Sow to the Spirit

Well, I noticed it's springtime up here in Wisconsin. I think it's almost like summertime down in Texas. I think we're about six weeks ahead of you as far as weather goes. I've already mowed my yard about a dozen times, it seems, and pulling weeds and all that good stuff. Of course, lately we've been doing some planting. Now, I wonder if you've been doing any planting lately. Have you been doing some planting? We're always eager. Our winters are not much fun. This past winter we had a few days. Well, you've heard about it. It was in the news. Texas was in the news. Amazingly, we never lost electricity in northeast Texas. Though, one night it was six below zero, and the next night was four below zero. We have a lot of dead bushes and even some dead trees down there. We're just not used to that weather. Of course, you have that almost every day up here in wintertime, I think. I grew up in Nebraska, so I do know a little bit about cold weather. But we're eager, probably like you, to plant flowers to get out there and work in the yards. My wife and I love doing that. We plant the impatiens and the petunias, right? And I'm trying to think what else. Oh, we have bulbs and daffodils and that sort of thing. It's nice to see the color come back to the earth and watch the growing thing spread out. Now, I know not everybody likes to plant flowers. I grew up on a farm, and flowers seem to be a waste of time to the menfolk. They're more interested in getting the corn planted and making sure the wheat was planted in the fall and the alfalfa and what have you. And we planted a lot of trees, but there was always gardening time. We'd get the cabbages and the radishes and what, onions as soon as you can, the cold weather plants. And we planted a lot of potatoes hill by hill. Coming up this year through Illinois, let's see, that was back on Tuesday, I guess we drove up. I could see all the farmers just ready to get in the field. The huge seed drills are ready to plant the corn. It was really very busy reminding me as a kid watching all that. And of course, others of us maybe aren't really in the gardening scene, but if you have your own little lawn, you're probably ready to get out there and start sowing some seed out there in those bare patches in your lawns about right now, I suppose. And, you know, sowing is actually one of the most ancient forms of planting. I say that, and by the way, it's spelled S-O-W-I-N-G, S-O-W-I-N-G, the sort of sowing I'm talking about. When I was a kid, we'd have some washouts, some erosion in some of the pastures, some of the farmland. And Dad would have us put on a cloth bag. I don't know how he did it. We'd stapled it together or something, and we'd have it slung across, and we'd put our hands in the bag with the grass seed, and then we'd sow it. You just kind of throw it. Try to do it evenly. Don't throw it in one spot. That's how you sow. That's how you sow seed. Now, for millennia, of course, I'm going to start segueing this to my topic today. For millennia, farmers across the globe would sow their fields, plant their fields with barley, with oats and wheat, by doing that sort of motion. The sowing, scattering the seed as best they could evenly.

Now, the practice of sowing is so deeply entrenched now in our Western culture that it's become a metaphor. It's become a figure of speech. Perhaps you've heard the expression of people sowing doubt. People can sow doubt into people's minds. They can sow fear into people's minds. As an aside, as a kid, I was accused of sowing wild oats. I don't know if any of you have ever done that. It's a metaphor, meaning we tend to get ourselves in trouble by doing things we're not supposed to do. It's a figure of speech. My question to you today is, what have you been planting lately? What have you been planting lately? Now, some of you may say, well, I've been planting nothing. I live in my nice little apartment downtown, what, Walwatosa or Milwaukee or whatever it is. You don't have a garden spot. I'm not planting anything, but I would beg to differ with you. I would say, actually, you have been planting something. You have been doing some planting. In fact, we've all been planting. Or, if you want to use that metaphor, sowing. We've all been sowing something, whether we realize it or not. I could be rather assertive on that because that's what we find mentioned in Scripture. That's what we find mentioned in Scripture. Let's turn to Galatians 6 as we begin. If you turn with me, please. Galatians 6, verses 7-8. It's the Apostle Paul who tells us that we do so. We do plant, whether we fully realize it or not. Part of his task was to make that clear to us. In Galatians 6, verses 7-8, we read this. He says, speaking to the brethren there, He says, Do not be deceived. Don't fool yourselves. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 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.

