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  YOU WILL REAP WHAT YOU PLANTED
  by Harvey Brubacker
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Summary: This sermon emphasizes the universal law of sowing and reaping,
highlighting the importance of the seeds we plant in our lives,
especially during our youthful years. It explores the consequences of
our actions, the distinction between sowing to the flesh and sowing to
the spirit, and the hope of redemption and forgiveness offered by God.
The message encourages intentional planting of good seeds, showcasing
the impact of our choices on our future harvest.
Scripture References: Galatians 6:7, Galatians 5:22, James 1:14, Galatians 6:9, Ezekiel 18:21, 1 Timothy 6:11, Proverbs 22:8, Galatians 6:8, Isaiah 55:8

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon emphasizes the universal law of sowing and reaping,
highlighting the importance of the seeds we plant in our lives,
especially during our youthful years. It explores the consequences of
our actions, the distinction between sowing to the flesh and sowing to
the spirit, and the hope of redemption and forgiveness offered by God.
The message encourages intentional planting of good seeds, showcasing
the impact of our choices on our future harvest.

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CONTENT
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Good morning. Are there any prayer requests this morning? Let's stand to
pray. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for giving us this opportunity to
meet together.

Help us to edify each other today. Please be in our midst. Fill us with
your spirit.

We ask that you would guide us today. Help us to be one heart. I ask
this in the name of Jesus.

Amen. Well, I'd like to talk about a law. Some people refer to it as a
law.

I guess it's considered a law from the Bible, a principle from the
Bible. It's something that has affected people from the time of Adam and
Eve until now. It's something all of us are faced with in our life.

Some people may deny the facts, but it's still there. Everyone's
included. The effects often last a lifetime and are often irreversible
or mostly irreversible, but there's exceptions for those rules too.

Our youthful years are often the most important ones. Let's read in
Galatians 6. I guess we'll just read verse 7 right now. Do not be
deceived.

God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. It's reaping what we
sow.

That's what I would like to talk about. A lot of us are familiar with
agricultural practices and we know that it would be foolish if we took a
seed we didn't want and planted it and hoped to get something good from
it, right? I picked up a few acorns as I was sitting down. These could
potentially grow into a large plant.

Most of you little children know that if I plant these seeds, I won't
get a watermelon from them, will I? Or corn maybe? Something good? If I
plant these in my garden, in a few years, I'll have a big oak tree and
my good plants won't be able to grow because the oak tree will take away
all its nutrients and it'll make a shade and the plants won't be able to
grow. So I'd like for us to try to imagine a field, a beautiful fertile
field that the soil has been prepared and it's ready for planting. This
field is like our life and when we're young, when we're, I think parents
help us to keep our field clean.

If we have godly parents, they help us to order our field when we're
young, but there's a point when we get older, when we start making our
own choices and we make conscious decisions, conscious choices, and
those are seeds that we're planting into our soil. For us young people,
I'm an old young person, but especially, I think especially young people
in their teen years, you have such an opportunity right now that you can
either use for something good or you can fill your field with all kinds
of bad plants, plants that will eventually produce something that's very
bitter, very noxious. So what seeds are you planting in your field right
now when you think about your life, when you think about how you talk,
how you relate to people? Are they seeds of righteousness? Are they
seeds that will bring peace? I'd like to read a few verses here in
Galatians 5. It talks about, I guess I'll start in verse 16 and just
read down to the end of the chapter.

So I lay, so I say, walk by the spirit and you will not gratify the
desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the
spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in
conflict with each other so that you are not to do whatever you want.

But if you're led by the spirit, you are not under the law. The acts of
the flesh are obvious, sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry
and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish
ambition, dissension, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies and the
like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this will not
inherit the kingdom of God.

Here we have a list of things that Paul says that will not inherit the
kingdom of God. So if we sow, if we sow, if we do these kinds of things,
we are sowing to the flesh and when that plant is matured, God will have
to yank it out and throw it into the fire. But this is what God wants
for us here in verse 22.

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness. There is no law, oh sorry, gentleness and self-
control against such things. There is no law.

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its
passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step
with the spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each
other.

So there we have the good seeds that we can sow in our life. We have
love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. I think it's hard for us to recognize the
plants we're planting until we start harvesting.

