Sowing and Reaping

And now we pray together. Thank You, Father, that our faith can grow, that we can go from little faith to more faith, to much faith, even to great faith. Oh, help us to grow. Lord, increase our faith and help our unbelief. Especially in this area of giving, Father, we trust You for salvation, but somehow we can't trust You in material things, especially in our giving. Help us to grow in joyful giving, I pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

In 2 Corinthians 8:10-15, the Apostle Paul shares with us three principles by which God measures our giving. In 2 Corinthians 8:10-12, the principle of willingness. 2 Corinthians 8:13-14, the principle of ability. And then 2 Corinthians 8:15, the principle of faith—obedient faith. 2 Corinthians 8:10-12: And in this I give my advice; for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be willing, a year ago. I reminded you in our previous study that for a year the Corinthian church had been delaying in their giving. They had promised Titus a year before that they really wanted to share in this offering. 

Now you'll remember that this offering was really a missionary offering. Paul was receiving gifts from the Gentile churches and he was going to take all of these gifts to the poor Christians in Jerusalem. They had gone through a difficult time; there was persecution, there was an economic problem, there had even been a famine, and there were multitudes of people who needed help in the Jerusalem church. And Paul saw this much more than as a welfare scheme—he wasn't just simply providing food and clothing and so forth, which in itself is good—he saw this as an evidence of spiritual life, the unity of God's people. 

For a full year Paul had been boasting about the Corinthian church. But now it seemed that his boasting was going to turn out to be very empty and the whole thing an embarrassment. You know why? Well, the Corinthian church had promised to share in the missionary offering and they had not come through. In 2 Corinthians 9:1-5, Paul reminded them that he had boasted of them in many places and that his boasting about the Corinthians had encouraged other churches to give. The Gentiles had received graciously from the Jews spiritual things, and now the Gentiles would share with the Jews in material things. That, by the way, is a fundamental principle in the Word of God: where you get your spiritual blessing is where you share your material giving. 

So Paul had a little committee arranged of three men. Titus was going to go, 2 Corinthians 8:16; another brother was going to go, 2 Corinthians 8:18, apparently he was an evangelist; and then in 2 Corinthians 8:22, a third brother was going to go, a man who had been proven diligent in his work. And these three men were going to go to Corinth and make sure that the offering had been collected. However, Paul did not want to give them the impression that he was trying to extort this money out of them. He wanted this to be a spiritual experience. 

This is why in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, the Apostle Paul uses words like grace, or bounty, or fellowship, or abundance, or service. He doesn't talk about money and so forth. He lifts giving to a higher plane. 2 Corinthians 9:5: Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort, to encourage the brethren, that they would go before unto you—that is before Paul arrived—and make up beforehand your bounty, your generous gift, of which ye had notice before—and of course for a year they had been preparing for this—as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. What he’s saying is, I want your gift to be a generous sharing; I don't want to squeeze something out of you. I don't want this to be extortion, exploiting. 

Now he tells us how this is possible. How is it possible for us to give with joy and with blessing, to give in such a way as God is glorified? Well, in these next verses, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Paul lays down four basic principles of reaping. He’s using here the image from agriculture. Paul often used different images and agriculture was one of his favorite ones. He had written to the Galatians and said whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And in the Old Testament this whole idea of sowing and reaping is applied to life. Now all of us know that we sow and we reap. This is what life is; we sow and we reap. And you reap what you sow. You can't sow carnal things, fleshly things, and reap spiritual things. Paul said to the Galatians, he that sows to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that sows to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting. And he lays down in these verses, 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, four basic principles that involve our giving—principles of reaping the harvest from our giving.

2 Corinthians 9:6 we have principle number one: it's the principle of increase. This principle says we reap in measure as we sow. 2 Corinthians 9:6: But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully—or with blessings—shall reap also bountifully—that is with blessing. Now this is true in nature, isn't it? A farmer who just sows one seed is only going to get a small harvest. A farmer who sows many seeds in his field is likely to get a bigger harvest. Jesus said in John 12:24, unless a corn of wheat, a grain of wheat is sown in the ground and dies, it abides alone; it cannot reproduce. But if it dies, it'll bring forth much fruit. So in nature we see this. If you just sow a little bit, you reap a little bit. But if you sow a great deal, you'll reap a great deal. Now this is also true in grace. In the realm of God's grace, we reap in measure as we sow. 

