Seven Results of Generous Giving

Well, today we're going to conclude our examination of 2 Corinthians chapter 9. You remember that Paul is writing to encourage the church at Corinth to fulfill the financial commitment they made to the project offering for the persecuted saints in Jerusalem. Their generous commitment made a year before prompted a sacrificial commitment from the churches of Macedonia and now a year has passed and Corinth has not kept pace with their giving and is therefore in danger of failing to fulfill their commitment. Paul is coming and is bringing with him some from the churches of Macedonia and he recognizes that this could be a great problem, a great embarrassment if they have not fulfilled that which they committed themselves to do. And so Paul devotes two chapters in 2 Corinthians to help them make good on their promise, chapters 8 and 9.

Two weeks ago we took up the last part of chapter 8, exactly where we left off back in March when COVID first hit. Last week we took up the first seven verses of chapter 9 as we covered five reasons to give generously. Today we take up verses 8 through 15 and we'll examine seven results of generous giving.

There's a lot in this portion. I could easily break it down into two or three messages but I would like to conclude here it's a good place to come to another stop as we next Lord's Day we'll be looking at our missions month theme text which is 2 Timothy 2.25 that they may know the truth and that'll be our text for next Sunday's sermon. And then it won't be long until we're moving into December where we generally focus on text relating to the incarnation and it'll be January before we come back to resume our study in 2 Corinthians so I really wanted to finish up chapter 9 today. So yes, seven reasons or seven results rather of generous giving.

We'll try to cover them quickly but the first one is going to be a little longer because it is the longest one. And the first result of generous giving is that you will experience increased wealth. That's verses 8 through 11. Three and a half verses that Paul devotes to that subject. And it is actually an expansion of verse 6 where Paul said, But this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. And then he picks that up again in verse 8 when he says God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work and so forth. We'll work down through these verses in just a moment.

The result number one is that you will experience increased wealth. Now this is one of those things that if it were not in God's word and so conspicuous in God's word, so emphatic in God's word, in fact it's so repeatedly found in God's word that preachers might be reluctant to talk about it because we might sound like one of those shysters who is promising you great wealth if you will give to him. And here it is. It is a promise in the word of God and last week we looked at it in terms of a reason to give those who so bountifully will reap also bountifully. It's a wonderful promise. But here in this section it is couched more in terms of a result from our generous giving. And if you give generously to God, God tells you that you will experience increased wealth.

And we'll break that down. We see first in verse 8 what God is able to do. Secondly in verse 9 what God intends to do and third in verses 10 and the first part of verse 11 what God has promised to do. Number one what God is able to do.

Again verse 8. And God is able. God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work. God is able.

We could put a period right there and camp on that thought for a while. God is able and he surely is and we think about the power of God. The greatness of God. The ability of God. The unlimited power and ability of God. Then we have no difficulty talking about God being able to do anything except sin. Anything except contradict himself and his own character and so if we are talking about material resources certainly God is able to increase them. We don't have any problem believing that.

Every one of us believe that to be true. We know that God is able to make all grace abound toward you and in the context he's talking about the grace of giving. God is able to make the grace of giving abound in your life. God is able to provide sufficiently so that you can be involved in giving in all things in all areas in all opportunities in all good projects of giving that come your way that are an opportunity for you to give. Yes, God is able to give to you so that you can give to every good work.

That's what this verse is saying. God can provide for you to give generously. God is able to do that. Do you believe that? Amen. God is able.

Surely all of us believe that. Now when it comes down to will God do that for me that may be a different matter but we can start with this first thing and nail it down. We know that God is able. It reminds me of that text I think in the Psalms. Is God able to provide a table in the wilderness? Speaking about the children of Israel and their need for food in the wilderness and God's promise to supply and the incredulity of some of those people about God being able to supply. Where is God going to supply?

He's promising meat out here in the wilderness. Is God able to furnish a table in the wilderness? And the answer is yes, yes, yes, God is able. Don't doubt it for a moment. God is able. Amen. I believe that.

You believe that. Let's nail that one down and move on what God is able to do. What God intends to do.

This is getting a little closer to home. It's nice to talk about in general terms what God is able to do out there somewhere for other people. We know what he can do but now what does he intend to do and that's verse 9 where Paul by the Spirit of God quotes from Psalm 112 verse 9 where he says, As it is written, that's a clue that he is getting ready to quote scripture. As it is written, and here's the quotation, he has dispersed abroad. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. This is a citation word for word in the Greek in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament of Psalm 112 verse 9.

