When you share the gospel with the Jewish people, God's covenant national people, you cannot avoid the need to bring them to Isaiah. The classic Christmas passage, Isaiah 9:6 affirms that the son who is born is in fact, God Almighty. Then Isaiah 53 tells in excruciating details the death, resurrection and eternal life of Christ! Isaiah 53 sounds like the New Testament!

It doesn't take the kind of effort we usually think of to sow the seeds of God's Word in other people. But it does take submission, the master of self (as Crown Incorruptible shows), to sit down, study God's Word from Genesis to Revelation, and stay on that task the rest of our lives. Why? That way, the Holy Spirit will have all that He spoke in the Scripture to work with when He gives you remembrance of everything Jesus said. Then, at the key moment, the Spirit of Christ will speak that one essential word that someone needs to hear to rescue them from the brink, the forgiveness of sins. You may not see when it happens, you may get no credit in this life for all the seeds that you've sown. But Jesus Christ knows all of them. And He alone gives the gain for faith. So make sure you are reading God's Word so He can use you to sow every seed He needs in other's lives.

“What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.” (1 Corinthians 3:5–9, ESV) We can take great confidence in the power of the Word of God to do the work of converting souls. Jesus referred to it as the seed, and John revealed that this seed never dies once planted (1 Jn 3:9). But let's keep in mind that if this seed never dies, then it stays with people forever. Some may love this aspect, but others may hate it. When we share the word of God with people, they may have reactions all over the map: great joy (Matt 13:20), in great affliction (1 Thess 1:6), or even reject it by resisting the Holy Spirit (Acts 7:51), others may hate it so much that they turn to you and try to tear you into pieces for sharing it (Matt 7:6). Either way, share. The reason the Holy Spirit gives you remembrance of everything Jesus said (if you're reading your Bible) is to spread that seed of the Word in everyone across all creation. That's why we need to stay in Scripture, deepen our study of it, and let God's Word and the Holy Spirit who spoke it take over our lives.

We need faith that when we speak God's Word to others, the truth of the gospel in Scripture, that it will never return void one way or another but will go to work in the lives of them we speak it to. Jesus told us this is a season of sowing seeds, which is the Word of God: "the seed is the word of God" (Luke 8:11). Patience is the key to dealing with seeds. We sow them, and God gives the gain. What about those who reject the gospel? Let's keep in mind the object of their rejection--the seed itself. Now, for them to feel this rejection, they first must feel the presence of the seed, right? That's a seed you sowed. Keep in mind, there is no telling when they may accept that seed at some later point in life. When pressures hurt, when times are tough, when loneliness sets in, or other matters remind them of the solution you gave them, that seed. When we send God's Word to work in other's lives, when we share our faith and Scripture, we are rewarded the Crown of Rejoicing. Never let anyone talk you out of that practice. Never let anyone steal your crown (Rev 3:11). Make sure to stop the steal, hold to your crowns and the practices they point us to.

This post under the Crown of Rejoicing, Share your faith, has to do with sharing the Word of God because you have faith in God that it can save the souls of those who hear it. That's real faith in God's Word, and Paul reveals to us this very issue: 1 Cor 15:1-2 ESV Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain. It is the Word of God that produces salvation, the gospel message of salvation and the coming Kingdom, that saves you and anyone you share it with who receives it in faith. Jesus likens this word of God to seeds that are sown all over a road and a field, see the parable of the sower on this analogy (Mark 4:14-20). That means the seed produces according to God's design, just as a seed produces various trees, shrubs, vegetables, and other plant life. Just as the seeds are designed, they produce according to the power of God, and humanity receives the gain, so too does the word of God never return void, so therefore it demands that all men come to repentance, see Acts 20:21. What, then, do we have faith in as we share God's Word? We dig deep into our Crown of Righteousness to drive our study of the "whole counsel of God" (Acts 20:27) so that in the key moment, we can feed those who will become God's sheep and watch their growth in the Spirit unto the glory of Jesus Christ. So study your Bible. Learn every word. Let the Spirit give you remembrance at the key moment, and watch those you preach to grow in their faith, should they receive it well. That's faith in God's Word.