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 Sermon > Theme Words of Life |
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Title |
The Law of Sowing and Reaping(2) - The Law of Sowing and Reaping (2) |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Galatians 6:7-9 |
Date |
2010-01-24 |
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Passage
Galatians 6:7-9
[7] Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. [8] For 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. [9] Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
Introduction
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
This is the second session on Law of sowing and reaping. In the last session, I talked to you about the process of sowing and reaping in comparison with actual farming.
We discussed that we first have to cultivate our heart-field by keeping the commands that tell us to cast away and not do certain things.
Also, by keeping the 'do' and 'keep' commands, we have to sow the seeds.
To take care of the seeds that have been sown is to worship and pray to God and also to rejoice and give thanks in all things.
As we diligently conduct the spiritual farming as above, we will be able to bear Good-pleasing fruits abundantly.
We will bear the fruits of the Holy Spirit, the Beatitudes, and the fruits of spiritual love. These people will be loved by God, and they will receive whatever they ask.
This is the essence of the law in sowing and reaping. This is the basic principle for us to receive blessings in both physical and spiritual aspects.
From today, I will talk to you about the details of how we should sow the seeds and care for them so that we can receive financial blessings in particular.
Through this message, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will sow and reap the way God pleases so that you can receive not only material blessings but also all the desires of your heart.
Main
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order for us to receive overflowing blessings, first of all, we have to circumcise our heart.
It means we have to cultivate our heart-field. As is the case with all other kinds of blessings, we first have to cultivate our heart-field in order to receive material blessings.
It's because we can have spiritual faith only to the extent that we cultivate our hearts.
In order for us to reap whatever we sow, we have to sow with faith.
Without faith we cannot experience the works of God.
Also, even though we sow the same kind of seeds, those who have greater faith will be able to harvest more crops.
And this faith is not just faith as knowledge in head but the spiritual faith in the heart.
We cannot have spiritual faith just because we want it. We can have it only when God gives it to us.
God gives us greater faith to the extent that our heart is sanctified.
The more we circumcise our heart, cast away sins, and accomplish sanctification, the more spiritual faith we will have, and thus the more material blessings we will receive.
That is why 3 John 1:2 says, "Beloved, I pray that in all respects you may prosper and be in good health, just as your soul prospers."
As our soul prospers, namely, as we cultivate our heart-field into good soil, we will prosper in all things and be healthy.
But that doesn't mean we can receive blessings only after we are completely sanctified.
As I explained before, even though we have not gone into spirit, we can receive pressed down, shaken together and running over if we sow with faith.
But those who have gone into spirit will receive 30 times or up to 60 times more. And those who go into whole spirit can receive 60 or 100 times more blessings.
There is a great difference in the measure of blessings given between before-and-after we go into spirit.
Also, even though we have not gone into spirit yet, as we try our best to sanctify ourselves in our measure of faith, we will receive blessings and answers to what we ask one by one.
Then, we will be able to have increasingly greater faith.
We often hear the testimonies from our members saying that they encountered trials or tests that were brought upon them without cause. But they pass them with only goodness and they receive blessings.
They receive not only spiritual blessings, but they also receive material blessings that are completely different in measure than before.
For example, when the sales of a believer increase, her coworkers become jealous and give her a hard time.
They leave her out or act rudely toward her. They may even slander her behind her back.
In this situation, what do you suppose one of our church members would do?
She would not have any hard feelings or resentment nor would she stand up against them with evilness.
She would rather humble herself more and serve them more.
When she continually acts with goodness, even those who were jealous of her are moved and changed.
When she passed the test with goodness, her spiritual faith increased, and her sales also increased as well. She received much more in financial blessings than before.
In accounts like this, we often hear testimonies that people received greater blessings as they moved forward in the process of sanctification.
There are many cases similar to the following also.
There are those who attend church for a long time but compromise with the world. But when they repent of their behaviors and change into the truth, they begin to receive blessings.
For example, some people receive the title of deacon, but still smoke and drink or commit some works of the flesh.
But then they make up their mind to change and try to put the word of God into practice. Then, the grace and strength of God comes upon them and their lives begin to change.
As they depart from darkness and change into spirit, their physical situations also change.
They may solve some long-lasting problems in their businesses.
Their family or children's problems are resolved. They receive many kinds of blessings.
As explained, not only for financial blessings, but also to receive answers to our heart's desires, the first thing we have to do is circumcise the heart. Namely, we have to cultivate our heart-field.
We can accomplish sanctification as we live a changed life in the truth. This means we have prepared a fertile field. We can harvest a lot when we sow in this fertile field.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, the second secret in sowing and reaping is to completely keep all of Sunday holy and giving proper tithes.
Keeping Sunday holy and giving proper tithes is the most basic of basics in Christian life.
I do not have time to explain about them all over again.
Please refer to the previous sermons that I delivered about these topics, but let me very briefly go over it here.
Keeping the Sunday holy is acknowledging the spiritual authority of God.
It is the minimum act of faith to prove that we are children of God who believe in Jesus Christ.
Those who do not keep Sunday holy cannot be protected by God even when the enemy devil and Satan bring tests and trials to them.
So, even though they sow the seeds, they will face some misfortune and will not be able to harvest the fruit.
It means they do not receive blessings.
To give tithes is the act of faith that acknowledges God's sovereignty in all material aspects of our lives.
It is to acknowledge that all things in Heaven and on Earth belong to God, and all our blessings come from God.
