Summary

The apostle Paul's longest teaching on giving in 2 Corinthians 9 provides essential insights into how Christians should approach generosity. Paul emphasizes that giving should be coordinated and intentional, not haphazard or impulsive. The Corinthian church had already committed to supporting the Jerusalem church, and their readiness had inspired other churches to give despite their own poverty. Paul wanted their gift to be ready as a willing offering, not extracted under pressure.The character of Christian giving follows the principle of sowing and reaping—whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, while whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. This bountiful giving should be cheerful, reflecting the joy that motivated Christ to endure the cross for our salvation. Research consistently shows that generous people are more successful across every area of life, creating a positive cycle that benefits both giver and receiver.Perhaps most importantly, generous giving provides comfort by reinforcing our dependence on God rather than ourselves. God is able to make all grace abound so that we have sufficiency in all things at all times. Giving money away is the most effective way to overcome money's spiritual power over us, breaking free from its control and declaring that our security lies in God alone. This creates a beautiful cycle of community thanksgiving, knitting hearts together and helping believers see each other as family rather than separate units.

Transcript

We pray again, Father in heaven, we pray your blessing upon our time. In your word, God, I pray for open hearts and ears that we might receive from you, that we might grow in you, that we might be blessed by you. And may the words of my mouth, the meditations, the thoughts, the desires, the contemplations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

All right, so, oddly enough, we are back in chapter nine. If you have been tracking as we've made our way through Second Corinthians, you may be thinking right now this is all a little erratic. You heard me preach twice on chapter six, and then Jed picked up in chapter eight, and then I preached one sermon on chapter seven, and then one on just the end of chapter seven and the beginning of eight, and then Jed preached on chapter ten. And now I'm going to chapter nine, and next week we're going to look at chapter eleven. But today it's chapter nine, which works with chapter eight. And together they make up Paul's longest teaching on giving.

And I will admit, even as I stand here now, but throughout my preparation, I've been a little nervous. And I was glad that Jed kind of eased us into the water a little while ago to talk about giving. And it's not that I should be, actually, because our Lord talks about our greed and our tendency towards greed and our engagement with money more than any other of the seven deadly sins. He doesn't mind talking about seems. But it's certainly not a subject that we like to talk about in our world. And maybe if you're here for the first time this morning and you're like, oh, man, I'm at a church and they're going to talk about giving. Go figure. Well, I can tell you rather confidently that I have never actually preached a sermon on giving in this church, though I probably should have.

So, anyway, in preparation, I messaged a number of pastor friends around the country, and I asked them for some thoughts and some stories, and I want to share a couple of those with you. Now, here's a thought. A friend of mine who pastors a church in Seattle, he's been at his church for 17 years. It's a rather large church in our circles. He told me that over the 17 years that he has pastored there, he has had many congregants, many parishioners come and confess all kinds of different sins. He has only had one person ever come and talk to him about greed. Only one. He said, I can give you dozens of Other sins? Only one.

A couple stories that I heard from different pastor dad was trying to teach his four year old about tithing. He laid out ten pennies on a table for set aside one and handed the other nine to the kid. This one is God's, he said. The rest are yours. The kid's response? Poor God.

Here's another short story. A guy came to see his pastor and asked for prayer. I'm struggling to tithe, he confessed, which is amazing. I've never had that conversation. Why? The pastor asked. You make great money, like 300k. Well, that's just it. It was easier to tithe when I only made 30. Now that I make 300, it feels like too much. Pray for me. The pastor bowed his head and said, oh Lord, please reduce my friend's salary. Down to where he can obey you.

Those are kind of funny stories, but also actually, they're very serious stories. The child can actually see how little we offer to God, and the man can see how little he wants to offer to God.

So we're going to talk about giving this morning. If you want to leave, you can. Okay, and I want to walk us through this passage in Second Corinthians, chapter nine, with three points. Okay? Three points. Good Presbyterian sermon. First one is going to be coordinated giving. Second one is going to be the character of giving. And then comforts in giving. Okay? Three Cs, only they were three Ps. That would be better for a Presbyterian pastor named Peter.