Now what is that? What is in Psalm 112? You'll have to take my word for it. But Psalm 112, the whole Psalm is a description of a righteous person. I'll just begin reading. I can't read the, well I could but I'm not going to read the entire Psalm but let me just show you how the Psalm begins. Praise the Lord. Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments. It starts out talking about this blessed man.

It sounds like Psalm 1. Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly. Well here's another Psalm that talks about the God blessed man. Verse 2, His descendants will be mighty on earth.

The generation of the upright will be blessed. And so it talks about the blessings of his children. It talks about other blessings that are true in the lives of those who are righteous, who believe in God, who submit to his word, who follow his ways. There are certain things that are characteristic of righteous people and verse 9 tells us that a righteous person is a generous giver. When it says he has dispersed abroad, that's not God, that's the righteous man of Psalm 112.

When it says he has given to the poor, that's not talking about God, that's talking about the righteous man of Psalm 112 verse 9. When it says his righteousness endures forever, that again is talking about this righteous man. Commentators are not all agreed as to what that phrase means as it's talking about his eternal life and the rewards of his righteousness that go on through eternity, which certainly is true. Or is it saying that his righteous benevolence, which seems to fit the context better, is going to endure basically to the end of his life upon earth.

It's going to go on forever as long as he lives. Because he is generous in his giving, God is going to extend his ability to give to the very end of his life. And in the whole context of that Psalm and certainly in the context of 2 Corinthians chapter 9, that appears to be what Psalm is saying. But this is telling us what God intends to do. In other words, this is God's description of a righteous person. This is God's design to work these characteristics in all of his people. This is the development of righteousness within the lives of God's people. God does a lot of things in the lives of his people. The outworkings of grace that God gives to his people manifest themselves in a lot of different ways, and not all of them are found in Psalm 112, but a good many of them are.

But this is one of them. This is not something outside the realm of what God is doing, what God designs to do in the lives of his people. One of the things that God designs to do in the lives of his people is to make them generous givers and to enable them to give generously as long as they live.

I didn't say it. God's Word says it. I wouldn't dare say it if it were not clearly told us in the Word of God. So number one, what is God able to do? Well, he's able to supply whatever you need to enable you to give generously. Number two, what does God intend to do? God intends to work the grace of giving in your life if you're a child of God. God intends for this expression of his righteousness to be manifested in your life along with many other expressions of righteousness. That's what God intends to do. But then number three, what has God promised to do? Verses 10 and 11.

Because God intends to do it, he's going to do it, and here's what he promises. Now, may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality. Now, in my version, we have to get to verse 11 before we find a clear statement of promise, but actually verse 10, I think properly translated, is also a statement of promise. It's not translated that way in my version. It's translated in my version more like a prayer, a desire, a wish that God may do this for you. But commentators are agreed that this actually is a declaration. I read that first in the commentary by Charles Hodge on 2 Corinthians, and he's dealing with the old King James text, and it looks very much like this one where it looks like a wish, a desire, a prayer for God's people, but he said emphatically, that's not what this is.

This is a promise. This is a declaration of what God has promised to do. And therefore, this is the way it is translated in both, and these two translations are almost identical at this point.

Both the New American Standard and the ESV translate it like this. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. The God who provides seed for the farmer to sow in the earth, where does that seed come from? We know, not all farmers know, believing farmers know, but we know who provides that seed, God does. God provides the seed to be sown.

God provides bread for food. God will supply and multiply your seed for sowing, the seed of giving, back to verse 6, he who sows sparingly or he who sows bountifully. God will supply the seed you need to sow to sow bountifully in your giving and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched, verse 11, you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, is the way the ESV puts it. In other words, God will increase your resources to enable you to give with increasing generosity.

He does that for those who desire to give. Now the question is, how do we know if we truly desire to give? How do we measure that desire to know if it's a strong desire, it's a genuine desire?

And it's not really mysterious, it's not really simple, it's not really difficult, it's not really subjective, we don't have to weigh the intensity. Do I want this hard enough? Do I want this strong enough that God sees that and will give me what is needed to make it happen?

No, it's very, very simple. It is found in the evidence of your record of giving right now. If you desire to give more, you're already giving what you can. Don't tell me how much you'll give when God makes you rich if you aren't given anything now that you're poor.

Come on. The evidence of your desire to give is that you are giving what you are able, that each one according to his ability, you may not have much ability, but if you have a real genuine desire to give, you are giving. You are giving.

