Blessed to be a Blessing

0:58Charles Spurgeon is a man who recognized that he was blessed by God to be a blessing to others. He pastored a large church in London, and his sermons and his books sold very well around the world. And so, if he wanted to, he could have lived a pretty lavish lifestyle, even for someone back then. But he didn't, because he believed that he was blessed to be a blessing. And ministries of mercy was something that was always very dear to his heart.

1:31And so, when he moved to London from the country to pastor what became the Metropolitan Tabernacle, he had 17 houses, almshouses as he called them, that were built for poor widows. And his vision was not just that they would have housing provided to them, but also food and clothing and even spending money. I want you to listen to what his biographer Arnold Dallamore says about this. The almshouses proved a considerable expense. Spurgeon hoped that some way might be found by which they could be endowed, but such money was not forthcoming.

2:08And for some years, he paid for the heat, light, and other expenses from his own pocket. In later years, when the tabernacle people gave him a large sum of money in commemoration for his quarter century of ministry among them, urging that he use it for himself, he gave it all to his charitable works, and the almshouses had half of it. Spurgeon's great generosity is an example and model for all of us who have been blessed by God. And to one degree or another, that is every one of us. And so today in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, we're going to learn that God blesses us to bless others through us.

2:55For some time now, if you've been with us throughout the series, you know that Paul has been writing about this. Financial gift that he was organizing for these struggling believers back in Jerusalem. And chapter 8 ended with Paul giving thanks to God for Titus and for the other faithful workers who were faithful messengers of the churches, as he called them, who were going to carry the gifts from these churches in Asia Minor all the way back to Jerusalem.

3:22And he's giving thanks to God for these men because he knows they're going to be handling it with complete integrity. And so here at the outset of chapter 9, Paul writes that it was largely unnecessary for him to continue to write about the gift that they promised. He uses the word superfluous. How often do you see that word? It's superfluous. The kids these days would say it's extra. It's extra for him to write about this. It's unnecessary for him to continue writing about the financial gift they promised, what he calls the ministry for the saints, because he knows that they are ready to give.

3:59In fact, he says they've been ready to give for an entire year, which is what Paul has been telling the Macedonians. He's been boasting to them about the Corinthians and their readiness to serve in this way. And Paul notes that their boasting had the effect that we talked about a couple of weeks ago. Take a look at verse 2. He says, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. Well, that was certainly the case. I want to remind you of what Paul wrote back at the beginning of chapter 8. Take a look at the screen.

4:30He says, we 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. So, when Paul boasted about the Corinthians and their express desire to give to relieve the suffering saints in Jerusalem, it had the effect of stirring up the Macedonians to love and to good works, even though they were extremely poor, even though they were going through these terrible times, these very difficult times in their life. But here's what's noteworthy. Although the Macedonians found out about the Christians in Jerusalem and their plight after the Corinthians, they actually got their gift together and sent it before the Corinthians.

5:26So in verses 3 through 5, Paul tells the Corinthians that he's going to go ahead and send some of his fellow workers ahead of him back to Corinth. And why is that? Look at verse 3. So that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter. See, Paul had promised that Achaea would be ready and had been ready for a year, and he wanted them to make good on their promise and his promise. But he sees this potentially embarrassing situation down the road. The line, he envisions a scenario where some of the brothers from Macedonia come with him to visit Corinth, and they show up and they're like, Okay, we're ready to receive the gift that you promised a year ago. We're ready to send that on to Jerusalem, and they're not ready to give it after a year of making promises.

6:17And in that case, Paul said, We, me and my fellow co-laborers who have been boasting about you and your readiness, we would be humiliated. No doubt you guys would be embarrassed for talking the talk and not walking the walk. That's why Paul decides to help them make good on that promise by sending Titus and the other brothers to Corinth to help them get organized and prepare their gift ahead of time. And why is that? Take a look at what he says in this last verse in the section, verse 5, so that it will be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

6:55So, an exaction is essentially a payment that one is forced to make. So, if you think back to pre-revolutionary times, King George is taxing the American colonists without representation. They had no choice in the matter. All they had to do, all they were required to do, was to pay whatever taxes that he was requiring of them. That's an exaction. It's a payment that you have to make, you have no option to do otherwise. And, friends, that's not what Paul wanted. He didn't want to arrive and have to tell the Corinthians to essentially pay. Pay up. He's not interested in forcing the church as a whole or any individual Christian to give.

