2 CORINTHIANS 92005 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Corinthians 9

We've been looking for the last couple of weeks on the subject of giving. And we've looked at 2 Corinthians 8, verses 1-8, where we talked about the four things from the example of the Macedonians that they gave generously. And we've looked at the four things from the example of the Macedonians

And they gave sacrificially, they gave willingly, and they gave eagerly. And so there are four characteristics that we can apply to our lives as well that we need to be giving, like the Macedonians, because that's who Paul was using to encourage the Corinthians as well. And then last week we covered 2 Corinthians 8, verses 7-24, and we talked about that we need to abound in this grace. It's an undeserved privilege to participate in the ministry and the work of God by giving

By giving. And so Paul says, make sure that you abound in this grace. Even as you abound in all these other gifts, make sure that you abound in the grace, the undeserved privilege of giving and being used by God in that way. And in that way also fulfilling your commitments because one year prior, the Corinthians had made a commitment to help out the saints there in Jerusalem that were in need. And so Paul encourages them to make the commitments, to fulfill the commitments that they had made the year prior.

We also saw last week those who are handling and receiving the finances because, of course, the gift that would be taken to Jerusalem from Corinth would not be wired or money transferred. There was no Western Union, but it would have to physically be carried from Corinth to Jerusalem. And so Paul says, we're sending three guys to you and three characteristics we learned from them that they're going to receive it and they're going to

to carry the money to Jerusalem. And so we learned that those who are handling the finances need to have these three characteristics. First of all, it was the example of Titus, that we're to have an earnest care for the people who are giving. And so those who handle the finances are...

are to have an earnest care for the people who are giving. The second characteristic that we saw was that their praise was to be in the gospel. And that was the second brother that was being sent with Titus, that his praise was in the gospel. He was rejoicing and excited about people hearing the good news of what Jesus Christ has done. And then the third brother was our third example, third characteristic, and that is that they were proved diligent.

And so diligence and the necessity of having everything under control and knowing where every dollar and every penny is spent and used for the Lord wisely. And so these three things need to be in place. And Wednesday night, if you were not here, we covered these things and talked about how they're in place in this fellowship. And so if you are not here but would like to hear the message, you can talk to the guys in the sound booth and they'll be glad to get you a copy.

Today, though, Paul wraps up this discussion in 2 Corinthians 9, talking about the subject of giving. Now, before we get into the passage this morning, there's a video that I'd like to show you. It's just a short two-minute training video that we're using to train the ushers. Now, since we're talking about giving, we want to make sure that you get a chance to see what we're using to train them. And of course, this is a joke, so please do not be offended. But it's a clip from a movie called

that illustrates some of the things we'll be talking about today. So 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and here's the training video for the ushers.

I'm going to try something different tonight. I'm going to take up an offering. I'm not training you guys, okay? I'm going to ask some of you gang members to do it. Can I have four volunteers? Six.

Abdullah.

All right, uh... When you finish collecting, take the money through that backstage door and, uh... bring it to me. Okay.

I'm not going to let you down.

Thank you.

Come on, baby, put your foot in there. Come on. Come on, let's do that roll. Come on. Come on. Come on.

Come on, baby!

So that's what we're using to be training the guys. You'll notice some new techniques next week as the offering... No, I'm just kidding. Just kidding. That's a clip from the movie The Cross and the Switchblade. And we're going to be showing it tonight. And so I would encourage you, if you've never seen it, to come back tonight. We'll be showing it at 6 o'clock.

And man, it's a great, great movie. It's about David Wilkerson who was kind of like from a small country village or country town and he had a heart to go to New York and minister to the gangs there. And so there's two of the toughest gangs that back at that time were represented there, the Mau Mau's and I forget who the other guys were. But he goes to minister to them at his own risk really and almost to his own peril. But the Lord, of course...

went before him and protected him. And there's a guy in there, his name is Nicky Cruz, and that was Eric Estrada, you guys saw him. And so he was like the worst guy out there in New York in one of the gangs. And so it's also the story of his conversion and how the Lord got a hold of his life. And so he's pretty famous as well. He goes around sharing his testimony and stuff. And so I encourage you to come back tonight. But as we talk about the subject of giving, of course...

I'm joking, right? We're not going to be receiving an offering like that and giving you the glare and shaking the bag a little bit saying, hey, you need to put some more in. That's not what we're about. We talk about tithing and giving as the Lord puts it in His Word as we go chapter by chapter, verse by verse. We need to cover it because it's things...

that God wants to teach us, but it's not what we're all about. It's a very important part of who we are as believers, and so we need to study and understand the word faithfully. So let's do that this morning. 2 Corinthians 9, let's read together, starting in verse 1. It says this...

Verse 4.

Verse 6,

Verse 9.

Verse 12.

