10
NEED, GREED, OR SEED
It would be impossible to write a Bible-based book on giving without spending some time in 2 Corinthians 9. This is one of the greatest passages in all of Scripture about the power and blessing that come through a lifestyle of Spirit-led giving. There are mind-blowing truths here. In this chapter, Paul was about to send a couple of his helpers to the Corinthians to collect a special offering that they said they wanted to give to the suffering Macedonian church. In the opening verses, Paul is saying (my paraphrase here), “Guys, you’ve said that you want to give a generous love offering, and I’ve been bragging on you to the other churches. Don’t embarrass yourselves (and me) by not following through!”
Basically, Paul is commending them for their willingness to give, and he takes the opportunity to teach them some truths about giving.
Paul writes:
But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work (2 Corinthians 9:6–8).
Keep in mind that these words were directed at a group of people who were about to make a sacrificial offering. They were givers.
Paul, writing under the direction of the Holy Spirit, begins by stating the most basic law of giving: “He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully” (v. 6).
This is the same truth Jesus communicated in Luke 6:38:
Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.
You’ll remember that this promise is given not to create our motivation for giving but to free us from fear and show us the reward of giving.
Paul’s very next phrase is an important one. In this verse, we’re given the primary guideline for giving. Each person is to give “as he purposes in his heart” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
You are the only person on earth who can decide what the right level of giving is for you. It’s between you and the Spirit of God.
Look at this same verse in the New International Version:
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Corinthians 9:7, emphasis added).
God is not looking for tithes, offerings, and gifts that are given “reluctantly or under compulsion.” The blessed life is an outgrowth of “cheerful” giving.
How do you become a cheerful giver? There is only one way: God must do a work in your heart. As with every other truth we’ve explored up to this point, it all comes down to the heart.
I learned a valuable lesson about cheerful giving during that remarkable 18-month period in which we gave away nine vehicles. At one point back then, someone who knew we had given away a number of vehicles approached us saying, “We have a spare vehicle and we’d like to anonymously give it to a certain family.”
We agreed to take the vehicle and give it to the family, so they transferred the title to our ministry. As I was delivering the car to the recipients’ house, the car’s engine went out. I had to have the car towed to a garage and pay to have a new engine put in it.
I recall doing a little complaining and grumbling to the Lord about that. I was saying, “Lord, why couldn’t the engine have gone out just a few days earlier when those people still had the car—or a few days later after it was delivered to the people who were going to drive it? Why did it go out during the three-day period that it happened to be in my possession?”
I remember the Lord speaking very clearly to me, “I planned it that way, Son. The person who was giving the car away didn’t have the money to put a new engine in it, and the family who was receiving the vehicle certainly didn’t have the money to do it, but I have blessed you financially. You had the money, and you’ve acknowledged that it’s all My money anyway. I’ve orchestrated these details perfectly.”
Then, the Lord said something else to me, “Son, you should be grateful that I have blessed you financially and that I’ve blessed you with the privilege of putting a new engine in the vehicle for that family.”
And then the Lord gave me a gentle warning, saying, “Now, if you’re tired of being a blessing to other people, I can certainly direct those resources to someone else.”
Obviously, I repented to the Lord and said, “Father, forgive me. It is all Your money. Thank You for blessing me, and thank You for the opportunity and ability to put a new engine in that vehicle.” I quickly went from being a “grudging, under compulsion” giver to being a cheerful one.
Of course, the natural state of the human heart is to be a grudging giver. But when we have the heart transplant we talked about in chapter 6, and when we become grateful, unselfish, and generous, only then can we be cheerful givers.
Now, look at the last verse in the 2 Corinthians passage. Notice that Paul said, “God is able” (9:8). This is where every step of faith must begin. You must start by believing that God is able. Able to do what? “Make all grace abound toward you” (v. 8).
Let me give you a quick lesson in the nuances and intricacies of the ancient Greek language. The Greek word translated “all” in that verse literally means “all.” Isn’t that amazing?
