We're in the middle of our study of Second Corinthians, chapters eight and nine, specifically dealing with the topic of money and of giving unto the Lord. The former Catholic monk turned Protestant, or protesting reformer, Martin Luther, once railed against his congregation because they were stingy givers. And he said this from the pulpit. Imagine this coming from my lips. You ungrateful beasts. You are not worthy of the treasures of the gospel. If you don't improve, I will stop preaching rather than cast pearls before swine. Pretty intense rebuke. You know, when I read that, I asked myself the question, am I one who gives sparingly, or am I one who gives bountifully, generously? We've been talking about this theme for the last few weeks as we've been working our way through these two chapters. I ask you, in light of what we talked about last week, are you one whom the Lord would rebuke were he to stand and look at you eyeball to eyeball? Would he rebuke you for being one who gives sparingly? Or would He commend you for one giving bountifully? Would He rebuke you for praying sparingly? Or would He commend you as one who has prayed bountifully? Would He rebuke you as one who has not sought Him with all of your heart? You've sought Him sparingly, Or would He commend you because you have been one, a faithful one, to seek God bountifully? 2 Corinthians 9, verse 6, is about all we accomplished last week. We looked at this one principle that is the hinge for this particular chapter, Second Corinthians 9.6 reads, now this I say, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. We talked about that law of the harvest. When I invest little, I get little return. When I invest much, I get a great deal in return. Men, let's apply this principle to you. Now, us guys, I am certainly well among them, we are famously known for our brevity when it comes to the details of the day. How was work, honey? Oh, fine. Well, when we in communication so sparingly unto our wife, is it any surprise that we reap sparingly when it comes to an emotional connectedness? All of what we do needs to be surrounded in prayer and in the pursuit of God. Because that's who we are, we are identified, we are marked people. So everything that we do, ladies, even a baby shower, needs to be marked and bathed in prayer and the pursuit of God. I certainly wouldn't say the words of Martin Luther, but if a rebuke was to come out of my mouth, it would be for our contentedness with mediocrity. A little of this, a little of that, a little prayer, a little Bible study, a little giving, a little contribution of my time. If we sow sparingly, we will reap sparingly. It applies to the spiritual realm. It applies to the relational realm. It applies to many, many realms. My exhortation as is Paul's is that we be a people that sow bountifully for the sake of others, for in so doing, Not only will God be honored and other people be blessed, my friends, we will be enriched. We will be blessed. We will be people marked and known by the world as a people set apart unto the Lord. Now this morning, we're gonna look at the entirety of 2 Corinthians chapter nine. We'll have to hurry a little bit in order to cover that much material, but I'm counting on the fact that you either were here last week or you're gonna get a tape of last week, so you have a little bit more of the background of this particular chapter. Verses one through five give the occasion for this section in Paul's letter. Briefly, it's this. Let me read it first, and then we'll look at this. It is superfluous for me to write to you about this ministry to the saints, for I know your readiness of which I boast about you to the Macedonians, namely, that Achaia has been prepared since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I have sent the brethren in order that our boasting about you may not be made empty in this case, so that, as I was saying, you may be prepared. Otherwise, if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we, not to speak of you, will be put to shame by this confidence. So I thought it necessary to urge the brethren that they would go on ahead of you and arrange beforehand your previously promised bountiful gift so that the same would be ready as a bountiful gift and not affected by covetousness. It's my perspective, belief, that while Paul was here in Corinth, in the province of Achaia, he received word during that 18 months that he was there ministering, that the saints in Jerusalem, under a great deal of affliction and persecution, were unable to put food on the table for their families. Paul, as a normal expression of his ministry, communicated this to these people in Corinth. These people in Corinth responded by saying, Paul, is there any way God might use us to help these people? And their initial response of generosity overwhelmed Paul and encouraged him tremendously. Now before any action was taken, Paul went north into the churches in Macedonia, Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea among them. And he told these people not only of the need in Jerusalem, but of the initial response of these people in Corinth. But the people in