Man, Galatians chapter number six, the part that I want to start in is there in
verse number seven, where the Bible reads, Be not deceived, God is not mocked,
for whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that soweth to the
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary
in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not. As we
have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith. And the title of my sermon tonight is Reaping
Where You Sow. Reaping Where You Sow. You see, the areas in your life where you
sow a lot of seed are the places where you're going to reap a great
harvest. You're gonna reap what you sow, and you're gonna reap where you sow.
And if you would flip over to 2 Corinthians chapter number nine, 2
Corinthians chapter number nine. In the famous passage I just read from
Galatians 6, the Bible said, Whatsoever man soweth that shall he also reap. One
example of this he brings out is in regard to salvation. You know, the Bible
says that if we sow to the flesh, of the flesh we're gonna reap corruption,
whereas if we sow to the Spirit, we will of the Spirit reap life
everlasting. You see, life everlasting, everlasting life being saved, is not
something that is reaped through fleshly works or through a carnal
investment or a carnal sowing of seeds of good things that we've done. Being
saved is spiritual. You know, the Bible says, Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us
by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So it's
the Holy Spirit that quickens us through the Word of God when we put
our faith in the Word of God. We put our faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
It's not something that we work toward and then reap some kind of a reward of
being saved because of the works that we did in the flesh. Rather, it is of
the salvation is of the Spirit. It's of the faith and our spirit in our
heart that we put on Christ. And then the Bible says, Let us not be
weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not
as we have therefore opportunity. Let us do good unto all men, especially
unto them who are of the household of faith. So when we do well, we're
gonna reap good things in those areas. Now, what I want to say, when
it comes to many areas in our life, you're gonna get out of things
what you put into them. Okay, look if you would at second
Corinthians chapter nine verse six. But this I say, He would sow it
sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he would sow it
bountifully shall reap also bountifully. So no matter what the area of life
we're talking about, no matter what part of the Christian life we're talking about,
if you sow sparingly, you're gonna reap sparingly, meaning that if you only put
a little bit into something, you're only gonna get a little bit out of it.
And if you put a lot into something, you're gonna get a lot out of it. Now in
this immediate context, this is talking about giving financially. It says in
verse seven, every man according as he purposed in his heart, so let him give,
not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is
able to make all grace abound toward you, that ye, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. And if you study
these two chapters, second Corinthians eight and nine, it has to do with,
first of all, giving unto the poor, you know, giving of your finances to
relieve the poor. And it also had to do with giving toward the Apostle Paul's
ministry and providing his financial needs and his meat and drink that he
needed to do the work of God. And, you know, he's basically saying that if
they sow sparingly, meaning that they just give a little bit, then they're
only gonna reap a little bit, okay? The Bible says, of course, give and it
shall be given unto you. Now, this is not like a prosperity preaching kind of
a televangelist, you know, put your hand on the screen and if you send in
$100, you're gonna get $1,000. If you send in $10,000, you're gonna get
$100,000. Obviously, we don't believe in that. That's not biblical. But the
Bible does teach that when we give of the treasures that we have and when
we give that to the Lord, or when we give unto the poor, the Bible says
we're giving it to the Lord. When we do that, the Bible does teach that
God will bless us and reward us and pour out his blessings upon us. But
obviously, if we gave some tiny amount, God's not just gonna send us some
major blessing. You know, when you think about the widow's might who
cast in all that she had, that's why she received a great blessing
because she cast in all that she had. I mean, she gave a lot. So how
much you give is not necessarily a dollar amount as much as relative to
what you have, what you've been blessed with. You know, for a very
wealthy person to give a few hundred dollars or a few thousand dollars
might be no big deal. But for somebody, it might be a huge deal to
give $20. And then God would look at that as someone really
sacrificially giving and really digging deep and being a cheerful
giver. And God is gonna bless them and give them all sufficiency
in all things. And if they sow bountifully like that, they're
gonna reap bountifully the blessings. But it's like this in all
areas of life, not just with giving. How about soul winning? Go to
Psalm 126. We talked a lot about soul winning this morning and
fulfilling the Great Commission. You're gonna get out of soul
winning what you put into soul winning. You put a little bit
of effort into soul winning, you're only gonna reap a little
bit of a result. You put a lot of effort into soul
winning, you're gonna reap a great effort. You're gonna get
out of life what you put into life. And whatever you put
into soul winning, that's what you're gonna get out of
it. Look at Psalm 126 verse five. They that sow in tears
shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing
precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing,
bringing his sheaves with them. So bringing sheaves is
talking about reaping a harvest. Sheaves are a bundled
grain that's already been harvested and then carried in.