I know it's been that way for my life and I wish it wouldn't have to be
that way. But I believe that God still gives us this option of taking
examples from other people's mistakes and not having to wait until we
start seeing fruits. Because once we start harvesting our fruits, and we
have bitter fruits, we have bad fruits, it's really hard to change
things at that point.

Many of those things will continue to affect us the rest of our life. I
think one way we can recognize the seeds that we're planting is by
looking in one area. Let's take the example of our relationship with
other people.

Oftentimes people will reflect someone's relationship back in the same
way that we give it. So if I talk angry to you, if I mock you, if I
treat you unkindly, chances are that for people that aren't Christian
anyways, that people will treat me in the same way that I treated them.
It's just something that people tend to do.

I think that's one way we can recognize fruits that are bad in our life,
or seeds that we're planting that are bad in our life, is when we take
our relationships with other people and and see something bad in them,
it often is a sign of something wrong on our part. I think many of us
would give anything to be able to go back and replant, re-see the field
of our life, but we can't. We have to, now we have to, now we have to
deal with the with the consequences of our our actions.

And so if we've sowed to righteousness, we have a joyful time of
harvesting. But if we've sowed to unrighteousness, we'll have many
regrets. And if we choose to serve God, at that point we have many
things to straighten out and to deal with.

There's a verse in James that I wanted to talk about, James 1, 14 and
15. But first, I think something that we, something that we often,
often, that often misses our attention, or that that makes us forget
about the the law of sowing and reaping, is is the time that that's
between the time that we plant our seeds and the time we harvest it. And
so as we as we plant our field, those those those seeds lay dormant for
a while.

And we may not see them growing, but they're growing. Some of them will,
some of them will be growing fast. Some of them will grow slower, but
all of them will produce fruit.

So let me read this here in James. But each person, I'll just read this,
it's talking about temptation and and how how how we're planting the
seeds. So I'll just start at 13.

When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be
tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone. But each person is tempted
when they are dragged away by their evil desire and entice.

Then after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin when it is full
grown. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death. So here we
see, I think James is only addressing sin here, but I think life works
the same way.

When we choose to do what's right, this thing grows and finally gives
forth life. So that's a good part. I want to go back to to Galatians 6
again and read verse 8, or sorry, verse 9. Says, let us not become weary
in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do
not give up.

Just like the harvest of wickedness sometimes takes a while to mature,
sometimes it happens quickly. But here Paul is saying that if we have to
be patient, if we're sowing good seeds, we can't just expect them to pop
up overnight and all of a sudden we'll have this great field of good
fruits. It takes a long time for us to harvest those benefits.

So Paul's telling us to keep on pressing in, to not get weary in sowing
what is right. I'll just read verse 10 there as well. Therefore, as we
have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who
belong to the family of believers.

There we have an example of a good seed that we can be sowing, doing
good to all people and especially the Christians around us. I wanted to
read a verse in, or a couple verses in Ezekiel, because although it
seems, even if we have planted wicked seeds all our life, or part of our
life, God has given us hope. I want to read a verse in Ezekiel 18, close
to the end of the chapter.

I know many of us are familiar with this chapter, but these words of
hope that God spoke through Ezekiel are very hopeful. So I'll just start
in verse 21, Ezekiel 21, or Ezekiel 18 verse 21. But if a wicked person
turns away from all the sins that they have committed and keeps all my
decrees and does what is just and right, that person will surely live.

They will not die. None of the offenses they have committed will be
remembered against them. Because of the righteousness, because of the
righteous things that they have done, they will live.

Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked, declares the
sovereign Lord? Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways
and live? There's God's promise for us if we have sowed in
unrighteousness. He forgives us if we turn away from our wickedness. If
we turn away from sin and start seeking God, start planting
righteousness, God is willing to forgive us.

And then I'll just read the next verse, verse 24. This is if we've lived
righteous lives, if we've been planting good seeds all of our life, but
in the last part, we choose to turn away from God. This is the warning
for us for us not to turn away from living righteous lives.

But verse 24, but if a righteous person turns from their righteousness
and commits sin and does the same detestable things that the wicked
person does, will they live? None of the righteous things that person
has done will be remembered. Because of the unfaithfulness they are
guilty of, and because of the sins they have committed, they will die.
So I just want to encourage everyone here to remember that our seeds
that we're planting are very important.

