Latest / The Daily Word / March 15 - You Breed What You Feed
Transcript
- Jenny Dirmann: Hello and Pastor Jenny here for another Daily Word podcast. It is March 15th, which means we are wrapping up the book of Galatians. We are in chapter six today and I want to share with you verses seven through nine, which say, do not be deceived. God is not mocked for whatever a man sows that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the spirit will of the spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Oh, how many times in my life, in our lives, that Pastor Brandon and I have come back to this verse. Specifically, God is not Mocked I can't tell you how many times we've said that whatever a man sows that he will also reap hard stop period Makes me think of this what you feed is what you breed What do mean by that? Remember when Jesus told his disciples Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees for a little yeast is all that is required to slowly infiltrate an entire lump of dough. When he told his disciples this, beware of the yeast of the Pharisees. ⁓ The disciples were like, we forgot the bread. He's talking about the bread. He's hungry. That's not what Jesus was talking about. ⁓ But Jesus was using it as a metaphor because he was cautioning his disciples about the danger of the doctrine of the Pharisees. Of course, if you know anything about baking, it takes just a little bit of yeast to go throughout the entire lump of dough to make that dough rise. And so that's he was saying, just the doctrine of the Pharisees, it was just infiltrating a little bit of that can really infiltrate everything. So I don't do much baking. In fact, I've never made sourdough in my life, but it seems that's a big movement right now. ⁓ However, under and so I understand because it's such a big movement. I have a lot of friends that do it and I've had conversations with them. And so I understand it's quite the task for them to get their sourdough starter. And so those of you that do this, you know all about it, but I'm going to enlighten those of you like me who had no idea what it involved to get the sourdough starter going. And I'm just going to warn you. I hope you're not eating anything right now because it kind of made my stomach turn when I first learned about it. I was at a meal and I was like, this is disgusting. Okay. ⁓ so you have to get the sourdough starter and it's like their prize poset. Once this prize possession is obtained, it's then cared for like a newborn. This is where it gets gross. You have to feed it daily if it's being used daily. And I just had no idea that such care and attention. was given to this. So shout out to all of you incredible sourdough bakers. By the way, me and my family, we love it. Keep doing your thing, but keep filling us with all the sourdough bread. We love it and appreciate it. But this concept was most fascinating and odd to me to learn that you have to feed the yeast continually in order to keep getting bread or keep making the bread. So as it was explained and I thought more about it, It made sense, but it really did gross me out. I mean, I'm just visualizing in someone's kitchen this almost like alien-like creature like bubbling over and like the person like, you know, just feeding their little thing on their countertop. I don't know why y'all it just really freaked me out. But when it comes to that yeast, the idea is what you feed is what you breed. You want more sourdough? You have to feed it. Are you ready to throw out your sourdough and get rid of it? Stop feeding it. You don't want that bacteria and that stuff to keep multiplying. Stop feeding it. You want more feed it. What you feed is what you breed. And so it is with our flesh and with our spirit. What do we look to reap when we sow to the spirit? Well, the Bible is clear that the fruits of the spirit which we just read if you're following with us in our daily plan. Maybe you missed yesterday's reading. So I'll remind you Galatians 5, 22 through 23, the fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So if we want the fruit, if we want to breed, the things of the spirit, that's the fruit of the spirit. Those are the things I want to produce in my life. What do I need to feed my spirit in order to produce those things? Well, if I'm gonna sow seeds of prayer, fasting, worship, solitude, simplicity, service, confession, God is not mocked when I sow those seeds. So all those things that we've been learning about, even in this recent series of being all in, doing these things are not just magic formulas, but they're sowing those seeds that are gonna produce. It's feeding. What we feed is what we breed. And so when we're... ⁓ feeding the spirit, when we're sowing to the spirit, we will reap the fruits of the spirit. And so prayer, fasting, worship, these are all avenues in which we're feeding our spirit and we're, we're feasting on God. We're feasting on his word and worship. have the opportunity to feast on both his word and in his presence. In prayer, we're feasting and communing in his presence. Solitude, every spiritual discipline is designed to put us in the presence of God and allow our soul and our spirit to feast on him, to feed on him. And ⁓ how great the fruit is that it produces. You want more love in your life. You want joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. gentleness, self-control, come on somebody, I know I could use some more of that in my life. These are the seeds, these are the things that you wanna feed so that you can breed these things in your life. Now on the alternative, on the other side, when we choose to sow seeds of bitterness, envy, gossip, slander, when we're feeding our flesh with Constantly binging Netflix We're You know going to the gym all the time again hear me Working out is good for you Spending some time watching TV not terrible But when we any even good things done all of the time Are not gonna be good for you when you're constantly feeding that fleshly side of you That's what you're going to to reap what you feed is what you breed. And so if you're not, if you're experiencing a lack, say, of love, of joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, you need to evaluate there's a lack of feeding your spirit because those are all fruits of the spirit. So you need to look at how you're feeding your spirit. And if on the other side, You need to look at, am I feeding my flesh? Am I doing things to feed my flesh? Because James 3 16 tells us when we're doing, when we're sowing seeds of to our flesh, bitterness, gossip, slander, and the list goes on. What lies there is confusion and every evil thing. And so we have to be aware. What we feed is what will breed. so whatever a man sows that he will also reap. God is not mocked. And I'll leave you with this. Let us not grow weary while doing good for in due season, we shall reap if we do not lose heart. That is where a lot of us also give up. have to remember that God's kingdom is like a farm and what happens on a farm? It takes time for that crop to produce. It takes time for fruit to grow. My children have begged me for years to grow an apple tree. And if I had f- actually planted that apple seed many years ago, we probably would start getting that apple tree. Now there's an apple tree in our neighborhood, so we like to go pick those apples. But, you know, in their mind, we could plant the apple seed and the next day the apple tree would appear. But we know that's not how it works. That's the same way with us. We're going to be sowing these seeds and it takes time for that fruit to come. But over time, the fruit does come. Do not grow weary. keep planting those seeds, keep sowing those seeds to the Spirit and trust and know that when you put in the work, God is gonna bring that increase. So let me pray for you today. Lord, thank you for your presence in our lives. Thank you for your word that brings us truth, that brings us encouragement, but that also edifies and corrects us. So Lord, as we fix our eyes on you today, would you show us Lord, any areas in our life that we are feeding our flesh? Would you help us to pull the plug on any areas that we should not be feeding? Lord, that we no longer want to breed, so to speak, that we do not want to reap fruit in. And Lord, instead help us to see and show us how and where we can be sowing seeds to our spirit. Help us to sow to the spirit so that we can reap. everlasting life in Jesus name. Amen.