War, Work and the World to Come: Farming and Fighting
This is our New Year’s sermon for 2010 titled, “War, Work and the World to Come: Farming and Fighting”. This is an exegetical sermon on Galatians 6:7-10 and looks at how to give glory to God versus mocking him, how to fight as a soldier in the war of flesh against Spirit and how to work as a farmer in sowing seeds that will bear fruit. This sermon was originally preached by Pastor Duane Smets on January 3rd, 2010 at The Resolved Church in San Diego, CA.
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The Resolved Church
Pastor Duane Smets
December 20th, 2009
War, Work and the World to Come
Fighting and Farming
Galatians 6:7-10
Introduction
Well today is the first Sunday of the New Year, 2010.
For some, the New Year is an exciting thing…not just the friends and family and parties and the days off work that come with it, but in the looking ahead into the coming year and seeing opportunities and knowing of some good things that should be coming your way.
For others, the New Year is a difficult time. Reflection on the past year, whether it’s just nostalgia or regret can bring one down and then there is the look into the New Year and maybe it’s not a good look but one filled with a lot of fear and anxiety.
Depending on who you are, where you are at in life, and what is going on in your life right now, the year probably hits you differently. And it hits churches differently too. If you’re an older established church then you experience a spike in attendance and growth during Christmas and if you’re a newer church, like us, you experience a little bit of a fall out. And for all churches, the New Year is sort of this time between the time. We push real hard and work on a number of things together all up through Christmas and then it’s almost like there is a little slack time at the beginning of January and then we start to push real hard again.
So we’ve got some cool things going on until we swing back into full force here. Next week, we’re having a special song and stories service where we’ll worship with music a little more than normal and we’ll hear from a few different individuals about how the gospel has been transforming their lives. Then, the week after that I’ll give a sort of practical vision sermon for us as a church in the upcoming months. What I want to do today is give a personal vision sermon for us to help provide some perspective and motivation for each of us individually as we embark on the New Year.
So today’s sermon is called, “War, Work, and the World to Come” and we’re going to look at Galatians 6:7-10. I titled it that because I believe that in this next year there is going to be war on our own soil and that this is going to be the hardest year of work that we have ever known.
We hear about war all the time, for most of us it’s just what happens somewhere else in the world a long long ways away. I’ve never personally been in a real war but from what I understand I guess it’s pretty intense.
We are also constantly hearing about work. Jobless claims, job hunting, and job security. From the sounds of it we all need a job I guess or something.
Now don’t worry…I’m not going wacko and turning into some sort of crazy cult leader making doom and gloom prophesies about actual troops from another country ending up here in California and us all ending up as slaves. What I am calling for is for us to look into the coming year as a year for great personal spiritual growth. And for that to take place we are going to have to participate in some very real war in the soil of our hearts and we are going to have to labor and work to see our lives transformed by power of God’s work in us through the gospel of Jesus Christ. So today’s sermon, as we’ll see, is really about fighting and farming.
With that let’s read Galatians 6:7-10 and get into it.
Galatians 6:7-10 “7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 9 And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. 10 So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”
Okay, so this is from the book of Galatians…it’s not really a book but a pamphlet sent as a letter addressed to all the churches in Galatia from the Apostle Paul. Galatia, at the time was a region that included a bunch of cities. Sort of like a state, like the state of California…just not as big and with not as many cities.
If you read through the book of Acts we find that during the apostle Paul’s missionary journeys he went to at least four of these cities and started churches there. In each the Galatia cities mentioned there a positive response to the message of Jesus from Paul.
Paul first goes to Antioch and get to preach to almost the whole city. A solid church gets started there and years later Apollos becomes a Bible teacher there. Then Paul goes to Iconium and Acts 14:1 says a “great number” there believed. After that Paul goes to Lystra and people there are so impressed by him and his friend Barnabas that they think they are gods. And then he goes to Derbe, and Acts 14:21 says that a large number of people there became disciples.
So basically all this good stuff went down…people hearing the good news about Jesus and becoming Christians and churches getting started. By the time Paul writes this letter we’re reading a little section from it’s years later and he writes because he didn’t want to the good things that happened to die out…he wanted the people and the churches to continue to grow and flourish.
That’s what we’re stepping into here. And it’s not a whole lot unlike us and our situation here at The Resolved Church. I’m sure they had some people at the churches in Galatia who had been around awhile and I’m sure there were people newer to the church. For us, this will be our 5th year as a church, we started in 2005. And we’ve got some people who have been here since the beginning and a lot of other newer ones of you around and that is super exciting.
The section that we’re looking at today comes in at us on a personal level because if you are a Christian, what you experience with becoming a Christian is something you experience with everything when it is new and that is that there comes a time when it’s not new anymore. There may be a New Year, but your faith is not new and where does that leave you? How do you move forward?