In this life, whatever we sow, whether to the flesh or to the spirit, we have to be aware of what we're doing. We have to be conscientious of this. When we're sowing, we can either be meaning the things we believe, the things we think, the things we say, the things we do. That's part of the sowing we're doing with our lives. What we do, what we sow, will either lead to a harvest of corruption, meaning death, or a harvest of everlasting life, salvation. And that's what we want to be sowing to, isn't it? That's exactly what we want to be sowing to. Now, Paul states here and elsewhere that we do, and he makes very clear, these two different ways of life.

Let's also look at Romans 7. Romans 7, verses 19-23. Paul further describes part of our experience when it comes to sowing, trying to sow for the spirit to the spirit and not sow to the flesh. And what he's going to describe here is something we understand. We go through this ourselves. It's a common experience. It's a common frustration we have as followers of Jesus Christ. We want to do good, and sow to the spirit, but so often we find ourselves sowing to the flesh in the opposite direction. Romans 7, verses 19-23. Paul wrote, For the good that I will to do, or in other words, the good I want to do, don't we all want to do good?

For the good that I want to do, I do not do. But the evil that I will not to do, or don't want to do, that I practice. Now, verse 20. If I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. I find that a law, Paul writes, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.

For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And so, as I say, if we have ever resisted temptation, if we've ever resisted temptation, and maybe we're doing well, and then the very next day the same temptation comes along and we fall to sin, we know we should not do what we don't want to do, what we've given into sin, we've sown to the flesh, and it's very frustrating.

It's very aggravating. It's very depressing sometimes. And so we do understand Paul's meaning. One way promotes works of the flesh, leading to sin, corruption, and death, and the other way promotes the fruit of God's Holy Spirit, eternal life, ultimately. So what are we planting spiritually? What are we planting spiritually? Are we sowing to the spirit, yielding ourselves God's influence, or are we sowing to the flesh, yielding ourselves to the influence of our carnal human nature, that carnal weakness of ours?

And so in the sermon today, I will take a little time with you to discuss these two ways of life, and to remind each one of us, all of us, that we need to keep sowing to the spirit. And the title of my sermon today then is, So to the Spirit. So, S-O-W, to the spirit.

So let's turn our attention a little bit more to those two contrary ways of lives. And Paul makes it very stark. We're in Galatians chapter 6-4. Let's go to Galatians chapter 5. I'm going to lay a little more foundation here. Galatians chapter 5, verse 16 through 18. These two starkly different ways of life. Paul writes, Galatians 5, verse 16, I say then, Walk in the spirit, according to God's way of life, the Holy Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

For the flesh lust against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. It's this little battle within us. These are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. And that's what we just read about, Paul wrote there in Romans 7. Verse 18, But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Now, I think we understand, or should understand, that what Paul writes here, the phrase, not under the law, he's referring to the fact that we are no longer under the law's penalty of death because of our sin. Because through repentance and baptism, and upon receiving God's gift of the Holy Spirit through the laying on of hands, well then, we are to exercise faith. We are to believe God and do what he says day in and day out.

Practice living faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ for our sins. And so, no matter how many times we may stumble and give in to temptation, we need to immediately repent. Don't be ashamed to go back to our Father in heaven before His throne, and claim Christ's sacrifice in our place, and ask for forgiveness. Even if we have to do it six, seven times, seventy-seven times in a day, we need to keep doing it without being embarrassed and ashamed.

God is fully aware of what we've done already. Right? We go to Him and admit it, and confess it, and get His help. Then continuing in verses 19-21, here Paul lists the works of the flesh. These are the things that we know that we are naturally prone to do.

Sure, it's not a complete list by any means, but it presents a pretty good description of some of the things we must be struggling to resist. These are works of the flesh. We must no longer give in to these, no longer so to these works of the flesh. Verse 19, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred. I don't know about you, but haven't you been noticing a lot of hatred in our country right now?

We can't give in to that. To give in to that, of course, would be to sow in sow to the flesh. Contentions, that kind of fits in with the hatred, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like. And there's more, in other words. Of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in times past, Paul says, that those who practice such things live by these things day in and day out without even an effort to repent, those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. They will not inherit, receive everlasting life.

