#3: We Reap In A Different Season Than When We Sow Series

They are seven in number, with each stemming from God’s eternal Word.

• Law 1 We reap much we did not sow

• Law 2 We reap the same in kind as we sow

• Law 3 We reap in a different season than when we sow

• Law 4 We reap more than we sow

• Law 5 We reap in proportion as we sow

• Law 6 We reap the full harvest of the good only if we persevere; the evil comes to harvest on its own

• Law 7 We cannot do anything about last year’s harvest, but we can about this year’s

In general I do not like vegetables. Two basics: green beans and yellow corn. The worse thing you can put in front of me is broccoli. When I was in 7th grade I was in a private school in Ojai, CA, Ojai Valley School. The uniforms and the whole bit. My sister and I both lived on campus. Served broccoli. I could not eat it. They would not let me leave without eating it. I gagged trying to get it down. Finally, they let me go. Next morning breakfast: the same broccoli. So I started putting it in my coat jacket. I started doing that with the food I did not like.

There are some things in life that are an acquired taste. Fried okra. I decided I’d like some fried okra for lunch today so I bought some seeds this weekend. So I have planted three okra seeds in this container of dirt. I carefully placed the seeds about an inch under the dirt, and have watered them. I am now waiting for them to grow so that I can pick, cut and fry the okra for lunch today. I can hardly wait! Only one thing troubles me. On the back of the okra seed package it gives planting and harvesting instructions. It places a time difference between planting and harvesting. It’s called a season. It states, Harvest in 50 days. Something tells me I won’t be having fried okra today from these planted seeds. Law 3 of the 7 Laws of the Harvest states, "We reap in a different season than we sow."

I. Sowing For Another Season

God promising to never flood the earth again, also promises the law of sowing and harvesting in different seasons will not cease. Genesis 8:22 "While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease."

It is absurd to think we could plant okra seeds this morning and eat fried okra for lunch. But how often do we live our lives trying to sow and harvest in the same season? Let me confess my own failure to regard the laws of harvest. I told a friend last week that I was a bit disappointed that more people had not come to the altar. His reply was right on … "Stay with the metaphor, you cannot plant and harvest in the same season. You cannot expect people to come and deal with what has been planted in a morning prayer at the altar."

How right he was and how foolish I was to think I could sow and reap in the same season. The harvest never comes immediately after planting. The Bible tells us it comes in "due season." Ecclesiastes 3:1 “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven.”

This law speaks to every area of our lives. Married life. Home life. Children’s life. Dating life. Work life. Fun life. Financial life. Health life. Church life. Spiritual life. Eternal life. Because we too often operate on our emotions rather than on biblical content, we sow without regards to the law.

II. Wanting What We Want When We Want It!

That’s the problem, isn’t it? We jokingly say, "Lord give me patience and give it to me now." Living in an instant society we often lack the ability to wait. We are geared to things like "Jiffy Lube" and drive through banks to eateries. Laser printer. The internet. I read where a funeral home in California now has "drive through viewing." We live life wanting quick and easy results. But it sows and reaps impatience with little or stunted growth.

Look how we bring this into our homes. How many are guilty of wishing their children would grow up. How many times have you said to your kids, "I wish you would grow up!" There is a scene in the movie "Hook" where the all grown up Peter Pan says to his little boy, "Quit acting like a kid!" To which his son replies, "But I am a kid?" We forget as adults we were once kids. Even now how foolish and child like we are to plant the "rush & hurry up" seeds in our lives, and the lives of our children, with little regard to the results we will reap. We want what we want when we want it, and without regard to the laws of the harvest! REPEAT: The best things in life take time