Galatians 6:7-10

7 “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. 8 Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. 9 So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. 10 Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith”.

In Galatians 6:9 God reveals the secret to a successful and blessed life, don’t be selfish with your service but seek opportunities to lavish God’s love on others. The world tells us that getting ahead involves investing in self not service, that happiness comes through having not helping. But the Word reminds us that if we want a harvest we need to hand out not hold onto. Investing our lives starts not with saving but with:

• SOWING

If you want to partake in the blessings you have to plant. There will never be a harvest if you hoard the seed, so scripture calls us to sow the seeds not leave them in a bag in the barn. This is more than just a call to plant seeds, if we want to be successful we need to be planting specific seeds. In the previous chapter Paul pointed out the difference between a lust based life and one of love as he listing out 15 different kinds of foul sinful behaviors and 9 fruitful ones. So let me ask you what seeds are you sowing? If we want to experience success then we need to stop sowing sinful seeds and start sowing the seeds of the Spirit. You can’t sow to the flesh and reap fulfilling fruit. Today there are many who are mocking God, they want to sow seeds of destruction and demand that God bless them or at least bail them out. But you can’t fool or force the Father into blessing you, blessing is not based on your wants but on His Will. I wonder what our world would be like if we sowed seeds of kindness in keeping with the fruit of the Spirit? In Mark 12:30-31 Jesus sums up the scriptures in two statements, love God with all of your life and love others like you love yourself. So what would happen if we submitted to God’s formula for success and sowed seeds of life? What would happen in our homes and the hearts of our neighbors, in our workplaces and world? How would life be different if we would participate in planting and make it a point to brighten somebody else’s day? We need the ministry mindset of who can I serve by sowing, who can I bless? You see we were born again to be a blessing, saved to serve. Opportunities are everywhere if we would be willing to just seek them out and sow. Do you paying attention and looking for opportunities to plant or are you letting opportunities to sow slip by? Are you a proactive planter or a procrastinating planter? If sowing leads to success then why don’t we do this more often? Selfishness, in my life the greatest enemy to sowing has not been Satan but self. If we want to be successful then we need to live our lives like the Savior and:

• SERVE

Selfishness short circuit’s success because it causes us to stop sowing the seeds of life. Paul calls us to have a family focus and find our joy in giving not getting. We should have a genuine concern for the community of believers, the body of Christ. One of the saddest things about the church today is the focus on self instead of serving. As the emphasis has shifted from the Savior to self so has our focus of service. Today most Christians are concerned with how a church service will serve them, what they will get out of it. If it doesn’t fit their needs or provide or serve them then they stop going. Today most Christians go to get, rather than showing up to serve they show up to soak. What about you are you looking to serve or looking for a show? One of the foundational truths that the Lord wants us to learn when we become Christians is that we were saved to serve. One of the greatest strengths of the early church was their commitment to come together and serve one another. They were committed to community and meeting one another’s needs. Serving is not easy it takes energy and sometimes serving requires sacrifice. The early church cared for each other sacrificially, they were willing to sell and share whatever they had in order to serve each other. Serving may mean that we have to give up our wants and go out of our way. Sometimes it means putting other people’s needs ahead of our own plans. Caring enough to come alongside others may require you to clear your calendar. It might mean sacrificing your time, talents and treasures. Sometimes service requires more than just a sacrifice of money but a total mindset, sometimes we have to get self out of the way long enough to make room for the servant. Many of us desire to see a spectacular harvest but instead of sowing sacrificially we sow sparingly. Rarely is caring convenient, instead it often costs and calls to us when we are tired and drained, maybe even discouraged and don’t feel much like serving. Much of the Masters serving came at great personal cost, and serving isn’t always pretty. Serving may get us into situations that are far from comfortable or convenient. Jesus didn’t paint a pretty picture of serving when He got down on his hands and knees and washed the disciple’s dirty feet. He didn’t just say that He came to serve, He showed it. Ministering involves adopting the Masters mindset, sometimes serving requires more than just stopping to help but stooping and humbling our heart. Sometimes before we can lend a helping hand we have to humbling our heart. Jesus didn’t see Himself as superior to others He saw Himself as a servant. What about you are you willing to get down on your hands and knees and get a little dirty so you can serve others? We live in a culture that not only likes convenience but loves its comfort. As a result we are often unwilling to do anything which makes us uncomfortable. Christ didn’t call us to comfort he called us to care. What about you are you willing to plant, you don’t have to be a rocket scientist to serve, sometimes it’s the simple things like a meal or mowing a lawn that make a difference. What if you started to sow the seeds of service? There are many practical ways to put this into practice all you need is a heart that wants to help. Either you are a servant or you are not, but if you want a good harvest then you have to be willing to participate and plant. So what seeds are you sowing? The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others will always harvests a crop of weeds. But the one who sows seeds of service will harvest a bounty of blessing. Sometimes people sow not to serve but to be seen, seeking earthy recognition rather than eternal reward. Are you serving to be seen and settling for man’s applause over that of the Almighty? Stop serving to be seen and start serving selflessly. Are you sowing sacrificially or sparingly, are you going to sow a lot or a little. Are you going to love liberally or lavishly? If you want a harvest you have to be willing to invest your heart, are you investing your life or your left overs?

