** Summary of Ps. Brett’s message: “Boots & All”
Sometimes we do want to dive headfirst into all the Lord has for us, we want to take a leap of faith but when we try to our feet won’t move. You look down and find that weeds have entangled you, holding you back from entering the refreshing waters of life.
See if we don’t take care of the soil that God has planted us in, removing the weeds when they pop up they continue growing in the background, and before you know it you’ve become fully entangled in
Rust anecdote – patch on the car has eaten it’s way through to the interior
A powerful illustration from the Bible of the consequences of neglecting our spiritual 'gardening' is the story of King David. You’ll find the story of King David in both 1st & 2nd Samuel so if you’ve got your bibles, flip them open now.
**For context if you haven’t read the story before David was the successor of King Saul – his father in Law. Both David & Saul had their own character flaws which caused a lot of issues during their reign as King of Israel. Saul’s insecurities & pride made him disobedient to the Lords instructions, When God tells him to go and destroy the Amalekites completely in 1 Samuel chapter 15 he partially does go out and conquer them but does it in his own way, capturing the king as a trophy and allowing his men to carry off all the choice cattle & sheep. When the prophet Samuel comes to confront Saul about this he tries to cover it up by saying “I did obey the Lord!” we kept the best of the cattle and sheep to sacrifice to the Lord, - knowing this to be false Samuel tells the king “Because you have rejected the Word of the Lord, He has rejected you as King.” (Verse 23)
Unfortunately, it seems the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree as we see King David follow in Saul's footsteps during his Reign, The Lord removes his anointing from Saul and David anointed as King. To his credit, David does obey the Lord for many years and is victorious in battle after battle until we reach 2 Samuel 7 where it says “The Lord had given him rest from all his enemies around him.” Now you can put yourself in David shoes here – You’ve been appointed King, you’ve been obedient and you’ve seen the Lords provision time and time again. You think I’ve done my job, now it’s time to enjoy the life I’ve fought so hard for… And this is exactly what we see happen with David, 2 Samuel chapter’s 11 – 12 tell the story of what we can fall prey to if we become complacent in the position that God places us in.
Verse 1 says “In the spring, when KINGS go off to war, David – sent JOAB out Pause
Where was David? - Did God anoint Joab as King? Was that Joab’s responsibility?
No.
David handballed his job over to Joab, was he a capable man? – yes, but I believe this decision shows that David had become complacent, he would rather relax at home in his palace rather than do the work that God had anointed him for.
If you’re familiar with the story you know that one evening David got up from his bed to take a stroll around the roof of the palace. Queue entry of a beautiful woman
A complacent man and a beautiful woman set the stage for a disastrous rom-com.
From the roof of the palace David notices this beautiful woman named ‘Bathsheba’ bathing in the moonlight.
Now there’s nothing wrong with noticing the beauty that God has created, but David didn’t notice her, head back inside and take cold shower. He noticed her bathing and stared, then he continued to stare and rather than taking his thoughts captive he let his mind run wild, fantasising about having her. David sends a servant to enquire about her, realising that this woman is already married David is now faced with the choice, will he continue to indulge his sensuality, or will he come to his senses and let it go. Unfortunately, he gives into the temptation and has her brought into his chambers. Shortly after Bathsheba discovers she is with child and sends word to King David. Now David is presented with yet another choice, fess up – deal with consequences and have this issue resolved, or try to cover up his sin… David cooks up his master plan with all the human wisdom he can muster, he thinks “I’ll bring her husband - Uriah home from the war!” that way he can BE with his wife and think the child she bears is his own.
David’s plan didn’t account for Uriah being a man with good morals and instead of going home to a warm bed with his wife - Uriah sleeps on a mat outside the entrance of the palace. When David questions him on this he responds with: “How could I go to my house to eat, and drink and be with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” (Verse 11)
David is persistent, I can’t let it all end here he thinks so he has to continue digging the hole he’s placed himself in. David’s only other option is to take Uriah out of the picture so he sends him back to the battlefield but this time he has him placed on the Frontlines – where the battle is the fiercest. Just to make doubly sure he even has the remaining troops withdraw leaving Uriah to certain death against the opposing armies. “A necessary sacrifice” – David thinks.
