THE LAW OF HARVEST
There are several laws governing several situations in the universe:
- The law of gravity:- whatever goes up must come down
- The law of mathematics:- two parallel line do not meet
- The law of housekeeping:- as you lay your bed so you will sleep on it
- The law of the prophets- whatsoever you want men to do to you do the same to them
- The law of harvest:- whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap.
We want to begin a series on the topic THE LAW OF HARVEST and our text is taken from the book of Galatians 6:7-8
Gal 6:7-8
7 Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.
8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.
If you look at the structure and order of things around us you will have discovered that they operate on certain laws and principles, but above all other laws, the law of harvest affects every thing, person and God Himself. He deliberately subjects Himself to it to show us how important that law is. It is as important as the ability to read and understand the English alphabet to speaking and writing English grammar.
Therefore we have noticed that:
- a farmer must sow seed to have harvest
- couples must sow their individual seed to have a new born baby
- a teacher must teach to become proficient in his career
- Water must be available on the ground for evaporation. Condensation and rainfall
it unfortunate to note that when we want to talk about the law of harvest and seed sowing people get the wrong impression that we are about asking for donation for the church. In today’s sermon we are not going to begin with monetary issues but some other fundamental things that affects you and your generations.
WHAT CAN WE SOW THEN?
GOOD OR BAD CONDUCT (BEHAVIOUR)
a. Humility or Pride.
What is humility? I shall define it as a deliberate act of reducing your self from the status that you occupy or have achieved.
Phil 2:5-9
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
NASU
Humility is not when the younger respects the elderly. No. it is the opposite. When the person that deserved to be respected turns around to respect those that do not deserved it, which is humility.
Therefore if you want to become someone to be respected all over the seed you have to sow first is humility. Humility is the seed that produce respect while pride is the seed that produce demotion and shame.
Read James 4:10; Matt.3:13-15.
What are the signs of pride and arrogance?
- a proud person prefer to use the word I all the time to show that he is the one
- a proud person wants to be introduced in a gathering and will not feel comfortable when they have not properly introduced him as the one ‘ who brought an elephant home with his cap’
- a proud person always ask when infringed upon Do you know who I am?
John the Baptist was somebody and he humbled himself to Jesus while Jesus also humbled himself and introduced John as the greatest of all that are born of a woman.
b. MERCY, HELP OR HATRED
There are so many needy all around us but we don’t feel as if we are concerned with their plight. One thing I have discovered lately is that we are all in need of one thing or another and no man can single-handedly alone meet all his need without someone helping. Also you must realise what I have realised: that a person that you consider a wretched of the earth may have the solution to the problem that your money and position cannot solve. Let’s take some examples from the scriptures.
1 Kings 17:10-16
10 So he arose and went to Zarephath. And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was there gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel, that I may drink.
11 And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand.
12 And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die.
13 And Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son.
14 For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.
15 And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah: and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days.
16 And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by Elijah.
KJV
Here was a very powerful man of God who has the God given ability to perform miracle, who could have thought that that kind of a man he would have nothing to eat. Here was a widow with her son living in penury and abject poverty and who could have thought that she had the ability to feed and give a drink to the great man of God.
In John 4:10-14 Jesus was thirsty yet he was sitting by the well of Samaria and had nothing to draw the water until that harlot came. She had what Jesus wanted and Jesus had what she is been looking for all her life. This is allegorical.
Failure to show mercy and help to those who ask of you may hamper your breakthroughs. You can only sow what you have to get what you want. There is somebody out there crying for help from you and until you do that which he or she is asking from you, you may continue to experience delays and perpetual waiting throughout your life.
There was a sad story of a woman who had an house help and would not treat her like her own children. One day it was discovered that the two children are infected with HIV and when a test was conducted it was discovered that the house help was positive and the parent negative. How come? The house help used the same toothbrush with the children because they only provided them for their own children and does not care about the house help. Can you see how this family ruined their hopes because they felt the house help should not qualify to own a toothbrush?
c. Words of our mouth
There are so many people today facing great problems because of what they have pronounced on their lives in the time past. It is possible to sow good or bad word and to reap its reality later in life.
