BELIEVING THE LORD OF THE LEGUMES

BELIEVING THE LORD OF THE LEGUMES 2 Corinthians 9:6-13 June 3,  2001 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introductory Before going to Europe on business, a wealthy businessman drove his Rolls-Royce to a downtown New York City bank and went in to ask for an immediate loan of $5,000. The loan officer, taken aback, requested collateral. The man responded by handing him the keys to his late model Rolls-Royce, saying if the bank would store it safely they could keep it until every penny was paid back. The banker had the Rolls driven into the bank's underground parking lot for safe-keeping and gave the man $5,000. Two weeks later, the man walked through the bank's doors and asked to settle up his loan and get his car back. "That will be $5,000 in principal and $15.40 in interest," the bank official said. The man settled up, got the keys to his car and headed for the elevator. "Wait, sir," the banker said. "We did a little research and discovered that you are worth several million dollars; why in the world would you need to borrow $5,000 from this bank?" "It's simple - I was taking a two week trip to Europe. Where else could I park my Rolls indoors in Manhattan for two weeks for only $15.40?" Being wise with one's money pays off. Paul wrote to the Corinthians about their wise use of money in terms of planned giving. His financial instruction spread out across two chapters of 2 Corinthians, 8 and 9, but let's take just one bite-size piece out of the middle - 9:6-13 - and rehearse three laws concerning what to do with our money in order to bring a great return. Law #1 - The Law of Sowing and Reaping The Bible teaches that God is the Owner of all things (Psalm 24:1) and He is our sole Provider. God provides for His people on two levels: 1. He promises to give us everything we need if we seek His Kingdom and His righteousness (Mt. 6:33). I take that to mean anyone who is a Christian and who is serious about the Kingdom. God's promise to His children is full provision of our needs 2. The second level of provision from God for His children is provision beyond our needs. Verse 6 of our text says "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously" This verse says there is a way for a child of God to reap generously. What is generous reaping? That is God pouring out His blessing on your life in a rich variety of ways (spiritually, emotionally, physically, financially, etc.). Notice, the verse is teaching that some will be generously blessed like this and others will reap sparingly. That's the other truth about this second level of provision from God. Not only does God administer these provisions in rich variety, but also in direct proportion to our generosity toward Him and His kingdom. This is the law of sowing and reaping. Gal. 6:7- "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." That same principle appears in Luke 6:38 - "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap." God's provision for us, beyond our needs, is commensurate with how generous we are toward Him. Psalm 126:5-6 illustrates this idea. "Those who sow in tears will reap with songs of joy. He who goes out weeping carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy carrying sheaves with him." What does "sowing in tears" mean? It refers to the difficulty and the sacrifice of giving. While we Christians admit that there is joy in good stewardship of our finances, it is easy to slip into the worldly pattern of thinking occasionally and think to ourselves, "You know, if I didn't give so much to the church, I could…" In times like that giving is a real sacrifice, just as it is when times of testing come-things are tight, unexpected bills come in and we are tempted to fudge on what we promised the Lord we would give. Or, it's vacation time and the Sunday before you leave, you eye your offering envelope and think, "You know that money could make vacation go a lot further…" Then you renounce that temptation and you drop your offering to the Lord into the basket, and it is then you know what it means to "sow in tears." But the promise is this tearful sowing results in joyful harvesting. "Sheaves" of the promised blessings of God come to the one who regularly, sacrificially and cheerfully gives to the Lord's work. "Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." (2 Cor. 9:7) Beans Illustration I'd like to offer a simple illustration of how God multiplies your sacrificial gift into a generous harvest. I'm giving you each one of these beans. But this little token is more than a bean, it is actually a seed, cultivated by Northrup/King to be guaranteed good seed. I'd like you to hold onto your bean for a few minutes. If you planted this bean in a good garden, and tended it moderately well with a little fertilizer, some cultivation and enough water, that little bean would produce roughly 40 "pods" or green sheaths, inside each of which would be an average of 7 beans. That's almost 300 beans from one bean! Isn't God awesome? He designed beans (and all other seed-bearing plants) just like He designed giving and receiving of offerings. When you give your generous offering for the Lord (even if it only feels like a puny little bean), you are actually "sowing" it into the kingdom work of God. His promise is that every offering you sow that is sacrificial and cheerful, will bring a great harvest of blessing, not only for you the giver, but also for the Kingdom! Law #2 - The Law of Continuing Harvest Now let's notice another principle that is at work here. In vss. 8-9 we read "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." As it is written, 'He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.' Notice, there is a purpose in God giving generous blessing to generous giver. He