Now, because we are still in the flesh and weak, we understand that we will sin and perhaps even commit some of these very works that Paul lists here, these works of the flesh. Again, if we do, we may know what we need to do. By my exhortation today, to each of us, is that we must do it. We must get on our knees to God and sincerely repent. Repent and ask Him to help us repent because we can't do it on our own, not alone. We can, with the help of God's Holy Spirit, with God's Word as well, giving us the direction. And then, with God's Spirit, giving us the will and the faith of Christ in us that we need to conquer our temptations.

And then we must turn and seek God's forgiveness.

I know it's easy to get discouraged in fighting sin. It's easy to get discouraged, sowing to the Spirit. But we must not let discouragement stop us. In our discouragement, we must go to God and tell Him, I'm discouraged about this. Would you help me to be encouraged? And He will. God will help us. You see, Satan wants us to be discouraged and to give up, doesn't he? Nothing better for him than to get us discouraged, to give up, and no longer try.

But if we make clear here, as Paul makes clear here, and we understand it, those who practice these works of the flesh as a way of life will not inherit the kingdom. We must keep sowing to the Spirit. And so it's in verses 22-23 that Paul lists the fruits of God's Holy Spirit, or the fruits of God's Holy Spirit. These are things that we must be aware of, we must be conscientious of, and striving to do, to practice more of in our own lives with God's help. Verse 22, but in contrast to the works of the flesh, Paul says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. Well, what he means by that, no law. He means there's no condemnation. There's no penalty of death for doing these things, for burying this fruit, sowing in this direction. Verse 24, and those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. We crucify the flesh upon our commitment, especially at baptism. And as we then continue to practice repentance and faith in Christ's sacrifice and seeking God's forgiveness, we keep crucifying the flesh. Verse 25, if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another. Verse 26 sounds like some of those fruits of the flesh, or works of the flesh. So again, our task then is to sow to God's Spirit, keep submitting ourselves willingly to him each and every day. Let's also turn back once more to Romans. Romans chapter 8, this time please. Romans chapter 8, verse 5 through 8.

In Romans 8, 5 through 8, Paul again is going to make clear this distinction. If we understood this distinction of human beings, naturally understood this distinction, Paul wouldn't have to spend so much time, I think, making it clear to us. But these are the two ways of life. He's making very clear to us the consequences of sowing, whether to the flesh or to the Spirit. The consequences are a matter of death or a matter of eternal life. In Romans 8, verse 5, Paul writes, 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. And we understand some of those things are with what we've just read previously. And so he writes, verse 6, continuing for, To be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. And why is that? Verse 7, it's because the carnal mind is enmity against God. Enmity has this idea of hate. The carnal mind hates God. It hates the things of God. For it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then those who are in the flesh cannot please God. And so that's one of the reasons we so desperately need God's Holy Spirit. And we should celebrate Pentecost and worship God that day with great joy and gratitude because of God's gift of His Holy Spirit to us. With the laying upon our hands after baptism, it gives us that assurance that God's Spirit is in us now. We have that help within us. He may be without us, outside of us, before baptism, calling us, opening our minds to understand Him, to understand His truth. But there's that special strength that comes with the indwelling of His Spirit in us, that begettle of His Holy Spirit. That is so important, that helps us so much as we endure in His way. And so there are these two ways of life. And we need to believe what these words say. And our actions need to respond appropriately to what these words say. Continuing on, verse 13 through 14, Paul sums up these two ways very concisely. He says, verse 13, we're still in Romans 8, For if you live according to the flesh, that way of life, you will die without hope of salvation. But if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, the works of flesh, the repentance and faith in Christ's sacrifice, seeking forgiveness, you will live. For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. These are the true children of God. And so God's Scripture then makes it very clear, and with great emphasis, that we can and must be constantly sowing to the Spirit. We must constantly, as we learn during the days of Unleavened Bread, eat every day of that bread of life. Of course, bread is made from wheat and marley and other things. And there's all this neat connection here, these neat threads that combine there in God's Holy Days and the meanings here. And so we have to be sowing, yielding to God's Holy Spirit in order to make better choices, right choices, in order to be sowing to the Spirit. You know, just like the farmer who must work hard to sow his seed, or maybe a gardener if that works better for you. Just like the farmer who must work hard to sow his seed and wait patiently to reap a bountiful harvest, so must we be working hard now and every day. And with God's help to sow to the Spirit, as we wait patiently, keep working at it patiently every day in our hope to receive that bountiful spiritual harvest of everlasting life. And isn't that the exhortation we read about in the book of James? And yes, it is. Let's turn back here and look at James, Chapter 5. I'm sure it's a familiar Scripture. James, Chapter 5, Verses 7-8. James has a way of getting right to the point.

