Cultivating Holiness: Cleaning Out The Weeds

B. Some Things are Weeds Because of Misplacement.

Some things are weeds regardless. But, these are not the only weeds in the garden. As my earlier illustration pointed out, some good things are considered weeds when they are found growing in the wrong place. You don’t have cat-tails and cactus growing in the same flowerbed. They clash and in some cases, mixing the wrong types of plants in the same soil can end up stunting the growth of both plants.

Again this principle is easily applied to our lives. Many of the good things we have become weeds when they are not put in their proper place in our lives.

1. Money: Money is a great example. Jesus illustrates this when he talks to the rich young ruler in Mark 10:17-23. READ MARK10:17-23. The rich young ruler had much wealth, and that wealth was not bad. Jesus never condemned him for his wealth. The problem was that his wealth was so important to him that it choked out his desire to follow Jesus. His wealth was a weed in his life.

2. Family: Another good thing that can become a weed is family. Understand, God calls wives to submit to their husbands out of love and in the Lord, and He calls husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. However, We are never to put our family before our relationship with the Lord. It’s a tough balance. Jesus said in Luke 14:26-27 that unless we are willing to hate our family and follow him we cannot be his disciples. READ LUKE 14:26-27. Now again, Christ does not want us to hate our families. He was simply emphasizing the point that we must be willing to give up everything in order to be his disciples. That includes family. When family comes between you and Jesus, when it takes a higher priority than God allows, it becomes a weed. These misplaced flowers will cause the areas that God has designed for you to be stunted, and they themselves when in the wrong place will never reach their full potential. There is stunted growth all the way around. Your spiritual life suffers and your family life suffers. Neither reaches their fullest possible state. Yet when in their proper place, both will grow quite nicely.

3. Anything that has a higher priority than God. If we look at Deuteronomy 5:7 we see that anything that takes a higher priority in your life than God is out of place. READ DEUT. 5:7. Other Gods can range from jobs, to hobbies to even the church. Yes, even the church. When you are more concerned with running the church and doing your part than you are with your personal relationship with Jesus, the church becomes a weed in your life. In order for the Spirit to cultivate holiness in your life, you must first recognize that there are weeds in the flowerbed that must be removed.

II. Dealing with the Weeds I’ve Found.

Okay, so I’ve looked and found some weeds, now what? After identifying the weeds, you must decide what to do with them.

A. Some Must be Destroyed.

First, what do we do with those weeds that were easy to spot, those weeds that were obviously destructive? We are to remove them and destroy them. READ EPH. 4:22-24. The idea here is to put off the old sell Remove and destroy the old destructive weeds that have been choking out the positive growth in your life. Colossians 3:5 also backs up the idea of removing and destroying those weeds that are weeds regardless. We are to get rid of all unwholesomeness in our lives if we expect the Holy Spirit to cultivate a harvest of holiness in us. There is no room for these weeds in any area of our lives, spiritual or otherwise. These weeds must be destroyed.