Believing In The Harvest – 2 of 2

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. God's desire is that our giving be cheerful, not driven by a sense that we're in trouble if we don't give. He wants our hearts first, and only then our open pocketbooks. Today we wrap up a series on giving with Paul's admonition to the church at Corinth.

From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, isn't it true that giving changes your heart in a very fundamental way? Selfishness gives way to focusing on the needs of others. Or you could say this, Dave, that when you give, you are giving away your selfishness.

I feel sorry for those who are so stingy because it really reveals their hearts. And of course, when you give to God, as we've emphasized in this series of messages, you are really making an investment in eternity where the dividends will pay off forever. This series, I believe, will speak to the hearts of many people, and we're making it available for a gift of any amount. Here's what you do.

Go to rtwoffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. By the way, the title of the series is Investing for Eternity. We hope that you'll take advantage of this because it will help you to focus on that which is eternal. For now, let us listen to God's word. Now your Bible is open because this promise is so wonderful. You have to see it in the text with your own eyes.

Notice it says this. God loves a cheerful giver, verse eight, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. Let's look at it phrase by phrase. And God is able, that shows you the power of it, to make all grace abound, that's the measure of it, toward you, that's the direction of it, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times is the extent of it, that you may abound in every good work, that's the ministry of it. You are a cheerful giver. God is going to get back to you and the harvest will be this abounding grace that is promised here in the text. It may include money. Sometimes it remarkably includes money.

Sometimes it doesn't. But the grace of God will be upon your life. I noticed it just this morning in rereading the text.

It's amazing how you see things. It says God is able to make all grace abound, verse eight, and you'll notice at the end of the verse and that you may abound. So God abounds in our lives in grace and we in turn abound. It's all about abounding and a plentiful harvest. Now the question is exactly what does this mean so far as the text is concerned? What does it look like to receive this very special harvest?

Well, let's look at the text. It says, first of all, that we will receive righteousness. It says in verse nine, as it is written, he has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. By the way, in the Psalms, this is a description of a generous man.

He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.

And now here's the promise. Verse 10. 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. One of the fruits that you will receive is the harvest of righteousness. This is not the righteousness of God, which is received by faith. This isn't a matter of saying that this is the way we're saved. It is through giving.

No, that's not the way it happens. It comes through faith in Jesus Christ. The righteousness referred to here is right living so that you see as you have a generous heart, as you take all that God has given to you and to me and as we lift it up to God with open hands so that we say, God, this truly is yours.

Now give me wisdom as to what to do with it. When we do that, there is a righteous kind of living with an open heart that permeates all of our lives. And I wouldn't doubt, but that part of the bountiful harvest that is talked about is the impact in the lives of our children, in the lives of our grandchildren, in the lives of our relatives, in the impact in the church, because God says, I will give you the harvest of righteousness. I'll give you the harvest of right living. And then there's another harvest that is coming and that is glory to God. Now here I'm going to have to read the text. Remember, he's going to be talking about the saints that live in Jerusalem and how glad they are going to be at this very special gift given by these two churches.

And now let's look at it very carefully. You'll notice it says you will be enriched in every way. Verse 11 for all of your generosity, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God for the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Grace that has come because you were a cheerful giver. Now think about this for a moment. What Paul is saying is is that when these believers receive the gift, they are going to give thanksgiving to God.

I mean, imagine this. They're receiving a gift from gentiles, from people who whom they've never met and never will meet because we're talking about cities that were hundreds of miles apart in the ancient world. And they are going to receive these funds, the saints are, and they are going to give thanks and they're going to say glory to God because of your gift.

So Paul says God will get glory because of what you've done in the lives of these saints. You know, it's something like giving today, isn't it? As you know, we recently took an offering for some orphans and an orphanage in Africa and a very generous offering I might add. And I can imagine that when that gift comes, and apparently it's enough to sustain them for a whole year. I can imagine that when that gift comes, they offer glory to God and praise to God and they in turn pray for us, which is what the text says.

As a matter of fact, this happens with our orphanage that we help supply and support in India. Those little girls, I was so humbled when I was told that when I was going through some problems with my eye, that those little girls were praying for me and rejoicing at the gifts that we have given and the help that we have supplied and they give thanksgiving and they give glory to God. And that's part of the harvest that God is talking about here. And I can imagine here at Moody Church, part of the harvest is not just in the far flung mission fields of the world, but there are families that are giving glory to God because of the ministry of our family ministries here at the church. There are people who are giving glory to God. There are students, there are university students who come here, college students, and they are giving glory to God because our generosity enables them to have a place to worship and to learn. And all the way down the line, our children, our families, our singles, our college students, all of them and all of us together giving glory to God because of our generosity and because we are committed to the needs of the saints.

