October 15, 2023

Sowing to the Spirit

Pastor: Allen Snapp Series: Spirit and Truth Topic: Sowing and Reaping Passage: Galatians 6:6–8

Spirit and Truth

Allen Snapp

Grace Community Church

Oct. 15, 2023

Sowing to the Spirit

I’m reading from the book of Gal. 6

⁷Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. ⁸For 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. Gal. 6:7-8

Two years ago almost to the day I did a series on the Holy Spirit and went more deeply into the difference between sowing to the flesh and sowing to the Spirit and while I was tempted to repeat much of that, I encourage you to listen or watch those messages if you’re interested in a more detailed unpacking of this subject. There are three messages on keeping in step with the Spirit.

We know what sowing is. We sow a seed, in time we get a fruit. God has woven that law into all of life: what we sow we will reap. There’s a span of time between when we sow and when we reap but the harvest will eventually come.

This can be applied to so many areas of life. The saying, “sow a thought, reap an action. Sow an action, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character. Sow a character, reap a destiny” describes the power in our lives of sowing and reaping.

Paul takes that massive principle and breaks it down into two categories: sow to the flesh and sow to the Spirit. I want us to focus our attention on sowing to the Spirit this morning.

If you are a Christian you have the Holy Spirit

⁹You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. ¹¹If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. Rom. 8:9-11

This passage confirms what Galatians tells us: there is an opposing battle within every Christian between the flesh and the Holy Spirit. When we come in faith to Christ, our flesh is crucified with Christ on the cross. That’s God’s answer to our flesh: put it to death! The Holy Spirit is in us – Paul makes that clear! Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to Him. If you’re a Christian the Spirit of God resides in you. But we all can say, why don’t I see more of His power in my life? Why does sin seem to have such a hold on me? Why do I feel so powerless? That’s where Gal. 5 and 6 come in!

Sow to the Spirit by doing good

⁹And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. ¹⁰So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Gal. 6:9-10

The flesh sows evil and reaps rot. We see in chapter 5 the types of seeds the flesh sows – and we as Christians are not exempt from sowing these thing:

Sexual immorality, idolatry, impurity, strife, fits of anger, division, and such. When we sow sexual immorality we get corruption. When we sow division we get decay. When we sow fits of anger we get rot.

These things rot away at our relationships and our soul. The field that once held such promise is full of rot and corruption and brokenness and damage. Paul says you don’t want that! God doesn’t want that! The Spirit within you doesn’t want that!

Sow to the Spirit! By doing good!

As we have opportunity…

You know what an opportunity is? It’s a potential. We can take it or we can miss it. Every day there are opportunities to sow to the Spirit by doing good and if we can develop the spiritual habit of taking more and more of those opportunities, God is ready to do so much good and bear so much good fruit through our lives.

One way the flesh sows corruption is through sins of absence. Not the things we do, but the things we don’t do. How many opportunities are missed because of laziness? I’ll do good tomorrow. I’ll sow to the Spirit tomorrow. I don’t feel like it today. I just want to take it easy, chill out, feed my flesh.

Another sin of absence is apathy. Apathy doesn’t lead us to do good things, it leads us to do little or nothing. We just don’t care enough to do good.

God’s word’s first encouragement to us this morning breaks the sin of absence: let us do good! Not think about doing good – do good! Let us not grow weary of doing good! Let us look for the opportunities to do good and sow to the Spirit rather than the flesh.

If you’re a Christian you CAN sow to the Spirit! If you’re not a Christian, you can become one today by placing all your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!

Sow the fruit of the Spirit

²²But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. ²⁴And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

You get fruit by sowing the seed of that fruit. We might tend to think of the fruit of the Spirit as something developed inside of us: the fruit of the Spirit will make us loving, joyful, peaceful, patient, etc. And that is true.

But Paul’s encouragement to sow to the Spirit reminds us that fruits always contain seeds to reproduce.

We have the fruit of love and we sow the fruit of love to someone else and we not only reap love in our heart but we reap the harvest of love in their life.

Those who sow to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life – not just on the other side but right here, right now!

As we take the opportunity to sow love or patience or kindness into a relationship, we experience the life of the Spirit in us, but we also get to see that seed get sown into their life too. They may receive it, they may reject it, that’s not up to us, but either way it will bear eternal life in us and sometimes through us.

Let us sow…sow the seed of the joy of the Lord into that bleak situation. No matter how hopeless things may look, Jesus can give you joy the world can’t take away! Sow kindness when your flesh wants to sow hurtful words and actions. Sow patience when someone or something isn’t changing as fast as you want. Sow to the Spirit and reap life!

Sow the gifts of the Spirit

I shared last week that there can be a wide range on where people fall when it comes to the spiritual gifts. Cessationists believe that spiritual gifts such as prophecy, tongues, and healing ceased at the end of the Apostolic Age. Continuationists believe, as the name implies, that the gifts continue.

I’ll be sharing a warning message about excesses and even heresies that are out there in the name of the Holy Spirit, and I’ll be sharing why I believe the gifts of the Spirit are still at work today and have not ceased as some believe. Wherever you fall on that spectrum I simply ask that you know your reasons biblically for what you believe and that you be open to the Bible persuading you to change your view if you find more compelling biblical arguments for another position.

And in all things, let’s be humble and charitable towards Christian brothers and sisters who may not agree with our position.

⁴Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. 1 Cor. 12:4-7

The gifts are given by the Spirit for the common good. The gifts aren’t given to impress people or set us apart or even to make us feel fulfilled as we “exercise our gift”. The gifts are given for the common good. To build one another up in Christ.

The gift of administration is given so the church is administered well. The gift of discernment is given to protect the church from error. The gift of prophesy is given to encourage and build believers up with a word from God. Same with gifts such as serving, mercy, miracles, tongues.

The gifts only mean something when they are used out of love (1 Cor. 13). But we are encouraged to

sow them as an expression of love and service to the church. So we should take the opportunity to sow into the lives of others by using our gifts.

You don’t know how your gift might affect someone else. How it might encourage them or even change their trajectory in a way that affects their life for good! That’s not you or me – that’s the Spirit – but Paul’s admonition remains: sow to the Spirit as we have opportunity.

We don’t want to be MIA – we don’t want to weaken or hurt the church by our absence, either not showing up or not being obedient to the Spirit’s leading when we are together. Don’t make stuff up but be sensitive to the Spirit’s leading. Get involved in some ministry in the church because it takes all of us to do what God’s called us to do. The Lord might use you to say something that helps someone. The Lord might connect a new visitor with you in a way that makes their visit night and day better than if they hadn’t met you.

I guess what I’m saying is God wants to use you to make a difference. But that’s not automatic. Let us sow!

I’ll be honest, there are two me’s inside of me. That’s biblical according to Gal. 5 and 6. One me wants to just get by, live my life, not be inconvenienced, be selfish, let people do their thing and I’ll do mine. The other me wants to make a difference for good, wants to love people, help the hurting, and see people get saved!

God puts us together in a church to stir one another up to love and good works. To sow to the Spirit! To do good and not grow weary! When I grow complacent and the “let me do my thing” side is winning, I need you to provoke me, not to anger but to love and good works. When you’re struggling with weariness in doing good, I want to be able to come alongside of you and relate to that weariness, but I don’t want to pamper you in that weariness. You don’t need pampering, you need provoking. God has more for you! There are opportunities for God to use you to sow to the Spirit and make a difference in people’s lives.

Let’s close with the truth of God’s word ringing in our ears: