Good morning. Please join me in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. 2 Corinthians chapter 9. It is a privilege. It is a joy to be together. And you have given me much for which to be grateful for. And I am grateful that Pastor Jim is away. because then I can have an opportunity to speak. And you will probably be grateful that Pastor Jim is coming back by the time that we're done here. And so we both have much for which to thank the Lord for. If I could just encourage you to contact Pastor Jonathan or myself while Pastor Jim is away so we can give him a brief time of rest and vacation with his family. I know that would serve him well, and we are always happy to serve you, so please don't hesitate to reach out. 2 Corinthians 9, and we'll begin reading in verse 1, where the Bible says, Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness. of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction. The point is this, whoever so sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every or all good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession. of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. This is the eternal word of the only God. There are many things in life that we gladly talk about. There are some things in life we'd rather not discuss or be told how to live. And certainly we've hit one of those topics when we come to the topic of our cash. In this and the last half of chapter eight, the Apostle Paul was preparing the Corinthian church for his visit. Part of this preparation was reminding them to follow through on an offering he was collected and that they had been enthusiastic about. This was an offering to help meet the needs of poor Christians in the Jerusalem church. It's kind of fascinating. The Jerusalem church was the mother church, as we might say today. From that church, Paul goes out on his missionary journey and he plants this church at Corinth. Now the Corinthians are giving to help meet the needs of poor Christians there in the Jerusalem church. This was a predominantly Jewish group of believers, whereas the Corinthian church is predominantly not Jewish people, they're Gentiles. And so he's encouraging them both in the attitude they'd already shown about this offering, and also to get it organized and have it ready when he arrived. Because when Paul came, as you might have noticed from our text, when he came he would be accompanied by members of the Macedonian church. Now the Macedonian Christians mentioned at the beginning of chapter 8, they're actually quite a wonderful example to us. When we look at their example, and I want you to remember this, this will be very key to us as we go through chapter nine. The Macedonian Christians, they weren't extremely wealthy. In fact, we're told in the beginning verses of chapter eight, they lived in extreme poverty. On top of that, they also had come through what Paul calls a very severe trial. So these are people who had given to meet the needs of poor believers in a fellow church in a part of the world that many of them probably would never go to. So they had received God's grace and they responded to God's grace with submission to God. And then that was followed by generous, cheerful giving to meet the needs of God's people. Interestingly enough, they were greatly encouraged by the enthusiastic attitude, the zeal of the Corinthians in participating. So Paul didn't want the Macedonian Christians who would be traveling with him, he didn't want them to be discouraged by the Corinthians not following through on their giving, since by the time of this writing it's been over a year since they had committed to giving. So Paul sends Titus and two other men to help the Corinthian church organize the offering before Paul's arrival there. And this brings us to the first five verses of chapter nine. The first five verses of chapter nine where we learn to be ready to give willingly. Be ready to give willingly. Paul writes the Corinthians about their readiness to give. He says, I really don't need to write to you about this, because you all were enthusiastic. In fact, you were so enthusiastic, it rubbed off on many of the Macedonian Christians to participate well. Now, that's worth noting. This enthusiasm in being part of God's work was so contagious that fellow believers north of Corinth in a region called Macedonia here wanted to be part as well. Now just think of what a high compliment Paul is giving to them. You all were so ready, willing, and eager that it caused others to get involved and to help and to be part. I mean, it's like that rah-rah let's go team already. Here we go. So then why has he sent a delegation of Titus and two other Christians to gather up the giving? Well, he doesn't want the Macedonian Christians traveling with him to be discouraged. Just imagine this. You're all excited about giving. You travel to this other church whose spirited engagement in being part of this offering, they're not ready. They haven't given. This has been over a year. What happened to the enthusiasm? What's going on that this would be a discouragement to the Macedonian Christians? So he sends ahead Titus and these other guys because he knows when he comes to Corinth after them, he's probably gonna be traveling with some Macedonian Christians. And he doesn't want reports going back that would discourage or divide the church. And so Titus and these other two brothers, this is the end of chapter eight, they're on the way to help finish what they started. Now this kind of spirit in giving is what we see right here among us. It has been a total joy and delight to be able to share with so many Christians beyond our church body of your generous giving. We asked you earlier this year, you may remember, we asked you to consider giving up to $10,000 to help a needy group of believers in Togo to finish off a church that they had started. They had done what they could do and the church building was not finished. So we asked you, would you consider helping this group of believers across the world? This is very much like Corinth. You've never met those people in Togo. And most of you never will. Some of you have. But most of you will never meet them until we're all together in heaven. And how did you respond to this? Well, you didn't