signaled to me to continue as he frantically searched for a way to stop recording. By this time I had said absolutely everything I knew to say and I had nothing left. So you know what I did … I started dancing. Yip, just me in front of a live camera dancing. Y’all, I cannot dance. It was so awkward. Finally in desperation my husband just unplugs the entire thing from the wall and cuts power.

We both looked at eachother and said, “Whew, now that was a mess! I never want to do that again.” Then the next week, we did it again. And again, and again. Over 700 weekly mentoring sessions later, we’re still just showing up and doing it again.

Looking back now, that wasn’t embarrassing. That was a seed. Seeds are awkward. Seeds are unimpressive. Seeds are hidden underground where nobody celebrates them.

But without the seed… there is never a tree. It was a small seed and a messy process, but with God, it has grown into more than we could have ever imagined.

Again, Jesus says, “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 has 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.”

This is how God has always worked. He works through small beginnings. He works through ordinary obedience. He works through people who are simply willing to keep planting. Never underestimate what God can do with one tiny act of faith repeated over and over again.

He works in small beginnings. He works in unseen potential.

Don’t let unseen potential become unmet potential because you’re not willing to put in the ground work.

But every coin has another side. The same principle is true of evil.

Sin rarely shows up looking dangerous. It usually arrives looking small. Harmless. Easy to justify.

One compromise.

They’re just tiny seeds…

Until they aren’t.

Left unattended, what began as something small quietly grows in the dark until it takes over far more of your life than you ever intended.

Be careful what you’re planting. Tiny seeds always become something bigger.

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In our study of the parables of Jesus, we find the next story he tells. Remember, that’s what a parable is – it’s a story along with a teaching. It’s earthly stories with heavenly meaning told for a purpose by Jesus.

Matthew 13: 24-30

Here is another story Jesus told: “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field. But that night as the workers slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. When the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew.

“The farmer’s workers went to him and said, ‘Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds! Where did they come from?’

“‘An enemy has done this!’ the farmer exclaimed.

“‘Should we pull out the weeds?’ they asked.

“‘No,’ he replied, ‘you’ll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles, and burn them, and to put the wheat in the barn.’

Okay – now what does that mean exactly? Once again a planting story to tell us more about the Kingdom of Heaven. The disciples were unsure what this meant, so they asked him. WOW – what a concept. When you don’t understand, ASK JESUS.

Really, have you done that?

What uncertainty are you facing right now? What confusing situation are you in? Where are you right now that just doesn’t make sense and you don’t know what the next right step is? You honestly don’t know the solution. You don’t know the right thing to do? You don’t know what to think or what to say. Well, there’s one place to turn for that – YOU GO TO JESUS!

Jesus, I don’t understand this – please help me to understand. Jesus, I don’t know what to do, but you tell me that YOU ARE THE WAY and I’m trusting you. Show me the next step in your way.

When the disciples ask Jesus what this parable meant, guess what happened? HE EXPLAINED IT TO THEM! Wow, just like that. They didn’t have to sit around arguing about it. They didn’t have to wander around confused and perhaps getting it wrong. They just asked Jesus!

Girl, just ask Jesus! Have you done that yet?

So, here we go – Still in Matthew 13:36-44:

Then, leaving the crowds outside, Jesus went into the house. His disciples said, “Please explain to us the story of the weeds in the field.”

Jesus replied, “The Son of Man is the farmer who plants the good seed. The field is the world, and the good seed represents the people of the Kingdom. The weeds are the people who belong to the evil one. The enemy who planted the weeds among the wheat is the devil. The harvest is the end of the world, and the harvesters are the angels.

“Just as the weeds are sorted out and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will remove from his Kingdom everything that causes sin and all who do evil. And the angels will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.

Thank you Jesus for making that clear. Thank you for helping us understand these heavenly things with this earthly story. Now, because we may be slightly removed from the experience of growing wheat today, let’s dig deeper so we really get it.

The farmer is Jesus.

My friends, there is evil among us. There are counterfeits all around us, sent by the enemy do to evil. There is a real spiritual battle taking place all around us. Wherever God plants truth, the enemy plants deception. Wherever God brings life, the enemy tries to sow destruction. Wherever God grows wheat, Satan tries to plant counterfeits. They were sent to destroy us, but God won’t let that happen. The work of the enemy is to destroy all God’s good work. God plants good seed, then the enemy sneaks in and sows weeds in the field. But God is wise and he will NOT allow the enemy to succeed.

So here’s what God does – he waits. Oh how patient our Lord is. He waits for the good seeds to grow. And he waits for the weeds to grow. He allows it.

