Sowing in Faith | Rev. Paul Lawler

Welcome to the podcast of Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

Join us as we dive into this week's sermon that challenges our hearts and minds to grow closer to Christ.

We pray that your heart is inspired and transformed by God's Word.

Amen.

If you would y'all please resit remain standing, we have two passages of Scripture this morning to read read through, and I would ask that you remain standing for both.

Our first passage comes from Second Corinthians chapter nine, beginning with verse six.

Hear the word of the Lord.

The point is this whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work.

As it is written, He has distributed freely, He has given to the poor, His righteousness endures forever, He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for the food will supply and multiply your seed for the sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

This is the word of God for the people of God.

And please remain standing for the gospel of Mark as a physical way to remember that Christ came and stood with us, and so too will we stand in remembrance.

Hear the word of the Lord.

As he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box, many rich people put in large sums, and a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny.

And he called his disciples to him and said to them, Truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all of those who are contrib are contributing to the offering box.

For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything as she had, all she had to live on.

Friends, this is the word of God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God.

Amen.

Amen and amen.

I greet you this morning in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Hope that you're as delighted to be here as the presence of Jesus is delighted to be in among us.

We welcome you today, whether you're a guest, regular attender, or this is your church home as a member.

Delighted that you're here.

So we're in part two of our fall stewardship series here at Christ Church.

And I think that most of you are aware that there are moments in Scripture when Jesus says something that is so simple that we almost forget or overlook just how profound it is.

And one of those moments comes through what Pastor Daniel just read a moment ago out of Mark 12.

Jesus is sitting in the temple near the treasury.

People are coming by, and they're placing their offerings in the offering box, and some wealthy people come and they give substantial amounts.

Then along comes a widow.

In fact, Jesus describes her as a poor widow.

She doesn't have much.

And Jesus notices that she puts in two small copper coins.

And Jesus calls us disciples together and he says something that I think is rather remarkable.

Verse 43.

Truly I say to you, this poor widow is put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box.

And I can't speak for you, but I know if I had been sitting around in the temple that day and observed what had just happened, I might have said, Jesus, are you sure about that?

Because if we measure giving by dollars and cents, she didn't give more.

She gave less.

In fact, she gave much less.

But Jesus wasn't measuring the size of her gift.

He was measuring the size of her faith, her trust, her belief in God, her love relationship with God, and her own awareness that God is faithful to who he says he is, what he's revealed in his promises out of Scripture, and at that time out of the Torah, was true for her.

And then the Apostle Paul, when you notice as Daniel read, 2 Corinthians 9, or from that chapter, Paul says this, and this is a part of the revelation of God that I believe that the woman had.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

And then Paul goes on to write in verse 7: Each one must give as he's decided in his or her heart, not reluctantly, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Two passages, one widow, one principle.

God is not simply interested in what we give.

That's what happens, or what that's what we see emanating out of the passage with the widow.

He is much more interested in what our giving says about our trust in him, our love for him, our faith in him, our belief that he's faithful to what he's promised, what's going on in our own heart.

And that's what I want to spend some time thinking with you about today.

And that's why we have titled this message today, Sowing in Faith, but doing so in a spirit that loves and trusts Almighty God and loves and trusts the reality of the things that He has promised when He's on the throne of our heart.

And the reason that's important is because generosity as we navigate topics like this is ultimately not about money.

It's deeper than that.

It's about trust in Jesus, love for Jesus, love relationship with God that is manifested by believing that everything he said is true, that his promises are real.

It's about believing that God is who he says he is.

It's about believing that, as we talked about last week, that everything that we own is ultimately from his hand, and we are indeed stewards.

And it's about believing that when we have placed what's in our hands in his hands, he can do far more with it than we can do on our own.

So I have three primary things I want to navigate with you this morning.

Here's the first arena of our exploration together.

First, faith, we see manifested in the widow.

We see Paul calling forth in 2 Corinthians 9.

Faith trusts God enough to release what is in our hands into his hands.

So as we look at the widow, Mark tells us that Jesus was watching what people give.

Now, I just want to invite you to think about that for a moment.

All-knowing God, and the inference here is Jesus is watching what happens when we give.

But what we're going to discover together, it's deeper than how much we give.

God doesn't need our money.