No matter how hard we pray and ask for blessings, God cannot bless us unless we keep Sunday holy and give proper tithes.
If God does respond with blessings, it is against His justice, and Satan will object to it.
God can bless us only when we ask with faith while acknowledging the sovereignty of God by keeping the Sunday holy and giving proper tithes.
Brothers and sisters, do you think we will have less income if we take a day off and give one tenth of our income?
If we have faith, there is never a loss.
Even though you do not operate on Sunday and have no income for that day, God can give you the income equivalent of seven days during just the six days.
In Exodus chapter 16, we read God gave the sons of Israel manna in the wilderness.
Every morning when the people went out, there was manna that tasted like 'wafers with honey', and they gathered it according to each day's needs.
If they left part of it until morning, it became foul and maggot infested.
But before the Sabbath, they could gather twice as much of the manna, and there was no problem with it for the two days until the Sabbath was over.
Some people violated the command of God and came out to gather the manna on the Sabbath but found nothing.
Likewise, even though we do not work on Sundays, the almighty God can give us the income for the whole period of 7 days in just the 6 days of the week.
Furthermore, we are protected in spirit and body, so we won't suffer any unnecessary loss.
Unexpected expenditures due to illnesses and accidents take up so much of the unbeliever's incomes.
But you don't suffer from such a loss, and this in itself is a great blessing.
Also, tithes are like the seeds that you save for the next year's farming after the harvest.
The farmers select the best grains as seeds from the harvest he gets.
Even though he has nothing to eat, he never eats those grains to be used for seed.
If they eat up the seed just because they are starving now, they have nothing to sow and farm during the coming year.
In the same way, God's children have to give the tithes before all other things.
We must not give our tithe out of whatever is left after we spend for ourselves. We give to God first.
Also, we cannot interchange the purpose of tithes and offering; if we give thanks offerings or for charitable works with the tithes, it actually means we didn't give tithes.
Actually, keeping the Sunday holy and giving tithes are directly related with our salvation, so actually the message about them has to be preached every year.
But we have so many other spiritual messages to preach, and I cannot deliver messages on them with greater frequency than that.
I had a chance to deliver messages on tithes and keeping Sunday holy starting with the end of the year before last until the beginning of last year, and since then there were many testimonies.
Namely, those who had not been giving tithes properly or keeping the Sunday holy began to keep the word after listening to those messages, and they began to receive tremendous blessings.
For example, there was a believer who had opened a restaurant. But for several months he had financial difficulty. In the mean time he listened to the messages on proper tithes and offerings.
Before that, he sometimes gave tithes and at other times he didn't, but he made up his mind to give proper tithes.
From the time that he started to separate his tithes from each day's income, God began to work that very next day.
The daily number of his customers doubled.
Malachi 3:10 says, "Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this," says the LORD of hosts, "if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows."
As God said, "test Me in this," God let him experience God's work.
As he had an experience, he would not receive just single blessings but continually if he kept on giving proper tithes and lived a life in truth.
But if does not take this experience as his faith, and does not give proper tithes or live in truth, he might lose the blessings he has gained.
Let me introduce another testimony to you.
This believer gave thanks offerings but not the tithe, but he gained faith through the sermons and began to give tithes.
Three weeks after that, he had an amazing experience.
He had not received the payment for the construction work he had done for several months. But he received that payment, which was several tens of millions of won, at one time.
He said he was very thankful for the financial blessing, but he was even happier that he now had peace of heart.
He was thankful that he was happy and peaceful because he was practicing the word of God.
Other than these, there were many other testimonies saying they received great financial blessings or got promoted after giving God all the tithes that they hadn't given.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, in order to receive blessings, keeping the Sunday holy is also important.
Since I became a believer, even when I was running a shop before I became a pastor, I never worked on Sundays.
The kind of shop I had usually has the greatest number of customers on Sunday, so we had to be ready to absorb the loss.
But I had the faith that God could bless me in many other ways, and 'even if He does not', I couldn't violate keeping Sunday holy.
What do you think the result was?
Other shops in competition had better facilities and lower prices, but people rushed into our shop.
Even the customers themselves were saying they didn't know why they were coming to our shop. It was the work of God.
When other shop owners came to see our shop and learn the secrets of success, I just said, "You should be a faithful believer in God."
There are many among our church members who received blessings for keeping Sunday holy.
Because of the nature of the business, some believers get much work on Sundays, so they just thought they couldn't help violating the Sunday.
But they listened to the message and repented. They made up their mind to keep the Lord's Day holy thinking that the works that they get on Sunday are not theirs.
They got work that they never expected to get and their income increased greatly by God's blessings.
Brothers and sisters, the third secret in the sowing and reaping is that we must not ask with greed.
Can you discern very well whether you are asking with greed or not?
I will continue with this in the next session.
Conclusion
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, some say they received blessings by leading a faithful Christian life, but after some time, their faith changes. Then, their blessings also go away.
Whatever kind of blessing we want to receive, we first have to have spiritual faith and our love for God.
Rather than hoping for blessings to appear right in front of our eyes, we must hope for eternal Heaven.
As we hope for Heaven and love God, we will naturally circumcise our hearts. This way we will be more and more spiritual.
Those who have gone into spirit will receive whatever they ask in prayer. The blessing that we receive after going into spirit will never disappear or be shaken.
I hope you will love God and earnestly take hold of Heaven by force through loving God with firm faith.
In doing so, I pray in the name of the Lord that you will constantly have testimonies of blessings in spirit and body until the day the Lord comes back.
[Amen] |
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