Remember your riches in Christ as you pray and sow, with weeping and joy.

Bethel Morning Service

Everyone is sowing some kind of seed: "he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life" (Gal 6:7–8). Paul exhorts the disciples of Christ to follow their Lord in doing good. This is a holy labour, living as Christ in the power of his Spirit. He offers a needed warning, against weariness and faintness. He supplies a needed encouragement, reminding us that sowing now brings an eventual reaping which will be the happy reward of the righteous. All this leads to a broad exhortation, that saints are to sow in season, doing good to all, and especially to those who are of the household of faith.

Proverbs 6:12-19 — He's never caught saying the thing. But he sure is doing it. Solomon draws the portrait of a man who has built a second language — and his victims don't speak it. This expository preaching series through Proverbs 6 moves from the sluggard to something darker. The sluggard is a fool — but he only ruins himself. The man in Proverbs 6:12-19 proselitizes. He recruits. He plants. He coordinates without a meeting. He winks suspicion into existence. He can nod away good names. And he's never caught saying the thing, but he sure is doing it. If you've ever watched someone operate this way in a church, a family, or a workplace and wondered why nothing can be proven — Solomon names it here. This message on discord in the church walks through one of the most surgical passages in Proverbs. The froward mouth doesn't curse — it sounds reasonable. The wink, the foot signal, the shoulder shrug, the finger gesture — it's a second language that accomplices speak fluently and victims cannot. He has learned to slander without a transcript. And God has a file on every seed of discord planted in a conversation or a text message. The list in Proverbs 6:16-19 doesn't introduce seven new subjects — it shows what God sees when he looks at the man already described in verses 12-15. And the list ends not with a behavior but a person. Every other item on the list is something somebody does. The seventh — he that soweth discord among the brethren — is someone God hates. And it's placed last because it's worst. It's bad in a neighborhood. It's worse in a family. It's worst in the body of Christ.

The sermon centers on the spiritual gift of showing mercy with cheerfulness, emphasizing that this gift is not merely an obligation but a joyful, God-given disposition rooted in the believer's experience of divine mercy. Drawing from Romans 12:6–8 and Ephesians 4:32, it underscores that mercy, like forgiveness, is to be extended with genuine compassion and gladness, reflecting God's own character. The preacher illustrates this through biblical examples, including Jesus' identification with human frailty and the principle of sowing and reaping, where those who show mercy will themselves receive it. The message also explores the broader context of spiritual gifts—apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—highlighting their purpose in building up the church, while affirming that the full revelation of Scripture now supersedes the need for new prophetic revelations. Ultimately, the sermon calls believers to recognize and cultivate the gift of cheerful mercy as a vital expression of Christian maturity and a powerful testimony to God's grace.

This briefer sermon is 'intended for reading', which usually indicates a sick man writing or editing a previous address for distribution. Brevity here does not undermine simplicity, clarity, or pungency! The text is short: "My son, give me your heart." The sermon is straightforward, looking at the love which lies behind the request for wisdom, then at the wisdom which guides the loving request, and then a pressing application to be wise by attending to this wise admonition. Here the more practical elements of the sermon come to the fore, although—as we often see with Spurgeon—he usually sows fruitful seeds of thought along the way, quite apart from any more formal element of application. The last paragraph confirms our earlier expectations as well as informing our understanding: the sermon is an 'occasional address' (delivered on a specific occasion), in this case an appeal for funds for hospitals (when such were typically privately and charitably supported). Now we know not only when the address came, but we appreciate more fully why Spurgeon has been pressing for the heart—because once our heavenly Father has our heart, he has our hands, too, in cheerful dispensation of our good things. In addition, the final appeal is pleasingly quirky—before the plate is being passed round for the collection of money, Spurgeon passes around his own invisible plate, for the collection of hearts.

Psalm 126 celebrates God's restoring work among His people. This psalm reminds believers that the Lord is faithful in seasons of sorrow and that those who sow in tears will reap with shouts of joy. In this episode, Dave Jenkins explains God's faithfulness, ongoing renewal, and the hope believers have through Jesus Christ, who brings the ultimate deliverance from sin and death and guarantees everlasting joy for His people. For more from Reading the Bible Daily with Dave, visit: https://servantsofgrace.org/reading-the-bible-daily-with-dave/