Being out in Guam for long enough, he has a lead pastor, and it was very complicated ministry. I really grow to love the military, particularly the reason why we went out there, because we were very burdened for missions, had been for a long time, and God gave us the opportunity to do that. There's a group of people out there called the Chamorro people. They're the indigenous people groups of the Carolina Islands. And so Guam is the westernmost U.S. territory that we own. And so it's about 20 by 10 geographically. You've got about 175,000 people. And but the Chamorro themselves pretty much run the island as far as the government is concerned. But what I did learn to appreciate is they do have their own mother tongue, but primarily it's English. And so they when they say hello, they say half a day. Can you say that with me? Half a day. It's kind of like half a day, but it's half a day. So these are the people that their biggest day of the whole year is what they call Liberation Day. It's July 21st, and it stems out of a 1944 where they celebrate their freedom, their release from captivity, that they were under great bondage for three and a half years. It's the only U.S. soil in which another outside nation occupied our nation. That was the island of Guam, three and a half years. And it was horrible on those three and a half years. We did get to know a number of those folks. They're a dying breed of people that were in that captivity. Unbelievable stories of great bondage and horrible mistreatments by the Japanese. But they do recognize the U.S. in great ways. They, for three and a half years, were just praying that the U.S. would come back onto the island and rescue them. We had a lady named Carmen Kasperbauer that, as a young girl, had vivid memories of living out in the village and out into the jungle and had given supplies to a guy named George Tweed, who was the guy that for that length of period would send messages to the U.S. troops about what's going on. And very, very dramatic and very emotional. And again, we got great appreciation for that. And as I think about those years, and I think about every July 21st, they had this massive celebration. The whole island would come down to Ganya, and it was a five-mile-long road. The island is big enough to have a five-mile-an-hour road. The fastest you can go is 35 miles an hour, gentlemen. And they would have a huge parade, strong military presence there, and so they would have all of the stuff going there, and they would have the villages, 14 villages, and they would bring out their fire truck, and they would have floats, and it was a big, big deal, a long ordeal, because this was the day. And if you can keep that in your mind, that's not the only nation that also had this huge celebration from their own bondage. If you looked up liberation today, Google it later, you'd probably find Italy with their big day. Cuba has a big day. India has a big liberation day. So we're not the only one. But there was a nation that the roots of Christianity come out of. And the New Testament is hitched to this Old Testament of the Jewish people. and the Hebrew people that were very narrative, very story-oriented in their display of truth, but documented in what we would know as the Psalms, the song book, the Hebrew hymn book. And I mentioned one of those this weekend in Psalms 127 to the couples retreat. But if you have your Bibles, turn to Psalm 126 because you will find in Psalms 126 the story in a song of this same liberation, this same freedom that they found. And it becomes for us a great passage to help us understand the freedom that God gives to us as believers. But not just that. I think there's more to it that becomes a touchstone for other truths that we recognize in the New Testament. Because every Christian should be willing to do what one phrase that I know you've heard, you're preached on and every good missions conference has it. But I think it says much. And I just want, if I could this morning, walk through this text very briefly, kind of outline it for you, draw from you what I see to be some New Testament truths that were pulled out of this metaphor, this picture that you find in the New Testament. And then I want to illustrate it with one simple Story at the end. So if you have your Bibles, let's look at Psalms 126 Let me just read through with you and and as I do just give you a simple outline because This was their liberation day. This was a big deal when you end up finding Psalms 126 it says when the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion we were like them that dream and Then was our mouth filled with laughter, our tongue with singing. Then said they, among the heathen, the Lord has done great things for them. The Lord has done great things for us, and we're glad. Turn again our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the south. They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goes forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him. And so the Hebrew people would often take events that they never wanted to forget They didn't have parades, per se, and