It’s easy for us to question why. Why would God allow evil? Why would he permit for the enemy to be trompsing around in this field doing his nasty work? Well first, remember this, the world we live in has been given over to Satan. This is a fallen world and the prince of this world is the devil. How can he do his nasty work here – well girl, this is where he reigns. BUT ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS – his reign is temporary and he’s already been defeated!!!! He knows his destiny and it cannot be undone. Jesus promises victory!

1 John 5: 18-19, “We know that God’s children do not make a practice of sinning, for God’s Son holds them securely, and the evil one cannot touch them. We know that we are children of God and that the world around us is under the control of the evil one.”

You and I are just passing through this world. This isn’t our home. We’re on our way to a radically different destination – the Father’s radiant Kingdom is our destiny. We are set apart, untouched by the evil one, promised at eternal paradise on the other side of this brief life in a fallen world. Will there be evil here? Yes. Will the enemy plant weeds here and cause trouble? Yes. Do we have to worry about it? Nope. We just stay close to Jesus and remain in his truth!

The farmer delays judgment because pulling up the weeds too soon would damage the wheat. His patience protects His people. Here’s what we often overlook today – There was a weed called darnel that looked EXACTLY like wheat. This weed was poisonous but you couldn’t tell the difference as it was growing. But when the wheat started producing and the darnel started producing, you could tell the difference. Until then, they looked exactly the same. It was an imitation plant bearing poison.

And yes, that’s what we have around us. Imitations. They look like what God is doing, but they’re NOT. They are planted by the enemy to bring destruction. With time, they are revealed.

What sets the wheat and the weed apart? What they produce! When the wheat grows to maturity and begins producing, then you can tell it apart from the weeds planted by the enemy. Before then, it all looks the same.

Jesus said in Matthew 7:20, “Just as you can identify a tree by it’s fruit, you can identify people by their actions.”

You know that saying, “When people show you who they are, BELIEVE THEM!” Actually, yes. We will be known by our fruit, and our lives look completely different based on if we are God’s wheat or the enemy’s weeds. Remember our study on the fruits of the Spirit? The fruit we produce when God’s Spirit lives within us: Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness and self-control. Over time, fruit tells the story. We all have bad days, but over a lifetime, what grows out of us reveals if we are wheat or a weed.

But here’s what the wheat is not called to do. The wheat is not called to identify weeds. We are not called to police the field. We are called to do one thing – become faithful wheat! That’s it – grow, bear fruit and trust the Lord of the harvest.

In the end, God will sort this all out. That’s not our job. Our job is grow in this field and know when we’re done growing we will be gathered into the farmer’s barn. That barn is the radiant Kingdom of Heaven where we will get to shine forever. God will take care of these weeds. We don’t have to worry about them.

So today, stop looking around the field. Stop counting the weeds. Stop obsessing over who’s fake and who’s real. Stop letting evil steal your attention. The enemy would love nothing more than for God’s people to spend their lives staring at weeds instead of becoming healthy wheat.

Jesus never said, “Go inspect the field.” He said, “Follow me.” Your assignment isn’t to expose everyone else’s fruit. Your assignment is to produce your own.

Become a woman whose life is overflowing with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Let your roots grow deep in Christ. Stay planted. Stay surrendered. Stay faithful.

Have you ever noticed that healthy wheat doesn’t spend its energy competing with weeds? It simply keeps reaching for the sun. That’s our calling too. Keep reaching toward the Son. The healthier your relationship with Jesus becomes, the more fruit your life naturally produces.

There will always be weeds in this world. There will always be deception, evil, heartbreak, betrayal, and counterfeit versions of what God intended. Don’t be surprised by that. Jesus told us it would be this way. But don’t let the weeds make you question the Farmer. The Farmer hasn’t lost control. Not for one second.

He sees every seed.

One day the harvest will come. One day Jesus will make every wrong right. Every counterfeit will be exposed. Every injustice will be answered. Every tear will be wiped away.

And on that day, those who belong to Him “will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom.”

Can you imagine that? No more weeds. No more temptation. No more evil. No more fear. No more tears. Only the radiant Kingdom of our Father.

So until that day… Keep growing. Keep trusting. Keep producing good fruit. Keep your eyes on Jesus.

Because the field is temporary… but the harvest is forever.

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While Jesus walked this earth, he taught us the truths of God and the secrets of living well. In just 3 years of ministry he said everything he needed to say, and he said it perfectly. Now, over 2000 years later, his words are our perfect guide for life.

