How to Be a Happy Reaper

Well, for our ministry of the week this week, we wanna focus on the ministry of the dads and try to encourage you just a little bit. This is Father's Day. And we just want to take the opportunity today to recognize the dads who are here in the service this morning. We have a gift for you.

And we also want to take a few minutes to, to say a prayer. on your behalf. So why don't we do this? If you are a father, grandfather, great grandfather, expectant father, if you're a father in any of these, ways, would you please stand and remain standing.

And as they stand, let's give these dads an expression of appreciation. we've got some helpers. Please remain standing. we have a book, for you guys.

it is called The Pilgrim's Progress. I don't know, maybe you've heard of it. It's the 2nd best selling book of all time, next to the Bible and was written by John Bunyan while he was in prison. And this is a book that I myself like to read through every few years.

Probably should read through it once a year, and taking some time to go through parts of it with my kids also, but this is a great book. We would commend this to you for your reading and also to make use of it in reading it to your family also. Once you receive the book, you can sit down. And I, I really hope today as dads that you will be, that you'll feel appreciated.

Maybe today you'll have a break from your chores around the house, no laundry. No cooking, no dishes today for you dads. I know you'll welcome that. That break on this special day.

but let me, as a gift to you, pray for you and myself on this Father's Day. Let's look to the Lord together. Lord, this is Father's Day, and we would be remiss if we did not begin this prayer by Acknowledging that you are our Father and you are the ultimate Father, it is you that we celebrate the most on this Father's Day. We thank You, Lord, for adopting us into your family and for making us your children.

We thank you for all of the qualities that you possess that make you such an amazing Abba Father. thank you for being kind and compassionate towards us who are your children, for your gentle ways. We also thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness to discipline us when we have need of such discipline. We know that you love us, Lord.

You have given up all things for us. You always abide. You are always faithful to us. Your faithfulness and your mercies are new every single morning, Lord.

And we just thank you for the father that you are to us. How blessed we are to have this Father in you, and what a great example we have then to follow in being a father to our children. Lord, the, the dads that are in this room, this morning, Some of them are younger, some are older, some have children in the home, others have children who long have been out of the home. Some have teenagers, and some have just little toddlers or infants and Yet each dad in this room has special needs given their children that you have given to them and the stage of life that their children are at.

I just pray, Lord, that you would bless these dads with your wisdom from on high, enable these dads with the wisdom you give to be exactly the father that you want them to be, at whatever stage of life their children are at. I pray that you would sober us as dads with the thought. That perhaps more than any other influence in our children's lives, we as the dads are going to give shape to their view of God. Help us then to know you well and then to mirror your image to our children that they would grow up with a healthy and vibrant and robust view of their God.

As they have seen it displayed. In us Give us wisdom as dads to bring up our children in the nurture and the discipline of the Lord. May we as dads be hard as steel on the absolutes, yet teach us to be sensitive to our children, not provoking them unduly to anger, not causing them to lose heart and to despair, but to lovingly lead our children in the right way. Help us, Lord, by the things that we say, by the things that we do, by the countenance.

that we display to our children, the ways that we go about relating to our children, help us through all of these means, Lord, to lead our homes and to show our children what you are like. Our desire, Lord, is that the children Of this church, Lord, that, that the dads working together with the moms and the dads and moms working together with this community of faith here at Cornerstone, Lord, we're not here to play church. We, we are here to work together to bring up another generation, a godly generation of young men and women who are in the days to come, are going to know their God, they're going to stand firm, they're going to do great exploits in the name of Jesus.

And so help us to be faithful to the calling you've given to us, Lord, that, that through your enabling, we can produce that generation by your grace and for your glory.

And Lord, I know that I've asked a lot in this prayer. But But you're the only one we can bring these requests to because you're the only one who can who can do these things. So it is to you that we come and we come because you've invited us, and I know, I know that these requests are in accordance with your will. And so I know that you have heard us.

And I know that you will answer and we thank you now for how you will answer these requests that we have offered to you on behalf of all of us dads here in this room this morning. We just give ourselves to you, Lord, in the name of Jesus. And all God's people said, Amen. Well, Let me invite you guys to turn in your Bibles to Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians chapter 6 for our time of study and the word this morning. For those of you that are visiting with us, we're doing a verse by verse study through the book of Galatians, and as we continue in our study of this book, we come To Galatians chapter 6 verse 6, and my goal today is to cover verses 6 through 10. and the title of the message this morning is How to Be a Happy Reaper. How to be a happy reaper.

Everyone wants to be a happy reaper, right? all of us want to have many moments of harvest in this life and in the life to come. That when those moments of harvest come, we really like what it is that we are, are reaping in those given moments and throughout eternity. Everyone wants to be a happy reaper.

No one wants to be a grim reaper. That job's already taken, but we, we truly want to be happy with the harvests that come our way. I, I read back in January a news story about a woman named Melina Salazar, who was a waitress at a cafeteria, still is in Brownsburg, Texas. it turns out for a seven-year span, there was this cranky old customer that would come into the restaurant.

And this guy was very demanding. If he, he had certain demands. If he didn't get the service when he wanted it, and if his food didn't come to him exactly how he wanted it, which was blazing hot. he would yell and curse and swear and make life miserable for everyone there in the restaurant to such a degree that the workers, the waitresses and stuff, when this guy would walk in, they groaned and wanted to run the other way and didn't want anything to do with this nasty old man.