Coordinated giving. Okay, so maybe you'll remember from a few weeks ago when Jed was preaching about how Paul was sending Titus and a couple others to Corinth to collect the Corinthians offering for the church there in Jerusalem, which was part of Paul's sort of mission that he talks about. He mentions it sort of briefly in Galatians, and he specifically mentions it at the end of 1 Corinthians in chapter 16. Those three guys weren't going to Corinth to persuade them to give. In fact, they had received the first letter, and we know from some correspondences that they had agreed to this already. They said, yes, this is a good thing. We ought to be givers. So Paul had instructed them, and they had said they were ready to do so. But Paul here is ensuring that readiness, and he's saying it needs to be coordinated. Follow through plan, be ready and commit. Follow through.

Look with me down at verses one and two. And again, I want you to keep your finger on this page. So we're going to walk through the whole passage, okay? Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

So here's what had happened. The promised giving of the Corinthians. Okay, so Corinth is the main city in the area of Achaia. So when it mentions Achaia, there, what he's saying is your, you know, you guys, okay, so the promised giving of the Corinthians had stirred up the churches of Macedonia to give. And you might remember that back in chapter eight, the beginning of chapter eight, verse two, we read about the Macedonians, how, quote, in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. Well, those folk there in Macedonia who, through their affliction and their extreme poverty were so generous, were generous in part, we learn here because of the Corinthian church committing, being coordinated, being ready and willing to give generously.

Paul says it would be superfluous. He says it's not needed to write to them because you've already been ready. And look at the work that has happened because of your readiness and your generosity. But he's still coordinating their giving and he's still talking about it. Why would he do this? Why would he still talk about even though it's superfluous and they've already been ready for a year? It says because he wants to ensure this. He wants it to be coordinated. He wants it to be completed. He wants them to follow through.

So verses three and four. Okay, But I'm sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you're not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you for being so confident.

Imagine this. The, the, the poverty stricken Macedonian church have given, it said joyfully. Picture them dancing, as some of you have seen in parts of the world where Christians come joyfully, dancing, giving their tithes and offerings to the Lord. They've given joyfully out of their affliction and their poverty, and now it's very possible, at least, that the rich Corinthian church is going to back out.

Paul's saying, look at what's happened because you've committed to this, you've coordinated this follow through with this coordination, follow through with this commitment. But there's something more in this passage, and it's actually more serious. He said that the boasting about them. I don't know if you got this. The boasting about them would prove empty, is what our translation says. Some translations. Maybe you have a different one in front of you. It says vain. That word is the same word that you can find in chapter six, verse one, where this translation uses vain. And there maybe you'll remember what it says. But Paul appeals to them to not receive the grace of God in vain. That's the two uses of this word in Second Corinthians. That there's a connection with being ready to give and following through with it and planning for it and receiving God's grace. You could receive God's grace in vain, and you cannot follow through with the grace of giving. And it will be in vain anyway.

Paul does not mind pressing them in their coordinated giving because he wants to ensure their readiness. He also doesn't mind because he desires. He wants to ensure their willing blessing. Okay, so look at verse five now, Verse 5. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised. By the way, think of the coordination there. He's going to send some folk ahead of him and then he's going to come so they can make sure this is happening so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an extraction.

So there's a word there that's mentioned a couple times. It's twice translated as the word gift. That word is the same word. And it's. It's the word eulogeo. It's the word that we get the word eulogy from, which means good. Eu. Logos. Word. Good word means a good word. Gift is a good word. It's actually. It's basically the same word as what we say, benediction, but that comes from Latin bene. Good diction. Benediction in a geo. Eulogy. But so what he's saying is that he wants them to be ready to bless. We're blessing. That's actually what it means. It's a blessing. And this blessing, he says it's not a blessing if it has to be extracted. It has to be pulled out of you. There's no grace, there's no goodness, there's no blessing in that. He doesn't want giving to be begrudgingly done by stingy hearts. Won't be a blessing that way.

And I want to just suggest there's actually a lot that we can learn about in our giving from this. One thing that we can learn about this is that giving is always a reflection of your heart. I actually want you to sit for a second and think about your giving and think of. Just think about your giving and think about how that is always a reflection of your heart.

Ready, willing, generous giving, which is what he's commending here, is a confirmation of the salvation of souls, of the blessing of God to us, the grace of God to us. Giving doesn't save, but it's always a reflection of our salvation.

A practical thing that we can learn from this is that we should be planning to give. We should think of it as a coordinated thing. Something that takes actually coordination, working together. Maybe a spouse is working together, planning, kind of looking ahead. I've said this to a number of you, but I think tithing, which is the practice of giving a tenth of your income, is a really wise practice. Though most Christians throughout history have said that should be a base. We should think, how generous can we be? That should be something that we should build off of. But tithing, I think, is a good number because it forces you to budget and to plan, and that will always be for your good. Your finances will be better if you budget. Tithing will in some ways force you to do so.

