Greater Reward

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hey, I got a question for you. Have you ever looked at someone who was successful in some area of their lives and you ever wonder how in the world did they become that successful? How in the world did they do it? Maybe? Maybe you look at someone who's successful in business, are really healthy, who's in really good shape, and are they? Maybe they have a great marriage or incredibly Godly, or maybe they have massive influence, and you wonder how did they do it? How did they get there? And you might think, like a lot of us may think. You may think well, they just got lucky. Maybe they just got lucky in life. Maybe they were lucky lucky enough to be born into the right family, they were lucky enough to have a big opportunity, luckily enough to have some good genetics that's what I have a six pack and I don't. Lucky and lucky enough to meet the right person are lucky, lucky enough to have some breakthrough, kind of idea. And while there is some luck and some people have definitely been given more Opportunities than than other people, what I've noticed in most cases, when it comes to people who are really successful, at least in some area of their life, they're not just lucky but they are Consistent. They are consistent. There's a consistency there. There's consistent. They're consistent over time. Successful people do consistently what other people do occasionally. Successful people do consistently what other people do Occasionally in some area of life. There's consistency, there's persistence, there's patience and because successful people to do what up consistently what others people do on the occasion when they feel like it, when they make the right time to do it.

Speaker 1: 1:53

Now, I've never seen here you go, I'd never seen someone just like accidentally pay off a bunch of debt, like I just never seen this person. I never seen someone who has just a bunch of student loans About my student loan, debt, credit card debt, car payment, whatever, and they just said I wasn't even paying attention to my finances. And then one day, poof, I was in the clear that I never seen that. It doesn't tend to happen, but intentionally, over time, consistently, someone can become debt-free. Same as true with marriage. I don't know anyone who says, who says I don't know how in the world we did it. We have a great marriage 25 years, not one argument in fact, just a lot of kissy, kissy, kissy. It's just great, you know. You know I never met that person, but I haven't met people who say man, we work really hard at our marriage. We intentionally prioritize our relationship. When things go wrong, I apologize, which is often. Which is often I'm glad someone got my joke we put work in to put Jesus first. We value one another over each other. We work really hard out of marriage.

Speaker 1: 3:06

I don't know anyone who ever said I just got accidentally close to God. I never met someone who said you know, I don't really know how it happened, but I was just minding my business, sinning. I mean I was doing some wild sin. I mean I was in the in the trenches with sin and then one day I was just close with God. I never met that person. I know I never. I don't think that person's around, but I have met someone. That's that.

Speaker 1: 3:31

I know a lot of people that says I work really hard to die to myself and seek God, to know him through his word, to hear his voice and let and let him conform me into his image. And Over time, as I pursued him, I discovered that he was pursuing me even more. I've heard that before. I heard that before. See, here you go.

Speaker 1: 3:56

All of us have good intentions and good intentions are good. We all have similar things. We all have similar things that we want, but we all have very different results. Now, why is that? See, we need to understand that intentions don't determine direction, but actions determine direction. Actions determine directions. In other words, if you just keep on doing whatever you've been doing, you're gonna keep on getting whatever you have gotten. You don't keep getting whatever you've been getting. Hoping for a different future won't bring you a different future. Hope before I won't bring it. Hope doesn't change your life. Habits change your life. Habits change your life.

Speaker 1: 4:39

Now I want to say humbly that the life that you want, whatever it is in your finances, in your friendships, in your ministry, with your children, with your business, whatever it is it is never the result of a few lucky decisions, but it is always the result of countless consistent, seemingly small decisions done over time. Another way to put it like this it's the small things that no one sees that leads to the big results everyone wants. It's the small decisions that no one sees that leads to the big results that everyone wants. It's consistency and faithfulness in the small things over time. And the problem is this we want results fast. We want results instant. We want our 30-day abs after we do the workout only three times. That's what we want. See, if you're like me, if you're like me, if you're like a lot of people, you tend to get frustrated, you get discouraged when you don't see results in the time that you want to see it and you want to quit and you want to quit.

