Sowing And Reaping Series

Over the years, I’ve had a lot of people encourage me to speak on different topics from the pulpit. Let me assure you that as long as I’m here, this pulpit will be reserved for the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ alone!

2. Teachers need time to study, meditate, pray and prepare. This is a glorious calling but it’s not easy.

3. Pastor/teachers should be paid so they don’t have to work a second job to make ends meet.

I heard a pastor this week say it this way, “I’m not paid to preach. I’m paid so I can preach.”

So what is “all good things?” Obviously, it involves financial compensation. In that area, there needs to a balance.

Kenneth Copeland is worth 750 million dollars and has a Gulfstream jet. Where’s my jet?! Here’s his house.

How about T.D. Jakes house? Steven Furtick’s house?

Rick Warren of Saddleback Community Church in CA has a net worth of 40 million dollars. He and his wife reverse tithe - they live on 10% and give 90% away. He drives a 12 year old car, lived in the same house for 22 years, and doesn’t own a boat or a jet.

While some churches pay their pastors outrageous salaries, others determine to keep their pastor humble, hungry and poor by paying them peanuts.

I was eating lunch with an elder at the church I serve at in Florida and he asked me a question that made me laugh. This man, who had taken two golden parachutes from Fortune 500 companies to the tune of about 35 million dollars asked me, “Jeff, you are in your 40s. Where’s your money?!” I told him, “I’ve been in ministry the past 25 years. I’ve got different kind of rewards.”

When I was called into ministry, I knew that I would never be rich. But that’s okay with us.

Besides financial compensation, what else does “all good things” entail? Encouragement, which all pastors need. Oatmeal Butterscotch cookies. I have a very generous friend who takes me clothes shopping from time to time. Love my wife and children and the Goose and Bucky.

Maxine and I are very thankful for the love, care, and support that we have received here and the freedom I have to give myself completely to the work of the ministry.

The Law of the Harvest

Paul continues by introducing the “law of the harvest.”

Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. (Gal 6:7)

Deception has been one of the main themes of Paul’s throughout this letter. This word can me deluded or led astray.

The phrase “God can not be mocked” literally means to “turn your nose up at God…to sneer…to treat with contempt.”

Living in an agrarian society, the concept of sowing and reaping would be easily understood.

It’s an enduring rhythm created by God and promised in His giving of the rainbow as a sign after the flood:

“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” (Gen 8:22)

Let me pause right here and make a distinction for you. Paul is not introducing the idea of “karma.” Karma is not a Christian idea and involves getting what you deserve and that your bad deeds will eventually catch up with you and punish you.