The Principle of Sowing & Reaping - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, June seventeenth. A farmer plants corn seed and expects corn to grow. It's a simple agricultural fact, but it also relates to life in general.

Today's podcast helps you apply the principle of sowing and reaping. Well, life is full of choices, and we make all kind of choices in life. And what we don't realize is that we make choices early in life that go with us for the rest of our life. It becomes part of our character, because you see, early in life we'll hear things, we see things, we experience things in life that we think that's in the past and that's gone, that's forever. The truth is, all we see, all we hear, all we experience is still there. And when I think about children who want their way early in life, they will grow up and they'll want their way later on in life until someone helps them to understand what life's really all about.

Because you see, here's what happens. Whatever's planted in our life as a child becomes the seeds of the things that build our character. So, the truth is, all of us today are the result of those people who have put seeds of good ideas into our lives. And yet, we have the idea that somehow, if we just let kids grow up any way they want to, they'll be okay.

The truth is, that is not true. Because if a child grows up, no discipline, no respect, no love, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience, no patience. No discipline, no real instruction, no biblical understanding of the things of God. They will grow up and their character will have been formed by those things that were added in their life, but also by the things that were neglected in their life. and the thoughts and the beliefs that somewhere along the way they'll guide them. We have to be careful what we sow into the lives of our children, because what we're doing is we are laying the foundation, planting the seeds of their future character. Because the truth is all of us are the result of those things people have built into our lives.

Sometimes they're good, sometimes they're not so good. And so, when we think about the effect of sowing and reaping, I want us to turn in a few moments to a passage of Scripture in Galatians. It's one of the most important principles in the entire Word of God, because it is a divine principle, a universal principle.

It is a principle that absolutely is certain to take place, and it's unavoidable. It is a principle that we call the principle of sowing and reaping. So, I want you to turn, if you will, to this sixth chapter of Galatians and begin with this seventh verse. So, here's what Paul says. He says, "'Do not be deceived, God is not mocked, but whatever man sows, that he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in good time we will reap if we do not grow weary. So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.'" Now, as you think about in your own life, what's been sown in your life and where you are at this point in your life, and remember that maybe your mother, your father did their best to help you, and you may be thinking, you know what, I've got a whole lot of junk planted into your life, a simple faith in God, and to trust Him all the days of your life, and not to be materialistic, but the most important thing in your life are spiritual things.

Or you may be sitting here and already you're thinking, you know what, I've got a whole lot of junk planted in my life, and I realize already that I'm suffering the consequences of it. So, I want us to look at this passage of Scripture because it's so important. It says, "'And while you may deny it, while you may not like it, while you may object to it, while you may just revolt against it, and while you may declare that you do not believe it, that does not change this law, you can fight against it if you choose, but it is already taking effect in your life whether you realize it or not.'"

It is so important. And I think one of the reasons that Paul certainly thought it was important is the way he began this passage of Scripture. Now, normally you would think if we were going to help you to see why something's good or bad, the first thing you would do is state what the principle is and then tell me what's wrong with it. But notice how he starts. He says, from a very negative point of view to some degree, when he says that we are to watch how we're sowing and how we're reaping because. So, he starts with a negative by saying, do not be deceived.

God will not be mocked. Whatever we sow, we'll reap. What we sow, more than we sow, later than we sow.

Now, notice the emphasis here. He starts it out by saying, what, here's the warning, don't be deceived. That is, do not let yourself be misled, carried away, headed in the wrong direction by someone else's words or something that you read, something that you hear. Do not be deceived.

God is not mocked. Now, when he says, for example, that we're not to be deceived here, he's simply saying this, don't believe a lie. And the devil's got lots of lies, but other people are very deceptive.

And they will feed into your life things that will ultimately destroy you if you allow them to do it. Because you say, well, I heard it, but I forgot it. That's no longer in my mind. It's not in my mind, it's not in my mind, it's not in my mind. And so, when he says, do not be deceived, God is not mocked. Everything you've ever heard, seen, felt is still there to some degree and in some fashion. So, when he says, do not be deceived, God is not mocked.

What is he saying? You can believe error, but you cannot change the law of God. Don't be deceived. Don't be deceived. And so, when you say, well, I don't believe all that, and so, therefore, it's not going to bother me.

