Blessed Through Right Giving

Freely Shared

CHAPTER FOURTEEN Blessed Through Right Giving 2 Cor 9:5-11 (KJV) 5

Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren, and they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof ye had notice before, that the same might be ready, as a matter of bounty, and not as of covetousness. 6

But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully 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. 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: 9

(As it is written, He hath dispersed abroad; he hath given to the poor: his righteousness remaineth for ever. 10

Now he that ministereth seed to the sower both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness;) 11

Being enriched in every thing to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God.

This New Testament scripture is one of the most critical scriptures anywhere in the Bible. It teaches us about Christian giving. In these verses we can see what God has to say about Christian giving as it applies to His Word and promises. We can be blessed through right or correct giving. God has enabled us to grow our own blessings through right giving. God has enabled us to plant a garden of blessings. We know about farming chickens; we can also farm blessings. We know about having a garden of tomatoes; we can also have a garden full of blessings.

A Garden of Blessings An analogy can be drawn of a garden. If we plant a tomato seed, we don't get just one tomato; a stalk comes up and there are many tomatoes on it. When we plant a corn seed, we don't get just one ear of corn, a corn stalk comes up and bears many ears of corn. Many apples come from one apple seed. We don't plant a blessing seed and get one blessing; we plant a blessing seed and get many blessings. The blessing seeds we plant today will bless us in the future. God's return will always be greater than our service rendered. Serving God is a good investment. That is why the songwriter wrote, "It pays to serve Jesus. It pays every day. It pays to serve Jesus every step of the way."

Sowing and Reaping There is a relationship between sowing and reaping. There is a relationship between planting and harvesting. This is a natural law, but the natural law also applies to a spiritual law. Those who sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Those who sow bountifully shall reap bountifully. That is God's law. God put it in nature and He put it in spirit. I am often asked, "Should I tithe from my gross or my net?" The real answer to that is, "How do we want to be blessed? Netly or grossly?" The real answer comes from a natural law. If we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly. If we sow bountifully, we will reap bountifully.

A Purposed Heart and a Willing Heart The writer of the referenced scripture, Paul, goes on to teach us how to give correctly in order to be blessed correctly: "Let every man purpose it in his heart." In other words, God is saying to the leaders of the Church, don't stay in church all day begging for money. Purpose your giving in your heart before you go to church. Pray about it. God says that we need to have already thought about what we will give before we get to church. We need to be prepared for it. So when we get to church, we need to just worship. We don't need to spend time talking about the collection. Every Sunday should not be spent talking about needing more money. The

Freely Shared preacher needs to divide rightly the Word of God with the collection already taken. Paul said that every man should purpose in his heart, not grudgingly, but willingly. In other words, our hearts should lead our hands.

Ye Know In a previous chapter, I talked about the meaning of the word "know" and how in 2 Corinthians 8:9 does not mean to understand, but in biblical language, is an intimate term. I talked about how it confers and denotes intimacy, like with Mary who had a baby and had not known a man or, like Abraham knew Sarah. I also went on to talk about the fact that this verse implies that by grace we know the Lord; we've experienced the Lord; we know what He's done. I thought it was worth repeating, to say this, I don't have to tell you about Him. We have an intimate relationship with the graces of God. Ye know. We may act like we don't know. We may hold our hands tight; hold on to our pocketbooks and not give, but it is not because we don't know. Ye know. God has entered into our lives. We have been intimate with Him. Ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that for our sakes, though He was rich, He thought it not robbery to become poor so that through His poorness, through His poverty, we might be rich. Because we know God, we ought to give right and be blessed.

A Cheerful Heart Not only to give it in our heart, but give it cheerfully. "Cheerfully" in Greek means hilariously. God loves a cheerful giver. Why does God love a cheerful giver? Because He sees His own character in a cheerful giver. The nature of God's character is cheerful. God himself is a cheerful giver. So a cheerful giver is like Jesus. Maybe some of us need to stop being hypocritical, and stop singing, "I want to be more and more like Jesus." We can't be like Jesus until we become cheerful givers. Cheerful giving waters and fertilizes the seeds that we plant in our blessing garden. If we sow our garden bountifully and purposely with a willing heart, then the water and the fertilizer will come from our cheerfulness. Cheerfulness will cultivate our garden.

God's Promise In addition, God gives a promise in 2 Corinthians 9:8 (KJV) that "he is able to make all graces abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work." God promises that if we give right, we will not lack for anything His grace can provide. For example, when I testify to what my wife and I are contributing to a capital fund campaign, some might wonder how we are able to do it. First, God promises. God promises that I will not lack for anything when I give rightly. This is a promise from God. God also promises that I cannot get hurt by right giving. God promises that none will suffer loss through right giving. We cannot give right and then go without. God is able. God will provide the right giver with everything he or she needs. We know this. We may not want to hear it, but we know it.

