Sowing and Reaping

Sowing and Reaping

This evening we want to take our Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter 6, please. Matthew chapter 6, 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, a principle comes from the Latin principium. It means a beginning or first part. A principle in our lives is something that is, it's fundamental. It's a primary, first thing that we must keep in mind. You know, I was talking with someone yesterday and was just mentioning that as we're going through this new year of an old principle, we need to be reminded of the principle. And I was reminded that the word principle, a principle, it comes from the Latin principium.

As we are training our children, we don't, we've got to keep it, we've got to keep our expectations simple. It's easy to get complex with things and get, you know, do this, but don't do this. And when this happens, do that. You know, we can't say, look in your constitution article, so-and-so, sub-point so-and-so, and this is what you're to do in this scenario. No, God makes it very simple in his word. You know, 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, well, what did the law say on that specific point? What exactly was that there? No, 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 think and I think, every thought that I think is a seed sown. Every word that I 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 that. You wouldn't want that. You wouldn't want that. You wouldn't want that. You wouldn't want to, in your garden, sow a few bad seeds out there, a few weed seeds among your, 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 are sowing, as we know so well, we are sowing either to the flesh or to the spirit. We are sowing. We are sowing with every thought, every word, 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. 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. It's going to be 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, 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, you know, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, right? Take the temporal things and invest them in eternal things, right? 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, we are, while we're, yes, we're very much in the natural man, we're in the physical body, but 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 it, 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 heaping 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, like we said this morning, seek first. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added unto you. A farmer would be foolish, Gardner, 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 really 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, reasonable confidence that it's going to grow, right? This is going to produce something good. I'm not just, this is not blindly just 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 looking, I'm waiting for the harvest. I'm trusting that you'll give me the harvest. Well, we had, isn't it? Something Anna, what Anna was the last one to plant her garden this year. She had a garden, 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. I guess it was sometime. It was, it was kind of late for a garden.

And so I said, sweetie, I don't think we're going to be able, you know, we're not going to be able to start a tomato from seed at this point. It's just not going to make it in time. You're going to probably, I said, if you want to get something, what to go to go to the garden center and find a tomato plant, pepper plant. So we got, she got a pepper plant. I think it wasn't 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 was, I'm not at all exaggerating here.

Well over a thousand little tomatoes came off of that yellow. I know the last picking we made just before the, just the evening that, 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. Anna had sown. And I think that $4 for that plant, it was kind of expensive, but it was, that was a good investment in that little plant that she bought back in, 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, is going to come back to us a hundred fold. It's going to come back in, in great amounts. So sowing to the spiritual, sowing, even with temporal things, in this as unto the Lord, we need to have just as much as we expect. Those tomatoes are going to do really well.

They did very well last year. We were anticipating, you know, there's certain plants that you may plant and say, this just don't do so well in our yard. This is a particular kind of tomato called a San Marzano. It just doesn't, it doesn't didn'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. Spiritually speaking.

You think about Moses, Moses made a, Moses made a choice to leave Pharaoh's house, didn't he? To leave Egypt behind. And look over with me in the Hebrews 11, verse 26, Hebrews 11, verse 26. It says, of this choice that he made that he esteemed or he's esteeming. He, he considered and encountered 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. For God's way and suffer reproach than it is to live in pleasure for a season in and suffer loss because I have wasted in my 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, and as a result of that, it says here, he, he chose where his heart went. His feet followed right where his heart went.

He had invested. He said, I must, I must invest my heart in 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 then to stay here in Egypt. And so we did. And so that is the path that he chose. Look back in Matthew chapter six, though, let's go back to verse or jump ahead a little bit rather to verse 26, Matthew six and verse 26.

Jesus said, behold, the fowls of the air for they sow not, neither do they reap nor 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 Raymond. 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 and all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you? Oh, 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, we are to lay up treasures in heaven. There is a responsibility on our part to sow, but this is also balancing it 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. It's not our thoughts. It's not our words. It's not our actions that produces the result. It's just the response of our hearts.

When God says, trust and obey, we, 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 we, like Moses, esteemed the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the pleasures of sin in Egypt for a season. We, we say, like we teach our children very early on, you know, 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 the, count God's way as the best way. God, and if we trust God's way, we'll walk in it. We will, we will sow in that way. We will sow the good seed he wants us to sow. Look in Psalm 125, or 126, Psalm 126 rather. In verse 5, Psalm 126 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, with rejoicing, bearing or bringing his sheaves, with him. Now Israel was in captivity according to this Psalm. And yet the Lord turned again their captivity that they were in. But as they were in captivity, what a sad time that was. But as they went forth with weeping, and sowed in tears, they came again with rejoicing.

You know, what repentance was wrought in that time down in Babylon? Psalm 137 talks about it in verse 1. Psalm 137 says, verse 1, by the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, we wept, when we remembered Zion. Oh, that we could not sin against the Lord as we had. Oh, we would not be in this place. Oh, that we could be back in our own home. The place where God chose His name to dwell.

We hanged, it says 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 they had been, that had in the first place brought them down into the land of captivity, their leaders. You need to repent. You need to humble yourself.