bring out their floats. But they certainly, three times a year, were required, the men, to go up to Jerusalem. And these were the songs, the songs of ascent, going up to Jerusalem that they would sing. Because they didn't want to forget where they were. And through this, it just walks through that story. It does talk about, if you have notes and you want to jot something down, it mentions about the reality of God's child. Do you see what he says in verse 1 when he says, when the Lord turned again the captivity? This was, and he said, we were just kind of like those that were dreaming, like, is this really happening? There is a reality that 70 years earlier in 605, Babylon, or we would know as Iraq today, came in to Jerusalem, and Israel was probably the most conquered people group of any people group on the nation, continually being conquered. Poland is probably a close second. But in the midst of this, these people had then been carded off, and Pastor mentioned Jeremiah and many other prophets that were so burdened about, if you don't do what's right, you're going to pay for this. Consequences to bad decisions, and I mentioned this weekend, bad decisions complicate life. Bad decisions limit your options. Some of you know that are living with that and already have this deep sense of guilt, like I should have never done that or said that. But you did. And maybe you're in the midst of your own little bondage going on. But God said, I will bring this to you. Of course, the ultimate solution to this is the very Messiah in Christ that didn't come and abolish the law, but fulfilled the law. And he's the one that set the captives free. But understand that this was the reality in which 70 years later, that they find themselves now in three waves going back to Jerusalem. Many of you know your Bible. The simplest way to remember that, by the way, is what we would call Zen Construction Company, because whether this was the one of Zerubbabel going back to Jerusalem, and feeling like we're in this dream, whether it's Ezra going back to Jerusalem a few years later, Zerubbabel went back to end up building the people, and Ezra went back to building the temple, and Ezra went back to building the people, and Nehemiah went back to build the wall. This was the song they were singing and they realized this rally, but they also realized that there was this Reaction by other people it they they noted our own mouth was filled with laughter Like you can only imagine them going this 500 mile trip back to Jerusalem. They're so enjoying all of the realities of getting back home, their tongue was singing, and they even said, with the heathen, people were saying, man, the Lord's done these great things for them, like, this is the Hebrews' God, and sure enough, God's answering their prayers. And it wasn't just a reaction, but it was also their own response to say, the Lord's done great things for them, but verse three, the Lord's done great things for us. Like, I'm so glad about this. And so they requested God. Verse four, turn again our captivity. Lord, as the streams in the south and this imagery of those times in which the rains would come and they would flood through those wadis and it was just this refreshment happening. They're like, this is what we're getting. And it's interesting when he mentions this verse 5, this reply. They that sow in tears are going to reap in joy. And they themselves knew that they had sowed in tears and of repentance and knew that this is what they had deserved to get. And yet God had promised them great delivery and bringing them back someday to the homeland, which is what happened to them. And this strange picture of this reaping, when he says, he that goes forth and weeping, bearing precious seed, will doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him. And I want to finish with that, but I think it's worth also noting that the aggregarian principle was so inbred even a thousand years later when Christ is on the scene and teaching is being given by the rabbis. And this particular metaphor that you find is used many times through the New Testament of sowing and reaping. And I live in Iowa now, so 95% of Iowa is cornfields and raising of pigs. I live in the 5%, by the way. Des Moines, Ankeny is kind of a suburb of it, and actually it's an awesome place. We love it there. And somebody, when I was headed to Iowa, from Guam looked it up and said, Pastor, you know, in Iowa, there are more pigs than people. They told me that. And I probably said it too quick. I said, so what? What's wrong with that? Pigs don't like talk back to me. And so let's enjoy it. And they laughed and I laughed. And it's OK. But it's interesting to know that when you pick up this picture of sowing and reaping, this same picture in the New Testament involves sowing lots of seed. But can I give you three? I'm not going to do a deep dive on all three of these. I think you get it. I probably want to illustrate these three more than I do want to define them for them. But but when you look through the New Testament corpus, you'll find these three continually repeated. And