The passage we’re looking at today will say we do that by spiritually considering ourselves both as soldiers and as farmers. Notice that first, that what we are talking about here is a spiritual thing, it’s an us and God thing.
Don’t Mock God
Look at verse 7 with me. “Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap.” What does that mean, “God is not mocked”?
Surely this isn’t saying God is never made fun of or jeered at. You’d have to be a fool to think that. All you have to do is watch an episode of South Park and listen to Carmen talk and you’ll usually get a good dose of mocking God…making fun of him. God is probably more at the butt end of people’s jokes more than any other person. No, God is mocked. For sure. So it cannot be saying that people do not treat God with contempt and blaspheme His name. We know that happens. God is often mocked.
Look a little closer at it with me. What comes before “God is not mocked”? “Do not be deceived.” That means there is a deception or a lie that we buy into about God which causing the mocking of God. And being deceived is something that happens internally, inside, in our heart and in our thought process. We hear something or get an idea and then there is a buying into it and we begin to believe it. So then, the mockery here isn’t just jesting, making jokes…but an internal dismissal of the truth of God.
And not just the trust of his existence, but really the truth of his justice. That’s why the words right after God is not mocked says, “for whatever one sows, that he will also reap.” The issue is our own personal internal dismissal of God’s justice for what do or don’t do in this life, what we sow or reap.
So bring it together and feel the full force of this. Do not be deceived. Do not buy into a lie in thinking that you will be able to get away with anything. God is not mocked. He keeps the books and knows not just the things that we do or don’t do but the inner thoughts and attitudes and intentions of our hearts…and will grant us that which we desire most…him and all of his goodness or hell and all of his justice.
There is a fictional story about a man who was browsing in a store when he made a shocking discovery that God was behind a sales counter. So the man walked over and asked, “What are you selling?” To which God replied, “What does your heart desire?” The man said, “I want happiness, peace of mind, and freedom from fear…for me and for the whole world.” God smiled and said, “ I don’t sell fruit here, only seeds.” Another man in the store was also amazed that God would be there behind one of the sales counters. So he walked over and asked, “What are you selling?” To which God replied, “What does your heart desire?” The man said, “I want money, power, and an endless vacation.” With a look of sadness and worry God said, “I’m sorry, I don’t sell fruit here, only seeds.”
You see it is impossible for us to escape God on any level, whether we are talking about God’s existence or his relevance…God is an irremovable part of the discussion. And we all know of his soul piercing reality deep down. God cannot be outwitted, outsmarted, tricked, or trapped so that we end up getting away with ourselves and our sin. He knows it all. He knows us.
Hebrews 4:13 says, “No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God sees all the secret things…the things that matter most to us and the things no one else may know, God knows. God knows and he will not be mocked. He will not just sweep our sin and evil under the rug and pretend it isn’t there or that it doesn’t bother him…he will deal with it because he will not be mocked.
So, don’t mock God. Take your life seriously. Take this year seriously. Be intentional.
Fighting Like a Solider
The way Paul encourages us to do that here is in his mixing of two different metaphors, one of war and one of work. Let’s talk about war and fighting like a solider first.
Look at verse 8 with me. “For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.” Notice the contrasting here of the flesh and the Spirit. This is part of an ongoing theme Paul has been discussing here in Galatians.
Just 15 verses earlier Paul says this, “16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh.” Do you hear the wresting or battling tone in his words?
In couple of Paul’s letters he comes right out an says it, Ephesians 6:10-12 “10 Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. 11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” And so in 2 Timothy 2:3 he says, “Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.”
The point is for us to realize that when we became Christians we entered a spiritual battle where as soldiers with a wartime mentality, we must war by sowing to Spirit and not to the flesh.
What is the flesh? Flesh here is a very vivid word. Yes, in one sense it does refer to the very physical make-up of our bodies…our bone, skin, facial features and inner organs. But when the Bible uses the word “flesh” it uses it to describe what some translations call, a sinful nature. It is a word that describes the fact that just as real as our skin etc…is a bend within us toward evil. Just as surely as our bodies get hungry do human bodies crave sin. We have all chosen and inherited an appetite for sin.
So we are not to sow to the flesh but to the Spirit. What is the Spirit? The Spirit here is not some sort of inherent goodness within you. The Spirit is the Holy Spirit, God’s Spirit, the third person of the Trinity. It is the presence and power of Jesus at work in those who love him and believe in him. The Bible teaches that all who believe in Jesus receive his Spirit (1 Cor 10:13). When we receive his Spirit there is then a new force and desire and ability that we are given which compels us to live for and love God.
