The Seven Laws of the Harvest

 

"Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 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." Galatians 6:7-8

 

 

 

Law#1 - We Reap Only What Has Been Sown

Law#2 - We Reap the Same In Kind As We Sow

Law#3 - We Reap in a Different Season than We Sow

Law#4 - We Reap More Than We Sow

Law#5 - We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow

Law# - 6 We Reap the Full Harvest Of the Good Only if We Persevere

Law# - 7 We Can't do Anything About Last Year's Harvest, But We Can About This Year's

 

 

Introduction

 

When most of us think of the concept of reaping what we sow, we think of it in the negative sense. We think of paying the consequences for sinful actions or foolish choices, but the laws of the harvest are not just negative. These laws are also positive, very positive, and stand as a promise of blessing for sowing that which is good as well as a warning against sowing what is bad.

 

Spring is characterized by planting. It is a time to plant garden vegetables, a time to plant flowers, and for farmers, it is a time to plant their crops. Now planting presupposes that there will be a time to harvest. So springtime is a very busy time of the year for most folks, and they look forward to the time when they will be able to see the results of our labor.

 

Seven laws of the harvest:

 

  • We Reap Only What Has Been Sown
  • We Reap the Same In Kind As We Sow
  • We Reap in a Different Season than We Sow
  • We Reap More Than We Sow
  • We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow
  • We Reap the Full Harvest Of the Good Only if We Persevere
  • We Can't do Anything About Last Year's Harvest, But We Can About This Year's

 

 

 

Law#1. We Reap Only What Has Been Sown

 

1. Every choice that we make in our life will have some positive or negative consequences. As a result we need to understand and make every choice consciously, choices that affect us on an everyday basis in everything we do.

 

2. There is a price for our everyday choices, choices are not without significance.

 

3. Our choices affect us and others in remarkable ways in short or long term.

 

As a result we need God’s Wisdom to make right choices. What we reap was planted either naturally or purposely, either by God or by man, and for either positive or for negative results. In other words, this law of the harvest, We Reap Only What Has Been Sown, has both a positive and a negative side.

 

The Positive Side

 

1.       We reap blessings from the labor of others.  (John 4:38)

2.       Blessings We Reap Because of What God Has Done on Our Behalf.

 

·         The Blessings of Common Grace. (Mat 5:45, James 1:17, John 3:27)

·         The Blessings of Salvation Grace. (1 John 5:11-12, John 3:16)

 

3.       Blessings We Reap Because of What Others Have Done In Our Behalf.

 

·         We are blessed not only because of what God has done in our behalf, but also for what others have done.

·         Being a good model is a form of sowing that can result in reaping Christ-like changes in the lives of others.

 

The Negative Side.

 

We Reap the Wrong Others Have Sown

 

  • We reap a certain amount of wrong inherited from our parents.  (Num 14:18, Psa 51:5, Psa 58:3, Gen 5:3)

 

  • We all reap the consequences of the Fall, the sin of Adam and we pass that along to our children. This means not only a sinful nature, but things children can learn like how to be critical from a fault-finding parent.

 

  • We reap the wrong of foolish and corrupt leaders. (Is. 2:5, Ro. 2:5) This often includes the judgment of God on society past, present, and future.

 

 

Law#2: We Reap the Same In Kind As We Sow

 

If anyone had told David before or even right after his affair with Bathsheba (2 Sam. 11) that he would break every one of the laws of the second table of the Law, he would have denied it with all his might and replied that they were more than just a little crazy.

 

But the laws of sowing and reaping and this law in particular, "we reap the same in kind as we sow," strongly stress our need to follow the admonition to "take heed lest we fall."

 

Before this incident was over, David:

 

1.       Coveted his neighbor wife – (2 Sam. 11:2, 3)

2.       Committed adultery – (2 Sam. 11:4)

3.       Committed murder – (2 Sam. 11:15)

4.       Stole – (2 Sam. 11:4)

5.       Bore false witness – (2 Sam 11:8, 21)

 

David's downfall into sin posts a serious warning to each of us of the deceitfulness of sin and its dire consequences in the law of sowing and reaping:

 

This law all inclusive it applies to any and everything we sow.