Some of Jesus’ teachings were on deeply spiritual things that he knew we would struggle to understand. Not all things needed to be understood, but for some things we would need to understand so we could live well. For these things, Jesus often taught in parables.

Parables are stories. The word parable means “to throw alongside”. So, Jesus is teaching using a story thrown alongside a truth. These are earthly stories with Heavenly meaning.

Today, we begin our study of the parables of Jesus. We will read the stories he told, understand them, and apply them to our lives so we grow and get better. Through these parables we will see how a holy God speaks to ordinary people with everyday stories we can see, understand and remember. Some things God says are mysteries and simply cannot be figured out – but these are not. God essentially leaned down and brought his wisdom in a way we would actually get it.

(Now you will notice with these parables, they are often found in a few of the gospels. Remember the 4 gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are the accounts of 4 of Jesus’ disciples as they walked with him. They are retelling everything they saw, experienced, heard and learned from Jesus. So, you may read the same parable in the gospels and that’s why. For simplicity, I’ll just be choosing one of the gospel accounts and reading it. You could also study the other books to see if there’s any special differences noted by the authors.)

Ready to get it? Let’s dive in to the Parables of Jesus!

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Part 1: The Parable of the Sower

Scripture: Matthew 13: 1-23

Here’s the setting. Jesus is in his 3 years of actively teaching and preaching here on earth and more and more people are beginning to follow him. On this particular day Jesus was staying at a house near the sea and when he walks outside a large crowd starts gathering around him. So, Jesus gets in a boat, goes out a little on the water and sits down in the boat to start teaching. The crowd of people stood on the beach to listen.

First, just knowing that the King of the Universe, the Savior of the world, the divine Creator in human form didn’t choose a fancy synagogue like all the other teachers. He didn’t choose a formal stage or a platform. No, he chose a boat floating on the sea, wearing his ordinary robe and sandals like everyone else there that day. We see through this example that Jesus really didn’t come to judge the world, he came to save it. In humility, he met us right where we are to teach us the highest of lessons.

And here, in this boat, is where Jesus begins teaching in parables – again earthly stories with heavenly meaning.

“A sower went out to sow. And as he sowed, some seeds fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured them. Other seeds fell on rocky ground, where they did not have much soil, and immediately they sprang up, since they had no depth of soil, but when the sun rose they were scorched. And since they had no root, they withered away. Other seeds fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked them. Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

That was Jesus’ story. But what was the point in this? Was he giving a gardening lesson?

For some listening, it would seem like nothing more than that – but for those God was calling to follow him and setting apart as his people, he was speaking in a way they could truly understand.

Everyone in this day understood farming. Everyone had to grow crops to survive. Their survival depended on a successful harvest. They knew seeds, they knew soils. And for those who were called as followers of God, he was about to open their minds to how his word works in their lives through the example of the sower, the seed and the soils.

The disciples heard Jesus’ story and came to him asking why he was speaking in such a different way, then Jesus explains the story.

The seed is the word of God. This seed falls on 4 different types of soil, and it is the soil that makes all the difference. It’s the same seed. The same sower. Different soil.

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Soil #1: The Path

Do you ever read your Bible, skim the words, get through the whole chapter so you can check the box, but not actually understand it? Yip, that’s seed hitting the soil along the path. That’s seed that won’t grow. That’s knowledge that quickly gets snatched up by the evil one. He swoops in like a bird and takes the surface level seed.

Growing in God’s word isn’t about speed reading and getting through chapters. That’s just the path – that’s where everyone is walking – that’s ground that can’t really grow anything. If it’s worn with traffic, fast moving ground, it’s not growing ground. Surface level knowledge of God’s word will get snatched up every time by the evil one.

Satan knows the life changing power of the Bible even more than you do – that’s why he continually tries to hinder you from really diving into it. He’s perfectly fine with you keeping it on the surface, speed reading to check a box, and never have it actually grow in your life. Life doesn’t change on the soil of the busy path.

The seed never changes. The Sower never changes. The harvest is determined by the soil.

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Soil #2: The Rocky Ground

Verses 20-21, “As for what was sown on rocky ground, this is the one who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy, yet he has no root in himself, but endures for a while, and when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately he falls away.”

Rocky soil is shallow dirt mixed in with rocks. This little bit of soil warms quickly with the sun and the rocks, creating fast growth of the new seed, but it simply won’t last. The rocks keep the seed from ever growing roots. While it sprouts up fast, the first hard rain will wash it right out.

That can be us. We can get all excited about what God says to us, we can be all gung ho in the beginning, convinced we’re going to really do it this time, but as soon as life gets hard and the storms hit, we just get washed right out. Life hits and we’re out – why? Because our soil was rocky and allowed for no permanent growth. Everything was temporary and short lived.

