March 1, 2026 | The Garden of Grace

The Garden of Grace | Galatians Part 19

Galatians 6:6–10

Let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 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. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. (ESV)

In The Garden of Grace from Galatians 6:6–10, Jed Gillis explains Paul’s sowing-and-reaping picture as a call to live out grace, not a warning that your life runs on a strict, mechanical scoreboard. “Seeds” are your everyday thoughts, words, choices, and habits. The real difference is where you plant them: into the flesh, meaning self-reliance and control, or into the Spirit, meaning faith that rests in God’s favor through Christ. Sowing to the flesh produces decay and relational fallout, even when the “seed” looks respectable. Sowing to the Spirit grows lasting life, so you keep doing good, value spiritual instruction, and do good to all, especially the church family, without giving up when growth takes time.

Transcript of The Garden of Grace | Galatians Part 19

Introduction: Don't Let Galatians 6 Undermine Paul's Message of Grace

Jed Gillis: Galatians chapter six. As we come towards the end of this book, we get to what might be the most familiar passage in the whole book of Galatians, and I think it also might be the most dangerous one, because it's possible to understand this passage in a way that would rob the power of Paul's message of grace. And maybe even not just rob the power of it, but maybe completely undermine his message of grace.

Perhaps if you're familiar with the book of Galatians, perhaps the way we can tend to think of it is we think, well, God sells us all this great salvation stuff in the first two chapters, and it's wonderful thoughts about salvation by faith, and we're justified by faith alone and not by our works. Good. And then maybe you think chapter four, it goes on this little detour into some fascinating Old Testament stuff. And you might not know exactly why he does that, but you say, okay, I can read it. And then you get to chapter five and say, oh, I've heard of the fruit of the spirit. Sounds like a really good ideal. I'm not really sure how to do it in my life. I know I'm not perfect.

And then you get to chapter six, and it's almost like we can forget everything Paul said before this. And we hear, oh, you reap what you sow. I've heard that message before. And think that what Paul does is give us five and a half chapters and then get here and basically just say, here's a pile of good seed. Here's a pile of bad seed. Make sure you sow good seed. Make sure you don't do bad things or bad things will happen to you. As if that was really why Paul wrote the first five and a half chapters.

Or maybe we know better. We have a version of this that feels a little bit better to us and we think, yes, salvation by grace, justification, those are all good things that we leave in our past: I came to Christ at some point. And our future: I know I'll go to heaven because of what Jesus did for me. But we live like right now, my experience is not governed by grace. It's governed by reaping and sowing by which pile of seed I pick up and plant in Paul's image.

So we might think, yes, there's grace. God has favor towards me. We don't experience it on a day-to-day basis. We don't experience it like empowering, energizing joy because we think we relate to God in a purely mechanical, you did this bad, bad thing happened. You did this. That was good. Good thing happened. If we misunderstand Paul here, we could easily undermine his whole message of grace.

Reading Galatians 6

Jed Gillis: So I wanna invite you, we'll read the text first. I invite you to ask functionally, how do you think about Paul's message of reaping and sowing?

Beginning in verse six, he says, let the one who is taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches. Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. For whatever one sows that will he also reap 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. And let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season, we will reap if we do not give up. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

The Picture of Reaping and Sowing Seed

Jed Gillis: We're all familiar with this picture Paul uses and that's why he uses it. It's, it's very familiar. You know what it's like to plant a seed and get a plant, and maybe in our modern, not so agricultural world, maybe you've never actually done that, but in their world, they saw it all the time. He used the most basic picture he could come up with that everyone would know certain things about this principle. If you plant this kind of seed, you get this kind of plant. If I plant an apple seed, nobody expects a cucumber. We just know that's how it works.

Paul knew that. He knew that his readers would know, and you would know. If you plant a small seed, you don't get a mini plant. You plant a seed and you get a much bigger plant. Take a little acorn and you compare that to the oak tree. Paul knew everybody's going to understand what it's like. You plant a seed, you get something much bigger.

He assumes that you know, you need patience to see seeds grow. Maybe some of you with your kids, maybe you had them plant a seed for one of the first times, right? And they, they plant the seed and they water it and they go to bed and they run out the next day. They're disappointed because they don't yet understand what we understand. When you plant that seed, it takes time to see a harvest. See, this is all part of the core picture, and Paul doesn't spell all of that out for you because he assumes you know it. As soon as he says planting seeds, reaping, harvest, you know, all of those things.