Verse 2.

and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. Verse 15, Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, we do thank you for your indescribable gift, God.

of what you've done in sacrificing your life that we might have freedom from sin, cleansing from guilt and shame. Lord Jesus, that we might have right standing before you. And Lord, as we've been studying through the subject of giving, understanding as well that you don't just leave it there, but you also desire to use us, God. It's an indescribable gift that you've given to us.

to have fellowship with you, but then also to be used by you to accomplish your work here. And so, Lord, we ask that you would teach us now. Train us, Lord, in the ways that we need to grow up and the areas that we need to change. We ask, Lord, that you would speak to our hearts very clearly this morning. Send your Spirit, Lord, to fill us, to open our ears, that we might understand what you want to say to us. And, Lord, help us to apply it to our lives. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.

As we begin 2 Corinthians chapter 9 this morning, Paul reminds us of something very important there in verse 1. He says, now concerning the ministering to the saints. Concerning the ministering to the saints. We've seen that word many times in the past several months. The word minister, to minister, ministering.

We've been looking at it because Paul's been talking about it since way back in chapter 3. The ministry that God has called us to, which is the ministry, of course, of reconciliation. Bringing people into right relationship with God. The ministry of meeting the needs of those around us. As we saw on Wednesday, we talked about the Good Samaritan and those around us that we come in contact with that have need. Those are our neighbors and those are our ministry that God has given to us.

that we might provide for them and help them, that we might bless them in the name of Jesus Christ and share with them the love of Christ that he has given to us. And so this is the ministry that we've been talking about, this ministering to the saints. We've all been called into this ministry. Every single one of us is to be a part of it. And giving, as we've been talking about, is one way or one part of participating in this ministry of reconciliation.

So Paul reminds us here at the beginning that it's all about ministry. It's about the ministry that I want to share with you and share these things with you. And so he says, concerning this and concerning ministering to the saints, he says it's superfluous for me to write to you. Now, for a very long time I pronounced that wrong. I asked my wife the other day, I said, what's superfluous? And I couldn't pronounce it and she corrected me. So superfluous is, I guess, how it's pronounced. But what it means is, I can pronounce that. It says, exceeding what is necessary.

Superfluous. Exceeding what is necessary. Paul says, look, it's exceeding what is necessary for me to write to you about ministering to the saints. The implication being, of course, that he doesn't need to write to them because they're already doing it. They're already involved in it. He already knows that's what's in their heart. It's not necessary really for him to write it. Yet he is writing it and we'll get to see why in a moment.

Verse 2, he goes on to say, For I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago. So why is it not necessary for him to write to them? He said, because I know of your willingness. It's a little bit too much for me to write these things to you because I know about your willingness and I boasted about that willingness to those who are in Macedonia. Now, Macedonia was the northern part of Greece.

It had the cities you might be familiar with of Thessalonica, Berea, and Philippi. It was the northern portion of the Greek Empire, the Greece area. And Achaia, which he mentions, was the southern part. The southern part consisted of Corinth and Athens and other cities around them. And so...

What Paul is saying is, I know about your willingness. I've been boasting to these guys in northern Greece about how willing you are and how zealous you are and how passionate you are about giving and ministering to the saints and meeting needs of those around you.

He said that those in Achaia, those in southern Greece, have been willing a year ago to do this. They were ready last year. And that's what Paul is saying. The year before he had been on a missionary journey, he had gone to Corinth. They heard about the need in Jerusalem. And so the Corinthians had responded and said, wow, we want to be a part of that. We want to help them out. And so as Paul continued on his missionary journey up north through Macedonia, he was also sharing with the churches there that, hey, there's a need there in Jerusalem and...

and those in southern Greece, those in the KIs, they've been wanting to contribute. And so, you know, do you guys want to be a part of that too as you went through Macedonia? And so the year prior was when the need was made known. The Corinthians had committed to helping meet the need. And so that's why Paul last week encouraged them to make sure that they fulfilled the commitment that they had made to pay their vow.

So going on in verse 2, he says, "...and your zeal has stirred up the majority." He goes on, "...the passion that you had, the zeal, the fire that you had to minister to them and meet their need."

That's what started it all. I don't need to write to you about ministering because it was your passion, your zeal that really fired up the whole region that has encouraged everybody to help and contribute to meet the needs that are there in Jerusalem. It's not as though, and this is important to know, it's not as though Paul volunteered them and then told them afterwards. Have you ever had someone do that to you? You know, you walk up and go, Oh, by the way, I told so-and-so that you'd be able to do this for them or we'd be able to give them this amount or take care of this and you're like,

oh, okay, well, I guess we could do it, but it wasn't something I was planning on. It might be kind of a hardship on us because, you know, it was committed without our knowledge. But Paul's not doing that. He didn't volunteer them and say, hey, the Corinthians are going to give so much. And then now he's telling them, hey, I told them he had to give a lot, guys, so make sure he wasn't doing that to them. He wasn't keeping them in the dark.