But anyway, your coordinated planning and your readiness will also influence your heart. It will to have those conversations as you reflect on your money. You cannot serve God in money. It will invite you into a heart conversation, and that will always be also for your good. These things reflect and they influence where your heart is at.

So the first thing is coordinated giving. The second thing I want to talk about that I think this passage then kind of invites us into is the character of giving. And when I say the character of giving, I am not meaning generally character. I mean the character of Christian giving. What's sort of in its nature. What can we say about it? Giving that reflects Christ. And the first thing is that it's bountiful. Okay, so verse six. Let's keep going through the passage. I thought when I was preparing this, I'm kind of nervous enough to talk about giving, because we don't do that much, though we should. And the easiest way maybe is just to keep going to the passage. So we're just literally going to walk through it.

Verse 6. The point is this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

You can sow let's just say you can give in a way even that is sparingly. Think of the sower who takes the seed very carefully, one and goes, well, I just want to put this one right here, and I want to use too much of my seeds. I want to put that one right there. And then when the seed, when spring comes, harvest time comes, you go, oh, there's only some of those came up. And you think of the sower who goes, I want to throw it all out. He receives a great harvest. You can sow in a way that's stingy sowing. You can sow in a way that's bountiful sowing. And the Bible tells us actually really clearly that one will reap a harvest and the other will not. That's what it says.

Okay, now here's an interesting thing. That word translated bountiful, is once again the word eulogia, different form of eulogy. Blessing, good word. So whoever sows blessing, which means it cannot be extracted, right, can't be pulled out of, you will reap blessing.

Some of you may be familiar with Adam Grant. I hope quite a few of you are. I remember having a conversation with Dave Riley, who used to attend here years ago. He was reading a bunch of Adam Grant books, and he said, it's just Christianity applied, but Adam Grant was actually the youngest tenured professor at the Wharton School, the business school over at UPenn, and he's written a lot of great books on leadership and business, and I'd commend some of those to you. He's a very easy read, but he wrote a book called Give and Take, and he breaks people down into three categories. In this book, Give and Take, he says they are the givers, people that are free with their energy, with their time, with their resources, with their money. There are the takers, the people that mostly want to take from others, and then there are the matchers. So it has to be a tit for tat. If you give this, then I will give you that. You know, think of the marriage. If you give me your time, maybe I'll give you. If you give me your heart, then I'll give you my heart. And he says, across the board, every discipline of life, the people that succeed are the givers. It's just exactly what Paul is saying. You sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly, you sow bountifully, be free, open, generous. He says the same thing that Paul says, and he's not a Christian.

The first character of giving is that it is bountiful reaps blessing. The second character of Christian giving is that it's marked by a cheerful willingness. So verse 7. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly, which is almost as to say. To say, if you give reluctantly, don't give. Or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. Cheerful giver.

Some commentators in this passage right here, they point back to a passage In Deuteronomy, chapter 15, Deuteronomy 15:10. It says this. You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be begrudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. But I think maybe a better passage that we should point to in the Scriptures is actually not from Deuteronomy, but from Paul's to the Philippians, where he says, for the joy that was set before you, Christ endured the cross. But it's a great gift of God to us, but his very self and his life. And the Lord does that with joy. But both verses have to do with what God has done for us.

Deuteronomy 15 is all about the sabbatical year and how we live with others. Part of the whole point of that chapter is that you forgive others debts. It's a financial dynamic, and you give freely to others. How easy would it be to begrudgingly forgive the debt that somebody else owes you? I think it would be pretty easy to begrudgingly do that. The seventh year's coming up. I was banking on that money to pay for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? And the foundation for that seventh year is that God rests on it. On the seventh, there's a celebration of what God has done. Cheerful giving is a reflection of the joy that was set before Jesus. In giving himself, he forgives willingly and he gives himself joyfully.