So he says when you go out bearing precious seed, of
course, we know the seed is the Word of God. You go out
preaching the Word of God, you go out preaching the
gospel, you're knocking doors, you're soul winning. The
Bible says if you do that, weeping, he said you will
doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing your
sheaves with you. So if you put a lot of effort into
it, obviously, somebody who's weeping is they care about
it. You know, they're not just going through the
motions, they're actually putting some effort and work
and struggle into it. He said you'll doubtless come
again with rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you. This
just goes to show that anybody who says that soul
winning is a failure is a liar. You know, we talked
about this morning, people who say, Oh, I tried
soul-winning and it didn't work. Well, then either
you're lying or this verse is lying. Because this
verse says that you will doubtless come again with
rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with you. If you're
sowing the precious seed here, the Word of God, you
cannot fail at soul-winning or God's a liar. Now, maybe
you'll fail if you go for 30 minutes and then quit.
Okay, then all bets are off because if you sow
sparingly, you're going to reap sparingly. But if
you actually put forth great effort and toil and
hours and hours of work, you will reap in due season
if you faint not. That's why we shouldn't be weary
in well-doing. We shouldn't be weary in soul-winning.
We'll reap in due season if we faint not. Sometimes
the reaping process might take a little while, but
you will get out of things what you put into them.
Go to Matthew chapter seven. Another thing that
you'll get out of it, what you put into it, you're
going to reap what you sow in the area of prayer.
How much effort you put into praying, how much time,
how much energy you put into praying, that's what
you're going to get back out of it. Look at Matthew
chapter seven, verse seven, the Bible reads, ask
and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone
that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth,
and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Or
what man is there of you whom if his son asked
bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he asked
a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then
being evil know how to give good gifts unto your
children, how much more shall your father which is
in heaven, give good things to them that ask him.
You can receive good things through prayer, but
you're only going to get out of it what you
put into it. Go to James chapter four. You're
only going to reap where you've sown. And if
you pray just a little bit, you're going to get
just a little bit of answer to your prayer. And
if you pray a lot, you're going to get a lot
of answer to your prayer because you're going
to reap where you've sown. Look at James chapter
four verse one. From whence come wars and
fightings among you? Come they not hence even
of your lust that war in your members? Ye
lust and have not, ye kill and desire to have
and cannot obtain, ye fight and war, yet ye
have not because ye ask not. Ye ask and
receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may
consume it upon your lust. Right there he said
you have not because you ask not. So the
more asking we do, the more we're going to
have, the more we're going to receive, the
more answer we're going to get through prayer.
Now go to Ezra chapter number seven. Ezra
chapter number seven. Another area where we're
going to get out of it what we put into
it is the area of Bible reading. If you
just do a little bit of Bible reading, you're
not going to get much out of it. If you
do a lot of Bible reading, you're going to
get a lot out of it. You know, you
sometimes will hear people talk or maybe you'll
listen to a preacher and think, wow, that guy
really knows the Bible well. He knows a lot of
Bible. Well, the reason why he knows a lot of
Bible is because he invested a lot of time and
energy into learning the Bible. And if you
would make that same investment, you would
reap that same harvest. You're going to get
into, you're going to get out of Bible
reading exactly what you put into it. And if
you put five minutes into it, don't expect to
get some huge return on your investment. You
know, it'd be like if you were investing in
the stock market, which I don't believe in
don't recommend, but let's say you were going
to invest in the stock market. And let's say
you find the hottest stock that there is. And
you just know that this sucker is going to
go up. You put five bucks on it. I don't
care how much that stock goes up. You're
not going to make a lot of money. You
only put down $5. Even if it doubles, you
made five bucks. Even if it quadruples, you
made what? 20 bucks. I mean, if the thing
is a hunt with 100 times when I bought
it. Oh, wow. $500 because you only invested
five bucks. Okay. So if you want a big return,
you got to make a big investment. Nothing
ventured, nothing gained. And if you're going
to sit there and invest five minutes into
Bible reading, I don't care how good your
Bible reading plan is. You're only going to
get five minutes worth out of it. And the
guy who you hear talk and it seems like the
Bible is just flowing out of his mouth and
he's constantly quoting scripture and he knows
exactly where to turn. And you can refer to
any Bible story. He knows exactly what you're
talking about. That's because that guy has
spent hundreds of hours reading his Bible,
period. That's the only way to get like
that. And look at Ezra chapter 7 verse 6. I
really like this verse. It says this Ezra
went up from Babylon and he was a ready
scribe in the law of Moses. You know, this
is back in the Old Testament. That was their
main scripture was the law of Moses, right? And
it says he was a ready scribe in the law of
Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had
given. And the king granted him all his
requests according to the hand of the Lord is
God upon him. You see this guy Ezra had
spent a lot of time preparing for the work
that God had for him by studying his Bible.
Therefore, he's a ready scribe in the law of
Moses. And because he was ready and because he
studied the Bible so much, God just opens doors
for him. It's really a great story because
everywhere he goes, everything just works. I
mean, doors just open. Everybody's helping
him. All the co-workers and co-laborers just
materialize and everybody just comes to him and
rallies to him. And he has favor with the
king and everything just works out great. Why?
