Sowing and Reaping

Sowing and Reaping

This evening we want to take our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6, please. I want to share one more message as we begin this new year of an old principle we have heard about many times before, but we need to be reminded of, I need to be reminded of it in my daily life. In Matthew 6:19 we find this, our Lord says, lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

I was reminded that the word principle comes from the Latin Principium, it means a beginning or first part. A principle in our lives is something that is fundamental. It's a primary first thing that we must keep in mind. I was talking with someone yesterday and was just mentioning that as we are training our children, we've got to keep it simple. It's easy to get complex with things and do this, but don't do this and when this happens, we can't look in your constitution, article so and so and this is what you're doing in this scenario. No, God makes it very simple in this word. Everything we do is to be motivated by love to God and love to our neighbor. There are certain principles. If God gave us specific instructions on every possible scenario that could arise, we would be so confused about what the law says at that specific point. What exactly was that? There are guiding principles in our lives that help us to remember to simplify our lives and do all that we do to the glory of God.

I wanted to remind us tonight about that principle of sowing and reaping. Every thought that you speak, I am sowing a seed. The Bible talks about every idle word will come into judgment, right? We're to let no corrupt communication proceed out of our mouth. You wouldn't want to, in your garden, sow a few bad seeds out there, a few weed seeds among your plants, there's already enough of those out there, but you wouldn't want to sow those along with the good seed because that's just creating more trouble, right? Every action that we perform is a seed that we are sowing. We know so well, we are sowing either to the flesh or to the spirit. We are sowing with every thought, every action that we take. And so may everything we sow, may this principle, may we be reminded of it as we go into this new year that everything that we sow is going to be reaped. At some point in time, it is going to be reaped. We will reap the benefits or consequences of it, but it doesn't only affect our lives, it will affect other lives. You know, weeds have seeds too and they spread further and they multiply.

So we notice here in our text tonight in Matthew 6, it talks about investment. That's a form of sowing, isn't it? Investment, laying up treasure in one of two places, laying up treasures in heaven or laying up treasures on this earth. Where is the focus? Where is the priority of our investment? Well, our investment, what we sow, is either going to be heavenly things, eternal things, or it's going to be temporary things, earthly things. And we know it so well as our Lord says here in this passage that if you sow and you lay up treasures on earth, just know that those things are going to disappear. Those things are going to vanish. They're not going to last. But we do have the principle that we can take the earthly things and invest them in eternity, right? We can take, as it says, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, right? Take the temporal things and invest them in each other. We can take the things that God has given us to enjoy, but don't worship those things, use them for the Lord. We can enjoy, and we do enjoy, eating good food. But even when we eat the food, remember to eat it to God's glory, right? If we eat it to God's glory, if we receive it with gratitude, with thanksgiving, God is glorified even in the action we perform of eating. And so in a sense, while we're very much in the natural man, in the physical body, we're still bringing glory to God and sowing to the spirit in the temporal things. It's just how our heart is about those things, right? The heart makes all the difference in the world. Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also, right?

So if we are taking the things of this earth and living for those things and our focus and our attention is on, I’ve got to get more and more things, and if I don't get these things, I won't be happy, then your heart's in the wrong place, right? If we're just keeping treasures to ourselves and we're not rich toward God, then the heart's in the wrong place. But if we're enjoying the things that God has given us but using them for Him, then our heart is in the right place. If we're always seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all these other things will be added unto you. A farmer would be foolish, a gardener or a farmer would be foolish to say, you know, I'm going to sow this seed in the ground but I really don't have any confidence this is going to grow anything. I don't even think it's going to work out, but I'm just going to sow it in the ground anyway. No, that would be foolish. It would only make sense to sow in the ground what you have a reasonable confidence that it's going to grow, right? This is going to produce something good. I'm not just blindly throwing out seed and hoping something happens. No, it's intelligently, purposely, intentionally putting seed in the ground, watering it, and praying over it and saying, Lord, I want a harvest. I'm waiting for the harvest. I'm trusting that you'll give the harvest.

