in violation of it, we will experience consequence. And it is the principle of seed time and harvest. The only reason why you are here today is because of cooperation with that principle. If you eat a piece of toast, or if you eat a bowl of oatmeal, or if you have some green beans, or if you're eating meat. Everything exists because of cooperation with the principle of seed time and harvest Amen You can't feed hay to your cattle if you're not cooperating with the principle of seed time and harvest. God put that principle into play, and we can see it very clearly in our physical environment. But there is also a spiritual principle of seed time and harvest that God has also put into place that, unfortunately, many people within the church miss. Very, when I personally grew and was involved in commercial okra, we practiced the principle of seed time and harvest. We planned ahead for our harvest based on the seeds that we planted. And we recognized as we took care of those seeds, as we watered those seeds, as we put them in a place where they could germinate and mature, that there would be a production. There would be fruit based on the seed that I invested. Amen? planning ahead and knowing that, we would miss out. We would miss out. And we practiced principles associated with the system that God had put into place. Now, some of this is plain old common sense, but it seems as though that common sense isn't so common nowadays. We recognize that we plant seeds with the goal of reaping a harvest. And if they're saying, you know what, I'm going to plant the seeds, but I don't care if there's a harvest. That's ridiculous. Why would you plant the seeds in the first place? You only plant the seeds with the expectation of harvest. God's whole word promotes that truth, not just in the physical realm, as he said, these principles are going to exist, but in the spiritual realm as well. that when you plant the seed, you expect a harvest because God told you to expect a harvest. Be not deceived. God is not mocked. For whatsoever a man soweth or planteth, that shall he also reap or receive in harvest. Amen? Isn't that what it says? Be not deceived, God. And God is not teaching us in that particular verse about the physical harvest, but about the spiritual harvest. That what you sow, you will reap. And it is just... And I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that when you sow a particular seed, that is what you reap. And God is saying, He said, I put the system into place and for you to recognize that if you sow a particular seed, that is the crop that you're going to reap. Now if, and very few of you do this, at least not deliberately, you don't go out and plant weed seeds. But if indeed you did go out and plant weed seeds, that is what you would reap. And yet in the spiritual kingdom, many are planting weed seeds and they are reaping for what they've invested. God is telling you this, you will only get, number one, you're only gonna get dividends on your investment. If you're not investing, if you're not sowing, you're not going to reap. And then you are going to reap what you've invested. And he's also going to say, and again, this is just common sense, if you sow a lot, you will reap a lot. If you sow a little, you'll reap a little. When we picked 400 pounds of okra a day, that's a lot of okra. Okra's not very heavy. And so to pick 400 pounds of okra, you're picking a lot of okra. So we're picking 400 pounds a day. For us to pick 400 pounds of okra a day, we had to plant more than one seed. We had to plant an acre or so in okra for us to reap that much okra. If you're planting little, you'll reap little. If you're planting a lot, you will reap a lot, right? OK, I'm not telling you anything you don't know. I want to share with you today 10 facts about using seed faith, using seed faith in your life, 10 facts. One of the things I just heard recently in a message that he had delivered, he since has passed on, gone to glory, but it made a lot of sense to me. And this was from Dr. Jerry Savelle. How many of you know who he is? He said this, and this makes sense. He said, if you don't have what you need, consider what you have as your seed. Let me say that again. If you don't have what you need, consider what you have as your seed. Right? And I think that there is some great truth here that we need to gain. Your seed, the seed that God has given you, is anything that you have received from God. Now what happens is this. If we reap a harvest of okra and we eat all our okra, like they do down in Louisiana, if we eat all of our okra, we don't have anything left for next year. That's it, we've consumed it. I want you to know that God has given you what he has given you, whatever that is, not for your total consumption. He has given what He's ever given you, not only to bless you, but for you to sow that so that you can reap a harvest in your life. And as you learn that system in practice, I mean, we had to learn that. I mean, it's common sense, but again, sense isn't so common, is the fact that you can't eat your whole