A Deal Too Good to Ignore: Sowing and Reaping Goodness (Galatians 5:22; 6:6-10)

I've had the privilege of doing a few memorials for people I didn't know.

One of them stands out.

His name was David.

And, um,

I wrote my sermon, as I typically did, and prepared my notes.

I interviewed the family to understand who the man was, and to really, to

get, put my best foot forward, and to honor his life, and to honor

his family preaching the sermon.

But as I sat there listening to the countless number of people that went

through the podium to eulogize his life, I noticed a repeated refrain about the man.

They kept on saying, he's a good man, he was a good man, he was a good man.

Now, I've listened to enough memorials to understand that sometimes people

say things, uh, especially at a memorial, they're not going to say

like, oh, he never took out the trash, he was a slob, and he farted

in the car and rolled up the windows.

People will

typically say nice things at memorials, but what was evident about this

particular man is that these guys really meant what they were saying

about him because they were They weren't trying to airbrush his flaws.

They talked about him being a broken man and having addictions

that he wrestled through his entire life, although they never

specified what those addictions were.

They continued to return to this concept of he was a good man.

Few of, uh, the men that went up to the podium to eulogize him, uh,

playfully, but all meaningfully, fought to be his best friend.

Oh, I remember one guy saying, I'm really his best friend.

That last guy, not really, and I'm really his best friend.

David was a good guy.

And so they would talk about him.

They fought, they fought over him and fought for him.

David was a good man.

I don't know about you, but I think about my death quite a bit.

And here's the reality for all of us, whether it's in 50 years, 70

years, or whether it's in 70 minutes.

Soon enough, all of us are going to meet our maker and then your

life's going to be eulogized.

Your family's going to come up and say words about you, hopefully.

Your friends are going to eulogize you and, and they're going to say things

about you and they're going to share life stories about you and I'm pretty

sure one of the things that you're going to want your family and friends to say

about you is that he was a good man.

He was a good man.

And to mean it, not just to say things that they think are going to

be, you know, helpful platitudes.

They want to say about your life.

You were a good man, and I'm sure that it resonates with you

to say, I want to finish well.

Whenever my time is, whenever the bell rings, whenever the horn blows,

I want to be ready for that time, and I want to be called a good man.

How can you be sure to leave a legacy like that?

How can you guarantee that your life right now is prepared to end it in

such a way that you can be confident people will say he's a good man?

Now, in your mind, you're probably thinking, well, I

want to be called a godly man.

That's what I really want.

And really, those terms are synonymous.

As we look at scripture this morning, we're going to see that living a good

life, bearing the fruit of goodness isn't something accidental or happenstance.

It's the result of careful cultivation over the life of your, the life that

God has given you, day in and day out.

What God wants us to do is to bear fruit, the fruit of goodness.

And the way that we bear the fruit of goodness is by eagerly and

persistently sowing seeds of goodness.

And God gives us a promise.

You're going to reap what you sow.

You want a good life.

You gotta sow good seeds.

You want a glorious ending where the king welcomes you in and says, Well

done, good and faithful servant.

You gotta be doing something today that feeds that very end, because

you're gonna reap what you sow.

Not gonna stumble into a good life.

Not gonna happen by accident.

You're gonna have to sow into it.

The concept of sowing.

The Bible talks about this idea of sowing.

We're not agricultural, most of us, although we live near

farms and what have you.

Sowing is the concept of putting seed into the ground, Letting, letting it

do its thing and then waiting for the harvest to come, whether it's fruit or

whether it's grain or something else.

That's what God wants us to do this morning.

We're going to look at Galatians chapter five and six.

We're actually going to cover quite a bit of territory because I want to show

you a deal that's too good to ignore.

And I want to show you how scripture talks to you about how to live a good life,

how to be sure that when you die, when it comes time to meet your maker, you can be

assured of having a good life behind you.

And consequently, having a good harvest.

It's not just about living a good life or sowing good seed.

There's good things to come from that.

There is a good end, a good harvest that God wants you to enjoy.

So what we'll see in this text, we're going to develop a good

metric, a good motivation and a good method, a good metric, a

good motivation and a good method.

Before we jump into that, I want to warn us against two errors

that can typically happen when we.

When we look at the fruit of the Spirit, in this series, we've

talked a lot about bearing fruit.

How, how we're supposed to do this, how we're supposed to go about this.

And there's two errors that you can make.

The first error is the error of legalism.

Legalism is this concept of, if I do enough good things, if I bear enough

good fruit, God will be pleased with me.

It's this idea that if, if you crack the whip on a Christian and

make him do what he's called to do, man, you'll, you'll end well.

God will be pleased with you.

And that's not true.

Uh, that's not true.

We don't want you to feel the sense of, if I do enough good works,

God's going to be pleased with me.

Now that's not the whole truth.

The other side of this is, hey, don't worry about it at all.

It doesn't matter if you do good or do bad.

You know, you've been, you're a, you're a sinner, you're saved by

grace and all of life is grace.

And while that's true, that doesn't mean that God's okay with us just

sitting back and hoping for the best.

No, there's two camps, legalism and license, and we

want to avoid both of them.

And starting at Galatians five, verse 16, I want to read to you through this

section, making a few comments about how we're going to avoid both of those

things by bearing the fruit of the spirit.

And we'll notice as we read through this, how the spirit interacts

with our Christian lives, what's his relationship to our life.

And we'll avoid both of those areas.

