There are certain principles in scripture, which are fundamental to our prosperity as believers. This is one of them.
Its truth relates to much more than financial giving.
In creation God ordained a cycle of growth that begins with seed continues through fruitfulness onto further seed production.
SEED
1. Seeds are where life starts Everything begins with a seed. Every plant, human and animal. That’s how the world goes round.
Genesis 8:22 "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
Plants that produce fruit, produce seed and as such are self propagating allowing a world that provides food for the ongoing cycle of life to continue.
Seeds are the source of life. Small, unattractive, inconspicuous
2. Seeds are dormant potential A seed can sit around for days, months, years, centuries in unused storage, but when planted in the right climate and conditions it will grow.
it was reported in the national press a few years ago, that seeds had been found in an Egyptian pyramid that was thousands of years old. They were planted in the appropriate environment and grew.
Robert Schuller: “Any fool knows how many seeds there are in an apple, but only God knows how many apples there are in a seed”
All a seed needs is a nurturing environment and it will grow.
In fact seeds are instruments of multiplication.
One tomato has the capacity to grow more than a dozen tomato PLANTS.
All over the church seed is sitting waiting to be planted in the right environment.
3. The large starts with the small A small seed has the capacity to grow a huge tree.
Jesus said…. It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest seed you plant in the ground. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds of the air can perch in its shade. (Mark 4:31)
God looks for a seed…. FAITH
We look for a tree…. AN ANSWER
God asks us to plant a seed and believe.
Yet we are reluctant to plant and believe because we want the answer straight away.
It’s like the businessman who is passionately praying for an answer to a severe financial crisis in his business. God gives him a seed “tithe and pay your taxes” but the man ignores it because he expects a tree and not a seed. He expects a large cheque from a generous benefactor but God tells him to obey clear spiritual principles.
Mark 4:26-29 "This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows; though he does not know how. All by itself the soil produces grain--first the stalk, then the head, then the full kernel in the head. As soon as the grain is ripe, he puts the sickle to it, because the harvest has come."
4. God starts with a seed
God planned and prophesied the coming of his kingdom for centuries. He predicted the coming of a mighty messiah throughout Israel’s history.
Yet when he started his kingdom, how did he do it ? = With ONE seed in a woman. Most people missed it because they expected a TREE and not a SEED.
Matthew 1:20 “… an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (read)
God has given us seed - 9:10 – Where are we sowing ? What are we sowing ?
God increases the seed – 9:10 – The more you use the more he gives. Don’t conserve there’s plenty.
God enlarges the harvest – 9:10 – The more you sow the more he grows. Everything that grows has many more seeds. The enlarged harvest enables greater generosity.
Having considered SEED lets now consider ……
SOWING & REAPING
I want to concentrate on three truths about sowing and reaping and then three areas of sowing and reaping.
Galatians 6:7-10 (read)
TRUTH # 1: Reaping is conditional to sowing
Simply put … If you do not sow you WILL NOT reap …. “A man reaps what he sows”.
Put another way, if your Christian life is not productive you are not using it properly.
That relates to all aspects of faith. Prosperity comes through wise investment.
Proverbs 11:25 A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
Giving is both a blessing to those who receive and to those who give. In a world where personal conservation is more important than helping others, Giving is a dying virtue that needs resurrection
TRUTH # 2: Reaping is proportional to sowing
That means the more you sow the more you will reap …. 2 Corinthians 9:6 “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously”
Some people spend more time moaning about what they don’t get out of church or their life than looking at how much their putting in.
Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."
(Bye the way, the context of these verses is FORGIVENESS!)
The biggest bank accounts are those that receive regular credits and not continual debits. They also inherit greater interest.
The same principle applies to the spiritual.
TRUTH #3: Reaping is consequential to sowing
This means that you will reap the fruit of what you sow….. “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
We need to learn a caution in regard to what we sow in our lives, because it will produce fruit good or bad.
The choices I make in my life have effects ….. good and bad. I cannot always blame somebody else if I have sown bad seed in my life.
Proverbs 2:8 He who sows wickedness reaps trouble !!!!!!!!!!
Job 4:8 Those who plough evil and those who sow trouble reap it.
We must consider the words we sow, the thoughts we sow, the actions we sow.
Hosea 10:12 Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love
.
Romans 6:22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.
Conclusion:
What are we sowing now into this church that the next generation will experience the fruit of ?
What am I sowing into my unsaved friends that will lead them to salvation’s fruit ?
Robert Schuller “Any fool knows how many seeds there are in an apple, but only God knows how many apples there are in a seed”
What seed in your life remains unplanted ? and what will you do with it ?