However, Melina Salazar decided, what, I'm going to love this guy and I'm going to bless him any way I can. So when everyone stepped away from him, she stepped towards him. And she was kind to him and nice to him when he was being mean and nasty, she would respond with gentleness, and when he was making life miserable for everyone else, she would respond with love and kindness and try to address whatever the issue was that he was upset about on this particular day. Well, last July she and the other workers noticed that this guy, after 7 years of being a regular customer, stopped coming in.

She found out soon thereafter why when she saw his name in the obituary. of the local newspaper and found out that he had died at the age of 89. She didn't think much about it. Beyond that, until a few days before Christmas of last year, she received a phone call from the people that were settling this man's estate, and it turns out he had put her in his will.

And in his will he made two requests, and that was that this woman get his car, which was a 2001 Buick. And also that she received from his estate $50,000 which I am sure was the biggest tip that she had ever received. But for her, Receiving that phone call. It was a harvest.

It was a moment of harvest that when it came, I am sure she was very happy. And when it came, I am sure her coworkers were like, Oh, I wish we would have been nicer to this guy when, when he was around. but we all want moments like that when we're not necessarily talking about just money and stuff, but we all want those really satisfying moments where it puts everything in perspective and we're like, man, all of the effort was worthwhile, and this is really cool, these, these consequences that are coming my way as a result of something that I have done.

Well, I've got good news for you guys, and that is that God wants you to have many moments of happy harvesting, many moments of really satisfying harvest, not only in this life, but also at the judgment and in, eternity following the judgment.

And, and, and, and you guys know what these moments are, just, just to name a few. Here's some of the happy harvest moments. I hope the Montgomery's don't mind me picking on them, but a few weeks ago when Kyle Montgomery was up getting baptized and sharing his testimony of, of the work that God had done in his heart, I'm sitting there listening to him and I'm being blessed just as a pastor here at Cornerstone. To hear this and witness it, but I also found myself asking myself, what is Mark and Vicky thinking of this as his parents?

That's a harvest moment. That's where a harvest is coming their way that they're immensely satisfied with and blessed by. We all want those moments as parents when our children go out of the home and, and we, we hear. From other people of our children just loving the Lord and serving the Lord in the local church, and they're passionate about God and about the gospel.

If we hear about that or we observe something like that in our children, that's a harvesting moment, a moment of happy reaping. Maybe our children are not out of the home, but as they get older, our relationship with them just seems to grow richer and, and there's a special season. Where man, our relationship is richer than it's ever been. That's a harvest moment, a moment of reaping a satisfying harvest in our relationship with our children.

Maybe you have prayed for someone and sought to make a difference in their life, and after an investment in them, you come to observe that there is real life change that has happened. Maybe they respond by doing some kind deed. For you, giving you a gift, maybe writing you a thank you letter. And as you're reading that letter, and you're having this perspective, that is a moment of happy harvesting, of happy reaping.

Maybe in your own life, you have struggled with a sinful pattern of behavior that has dogged your heels. You've had seasons of victory and seasons of defeat, but the seasons of defeat have outweighed the seasons of victory, and you've labored and you've struggled, you've memorized scripture, you've prayed, you've fasted, you've, you've connected with other brothers and sisters to get help with that issue. And then maybe a few months go by and you stop and you go, wait a minute, I haven't stumbled into this sin in a few months now, and I've not even thought much about it.

That's a moment of happy harvesting where the effort has truly been worth.

While on and on the list can go, these are the kinds of moments that we all want to experience, and we're blessed this morning with the fact that we have a God who wants us to experience many moments of happy harvesting in this life and also In the life to come. And in Galatians 6:6 through 10, Paul is going to essentially give us five things that we absolutely need to do if we want to experience many moments of happy harvesting in this life and in eternity. Let me just read this passage and then we'll begin to work our way through it.

Look at verse 6.

The one who was taught in the word. is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.

For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, While we have opportunity, let us do good to all people and especially to those who are of the household.

Of the faith, 5 things that we can learn in this passage that we should do if we want many, many moments of happy harvesting. The first thing, guys, that you absolutely must do if you want this to be a reality in your life is you must know something. And that is you must know that you will certainly reap. What you sow, you must know that you will certainly reap what you sow.

Look at what Paul says in verse 7. He says, Do not be deceived. Don't let yourself be deceived about what I am about to tell you. All right, I'm about to state a truism, and yet it is a truism that is Often something that people are deceived about.

They're either deceived into thinking to the contrary, or they're deceived into just not thinking about it at all, thinking it's a nonissue. Don't be deceived. Don't fool yourself. Don't let anyone else fool you.

God is not mocked. You don't thumb your nose at God. this is absolutely true. There's no escaping this law in God's economy.

And that is that whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. That is the law. That is the principle. Whatever a man sows, that's what he's going to reap.

And you think about reaping, guys. reaping is not just receiving. you do one thing and then here's a consequence that's exactly proportionate to that. No, when you sow seed and then you reap months later, you're reaping multiplied consequences from the seed that you planted.

