Want to change your life?
Ecclesiastes 11:1-6 (KJV) 1Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. 2Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth 3If the clouds be full of rain, they empty themselves upon the earth: and if the tree fall toward the south, or toward the north, in the place where the tree falleth, there it shall be. 4He that observeth the wind shall not sow; and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap. 5As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all. 6In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good.
I want to share some life lessons today. These are personal to this old pastor because they are my life lessons. I just feel that from the many prayer requests we get along these lines I should share a few true stories of Mary's and my life's. As you can tell from the scripture that I am going to talk about giving to the Lord. Now before you turn me off because I am talking about giving to the Lord hang in there for a minute and let me show you what can change your life. No I am not going to tell you to sow your seed to me or His Will Ministry for your need. I want to share some very personal experiences of Mary's and mine. These are real life and true without any embellishment. What I want to share with you is one of the hidden truths of God's Word that is conveniently forgotten by the blab it and grab it false preachers.
I want to ask you where do you give or do you even give to the Lord? No, you do not need to tell me or anyone. Just be honest because the Lord already knows! Whether you like it or not if you want to be blessed you have to be willing to bless others. If we want to have the Lord's blessing's on us we must be willing to give it back. Sometimes the Lord expects us to give it before we have it. Curious about that thought? Let's look at the words of Jesus. Matthew 6:12 (KJV) 12And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Or Matthew 6:14-15 (KJV) 14For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Jesus spent approximately 33 years on this earth. He spent 3 years giving everything He had, unto death, to show God's love to the world. Jesus gave so much of Himself that in the Garden of Gethsemane he sweat drops of blood from his forehead. Why cannot we love and give to His creation the way He did?
Verse 6 of the scripture today talks of sowing our seed in the morning and in the evening. Why because it says we never know when or which will be fruitful. This is one of the "SOW YOUR SEED TO MEET YOUR NEED" group likes to use. But, read the whole verse again from the top! Please show me where it says that we are supposed to do this for ourselves. The closest part is in verse 2 where it says we do not know what problems will befall the world. But, the word goes further telling us to divide our gifts into seven or even eight parts. This is for you who sow your seed into the big multi-million dollar ministries. One older couple Mary and I worked with would always expect His Will Ministry or ourselves to give them funds to help with the bills. Yet, they gave every extra penny (sowed their seed) to the rich blab and grab it preachers on the promise that they would see a return. Nope, they are just as poor as ever. We worked in the church of one Pastor who's wife who almost bankrupted them by sending so much money to the rich blab and grab ministries. They were very devoted lovers of the Lord, but, they were sucked into the false prophets world. They spent years caring for a congregation that was 25 on its best days and 5-10 on its average day. Yet, this ministers wife continued to sow into the rich blab it and grab it ministers on the promise that it would return and their church would be filled to over flowing. When she died only a couple of the church members even attended her funeral. Yet, it took a dumpster to clean out all the special junk trinkets from all those "donations" sown for their need. All those thousands of dollars given for the wrong reason only produced a house full of worthless "love gifts" made in China from the loving blab it and grab it preachers.
Sadly years ago when the sow your seed to meet your need garbage started Mary and I were dragged in too. We were doing very well financially from our consulting company. The company had it's first million dollar year. Yet, it grossed almost a million dollars. We decided that we should give back to the Lord abundantly. We saw all these rich pastors and their great monuments to themselves and we thought we should "sow" abundantly to reap our crop and make ourselves and His Will Ministry one of those "rich" ministries. Only two problems! The first; we were sowing to meet our need. The Bible makes it plain and clear that the Lord loves a cheerful giver, not a selfish giver. The Second; Mary and I always pray "Lord your will be done in our lives and this ministry" and " reveal the truth of your word". To make a long story short we sowed abundantly to these famous false prophets. Very shortly our financial situation changed for the worse. Our consulting business started losing clients, jobs and work. Within a few months we were borrowing funds just to keep the company running.