Macedonia, far poorer than the people in Corinth, did not just say, We'd like to be involved. They said, get out the offering plates and we'll take up an offering right now. These people impressed Paul, not only because of their desire to give, but their zeal in giving. Paul was overwhelmed. We looked at that in chapter eight. Now Paul says to these Corinthians, you've talked a good talk. I think your heart is in the right place, but so far I haven't seen any fruit. Make sure your actions follow your words. So in the following verses that we'll look at this morning, I find Paul saying in verses 5 through 10, he gives us four attitudes that must be characteristic of a giver that is honored by the Lord. That is, one who is is able to reap bountifully. He's talking about correct sowing here. He's talking about our heart. He's talking about our attitudes in giving. We'll look at four of those, and then in the remaining verses of this chapter, he talks about the result, what happens in this harvest. Look with me. I've already read verses one through six, look at verse seven with me. Each one must do just to see it purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you have an abundance for every good deed. As it is written, he scattered abroad, he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now, 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. Samuel Chadwick said, a gift without a heart behind it is a bribe. God asks for our heart, not our gifts. So we're talking about our heart. We're talking about the attitudes from which we give. The first we find in verse five is negative. The next three are positive. All begin with the letter C, just to make it easy for me, all right? I'm not concerned about you. Oh, that's a little bit of an exaggeration. First one in verse five is that we are to give without covetousness. To give without covetousness, Paul talks about them being ready to give this bountiful gift, but not affected, or we could use the word not infected by covetousness. We talked about this last week briefly. There are some people who give in order to get. We looked at Mark chapter 10 last week, at Jesus' words, and we realized the tremendous Oh, this is a crass word, it's the only one that's in my mind. The tremendous payoff, the benefit of giving bountifully unto the Lord. Remember, Mark chapter 10, Jesus was talking to Peter and he says, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father, children or farms for my sake and for the gospel's sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much Now, in the present age and in the age to come, he talks about a hundred-fold increase. Put in financial terms, that's a return on your investment of 10,000%. That is a big return. Now, there are some who would say, oh, well, if God wants to give me a 10,000% return, I'll give Him a buck. Man, I'll give him, I'll give him 20 bucks. Think about the return I'm gonna get. Well, that person reveals by their attitude that they are sowing under the flesh. They're not sowing under the spirit. Meaning that God cannot shower his bounty upon them because he has a specific purpose in mind in doing so. That covetousness, that giving in order to get is counterproductive. It is not the kind of attitude whereby God will bless his sower. There are some people, on the other hand, who give remorsefully looking over their shoulder, thinking, oh, I could use that money to buy this and such for myself or for my family. That kind of looking over the shoulder, that kind of covetousness is similarly not honored by the Lord. But now he gives us three other characteristics, qualities, attitudes of that person whose sowing is honored by God. He asks us to give gifts unto him with, secondly, calculation. Verse 7 tells us, each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart. To give with a calculated spirit is to give with purpose. It is to give with intention. It is to give with thoughtfulness. Now that's not to say that we can't give spontaneously. I run across a person who who is in need, and I respond spontaneously to that need. What Paul is getting at is the person who is prepared in his heart to give, whether that is something that is ongoing and planned and habitual, or whether it is something spontaneous. Paul's talking about that person who realizes, I am not my own. I have been bought with a price. The Lord Jesus owns me and everything that is mine, that I call mine, no, it's really all His. That person who has that kind of mental attitude, that kind of person that is prepared to give, is ready at any time to respond to a need. It's that person who is Thoughtfully intentional. Purposefully calculating in their giving. They're ready at all times. You see that? Third attitude is to give with cheer. Without covetousness, with calculation, and with cheer. Verse eight says, I'm sorry, end of verse seven says, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. The Greek word there for cheerful is halaros, from which we get our English word hilarious. Now you have heard many mindless preachers, no doubt, say that we are to be hilarious givers. I used that word carefully, mindless