Did you know that in the Bible mentions:
• Pray or prayer 289 times,
• Love 363 times, and
• Give or giving 1043 times?
God has put a tremendous emphasis on giving in His word. Why?
Because we are naturally selfish and stingy so giving is hard for us, - But God challenges us to give
• Give of our time,
• Give of our finances
• Give our talents
As we do, we increase the kingdom of God here on this earth and receive material, spiritual and emotional blessings in our lives.
I want to bring to your attention three principles about giving this morning
• They are principles that I have learned from an Andy Stanley book entitled, “Fields of Gold” Which is the best book I have ever read on the subject of Giving.
• The book deeply moved me and I would like to share with the things the Holy Spirit emphasized to my heart as I read it
• Each principle is a question
• Main thoughts taken from 2 Cor. 9:6-10
• Please turn there with me & let’s read this passage
Is the Seed In The Barn?
2 Cor. 9:6-10 -- As we read this something is brought out clearly by the Lord
A. The Law of the Harvest applies to your finances
• Yes, the principle of sowing and reaping applies to your giving
We have to have a farming or gardening mentality when it comes to our finances
• This simple observation can revolutionize your perspective on generosity if you really take it to heart
What is the Law of the Harvest? Three simple things:
1) We reap later than we sow
• We don’t sow some seed and expect the next day for a plant to come up. It takes watering, sunshine and time
• So it is with our generosity. We do not reap a return immediately. It takes time, faith & thanksgiving
• But rest assured, just as a seed will produce a plant, your generosity will result in a return – just later
2) We reap more than we sow
• Plant an apple seed – that yields an apple tree
• That apple tree produces apples that all have many seeds in them
• The one seed will produce hundreds of apples, hundreds of seeds
• We are told here in no uncertain terms that this applies to our giving.
• 2 Cor 9:10 – “multiply the seed that is sown”
3) We reap in proportion of what we sow
“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously” 2 Corinthians 9:6-7 (NIV)
• There is a correlation between how much you give and how much blessings you will receive.
• Just as in farming - The more you sow, the more you will reap
This principle has been taken to extremes – we hear of all kinds of crazy promises from radio and TV preachers –
“Send me a dollar and God will give you 10 back!”
This principle is wrongly used so as to make people think it is a way for God to make them rich.
• Kind of like a heavenly slot machine – put in a dollar, hit three bars and get a bucketful of money
• Paul wasn’t talking to people who were trying to get rich
• He wasn’t trying to get their money. He already had it
• He wants us to go beyond our fear of giving and cross the line to generosity.
• He wants us to know that it is safe to obey God and give.
• This is good news for people who have a problem with giving
When you give away something valuable, it feels like a loss.
• You had something, not you don’t – so you don’t feel motivated to give more
• Here the bible puts it is a different light, a way that we should think about giving
• It is saying that If we give to God’s work, you are not giving something away, but sowing a seed
• It is not a loss, but an investment that will bring returns
The farmer doesn’t lose seed when he plants it in the ground, he gains a crop.
Is Your Seed Still In the Barn? – show power pt. picture of seed sacks sitting in a barn
What rational farmer would say:
“I can’t sow my seed that I have in my barn, because then I would not have any seed any more. What would happen if I needed this seed?”
• Any farmer or gardener knows that if they want a crop, they have to sow their seed.
It doesn’t benefit him to stuff his pockets full, neither does it do any good to pray,
“Oh God, please give me a crop. I not sure I can sow any seed, but God I am trusting you to get involved. I am believing you to give me a crop, but I am holding onto my seed.”
• The logical, wise thing to do is to sow financial seed in giving to the work of the Lord.
• When we give to the Lord, he promises here that it will be just like sowing seed in a farm – you will reap if you sow
The only question for us is: Is the seed still in the barn?
This investment - Sowing has a material as well as a spiritual side to it.
Material side to it is this – as you give, God will supply your needs as well as more resources for giving
2 Cor 9:10-11 – read
• The seed that is in the barn can cause you miss out on financial blessings that God wants to give you
• There is more than giving as sowing seed so we can receive more money from God
There is another way this seed can stay in the barn that has more impact on our spiritual lives
Spiritual: Giving increases your spiritual rewards. There is a spiritual return for your giving
God is up to something in this world and needs our finances to accomplish it.
