Picking What You Planted

Picking, What You Plant (GAL. 6:6-8)

INTRO: In my life time I’ve eaten a lot of taters and beans

In fact I’ve grown a lot of taters, and I’ve grown a lot of beans. But I’ve never raised beans from a tater plant, nor have I ever got taters from a bean bush.

If fact, I found that 99% of the time you reap what you sow, down here in Tennessee we call reaping and sowing , Planting and picking. The only time I’ve ever seen the law of planting and picking not work is the time I planted bird seed, you know them seeds didn’t produce the first Robin, or Canary in fact I didn’t even get an old Crow of them seeds.

Planting and picking is a Spiritual and Physical law that always is true. You will always Pick what you plant!!

TEXT:

Galatians 6:6-8. “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor. Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

Illus: When ole Leroy was a SOPH.

In Leroy’s sophomore football season, we experienced a lot of rain and our football field was a muddy mess. So in the early spring our head coach, Coach WEEB , plowed the field between the hash marks. We were too poor to lay sod, so Coach planted grass seed. Coach WEEB was obsessive about his precious grass and he carefully watered and tended it. It was his pride and joy.

One Friday night Leroy was staying with his buddy, who lived a few blocks from the stadium. In his sophomoric wisdom we came up with the brilliant idea of sneaking into the stadium and planting corn seed in Coach WEEB’s grass crop. So after midnight we climbed over the stadium fence and planted two bags of kernel corn in his field. In a few weeks these tall corn sprouts started appearing in the middle of the football field and Coach WEEB was as mad as a hornet. He complained that he had been sold bad grass seed. He pulled some of them up and the next day there would be other sprouts.

Of course, all the students were laughing about it, so WE couldn’t keep our mouths shut. We started to brag to our friends that we were responsible for the corn. Of course we asked our friends not to tell anyone our secret. A couple of days later an extremely irate

Coach Weeb called us into the office and told us he knew what we had done. As punishment, every afternoon after school for two weeks we had to run up and down the stadium steps until we were drenched with sweat, and then we had to walk up and down the football field bending over pulling up the corn stalks with Coach Weeb following and yelling. He made it clear it would not go well if we dared to tread on one blade of his precious grass. Believe me; I learned the hard way you reap what you sow—you pick what you plant!

The law of the harvest is both a natural law and a spiritual law. It’s true in agriculture that you pick what you plant. But it’s also a great spiritual truth that you reap what you sow

I. WHAT YOU ARE TODAY IS A RESULT OF THE CHOICES YOU MADE IN YOUR PAST

Your life right now is basically the harvest of your habits. That’s too profound to miss so let me say it again. Your life is the harvest of your habits.

The law of the harvest can be summarized this way: every choice has consequences.

1. Good choices have good consequences

2. Poor choices have unpleasant consequences.

3. Parents, one of the most important values you will ever teach your children is that they need to make wise choices, because choices have consequences. But what is true for children is also true for adults.

4. Who you are and where you are right now in life is the result of a combination of factors. Your parents and family have influenced you. Our society and circumstances have influenced you as well.

5. But your choices have been the main factors in your attitude, your position, and your character. Your circumstances have had an impact as well. But a large part of your present situation is the direct result of a series of choices you have made in your past.

There are three realities about the law of the harvest:

A. You always pick WHAT you plant

Jacob is a good example of this spiritual principle.