Daring Faith: How To Plant In Faith

all right take out your message notes because we're going to zoom through this message last week in part five a daring faith we learned that God says you can learn a lot about living by faith by looking at three kinds of people successful athletes successful soldiers and successful farmers we covered that in pretty good detail but I told you I wanted to come back to this farmer metaphor because the Bible compares the Christian life to gardening over and over and over again there on your outline Genesis 822 the Bible says as long as the earth endures there will be seed time and harvest there are laws of seed time and there are laws of harvest in Galatians 6:7 says this don't be misled no one makes a fool of God whatever a person plants he might harvest though what it says that says he what he will count on it Circle that word will now today one I want to teach you is daring to plant in faith and specifically I want to teach you God's laws of the harvest God's laws of planting and harvesting or in the olden days it was called the laws of sowing and reaping most people if you say the word sowing today they think of like a needle and thread se W naught s o W but when you talk about sowing and reaping that's the old style before they were heart you know farm machinery people had to sow seed by hand and it was literally called broadcasting it was broad casting you get carried up a bunch of seed in a sack and as you walk dude you broadcast it which is by the way where we get the terms broadcasting for television and radio and things like that because you're sowing seed on a wide distance it's not just planting one little seed at the time you're broadcasting it or you are sowing now if you Allah if you ignore the laws of sowing and reaping in your life it's going to hurt you it will harm you if you wisely use the laws of sowing and reaping in your life you're going to be blessed by it and you can use the laws I'm about to teach you literally in every single area of your life daring to plant in faith you can use the laws of sowing and reaping in relationships you can loot use the saws and in your health what you sow you will reap you can use it in your finances you can use it in your career learning how to plant wisely in your career and how to reap or harvest wisely in your career the point that I want to make before I get into these laws is this whatever you need more of in your life you need to plant in faith if if if you need more you feel like you need more appreciation you need to start appreciating other people plant seeds of appreciation if you feel like you need more talent you need to start using the little talent you got and God will give you more if you need more time if you need more money if you need more energy whatever you need more of you need to learn the laws of planting and harvesting or sowing and reaping you need to plant what you need now let me go through these laws pretty quickly number one write these down everything starts as a seed that's the first law of the harvest everything starts as a seed every idea started as a seed idea every dream started as a dream seed every achievement every nation America started as an idea a seed idea of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness this church started as a seed your life started as a seed when your father's seed was connected with your mother's egg your life began literally everything that is living on the planet Earth came from a seed if it didn't come from a seed it's not alive and so everything starts as a seed now in Genesis chapter 1 God says this let the land have seed bearing plants and trees that bear fruit with seed and it according to their varieties now circle that phrase according to their varieties because I'll come back to that a little bit now what are we talking about when talk about planting a seed a seed is anything write this down a seed is anything valuable that I give away a seed is anything valuable that I give away when you give away praise there's value to that when you give away advice that's good advice there's value to that when you give away your time there's value to that when you give away your money there's value to that when you give away your experience to help other people there's value to that anytime you give any when you give your love away there's great value to that a seed is anything that I give away in order to help somebody else so it all starts as a seed it could be time money appreciation wisdom energy whatever by the way words can be seeds words can be seeds that you plant in people's mind all right and they can grow they grow they do grow and they bear fruit and so you need to choose your words wisely especially when you're talking with people that you love children your husband your wife your friends those are seeds what kind of let me just ask you what kind of seeds are you planning in your relationships are you planning seeds of trust or you planting seeds of distrust are you planning seeds of kindness are you planting seeds of crankiness and anger and bitterness meanness are you planting seeds that build up are you planting seeds that tear down you will reap whatever you sow okay number two law number two nothing happens until the seed is planted nothing happens until the seed is planted it must be given away it can't do