Wheat And Weeds
Introduction: Jesus spoke many parables while He came to live in our world. He spoke in parables as a fulfillment of scriptures and so that the people may have an understanding of the mysteries of the kingdom of God (Matt. 13: 24–25) One of the parables of the kingdom that Jesus told was the parable of Wheat and Weeds. In this parable, a man sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the good seed. Both the wheat and the weeds grew up together and when the servants of the farmer saw it, they asked him whether to pull the weeds. The man told them to leave the wheat and the weeds until the time of harvest at which time the weeds will be removed and burned in the fire.
The Hiding Place
Introduction: In the book “Battle Cry For a Generation: The Fight to Save America’s Youth”, author Ron Luce provides the following statistics: “1/3 of high school students have been drunk in the past month; 1 in 4 use illegal drugs; 8,000 contract an STD EVERY DAY!; 1 MILLION are pregnant; 750,000 get abortions each year (that’s 3/4 of teen pregnancies); 1 in 10 have been raped; 9 out of 10 have seen porn online (and the average age to first see it is 11); 50% of them are no longer virgins; 1 in 5 have attempted suicide.”
Renewing The Covenant
Introduction: A covenant is an agreement or contract between two parties. Each member of the party is required to keep their part of the covenant. In the Bible, God called a man known as Abram and He took him out of his country and people to the Land of Promise (Gen. 12). In Gen. 15, God made a covenant with Abram that he will be a father of many nations. In order to reassure Abram about the covenant, God sealed it with a blood sacrifice. Abram also received a change of name in Gen. 17: 5. In the covenant God made with Abraham, there are many blessings.