harvest. You have to replant some of it the following year so that you can have an additional harvest, right? Okay, that goes without saying. Now, God has given us a variety of things. He's given me things. He's given me things that have a direct bearing on my thinking and my thought process. He's given me love. Has God given you love? Has God shown you mercy? Has God given you kindness? Has God given you money or resources? Everything that you have, God has given you. Now, understanding the principle of reciprocity, that you only will receive what you sow, okay, that be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever man soweth, he shall also reap, and understanding that until the earth passes away, Seed time and harvest will continue. And learning the spiritual principle here, if God has given you mercy, He hasn't given that for you to totally consume upon yourself. He has given you mercy, but He wants you to what? Sow mercy. Right? He has given you mercy, He's given it to you, He's forgiven you in Christ. But He wants you to sow that mercy into the lives of others. And God has even went on to say this, He said, you know what? If you just consume it upon yourself, you're gonna run out. Now, didn't He say this? He said, didn't He share this parabolically through Christ? He said, the man that has been forgiven, if he doesn't show forgiveness, he will lose the forgiveness that he was given. That's what he said, right? He said, I've forgiven you much. You couldn't even forgive someone a little. Thus, you're going to pay the price and you're going to lose your forgiveness in that particular parable, right? So what I'm sharing with you is this, is that whatever God has given you, it is not just for you to have. It is for you to benefit from, but it's for you also to recognize you are a steward to sow. Your seed is anything you've received from God. It can be what you're thinking on. You know, God has given you good thoughts, and He's given you love, He's given you mercy, He's given you kindness, He's given you money. God has shown me so much kindness, I need to sow kindness to you. God has given me resources, and not just so that I could have resources, but that I can sow them in your life or in others' lives as well. God has showed me mercy that I didn't deserve. Mercy that you deserved isn't mercy, right? God has shown you mercy. What does He want you to do? He wants you to sow mercy in the lives of others. And as you continue to understand this principle, everything that you received of God is something that He has given you, He has blessed you with, and He wants you to sow. As you sow, you'll receive more. Amen? Isn't it great that His mercies are new every morning? Why are his mercies new every morning because I am taking the mercy that he's given me and I'm continuing to sow it Because I not only need the mercy of yesterday. I also need the mercy for tomorrow How about you? Okay seed faith is sowing what you have been given to get a promised harvest Okay And as Jerry Savelle said, you know, if you don't have what you need, consider what you have as your seed. You know, there's some people that say, you know what, I don't have, and it could be a variety of things, he said, you know, I don't have the help that I need in my life. Sow the seed and start helping somebody else. Are you hearing me on this? Well, you know what, people are rude to me. People are rude to me, and I think I shared this with you before, but I went into a church years ago, and it was a church in my hometown, and it was right at the beginning of my salvation experience. And I had gone into this church, and I said to myself, as I left that church after attending there, I said, man, what a bunch of stuck-up people. You know, nobody said hello to me. They very seldom greeted me. And you know what? I went in there sort of by myself, and I left by myself. And I was sitting on a pity pot. Anybody ever sit on a pity pot? Woe is me. The world is against me. La, la, la, la, la. Walking around as a victim instead of a victor. And you know what? I got the proverbial. a slap upside the head with a two-by-four. Anybody ever get that? And I don't know about you, but it took a two-by-four for me. And he said, this is what the Lord ministered to me. He said, Mark, what did you do? You went into that church expecting them to give to you. What did you invest in them? Oh, that hurt. Well, it's their church, it's first time there." He said, there's a whole lot of people that were there, maybe their first time, that were thinking the same thing about you. I went back to church, that church, that particular church, and I started walking up to people. I said, hi, my name's Mark. What's yours? And I started greeting people. Something changed. Something changed I started to receive kindness. I started to receive recognition I started to receive people that were that that really lifted me why because I sold Are you hearing me? I'm teaching you something here that there's a whole lot of people that miss if you want something Instead of walking around. Oh, man. I I don't