We've got a tiny little tomato garden in our backyard. You would laugh at it if you saw the size of it. I've got 5 tomato plants and, on Easter Sunday we planted these little tomato plants that were tiny. One of them actually just started, it's a volunteer, it just started growing out of a seed that had fallen from a previous year, and we transplanted that and moved that somewhere else in the garden.

And what's amazing is these plants start off so little. If you see a tomato seed, it's just a little thing, it's just a little effort to put that seed in the soil, but what do you get? You get right now the plants are just huge monsters. we put fish guts in the soil and compost and stuff to make it as rich as possible and we've got these steroid beasts that are that are in our garden now and that are now boasting many, many tomatoes, and they started with just a tiny seed.

And so you plant just one seed, but what you reap is multiplied consequences, all right? And, and basically what Paul is saying here is that what a man sows, he's going to reap in a multiplied fashion either for Good or for evil based on what he sows, and we need to get this into our heads and believe this and allow this principle to guide us. In one sense, this ought to encourage you with the fact that you control the harvest that you're going to get. it's not up to anyone else.

Paul doesn't say you're going to reap what someone else has to sow, and hopefully they're faithful, because if they're not, you're not going to reap anything. No, you're going to reap what you sow. So be encouraged with the thought that you have it within your power to determine the moments of harvest you're going to have in this life and in the life to come, but you also ought to feel a very strong weight of responsibility. When you hear this principle also, because you're going to reap what you sow.

That means you're the one who's going to have to do the sowing if you want to reap a harvest. And children, I would especially challenge you with this. It's so easy growing up in a Christian home. To just think you're OK and you're living off the faith of your parents, and while you're in the home to a large degree, you do enjoy the harvest of maybe how your parents live and the decisions that they make.

But what, you need to be about the task. What age you're at now, you need to be thinking, I need to be sowing seed now that will Generate a harvest that I will be enjoying in the years to come. Don't live off of your parents' faith. Take their faith and make it your own and start sowing seed, planting seed now on Judgment Day, guys.

The only thing that's going to matter in terms of your eternal harvest, the only thing that's going to matter is what you sowed. You're not going to stand before God at the judgment, and God's going to say, what, I really loved your dad. And your dad was an amazing man. He was faithful to me, and as a result of things that your dad did, there were people that got saved.

Heaven is a better, richer place. As a result of the things that your dad did. In fact, your dad is here in heaven with me because of the life that he led. And because your dad was such a good guy, I'm going to let you in on your dad's harvest in heaven.

That's not going to happen. You will reap in this life, and in eternity, what you have sowed. So you have control over that, but you also have the responsibility, and you need to take ownership of that responsibility. And so the issue then is, alright, so I need to believe this.

I'm going to reap what I sow, anything I do. I'm basically setting in motion a chain of consequences that's going to come back to me in a multiplied fashion. So I need to get that in my head and allow that to guide me. What else do I need to do?

Well, there's a second thing you need to do if you want many moments of really satisfying harvest, and that is you need to be constantly seeking to participate with your teachers in all the good of the gospel. You need to be constantly seeking to participate with your teachers in all the good of the gospel. That's wordy, but couldn't think of a A shorter way to word this, and we get this from verse 6. Now let me say something about verse 6, guys, and hang with me for just a minute.

Verse 6, in fact, in the New American Standard, it says the one who was taught the word is to share all good things with the one who teaches him. And when you look at the New American Standard along with all, many of the other translations, what it sounds like Is that Paul is telling the students, Hey, your teachers are teaching you, be grateful for that, and you need to take the good material things that you possess and share those good things with your teacher and bless them.

They give you spiritual stuff. You bless them by taking care of them financially.

That is actually a biblical concept that is taught elsewhere in the New Testament. It may be what Paul is saying here in verse 6, all right. However, though most commentators understand verse 6 in this way, almost every one of them do admit it's puzzling that Paul would throw that instruction in in verse 6, following what he says in verses 1 through 5, and then immediately preceding what he says in verses 7 to 10. Everyone admits that it's a puzzle if that is indeed what he says, but nonetheless, some people choose to understand the passage that way.

However, there are commentators such as John MacArthur, John Stott, and Linsky and others who understand this passage differently in the opposite way, and that's the direction that I lean. In fact, look at the bottom of the screen and you see a suggested translation of this where Paul says, Let the one who is taught in the word participate in that Greek word is the word we get our expression koinonia from. It means to partner with, to fellowship with, to participate in. That's what that concept of Koinania means.

And Paul literally is saying that the one who is taught in the word fellowship in all good things with the one who teaches him or participate. In all good things with the one who teaches him. Indeed, the expression good things could be referring to material things. however, in the New Testament, that expression good things is at times used to speak of gospel, good things.

In fact, in Romans chapter 10 verse 15, Paul says, how beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of good things. That word good things is the word we get the name Agatha from. All right, Agathos, it speaks of something that is good, that is beneficial. And so the gospel contains good things.

In Hebrews 9:11, it says, that when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, speaking of the good spiritual things, the gospel things that were to come through Christ, and so putting that together, let's read verse 6 again. Paul says the one who is taught in the Word. And what is the word? It's the gospel word.

