Giving pt6: Supply and Multiply
Leadership in Context with Keith Tucci
Episode 057
Money Principle #1: Giving is a grace.
Money Principle #2: Giving is a spiritual standard.
Money Principle #3: What has God given you?
Money Principle #4: It’s the equality of the commitment, not the abundance of gifts, that really makes a difference.
Money Principle #5: Leaders are held to a higher standard.
Money Principle #6: God looks at us as a sower.
2 Corinthians 9:7b-8
…For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good work.
Never count yourself out as a giver. If we are flowing in the grace of God, God wants to prepare us for every good work. Verse 7 talks about God loving a cheerful giver. We may look at our needs and feel we don’t have an abundance related to certain things, but when it comes to giving, we always have an abundance because giving is seed. One little seed. We may discount that amount, but God never wants us to discount our obedience. God exalts those acts of obedience, even if they are seemingly small.
2 Corinthians 9:10
Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the fruits of your righteousness.
God supplies seed to the sower and bread for food. There are two principle reasons that God puts wealth (seed) and sustenance (bread) in our hands:
1) Seed to the Sower
When something comes across your hand, comes into your bank account, the first consideration needs to be that that is seed for sowing. What does God want you to do with what He just gave you? He wants you to not take the mentality of ownership, but the mentality of stewardship. God looks at us as a sower. Do you see yourself as a sower? A bad way to measure wealth is by what you have left over. A great way to measure wealth is by what you are able to give.
2) Bread for Food
God wants us to be sustained. He wants our needs to be taken care of. The reference to bread here is literally not just bread. This would include sustenance—housing, clothing, transportation, physically well-being. God supplies all our needs.
Supply and Multiply
God will supply. We need to acknowledge that it came from God. He will also multiply. Does He multiply the seed we have hung onto or the seed we have sown? Things will only multiply when we do something with them. Often believers wait until they have more to invest. Yet God is saying that He has given you something and He will multiply what you have sown, not what you have kept. If you want to grow in financial prosperity, financial influence, and the ability to give and bless other people, it is clear here that God will multiply the seed you have sown.
Increase the Fruits
2 Corinthians 9:10 continues on to say that God will increase the fruits of your righteousness when you sow the seed He has given. Giving is a righteous thing, and God wants to multiply the fruit of that. What makes something fruitful? When it has reproductive seed in it. When you invest in someone’s life through generosity, when you invest in the work of God through generosity, there is fruitful seed in it that is able to multiply.
Yesterday’s manna has today’s worms or tomorrow’s treasures, depending on how you look at it.When the Israelites were in the wilderness, manna came down from Heaven each day. They were only allowed to gather enough bread for one day, except the day before the Sabbath when they were allowed to gather enough for two days. If they gathered more than they could eat, it became infested with worms. When the focus on our financial well-being is gathering and not sowing, there is a good chance it will be infested with worms, it will rot away and unusable.
We need to be a steward. John Wesley said we should, “Earn all we can, save all we can, and give all we can.” I believe that. I’m not saving because I don’t trust God. I’m saving because I do trust God and believe He has more things for me to do in the future. You can save in faith.
There is no prohibition in the Bible on saving. The emphasis is that God gets the first consideration.
Today’s manna can hold the treasures of the future. The day before the Sabbath, they collected enough for two days. The manna collected on that day held treasure for the future. What are you going to invest it in?
This is far greater than just surface level sowing and reaping. You put a seed in the ground, water it, and it grows. But why? What does God want to do in our hearts in that process? God loves a cheerful giver.
How can you be a cheerful giver when at the same time it is hurting to give?The same way a farmer can be a cheerful farmer when he has a little seed, but the ground is fertilized and prepared, the sun is shining, and the weather report says that rain is coming tomorrow. The farmer is a cheerful giver because he understands the process of nature and what he is investing into. He is not a reluctant sower. He understands that if he doesn’t sow, there can be no hope for the future.
In Matthew 6, Jesus says to look at the sparrow who doesn’t worry about tomorrow; sparrows don’t sow or reap, but their heavenly Father takes care of them. Jesus is speaking to understanding the divine processes of God and trusting the character of God. God is a giver. God so loved that He GAVE. God wants us to emulate that same type of character—that we are givers, cheerful givers, excited givers, and find that it’s fun to give. When there is a culture in your life like that, grace abounds to you (going back to verse 8). When there is a culture in your like that, you are able to view what you give, no matter how big or small, as seed, understanding God’s process.
Join us next week as Keith Tucci continues to put leadership truth in the context of the local church. And as always, please like, share, rate/review, and invite others to listen. See you next week!
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