You need to know that “God is able to make all grace abound toward you” (v. 8, emphasis added). How often? Always! Not sometimes, not on days the stock market closes higher, and not when interest rates are low. Always!
God is able to make all grace abound to you always. When we sow bountifully, God’s grace toward us abounds. It overflows.
And what is the result of this overflow of grace? We begin “always having all sufficiency in all things” (v. 8). How much sufficiency? All! (There’s that word again.) Sufficiency in how many things? All! (And again.)
This is truly an amazing Scripture. Once you give cheerfully, God is able to make all grace abound toward you so that you always, always have all sufficiency in all things. Why? So you may have “an abundance for every good work” (v. 8)!
Verse 8 is a promise that is linked to verses 6 and 7. All grace, abundance, and sufficiency are a direct result of sowing bountifully from a cheerful heart.
NEEDS OR WANTS?
Let me offer a few words about that phrase “all sufficiency” (v. 8). I believe the word “sufficiency” refers to our needs. It relates to having a sufficient amount.
Whenever we are about to give a significant offering, it is not unusual to be attacked by fears of insufficiency: Will I have enough? What if I lose my job? What if my car breaks down?
Whenever those thoughts come, the first thing to remember is that money is not our sufficiency in the first place—God is our sufficiency. When we begin to put our trust in anything other than God, it is idolatry. It is an idol.
It is precious that God reminds us in this passage that if we give freely and look to Him, we will have enough to meet every need. We will have “all sufficiency in all things” (v. 8).
Of course, there is a big difference between a need and a want. Contrary to what some seem to teach, God doesn’t promise to satisfy every whim or passing fancy.
Beyond the level called sufficiency is the level called abundance. It is at this level that we’re all tested.
It’s one thing to have just enough to meet all your needs, but the real heart test comes when we get a little extra. This is the point at which it’s possible to pass from need over into greed.
You see this whenever an individual, who has been praying to get out of the bondage of debt, gets an unexpectedly large bonus. Often, it never occurs to this person to take the extra money and pay down their debt. With a little extra money in his hands, he immediately thinks, Now I can buy something that I really “need”—like that new set of golf clubs!
This is what I mean when I say that we are tested in our need, and we are tested in our greed. The need test comes as we must trust God to be our sufficiency. The greed test comes when we move beyond sufficiency into abundance.
THE HIGHEST LEVEL
Where using money is concerned, there is a higher level beyond need and greed. The highest use of money is seed.
The language Paul used in 2 Corinthians 9:6—”He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully”—is the language of seed.
How do you view the money you control? Do you see it as being there to meet your need? Is it there to satisfy your greed? Or do you see it as seed?
You’ll better understand the truth I’m trying to convey after you’ve looked at the following Scriptures:
Remove falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches—feed me with the food allotted to me; lest I be full and deny You, and say, “Who is the Lord?” Or lest I be poor and steal, and profane the name of my God (Proverbs 30:8–9).
Notice that the writer says, “Give me neither poverty nor riches.” This is, basically, need (poverty) or greed (riches). As I have said, this is where we are all tested—in need and greed. The wise author of this proverb understood that. He basically said, “I want to be in the sweet spot of Your provision, Lord.”
Is it possible for God to provide for your needs without money? He showed Elijah that He could:
The ravens brought him bread and meat in the morning, and bread and meat in the evening; and he drank from the brook (1 Kings 17:6).
God didn’t need money to provide for Elijah; He only needed some birds. And here’s the amazing thing: The birds didn’t just bring Elijah dry, old bread. He had steak!
Later on, in chapter 19, we see something equally remarkable:
Then as he [Elijah] lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. And he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God (1 Kings 19:5–6, 8).
Cake! The man has angels baking cakes for him! This would be the first known appearance of angel food cake. God not only provided bread and meat but dessert too! That’s how good our heavenly Father is.
Without question, God is committed to meeting our needs; but are we committed to using our money as seed?
Think about a farmer who has one sack of seed. He has several options: He could grind the whole sack of seed into flour for bread and then hope that someone would give him some more seed for planting, or he could use some of it for bread and the rest for seed. If he sows that seed, he’s going to get a harvest much larger than the original seed sown.
We have already seen Paul use seed as a metaphor for money in 2 Corinthians 9:6. Now look at what he says a few verses later:
Now may He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness, while you are enriched in everything for all liberality, which causes thanksgiving through us to God (2 Corinthians 9:10–11).
Notice that it doesn’t say, “God supplies seed to the keeper.” He supplies seed to sowers—those who will scatter.
I’ve heard people say, “Sure, that guy is a giver, but he can afford to be; he’s got money.” They have it backward. That guy has money because he’s a giver. God is supplying seed to the sower.
I hate to say this, but some precious people whom God wants to bless will never have money because they won’t get their hearts right. God does not supply seed to the keeper and, according to that verse, He does more than just supply seed to the sower:
He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food (v. 10).
God is always mindful of our material needs (so we don’t have to be). He wants us to take some of the seed He’s given us and eat it, but the rest He wants us to sow. He even adds a promise about that seed:
[God will] supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness (v. 10).
Supply and multiply. God is the only One who can supply our seed; He is also the only One who can multiply it. And when He does, He will also “increase the fruits of your righteousness.”
I’m telling you, if you’re struggling in some areas of your life, you’ll start finding victory when God does a work in this area of your heart.
I believe givers live more righteous lives than takers. Why? Because God, as promised, is increasing the fruits of their righteousness. You’re no longer sowing selfishness; you’re no longer sowing greed; instead, you’re sowing generosity, kindness, and love. As Jesus told us, when you give these things, you will receive them in return, “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over” (Luke 6:38).
That brings me to the three fundamental principles relating to seed that you need to know.
I just made reference to the first one. It is this: You reap what you sow.
LIKE BEGETS LIKE
I know that sounds self-evident, but you would be surprised at how often I observe people expecting things to work some other way in their case.
Embrace this truth: If you sow corn, you’re going to reap corn; if you sow wheat, you’re going to reap wheat; and if, as Paul suggests, you sow money, you are going to reap money. It’s a law that was established at the creation of the world.
Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth”; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind, and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind. And God saw that it was good (Genesis 1:11–12).
Things multiply after their kind: Like begets like and kind begets kind. Can you imagine a farmer standing in a field in which he has sown wheat seeds and being frustrated because corn is not appearing? That would be foolishness. But that is precisely what so many believers do. They expect a harvest of something they’ve never planted.
Let me emphasize once again, this is not a holy get-rich-quick scheme. We don’t sow for the purpose of getting more money; however, financial growth is a by-product of bountiful sowing. It is a principle: Whatever you sow, you’ll reap.
THE RIGHT ORDER
The second principle you need to know about seed is this: You reap after you sow.
Once again, I know that seems mind-numbingly simple but you cannot believe how many people say things like, “Someday, when I have more money, I’m going be a giver.”
It will never happen. You can’t reap before you sow. Once again, this a principle God has woven into the natural order of things.
While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).
From the very beginning, the order was established. Before there can ever be a harvest, there must be a seedtime. Jesus affirmed this when He said:
The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground, and should sleep by night and rise by day, and the seed should sprout and grow, he himself does not know how. For the earth yields crops by itself: first the blade, then the head, after that the full grain in the head. But when the grain ripens, immediately he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come (Mark 4:26–29).
Imagine the same foolish farmer I mentioned earlier now standing in the field waiting for a crop to come in when he has never planted a seed. “Once this crop comes up, I’m going to do some serious sowing,” he says confidently. “I’ll be a big-time sower if I ever get this crop to come in.”
Of course, this is absurd. Yet I have heard many believers say pretty much the same thing, such as, “If God will help me close this major business deal, I’m really going to start giving to the church.”
It is the one who is faithful with the little who will receive much. You have to start where you are.
MULTIPLICATION
The third principle you should know about seed is this: You reap more than you sow. The essence of the message is in the following passage:
Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He who continually goes forth weeping, bearing seed for sowing, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him (Psalm 126:5–6).
As this passage implies, the principle of harvest increase is so powerful that, even if you’re crying as you scatter your little bag of precious seed, your tears will turn to rejoicing as you begin bringing in your sheaves of harvest.
It’s elementary but true, isn’t it? In God’s kingdom, as in God’s natural creation, you reap more than you sow.
A couple of kernels of planted seed corn will produce a stalk with several ears. And each ear will contain hundreds of seed kernels (approximately 400 kernels). That’s pretty good, isn’t it? You always get more when you sow God’s way.
A MAN GOD CAN TRUST
I have a friend who, years ago, was making $37,500. At that time, he was consistently giving 10 percent of his gross income. Then the Lord spoke to him and said, “I want you to give 15 percent; and if you will give 15 percent this year, I’ll double your income; and, by the way, if you’ll give 20 percent next year, I’ll double it again; and if you’ll give 25 percent in the year after that, I’ll double it again.” He felt very strongly that the Lord had spoken this to his heart.
He did not come back at God and say, “How about this? You double my income, and then I’ll start giving 15 percent.”
He took God at His word and seized the opportunity to stretch his faith and please God. Right away, he started giving 15 percent of his income to the work of the Lord. That year, his income went from $37,500 to $75,000. Taking the Lord at His word once again, he started giving 20 percent. That following year, he made $150,000. It was at this point that I met him for the first time. We became good friends, and he related this testimony to me.
The next year, he upped his giving to 25 percent, and his income rose to $300,000. I know it sounds incredible, but I know this testimony to be true. This man is a dear friend of mine.
The year after he upped his giving to 30 percent, he made $600,000. A year later, he upped it to 35 percent and grossed $1.2 million. Until he sold his business in 2010, he consistently gave over 50 percent of his income to the work of God. Now that he is in fulltime ministry, he is still giving 30 to 35 percent each year.
But can I tell you that the greatest thing about this testimony is not how much money my friend gives or makes; it’s what God has done in his heart.
This is a man of God. He didn’t start giving out of a desire to be rich. He obeyed out of a heart to please God and be used by Him.
God looked down and said, “I need to distribute funds in My kingdom, and here’s someone I can trust.” And that’s precisely what He’s looking for. God is looking for people He can trust with wealth.
We must pass the test of need—trusting God to take care of us. We must pass the test of greed—using abundance wisely and in obedience to God’s promptings. Moreover, we must pass the test of seed—sowing bountifully—as we observe the three principles of seedtime and harvest.
God can get it to us, if He can only get it through us!
BLESSED LIVES
“Last year, God laid out a plan for my wife and I and told us we were to ‘give our way out of debt,’ which seems so contrary to the way our finite minds work. One night, I was so stressed out I kept myself up half the night going over our finances and trying to figure out how we were going to do a ‘double tithe.’ I wasn’t stressed about not wanting to do it—I was excited about it! I was stressed because I couldn’t figure out how we were going to do it. As I laid there with numbers rolling through my head, I felt the Lord tell me, ‘Stop! Just trust Me.’ I gave it to Him and an overwhelming peace immediately came over me, and I fell asleep. The next morning, God spoke to me that we were to begin our double tithe in January 2015.
“Since we started, we have received raises and bonus checks out of nowhere. One day my boss dropped a bonus check on my desk and said he appreciates all I do for the company and that our company revenue has tripled! Amazingly, 75 percent of that growth happened since we began tithing! Through our obedience, even my company is being blessed!”
Mathew Dujka