We’re gonna be looking at, the giving chapters., there’s some key chapters in the scripture that have some key themes that we think about. So when we think of the love chapter, we think of one Corinthians 13. We think of the faith chapter. We think of Hebrews 11. We think of the giving chapters. We’re gonna look at second Corinthians, chapters eight and nine. These are the giving chapters.

We’re in the series on generosity. We desire for this, for generosity to be contagious. First from the Lord to us is generosity to us as contagious in us, but then also as we are walking with Christ and God’s conforming us to the image of Jesus, Jesus’ generosity, settling in, and we’re contagious to one another. So we’re gonna be looking at some of the verses in two Corinthians chapter eight. If you don’t have a Bible, there should be a, a Bible under your seat or a seat near you. And, we’re just gonna read through not the entirety of these two chapters, but I’ll tell you when to skip to the next, next section. Okay?

So let’s just begin reading with chapter eight, verse one. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia for in 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 of the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Look at verse eight. I say this not as command, but, but, but to prove by the earnestness of others, that your love also is genuine for, 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 it. Finish doing it as well so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. I’ll skip forward to chapter nine verse one. Now, it is super, super 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 already been, has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I’m sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove to be 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. 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, so that it might be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

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 and all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. May God encourage us through the word. Please be seated before we pray., again, this is a message on giving.

And, we want you to know first, if, if you have not yet placed your faith in Jesus Christ, the only message we want you to hear this morning is the message that Jesus is a generous savior and he became poor so that you might become rich. It’s vital for you to receive the benefit of his generosity for your person. And for those of us who have received the generosity of Jesus, I pray that this would, would stir us up. It’s a little story before we get into the message because it’s a, it’s a, it’s a joke, right? So, um, so there’s a man who came to church, a church service, and he really enjoyed the church service. And, um, he came to the usher after he is, I really, really loved this church., I, this first time I’ve been here, I wanna give a hundred dollars. And he says, says, great.

And, the man says, well, so I have a hundred dollars bill, or I have two fifties, I have five 20, or I have 10 tens. What would you prefer? And the man says, oh, it really doesn’t matter here because we’re a non-denominational church. I thought that was good for introducing the atop of money, yet I didn’t want it to be part of the sermon, right? And be irreverent. All right, let’s pray and ask God to, to bless us. Father, thank you for being so generous to us, so generous to us.

We this month, the month of November, our nation sets aside as a month of Thanksgiving. I pray that we also would set aside this month to give thanks, not just this month, but really every month., your generosity is so great that when we begin to, to count your blessings, naming them one by one, we realize that, the list is so endless, so infinite that we, we could not, we could never finish it. So we want to thank you. We want to thank you first and foremost for your gift of your son, Jesus. There is no gift, more costly, no gift, more precious, more gift, no necessary, no, no gift, more joy inducing than your son Jesus. Thank you, father, that in giving him, he gave himself also to us willingly and freely, coming a, a man taking the form of servant, dying upon a cross, being buried, and then being raised to newness of life, offering us salvation., Lord, we await his return. And I pray that this message would deeply strengthen our faith and strengthen our Christlikeness.

That the generosity that Jesus has expresses toward us would become our generosity expressed toward you and toward one another. So we pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen. So the Puritans used to say, God loves adverbs. I’ve shared this with you in the past by love that little phrase, God loves adverbs., this little phrase helps us to remember that God doesn’t merely care about what we do in life, but he also cares about why we do it and how we go about doing it. Our Lord cares that we worship him with happy hearts., he cares that we aren’t driven in our obedience to Christ, in our worship of God through cold compulsion., this principle is particularly important in relationship to financial gifts that we bring in our worship to the Lord. Think with me for that a moment of that famous story.

Jesus is sitting in the temple treasury with his disciples. The gifts, an offering to Lord are being brought to the temple. People are literally standing in line to give their gifts to the Lord. There, there are many rich people that are in line, and they come and they drop in some major bank. And when their, when their gifts hit the bottom of the box, it, it just rings and resounds. And there is this great display, in line, same line with all these rich people bringing in great wealth to the temple stands a poor widow woman. And when she reaches the offering box, she raises her hand above it.

