All right, turn over to Matthew chapter 13.
The last time I ministered two weeks ago, we talked about learn
to walk and we talked about the Kingdom Spirit and that there is
it's a walk. You have to learn how to be led
by the spirit. Being born again itself does not
is not adequate enough for you to be proficient at being led by
the Spirit. Being born again gives you
access to hear God. It makes your new spirit alive
to God where you can hear the voice of God and it causes God
Himself to come dwell in you so that he can speak to you and
then train you how to hear Him. So the training starts and
again, it's like an infant. We saw in Scripture that there
are infants, you know, and then you are to grow to maturity and
a infant, again, it's within them of everything they'll ever
be at birth. It's just got it has to be
developed. And so you have to develop your
child to walk in the natural. You know, they get to a
particular age that you start seeing them move, so you begin
to help them strengthen their legs.
Pastor Marcy always did a great job with our children that she'd
set them on her lap and she'd get them to do the little grip
around her fingers and then she would begin to pick them up like
this. So they start doing their own
little air squats and she'd get them doing their air squats so
that they would strengthen their leg muscles.
Amen. Now, you know, it's saying, oh,
what's the reason? It's because we're training you
for walking. Amen.
Because parents who hold their child all the time, their legs
don't develop as quick and sometimes it takes them longer.
Sometimes the only reason why it takes some children longer is
because the parents aren't training them for something
that's inevitable. Now ultimately a child will
begin of their own in their mind, have enough recognition
that they're like nobody is on there, you know, laying on their
stomach like me. They are actually walking
around, you know, they're not articulating, but they see you.
So they're like, let's try to model that.
That's within the nature of man to do that.
But you can accelerate that process when you begin to train
them that, hey, this is coming. So why don't we start and then
and then some just have great initiative that they want to
catch up with siblings if they have them.
So they're like, I want to catch up with them.
So I'm going to learn how to pull up on this thing and get
moving. But if you're part of the
training process, you can call things.
Same thing with speech. You know, if all you do to your
child is go Google Gaga, well then they're never going to
understand another term, right? And you're going to keep
teaching them baby gibberish. But if you start to form words
at a younger age, then you can probably accelerate them to
start talking quicker is how much you're helping to develop
something that's already in them.
Just because they're born doesn't mean they come out of
the womb running. Now, some of you feel that way,
but that's not true. They don't come running, nor do
they come speaking, nor do they, you know, come being an asset to
society and serving you. Mom, how many, I mean, how many
moms have had a child come out and say, say to you right when
you lay them up towards your breasts?
I say, wow, you've been carrying me for nine months.
I really appreciate. Listen, tomorrow morning I'm
going to make you breakfast. Has any mom ever had their
infant do that? No, no, they cried and say, you
think you're done. I need more, right?
You were caramel on the inside. Now you get to see me on the
outside. And I'm going to let you know
when I'm hungry on the inside. It didn't really tell you that,
right? I had a constant feeding tube,
right? So you develop them eventually,
one day you want them to reciprocate and be able to come
back and serve you and be a blessing to you, right?
Because that shows signs of maturity and honoring, right?
So there is a time that we have to continue to develop, all
right? And this is very important when
it comes to growing going in the things of the Spirit.
So look at this in Matthew chapter 13, verse 24.
I say this because you have a harvest.
Now when we talk about the harvest, if you say this in the
church world today, harvest, everyone thinks of lost.
That's the first thing, OK, is that you know, well, we're
praying for the harvest. Well, you understand, I just
want to show you today you have a personal harvest and we need
to talk about our personal harvest.
There is those that are outside God's Kingdom that we are to
communicate, to be a witness to and be able to share the
goodness, the kindness of God, the message of redemption.
And for those who call on His name can be saved and we can be
a part of that, a process and it's an amazing thing.
However, there is another harvest and it's your own.
I said it's your own. So here in Matthew chapter 13
verse 24, it says this. It says Jesus presented another
parable to them, saying the Kingdom of heaven may be
compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
Are you sowing good seed in your field?
I said, are you sowing good seed in your own field?
Hallelujah. Now we need to sow to other
fields, but we also have to sow to our own field.
And we're going to talk about this, and I'll go back to this
passage and break it down a little bit more.
But before we go there, I want you to see he says this again,
that as a parable, he's making a connection of how the Kingdom of
heaven operates, or the Kingdom. This is the Kingdom operates
because the Bible's about a king, his Kingdom and his royal
offspring. And everything in Scripture lets
us know this is how God the Father who sits on a throne, and
Jesus Christ who sits on a throne at his right hand.
Thrones are in kingdoms, not religions.
