A Living Principle
22. While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
A Living Principle!
Genesis 8:22
There are times in our lives when we are pronged to living by the old principles which our forefathers set before us. They gave us the signs and signals of the many different seasons. The signs of when the best time to plant comes. The signal of when the best time to pluck up that which is planted has come.
We live today by some of the rules and regulations which they set down before us. We live by rules that govern our culture, our character and our conduct. Many of us dare not change those old traditions of our fathers. We refuse to plant until we have seen the signs. We refuse to look for a harvest until we have seen the signals.
Just the other day, I was at Wal-mart in Jackson. And there was a woman with her two little boys approaching the entrance. They were walking on the sidewalk but there were these poles there to keep the cars from getting on the sidewalk. And one of the boys walked on the opposite side of the pole than what the Mother and the other boy did.
The mother stopped and waited and made her son go back around that pole. Y’all know of the old superstition for splitting poles. I wonder what would happen if we spent as much time protecting and defending God’s principles.
If every time we encountered someone breaking or be littering one of God’s principles, we would stop every thing, and take time to make sure they got it right before we moved on. The book of Genesis is the first book of Law. Written by Moses probably during His forty years of wandering in the wilderness. The book of Genesis giving us the account of the beginning of time, the beginning of all creatures, and the beginning of mankind.
After the fall of man, the world became sinful. It repented God that He had made man, God then decided to destroy man by means of the flood. You know how it rained for forty days and forty nights. No one was saved but Noah his wife.
The Flood had interrupted the normal cycle of the seasons for a year, but that would never be repeated again. Instead, God reaffirmed that the rhythm of days and weeks and seasons would continue as long as the earth endured. As we go back to the Old Testament, we see that there are some promises that God made directly to Israel, and we cannot go back and draw off of every promise.
But here, God has to reaffirm man that He would provide the necessities of life. Noah and his family were to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. As this happens, God promised that, as long as the world standeth He would not interrupt the normal cycle of the world again.
Since God said, “As long as the world standeth” we must draw from that statement that this is like the promise of the rainbow, a living principle. As a matter of fact this statement and the statement concerning the rainbow is part of the same promise. God had to reassure Himself to Moses. Here as Moses writes these words, He reassures God words to the people. This would be a principle that would not only last for the remainder of Moses’ life, but it would stand as long as the world standeth.
This should be something that we are able to lean on. When God made these promises to Noah, the first principle out of His mouth was that of Sowing and reaping. It still lives today. I’m convinced that if we would learn the principle of sowing and reaping and would apply it to every area of our lives, we would become better people.
We would become better families.
We would become better churches.
We would become better communities.
It is a living principle that cannot be altered in any manner. Now you can fast and pray and ask God not to send the rain, and the rain might not come right then. You can pray and ask Him not to allow it to be so cold the next day and God might honor your prayer.
What I’m trying to get you to see is; all of those other promises that God made in this verse can be altered. (Elijah) They can’t be stopped, but they can be altered. But Seedtime and Harvest cannot be changed in any manner. This is something that God ordained, and He has promised that it will never be broken as long as the world standeth.
One of the great definitions of a “seed” in the dictionary means “to furnish with something that causes or stimulates growth or development”.[1] I wished all of you here today could understand this, but I know for some of you, I’m just blowing smoke. The best way to understand a seed is to look inside of the fruit. The fruit always reproduce it’s own seed.
If you look inside of an apple, you will find apple seeds. If you look inside of an orange, you will find an orange seed. If you look inside of any fruit, you will find seeds of its own kind. In order for any seed to grow, it must be planted. So in order to furnish something that will stimulate growth, you must do, what you want done.
Now, what are you saying preacher, and I’m glad you asked, in order for you to get an apple, you must plant an apple seed. If order for you to get an orange, you must plant an orange seed.
Now the bible says in Galatians 6:7-10, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8. For he that soweth to his flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9. And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith”.
Many people have taken this 7th verse to mean that you can fool God. Well, you can’t but that is not what Paul is talking about here. If you will start at verse one, you will see that Paul is talking about how we treat one another.
“If a brethren be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual restore such a one with a spirit of meekness”. Then he talks about how we are to help one another bear their burdens, those burdens that we can help them with, we ought to be willing to help them. If we think that we are more than other folks, we deceive ourselves. Then there are some burdens can’t nobody help us with, we’ve got to bear them alone. Then he says in verse 6, “let him that is taught in the word communicate (to give) to him that teaches”.
See, he is talking about how we treat one another, and then when he gets to verse 7, Paul says, “be not deceived, God is not mocked”. I believe when Paul said that, he was referring back to Genesis 8:22. God meant what He said about seedtime and harvest. If you plant it, you are going to reap it.
Let me make it live in our Christian lives today, and I’m going to be finished. There is no use running around complaining about other folks talking about you, evidently you’ve been talking about somebody. There is no use getting mad when somebody else lie on you, you probably been lying on somebody. Don’t get bent out of shape when somebody do you wrong, because somewhere down the line, you’ve done somebody else wrong.
If you sitting around the church and you feel lonely, you feel like don’t anybody here care for you, or don’t anybody here love you. You feel like everybody here hates you, then you need to open up the inside of yourself, and look at your seed.
Look deep in your heart and see what you have been putting out. Because whatsoever you sow, that, (not anything like it) but “that” shall you also reap. If you want other folks to love you, you need to learn how to love other folks. I don’t know, you might not want anybody to love you, you might not want to love other folks, if that is the case, then you might as well stop coming to church.