preachers. Synonyms for the word hilarious, very funny, side-splitting, amusing, comical, entertaining, uproarious. Does God call us to be that kind of a giver? No. In the context, Paul is talking about giving with joy, being pleased, thrilled, honored, at the privilege and opportunity to give to other people. John Wanamaker, namesake for his company, famous department store in Philadelphia, was one who gave generously unto the Lord. He was one time in China observing a Christian mission and noticed that there was the beginnings of a church building under construction. And he learned from some of the nationals there that this particular group of believers didn't have any more money to finish their building. Soon after that, he saw a boy in a yoke with an ox. And he thought that a very odd sight. A young boy yoked with an oxen, pulling this plow that his father was driving. Wannamaker A asked about this. What are they doing over here? The guide explained that this boy had promised to his father Father, if you will sell one of the oxen and give the money for the building of this church building, I will take the oxen's place and pull the plow. Mr. Wanamaker said that he is said to have fallen to his knees and said, Lord, let me be hitched to a plow that I may know the joy of sacrificial giving. That's a cheerful giver. That's a person who, with joy in their heart, is looking for an opportunity to contribute to somebody else's need. Always looking to give. That's the person who is going to be blessed by the Lord. A giver without covetousness, with calculation, with cheer, Thirdly, giving with, fourthly, giving with confidence. I can't pass this quotation by. I've got to go backwards just a little bit. Great Bible teacher Charles Hodge wrote, unless we feel it an honor and a joy to give, God does not accept the offering. Hmm. We give with cheer, and we give with confidence. Now, I'm gonna read verses eight through 10 again. I want you to notice particularly verse eight, and particularly verse 10. And I want you to notice that Paul is giving us two reasons why we have confidence, why we give with confidence. First, because of the person of God, and secondly, because of the purposes of God. Look at verse eight with me again. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always, having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed. Verse 10, now 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. Because of the person of God, we have confidence in him because he is gracious. He is gracious because He gives and He gives and He gives when we don't deserve it. And God is a providing God, for He gives and He gives and He gives when we need it. And we see these things running through the pages of Scripture and the pages of your lives, you have been illustrations this morning of God's gracious provision. He gives when we don't deserve it. He gives when we need it. But I want you to notice the purpose here about why God super abundantly provides, not always financially, super abundantly provides for His people, those who are sowing seeds of righteousness. Verse 8 tells us, so that you may have an abundance for every good deed. Notice verse 10, at the end, he's talking about sowing and then increasing by means of reaping, so that the harvest of your righteousness is increased. Paul tells us this, this person who is sowing unto the Lord, sowing unto the Spirit, This person who sows without covetousness, with calculation, with cheer, with confidence in God, this person God honors. And that person who sows under the Spirit in the lives of other people will reap a harvest of righteousness. They will reap a harvest of every good deed. Now, one of the laws of the harvest that we talked about last week is when you sow a little, you reap much. If you sow a little under the flesh, you'll reap more. Conversely, under the spirit. So Paul says, that person, those believers, my people, who sow under the Spirit, who sow as to give and bless other people, those people are the ones that I will allow a harvest of righteousness, a harvest of good deeds. I will entrust to them more resources, not just financial, such that they can plant it again. And there can be more seed, such that there will be greater good deeds. and far more righteousness. Do you see that? Do you see God's purposes in giving? Now mistakenly, we sometimes assume that God's giving, God's bounty, God's blessing to us is for our own consumption. Certainly, God gives and abundantly provides for our needs, abundantly. But his giving is that it might be sown and scattered to benefit other people, so there be greater good deeds, a further increase in righteousness. Now, these are the results, verses 11 through 14. Let me read them. I put them in your notes. You can look for them. Verse 10, you, Corinthians, you will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints in Jerusalem, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all. While they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. So when we give, what happens? First of all, other people are blessed. They are nurtured, they are strengthened. Their needs are provided