any good in a bag now Jesus used this principle explain why he came to die in John 12:24 jesus said this unless a grain of wheat that's a seed unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground it cannot reproduce but if it dies it will produce much fruit you know a year ago I bought some pumpkin seeds and they never sprouted I forgot to plant them they're still in the packet I found them this week okay no wonder no wonder that a seed is worthless in a bag now imagine a farmer going to a feed store buying a big sack of feed our seed for some crop he's gonna grow and then he puts it in his barn and then he's afraid to give it away and he goes oh you know I want to hold on to it I might not have enough I might not have that we would say that is foolish seeds are meant to be planted seeds are meant to be given away what I'm teaching you is that planting and sowing is an act of faith it's an act of faith because it's saying when I plant the seed I believe that something great is going to happen because I plant this seed something great will happen because I'm gonna give away what I've got I'm not gonna keep it in my bag I'm gonna give it away and I believe it's gonna produce some fruit now planting seeds is also risky because you can't see what's happening under the dirt most of you know I'm a farmer at heart a couple years ago I actually grew 56 kinds of vegetables one that year this year I've cut it way way back but I am growing a lot of kale and I'm going you know vegetables and tomatoes and peppers and all kinds of different stuff now I can't go out to my garden and every day dig it out to see if it's growing when you plant a seed it's covered up and it's buried and you don't know is that thing gonna sprout or not is it gonna sprout or not and and that that's where the faith comes in cuz you can't see it what if it doesn't sprout you're tempted to dig it up what if it fails what if I give my seed away and nothing comes of it then I'm up a creek without a paddle that's what the faith comes in jesus said it like this mark chapter 4 the kingdom of God is like someone who plants seed in the now notice this is a parable of the kingdom the kingdom of God is like someone who plants seed in the ground night and day whether the person is asleep or awake the seed is still growing but the person doesn't know how it grows you can't see it until it sprouts that's the element of faith okay number three when I have a need I should plant a seed when I have a need I should plant a seed when a farmer looks out on his barren crop a barren field and he sees no crops in his field he doesn't gripe he doesn't complain he doesn't even pray he just starts planting there sometimes you should not pray there sometimes you should plant instead of pray the the farmer can look at a barren field go oh god please make my corn crop grow and God saying did you plant any see no but I really make it grow did you plant any seed no but make it grow it isn't going to happen sometimes you don't pray you plant this is the law of sowing and reaping and so he just starts planting cuz no sowing no harvest the Bible says this in Ecclesiastes 11 do your planting in the morning and by the way says in the evening - in other words all the time you never know whether it will all grow well or whether one planting will do better than the others have you ever heard the phrase don't put all your eggs in yeah that's what investors think this is what the Bible said this year by the way that verse that ideas from the Bible from Ecclesiastes but here's another example he says when you sow sell in a bunch of areas plant in a bunch of areas do your planning all the time you should be planting good seeds all the time with your life cuz you never know where it's gonna grow now let me just be real lost some of you think you're waiting on God and you're not he's waiting on you some of you think you're waiting on God for a job or for a miracle or a spouse or something that you want God is waiting on you he's waiting on you to start planting seeds when I have a need I plant a seed if you don't make a deposit there is no return so whatever I need more of I need to give it away if I need more energy I use the energy in the gym to get more energy if I need if I need more talent I give away what I've got and I get more talent by using what little I've got a time money anything whatever I need more of I give it away when I haven't need a plant a seed number for whatever I plant is what I will reap this is the law of reproduction whatever I plant is whatever I will read if a farmer plants a field with beans what crop should he expect to get watermelon no if I plant corn in the ground do you think I'm going to expect zucchini no you're going to get in life whatever you plant this is an inviolable rule of the universe it'll either work for you or against you he doesn't wonder about what's going to grow he doesn't doubt what's going to grow if I plant corn I'm gonna get corn because whatever I plant is what I'm going to read Galatians 6:7 let's read it aloud together you will reap exactly what you plant now there's a phrase in Genesis over and over that's used in its the phrase after its own kind and that phrase is talking about here that we always reap the same thing that we so now again listen this works both ways it can either work for you or it