Galatians 6:6-10 - Sow Reap and Grow - Rick Graumlich

As I said, we're in Galatians six.

We're beginning in verse six as Ron covered the first chunk of the chapter last week.

And again, it sometimes you you hit these verses and you realize this is such a simple verse.

You just read it and then you do it.

I don't know what else I have to say.

Let's pick it up.

Galatians chapter six, verse six.

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

For whatever one sows, that will he 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.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

This is the word of the Lord.

How you spend your time and your money reveals a lot about you.

As we get into a passage about sowing and reaping, one of the ways we can assess our hearts on these things is let's just open up your bank statement or your checkbook register or your account or your calendar or your schedule.

Let's begin to see how you're sowing what God has given you.

And maybe some of you are great at that.

You're kind of excited, like, yeah, let's open my checking account and I'll show you my ledger and my everything's balanced out and it's all working out.

You're excited about that because you you are thrive on that.

And you don't waste money on silly things.

Others, maybe your schedule is so full of mostly good things that you're kind of itching to tell someone about how much you work, or how hard you work, or how you can't help them do what they need because you're too busy doing other things.

See, everything, scripture is so clear that everything we do and say in this life will be judged by God.

We will stand before Him one day and we will give an account.

And if you're a Christian, this isn't, just so you know, this isn't where you come and you figure out, did I make it or not?

You should know that before you die.

But there is a time where you will stand before God and He will say, Well, how did you handle the life that I gave you?

I gave different people different opportunities, I gave them different brain power and intellect, and put them in different places in the world.

How did you steward what I gave you?

It's a humbling question.

It shouldn't kind of make us somewhat trepidatious.

Should evaluate how we should evaluate what we're doing, how we're spending our time and our money, our energy.

Should make us humble.

It should make our hearts and our attitude toward the things that God has given us one of stewardship.

Are we careful and wise with what God has given us?

It's his gift.

Are you wise and honoring him with your ability to work and your ability to make money?

Because your ability to work is a gift that he has given you.

Or do you begin to view these things as your own?

It's my paycheck.

I'll decide where the money's gonna go.

It's my savings accounts, it's my weekend free, it's my evening free, it's my retirement years.

These are my things for me to figure out, and if I want to give them to someone or I want to give it hand them out to others, I can do that.

But it's mine to decide.

Don't be fooled.

God will not be mocked.

When you stand before Him, you won't be saying, Well, I earned the money, or it's my time, and I decided how I want to handle it.

Now keep in mind how you handle your time and your money and the things God gives you, it's not the sum total of who you are or how mature you are or immature you are, but it does say a lot about you.

And when you think about your time and your money, I have just a question.

Are you are you seeking to sew it well?

To spend it well?

Or just to kind of spend it?

Is it there and you're like, you know, I really want to steward this well.

I want to sow these opportunities with my time, or sow these opportunities with uh what God gives me financially.

Or I just want to spend it.

Now, there's nothing in the text here that says time or money.

We'll get to that in a moment.

But I bring those two things up because I think we all can quickly evaluate our own lives with that kind of a rubric, that kind of a standard.

I mean, where is my money going?

Do I think about it?

Do I care?

Where is my time going?

Am I selfish with it?

Am I generous with it?

Do I even plan?

Or do I kind of just spend it as if I have plenty?

And it's not going anywhere.

I want to take a quick moment and zoom out on the whole book of Galatians.

And remember that Paul has written this letter to these churches to address false teaching.

If you've been with us, hopefully you remember that.

He's been writing saying, listen, there's a lot of false teachers going out there and teaching you guys the wrong thing.

And so he writes this letter to the churches saying the primary issue is that salvation is through Christ, faith in Christ alone.

It's not through Christ and adding works to your life.

So he begins to deal with all this false teaching, and then he's now instructing the church now that you have a right understanding of how you're saved, you need to live accordingly.

See, when you think your salvation is 95% God and 5% you, you think that you can take that 5% and then schedule out or plan out 95% of your life.

Well, because I did something, I had something to do with my salvation, now I have some say in how I'm going to spend my money or how I'm going to spend my time or what I'm going to, how I'm going to view the things that God has given me.

But he addresses the issue of salvation, the issue of the soul saying, Listen, you did not deserve to be saved.

God graciously saved you.