for. Secondly, more importantly, God is honored. His name is made famous. Thanksgivings ascend to the throne. That's what God is eagerly desirous of. He wants all honor, all praise, all glory to go unto Himself. And my giving enables that to happen. Others are taken care of. God is glorified. In verse 11, Paul says, and you will be enriched. It's a definition of blessing. You will be blessed. You will be enriched. How? How, Paul? How will we be enriched? Well, I pull these three things from the text. I am blessed to see that God supplies for us. We are blessed because we see that God supplies for us. See, as I give, Humanly, I can say, God, I have less to work with. Am I going to be able to take care of my family now that this cushion that I've been enjoying is gone now? We have the blessed privilege of seeing God provide. When I was in college, I felt led of the Lord to give a hundred dollars to a man that was changing careers and he was in a education process and he needed a hundred dollars to do it, didn't have it. I had it in the bank, but I had school bills to pay. And yet I felt led of the Lord to give that and I had the glorious honor of seeing how God was gonna meet the need. So I had the privilege of blessing him, thanksgiving's going to the throne of God, and at the same time, being blessed myself. Secondly, I see here in the text that by me giving, I am blessed to know that others are praying for me. Others are praying for us. See, Paul said to these Corinthians, as they give to the people there in Jerusalem that were needy, verse 14, those people are gonna be praying for them. They're gonna be supported spiritually. And that's my blessing, is I have the privilege of giving. I'm not out there on my own. I've got a net. of people that love me and support me. As I think of us going overseas to see the Kalatas, I think of them in this context. As we have had the privilege of giving to them, financially, emotionally, relationally, over the years, we have the blessed privilege of knowing though they are thousands of miles away, praying for us. How many of you have told me that you got a note from Nicolaus? Because they heard about, whether that's on prayer mail or something else, they heard about there was this need in your life. And they've been praying. They've been interceding before the Father. My friends, we are richly blessed As we give, God provides that net of safety by a prayer covering over us, under us. Thirdly, I am blessed, we are blessed as we give to see God using us. There's no greater privilege. than to know and to see God using you for the benefit of other people. I get so hungry for that. I can't, I can't get enough of that. For other people to say, you know, Rob, God was honored. This person was built up and you had a part in it. My friends, money can't buy that kind of joy. I want to close by telling you a story. A Hungarian man, about 50 years of age, real thick eyebrows, you know, the kind that are really bushy, gray. Very methodical man. His name was Marcel Sternberger. He was a Hungarian living in New York City. It was January 10th, 1948. He always caught the 909 bus to take him to the subway station in order to get into work. But on this particular day, Marcel thought, you know, I really need to go see a friend that is sick. So he put aside work and took a different route into Brooklyn in order to see Victor, another Hungarian man who was very ill. Marcel was one who deeply loved the Lord. And he gave, and he gave, and he gave of himself. And he had the blessed privilege of being able to see God use him. This is the story of what happened that morning. The car was crowded. And there seemed to be no chance of a seat, but just as I entered, a man sitting by the door suddenly jumped up to leave and I slipped into the empty place. I've been living in New York long enough not to start conversations with strangers, but being a photographer, I have the peculiar habit of analyzing people's faces. And I was struck by the features of the passenger on my left. He was probably in his late 30s, and when he glanced up, his eyes seemed to have a hurt expression in them. He was reading a Hungarian language newspaper, and something prompted me to say in Hungarian, I hope you don't mind if I glance at your paper. The man seemed surprised to be addressed in his native tongue, but he answered politely, You may read it now, I'll have time later on. During the half hour ride to town, we had quite a conversation. He said his name was Bela Paskin, a law student when World War II started. He had been put into a German labor battalion and sent to the Ukraine. Later he was captured by the Russians and put to work burying the German dead. After the war, he covered hundreds of miles on foot until he reached his home in Dobrykin, a large city in eastern Hungary. I myself knew Dobrykin very well, and we talked quite a while about it. Then he told me the rest of the story. When he went to the apartment once occupied by his father, mother, brothers, sisters, he found strangers living there. Then he went upstairs to the apartment that he and his wife once had. It was also occupied by strangers. None of