And everyone hears the little tiny sound of two copper coins hitting the bottom of the offering box. Plink blink. Upon seeing this, Jesus immediately calls the disciples over to him. And this is what he says, truly I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. So you add up everything that’s been given up to this point, and this poor widow has given more than all of them combined. Jesus says, and you can imagine being like, what, what, what do you mean? We’ve been so impressed by the huge gifts?

And here’s this, this widow woman barely noticed her. Jesus says, for they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, has put in everything she had, all that she had to live on. And of course, why is this important to God? Because reflects her heart of worship. It reflects her heart of faith, it reflects her heart of thankfulness, her heart of joy in the Lord. And Jesus sees this widow’s heart and he says, let’s stop everything disciples. Let’s take a moment to observe this, because this is the kind of heart, the kind of worship that truly delights and exalts the Lord.

We, this morning we’ll open up our bibles to these, two giving chapters, two Corinthians chapters eight, nine. These chapters encourage us as followers of Jesus who have received the benefit of his salvation, they encourage us to give financially to the local church for the glory of God., if we only hear that God wants us to give financial gifts to Jesus church, we’ll have missed the major part of these chapters. Indeed, the major part of, of every place in scripture that describes God’s call for us to give, to give financially for His glory, God’s first interest is in changing our hearts. That’s his first interest. That’s, that’s where his work is applied. That’s where his worship is received. It’s in changed hearts.

And he does that so that every other act of worship becomes meaningful, becomes, becomes a communication of what we now know his worth to be. The main idea that we’re gonna trace through this, these two chapters, is that God transforms our lives by his grace, by his gift, by his generosity. And that when we receive eternal riches from him, we joyfully then give temporal riches to him. It’s not a hard thing. And, our financial giving then becomes a central part of our worship. It’s not, again, an obligation. It’s not under compulsion, but it’s a part of our happy experience to share to, to the Lord of his great worth to us.

In two Corinthians chapters eight, nine, Paul does not use high pressure appeals or, or cheap gimmicks to get this local church to give generously. Instead, he reminds them of five spiritual truths surrounding this theme of financial giving. And we’re gonna look at these five helps they become, helps to us and we need helps, the, the heart of the church in, in Corinth, they were willing, they were desirous. But nonetheless, this doesn’t mean that, that, we can become passive in this pursuit of this act of worship. Just like we aren’t to become passive in any act of worship, we’re to fully engage in. So Paul gives five, helps to this church so that they can do what their heart wants to do. That’s to worship the Lord through generous giving.

The first help that we’re gonna observe from these chapters, that generous giving always begins with God’s generosity to us. That it never begins with, with our impoverishment, in, in reference to give, give something that we haven’t yet been given. But it always begins with God’s generosity to us. Couple weeks ago, we shared the key idea behind this whole series on contagious generosity. And that key ideas is simply this generosity begets generosity. When we receive God’s generosity to us, we now possess a new capacity, a new capacity for God’s generosity to flow through us. So let’s release this joy that generosity brings to our lives.

So observe how the Apostle Paul motivates the Corinthians to financially give. He doesn’t offer sympathetic stories of children. Jerusalem are starving. He could have, there were children Jerusalem starving. He, he doesn’t, he doesn’t hide that fact. But he doesn’t, he doesn’t bring a picture. He doesn’t tell some story to say.

Now, okay, now we’re gonna take an offering after we’ve pulled on your heartstrings. Emotionally. Emotionally, he wants us to be a spiritual act wrought out of a person’s heart that has received so much from the Lord. Say, I just want to do anything that would reflect God’s worth to me. He doesn’t twist their arms, arms through guilt or through shame. He doesn’t proclaim the law of God and tell ’em the obligation, Lord, here’s the tithe. Here’s what you need to do.

What he does to do, he reminds them of the generosity of God toward them. Look at verse one of chapter eight. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. So this grace of God that flows to the churches in Macedonia and that’s flowing through them. And he says, I want you to think about the grace of God, the grace that they received, not so much about the gifts that they’re giving, but first to think about the grace that this church is has received. And what did this grace of God accomplish in their hearts? Look at verse two through five in a severe test of affliction.

