July 8, 2007 Sixth Sunday After Pentecost
Sermon Title: “What Goes Around, Comes Around”
Series: None
Text: Galatians 6:7-10
Dr. Steve Jackson
Delivered on July 8, 2007
“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
What Goes Around, Comes Around
The man’s name was Fleming, and he was a poor
Scottish farmer. One day, while working hard trying to eke out a living for his
family on his farm, he heard a cry for help coming from a nearby bog. He
dropped his tools and ran to the bog. There, mired to his waist in black muck,
was a terrified boy, screaming and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming
saved the boy from what would have surely been a slow and terrifying death. The
next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's farm. An elegantly
dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced himself as the father of the boy the
farmer had saved the day before. “I want
to repay you for saving my son’s life,” said the nobleman. “No, I can't accept payment for what I did,”
the Scottish farmer replied waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own
son came to the door of the poor farmhouse. “Is
this your son?” the nobleman asked. “Yes,”
the farmer replied. “I'll make a deal
with you,” said the nobleman, “Let me
provide him with the level of education my own son will enjoy. If your son is
anything like his father, I’ve no doubt he’ll grow up to be a man we will both
be proud of.” And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time, graduated from
St. Mary's
Years later, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was stricken
with pneumonia. What saved his life this time? Penicillin. Oh, and the name of
that nobleman whose life was saved twice by the Flemmings? Lord Randolph
Churchill. His son's name? Sir Winston Churchill.
Someone once said: “What goes around comes around,” and that is the title of today’s
message from the sixth chapter of Galatians. Galatians, written by the Apostle
Paul, is one of the shorter letters of the New Testament. And even though it’s
a short letter, few documents have had the impact this letter has had on our
understanding of the Christian faith. It’s basically a tract on freedom. Some
have even called it the “Christian Declaration of Independence,” another short
document that stunned the world. The key verse in the entire book is Galatians
5:1 which says, “It is for freedom that
Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened
again by a yoke of slavery.”
As far as a little background to Galatians, what
happened was shortly after Christianity started many Jews insisted that
Gentiles—that is, the non-Jews coming to faith in Jesus—had to keep the law of
Moses and adopt Jewish ways in order to be saved. Paul insisted they didn’t have
to follow this mixture of grace and works. Instead he taught that we are saved
by grace alone. Galatians was written as a circular letter, to be read among
the churches in the Roman
But here’s the kicker—it’s what we’re going
to talk about today. For freedom to exist, people must have a real choice. Freedom
is about choice. Paul teaches that believers are given freedom by God to
respond to the Spirit, or to respond to the sinful nature within them. With our
newly rediscovered freedom comes the responsibility to make godly choices
because there are definite consequences that go along with our choices. Again,
as today’s sermon title affirms, “What
Goes Around, Comes Around.” Our choices have consequences.
Galatians is so full of great verses and teaching
that if you’re like me and you use a highlighter or underline in your Bible by
the time you’re through you have more of it highlighted or underlined than is
not. Even this week as I worked through the sixteen verses suggested for
today’s message, I had to cut that down to just four verses, the teaching is so
rich. Let’s look together at a few gifts Paul has given us in this passage.
A WARNING to Heed
The first gift in the passage is a warning to heed. It’s found right at there at the beginning of the passage in verse 7: “Do not be deceived; God is not mocked….” Actually, there are two warnings there.
The first warning is about deception. There is a deception is out there, or God wouldn’t warn us about it in the Bible. I’m certainly not out to make anyone feel paranoid, or to add to the paranoia that is already exists about being duped. Goodness knows we have enough of that already going on in the world. You know as well as I do that there are conspiracy theories floating around on everything from the assassination of John Kennedy, to Princess Diana’s death in an auto accident, to who won the latest American Idol. It seems like everyone, Republicans, Democrats, talk-radio hosts, etc… wants us to believe somebody is trying to pull the wool over our eyes. This kind of thinking went into overdrive back around the time of Watergate and it may have reached its peek with TV shows like “The X-Files,” which was the defining series of the 1990’s. Remember the slogans that came from that show? “Trust No One.” And “The Truth is Out There.” No, I’m not trying to make anyone paranoid, but there is deception going on.