Because God's hand was upon him, the Bible
says. Why? Because he was a ready scribe,
because there's always a prepared place for a
prepared person. We don't need to worry too much
about where the opportunities are for us in our
future of serving God as much as just being
ready. If we'll get ready, the opportunities
will be there. It's that simple. Now, today we
don't have a lack of opportunities at Faith
Forward Baptist Church. We don't have a lack of
opportunities across America or across this
world. What we have a lack of are ready
scribes. That's what we lack today. And people
say, hey, why don't you start a church here? Hey,
can you start a church here? Can you start
a church? I'll tell you why. Because we got a
whole bunch of preacher boys. We got a whole
bunch of guys who say, here am I, send me, I
want to start a church. Hey, how many times
you read through the Bible cover to cover?
Three. That's the problem. I'm not going to
send somebody out to start a church who's read
the Bible three times. That's the problem. You
want to know why we're not starting a church
in a different city every month? You want to
know why we're not just having ordination
after ordination after ordination. And you're
thinking, what about this guy? What about
this guy? What about this guy? I'll tell you
why. This is why this number right here. And
even worse, sometimes this number is the
problem. And you know, I don't like this
number either. I don't like this number
either. See, my minimum number is this
number. And this isn't a crazy number, people.
There's nothing crazy about this number here.
I'm not going to ordain people that haven't
read the Bible this many times. And for
those that might just be listening to this
and not watching it, I'm holding up ten
fingers right now, okay? I'm telling you that
people today, they don't want to put
anything into it, but then they want to get
everything out of it. I mean, how can you
expect to know the Bible well if you haven't
read it cover to cover? Ten times. If you're
going to be a preacher. Now look, if you're
a layman and you're reading the Bible
cover to cover once a year, God bless you.
That's great. You know, I'm glad that you're
reading the Bible cover to cover. You're
way ahead of most Christians if you're
reading the Bible cover to cover on a yearly
basis. That's great. That's wonderful, okay?
But you want to be a preacher. You want to
be a pastor. I mean, that's a pretty, it's a
pretty big responsibility, you know, where
you don't want to lead people astray. You
don't want to make mistakes. You don't want
to preach things that are false. And so you
really need to know your stuff. And I think
that preachers should study as much of the
Bible as a lawyer with study of the law or
as a doctor with study of medicine or as an
engineer with study of engineering and
mathematics and physics. Listen to me. I
believe that what I'm doing is more
important than any of those things. And
it's not because I'm full of myself. It's
because this book matters and God matter
and all glory be unto Jesus Christ. It's
not to lift myself up. It's to say that
the job that I'm doing is the important
job because it's spiritual. It's not saving
a life physically in an ER. It's saving
souls from hell. I mean, it's important.
And people listen to me and they're
going to go to heaven if they get the
true gospel for me. Or if I were to
preach lies that could cause people to go
to hell. Or if I teach correctly on soul
winning, you know, that could lead to many
people being saved out on soul winning. Or
if I get up and preach a wrong soul
winning or foolish methods of soul winning
or unbiblical things about soul winning, you
know, that could cause a whole bunch of
people to not get the gospel. And if I
preach wrong on marriage, people could get
divorced and have their lives ruined
because I didn't preach biblical marriage
advice. You know, or if I what if I
preach wrong on child rearing and then
people's kids grow up and go to the
devil? I mean, there's a lot at stake.
It really matters what's preached. It
really matters what the doctrine is. It
really matters what we believe. And so I
better know what I'm talking about. I
better study to show myself approved
unto God as a pastor. It's not just me,
every pastor, every pastor has a job
that's more important than the president
of the United States. It's true. And I
don't care if that offends you or not,
because you know what? God told Jeremiah
the prophet. He said, I've set you
above kings. Why? Because the
spiritual need is the greatest need and
the spiritual battle is the greatest
battle. And God's business is the
greatest business that there is. And we
must be about the father's business.
And so being a pastor is not
something to take lightly. It's a big
responsibility. So why would I let
some lawyer study the law for hours
and hours and hours and hours and
hours and be able to cite all the
case history and cite all the
precedents? And why would I let some
doctors spend eight years of training
and interning and reading books and
memorizing things? And then I'm just
going to read the Bible for 1015
minutes and say, Oh, this is my my
pathway to pastoring a church. I'm
reading the Bible 15 minutes a day.
It doesn't make any sense. If you
believe it's now maybe you don't
think it's important. Maybe you think
that the important people in this
world are the doctors, the lawyers,
the politicians, and that pastors are
just sort of somewhere between a fast
food worker and a garbage collector. So
I mean, I don't know, maybe that's
what you think. But you know, I
happen to think it's a pretty
important job and that people should
put that much training into it. And
if you want to be a pastor, and if
you want to be ordained at Faithful
Word Baptist Church, you better take
that preparation seriously. And you
better treat it like, Hey, I'm a
spiritual lawyer here, right?