When we get involved with Him in sowing and giving, we are taking our place in a plan that is much bigger than our life,
• Bigger than our world
• Bigger than our wants
• Bigger than our sack of seed.
We are participating in God’s plan, His agenda for the world
What is God’s agenda?
God is concerned about the poor and the Great Commission. --- That is what He is about
• He has made a promise to care for the poor people and made a promise that the world will be evangelized.
• He is committed to those objectives - Those objectives are going to cost money
• God will get the money from somewhere, but he would rather partner with his people who are trustworthy stewards and managers to participate with Him
By voluntarily using some of their finances to fund his interests
Why would God drain you of all your resources and then not replenish them to accomplish what he is committed to doing?
If you are a partner with God in spreading the Gospel and helping the poor, why would he hinder your ability to give?
• God invites us to partner with him in these two objectives.
• When we do, our lives can take on a whole new meaning and purpose
By giving to these objectives, it stores up a treasure for us in heaven
There is a spiritual return on your giving investment - 2 Cor 9:10 - read
What money you spend down here – it some sense, it is lost forever
• The money you give to God’s purposes, the seed you sow into God’s agenda has eternal consequences
• We need to get a hold of this. There is a movie clip that I think will bring this home – it deeply moved me and I know it will deeply move you
We going to see a scene about a true story of a man by the name of Oscar Schindler.
• He traded money, gold rings, things of value to save the lives of Jews during WWII as he employed them in his factory
• This scene shows the end of the war and a bunch of grateful Jewish people for his generous and courageous actions in saving so many of them
Movie Clip – Schindler’s List – (Side 2) 0:44:53 - 0:47:53
Oscar Schindler was a hero. He is credited for saving more lives during WWII than any other single person
• As he looked back and realized that he could have saved more, he was overwhelmed with regret that he could have done more
• We can learn a powerful lesson about giving from this example.
• Because in the same way, many Christians will look back in their lives and wish they had given more!
Money spent down here is gone. Partnering with God in His agenda will reap great rewards and will last for eternity –
Giving can increase the harvest of your righteousness – 2 Cor 9:10
• That’s a picture of generous giving – “The honor of it is lasting, the reward of it eternal, and the giver is still able to life comfortably himself and to give liberally to others.”
What Are You Afraid Of?
I call this principle The Fear Factor –
Milton Scott story, Fields of Gold, Andy Stanley ppg 24-26 - read
When you were hearing Milton Scott’s story, how did you feel?
• For most of us, giving outlandish portions of our money elicits a sense of fear.
• When challenged with the idea of giving or giving more, most experience fear.
What if God challenged you to give beyond your comfort level. Would you be afraid?
What if he challenged you to give 15% of your income?
• 20%?
• 40%?
Would you try to explain it away or dismiss it as impractical?
In the process of explaining it away, you would miss out on a harvest opportunity for which God has prospered you for in the first place
• Sowing in faith results in an eternal crop. Cowering in fear yields empty fields
• It is like seed still in the barn
• We get used to rationalize around any challenge to be generous and grow numb to them
We discount stories like Milton Scott as an unattainable extreme
• We put them into the category of a Mother Teresa or some other example that we will never live up to.
Everyone has a threshold when it comes to giving.
• Whether it is a dollar amount or a percentage, there will come a giving level that will make us uneasy.
That uneasiness is a wall of fear
o Until you recognize it, you will never be able to break through it.
By nature the concept of generosity is in direct conflict with the concept of self-preservation.
• There is a point where generosity will pose a direct threat to your own well-being,
• The potential of not having enough is a reality for everyone
o so it is only natural to feel torn between the desire to give and share and the desire to protect yourself.
• Your spirit wants to be generous, but your emotions register fear!
Fear is the main thing that keeps Christians from stepping out of their comfort zone to give
Let’s talk about fear for a moment. How can one successfully deal with fear?