Have you noticed how you get excited fast but fizzle? That’s rocky ground. There’s ground work to be done.

The seed never changes. The Sower never changes. The harvest is determined by the soil.

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Soil #3: Thorns

Verse 22, “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.”

Notice something. The seed actually grows here. This isn’t the path where nothing happens. This isn’t the rocky soil where it dies immediately. The plant starts growing, it just never produces what it was created to produce.

Why? Because something else is growing right beside it.

Jesus says the thorns are “the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches.” I don’t know about you, but I don’t have to plant weeds. Have you ever noticed that? You can spend all weekend pulling weeds out of your flower beds, and two weeks later they’re back like they own the place.

You never planted them. You never watered them. You never invited them. They just showed up. Our hearts work the same way.

Nobody wakes up and says, “Today I’d really like to become anxious.” Nobody decides, “I’m going to slowly make my job my identity.” Nobody plans to let social media steal their contentment. The weeds just grow.

The bills. The schedules. The kids. The comparisons. The endless to-do lists. The pursuit of more. The fear of not having enough. The pressure to keep everyone happy. None of these things may be sinful by themselves… But together they quietly choke what God is trying to grow.

Notice Jesus didn’t say the thorns killed the believer. He said they made them unfruitful.

You can know Jesus, love Jesus, go to church, read your Bible… And still have a life where God’s Word never reaches its full potential because everything else is competing for your attention.

Maybe today isn’t about planting more seed. Maybe it’s about pulling weeds. Sometimes growth doesn’t require adding one more Bible study. Sometimes it requires removing what has been choking the life out of the one you’re already doing.

The seed never changes. The Sower never changes. The harvest is determined by the soil.

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Soil #4: The Good Soil

Verse 23, “As for what was sown on good soil, this is the one who hears the word and understands it. He indeed bears fruit and yields, in one case a hundredfold, in another sixty, and in another thirty.”

That’s God’s goal. Not information. Transformation.

God isn’t trying to make you a Bible trivia champion. He’s trying to make you look more like Jesus.

Fruit takes time. An apple tree doesn’t apologize because it didn’t produce apples the week after it was planted. Growth is slow. Roots grow before fruit shows.

Sometimes you’ll wonder if anything is happening at all. Keep showing up. Keep reading. Keep praying. Keep obeying. The roots are growing even when you can’t see them. And one day the fruit everyone sees will simply be the evidence of what God has been growing underground all along.

So today… Which soil are you? Actually… That’s the wrong question.

The better question is… Which soil is your heart today?

Maybe today you’ve been living on the busy path. God’s Word has stayed on the surface because you’ve been rushing from one thing to the next.

Maybe today your heart is rocky. You love the excitement of following Jesus until life gets hard.

Maybe today you’ve got weeds. Not terrible sins. Just too many things competing for your heart.

Or maybe… By God’s grace… Your heart is becoming good soil. Not perfect. Just open. Soft. Hungry. Ready.

Here’s the best news of this whole parable: Soil can change.

A hard path can be broken up. Rocks can be removed. Thorns can be pulled. The condition of your heart today does not have to be the condition of your heart tomorrow.

So before you close your Bible today, don’t just ask, “What did I learn?” Ask, “God, what kind of soil is my heart today… and what do You want to do with it?”

Because the seed never changes. The Sower never changes. But when the soil changes… Everything changes.

“Lord, soften whatever has become hard. Remove whatever is keeping me shallow. Pull whatever is choking my growth. Make my heart good soil so your word doesn’t just inform me – it transforms me.”

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It’s back-to-school time. Today, I have friends walking their baby into kindergarten for the very first time. And I have other friends helping their baby move into a college dorm.

Those two days feel worlds apart… until you’ve lived them.

Those of us a little farther down the road know the truth. One day you’re zipping a backpack that’s almost bigger than they are. The next day you’re hugging them goodbye in a parking lot, trying not to cry until they can’t see you anymore.

The days are long. The years are unbelievably short.

And that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be. We aren’t raising children to keep them. We’re raising them to release them. But before that day comes, God gives us something incredibly sacred.

Influence.

During the school year, our children will spend nearly half of their waking hours at school. Nearly half.

Half of their conversations.

As moms, that realization can make us want to tighten our grip. We want to protect them from every hurt, every bad influence, every disappointment, every temptation. But we can’t. We can’t walk beside them every minute.

God can.

He’ll be in the classroom before they arrive.