got no harvest. I You know what, okra, I didn't get any." Well, you didn't sow any seeds, dummy. You want kindness? You want respect? You want recognition? Sow it. Sow it. As you sow, so shall you reap. it is the principle of the kingdom. And we need to learn that. And so whatever you've been given, you reap, you sow to get a harvest. And I'll tell you, it's just like, well, I don't care if there's a harvest. Well, you should care. Why? Because God promised it and He promised it for a reason. He promised it because He wants you to sow for a harvest. He wants you to recognize that as you sow, you're going to receive. And so you sow whatever you've been given, expecting a harvest. So when that person is rude to you at the counter, when you're checking out at Brolam's bakery, or wherever you are, okay? There's, what you need to do is that you need to sow, you need to sow into that situation kindness and respect. Why? Because that's what you want. That's what you want to receive. So you sow what you want. Everybody say that. Sow what you want. Sow what you want. Okay. So your seed is the tool that God has given you to create your future. Your seed is the tool that God has given you to create your future. Now what happens, Wesley? What happens if I go out and I plant some okra seeds and they don't come in real well? Do I say, man, oh man, okra seeds don't work, I'm never gonna plant them again. No, I would just recognize, okay, it didn't, there was some kind of dysfunction, there was some kind of problem, but I'm gonna continue to plant them. I know that there is a system in place that there may have been some kind of variable, there may have been some kind of problem, but it didn't cancel out the truth. Why don't we recognize that in the spiritual realm? Just because we don't get exactly what we want when we want it, there's many people, well, I'm going to quit sowing that. I'm going to quit being nice to people. I'm going to quit doing this or doing that. No, I recognize the system hasn't changed. There may have been a variable that I'm unaware of, but the system remains true. I know seed time and harvest are going to continue as long as the world remains, amen? And I'm going to continue to do that. Well, I sowed kindness in Del over here and Del maybe was rude to me. And I'll tell you what, that doesn't mean that I'm not going to continue to sow seeds. I know that one of those seeds are going to break through. I know that there's going to be some kind of crack in his armor, that that seed is going to find some good ground and it's going to produce. Your seed is anything that God has given you. And sowing that seed, you sow it with a harvest in mind. So number one, just so if you're following along on this, number one, your seed is anything that you receive from God. Number two, seed faith is sowing what you've been given to get a harvest, right? That's what seed faith is, to get a harvest. And then your seed is the tool that God has given you to create your future. David, and I won't refer you to this, but you can look at this if you'd like, David recognized that he became proficient being a shepherd with a slingshot. And he became an expert with a slingshot. And at the time, he just thought it was for protecting sheep. But God was preparing him for the deliverance of Israel. Right? He was delivering him. It was a seed that David was going to use for the deliverance of Israel. It was something that God had given him. It was a skill set that God had given him. He wanted to invest that, invest that skill set that God has given him, and he used it for the proliferation of the kingdom. Right? God gives you skill sets, He gives you blessings, He gives you abilities, He gives you capabilities. They're not just so that you can walk around and say how good you are. They are for you to invest in His kingdom. Goliath will fall, but Goliath didn't fall without a shepherd boy with a slingshot. That was prepared by God, given something by God. Now, I don't know what you've been given. But whatever you've been given, it is for you to invest. It is for you to utilize. It is for you to recognize that when you use what God has given you, there will be a harvest ahead. There was a certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophets, who cried a woman of the sons of the prophets unto Elisha, saying, "'Thy servant, my husband, is dead. And thou knowest that thy servant did fear the Lord, and the creditor is come to take unto him my two sons to be bondmen. And Elisha said unto her, What shall I do for thee? Tell me, what hast thou in thy house? And she said, Thy handmaid has not anything in the house, save a pot of oil." Let me just stop there. Elisha is basically saying, you told me you didn't have anything, and you got a pot of oil. Are you hearing this? Because there's a whole lot of people that said, man, I don't got nothing. Yeah, you do. Yeah, you do. And it's, I don't have anything but a pot of oil. And he said, okay, go borrow vessels abroad of all thy neighbors, empty vessels, borrow not a few. And when thou art come in, thou shalt shut thy door upon thee and upon thy sons and shalt pour out into those vessels and thou shalt set them aside, which is full. So she went from him and shut the door upon her and upon her sons, who brought the vessels to her, and she poured out. And it came to pass, when the vessels were full, she said under her son, bring me yet another vessel. And he said, there's not any vessels more. And the oil stopped, the oil stayed. She filled them all in these vessels. Then she came and told the man of God. And he said, go, sell the oil, pay your debt, and leave you and your children off the rest. That's 2 Kings 4, 1 through 7. That is Elisha. And I'll tell you what, there's a principle here, God multiplies, but God can only multiply what you give Him. Are you hearing me on this? God will only multiply loaves and fishes when there's loaves and fishes. Right? God will only multiply resources. It says, bring your tithes into the storehouse and prove me now herewith if I'll not open up the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing. He cannot do that unless you give. He cannot multiply anything unless you have it to give to Him. And He's not requiring you to give anything you don't have. He's saying, use what you have, recognizing it's a gift from me, invest it as a tool in the kingdom, and I will bless you. I will bless you. And there are some that do, and there's some that don't. And there's some that sow seeds, and some that don't. And there's some that reap a crop, and there's some that don't. And it's those who learn the system. We learn it in the physical realm. There's no way, I don't know if you have any farmers here, But there's no way in farming, there's no way in farming that you can be successful without learning the principle of seed, time, and harvest. You have to learn that. You have to cooperate with it. And we need to recognize there is a principle in the spiritual realm, and it's just as real, just as valid, if not more so. And when we cooperate with it, we will receive a harvest. Simple as that. Okay, so your seed is anything that God's given to you to create your future. And then number four, There'll never be a day in your life where you don't have something that can be sowed. There'll never be a day in your life where you just say, I am totally empty. I don't have anything. There is something that you can sow. there is something that you can sow. Understanding that as you sow, you will reap. And as you cooperate and say, God, I know this is your principle. I'm going to cooperate with it, and I'm going to sow this. I need a job. I need a job. I don't have a job, but I know that Dan over here needs his walkway shoveled. And I know he's not hiring me, but I'm going to go over and shovel it because I'm going to invest in a job that I want. I'm going to give my efforts. I'm going to sow my seed of energy into Dan and blessing him. I'll tell you what. You are opening the door for a blessing in your own life. When you are sowing what you have, God will bless you with what you don't have. And it is only those who sow that will reap. It's simple as that. That's a principle. God always gives you something to be sown that will solicit a harvest in your life. Always. Everybody has that. You are a walking warehouse. of remarkable seeds. You are a walking warehouse. Everything that you've been given has been given by God and He's given you in abundance. He certainly has made. And everything that you have can be used as a seed for the kingdom, sowing into the kingdom. Okay. Number five, principle number five, if you keep your seed rather than sowing it, you're not going to get a harvest. Simple as that. You'll have a bag of seeds. Right? If you don't sow the seeds, you have a bag of seeds. But if you sow the seeds, you are preparing yourself for a harvest. Is there a chance that sometimes when you sow the seeds, there may be some difficulties, there may be some problems, you may not get the harvest that you truly desire? Yes. But it doesn't cancel out the principle. The seeds that you've been given are for you to sow and to recognize that as you sow them, there will be a harvest. There will never be a harvest, never be a harvest without the sowing of seed. When you work for somebody, you work for somebody. Basically, what's your boss's name? Ben. Ben is Jodell's employer. Jodell makes an investment. He invests his life. When he goes and gives him eight hours of work, or however many hours of work he works, that's eight hours of his existence. That's eight hours of his life. He is making an investment to receive dividends. Every time that he goes to work, he punches the clock, or signs in, or does whatever he does, or keeps records of his hours, he does it with the expectation of receiving a harvest. If he didn't have that expectation of receiving a harvest, I guarantee you he probably wouldn't do it. If he didn't have that expectation of receiving a harvest 100% of the time, he wouldn't do it. If his boss was like, hey, listen, you worked for me eight hours this week. I'm going to pay you so much money next week. He says, you know what? I'm not giving you any money this week. I'm not going to pay you." He's not going to continue making his investment, right? He's going to invest where there are guaranteed dividends and the expectation of a harvest. God will always be true to His word. When you invest in the kingdom, when you invest in the Lord, God will reward you. God will bless you. Amen? That is. The problem is it takes faith. It takes faith. And there's people that say, well, as long as I can see it, I'll believe it. And God is saying, faith that is seen is not faith. Faith is believing the unseen. When I plant the okra seed or whatever it was that I'm planting, I am planting that by faith. I am not planting that without the expectation of receiving a plant that's going to produce much more than what I've invested. Right? And that faith is what keeps me doing it. And it keeps the produce coming in. Right? So you need to sow with faith. If you keep your seed, it will not produce. I'm going to tell you, and here's a clarification for you on the parable of the talents. And it's interesting that the type of monetary unit was called a talent. Because it really applies to you and I today. A talent is anything that you've been given that you didn't earn. Right? And so if you're talented in music, it's something that you've been given, you can build upon that, but it's something that you've been given to start with, right? And it is only those who build upon it that will reap greater rewards from it, correct? Okay, now the parable of talents shares with us, there are those that were given five talents, the investment was made, he gained 10 talents, right? The return was 10 talents. There was another that was given two talents. He invested that and gained four talents. And there was another that didn't use his talents at all. He buried it. And this is what the Lord said to him. And in Jesus' parable, He said, you are not a faithful servant. In fact, I'm going to cast you away, and I'm going to take even the talent that you had, and I'm going to give it to the person who is willing to invest the five talents. Are you with me on that? That whole principle teaches us this. It lines up with this principle that sowing seeds, sowing the seeds rather than keeping them is what God desires of me. If you are a pool that just takes in water, you become what's called a cesspool. Your water becomes stagnant, but if you have an inlet and an outlet, you become a healthy lake, right? You're taking in and you're putting out. It's flowing in and it's flowing out. God wants you to be healthy. And for you to be healthy, you receive in, because he wants you to flow out. If you've closed the outflow, you'll begin to stink. OK. OK. Seed sowing is a sign of stewardship instead of ownership. The parable of the talents, once again, right? Seed sowing is recognizing this is from God. He has given it to me to invest, not for me to possess. There's too many people. I got my get out of hell free card. I'm going to throw it in my wallet. and now I'm just going to live selfishly for myself, build bigger barns to stow all my resources in, and just have fun and just do whatever I want." Well, that's not what God has given you your resources for. He has given you the resources that you possess for His glory, and as you cooperate with that, He'll give you more. If you violate that, you'll lose what you've been given. Okay, so When you let go, seed sowing is a sign of stewardship, that's number six. Number seven, when you let go of what's in your hand, God's gonna release what's in His hand. Okay, so when you release what you have, God's gonna release what He has for you. Are you with me on this? And that's something that we need to recognize. That's what Christian life is all about. We recognize that as we are willing to release our lives unto the Lord, what awaits us is better than what we have now. We are actually, actually all of our life is sowing the seed of our life, expecting the harvest of eternal life with the Lord. Are you with me on that? It is only those that by faith are willing to sow their life that will reap the harvest of eternal life. If there's individuals that say, well, I just want to use my life for me, you're not sowing it for Him and you will miss out on the harvest. Can you hear this today? Because if you're not, you're going to miss something of significance. There is a harvest. God has a harvest. It is for you. It is way more abundant than anything that you've been given, but He wants you to sow what you've been given so He can give you more. He wants your life, John, so He can give you eternal life. Amen? And for what shall it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul? Right? There is no gain whatsoever. And so to focus on, well, I'm just going to eat my sack of seeds, we'd call that stupid, wouldn't we? And yet there's a whole lot of people that are stupid. Not recognizing the life they've been given is a seed that God is giving them to sow so that they can reap the rewards of all eternity. Okay, when you let go of what's in your hand, God's going to release what's in His, and that is with faith, responding with faith. And then number eight, when you sow more, you will harvest more. That's pretty easy. It says, but this I say, and this is from 2 Corinthians 9.6, he which soweth sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. There's somebody that says, man, oh man, that guy has all, Del over here, I'll pick on Del. Del over here, he's got all kinds of friends. You know, I don't have very many friends. You know why? Because Del is sowing abundantly in being friendly to Isaiah, and being friendly, somewhat friendly to Doug, and being friendly to Dan, being friendly. He is sowing this, he is sowing abundant. Who knows maybe you're only friendly to your wife and you're wondering man. My wife's the only one that likes me Why you've only sewn into her Del has sewn into others. He's reaping a bigger reward Is that that's common sense, but we miss that You want an abundant reward of many many friends start being friendly to a whole lot of people Sewing into them Sowing into them kindness, sowing into them respect, sowing into them courtesy. I'm going to tell you what, you're going to reap it. When you sow more, you're going to harvest more. And then you can only sow what you've been given. Don't complain about what you don't have. Be willing to use what you do and to use it joyfully. You put me behind a guitar and you'll regret it. You know, you put Dan behind it and you'll be blessed. You know, and I can say, man, I just don't have that skill set. I just don't, you know, that Dan has. Well, I'm not required to have that skill set. I'm required to use what I have been given. Instead of complaining what I don't have, I need to be thankful for what I do have and use what I do have as a seed sown into the kingdom, and God will bless it. And everybody has something. Everybody has something that you can sow, and as you do it, you will reap. It's time. And I'll tell you, there's too many people that sit on the pity pot, that walk around as victims, and God has created you to be victors. There's a lot of people that walk around as the overcoming. God has created you to be an overcomer. You know people that are complaining about their job their spouse their their life in general I'm gonna tell you what quit blaming everybody else and start recognizing where the buck stops It stops with you look in the mirror and say I am the victim of my own decisions And I can change this if I am willing to so the what God has given me for his glory I can receive a reward Instead of blaming, and there's so many people, they get despondent, they get depressed, they get discouraged, because they feel as if the whole world needs to give them a harvest even when they haven't planted anything. It doesn't work that way, and nor will God ever bypass the truth of His Word. And He says, be not deceived. God will not be mocked. Whatsoever a man soweth, he shall also reap. And if you're not sowing it, do not expect to reap. And if you want to reap, begin to sow. Simple as that. It will work. It will always work because it's God's system. You can only sow what you've been given. Don't complain about what you don't have. Be thankful for what you do. And then the tenth point, your seed is that doorway to victory in your life. Your seed is that doorway to victory. All of us want victory. We want to live the victorious life. We want to be successful in life. We need to use the seed that God has given us and use it for his glory. And once again, dealing with kings and it says, so he went and he rose and he went to Zarephath and we came to the gate of the city. Behold, a widow woman was there gathering sticks and he called her and he said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water and a vessel that I may drink. And as she was going to fetch it, he called to her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, as the Lord thy God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruise. And behold, I'm gathering two sticks, that I may go in and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. Now, this is despair, isn't it? Yeah, man, I hardly got anything, man. In fact, I'm just going to go gather some sticks, cook some food, so my son and I can have our final meal, and then just die. And this is what Elijah said unto her, Elijah. He said unto her, fear not. Go and do as thou hast said, but make me the cake first. Now, Elijah represents God. He is the representative of God. And he's saying unto her, invest it in God. Invest it in the kingdom. Invest it obediently and by faith in the kingdom. You do not have what you need. Recognize what you have is your seed. Invest it in the kingdom." And so this is what she did. She went and she cooked him. For thus saith the Lord God of Israel, for thus saith the Lord God of Israel, and I believe this is the Lord God of today that's speaking to you. The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruz of oil fail, until the Lord sendeth rain upon the earth. And