In other words, things aren’t going great in Macedonia for believers, either their abundance of joy. Why would they be joyful? Because God’s been so generous to them and their extreme poverty. In other words, they’re, they’re a poor church. Things aren’t going well financially for the saints in Macedonia, but out of their abundance of joy and then their extreme poverty, they’ve overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. They were poor in the relationship to their bank accounts, but they’re wealthy in relationship to their generosity. And they gave according to their means, as I can testify.

And then he says, and indeed beyond their means. So they were giving money that they needed for their daily bread, and they did this of their own accord. In other words, no, no one was compelling them, making them, taxing them. In fact, I love this. This church was so enamored with the generosity of God toward them, that they begged us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. They would say, please let us give. And the, the apostle, wait a minute, you, you might be giving too much.

No, please, please, please, please let us give. And this not as we expected. And in fact, more than their financial gifts, they gave themselves first, their whole lives were given to the Lord. They said, I, I we just want to our whole life to, to reflect God’s worth. And then by the will of God, they gave themselves to us. So the Apostle Paul, then he’s writing to the Corinthian church and he’s urging them to consider the Macedonian church, the grace of God that came to them, and to let them know that the same grace can be at work in them as well. Look at verses seven and eight of chapter eight, but as you excel in everything, and he’s, he’s reminding them of the grace of God that came so that they could excel spiritually.

They’d have spiritual wealth. They excelled in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, in our love for you see that you excel in this act of grace. Also. What is that? It’s the act of giving financial gifts. He says, you’ve seen how God’s changed your heart in so many ways and how much how he’s benefited you. But this is the one thing yet that you’re holding back a little bit.

I wanted to encourage you that christlikeness in this direction will not keep you from, from that which you need, but it’ll actually provide for you that which you need and which would bring a blessing. So as you excel in everything, see that you excel in this act of grace as well. And then he says, now I don’t say this as a command, don’t, don’t misread the tone of my message, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love is genuine. And I, I want you to receive the benefit of having others know that the work of God is actually being done in you. That God’s love has been poured into your heart and that him and that now you love the brothers as a result of this. As Paul uses. Then the same principle that moved the Macedonians church, the Macedonian church, to move the Corinthian church.

And that principle is that God gives generously first look at verse nine. Now he says, for, he’s speaking to the Corinthians Church, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ., God’s incredible generosity. That word no simply means to know by experience. It’s not that they took a theological test and say, is, is God gracious? Yep, he is. And here’s how he’s gracious. And check, check, check, check all the doctrinal statement.

They know by experience the grace of God, their lives have been changed because while they were yet sinners, Christ died for them. They’ve been forgiven, they’ve been adopted into God’s family. They know God. Now in worship, they can draw near to God. And Paul is simply reminding them of their own testimony of the supernatural grace that they experience when they believe in Jesus. Upon believing Jesus, they experience the joy of having their blind eyes open. See God in all of his glory.

And again, they walk with him and they talk with him as God. And they know him to be merciful and kind and holy and righteous and faithful. And they’re standing in awe of God’s beauty and God’s majesty. He says, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Right? And then he goes on to describe how this grace came to them, that though he was rich. Look at that.

Verse nine. You might underline verse nine. I think verse nine is the, is the central verse of the entire two chapters. Though he was re rich, yet for your sake, he became poor. This is the generosity of Christ. And if we’re in line to follow Jesus, then this is the direction which he’s gonna live bring us. He’s gonna take us that though he was rich, he became poor for our sake, so that we who were poor might be made rich.

And this is God’s plan of generosity that was worked out in the life of Christ first, but then now in the life of his people. The phrase, though he was rich, it describes Jesus before he was born of a virgin. So it describes the son of God. An eternity passed all the way to the point of his taking on human flesh. He was rich prior to taking on human flesh prior to his birth as a, as a baby. In Bethlehem, Jesus possessed the, the riches of glory and honor in heaven. All the angels bowed down, sang praises every moment prior to taking on human flesh.