They were the ones who were zealous. They were the ones who were passionate. They were the ones who were saying, man, let's give. We want to give. Here's what we're going to do. We're going to take up offerings and receive gifts and we're going to store it up and save it and then we'll be able to send just a great blessing, a lavish gift as Paul called it last week to those who are in Jerusalem and to those who are in need. And so Paul shared with them that those in Macedonia that Corinth had this attitude and this zeal for giving.

Now in verses 3 and 4 he goes on to say, Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to mention you, should be ashamed of this confident boasting.

Paul here is trying to save them from shame and embarrassment. He says, look, it's kind of too much. It's exceeding what's necessary for me to write to you because it was your zeal and your passion that started it all. Yet, I'm still sending these guys to you. I'm sending these brethren to you to make sure that it is taken care of. That it is something that you're prepared and ready so that when we come...

He'll go on to say that it's not a grudging thing. So he says, we'll come and find you prepared. And it won't have to be something that you'll be ashamed about later. Paul's trying to save them from that shame and embarrassment. And you could picture it. The Macedonians, because a few of them were traveling with Paul, as he's been sharing with them, oh man, you should have seen the Corinthians. I've never seen some people so on fire to meet needs and to give and to help those who are in need.

And then the Macedonians come and the Corinthians are all in chaos. They have nothing prepared. They have no gift ready. And they'd be like, well, what happened? I thought you were zealous about giving. I thought you were zealous about meeting the need. That's what we heard about. And what would the Corinthians have to say? Well, they would have to say, well...

We were. We used to be, you know, really on fire and stuff. But, you know, we had some trouble with immorality and division because we're immature and full of carnality. And that would be a shameful thing. It would be an embarrassing thing for the Corinthians to share because that's what took place. That's what happened. And so they've put into effect the corrections that Paul had sent them. And so Paul says, now it's time to take the next step.

Now that you're back on track, you're right with the Lord, things are going well within the body, now let's go back to the original zeal, the original passion that you had to meet the needs of those around you. And it'd be just as if we shared about our zeal for Okinawa, you know, and Pastor Cisco's some church and sharing about, oh man, you should see,

the body there at Living Water, man, we sent out our senior pastor and, man, we send groups every couple months and, man, God's just really doing a work out there with the Bible College and Calvary Chapel Okinawa. Man, we're so blessed and then they come and we're like, yeah, well, we used to be excited about that but I'm not even sure where Okinawa is anymore. You know, it'd be like that, the same thing. It'd be like, what happened? Well,

We had some immorality and we got divided because we're immature and carnal. And it would be an embarrassing and shameful thing. And so Paul says, I want to make sure that that doesn't happen. I want to save you from that. So I'm sending the brethren ahead so that you'll be ready.

Now, going on in verses 5, 6, and 7, Paul teaches us some very important things. Two principles that we need to learn about giving as well as a spiritual law that is essential for us to understand. The first principle that we learn about giving is there in verse 5. He says, Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gifts beforehand which you had previously promised me.

that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation. He says, I'm sending the brethren. Why? Well, because we want to make sure that you're prepared, like we just talked about there in verse 4.

So that when you give, as you meet your promise, as you previously promised, he reminds them, that it'll be a matter of generosity and not a grudging obligation. He reminds us now that the important thing in giving is not so much the amount, but it's the attitude and the heart that we have in giving. We saw that last week in chapter 8, verse 12, where he said,

where Paul says it's accepted when there's a willing mind. Not on the amount that you give or the amount that you have or that you can afford or how much you gave in proportion to that. But it's the willingness of your mind and the willingness of your heart. The attitude, the motive that we have in giving is very important. And so Paul says, I'm sending them. And in order for you to keep the right motive and right heart,

You need to do this thing. They're going there for this reason, that you would prepare it beforehand. And that's the principle that we need to learn about giving. To prepare your gift beforehand. Before the time to give.

The results will be being able to give out of generosity and not grudging obligation. Now that word generosity means expressing good wishes, blessing and praise. And so the idea is, look, if you're prepared ahead of time and you've already got it set aside,

and already ready, then you're able to give with great wishes and with blessings and with praise and say, hey man, may God bless you with this. It's not like parting with that money that you were counting on or parting with that money that you really needed to get a cheeseburger for lunch or something. It was parting with money that you had already set aside, that was already prepared beforehand that you might bless. And so you're able to give it with generosity, with blessings, with thanksgiving and praise.

As opposed to grudging obligation. And you can imagine what that means, right? In the King James Version, it translates to covetousness. Why? Well, the word literally means desire for having more. And so he says, I want you to be ready beforehand so that you'll be able to give...

being able to have great wishes and blessings and praise as you give and not with the desire, with always the thought in your head, man, I wish I wouldn't have given so much. I wish I would have had more for myself and given less. I wish I wouldn't have contributed in that way.

or given money in that direction. He says, prepare it beforehand so it will be with good wishes, with blessings, with praise. Not with a heart or a thought that, oh, you know what I could have done with that? Man, I had great plans with that. Oh, I was going to do this or I was going to do that. Paul says, no, prepare it beforehand so that you can give it with your blessing.

Sometimes, you know, it's like, well, I wish I hadn't given so much. The person next to me gave and when they handed the offering back to me, you know, they kind of looked at me like I was supposed to give. So I gave, but I only had a 20. I only wanted to give $5, but that's all I had, so I gave it, you know. I wish I wouldn't have... No, Paul says don't do that. Prepare it beforehand. Give on purpose. Give on purpose so that you are ready and prepared. So prepare your gift beforehand. And I would encourage you,

as we receive the tithes and offerings here on Sundays and Wednesdays for the missionaries overseas and the different areas that God has sent them. If you didn't think about it before you got here, don't give. There's no need for you. You want to learn to worship God. And giving is a part of that. And if it's giving as an afterthought or a last minute thing, then it's not an act of worship.

You want to prepare your heart and prepare it beforehand so that it'll truly be a part of your worship as you give generously with praise, blessing God for giving you the opportunity to participate in the ministry that He's called you to, the ministry of reconciliation by giving.

And so it's important for us to prepare our gifts beforehand. Now, in verse 6, he teaches us a spiritual principle that we need to know. He says, But I say this, or but this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap sparingly.

bountifully. It's a spiritual principle we need to understand. It's a law that God has set. He's made it and it's always true whether or not we believe it, which is always true of God's laws. It's similar to the laws or the principles of farming.

If you want a good crop of corn, you need to plant more than a couple seeds. You need to plant a lot of seeds. If you plant a lot of seeds, you'll get a lot of crop. It's a very...

Easy thing for us to understand. Now, if you only plant a few, guess what? You only get a few. So, much like farming the same principles that God has given for those things, God has given for this principle or this law of giving, of us contributing to His work. But when we're talking about money, that's not normally how we would think.

Our natural mind, the world would say, listen, you got it all backwards. I don't know what school you went to. You must have been homeschooled, huh? Because if you give more, that means you have less.

If you give less, that means you have more, right? John has ten oranges and he gives five to Susie, leaves him with five. He has less than what he started with. So if he gives more, that leaves him with less. But if he gives less, if he only gives three, then, hey, he's got more. He's got seven still, if my math is correct. So the world, the natural mind, naturally we think, if I give more, then I have less. And if I give less, then I have more. And I'm happy, usually. Right?

That's the natural philosophy. That's what we naturally think. But God's way, of course, as in many other things, is different, completely opposite than the natural man. And then what this world says. God says, give more and receive more. Give less and receive less.

If you give more, you will receive more. If you give less, you will receive less. As opposed to the world who says, give more and have less, and give less and have more. God's principles, God's laws are completely opposite. And this is why last week I shared with you that you do not really grow as Christians until you learn to give. Because God's principles don't make sense.

They're not natural to us. You can't logically put them together and add them because it's God's principle. And it is a principle. It is a law. It is an effect. It is true. But our normal mind, you can't arrive to that from a logical method. It's something that must be accepted by faith. You must believe God and be obedient to His word. And so you will not really grow as a Christian until you learn to believe His word and be obedient to it.

And so tithing, giving of our finances and giving of our income is a great way to grow because we learned there it's an area where he said test me on this, try me on this. He's going to prove himself faithful to his word so we'll be able to see that when we are obedient

and give that He will provide for us. Malachi chapter 3 verse 10 I shared it with you. I'll continue to share it with you as the Lord gives us opportunity. But He says, Bring all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and try me now on this. Test me on this. Try me on this. Says the Lord of hosts, If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

He says, test me on this. Try me on this. There's this law in place. If you give and are obedient to my words, trusting in faith that what I say in here is true, it is real, even though it may not make sense, it's not what the world says, it's not what your natural mind says, but throwing all that aside and having faith in me and believing me, I'll take care of you. I'll open up the windows of heaven and I'll meet your every need. I'll meet your every need.

So what is it that we are sowing and what is it that we are reaping when he is talking about this?

Of course, he's talking about the area of giving, and so what we're sowing is money, finances, dollars and cents. We're sowing these things, these material things that do not last, and what is it that we are reaping? Well, there's two things that he'll go on to tell us in the rest of the portion. The first thing that we are reaping is found in verses 8 through 11, and that's God's promise to meet your needs.