says, "so that"…so that what? So that you can (continue) to abound in every good work. He's going to give even more back to faithful and generous people for one good reason - so they can go on doing the good work of the Kingdom, and do even more! Certainly, part of this divine cycle of providence is our continuing to be faithful in our generous giving. If we will, there will always be an ever-increasing harvest, growing exponentially. This harvest is experienced in our personal lives as the favor and "beyond-our-needs" provision of God, and also in the growth of our ministry as a church. Here's the cycle: we give sacrificially, He opens more doors for ministry; we continue giving generously, He goes on blessing generously. You can't outgive God! Back to our bean analogy for a moment. Okay, you've sown your single seed, and you've harvested 300 beans. Wonderful! Now, what are you going to do, sit around and eat your 300 beans? God's plan is that you treat those beans not as food, but as more seed to be sown! Of course, you'll take a couple meals out of your harvest, but your real goal is to get those beans into the ground for another, greater harvest! If you sowed those 300 seeds, and again had a good crop, you would then have 90,000 beans. That's a great harvest! Again, the question: we are we going to do with 90,000 beans? Plant them, invest them in a future harvest! Do you have any idea what that third harvest would number? Eight million! I can't imagine what I would do with 8,000,000 beans…but I think I know what God would do with 8,000,000 souls! You have a choice about what you will do with the beans God gives you - ingest them or invest them. Eat them or plant them for a future harvest. Eat you bean and you'll never eat another bean from it's harvest. Eat it and you cannot plant it. Eat it and you destroy all that bean's reproductive potential. Sow that bean-seed and, though you won't e able to eat it now, you may enjoy the taste and nourishment of countless beans in the future. What do you want, a small meal now or a great harvest later? You see God calls the harvest He gives us because of our faithful giving, not beans, but "seed". See verses 10-11 - 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 made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." This scripture is replete with the promises of God, but not just to bless us-this blessing of an enlarged harvest is the success of the Kingdom in the world, and the bringing of many others into the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. That happens only when God's people get Unselfish and start re-investing the blessings they receive from the Lord. If you gave a sacrificial offering of $100 weekly for a whole year, and you were given a raise at the end of that year, would your sacrificial giving increase? It should, according to this teaching, increase at least proportionately. But what if that raise represented second level blessings-more than you need? How much of the raise is potential seed for the Kingdom? How much of it (surely some?) should be food for us? These are the spiritual questions we should wrestle with regularly. NB: If we're not even wrestling, we've already capitulated to selfishness. Ralph Beeson was a multimillionaire who understood this law of continuing harvest. He lived in a modest home with no air conditioning. He spent none of his money on himself, but was adamant about "giving to the Lord's work." He gave to hundreds of organizations that dedicated themselves to the propagation of the gospel, but had one stipulation-that he remain anonymous. Beeson is dead now, and his generosity is no longer a secret. He used to say, "It's the Lord's money. He gave me the gift of making it. I'm not smart enough to make that much on my own. It's His money and I want to give it back to Him." Well, Pastor, you're not suggesting we all become like Beeson, a radical eccentric who gives everything away? Why not? Law #3 - The Law of God's Directorship God is the owner of all things (Psalm 24:1-2), but He is also the Director of the entire program of His Kingdom. He will have complete success. That is, He will expand and increase His "government", and He will always use Kingdom investors (bean-donators) to finance the project, and who will reap the blessings of the harvest. You may or may not be one of them - it's your choice. Your refusal to be involved through sacrificial, regular and cheerful giving will not stop the Kingdom's advance and harvest - only your part in it. Your decision to "sow in tears" through regular, sacrificial, cheerful giving will directly affect the degree of His blessings you are in on. Norman Cousins, the celebrated author, researched and reported that the average American loses $75.00 per year (through misplacing it, underchanging, etc.). The average human being in the rest of planet earth (excluding the US) earns an average of $69 per year. We are a rich people-even the poor among us! Jesus said, "To whom much is given much is required." He has given us all we need and much, much more. John and Sylvia Romswall completed a massive research project. They determined that the average American Christian gives 2.5% of his income to the Lord's church. God, the owner, provider and director of everything, has every right to ask of His stewards, "What are you doing with all my money?" Conclusion I will close with one practical suggestion: increase your level of giving to the Lord until it becomes a sacrifice. The Word guarantees you will get in on God's great cycle of Sowing and Reaping, and you will reap the deeper, richer blessings of the Kingdom. More importantly, you will be directly involved in the Kingdom harvest through your investment in its exponential growth. Sow more seed.     [Back to Top]