the rabbis would mention them and often their mind would go back to you. So this you're going to reap this. What were the seeds? I would suggest you these are seeds that I dare say for some of you. And I mentioned them. You're sitting here and you're just going to be reassured like, yep, been doing that. Some of you have been reaping some of this. Some of you, you just need to be reminded like you've gotten away from some of these seeds, but this is the way churches grow. Colonial Hills has been around a long time. You want to continue to grow and expand beyond what you can only imagine. These are the seeds you've got to sow. And there are three of them, and they're not complicated. Quite honestly, you're going to say, well, I knew that. I knew. I knew that too. One of them is what I would call sowing the seed of biblical truth. You find it in a lot of places, but maybe Matthew 13 would be a simple one, and honestly, we don't have time to dig into this far, but this is one of seven parables, earthly, Sayings with heavenly meanings and jesus himself uses this picture of the sower and the seed And he and the very first one he mentions Did you see it in the same day verse one when jesus went out of the house? They sat by the seaside great multitudes gathered together unto him They went into a ship and sat and a whole multitude stood on the shore and he spake many things unto them Parables saying behold a sower went forth to sow and he talks about those four seeds. The sower went forth, and the one seed on the four different grounds is, verse 4, the wayside, and the other one is the stony place, verse 5, and verse 7 is the thorny ground, and then eventually the good ground. And he interprets it for the disciples in verse 18 about hearing the parable of the sower. And my point this morning is not necessarily get into all of that and the types of hearts, but what was the seed? It was the Word of God. And we are those sowers, and we get a chance to sow the Word of God. You would hear terms like evangelism. you're taking the seed and giving it out. I wish my wife was here this morning, but she's the greatest soul winner that I know. And I don't care where we go, she will give a track or we will give a witness. This is who she is, who we are. And does that mean that everybody comes to Christ? No. I got thinking that when we first went to Guam. And actually, Pastor Chuck, you wouldn't remember this, but there was 10 different guys that I asked when I went into the pastorate in 2000, and you were one of them. And you gave some awesome advice. I'll tell you later about it because you won't remember it. But one of them was, you know, most of your time spent with people are not in this pulpit. It's with people. So I was in Guam no more than a week. Phone call comes to the secretary, who's now my secretary, and Pam says, Pastor, I think you need to go visit this guy. I said, well, how often do you get these finding phone calls? Well, every so often, but I think you need to go see this guy. and not knowing really much of anything. Okay, sure. I go up to long-term care. I go at the end of the hallway, visit the nurse's station, go to the end of the hallway, the last room, and here's a guy named Chuck. He had called the church and said, the docs tell me I'm going to die in two weeks, and I want to go to heaven. How do I get to heaven? Can somebody come tell me? That's my first pastoral call. Yeah, I think I could go. So I show up, and to truncate this story, he's sitting on the edge of his bed, big cancerous tumor, and literally oozing. Some of you have smelled the smell of death. He had it. Couldn't really hardly understand him, but basically he asked, I'm gonna die, how do I go to heaven? I said, who else have you talked to? Two other men, a priest and another pastor. What did they tell you? They said, you just hope you've done enough good works to get to heaven. I said, well, let me tell you something. It doesn't matter what I think. We went to the Bible, walked through the gospel. You've got to accept yourself as a sinner, Chuck. You've got to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He paid the penalty of all of your sin. He gave a freeway to heaven. If you repent of your sin, you trust Him simply. Call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Man, he's writing stuff down. He says, I want to do that. I want to do that right now. Chuck prayed. You know, and how do you know? Sometimes, you know, you don't know. I said, he said, can you come see me? I'll come tomorrow. Went out the door, told my wife, the next day came back, next day came back, fourth day came back, I hear music. We have a radio station. Heard all the way down to the end of the nurse's station. And by the time I get to Chuck's house, Chuck's got our radio station cranked on Christian music. So the next week I come back and the lady said, are you the guy that keeps coming to see him? I said, yep. I said, you know what? He was the worst patient. Nobody wanted to go take care of Chuck Beaker. But he said, whatever you're telling him, keep telling him because he's the best patient