Christ Methodist Church Memphis
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Christ Methodist Church Memphis
The Gift of Sowing and Reaping | Rev. Paul Lawler
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What if generosity is about far more than money? Every seed we sow—through our resources, prayers, service, and faithfulness—becomes part of God's greater work in the world. The harvest may not always be immediate, but God delights in using ordinary acts of generosity to transform lives, strengthen His Church, and bring glory to His name.
Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ. We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.
SPEAKER_01Our scripture reading this morning comes from Second Corinthians chapter nine verses one through fifteen. Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaea has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians came with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an extraction. 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 is distributed freely, He is 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 surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. This is the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_02And good morning, and I greet you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. My name is Paul Lawler. I have the honor of serving as the senior pastor of Christ Methodist Church. We welcome you, whether you're a regular attender, guest, or you're a member of Christ Church. So, loved ones, there are certain laws that God has woven into his creation that never change. Many of them are simple. If you plant corn, you do not expect tomatoes. If you plant nothing, you do not expect a harvest. And if you plant generously, you expect a greater harvest than if you didn't plant anything at all. And so the apostle Paul, as Nathan's read the text this morning, takes a principle that every farmer understands and applies it to the Christian life. He tells the Corinthians that generosity is deeper than money. It's about trust. And you may have noticed, as the Word of God was read, it's about worship. And you may have noticed it's also about participation in the mission of God, aligning your heart with what God is doing on planet Earth. And Paul is concluding a lengthy discussion as you've been following along in this teaching series about a collection that is being taken for suffering believers in Jerusalem. But his deepest concern is deeper than fundraising. He wants the Corinthians, and God wants us to understand that giving is actually a grace from God, an act of faith, and it's a means by which God not only blesses those who receive a gift, but as you saw in the Word of God, God blesses those who participate in giving the gift. So the title of today's message is The Gift of Sowing and Reaping. And from this passage, there are many truths. We're not going to have time to cover them all, but we're going to discover together that God actually calls all of us to sow generously. He also promises to supply abundantly. He also uses our generosity to not only bring glory to his name, but to deepen our own worship and magnification of him. But let's begin here. First, God calls us to sow generously. Paul begins by speaking of the Corinthians and their readiness to participate in this offering for the church at Jerusalem that is suffering more severely than the church at Corinth. And he tells them that their enthusiasm has affected other believers and inspired them throughout Macedonia. Now notice already what Paul is doing and note what he's not doing. First of all, note he's not pressuring them. Also note that what he is doing, he's preparing them. Verse 5, look there with me. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction. In other words, the Apostle Paul wants this gift to be ready before he arrives. Now we could read over that, but there's an important lesson here, because the reason the Apostle Paul is instructing in this way is because generosity should be intentional, not impulsive. In other words, Christian giving is supposed to be, or shall we say, not supposed to be driven by guilt or manipulation or emotional pressure. Giving is a response to God's grace. No farmer walks out into a field one morning and says, you know what, I think I'll have a harvest today without planting in the seasons that have come before. Months pass before the harvest comes. Months pass after all the preparation. The ground has to be broken, the seed must be selected, the planting must be intentional. The harvest is determined, get this, loved ones, long before the day arrives where the harvest comes forth. Likewise, what the apostle Paul is teaching the church is that generosity is cultivated long before the offering plate is passed. It is cultivated in the heart of a believer. And the most generous Christians are rarely spontaneous givers. Loved ones, what Paul's teaching us is that they are prepared givers. They've already decided that everything that they possess, as Nathan prayed just a moment ago, everything they possess already belongs to God. Many believers pray for a harvest of blessing without understanding this principle that Paul's teaching us. Lord, I just bless me. I pray that you would bless my circumstances, bless my life, bless my family. But what we see here is that we recognize that the blessing of God is associated with what we sow. I don't think there's a person in this sanctuary who doesn't want to see stronger churches in North America, stronger churches all around the world. I don't think there's a person in this sanctuary who doesn't want to see missionaries sent out from our church taking the gospel and expressing acts of ministry all over the world, beginning right here in Memphis. I don't think there's a person in this room that doesn't want to see lives transformed through the love of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yet God's