And moreover, there are a couple of other principles that we can learn from that parable of the Sower: You always reap more than you sow. And we know that from the standpoint of maybe planting a garden, or planting a field. One seed will produce a crop which will be considerably more than just that one seed. And as Jesus puts it in that parable, you reap 30, 60, maybe even 100 times more than what is planted. So what is planted in our mind, again, that is what comes out of our minds, but more comes out of our minds than perhaps goes into our minds.

And also, what you reap will be realized somewhere down the road. It will take some time for the growing and developing process to take place. So we must sow positive things to reap a positive life. And if we sow positive things in our minds, we will reap more positive things as time goes by.

The mind of man is like a computer. You get back what you put in. And I know I used this illustration a number of weeks ago, talking about something similar to this—the old acronym GIGO, meaning “Garbage In, Garbage Out”. That’s the way it works with a computer—if you don’t put in the right information, you get bad results, and that’s certainly the way it works with our minds.

Next, positive living comes from right thinking. I can’t overstress that verse from Proverbs 23 enough. We are what we think. We are the product of what we think, and what comes out of our minds is the product of what goes into it. And that is God’s rule. And so, in order to live right, we must think right. And there are, of course, many areas that we should think right about. And I’ll just mention a few of them for us tonight.

We must think right about God. Paul tells those assembled there in the city of Athens as he was speaking to them from Mars Hill, and he was talking about God, and he said, “He is our heavenly Father, and in Him we live, and move and have our very being.” And Paul goes on to say that we should not think of the Divine Being as being like gold or silver or stone—an image that’s made by man’s design and skill, Acts 17, verse 29.

We should think right about ourselves. We are not the product of “natural selection.” We are not the product of “random chance.” We are special beings, created with purpose and intent, and moreover, created in God’s image, Genesis, chapter 1.

We must think right about others. And what I mean by “others” are the people who are outside of this assembly—the people that we encounter on a day-to-day basis—our neighbors, our co-workers. And the way to think about them would include recognizing and acknowledging that they are wandering and lost in sin, and that they are worthy of our concern and attention. We would be reminded of the great verse, John 3:16, that “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe…” And we should put that into perspective, that “those others” that we encounter are indeed part of that “world,” and they are part of that “whosoever” that God is talking about in John 3:16. Luke 19, verse 10, says, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save that which was lost.” And so that’s the right way to think about others. Think of the value that they have, and the potential that they have to be saved and become a part of the kingdom.

We should think right about the church. Jesus told Peter and the other apostles, in Matthew 16, verse 18, “On this rock…”, that is, upon Peter’s confession, “…I will build My church, and the gates of Hell will not prevail against it.” The church is not a manmade institution. It’s not an organization of some kind that has no basis. It’s something that was built by Jesus, and it’s a powerful force…so powerful as a force that even Satan with all of his power and influence will not—cannot—prevail against it.

And we must think right about salvation. It is the free gift of God, and it is found in no one else but Jesus. For as is written in Acts, the fourth chapter, verse 12, “There is no other name under heaven given to men by which men must be saved.”

And so positive living comes from right thinking.

Also, positive living comes from right doing. As I’ve been stressing, positive living is one step beyond positive thinking. And as James tells us in James, the first chapter, and verse 22, “Do not merely listen to the Word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” This, if you will, is the “action phase” of Christianity.

Christianity is not just a feeling. It’s not some kind of mental assent. It is doing. It is acting. It is behaving. It is doing right. And I think the perspective that we need to keep on this is that it has to do with our position as servants. Paul tells us that we should have the same attitude of Christ Jesus. And His attitude was that He made Himself nothing, and took on the nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, Philippians 2:5 and 7.

We must remember, too, that we are known by our fruits. It doesn’t matter who we are. It doesn’t necessarily matter what we know. What really matters is what we do, and this is emphasized and illustrated, again, from the world of agriculture in talking about the produce, or the fruit that is produced by a tree, or by a vine. In John 15, Jesus uses that great analogy of the vine and the branches. And in that analogy, He identifies God as the gardener. He identifies Himself as the vine, and He identifies us as the branches. And He says as long as we remain in the vine, we will bear much fruit. And in Matthew 7, Jesus says that we will be known—we will be recognized for who we are—by the fruit that we bear. And this calls to mind the old adage, “Actions speak louder than words.” And I believe it’s true.