# The Promise of Sowing and Reaping

Category: Faith & Trusting God
Key Passage: Psalms 126
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: June 7, 2024

Psalms 126, if you would, please. Psalms 126 in God’s Word. It is a blessing. So many different people getting involved in music ministry, and we sure appreciate that.

And what a blessing it is. Psalms 126. This Psalm is written much later than many—most of the Psalms. We are not sure. We think the penman, of course, we are all from God, but God used different men to pen it. We think the penman of Psalm 126 is Ezra.

You remember Ezra; he kind of centered around the group of people that came back after the 70 years of captivity. And then the one group in the beginning, when Cyrus allowed them to go back, a little while later on, Ezra goes back and beautifies the temple. We tend to think it is Ezra that penned this.

You remember many of those Jewish people that were in Babylon in captivity; they had it real comfortable and actually fared pretty well in Babylon, financially and whatnot. So they had an opportunity to come back, and not all of them went. It was a small number. I remember right, and I am just off the top of my head, I think around 50,000 the first time, and then maybe around five [thousand] a little bit later on, Ezra came back. Overall, that is not a great number. We think with that going on, that is where this Psalm was penned.

Okay, so I kind of want your mind to get the context of it. We are going to apply it differently, and we will mention that a little bit later on with Psalms 126 of God’s Word tonight.

Psalms 126, verse number one: “When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion, we were like them that dreamed.” I remember there in captivity of 70 years. God really changed the globe, the leaders. Cyrus moved in and said you can go back and even financed it and so on.

Verse number two: “Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongue with singing. Then said they among the heathen, ‘The Lord hath done great things for them.’”

It is amazing when God blesses His people. The world says, well, they got something. The blessings of God are not always financial. Sometimes they are peace and joy, even in the midst of trials. But that speaks to the world, and the world is even saying this: “The Lord hath done great things for them.”

Verse number three: “The Lord hath done great things for us, whereof we are glad.”

“Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

I am going to really apply this to winning souls—to trying to get people saved. It is talking about sowing and reaping. I want to take these truths about sowing and reaping and apply that to winning the lost. That is a great harvest, really. The title would be for our online: “The Promise of Sowing and Reaping.” We are going to try to apply these verses about sowing—really the last three—about this thing of winning the lost to the Lord Jesus Christ.

One more note before we get going.

When I mention soul winning, everyone’s mind goes a little different. Soul winning can be so many different ways. We are about to start our fall soul-winning campaign door-to-door. That is not the only way to win the lost, though. It can be at the gas station pump. It can be at the family reunion. Brother Philip is about to go back to Canada, and his family, his relatives are Catholic. Brother Philip is really the first one of his relatives to get saved, and he is going to go back. He is praying that God will give him the opportunity. I hope you will pray with him on that to win some of his relatives to the Lord.

We want him to come back. That is a great way to win souls. So many different ways. I have heard of some people when they pay their electric bills—somebody online nowadays, but they do it in the mail—and they drop a gospel tract in there every time. I have heard of someone just going through the phone book we used to have back in the day. Just calling people randomly trying to win them to the Lord. At the grocery store, many a time the clerk checking you out, I have given them a tract.

A month or so ago, during soul winning, a lady pulled up and said, “Hey, let me invite you to church and whatnot.” And she said, “You already have.” I said, “Really?” In my mind, I am thinking, how did that happen? She said, “I work at Food Line. I remember you gave me a tract. You invited me to church.” And her son is in the ministry in Alabama somewhere. She said, “I am going to come to church sometimes.” There are just so many different ways.

All the ways you are trying to win the lost—the fair ministry, we just did that. When I say winning souls, it is door-to-door, but it is much more—so many different ways to win the lost. As long as it is not sinful, hey, praise the Lord, I am for it. Winning the lost is so important. Let us just talk for a little while about the promise of sowing and reaping. We will use these last three verses along that line.

If you would look again at verse number four: “Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.”

I was about to start talking about sowing and reaping. I am going to use it that way, but he is talking about these streams in the south—the south of Judea, the Holy Land, we might call it—which leads down into the desert. Often they would have streams that flowed into the desert, and so often in the dry part of the year, those streams would dry up. You see them around here sometimes if it ever gets dry around here; you will have just a creek bed with no water in there. These streams were like that, but then when the rainy season would come, if it did come like it typically did, then they would have streams again.

Now, he says, “Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south.” And then after that, he begins to talk about the sowing in tears reaping and joy.

When it comes to winning the lost and sowing and reaping, it is very much like these streams he is talking about. They are seasons, if you will. I am amazed; you take the same person that uses the same tactics, if you will, in fishing for men, and they will have a season where they are just having so much fruit. That is wonderful. I like those seasons when I am seeing fruit. Those are a blessing. I like them.

