About the spiritual meaning of the harvest festival. Feast of the Harvest Gospel sermons for the Feast of the Harvest
“[observe] the festival of the harvest of the first fruits of your labor, which you sowed in the field”
(Exodus 23:16)
Our church celebrated the Harvest holiday (sometimes called Thanksgiving). The biblical basis for the holiday goes back to the 23rd chapter of the book of Exodus, where the Lord establishes it for His people. On this holiday, believers thank the Lord for the harvest sent down, for all the benefits - material and spiritual - that He gives.
However, the word “harvest” in the Bible is used not only in a literal sense, but also in a figurative, spiritual sense. The harvest is a time of summing up, and God, through the mouth of John the Baptist, calls Jesus Christ the Reaper:
“He who comes after me is mightier than I; I am not worthy to carry His sandals; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire; His shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn, and He will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
(Matt. 3:11-12)
Thus, each person will appear at the Judgment of God (Harvest) and give an answer for his earthly life. The result of the Judgment will be God's decision about where each of us will spend eternity - in heaven or hell. Will he receive God's reward or, as the Bible says, "anger and rage".
Moreover, the Judgment awaits everyone - both believers in God and non-believers. God exists objectively, regardless of your faith. Therefore, unbelief will not save you from God’s Harvest.
The criteria by which God will judge us are no secret:
“He who sows to his flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”(Gal.6:8)
This means that a person who devotes his life to material things will be condemned, and the one for whom God and serving Him have become the main priority in life will receive a reward.
Why do Evangelical Baptist Christians celebrate a holiday every year in honor of such a formidable event as the Harvest?
Evangelical Baptist Christians have several differences from other Christians. First, as a rule, Baptists know the Bible quite well. Some are better, others are worse, but almost everyone is familiar with it to one degree or another.
Another difference (fundamental) is exclusively conscious baptism. For evangelical Christian Baptists, baptism is an act of dedication to God, an act of promising Him a good conscience. For this reason, Evangelical Christian Baptists do not baptize children on principle (due to their age, a child cannot fully understand the meaning of baptism; they are not expected to make a meaningful and responsible promise to God).
Let's talk, brothers and sisters, on the topic “Basic laws of the harvest.” I count five of them and may God help us think about it.
1. Law of similarity
The first passage I will read is from Genesis 1:12: “And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and fruit tree bearing fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind.” This is one of the most important laws that establishes order in creation. I called him law of similarity. Order in the universe testifies to an intelligent Creator. The stars in the sky are in their places. The Universe is established and governed by immutable laws that no one can cancel. Nobody can cancel, say, the law of universal gravitation. And in the same way, living nature fulfills the will of God. For example, a pea seed cannot suddenly decide and say: “No, I’m tired of being a pea. I’d rather grow up as cabbage.” Wouldn’t it really be strange if living nature behaved this way? All nature is obedient to its Creator. If a peasant, going out to a field, did not know what he would collect there, if each seed yielded the fruit he liked, then what could the farmer think? What could he expect? It seems to me that then all agriculture in general would be disrupted and undermined at its core, because a person would not know what he would harvest if it were not for this law of similarity. And so each seed produces a fruit similar to itself. You sow wheat, and wheat will grow.
If you sow rye, you will get it. This beautiful harmony, harmony in living nature, as well as in inanimate nature, speaks of the great mind of our Creator. When he begins a business, he knows how it will end, because the entire universe, both large and small, both living and inanimate nature, is all obedient to its Creator. However, there is one thing in the universe that is still disobedient to its Creator and causes Him sorrow, and that forced the Son of God to ascend to the cross. This creation is called "man". Created in the image of God, endowed with free will, he often abuses his will and does not obey the laws of the universe. Will God suffer from this if man does not submit to Him? No. The universe stands in its place. God sits on His throne. He controls His creation.
But if a person does not obey these laws, does not submit to his Creator, then he is the first to suffer from this. There is endless evidence of this. Let's not forget this law of similarity. Let's take it to spiritual ground. Jacob deceived his blind father once and sowed lies. And how many times were his children deceived later! His relative Laban deceived him many times. And how many times has he reaped lies? In your own likeness. This is a law that no one can repeal. Or, for example, Joseph, obedient, God-fearing, he constantly reaped the blessing and mercy of God. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. This is the law that gives joy, optimism, confidence that it is not blind chance that governs life, but an intelligent Creator, that life is not chaos or some kind of lawlessness, but an intelligent creation, guided by God the Provider, a wonderful Creator who He gave everything his own law and charter. Therefore, let us believe that what we sow we will surely reap, if we do not weaken.
2. The second law is the law of multiplication
An amazing and wonderful law. I read from Genesis 26:12: “And Isaac sowed in that land, and that year he received barley a hundredfold: so the Lord blessed him.” Isaac collected a whole handful from one grain. Why is such a blessing possible? Because there is this law inherent in all of God’s creation, which testifies to the strength and creative power of the Creator. If the law of similarity speaks of the wisdom of the Creator, who, starting a thing, knows its end, then the second law speaks of the power, the inexhaustible power of the Creator, who can give such strength to one small seed that it turns into a huge tree, and isn’t this wonderful? Remember the poor widow who gave two mites? It was her humble sowing, but what praise she received from the Lord! What fame she has acquired for all centuries! Another example. A little captive girl, deprived of everything. What could she do for her master, who was stricken with leprosy? But she planted a small seed of faith in the Lady’s heart, and went down in history. This man was healed.
