Rev Dr Edgar Mayer;
For more sermons and other
writings check the following homepage: www.livinggracetoowoomba.org
Impossible
Not To
It is
impossible to sow and not reap in prayer. This is the most important
encouragement of the second lesson in our
The Bible
teaches – (and this reading begins on
a more serious note which we will take up first before we unfold the
encouragement for today) – Galatians 6:7-9: “Do not be deceived; God is not
mocked, for you reap whatever you sow. If you sow to your own flesh, you will
reap corruption from the flesh; but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap
eternal life from the Spirit. So let us not grow weary in doing what is right,
for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” I read the same Bible passage again –
in more modern English [the Message]: “Don’t be misled: No one makes a fool
of God. What a person plants, he will harvest. The person who plants
selfishness, ignoring the needs of others – ignoring God – harvests a crop of
weeds. All he’ll have to show for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response
to God, letting God’s Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of real
life, eternal life.”
We are
hearing the serious note first: “Do
not be deceived. God is not mocked.” However
– the question is – how would anyone
mock God? (How would anyone make a fool of God?) [Answer:] By acting as if the law of sowing and
reaping did not apply to you. There were some Christians who wanted the
blessings of God – the right kind of harvest – the fruit of the Holy
Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience … (Galatians 5:22-23) and – thus – they praised
God and loved him on Sunday mornings but – for the rest of the week – they lived a corrupt life – full of
hidden sins and selfishness. This was
living in spiritual la-la-land (spiritual nonsense) and this was mocking God – not treating him with any respect. For some of us the warning in the Bible is
necessary: Do not be deceived. No one can turn up their noses at what God has
decreed: Whatever you sow, you reap.
In case we
do not know some of the bad seeds, which produce bad fruit, the Bible gives us
a helpful list – Galatians 5:19-21: “The
acts of the sinful nature [what the sinful nature is sowing] is obvious:
sexual immorality, impurity and shameful deeds; idolatry and witchcraft;
hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions,
factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like …” These seeds – these acts of the sinful nature – are not going to produce any good fruit and
– therefore – the Bible reading
concludes by saying: “ … I warn you, as I did before, that those who
live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.”
Now – with this list and the warning that bad seeds
produce bad fruit – we have come to the
end of the bad news for this morning. The
principle of sowing and reaping was never meant to bring us down (it’s a principle of life – making all of
creation explode with expansion – birthing new things) but to encourage us and excite us and make us live a life of abundance
where a few seeds multiply into an amazing harvest.
Consider only
a small selection of Bible passages which further confirm the principle of
sowing and reaping for all of life –
Psalm 126:5: “Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” 2
Corinthians 9:6-11: “ Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap
sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously … God is able
to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all
that you need, you will abound in every good work … he who supplies seed to the
sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and
will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every
way so that you can be generous on every occasion … your generosity will result
in thanksgiving to God.” Malachi 3:10:
“‘Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse [bring me the whole tenth of
your income], that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,’ says the
Lord Almighty, ‘and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and
pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.’” [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 … ”] Luke 18:29: “ … I
assure you that everyone who has given up house or wife or brothers or parents
or children, for the sake of the Kingdom of God, will be repaid many times over
in this life, and will have eternal life in the world to come.” Matthew
13:23: “But the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the
person who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a
hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” And again from the opening
Bible reading – Galatians 6:7-9: “ … you reap whatever you sow … if you sow
to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit … we will reap at
harvest time … ”
This Bible
principle of sowing and reaping comes with some practical lessons for us. 1) You
sow before you reap the harvest. This may sound obvious but many a time we complain
and argue with God that this principle should be the other way round: “God,
if you want me to sow, let me experience a harvest first. How can you expect anything
from me, when I am only a baby Christian and am struggling with so much? There
is not enough money. There is conflict in the family. There are cravings and
addictions. God, I’ve messed up my life and I’m not ready. Let others do the
serving and the giving and let me enjoy the church for a while. Then – down the
track – when I am better, I will join in.” And – relating this to our prayer school: “God, I’m needy. Let
others pray for me and let me experience the answers of their prayers first
before I join in and also pray.” According
to the principle of sowing and reaping this is wrong. You do not wait until the
harvest so that you can – from the abundance of the crop – give a few seeds back to God. You do the
sowing beforehand – before the harvest – when the stock of seeds is scarce
– when sacrifice is involved – when the reward for what you are doing is not immediate.
