Sermon Central
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Sowing And Reaping
Contributed by Dr. David Wesner on May 22, 2015 (message contributor)
Summary: We have no choice but to sow. All of our life is spent planting. In the end: We reap what we sow, more than we sow, and later than we sow.
There are many basic, viewable laws in life.
Here is one:
A person’s life is created by choices.
Here is another:
Every one of those choices has a consequence.
Choices are like seeds.
Consequences are what we harvest from those seeds.
If we choose to lie – we become a liar.
If we choose to steal – we become a thief.
If we choose to walk in obedience to Christ – we become a disciple.
We have no choice but to sow.
All of our life is spent planting.
In the end:
We reap what we sow, more than we sow, and later than we sow.
8 Principles Of Sowing And Reaping
Then God said, "Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds." And it was so.
1. The seed we plant is the same kind of seed we reap—seed of its kind.
You can’t sow cucumbers and hope to get broccoli.
The cucumber seed has built into it the exact genetic code to grow a cucumber, nothing else.
So it is with us.
If we sow into the Spirit, we reap life because life is built into the genetic code of the Spirit.
We can’t sow into the flesh and hope to reap life anymore than we can sow a dandelion seed and hope to reap a rose.
Here is another viewable law:
Our lives come from the sowing of others who were here before us.
For example, all of us are reaping the consequences of a decaying society.
The increase of divorce.
It is undermining the dignity and sanctity of the home.
The basis of human society.
The craze for pleasure.
It is undermining the need for serious communication.
The basis of human society.
The decay of religion.
It is undermining morality and a need for standards and values.
The basis of human society.
This is why we must not eat from seed sown in the Kingdom of Darkness.
2. We determine the size of the harvest at the time of planting.
2nd Corinthians 9:6
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
The farmer knows that he is going to reap in proportion to what he planted.
If we sow love and mercy, we will reap in proportion to what we have sown.
A family serving the Lord is more important than dollars.
Marriages are planted this way.
3. We will always have a harvest.
Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
A believer’s harvest is not determined by natural laws, but by God.
4. You will reap later than you sow.
Farmers know that both growth and decay take time.
Nothing happens right away.
Marriages do not succeed or collapse in an instant.
We want what we want; preferably, yesterday.
So, we take matters into our own hands.
We run ahead of the Lord.
We employ our own strategies and methods:
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains.
Harvest time has it’s own time.
God’s time is an appointed time.
5. We will always reap more than we planted.
Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop--a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.
Plant a kernel of corn, and you will reap a stalk with several ears of corn.
On the ears of corn are hundreds of kernels of corn.
So it is with a blade of wheat.
The law of increased return is what makes farming a good enterprise.
It is also the reward of a Believer’s life.
6. There is a season for planting and a season for harvesting.
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: 2 a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
Time is an important element.
If the seed germinates before its proper time, a harvest can be lost.
Some of us grow weary thinking God has not noticed what we are planting.
This is because our human nature craves the experience of the harvest.
We must walk in faith that when we plant the seed, a harvest will come.
Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.
7. Seed can be sown secretly, but the harvest is always viewed by many.
To those not involved in the labor, it seems like the seed was just planted.