And now that he's saved you, he's called you to live in a way that is going to be a blessing to you if you submit to it, and is going to glorify God and bless God's people.

So they're going to be saved, brought from death to life, and then they're going to live a very different kind of life, one that bears fruit.

There's evidence.

We're serious about our faith.

This isn't just a mental ascension.

I believe that thing.

But the belief in that thing drives everything we do.

We kill sin.

We fight being lazy.

We seek to not indulge our sinful nature.

We do seek to bear one another's burdens, as last week's text was saying, to help each other in very practical ways and in spiritual ways.

Because the reality is, if Jesus has saved you, if you're trusting in Christ alone for your salvation and he's made you a new creation in him, then again your desires change and your affections for others changes.

So before you were kind of like, well, that's their problem.

Let them figure it out.

But now as Christians, especially in the household of faith, it's our problem.

We need to figure it out.

Because we're going to bear one another's burdens.

We're responsible as brothers and sisters in a local church for one another.

We help each other with practical things.

Need help moving, need help painting, you need help paying for things.

You need help with your car.

You need help.

We're just here to help one another.

We're here to help one another spiritually.

Let me encourage you.

Let me pray for you.

I've been praying for you.

Let me send you a passage that I've read and I've been praying for you.

Let me share with you something that I've been feeling guilty about.

Let me share with you an area that you can be praying for me about.

Hey, I see this sin in your life.

I don't know if it's real or not.

I just see this and it concerns me.

I love you.

I'm going to talk to you about it.

Are you okay?

Hey, how are you doing with fighting this sin?

I know it's been a while, but you shared there was a struggle.

How's that going?

I know this is an awkward conversation, but I love you enough to have the conversation.

See, this is what, when you when you understand what Jesus does in the gospel and saving us, he brings us into his church, and this is the way the church loves one another well.

And as we look at the passage this morning, I want to see, I want us to see that as Christians, having been saved, our sin has been atoned for, and our salvation secured in Christ, that there is a principle that as Christians, that as we live, there's reaping and sowing and reaping.

Now, if you've read that passage with us, you know that's not a new idea.

Again, this is an idea that you can find all over the world.

If you just go and you just Google sowing and reaping quotes, you'll get hundreds of quotes from all kinds of people, especially like the kind of self-help gurus.

It's like, well, if you sow here, you'll reap here and sow here.

And a lot of the prosperity gospel prosperity preachers will say, well, if you're not reaping much, it's because you're not sowing much.

So if you just give more money to my ministry, then you'll benefit, right?

So it's a Ponzi scheme, really.

And the reason it doesn't work for you is because that's not following what scripture teaches.

Sowing and reaping, it blesses others, and it brings us holiness.

So one of the two things I want us to look at this morning, kind of in different areas in the passage.

That as we sow and we reap, it blesses others, and it brings us holiness.

See, commentators, they differ a little bit on this passage because some say this is about money.

This is all about money.

Even earlier on in chapter six, it's just about money, how you're to bear one another's burdens, and you're to work hard, and you're to kind of take care of yourself, you're to take care of the pastor, and you're supposed to sow and reap, and it's all about money.

And some people, other commentators say, well, it it could be about that, but it could also be about just spiritual things in general, right?

Just life, spiritual things is a principle that you can apply that as you seek to be obedient, the Lord blesses that.

And I'm under the persuasion right now that I think I would agree it's both.

I think that it's talking about what we do with our money, but it's a principle that applies to all of life.

And I think it does find kind of a it runs along with chapter five, where if you remember in chapter five, he's talking about walking with the spirit.

And how, as Christians, we're spirit, we walk with the spirit because we have the spirit in us, we're to be obedient to him.

And so I think as we go through this passage, you'll see both those things really applying.

It does speak to how we handle our money, but it speaks to how we live all of our life.

What we do with everything that God has given us.

It is kind of an interesting little layout here, and if you follow with me, there's this instruction in verse six, there's admonition in verse seven, then the principle, the heart of the thing, the principle in verse eight, and then another admonition in verse nine, and then more instruction in verse ten.

So there's kind of a pattern, instruction, admonition, principle, admonition, instruction.

But the thing I want us to remember, because you you know this principle.

So well, reap well.

Sow the flesh, reap from the flesh.

So the spirit, reap from the spirit.

It's the same idea that we see in Romans 8.5.

Fix your mind on the things of the flesh, you're gonna do what the flesh desires.

