Seasons of Harvest
You know one of my favorite things about the Fall is picking apples and watching the kids choose those pumpkins that we will carve at the end of October. We have a tradition of going to Behlings Orchards, kids love the games, but we pick the apples, take home a gallon of apple cider and then go home and make some apple crisp…You probably have your own reasons for why it feels like fall…
Traditionally speaking fall marks the season of “harvest”. Most crops are planted in the spring season and allowed to grow during the summer, so the autumn months are when most crops are ready to be harvested.
Jesus talked a few times about the season of the harvest but he was speaking of different kind of harvest other than apples, pumpkins or crops. He specifically mentioned a harvest of souls. In Matthew 9, he sees the crowds has compassion on them, and because they were harassed and helpless, he spoke to his disciples and said “the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few.” He used this same metaphor after talking to the woman at the well, he spoke to his disciples again, saying “you say “it’s still four months until the harvest? But I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest.
I believe God wants to bring us into a season of harvest, a harvest of souls where He will put His spirit upon us again and anoint us, and give us boldness, courage and tenacity to proclaim the good news of the Gospel. To fully realize a season of the harvest of souls where the broken hearted are healed, the captives are set free, the prisoners are released from darkness and where the favor of the Lord is being released in and through our lives, a seasons that God gives beauty for ashes, abundance for loss, and joy for mourning and praise to fill the hearts of those in despair.
Well, we have to understand this principle, because…
You cannot have a season of harvest without first applying THE BIBLICAL LAW OF SOWING & REAPING
SOWING AND REAPING IS A SPIRITUAL LAW.
Which we find in Galatians 6:7–8: “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.”
On any given day…we absorb, crave, accept and feed the desires of our flesh or the desires of the Spirit…when we sow into the flesh, we reap corruption, when we sow in the spirit, we reap eternal life. That’s what this law simply means.
Our flesh is the desire to live and act independently of God, and when we get saved, the flesh is not cast out, instead it HARASSES us and HAUNTS us from the seeds we’ve sown into it through the years.
In Romans 7, we hear Paul explain his battle between the flesh and the spirit, illustrating that corruption or that form of disease and death that is working inside of us, killing us from the inside out.
How do we avoid corruption…is there any hope…o Wretched man??
Well Paul is clear lets walk in the spirit, sow in the spirit. There is a positive and negative side to this law…you can sow into the flesh or you can walk in the positive side of this law…sowing into the spirit and reaping a different kind of fruit.
SOWING AND REAPING IMPLIES FAITHFULNESS.
“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season, we shall reap, if we do not lose heart.”
Think about Paul for a minute…(TURN TO 2 CORINTHIANS 4)…Paul has 1000 reasons to give up, to quit, to stop doing good, to stop working for the Lord, but he doesn’t, he is dying daily, planting seeds so that others might live… When a seed is sown, it dies. And there goes the problem..
So many of us stop planting seeds, because every time we give of ourselves a little bit of us dies.
And when it gets hard, when you’re perplexed, struck down, rejected, ridiculed, tired, and exhausted with no harvest in sight…
- we stop trusting the seed,
- we stop trusting the process.
- We stop trusting the soil.
- We stop trusting the promise of Harvest
- We stop trusting the Lord of the Harvest
But WE CANNOT STOP!!! for in “due season”… at just the right time, it will begin to sprout, it will begin bring life…
SOWING AND REAPING ILLUSTRATES INTERDEPENDENCE
'One sows and another reaps.' I sent you to reap what you did not work for. Others have worked, and you have entered into their labours.” (John 4:36-38).
Every October I take inventory during “pastor appreciation” month to all the people who have sowed into my life. My mentors, coaches, pastors, friends, family and church members and I thank God, I thank God for what they’ve sown into my life and how I am reaping from their faithfulness, from their compassion, from their wisdom, from their patience from their investment, and from their hard work of sowing seeds into my life…
This law of sowing and reaping can have a real powerful effect on gratitude and reveal to us how interdependent we are on one another.
A season of harvest comes when we deeply appreciate the hard work of those who have gone before us …and yet it also gives us appreciation for those who follow us, who reap what we’ve sown, for without a Harvester, all the sowing would have been for nothing.
On one hand I am so grateful for the people who have sown in my life, but also I am blessed to see those who I’ve invested in, and sowed into their life, and now watch them reap a harvest, a blessing an anointing on their life…This law of sowing and reaping illustrates how much we need each other and That no one truly can live this life of faith alone!
SOWING AND REAPING IS NOT POSSIBLE WITHOUT THE SEED
in Luke 17:6, Jesus tells His disciples, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” By using the uncommonly small mustard seed as an example, Jesus is speaking figuratively about the incalculable power of God when unleashed in the lives of those with true faith.
A seed is a very small thing, compared to what it produces.
- All we need is a little seed,
- a small act of kindness,
- a quiet humble attitude,
- an obscure gift that goes unnoticed…
The things which are small in the eyes of the world, are so much more powerful and impactful when they are faithfully planted in the rich soil of the Holy Spirit.
A seed is not a highly valuable commodity like the pearl of great price … a seed is just an ordinary thing. People don’t pay much attention to the seeds…there’s nothing extraordinary about it…
- the simple act of forgiveness, or
- the avoidance of the dirty joke at work, or
- the simple thank you to the waiter or waitress, or
- helping the elderly woman at the store with an object on the shelf…
nothing extraordinary, nothing that needs spotlights or a stage, just simple random, ordinary acts of humility, justice and love…
WE CANNOT DO ANYTHING ABOUT LAST YEAR’S HARVEST
The “Illinois Medical Journal” carried an article that stated…There are two days in every week about which we should not worry—
One of these days is Yesterday with its mistakes and cares, its aches and pains, its faults and blunders. Yesterday has passed and is beyond our control.
The other day we should not worry about is Tomorrow with all of its possible challenges, its burdens, its promises of fortune and failure. Tomorrow is also beyond our control.
That leaves only one day—Today.
It is not the experience of Today that drives people mad—
it is remorse or bitterness for something which happened Yesterday and the dread of what Tomorrow may bring.
When Jesus died on the cross, he stated “IT IS FINISHED” yet it really wasn’t, he hadn’t risen from the dead…he had sowed the seed of His body for a harvest of forgiveness, freedom, liberty and eternal life…and He knew when He breathed his last, that the seed of His death would bring resurrection…
Maybe you’ve sown into the flesh and there is the harassment and haunting of your past that is trying to corrupt your mind…a harvest of incorruption is coming
Maybe others have sown ridicule, dishonor, abuse and neglect into your life…a harvest of honor and glory is coming. Maybe the weaknesses of your life are being used by the enemy to sow seeds of failure and loss and death without hope…a harvest of power and resurrection is right around the corner
THIS LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING IS BEST REFLECTED IN THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST WHO GIVES US VICTORY!
So, in light of what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:58 ….Remain STEADFAST and IMMOVABLE. ABOUND in the work of the Lord. REST in KNOWING that a season of Harvest is coming!