The Bountiful Joy and Blessing of Giving Like Christ - 2 Corinthians 8-9

1:02We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God. God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything in faith, speech, knowledge, and all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment, this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.

2:44So I want to ask you, when was the last time that you gave careful thought and consideration to your financial giving, to the church and to others that are in need among the brethren in particular? The objective tonight In this sermon, it is simple. I want to turn your attention to this area of your life and to ask you to give it careful thought in the coming days. Like all areas of our Christian walk, you give it thought from time to time. You carefully examine it. For example, you probably examine how you spend your time, or you might look at how you're serving the church, or if you're being a faithful husband, wife, or parent, from time to time you look back on these things and try to see if they're in conformity with Scripture. It's important also that we evaluate our financial giving and our generosity. And we will see that Christ sets the example in His giving that should inspire us.

3:46And I want to preface this by saying that I was not asked to preach on giving. It's, I think, an uncomfortable topic for Tom sometimes, not because he shies away from Scripture, but because when it comes to church finances, we're all familiar with unscrupulous ministers who would exploit their ministries for money. And we're also familiar with churches that base their success on how much money that they have. And I want you all to know that our leadership seeks to be above reproach in this area. And if you're ever concerned with how the finances of the church are handled, then I would encourage you to talk to any of our elders or pastors, and they can explain how they're seeking to honor God with the finances of the church and be transparent. In our business meetings, they're transparent as well. And many of us, myself included, could give you a lot of information on how the church is careful that way, but the elders would be able to give you the most. And I think that they honor God faithfully with it.

4:41But I want to say that at the outset and say that we want to look at what Scripture has to say with how we can be generous in our giving, especially to the church. And so we're going to use our text here in 2 Corinthians to see some principles. 2 Corinthians were joining Paul in the middle of his third missionary journey. And if you're familiar with his ministry, it was a very action-packed ministry, amazingly action-packed, especially the end of Acts. It seems like somebody ought to make a good movie out of the end of the book of Acts. If you're not familiar, Paul went around the Middle East and parts of Europe and helped to plant and establish churches. And he would plant the churches and then would check up on them, would see how they're doing, would write them letters or visit. And so he had a unique perspective on the growth of the churches around the world. And as he went from church to church and then back to Jerusalem, he would learn of the things going on in each of them, the unique hardships that they might have, the sins that they're struggling with, the blessings that they're experiencing. And one of the narratives in Paul's journeys is a collection that Paul and Barnabas are instructed to take up for the churches in Judea. So in Acts 11, verse 27 through 30, we learn of a coming famine. Agabas, the prophet in Jerusalem, prophesied. That there's a famine, and the disciples determined to send relief to the brothers in Judea by the hands of Barnabas and Paul. And according to multiple historical accounts, the famine began around 45 AD in Israel, and it spread around the world. And so, if the famine was a worldwide famine, why were they taking a collection from some of the other churches outside of Judea for the churches in Judea, since the whole world would have been affected by this famine? And we're not exactly sure, but for some reason, the churches outside Judea had more wealth during the famine and had more ability to give. And as we read in verse 14, Paul says, Your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. And so, for some reason, Judea was in a worse position during this famine and needed help.