1. "...whatsoever a man sowed, that shall he also reap..."

2. The words "that shall he also" makes the connection in kind to what we reap.

3. Since everything reproduces after its kind, God can never be mocked.

4. Just as no one can sow peas and produce watermelon, so no one can sow evil and produce good.

5. We cannot sow discord and produce unity.

6. We cannot sow lies and produce truth.

7. We cannot sow sin and produce holiness. (Mt 12:34-35)

 

  

 

Law#3: We Reap in a Different Season than We Sow

 

  • "Too many believers are sowing wild oats throughout the week and then going to church on Sunday and praying for a crop failure"
  • They hope their life-style won't catch up with them, but of course, it always does.
  • As seen from Galatians 6:7, God will not be mocked by man.
  • No man can turn up his nose at God's laws and get away with it.
  • Sooner or later his choices will return to haunt him.
  • What we sow, we reap, but the thing that is so deceptive is that we reap in a different season.

 

I. The Foundation for this Law

 

A. The Creative Purpose of God. (Ge. 8:22)

 

1. The harvest never comes immediately after planting for, while the earth abides, there is seedtime and harvest, cold and winter, etc.

 

2. There are seasons to life and the harvest never comes immediately.

 

a. You don’t build a building Tower in day. .

b. Plants don't grow overnight.

c. Athletes don't become strong or proficient in a week.

d. Wisdom isn't gained overnight, and so it goes through out all of life.

 

B. "In Due Time" or "Season"

 

1. Negatively. ( Deu 32:35)

2. Positively. (1 Sam 1:20, Psa 145:15, Psa 104:27, Gal 6:9)

C. The Necessity of Time and Growth in All Things. Eccl. 3:1-8 2. Remind us there is a time for everything which teaches us we can't rush the laws of God nor should we try to ignore them.

 

Applications of this Law

 

Several important factors here:

 

1.       Because we do not see the immediate results, we often think we have gotten away with some-thing or can, but we never do. (Eccl 8:11-12)

 

2.       We live in a self-oriented society that says "do your own thing,"

 

·         This is a society that is therefore given over to instant gratification.

·         We can jump into an automobile and either whiz across town in minutes, across most states in a few hours, or board a plane and 12 hours later be in Europe.

·         We watch a TV program and see family conflicts or national conflicts resolved in one hour, or at the most in a mini-series, four hours, but in reality, these things often require months and even years to resolve or change.

·         The younger generation today has the mentality of wanting and expecting to have all the material blessings and advantages their parents have.

·         The difference is the parents often had to wait years to accumulate what they have.

·         Often younger people are not willing to save, do without, and wait.

·         We want what we want when we want it which is usually, right now, or preferably, yesterday.

 

 

3. So, because we are accustomed to immediate gratification, we are too often unwilling to wait for the results of biblical sowing--sowing what is good and waiting on the Lord and His timing.

 

·         We take matters into our own hands.

·         We run ahead of the Lord.

·         We employ our own strategies and methods:

·         We don't want to wait on the Lord!

·         We want to reap without sowing!

 

 

Law#4: We Reap More Than We Sow

 

 

  • No fact is more significant and sobering than this one.
  • When we sow good, we bountifully receive from the hand of God.
  • The harvest is always greater than the seed planted.

 

a. If this were not the case, no farmer would ever plant a thing.

b. If he only got back what germinated in the ground, he would be on the losing end and spend his life in utter futility.

 

  • Reaping more than we sow is fundamental to the laws of the harvest and this is not just true for the agricultural world, it is true for nearly every aspect of life: for the physical and the spiritual, for believers and unbelievers alike.
  • This law works in reverse as well.
  • When we sow evil, we will generally reap more than we sowed as well.