The one who's being taught the word, the word of the gospel, is to fellowship in or participate in all the good things with the one who's teaching him those good things. You understand the meaning there. In fact, listen to Lensky's summary of this passage and his understanding of it. Which I would very much be sympathetic towards.

He says in this verse, the one who instructs has the good things. The one being instructed is to proceed to participate in them, in all of them. The riches are with the teacher of the word, the poverty is with the pupil, and the pupil is to institute fellowship with the teacher so that he, the pupil may be enriched. You get the message there.

So here's the deal. You want to experience many moments of satisfying harvest in this life and in the life to come. Get yourself under teachers, get yourself in relationship with teachers, teachers of the true gospel, and listen to them as they teach you the things of the gospel, and don't just hear them and learn them, but become an active fellowshipper, an active participant with. teachers in all of the good things of the gospel, not just some of the good things, but we need to be driven by a holy greed, guys, where we're not just content with a pathetic little understanding of the gospel that, yeah, Jesus died, he was raised, and I believe in Him, and I'm going to heaven.

Yeah, that's gospel truth, but what, that's just a fraction of the beauty and the glory. In the riches of the gospel, and we should be driven by an ambition to want to know all of the things that are in the gospel, whatever the gospel is, I want to know everything that's inside the gospel. I want to know all of the riches that are in there, all of the good and beneficial things that are in the gospel. How will I come to know that I will put myself under teachers who will teach me these things.

You say, Well, who should the teachers be? Well, can I suggest the apostles? The New Testament apostles, Peter and Paul and the writers of the New Testament, who were called by Jesus. To teach us the gospel and show us the good things that are in the gospel.

Whenever you read your Bible, you're basically placing yourself underneath the authoritative teaching ministry of the apostles. That's also why we have church and have a church community, a community of faith, and why there are elders and pastors and teachers who are called to teach. That's why I'm up here teaching. you the word of God.

What I'm doing is I'm sharing the good news with you and showing you some of the good things that are in the gospel. And so you put yourself under that teaching ministry of, of your parents, of your pastors, of your Sunday school teachers. You seize any opportunity to just be taught more about the gospel and the good things that are in the gospel with the technology we have today. get on the internet, download, sermons.

There's thousands of them out there, by really passionate people who love God and love the gospel. Download them onto your iPod or whatever and, and, get CDs, whatever. Listen to those things and search out the depths of the good that is in the gospel and benefit from them. Read books.

That are designed to show you the glories and the depths and the riches of the gospel. You want to experience a great glorious harvest in eternity. You want many satisfying moments of rich spiritual harvest. Now you need to know number 1, that you're going to reap what you sow, and number 2, you need to locate yourself humbly under the teaching.

Ministry of other people realizing my own wisdom's not going to cut it. The wisdom that is innate to me is, is not sufficient. In fact, it's dangerous. I need to be taught.

I need to be instructed. So I will be instructed about the gospel, and I will become a participant with my teachers in all of the good things that are in the gospel. That's the 2nd thing you need to do. A 3rd thing that you need to do if you want many satisfying moments of harvest is you need to refuse to sow to the flesh.

You need to refuse to sow to the flesh. Look at verse 8. Paul says, for the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life. Now, there's a sense in which the metaphor here is getting a little bit jumbled.

But that's OK. Paul now in verse 8 is actually depicting two fields, all right, and I want you to get a visual of this. I want you to picture a farmer who has two fields, and one of the fields is called the flesh, the sinful flesh, and the other field is called the spirit. And we've already learned that there's a battle raging between the flesh and the spirit, and we have a choice which one we're going to follow.

Verse 8 tells us that in a sense the flesh is a field and the spirit is a field, and we have a choice over which of those fields we're going to plow and invest our blood, sweat, toil, and tears into. And Paul says, whichever of those two fields you pour yourself into and invest yourself in, that's the field that you're going to reap a harvest from. And he says the one who sows to his flesh, literally the one who sows seed into his flesh, so imagine a field called the flesh, and the person who goes to that field and he's investing himself in that field, he plows it up, works it.

That's where his energy goes, and he's planting the seed of his energy and his investment into this field.

The person who does that is going to reap from that field corruption. Or death. What is the field of the flesh? We'll go back to chapter 5, verse 19.

The deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these. That's the flesh, that part of us that desires the opposite always of what God wants. And Paul would basically tell us, don't work that field. Don't sow any seed, don't invest yourself in that field, because if you do, you're going to reap a harvest of death.

I want to alert you guys to something that's really sobered me this week. we all might say, yeah, I know that we reap what we sow. but then when are we actually sowing when we're consciously saying I am sowing now, and if I'm not consciously thinking I'm sowing, then I'm not officially sowing. So Lord, please keep that in mind.

I'm, I'm making a wrong choice here, but I'm not officially sowing any seed here. No, here's the deal. You, you are always sowing, always, except when you sleep, you get a free pass on that, however long you sleep. you get a free pass on that.

You're not sewing while you're sleeping. but when you're awake, all of the hundreds and even thousands of choices that you make throughout each day, do I go with the flesh or the spirit on this? Do I do what the flesh wants or the spirit? What attitude will I have?

What response will I have? What words will I speak? What will I think about? What will I meditate on in this moment as I'm driving my car?