can work against you whatever I dish out is what I'm going to get back in life and the Bible talks about this a lot in fact let me just show you some verses on the screen here look at these here's some negative examples job for eight people who plant trouble harvest it look at the next one proverbs 22 verse 8 whoever sews sin reaps weeds proverbs 22 8 in the New Living Translation says those who plant seeds of injustice will harvest disaster Hosea 10:13 you planted wickedness and now you reaped evil Matthew 7 to whatever measure you used to judge others will be used to measure how you are judged Oh what you sow you're going to reap now let me show you some positive examples proverbs 11 18 the one who sews righteousness will reap a sure reward Hosea 10:12 plant good seeds of righteousness and you'll harvest a crop of my love James 3 4 3:18 peacemakers plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of goodness are you getting the idea that this is not some minor message of the Bible the laws of the harvest you will reap what you sow with your children with your wife with your business it'll either work for you or it will work against you you sow anger guess what you're gonna get angry kids you so patience guess what you're gonna get patient kids you will reap what you sow and you get exactly what you put out I cannot so irresponsibility and reap success I cannot so laziness and reap rewards I cannot so stingy this and reap a blessing the Bible is full of examples of this both negative and positive Jacob Jacob his name's supplanter meant he was gonna cheat people and Jacob cheated his brother and cheated his dad so you know what happened his father-in-law cheated him he reaped what he sowed Haman was a man who who reaped a bitterness and he built these gallows to kill a guy named Mordecai he ended up being hung on his own gallows this happens all the time collation 6 7 & 8 I love this the message it says this the person who plants selfishness ignoring the needs of others and ignoring God harvest a crop of weeds that's all he'll have to show for his life but here's the good news the one who plants in response to God letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him harvests a crop a real eternal real life eternal on your going to harvest whatever you plant okay everything starts to seed nothing happens to the seeds planted whatever I have when I have a need I plant a seed and whatever I plan is what I'm going to reap number five here's a big one I'm not the only so err you're not the only planter in the universe other people are planting all around you and by the way you are reaping both good and bad from those who went before you some of you grew up sadly and I'm sorry for this in families with a history of abuse and a history of alcohol and maybe a history of divorce and you have to decide the chain breaks now I can't control the past but I'm gonna break the chain now I talked to a guy in college one time it's a good friend of mine named Rick we said four generations my family all got divorced he said I am bound to determine that that is not going to happen in my life the chain breaks now you are harvesting both good and bad from your past because you're not the only person who sold everything you do has consequences and by the way your life is going to affect future generations so you need to take it very very seriously you know a couple years ago PBS was doing a series of family histories of famous Americans they the Oprah Winfrey and just a bunch of different people and and the guy who did it came and said we want to do a pastor we want to do you is it fine so they actually took a swab of DNA out of my mouth and they went I can't raised my family tree back 2,000 years I'm a king and you should all bow down to me I'm just teasing does just just easy but they you know they found all kinds of interesting things and did a TV special on my family tree one of the things I discovered is the amount of godly ancestors I had in my family I am reaping the benefit and blessings from grandparents and great-grandparents who were praying for the great-grandchildren I'm reaping that in my life because I had some people who parents grandparents great-grandparents who loved God and were praying for their future generations now I know many of you say well you know I I didn't have a family like that I'd like to have a legacy like that well you start it you started start it with your family name did you determine that the future generations of your family name are going to be blessed because you're gonna plant seeds of prayer and love and godliness and generosity and faith and all these other things and you and the people that you come out of your family tree have a blessing in heritage you're not the only sower jesus said this john 438 i sent you to reap where you did not plant and others had already done work before you and you will now gather the harvest last week i showed you the commitment cards from seven previous faith generosity campaigns i showed you those of the people who've given to get us where we are today and you are weeping the benefit we're all reaping the benefit of their sacrifices and i think about people who gave sacrificially like Jane Gladys Blazer and others who are both in heaven now many of those originals are in heaven and I think they never got to see what