There isn’t one place your child will go where God cannot meet them.

But here’s the beautiful and really really important thing… We get to invite Him there.

We’ll buy the new shoes.

But before we send them out the door… Let’s send them covered in prayer.

Our my greatest assignment as a mother was never to control my children. It is to continually talk to God about them.

Not lecture them more.

James 5:16, “The prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

Do we actually believe that? If we do, then let’s pray like it.

One of my favorite pictures of bold prayer comes from Joshua and the walls of Jericho. Jericho looked impossible. The walls were too high. Too thick. Too strong. Humanly speaking, there was no way through. But God didn’t hand Joshua a cannon to blast through the walls – He gave him marching orders.

“Walk around it.” Once a day for six days. Seven times on the seventh day. After the 7th circle on the 7th day, have the priest blow their horns, let the people shout, and those walls will just fall down.

Read the story in Joshua chapter 6. The battle plan from God sounded foolish. Marching doesn’t knock down walls. Trumpets don’t break stone.

But obedience invited the power of God. And when God’s people obeyed, the walls that looked impossible suddenly came crashing down.

Ever since reading The Circle Maker, I’ve loved the picture of praying circles. Sometimes I literally walk around the thing I’m praying for.

Sometimes I simply picture it in my mind. Not because there’s something magical about circles. There’s not. The power isn’t in the walking. The power is in the God we’re walking with. The circle simply reminds me that I’m surrounding something with persistent, believing prayer.

Mama… This school year, your Jericho may be the very building your child walks into every morning. So go make a circle. Walk around that school. Pray over every classroom. Pray over every teacher. Pray over every coach. Pray over every bus. Pray over every lunch table. Pray over every child who walks through those doors—including the ones who have no one praying for them.

Pray that truth would be louder than lies. Pray that kindness would overcome cruelty. Pray that lonely kids would find friends. Pray that teachers would have wisdom and patience. Pray that they would have JESUS! Pray that your child would have courage to stand for what’s right. Pray that God would place divine appointments in their path. Pray that lives would be changed. Pray that walls would come down.

But this isn’t just a call for mom’s with kids in school – this is a call for every single one of us listening. Listen to me – at a school near you, there are children inside those walls who desperately need someone talking to God on their behalf. THEY HAVE NO ONE PRAYING FOR THEM!

So let’s get to marching. Let’s get to praying. Let’s circle our schools until the God who brought down the walls of Jericho does what only He can do.

Because while our children may spend nearly half of their waking hours at school, they never have to spend one moment there without the presence of God going before them.

Could your prayer really make a difference? Absolutely. Read James 5:16 again: “The prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

Do you know who that righteous person is? You. Not because you’ve done everything right, but because Jesus made you right with God. Through Him, you have been given the incredible privilege of approaching the throne of God with confidence. You don’t have to wonder if you’re worthy enough to pray. Jesus settled that once and for all.

Now pray. Pray boldly. Pray specifically. Pray expectantly.

Your prayers aren’t empty words floating into the air. They are powerful conversations with the God who moves mountains, breaks chains, opens doors, and brings down walls.

So start praying your circles.

Circle your children.

Invite the presence of God into every classroom, every hallway, every bus ride, every friendship, and every decision. Because your prayers have great power and God still produces wonderful results.

If you don’t know what to pray, you pray scripture! Yes, pray God’s own word, declare his promises over the school. I have a easy guide in the transcript of this devotional at biglifedevotional.com. (Thank you, Darlene!)

Prayer Circle:

Jeremiah 29:11 – “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'”

School Entrance & Main Gates: Welcome and Protection

Classrooms: Wisdom, Truth, and Learning

Teachers: Strength and Patience

Hallways, Lockers, & Common Areas: Peer Influence and Identity

Cafeteria & Playgrounds: Kindness and Light

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Is there something from your past holding you back? It could be 50 years ago, or 5 days ago. Regardless, past regrets, guilt, and shame have a way of holding on to us. We replay the stories we have no way of changing because what is done is done. You can’t go back. You can’t undo it. So, what do you do?

Too many of us are serving life sentences for sins Jesus already died for. We keep dragging yesterday into today and wondering why it’s so hard to move forward. We allow our worst moments to become our identity. We introduce ourselves to God with our failures, while He calls us by our name.

Maybe you wish you had made different choices. Maybe you stayed too long, left too soon, trusted the wrong person, or became someone you’re not proud of. Maybe you did things that still haunt you. Or maybe things were done to you that have created a deep shame. Maybe you’ve asked God to forgive you a thousand times, but you’ve never forgiven yourself. You’ve accepted His grace for everyone else while withholding it from yourself.

