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We're continuing our look through 2 Corinthians chapter 9, day 3, verses 8 to
11. In verses 8 to 11, Paul actually says the same thing three times in three
different ways. Now, I've always noted in God's Word, when God says something
once, I want to really take notice.

If He says it twice, I want to really, really take notice. If He says it three
times, right in a row, I want to make sure I don't miss this. That's what God's
saying, don't miss this.

What does He say three times in three different ways? He says God gives so that
you can give. He says you are blessed in order to be a blessing.

Let me read these verses, verses 8 to 11, "And God is able to make all grace
abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need,
you will abound in every good work. As it's written, He has scattered abroad His
gifts to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.

Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and
increase your store of seed, and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be made rich in every way, so that you can be generous on every
occasion. And through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

" If you walk through these verses, first look at verse 8. In verse 8, Paul
reminds us that God makes grace abound, but there's a so that. So that you can
abound.

God makes grace abound so that you can abound in every good work. You and I are
not meant to just sit back and bask in God's grace, to get in a spiritual deck
chair beside a spiritual pool and put on spiritual sunglasses and just
spiritually sun ourselves, because wow, God's grace is just so great. That's not
the meaning of God's grace in our lives.

We're not meant to bask in God's grace. We are meant to abound in God's grace,
and then to share it with other people. And he reminds us here that grace is
given so that we can abound in good works.

This is one of the things that most gets confused about the gospel, about the
good news of Christ. So many people think you're supposed to do good works so
that you can get God's grace into your life. Nothing could be further from the
truth.

Nothing could be more impossible. How could you do enough good works to get in
the good graces of a perfect God? You'd have to be perfect.

So that doesn't work. Ephesians 2, 8-10 says the same thing as these verses are
saying. By grace you're saved through faith, it's not of yourselves.

But then verse 10 says, "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to
do good works. " First comes the grace, and out of that grace, the result of
that grace is doing the good works that God has given you to do. You cannot do
good works to get God's grace, but grace results in doing good works.

Why is that true, by the way? Well, if you work for it, if you do the good
works, then you feel that it's yours. You earned it.

And the result, most often, is pride. This is something I earned. This is
something I own.

You feel like you own your salvation, you made it happen. But if you receive it
as a gift, then you're free to pass it on to others, because it's a gift given
to me, so I can give it to somebody else. And the result of that isn't pride,
it's praise.

It's praise that goes back to God. So in your life, in my life, God has made his
grace to abound. But you're blessed to be a blessing.

He's done that so that good works can flow out of that grace that he's given
into your life. Now, in case I didn't get it the first time, Paul says it a
second time, and the way he says it a second time is in beginning in verse 10,
when he says, "God increases your store of seed. " He gives us a picture so that
God can enlarge your harvest of righteousness.

More seed, more harvest. Now, just remember this, by the way. God increases your
store of seed.

As we talk about giving, as we talk about generosity, God gives the seed in the
first place. It's all from him. He created it all.

He created you. You say, "I earned it. " Who made you who earned it?

And who gave you the strength, the intelligence, the ability to earn it? It's
all from him in the first place. We wouldn't be walking on this planet.

There wouldn't be a planet to walk on, except for the fact that God made it all.
So God gives the seed in the first place. And here Paul says there are times
when he increases your store of seed.

And when God gives a greater amount of seed in your life, what does he want to
have happen? A greater harvest. A greater harvest.

Greater amount of seed means I plant more seed. That means there's a greater
harvest. I'm blessed to be a blessing.

If you're looking at your life and thinking, "Why is God giving me more right
now? " It's so there can be a greater harvest to give him glory. Now he uses the
phrase here, "A harvest of righteousness.

" What does that mean? Well, righteousness is being in right relationship with
God and with others. Righteousness is acting like God causes us to act through
his Holy Spirit in our lives.

A harvest of righteousness means all the results that spring from God being at
work in your life in this world. So a harvest of righteousness, for instance, is
salvation. People come into Christ.

A harvest of righteousness is growth. People growing in Christ, getting closer
to him. A harvest of righteousness is ministry.

Ministry going forward and needs being met in this world. People being cared for
in Jesus' name. Those are a harvest of righteousness, all of those things.