And this is a good place for me to mention something. When you look at an offering envelope, and I expected to have one up here today, but I didn't have ours. Ours was put into the offering basket a little while ago. But you'll see on it's things like general fund.

And then under that you have missions in a number of different categories. You know, there's some people who say this, they say, I will give, I will give to the orphans. I will give to the missionaries, but I'll never give to that general fund because that general fund, it keeps the lights on, it pays salaries, and I don't want my money to go to something that mundane. I want it to go to the missionaries, to the orphans. I'll give to them, but I won't give to the church.

I smile when I hear that. You know, that's like saying, that's like saying, you know, we have this tree that is bearing fruit and I am willing to pay for someone to pick the fruit of the tree, but I will not give a dime to the, to the root of the tree. I'm not going to give anything to it.

Let it rot. All that I'm interested in is the fruit. My dear friend, you cannot have fruit unless you have a strong root and the stronger the root, the more important it is to realize the more fruit that will be born. May I speak candidly?

I will, whether you give me permission or not, by the way, may I speak candidly? Unless we have a strong home base, we can't have the ministries that we have. We won't be taking offerings for other kinds of ministries. The stronger the home base, the more we can branch out and bear fruit in many, many different ways. We have other ways that we have in mind to bear fruit, but our lack of funds hinder us. That's why when Rebecca and I fill out that, uh, that offering card, that offering envelope, we always give the majority of our money, the majority of our money to the general fund.

It's the engine that keeps everything else going. Well, the apostle Paul says, God is able to make all grace abound. It isn't just for the poor saints in Jerusalem, it's for the saints in Chicago in our instance and, and the ministries that God has given us. Now, we must understand that cheerful giving, cheerful giving brings about a blessed life. That's what the text says, and we have to believe the text. In another country, in a third world country, true story that I read, a man went into a hut and took a bowl of rice , a large bowl of rice.

Actually, I must correct it. I think it was a large bowl of corn and he took the corn with him out to the field and began to plant it. He began to plant it in the, in the dirt, obviously in the ground.

And his little daughter who is five or six years old actually began to cry because she knew how poor the family was. And her big question was, why would daddy take corn that might feed us for several days? Why would daddy take corn and put it in the ground?

That seemed to be very, very unwise. Well, the answer to the question of course is her daddy put it in the ground because he believed in the harvest. He could have, he could have chosen to take that bowl of corn and use it for lunch and for dinner that week.

But then there'd be no harvest. And there are times when you have to simply believe in the harvest and you plant and you plant in faith because you believe in the harvest that God is able to make all grace abound. I don't know how God can take the wishes of a six year old boy who's making some play money during an offering time, wishing he could give it to the children.

That adds up to more than $3,000. I don't know how God can take that. And then later on his mother weeks later receives checks the same day that match exactly the total. I don't know how that works, but the text says, God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. I'd say that's quite a blessing to cheerful givers.

And there's the promise right there. My wife and I know some missionaries very well because he actually served with me on a staff at a church, not this church, but a previous one. And they were missionaries in Argentina and then in the Middle East.

And they told us a very interesting story about money. Now you know, missionaries have very little to go on. They decided that they would faithfully give a percentage of their money to the Lord's work no matter how tough it got. But knowing that God sometimes leads us through money, they decided something else that the fewer their funds, the worse it got, they would give a higher percentage to God. See, what they were doing is it says in the book of Malachi, God says, test me. Now you're not supposed to test God only once in the Bible does it say test me.

And that had to do with money. God says, you bring the tithes into the storehouse and then see whether or not I'm not going to open the heavens and bless you. Now those Old Testament promises, of course, the tithe was required.

Today, of course, there is no requirement. It is simply proportionate giving based on cheerfulness. But they decided to test God.

And whenever things got tough, what they would do is they would give more, a greater percentage of what they had. Number of years ago, we were in Regina, Canada visiting and we were in their home. Catch this now that they now own that's fully paid for. How many of us have homes that are fully paid for? Probably not very many of us.

We're all making mortgage payments. I remember sitting there listening on how it happened. This happened, that happened. Then this fell into place.

It was like a chess game. I don't know how God did it, but the text says God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work if you are a cheerful giver. And they were, and they proved God in their need that God actually responds to cheerful givers and blesses them. Now, I'm not saying that that'll happen to you or to me and that every time we give, remember, we're not saying that you get back monetarily what you've given. I do say, though, that if you give cheerfully, God will bless you. There are marriages that are in trouble today because the couple does not give and they do not give with any cheerfulness.

