Latest / Voice of Rick warren / God s Law of Sowing and Reaping (Part 2)

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God s Law of Sowing and Reaping (Part 2) · Voice of Rick warren

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Now, in this series, we're looking at God's laws of money.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: We're looking at the laws of wealth. We're looking at
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: the laws of prosperity. Now, I said this last week.
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  Speaker 1: We are not a, quote, prosperity gospel church. We do
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: not believe that God wants everybody to be a millionaire.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, Jesus taught the exact opposite. Jesus said a
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  Speaker 1: man's life consists not in the abundance of things that
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  Speaker 1: you possess, and it's not about the acquisition of things.
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  Speaker 1: But God has given certain laws about finances in his words.
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  Speaker 1: In his word, laws of spending, laws of saving, laws
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  Speaker 1: of investing, laws of managing and using, laws of insuring,
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  Speaker 1: laws of giving. There are all kinds of laws about
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  Speaker 1: money that if you do these things, whether you understand
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  Speaker 1: them or not, you will get blessed by them. You
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  Speaker 1: just cooperate with them. Job 8 says, Verse seven says this,
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  Speaker 1: though what you start will seem significant, small and insignificant,
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  Speaker 1: you'll end up in the future with much. So I
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  Speaker 1: need to realize everything starts as a seed. Nothing happens
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  Speaker 1: until a seed is planted. Whatever I sow is what
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  Speaker 1: I'll reap and I'm not the only sower. Now the
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  Speaker 1: fifth law of sowing and reaping is this. I always
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  Speaker 1: reap in a different season than from when I sow.
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  Speaker 1: I always reap in a different season than I sow.
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  Speaker 1: There is a time delay from when I make the effort,
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  Speaker 1: I make the deposit, and I get the fruit. Now,
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  Speaker 1: you know this. I mean, it's obvious. Plants take time
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  Speaker 1: to grow. There's no such thing as instant maturity. No
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  Speaker 1: farmer goes out, plants a seed in the ground, comes
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  Speaker 1: back an hour later, digs it up, and says, has
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  Speaker 1: you grown? There is no such thing as instant success.
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  Speaker 1: There is instant fame. but there is no instant success.
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  Speaker 1: Somebody may be serving for years or practicing their craft
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  Speaker 1: for years in obscurity, and then all of a sudden
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  Speaker 1: they're instantly famous, but they didn't get there overnight because
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  Speaker 1: it takes time to grow in wisdom. It takes time
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  Speaker 1: to gather. It takes time to build skills. It takes time.
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  Speaker 1: And the Bible tells us that there are seasons in life.
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  Speaker 1: In Ecclesiastes, this book by Solomon, it says in chapter three,
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  Speaker 1: There's a time for everything. There's a time to plant,
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  Speaker 1: and there's a time to harvest. There's a time to scatter,
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  Speaker 1: there's a time to gather. There's a time to sow,
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  Speaker 1: there's a time to reap. They are different seasons. And so,
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  Speaker 1: between the then and the now, or the now and
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  Speaker 1: what's coming next, there's always a delay, and that is
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  Speaker 1: so irritating. to make a deposit, to make an investment,
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  Speaker 1: to make a plan, to invest time, energy, money into
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  Speaker 1: something you know is right, and it's not there instantly. Now,
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  Speaker 1: fruit ripens slowly. I mean, would you rather eat a
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  Speaker 1: vine-ripened tomato, or one of those ones they picked that
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  Speaker 1: is green, and then when they brought it to the store,
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  Speaker 1: they gassed it to turn it red? It may be red,
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  Speaker 1: but it still tastes green. There's no comparison between a
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  Speaker 1: vine-ripened tomato, which was allowed to grow slowly. If you
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  Speaker 1: pick it too soon, you miss the flavor. Now, this
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  Speaker 1: is a principle in money management that I always reap
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  Speaker 1: in a different season than I sow. And by the way,
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  Speaker 1: not all fruit ripens at the same time. When you
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  Speaker 1: have a peach tree, they don't all sudden, they're all
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  Speaker 1: ripe at once. No, you pick a few a day.