7:38Because as we saw back in chapter 8, and as we're going to see at length today in chapter 9, Christian giving, one of the defining characteristics of it is that it is voluntary. And so, church, this is one of the reasons that we encourage you to actively participate in the budget process every year here at New Life. We invite and encourage you to do that because we want you to be bought in. We want you to have the level of ownership that says we together prayerfully decided to pursue these ministry goals over the next year.

8:15And therefore, we will prayerfully and faithfully give to support those ministry efforts. See, as leaders in the church, we don't want to feel like we're exacting money from you, like we're forcing you to give to support something that you're not really behind. We want you to contribute a willing gift that comes from a position of ownership and excitement about what God is doing through us and in us. So, let's pick up now in verse 6, where Paul is going to outline in detail these principles of Christian giving that we've been reflecting on the last few weeks.

8:51Verse 6: The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also. Reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So, beginning in this verse, Paul elaborates on what he just said: that he wants their gift to be voluntary. He wants it to be willing. He doesn't want it to be an exaction or some kind of forced payment. So, he's going to return to that idea in a moment. But first, he's going to remind the Corinthians that Christian giving is to be generous.

9:30And to do that, he builds on this well-known proverb: you reap what you sow. You see that proverb, you reap what you sow in various forms all over the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation. And his point is simple. If a farmer just kind of throws out a few seeds here and there, if he sows sparingly, well, then it stands to reason that he's going to reap sparingly. He can't expect a great harvest from that kind of sowing.

9:59But if he sows bountifully, if he covers his entire field with lots and lots of seed, he can expect a bountiful harvest. Now, maybe it's just me, but I think that a lot of us are bent toward sowing sparsely. I am definitely on the more miserly end of the spectrum. You know me, you know that I am not a fan of spending money. But I think a lot of us tend to sow sparingly. We want the greatest possible output from the least possible input, right?

10:39We want that in relationships. We want that when it comes to investing. We want that in so many different areas of life. We're willing to give a little bit, but we want a great return. But Paul reminds us that's just not how it works. He says, look, if you want a bountiful harvest, then you've got to sow bountifully. There's no other way. If you want financial freedom in retirement, you've got to invest liberally early on in your life. If you just contribute a few dollars here and there toward the end of your career, that's not going to cut it.

11:19If you want to be healthy as you age, as you get older, then you've got to eat healthy and you've got to exercise regularly. You can't expect to age in a healthy way if you're dieting once a year or once every few years, if you're going on a walk once a week. That's just not going to cut it. And the same principles, Paul says, apply to giving. If we want a bountiful harvest, if we want to store up treasure in heaven like Jesus talks about, then we've got to sow bountifully out of our earthly treasures now, today.

11:59So if From verse 6, what we could say is that we're called to be generous givers. We're called to sow bountifully so that we can reap bountifully. Now, in verse 7, we're going to find these next two principles of Christian giving: that it should be voluntary and cheerful. So, let's pick up in verse 7. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. I find it so interesting that our generation prides itself on making rational decisions backed by scientific research. Because it seems to me from my observations that we make a lot of decisions just based on emotion.

12:56When you listen to the rhetoric of our day, it hardly sounds like rational people confidently appealing to facts and to settled science in a detached and objective way. It sounds more like irrational people who have come unglued, who are insecurely demanding censorship of anyone and anything that goes against the way that they think, that goes against their worldview. And I point that out because I don't think a lot of us are aware of just how much control our emotions. Are we exerting in our day-to-day life?

13:34The statement, just think about this: the statement, I believe, has been replaced with, I feel like. We no longer say, I believe, or I think, we say, I feel like. And that's a small but important example of the way that emotions control our decision-making. Now, you might be sitting here thinking, what does that have to do with voluntary, cheerful giving? Well, maybe a lot. Here's what I mean. Many people, including many Christians, have no plan for giving. So the only time that we give is when we are stirred up emotionally.