we've ever had. And sure enough, it was just a week later, got a call two, three in the morning, go down to long-term care. Chuck had went on into glory. He said, you promised me you'll do my funeral. He had married a Chuukese lady. I showed up at this funeral, thousands of people from all over the island. His wife was connected to the chief at Chuuk. Now I'm looking at it, it's about this size. Walked through the gospel. I said, this is what Chuck Baker wanted to tell you. I'm going to tell you something. Some of you, okay, this little seed called the Word of God, this is what made Colonial what it is. You've got to keep giving it out. Today, people are not going to come through these doors to hear Pastor Chuck's amazing messages. They're going to hear you and want to see it, and you ask them to come. Second seed, very simply. And you would anticipate it, but sure enough, the second type of seed is not just what I would call biblical truth, but it would call financial investments. This is the idea in 2 Corinthians 9, verses 6 and 7. Familiar text, but this I say, he which sows sparingly is going to reap sparingly. Are you familiar with this? And he that sows bountifully is going to reap bountifully. Because every man according as he purposes in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly over necessity. God loves a cheerful giver. The simple Agragarian principle, you reap the same kind as you sow and some more than you sow. But the fact is, they will end up being in a place, this seed, not just the word of God, but your own monies, small or great. God says you sow that. And it's interesting to note that it's not much different today that most of us we know this this is very difficult I'm reading a great book right now called simply sharing by Ron Haas probably one of the best books I've read recently About bold grace-giving he uses the introduction of this illustration Sharing is not easy Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffett. So Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett formed the Giving Pledge to challenge the world's billionaires to give half of their wealth through philanthropy either during their lifetime or in their will. He says, so far 115 billionaires have signed up, but Buffett has discovered that not everyone is eager to part with their hard-earned money. This is Warren Buffett saying this quote. I've gotten a lot of yeses when I've called people and I've got a lot of nos also I'm tempted because I've been calling people with a billion dollars or more I've been tempted to think that if they can't sign up for 50% then maybe I should write another book on how to get by on a half a billion dollars. I Thought wow But I'm going to tell you something, I get so convicted when I think about this. You know, the context of the Second Corinthians 8, the reality is in the history of Macedonia, which he does say in Second Corinthians 8, he said those churches in Macedonia. Verse two, there's great trial of affliction, the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded under the riches of their liberality. They were willing to even give it themselves. The context of this, friends, is the Macedonian area was conquered and a guy named Alexander the Great, He brought back millions of dollars. In fact, his history recorded that Alexander the Great marched through Babylon in Persia. He raids the royal treasuries of more than almost over 7,000 tons of gold. It's so massive that Alexander has to round up more than 20,000 pack mules, 5,000 camels to carry his spoils back home. It's estimated the royal mint in that area struck more than 13 million gold coins with Alexander's image. The Macedonians at one point were billionaires of their day. And they spent all the money on themselves. And then things turned, and Alexander dies, and that whole area gets split up into four generals. And eventually, they are broke empire. So Rome comes in and bleeds off all of that monies to where Rome, the senators, had passed a law that no income tax for any senator for the next 120 years. So when Paul's writing this, the one place that now has nothing but used to have everything were the Macedonian churches. And they, these believers, were giving out of their poverty, and he's writing to the people at Corinth with, at this point, Corinth is massively wealthy. Now, I'm saying this as a context because you have to understand it has to be intentional. I read the stories of William Carey, who during his life went to the mission field with a salary of $250 a year, while in India he was hired by the government to teach in a university for $750 a year. So he continued to live on the $250, and he gave the rest of it to the Lord's work. This is called planned poverty. I just read about Buffett and Gates. They get it. I have no idea where their spiritual heart are. But in the context of Scripture, it's like you're going to reap. I'm not talking about prosperity gospel. Don't get me wrong. I'm not talking about giving so you can get. If any of you are giving God, okay, God says, I'm gonna give back to you so you can end up giving more