Jesus has possessed the, the joy of eternal communion with the Father and the spirit unbroken prior taking on human flesh. Jesus possessed the riches of undiminished power. The moment he took on human, human flesh, guess what? He cried like a baby. He needed to have diapers changed. He needed to learn things. He, he, he suffered weakness like he got hungry and he got thirsty.

So prior to taking on evil flesh, he, he had no needs. He, he experienced undiminished power prior to taking on human flesh. Jesus possessed the riches of uninterrupted happiness. There wasn’t a moment in the Son of God’s existence prior to taking on flesh. That wasn’t a happy day. Have you ever had bad days when you weren’t filled with happiness? The Son of God didn’t know one single moment like that prior to taking on human flesh.

And guess what? After he took on flesh, so much sorrow that he’s called the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, though he was rich, he became poor. So that by his poverty you might become rich. He became poor. He yield independent use of his undiminished power. He became despised and rejected. He was crucified between two criminals numbered with transgressors.

He experienced the poverty of having the wrath of the Father placed upon his own person as he bore our sin in our place. His happiness is interrupted as he cries out, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And Jesus did that voluntarily, though he was rich, he became poor. There’s this great reversal, infinite riches, extreme poverty so that there would be another reversal. Extreme poverty might become infinite riches. Every person born in the human race is born poor, poor in all the ways that matter most. So no one is born with a spiritual silver, silver spoon in their mouth.

Not one person we’re poor in our relationship with God. We’re poor in our eternal future. None of us have any hope for the future. We’re poor in our ability to avoid divine judgment. We’re poor in our ability to resist temptation. We’re, we’re a slave to sin. We’re poor in, in our, in our, in the guilt and the shame that weigh us down as a result of our sin.

We’re poor in our ability to solve our own problems. We can’t. We’re poor in our knowledge of the truth about life. We, we think we’re wise, but we’re really fools. We’re poor in our freedom from personal conflict. The world is filled with conflict. And by grace, by God’s generosity, Jesus is transformed first His wealth to us that remarkable.

That’s the gospel. When receive Jesus as our savior, as our king, we receive the wealth of participating in Jesus’s future glory and future kingdom. Like there’s gonna be a day that there’s gonna be so much wealth. We’re gonna be un it’s unimaginable being part of his kingdom is gonna be like, and that we actually share in his glory in that kingdom. When we receive Jesus as our savior and king, we receive the wealth of complete forgiveness, complete alleviation of all guilt, of all condemnation, all shame. When we receive Jesus as our savior and king, we receive the wealth of eternal communion. We know God now.

We walk with God. We worship him as God. When we receive Jesus as our king, we receive the wealth of divine power to overcome the evil one, to actually defeat sin in our own lives. When we receive Jesus as our savior king, we receive the eternal wealth of adoption in God’s family. We’re no longer alienated from God, separated from him, but we’re now one of God’s very own to the point where Jesus himself says, I’m preparing a room for you in the father’s house. That’s the kinda wealth that the gospel brings to every person who receives Christ. He was wealthy and he became poor wise so that we were poor might be become rich, amazingly wealthy.

So in thinking about this, we might be saying, Lord, I desire to have a generous heart. It seems like money and my possessions is still holding on to that. I, I wanna, I wanna be free from the love of things. I wanna be like Christ. I wanna be free from the tyranny that money often creates in us and the, the fears and the insecurities. How can I have a heart like that? And here’s what God’s first reply is or receive more grace the, the way we have a heart like that.

It’s not by chitting ourselves, it’s not by opening up the law of Moses. It’s not by saying, I should be, I ought to. None of those things creates generosity. How do we have generosity? Lord, I need more grace today. That’s why we come to church and pray to God because we’re all needy people. We need more grace every day.

We need more grace. We need more of God generosity, flowing to us so that he would experience the wealth of Christ in us. Truly feed upon God’s grace on your lives. This is why prayer and why scripture reading is so important. It’s one of the reasons. It’s because it’s through prayer that we call out to God, to, to, to bring us the wealth of heaven into our lives. We need that.