I read in this commentary by Kent Hughes, maybe some of you knew that name. He was a great preacher in Chicago for a good long while. At the College church in Wheaton, he gives an illustration saying that this kind of fits with today's culture. He says, there's a picture in a Victorian cartoon, two men sitting in a London club. One is holding a book in his hand and explains, it's a new story by that Dickens fellow about a wealthy banker named Scrooge who finally degenerates into sentimental weakling. You know, we're like, we look down on somebody who's so free, but that freedom is a reflection of our Lord. Cheerful giving is a reflection of Jesus Paul says in First Corinthians 1 that the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing. And we look at it often as foolishness. We look at as foolishness, right? Because we don't follow in its footsteps, we go, that's a foolish way to live. But God says it's the power of God for salvation.

Cheerful willingness in our giving is a reflection of the cross. So the character of Christian giving is belief that God brings about a bountiful harvest beyond what we imagine, beyond even what we sow. But it also demands our generous sowing. And then we also see that a cheerful willingness to give is also a reflection of God's own giving of Himself on the cross.

So coordinated giving, character of giving. Finally, my third point. Comforts in giving. Okay, that might sound. I think that sounds like a little bit of an odd word that there's a comfort in giving. And I'm going to try to explain it so it makes sense. First, I think there's a comfort in giving because it reinforces for us that we and what we have is not sufficient. And as much as we want to be sufficient, as much as what we want to have, we think is sufficient for us. I have that temptation. There's a great gift in saying we don't have it. We have to rely on that which is outside of us. There's a comfort in that.

So verse eight, okay? And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things and at all times, you catch all those alls, all related to God's being sufficient, you may abound in every good work. Now, the good work he's mentioning here most immediately is this good work of giving. But he's saying that in all times, in all places, God is sufficient for you. I mean, we say the Lord, you know, owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He just speaks and things come into being. He's fully sufficient for you. God will always give you what you need to follow him faithfully.

You will always be rich enough to give. Think of the Macedonians. They believed that deep down, because they gave in their poverty and in their affliction, they knew they were sufficient in God. But I do think there's a real comfort in this, because we are told that it is this grace from God that allows us to give abundantly. And it's because God is God Himself, is sufficient for all the good work that he calls us to do. So the challenge for us is not to say, oh, I got to figure it all out. The challenge for us is obedience. The sufficiency is God's. The obedience is ours. Everything comes from our Father above.

I think it's important to say that this comfort is tied to sufficiency also because we do have this temptation to find our sufficiency in ourselves and these things that we have. And I think this is exactly why Jesus very explicitly says those things. The things of this world is the place where moth and rust are going to destroy, where thieves are going to break in and steal. And he says, for where your treasure is, he's calling out specifically, like our material stuff and our pocketbooks, our money. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He's calling this out. And I think there's a real like sort of a practical comfort in this idea that sufficiency comes from God because he knows that the temptations of our heart are to put our protection in these things, right? Our protection for our future. Our future's going to be okay if our 401k balance is blah blah, blah by this age. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? My future is protected if I got this job that will allow for this kind of pension. And you don't know the time or the day when you will be called home.

No, it's not that we shouldn't be planned for those things, but our temptation is to put our trust for our future in them. And that's not where we should be putting it. The temptation of our hearts is to put our peace in those things, right? Our provision in the presence of those accounts or whatever have you, the stuff that we hoard and take. And the Bible always tells us the only place you're going to find that protection and that peace is in the presence of God. That is it. That's the only place. So if you want to free yourself from the great temptation of your hearts, our hearts, let me tell you this. Give your money away.

Okay, turn with me in your bulletin. Let's look at the first quote, okay? On our meditation quote. I think Jacquelo has a really good word for us here. Okay, let me read this for you. How do we overcome the spiritual power of money? Get more of it? No, he says, not by accumulating more money, not by using money for good purposes, even, not by being just and fair in our dealings. The law of money is the law of accumulation, of buying and selling. That's why the only way to overcome the spiritual power of money is to give our money away, thus desacralizing it and freeing ourselves from its Control. To give away money is to win a victory over the spiritual power that oppresses us.

Telling you it is a comfort. It is a comfort to give your money away because it actually takes away its power. And it says, your sufficiency is in God alone.

Okay. Another comfort we have in giving is actually righteousness. Okay, so I'm going to read verses nine through ten. As it's written. He has distributed freely. You heard this earlier. This is Psalm 112. He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. And by the way, if you followed along in that psalm at the end mentions the wicked briefly, the wicked one is the stingy one. In that psalm, he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

So like I said, this is a quote from Psalm 112. But then, interestingly, Paul also kind of sort of quotes from Isaiah 55 and then alludes to at least Hosea, chapter 10. But the point of it all is that God supplies the seed that we sow. But as we sow, it's a reflection of his righteousness. As we mirror him in our sowing, we're actually reflecting the righteous one, and we are actually called the righteous. Okay, so there's a comfort given here with the idea of righteousness, which is to say there's a degree in which you can have an assurance of your salvation, which is a tricky thing, right? That's the Holy Spirit's work. But there's a degree in which you can see the fruit of your salvation through how you interact with giving.

