I wish I could tell you that I had an answer for making everything in your life better. But faith in God it doesn’t work like that. What I can share with you though is a secret that brings you peace and comfort and courage in the middle of the trials of life. And it’s a secret worth knowing.

I would love to be able to tell you today that I have a secret that can take all the uncertainty and change and surprises out of your journey. I’d love to be able to tell you that. I’d love to be able to tell you that I have a secret that will take the wrinkles and lumps and bumps out of your life. But alas no, I’d be lying if I told you that. There’s no such thing.

Every life is a journey, every life has surprises and every life takes twists and turns that we wouldn’t have chosen for ourselves. The sooner we get used to that truth the better. “It’s just not fair”, I hear you say. Well whether it’s fair or unfair, whatever, the reality is that there isn’t a perfect life out there that’s all peaches and cream.

We kind of kid ourselves that there is. We aspire to living a life like that but I’ve been racking my brain and so far as I know there’s not a single person who I’ve ever met who can tell me that their life has been perfect. But what I can share with you is this, the amazing truth that in the midst of the imperfections and the storms and the onslaughts, in the midst of the disappointments and tragedies and loneliness’s that we find ourselves in there is an answer.

There is an answer that brings joy and peace right into the middle of those trials, a special kind of joy and peace that’s in fact only available in those difficult times.

Hope you’ve been able to join me these past few weeks on the program because we’ve been talking about a huge transition that the nation of Israel faced. From the certainty, such as it was, from their slavery and captivity in Babylon, seventy years of it, to the uncertainty of God’s blessing as He set out to restore their freedom and take them back to the Promised Land to rebuild Jerusalem, to rebuild the wall, to rebuild the temple.

It’s ironic that we’re often more comfortable with an ugly certainty than a potentially beautiful uncertainty. But as we saw yesterday that’s just the way it is, we are. And so through the Prophet Isaiah as we’ve been tracking through chapters 51 and 52 of that Book in the Old Testament, we’ve seen God rousing His people and convincing them of the amazingly beautiful journey ahead of them back to the Promised Land. Have a listen, Isaiah chapter 52, verses 4 to 6. God says through Isaiah:

Listen to me my people and give heed to me my nation, for a teaching will go out from me and my justice for a light to the peoples. I will bring near my deliverance swiftly, my salvation has gone out and my arms will rule the peoples, the coastlands wait for me and for my arm they hope.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath for the heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment and those who live on it will die like gnats. But my salvation will be forever and my deliverance will never be ended.”

See it’s a beautiful promise of deliverance but as we’ve seen Israel’s been struggling with that. So the question is, in the middle of that struggle what’s the answer, where do we turn, where do we find the courage and the strength and the peace and the calmness that we need to believe in God through the trials?

Well, this is the really exciting bit, this is the end of these two chapters, unbeknown to the Israelites in that 6th century BC, before Christ, what Isaiah gives them is a prophecy, a prophecy that will be fulfilled centuries later, a prophecy about the one who would bring the comfort of God into their very midst, a prophecy about Jesus. Are you ready for it? Isaiah 52, verse 13 through to chapter 53, verse 6:

See my servant shall prosper, he shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high. Just as there were many who were astonished at him, so marred was his appearance, beyond human semblance and his form beyond that of mortals. So he shall startle many nations, kings will shut their mouths because of him, for that which had not been told them they shall see and that which they have not heard they shall contemplate.

Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form, no majesty that we should look at him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by others, a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity and as one from whom others would hide their faces as though he was despised and held him of no account.

Surely he has borne our infirmities and carried our diseases yet we accounted him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, crushed for our inequities, upon him was the punishment that made us whole and by his bruises we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have all turned to our own way but the Lord has laid on him the inequity of us all.

And it goes on to talk more and more about Jesus in Isaiah chapter 53. See this is truly amazing, centuries before that starry night on which Jesus was born in that stable in Bethlehem, God, through Isaiah’s prophecy, tells us exactly what this Jesus will be like. Jesus the suffering servant; Jesus the plain ordinary man who will bear our sin, whose suffering would set us free; Jesus the Son of God who would show us exactly how much this God of ours loves us – a God who not only does things powerfully for His people but a God who would come into our very midst and suffer for us.