He is letting us know this is how we operate because again,
the King does not operate outside of His Kingdom, He
operates within the confines of His Kingdom.
And Jesus is letting a world that functions outside His
Kingdom how they can function inside His Kingdom where they
were always destined to be in the 1st place.
Amen. So this is a type and shadow of
a Kingdom principle. We could almost say a Kingdom
law. Now, when I say law again in the
church, so many people are so adverse to this word, but it's
because really we're just not fully explaining what's taking
place. And again, if you try to live up
to God on your own terms and expect God to accept you, which
means my own personal effort separated from God's effort, God
has to accept me as righteous. Cannot do it.
So even if you have God's word,
which is life, and you try to live up to it, without God it
cannot happen. This is why we say you cannot
live according to the law. It's not going to be successful
for you because your nature has been cut off from God.
Your intent, your motive, everything that you're doing
really ultimately will bring death.
OK, but but there is laws within the Kingdom that we function
under and God himself functions under.
Genesis chapter 8 verse 22 says it this way.
It says while the earth remains. Now this is after the no attic
flood while the earth remains sea time and harvest, right Cold
and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.
You know, when there's times like this at Anchor Bay Church,
I've done this in the past that sometimes you're like, I have to
make everybody stand up because it's what we call in the in the
South or especially in Florida, the dog days of summer, it gets
so hot. Everybody's like, and you can
see it when they come into the church that they're just, they
are already in heat exhaustion from their car to the front
door. It's so hot outside and then,
you know, the heat just makes you kind of just sit and be
lethargic. Well, you got to shake that off.
You got to come with expectation, right?
Cuz you get in here where it's cool.
And again, we can put the heater on if you like.
And that way, you know, you feel like you're not, you know,
missing out of what's on the outside, you know, get a little
sweat going on. Sometimes I think we need some
sweat equity while we're preaching.
Maybe. Anyway, you have to keep
yourself stirred up and don't let the dog days of summer show
up in your spiritual life. All right.
But the Kingdom of God, he says while the earth remains, it's
seed time and harvest. This is a Kingdom principle of
seed time and harvest, which is sowing and reaping, sowing and
reaping. And that law is always in
effect. Now when we say seed time and
harvest, obviously in this particular context it is literal
seed that turns into a plant that produces fruit that you
harvest literally. But we also know there is a
spiritual application to this as well.
Now where is this at? This is in Galatians chapter 6
starting in verse 7 and 8. It says it this way.
Do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a
man sows this he will also reap, right?
Verse 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will reap from the
flesh will will from the flesh what reap corruption, but the
one who sows to the what spirit will from the Spirit reap
eternal life. So here we see in the New
Testament New Covenant, this is a letter to the church in
Galatia that Paul is saying there is a Kingdom principle
call the law of sowing and reaping, or we say the law of
seed time and harvest. And you can sow seed of your own
life in your own field. The the question is, are you
sowing seeds of the flesh? Are you sowing seeds of the
Spirit? Because whichever seeds you're
putting in your field is what you're going to reap.
And he starts it off by saying God's not mocked.
Meaning you can't put a bad seed in the ground and convince God
it's a good one. Nor can you put a good seed in
the ground and convince God it's a bad one.
Are you hearing God is not mocked?
He knows the motive of our heart.
He, unlike man, does not look at the outward appearance, but he
looks at the heart. He knows the intent of every
word you're saying. That's why the Bible says every
idle word. He will judge.
Now what does judge mean? Judge, just technically, by all
rights, means harvest. We think of judging as bad, but
the reality is it is God. Judging is bringing the reward
of whatever's been sown, and if the reward or the judgement, if
things have been bad, you're going to get bad.
If things are good, you're going to get good.
Say Amen. And again, God's not controlling
this. You are, you are.
Now let's look at a couple of the translations concerning
Galatians 6-7. Everybody doing all right.
The remedy says it this way, but don't delude yourself.
God cannot be tricked or fooled and his methods cannot be
evaded. I like that, you know his
methods cannot be evaded. You cannot do something to
manipulate God to do something different in his Kingdom.
God is never manipulated to do. You can't trick God into being
good to you. Come on, Got to be good to you
despite you for the purpose of trying to get you to repent.
However, if you keep sewing in the wrong direction, he will
allow those fruits to manifest. All right.
So again, next verse says a person actually reaps what they
sow A person actually receives the results of their own
choices. You know, and we're in a society
today to where, you know, things are being pushed that we get
everything with no effort. Now, I'm not talking earned here
because the many you say that people want to take you out of
context. I'm not saying that God did it
all. He is the one who paid the
price. He's the one who paid it.