Regret has a way of convincing us that our past gets the final word. Shame whispers, “This changes everything.” But grace declares, “No, Jesus does.”

Once, there was a woman caught in a shameful act of sin and brought before a crowd for Jesus to judge. Now imagine that for a moment. You know what you did, but imagine standing before a crowd with your sin announced and Jesus looking right at you. You have no excuse. No justification. It’s just the truth of what you’ve done as your full identity.

What would Jesus say to you?

You don’t have to guess. What He said to one daughter about her guilt and shame is what He says to every daughter about her guilt and shame. Hear Jesus today.

John 8: 2-11, “At dawn Jesus appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, ‘Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?’ They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, ‘Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.’ Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, which with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, ‘Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?’

‘No one, sir’,’ she said.

‘THEN NEITHER DO I CONDEMN YOU.’ Jesus declared. ‘GO NOW AND LEAVE YOUR LIFE OF SIN.’

How incredibly remarkable. Jesus didn’t turn away. He didn’t shame her. There was no condemnation in the presence of Jesus—not by Him or anyone else.

And don’t miss this. Jesus knew everything.

He knew the details no one else knew. He knew every choice that led her there. He knew the things she was ashamed to say out loud. There were no secrets remaining before Him. Yet Jesus did not condemn her. Instead, He invited her to leave it all right there and walk away without that burden. Without that secret. Without that regret. Without that shame.

A woman set free from the very mess she had created. A woman given a new life as fully forgiven. And that is you.

How do I know that’s you? Because not a single one of us is without sin. No one has gotten this all right. We’ve all failed and fallen short. Every single one of us deserves condemnation, but praise God, we don’t receive what we deserve. We receive what Jesus purchased for us instead.

There are two things Jesus says to this woman, and I believe we often embrace one while completely missing the other.

First, He says, “Neither do I condemn you.”

We love that part. We underline it in our Bibles. We thank Him for it. But then we spend the rest of our lives condemning ourselves. Isn’t that strange? Jesus releases us while we keep ourselves imprisoned.

Jesus says, “I don’t condemn you.” And we reply, “Thank you, Jesus, but I do.”

He says, “You’re forgiven.” We say, “Yes, but I’m ashamed.”

He says, “I’ve removed your sin.” We say, “Yes, but I still carry it.”

Can I lovingly tell you something? It is not humility to carry what Jesus died to remove.

Some of us have made self-punishment our penance. We secretly believe if we carry our shame long enough, somehow we’ll finally pay for what we’ve done. But my sister, that’s not repentance—that’s pride dressed up as punishment. You cannot pay for a debt Jesus already paid in full – stop trying. If Jesus doesn’t condemn you, then who gave you permission to condemn yourself?

The second thing Jesus says is, “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

Notice He didn’t say, “Neither do I condemn you, now stay here and live defined by what you’ve done.” No. Grace never leaves us where it finds us. Jesus didn’t simply free her from condemnation, He freed her for transformation.

He drew a line in the sand that day. Everything before this moment was her past. Everything after this moment would become her future. And do you know what Jesus refused to allow? He refused to allow her past to cross over that line.

I wonder if that’s what Jesus is doing for you today.

Perhaps He’s drawing another line in the sand – not because He has grown weary of forgiving you, but because He is weary of watching you carry what He has already removed.

How many times has He offered you this forgiveness? Every single day of your life. And every day you’ve picked it back up again.

You’ve brought Him the same regret. The same shame. The same failure. Not because His forgiveness isn’t enough, but because you’ve struggled to believe it really applies to you. Today can be different. Today can be the day you finally realize that you cannot change what you did, but it has never changed the way Jesus sees you.

You think what you did changed everything, but you’re wrong. WHAT JESUS DID CHANGED EVERYTHING.

Your choices are not more powerful than His cross. Your failures are not more powerful than His forgiveness. Your past is not more powerful than His grace.

He hung on that cross to forgive you. Not partially. Not temporarily. Completely. And now He asks you not to carry this beyond the line He has drawn. He already died for this, and He doesn’t want a part of you dying too.

Jesus said in John 10:10, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” That includes you. Not someday. Not after you’ve punished yourself long enough. Not after you’ve finally become who you think you should be.

Today.

And my sister, that doesn’t merely include you – it is about you. If you were the only person in the world, Jesus would have died for you. He would have stretched out His arms on that cross simply so you could hear Him say, “Neither do I condemn you.” He drew the line to create a boundary for your past. Don’t drag your past across the line He has drawn.