What are Seeds in This Picture?

Jed Gillis: So what we need is not, Paul, give us the details of how agriculture works. What we need to know is, Paul, why are you using this comparison in the first place? What are you pointing us to? In this comparison then what are seeds? And perhaps, especially if you've been around church, if you've heard this passage of scripture before, you probably have an idea in your head already. But let's look at the text and see where, where does he actually tell us something about what it is we plant?

Notice verse nine. Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we faint not. So he says, don't grow weary of doing good. And that fits in the place in his picture of sowing because in due season you're gonna reap. Now that's a pretty general term. Doing good could cover a lot of things, but that's not as general as he was before that. In verse seven, whatever one sows that will he also reap.

Paul doesn't invite you to say, here's a list of five things in my life, whichever five you wanna pick, it really doesn't matter. He doesn't say, here's a specific list of five things that are good. Make sure you plant those and you'll get good results. He's drawing you to a much bigger principle, not a checklist of five things to do, but to say this is the pattern God and his wisdom has put in his world.

We know it when we play it. Seeds, apple seeds produce apple trees. He's going to tell you something like that about God's pattern to say there are certain things that you do, ways you can do good or do evil. With the general statement, whatever you do, I think we can broaden this out then and say anything that you take your mind, your energy, your hands, your thoughts, anything that you can control. You say, I'm gonna take this thought and I'm going to think it. It's a seed. I'm gonna take this action and I'm gonna do it. It's a seed. You take the time, energy, and mind. God has given you and you choose to do something and it's like picking up a seed from somewhere and planting it.

Paul's not giving you, here's what you do on Sunday morning. Here's what you do when you talk with fellow believers, but the rest of your life's different. He's saying, in all of your life, you're constantly thinking thoughts. You're constantly saying words, you're constantly doing things. You're constantly responding to someone, listening to someone. All of those actions and and millions more are covered in his picture here. You have opportunity to take the time you have, the energy you have, the resources you have. Take that thought, that action, and it's a seed. You plant it.

Sowing to the Flesh or to the Spirit

Jed Gillis: So the next question, if you say those are seeds, alright, you would probably, if you're like me, you would expect Paul to say, now here's the list of good seeds and here's the list of bad seeds. Make sure you pick up from the good pile and plant them. That's not what Paul does. He in fact draws your attention to something really important. In verse eight, he says, the one who sows to his own flesh.

In other words, he changes the picture, not here's a pile of seeds. That's good, and here's a pile of seeds that's bad. He says in the picture, where do you plant the seed? Do you plant it? The word two could be into as well. It's translated that way. Do you take that seed and plant it into the flesh or into the spirit. He doesn't draw your attention primarily here to the seed itself, but to where it's planted, or in the metaphor, maybe we could say how it's planted.

You take the seed and this is the way it works with all seed. You put it in the ground and you expect a return. If I take an apple seed, put it in the ground, I expect that ground to through natural processes and sunlight and water and all these different things, and maybe I fertilize it, and all those different things we can do. I put the seed in expecting a return from that ground.

So this is his question, not what's the list of bad things and the list of good things so I know I can manipulate God to get me what I want. But when you take your thoughts and your actions and you, you act, you do these things, you plant them, what are you looking to to give you a return? Where do you plant it? Are you looking for what Paul describes here as flesh to give you a return? Or are you looking to spirit to give you a return?

What Does Paul Mean by Flesh and Spirit?

Jed Gillis: And maybe you say. Maybe you're really familiar with Galatians and you say, I think I have an idea what flesh and spirit means. Maybe you're not. Maybe it's the first time you've heard this section of scripture, so we need to pause and go, wait, Paul, what do you mean flesh and spirit? Like I could have ideas about that, but I wanna know what Paul's ideas are about that.

So if we were to go back, we could trace it through the whole book. But let's just go to chapter four and verse 23. We went through this a few weeks ago. If you wanna go back on our website and catch the sermon from this section, you could see it. This looks back at Abraham and the way that he tried to trust in God's promise. God had given him a promise of offspring and instead of Abraham saying, I trust God to fully bring about his promise in his way at his time, Abraham instead goes through this other process where he says, I'm going to do my best to bring about the result of this promise in my strength.

And Paul describes that in four verse 23. He says there's a, a son of the slave woman that's the one. Abraham tried to do this in his own strength. It says, was born according to the flesh. Abraham says, I'm gonna trust God's promise in theory, but I'm gonna do it my way. That's what Paul describes as according to the flesh. He's relying on him himself to bring about God's promise. Now, he would've said, I'm trusting God's promise, but he's really relying on himself to do it. The contrast is the son of the free woman was born through promise.

