Harvesting Generosity: A Journey of Faith and Giving

Speaker 6: Good morning.

Oh, that's, that's English.

I just said English, so you don't have to be like, what?

What is, what languages?

No.

Good morning, church!

There you go, there you go.

You can come forward.

You can start, yes.

Speaker 7: Good morning.

Speaker 6: Greetings greetings to you all in the name of the

Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I take this opportunity to welcome everyone who's here, welcome everyone

watching us online and from every other locations and also I wanna

take this time to thank Pastor Nate and family for this opportunity.

Uh, I, I wanna take, uh, this time to honor God first and also, uh, honor your

senior pastor, our senior pastor, pastor Nate Gagne, for giving me this opportunity

to preach the gospel this morning.

Uh, first of all, I want to introduce myself.

Uh, I'm a, uh, I'm from India.

My, me and my family, we are from India and we are a small family.

Uh, I'm serving in a denomination called New the Church of God back home in India,

and I've been there for many years.

I was born in a Syrian Orthodox family.

Speaker 7: And

Speaker 6: at the age of 13, I was, I was called into the ministry

in a Syrian Orthodox church

Speaker 7: school

Speaker 6: after my high school.

Uh, God enabled me to serve in the, uh, as a minister in this church.

Uh, during those moments, uh, God enabled me to get married to my awesome wife.

Uh, during that time when I was in, in the Surn Orthodox Church, uh, God met

me and I had a eager to learn the word of God and to convert into Christianity.

Uh, 34 years ago, God had, I had an encounter with God and I got saved.

And from since then, 34 years ago, I became a Christian and

followed Christ in the sense.

I'm blessed with three, uh, uh,

Speaker 7: three kids.

Speaker 6: My oldest son, uh, when he was studying in eighth grade, ninth

grade, he started his full-time ministry.

Uh, he, he fought the good fight in this earth till he was 26

and when to be with the Lord.

Speaker 7: Pastor Steven Johnson.

Speaker 6: Uh, second Child is Ringo Kos and her husband Steven Johnson.

I don't have to, uh, introduce them to you.

You already know them.

Speaker 7: They serve as

Speaker 6: one of the pastors at the Restoration Church in Bethlehem.

Speaker 7: We

Speaker 6: are all also blessed with

Speaker 7: three grandkids.

Speaker 6: They're also in this, uh, in this building,

and the youngest son, Rufus

Speaker 7: and the wife Elizabeth,

Speaker 6: uh, wife Elizabeth.

Uh, they're also in the ministry, uh, back in North India.

Uh, the one good thing is we all are in ministry, but in

different parts of the world.

God has been so faithful in our lives till now.

I request your sincere prayers, continue your prayers.

If you have your Bible stern with me to second Corinthians

chapter nine, verse five,

why I chose this verse.

As many of you know, we started this series called Kingdom Builders last week.

And I want to continue in those, in that series.

Speaker 7: Um, uh, when we look

Speaker 6: at, uh, 2 Corinthians chapter 9 verse 6, it reads like this.

2 Corinthians 9:6

Remember there's a farmer who plants only few seeds will get a

small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.

Speaker 7: Here,

Speaker 6: the writer, Paul uses a terminology that is

understandable to the farmers.

Uh, I, I came to know that Americans love farming.

Uh, there are, uh, different kinds of farming in this, uh, in the United States,

but what we read in this chapter is he, Paul is talking about the Kingdom of God.

We also see that in the Bible there is, uh, there is this, uh, this theme

called sowing and reaping that we see,

but Paul here talks about giving to the kingdom of.

Paul reminds us this.

A farmer who plants few seeds will, uh, will have small crop, but who, who plants

generously will have a generous crop.

The person who gives generously will reap generously.

We need to remember that

Speaker 7: for a farmer.

Speaker 6: A farmer always, uh, buys the best seed for

him to sow it into the field.

He looks under the field and he buys the seed according to how large his field is.

Speaker 7: If

Speaker 6: you give the best seed, if you sold the best seed into the

field, you'll reap the best harvest.

Speaker 7: A

Speaker 6: farmer who plants a seed, he waits for the biggest harvest in return.

That's the same thing that a farmer stores the seed.

