Giving Your Heart (Being a Penny Christian #2)

About a year and a half ago, as we were wrapping up our series in Mark, I told the story of how I met my wife.

We met in the bookstore at John Brown University. I went back and checked — it was the fall of 1992, and it happened to be her nineteenth birthday. So I like to think I was God’s gift to her.

Within a few weeks I was completely smitten. She was extraordinarily intelligent, remarkably kind, wildly extroverted, and genuinely godly. And I decided I wanted more than sitting next to her in class on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

She did not quite feel the same way.

So, in my attempt to win her heart, I made her a coupon booklet. Yes. A coupon booklet. Deeply cheesy and thoroughly embarrassing — coupons for a hug if she’d had a bad day, a trip to the romantic Taco Bell, a walk together. That sort of thing.

She’s described having two simultaneous reactions when she opened it. The first was terror: oh no, this short little nerd from Iowa actually likes me. The second was that she was genuinely honored. She was touched that I’d taken the time to make something creative and give it to her, to let her know she mattered.

Now imagine a different version of that moment. She holds the booklet and says, “This is so sweet. Cheesy, obviously — but sweet. What made you do this?”

And imagine I answer: “Well, I read a book that said a guy should make a coupon booklet for a girl, and you seemed as good a candidate as any.”

How far do you think I’d have gotten?

What made it meaningful — even while it frightened her — was that she knew it was genuine. She didn’t want kindness produced by some strange sense of obligation. She wanted it because it was actually me.

I believe God wants you. The genuine, authentic you.

Yes, God wants you to obey Him even when you don’t feel like it — even when it feels like duty — because He knows your obedience is for your good. But what He really wants is your heart. He wants what you do for Him to be motivated by His love, because you love Him and you’ve seen His heart for you.

And today we’re going to see that one of the greatest ways you can give your heart to God is to give your heart to other people.

The Penny Christian

Open your Bible to Galatians 6.

We’re in a three-week series called Being a Penny Christian. Last week I explained the pun: a penny in the American economy is worth one cent, c-e-n-t. A Christian in the Scriptures is one sent, s-e-n-t. So for three weeks we’re asking what it looks like to be sent.

Last week: we are sent to give our time. Today: we are sent to give our heart — and by giving our heart to others, we’re ultimately giving our heart to God.

Galatians 6, starting in verse 7:

Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Reap and Sow

If you’re new to the Bible, some insider information: verse 7 is famous. It’s entered our vernacular as “you reap what you sow.”

Kids, it’s fine if you don’t know those words. I didn’t for a long time, and I actually had the meanings flipped in my head — so if I say it backwards today, that’s my inner child surfacing.

To sow means to plant. A farmer goes out to sow seed, casting it into the soil. Then once the seed takes root and the plant grows and a crop forms, you go out to reap — to harvest.

So you reap what you sow. Sow barley, and you don’t reap apples — you reap barley. Sow pineapples and you don’t get cherries.

That phrase wasn’t only famous in English. It was famous in Greek, the language Paul was writing in, and famous in Hebrew, the language of most of the Old Testament. One commentary I consulted this week listed eight separate Old Testament references to sowing and reaping.

Which makes sense — these were agrarian cultures. There were other trades, of course: religious leaders, weavers, potters. But most people either kept livestock or raised crops. They understood this. So the biblical writers routinely used farming imagery to make a deeper spiritual point.

That’s exactly what Paul is doing. And I think he’s working on two levels.

Level one: what you trust for salvation.

In the context of Galatians, Paul keeps returning to a single question: what are you putting your trust in for your salvation?

In our day, people try to control their own spiritual standing through behavior — making sure they’re at church every week, using the right Bible translation, avoiding certain words, avoiding certain films. Trying to manage their salvation and impress God through performance.

Paul’s audience faced a different version. These brand-new followers of Jesus were under heavy pressure from Jewish teachers to adopt Jewish customs — chief among them, circumcision. The belief being pushed on them was that an uncircumcised man could not be saved.

And Paul’s point is that if you sow into that fleshly act, you will reap corruption.

Why corruption? Because that act cannot save you. As we saw earlier this year in Acts 4, when the disciples stood before the Sanhedrin they declared there is no other name under heaven by which anyone may be saved. It is only through Jesus.

So if you place your trust for salvation in your own work — circumcision, festival observance, anything — you’re sowing into something empty, and emptiness is what you’ll harvest. And more than that: placing your trust in anything other than Christ is sin, and sin is corrupt. Sow into corruption, reap corruption.

Level two: all sin and all righteousness.

But I believe this extends well beyond circumcision and festivals. Sow cruelty and you will reap cruelty. Sow kindness and you will reap kindness. Sow selfishly and you will reap unhappiness. Sow selflessly and over time you will reap Christlike joy.

You reap what you sow.