This is why we ended up in the captivity in the first place. But, we can make the application to our own lives, even as it says in Psalm 30, verse 8. Psalm 30, verse 8. What, the tears that are sown in repentance are not in vain. In Psalm 30, verse number 8, we see here, I cried to thee, O Lord, and unto the Lord I made supplication. What prophet 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 here, 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. 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. You know, we can put on a performance, you know, in the flesh, but it's not the… Wasn't it Amos that 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, this… 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. Look in Proverbs 29… No, 21. Proverbs 21, verse number 5. In Proverbs 21, verse number 5, we read, it says, The thoughts of the diligent, the diligent tend only to plenteousness.

Diligence is always contrasted with what? Sloth, right? Laziness. But the thoughts of the diligent tend to plenteousness. But of every one that is hasty only to want. Haste, we know, makes waste. Who gets hasty? Well, an example would be somebody that wants a 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, the thoughts of the diligent tend to plenteousness. But the hasty will want. If you sow in haste, if you sow in slothfulness, you're going to come up empty. 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 me. It's 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. And, 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. I… No, it's easy to do the wrong thing, right? It's easy to sow the wrong kind of things because you 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, it says there in Ecclesiastes 11, verse number 1, to 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 what the other is doing. Don't go around and sound a trumpet before you and say, everybody, look at what I'm doing. No. 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 us with knowledge of something. Maybe the Lord has blessed us with certain possessions or finances. The Lord has blessed us with time. The Lord has blessed us with health. Let's use those things and cast them upon the waters, so to speak. Let's say, Lord, I don't know that there are things that 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 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. There's 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 have received, freely give, right? Freely give.

And the Lord will honor and bless you manyfold beyond what you can imagine. Look in Proverbs 11, verse 18. Proverbs 11, verse number 18. Proverbs 11, verse 18 says, The wicked worketh a deceitful work. Kind of like that man who the man and 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 stabs you in the back when you turn around. The wicked worketh a 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 canker worm has eaten, 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 and sowing to righteousness.

I think of what Ecclesiastes 11, verse 4 says. Ecclesiastes 11, verse 4 says, He that observeth the wind shall not sow. Ah, it's not good conditions to sow. He that observeth the wind will not, he'll always come up with a reason. The wind's too strong today. It's coming from the wrong direction. But he that regardeth, it says, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. And then, as it tells us here in these two phrases, that 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 a joy that they had before, and then Paul later on says, where is that joy? Where is that blessedness that you 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, you know, on the first day of the week, lay aside, gather the collection, so that when I come there will be no gathering. But he said to them, he that soweth, he said, be not deceived, God is not mocked, in Galatians, I'm sorry, in 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6, he says, but this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly.

And what did he say there? He which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man, according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give. Listen, as he purposeth in his heart, not grudgingly, but, what did he say? Or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. So it's not going to be of any good at God's sight. This is not actually, what he's saying is 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 got to do this, you know, that's not, that indicates that your treasure is in the wrong spot, is in the wrong place. It's not about, once again, it's not about the action so much as it is the heart. And the action will just follow the heart. You know, we could say, like this morning, Delilah said, and it wasn't Solomon, I think I said that 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 give 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, David, 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 seeing on Sunday nights in recent months, these sins of the Spirit. God prioritizes the Spirit. Yes, the sins of the flesh. Yes, often. So, well, 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 said so many times. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. Well, Galatians 6. Turn there with me. Galatians 6, verse 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, we see that, once again, it is a service.

It is a spiritual matter. It is an internal, inner man issue that is at stake here. In Galatians 6, verse 7, Galatians 6, verse number 7 says, Be ye not deceived. God is not mocked. You can't fool God. He knows it all already. He sees right through us like a clean window pane. He sees right through. For whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The publicans or the Pharisees cast in to the treasury of their abundance. Looked good, didn't it?

They cast in there. God is not mocked. God is not fooled. God is not deceived. God is not, God is not, got the wool pulled over His eyes and well, if we look like we're doing the right, no. He saw right through the facade. 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, 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, don't. My eyes are upon this man, 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 which are of or who are of the household of faith.

Others, Lord, yes, others, let this my motto be. That's the song that we have sung a number of times. The choir has sung, Help me to live for others that I may live like thee. I think it is, it says. And so, if we are sowing to the Spirit and not to the flesh, we're not going to want to bring any attention to ourselves when we sow. We're not going to say, Everybody look, I'm doing this for the Lord. No. 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 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 with God.

We know that all is well between us and the Lord. When peace like a river attendeth my way, you know that that's the kind of peace that we experience and the joy that we gain. But in Romans 12, let's look there at one more passage this evening in Romans chapter 12, verse number 9. Romans 12, verse number 9 says, Let love be without dissension, 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, with honor or in 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. 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 do we have? We're sowing by distributing to the necessity of saints. We're sowing with hospitality. We're sowing when 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, 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, may we have a heart that says, God's way is best. I'll sow. I'll sow His seeds today. I'll sow those, I'll 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 and my words and my actions today to the Spirit. Help me to, to show that I trust Your Word and I believe You. By putting into motion, into practice, into, into the steps that I take to demonstrate that I believe what You tell me in Your Word. In the way that I, in the choices that I make. 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, we're going to serve the Lord. We're going to serve the Lord tomorrow. Are we going to serve the flesh? Are we going to sow to the Spirit? Are we going to sow to the flesh? May God help us to consciously, humbly 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, and may we be striving to please Him in all that we do. Yielding 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, we can get sometimes to the point where we, we just look at it, 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, Lord? If we love You, if we, if we treasure above all else in our hearts what You've done for us and know that, 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, 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 understanding, unseen, small details of life that in the greater picture add up to, 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 Your, 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.