He's the one who earned it. He's the one who did the work of
it. However, our effort is faith to
receive it and that is our part. There is a God side and a man's
side. And if we don't watch out, we
will get into hearing things that God is in control of
everything that's good and bad. So, you know, if you think about
God, God's just as evil as the devil.
I mean, some people even have the audacity to say God employs
the devil on his payroll. I mean, this is crazy, Bill.
When the devil got lifted up in pride, he evicted him.
Jesus said I saw Satan fall like lightning, not he got a new
assignment by God so that he would use him as someone in the
earth to come after man to teach him a lesson.
That's nowhere in scripture. Man, I've been chewing on a
message called God is not a man. God is not a man and I'm we're
going to release that soon because God is not a man.
God is not a man, and the sooner we learn that, the sooner we'll
change our thinking. God is not a man anyway.
We see here the one who indulges in the selfish nature will
experience the natural consequences of a damaged mind,
increased fear, but it goes on to say broken and broken
relationship, separation from God and eventually death, right?
But the one, say the one, but the one, Hallelujah, who chooses
to follow the Spirit. Aren't you glad you can follow
the Spirit from the Spirit will experience a healed mind,
internal peace, unity with God and eternal life.
God is in control of His Word and His Spirit, but He is not
sowing to your flesh. If you'll sow to the Spirit, God
will bring that about. If you sow to the flesh, when I
say God will bring it about, God does what He says by the Spirit
as you sow to it. But when you sow to the flesh,
that separated from God and you'll reap the consequences of
it. And God's not participating in
that endeavor to a degree. Now I'll show you something here
in a minute. OK, so the Passion translation
says that this way. Make no mistake about it, God
will never be mocked. And let me just say this real
quick, I'll come back to this. We use different translations.
The the best translation is the original Greek and Hebrew, of
which we go back to. I go back to and I look at, I
examine it, I study it and if the a translation is following
the context, even though it uses some additional English words to
be able to give us and it doesn't actually change the
meaning, then I'm going to use that translation.
Because God's word ultimately, when originally pinned by the
apostles, literally is infallible.
And he has the task of maintaining the authenticity and
the authority and purity of his word.
If he could not do that, then God could not rightly judge us.
So when people say, well, you know, how do we know this is
true? And people put their own into
man does put his interpretation, but most of the time it's after
he's read the scripture, not wow.
There are some that are off, I get it.
And when you study the word, you recognize it and you're like,
well, I couldn't use this scripture.
They're not actually doing a good justice by it.
They've got a bent and then you know that and so you don't read
it. But when there are multiple
translations that do get it right, which means God is
showing from Genesis to Revelation the purity of his
word that he is keeping it in the earth and that all men and
women will be without excuse. You'll never go up to God.
Say we really couldn't get your word in truth.
That is not true because He's given us the spirit of truth,
which means the spirit of truth will say, now this translation
isn't the best, go to this one. He said, now that's it.
That's how he does this. He has to do this.
He's obligated to his own word, Amen.
So don't live in fear that you can't know because that's why he
sent the spirit of truth who was there when he first moved on the
all those who wrote the canonization of our Bible.
He can say I was there. This is exactly what I meant.
He can say, you know what I meant this, but it's applicable
the way they've said it within this particular context.
Amen. Then you can receive it.
So here it says, make no mistake about it.
God will never be mocked for what you plant will always be
the very thing you harvest. I mean if I put in an orange a
seed for an orange tree, do I get an apple?
No, if I put in a seed for an apple tree do I get an orange?
That's what he's saying. The harvest you reap reveals the
seed that you planted. If you plant the corrupt seeds
of self life into this natural realm, you can expect to to
experience a harvest of corruption.
Right? If and these ifs are conditional
statements, meaning it's predicated on you, if you plant
the good seeds of spirit life, you will reap the beautiful
fruits that got that grow from the everlasting life of the
Spirit. This is what I love about God
and This is why, you know, I'm always amazed at people who want
to shrug responsibility. God has actually empowered us.
This is what's so exciting. You don't have a relationship if
He does it all and you just sit there.
God has a relationship with you that shows value.
He's like, look, I'm gonna put in you a spirit that's just like
mine. Then I'm gonna bring my spirit
in. And now I'm giving you the
ability to renew your mind and to be able to walk out these
Kingdom principles and to live by faith through the Spirit of
God. I've empowered you.
You're my child. I want you to respond like me.
I want you to act like me. I want you to live like me.
I mean, this is a partnership. This is a real relationship.
This is not. You stink.
You're no good. I'm gonna put my spirit in you.
I'm gonna make you a new one. But you still are horrible at
it. So I got to control it all.
