Absolute Harvest
Jesus-followers are called to be partners with God in which we anticipate an absolute harvest because what is sown always determines what is reaped.
This stewardship series is entitled, Full Disclosure—a revealing link between faith and finances. Countless Jesus-followers are not aware of the connection between their faith and their finances. Many believers feel their income is too limited to give. Others want to share in the work of God’s kingdom, but don’t know where to start. How we handle our earthly possessions directly impacts our eternal soul.
We are living in a culture where we want full disclosure regarding our financial institutions, government, schools, work places, and even the church. When full disclosure is revealed, complete details of security vulnerability are disclosed to the public, including details of the vulnerability and how to detect and exploit. The theory behind full disclosure is that releasing vulnerable information immediately results in quicker fixes and better security.
Full disclosure provides a revealing link between faith and finances when dealing with the subject of Christian stewardship. The body of Christ, the church, must not keep secret the management of God’s resources. It must disclose to Jesus-followers the truth that the church becomes at risk when it fails to put into practice the irrefutable truths of being responsible for the management of God’s resources.
This message series on Christian stewardship centers upon three of these irrefutable truths:
Faithful Dependability—trustworthiness marks the true steward
Consistent Collection—consistent giving facilitates consistent ministry
Absolute Harvest—sow sparingly, reap sparingly; sow bountifully, reap bountifully
Full disclosure of these irrefutable truths concerning the grace of giving has an undeniable capacity to transform our thinking and crystallize our priorities. This fact more than any other has motivated Jesus-followers to faithfully steward the resources entrusted to us by God.
Our first message highlighted the importance of Jesus-followers being trustworthy. They show a faithful dependability in managing God’s resources by giving full disclosure now and at the end of their earthly existence. Our second message disclosed the significance that consistent giving facilitates consistent ministry by offering weekly a consistent collection of what they have allocated in managing God’s resources. This final message in our series focuses upon an absolute harvest—sow sparingly, reap sparingly, sow bountifully, reap bountifully.
In civil law, changes occur constantly as legislators—our “lawmakers”—debate, devise and decide the standards that govern our lives culturally. Laws come and go as society evolves.
In criminal law, changes occur with less frequency but they do happen. For example, capital punishment was for many years allowed by the law, then for years it wasn’t, then again it was instituted. Such shifts are common in a complex, democratic system.
In spiritual law, however, changes do not occur at all, for there is but one Lawmaker and God never changes his character. Love and Truth remain constant. God may change his mind, but God doesn’t alter his nature, spirit and makeup. The Lord is “the same yesterday, today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). God’s standards are fixed and permanent. Many of God’s spiritual laws have a counterpart in the physical world, and none is more evident than the spiritual law of Sowing and Reaping.
Paul refers to the spiritual law of Sowing and Reaping in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11…
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 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. 11 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.
According to this spiritual law, we can observe in these verses that whatever is sown always determines what is reaped. If we sow corn, we’ll reap corn, not wheat or beans or rice. It is impossible to reap something different from what a person has sown. The truth applies in the spiritual dimension. There is an important corollary to the spiritual law of Sowing and Reaping, an essential principle of stewardship which we can identify as the irrefutable law of absolute harvest.
We find this same truth in the ancient Proverbs of King Solomon, many centuries before the time of Christ in Proverbs 11:25…
25 A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.
Absolute =
“the state or quality of being complete, unlimited and fixed”
The irrefutable truth of absolute harvest is unalterable; it is totally in God’s control. However, the decision as to what a person sows is an individual decision. God’s doesn’t force us to plant against our will; it’s up to us to plant good seed and cultivate good crops in the soil of life.
Give Cheerfully
The phrase “God loves a cheerful giver” has become a cliché for many Jesus-followers. Somehow we are supposed to smile as we drop those hard-earned dollars into the offering plate. Paul is not looking for people who are compelled to give by rules and manipulation, but from their own internal convictions. If treasure in heaven is the true goal of life, then we can be cheerful while giving up treasures on earth—treasures that are bound to disappear in any case. Many Jesus-followers are unable to be cheerful when they give because they have never known or experienced this inner change.
A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church. “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of the church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter and kept the dollar, so I did.”
Fortunately, the Apostle Paul’s words can become more than just a cliché. Paul insists that cheerful giving calculates into an absolute harvest in four measurable ways:
1. That we are never the loser because we are generous
6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
We have already mentioned the spiritual law of Sowing and Reaping. Giving is like sowing seed. Those who sow with a sparing hand cannot hope for anything but a meager harvest, but those who sow with a generous hand will in due time reap a generous return. The New Testament is an extremely practical book and one of its great features is that it is never afraid of the reward motive. It never says that goodness is all to no purpose. It never forgets that something new and wonderful enters into the life of those who accept God’s commands as his law. But the rewards that the New Testament envisions are never merely material. It promises not the wealth of things, but the wealth of the heart and of the spirit.