As we jump in Galatians chapter five, starting at verse 16, Paul says to

the church of Galatia, but I say Instead of devouring one another,

that's where the but comes from.

He's contrasting the previous words he just said.

Like you guys are fighting, you're devouring one another, don't do that.

But instead, walk by the spirit.

And if you do this, he says, you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.

If you're walking by the spirit, the fleshly impulses are going to be subdued

because you're feeding your spirit.

You're feeding the spirit in your life.

Verse 17, for the desires of the flesh are against the spirit and the desires

of the spirit are against the flesh.

For these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things that

you really want to do as a Christian.

If you, if you indulge the flesh, there's danger there.

He says, but in verse 18, if you're led by the Spirit, notice that in verse

16, he says, walking by the Spirit, now in verse 18, but if you're led by

the Spirit, if he's leading your life, you're not under the law, you're not

under legalism, you're not under the burden of the crushing weight of do

this, do that, do this other thing.

He's saying, no, you're not under the law.

Because you have the spirit controlling and compelling you to do even

more than what the law commands.

Verse 19 he says, now the works of the flesh are evident.

Sexual morality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife,

jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,

orgies, and things like these.

So, he's just kind of giving you a smattering of the works of the flesh.

Not everybody commits all of these sins, but he's saying these sins are evident

in someone who's walking by the flesh.

And there's many more like that.

He says, you could, you could, as a sinner, you can choose your sin.

Choose your own adventure.

There's lots of sins that you can engage in that are fleshly.

He says, I warn you, second half of verse 21, I warn you, as I warned you before,

that those who do such things, notice this, will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Amen.

If your life is characterized by these sins, you can be sure you're

not on the path that God calls you to.

Verse 22.

And here's our text that we've been studying for the past several weeks now.

But the fruit of the Spirit.

Notice again, singular fruit, the fruit.

It's a, it's a, as one theologian called it, a bouquet.

This one thing is evident in Christians.

And it's not just one of the fruit, it's the whole thing.

Certainly in varying amounts, but these all, these all go together.

Unlike the works of the flesh, you have the singular fruit of the Spirit.

It's love.

It's joy, peace, it's patience, kindness, uh, goodness.

We're going to look at today, faithfulness, gentleness, self

control, and against such things and things like these, there is no law.

He's saying, look, these are just a few of the, the, the fruit that the

spirit possesses and gives to you, but these are not the only fruit.

There's certainly more fruit to be had, but, but things like

these are not contrary to the law.

He's saying, you don't need the law as a Christian in the sense

that you're not dependent upon it.

You're dependent upon the fruit of the spirit to bear things in your life.

Including the fruit of goodness.

He says in verse 24, Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the

flesh with its passions and desires.

You've put to death the old man, Walked by the new man, Paul says in other places.

In verse 25, He says now if we live by the Spirit, okay?

Just think back here.

Verse 16, walk by the Spirit.

Verse 18, led by the Spirit.

Now verse 25, if we live by the Spirit, Let us also keep in step

with Him, to march along with Him.

And let us not become conceited, provoking one another and envying one another.

This whole section guards us against legalism, trying to please God by

doing good works, and versus license, of saying, doesn't matter what we do,

I'm a sinner saved by grace, I can do whatever I want, God will forgive.

Paul is saying, no, if you live by the Spirit, if you're walking by the Spirit,

if the Spirit controls and compels you, you will do what God calls you to.

But it's not the burden of legalism, it is the love that

the Spirit produces within you.

This is the foundation and the grounds by which we're going to

enter in this next section here.

We're going to talk about goodness today, and I want you to understand as I, as I

preach the sermon to you, I don't want you to feel the burden of, here we go

again, cracking the whip on the Christian.

I got to get my life together.

I got to do better.

I've got to be more.

I'm not a good enough husband.

I'm not a good enough son.

I'm not a good enough brother.

I'm not a good enough employee.

There's danger in sermons like this, but I have to have to understand if

the Spirit's provoking you, if the Spirit's compelling you, this is freedom.

Um, I don't want you, if you're a non christian especially, to think, here

I go, I have to do this good thing.

Christianity is not an external set of righteous standards that you have to

muscle your way through and say, oh, here we go, I'm going to buckle down.

Christianity is a religion that provokes you from the inside out.

It is what's inside of you that provokes the outward behavior

and not the other way around.

Certainly the flesh needs to be restrained, but the Christian operates

by a whole different standard.

We operate from the Holy Spirit working within us.

So even as I give you these points, as we prepare to go through this,

I just need you to understand, I felt compelled to clarify for you.

This is not the external standards that you do to make God happy with you.

This is what the Spirit does in every Christian, and I'm giving you guidance

based on what the Scripture says.

Okay, that.

Legalism license.

We want to avoid both of those ditches and say, I want to follow the Spirit of God.

He's leading me.

He's, He's guarding me.

He's, He's having me march in step with Him.

And now we enter into the fruit of goodness.

Goodness has a lot of overlap with all the other fruit.

In fact, all the fruit are related.

You really, it's hard to distinguish them one from the

other, although Paul does that here.

But notice again, he says in verse, uh, 23, that there is, uh, against

such things, there is no law.

That concept of such things tells us that there's more fruit to be

listed than what Paul lists here.

He's just saying, look, here's a, here's a collection of the fruit.

Here's a, here's a bouquet of the roses, but there's many more

roses that the Spirit produces in the life of the Christian.

So we look at goodness.

