Sowing the right seed
Galatians 6:7-10
Introduction- sowing seeds is evangelism and it is letting someone know that you care about them spiritually and it is letting someone know where you go to church and wanting and tring to get them plugged n
Galatians 6:7-6:10
Apostle Paul writes in Galatians about the freedom in Christ.
He talks about living by the Spirit.
“So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other.”
There is a war between two sides!
Your fleshly sinful nature and your side that is controlled by the Spirit of God.
One of these has to win!
God can very easily get victory if we allow him to have control of our life.
Our text this morning tells us that God cannot be deceived:
No matter what you say or what you do, God knows what is happening in your life.
You cannot fool God!
You sow to that lower nature, you are going to harvest a blighted harvest.
We sow to the Spirit of God we will harvest eternal life.
There are some laws that God has put in place for growing and harvesting anything.
You don’t plant anything- you don’t grow anything!
You don’t keep the weeds out, you will have a hard time finding your crop.
You get what you plant, you grow corn, don’t expect peas and broccoli to be in your fields.
You grow watermelon in the winter, you probably won’t get what you attempted to plant because it was not the season to plant.
You will reap in proportion what you sow. You plant 1 acre of corn on a 10 acre of ground. Do not look for 10 acres of corn.
Last year’s crop does not indicate what you will have this year-
Last year was good- does not guarantee a good one this year
Last year was bad, does not automatically force you to have a bad one again this year.
Let’s go back to verse 7- “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked.”
That is the law of planting and it is a principal of God.
God is not going to be fooled, He does know what is going on!
We live in an age of grace- Amen!
Somewhere in man’s deception, we have bought into the lie that if we just quote 1 John 1:9-
“If we confess our sins , He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all un-righteousness.” As a get out of jail free card!
We That God is obligated by His word to forgive us.
To the repentant heart, God forgives and restores…every time.
To the deceiving heart, they are going to reap what they sow.
You and I are planting seeds every day. Whether we like it or not.
Weather we call it evangelism or witnessing.
We are seeing some amazing things at Rosedale COTN because we are beginning to understand the process God has for planting. We are beginning to see more than the core of the church planting fields where God has put them. We have realized that every field does not have to be so large that the farmer is not able to handle the responsibility of the field.
Many people tending their fields produces much more harvest and we can see a variety of different crops.
Here at Rosedale:
We see businesses with a pocket of influence
Senior apartments giving rides to get each other here
Small groups, Bountiful Blessings, audio team, worship team, youth group, men’s ministry, visitation team. Reaching out into the field that God has called them to harvest.
There you have point one- God is not mocked. (write it down.)
Think you can fool God- guess again.
Think that God does not know what is happening- wrong.
I want to spend some time with the second point
II. Do not grow weary (write it down)
(9) “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
We are seeing answers to prayer that we have been praying for a long time.
God doesn’t forget about us.
Sometimes the fields take time so that the crop matures before it is harvested, because if you pull it to soon, the harvest will die.
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
Susie called a friend and asked how she was doing. Terrible, came the reply. My head’s splitting and my back and legs are killing me. The house is a mess, and the kids are driving me crazy. Susie, full of compassion, said, listen, go and lie down, I’ll come over right away and cook lunch for you, clean up the house, and take care of the children while you get some rest. By the way, how is Sam? Sam? I have no husband named Sam. “My heavens, Susie exclaimed, I must have the wrong number. Are you still coming over?
All of us grow weary. ALL OF US!
Tired of giving
Tired of doing
Tired of serving
Tired of being tired
Text- “Let us not grow weary of doing good.”
Some of us are digging up the seed every five minutes because of impatience, only to find it has not germinated yet. God understands and God sees, and He tells us leave it and it will grow IN HIS TIME.
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
Are you tired? The population of this country is 280 Million; 124 million are over the age of 65, leaving 156 million to do the work. There are 104 million people under the age of 25, leaving 52 million to do the work. There are 30 million people who work for the federal government which leaves 22 million to do the work. 4 million are in the armed forces which leaves 18 million to do the work. Deduct 17,800,000 who work in state, county and city offices, leaving 200,000 to do the work. There are 188,000 in hospitals and institutions leaving 12,000 to do the work. Now this may interest you that 11,998 people are in jail, so that leaves just two people to carry the load and that is you and me brother, and I’m getting tired of doing everything myself.
Let me settle your mind about doing in God’s Word-
Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this is not from yourself, it is a gift of God, not by works, so that none can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared us in advance for us to do.
We are saved by grace and not works, but salvation, and the love of Christ should produce us wanting to do the Lord’s work.
If we are not going to grow weary, we must be doing god’s work in God’s power.
If we are doing it in our own power, we are limited to do only what we can do, when we are doing God’s work in God’s power working in us, we are not limited by our abilities.
1. Plant the seed!
Plant the seed of the word of God (you first and then others)
Plant the teach and disciple someone (mentor someone)
Plant the love of Christ in someone (love them)
Plant the seed of fellowship- ( We are all on a journey, walk with someone and help them go in the right direction.)
We can all do that! We are all called to do that.
Don’t look for the field, your in the field. Where do you spend the most time, energy, talents…that is your field.
(10)
“As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
We have new people attending, be a friend to them, get involved in their lives. You may find that you are able to harvest a new field together. New people take a chance and open yourself up to someone.
As you have opportunity means keeping your eyes spiritually open and be ready when God shows you what He desires of you.
Once you have planted the seed
II. Tend the field
Don’t abandon your field, keep watering, keep weeding, keep showing love and don’t give up.
There is a book written by David Kinneman , the President of Barna Group called “You lost me.” It is about young Christians leaving the church and being forced to rethink their faith. He says the next generation is challenged because we have not taught them to be in the world but not of the world.
My words, we are not tending the fields. We throw the seed down and forget about pulling weeds.
Each of us has the capacity to influence roughly 26 people. We can interact with 26 people. I know some that have 100’s maybe 1000’s on their Facebook accounts, but you cannot possible jell with that many people. Once we complete the media project, this would be good on the screen. 26 people discipling 26 people. You see where I am going with this.
We would be tending our fields. We would not only be planting seed, but mentoring and discipling along the way.
III. The harvest
If we are going to see the harvest, you must not give up. You must not give up on yourself or others.
“The harvest is plentiful but he laborers are few, ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore to send out workers into His harvest field.”
Plant the seed
Tend to the field
God gives the increase
New members will explode, you will find where you are to be when we realize this passage is not only for pastors.
Closing:
Each one of us is busy. I get it. I understand it. If you are not busy, shame on you.
We all have to make adjustments as life dishes out different challenges.
It has been said “we should not judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant.”
What seeds are you planting? I am talking individually- As a church we are planting and harvesting.
Who’s life are you making a difference in? Who are you mentoring?
Illustration- (SermonCentral)
Paul Powell once said, “ Many churches today remind me of a laboring crew trying to gather in a harvest while they sit in the tool shed. They go to the tool shed every Sunday and they study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and then get up and go home. Then they come back that night, study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes and grease their tractors and go home again. They come back Wednesday night and again study bigger and better methods of agriculture, sharpen their hoes, grease their tractors, and get up and go home. They do this week in and week out, and nobody ever goes into the fields and gather the harvest.
To take an opportunity, you have to see an opportunity which means you have to spiritually be looking for an opportunity.
Can I have just one more minute? I do not want to do things I am capable of doing, Why? Because, then I could take credit for them.
I want to see God do things in me, in this church, in you.
Lets pray big prayers because that is where miracles are.
Bold prayers that can turn this area upside down for the kingdom of God
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