This is the law of multiplication in action. It is impossible to even describe what this amazing natural phenomenon is. When you put one potato in the ground, and from there you collect a lot (of course, depending on the harvest) - this is the law of multiplication, the law of miracles. If people did not see this miracle every year, they would never cease to be amazed by it. And since they see it all the time, they get used to it and this miracle becomes something taken for granted for them. But, if the Lord set a time frame between sowing and harvest, this does not mean that growth and reproduction are not a miracle. This can only be explained by the miraculous influence and impact of the power, creative power and grace of God. Do you remember when the Lord fed five thousand with five cakes and two fish that one boy had, everyone recognized this undoubted miracle. Why? Because this multiplication of food took place in a very short time, in front of everyone gathered.
But does time cancel miracles? Miracles that develop according to the laws of time are still miracles, only the Lord subjected them to the action of His laws. Behind these laws, man does not see the Creator, but if there were no Lawgiver, then there would be no laws. This second law of the harvest, the law of multiplication, gives us the most powerful charge of faith. Someone might say, “I am an ordinary sister. I have so little strength. What can I do for the Kingdom of God? Dear sister! Take advantage of this wonderful law of multiplication, development and growth, and the little that you sow in the spirit can bring forth a colossal harvest that you may not even suspect. When Peter preached on the day of Pentecost and thousands repented, then, perhaps, at that time Andrew was sitting somewhere on the sidelines, rejoicing and praising God, because although he brought one person, that person turned out to be Peter. Andrew, it would seem, had sowed little, but seeing such a harvest, he glorified God. This was the law of multiplication in action.
3. The third law is the law of death and resurrection
I will read John 12:24: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; and if it dies, it will bear much fruit.” When we sow grain, we collect grains similar to it and in larger quantities. But this is not the same grain that we put in the ground. It rotted. But although it has died, life does not die. What does this law tell us? That when Christ died on the cross and was buried, the work of salvation did not end with this, as the enemies of God might have thought. This is an amazing law of life, isn't it? In order for life to continue, it must go through the stage of death. In order for a grain to bear much fruit, it must die. Who among us would not want to see amazing fruits and blessings in our lives? But who likes to die for the Lord, die to sin, crucify your flesh, be offended in some way, humble yourself in order for God’s will to be fulfilled in your life? How often has it happened lately that people, when they don’t like something, loudly slam the door, leave the church and create a new one for themselves.
It seems to them that such a society does not suit them and, as a result, they reap not the best, but the worst circumstances. Why? Yes, God wanted to bless you with a wonderful harvest, but for this you had to die in the name of the Lord in the place where you are, that is, accept all those difficulties and sufferings that the Lord deigned you to bear. But you, dear sister, abandoned your cross. What harvest of blessing are you dreaming of now? You will only reap tares and weeds in your life because you did not stand in the place where the Lord placed you. The law of death and resurrection is the wonderful law of God's love.
The Lord does not forget even one seed that fell somewhere there. No one sees it or knows what’s wrong with it, but the Lord, in His great wisdom and love, remembers this seed and gives it life. Dear friend! Do you really think that you are forgotten by the Lord? If the Lord remembers some smallest seed, loves it, cherishes it and takes care of it, sends it rain, wind, sun and everything it needs, then, dear soul, do not doubt the love of God. You are much more precious than anything in the world and even the entire universe in the eyes of your Creator. Oh, how highly the Lord values the human soul! Tertullian, one of the church fathers, said in his time: “The blood of martyrs is the seed of the church.” When the first Christians died for the Lord, their death opened the doors of salvation for many, many souls. The Apostle Paul renounced his career and success in earthly life. He thus seemed to die to the world, but became a source of immeasurable blessings for the Kingdom of God.
4. The fourth law is consistency
Let's read Genesis 8:22: “From now on, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.” These words were spoken by the Lord at the end of the Flood. These were joyful words that gave hope, words with which God established a covenant with humanity, words that promised the life and love of God. Sowing and reaping is the same unshakable law that cannot be abolished, like the rule of night and day. However, there was one year in human history when this did not happen. Does this mean that the Word of God has been broken? No. There was no sowing and harvest in the year of the flood, when the whole earth was covered with water. But this happened before the covenant with Noah and therefore there is no contradiction with Scripture. There were years in the history of the Israeli people (every seventh year was a Sabbath year and every fiftieth year was a jubilee year) when they did not specifically sow. But sowing and harvesting were not canceled, because then they collected what grew from self-sowing. God has blessed me so much these years.