First thing I want us to do as we look at goodness is to distinguish

between relative and absolute goodness.

Let's start there.

If we're going to talk about the fruit of goodness, we need to make some

clarifications because people have a different understanding of goodness.

Lots of people can misunderstand what you and I mean when we talk about goodness.

For instance, there was an internet trend not too long ago where people

would say that the way that you can determine whether someone's a

good person is by one simple test.

Here's that test.

An easy way.

is based on what you do with the shopping cart after you're done with it.

Tracy Ferguson from Texas says this, the only way to know a person's

character is to secretly follow them to the grocery store and watch what they

do with the cart when they're done.

Victoria chimed in, she said, for a date you need to take them to a

restaurant and do the waiter test and then later go to the store with

them and do the shopping cart test.

That's how you tell if someone's a good person or not.

In fact, I follow this guy on, uh, on YouTube, whose sole job, he goes

to shopping, he goes to shopping lots, and he'll video record people

leaving their shopping cart there.

And then he'll go and shame them and say, you're gonna put that back, and record

their reaction, and it's often terrible.

But I mean, if we're asking the question, what is good, and our

standard is, do you put the shopping cart back, that's a pretty low bar.

I think most of us would agree.

It's a good thing to do that.

But that's not the standard of goodness that Christians can say,

yeah, that makes perfect sense.

That fits within the Christian framework.

What we're seeing, men, is that most of the world around us

defines terms very differently.

In fact, we can barely understand what a man is today.

We could barely understand what a woman is today.

And so it's not surprising that when we think about the term good,

the term good has really evolved and been shaped differently.

We're witnessing the deconstruction of language before our eyes.

Which is why it's so important that we start then with what does God say is good?

What does God say is good?

If you ask the culture around you, they're gonna say, what's good?

Here's what's good, puberty blockers for kids.

Ask the culture around you, what's good?

Here's what's good, trans story hour.

Culture, what's good?

Here's what's good.

Cultural Marxism.

And the list goes on and on and on.

I know that you're not surprised by this, but I want to show you.

When we say the word good, we typically have different meanings.

We understand the word differently, and that's appropriate.

That's right and good that we do that.

Let's start by, let's start with this.

To, to define relative and absolute goodness.

Let's start with God.

God defines goodness.

Let's just start in our mind and say, when we talk about God, He

Himself is the standard of goodness.

He's the final standard of goodness.

In fact, if you say, what is good?

You're gonna say, good is what God approves of.

Good is what God is.

Good is what God in His character expresses.

When you think about the word good, you have to start with good.

What does God say is good, and who is God?

That's what's good.

We don't have God subjected to some external standard and say, well, God

is good because he does A, B, C, and D.

No, God himself is the final standard of goodness.

That's gonna be a very important place for us to begin and to build upon.

He's the final standard.

All throughout the scriptures, it says here, the Lord is good.

Psalm 105, taste and see that the Lord is good.

Psalm 34, eight, the Lord is good to all.

Actually that's in Psalm 145, nine, uh, all over the scriptures.

You have the Lord is good.

The Lord is good.

The Lord is good.

In fact, even James and his little book, James one 17, he says, even

every good gift that you receive, every good gift is from God.

It's a good thing.

It's from God.

If it's good, it's from God, because God himself is the full

manifestation of all that is good.

Okay, God defines good.

With that said then, let's now talk about absolute goodness

versus relative goodness.

God is the only one who's absolute.

Let me explain this.

Write this down.

Luke 18, 18 and 19.

You have the encounter of the rich young ruler, Who comes

to Jesus, Luke 18, 18 and 19.

He comes to Jesus and Jesus, uh, gives him his attention.

The rich young ruler says, good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And Jesus says, oh good.

Thank you.

Thank you for honoring me with your term.

Good.

No, Jesus stops him in his tracks and says, young man, pause for a second.

What do you mean by the word good?

Are you confessing what you should be confessing?

Namely, that I am God in the flesh.

Are you just giving me an honorific title?

Jesus is quick to say, hold on, slow your roll, son.

What do you mean by good?

Why do you call me good?

Jesus says, no one is good except God alone.

Absolute goodness.

Jesus is unwilling to receive the honorific Adelaide's, uh, the

honorific title that this young man gives him unless he means it the

way that it's meant to be directed.

Absolute goodness.

Only God is absolutely good.

This is a standard that no Christian will reach in his life until glorification.

And yet, some Christians will say, well, if only God is absolutely good, then

maybe a Christian himself can't be good.

That's not true.

Goodness is one of God's shared or communicable attributes.

This is something that he expects his people to convey, which is why there

is such a thing as relative goodness.

Christians are called to exercise goodness.

We practice good while God perfectly possesses it.

And we are good, We are good to the degree that our actions match God's character.

We are good to the degree that our actions match God's character.

That's relative goodness.

It varies and it undulates.

Ephesians 5.

1 says that we're to be imitators of God.

It makes perfect sense that when you, when your kids do something

that reminds you of you, it's like, Oh yeah, they, they got that from me

or they got that from their mother.

Uh, you see that, and that makes perfect sense because the kids mimic the parents.

It's no different in the Christian life.

Christian men are to mimic their Heavenly Father.

It'll be, uh, men who possess goodness.

There'll be men who possess goodness.

God defines good.

Only God is absolutely good.

We possess relative goodness, and we are good to the degree that our

goodness matches God's goodness.

Here's where this rubber meets the road here.

I want you to think back a few years.

