Speaker 3: Hey, everybody.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Well, we're talking about
Speaker 1: your money.
Speaker 3: That's right.
Speaker 1: We're continuing a powerful series called Financial Fitness. Rick is
Speaker 1: opening God's Word and showing us how to manage what
Speaker 1: we've been given with wisdom, faith, and purpose. And I
Speaker 1: know if you apply these biblical principles, you'll start to
Speaker 1: experience true financial freedom and lasting peace. Such a great
Speaker 1: lesson today. We're hearing part one of a message called
Speaker 1: The Laws of Sowing and Reaping.
Speaker 2: Now the Bible tells us that God is an organized God.
Speaker 2: God is not a God of chaos. He's very orderly.
Speaker 2: In fact, the more we look at the universe, the
Speaker 2: more we realize how organized everything really is. In fact,
Speaker 2: science continues to show us things we didn't even know
Speaker 2: five years ago about the ecosystems on planet Earth. and
Speaker 2: even the ecosystems in the universe, that everything is finely tuned.
Speaker 3: Did you know that if our.
Speaker 2: Earth, which is tilted on an axis, if it one
Speaker 2: degree tilted this way, we would burn up, and one
Speaker 2: degree that way, we'd freeze up?
Speaker 3: Did you know that?
Speaker 2: It is at the exact angle axis to sustain human life.
Speaker 2: And everything is connected and there are laws. God has
Speaker 2: established the universe around certain natural or physical and spiritual laws.
Speaker 2: There are laws of physics. There are laws of mathematics.
Speaker 2: There are laws of chemistry. We know these things. We
Speaker 2: know that there are spiritual laws. We get the laws
Speaker 2: of nature, obviously, the natural laws by looking.
Speaker 3: At God's creation.
Speaker 2: We get the spiritual laws by looking at God's word.
Speaker 3: Now, the amazing thing is this.
Speaker 2: You don't have to understand these laws to benefit from them.
Speaker 2: In other words, you don't have to understand why God
Speaker 2: does what he does You just have to cooperate with it.
Speaker 2: And if you do, you're gonna benefit whether you understand
Speaker 2: the law or not. For instance, I don't understand the
Speaker 2: law of magnetism. Now, if I wanted to, I could
Speaker 2: obviously go study it, I just haven't chosen to do so.
Speaker 3: I don't know how magnetism works.
Speaker 2: But it doesn't stop me from using a compass when
Speaker 2: I get lost. I don't have to understand how it works,
Speaker 2: I just know it works. I don't understand the laws
Speaker 2: of electricity. But it doesn't stop me from flipping a
Speaker 2: switch and using a light. I don't understand the laws
Speaker 2: that cause the chemical reactions and internal combustion. It doesn't
Speaker 2: stop me from driving a car. And, you know, I
Speaker 2: don't understand the law of gravity. Now, nobody understands that one.
Speaker 2: I mean, even Einstein said nobody understands the law of gravity.
Speaker 2: In fact, it doesn't make sense. Because with something spinning around,
Speaker 2: does that usually draw things to it or does it
Speaker 2: repel them?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it repels them. And the Earth is spinning around.
Speaker 2: Seems like we should be floating off that way instead
Speaker 2: of being held down. It doesn't make sense. No scientist
Speaker 2: has ever given a full explanation of gravity. We're still
Speaker 2: studying it. But I am sure glad that that law,
Speaker 2: the law of gravity, is consistent. I mean, what if, say,
Speaker 2: Tuesday and Thursdays were non-gravity days? Would that kind of
Speaker 2: mess up your schedule a little bit? Yeah, and the
Speaker 2: thing about God's laws is that because they are God's laws,
Speaker 2: they are always true, and because they're always true, you
Speaker 2: can count on them. The reason we were able to
Speaker 2: send in the Apollo program, send guys to the moon
Speaker 2: and back is because there's certain laws of physics we
Speaker 2: know are inviolable. They cannot be changed. They're not theories.