Jesus
himself sowed before the harvest and he asks us to do the same – John 12:23-26: “Jesus replied, ‘The hour has come
for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of
wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it
dies, it produces many seeds. The person who loves his life will lose it, while
the person who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life … My
Father will honour the one who serves me.’”
Jesus used
his entire life as a seed and then even sowed his own death on a cross so that
as he died – as he (the kernel of
wheat) died in the ground – the harvest
would come. He himself would enjoy the firstfruits of his own resurrection and
then all those that put their faith in him – an astounding harvest of an
abundance of souls – will also rise (because
of him) to eternal life. The Bible says –
1 Corinthians 15:20-23: “But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead,
the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep … the resurrection of the dead
comes also through a man … in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his
own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him.”
Jesus Christ
sowed with his life on earth and – as
the Bible records – his life
circumstances were marked by poverty, conflict, rejection, betrayal, torture
and death. Yet, Jesus kept sowing – he kept enduring – because he knew that you have to sow before you reap a harvest. In the
same way he admonished us – I repeat some words from the previous Bible
reading – John 12:23-26: “ … I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat
falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it
produces many seeds. [This does not only apply to me, Jesus.] The person
who loves his life will lose it, while the person who hates his life in this
world will keep it for eternal life … My Father will honour the one who serves
me.’”
This is
fundamental. The principle of sowing and reaping has an eternal perspective. In
this life we sow and in the life to come we reap. Therefore, hang in there in
this life. Do not give up. (Sowing
time is not harvest time.) Should you
die – like Jesus – for your faith
and doing the will of the Father in heaven, rejoice because the harvest is
coming. None of your sacrifices will be in vain. It is impossible to sow and
not reap a harvest. One persecuted Christian said in the Bible – 2
Corinthians 4:16-18: “ … our light and momentary troubles [and he means
here: floggings, being stoned, ship-wrecked in the service of preaching the
Gospel, always being on the move, going without sleep, knowing hunger and
thirst, being worried about the faith of other Christians] are achieving for
us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what
is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is
unseen is eternal.” The principle of
sowing and reaping has an eternal perspective.
However – at the same time – the principle of sowing and reaping is in operation even now here on
earth and you are encouraged to expect a harvest any time soon. The principle
of sowing and reaping underpins everything that we do and produces results –
constantly. For instance, – in the
Bible – a crowd of five thousand was
hungry and Jesus asked the disciples to feed them. They did not have enough
food but Jesus asked them to sow what they had which was five loaves and two
fish. Only the disciples were hungry themselves and they may not have felt like
sharing the little that they had but Jesus asked them to give away their lunch –
to sow their little lunch – so that
there could be a harvest in God.
Then this is
what happened – Matthew 14:19-20: “ …
Taking the five loaves and two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus gave
thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples and the
disciples gave them to the people. They all ate and were satisfied, and the
disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”
What was sown multiplied and produced a
harvest – complete with leftovers – already
in this life.
Then, the
same miracle – operating with the
same principle – happened not much
later. This time it was a crowd of four thousand that was hungry and what could
be sown was not more than seven loaves and a few small fish. Yet, it was enough
because whatever you give to God is a seed that can multiply into an
astonishing harvest – Matthew 15:36-37: “Then Jesus took the seven
loaves and the fish, and when he had given thanks, he broke them and gave them
… They all ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven
basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over.”
And just in
case that we do not expect this to be our normal faith experience, Jesus
admonished his disciples when they failed to bank on the same harvest at a time
of similar need – Matthew 16:8-10: “
… You of little faith, why are you talking among yourselves about having no
bread? Do you still not understand? Don’t you remember the five loaves for the
five thousand, and how many basketfuls were gathered? Or the seven loaves for
the four thousand, and how many basketfuls were gathered?” What Jesus was saying is this: “Don’t
you understand that God is the God of the harvest and that when you sow, you
will reap?”
Therefore,
be encouraged – Psalm 126:5: “Those
who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.” Galatians 6:7-9: “ … you
reap whatever you sow … So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we
will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up.” You sow before you reap a harvest.
