[The following is the manuscript of my sermon delivered on the 3rd of May, 2015.]
The book of Ecclesiastes tells us that “to everything there is a season”, “a time to plant and a time to harvest”. Spring is our season, our time, to plant. So I’d like us to take inventory of our seed stores.
Listen and follow along as I read to you from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, using the Contemporary English Version of our Bible…
Listen and follow along as I read to you from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia, chapter 6, verses 1 through 10, using the Contemporary English Version of our Bible…
1 My friends, you are spiritual. So if someone is trapped in sin, you should gently lead that person back to the right path. But watch out, and don’t be tempted yourself. 2 You obey the law of Christ when you offer each other a helping hand.
3 If you think you are better than others, when you really aren’t, you are wrong. 4 Do your own work well, and then you will have something to be proud of. But don’t compare yourself with others. 5 We each must carry our own load.
6 Share every good thing you have with anyone who teaches you what God has said.
7 You cannot fool God, so don’t make a fool of yourself! You will harvest what you plant. 8 If you follow your selfish desires, you will harvest destruction, but if you follow the Spirit, you will harvest eternal life. 9 Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right, if you don’t give up. 10 We should help people whenever we can, especially if they are followers of the Lord.
--Galatians 6:1-10 (CEV)
Let us pray… Father God, of the four season You gave us, Spring is so refreshing and beautiful. The renewal of Your garden reminds us of the resurrection of Your Son and our Lord Jesus. Renew our spirits this morning, Father, as we gather here to receive Your message. Touch our hearts with Your Holy Spirit that we might be changed. In the beautiful name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
A man brand new to farming called up the NC State University department of agricultural sciences and asked for help. The university sent a professor out to assist the newbie farmer.
“What is it you want to produce on your farm?”, asked the professor after introducing himself to the farmer.
“Chickens”, the farmer replied.
“Well,” responded the professor, “there are a lot of successful chicken farms in this area. What seems to be the problem you’re experiencing?”
With exasperation evident in his voice, the farmer replied, “I just can’t get any chickens to grow. I’ve tried and tried, but none grow.”
Puzzled, the professor asked, “Why not? What process are you using?”
The farmer waved his hand across the newly plowed field they happened to be standing in and lamented, “I’ve planted chicken seed time after time, and at varying depths in the soil. I’ve watered it and weeded around it and loved on it. But no chickens comes up!”
Absolutely astonished, the professor looked at the farmer and replied, “Chicken seed? Do you mean chicken feed?!? You silly man. You can’t plant chicken feed in the dirt and expect chickens to spring up! You have to plant these!”, he said, handing the farmer an egg.
I’d say both the farmer and the professor were a little confused about growing chickens. But they at least had the right idea as far as what Paul tells us. You will grow what you sow. Maybe not chickens, but certainly corn, like I was telling the kids a moment ago. You can’t plant tomato seeds and expect to harvest corn.
And that’s what Paul tells us: you will harvest what you plant. So I’d like for us to look at what we sow during our walk through this life. What seeds are we planting? Or perhaps more to the point, what kind of seeds are we planting?
If we look at the book of Job, chapter 4 verse 8, his “friend” Eliphaz warns Job…
A man brand new to farming called up the NC State University department of agricultural sciences and asked for help. The university sent a professor out to assist the newbie farmer.
“What is it you want to produce on your farm?”, asked the professor after introducing himself to the farmer.
“Chickens”, the farmer replied.
“Well,” responded the professor, “there are a lot of successful chicken farms in this area. What seems to be the problem you’re experiencing?”
With exasperation evident in his voice, the farmer replied, “I just can’t get any chickens to grow. I’ve tried and tried, but none grow.”
Puzzled, the professor asked, “Why not? What process are you using?”
The farmer waved his hand across the newly plowed field they happened to be standing in and lamented, “I’ve planted chicken seed time after time, and at varying depths in the soil. I’ve watered it and weeded around it and loved on it. But no chickens comes up!”