You are giving what you can. You are giving what God has supplied. And what God says is, for those who have a desire to give generously, because they're already giving as generously as they are able, God will enable you to do more.

God will increase the seed of your sowing. Because the evidence of your desire to give is in your deeds, not in your words or thoughts. But to those who desire to give, God promises the ability to fulfill that desire. If that's what you desire, God honors that desire, God loves that desire, God encourages that desire, God enables that desire. Because we saw in the passage for last Sunday, the Lord loves a cheerful giver, doesn't he? He loves a cheerful giver.

Therefore, if you desire to be one, God's going to enable you to be one. Some of you are looking at me like, I don't know. I don't know. What's the first result of generous giving? You will experience increased wealth. Because number one, of what God is able to do, verse eight. Number two, of what God intends to do, verse nine. And number three, because of what God promises to do, verses 10 and 11.

All right, now we move on to number two, and the others will go more quickly. What's the second result from generous giving? You will multiply praise to God. That's the last part of verse 11, and in verse 12 and in verse 13. Verse 11, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving, which causes thanksgiving, your liberal giving causes thanksgiving through us to God. For the administration of the service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God.

Verse 13, while through the proof of this ministry, they, the ones who receive these gifts glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them and all men. For this they do, what did the first part of the verse say? They glorify God. They give thanksgiving to God. They give thanksgiving to God. Thanksgiving, verse 11, Thanksgiving, verse 12, and glorify God, verse 13. Your giving produces thanksgiving in the hearts of those who receive it, in this case the Jerusalem Saints. Your giving causes others to glorify God, the same people, verse 13. They will glorify God, those who are the recipients of your giving, who also know the Lord.

Because of your liberal sharing with them. This is a wonderful truth and one we need to understand. There's different levels of benevolence. Secular benevolence has one goal, to meet the needs of others. They want to help poor people not to be poor. They want to help hungry people not to be hungry.

There can be. There is this kind of benevolence in the hearts of some people who don't know the Lord. It's a result of God's common grace in their lives. So the goal of secular benevolence is to meet needs. The goal of false religious benevolence is to earn merit with God.

Maybe to meet needs too, but to earn merit with God. I give so I can earn eternal life. I give so I can gain merit with God in some way.

That's false religious benevolence. But for true God-pleasing benevolence, the goal is to bring greater glory to God. Why do you give? To honor God. Why do you give? To give glory to God. Why do you give? To increase thanksgiving to God.

Why do you give? To enlarge the glory that others give to God. It is a way of multiplying glory to God.

That is a result of generous giving. You will multiply praise to God. God honoring giving helps accomplish the goal of giving glory to God. Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. And whether you eat or drink or whether you are giving, you are doing it to the glory of God. And when you give in a God-honoring way, it increases glory to God.

Number three. What is the third result of generous giving? The third result is you will minister to needs. That's not irrelevant.

It's true. Your giving helps meet needs. It's not the highest goal, which is to bring glory to God, but it's a real goal and a God-honoring goal. You are going to minister to needs. Verse 12, For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God. Verse 13, While through the proof of this ministry they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ, for your liberal sharing with them and all men. This is what James in his epistle calls pure religion. James 1.27, Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this, to visit orphans and widows in their trouble or in their need. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, to visit.

That isn't just stop by and say howdy. To visit, to give, to help in a tangible way widows and orphans in their trouble, in their needs, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world. So ministering to the needs of others is very much a result of your generous giving. It's a good one. It's a good one.

But what is result number four? That is this one, you will validate your profession of faith. You're a Christian, you say you're a Christian, how do you show it? And James deals with that in his epistle quite a bit. Don't just say it with your word, show it with your life.

Don't just tell me that you are a Christian, but show me by the change that God has made in your life. And if you'll think about the book of James, you'll realize that giving is one of those big ways that James tells us to show that we are genuine Christians. I just read verse 27 of chapter 1 from the book of James, giving for the needs of widows and orphans. And so this is a validation, your generous giving is a validation of your profession of faith. Your giving is proof of your faith, verse 13. Your giving demonstrates the sincerity of your faith, also verse 13. Your giving manifests God's grace at work within you, verse 14. Your giving is proof of your faith, verse 13. While through the proof of this ministry, what ministry?

The ministry of your giving to them. This benevolence offering for the persecuted saints in Jerusalem, what's it going to do? It's going to prove to them that you are genuine Christians. That was a real issue in this day because of the Jew-Gentile barriers that existed for so many centuries. There were still Christians in Jerusalem who'd never met a Gentile Christian and wondered if they really could be such a thing.