Why do we need to study these laws? Those who are engaged in agriculture know that if the land is not cultivated, it very quickly becomes desolate. It is immediately covered with weeds, and after some time you will again have to work hard and hard on this land so that it becomes cultivated, well-groomed and fruitful. This tells us that we should be constant in our service to the Lord, so that our service does not fall under the law of our mood. Today I liked the preacher and I went to the meeting, but tomorrow for some reason I don’t feel like it and won’t go. There will always be reasons to justify your mood. There is a wonderful German proverb: “It’s not moods that make people, but people that make moods.” You cannot justify your sin with any mood. If the time for sowing has come, the farmer does not look at the clouds or the wind. He walks, plows, digs, sows, plants. Likewise, we must not spiritually weaken in our zeal.
In a spiritual sense, this also says that, no matter how difficult it is to sow, if you sow in the spirit, you will definitely reap in due time. He who sows to the flesh seems to him to be doing what he pleases. He doesn't report to anyone. It seems to him that he is free in his choice. But know, friend: yes, you are free in your choice. You can do what you like, but keep one thing in mind. When Saul rejected the will of God by disobeying Samuel and acting willfully, no one could stop him. But soon the reckoning came. Having taken a step on the path of self-will, he could no longer stop. Turning to the witch, summoning the dead, the defeat of his army and suicide - these were the fatal consequences of sinful sowing, which he could no longer cancel with his free decision of the will.
It's the harvest. What you sow must be reaped. This is another feature of the law of constancy in the alternation of sowing and harvest. In connection with the above, the constancy of Abraham’s faith is worthy of note. Being old and childless, for twenty-five years he continued to believe in the fulfillment of the promise of an heir. His harvest was immeasurable: he became the father of all believers.
5. The fifth law is work
I read Genesis 3:19: “By the sweat of your face you will eat bread until you return to the ground from which you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you will return.” The Lord determined for man to work. This is another law that determines sowing and reaping, and one is impossible without the other. Harvesting and sowing, on the one hand, are based on the blessing of God, but, on the other hand, it is work. For the laws of the harvest to interact harmoniously, man must cooperate with his Creator. All those laws that we talked about are beautiful, wonderful laws that speak about love, creative power, the power of our Lord, about His wisdom and reason. This suggests that the Lord established order, sequence, alternation in sowing and harvesting, which will not be canceled. This gives us optimism, faith that we can rely on our Lord. But the last law is the subjective side of the harvest, it is something that depends on the person. I read Ecclesiastes 11:6: “Sow your seed in the morning, and in the evening do not let your hand rest, because you do not know whether one or the other will be more successful, or whether both will be equally good.” This year we planted in two plots, and who would have known that in one plot the harvest would be scanty?
But on the other hand, the harvest may not be the best, but God gave it to us to harvest. You don’t know whether one or the other will be more successful. Work, friend, and God will be on your side, because the very first worker in the universe, the most exemplary worker, is our Creator. He loves work and blesses it. He blesses the hands of the worker. One more thing. Labor comes by the sweat of the brow, and those who work on the land know this. But does each of us know this while working in God’s field? When Jesus prayed, he prayed until he sweated blood. Sister and brother, do you pray like this for your children? Is this how we work to study God's Word? How do we work when we need to attend services? Maybe because of the slightest bad weather outside we are ready to sit at home? The Word of God says that He who watches the wind must not sow, and he who watches the clouds must not reap. (Eccl. 11:4). Examples from the physical world apply both to the spiritual world and to our spiritual work.
In conclusion, I will read from Psalm 126:5-6: “Those who sow in tears will reap with joy. Weeping, he who bears seeds will return with joy, bearing his sheaves.” . Oh, beloved, sowing is not easy. Sometimes we sow with tears, we sow the Word of God into the hearts of our neighbors, and, seeing their alienation, we fast and weep in lonely places. When preaching to people and often meeting with hurtful words and insults in response, you have to sow with tears. But, dear friends, know that those who sow in tears, those who sow in the sweat of their brow, will bear their sheaves with joy. It may not all come up, but what has yielded a harvest will bring joy. There will be a reward for the worker when in winter we eat all these fruits of our labors and praise our wonderful Lord for this, who arranged everything so beautifully so that a person would work and in this work would learn the wisdom, power and love of the Creator. Harvest is the result of a person’s entire life; it is a very serious and responsible word and deed. Dear friend, no matter how you live, you will have to take stock at the end. No matter how many flowers there are in your life, life is created for fruiting. And the time will come when every person will be forced to give an account to God for what he did on this earth. May the Lord bless us to remember that we are to be fruitful trees in His garden. Glory and praise to the Lord for words of reminder that awaken our responsibility and help us to be fruitful workers in God's field. Amen.
Mikhail Burchak, Sergiev Posad, Moscow region.
“And God said, Let the earth produce green grass, grass yielding seed, and a fruitful tree, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And so it became. And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning: the third day" (Genesis 1:11-13).On the third day, according to the word of God, the earth brought forth greenery, and every herb, and every tree bearing fruit. And on the sixth day man was created.
Do you notice how the Lord cares about man, about his creation? Long before he, man, appeared on earth, God had already prepared everything for him. The earth, by the will of God, produced everything necessary for our life on it. When God created Adam and Eve, He brought them into the garden. The garden was already cultivated, well-groomed and bearing fruit! Adam could use what the Lord provided for him. It has always been this way, from the very beginning. God, whose name is Love, takes care of everyone living on earth.
