Trusting God to Meet My Needs
II Corinthians 9:6-13. 01/09/05
With every promise there is a basis. And in this passage today, there is a key that I want to show you that absolutely will guarantee that God will meet every single need of your life. And no need will go unmet.
This is a message today that can strengthen your faith that can increase your effectiveness that can bless all your relationships that can literally transform our lives. So I want us to look at the things that are presented here. First of all there is a principle, we must trust God to meet our needs by:
I. OBEYING GOD’S PRINCIPLE
James said, “Faith without works is dead.” Well what kind of work of faith do we need, to obey the principle of God to get our needs met? Look at verse 6, “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” Here is the principle, when you have a need plant a seed. Now, this is easy for me to understand because I have a farm background. You are really demonstrating faith when you are planting a seed; you are really living by faith.
If you have a need in your life, you need to plant a seed. There is an area of faith in which you need to be obedient. You need to be obedient in the area in which you have a need. Because whatever a man sows, the Bible says, that shall he also reap. And so, if you want corn, you plant corn because you reap what you sow. If you want wheat, you plant wheat, and so on. So if you want a friend, you be a friend. If you need money, you sow to that area of giving. That is the principle of God; it is as simple as sowing and reaping.
For example, let’s say there are two farmers and both of them are in great trouble, in an economic crisis. And both of them have some seed to plant. One farmer takes the approach; it is just too expensive to plant seed. I have this seed and if I plant this seed, it is all I have. I may starve to death because I may not get a crop and this may be all the seed that I have. I can’t plant the seed that I have; I have to hold on to it.
But God says if you have a need sow a seed. Don’t just work harder; don’t just put in more hours but trust God by being obedient to the principle of His Word.
Not only obeying God’s principal but:
II. OBSERVING THE PROCEDURE
But something just as important, is if we are trusting God to meet our need, it means observing the procedure. Because in this passage, He tells us not just to give; He tells us how to give. We are to start with the tithe.
Let me show you what I mean beginning here in II Corinthians 9:7, the Bible tells us exactly how we are to give. In verse 7 and 8, notice these things, first of all he says, we are to give thoughtfully. The Bible says we are to pray about it, we are to purpose in our heart. And we are to give thoughtfully. We are to give thought to our giving. We are not just to give God a tip when the offering plate comes by, the offering is something that is a part of our worship, of our love to God, and we are to think about it and to pray about it and let God guide us. God is concerned about the procedure. If we wanted to have our needs met, we have to look at the spirit and the attitude in which we give.
But not only thoughtfully, we are to give voluntarily. The Bible says we are not to give grudgingly, or of necessity. In other words, we are not to give under pressure. And I don’t want anybody in this church to feel that they are under pressure to give of your time or of your talents or of your treasure to God under pressure from me, or under pressure from any kind of human source. Because the Bible teaches if our needs are to be met, it has to be voluntary giving. It has to be an exercise of our will that is faith.
Then we are to give enthusiastically. When the Bible says not reluctantly or under compulsion, it means that we are to give with great enthusiasm. Giving ought to be something we are excited about, something we are ready to do, something we want to do. Not because somebody has put pressure upon us.
That is the procedure.
III. OBTAIN THE PROMISE
So we obey the principle, if we have a need, we plant a seed. Then we observe the procedure, we give in the right way. Then number three we obtain the promise. The promise is you will abound in all things. There are three things about this promise, number one, God says your needs will be met.
And number two; your witness will be strengthened. In verse 13 Paul said, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.
Last of all, your faith will be increased. There is only one verse in the entire Bible where God says, prove me. Prove that I exist. You bring the whole tithe into the storehouse and prove me now, here with says the Lord, if I will not open unto you the windows of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. Do you not realize today that we don’t need to give because the church needs the money; we don’t need to give because God is broke, and God owns it all. The Bible teaches that we need to give that our faith might be strengthened, that our faith might be increased, why? Because the Word of God says without faith, it is impossible to please God.