Fear can’t be avoided, but leveraged
All fears have a pecking order – some fears rank higher than other fears
• The way to fight fear – leverage it with a greater fear. Fear replaces fear
This happens all the time.
• Fear of going to the dentist is outweighed by fear of loosing your teeth to neglect
• Fear of going to college is replaced by fear of not having a good financial future
Bottom Line: Fear is here to stay. It is at the core of our humanity.
• So many spend much of their time and effort avoiding fear but for all their efforts, it never goes away.
• Not a single generation has managed to exist fear-free.
Fear can’t be avoided, but leveraged
When it comes to your money, What should you fear the most?
• Fear that the economy is going to collapse?
• Fear that we will not have enough?
What sets of concerns should drive your financial decisions?
Our primary fear should be facing our financial future without our heavenly Father being involved.
It comes to this:
What do you fear the most: 1) Not having enough or 2) not having God involved in your finances?
You answer to that question will determine what you do for the future.
Jesus addresses this attitude of fear in the parable of the talents
• Matt 25:24,25 - read
A new fear gripped the servants heart – something worse than the one he had entertained when he buried his talent.
This steward failed to asses his fears, prioritize his fears.
Movie Clip – Lemony Snickets - 0:48:02 - 0:50:52
• Start Cue: Eye in peep-hole - End Cue: "Careful, don’t get a paper cut"
Our fears down here will seem as silly as this lady’s. Jesus tells us who and what to fear the most
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” Matt. 10:28-31 (NASB)
Let me ask you one more time,
• What do you fear the most, not having enough or not having the involvement of you heavenly Father in your finances?
If the uncertainty of your future is your greatest concern, you will seek first your own kingdom
If your greatest fear missing out on God’s involvement in your finances, then you will seek first His Kingdom
That fear has to trump all other fears of not having enough, of the economy, of the future
• If you fear God over all other fears, You will sow generously, intentionally
This is the healthy way to live
• The famous psychiatrist, Karl Menninger has stated that one sign of mental health is the ability to release money -- give it away. Think -- How many generous people do you know who exhibit mental instability?
• It is often the stingy, controlling person who is neurotic.
• One way to contribute to your mental health is to practice generosity.
There is something that is better than leveraging fear with fear.
• That would be the experiencing joy that motivates you to give.
• This is a better way to deal with our worry and fear.
Giving from joy is better than giving out of fear. - 2 Cor 9:7
“Let each one [give] as he has made up his own mind and purposed in his heart, not reluctantly or sorrowfully or under compulsion, for God loves (He takes pleasure in, prizes above other things, and is unwilling to abandon or to do without) a cheerful (joyous, “prompt to do it”) giver [whose heart is in his giving]. 2 Corinthians 9:7 (AMP)
• It will not happen instantly, but you will know that you have arrived when the thrill of making a spiritual impact because of your giving begins to fill you will joy.
• As we enter into the joy of living in a financial partnership with our heavenly Father giving becomes an exciting, passion-filled act of worship.
• It is moving from the “have to” to the “want to”
You can’t get to there until you deal with your fears
Is giving a passionate act of worship? Does it bring you joy?
God wants to draw you in on a journey where it does bring untold joy.
Story of Donald Rauer – the accidental philanthropist – pg 123, Fields of Gold, Andy Stanley
What’s In Your Wallet?
When we give, we invite God’s involvement in our finances
When give to God’s purposes, the Almighty God gets personally involved with our every day financial dealings,
2 Cor 9:10-11
• Now, if God can get involved in your finances, then the converse it true:
We can keep God out of being involved in our finances.
• God can be on the sidelines, watching you struggle financially or be actively involved as your financial partner
Your finances are a area of your life in which you can begin to experience an interactive relationship with your heavenly Father.
• You have to invite him in. I think you already believe this.
• You believe that God can intervene directly to change your financial picture.
I have seem many people who have been in financial trouble and I have never heard anyone pray:
“God, I have withheld from you all these years while I have followed my own plan and yes, I have gotten into this financial mess following my own plan, but I still think my plan will work. So I will figure things out and You can go help someone else”
• No! When there is a financial catastrophe, we suddenly want and expect God involved in our finances!