This is what sets this God apart from all the other so-called gods, it’s the fact that He shows up, that He walks thirty or more years in our shoes on the dusty highways and byways of life, this Jesus who understands our suffering not merely because He is the Son of God but because He came and became one of us and suffered like us and for us, dying a terrible death that we might live.

My friend with all my heart I tell you that this Jesus is your answer. You may be going through trials and tribulations, you may be going through indescribable suffering, you may be going through an exhausting and uncomfortable transition in your life but Jesus has been there ahead of you and He knows how you feel, what you’re going through, the pain and the loneliness, hallelujah. God is the God who suffered for me and for you and that is the answer. He is the answer.

When you pray to God in the name of Jesus you’re praying through the Jesus who knows you, who knows your journey better than you know them yourself because He’s been there.

I want to leap forward now to something in the New Testament about Jesus, this Jesus who wants to bring you peace, this Jesus who wants to be your companion on this journey so that you are never ever alone again. Just before He was crucified this is what He said to His disciples:

If you love me you’ll keep my commandments and I’ll ask my Father and he will give you another advocate to be with you forever. This is the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him or knows him but you know him because he abides with you and he will be in you.

I will not leave you orphaned, I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me but you will see me because I live you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me and those who love me will be loved by my Father and I will love them and reveal myself to them.

Hallelujah! Because Jesus is on the journey with you. He’s on my journey with me. We’re not orphaned, we’re not alone, we’re never alone, we’re never without Him. Have you asked Jesus into your life? Have you called out to this God in His mighty name? If you have He dwells in you, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, in you to hold you and to comfort you and to strengthen you and to guide you.

That’s the God honest truth and it’s a truth I will tell you with my dying breath because it’s the most important truth I know. Friend, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.

Most of us hope that when our life here on this earth draws to a close, that we’ll have touched other people’s lives in the sort of way that leaves behind a real legacy of love. And yet – so many of us are drowning in a sea of negative emotions – the sort of emotions that could rob us of that objective.

We’re chatting this week about living the sort of life that leaves behind a lasting legacy of love. Now not just any legacy, each of the 100-billion or so people who have ever lived on planet earth will have left behind some sort of legacy. Stalin left behind a legacy, Bin Laden left behind a legacy, Hitler left behind a legacy but for 99.999% of us that’s not the sort of legacy we want to leave behind.

I mean I know that there are many things in my makeup and things in yours that aren’t perfect, things that don’t speak love into other people’s lives but on balance, come on we do want to leave a good legacy behind. When you and I have breathed our last breath on this earth we want to know that the legacy we’ve left our children, our family, our friends, our community is a legacy of love, of course we do.

I want my kids to know how incredibly loved they were so that when I’m gone and they’re helping their grandchildren they remember the love I had for them. I want the simple acts of service that I’m able to perform for them willingly and lovingly to shape their approach to their kids and their grandkids. I want them to look at the examples I set for them in serving others and serving my community in my work ethic, in my honesty, all those things, to leave a lasting legacy that’s handed down from generation to generation.

And even for those who don’t have children simple acts of love can ripple across the globe and down through other generations in ways we can’t even begin to imagine.

But and here’s the big BUT we can’t live the sort of life that’s going to leave a lasting legacy of love if we’re drowning in negative emotions. Last week on the program I spoke about just a few of those negative emotions but to get a far more comprehensive list together I went out to my Facebook friends and I asked them what sort of negative emotions do you want me to talk about on the program?

Now are you sitting down? Here is just a bit of what they came up with. Bitterness, anger, disappointment, fear, low self esteem, envy, lust, cynicism, bad body image, pride, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, greed, regret, guilt, shame, being money hungry, hate, prejudice, judgement, self pity, self loathing, worry, jealousy, possessiveness, being untrusting, being unable to share, unable to delegate, unable to open up, a fear of becoming vulnerable, inability to love.