We’re destitute. Apart from that what’s why we open up the scriptures to learn about the wealth that God offers us in Christ so that we can rejoice and to hear God reverberate with his promises to us so that we would know that God is generous toward us. And this is the foundation to having our heart unleashed with generosity. So that’s first help. Generous giving always begins with God’s generosity to us. Secondly, generous giving is a heart matter, not a wealth matter. Look at verse 10 in this matter.

I give my judgment, this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also, and you might underline this also, to desire to do it. So constantly through the scripture, these little statements about their desire, their readiness, he’s talking about their internal, condition of their heart. And he, he wants to know that this whole thing has to do with this internal condition, this desire, this readiness has nothing to do with the money in their bank account, in their pocketbook. The Christians who live in and near Jerusalem are during severe persecution, severe poverty. And so this is why the Apostle Paul is taking up a, a collection among local churches. It’s a collection of the local churches for the local church, and it’s for the glory of Christ to, to be advanced in the midst of this church in Jerusalem. And about a year earlier from two Corinthians eight and nine, Paul had approached the Corinthian church about taking up an offering to, to help these brothers and sisters to strengthen this church in Jerusalem.

And the Corinthians, when, when he met with them about a year earlier, he said, yep, we wanna help. We’re gonna do it. So he heard that he heard their heart, he knew that they meant it. They had a readiness, they had a willingness. Look at verse 11. 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. Alright?

So Apostle Paul is saying, we’re not asking for what you don’t have. We’re not asking you to do something you don’t want to do. We know that there’s a readiness. There’s, we know there’s a willingness, but now you need to translate, that internal heart’s desire into action. So your heart and your will needs to need to match up. So Paul is simply reminding the Corinthians that our generous heart must be joined with an attentive will. And that’s what one of the applications for us today.

If, if God’s made your heart generous, then I, I wanna encourage you to consider having a attentive will to consider this. Well, I wanna take some time so that my heart matches my actions, my behavior, what I actually do. And that’s what the Apostle Paul is bringing to this, this, this group. Look at verse 12, if the readiness is there, and remember the order of giving is important to God. He says first, if the heart is already there. ’cause if the heart’s not there, there’s another issue. Don’t give.

If the heart’s not there, there’s another issue at stake in your life. So get that issue right before you start giving and start attending to this. But if your heart is there, if you say, no, I, I really rejoice in God’s generosity to me. I have great joy in him. I have a willingness and readiness to see him, him glorified through his church and, and through any gifts that I can give to the church through, through this generous spirit. Look at verse 12 again, if the readiness is there, okay? Again, worship flows from the heart and then flows through the heart to willing hands to actions.

And that’s what he’s saying. Now, you gotta get your hands engaged. He says verse 12 is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what a person does not have. In other words, he’s looking at the church and he says, some of y’all are rich, some of you’re very wealthy, financially, some of you’re poor, some of you’re barely struggling. Some have some huge incomes, businesses thriving, some have very small paychecks. Your business is dying. Some have large sickly families with great financial needs.

Some have really small, healthy families. You’re in a different stage of life, a smaller need for some, the tithe and the old Testament, 10 percent’s too much or some it’s too little. And what he said is, God’s in charge of these things. These are not the things that are of greatest interest to the Lord. What God wants us to know is that both rich and poor can know the joy of generous giving. You don’t have to wait until you get a raise in order to become part of this group of people who experience the joy of generous giving our bank account doesn’t limit our participation in generous giving. Remember the poor widow, she just said she gave out more than all of ’em.

Put combined. There’s three statements. Generous. Giving requires faith, not fortune. In other words, requires me to believe that God’s gonna take care of my needs, doesn’t require fortune. Generous giving requires delight, not dollars. In other words, requires joy in your heart.

That man, I’m just overwhelmed by what God’s done for me. And generous giving requires surrender, not silver. In other words, okay, Lord, I’m putting my all I’m, I want my whole life to be a living sacrifice to you. This is only reasonable given what I have experienced. So look at chapter nine, verse seven. Now jump forward. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart.

