Standing in the midst of the congregation reminds me of living in Missouri and driving the roads between various crops. Some cornfields were growing and healthy while others were unkempt and very unproductive. Each one of us here is a living Harvest based upon our decision of the past. Our health, our education, our faith and our intimacy with God are today what they are because our what we have sown into our lives in the past.
The world has always revolved around the truths that come from the process of what a man or woman sows that they will also reap from. This is something we can understand from the agricultural world but also from the spiritual world.
Just like many laws that we know such as the LAW OF GRAVITY there is the law of SOWING AND REAPING.
Paul encourages us to consider our choices as seeds we plant that will one day come back into our lives in the form of a harvest.
John Wesley's Rule for Christian Living Do all the good you can, By all the means you can, In all the ways you can, In all the places you can, At all the times you can, To all the people you can, As long as ever...You can!
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
PAUL HAD A SPIRITUAL CONCERN FOR TEACHERS:
6 The one who is taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him.
I like that Paul begins his teaching on sowing and reaping by a challenge to how we provide for those who are serving Him in this life.
1) James warns in his 3rd chapter that those who teach others in God’s name will be held accountable for how they honor God as they do it.
2) Paul warns that those who are taught by those who are serving God will be held accountable for how they honor God as they do it.
Are we trying to sow as little seed as possible in the soil of their lives?
Are we making them struggle to survive as they try to grow among us?
1 Tim 5:17 The elders who rule well are to be considered worthy of double honor,(not double scrutiny) especially those who work hard at preaching and teaching.
1 Thes 5:12 But we request of you, brethren, that you appreciate those who diligently labor among you, and have charge over you in the Lord and give you instruction,
One of my friends in seminary pastored in a church in Jefferson City Missouri. After his experience there he made a commitment to never work as a pastor again unless it was in a bi-vocational setting. He said he never wanted to be at the mercy of those who felt they could control your whole life and family because the church gave them a paycheck to live on.
My own father was initially against our leaving Oklahoma to finish seminary in Missouri. He told me I would ‘starve’ going there. After talking with my mom recently I finally discovered that when he said that 22 years ago it was based upon his own observations of how pastors and their families were treated financially by the churches they served. Eventually God worked on his heart and he sent us out with full blessing.
Paul says that those who serve among you are not to be second class fish bowl citizens but counted as of double honor and appreciated as they serve not the church but actually the Lord as they work among in the Word of God.
This is also why I personally believe that greater punishment awaits those who use the church for the sake of personal financial or positional gain.
I think that they have multiplied at an alarming rate with the invention of the television.
Paul warned us about this in various passages: NT prophecies
(2 Tim 4:3-4) For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
2 Tim 3:4-9 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households(by TV) and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Televandalists
Virginia: Jim Bakker PTL all day long while husband sat outside in camper.
Always learning things that have nothing to do with anything God is really saying but that keep you hooked to their ministry. never able to come to the knowledge of the truth
Discipleship comes from a lives influenced and invested in the Word of God. If our church, or any church, were filled with disciples then we could not hold the crowds that would come each week. The problem is that most in churches today have settled for being just ‘converts’ and not disciples.
But discipleship is much more than just attendance.
UH OH moment a year or so ago by a ministry called Willow Creek Community Church in Chicago led by Bill Hybals. They were finally realizing that their seeker sensitive model of church had left them without one thing: DISCIPLES. They were able to get lots of people to come to their church by high energy music, dramas and non confrontive messages but they discovered that these people could not do what they called SELF-FEED. They were not self-feeders. How many here today are not self feeders?
Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also.
Jannes and Jambres were two of the magicians/sorcerers/false holy men in Egypt who opposed Moses by trying to deceive Pharoah with false miracles.
2 Cor 11:12-15 But what I am doing I will continue to do(warn of those doing this), so that I may cut off opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the matter about which they are boasting.
For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.
Paul is not talking about giving to these false teachers but to diligently sow into the lives of those who honestly serve God in the faithful instruction of His Word.
King Josiah turned to the Lord at age 16, at age 20 began to cleanse the land of idols, and at age 26 discovered the Word of God in the padlocked temple hidden in a wall. He had it read to him and wept as he realized how far the people of Israel had drifted from God.(same today)
It's a picture of how we can be kind of easy on ourselves, until we see ourselves in the light of the truth, God's Word. Those who help us to do this have invaluable place in our lives.
TOM ELLIFF: former pastor of mine talked of going to Russia year after year taking as many as 32 pastors. One year an older pastor shared with him a burned that he had. He told of his own youth as a pastor and how he had two books that he treasured: his Bible and Pilgrims Progress. He especially treasured them because he had the only copy of the Bible among many pastors. He would ride the train and stop at stations so pastors could get on and copy out of his Bible the verses they would preach on the next week. He said that in the last three years this next generation of American pastors have come here teaching younger Russian pastors on church growth and what they are sharing is that ‘there is something better than knowing God’. God’s Word is no long central and cherished as before.
Consider seeing the MOON with the naked eye or binoculars of a telescope:
Naked eye: know it is there but mistake it for being a giant face in the sky, have people on it or even being green cheese.
Binoculars: See it better so you know certain wrong ideas are not true
Telescope: You can see it in every detail.
Man without the church or God’s Word comes to all kinds of wrong ideas about God. With some help the church leads man to understand there is a God and He is to be worshiped. But with the telescope or the Word of God we see God in detail and understand His heart and will.
My niece spoke to me about my preaching being different from older men who did not seem to relate to her or the younger ones who ‘do their younger man thing’. I wanted to tell the difference is not me but the Word of God being used.