But can I be honest with you? If you are trying to win the lost, fish for men over the long haul, you do not always have a harvest like that. Honestly, here recently, during the summertime, I went through a dry spell. I do not like that. If you are trying to win the lost over the long haul, you are going to have seasons. There are going to be times that the streams, if you will, dry up.

But if you keep after it, you keep trying to win the lost, however you do it—take vacation. My wife led somebody to the Lord on vacation at Dollar General. I mentioned last Sunday we rented a motorcycle. We turned the motorcycle in; I tried to win that man to the Lord, and I think maybe another one on vacation. I got to present the gospel, but they did not get saved. My wife led one, though. What is wrong with that? But it is like that sometimes. Praise the Lord, she probably was a better sower than me, and that is fine. The results are up to God. But you just keep sowing the seed.

Here is a wonderful thing about it. At the fair, the first time I went, me and Brother Kevin and another man were out there. We were trying—me and Brother Kevin at first—we were out in the aisle trying to get anybody that walked by. We would try to tackle them and say, “Hey, listen to us! We are going to get somebody saved!” Nobody got saved. Me and Brother Kevin did not get anyone saved; we got some assurance, but we did not lead anyone to the Lord. Nothing.

I had been going through a dry spell. On Saturday, I was just praying, “Lord, maybe you saw that I was not seeing results, but I was trying to be faithful.” A teenage young man, 14 years old—though you know they grow them big nowadays, I thought he was about 21—with the mullet and all that, the Lord sent him by. I mean that. I did not do anything better than anybody in here would do. The guy just wanted to know; literally, he wanted to know.

I asked him if he was 100% sure he was going to heaven—50, 75, 100, all that stuff. He said, “I do not know.” He wanted to know, and he gladly came back into the booth and sat down in the chair. God broke through for me a little bit; He began to bring some water into the stream. It is very much like that. If you are sincerely trying to win souls, and you are not trying to just get them to say a prayer, you are trying to sincerely win souls, you will have dry spells.

But you stay after it, and you keep trying to sow the seed, and then the streams come back. I think of Brother Chad. He used to be in our church, and they live around the Chattanooga area now. When Brother Chad first became a fisher of men, he went maybe for a year or so and did not have anything, but he just kept after it. Finally, God said, “Well, that poor old boy down there, I am going to bring some rain,” and the stream started flowing. There are seasons to this thing of just sowing and reaping. God is in control of the results. It was Apollos’ water, Paul had Apollos’ water, but God gave the increase.

God gives the increase, but He gave the increase after they had planted and watered—the sowing. They asked, “Lord, would you bring the blessings back? Turn again the captivity and let these streams flow again.” You will have sowing and reaping; there are times like that, but the key is to keep sowing.

How many in here like watermelon? My mom said she brought a half of watermelon for me tonight.

I remember maybe a couple years ago, my wife said, “What is that plant coming up in the flower bed?” The amazing thing is if any of our outside plants will let any plant grow out there—that is the amazing part; it is a miracle, first of all. But then something is coming up. I said, “Man, that is a watermelon plant.” How in the world do we get watermelons in our flower beds? Those hillbillies eat watermelon on the front porch and spit the seeds out—ping, ping, ping. You never think about it, but a year or so later, something starts coming up.

That is like sowing. You just sow seed, whether it be at the fair or at the grocery store or door-to-door or wherever it may. You just sow seed. It is amazing how God, in His time, brings seed up.

I was reading John Rice. I love John Rice and his old illustration books. A little hard to find; they have not printed them for years, but it is a wonderful book. He said he had been preaching in Buffalo, New York, years and years ago, back when he was at Wheaton. It was New Year’s Day; he had a New Year’s Eve service there. He was going to fly out on New Year’s Day, and he was praying, “Lord, would you let me lead somebody to the Lord on New Year’s Day?”

He hopped on the plane, flying out, and he said, you know how sometimes—and I hope you are like that—you are just looking, but God did not open any opportunities. Sometimes it is like that; you cannot break the door down and force it down somebody’s throat. That would usually turn people off. We are not after that.

Nobody on that flight, but then that flight landed at a layover in Detroit. An Air Force guy got on and sat beside John Rice on the plane. The door opened up a little bit, and he began to try to talk to him, but he was not really interested. He asked if the man was married and if his wife was a Christian. She was. John Rice could tell that got his interest.

He began to tell him it would be wonderful for him to be able to go to heaven with his wife one day. Would not his wife be happy if he rode her and said, “Hey, I got saved?” He said, “Yes, I believe she would.” John Rice was able to give the gospel and lead that man to the Lord.

I am just saying you just sow seed whenever and wherever you can. You try to be soul-conscious. Sometimes the stream is dry; sometimes it has water, but you just sow. That is the key.