Speaker 1: 5:53

But what I want to say and this one-part standalone message next week we started a series called Live in Grace as we move towards Easter and we're so excited to learn more about the grace that Jesus offers our lives and how there's power in his grace and there's victory in his grace and there's freedom in his grace. We're going to hit on that next week. But for this message, I felt compelled to tell some people today that there is a greater reward coming in your life if you do not give up, if you do not give up. There's some people who are thinking about giving up, much like they're in worship today. You're looking at Jesus, you're looking at God, you're saying God, where are you in this God? How do you even care about where? About the drown? Do you even care? And I'm coming to tell you today don't give up yet, don't stop yet, don't give up yet. Let's continue to go in this Galatians 6, 7 and 9, we're going to look at what the apostle Paul had to say, and these verses right here are power packed and I believe it can transform your life.

Speaker 1: 6:55

Here's what the apostle Paul says in Galatians 6, starting verse 7. He says this and he says don't be deceived. That's good. Someone says that out to you. You should listen. Don't be deceived. This word in Greek means don't be letters straight. Don't mean be letters straight. It honestly means don't be tricked or don't be fooled. It means don't always listen to the advertisements. It means don't always listen to the quick, the get quick rich type of schemes out there. If you really want to learn how to follow Jesus, it's a daily walk with him. It's not an easy one time thing.

Speaker 1: 7:29

He says don't be deceived. Then he says God cannot be mocked. Then he gives us a law and this is the law A man reaps what he sows. Because this is important. A person reaps what they sow. Another way of saying this is we will harvest whatever we plant. We will harvest whatever we plant.

Speaker 1: 7:48

He says a man reaps what he sows and whoever sows to please their flesh. And what is the flesh? That can make sound kind of weird. You talk about your skin In biblical terms. It's our sinful nature. It's our sinful nature. Whoever does what's wrong on God, he's sinful. So whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh they reap destruction. That don't sound good. I don't want that. You sow bad things, you get bad results.

Speaker 1: 8:12

But then he also says this and here's our hope today Whoever sows to please the spirit, whoever does what's God honoring from the spirit will reap eternal life. Now I've got to say who's thankful for eternal life, who's thankful for God's grace, who's thankful for his grace and, like I said, we're going to learn more about how to live in his grace and walk out his grace in the next couple of weeks as we get to Easter Sunday. But then the Apostle Paul says this, and this is what I want you to hear Don't let us become weary. And doing good for at the proper time, for at the proper time, this key word here will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Come on, what I want to do for a moment is I want to talk about this law and I want to give us three laws under this big law, and it's the laws of sowing and reaping. The laws of sowing and reaping, and this is so important to know these laws.

Speaker 1: 9:11

And what did I mean by law? What is the law? A law means it's always true. It's always true. It's kind of like the law of gravity If I step out off of this stage, I'm always going to fall down. Every single time I do it. The law of gravity, I'm going to fall down. There's never, not one time, I'm going to step off this stage and I'm going to fall up. That would be kind of cool. Then we can post that on social media and then a lot of people will be like what's happening at that church, remember? But here you go. It means it's always true. So this is what we need to understand you reap what you sow.

Speaker 1: 9:45

Number two you reap more than you sow. Then, number three, you reap after you sow. This is so important. Let's unpack these three truths and then we're going to ask the Holy Spirit to change us, because what I'm not interested in doing is behavior modification. I'm not interested in changing my behavior. Then I'm going to get the results I want. We got to ask what people are the spirit and we got to ask the Holy Spirit to move in us and give us direction and guidance. So we're going to ask the Holy Spirit today to speak through us and speak to us and give us life transformation. Here you go. You reap what you sow. Here's a little game. I got a game for you.

Speaker 1: 10:24

I'm going to ask you a question, and it's not a trick question. Sometimes I might do a trick question, but today it's not. If you plant corn, what will you reap? Yes, you guys are so smart man, you should be so proud of yourself. If you plant corn, you don't get pineapples that would be awesome. But every time you put a certain type of seed in the ground, you get a harvest that corresponds with the seed that was planted.