Oh, yes it will. Because you see, our belief doesn't change the laws of God. And notice what he says. He says, do not be deceived, God will not be mocked. Now, the word mocked really means to turn up your nose at God and to be arrogant, rebellious, and sneer at the principles and laws of God. He says, God will not be mocked. That is, we will not be able to disobey God and get away with it. And over and over and over again in the Scripture, that we learn that in one way or the other, and yet people say, well, I know, but I'm an exception. Let me ask you a question. Can anybody be an exception to the laws of God?

Not really. That's Satan's lie. Because you see, he started out with that with Eve. Oh, is that what God said?

Oh, but the implication was, but that won't happen to you. Ask yourself the question today, what is in your life that's governing and guiding your thoughts, your attitudes, and your actions that somebody back here on the planet in your life, and it has affected your character, your conduct, your conversation, your very being. And maybe some of those things you like, and maybe some of them you don't like, but you have to admit that somebody built into your character things that have been destructive in your life, things that maybe have misled you. And things or attitudes, for example, that said to you, you don't need God. You have everything you need. And so therefore, don't waste your time going to church and believing all that stuff about God answering prayer.

You don't need all that. And more than likely, I'm probably talking to somebody who says, you just read my mind. And you read my mind and you read my mind and you read my mind and you read my mind and you read my mind. That's exactly the way I feel, because that's exactly the way I feel. Well, let me just remind you of what God said, and remember, God is eternal. He's the Judge.

He's the One who ultimately has the final say so, and He says, you cannot mock Him by rebelling against Him, laughing about Him, sneering at Him, rejecting His Word, and get away with it. And so, when we come to look at this whole idea of sowing and reaping, all of us who are here today and all of you, we are at this point in our life the sum total of what we have thought, felt, believed, responded to, and all the things that have affected our life. This is who we are. And some people are living a very corrupt life.

Some people are living a very godly life. The issue is this, it does make a difference who our friends are, how they affect us, how they impact us, what we read, what we see, what we hear, where we go, where we work. All of these things impact our lives. And we either reject them or we accept them.

And the things we accept into our life are like seeds that are being planted. And we have to ask ourselves the question, what kind of life do I want to live? What do I want my character to be like? For example, in the future, what do I want to look like in the future? What do I want my character to be like? What do I want my character to be like in the future? What do I want my character to be like in the future? What do I want my character to be like in the future?

Years to come, because you see, once you start planting a certain kind of seed, more than likely you're going to keep on allowing it to be planted. So, I want you to notice what He says in this passage because it's simple in a way and not so simple in another way. He says, "...the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will also reap eternal life."

Now, let's think about that for a moment. When He talks about sowing to the flesh, what does that mean? Well, our flesh, according to Scripture, is that attitude within us, that Spirit within us that desires to live and to act independently of God. You say, well, I've been saved in my life.

My life is in You. And the Spirit of God is in you. And said, Jesus Christ is your Savior. He forgave you of your sins.

He pardoned you. Now you're a child of God and you have a new spirit because the Spirit of God came into your life to give you life. You say, well, if I have a new Spirit, then what's this other thing in me? This attitude and this desire to act independently of God is a Spirit of independence. is that we have to be able to live. And when we're saved, we're saved. So, in other words, when you're saved, just like you may try to live, we all have to deal with that spirit within us, that attitude within us that sometimes desires to act independently of God. That's our flesh. And when we are saved, we don't lose that. Don't we all wish we would and could, but we don't.

We still have it. So, what is He talking about? Well, if you turn back to the fifth chapter of Galatians and look, if you will, when He talks about what the flesh is all about, look, if you will, in the verse sixteen. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. That is, if we walk in obedience to the Spirit of God. For the flesh sets its desires against the Spirit, my independence against the Spirit of God, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. That is, for example, somebody says, Well, I want to do what's right, but there's something in me I don't seem to want to do what's right, and I do and I don't.

That's that battle that goes on within us. Then He says, Now this is how we live when we act independently of God. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, a sensual lifestyle, idolatry, worshiping other things other than God, sorcery, all kind of mysticism and so forth, enmity, strife, jealousy, outburst of anger, disputes, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, carousing, all of these things He says that I've talked to you about. So, here's what He's saying, He's saying, When we sow to the flesh, here's what we do, we contribute to that. If I listen to things that are ungodly, if I look upon things that are ungodly, if I fellowship with people who are ungodly, if I go places that do not contribute to my godly life, what am I doing? I am sowing to the flesh. I'm feeding it. And whatever we're sowing, it's going to reap a harvest. So, what you have to ask is this, Do I want to grow up with godly character or having grown up? Do I want godly character in my life or do I want the world's ungodly character?

