Whether we are People of Faith or not, we all know that there are laws of nature that cannot be denied. There is the law of gravity: what goes up must come down. There is the law of motion: for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There is the law of conception: male and female of the same species will create another of the same species. Human beings do not procreate baby lizards, rabbits, or monkeys; they procreate baby human beings. And yet another law of nature is one day we are born and one day we will die. It’s inevitable. No one lives forever.

The one law of nature that I want to talk about today is the law of sowing and reaping. Any farmer knows and believes that law: if he plants a seed one day, he reaps a crop months later. If he plants a lot of seeds, he reaps a harvest.

This principal applies to everything in life. When we sow time into learning, we will reap a better education, which in turn reaps a better paying job. When we sow time and effort into our jobs, we reap raises and advancement. And in the same aspect if you want a better job, you need to sow into your education. If you want a nicer harvest, you need to sow a few more seeds. If you want to have better grass in your front yard, buy better grass seed to plant.

You don’t have to believe in God to believe in the law of sowing and reaping.

But if you believe in God then we can apply these principals to the Kingdom.

If we want our children to walk in the ways of the Lord, we need to sow into their Biblical education with Sunday Schools and Youth Groups. If we want our church to grow, we need to sow into the membership by bringing visitors. If we want a nicer church, we need to sow into the finances during the offerings. If we want to reach lost souls, we need to sow into our churches and ministries that specialize in evangelism and outreach.

The Bible confirms this in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (NIV):
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

This principal works for tithing too. Malachi 3:10 (NIV) says, “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.”

“Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty. He’s not afraid of being tested there, because He knows the law of sowing and reaping. If you sow into the storehouse, you will reap a blessing so much that you will not have room enough to contain it.

Now the even better part of sowing and reaping is that God even supplies us the stuff to sow! He wants us to reap a harvest so great that we are willing and able to share it with whomever we can.

2 Corinthians 9:10-11 (NIV)
“Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

If more of God’s people followed these principals of tithing and sowing, we would not have pastors that have to work part-time secular jobs or ministries that are struggling, because there would be plenty of finances to support them.

2 Corinthians 9:12-15 (NIV)
“This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!”

The biggest problem with this theory is that we become so focused on our own problems that we can’t see past them. Sometimes we don’t give anything at all; sometimes we give with motives to receive. Remember the Scripture in 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 says “whoever sows sparingly reaps sparingly and whoever sows generously reaps generously,” not whoever reaps will sow, but who sows will reap. We don’t sow because we will reap. We just need to sow, then we will reap. But we need to sow with the right mind, with our heart. God wants us to be cheerful givers, not begrudging the receiver.

Galatians 6:8-10 (NIV)
“The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

This principal isn’t just for God’s people individually but corporately. Churches and ministries themselves should tithe and sow as well. When The Well Ministries was started the first thing we decided was that our organization would tithe 10% of our offerings to be given to other local churches, non-profit organizations and activities. And we have reaped blessings because of it.

I am a giver. It’s one of my gifts from the Lord. My husband Lou would tell you that I’d “give away the farm” if I could. I was always taught to give till it hurts, then give more.

I love giving door prizes at our concerts and events. I love making and giving little favors at the banquets. I love rewarding our volunteers with little token gifts.

When The Well Publication began it was given free of charge. In the past 8 years we’ve given over 125,000 copies away that actually amounted to over $50,000 worth of printing. (Talk about giving till it hurts.)

I didn’t give all that because I knew we would reap a financial blessing. I gave because God said to.

Now, I can’t tell you how many times we have been prophesied over that “the windows of heaven are going to open so much that we won’t be able to contain the blessing.” Many times we thought that would come as a financial blessing to our ministry – and even more, now that we are going to venture out into full-time ministry. But God’s ideas of blessings are not always the same as ours. We have received those blessings from Him but not always in ways we can count.

Galatians 6:9-10 speaks to me but I’ll restate it from The Message: “So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.”

Therefore, we press on.

Last August someone donated a car to our ministry. Through doing some research with the IRS, we found that to accept the donation and give the donor a better tax deduction, we would either need to use the car for a period of time or fix it up and donate it to someone else. At the time, Lou and I were doing a lot of traveling for another church plant, helping them get started with their worship. So we accepted the car knowing we could use it for about six months. One month after we received the donation the car needed inspected. I shudder to say that it didn’t pass, and actually cost us nearly $700 to get it inspected. That with the $350 it cost us to insure the car for 6 months meant we had invested about a thousand dollars into something that was supposed to be a blessing to the ministry. And it would need more work before the next inspection.

Needless to say that after our six months we had committed to using the car were up, and Lou and I did not need to travel to the other church anymore, we decided to get rid of it, before it cost us any more. Because the insurance was about to expire, and we didn’t want to invest anymore into it, our board voted to give it away, trying to find a nice couple that really needed a car.

