Today, we live in a world full of sin and corruption. It is a world that seems to focus more on the pleasures and material things that surround us than on the spiritual things of God!
All across this wonderful place called planet Earth, a land created for us by God, men, women, boys and girls, seem to have forgotten about Almighty God and His Son, Jesus.
In the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains, in my old stomping grounds of Knoxville, Tennessee, in a place called Rocky Top, 107,000 people gather most every Saturday in the fall, to scream and holler for their beloved Volunteers, the University of Tennessee’s football team.
It’s no different than what we see in Blacksburg, Virginia – Miami, Florida – Ann Arbor, Michigan – or South Bend, Indiana or anywhere else for that matter. The stadiums are filled to capacity, generally sold out well in advance, and the seats are far from cheap.
The Bible tells us that Sunday’s are special, set aside for us as the Lord’s Day. God gave it so much importance that He included it in The Ten Commandments that He gave to Moses 3452 years ago in 1450 B.C. Found in Exodus 20:8, God commanded all of us to “remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.”
So tell me why church? Why is it that in churches of all denominations, all across America this morning, chairs and pews remain empty? Why is it that business establishments that used to be closed on Sunday’s are now open?
The answers are simple. The pews sit empty because people all across our land are no longer concerned with the things of God! They have better things to do.
The business establishments that are now open on Sundays? Simple answer – greed! They see it as an opportunity to bring more dollars into their coffers. The Bible tells us that “greed” is one of the seven deadly sins.
We serve a God of love and compassion, but He is also a jealous God and a God of wrath and judgment. One day we will all stand before our Creator and be accountable for our lives and the decisions that we made.
Church – prepare to meet thy God! We’re not promised any tomorrows, or even our next breath. Be ready always, for our life might be taken in the blink of an eye.
I knew a friend named Lori. She fell in love with a man she met on the Internet. After a courtship of about a year’s time, Lori packed up all her worldly possessions this week, along with her two young daughters, and headed for Florida. Once there, she and her fiancé were to be married and live happily ever after. Lori never made it. She and her children lost their lives on Georgia highway. We just never know people, we just never know. Prepare to meet they God!
All over our world, people of all nationalities have become spiritually forgetful and unconcerned, but the fact remains that each of us will pay for our neglect and forgetfulness. For it is clearly written in God’s Holy Word, that all of us, everyone, will one day reap what we have sown.
When a farmer plants his seeds, he will reap what he has sown. That is an unchangeable law of nature. God’s law is the same for us, for as we reap, so shall we sow.
The way we handle our relationship with our husband or wife should be the same way that we handle our relationship with God.
I believe that love is like a garden. We plant the seeds and then we take very good care of it. We water our garden, nurture it, fertilize it and watch over it daily. If a weed grows we remove it. With each passing day the seeds we have planted continue to grow and prosper, until one day the garden bears wonderful fruits.
Our relationship with God is much the same. It is the most special relationship one can have. Take care of it. Study to show thyself approved. Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all they might. Build your relationship with God daily.
We need to love and watch over our spouse and the union will grow and flourish and prosper. If we fail to take care of our garden then the weeds will grow. That which was once planted with love will wither away and die.
Galatians 6:7 begins with a very solemn warning to us with its first three words – “Be not deceived.” There is a deceiver out there and he’s alive and well. He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t rest, and he works tirelessly 24 hours a day to accomplish his mission to destroy us and our relationship with God.
His name is Satan, Lucifer, The Prince of Darkness, and the Devil. Revelation 12:9 refers to him as “that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world.”
The good news for us is that we have a Savior and His name is called Jesus. Jesus is the “Truth” and Satan opposes everything that is true and righteous. One day soon Satan will have to pay the price for the seeds that he has sown.
The Bible tells us that he will be cast into a bottomless pit so that “he should deceive the nations no more.” You see, no one escapes the judgment of God! Even Satan will reap what he has sown.
But you know, Satan is not the only deceiver we need to worry about, for we can also deceive ourselves. Too many times we have false expectations. Too many times we choose to assume that God will handle a situation the way we want Him to instead of the way He chooses to do it. Then we get angry with God because He didn’t work a situation out the way we wanted Him to! Shame on us – for God is perfect and makes no mistakes. All things happen for a reason and all according to His perfect timing.
The difference between how we look at things and how God looks at them is simple. We look at the outward appearance and God sees inside the heart. Too many times we trust people because of what we see on the outside, not because of what’s on the inside.
There are in America today, pulpits filled with deceitful preachers pretending to be the messengers of God. We have preachers finding no fault with abortion, homosexuality, and people living in sin.