14:17So, in a sense, that giving is voluntary. Because in that moment, you make a voluntary choice to part with some of your money, to give. But in another sense, that giving isn't really voluntary because we've been compelled by our emotions. Our emotions have driven us to give. And friends, that kind of giving is often reluctant. You may write a check to that person or that cause, you may put something in the offering plate that day, but there's a lot of times that we quickly come to regret it because it's not something that we actively decided to do ahead of time. It was something that we did in the spur of the moment. We felt compelled to give by our emotions. We didn't sit down beforehand and say, Look, I want to be generous with what God has given to me. So I'm going to take a careful look at my financial position. I'm going to count the cost of sacrificially giving. I understand that if I give, there are certain experiences that I'm not going to be able to have. There are certain products that I'm not going to be able to buy because I have chosen to give that money. But Jesus says it's better to give than to receive, and so I'm going to live in accordance with that value. Now, do you see the difference there? Do you see the difference between deciding in the spur of the moment to give something that you may later come to regret and sitting down ahead of time and prayerfully and carefully evaluating your financial position in order to give, deciding where to give and how much to give and when to give. Because, friends, that's what makes our giving truly voluntary. And it opens up the possibility for it to be cheerful.

16:16You see this statement in here: God loves a cheerful giver. Isn't that an interesting statement? I mean, if you just had the words, God loves a, what would you think would come after that? God loves a holy person, a righteous person. Person, an obedient person. There are so many things you might fill in the blank with. Isn't it interesting? God loves a cheerful giver. And friends, that's because God is a cheerful giver. He joyfully, willingly, voluntarily gave up his only begotten Son for us. He loves a cheerful giver because Jesus gave up his life willingly and cheerfully for the joy that was set before him.

17:02Listen to me. Jesus did not go to the cross because he got stirred up emotionally on Palm Sunday because all of the people were throwing the palms on the ground and hailing him as the one who was going to finally expel the Romans from their city and restore the land. He didn't go to the cross because he got stirred up emotionally by that. He went to the cross because he chose that path before the foundation of the world.

17:31He chose that path knowing full well what kind of physical and spiritual suffering that it was going to entail. So it wasn't a reluctant choice. It wasn't under compulsion. It was voluntary and generous and cheerful. The very kind of giving that we are called to as Christians. So friends, we should ask ourselves some good questions this morning. Or when you go back and watch. Through this text at a later time, have I decided in my heart to give?

18:07In other words, have you made a prayerful, faith-filled, thoughtful decision to give? If so, am I sowing bountifully? Does my giving represent the kind of generous giving that I am called to based on the sacrifice, the generous sacrifice of Jesus Christ? And then, is my giving cheerful? You know, one of the things that we really hope for is that in our offering moment in the service, that is strategically placed there. We don't just say, you know, like when can we kind of stuff that into the service somewhere? The reason that it's after the sermon and after the Lord's Supper and after multiple songs of praise and worship and thanksgiving to God is because we want it to be a joyful response.

19:04Whether you're giving in the service or you're texting in your gift or you've already given online or you will give on later, we want that to be a cheerful, joyful moment where we say, God, thank you. Thank you for the privilege of participating in what you are doing in our church, in our community, around the world, through us. So, friends, our giving is to be joyful. Generous and voluntary and cheerful. The question is: how can we give that way? And even more, how could people like the Macedonians, who were in extreme poverty, how could they give in that way? Let's pick up in verse 8.

19:54Paul says, 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. 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. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

20:39Church, our gracious God is able, more than able, to make all grace abound to us. I want you to look at that word. And if you're an underliner or a highlighter, I want you to highlight or underline the word abound. God is not only grace. To us, he makes his grace abound to us. He abundantly provides grace. Why? So that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, what a comprehensive statement. All sufficiency, all things, all times, you may abound in every good work.

21:24He makes us abound so that we can abound in every good work. And the amazing thing that you see here in verse 10 is that the same God who blesses bountiful giving, he is the one who supplies seed. In other words, he's going to supply us what we need in resources to be able to reap bountifully. Isn't that incredible? He says, I'm going to bless you if you give bountifully. And then he bountifully gives us the seeds to plant and to sow.