You can camouflage it, you can color it up, you can paint it, you can do anything you want to. It's still ungodly, contributing not to holiness and righteousness, but contributing to what? Sensuality, immorality, ungodliness, rebellion. And we've been through a whole season, a whole generation of rebellious people, why? Because somewhere along the way, somebody planted enough seed that was enticing enough, just like in the Garden of Eden, they decided to take a bite. And what happens?

The whole drug culture, the whole issue is somebody has fed enough people enough rotten, junky immorality and so-called intellectualism that they have wrecked and run their lives by the millions. And here's what He's saying, don't be misled by that. Don't mock God. Don't say, well, you know, I know that's what God says, but I'm just not going to pay much attention to it. Now listen, sowing means, if I'm sowing something, that means I'm craving it, I'm absorbing it, I'm taking it in.

That is, I'm accepting that. Why does a person get into pornography? Why do people just sit and look at sensual things? Because they are feeding that what? They're feeding that ungodly attitude of wanting to be independent of God.

They're feeding something on the inside. You cannot feed your life that without feeling and experiencing the consequences. So when He says sowing, it means yielding to these cravings and hungers.

And what does He say? When we do that, He says we end up feeding the flesh that brings corruption in our life. He says we end up feeding the flesh that brings corruption in our life. So, would you want your children to be corrupt in their thinking?

Thinking that only money counts, and only acceptance by the world counts, and only if you look like the world and dress like the world and that the world loves you. You can corrupt your children, corrupt your grandchildren by being the kind of parent who wants your daughter and your son to be the kind of parent who wants to be the kind of parent who wants to be the kind of parent who wants to be the kind of parent who wants to be your daughters and your sons. You're corrupting their precious lives. You say, well, they'll outgrow it. No, they don't.

Only if God gets in their life and rescues them from that. But you can look around and say, why is, why are drugs such a major problem? Because it helps people to forget reality. And so, you can look around and see what happens. And so, you can look around and see what happens. And so, you can look around anyway and just see what happens. Now, he says, for example, what it does, it produces corruption, which means it's a form of death.

In other words, if your body is corrupted with a deadly disease, you just die a little bit at a time. And here again, I say, because the crop doesn't come in because of the God. And so, you can see what happens.

And so, you can look around and see what happens. And so, he says, when you've been told, God, there's no such thing. He says, listen, don't be deceived. Don't believe that lie.

Don't try to mock God by saying, yes, I can do all these things and it's going to be okay. It's not going to hurt me. It is going to hurt you. It's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy you. It's going to destroy you.

It's going to destroy you. And so, when you read the Word of God, you know what you're doing? You're putting the Word of God into your mind and heart. You're sowing to the Spirit. When you share your testimony with somebody, you're sowing to your Spirit. When you're listening to the Word of God, you come to church, you have a notebook and a Word of God in your hand and you write down things that speak to your heart.

What are you doing? You're sowing to the Spirit. You're sowing to the Spirit, which is life, life eternal. Now, when He says, for example, for the one who sows to his own flesh will reap the flesh, corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit will also reap the Spirit, eternal life. Eternal means length of time.

It also means quality of life. So, when He says that you and I sow those seeds that are righteous and holy and godly, when we sow those, what are we doing? We're sowing seeds that build into our life a quality of things that have eternal value. Oh, we sow the other.

And so, while He starts out and begins this whole passage of Scripture with a negative, an imperative negative, stop being deceived, stop mocking God, don't think you can get away with sin, there's a positive side. And the positive side is this, if I feed my Spirit the things of God, I'm going to become stronger, more godly, more righteous in my conduct and my thinking and every aspect of my life, and your life is going to have a bigger impact. Now, all of us have some kind of influence on somebody. So, ask yourself the question, what kind of influence do you want to be?

Here's the issue. We may say anything we want to say about being a Christian. It is the way we live that makes the impact. Thank you for listening to the Principle of Sowing and Reaping. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, in Atlanta, Georgia.