Our thoughts, our words, what we do, they will someday, someday they
will give fruit and our garden, our field of life, if I compare it with
a garden, will show what we've planted. And especially for the young
people, it's so important that you plant good seeds now, because you
only have one chance. Yeah, that's all I have.

If there's any comments or questions, be free to share. Yeah, thank you,
Harvey. As you were starting in there in the beginning with some of the
characteristics of this law you were wanting to talk about, I started
catching on that that's going to be it.

Nobody escapes it. Whether it's a good person or an evil person, no one
escapes that law. And I do think it's maybe good to recognize that like,
regardless of what we've sown, there is redemption and forgiveness
available, but that doesn't doesn't altogether mean we escape
consequences.

You know, like just for an example, someone that gets drunk and goes
recklessly driving down the road and crashes his car and loses his leg,
you know, he can be forgiven of that sin, but he'll hobble around the
rest of his life on one leg or something like that, you know. Anyway, it
was pretty sobering to me what you said about how like one way to test,
to test, though it has exceptions, but one way that we can test is is
that people tend to treat us the way we treat them. And I think there's
a lot of truth to that, like it's not, I think probably all of us may
have may have experienced, you know, somebody, some just really angry,
unreasonable person, you know, not do that or the other way around it
can be, but like if if there's a pattern you see in life, if there's a
pattern, yeah, I think, I think it'd be safe to say like if he's, if
there's a pattern that you see in life of how people treat you, then
then take heed.

There's this story, it's, I suppose it's a true story, I mean it could
well be a true story, it's supposedly an Amish, in an Amish community,
like these two families moved in to this community at about the same
time and the bishop went to to visit with the one family and and he
asked that, he asked that family about, you know, how, how are the
people, how were the people in the community you came from and and he
said, oh, they were so nice, you know, just just real good people, kind,
generous, loving people. The bishop said, yeah, that's, that's kind of
how you'll find the people in this community and then later he went to
visit the other family that moved in and asked, asked him, among other
questions he asked him, like how, how were the people in the community
you came from and he said, oh, they were so hard to get along with, they
were just always just causing trouble and fighting and he said, yeah,
that's kind of how you'll find the people here and later these two, two
newcomers were talking with each other and and both of them said that,
you know, the bishop, bishop told them that they'd kind of find the
people the way they described them at home and both of them were like,
what, it's two very different answers and, and yet the one guy that,
that, that had said his, his old community was, was full of nice and
kind people. He, he kind of walked home thinking, I think maybe the
bishop said the truth there and, you know, it wasn't, the story goes
that it wasn't long until the second person, you know, was, was
dissatisfied there and found everybody to be hard to get along with and
couldn't, couldn't make it.

Anyway, it's kind of a good story. Obviously, the, the, whether true or
false, the less, whether it's true or made up, I don't know who it
pertains to, therefore I'm just saying that I, I think it could be true,
but, but whether it's a story somebody made up, the lesson's pretty
clear, like people tend to, people tend to be, or the, like, like Harvey
said, the problem often tends to be with ourselves. Somebody rightly
said one time that we will, we will reap, we will reap what we sow,
after we sow, and more than we sow.

Those are just some of the, some of the universal laws about sowing and
reaping. Anyway, thanks Harvey. Amen Harvey, thank you for a very
edifying message, and it's not good, it's not just good for the younger
ones, but it's good for the older ones too.

I didn't know it was a law, but you're a farmer Harvey, and you reap
what you sow is, is a law. It's just a couple of verses, no corrections,
I just, I praised, it was the message, something that was very edifying.
In Isaiah, a popular verse that we quote in Isaiah is, for my thoughts
are not your thoughts, and my ways are not yours, as the sky is higher
than the heavens, the heavens are higher than whatever the earth, and my
thoughts, and so he, you know, his omniscience, his eternity, his power,
power, time, knowledge is, is in a different realm than ours, but in the
context of that, the verse before that, I read it, it says, let the
wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous his thoughts, the
unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and he
will have mercy upon him, and to our God he will abundantly pardon.