Hey that’s not a bad list, I’m sure you can think of a few more too. Someone for instance that is caught up in continual disappointment is like someone who is carrying around their own personal rain cloud with them 24/7. Someone who has a poor self-image is likely to be untrusting and unable to share their emotions.

When we’re caught up in those negative emotions we simply aren’t going to be able to shine a ray of love into someone else’s life. When we’re caught up in those negative emotions, when we’re drowning in them we aren’t going to be able to live the sort of life that leaves a lasting legacy of love in the lives of those with whom we come in contact.

And these negative emotions feed off one another. Let me just come back to disappointment for the moment, if you’re someone who is constantly disappointed with people, with situations, circumstances, your lot in life, how you look, the things you’re not able to do, whatever it is how are you going to view the world?

Well, first up you’re going to be envious of everyone who has something that you don’t. Secondly, you’re going to be over critical of people, often the passive-aggressive sort of person is talking criticism and discontent to themselves all the time. And when that’s the stuff you’re feeding on, when that’s the stuff that’s swirling around inside you, friend you are going to start loathing yourself, you’ll be angry with yourself and with the rest of the world. You’ll pity yourself, you worry about how you’re ever going to feel any better and you can find yourself on a path towards depression.

How’s that for a chain reaction? But it’s true, isn’t it? This is the self-life, the inner life that many people are living. They’re literally drowning in a sea of negative emotions. Can I ask you? What negative emotions are eating away at you right now? What negative emotions are pumping poison through your system? What negative emotions are you struggling with wondering what’s the answer, wondering what’s the solution, wondering where am I going to turn, what am I going to do?

There’s an old Proverb that comes from the Bible, Proverbs chapter 17, verse 22, it says:

A joyful heart is good medicine but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

It’s a terrible picture, that picture of dried up bones inside us. The hardest thing to do with negative emotions is to admit them to ourselves. I used to be driven by greed and pride and anger, I’d never admit them to myself. I kind of knew about the anger but I constantly justified it. But the greed – I didn’t even realise I was greedy; and the pride – I wasn’t prideful it’s just that I was smarter than the rest of you guys, it’s just that I was quicker than the rest of you guys, more competent than the rest of you and because I’m naturally quick and good with words and not afraid to act I was a right pain in the you-know-what.

My friend the hardest thing to do is to admit these negative emotions to ourselves but when we do, when we take a good hard look in the mirror and say “yep in that list that Berni prattled off on the radio today three of those, no, no, actually four of those describe me.” When we get to that point now all of a sudden we can do something about them.

Do you want to hear that rather depressingly long list of negative emotions again? Here it is, maybe you can identify with one, two, three, four of them. Bitterness, anger, disappointment, fear, low self-esteem, envy, lust, cynicism, bad body image, pride, unfaithfulness, dishonesty, greed, regret, guilt, shame, being money-hungry, hate, prejudice, judgemental, self-pity, self-loathing, worry, jealousy, possessiveness, being untrusting, being unable to share, unable to delegate, unable to open up, a fear of becoming vulnerable, inability to love.

Which ones amongst that little lot do you own? Because the moment you own them, admit them, say “yep that’s me”, you can begin to disarm their power over your life and over your legacy. My friend Jesus came to set you free from each and every negative emotion that robs you of your life, your love and of your legacy.

The very first time Jesus got up to preach in a local synagogue at the beginning of His public ministry He unrolled the scroll to the Book of Isaiah chapter 61. This is what He read to the assembled masses, He was telling them why He, the Son of God, had come to this earth. He said:

The spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me, he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of the vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.

They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord to display his glory. They shall build up the ancient ruins, they shall raise up the former devastations, they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.

My friend, Jesus came to set you free, to restore you to wholeness, to bind up your broken heart, to proclaim His favour upon you, to comfort you, to give you a garland instead of ashes, the oil of joy instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit. Do you get it? Jesus came for you and He can take away every negative emotion, He can plant you as an oak of righteousness to display His glory and He can restore your devastation.