6:51In 1 Corinthians 16, 1 through 4, Paul directs the Corinthians to give towards this relief collection for Judea and mentions that he has already directed Galatia to do the same. He gets very specific with the Corinthians, and he tells them to put aside money on the first day of every week and to store money as he may prosper, is what he commands the church of Corinth. In 2 Corinthians 8:9, Paul here is directing the Corinthians to make good on the pledge that they had made previously and to give that money. And we know that the Corinthians were faithful to do it because in Romans 15, 26 and 27, Paul says, He's going back to Jerusalem at the end of his third missionary journey to bring aid to the saints. And he says that Macedonia and Achaia had made a contribution, so they make good on their promises. And Achaia includes the Corinthians. So in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, we're going to go through sections of each parts of 8 and 9 somewhat rapidly and look at some things that Paul has to say about giving. We learn a lot about the heart of God in this and God's principles for giving. And in our PowerPoint, we'll go through a series of, I've called them observations because I just couldn't settle on a word. Principles might work, but it doesn't fit quite right. So we're going to make some observations. And I encourage you, if you take notes, to note them down as you go along. And I really encourage you to study this passage as you think about what you would do with your money in terms of giving. Chapter 8 gives us a narrative of what occurred. And chapters 8 and 9 together contain a lot of principles for giving and the blessings that come along with it. In chapter 8, 1, and 2, Paul calls this free will offering an extension of the grace of God. The Macedonians, he says, were in a severe test of afflictions, but they had an abundance of joy and extreme poverty, and yet they overflowed with generosity. So in their joy, but extreme poverty. Poverty, they overflow with generosity. Paul states that they gave beyond their means and of their own accord. This offering was a free will offering. It wasn't commanded by Paul to be a particular amount, but was rather compelled from within. And the grace of God so affected the Macedonians that they were moved to give beyond what anyone had expected. And they did it with an abundance of joy. But Paul gives a further qualifier to the free will offering that they gave. If you look in verse 5, he says that they gave themselves first to the Lord and by the will of God to us. And so Paul is making the point that their giving was most certainly compelled by God. It wasn't compelled by Paul or Titus or anyone else. It was God Himself that compelled the abundance of joy that overflowed in their generosity. And so the first observation that we want to make is that the grace of God compels Christians to give to those in need and to give with joy.

10:04Then Paul says, I command you, Corinth, by the authority of my apostleship, to give at least 10% and half of your property. And that's from the NFG translation, which is not from God. It is not what he says. But if Paul wanted Christians in 2018 to believe that a set amount of money was the right way to go, then this would have been the place that he would have indicated that. But that's not what he says. At the end of verse 7, Paul says, See that you excel in this act of grace also. He says, I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. It's not a command, but an opportunity to display love. How should we imitate this?

10:55There's a very rich truth that's embedded in the middle of this section. If you look at 8 and verse 9, very profound, very rich truth. He says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. And Paul then endorses this pattern that Christ sets before us. Look in verse 10. And don't miss this. He says, In this matter, I give my judgment. This benefits you. Paul is saying that just as Christ became poor, though he was rich, we would benefit from doing the same. Christ is God, and he had all power, all riches in the universe. But without becoming poor, all of mankind would be lost forever. We would have no way to have a right relationship with God without Christ, and we would be doomed to separation from God in hell. Christ knew. That he must become poor, that we might become rich.

12:05But let's be careful. Notice that becoming poor was not the end goal for Christ. It was for our sake that he became poor. Christ did this out of a love for us. It's necessary that he became poor that he might be able to help and to serve us. In the same way, it was necessary that the Macedonians and the Corinthians became poor for the sake of fellow believers in Judea. It was an act of love. Selling off your riches doesn't make you righteous in and of itself. Giving away all you have doesn't make you righteous. Becoming poor is a means to an end. If you remember the rich young ruler, Jesus tells him to sell all he has and to give to the poor. But it's important to remember, Jesus doesn't stop there. He doesn't say, sell and give to the poor and then move on. What he says next is, come and follow me. Just becoming poor isn't the point. It must be done for the love of others and in accordance with what is pleasing to God. What Christ did for us here in becoming poor was for our sake. I think each of us needs to ask ourselves: would we be willing to become poor for the sake of other believers if they needed it?

13:21Or you could say it another way: would we be willing to become poor if God asked it of us? This takes a lot of wisdom and discernment. I think we can all agree. Implementing this principle in our lives can be tough to discern based on our circumstances, but I don't think it's necessarily as complicated as we make it. I don't see any command here to question the wealth that you have or feel bad about what you have. The teaching, if we follow the context starting in verse 1, is that God compels the desire to give and God produces the joy to do it. And it seems like the instruction for each of us is to make certain that we are open to whatever God would compel us to give.

14:08Don't love the riches of this world or your material wealth here more than you love doing what God asks of you, or more than you love your fellow Christian in need. Christ exemplified this. So, observation number two: just as Christ was willing to forsake his riches for others, so we must be willing to do the same. Now, look in verse 12. Paul shows that the giving must be in accordance with what each person has and not according to what he does not have. In verse 13, Paul makes it clear that whatever you give should not be a burden to yourself. And I think Paul has a very practical concern here. If you give away so much that you can't provide for yourself, then he's just going to have to turn around and take up a collection for you.