It's God's promise to meet your needs. When you give and are obedient to give to God and the work that He has put upon your heart, He's faithful and His promise is that I'm going to meet your every need. I'm going to take care of you. And then the second thing that He'll talk about there in verses 12 through 15 or 12 through 14 is the eternal rewards. The eternal rewards that God has in store for us as we're obedient to give, as His work is accomplished,

We're participating in that ministry. Just as if we were there, just as if we were doing it ourselves, we're participating, we're contributing. And therefore, we get rewards for being a part of God's work. We get rewards and fruit for being involved in what God has asked us to do. It's amazing. We get eternal rewards for being obedient to what God told us to do, enabled us to do,

He rewards us for doing it. He rewards us for the work that's accomplished, which is His work and which is that He's doing. He's allowing us to participate in it. And so, we're sowing our finances, we're giving of our income, but we're reaping

God's provision has promised to meet our every need as well as things that will last for eternity. Eternal rewards and things that will last forever. And so the spiritual law that we need to know is that we reap what we sow. In Luke chapter 6 verse 38, Jesus speaking says, "...give and it will be given to you, good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over."

will be put into your bosom. With the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. The same measure that you use, Jesus says, will be measured back to you. Paul says it this way, if you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. If you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully. And so there's this correlation there. There's this balance. God's law, God's principle, give more, receive more. Give less, receive less.

But, verse 7, Paul says, So let each one give as he purposes in his heart. Knowing that this is true, that this law is in place, that this is how God has set it up, let each one give as he's purposed in his heart. He doesn't demand that we all give bountifully. You can give sparingly. Whatever it is, whatever you want to give, whatever you've purposed in your heart, that's what you need to give.

He goes on in verse 7, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. What does God love? A cheerful giver. Someone who gives cheerfully and joyfully. So the second principle that we learn here from this portion that Paul is trying to teach us, the first one was prepare your gift beforehand. But the second is that you give as you purposed in your heart. That you give as you purposed in your heart.

It goes hand in hand. Preparing it beforehand, purposing it in your heart so that you've already got it set aside. You've already got it apportioned there. This is for God's work. This is what God is going to use to accomplish His work through me.

Prepare beforehand so that you can give what you purposed on purpose without accidentally giving too much and regretting it, without giving too little and feeling bad about it. Prepare beforehand. Give what you purposed on purpose. Understanding God's law that if you sow bountifully, you'll reap bountifully, and if you sow sparingly, you'll reap sparingly. Purpose. How much will you give? What will you give?

or sparingly. It's up to you. But give what you purpose. Don't give more than you purpose. Don't give more than you prepared what you've already determined. Why? Well, because if you don't give what you purpose, if you give more than you purpose, then it's going to be grudgingly or out of necessity. Now, grudgingly means out of sorrow.

It's going to be out of sorrow. If you give at the spur of the moment something you hadn't planned on giving, it's going to be a sorrowful thing for you. Because we're tied to the things of this world and we love the things of this world and we love money.

Many of us, at least. It would be something that is out of sorrow. Or out of necessity. Paul says that's the other way you don't want to do it. You don't want to do it out of sorrow, because God loves a cheerful giver. You also don't want to do it out of necessity. Not like the cross and the switchblade. That's what it means. Compelling force. You don't want to be pressured into giving.

And that's a tactic that can be used many times, unfortunately, within the church and within our friends and family that we're pressured into giving. Paul says, don't be pressured. Don't give out of that. But give out of cheerfulness because you've purposed beforehand. Not because, you know, the gang members there are shaking the...

the offering played at you. But because you've already purposed beforehand, this is what I want to do in my worship to God, in my obedience to God. This is what I'm going to give. Not because we feel guilty, not because we feel pressured into it, but because it's what we want to do to worship God. So Paul says, give as you purpose that it might be a joyful thing, that you don't have to worry about, man, is this going to bounce?

I don't know if this is going to clear the bank. Or if this goes through, man, I hope they deposit it real quick because then it should go through. I think I've got it all worked out. Or I hope they don't deposit it until next week because then that will be much better for me. I'll be able to handle it from there. Or if I give this, am I going to be able to pay the rent or pay this or pay that? Paul's saying, look, don't give...

And test God in the sense of where you just kind of give foolishly like, well, I sent the rent check but I also mailed a check to the church so watch God. No, no, no. That's not what we're called to do. We're called to set aside beforehand. To prepare ourselves beforehand. To give what we purpose. If it's sacrificially, it's sacrificially but it comes out of us rather than spending foolishly. And so...