So Paul here reminds us about sowing into the kingdom of God.

Speaker 7: When we

Speaker 6: come to verse seven,

we see a question there, how we need to give.

We read that God loves a

Speaker 7: cheerful giver.

The Bible reminds us this.

Don't give sadly.

Don't give with peer pressure.

For

Speaker 6: God loves a cheerful giver.

Let me ask you this.

How should we give to God's kingdom?

We read that we, whatever your heart has decided, that's what you need to give.

Don't give

Speaker 7: reluctantly.

You

Speaker 6: must.

You must each decide in your heart how much you should give.

And you need to make sure you give,

Speaker 7: you give with, uh, gladness

more than the amount that we give.

Your attitude matters,

uh,

Speaker 6: how much that we sow our attitude matters for it.

Uh, the, the farmer who sows, he's expecting something.

And what is that expectation?

The expectation is that he will reap a harvest in return.

Paul reminds us again in these verses, Please don't give, sadly,

don't think that, oh God, I'm going to give $10 or two a hundred dollars.

What is going to be my next situation?

Oh God.

Uh, I'm going to give a thousand dollars, or I'm going to bless this,

uh, ministry, uh, and wait to what is next or what we are expecting.

God, what is going to be my life next?

Speaker 7: Please

Speaker 6: don't give like that.

Speaker 7: Don't, don't give because somebody is forcing you.

We are not giving because somebody is forcing us.

Speaker 6: We are giving because God has done gracious things in our lives.

He's not, he's not a God who's withhold stuff from

Speaker 7: us.

He's a God who provides for us.

He's a good God.

He's a God who will enrich and generously give us.

When we go back to the verse four,

we read that he loves a cheerful giver.

How we give,

Speaker 6: I want to ask you this today.

How are you giving to God?

Are you, are you giving to God's ministry with sadness?

Are you giving with, uh, are you giving to God's ministry

with, uh, with peer pressure?

Or are you, are you giving it from your own heart?

If we need to understand what the word of God is saying right here,

we need to go, uh, to the, to the, uh, portion of this scripture.

Second,

uh, let's go to second cor.

This chapter nine, verse five.

So, so I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift

you promised is ready, but I want it to be a ruling gift, not one given grudge.

Speaker 7: Paul

Speaker 6: is reminding

Speaker 7: us here.

The gift you promised is ready.

Speaker 6: I want to urge you that whatever you have promised, the gift

that you promised, make it ready.

Speaker 7: In the

Speaker 6: mission field, there is a lot of expenses.

Uh, that's, that needs to come through the mission of the church.

Uh, uh, spreading the gospel is one of the, one of the missions of the church.

Speaker 7: Uh, getting people saved is one of the mission of the church.

Speaker 6: Helping to spread this gospel or this mission is one of the

critical mission for us as a church.

Speaker 7: What Paul is teaching here,

the gift that we need to give, we need to make it ready.

There needs to be an enthusiasm in us.

And we also need to encourage other people to give.

And

Speaker 6: that's when we can see the goodness of God moving through

our lives and in the church.

Uh, when we, uh, when we look into the giving portion of, in the,

in the, in the Kingdom of God,

Speaker 7: Macedonian,

Speaker 6: uh, Paul shows us an example.

He sets an example as a Macedonian church.

Speaker 7: Macedonian.

Speaker 6: Uh, let's look into the, uh, Bassian Church.

When we go to, uh, second Corinthians chapter eight, verse one to five,

we see an example set before us as in the Macedonian Church,

Speaker 7: Macedonia.

Speaker 6: This example that we have set in Macedonian church,

how they gave to the mission or the, or the mission of the church.

We need to, uh, we need to, uh, we need to take that and grab us and then,

uh, do the same thing in the church.

A Paul is reminding us this again.

Now, uh, 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1, it reads like this, Now, I want you

2 Corinthians 8:1

to know, dear brothers and sisters, what God in his kindness has done

through the churches in Macedonia.

Uh, what kind of kindness has, has the Macedonian Church got?

Speaker 7: Uh, one

Speaker 6: of the things that we see is the kindness that they got is because

they gave to the Macedonian Church.

Uh, the situation around them was not favorable for them to give.

