Gal 6:6 Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. 
	We are not quite at the end of our brief consideration of the Letter of the Apostle Paul to the Galatians. It has been a challenge in a number of ways, a challenge to our growth, a challenge to our understanding, a challenge to our hearts, and hopefully a challenge to our spirit in Christ. This is not a simple Epistle that we can read and then just dismiss. None of the Books of the Bible can ever be treated in that manner. Each one has been written under the direct influence of the Holy Spirit and therefore needs to be considered, studied, and reverenced as the Word of God. My earnest prayer is that, together as a fellowship, as members of the family of God, we will come into all that the Lord desires of us. We have been in sincere prayer after that desire since the very beginning of our fellowship together in Christ. We have held that desire through three generations and now into our fourth in the lives that God has brought into our midst and into our hearts. 
	This is not a sentimental voyage back in time to the beginning; it is a highlighting of the great truth with which we begin our contemplation this morning. We are called upon to share all good things together. There is so much that is a part of this sharing of all good things, yet, in a effort to not belabor such a wonderful truth, we will consider just two aspects this day. The rest will, Lord willing, become readily apparent in and fully part of our hearts and lives as we flow together in the goodness of the Lord.
	As we have seen in this letter, the Church of Galatia had been sundered, torn apart by the work of the Judiazers. There was dissension, separation, quarreling and strife within its members. Paul has done all that he could in the calling forth of the believers to not abandon the hope that they, that we have in the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ. He is now at the point where the practical application of the oneness that we have in Christ needs to be set fully in front of all the members of the church. The unity of the Holy Spirit must be proclaimed and established to mend the hearts and bridge the rift created by these false teachers. The Apostle Paul now continues to delineate the responsibility of the members of the Body of Christ to one another. 
	Fellowship requires that we take each other into our hearts and open ourselves unto each other. We see this in the restoration of the one overtaken by sin that is to be done in gentleness. We see this in the burdens that we carry for each other. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ did for us in His great Love. We need to love each other with the love that proceeds forth from His very nature indwelling us. In that fellowship, we find our continued growth into all His truth. 
For the church to grow spiritually, the unity of the Holy Spirit must be established. That unity can only be in place when all are living according to His guidance. It is a unity absolutely in line with the Word of God. To grow in together in Christ is too know His Word. This is where the entire focus of believers must be, the Word of God opened by the working of the Holy Spirit. That spiritual growth requires spirit led teaching of the Word of God.
	This requires a partnership, which is the essence of the Greek word, Koinonia. It is the fellowship in the truth of Christ, a partnership in learning the fullness of Him Who fills all in all. We need to be actively part of this partnership as we are taught the Word. We need to set aside all our earthly wisdom and understanding and earnestly seek to know the full truth of Christ as ministered in His Word. We need to place ourselves under the tutelage of those chosen by God to feed His flock; those chosen by God to tend to the needs of His flock; those chosen by God to protect and counsel His flock. These teachers, called by God, take us, His flock, into open hearts in the Love of the Lord. They are called by God to admonish and to deal with us in all the Love of Christ. We need to consider them as the ones chosen by God to guide us into our deeper and more accurate knowledge of His Word, by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. We need to share in all the goodness of the Lord with those appointed to teach the whole Word of God.
All the goodness of the Lord is contained in the life that is ours in Christ Jesus. To live that life is to know His Word. To live that life is to know the working and guidance of the Holy Spirit. To live that life is to know the heart of God’s so great love in giving His Only Begotten Son. To live that life is to know the joy of salvation. To live that life is to know the heart-break of God when man rejects His great Love. This is fellowship; this is the manner in which we grow into all the depth, all the truth, and all the life of the Love of God.
Just as we are responsible to God for the manner in which we share ourselves with His teachers, so is an even greater measure of responsibility put on those who teach. This is a weight of accountability unto God that one dare not take lightly. This is not a job, it is not a vocation, it is the very life lived before the Lord. Teachers cannot just stand before His people and declare that which is merely doctrine or philosophy or opinion. The teacher of the Word is obligated, absolutely duty-bound, to seek after only that which the Lord desires for His people, His children, His Beloved. The teaching must always be unto Christ, in the life of Jesus Christ, through the working of the Holy Spirit, in absolute line with His Word.