just give the 10,000. I mean, you all, you just went the extra, the double extra mile. And I don't have the exact total, but I know it's at least over 21,000 that you gave. Now that is enthusiastic. generous giving. So I kind of feel like saying what Paul has said here. I have no need to speak to you about generous giving. You've demonstrated you're enthusiastic about the work of God. You've given generously for God's people to hear the word, to have a church, and to help those who were too poor to be able to complete this project. on their own. But as with all of us, I do have need to speak to you because we all struggle with our spirit when it comes to our giving, when it comes to our money, with our attitude about these things. So Paul starts by saying, and I think it's worth noting that this might be one of the only times it's okay to be called a Corinthian in spirit and that be a good thing. Corinth wasn't known, and the church at Corinth, it wasn't known for a lot of good stuff at times. This is one example where it's worth following their example as Paul describes it. So he says, be ready, be willing, and as we look down at verse 6, to give generously. Give generously. For people who have embraced the gospel and committed themselves to following Jesus, they are generous in giving to further God's work, his mission in this world. And in the immediate context of chapters eight and nine, Paul reminds the Corinthians to give generously to meet the needs of fellow Christians who are poor. And through Paul's teaching here then, we learn broader principles of Christian giving, with the first being how not to give. See this at the end of verse five, where Paul says to them that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction or extortion. He says, don't give then in verses six and following, don't give meagerly, sparsely or lightly because the law of sowing and reaping applies to your giving. according to verse 6. Gardeners who plant only a few seeds get a small harvest. This is a very simple concept that we can all readily understand. You plant only a few seeds, you're only going to get a few bit of harvest. You plant a lot of seeds, you have an abundant harvest. Not every seed produces a plant. So this is the idea of somebody that has a bunch of seeds and they're taking those seeds and they're just scattering them liberally about. I think of this when it comes to some of the grass gurus among us. who in the spring overseed their lawn. They don't merely take a few seeds and scatter it over those bald spots that keep them up at night. No, they want to sleep again. So they're very generous with scattering that grass seed that there be no more bald spots through the summer season. Now a member of my family experienced the law of sowing and reaping. when they had the mistaken impression that planting a tomato here would provide anywhere from one to four tomatoes per growing season. One plant, one to four tomatoes. So she or he bought around eight tomato plants, eager for about 20 to 30 tomatoes total for the season. So you can kind of see the negative attitude about tomatoes that we're still working through. But by mid-July, she or he had completely given up on picking tomatoes because of the, what you call it, bountiful harvest. It was actually, shall we say, upsetting to one of our neighbors because about mid-July, she said, enough, I'm done. I'm not picking any more tomatoes. We had tomatoes of various shapes and sizes already at the same time. Such a bountiful harvest because as I know and they now know, one plant produces a few more than four tomatoes. And so it was a sight to behold one afternoon when I looked out our back window and noticed there the neighborhood children had congregated around several of the tomato bushes and were eating tomatoes and talking about what life was like as a child in the neighborhood. Now it's safe to say that as a result of that experience that the member of my household has decided not to grow tomatoes for the foreseeable future. and has learned a vivid lesson on sowing and reaping. And so Paul's lesson to us, don't give sparingly. He also says in verse seven, don't give sparingly. reluctantly or grudgingly. Now from what I've discerned, people don't enjoy paying parking tickets. I heard a lot of people talk about what they were thankful for over Thanksgiving and there was one notable thing that people did not say they were thankful for. It was parking tickets. You maybe have had this experience. You didn't see that sign that said no parking. You parked there, closed your car door. You whistled as you walked. And as you came back, you noticed a little something on the windshield. And your heart within you sank as you realized you had missed the no parking sign. So then you had to pay your parking fine, but you did so begrudgingly. You didn't want to, but you had to, so you did it, but you didn't like it, and you don't want to talk about it either. That's the attitude God wants us to avoid. That's the attitude he says, don't have this attitude with your giving. And similar to it, don't give out of compulsion or a feeling of being forced to give. It's the idea of giving with sorrow and regret because of what you gave. It's the attitude, what could I have done with all that money? You get that end of the year giving statement and you think to yourself, man, there are all these things I couldn't get because I gave all of this money. If only I didn't have to give in the offering, I could buy what I wanted. That's giving with sorrow, from a feeling of being forced to give but not actually desiring to give. This is different from that parking fine. With that parking fine, you better pay it or you're probably going to get worse fines and other issues. But that's not what giving to God is supposed to be. It's not cringing. as you give, it's instead a cheerful, joyful choice to give to God. It's an eager choice without that regret or sorrow. God loves a cheerful giver. The person who gives with joy and gladness, not concerned with what they won't have, but concerned with what God has. Our focus is here on our attitude while we too often focus on the amount. You can give the most of anyone in the church body and still be displeasing to God because of your attitude when