 

The Story of David:  2 Sam. 12:9-14

 

·         We know the story of David and his sin with Bathsheba, but it is Nathan's indictments and judgements against David that tell the story of sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind or sowing iniquity and reaping trouble.

·         The indictment: You killed Uriah (2 Sam. 12:9).

·         The judgment: The sword will never depart from your house (12:10).

·         The indictment: You took his wife (12:9).

·         The judgment: Your wives will be taken before your eyes (12:11).

·         The indictment: You did this secretly (12:12)

·         The judgment: Your wives will be defiled openly before all Israel (12:11-12).

·         The indictment: You gave occasion to the enemies to blaspheme the Lord (12:14).

·         The judgment: Your child also born to you shall surely die (12:14).

 

1. Though David did sin against the Lord, as a whole, he walked with the Lord and sowed what was good.

 

2. When confronted with his sin by Nathan, he quickly confessed.

 

3. This made him a man after God's own heart. 1 Ki. 15:4-5

 

4. Most of David's life was sowing good, not evil, and as a result, God continued to bless him and many of the kings of Judah for many years.

 

 

Law#5:We Reap In Proportion to What We Sow

 

The promise and warning of Scripture is that we reap what we sow. This means that life's choices are filled with consequences both good and bad temporal and eternal. Reaping what we sow means we reap only what has been sown, we reap in kind as we sow, we reap in a different season than we sow, we reap more than we sow, but we also reap in proportion as we sow.

 

In reality, the laws of sowing and reaping mean, "As Now, So Then." Not "someday, and then I'll get started." Why is this? Because today we are becoming what we will be the rest of our lives.

 

While the last two laws are related, there is a very important difference. The last two laws both deal with the fact we reap more than we sow. Both deal with quantity and amount, but the previous law where the seed sown is multiplied many fold has to do with God's part, but this one with ours--with human responsibility.

 

Examples of this Principle.

 

A. The law that "we reap in proportion to what we sow," like all the laws of the harvest, operates both negatively and the positively.

 

1. If we sow abundantly to the Spirit, we will reap abundantly in spiritual blessings and consequences.

2. But if we sow abundantly to the flesh, we will reap an abundant harvest of the consequences of fleshly living--a life full of the weeds of unrighteousness.

 

B. David is a case in point:

 

1. Because David continued to sow to the flesh, his sin snowballed.

2. He went from coveting Bathsheba to one sin after another until he had broken half of the Ten Commandments.

3. He sinned abundantly and reaped abundant consequences.

 

C. The primary motivation and emphasis of this principle and promise in the Bible is toward the good.

 

1. It is a spiritual law of life that is inherent in the nature of God, but one that is contrary to the nature of man.

2. So God encourages us through a number of passages to live as children of God according to this principle and promises that our generosity will not be forgotten. (Acts 20:35, Luke 6:38, Mat 19:29, Prov 11:24-26)

 

 

Law#6: We Reap the Full Harvest Of the Good Only if We Persevere.

 

 

Scripture and the experience of life itself teach us that we reap the full harvest of the good only if we persevere, but evil naturally comes to harvest on its own. It doesn't need our help. This is easily illustrated in gardening. It takes perseverance in cultivation to keep the weeds out and provide for conditions that promote healthy growth and fruitful plants, but weeds will naturally grow and take over a garden without doing a single thing.

 

When it comes to knowing God's Word, we face a number of problems:

 

  • The problem of ignorance: We need to know more of Scripture.
  • The problem of understanding Scripture correctly: We need to carefully and accurately handle the Word.
  • The greatest problem is our lack of application: We need desperately to apply the truth we know. God's truth sets us free, but not if we fail to apply it.

 

 

Law#7: We Can't do Anything About Last Year's Harvest, But We Can About This Year's

 

·         Life is full of consequences both good and bad.

·         Life is full of important choices because every choice has a consequence of some kind and to some degree.

