Sow Boldly: Take Kingdom Risks, Diversify, Trust God

But I want you to remember something that RG Leturnau, I think, would say, not everything that comes to me is for me. Sometimes God gives us the capacity to earn or to invest and to make money because God doesn't want everything that comes to me to be for me but he wants to send things through me for others. In Ephesians chapter four verse 28, the apostle Paul wrote, let the thief no longer steal. That's not the part I was going to focus on. Instead, he is to do honest work with his own hands so that he has something to share with anyone in need. [00:51:30] (43 seconds)  #StewardshipForOthers

And so the safest life spiritually is often an unfaithful life because the safe life is an unfruitful life. So Solomon would say, be bold, take some kingdom risk. Secondly, would say, but don't be reckless. He would say, I'm not calling you to be reckless, be strategic. Don't put everything in one place. Look at verse two. Give a portion to seven or to even eight for you don't know what disaster will happen on earth. In the world of finance, this is simply the principle of diversification. [00:45:15] (42 seconds)  #DiversifyYourFaith

When we cast our bread on the water, in many days it will come back to us. You see, when you share your faith, you may not see an immediate return on that investment. When you invest in someone's life and try to disciple them, you may not immediately see that all of a sudden their life has changed. When you give, you don't immediately see the results of that. By the way, when when we give, I mean, when we financially give, when you put money in an offering plate, it looks like loss and yet what we know is that the reward comes later. [00:44:40] (35 seconds)  #GiveAndTrustReturn

I want you to think about that expression, wait and see. Jesus says that we walk by faith and not by seeing, not by sight. Don't wait and see, walk by faith. Finally, one final thought. Be faithful. Work humbly and hopefully. He says to us in verse six, in the morning sow your seed and at evening do not let your hand rest because you do not know which one will succeed whether one or the other or both of them might be equally good. He kind of ends it on a positive note. And he says, sow your seed, be faithful, do your work, work humbly, work hopefully believing that God is going to do something. [00:58:36] (52 seconds)  #WalkByFaithNow

So is it aggressive investment or generous benevolence? Why can't it be both? Why can't it be both? Why can't we aggressively invest the earthly finances that God has given us so that we can be radically generous in other areas of our life? What I would call you to remember is that God is the greatest giver. God is the greatest giver. You cannot you cannot out give God. He's the greatest giver and he's given us things that are much more valuable than money and possessions and material things. [00:46:54] (39 seconds)  #GiveAndInvestBoth

Now that's not prosperity gospel. That's not making, you know, putting God in a corner and making him make you rich. That's not what that is at all. That's the words of Jesus. Jesus said, if you give, to use Solomon's expression, if you send your bread out on the water, if you cast your bread on the water, in many days it'll come back to you, give and it'll be given unto you. It is, there is a principle here that generosity is good for us spiritually. [00:40:00] (29 seconds)  #GenerositySpiritualPrinciple

And someone once asked him, they said, how do you do this? How do you live on 10% and and and you and you give away 90%? And the great quote was this, he says, I shovel the money out and God shovels it back and God has a bigger shovel. Give and it will be given unto you. You see, God has given some of you the capacity to make money and you shouldn't be ashamed of that. It's a gift. Some of you have the capacity to you're businessmen or good businesswomen and God's given you ideas and creativity and and God has given you this this ability to make money. [00:50:44] (46 seconds)  #GiveGodGivesBack

And he's and Solomon is saying, the one who watches the wind will not sow. In other words, if you're constantly paranoid that that the wind's gonna blow away your seed, then you'll never sow it. And he says, and the one who looks at the clouds will not reap. Well, it might rain today. We better not cut hay. It might rain, you know. Now if it's a big black thundercloud, okay, don't cut your hay, right? But if it's partly cloudy, the weatherman says there's a 10% chance, maybe we shouldn't. If you wait for that kind of certainty, you're never going to reap. [00:55:41] (34 seconds)  #SowDespiteWind

And I can remember going to the plate and waiting for the perfect pitch and I got called out because I didn't swing at the hittable pitch, I was waiting for the perfect pitch and the umpire rang me up and I went and rode the pine, you know, that's what happens. When you're waiting for perfect, when you're waiting to have all the answers, when you're waiting for perfect certainty, it won't happen. Wayne Gretzky, a great hockey great said, you miss a 100% of the shots you don't take. And he's right about that and it's true spiritually. [00:57:00] (42 seconds)  #DontWaitForPerfect

And what Solomon is saying to us here is that there are times to be bold. You see, the safest thing you could do with your ship, if you had a nice ship, if you had a ship that you really like, the safest thing you can do is keep it tied up to the dock in the harbor. There is an old adage that says a ship in the harbor is safe but that's not what ships are built for. That's not why they're there. You see a life that is ruled by caution is a life that will be fruitless. Sometimes you must step out in faith. [00:42:16] (39 seconds)  #ShipsAreBuiltToSail

