WE HARVEST GOD’S BLESSINGS July 9, 2006 - PENTECOST 5 / HARVEST FESTIVAL - 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
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Dear Fellow-Redeemed and Saints in the Lord:
Suddenly we realize that in our blessed nation of the United States, we live, as it seems, in a world of worry. We don’t have to listen to the radio too long or read the headlines too far or see the news too often to feel that type of worry that infiltrates our day-to-day living. There is the economy, prices, terror, weather and the list never stops, does it? It seems that if there isn’t one thing to worry about, there is another list of things that might happen or things that did happen or things that will happen. So what happens to us as believers who live in this world? Worry can easily infiltrate our life. Time to time, we may scratch our heads and be overcome with worry wondering what might happen or could happen or may happen.
Today, we are going to look at the fact that our loving Lord cares for us with an infinite care and with a divine care that only he can provide. The very God who made the heavens and the earth is our God. He is the one who takes care of us, not just bodily, but body and soul. He reminds us this morning as he reminded his disciples in Luke: "Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!" (Luke 12:23.24). So today we are reminded that we are far more valuable than the raven or any other of God’s creation.. As we remind ourselves of that, we remind ourselves, too, that according to Paul’s words—
WE HARVEST GOD’S BLESSINGS. We enjoy God’s blessings day after day as we see that
I. Our God is a cheerful giver;
II. We then can be thankful givers.
I. GOD IS OUR CHEERFUL GIVER
This idea of generosity and thanksgiving begins in Chapter 8 of 2 Corinthians. You may want to read this as an introduction to our text. Paul writes to them and using a comparison that they are able to understand which we can also easily understand. "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously." You notice he doesn’t say anything about in between the sowing and the reaping. Paul just says that those who sow sparingly will reap a little bit. Those who sow generously will reap a lot. He doesn’t say anything about the growing, because God would take care of that and God does. The original word for "generous" means he is the one who sows with a blessing in mind and is going to reap from a blessing. That is what God says to these believers. They were different than you and I, because really they spent their day-to-day living just providing food and clothing. That was all they had time for. He reminded them to plant and it will be provided for you.
Paul goes on and tells them that there is more to life than food and clothing: "And God is able to make all grace abound to you." So not only would he provide for them in their day-to-day living, but God is able to make all grace abound to them. God goes beyond what they could see. God goes beyond what they can plant and grow. He goes to the fact that they are saved by grace through faith. He tells them: "And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need." He provides all that they need. God was thinking specifically of divine blessings--grace, mercy, love, peace, patience, joy, forgiveness and the list goes on. This grace of God was also to put their minds at ease, so they would not worry about their day-to-day living.
Then Paul quotes from the Old Testament from the Psalms: "As it is written: ’He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.’" God provides the gifts. He is the cheerful giver and generous giver who provides and scatters his gifts abroad. The righteousness of God is a gift, too. It lasts forever. If these words from Paul were not enough, or if the quotation from the Psalm were not enough, he gives them a guarantee. Paul adds: "Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. They would harvest God’s blessings. They were reminded of Isaiah when he said: "He provides rain and snow from the heavens to provide seed for the sower and bread for the eater." There would be enough for seed and enough for food to eat. This is one of God’s miracles. God will increase their seed in order to reap a generous harvest. This is again referring God’s righteousness, his blessed love and care and concern for them. Their God was a cheerful giver.
This is our God who is a cheerful giver and a generous giver. In our day and age we have to remind ourselves of that, don’t we? There is probably not one of us here to who has to work long and hard everyday just to have food and clothing. The fact is we are so blessed that we don’t very often think about food and clothing. We go to the store and buy what we need. We may complain once in awhile about the prices. Our refrigerators are full, and maybe we have two refrigerators. Our cupboards are not bare. When the Lord says to us that he provides us with everything, we sometimes forget that and let the worry of this world creep in. We always think we need a little bit more. Our society says we need more--a better car, a newer computer, more clothes, a bigger house, greater savings, etc. That infiltrates our life very easily. Today, the Lord reminds us that the things that we see and touch and feel and the things of this world are where moth and rust come in and destroy. Listen to this from Proverbs: "Do not wear yourself out to get rich; have the wisdom to show restraint. Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone, for they will surely sprout wings and fly off to the sky like an eagle"(Proverbs 23:4,5). Riches are short-lived. They will go away very fast. They can be taken away by flood, fire, and storm or just about anything. Yet, sometimes we know how attached we are to the things of this world. Worse, our society never teaches us that we have enough. It says we need more. They go away very fast. We need the wisdom to show restraint.
