The Law of Sowing and Reaping
*see below for a note on source
James 4:13-17
Now listen, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money." Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, "If it is the Lord's will, we will live and do this or that." As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil. Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins.
Today we are reaping the harvest of the seeds we sowed yesterday. What does that mean for you? For me it means that I am in the midst of experiencing the harvest of the commitment I made in 1992, the commitment to make Jesus really the Lord of my life. I had already professed my faith publicly, but it wasn’t until I was out on my own that I actually made my faith my own. I decided I wouldn’t live a double life anymore; I would be the same person during the week as I was on Sundays. And no matter how many times I fall short, I would never give up. And now I’ve only begun to reap the harvest that I sowed nearly 20 years ago.
This is true for most aspects of our lives. I’m personally glad that when we started our married life, we had nothing. Some of you know what that’s like; you started out dirt poor. Our date night was sharing nachos at Taco Bell and window shopping at Wal-Mart (it was amazing how many fellow seminary students we would see there). We learned to live within our means and trust in God to provide for us, which He did – miraculously. We learned the hard lesson about car leases and began saving for retirement and for an emergency fund. We began tithing when we didn’t know how we would possibly make budget – it was actually during a building project at our church in Lexington when we decided that we needed to tithe. After all, designated giving is giving above and beyond the tithe; that’s why we refer to “tithes and offerings.” We were being called to give sacrificially, and at that time, to us, any giving was sacrifice! We said, “we’re going to have to trust God to provide the money for our pledge to the building fund; why not trust Him for the money for our tithe, too?” And God was faithful, and we’re still reaping the harvest.
Maybe your life is different; you’re reaping debt and hardship right now because of seeds you sowed in the past. We all know that we can’t change the past, but the good news is that the commitment and actions you make today will become the seeds that will create your harvest tomorrow. It’s critical that we make strategic plans for the future. Remember that right priorities + right actions = right results. Just because we want something doesn’t mean we will get it; but when our right priorities are coupled with right actions, we will see success.
One of the most important things to discover as you’re planning for the future is the realization that we’re not in charge. Life is unpredictable; we’re not guaranteed tomorrow! James 4:14 says our lives are like a mist that vanishes. I love running along Buckeye Lake in the early morning, when the lake is as smooth as a mirror, the steam whisping up off the surface. By the time I come back on my return trip, the mist is gone. That’s how short life is. That’s why we’re told not to boast about tomorrow; we don’t know what tomorrow will bring.
Every day I am reminded how short life is. Last summer, I got the news that my friend Chad and his brother had died in a terrible kayak accident. Chad was one of the most alive people I’ve ever known; always living in the moment, pushing sports to the extreme, enjoying himself. Then one day, gone. Life is fragile. A little over a week ago, we were shocked by Bob Runkle’s death, after he’d come home from the hospital two days earlier. Life is short.
Because life is fragile and uncertain, planning for tomorrow is critical. You might think James is against planning for the future, but he actually tells us to plan for tomorrow according to God’s will. In other words, planning for the future isn’t up to us; it requires us to listen to God’s will and plan accordingly.
Planning for future financial health according to God’s will is important, because we often allow our pleasure addictions to drive our financial decisions. By “pleasure addictions” I’m talking about anything we seek, apart from God, to meet our needs or solve our problems. Anything. This includes the obviously bad, like drugs and alcohol, but it also includes “neutral” or “good” things like our relationships, exercise, and spending. Yes, spending can be as much of an addiction as drugs and alcohol.
In Luke 12:16-21, Jesus tells the story of a foolish man who has been blessed with financial abundance. And he told them this parable: "The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, 'What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.'
"Then he said, 'This is what I'll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I'll say to myself, "You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry." '
"But God said to him, 'You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?'
"This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God."
This guy is blessed, but he doesn’t realize that it was God who gave him the ability to make wealth. So he thinks, “I’ll build more barns so I can accumulate more.” He is working toward building a secure retirement without ever involving God in the planning. The results are disastrous. We have to continue to ask ourselves: do my future plans and financial strategies align with God’s word and God’s will?
There are times when we know what we’re supposed to do, but we fail to act. And in every aspect of life, we need to activate the fundamental life principles of sowing and reaping.
In Galatians 6:7-8, Paul writes this: 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.