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  Speaker 1: It comes in little by little. And when you start
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  Speaker 1: planting and sowing and you start following God's money management principles,
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  Speaker 1: you're not gonna get a windfall tomorrow just because you
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  Speaker 1: started practicing God's money management principles today. You're not gonna
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  Speaker 1: win a lottery and all of a sudden it's happening. No,
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  Speaker 1: it's gonna come in over time. It's gonna ripen a
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  Speaker 1: little bit at a time. Never ceases to amaze me
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  Speaker 1: the people who think God is a slot machine. You know,
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  Speaker 1: Pastor Rick, I tied today and I didn't get a
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  Speaker 1: job this week. Oh, it's like I put 10 bucks
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  Speaker 1: in the plate and now I'm supposed to get a $ 100, 000 job?
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  Speaker 1: You think God's a genie? God is no genie. You
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  Speaker 1: serve him. He doesn't serve you. God is not a
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  Speaker 1: vending machine. He's not a slot machine where you just
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  Speaker 1: put in the tithe and then all of a sudden
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  Speaker 1: you get whatever you want. No. There's always first, there's
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  Speaker 1: a season between when I sow and when I reap. Now,
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  Speaker 1: while I'm waiting, God is working. Might write that one down.
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  Speaker 1: While I'm waiting, God's working. A lot of times when
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  Speaker 1: I'm waiting for the fulfillment of the efforts that I've
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  Speaker 1: put into something or the money that I've given or
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  Speaker 1: the time or the energy, while I'm waiting for that
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  Speaker 1: to happen, I think nothing's happening. Oh, it's happening. While
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  Speaker 1: I'm waiting, God's working. And while that seed is hidden
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  Speaker 1: in the ground, it is slowly germinating. Germinating. And one day,
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  Speaker 1: it's gonna burst. And when that seed bursts, God is
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  Speaker 1: in it. And the life is gonna start growing and
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  Speaker 1: growing and growing. And one day, a little shoot will
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  Speaker 1: stick up out of the ground. And then you know
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  Speaker 1: it's working. But it's not instant fulfillment. Here's the next law,
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  Speaker 1: number six. I always reap more than I sow. This
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  Speaker 1: is always true. For good or for bad, positively or
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  Speaker 1: negatively in your life, you will always reap more than
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  Speaker 1: you sow. This is the principle of multiplication. If I
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  Speaker 1: take one kernel of corn and I plant that one
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  Speaker 1: kernel of corn in the ground, I don't get one
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  Speaker 1: kernel of corn back. I get a corn stalk and
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  Speaker 1: on that corn stalk, I get multiple ears. And on
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  Speaker 1: each of those ears, I get hundreds of kernels. This
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  Speaker 1: is the exponential power of the seed principle that God
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  Speaker 1: has established the universe to handle. That you always get
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  Speaker 1: more out of it than you put into it because
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  Speaker 1: what you sow, you're gonna reap, but you always end
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  Speaker 1: up reaping more. Now, in the parable of the soils,
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  Speaker 1: Jesus points this out. And in Mark chapter four, verse eight,
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  Speaker 1: he says, some seed fell on good soil and it
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  Speaker 1: came up and it grew and it produced a crop.
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  Speaker 1: multiplying 30, 60, and even 100 times. And he's saying here,
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  Speaker 1: you know, not all your plants bear the same fruit.
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  Speaker 1: Some of them are 30-fold increase, and some are a
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  Speaker 1: 60-fold increase, some a 100-fold increase. But it's true in
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  Speaker 1: any area of your life. And if you think that
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  Speaker 1: if you go out and you do one gossip, you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna get one gossip back, you're kidding yourself. You go
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  Speaker 1: out and gossip somebody, you're now in the chain. You're
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  Speaker 1: now in the gossip chain and you're going to get
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  Speaker 1: more against you than you put out. It's why I never,
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  Speaker 1: never attack back on my attackers.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: I don't want to get caught in the chain. So
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  Speaker 1: no matter what anybody says to me, I don't want
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  Speaker 1: to say anything bad back then because if I do,
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  Speaker 1: I know what's going to happen. I'm going to reap
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  Speaker 1: more than I sowed. I'm not about to let that
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  Speaker 1: one happen. What I want to do is the exact opposite.