We're to give as we purpose ahead of time. Not worrying about the bills, not worrying about those things, but setting aside ahead of time that we could give cheerfully. Now, the Greek word for cheerful there is the word from which we get the word hilarious in English. And so you'll often hear people talk about God loves a hilarious giver. And I've often thought, what exactly does that mean? You know, are we supposed to be just, you know, rolling on the floor as we give on Sunday mornings or, you know, as God gives us opportunity? Well, in a sense...

in the sense that we find great joy or we get a kick out of the idea that God uses us and uses our money. That is an amazing thing. That is hilarious when you stop to think about. It's grace. It's undeserved favor and kindness. Why? Well,

God owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He told one of the prophets, look, if I was hungry, I wouldn't ask you. If I needed something, I wouldn't need to get it from you. God, I created everything. I own the cattle on a thousand hills. I have no needs that you could meet. And so it's hilarious that there's needs around us, that God has made available to us, and He uses us

with the abilities that He's given to us to make money, and as we earn that money, which He gives to us, He then uses that money to accomplish His work and rewards us for it. It's amazing. It's all about God. He's the one doing everything. We're just living it out.

He's being a part of us and being a part of our lives. And so, God loves the cheerful giver. Give with joy. Excited about, man, I can't believe God would use me. It's grace. It's an undeserved kindness that I'm able to participate in this. It's hilarious that God would use me and use the little bit that I have. But I joyfully give it. I gladly give it. That God would do His work and have His way.

And so, as we learn these principles, to prepare it beforehand and to give what we purpose, as we sow bountifully, Paul says, you'll reap bountifully. And in verses 8 through 11, we find out the first aspect of what we reap, and that is God's promise to meet your needs. Let's look at verse 8. It says, And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. Notice this.

Notice for a moment how many times the word all is used. God's not talking about, you know, He's going to just take care of us in certain areas. But He says, God is able to make all grace abound to you that you always, having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work. He is talking about God is going to provide for us and take care of us

Give us sufficiency in everything, in every area that we have need. God is able. We do serve a big God. We don't serve a little God. You cannot out-give God. John Corson shares that, you know, it's not that you give so much and God's like, whoa, whoa, slow down. I can't keep up. You're giving too much. You can't. God's promise is that you will have all sufficiency.

as your obedience to what He puts upon your heart. Whatever you need, God will meet your needs when you give to Him. You'll have all sufficiency, sufficient for everything that you need. Not only will He meet your need, but it also says that He'll give you an abundance for every good work. Now, it's important to understand that it's for every good work. He blesses us with abundance

for every good work. As we're faithful to give, as we're faithful with what He gives us, we're good stewards, He also blesses us with abundance that we might participate and continue to contribute to every good work, the work that God is doing, the establishing of His kingdom, the ministry of reconciliation. God looks at us as we're obedient in this way and He says, wow, they purpose to give.

They wanted to honor me and bless me in this way and be obedient to me. Man, I like that. I love that. I'm going to give them more so that they can bless even more and receive even more rewards for participating in the ministry and the opportunities that I give them. God's not out to get us. He's out to bless us. He wants to reward us and bless us more than we can imagine. So He enables us to give. He gives us opportunities to give. So we have the resources. There's the opportunity. And God says, now...

Use it. Apply it. And I'm going to bless you because you're obedient to apply it. And also, my work's being accomplished and there's going to be fruit from that. And so, you get rewards as a result of that as well. You get a double blessing because you're meeting a need with the abundance that I gave you by applying it to an opportunity that I present to you. Now, He enables us. He gives us ahead of time and provides us an abundance that we might...

more rewards as we apply it to every good work. But too much is not good for us. And God knows that. It'll ruin us. And you probably have experienced that as well. He gives us some and as we are faithful with the little things, then He gives us more. He gives us abundance. That He might use us and reward us more. Because that's what it's all about. God says, look, if I give everything to you right now, you're going to blow it. It's going to ruin your life. But if I just give you a little bit,

and you learn to be faithful of that, then I can give you more. And as you're faithful of that, that means I get to bless you more, and I get to reward you more, and you get to be more a part of all the things that I'm doing. And so God has this system in which we learn to be faithful to Him, and as He blesses us, we get to be more a part of His work, more blessed, more rewards eternally waiting for us.

So God's sufficient. He's going to supply all of our needs. That's what Paul told the Philippians in chapter 4. They gave sacrificially to Paul. He says, look, my God's able to meet all of your needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus. He's going to meet our needs. He's going to take care of us. Verse 9, As it is written, He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor, His righteousness endures forever. It's a quotation from Psalm 112. Psalm 112.

Now, Psalm 112, I would encourage you to spend some time reading it this next couple of days as God gives you opportunity. But Psalm 112 is all about

It starts out by saying, Blessed is the man who fears the Lord. And it shares some things about the result of someone who fears the Lord and walks uprightly with God. Some of the characteristics or some of the things that the psalmist says there in Psalm 112 about this man who fears the Lord is that he will have wealth and riches. That he will be a good man that deals graciously and lends. And that he'll disperse abroad and give to the poor.

Now, the context of Psalm 112 is...

