Harvest Week 1: The Harvest You Didn’t Plant
Principles of the Harvest:
You reap what you sow.
You reap more than you sow.
You reap later than you sow.
“For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.” - Romans 14:7
Three Harvests of this Series:
The harvest you didn't plant.
The harvest you didn't want.
The harvest you'll never see.
Why are we so attracted to the self-made label:
It Flatters Us
It Justifies Us
The trappings of the self-made story: The self-made story tells your story, it just doesn't tell the whole story.
The problem with the self-made story isn't that it honors the individual. It's that it leaves out everyone else: the people before us, the people around us, and most of all, God.
"Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'" — Deuteronomy 8:17
"My power made me" = Self Made
"And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant…" — Deuteronomy 6:10–11
"You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day." — Deuteronomy 8:18
In verse 17, it's "My power made me this wealth."
In verse 18, it's "He gives you power to make wealth."
God doesn't deny your effort. He corrects your source.
Rather than a self-made view of our life, God wants us to have a grace-made view of our life.
A self-made view of our life inevitably leads to pride, and the fruit of pride is death.
A grace-made view of our life leads to worship, and the fruit of worship is life.
What Grace-Made Is Not
Grace-made doesn’t mean lucky.
Luck has no giver. Luck can make you humble, but it can't make you grateful.
What Grace-Made Is Not
Grace-made doesn’t mean lucky.
grace-made doesn't mean passive.
"But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me." — 1 Corinthians 15:10
What Grace-Made Is Not
Grace-made doesn’t mean lucky.
grace-made doesn't mean passive.
grace-made doesn't mean collectivism.
"What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?" — 1 Corinthians 4:7
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." — Ephesians 2:8–9
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…" - Ephesians 2:10a
Four Benefits of a Grace-made View of Your Life
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grateful (not entitled)
"…and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery." — Deuteronomy 6:11–12
Takeaway Principle: Hungry people pray. Full people forget.
"And you shall eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you." — Deuteronomy 8:10
Birkat Hamazon – A Jewish blessing after the meal
"…when they had grazed, they became full, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up; therefore they forgot me." — Hosea 13:6
"Shirtsleeves to shirtsleeves in three generations." - Early American Proverb
"When your son asks you in time to come… then you shall say to your son, 'We were Pharaoh's slaves in Egypt. And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand.'" — Deuteronomy 6:20–21
Four Benefits of a Grace-made View of Your Life
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grateful (not entitled)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Gracious (not judgmental)
"Do not say in your heart… 'It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to possess this land'… Know, therefore, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stubborn people." — Deuteronomy 9:4–6
A grace-made view makes us charitable toward others with more and less. It recognizes that God blesses people differently, in different seasons, for His own reasons.
Four Benefits of a Grace-made View of Your Life
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grateful (not entitled)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Gracious (not judgmental)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grounded (not anxious)
"If you say in your heart, 'These nations are greater than I. How can I dispossess them?' you shall not be afraid of them but you shall remember what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt." — Deuteronomy 7:17–18
"And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna… that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD." — Deuteronomy 8:3
He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper. - Deuteronomy 8:16
"It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" — Matthew 4:4
Four Benefits of a Grace-made View of Your Life
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grateful (not entitled)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Gracious (not judgmental)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Grounded (not anxious)
A Grace-Made View of Your Life makes you Generous (not tight-fisted)
"You shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth, that He may confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers, as it is this day." — Deuteronomy 8:18
"…you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother, but you shall open your hand to him…" — Deuteronomy 15:7–8
"Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." — 2 Corinthians 9:7
"I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant." — Joshua 24:13
"Now therefore fear the LORD and serve him in sincerity and in faithfulness… choose this day whom you will serve… But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." — Joshua 24:14–15