We read in the chapter two, they were, they've been tested in many troubles

Speaker 7: and they were very poor.

The verse two, it reminds us,

Speaker 6: uh, second quarter, chapter eight, verse two reads like

this, they are being tested by many troubles and they are very poor, but

they are also filled with abundant joy, which has overflowed in rich.

Generosity.

Uh, Paul is reminding us the how the situation in the Macedonian Church,

they're being tested in many troubles,

but they're also filled.

Abundant joy.

They're very poor stage situation.

If you look at the situation, the, uh, what they're going through, they cannot,

they, they don't have much to give to God

Speaker 7: our,

Speaker 6: but we read that

Speaker 7: they overflowed with the rich generosity.

Speaker 6: I wanna ask you this, what are the situation that we are encountering?

Speaker 7: Some people go through hardships,

some people go through, uh, tough situations in their life.

Speaker 6: Some people have a death situation that they're going through

or other troubles in their life.

We cannot wait for the situations to all be a favor for us to give

to God, but we need to turn the

Speaker 7: opposite.

Speaker 6: When we look at the Macedonian church, even though they were tested

in many troubles, even though they were in very poor stage, we see that they

were filled with abundant joy and which has overflowed in rich generosity.

Where did this happiness or joy came from?

The kingdom of God is not just, uh, drinking water or being filled, but

it's the Holy Spirit raining down on us.

We see that they were filled with abundant joy.

When

Speaker 7: we come to, uh, verse three, uh, second Corinthians,

chapter eight, verse three,

Speaker 6: we can see that how, how the Macedonian Church gave Paul was a witness.

Speaker 7: We.

Speaker 6: For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their

ability, they gave voluntarily begging us insistently for the privilege

of participating in the service.

The Macedonian Church is begging, begging them incidentally for the privilege

of participating in the service.

Even though they were, when we see, when we look at the Macedonian Church,

even though they were going through things and hardships, we see that even

in the midst of all that, they were having a joy that was overflowing.

The, the, the rich generosity or the abundant joy that they're feeling.

It reads like this, they gave according to their ability and beyond their ability,

Speaker 7: how did they give to God's mission?

They gave, uh, they gave according to their ability.

And beyond their ability.

I want to ask you this question today.

How are we, uh, giving to God?

We need to give according to our ability.

And also beyond your ability.

And the, and

Speaker 6: the way the Holy Spirit leads us, we need to give.

Speaker 7: We need to sow into the

Speaker 6: kingdom of God according to how the Spirit

Speaker 7: leads us.

Speaker 6: Uh, as I mentioned earlier, God is not a God who,

who withholds stuff from us.

Paul reminds us in the next verse

we read in verse five.

It reads like this.

They, they even did more than we hoped.

For their first action was to give themselves to God and to

us as God wanted them to do.

Let me remind that verse again,

Speaker 7: Adam.

Speaker 6: They even did more than we hoped for.

For their first action was to give themselves to God

Speaker 7: and to us.

Speaker 6: This we need to

Speaker 7: carefully look into this verse.

Paul was thinking this church is going through very hardship.

They were in a very poor stage.

How much

Speaker 6: can this church give to the mission of the,

Speaker 7: uh, mission of the church?

Speaker 6: But when he understood how much they gave to the mission of the church,

Paul is reminding us that Beyond their, beyond what Paul thought

that church in Macedonia gave.

First, they themselves gave to God.

And not only they gave it to God's ministry, but they

have blessed me as well.

Speaker 7: So

Speaker 6: what can we understand in these verses?

They also gave it to the pastors that were there, which was Paul

and their, and their friends.

And not only that, they gave themselves to God.

Speaker 7: Let's go back to chapter,

Speaker 6: uh, chapter nine.

Speaker 7: Let's come to verse eight.

Speaker 6: And the God is able to make all grace, uh, come in

abundance to you so that you may always have complete sufficiency in

everything and have an abundance for every good work and act of charity.

Paul here reminds us that we need to be, uh, sufficient or condemned

in every situation that we have.

We need to have contentment or we need to be condemned in every

situation that God leads us.

While we live in this earth, we go through things in our life.