James, Chapter 5, Verses 7-8. Here's his exhortation on this topic. James wrote, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. That's an assurance there. It's a promise. God is...Christ is coming back. And he continues, he says, See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain? You, you also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. It's not speculation. It's not a maybe. It's not a perhaps. It's a promise. He is returning.

When Christ returns, what will he find that we have sown? Will we have sown to the flesh, or will we have sown to the Spirit?

With this foundation, I'd like for us to turn our attention a little more squarely, a little more squarely into what we need to be doing. If you're looking for the takeaways, here are some takeaways. Here are some things we might be working on and thinking about to help us do a little better job of sowing to the Spirit. In what areas of our lives might we find ourselves needing to strive harder to sow to the Spirit? It's a question we all need to ask. Or might we find our greatest weaknesses? Or might we find some of those proclivities of ours that allow our human nature or carnal nature to get the best of us? I really should say it would make the worst of us. Carnal nature makes the worst of us. We find some answers. We find some direction and instruction in many of Christ's parables, many of the parables of Jesus Christ. I'm going to have us just study a little more closely at three of them this afternoon. You can look at many others. That could be an interesting part of your personal Bible study, perhaps. In his parables, Jesus Christ gives us some very vital and life-saving instruction about where we are prone to sow to the flesh and where we actually need to sow to the Spirit instead. In three parables in particular, we're going to look at his instruction about where we need to be sowing to the Spirit each and every day. The first parable I'd like for us to turn to is in the book of Matthew, Matthew 18, verse 23-35.

In Matthew 18, verse 23-25, this is a parable that is commonly entitled the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. This parable in particular offers instruction about the consequences for what we sow and about the value of forgiveness. Forgiveness becomes very clear through this parable. Forgiveness is something all of us must keep sowing. It's something that can be very hard to sow. So we begin Matthew 18, verse 23. Christ began this parable with the King who wants to balance his financial accounts. He wants to balance his financial accounts and see the standing of some of his servants. Here's what Jesus taught, verse 23. Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one servant was brought to him who owed him 10,000 talents. But as he was not able to pay, I wonder why, his master commanded that he be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him saying, Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. I'll pay it all back. And then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him his debt. We're going to pause here. What we find then is a king. The king was very compassionate, very generous. He forgave the servant's enormous debt, which he could not repay.

Now, I'm always asking questions. And my question when I read this was, just how generous was the king?

He says he forgave. Well, how much did he forgive? And I wondered how enormous actually was the servant's debt? 10,000 talents seems like a lot, but I don't really know what that meant without doing what you would do, right? You would research this, wouldn't you? You'd look it up, and that's what I did too. Another Bible translation, the English Standard Version, notes, and this is interesting, and frankly, it was rather shocking to me. The English Standard Version has a note to this scripture, and it says that a talent was a monetary unit worth about 20 years' wages for a laborer. Do you hear that? One talent was worth about 20 years' wages for a common laborer.

