Running To Win 15 Minute Version

Announcer (Male): Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before us. Looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. God loves a cheerful giver. Giving should never be a burden, but rather, a privilege. We sow and then we reap, but the reaping may be in a different season than the sowing. Our job, to trust the Lord of the harvest with expectant hearts. Stay with us.

From The Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running To Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Now, to wrap up part five in a series on managing God's gifts, here is Pastor Lutzer. His focus once again, the sermon on the amount.

Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer: Verse 8, I am astounded at the universals in the verse. In fact, I think that little word all or its equivalent appears about three times for sure and maybe four. Listen to what he says, and God is able to make all grace abound to you. So that in all things, at all times, having all that you need. Isn't that four times? Notice then, you will abound in every good work.

I read that and I'm astounded. I'm saying, Paul, are you telling me that if I'm faithful in giving money, I am going to experience a sufficiency of God that money cannot buy? That I will find that well of water within me reaching up to eternal life, because the idea here in the Greek is that it will be a matter of inner resources, so that I will be able to suffer better, so that I will be able to face life better, so that I will have more wisdom and abound in all things.

That's what Paul says is one of the harvests of those who give generously. It is a harvest of sufficiency. It is also a harvest, and this even surprises me more, a harvest of special righteousness. Verse 10, now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed. Now, he is talking about money.

He's saying, you put seed in the ground, you can expect that God is going to bless you to have seed back. But notice what you're going to have. He will increase your store of seed and enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. I say, Paul, I don't get that. What's the connection between faithfulness in giving and the harvest of righteousness? Now, obviously, this is not the righteousness which Jesus Christ gives by which we enter into heaven.

Because that has to be a free gift because it is the righteousness of God to which we can contribute nothing. And this would be a good place for me to say that those of you are listening who have never received Christ as Savior, you've never transferred your trust to him, that you must do so realizing that you make no contribution to the righteousness of God. It must be received as a free gift. But Paul is talking about practical righteousness.

I think if we could discuss this with Paul, I'd love to sit down and say, Paul, help me understand better what you have in mind. Paul would say, look, if you are not giving generously, if you are not sowing generously, then don't expect necessarily that your family is blessed. Don't necessarily expect that you are going to find that sufficiency and the practical righteousness and the wisdom that you need is going to take place, because these are part of the harvest of those who sow the seeds.

And you'll notice he quotes here from Psalm 112 verse 9, he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. And somehow there is a connection between the two. What is the harvest? It is the harvest of sufficiency. It is also the harvest of special righteousness and then special blessings.

And here Paul begins to just, what shall we say, have one phrase after another. And what the essence of it is, is he's saying that this is going to redound to the praise and the honor of God. You'll notice it says in verse 11, you will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion. And again, he is still talking here about material prosperity, it is involved.

It will result in Thanksgiving to God. Who is going to thank God? It's the people who have been blessed as a result of the gift. It's the saints who are in Jerusalem. It's the children that we hope to reach here in the city of Chicago as we build this building. It's the people who come in who know that we need the classrooms for our adult ministries, our children's ministries, that we need space for a fellowship hall, so that our ministries can be strengthened and the interaction of believers can be, can be made firm.

You see, it is then that people are going to offer praise to God. So Paul is saying, you'll notice in verse 12, this service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people. Oh, that's part of it. Yes. But it is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. He's saying those saints in Jerusalem are going to bless you for what you're doing and you're going to be bound together in them, with them, because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God.

Now, I underlined this in my Bible, but that's at least the third time Paul says that one of the results of this harvest is thanksgiving to God. For the obedience that accompanies your confession of the Gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the surpassing grace God has given you.

No wonder he ends by saying, thanks to God for his unspeakable gift. Again, Paul wants to root our faithfulness in giving in the unspeakable gift of God and he holds Christ high. You see what Paul is saying? Through our giving we are bound to other saints. Our hearts are knit together. Lives are challenged, people are blessed. And because in stewardship enrichment, 10% of our giving is going to go to missionaries in different parts of the world, in different projects, there are people all over the world who are going to offer praise to God because of the generosity of God's people.

And that is part of the harvest of righteousness. It's the kind of thing that money cannot buy. Now, of course, the question is how much shall we give? Somebody says shall I tithe on the gross or shall I tithe on the net? How shall we do this? How shall we discern God's mind? Have you understood the principles?