Yeah, yeah, the reports are coming back. Paul comes back from out in the Roman world and says God is at work among the Gentiles. He saved the souls of many of them.

There are many believing Gentiles out there. They're trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. They're saved. Their lives are changed. They've stopped worshipping idols.

They've stopped living in immorality. There are real Christians out there. And there are isolated Jewish believers in Jerusalem who've never gone more than 10 miles from home and they've never seen a Gentile Christian.

And they're saying is that really possible? And then here comes a magnanimous gift of financial help to needy, persecuted people from Gentiles. Proof. Proof of their faith. Your faith, Corinthians. Proof of your faith. You are real Gentile believers. And this will convince skeptical Jewish Christians if they haven't ever met a living Gentile believer in Christ before they're going to know there is such a thing. Because of the proof given by this ministry, says the New American Standard Bible.

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, says the ESV. Your giving is proof of the genuineness of your faith. And it is furthermore, verse 13, demonstration of the sincerity of your confession of faith.

Closely related. But verse 13, while the proof of this ministry, rather through the proof of this ministry, may glorify God for the obedience of your confession or profession. Your confession to the gospel of Christ.

You've made a confession of faith. Is there evidence when we talk about who should be received into the local church, we talk about those who make, you know what the terminology is? A credible profession of faith.

Some have lost that word credible along the way somewhere. Just anybody who makes a profession of faith will assume it's true and we won't look for any evidence. And consequently, lots of people are brought into membership of Baptist churches and other churches who've never been born again. No evidence of the work of God's Spirit in their hearts. They've made some kind of a profession of faith which is clearly empty.

It has changed their lives in no way. But here's one way, here's one way, not the only way, but here's one way, that you can demonstrate the credibility of your profession, your confession of faith in Jesus Christ. You have become a giver. People who hold on and won't give are writing question marks over their profession of faith.

What's wrong with you? Why haven't you been given a liberal heart? Why hasn't your heart been changed? Why hasn't God worked this grace of giving within you? Why isn't this evidence of righteousness happening within you?

You better check up. Are you sure you've been born again? Have you been truly saved or you merely have an empty profession of faith?

Again, I don't think I would be willing to say things like this if it weren't in the text and I dealing with what's there. This is what the Bible says. You're giving is proof of your faith. Giving is demonstration of your sincerity. You're giving manifests God's grace within you because that gets down to the foundation of where it all comes from. Verse 14, and by their prayer for you who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you.

Now, these folks in Jerusalem haven't even met these gentile Christians. Where are they seeing the evidence of the exceeding grace of God working in you? They've only seen it tangibly demonstrated in one way or will see it shortly. Tangibly demonstrated in one way is when Paul shows up with the gift.

There it is. The evidence of God's grace. God has changed their hearts. God has saved their souls. God does have a people among the gentiles who are as much the people of God as believing Jews. Here's the evidence of it. You're giving manifests God's grace within you.

Number five, result number five. You will stimulate the prayers of others. That's verse 14. And by their prayer for you or by prayers on your behalf, says the New American Standard. When you give in this way, those who are the objects of your giving start to pray for you. They include you in their prayers.

It's wonderful. I think one of the most touching things that I can think of over the years has been when we have sent tangible support to the struggling pastors in Zimbabwe and we get back letters that say, we're praying for you. They can't do anything else for us. But they're doing the greatest thing for us. They couldn't send us a dollar.

And why should they? We're rich and they're poor. But they can pray for us. I got word that they were praying for us because of COVID. They probably, from the reports they hear, they think COVID has just destroyed the whole country of America. That's what the news reports sound like.

It's just in shambles. That means all you Christians are no doubt in deep trouble. All your churches are in deep trouble. Oh my, oh my, we are concerned for you. We're praying for you. We're praying for you. We're praying for you.

Thank you. It may be the prayers of the Zimbabwean Christians that God is using to shelter us so that COVID, though very real, hasn't really destroyed us, hasn't it? Why not? Because God in His kindness has kept it from it.

Why has He? Maybe because the Zimbabwean pastors are praying for us. God hears the prayers of any of His true blood-bought children, but I think He especially delights to hear the prayers of the poor and the humble and the weak and the needy who cry out to Him, Don't you want them praying for you? I want them praying for me. Well, one thing I can do to stimulate their prayers is to give because God has enabled me to give.

He hasn't enabled them to serve in that way. They have other ways of serving. But God has enabled me to do that. God has enabled us to do that as a church.

