Welcome to Newport Congregational Church


















What is Sowing and Reaping (Seedtime and Harvest)?
Sowing and Reaping (Seedtime and harvest) is a law put in place by God. God promises (through this spiritual law) that when you plant a seed and operate in the way God instructs, you will reap a significant harvest.
“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
Genesis 8:22 ESV
So you can be sure as long as the earth revolves and exist, then seedtime and harvest will always apply.
God is making a guarantee that as long as you sow (well) any type of seed you will eventually reap the harvest. So if you sow corn seeds you will reap corn. Sow friendliness, you’ll make friends. Sow money, you’ll receive money. Sow love and you’ll be loved.
How important is giving in the Bible?
Giving is extremely important according to the bible.
I believe, God sees giving as a way to demonstrate your heart posture. What and how you give lets God know what your attitude towards helping is like.
Giving away the resources you have to others is a form of worship. What you are saying is: “Thank you God for this salary I get every month (however big or small it may be). And as gratitude towards you I want to give it back to you by building your kingdom.”
You build up God’s kingdom when you sow into ministries, churches, charities, organisations or individuals who need the resources you have been blessed with.
When you let go (i.e give away) the blessings in your hand you make room for the increase God promises to give to you as an exchange.
Holding onto your money for example demonstrates:
• fear of lack
• greed
• selfishness
• and a lack of trust in God to provide for you.
This sort of attitude cannot open up the way for blessings to flow in your life.
Here are some more bible verses about sowing and reaping that backs this up.
“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 enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
2 Corinthians 9: 10-11
As you can see in the above bible verse about sowing seeds, God is already providing you with the seed to sow. This seed from God is a source of providence and blessing which makes you rich. But it has to be sown, it’s of no use otherwise. Sowing is how you can demonstrate your generosity to other. They will thank God for the blessings they’ve received. God also then provides the bread for food. It is the same God who will then keep supplying and increasing your supply as long as you do your job in sowing it. Also, note that this increase will result in financial freedom. You can’t have financial freedom without an increase. The following sowing and reaping verses tell us how much increase is possible:
Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold, because the LORD blessed him. Genesis 26:12 (NIV)
It’s said that even during a time of famine, Isaac sowed in the Land of Gerar and received in the same year a hundredfold from the Lord.
Never let it be told that God can not still bless you in difficult times. Whether it’s in a famine, a pandemic, economic downturn or recession. You can still reap plentifully, through the divine blessing.
In those days, reaping anything 100 times the original amount was uncommon. But this shows you that with God anything is impossible.
“Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop–a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.” Matthew 13:8 (NIV)
There’s that x 100 harvest again. Perhaps by this time in the bible, people were getting accustomed to this un common blessing and were daring to hope for the same. But even to reap ‘just’ x 60 or x 30 is supernatural and can only be from God. So you can say goodbye to your bank’s poor interest rates! As God promises up to 100 fold! That is awesome and better than any savings account out there.
Besides, your seed is safe with God. No inflation here. The ‘bank of God’ does not go bust! But note that there is a requirement: sow seed on good soil.
What is good soil? If you would to plant an actual seed into the ground, you would make sure the soil is good. It shouldn’t be soil that has been beaten and trodden by the feet men. It needs to be free from stones well broken up and manured. Similarly, your heart needs to be good. Your reason for sowing needs to be free from the sinful influence of men. Your heart can’t be like stone but rather a heart of flesh (Ezekiel 36:26).
What is the benefit of giving?
I’ve discovered 5 benefits of giving.
1. To boost happiness. Giving feels good!
2. To show the love of God.
3. Givers, get.
4. Depending on where you live, your giving is boosted further due to tax relief. I.e. Gift Aid.
5. It pleases God.
It is clear that giving is what God requires of us. By giving, you help and bless others. You show love when you do this and this is pleasing to God.