was going to be the impact of their faith their sacrifice and their gift they didn't get to see it but they're going to enjoy the resorts in heaven you know this week Raven Carver interviewed some people and our church who were children during one of the campaigns that were called for the children when we raised the finest floor to build the children's building and we had a special children's offering there and he raised interviewed those who are now adults that are actually serving as ministers on Saddleback staff as adults I want you to watch this it's pretty moving it's worth watching when Rick first cast the vision for the new children's building I was only 10 years old I didn't really know what it all meant but I was ready to do my part collecting the money was a dramatic moment for the entire church to be able to see the kids that are a part of this it wasn't just the adults that were working tirelessly Monday through Friday to build this church I had gone around the house and collected all the change and asked my parents and was so excited to give to the church cuz I even add a young age and I was definitely really young I knew it was my church my family's Church it wasn't just that thing we went to was nowhere part of this I'm part of this thing I remember getting the bank and that was really fun cuz like as a kid you're just excited to fill up the bank being a part of that and giving and afterwards you know realizing wow I'm giving something so much bigger than myself being able to gather the money was doing chores around the house it was helping dad and it was doing things that I thought were uncomfortable but my parents taught me at an early age that life wasn't about me it was something that Reagan talked to them about for years as a kid you don't realize that all the things that are in front of your a direct like correlation to someone's giving like you don't realize that that's Thai dollars that you're benefiting from like your crayons or your coloring sheets like that's something that someone gave money to and I didn't really realize it as a kid but now as an adult looking back I'm really grateful because I feel like if I didn't have that if I didn't have Saddleback and if I wasn't I pour it into so much with a kid I don't know really what my life would be like I think it would be a lot different the the gifts that people gave to build the buildings that I grew up in didn't just give me a fun place to be but it really gave me a space to grow a space to learn to love the board and to bring my friends alongside me in that as a child I was in that age group where we would raise money for the children's building and as soon as we'd raised the money I would be old enough to not be in that children's building while they had that building by the time that they started the refinery and raised all the money for that I was on two different things and so we would raise the money and then not necessarily get to see the fruit but I think that's really what it's about it really is about not being able to to necessarily receive all of the incredible things of your giving but the others get to receive it because of you you can see what's happened in the past 35 years just imagine what God will continue to do if people keep responding in the same way if our church continues to rally together and say you know what we're going to sacrifice in order to serve the kingdom in order to give to the kingdom god will continue to respond 35 years history proving this proving that God will do this and why would we think that anything would change otherwise I would think why would we think that God wouldn't continue to bless those offerings going forward so that's children who grew up at Saddleback and are now serving as staff in our church family you know on Mother's Day our children will bring their daring faith offering in here thousands of children will be coming in each of the campuses bringing their offerings some of those kids one day will be employed by Saddleback churches pastors and ministers maybe yours you don't know I would say to you that if you have children at home during this time involve them in the process of your generosity discussion talk about this what you're gonna sew and what you're gonna reap with them I remember during the time to build sitting around with my three kids and praying about what we were gonna give and my two boys Matthew and Josh deciding that they were gonna give their baseball card collections and so they had quite a collection and we put it all together and we took it out and we sold it and I think they their contribution for this building was five hundred dollars because of their their commitment that is leaving a legacy that is leaving a heritage are you leaving a legacy of generosity or stin genus are you leaving a legacy of a faith or doubt or fear I'm not the only one sowing number six it always I always reap in a different season than I so I always reap in a different season than I so you know plants take time to grow there's no instant maturity and so you don't plant today and this afternoon get the fruit there's always a delay and that's true when you plant anything in life there's no such thing as instant success there's insta fame but no instant success it takes time to gather wisdom the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3 there's