#7: We Cannot Do Anything About Last Year's Harvest Series

Here’s a poem that goes with the theme of what we’ve been studying:

"If Turnip Seed Grow Turnips"

If turnip seeds grow turnips, And greens grow spinach greens;

If carrot seeds grow carrots, And bean seeds bring up beans;

If lettuce seeds grow lettuce, And Brussel seeds grow sprouts;

If pea seeds always bring up peas – Then what goes in comes out!

So kind words bring up kindness, And bad words will grow sadness;

Forgiving words will grow forgiveness, Glad words will grow gladness!

So watch the little seeds you plant, In all you say and do;

For what you sow is what you reap! Be proud of what you grew!

A. Let Us Go On

Have you ever thought about "time travel?" Wouldn’t it be great if movies like "Time Machine" and "Back to the Future" could be a reality? Think of all we could go back and change or do differently. Why we could go all the way back to the garden of Eden and correct that original sin and poof … everything is okay. Yes those are great thoughts, but you and I know that whatever we did yesterday, last week, last month and even last year is over and it is called the "past." There are no time-machines. "We cannot do anything about last year’s harvest."

Each of these laws concentrate on the today. Of course, they remind us of yesterday and tomorrow, but they speak to us of what we are to be sowing today.

Today’s lesson: If last year we failed to produce a crop worthy of God’s praise … today … we don’t need to view ourselves as failures and be upset over the past. And if we produced a good crop last year worthy of the Lord’s praise … today … we do not need to rest, thinking the this year’s crop will come on its own.

This seventh law teaches us to "go on." Since we cannot do anything about the past we must go on. Hebrews 6:1 READ. Their problem like many today is that they knew God’s Word, but their "use" and "applying" of God’s word in life’s situations was immature at best. The writer of Hebrews exhorts us to "go on" and reach out with God’s Word to what confronts us and to become full grown and useful Christians. Sometimes we need to go…

B. How do we go on?

1. You must “deal with your mistakes”

1 John 1:9 “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” You can’t gloss over sin. You can’t whitewash it. You can’t pretend that it doesn’t exist or that it doesn’t destroy. Sin breaks the heart of God. It goes against everything he stands for and everything he wants from us. He doesn’t just turn his back and ignore it. It is an issue that must be dealt with. In Isaiah 43:21-24 God is very specific about how his people have sinned against him. READ

This verse tells us some things. It tells that sin not only hurts us, it also hurts God. Our sins burden him, they make him weary, they hurt him. This verse also reminds us that when we sin, we are doing more than just bending the rules or breaking society’s moral code. We are offending God. Sin is, first and foremost, an act of rebellion against God.

David recognized this. After committing the sin of adultery with Bathsheba and after having her husband Uriah murdered, he repented and said to God...

Psalm 51:1-4 READ. Sin can destroy a friendship, it can destroy a marriage, it can destroy a career, it can destroy a ministry, it can destroy a life. But we must realize that the real damage caused by sin is that it creates a separation between you and God. You have to face up to your sin. You have to recognize that sin is responsible for the pain in your life. Secondly...

2. You must “trust God to forgive your sin”

A difficult lesson we all must learn is that we are absolutely, totally and completely unable to pay the price for our own sins. Hebrews 10:1-4, 11-18 READ. In society we have an idea of justice that works on a limited basis. For example, if you rob a bank you pay your "debt to society" by serving time in prison. Of course, if you ask anyone who has been to prison they will tell you that even after they served their time the debt wasn’t really paid in full. The stigma of having been in jail follows them for their rest of their life. It makes it difficult to get a job, to get bonded, to vote, to be in a serious relationship--you may serve your debt to society, but society doesn’t forget the debt.