Speaker 2: They are laws, and if you do certain things, you
Speaker 2: can count on it. And that's the only way we
Speaker 2: make these scientific breakthroughs. Now, in this series, We're looking
Speaker 2: at God's laws of money. We're looking at the laws
Speaker 2: of wealth. We're looking at the laws of prosperity. Now
Speaker 2: I said this last week, we are not a quote,
Speaker 2: prosperity gospel church. We do not believe that God wants
Speaker 2: everybody to be a millionaire. In fact, Jesus taught the
Speaker 2: exact opposite. Jesus said a man's life consists not in
Speaker 2: the abundance of things that you possess, and it's not
Speaker 2: about the acquisition of things. But God has given certain
Speaker 2: laws about Finances, in his words, in his word, laws
Speaker 2: of spending, laws of saving, laws of investing, laws of
Speaker 2: managing and using, laws of insuring, laws of giving. There
Speaker 2: are all kinds of laws about money that if you
Speaker 2: do these things, whether you understand them or not, you
Speaker 2: will get blessed by them. You just cooperate with them.
Speaker 2: And so we're looking at them. Now there are two
Speaker 2: books in the Bible that deal a lot with this.
Speaker 2: The book of Proverbs and the book of Ecclesiastes. I
Speaker 2: mentioned last week that Solomon was the king of Israel.
Speaker 3: He was the son of David.
Speaker 2: And when he became king, God said, ask Solomon for
Speaker 2: anything you want and I will give it to you.
Speaker 2: Solomon thought about it and said, Lord, what I want
Speaker 2: more than anything else is wisdom.
Speaker 3: Wisdom, make me wise.
Speaker 2: God said, Solomon, that's not only great wisdom, it's the
Speaker 2: greatest one and because you asked the right thing, I'm
Speaker 2: gonna give you everything else. I'm gonna give you power
Speaker 2: and I'm gonna give you wealth as well as wisdom.
Speaker 2: So Solomon became the wisest man who ever lived and
Speaker 2: he also became the wealthiest man. And as a result,
Speaker 2: he wrote two books and a lot of it has
Speaker 2: to do with money management, the book of Ecclesiastes and
Speaker 2: the book of Proverbs. Now in this series, week one,
Speaker 2: we started looking at these laws. And first we looked
Speaker 2: at Jesus' laws of wise money management. Seven Laws of
Speaker 2: Wise Money Management. And if you missed that, you're going
Speaker 2: to want to go back and listen to that series,
Speaker 2: our message online. Then last week, we looked at the
Speaker 2: law of contentment. And we talked about the five reasons
Speaker 2: why we need to learn to be content and the
Speaker 2: four ways to enjoy more on less. Now this week,
Speaker 2: we're going to look at a third foundational law of
Speaker 2: money management. And it is called the law or the
Speaker 2: laws of sowing and reaping. The laws of sowing and reaping.
Speaker 2: If you'll look at your outlines, the first verse on
Speaker 2: the outline is Proverbs chapter 11, verse 18. And in
Speaker 2: that verse, we have one example of the law of
Speaker 2: sowing and reaping. It says there, the wicked man earns
Speaker 2: deceptive wages. In other words, he earns them dishonestly. But
Speaker 2: he who sows righteousness will be certain to reap a reward.
Speaker 2: Now circle the word sow and the word reap. What's
Speaker 2: he talking about here? This obviously is a verse about money.
Speaker 2: He's talking about wages here. He's talking about your income.
Speaker 2: And he says there's a dishonest way to make money
Speaker 2: and there's an honest way to make money.
Speaker 3: And he says if.
Speaker 2: You sow honestly, you're gonna reap a reward. Now what
Speaker 2: is he talking about, sowing and reaping? Well for thousands
Speaker 2: of years, the only way people did farming was what
Speaker 2: was called sowing. They didn't take a single seed and
Speaker 2: put it in the ground dig a hole and cover
Speaker 2: it up, put a seed in the ground, dig a
Speaker 2: hole and cover it up.
Speaker 3: Nobody did that. And they certainly didn't have machines.
Speaker 2: That could poke holes and automatically seed a field like
Speaker 2: they do today. And for thousands of years, people would
Speaker 2: wear a little knapsack filled with grain or corn or
Speaker 2: seed or whatever, And as the farmer would walk through
Speaker 2: the field, he would sow, which means he'd grab a
Speaker 2: handful of the seed and he'd throw it like this.
