“You
Can Bear It” Series #3
"SEED BEARERS!"
TEXT: Gal.
6:7-10; Luke
8:5-15
INTRO: The very
first thing you notice in the Bible about the creation of man is that shortly
after God made Adam and Eve He instructed Adam to "work"
the garden and have dominion
over the earth. God made Adam to be a farmer ... one who
would sow seeds! It is the very
nature of our humanity, even in our fallen state, to be farmers and sow
seeds.
Unfortunately, our fallen nature has caused us to seed
more than just "good seeds!" We are
still farmers, but now we can sow seeds for both good and bad
things!
We
are thus always at a place in life that we are sowing new seeds, and we are at
the same time reaping harvests from our past plantings! One of the most persistent laws of God
is that of sowing and reaping! This
principle works in the natural realm, in the spiritual realm, the emotional
realm, and the intellectual realm.
There
are thus two areas of bearing seed that we need to be concerned
with:
1.
What
we are sowing in our own lives
2.
What
we are sowing in other people's
lives!
PROP. SENT: The Bible teaches us that we
should sow the seeds of righteousness in our lives, and to sow the Word of God
in others ... we are called to be seed
bearers!
I. SOWING & REAPING Gal.
6:7-10
A.
Identical Gal.
6:7-8
1.
It is impossible to change the laws of God ... and one of the laws that
God created was the nature of sowing and reaping, you get exactly what you
sow in the harvest!
a.
You can't plant tomatoes and get
peas!
b.
It is impossible to fool God!
This is the meaning of the statement here in this text! Gal. 6:7a "Do not be deceived: God cannot be
mocked."
c.
You can fool others, but God will never be fooled! A transsexual can outwardly change
his/her appearances, but still their DNA will remain the sex as they were
born.
2.
We are smarter with natural crops than we are about spiritual ones and
emotional crops ... somehow we think we can sow wild oats and not reap a harvest
of corruption ... yet no farmer would ever believe he could plant in his fields
a crop of dandelions and get alfalfa
instead!
3.
What we sow eventually comes back in an identical way as the
harvest!
ILLUS: A
little boy once went to his mother and said, "Mother, there is a boy out there
in the woods and he is mocking me!
Everything I say he says over after me. I said, 'hello' and he said
'hello!' I said 'who are you?'
And he said, 'who are you?' I said, 'what is your name?' And he said, 'what is your name?' I was mad and jumped over the fence and
went into the woods to find him, but he wasn't anywhere! I said “I'll punch your head” and he
hollered back “I'll punch your head!”
His mother smiled and explained that it was just his echo he was hearing,
it wasn't someone else threatening him or talking, it was the exact same thing
coming back that he had said. She
then said to her boy, "if you had yelled, “I love you” he would have yelled back
“I love you.” You get back what you
give! –
source unknown
4.
You can't sow to the fallen flesh and hope to reap spiritually healthy
things!
a.
This is Paul's point here!
b.
Even if you succeed at fooling others, you will discover that God cannot
be mocked or fooled!
5. Our lives today are the
harvests of seeds planted long ago in our lives ... and even of some recently planted
seeds!
a.
What kind of "fruits" are you experiencing in your lives right
now?
b.
What kinds of seeds are you putting in the ground of your lives right
now?
6.
Like farmers, we need to take a long view of life and realize that we
will receive in our lives that which we are sowing all along its
pathway!
B. Investment Gal.
6:9-10
1.
The one nice thing about this law of sowing and reaping is that if we are
realizing a bad harvest because of poor seeds sown, we can plow up that field
and “replant,” almost sounds the same as “repent.”
a.
This is the essence of salvation and
repentance!
b.
It is sometimes referred to in the Bible as "plowing up our
hearts" or "breaking up the hard ground." (or fallow
ground)
2.
The biggest difficulty about this principle is the "WAITING"
period!
a.
It
takes time for the harvests to come after
planting!
b.
In this way it is both a blessing
and a curse!
(1.
It is a curse in that when we sow "wild" oats it might be some time
before the painful harvest shows up ... thus we can think we are getting away
with sin!
(2.
It is a blessing in that there is time to plow under the things starting
to grow that we don't want in our lives, and then plant over
again!
3.
Part of the frustration of the "waiting" time between seeding and harvest
however is the sense of continuous work with little reward for some
time!
a.
This is why some people get discouraged and quit too
soon!
b.
We
can become weary in doing good things ... waiting for the fruit can be draining
sometimes!
ILLUS: How
many people have you known that were real excited about putting a garden in the
springtime, they go out and purchase good seeds and new plants that will promise
them an abundance of good fruit sometime late in the summer or early fall. At first they water and weed and nurture
the new plants. As summer passes,
the need to pull weeds and water become a greater and greater burden ... until
they finally tire of all the hard work involved in just getting some harvest
from these plants. Before long, the
weeds have won, and the attitude becomes ... "it was just too much work for what I
wanted, it is easier to go to the store and buy a can of beans! I don't have the time or the energy to
keep up with it!" Another year
passes and the
former spot where the garden stood slowly is reclaimed by the grass as the
dreams are given up about harvests!
The weariness took its toll on the commitment! – Source Unknown
4.
"In-the
proper time" ... each type of crop has its own time table for coming
to maturity!
a.
This is true with spiritual things as
well!
b.
This is even true of emotional and relational
things!
c.
How sad when we give up because we are tired or weary before the real
harvest is able to be realized!
d.
There are some Christians who have lost out on some of God's best things
because they have quit too soon or given up through
weariness!
