Harvest Laws for Holy Living - 13 - The Law of the Past (Part 3)

The past couple of messages have targeted the seventh law of the harvest...the Law of the Past, which declares that you, I can’t do anything about last year’s harvest... it’s in the past...but we can do something about this year’s harvest.

Let me remind you that we cannot go on to spiritual maturity, as we’re exhorted to do in Heb. 6:1, if we’re going to dwell on or be defeated by our past. We can’t change it, so we must go forward in our Christian life.

We considered together the fact that "we need to understand this law." Today, I want us to focus on one final consideration:

B. We need to use this law-

If you or I are either unable or unwilling to apply God’s Word to our lives in a practical way, are we any better than the immature Hebrews we read about in Heb. 5, 6?

Every child of God here today has failed at one time or another to apply Scripture, but that’s also in the past. By God’s grace, we can begin right now to so live, that we guarantee that we’ll produce a full, fruitful harvest that will glorify our great God!

It matters not where we are at this moment spiritually...it matters not about those wasted times in the past...it matters not what horrible seed we’ve sown and reaped before. We can begin now to go on to maturity. Enough of this looking through the rear view mirror of life. We must look forward through our spiritual windshields and press on.

That requires a consistent integration, injection, infusion of Biblical truth into our daily lives so that it becomes personal, practical. This involves three factors, which we can illustrate from I John 3:16-18. Note the progression in this passage.

Scripture will impact us beyond the knowledge level only if we find out what it means, find out what it demands of us, then going out and doing it. Too many of us stop after the first stage. A few more make it to the second stage and are content, but they’re usually spiritually immature nonetheless.

How can the seventh law, the Law of the Past, be a living reality in my life, your life? Remember the illustration I used in a recent message about the two days which we should never worry about? Yesterday and tomorrow. That leaves only today.

Look, by the grace of God, we can live victoriously today. What often breaks our resolve to do that is yesterday’s defeats, or tomorrow’s decisions. Solution? Concentrate on today.

Suppose your bank was structured in such a way that every day, it credited to your account, for your own personal use, $86,400. You could spent any or all of it, but at the end of the day, any unused balance was lost to you. But the next day, you’d start off with a fresh balance of $86, 400.

Well, in reality, God does something very similar for us each day...every day. He credits our spiritual bank account with 86,400 seconds of time. We either use it for God’s glory or we waste it, lose it. And once it’s gone, it’s gone...we can’t relive those seconds.

Each day, God gives us a new day full of wonderful opportunities. As each second ticks off, the record stands. cf. Eph. 5:14-16.

It is absolutely essential that we learn to use God’s gift of time for His glory instead of frittering it away on selfish or useless endeavors that have no eternal value or that weaken our Christian testimony, spiritual fervor! Phil. 1:10 is helpful here.

Let me remind you that the Christian life is a call to a life of self-discipline, self-control. cf. I Cor. 9:24-27.

Self-discipline in the tests, trials of life are what today is all about, and it’s those things that make us stronger for tomorrow. When God is pleased to put hardships in our pathway, let’s make certain that the real danger is what we’ll lose should we flinch or rebel.

Certainly it is true that self-discipline is often learned from God’s discipline, for if we would be used by God, we must first be trained by God, as was Moses, David, Paul, for example. You see,

For every hill I've had to climb, For every stone that bruised my feet, For all the blood and sweat and grime, For blinding storms and burning heat My heart sings but a grateful song -- These were the things that made me strong!

For all the heartaches and the tears, For all the anguish and the pain, For gloomy days and fruitless years, And for the hopes that lived in vain, I do give thanks, for now I know These were the things that helped me grow!

'Tis not the softer things of life Which stimulate man's will to strive; But bleak adversity and strife Do most to keep man's will alive, O'er rose-strewn paths the weaklings creep, But brave hearts dare to climb the steep.

-- Author unknown

God desires to build Christ-like character into us today. He doesn’t use the foundation of our past fail- ures to do so. Instead, He sends specially designed, unique circumstances our way--not to defeat or discourage us, but to constantly remind us of our need to depend on Him alone.

Are you striving to be what God wants you to be today? Are you building a life for His glory today?

Discipline produces the kind of godly character that in turn produces godly harvests. But discipline is also the major key to forgetting the past and forging on in the pursuit of God’s will. There’s not an area in our lives that should fall outside the perameters of God’s discipline.

Self-discipline takes time, motivation, cultivation. The minute we stop being disciplined, we start deteriorating.

And so I say, LET US GO ON, as we press toward the mark of conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we go, we’ll grow, glow for the Lord. The result will be that God’s Harvest Laws for Holy Living will become more practical, precious to you. May all seven of them assist us in living lives that count for our wonderful Lord and Savior. Amen!

HARVEST LAWS FOR HOLY LIVING

  1. The Law of Planting--We reap only what we have sown (Gal. 6:7,8).
  2. The Law of Parity--We reap the same in kind as that which we have sown (Gen. 1:12, 13; Job 4:8).
  3. The Law of Postponement--We reap in a different season than when we planted, but the harvest comes anyway (Gen. 8:22).
  4. The Law of Productivity--We always reap more than we sow (Prov. 22:8; Hosea 8:7).
  5. The Law of Proportion--We always reap in proportion to what we've sown. If we sow sparingly, we reap sparingly; if we sow abundantly, we reap abundantly (II Cor. 8,9).
  6. The Law of Persevering--We'll reap a full and fruitful harvest of the good we've sown as we persevere, but the evil part of the harvest comes on its own (Gal. 6:9).
  7. The Law of the Past--We can't do anything about last year's harvest-it's in the past. But we can do something about this year's harvest by sowing only that which will reap spiritually profitable benefits (Heb. 6:7,8).