So what is the deception about sowing and reaping? The deception, in a nutshell, is that you can sow whatever you want and not worry about the consequences. People think this because of the lapse in time between the sowing and the reaping. For example, some people sow sinful seeds and then, because they don't see the immediate consequences, they come to the conclusion that they got away with it. But sooner or later, the law of sowing and reaping will work, because it always works the same way for everyone. Sowing sinful deeds will eventually and inevitably bring a harvest of destruction. Violent people reap violence. Unfaithful people reap unfaithfulness. Bitter people reap bitterness. Selfish people reap selfishness. It's an immutable law, like gravity that can’t be changed. But because sometimes the bad guys get away with bad things for a season, and because good people don’t always seem to benefit by the good they’ve done for a season, the deception is, it really doesn’t matter what you do.
The second part of the warning involves mocking God. The last part of verse 7 reads, “God is not mocked…” I actually think this goes on two ways. The first way is exactly what the English word “mock” traditionally is understood to mean; people aren’t going to get away with mocking God. The second, and I believe more prevalent, form of mocking God around today is that so many people simply ignore God. Think about it, if you ignore someone, you’re mocking them. In fact the Living Bible translation of this verse says it that way, it reads, “Do not be misled; remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it…” We live in a day of spiritual ignorance. People are ignorant about God. They’ve forgotten Him, or never learned to begin with. They don’t give God a second thought. They ignore that Sunday is the Lord's day. They ignore his church. But the awful truth remains that the Bible says that God will not be mocked. We will pay for our ignorance, neglect or forgetfulness. We will reap what we sow. This is an unchangeable law of nature and of God.
So Paul sees fit to warn us, “don’t be deceived, God is not mocked.” He has given us freedom of choice, but God has already set the consequences of those choices in place just like he planned everything else. You can’t ignore that. It’s like that line from The X-Files, “The Truth is Out There.” Only it’s not hard to find—God has given it to us in His Word and through his Son and his Spirit. The question is, will we heed the warning?
A TRUTH to Believe
The second gift Paul
gives in today’s passage is a truth to
believe. It’s found in the second half of verse 7: “…you reap whatever you sow.” Think about that statement for a moment. You don’t even have to even be
Christian to know the deep truth contained in that statement. In fact, practically
every religion in the world understands it to be true. Hindus and Buddhists
call it karma. They picture it as a wheel going round and round. The goal is to
get off the wheel. It’s where they get the notion of reincarnation. Everybody gets what they
deserve—what goes around, comes around. You don’t even have to be particularly
religious to understand and agree with this law. Essentially, it means that every action has a predictable consequence. We
live in a cause and effect world. If I sow corn, I'll get corn, not potatoes.
If I sow radishes, I'll get radishes, not squash. If I sow beans, I'll get
beans, not watermelons. Even nonreligious people get this: If you live “right,”
it pays off, live “bad,” and you pay for it. It’s not a necessarily a religious
concept, it’s just an unalterable principle, like gravity. Depend on it, every
time.
Of course, Paul is
looking at this truth from a specifically Christian
perspective meaning this principle also applies in the spiritual realm. If I sow (give away) life to others, I will reap
life myself. If I sow provision for others, I will reap provision for myself.
If I sow forgiveness toward others, I'll reap forgiveness for myself. Paul says if a person
misuses his or her freedom, and lives by the impulses of the sinful nature, he
or she will experience alienation and the emptiness always associated with
death. But the person who seeks to please the Spirit will know the enriching
gifts which are the mark of eternal life. And he’s not just talking about in
the “sweet by and by when you die.” He’s talking about the quality of a
believer’s experience now. By the way, Paul has just enumerated these one
chapter before this in Galatians 5:22-23, remember? “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
and self-control.”
A PROMISE to Claim
Paul has given us a warning to heed and a truth to believe. Next he gives us a promise to claim. Verse 9 says, “So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, (here’s the promise) for we will reap at harvest time, if we don’t give up.” The promise is, if we don’t grow too weary and give up we will harvest something wonderful at God’s appointed time. That’s a great promise to claim.
This inner transformation God is trying to do in our lives is never accomplished all at once. It involves growth, and growth can be painful and so Paul encourages us to not “grow weary in doing what is right.” The promise is that if you “keep on keeping on” you will eventually receive the harvest—in God’s own time.
