Whatever You Sow Series

We are in week 5 of our series called “Whatever.” And throughout this series, we’ve been looking at those powerful statements in Scripture that begin with that word—whatever.

Whatever you do… do it for God’s glory.

Whatever you ask… ask in Jesus’ name.

Whatever you have… learn to be content.

Whatever you bind on earth… will be bound in heaven

And today we come to another one that is both incredibly simple… but it’s incredibly sobering: Whatever you sow… you will also reap. Or as some translations say… “whatever you plant, that is what you will harvest.”

Now before we dive in… let me start with something that might hit a little too close to home for some of us…

Let’s imagine you decided you were going to start eating healthy. So you go to the grocery store, filled your cart with salads, fruits, vegetables… things you can’t even pronounce.

You get home, unpacked everything, and said, “This is it. New life starts today.” Then… you sit down on the couch… opened a bag of chips… and say, “Well… I’ll start tomorrow.”

The next day came… same plan. You look at the salad in the fridge and say, “You know... it’s easier to start at the beginning of the week… I’ll start Monday.”

Then Monday comes… and suddenly it’s, “Well, you don’t start a diet on a stressful day… Mondays are always so stressful… I’ll start next week.”

Two weeks later… all the healthy food is rotten… the chips are gone… and you step on the scale and say, “I don’t understand. I bought all the right stuff!”

Now listen…I can say that… because I’ve said and done similar things on several occasions… and it might seem funny… or it might hurt too much to laugh because it’s true… but that’s also how a lot of people live spiritually.

We think proximity equals progress.

We think intention equals transformation.

We think just having the right things around us is enough.

But here’s the truth: The Bible doesn’t say… You reap what you intend… you reap what you plant.

And that’s exactly why Paul says in Galatians 6:7:

“Don’t be deceived—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.”

Or as some translations put it… “Whatever you sow, you will reap.”

In other words… you can fool yourself… you can fool others… but you can’t fool the field. Because the field never lies. Your life is like a field… if you will…

And every single day… you are planting something. Every thought… every choice… every habit… every action… it’s a seed.

And one day… like it or not… ready or not… you will harvest what you’ve been planting.

I think this is one of the most sobering… and yet one of the most encouraging truths in all of Scripture. Because here is what it means.

Your life is not random. Your future is not accidental. Your choices matter. You are planting something every single day.

And one day… you will harvest it. I think there are four things that we need to consider today as we look at this often-quoted passage of Scripture.

1. You Cannot Ignore God’s Law

Paul starts this verse off with a sense urgency:

“Don’t be misled…” or some translations say… “Don’t be deceived.”

Now…Why would he say that? I think it’s because he knew that we have an incredible ability to lie to ourselves. We tell ourselves things like…

“I’m ok… This won’t catch up to me.” “I can handle this.”

“It’s really not that big of a deal.” “Hey, God is a God of grace and He will just overlook it.”

So what we do is… we minimize it… we justify it… we compare it.

“Well at least I’m not as bad as them…” “Well this is just a small thing…” “Well this is just for now…”

And little by little… we start calling wrong “not that bad.”

But Paul steps in and says… don’t fool yourself. Don’t buy into the lies that Satan is telling. God is not mocked.

That phrase means you cannot sneer at God’s truth, you cannot disregard His Word, and somehow escape the outcome. You don’t get to rewrite reality.

God has established a moral law in this universe just as real as any physical law…and you don’t break God’s law…You can’t turn your nose up at God’s truth and escape the consequences.

Let’s just imagine I climb up on the highest point of this building and say, “I don’t believe in gravity,” and step off…

Gravity isn’t going to pause and say, “Well, since he doesn’t believe in Gravity… we’ll make an exception.” No… gravity will prove itself instantly. I’m going to down and it’s going to hurt.

And you need to understand this principle… it’s not that I broke the law of gravity… it’s that the law of gravity broke me. Sin works the exact same way.