“Do Not Be Deceived”

Notice how Paul opens this. Not with the proverb, but with a warning: Do not be deceived. God is not mocked.

Most of us were nodding along inwardly — yes, obviously, if you’re nasty you can expect to harvest nastiness. That’s why the warning is there. If Paul had simply said “you reap what you sow,” his readers would have agreed and moved on.

So he stops them. Hang on. Listen. Because there are things you may be sowing into the flesh that you don’t even recognize, because you’ve deceived yourself. And I don’t want to watch you reap the consequences.

Which means we have to stop and ask honestly: have I been deceiving myself? Are there ways I’ve been sowing to the flesh and not to the Spirit?

So many of us try to walk in two places at once. Yes, I’m a Christian. I listen to Christian radio, I go to church, I do the nice things. And simultaneously we’re sowing into something else, telling ourselves it’s fine, it isn’t a problem, it stays hidden, it isn’t affecting anyone.

Let me prime the pump with two examples.

Gossip. Christians know Scripture is clear that gossip is wrong. We can’t do it. It’s also enormously fun. So we launder it: “Hey, would you pray for so-and-so?” — and then comes the tidbit.

We sow that, and we reap corruption. We destroy someone’s reputation. Sometimes we destroy a relationship. Sometimes we destroy our own reputation in the process.

Generosity. Christians affirm that Jesus died on a cross for our sins and rose again — that He generously gave His entire life. If the generosity of Jesus is the foundation of the faith, then anyone who follows Him should live generously.

So we say we follow Jesus, and then we sow sparingly. We don’t give our time. We don’t give financially. And then we’re baffled that there never seems to be enough, that things aren’t going the way we want.

Meanwhile we always seem to have time for our hobbies. We can always afford the streaming subscriptions. Everything else fits. But I just don’t have time to serve. I can’t give to that mission project.

Paul says: don’t. You won’t like the harvest. It isn’t taking you where you think it is. It’s why Jesus said you cannot serve two masters.

Sow to the Spirit. Give it all to God and put Him first. Yes, it’s hard. Yes, it feels like sacrifice. And ultimately you’ll grow something beautiful.

An Important Clarification

Don’t mishear me. I am not saying every hardship, every pain, every struggle in your life is because you sowed to the flesh.

Jesus never sinned. He never once sowed to the flesh. And He was rejected, mocked, beaten, and killed.

So some of the difficulty you face is simply the fallen state of our world, not the direct consequence of your own sin.

How do you tell the difference?

If you follow Jesus, Scripture says God placed His Holy Spirit in you — the same power that raised Christ from the dead now dwells in you. Which means God is entirely able to reveal to you whether what you’re going through comes from your own sin or from the difficulty of a broken world.

So genuinely seek Him. Pray.

And that makes the difficulty itself a gift, as painful as it is. Because in that moment you can pray, God, is this because of my own sin? Have I been deceiving myself, knowingly sowing to the flesh? And when He says yes and shows you — it’s embarrassing. It’s painful. It’s convicting. And it’s a gift.

Because now you have the opportunity to confess. First John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. When God reveals that you’ve been deceiving yourself, you get to nip it in the bud. There may still be natural consequences, but you get to begin again — because His mercies are new every morning.

And if you pray and realize the struggle isn’t from your own sin? Then pray for strength to get through it. James 1 says that when you encounter trials of many kinds, that’s your invitation to trust God — because as you persevere, He is doing something deep in you, making you mature and complete, lacking nothing.

That, too, is a gift.

So when something hard comes, it doesn’t mean God is punishing you. It might be the natural harvest of what you’ve sown. Or it might simply be the difficulty of life. Either way, in the painful moments, seek God.

So How Do You Sow to the Spirit?

Verses 9 and 10 answer it:

And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

How do you sow to the Spirit? By doing good to everyone. Or, in today’s language: by giving them your heart.

And notice — everyone. Not just people who look like you, dress like you, vote like you, listen to your music, watch your movies, or earn what you earn. Everyone.

But then he adds a phrase: “and especially to those who are of the household of faith.”

That Is Not a Ranking

We love to rank things. The college preseason top 25 came out just this week. We rank movies, albums, the most powerful Pokémon cards. We rank everything.

So when we read a line like that, our ranking brains engage: okay, do good to everyone — but church people are more important. We take care of our church family, and if we get around to being nice to an outsider, bonus.

That’s not how it works in God’s economy.

Look at Romans 1:16. Famous verse — “I am not ashamed of the gospel.” But notice how it ends: it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

Our ranking instinct hears that as: Jews are more important, Gentiles come second, we’re the lesser tier. That isn’t the claim. It’s first and also — both. Yes, first to the Jew, because Jesus was Jewish and God was fulfilling Jewish prophecy and it was through the Jewish people that God intended to bless the world. First for the Jew, and for the Gentile.