He meant it when He said, “I do not condemn you.” And He meant it when He said, “Go now and leave this.”

The enemy wants you looking over your shoulder, grieving what cannot be changed. God invites you to lift your eyes and look ahead at what can still be redeemed.

You may not be able to rewrite the story, but God is able to redeem it. He has never once looked at a broken life and said, “There’s nothing I can do with that.” In fact, broken pieces are often His favorite place to begin.

At some point, you have to stop visiting the graveyard of your past and start walking into the purpose of your present. What happened matters, but it doesn’t get to matter most. God’s grace is greater than your greatest regret.

You cannot change yesterday, but you don’t have to keep carrying it into tomorrow.

So today, I want you to picture Jesus bending down and drawing a line in the sand for you. On one side is everything you’ve done. Every regret. Every failure. Every shame-filled memory. And on the other side is the abundant life He died to give you.

Hear Him say it one more time:

“Neither do I condemn you.” And then hear the rest of His invitation: “Go now.”

Leave it here.

Leave it forgiven.

Leave it buried.

And walk away free.

And you know what free women do … they help set others free. There are others just like you. Others dragging around that same guilt and shame. Others who have suffered too. And now you, with the power of the Holy Spirit within you, and the personal experience of forgiveness and freedom, you can lead those women to the same encounter with Jesus and the line he has drawn for them. LET HIM USE YOU NOW!

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Maybe you’re living out a story that doesn’t look like you imagined. You had dreams, you had desires, you had plans … and your life seems to have fallen flat. You’ve been left wanting – left waiting – left wondering.

When will things change for you? How much longer do you have to wait? What if what you want will never happen? Then what? Will you just be miserable?

Or what if it does change? What if your waiting is over. What if the very thing you’ve always wanted is on it’s way to you now, it’s literally happening. Then what? Will you finally be happy?

One thing I know for sure – we’re in a continual pursuit of what we think will make us happy, and that mark constantly moves. Most of us literally woke up surrounded by answers to the very prayers we once prayed. Yet we didn’t wake up feeling like we have it all. The mark moved. The distant land of happiness is still just out of your reach. But you tell yourself when you finally get there life will be so good.

It’s almost like the end of the rainbow. It looks like it’s just right over there. Like you can walk right to it. But when you get there, the end of the rainbow has moved on you, so you never quite arrive.

Within our Bible is the story of a woman who waited well. A woman who was brutally honest with God instead of faking her way through it. And a woman who finally got what she wanted and shows us precisely what to do then.

That woman is Hannah. Her story is found in 1 Samuel chapters 1 and 2. Hannah was married to a man with one of those really hard to pronounce names, so we will just call him E. E had two wives, Hannah and Peninnah. Hannah was the one E really loved, but Peninnah was the one who had given him children. Verse 5 says, “The Lord had closed her womb.”

Why wasn’t she able to have children? It’s actually very clear. The Lord had closed her womb.

Now of course to us that doesn’t seem fair. Why? That’s what Hannah was asking as well. And guess what? God didn’t fault her for asking. He doesn’t find fault in our asking either. You can ask God why.

Why are you left waiting? Why has your life turned in a direction you would have never asked for? What do you have to do to get this to change for you?

Here’s what I notice in these stories in our Bible – if our questioning is directed to God, it is always handled with care and powerful resolve. God always makes a way, or He reveals how His way is for a greater purpose. It’s never left unresolved. He answers.

But the issue becomes when we’re turning to anyone or anything other than God for solutions to our problems. In your wait – in your struggle – in your trial – who are you bringing your questioning to? Where are you going when you are seeking? Those self-help books are not your answer. That relationship isn’t your answer. That promotion isn’t your answer. That number on the scale isn’t your answer. That next accomplishment isn’t your answer.

Your answer is God.

Hannah could have become bitter. She could have become resentful. She could have given up on God altogether. Instead, she ran to Him.

At this time in history, once a year you could go up where the priest was and offer a sacrifice and worship the Lord. Yes, just once a year. Every year when Hannah would go to worship the Lord, there E’s other wife would be as well. And there, Peninnah, the wife with children, would poke at her. Verses 6-7, “Because the Lord had closed Hannah’s womb, her rival kept provoking her in order to irritate her. This went on year after year. Whenever Hannah went up to the house of the Lord, her rival provoked her till she wept and would not eat.”

Every time Hannah went to worship God, she was only reminded of what she didn’t have. Reminded of what she wanted but still lacked. Reminded of her struggle, her short-coming, and her future that looked nothing like she had imagined. Year after year. Prayer after prayer. Disappointment after disappointment.