Let us look back over here, verse number six: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed.”

That precious seed has to do with the written Word and the living Word. That is the seed. The seed is the Word of God—the written Word and the living Word, Jesus Christ. Bearing precious seed. Notice this: “shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Here is the promise: Without a doubt, if you keep sowing, you are going to have some sheaves you can bring. That is what it says: “shall doubtless.”

Our missionaries are in so many different places, and of course, some are very tough places, and some are easier places. Even those missionaries in tough countries—I have talked so many times about Michael Williams, who was a missionary to Ghana, Africa, or Guyana—he was so fruitful. You start passing out tracts, and they come to you. It is exciting. We get missionary letters in; all these people get saved.

Then God called him to Germany. That is a different ballgame over there. If you start passing out gospel tracts over there, they will take them, tear them up, and throw them down right in front of you. It is a little different there; it is a tough country. But if you keep sowing, whether in what we would think of as a fruitful field or maybe what you would think of as not-so-fruitful, you go sowing this seed over there, and without a doubt, you will have results or sheaves you bring, even from the tough areas. God’s promise is, if I am sowing the seed, “shall doubtless,” without a doubt, “come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

Sometimes we think of that in church, the house of God, and I agree with that. But the ultimate of that is not this house; it is that house—it is heaven one day.

It may be just one. Andrew only led Simon Peter, his brother, to the Lord, but Simon Peter led 3,000 plus. Ed Kimball, a soul-winning Sunday school teacher, I think he tried to win souls, but the only one that I know of that he led to the Lord was D.L. Moody, but D.L. Moody led thousands, took two continents for Christ. The thing is, if I am sowing seed, God says, “I will, without a doubt, you are going to see some results, some harvest. You will bring your sheaves again.”

Most of you know the way my whole family got saved was a tract rack—someone, maybe like that little wooden rack we have got in the corner back there, with pamphlets on it. A track rack in a hospital in Plant City, Florida. Someone took the time to have it there and kept tracts in there. Eventually, my mom got that, and praise the Lord, Mom got saved. A year or so later, my dad got saved, and later on his kids, and just about all of our relatives slowly, one by one, Mom and Dad led them to the Lord.

As far as we know, that man who put that track rack there never knew about us. I tend to think he was in heaven, or maybe she, whoever put that track there, was in heaven before my dad got there. When my dad went home, he is in heaven now. He got saved by that track, of course, Mom and then Dad and all that, and our whole family. I imagine that man saying, “Praise the Lord, I was sowing seed all those years.” I wonder how many tracts he put out there and how many different places he had a track rack. Yet maybe he never knew, but God’s promise is always true: “You keep sowing the seed and without a doubt, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.”

My dad was a soul winner; that was always a strong point. We do not know thousands, literally, of souls he led to the Lord. We have tried to figure it out; I think we calculated around 9,000. He was just a soul winner, much better, more faithful than I. What about all those souls? Many of them are probably in heaven already, gathering around up there. Maybe there are rewards for that tract, and then my mom and dad and all these others. Maybe they are gathering in heaven, and “shall come again with rejoicing, bringing in sheaves with it.” There is a promise.

When you are not having the results you want, you say, “Hey, we have just got to keep sowing.” When the stream is a little dry, do not give up; that is when most people quit. Friend, do not quit. You stay after God’s promises—“shall doubtless,” “shall without a doubt.”

Let us look back over at verse number five: “They that sow in tears.”

That can mean several different things. Perhaps he is talking about times when the stream is just dried up, and you are not seeing the results you want, but you are sowing in tears in grief. “I wish some would get saved. I wish my relative—I have been witnessing to them for 30 years—I wish they would get saved.” My neighbor, my coworker—nothing is happening, and it can just get to the point of tears.

What is amazing is that in all these new neighborhoods—I went to a new place just a couple of days ago up in Cain Ridge—they are building everywhere you look. Sometimes I just drive through and say, “Lord, how can we reach them? What can we do? These people need to be reached.” Maybe sometimes when we are just not having the results we want, and you are just so in tears, it brings the burden.

Another good thing about the dry seasons is that when the results come back, you know it is God, not you. If you are always having the harvest you want, you just get used to it. But you get some barren spells, and when the next soul gets saved, you think, “Whoa, this is great!” That changes everything.

“They that sow in tears.” Maybe it means you keep sowing during trials, when you are brokenhearted, when cancer is at the door, when financial pressures are all around you. Maybe it is when a wayward child or grandchild has broken your heart. Maybe it is when some prayer request you have is just not coming through like you wanted to. They that sow even while they are crying.