The same David that protected the sheep from both the Lion & the Bear, the same David that faced off against Goliath with nothing but a stone and a sling declaring: “You come against me with sword, spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty!” Is the same David that fell prey to the Sin of Lust, He had a man killed and took his wife as his own in order to clean up the mess he created.
He was ready for almost any outward attacks, but had not sturdied his defences for attacks from within…
Point #1: “Sin thrives in the darkness”
“everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light."
(Eph. 5:13)
Searched for conditions that weeds thrive in
“A grass weed typically thrives in an environment with compacted soil, poor drainage, inconsistent watering, low nutrient levels, and bare patches in the lawn; essentially, disturbed or neglected areas where desirable plants struggle to establish themselves, allowing the weed to take advantage of the available resources.”
You don’t have to nurture a weed, you simply leave it alone.
The same concept applies to SIN:
Sin THRIVES in the darkness. When we don’t address it in our lives it doesn’t just disappear, it KEEPS growing. All have sinned & fallen short of his glory.
We have to be confident enough in the abundant love & Grace of the father to come to him in our brokenness, to surrender our sin and say FATHER HELP ME, I have sinned against you. While I don’t deserve your forgiveness I know that the scriptures say that because of the sacrifice that Jesus made for me, by the blood he poured out for me, i now have complete & total forgiveness. I KNOW that the Father remembers my sin no more, as far as the east is from the west he has separated me from it. Jesus takes the guilt, the shame and the burdens we carry. He clothes us in robes of righteousness, not because we did anything righteous, but because he loves us, and just like a husband washes his wife with the Word - Jesus, washes us clean, he makes us righteous and presents us to the Father pure, without blemish.
John 3:19-21
“This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
What are the weeds in our lives?..
(Maybe as I go through a few of these you’ll hear one that makes your ears prick up, or one that makes you feel uncomfortable, That’s ok, don’t push that down or cast it aside, press in, perhaps that is the Lord highlighting an area that is not fully glorifying him.)
Examples
(Not an extensive list, but a few of the ones that many fall prey to.)
Starting off strong with Pride. – Us men seem to be a lot more prone to this one.
Pride… “I’m just killing it at the moment”, or “Look at how successful I am.” The truth is… Apart from Him we can do NOTHING.
Lust -> The wandering eye, The unfaithful glare, the indulging of sensuality.
Fear
Doubt (Doubting God – not an uncertainty of our own ability) - Unbelief
Slander / Gossip (Did you hear about.. x )
Anger / Hatred (for a fellow brother or sister)
Envy (I want what they have)
Gluttony & Sloth (Just one more.. Episode… Game… Doughnut.)
Deceit (Don’t let the truth get in the way of a good story hey?..)
Idolatry (Work, schedules, relationships, money, travel. – anything that sets itself up as a priority ABOVE your relationship with the Lord.)
**Gold refining analogy -> Rise in temperature, brings impurities to surface, then scooped away. (Rise in temperature is uncomfortable.)
King Davids Psalm / Prayer:
Psalm 139:23-24
“Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.”
**You’ve got to let God bring those impurities to the surface so that he can deal with them. As Ps Eric mentioned last week - He is a gentleman, so he will never force you into it, you’re welcome to leave those impurities right where they are but man… why would you not want to be refined into pure gold? 👑
Point #2: “Take hold of the ROOT”
Weed pulling is hard work, and there’s nothing worse than reaching down to uproot the thing and only the leaves tear off leaving the pesky roots embedded in the soil still…
You’ve got to take hold of the whole plant – Roots & All to remove it fully.
See sometimes we’ll try and get rid of the symptoms in our life rather than treating the cause.