I did not understand that before. So, if I did my math right, I think I did, 10,000 talents would equate to about 200,000 years of wages for a laborer. And this man had said, Master, I'll pay you back. Could he? No. You couldn't return 200,000 years' worth of laborer. Now, to further impress upon us the enormity of this sermon, instead, I did a little more math to come up with the comparative value of the talent in U.S. dollars. Now, another translation, the New Living Translation, notes that 10,000 talents of silver is equivalent to about 340 metric tons of silver. Okay? 10,000 talents in silver is equivalent to 340 tons of silver. Well, using the price of silver as of May 2, 2021, the amount forgiven would equate to about 262 million dollars. Now, that means something to me. Not that I have ever had that much money, but I can understand that a little more. Can you imagine? Now, if these 10,000 talents were of gold, at today's price for gold, the amount the king forgave that servant would equate to about 19.1 billion dollars. 19.1 billion dollars. And that's according to meltcoin.com. They have a little formula there. Well, there is no way for that servant to ever repay his debt. It's impossible. That's a stunning amount of debt and forgiveness. And yet, the king forgave that. Just think about it. One moment, the servant was millions or billions of dollars worth in debt, 200,000 years of labor in debt. And the next instant, he's forgiven. It's all gone. It's all gone. The debt's gone. Have you ever experienced anything like that yourself? Can you imagine how such a great debt would feel like having that forgiven? I suspect you might. Well, with this understanding of just how great a debt the king had forgiven his servant, I think we can better appreciate the next part of this parable. We can better appreciate how, despicably, this forgiven servant treated another servant. Let's read on now, continuing in verse 28. But that servant, meaning that forgiven servant, went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. And he laid hands on him, and he took him by the throat. Imagine that. He's pretty violent. And he took him by the throat, saying, pay me what you owe. So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, have patience with me, and I will pay you all. Now, that's the exact same thing this forgiven servant had asked the king. He's using the very same words.

Verse 30, And he, the forgiven servant, would not forgive, but went, and through him, this fellow servant, into the prison, till he should pay the debt. And so when his fellow servant saw what had been done, they were very grieved. And I think we can understand why now. And they came and told their master all that had been done. Now, again, to put things into perspective, this fellow servant owed the forgiven servant one hundred denarii. A denarius, singular for denarii, a denarius was the equivalent of one day's wages for the common labor of that time. You know, twelve hours' labor that day would get you one denarius. And so, according to the New English translation, one hundred denarii was equivalent to about three months' wages. About three months' wages. What a difference from two hundred thousand years of wages, isn't it? In the NLT, New Living Translation, it equates the amount owed to these hundred denarii to a few thousand dollars today.

So anyway, we look at it, the forgiven servant's revealing a hardness of heart. He had been forgiven, an incredible debt he could never have repaid. And yet, he was unwilling to forgive his fellow servant, just as he had been forgiven. This forgiven servant reveals his own greediness, his own hard-heartedness, his own desire to be forgiven, to have compassion poured out on him, but not to have compassion and mercy and forgiveness given to others.

Now, let's go on to verse 32. Verse 32, Jesus continued on with this parable, he says, "'Then his master, after he had called back this forgiven servant, he said to him, "'You wicked servant, you're absolutely wicked. "'I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. "'Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?' "'And his master was angry and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.'" And then Jesus adds this very sobering comment. Verse 35, "'So my heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you from his heart does not forgive his brother his trespasses.'" And so this servant had expressed remorse, repentance, for his debt against the king, the king had forgiven him, all this amount of debt, millions, billions worth of value. And the other thing I think we should think about here, consider how much debt the king was willing to absorb, so to speak. The king absorbed that enormous debt. He took that debt, millions or billions or 200,000 years worth of labor, he willingly took it upon himself. He just erased it. He forgave it. That's something to think about when we think about, maybe you've already thought about it by now, how our Father and Christ are so willing to forgive us, our debt, for our sins against God, against our Father.

And so in this parable, Jesus Christ would have his grasp how he took upon himself in a comparative way to help us kind of imagine and understand how he took upon himself the enormous debt of humanity's sins against God, including our sin as well. He willingly paid our debt of death with his own precious blood. And as Christ lives in us through God's Holy Spirit, indwelling within us, God expects us to be yielding our hearts and minds to him. He expects us to allow him to reign in us, to guide us and help direct us, to help us have better thoughts, to make better choices, to get rid of grudges, get rid of bitterness against people, and so forgive those who sin against us.

I think it's fair to say this forgiven servant was sowing to the flesh. And Christ is pointing the direction that we need to be sowing to the Spirit. We sow to the Spirit, then, the point here we could take from this parable. We sow to the Spirit when we yield ourselves to God's way of life and forgive others. And he will help us do that.