giving. Think about it. Paul has reached out to the Macedonian Christians. They gave out of their extreme poverty after suffering a very severe trial. It wasn't the amount that mattered. It was the attitude with which it was given. The heart, the mind, the thoughts, the intention behind it being given. So not the one who gives with sorrow, reluctance, irritation, or merely out of feeling forced to give. Now some of us this time of the year greatly enjoy the deals and discounts. And some of you are masters at getting to most of them. We plan for it throughout the year, and we even set some of our holiday celebrations around when we can get that best price for the item we've been looking at for quite some time. We buy electronics, clothes of various shapes, sizes, and colors, and maybe the big stuff, like a new car or appliance. We know what we like, and we happily spend our cash on the stuff we like. That's the attitude. That's the same attitude we should have when we're giving to God. Nobody goes to get their deal or discount with a sorrowful heart. I'm just so sad I have to give my money for this. Oh no, there's great joy. You've even done some work towards this. You're excited about that purchase. That's the attitude we're supposed to have when we give to God. It's the attitude we're supposed to have when we give to help missionaries go and stay on the mission field without concerns about money. It's the attitude we're supposed to have when we give to both feed the poor and share the gospel with them right here in our city. It's the same spirit he wants us to have when we meet the needs of his gospel ministers. He loves a cheerful giver. And he generously provides for his people so that they may have their needs met and be able to give generously. Now just like he provides all we need for life and godliness, so he gives us what we need as he defines our need. I realize that word need can be a struggle for us. And we can talk ourselves into needing all kinds of things that we don't really need. So this is neat as God defines it. This is not a health and wealth, a prosperity gospel that says if you give to God, he'll make you fabulously wealthy. That house you wanted, that car you wanted, those clothes you wanted, that stuff you've wanted for so long, you give to God, he'll give it to you. No, that's not what Paul is saying at all. We totally missed the point. God gives you what you need and more. As verse 11, eight through 11 teach us, he wants to meet your needs. He will meet your needs as he defines them and he will enable you to give generously. In verse eight, God abundantly or generously, you've noticed these words all. I tried to emphasize them a bit to you without being annoying as we read through these because he mentions the word all a lot. All grace, verse eight, all sufficiency or all contentment, all things, all times, all or every good work. God is our great provider and he provides so that we can cheerfully give. He gives us grace to come to him in salvation and then to be transformed. That's all his grace at work. Grace doesn't stop there. He gives us grace that sustains and empowers and nourishes us in righteous living. And it's this very same grace of God that so transformed the Macedonian Christians. I mean, this doesn't make sense, does it? Even though they suffered a severe trial and didn't have much living in extreme poverty, they still gave. even though from a human perspective, perhaps they should have been getting. This is the power of grace at work in human hearts. Their eyes are not on themselves as God's people, but they're on God and furthering his work in this earth. We move to verse nine and we get a quote from Psalm 112. It affirms that righteous people, people who are pleasing to God, they give, not just give, but they give generously. You see that word there, freely. They give freely, without constraint. They're not nervous or worried. If I give, what's gonna happen to my bank account? They give generously. They give freely, without constraint, without inhibition. And their good works of giving freely are long remembered and long beneficial. This is the grace of God again at work. Unless you be concerned about having enough, you can see Paul's reasoning right through this. He takes us then to verse 10. And he tells us God supplies the seed and the food for the farmer to eat. So it is God who is the great provider and supplier of what we need and more so that we can give generously. Think of it this way. You have a job. How did you get that job? I realize you may have done a bang-up job on preparing that resume, and you went probably through a lot of work to get that job that you have. You maybe got certifications, you've got training, you spent money to go to school to be able to get the job that you got. But ultimately, where did you get that job? Who gave you the ability to go to school? Who gave you the brain and the intellect and the talent that you're being so well compensated for? Where did it all come from? Did you get to choose what your talents and abilities would be? Certainly all of it is a gift from God. May not always be what we want, but it's exactly what God has designed to meet our needs and give us in even greater abundance to then give generously to Him. It all comes from God. And God, verse 11, enriches us. so we can enrich others through his work. Now isn't this contrary to how we often think? And that's exactly what God's word is confronting us with. We're so concerned we might give too much and then not have enough. Or perhaps we give with the wrong motivation. We're concerned about what others who see how much we give, what they'll say about us or what they'll think Perhaps we're frustrated, we'd like to give more and we have a sour attitude because we say, God, if you would give me more, I would give more. And we're not content with what God gives us to give. We're so concerned we might give too much and then not have enough, but no one's ever gone to jail for being generous or giving too much to meet the needs around them. Some years we're able to give more. We changed jobs and got a signing bonus. We received an inheritance. Business was better this year than last and there's more income because of it. But some years we're not able to give as