The old power, the old force of the flesh is still there but it is no longer the only thing at work. There is a new and greater power in us, God himself at work in our hearts and our lives and he is greater than all. These two powers are against each other, opposed to each other. They are at war in the midst of a conflict.
Within every believer in Jesus and lover of God there is a war going on within his or her being. And the fact that we experience this war is in reality a true a sign that we are Christians.
Theologians have wisely pointed out that before you are a Christian there is not really much of an internal battle. You just do what you want. You might feel bad about some thing at various times but there is not a deep personal conflict over your desires and temptations and a wrestling and fighting against them. That only happens in the Christian who truly loves Jesus and knows when that is in conflict with something else.
At the beginning of the message this evening I said that this next year was going to be a year of war. If you are here and you are a Christian then you must look at this next year as a year of war and get ready to fight… there are going to many different battles but the good news of the gospel is that Jesus has won the war on the cross…what is left is skirmishes and territories of our hearts that have yet to learn the good news.
Not to long ago I got an email from a dude who doesn’t live here but regularly listens to all of our podcasts and reads the stuff we put out from the church. He emailed me and wanted to know how you practically live out being at war. I won’t read you all of what I wrote him but here’s part of wrote him.
First, I have five main resolutions framed on the wall in front of my desk, which I regularly read and strive to live my life by.
1. I Resolve to Pursue Happiness with All My Might
2. I Resolve to Live in Light of Eternity
3. I Resolve to Consider Life on Earth War
4. I Resolve to Take Risks for the Gospel
5. I Resolve to not Waste My Life
Second, I am committed to the daily discipline of prayer and reading the Bible. Sometimes the biggest battle is to do this when you don’t feel like it or have time for it.
Third, I attempt to seize whatever Biblical means of grace might work or minister to my soul when I feel weak, tempted, attacked. Such as taking communion, listening or playing uplifting music, reading a theological book, listening to a sermon, preaching to myself, waiting in silence, fasting from food and drink, going on a retreat, journaling, confessing sin and my smallness, and calling to mind God’s past goodness.
And fourth, in the most intense times of war I do a lot of posture prayer, getting down on my knees or laying down on my face, and screaming, crying, praying and reading Scripture out loud…basically getting brutally honest with God.
I’m sure there are other things but those are just a few things I have come up with in my life in how to live out being at war and fighting as a Christian solider.
Farming like a Farmer
What is interesting about the passage we are looking at is that he takes these words of war, the flesh and the Spirit and recasts them into a botanical analogy of farming saying that what we are really doing is sowing seeds and that depending on what seeds we sow will determine a certain kind of result.
That’s why 2 Timothy not only calls us soldiers but also calls us “hardworking farmers (2 Tim 2:6). We have taken on the hard work of cultivating our character every single day of our lives as farmers laboring in the land of our hearts so that we might reap a harvest.
Let’s read verses 8-9 again, “The one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping. Sowing and reaping. Now most of us are all city kids and don’t know much about farming. I have never been a farmer. In the 16 years that I have been working I have worked about 20 different jobs but I have never been a farmer.
In preparing for this sermon I wanted to talk to a farmer so I decided to call Amy’s uncle. His parents were farmers their whole lives and he has been a farmer for the last 35 years. He primarily grows peach trees. In talking to him I found out some very interesting things about farming.
Farming is hard work. It’s no desk job. It’s hard, grueling, dirty, long, physical labor. Farmers do not work 8-hour days but work 12-hour days from sun up to sun down.
There are a ton of things a farmer does in that time. First, all the soil has to be turn at least 8 inches deep. Then proper irrigation has to be set in place and maintained. Then depending on what they are growing, they will hand plant seeds or sticks. To do this they walk up and down fields and fields planting and planting, sowing and sowing….for hours and hours over acres and acres of land. And then they wait.
One thing about farming is that no farmer can reap in the same season he sows. He has to wait. He waits and waits. During this time the farmer carefully watches and takes care of his crop for there are all kinds of potential dangers that can ruin the whole thing.
There are all kinds of insects that can ruin a crop from worms to mites all different kinds of bugs. One called the caddydid, a microscopic grasshopper bug, can wipe out an entire crop in just 2 days. So some farmers will spray to keep those pests out. Others who don’t use chemicals will release predators into their crop which our good bugs that eat any of the bad bugs that start to show up.
The farmer has to carefully watch his crop watching out for fungus or brown rot. He goes through crop several times and prunes the trees so they continue to grow well. He cuts out any dead wood or fallen branches.
The farmer also consistently fertilizes the crop so that it can continue to grow and be healthy. After doing this for about 2 or sometimes three years a tree will finally have grown and begin to bear forth fruit and it is time for the harvest.