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  Speaker 1: I want to bless them. I want to pray for them.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible says pray for those who persecute you. Bless
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  Speaker 1: those who criticize you. Love your enemies. Why? Because that's
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  Speaker 1: what I want back. I want love back. I want
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  Speaker 1: blessing back. And so whatever you give out, it's not
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  Speaker 1: one for one. And it works positively or negatively in
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  Speaker 1: your life. Now here's the next principle. Number seven, I
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  Speaker 1: can increase my harvest by planting more seed. I can
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  Speaker 1: increase my harvest by planting more seed. This is the
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  Speaker 1: law of proportion, that we always reap in proportion to
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  Speaker 1: what we sow. And if I sow a bunch of seed,
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  Speaker 1: I'm gonna get a bunch of crops. If I sow
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  Speaker 1: a little seed, I get a little crop. If I
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  Speaker 1: sow no seed, I get no crop. This is true
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  Speaker 1: in giving, it's true in tithing, It's true in energy expenditure.
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  Speaker 1: It's true in talent. It's true in intelligence. It's true
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  Speaker 1: in every area of your life that I can increase
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  Speaker 1: my harvest by planting more seed. Second Corinthians chapter nine
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  Speaker 1: says this. Now remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also
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  Speaker 1: reap sparingly. And whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
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  Speaker 1: In other words, that's proportions. Now each one should give
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  Speaker 1: what he has decided in his heart to give, not
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  Speaker 1: reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
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  Speaker 1: Now this particular passage happens to be talking about money
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  Speaker 1: as a seed. It's more than just money. But in
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  Speaker 1: here it's talking about giving, and it's basically saying you
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  Speaker 1: can't out-give God. Now, what is a seed? If I
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  Speaker 1: can plant more seed and get more harvest, what is
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  Speaker 1: a seed? A seed is anything that I value that
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  Speaker 1: I give it away. If I give wisdom away, then
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  Speaker 1: I get more wisdom back. If I give love away,
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  Speaker 1: I get more love back. If I give my energy away,
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  Speaker 1: I get more energy back. If I give my money away,
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  Speaker 1: God makes sure I get more back. If I give
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  Speaker 1: my time away, I get more back. He goes, I
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  Speaker 1: don't have time to help other people. That's your problem.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever you need more of, you need to give away.
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  Speaker 1: He says, I don't have enough time to get what
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  Speaker 1: I need to. Give some of it away. Start serving
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  Speaker 1: unselfishly in some area where you're not getting paid back.
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  Speaker 1: It's just a free for all free gift of your time,
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  Speaker 1: a free gift of your energy, a free gift of
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  Speaker 1: your wisdom. and you take on a younger person, and
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  Speaker 1: you start to mentor them, and you don't have time
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  Speaker 1: to do that, but you do it because what you give,
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  Speaker 1: you're gonna get back. The seed is anything that I sow,
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  Speaker 1: that I give away, I let go of instead of
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  Speaker 1: holding it onto myself. Now this law of generosity, as
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  Speaker 1: I said earlier, it works for anybody. It even works
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  Speaker 1: for unbelievers. That's why a lot of businessmen have actually
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  Speaker 1: used the principles of the Bible who are not believers
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  Speaker 1: in Jesus Christ. But if you run your business with
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  Speaker 1: integrity and with generosity and with humility and on the
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  Speaker 1: laws of the harvest, you're gonna be blessed. See, the
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  Speaker 1: law of gravity doesn't just work for Christians. It works
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  Speaker 1: for everybody. And the law of magnetism doesn't just work
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  Speaker 1: for believers, it works for everybody. And the laws of
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  Speaker 1: the harvest, the laws of sowing and reaping work for anybody,
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  Speaker 1: whether they're a believer or not. Here's the general principle,
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  Speaker 1: Proverbs 11, 24. The world of the generous gets larger
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  Speaker 1: and larger, but the world of the stingy gets smaller
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  Speaker 1: and smaller. We'll cover that when we get to the
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  Speaker 1: laws of investing. Number eight. Number eight is it's time
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  Speaker 1: to start planting now. The time to start planting is now.
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  Speaker 1: It all starts as a seed. Nothing happens until the
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  Speaker 1: seed's planted. Whatever I sow is what I'm going to reap.