Now let's shift to another parable, another lesson. Matthew 25, a few pages over from here. Matthew 25, verses 14-30. This parable is commonly entitled, The Parable of the Talents. The Parable of the Talents. Matthew 25, verses 14-30. Well, what does Christ teach here about sowing to the Spirit and not to the flesh? Keeping that question in mind. So we begin then, Matthew 25, verse 14. Jesus spoke this parable. He said, For the kingdom of heaven is like a man traveling to a far country, who called his own servants and delivered his goods to them. And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another just one. And to each he gave according to his own ability. And then immediately he went on a journey. And so, the master entrusted to them, as we know, understand a little bit more now, the value of a talent. He entrusted to each of them, according to their ability, a rather sizable amount of money. And he expected them to do something with it. Now, most of these servants made good use of their master's money. And we read about that as we continue on, verse 16. Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, invested them, and he made another five. He doubled it. And likewise, he who had received two gained two more also. But he who had received one went and dug in the ground and hid his Lord's money. It's rather ironic. He actually literally planted it, didn't he? But not in a way it's going to do him any good. And certainly it was not going to do his master any good. That one servant did not utilize his master's money. He did not sew it or try to invest it and make it grow in any way like the others. He hid it away. He buried it. Now, when the Lord and Master returned, he learned how they'd use their money. And the first two servants who had used their master's money wisely, they did double it. And the master praised them. He used the same praise for the one who doubled both the five talents and the one who doubled the two talents. We see it repeated, verses 21 and 23. He told each of them, Jesus said, His Lord said to him, Well done, good and faithful servant. I'd like to hear those words. I hope we can all hear those words when Christ returned, don't you? Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a few things. I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.

These servants applied their time, they applied their energies, to earn their master even more money.

According to this metaphor we're working with today, we could say they had sowed to the master's benefit. Metaphorically, they sowed to the spirit, the message we get out of this, and they'd made what God had given them, what the master gave them, in this case, made it grow. The third servant, though, as we read, failed his master. Verse 24, Then he who had received the one talent came and said, Lord, Lord, I knew you to be a hard man, Reaping where you have not sown, Gathering where you have not scattered seed. Well, I was afraid. Maybe another word here. I was nervous. I was timid. I was fearful, doubtful if I could do anything with it. I might lose it all. Now, I'm adding that in there. Maybe that's part of what his fear was.

It says, I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. And look, there you have what is yours.

That's not what the master wanted done. He didn't want it back. He wanted it grown. And so the master is angry. Verse 26. But the Lord answered and said to him, You wicked and lazy servant, You knew that I reap where I have not sown, And gather where I have not scattered seed. So you ought to have deposited my money with the bankers, And at my coming I would have received back my own with interest. Do something minimal. That would have been something. So he condemned the servant for being lazy. That's the words Jesus used here. He did nothing with the money. He buried it. And it seems the idea he was wicked for suggesting that his master was harsh and stern. It seems if you please your master, he's very compassionate and joyful in giving.

Therefore the master took away his talent, and he gave it to the most profitable servant. And with these words of warning and of judgment. Verse 29, To everyone who has more, more will be given, And he will have an abundance, But for him who does not have, even what he has will be taken away. Now the New Living Translation puts this verse this way. It reads this way. Maybe this will help us get the meaning a little better. It says, New Living reads, To those who use well what they are given.

I like that. To those who use well what they are given. Even more will be given, and they will have an abundance. But from those who do nothing, even what little they have will be taken away. What will happen? What will they harvest, we might say? What will they reap? Verse 30, And cast the unprofitable. Unprofitable means worthless, useless, good for nothing. Cast that servant into the outer darkness, and there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

That servant will not be filled with profound regret. And so this servant's punishment really should remind us of the words we read earlier from Galatians 6-7, where we were warned by Paul, Do not be mocked for whatever a man sows, that he will reap. That's what happened to this third servant. The unprofitable servant had been unfaithful. How had he been unfaithful?