Knowing that in six months it would need some more work done to it, we didn’t want to just give it to anyone. Our son Lance knew of a young couple in his church that really needed a car and even if just for six months, it would help them out. The young woman was pregnant and traveling to and from work and doctor appointments on the bus; the young man recently unemployed.

We were honest with them about the work that would need done and that they might only get six months out of the car. Well as it turned out they have family that fix cars and could do the work it needed cheaply. It definitely was a blessing for them.

A month later, we discovered the blessing even more.

Another local music group had retired last year and had a tour bus they wanted to sell. A year ago the price started at $20,000, but over the year the offers kept dropping. Now the price was down to $8,000, and it wouldn’t go any lower because if they didn’t sell it for that amount, they were going to take it to the auction to sell.

Lou and I prayed about the bus because we had been wanting to get some type of motorhome for the ministry to do some traveling in. This bus was a lot bigger than we were thinking, but the price was so right. We didn’t think we’d find another deal like it. We thought about borrowing the money, but this ministry has never yet purchased anything it didn’t pay cash for, and I really didn’t want to start. I felt that, if God wanted us to have it, He would provide a way.

Well, when some anonymous benefactor stepped up and donated $8000 to pay for the bus, I was quite shocked. I never really expected God to do it, even though I had prayed for it. And I certainly never expected it to come from one person. The sad part is that this is the way many Christians pray – to receive something but not really expecting God to give it to us. I’m just as guilty. We probably all need to pray with a little more faith to receive that which we’re praying for.

A few complications emerged with the bus because it wasn’t inspected. Someone told us that it would need quite a bit of work to pass, and we had no more money to put into it. We debated whether we should continue with the deal.

Our son, Steven, was a little discouraged thinking that we had come so far only to be disappointed. I tried to teach him that we had to pray through this roadblock. And that is all it was – a roadblock. I knew God hadn’t brought us this far to quit already. It was a learning experience for us to pray through.

Lance said to me one day during the roadblock, “Mom, I just realized something. You guys sowed a car and God is going to give you a bus!” We had never planned to sow the car to receive anything. But God’s promise is fulfilled. Give and you will receive! And boy did we receive.

Well, the story of the bus continues that the other group offered to get it inspected; we offered to pay for the tires it needed to pass. The guy worked to get us a good deal on the tires. It was only $750 for 4 brand new bus tires, which was about half of what they normally sell for.

About a month later we signed the papers to receive God’s blessing – a tour bus!

We prayed through the roadblock and the blessing was delivered.

Are you in the middle of a roadblock?

I think one of the biggest roadblocks we face is “if only.” “If only the bus had been inspected,” “if only it didn’t need tires,” “if only we weren’t trying to raise money to pay for our church carpeting,” “if only we didn’t have too many bills to pay already,” “if only we weren’t trying to buy a new van,” “if only we weren’t trying to fix our roof,” “if only more people believed in the law of sowing and reaping!” “if only more people would dare to test God in it!”

What better way to raise money for your carpeting than to sow a seed into someone else’s carpeting needs. Raise money for your van by sowing a seed into someone else’s vehicle. Raise money for your roof by sowing a seed into repairs of another’s home or office. We sowed a seed of a car and received a blessing of a bus.

“But we already tithe to our denomination” or “we tithe to other organizations.”

The tithe is required of us. It’s when we go above and beyond the tithe and make offerings that the blessing really comes.

Our blessing hasn’t stopped yet. A wonderful friend is sowing his woodworking skills into doing the remodeling inside to give us living quarters. Port Vue United Methodist Church is sowing the use of their church for our fundraiser concert/Spaghetti Dinner. Gary is sowing his talents into driving the bus.

You see, you don’t have to sow money to reap a harvest. There are plenty of things you can sow. You can sow your time and your talents. And everyone has both of them to spare.

If you are looking for a great opportunity to sow we do have some needs.

• We must extend our driveway back 20 feet to park the bus in compliance with the city ordinance. Anyone want to sow some labor in construction/cement work?
• We need items for the inside of the bus including sheets, mattresses, pillows, blankets, towels, curtains and more. Anyone want to sow some sewing?
• We need plumbing work done in the bus to put in the toilet and shower. Are there any plumbers out there that want to sow?
• We’re having a Benefit Concert and Spaghetti Dinner on April 14, 2007. Maybe your church or Sunday School Class would take a special offering to sow into our bus ministry.

Sow a seed today and help us travel the miles, reach lost souls, and give a drink of Living Water to a dry and thirsty world.

If you want to help with our bus ministry, you can make a financial contribution to The Well Ministries. Mark your donation “bus fund.” If you would rather purchase something we need for the living quarters we have created a “wishlist” with Target to make shopping a little easier and to avoid getting too many items. You can go to www.target.com or any Target store to see “The Well Ministries” wishlist.

Please visit the bus webpage for pictures and more information about the remodeling:
www.thewellministries.org/bus/