But RG Leturnau said I have plenty and so rather than living more with more, I'm gonna start giving more. And R. G. Leturnau started doing something that was remarkable and for some people it might not be possible, know, but for him it was because of his vast wealth. He started reverse tithing, that's what he called it. He chose to live on 10% and give away 90%. He he funded Christian ministries and Christian charities, started a university in Longview, Texas. I mean, did incredible things with the money that God had poured into his life. [00:49:56] (47 seconds)  #ReverseTithing

You know what, from our comfortable chairs, we admire risk takers. We admire people who step out when others hesitate, who who believe when others doubt, and who act when other people are still waiting. See, we are called to give ourselves wholeheartedly, courageously, daringly to something beyond the ordinary, the mundane, and the bland. We are called to do more than to live cold, timid lives that don't make a difference. God has called each one of us to step forward and to be bold and to live by faith. [00:34:53] (44 seconds)  #LiveBoldlyByFaith

You see God calls us to faithfulness and faithfulness means walking in obedience. Let me tell you just a personal aside when I get to a passage like this from early in my ministry. I didn't understand a principle early in my ministry. I thought I was responsible for the outcome. And after about three years of wearing that, like I every time I preached, I thought somebody ought to get saved. I still think that, but I don't think I'm responsible for it anymore. [00:59:28] (40 seconds)  #ResponsibleForObedience

If he's given us the absolute very best that he had in giving us his son, don't you believe he'll give us the very best that he has in everything else? You see you cannot out give God. I've read the story recently of a man named R. G. Leturno. I'd heard of him before but I really didn't know his story. He was born at the turn of the last century, 1,900 or so, and, was born in Vermont and and started a business and his business was big earth moving equipment. That's what he did, manufactured it. [00:47:52] (38 seconds)  #YouCantOutGiveGod

Some things are certain and final, but you know this and I do too and Solomon did. Most things in life are not that certain. Most things in life are not guaranteed. They're just not. And so what he says to us is there are some things that are uncertain and they're not final. And as a result of that, you can't allow fear to paralyze you. And the illustration he uses is from a farmer. He says, he who watches the wind will not sow. [00:54:01] (39 seconds)  #DontLetFearParalyze

But R. G. Leturnau was a follower of Jesus and he took following Jesus seriously. So he he tithed, traditional biblical tithing. He he lived on 90% and he gave 10% to the Lord. But R. G. Leturnau realized that he had been blessed with this ability to to make money. And rather than doing something that most of us do, including me, that if you get an increase in income, we increase our outflow by increasing our lifestyle. Right? Well, you know, you're living in a small house, you get a better job, you buy a bigger house, so the payment goes up. [00:49:17] (40 seconds)  #ResistLifestyleInflation

And you could misinterpret that to live lives you live your life cautiously. And Solomon wants to give us a little counterbalance to that and say no, I'm not calling you to a life of timidity and fear and caution. I am calling you to a life of faith. And so he writes the first six verses of Ecclesiastes chapter 11. We're only gonna do these six verses this morning. Listen to what Solomon writes. Send your bread on the surface of the water for after many days you may find it. [00:36:29] (35 seconds)  #ChooseFaithNotFear

The riskiest investment that wealthy people could make in the ancient world, and Solomon was wildly wealthy, was maritime trade, was sea trade. And what we know is that Solomon had ships that he invested in and those ships would go out and engage in trade and they would come back. We know that because of first Kings chapter 10 verse 22. For the king, referring to Solomon, for the king had ships of Tarshish at sea with Hiram's fleet and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks. [00:40:53] (42 seconds)  #SeaTradeRiskReward

We are called to be people who follow after Jesus, who follow God's will and God's direction and his wisdom even when we don't see the outcome. We simply know that he's asking us to do something and sometimes that's hard. I mean that's just really difficult sometimes to step out in faith and yet God calls us to that. Solomon in the last sermon that I preached from chapter 10 and I'll remind you of it because sometimes I don't even remember what I preached last week, I don't expect you to, but he called us to not be foolish. [00:35:49] (40 seconds)  #ObeyWithoutKnowingOutcome

Solomon would invest in these ships. They would go out with his investment and after three years of not knowing what happened to them, there was no satellite radar, there was not even a barometer, the barometer had not been invented. They didn't know when a storm was coming. There were pirates on the high seas even nine centuries before Jesus. And you didn't know what happened to your investment and so you literally took your bread and you cast it out on the waters and after many days it came instant return on investment. [00:41:40] (35 seconds)  #CastBreadOnTheWater

We are called to be people who follow after Jesus, who follow God's will and God's direction and his wisdom even when we don't see the outcome. We simply know that he's asking us to do something and sometimes that's hard. I mean that's just really difficult sometimes to step out in faith and yet God calls us to that. Solomon in the last sermon that I preached from chapter 10 and I'll remind you of it because sometimes I don't even remember what I preached last week, I don't expect you to, but he called us to not be foolish. [00:35:49] (40 seconds)