Gumption
Galatians 6:7-10NLT
A story is told of two Scotchmen who emigrated to California. They wanted to have in their new home some reminder of their homeland. One took with him a thistle, The other took a swarm of honeybees. Years passed by. Fields for a long distance are cursed with the thistle, which the farmers can’t get rid of. But the forests and fields are laden with the sweetness of honey. The seemingly insignificant acts of man always matter to future generations.
Remember, “Each choice that you make brings with it a consequence.” P.H.
Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith.
The principle of sowing and reaping was known to everyone in a largely agricultural society.
It is a vain attempt to mock God, for a Christian to think that he sows to his flesh he can escape the harvest of destruction and judgment that comes upon those who participate in sin.
Sowing decay means reaping decay, or ‘Corruption’ Corruption is a term used for a field in which the produce is too rotten to harvest.
However, sowing to the spirit will reap everlasting life. This doesn’t mean eternal life is earned, but sowing Christ means fully living in the abundance of Jesus Christ now and forever.
“I submit to you that not only do you reap what you sow, You will reap more than what you sow.”
Take for instance a farmer who plants a kernel of corn. That one kernel has the potential to produce a stalk with several ears that contain many kernels of corn. If the stalk produces 2 ears of Corn that would be approximately 1600 kernels.
Proverbs 12:14NASB A man will be satisfied with good by the fruit of his words, And the deeds of a man’s hands will return to him.
A lady was driving along a back road in stifling hot weather when she passed an elderly man attempting to fix a flat tire. A woman alone can’t be too careful; nevertheless she hoped somebody would stop. When nobody did, she went back and found the old man very weak and perspiring. “Thanks, he gasped. “I prayed somebody would stop.” She used her cell phone to call for help, so the woman waited with him. Finally someone from town came to help the man. The old man offered to pay her, but the good Samaritan said, "Just knowing I was an answer to prayer is enough.”
10 years later that same lady was worried about her aging father, who could no longer work the family farm. When she called a volunteer organization for help, four men arrived with heavy equipment and spent three days planting the crops.
One of the men looked familiar, and when he introduced herself she realized why. Turns out he was the elderly's man’s son. (What goes around comes around).
Remember, it all started with a old man’s prayer.
Proverbs 24:12NLT… He will repay all people as their actions deserve.
Sowing and Reaping has both positive and negative connotations.
If you sow good things, you will reap good things!
If you sow honesty, you will reap trust.
If you sow goodness, you will reap friends.
If you sow humility, you will reap greatness.
If you sow perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you sow consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you sow hard work, you will reap success.
If you sow forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you sow openness, you will reap intimacy.
If you sow patience, you will reap improvements.
If you sow faith, you will reap miracles.
If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap life everlasting
On the other hand, if you sow bad seed, you will reap bad things.
If you sow dishonesty, you will reap distrust.
If you sow selfishness, you will reap loneliness.
If you sow pride, you will reap destruction.
If you sow jealousy, you will reap trouble.
If you sow laziness, you will reap stagnation.
If you sow bitterness, you will reap isolation.
If you sow greed, you will reap loss.
If you sow gossip, you will reap enemies.
If you sow worries, you will reap wrinkles.
If you sow sin, you will reap guilt. (Consequences.)
If you sow to the flesh, you will reap corruption
Ephesians 6:8NKJB Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the Lord, whether he is a slave or free.
I want you to look at our text again. Verse 7, of Galatians 6TM Paul writes, Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest.
The first thing you need to remember is, you will reap a harvest of something.
Before anything, The harvest must be the focus of your mind.
Take the local farmer for example: Before the soil is prepared... Before the seed is planted... Before the fields are worked ... the farmer has in mind what it is he needs to harvest. A certain time of year he prepares for a harvest of corn. Another time of year he prepares for a soy bean crop. He plants what he needs and he reaps what he plants.
Friends, we must have our eyes on the harvest. Think for a minute about people, the lost have no hope without the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ!
Remember, whatever you plant is what you’ll harvest.
Secondly, You decide to sow a particular seed. The seed is very important.
Galatians 6:8TM The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others—ignoring God!—Harvests a crop of weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvest a crop of real life, eternal life.
Every person either sows seed to the flesh, or seed to the Spirit.
Have you inspected your seed lately? Do you live a fruitful life? Love, joy, peace, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self-control, meekness and long suffering.
However, The flesh is corrupt, If you constantly sow seeds of corruption, the seed of corruption always brings decay.
Thirdly, if you sow Good-seed you’ll reap His Spirit- Vs. 8bKJ, but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
To sow to the Spirit means to do things that please the Lord. When we do this, it will continually increase the Spirit's influence in your life. Simply put, sowing to the Spirit means allowing the Holy Spirit to have His way.
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as to "walk by the Spirit" (5:16)
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as to "be led by the Spirit" (5:18)
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as to be "filled with the Spirit" (Eph. 5:18).
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as "abiding in Christ" (John 15:7)
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as "continuing in Christ's Word" (John 8:31).
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as "walking in Christ" (Col. 2:6)
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as Colossians 3:2NKJ Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
Let me remind you, the minute you’re born-again, at that perceive time, you live eternally.
To sow to the Spirit~ is the same as Romans 12:1-2NLT Paul records, 1 And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. 2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
Fourthly, As you sow, never give up or quit~ you have to have gumption.
Galatians 6:9TM So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.
Gumption is a old Scottish word hardly ever used anymore., but is very necessary in our day and time.
One man said, “A person filled with gumption doesn’t sit around, dissipating and stewing about things. A person filled with gumption is at the front of the train of his own awareness, watching to see what’s up the track and meeting it when it comes.”
Notice verse 9 again… At the right time we will harvest a good crop.
“Learn to understand and grow in the season you’re presently in.” P.H.
Genesis 6:8NLT As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.
Again, Gumption is what’s needed! The instructor wrote these words boldly before turning to the first page of a motorcycle maintenance book he authored.
He writes: If you’re going to repair a motorcycle, an adequate supply of gumption is the first and most important tool. If you haven't got that you might as well gather all the other tools and put them away, Because they won't do you any good.
Gumption is the psychic gasoline that keeps the whole thing going. If you haven't got it, there's no way the motorcycle can possibly be fixed. But if you have got it I know how to keep it, there's absolutely no way in the world that motorcycle can keep from getting fixed. It's bound to happen. Therefore the thing that must be monitored at all times and preserved before anything else is~ gumption.
Galatians 6:10TM Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.
Poem, Sow~ Oh, scatter seeds of loving deeds along the fertile field; For grain will grow from what you sow, And fruitful harvest yield. Though sown in tears through weary years, The seed will surely live; Though great the cost it is not lost, For God will fruitage give. The harvest-home of God will come: And after toil and care, With joy untold your sheaves of gold will all be garnered there.
Would you like to sow better seed? Few prayers composed by the hearts of men have equaled that of Francis of Assisi:
Lord, Make me an instrument of Thy peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; Where there is injury, pardon, Where there is doubt, faith; Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light; And where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much Seek to be consoled as to console, To be understood as to understand, To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive, It is in pardoning that we are pardoned, And it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
If you’re going to keep your joy, stay fruitful, you have to start by planting seed. Give your best time, best anointing,
Benediction.