	The Word is very specific and very deliberate in the call of the Ministry. The Word must be taught with all diligence and in all truth. 2 Tim 4:1-5 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word, be urgent in season and out of season, convince, rebuke, and exhort, be unfailing in patience and in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths. As for you, always be steady, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfil your ministry. 
	The minister is directly accountable to the Lord in the counseling of His people. That counseling is not with the wisdom of man, it must be with the very heart of God. This world will refuse to acknowledge the Word of Christ. Yet the All-Sufficient Word of God must be declared with all the power of the Holy Spirit, without timidity, without compromise, without any fear of reprisal. Acts 20:26-27 Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all of you, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 
	The minister of the whole Word of God must share in the joy of the Lord with those being taught, standing firmly in the Lord despite all the anguish of the punishment of this age. 2 Cor 1:24 Not that we lord it over your faith; we work with you for your joy, for you stand firm in your faith. 
	For the church to be strong in the Lord, for the body of believers to grow in the grace of God, for the fellowship to be desirous of all the depth of God, it must have teachers fully committed to laying down their lives for the flock. These chosen teachers must have the same heart of love unto God beating in their beings. It is the same heart seen in Christ as He laid down His life for each one of us. It must have teachers whose sole purpose is to bring forth the living Word of God, no matter how it is received. It must have teachers absolutely faithful to the service of God Alone. 
We, the flock, also must be fully committed to the on-going growth inf the Word of God. We must receive His Word with hearts that yearn for more and more of Christ. We must lift up, support, and hold the teachers of God’s Word in our constant prayers before the throne of Grace. We must be a fellowship that receives the Word that is preached and takes that Word before the Lord. We must seek the Lord to validate that Word by His Holy Spirit. We must dwell on that Word. We must be a fellowship that actively participates in the development of that Word and relishes that Word, no matter how it burns at the core of our hearts, no matter how it stirs up our self-righteous anguish, no matter how severely it works to put our self-lives to death.
	Koinonia, the fellowship and partnership of those taught and those teaching, requires the full commitment of every one of us to the oneness found only in Christ. The Word of God must be taught, cherished, obeyed, and reverenced. We are the living fellowship of God, lavished with all the goodness of God. That goodness is Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior. Praise His wonderful and Holy name. His is the name above all names. His is the name of the One in Whom we are joined livingly, one with each other, today and forever. His name emphasizes His glory. His name reveals His divine commission. His name broadcast His salvation. His name is life in us. His name is Jesus. As His fellowship, His Body, we proclaim the glory of God in the loved name of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. That is the ministry we are all called to, now and evermore.  
	The Apostle Paul brings us on to the further realization that this is not something that can be taken casually. It is not something that is easily dismissed as good theology, but impractical. No, he very concretely addresses the great lie of this world. This age’s deception is that it doesn’t matter how we live as long as we live to gratify ourselves. To that lie, the Apostle responds with all force in Gal 6:7+8 Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption; but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. 
	We can deceive one another. We can deceive our family. We can deceive ourselves. But we can never, ever, deceive God. God’s Word can never be taken lightly. It can never be casually dismissed. His Word is life, life given through Jesus Christ. God will never let that life be scorned or mocked. To quote Herman Ridderbos, …He [God] does not permit man to make light of or to toy with the preaching of grace that comes to him and with the obligations that accompany it…Precisely the way in which man hears the gospel and the way in which in his practical life he deals with it is determinative of his eternal fortune. End of quote
So often we try to justify our actions with the statement that it doesn’t really matter what we do, it will all work out in the end. Sadly, many of us give into that universal lie that so infests this world. It is a lie that is so vilely seducing the hearts of men. Its contamination is seen in the excuses we make. It is a plague spread by the media. Its tragic deceit is seen in its infection of our teenagers. That lie is that bad things can’t happen to me, not to me. Others may die, but I will survive. Rules are meant for others, not for me. Though it proves true for everyone else, it is not true for me. I can sow whatever seed I want and still expect a good harvest. Matter of fact, I will not have to reap any harvest from the seeds I sow. Oh the sowing of tares that we do in our hearts. Jer 17:9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately corrupt; who can understand it? 