So the context of that verse is, God's thoughts are not our thoughts, is
that his mercy is so infinite compared to ours, he has mercy where we
don't, and I mean, where we wouldn't, think of the thief in the cross,
think of King Manasseh, and think of the worst sinner of all time, the
apostle Paul, he had mercy on them, and they have examples for us to
follow, so let's not ever think that, oh, I'm just too, how could anyone
love someone, or even accept someone who's such as evil as myself, but I
know there's a song, and Brother Robert Malloy was telling me, the words
of a song that, I said, hey, that applies for everyone, and the words of
the song was something, it was like, if I, what I know now, what I know
now, if I only knew when I was young, the things I know now, spiritually
wrecked, the things I know now, that I knew, if I only knew when I was a
teenager, the things we know now, only if we knew them when a teenager,
how we could have an impact in the world, on ourselves, on our
testimony, and I guess we all could say that to a certain degree, oh,
what I know now, only if I knew that, when I was growing up a Catholic
in Boston, and did every ungodly thing, only if I knew now, how I could
have tried to stop a lot of the sin, and other people's lives, in my own
life, but I appreciate you talking about the fruits of the Spirit, good
memory things, and nine fruits of the Spirit, or the Beatitudes, just
another powerful thing, to let the Word of Christ indwell in us, richly,
the fruits of the Spirit, and he also says to Timothy, the young
Timothy, first Timothy, pursue righteousness, godliness, love, faith,
patience, and meekness, and my last comment will be the, you know, the
three types, and you could have dealt with it, brother Harvey, the three
types of sin, lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and pride of life, we
look at the examples of the lust of the eye, money, just say money,
possessions, Judas, Gehazi, Simon the sorcerer, what would they sell the
Lord for, right, they sell the Lord for money, the lust of the flesh,
look at Ammon, how he raped Hema, look at David, how he raped Bathsheba,
and they repented, and the pride of life, Nebuchadnezzar, and King
David, when he wanted a census, and we learn, these things were written
for our instruction, the Lord be magnified, and bless all you brothers.
On the victory ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, the summer
sun was shining, the sweat was on his brow, his garments worn and dusty,
his steps seemed very slow, but he kept pressing onward, for he was
ending home, still shouting as he journeyed, he'd never run so long,
then on the victory ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, the sun
shone, the arbor that set his mind away, attracted his attention,
inviting his delay, his heart's working onward, he stopped in and ran,
still shouting as he journeyed, he'd never run so long, then on the
victory ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, I saw him in the
evening, the sun was sending low, he'd overcome the mountain, and
reached the vale below, he saw an open city, his everlasting home, and
shouted loud as an eagle, he'd never run so come, then on the victory
ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, while sitting on that city,
the sun was an arrow's bud, a band of holy angels came from the throne
of God, they bore him on their kingdoms, they poured the bashing foam,
and joined him in a triumph, he'd never run so come, then on the victory
ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, I heard the song of
triumph, they sang upon that shore, say Jesus has defeated us, his
suffer never more, then casting his eyes backward, from the darkness
which he had run, he shouted loud as an owl, he'd never run so come,
then on the victory ground of glory, on the victory I shall win, for the
beauty of the earth, for the beauty of the sky, for the love which from
our birth, over and around us lies, Christ our God to thee we raise,
this our hymn of grateful praise, for the joy of human love, brother,
sister, parent, child, friends on earth and friends above, for all
gentle thoughts and love, Christ our God to thee we raise, this our hymn
of grateful praise, for thy church hath evermore, lived the holy and the
vow, of bringing love on every shore, with pure sacrifice of love,
Christ our God to thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise, for
thyself that still defies, to thy race so freely gives, for that great
great love of thine, peace on earth and joy in heav'n, Christ our God to
thee we raise, this our hymn of grateful praise, for thou knowest how to
balance the heav'nly, and lead us more certainly, than chariots and the
people, more than thou be thou afraid of hell, for the Lord thy God is
with thee, for the Lord thy God is with thee, for the Lord thy God is
with thee, be not afraid of hell, for the Lord thy God is with thee, for
thou knowest how to balance the heav'nly, and lead us more certainly,
than chariots and the people, more than thou be thou afraid of hell, for
the Lord thy God is with thee, for the Lord thy God is with thee, for
the Lord thy God is with thee, be not afraid of hell, for the Lord thy
God is with thee, where'er thou be thou, thou know'st the land of Egypt.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/-yefyZflH7k.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/harvey-brubacker/you-will-reap-what-you-planted/
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