But what God's looking at is our giving also is an indicator, a barometer of what's going on in our hearts.

Jesus said earlier in Mark's gospel, Mark 10, 21, for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

We can sing, Great is thy faithfulness, but then live as though everything entirely depends upon us.

So we recognize, and let's keep it real here, loved ones, let's recognize together the widow in this story had almost nothing.

God can't exaggerate.

Why?

Why?

And I would say scripture answers that question.

Here's why.

Because she trusted God.

It revealed her heart.

She trusted God.

Think about what Jesus says.

He doesn't say she gave out of her abundance, it says she gave.

Jesus said she gave out of her poverty.

And then Jesus says something astounding.

Verse 44.

She out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.

No, I think we all recognize that that took faith, right?

And a lot of us have a weak or anemic understanding of what faith is.

Faith is not getting like amped up, like, okay, like you're at the gym, you're gonna do one more rep, and you go, I'm gonna get amped up and do one more rep.

Like I'm gonna get motivated and just step out there.

That's that's actually not what faith is.

That's that may be a part of how the world defines faith.

Faith is also not blind trust.

You do realize that.

There's an old Indiana Jones movie I've referred to that kind of makes faith look like, okay, I'm just taking this step out in this chasm, and the step shows up, and it's kind of blind faith.

Loved ones, that's not how the Bible defines faith.

That's not what faith is.

Faith is actually informed.

You have substance to put your heart upon.

That's what the Bible says.

Romans 10, 17.

Faith comes from something, it has a source.

Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Faith comes from you feeding on God's word.

Faith comes from the word of God being your nourishment.

That's why Jesus says things like this to help you.

When he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

We eat three square meals a day, most of us.

And so what Jesus is saying, let the word of God nourish your spirit.

And what will happen out of that, faith comes more naturally.

It flows out of your spirit being fed by the word of God.

That's why I often remind the body of Christ: don't read the Bible for information, although that's not a bad thing, it's just not sufficient.

Read the Bible for formation.

I know lots of people who can quote lots of scripture and they're mean.

It's no fruit of the spirit.

You can read the Bible for information, or you can read it to let God form your heart, speak to your heart, shape your heart, shape your life.

And this is why the widow is moving in trust, in love relationship with God.

She knows God will meet her needs.

She knows God will be faithful.

This is why we say faith trusts God enough to release what is in our hands into his hands because he's faithful.

Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God.

Secondly, faith doesn't ask, How much do I have?

Rather, faith asks, What can God do with what I have?

Now, this is a theme that runs all over the Bible.

Sometimes we look at our resources and we think, all right, I only have so much.

What difference can I make?

What difference can one person make?

What difference can my gift make?

But the Bible repeatedly shows us that God delights in taking small things and using them for great purposes.

Moses had a staff.

David had five stones.

There was this boy once who had, I think it was five loaves and two fish, if I recall.

And a widow has two small copper coins.

And God used what they had.

And that's an important principle for all of us loved ones.

God doesn't ask you to give what you don't have, he asks you to simply, faithfully surrender and steward what you do have.

And you don't have to be wealthy to be generous.

You don't have to have enormous resources.

We see this in the Bible.

See it illustrated in this story.

You simply have to be willing to put what God has entrusted you with as a steward into his hands.

So therefore, the question is not how much do I have.

The question is, what could God do with what I have when it's surrendered to him?

That's a completely different question.

And it is a faith question.

It's a trust question.

It's a question that's rooted in God's promises, as God's word.

As I feed upon it and I'm informed, my faith is informed, and I stand on the substance of the word of God.

That's how I move in faith.

Faith doesn't ask, how much do I have?

Rather, it's what can God do with what I have.

Thirdly, sowing requires faith because you don't see the harvest immediately.

This is operating in the widow's life, but let's go to 2 Corinthians 9.

Here, Paul is using an agriculture picture.

He says, verse 9, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Now, as we all know, Paul's talking about generosity here, but he's using the language of a farmer.

And every farmer understands something the rest of us sometimes overlook, and that is, let's get ready to write this down.

This is so profound, you have to put seed in the ground before you ever see the harvest.

Think about that.

A farmer takes something valuable, seed, and he puts it in the ground, and for a while, it looks like nothing is happening.

The seed disappears, the farmer cannot see it.

