Heart Isues - Part 3 ~ Sowing & Reaping

Heart Issues – Part 3
Sowing & Reaping

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Previously I talked about the root of bitterness that can grow in our lives & that bitterness produces expectations that come from a place of pain, & our knee-jerk reaction is to make judgements towards people.

Here are 4 parts to help understand this root, how it works, & how to break its hold & power in our lives.
1. Bitter Root Expectations
2. Bitter Root Judgments
3. Sowing & Reaping – What you sow, you will reap.
4. Fruit to Root - If you have the fruit, you have the root.

Roots of trees & plants are a hidden structure which is a conduit for nourishment.
For us, roots are ways we drink nurture from God, others, & ourselves.
Our roots also lay beneath the surface, usually hidden to our mind.

Bitter roots start from our sinful reaction to hurts, or our condemning judgments of people, or our refusal or inability to forgive someone. These roots pollute us and cause us to drink poison instead of nourishment.
Most often sowing & reaping of bitter root judgments & expectations happen in relation to parents & spouses, & sometimes primary people in our lives.

Text: James 1:13-15, Galatians 6:7-9, Luke 6:43-49

When we break the law of God, it is like throwing a ball against a wall. At some point it is going to come back to us, & I have forgotten I threw the ball.

If I take a ball & throw it against the wall & it hits me in the head, is God mad at me? Is He punishing me for my foolish action? No, it is a natural consequence of law.

“For every action there is an opposite & equal reaction.” (Isaac Newton’s 3rd law)
Judge not – least you be judged. You reap what you sow.

The longer our sin goes unrepented for – undealt with - the larger it grows.
Often by the time our sin returns it has grown to overwhelming proportions.
Jam.1:13-15

When do you usually reap fruit? When it’s mature & ripe.
Not after it has been sown. We don’t dig up the seed to see if it’s growing.
Not after the plant begins to grow. Not after the plant grows leaves. Some noxious plants can actually look beautiful. Not even after the plant begins to produce fruit. When it’s ripe & mature.
When fruit is ripe it is at its best – both good fruit & bad fruit.

Usually, we forget we broke the law, so when the consequences begin to come, we are wondering what is going on. “I’ve been good lately – what’s up with that?”

Remember that I said, most often sowing & reaping of bitter root judgments & bitter root expectations happen in relation to parents & spouses?
We forget we bitterly judged our parents, then when the fruit of what we sowed starts showing up, we blame the ones closest to us.

Instead of looking deep within ourselves to see what isn’t like Christ, we focus on the problems of our wife, husband &, closest friends. They are obviously the source of my problem.

A husband will likely reap through his wife for what he judged his mother for.
& the wife will likely reap through her husband the very thing for which she judged her father.

If you are starting to look at someone to marry, take a careful look at how they treat their mother & father. Because a woman will treat her husband very much like she treats her father. And a man will treat his wife like he treats his mother.

God will often use those close to us to let us see what needs dealt with. Often our mates are used by God to grind us & smooth out our rough edges – but they are not the problem.

As we take our sin to the cross & deal with who we are inside, God will bless our relationships. If I refuse to walk through the doors to resolve conflict, whether in my marriage, in my relationships with Christians, or on the job, - if I don’t deal with it now – it will come back again & again.

REALLY GOOD NEWS!!!
God, unwilling that any should perish, sent Jesus to identify with us in all our sinfulness.
In Matthew 5:17 Jesus said, “Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but fulfill.”
Jesus took our sin on Himself & died with it for us. Our sin was canceled, & the law of sowing & reaping fulfilled in Him.

Prayer Time
Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to reveal areas in our hearts that He wants to deal with.
Are there areas that He brought to your mind while I was going over this message?

Let’s close our eyes for a moment & ask Holy Spirit to bring to our memory situations you went through that we should pray over this morning.

Holy Spirit to let us see & recognize bitter roots.
Is there any expectations we have?
Holy Spirit help us see these wrong expectations we live with.

Is there a lie I believe that You want to deal with?

Are there Judgments I made?
Holy Spirit bring back to our memory times we sowed seeds of Judgment.

Pray for forgiveness: I forgive __ for __
Forgive me for seeds sown.
Forgive me for forming expectations.

Jesus thank You for taking my sin on Yourself, for canceling & fulfilling the laws against me.

Holy Spirit be my alarm system – alerting me to seeds I sowed – the words I spoke.