15:00So, you can see that would put a great strain on his ministry after he goes around the world and goes back to Jerusalem to have to reverse course to take a collection back to the others. It wouldn't make sense. And instead, in verse 14, Paul makes it clear that the Corinthians have an abundance while Judea does not. Judea has a need. And God, in his providence, has made it so that some of the churches have an abundance at just the time when other churches are on the brink of starvation from famine. And I know that I've seen that happen in my life. I wonder if you have too, where you've seen these situations where God seems to supply excess in some people's circumstance when there is a need in others. I've seen that match up too many times to count. It's probably embarrassing the number of times I've forgotten that I've seen God do that because it's such a blessing that he pours out that we should give thanks for. It's a beautiful thing when the body of Christ is able to serve each other in that way, to use a way that God has blessed them for those in need. And it seems like a really rich fulfillment of what Christ prayed in John 17: that we would be unified as believers. If you remember, just before Christ died, he asked the Father that we would be one, just as him and the Father are one. And I think it shows an amazing unity between us when we meet each other's needs in that way. So, in 2 Corinthians 8:15, here in the text, God shows us that he needs to be a need. He will supply exactly what the church needs. God intentionally will give excess to some and shortage to others while still meeting everyone's needs by compelling us to help one another. So, the third observation that we make is that you are to give according to what you have and according to the need of another.

16:55Let's move on to chapter 9 and keep observing with me. Let's read verses 1 through 5. Now, it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry of 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. But I am 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 are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and to arrange in advance for the gift you had promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

17:47The issue at hand is that the Corinthians have already promised their gift, but it seems like that they are being tempted to go back on their promise. In 1 Corinthians 16, that I mentioned, Paul gives. Gives instructions for them to give. And here, at the beginning of 2 Corinthians 9, Paul mentions that he is going to send people ahead to prepare them for the collection of the gift that they have promised. In verse 5, Paul says that they promised these gifts, but that he does not want to arrive and have to use his apostolic authority to force them to make good on their promise. If Paul shows up in Corinth and the people decide to withhold their gifts, it would be greatly discouraging to everyone involved, as you can imagine, when Paul would have to command them to give the money that they had promised. If he's forced to command it, then it's going to look like their gift is coming from unwilling hearts. They made the promise willingly in 1 Corinthians 16, and they should make good on it willingly. Why were they thinking about going back on their word to give this gift? We don't know, but I think likely some of them decided they would like to keep the money for other things, and perhaps some of them were in hard financial times or were worried about giving away this money. But regardless, I think the truth here is that they had promised the money, and they needed to trust God's sovereignty and to give what they had promised and to trust that God would bless them for it.

19:21So the fourth observation is to be faithful to give whatever you have decided to give. Especially if it is a formal pledge. Here, Paul remembered that Paul is calling them primarily not to give generously in this specific command. He's primarily saying it would be sinful for you to not do what you promised. That's what's being demanded of them here. So, moving on to verses 6 through 9. The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Paul moves on to his primary thesis about free will giving in this whole section. He says that the point is this: those who sow bountifully will reap bountifully. He's saying that there is great blessing and great result from great giving. And the statement sounds very similar to axioms or principles that we see in the book of Proverbs. This is a truism that Paul is giving. It's a general concept that God has set forth in the church. Whatever you choose to give, however you choose to give it to give Decide to care for those in need, just know this. Those who sow sparingly will have a sparingly kind of blessing in return. And those who sow bountifully will have a bountifully kind of return.

21:18Paul is not giving a business lesson on return on investment here. Don't miss the point of what he's saying. He's saying that when you make yourself poor for the sake of others in need, you won't regret it. God will bless you for it. And how will God bless you, specifically you? How will he bless you? I'm not sure. I don't know. Paul doesn't say, but you can take it to the bank, pun intended, that God will bless you with bounty for sowing bountifully. May not be financial. The blessing can come in all kinds of forms, but it's a promise that God blesses the bountiful reaping. So, the fifth observation, these are supposed to be very obvious, by the way. I hope that's an encouragement to you. As you study through the text, the observations, they just come out at you as you study carefully. The fifth observation is: sowing bountifully will reap bountiful blessings.