He has to trust the process, and he has to believe that something is happening beneath the surface before photosynthesis ever kicks into gear.

I want the biology professors to know that I remembered something.

That is a picture of trust, resting in truth, that the seed will sprout and bring about a whole new reality, a whole new harvest, a whole new level of fruitfulness.

But hear this church in due time.

This is how God works.

He's using Paul's using this analogy so that we have understanding, loved ones, because sometimes we sow and we do not see immediate results.

And God wants you, believer, to understand that.

Think about this.

This applies in so many arenas.

You pray for your children, and you don't see fruit for years.

And it's a reminder God's ways are not our ways, it's sowing.

And sowing and the results often take time.

You invest in somebody's life.

Maybe you mentor them and you don't see any results for years, or you don't see immediate fruit, or you lead a discipleship group, and you're leading people to God's word to help develop them.

And you may not see change immediately.

You you maybe you give generously and you wonder, is it making a difference?

And you serve faithfully.

Maybe nobody notices, but God sees.

Uh, you share the gospel, and the person doesn't immediately respond.

But faith and trust in God and his revelation and his word, his nature, his favor, his goodness says, I, you know what?

I may not see the harvest yet, but I know the seed matters because I'm sowing into the things that matter to God.

And in due time there will be some result.

That's why Paul uses the word sow in 2 Corinthians 9.

You don't throw seed away, you sow it, you put it somewhere because you believe it has a future.

Now notice what God says through Paul, verse 10.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing.

Now notice the language.

Not only does God saying, I'm going to multiply the principle of your capacity to sow seed, that's the word of God for the people of God.

That's not your pastor's opinion.

That's what it says.

But also, God is supplying the seed.

Even the seed we're holding came from God.

And then God says, Now, loved one, give it to me.

And the question is, why?

Because God has purposes beyond what you and I can see.

So let me invite you to think about it this way.

If I had$100 in my pocket and I gave away$20, I now have$80.

So write that down.

Mathematically, that's true.

But spiritually, for the believer, that's not the whole story.

Because God is not limited by our mathematics.

God can take what we surrender and multiply its impact.

One dollar can feed someone, one meal can encourage someone, one conversation can change a life.

I've seen it happen, and if you'll think deeply, so have you.

One Bible can be used by God to bring someone to know Jesus Christ.

It's happened in hotel rooms all over the world through Gideon's International.

One Sunday school class can shape a child's life.

I think about a young lady I knew in another church I was pastoring, 15 years old.

A missionary comes.

She hears the missionary talking about serving the unreached.

15-year-old girl.

And right then she knew God was calling her to give her life to missions.

Today she's married with children, lives in Indonesia, and is thriving, sharing Christ with unreached people, a Muslim community in a rural area.

Thriving, thriving.

Glory to God.

One act of generosity can open a door.

One church can touch an entire city.

One life completely surrendered to Jesus Christ can influence generations by virtue of the multiplicative nature of how God works when we sow into the kingdom for his glory.

We cannot always see what God is doing immediately with the seed, but that doesn't mean God isn't doing something.

You know what Paul writes here, and we see also in the widow's life, is this reality.

God doesn't want any of us giving reluctantly.

Notice that the woman did this, this widow, she did this, you know, willingly.

Nobody was manipulating her.

What God's after is hearts that trust him, that know that he's faithful.

That's why Paul writes in verse 7 each one's each one must give as he or she has decided in their heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

This is one of the most important verses on Christian giving in all of the Bible.

God doesn't want you to give because somebody's pressured you.

He doesn't want you to give because, oh, I feel embarrassed if I don't.

He doesn't want you to give because you feel manipulated in some way.

Lord, deliver us from that.

God wants.

Why?

Because cheerful giving is evidence.

That God, I trust you.

I trust your nature.

I trust your love.

I trust our relationship with one another.

God loves a cheerful giver.

And when I give cheerfully, what I'm saying is, God, you're my provider.

God, you're my everything.

God, you are my identity.

But beyond my possessions, God, I don't need to cling to anything here on earth.

I trust you, God.

You know what that is, church?

That's worship.

It's on the pinnacle of your heart.

It's worship.

I love you more than anything.

I treasure you.

You are my treasure, Jesus.

I was thinking this morning.

I woke up a little early.

Normally I'm up at 5 30 on Sunday mornings.

I woke up much earlier than that.