If we live our lives to satisfy our pleasures, we are sowing selfishness, and we will reap a harvest of destruction. But when we live to please God, we are sowing to the Spirit, and we will reap eternal life. When many of us think about eternal life, we think about Heaven, but it’s really more than just Heaven. Eternity has no beginning or end; it’s already started.
Paul goes on to say this: Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. (Galatians 6:9-10). Did you catch that Paul guaranteed a harvest? You reap what you sow. Did any of you farmers plant corn, hoping to harvest soybeans? How ridiculous is that?
In our lives, all of our attitudes and actions are the seeds we sow. This is true in our financial lives as well. A good seed we can sow is integrity. Another seed to sow is attention to detail. Paying attention to little details can make a huge difference when it comes to working toward financial health. Little purchases add up to big dollars, and little savings add up to big savings. You can also sow the seed of initiative, stepping out and doing what needs to be done when it needs done – not waiting until it’s done to you or for you. In our current economy, nobody wants to take financial risks, but the Bible tells us that the seed that is left on the shelf dries up. The servant who simply buried his money was punished and what he had was taken from him. This is an important time to be planting seeds, not burying our money.
A 2nd life principle of sowing and reaping is that you determine the size of the harvest at the time of planting. The Bible puts it this way: The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 2 Corinthians 9:6.
Do you sow bountifully or sparingly when it comes to giving to God? Jesus promises that as you give, so will it be given back to you. In Luke 6:38, we read Jesus’ words: “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.”
Do you sow bountifully or sparingly when it comes to investing for the future? Most people like to talk about retirement; I think of retirement in Tom Keene terms; it’s not about retiring; it’s about transitioning into the next step of life that God has in store for us. God didn’t create us to quit. He created us to keep moving forward in our calling. So we have to invest something for the future. Are you taking advantage of every opportunity? Matching funds for your 401(k)? Pre-tax giving? If you don’t take advantage of this benefit, you’re leaving money on the table. A friend of mine didn’t realize that he was giving above the minimum – it allowed him to retire from pulpit ministry five years ahead of schedule and move into the next step of God’s call for his life. The size of the harvest is determined at the time of planting.
If you’re using the 10-10-80 formula, as you grow in discipline and even in income, you’ll be able to increase the first two categories. In tough economic times, it can be tempting to decrease the amounts you give and save in order to increase the amount you have for expenses, but that just demonstrates a lack of trust in God’s provision. Instead, how might we sacrifice in the area of personal expenses in order to continue to save and give, trusting God to meet our needs. Remember that nothing good comes without sacrifice. Even our salvation came at the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ. We can’t expect to coast our way to success; that’s why we need to set future goals.
Remember that as you set future goals and move toward them, you are determining the size of the harvest at the time of planting, and not only will you determine the size of the harvest, but you will reap more than you sow.
When Jesus told the parable of the sower, Jesus said, “Other seeds fell on good soil and brought forth grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.” (Matthew 13:8). An example of this is the ministry of Ginghamsburg UMC, where they don’t just collect money to send food to Darfur; they work to create sustainable agricultural programs in Sudan. Simply feeding people creates consumers, but empowering farmers empowers creators. I had a fraternity brother we called the “complete consumer” because it didn’t seem that he ever gave anything back to society. But when we become creators as well, we bless others, reaping more than we sow.
When you sow to debt, you reap more debt. For example, take a $5560 charge with a 18%, interest rate. The credit card company guarantees themselves 18% of what you continue to owe, so pay $1000/year just in interest on an amount that has a minimum payment of $80/month. If you’re only paying the minimum, at the end of forty years, you will still owe the initial amount. You went to Disney forty years ago, and you still haven’t paid for it! You have paid $1000/year to the credit card company – they’ve made $40,000 off you!
What if, instead of paying $80/month to the credit card company, you invested it at 12% interest? Because of the miracle of compound interest, in that forty years, you would have made roughly $950,000. Talk about reaping more than you sow! You might be saying, “Wait – the stock market is down, and I lost everything.” No, you didn’t lose everything. If you didn’t cash in, you haven’t lost anything; it’s only on paper. Since the 1800s, the market has always come back – it seems to fluctuate every five years. So if you haven’t cashed in, you’re just experiencing one of those fluctuations. I do want to advise you that it is a good idea to seek out the advice of a wide investment consultant when it comes to investing your money.