Because I'm interpreting the laws of
God. And I'm a spiritual doctor,
because I'm here to cure the sickness
of sin. And I'm here to resurrect
the dead with the gospel of Jesus
Christ and quicken that dead spirit.
And I'm a spiritual leader and a
spiritual ruler. Because those that
are in the house of God as
pastors should rule, rule well, the
Bible says. Then why don't you put
the preparation into it that those
professions put into their
professions and put the same type
of effort and treat it with the
same seriousness? If you were
going after that type of a worldly
career, why don't you put that
effort into this instead of just
wanting to put 15 or 20? Oh,
it's just too strict, too high of
a requirement. I mean, how many I
don't know how many hours do
you think that these people
study a day, these lawyers and
doctors and I mean, they must
put in hours every day, right?
They've got to. Okay, well, can
we put a couple hours into the
Bible? Because you're going to
be a preacher? Put a few hours
into it. You know, why don't
you settle in and get
comfortable and do some serious
Bible reading, serious study. Be
a ready scribe, and then I
guarantee you, God will open all
kinds of doors for you. And all
kinds of opportunities will
manifest themselves if you're
prepared. But you have to put
something into it. You have to
put in the time and the effort
and the work into Bible reading
and then you're going to get
out of it. Knowledge, wisdom,
understanding, the hand of God
upon you, opportunities and doors
being open for you. That's what
you'll get out of it. Now
that's for the preachers, okay?
But even just for the man,
woman, boy and girl that's in
church tonight, that's not a
preacher, just the layman, just
the tradesman, just the godly,
soul winning Christian. You know
what? You need the word of God
too, because you need it for
all things pertaining to life
and godliness. You need to
know how to go about your job.
You need to know how to
abstain from sin. You need to
know how to have a good
marriage, how to raise your
children, how to manage your
money, how to do all the
things that the Bible can
teach you. And so you need to
put some effort. If you want
to get a lot of wisdom out
of it, you got to put a lot
of time and effort into it and
do some serious Bible
reading. Not only that, but
child rearing. Go to
Deuteronomy chapter 6. You
see, what I'm preaching on
tonight is that any area of
life you're going to get out
of it what you put into it.
And you can't just expect to
just barely sow a tiny seed in
any of these areas and then
expect some big increase and
then you're surprised when you
don't receive the great
reaping that you expect. You
know, the Bible says if you
sow sparingly, you're going
to reap sparingly. So, you
know, if you give
financially some tiny amount,
you know, you're going to get
a tiny reward or a tiny
benefit or blessing from
that. If you do a tiny amount
of soul winning, don't be
surprised if you barely have
anybody saved, if at all,
because you barely put
anything into it. You know,
prayer, if it's just a quick
little, dear Jesus, thank you
for this food. Amen. Now I lay
me down to sleep. You know,
you're probably not going to
get much out of that as if
you were to do some real
serious, earnest, heartfelt
praying where you're actually
talking to God and not just
doing a vain repetition. You
actually speak to God and
ask Him for specific things
and make your supplication
unto Him. You know, the more
you put into prayer, the more
you're going to get out of
it. And there's a lot you
can get out of prayer
because God has a lot of
blessings that He wants to
bestow on us. But we have
not because we ask not.
Bible reading, you're going to
get out of it what you put
into it. You know, you need
to put some effort into it
if you want to really
learn the deep things of God.
But not only that, child
rearing. You know, you're
going to get out of it what
you put into it. Deuteronomy
chapter 6 verse 6 says,
And these words which I
command thee this day shall
be in thine heart, and
thou shalt teach them
diligently, diligently unto
thy children, and shalt talk
of them when thou sittest in
thine house, and when thou
walkest by the way, and
when thou liest down, and
when thou risest up. You
see, you're going to get
out of child rearing what
you put into it. You see,
if you just neglect your
children, ignore your
children, just stick them
in front of the TV, stick
them on the full bus, and
send them off to be raised
by somebody else, or stick
them in the daycare, stick
them in the school. You're
not spending time with
them. You're not taking
them to church. You're not
reading the Bible to them.
You're not praying with
them. You're not
teaching them anything. You
know what? You can't be
surprised when your children
don't turn out the way you
want them to, because
you're only going to get
out of it what you put
into it. Homeschooling.
You're going to get out of
it what you put into it.
You know, homeschooling is
only as good as the
homeschooler. See, there
are people out there that
will say, oh, homeschooling
is terrible, and they'll
give you examples of
children who came out of
homeschooling, and they
don't know anything. They
can hardly read. They can
hardly do basic math.
They're behind years of
their grade level of their
peers in public school.
But then other people that
come out of homeschooling
come out way ahead of the
curve, and they're advanced
in math, advanced in
English, advanced in all
subjects. Why? Because it
depends on how much seed
was sown. It depends on
how much work was put
into it. You see,
homeschooling is something
that can either be done
well, poorly, or not at
all. I mean, there are
people who say, oh, we
homeschool. They don't
really even homeschool.