22:05He's the one who multiplies the harvest. That's what he means in verse 8 when he says that God is able to make all grace abound to us so that we can abound in every good work. And so to illustrate his point, he goes back to Psalm 112. This is what he quotes in verse 9. This is the psalm that Caleb read at the beginning of worship today. And friends, in the psalm, the righteous man. Who fears the Lord is greatly blessed. In fact, if you go back and reread that psalm, you'll see that it says, the righteous man has wealth and riches in his house.

22:43But the psalmist goes on to note that the righteous man doesn't hoard those blessings. No, what does he do? Take a look at verse 9. He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. So God has made the righteous man abound. He was made sufficient in every way. He had all that he needed and more so that he could abound in every good work. So that is a significant challenge to us, church.

23:23When God blesses us, we have to ask the question: why has God blessed me so much? Why has he entrusted me with this wealth? And the answer is here in the passage. It's so that we could abound in every good work. In other words, God has blessed us so that we can be a blessing to others. I think sometimes when we get a raise or we receive some unexpected income, the first thought that can enter our mind is, great, now I can. Finally, I buy that thing that I wanted. Or great, now we can finally have that experience that we wanted to have. And there's nothing wrong with buying things, there's nothing wrong with having experiences. But how often is it that we respond to a raise or to unexpected income or whatever it would be with great, now I can be a blessing to the poor?

24:22Great, now I can finally support a missionary. Great, now I can give more generously to my local church and our church's ministry. How often do we ask those questions? That's why I love verse 11 so much, because it's so clear and so memorable. Look at what he says: you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. It presents this holistic picture that we have been enriched in every way with money and resources and time, with knowledge and gifts and experiences. We've been enriched in every way to be generous in every way, to give out of what we have received.

25:19So, when I was studying this, I thought back to 1 Corinthians 4 when Paul asked the question: What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as though you? Didn't and of course, in the immediate context, he's not talking about financial blessings, but I think those questions are just so perfect for this situation. What do we have that we did not receive? And if we received it, why do we act as though we didn't? Why do we act as though every good gift that God has given to us is something that we earned and therefore we have full control over?

26:01Paul says that our generosity produces something. He says it produces thanksgiving to God because the people who are helped by our generosity are thankful to God that we are the means that God used to care for them. And those other people who see it, who learn of the help that we've provided to others, they are also pointed to God and can give him thanksgiving as well. This should remind us of what Jesus teaches in Matthew chapter 5. Think about this in the context of giving. Jesus said in the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

26:47That is a fascinating passage. That's a fascinating statement because Jesus is essentially telling us to do the very opposite of what you would expect. Let your light shine before others. Let them see you do good works. But not so that you can be praised. That's why the Pharisees did stuff in public, isn't it? They did their good works before others because they wanted the praise of men. Jesus is saying, Do your good works, you give generously before others, so that they will see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

27:21So I want you to see how from verse 8 to verse 12, the whole thing comes full circle. God gives generously to us, we give generously to others, others give praise back to God. You have this circle of God generously giving, us generously giving, people generously giving praise back to God, and this circle is supposed to continue over and over again as God's people are generous with what we have been entrusted with. God gives to us, we give to others, others give thanks to God.

28:03Verse 13 by their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ 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. In these final verses, Paul lays the foundation for our generous giving. He says that our submission to God and our generosity comes from one place. Look at the middle of verse 13 once again: flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ.

29:01That's what we saw back in chapter 8, just a couple weeks ago. Take a look at verse 9. 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. Why do we give? Because we know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. He became poor for us so that through his poverty we might become spiritually rich. Jesus generously, voluntarily, and cheerfully gave up his life for us on the cross, and in doing that, his generous sacrifice becomes the foundation for our sacrificial giving. You see, the moment that we confess Jesus as Lord, that's one of the reasons that in Scripture it's So important, friends, that we talk about Jesus as who He is. He is not merely Savior, He is Lord and Savior. So, there is a difference between just confessing Him as Savior and going on and living your life however you want to, and confessing Him as Savior and Lord, which is what He is presented as in Scripture. Because when we confess Him as Lord, we are saying, All of my life now flows from my confession of the gospel, my submission to Jesus, not just as my Savior, but as my Lord, as the one who is my King.