Hopefully, there is a time that comes in your life, hopefully sooner than later as some of our older members realize, when you look back you realize that everyday the Lord blesses us. Everyday, we have enough. Not just enough--everyday we do not just eke out a life of living in abject poverty; but we have more than that--possessions beyond comparison. This illustration is good to remind ourselves. When you reach in your pocket today, pull out that change that is there. Whether it is a couple of coins or a bunch of coins, just to have that amount of change that fits in your hand puts you in the top ten percent wealthiest in the world. Ninety percent of the world have less than that to live on day by day, a handful of change. That is how blessed we are. Yet, it is hard for us to put ourselves back in the time of the Apostle Paul when they were worried whether they would have enough food. They were concerned if they would have enough sheep to get the wool, to make the thread, to sew the clothes, to provide for their children. Daily we harvest God’s blessings physically and spiritually. We are reminded as Paul writes: "But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that" (1 Timothy 6:6-8). We all have food and clothing, probably more than one refrigerator or more than one closet full of clothing. Yet, how often don’t we say to ourselves we can’t find anything to wear; or we don’t know what we are going to have for supper. There is nothing in the house to eat. Godliness with contentment is great gain. We are blessed.
Really we are a nation of excess. There are nations in this world who still live day by day. So how do we harvest God’s blessings? With a heart of faith and with ears that hear the power of God’s word and with eyes that see the fact that everything around us is given to us by the God who made the heavens and the earth. Our God is a cheerful giver and generous giver who wants us to have all things at all times, especially grace. Listen to Paul’s prayer in Ephesians: "I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe" (Ephesians 1:18,19). He says, "Open up your eyes. I pray that you see what it means to inherit eternal life. Open up your eyes and pray that you can see the incomparably great power of God. He can do all things." God does great things for us. We benefit from those blessings of God.
We harvest God’s blessings, because God is a cheerful giver. The blessings God gives are to benefit us, and to benefit others because we can be generous, thankful givers.
II. WE CAN BE THANKFUL GIVERS
Paul continues with that thought. He gave them the comparison of sowing generously and harvesting generously, because God would give the increase. Behind of all this generosity of God is that fact that believers are blessed. In this way God gives his followers the motivation why they would be generous. Paul writes: "Remember this: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." Paul reminded these believers, as they were taking up a collection to help those who were suffering a famine in Jerusalem not to give reluctantly or under compulsion as if they wanted to keep it for themselves. Just as God had cheerfully given to them so they might give to others. God loves a cheerful giver, because he is a cheerful giver. Since they had seen God’s gifts to them, they are generous, cheerful, thankful givers.
When we go back and read some of those verses, consider verse 8: "God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work." As these believers look back at their life, they realize that, sure, from time to time there were times when they didn’t know what the future held; and they were a little bit worried about it. They didn’t know what their crops looked like, and they got a little worried about it. As they looked back, they also realized that God provided all things at all times; so that they could abound in every good work. They could overflow with good works for God with a good Christian life. "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever." He is not going to take his righteousness away from them.
Then he says: "You will be made rich in every way." They, no doubt, thought about the riches of earth. Paul thought about the riches of heaven itself. They were rich in every way. They were called out of the darkness into God’s light. They had been told their sins were forgiven. They had been told the law had been fulfilled by the love of Christ and his death on the cross. They were rich beyond all comparison. There was a purpose for them to be made rich. "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion." As the Christian church began with the twelve apostles in Jerusalem, it grew to 5,000 on Pentecost. It increased even more. Now, as it spread to these foreign countries, it still was a new church and a small church. The unbelievers looked at these Christians, the followers of the Way, as people who were peculiar or strange. The church was not Jews anymore. They were Christians. They were made rich, so they could be generous as others might see Christ made a difference in their lives, not for their glorification but for thankfulness to God. Today’s text concludes by saying: "You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God." People around them would be thankful to God because of their faithfulness.