I mean, they just, like,
put a coloring box on
them, and then they
just, like, put a coloring
box on them, and then
they just, like, put a
coloring box on them,
and then they just, like,
put a coloring book in
front of their kid every
once in a while and hand
it some crayons and call
that homeschooling or
something, or put them
in front of some
educational TV show or
something and say, oh,
yeah, they're homeschooled.
You know, and they're
not actually sitting down
and going through. You
know, like, my wife
went through, and she
explained about teaching
how to read through
phonics. I mean, that's
it. Some people might
have seen that and
thought, like, whoa,
that's a lot of work.
Yeah, no kidding. It
takes effort. It takes
time. It takes discipline.
But if you continue,
you will reap in due
season if you faint not.
Child rearing, it takes
diligence, diligently
teaching the word of God
unto your children.
And by the way, taking
them to church is not
enough. Taking them to
church is part of the
equation, but you need
to also on a daily basis
speak of the word of
God, diligently teach the
word of God to your
children.
Your marriage is another
area where you're going
to get out of it what
you put into it.
You know, if you don't
put any effort into
your marriage, don't
be surprised if you
have a bad marriage.
If you're not putting
effort into spending
time with your spouse,
if you're not making
the effort to get along
and please your spouse
and make sure that
they're getting what
they need out of
this relationship,
whether you're the
husband or the wife,
if you're not going
to invest of your
heart and soul and
mind and strength
into your marriage,
if your marriage is
not a priority, then
don't be surprised
if you have a bad
marriage because
marriage takes work.
Marriage is not
something that just
automatically falls away.
You know when you're
a teenager, you think
marriage is going to
be easy, right?
And you see maybe your
parents struggling with
marriage and you see
other people who
struggle with marriage
and you just kind of
laugh at that and just
think, oh, man, when
I get married, it's
going to be a piece
of cake.
And you got it all
figured out and it's
going to be so easy.
And really all of the
single feel this way.
You know, that marriage
is so easy.
I remember that
this one guy piped up
one time and just said,
I don't understand
what the big deal is.
You know, there are
married people, we're
talking about marriage
issues and things.
And this guy piped up
one time and he said,
you know, I don't
understand what the
big deal is because,
I mean, it's just so
simple in Scripture.
I mean, just, you know,
husbands love your
wives, you know?
Why?
He said, that's it.
Case closed.
This same guy got
married and was
divorced in a couple
months after getting
married.
You know, why?
Because it's, no, it's
actually not that simple.
It actually takes effort.
It actually takes work,
okay?
Now here's a good
Scripture on this,
Ecclesiastes chapter 10,
you don't have to
turn there.
Ecclesiastes chapter 10
verse 18 says,
by much slothfulness,
the building decayeth
and through idleness
of the hands,
the house droppeth
through.
So you can move
into a house where
everything's nice,
everything's working
but if you never
replace anything and
you never fix anything,
it will deteriorate
over time, okay?
So the teenager
looks at marriage and
they look at the nice,
brand new home that
they walk into where
all the paint is fresh
and the carpet's
been freshly laid and
they think to themselves,
piece of cake,
this is easy,
what's the big deal?
Home ownership's
a piece of cake.
Okay, then the
water heater goes out,
then the plumbing
starts to leak,
then the roof
and then you start having
the termite problems
and then the mold
and the dry rot, right?
And the thing starts
crumbling and it gets
infested and the thing
is just breaking down
and the windows are drafty
and the doors are drafty
and the weather stripping
gets brittle and decay
and air is coming in
to the doors and you
can't retain the heat
in the winter
and you can't retain
the cool and the stuff
and then the air
conditioning breaks down
and it's $5,000 for
the new air conditioning
unit and the plumbing
is breaking and then
the drain gets clogged up.
Oh, no problem,
just a little roto-rooter,
you know, just a little
$49 rooted out or whatever
until you find out that,
oh, it's the roots
from the trees.
The roots from the trees
have stabbed through
your plumbing pipes
of your drain and now
they're blacked out.
So now we have to dig up
your sidewalk, dig up
the backyard, dig up
the driveway and dig down,
replace all that pipe
because of tree roots
and, you know, once
we lay it all down,
guess what's eventually
going to happen?
The tree roots are just
going to keep on creeping
over and coming.
Then a big storm comes
and the tree breaks
and falls on the house,
smashes in the house.
Then the tree gets
a strange disease and dies.
Then the sprinkler
pipes break on the
automatic sprinklers and then
you go to dig in the yard
to fix the sprinklers
and your shovel hits
the sprinkler pipe
and puts a big hole in it.
Now I just broke
another sprinkler pipe.
And all the sprinkler pipe,
you go to screw in
the new sprinkler
and it just breaks the socket.
It just strips out.
It just breaks out.
Everything falls apart.
Everything deteriorates.
Pretty soon you feel like
you've replaced
everything in your house.
Eventually you're wondering,
is any part of this house
the same house
that I moved into anymore
because it seems like
I've just replaced everything.
