Your Harvest Is Coming Part 2 Series

Your Harvest Is Coming Part 2

Scripture: Galatians 6:7-8; Isaiah 40:29-31; 55:11; Matthew 13:4-8

This morning we’re going to complete the message that I began last week titled “Your Harvest is Coming.” Last week the focus of that message was to show us how important it is for us to purposefully sow God’s Word, the Bible, into our lives so that we will benefit from the fruit that it is designed to produce within us lives. I told you last week that our ability to sow (speak) the Word of God into and over our lives and the lives of others begins with what has been sown within us first. Isaiah 55:10-11 tells us that when we speak God’s Word over people and the situations in our lives, it will produce the promised fruit, the promised results. It says, “10. For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there without watering the earth and making it bear and sprout, and furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; 11. so will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; it will not return to Me empty, without accomplishing what I desire, and without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.” (Isaiah? ?55:10-11?) ?When we speak God’s Word, and believe that what He says about His Word is true, then and only then will see the promise of His Word established in our Iives. The example I highlighted in last week’s message to paint a picture for you of how seeds bear fruit was how Nikki sows seeds when planting her vegetable and flower gardens. She first identifies the seed she wants to plant and then she decides where they are to be planted. Once this is done, the seeds are planted, watered and maintained. Once the plant begins to grow, she may have to pull weeds that also begin to sprout up around the plant and she has to get rid of bugs or animals that may threaten the successful growth of the plant. This is the process that she must go through every season in order to protect her harvest – her seeds. ????????????????????????????

I want you to keep this in mind because this is the launching point for this message. After we have sown the Word into our lives, we must take care of it so that it can reach full maturity and produce in our lives what it is designed to produce. Now the two questions I have for us this morning New Light is “Who are we protecting the Word from and who is it that wants the Word to be ineffective in our lives?” We know that the answer is Satan. In the first part of John 10:10 Jesus calls him a thief that “....comes only to steal and kill and destroy.” And what the thief is after is the Word that we have sown and are sowing into our lives. This morning we’re going to see the primary tactics that he uses to accomplish his goal of stealing, killing and destroying the Word we have sown in our lives. We find them in Matthew chapter thirteen, where Jesus tells the parable of the sower. While the parable is about the sower, the true focus is the seeds that the sower sows. Jesus said, “4. And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the wayside, and the fowls came and devoured them up. 5. Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and immediately they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth. 6. And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them. 8. But others fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some a hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” (Matthew 13:4-8) After Jesus told the parable, His disciples asked Him to explain it to them. This is what He told them beginning in verse nineteen: “19. When any one hears the word of the kingdom, and understands it not, then comes the wicked one, and catches away that which was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the way side. 20. But he that received the seed in stony places, the same is he that hears the word, and immediately with joy receives it. 21. Yet has he not root in himself, but endures for a while: for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he is offended. 22. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that hears the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. 23. But he that received seed in the good ground is he that hears the word, and understands it; who also bears fruit, and brings forth, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:18-23)