Speaker 2: And this is called broadcasting. It's where we get the
Speaker 2: term for television. Broadcasting means you're broadly casting it over
Speaker 2: a large area as opposed to narrow casting.
Speaker 3: Which is a very specific target.
Speaker 2: Broadcasting, you throw seed over an area and some of
Speaker 2: that seed grows. The birds eat and some of it
Speaker 2: lands on rock and some of it, you know, actually
Speaker 2: gets planted and it begins to grow. And the principle
Speaker 2: is whatever you sow, you will reap in life. Now,
Speaker 2: I want us to understand that this principle applies not
Speaker 2: just in your money.
Speaker 3: What we're going to look at today, these.
Speaker 2: Nine laws will apply in your relationships, in your time,
Speaker 2: in your words, in your talents. in the way you
Speaker 2: use your energy and every other area. But let's get
Speaker 2: right into it. Here are the nine laws of sowing
Speaker 2: and reaping from the word of God. Number one, everything
Speaker 2: starts as a seed. Everything in life starts as a seed.
Speaker 2: Every idea is a seed, every dream is a seed,
Speaker 2: every achievement is a seed, every building that's built, firstly
Speaker 2: was a seed thought, it was a seed idea.
Speaker 3: Your life began as a seed.
Speaker 2: Everything starts as a seed in this planet. And God
Speaker 2: created the world around what he calls the seed principle.
Speaker 3: In the very first.
Speaker 2: Chapter of the Bible, God calls this to our attention.
Speaker 2: Genesis chapter one, verse 11, God said,' Let the land
Speaker 2: have seed-bearing plants' and let the trees that bear fruit
Speaker 2: with seed in it' according to their varieties.' Now everybody's
Speaker 2: heard the old cliche that anybody can count the seeds
Speaker 2: in an apple. But only God knows the number of
Speaker 2: apples in a seed. Because the seed has exponential potential.
Speaker 2: You could take one seed, plant it in the ground,
Speaker 2: that seed grows into a giant tree, which produces fruit,
Speaker 2: which has other seeds, which create more trees and more trees,
Speaker 2: and over thousands of years, you could have an entire
Speaker 2: forest of hundreds of thousands of acres from one single seed.
Speaker 2: And the Bible says in the book of Zephaniah, do
Speaker 2: not despise the day of small things because everything.
Speaker 3: Starts small, it starts as a seed.
Speaker 2: I grew up in Northern California in the redwood country.
Speaker 2: The redwoods are the largest living things on the planet.
Speaker 2: Nothing is bigger than the Northern California redwoods, not the
Speaker 2: quails or anything else. And in fact, the largest living
Speaker 2: thing on the planet is in Humboldt County. It is
Speaker 2: a redwood tree that is 380 feet tall.
Speaker 3: You can imagine that.
Speaker 2: I grew up in a little town called Redwood Valley,
Speaker 2: about 500 people. I have seen redwood trees where the
Speaker 2: trunk was bigger than this half of the stage. And
Speaker 2: when you would cut it off, you could turn it
Speaker 2: into a dance floor. I have seen redwood trees where
Speaker 2: they actually wanted to build a road and they would
Speaker 2: carve out the road through the middle of the redwood
Speaker 2: and you could drive through the redwood tree and the
Speaker 2: tree is still growing hundreds of feet on.
Speaker 3: Top of it.
Speaker 2: They are enormous, enormous trees. And yet if you've ever
Speaker 2: seen a redwood tree seed, they're dinky. It's like a
Speaker 2: little speck of sand. or pepper, and you would look
Speaker 2: at this little redwood seed and you'd go, how in
Speaker 2: the world could something so big come from something so small,
Speaker 2: so tiny? Well, that is the exponential potential in every seed.
Speaker 2: Everything starts with a seed idea, a seed thought, a
Speaker 2: seed dream.
Speaker 3: When I started.
Speaker 2: Saddleback with Kay, one of the verses that I held
Speaker 2: onto is this verse, it's on the screen, Job 8,
Speaker 2: verse seven says this, though what you start will seem significant,
Speaker 2: small and insignificant. You'll end up in the future with much.