2. That it is the happy givers whom God loves
7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
There was a rabbinic saying which said that to receive a friend with a cheerful countenance and to give him nothing is better than to give him everything with a gloomy countenance. To give with a dismal spirit is almost worst than not to give at all. Good and generous persons scatter their seed, that is they sow it not sparingly but generously; they give to the poor; and their action is to their credit and joy forever. There is indeed joy in giving.
3. That God can give us both the substance to give and the spirit in which to give it
8 And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. 9 As it is written: “They have scattered abroad their gifts to the poor; their righteousness endures forever.” 10 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.
Paul speaks about the all-sufficiency which God gives us. He does not describe the sufficiency of those who possess all kinds of things in abundance. It means independence. It describes the state of those who have directed life not to amassing possessions but to eliminating needs. It describes those who have taught themselves to be content with very little. It is obvious that those persons will be able to give far more to others because they want so little for themselves.
4. That it makes prayers of thanksgiving go up to God
11 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.
It extends prayers of thanksgiving upward to God. People around us will be blessed as they see our good deeds and glorify not us, but God. It is a tremendous blessing that something we can do can turn people’s hearts to God. This means that something we can do can bring joy to God.
When we count our blessings, we have more than we realize. Once we have declared God as Master of our possessions, we may be discouraged because of the big task before us. Johnson Oatman, Jr. wrote the following words to the hymn “Count Your Blessings,” taken from Psalm 40:5…
5Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.
When you look at others with their hands and gold,
Things that Christ has promised you his wealth untold;
Count your many blessings money cannot buy,
Your reward in Heaven, nor your home on high.
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your many blessings, see what God has done.
As we move into a Thanksgiving week, it might be good to take an inventory of the blessings we have received from God by faithfully sowing seeds of generosity.
Sometimes we are so busy adding up our troubles that we fail to count our blessings.
Here are some blessings that we may not have considered as important, but which have great value.
Family: How has God blessed us with our families? Parents, brothers, and sisters, a husband or a wife, children?
Friends: Who surrounds our lives? Family friends, personal friends, friends from church, other acquaintances?
Health: What are the good things about your health for which you can thank the Lord?
Food: Most of us, far from having to worry about starvation, have at our fingertips more than we need.
Home: We must think of the place we call home. We thank God for the comfort of our homes—shelter, heat, running water, toilets, electricity, and a bed.
Clothes: We thank God for the clothes that God he has so graciously provided for us.
Work: We thank God for the opportunity he has given us to work and provide for ourselves and our families.
Money: We consider not just our main income, but also the unexpected gifts that come our way—the possible appreciation in our homes and the profits we have seen in our investments.
Faith: Do we have hope beyond the physical boundaries of this life? We thank God for hope in this present life and in the life to come.
Through this exercise, we are able to see clearly the creative ways that God has blessed our lives. We will be surprised as we recall the friends who took us out to lunch, the hand that a neighbor gave in difficult yard work, and even the less-than-ideal crop of tomatoes in the garden. With this mindset we’ll begin to give, not out of compulsion or because we’ve been instructed in Scripture to do so, but out of a cheerful and grateful response to what God has done first. Giving is no longer a chore, but a joyful response because our generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Living Out the Absolute Harvest—
The irrefutable truth of absolute harvest is a truth that can clarify our thoughts and purify our motives. Remembering that we reap exactly what we have sown helps us to keep life in perspective and impels us to plant good seed at every opportunity.
We bear in mind these priorities:
We sow generously not sparingly. God gives us a supply of “seed” to be planted for his purposes. Whatever God supplies to us, we sow it generously and wisely. We don’t waste our time or resources sowing seeds of unrighteousness because all we’ll get is a crop of weeds. We sow with an abundant intensity and we’ll reap abundantly.
We never give up in doing good. Sometimes Jesus-followers are mocked as “do-gooders.” If it happens to us, we let them mock, because we will be the victors; those who do good will reap a great harvest. We keep up the good work! Tenacity in well-doing is a sterling quality of stewardship.
We develop patience. The spiritual harvest will come. It is a well-defined, well-ordered process that is in God’s hand, not our own. Just as a physical crop comes in its own time and on its own terms, the spiritual crop cannot be rushed. We till the ground, we sow the seed, we cultivate the plants, but God gives the increase—for he and he alone is Lord of the harvest.
Let’s support one another in these days to give Full Disclosure, a revealing link to our faith and finances in the body of Christ, the church. An awakening in the twenty-first century has the potential to make us realize that:
God has provided all our resources to sow wisely;
God has given us the responsibility to manage those resources as stewards;
We can choose to experience thanksgiving—the joy of being generous.
God will ultimately hold us accountable for Full Disclosure—how we use his resources. Such a realization could do no other than cause giving to escalate. Are we actively praying to the end? Are we attentively looking to God for an absolute harvest? Amen.