a time for everything there's a season for every activity under heaven there is a time to plant which is now and there's a time to harvest there's a time to scatter there's a time to gather in other words there's a time to sow and a time to reap fruit ripens gradually and by the way it doesn't all ripen at the same time do you know the difference between a vine ripened tomato and a ghast tomato which one tastes better yeah the vine yeah you miss the flavor when you get in a hurry you just need to understand when you plant when you plant a seed if you don't get the harvest immediately there's always a delay and the better that you know grapefruit takes 2 years it takes 2 years for you get a grapefruit I've got a grapefruit tree in my yard and some things take time but they're worth it ok number number 7 I must be patient and not give up our you know our as you're waiting on the seed you are planted you plant it don't become impatient I must be patient and not give up because you reap in a season that's different than the one you sowed in Galatians 6:9 tells us this we let us not get tired of doing what is right for after a while we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don't get discouraged and give up I have to be patient number 8 this is a big one I will always reap more than I so now again this can work for you or against you I will always reap more than I so this is the law of multiplication a couple weeks ago I planted giant sunflowers in my backyard take a little sunflower seed from the Giant the sunshine Flynn sunflowers grow to about 12 feet tall and the flowers about almost a foot wide they're enormous one little seed doesn't give me back one little seed one little seed will give me back a thousand seeds you always reap more than you sow in the parable the soul soils jesus said it this way mark 4 ate some seed fell on good soil and it came up and it grew and it produced a clop crop multiplying circle that thirty sixty and even a hundred times now again this will work for you against you depends on what's kind of seed you're planning you plant you plant gossip you're going to get a lot more gossip about you you plant criticism you're going to get a lot more criticism about you there is an exponential potential in every seed is that old line the old cliche says anybody can count the the seeds in an apple but only God can count the the apples in a seed because one seed can produce an awful lot of apples I'll always reap more than I so number nine the ninth law of sowing an artisan I can increase my harvest by planting more seed I can always increase my harvest by planting more seed and this is the law proportion that we always reap in proportion to what we sow 2nd Corinthians 9 6 and 7 we actually looked through this verse last week and it says this remember this whoever sow sparingly will reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will reap generously each one should give what he's decided in its heart to give not reluctantly not under pressure under compulsion for God loves a cheerful Giver now what that verse says is this you get to choose how big the harvest is in your life you get to choose how much God blesses your life don't blame anybody else you get to choose how much God is blessing your life you sow sparingly you will reap sparingly you so generously you will reap generously that is the Word of God that is the law of the universe and it applies in every single area of your law it works the law generosity works for anybody who follows it it works for non-believers because God is just like gravity works for believers or non-believers it's just a law of the universe proverbs 11 24 the world of the generous gets larger and larger and the world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller number 10 the 10th law of the harvest the more seed I plant this is amazing the more seed I plant the more God will give me hello the more seed I plant the more I give away the more God gives me God is looking for givers to bless and he looks down he had to look for stingy people to bless he looks for givers to bless he looks and goes is anybody on earth like me who wants to be generous who wants to be unselfish who wants to think of other people is there anybody who trusts me he's always looking for people to use and he blesses people who are generous my life is a testimony of this verse you know my story on giving that the more seed I plant the more God will give me the Bible says that 2nd Corinthians 9:10 for God who supplies seed to the farmer and breaks and bread to eat will give you more and more seed to plant and will make it grow so that you can give even more and more get more give away more and more fruit from your harvest that verse is a promise about being generous with money it's specifically about money that's what God says number 11 the eleventh law of harvesting I plant by faith not by my feelings it's a very important point I plant by faith not by my feelings people aren't generous because they don't feel like being generous and so they go by their feeling no you plant by faith not by feeling when the farmer gets up in the morning do you think every farmer expects to feel good about going and working on his farm no it's just hard work if farmer only worked his crops when he felt like it not much would get done he doesn't want to get up