Everything we do, every decision we make, every word we speak comes with consequences. This is an unbending truth of God. It will not be set aside because we have some sense of superiority over others. It will not just be casually enforced. It applies equally to every man, woman and child. What we sow we will reap. 
So often we try to deal with God as if He were just like us. Rather than realizing that we are called to become more and more perfect unto Him, through the life of Jesus Christ, we try to lower God to our human level. We deal with God as we would deal with other men. We try to deceive, we try to hide, we try to explain away our guilt, and we try to rationalize our actions. 
We need to come to God with all the honor of our beings intensely focused upon Him and His Holiness. We need to sacrifice, willingly sacrifice our hearts unto Him. Rather than trying to excuse ourselves and our actions, we need to acknowledge that God Alone is Holy. Acknowledge that it is only through Jesus Christ that there is any salvation. Proclaim and live in the fact that salvation is only through Jesus Christ by the omnipotent grace of God. It is God’s grace that saves us and we should offer all the thanksgiving of our hearts, souls, minds, and spirits unto God for what He has done through Jesus Christ. Ps 50:21-23 These things you have done and I have been silent; you thought that I was one like yourself. But now I rebuke you, and lay the charge before you. "Mark this, then, you who forget God, lest I rend, and there be none to deliver! He who brings thanksgiving as his sacrifice honors me; to him who orders his way aright I will show the salvation of God!"
 	If we sow to please our sinful nature, we will always reap a harvest of destruction, a destruction of relationships with others and with God. This is the corruption of living to the flesh. So many marriages have been shattered because one of the spouses thought he or she would never get caught in an indiscretion. They were seduced in the heat of the moment and the resulting adultery was but a brief, deceptive act that devastated the trust of that marriage. So many people have treated the lust of their flesh with causal disregard, reaping the harvest of pain, agony, disease, and death. Churches have been divided and sundered as members reaped the broken relationships that were sown in treachery, dishonesty, greed, and power-brokering. If we live for the momentary pleasures of this age, we will reap nothing but death.
	Rather, listen to the Word of God as it affirms that we must never sow the seeds of the flesh, but always sow the abundant seeds of righteousness, the seeds of the Love of Christ, the seeds of His eternal life. 
Prov 22:8 He who sows injustice will reap calamity…
Hos 8:7 For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; …
Prov 11:18 A wicked man earns deceptive wages, but one who sows righteousness gets a sure reward. 
Ps 126:5-6 May those who sow in tears reap with shouts of joy! He that goes forth weeping, bearing the seed for sowing, shall come home with shouts of joy, bringing his sheaves with him. 
2 Cor 9:6 The point is this: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 	 
Hos 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain salvation upon you. 
	The Apostle Paul defines for us, in this Letter to the Galatians, what is involved in sewing to the Spirit as His church, as the fellowship of Christ Jesus. Sowing to please the Spirit means serving one another in love 5:13 For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love be servants of one another. 
	Sowing to please the Spirit is done by gentleness in restoring one who has been caught in sin 6:1 Brethren, if a man is overtaken in any trespass, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness. Look to yourself, lest you too be tempted. 
Sowing to the Spirit is seen in carrying the burden of others 6:2 Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. 
Sowing to the Spirit means sharing all the good things in Christ, together 6:6 Let him who is taught the word share all good things with him who teaches. 
Sowing to the Spirit requires doing good to all 6:9 And let us not grow weary in well-doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.
	There is an old proverb, the author is unknown to me, that takes our Galatian text step-by-step as it very clearly expresses the consequences of what we sow in our lifetime. Please listen and take to heart the consequences of what we sow. It affects our entire life. Sow a thought, reap an act; sow an act, reap a habit; sow a habit, reap a character, sow a character, reap a destiny.
	As the Body of Christ, as fellow heirs with each other in God’s glory, as the living testimony of Our Lord Jesus Christ, let us always sow seeds of righteousness unto our Lord God Almighty. Let our character develop unto His Glory Alone, and be clearly seen in these lives that we live unto Him.

Gal 6:7-8 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life. 

Today’s benediction is from Heb 13:20-21 Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in you that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.