(February 15, 2024) Richard Winter challenges…

Many times you will hear preachers begin some point with ‘Jesus said…’

The truth is that Jesus said a lot of things!

• Some were direct commandments, such as ‘Leave your boats and follow me’ (Matthew 4:18–22).
• Some were instructions, such as ‘Worship God only and serve people’ (Matthew 22:37-39).
• Some were easy to understand… and some were hard.

To help His hearers understand things, Jesus often took an event from life that everyone should be able to comprehend and see the spiritual application. These have been recorded as short teaching parables… earthly lessons with a heavenly application.

But… did listeners always comprehend?  
Take Matthew 13:3 for example – ‘… He told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed.”’ Then He tells the parable of seed sowing concluding with this challenge, ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?’ (Matthew 13:9Mge).

In Jesus’ time the seed was mostly wheat, barley and millet, the seeding done by extracting seed from a bag and throwing it onto soil that had been ploughed.

Here’s a little thought about farming: If a man is impatient, then he had better not become a farmer! No crop appears overnight, and no farmer has control over the weather.

A farmer must have patience with the seed… and time. For it takes time for plantings to grow and be harvested, as the wise writer of Ecclesiastes solemnly inferred: ‘Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant. If they watch every cloud, they never harvest’ (Ecclesiastes 11:4NLT).

Trusting God
There is a lot you have to leave in the hands of God when you’re farming. If you come from a farming community or family you know this. You pray for rain to see your seeds grow, and then for sunshine to reap your harvest.

A Jewish farmer would plow and sow in the autumn months. The spring rain would come in February or March and help to mature the harvest. The farmer had to wait many weeks for his seed to produce fruit.

We’re talking here about preparing, sowing, waiting, praying, harvesting. Now hold these thoughts as I share further…

John Lawrence’s insightful 1975 book Down to Earth – The Laws of the Harvest has an important theme. It’s that God has set up laws in nature and the life of sowing and reaping… laws that demand we examine our own lives, thoughts and deeds in respect of sowing for God.

In this connection, Galatians 6:7-10NKJV doesn’t beat about the bush: ‘Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.’

So I want to share with you the 7 Laws of the Harvest:  
1. We reap only what has been sown
What we reap in life was planted either naturally or purposely, either by God or man, for either positive or negative results. We are benefactors of much – for which we have done no labour.

2. We reap the same kind as we sow
Whatever we sow, we reap. Plant wheat, harvest wheat. So, if we sow the good, we will reap the good. If we sow bad, we will reap bad.

3. We reap in a different season than when we sow
No harvest comes the moment the seed is planted. It must wait until God’s appointed time. No one can hurry a harvest – that’s out of our hands.

4. We reap more than we sow
How many apples are in one apple? We don’t know which seeds will grow into trees. From one apple seed you can get an orchard… the same can be said of most grains and fruit. The harvest is always greater than the seed planted. If this were not true, no farmer would plant anything.

5. We reap in proportion as we sow
If we sow little, we reap little. But if we sow much, we reap much.  The more ground we sow, the greater harvest we will have.

6. We reap the full harvest of good only if we persevere
Evil yes evil comes to the harvest on its own. How? Weeds grow by themselves! Farmers may spray weeds today, but they know when they harvest the wheat and weeds will be separated.

7. We can’t do anything about last year’s harvest… but we can do something about this year’s!
Last year is history and cannot be relived. We can do nothing about the past. Our concern needs to be for what we are producing right now. These universal ‘laws’ are like gravity. Hold a book over your head and let it go – it will always fall to the floor. That’s the way these laws of harvest work.  We are planting today what we will harvest sometime in the future.

What are you planting today? 
Remember, you can’t do much about harvests past, but you can do something about the future harvest.

These 7 Laws of the Harvest are very clear… as are Galatians 6:7 and 8 above in respect of reaping what we sow!

There are two types of sowing for Christians –

• You can sow to the flesh just our desires, wants… but that has a negative, destructive end.
• The other type of sowing is in the Spirit, resulting in God’s eternal blessing of salvation!
• To prove, not to earn the second, go ahead and do good… good to all people, especially other Christians.

(i) God’s laws are fixed, constant
It is good that we have God’s laws… as we can depend on things being constant. Without these fixed laws everything would be chaos. For example, you could not walk down the street unless the law of gravity was constant.
(ii) God’s laws are not killjoys
His laws are not to disappoint you or to spoil your fun. Many people seem to believe God made laws just to keep them from having fun. And they view God as a cosmic killjoy with a lot of ‘Thou shalt nots.’
(iii) God’s laws are for our good
However, ‘Thou shall not steal’ is not only to keep you from taking what you want… but also to protect you to keep what you have.

Spiritual harvesters
Farmers willingly wait so long. Why? Because the results are valuable! The harvest is worth waiting for.

The apostle James pictured the Christian as a spiritual farmer looking for a spiritual harvest – ‘… the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near’ (James 5:7-8).

If we’re spiritual farmers, we are meant to be sowing –

• Harvesting cannot happen without first planting the seed.
• In simple terms… no sowing seed, no harvest reaped!
• The Holy Spirit is within you to help (Acts 1:8 below).

Jesus used the comparison of His word to a law of nature that is unchangeable. You can cheat or manipulate nearly all systems that men have created. The legal system can be beaten, letting the guilty go free. Our educational system can be beaten, passing students who haven’t really learned the material. But you can’t change seedtime and harvest.

What if a farmer waited until he saw his neighbours reaping their crops before he sowed for his crop?

Regardless of how sincere he was, or the justification for not sowing his seed at the proper time, he wouldn’t reap a crop overnight.

The law of seedtime and harvest cannot be violated. This is why our Lord chose to compare the way His word works to that of a seed. There is a germination process of God’s word in your life that takes time and can’t be avoided.

Another thing that Jesus said was, ‘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’ (Mark 4:26).

Many people are impatient, wanting to bypass the growth cycle and get the full ear right now. Every farmer knows it’s first the seed, then the stalk, then the head and then the harvest.

So… if Jesus says our seed is the word of God, what do we as spiritual farmers plant? Obviously God’s word!

Chose the right seed!
If you went to a seed store and just asked for seed the person attending you would ask what seed do you really want. This would be followed by a physical demonstration of the different seeds with the comment: ‘See, this is wheat, this is barley, this is corn.’

You buy by knowing what you are looking for – you plant what you want to reap!

Our Saviour did His job by giving the disciples the seed of His word. The disciples were to take that seed to the entire world. Nothing has changed – the message is the same because God cannot change: His word is truth and everlasting. Today we are to sow that seed at home and abroad!

• The seed and farming activity is still: ‘Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:19-20).
• The Holy Spirit is our helper still: ‘But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).
• Patience is required still: ‘You see farmers do this all the time, waiting for their valuable crops to mature, patiently letting the rain do its slow but sure work. Be patient like that. Stay steady and strong’ (James 5:7–8Mge).

There are seasons to our spiritual life just as there are seasons to sowing the soil. Christian maturity is about…

1) Knowing God’s word.
2) Appropriating God’s word.
3) Living God’s word.
4) Sharing God’s word.
5) Making disciples with God’s word.

So much more could be said here but remember this – Sow, pray, wait, watch and in due season harvest. The crop is always souls for heaven.

Remember Jesus’ challenge above –  ‘Are you listening to this? Really listening?’
___________________________________________________
Dr Richard Winter pastors The Connection Church, Huntington Beach, California. Link: OnlinerConnect@gmail.com
__________________________________________________