If you're in California with us, you'll remember this pretty vividly.

Um, Every state locked down, they locked down their citizens, said, hey, don't

go anywhere, don't, don't do anything, wear the mask, do all the things.

Well meaning and well intending pastors really wrestled with what

to do in this particular season.

We struggled, we prayed.

I remember meeting with the pastors at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo.

We sat around a table thinking, what are we supposed to do?

Are we going to shut down church?

That weekend, March, was it March 20th or whatever it was, we, we debated, the NBA

shut down their game, everything around us was locking their, their doors and, and

shutting down major events, and we thought this is a bigger deal than we expected.

As we entered into this particular season, we began to wrestle

with what do we do with church?

Is it irresponsible of pastors to hold church when clearly everyone else around

us, the medical authorities, the governing authorities, and even lots of other

churches are saying we need to shut down.

It's a danger to everybody around us if we keep our doors open.

Here's one of the proof texts that pastors used to make some of these decisions.

And just keep your finger in 6.

I want you to turn to Romans 13 and I want you to see what Paul writes here.

Because this became one of the battlegrounds for how churches were

to respond to this particular moment in our, in our nation's history.

Romans chapter 13.

Romans 13 · chapter mention

If you're familiar with your Bible, you know that this is a section that

talks about submitting to authorities.

Romans 13 verses 1 through 3.

Romans 13:1–3

Paul's going to give instruction.

About how Christians should posture themselves toward governing authorities.

And here's what he says.

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

Well, there, there's, there's the answer, right?

It was, it's, you should, it's what God calls Christians to do.

Submit to the governing authorities.

Paul continues on.

For there's no authority except from God.

And those that exist have been instituted by God.

Every authority is from God.

This is what God has installed.

Therefore, Paul reasons, whoever resists the authorities

resists what God has appointed.

And those who resist will incur judgment.

The government has the authority to lock you up, to fine you, tax you, etc.

He says in verse 3, 4, the rationale, rulers are not a terror to good

conduct, but to bad conduct.

And would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then, therefore, he's saying, do what is good.

There's our word again.

And you will receive his approval for he is God's servant for your,

there's the, our word again.

Good.

He's your servant for your good.

But if you do, if you do wrong, be afraid.

He doesn't bear the sword in vain.

He has the authority to carry out judgment upon you.

All right.

So you noticed our word for goodness, you know, peppered in this text here.

Good.

It's good.

It's good.

So here's where pastors began to struggle.

We have Romans 13 and the government saying shut down, close your doors.

Don't, don't allow people near church.

And at some point, if you were going to have church, you can only gather 25

and then 50, whatever the numbers were.

We struggled.

And this is one of the reasons why.

Now I want you to put yourself in our shoes for a moment and say,

what would be my responsibility?

Romans 13 clearly says, obey, submit to your authorities and in the same

breath says, he's there for your good.

Now if you're catching my drift here, we're going to

start again with what's good.

God defines good.

God's goodness is absolute.

Ours is relative and our goodness is good only to the degree

that it matches God's goodness.

So I'm going to take a step back from this whole thing and say, okay, during

COVID, what's the right thing to do?

Well, the first thing to do is to identify what is good.

Does Paul, and, and most people, most scholars, commentators think that

Paul's writing during the time of Nero, which if you know your Roman

history, he was one of the worst, most scandalous emperors to ever rule.

Burning Christians in his parties, sending Christians into the, uh, into the

Colosseum to be torn apart by wild beasts.

And Paul says, submit to your governing authorities.

Seems kind of a bit of a quandary if you ask me.

Except I don't think it's that complicated.

Looking back, and of course hindsight is 20 20.

Goodness.

When Paul says in Romans 13, to submit to your governing authorities,

for they're a terror to good conduct, Paul is assuming that there

are, there is in every governing authority, there is common grace,

where they will do what is righteous.

Not because they're following God's law, but because they enjoy common grace.

They're doing good things.

And Christians, to the degree that the government says to do

what is righteous, should say, okay, we're going to obey that.

Because God defines good, not my government.

And when the government affirms what God says is good, I can

say, okay, I can do that.

I can obey the speed limit.

I can pay my taxes.

I can, I can, uh, you know, give honor to whom honor is due, Paul will also say.

I can do all those things because that's what God says is good.

I define God's goodness and I see that through the lens of my government.

So, okay, what does my government say?

That's good.

Now, it gets really dicey.

I know some of you are going to push back and say, what about taxes for this?

And they're doing that over there.

I get it.

There's, there's complication here.

It's not always a neat and clean picture, but when the government

says, hey, shut down your church and don't meet, I could say.

The government says that's good, but is that good according to God's standard?

There are some things that are worth my life, including going

to church and being with you.

There are some things that are worth me saying.

This is a higher good than preserving my, my, my physical health.

Important as that might be.

That is something that God calls us to do as well.

That is a good God calls us to.

We're to steward our body.

But when it comes to defining goodness and distinguishing between relative and

absolute, I'm gonna say God defines it.

God defines it.

Man, let me tell you, I'm, I'm, I'm harking on this

because this is so important.

This is so important.

This happens all over your life.

You're being influenced by a world that says, this is good, do this.

Most of the time, we can probably, probably not bad and nice.

That's okay.

We could do those things.

There are things that the world influences you on that you

don't really pay attention to.

In your questions, I have you thinking through two other issues,

family life and retirement.

Those are two other areas that you would do well as a Christian to say,

what does God say about what's good in terms of family life and retirement?