Though we are living in this world, when we are faced with troubles and

sores, we need to make sure that we are content in what we have.

In the next verses, we see that.

Then you will always have everything you need and plenty

left over to share with others.

Uh, let me ask you how much can, uh, how much things that

you're doing for the community?

Speaker 7: Uh, Paul Hermine says we need to, we need to have plenty

left over to share with others.

Gonna,

Speaker 6: well, when we, when we give out of our generosity, God will make sure

that we will reap the harvest in return

Speaker 7: when we go to the next verse.

I'm going to need an egg and then I'm going to look into it.

Speaker 6: They share freely and give generously to the poor.

Their good deeds will remember it forever.

If, if, if you're sitting here and you're going through things in your life,

God is here to bring a generous life for you.

God is the one who promotes you.

Speaker 7: There's nothing impossible with God.

The Bible reads as this.

Uh, God will,

Speaker 6: God is the one who brings the generosity in our lives.

Alright?

Uh, when we work, when we work, we earn.

The blessings of God is what we have for us in our lives.

In order for our things to shift, God has to bless us.

In order for us to have a better life, God needs to bless us.

In order for us to have, uh, to remove our hardships, God needs to bless us.

Only then we can, we can be in that rich, abundant life.

When we come to verse 10,

this chapter nine verse standing reads like this, for

God is the one who provides.

seed for the farmer and then bread to eat.

Paul is reminding

Speaker 7: us here again,

we need to

Speaker 6: underline that verse 10 and read it carefully.

Uh, the verse like this, he who provides seed to the sower and bread for life will

provide and multiply your seed for sowing.

The Paul reminds us here that only a sower needs this, this seed.

Uh, for a farmer,

Speaker 7: Uh,

Speaker 6: for a farmer, he carries that seed in his shoulder and have

that burden to, to sow into the field.

He carries that burden and goes to the field.

And he takes that seed and he sows it into the field.

And when he sows the seed into the field, he's expecting something in return.

And what is that expectation is this, that he will reap a huge harvest.

And Paul is in the same sense is reminding us here again.

Uh, the, only the sower will get the seed.

Uh, I want to ask you this.

How much are we willing to sow into the kingdom of God?

How much are we willing to sow into the kingdom of God?

According to that, God is able to give us the best seed to

sow into the kingdom of God.

Only if you sow the best seed, you will reap the best harvest.

The field that is already prepared for the harvest is the only field

that will reap the best harvest.

The farmer who sows like that will never be disappointed.

The farmer who sows, there's an expectation in his heart.

When I sow into those fields, he is expecting at the right time

he will reap the best harvest.

Speaker 7: When we come to the verse

Speaker 6: 11,

We see that God enriched us in every way.

What does it mean to be enriched in every way?

It's the generosity or it's the increase or the harvest of that field.

God is faithful, God is gracious enough to change the circumstances

that we are going through right now.

Children of God, Church, we need to have a heart to sow it into the kingdom.

When we come to verse, uh, verse

Speaker 7: 11.

You can't take.

Speaker 6: Verse 11 it reads like this, Yes, you will be enriched in every way

so that you can always be generous.

And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God.

Speaker 7: Paul is reminding us, uh, reminding us here that when

Speaker 6: he takes the gifts to the poor or who is in need.

They will thank God for the gift.

Speaker 7: They will.

Thank God for the gift,

Speaker 6: the value.

The value of praise is written in Psalms.

When, when

Speaker 7: we give to the God's kingdom,

Speaker 6: it's much more than the, the, the big stuff that we see.

When we praise God, it's more than, more than the big stuff that we see.

It's much more valuable when we praise God for what

Speaker 7: He has done.

Speaker 6: How I wanna ask you, how much are we thanking God for what he has done?

Uh, here, Paul reminds us when we, when we take your gifts to

those who are in need, they will.

Thank God for your gifts,

whatever you have done to the kingdom of God.

When we give that way, we will be enriched in every way.

Speaker 7: In everything, you will be enriched.

You'll be enriched in your spiritual life.

Speaker 6: And also, God is able to enrich our physical life.

God can also change or enrich your finances.

Speaker 7: God can enrich your kids life.

God can enrich and bless you with homes.