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  Speaker 1: I'm always going to reap more than I sow, and
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  Speaker 1: I can increase the harvest by planting more seed. But
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  Speaker 1: the time to plant is now. You don't wait for
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  Speaker 1: a better time. The sooner, the better. I talk to
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  Speaker 1: people all the time who think, one of these days
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to, and then they have their ideas. When
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  Speaker 1: I retire one day, or when I get to a
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  Speaker 1: certain economic level, then I'm gonna start giving. Or when I,
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  Speaker 1: this happens, then I'm going to, and you have, one
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  Speaker 1: of these days is none of these days. The point is,
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  Speaker 1: you don't wait for things to get better. You start
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  Speaker 1: planning now.
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  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because the sooner you plant, the longer you're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: the harvest in the rest of your life. Hi, everybody. Today,
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  Speaker 1: I want to ask you to join with Daily Hope
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  Speaker 1: as we focus on fulfilling the great commission of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: That's where Jesus said, go and make disciples of all nations,
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  Speaker 1: baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son,
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  Speaker 1: and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to.
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  Speaker 2: Do everything I've commanded you. And surely I'm with you
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  Speaker 2: to the very end of the age. You know, sharing
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  Speaker 2: Jesus with others is the most important thing you can
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  Speaker 2: do while you're alive because you're helping people determine their destiny.
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  Speaker 2: If we join together, we can reach across the whole
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  Speaker 2: world with the message of Christ. And that's why I'm
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  Speaker 2: asking new friends to partner with Daily Hope. You see,
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  Speaker 2: by becoming a partner in hope, we're able to take
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  Speaker 2: the good news of Jesus into almost every country of
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  Speaker 2: the world, including regions where where it's difficult or even
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  Speaker 2: dangerous to share the good news of the gospel. So
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  Speaker 2: I want to invite you to join us. Become a
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  Speaker 2: partner in hope.
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  Speaker 1: Today, with your first monthly donation, we'll send you a
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: special gift to welcome you as a partner of the
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: Hope family. God bless you. Now notice this verse, what
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  Speaker 1: Solomon said, Ecclesiastes chapter 11. Those who wait for perfect
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  Speaker 1: weather will never plant seeds. And those who look at
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  Speaker 1: every cloud, like the stock market report, will never reap
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  Speaker 1: a harvest. Why? Because perfection paralyzes potential. How many of
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  Speaker 1: you would agree, if you wait for perfect conditions, you
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  Speaker 1: never get anything done? Obvious, it's obvious. So whatever you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna start doing, start doing it now. Look at the
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  Speaker 1: next verse, Ecclesiastes 11, six. Do your planting in the morning. Oh,
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  Speaker 1: and in the evening too. Because you never know, whether
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  Speaker 1: it will all grow well or whether one planting will
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  Speaker 1: do better than the others. Now we're gonna come back
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  Speaker 1: in a future session and deal with this verse again
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  Speaker 1: in the laws of investing. They said you should be
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  Speaker 1: planting all the time, everywhere you go, every day. Think
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  Speaker 1: of what seeds am I gonna plant today? What seeds
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  Speaker 1: of love? What seeds of grace? What seeds of money?
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  Speaker 1: What seeds of energy? What seeds of wisdom? How can
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  Speaker 1: I plant in other people's lives today? You get up
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  Speaker 1: every day and just think I'm a farmer today. and
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a farmer at the grocery store,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm going to be a farmer at work, and
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  Speaker 1: I'm going to be a farmer at school, and I'm
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  Speaker 1: going to plant good seeds everywhere, because if I plant
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  Speaker 1: them all, some of that stuff's going to pop up
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  Speaker 1: and crop in 30-fold. Look at the next verse, 2
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  Speaker 1: Corinthians 9, verse 10. For God, who supplies seed to
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  Speaker 1: the farmer and bread to eat, by the way, where's
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  Speaker 1: all the seed come from? It comes from God. the
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  Speaker 1: seed that the farmer has comes from God. For God
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  Speaker 1: who supplies seed to the farmer and bread to eat
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  Speaker 1: will give you more and more seed, give you more
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  Speaker 1: and more seed to plant and will make it grow
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  Speaker 1: so that you can give away more and more fruit
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  Speaker 1: from your harvest. Now this verse is a promise about
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  Speaker 1: being generous with money, but it applies more than to
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  Speaker 1: just money. The more you give away, the more you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna get back. This is the law of the harvest.
