God can speak wherever you are. Wherever your feet may carry you, you cannot outdistance the Word of God. I compose this morning’s message from a very unusual location. The 1st floor of the Tarrant County criminal courts building in downtown Fort Worth. No, I haven’t finally gotten caught, it’s time for jury duty. I reported this morning at 8:30 which meant leaving the house at 7:45, so my normal routine of writhing the 5MC was side-tracked. But that’s ok, I packed up my bible, commentary and laptop and planned to read, study and write as I sat in the many rooms, waiting to be appointed or dismissed. After check-in I opened God’s Word and started to let God speak to me through Galatians chapter 6.
As I started to read, I would glance around and really take in the scene. You know, that’s the awesome thing about God’s Word, it will not be isolated from this world. It is meant to be in this world. It is living and active and meant to change lives. The lives that sit around me right now. The life that is holding it.
You will never see much more of a diverse group than in a jury pool of over 150 people. People picked completely at random from all over a county that houses a little over 2 million people. All races, sexes, religions, ages, economic and social backgrounds sit within reach of me. I observe in these faces, something that is similar to what I’m feeling…no one really looks happy to be here. So why are all these people here? Why have they been plucked out of their normal daily routines and placed here? I think deeply. All these people are here to judge others that have done wrong. I ponder people’s inability to do right. People’s inability to do good. I continue in His Word and God speaks.
“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.” (Gal 6:8)
I am assembled here with this 150, to deal with people and their choices. Choices were made that necessitated us to be here and form juries that will try our fellow man. Choices that led to the breaking of the law and the conviction of the courts. There will be decisions made for these guilty individuals today that will be a result of their rebellious behavior weeks or months earlier. Today, they will reap what they have sown.
This verse is beyond powerful. It cannot be dismissed, it cannot be discounted, and it cannot be ignored. God is not mocked, it is truth to us all.
Several years ago before we left for Maui, Marge and I decided to plant a garden. We tilled the soil, mixed in nutrients, picked out our seed and then planted. Just like I learned from Memaw and Grandad, we carefully labeled our seeds so we could know later where we’d planted what. Do you know what? The squash plants produced beautiful yellow squash. The green bean plants produced nice big, fat green beans. You know, now that I recall, I never did pick a squash off the green bean plant. I did not see green beans growing on the tomato vine. You see, I reaped EXACTLY what I had sown. It’s a fact of life in the plant world and my friends, it’s a fact of life in our own lives. Are you sowing love? Anger? Patience? Self-control? Impurity? Jealousy? Strife? Kindness? Whatever it is, you WILL reap what you sow.
I look around at the jurors again. Some will soon be judging the fruit of others. Other's reckless regard of the law has produced fruit. They are in court to answer for their wrongs before man. It makes me think about what I’ve sown in my life, not before man but before God. I have done many things that I am not proud of. I have done things that have hurt others as well as myself. But there is forgiveness. My friends, I want to talk about the single biggest event that has ever taken place in history. An event that erases all the wrongs we have committed. An event that allows us to not reap the true penalty of our sin. The crucifixion, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
You see my sin nature left on its own will not ever allow me to be in the presence of God. Left on my own, I cannot go to Heaven and be in the presence of a prefect God. But God made a way. He made a way through His only Son, Jesus Christ. My sins are covered through His precious blood. My sins are forgiven because of His work on Calvary. I am so thankful for Jesus and that through Him, I will not get the punishment I deserve. Through the mercy and grace of our Lord, I am saved from my sin.
I pray today that you can say the same. That you can call on Jesus Christ as your Savior and Lord. That you can with 100% confidence say that you have a home in Heaven because of what Jesus did on the Cross for you. If you have this confidence, share it with someone else today. There is an entire world out there that is sowing lives of sin, pride, arrogance and idolatry. Without the Good News of Christ, they will indeed reap what they sow. Eternal separation from God. You hold the knowledge of a gift that saves. Share it freely today.
God bless you all in your journey to share the Good News of Jesus Christ.
Beautiful are the feet.
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