But you know what she didn’t stop doing – she didn’t stop going to worship God. She didn’t sit in her hurt, wallow in her disappointment, and give up on God. She kept going to worship. Even when this awful woman would be there. Even when she was reminded of what she didn’t have. SHE KEPT GOING TO GOD.

Girl, whatever you’re waiting on, you keep going to God. Don’t let anyone discourage you. Don’t let anyone or anything get in your way of going to God.

Now, this part of the story shows us our most important move. Verse 10, “In her deep anguish Hannah prayed to the Lord, weeping bitterly.”

She didn’t hold it in. She didn’t pretend like she was okay. She let it all out. She was desperate before the Lord.

Jamie Macdonald has a song called Desperate. Girl, cry out those words to God if you’re waiting for him. Don’t hold it in. Don’t pretend like you’re okay when you’re not.

I’m at the end of myself and I’m

Get desperate before God.

Hannah was so desperate before God, praying, begging, crying, the priest thought she was drunk. No, Hannah wasn’t drunk, she was desperate.

Girl, let yourself be desperate for God. Stop trying to hold it all together. Stop pretending you’re okay. Stop with the facade. Get real before the Lord. If you’re not fine, stop saying you are.

Somewhere along the way we’ve gotten the idea that faith means pretending we’re fine. Hannah would disagree. Faith isn’t pretending you’re okay. Faith is bringing your honest heart before a faithful God.

God can handle your questions. He can handle your tears. He can handle your disappointment. He’s not intimidated by any of it.

And perhaps this is what you need to hear today—you don’t have to fake contentment while you’re waiting. God isn’t asking you to pretend you don’t care. He’s asking you to bring what you care about to Him.

Notice what happened after Hannah prayed. She didn’t immediately become pregnant. Her circumstances hadn’t changed. God hadn’t yet answered her prayer. But here’s what she did after she cried out to the Lord – verse 18, “She went her way and ate something, and her face was no longer downcast.”

Something shifted in Hannah. She no longer carried this burden. She had left this in the hands of God.

Let me tell you something—whatever you’re waiting on, whatever you’re hoping for, whatever you’re desperate for—it is perfectly held in the hands of God. PUT IT THERE. And when you do, your circumstances may not change immediately, but you can feel different. You can feel lighter. You can live better.

At that point, nothing had changed, but Hannah had. She walked into God’s presence carrying her burden, and she walked out having left it there.

I wonder if that’s what God is inviting some of us to do today—not to stop wanting what we want, but to stop carrying what He has invited us to surrender. You don’t have to know what God is going to do next. You simply have to know where to go while you’re waiting. Go to Him.

So how does the story end? Well, it’s easy to say the story ends with God giving Hannah what she had begged Him for. Verse 20 says, “So in the course of time Hannah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She named him Samuel, saying, ‘Because I asked the Lord for him.'”

The end of the rainbow? No.

This isn’t the end. Let me tell you what Hannah did after she got what she had waited for so long. Let me tell you what she did when the Lord answered and her story changed.

Verse 27, Hannah goes to worship the Lord and she once again prays, “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I GIVE HIM TO THE LORD. For his whole life he will be given over to the Lord.”

In chapter 2, her prayer continues, “My heart rejoices in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. I delight in your deliverance.”

Who is Hannah worshiping? The Lord.

And here’s where we often mess up—God gives us what we asked for, our prayers are answered, we’re living in His blessing, and that thing becomes our god. Our focus shifts to what God gave us instead of the God who gave it to us.

Whatever God does for you, make sure you give it back to Him. Don’t let your blessing take the place of the Blessor.

And maybe that’s been God’s invitation all along.

When you don’t have it—trust Him.

When you’re waiting—trust Him.

When He says no—trust Him.

When He says not yet—trust Him.

And when He says yes—trust Him still.

Hannah teaches us that contentment isn’t found in finally getting what you’ve always wanted. If it were, she would have ended her story in chapter 1 holding Samuel in her arms. Instead, she begins chapter 2 with her hands lifted in worship.

Her greatest joy wasn’t that she had a son. Her greatest joy was that she had her God.

Perhaps that’s the secret of contentment. It’s not found in getting the life you imagined. It’s found in knowing the God who is writing your story.

Whether you’re in chapter 1 weeping bitterly or chapter 2 singing joyfully, He is still worthy. He is still good. And He is still enough.

So bring Him your waiting. Bring Him your questions. Bring Him your disappointments. Bring Him your answered prayers. Put it all in His hands and leave it there.

Because the greatest gift God will ever give you isn’t what comes from His hand—it’s His hand itself.

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