Rick Warren - The Laws of Sowing and Reaping—Part Three

Hey, everybody.

Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we're talking about

your money.

That's right.

We're continuing a powerful series called Financial Fit. Rick is

opening God's Word and showing us how to manage what

we've been given with wisdom, faith, and purpose. And I

know if you apply these biblical principles, you'll start to

experience true financial freedom and lasting peace. Well, what do

you say we wrap it up with the final part

of a message called The Laws of Sowing and Reaping?

Now, here's the next law, number six. I always reap

more than I sow. This is always true for good

or for bad, positively or negatively in your life. You

will always reap more than you sow. This is the

principle of multiplication. If I take one kernel of corn

and I plant that one kernel of corn in the ground,

I don't get one kernel of corn back. I get

a corn stalk. And on that corn stalk, I get

multiple ears and on each of those ears I get

hundreds of kernels. This is the exponential power of the

seed principle that God has established the universe to handle.

That you always get more out of it than you

put into it because what you sow you're gonna reap

but you always end up reaping more. Now in the

parable of the soils, Jesus points this out. And in

Mark chapter four, Verse eight, he says, some seed fell

on good soil and it came up and it grew

and it produced a crop, multiplying 30, 60, and even

100 times. And he's saying here, you know, not all

your plants bear the same fruit. Some of them are

30-fold increase and some are a 60-fold increase, some a

100-fold increase. But it's true in any area of your life.

And if you think that if you go out and

you do one gossip, you're gonna get one gossip back,

you're kidding yourself. You go out and gossip somebody, you're

now in the chain. You're now in the gossip chain,

and you're gonna get more against you than you put out.

It's why I never, never attack back on my attackers. Why?

I don't wanna get caught in the chain. So no

matter what anybody says to me, I don't want to

say anything bad back then, because if I do, I

know what's going to happen. I'm going to reap more

than I sowed. I'm not about to let that one happen.

What I want to do is the exact opposite. I

want to bless them. I want to pray for them.

The Bible says pray for those who persecute you. Bless

those who criticize you. Love your enemies. Why? Because that's

what I want back. I want love back. I want

blessing back. And so whatever you give out, it's not

one for one. And it works positively or negatively in

your life. Now here's the next principle, number seven. I

can increase my harvest by planting more seed. I can

increase my harvest by planting more seeds. more seed. This

is the law of proportion, that we always reap in

proportion to what we sow. And if I sow a

bunch of seed, I'm gonna get a bunch of crops.

If I sow a little seed, I get a little crop.

If I sow no seed, I get no crop. Now

this is true in giving, it's true in tithing, it's

true in energy expenditure, it's true in talent, it's true

in intelligence, it's true in every area of your life,

that I can increase my harvest by planting more seed.

Second Corinthians chapter nine says this. Now remember this. Whoever

sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously

will also reap generously. In other words, that's proportion. Now,

each one should give what he has decided in his

heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God

loves a cheerful giver. Now, this particular passage happens to

be talking about money as a seed. It's more than

just money. But in here, it's talking about giving, and

it's basically saying you can't outgive God. And I've told

you my story on that many times. I don't have

to cover that one again. You cannot outgive God. You

play a game with God, God says, Rick, you give

to me and I'll give to you and we'll see

who wins. And the more you sow, the more you're blessed,

the more you reap. And God loves a cheerful giver.

I think I've told you this before, the Greek word

there for cheerful is the word hilarious in Greek. We

get the word hilarious from. Why? Because God loves your

heart attitude. God doesn't need your money. He wants what

it represents, your heart, your attitude. Now, What is a seed?

If I can plant more seed and get more harvest,

what is a seed? A seed is anything that I

value that I give it away. If I give wisdom away,

then I get more wisdom back. If I give love away,

I get more love back. If I give my energy away,

I get more energy back. If I give my money away,

God makes sure I get more back. If I give

my time away, I get more back. People say, I

don't have time to help other people. That's your problem.

Whatever you need more of, you need to give away.

You say, I don't have enough time to give what

I need to. Give some of it away. Start serving

unselfishly in some area where you're not getting paid back.

It's just a free for all free gift of your time.

