Sowing to The Spirit Reel 3

'Bringing in the Sheaves'... --hard work involved... --hard work involved in sowing and cultivation... --collection and distribution. Sowing in the morning, Sowing seeds of kindness, Sowing in the noontide, And the dewy eve. Johanna, could I call on you to sightread a song in two flats? Do you think you could do that? That would be Bb, wouldn't it? Would you mind? "Bringing in the Sheaves?" Or would you rather defer to Patrice? [Johanna] Oh, yes. She's shaking her head, "No.." "Come, let us reason together." Patrice... OK! [to Patrice] It's not in your hymnal. Don't even bother looking. They ditched this song. Somebody ought to write the Trustees... [indignant Southern Baptist] "What?! You took "Bringing in the Sheaves" out of the Baptist Hymnal?! It's not there anymore, folks. I don't know if it is doctrinally wrong... --or if they just figured, "Well, the young people aren't singing it anymore." But do you know what? The young people were singing this song. It was in one of the "Texas Massacre" movies. It was in Simpsons several times. It was one of the Ingal's favorites in "Little House on the Prairie." The Buddy Holly Story... the Crickets... They are found singing "Bringing in the Sheaves" Frank Zappa used it: Bringing in the Sheaves. Really, if you're gonna ditch a song... --maybe you shouldn't ditch one that is being used... --so much still out in the popular culture... --probably because they don't have to pay royalties. [to Faye] Yes, Ma'am? [Faye] I used to sing "Bringing in the Sheep" Bringing in the Sheep... Bringing in the Sheep... I think I thought about that but I knew it wasn't 'sheep'... [Faye] I found out it wasn't. That was Faye McKinley. She got saved at age 28 and started teaching Sunday School the same year. [Faye] I was teaching before then. Teaching before you got saved? Something should have been done about that. [to Clyde] What, Clyde? [Clyde] Sheaves are no longer used today in the agricultural field. OK, this is a schoolteacher talking. Let us let him have his moment... [Clyde] Sheaves are no longer used in the agricultural fields today. It is a bundle of straw with grain on it. I know. I was thinking about that, Clyde. When I was a teenager, I got to bale hay one day... --and I don't think I was rejoicing. "Baling the hay... Baling in the hay" It was not a 'rejoicing' time. It was kinda like climbing up "a mountain that I cannot climb." Alright, let's sing that a little bit. People, sing along with us. [to Patrice] Give us a little introduction... OK, let's sing it together. Sowing in the morning, Sowing seeds of kindness, Sowing in the noontide And the dewy eve; Waiting for the harvest, And the time of reaping, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves. Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves; Bringing in the sheaves, Bringing in the sheaves, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves. Thank you, Patrice... Thank you, Bell Road Baptist... I never saw the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movies... --but I know some of you did. I would not recommend that you go out and get it... --just so you could hear this song, OK? And I wouldn't even recommend that you go get The Simpsons DVD collection... --just so you could hear this song. "Little House on the Prairie", I think, is home-school approved. Frank Zappa? Maybe not. Whoever sows to please their flesh... --from the flesh will reap destruction. Whoever sows to please the Spirit... --from the Spirit will reap eternal life. That song said, "I'm sowing in the morning." I'm sowing seeds of kindness. I'm sowing at noontime... --and the dewy evening. I'm waiting for the harvest and the time of reaping... --because we shall come rejoicing... --as we're bringing in this harvest. Whoever sows to the flesh... There's a whole lot of sowing to the flesh... --planting seeds to the flesh going on in our lives... WHY? Because we are prosperous Americans. We can afford Big Screen TVs and DVD players... We can go to Red Box every night looking for something to watch. There's very few DVDs out there that will sow to the Spirit in your life. Oh, you might be able to find some spiritual application but more of them... --they might not be as bad as the Texas Chainsaw Massacre... (or '***') They might not be that bad for you... but there's something... --the way people live lives in America. When I went to Indonesia in 1995, somebody asked one of our young ladies there... "Is this true... that in America, the people go to bed together on the first date?" Now, where did an Indonesian person get that idea to ask that question: "Is it true that in America, the people go to bed together on their first date?" You don't see very many movies...at all.. --where 'dating' is viewed as something to prepare yourself for marriage, God's way... --unless it is some low-budget, Christian film. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction. Remember, I asked you to think about whatever it is that has been tugging at your heart? Now, ask yourself... Have you been following 'that' tug? --the one from the Spirit? ...or is there some 'tug' that is coming from the other Kingdom? --even more than one tug... coming from the other Kingdom... --trying to distract you from the Spirit's tug? Let me warn you... from God's Word here... Galatians 6:8... If you sow the seed to the flesh, you will reap the 'same kind' of thing you have sown... You will reap 'more' than you have sown... --and you will reap sometime 'after' you have sown. So, you might go, "You know what? God doesn't seem to have a problem with it... --because I'm going along in my life, just fine, doing what I'm doing." But watch out! What you sow today will be reaped sometime in the future. It will be the 'same kind' of stuff... and there will be 'more' of it. If you're sowing bad stuff... even I thought about this as a young father. Sometimes using my tone of voice (and my masculine authority in the home) to get 'order'... --by raising my voice and just calling whatever sort of drama was going on... --by a shout or a loud voice. The Holy Spirit spoke to this young father and said... "He who sows to the flesh will from the flesh reap destruction." I knew that if I continued in a pattern like that... --justifying it once, twice, three times... If I continued in a pattern like that then I could could be 'cursing' the future generations... --by passing along something that they learned from old Grandpa... or Great-Grandpa... --that has been passed down from generation to generation. I would rather break 'generational curse'... --and start something new... --plant a seed to the Spirit in the form of discipline in the household... --or in the form of bringing order to a rioutous condition... Because 'whoever sows to please the Spirit... --from the Spirit will reap eternal life. As I prayed about this, this week... I thought, "I'm already saved...so why would I need to sow seeds to the Spirit to reap eternal life?" I got saved because of what Jesus did for me on the Cross. When I received Christ as my Savior... He gave me the Spirit... --as a deposit... --guaranteeing the redemption... --that is to come. I don't have to 'work'... --go out and knocking on doors... --inviting the 'unchurched' to come... --to my church... in order to be saved. So, why would I sow seeds to the Spirit... 'to reap eternal life'...? That is because of the harvest... The 'same kind' of thing that happened to me... I will 'reap' the 'same kind' of seed... --'more' of it... --sometime 'later' (after I have sown). That's 'the purpose'. We have this declaration in our Covenant... --that we will PRAY for the church to grow. --that we will INVITE the unchurched to attend. --and that we will WARMLY WELCOME those who visit. How much better it would be to not expect Sunday mornings... --Sunday School, or the Worship Service, or the Preaching... --to save a soul... but for YOU to do that work of personal evangelism... --where you plant the seed... --or you get to pick the fruit that is ripe for the picking... --that somebody else sowed. Then, YOU get to bring that brand new baby Christian to church WITH you... --to meet some people who will warmly welcome them. Saved... but still 'unchurched'. Sowing in the sunshine, Sowing in the shadows, Fearing neither clouds, Nor winter’s chilling breeze; By and by the harvest, And the labor ended, We shall come rejoicing, Bringing in the Sheaves. "Special Ministries Camp" begins one week from tomorrow. We still need a Registered Nurse... --on a portion of Tuesday night, Wednesday, and a portion of Thursday. We believe that God had given us everything we need to do the Ministry He has called us to. "Special Ministries" is a gift to Bell Road Baptist Church. I don't know of another church in Auburn that has what we have... -- in the area of ministry on a weekly basis to people with special needs... --and then this 'annual' basis of a 'Special Ministries Camp'... --that is truly an 'outreach'... --over 40 people registered as campers... --to be taught for an entire week... to be loved on! So, would you join us today to PRAY and to consider 'who is the RN?'