Well, isn't it something? Anna was the last one to plant her garden this year. She had a little garden, but my, was that a fruitful garden she had. She had a kiddie pool that we planted, I guess in June or something like that. It was kind of late for a garden. And so I said, sweetie, I don't think we're going to be able to start a tomato from seed at this point. This is not going to make it in time. I say, if you want to get something, go to the garden center and find a tomato plant, a pepper plant. So we got a pepper plant, I think it was a tomato. We had a few other things we put in there. And that tomato plant, I want to tell you, that yellow pear tomato plant, I'm not at all exaggerating here, well over a thousand little tomatoes came off of that yellow plant. I know the last picking we made just before the evening that real hard frost was coming in sometime in November, we picked over 200 tomatoes that evening, just that one picking. And you know, that was a bountiful reaping of what we had sown. I think that $4 for that plant was kind of expensive, but it was a good investment in that little plant that she bought back in the month of June. Well, guess what? We're going to plant more of those this year because it did so well. And so we have an expectation now that what we are going to start from seed, hopefully this year, is going to come back to us a hundredfold. It's going to come back in great amounts.

So, sowing to the spiritual, sowing even with temporal things as unto the Lord, we need to have just as much expectation as we expect those tomatoes are going to do really well. They did very well last year. We're anticipating. You know, there's certain plants that you may plant and say, they're just not going to do so well in our yard. This particular kind of tomato called a sand, it just doesn't do as well as any of the other plants. We're probably not going to plant that one again this year. But we have an expectation. This one's going to do well. And that's the way it should be spiritually speaking. You think about Moses. Moses made a choice to leave Pharaoh's house, to leave Egypt behind. And look over with me in Hebrews 11:26. It says of this choice that he made that he esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt. For he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. You see in his heart he said it is better to go God's way and suffer reproach than to live in pleasure for a season and suffer loss because I have wasted the investment of my life. I've wasted it in sin, the pleasures of sin. No, instead I will sow my life in the Lord's way. And as a result of that, he says here he chose where his heart went, his feet followed, right? Where his heart went, he invested. I must invest my heart and life with the people of God, choosing rather to suffer the afflictions that will come with following Christ, with walking in God's way, than to stay here in Egypt. And so he did. And so that is the path that he chose.

Look back in Matthew chapter 6 though. Let's jump ahead a little bit rather to verse 26. Jesus said, behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they? Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? O ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Well, in this passage, we can see that God will provide. There is certainly a responsibility on our part to sow, but this is also balancing that out and telling us that God's the one that gives the increase, right? God is the one. It's not our sowing, it's not our thoughts, it's not our words, it's not our actions that produce the result. It's just the response of our hearts. When God says trust and obey, we trust, and if we trust, we obey by sowing obediently, right? We sow the kind of things that please Him. We sow the kind of things because, like Moses, we esteem the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the pleasures of sin in Egypt for a season. We say, like we teach our children very early on, we need to learn to say yes to God, yes to Christ, no to the devil, no to the world, we need to say no to the flesh because we need, like Moses, to count God's way as the best way. And if we trust God's way, we're walking it. We will sow in that way. We will sow the good seed He wants us to sow.

Look at Psalm 126, rather, in verse 5. It's there that we are presented with this familiar truth that they that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. Now Israel was in captivity according to this psalm, and yet the Lord turned again their captivity. They were in a sad time, but as they went forth with weeping and sowed in tears, they came again with rejoicing. You know, repentance was wrought in that time down in Babylon. Psalm 137 talks about, in verse 1, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we wept when we remembered Zion. Oh, that we cannot send the place where God chose His name to dwell. We hanged, it says in verse 2, our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. This is not our home, this is not where God intended for us to be, this was not His plan, and yet God was still there with the lowly, even in Babylon. For there, they that carried us away captive required of us a song, and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?