And I don't want to, you know, do all the thinking for you, but I want you to

say is, is what's good in these areas.

What the world says is good for my family life and good for retirement

is what's good or my work life is what the world says is good.

Is that really good?

Is that what God says is good?

Because if not, I need to reject that.

I need to recalibrate that and a discern and distinguish what's really good.

I'll leave it at that for now.

But as we think about the fruit of goodness, we have to remember,

goodness goes back to God.

What does God say is good?

That's what's really good.

Not what I define, not what the government defines, not what my job defines.

I want to know what's good according to God's word and then walk that out.

That's where we need to start.

Continue with me to Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

We looked at now the metric for goodness.

Now we're going to look for, we're going to look at the motivation for goodness.

Look at how Paul motivates us to pursue goodness.

Galatians chapter 6.

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

Now we're going to look at verses 6 through 10.

And I want to give you the context, we're going to read it through together,

and then I'll walk you through the way I think we should apply this.

Starting at verse 6, Galatians chapter 6, Paul concludes to the church, he says,

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

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

There's our word again, good, agathos, let the one, so let those

who are being taught share all good things with the one who teaches.

He's saying share your blessings, share your material goods, take care of your

teachers, take care of your pastors.

And then he continues on, he says, Don't be deceived, by the way, guys.

God is not mocked.

And I love when, I love when I see the words, Don't be deceived.

Because it reminds me, I can be deceived.

Don't be deceived, because you could be deceived.

Be aware, you could be tricked into thinking something different.

Don't be deceived, men.

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 of the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

And by the way, don't get tired.

Don't, don't grow slack handed in doing good.

There's that whole phrase again, doing good.

Don't grow weary of doing good because in due season you will reap.

We will reap if, if, if we don't give up.

That is to say, there is a time when you can give up and lose the

harvest because you stop farming.

You stop pulling weeds.

You stop giving.

You stop feeding the soil.

Don't lose heart.

Don't, don't be deceived.

God will give you a harvest if you don't give up.

Verse 10, he closes this entire section saying, so then, as we

have opportunity, let us, here we go again, do good to everyone.

But especially, especially, more importantly, with priority, do it to

those who are of the household of faith.

Paul ties the whole thing together by saying, do good by sharing the good

that you have with your teachers.

And then, do good to the body, the church.

Do good to everyone, but do good especially to the body of Christ.

So this whole section is really about sowing to the spirit

by investing in your church.

It includes everybody.

It bleeds over to everybody, but it really is about doing good in the life

of the church, and particularly the household of faith, your teachers, your

pastors within the life of the church.

But it does, and it accurately has broader application.

But I want to focus on the motivation Paul gives you here.

Paul is not just saying, hey, get to work, do the job, you should do it.

Man up and do the job.

Stop complaining.

There's other places where Paul arguably says that.

Uh, act like men, be strong, right?

Uh, but there's, but in this case he's saying, look, listen, listen men.

Don't be deceived.

Don't be tricked into thinking that what you're doing doesn't matter.

No, know that in the future there is a good and a godly harvest that is yours.

It's guaranteed if you just hang in there.

Keep going until the bell rings.

Keep going until the horn blows.

You're not finished yet.

Keep marching ahead.

Keep in step with the Spirit by marching ahead, day by day,

hour by hour, habit by habit.

Sow to the Spirit and trust that you will reap a harvest.

Sow to the Spirit.

Sow seeds.

Plant seeds.

And trust that God will give you a harvest that is better.

In fact, you reap what you sow.

You reap more than you sow, and you reap after you sow.

Isn't that true?

You reap what you sow.

You're going to get, if you plant apple seeds, you're going to get apples.

You plant oranges, you're going to get oranges.

You reap what you sow.

But it's also true that you reap more than you sow.

You reap just a little bit of seed, you get a much larger harvest, and it's

also true that you reap after you sow.

You don't get anything unless you sow the seed, unless you're putting in the effort.

Paul wants you to be encouraged that this is, this is your heritage.

You have a promise from God that you will reap a great harvest if you stay in there.

Why?

Because of the undeniable truth.

You will reap what you sow.

Point number two, you should expect an eventual return on your investment.

Expect it.

Anticipate it.

Savor it.

Look forward to it.

Expect that God's going to pay you back in this life and the next life

through all the good deeds that you sow.

As you possess goodness, as you present goodness, as you practice

goodness, God guarantees that you will reap what you sow.

I am so proud of the 20 some odd families that traveled 1500 miles.

They left the, the sunny shores and the beautiful mountains and scenery

of Southern California to come with us to the Promised Land of Texas , the

heat wait, the, the heat and the cold and everything else in between.

The bugs.

Um, lots of people were, were pretty sour on that and they weren't trying

to be discouraging, but people would constantly come up and say, what

are you, why are you guys going?

Like, aren't the bugs huge out there?

And there's tornadoes and, and there's scary things and, you know, the, the

hot, oh, it's just too hot for me.

And I continually had to gently, I know my, my church meant well, and I'm sure

people said that to you, to you guys, some of you guys who came down with us.

I had to gently push back and say, we're not going out there for that.

Like, we're not going out there for the housing prices, although those are nice.

We're not going out there for the weather.

We're not going out there for those things.

We're not going out for these things.

But, I mean, people, you know, Even people who knew our church, knew our

values, struggled to understand why would you leave this great place?

We've got great pastors teaching.

We've got these great resources.