Abbreviate
and retell in your own words – Norman
Grubb: Rees Howells Intercessor,
“Then in the midst of all this, God
called again. He and his wife had a burden of prayer for some missionary
friends in
‘I met my friend Stober at the
Llandrindod Convention,’ said Mr. Howells. ‘He did not say anything for the
first few days, and it wasn’t until I was on my way to the missionary meeting
that he told me how thankful he and his wife were for the offer we had made,
but that they were not wanting to leave Edith just then. I walked straight into
the meeting, and there I saw a vision of
Rees returned home on Saturday and told
‘It was the greatest surprise of our
lives,’ said Rees. ‘We thought we had a vision of the Africans in order to
burden us to pray for someone else to go, but with the Lord we can only push
others as far as we are willing to be pushed ourselves. There were a thousand
and one hindrances, but the Lord would take no excuses—where there’s a will,
there’s a way!’
The greatest problem was that a little
boy had been born to them. At the time they had offered to adopt Edith, they
had no child. ‘We had told each other that those missionaries ought to give the
child up and devote all their time to the work,’ said Mr. Howells, ‘but we
little thought that we were preparing a trap for ourselves; what we thought
others should do, we were now called to do!’
Months before their little boy was born,
the Lord told them to call his name Samuel. There was no Samuel in the family;
it was given them, just as the name of John was given to Zacharias. There were
several similarities in his life to the one he was named after: one being that
Mrs. Howells’ name was Hannah, and she too was now to put her son on the altar
of sacrifice.
‘It was our first test on the call, and
the greatest,’ said Mr. Howells, who tells the story in his own words. ‘The
Savior had said, Anyone who loves son or
daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me, and now the Holy Ghost said to
us, You must prove to Me that you love
the souls of the Africans who are to live for eternity more than you love your
own son.
Does He really mean it? I wondered. Yes, He meant it, just as He told Abraham
to take his only son up the mountain and offer him as a whole burnt offering.
Many a time I had preached about Abraham giving up Isaac, and had emphasized
the words, Take now thy son, thine only
son, whom thou lovest. How little had I realized what that had meant to
him!
I knew what it was to give my life, but
to give another's life away was as different as two things could be. God had
given us Samuel’s name before he was born, and I knew He had a purpose for his
life, and this was our test. God said, If
you give him up, you can never claim him again. Not once has it ever dawned
on us since then that Samuel was ours.
We were to surrender him as really as
God surrendered His own Son, and Abraham his son. Unless your surrender is real
and up to the standard, you will break down long before the end. It wasn’t a
question of leaving Samuel behind, and then that he should call our attention
back to himself; no thought of Samuel was to bring us back to this country.
The time came for my wife to take a
course of Bible training. We did not know what place the Lord would open for
little Samuel. We left it entirely in the hands of the Lord; we wouldn't have
dared to interfere, or we could have made the greatest mistake.
A few weeks before the time for us to
leave I was sent for by my uncle, a brother of the one who was healed; his wife
was the headmistress in the country school where they lived in Garnant, near
Ammanford. He asked if we were taking Samuel with us. I said, No. Where
is he going to? I said I didn't know. Well,
he said, he is to come here. They had
never seen him, although they lived within three or four miles, but he said
that a few nights before, something came over them about him, and they wanted
to nurse him while we were away. In a couple of days they were coming up to see
him.
Walking home that day to tell my wife
was more than one could bear. Although we had given him up in our hearts, when
the Lord actually opened a door for him, it was like pulling one’s heart to
pieces. But before I had reached home, I had enough victory to control myself;
it would have been no use for me to show my wife that I was giving way.
When I arrived home she was playing with
Samuel. I thought I had never seen him as he was that night, and for a time I
could not break the news. But I took courage and told her. The scene that
followed can better be imagined than described, and we were glad we only had to
go through it once in a lifetime. We proved that night that Africa was going to
cost us something. We were coming up to the victory by degrees; the process was
slow and hard. Because it was going to be an intercession, one had to walk
every inch.
My uncle and aunt came up, and they had
never seen a child like him! Without a doubt the Lord had put a father’s and
mother’s love in their hearts toward him. The first thing they did was to
invite my sister to be his nurse. It was like Miriam and Moses.
The morning came when my sister arrived
to fetch him. I think in eternity we shall look back on what we went through
then, giving our best to the Lord. We knew what it was to give money, health,
and many other things, but this was the hardest test.
