Scripture Passage
Worship Video
Worship Audio
Sermon Script
Life’s Simple Truth
Life is about sowing and reaping. If you sow what is good, you will reap what is good. If you sow what is not so good, you will reap disaster. If you sow potato, you will reap potato. If you sow tomato, you will reap tomato. From pear tree, you cannot expect apples.
That was what Jesus said.
You will know them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thorns, or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. (Matthew 7:16-18)
It is life’s simple truth.
That was what St. Paul said in today’s passage.
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. (Galatians 6:8)
It’s like you have the flesh and the Spirit within you. They are like fields. If you sow to the field of the flesh, you will reap corruption. But if you sow to the field of the Spirit, you will reap eternal life.
He said, “your own flesh.” He did not mean your body or your bodily desire. Your own flesh means your sinful desires. That’s how St. Paul uses the word, “Flesh.” If you follow your sinful desires, you will reap corruption.
Don’t follow hatred, anger, jealousy, greed, guilt, selfishness, and self-righteousness. You will become very unhappy. They will take away joy out of you.
Sowing to the Spirit
Sow to the Spirit. Cultivate your spiritual life. Sow what is good. Trust, Forgive, Humility, Love, Hope, and do what is good – these are all sowing to the Spirit.
Your life will change. You will be filled with joy. Your life will be full of meaningfulness. Everything you do, you will find tremendous joy in it. Life becomes worth living.
Be in touch with the Spirit. Understand how the Spirit guides you. When you are in tune with the Spirit, you will be able to see the guidance of the Spirit. Follow that.
Don’t expect the result when you don’t put in any effort. Don’t build your life on luck or fortune. Don’t expect a healthy body when you don’t eat good food, when you don’t exercise, and when you abuse your body.
In the same way, don’t expect to be spiritual when you don’t do anything to sow to the Spirit.
So if you want to be spiritual, then do something about it. Don’t deceive yourself, thinking that you can be spiritual, doing nothing.
St. Paul said this.
Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. (Galatians 6:7)
I want to reap the eternal life. I want to understand the eternal life. I want to feel the eternal life. I want to have the assurance of the eternal life.
I don’t want to know the eternal life as a vague theory or formula. If you believe in Jesus, you have the eternal life. That is true, but I don’t want to know it as a formula. I want to taste it, feel it, and live it. Then I have to sow to the Spirit. Because St. Paul said so. If you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life.
Sow in Tears
Sowing to the Spirit is a DISCIPLINE. Sowing to the Spirit can be a hard practice. But you will see the good result.
As I said at the retreat, YoYoMa who is probably one of the greatest cellist now still practices scales every day. When I see elite athletes, I am inspired because they do things so smoothly and easily. But behind it, there was hard labour and many tears for their failures. You don’t become elite athletes just like that. They all have routines. They control what they eat. They discipline themselves to have a good sleep. They know that they will reap what they sow.
Haruki Murakami, a Japanese writer has his daily routine. He wakes up at 4 in the morning and writes. He does that every day.
He said.
The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind.
Nothing comes easily. What you sow, you reap.
Sow a good thought, you will reap a good act.
Sow a good act, you will reap a good habit.
Sow a good habit, you will reap a good character.
Sow a good character, you will reap a good destiny.
That was what one old English novelist Charles Reade said.
Sow a good seed, you will reap a good fruit.
This is what St. Paul said in his letter to Philippians.
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 is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Philippians 4:8)
Sowing can be painful. So when you sow, you sow in tears but there will be a time when you will reap with joy.
God Will Bring Good Fruits
Psalmist eloquently said this truth.
May those who sow in tears
reap with shouts of joy.
Those who go out weeping,
bearing the seed for sowing,
shall come home with shouts of joy,
carrying their sheaves. (Psalm 126:5, 6)
Lastly, you may sometimes wonder whether your good work will come to fruition.
There is a servant who comes out in Isaiah. God said to him this,
You are my servant,
Israel, in whom I will be glorified. (Isaiah 49:3)
Then the servant said this,
But I said, ‘I have laboured in vain, I have spent my strength for nothing and vanity. (Isaiah 49:4)
Sometimes we wonder that too. We feel like we have laboured in vain. We see no fruit even though we put so much into it.
When you feel like that, go back to the basic. You will reap what you sow. Believe that. You do your best, but leave the result in God’s hands. God will make sure that your good works will not be wasted. God will do that.
St. Paul said in today’s passage.
So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. (Galatians 6:9)
This is what St. Paul said to the congregation in Corinth.
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Corinthians 3:6, 7)
It is God who brings out the result.
This is a radical statement.
St. Paul goes further to emphasize that it is God who will bring the result. Even when we sow bad seeds, God will bring good fruits. He emphasizes that it is God who brings the final product. That is what the resurrection is like.
Listen to what he says about the resurrection.
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 a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. (1 Corinthians 15:42-44)
We thank God for raising good fruit even when we have sown bad seeds.
Leave a Reply