Your Job Is to Be Fertile Soil

6/16/2003

This is something that I think will apply a lot to those of you who want to know Jesus for the first time and want to make progress toward Him. Remember, the big picture is that your job is to be fertile soil. Your job is to pull out the weeds and to eliminate anything that would prevent God from being able to work in your heart. That’s your job. Only God can make the miracle take place in your life. You can’t make that happen, but you can do your part. And your part is to clear away any weeds and anything else that would hinder God’s work.

If God sees that you’re sloppy and not taking things very seriously, then the miracle is not going to happen. He will still love you and care about you; He’ll try to get your attention and get you to take His Ways more seriously. He’ll try to woo you to seek first His Kingdom, but He won’t make you do that. So it’s very important that you take care of the soil of your heart. That’s something you can do something about. And it’s just so very important that you do that. That’s the big picture for all of you.

Within that framework, there are different traps and snares of the evil one. Let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures and talk about a trap that I think is easy for some of you to fall into. Let’s make sure that we don’t fall into that and make progress instead, okay?

2Cor. 9:6-9 “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly, will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all Grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: ‘He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.’ “

There are some really rich things in that passage and one of them you all have heard before is: “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Let’s stop there. Paul wrote this to the Corinthians and he was talking about money. But we can apply this to more than just money. There are times when you have an opportunity to be a giver and it may have to do with money or it may not.

You all are old enough now to know what something really ugly and rebellious looks like. When you’re asked to do something, you wouldn’t say, “NO! I am not going to do that!” and refuse and rebel and walk away. I don’t think anybody in this room would do that right now. You’ve learned that’s not acceptable. That’s not something that you would do.

So, you might do something because you were told to do it. You might obey - but you might do it without being a cheerful giver and without sowing generously. So one of the traps some of you can fall into is that you would do what you were told to do, but there would be no cheerfulness. There would be no desire to give. There would be no kindness and delight in contributing to helping somebody else and knowing that what you’re doing is helping other people. If you approach things that way, you’re missing the value of it. You’re told to do something and you don’t really want to do it. You have a bad attitude and you just want to get it over with. You might even think that it’s not a bad attitude. You grunted through it and got it over with. “I’m so glad that’s over with because now I can do this enjoyable thing that I like to do.” If you do that, you’ve missed an opportunity. God loves a cheerful giver! God loves someone who is pleased to help other people. When they give it’s their heart and their joy to give.

To become that kind of giver, there has to be some vision about what you’re doing. You don’t go through life in an “under the sun” life sort of way. When I say an “under the sun” life, that’s a phrase that comes from the book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon was talking about “Meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. All things under the sun are meaningless.” He went on and on like that in the book of Ecclesiastes. He was talking about the view of life being one in which all you see around you is what’s “under the sun.” You don’t see the God who created the sun and all the heavens and the earth and all of God’s Creation. You don’t see how everything that you do is connected to God and His ways. All you see is what’s “under the sun.” “The sun came out, and the sun’s going to go down tonight, and I just want to have as much fun as I possibly can before I go to bed tonight.” If that’s the way you’re looking at life, then you will miss so much.

If on the other hand you can see how the things you do and the choices you make are connected with something much bigger than yourself...if you can see that the kind of heart you put into something is related to the quality of the soil in your heart and your life – then things can be much different. Do you understand what I’m talking about?

I heard an example one time. Some work men were at a construction site and they were building something. A man walked up to the job site (he wasn’t one of the workers), and he asked one of the workers, “What are you doing?” And the guy said, “I’m working for $8 an hour.” These guys were masons. He asked another worker, “What are you doing?” And the guy said, “I’m laying brick.” He asked another worker, “What are you doing?” The man answered, “I’m building a building.” And he asked another worker, “What are you doing?” And he said, “I’m making a palace that’s going to be fit for a king.” Which one of those guys do you think is going to put some heart into it?

What if there really was a king who was a worthy King? He was worthy of honor, and He loved His subjects. He cared for them and He defended them, and He risked His own life for them because He cared for them. And then you had a chance to do something for Him. Would it be, “I’m just working for $8 an hour?” Or, “I’m just laying brick?” Or, “I’m building a building?” That’s getting better but what if it was, “I’m building a palace that’s fit for a king.” Which guy is going to put more into it? What do you think? The last one will put more into it because he had some vision about what he was doing.

He saw that what he was doing was connected with something much bigger than he was. And because he had that vision in his heart and he saw how the things that he was doing were related to something of much greater significance then just him, he was able to be a cheerful giver. It wasn’t about whether it was hot outside and his arms were tired or something like that. He was able to push through those issues. He was able to be a cheerful giver, and he was able to be a contributor. So that’s the story. It’s fairly common and a lot of people have told a story similar to that.

The thing that’s not so easy to see is how the choices that each of you make are connected to something much larger than yourselves. Are you cutting somebody else’s grass and you can’t wait until it’s over with because it’s hot and you’re thirsty and you want to go do x, y or z instead? Or do you say, “You know what? I’m glad that I can do this because this is helping somebody out who can’t cut their own grass.” Do you see the difference? You can be a cheerful giver where there’s peace in your heart. If you make choices like that and you cultivate attitudes like that on the inside, you’re preparing your garden for God to do that miracle. So don’t think that just because you didn’t rebel and get ugly and belligerent about not wanting to do it, that you’re walking in the highest way!