Mark 4:29 – “But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, BECAUSE THE HARVEST HAS COME.”

Leviticus 19:9-10 – 9“When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. 10And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger: I am the LORD your God.”

I. The WINNOWING Process

Your First Instinct Says, “KEEP IT”; But God Says, “LET IT GO”.

Matthew 3:12 – “His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

• Stop calling loss what God calls chaff.

What are you calling loss right now that God has already labeled chaff?

• Don't blame the wind when it’s God holding the fan.

Matthew 3:12a – His winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor

Are you angry or struggling with the circumstances that God personally authorized?

• Stop exhausting yourself fighting for chaff.

What are you still fighinng for that God has already let go of?

John 15:1-2 – 1“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. 2Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.”

John 15:8 – “By this My Father is GLORIFIED, that you bear MUCH FRUIT; so you will be My disciples.”

John 10:10 – “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it MORE ABUNDANTLY.”

John 15:2 – “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear MORE FRUIT.”

Psalm 90:12 – So, teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.

I. What You Refuse to CONFRONT You Choose to CARRY – Don’t Complain

• Most of what you must Confront was UNCHOSEN and RANDOM.

Ecclesiastes 9:11 – I returned and saw under the sun that— The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to men of understanding, nor favor to men of skill; but Tme and chance happen to them all.

1. PEOPLE God is trying to cut from your life

Mark 4:26-29 – 26And He said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, 27and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. 28For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. 29But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”

I. TIME — THE WAITING PROCESS

James 5:7 – “Therefore, be patient brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.”

Genesis 8:22 – “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.”

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 – 1“To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: 2a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted.”

• How to Wait: PATIENTLY

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, DERIVING THEIR JUST POWERS “FROM THE CONSENT OF THE GOVERNED.”

1. The loss of God as The Moral Center

2. Extremism, Polarization, and the Destruction of the Reasonable Center

3. The replacement of Personal Responsibility with Government Dependence

I. We failed to learn the lesson from the Garden — The Pattern is Established.

• Authority – Dominion: not muscle, power, or a throne — The Right to Decide.

Genesis 1:26 – Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, OVER ALL THE EARTH and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

• Accountability – “You shall surely die”

1 Corinthians 14:12 – Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for the edification of the church that you seek to excel.

Habakkuk 2:2 – Then the LORD answered me and said: “Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.”

I. THE PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED — COMPREHENSION

1 Corinthians 14:13 – Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.

1) The Message is Released, But Not Received.

1 Corinthians 14:5 – I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied; for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed he interprets, that the church may RECEIVE edification.

2) The Message is Spoken, But Not Understood.

1 Corinthians 14:9 – So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to understand, how will it be known what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.

3) The Message is Claimed, But Not Tested

I. God Measures Gifts by Outcome, Not Expression

• Outcome Is Prioritized

1 Corinthians 14:1 – Pursue love, and desire spiritual gifts, BUT ESPECIALLY that you may prophesy.

• Outcome Is Contrasted

1 Corinthians 14:2 – For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries.

1 Corinthians 14:3 – But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.

− The Outcome: Edification, Exhortation, and Comfort TO MEN

Romans 8:9-11 – 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

● Agape Suffers Long — It stays when every natural impulse is screaming to leave.

● Agape Is Kind — It gives good when the flesh is demanding revenge.

● Agape Does Not Envy — It can celebrate someone else without needing to diminish them.

● Agape Does Not Parade Itself — It does not need an audience in order to feel valuable.

● Agape Is Not Puffed Up — It is secure enough to stay low.