THREE LAWS YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO IGNORE

THREE LAWS YOU CAN’T AFFORD TO IGNORE 2 Corinthians 9:6-11 November 7, 2010 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction If you are smart you own a copy of the greatest book ever published. If you are very wise you are studying it and becoming increasingly familiar with its truth. We want to rehearse some of its wisdom this morning, so open it to the book of 2 Corinthians and let’s learn three vital laws about the Christian stewardship of our resources. Verses six through thirteen: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful give. 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 is it written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and you 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. There are three laws buried in this text, and I want you to join me as we dig them out. And may the Lord enlighten our minds to understanding and strengthen our souls to obedience. Law #1 - The Law of Sowing and Reaping It may be just because I’m an Illinois boy, but I just love sweet corn. I love to look at it, I love to eat it and I love to grow it. It has always been my favorite item in the whole garden. It has always thrilled me that from one little seed comes 80 kernels per ear. That little seed becomes this beautiful stalk of corn, six feet high and laden with two or three, sometimes even four ears of corn on it! I just shake my head and marvel at God’s design. Does that picture just make you want to grab the butter and eat? Every time you put a seed kernel in the ground you can expect a 1,000% return on that investment. Of course, if you don’t plant the seed, you won’t see a return. If you plant a few seeds you get only a small return, and if you plant a lot of seeds you get a large return. That’s the Law of Sowing and Reaping. God’s in charge of that law and He’s the one who makes it work. Galatians 6 says God is not mocked; A man reaps what he sows. The promise of Psalm 126 is this: Those who sow in tears (that is those who apply themselves diligently to the laborious work of planting) will reap with songs of joy (and the reason for their joy is the bounty of the harvest. The apostle is not talking about gardening—he’s only using the imagery so familiar to his readers to illustrate how it works when God’s people give tithes and offerings to the Lord for the work of the kingdom. He’s talking about the financial gifts the believers at Corinth were about to give into the offering he is taking for the economic fellow Christians were experiencing in Jerusalem. But his principles are applicable to us and our giving as well. He says that when you give there is a law at work: the law of sowing and reaping, and it’s a lot like gardening corn. You will receive in return based on what you give (invest, plant). See verse 6. The first principle of this law is that if you don’t sow, you don’t reap. You have to sow in order to reap. God’s promise all the way through His Word is that He will bless those who give. In fact, He promises that you will get back far more than you sow, because He describes His response to their giving in terms of “opening the windows of heaven, and pouring out blessings they cannot even hold.” He says, Give and it will be given back to you in good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over. But you have to sow in order to reap. Secondly, this law teaches that you will reap a harvest in direct proportion to what you sow. If you plant 10 corn seeds, you can expect ten stalks and about 25 ears of corn. But if you plant 100 seed you’ll have 250 ears. You see, the God who created corn and designed the law of sowing and reaping wisely built in this idea of commensurate return so that He could honor the one who works harder. We are called to be faithful and wise stewards of all the seed God gives us, including our incomes, our money. Part of faithful and wise stewardship is giving a generous portion of that with which He has blessed us back to Him. It is a demonstration of our gratitude, our faith and our love for Him when we do it. And if our gratitude, faith and love are small toward Him—expressed by our small sacrifice in giving—then our reward will also be small. There are a host of reasons we honor God with our giving, only one of which is that we reap a harvest for ourselves. Much larger and more important is that when we generously give we enable the Lord’s church to do more in terms of ministry in the church family, in the community and in the world through missions. When we are stingy in our giving, the harvest will suffer. We also give to glorify God; we give in obedience to His command; we give as an expression of God’s love and grace at work in us. We are instructed in the pages of scripture that every time we give our offerings to the Lord we are telling Him how grateful we are to Him, how faithful we really are (not just how faithful we SAY we are) and how much His love and grace are at work in our hearts. And every time we withhold generosity it is a statement of our level of gratitude, faithfulness and love is, as well. What reward does the Christian reap in terms of God’s blessing? Does He give us more money, better jobs, prosperity in our lives? Yes, He does (though he reminds us that if we have Him we really have everything, and He also promises that if we seek Him and His righteousness, all of our needs will be met). God does bless materially, but He also blesses us in better ways: spiritual growth, peace and contentment, and heavenly rewards (we’ll cover that later). God can be very creative when He opens the windows of heaven, but one thing is sure: you will reap in direct proportion to how you sow Verse 8: And God is able to make all grace abound to you . . . so you will have all you need. He gives us ample reason to be generous toward Him. Law #2 – The Law of Personal Volition Look at the interesting message in verse 7 – Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. It is not only the AMOUNT of what we give that determines its kingdom value, but also the MANNER in which we give. When we speak of human volition it has to do with our free will—what we decide to do. This area is so important to the Lord. He is always interested in what our heart is like and whether our inner motivations are healthy. In whatever you do—whether heinous sin or honorable service, what’s in your heart is the most important thing to God. For our good and His glory God urges on us through the apostle that we would be very INTENTIONAL about our giving – each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give. You ought to think seriously about what you give to the church, plan in advance, pray and come to peace about how and what you give. It probably doesn’t honor God when you don’t remember until offering time that giving is part of worship. When