work advances when God's people sow faithfully into his kingdom. And the Apostle Paul is reminding us this morning that generosity begins with preparation and intentionality. God calls us to sow generously. Now notice secondly the following God promises that we reap according to what we sow. Look with me at verse 6. Paul says the point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Now, here's another point that we need to make are surrounding what this is not. I want to be very clear. This is not prosperity gospel. That's not what this is. Paul is not teaching that as you sow generously that you're going to become financially wealthy. That's not what he's teaching. However, he is teaching a kingdom principle that is true for you, believer. And here it is God honors faithful generosity. That part is black and white. It's right there in the word of God. And God declares that when you're generous, that there is a harvest that's going to come in the appropriate season. That harvest may be spiritual. In other words, it may involve seeing many people come to know Jesus Christ through his gospel. It may be the joy of seeing lives transformed. It might be God's provision in some unexpected way. The scripture's consistent on this. Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. All these other things will take care of themselves. Jesus said that in the context of saying, look at the lilies of the fill, look at how the Father has adored, adorned them. Will he that not take much more care of you, O you of little faith? Put your faith in the word of God, the revelation of God. It may be God's provision in some unexpected way, but seed of your generosity, when it's yielded and surrendered to God as an act of worship and it's sown in faith, God will always honor it. God can't deny himself in light of his character, what he's revealed in his word. Love one, some of you have probably heard of the Chinese bamboo tree. I started to put a picture of it up on the screen, but the first four years of its life look like nothing's happening. You plant the seed in the ground, and for one year nothing happens on the surface. In year two, nothing.
SPEAKER_03Year three, nothing. Year four, still nothing.
SPEAKER_02And then year five comes along, and suddenly the Chinese bamboo tree bursts through the soil and it grows 90 feet tall in a matter of weeks. And the question is, did it grow 90 feet in six weeks? No, no, because it was growing underground all along. The root system was being established. And much of God's harvest is the same way. You give, you pray, you serve, you sacrifice, and for a season it may seem that nothing is happening. Then one day you discover that through your prayers and through your faithfulness and through your generosity, that God has been working all along, and suddenly the manifestation of the kingdom breaks through the surface, and the harvest that you've been praying for and sowing into comes forth for the glory of God. This is why Jesus said counterintuitive things like understand that the kingdom of God is like a mustard seed. It looks insignificant in the moment. But when you're faithful in the things of God, a day comes where it sprouts forth and God honors what aligns with his heart and his will as you're being faithful to him for his glory. And I want to encourage you this morning, loved one, never underestimate. Never underestimate what God can do with a seed of faithfulness in and through your life. May I appeal to you this morning in this way. Never despise a small beginning. And so we recognize one act of generosity can change everything, speaks life into someone else's life, might help send a short-term missionary somewhere, a midterm missionary, maybe a long-term missionary. I want to encourage you to keep our own Rebecca Tillman in your prayers as she left last week to go serve and to spread the gospel in Thailand. Mary Hannah off our staff will be going to Paris this week again to share the gospel this summer for a few weeks. Amen. Amen. Thank you, Lord. But we're mindful of all these acts of generosity that fuel the propagation, the sending forth of people in our city and around the world, bring forth great fruit. One gift might support a ministry that changes a life for eternity. And so God promises that we reap according to what we sow. Thirdly, God loves cheerful givers. Note this in the text, verse 7. Each one must give as he's decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Now note, church family, note the progression here. Note this. Note that it's thoughtful. Note what's Paul's teaching.
SPEAKER_03Thoughtful, in other words, what a person, a believer, decides in his heart. So giving is thoughtful. We put thought into it.
SPEAKER_02Secondly, note it's voluntary. Note that Paul says it's not reluctantly. It's not like, oh darn gosh, I'll force myself to do this. It's not reluctantly. It's not under compulsion. But notice that he says it's joyful. This is why uh Paul, our Bible translation translates it cheerful giver. And what we see there is that this is really ultimately not about God wanting our money. He owns the cattle on a thousand heels. He's after our hearts. Because I even think about the reality that the word cheerful here in the original Greek is where we get the English word hilarious. So what we recognize is this is an image of a believer who delights in giving, delighting in the Lord. There's a little boy who sat in church years ago and the offering plate was being plat passed by, and he took the offering plate when it came to him and he put it down on the floor of the sanctuary, and then he stepped into the offering plate and stood there. And so obviously the usher looked very confused and asked the little boy, What are you doing? And the little boy replied, Well, the preacher said, We're supposed to give ourselves to God, and this is all I have. And I am mindful that the child understood something that many adults miss.