Our Lord Jesus had something to say about that when He talked about giving, because the Lord Jesus had a great deal to say about giving. Luke 6:38: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. In other words, if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully. If you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. The law of increase. If you want your harvest to increase, you have to increase the sowing.

Now this means the more we share, the more God blesses in the harvest. The more that we invest, the more dividends there will be. The more seed we plant, the more God will bring fruitfulness. By the way, we have to remember that our Heavenly Father was not sparing in His giving, was He? Romans 8:32: He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

Now if God could give to us His very best, what does that mean for our giving? You see, you are determining your own harvest. Don't complain, don't complain if your harvest is a meager one. I'm not talking about money now; I'm talking about fullness of life. I'm talking about the whole of life. If we are living and giving, if our living is giving, then God will bountifully bless. He’ll always meet our needs, and even beyond that He will give to us in our hearts the kind of Christian character and blessing that we cannot buy in the supermarket. Listen to Proverbs 12:24: The hand of the diligent shall bear rule: but the slothful shall be under tribute. You know what that means? That means that when you are diligent, God makes a king out of you. You reign in life. When you're lazy, you find yourself under obligation. Now the Word of God makes it very, very clear that apart from God's blessing there can be no harvest. So what you sow, you're going to reap, and how you sow, you are going to reap. The law of increase: we reap in measure as we sow. 

Now there's a second law found in 2 Corinthians 9:7. I call this the law of intent. You reap if you sow with the right motives. You see, if you stopped at 2 Corinthians 9:6, somebody would say, "Oh my, then I'm going to give a lot of money away. I'm going to give money away and then God's going to make me rich." Oh no, watch verse 7 now. The motive is important. The law of intent: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart. Now we ran across this, didn't we, back in chapter eight where he tells us that God looks upon the heart. 2 Corinthians 8:12: For if there be first a willing mind, a ready mind, it is accepted. 2 Corinthians 9:7: Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Am I giving out of a willing heart? God does not see the hand gift, God sees the heart gift. I read somewhere, and can't recall where, about a man, a rather well-to-do man who had gone to church and he thought he had dropped ten dollars into the offering plate, but it had been a hundred dollars. And his wife was somewhat stunned at this and driving home from church she said, "Honey, did you mean to put a hundred dollars in the offering plate?" He said, "No, I put in ten." She said, "No sir, you put in a hundred." "Well," he said, "then I'll get credit for a hundred." She said, "Oh no, you'll just get credit for ten." Now she hit the nail on the head, didn't she? Let's suppose that instead of putting in a dollar bill, I put in a ten-dollar bill. My willingness was to give a dollar. God saw my heart. Even though I gave ten dollars, I'm going to get credit for one dollar in the records of heaven, because that's what my heart said. 

You see, motive is important in the Christian life. Now motive makes no difference to a farmer. You drive through the farmlands of your country and you watch the farmer sowing; his motive may be very bad. He may be sowing that seed to get money to do some evil thing. That won't stop the seed from growing. Motive makes very little difference as far as physical sowing is concerned, but it makes a great deal of difference as far as spiritual sowing is concerned. Why do we give? Do we give just to get honor? Do we give to get back? Do we give just to have pride in our hearts? Do we give to compete with other Christians?

Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 9:7 that there are three kinds of givers: there are the sad givers, and the mad givers, and the glad givers. Did you know that? So let him give, not grudgingly. That's the sad giver. That's the one who it just—it hurts him. It's a duty. Oh, he does it, but he does it so grudgingly. He's the sad giver. And then there's the mad giver—of necessity. He has to give. He's been forced to give. There's been pressure, there's been demand. That hurts. But then there's the glad giver. The Lord loves a cheerful giver. The Word of God makes it clear that if we do something from our hearts, God can bless it. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. So there is the law of intent. If our motive is right, then God can bless our giving and our giving will be a blessing to us.

Now what are the motives for giving? Well, first of all, of course, because we love God. That's the highest motive of all. We don't give grudgingly because God commands it. We don't give of necessity because the circumstances demand it. That kind of a person is very unhappy. That kind of a person is just constantly under bondage. We give because we love the Lord Jesus Christ. We give because He has first of all given to us. Giving is not just what we do; giving is what we are. 

And the law of intent says if you'll sow with the right motives, you will reap. Now remember when we talk about reaping, we aren't talking simply about money. We aren't just saying that if you'll be faithful to give to God, you'll become rich. Oh no, nowhere in the Bible are we taught that. What we're told is that God will bless what we give and God will meet all of our needs and we will grow spiritually.