So again, an assessment is, where am I at with God? Well, where am I at with my money and God? Giving doesn't earn salvation, but it shows it. Let me put it this way. There are no Scrooges in the kingdom of God. None.

Okay. Finally, the third comfort we get in giving is communal thanksgiving. So I'm going to read just the rest of it for us. Okay, but I want you to listen for how communal this is here. You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. Through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this sacrifice, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the Gospel of Christ. Isn't that interesting that he connects giving with confession? Of the Gospel and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

You see how it's mentioning so many different people, you and us and they over there. Our hearts are connected in our giving. You are brought closer to one another in your giving.

Let me turn your attention again to the quote in the bulletin. This second One is from N.T. wright. When human beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and worship that which is not God, they progressively seek to reflect the image of God. One of the primary laws of human life is that you become like what you worship. What's more, you reflect what you worship not only in the object itself, but also outwardly to the world around. Those who worship money increasingly define themselves in terms of it and increasingly treat other people as creditors, debtors, partners, customers, rather than human beings.

One of the ways, brothers and sisters, that that we will knit our hearts together, that we will be one body instead of looking at each other as separate units, is actually giving collectively. Your heart will be changed as you give and it will be changed towards one another. That's what this passage is saying at the end. It's they and us, and we're all offering it up in Thanksgiving, but we're also thanking God for one another and how he provides for us through one another and all this kind of stuff. Church wide comfort in the communal Thanksgiving of giving.

Now I rather hate that as soon as Halloween was done, Christmas ads went crazy. Can I get an amen? It really bothered me this year for some reason I was just like, I was scroogey about all that, how all of a sudden you go to a store, it's like Christmas stuff everywhere. I'm like, where's just the Thanksgiving decorations? But I also really do love the act of giving and receiving that we practice at Christmas. We give to those we love and receive from those we love. And as we do so, our hearts do come a little bit closer together as we receive something from one another. I mean, we are going to do that tonight. You know, as you bring something or as you just receive what somebody else made, our hearts will come closer together. It just naturally happens. There's an affection that grows as we release what is ours and we give it away. It's an affection for God that grows and it is an affection for one another. So we have a comfort because we have a communal Thanksgiving.

All right, let me end by telling you a story. It's a short one. Again. Two men were marooned on an island. One man paced back and forth, worried and scared, while the other man sat back and enjoyed the sun. First man? Asked the second man, aren't you afraid we're about to die? No, said the second man. I make a hundred thousand dollars a week and tithe faithfully to my church every week. My pastor will find me.

Okay, I only have, like, three more sentences I got to get to. That's a funny one.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am not out to find you. I actually don't know what any of you give, but I hope that you can say from your heart that you cheerfully give generously and maybe more next year, or maybe more even this week, than you gave last week. Because it is for your good. I promise you, it's for your good. Like, open, open it up, give away more than you think you should. It will be for your good. And if this is true, then you will be blessed through it. The one who sows sparingly will reap sparingly. One who sows generously will reap generously.

Coordinated giving, reflecting the character of Christ, is for our individual and for our communal joy. Which is exactly why Jesus came.

Let me pray for us. Lord, I pray that today we as couples and individuals and as families will think long and hard of your words that we cannot serve two masters and ask ourselves, how can we more faithfully and joyfully and cheerfully serve you? And maybe today hear that the best way to do that is to give cheerfully and generously. God, please, would you do that in each one of us? We all know the collective things that we hear, and it's not even unique to our culture because, Jesus, you spoke about it so much that we're so tempted to grab onto our pocketbooks and keep it in our pockets. And I pray that we'd fight that temptation by being wildly generous and giving eagerly, and that we would also expect that your word is true, that your grace is sufficient for us, that your power is actually made perfect in our weakness, that feeling a little uncertain may be actually for our best. God, please do this in us. And in so doing, God, conform us to the image of our Lord before the joy who was set before him, endured the cross, despising its shame and bringing us to salvation. Amen.

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