Covetousness What, then, is our problem? We may have a problem with covetousness. Verse 5 says to give as a matter of bounty, not a matter of covetousness. Covetousness means to have more than enough and to desire more— greed. Greedy for money. Covetousness is that extreme consideration for self that makes it possible not only to neglect the needs of others, but also to hurt others to secure selfish desires. One of the Ten Commandments is, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's" (Exodus 20:17 — KJV). Covetousness is dangerous. Covetousness has been labeled as the preeminent idolatry. Covetousness is a root sin, which means that all other sins grow out of covetousness. Covetousness is a consuming cancer. Once covetousness sets in, it metastasises and begins to spread like a cancer. Covetousness is like a fatal drug. It is impossible for us to be of Christian character when we have a spirit of covetousness.

Right Giving Right giving is the best cure for covetousness. Right giving is the best medicine for covetousness. Right giving is the best antidote for a bad case of the disease called covetousness. Right giving is the best prevention for covetousness. Right giving is our best protection against covetousness. Right giving is our best shield, best vaccine, or best inoculation against covetousness. Preparing recently to go to Africa, I had to be inoculated. I thought I was going to get just one shot.

Freely Shared Ultimately, I had to get about six shots because I needed some booster shots. Some of us need a booster shot for right giving. I am glad that God provides me opportunities to get booster shots against covetousness. We cannot be blessed fully as long as we have a speck of covetousness in us. If we have any covetousness in us, the only way we can get rid of it is to give right. God gives us what we have so He can give us more. In other words, God gave us what we have and He wants to give us more. Verse 10 says that He who supplies the seed to the sower will supply and multiply our seed for sowing and increase the harvest of our righteousness. God gave us the seed. God gave us the first apple seed, the first tomato seed, the first blessing, the first piece of money. The only reason He gave us the piece of money we have is so that He can give us more money. He wants to bless us. The question is how does our garden grow?

Right Giving Is Liberating Liberal giving liberates us, sets us free. We must be free to be blessed. We have our blessing (seed) wrapped up in our own self, and we have to release it. Think about it. Having our blessing in us. And as long as it remains in us, in our own hands, God cannot bless us. Somehow we have to sow our seed. We have to release it.

Right Giving Gives God Glory Right giving gives glory to the unspeakable gift with thanksgiving and praise. "Those you help will be glad not only because of your generous gifts to themselves and to others, but they will praise God for this proof that your deeds are as good as your doctrine" (2 Cor 9:13 -TLB). In other words, they will praise God that we are not just talking the talk, but we are walking the walk. Thanks be to God for the unspeakable gift.

Right Giving Brings Praise We cannot give right without giving God praise. If we give right, thanksgiving will break out in our hearts. If we give right, something will break out deep down in our souls and be loosed. If we give right, church will break out in our hearts. We cannot give right without having thought about the goodness of Jesus. That is why songwriters penned, "When I think about the goodness of Jesus, and all He's done for me; My very soul cries out Hallelujah! I thank God for saving me," and "When I look back over my life, I can truly say that I've been blessed. I am a testimony." We need to be set free to cultivate a garden of blessings. We have blessings in our hands, our feet, our mouth, and our lips. We have blessings in our service, our spirit and our gifts. We have blessings in our lives. God wants to bless us and others through our giving.

Summary God has enabled us to grow our own blessings through right giving. An analogy is drawn from a garden. When we plant a tomato or corn seed, we don't get one tomato or one ear of corn. We get a stalk of tomatoes and corn. Likewise, we don't plant a blessing seed and get one blessing. Rather, we get many blessings. The blessing seed we plant today will bless us abundantly in the future. There is a spiritual law that applies to sowing and reaping. If we sow a small amount, we will reap a small amount. And if we sow a large amount, we will reap a large amount. We must give right to be blessed right. Right giving involves giving with a willing heart, a purposeful heart, and a cheerful heart. God has promised that if we give right, because of His "able-ness" and grace, we will lack for nothing. Our problem, however, is covetousness. Covetousness is extremely dangerous and can be labeled as preeminent idolatry and the root of all sin. Right giving is the best solution for covetousness. Right giving overcomes covetousness by setting us free to give and be blessed. Right giving always results in thanksgiving and praise, thereby giving glory to God. Indeed, God wants to bless us through our giving.