bwe Matthew:13:1-53 SEEK
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That day Jesus left the house and sat down by the sea side .
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Many people came to where he was .
So he got into a boat and sat down .
All the people stood on the land by the water .
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He taught the people many things by telling them stories .
He said ,
Listen ,
a man went out to sow some seed .
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As he sowed it ,
some of the seed fell on the road .
Birds came and ate the seed .
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Some seed fell on the stony ground .
Not much earth covered the stones .
The seed started to grow right away because it was not deep in the ground .
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When the sun began to shine ,
it was too hot for the new plants .
They died because they had no roots .
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Some seed fell among the weeds .
The weeds grew up and made the new plants die .
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But some seed fell on good ground .
The seed grew and the plants gave more seed .
Some plants gave thirty seeds .
Some gave sixty .
And some gave a hundred .
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Everyone who has ears ,
listen !
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The disciples came to Jesus and asked him ,
Why do you tell the people these stories ?
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Jesus answered them ,
You can learn the secret things about the kingdom of heaven .
But they cannot learn them .
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Anyone who already has something will get more ,
and he will have plenty .
But he who does not have anything ,
even the little that he has will be taken away from him .
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That is why I tell them stories .
They look ,
but they do not see .
They listen ,
but they do not hear or understand .
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They make what Isaiah the prophet said long ago ,
come true .
Isaiah said : "
You will listen and listen ,
but you will not understand .
You will look and look ,
but you will not see .
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The hearts of these people have no feeling .
They do not hear well with their ears .
And they have shut their eyes .
They do not want to see with their eyes .
They do not want to hear with their ears .
They do not want to understand in their hearts .
They do not want to turn to me .
If they did turn ,
I would heal them ."
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God is blessing your eyes because they see .
God is blessing your ears because they hear .
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I tell you the truth .
Many prophets and good men wanted to see what you see ,
but they did not see them .
They wanted to hear what you hear ,
but they did not hear them .
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So listen to hear what the story means ,
about the man who sowed the seed .
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People listen to the message about the kingdom of heaven .
If anyone does not understand it ,
the devil comes along and takes the message out of his heart .
That person is like the seed which fell on the road .
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Some seed fell on the stony ground .
That is like a person who hears the message and right away he is glad to hear it .
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But it does not go down deep in his heart .
He believes it for a short time .
When trouble or a hard time comes because of the message ,
he stops believing .
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Some seed fell among the weeds .
That is like the person who hears the message .
But he thinks about the things of this world .
He wants to get money to be happy .
These things push the message out of his heart .
No good comes from it .
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Some seed fell on good ground .
That is like a person who hears the message and understands it .
Much good comes from it .
Some people are like the seed that gave a hundred more seeds .
Some people are like the seed that gave sixty .
Some people are like the seed that gave thirty .
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Jesus told the people another story .
He said ,
The kingdom of heaven is like this .
A man sowed good seed in his field .
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While people were sleeping ,
a bad man came and sowed weeds among the good seed .
Then he went away .
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The good seed grew and the plants gave more seeds .
Then the weeds grew too .
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The servants came and said to the man who owned the field , "
Sir ,
did you not sow good seed in your field ?
How did the weeds get here ?"
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He answered them , "
A bad man has done this ."
They asked him , "
Do you want us to go and pull up the weeds ?"
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No ,"
said the man . "
If you pull up the weeds ,
then the good plants will come up with them .
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Let them both grow together until the harvest time .
When it is time to cut it ,
I will say to the men who cut it ,
Cut the weeds first .
Tie them in bundles to be burned .
Then put the grain into my storehouse ."
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Jesus told the people another story .
He said ,
The kingdom of heaven is like this .
A man took a mustard seed and planted it in his field .
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A mustard seed is the smallest of all seeds .
But the plant that grows from it is bigger than other plants .
It is like a tree .
It is so big that birds come and live in the branches .
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Jesus told them another story .
He said ,
The kingdom of heaven is like this .
A woman took yeast and mixed it with many cups of flour .
The yeast went all through the flour .
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Jesus told the people all these things in stories .
He did not tell them anything without a story .
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What the prophet of God said long ago ,
came true .
He said ,
I will use stories .
I will tell things that have been secret since the world was made .
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Then Jesus left the people and went into the house .
His disciples came to him .
They said ,
Tell us the meaning of the story about the weeds in the field .
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Jesus answered ,
The person who sows the good seed is the Son of Man .
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The field is the world .
The good seed means the people who belong to the kingdom .
The weeds mean those who belong to the bad one .
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The bad man who planted the weeds is the devil .
The harvest time is the end of this world .
The men who cut the harvest are angels .
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The weeds are gathered and burned in a fire .
That is the way it will be at the end of the world .
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The Son of Man will send his angels .
They will gather everything that is bad and the people who do bad things .
They will take them out of his kingdom .
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They will put them into the big fire .
There they will cry and make a noise with their teeth .
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Then the people who are right with God will shine like the sun in their Fathers kingdom .
Everyone who has ears ,
listen .
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The kingdom of heaven is like this .
Something worth a lot of money is buried in a field .
A man found it and covered it again .
He was so glad that he went and sold everything he had .
Then he bought that field .
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The kingdom of heaven is like this .
A trader was looking for fine stones called pearls .
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He found a pearl that was worth a lot of money .
Then he went and sold everything he had and bought it .
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The kingdom of heaven is like this .
A fish net was thrown into the sea .
It caught all kinds of fish .
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When it was full ,
the men pulled it to the land .
They sat down and picked out the good fish into baskets .
But they threw the bad fish away .
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That is the way it will be at the end of the world .
The angels will come and take the bad people away from the good people .
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They will put the bad people into the never-ending hell fire .
There they will cry and make a noise with their teeth .
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Jesus asked ,
Have you understood all these stories ?
The disciples said ,
Yes .
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Then Jesus said to them ,
So anyone who knows the law and has learned about the kingdom of heaven ,
is like the headman of a house .
He can bring both new things and old things out of what he has stored up .
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When Jesus had finished telling these stories ,
he went away from there .