God still takes care of each of us today. We have visible signs of this: the earth is full of the fruits of God. Despite all the difficulties and unfavorable circumstances, we have everything we need. We have our daily bread today. Therefore, our heart is filled with gratitude to the Lord for taking such care of us that we have confidence in our lives. This is not self-confidence, but confidence in the grace and mercy of God. “The hand of God is not shortened to have mercy and to save,” this means that the Lord will continue to take care of us!
We live in a time when not all people are grateful to God. People tend to take credit for themselves, but that's a mistake. The life of every person depends on God. He created this life, it is in His holy hands, and God has the right to end this life. Therefore, “it is appointed for man to die once, but after this the judgment.” This is God's definition.
And a person in his life must make a choice: to come to the Lord, to recognize Him as his Creator, Heavenly Father and Savior in Christ Jesus. When people accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior into their lives, they have special grace and blessing from God. Grace and blessing extend not only to this visible, temporary, earthly life. The blessing of God extends to a person's life in eternity, because by faith in Christ Jesus we have the salvation of our immortal soul and eternal life. This is the ineffable gift of God that the Apostle Paul speaks of. Everything we see and use in life is a gift from God. But the highest, ineffable gift of God is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, because only through faith in Him do we have the salvation of our immortal soul.
And the Lord spoke - and so it happened. The earth today, in our time, still produces its fruit according to the command of God. Blessed be the name of the Lord! We must never stop thanking the Lord, we are called to do this. The feeling of gratitude is inherent in the heart of every believer - do not forget to thank Him for all his blessings always, and not just on the Harvest holiday! And give thanks to Him for everything, because all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
Today we thank the Lord for the harvest, for His care for our earthly life. However, there is also an internal meaning of this holiday, its spiritual content. As believers, we must not ignore this greatest truth.
In addition to our body, which needs bread, we have an immortal soul, which also needs bread, but not physical, but spiritual, needs constant spiritual reinforcement. The soul lives only in contact with God. By abiding in the grace of God, we receive the sources of life, we can abide in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ. By reasoning, observing, reflecting on earthly, visible things, we must acquire something for our immortal soul. God is not limited to the material. There is something more valuable, spiritual - our soul.
In terms of spiritual content, the Feast of Harvest and everything associated with the harvest contains important spiritual truth about the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. “The harvest is the end of the age, when the angels will come to gather the saints of God from all the ends of the earth.” This is the end of human history, when God will draw a line under the life of every person and all humanity. “The harvest,” Christ once said, “is the end of the age.”
When will the harvest come? When will we enter this final harvest?
The fact is that it started a long time ago. It turns out that we are waiting in vain for the harvest to come. We sometimes think that it must come someday, but the fields that turned yellow and were ripe for harvest were already ready for it during the earthly life of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even then, when He was on earth, saw people, the world, he saw that everything was ripe for the great Divine harvest, and said: “Pray the Lord of the harvest, that He will send laborers into His harvest.” The harvest is ripe; it requires working hands, God's workers. You and I are the continuers of this harvest. By the grace of God, the harvest is still ongoing. The seed of God is still being sown in this world. The Lord pours out the grace of God on everyone living on earth. This word ripens in our hearts. And the time will come when the Lord will demand an answer for our lives, will convene all nations from all corners of the earth, so that everyone will give an answer for everything that we have done in the body: good or bad. There will be a moment when God's great harvest will come to an end. The day of God's grace, the favorable year of the Lord, will end forever. It won't always be like it is today. The time will come when the final moment of the great harvest will come. And depending on how people used their lives in the favorable year of the Lord, their future fate will be determined over the course of eternity.
Therefore, when we talk about the Feast of the Harvest today, we must remind ourselves and those who are listening to us for the first time that there is a great Divine harvest. The moment will come when all people will appear before God. We need to think about what we are doing in the body: good or bad. We must improve our lives, serve more actively in God's field.
If there are those in our congregation who have not yet accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, have not taken advantage of the favorable summer, and have not repented of their sins and iniquities, the Lord will grant such an opportunity today. The harvest takes place very quickly, in a short period of time. When the Lord comes to earth, it will be too late to turn to the Lord, too late to call on His holy name: the day of God’s grace will end, the time of judgment will come. Who will stand in this judgment? Who will protect himself? Who can come to your defense? There is only one possibility - to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, through faith in Christ Jesus to be reconciled with God.
On the one hand, today's great holiday tells us about the mercy and love of God, about His care for us. On the other hand, there is a spiritual harvest, the question of our immortal soul. At an opportune time, we must come to the Lord with a good sheaf in order to be able to enter the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. If the Lord is knocking on your heart, let today become a holiday for your soul, when it, having united with the Lord, receives special grace from Him. May the Lord help us in this. And let His name be eternal glory from all of us for His care and all the benefits that He shows to us. May His name be glorified from now on and forever and ever, the name of the eternal God, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen.
Lessons from the harvest. Yuri Kirillov.