Speaker 1: 11:04

Every single time we can say like this, like Paul paraphrasing but if we plant bad seeds, we will get a harvest of destruction. If we plant godly seeds with godly habits, over time we will tend to have a godly harvest in our lives. In fact, speaking of the negative of this, if we continue to sin, if we're disrespectful to people, if we're selfish, if we're angry, if we're unforgiving, if we allow bitterness to rest in our hearts, if we're harsh, if we're judgmental, if we hate people, guess what? It will come back to us in a multiplying factor. Hosea 1013 says this but you have planted wickedness and you have reaped evil. Some harsh words today. This is from the scriptures that I was reading the Bible. In other words, you've done things on godly, you've sinned, and because of what you've planted, what have you reaped because of it? Not good things.

Speaker 1: 12:04

Imagine in any facet of your life where you do a bad thing and you expect to get a good thing as a result. You don't expect it, do you? You want to take your job If you always show up late, just show up late. You show up late to Zoom calls. You know you're bad, you showing up late to Zoom calls. You show up late all the time. You come in with a bad attitude. You have a half hearted approach to what you do. Do you ever think you're going to get a promotion? I don't think so. Right, if you're always lustful and selfish and you're using people? And do you think you're going to have a godly marriage? Do you think that's how it works? If you find yourself? And then if you find yourself in a really rough place one day, you ask yourself well, how did I get here? Why am I here? It's called a harvest, you planted it and now you're reaping the harvest.

Speaker 1: 12:56

If you eat anything you want and you just pray over God, bless this food and make it be used for strength and nourishment to my body. Then you eat pizza. Do you think that's going to work? Like if you constantly find yourself just eating bad food, eating chicken wings, drinking beer all night? Then you go to Chick-fil-A and you say man, I can eat Chick-fil-A every single day because that's the Lord's food. So even though I know I shouldn't eat two cookies with my number one spicy chicken combo meal, god's going to bless it because it's his food, right? No, what's going to happen to you if you eat Chick-fil-A every day? You're going to find 30 pounds that you don't want, aren't you? It's kind of simple. It's simple in the regular terms, but for some reason, when it comes to our spiritual habits and the purpose of our lives, we don't think in that terms. But here you go. This is what I want you to get. This is what I want you to get.

Speaker 1: 13:54

If you don't like what you're reaping, change what you're sowing. If you don't like what you're reaping, change what you're sowing. If you don't like the harvest, change the seed. If you don't like what you're reaping, change what you're sowing. And I'm going to ask you today to look at one area of your life that you can change to seed not three, not four, not five, because if you do more than one you're not going to do anything. But if you just change one, if you can change one, you can begin to be consistent in one area. I want you to be consistent, maybe for you as prayer. Maybe you're saying, man, I need to be more consistent in my prayer life. You know, I might be spending daily time with God, it might be having a thankfulness journal, it might be becoming generous, it might be having a godly attitude, it might be having forgiveness, it might be acceptance, whatever it is you say. I'm going to be going to learn how it becomes consistent in one area of my life and just pick one area. Again, just pick one. It's a little practical note here. Just pick one and in that one thing you'll see a difference in your life. Again, if you try to pick more than one, you're not. You're not going to see it. You got to pick one, cause if you don't like what you're reaping, change what you're sowing.

Speaker 1: 15:02

Second thing is this you reap more than you sow. You will always reap more than you sow. What you sow. God multiplies and we see this throughout the scripture in the good ways and bad ways, good ways and bad ways.

Speaker 1: 15:14

In Mark four, jesus told a parable, a story about a farmer who went out to sow some seeds and in the farmer he has his little basket. He has all his little seeds in there I like to pretend like it was watermelon seeds, cause those are delicious and some and some of the seeds fell on a rocky ground and then they didn't do something well, do so well. Some fell on some thorns and they didn't do very well. Then some seeds fell on good soil and it produced something good. Check this out. Jesus says this and the seed that fell on the good soil represents those who hear and accept God's word and produce a harvest of 30, 60 or even a hundred times as much has been planted.

Speaker 1: 15:59

I got to say something real fast, because some people like to take that verse and make it all like about money or something like that, like if you give God money or something, he's on a blessed back and you're going to be prosperous. You want to know what this verse is really talking about. If you plant, if you, if you plant seeds in your life of love and joy and hope and trusting in God, you will begin to experience those things in your daily life. You'll begin to see it. When, when, now, cause, now, when that person makes you mad, when that person drives you nuts, when that one thing happens, instead of responding the way you normally respond, all of a sudden you say, man, my worth doesn't come from responding to that person in the way they deserve. My worth comes from how I'll follow Jesus in this area. Is that, is that making sense? See, sometimes we look for just material things, but but. But sometimes I got to let you guys know.