much. We're struggling to pay for all the essentials each month. Your health unexpectedly has given you turmoil and you're struggling with the medical bills that you didn't require having to pay so much for. In all of it, God is concerned with your heart, with your mind, with your thinking, with your attitude in whatever you give. Just consider his words to his people, Israel in Deuteronomy 15. The Bible says, if there's a poor person among you, one of your brothers within any of your city gates in the land, the Lord your God is giving you, do not be hard-hearted or tight-fisted towards your poor brother. Instead, you are to open your hand to him and freely, there's our word freely again, and freely loan him enough for whatever need he has. Give to him and don't have a stingy heart when you give. And because of this, the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you do. God is concerned with what we do with our money. He's concerned about the attitude we have when we give it or refuse to give it. God delights in our generous giving. And when we follow his giving plan as God's people, we glorify God with generous giving. I think it's a marvelous reality that right here in this passage, you can be sure you rejoice the heart of God by the attitude that you have. towards giving to further his work. You glorify God with generous giving. Now, verses 12 through 15 are quite fascinating. They're just littered with the results of following God's plan to generously give. Your giving produces or causes others to give God praise and glory. The end of verse 11 says that to us. Your giving meets the needs of God's people and God's work, verse 12. Now, we all know we have a building here. And as far as I can tell, everyone is mostly thankful for the air conditioning. I know some of you would prefer a little less here and there, but we're glad we have it. We're also thankful for the heat for this time of the year. We have missionaries that we want to stay on the field. We have the responsibility to care for those who give spiritually to us, like pastors. We have fellow members here who have needs that God wants us to meet. It takes God's people giving generously for the work of God to advance. And meeting these needs causes the recipients to give praise and glory to God. Think about that. Your giving causes others to give glory and praise to God. Now that's some power you have. Not just for having their needs met, but Paul says it's because they see God's gospel work being accomplished in you who give. Someone who gives generously to further God's work on this earth demonstrates that God's grace is at work in their hearts. They're not worried about the bank account being depleted. They're asking God, how can I give more? They're thinking of how they're going to be able to contribute to greater giving for gospel advance right here in our community as well as around the world. They're not caught up with the stuff of this life. They've adopted God's mindset about money being used to meet needs, to be faithful and responsibility to meet needs that they have and that others have. They were saved by faith and now they're living by faith knowing God gives generously so they can give generously. Recognizing that all that we have and that all that we are as God's children, it belongs to him anyway. And finally verse 15 erupts with this enormous praise to God. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Now this is gift giving. at its best, at its finest. This is the gift that motivates and inspires all other gifts. It's giving unparalleled in extravagance and abundance. Romans 5, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. God is the best gift giver. This gift is the grace of God. It works in our hearts, Jesus saves us, He frees us, He forgives us of our sins, and He transforms us. That is the good news of the gospel. He doesn't leave us in our sin and our bondage to sin. It's the kindness of God in making us part of His family forever. And it's as Jesus said in John 12, a single grain of wheat. It doesn't produce anything. unless it is planted in the ground and dies. If it dies, it produces a lot of grain. So think of it this way, God sends Jesus as a seed. Jesus willingly gives his life up on the cross, producing a mammoth harvest of redeemed worshipers, the very people of God. So our example for how we should give comes from the very example of God giving to us. He gives good gifts to his children, providing for all our needs and then giving us more so that we can be generous to give. His grace at work in our hearts through the gospel to give generously to gospel work so others can know what we've embraced. So others can joy in a life transformed by the gospel. But this generosity and giving is also to his people who have needs, as well as those who minister his word. So God empowers his people to generously give to his work. God loves a cheerful giver. So the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the person who sows generously will also reap generously. Each person should do as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly, not out of compulsion, since God loves a cheerful giver. So thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. Let's pray together. Lord God, we come to you thankful. It's hard to express our thanks. Your love, your favor, the gift of Jesus Christ is so great. Words don't seem adequate to express the magnitude of the gift of Jesus. And all you've given to us because of the cross, now your children, rescued, restored, forgiven. So Father, I pray that you would work in our hearts and minds this powerful truth that you give to us so that we may give. You give to us so we may give without hesitation, without any reluctance, without restraint. so that your purpose would be accomplished in this earth, your work furthered, your name glorified, and your people blessed through generous giving. We thank you, Father, that this is your plan. It's too wonderful for us to have created. It's clearly come from your mind, and so I pray you'd help us to submit our hearts to it, that our giving would be well-pleasing to you, that Christ would be magnified in this place. We thank you for your indescribable gift. We thank you in the name of Jesus, the most wonderful gift, amen.