Greetings, dear friends! Today in our church is a special day, a holiday and a holiday of Harvest. This is a unique holiday when we thank God for those collected fruits, for that harvest with which the Lord has endowed us, blessed us and gives us a guarantee that we will be blessed in the future. This holiday is not only a holiday to rejoice at how beautiful everything is, how pleasant everything is, how well the Lord created everything for us and gave it to us, it is also a holiday to learn some lessons: lessons of gratitude, lessons of work. May the Lord bless us so that on this holiday we will be especially grateful to Him and be always ready to work for Him.
Several times a year our church is decorated and transformed: Christmas, New Year and, of course, on a day like today, on the Harvest holiday. Happy Harvest Festival, Happy Harvest Festival, my dear brothers and sisters, guests of our meeting, our church. I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart. May the Lord bless us so that for many, many more years, if God sends life, we celebrate this wonderful, good, such a long-awaited holiday. When we look at this scene, we look carefully, our gaze moves from one fruit to another, we think about how important this is for us now, we look at these fruits and think how great God’s care for us is, it was also in this year, right? It was there this year too, and we felt it, we feel it, we feel God’s support. For me personally, the Harvest holiday is one of these holidays, it is a holiday that makes you feel the special interaction between man and God. This is the holiday, this is the moment when we celebrate, when human labors are blessed by God, when both man and God reach such a moment, such a holiday, when God rejoices that we have worked, and we rejoice that our the work was blessed by God.
I thought, what does this holiday teach me? What is it about this holiday that I need to take from it and go with it through life? And for myself, I found two such interesting points: points that are generally known to us, but they are very, very important, so I would like to offer two texts of Holy Scripture for our reflection and reading. And the first of them, it is written in the first letter to the Thessalonians in chapter 5, verse 18: “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”
Every time any person picks up the Bible and reads it, he will invariably be faced with the understanding that it is very important for God how we respond to His kindness, to His goodness, to His manifestation of mercy. The Bible repeatedly indicates that our gratitude to Him is very important to God. You know, I also thought about this more than once and was surprised. Really? And why is this so important to God, strictly speaking? Maybe what is more important for God is what I do, what kind of work I will do, how large-scale it will be, how much effort and time I will spend on it? Why is it very important for God that I simply say words of gratitude to Him? You know, this is also very important for people, especially when we communicate with our friends, close relatives, acquaintances, and do something, although we do not do this so that they will also do something to us. We do it to them because we love them and the word “thank you,” words of gratitude, is probably the most important thing for us, something that we just want to hear, something for which we do something. Many people say this, though with a different connotation: I didn’t work for thanks, right?! Thank you, it is very important, thank you, it is very valuable. And you know, friends, it is also very important for God, it is also very valuable, God wants to hear words of gratitude from us. Therefore, the Harvest holiday, first of all, it teaches me to give thanks.
He teaches me to thank God for what I have today, for the fact that I am alive, for the fact that I am healthy, for the blessings of the Lord that surround me. Jesus told and repeatedly drew the attention of people, the attention of his disciples, to how important it is to give thanks. And the first text of Holy Scripture, a parable, that comes to mind, right? This is when there were people with a certain problem. And when Jesus said to them: go there, show yourself to the priest, show your problem. They, suddenly walking along the path, realized that this problem did not exist. And the illness that they had, they were freed from it and cleansed. And you know, these people were divided into two categories: some went further, the other person, one returned to Jesus, for what? To say thank you to Him, to thank Him.
God does so much for us, but how many times do we thank Him for it? Maybe every tenth blessing only finds a response in our heart when we thank God. God wants to hear words of gratitude from us, God wants us to thank Him, so maybe children say thank you to their parents, parents know what needs to be done, parents know how much their children need. You need this crop, or there should be more of it, this watermelon should be this size or maybe larger. Heavenly Father knows everything we need. Do we know that we should thank Him, because God really wants to hear these words of gratitude from us.
Gratitude is a part of our faith, as much as we thank God, we believe in Him. Jesus Christ is a great example of how often He thanked God. An example for us of how grateful we should be to God. I remember one of the most famous, probably such biblical stories, from the story of the life of Jesus Christ, which absolutely all people know. When Jesus Christ fed a huge number of people, from practically nothing, there were a few loaves of bread, there were a few fish. And do you know what Jesus did before they started giving out this bread, giving out these fish? And I read in the Gospel of John in chapter 6 in verse 11: “Jesus took the loaves and gave thanks, and distributed them to the disciples.”.
When we accept something from God, don't forget to thank God for it, don't forget to give thanks to Him. I always remember one preacher who constantly thanked God in prayer, and he did not have a prayer in which he did not say thank you to God for something, or thank God for something. One day, when people came to a meeting, the weather was terrible, there was heavy rain, slush, the weather was not at all pleasant, but all the people were determined that this preacher should thank God for something. And everyone listened attentively, but what will he say this time, when everything is so bad, when everything is so dreary and sad around? This preacher, when he began to pray, he said: Lord, I thank you that not all days are like today. Every time we need to find something to thank God for. And on this day I also have special gratitude to God, because 11 years ago, on the Feast of Harvest, I was married in this church.