Well, we know that ultimately, we read of the ministry of the prophets to those leading up to the captivity, during the captivity, and even in the return from the captivity. We see repentance, we see humbling, we see a healing that came, even when the people began to drift back into some of the sins that had in the first place brought them down into the land of captivity. Their leaders said, you need to repent, you need to humble yourself, this is why we ended up in the captivity. The application to our own lives, even as it says in Psalm 30:8, the tears that are sown in repentance are not in vain. In Psalm 30:8, we see here, I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication. What profit is there in my blood, when I go down to the pit? Shall the dust praise thee? Shall it declare thy truth? Hear, O Lord, and have mercy upon me. Lord, be thou my helper. Thou hast turned my mourning into dancing, thou hast put off my sackcloth and girded me with gladness, to the end that my glory may sing praise to thee and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks unto thee forever. What were the people of Nineveh clothed in after the prophet Jonah went to them? Sackcloth, ashes, repentance. God heard them and restored them and forgave them.

We notice that here there is obvious gladness that the Lord has girded the psalmist with, replacing his sackcloth, replacing these garments of humiliation, of humbling and repentance. And we see that this is what the Lord will do for the humble and repentant soul. Those that go forth in weeping shall come again with joy. That's the principle of sowing and reaping that God promises to honor. If you sow where repentance is needed in our lives, if we will simply humble ourselves before God under His mighty hand, let your laughter be turned into mourning, you'll come again with joy and with singing, even if you don't feel like it will be that way, right? Humble yourselves before the Lord, James says, be afflicted and mourn and weep, let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up. You see, it's not the tears, it's the heart, isn't it? It's the heart. We can put on a performance in the flesh, but it's not, as Amos said, rend your hearts and not your garments. Your heart before the Lord, He draws nigh to those of a broken heart, a humble, a contrite spirit, right? He will not despise that. That's the sowing that the Lord is looking for, that He will reward with a hundredfold bountiful harvest.

Well, think about our thoughts. We talked about our thoughts. We can sow seeds, and we do every day, some sort of seed. We sow seeds in our lives every day with the kind of thoughts we're thinking, with the kind of thoughts that we're investing in our lives. Looking at Proverbs 21:5, we read, the thoughts of the diligent tend only to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty, only to want. Well, diligence is always contrasted with sloth, right? Laziness. But the thoughts of the diligent tend to plenteousness, but of everyone that is hasty, only to want. Well, haste, we know, makes waste. Who gets hasty? Well, an example would be somebody who wants to get rich quick, kind of thing. You know, I don't want to have to put in the work, so I want to be hasty in this thing. I want the easy way out, I want the quick way. No, the thoughts of the diligent tend to plenteousness, but the hasty will want. If you sow in haste, if you sow in sloth, you're going to come up empty, but if you sow with diligence, you're going to be rewarded with a bountiful harvest. And it's not our diligence that's the key, once again, it is, Lord, your word is a lamp to my feet, it's a light to my path, and it shows me how to order my steps, how to order my thoughts. Lord, I want to think right thoughts, I want to build a thought life, step by step, that is pleasing to thee. And it's just our heart responding. Where's our treasure? Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. And I want to sow good thoughts.

You know, it's easy to do the wrong thing, right? It's easy to sow the wrong kind of things because just go with the flow, right? But to sow good things is going to take diligence, it's going to take intention, it's going to take all of the soul's energy in response to God to say, yes, I want to do what is pleasing in God's sight on purpose. Well, in Ecclesiastes 11, look over there with me. Ecclesiastes 11:1 says, cast thy bread upon the waters, for thou shalt find it after many days. Give a portion to seven, and also to eight, for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. And when you do it, do it to the glory of God, right? This could be a lot of things, but think about almsgiving, right? Don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, or vice versa. Don't let one hand know that the other’s doing. Don't go around and sound a trumpet before you, saying, everybody, look at what I'm doing though. But as the Lord prospers us, we need to invest, we need to sow. As the Lord has blessed us, we need to sow. Maybe the Lord has blessed with knowledge of something, maybe the Lord has blessed with certain possessions or finances, the Lord has blessed with time, the Lord has blessed with health. But let's use those things and cast them upon the waters, so to speak. Let's say, Lord, I don't know that there is any immediate indication that this investment is going to come back to me, but I'm trusting that as I sow it for your glory, as I cast it out there, the bread that you've blessed me with, I'm going to cast this upon the waters, that you'll sustain me, you'll meet my needs. I know that you'll provide.