Absolutely astonished, the professor looked at the farmer and replied, “Chicken seed? Do you mean chicken feed?!? You silly man. You can’t plant chicken feed in the dirt and expect chickens to spring up! You have to plant these!”, he said, handing the farmer an egg.
I’d say both the farmer and the professor were a little confused about growing chickens. But they at least had the right idea as far as what Paul tells us. You will grow what you sow. Maybe not chickens, but certainly corn, like I was telling the kids a moment ago. You can’t plant tomato seeds and expect to harvest corn.
And that’s what Paul tells us: you will harvest what you plant. So I’d like for us to look at what we sow during our walk through this life. What seeds are we planting? Or perhaps more to the point, what kind of seeds are we planting?
If we look at the book of Job, chapter 4 verse 8, his “friend” Eliphaz warns Job…
8 Even as I have seen,
Those who plow iniquity
And sow trouble reap the same.
--Job 4:8 (NKJV)
If we plow sin and sow trouble, we can expect to receive sin and trouble in return. If we spread gossip or lies about others, we can expect someone else to gossip or lie about us. If we purpose to bring grief to someone, to cause them problems, then somewhere along the line grief will befall us, problems will come back to haunt us. The wheel of life - what goes around comes around.
And really, what kind of person would we be if we fell into that trap, if we sowed sin and trouble? The wise King Solomon tells us exactly what kind of person we’d be, in Proverbs 6, verses 12 through 19…
Yes, that is the exact verse I mentioned to the kids a few minutes ago. Not only will we reap what we sow, but we will reap how we sow. The more bad seed we spread, the more bad things we can expect to come our way. But if we repent of our sinful ways, of planting those bad seeds, and turn our back on them and start planting only good seed, then we will be rewarded with a good and bountiful harvest, if not in this life then when we face our Lord Jesus and He shows us our treasure stored up in heaven.
In verse 7 of today’s scripture reading, Paul tells us we can’t fool God – to try doing so only makes fools of ourselves. In verse 1 he tells us to help others that may be struggling with sin, but to watch out because we can easily be tempted to sin ourselves. Verse 2 instructs us to offer each other a helping hand, because, as verse 3 says, we really aren’t better than anyone else. Verse 6: share every good thing you have.
Share smiles, not frowns. If you hear a juicy tidbit of gossip, don’t spread it – let it stop with you. Speak kindly of others, or don’t speak of them at all. Help defuse tense situations, don’t add fuel to the fire. Keep your little snide remarks to yourself and instead express happiness to others in having the Holy Spirit alive and well within you. Keep your pride in check, but be quick to praise others for doing good. Let joy be seen on your face and let the peace of God be evident in your every act. Don’t complain about any little thing, but smile and help share the sufferings of others.
Be kind, be good, be gentle, be faithful – to yourself, to others, and to Jesus. And most of all, spread love with every step you take. Plant seeds of love, and sow them bountifully. Let your love for all others show in everything you do, everything you say, every move you take and every decision you make.
Love is what our Lord Jesus is all about. Love is what He gives us. Love is what He asks of us - love for Him, love for God our Father, and love for each other. Cast the good seed of love all around you, and you will harvest the fruits of love in tremendous measure.
Amen.
Let us pray… Lord Jesus, when You walked this earth You sowed the most beautiful of seeds, the word of our Father God and His offer of everlasting life through You. And all He asks is that we believe in You as His Son. Lord, we know that when we truly believe, we want to do so much more. We want to turn from our sins and return to God. We want to love each other the way that You, Christ Jesus, love us. We want to help those in need. We want to provide for the advancement of Your kingdom. We want to go out into the world making disciples for You, Lord, until that day when every knee shall bow at the mere mention of Your name and every tongue shall proclaim Your sovereign lordship.
But Lord, too often we find it easier to sow seeds that only bear rotten fruit. We delight in gossip, both hearing it and sharing it. We tell small lies, even if just to spare someone’s feelings. We call our neighbor a fool. We accuse, we point fingers, we judge. We do things we shouldn’t do and don’t do things we should. We want to plant the seeds that bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we end up with weeds throughout our garden, strangling those good plants we manage to get to grow.
