Generous Investments

Let's pray together. And Father, work in us what you will for your glory. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Have you ever invested your money? You may have invested in stocks or bonds or maybe in an IRA or maybe you invested in some property.

Maybe your company invests for you. All of us has done that from time to time. Even if all you do is put your money in the bank, you're investing it. Investment means putting your money to work so that it earns a return. In other words, you hope to get back more than what you put in. Now we discovered last week in terms of giving, in chapter 8, that God calls us to generosity in our giving.

And this week, you're going to see that generous giving is not merely giving money away. Rather, it's actually investing, putting your money to work and expecting a return. So let's see what God has to say about that. Our text for this morning is 2 Corinthians 9, verses 6-15. The point is this. whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully each one must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver 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 as it is written He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

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. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, 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 that comes 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 of the surpassing grace of God upon you thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. What does God have to say to us about giving now in this text?

Here's the first. Understand God's law of investment. Understand God's law of investment. Verse 6. The point is this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

God says rather pointedly here, you will have a return on your giving. You will have a return. And the apostle makes that point by drawing a picture. So let's think about that. Here sits Greg, Greg Field, on a nice spring day. He's eyeing a skid that has 40 bags of seed on one side and a planter on the other.

Now each of those bags, each of those 40-pound bags, will produce two and a half acres of corn or, give or take some, 525 bushels an acre. So Greg says to himself, you know what? I think maybe I'll save some money and I'll only use 20 of those bags. Now, you're not even a farmer, and you would say, Greg, that's the dumbest idea I've ever heard. If you only put 20 bags in, and you're only going to get 50 acres of corn.

You're not going to get much. And every acre produced in 525 bushels, why don't you put it all in and double that? Right? We all know that it would be doubled. So, sow sparingly, reap sparingly. He's not going to get nearly as much as he would if he put all of those in.

Now, this isn't a lesson in agriculture. He speaks here of giving to the Lord's work. Your money is seed. If you prove stingy in your giving, you won't get much in return. So get God's law of investment in your head. God promises a return on generous giving.

You'll have more of a return on generous giving. If you're not sowing generously, you won't reap generously. Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. give in a stingy way not you won't have as many returns well then he goes on to tell us how to make an investment know how to make an investment again verses six and seven we'll pick it up in verse seven each one must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver so what does he say here verse six you need to invest generously now again the apostle strikes that chord he does not set an amount does he he does not say give so much give ten percent give 10 give 20 give 5 he doesn do that because if you set an amount that leads to legalism and legalism always leads to self-righteousness okay in verse 7 he describes generosity again he describes generosity but he puts it not in terms of amount but in your attitude.

He says generosity means giving freely. Giving freely. Now, for many, this verse has been terribly misunderstood. Some have taken this verse to mean if you say I must give, that I have to give, then you violate this principle. I have to feel like giving. I have to have some kind of inner prompting before I give. because if you tell me I have to give then that violates this I'm giving under compulsion right that's just plain silly because we've already seen last week the commands that God gives us about giving for example we looked at first Corinthians 16 verses 1 and 2 last week you remember what he said set apart a proportion should be proportional and don't just do it willy-nilly do it on a regular basis be systematic there are some clear commands and it that doesn't violate this command about not giving under compulsion so put it into context he's not speaking about obedience and giving he's talking about generosity and giving literally it can read and whoever sows generously will also reap generously each man as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver.

In other words, not reluctantly, not under compulsion, and doing it cheerfully is the definition of generosity. It's not about obedience. It's about generosity. This is what generous means. So if you want to so generously, then make up your mind what to give. He says, decide in your own heart.

You decide what you're going to give okay and you do that remembering that generosity is determined by God's grace not your circumstances and requires discipline and sacrifice okay it requires that and part with it cheerfully not reluctantly part with it cheerfully that's generosity If you want to see generosity, an example of it, we just heard about it in Acts chapter 4. Right? They're all of one mind.

They were all joyfully joined together and they willingly gave up much of their property in order to help those in need. Right? So generosity. Generosity means that you decide in your heart. You don't have someone else dictating to you what you give. You decide in your own heart.

You remember that grace is what determines that, and you part with it cheerfully. Sowing sparingly means you don't decide in your heart, but you're reluctant in giving. You're reluctant in your giving. And the word there, reluctant, means grief or sorrow. Right? You part with it with grief.

All right. I'll put this in. Right? and and you don't give under or if you're going to so sparingly you um you don't decide in your heart you do it reluctantly and you give under compulsion now what does it mean to give under compulsion it means letting the amount be determined by the fear of criticism or the custom of society around you or what others may think about you or because another person knows what you pledged.