I mean, look,
I've lived in my house
for 11 years.
I've replaced all the plumbing.
I've replaced
most of the windows,
the air conditioning unit.
These are all true stories,
by the way.
But you know what?
Marriage is the same way.
It takes maintenance, right?
There's a constant fixing of it.
But you have to care enough
to put some effort into it.
You have to care.
You have to spend the time
and not just ignore it
and just neglect it and whatever.
See, by much slothfulness,
the building decays
and through idleness of the hands,
the house drops through.
You see, a house,
yes, we're talking
about a physical building,
but a house often in the Bible
is also referring to a family.
The house of David.
It's a family of David.
And the Bible also says
in Proverbs 14, 1,
every wise woman buildeth her house,
but the foolish plucketh it down
with her hands.
I don't think this is
a foolish woman walking
into her house
and just ripping drywall
off the walls
and throwing it down,
ripping siding off,
going up on the roof
and just tearing shingles
and hurling them.
I don't think that's
what foolish women are doing.
I think it's saying
that the foolish woman
destroys her family,
plucks it down
with her hands
instead of building her house,
instead of putting effort
into maintaining the children.
See, there's this term
homemaker, homemaker, right?
Why?
Because the wife is there
putting effort
into the marriage,
putting effort
into the child rearing,
putting effort
into the family.
And then the husband also
needs to put in
the effort necessary
to make his wife happy
and to spend time with her
and to have a relationship
with her in all aspects
that are involved in marriage.
You see, marriage takes effort
and you're only gonna get
out of it what you put
into it.
And so both parties need
to be putting something
into it, putting effort
into it, putting work
into it in order
to have a good marriage.
And the teenagers
and the young people,
when they get married,
they'll find out
that this is true.
They think, well, no,
because we're just
so madly in love
that everything's
just gonna be perfect
every day.
Well, we'll talk
to you in a few years
and we'll find out
that's true.
But, you know,
preaching is like that.
As a pastor, you know,
whatever I put into it
is what I'm gonna
get out of it.
You know, if I preach
sermons on soul winning,
people will go soul winning.
If I never preached
on soul winning,
people wouldn't do
a lot of soul winning.
If I never preached
against sin,
there'd be a lot more sin
in the church.
You know, whatever you
preach on as a pastor,
that's the results
that you're gonna get.
You know, and if you just
spend a whole bunch of time
preaching on one thing,
you're gonna have
a lot of that.
But then you might be
lacking somewhere else.
Go to 1 Timothy 4.
This is the last place
I'll have you turn.
1 Timothy 4.
You know, another
great example of getting
out of it, what you
put into it would be
a workout,
a physical workout.
And I know that
this is an illustration
that the vast majority
of people here
don't relate to.
I remember one time,
one time recently,
it just blew my mind.
I was preaching,
you remember this,
like a month or two ago?
I'm like, so, you know,
how many of you like
to work out regularly?
Or, you know,
you either run,
lift weights,
just some kind of a workout
that you regularly do.
There's like 200
and some people,
and like five hands
went up.
Yeah, I like to work out.
I'm thinking like, whoa.
So this is not gonna
be an effective illustration.
But for you five,
you're gonna love this one.
And for the rest of you,
you're gonna love,
you love this verse
because this is your life
verse about how bodily
exercise profit little.
But here's the thing,
a workout,
when it comes to a workout,
you get out of it
what you put into it.
When you do these workouts
that are really easy,
oh man, this workout's
so easy.
Guess what, it's because
you're not getting anything
out of it hardly at all.
Oh man, this machine
is just so easy.
Yeah, that's because
you're not making any gains.
Oh, I don't like free weights.
It's too hard.
Yeah, but that's the point.
It's hard and you get
stronger, right?
You get out of it
what you put into it.
No pain, no gain.
Okay, you use free weights
and it's hard
because it works.
The machines are a joke,
amen?
Amen.
Can I get a witness?
Free weights.
Amen.
But here's the thing,
you get out of it
what you put into it.
If you're just gonna
go to the gym
and use a bunch of machines
for a little 15,
20 minute
girly-mon workout,
you're not gonna
make any gains.
If you wanna make
serious gains,
you gotta put
some effort into it.
You gotta go down there
and you gotta sweat
and you gotta push yourself
and you gotta hit
the free weights
and you know,
you gotta put in an hour
of lifting weights
or 45 minutes
of lifting weights
and you gotta work
during that time
and push up
and you oughta be
drenched in sweat,
you oughta be out of breath,
you oughta, you know,
have done something, right?
And then, you know,
the next day
you're gonna be sore
if you did a real
weight training workout.
You know,
you gotta put
something into it.
You gotta put effort
into it
if you wanna get
gains, okay.
Well, how does that
tie in with this?
Well, first of all,
just goes to show you
that any area of life,
you get out of it
what you put into it.
You know, you put,
you work out
once a month,
you're not gonna
get much out of it.