What happened you ask? We listened to man and sowed our seed to meet our need, or at least our perceived need. Let's go back and revisit today's scripture. In verse 1 we are told to cast our bread upon the waters and it will return to us. But, the key to this whole idea is verse two 2Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth. What does it say? Sow your seed to meet the rich pastors need. NOPE! it says to give a portion to seven and also to eight. What I find most fascinating is that in the Hebrew here the word for seven is seven. So we are being told that when we cast our bread upon the waters we should at least divide it among seven. Here is the kicker though " also to eight" here the Hebrew means the number eight but, also abundant, plentiful, plumpness, surplus above God's perfect seven. So do you get where I am coming from yet? Matthew 25:40 (NLT) 40And the King will tell them, 'I assure you, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!' Please show me, because I cannot find it anywhere in the Bible that it tells us we are to give into God's kingdom to make some ministry or Pastor rich beyond their wildest dreams or to give to God's Kingdom to make us rich beyond our wildest dreams. No! the exact opposite is shown. We are to give into the kingdom of God for the least of these. I ask you, do you show your love for God's creation more by giving to a multi-million dollar ministry so a blab it and grab it pastor can live in a 6 million dollar home or giving to a pastor in Kenya who has a heart for orphans and takes in homeless children he does not even know off the street to give them a life and Jesus? This pastor has a small $100 dollar a month office. This pastor had some extra shutters and traveled 20 kilometers to deliver them to a needy woman. Do you show your love for God's creation by giving to a 80 million a year television ministry so the head of the ministry can have 5 homes and a 6000 sq ft office with a hot tub and gym or giving to a woman in Africa who feeds and homes Aids orphans in a home that was 1/2 burned down by Muslims, who has to share the house with cows, because the home has no doors but she has such a dear heart she will give up her life to care for these lost and forgotten children?
Now if you have not gotten how to change your finical life yet let me continue with our true story. As I said before the most important thing to Mary, I and this Ministry is to be in the perfect will of God for our lives. When things started falling apart we went to prayer and sought the answers from the Lord. One of the things He showed us was the above. Both Mary and I changed our whole outlook on giving to the Lord. We begin to make sure He was always first and to ask His will for our funds. We also became very cheerful givers. We did not give to get back, we did not sow our seed to meet our need. We wanted to become Jesus to the ones we gave to. Jesus never gave of Himself or any miracle to receive anything back. Jesus gave to the world because He loved us. God's own words. John 3:16 (NLT) 16"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. You see both God our Father in heaven and His son Jesus Christ the Savior of the world gave out of pure love for their creation. Not, to get something back.
As we prayed the Lord opened doors to give to those who truly needed it. The Lord opened the doors to ship Bibles, God's word around the world. The Lord opened the doors to support pastors that could not even afford a bike to ride to reach their world. The Lord open the door to be able to help orphans have a chance at a real life. As we opened our hearts to hear how we truly were to give of what the Lord gives us we realized it was supposed to be Christ centered not ME centered. Now for the rest of the story. To date His Will Ministry has never had to ask, beg, plead etc. for funds. Yet, to date His Will Ministry has never been in need financially. We have never missed a bill payment, never not had enough for some new outreach. Oh, yes, Mary and I are debt free and have savings in the bank. Our consulting business is being paid higher rates for its services than anytime in its history.
So here is the point to my teaching. Judging from the prayer requests we get many of you out there have tried the sow my seed to meet my need and are getting no where. Try giving from your heart, not to gain but to be Jesus to the ones you help. God tells us that we can test Him on this! We cannot out give God. Try it from the heart. Be a cheerful giver. Jesus tells us the story of the widow: Mark 12:42-44 (NLT) Then a poor widow came and dropped in two pennies. He called his disciples to him and said, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given. For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has." Do you get it? To be able to give you last two cents you are doing it out of love. That widow knew and trusted God at His word. You cannot out give Him.
As the old saying goes "try it you will like it". The amount does not matter. What matters is the heart. If you want to be Jesus find someone who needs that dollar worse than you and give it to them in Jesus' name. This also opens the door to telling them why you would love them enough to give them that last dollar in your pocket. Here's an extremely sad but true statistic. In the average church 2 to 3 percent of the congregation tithe. Did you get that? If you have 100 members in your average church only 2 or 3 will tithe a tenth of their income on a regular basis.
You can take it to the bank my friends you cannot out give God. But, you can also take it to the bank you will not reap when you sow for you own greed. Want a change for the better in your life? Then be Jesus to them! Ecclesiastes 11:1-2 (KJV) 1Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days. 2Give a portion to seven, and also to eight; for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth."