22:27Look in verse 7. Paul says that each person Person must give as he has decided and not under compulsion because God loves a cheerful giver. This puts a huge boundary on how the church should ask for money or how Christians should ask help from each other. Regardless of anyone's need, you are not to demand a particular amount of money from another believer. That's always between that person and God. You are not God and have no business compelling other believers to give because you don't know what they have. And it's not within your purview to place it on their heart to do that. This also means that it does not matter how much money you perceive another person has, you shouldn't judge them or demand that they give a certain way. The believer has to decide in their own heart what they want to cheerfully give. And several years ago, I had to raise support to go overseas for a year. It was a very large sum of money that I had to raise. And I realized in raising that support, there was a lot of temptation that comes when you ask people for money. I think in a lot of ways you don't necessarily expect. And one of the temptations that arose for me is that I generally had an idea, or at least thought I did, of how much wealth each person that I was asking for support had. And I found myself struggling with the amounts of money given by some of the rich people. Conversely, I assumed large amounts of money that I received from poor people were more generous.

24:00Both judgments and both assumptions are wrong. I need to be grateful for every single gift equally. I have no right, you have no right, to assume what someone's finances look like and to compel them to give in a certain way. It's between them and God. If the person is giving as they have decided in their heart and according to another person's need, and they're giving cheerfully, they're being obedient to God. That's worthy of thanking God for that and of commending that person for doing so. We're all called to be obedient.

24:42So I've appreciated, even in this church, that I have seen the model set forth well, that often it's helpful when there are needs to let the needs be known, but to let God work on the hearts of others if they're able to fulfill those needs. So the observation, number six, is that each person must decide what to give and to cheerfully give it. Let's read chapter nine and verse eight again. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times you may abound in every good work. When Paul says that God is able to make all grace abound, you want to interpret grace here in the context of how it's used in the seven. In this section, grace has been the working of God in the heart of a believer to compel him to willingly and joyfully give towards the needs of others. So, if you're struggling with the things that we have observed previously in chapters 8 and 9, then the proper response would be to pray that God will impart this grace to you. The grace that God is giving here is the grace to be able to give cheerfully out of what you're able. And if you pray to God, that he will impart that grace to you, confident that he will do it. He's certainly able. So, when you are generous, or said another way in this passage, a person who is sowing bountifully, then God will replenish your material resources so that you can abound in bountiful sowing. In other words, as you are generous, God will provide the means for you to continue to be generous. That's what he's saying here. If you don't believe me, then let's read on in verse 10. I know you believe me, but just saying, not sure, keep reading, because it's amazing what God says here and what God teaches us.

26:39He 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. He's saying, God will supply the needs of the generous and will then multiply their seed for sowing, their ability to be generous and will further increase the harvest. So, there's a multiplying effect. This generosity. God will further increase your ability to be generous and further give you means to be generous as you're generous. I find that an amazing teaching and counterintuitive to be sure.

27:18And if you're not sure that God desires generosity and that God is saying that we ought to be generous, then keep reading. In verse 11, you will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. So we will be enriched through our generosity, and this will produce thanksgiving to God. And in whom will this produce thanksgiving? The generous person, certainly, since God has provided the grace for them to be generous. The receiver of the generosity, it will produce thanksgiving in them because God has provided for their needs. And then, for those who are observing this whole exchange, will give thanksgiving to God because they will see how God produces generosity in some to meet the needs of others, thereby blessing everyone.

28:12So, observation number seven. It's a longer observation. God is able to produce generosity in us and will do so in proportion to our current generosity. Therefore, excel in being generous that you may excel. In Thanksgiving. I like that one. I find that very encouraging and motivating to be generous. So, we're going to stop moving through the text here at this point. I encourage you to continue studying all of 8 and 9. We've skipped over a number of verses.

28:50It's a very rich passage, I think, that you will enjoy a lot. And if you want a good flavor for how God both inspires giving in his believers and the way in which he interacts and blesses believers as they give, I think this is the best text to study on that. It has the most information on it. But we don't have time to go through all the rest of the verses in the passage. And so, I want to jump back briefly to one of the main points that Paul has made, and they'll go on to make one last point from that.

29:25So, one of the points that we have looked at that Paul has made is that Christ is a model of the generosity in chapter 8 and verse 9. And as we examine our lives and are striving to be generous people, remember that Jesus was generous first by becoming poor for us. It's also true that Jesus will reap the abundant reward of a pure bride. Jesus is going to reap a sanctified people of God. So, Jesus as well is going to be blessed for his generosity.