It’s Jesus living in and through you that gives you the power to overcome those negative emotions and to live the sort of life that’s going to leave a lasting legacy of love.

Love means different things to different people – mostly we think of it as that feeling of affection that we have towards someone. But that definition is a mile wide, but only an inch deep. One thing that love is – perhaps the most important thing – is radical sacrifice. Hmm.  We don’t like to talk about THAT too much!

The famous movie star Marilyn Monroe once said this, she said:

I’m selfish, impatient and just a little insecure. I make mistakes, I’m out of control and at times I’m hard to handle but if you can’t handle me at my worst then you certainly don’t deserve me at my best.

That’s a cheery thought isn’t it? But it makes an important point. See, people who are perfect are easy to love aren’t they? They never make mistakes, they never fall short of our expectations, they never disappoint us, they never hurt us, they never ignore us. See those people are so easy to love but have you ever found one, a perfect person that is? No me neither.

Of course, we know that there aren’t any perfect people walking on this planet. We know that in our heads but that doesn’t stop us from expecting perfection when we go looking for love and I’m not just talking about boy/girl husband/wife type of love. Friendship is a form of love, being a parent involves loving, in fact in a sense we can interact with work colleagues, associates, acquaintances either in love or not, with compassion or not, with kindness or not.

You understand what I’m saying right? Now my dictionary tells me that love is a strong feeling of affection and even attraction. Of course, that can be true, well it’s true at least in part at least some of the time but that dictionary definition falls such a long way short of what love really is. That romantic sort of love is easy to have when the person we’re loving is perfect, and okay some people some of the time can behave perfectly in very short bursts. But anybody who has ever been married will tell you that their lifelong soul mate is far from perfect lots of the time.

Anybody who has ever been a parent will tell you that their children are far from perfect. So what is love? What’s the definition of love when people and situations and circumstances and relationships are imperfect which let’s face it they are most of the time? What does love mean then huh?

Jesus once said:

No greater love has any man than to lay down his life for his friends.

If we stop and think about it it’s absolutely true because in an imperfect world-loving imperfect people love is about sacrifice. In fact, I’d like to propose an entirely different definition of love to my dictionary. Love is the decision we make to unconditionally care for, support and honour someone on their good days and on their bad days and the fruit of that love is that it develops a relationship that becomes rich and satisfying.

In other words, the feelings follow along behind the decision to radically sacrifice ourselves to another person, to put up with their failures, to help them when they’re acting badly rather than criticise them, to give them the space to make mistakes and still be there for them when they come to their senses.

Mother Theresa once said:

If you judge people you don’t have time to love them.

Love is not judging people; love is not punishing people; love is not punching them back in the face when they punch you in the face. And in my experience, I’m sure in yours too, that sort of love hurts, not all the time but at least some of the time. Love is a radical sacrifice that hurts and when we choose to live out that radical sacrifice, relationships develop that last a lifetime.

How’s that for a definition of love? Radical, sacrificial, unconditional love. What would our world look like if everybody adopted that definition of love and lived that definition of love instead of that trite, superficial, inch deep, dictionary definition “a strong feeling of affection” which always falls short of the reality, which always is going to disappoint us.

Affection is the reward of love; the feeling is the result of love. Love as you may have heard me say before, isn’t just a noun, it’s not simply something that we have or we don’t have, it’s also a verb, it’s a doing word. Love is something we are meant to do and the doing part of love, the doing part is sacrifice.

The more we sacrifice the more we experience the feeling of love. Think about it, think about how much a parent will sacrifice for a child, the sleepless nights, the worries, the conflict, the tears, the arguments, the money. By the time a child becomes a young adult a mother’s and father’s investment is huge, it’s massive.

Why do we as parents learn to love our children more and more as time goes on? Why are we so proud when they graduate high school or when they become effective young adults or when they achieve this or that? Why do we love them so much in our hearts? I’ll tell you why. Not only because they’re our own flesh and blood but because we’ve invested so much in them, and those achievements are the fruits of our investment. That’s why it feels so good to be a parent even when along the way it costs us so much.