PAUL SHARED SOME SPIRITUAL CONCERNS ABOUT SOWING:
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
What do we do with what those who sow into our lives offer to us: God’s servants or the world. Are we living what we have sown?
Often asked people what they learned after hearing a message.
If they say they enjoyed the message I might ask what particular point spoke to you.
Often they cannot remember but sometimes they can.
I have decided that if they are LEARNING IT they have been with me but if they are LIVING IT then they have been with God.
Verses 7 & 8 are often used to promote stronger giving in a church but Paul incorporates many different thoughts in his argument.
I want you to think and react to these 5 statements.
a) A person is deceived when they assume they will not reap what they sow.
How many people you know that sow wild oats all weak and show up for church on Sundays and pray for a CROP FAILURE?
b) We are mocking God when we think we can escape the normal consequences of our actions.
1) Some people actually become angry with God will they begin to experience the result of their past actions. They somehow expect God to not allow them to suffer the consequences of their bad choices.
2) Paul says to expect God to not allow us to reap what we sow is to mock His justice and holiness.
c) We are all in the process of sowing things out of which we will reap.
1) Each of us has been sowing this week, today through our actions, thoughts, words…etc Lack of intimacy with God because we have not sought Him in Prayer.
Lack of faith because we have not invested in the Word of God to build it.
2) A seed may be sown in secret but the harvest cannot be hidden!
d) When we sow to the things of the flesh the harvest that we will reap will be corruption.
1) Things the world promises to be good for us will result in bringing decay into our lives.
2) The harvest will always be greater than that which is sown.
When you plant an apple tree, you get not only the tree but all the apples that are full of new seeds to possibly sow.
3) There are those in the Bible that eventually reaped what they had sown to the flesh:
Lot(sown Egypt and reaped Sodom)
Samson sowed Philistine culture and reaped Delilah, blindness and death.
Job 4:8 Even as I have seen, they that plow iniquity, and sow wickedness, reap the same.
e) When we sow to spiritual things or to the things of the Holy Spirit then we reap things that are eternal.
1) The true nature of the seed will be seen in the harvest.
2) Key to a successful harvest is successfully identifying the nature of the seed.
Sometimes seeds can look alike. I can often mistake one see for another and sometimes we can allow the world to mislead us into thinking a particular seed is valuable to sow. Only God knows the true nature of the seed and the harvest it will eventually bring to our lives. That is why we live by faith trusting His Word to guide us through the decision of this life.
The old adage is Sow a thought reap an act, sow an act reap a habit, sow a habit reap a Character, sow Character and reap a destiny
Col 3:1-2 Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth.
Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
What do you dwell on? Problems? Annoyances?
PAUL SHARED A TIMELESS TRUTH ABOUT REAPING:
9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Walter Payton was just 5’10” and 202 pounds yet he set the all-time rushing record of 16,726 yards. During a 12-year career, Payton carried the football over 9 miles. That means he was knocked to the ground on average every 4.4 yards of those nine miles by someone bigger than himself. He set the record because every time he was knocked him down, he got up again. That’s one of the overlooked secrets of greatness. When you are knocked down, don’t stay down
‘to lose heart’ in Greek literature it is used of the faint-hearted coward; to be without spirit, wearied, exhausted; not a physical fainting but a losing of courage
This phrase was used for the kind of weariness a woman experiences during labor and before delivery.
It also described the time when the work is hard but also unfinished and unrewarded.
In those moments it’s easy to lose heart, but that is exactly when we must hang on and not grow weary while doing good.
Because we live in a fallen world and deal constantly with fallen people, it’s easy to grow weary and say, “What’s the use?” Sometimes what we need is a little reality check:
Life is hard. Deal with it.
People are a pain. Love them anyway.
Things don’t go as we planned. Keep on moving forward. People forget to say, “Thank you.” Help them anyway. People are hardheaded. Share Christ with them anyway. Not all your prayers are answered. Keep praying! God doesn’t do what you think he should do? Trust him anyway! You may be scared and filled with fear. Keep believing! Your friends criticize you. Do right anyway! Do you feel like quitting? It’s always too soon to quit.
There's an old tale that says the Devil once held a sale and offered all the tools of his trade to anyone who would pay their price. They were spread out on the table and each one labeled. ‘Hatred, malice, envy, despair, sickness, sensuality’ -- all weapons that everyone knows so well. But off to one side lay a harmless looking wood-shaped instrument marked "discouragement." It was old and worn looking but it was priced far above all the rest. When asked the reason why, the Devil replied, "Because I can use this one so much more easily than the others. No one knows that it belongs to me, so with it I can open doors that are tightly bolted against the others. Once I get inside I can use any tool that suits me best."
Paul finally reminds us that when we are doing good that we should never forget to love and serve our brothers and sisters in Christ.
10 So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.
Opportunities to do good will one day be seen as the most important moments this life offered to us. Opportunities for reward, to ‘entertain angels unaware’ and to minister to Jesus Himself as we do things for the sake of the ‘least of these’.
I’d like you to think about two questions.
1) What have you been sowing?
2) Are you happy with what you’ve been reaping?
God asks of us: Don’t give up! Don’t stop! Don’t grow weary! Keep on going.
There will be a wonderful harvest to come.
Don’t complain that the world is dark. Light a candle instead
Get busy sowing what matters, the things you want to grow into a harvest in your life and stop sowing what doesn’t matter and what will bring you only misery or emptiness when the harvest comes.