Speaker 2: And that's what happens. Everything starts as a seed. Law
Speaker 2: number two is this. Nothing happens until the seed's planted.
Speaker 2: Nothing happens in your life until the seed is planted.
Speaker 2: You know, a couple years ago, I bought some pumpkin
Speaker 2: seeds because I like to grow vegetables. And it's just
Speaker 2: one of the ways I relax and I like to
Speaker 2: garden and grow vegetables. fresh things and I like to
Speaker 2: watch stuff grow. So I got some pumpkin seeds.
Speaker 3: You know what?
Speaker 2: Those pumpkins never produced. And I couldn't figure out why
Speaker 2: until last week I was going through the garage and
Speaker 2: on a shelf I found those pumpkin seeds. Well, of
Speaker 2: course they didn't produce because I never planted them. A
Speaker 2: seed that's in a box on a shelf is worthless.
Speaker 2: Seeds are meant to be planted. Now imagine a farmer
Speaker 2: going out and spending his life savings to buy a
Speaker 2: bunch of seed, and he's got it in his barn,
Speaker 2: and as he gets ready to start springtime, he's looking
Speaker 2: out on a barren field, and he bought all this seed,
Speaker 2: and all of a sudden he goes, I don't know
Speaker 2: if I should plant this or not. Because all my
Speaker 2: life savings is tied.
Speaker 3: Up in that seed.
Speaker 2: And if I plant it, I might lose it. And
Speaker 2: if I lose it, I've lost my life savings. I
Speaker 2: don't think I want to plant it. I'm gonna play
Speaker 2: it safe. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I'm not gonna plant
Speaker 2: my seed. I'm simply going to hold on to it.
Speaker 2: We would call that farmer a fool. because seed is
Speaker 2: worthless unless it's planted. You gotta put it in the ground.
Speaker 2: You know, it's like the old things on the Coke cans,
Speaker 2: no deposit, no return. You gotta make a deposit with it. Now,
Speaker 2: here's a farmer, and he's like some of you who
Speaker 2: are out of work. Or your finances are barren. And
Speaker 2: he's got a barren field. And he looks at this
Speaker 2: field and there's no crop, there's no produce, there's no income.
Speaker 2: He's got a field that's producing no income in his life.
Speaker 3: Now, what does the.
Speaker 2: Farmer do when he's got a barren field and it's
Speaker 2: producing no income? Well, he doesn't complain about it. Oh,
Speaker 2: I can't believe the terrible environment we're in right now.
Speaker 2: I've got a barren field. He doesn't worry about it.
Speaker 2: He doesn't gripe about it. Oh, the economy is so bad.
Speaker 3: It's terrible. I'm not making any money. He doesn't even
Speaker 3: pray about it. He just goes out and starts planting
Speaker 3: some seed.
Speaker 2: Because nothing's going to happen until he plants a seed.
Speaker 2: He can pray all he wants, and it's not going.
Speaker 3: To produce fruit.
Speaker 2: All the prayer in the world is not going to
Speaker 2: produce fruit.
Speaker 3: He's got to plant. He's got to plant some seed.
Speaker 2: Now some of you think you're waiting on God. You
Speaker 2: think you're waiting on God for that job. You think
Speaker 2: you're waiting on God for a husband. You think you're
Speaker 2: waiting on God for the big deal. You think you're
Speaker 2: waiting on God for the windfall, for the income to
Speaker 2: come in that's there. And God said, you think you're
Speaker 2: waiting on me?
Speaker 3: What? I'm waiting on you.
Speaker 2: I'm waiting for you to plant some seed. It isn't
Speaker 2: going to happen until you plant some seed. Everything in
Speaker 2: life starts as a seed. A relationship, a marriage, a business,
Speaker 2: a church, everything starts as a seed. And nothing happens
Speaker 2: until the seed is planted. Now why is God doing this?
Speaker 2: Because planting is an act of faith. I take what
Speaker 2: I've got and I give it away. And I put
Speaker 2: it in the ground and I bury it. And that
Speaker 2: takes an act of faith because it takes what I've
Speaker 2: got and I let go of it. And God says
Speaker 2: that planting is an act of faith and that brings
Speaker 2: glory to God. Now Jesus explained this principle when he
Speaker 2: was trying to explain why he came to earth to
Speaker 2: die on the cross. He used the principle of sowing
Speaker 2: and reaping. Look at this next verse. In John 12, 24,
Speaker 2: Jesus said, unless a grain of wheat is buried in
Speaker 2: the ground, It cannot reproduce.