But it says in Romans 8.5, set your mind on the things of the Spirit, and you will do what the Spirit desires.

But as we kind of look at all this, what I want us to understand this morning is that growing in godliness requires intentionality.

Growing in godliness requires intentionality.

That is reaping sowing, this is an agricultural language about planting seeds in the ground.

So you're like, this isn't the sowing like on a singer sewing machine, like we're making clothes.

It's not that kind of sowing, it's not knitting, it's planting seed in the ground, to sow seed in the soil, and then to reap the benefit of that over time.

The harvest, the crop, the produce.

So you sow and then you reap.

That's the principle that's kind of Paul is using to teach the church how to live intentionally and grow in godliness, mature in their faith.

So the first thing, sowing and reaping that blesses others.

Let the one who is taught the word, this is verse 6, share all good things with the one who teaches.

Now, this is a, I'll admit, just an awkward passage because I'm the one teaching and you're the ones who are being taught.

And it's telling you through me how you guys are to take care of me.

So hopefully you can see why that's a bit awkward or difficult.

I was sharing with some guys earlier in the week that when I come to passages like this, my instinct is just gonna say, hey, make sure you take care of your pastors and just move on.

I don't want to ignore it, but I don't want to spend much time on it because it's just an awkward thing.

Because I literally get paid by you guys, the church, to do this job, and now I'm gonna tell you about how you're to pay me to do my job.

So there's a difficulty there.

But the irony is the rest of this passage has to do with what?

Being faithful, intentional.

If I, as your pastor, am not sowing well, if I'm not handling God's word well, and I'm kind of picking and choosing, and I'm not sowing well.

I'm not following the rest of the passage if I ignore verse six.

So I say a lot to say.

This is important that we understand.

This is a principle Paul has taught all throughout his letters.

It's all in the Old Testament as well.

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 17 says, Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

1 Timothy 5:17

For the scripture says, You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain.

The laborer deserves his wages.

1 Corinthians chapter 9 says, In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel, by those who hear.

1 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

And so, as Paul is teaching the church in Galatia how they are to bear one another's burdens well, he finishes the first part of verse, or chapter 6 that Ron covered with this idea of bearing one another's burdens.

And also verse 5, for each one will have to bear his own load, bearing your own load.

And there was an issue he was dealing with saying, listen, you're not to just kind of mooch off the Christians.

Just because Christians should be really generous people, open-handed people, as we see in the early days of the church in Acts, they're giving whatever whoever has need, they give.

That's a model and a mark of Christians.

They're open-handed with what God has given them.

Just because they're those kinds of people, you're not to come and take advantage of them.

You should be people who are laboring and working and earning a wage for yourself as well.

But then he gets into this part about, but for those who are teachers, let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Those who have the authority to teach, those who are elders or eldering among you.

Share all good things with them.

Don't let them go hungry physically while you're being well fed and nourished by them spiritually.

Don't let their needs go by the wayside while, which are physical and temporal, while they're making sure that your eternal needs are being met.

So we seek to bless those who proclaim God's word.

And I would say, just for us, for me, and I am blessed to be paid by proclamation church.

And the church has, as long as it's been here, they've done their best with what they've had to pay me.

And I'm I'm so grateful.

My family is grateful for that.

It's a blessing.

And I am also, and so are you, the direct recipients by those who have done this as well.

By sitting under other godly men who have taught the word well, or reading commentaries.

I mean, every week I'm opening and I'm reading commentaries by people who get us to take the best hours of their day, study the scriptures, and write about it.

That's a blessing for me, that's a blessing for you.

And so, when some people are like, well, I don't know if anyone should be paid.

Well, that's one, that's not what scripture teaches.

But two, what a blessing the church receives by people who can set aside time to study the word and then also to disciple and to shepherd well.

Now I just want to add to that on the other side, it's not the congregation's job to make the pastor rich.

But their attitude as a church can often be seen by how they support their pastors, how they give, both good and bad.

Some churches way overpay their pastors, right?

Because they kind of put them up on this pedestal like this person is awesome, and we should just we should pay them a lot so they don't go anywhere, like they're so mag uh, their charisma and their magnetism is so great, and they're just so good at it.

Let's just give them everything they want so they don't go anywhere because we want them here because it's because they're awesome.

And you can obviously see the problem with that.