The devil was not quiet that morning. He
said I was the hardest man in the world to give my little child up. The worst
of all was to enter into the feelings of my wife, preparing his clothes, etc.
His going out was more than emptying the house—he emptied our hearts too.
When I came home that night, I asked my
wife, How did you get through? She
said she went into the garden and wept, and thought to herself, I have been singing that hymn many a time:
But we never
can prove the delights of His love,
Until all on
the altar we lay,
and
this morning I have to prove it. But then the Lord told me, Measure it with Calvary. And with those
words she came through.
In praying together afterwards, the Lord
showed me the reward. He said to us, For everything you give up for Me, there is
the hundredfold; and on this you can claim 10,000 souls in Africa, and
we believed it.’
After Mr. and Mrs. Howells left for
Africa, Samuel became so completely a son to Mr. and Mrs. Rees that his name
was changed to Samuel Rees. He grew up with them and later went to Oxford
University where he graduated. It was with him literally, as with Samuel of
old, that he seemed set apart for the Lord and served Him from his youth up. He
accepted Christ as his personal Savior at the age of twelve. His adopted
parents wanted him to become a doctor, but Samuel felt the Lord’s call to the
ministry. After his University course he came back to join his own father (with
his foster parents’ loving consent) although Mr. and Mrs. Howells never raised
one finger to draw him in their direction. It was God who sent him back to
them.
Samuel became Assistant Director of the
Bible College of which, after his father’s home call, he became Director, and
was once again known to everybody by the name of Samuel Rees Howells. How
perfectly the Lord fulfilled the promises given to his father and mother even
before his birth, and how abundantly the Lord honored the sacrifice made by his
parents in giving him up and the love and care showered on him by his foster
parents.”
Rees Howells
and his wife sowed their son and it was a lot harder than sowing money or
health or other things and they were sowing him at a time when they only
prepared for the mission journey to
“The Sunday was October 10—my
birthday—and as I preached in the morning, you could feel the Spirit coming on
the congregation. In the evening, down He came. I shall never forget it. He
came upon a young girl, Kufase by name, who had fasted for three days under
conviction that she was not ready for the Lord’s coming. As she prayed she
broke down crying, and within five minutes the whole congregation were on their
faces crying to God. Like lightning and thunder the power came down. I had
never seen this, even in the Welsh Revival. I had only heard about it with
Finney and others. Heaven had opened, and there was no room to contain the
blessing.
I lost myself in the Spirit and prayed
as much as they did. All I could say was, ‘He has come!’ We went on until late
in the night; we couldn’t stop the meeting. What He told me before I went to
The next day He came again, and people
were on their knees till
At the end of one week nearly all were
through. We had two revival meetings every day for fifteen months without a
single break, and meetings all day on Fridays. Hundreds were converted—but we
were looking for more—for the ten thousand, upon whom He had told us we had a claim.
As the news reached
Rees Howells Intercessor,
“In ways like these the Holy Ghost came
down on every station and gave revival, exactly as He had said He would do, and
fulfilled the promise of the 10,000 souls. In
No one was more conscious than His
servant that the Holy Ghost was the Doer of it, and that it was ‘not by might,
nor by power, but by My Spirit.’ He laid hands on hundreds under the Spirit’s
power and guidance, and they came free every time. Outside the meetings he
would look at his hands, see how ordinary they were, and wonder where the power
came from! But he knew!”
Rees Howells
and his wife sowed before the harvest and it was not easy for them but they
trusted the Bible verse which we can all trust
– Psalm 126:5: “Those who
sow in tears will reap with songs of joy.”
The Bible
principle of sowing and reaping comes with another practical lesson: 2) You
sow what you want to harvest. I will not spend a lot of time on this but this
makes sense. You don’t plant an apple seed and expect a mango tree. You don’t
plant a vine and then reap potatoes. In the same way – many a time – what we sow into the kingdom and what we
reap is the same. Jesus sowed his own life – he gave his own life into
death – (the life was the seed) – and –
thus – he reaped the harvest of many
lives – including his own – in the
resurrection of those that trust God. The disciples sowed their little lunch –
a few loaves and a few fish – and then
reaped the harvest of food multiplication which fed thousands with their little
lunch.