This leads to the third law: the law of immediacy. 2 Corinthians 9:8-11. Not only do we reap in measure as we sow—that's the law of increase. Not only do we reap as we sow with right motives—that's the law of intent. But we reap while we are sowing. That's the law of immediacy. Look at 2 Corinthians 9:8: And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work.

Now when does that happen? Now! Wouldn't it be amazing if the farmer reaped while he was sowing? You know a lot of folks have the idea that when we give to the Lord, we have to wait for the harvest when we get to heaven, you know, laying up treasures in heaven. That's not true. Oh, there are treasures in heaven, and we will be rewarded for our faithful giving when we get to glory. But 2 Corinthians 9:8-11 inform me there is an immediate harvest. Right now today, God gives us a harvest. We reap the harvest physically and materially; we reap the harvest in the enrichment spiritually. Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 9:8 that when you give material things, they really are not material—they're spiritual. When you dedicate what you have to God and share it with Him and with others, God transforms it. 

God is able to make all grace abound toward you. Now that's good. I'd be glad to reap all grace, to have all the grace of God available to me—His keeping grace and His supplying grace and His grace abounding—that ye always having all sufficiency. That word sufficiency means you are capable of facing life. It's the word Paul uses: he's learned to be sufficient in all things, he's learned to be content in all things. It means adequacy for life. Always having all sufficiency in all things.

Now that's a marvelous thing. How do you get it? By being faithful in giving. If we give with the right motive, and if we give to glorify God, and if giving is a part of our heart—we aren't doing it grudgingly or because we're forced to do it—we do it happily. Then an amazing thing happens: we experience God's grace, we experience God's sufficiency in all things, and then we abound to every good work. God gives us what we need to do His work. What he's saying in 2 Corinthians 9:8 is simply, if you're willing to give, God will make you able to give. And if you're willing to give, God will make you sufficient to live. Isn't that good? You could live on that today, my friend. The law of immediacy says as we are sowing, we are reaping today, right now, in our own hearts and lives. God is supplying all that we need—all sufficiency and enough to spare. Well, don't forget these laws. Be sure that you know that your giving comes from your heart.

[Interview]

Arnie Cole: Warren, before I became a Christ follower, I really worshipped money. Now that's reversed in my life, but money is still a source of temptation and confusion for believers. So how do we know where to give, what to give, and how do we prioritize where our money goes?

Warren Wiersbe: My wife and I just prayed early in our marriage, "Now Lord, show us what You want us to do with what You give us." Because after all, we are not owners, we're stewards. Stewardship means this belongs to the boss, but He's given me the privilege to distribute it. And we've learned the hard way that there are some things you don't want to support. I think my first responsibility is to my local church. Let the one who's being taught in the word share with those who are teaching. Now we have so much; when we compare ourselves with anybody in other parts of the world, we are wealthy. We have wealth untold. But it belongs to God, it doesn't belong to me. And so what we have to do is simply say, "Now Lord, we have this much money, You gave it to us, it's Yours, show us how to use it." And you know, He does. We've had some interesting experiences. Here is this work, or here is this preacher, or here is this—and after we give to the church, as we feel we should because the people who teach me, I should support them. But these other ministries that are so necessary, we were able also to give to them.

Arnie Cole: So Warren, someone today is listening that is experiencing severe financial trouble. Can you give them some encouragement?

Warren Wiersbe: Well, nowhere in the Bible are we told that we will escape tears and pain. Nowhere. Jesus said in this world you're going to have tribulation. You don't get into the kingdom of God being carried on a throne. We all have experienced it. Death, the ultimate—we've been through it. And the answer, of course, to that is that we trust God for everything and never, ever think He has abandoned you because you've had to bury a loved one or because you've lost a job. He hasn't abandoned you. He's told you point blank: I will never leave you nor forsake you. The thing we have to remember is anything I go through, Jesus has already gone through it. And so number one, I've got one person on my side, and He can't fail. Over and over again, I have seen in my own life, in the churches where I've pastored, that the people who just walk with God, who trust Him, who claim His promises—they come through fine. Those who argue with God have problems. And so if there's someone listening now who's going through a difficulty and you're saying, "Where's God?" I'll tell you where He is: He's on the throne of the universe. He's running everything the way He wants to run it, and we do not live on explanations, we live on promises. You just find some good promises in the Bible and hang on to them.