A WORD TO THE WISE: Proverbs 27: 18 "There's More to Reaping Than Sowing"

Proverbs 27: 18     Whoever keeps the fig tree will eat its fruit;
so he who waits on his master will be honored.

Proverbs 27: 18. In the church we talk much about sowing and reaping. That’s good.  However, we talk far less about tending and laboring, and that’s tragic.

Until my older sister and I moved out, we were the full-time labor force of the Graves family farm.  Daddy drove the tractor and I walked behind it dropping seeds and plants (sowing).  I added fertilizer to the soil to encourage growth.  In the months that followed planting season, my sister and I watered and weeded the young plants---- all so that we could come back in to the field and pick the fruits and vegetables of our labors. 

After Janifer and I moved out, while Daddy was still in good health he kept planting the same fields, but he never reaped the kind of harvest we had in the past.  He still had the same knowledge of agriculture.  The seeds and seedlings he used were good, in fact better every year.  The ground of Bassfield, Mississippi was as fertile as ever, but the increase at his harvests was less and less every year.

The problem was that he no longer had laborers to tend his fields.  He hired some part-time help from time to time, but that wasn’t the same; and Daddy was not inclined to shift from “supervisor” to daily, full-time field laborer.  Sometimes, whole crops were lost to the weeds.  Over time, the woods reclaimed most of the family farmland.

Good seed.  Good ground.  Good intentions.  But, without tending and laboring--- no harvest.

In Mark 4 & Matthew 13, Jesus told the parable(s) of the sower.  Jesus said that this story was foundational for understanding all of His metaphors (Mark 4: 13).    

But there’s a major point in this key parable that we often overlook: The Parable of the Sower teaches that: Sowing doesn’t necessarily lead to increase. 

Sometimes  seed sown from a noble heart with the best of intentions never even begins to produce profit (Mark 4: 4). Sometimes (Mark 4: 5,6) the seed begins to grow with great promise, but ultimately comes to nothing. 

Even when the conditions are good and the seed you’ve sown grows and blossoms, the promise of fruit is still in jeopardy because the enemy is active in all seasons (Matthew 13: 19, 24, 25), and he wants to sabotage the harvest.

So, a sower must also be a laborer.

If you expect increase from your sowing then you can’t walk away from the seed and expect the harvest to just happen for you.  You have to do what Adam was commanded to do in Genesis 2: 15, 16.  You have to tend and keep the garden.

(And by the way, the act of reaping is itself an act of labor.  Reaping/ harvesting is hard, dirty work.  We’ve gotten “reaping” confused with “receiving.”  So when modern Christians says, “I’ll reap what I sow,” too often in their heads they mean, “God will hand me stuff because I was a blessing to somebody one day way back.” 

Nah, dude.  Reaping means you go out there in the dirt and sweat with everybody else.  Otherwise, your fruit/ your increase stays on the vine and either nobody or somebody else takes your profit.)

Even if the seed you sowed into a ministry by your praise, or by your encouragement, or by your financial donation does not bear as much as you expected you can still walk in the promise of increase, because you are God’s servant, and  “the laborer is worthy of his wages” (Luke 10: 7; 1 Timothy 5: 18). 

But writing that check to that ministry does not guarantee that you will reap increase.  You’ve sown into the Kingdom, but if you don’t also labor in the Kingdom vineyard then there’s a good chance that nothing will come of your sowing.

Christians must shift from being supervisors-only to being laborers as well, from being spectators to being participants.  We’ve become a bunch of spiritual spectators or cheerleaders.  Cheering is a great activity.  My daughter’s a cheerleader and she is good at it.  But, as much as I enjoy the athletics of cheering; cheerleaders don’t win games. 

Shout and praise.  By all means shout and praise.  Encourage and rejoice.  That’s right.  That’s good. That’s necessary and commanded.  But a Sunday morning shout doesn’t feed the hungry on your church’s block.

Give.  Pay tithes.  Give offerings.  Make donations.  But even if some of your money goes to places where you don’t live, your time, talents, and tending need to go to a local ministry.

Once the seed is sown, even in the best of soil, there’ll be no fruit for harvest unless you and I work the fields.

Why hasn’t the seed you sowed into the ministry of such-and-such yielded the “increase” that was prophesied?  It doesn’t necessarily mean that the Word wasn’t legit.  It may be that weeds sprang up or were planted by the enemy around your  blessing.  When’d you last get out and pull weeds in God’s garden? 

Only God can give the increase, but make no mistake: increase is conditional upon labor over what has been sown.

1 Corinthians 3: 6     I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. 7     So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. 8     Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
9     For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, you are God’s building.

Proverbs 27: 18. Whoever will tend and keep that which has been planted will reap what he/she sows.   Labor as your Master commanded and your wages are assured.

But do nothing, and you sow in vain.
 ----- Anderson T. Graves II

Rev. Anderson T. Graves II is the pastor of Hall Memorial CME Church

Call/ fax: 334-288-0577
Email us at hallmemorialcme1@aol.com
Friend Pastor Graves at www.facebook.com/rev.a.t.graves

If you want to be a blessing to this ministry, contributions may be made by check or money order.

Mail all contributions to :

Hall Memorial CME Church
541 Seibles Rd.,
Montgomery, AL 36116