... --or 'who are those RNs who will stand in the gap? And if you feel that little tug on your heart... I did it... this week. I went the extra 'two sentences'... --when I met somebody after a prayer meeting... --and said we were praying 7 days a week. I was talking about how good it is to pray... --to see what comes in the harvest of seeds of prayer. I said, "Well, for instance, we need an RN (Registered Nurse)... We're praying about an RN. She goes... "Oh, well, uh..." This is somebody we met down at Rite-Aid... --after a prayer meeting one night. Linda says, "I don't know... but I'll ask at work tomorrow." I said, "Where do you work?" She said, "Sutter Roseville." (a nearby hospital) I don't know if anything is going to come of that. I had done what I was supposed to do. Will you be on the lookout for an RN or an LPN who can help out? There are other needs... Patrice will be down here at the Altar at the end of our Service today. There are other needs that you might be able to fill in... --or there might be somebody with special needs who needs to have a church family. What if the ratio goes to where 'the majority' of the people at BellRoad are people with 'special needs'? Uh... Folks, that is already true. The majority of people at BellRoad have 'special needs'. All of us. Every single person here needs what God has to deliver through His people here. Going forth with weeping, Sowing for the Master, OK, so the third verse gets down to some serious stuff. You know, some of our songs are really fun... they're all about gettin' happy and clapping your hands. "Oh Happy Day... Happy Day..." That's great... because this one started out that way too... rejoicing. Some of the seeds are gonna be sown in times of mourning... in weeping. Going forth with weeping, Sowing for the Master, Though the loss sustained, Our spirit often grieves, When our weeping's over, He will bid us, 'Welcome!' We SHALL come rejoicing, Bringing in the sheaves. I don't know why that song didn't make it into the current hymnal... --but I'm glad that, on the Internet, Lord willing, this will be put out there... --and the song will be redeemed. I doubt that the people who first wrote the song... --and first published it... --and the people who first sang it as one of their favorite songs in church... --thought it would wind up in something, someday called a 'slasher movie'... --or poked at in a Simpsons cartoon... The truth is truth. We shall reap what we have sown. There is' the fishhook' and the Heart... --and there is a 'therefore' at the end of this passage. "Therefore"... --something for us to do. "Therefore, as we have 'blank'... let us 'blank-blank' to all people." Do you know something that is wonderful? I can safely say, "Every person in this room has OPPORTUNITY." Opportunity is something that... You might already KNOW what that is... For me, it was pulling out my cellphone and asking a young man... "Do you have your uncle's phone number?" He goes... "Yeah, I think I do." I got it... I put it in... and I called and left a message... ----for an 'unchurched' man whose Mother named him after Dwight L. Moody. Oh, I love thoughts like that... --that young man might be here someday. And when he is, there will be a whole group of people going up to him: "What's your name? Dwight?! We've been expecting you..." "Tell me your story... Were you really named after an Evangelist?" That's our church covenant... --firmly based in the Scriptures. Please remember about praying for the growth of the church... --and thinking about inviting 'unchurched' people to attend. --and being a warm, welcoming church... --maybe even 'interpreting' the church experience for somebody who comes from an age group.. -- that maybe wouldn't view what we are doing as 'normal' church. Share the bigger vision... --that we want to reach people from all ages and all backgrounds... --'churched' and 'unchurched'... --on Sunday mornings but probably, m --more importantly, during the other six days of the week. What are we singing today, Brother? What a Wonderful Maker. Let's stand together and sing. If you have not asked Jesus to be your Savior, I will be down at the front, ready to receive you... --if you would like to come and pray. Remember, if you are in trouble, you should pray. If you're happy, sing a song of praise. James went on to say, "If you're sick, call upon the elders of your church and they will pray for you." Come to the Altar. You spread out the skies, Over empty space, Said, "Let there be light..." To a dark and formless world, your life was born. You spread out your arms, Over empty hearts, Said, "Let there be light..." To a dark and hopeless world, Your Son was born."