We certainly don't want to be unfaithful. I certainly don't want to be unfaithful. So how had he done it? Well, he had done nothing to increase or to advance his master's investment. For us, that means maybe we're listening to God's Word, we're studying God's Word, we know what to do, but maybe we're missing opportunities that come our way to act upon it. Maybe we're skittish, we're fearful, we're doubtful of whether we can do this or that. I don't know if I could serve that way.

I don't know if I could make that commitment. I don't know if I could give this up. And we hide away something God has given us because he knows we can do it. Maybe that's something we can take here. It seems that what the servant had been doing while his master was away was sowing to himself, sowing to his self-interest, sowing to his own human weaknesses, his own timidity. And he did nothing rather than trying to do a little something, sowing his master's money for his master's benefit.

And so obviously, I think we should be asking ourselves, what about us? Are we being profitable servants to God? And I would say I would like to believe we are. But then I'd say, well, can we be even more profitable? Can we be even more profitable to God in what we do?

Are we making good use of our time? Are we making good use of our energies in serving God, in serving one another, the brethren, in serving the people we meet in our walk in life? Are we doing what we can, beyond just what we should?

And so the point we can take away from this parable is that to sow to the Spirit, we must give willingly of ourselves. Give of time, energy, blessing. The skill sets God has allowed to us, whatever we have, whatever we are, share it with others to do good works. We don't do good works to bring us glory. We do good works to bring glory to the Father, to make people say, well, why do you do that?

I'm doing this because I'm a follower of Jesus Christ. I worship the Father. Don't thank me. I got this from our Father, from my Father. He taught me this through Jesus Christ. Now, if you do, and I think we do, yes, we do want to receive more instruction in how we must be sowing to the Spirit. And for that, we're going to keep reading here. Because in Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 through 46, we blend in, we move right into what is another parable of Jesus Christ.

It's in Matthew 25, verse 31 through 46, and it's often just simply called the sheep and the goats. The sheep and the goats. And here Jesus foretold, and it's sort of a prophecy, isn't it? He's foretelling what will happen. Here Jesus foretold that when he, the Son of Man, has returned to reign on earth, that he will separate the sheep from the goats. He will separate the sheep from the goats. So beginning in verse 31, Jesus spoke, and he said, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, and then he will sit on the throne of his glory, the kingdom has come upon the earth.

Verse 32, All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats. And he will set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left. And so we see Christ reigning as king on earth, the kingdom of God, he's going to welcome the sheep, the righteous ones of God, as sons and heirs of God's kingdom. In verse 34, we read, Then the king will say to those on the right hand, the sheep, Come, you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.

For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. And then the righteous will answer in verse 37, they'll say, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and come to you? And the king will answer and say to them, Assuredly I say to you, Inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.

That's powerful words. These are things we need to think about. We need to think about that. So what we learn here is that the heirs of the kingdom will be like their king. Christ is the Lamb of God. We're told that in John 1.29, Revelation 7.17, that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. And the sheep are like Him.

We're all sheep. His sheep have His same spirit. They have the same sort of love and compassion. Same sort of kindness and humility. Same sort of outgoing concern for all people, but especially for the brethren. Especially for their brethren. And this list of good works here help us to understand God's love and the way of love. We are to be practicing. These are things, a little more concrete things, what are we to sow? What Jesus gives here in this parable are some rather concrete, clear ideas. These are the things we are to be sowing as we sow to the spirit. And what about the goats?

What are the goats whom He will separate from among the sheep? Well, this is what's foretold. Then He will also say to those on the left hand, Depart from me, you cursed into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry, and you gave me no food. I was thirsty, and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger, and you did not take me in, naked, and you did not clothe me sick and in prison, and you did not visit me. And then they will also answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison and did not minister to you? When did that happen? Then He will answer them, saying assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to the least of these, you did not do it to me. He is talking about a totally different way of life. It sounds like the goats have been sowing to the flesh, to themselves. Verse 46, In these the goats will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous, the sheep, into everlasting life. Again, Paul gave us this rather stark contrast, two ways of life. Paul did not come up with this by himself. He was taught by Christ. We see that in Christ's instruction as the same stark contrast in these two ways of life. The ways in which way are we going to sow. Why didn't the goats do good works like the sheep did? I wonder. The implication is that they were sowing to the flesh. They are focused on fleshly things, worldly things, things that are corrupt, that lead to corruption, death, and not to the Spirit. Perhaps the goats are akin to those people James speaks about. James speaks about, as I referenced earlier, James 1.22, the scriptural reference. James spoke about those people who only hear God's Word but fail to do it, to live by it. James 1.22 says, Be doers of the Word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.