What will I say to my children in this moment? How will I say, in those moments where you're choosing between the flesh and the spirit, whether you're mindful of this or not, you're always sowing. You're either working the field of the flesh or the field of the spirit, and Paul says you work the field of the flesh and you're going to reap a harvest of death. Joshua Harris, as I'm setting this passage, I was reminded that in Joshua Harris's book, Not even a hint, a book on sexual purity, he actually uses this passage and I went back to this book and really appreciated something he said.

About this. Listen to what he says. He says, when it comes to sewing into the flesh, we do this by indulging in a lustful glance, a sinful fantasy, or a movie loaded with sexual innuendo. We might think of these acts as harmless little flecks of dirt that we can just brush off every so often.

With no real damage done. But God is telling us here in Galatians 6 that our sinful thoughts and deeds are actually seeds that land in the soil of our flesh, and they don't go away once they fall. They take root, they grow up, and eventually they become a great harvest of spiritual death. This is extremely sobering.

Maybe in a fleshly moment you give way to the flesh. You look at something you shouldn't look at on television, and you think, OK, I'll ask forgiveness later. And, and, but you take a few minutes and you linger over an image and then you turn away and say, OK, that deed is done. That deed is no more done than a seed is done once you put it in the soil.

That deed now is inside of you. It's in the soil of your flesh, and it'll grow. It will come back to harass you, either your conscience when it comes to guilt or in another weak moment. You've now made yourself a little more prone to that particular sin.

A harvest will come from that. And we're not just talking about sexual sins. If you in a given moment just find yourself deciding, I will meditate over the next few minutes on this grievance that has been done against me by my spouse, by my children, by someone in the church, and you just by my parents or whatever, and you just linger. Over that and you're stewing over that nursing that grievance and giving way to anger and bitterness.

And then you say, OK, I've had enough of that. I'm done. You might be done, you might stop nursing that grievance and, and meditating on it and begin to think about something else. But that deed that you have done, even in your mind is no more done.

It's no more finished than a seed is finished once you've planted it into the soil. It'll grow. It'll take root. And Paul is saying, don't ever plant anything in this field.

Don't and think about how small are seeds, how small are seeds, and what an amazing harvest comes from just a tiny seed, not only a harvest. Coming immediately from that. But inside of that harvest are 1000 more seeds that continue on for years and years and years. And so even just a seed, we might think this is just a tiny little thing that I can make a compromise here, I can do this and, and, but when you do that, you're planting seed in the soil of your flesh, and it's going to take root, and it's going to grow.

Maybe you're involved in a relationship right now. And you're not married, but you're dating somebody and your relationship has become physical and you're making compromising, compromises, and you're engaging in actions physically with one another that are arousing. In each other desires that cannot righteously be satisfied outside of marriage. What you are doing in those moments, in those hours and minutes where you are doing that type of thing outside of marriage is you are sowing seed in the soil of your flesh, and it will take root.

And it will grow and you won't, I'm telling you, you won't like the harvest. You enjoy the pleasure now, but you won't like the chain of consequences that that produces that will come back to you in a multiplied way. Don't sow to the flesh. Because when you do, it brings a harvest of death.

I was rereading a couple of weeks ago the story, an autobiographical story in a magazine. from a pastor who had had a successful ministry, but he got involved in an adulterous relationship, made a lot of compromises in his heart and his mind over the years, and one thing led to another. He ended up being involved in a full-on adulterous affair with a woman. In the church and at just he lost his ministry, he lost everything, his wife and his kids just, just wanted nothing to do with him.

And at the, the time of the writing of the article, his wife was barely in the beginning stages of even being remotely interested in working with him towards reconciliation, and his children were still at a place where they didn't want anything to do with their dad. Here's a man who experienced moments of pleasure. He made compromises, but he really hated the harvest. In fact, he said in the article, he says, You cannot imagine how much I hate even writing these words.

I hate the life that I've brought upon myself, the death that I have brought to my wife and to my children and to my family and to my ministry. That's just one example. Paul says if you plant seed and invest yourself in the soil of your flesh, You're going to reap a harvest that you're not going to like. So if you want moments of satisfying harvest, don't sow that field.

but instead, here's the field you want to work, and that is the field of the Spirit. You must be continuously sowing literally into the preposition says into the Spirit. You go to the Spirit and you invest your blood, sweat, toil, and tears, your focus, your energy, your vitality. You Invest yourself in that field.

That is the field that you plow. That is the field that you work. That is the field that you plant the seed of your energy into. And Paul says, if you work that field, guaranteed, you're going to love the harvest because you will reap eternal life.

You say, Yeah, yeah, eternal life, that's the life that never ends. Even if I wanted it to end, it'll never end. I know about that. eternal life is more than just unending life, guys.

It's all of the fullness and all of the riches that go along with that eternal life. Jesus said in John 17, speaking to the Father, This is eternal life, Father, that they, my disciples, may know You and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. Eternal life involves just being involved in an intimate relationship with the God of the universe who created everything, this incredibly generous God who loved you so much He gave up His Son. And if He gave up His own Son for you, how will He not With His Son freely give you all things richly to enjoy both spiritually and materially.