Special thanks to God for the fact that God has continued to saturate us with His blessings for many, many, many years. He continues to saturate us with His kindness, His mercy, His love, and surrounds us with His care. And for this I especially want to thank God and thank Him every time. I don’t know to what extent we encounter this kind of work in everyday life, which leads to the fact that we harvest the harvest, rejoice at it, look at this harvest, how much we understand how hard it is to get this harvest. As far as we understand, how much work those people need to put in to grow this wheat in order to get this bread. This is very difficult, it is very hard and painstaking work.
And you know, when you communicate with such people, they plant wheat in the fall, they watch very carefully, walk around and worry that it will sprout, that it will enter winter strong, that it will be able to survive the winter. In winter, they watch, go to the field, so that this crust of snow, so that it does not deprive the shoots that exist of oxygen, they worry all winter so that this plant enters well, and that in the spring it develops normally. In the spring, other problems begin: temperature changes, minus plus, minus plus, this is also very difficult and the plants have a very difficult time tolerating it all. The plant develops, then the heat begins, especially in our climatic conditions. They take care of this plant, protect it from some diseases, from some pests, insects. Plants experience a lot of such moments, a lot of such complex stressful situations, and along with them the people who take care of them and still come to the moment when they need to harvest. And then it may happen that very heavy torrential rains just come, and all the wheat falls down and it is simply impossible to collect it, it is very difficult. People put in a lot of work, they devote a lot of time to achieve some result, and you know, if God doesn’t bless, then the work will really be in vain. And the fact that today we have bread, and the fact that we have wheat today, and the fact that we have a harvest, is glory to God, thanks to God for this.
There is also a second part, a second such moment, an aspect that I personally highlight for myself in this Harvest holiday, which I take into account. And the text of the Holy Scripture, to illustrate for you, it is written in the book of Proverbs in the 6th chapter, from the 6th verse: “Go to the ant, slothful one, look at its actions, and be wise. He has neither a boss, nor a guardian, nor a master; but he prepares his grain in the summer, and gathers his food in the harvest. How long will you sleep, sloth? when will you arise from your sleep? You will sleep a little, doze a little, lie down with folded hands for a little: and your poverty will come like a passer-by, and your need will come like a robber.” You know, it turns out that there is still something in a person that can interfere, simply interfere and not only not notice, but also not help, say, God’s blessing that God wants to endow us with, this is ordinary human laziness. You know, we don’t talk about it so much, we don’t think about it so much, but, nevertheless, it is present in the life of every person. If someone is not lazy, then sometimes a person just wants to be lazy, just do nothing, just lie down and just relax.
And you know, I was amazed when I started reading about laziness, what the Bible says about it. And the first thing I think is, I don’t remember the Bible clearly saying that laziness is a sin. And I began to study texts from the Holy Scriptures, and see what the Bible says about laziness, there were so many of these texts that I was even amazed. The Bible presents laziness, indeed, in this light, as some kind of human vice, you need to get away from laziness, you need to run from laziness. I even remember a children’s cartoon about laziness, when there are animals, they sold it to each other at first, and then they started giving this laziness away for free, because they felt how it had a detrimental effect on them, they didn’t want to do anything, they didn’t want to see anything, about nothing I don't want to think. Laziness, it interferes with God's blessings, laziness, it makes us so vulnerable to temptation. Laziness, it makes us unable to resist something, to go to something, to move towards something. But this holiday of Harvest, when we talked about the fact that this is a holiday of interaction, when human labor is blessed by God, and all this in this form is presented to us, as the result of this interaction, the result of labor and blessing. It is precisely human laziness that interferes with one of these aspects. We need to run away from it, we need to strive to control ourselves in our lives, and work, a person’s ability to work, is also a kind of manifestation of our similarity to God. Our desire to be as God is. God is a creator, God does a lot, He creates, He is a creator, He creates everything, He does it through work. Man must be like God.
You know, there is such an interesting sociological survey when people were asked simply from a list of seven human vices to name what is present, what you have. And the results of this survey turned out to be very interesting: 86% of people noted that they are lazy, that there is such a problem - 86%. To compare, I will say that 16% of people ticked the box opposite greed, 65% of people are angry, 42% are lustful, 30% of people say gluttony, 23% of people are envious, 37% of people suffer from pride. And, imagine how much laziness is higher than all other vices, how much more humanity is affected by this vice and this problem - 86% of people say that we have laziness. Lord, help us avoid such human vices. Help us, Lord, to work for You, before Your face, so that You, You want to bless us, Lord, You bless us, so that we, on our part, do everything possible, everything necessary so that such a Harvest holiday is constantly present in our lives. So that we can see how the Lord loves us, so that we can see that the work that we do before God is blessed. May God bless us in our lives, so that with such an approach, an approach of thanksgiving and an approach of work, but not laziness, that we do all our deeds before the Lord, and so complete our lives before Him. Amen.
I am glad, dear friends, that you were with us for the last half hour. In our programs we talk about the most important questions of existence: about the meaning of life, we talk about God the Creator, we talk about the Almighty, we talk about Jesus Christ, who gives answers to those questions that cannot be found in school textbooks. If you have any additional questions, comments, suggestions, you can call the phone number that you see in the credits, or come to us at the Church of Evangelical Christian Baptists, Kartamyshevskaya, 8. Every Sunday at 10 am we are waiting for you. God bless you.