There it is again. Generous giving is a heart matter, not reluctantly nor under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. So that’s the the second help. Generous giving always begins with God’s generosity. Generous giving is a heart matter, not a wealth matter. Third, help generous giving benefits the giver more than the recipient.

In other words, who benefits when we give? Well, others benefit, the minister of church benefits, but the biggest recipient of the benefit of giving is the always the giver. Look at, chapter nine, verse six. Apostle Paul wants to make this an emphasis because he doesn’t want us to consider that God is a debtor to anyone. Like, oh man, this person gave so much to God. God must have to do more for him because that person really said, no, God’s not a debtor to anyone. Right?

So he’s, his generosity is off the charts, and he wants us to know that the fact, the fact of the matter is, the more you give, the more in debt to God you are. Because there’s more blessing that flows through having a generous heart. And it’s blessing that, that you can’t measure it. It’s, you can’t measure it in terms of, of dollars and cents. Jenner’s giving benefits the giver more than the recipient. Look at verse six points. This apostle Paul summing up, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Isn’t that true of, just natural investing if you’re looking to, for, to save retirement? Well, the more you set aside, the more you’re gonna have when you need it in retirement, if you, if you put little tiny bits aside, all your life, you’re probably not gonna have a lot. You’re gonna, you’re gonna reap sparingly., the more you put aside the, the more you’re, you’re gonna be ready for that future day. Now, apostle Paul wipes out all consideration of financial wealth. And he says, listen, I’m just talking about life now. I’m talking about life.

And he uses an illustration of a farmer who every year the farmer takes all of his wealth, it’s now put in seeds what he has left of it. And he puts it in the ground. Why would you put the huge percentage of your wealth and just throw it into the ground? Well, because the more you throw in the ground, the more you’ll reap in, in the fall. If you say, well, I, boy, I don’t, I don’t, I hear I have all this wealth and seed right here, and I could sell it or I could keep some of it and eat it or whatever. I’m just gonna sow a little bit. He says, well then that farmer’s only gonna reap sparingly in the fall.

If you have faith. And, and if you understand the, the process of God, okay, I’m gonna sow bountifully, and then you’re gonna reap bountifully. That’s the principle Paul gives. Now, Jesus also ties our reaping blessings from God with our giving, with our worship through our own generosity. He says in Luke six, verse 38, given it will be given to you again, God is no man’s debtor. And it’s gonna be given in good measure, press down, shaken together, running over, and that will be put in your lap for what the measure you use. It will be measured back to you.

I like that good measure. Press down, shaken together. Running over that. The idea is there is someone filling up a bushel basket filled with, with, with, grain. And it’s, it’s shaken so that there’s no air, it’s pressed down, it’s peeping up top, and then it’s running over. That’s what how you want, a the store that you go to get to fill your bushel basket. You want them to do it that way because it’s, it’s gonna be abundant.

I remember when I was working at McDonald’s and when I was a high schooler, and One of the things they’d said, okay, you get one Meal for every shift that you’re working. And so, so,, you had this, this much amount of money you could spend. So it was, it was kind of enough. But,, there a little fry bag. And so I okay fry bag. I could still have a fry bag and a sandwich and a drink. And so I had a little fry bag.

And guess what? And I did what everybody else Did. what you do With your own fry bag. It’s not what you do with the customer’s fry bag. It’s like you take that little fry bag, you take fry like this, and you lay it quickly on your track and you make sure there’s no air in it whatsoever, and it’s heaping running over. ’cause that’s, that’s what I, and that’s what God says he does. It’s good measure.

Like you don’t have to worry. Oh man, I, I was expecting more than this., you get the fries to the drive through and there’s like four fries in. You’re like, what’s going on here? I’m expecting more From the Lord. We’re never expecting more. We’re always amazed at his generosity is what she says. Look at verse 10 of chapter nine.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply. And he will multiply your seed for sowing and notice this promise. He will increase the harvest of your righteousness. Now we’re starting to get to the currency. The currency isn’t financial wealth. This is not a health and wealth gospel. The currency is spiritual blessing.

You can become more like Jesus when we give. We never become poorer because of it. When we give, we receive infinitely more from God than what we’ve given to him. The more generously give, the more bountifully we will receive. I love what Jesus says. And, actually it’s not recorded in any of the gospels. It’s recorded by Luke in the Book of Acts.

Acts 20, when Jesus says it’s, it’s actually more blessed to give than to receive. Now notice Jesus doesn’t say it’s more moral to give them to receive. It is more moral by the way. But that’s not Gs emphasis. GSN saying, Hey, you’re gonna be a more moral person if you, if you give rather than receive. He says it’s more blessed. In other words, you receive so much more from giving that, that, that benefits your life so much more than when you’re in a situation where, where you, you may be having to receive generous giving benefits.

The giver more than the recipient. Fourth, help generous giving strengthens the church that God loves., Jesus loves his church. He loves his church. He’s building his church. It’s, it’s, it’s his institution. It’s his family. It’s, it’s his holy temple.

And he loves so much. Ephesians five says that he gave himself up for her. Like he looks at church, says, I’m gonna give up my all for the health of this, this creation that God calls the church. And part of loving the church is generously giving himself so that we might flourish or might be strong, might be strong in faith, hope and love might be strong with every spiritual blessing. And how many places. Now if we’re like Jesus and we say, I’ve decided to follow Jesus, that means I wanna become like Jesus. One key part becoming like Jesus is this love we have for Jesus’ church.

Isn’t it true that whatever Jesus loves, that’s what we wanna love. And if it’s true that Jesus loves the church, then it’s, then it’s necessary. If we’re following him. One key part of following him is, I, I wanna love the church. Like Jesus loved the church. And part of loving the church and expressing the love for the church is I wanna give myself for the good of the church. That’s what Jesus did for, for me.

I’m a part of the church, but now I wanna be like Jesus, and I wanna love the church, and I want to advance the, the strength of the church so that the church can flourish in this dark world. It’s, it’s a unique thing. It’s the people of God in the midst of, of the, the citizens of this world. It’s, it’s the people who have been, called out of the kingdom of darkness. And now it’s people who walk in light. This is who we are. And all through this passage, we see Paul urging the Corinthian church to give to the local church.

So through the local church, other local churches might be strengthened, might be strengthened. Um, we see this in the book of Acts right away, as soon as the, the church began in Acts chapter two, the people began to give to the apostles to use for whatever was necessary to strengthen the local church in that moment. So much so that Acts 4 32 through 35 says that they were all of one heart and soul. That’s was the unity of the church that gathered. And so that no one said that any of the things that belonged in was his own, but they had everything in common. In other words, this was the generosity that God created. And with great power, the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

That’s what the church does. It’s, it’s the, it’s, it’s the entity that communicates the resurrection of Jesus and his greatness. And there was not a needy person among them. And I emphasize this because first of all, it’s, it’s was from beginning of the church. This is how the church actually thrived. And then to, to emphasize that our giving strengthens the local church for God’s glory. How three focuses in this one passage.

One, it builds unity and love in the church that we of one heart and soul. That’s what happens when we, we give ourselves and hey, we get to be part of a people who are locked in together, walking together, persevering together, encouraging each other together. Second word, advancing the proclamation of the gospel. This is the instrument that God’s chosen to bring a message of hope to the world. And if she’s not strong, then the proclamation of Jesus is going to not be strong. It’s gonna be weak. I wanna be part of advancing his name.

And then third, it provides a safety nets for suffering. Saints so generous giving strengthens the local church that God loves last help to us as we think about our own giving, the generosity of God toward us. Generosity, generous giving is received by God is pleasing worship. In other words, God looks at it and he interprets it as pleasing worship. He takes delight in it. He takes joy in it. Verse seven is such a key verse throughout this, all each one must give us.

He’s decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. He says, for God loves a cheerful giver. It’s just another way of saying God loves joyful worship. Because that’s what this, this, this act of giving is. He’s, he’s reminding, them that financial giving is part of worship. And when God sees it as he’s gonna see this Corinthian church unleash financial blessing, from the Corinthian church to the Jerusalem church, um, God’s gonna see that as worship., the, the word cheerful given, give her the word cheerful is from the Greek word halas. Halas.