The heart behind that's wrong, the attitude's wrong.

So churches overpay people.

And then sometimes they they underpay people.

This happens obviously more often than the other way, and they just think, hey, you got into ministry, you probably you should have known you weren't gonna be rich, so just stay poor.

And that's kind of a bad attitude because as Christians, we're all laboring, we're all being faithful with the work we should be that is before us.

And so I'm not telling any church how much they should pay anyone, but I am saying is it is the responsibility of the church, if they have the means, to pay for those who teach and preach the word.

And it's not always possible in most parts of the world, in most places, it's not possible, but still it is the job of the church to help with those things as they can.

So the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

It's an interesting thing about this generosity.

And as I said, you can usually get a hint or a sense of a church's generosity if they have it or not, by how they pay their staff, but also how they treat others.

Skip all the way down to verse 10 with me.

So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Are we seeking to do good to everyone?

Are we looking for opportunities?

You don't have to look that far.

Maybe for most of us, there's dozens of opportunities all around you for you to do good.

You don't have to go looking for those things.

They come to you.

But hopefully you're engaging in those opportunities.

You're looking to, how can I take the time or the money or whatever God's given you, the things He's given you, and sow that well.

Use it well to bless others.

Our first priority, as this verse teaches, is for the church, to fellow Christians in our local fellowship.

But it's also for everyone.

But look with me in verse, or I'll just read Romans 12, 13.

Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.

Paul's writing to the church.

He's given them instruction to contribute and to seek to show hospitality.

Now we as a church are blessed in that we're able to help one another with things, and sometimes, you know, we send out an email to the whole church.

Hey, this is a need.

Everyone who's a member or a regular attender gets that email.

Here's a need.

If you can help meet that need, here's how.

It's a wonderful thing.

But we shouldn't just be sitting around saying, Well, I haven't received an email, therefore I can't do any good, or I can't find any opportunity.

Because there's meeting needs, and there's just showing hospitality.

When you you have several evenings free and you have a home and you can cook some food, show hospitality.

Be generous toward others.

In Hebrews chapter 13, verse 16, it says, do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Hebrews 13:16

Do not neglect to do good and share what you have.

There's a sacrifice in there.

We should be a people who are sacrificing our time and our rest and our money and our homes, everything we have, sacrificing it for the good of others.

And we're not just kind of laying it out there so whoever wants to come and just kind of pick some up and go can have it.

Like, hey, here's all my money.

I'm just gonna put it on the sidewalk for others to have.

Or here's my home.

I'm just gonna open up whoever needs a place to sleep at night.

Just walk on in, find a place to lay down and sleep.

That wouldn't be sowing well either, would it?

But we're looking for needs, we're assessing what's going on, we're seeking to understand the needs around us, and then to meet those needs, to serve others.

First and foremost, to those who are of the household of faith.

How wrong is it if things are, if we're not tending to our own household, whether it's your own family, or as a church, we're not tending to our own needs, and we're just kind of blowing money out somewhere else, which I'm sure there's other good things.

Good things.

There is no end in good ministries you could give your money to, good places you can volunteer.

And so we have to, again, assess what do we have?

How can we be sacrificial?

But how do we make sure we're meeting our own needs?

Sometimes in the Christian faith you'll meet people who they're doing so many amazing things for God in the name of God that they're neglecting their own family.

Well, I'm out sharing the gospel with everyone, and I'm going to all these mission trips and I'm doing all these things.

Praise the Lord, that's awesome.

But if you're doing that and you're neglecting your own family, it's sin.

It's wrong.

You're not to go do these things until you are being faithful with these things.

So, as Christians, as we sow and we reap, this is this instruction that we're given.

Pay your pastors and seek to be generous.

Let us do good to everyone, and especially the household of faith.

There should be something in us that desires to do good to others.

Because God has been so good to us.

The second thing I want us to look at is how sowing and reaping brings holiness.

Look in verse seven with me.

Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked.

For whatever one sows, that will he also reap.

For one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the spirit spirit will from the spirit reap eternal life.

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

Now we looked at this kind of principle, how it applies outwardly, our view of others, generosity towards others.

I want to see how it applies to us, how it leads us to maturity or destruction.

Maturity or destruction.

There's a sober warning in verse 7.

God is not mocked.

You cannot fool him or slip by him with your little scheme or your plan.

And the language in the Greek here has this idea of thumbing your nose at God.