Psalms 1:1-3 – “Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.

Not only do God’s blueprints for blessing call us to be separated from the world but they also call us to be:

• Saturated with the Word.

Verse 2 says “but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.” This call goes beyond just delving into God’s word, it involves delighting in it, so let me ask you, do you see studying scripture as a duty or as a delight. Scripture is where we get to spend time with God, it’s where we meet with Him and meditate on Him. Colossians 3:16 tells us to: “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly.” This involves more than just studying scripture it involves saturating yourself with scripture. Success involves more than just staying away from the world it involves spending time in the Word with God. It’s a call to fill your life with the Father, so what is it that fills your thoughts, attitudes and conversations, is it God’s will or worldly ways and wants? The word “dwell” means to reside, to live with or do life with. It is more than just reading the word its letting it reside in your life so that it reigns over your life. Philippians 4:8 tells us: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.” Are you letting Christ and His Word conform you and have control in your life? What are you dwelling on is it the Word or worry? Many of us may glace at God’s Word but we go no further, this is a call to dig deep and to dwell and do life with the Lord. It’s the call to meditation, which is when we move from reading to regurgitating, mediate involves mulling it over. Meditation moves us from leaving scripture to just sitting on the surface to letting it sink in. Meditation involves hearing, reflecting and readjusting our entire lifestyle in obedience to God’s perfect will. This means that we have to deal with the distractions that want to draw us away from spending time with God. Are you making time to meditate on God’s Word? This is more than just getting into the word it’s about letting the word get into us. In reference to the bible D.L. Moody once said, “This book will keep you from sin or sin will keep you from this book” The bible is one of our greatest assets in the battle, but it will only protect if we are proactively picking it up. Are you saturating yourself with the Word or just sipping on it? Reading God’s Word is more than just hearing the Word its hiding it in your heart. How hungry are you for His Word?  Look God doesn’t expect us to be scholars, but He does expect us to school ourselves with His Word. 2 Timothy 2:15 tells us “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” How are you handling God’s holy Word, are you holding onto His Word or hardly handling it? Are you being careful or being a klutz? We are called to be workmen who know our tools and who use them correctly. Not only are we called to be separated from the world and saturated with the Word but we must also be:

• Situated by the Waters

Verse 3 says, “That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers” It’s the water of the Word that keeps us from withering. A lack of water leads to weakness, we become dehydrated and our bodies become out of balance making our ability to function falter and eventually fail. Without water we will die within a week but when we sink our roots into the source of life not only will we become satisfied but we will become successful. The bible tells us to be planted by the steams of water. Planted has a permanent quality to it, the idea here is that we don’t depart or deviate from the source. Many find themselves living dry lives because they are trying to do life in the desert, devoid of life sustaining water. Where are you planted, where are you putting down roots, and what are you relying on? Are you living close to the source, connected to Christ or are you separated from the source? When we are planted by the source we will be productive, “which yields its fruit in season.” We all want to be productive, yet some of us are trying to do life far from the Father and expecting to bear fruit. Galatians 6:22-23 tells us that, “the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control” Where you are planted determines what you produce. Not only will we produce but we will be prosperous, “whose leaf does not wither, whatever they do prospers.” There is something within every one of us that desires to prosper and be successful but our success is not determined by self but the source. Success is not based on our circumstances or our situation but on the source. Its not the weather it’s the Word that determines success. What about you are you well-watered or weary? How many of us are doing life dangerously dehydrated, trying to walk through this world without drinking from the Word? Are discouraged and dry, are you doing life in the desert, detached from God then stop and come back to the source. In John 7:38 it says that at the climax of the festival “Jesus stood and shouted to the crowds, “Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! 38 Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, ‘Rivers of living water will flow from his heart.” Lasting life starts with the Savior at salvation but is sustained as we stay close to the source.  What about you are you staying or straying? We need to run to the Redeemer or we will run dry. Are you living life separated from the world, saturated with the word and situated by the water of His Spirit? If you are weary and worn then return to Jesus let Him restorer and rebuild your life. It’s not about reading the Word it’s about rehydrating your life with the Word, don’t settle for a stale life saturate yourself with the source.