We have these buildings and we have, you know, we're in a renovation

project right now for a new bookstore.

And I mean, look, we've got the beach over here, a 15 minute drive

to that beach, 15 minute drive to that beach, 45 minutes to Big Bear.

I mean everything.

Why would you leave this?

Why would you invest in that place over there?

And it was easy for us, right?

Because of the fruit.

The fruit!

Like, we're not going for the fruit of the household.

We're not going for the fruit of anything else.

We're going for the fruit that abounds to eternity.

This is better than California.

Not for everybody, but this is better.

This is a better thing.

We're investing in what's going to matter and echo into eternity.

That's a good thing.

And of course, that makes perfect sense.

When you're thinking eternally and not temporally, exchanges

like this make perfect sense.

How about this?

You ever go on a vacation with your family?

That's I don't think you, I mean, here's the, here's the, here's the principle.

Work is enjoyable when the reward is inevitable.

The work of packing and preparing and planning where you're going to

spend the night and where you're going to go and what sites you'll see.

I mean, that's, it's, it's work.

But when you're packing your bag to go on a vacation, that doesn't feel like work.

It's kind of exciting.

I'm gonna wear this, I'm gonna put these shorts on, I'm gonna wear that, you

know, oh, we're going to this climate, I better be ready, and I'm gonna make sure

I bring sunscreen, I don't want to burn.

I mean, that's work, but it's work that you typically welcome and embrace.

The work is enjoyable because the reward is inevitable.

You're gonna go spend time with the kids, you're gonna go scuba diving,

you're gonna go parasailing, you're gonna enjoy the, you know, the

backcountry of this or that place.

Like, the work is enjoyable when the reward is inevitable.

Christian life is not very different.

The work that we do is hard.

Sowing good seed takes effort.

I mean, ask any farmer.

It takes effort to sow seed.

It's hard and it used to be backbreaking.

Now there's much more machinery involved and it's a little less hard,

but it still takes a lot of effort for us to put seed into the ground.

And it's not different for your Christian life.

As you pursue Christian maturity, you have to work hard, backbreakingly

hard on occasion, to sow seed that you know will echo and abound to eternity.

It's supposed to be that way.

But we should expect, we should expect that God.

We'll reward us for this.

We should expect that God will take care of us.

We should expect that God wants us to do this because

he's going to take care of us.

Some of you are gonna pause and say, well, hold on Pastor Ron.

Shouldn't we be good for goodness sake?

Isn't that what Santa Claus come into town said?

He sees you when you're sleeping, sees you when you're awake.

He knows you've been bad or good.

So be good for goodness sake.

That's a creepy Santa Claus if you ask me.

Be good for goodness sake.

That.

It's well meaning.

I think a lot of Christians can feel that and believe that and

say, I don't need the rewards.

Pastor Rod, I just, I just want to do it for the glory of God.

Well, that's a reward too, by the way.

But Jesus was not unwilling to motivate us by saying, Hey,

you plant seeds in this life.

You're going to reap in the next life.

He was quick to tell us.

In fact, let me just give you a couple of verses to write down here.

Matthew six, three and four.

He was telling his disciples, look, when you get to the needy, don't let your left

hand know what your right hand is doing.

So that your giving may be in secret.

He could have ended there.

He could have stopped and said, Hey, that's the right thing to do.

Just do it that way.

But he continues on.

Jesus continues.

He finishes the sentence.

He says this, And your father who sees in secret will reward you.

He'll reward you.

He'll give you good things because of what you just did.

Matthew 6, 6.

Two verses later.

When you pray, Go to your room, shut the door, pray to your father who is

in secret, and your father who sees in secret, here we go again, will reward you.

Jesus is okay with saying, look, there's a carrot at the end of this here.

Labor, give your best, sow your seed.

Matthew 6, 17 and 18.

If you're going to fast, anoint your head and wash your face.

Don't let anybody know that you're fasting.

So that it won't be seen by others, but by your father who is in secret.

And here we go again.

Here's the echo.

Your father who sees in secret will reward you.

One more.

Matthew 10, 42.

Matthew 10, 42.

Jesus goes so far as to say, if you give a cup of water to somebody in my name,

because you love me as an act of loving service to my care, here's what he says.

Whoever gives one of these little ones, even a cup of cold

water, because he is a disciple.

Truly, I say to you.

He will by no means lose his reward.

I want you to expect an eventual return on your investment, and even

to be excited about that, to say, God's going to take care of me.

I might give to you and serve you, and maybe you don't appreciate it

the way that I think you should.

Maybe, you know, you don't shake my hand after the service.

You don't pat me on the back and say, thanks Pastor Rob for that.

And I might be offended in my heart and say, well, I should have done this.

And I didn't realize how hard I worked on that sermon.

I don't need that.

I don't need that.

You don't need that.

Your pastors may forget to acknowledge the things that you're doing.

I talked to someone recently who felt like, that he was ignored.

And that we didn't, we didn't care about him.

I felt terrible about that.

Oh, we do care about you.

I'm sorry that you felt like we, we missed your, your

contribution in this thing or that.

That bothers me.

I don't want to ignore anybody.

But at the end of the day, I'm not looking for your accolades.

I want the accolades of Christ.

I want the eventual reward that comes from my labor.

And I want Jesus to say, well done, good and faithful servant.

And I know that you want that too.

That's a good life.

And the way that we do that, if we sow seeds expecting that Jesus

will pay us back, men will fail us.