Dearest Jesus, our heads are bowed and our hearts are humbled. We offer our silent pleas for Your help, Your intervention over our lives. Hear us in this quiet moment, and speak to us that we might better follow Your voice…
Lord Jesus, we know we cannot fool our Father in heaven, we know we will harvest what we sow. Please help us be better sowers, Lord. Show us the fruits our actions will produce before we make mistakes. We don’t want to be seen as wicked in our Father’s eyes. Help us plant only good seed, and remind us to sow bountifully so that we can receive a bountiful harvest in return. In Your most blessed name, Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.
And really, what kind of person would we be if we fell into that trap, if we sowed sin and trouble? The wise King Solomon tells us exactly what kind of person we’d be, in Proverbs 6, verses 12 through 19…
12 A worthless person, a wicked man,
Walks with a perverse mouth;
13 He winks with his eyes,
He shuffles his feet,
He points with his fingers;
14 Perversity is in his heart,
He devises evil continually,
He sows discord.
15 Therefore his calamity shall come suddenly;
Suddenly he shall be broken without remedy.
16 These six things the Lord hates,
Yes, seven are an abomination to Him:
17 A proud look,
A lying tongue,
Hands that shed innocent blood,
18 A heart that devises wicked plans,
Feet that are swift in running to evil,
19 A false witness who speaks lies,
And one who sows discord among brethren.
--Proverbs 6:12-19 (NKJV)
We’re not worthless or wicked, are we? We don’t talk ill of others, or point fingers at them. We don’t try to cause discord or shatter harmony anywhere. We don’t let our pride make us do things we might regret later on. We don’t think bad things on others, that maybe someone who wronged us might suffer some harm themselves. And we never would tell a lie about someone else, or spread gossip about them. Right?
If any of those bring a twinge of guilt, if we can see ourselves doing any of these or anything like them, then we have been sowing seeds of discord. We’ve planted some bad seeds. And somewhere, sometime, we will reap a harvest we will not want. Bad will come to us, just as we delivered bad to others.
How bad? That depends. If we believe in Jesus and follow His voice, then our salvation is assured but we’ll still have to stand in judgment and answer to Jesus for the bad we’ve done, and accept whatever response He might make. But if we don’t truly believe in Jesus, if we haven’t followed His commandments, if we have not surrendered ourselves to Him or don’t really accept Him as our Master, if we haven’t repented of our sin, then He may just say “depart from Me for I never knew you”. So spreading bad seeds can have really bad results.
What are some of the types of seeds? If we’re going to take inventory, we need to know what kind of seeds there are to see which ones we have on hand. Paul tells us we will reap what we sow, so the crop we harvest will tell us what seed was planted. That’s kind of a round-about way of answering the question, but let’s look at chapter 5 of Paul’s same letter to the Galatians, in verses 19 through 23…
If any of those bring a twinge of guilt, if we can see ourselves doing any of these or anything like them, then we have been sowing seeds of discord. We’ve planted some bad seeds. And somewhere, sometime, we will reap a harvest we will not want. Bad will come to us, just as we delivered bad to others.
How bad? That depends. If we believe in Jesus and follow His voice, then our salvation is assured but we’ll still have to stand in judgment and answer to Jesus for the bad we’ve done, and accept whatever response He might make. But if we don’t truly believe in Jesus, if we haven’t followed His commandments, if we have not surrendered ourselves to Him or don’t really accept Him as our Master, if we haven’t repented of our sin, then He may just say “depart from Me for I never knew you”. So spreading bad seeds can have really bad results.
What are some of the types of seeds? If we’re going to take inventory, we need to know what kind of seeds there are to see which ones we have on hand. Paul tells us we will reap what we sow, so the crop we harvest will tell us what seed was planted. That’s kind of a round-about way of answering the question, but let’s look at chapter 5 of Paul’s same letter to the Galatians, in verses 19 through 23…
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.