Speaker 1: 16:46

A lot of times we're concerned about the external things and God's just trying to work in our hearts. God's trying to bring some transformation in our hearts. He's trying to mend every heart. Because here you go, if you don't allow God to mend your heart, things on the outside can change, but you will still be bitter. Things on the outside will change, but you will still feel insecure. You'll get the job you always dreamed of, but because your heart hasn't changed, you won't appreciate it. Come on, can I be honest today? Can I be honest today. Okay, so so. So, in other words, you plant one seed and then you can grow an entire tree which then produces more fruit and more seeds to bring out a bigger harvest. I'm a gardener today. Can you do some lessons, some landscaping? Actually, don't ask me to do your landscaping, don't be bad.

Speaker 1: 17:39

See, if you see this in your life, in your relationships, in your discipline. This is so true in my marriage. Here you go. In my marriage, you know, with Aaron, believe it or not, guys, I'm pretty optimistic from the stage and always positive, but that's actually something I've always had to work towards. I'm actually a kind of person that looks at a glass half empty type person and always trying to point out things. But in my marriage, when I choose, when I choose joy, when I choose joy and I walk around my house loving my spouse, when I'm looking at the positive, when I'm looking at the good things that are happening, when I'm encouraged in my wife, it changes the whole environment of my household. It changes every aspect of my house. And the same is true when I'm moping around, when I'm in my little EOR state of mind woe to me, life is all bad to me. You know. It changes the whole dynamic of my household. It really does. My kids are a lot more grumpy, my wife is a little. She ain't never grumpy, she's always perfect.

Speaker 1: 18:42

But for real, we got to understand. We got to understand what we put into something, we reap it. What you put into something, something comes out of it. When you do small things consistently over time, planting the right types of seeds in the right kind of soil in the right time of year, god sends the rain and God produces a harvest of radical difference. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:05

I want to share an illustration that I got from a pastor that I love. His name is Craig Grishel and I encourage you to. If you're a leader in here, if you're leading your home, leading that work, listen to his leadership podcast, the Craig Grishel Leadership Podcast. It's amazing. It's amazing. And he told this illustration. I changed it a little bit, but I think it's lands to perfect lands, the illustration perfect.

Speaker 1: 19:25

Okay, so there's three guys. There's three guys. This is for the sake of this story. They all have the same income. They all have the same income. They live in the same neighborhood. They all have the same body type. They got that dad bod. Come on they rocking it. Here you go, all the same. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 19:43

The first person is you got Sammy, the same, sammy, the same. Now we all know it's Sammy, the same Sammy. He complains about the same things. He complains about the same problems, nothing different. He's just the same, he's Sammy. And then you got Billy better. You got Billy better.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Billy starts to do small, seemingly insignificant things in his life. He starts to make small changes to his life. He just starts to read the verse of the day on his Bible app. He, you know it's not a lot, but it's a little bit. And he's doing it every day. He's consistent. He's slowing down a little bit. He used to be a guy, first one in, last one out of the office. He's saying no, I got to change my priorities. He's slowing down.

Speaker 1: 20:27

He cuts 125 calories. No soda, he says I love. He's got a love of Dr Pepper, but no Dr Pepper. He's putting it aside. He's eating healthier snack. He's eating some seaweed. He's eating some seaweed. It's gross, but I'm going to eat it. You know he's walking. He's walking three times a week. He's getting a little walk out there. You know no big changes. He's getting big, small and they're so small he's been tempted to quit. At times he's been. It's been so small changes that he's like I'm not really seeing any benefits from this. He's been tempted to quit.

Speaker 1: 20:59

Okay, and then you got. So that's Billy. And then you got Wally. You got Wally. Words, wally.

Speaker 1: 21:05

He adds some small bad habits to his life. He starts to skip church. He's a man I went. I went a whole two years. I watched. You know, I watched church online. Do I need really need to go in? I can just skip it, right, you know he.