Now, for those of you who farm, this won’t come as a shock, but let me say it anyway. The harvest comes in a later season than the sowing. When the farmers are in the fields in the Spring, they don’t just come out the next week hoping to harvest. And this is true of our lives as well. If we want to experience the maximum harvest, we have to wait patiently. Remember Galatians 6:9, where Paul encourages us to not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.
The only way to experience financial health is to stay the course, day by day, month by month. It’s not so different from running a marathon; last week when I was running, there were times when it got really hard, and had I not resolved to keep running, I probably would have quit. But the running metaphor breaks down really quickly, because in running, it’s all about being mentally and physically strong and running a smart race. And true, we are responsible for the work of sowing, but God is responsible for the harvest. Much like a farmer, whose job is to sow the seeds and tend to the crops, yet is not the one who brings a plant out of the seed, our job is to make the plan and follow through, to do the hard work there, and God will bring the harvest.
I want to finish with something concrete that you can do to help you sow the right kind of financial seeds. Create a financial plan. This is a good time for you to take notes.
Financial Plan How-To
(from Upside Living in a Downside Economy by Michael Slaughter)
First: Do a financial analysis. List on paper all your debt. Including your house, your car, your bills (including your credit card bills!). That number might be frightening, but don’t panic! God is bigger!
Then list all your assets. List all your bank account balances, investments, possessions, and insurance.
Now subtract the debts from the assets to determine your “net worth” – to give you a picture of where you are financially and to help you determine areas where adjustments need to be made.
Second: Begin an aggressive program of debt reduction. This requires an intentional plan, perhaps a three, five, seven, or a ten-year plan. This, too, can be daunting, but seeing the plan can help you also see the light at the end of the tunnel. If you’ve got creditors pounding on your door, send them a copy of your plan. What they really want is their money, and if you’ve got a plan, that shows your good faith – that you’re going to pay them!
Pay off smaller debts first – it gives a great sense of accomplishment to see those “paid in full” statements. Then build that momentum by continuing to pay that amount to the next debt – for example, when we had two car payments, we finished up the smaller payment and then instead of paying the minimum payment on the second car, we applied both that and what we had paid toward the first car.
A great way to find additional money for paying off debt is to reduce your expenses. I know I’ve thought about this when I see someone begging for money, yet they’re smoking one cigarette after another. Quitting smoking would easily save a one-pack-a-day smoker $1300 in one year. Have you ever met someone who is complaining about debt, yet they’re driving a super-expensive gas-guzzler? And living in a house they can’t afford, watching cable TV, checking the internet on their phone, going out to eat, going to ball games, etc.
If you really take the time to evaluate, most of us have extra spending or extra possessions – did you know that in 1960 there was no such thing as storage, but now 1 in 10 Americans rents a storage unit – 2.35 billion square feet of storage.
Additionally, you can earn additional income. Consider the skills you have that might be marketable, and put them to work!
Third, create an emergency fund. Start by saving $1000, and continue saving until you have set aside three months’ worth of income.
Fourth, be sure you have adequate life insurance. If you’re a parent, make sure you have adequate insurance to cover your children’s well-being in the event of a catastrophe. Remember that your insurance needs will change as your financial needs and goals change.
Fifth, write a will. If you don’t have a will and die, the state will divide your assets among your surviving heirs as they see fit after taking out probate costs, state inheritance taxes, and federal inheritance taxes. That’s just not good stewardship! Would you rather spend a couple hundred dollars in attorney costs, or have several times that amount in court costs deducted from your estate before your assets are distributed? A simple will can avoid these problems.
Sixth, look at your giving. Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21). It’s important to prayerfully identify the gap between what you are currently giving and what God wants to give through you. Then you must determine how to close that gap. When the first thing we do with anything that comes through our hands is give a portion to God, we’re demonstrating that our trust is in Him, not in ourselves.
If you’re wondering what “giving to God” is, it requires two things: first, it must honor God by making God more visible. Second, it will be a blessing to other people.
Finally, create a budget. Then stick to the budget! The 10-10-80 plan can be helpful – the first 10% to God, the next 10% to savings, and the last 80% to live on. God calls us to step out of our comfort zone and to grow in our giving. God calls us to live by the Holy Spirit, which is always about doing the right thing rather than the easy thing. Because Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins. But as we follow God, sowing to the Spirit, God promises to bless us with an eternal harvest.
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