Speaker 3: As long as it's stocked in the barn, it's worthless.
Speaker 2: Unless a grain of wheat is buried in the ground,
Speaker 2: he's talking about his own death, it cannot reproduce. But
Speaker 2: if it dies, it will produce much fruit. Millions of
Speaker 2: people will be saved and get to go to heaven
Speaker 2: because of my death and my burial. He said, I'm
Speaker 2: going to plant a seed and the seed is going
Speaker 2: to be my life. Now, here's a principle. I want
Speaker 2: you to write this down. Whenever I have a need,
Speaker 2: I plant a seed. Whenever I have a need, I
Speaker 2: plant a seed.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you need.
Speaker 2: More time, more energy, more money, more support, more relationships,
Speaker 2: more wisdom.
Speaker 3: I don't know what you want.
Speaker 2: But whatever you need more of, you plant a seed.
Speaker 2: This is the principle of sowing and reaping. When I
Speaker 2: have a need, I don't gripe about it. I don't
Speaker 2: complain about it. I don't wish about it. I don't
Speaker 2: even have to pray about it.
Speaker 3: I just plant a seed.
Speaker 1: What a fantastic message from Pastor Rick. You know, Daily
Speaker 1: Hope is changing lives every day. Here's Pastor Rick with
Speaker 1: a letter from one of our listeners.
Speaker 2: You know, friends, it always encourages me to hear how
Speaker 2: God is using Daily Hope to help you. And so
Speaker 2: thanks for your letters. And I want to read one
Speaker 2: to you today from a woman named Judith. She said,
Speaker 2: Dear Pastor Rick, After college, I met and married a
Speaker 2: man that God did not intend for me, but I
Speaker 2: became pregnant with triplets, and the marriage was tumultuous, and
Speaker 2: I endured more pain and more loneliness and more sadness
Speaker 2: than I could have ever imagined. But God still showed
Speaker 2: me his grace and love, and he sustained and he
Speaker 2: comforted me. But as I was left to work and
Speaker 2: care for three babies, I clung on to God, and
Speaker 2: I listened to your daily podcast every day, And sometimes
Speaker 2: it was as if God was speaking directly to me.
Speaker 2: I read your Daily Hope devotionals and I read the
Speaker 2: Bible and I prayed and it was tough, but I
Speaker 2: survived and I'm still surviving because of God. You know,
Speaker 2: after your series on tithing, I felt convicted and started tithing,
Speaker 2: even though mathematically it was literally impossible for me to tithe.
Speaker 2: But I trusted God with what I had and God
Speaker 2: has covered the tithing and blessed me with even more.
Speaker 2: And I'm now starting your series on prayer. And I
Speaker 2: can't wait to grow closer to God and walk in
Speaker 2: his purposes for my life instead of my own purposes.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Pastor Rick, for doing God's work. Well, Judith,
Speaker 2: I want to thank you. Thank you that you wrapped
Speaker 2: your arms tightly around God during such an incredibly hard
Speaker 2: season in your life.
Speaker 3: You've been through some really.
Speaker 2: Challenging times, and I'm blessed to see that Daily Hope
Speaker 2: has played a part in deepening your trust in God.
Speaker 2: You're seeing God's faithfulness, and you're seeing his provision, and
Speaker 2: that's increasing your trust.
Speaker 3: And that makes me smile. God bless you, Judith.
Speaker 1: You know, Pastor Rick would love to hear how this
Speaker 1: broadcast has blessed you. So please send him an email
Speaker 1: at rick at pastorrick.com. That's rick at pastorrick.com. It's a
Speaker 1: simple way to encourage and bless Pastor Rick and the
Speaker 1: whole Daily Hope team. We hope you'll join us next
Speaker 1: time as we look into God's word for our daily hope.
Speaker 1: This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily Hope and
Speaker 1: your generous financial support.
Speaker 2: Thank you.