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  Speaker 1: And one of the things that seeds are, are our words.
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  Speaker 1: You need to start thinking of your words as seeds.
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  Speaker 1: And when you say words, you plant them in the
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  Speaker 1: minds of your children. You plant them in the minds
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  Speaker 1: of your friends. You plant them in the minds of
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  Speaker 1: your spouse. And they are going to grow and they
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  Speaker 1: are going to bear fruit. And what you sow, you're
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  Speaker 1: going to reap. So let me ask you, Are you
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  Speaker 1: really watching your words? You better say them wisely because
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  Speaker 1: every word is a seed. So I have to ask myself,
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  Speaker 1: am I sowing seeds of trust or distrust when I speak?
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  Speaker 1: Am I sowing words of kindness or am I sowing
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  Speaker 1: words of meanness? Anger and apathy? Am I sowing words
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  Speaker 1: that build up or am I planting words that tear down? Why?
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  Speaker 1: Why is that important? Because I will reap what I sow,
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  Speaker 1: and so will you. Now, it's interesting that the Bible
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  Speaker 1: says that having spiritual conversations with other people is planting seeds.
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  Speaker 1: The Bible calls it that. That when you share your
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  Speaker 1: faith with an unbeliever, when you talk to your neighbor,
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  Speaker 1: when you talk to a friend, when you talk to
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  Speaker 1: somebody at work about the Lord, every time you share
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  Speaker 1: your faith, God says, that's planting a seed. and you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna bear fruit from it. God calls this spiritual seed planting,
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  Speaker 1: spiritual sowing. There are many, many scriptures that talk about
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  Speaker 1: the fact that the more I talk to other people
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  Speaker 1: about Jesus, the more seeds I am planting and the
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  Speaker 1: more harvest I'm gonna have. Look at this verse on
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  Speaker 1: the screen. Paul says this in 1 Corinthians 9, 11.
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  Speaker 1: Reaping a material harvest is appropriate if we have sown
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  Speaker 1: spiritual seed among you. He's making this point loud and
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  Speaker 1: clear that I'm gonna reap a benefit from talking to
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  Speaker 1: other people about the Lord. Now there's one other principle,
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  Speaker 1: and it is this. To reap the harvest, I must
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  Speaker 1: be patient and not give up. To reap the harvest
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  Speaker 1: that God wants me to have, I must be patient
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  Speaker 1: and not give up. Why? Because remember, there's always a
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  Speaker 1: delay between sowing and reaping. You plant in one season
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  Speaker 1: and you harvest in another. The principle that we're talking
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  Speaker 1: about today, friends, is a kingdom principle. It's one of
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  Speaker 1: the principles that the kingdom of God operates on. Jesus
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  Speaker 1: said it like this in Mark chapter four. This is
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  Speaker 1: what the kingdom of God is like. He said, this
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  Speaker 1: is what the kingdom of God is like. A man
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  Speaker 1: scatters seed on the ground and night and day, whether
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  Speaker 1: he's sleeping or he gets up, the seed sprouts and grows.
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  Speaker 1: Regardless of what he's doing, he's planted it. Now it's
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  Speaker 1: still growing. He's not even there, though he doesn't know how.
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  Speaker 1: He can't even figure it out. All by itself, the
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  Speaker 1: soil produces grain. First the stalk, then the head, then
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  Speaker 1: the full kernel in the head. What's he saying there?
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  Speaker 1: He's saying the results will come, and they will come slowly,
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  Speaker 1: and they will come systematically, and they will come on
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  Speaker 1: a process. I don't have time to unpack all the
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  Speaker 1: meaning of this verse, but he is saying it takes time.
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  Speaker 1: Because it takes time, look at the next verse. We
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  Speaker 1: must not become tired of doing good. We will reap
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  Speaker 1: a harvest at the right time if we do not
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: give up. That's a promise. Not we might, not we shall,
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: not we hope, not we wish. We will reap a
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: harvest at the right time if we do not give up.