You live in sight of this amazing love, and for all of eternity, God Himself says that eye has not seen nor his ear heard nor has it even entered into the heart of man the things I've prepared for those that are in relationship with me. All right, eternity, eternal life is having a love relationship with this being. That's eternal life. You sow to the Spirit, you will reap.

You will reap this eternal life, not only in this life, but also in the life to come. You say, Well, how do I sow to the Spirit? Well, let's be practical. Here are some ways to work the field of the Spirit.

Read and study your spirit inspired scriptures every day. Go to that field every day and read and study the Spirit inspired scriptures. The Spirit gave you the word. He inspired all of the writers of Scripture.

Also memorize and meditate on spirit given. Spirit inspired spirit illumined passages in Scripture. These are the things you want to think about and meditate on. And also keep your focus on the gospel.

Put the gospel in front of your face, and you walk every day, with the gospel in front of you. That is the core of your meditation before God, knowing the hell that you deserve, but instead the grace that God has given, the forgiveness that he's given to you, the amazing grace that he has lavished upon you. To where you are in a state of utter amazement over this incredible generosity from this God, who's been so good to you in spite of what you deserve. You keep your focus on the gospel and the good things that are in the gospel, and enjoy those things.

That's another way. By the way, I think in 1 Peter 1:13, it describes the gospel as that which came to us by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. The spirit is the one that mediated the gospel to us and mediates the gospel to us every day as we meditate upon it, and so keep your focus. On this gospel, also pray according to Ephesians, it's by one Spirit that we have access to the Father.

The Spirit helps us. He's our facilitator and coming before the Father. And gives us access to the Father each day. And then even when we come into the presence of the Father, the Spirit is the one who lets us in and then we enter into God's presence and we kneel to pray.

And before we realize it, we sense there's a presence kneeling next to us and it's the Spirit. He's praying with us and He's helping us in our weakness and, and as he prays, he's praying with groanings that we're not even able to utter. Pains, those groanings, those longings that are so deep inside of you, you don't even understand them. You could never even begin to give voice to them, but you listen to the Spirit and He's giving voice to those groanings as your companion in prayer.

You want to work the field of the Spirit to sow seed in that field of the Spirit of God. Then pray also get your hands on good Christian books, either just audio. To where you can listen to it, on, on tape or on your iPod or just hard copy books and, and read books by godly Christian men and women who are a little further along in their understanding of the good things that are in the gospel. Read this stuff that's out there.

There's much. That's out there so that you can come to know the good things that are in the gospel and become richer by the experience of encountering the contents of these books. I would also challenge you to listen to good, godly Christian music. Just a question for you here.

You got the field of the flesh, the field of the spirit. If 99.9% of your music diet is coming from people who don't know Jesus, Which field is that? Which field is that? Is it the spirit or is it coming from the world, the flesh?

I'm not saying anything ever written or sung by a nonbeliever is bad. I'm not saying that at all, but something's skewed when, for example, Christian young people have on their iPod, 1000 songs and 998 of them have nothing to do with Jesus. And they wonder, I don't, I don't know why I'm not reaping a harvest of holiness. Well, you're going to reap from that field.

And you're definitely cheating yourself out of the opportunity to really benefit from godly Christian music that is lyrically sound that's going to take your thoughts to God and to the gospel and sow the seed of the word of God in your heart. So I would really challenge you, look at your musical diet. What, what am I listening to? And maybe the stuff you're listening to is actually bad and it's clearly fleshly, it's sensual, it's immoral, and it's something that you as an unmarried person, for example, have no business listening to and even a married person would have no business listening to.

Good grief. but, maybe a lot of what you're listening to, you listen to it and check out the lyrics, which you should do, by the way, and parents, you should do this as well. Don't listen to anything and enjoy any music without screening the lyrics very carefully, but look at the lyrics and maybe the lyrics aren't bad. And so I'm not saying that's a bad thing to listen to, but then back away and just look at the full scope of your music diet.

We've got young people now that literally listen to thousands of songs every week. It's just amazing the phenomenon that's happening today with the technology that we have. And out of all of that input musically that you're getting, how much of that is of the spirit? That's all I'm asking.

How much of that is of the spirit? You want to reap a harvest of holiness. Then you want to make songs that take your focus to God and to the gospel, a very large part of your listening diet. In fact, that should be the largest part of your diet, musically.

Listen to what Joshua Harris says in his book Not Even a Hint. I love this. He says, Do why some Christians make great strides in their walk with God while others are stagnant? Have you ever wondered if there is a godliness gene that some people are born with?

Of course there isn't. The difference between the person who grows in holiness and the one who doesn't is not a matter of personality, upbringing, or gifting. The difference is what each has planted into the soil of his or her heart and soul. So holiness is not a mysterious spiritual state that only an elite few can reach.

It's more than an emotion or a resolution or an event. Holiness is a harvest. It's a harvest, and it comes as a result of diligently sowing the right seed and the right soil so that you then begin to reap this harvest and experience many satisfying happy moments of harvesting. eternal life and the glorious harvest that comes from the Spirit.

You're going to reap what you sow, and if you want to reap good things, you've got to sow good things, and you need to sow those good things in the field of the Spirit. There is another thing you need to do, and this leads to the 5th thing, and that is you need to do what's right and good, but that that leads us to the 5th and the final thing that you must do if you want many satisfying moments of happy harvesting, and that is be ever doing gospel good to all, both lost and saved.