And, we get the word what? Hilarious from it. God loves hilarious givers. Are you a hilarious giver?, I, I don’t stand by the church boxes. We have boxes. We all say I have it online, but I, wouldn’t it be great to see someone as they drop it in a gift? Just start laughing out loud.

Oh, you, they’re hilarious giving. ’cause like, there’s just so much joy. I, I trust. And that’s one of the dangers actually in our modern world because Kimberly and I, we give through, the automated giving through our bank account. We just want to, it helps us to be stay faithful, et cetera. But it’s one of the dangers is that we don’t even think about it. And that wouldn’t be good because that then becomes like, just sort of a, a, a rote habit rather than a hilarious giver.

Like, go, God, I’m so glad that you’ve supplied us with some resources that we can bring to your local church for the advance of your name, for the glory of your name., God receives the blessing of thankful hearts from people that he has blessed. So this is the way we bless the Lord. This is the way we make God happy. This is the way we please him. It’s God loves it when we are thankful for the generosity that he places in our lives. I love how first 15 sort of closes this little paragraph, this little section of, of, um, second Corinthians nine. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

This is the season of Thanksgiving. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. I don’t have words even to describe it. We can try and we use some words, but it’s actually indescribable. We use all the words that all of our mind, all of our heart could possibly come up with. Describe his gift, his generosity as what he said. And it all, it all falls short.

It all falls short. It’s indescribable. So what are we to do? Well, well, first, if you’re here and you’ve not received the generosity that God’s offer to you, that’s the application. Jesus who is wealthy, he’s got a very God for eternal attorney pass became poor. He took on human flesh. He died upon a cross.

Why? So that you might become rich and the offer is real and true. And there, there are a host of people here who can testify, this is how I become rich, because of the power of Christ. If you’ve not yet become rich, the only application is for you to consider Christ the Messiah, Jesus who became poor, so that you might become rich and receive him and receive the benefit that He’s offered you. Receive him by faith today. If you have received the generosity of Jesus and His grace, I believe that’s many, many, many of you give thanks to God. Here’s the application for his generous provision.

And take some time, won’t you some time today, if we don’t do it early today or tomorrow, we’ll probably not do it, but take some time and jot down three practical commitments that flows from God’s generosity. And this is what I think this chapter is asking us to do. He’s asking the Corinthians, take this desire in your heart and put some will work to it. Put some, put your hands to it and, and make it come to pass. Don’t just let it die as a desire. And that means you gotta take some time and prayer and thought. So here’s, here’s some, some ideas, about these commitments., commitment one, number one, I will consciously pray over the amount that God would have me to give to my church and missions this year.

I, I will pray over that and I’ll ask, seek the Lord in it. So make it a spiritual decision, not a financial and a spiritual one. Secondly, I will listen more faithfully to God’s promptings for me to give to others and to his kingdom work. Even if he calls me to give beyond my means, I’m gonna listen. I’m gonna turn away. I’m not gonna say anything, says no. Okay, Lord, I’m not gonna shut you off.

So as you pray, listen. And then I will set aside time to seek others’ thoughts about stewardship so that we can enjoy God together. So talk to your brothers and sisters in Christ for sure. If you’re married, take some time this week and talk to your husband or your wife about these things. Say, Hey, let’s talk. We haven’t talked a while for a while about generosity and giving. Let’s talk.

And I want, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts about generosity and giving in this way. We, we build faith with one another in God for his glory. Let’s pray. Father, thank you for, being so generous to us. Thank you, father, for changing our hearts. Thank you for giving us the opportunity to, to be generous. To be generous people.

We, we aren’t naturally generous. We’re very self-seeking, self-protecting. We’re fearful, we’re anxious about a lot of things. Thank you, father, for giving us freedom to be generous. Father, I pray for those who haven’t received your generosity today. I pray that this moment, they would look to you and say, God, I, I need the riches that Christ is offering. I need his forgiveness.

I need his adoption. I, I need the freedom. I need the new life inside of me that he offers. And so I believe in him. I trust in him today. It’s in Jesus’ precious name. We pray these things.

Amen.