them had ever heard of his family. As he was leaving, full of sadness, a boy ran after him, calling, Paskin Paksi, Paskin Paksi, which means Uncle Paskin. The child was the son of some neighbors of his. He went to the boy's home and talked to his parents. Your whole family is dead, they told him. The Nazis took your wife to Auschwitz. Auschwitz was one of the worst Nazi concentration camps. Paskin gave up all hope. A few days later, too heartsick to remain any longer in Hungary, he set out on foot, stealing across border after border until he reached Paris. He managed to emigrate to the United States in October 1947, just three months before I met him. All the time he had been talking, I kept thinking that somehow this story seemed familiar. A young woman whom I had recently met at the home of his friends had also been from Debreken. She had been sent to Auschwitz. From there, she had been transferred to work in a German munitions factory. Her relatives had been killed in the gas chambers. Later, she was liberated by the Americans and was brought here in the first boatload of displaced persons in 1946. Her story had moved me so much that I had written down her address and phone number, intending to invite her to meet my family and thus help relieve the terrible emptiness in her life. It seemed impossible that there could be any connection between these two people. But as I neared my station, I fumbled anxiously in my address book. I asked in what I hoped was a casual voice, was your wife's name Maria? He turned pale. Yes. How did you know? He looked as if he was about to faint, and I said, let's get off the train. I took him by the arm to the next station and led him to a telephone booth. He stood there like a man in a trance while I dialed her phone number. It seemed hours before Maria Paskin answered. And later I learned her room was alongside the telephone, but she was in the habit of never answering it because she had so few friends and the calls were always for someone else. This time, however, there was no one else at home. And after letting it ring for a while, she responded. When I heard her voice at last, I told her who I was and asked her to describe her husband. She seemed surprised at the question, but gave me a description. And then I asked her where she had lived in Dobrykin. And she told me the address. Asking her to hold the line, I turned to Paskin and I said, did you and your wife live at such and such an address? Yes, Pell exclaimed. white as a sheet and trembling. Try to be calm, I urged him. Something miraculous is about to happen to you. Here, take the phone and talk to your wife. He nodded his head in bewilderment, his eyes bright with tears. He took the receiver, listened a moment to his wife's voice, and then suddenly cried, This is Bella. This is Bella. I began to mumble hysterically, seeing that the poor fellow was so excited he couldn't talk coherently. I took the receiver from his shaking hands. Stay where you are, I told Myra, who also sounded hysterical. I am sending your husband to you. We will be there in a few minutes. Bella was crying like a baby and saying over and over again, it's my wife. I go to be with my wife. At first I thought I had better accompany Paskin lest the man should pass out from excitement. But I decided that this was a moment to which strangers should not intrude. Putting Paskin into a taxi cab, I directed the taxi cab driver to take him to Maria's address, paid the fare, and said goodbye. Bela Paskin's reunion with his wife was a moment so poignant, so electric, with suddenly released emotion that afterward, neither he nor Maria could recall much about it. I remember only that when I left the phone, I walked to the mirror like in a dream to see if maybe my hair had suddenly turned gray, she said later. The next thing I know, a taxi stops in front of the house and it's my husband coming toward me. Details I cannot remember. Only this I know, that I was happy for the first time in many years. All of that, that one moment. Because one man was in the habit of giving. He sowed here, and he sowed there. And one day, there was a harvest. And he had the blessed privilege of seeing God use him. What the world needs is not more go-getters, but more go-givers. Appropriately, Paul concludes this particular chapter with a doxology. It says in verse 15, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. The gift that is greater than any other poured into our hearts. Can we give any less? Let's pray. Oh, Father, what a privilege it is ours to give unto other people, to see those needs and to respond. God, you are a faithful, faithful God. And we thank you for that. We bless your holy name. You are righteous and perfect in all of your ways. We thank you for giving We thank you even for taking from us so that we might depend upon you, keep our eyes squarely upon you, and experience that blessed joy of seeing you give yet again to us. Father, would you move in our hearts that we not be a people of complacent mediocrity? to cause us to be a people with a passion to give unto You. For we ask this in the name of that One who gave everything for us. Amen.