And so there's no abounding grace in their relationship. God is able to make all grace abound. Something else that's very critical about this passage is that the motivation of cheerful giving is God's gift to us. Notice it says the grace of God.

And then it says in verse 15, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. What makes believers in Corinth generous to Jewish believers in Jerusalem? Bottom line, having been radically blessed by God, having been radically loved by God, these believers in turn love. It opens the floodgates of their hearts towards those who are in need because they are now loved of God and therefore they love. We love him because he first loved us. They've experienced the grace of God, marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount out poured there where the blood of the lamb was spilled because they've received his inexpressible gift. And when we do, we become givers, cheerful givers. In a few moments, we're going to be remembering our Lord's death. And I do need to say that there are some of you here who are here today who, when the offering baskets are passed, you shouldn't give.

I'll tell you why. Because you may think that somehow you can get on God's good side or you can rectify your relationship with God if you're not a believer in Jesus, if you've not received his inexpressible gift. Don't give.

It could confuse matters for you. But if you've received that gift, let us be cheerful givers. Now you can understand why Rebecca and I had a talk about how we can give more this year than last. But we're going to be having communion. We're going to be passing the elements and the cup represents the blood of Jesus Christ.

The bread represents his body. This is a reminder of this inexpressible gift. And we say thank you, Lord, for forgiveness and grace and abounding grace toward us. Grace greater than our sins. And because of that, we are going to be givers and we're going to give back to you in thanksgiving and praise and in whatever way you speak to us, your bountiful love and grace.

Having been radically loved, we radically love and give. Join me as we pray. Our Father, we ask today in Jesus' name that you will help all of us to answer the question of what would you have us to do with what you've given to us?

We thank you for the opportunity of what we can call investing for eternity. But Father, we've come now because we want to come to your table. We want to be reminded of the grace that you've given to us. And therefore we pray that these moments shall be holy moments in your presence. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Well, this is Pastor Lutzer. I want to have a personal word with you. I want as briefly as I possibly can to define what our role is in this world. Briefly, it is to live with eternal values in a transitory world. We must always keep those eternal values in mind. We're making this sermon series available to you because sometimes, of course, when you listen, you may not have listened to all the messages or you want to share these messages with your friends.

For a gift of any amount, they can be yours. By the way, the title of these messages, Investing for Eternity. And even as you contribute to this ministry, I believe very deeply that you are indeed investing for eternity.

Running to win is heard in 50 different countries in seven different languages because of people just like you. So ask for the sermon series Investing for Eternity. And here's what you do. Hope that you have a pen or pencil handy. Go to RTWOffer.com. That's RTWOffer.com or pick up the phone and call us at 1-888-218-9337. Now because this is the last message in this particular series, I'm giving you that contact info again.

Go to RTWOffer.com or call us at 1-888-218-9337. The title of the message is Investing for Eternity. It's time again for another chance for you to ask Pastor Lutzer a question you may have about the Bible or the Christian life. Now when we pray, who should we pray to?

That's Mark's question, a listener who writes to us from New York. He asks, should we pray to the Father or to Jesus? In my own prayers, I often use Father, God, Lord, and Jesus interchangeably. Although my prayers are focused on the Father, with a view in my mind's eye that Jesus is right there by his side, and here's my prayers too.

What do you think? Mark, a very good question, and I'm so glad that you're concerned about those kinds of important issues. Strictly speaking, we should pray to the Father in the name of Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's the way in which Jesus lays it out for us, and that's the way the apostle Paul prayed. But because Jesus is God, I don't think it's wrong to pray to Jesus. Jesus accepted worship and prayers when he was here on earth, and so what we need to do is to see that even though the members of the Trinity can be used interchangeably, it isn't wrong to pray to any one of the members of the Trinity.

But strictly speaking, your conception, I think, is correct. You're praying to the Father. Jesus is there to intercede.

We pray in his name, and we pray in the power of the Spirit. Thank you, Dr. Lutzer, for straightening us out on that issue. If you'd like to hear your question answered, go to our website at rtwoffer.com and click on Ask Pastor Lutzer, or call us at 1-888-218-9337. That's 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, IL 60614. We're in a spiritual battle. Behind the destruction we see around us are invisible forces bringing darkness, a darkness bent on destroying any light that threatens to expose it. Those are the words of Erwin Lutzer. Next time, we begin a crucial new series on the eclipse of God. Don't miss it. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer, this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.