5.
Some things become more valuable the more time and efforts we put into
them!
ILLUS: A
newspaper clipping from 1972 noted that a bar of iron left plain as it is, is
worth $5.00! However, if the same
$5.00 bar of iron is invested into making horseshoes, it becomes worth
$10.50! If that same $5.00 bar is
invested into making iron needles it will fetch $4,285! And if that same $5.00 bar of iron is
used to make balance wheels for watches, it will fetch $250,000! –
Source Unknown
6.
As we have "opportunity" Paul states that we should "do good to all
people" ... especially those of God's
household!"
a.
This is because of the future returns that come from sowing good
seeds!
b.
Who better to have enjoyed good fruit than to share that with other
farmers!
c.
Sharing those fruits from good seed will inspire more of the good seed to
be planted and thus even more good fruit will result all over the
place!
7.
Sowing good seeds in a wonderful investment opportunity that promises the
best returns of God's best ... much
better than Wall Street!
8.
The "proper time" simply refers to the fact that
different seeds have different times frames in reaching maturity... and we need
to hold steady for different crops and allow for the various lengths of time to
pass while we continue to work!
9.
Good gardeners always have a variety of crops that are planted, crops
that mature at different times so they can enjoy a constant crop of something
coming in ... each a different season for different
things!
II. SOWING &
RESPONSIBILITIES Luke
8:5-15
A.
Individual Luke
8:5-8
1. Notice that Jesus assumes we all are sowers,
this parable is about spreading the Word of God around ... and it is about all
of us being sowers!
a.
This parable assumes that we all will be farmers going forth to
sow.
b.
It is apparent too that the farmer sowed seed everywhere ... even though
some fell on apparently not too great of soil
conditions!
2.
It becomes apparent here too that the sowers job was simply to spread the
seed, the seed is given to him.
3.
The farmer cannot make the seed, it is provided to him ... and no farmer
can guarantee the perfect conditions for every
seed!
a.
He can work some to assure good conditions, but he can't know that every
single seed will find the right mark!
b.
His job is to scatter as widely as possible the seed provided for
him!
4.
This is an individual
responsibility.
a.
God has given us the best seed ... His Word, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ!
b.
The area to cover is the whole world ... some of which has good ground,
and some places it is not so good!
c.
We have the job of scattering the "good seed" everywhere and hope for the
best!
5.
The conditions will determine the quality of the
harvest!
a. Seed on a hard path becomes
an easy quick target for the birds of prey to take away immediately ... the seed penetrates nothing
and is left exposed!
b.
The seed that falls on the hard rock might actually germinate quickly in
the warmth of the son and the moisture that condenses on it at night ... but
with no roots possible, it will be quick lived and give no harvest! Since rocks do not absorb anything the
plant can rely on, they will quickly wither and
die!
c.
Some will grow up among the weeds and thorns ... where it will live a
long time, but never produce any fruit because the plant will always be
competing with the demands of the weeds, thus keeping it from growing strong and
reaching maturity!
d.
Some however will find good soft soil, and it will grow and go on to
maturity and reproduce itself over many times ... even hundreds of time
over!
6.
This same principle is true with good seed and bad seeds ... at harvest
you will receive far more than you
planted!
a.
Good things will multiply if good seed is
used!
b.
If wicked seed is used and the conditions are right, a larger harvest of
wickedness will result also!
7.
The only thing that will guarantee a good harvest is good seed, use the
right stuff and you are more assured of the right
harvest!
ILLUS: Charles
Colson in one year's guidepost (January issue) shared about an unusual prison he
visited in
B.
Interest Luke
8:9-15
1. Jesus explains to His disciples that they
have been given this good seed, and when spread around, it will find a variety
of soil conditions to fall upon.
a.
Some
of which will produce no life.
b.
Some
of which will produce brief
life.
c.
Some
of which will produce weak
life.
d.
Some
of which will produce huge
harvests!
2.
Jesus explains to them that they have been called to SOW ...
everywhere!
3.
There will be a variety of responses to the good seed of the Gospel ...
but no matter what kind of response we should keep on
sowing!
a.
There will be those who embrace the Gospel for only personal gain, not to
serve Christ...
ILLUS: Like
the man who came before the judge over a crime and after finding out the judge
was a born again Christian he stated, "I
am a new man in Christ judge, it was the 'old' man in me that did the crime, not
the new man!" to this the judge
responded, "since it was the old man that
did the crime, we'll sentence him to 30 days in prison ... and inasmuch as the
new man stood by and allowed the crime to go on he is guilty of complicity, and
therefore he is to serve another 30 days in prison following the old man's 30
days for a total time of 60 days!" – Source
Unknown
b.
Then there are those too busy with this life's stuff to allow spiritual
growth to reach maturity!
ILLUS: Like
the man in old
c.
And then there are those who produce a mighty harvest from such small
seeds!
ILLUS: Like
the business man from
4.
One thing is clear ... if we don't sow, there will be no growth no matter
the soil conditions! Thus we are
called to be sowers to the world of the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ ...
only this can bring life!
*
These two questions remain:
"What are you sowing into your own
life?"
"What are you sowing into
others?"
CONCLUSION:
There is a clear call
in the Bible that everyone is a "seed bearer" ... either for good or bad! There are 2 spheres of "seed bearing"
... what we plant in ourselves, and what we plant in others! Two things determine the harvest we get;
the seed we use, and the soil conditions it finds! What's growing in your life, and what are
you seeding in others? By the way,
you can tell what you've sowed ... just look at your
harvest!