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: You got to hang on, and while you're waiting, God
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: is working. Now, as your pastor who loves you, let
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: me just say this to you heart to heart. you
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: gotta forget about last year's crop failure. Because there's nothing
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: you can do about it. You've had many years of
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: crop failure in your life. You have wasted years and
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: so have I. You have wasted words and so have I.
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: You have wasted money and so have I. You have
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: wasted relationships and so have I. You have wasted goodwill
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: in people's lives and so have I. And you can't
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: do anything about the crop failures of the past. You're
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: going to have to learn to live with the consequences
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: of your failures. And there are consequences to everything. But
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: what you've got to do is you've got to start
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: focusing on the long-term harvest in your life, not the
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: short-term pleasure. The long-term harvest. Psalm 126. Those who plant
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: in tears will harvest with shouts of joy. They weep
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: as they go out to plant their seed, but they
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: sing as they return with the harvest. Question, what loss
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: has you grieving? What lack has you grieving? What need
• 21:31
  Speaker 1: have you been grieving over? Maybe you lost your job.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: Maybe you lost a loved one. Maybe you lost your savings.
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Maybe you lost half of your retirement in the last
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: couple years. Maybe you lost your dream. Maybe you lost
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: your marriage. Maybe you lost your health. Mourning is okay.
• 22:06
  Speaker 1: Moaning is not. Big difference. Mourning is okay. Grief is
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: a legitimate response to loss. Grief is good. Jesus said,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: If you let your mourning, your grief, turn you to God,
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: it's a good thing. Moaning is not. What's moaning? It's
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: when you're griping and you're whining and you're complaining to
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: God all the time. Lord, I don't have work. I
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: don't have money. I don't, I don't. And God's saying,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: are you planting any seeds? Or are you just gonna complain?
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: What are you waiting on? You're not waiting on me.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: You can pray all you want. You need to go
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: plant some seeds. Whatever you need more of, you need
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: to give away. Let's bow our heads. I want you
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: to pray this prayer in your heart. Dear God, I
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: have learned some new things about how the universe operates today.
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: I realize that everything starts as a seed. It may
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: be a word, it may be a seed of money,
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: it may be a seed of energy, a seed of reputation,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: a seed of wisdom, but nothing happens until that seed
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: is planted. Unless the grain is buried in the ground,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: it cannot reproduce. I realize that whatever I sow is
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: what I will reap, and I've often sowed one thing
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: and wanted to reap the opposite, and that's not going
• 23:52
  Speaker 1: to happen. I've given out negative and wanted positive. That's
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: not going to happen. Today I realize that I'm not
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: the only sower and that I have been reaping both blessings,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: and problems from people who went before me and people
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: who are around me. But I can make a choice
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: and I can choose to plant good seed. Forgive me
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: for all the times I've been in a hurry. Help
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: me to realize and remember that I reap in a
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: different season than I sow, that there's a time to
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: plant and there's a time to harvest and that while
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: I'm waiting, you're working. Help me to remember when I
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: start to speak that I'm always gonna reap more than
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: I sow. Make sure that it's good seed that comes
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: out of my mouth. Help me to realize that I
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: can increase my harvest by planting more seed. Lord, I
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: wanna learn to be financially generous more every year of
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: my life. I wanna give away more every year. I
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: don't wanna be stingy. I want to be generous. That's
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: scary to me, but I want to learn to trust you.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: And I have to admit, Lord, that I have been
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: too afraid to tithe. And I've been too afraid to
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: give away my love to some people. And I've been
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: too afraid to show who I really am to others.
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: Help me to realize that the time to start planting
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: is right now There are never going to be any
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: perfect conditions. I'm going to start planting today. And I
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: want to plant in the morning and the evening and
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: every day. I want to look as I go out
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: to work or to school and I just want to
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: be a seed planter everywhere I go. While I'm waiting,
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: help me to be patient, not give up. Reclaim the
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: promise that We must not become tired of doing good,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: but we will reap a harvest at the right time
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: if we do not give up. Jesus Christ, I need
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: you to be the manager of my life, finances, and
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: everything else. And I want to love you and trust you,
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: and I want to obey your laws even when I
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: don't understand them. I pray this in Jesus' name.
• 26:37
  Speaker 2: Amen.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Amen.