for the kingdom purposes, for the gospel's sake. I think of John Wesley, who he himself began working for $150 a year. And he as well that eventually ended up going way beyond that in what he was receiving, but he still lived on that $150 a year. So I just want to reinforce to you that for many of you, God has blessed you in great ways and you have given. I want to reassure you that God is going to continue to be able to give back to you, but your willingness to end up giving. Our world is living at its best and it's headed for the worst. And Christian, you are living at your worst and you're headed for the best. Be in a place to say, God, what else do you want me to give and to do? Because when you see needs and often you're prompted, That's not your flesh prompting you to do something above and beyond, sacrificially. This is like the Spirit of God prompting you to say, I want you to give this. And again, I wish we could go into it more, but there's a third seed that I think's important because it's critical to the believer's heart, it's critical to the life of the church, and it's sowing the seed, what I would end up calling a biblical self-sacrifice. You find in 1 Corinthians 3.8, when he said, I planted a Paulist water, God gave the increase. And very specifically in Galatians 6.9, he uses this same phrasing when he makes the statement in Galatians 6.9, Let him that is taught in the word communicate, and him that teaches in all good things don't be deceived. God's not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he's also going to reap. Now, where are they getting these things? Paul's drawing them back from this, Psalms 126. For he that sows to his flesh is of the flesh going to reap corruption. He that sows to the Spirit is going to reap life everlasting. There's a point. This is a principle. that when you get to a place of saying, God, I want to just give my own self my life. I wish we had time to talk about Borden, who I'm sure for many of you are familiar with William Borden, the guy that grew up with everything and he gave it all away, some suggest of $26 million in today's economy and rushes off and eventually dies at a young age in Egypt. In Cairo, his tombstone is still there. He's the one that wrote, no retreat, no reserves, no regrets. because he knew the sowing by faith was one of self-sacrifice. Did he know he was going to end up giving all of it, including his own life, getting sick? Of course not. But he was willing to end up doing that. And I think the New Testament, particularly talking about investing your own life, that Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 2, I didn't give just the gospel of God, but I gave my own self also. And being in a place to know that the link between Old Testament tithing and New Testament giving is this thing called grace. How many people say, well, you know, I give my tithe and, you know, they struggle to give their tithe. And I tell our people often, listen, we take our offerings, you know, not to raise funds but to grow Christians. That's how you grow, the willingness to give, to say, God, I believe in this. And obviously living outside the states and traveling outside the states most of the last two decades, I'm just like, we go back, come back to the states and like, we got everything. I'm like shocked. Walk back into you know Walmart and everything's known by how far you are from a Walmart That's how you know where you're gonna live like how far from Walmart. That's a long way man 20 20 minutes Wow And and so my walk down Walmart is like, you know where we used to live and many the missionaries out there man Like, you know, you go in a grocery store and you got like five choices for toothpaste and man you walk into a grocery store here and it's like I got two aisles of toothpaste, like options, like I'm option overloaded to this day. And I say this because when you get yourself in a place to know I'm giving all of this, then it does make a massive difference. You know, it was just a year after we had been in Guam and one of the guys in the church ran the local newspaper and he said, hey, I got one more ticket. There's a plane leaving Guam in a few days and going to Iwo Jima. Do you want to end up going? And I said, yeah, that'd be awesome. And so I find myself on this trip with Lee Weber, and we go to the Iwo Jima, the famous place, okay, where we landed on Iwo Jima, the Japanese, that was one of the outer islands, the main island of Japan. And we went with about 60 vets. I take that back, 200 vets, it was the 60th anniversary. So I show up there and throughout the day, some amazing things that was just, it was really providential. I met a guy named James Bradley who wrote a book, Flag of Our Fathers. His dad was one of the five guys that raised the flag at Iwo Jima. And then met the other guy that wrote Band of Brothers and Ambrose and interesting conversation. But the guy that I'd met that, was so providential was a guy named Jack Lucas. I had seen him throughout the day. Short guy, 5'2", big stocky, early 70s, marine. And I heard him telling these stories. Well, I had