We’re beginning a new series on Spiritual Seasons. God
leads us through these different seasons to help us grow deeper in our faith,
to refresh our faith, and to challenge us in our faith, but through it all the
Holy Spirit is with us. We’re beginning with image of planting, as what we
plant in our hearts shapes how we journey through the other seasons in our
lives. Psalm 126 has its roots in Israel’s 70-year exile to Babylon. In 539 BC,
the Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon and issued a decree allowing captive
peoples to return to their homelands and rebuild their cities and temples. You
can read this history in 2 Chronicles 36 and the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Ezra
and Nehemiah see God’s hand at work in this unexpected liberation, Ezra 1, “This is what Cyrus king of Persia says: “‘The Lord, the
God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed
me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Any of his people among you
may go up to Jerusalem in Judah and build the temple of the Lord, the God of
Israel, the God who is in Jerusalem, and may their God be with them.”
Psalm 126 is a song written to celebrate Israel’s return to their land, “When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like
those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs
of joy.” After 70 years, many of them had given up hope on ever
returning home, so this is a dream come true. This explains the references to
sowing with tears, as many tears over the years had been shed as they confessed
how they had drifted away from God, and the painful journey of repentance and punishment
for their sin.
This morning, we celebrated our Commissioning service,
offering a blessing to our teachers who will be planting biblical seeds in our
children and youth, knowing that we need to continually be aware that planting is
a regular part of our spiritual lives. The seeds that are planted in our
hearts, souls, and minds will determine what kind of harvest our lives will
produce. Our culture is constantly at work trying to sow its seeds and values
in us, and many of their seeds are just weeds. We need to be deliberate in what
type of seeds are planted within us. We’re called to invite the Holy Spirit to
plant deep in our souls, knowing that what we allow to be planted in our hearts
and souls, we’ll harvest later on; as the psalmist writes, “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will
return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.”
We begin with preparing the soil of our hearts. The planting season is a time of
faithful obedience, often coming out of a time of repentance and recommitment
to Jesus. God calls us to prepare the soil, plant seeds, and trust him for the
growth. This is season characterised by patience and perseverance, reminding us
that spiritual fruit comes from both God’s power and our daily faithfulness. Seeds
are being sown. Planting’s not a solitary thing, we do plant in ourselves, but
there are also others who plant into us. We also plant into others; think of
parenting, mentoring, our teaching ministries, and even friendships. Paul
recognizes this in 1 Corinthians 3:6–7, “I
planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God has been making it grow. So
neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God,
who makes things grow.” This morning we’re focusing mainly on planting
seeds of faith and character in our own hearts, while recognizing that as the
seeds planted in our hearts grow, they will be spread to others, like how
plants release their seeds and the wind or animals will then spread them.
What kind of seeds are
you allowing to be planted in your heart, what seeds are you cultivating in yourselves. Some seeds
are weeds like bitterness, pride, gracelessness, non-forgiveness, and others
like these. When they’re planted, they quickly overwhelm the healthy seeds. The
kind of seeds we plant in ourselves shape who we are and who we’re becoming. What
we watch and see is seed planting. We are a visual culture and so the shows we
watch, the websites we visit, the reels we watch, the books we read is seed
planting, so we need to be very conscious of what we allow into our hearts
through our eyes. As Paul writes in
Galatians 6:7–9, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.
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. Let
us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a
harvest if we do not give up.” Scripture guides us in what kinds of seeds to
plant, and what seeds not to plant.
Bitterness is a seed
that gets planted when we allow the actions and attitudes of others towards us hurt and there’s a
sense of being wronged. Sometimes bitterness finds healthy soil because we’re
unsettled in our own spirits; hurt or self doubt allows critical words or
actions find soil to begin to grow. Bitterness can come when our work and
effort is unappreciated, when we feel unseen, misunderstood, or disrespected. Sometimes
this is the case, but sometimes Satan’s influence and lies find a home in our self
doubt, creating bitterness. Often bitterness leads to wanting to hurt and shame
others.
The seed to plant to
counter bitterness is trust in God,
training ourselves to recognise who we are in his eyes, how we are his precious
children, and that what is often overlooked, unseen, or misunderstood is seen
by our heavenly father. Proverbs 3:5-6, “Trust in
the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all
your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” Prayer’s
important to uprooting bitterness, being honest with God in prayer in a way
that’s often hard to do because it reveals things we don’t want to see. It’s important
to have a safe person you can share with who will hold your hurt and bitterness
with gentleness, someone who sees you through the eyes of God, who sees who you
are and loves you for you.
Pride is a seed that
gets easily planted today
because our culture keeps telling us that we’re special, that we deserve the
best, that our truth is reality, that we have no need to serve others because
we should be the ones being served. Satan usually doesn’t have to work hard to
plant this one.
The seed to plant to
counter pride is humility.
As Jesus said in Mark 10:45
“For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Jesus calls us to be servants, and even
slaves rather than kings and bosses. We need to train our eyes to recognise the
gifts that others have and the humility and love to help them flourish. We also
need someone who is brave enough to call out our pride, to help us see who we
really are; not talking down to us, but helping us to recognise not only our
strengths, but also our weaknesses.
Gracelessness is a seed
that causes us to look down on others,
to see the worse, and attribute the worse motives to them, especially should
they make a mistake. Gracelessness is rooted in self-centeredness, making
everything all about you. It’s about reading motives into a strangers look; it’s
about labeling entire groups of people in negative ways simply because they’re
different from you. It’s about with holding forgiveness or mercy to others.
Grace is the seed to be
planted here, to offer
grace, which is undeserved, simply because we have been saved by God’s grace.
Grace often looks like kindness, like gentleness, and in our world today, these
things are all to often in short supply. Our culture is filled with lots of
anger and judgement and condemnation. Kindness and gentleness are sorely needed
more today than perhaps any time in history. We all need someone to show us
grace when we mess up, and walk with us to encourage and build us up in grace. Paul hi-lights the wonder
of grace in Ephesians 2:8,
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
God’s grace leads to faith in him.
Unforgiveness is a seed
that gets planted when
we hang onto our anger or fear after we’ve been hurt by someone. Unforgiveness
is a strong seed because it feels like it’s giving us strength in our pain, it
feels justified and right, especially when the one who hurt us doesn’t confess
their part in your hurt, doesn’t acknowledge the pain created.
Forgiveness is the seed
to plant in our hearts,
beginning with accepting that Jesus has forgiven us for our sins. Planting this
seed guides us to confess our sin, but also to remember that we are precious to
God as his children. Forgiving others flows out of remembering that the other
person is also loved by God and is our neighbour. This doesn’t mean it’s easy,
it also doesn’t mean that the consequences for their actions are forgotten.
Love often looks like consequences so that wisdom is learned and responsibility
accepted. It doesn’t mean that the relationship needs to be the same, making
sure you’re safe is important. Then there’s self-forgiveness. Sometimes we can
hate ourselves and hang onto our sin, living as if God can’t forgive our sins,
as if we’re unworthy of forgiveness. We make God less, cheapen his
unconditional love for us, and we lessen the power of Jesus’ sacrifice for our
sin.
You may not see growth
right away; this is a
time for patience, for perseverance, but it’s happening below the surface. Just
as God was working in his people during the time of exile, growing their faith
and commitment deeper towards him even though they didn’t always recognize it,
so God’s working in us to grow us deeper in our faith in Jesus, doing his work
deep quietly, establishing our roots in Jesus. This is a time of quiet
continual obedience and trust as the Holy Spirit nourishes your souls and faith.
No comments:
Post a Comment