Speaker 1: 21:18

He's on healthy snacks. He eats every new Dorito that comes out. Got to try it once. He's at 125 calories to his, to his, to his diet. He wastes his time. He's playing video games all the time. He ain't even playing with his kids, just him.

Speaker 1: 21:39

Are you too old for Fortnite? He's a. No, I'm not. Here you go. Six months, six months goes by. No noticeable differences for any of them. No, no, six months, no noticeable differences. 18 months goes by. 18 months goes by. You kind of start to tell a little bit. You can tell a little bit of difference. Here you go. Month 27,. Two years, three months change is obvious. Change is obvious. Let me say that one more time 27 months, 27. That's a long time. That's a long time in our world that guarantees the success you want in one moment, doesn't it? That's a long time in a world that says you can get what you want right now and you're entitled to it. No, you aren't. 27 months, and here you go. This is what we see. In 27 months, sammy, the same, sees no real change in his life.

Speaker 1: 22:48

I get upset with Sammy because we all know Sammy's and we all been Sammy before. Here you go, here you go. I get upset at Sammy because some of us, we keep asking for breakthrough but we're not making any changes to get the breakthrough. We keep complaining about the same thing. We keep complaining about that person and complaining about that person and complaining about that person, but not allowing anything to change on us. And we see Sammy.

Speaker 1: 23:15

Two years goes by, he still keeps saying I'll get in shape one day. No, you aren't. He keeps saying I'm going to read the Bible finally, when they make it easier for me to read 1,io si verm Tiedy on your phone. Less anxious, he said, I'm going to be less anxious, but he never gets professional help. So I want to change in my marriage, but don't do anything about it.

Speaker 1: 23:40

But then you got Billy. Then you got Billy. Billy better consume 117,000 fewer calories and lost 33.5 pounds. Come on, billy Wally consumed 117,000 more calories and gained 35.5 pounds. That's the difference of 237,000 calories and 67 pounds. That's some good math. Here you go. This is not limited to weight. It's not weight class, but Billy better.

Speaker 1: 24:17

He lost weight, which then he began to get some confidence. Because of that, because he gained some confidence, he started receiving some results. He started to say man, maybe I'll keep adding that to my relationship with God. Then he began to grow as a leader and then he got promoted. Then he began to pay off debt and then he began to thrive in his marriage. So he took the steps in his marriage to do it. Wally, however, gained weight, lost confidence, drifted from God. His game and addiction turned into an online gambling addiction. Finances started to wreck His marriage, barely hanging on.

Speaker 1: 24:50

And what I want to say is not what you do occasionally, is what you do consistently. If you don't like what you're reaping, come on, change what you're sowing. You got to start changing what you're sowing. Just one thing. Just one thing, I promise you. I promise you. If you just change one thing, not three, not four, not five, no, just one thing. If you change one thing in one area of your life, if you can become consistent in one area of your life, you will love the results. You will love it and it will change.

Speaker 1: 25:24

And number three, number three you reap after you sow. You reap after you sow, you will reap. You will reap in a different season. What you sow in this season, when you sow in this season, you may not even see it in this season. You may not even see it in this season. That you're currently in the next season of life, at the proper time. You'll see it, you'll see it. And here you go. And that's not easy because sometimes we plant in the fall and you don't typically reap in the fall. You plant in the fall and you've got to wait until the spring and that's why we get discouraged, because I plant it now but I haven't seen it now. I haven't seen it yet.

Speaker 1: 26:36

I prayed for five days straight and I still cuss at my kids Like come on, and I get frustrated. I prayed and I prayed and I prayed and God, I still don't feel. You, jesus, do you even care? Our boat is sinking in your sleep, do you even care. I went to the gym five times and I still don't look like Dwayne Johnson. Come on, it's a personal thing. I'm trying, here you go. I'm trying to pay off my student loan debt $37,500 away. So all month long you don't buy any Starbucks coffee, which costs $100 per cup. A whole month long you don't buy expensive coffee. You saved $100. And at the end of the month you don't owe $37,500, but you owe $37,400.

Speaker 1: 27:42

And so and so you wrongly conclude that small decisions don't matter that much, and in so many different ways. Our entire life is the sum total of all the small decisions that we make. Did you know that you make 35,000 decisions a day, most of them unconscious, obviously, but in every action you're choosing a direction. What do we know? What do we know? What do all of us know? The problem is?