read this book, Flag of Our Fathers, and it told Jack Lucas' story. So just before we are to fly out, he and his wife are sitting in the front row of this passport place to leave. And I walked up to him and I said, Mr. Lucas, I've seen you throughout the day. And every time I turn around, you got these young Marines hovered around you. I said, is it true about your story? And I kid you not, man, he just like comes alive. It is true. I was 14 years old. The war started. I want to go kill Japs. I begged my mom to let me into the wars. You have to lie about my age. You had to be 16. She said, as long as you finish high school, I'll let you do it. He said at 14, I went into the Marines. Two years in Hawaii, trained. And then a ship has headed to Iwo Jima and I wasn't supposed to be on that ship, but I stole on that ship I would have been court-martialed for but they had stuff for me and and they needed soldiers so fine at 16 I land on the sands of Iwo Jima I mean like we're on Iwo Jima right and we were just on the sands of Iwo Jima at Mount Suribachi It's just like I'm like is this guy really telling me this thing? And I kid you not, he said, you know, when we got on the sands, it was so like we were sinking into the sand, it's volcanic, and we were climbing our way in, about 30 minutes into it, we jump in a foxhole, two other guys and me, and as soon as we're in this foxhole, this hand grenade comes into the foxhole. And I grabbed it and I pulled it under my body. And another hand grenade comes in, and I grab and pull it under my body. He said, they exploded. I had 200 holes in my body. The only reason I didn't bleed out was because of that volcanic ash. They took me to Guam. Two months later, I'm standing in front of the President of the United States, and I'm getting the Congressional Medal of Honor. I'm 16 years old. You look it up. He's the youngest Congressional Medal of Honor winner. This is like, this is so like providential. I go, that's amazing, Jack. I said, why did you do this? He said, you know, the Bible says, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. And he said, that's what I did. I pulled out a track. I said, you know, Mr. Lucas, in all due respect, you know who said those words? The first one to say them was Jesus Christ, because that's exactly what Christianity and the gospel is all about. He laid down his life for us that he wanted to call friends. This is like total sacrifice. Now I'm telling you, that our great country is not great because all we have now is because of sacrifices by a whole lot of people that are already dead and gone. Respectfully, those of you that are parents, your children are only going to get it when they see you live in it. Some of you have grandparents. I'm now in that category. Scary, but it's true. You have to understand that when God asks you to do the most unimaginable thing, because this is unimaginable. I wish I had time to tell you this story about Africa and a missionary that went there. and would tell the story about the economy in which he lived. And the African pastors would often refer to so many times by the time that it was ready to plant, they had no more seed. There was nothing left for them to plant. And inevitably a young boy would find seed out in the hut and would come and say to dad, dad, I found this grain, please let mom grind it and cook it tonight so we can eat and our tummies can be full. And this missionary said how many times I've heard a dad say son we cannot eat this. This is next year's seed grade. And he said I've seen it within a month the rain start coming and I've seen it with tears streaming down their face. They are doing the most unimaginable thing necessary. They are planting that seed because they believe in a future harvest. And you and I have got to get to the place to realize, God, I want to sow in tears and then I'm going to reap in joy. But there are things that sometimes are so painful. Why are we so attracted to those stories of great people in the past that are believers? Often it's because of the suffering that God allowed them to go through to break that seed. Because Jesus Christ said in John 12, accept the corn of wheat, fall to the ground, and die. It abides alone. But if it dies, it brings forth what? Much fruit. Some of you have gone through incredible painful times. You've got to do what you heard Pastor Kevin say. Am I trusting God? You're faithful. You will do this for us. They will do that for you. It's not about how much faith you have. It's about the truth of the scriptures that you sow in tears. He said you will reap in joy. And it might be after you're gone that your child comes back to him or those things that you invested that you had so little but you gave it anyway as a church of Macedonia that God blessed you for that. or that seed of that testimony, of that word, of that track that God sees breaking you. Because only out of brokenness comes openness, and out of openness comes that revival of a spirit in which God said, He will do this for you. He really will. Will you be willing to sow in tears and find yourself reaping in joy?