Lessons from the harvest. Yuri Kirillov.
Ilchenko Yu.N.
Plan:
I. Introduction. The spiritual world dominates the material. The spiritual is primary and influences the material. If you sow to the flesh (material), you will reap destruction; sow to the spirit, you will reap
spiritual blessings into your life. Mark 4 ch:13 v.. The parable of sowing is a key parable.
II. Ephesians 3:18-20- What you are filled with will guide your life. God has planted the seed of His love in us. He wants us to be filled with Himself. When we are filled with something, we can pass it on and influence others.
III. God has decreed sowing and reaping as an eternal law - Genesis 8:22 Our lives and everything around us are the result of the harvest (even ourselves). The seed we sow can be good or bad. Problems in life are the harvest of what was once sown. Examples: Jacob, Saul, David, Jesus.
IV. A seed always bears fruit according to its kind Genesis 1:11. When we come to a meeting, we allow God to sow His seed into our lives. Our heart must be good soil for this. Watch what you sow into yourself: the Word of God or the words of unbelief. What you sow will grow . Psalm 15:7 The word is a lamp. “Night” is a difficult time when you don’t know what to do, you don’t see a way out. When your heart is filled with word and light, God will guide you. Proverbs 15:24 When you sow spiritual seed: the Word, prayer, time with God, confession of the Word, obedience, humility, it lifts you up and leads you to success. How to sow: Ecclesiastes 11:6 Sowing schedule: morning and evening - constantly. Mark 4:26-32 The seed of the Word of God overcomes all other seeds. Galatians 6:7-9 A person will only reap what he sows and at God’s appointed time. “Good” is to sow spiritual things, what God said. Vision of the Harvest Ecclesiastes 7:8 We must see the harvest and harvest. To receive the harvest we need patience. Leviticus 19:19 Our life, heart, mind is a “field”. There are 2 kinds of seeds: God's and those offered by the world. Proverbs 23:7 Think of yourself as God says about you in the Word. Song of Solomon 2:15 Protect your crops - don't compromise.
Sermon:
Today I want to talk about sowing and reaping because this message is burning in my heart. God has given me a fresh revelation, a fresh anointing on this subject. Revelation is light, and I pray that the Holy Spirit will give us all fresh revelation about sowing and reaping.
All the material seeds that are in this world will one day disappear. But the Word of God is an imperishable seed (through it we were saved) and it will endure forever.
Today is the time of sowing in our lives. By sowing to the flesh, we will reap destruction. But if we sow the seeds of God's word into the spirit, it will bring spiritual blessings into our lives.
We must understand that the spiritual world dominates the material world. We were created material - from the dust of the earth, we are materialists by our education and upbringing. And, as material beings, we think more about the material than the spiritual.
When man sinned and fell away from God, he became even more susceptible to the influence of material things. The devil got Eve's attention by showing her a fruit that she could eat.
The Lord is spirit, He is not a material person. He is spiritual. Man is also a spiritual being because he is created in the image and likeness of God. Having come to God, we received a second, as the Bible says, spiritual birth and we discovered for ourselves that there is a spiritual world and God lives in it.
Ephesians 3:19-21“And to understand the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. But to Him who, by the power that works within us, is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, to Him be glory in the Church in Christ Jesus to all generations, from age to age. Amen".
The love of Christ cannot be understood by natural material understanding. It reveals itself to us as a spiritual revelation. God's love is unconditional, the expression of His love is giving. God loved us first, He gave His Son and proved His love to us. It is difficult for us, as material beings, to understand how you can love just like that, for nothing, how you can love someone who doesn’t love you.
God wants us to be filled with His love. What you are filled with is what guides your life. If you are filled with unbelief and doubts, then this force will guide your life. The world has been sowing its seeds of unbelief in us for many years. Our entire education works according to an atheistic system; children in schools and institutes are taught evolution, taught not to believe in God.
What is sown will bear fruit. What is sown fills us. And what fills us begins to control us.
What fills our hearts today? If we are filled with the word of God, then faith will guide our lives. But if we fill ourselves with complaints, grumbling, doubts, then this will guide our life.
Mark 4:13“And he says to them: Do you not understand this parable? How can you understand all the parables?”
Genesis 8:22“From now on, all the days of the earth, sowing and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will not cease.”
Our whole life is the result of sowing. If there is sowing, the harvest will surely come. All we have today is our harvest: both good and bad. If there is good in our lives, then we have sown it. If there are problems, this is also a harvest.
Problems are a harvest. If the wrong relationship between husband and wife is sown in the family, if the wife does not love her husband enough or vice versa, then they will definitely have a problem. But if they sow love, respect, admiration, adoration, and raise each other's authority, then they will definitely reap it.
In the lives of biblical heroes, we also see the operation of the law of sowing and reaping. Jacob, who deceived his brother Esau, then reaped it: his uncle Laban deceived him more than once.
Problem came into Saul's life because of disobedience to God. He sowed disobedience within himself. Then God found David, “a man after His own heart.” David loved God from childhood, he was His worshiper. David sowed his attitude towards God. When God chooses someone, it is not by chance. This is the result of sowing.