I am asked I recommend that you pray about your giving and get a good idea of what you will give. Ask God for His approval, search your heart (decided in his heart). Then, work it into your budget as item #1. Then, keep it number one when you start writing your bills. Write the check to the church first. In that way you are declaring to God (and yourself) what’s really important to you, and you won’t be tempted on Sunday morning to say, “Ooh, I don’t think I have anything left…” Being unintentional will reduce your giving from a generous act of worship to something on the order of a tip, like to the waiter. Another key facet of giving intentionally is whether or not I am giving willingly. Notice Paul’s words here in verse 7 – not reluctantly or under compulsion. Why might a person give reluctantly? Typically because they feel someone important to them expects them to. That may be your spouse, if you have not carefully agreed in advance on what your giving should be; it could be someone else in the body of Christ, or the pastor; it could even be God. If your heart is not right before God, you may look at your giving as only a cold, heartless obligation. You should never give your offerings to God under such pressure. But because it is right to give, work out whatever problem has you feeling pressured, and get it right. Often people give because they have been badgered or given a guilt trip by misguided church leadership. Never give under such terms. There is an awful lot of toxic behavior in churches when it comes to stewardship. Our leadership is dedicated to never stoop to such things. If ever you feel as though there is an unspiritual pressure or expectation on you—something carnal, something not from the Word or the Spirit— I urge you to come and speak to one of the elders. Because something is wrong. Understand that if a pastor or leaders are not praying regarding finances, and they are under pressure to look at church income as something they must produce, instead of God, there will be trouble. There comes under such circumstances a dread sense that “if we don’t get these offerings up, the bills won’t get paid, the mortgage won’t get paid, and (yes) I won’t get paid.” Under that pressure it is easy—and wrong—for leaders to start begging, cajoling and manipulating the members of the flock in order to get the numbers up. But those are the weapons of this world and totally inappropriate to the church. When that starts happening, people get hurt, pressured and resentful—and that is not a Holy Spirit-controlled environment. Has it been tempting to look fearfully and worriedly at our church finances lately? Yes! Behind budget some $22,000, or over $500 per week? You bet it’s tempting to run off in the flesh and try to fix it. Every time we pray over finances we are tempted to worry. But God is in charge: it’s His church, budget and power. Ours is to pray and stay in the Word and the Spirit, do what we are supposed to do, and leave it up to God and His people. That, incidentally, is why I am bringing this message—not because the money is tight, but because it is a part of my responsibility to teach this part of His Word, and I sensed His nudge to do so. Other times, I admit, it has been tempting to pull out a hard-hitting sermon and start beating the sheep. But God has given grace through prayer and supplication. Don’t give out of pressure or guilt or compulsion of any sort. God’s preference is a cheerful giver. The word is HILARION and it has to do with giddy joy or laughter. That is the kind of giver God loves—the one who is delighted to share generously, regularly and sacrificially—and laughs while he does it. Law #3 – The Law of Continuance Verses 8-11 detail a third law at work in Christian stewardship. Basically this has to do with two kinds of foolishness. One is the foolishness that believes that stewardship is a one time thing and not an ongoing discipline for the Christian. Some believers operate under the notion that they should give only when they feel moved or a need strikes them. That’s foolishness because there are always needs, and because that idea flies in the face of what we just read, that we should decide in advance and prepare. The other foolishness is the case of the believer who gives generously for awhile and he is the beneficiary of God’s blessing, perhaps in a financial way—his business is blessed, he receives an inheritance or some other unexpected fiscal surprise—and he treats it as though that’s all his to spend. In other words, “Ill tithe on what I get by normal means of income, but this super-natural god-send, that’s mine to spend on me!” Look at what our text has to say about such staccato giving. Read verse 8 and see the intended purpose for the resources God rewards the faithful giver with. It’s not for consumption, but for further kingdom investment. God says, “You gave—I blessed you, and what do you think I gave you that additional money for? To bless yourself only? No, I want you to keep doing more of what you did—share it, give it, invest it in my kingdom!” Then in verse 11 – You will be made rich in every way SO THAT you can be generous on every occasion . . . The point is, God wants faithful stewards who will give and then keep on giving with the resources with which He blesses them. Don’t you see that if we absorb every reciprocal blessing from God for our own selfish use, the providence train to others stops. To go back to the gardening metaphor, when the first crop of corn comes in, you have to take a healthy portion of those corn kernels and dry them and keep them for the next planting, or the garden dies in the first year! Don’t eat your seed—re-sow it. And God will continue reciprocate with still more blessings. I met a man recently, a Christian brother, who retired and can live comfortably on his retirement. But he keeps getting these lucrative offers to do consultant work, so he goes for a week or two at a time and completes these jobs and with he uses all that money to support Christian missions. When he is asked why he doesn’t use some of it for himself and retire even more comfortably, he says, “I don’t need it. I’m fine with what I have.” Conclusion We’ve spoken of temporal reward, and alluded to rewards that are yet to come for believers in heaven. 1 Cor. 4:5 says that at the end of time, each will receive his praise from God. Mat. 25 recounts the parable of the talents, and to those who have faithfully stewarded the resources the Master lent to them, He will say, Well done, faithfully servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness. Rewards, personally given by God and individually customized for each (illus: gift from Shirkey’s.) 20th century author Bruce Barton: Sometimes when I consider what tremendous consequences come from little things, I am tempted to think there are no little things.       [ Back to Top]