So we do that, and what is one of the results? We reap the prayers of humble saints of God that most of us have never met. I thank God I've had the privilege of meeting these pastors and many of their people. But you reap the prayers of God's people in other parts of the world that you've never met, and that's a result, one of the results of your generous giving. That's a good one.

Number six, what else? You will strengthen Christian fellowship, and I base that upon just one word primarily, verse 14, and by their prayers for you who, and here's the word, long for you. They long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. They long for you.

The tangible demonstration of your love produces a personal relationship that did not exist before. They long for you. The New American Standard says they yearn for you without ever having met you. Now I'm thinking, of course this applies to the Jerusalem Saints who hadn't met these Gentiles, but having gone down that road of Zimbabwean pastors, I'm thinking about the Zimbabwean pastors, most of whom have never been more than 50 miles from home. Most of whom have never been outside their country. Most of whom haven't seen very many white people. It depends on whether they're in the city or out in the rural area. Most of them come into the city from time to time for conferences and so forth. Most of them have never met you. They don't know you personally, and yet from time to time here comes a gift to help with the famine, to help with food relief.

Here's the report. Stewart says Beacon Baptist Church has sent $3,000 to help with food. Beacon Baptist Church has sent several thousand dollars to help you folks in your time of need, and that makes you very real to them. You're real.

This money didn't come from nowhere. Obviously you're real, and they long for you. They yearn for you. They would like to meet you. They would like to fellowship with you. They would like to have the opportunity of interacting with you, an opportunity that most of them will never have until we get to heaven. It's wonderful during those occasional times when some from the states do go over and talk to them and minister to them and fulfill that desire, but they long for you. This tangible demonstration of your giving, your loving giving, creates a desire for fellowship. It makes you real to them, and it creates in them a desire for fellowship with you.

They long for you. And then number seven, result number seven. If you give generously, you will grow in your appreciation for Christ, and that's best of all. That's verse 15. Paul concludes these two chapters on giving with this wonderful statement. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift.

What's that? The gift of Christ. He gave the most. God's gift is the greatest gift. It's here called an indescribable gift. God's gift to us is so great that it cannot be adequately described. God's gift to us is so valuable that there's no way to calculate its worth.

God's gift to us has so many dimensions that we'll never explore them all. That's one of the wonderful things about coming into the doctrines of grace. It helps you understand how much richer is the gospel, how many more dimensions there are to the gospel than you thought in your earlier days when it all seemed to boil down to about three sentences, and now you realize there's a whole lot more to it. What a great gospel. What a great Christ.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. God's gift is the greatest gift, and God's gift is the greatest motive for giving. That's why Paul ends this whole section on giving with this statement. Above and beyond all the other things that Paul has said about reasons for giving and results of giving, he says this.

Here's the greatest reason of all. Why should you give? Because of the gift that God gave, the gift of His Son.

Where would you be without that? And it is because God gave that we're able to give. It is because God gave that we desire to give. The gift He gave changed us and gave us a desire. Our giving is a grateful response to the great gift which He gave to us. And God's gift, therefore, provides the greatest delight in giving. We delight to give because of what He gave to us, who He gave to us.

Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. And that's why we delight to give. That's why we don't give grudgingly, but rather cheerfully.

Why? Because we think of this great gift that God has given to us. How can we respond grudgingly to that?

How can we respond anything less than cheerfully to that? Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. And we recognize, therefore, that giving is a privilege and that giving is an act of worship. Whatever increases our love and appreciation for Christ is paramount in our thinking. And God honoring giving does that. God honoring giving at some point draws our mind back to Christ and God's gift of Christ to us.

And that's why we're doing this, and that's why we want to do this better and more. I'm not one to give a lot of personal illustrations, as you know. This one I probably have given, but it's been a pretty good while ago, and I'm sure some of you haven't heard it.

But I want to tell you about just one area in my own life where I found this to be true, that giving to God as generously as possible produces rich return from God. When our first daughter was born in 1975, Marty and I were about as poor as poor can be, really. And yet I already started thinking ahead.

How will we be able to send this beautiful young gift of God, this child, to college? I started thinking about that. I had no money.

I had no way of knowing how that would be done. And about that time, in the mail, came something from Duke Power Company. It's the only time it ever came. I never saw it before or since. And it was an opportunity, if you wanted to sign up for a way of buying Duke Power shares, shares in the company, on a monthly bank draft, automatic withdrawal from your bank account. Have you ever seen that?