And I'm dragging you around everywhere.
And aren't you glad you better serve me because you stink?
I mean, with some people you would think that's how their
relationship with God is. I just can't do anything right,
man. I can't never get it right.
Can't do it. No.
God empowered you. You are a child of the King.
He's giving you the capacity to follow His leading and sow to
His spirit and reap life, and He's giving you power.
God's not intimidated with you having power because the power
you have came from Him. It's shared power and authority.
How amazing is that, that our God valued us, that he's like,
This is why you were made. He didn't make us to be a bunch
of robots with no feelings, no purpose.
He's made us to want to join with him, be empowered by him,
be able to do the work that he does and spend eternity doing
these things. This is amazing.
I mean, how exciting is that? Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
So we are determining the seed we sow in our own field, whether
it's to the flesh or to the spirit.
And we know that Galatians tells us that our spirit and our flesh
battled daily, which means the opportunity of seed planting is
happening daily. And we can go flesh seed or we
can go spirit seed. And again, God's not mocked.
Whichever 1 you plant, it's going to produce.
I said it will produce. Are you hearing me?
Look at Romans chapter 8 verse 2.
It says this for the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
set you free from the law of sin and death.
Now I love this verse because this is a New Testament verse.
This is after the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus.
And Paul who wrote over half of the New Testament says, hey,
guess what? There's a law in effect.
And again, law is not a bad thing, especially not the
Kingdom because law means it. God has had loved us so much
that he made certain things very legally binding.
Again, you can tell your kids you love them and you have all
this particular property and wealth and say I love you.
But if you do not do the legal part to transfer it after you go
and then someone else gets it, they can say well I know they
love me, but why didn't they do what was necessary?
God has done everything necessary.
He's crossed every T dotted every I so that you do not miss
out on anything. The devil has no capacity to
steal from you ever again. That's right in that amazing no
capacity because he has got this thing locked up.
So the law of the spirit of life in Christ she's aren't you glad
you're under that law that has set us free from another law,
the law of sin and of death. Aren't you glad you're free from
that law? And that law is in effect
because all who do not call on the name of Jesus are under that
law. And if they die without a
confession of faith that Jesus Christ is Lord and that the
blood He shed paid for their payment of sin, all their
wrongdoing, it causes them to be able to leave the domain of
darkness and come into the Kingdom of His beloved Son.
If they've not acknowledged Jesus as Lord through the death,
burial, resurrection, and the blood of Jesus, then they're
still under the law of sin and death, and they'll be cast into
the lake of fire even though they did not have to be.
But it's because by faith they did not receive Jesus, Amen.
So these laws are in effect, but we are in the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ, Amen. Now drop down to verse 5.
It says this for those who are according to the flesh set their
minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are
according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
So it's up to us to set our minds to which way we are going
to sow seed. Hallelujah.
We decide whether we're going to go with the flesh or whether
we're going to go with the spirit, whether we're going to
respond in the flesh or respond in the spirit.
All right. For the mindset on the flesh is
death, meaning if a situation occurs and we allow our
attention, our mind to get set on the way, our natural man or
old man would do this. That's why Paul said put off the
old man and the way he would respond and put on the new man.
So if we put on the old man though, and we respond that way,
then when challenges and issues and it just gets worse and you
thought you were telling them what they needed to hear and you
were doing it in the flesh and you going to make sure they know
what you think and how you feel about it and all this type of
stuff. You going to give them a piece
of your mind. Then all of a sudden it gets
worse and things get bad and start falling apart.
You're like what? Well, you're sowing to that.
You're planting those seeds. But if you go with the Spirit,
well then the Spirit will kick in and you'll reap the fruits of
those. So the mindset on the flesh is
death, but the mindset on the Spirit is what?
Life and peace? Because the mindset on the flesh
is hostile towards God, for it does not subject itself to the
law of God, for it is not even able to do so.
And those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
You cannot please God. But there's only one way to
please God, right? How do you please God?
By faith? Without faith it's in what?
Impossible to please God? Well, what's faith?
Faith is a firm persuasion that you act on in the hearing of
God's Word. Faith comes by hearing, which
means I just heard God's way. God is Spirit.
He just spoke to you His way. This is sowing to the Spirit.
Let me do it God's way, so I do it God's way.
I'm pleasing to him in whatever I'm going through.
I'm standing in that trial, standing in that test, or
standing through this circumstance on the Word of God.
I'm sowing to the Spirit and how I am responding, and I'll reap
life. But if I sow to the flesh, I
hear what God's saying, but I'm going to do it my way.