There's a way that you can even think or try to rely on God's promise that is actually according to flesh in Galatians when you're relying on yourself and instead of finding rest in God's promise, God is going to do this. He has shown favor to me. Abraham says, no, I, I'm going to take the rest of my soul into my own hands. As we've gone through Galatians, I've used this word rest a lot. It's rendered on the front of your bulletin. I don't mean by the way that you should take more naps, although that could be good, but that that's not really the point.

What I mean is this, what of us in our lives we feel unrest, unease. Think about the fears that keep nagging at you, the worries that you say, well, it's hard not to worry when this happens. That pressure. Think about when you say, well, it's hard not to be angry when this person does this. That pressure, that's what I mean by unrest. Unease.

There's this pressure on our souls. We feel maybe it's danger. My soul won't be safe if I don't do this, which feels okay to us, except when we phrase it the other way and we say, my soul can't really rest, can't really be safe because I can't trust God to keep it safe.

When we go through this book, really when I say Abraham didn't rest in God's favor, I'm saying he felt this pressure. God said, this promise is gonna happen and I really want it to happen, and instead of saying my soul is safe in God, he said, I'm taking it into my own hands. That's what Paul describes as according to the flesh in chapter four.

We get to chapter five, he paints this extended picture. He says, within us, within every person who's a follower of Jesus, there's this impulse, this flesh, this desire to trust myself, to rely on myself in everything. He paints the picture. He says, there's this flesh inside us. There are certain desires that come from that because I have to rely on myself. Well, I really want to make sure everybody sees me exactly the way I want to portray myself. I'm gonna make sure my soul's safe because I want to make sure you can't see who I really am. And so that leads to action. So we have flesh, which has desires, which has actions, which he lists as works of the flesh, which include things like anger and enmity and envy and all this bitter fighting.

In his picture, you say, well, you've got that inside of follower of Jesus, you have not only flesh and its desires and its actions, you have the spirit of God. Who has desires and fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and he goes on.

This is the picture from chapter five when Paul says, alright, we've got flesh and we've got spirit. What on earth are those two things? We have to know that when we get to chapter six, because Paul says, the thing that matters about the seed you plant is, do you plant it to the flesh or do you plant it to the spirit?

So if we were to say in Paul's argument, the flesh describes my efforts to control things myself. I trust in myself, I rely on myself, I protect myself. It's not God who keeps me safe. It's me. It's flesh.

Throughout Galatians. The other side of that is when the spirit of Jesus within our souls, we have distress, we have difficulty. We feel the pressure and the weight. And we say, father, that's what chapter three said. Chapter four said, God's spirit in our sons cries out, father. And we say, God, I know that you have favor towards me because you've given me your spirit and you gave your son for me, and he died on the cross for me. That trust is what he describes as spirit.

What Separates the Seed?

Jed Gillis: Alright, so return to Galatians six, eight with me, with that framework in mind when he says, whoever sows to the flesh or whoever sows to the spirit, what separates the seed? It's what you're looking to for a return.

So if you take a seed, a thought, an action, a word or anything like that, and you plant it, you say this thing, you think this thought, you do it. If you're doing it expecting a return from self-reliance or self-trust, he tells you the result. You'll find what you will reap is not a good harvest, but corruption.

Say, okay, that's a lot of words. Help me understand what that looked like in in real life. It could look like this. It could be that you're going to plant a seed that's clearly wrong. You say, I've got a group of friends around me. This group of people thinks badly of me, and I don't like that. I feel the pressure of this disapproval in my soul, and I think they're unjust to think that. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna slander this other person. Why? So that I look better. Okay. Slander. I'm taking a seed. I'm planting it. I'm not planting it saying God's gonna take care of me. I'm planting it, saying my words will protect me. So I'm planting the seed according to flesh.

Or maybe you think I'm gonna guarantee that my soul feels okay. I feel all these pressures. I'm gonna make sure I feel okay whether I solve the problems or not. So I'm gonna run to all kinds of addictive behaviors. Immorality, drugs, alcohol, mindless scrolling, binge watching, unhealthy obsessions with food. Why do we chase all that stuff? Because we feel this pressure in our soul and we say, I am gonna make sure I don't feel bad. How am I gonna feel better? I'm gonna chase some of this other stuff that is addictive and numbing.

