United Church of God

Our Spiritual Life Is Sowing and Reaping

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Our Spiritual Life Is Sowing and Reaping

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Our Spiritual Life Is Sowing and Reaping

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Is our spiritual life really that much different than life in this world? In this world there is a primary Law of the Garden: "As we sow, we harvest." In the life of the Spirit, the same law applies.

Sermon Notes

A partial list of Scriptures and notes:

What are your works? What do they broadcast?

In the context of what do they accomplish in bringing people to Christ...

Gal 6:1  Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
Gal 6:2  Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
Gal 6:3  For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.
Gal 6:4  But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.
Gal 6:5  For every man shall bear his own burden.

It is only with our participation that God creates Holy Righteous Character in us. Via obedience to His Law, the character grows. This is not a replacement for Grace. But living contrary to the Law produces the fruit of the flesh which will prevent us from entering in the Kingdom of God!
We have to make a change in our lives as God's people and practice the WAY OF GIVE.

NKJV
Gal 6:6  Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.
Gal 6:7  Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.
Gal 6:8  For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Gal 6:9  And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Gal 6:10  Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Sowing and reaping is the Law of all Life in all its aspects. Life is not, in that sense, a guessing game. You can know that what GOD has for you in His Kingdom is something absolutely WONDERFUL !!

Mat 13:3  Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying: "Behold, a sower went out to sow.
Mat 13:4  And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them.
Mat 13:5  Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth.
Mat 13:6  But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away.
Mat 13:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them.
Mat 13:8  But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
Mat 13:9  He who has ears to hear, let him hear!"

The Farmer hopes for the seed falling in Good Ground!!!  We must LISTEN UP!!! This Law of Sowing and Reaping is a law of the UNIVERSE.  You have to live by the law of the garden. Quality seed at the right time in the right ground!!

Mat 13:10  And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?"
Mat 13:11  He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Mat 13:12  For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him.
Mat 13:13  Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.
We live in a dog eat dog world. The political race this year sure looks that way.
Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4  that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5  For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
The harvest from carnal life IS DEATH!!

Rom 8:7  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Rom 8:8  So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

We have surrendered in the flesh and given our lives over to GOD so that we can indeed have "Life and have it MORE Abundantly"
Rom 8:9  But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:10  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

OUR Lives are all about sowing and reaping. It never changes. Every day you live you are sowing and reaping!!!
We always will reap what we sow.  You plant an apple seed and you get an apple tree. You can't sow a cucumber and reap a tomato!!! It just does not happen!!

The SAME LAW applies spiritually. God set up these laws for things to function but also with the intent that we would understand the spiritual implications and applications of this one law.

Insanity reigns!!!  "The definition of Insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results".  Sometimes the reason poor people are poor is because they do the same things that poor people DO. And the ones that become wealthy do the things that wealthy people did to get to where they are.

Are we willing to try the TREE OF LIFE and way of Love/Give = Outgoing Concern for the well-being of others?

Christ said He was "the way, the truth, and the life".

"The Power of Focus" Book Mr. Tuck gave to his son.
Focus on what you are doing and trying to accomplish in your life if you are going to grow. DO NOT FIXATE in the negative elements of life and REFRAIN from those things that hurt you. The Spirit of God is about a right attitude and good wavelength of thought and living GOD's WAY OF LIFE.
What are the GOOD THINGS in that... Job, marriage, garden, house, car, situation.... etc., That is the FOCUS.
Man does NOT know the way to peace, according to Paul.

FOCUS on the good things. WHAT are the good things in... Job, Marriage, Drive, Illness...

"Pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; Optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty" Winston Churchill

WE, as God's people, should focus on the opportunities often hidden in each difficulty, seek them and take advantage of them.

When its dark enough you can SEE the Stars.

Good fortune is what happens when Opportunity meets PLANNING and PREPARATION.
Either you plan to succeed or, by default, you plan to fail!!!

Rich man with pessimist and optimist sons; toys and manure. Pessimist room filled with every kind of toy that a boy would want. He put a pile of manure in the other son's room, the optimist.  By the pessimist son's room, he was crying, why? because when the batteries run down and will need new batteries and my brother will envy me cuz I have these toys...  The Optimist son was digging through the pile and smiling all excited. Dad: Why are you so excited? Daddy... with all this manure there's bound to be a pony in here somewhere...

1 - AVOID PESSIMISM!!! and Ungratefulness....  ... "...your strength is small"
Pro 24:10  If you faint in the day of adversity, Your strength is small.
Pro 24:10  If you are weak in a crisis, you are weak indeed. GNB

2 - FOCUS on the POSITIVE  Prov 15:15
Pro 15:15  The life of the poor is a constant struggle, but happy people always enjoy life.
Pro 15:15  All the days of the oppressed are miserable, but a cheerful heart has a continual feast.

3 - DO THINGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE :) :)  Far better to GIVE THAN TO RECEIVE.
Act 20:35  I have shewed you all things, how that so laboring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

What does it mean to sow to the Spirit?
2Ti 1:7  For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
NOT a spirit of pessimism and negativism!
The Holy Spirit leads to a sound mind, the greek for the sound it is discipline, self-control. Thus we are to be in control of what we say and do. "The spirit of the prophets IS SUBJECT to the prophets"...
This means WE ARE IN CONTROL... if we so choose.

Most people are led by their desires as a bull is led by the nose.

Gal 5:17  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another so that you do not do the things that you wish.
Gal 5:18  But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Gal 5:19  Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
Gal 5:20  idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
Gal 5:21  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.
Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
Gal 5:23  gentleness, self-control. Against such, there is no law.

Hosea, if you sow to the wind you will reap from the Whirlwind.

LIFE is about Sowing and Reaping! The Law of the Garden is always at work.

2Co 9:6  But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
2Co 9:7  So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
2Co 9:8  And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
2Co 9:9  As it is written: "HE HAS DISPERSED ABROAD, HE HAS GIVEN TO THE POOR; HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS ENDURES FOREVER."
2Co 9:10  Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,
2Co 9:11  while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God.

LEARN TO SOW BOUNTIFULLY SO YOU CAN REAP A BUMPER CROP WHEN JESUS RETURNS...