You know, you work out
three, four,
five times a week,
you're gonna get
a lot out of it, right?
But look what the Bible
says in 1 Timothy 4-7.
It says,
But refuse profane
and old wives' fables
and exercise thyself
rather unto godliness,
for bodily exercise
profited little,
but godliness
is profitable
unto all things,
having promise
of the life that now is
and of that which is to come.
So the Bible's saying here
that, you know,
bodily exercise,
it only profits a little,
and here's why.
The Bible explains why
in the verse,
because it only
helps you in this life.
You see,
exercising or lifting weights
or running
or whatever you do
for exercise
is of no eternal value.
All the weightlifting
that you do,
all the running
that you do,
all the fitness
that you perform
in this life
will not help you
in the next life at all.
You're not, you know,
your new glorified body
isn't going to be more buff
because of the workouts
that you do now.
I'm going to be ripped
for all eternity, you know.
Now, for some of you,
this is good news.
You're like,
oh, great, my glorified body
can get rid of this
spare tire.
You know what I mean?
Look, the Bible's saying
the difference
between bodily exercise,
look at the verse.
Body exercise
profits little,
but on the contrary,
godliness,
here's the difference
between godliness
and bodily exercise,
godliness is profitable
unto all things,
having promise of the life
that now is
and of that which is to come,
whereas bodily exercise
only helps you
in the life that now is.
It improves your quality
of life now
because you're healthier,
you're stronger, whatever,
whereas exercising yourself
unto godliness
helps you now,
and it's going to help you
for all eternity,
and you're going to be
glad in heaven.
There's no rewards in heaven
for the great gains.
Let's not suppose
that gain is godliness.
Gains are not godliness.
So the Bible says
exercise yourself rather
unto godliness.
So here's why
I like this illustration
of a workout,
and Paul brings it up
in multiple epistles,
and he brings up
sports and training,
is that when people work out,
they take it seriously
if they're going to make gains.
They take it seriously,
they're on a strict routine,
they work hard,
they break a sweat,
they put a lot of effort
into it,
and then they get something
out of it,
and then they rejoice
in those gains,
albeit they're just
carnal, earthly,
temporal gains.
We ought to take
that same attitude
into our spiritual lives
that meatheads are taking
into the gym, right?
I mean, why don't we
get that same mentality
that says, hey,
I'm going to put
some serious work,
I'm not going to try
to take the easy way,
the shortcut, the gimmick,
the Bowflex,
the Nordic track, or whatever.
I'm going to get
the real free weights.
I'm going to get
a King James Bible,
I'm going to read
the big boy version,
I'm going to go out
and do real-life
soul-winning,
I'm going to go
to a fire-breathing church,
I'm going to get on my knees
and have a sweet hour of prayer,
not just have a little
talk with Jesus,
and I'm going to make
some serious gains.
See, we need to take
that mentality that some
of these guys
who just get really
into their workouts
and really into fitness,
hey, why don't we
exercise ourself rather
unto godliness?
Why don't we take that
attitude toward Bible reading?
I'll tell you this right now,
and the four of you
that are into fitness
hopefully can back me up,
but I don't know about you.
Who's into training?
Maybe it's more now.
Now it's like half the church.
No, I'm just kidding.
Look, I don't know about you,
but to me, anybody
who does any serious training
logs their training.
I mean, am I right about that?
Who agrees with that?
You know, if you're
serious about training,
you log.
I mean, otherwise,
how do you even know
what you lifted last week
versus this week
unless you're logging it,
you know?
And I mean,
whenever I work out,
that's the first thing I do.
I pull out my log,
and I look at, okay,
here's what I lifted
last week.
Let's see if I can do
a little better.
I need some gains this week.
Or let's say, okay,
here's the running
that I did last week.
Here's the running
I'm gonna do this week.
You know, I find that
if I don't log it,
I don't really make gains.
I don't really go anywhere.
I don't really progress
unless I'm keeping track of it
and putting work into it
and charting my progress.
You know, it's the same thing
with people
who read their Bible.
People don't log
their Bible reading.
Probably not doing
a lot of Bible reading.
You know, people who just say,
well, I just kind of
open the Bible
and read wherever.
They're not reading
as much as the guy who says,
let's read it cover to cover,
and he's checking off
the books and the table
of contents,
and he's checking off,
okay, I read Isaiah,
now I'm gonna read Jeremiah.
I read Jeremiah,
let's go back
and read 2 Kings.
Let's read the book of Psalms.
Let's read Galatians
and check it off,
check it off, check it off,
and then they've read
the whole thing cover to cover
because they logged it, right?
Taking it seriously.
Soul winning on a regular basis,
not just, well, when the Lord
brings somebody across my path
every 18 months, you know,
then I'll give him the gospel.
No, how about
a more serious training plan
in your godliness exercise,
like, hey, I'm gonna pick
Monday night soul winning,
I'm gonna be there every time,
or I'm gonna be at Wednesday
night soul winning every time.
