One of the greatest things in life is when you sow a good seed and one day you get to reap a good harvest.  That’s probably why so many cultures have harvest festivals.  But – what do we do with that harvest?

What we get out of life depends pretty much on what we put into it. It's a self-evident piece of blindingly, glimpsingly obvious wisdom isn't it? That’s why this week we've been looking at the whole idea of sowing and reaping in our lives. We're confronted by a tough or a difficult situation and if, instead of running away or kicking and screaming, we actually sow some good seed into that place and nurture it and weather the storms, we'll end up reaping the most amazing harvest in time.

It’s just a God thing really. The question is, what do we do with that harvest? I mean harvest time is a time for rejoicing; it's a time for reaping the reward. You go through a tough patch in your marriage and you decide to sow good seeds of kindness and love and encouragement even when its hard and you both come out the other side with a most amazing relationship.

What a harvest, what a blessing. Well ok, now what? It's great to enjoy the harvest, we should do that but is there more? Is there something else that we can do with that harvest? I mean, can we spread it round?

This week's been a great week, I've really enjoyed this week with you on A Different Perspective because we've been looking at reaping God's harvest in my life. You know when you get up on a lookout and you look out at the landscape and you see all the rolling hills and the fields and the cows and maybe the beach and the ocean and the factory down there belching out smog, you see the good and the bad and the ugly. And it's wonderful.

And on one part of the landscape the sun can be shining and the other part can be bucketing down rain and our lives are a bit like that aren't they? Parts of our lives can be going so well and other parts, well you know, they're just not coming together and those bits that aren't coming together we can avoid them or run away or we can complain or we can sow a good seed into them.

This week we've been looking at sowing and watering and weathering and waiting and harvesting and that whole thing takes time, it's not God’s  plan for it to happen overnight. But good seed gives a good harvest, bad seed gives a bad harvest. And I know, when we look at that bit in our life that isn't going so well at the moment and we hear some joker on the radio say, "Go and sow some good seed into that." We can say, "Well that's easy for you to say buddy but you're not here in my little version of hell."

I encourage you, if you have something bad going on in your life, something that's difficult, something you just can't get over, I encourage you to look at that and go, "What good seed, what kindness, what love, what mercy can I sow to that particular situation even though I don't feel like doing it."

It's hard but we do that and we weather the storm and it's a God thing, we trust and we will reap in due time if we don't give up. It's tragic to see people giving up when they've done 95% of the hard work and they just lose faith.

Bringing kids up is like that, you know, when they're teenagers, you can go through some difficult, difficult times and you think, "How am I ever going to get out of this, how are they ever going to grow up to be reasonable people." And I look at our boys, you know our boys are now 26 and 24 years old and we went through some tough times. We had a blended family and let me tell you, the Brady Bunch is a big con and it doesn't work. And some days Jacqui and I despaired and we thought, "How are we ever going to get through this?"

And today, those difficult teenage boys are two of the most wonderful young men. We are so proud of them, they're doing so well and they're just delightful human beings. It is harvest time with those boys, you know it's just a fabulous, fabulous thing. Boy it can take some time though from being a difficult teenager to a well-balanced adult, that definitely doesn't happen overnight.

The question is, "How do you spend a harvest like that?" We should enjoy some of it ourselves, that’s right and proper. The boys and Jacqui and I have put in a lot of effort into that relationship and for us now to have a great relationship, it's just fabulous and we do enjoy it but I wonder whether some of the harvest isn't for other people.

There's a great little verse which when you first read it seems a bit simplistic but it's really deep. It's actually in the Old Testament Law, the book called Leviticus and it's Chapter 19, verse 9 if you'd like to have a look at it. This is what it says about harvesting, "When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not ...” Now remember, sorry before we go into this, remember this is the Law, this is like a statute on the books, it is the Law:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. You shall not strip the vineyard bare or gather the fallen grapes on your vineyard floor. You shall leave them for the poor and the alien for I am the Lord your God.

Isn't that an interesting Law to have? You think, 'well hang on, it's the farmer’s field, the farmer sowed it, the farmer paid for the seed, the farmer did the work, the farmer harvested, why shouldn't the farmer reap to the edges of his field? Why shouldn't the farmer be able to pick up all the grapes off the floor and use them all to make wine?'

Well, God says, "Don't do this because I want you to leave some for the poor and for the alien for I am the Lord your God." In other words, don't consume the harvest all for yourself. Use some of it to bless others. Why? Because God's God. That’s the answer and that's God’s  heart. We can say it's the farmers farm and the farmers harvest but actually it's God that gave the increase.

If your finances are in a mess and you sowed some seed and you disciplined yourself and you're now debt free, enjoy that but maybe your kids need a hand to buy a house or maybe there is some poor people or maybe you need to give some money away to some friends.

The pastors of our Church, Mark and Joy, husband and wife, they're the senior pastors. Early on in their marriage they had a tough time but they sowed seed and they harvested and they have a wonderful marriage. And we're just doing a marriage seminar at Church at the moment, on a Wednesday night. We're just getting together over 5 weeks to give some of it back. Somehow if we try and keep all of the blessing for ourselves it runs out. Yet if we give some of it away, not only does it go on and on and on, the blessing somehow gets richer.

If God has blessed us, if we have been through some difficult times and we've sowed seed and we've been blessed by God's increase; you look back on that and just the fact you've been through that process is awesome and fantastic. But then to take some of that blessing and to give it someone else, either emotionally or physically or monetarily, the blessing rolls on. It keeps going.

And you might say, "Hang on Berni, that’s tough. I sowed, I watered, I waited, I weathered – its my harvest." But it was God who gave the increase wasn't it? God is the God of harvest, why do we give some away? Because he wants us to. As we sow, so shall we reap. It can be a tough gig sometimes but sowing and reaping is God’s  plan. What a plan! What a harvest!