Now we know those are not sowing to the spirit. We instinctively get that. If you've read through Galatians, you go, yeah, you're, you're doing something and you're ex, you're trusting yourself in your own efforts to make sure you feel okay. That's one way to sow to the flesh, but it doesn't have to be something that looks bad on the outside.

This is Paul's brilliance in the way he wrote this section. He doesn't draw your attention to the type of seed. He could have done that. He could have said, don't plant bad seeds. Don't slander, don't, don't pursue drugs. Don't mindlessly scroll dumb things. Don't do all that stuff. He could have given you all the actions. He wouldn't have said scroll 'cause he didn't know what that was. He could have done that. But Paul didn't leave you a pile of good seed and a pile of bad seed. That's not what he draw your mind draws your mind to.

Instead he says. What are you looking to for your return? Where are you planting the seed? Because we know slander is bad, so we know that's planting according to the flesh. What we might miss is a situation like this. You might think I'm going to say all the right things. I'm gonna show up at church. I'm gonna sing all the songs. I'm gonna lift my hands while we sing. I'm gonna speak all the God talk. I'm gonna do that in order to manipulate and control the way others view me. So nobody looks down on me. I don't have to feel disapproval. I've been hurt before when people found out about problems that I have and I'm not gonna be hurt again.

Now you're saying all the right things. But if what you're doing is saying, I'm gonna control how all this works out, so my soul is safe, you're still planting it according to the flesh.

Give you an example from my life. The worst experience I ever had preaching. I got up, I started preaching. Halfway through the sermon, I literally was thinking I want to be anywhere else doing anything else. I'm really grateful. That's only one experience. But I did, I felt like that and I'm really grateful for brothers here 'cause I came off and somebody said something to me and I just immediately like, that was really hard. They said, well, let's talk later. We did. And by the time I left that Sunday morning, two brothers had said, let's talk later. Had really good conversations and God used it in my life. But you know what happened? And the reason it felt bad to me was I was preaching. It looked like sowing a good seed. I was preaching stuff from God's word, but I was doing it in my mind, relying on myself to bring about a result. I'm gonna preach the sermon that's going to be really powerful and really effective because I did it.

If I only view seeds as a good pile and a bad pile, I don't have a category for that. But that's not what it was. I took a seed that looked good, but I was planting it according to the flesh, according to self-reliance. I was gonna get a return from my work and God mercifully said, no, you're not.

In Galatians, it might have been the church is tempted to say, if I follow after the Mosaic law, if I keep all this great performance, which God gave the Mosaic law, it wasn't bad. But if I keep all this stuff, then I'm more right with God. They said I'm taking good looking seeds, but I'm planting in self-trust. I'm planting according to the flesh.

This might look like for you. You say, I am going to be so interested in other people. I'm going to be, they come, they talk to me. I ask 'em how they're doing. I keep up with it. I am so focused on others that I'm never gonna really share who I am. They're never gonna know any flaws I have. In fact, I don't even wanna look at what's going on inside me. So by planting good seeds, I love you. I wanna hear you. I care about you. I'm actually relying on myself to keep my soul safe.

These are some examples, and you could go further and further and multiply hundreds and thousands of examples. But what I want you to see is Paul didn't give you, here's a list of bad things and said, don't do them although that is true, and scripture has some of those. What he drew your attention to is there's a way to plant a seed relying on self that will produce a bad result. It doesn't matter if the seed looks good or looks bad. If you think I have this like Abraham, I'm going to trust God's promise, but I'm really not. I'm actually gonna trust myself to bring about God's promise.

Parents. I think we're tempted in this very often. We wanna raise our kids to be good, godly people, and it can be easy to say, I've got all the steps. I know the right way to do this. I know I'm gonna make sure my child turns out this way. How's that worked for you?

You say, but I did the right things. I mean, I was like reading the Bible together and we were talking and we were having good conversations and. Yeah, but you don't have control. You're not God and the flesh just means I'm planting maybe some of the exact same seeds, but I'm saying I'm gonna sit in God's place. I'm in control.

What defines good seed is not necessarily the external action, it's that you plant it expecting a return from resting in God's grace in his favor to you. Or we could say it's planted in faith. That's what resting in grace really means.

This is the same thing Paul said in Romans chapter 14. He said, um, whatever does not come from faith is sin. It's like Paul, didn't, you mean like whatever is bad is sin? No, he didn't mean that. He said there's a root underneath this and it can look good, but actually not be from faith. And according to Romans 14, it's sin. It can look like a good seed, but actually not be resting in God's grace. And according to Galatians six, you won't have the harvest you want.

What Do You Reap if Sowing to the Flesh?

Jed Gillis: So when you do so to the flesh, when you do something, whether it looks good or not, and you say, I'm trusting myself to protect my soul, to make sure everything is exactly like it should be. What harvest do you expect?

Well, verse eight says, you reap corruption. This word literally could be paraphrased disintegration, but that sounds a little science fictiony. So I know why they didn't translate it that way. He means if you sow seeds like that, things fall apart. That's what disintegration means. They fall apart.

In fact, that's what you find in chapter five. There's a list of works of the flesh. Sometimes we think these are the seeds and they can be, but they're really the result. You say, if you sow to the flesh in reliance on self, what are the, what's the harvest you get? Well, things like chapter five and. In verse 20, strife, jealousy, anger, rivalry, divisions, envy, drunkenness, stuff falls apart. When we sow to the flesh that's what we should expect.

And he's pretty strong in his language in verse seven of chapter six, don't be deceived. God is not mocked. If you try to control your life like that. If you keep planting seeds, depending on yourself to manipulate and to control so that your soul feels safe, you will reap something. Things will fall apart. That's true now, and it's even more true looking at the ultimate corruption and decay after death.

Value Spiritual Instruction

Jed Gillis: Now, I used a bunch of examples, but we don't have to imagine our own. Paul did give us one from verse six. He says, let the one who has taught the word share all good things with the one who teaches.

Here's his principle, which is true here. It's true in Corinthians, he says, spiritual good is valuable just like physical good is valuable. God's people should value spiritual things alongside physical things. That's the big principle. We might be tempted to value physical food more than spiritual food. Although when you go through deep discouragement, you find out how quickly spiritual encouragement helps you. Probably more than most meals, the temptation might be to value care for your physical body more than care for your immortal soul.

This isn't by the way about Paul saying, I wanna monetize spiritual ministry. Like this is the way, you know YouTube throws their ads up to monetize your channel after a certain point. That's not what he's doing. It's not about monetizing it. It's about valuing it. First Corinthians nine, Paul says, if we have sown spiritual good among you, is it too much if we reap material benefits. Paul says, look, spiritual good is good. So our physical things. So we should value both.

Paul's point because he goes right into reaping and sowing after this. His point is not a Christianized version of pagan witchcraft where you can manipulate God by your offerings, which you're gonna see plenty of places. People who use the prosperity Gospel to steal money from God's work and God's people. That's not what he's saying. He's not saying, look, make sure that you give to somebody somewhere to make sure that God blesses you more. This is not pagan witchcraft.

What he's saying is physical burdens and spiritual burdens are both real and to help each other bear both physical burdens and spiritual burdens is valuable. He doesn't lead you to think of this in an external way. I gave money, therefore God has to give me more stuff. Now what he's saying is, are you the kind of person who values spiritual instruction so that you say, I'm giving not to rely on myself so that I manipulate my world. That would be sowing according to the flesh, and you should expect corruption.

Instead to say, no, I'm sowing. I'm giving to people around me. I'm loving people around me. Why? Because I trust God's grace. That's where the return's gonna come from. This is the way I reflect my God, and so I'm excited about fellowshipping with him and walking with him.

Growing a Garden Takes Time

Jed Gillis: Maybe at this point you think, wow, Pastor Jed, thanks for the encouragement. First you say, I can expect consequences for my bad actions. Then you tell me I might expect consequences for things that I thought were good. And then you point out giving. Thanks a lot.

And maybe God's spirit is working to convict you, to draw your attentions to things that you are sowing in, in self-trust, in anxiety, in control, in manipulation. And if so, that conviction's not bad. What we want to do is look at this text and say, what do I do with this conviction?

So a couple things that hopefully are encouraging at the end of this section. One Paul frames this after chapter five, where he tells you there's gonna be a battle within you. He is not saying, Hey, as long as you're perfect, as long as you sow to the spirit all the time, then you're set. Man, if you sow one thing to the flesh, God's ready to smack you. That's not what he's doing.

No. He says, look, there is this conflict within you. This text is not about salvation. By seed counting like how many good seeds do I plant? How many bad did I plant? Oh, good. I'm okay right now. That's not what Paul is doing at all. What he's doing when he says in verse eight, the one who sows to his own flesh, that present tense, the one who sows, he's saying, this is your pattern. This is your continued action. It's what you're pursuing in your life. I want to sow not to the flesh, to self-reliant to the spirit.

And so maybe you're, here, you go. I do want that, but I know I'm not perfect. So what am I supposed to do about that?

Well, think about the picture he uses. Think about a garden. If you've got a, a garden that was on your property 10 years ago and you haven't done anything with it for 10 years, you probably can't even tell it was a garden. We all know there's weeds all over it. We know what it looks like. If you say, well, I really want to have a good garden. What do you have to do?

Get to work. Get the tiller out. Start digging up weeds. Put fertilizer on it. Now, put that in your life. You say, first thing I gotta do, I wanna stop the bad seeds from spreading. So you say, I'm gonna cut down all the weeds before they flower out and, you know, create more problems for me.

So in your life you say there's sinful actions, there's, there's things I've been planting to the flesh. There's ways of manipulating and controlling that I've been doing. I wanna stop that. Why? Does that solve all the problems? Is it mechanical? No, but it's just, I wanna stop spreading the weeds.

And then you say, I need to uproot these weeds. Maybe there's patterns in your life, in your relationships where you say, I've planted bad seeds into my marriage for 20 years or 30 years, and I've complained, and I've insulted, and I've manipulated. And maybe you sit here and say, I've been planting those seeds, and this isn't a weed, it's a giant oak tree in the middle of this garden, I want to grow something else.

What do you do first? Stop spreading the seeds. And then you might have to go get your chainsaw out. It doesn't have to be in your marriage, but it might be. And you go to that person and you say, look, I know this is wrong, and I know I've planted these bad seeds. I don't want that to be there. Walk with me to the throne of God and ask him to tear this down.

You say, I want a good harvest in the garden of my life. So stop spreading bad seeds and say, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to cut out the stuff that has grown, that is a problem.

And then plant seeds, verse 10. So then as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are the household of faith. He says, go do good. Get started planting good seeds, you say, I don't think they'll receive it very well. I've planted a lot of bad seeds. That's like saying this garden's just way too far gone. We all know how we work on a garden. Start pulling up weeds, start planting good seeds.

Start fertilizing it. How do you do that in your soul? Well, God's word's a great place to start. Prayer. It's not too far gone.

That's part of the encouragement because God didn't give you this text to discourage you. How do you know that Pastor Jed? I mean, it sounds like it. Well, look at how he ends. Verse nine says, let us not grow weary of doing good. His whole point, Paul writes this to say, you should be encouraged. Keep going because God has made it so that the smallest things, the smallest actions and thoughts and time and words and resources, the smallest things are like seeds that can grow to something fruitful and wonderful.

God made his word world this way. He made plants work like that so that you would see it. And so that you could say, I want to plant seeds to the spirit. Resting in the grace of God saying the return for this kind word I'm going to say is not that I manipulated my situation, it's that God has favor towards me and he loves me.

So I say this kind word and say, God, I I love that you love your children. What good would you do for me? How will you help me? We trust in him. We rest in him. So keep going. Don't grow weary. He says, that doesn't mean you won't get tired. It sounds a little bit weird to us. We're like, I get pretty tired doing good. He doesn't mean don't grow tired. He means don't give up. That's the way it's translated in others, another text. Don't lose heart. We get tired doing good. God is the only one who never slumbers and never sleeps. He's the only one who doesn't need rest. We get tired doing good, but this text says, don't give up.

So hear me carefully. You haven't broken this command. If you feel tired doing good. If you think that you won't be real with yourself, you won't admit when it is hard, you won't be open with others.

Instead, God gives us these pictures to remind us that Christian life is not supposed to be easy. He didn't design it that way here on this side of heaven, if you think Gardening's easy, I recommend you not try it. But he gave you that picture. Gardening is difficult, so what he does is encourage you and says, God is a good God. He's not mocked. If you keep planting good seed, guess what comes up? Good plants.

If you keep planting good thoughts and good actions and good words, and you say it doesn't seem like it's doing any good, in fact it seems like everything's getting worse, go to your Father. Go to God, say, God, I want to be planting, relying on your spirit. Help me to do it, and help me not to give up and trust that God really is not mocked. Doing good makes you tired, but don't give up. Don't lose heart. Expect a return from God's grace to you through Jesus. And the scripture says, you will reap, you will harvest good if you don't give up.