I'm gonna be at
the Sunday afternoon soul winning
every time.
That's my routine,
and if I miss it,
I'll try to make it up
some other time.
If you miss a workout,
you'll probably make that up.
If you miss back day
or whatever,
you'll probably make that up
if you're serious, right?
If you care about it.
And so we need to look
at the areas in our life
that we wanna succeed in, right?
Bible reading, prayer,
church attendance, soul winning,
our marriage, our child rearing,
our job, our finances,
maybe even physical fitness,
although that's not
the most important thing,
but it has its place.
But you know,
we need to sit down
and think about,
okay, what's important to me?
What are my priorities in life?
What matters to me?
Where do I wanna reap a harvest?
I mean, I don't know about you,
but I wanna come rejoice
with my sheaves with me.
I don't wanna just be a nobody.
I wanna do something with my life.
I wanna accomplish something.
I wanna reap some kind
of harvest.
I wanna win people to Christ,
you know?
I wanna have a great marriage.
I wanna raise godly children.
I wanna be an active part
of my local church
and help my church to succeed.
You know, I want to pray
and have the Lord answer
my prayer and provide my needs.
I wanna memorize the Bible.
You know, I wanna reap
a harvest in these areas.
Well, you need to figure out
where you wanna reap the harvest,
and that's where you need
to start sowing the seeds.
And that's where you need
to start putting in the effort,
because you're only gonna
get out of it
what you put into it,
whether that's giving,
soul-winning, Bible-reading,
praying, church, marriage,
child-rearing, preaching,
teaching, Bible memorization,
even a physical workout,
whatever.
Now, I'm gonna close
with this quote.
I heard a preacher
say this one time.
I don't remember who said it,
but this is a quote
that has always stuck with me,
and I like this quote.
It said this.
You will succeed at what you
think about in your spare time.
That's what this preacher said.
He said, you'll succeed
at what you think about
in your spare time.
And I think that's a great quote,
because, you know,
whatever we think about,
whatever we meditate on,
whatever our heart is in,
that's what we're gonna invest in.
That's what we're gonna
put our effort into.
And so if you sit around
thinking about foolishness
and nothingness
and just dumb things,
carnal things, worldly things,
you know, that's what
you're gonna succeed at.
We need to meditate upon
what we really want to get done
and what we really want
to succeed at,
and we will be successful at that,
which we think about
in our spare time.
I've found that to be true
in my life, and I think
that that's a great quote
to meditate upon
and think about.
And all of this sermon tonight
is a positive sermon,
because I'm listing
all the good things
you should invest in.
You know, invest in
your marriage,
invest in child rearing,
invest in the Bible,
invest in soul winning,
invest in church,
invest in giving.
But here's the thing.
We could also flip
this sermon over
and talk just as much
about all the negative things
that you can invest in,
all the carnal things
where you just reap corruption.
You know, if you're just
gonna spend so much time
letting the devil program you
through the media,
you know, eventually,
that's gonna bear fruit
in your life.
You're gonna reap the same.
You know, if you're just
gonna sow all these bad seeds
and sow all kinds of sin
and sow all kinds of harm
in your life
and in the life of others,
that's all gonna come back
and bite you, you know.
You're gonna get out of that
what you put into that too.
So let's just decide
what's important to us,
decide where we wanna succeed,
and that's where
you're gonna harvest, you know.
I mean, think about anything
in life.
Think about a piano lesson.
You're only gonna get out
of it what you put into it.
You could go to a piano
lesson every week,
and if you don't practice,
you're never gonna advance,
and then you can't really
blame the piano teacher
now, can you?
And guess what?
The piano lesson only happens
once a week,
and that's not enough
to learn how to play piano.
You have to practice every day
to learn how to play piano.
And if you come to church
once a week,
but then the rest of the
week, you're not reading
your Bible, you're not praying,
you're not, you know,
that's not enough either.
And then you blame the church
because you're not being fed
or you're not growing enough.
Well, you're only gonna
get out of it
what you put into it, you know.
You come to church once a week,
you're not gonna get
as much out of it
as the guy who comes
to church three times a week.
He's gonna get more out of it.
You go soul winning
for two hours,
you're gonna get more out of it
than going for one hour.
And look,
this isn't a complicated sermon.
It's not that deep tonight.
Very simple sermon,
but it's still a profound truth
that you're gonna reap
where you sow.
And so pick the areas in life
where you wanna reap
and that's where you put
your efforts.
Let's bow our heads
and have a word of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much
for your word, Lord,
and thank you for
the gift of eternal life.
Thank you for salvation.
And Lord, I just pray
that we would spend our lives
sowing the right seeds, Lord,
and just spending our time
not sowing to the flesh
and not sowing to that
which is carnal.
But Lord, help us to really
pick some important
spiritual areas
and spend more time
putting more effort
into the things
that really matter the most.
And not to just let things
decay and fall apart, Lord,
but help us to put forth
effort in the areas of our lives
that are lacking.
And in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.