I'm going to do my way first. And many of us, if not all of
us, are guilty of going down a few paths on our own first, only
to realize his way's better. Come on, His way's better for
all. You force Frank people.
His way's better, right? His way's better.
So do it first, all right. So anyway, however you are not
in the flesh. Say Amen.
That oughta makes you jump and run right there.
You'd be like, woo, I'm not in the flesh.
Why 'cause you've been redeemed from it.
You've been redeemed from the law of sin and death.
Hallelujah. A proper response would be a
shout of Amen. I mean, when you're hearing that
you sow seed to the flesh, it brings destruction.
But then the Paul's telling you you're not in the flesh anymore,
you've been. You should be like, whoa, glory
to God. I'm not subject to having a
constant harvest of death and destruction anymore.
That is so amazing. That is such good news for the
believer. Hallelujah.
Now again, if we only want to preach sowing to the Spirit and
never talk about sowing to the flesh, so that all you think is
all you ever do is sow to the Spirit, well, that would be all
right if it was true. But it's not.
So to be accurate and rightly dividing the Word of truth, we
must speak on both seeds. Both seeds.
I'm not a preacher who doesn't preach on the seeds of the Word.
The Word of God is the seed is the seed.
And I'll speak on all seeds because a lot of times people,
most people are walking away from the faith today.
And I understand because they've only been taught the good seed
and they are putting in bad seed and no one is correcting them
for their bad seed or exposing their bad seed.
And now they're mad at God for all this bad crop because
they've been told the whole time all this while God's going to do
this, God's going to do that, and God's going to.
But yet they themselves are bringing their own issues and
they're not being trained that way.
Being born again does not exempt you.
It gives you power and responsibility to control those
things now that you could not control before.
Hallelujah. You know when you were dead in
your trespasses of sin, all you did was so bad seed.
That's all you could do. You can only sow to the flesh.
That's why every relationship was hollow, every drug was
hollow, every everything you were, every promotion hollow,
every bonus. You would eat it, devour.
It would be sweet in your mouth, but by the time it got in your
gut, it was bitter. I mean, you just kept chasing
and chasing and chasing and what you thought was good only come
to find it. It wasn't.
He didn't end up leaving you nowhere, but God, come on.
But God woo. Then you met him.
And then you realize, wow, this is better.
It's the best. Amen.
So, however, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not
belong to him. If Christ is in you, though the
body is dead because of sin, yet the Spirit is alive because of
righteousness, which means my body are the things of this
world. My natural man still would want
to, if unchecked, would do the desires of the flesh.
But because God has empowered me with His Spirit and given me the
reigning Spirit on the inside, which is assigned to the
reigning church, that greater is He that's in me than He that's
in the world. I can crucify my flesh daily and
only sow good seed. Hallelujah.
Isn't that good news? So this is your harvest.
This is your field now. 2nd Romans 2, four through 11 says
it this way. Or do you think lightly of the
riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not
knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
You understand God wants to break the cycle of bad seed
sowing. He wants you to be at a taste of
good fruit, He said. But because of your stubbornness
and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself in
the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgement of
God. Verse 6, who will render to each
one according to his deeds. Now let me just stop right there
for a moment. We talk about harvest of souls.
Easy. Everybody harvest.
They just think about the lost. But now we're talking about your
own harvest. Now we know that you can reap of
spiritual things unto life and peace.
This is amazing, right? And you can control that by
sowing to the spirit and receive a good harvest.
However, there's also the harvest that comes with the
flesh. When you read this scripture,
you begin to get insight that God is a part of both harvest.
What do I mean by that? If you keep sowing to the flesh,
you require God to give you the harvest associated with that,
because all those who disobey God will reap a harvest of
judgement. Now the minute I say that, most
people go, oh, but if you're still in the earth, when it
comes, you could actually smile. Now why do I say that God, when
He gives you the harvest of your wrongdoing, is still an act of
mercy? How do I know this?
Because the Scripture tells us that God demonstrated that He
would do the things He said He would do if they did not follow
Him. And when calamity showed up and
trials came, it gave them the opportunity not to be mad at
God. But another indication that God
is a God of His Word. He warned us that this would
take place if we did this. And here it is now, and you know
there were people when the wrath of God showed up or judgment of
those nature showed up, that they would repent and turn to
God and say He is a God of His Word.
Even when it comes to calamity, when it comes to wrath, when it
comes to what will occur if you do not follow His word, if He
continues to withhold that, you know what?
That person who sows through the flesh, I don't get caught.
God really won't do what he says.
God won't do it. I can get away with anything.
You know how many people think they're getting away with stuff
right now? They're not getting away with
anything. I mean, you understand Cain
thought he got away with killing Abel.