So I wanna invite you to take a moment and respond to God in prayer. As we do that, we're also gonna celebrate something here at the end of the service. We have a couple people for baptism today. Um, so I'll invite. Those people and, and those who are coming to help them. Um, I'll invite them to go ahead and come on up and head back down here and we'll get ready for baptism, but I'll invite you if you just respond in prayer as they do that, ask God to strengthen you, to continue doing good and to show you where, whether you are planting to the flesh or to the spirit in your life. I'll just give you a moment to respond and then I'll pray.

Closing Prayer

Jed Gillis: God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for your faithfulness. We pray that you would strengthen us to continue to do good. I pray for wisdom and insight in each heart where our hearts are complex. Our motivations are so complicated, hard to even figure out. I pray that you would give us clarity and wisdom. Help us to see your truth, your word as. Not just moral advice, but as your grace that flows to us, your favor toward us help us to plant good seed, expecting that the reward we get is not our control and our manipulation, but it's the smile of our Heavenly Father. I pray that you would guide us. To understand your word and that you would help us to celebrate as we enjoy this moment of baptism today. In Jesus' name, amen.

While we ahead and get ready, I'll invite, uh, John's gonna come, give us a couple announcements while we prepare for baptism,

uh, underneath.

Speaker 2: Amen. God is good all the time. All the time. God good. A few announcements this morning as we turn our attention to good things going on, um, and they prepare for baptism. Uh, we are actually, we're having a baptism this Sunday and next Sunday. Uh, so thank you for, um, those who are plugged into that. Um, thank you elders and team to, um, have an opportunity for that good grace to go forth.

It is also a sweet picture of the synergy of our campus as two of these three, uh, people are also students in Brien Christian School. And it's sweet to see the, uh, God's good word go forth in a lot of different ways. And so we'll be, um, here this Sunday and next Sunday. Another announcement. Um, Jason and Emily prt are gonna be moving toward membership, and so I'm giving a two week announcement.

Jason and Emily, they're on the front row there. Uh, if you don't know them, you should. And then, uh, we will bring them before the body in a few weeks for membership, but uh, touch base with them. And, um, if you are also interested in membership, we have a membership matters, uh, sequence or class to go through.

You can see myself or one of the elders or Pastor Jed for more information on that.

Um, this week, uh, coming up will be generally, uh, a regular week and then the following week will be a spring break week, will where we will be taking a break from our both Wes, our Tuesday and our Wednesday events. Uh, so this week is normal. Next week we'll be different because of our spring break. Uh, grace marriage is also an opportunity that our church uses to, uh, bless, uh, many different couples in many different ways, and there's a lot of premarital counseling goes on, and then there's sometimes there's crisis counseling that goes on, and this is an opportunity to be in the middle and to strengthen, uh, marriages.

If you're a couple and would like to know more about grace marriage, it's never too late. And so, uh, that, uh, mark your calendars, that is March 13th. Uh, Scott Goss, raise your hand. Uh, this coming, uh, Saturday is a men's ministry breakfast. Uh, thank you Scott. Thank you George for having a role in that. Uh, men mark your calendars for this coming Saturday.

And then there's also note about the ladies, uh, Passover meal coming up, and you can see Carolyn Christensen in the back for more information on that. Thank you for leading in that way. Our, uh, the school, uh, ministry right now is literally scattered around the world. We have a team in Japan right now. We have a team in Boston right now.

Uh, I think it's, is it Monday that they head to the Dominican Republic and then, um, a number of other places, including right here locally. So. That is really built on the prayer and leadership of the Berean Bible Church, uh, missions team because the specific to the, uh, Dominican Republic trip and there's a Appalachian mission trip going on, and then a number of the other trips are missional and touring, but it is a sweet thing.

I, myself will be going on the eighth grade trip to Williamsburg coming up, and then our sixth and seventh graders head to Nashville. Uh, this, uh, at this coming week as well. If you want more information for prayer or encouragement, there's a flyer out back, uh, for all the trips going on, and, uh, we look forward to God's good work, um, taking forth, taking place there.

Uh, you can see the general announcements coming up. Uh, we do have spring break, not this week, but next week. That is also our Homeschool Ministries testing week. And so raise your hand if you're involved with the Bri and Christian Homeschool and ISP program in here. There's a lot of, of our church body that is doing that, and so that is a sweet opportunity.