A gesture of like disrespect and rebellion.

I'm going to do what I want to do.

Well, then you better be prepared to reap the fruit of your decision.

Sowing to the flesh brings death.

And sowing to the spirit brings eternal life.

I want to pause here for a moment and bring some clarification.

Because I don't want us to misread this verse.

This is why it's so important that we understand the context of the book and what's going on when we're reading through something.

I mean, context, if you haven't heard this before, remember this.

Context is key when reading scripture.

And you know this, like, like if I'm in a conversation with Wes, Wes and I are talking, and we're talking about kids or marriage, and I just say, like, I'm kind of going on, like, I need to spend time with my wife, I need to be intentional with Candace, it's important for these things.

Because if I don't, well, my heart would just be like, my wife is just awful and she's negative, and I just can't stand to be around her.

She's selfish and mean.

And that's, I don't want that kind of heart because I want, so I'm gonna tend to our relationship.

Well, if you just walk in and you just all you hear me do is complain about my wife.

My wife's awful and she's mean and she's rude, and that's all you hear.

Well, you heard me say those things, didn't you?

You got a snippet of the whole message.

But outside of the right context, it's confusing.

And now you're thinking, well, Rick's a terrible husband, or Candace is a terrible wife, or they're having marital issues, who do I talk to about this?

Do I go to Ron or Jimmy, or like what's gonna happen?

But if you just had the whole context to make it clear, and this is my point.

Paul gets through all of Galatians saying what?

Pretty much one thing.

The whole book, he's saying one thing.

You're saved by faith and not by works.

That's it.

He's spending the whole message saying that one thing, and then if someone just opened the Bible to you, turned to this passage and said, Well, read this verse from me.

And you read verse 8, 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.

And they said, So how do I sow to the spirit so that I can earn eternal life?

You see the problem, how clear it is if we don't understand the context of what's going on here.

Paul is writing to those who are proclaiming to be Christians, reminding them that Christ saves them, if they have faith in that, then they are saved.

But he's also giving them a warning here.

If you are sowing to the to the flesh, take warning.

If you're going about your life and you're and you're like, well, my time and my money and my attitude and what I'm doing, it's mostly about me.

It's not primarily about God, then take warning.

God is not mocked.

You can't say, well, I go to church on Sunday and I have a Bible on my desk and I and I go to community group and therefore I'm good.

Well, all the other time of the week, you're sowing to the flesh.

What's the flesh desire?

Lust.

I'm giving in to lust.

What's the flesh desire?

More food.

I'm gonna get more food.

What's the flesh desire?

More more things at the mall or go shopping.

Then give in to that.

If you're sowing to the flesh, you will reap death.

So God is not mocked.

You cannot deceive him on these things.

So he gives a reminder to the Christians.

If you're genuine in your faith, you won't be earning by sowing, you'll be revealing where your heart's at.

Are you sowing to the Spirit?

Is God in you?

Do you desire him?

Are you seeking him?

If so, praise God, you will reap eternal life.

It's a wonderful thing when you understand, again, the context of what's going on.

You think about sowing and reaping in your own life, and we're we're all here.

There's no one who's like sowing perfectly, and I'm reaping perfectly, it's going really well for me.

We're all mistakes, have messes, we're all fall short, we're all just stumbling through this.

But I want us to be honest for a moment.

The sowing and reaping.

There's a principle here.

Do you find yourself discouraged in your faith?

I don't I don't desire the things of God right now.

I I'm struggling being in the Word.

I don't really, my heart towards prayer just kind of wanes.

I just I'll try to pray in a moment or two or three into it, and I get kind of lost.

I'm just prayer life's not very good, but but it's okay.

I had a I had a really good prayer life 15 years ago.

It was really good then, and and that's good.

Or maybe you're struggling with, I just feel like I'm always worried about what other people are thinking about me.

Just always judging, did I say the right thing?

Did they how they hear me say that?

Do they know what I was trying to say?

Did I say the wrong thing?

Or just practically like, I'm just trying to, we're trying to make ends meet as a family.

We're trying to pay all of our bills and save a little bit of money.

Or I'm trying to try to lose weight and be healthy.

All these like practical, tangible things.

This is where all the whole self-help thing kind of swoops in, like, we're gonna give you a better life.

Because what they're gonna say is change.