• We no longer enjoy managing our own money so we Desperately try to persuade God to come to our rescue.
Have you ever reached that point?
When you do, your prayer will sound something like this:
“Oh, God, HELP! Please send some money, please do something! Anything! I am listening!”
• That prayer reflects that you have come to a point that you have acknowledged that God controls everything
• You have faith and ask that He move some money here or there or take some financial pressure off of you.
• In that moment, you are convinced that He can make a big difference in your finances.
What keeps us from asking Him, involving Him now, before the bottom drops out?
• If we know deep in our hearts that God can intervene directly in our finances and in our life like that, what are we waiting for?
• Doesn’t it make sense to position ourselves to receive his intervention as soon and as often as possible?
• If you can trust God to bail you out of a financial emergency, doesn’t it make sense that He can keep you from getting into one in the first place?
What is more rational?
Jesus spoke directly about this situation -- Matt 6:25, 31-33 (read)
Most of our budget concerns fall into the areas that Jesus mentioned here.
• Jesus says not to worry about them. Instead, we should focus on something else – His Kingdom
• And when we do, He promises that our physical needs will be taken care of.
• You have heard this passage numerous times, but have you really taken to heart what he is saying?
What if you got up tomorrow and instead of thinking about making a living, you thought about giving?
• “After I work this week, I can’t wait for payday because I really need to make another gift to my church and to the missionaries.”
• “I am thinking about taking another job so we can support more missionaries, and oh yeah, we did have some money left over, so go buy some food with it.”
We don’t think like that do we?
• We get up and go to work so we can primarily get something to eat. Once our needs are met then we might think about giving.
• Jesus is saying here, hey, from now one, it is going to be the other way around!
• He took Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and turned them upside down.
• That is enough to cause fear in all of us!
Investment strategy Marshal Wolowitz - People who are used to giving are generally more responsible with the rest of their finances.
Set God’s interests first = all the other things are set in order
There is a new deal that Jesus is saying here. A new deal for anyone who will wholeheartedly follow Him
When you make God’s kingdom your first priority, He promises to provide what you need to live.
• In essence, He is saying, “If you will be about My needs – taking care of the poor and making disciples, I will be about your needs”
• Just like you and me, Jesus’ audience lived in a world of financial uncertainties.
• He promised that if they made him their primary concern, He would with certainty, meet their needs.
This is amazing. We are invited into a partnership with God, a symbiotic relationship.
• A holy, all-powerful God devising a mutually beneficial arrangement with me that I can play a part in His work with Him, bringing His plans to fruition.
• As long as you are in partnership with Him, he makes sure that you get everything you need, when you need it.
That is his offer.
That should dispel all your fears about giving.
• In fact, there is only one thing that you should fear when it comes to giving – holding back on God to the extent that He is no longer involved in your financial life
Now, we all have a choice to make. If you want God involved in your finances, you need to put your finances to work for God’s interests.
• That means you need to give.
• It might mean a percentage of your paycheck, it might mean a pre-determined amount
• You need to listen to His Holy Spirit and obey.
If you don’t want Him involved or aren’t sure, that’s ok. But I will make a prediction
• There ill come a day when you realize your need for Him
• When the financial going gets tough enough and your fear of God exceeds your fear of trusting in yourself, you will call for His help• It is only a matter of time
Yes, Jesus’ words are difficult. They fly in the face of human logic and fear.
• How can giving result in my needs being met?
• How can subtracting from my monthly cash flow add to it?
• How can stepping toward financial uncertainty lead to the greatest financial security?
• You’ll never know until you try it.
God won’t force His way into your wallet.
• He waits for us to invite Him to be the Lord of our possessions and to be involved in our finances.
• It is not about giving to get. It’s not about getting on God’s welfare program
• It is about neutralizing the fears that have been hindering the spirit of generosity in you.
• It is about discovering the thrill of taking part in God’s plan for this earth and experiencing Him taking care of You.
Conclusion
Is the Seed In The Barn?
• The Law of the Harvest applies to your finances
What Are You Afraid Of?
• Our primary fear should be facing our financial future without our heavenly Father being involved.
What’s in your Wallet? –
• We are partners with God in our finances