Why would you and I be generous, thankful givers and livers in this life? As we look around us, we hear over and over again this world is only concerned about itself. This world is only concerned how to get ahead and store up things that moth and rust corrupts. Why should be any different? First of all, God has called out of darkness of this world into the glorious light of the knowledge of salvation. Most importantly, we realize how much God has given us. The world around us looks at the things that it achieves or the possessions that it gathers in; and says, "Look what I have done." You and I bring things before God and say, "Look what you have done." Year after year at harvest we are amazed. Look at what God has done once again. More often than not it is more than we expected and more than what we worried about. Why? As Paul says in Romans: "He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all--how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things"(Romans 8:32). God was willing to put his Son on the cross and put him to death and let his lifeblood pour out so that we would have eternal life. How much easier is it for God to bless us day by day and to provide us with blessings, whether we deserve them or not, our daily bread. God also provides us with the blessing of eternal life, which we don’t deserve--a faith that lays hold of the merits of Jesus Christ for forgiveness. That is our motivation. God gave his Son and will give us everything else so that we can be thankful givers.
There is something else the people of the Old Testament realized as well as the people of the New Testament -- God blesses his people. Certainly, we realize God blesses the world. God even blesses a Christian nation as he is trying to preserve his people. Where there are lots of believers, you will find lots of God’s blessings, because he wants his name glorified. The Psalm writer notices this: "I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread. They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed" (Psalm 37:25,26). This writer had lived a long life and did not see any evidence of the believer forsaken by God. Knowing who the believer is, what does he say? The psalm writer says they are generous and they lend freely. The love of God shines in their lives.
How does God’s blessings that they might have for themselves affect those around them? Here is why God blesses us. It is not to keep his great blessings to ourselves, but to share with those who still sit in darkness. Listen to this from 1 Peter: "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us" (1 Peter 2:12). Peter is talking about the last day when the Lord visits us. Peter also says to these believers (Remember Peter is writing during the worst time of the worst persecution of the Christian church) to live a Christian life so that the pagans may praise God. Sounds like that today. How often aren’t the Christian values that we hold so near and dear to our heart considered to be wrong? God’s Word is the truth. We believe that. Not everyone does. Abortion is murder. Scripture teaches that. Some feel that is wrong. The fact is we have more abortions than live births in our country of freedoms. So they may accuse us of doing wrong or may think we have the wrong thinking. But we still have to hold fast to the truth of God’s blessings.
When we talk about God’s blessings and thankfulness, it takes a lifetime; and that is really what God is saying to us today. Our lifetime is a lifetime of thanksgiving for God’s blessings. God’s blessings are great even though sometimes we might we could use a little bit more or we want a little bit more. But when it comes to the blessings that God wants us to have, eternal life, forgiveness of sins, there is no withholding by God. We have them, and they are ours. We harvest the benefit of that blessing, because our God is a cheerful and generous giver. We don’t deserve eternal life or forgiveness. God gives us these blessings, so that we might live lives that others would glorify God. If we can be generous, thankful, cheerful givers and livers in this life for those things are sometimes hardly ever seen. From Ecclesiastes are these beautiful words that talks about God’s gift to us, not just his gifts, but the gift to enjoy life. I really think that in this world there are many people who don’t enjoy life. They are so busy being busy about life that they don’t enjoy life – which is a gift of God. "Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work--this is a gift of God. He seldom reflects on the days of his life, because God keeps him occupied with gladness of heart" (Ecclesiastes 5:19,20). The believer in Christ seldom has time to worry about the weather, the economy, the gas prices, and the harvest because God keeps him occupied with the gladness of heart. We harvest God’s blessings so that we can be occupied that the gladness of the heart that is forgiven by God. Amen. Pastor Timm O. Meyer
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Pentecost 5 readings: JOB 38:1-11; 2 CORINTHIANS 5:14-21; MARK 4:35-41
