Sowing & Reaping

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