God can, God can

Speaker 6: bless you with everything that you

Speaker 7: need.

God can change your circumstances today.

Our God is a God who blesses us.

Our God is a God who enriches.

Speaker 6: God is not a God who who likes to see us crying or be in a bad situation.

He's a God who enrich and enriches us and be glad about it.

Speaker 7: So when we give it to the God's mission, we will, we

need to be content in what we do.

And

Speaker 6: when we do that way, he's a faithful God to enrich our

circumstances in everything that we do.

Uh, the band can come forward, uh, the band can come forward.

Uh, what he said was, uh, we have an opportunity right in front of us.

God has given us an opportunity right in front of us today.

What is this, what is this opportunity?

Uh, I heard that there is a miracle offering that is happening next week.

Uh, it was

Speaker 7: shown, it was shown before.

In this offering,

Speaker 6: we want to make sure we give the best offering to God.

Speaker 7: What is,

Speaker 6: what is it reminding us?

What Paul is reminding us here again, is how much what we give

our tides and kingdom builders

and the terminology he's he Paul has used is the farming language.

We also saw that how Macedonian Church gave it to the work of God.

They gave it with their ability and beyond their ability.

And I pray that God, God blesses you in that way that you can give with

your ability and beyond your ability.

Whoever gives into the kingdom of God, they will be blessed.

Uh, I want to say this.

When you give, don't be weary.

Speaker 7: Because at the

Speaker 6: right time, you will reap a harvest.

Speaker 7: Um,

Speaker 6: uh, uh, church, I want to share something that

happened in my own personal life.

There were moments in my life where I couldn't feed my kids.

There are moments in my life where I couldn't buy basic necessities,

necessities for my family.

Uh, there were moments in my life where I couldn't even buy things for our family.

There were moments in my life where, uh, we had, we had hardships that were

going circle by circle in our family.

Speaker 7: And

Speaker 6: in those situations,

Speaker 7: I never looked to any people.

Speaker 6: But we made sure we looked upon the face of Jesus and earnestly cry.

Speaker 7: And we, uh, and we

Speaker 6: saw the goodness of God move in our family

know, uh, my oldest son encounter, ha my oldest son had cancer.

And I didn't have money to, uh, money to send him to the hospitals.

But I, I made sure I prayed and to seek the face of God.

And at the right time, God provided us for the funding too, so that I can send

my son to get the treatments for cancer.

Even in those situations where we were going through hardships, We made sure

every blessing that we got, we made sure we sew it back to the kingdom of God.

My wife is sitting

Speaker 7: right here.

Her name is Mariamma Kurian.

Speaker 6: She's a prayer warrior and God used

Speaker 7: her in the prophetic gifts.

Speaker 6: The, the backbone of my ministry is her prayer, prayer

for life, uh, after my oldest son was, uh, as passed away.

Next was my, uh, my wife who, who met with an encounter.

The doctor said, uh, she was, her life was almost done and we didn't have money

to, uh, send her to the good hospitals.

Again, we, we encountered how God was faithful in our lives.

At the right time, the funding came and we could treat her.

God healed her from everything that she was going through

and gave a brand new life.

And now we are serving the ministry together.

Speaker 7: But

Speaker 6: always we made sure that we gave it back to the kingdom of God.

God is not a God who

Speaker 7: withholds stuff from us.

Speaker 6: I pray that, uh, I, I encourage the church today that,

uh, uh, give beyond your ability and with your, within your ability.

Speaker 7: God will surely bless us.

I want to conclude my sermon today.

Speaker 6: Uh, I wanna, I wanna invite the prayer team to be, uh,

go back to this, uh, auditorium.

As how God has, uh, as, as provided for us and our needs.

He's a faithful God

Speaker 7: to meet your needs.

He's a God who cares for us.

He's a God who loves us.

And he's a God who gives us generously.

And he's a God who will enrich us in every way.

May the good God bless you.

I ask your earnest prayers.

Speaker 6: I pray that, uh, I pray that you continue to, uh, pray for

our ministry and, uh, and whenever you think about us, say a prayer,

I I earthly pray that you remember us in your prayers.

Pray the good.

God bless you.

Speaker 7: Church, would