NOTES FOLLOW THE VIDEO LINK FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED.

Ecclesiastes 3:13 KJVS

[13] And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.           

Ecclesiastes 5:19 KJVS

[19] Every man also to whom God hath given riches and wealth, and hath given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labour; this is the gift of God.

            Our ability to enjoy the fruits of our labor comes from God.  Some people call this ability satisfaction derived from being a productive member of society.  Others would call this ability reaping the benefits of sowing effort.  This passage refers to it as enjoying what you are able to produce from your own labor.  Please notice it does not refer to enjoying what others have labored to produce.

            It is my opinion that one of the reasons we see so many people today who are not content with life is because they have not been taught that contentment comes from being able to reap what you sow.  They have been deceived into believing good things in life are supposed to be handed to them without any effort on their part.  This lack of understanding creates an attitude of entitlement instead of the attitude that our own efforts will bring rewards that we can enjoy.

            God did not put mankind on this earth to sit around and do nothing.  In the Garden of Eden, the very first occupation was that of being a gardener, a farmer.  God put Adam and Eve into the garden to take care of it.  That would have required effort on their part.  He rewarded them by making available to them the food that came from their labors.  To be honest with you, I do not believe those labors were originally drudgery or wearisome to them.

            Having to struggle to overcome forces that opposed their livelihood did not appear until after they rebelled and disobeyed God.  Genesis 3:17-19 describe how God told Adam he would be able to eat from his efforts, but it would only occur after he toiled to grow food and dealt with thorns and thistles that would appear along with the crops.

            Allow me to repeat myself here to drive this point deep into your spirits—God did not intend for mankind to be unproductive.  He gives us skills and abilities that we can use to benefit our lives.  He will reward the use of those skills and abilities, our labors, as we live according to His spiritual principles that affect our physical lives.  If we will sow effort, He will help us reap the benefits of that effort.

            Acknowledging that God is ultimately the source of all our gifts, our blessings, is part of living a life that displays contentment in those blessings.  People who are always discontented and unhappy with their lives have not given God the credit for the blessings they do have.  Their desire to always have more and more and their expectations that more will just come to them from some source other than their own efforts demonstrate their lack of understanding about the source of blessings and a lack of faith in God’s spiritual principle of sowing and reaping.

            Those desires and expectations also reveal the attitude of entitlement I mentioned earlier.  People who always fall for the slogan “It’s Free” do not understand that no blessing,  material or spiritual, is free.  Some price, either physical or spiritual, must be paid in order for a blessing to come their way.

            Allow me to give you some examples from our world today.  There is no such thing as free health care.  There is no such thing as free housing.  There is no such thing as free public transportation.  There are no such things as free food, free education, free entertainment or free economic stimulus checks.  Someone somewhere had to sow labor to create income to pay for all those things I just told you were not free. 

            Here’s a story for you to consider.  During the days of Julius Caesar, Roman Senators are walking through a crowd of people who are farmers and peasants who had moved to Rome to get the government payments that were called “the dole.”  The crowd is yelling, “Increase the dole!  Increase the dole!”  The Senators’ response is, “They’re never satisfied.  Don’t they realize we aren’t the source of the money?  They are.”

            The crowd wanted what they thought was free stuff.  They wanted blessings without having to work for them.  They wanted to circumvent God’s spiritual principle of personal sowing and reaping.  They wanted to enjoy the blessings of the labors of other people without having to perform their own labors.

            Does this scenario sound familiar to you?  I’m going to make a statement here that will probably offend some people, but you need to be told this.  Man-made socialism and communism never work in a society because those political systems are based on taking the products of the labors of people who are working and giving those products and benefits to people who are not working.  Socialism and communism try to do away with God’s law of sowing and reaping as individuals.  They do away with personal contentment from personal effort.

            Any society that rejects God’s spiritual principles will self-destruct.  Any government that legalizes and promotes rebellion against God’s will for mankind will eventually be judged by God and will fall.  A government that removes your ability to enjoy the fruits of your own labors is violating God’s principle of sowing labors and reaping His blessings through your own efforts.

            God has given you the gift of enjoying your labors through reaping what you sow.  You should thank Him for that gift.  And you should do what you can to ensure that your children will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labors.  Teach them the principle of sowing and reaping and oppose anyone who would take their gifts away from them.  Then teach your children, other family members and everyone else you know to give God thanks for His blessings.

            Let’s invest some time before we close today in thanking God for the fruits of our labors.  Let’s thank God for all the blessings He has allowed us to receive from His gifts to us.

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