Another example: the Trinity. There’s an order — the Father sends the Son, the Son sends the Spirit. But that isn’t a ranking. The Father is not better or more important than the Son. The Son is not superior to the Spirit. The Spirit does not outrank the Father. They are completely one, completely unified, completely equal.

So what is Paul actually saying?

I believe it’s this: do good to everyone — and to learn how, start with the household of faith.

Because a healthy church contains different personalities, different income levels, different perspectives, different backgrounds, different everything. And if you can learn to love across all of that, you are primed and ready to do good to anyone.

The Family Is the Training Ground

Kids, God put you in a family to practice.

I don’t know why it works this way, but usually the people we’re meanest to are the people we live with and the people we’re related to.

So if you can learn to be genuinely kind to your siblings and honoring to your parents — if husbands and wives can learn to speak words of real honor to each other routinely — then you will be extraordinary outside the house.

Kids, your classmates will want to be your friends. Your coaches will be thrilled you’re on the team. Colleges will want you. Companies will hire you and promote you, because you’ll be remarkable. And the training ground God gave you for that is your family.

If that’s what God does with blood families, it’s what He’s doing with His spiritual family. If you follow Christ, you are part of the family of God, and He placed you there to live with them, learn from them, and love them.

That’s why the “one another” commands matter so much — love one another, serve one another, bear one another’s burdens, forgive one another. Because if we can do it right here, look out: we’ll be remarkable out there.

That is what it means to sow to the Spirit. Do good here, and we’ll be able to change the world out there.

Three Tips

1. Be soft.

By soft I don’t mean weak-willed, or a doormat people walk over. I mean soft-hearted. Caring. Putting the needs of others first. Genuinely listening.

And that is enormously difficult if you’ve been hurt — if things have been done to you or said about you. Hurt hearts want to protect themselves. Hurt hearts want other people to finally understand what they’ve felt. You’ve heard the phrase: hurt people hurt people.

So if you’re going to give your heart away, there has to be some softness in you. And if you’re honest and you know you’re not soft right now, you’ll have to seek God and let Him soften you.

God can use many means — counseling, time, other people. But ultimately I think softening comes from seeing Jesus. When you see God’s heart for you in the cross and the empty tomb, when you realize Jesus held nothing back to make you His, that becomes the foundation of the healing process. Counseling and conversations may be part of it, but it’s founded on the gospel — because as you grasp how much God treasures you, you start to realize how thoroughly accepted you already are. And then it’s okay if others don’t accept you the same way.

2. Go serve.

Doing good means good intentions have to become action.

Go serve your neighbor. Serve once a week at a school. Serve at a senior center. Serve at the monthly food pantry. For a stretch I served half an hour a week in the school system through a mentoring program. Just go.

Because as you serve, you’re doing good to them — and remember Paul’s instruction to practice within the family first. So if this is your home church, start here. Many of you already do. But if you don’t: hold babies in the nursery. Help the preschoolers play and give them a short lesson. Serve in the cafe. Greet people at the door — even if you have to endure the heat like I did this morning.

Just begin to serve. Give your heart. Because as you give your heart right here, God is doing something in you so that He can do something through you out there.

3. Sow into yourself personally.

In this context God is telling us to sow to the Spirit by doing good to everyone. But you also sow personally — through prayer, through the Scriptures, through worship, by getting around people who encourage you and hold you accountable.

The more you do that, the more God softens you and the more opportunities to serve open up. Let it filter down into you so it can filter out to everyone else.

Because if you don’t, you’ll find yourself drifting back toward sowing to your own flesh. It’s so tempting. And often the things we sow into aren’t inherently bad — the problem is that we let good things become ultimate things. That’s when they turn bad.

So some of you may need to cut something out for a season. Stop sowing into it long enough to breathe, to get some space, and to start sowing into the Spirit and let God work deeper.

God is trying to protect you from a harvest you don’t want. Because He loves you, He’s for you, and He wants to do something great through you — which means first doing something great in you.

Confess It Out Loud

Some of you know this gospel and follow Jesus, and when I asked whether you’ve been sowing to the flesh, you knew the answer. You talk a good talk on Sunday and you’re someone different on Monday.

This is your opportunity to confess. And if God shows you something, remember: that’s a gift. Embarrassing and painful, yes. Still a gift.

But let me push you one step further. If you’re anything like me, you’ve confessed to God many times, meant it completely on Sunday, and been right back in it by the following week.

So tell someone else.

If you have a strong relationship with your spouse, confess it to them. Or someone in your growth group. Someone you know you can trust.

Because when you say it out loud to another person, you’re letting God use them as Jesus with skin on, and you’re inviting them into it: help me stop sowing to the flesh, because I don’t want to reap corruption.

Send the text. Make the call this afternoon.

God wants to do something great in you so He can do something great through you. And I want you to have the joy of giving your heart — which can’t happen while you’re only sowing to yourself.