I’m being honest; the only way to make it to heaven is to love everybody. And if you can’t do that, if you don’t want to do that, then coming to church is just a waste of your time. Do y’all see what I’m saying here?
The mystery of the seed is that you’ve got to plant what you want. When I say plant, I’m talking about how we treat one another. There maybe somebody here who don’t have any money. All of this is right here in Galatians, and whether you believe it or not, I’m preaching the bible. You don’t have any money because you are not willing to give any money. Some folks so tight with the little money that they got, that they don’t want to let it lose, and that is the only way that God can bless you with more.
I heard it said when I first came here, “if he don’t ask for it, then we don’t have to give it”. You need to learn that the secret of you having; is that you first have the spirit of giving. This is what is meant by sowing to flesh verses sowing to the Spirit. See, the flesh don’t want to give anything. The flesh wants everything for itself. But the Spirit knows the mystery of giving. And when you give according to the Spirit, you will reap according to the Spirit.
There maybe somebody here today who don’t have any friends. But in order to have friends, you must first show yourself friendly. You’ve got to plant friendship in order to reap friends. Don’t nobody want to have anything to do with you and you all sour. You act like somebody feeding you barbwire sandwiches. Folks don’t have to put up with you these days; you better learn how to be friendly to all people.
There maybe someone here today who is trying to fake it to make it. Baby, I’m here to tell you today, in order to be a real Christians, you’ve got to have a genuine belief, you’ve got to send up some real praise, you’ve got to be real in your relationship with Christ. If you ain’t real, you are rotten. Don’t anybody want anything rotten.
Jesus said the dead branches that are not connected to the vine; God will gather them up and throw them in the fire. I’m telling you it’s time to stop playing with God, open up the inside and look within yourself and see if you are real or not. It’s time to start planting some good stuff in your life so that you can reap some good stuff.
In 2 King 20:1-4, Hezekiah was sick, and Isaiah came to him and told him to get his house in order, he was going to die. Hezekiah didn’t say anything to Isaiah, but he turned his face to the wall and prayed to God. “Lord, remember how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight”. Before Isaiah could get off of the court, God spoke to him told him to turn around and go back and tell Hezekiah that he’s got 15 more years.
Basically Hezekiah was saying, Lord this is not my seed, I’ve planted some good stuff before you, and I shouldn’t have to reap what I’m getting. I’m here to tell you that if you are sick in your body, don’t be discouraged. Not all sickness comes for doing evil. Everybody that is sick is not sick because they done something wrong. But plant some good seeds in your life and God will have no other choice but to allow some good things to come.
Now the scripture says, “And be not weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”. Now, “due season” is the harvest. Basically, Paul is saying, keep on doing good, no matter what the cost is, keep on loving. Keep on giving, keep on sharing with one another, keep on forgiving one another, keep on giving your tithes, and in due season.
When God says so, you will reap it. See, many of us don’t want to sow, because we can’t reap when we want to reap. You know, I need my money back to go to Cato’s. Lord, you said if I pay my tithes, you would open up the windows of heaven and pour me out a blessing, well, it’s getting close to Christmas and I need my blessing now. If we feel like God don’t come through like we need Him too, then we are not paying our tithes this Sunday.
Paul is saying, don’t stop. Don’t give up. You just plant the seed, and let God give the increase. We’ve got to learn how to truly put thing in God’s hands and let Him handle it from there.
I’m going to keep on loving,
I’m going to keep on being friendly,
I’m going to keep on forgiving, I’m going to keep on paying my tithes and when the Lord says so, I know that I will reap my harvest.
I must say that a lot of folks will become envious of you, they will start talking about you, they will start dragging your name through the dirt, but baby I’m here to tell you today, you can’t talk about my harvest, if you don’t know my seed. If you don’t know what I’ve planted in life, you don’t have room enough to criticize what I’m reaping.
Now here it the leaning post to all that Paul talked about from verse 1 to verse 9. It begins here in verse 10, “As we have therefore opportunity, (meaning every time you get a chance) let us do good to all men, especially those who are of the household of faith”.
Every time you get a chance, plant a seed of love, plant a seed of forgiveness, plant a seed of friendliness, plant a seed of fellowship, plant a seed of forbearance, plant a seed of joy, plant a seed of peace, to all men.
Not just to those who you love already, but to all men. Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, African, ALL MEN. Especially those who are of the household of faith. Especially those who share the same faith as you do. Especially those who are in the Church of Christ. Especially those who are trying to do good themselves. The bible says do good to them.
Then you will be able to wait on your harvest.
God said to Noah and his family, “Be fruitful and multiply”. God wasn’t just talking about having children, but He said first to be fruitful. That means to plant some good things in your life. If we are living by the Spirit, we ought to produce spiritual fruits.
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. These are the things that God wants us to be fruitful in. When we produce those fruits, God will grant us a likewise harvest.
The Holy Spirit planted a seed in Mary one day, and God reaped a harvest,
And that seed began to grow up,
And she had a spiritual son, and that son was named Jesus.
That Son;
Went to a wedding and when they ran out of wine, He turned water into wine.
He healed the sick and He raised the dead.
God needed somebody to praise Him.
And Jesus was nailed to the cross.
He said, If I be lifted up, I draw all men unto me.
He died on the cross.
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[1]Merriam-Webster, I. (1996, c1993). Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary. Includes index. (10th ed.). Springfield, Mass., U.S.A.: Merriam-Webster.