Be ever doing gospel good to all, both lost and saved. Look at verse 9.

Paul says, Let us not lose heart in doing good. All right. For in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary. By the way, let me throw this in.

Verse 9 ought to alert you to something, and that is that along the path of sowing seed in the field of the Spirit, there will be moments of frustration. There will be moments where the harvest seems to delay. Where it doesn't come as quickly as we want, right? We're all familiar with that.

But we also understand from the natural realm that when a farmer sows his field, he doesn't go out the next day with his tractor to harvest, does he? No, it takes months. It takes time for that seed to take root and then to grow and for it to produce whatever it is that that farmer needs to harvest, and so it takes time. And sometimes that time may be prolonged and we're frustrated and we wish it would come, and so we tend to grow weary and we can lose heart and say, I'm not going to mess with this anymore.

I'm not going to pour myself into this relationship anymore. I'm not going to try to work towards a godly breakthrough in this relationship anymore because all the efforts that I I have put into it. There has been no satisfying harvest that has come to me in a prolonged way. I've been battling with this sin in my life that has been dogging my heels, and I've been, I've been reading and I've been praying and making myself accountable to other people.

And I'm not getting this harvest of holiness that that I long for. And so you feel like giving up. Paul says, you're going to have moments like that. But he says, don't, don't grow weary.

Don't stop sowing seed. The harvest will come. There'll be mornings where you get up in the morning and you're like, Man, I'm feeling spiritual today. God, I'm going to pray, and you have a wonderful prayer time, you spend time in the word and you think God's going to be really impressed with this, and I think I'm going to have a really good day.

And an hour later, just something breaks loose in your life and everything falls apart. And before it, words are coming out of your mouth. Attitudes being displayed. And you're like, I have no clue what's happened to me.

How, how was I here an hour ago, and now I'm here, some harvest I get for my investment of energy and spending time in the word. We're all going to have moments like that. And we're going to be tempted to say, what, it's not worth the effort. But Paul says, I know, I know, because I have those same moments, but I'm telling you, and I'm telling me, let us not lose heart in doing good.

In due time, we guaranteed will reap if we do not grow slack. Or grow weary and sowing. But he then goes on into verse 10 and says, so then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. You see, I love verse 10 because it, it, it, it eliminates the individualism of everything that One might think Paul has said up to this point, yes, I sow seed to the Spirit when I'm in the house by myself, and I decide I'm going to read my Bible, and I'm going to memorize this verse, and I'm going to spend time praying to God, and I'm going to listen to this sermon on my iPod.

I'm sowing seed in the field of the Spirit whenever I make those decisions, and I'm in the house by myself and maybe the TV is on and something comes on the screen and it's like that's of the flesh. I'm going to turn away. I'm not going to look at that. When I make that decision, I'm choosing not to sow in the field of the flesh, and instead to sow in the field of the spirit.

But all of that just simply has to do with me. All right. Verse 10 tells us that we also sow to the Spirit when we take the good of the gospel that we have experienced in Christ, and we walk towards other people, and we do good. onto them.

And Paul says, let us be doing good to all people. I love this. In verse 6, he says, we need to become a participant in all the good things that are in the gospel. Now verse 10, we need to be resolved to be doing good to all people.

So all people, regardless of ethnicity, regardless of where they are in, on the economic ladder, the social ladder, whatever neighborhood they live in, and how rich or poor they might be, the color of their skin without any regard to those things, and even whether they're a Christian or not, a part of the church or not, Paul says you just need to live your life. Doing genuine gospel good to other people. In other words, being towards other people, whether they're saved or lost, the same way that God has been towards you, you, you love them, you do good unto them as a grace, not because they earn it, not because they're going to reciprocate, you think, but you do this because this is what God has done to you.

You do good, to all, just live your life doing good.

To all people. I was reading a book, Recently by a guy who was not writing from a Christian perspective, but he says, I've got a cure for depression. And that cure is every single day do something genuinely good for somebody else. Even worldlings are clued into this.

Do something genuinely good for somebody else in your life. Do that every single day. And he says, in 14 days, come back to me and tell me how you're feeling. Tell me what you're struggling with.

We get the focus off of us and we do good to other people. You say, Well, I don't know if I really like doing good to nonbelievers because what if they take what I give them and they spend it for selfish purposes or sinful purposes or they're not grateful for what I've done to them. Well, my response to you is, you've never done that? You've never done that with what God has been generous with you.

With you've never taken anything that God has given you and used it for sinful purposes, selfish purposes. You've never been ungrateful for what God has given to you? All of us have blown it. All of us have been ungrateful to God.

All of us have taken maybe God gives us the capacity to work and earn money, and all of us have used that money at times for sinful, for selfish purposes. And what? Amazingly, God gives us the capacity to keep working and keep getting more money. That's amazing.

And a lot of times we're not even grateful. We're we're upset that we're not even getting more than what we're getting. So God gives us something and we're, we're fussing about it. But nonetheless, God keeps on giving to us the capacity to have and he gives to us blessings, and he causes His Son to shine on the evil and the good and his rain to fall on the good, as well as the evil.