When God gives more seed, he wants to see a greater harvest. But that will only
happen if you plant the seed. Here's the key to this.

If your goal, if my goal becomes to impress my neighbors with how much seed I've
gathered, then I'm going to build bigger barns so that they can see how much
seed I have rather than planting more seed. Every time God gives you an
increased store of seed, the first question in your mind should be, "Lord, where
do you want me to plant this seed so that there can be a greater harvest? "
There could be a thousand different answers to that.

How and where he wants you to plant that seed. I don't know the answer in your
life. But I know the wrong direction to take.

Wow, God gave me more seed so I can just eat it myself. I can just have more
seed than I need. No, he wants you to ask, "Where can I plant this so there can
be a greater harvest?

" If right now God is blessing you, in some way financially, if he's blessing
you in some way materially, if he's blessing you with gifts that you never
thought you'd have or opportunities you never thought you'd have, maybe in a job
situation at work or maybe in a new deal that's just coming down in your office
or maybe in an opportunity to go to school that you didn't have. When that
begins to happen, the question is, "God, how do you want me to plant this so
there can be a greater harvest for your sake? " So he said it twice now.

First he said, "God makes grace abound so you can abound in every good work,
blessed to be a blessing. " Second, he said, "When God increases your store of
seed, it's so that he can enlarge his harvest of righteousness, blessed to be a
blessing. " And then the third way he says it in verse 11, he says there,
"You'll be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion.

" Don't get selfish, he's saying. Don't think that because God gave you some
riches in your life, you're supposed to use it just on yourself. That doesn't
make any sense.

That doesn't fit at all the character of God. That doesn't fit at all the
example of Jesus. And by the way, that doesn't fit at all the way that God wants
to bring joy and peace and love into your life.

Now notice it says here, "You will be made rich in every way. " He's not just
talking about finances here. That's one way that God can make us rich in the
material things that he puts into our lives.

But there's many other ways that he can make us rich. Just a quick list. How can
God make you rich?

He can make you rich in relationships. God can make you rich in spiritual gifts
from ministry. Maybe he's doing that in your life right now.

God can make you rich in truth from God's Word. Just flooding your life. God can
make you rich in hope for eternity.

He's given you a depth of hope for eternity that just wasn't there before in
your life. God can make you rich in joy in your circumstances. Instead of being
under your circumstances, you have joy in your circumstances.

God makes you rich in forgiveness and you recognize how much he's forgiven you.
God makes you rich in salvation. He recognized what he's given for you in Jesus
on the cross.

God makes you rich in purpose. God's purpose for your life, to give him glory in
your life. God makes you rich in power for life and godliness.

God makes you rich in an attitude of peace in your life. We could go on and on,
but the point is this. When God makes you rich in every way, it's so that you
can be generous on every occasion.

Here's the key point. Riches are not an invitation to indulgence. They're a call
to generosity in your life.

Whenever God gives more, you look around and think, "Okay, where can I be
generous? Where can I be generous with what God has given? Thank you, God, for
what you've given.

Now, where can I be generous with these gifts he's given me? Where can I be
generous with this peace he's given me? Where can I be generous with this
material gain that he's given me?

How can I be generous, Lord? " You look around and you find those places. He
said it three times.

We're blessed to be a blessing. Let's talk to him for a few moments about that
truth that he wants to put into our hearts. Lord, you see us, you love us, and
you know that sometimes we just misunderstand things.

And when a blessing comes into our lives, somehow we think it's just for us. We
know it's not. That the blessings you put into our lives are so that we can
bless others.

Our church, our family, our community, our world. So Lord, I pray for each of us
that you'd help us to see with new eyes. Help us to see how we are blessed to be
able to bless others.

Help us to take whatever things you put into our lives and think about how could
others be blessed through this. Whatever gifts and abilities you put into our
lives and think about how could others be blessed through this. Whatever heart
for you or hope in you that we have in our lives and think, how can others be
blessed through this?

Whatever riches you put into us. Lord help us to think more and more about how
we could generously share those with others. How others could be blessed by what
you've done in our lives.

Blessed to be a blessing. Thank you, Jesus. In your name we pray.

Amen. Tomorrow we're going to take a close look at the practical things that
happen when you are generous.