I've only seen that once in my 47 years of being a Duke Power customer. It came one time in the mail, just at that time. I said, well, I really can't afford it. I can hardly buy groceries. And what was the minimum amount? You can do it with as little as $25 a month. Okay, we'll give $25 a month into the college fund.

Jordana's a wee little baby. I knew that that wasn't going to get her through college, but it was the best I could do. It was the only thing I could do.

Do what you can and trust the Lord. And I can't go through all the details. I can't even remember all the details. But I can tell you this, over the years, that fund grew in ways that I cannot explain.

I cannot explain. And I'm pretty good with numbers. I'm pretty good with finances.

And I can usually figure things out. But I cannot tell you how that little fund, as we were able to increase, we gave more to it, but still, how that little fund, at the proper time, helped four daughters go to college. It's not easy to send people to college. A lot of families decide not to, either decide not to or cannot send their children away to a brick-and-mortar college.

It's too expensive. We wanted our children to have the same opportunity we had. And so I can't explain how that fund helped four daughters to go to college and come out without debt.

Now, they worked, too. We didn't pay the whole way. We couldn't. We were crunching this fund so tight it was squeaking every day. But somehow, and then before we got done with the four daughters, the first one said, I'm going to get married. And we said, all of a sudden realized, hey, we not only have college, we've got weddings. We've got four weddings.

We've got four daughters. How are we going to afford this? Now the college fund became the college wedding fund. And weddings aren't cheap. We didn't have expensive weddings, but when you add them all together, they added up into tens of thousands of dollars. So tens of thousands of dollars went to college. And tens of thousands of dollars went to weddings on this little fund that we started out putting $25 a month into.

And when we got the last one done, last college, last wedding, look, there's still money in here. I don't know how that happened. Honestly, we felt like the widow who was pouring oil out of her cruise and miraculously it just kept pouring. Where'd that come from? Where'd that come from? I cannot explain it.

I cannot explain it. But there it was. So now the college wedding fund became, are you ready for this, the Miata fund.

Kind of a desire I'd had for years but thought I'd probably never fulfill. But hey, there's money left over. Buy a used sports car. We can pay cash for it and enjoy it.

Okay, did that. What is it now? The emergency fund, the rainy day fund. And there is more money in that fund today than we ever had while we had kids in college and weddings and so forth.

There's only one way to explain that. He who sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly. And he who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully. And if you have a desire to give generously, God's going to enable you to do that. He's going to give to you. He's going to give to those who give to others. He's going to give to those who have a desire and show a willingness to give generously to others. He's going to make that possible and you even get a few benefits, financial benefits along the way that you can enjoy too. That's just what God does. I promise you that's His word. That's what He does.

I've seen it work. I've seen Him keep His promises in my life and He will in yours as well. Now, let me tell you what is the usual pattern of growing and giving. The usual pattern is you grow slowly and steadily in increments. You begin with a small step of increased giving. You launch out just give a little bit more than you're giving now. Say, I don't know how I can do that, but I'm going to try it and trust God and see what happens. Time passes.

And in appropriate time, you evaluate it and say, well, look there. He did supply. I didn't starve. I'm not worse off.

I'm actually better off. And so, I can repeat. I guess I can give a little bit more, can't I? God enabled me to do that. I didn't know how I was going to do it. And now with the passing of time, I see how I did it by His grace.

And so, let's try it again a little bit more. That's the way it works for most people. And I would encourage you to think along those lines. And I just remind you that our Faith Promise program is designed to help you grow in the grace of giving. It encourages right priorities, sets things down in a biblical order.

It encourages growth. It encourages yearly evaluation. How did you do over this last year with the commitments you made the year before?

Did God keep you going? Then why don't you try it again and give a little bit more and see what God will do this year. It encourages evaluation. It encourages more growth. Ultimately, what Faith Promise giving is, is to bring glory to God. But secondarily, what Faith Promise giving is, is to produce growing maturity and growing godliness in the lives of God's people. You said, I thought it was primarily to supply dollars for the missionaries.

Well, that's there, but that's not the most important thing. This is to teach us to grow in the grace of giving. It teaches us with a worthy object that we're all interested in and we agree is something that we would like to give to, so it makes it very appropriate, but it is there to teach us to grow in the grace of giving, which is producing the righteousness within us that God intends to produce in the lives of his children. It makes us fit the description of the righteous man of Psalm 112, verse 9, and that brings honor and glory to God. Shall we pray? Father, thank you for loving us. Thank you for teaching us. Thank you for giving us great and gracious promises, and thank you for fulfilling them in our lives. Teach us, O Lord, to trust you. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.