The Lord’s Message:  The Harvest, Storing the Good Seed

The Lord’s Message:  The Harvest, Storing the Good Seed
Date:  November 8, 2026
Where:  Tilghman Methodist Church
Scripture Reference:  Galatians 6:7-10

            Last Sunday, we started a new sermon series entitled “The Harvest.”  We have seen the farmers busy at work harvesting the crops.  However, they had to prepare for the harvest a year ahead of time.  The ways in which they prepare for the Harvest is first, preparing the soil, storing the Good Seed, then planting the Good seed, and finally, harvesting the Good Crop. 

            Harvesting the crops for food is important.  But there is a more important harvest that every Christian needs to participate in, which is the Harvest of Souls.   Jesus states this very clearly in Matthew 9:35-38.  Now, you might be thinking how can I help in the Harvest of Souls?  Glad you asked because that is what this sermon series is all about. 

            Last week, we learned that the farmer was sowing seeds on four types of soil.  Those soils are the hard path beaten soil, the stony soil, the weedy soil, and the good soil.  In the first three soils, the seed may have sprouted and grown, but died before producing a crop to be harvested.  The fourth soil, the good soil, was able to produce a crop to be harvested. The crop was 100 times more than the single seed that was planted.  We learned that we can be any one of these soils.  We also learned that God is the farmer.  The seed is the Gospel Message. 

            This week, we are going to look at storing the Good Seed.  The Good Seed is the Gospel Message. The farmers in Jesus’ day would store some of the seeds in earthen or woven vessels to be able use the seed to plant the crop for next year.  These vessels would be store in a cool, dry, and dark place.  Usually under a building or a cistern or a cave.  The Good Seed, the Gospel Message, also has to be stored in a vessel.  Do you know what kind of vessel and place that God chose to store the Gospel Message? God chose to store His Gospel Message in a warm and welcoming place and vessel.  That place and vessel is a believer’s heart.  Jesus tells us this in Matthew 12:35.   The farmer knows that he or she needs to do everything to protect the seed before the seed is planted.  The same is true with us.  If the Gospel Message dies in us, then God cannot use us to plant the seed in some one else.  So, lets look at the ways that we have to carefully protect the seed in us. 

            Let us pray.

            Please turn in your Bibles to the Book of Galatians 6.  We will be looking at verses 7-10.  It is found in your pew Bible on page 1816. 

            The first way to protect the seed is found in verse 7, it says “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked.”  How do we try to deceive God? 

One, going through religious motions and observing rituals or performing public acts of righteousness while harboring ill will against another.  Jesus warns us in Matthew 6:1. I suggest that this week, you take time and read Matthew 6 & 7 is about having the right motives in our worship of God and also in the acts of righteousness.   It also contains the consequences for the wrong motives found in Matthew 7:21-23.

Two, lying about our intentions.  Does anyone recall the story of Ananias and Sapphira in

Acts 5:1-11.?  If you tell God that you are going to do something, such as give money to the church or help out in the food pantry or take a neighbor to a doctor, then you better do it.  You do acts of charity and mercy not to receive a reward or get a pat on the back, but you do these acts, because God has given us our eternal life.  Therefore, when God places these needs on our hearts, we should act accordingly and not to impress others.  We should act in a way that God will receive the glory. 

            Three, allowing our compromises to become normal.  When we know that something that we do or say is wrong, but we do it anyway, then we come up with excuses to validate the wrongful act.  Do you recall what King Saul did in 1 Samuel 15: 1-3, 20-26?  Because of Saul’s disobedience and trying to come up with excuses to validate his sin, God took the kingdom away from Saul.  God gave the kingdom of Israel to a young shepherd boy named David, who God said was “a man after my own heart.”  When we try to validate our sins by compromise, then we distance ourselves from God. 

            The folly of all three of these deceptions is that God sees right through them.  The only one who is deceived is you and me.  The Apostle Paul concludes this verse with a saying that we all need to take to heart, “A man or woman reaps what they sow.”  We can either sow good seed or dead seed by the way that we have stored the seed in our hearts.

            The Good Seed, the Gospel Message can rot in us and be destroyed if we allow the Devil to take hold in our hearts.  Look at verse 8a. “The one who sows to please his or her sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction.”   That destruction can take the form of broken relationships, loss of inner peace, emotional and physical harm, and moral rot.  James says in James 1:15 that sin gives birth to death.  Our names are not found written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Now in verse 8b, Paul tells us what happens when we protect the seed that God sows into our hearts.  This is called the fruit of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23)   Paul goes on to say in Galatians 5:24 that by giving our lives over to Jesus, we can overcome the passions and desires that the Devil put into our hearts and minds by the Holy Spirit.  Jesus took our sins: past, present, and future to the cross, we no longer have to live in the bondage of our sins and our sinful nature. Now we are a new creation in Christ.  So, in Galatians 5:25-26, we now live in the Spirit of God.  This is not by pulling up our pants or following some kind of religious law or ritual.  Instead, it is lived out by walking in God’s Spirit and allowing God’s power to replace our destructive patterns with love, patience, and self- control.  Paul concludes this verse with an eternal promise that all of those who live in the Spirit of God, “will reap eternal life.”

Now in verse 9, there is a warning to all of us who call ourselves Christians.  “Let us not become weary in doing good.”  There can be a risk of exhaustion in living the Christian life. This is another way which brings about the destruction of the seed, the Gospel Message.  It is hard to forgive others, but we must.  It is hard to stand up for the truth, but we must.  It is hard to serve others, but we must.  It is hard to overcome the temptations of the devil, but we must.  We must never become lackadaisical about our faith.  There have been many brilliant=minded Christian men and women who have succumbed to sin and have fallen into the devil’s trap and the Gospel Message had died in their hearts.

If we do not become weary in doing good, then we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.  Perseverance is the key.  Now, let me caution us.  The harvest does not depend on our faithfulness or lack of faith.  The harvest is dependent on God and the person whom God is calling.  We are simply workers in the harvest for God.  But, if we do not persevere in our faith, then we will not see or be a part of the harvest.  The farmer can purchase good seed, prepare the ground for the seed, and plant the seed. But if the weather does not cooperate, then the harvest will be scarce.  Who is in charge of the weather?  God. 

In verse 10, we are told that God gives us opportunity to show His love to others.  Just think, when you got up this morning, God gave you an opportunity to show His love to others.  When you came to church, this morning, were you greeted by someone in this church?  I hope and pray that you were.  If you are here today and think that you do not have a family or have a very small family, I am here to tell you that you have a family that is over 2000 years old, that one third of all the people on the face of this earth are your family, and that one day, we will gather as one family around the throne of God in Heaven. 

I do not know about you, but I would rather see Heaven overflowing with people and Hell empty.  So, let us do good to all people to see that this happens. 

I find the most wonderful part of being a Christian is that God allows me, a sinner, to be the vessel for the Gospel Message.  Then He also allows me to tell others the good news and sometimes allows me to see the results.  So, let us be at work protecting the Good Seed, the Gospel, in us, so that God can use us to sow the Gospel in others.   The results are that God will reap a great harvest. 

We are able to accomplish storing and sowing the Gospel Message by listening to God and doing what He says.  Amen.