A free gift of your energy. a free gift of

your wisdom, and you take on a younger person and

you start to mentor them, and you don't have time

to do that, but you do it because what you give,

you're gonna get back. The seed is anything that I sow,

that I give away, I let go of instead of

holding it onto myself. Now this law of generosity, as

I said earlier, it works for anybody. It even works

for unbelievers. That's why a lot of businessmen have actually

used the principles of the Bible who are not believers

in Jesus Christ. But if you run your business with

integrity and with generosity and with humility and on the

laws of the harvest, you're gonna be blessed. See, the

law of gravity doesn't just work for Christians. It works

for everybody. And the law of magnetism doesn't just work

for believers, it works for everybody. And the laws of

the harvest, the laws of sowing and reaping work for anybody,

whether they're a believer or not. And you can actually

see them in some self-help books by people who have

no interest in God. Here's the general principle, Proverbs 11, 24.

I love this, the message paraphrase. The world of the

generous gets larger and larger, but the world of the

stingy gets smaller and smaller. And we'll cover that when

we get to the laws of investing. But number eight,

number eight, is it's time to start planting now. The

time to start planting is now. It all starts as

a seed, nothing happens until the seed's planted. Whatever I

sow is what I'm gonna reap. I'm always gonna reap

more than I sow and I can increase the harvest

by planting more seed, but the time to plant is now.

You don't wait for a better time. The sooner, the better.

I talk to people all the time who think, one

of these days, I'm going to, and then they have

their idea. When I retire one day, or when I

get to a certain economic level, then I'm gonna start giving.

Or when I, this happens, then I'm going to, and

you have, one of these days is none of these days.

The point is, you don't wait for things to get better.

You start planning now, why? Because the sooner you plant,

the longer you're gonna have the harvest in the rest

of your life. I've mentioned this in every session in

this series on financial fitness. The law of compounding interest

is the single most powerful force on the planet. That

mathematical law of compounding interest. And if you start saving

as a young person, and you put little by little away,

it multiplies, and by the time you get out there,

it's really big. It's small at the start, but it

starts a J curve. And if the sooner you start

planting seeds, the sooner you're gonna start reaping the harvest.

Now notice this verse, what Solomon said, Ecclesiastes chapter 11.

Ecclesiastes 11 · chapter mention

Those who wait for perfect weather will never plant seeds.

And those who look at every cloud, like the stock

market report, will never reap a harvest. Why? Because perfection

paralyzes potential. How many of you would agree, if you

wait for perfect conditions, you never get anything done? It's obvious.

It's obvious. So whatever you're gonna start doing, start doing

it now. Now's when you need help. Start planting now.

Look at the next verse. Ecclesiastes 11, six. Do your

planting in the morning. Oh, and in the evening too.

Because you never know whether it will all grow well

or whether one planting will do better than the others.

Now we're gonna come back in a future session and

deal with this verse again in the laws of investing.

But he said you should be planting all the time,

everywhere you go, every day. Think of what seeds am

I gonna plant today? What seeds of love? What seeds

of grace? What seeds of money? What seeds of energy?

What seeds of wisdom? How can I plant in other

people's lives You get up every day and just think,

I'm a farmer today. And I'm gonna be a farmer

at the grocery store store, and I'm gonna be a

farmer at work, and I'm gonna be a farmer at school,

and I'm gonna plant good seeds everywhere, because if I

plant them all, some of that stuff's gonna pop up

and crop in 30-fold. Look at the next verse, 2

2 Corinthians 9:10

Corinthians 9, verse 10. who supplies seed to the farmer

and bread to eat. By the way, where's all the

seed come from? It comes from God. The seed that

the farmer has comes from God. For God who supplies

seed to the farmer and bread to eat will give

you more and more seed. Give you more and more

seed to plant and will make it grow so that

you can give away more and more fruit from your harvest.

Now this verse is a promise about being generous with money.

But it applies more than to just money. The more

you give away, the more you're gonna get back. This

is the law of the harvest. And one of the

things that seeds are, are our words. You need to

start thinking of your words as seeds. And when you

say words, you plant them in the minds of your children.

You plant them in the minds of your friends. You

plant them in the minds of your spouse. And they

are going to grow and they are going to bear fruit.

And what you sow, you're going to reap. So let

me ask you, are you really watching your words? You

better say them wisely because every word is a seed.

And so I have to ask myself, am I sowing

seeds of trust or distrust when I speak? Am I

sowing words of kindness or am I sowing words of meanness?

