Right Understanding of Scattering

Minister:
Date: PM (Prayer Day)
Text: Proverbs 11:24-26
Psalters: 171, 402, 357, 305
  1. The Meaning
    1. “Scattereth” refers to the farmer sowing seed by broadcasting.
    2. God applies this seeming contradiction to our giving to others.
      1. Our texts speaks of two kinds of giving.
      2. All Christians are as farmers whose work is to sow and scatter (which is a loss to self).
      3. There is also the spreading of the truth of God’s Word.
  2. Some important principles God has established.
    1. All that we have belongs to God (Ps. 50:7-11) both before and after He gives it to us.
      1. True giving is a constant acknowledgement that all belongs to God and that we are to use everything in His service.
      2. We are called to praise God with the things He has entrusted to us.
      3. Real giving is a matter of the heart (II Cor. 9:7; Mark 12:41-44).
    2. God teaches that His wisdom of giving liberally contradicts natural man’s “wisdom.”
    3. God ordained in creation a way to bestow blessings: as we sow, so He gives the harvest.
      1. God counts what we give to others as giving to Him.
      2. This truth is a check on our flesh wanting to hold back from doing good for fear of losing.
  3. Blessing: we “shall be made fat” and “shall be watered also himself” (“will drink fully”).
    1. We sin when we keep back (even though we increase in worldly goods) and ends in “poverty.”
    2. First, our giving yields a harvest, related to our giving.
    3. Second, part of the blessed harvest is our enlarged capacity for giving thanks.
    4. Finally, God’s supreme scattering is the gift of the unspeakable Gift (II Cor. 9:15) which increases His glory and our salvation.
      1. The power of His love enables us to return all that we receive to Him in praise – He is glorified by our grateful praise.
      2. It is the consciousness of divine grace unlocks our closed hearts and loosens are fingers so we give lovingly and lavishly.