It's those who fear the Lord. It's capitalized here because it definitely can be applied to Jesus Christ. But the psalmist is talking about us. He's saying, look, fear the Lord. And this is what happens when people fear the Lord. When they get their priorities straight. When they put God first in their life. He takes care of them. Now again, this is not all that we should all be healthy, wealthy and wise. Not at all. God has His purposes and His plans and He does things His way. And we'll see that in a moment.

But I don't necessarily know that these should be capitalized because in the context of the psalm, he's talking about the man who fears the Lord. Disperses abroad and gives to the poor. Those who fear the Lord have this heart, have this desire to please Him in this way. Verse 10.

Now may he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality which causes thanksgiving through us to God. Paul now is...

Wishing a blessing on them. He says, look, may God multiply what you gave. To multiply your reward and to multiply your fruit. It's not accepted, again, based on how much you give, but your willingness to give. So may God take what you were willing to give and multiply that and use it well.

May He bless you in that way. May He multiply it so that you don't just get the normal return of rewards and blessing. May He multiply it. May He use it over and over again. May He use it in many areas that you might be blessed and enriched. He says, well, you are enriched in everything for all liberality. Now, enriched by whose standard? Notice He says that it's for all liberality. Another word for that is generosity. Generosity.

While we're enriched for all generosity, He enables us to give. He enables us as we learn to be generous. Not saying that we're all going to be wealthy, but we have an abundance to give where He desires that we give. We have an abundance to give where He gives us opportunity to meet needs. Again, being enriched, it's not about us.

It's not about me. It's about how I can meet others' needs and serve others. I've said it very many times and I'll continue to say it very many times. Christianity, it's not a self-help program. It's not about learning to give so that I can be blessed myself and enrich myself.

It's an outreach. It's learning to give that I may be able to bless more, that I might be able to reach more, that I might be able to share the gospel and participate in the ministry of reconciliation more. It's not a self-help program. It's an outreach.

So God will meet all of our needs. That's what we reap. That's the promise that we have. Then in verses 12 through 14, the second part of what we reap, the eternal rewards, the fruit that God has for us as we participate in this ministry. Verse 12 says, For the administration of this service not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also is abounding through many thanksgivings to God. Paul says, look,

It does more than meet a physical need. What does it also do? Well, it causes people to thank God. And He says, there's going to be fruit for your account. There's an eternal reward there because what you did, the actions that you took, caused people...

to be thankful to God. Cause people to put their attention and their trust and their faith in God. And they were able to thank God. So the first thing that we see there is that the result of their action was that they were able to thank God. Then verse 13, he goes on to tell us the second part of this. While through the proof of this ministry they glorify God for the obedience of your confession to the gospel of Christ and for your liberal sharing with them and all men.

So the proof of genuineness in this ministry, the liberal sharing or the generous sharing, the proof that you're truly obedient to the call that God has given to you as you give them this gift, it's proof of that. And it causes them to glorify God. They're praising Him. They're telling people about how great He is and what He's done and how He's met the need that they had.

And so Paul says, not only did what you do cause people to thank God, but it caused people to glorify God and to tell others about Him and to rejoice in all that He has done. And so there's eternal rewards in that. And then also, verse 14, and by their prayer for you, who long for you because of the exceeding grace of God in you. He says, now, not only...

Are they thanking God? Not only are they glorifying God, but now they're praying for you. They're talking to God about you. And so it's a wonderful blessing, a wonderful return on your investment, if you want to look at it that way, that they are...

for you. They're praying to God. So, you sow, and God says, I supply all your needs. Not only that, you're going to get eternal rewards because of what you did. Cause others to focus on me, to hear about me, to know about me, to get to know me. You've been involved in this ministry of reconciliation. The investment returns fourfold, at least. God's promise is here, causing people to thank God, to glorify God, to pray to God, and to talk to God for you.

And much, much more. That's not even considering the fruit and those who come to know the Lord as a result and so on and so forth. God has great things in store and promises for those who will be obedient and faithful to give. And then in verse 15, he ends by saying, Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift. Thanks be to God for His indescribable or unspeakable gift. Of course,

We know the gift that he's talking about. The gift that's indescribable is the gift of his Son. That he's sent to die on the cross for our sins. And think about this for a moment as Paul is recapping and drawing it all to a close in the subject of giving. He says, look, thanks be to God for his Son. Why? Well, what his Son did in dying for us is tremendous. Because he humbled himself

to the point of being obedient to dying on the cross for our sins. He humbled himself. I was thinking about it like this, and maybe this is a crazy way to think of it, you be the judge. What are we to God? You know, the psalmist said, what is man that you're mindful of him? What is man that you're mindful of him, God? I mean, you're God. You extend beyond the universe. You hold the entire universe in your hand. You're a big God. You're an awesome God. And what is man? Just a speck of dust on this earth.