--Galatians 5:19-23 (NKJV)
Bad seeds show up as fruits of the flesh, or the desires of the flesh: adultery, sexual relations outside the bonds of marriage, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of anger, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, drunkenness, revelries, and so much more. If we’re honest with ourselves, I believe each of us can see some of those fruits in our lives.
But then Paul goes on to say that the fruits that result from seeds planted by the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again, I think we can all see those in our lives as well.
But which fruits do we see the most of? If we take a good, cold, hard look at ourselves and see more of the rotten fruit than the good, then we must go into our storehouse, destroy all the bad seed we can find, and start planting only good seed! Paul lays it out quite clearly in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 6, when he declares…
But then Paul goes on to say that the fruits that result from seeds planted by the Holy Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Again, I think we can all see those in our lives as well.
But which fruits do we see the most of? If we take a good, cold, hard look at ourselves and see more of the rotten fruit than the good, then we must go into our storehouse, destroy all the bad seed we can find, and start planting only good seed! Paul lays it out quite clearly in 2 Corinthians, chapter 9, verse 6, when he declares…
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
--2 Corinthians 9:6 (NKJV)
In verse 7 of today’s scripture reading, Paul tells us we can’t fool God – to try doing so only makes fools of ourselves. In verse 1 he tells us to help others that may be struggling with sin, but to watch out because we can easily be tempted to sin ourselves. Verse 2 instructs us to offer each other a helping hand, because, as verse 3 says, we really aren’t better than anyone else. Verse 6: share every good thing you have.
Share smiles, not frowns. If you hear a juicy tidbit of gossip, don’t spread it – let it stop with you. Speak kindly of others, or don’t speak of them at all. Help defuse tense situations, don’t add fuel to the fire. Keep your little snide remarks to yourself and instead express happiness to others in having the Holy Spirit alive and well within you. Keep your pride in check, but be quick to praise others for doing good. Let joy be seen on your face and let the peace of God be evident in your every act. Don’t complain about any little thing, but smile and help share the sufferings of others.
Be kind, be good, be gentle, be faithful – to yourself, to others, and to Jesus. And most of all, spread love with every step you take. Plant seeds of love, and sow them bountifully. Let your love for all others show in everything you do, everything you say, every move you take and every decision you make.
Love is what our Lord Jesus is all about. Love is what He gives us. Love is what He asks of us - love for Him, love for God our Father, and love for each other. Cast the good seed of love all around you, and you will harvest the fruits of love in tremendous measure.
Amen.
Let us pray… Lord Jesus, when You walked this earth You sowed the most beautiful of seeds, the word of our Father God and His offer of everlasting life through You. And all He asks is that we believe in You as His Son. Lord, we know that when we truly believe, we want to do so much more. We want to turn from our sins and return to God. We want to love each other the way that You, Christ Jesus, love us. We want to help those in need. We want to provide for the advancement of Your kingdom. We want to go out into the world making disciples for You, Lord, until that day when every knee shall bow at the mere mention of Your name and every tongue shall proclaim Your sovereign lordship.
But Lord, too often we find it easier to sow seeds that only bear rotten fruit. We delight in gossip, both hearing it and sharing it. We tell small lies, even if just to spare someone’s feelings. We call our neighbor a fool. We accuse, we point fingers, we judge. We do things we shouldn’t do and don’t do things we should. We want to plant the seeds that bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our lives, but we end up with weeds throughout our garden, strangling those good plants we manage to get to grow.
Dearest Jesus, our heads are bowed and our hearts are humbled. We offer our silent pleas for Your help, Your intervention over our lives. Hear us in this quiet moment, and speak to us that we might better follow Your voice…
Lord Jesus, we know we cannot fool our Father in heaven, we know we will harvest what we sow. Please help us be better sowers, Lord. Show us the fruits our actions will produce before we make mistakes. We don’t want to be seen as wicked in our Father’s eyes. Help us plant only good seed, and remind us to sow bountifully so that we can receive a bountiful harvest in return. In Your most blessed name, Christ Jesus we pray. Amen.
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