Your wives may not give you the kind of respect or response that

you expect or think you deserve.

Your kids may not honor you the way that you think.

Your grandkids may ignore you despite the fact that you buy them everything.

Your, your, your, your boss, Uh, your employees may not give you the deference

that you deserve because of your industry.

And, and maybe you've worked hard, you've got the education, you've

got all the backing, and yet you still feel like, man, no one's

giving me the respect I, I deserve.

I'm working hard, I'm loving them, pouring myself out for my family, my friends,

my church, and yet this is what I get?

No, no, no.

God's gonna pay you back.

He sees.

He will reward.

Expect that reward and be okay with that.

Keep in step with the Spirit, keep marching, keep serving,

and trust that He's gonna pay you back when the time is right.

Work is enjoyable.

Go to www.

fema.

org to learn more.

When the reward is inevitable.

This is sanctified self interest.

I'm expecting an eventual return on my investment.

Because God is faithful.

And He says, He says, We will reap, in verse, verse 9, We'll

reap if we don't give up.

We'll reap if we don't give up.

Men, don't give up in doing good.

Keep producing fruit.

We can expect God to give us a large ROI.

And there's a lot to change the way that we pursue doing good.

So we looked at a good metric.

And We now have a good motivation that Paul gives us and now we're gonna

look at a good method, a good method.

I want to give you a way to approach this that will help you make decisions because

there's always opportunity to do good.

But here's how Paul tells us to approach this.

I want you to look again at our text Galatians but I'm only gonna read verse 6

and we're gonna skip on down to verse 10.

This is the brackets that frame this entire section.

Pointed it out to you, but let me read it again.

Galatians 6, starting at verse 6.

Let the one who is taught, let the church, uh, share all good

things with the one who teaches.

Paul wants you to do good to the church, particularly the pastors

in this case, your teachers.

Verse 10, he closes this section, so then in reaping and sowing, as

we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, your neighbors, your

sister, your uncle, your brother, your, your, your, your congressman,

your, your, your councilwoman.

Do good to everybody and especially prioritize those who

are of the household of faith.

Who's the household of faith?

The church, right?

The people that are right here, this is the household of faith.

This is your church.

It's sad, but it's true.

Your familial connections, most of them, are temporary.

Unless they become believers, and if they're believers, praise God for that.

That's a double family member.

I love that, and I want that.

I pray for that.

But the reality is, you're gonna be spending more time in eternity

with people around you right here than you are spending the time

in eternity with your bloodline.

We pray for our family.

We should expect that our family is going to know.

We want, we want that.

But the reality is, this is permanent.

While family, in many respects, will be temporary.

Paul then focuses our efforts.

He says, do good to everybody.

Do good to everybody.

Everybody deserves your good.

You see someone on the side of the road to, you know, change a tire?

Great.

Help them out.

You have an opportunity to do good to your wife and your kids.

Do good.

Do it.

Do it.

Do good to everybody.

But prioritize.

Focus.

Emphasize the good that you do to your church.

Point number three, you ought to seize opportunities to do good to your church.

Seize 'em.

I mean, you notice your Paul's trying to be opportunistic for you.

He, he wants you to say, look, as you have opportunity, and granted you

have lots of opportunity, don't you, the opportunities come left, right?

There's opportunity all over the place.

But he says, look, do good to your church.

Do good, find opportunities and seize them.

This is Kingdom investment.

Kingdom investment, and again, I'm gonna give you two reasons for this.

Number one, the church is your family.

The household of faith is your family.

You guys are thicker, I mean, blood is thicker than water,

spirit is thicker than blood.

You are united by the blood of Christ and the spirit of God.

This is a permanent institution.

Your family and your permanent.

That's why Paul's concerned that you don't treat each other just like strangers

who get together at, at the local club.

This is not the Y.

This is, this is not an, you know, this is not a business club.

No, this is, this is not a frat.

This is, I mean, again, this is a fraternity of brothers,

brothers, but brothers who are bought by the blood of Christ.

He wants you to feel the weight.

of responsibility for the brother next to you.

Remember Jesus asked the question, answered the question,

he said, who is my neighbor?

And Jesus said, basically the person sitting next to you, right?

You have an obligation to whoever's near you to, to, to serve them and to

do good to them if you have opportunity.

But especially so if that opportunity is in the life of your brothers, those who

are bound to you by spirit in the church.

Someone once said, if you, if you want to invest in what will last, invest

in the church, that's in the church.

Let me give you two reasons why.

Reason why you ought to invest in the church, as we started our sermon with

this, is that your time is running out.

Your time is running out.

Jesus felt this pressure, and he talks about this in John 9.

He says this in John 9, verse 4, We must work the works of

John 9:4

him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

Work the works of him who sent me while it is day.

Night is coming when no one can work.

There, there is a time.

There's an endpoint to your ability to do good that God has given you to.

Do you have a short time frame?

And no one knows what that time frame is.

The sands of time have been turned upside down in your life, and the sands are

dripping every moment, every hour, and the opportunity that you have is evaporating.

Take advantage of it, Jesus says.

Night's coming when no one can work.

And that night, is Jesus coming back, or you die, or someone else dies?

There's a thin line between what we experience now and the

inevitable, eventual eternity.

One author says, Look, we're always going to be too busy to help others unless

we truly grasp the importance God puts on our doing good deeds for others.

I know one of the feelings that you have, and it's the one I feel, I'm too busy.

If I see someone on the side of the road, and I think, Oh, should I pull over?