Anger and apathy? Am I sowing words that build up

or am I planting words that tear down? Why, why

is that important? Because I will reap what I sow

and so will you. Now it's interesting that the Bible

says that having spiritual conversations with other people, is planting seeds.

The Bible calls it that. That when you share your

faith with an unbeliever, when you talk to your neighbor,

when you talk to a friend, when you talk to

somebody at work about the Lord, every time you share

your faith, God says, that's planting a seed, and you're

gonna bear fruit from it. God calls this spiritual seed planting,

spiritual sowing. There are many, many scriptures that talk about

the fact that the more I talk to other people

about Jesus, the more seeds I am planting and the

more harvest I'm gonna have. Look at this verse on

the screen. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9 11.

Reaping a material harvest is appropriate if we have sown

spiritual seed among you. He's making this point loud and clear.

that I'm gonna reap a benefit from talking to other

people about the Lord. Now there's one other principle, and

it is this. To reap the harvest, I must be

patient and not give up. To reap the harvest that

God wants me to have, I must be patient and

not give up. Why? Because remember, there's always a delay

between sowing and reaping. You plant in one season and

you harvest in another. The principle that we're talking about today, friends,

is a kingdom principle. It's one of the principles that

the kingdom of God operates on. Jesus said it like

this in Mark chapter 4. This is what the kingdom

Mark 4 · chapter mention

of God is like. He said, this is what the

kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on

the ground. And night and day, whether he's sleeping or

he gets up, the seed sprouts and grows. It grows.

He says, you know what, regardless of what he's doing,

he's planted it, now it's still growing, he's not even there,

though he doesn't know how. He can't even figure it out.

All by itself, the soil produces grain. First the stalk,

then the head, then the full kernel in the head.

And what's he saying there? He's saying the results will come,

and they will come slowly, and they will come systematically,

and they will come in a process. I don't have

time to unpack all the meaning of this verse, but

he is saying it takes time. And because it takes time,

look at the next verse. We must not become tired

of doing good. We will reap a harvest at the

right time if we do not give up. Now I

want you to circle the word will. We will reap

a harvest, that's a promise. Not we might, not we shall,

not we hope, not we wish. We will reap a

harvest at the right time, if we do not give up.

You gotta hang on, and while you're waiting, God is working. Now,

as your pastor, who loves you, let me just say

this to you heart to heart. You gotta forget about

last year's crop failure. Because there's nothing you can do

about it. You've had many years of crop failure in

your life. You have wasted years, and so have I.

You have wasted words, and so have I. You have

wasted money, and so have I. You have wasted relationships,

and so have I. You have wasted goodwill in people's lives,

and so have I. And you can't do anything about

the crop failures of the past. You're gonna have to

learn to live with the consequences of your failures. And

there are consequences to everything. But what you've gotta do

is you've gotta start focusing on the long-term harvest in

your life, not the short-term pleasure. The long-term harvest. I

can help you change by applying the scriptures to your life,

but you can't do it overnight. You didn't get the

way you got financially overnight. You took years getting messed up.

And it's gonna take a while getting it undone. Now

some of you, your finances are in such a mess,

it's probably brought tears to your eyes. And you could probably,

if you were honest, admit that you have sat with

your wife or your husband and teared up a little

bit and thought, how are we gonna make this? We

are not making it. In fact, we're going in reverse.

In fact, it's getting worse. We're worse off than we

were a year ago, and it's brought some grief. Well

let me give you a verse and give you a promise.

Psalm 126. Let those grief tears water the seeds you

plant now. Those who plant in tears, Psalm 126, those

who plant in tears will harvest with shouts of joy.

They weep as they go out to plant their seed,

but they sing as they return with the harvest. What

loss has you grieving? What lack has you grieving? What

need have you been grieving over? Maybe you lost your job.

Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe you lost your savings.

Maybe you lost half of your retirement in the last

couple years. Maybe you lost your dream. Maybe you lost

your marriage. Maybe you lost your health. Mourning is okay.

Moaning is not. Big difference. Mourning is okay. Grief is

a legitimate response to loss. Grief is good. Jesus said,

blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.

If you let your mourning, your grief, turn you to God,

it's a good thing. Moaning is not. What's moaning? It's

when you're griping and you're whining and you're complaining to

God all the time, Lord, I don't have work, I

don't have money, I don't, and God's saying, are you

planting any seeds? Or are you just gonna complain? What

are you waiting on? You're not waiting on me. You

can pray all you want. You need to go plant

some seeds. Whatever you need more of, you need to

give away. Let's bow our heads. I want you to

pray this prayer in your heart. Dear God, I have

learned some new things about how the universe operates today.