That's what's so terrible about churches when you make a pledge, it goes in, and then someone from church comes to you later and says, hey, you haven't fulfilled your pledge. That's giving under compulsion, right? Giving under compulsion means you don't decide in your heart and do it cheerfully. You are compelled by something else. criticism pleasing others all those sorts of things what are people going to think all right by the way our policy here is i don't know what you give nobody knows what you give maybe the treasurer does if you write a check but no one else knows what you give all right why because we don't want you thinking we're looking over your shoulder I have some friends, dear friends, a pastor at church, and they say, if we're going to shepherd the flock, we need to know how much you give.

And I'm thinking, what? Well, you talk about compulsion. That's going to compel people to give. It's not what they decide in their heart and they're doing it because they're compelled by something outside. If you're going to sow sparingly, then don't decide in your heart. Be reluctant and do it under compulsion.

Here's the point. Here's the point. You could give $1,000, but if you give it reluctantly, and you give it because you're concerned about what others think, it's not generous. You see the point? If you give $50 because that's what you purposed in your heart to give consistently and you cheerfully give it. That is generous.

Depends more on your heart than it does the amount. Right? So if you're going to sow generously, decide in your heart. Do it with joy. Give it cheerfully. Right?

And you're not compelled by anything else. That is generosity so then how does God want you to give He wants you to give to sow to invest generously What is generous? Determining and then giving an amount cheerfully. Not reluctantly, but cheerfully. Okay? Sow.

Sow sparingly, reap sparingly. Give generously, reap generously. now having told you that sowing generously means reaping generously he goes on to describe what you reap in verses 8 through 15 so here is the return on your investment okay so do you hear what i've said so far god says generous he says it's an investment he says now expect a return on your investment. When you give to the Lord's ministry, you ought to expect a return on that investment.

What can you expect in return for your generous investment in the Lord's work? What should you be looking for? What kind of returns will you be looking for? What are you going to receive? Well, now he enumerates all the things that you're going to receive if you give generously. In verses 8 through 15.

Let's start with verse 8. 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. Here's the first. God will increase your ministry to others. God will increase your ministry to others. That's the first promise return now note the promise God is able he is able to do two things the first is this God will make his grace abound so that you'll have enough to meet your needs first that's what he means by all sufficiency all right he is able to meet your needs first and our temptation is to say but if i give generously we won't be able to make ends meet that's the biggest that's usually the biggest argument i can't give more if we give more we won't be able to make ends meet that statement is so common but it is also so wrong you know that's why god keeps repeating it i'll give you three instances where god talks about this the first is found in malachi chapter 3.

Malachi chapter 3. Look with me at verses 6 through 11. For I the Lord do not change. Therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you says the Lord of hosts but you say how shall we return will a man rob God yet you are robbing me but you say how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions your curse with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby and thereby put me to the test says the Lord of hosts I if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need i will rebuke the devourer for you so that will not destroy the fruits of your soil and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear says the lord of hosts then all the nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delight says the lord of hosts now without getting into a great discussion about the difference between the old covenant and the new covenant know this god had promised his people if you give what i require of you you'll have more than enough you will have more than enough you will be a land of delight he says in fact when you read the old testament and you read the covenant that god entered in with those people if they would have obeyed they would have had a land that almost when you read the descriptions of what god promised it almost looks like glory it's amazing what he promised to them and so he's saying to them you don't have to worry about those things if you give as i've told you to give you will have more than enough that's what he told his people back then what does he say to us today well consider matthew chapter 6 verses 31 to 33 this is within the context of worrying about the normal things of life okay and at the very end of this passage in verses 31 through 33 Here's what God says. my righteousness.

Boy, I want to illustrate this and I want to do it carefully. Becca and I have seen this promise fulfilled over and over and over and over again. This is one of those, to me, that passage of scripture is like glowing when I read it. Because we have seen God faithful to that promise over and over and over again. Right? I want to tell you a story, but I'll just tell you the story.

So we living in Iowa right And I looking for a church and no one will have me So we there a whole year and Levi on the way And we saying you know what We can live with the folks and keep reproducing That's not right. And so we decided we need to go home. We owned a house in Indiana. We need to go home to Indiana. The problem was, and most of you, almost all of you are not old enough to remember this.

This was 1982. In 1982, the economy had crashed. I mean, it had crashed. There were no jobs to be had anywhere. We said, it's not right. We need to go home.

So we did. Not knowing, not knowing what. We get home. I'd just get dressed up and spend the next six hours at least. This is in the old days where you went from place to place to place and filled out applications. And there were no jobs.

But then I found a job in a chemical plant. Then a guy at church said, hey, there's a job where I work. We need people. We need them desperately. So I went to work for Brock Manufacturing. So in an economy that had no jobs, I got a job where we were working 80 hours a week, five days on a five-day week, 16-hour days.