Just said, Lord, I'm just gonna get up and pray.

And I was thinking about heaven.

This is what I told the Lord.

I said, Lord, I I just finished this week.

I've been camping in the book of Revelation.

And I was looking at those descriptions of heaven and descriptions of walls built out of all these precious jewels, streets in which gold is pavement.

I mean, it's just it sounds a little and and this is Pastor Paul working through it.

I'm like, Lord, this is a little ostentatious.

I mean, it's just gosh.

But then this is what came to my heart.

The prize of heaven isn't heaven.

The prize of heaven is Jesus.

We get to be with Jesus.

We get to be with our first love of Jesus.

We get to be not only fully in his presence, we will no longer be encumbered by a sin nature.

He's our prize.

He's our eternal prize.

He's the one that purchased you so that you can go to a place called heaven.

And the way I look at it, we get to be with him.

We get to be with our first love, and heaven, the created heaven, gets thrown in.

And this fuels our worship, loved ones.

It teaches our hearts now to trust God.

Paul continues in 2 Corinthians 9 that generosity produces much more than material provision.

He writes, verse 11, you'll be enriched in every way to be generous in every way with thanksgiving to God.

And that's where we begin to understand really an eternal and ultimate purpose of giving in our lives, because it's not simply we give so the church has money, or it's not we give so the budget gets balanced.

It's not we give so an organization can accomplish its goals.

Those things may happen.

But the Apostle Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is pointing us to something much deeper, much richer, and that is generosity, honoring God this way, opens our hearts unto thanksgiving to God, unto worship of God.

People are blessed, needs are met, the gospel advances, lives are changed, the kingdom on earth is moving and advancing, and ultimately people begin to say, look at what God has done.

I think of loved ones, I don't know about you, but I just want to invite you to think, just think this elevated thought with me for a moment.

The one thing on earth that's eternal is the church.

The one thing.

There are no you-hauls behind funeral processions.

You've heard that.

The one thing on earth that's eternal.

In fact, so eternal, so precious that God refers to you in Christ as his body.

So eternal, so precious that God refers to you as his betrothed.

So eternal, so precious, you're referred to as the bride of God.

This is eternal language that's not no exaggeration.

There's nothing more valuable on earth than the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In light of that, church is where we hear God's word.

Church is where children are taught.

Church is where students are discipled.

Church is where people often come to Christ.

Doesn't mean it's in a building, it's through the body of Christ.

Remember, church is people, not a building.

Church is where missionaries are sent.

Church is the one entity on this planet that serves the poor more than any other.

The church is where the lonely are welcomed, the broken are cared for, the gospel is proclaimed.

And here's the thing: as we're church, we don't always get to see the harvest.

Because think about it, a child sitting in Sunday school this morning may become a missionary 20 years from now.

I think I shared with you something that happened that was kind of caught me off guard my first year here at Christchurch Memphis.

Let me go back in time.

There was, again, a church I had served previously, and there was a young lady in the youth group that made a lot of bad choices.

In fact, those choices were so negative at times that my student ministry staff would come to me and go, Should we let her go on the retreat?

Because you know, every time she travels with the student group, we have to call her parents.

We have to say, Mom, dad, we're sorry, you're gonna have to drive to come get her.

She's done this or crossed this boundary.

And then I just, as our student ministry worked through that, I mean, this was a young lady that probably was prayed for more than any other student in the student group.

And that I remember when she was going to college and somebody said, Oh no, she's really gonna sow her oats.

I went, I don't know.

She started sowing oats in sixth grade.

I don't know if there are any more oats to sow.

I mean, it was just that that radical.

And so my first year here, I get an email.

I'm gonna call her Lisa, not her real name.

This email goes like this Pastor Paul, my name is Lisa So-and-so.

I don't know if you remember me.

Of course, I you bet I remembered her.

I don't know if you remember me, but I've come home to Christ.

And I just want you to know that I'm now enrolled at B Cent Seminary on the camp for campus of Sanford University, and I'm preparing for full-time ministry.

And I just want to tell you, thank you for not giving up on me and praying for me.

I typed back, I said, not only did I pray for you, I fasted for you, and I thank Jesus for what he's done in you, rejoicing.

Give me your number, I want to call you and encourage you.

This is not in the notes, but can I just remind you, loved ones?