she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruz of oil fail, according to the word of the Lord which He spake by Elijah." What did she do? She sowed what she had into the kingdom. Sow what you have, recognizing God will take what you have and He'll use it for your benefit and His glory. You know, when God talks to you about sowing something, whatever that may be, He has a harvest on His mind for you. And if God's prompted you to give something, and it could be anything, I'm not talking about money, or this is not a message on money, it's a message on giving what you've been given. If God says to you, I want you to go over and help this guy, or I want you to go over and say hello to this woman who looks so lonely, or I want you to go over and, you know, maybe a person out of a job, I want you to offer him some work at your house. I want you to do this. Whatever it is, God wants you to know he has a harvest on his mind by you sowing that seed. And you can have that expectation. You can recognize the fact, hey, I need to obey God because as I obey God, he's gonna bless me. I don't care what the world tells you. If it contradicts what God tells you, it's a lie from the pit of hell. God has a principle in place. He will not go back on His principles. You do not have to make excuses for God. God will be true to His Word, always be true to His Word. The key is we need to prove ourselves faithful and submit to His system. When God's talking to you about a seed, He has a harvest on His mind for you. Why? Because He knows that when He gives you that harvest, you've got more seeds that you can plant for His kingdom. Give and it shall be given unto you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, shall men give unto your bosom. For with the same measure that you meet, it shall be measured to you again. So when you give, you will receive. When you invest, you will receive dividends. God said, as you give abundantly, you will reap abundantly. As you give sparingly, you will reap sparingly. This is a principle that will remain as long as Earth remains. It's the principle of reciprocity. There's going to be some people that benefit from this. There's some people that already benefited from the physical realm. Do you know how many? Let's talk about Elon Musk. He's the top of topics nowadays. You know how many failures that guy's had in his life? Way more than you. What he recognized is this. Even though my investment didn't pay dividends, it doesn't mean that I should stop investing. It should be that I learn from my mistake and make wiser investments. Right? Simple as that. But there's only dividends paid for those who invest. That's it. That's it. And we should be some of the most profitable, more than just monetarily, but we should be some of the most profitable people in the world because we've learned the principle of reciprocity. There's, oh, pray for me, pastor, I'm so depressed. Well, why don't you sew joy into someone else's life? Sew joy into their life. Well, you know what, I don't feel like smiling. Well, you don't feel like it because you don't have the joy, but you have enough to sew a smile which will bring someone else joy, and it will begin to bring you the harvest of joy. Have you ever been near that person that says, man, I don't know what you've got, but stay away from me. I don't want to catch it. Right? Or you might see the person, man, I don't know what you're on, man, but I need to get me some of that. And the difference is how you're sowing into the lives of others. Sow into the lives of others. If you want condemnation, sow condemnation. You want to criticize and condemn other people, get ready. That's what you're going to get back. You're going to be criticized. You're going to be condemned. If you want people to be tolerant with you, sow tolerance. You want people to be respectful of you, sow respect. You will reap what you sow. That is the principle of the kingdom. And I tell you what, we need to learn them, and we need to practice them, and they need to be part of our lives because God will always be true to His word. Amen. Heavenly Father, Thank You, God, for the truth of Your Word, and Father, You've given me a whole bucket full of seeds. You've blessed me with so many things, O Lord God. Help me to recognize it's not just so that I can walk around and say I'm blessed. Father God, the blessings You've given me are seeds for me to sow. You've given me Your truth so that I can sow Your truth into others. Well, Father, so that I can receive more of Your truth. You've given me blessings in my life, oh God, abundantly, material blessings. Father, help me to sow them in the lives of others. Oh Father God, help me to recognize as I sow kindness, as I sow respect, as I sow gentleness, courtesy, tolerance, those are the things that I will reap in my life. Whatever I'm missing, whatever my need is, help me to recognize that I have a seed in that area that you have called me to sow. and help me to sow the seed, recognizing that as I do that, there will be a harvest ahead. We just give you the glory in Jesus' name.