So that means 40 hours overtime pay. You talk about God providing for us? It's amazing. It was amazing how he did that, right? It was amazing. So here he says, look, you just seek my kingdom, right?

I'll take care of you. you don't have to worry about your generosity is going to impoverish you look at Philippians chapter 4 verses 16 through 19 now here the apostle Paul is speaking of the money that the Philippians had sent to support him now look how he describes that missionary support look how he describes it even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit he's talking about return on investment here isn't he he goes on I have received full payment and more I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. So the first thing God says he is able to do is make grace abound so that your needs are met.

If you're generous, here's the return on your investment. All your needs will be met. But then the second promise is that he will then give you extra to be used to help others. Verse 8. And God is able to make all grace abound you so that your needs are met, and you may abound in every good work. So he's going to give you enough for you.

And guess what? Here's another return on your investment. He's going to give you extra on top of it for you to give away, for you to invest. That's a promise. John Calvin wrote, the Lord gives us as much as is profitable for us. Sometimes more, sometimes less.

But always so that we are satisfied and have enough to do good to others. Isn't that amazing? The investment, the return you get is, well, your needs will be met, and I'll give you even more so you can give to others. Some might say, I've never experienced that. Maybe you're not giving enough away. Maybe you're not generous enough.

Watch what God can do when you give more than you expect. Here's the second return. God will increase your harvest of righteousness. Verses 9-11 As it is written, he has distributed freely he has given to the poor his righteousness endures forever 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 you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which through us will produce thanksgiving to God God will increase your harvest of righteousness now quote psalm 112 verse 9 you heard that psalm today a godly man is one who is generous and as a result his righteousness will endure his righteousness will be remembered when you read this in the context of second corinthians you look at it and say his righteousness endures forever you think he's talking about god there he's not he's talking about the man in psalm 112 who's giving money to people in need and he says his righteousness will endure forever okay now just to put things in perspective a righteous man can distribute freely notice he says that he distributes freely because verse 10 God supplies the seed and the bread that he distributes because God supplies that if you cultivate now here's what he's saying if you cultivate the habit of generous giving or generous investment if you will you will start reaping a harvest of righteousness you will start reaping a harvest of righteousness what could he be talking about here's one thing here's one thing you're going to find when you're generous and say i i'm going to give more it's going to make it's going to be a pinch but i'm going to give more guess what you're going to learn to trust god your faith in god's provision will grow you know how your righteousness will increase you'll start trusting god more you will start trusting god more you will learning compassion.

You will start learning compassion as you give to help others. You will learn humility. You are going to learn humility as it becomes more and more apparent that it is God who meets your needs and not your cleverness and not your ingenuity. You're going to find that God meets your needs. It's incredible what he does. But verse 11, here's how your righteousness will endure you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which through us will produce thanksgiving to god your giving will increase as god supplies more for the purpose here's not here's what he's saying not only will your needs be met but i'm going to give you more so that your giving is going to increase that's a return on the investment you will give more okay now do you just see do you see the difference in what the scripture says and what the proponents of the prosperity gospel say the proponents of the prosperity gospel say man you give to god and he'll enrich you you'll get rich and the answer is that's true but for what purpose he'll give you more but you got to give away more that's what he's saying i'll give you more so you can give away more so you can invest more they say well what kind of investment is that it's the best you'll ever have you'll be able to give more god will enrich you so that you'll give away even more verses 11 and 12 god will use your money to produce spiritual growth in others all right we saw at the end of verse 11 that all this will produce thanksgiving to god verse 12 for the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to god the spiritual growth of others now see he brought broadens the scope here to not here to what this investment will pay not only in your lives but in the lives of others by giving paul says you're not only supplying the saints food and clothes not only meeting physical needs but your giving will produce an overflow of thanksgiving in the lives of others now imagine you're a christian in jerusalem you remember the context of this he's talking about we're taking a collection for the poor saints in jerusalem All these Gentile churches in Macedonia and Achaia, Thessalonica, Philippi, those up there, Corinth down here, were putting together this collection to take care of the saints in Jerusalem.

So imagine now, imagine that you're one of those saints in Jerusalem. You're going to the assembly place for church on the Lord's Day. And you've got a visiting speaker, and it's the Apostle Paul. and as you get to the church you find out he's not only there to deliver a sermon he there to deliver this generous gift from all the gentile churches where he has ministered And you walk in and they start distributing it You at the end of your rope You don know what's going to happen.

You don't know what's going to do. And here you are. Here's all of this stuff for you. All of this money, all these resources now given to you. What do you think happens? Man, you're going to give thanks to God and say, God, I cannot believe how you've taken care of us.

Here we are, dirt poor. I didn't know what I was going to do. And now you have supplied this for us from these churches? What do you think happens? There's an eruption of thanksgiving. There's overflowing with thanksgiving.