So what does it mean that you're mindful of Him? But God says the thoughts that He has towards us, they're more numerous than the sand of the sea. So we're nothing compared to God, yet God thinks good about us continually. So many thoughts, more than if you would count the grains of sand in the sea.

That's a lot of thoughts. Now, proportionally, you could imagine it this way. It would be you humbling yourself to the point that you had the number of thoughts as many as the sand of the sea for an ant that's in Indonesia. Because on the other side of the world, it's a little tiny thing. You wouldn't give a second thought to it. You wouldn't even think about it the first time. But God humbles himself. He says, this little thing, you...

Oh man, I have great thoughts for you. I have tons of them too. Oh, they're so exciting. Great plans. I love you so much. And so, I'm going to send my son this indescribable gift that he'll die on the cross, he'll shed his blood, that your sins could be forgiven, that you could come into fellowship with me and that you could spend eternity with me.

but it doesn't just stop there. God says, I want to do more than just save you. I also want to use you and I want you to participate in the ministry and doing the work that I want to accomplish there on the earth while you're there. And so not only did my son's death forgive you and cleanse you, but it also enabled me to dwell in you

and enabled me to fill you with my Spirit, that you might be empowered to have gifts, like teaching, like helps, like evangelism, like prophecy, that you might be able to share with those around you and use your physical body, use your gifts, use your talents, use your life to make a difference for my name to be involved in my work and accomplishing what I want to do there on the earth. But then, not only that,

Because you can't be everywhere at once. I'm also, I'm going to enable you to give. And I'm going to give you the grace, the undeserved kindness, the privilege, opportunity to give. And receive rewards just as if you were there doing it. I'm going to enable you. I'm going to empower you. Because I don't just want to save you, but I want to dwell with you. And I want you to be involved in my work. And I want to give you this great opportunity to go into business with me, God says.

that we would reconcile people to Jesus Christ, bring them to know God, to meet the needs of those around us. So Paul says, thanks be to God for this indescribable gift that He's given to us in His Son. What an amazing gift that Jesus Christ is for us. For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever might believe in Him should not die, but have everlasting life.

That's why Jesus Christ died. To forgive us, to cleanse us. But it doesn't just stop there. He desires to use us. And so this morning as we conclude this portion from the last couple of weeks and talking about the subject of giving, let's be people who learn our lessons. Who are truly thankful for His indescribable gift and are obedient to Him.

to His Word and His call for us to be involved in the ministry of reconciliation. Purpose in your heart to give. Start, if you haven't already, start learning to tithe. The 10% that we talked about that belongs to God, that is God's. Just start there. Commit to giving to God. 10%. The 10th.

And watch what God does. Watch. If He will not open the windows of heaven and provide and meet your every need and then give you an abundance that you'd be able to contribute and to give for every good work that He gives you opportunity. It's a good place to start. And so start there.

Prepare your gift beforehand, Paul tells us. Give as you purposed in your heart. Not out of obligation, not out of necessity. That's why we're not receiving an offering now, you know, feel obligated to give. No. Prepare it. As God leads, as God puts it upon your heart, whatever you can give cheerfully, willingly, joyfully, because that's what God loves. And as we learn to give, as we're faithful in this, as we grow as believers, we give

We get the temporary rewards and that is that God will meet our needs here in this life, in this world. But we also have eternal rewards because we've caused people to thank God, to glorify God, to pray to God. We've caused people by giving and contributing to His work to come to know Him.

And there's great fruit and great reward. That's why Paul says, it's not that I desire the gift in Philippians 4, but I desire the fruit that adorns to your account. So learn to give because God wants to bless you and He wants to reward you. Simply just be obedient. Be obedient to the commands that He's given to you and learn to give. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You.

Lord, even though your word is challenging at times, because, Lord, we are, we're often self-centered, God. We're often focused on this life and this world, investing in what we can gain here. But, Lord, I pray that you would help us to learn the lesson that Paul is trying to teach us, God. That if we sow bountifully, we'll reap bountifully. And if we sow sparingly, we'll reap sparingly. And, God, the eternal rewards that we want,

Lord, are from you. Lord, the rewards that this world has to offer are nothing. They do not last. They're fleeting pleasures. And so God, teach us to loosen our grip on this world, that we might strengthen our grip on you, that we might cling to you and be involved entirely, consumed our whole life, Lord, with the ministry of reconciliation. Lord, with our breath, with our energy.

with our money, everything about us, God. We ask that you would teach us to be faithful and diligent, to be obedient to your word and the things that you're calling us to. Heavenly Father, we ask that you would help us to purpose in our heart beforehand and prepare beforehand that we might be able to give cheerfully in worship to you. Lord, that we might be able to have our fruit multiplied as we give to your kingdom and to the work that you want to accomplish. What an awesome privilege.

It's in your precious name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.