My uncle-in-law said the thing he loves about farming the most is the harvest. He said it is the most rewarding thing when you get a good crop full of beautiful fruit. During the harvest they go through the crop, get up on ladders with big baskets and pick all the best fruit. They go through each field three or four times until all the fruit is gathered.
Hearing all of this really brought to life what the Bible is envisioning with sowing seeds. You see the Christian life is a lot like farming. It is sowing and reaping.
It is hard, hard work. We don’t work just 8 hours, we don’t even work 12 hours but we work from the time we get up until the time we go to bed and we are constantly sowing seeds. We often will not reap at the same time we sow but we have to wait and water. We water and fertilize the crop of our spiritual life by spending time with God, reading his word, praying, singing to Him, going to church, and loving people.
But we have to watch our crop carefully for there are all kinds of potential dangers. There are all kinds of sinful insects that can come in and wipe out our crop. Some may work little by little slowly eating away at the places we have given to God. Others can sins can wipe out our entire walk with the Lord in just one day, in just one moment.
Like the farmer who has to spray or release predators to protect his crop we can protect our crop by releasing Godly men and women to have a part in our lives to help stamp out our sin. Like the farmer who has to watch for fungus or brown rot and has to cut out dead wood we need to watch for places in our spiritual life that become dark or dead and get rid of them. And just as the farmer prunes his trees we can prune and shape our spiritual lives, fine tuning them so that we look more and more like Christ.
You and I are farmers so how are our crops? Maybe in the work of last year, your crop has had some trouble? Maybe you planted some bad seeds? Maybe you have not watered and fertilized your crop properly? Maybe insects of sin have eaten away at your soul? Maybe there is some dead wood or bad and rotten fruit that needs to be removed?
Maybe the thing you struggle with most is your feelings. Verse 9 has been so encouraging to me at so many different times in my life, the part that says not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.”
Sometimes I think we so easily just operate according to our feelings and do not know how to live for God and keep pursuing Jesus when our affections are low. We need to have a long-term vision for our lives, to look forward to and expect what God will do in us as we trust him.
When you don’t have any feeling sometimes that the time when it matter most, when our true colors show. It’s relatively easy to live for God when you are feeling spiritually stoked but when you feel nothing, just apathy, or even worse, when you’re feeling down and out that’s when the rubber meets the road and you find out what your really made of.
The encouragement of verse 9 is the simple promise not to give up. Just keep waiting. Just keep holding on. The harvest will come. God will not be mocked. He will prove his goodness to us if we trust him.
When I talk to older godly grandmas and grandpas of the Christian faith who have gone before us, it doesn’t seem like they were so feelings obsessed like we are. It seems like more than previous generations is one primarily driven by our feelings, which we all know are so up and down.
I believe the more mature we get as Christians the less and less instability we experience and the more we learn how to really walk in faith and not by sight or constant perpetual feelings. The more we fight and war and practice with our weapons the better we get at using them and the less your feelings really have the ability to rock you, because we see ourselves as farmers and can wait it out.
I mean real life farmers have to wait 2 sometimes 3 years before a crop and even then there is a good chance of too much rain or a bug or rot wiping out an entire crop and my uncle in law said he’s had that happen. Do you have a faith that is looking a year ahead? Two years? Three years? One that can make it through and fight off attacks on your crop? One that has its sights set on eternity?
What is your vision for the crop you want to yield? What do you want to sow into next year? Where do you want Jesus to work in you?
Conclusion
We’re farmers, working in the soil of our hearts. We’re soldiers, fighting in the trenches of our souls. And we’re Christians and because of that, the truth is all of the fight and all of the work has really already been done for us.
That’s the gospel. That Jesus is the chief farmer and Jesus is the chief solider. We could never fight hard enough to defeat the sin in our life. But Jesus has done it for us. We could never sow enough seeds and care for them well enough to reap a harvest. But Jesus has done it for us.
So our fighting and our farming really all boils down to various forms of looking to Jesus and trusting Jesus and having Jesus work in us.
So as we conclude today I want to call us to Jesus. Let’s not be deceived into thinking that we don’t need salvation or that we could be our own savior. Let’s not buy into the lie that the next year will be a better one is we just do things differently and try a little harder. God will not be mocked in that way.
Jesus was dressed up in a robe and forced to wear a crown of thorns and was mocked because he claimed to be the divine king of the world. He allowed himself to be mocked in that way so that through him we might reap eternal life and be saved and changed by him more and more with each passing year.
Only Jesus was strong enough warrior not to retaliate to such mockery and instead go to war on the cross and die a death he didn’t deserve in the place of ones who deserve all of it and more. Only Jesus was patient enough to sow the seed of salvation with his blood and bury three days in the ground so that new life might be born in us.
Only Jesus. May he work in us today and work through us in our city.
Let’s pray.