Oh they look good – and they took good – and they sound good – but they are the instruments of Satan! The Bible tells us to “beware of wolves in sheep’s clothing.” Study God’s Word church! Know the truths that God has given us. Be guided by the Word of God rather than outward appearances.
Be honest, upright and truthful in all things! We deceive ourselves when we think that it doesn’t matter what we sow as long as we mean well.
I know of a child that asked his parents for a dog. The parents knew that they would not be buying this child a dog, but wanted to let him down easily. The dad said “let me to talk to your mom about it and we’ll see.” The mom said “let me talk to your dad about it and we’ll see.” The child continues to plead and beg and the parents continue to make excuses. In the end, the child realizes that mom and dad have been lying to him. He loses some respect for his parents and no longer trusts them quite as much. Be careful what you tell your children for “for as ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
We deceive ourselves when we think God will bless us when we live our lives according to the flesh. Be not deceived, for unless we live our lives feeding on spiritual things, God will not bless us. We shouldn’t and we can’t expect God to richly bless our lives when we live our lives based on fleshly wants and desires rather than the things of God.
We can’t say that God didn’t warn us. Luke 21:8 says “take heed that ye be not deceived: for many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and the time draweth near: go not therefore after them.”
God clearly warned us in His Word to watch out for the Jim Jones, David Koresh, and Osama bin Laden’s of this world! God knew they would come and he told us not to be deceived by them, and there are so many more out there whose names we do not even know yet.
There are many cults, many false prophets, many lost preachers and evangelists, seeking to deceive us and deprive us of our loving relationship with God.
Jesus said “I am the Way, the Truth and the Life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me.” The Church of the Latter Day Saints, the Mormon Church does not believe this. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do not believe this. The Buddhists do not believe this. The Islam nation does not believe this. God’s chosen people, the Jews, do not believe this.
I am here to tell you church that the God I serve has told me the truth – and that truth is Jesus – and He is the only way! In the words of that wonderful old gospel song Amazing Grace, all those that don’t know Jesus as the way, the truth and the life, are “lost and undone, without God or His Son” – and doomed to spend eternity in hell.
The Bible says in I Corinthians 6:9-10: Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor exotortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God.”
God has warned us here in His Word again that we need not be deceived. We must be ever so careful what we sow, for as we sow so shall we reap. Prepare to meet thy God.
If there were only one truth about God that I could pass on to you this day, it would be this. You cannot fool God because He sees all and knows all. He sees into the very depths of your soul.
We may be able to hide our sin from our family and friends, and most of us have done that at one time or another, but we can’t hide our sin from God. God not only sees us in the midday sun, but He also sees us in the darkness of midnight.
There was a thief who went to steal one night from a neighbor’s garden. He took his young son along with him. The man looked to his left, looked to his right. He looked in front of himself and behind to make sure no one was watching. When he was sure that the coast was clear he began to fill his sack with the vegetables from his neighbor’s garden. His young son looked up at him and said “Daddy, you forgot to look up.” Out of the mouths of babes. We are very careful that others don’t see our sin, but God sees it all. Nothing escapes His eyes. He knows all about us and sees everything that we do.
We can’t fool God! He is omnipotent, all-powerful, all knowing. God alone giveth life and God alone can allow it to be taken away. God alone has the power to bring us to judgment, and make no mistake about it, we will all be judged one day, both Christian and non-Christian.
On that day we will have to give an account for what we have done both good and bad, and how we have lived our lives. There is coming a day when that which has been hidden will be revealed, because nothing has escaped the eyes of God. Church, prepare to meet thy God.
How foolish is the man who thinks that he can live as he pleases and escape the judgment of Almighty God. When that day comes, whether as a Christian at the judgment seat of Christ, or as a lost person at the Great White Throne judgment, when we stand before our Maker, there will be no excuses – and so many of us have become masters of excuse making.
There was a lady who invited a friend to come to church the next morning to hear God’s message. He declined, saying, “Oh, I can’t come tomorrow. It’s supposed to rain.” She reminded him that it wouldn’t be raining on judgment day. When our time has come and our life on earth is over, we must go. There will be no escaping and no excuses accepted on judgment day. Believe God’s Word today, and be not deceived.
We must be very careful of the record that we write because it cannot be changed. Milk that is spilt cannot be gathered up into the glass again. I bullet speeding from a gun and entering into the heart of a man cannot be called back.
It has been said many times that every man in prison finds God. Much of that has to do with the fact that people cannot take back the crimes that they have committed although most would.
The simple facts are that all of us would like to go back in time and change some of the things we did in our lives, but we can’t. Life is not a dress rehearsal. We cannot go back and redo the things we did wrong and the bad decisions we made yesterday.