You know, we can be awful nearsighted, can't we? We can see the plate go, and you probably paid a whole lot more attention to it since we didn't have any music playing and you weren't talking to anyone during that act of worship another pet peeve of mine we won't get into that but we can be so nearsighted can't we we see the plate go by we see the money come up front and that's where it ends we don't see what happens and we need to start thinking that money is going to produce growth in other people that should move you to generosity the next one verse 13 god says generous giving test testifies to a genuine faith you're going to have a testimony of genuine faith verse 13 by their approval of this service they that is the saints in jerusalem will glorify god because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others Other believers are going to glorify God. This is going to cause other believers to say, God is amazing.

God is amazing. God, look at what he does. I never would have seen this coming. God, wow, I cannot believe this. And this is a submission to the Lord Jesus himself flowing from the gospel itself. It comes from the very gospel. why are they doing this to the saints in Jerusalem because of the gospel I'm reminded what the apostle Paul I'm sorry the apostle John says in first John chapter 3 beginning in verse 16 again these are some gold letter words from the Bible by this we know love that he laid down his life for us how do you know God loves you Jesus laid down his life for you that's how you know his love and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

Wow. Now that verse alone, you know what that says? You guys say you love one another. Are you willing to die for the person you're sitting next to? He says you ought to. If you really love someone, you ought to be like Jesus.

You're willing to die for the very person that's sitting next to you in the pew. But he says, assuming that not all of us are going to die for one another, what does he say? but if anyone has the world's good and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does God's love abide in him little children let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth so you can profess that you belong to the Lord Jesus but giving flows from the gospel It flows from the gospel Jesus gave himself for us so we ought to give of our resources for others. This is what Jesus did for us.

I can do that for others. The world watches, and they should see, the world should see Christians cheerfully parting with their money. the world should see that. When there's a need, they see us willing to do that. Jesus sacrificed for us, and that drives us to sacrifice for one another. There's still, by the way, there are two more returns yet he's going to talk about.

Here's the next one. God says your generosity will produce unity. Verse 14. while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. He says those Jewish believers will turn to God in intercessory prayer for you Gentiles and that will be accompanied by a deep affection for you. What was one of the very first problems in the early church?

Do you remember what it was? it was jewish believers and gentile believers not on the same page the jewish the jewish people the jewish disciples steeped in what god required of them had a real hard time thinking what gentiles are part of this thing no way they got to become jews they got to be circumcised before they can become part of the church you remember that was a really big a really big hurdle to get over. What happens to that relationship as this generous gift finds its way to its recipients? What do they do?

They're going to give thanks for your Gentiles. They're going to, they are going to be unified. Do you ever notice the unity that's produced here when we take up a special offering? We say, man, there's a real need. We need to take up a special offering. And people give generously.

That produces a unity. You know why? Because we stop thinking about ourselves. And we start thinking about others. Either the giving or the recipients. Right?

We start thinking about the others. We lose ourselves in ministering to others. Your investment has a return of unity. And then finally, generous giving produces joy. Joy. You want joy in your life?

Be generous. Verse 15. Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift. Here's an eruption of joyful praise on the part of the Apostle Paul. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. We can give generously because of Jesus.

Once more, he points us to the cross. You remember what Pastor Andrew said last week when he came to serve at the table here? Remember what he said? I do. He said you notice from the sermon last week He said you will notice from this sermon that the gospel permeates everything in your life including your giving The gospel has to permeate every aspect of your life, including your giving.

And here he says, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. He says, wow, look at the generosity of God. Look at that. It's inexpressible. I don't have the words to say how wonderful that gift is. And you can have joy because of his generosity.

And this inexpressible joy can show itself in measurable expressions of generosity. And so Jesus giving of himself should motivate you. to give as well. All right. God says, generous investments produce a generous harvest, generous returns. Wouldn't it be great? And I hope if you listened here, you said, look at all those returns that we get if we're generous in our giving.

I want that. Do you want to glory in the great returns God has promised? Then don't invest sparingly, but cheerfully, cheerfully giving more away, investing it. Great blessings are yours. Great blessings are yours as you do so. And here's the thing, through it all, God will display his glory and Jesus will be elevated what a return on what we give isn't it going to be great as we give and give and we're generous in that God's glory is seen even more God's glory is seen as we learn to trust him more for what he's going to provide for us God's glorified as we see how that money does more than just pay for a building but it changes people's lives and Jesus is magnified Father you are good to us beyond measure the giving of Jesus is an inexpressible gift and yet Father that inexpressible gift should move us to be generous not just generous not just to to pay for stuff but we want to be generous so that that money ends up producing these things that you've promised father would you grant us generous hearts that we may see these wonderful glorious spiritual returns thank you for your instruction from your word in jesus name amen