God shows up after the fact where Cain has already cleaned
up the crime scene, and he says, where's your brother Abel at?
He said, am I my brother's keeper?
I don't know. And I said, you go search for
him. He says, I hear his blood
talking. He's crying out.
I mean, you've taken him from his body, but the blood still
speaking, you know the blood still speaking right now.
Amen. So you understand God even in
those moments of wrath is for the intent for people to repent.
Realize God is a God of his word and if we do not harden our
heart, but say Lord and many times the scripture gives us
insight that when those turned God forgave, he healed, he
restored, he said, now see, I told you I'm a God of my word.
Don't do the things that cause me to act this way or have to
respond this way or to put withdraw from you, but respond
this way so that the blessings can continue to overtake you
because you know, I was being kind to you.
I kept showing you my loving kind.
I was showing you my mercy. I was being compassionate, but
man as you continue to resist me during those moments and kept
sewing to the flesh, eventually I had to show you that I will do
what the what the flesh brings. But if you repent those moments,
then you can get over and start sewing back to the Spirit and
live that way. Hallelujah.
That's why, you know, the call that Pastor Marcy had is the
Lord saying, listen, yeah, you sow to the flesh.
Yes, you've reaped some corruption of that.
But guess what? You can be free from that.
You can start sowing to the Spirit now.
You can come over here and you can just sow.
And every time the temptation to go your own way, your own
direction, your own will go ahead and resist that 'cause you
can, because the Holy Ghost is in you.
You've been empowered to do so. Can I get an Amen?
So let's move on then to this passage or let's keep reading.
So he said in verse 6 again, we we ended with this particular
one and we'll move on. He will render to each person
according to his deed. So you're being rendered from
God, the majority, not all, because God is good, he is
merciful and he will be kind to you and and and move blessings
towards you for the purpose of listen.
God has even instructed the righteous that when their enemy
comes to them, he says listen, do not repay evil with evil, you
be good to them. He says you repay them with good
now. But what does he say happens
when this occurs? When the righteous in the
relationship returns back to the one being evil towards them with
good, He says you will keep coals on their head.
So the Lord's like you keep giving me permission to give
them their harvest if they do not repent of the goodness
you're doing because you don't want to respond evil to evil
because all you're doing is sowing in there.
You're putting the seed in their field, which is corrupt.
Now you're deciding you're going to take their same seed and put
it in yours. No, not me.
Say it. May it never be.
Don't fall for it, I said. Don't fall for it.
Don't be getting that bad seed. Verse 7.
To those who by perseverance in doing good, seek for glory and
honor and immortality, eternal life, but those who are
selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey
unrighteousness, wrath and indignation.
So what's expected to those who obey unrighteousness, wrath and
indignation? But again, that's not God's
desire for you. It only becomes what comes to
your life because you've sown for it.
Verse 9, there will be tribulation and distress for
every soul of man who does evil of the Jew 1st and also the
Greek. So even if you see people sowing
to the flesh and it doesn't look like it's going to show up if
something doesn't change, God is not mocked.
I said God is not mocked. And let me tell you, the enemy
will try to get in there and say, see, they're getting away
with, they can do this. Nobody cares.
Everybody's supporting that. It's so good.
You know what, you ought to just do it yourself.
There's no reward to just keep being holy.
And so into the Spirit. Don't buy the law verse 10, but
glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good to the
Jew 1st and also to the Greek, for there is no partiality with
God. Amen.
Now look at 2nd Corinthians 9/6. This particular scripture is in
or in context, literally talking about finance.
OK, but there is a spiritual principle here that is not just
connected with finance. And that's what I want to bring
out because we are all under the law of sowing and reaping.
We are either sowing to the flesh or sowing to the Spirit.
We determine our harvest because we are planting the seeds in our
field with our responses, with our actions, with our behaviors.
So look what it says here. Now this I say he who sows
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Notice there's no indication of what the seed is here in in a
spiritual sense. Now we know he's talking finance
in this context, but the principle that he's lying out,
laying out here is applicable across the board.
So in essence, if you when you sow, when you sow, when you sow,
because in the realm of sowing and reaping, this is happening
you every day, you either sow to the flesh about a situation or
you sow to the spirit. So when you sow put that verse
back up, he who sews sparingly will read sparing.
And that word sparingly is not an amount, it's how quick your
response is. He who so bountifully will read
bountifully, that is a response. So this means if in the realm of
finance, real quick, if the Lord's like, give your $4.00, oh
God, Lee, I got to give this $4.00.
I got my pocket. Oh my gosh, Lord, why?
