Understand Your Harvest

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.