Speaker 1: 28:17

The problem is this we all have the same intention, we all have the same intentions, but we don't all have the same results, because if our identity is wrong, the cycle is bad. And what happens is this we think well, I'm not seeing results because I'm bad and I'm pathetic and I'm nothing, and I'll never change, and I'm never going to break out of this addiction, and my family had this problem. And so I have this problem and we'll always be in debt and we'll always be broke and I always be stuck in sin and I can just never give. I can never get what I want to get. I'll never have good relationships, I'll never have a real ministry, I'll never make a real impact with my life.

Speaker 1: 28:58

And then we try it on our own. And here you go. And we try it on our own, and we try it on our own strength, and we try it on with our own willpower until our willpower runs out. And so our inevitable failure. We start to feel the shame, which reinforces the negative identity that I'm always going to be bad. So what do we do? What do we do?

Speaker 1: 29:23

We recognize, come on. We recognize it's not by my willpower, it's not by how strong I can try to be. We recognize it's not about how great that we are. We recognize it's how good his grace is in our lives and that Jesus lived the life we couldn't. He died of death we deserved.

Speaker 1: 29:47

Three days later he rose from the grave. Then he said I'm going to give you my Holy Spirit. And then we begin to walk and step with the Spirit. And when we begin to walk and step with the Spirit. What we discovered, like the apostle Paul told us, that the old is gone and I'm a new creation in Christ, that I can do things, not because of how great I am, but because of how good he is in my life and I can tap into his grace and I can walk it out what he has for me. And then what I discovered is that Christ in me is stronger than the wrong desires in me. So because we know who we are, then we know what we can do. And because we know who we are, we're not trying, but every day we are in training, we are becoming more like who he has called us to be. And here you go.

Speaker 1: 30:42

So how do we judge the success of a day? It's the end of the day. Did I honor God? Did we do good? Did we make progress? Are we working towards the harvest to honor God? No, no. Here's how we judge the success of a day. We don't judge the success of a day by the harvest we reap, but we judge it by the seeds that we sow. And what seeds did I sow today? Did I honor God today? Did I go out of God's heart today, because Paul says this let us not become weary and doing good. Have the proper time. We will reap a harvest.

Speaker 1: 31:26

If we do not give up, friends, don't give up. Ro without earless tongue sometimes is rarely accepted. Don't give up on having joy. Don't give up on your kid. Don't give up, don't give up on finding the freedom that you desire. Don't give up, don't give up on doing the small things, the small things over time, consistently, and you may say, man, do they even matter? Yes, they matter, because over time it will lead to the results you want.

Speaker 1: 32:12

So if we don't give up, what we discover is Christ is in me. And if Christ is in me, man, I can do all things. Through Him, who gives me strength? God, jesus, holy Spirit, we thank you for your goodness, we thank you for your mercy, we thank you for your grace. And right now it's like the Holy Spirit saying some of you have identified with Sammy and Wally.

Speaker 1: 32:49

You've been staying the same for way too long. And it's like the Lord is saying it's time for you to get professional help, it's time for you to meet a Christian counselor to walk you through that trauma. I don't know who that's, for it's like the Holy Spirit saying he will make you brave, you don't have to be scared. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. And there's some people, because of discouragement in your life, you just kind of have said, well, I'm just throwing my hands up and I'll just, it doesn't matter if I do this decision or that thing or that habit. No, no, no, it's like the Holy Spirit saying Holy Spirit saying come back to what you know you need to do, come back to His heart for you, don't give up. Don't give up is a greater reward. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit. Speak, speak right now, lord, speak right now. Holy Spirit. More of you, more of you. You trust you, lord, you trust you, lord. Come Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 34:18

If you're in here today and you don't know this Jesus I've talked about and you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life, it's right where you are. I want you to pray this prayer with me. I'm not going to call you out. Have you come up front? Nothing like that. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus with your life or trust Him again with your life, just say this simple prayer with me, right where you are. Just say Jesus, forgive me for my mistakes. Make me new. Today I put my trust in you. Today I follow you. Today I walk towards you in Jesus' name, amen, amen. Let's give God some praise in here today. Amen, thank you.