And so what, if sinners, we do need to be responsible with the money God has given to us, but if a sinner does not respond in a perfectly appropriate way, our money is not wasted. We've just paid for an incredible object lesson that can instruct us and chasten us. I was coming out of the grocery store a couple of months ago with one of my children, and a lady approached us who was in distress, and she told me her story and we listened to her and And it was compelling enough to where I felt led in that moment.

I don't always feel this way, but I felt led in that moment to give her a $5 bill.

So I gave her the $5 and I said, Here, this is to help you. She took the $5 and here's what she did. As soon as she saw it, she grabbed it and just turned and her shoulders just stooped over. She was clearly unhappy with what I'd given her, and I said, Ma'am, what's the problem?

She says, Well, I was hoping you'd give me more. And I said, Ma'am, you're going to say thank you for what I've given you. This is all I'm able to give you right now. And she then said thank you, and she ended up walking away.

And as my child and I continued towards our car, I said to my child, I said, what, what that lady did, your daddy has done to God many, many times. And as I stood there watching that lady, I saw me. How many times has God given me something? And I'm like, I'm not even grateful for it and I wish that he had given me more.

Have you ever done that? Did I waste my money? That, that, that visual. That gave me an idea of how I have looked at my father, that, that was worth my $5 to be made wiser by, and to be chastened by.

So Paul says you do good to all without regard to are they going to be appropriately grateful? Are they going to use it for, this or that? And again, I'm not saying just go giving thousands of dollars to just anyone carelessly. I'm not saying that, but I just tend to think we go to the other extreme, to a fault.

that makes us very stingy, and we're not manifesting gospel generosity, the gospel generosity that God has given to us. in Christ and so we do need to have hearts that are enlarged towards other people and maybe even right away they're not gonna be changed as a result of what we've done for them. But who's to say that a week later they're not chasing themselves by their ingratitude or whatever? I remember one time we helped out a guy here in this community and we got him hooked up in a hotel.

He got in that hotel and watched pornographic videos. In the hotel room. A month later, he came back to us and confessed his sin. This is a homeless guy, and confessed his sin.

He says, I want you to know what I did with the money that you gave me, and I'm very sorry. Was that wasted money? No. Let's do good to all men as God gives us the opportunity and brings people across our path.

But then he says, especially to those who are of the household of faith, our brothers and sisters in the church community, in the community of faith, man, we, they are the special objects of our generosity and of our charity, and we Especially want to do good to them if there are needs in their life, if they need a meal brought to their house because they're in a time of crisis, or they need funds or they need something that we have that we can give them, we make them the prized objects of our charity.

We do good to all, but especially to those who are of the household of faith. The day will come when probably if we live our life this way, the good that goes forth from us will ultimately come back to us in this life. through the generosity of other people and kindness that comes back to us.

But on judgment Day, what happens in Matthew 25? Jesus says to those who are righteous, he says, enter into the joy of your master. And the reason I'm letting you in is because I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink. I was hungry, you gave me something to eat.

I was in prison, you came and visited me, remember that? And I was sick, you, you took care of me. And the righteous are going to say, when did we ever see you thirsty or hungry? We don't recall, and Jesus will say, inasmuch as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me.

And so I took your deeds personally. And I'm standing here to thank you and to say, enter into this harvest. That is yours as a result of the life you led and the good you did to other people. Let me ask you to bow your heads.

God has called us. To a salvation we can all be very grateful, can't we? That we're not going to reap the eternal judgment that we have sown. That's a grace from God.

But we've learned in this passage that God wants to bless us with many satisfying moments of harvest, but he can't do that if all we do is sow in the field of our flesh and make wrong choices. If you're a believer, you're going to go to heaven, but the extent of enjoyment of heaven and the extent of your wealth, the depth of the harvest in heaven, will be influenced by the choices you make, whether you're sowing to the flesh or to the spirit. And what guys, if you're anything like me, you keep day by day reaping a mixed harvest.

I know for me, Even this week, I found myself in the middle of an ugly harvest of my doing because of seeds that I sowed.

There are times where I reap a harvest from my flesh. And there are times where I reap a harvest from the Spirit. Maybe you've already blown it. You've planted so many seeds in the soil of your flesh.

But just know that God forgives. God's grace is there, and God so wants you to enjoy many moments of happy harvesting that He, He brought you here this morning, and He speaks to you through His word. I want you to feel the kindness of God in this passage, and he's saying, I want this for you. And here's how to have these moments.

Both in this life and in the life to come. Dear God, I just pray for any that might be here today who don't even have the spirit inside of them that I can't touch anyone's heart. I can't change anyone, but I ask you, Lord, in your perfect timing to do a work in every heart that is in this room, draw people to yourself that they see the glory of this love that could be theirs to enjoy, to have a relationship with this, this incredible Creator who is so generous and so loving and who wants the very best for us.

May they come to you by faith in Jesus.

For those of us, Lord, that know you and we stumble, we, we sow seed in the flesh all the time and we want to sow seed in the spirit and we do sometimes, Lord, we want to do better. We thank you for the gift that this passage is that teaches us how we can live better and enjoy. Very satisfying moments of harvest. We will rejoice in those moments and you will rejoice to see us in those moments.

That's why you gave us this text. Help us to heed what we have heard and glorify you in doing so. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.