Sow generously, ask yourself the question, what kind of a harvest do I want? Do I want God to bless the gross or do I want God to bless the net? What kind of a harvest do I want? Shall I sow sparingly or shall I sow bountifully believing in the harvest? There's a second principle. And that is what kind of a heart do I have? Because we're to sow cheerfully.

Could it be that there's somebody here today who says they aren't going to get a dime out of me? Well, my dear friend, if you're sitting here today and you're saying that, then I humbly say, keep your dime. Keep your dime. Get on your knees until you love God, and then you'll be able to share that dime and maybe even a few others. But until your heart is right, don't worry about your checkbook.

But your checkbook may be a well, a good indicator as to where your heart is. So what's the second principle? You sow cheerfully. We ask the question of what kind of a heart do I have? And now we also sow expectantly, and we ask ourselves the question, what kind of a heritage are we going to leave? What kind of lives are we going to impact for the cause of the Gospel?

No, there is no percentage stipulated. And we're not here to tell you what the percentage would be. Certainly, 10% is a good benchmark, it's a good beginning place. But beyond that, it is between you and God seeking his mind and asking the question about the harvest.

In a third world country, there was a father who faced a very difficult decision. He had a bucket of grain, of corn actually, that his family needed, because they were poor. And here was this tension within him as to what to do with a bucket of corn. You could use it now and it would probably serve them maybe for a week.

But what he did is he went into the little hut, took it down and put it in the ground. He seeded it. As he walked along, he stomped it into the ground. And his little daughter was astounded. Because to her, daddy was just ruining the whole thing. I mean, what good are these seeds in the ground? I mean, we need bread. We need whatever corn can make.

But he said to her, my little girl, I want you to know that I'm putting this seed away in the ground, because I believe in the harvest. You see, some of you face that decision, don't you? Because you need money to live. No question about it. You have mortgage payments. We all do that. We all have to be able to survive. And so there's tension here, you see, between what shall I do? What shall I give? And how much can I quote afford to give? In a sense, that is a legitimate question. How much seeding can I do when there is not a whole lot of corn in the house?

And the answer to that question is that it depends on your faith in the harvest. The Apostle Paul says, you give generously, God is able to make all grace abound to you. So that in all things, at all times, having all that you need. What a promise. You will abound in every good work. You give generously and you get things that money can never possibly buy.

Can you trust the God of the harvest? That's the question. Can we trust God to keep his word that the harvest will come in? You know, of course, that you always reap in a different season than you sow. You sow in the springtime, but you don't harvest in the springtime. You have to wait. The very same way we sow now, and the harvest will begin to come in. Of course, we will see it with our own eyes, God willing. But it's down the road. It's it's years from now that we see its fruition and its completeness.

And so I ask you today, what is the amount? Sow generously. Sow cheerfully. Sow expectantly. And believe, believe in the God of the harvest.

And my friend, isn't it wonderful to realize that any investment that we make in this world, we take with us in the world to come. You know, so often people say, well, you can't take it with you. Yes, you can. If you transmute it into a different form, Jesus said that we should use our investments in such a way that when we get to heaven, people will welcome us into everlasting habitations.

I know that you have many ministries to which you can contribute that enable the gospel to go to various countries. Would you consider and pray about making a gift to Running to Win? And the reason it is so important is at the end of this month, it is the end of our fiscal year. We would like to be able to end in a strong position because this ministry continues to grow. Why? Because of your prayers and because of your gifts.

Let me thank you in advance and as a thank you, we'll give you the book, Christ Among Other Gods.

Announcer (Male): That was Erwin Lutzer wrapping up The Sermon On The Amount, the fifth in a six-part series on managing God's gifts. Next time on Running To Win, the final message about a resource they don't make more of. Join us for a lesson on managing our time.

Knowing why Christ transcends all other religious founders is key to defending your faith in a confused culture. Pastor Lutzer has written a book, Christ Among Other Gods, and we'll send it as our thank you when you give a gift of any amount to support Running To Win. Just call us at 1-800-215-5001. That's 1-800-215-5001. Online go to offerrtw.com. That's offerrtw.com. Or write to us at Running To Win, Moody Church, 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard, Chicago, Illinois, 60614. This is Dave Mcllister. Running To Win is a ministry of The Moody Church.