And there's, we can see even in our actions that we perform, of course, we can see in this the bread can also be seen as a type of the word of God, right? The word of God, the things that we've been taught from God's word, the applications we can make here. But the seed of the bread that we can cast is giving and sowing into others’ lives. The disciples, freely ye have received, freely give, right? Freely give, and the Lord will honor and bless you manifold beyond what you can imagine. Looking at Proverbs 11:18, it says, the wicked worketh a deceitful work, kind of like that man who, with his dainty meats, wasn't it? You know, he says one thing, but his heart's not with you. He makes this appearance, but actually, he's deceiving in the back. And he turned around to the deceitful man here. Where are the wicked work of the deceitful work? But to him that soweth righteousness shall be a sure reward. Oh, it may not be an immediate harvest, but it will be a bountiful harvest, it will be a joyful harvest. It will not be, oh, that we had not sinned against the Lord, and now we're down here in captivity. Even then, the years the cankerworm is eating, God can restore, right? But we shall weep at the last if we sow to the flesh. We will mourn because, oh, the waste, when we could have been investing in sowing to righteousness.

I think of what Ecclesiastes 11:4 says. He that observeth the wind shall not sow. It's not good conditions to sow. He that observeth the wind, he'll always come up with a reason. This wind's too strong today, it's coming from the wrong direction. But he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. And then, as it tells us here in these two phrases, we can make excuses to not sow, we can make excuses to not invest in eternity. A more convenient time, I'll sow in the way that I'll seek first the kingdom of God. But you know, it all is an indication of the heart, isn't it? It's all an indication of where your treasure is, it's all an indication of where our hearts are before the Lord. You know, the Galatians spoke of a blessedness and the joy that they had before, and then later on says, where is that joy, where is that blessing that ye spoke of? What’s happened? What’s dulled your desires for the Lord and for His people?

Well, remember what Paul told the Corinthians, and this was in the context of giving, of course. He talked about on the first day of the week, let every one of you lay by him in store, as God hath prospered him, that there be no gatherings when I come. But he said to them, be not deceived, God is not mocked. In 2 Corinthians 9:6, he says, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, as he purposeth in his heart, not grudgingly, or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. So it's not going to be of any good in God's sight. This is actually what He's saying, that God is not pleased, and you're not going to receive a blessed harvest and reap good things if you sow grudgingly. If you sow tithes and offerings saying, well, I guess I gotta do this, you know, that indicates that your treasure is in the wrong spot, is in the wrong place. It's not, once again, it's not about the actions as much as it is the heart, and the action will just follow the heart.

You know, we could say, like this morning, Delilah said to Samson, how can you say you love me if your heart is not with me? How can you say you love me, but then your words, actually, you're not telling me what's in your heart? How can you say that? And when we get to the Lord, you know, He knows, He knows the heart. David told Solomon that this morning in our message, that the Lord knows the thoughts of your heart already. He sees what's in your imagination, He sees it all. And so while we do follow through with the action, be sure that the heart, where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. Well, Paul tells the Corinthians here that we're not to give grudgingly or of necessity, but for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

We've been on Sunday nights in recent months discussing these sins of the spirit. God prioritizes the spirit, yes, the sins of the flesh, yes, but really all the sins that we commit in the flesh begin in the spirit. They begin on the inside, and they work their way out. They manifest, as we so many times say, keep that heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Well, in Galatians 6, turn there with me, Galatians chapter 6:7. Out of the heart are the issues of life. If our heart is cheerful toward God, then the natural result will be the right kind of giving, and God will reward that kind of giving. But in Galatians 6:7, we see that once again, it is a spiritual matter, it is an internal, inner man issue that is at stake here. Galatians 6:7 says, be not deceived, God is not mocked. You can't fool God, He knows it all already, He sees, He sees right through us like a clean windowpane, He sees right through. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