I realize that everything starts as a seed. It may

be a word, it may be a seed of money,

it may be a seed of energy, a seed of reputation,

a seed of wisdom, but nothing happens until that seed

is planted. unless the grain is buried in the ground,

it cannot reproduce. I realize that whatever I sow is

what I will reap, and I've often sowed one thing

and wanted to reap the opposite, and that's not gonna happen.

I've given out negative and wanted positive. That's not gonna happen.

Today I realize that I'm not the only sower and

that I have been reaping both blessings and problems from

people who went before me and people who are around me.

But I can make a choice. and I can choose

to plant good seed. Forgive me for all the times

I've been in a hurry. Help me to realize and

remember that I reap in a different season than I sow,

that there's a time to plant and there's a time

to harvest and that while I'm waiting, you're working. Help

me to remember when I start to speak that I'm

always gonna reap more than I sow. And make sure

that it's good seed that comes out of my mouth.

Help me to realize that I can increase my harvest

by planting more seed. Lord, I want to learn to

be financially generous more every year of my life. I

want to give away more every year. I don't want

to be stingy. I want to be generous. That's scary

to me. But I want to learn to trust you.

And I have to admit, Lord, that I have been

too afraid to tithe. And I've been too afraid to

give away my love to some people. And I've been

too afraid to show who I really am to others.

Help me to realize that the time to start planting

is right now. There are never gonna be any perfect conditions.

I'm gonna start planting today. And I want to plant

in the morning and the evening and every day I

want to look as I go out to work or

to school and I just want to be a seed

planter everywhere I go. While I'm waiting, help me to

be patient and not give up. To claim the promise

that we must not become tired of doing good but

we will reap a harvest at the right time if

we do not give up. Jesus Christ, I need you

to be the manager of my life, finances, and everything else.

And I want to love you and trust you, and

I want to obey your laws even when I don't

understand them. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You know,

if you just prayed that prayer for the very first time,

or you just recommitted your life to Jesus again today,

would you let me know about it? There's something real

about sharing your commitment. So write me, Rick, at PastorRick.com

and say, Rick, I prayed that prayer of commitment. I

gave my life to Christ. And I'll send you some

material that'll help you on your journey with Jesus. And

I'll also pray for you. God bless you.

Wow, some powerful words from Pastor Rick today. And now

this is really one of my favorite parts of the broadcast.

This is letters from our listeners. And now here's Rick.

Hi, everybody. Today I want to read part of a

letter that I received from June, who is a prisoner

that was given a second chance by God. He wrote this.

I'm a prisoner here in the National Penitentiary serving my sentence.

I came to know the Lord inside myself 13 years ago.

And now I'm serving the Lord as an inmate pastor. Rick,

I always use your Daily Hope preaching and devotionals in

sharing the words of God to my fellow prisoners. And

I see people come to the Lord in many, many ways.

You know, before I was in prison and I came

to know the Lord, I was a high-ranking police officer.

And I was about to commit suicide because of the

numerous charges filed against me. But when God saved me

physically and spiritually, my journey in prison became the most

wonderful vessel used by God to manifest his love to me.

He never leaves me nor forsakes me and may his

name always be glorified. Thank you, Pastor Rick. You're an

inspiration and encouragement to all of us. Well, June, it's

amazing to know your story and to hear that you're

using The Daily Hope message is to teach your fellow

inmates about Jesus Christ. That is fantastic. I couldn't be

more happy. They need to hear that God gives second chances.

They need to hear that he still has a plan

and purpose for their lives, even though they're in prison.

Your story is a great reminder that any one of

us can use what we learn through Daily Hope, podcasts, devotionals,

and we can take these things and teach others about

God's grace and forgiveness. and unconditional love. Keep it up,

my friend. God bless you.

You know, I share Pastor Rick's Daily Hope all the time.

And whether it's a friend or someone you meet in

a restaurant, everyone needs hope and encouragement from the Bible

every day. So tell the people you know and love

about Daily Hope. Be sure to join us next time

as we look into God's.

Word for our daily hope.

This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and

your generous financial support.

Thank you.