Scripture Reading
Sermon Text
Scripture Passage
Galatians 6:7-10
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.
Living my Life
Today I’d like to reflect with you on certain aspects of life. St Paul said, “do not be deceived”. And last week we meditated on Paul’s life. Paul had deceived himself for all his life. He really thought that he was living a good life but you know, he was just reacting and responding to people’s kind of, a reaction to him. So he thought that, okay, this kind of life is a good life. So he lived that life and it. But spirituality is just coming to yourself coming to your naked self. That’s what spirituality is. Most people are too scared to come to ourselves because we have a lot of weaknesses and shortcomings and ugly things, so we don’t really come to ourselves. So we hide it so that people don’t see that and people react to us with attraction. So, without realizing it, we are deceiving ourselves.
Paul did that same thing in his own culture during his time, whatever people admired was different from what we admire, but he did all the things that people admired and then he thought that he was living a really good life. And then he met Christ and all of a sudden he came to himself and then realize that, hey I didn’t see myself deep within, and then I was deceiving myself, and when he discovered himself as naked itself, that was what he found. And I share with you, “I do not understand my own actions for I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”. Wow. What a revelation, I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate”, that’s kind of a conflict that we all go through.
Sometimes we don’t understand our own actions and we should not deceive ourselves as a human being. Then you’re not living your life. You’re living somebody else’s life. I wanna live my life, you know, I don’t want to live somebody else’s life. I don’t wanna live my life to please other people. That doesn’t mean that I just want to live to please myself, that’s not what I’m saying. I want to live my life, authentic life. Whatever it is, it may not be perfect, but it’s my life. I want to claim back my life, not somebody else. In the beginning, there was a difficulty I tried to live my life and then they tell me, “Oh, you’re a minister. You’re supposed to do this and that”. No, I don’t want to do that. Right? I want to live my life.
I think ministers should live the most authentic life, as a minister. So we shouldn’t deceive ourselves. Who you are, who we are, both strengths and weaknesses, our bodies are very honest. For example, when you eat irregularly and unhealthy food and don’t do any exercise, soon, your body will tell you, this is what’s going on. The body’s very honest. You cannot deceive your body and our spirit, our soul is honest too. Our soul is not really something material. The soul is beyond your physical body. What gives you meaning and joy in life. That’s what soul is. Just by having a body, you can not experience joy and meaning and. The soul is there. It’s invisible but it is there to enjoy the fulfillment of life. The soul is not that kind of thing. Soul is invisible and immaterial, but gives you the joy.
What do you think?
You know when God created heaven and earth creation story, actually what is really important is the last day, last day is not the day of rest, It’s not just a day of rest. Last day he created two things. One blessing, the other sanctification. In other words, he created all the material things on the last day, he sanctified all these material things that those things may come alive. Same thing, our body. Our body may be good, but when our soul is not good, our life cannot be enlivened. So if you don’t take care of your soul, then your life cannot, even if you’re healthy physically, your life cannot really enjoy the freedom, joy, and meaningfulness and abundance. You know, we know this story very well, a disciple, a disciple came to his master, the master told him and seeing him, “hey, there’s a war within you between worldly desire and your desire for God” and a disciple asked which one will win and the master said, “whatever you feed that will win, whatever you feed”. If you continuously feed worldly desire that will win. If you feed godly desire, desire for God, that will win. That’s why Saint Paul said in verse seven, “do not be deceived. God is not mocked for you reap what you sow”. whatever we constantly think about that will shape who I am. thinking is very important. Whatever you think about all the time that will shape who you are, so whatever we feed will grow and win. So in verse eight, Paul said, “if you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the spirit, you will reap eternal life from the spirit”. So if you are continuously, think about negative things, you’ll become a negative person. If you continuously think about dark things you become, your life will become dark. when you’re continuously judging other people’s weaknesses and shortcomings and all that, then you will become a judgmental person. Whatever you think will shape who you are.
We say that what you eat is what you are, but actually what you eat is not what you are. What you think is what you are. Whatever you think continuously, that makes you who you are. Paul said in another letter “finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there’s any worthy of praise, think about these things”. Think about these things. Think honourable, beautiful, godly, pure. These thing, positive things, things we think about when everything was wrong, you still think about and everything will be all right. Things will turn out all right. If you’re continuously think, you become a very positive person. I do believe that life is good and life is beautiful. If life is not good and life is not beautiful, why do you live? If life is not good, why do you live? If life is not beautiful, why do you live?
Rinse and Repeat
I do believe that life is good and life is beautiful and I have to continuously think about that and I think people are beautiful. All of you beautiful, even though you have shortcomings, I think you’re a beautiful. If i do not think you’re beautiful, why am I here? Right? we think about these people are beautiful, but if you start thinking that these people are all ugly, then all your relationships will go wrong. We have to continuously think about good things. hope. when you always hope for and meditate on beautiful life, your life will become beautiful, but the important thing is constantly repetition. Just because of your exercise, your body will not get better any better. Just because you had healthy food for one meal, your health will not be restored. Continue. make a habit. That’s why Bruce Lee said this, “I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times”.
Whatever you do continuously, if it is an important thing, then make a habit. Make repetition, continuous repetition. Spiritual journey is creating these repetitions. Spiritual journey is finding good habit, and then you keep doing that. We have to make a good habit of living a spiritual life. if health is important, then make a habit of doing exercise. If a deep connection with God is important, we make a habit of doing prayer and meditation. If your understanding of the truth is important, we make a habit of the study of studying the word of God. If you keep doing that, you will learn about the truth. Even the will of God you cannot understand the will of God. understanding god’s will it will not come overnight, but when you continuously tune yourself into God’s will, Then ultimately you’ll be able to hear God’s will. you know, as much as we try to make changes, sometimes we get frustrated and disappointed because change does not happen easily and fast. That’s the nature of change. Change never happens easily. Change never happens. Fast change that happens fast, may not be real change. The nature of change is never fast and never easy. I do believe that change is always possible, but the nature of change is always slow, always difficult, always invisible. change is invisible. You don’t see change within you. Other people see the change in you.
Sowing seeds
Paul said “Whenever you sow you reap”, and if we take that negatively, we think that if you commit sin, you’ll be punished. Whatever you sow, simple things, you will reap the punishment. We look at it only negatively. We are good at doing that, but that’s not really what Paul is saying. Let us consider another letter of Paul what he said about sowing and reaping is a first Corinthian chapter 15, 42 to 44. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a physical body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is this physical body, there is also a spiritual body”. we have a lot of contradiction within us because we are weak. We know they’re whatever we sow will reap, and yet we don’t sow beautiful things because we are weak.
It’s not because we don’t know it, but because we are weak, but we experienced God’s grace who raises the opposite of what we sow. we sow the perishable that God raised the imperishable. I do believe that that is God’s grace. You reap whatever you sow. I don’t think Paul is saying you will get a consequence of sin. Well, I think that his promise, if you sow justice, you don’t see it fulfilled right away, but ultimately you’ll see justice being done. when you sow beautiful thing in your life, it will not be wasted. ultimately you will reap the beautiful things in your life. I think that is a promise of God, so to not get discouraged, let us sow what is beautiful in your life? Ultimately, you’ll see the fruit of it. Even unbelievers, they do that kind of thing. Lead believers, we never give up. We never get disappointed. We’ll keep going, keep sowing the seed of beauty and ultimately the pod will be able to reap. I think that’s a life lesson for all of us today.
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