This
practical lesson also applies in what matters most to us: the forgiveness of
our sins. The Bible teaches – Matthew
6:14-15: “For if you forgive people when they sin against you [if you
sow forgiveness], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive people their sins [if you refuse to sow forgiveness], your
Father will not forgive your sins.” Therefore,
we reap what we sow and – many a time – the seed and the harvest are of the same kind. We sow food and reap
food. We sow forgiveness and reap forgiveness. Mr Howells and his wife sowed
their readiness of taking the child of another missionary couple and then reaped
that someone else took care of their child. Mr Howells and his wife sowed the
right to be the parents of their son and then reaped 10,000 people who became
their sons and daughters in the faith.
For that
reason – and this is quite exciting –
this morning – think about what you
want. What do you want to harvest in your own life? This principle of sowing
and reaping is working for you. If you want a better marriage, sow love into
your husband or wife. You need to sow what you want. If you need more money to
pay your bills, start sowing money into the
[However, we acknowledge that God can extend the
principle of sowing and reaping and make any kind of seed produce whatever
harvest he wants – Romans 15:27: “ … if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’
spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material
blessings.” Galatians 6:6: “Anyone who receives instruction in the word must
share all good things with his instructor.” We can sow spiritual food and
expect a material harvest of provisions.]
The last
practical lesson for today is this: 3)
Sow into good soil. Yes – on the one
hand – we are sowing the seed of God’s
word to anyone and do not worry about the seed that also falls on the foot-path
or on rocky ground or the seed that falls among thorns (cf. Luke 8). We preach the good news of Jesus Christ “in
season and out of season” (2 Timothy 4:2). However – on the other hand – there
is wisdom in sowing our seed into good soil.
One man had
this experience – David Herzog:
Mysteries Of The Glory Unveiled, Shippensburg: Destiny Image 2000, p77-79:
“I was attending an anointed conference,
and the glory of God again was very strong … As the speaker ministered,
suddenly people got up out of their seats and began to surge forward to bless
him financially. They put money in his pockets. They left money on the pulpit.
They even laid money on the floor at his feet. It was an outpouring of
spontaneous giving. When I saw what was happening, I was reminded of the
experience of those first-century believers: ‘Now the multitude of those who
believed were of one heart and one soul; neither did anyone say that any of the
things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common’ (Acts
It was then that the amazing giving
recorded in verse 35 began, and the Christians came laying gifts at the
apostles' feet. I was surprised by the sudden rush to bless the servant of God
I was witnessing, and my mind was questioning it. The minister was already very
blessed and successful, and I found it hard to believe that he needed my money.
He had a growing television ministry, and I had my own needs. There were many
things that I wanted to do for God, and they would all require finances.
At the same time I was having these
thoughts, the Holy Spirit was prompting me to give to the man as others were
doing. I asked, ‘Lord, why do You want me to give to this man?’ The Lord told
me, ‘Just do it,’ and assured me that He would explain the reasons behind it
later. There was an explosion of God's glory in the place, and people kept
getting up throughout the message and going forward to give. I was still
battling between my mind and the Spirit, but the urging of the Spirit increased
until I decided I should obey God.
My flesh and my human reasoning had won
out long enough. After all, this man was reaching many more people with the
Gospel than I was. He had not only his meetings and his television ministry,
but also his books. I went forward and gave. Within days of my giving in that
meeting, I was invited to speak on three different television programs around
the
I don’t know
whether you can follow the man’s thinking. It was new to me but this is
fascinating. The speaker at this one conference was a blessed man and when he
was preaching, many people from the congregation began blessing him even more
financially. One observer thought that this was unnecessary. This speaker
already had more than he needed and the observer had his own needs. Yet, sowing
into the speaker’s life and work proved to be the smartest sowing the man could
do. This was sowing into good soil and the blessings that were on the speaker (e.g.: TV ministry) – his measure of the glory of God
– were released back into the life and
work of the giver. As he sowed into the speaker, his own TV ministry took off.
