Stewardship of Time #2          October 6, 2024
Galatians 6:7-10                        Pastor Ryan Wolfe

“Don’t (just) live for the moment”

In a song that was immensely popular a few years ago, singer Katy Perry said, “Let’s go all the way tonight. No regrets. Just love. We can dance until we die. You and I, will be young forever.” She’s living in the moment. They’re going to go all the way. No regrets, just love! Is that how it usually works out? If they just live for the moment, they’ll have no regrets, right?!

Fittingly, the song’s name is Teenage Dream, because that’s not real life, is it? We can’t just live for the moment, do what feels right, and not have any regrets afterward! No offense to our teens here, but unlike what the teenage brain thinks, life has consequences.

And in every one of us, no matter how old, resides a sinful nature that thinks with a teenage brain. It tells us that if we just live for the moment, live the way we want, we won’t have any regrets. In these words from Galatians though, we are reminded that if we live that way we will have an eternity of regrets. God tells us, Don’t just live for the moment, live for eternity, & live for opportunities to do good.

Paul writes in verse 7-8, “Do not be deceived. God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”

“Do not be deceived,” Paul begins. Why? Because it’s so easy to be deceived about this! “A man reaps what sows.” It’s true—but it’s also easy to ignore because the reaping is far off in the future. Just as health problems from poor living can take a long time to appear, the spiritual effects of poor living can sometimes take a while to see too. Even until judgment day. It’s easy to be deceived about the effects of how we live in the moment. In the chapter before this, Paul talked about some of the things that our sinful nature wants: “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” He then said, “I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”

Paul says, “I warn you! These things are harming your soul!” But pick any sin out of that list, and you know how easily we can excuse it in the moment, and be deceived about how serious it is. Sexual immorality—“It was just a glance. A moment’s thought. No lightning fell, no one saw, no one got hurt. It’s fine.” Or fits of rage—“So I lost my temper in the car, we all do it sometimes, and you saw what they did. What’s the big deal?” Dissensions and factions—“Why are you so picky about this Bible teaching? As long as I believe the basics, God won’t care.” Idolatry—Maybe God isn’t my first priority all the time but I come to church when I can. I go when the kids sing or on the holidays. My life is still fine, God doesn’t seem to care that much.” It’s even true for the seemingly big sins on the list like murder. I mean people sometimes literally get away with murder so it must not matter that much. No regrets right!?

“Do not be deceived,” Paul says. “God cannot be mocked.” Remember who we’re dealing with here. God! We might fool ourselves, but God is not some mere human who can be tricked or persuaded. He’s not a pushover, who says, “No big deal.” God is like the force of gravity. A fact. What comes up must come down. And if you jump up in sin, God’s judgment will come down in the end. Pick any one of those sins, even if they seem fine in the moment, they will bring destruction in the end. You can’t get away from them without regrets! Indeed, as Paul says, “whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction.”

So don’t live for the moment in this life! Instead, live for eternal life. Paul says, “whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” What does it mean to sow for the Spirit? Right after that list of sins in the previous chapter, Paul presented the fruit of the spirit. “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passion and desires.”

Christians, redeemed and bought by Christ, we are not prisoners of the earthly moment! We don’t belong to our sinful flesh—we’ve nailed it and its corrupt desires to the cross with Christ. We live not for the moment, but for eternal life.

In our Gospel reading, when Jesus laid out his plan – how he would follow his Father’s plan, even though it would mean he would suffer and die – Peter rebuked him. That seemed a waste of a life! But Jesus wouldn’t be deceived. “Get behind me, Satan!” He said to Peter. “You do not have your mind set on the things of God, but the things of men.” Jesus knew the choice before him. He could live for the moment and lose everything eternally, or he could live for eternity and lose everything now. With his mind set on the things of God, the choice was easy—Jesus would suffer every moment of his life if it meant he could save us forever.

In Jesus, the God who cannot be mocked allowed himself to be mocked in our place. People probably saw him on the cross and said to themselves, “What a waste of a life!” But Jesus allowed himself to reap that harvest of destruction to spare us from it. And because he had sown for the Spirit for his whole perfect life, he could rise from the death of our sin to produce a harvest of eternal life for us. That means that every moment, through faith in Jesus, our sins are forgiven. Our life is instead a life sown with seeds of the Spirit. Every moment of life for the Christian is a life looking toward heaven. Every moment is a moment to use not for this temporary place, but to praise God for the eternal home waiting for us.

And here’s the key for today: focusing on eternity helps us live in the moment today. Every moment of this life, we live for the opportunity to do good. Paul continues, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

On January 15, 2009, US Airways flight 1549 lost power in both engines just 100 seconds into the flight. Half a mile into the air, geese had been sucked into the jet engines, which exploded with fire. Captain Sully, the pilot, had 208 seconds until the plane would hit the ground. He made a split-second decision, glided the plane into position, and landed perfectly on the Hudson River. Before the plane sank, he got everyone out safely, and was the last to leave the plane after walking the length of it twice to make sure no one had been left behind. He saved 155 lives, not including the lives of several unborn babies.

In the movie based on this event, he says, “Here’s the funny thing. I’ve delivered a million passengers over 40 years in the air, but in the end, I’m gonna be judged on 208 seconds.” But that’s not entirely right. He wouldn’t be judged only on 208 seconds—the judgment would come as a result of his entire life up to that moment. Sully didn’t become a hero in those 208 seconds; he had been working toward it his entire life. Captain Sully said in an interview, “For 42 years, I’ve been making small, regular deposits into the bank of experience, education, and training, and on January 15 the balance was sufficient so that I could make a very large withdrawal.” Sully was ready to be judged on that one moment because of how he lived the previous 42 years.

I’m guessing you’re already making the application to our lives, right? Our time in this world seems long sometimes. It can be a lot of work to do the right thing. To help the other person. To serve the Lord in some specific way. It’s hard to keep sowing those seeds for the Spirit. Our acts of love and service often go unnoticed and unappreciated. That’s why Paul says, “Don’t grow weary!” We’re not living for rewards now. The time will come when Jesus returns and gives us the gift of eternal life. You’re here today to be filled with that hope once again through God’s Word. You leave with a heart filled with eternity so you can open your eyes to live for God in the moment. To seize the opportunity to do good to all people, especially those right around us.

Simply put, the truth we’ve seen today shows us two perspectives on time. A person can live for the moment in this world and receive what the world gives for a little while. Or…a person can sow seed for the Spirit. Serving others with an eye toward heaven. That’s the choice. Brothers and sisters, choose the one who chose you for heaven. One of the best statements of Scripture was in our reading from Acts. “When David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his ancestors and his body decayed. But the one whom God raised did not see decay.” That’s what life is for the Christian. Not me living for myself, saying, “No regrets, just love!” That’s a life that ends with eternal regret. No, we serve God’s purpose in our days and moments and then, like David, we fall asleep. But since we put our trust in a Savior who did not decay, who rose instead, we too will rise to enjoy the harvest of eternal life that Jesus has sown. So don’t live for the moment. Life for each moment in Christ. That’s a perspective on time that leads to eternal life with no regrets. Just love—the love of God forever. Amen.