SPEAKER_03God doesn't primarily want your wallet, He wants your heart, your life.
SPEAKER_02And the issue ultimately really isn't about money, the issue is about surrender, trusting that God is faithful with what he's promised. And that's why Paul is appealing to the church in this way, to know that God's faithful with what he says he will do. No, isn't it true that a wealthy person can give millions and still be selfish? I'm not trying to pick on the late Steve Jobs, but you correct me if I'm wrong. But my understand understanding that is that while Jobs was worth hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, he never did anything philanthropic. Now I may be wrong about that, but that's my understanding. But a wealthy person can also give away millions and be very generous. But on the same lens of the heart, a widow is capable of being selfish. But as we know from Jesus' words, a widow can give two mites and be extraordinarily generous. God measures gifts differently than we do, because God is looking at the heart. Note as Paul moves us along, fourthly, that God also supplies more seed for the sower. This is one of the great promises of Scripture. Paul says, verse 8, and God is able to make all grace abound towards you. Remember, grace, we often define it this way, all of God for all my need. He's able to make all of himself abound toward you. Notice the repeated emphasis is on God's ability, not your ability. God is able, not your resources, not your bank account, not an economy that moves up and down. God. And so Paul continues, verse 10 and 11. 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. I remember just as many of you do going through the 2007-2008 economic crisis, as well as COVID. And because I had the honor of pastoring a church for 15 years in Birmingham, we had gone through the Word of God many times and taught these passages. And when the economic crisis hit in 2008, giving didn't go down.
SPEAKER_03I know this is counterintuitive. It went up. There were people being laid off, but giving went up. We went through COVID.
SPEAKER_02Church never struggled from a budget standpoint. Why? Because people had, they understood that God's ways. By the way, I've heard similar stories regarding Christchurch Memphis and glory to God for those realities. But why does God, let me ask you this question, why does God bless his people? Why is God sharing with us through Paul that I bless my people when they're generous? Well, here's why. So you can be a blessing. God does not fill reservoirs, he creates rivers. There's a difference. The Sea of Galilee receives water and it gives water away. As a result, it's teeming with life. It has rivers and streams, flows into it, but it also has an outflow. But the Dead Sea, as many of you are aware, receives water, but it has no outlet. Everything it keeps, it keeps for itself. And as a result, it is a lifeless reservoir. Our lives are designed to be rivers. And one is alive because it gives, and the other is dead because it only receives. Many Christians want God to pour out his blessing in their lives, but they're never allowing the blessings to flow outward. God's pattern is different. He blesses his people in order for his people to bless people and bring glory to him. God often entrusts resources to those who will faithfully steward them for his purpose. That is illustrated profoundly in the parable of the talents. The question is never how much do I have. The question is how much of what God has given me is available for his kingdom. And then Paul brings us to this place where he begins to wrap up this segment that we've been in for several weeks. And that's where he demonstrates for us that generosity produces thanksgiving before God, worship before the living God. He now reveals the ultimate result of generosity. The Jerusalem believers would be receiving help. Needs would be met, but loved one, something infinitely greater begins to take place. People begin to glorify God. Thanksgiving begins to rise to heaven. Worship begins to increase, and the church is strengthened because the church grows and celebrates the faithfulness of Almighty God. Generosity becomes a testimony to the reality of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In early American Methodism, you may know that the circuit riders spanned out all over the emerging colonies in North America. They rode thousands of miles on horseback preaching. And as they did, encountered storms. They suffered. You can read journals of circuit riders where they talk about sleeping outdoors. And the first thing they do when they wake up in the morning is to begin examining their body and pulling ticks off of their body from sleeping outside. They encountered dangers, oftentimes fist fights when people were opposing the gospel in small towns. These were persons who made it possible for you and I ultimately to be worshiping in the sanctuary were standing on their shoulders. But loved ones, their ministry was funded by ordinary believers that gave sacrificially. Most of these persons who funded the propagation of the gospel never preached a sermon, they never planted a church, they never crossed a frontier. However, their generosity, because of it, entire regions of this nation were transformed by the gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore, the harvest not only belonged to those who were propagating the gospel and suffering for Christ, but it also belonged to those who were sowing. You know how the Apostle Paul writes in the New Testament? He'll stop and say, This is my opinion. It's not the word of God. That's how I'm a paraphrase, I'm paraphrasing. I'm about to say something that it's my opinion. I'm not saying it's the word of God, but I'm just going to offer an opinion.