30:01And you'll notice that Paul ends the section in chapter 9 with verse 15. So he's been talking about this project, this collection that he's been having, saying, Give what you promised, talking about that God loves those who are generous, that if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully, talking about that each one must decide in his heart between him and God what he ought to give, but that God will bless the generosity, that thanksgiving will be produced all of it. He comes to the end of this section and gives a statement that seems out of place, except that I think it's just an exclamation that bursts forth from Paul. At the end of looking at this amazing teaching that God has given us here, look in verse 15.

30:51Paul bursts forth with this statement: Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. God's gift was his son. God's gift was sending his son to live a perfect life and to take the penalty of sin by dying on the cross so that we might be reconciled to God by repenting and believing in him. What Paul shows us here is that we cannot out give God. Your generosity is not going to surpass God's generosity because of the inexpressible gift that God has given in his son. But, The invitation is that we can partake in God's giving and generous nature by being like him. And it's for your joy to do this. We will have no lack and joy to be generous like God and experience God's bountiful blessing in our lives and in the lives of other believers whom you love.

31:50And I want to close with a practical point that relates to our financial giving. Because a fair question, as you study this passage, and there's several other in the New Testament that talk about giving, is how does the generosity and the giving here fit in with our giving to the church or what some of us might call our tithes or our offering to the church? Very practically. So how does the giving of a portion of your income or however you earn to Emmanuel Baptist Church specifically fit into this equation of what we're observing?

32:31Well, the church is uniquely equipped to discern the needs of fellow believers and to provide for them. And I think y'all would agree that the greatest need that anyone in this room or anyone in the world has is the need to hear the gospel, to repent of their sins, and to believe in Christ. Further, the greatest need of any Christian in the world, once you have done that and you are in Christ, is to excel in holiness. in obedience, to be quick to follow the precepts of God. The church is the best equipped entity in the world to do both of these things. It's been tasked with these things. It's equipped to preach salvation and to train in sanctification. Beyond that, the church is very well equipped to discern even the physical needs of others. Some portion of the ministry here at Emmanuel Baptist Church goes to the physical needs. The Benevolence Fund, I think, is one example of this. And as you give to the church, the elders here are men of wisdom, supposing that we've chosen godly and good elders, I believe that we have. They're men of wisdom who are well equipped to give money towards needs without making the situation worse. We all know that sometimes handing someone a bunch of money doesn't help the situation. Sometimes it does. It takes wisdom to distribute money, a lot of wisdom. And the godly people leading our church excel in this wisdom. So it's always a fine idea to give generously on your own outside of the church. For me and my family, we regularly will see other needs or organizations and give to those. But it seems that our generosity ought to be first and foremost to this church if you're a member here or someone who's greatly blessed by the ministry so that the church can continue to be able to serve you and those who have need.

34:32And so, the charge tonight from these observations, from this text, is to carefully examine your life and to examine 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 and to make any adjustments to your finances and consider how you can be generous to ministries that God places on your heart. And look at your finances, and it's a decision that you make in your heart between you and God, but you can be certain that as you are generous in your giving, that God will increase your ability to be generous, which will increase your ability to be generous. And it's a multiplier of joy and thanksgiving. All those involved become filled with joy and thanksgiving to God.

35:17So, let's pray. Dear Lord, we thank you for this time that we get to spend going briefly through 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. We thank you for the clear teaching that you give us on the use of our finances and generosity towards those in need. We thank you that you show that in your sovereignty you give access to some and shortage to others in different times and seasons. And we thank you that you compel by your grace those within the body of Christ to meet those needs, to give from their access, and to help those who are in need. We ask that as individuals we would be faithful to be generous to our church, to the believers around us, to genuine needs that you bring into our lives. We ask that as a church you would help us to be sensitive to the needs that come into this body. We would be quick to meet them, that we would be believers who are known for taking care of the needs among us. We don't need the world systems to do that because we give generously to each other. We love each other in a way that we would do that. Lord, we do all this because you have shown inexpressible love to us through your inexpressible gift of your Son. We thank you for that. Your generosity astounds us and drives us to praise and thanksgiving every day. Lord, I ask that you would bless us as we go out of here and do the tasks that you have for us this week and work hard for your glory and for your name. Pray it in your Son's name. Amen.