It’s a beautiful picture of what love is really meant to be. We each would like to think that we would leave behind a legacy of love that when we’re gone our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our wider family, all the people we’ve come into contact with will be better off for having known us.

It’s pretty natural to want that but let me tell you, there can be no lasting legacy of love that our lives leave behind unless we’re living out the right definition of love. And that definition is that love is a decision to make a radical sacrifice for other people and radical sacrifices always, always costs us something.

True greatness isn’t about what we achieve; true greatness is about what we leave behind in the hearts of those whom we’ve served. Again that’s exactly what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 23, verse 11, He said:

The greatest among you will be the servant of all.

Can I ask you this? What definition of love are you living out? That shallow dictionary definition, or the real definition, the true definition of radical sacrifice. And what would your world look like, your relationships, your life if the love you lived involved radical sacrifice?

Questions like that really make you think. The most beautiful, the most sublime definition of love that I’ve ever read comes of course from the Bible in 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I’ve often heard it read and spoken out at weddings in a lovey-dovey, fluffy kind of a way. Have a listen to this, tell me whether you think that it’s lovey-dovey and fluffy and soft, 1 Corinthians chapter 13 beginning at verse 4:

Love is patient and love is kind. Love isn’t envious or boastful or arrogant or rude, it doesn’t insist on its own way, it’s not irritable or resentful, it doesn’t rejoice in wrong doing but love rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, it believes all things, it hopes all things and it endures all things. Love never ends.

It seems to me that every part of that definition or description is an explanation of the sacrifice involved in loving. Patience, that’s a sacrifice. Kindness, that’s a sacrifice. Not being envious, boastful, arrogant or rude, not insisting on our own way, not being irritable or resentful, bearing all things, enduring all things, hey they’re all about sacrifice and this was a sacrifice that never ends.

There’s nothing lovey-dovey or fluffy about any of that. It’s all about sacrifice. The sort of love that God is calling you and me to, is the sort of love that involves sacrifice, radical sacrifice. The sort that the Apostle Paul writes about in Romans chapter 5, verse 8:

God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.

My friend, anyone who wants to live a life that leaves behind a lasting legacy of love, they need to be living that sort of a life, that sort of a love. It’s as simple as that.

Isn’t it interesting how often we end up comparing ourselves with everyone else? And so often we come up with the conclusion that we’re the ugly duckling.  So is it true, or are we missing something?

You know – I think I could put up with going to church … if it wasn’t for the other people. I mean truly, some of them can be a real pain. Hypocrites. That’s what goes through a lot of people’s minds and that’s why so many don’t go to church. But what if God always knew that this thing called “church” would be like that?

You know the biggest problem I find with Churches? I mean – there are a lot of them. Lots of problems. Lots. Almost every other day there’s another story of some scandal in a church and the cover ups.

But the biggest problem I find in churches – the one that is absolutely, without any shadow of doubt number 1 on my list of problems with church – is other people.

That’s the thing – you go there – and there are other people there. And as sure as God made little green apples, you get a bunch of people together, and some of them are going to be a pain. They’re going to rub us up the wrong way. They’re going to disappoint us, hurt us.

Now – fortunately, I’m not one of those people. And my hunch is – neither are you. You and I – as Mary Poppins would say – we’re practically perfect in every way. It’s all those other people – they’re the ones who are pains.

If it weren’t for them – church would be a fantastic place to be. But they’re the ones that ruin it. They’re the ones who rob it of what God meant it to be. To tell you the truth – I’m just not prepared to put up with them anymore. That’s it. I’ve had enough. Until they get rid of those annoying people – I’m taking my bat and ball and going home.

And that my friend – that is exactly the attitude that so many people have towards church in this consumer–oriented world.

My expectation of church used to be that it would be something like a zoo. You know when you go to the zoo, you go to the different animal enclosures and you see a series of perfect, well fed, well looked after specimens.

The lion enclosure – perfect specimens. The elephant enclosure. More perfect specimens. The giraffe enclosure – yet more perfect specimens. You see, you experience what you’re expecting – what you paid your money for. Perfect specimens. A lion is meant to look like a lion and behave like a lion. So’s the elephant and the giraffe and the chimpanzee. 