Don't give up on anybody.

Keep sowing.

Keep sowing into them, keep praying for them, keep exposing them to God's word.

Keep on keeping on.

A teenager may surrender his or her life to ministry, a young couple through the church as we sow may learn how to build a Christ-centered marriage and through that live fruitful lives in their marriage and beyond that blesses generations.

A person walking through the doors for the very first time may encounter Jesus.

A struggling family through the church may find hope.

A neighbor may experience the love of Jesus Christ through you because you knew they were hurting and you cared for them with meals and just words of encouragement.

A gift may impact somebody's life today that affects their trajectory for 30 years.

That's what sowing means you plant today, but you may not personally see the harvest in your life or even in your lifetime.

And loved ones, that requires faith.

And let's remember that Jesus Christ is the ultimate expression of sowing and faith, because ultimately we don't look at the widow as our greatest example.

We look to Jesus.

Jesus gave everything.

Jesus didn't give a percentage, he gave himself.

Philippians 2 tells us that Christ humbled himself.

Why?

Why did he do that?

Because he knew there would be a harvest beyond the cross.

He was coming for you.

White hot love for you, so that your sins would be forgiven and washed and nailed to a tree.

That's white hot love.

And Hebrews 12 says that Jesus endured this cross as a cheerful giver, that is the word of God says, for the joy that was set before him.

Jesus sowed in faith for you.

The cross looked like defeat in the natural, but resurrection was coming.

The grave looked like the end, but Sunday was coming.

The disciples saw death, God saw redemption.

The world saw a crucified man, Jesus was accomplishing salvation so that you could be birthed into a new life and into eternity.

And loved ones, that is the gospel.

And the apostle Paul gives us a tremendous promise when he says, God is able to make all of his grace abound toward you.

Now don't miss these words.

God is able, not you, not your resources, not your ingenuity, not your strength.

God is able.

God is able to provide.

God is able to multiply, as the text teaches us.

He is able to restore.

He is able to redeem.

He is able to take what looks small and insignificant and produce from it a seed that will create a harvest for the glory of God.

And loved ones, that is why we can give.

That is why we can serve.

That is why we can risk.

That is why we can obey.

That's why we can sow.

Because our confidence isn't in the seed itself.

Our confidence is in God Himself.

That's why the widow was able to move in faith in the way that she did.

Now, as we close, I promise, let that be prophetic over you.

Imagine that widow walking away from the treasury.

She's just given, she's given her copper coins, gave all she had.

Maybe someone watching her in the natural thought, what a foolish thing to do.

But Jesus looked at her and said, She is given more than all the others.

Why?

Because God sees things differently.

The world measures the size of the gift, and the world will applaud.

But God measures the size of the faith, the trust and love for Him.

The world will ask, How much did you give?

God says, Did you trust me?

Jesus says, Trust me.

The world says, protect yourself.

Jesus says, follow me.

The world says, you don't have enough.

Jesus says, My grace is sufficient.

The apostle Paul says, Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

So, loved ones, as God's people, let's sow.

Let's sow our resources, let's sow our gifts, let's sow our prayers, let's sow into our city, let's sow among the nations.

The widow trusted God with two coins.

Jesus trusted the Father with his life.

And now Jesus invites us to trust him with our lives.

So, church, let's sow in faith.

Let's put what God has placed in our hands back in his hands.

And let's believe that the God who supplies the seed is also the God who brings the harvest.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Let's pray.

And so, Jesus, there's many a Sunday afternoon that you hear Missy and I pray this prayer.

Lord, let the seeds of your word that have been sown into the Christ Church family take indelible root at a level where fruitfulness is not only produced in the now, but it's produced in this generation and the generations to come.

And so we pray, we pray this prayer this morning beforehand, that we pray, let the seeds of your word go indelibly deep, deep roots in our heart, our understanding, so that the trajectory of our lives as we follow Jesus yield unprecedented levels of fruitfulness in this generation and in the generations to come.

This we pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the podcast for Christ Methodist Church in Memphis, Tennessee.

We pray that today's message has inspired and encouraged you in your walk with Christ.

To stay connected with our church community, visit us online at Christchurch Memphis.org.

We hope to see you this upcoming Sunday for worship as we seek to glorify God and make disciples of Jesus Christ among all peoples.