Is this
biblical? Is it right to think in the following way? For instance: I want the
same intimate relationship with Jesus that Heidi Baker enjoys and the same
power in preaching and performing miracles. Therefore, I can make the smart
decision of sowing into her ministry. I can give money towards her work in
David Herzog: Mysteries Of The Glory Unveiled,
Shippensburg: Destiny Image 2000, p82:
“I first heard about the gold teeth
being manifested in
One minister
starts explaining this aspect of sowing and reaping in this way – David Herzog: Mysteries Of The Glory Unveiled,
Shippensburg: Destiny Image 2000, p83-84:
“What does sowing have to do with the
glory? Paul explains this in His writings. He says that as a minister sows a
spiritual gift to the church, it is the believers’ responsibility to respond by
sowing materially into that minister's life. [Romans 15:27: “ … if the Gentiles
have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share
with them their material blessings.” Galatians 6:6: “Anyone who receives
instruction in the word must share all good things with his instructor.”] Some
may have wondered why, after they have had hands laid on them during a revival
for a special anointing, they never seem to see that anointing manifested in
their lives. It could be because there needs to be a response to that anointing
in a physical way. As I once heard my friend Renny McLean say, ‘Nothing sown,
nothing grown.’
Some may work with a ministry, as Elisha
did, and they will be blessed because of their contribution in that way. The
disciples gave up all to follow Jesus, and after He was gone, they walked in
the same power He had exhibited …
Money is only a tool. It enables you to
do more. When a ministry has money, it magnifies the ability of that ministry
to touch more people. When you give, you help magnify the ability of that
ministry, enabling it to do more and reach farther. As a result, you take part
of the grace that is upon that ministry. This is not the only way to accomplish
it, but it is a key that God is revealing to us today that will unlock a new
level of glory.”
Another
Bible reading sheds further light on this matter – Matthew 10:40-42: “He who receives you receives
me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. Anyone who receives a
prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and anyone who
receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man will receive a righteous
man’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these
little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly
not lose his reward.”
In the most
incredible way we can share in what people have from God by serving them and be
it only giving them a cup of cold water. Receive a prophet and you share in his
work and likewise receive a prophet’s reward. Receive a righteous man and – like him – receive
a righteous man’s reward. Sow into the people that are close to God and share
in what they have. This is good soil.
Again – what
do you want to have? Sow into the people that are producing the kind of harvest
that you want in your own life. For instance, if you need more compassion in
your life, then you may want to sow into David Challenor and the Jubilee
ministry. If you want a greater blessing on your business, then you may want to
serve Andrew Youngberry who was here two weeks ago. If you want wisdom in
getting a grip on life (the balance
of work and rest and family and friends and church), then serve the person that has what you want. Do something for them.
Sow into good soil.
[I know a
church that wanted to purchase a few acres of land for a new church building.
However, the owner did not want to sell the land to them. Then, this church
sowed $10,000 into another church which – at least in terms of finances – had
the glory of God on them with the result (if the interpretation is correct)
that a few years later the church that had sowed the money received the land,
which they had wanted, as a gift from the very same owner. Then, another church
sowed thousands of dollars into the church which had the glory of God on them in
terms of finances with the result that only a few days after sowing the money
this church (in return) received a loan guarantee for hundreds of thousands of
dollars from still another church. Lesson: Sow into good soil.]
[In terms of
prayer we can sow into good soil by praying for the people of
I come to a
close. Here are the three practical lessons again: 1) You
sow before you reap the harvest. 2) You sow what you want to harvest. 3) Sow into good soil.
Maybe I
should mention that sowing for a harvest is not the same as buying the harvest.
You cannot perform a good deed – sow
a good deed – and then think that you
have earned the harvest. This is ridiculous. God is far too amazing for that
because the harvest is out of all proportion with our measly seed. Human investment
strategies may yield a 10% growth rate and most of us would be happy with that
but God does not just add 10% to our investment. He multiplies the seed. One
seed become one hundred seeds which is a growth rate of 10,000%. [Cf.
Matthew 13:31-32 and the parable of the Mustard Seed. This also applies to the
bad seeds – Hosea 8:7: “The sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.] We don’t earn this but stand back in
amazement. God is good. He loves us.
Think about
the harvest that you want to have and then start sowing a seed. Give God a seed
and then – in due season – reap with joy more than you ever thought
possible. There is a miracle coming your way – a 10,000% seed explosion. You will have joy. With God – it is impossible to sow and not reap a
harvest. Start sowing. Think about what you can sow this week. There will
always be results. Always! Amen.