The, the day school takes a break, the homeschool comes in and does standardized testing. And it's, uh, so that'll be next week. Um, also there's, it's actually not listed here. There is a, um, dyslexia executive, uh, function and a DD conference, uh, that we're gonna be hosting in mid-April. So if you, uh, either anyone is an that, that's an open invitation to our church body as well as our school body, as well as our homeschool body in order for us to encourage and bring in, uh, leadership and training on dyslexia and a DD.

I think that's it for our general announcements. There is a note there about prayer, and we can certainly pray for, uh, the Ukraine and we can add to that the conflicts, uh, currently, uh, uh, going on in this world as Pastor Judd started this morning. So let's continue to pray for, um, God's good work, um, there.

And there's a specific opportunity for prayer and strengthening a theological seminary.

I think that's it for general announcements. Pause with me. Let me confirm that they're ready back here.

Let me turn our attention to scripture, uh, as they are making final preparations. This is a, um, passage in Psalm one 19, uh, starting in verse 33. To parallel the Galatians six touch. It is great seeds to plant, and it is a great prayer that these people will be sharing as well as an opportunity for us as a body to respond.

So this is Psalm 1, 19 33 through 40. Teach, teach me a Lord the way of your statutes and I will keep it to the end. Give me understanding that I may observe your law and observe it with my whole heart. Lead me in the path of your commandments for a delight in it. Incline my heart to your testimonies and not to selfish gain.

Turn my eyes from looking at worthless things. Give me life in your ways. Confirm to your servant your promise that you may be feared. Turn away the approach that I dread for the rules, for your rules are good. Behold, I long for your precepts in your righteousness. Give me life. Let's pray. Father, these are great prayers for people being baptized.

They are great prayers for each of us in the Christian walk. I ask that you would plant these seeds in our life that they may bear good fruit. I pray, father, that you would also encourage one another with these good points of good fruit. We as Christians are not meant to live it alone. We are meant to live in a community and a body.

So thank you for the testimony of baptism and salvation, and the opportunity for your good work to go forth. Thank you for this morning in your precious name, amen.

Jed Gillis: In baptism. So I'm gonna ask you, uh, Charlotte, as we, as we prepare, this is your trust in Jesus and in Jesus alone for your.

Charlotte: It is.

Yes.

Jed Gillis: And then do you want to follow him? All of your life? All the way to glory

Charlotte: Yes.

Jed Gillis: Amen. And I wanna ask you, congregation, would you, if you would, would you say amen.

Would you be part of the great cloud of witnesses that would say to Charlotte with your life, that Jesus is worth following and that he can carry you all the way to the end? If that's what you want to do, would you say Amen?

Congregation: Amen.

Jed Gillis: Amen. Then on the profession of your faith. Sister, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Buried with him in his death,

raised to walk in new of life.

Amen. Amen.

Isaias Viñales: Chloe Halstead It's been a, uh, such a joy and such a privilege to get to know her and her family. To point her to Christ and all things to pray with her, and ultimately to see her come to faith. Just several months ago, I was reminded just this morning that there's more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over 99 righteous persons who need no repentance.

And so what an awesome opportunity We have to see Chloe publicly profess that Jesus Christ is her Lord and Savior, and that she's, she belongs to King Jesus. What an awesome thing that is. So Chloe, I'm gonna ask you a couple questions. Have you repented of your sins and placed your faith in Christ alone for your salvation?

Chloe: Yes.

Isaias Viñales: And do you desire to follow him by his help and grace all the days of your life?

Chloe: Yes.

Isaias Viñales: Amen. And it is my joy and privilege sister to baptize you and the name of the father. And of the son and of the Holy Spirit buried with him in the likeness of his death and raised to walk in newness of life.

Jed Gillis: And I wanna ask you the same question 'cause I want Chloe to hear us from you too. If you want to be part of the cloud of witnesses, to say Jesus is worth following all the way to the grave and beyond to glory, would you say? Amen. Amen.

Congregation: Amen.

Jed Gillis: Amen. Good. You stand and join me in singing the doxology.

Congregation: Praise God from whom all blessings flow Praise Him all.

Creatures.

here below Praise him

above ye heavenly host

Praise Father Son and Holy Ghost

Jed Gillis: Amen. We had one more who was gonna be baptized this morning and they had some sickness to the family, so we're gonna do the same thing again next week with one. And I would say, Jesus message, there's, there's plenty of room. If you think I want to do that in my life, or I'd like to talk with the elders about being baptized, there's another opportunity next week.

We'd love to talk with you. Thank you for being with us this morning.