SPEAKER_03Is that legal for a pastor? It's very possible that one day in heaven, people are going to walk up to you, people you've never met, and they're going to say thank you. They're going to look you in the eye and say thank you. And you're going to go, What?
SPEAKER_02And they're going to say things like this now that I'm in heaven and I can see the way everything worked, you gave sacrificially to the church, and that church reached me for Christ in vacation Bible school. My family, they weren't Christians, but my teacher shared the gospel with me. And because of your faithfulness, you had everything to do with making sure that the propagation of the love of God through his gospel were stewarded well. Or the teenager who gets reached on a youth camp, or a person that gets reached for Christ in a biddy-bitty camp or in India, in some other part of Africa or part of Mexico, and a team goes, as Joey outlined for us today, families who have no running water, no AC, no indoor plumbing. And you go because of the gospel, because of the love of God for all people, and you serve. And this church family, through being generous, makes it possible for people to serve through your prayers, your generosity expressed in so many ways. One day, it may be that someone walks up to you and you just go, What? And they're saying thank you because lives were changed, missionaries were sent, the gospel spreads, and God receives the glory. Church family, this is why in the concluding verses, Paul breaks out in worship. You look at me, with look with me. Verse 15, thanks be to God. So what he's saying, thanks be to God. He's worshiping. But then he gets more specific. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Question. What is he referring to? Well, he's referring to Jesus Christ. Paul can't talk about giving without arriving at the ultimate gift at Calvary, because every act of Christian generosity flows from the generosity that God himself has demonstrated toward us. God gave his Son. Jesus Christ gave his life. The Holy Spirit has been gifted to us for new birth. Everything that we have begins with the grace of God offered to us. Years ago, I knew of a young man who had founded a business and the business took off. It really took off. And the young man in his youthfulness had made a lot of bold decisions that were good decisions, and it propelled the success of the business. But in his youthfulness and lack of experience, he made one bold decision that crushed the business.
SPEAKER_03People were being laid off. It was his fault on his shoulders. And then one day he discovered that his father had gone to the finance, those who had financed the business, and he paid off the debt. And the young man realized he could never repay his father.
SPEAKER_02He could only receive the gift with gratitude and live differently because of it.
SPEAKER_03Church, that is the gospel.
SPEAKER_02Our debt was immeasurable, our resources were insufficient, yet God paid the debt through Jesus Christ. And in light of that, as believers, we live generously because we have been loved generously. We give because God first gave to us. And so Paul's message that he gives us in these verses can be summarized in this way so generously for the glory of God, and then trust God completely that what he said in 2 Corinthians 9, 1 through 15 is true. It's true for you, believer. Give cheerfully. It's not reluctantly or out of compulsion. Do it cheerfully, hilariously, as the original language says, and expect God to use your generosity for his glory, and then worship him. Fall in love with him all the more, not only because he's God and because his son took your sins, but because he's faithful to who he says that he is. Too good to be true, too true to ignore. Every harvest begins with a seed. Every transformed life begins somewhere. Every church planted, every missionary sent, every ministry sustained, somewhere, somebody, some believer is sowing. And today, God is still looking for sowers. The eyes of the Lord look to and fro across the earth that he may strongly support a heart that's completely his. He's not looking for people who are primarily concerned about money. He's looking for people who say, Here I am, Lord, I surrender to you. Here's my heart in all its fullness. He's looking for people who trust him enough to scatter seed into fields that they may never personally harvest. But it's empowering the movement of God. And there is a day coming when all of history will be culminated. And on that day we will all discover all the seed that's been sown for Jesus Christ and how it was not wasted. But until then, let us so generously serve faithfully and live gratefully, and may we join the Apostle Paul in saying, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02And so, Jesus, the purpose of your revealed word is so we would be encountered by your revealed word, and deliver us from, Lord, the deception that comes with outward religiosity. And we pray, Lord, for inward reality. Lord, for the work of your grace of being generous sowers for your kingdom. And doing so, Lord, with the right heart, a heart that rejoices that in Christ you gave, you took our sin, you gave what we could not do for ourselves. Your generosity through Jesus makes possible our transformation and the birthing of our lives into eternity. May our hearts overflow and function not as reservoirs, but as rivers for the glory of God. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee. We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ. To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at ChristchurchMethods.org. We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.