The publicans and the Pharisees cast into the treasury of their abundance, looking good in it. They cast in there, but God is not mocked, God is not fooled, God is not deceived, God has not got the wool pulled over His eyes. And well, if we look like we're doing the right thing, no, He saw right through the façade. Jesus saw through it and said, my attention is on that widow over there that gave her two mites. My attention is not on these windbags over here. My attention is not on these guys over here that are sounding a trumpet before them, everybody look what I'm doing though. My eyes are upon this woman here because I see that she is sowing in the right way. And it says, for he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Others, Lord, yes others, let this my motto be, that's the song we have sung a number of times, the choir has sung, help me to live for others, that I may live like thee. And so if we are sowing to the spirit and not to the flesh, we're not going to want to bring attention to ourselves when we sow. We're not going to sow in such a way that is going in a corrupt sort of way. No, we're going to sow, you know, in a trusting and obedient way as unto the Lord. And it doesn't matter if anybody notices it. Somebody may notice it, but that should not be our intention. Let another man's lips praise thee, but we should love the praise of God more than the praise of men. We should be looking for the approval of God in this thing. And the approval that God gives here on this earth is so often in the form of that blessed assurance, that peace and joy that fills our hearts when we know that we're right, we know that all is well between us and the Lord. When peace like a river attendeth my way, you know, that's the kind of peace that we experience, and the joy that we gain.

But in Romans 12, let's look there one more passage this evening, in Romans chapter 12:9. It says, let love be without dissimulation. Don't be a hypocrite. Abhor that which is evil, cleave to that which is good. Those are actions of sowing, aren't they? Choose to abhor the evil, choose to cleave to the good, and be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love, and with honor preferring one another, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. All of these are things we're sowing, aren't they? We're sowing with prayer, we're sowing with rejoicing, with patience in the tribulations of life, we're sowing in our spirit, what kind of spirit that we have. We're sowing by distributing to the necessity of saints, we're sowing with hospitality, we're sowing when we bless. We make a choice to bless those which persecute us, blessing instead of cursing, which would be the easier thing to do. We rejoice with those that do rejoice, and we choose to weep with those that weep. All of these things are investments, all of these things are sowing. We can only live one moment at a time, we can only live one day at a time. God's will comes to us, the understanding to be filled with the Spirit, understanding what the will of the Lord is, that comes one moment at a time, doesn't it?

Well, may we have a heart that says God's way is best. Sow His seeds today, sow in my thoughts, in my words. When I get up in the morning, Lord, help me to do this. Lord, help me to sow in my thoughts, in my words, in my actions today to the spirit. Help me to show that I trust your word and I believe you by putting into motion, into practice, into the steps that I take to demonstrate that I believe what you tell me in your word, in the way that I make choices, just like Moses made the choice that he made. As for me and for my house, we will serve the Lord, right? We're going to serve the Lord. Tomorrow, are we going to serve the Lord, or are we going to sow to the flesh, to unbelief? Make the choice to honor God in all that we do, not only the seen things but the unseen things. A lot of our lives are tied up with just the daily unseen things that most people, they don't even know, but God knows. God sees those things, and may we be striving to please Him in all that we do. You're doing allegiance, glad-hearted and free, this is the pathway, as the hymn says, of blessing for me.

Heavenly Father, as we conclude this service tonight, we pray that you'd bless these words to our hearts and for your glory. Help us to remember that every investment we make of thought, of words, of deeds, are seeds sown. We can sometimes get to the point where we just look at this Christian life as a sort of a mechanical thing, but Lord, if we love you because of your love to us, how are we going to express that love? If we love you, if we treasure above all else in our hearts what you've done for us, and know that the greatest thing that's ever happened to our lives is when our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, came into our hearts and saved us from our sins and turned us around and gave us hope and joy and peace and new life, the only true meaning we have in our lives is because of our Savior and all that has been accomplished on the cross for us. Lord, for mercy so great, as the hymn says, what return can we make for these mercies? Well, we can love you and serve you with all that we have, as long as our life will endure. And that happens on a moment-by-moment basis in our lives. It happens many times in the unseen small details of life that, in the greater picture, add up to really a great harvest of blessing in our lives if we will trust and follow your way and do your will. Help us to make right choices this week, help us to make right decisions in our lives, help us to truly say no to the devil, to the world, to the flesh, help us to say yes to your word, help us to bow and humbly tremble and allow you to have your way with us. And we will be blessed, we will experience that joy and that peace that passes all understanding. Bless now as we conclude this service, we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.