Think of it like this;
If a patient walks into a hospital with multiple stab wounds the Doctors don’t just administer pain meds and say “Here, that should help with the discomfort.”
No! They treat the wound! This then, is the approach we should take for the weeds in our life:
Matthew 5:29-30
“If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.”
You don’t passively pull weeds, and you don’t passively deal with Sin. You’ve gotta reach down, grab hold of the whole thing and really put your back into it!
Now this should go without saying but you cannot deal with the weeds in your life alone, they’re far too numerous and far too strong for us to deal with ourselves.
Mark 9:23-24
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Your efforts should be saturated in prayer. Because it is only by the Grace of God that we can overcome the Sin in our lives, we are simply joining in on the process of Sanctification -> It’s really God that’s doing the work.
We just have to be willing to take part in the process.
Point #3: “Prevention is better than the cure”
That’s the old saying isn’t it, and it’s still true today!
Even after you have removed the weed unfortunately, they’re tenacious, they don’t give up easy & they spread their wicked little seeds even after you’ve torn them out of the ground.
** Stand Firm Conference
“Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith”– 1 Corinthians 16:13
Be watchful & alert -> Get rid of the weeds as soon as they sprout, don’t wait around until they’ve grown into a bigger problem.
You FEED weeds with your passivity
Now you may be thinking
“ This seems like a lot of work, or I’ve tried to overcome but I just keep repeating the same old mistakes.”
Colossians 3:1-2
“Since then, you have been raised with Christ, set your HEARTS on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your MINDS on things above, not on earthly things.”
So much Wisdom contained in such a short passage, and I’d like to try to unpack it a bit here. What does it mean to set our Hearts and Minds on things above?..
When scripture mentions our hearts it is usually talking about our desires, our intentions, or our motivations. It’s talking about everything we’re striving for. Our natural / carnal desires will seek things that are contrary to the things of God, and if they are contrary to the things of God they will hinder, not benefit our walk with God - we need to chuck them out! What happens when we begin setting our hearts on things above is that we remove the focus from what is directly in front of us and fix it onto God’s glory,
it shifts our Paradigm from “Me - Myself and I” – to “Seek - Serve - Abide”…
Come on!
You put off the old self which was being corrupted through deceitful desires and you put on the new self which is created after the likeness of God, (The Imago Dei) which is characterised by true righteousness and holiness. Because we know from scripture that when you made that decision to join Christ in the Kingdom of God he promises to give us a new heart. He says: "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
See naturally we are selfish by nature, we don’t like to give our time or our resources, we look out for priority #1 (US). But when we set our hearts on things above it changes us from the inside out, instead of desiring what’s best for us we begin to desire what God desires, rather than wanting the latest and greatest cars we desire to serve, we desire to bless, to be generous, to value others above ourselves.
Now your minds, what happens when we set our minds on things above it changes the way we think, which in turn affects the way we act. There is no shortage of literature on self-help books, teaching you how to be more successful, more fulfilled and get more out of life. One thing all these have in common is that the battle we face is in our minds. I was chatting recently with a wonderful man of God and the Lord brought to mind the concept of a vessel. If you picture our hearts as the engine of a ship or boat, then our minds are the Rudder. Our hearts or our desires thrust us forward but our minds are what guide the ship’s direction. That’s why it is so important that don’t just follow either one of these instructions but BOTH of them.
There’s no use powering onward if you’re heading in the opposite direction that you want to go, and it is not beneficial to be dead in the water but hey - at least you’re facing the right way… We need both the Engine AND the Rudder to working correctly in order to get to where we want to be.
Now there’s so much more we could unpack here but I’ll finish up with this:
**Invite worship team up*
** Woman with the Alabaster Jar -> Wrap up
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Romans.. neither death nor life, heaven nor hell... can separate us from the Love of God
Hebrews 12:1-2
"Let us THROW off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles"
John 15 - the master gardener
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