Spend your money better, eat healthier.

Think about yourself less and think about other people more.

Stop worrying about your own self so much and start serving the needs of others.

Because when you serve the need of others, then you'll be happier when you get your eyes off of yourself.

And when you start managing your money better, you'll have some more to save.

And when you start kind of eating healthier and exercising, you'll feel better, and then that'll kind of be easier to do.

And as you're seeking to bless other people, you won't be so self-consumed in what they're thinking about you.

And all these things are what?

They're true.

These are true things.

But what the world hangs them on is your happiness and your blessing, and your life will be good, and then you'll be fulfilled, and then guess what?

You will reap what you sow.

And that's where it stops.

You do that for a while, and it's empty.

Because you're not meant to sow and to reap for your own blessing, just for your own just joy and happiness.

It's for the joy and happiness of others and for the glory of God.

You've been given the opportunities, you've been given the time and the money and the energy and the place in life to sow and to reap so that God will be blessed, and so that others will be blessed and encouraged.

And through that, you have joy.

Through that, your finances can be in order.

Through that, you are thinking about others a lot more, so you're not so angry because you're taking the eyes off of yourself.

Through all these things, the sowing and reaping principle, when you understand it as God has given it to us, not as how the world has co-opted it, there's great joy in life in that.

It's good for us to remember.

We were given these things to enjoy, yes, for sure.

Your time, enjoy that.

God's given you money, enjoy that.

He's given you an opportunity to travel or to live somewhere nice or whatever.

Enjoy those things.

But they're not for you alone.

And they're not even for you to say, well, I'm here to enjoy 90% of it, and and then I can give 10% of it away.

But rather, open-handed, God, what would you have me do with what you've given me?

How can I serve others?

See, the reality is everything that we've been given belongs to him.

Fleshly, the temporal, all those things, they belong to him anyway.

They're all his.

And as his people, we belong to him.

Look with me just back in chapter 5.

Verse 25 24, Galatians 5, 24, and 25.

And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

And they will live by the Spirit.

And let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Christian brother, sister, we're going to struggle in this.

There is no perfect sowing this side of heaven.

We're going to struggle with the sowing.

And we are we sowing enough?

Do we sow too much?

When are we going to see that the fruit of that?

Will we ever see the fruit of that?

We're going to struggle with these things.

But over time, again, not just a snapshot, but the full picture.

Over time, we're going to see God working in us, see Him maturing us, growing us.

We will see fruit.

As we sow in the spirit.

I want to be clear, it always leads to discouragement.

It always leads to discouragement.

You're never sowing to the flesh in your life, and it's like, man, I've been sowing to the flesh for five days now, and it really feels good.

I'm happy.

I'm excited about life.

I'm excited to serve others.

When you sow to the flesh, it brings death.

James says that sin brings death.

If you're wondering why, maybe your desire for the things of God is dormant or dead, you don't desire to pray, you don't desire the word, you don't desire to sing, you don't desire to obey, you don't desire to kill sin.

Why is that?

It's because you're sowing to the flesh.

You cannot sow to the flesh and then wonder why you're not reaping the fruit of the spirit.

You can't be living this way, saying, why am I not more joyful?

Why am I not more content?

Why don't I serve others?

Why am I so self-focused?

You can't ask all those questions while you keep sowing to the flesh.

There's a principle here that if you live that direction, you will go that direction.

So, beloved one, I want you to hear what God is telling us.

Sow to the spirit.

It is not easy all the time, it doesn't get rewarded, your instant gratifications don't go off.

It's laborous, but it is good and it brings life.

Sowing to the spirit brings life.

You're just a much happier person.

People like being around you more.

Christians, anyway.

So we're left with this last thing in verse 9.

To not grow weary in doing good.

For in due season we will reap if we do not give up.

But to keep going.

And it's interesting because Paul writes this as a command.

Listen, don't grow weary.

And I don't, like, one of the things I think about is Paul, like, I don't know, man.

I am weary.

I got up this morning feeling weary.

I prepared this morning, got our kids ready, feeling weary.

I stand before you feeling weary.

So how do I reconcile what I'm feeling and what Paul is commanding, when the Holy Spirit is commanding us to not grow weary and doing good.

What the Holy Spirit, what God is telling us is to keep on trusting Him.

And then as Christians, not so much our physical bodies, because we're our bodies are going to die.