I'm busy.

I'm busy.

I got a thing to do.

I got someone to take.

I'm going to this thing.

And I grant, there's always going to be opportunity to say, I,

there's always chances to do good.

Paul does want us to be opportunistic.

He wants us to have a bias for goodness.

A bias to do good.

Why?

Because your time's running out.

You will reap what you sow, but you'll only reap what you sow.

You're not gonna, you're not gonna reap something else that you didn't sow.

You're not gonna be godlier if you're not sowing seeds of godliness.

First reason that you should seize opportunities is

because time is running out.

The second reason you should seize opportunities is

because you won't regret it.

You're not gonna regret it!

You're never going to regret giving Christ your efforts.

You're never going to regret serving your wife.

You're never going to regret doing good for the kingdom.

You're never going to regret taking someone through Partners, our

one on one discipleship program.

You're never going to regret doing what Christ calls you to.

Never going to regret that.

Do you think it's possible that you'll regret giving

Christ too much of your life?

Do you think that's possible?

I mean, I remember seeing this movie long ago.

Oscar Schindler, Schindler's List.

I know there's some, some scenes in there that probably are not appropriate

for people, and you just know that.

I'm quoting it.

I, I know there's stuff in there.

But the end of the movie, powerful scene.

Oscar Schindler is being escorted out by the 1200 Jews that he

saved during the Holocaust.

He was a businessman.

He hired them in his factory to protect them from, from the concentration camps.

And at the end of the movie is he's been escorted out.

The war's over.

He's now being, he's now being, uh, pursued as a, a war criminal.

They're going to try to get him.

And so there's Jews are saying, Hey, get out of here quickly.

Thank you for saving us.

He, he's reflecting there with his, uh, his supervisor.

And he looks at himself.

He looks at the things around him and he says, I could have got more.

I could have got more.

He says to his supervisor, I didn't do enough.

Supervisor tries to come and says, Sir, Sir, Sir, you saved 1, 200 families here.

Generations of Jews will thank you for this.

He looks around, he looks at his car, his, you know, however much money that costs.

He looks at his car and says, this car, it could have got 10 more.

I could have got 10 more Jews out of that.

He looks at his pin on his lapel, pulls off his gold pin and says, two more right

here, two more, at least one, maybe two.

He laments not giving enough.

He had opportunity, didn't take it.

Do you think your Lord will give you opportunity?

You're going to say, man, Lord, I gave you too much.

I just, I sacrificed too much.

No, I think like Schindler, if there is such a thing as regret, we're

going to say, I could have done more.

I could have done more.

I could have given more.

Why did I waste my time scrolling that thing or watching that

thing or binging that series?

It's not bad, but man, it wasn't good.

I could have done so much more good with my life.

Your time is running out.

You'll never regret what you do for Christ.

Therefore, you ought to prioritize your resources.

Prioritize your time, talents, and treasures.

To do good to everyone, but especially your church.

Your brothers, your sisters, your spiritual grandkids.

Take care of them.

To love them.

Demonstrate goodness.

You know, take advantage.

If there's a meal train, you got the funds, the resources, do the meal train.

You can drop off groceries anonymously to your, your, your hurting brother or sister

who might be ashamed to receive your help.

Great.

Drop off the groceries.

You know that a family is struggling, a marriage is on the rocks, pray for them.

Don't need to tell them, but maybe a text from you saying, Hey, I'm

praying for you in this particular way.

That's encouraging.

Can't tell you how many times I've gotten texts from somebody.

Just the right thing at the right time.

That is deeply encouraging.

I know you want that.

I know you want to live that kind of life.

Do that.

Typically what stops us is, Oh, I'm too busy.

I don't want to bother.

I got this other thing.

Just do it.

You're never going to regret that.

You should eagerly and persistently sow seeds of goodness because

you will reap what you sow.

God is faithful.

He will pay you back.

Seize the opportunities.

Bear the fruit that the Spirit produces in your life.

Reminded, as we close this here, of a poem.

Short, short poem.

And I've heard it, and you've probably heard it a million times, but it's so

good, and it's so worth our consideration.

Only One Life.

'Twill soon be past, and only what's done for Christ will last.

That's the end of the day for us, fellas.

That's what it is.

That's what this is all about.

We're here because that's what it's about.

We're investing our minds and our heart in this because this is what it's all about.

I'm going to stand before Christ, and I want to be able to give a good report.

I want to be able to, like David, have people say, Rod was a good man.

Bryce was a good man.

Morgan was a good man.

Steve was a good man.

Love the Lord.

He was fierce in his devotion to the Lord.

And that bled into his family life.

That bled into his business life.

That bled into all that he did.

He was devoted to his church.

He prayed for his pastors.

He loved his brothers.

Man, this brother lived a good life.

Don't you want that said about you?

Of course you do.

Of course you do.

Start planting seeds now.

It's not too late.

No matter how young you are, it's not too early.

No matter how old you are, not too late.

You got time.

As long as you have breath, it's time to sow seeds of goodness.

Eagerly and persistently.

Because you will reap what you sow, brothers, and you will never regret it.

Let's pray.

God, give us grace to sow seeds.

We want to be fruitful and faithful, and we want you to be pleased with our lives.

I want to be able to say, we want you to be able to say to us, well

done, good and faithful servant.

That's what our longing is, Lord.

That's what we desire to hear.

Please help us to get to that.

Help us to be faithful to that.

We ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.