If you are going to be a long-term sower, there will be times like that, and everything will not be on the upside, but you are sowing in tears. There will be times that you just sow, even while tears are coming. You are brokenhearted, but just keep sowing. It will be part of the formula if you do it over the years. They that sow in tears. Maybe it means you sow with tears; you are just shedding tears over that seed and that person. They that sow.

Remember Brother Bobby Robertson up in Wilkertown, North Carolina. Brother Bob, what a great man. Brother Bobby used to tell a story about a teenage girl who arrived on one of their buses at the church. She would come to the altar almost every service, and she would just shed tears every single time. It was unusual—the intensity of this teenage girl just coming and crying and shedding tears at the altar.

He found out what was going on: it was her mom. Her mom would not come; she was not saved, and the girl was burdened over her mom. Every service she would come and shed tears—she was literally sowing in tears about her mom getting saved. Finally, one service, her mom was sitting beside her. At the invitation time, the mom came forward and the mom got saved.

Brother Bobby spoke with the lady afterward. She said, “You know, the thing that really got me is my daughter’s tears. I have seen her weeping over me. I could not take the tears. The tears got me.” They that sow in tears.

Years ago, in our last storefront building, on a Sunday morning, God just got a hold of a woman’s heart. Her husband was lost, and she had been trying to get him saved for years. She came over here during the invitation time and was weeping like I have never seen in all my life. I am talking about so just heaving, weeping. You could hear it all across the room—weeping and moaning for her husband to get saved. Eventually, her husband got cancer, but he got saved. He is in heaven tonight. My wife would say about him, “There has never been a man whose countenance changed so much from before he was saved until after.” They that sow in tears.

Fannie Crosby, the great songwriter, penned many of the hymns we sing. She was blind. I remember right, a blind lady was at a mission in New York. She had spoken a little bit, giving testimony. She asked, “Is there a boy here that does not have a mom? If there is a motherless boy here, would you come and just let me put my hand on your head?”

A little boy stood up and came forward at the mission. They say she put her arms around the boy, hugged him, gave him a kiss on his forehead, and just loved on him for a minute. When Fannie Crosby left after doing that, she penned the song we sing sometimes: “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the falling, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save.”

Iris Sankey, he was D.L. Moody’s song leader. Iris Sankey was at a meeting with D.L. Moody, I believe it was, in St. Louis years later. He was going to sing that song and told the story about how Fannie Crosby wrote that. As he was telling this story about the blind lady Fannie Crosby asking for a motherless boy to come up, a man stood up, just sprang up and said, “I was that man. I was that boy.” That made such an impact on him; he never forgot it. He said, “I got saved. I am a born-again Christian.” They that sow in tears.

He said, “Preacher, we all have the dry spells, all of us.” We want to leave the results up to God, but preacher, I want to be better at sowing the precious seed—maybe at the restaurant, maybe at the family reunion, maybe at work. I want to be better at sowing. I just want to be casting the line, trying to be a fisher of men. I just want to be a sower of the seed. God spoke to my heart; I want to be faithful and more faithful at sowing the seed.

If you are in this for the long haul, I promise you, you will go through those times. Just stay faithful. God, in His time, brings the increase.

Maybe you are here tonight, and you know of a lost person in particular. You say, “I am going to keep praying for them. When God urges me, I will witness to them again.” There is a lost person in particular, and I am going to keep sowing. I am going to sow in tears if need be. I am going to go; I am going to weep; I am going to give them the precious seed. Preacher, there is a specific person—maybe a neighbor, maybe a coworker, maybe a relative, maybe a grandchild. I am going to keep sowing the seed with them. God spoke to my heart about an individual, and by God’s grace, I am going after him and praying for him until God leads me to do otherwise. There is someone like that.

It would be amiss if I did not mention it tonight: if you do not know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, He would love to save you. He has already shed His blood for you on the cross of Calvary. Forgiveness, pardon is waiting; it is available for you. He would love for you to have it. If you are not a born-again Christian, we would love to take a Bible tonight and show you how you can know for sure you are going to heaven.

Father, thank you for the promise. Lord, would you use that to encourage us to sow? Lord, even during the time when the streams are dried up, help us to sow. Thank you; you said, “Shall doubtless come again with joy and bring in his sheaves with him.” Help us to be faithful to you, even during the drought.

You know, the Bible speaks of fruit that remains, and honestly, it is a great desire, a biblical, God-given desire. But I have watched over the years: you cannot make someone get saved, and you cannot make someone remain. If I read it right over the years, those who have just faithfully sowed the seed, in God’s time, they got fruit that remains. You just sow the seed. Stay faithful. Over the years, God, in His time, brings the increase. And that is exciting. You come with rejoicing, bringing your sheaves with him. It is exciting to sow the precious seed and see what the Lord will do.

Original File: The Promise of Sowing and Reaping - Pastor Paul Chisgar - Sunday PM 82921