Although the goats mingled with sheep, sounds like they are mingled together. The goats mingled with the sheep, ate and drank with the sheep. They are around the sheep all the time. Sounds like the goats even heard God's Word preached. They ultimately failed to become anything but goats. They remain goats. They fail to be like sheep. They fail to become sheep. They fail to become like the Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. So the goats will be cursed and destroyed forever.

So what Christ described will happen in the future. People love to hear about prophecy. This is prophecy. This is prophecy. We are in a position where we can make sure we end in the right place in prophecy. If we are concerned that there may be too much of the goat in us, what might we do? Repent. Get right with God. Start doing those things we've been procrastinating about or saying, well, tomorrow we don't have tomorrow. It's not guaranteed, is it? We've learned that a lot these last few years, especially, I think. We're not guaranteed tomorrow. We have now. We have now. Now is our opportunity to do good works. Now is our time to repent of our self-centeredness, and to sow less to the flesh and more to the Spirit. And that takes us right back to Galatians 6, verses 7-10, doesn't it? Galatians 6, verses 7-10. I'm going to read from there. If you want to turn back to that again, you're welcome to. I'm going to read again from Galatians 6, verses 7-10.

It all comes back together.

Galatians 6, verses 7. Do not be deceived, Paul said. God is not mocked. We've seen that through these parables. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption. But he who sows to the Spirit will, it's a promise, will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. Let us not, and let us not grow weary, Paul said. Let us not grow weary while doing good. For in due season, at just the right time, we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

Therefore, verse 10, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the householder. And so, throughout our walk into life, we will be constantly pulled in these directions. Paul is very clear about that. As Paul explained, the way of the flesh, the way of the Spirit. That's the way it is. Now, it's been the way it's been. It's the way it is. It's the way it's going to be until the day we die. But we will have innumerable opportunities to resist the poles of the flesh. We will have a number of opportunities to resist the poles of the flesh. We will have innumerable opportunities to resist the poles of the flesh. To yield to God, to His Holy Spirit in us. To yield to His Word, to do make some right choices. And when we sow to the Spirit, we do that when we exercise faith in Christ's sacrifice.

And then we do believe what we read, what we're taught from Scripture, and then we go through it and obey. Even though obeying seems hard and difficult, even though obeying, as some of us know, we grew up, we've learned God's Word. Sometimes doing what God says doesn't always make sense, but what happens once we've started doing it? Wow! This makes sense! I can't imagine not keeping the Sabbath. I came in the church and thought, how can I possibly keep the Sabbath? I'll go broke. I'll lose all my friends. My family will hate me. For me, it's been the opposite. God's blessed me. I have a larger family than ever before. And I think most people like me. I don't know. I hope so. I'm trying to be likeable, anyway. So we have to sow to the flesh. No, no, no. We have to sow to the... That was a quiz. We have to sow to the Spirit. We have to sow to the Spirit, not to the flesh. God allows us all the opportunities to make those right choices. The more we yield to our will and our ways to God, the more we sow to the Spirit. And the more our Father and Christ through that Holy Spirit will reign in our lives. And so then we grow in grace, we grow in knowledge, and we will be found worthy of receiving God's gift of salvation, of everlasting life. And so I encourage all of us to be sowing to the Spirit. I encourage us to be compassionate and forgiving, as we read about in the first parable. I encourage us to apply our time and blessings in serving God and others. And I encourage us to help one another through life's difficult times. These times are difficult. There will be more difficult times. And we are learning so much. We are learning so much of these difficult times of how to help one another in bigger and deeper, more profound ways than perhaps we understood before. So let us sow to the Spirit now and always that we might reap everlasting life in the kingdom of God. And so I say, so to the Spirit.