Christ was sown for us all. God said, “Unless the seed dies, only one remains.” Jesus knew the law of sowing and reaping. He knew that He had to die in order to be resurrected to free and redeem us all. And He reaped a great harvest.
Every seed bears fruit according to its kind.
Genesis 1:11-12“And God said, Let the earth produce green grass, grass yielding seed, fruitful trees, bearing fruit according to its kind, in which is its seed on the earth. And so it became. And the earth brought forth grass, grass yielding seed according to its kind, and tree yielding fruit, in which is its seed according to its kind.”
Every time we come to church and read the Bible, we sow the seeds of God's word into our lives. The seeds of faith will never grow unless the word of God is first sown in the heart.
The power of God's word produces fantastic results. I started reading the Bible because I had an argument with believers and a Baptist advised me to read it. I began reading the Bible as an unbeliever, actively opposed to God and believers, mocking them. Since I set myself the goal of reading it from beginning to end, I read even when I didn't feel like it. When I read the Bible, I thought: “What a strange book, how can you believe in this.”
One day I had a problem and I didn't know who could help me. The thought came to me: “You read the Bible and remember that in difficulties people turned to God. Just ask God and if He exists, He will help you.” I asked and God helped me."
Sowing and reaping works. Being an unbeliever, I sowed the seeds of faith in myself, and they grew and bore fruit.
Only what we sow will grow.
Psalm 15:7 “I will bless the Lord, who gave me understanding; even at night my inner being teaches me.” Another translation says: “Even at night my heart teaches me.”
Night, in God's understanding, is a dark, difficult time, a time when we do not know what to do. The Word of God is light, a lamp for us. Discipline will come when our spirit is filled with His word. When we have the word in our spirit, it will bear fruit and guide us. We will know exactly what we need to do and how to act. And even if we make the wrong decision, the Holy Spirit will tell us about it.
Proverbs 15:24 “The way of life of the wise is upward, to avoid the pit below.”
Spiritual actions, the words we speak, our confession, communication with God, worship of Him lift us up. If we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God, He will exalt us. Therefore, we need to sow the seeds of obedience.
What we sowed yesterday and the day before yesterday, we reap today. We can't change our past, but we can change our future. Look at what you want to achieve in your life, what goals do you have? The goal will be fulfilled if we sow in the direction of its fulfillment.
I often encourage people to learn English. I didn't speak English, like most people in our country, but I was sowing "English" seeds. When I worked, I took books in English with me and read them during breaks. Some people were just chatting, doing something, and I was reading books. My vocabulary now is the seeds I once sowed.
Ecclesiastes 11:6« In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not let your hand rest, because you do not know whether one or the other will be more successful, or whether both will be equally good.”
You need to sow at least twice a day: morning and evening. Sow good seeds into your life!
Mark 4:26-32 “And he said: The kingdom of God is like if a man casts seed into the ground, and sleeps and rises night and day; and how the seed sprouts and grows, he does not know, for the earth itself produces first greenery, then an ear, then a full grain in the ear. When the fruit is ripe, he immediately sends in the sickle, because the harvest has come. And he said: What shall we compare the Kingdom of God to? or by what parable shall we depict it? It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown in the ground, is smaller than all the seeds on earth, but when sown, it sprouts and becomes larger than all the grains, and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can take refuge under its shadow.”
Whatever we sow will grow. The little seed of the word of God will conquer all other seeds of unbelief and atheism.
“The birds of the air can take refuge under its shadow” - this is our influence, patronage, our generations.
God wants us to grow spiritually. The strongholds that exist in our lives are stones that prevent us from growing. We must remove them. Good crops will not grow on rocky soil.
Jesus Christ lives in us, and He wants to grow and ascend in us. We are the seed of Abraham, we are His children, His heirs. God is limitless, and His potential in us is also limitless.
Now no one sees what is happening in the Christian world in Russia. But I am convinced that the seed of God will grow and the nation will become Christian. If we sow, Russia will become Christian. Just don’t calm down, sow the seed morning and evening.
Galatians 6:7 “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. Whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”. The new translation says, “Whatever a man sows, that only he can reap.”
If you don't sow, you will never reap. This is an immutable law of the Universe that will never cease.
verse 8-9 “He who sows to his flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but he who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up.” The expanded translation says: “We will reap at God’s appointed time.”
What we do we must do with pleasure. The law will surely work, and we will reap at God's appointed time.
“If we do not weaken” - another translation says, if we do not give up, if we do not stop.
Don't give up, don't stop, don't weaken, don't be sad, don't be sad, because it will get in the way.
Ecclesiastes 7:8 “The end of a thing is better than the beginning; the patient is better than the arrogant.” We must see the harvest, the harvest. For this we need patience. Our impatience is pride.
Don't uproot what you've already planted. Control your emotions. Our goal is the harvest.
Let's pray:
“God, I thank You for Your word, for the unchanging law of the Universe - the law of sowing and reaping. You said that sowing and harvesting will not stop. We will continue to sow, continue to walk in faith, serve and worship You. We will not become weary in doing good, for we will reap in due time. We will not weaken, we will not give up, we will not stop. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen".