UNDERSTAND YOUR HARVEST
INTRODUCTON - What is your Harvest?
When we think of harvest what do we imagine? Maybe for most of us here in this rural area - it is fields of wheat and harvests as in our title frame. But what does a harvest look like for you?
Is your harvest about finances? To have a certain amount of money.
Does your harvest look like this? The dream of your wedding day.
Maybe your harvest looks like this? A baby.
For some a harvest is to live and be a part of a happy, loving family.
What some of the young guys here today, does your harvest look something like this? The SS Commodore (Sports car)
Others may see their harvest as a dream holiday getaway?
Then there is the harvest of owning your own home?
These are all images of different harvests for different people.
What about the church, what does harvest mean and look like for us as the church? How about this? This is a picture of a Reinhard Bonnke crusade in Africa. It represents the harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.
This morning I would like to present to you 3 areas of understanding about the harvest you need know if you are going to reap your harvest.
TEXT - Galatians 6:7-10 Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. You will always reap what you sow …..
9 So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up, for we will reap a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time. 10 Whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone, especially to our Christian brothers and sisters.
The first principle of harvest you need to understand is….
1. HARVEST IS A CONSEQUNCE - You will always reap what you sow
The harvest is the consequence of what you sow. When you sow wheat seeds your with reap a wheat harvest. In v 8-9 it says Sow to satisfy sinful desires and you will harvest the consequences of decay and death. Sow to please the Spirit and the consequences will be life from the Spirit.
In 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 Paul writes - Remember this saying, “A few seeds make a small harvest, but a lot of seeds make a big harvest.” Each of you must make up your own mind about how much to give.
The result of understanding that your harvest is a consequence is that we need to know the quality and quantity of the seed we sow for the harvest we are wanting.
Let me take a very practical area of life.
Proverbs 18:24 A man who has friends must himself be friendly … If you want to have harvest of friends you need to sow seeds of friendship. Over the years it has amazed the number of people who have come and said to me, no-one loves me, cares about me, I have no friends, I’m lonely etc., yet when I enquire about their life, they don’t instigate conversation, and if they do it’s negative in nature, they don’t invite people to their home, they stay separate in a crowd.
Maybe not all seeds will germinate but if no seeds are sown then you are guaranteed no harvest.
The most common seed we sow every day are the ‘words’ we speak. Every word is seed. Ask yourself, what kind of word seeds am I sowing?
God set the principle seedtime and harvest into the fabric of creation. Genesis 8:22 “While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest ….Shall not cease.”
It is not just farming principle, it a law of life. And as with any law, if you ignore it or disobey it then you can not expect to reap the benefits of it.
Don’t be misled. Remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it. Gal 6:7
So friend what is the harvest you that are looking for. You need to plant the quality and quantity of seed that is in line with the harvest you are expecting. There are financial blessings, work and career opportunities, healing and wholeness, new relationships, joy, peace, love that God has available for you to reap but first seeds must be sown to begin to generate those possibilities.
2. HARVEST IS A PROCESS - So don’t get tired of doing what is good. Don’t get discouraged and give up….
Yours harvest will happen over night. It will take time.
Ecclesiastes 11:1 Cast your bread upon the waters, For you will find it after many days.
Unfortunately because many people don’t understand this, when it comes to a time when they need to reap there is nothing available so they quickly sow some seed hoping that by some ‘miracle’ it will grow overnight. PTL, God does do miracles on such occasions; however the Lord wants us to learn how to live in blessings daily, not in need of a daily miracle to get us through. Blessings come through understanding your harvest.
Mark 4:26-29 Jesus also said, “Here is another illustration of what the Kingdom of God is like: A farmer planted seeds in a field, 27 and then he went on with his other activities. As the days went by, the seeds sprouted and grew without the farmer’s help, 28 because the earth produces crops on its own. First a leaf blade pushes through, then the heads of wheat are formed, and finally the grain ripens. 29 And as soon as the grain is ready, the farmer comes and harvests it with a sickle.”
Harvest is not an event it is a process. Last year we spent considerable time looking at the fact the much of our life and spiritual growth happens through a process not one single event. Your life is defined by one event but a process - opportunities, choices, problems, and victories.
“All things work together …..” What we so often see as the event is in actuality one of two things -
- the culmination of the process or
- the commencement of the process
Understanding that your harvest is a consequence means you need to determine your seed.
Understanding that you harvest is a process means you need to make preparation.
Notice in Mark 4 it says - ‘went on with his other activities’ Ignorant people think the pastors only work on Sundays and the farmers only work at seeding and reaping. In between they do nothing. Wrong.
While the seed is going through the process of transformation so must we. “The seed you sow is not the same gain you reap.”
People don’t reap the full potential of their harvest because they don’t understand that a harvest is a process.
The barn capacity for seed is smaller than the barn capacity for grain. Because your harvest is a process you must do all you can to increase the capacity of your life to reap your harvest.
Your mindset and the thoughts of your hearts are the dimensions of your barn.
Proverbs 4:23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues (dimensions) of life.
Some people and churches for example are always talking about sowing but little about reaping, because their have not grown, developed, expanding, extending the barn of their mind to received the concept that they can reap.
Isaiah 54:2-3 “Enlarge your house; build an addition; spread out your home! 3 For you will soon be bursting at the seams.
When it comes time to reap it is too late to do the building and extensions. When you understand that your harvest is a process you will use your time wisely to read, study, learn from God’s Word, those that have reaped a harvest similar to you etc to enlarge your capacity to receive the harvest.
3. HARVEST IS A SEASON - a harvest of blessing at the appropriate time or due season.
A couple of years ago in our church we shared about the difference between ‘chronos’ time and ‘kairos’ time. They are two Greek words used for time.
Chronos is the word from which we get the word chronological – normal, general time.
Kairos however means - a fixed and definite time, opportune or seasonable time, the right time, a limited period of time (Strongs)
This year because of the weather conditions the reaping season has been moved forward. The farmers were able to read the signs and understand the timing and season.
Understanding your harvest is season means we know how to discern the ‘appropriate time’.
In the OT it talks about the group of people of David’s army who “had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do …..” 1 Chron 12:32
It is very important if you are going to reap your harvest to know God’s timing.
Jesus said to the Pharisees one day – to can read the signs in the sky and know what kind of day it is going to be but you lack the sensitivity to know the times you are living in. (Mark 16:1-4)
Jesus cried over Jerusalem as he entered because their lack of understanding of the season caused them to miss their ‘day of visitation’. (Luke 19:44)
Proverbs 10:55 At harvest season it’s smart to work hard, but stupid to sleep.
We need to be wise and know the season of harvest. Ephesians 5 Live wise … making the most of your opportunities.
It is good to sow but not in reaping season. It is good to enlarge your capacity but in reaping season. Eccl 3 tells us that there is season for everything - A time to sow and a time to reap (v2). It then goes on to say, that everything is ‘beautiful in its own time’. (v11)
CONCLUSION
Friends what is your harvest? God wants to bless us. However He has put in the place the principle of harvest – sowing and reaping – by which He delivers those blessing to us.
We need to understand our harvest. We need to understand that it is:-
a product of our sowing - therefore we need to sow seed and the right seed for the harvest we require.
a process of growth - therefore we need to prepare, enlarge our capacity to receive the harvest.
a period in time - therefore we need to be sensitive to the seasons and wise with our time and not miss our opportunity.