They're decaying.

So the command isn't have lots of energy all the time.

But in your spirit, your heart, do not grow weary and callous and think, what's the point?

I've been sowing for all this time, I'm not seeing any fruit.

I've been going and serving this in this way, I've been giving money to this thing, or I've been faithful to love these people well, and I'm not seeing any fruit.

Don't grow weary.

I know that I am a relatively young pastor, and I haven't seen a lot of things.

But I just want to encourage you, especially some of you are walking through very hard seasons, and I want to encourage you to be faithful to that.

You be faithful to sowing, and the Lord will bring about the fruit.

And I just want to I want to tell you that with a warning that God's plan might not be your plan.

But that does not mean that you stop sewing.

And just a word of application: there are several here whose adult children are not walking in the ways of the Lord, and it breaks your heart.

Just breaks your heart.

Do not grow weary.

You keep sowing to that, and you leave the fruit up to the Lord.

Some of you are walking with people, or you know, people who've walked in or are struggling with addiction.

What the Lord does is what the Lord does.

What you are to do is to be faithful to sow the good news of Jesus Christ.

There's hope in Christ alone.

There's hope in nowhere else but Jesus Christ.

Some people are walking or are in life with their marriage, it just has been a slog for decades.

Repeated infidelity, neglect.

I just want to say to you, keep sowing.

Trusting the Lord.

Some of you have been witnessing to lost people and your family or coworkers for years.

Keep sowing.

Do not grow weary in this.

Do not grow weary because the fruit of your sowing is not up to you.

It's up to God.

And this is where that principle that the world takes and they twist and they get it so confused is they say, Well, if you sow, You reap.

It's your fruit.

But God says as you sow the way I tell you to sow, and then I will bring about the fruit.

And it's the fruit that I bring that will make you happy and joyful.

It's this weird understanding that when we can step back in eternity and we see everything that God is doing or has done, we will say He did everything perfectly.

On this side of glory, we don't understand that.

There are so many people who we wish were saved and have left sin that haven't.

We don't know why.

But there will come a time when we just, God knows what he's doing, and it is good and it is perfect, and we will trust that.

So we sow, trusting him, because he will bring about fruit.

The fruit that he has prepared.

I know I'm wrapping up here.

Listen to me.

All this sowing and reaping language, it's good for us to hear this.

This is things that we are to do.

We're to sow.

We're to get out there and literally love our neighbor.

Share the good news of the gospel with lost people.

Or to be doing things, literally doing things.

But we do that because of what Christ has done for us.

We cannot get that confused.

Look with me in chapter 3.

I just want to read the first five verses.

This is Paul reminding them, Oh, foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you?

It was before your eyes that Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified.

Let me ask you only this.

Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

Are you so foolish, having been gun by the Spirit?

Are you now being perfected by the flesh?

Did you suffer so many things in vain?

If indeed it was in vain, does he who supplies the Spirit to you and work miracles among you do so by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

If we do not understand what God has done for us, all of our reaping and our sowing is for naught.

It's selfish.

We're still earning something.

We're still expecting this exchange.

If I do this, then he'll do that.

It's by grace that we sow.

It's by grace that we reap.

It's by grace that we continue in doing good.

So do not, do not reject this grace.

Do not reject Jesus Christ.

Do not allow your heart to treat this grace in a light way.

Don't be unserious.

This is not cheap grace.

The grace that has been given to you for salvation came at the cost of Jesus' life and death and blood and body spilt for you.

So understand that.

And then from that sow, so in obedience, so enjoy and seek to honor and obey the Lord.

Let's pray.

God, you are good to us.

I praise you for your goodness.

Pray, Lord, as we do seek to be obedient to the scriptures, to bless others, to meet the needs of others, to take what you've entrusted to us and bless those.

Lord, that we would do that from a place where we know your grace and your mercy.

We're not trying to earn favor with our sewing, our working.

We're not trying to impress people.

We're just being obedient.

And out of the abundance of what you've given us, we're just passing that along to others.

Pray for those who may be here who do not know you, Jesus, as their Lord and as their savior, their master, their king.

They would repent of their sin and their rebellion.

Just the emptiness of life without you.

That they would trust you, put their faith in you and follow after you.

With great joy.

Because you have redeemed us.

Because we are a people of great joy.

Prince, in your holy and precious name, Jesus.

Amen.