early you don't want to go you know a harvest and plant and weed and do all those things no he does what he doesn't feel like doing and he's planting when he doesn't feel like it you don't go by your feelings you go by your faith let me let me give you a little confession confessions good result I don't always feel like being nice to people I hate to admit that don't think less of me but I don't always feel like being nice to people sometimes I want to be cranky sometimes I just want to leave me alone you know I don't always feel like being kind I don't always feel like being generous I don't always feel like giving people hope and this is a serious way I don't always feel like preaching but I don't happen to live by my feelings I happen to live by faith sometimes I plant when I'm tired sometimes I plant when I'm distracted sometimes I'm plant I plant when I'm stressed out sometimes I plant when I'm in deep deep grief and I move ahead in faith in spite of my feelings expecting God to ask Pat I told you at Easter I didn't want to be here for Easter it was the second anniversary of Matthew's death my youngest son I really didn't want to be here I said what I'd rather do is just celebrate the resurrection at home with my wife my lord my kids and just get through the second anniversary but all that week because I was crying all week I was close in tears most of that week and I claimed Psalm 125 as a promise the next verse those who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy they weep as they go to plant their seeds that they sing as they return with the harvest and you know what as I was planting seeds in 14 Easter services God gave a harvest of 2604 people came to Christ that's a deal that's a deal those who sow in tears will reap in joy and all those people going to be in heaven because I didn't do what I felt like doing I did what I did by faith and sometimes God's going to call you to make a sacrifice money yes but also time and also talent and maybe your life and God is going to call you to sacrifice and you're going to go I don't feel like it and you will miss the blessing that God wants to do in using you I plant by faith not by my feelings and finally number 12 the twelfth point is this the best time to plant is now the best time to plant is now you don't wait for a better time the sooner the better peace that you know when I retire I'm gonna get serious about God now then you'll be worthless okay you won't have any energy to do anything please ask these eleven for those who wait for perfect weather will never plant seeds and those who look at every cloud will never reap a harvest perfection Parappa paralyzes potential one of these days is none of these days now in three weeks we have a daring faith offering and a commitment day you don't want to miss that you don't want to miss it God did not bring you here to watch history happen he brought you here to make history happen Kay and I have been practicing these twelve laws of sowing and reaping for 40 years in nine different giving campaigns two of them not even in this church and we have reaped abundantly as God has honored what we followed his laws that's power our heads okay you going to do anything about this message if you don't like the kind of life you are reaping change the way you're planting whatever you need more of you need to give away when you have a need in any area plant a seed would you pray this prayer dear God thank you for creating the universe on universal laws you have said that no one makes a fool of you that whatever person plants he will harvest and Lord I realize I can use that negatively or positively in my life help me to practice these twelve laws of the harvest helping to plant good seed and abundance in every area of my life help me to be patient and realize that I reap in a season different than the one I saw in but it is inevitable the fruit will come help me to remember that I always reap more than I so that I can increase my harvest by planting more seed and that the more seed I plant the more you will give me help me to not live by my feelings but to live by faith help me to realize the best time to plant is right now if you've never opened your life to Jesus Christ a Jesus Christ come into my life and make me the person you want me to be I want to know you and love you trust you father as each of us face the kind of lives were going to live help us to realize that we are leaving a legacy for future generations that our everything we do has an impact on people we don't even know and just as we've been influenced by good and bad in our past that our lives will make it harder easier for somebody else I thank you for the people who've sacrificed and lived in faith and planted in this church for 35 years I thank you for those who will have the faith to do so in the future I thank you in advance for the answer to all of our prayers and I thank you in advance for the achievement of all of the goals that we've set in face we give you honor and glory in Jesus name Amen

Channel: Saddleback Church

Views: 52,876

Rating: 4.7714286 out of 5

Keywords: How-to (Website Category), Planting, Sowing Seeds, Faith, Daring Faith, Saddleback Church, Rick Warren, Investment, Harvest, Harvesting, Seeds

Id: XsOwtKr6olg

Length: 39min 0sec (2340 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 28 2015