That’s what we go to the zoo for – to see what we expect to see. And that’s how I first approached this thing called church. Like it was meant to be a zoo. I expected to see and meet a whole bunch of perfect specimens. People who would give me what I came for. The perfect preacher. The perfect pastor. The perfect community. The perfect worship service. The perfect … well, everything really.

And what I discovered is that when you approach church that way, with this expectation that they’ll give you all that you came for – all that you put your money in the offering to pay for – when we approach church like that, it’s only going to lead to disappointment. 

Here’s what I discovered. Church is not so much like a zoo full of perfect specimens, it’s more like … like a rehabilitation ward in a hospital.

Full of broken people, being restored back to health. Now some of them are pretty healthy to be sure, some of them are getting much closer to being perfect specimens than others, but pretty much each person in that church is going to be a broken person – somewhere along that journey of rehabilitation.

Can I be really honest with you – I’ve met some really, really bad people in churches. Really bad. And that shocked and horrified me. Of course, I’ve met some utterly fantastic people too. And no matter where I’ve gone, what churches I’ve visited, or been associated with or been a part of – it’s always the same – it’s invariably a mixed bag.

And this reality… it doesn’t fit with our expectations. Because deep down, we expect them all to be perfect – and when people in churches are a pain – our natural reaction is to think – boy, something’s seriously wrong in this place. But let me challenge that and ask you – is there?

Interesting that Jesus’ disciples had a similar perception of these people who turn out to be a pain. So Jesus told them a parable – to explain what was going on. And just as it explained the reality way back then – it still explains so graphically and perfectly the reality today.

So – have a listen to what He said to them … and what He’s saying to us, 2,000 years on:

He put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 

And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?’ 

He answered, ‘An enemy has done this.’ The slaves said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he replied, ‘No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’” (Mathew 13:24–30)

Every time I open my Bible – this thing that I thought was going to be some crummy, dry old theology textbook when I started out – my spirit soars because this God of yours and mine, this Jesus – is so utterly down to earth and amazing and realistic and practical.

He didn’t talk about esoteric theology – He talked about real life things and turned people’s worlds upside down by looking at things from a completely different perspective.

And here He’s dealing with this idea that we have; that a church should be perfect and if it ain’t perfect then it’s not the church for me. What’s Jesus saying – quite simply this – that in God’s Kingdom – and remember, the tangible reality of that Kingdom on this earth is God’s Church – in God’s Church – there is always going to be a mixed bag.

God plants good seed in His church He calls good people into His family. But the enemy comes along and plants some weeds too. Remember amongst the 12 disciples whom Jesus chose, the enemy the devil got a hold of one of those – Judas Iscariot – with devastating effect.

The enemy’s going to get hold of some people’s hearts right in the midst of the body of Christ – and instead of delivering a good harvest, they’re only going to produce more weeds. That’s normal – Jesus is saying. And when the servants say to the master – so – do you want us to go do some weeding – He says, no, no, leave them. I’ll get to them at harvest time.

The sovereign choice of God is to leave the weeds in place – did you pick that. He chooses not to make His kingdom a zoo – full of perfect specimens, but a mixed bag. That’s the reality. That’s His choice.

And my hunch is that He puts those people there – not so that we can be victims, but so that we can learn to love and to overcome and to suffer and to give and to serve – even our enemies. Even those who play politics and those who are selfish or nasty or painful – or however they rub us the wrong way. My friend – church is never going to be perfect.

There are always going to be some weeds scattered through the crop – but what Jesus is saying is this – leave them to me. I’ll deal with them in due course. I’ll sort the weeds from the wheat on that day of harvest, the day of judgement.

But in the meantime – get on with it. Let the good wheat grow and yield its grain. As I said – thoroughly realistic. And when we take this parable of Jesus’ into our hearts – it puts those difficult people in church – well, it shines a whole new light on things. All of a sudden, the Lord is giving us a license – just to get on with it.