30:40So, all of our life, how we spend our time and our money, where we give our energy, what we care about, all of that now flows from the gospel. We forgive because we have been forgiven, we serve because we have been served, we love because we have been loved, and we give because Jesus has given everything for us. The Christians in Jerusalem, poor as they were, afflicted as they were, Paul says in verse 14 that they longed for the Corinthians and prayed for them because of the surpassing grace of God that was upon them.

31:25You see, only the grace of God can move people. Like the Corinthians and people like you and me to voluntarily and cheerfully and generously give. Paul understood that, and that's why he ends this section in verse 15 with thanking God for this inexpressible gift of his grace in the gospel. For some of us here today, You may recognize that you've been blessed in many ways. You may even recognize that God is the giver of those things. You may give thanks to Him. You may even have given back out of all that you've been given.

32:15But as we saw today, sacrificial giving flows out of the confession that Jesus is Lord and Christ. All sacrificial giving is made possible by the grace of God, and it's sustained by the grace of God, the one who gave his only begotten Son for us. There are so many people who are eager to give. There's a lot of people who are comfortable in that giving position. When there's a need out there, a financial need, a need for resources, many people are comfortable in the giving position where we can go and We can help.

33:02But friends, there's a lot of us who are not comfortable in the receiving position. And before the holy God of the universe, every one of us is in the receiving position. He doesn't need anything from us. He's not served by human hands. So there's nothing that we can bring to him. We can't offer our works. We can't offer our financial gifts. We can't offer other resources to him. He has no need of any of that. We are all in the receiving position because all of us have received everything from him, and we are in need of receiving his forgiveness for our sin and our rebellion. All we can do is come before him with the words of the famous hymn, Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling.

33:59We are all in the receiving position. And so if you're in that place where throughout your life you've been happy to give, to give to others and to give to God, but you have never been in the place where you've recognized that you have to receive from God forgiveness and reconciliation and adoption, then my prayer today is that you would see your need for that. That you would come humbly with nothing in your hands to give. To make up for your sin or to commend yourself to God, but instead, you would come before him humbly and say, God, I need to receive from you, I need to receive the person and work of your son, Jesus, in his life, death, and resurrection. And so, I pray that you would do that today. Don't put it off any longer.

34:55And if you're already following Jesus, how have you thought about the blessings in your life? If we've been enriched, why has God chosen to enrich us? I want you to reflect this week on what Paul said. We have been enriched in every way to be generous in every way. We have not been enriched to make our earthly life, this brief sojourn on this earth, as comfortable as possible. We have been enriched in every way to be a blessing, to be generous in every way.

35:42So, as you consider the blessings of God in your life, I do want you to thank God for them. I want you to acknowledge that He is the one who's given you everything. But I also want us to recognize that God has blessed us. To be a blessing to others, let's pray, our generous, kind, giving Father, we do thank you for the many gifts that you have given to us. We want to acknowledge that everything we have, every good and perfect gift, it comes from you.

37:06We don't have anything that we have earned, anything that we have deserved, anything that we had a right to. And that's a hard concept for us as Americans because we've been told our whole lives that we got where we got because of hard work alone. But we know that there are brothers and sisters around the world, there are billions of people around the world who work as hard or harder than we do, and yet they have almost nothing.

37:45And so, Father, we want to pause and just acknowledge that everything we have comes from you. It's a gift. And you say in your word that you have enriched us in every way so that we could be generous in every way. God, help us to soberly evaluate how we are sowing, how we are giving out of what you've given to us. Help us to soberly evaluate whether we're storing up treasure on earth or treasure in heaven. And we pray, God, that you would help us to focus on eternity and to store up treasure in heaven because we believe your word. We believe that it is, in fact, more blessed to give than to receive.

38:44God, help us as a church to know how you have called us to bless others in our lives, others in our community, others around the world. Keep us from becoming insular and self-focused. So that others will see our good deeds and glorify you in heaven. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.