I mean, I die and you debate with God, you're talking here
comes the offering Buck and you're just like wrestling and
you're fighting this deal and you're like fine, Well, guess
what? You gave sparingly.
It wasn't an amount. It was you were you did not
really want to let go. Well, guess how you'll reap.
It'd be very difficult for it to get back in your hands because
it was very difficult to get it out.
Well, now if it's like, hey, give your $4.00 bam, done.
There you go. Let's go.
I'm finished. It's yours now that is quick
response. No problem.
Out of my hands at your word. It's gone.
Now how fast can I get it back? Bam and I'll get it back.
Good measure. Press down, shaken together,
running over. So here's the thing.
How is your response to flesh sewing compared to spirit
sewing? If you're like, Lord, I know I
need to do that. I know I'm supposed to forgive
them. Oh my gosh.
But Lord, you know, and you're talking, you're OK, I'll forgive
them. Well, now look how long it took
you to be able to sow that response.
So then when something happens, you're like, I don't understand
why they just won't forgive me. Well, how fast are you
forgiving? How quick are you releasing?
How fast are you right? How fast do you kill your
desires to take up his desires? Oh, I really want to do this
guy. Oh my gosh, I really want to do
it. Seems like everybody else gets
to do it. How come I can't do it?
God, but not my will. Your will be done right.
Again, there's an attitude behind our sewing, and even if
you're sewing to the Spirit, you can be so reluctant at it and
almost like God. I hate that I have to do this,
but at your will, the Lord's like.
I mean, I've chosen gladly to give you the Kingdom, but I have
to reciprocate your fruit by your sewing.
I want you to reap it quicker than you're getting it.
But man, it's like tough for you to do it.
So now it's tough to for you to get the reaping of why you sow
to the spirit. So Paul said it this way, be
infants when it comes to the flesh, but when it comes to the
Spirit, be mature. So in essence, if we're being
reluctant to sow somewhere, let's be extremely reluctant to
want to respond fleshly. Oh man, it wants, but I'm not
giving to that. Oh, I will not give to the
flesh. I am not doing it.
I'm I'm staying with the spirit. I'm staying with man.
That's how you need to determine your life and where you're at is
going to determine how that's responding.
Now let's go back to the parable in Matthew chapter 13.
Y'all doing all right? Matthew 13 verses 24 to 30 says
it this way. Jesus presented another parable
to them, saying the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man
who sowed good seed in the field.
This seed, This parable gives us a context that I'm going to help
you with because here's what we've learned thus far.
You are in control of your field as to whether you sow flesh or
you sow spirit. You can only choose to sow
spirit. Can I get an Amen?
You can do that. However, this parable actually
lets us also know that even if you choose to only sow good
seed, meaning sow to the spirit in every situation, an enemy
will try to sow bad seed in your field.
Yeah, that's good. Read it.
I'm going to read it. So even if you arrive to the
spiritual maturity of only sowing good seed, let me say
this. Let me answer this question.
Thank you, Holy Ghost, for anyone who says, Pastor Earl,
what happens if I sowed bad seed?
I've been sowing to the flesh. Good question.
Here's the answer, and I'm going to give you an opportunity a
little bit later to deal with that.
How do you make sure your flesh seed does not produce fruit?
Because it will. There's only one way, and that
is you must kill it. How do you kill it?
With pesticide we could say it that way.
What is it? It's the blood of Jesus.
Forgiveness will cause the seeds of the flesh to be unfruitful.
When you repent and say God forgive me, it can cause the
effects of sowing to the flesh to become unfruitful.
Now that is not in every aspect. I must preface this because if
you sow to lust through a thing called fornication or adultery
and it produces a child, although God can forgive you a
fornication and adultery, he is not here to abort a child on
your behalf. Which means now you must bear
the responsibility of sowing to the Spirit for a child that God
did not ordain for you to produce this way.
Are you hearing what I'm saying? Same thing.
You could be in the flesh and kill somebody and God can
forgive you and you can go to prison free from the guilty of
being a murderer but still serve.
Tom, are you understand what I'm saying?
However, the the continued effects of fruit can be cut off
when you ask for forgiveness. And there are some things that
you can sow to that. If you get forgiveness in it, it
can never even produce a fruit. You can kill it.
There are some things. Can I get an Amen?
All right, so let's look at the case where you're sewing
everything good but in your field becomes bad seed.
Look what it says here, OK? Jesus presented another peril
and said to them, The Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man
who sowed good seed in his field.
But while his his man men were sleeping, his enemy came and
sowed tears among the wheat, and went away.