Prov 16:24
24 Pleasant words are as an honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.
KJV
James 3:4-8; Prov.13:1-6
Learn not to say evil things about yourself because it may come to pass. Remember also that we are going to give account of all that we say.
d. Our Thoughts
What we are saying proceed from what we are thinking
What we are thinking combines with other factors to produce the kind of person that we are or going to be.
The Bible warns us:
Prov 4:23-24
23 Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.
Jesus warned us:
Matt 15:19-20
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:
20 These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.
KJV
What you are always thinking about yourself may eventually happen.
Abraham was thinking that his wife would be snatched and it happened. Gen.12:12
J. F .Kennedy thought they could shoot and killed him from any of the high rise building and it happen. They shot him from the sixth floor of a library.
The earlier you realise that thought are like seed the better for you. Think positively and control what you allowed to come into your heart before it start rummaging and damage you completely.
WHAT THEN SHOULD WE BE THINKING?
Philippians 4:8
- Things that are true
- Things that are honest
- Things that are just
- Things that are pure
- Things that are lovely
- Things that are of good report
- Things that are of virtue
- Things that are of praise.
PART TWO
SOME BASIC PRINCIPLES OF SOWING AND REAPING
1. Gen 8:22 – Till the world comes to an end there will always be the following:-
a. Seed time
b. Harvest time
c. Time for cold
d. Time for heat
e. Summer
f. Winter
g. Day
h. Night
All these are designed by God for our benefit. If you see anyone complaining about certain season it is because he does not understand God’s plan for every season. For example, in palm oil producing region the more the heat in a particular year the more the harvest of palm oil
2. Gal. 6;7 You will reap what you sow.-
- you cannot sow okro and reap rice during harvest
- if you sow material things you will reap material things and spiritual thing for spiritual things
3. You can reap what others have sown
- it was Abraham that sow to God after his demise his children continue to enjoy the fruits of their father’s labour
- Jonathan sowed friendship and brotherliness with David his son Mephiboseth reaped the fruits of it. II Sam 21: 7
- Saul sons including Jonathan harvested the fruits of the wickedness of Saul their father. II sam. 21:6
- If a child becomes deformed because his parents contact venereal disease, that child has reaped what he never sown or knew nothing about.
4. One may sow good seed and reap bad fruits. But why should such a thing happen? The bible has the answer.
Jer 12:13
13 They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns: they have put themselves to pain, but shall not profit: and they shall be ashamed of your revenues because of the fierce anger of the LORD.
KJV
- when God is angry with a person whatever he does will be an abomination before God and proverbs 15:8 say the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination
What is an abomination?
Prov. 6:16
- A proud look
- A lying tongue
- Hands that shed innocent blood
- An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations
- Feet that is swift in running to do mischief
- A false witness that speaketh lies
- He that sows discord among friends
Another reason why the harvest may be bad is when the seed itself is bad and it refuses all efforts to make him good because it doesn’t want to be good. God had planted such before.
Isa 5:1-5
Now will I sing to my wellbeloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My wellbeloved hath a vineyard in a very fruitful hill:
2 And he fenced it, and gathered out the stones thereof, and planted it with the choicest vine, and built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress therein: and he looked that it should bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes.
3 And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
4 What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it? wherefore, when I looked that it should bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes?
KJV
5. You may sow wind and reap whirlwind. Hosea 8:7
Naturally one should think that the volume of seed sown should determine the volume of harvest but in certain circumstances we have discovered that a little act of kindness or brutality may carry more gravity than the original act done. How do you explain the act of stealing by Achan and the punishment that followed?
- Therefore your little act of kindness may bring you greater rewards than you might have expected. The woman who gave the widow’s mite was much more acceptable than those who gave much money
- Your little act of brutality, or unfaithfulness could bring you greater problem and punishment.
Illustration:
A young man raped a girl when he was in the military when he became old and had children ten men raped his own daughter.
6. If you sow sparingly you will also reap sparingly. I Cor.9:6
This happen in a situation when you have the ability to give much and you gave so little