·         But how do we handle it when last year's harvest is not so good, when we have fumbled the ball or failed?

·         The tendency is to let our failure keep us from positive sowing today.

·         What we must understand and act on is this final law of the harvest--we cannot do anything about last year's harvest, but we can about this year's.

·         This law translates into at least four important concepts that we need to understand and apply if we are going to be able to act on this law.

 

I. We cannot do anything about last year’s harvest.

 

A. Whatever we did last year, last month, last week, even yesterday is over and past.

 

1. There are no time machines to take us back so we can change what we did yesterday.

2. Nothing we do today can in any way change the record of what was sown and what was or will be reaped as a consequence.

3. It is either a harvest that will be worthy of praise or burning--or perhaps portions of both--but whatever was produced stands as the record of the lives we live on this earth.

 

II. We must learn to live with the consequences of our failures.

 

A. Failures do not = 'a failure'.

1. When we begin to believe that we are failures, we lose heart.

2. It neutralizes us and wipes out our ability to use our life and the gifts God has given us.

 

B. But how do we avoid this?

 

1. By confessing our failures to God: this wipes the slate clean.

2. By knowing and resting in the fact we are forgiven through Christ and can move ahead for the Lord and in life regardless of the past. Ps. 32:1-8

3. By seeing and using the trials caused by our failures as character builders.

4. By forgetting the past (triumphs and failures) so we can press on for the future with renewed commitment to God's will.

 

III. We must commit ourselves to this year's harvest. (Philippians 3:13-14)

 

A. We must press on in our lives by sowing for the future and for the Lord.

1. We must press on toward the upward call of God in Christ.

2. Whether we have experienced victory and growth, or failure, or a lack of growth.

 

IV. We must not judge our harvest by the standards of the world and its ideas of success.

 

A. It is hard to face failure because it is so ugly and devastating, but our failures can become like a ladder to success.

 

·         We often sing a great old hymn, "Victory in Jesus," and have a hard time admitting that the road to victory is often filled with speed bumps, pot holes, accidents, and detours.

·         Perhaps we have forgotten that not many wise, noble, and mighty are chosen by God.

·         We judge ourselves and others by a false standard.

·         God usually chooses the weak, and the ordinary, so why is it that we consider ourselves failures?

·         It is because we often have a totally false notion of success.

 

B. Success comes in being obedient to the Lord and growing in character like the Lord Jesus.

 

·         It is not in numbers, names, position, power, or prestige.

·         It is not in possessions, activities, abilities, or acceptance by people.

·         If we judged the Lord on the basis of His possessions, acceptance, names and numbers that followed Him, He would be a failure. We must view failure from the right perspective.

·         In our world, people typically use the wrong yardstick.

·         How quick we are to take credit for our successes and to blame others for our failure.

·         But we can have everything that the world thinks makes us a success, and still be a huge failure in the eyes of God.

 

There are two days in every week about which we should not worry two days which should be kept from fear and apprehension.

 

One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders.

 

·         Yesterday has passed forever beyond our control.

·         All the money in the world cannot bring back Yesterday.

·         We cannot undo a single act we performed; we cannot erase a single word we said.

·         Yesterday is gone. The past must be forgotten

       

 

The other day we should not worry about is tomorrow with its possible adversities, its burdens, its large promise and poor performance.

 

·         Tomorrow is beyond our immediate control.

·         Tomorrow's sun will rise either in splendor or behind a mask of clouds but it will rise.

·         Until it does, we can do nothing.

 

That leaves only one day Today.

 

·         Each of us, by the grace of God, can fight the battles of just one day.

·         It is only when we add the burdens of Yesterday and Tomorrow--that we break down.

 

Conclusion:

·         Guard your thoughts; they become words.

·         Guard your words; they become actions.

·         Guard your actions; they become habits.

·         Guard your habits; they become character.

·         Guard your character; it becomes your destiny.