#4: We Reap More Than We Sow Series

What goes around, comes around. Every action has a reaction. What goes up must come down. These are all universal laws, laws that effect your life. There is also the universal law of reaping and sowing. 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

The laws of the harvest seem so simple. Simple enough we may cast them aside thinking nothing of them. But the complexity of each law is that they powerfully produce a harvest of good and/or bad in our lives. This apple I hold demonstrates well the laws of the harvest.

Law 1 = I did not plant the tree this apple came from therefore I have reaped from what I did not sow.

Law 2 = This apple came from an apple tree giving proof we reap the same in kind as we sow.

Law 3 = This apple came from a tree that was planted perhaps years ago. So we reap in a different season than when sown.

Today we look into the fourth law, "We reap more than we sow." This apple illustrates for us the fourth law. Having cut the apple in two pieces we can count the number of seeds contained in this apple. However if we were to keep the seeds for sowing season and wait for the harvest we would be amazed how many apples we would reap from one seed. Someone has said, "You can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can’t count the number of apples in a seed."

I. The Measure of More

This law brings into our lives the simple truth of the "measure of more." It has been said, "The Man who has More is the measure of all things."

We tend to believe and live by . . .

The more money you have the better off you are.

The more power you have the better chance you have of getting what you want.

The more prestige you have the better chance you have of going somewhere.

However we forget the law does not take into account what is better for us. That is left up to us in how and what we sow. This law only produces a harvest more than we have sown. It does not guarantee if the “more” is positive or negative because it is dependent on what?.....what it is that we have sown. But the law says that we will reap MORE than what we sow.

II. A Biblical Example of More Mark 4:1-8 READ

In this parable, Jesus said that the seed that fell on good ground increased (verse 8). A single grain grew to be a plant that produced thirty, sixty, or a hundred more seeds. Reaping more than we sow is fundamental to the laws of the harvest. Every farmer lives by this principle. If his work only returned exactly what he had planted in the ground, his labor would be futile. He would never gain anything extra with which to feed his family or sell for a profit.

For example, consider the potential of one kernel of corn: One kernel of corn will produce one corn stalk. On the average, each stalk will produce three ears. The average ear of corn has 250 kernels, so that a single kernel of corn will yield a 750% increase.

____corn kernal = ____ corn stalk = ____ corn ears = ____ corn kernels

The harvest is always greater than the seed planted – whether we are speaking of agriculture or the things of our lives. We invariably reap more than has been sown. This fact is both serious and sobering, and it applies equally to the Christian and the unbeliever.

Whatever a person sows, whether good or bad, he will reap the benefits or the consequences in a significantly greater proportion.

Of course, there are exceptions to this law because we live in a fallen world. A farmer may have his crops destroyed by drought, and we know that bad things can happen to good people. But even in these instances, God’s law is not set aside. If we look at the whole of a life, or all the seasons of harvest, we will find that as a general principle, we reap the same in kind as we have sown (Law 2) and we reap more than we have sown