The good news is that although there are earthly consequences for the wrong things we do, there is Heavenly forgiveness available to us at all times. That’s why Jesus gave His life for us on the cross of Calvary, because we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
It is written in God’s Word that our righteousness is as “filthy rags.” No sin at all is allowed in Heaven. That’s why it was necessary for God’s only begotten Son to die for us, to pay the price for our sins. He was sinless, perfect and unblemished. He was the only sacrifice acceptable to God where we would be allowed to share Heaven with Him one day.
Yes, we can ask the Lord to forgive us for our sins. And yes, He will forgive us if our hearts are sincere and repentant, but we cannot replant the bad seeds that we have sown. They will be reaped according to the way they were sown. Lives that we touch are often changed forever, whether good or bad. Plant the seeds of righteousness and not the seeds of destruction. Prepare to meet thy God.
We cannot change yesterday, it is dead and gone, but we can change the way we live our lives today and we can change what do in the future.
The seeds that we have sown are forever impressed upon our memory and our conscience. Most of us would give nearly anything if we could escape some of the memories we have of bad seeds sown. I know that I would. Unfortunately, there is always something that comes around or happens once in awhile that reminds us of our sin. It may be a physical mark or scar. It may be an emotional scar, but it serve to remind us of our sin.
King David only had to hear the story of the little ewe lamb before he remembered sending Uriah to the front battle lines to be murdered in order that he, David, might take Uriah’s wife, Bathsheba.
Joseph’s brothers remembered what they had done to him even though it had been many years earlier. All of us are reminded of our past sins from time to time. Let us learn from the mistakes we have made and covenant with the Lord thy God to make every effort to sin no more.
Our conscience is the Judge and Jury that sits on the judgment seat of our heart. It rises up to applaud the things we do right, and it rises up to condemn the things that we do wrong. It is the conscience that will not let a person sleep well at night. It is the conscience that causes a man to duck into a dark alley when he sees a policeman. Sow the good seeds, reap the good harvest, and prepare to meet thy God.
The thing about sowing is that it is reaped in the lives of others. So many people have been heard to say, “It’s nobodies business but mine how I live!” But it does make a difference, often a huge difference. Everything that we do and say has an impact on others around us. Sometimes it’s a wonderful difference and sometimes it’s a terrible difference. We must be ever so careful how we sow.
Look around at others that you come in contact with throughout the week. And every time you look around and see someone whose life has been wrecked by sin, ask yourself – who was responsible for his or her first downfall? Who gave the drunkard his first taste of liquor? Who gave the drug addict their first high? Who caused that young person to sell his or her body that first time? Who sowed that first seed of corruption that led this person down the path of destruction?
This is the great tragedy of sin – it not only hurts us, but it hurts those that we love. Parents – what you do in moderation, your children will do in excess. Every Christian parent owes their children two things:
1) To live your best for Christ
2) To lead your children to salvation
Although all can help, it is not the school’s responsibility, not the government’s responsibility, not the church’s responsibility – it is YOUR responsibility! How tragic and sad it is when parents are more interested in worldly matters than in spiritual matters.
Now there are those that might say, “I don’t believe in forcing my child to go to church – I’ll let them decide.” To that we should all say “Fine! Just be consistent!” Let them also decide whether or not to go to school, when to take a bath, when to change clothes, when to go to bed, when to see the dentist, and on and on and on….
The unchanging law of God is “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” And the seeds we sow will be based on three things; the seed, the principle, and the harvest.
The “seeds” we planted will not be according to how much we know – but how much we sow! Being a former teacher myself, I know that there are people teaching today that have all kinds of education, yet they don’t have a clue about how to use it wisely! It’s not how much they know, but how much they sow.
The “principle” is this: We will reap as we have sown. We will sometimes reap more than we have sown.
And the “harvest.” He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.
As our song leader and pianist come forward to lead us in a song of invitation, let us all ask ourselves this question. What kind of harvest will I have?
This morning, if you have never been saved, you will reap everlasting separation from God, from a Christless burning hell. But the good news is that God loves you and desires that you share eternity with Him in this wonderful place called heaven. Will you come today and accept Christ as your Savior and Lord?
Christians, what kind of harvest will you reap from the life you have sown? Have you been obedient to God’s Word? Who are you influencing right now? Do you need to come this morning and spend some time at this altar and do some business with God?
Do you need to come forward this morning because you have felt a calling from God to join this church? We would so much love to have you come and be a part of the ministry of Mountain View Union Church. There is much work to be done – the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Please come as we sing.