The analogy from agriculture continues to be helpful to us as we seek to understand this. I planted six small tomato plants back in May. My family finally ate our first tomatoes from those plants last week, the first week in July. I go out and look at my tomatoes practically every day. I water them, I feed them, I weed them. What if I had gone out there a few weeks after I planted them and said, “Man, I’m not ever going to have any tomatoes!” I’ll admit it, I felt that way a couple of times. I wanted to rip the plants from the ground and give up, especially when we got “blossom end rot” and all the blooms fell off, and then there was the Japanese Beetle invasion after that. I remember thinking, “Maybe I’m not cut out to grow tomatoes?” But we persevered, and we’ve now enjoyed a few tomatoes from our plants. I’ll confess it’s a good thing that’s not how I make my living or all we have to eat, but like the biblical promise here, since we didn’t “grow weary in doing what is right” we’re enjoying eating tasty vine-ripened tomatoes.
Of course as believers our task doesn’t have anything to do with weeding, watering, or applying pesticide. Our task, Paul says, is to “…whenever we have the opportunity, work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.” (v. 10)
“Doing good” can be difficult. Especially with some of the people God sends us to do good with and for. But, according to Paul, this is the way we grow those fruit of the Spirit I mentioned a little while ago. It’s just how God has chosen to work. He doesn’t magically dust us with patience like Tinkerbelle using her pixie dust. Instead he sends us ornery people to learn patience with. He doesn’t suddenly zap us with self-control, he gives us opportunities to practice self-control by allowing us to be tempted. As a matter of fact, you’d better be careful what you pray for. I’ve experienced it myself—many times. I’ll be praying to be kind, or compassionate, and God sends me all kinds of people and situations that try my kindness and I wonder why in the world? And then I remember, “Oh yes, I prayed to be kinder.”
A COMMAND to Obey
We’ve gotten a warning to heed, a truth to believe and a promise to claim so far. The last gift I want to mention this morning that is found in this passage is a command to obey. Verse 10 says, “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith.”
I know what you’re thinking, you’re thinking, he just mentioned that in the “promise to claim” point. How can that be? Well…again, that’s often how God works. He’ll give us a promise to claim, but attached to it is a commandment to obey. This principle is as old as human history. God placed Adam and Eve in a garden paradise and gave them everything they could possibly want. But he attached a commandment to it, “Don’t eat from the apple tree.” God made the Israelites his special people and promised them a land of their own. All he asked was that they worship him only. But he attached a commandment to it. The commandment was, don’t put anything before me. Freedom—choices—by their nature, involve consequences if we don’t choose God’s way.
Here’s some good
news though. We human beings aren’t trapped in some karmic wheel. One day two
thousand years ago a man who claimed to be the long-expected Messiah of Israel
quite unexpectedly rose from the dead. That death forever changed our “cause
its effect” world. Suddenly what goes around comes around has been altered or stopped.
Because of what He did for us on the cross, because we didn’t get what was
supposed to be coming to us, we can take the curse of cause and effect and turn
it into the blessing of “do unto others.” Suddenly we can turn the other cheek,
we can love our enemies. We can bless those who curse us. And that is incredibly
good news. Suddenly, we have a choice, and if we slip up (which we will), we
have the chance of restoration and a clean start. That’s what being a Christian
is all about. It’s not about being perfect, it’s about being forgiven and given
a second chance.
Let me ask you this morning. Are you trapped in that old cycle of cause and effect? Are you still living outside the grace and promises of God? You can do that, you know. God will allow you to do that. He’ll let you go on with an unforgiving spirit. He’ll let you go on being consumed with greed and materialism. He’ll let you go on mocking Him by ignoring him. But there will come a day of reckoning, and besides, you’ll be miserable in the meantime.
What kind of seed are you sowing with your life? Are you sowing seeds of resentment, anger, or bitterness? Are you sowing enough spiritual seeds to see yourself through your times of trial, illnesses and old age? Are you making the most of this season? Are you sowing in this springtime God has given us?
You may be asking yourself, what on earth are you talking about when you talk
about sowing seed Pastor Steve? I’m asking are you reading the Bible, to reap
the harvests of promises and guidance from it? Are you faithfully putting to
test the promises contained in the Bible? Are you sowing seeds of prayer to
gather a bountiful harvest of answers in due time? Are you sowing seeds of
service to others around you and reaping God's blessings from that serving?
This morning God brought me here to invite everyone within the sound of my voice to trust Him, and to believe that His desire is to bless us. He wants you to stop trying and to start trusting. He’s inviting us to invest heavily in the things of the Kingdom, and to expect that some day, in his perfect timing, we will reap an abundant harvest. What will you do with this invitation? Will you respond? The choice, and its consequences are yours to decide today. Now’s the time. Let’s pray.