But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares
became evident also. And the slaves of the landowner
came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your
field? How then does it have tares?
And he said to him, An enemy has done this.
The slave said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather
them up? But he said, No.
For while you gather up the tares, you may uproot the wheat
with them. Allow both to grow together
until the what? Harvest?
And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather
up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them and gather
the wheat into my barn. So here's a case where you are
living righteous in the earth, living and sowing to the spirit,
but the enemy has come to your field to sow bad seed.
Question is, how does this happen?
Well, it happens a number of ways.
OK, but one specific way is it can come through people lying
about you. Jesus, they tried.
They sowed into his field. Blasphemy, lies.
They were saying he was casting out devils in the name of bells
above. You know, they were saying
things that made people go. You understand, the Pharisees
gathered enough crowd and their religious clout calls them to
all of a sudden the one who they saw demonstrate miracle signs
and wonders. And they all at one point said
Hosea to on the highest, the son of David, he's the king now are
saying crucify him. Why?
Because the Pharisees were able to convince them that he's not
who you think he is. And as a result of that, that
grew in their minds and they accepted that instead of what
Jesus was. Now Jesus did not destroy those
thoughts immediately. He just kept talking about who
He was and what the Father told him to do.
And he's like, at the end of the day, when the harvest is there,
it's going to be obvious what's good and what's bad.
Can I get an Amen? And you understand when you are
going through certain trials in life and you keep sowing to the
Spirit, but you realize there are tears in your, which means
these are things that give the masquerade of something that
it's not 'cause when the fruit really shows up, then all of a
sudden the authentic as pastor, the spirit of truth expose
what's lies. The thing is, you have to wait
until the fruit of that. And what can happen is, is a lot
of times when we are so into the spirit in a trial that we're
going through and all of a sudden we realize, well, I
didn't sow for this. I didn't do anything to deserve
that. I don't know why this is coming
against me this way. I don't know why they're
attacking me like that. I don't understand why this is
happening this way. Well, if you go to try to deal
with that, you can tear up your own and produce no fruit of
yours. So you have to be patient and by
being patient, just continue to tend to the things of the
Spirit. They'll come a day that you'll
be able to reap both and you will expose through your life,
your character, your fruit, that all that was just a lie, man.
Has Jesus done that now in the earth?
Do people still believe Jesus is not the Messiah?
Yes, yes, this is. He's been gone for 2000 years
from the earth, but some people still are believing a lie about
Jesus yet. There's going to come a day I
said there's coming today, Hallelujah that he's going to
call us out, that he's going to be in the clouds.
That's going to be quite the event.
Then there's another day he's going to come and put his foot
down and all of a sudden everyone that didn't even think
he was real, he's now back in the planet.
Wow. But you know, there'll be even
people during the millennial reign that will not believe on
his name because they'll still believe a lie that's attached to
their old nature. Just stay with the Spirit.
I said just stay with the Spirit.
So let me close with this Romans chapter 8, verses 12 through 17.
We have the reigning Spirit and we are the reigning church, and
He is the Spirit of truth. And again, God's not mocked.
God's not mocked. And again, if you want to know
God's perspective, you can find out.
But it does require seeking. So then, brethren, we are under
obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Isn't that good news? We are not, we are not obligated
to the flesh. Come on, We're not obligated.
When a bad thing happens, you're not obligated to respond that
way. You're not obligated even though
you feel it, even though you want to do it, even though
you've been reminded on how it could, even when you see other
people doing it and it seems like they're getting away with
it, not not doing it. I'm not obligated to sow that
kind of seed in my harvest. But if you are living according
to the flesh, you must die. But if by the Spirit you are
putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Hallelujah. That's a guarantee in the
Kingdom of God. That is the law of sowing and
reaping. If you put to death your flesh,
you will reap life of the Spirit.
It's a guaranteed harvest for all who are being led by the
Spirit of God. These are the sons of God.
If you're being led by the flesh, you are denouncing, And
I'm saying this in a general sense.
I'm not literally saying this, but you're living a life as if
you're saying I'm really not as child of God.
So live by the Spirit, for you have been received before.
You have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear
again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons, by
which we cry out what ABBA Father, the Spirit himself
testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if
children heirs, also heirs of God and fellow heirs with
Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, so that we may also be
glorified with Him, We are in the earth where sin still
exists. And you can sow to your own
harvest of having spirit harvest all the time of life.
Your enemy will get over into your field, He will try to put
tares in there, but you continue to be patient.
You don't give to the flesh. And when harvest comes, you will
be able to wipe out all those things.
It will become known that it was all just a lie and you will then
take your harvest and go on with God.
Hallelujah.