Generous Giving

You Reap What You Sow

Paul is explaining to the church at Corinth that giving is an investment into the kingdom of God. The illustration is straight forward. The more you invest, the more your will receive. Just as a farmer who desires an abundance of harvest must sow a tremendous amount of seed, so the believer must invest into the kingdom of God in order to receive a harvest.

This is a principle that is easy to understand when it comes to giving. Simply put the more you give the more you get. Logically this doesn’t make sense. Logically the more you give away the less you have for yourself. This is a biblical principle that requires tremendous faith. It requires faith because it is not logical.

Generosity is a blessing from God. When people give of their resources they are glorifying God by trusting in Him to supply all your needs.

Sow the Right Way

There are three ways Paul says we should give : Purposefully, not grudgingly, and cheerfully.

Purposefully

Paul instructs the giver to determine how much they are to give. A person must determine in their heart what they are going to give and the reason they are giving it. This is not a mechanical formula to determine what to give. This is an expression of worship.

Mechanical giving goes something like this: I will calculate my income and give 10% of my income and that is it because that is required of me in the Bible. I would contend that this is the wrong way to give. The correct way to give is to ask the Lord what He would have you to give. Often times it will be more than 10%. You may say 10% is a lot and anything more I will not have enough. God wants to richly bless you and I guaranty that you cannot out give Him.

The Lord wants you to sow abundantly so you can reap abundantly. You may say, “ I know if I give the Lord will bless me spiritually but I can’t drive spiritually, live in a house spiritually, or eat and drink to fill my stomach spiritually.” You are right, but God does not just bless us spiritually, He also blesses us materially when we are generous. We will get into that a little later.

Not Grudgingly

If you are going to give out of obligation, then you might as well just keep your giving to yourself. It is like going through the motions and not enjoying what you are doing. Giving is a blessing that is meant to be enjoyed, not abhorred.

A grudging giver is one that has no faith in God’s ability or willingness to bless them. Al they see it what they are having to give up because they “have to”. Friend you don’t have to give. If you choose not to give, please understand the first principle about sowing and reaping. If you choose not to give to the Lord, then you will reap very little from the Lord.

Give Cheerfully

Paul says that God loves a cheerful giver. I experienced that on night at VBS. We were collecting a special offering for Children’s Harbor to help with the costs of the camps they do for kids with cancer. We had a little competition between girls and boys. We would tally the amount by gender each night. The last night we let parents and kids know who was ahead and we opened the giving up for the last time. There were people running down the isle with joy in their hearts to give. I believe that is the way the Lord would want us to give.

There was a time a few years back and things were very tight for Rachel and I. Tatum was in college and bills were racking up and we just didn’t have any excess resources. God provided me an opportunity to do a speaking engagement for a group of men. They graciously gave me a $100. I was glad to receive it because it would ease the tightness of our finances a little bit. About that time a hurricane hit South Carolina and the Lord not only told me to give the $100 but to double it. I was not happy at first because we needed the extra money. But the Lord laid on my heart that he had a specific purpose for the $200. It was in that, that I found joy in the giving. He never let me know what the purpose was, only that He had a purpose. As I gave cheerfully to the Lord I recieved another blessing. The Lord provided me opportunity to get other “side-gigs” to amount to $500. Talk about cheerful giving!

God Blesses A Cheerful Giver

Paul says that God does this in three ways: Makes all grace abound, always have sufficiency in everything, Have an abundance in every good deed.

Makes Grace Abound

The grace Paul is referring to here is not spiritual but materially. God owns everything and is able to provide it when He desires to provide it. The riches of heaven and earth are in the hands of God. Everything belongs to Him. He can mange who gets what.

Always having sufficiency in everything

Many people are reluctant to give because they believe if they do, they won’t have enough to make ends meet. This is a promise from God, that if you give to Him then He will make sure you have your ends meet. Here is how we know:

10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you a blessing until it overflows. 11 Then I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes,” says the Lord of hosts. Malachi 3:10-11

God makes this happen in two ways. First he says He will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing until it overflows. When we give to God, He opens the windows of heaven to us. His blessings overflow. This means they are more than enough to fill our cups. The second thing he does is rebuke the devourer. The devourer is the one who makes your car break down, your stove to stop working, your A/C unit to quit. This is the devourer.

You will have an abundance for every good deed.

The reason God blesses a cheerful giver is so that you can give again to support the good deeds God has in store for you. God does not bless you so you can use the blessing on yourself alone. He blesses you because He knows you are going to receive His blessing with gratitude and use it to bless others.

It is like a cycle. You give to God in faith. He uses it for His purpose. He turns around and gives you more. You take the blessing and give it away. God uses it for his purpose. God gives you even more! You see how this cycle works!

God Uses Your Gift To Bless Others, Enrich You, and Bring Glory To Himself

God Uses the gift to bless others

In verse 12 Paul says that the gift that the Corinthians give is satisfying the needs of the saints. God is taking the gift and taking care of the saints at Jerusalem. In turn the saints at Jerusalem are praying for the people in Corinth.

This is the beauty of giving. We don’t always know how God uses the gift. One day we will know when God affords us that knowledge in heaven. There will be gifts that we give that help people that we don’t know. This is why I love the shoe box ministry that we participate in. We don’t know what boy or girl will receive our box, but we have faith that God will get it to the exact person it needs to go to. Can you imagine when we get to heaven and that little boy or girl comes to thank us and let us know what that gift meant and did for their family?

God Enriches you for the gift

In verse 11 Paul says that the giver is enriched in everything for all liberality. You want to be blessed of God? It is simple. Give to God. Givers find that their businesses are blessed when they give, people get promotions when they give, you have more discretional income each month. This is the blessing of God to givers to God.

God gets glory from your gift

The benefactor of your gift gives thanksgiving to God. When a person receives a blessing that they did not expect, they recognize it from God! The recipients of the gift will also glorify God.