GRACE UNCOVERED 19

"The Ying and the Yang"

August 3, 2008 - Kevin Hale - EPC

Galatians 6: 6-10

⁶Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

⁷Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ⁹And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

We are not orphans as Christians, right?

Give the "independence" talk to the kids as they leave home.  You have reaped the blessing and benefit of all of that dependence on mom and I.  We have done this to get you the point you ARE INDEPENANT  and  GROWING ADULT that takes responsibility and provide for yourself.

The time between high school and adulthood is a time of INTERDEPENDANCE.  You can go join the military or get a job and move out (regardless of what I say) and be INDEPENDENT.   As long as you a re living at home OR going to college and I am paying for food, books, insurance, transportation etc. then what I say matters, right?

This is an uncomfortable time for both parties but I call it interdependence.  You are LEGALLY an adult but still not ready to take it all on yourself.  So you still have a lenient curfew but still a curfew and you still have to run things by me and work you have to do around the house.  This makes you feel like a kid I know but as long as I am not actually treating you like a kid you just FEEL like I am this is called INTERDEPENDENCE.

So my convictions still mean something and when you leave home I hope you adopt them but for now you must consider them.  I cannot make that happen when you out completely but as long you are in this interdependent and word gets to me that you are doing stuff that is unwise or illegal and partying at college and stuff that is possibly dangerous.  I am willing to help you pay for an education but not a "prodigal" lifestyle.  So you will be independent very quickly and on your own.

So you see why things get tough as they get older.  The tension is there. This is the time from dependence on us to independence and we have to work through the interdependence time.  You will feel like we are treating you like a kid but we are not.  We just want you to become a functional adult.

Now there is no stage of independence in the spiritual  life.  WE are dependent on the Spirit and interdependent with each other.

These two chapters teach that we live dependant on the Spirit and interdependent with each other.

Paul is defining what Christianity IS but we have seen even clearer what Christianity is not.

Define "REINTRODUCING Christ again" - the gospel is not about morality but JESUS.  It is not about making good people better people.

It is not about denominational traditions (not bad necessarily) but they should never DEFINE the gospel.

He came to rescue us from the PENALTY of sin and the POWER OF SIN.

From the penalty by dying on the cross and paying our debt.

From the power of sin by putting His Holy Spirit inside us to break the power f sin over us.

We now trust Him and love him because of His love for us and we live in a community of grace with each other.

His love and grace transforms us.

The question is: How does the happen?

 

The teachers here were saying that they should keep the law and be circumcised.  They defined the gospel and Jesus plus keeping the law or living the Jewish culture.

The fact is that we are no longer UNDER the law.  The Holy Spirit is more that capable of growing the fruit of the Spirit in us.  We are free from law keeping as a way of life.

We are to live IN LINE with the gospel Paul teaches here.

One way this works in we live in community (church).  We are transformed as we live dependant on the HS and interdependent on each other.

6:1 ; 6:2 ; 6:3 6:6

¹Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual restore such a one in a spirit of gentleness, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. ²Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. ³For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Do not think to highly of yourself.

Galatians 6: 6-10

⁶Let him who is taught the word share in all good things with him who teaches.

Now Paul moves from being deceived by how we see ourselves to being deceived by what we do.

⁷Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. ⁸For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. ⁹And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Spirit led people can be led astray by not seeing what we do as life giving or life destroying consequences.

The physical and spiritual law of sowing and reaping.

Our lives are in large part a result of the seed you have planted.  You are what you have been becoming.  In every area of your life you are sowing seed.

You know that you plant seed and get from that seed what is in that seed and you get more than you planted.  Corn gets corn and etc.  I like a great yard I do not enjoy working it.

Spiritually speaking we have two kinds of seed. 

• SELF SEED (flesh, sin, self- focused, self-pleasing etc.)
• SPIRIT SEED (produces love, joy, peace, kindness, self control etc.)

This also produces a community that helps each other and bears burdens etc.  and then everlasting life and that is the life we experience now that goes into to forever.  Not going to heaven when you die thinking.

Corruption means disintegration or your life falls apart.  We can be deceived into thinking that we can sow from the self bucket and get life.

Paul says NO WAY.  3:1 who has bewitched you or deceived you to not obey the truth?  Truth is the word of God and the seed that we must apply to our daily lives so we can be transformed.

You cannot  sow works and faith or law and grace and get freedom.  God will not be mocked and he repeats this here that what you sow you will reap. 

Kids, you live in a fast instant message world.  You think that if you do not get caught lying or cheating that all is well.  The harvest comes in sometime down the road, and you begin to think that mom and dad are dumb.  But in 10 years you come to the place that you need the information that you said you had attained in the diploma and you miss the job because you do not have it you then see what I mean.

It says in DUE SEASON and God knows all of that time.  Some go on their first drinking party and make it home some do not.  (the designated driver).

 

You cannot sow to yourself and get life.  That is deception.  We think that what we are doing does not really matter.  God does not care, I am good.

But God is not mocked...God said so that is it.

The church life disintegrates when we place rules over relationships in the body.  I know this stuff... they do not value other people unless those people are keeping their rules.  5:15 Paul says watch or you will devour each other.

The church unravels when you do not leave by grace.

You are what you have been becoming.  You can change what you will be but not what you are.

Many people get so confused when life harvest comes in but it really is not a secret.

Ill. Of marriage.  Made up.  Many are shocked when in reality they caused it. 

I do not know how I got in debt?  Covetousness

O don't know how I became addicted? Lack of self control

I don't know how I got lonely?  Maybe you sowed bitterness and negative stuff and they ran from you.

Do not be deceived and then you can know why some of this stuff happens.  We can be deceived and think that well this is an exception and I will do it my way.  You are mocking God.

Porn will bring a harvest.  What a man thinks so is he.  Phil 4 Think on these things...

You may think you are not hurting anyone but that seed will grow up and you will reap from it a broken marriage mental health issues, family problems etc.

When you try and make your spouse be the way you want them to be self self self it will disintegrate.

I do not like to discipline my kids so will do it my way you will reap form that.  They will get through this stage NO nO NOGo to the word of God and get the seed that will produce that blessing of God.

Sow out of the sprit bucket in all of your life.

Trust God he is not lying to you.

⁷Don't be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of others-ignoring God!- ⁸harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God, letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real life, eternal life.

Here is a point.  Just like the self seed does not come up always within hours neither does the Spirit seed.

I prayed and it did not work or I went to church for month and nothing or I read my bible but nothing happened I tithed it did not work.

No it works but it is but it is not time and you must wait.  Do not give up.

The temptation is to think that nothing is going to happen.  Peter wrote to this when they where is his coming he is not coming.

Marriage issues might take some years to get turned around.  Maybe one partner is still sowing the self seed.  But you can reap life with God even if they will not plant Spirit seed.

It is not always about your circumstances but your life with God.  We live in a world that if this marriage is not fixed in 24 hours I am out of here.

 WE try something if it does not work in a day or two we are onto something else and do church the same way.  It is easy to be deceived today in thinking that God does not know what he is talking about. 

If I sow to myself nothing will happen.  But on the other hand if I sow to the Spirit and nothing happens right away then I figure nothing is going to happens so I quit and go away.

Trust Him.

At work, wife and husband and parents and children - It is not working or it works for awhile but not working now or it is working but it too hard .

UNDERSTAND?  Connie get to this place at times right?  I am done.  I have looked and not much a 30 year pastor can do out there.

All of you that are working for the Lord and loving people that love you one minute and hate you the next.  You are tempted to throw in the towel but Paul says hold on to the promise.

You will reap do not faint.  The harvest is the fruit in us not a change in the circumstances.