Encore - 1046 - Begin With the End in Mind - Galatians 6:7-8

This is an Encore episode of the Follower of One podcast from our archives. We are on a short break.

Welcome back to the Follower of One podcast. I'm your host, Mike Henry, Sr. Thanks for joining me today. I'd like to continue our conversation. in Galatians 6. Today I want to read verses 7 and 8 from the English Standard Version.

"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."

I titled this podcast "Begin With the End in Mind."  And that's from Stephen Covey's book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. But the idea originates here in scripture, and I think it might even predate this. The apostle Paul though is reminding us that whatever we sow we also reap. This is a farming analogy.

Our point is that if you put a seed in the ground, that's, what's going to grow whatever seed you put in there. That's what's going to grow. So, if you want a particular crop, you have to plant that crop. Well in our lives, we only have two choices. I don't know if you notice here, but this is very limiting.

There are only two choices. Either we sow to the Spirit, or we sow to the flesh. Everything that's not us asking God for direction, everything that's not us looking to God for guidance, it's our flesh. It's what we want. There are only two gods on this planet, the God of the universe and me. And if I'm God, this whole thing doesn't work.

But if he's God, then we get from the Spirit what we sow. We get eternal life. Also, the word's eternal life here in this translation and in others, remind me of a great book by John Ortberg Eternity Is Now In Session. We actually experience our eternal life. When we walk with Jesus when we go through our day with him. When we're sowing to the Spirit, we experience the eternal life now. Those of us who trust Jesus, we have the opportunity to live in our eternal life or to live in the temporal life.

In 2 Corinthians 4:18, it says that the things that are unseen are eternal, but the things that are seen are temporal.  That's not an exact quote, but my point is, if I can see it, if it's something that's going on, it's not eternal. If it's all the things that we can see and touch and feel they'll burn up. But all the things that we do because we listened to the Spirit, those things last forever.

So, what's the application for us today? Today, I want to challenge you as you go to work, whoever you interact with today, remember to pray for them before you start. Remember to ask God to show you how he would have you interact with them.

Ask him to give you ideas for questions to ask. The Lord will give us questions. He will guide us to ask things that will cause other people to share information with us so that we might appreciate them more and express that appreciation and help them feel appreciated. And we may also find ways to serve them.

Those are our action items. And then, because we practiced being able to explain that Jesus is the motive behind everything that we do, we can also speak when someone asks. These are our daily activities that we talk about in Follower of One. It all begins with prayer. We can't sow to the Spirit unless we know the Spirit, unless we're chasing after Jesus and listening to God. Today, let's sow to the Spirit and watch him transform our lives.

We will reap eternal life, not at some point in the future, but even today, you may experience some.