Not on Monday. On Monday. and it's but 15 verses. Our sermon will focus mainly on verses one through seven, but we'll read the whole thing. It says, for as touching the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous, it's pointless for me to write to you, because you're already ministering to the saints, for I know the forwardness of your mind. for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many. Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that, as I said, you may be ready, lest, happily or perhaps, if they of Macedonia come with me and find you unprepared, we, that we say not ye, should be ashamed in this same confident boasting. Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you and make up beforehand your bounty, that is, take up what you've set aside as a gift, whereof ye had noticed before that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty and not as of covetousness or compulsion. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully. Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound towards you, that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. As it is written, he hath dispersed abroad, he hath given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. Now, he that ministereth seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food, and multiply your seed sown, and increase the fruits of your righteousness. being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causeth through us thanksgiving to God. For the administration of this service, the sharing of this service that you're offering, not only supplieth the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. Whilst by the experiment of this ministration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal distribution unto them and unto all men, and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. Amen. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the word of our God endures forever. Amen. One of the simplest teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ is that others will know that you are among the disciples of Christ because you love one another. The love the saints have for one another is on full display in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. We're told that these saints were willing to share their bounty, that is, their abundance. Their bounty that the Lord had blessed them with. Indeed, we could say that they understood Psalm 67, verses one and two, which says, God be merciful to us and bless us and cause his face to shine upon us that or so that your way may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations. What you have there is the people of God calling on God's mercy and blessing. Indeed, the shining of his face towards them. that his way might be known on earth, his salvation among all nations. That is, Lord, bless us so that we can bless others. I don't think the proper way to understand Paul's praise of the church here is that they, oh Lord, I have a terrible typo there. I don't think the proper way to understand what Paul is saying here when he praises the church is to say that they gave unto their own hurt. He actually says the opposite. They did not bring themselves into a place of suffering in order that other churches might be blessed. Let me say that again. They did not give out of their poverty, as it were, and create a greater place of suffering, or they didn't even move from a place of stability to a place of suffering, that the other churches might be blessed. No, they gave out of their bounty. He says it over and over again, out of their generosity. And this distinction is super important today. I'm gonna continue to elaborate on it here for a moment, but this distinction where you give in order to bless others, are you giving and causing yourself to hurt because of it, or are you giving out of your abundance? It's an important distinction that must be made because of the error of many today, many preachers, many teachers, probably in response to something like the prosperity gospel. That error is that loving the saints And causing your family to go without is a mark of holiness. That you really show that you love the saints by causing your own to go without. That's suffering for righteousness. You're teaching your household self-denial. You're teaching them to have their treasure in heaven. Remember 1 Timothy 5, 8 though, but if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he is denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever. Those two things are not in contradiction. Paul is not telling the people in Corinth to fail to provide for their own so that they can provide for others. We balance these things together. The truth is what is actually occurring when you proceed down the lifestyle of that error that I've just mentioned. Fathers, listen to this especially. You're making your children resent the Lord. Just take the conclusion out to its logical end. Imagine these things, a father saying to his children or even to his wife, God wants you to do without. while others get to benefit from my income. How about this one? Honey, I know your shoes hurt your feet, but the Lord will bless you while we bless others. Honey, I know this isn't the food that's good for you, but it's all we can afford because of how much we give to the homeless shelter. Pray that the Lord will make you thankful. Or this one. Looking into the face, of a child going without or just a child who is being a child and just needs normal things and you won't give them to them because you have to give them to someone else out of a matter of holiness. You ask this question, isn't God good? As your children have health problems because all you can afford to feed them is trash and dress them like rag dolls as a display of your godliness, isn't God good? Their thought? No, he's not. What's ironic about this is that so few are actually willing to live that life themselves while they call on others to do so. A modern example of this, I'm gonna give you an actual name, David Platt. David Platt, maybe you've heard his name before. He wrote a book called Radical. Bless the Lord if you've never read it or heard of it. But he's an example. He wrote a book called Radical and it teaches what amounts to what is called the poverty gospel. All the while, he lives in a million dollar home, pastoring a church of over 1,000 people. The second one that he's done that way, by the way. You see this also when you consider that this is, it's contrary to the teaching of Christ. What it ultimately works out to be is teaching people to love others more than they love their own. How is that contrary to the teaching of Christ? It sounds holy at first, right? Love others more than you love yourself. But the foundational teaching of loving your neighbor given in the Gospels is what? Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You cannot love your neighbor without loving yourself. That is, you cannot love somebody else out there before you've learned to love yourself and those with you. Let me give a summary of this chapter really quick, and then I'll get into a few principles to close. In the first five verses, Paul sends some of his fellow ministers to see if the Corinthian church has their bounty ready. They were getting ready to send help to the saints elsewhere. And Paul's making sure that it's ready so that when the time comes for it to be collected, His boasting of them would not be in vain. Imagine, you know, you're sending someone to go pick up a great gift, a great blessing that they've been laying aside and then you get there and it's not there. Right? That's what Paul's trying to avoid. He's like, you've been told this is going to happen. You've said you were ready. I've heard you were ready, but I want to make sure. So we're sending others and I may come myself, but I want to make sure lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf. And not only he, but they would be embarrassed. That's verses one to five. And then in verses six and following, we'll just go verses six to seven. Paul encourages them to think of sharing their bounty rightly. So what he's doing, he's trying to raise their sights, he's trying to encourage their hearts and minds to think about what they're doing in the right way. He shows them that dealing sparingly leads to smaller blessing. Every man is to give according to his heart. Now let's stop right there for just a moment. Why the appeal to the heart here and not the appeal to the tithe? Why is that? This is what I think. Many others think this, but there's another argument as well, and I'll get to that in a moment. Here's why I think he appeals to the heart and not the tithe. Because in the New Covenant, God gives a posture and an attitude for giving. not a percentage or an amount. Paul never puts forward an amount, but an attitude. He doesn't lay out a percentage, but a posture. What is the posture and the attitude? Cheerfulness from the heart. There are others that say, Well, what Paul is calling on them to do here is above and beyond their tithe. And that may be the case. That doesn't change the overall point that I'm making. That may indeed be the case. I don't think he's talking about the tithe in this text, though, and he doesn't appeal to the tithe at all. Now, a few principles to consider. I've given you a brief summary, a few principles to consider as to how Paul wanted them to think about sharing their bounty. So this is elaborating on verses five to seven. or no, verses one to seven. One, it is a privilege to share your bounty with the saints of God, because it is a ministry to the saints. This is one of the ways that the congregation actually participates in the ministry. Consider Ephesians four, where it speaks of the Lord's ascension, and he's given grace according to the measure of his own gift, his own determining, he's given grace, poured out his spirit upon men, And when he had ascended on high, he gave gifts unto men. And listen to this. He gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ. This work of the ministry is something that the whole congregation can participate in. And bountiful giving is one of the ways to do that. The second thing that I think is assumed in 2 Corinthians 9, though it's not explicitly stated, if you take what Paul says in other places, like 1 Timothy 5, 8, and what Christ says in the Gospels, I think you could get a list something like this. The order of affections, as it were, meaning where this money goes, where your affection goes, and therefore where your money goes, because this is a chapter about money, about abundance and all that. Well, what's the first? The order of affections in your stewardship, what God has given you, the order that you should distribute what God has given you is first, your household. And you might include your family extended in that, but mainly your household. Second, your church. Third, the broader community that you dwell in, the people among whom you live and move. Fourth, the church abroad. Moving outward and concentric, I think is the right word, circles, right, where you're gonna give based on proximity in a way, but notice that's only fourth, and I think what Paul is appealing to here is actually the fourth principle. There is only debate there for principles two and three, whether you put your church before the broader community in which you dwell, I think you do, but you don't put it before your household. Now, why do I say that Paul doesn't call us to put giving to our church, sharing our abundance with our church above our household? Well, it's because of verse five and seven, where he says, it's to be done as a matter of bounty and not of covetousness. The new King James says, as a matter of generosity and not a grudging obligation. How does that prove my point? Because if you give unto or in such a way that it causes hurt to your family, without doing so begrudgingly, without doing so under compulsion, you are a sick, sick person. If you give and cause your family to suffer, and the denial of your household comes in, If you are not having to do that begrudgingly, if you are not having to do that under compulsion, you're a sick person. And any person who would manipulate you to do that is a sick person. And that is not what Paul is calling to. He says it more than once in these just seven verses. It's as a matter of generosity, as a matter of bounty, which would be the additional after you've used what you need. Then the fourth thing, many turn to this text and say, as I mentioned earlier, this is tithing. I think that's wrong. Whether you think the church should still hold to the tithe or just hold to generosity or cheerful giving is another issue, but this text is not about tithing. But many turn to this text and then preach a poverty gospel. As I said earlier, that's also wrong. What's correct? The principle is sharing your bounty. That is, knowing that you've been blessed to bless others, but only in their proper order. Now this might cause you to examine your spending and see where you're living above your means, where you're wasting your bounty. And you could indeed share it with the saints in various ways. But to draw out Paul's point further, maybe consider it like this, that living above your means not only has a negative effect on others, but it has a negative effect on you. Why is that? Because in verse six he says, if you sow sparingly, you will reap sparingly. So if you take what you should be sowing and waste it, you're refusing a greater blessing from God. And the last thing. To view money rightly before the Lord, you have to understand the difference between conviction and compulsion. It is possible that they tithe in their services, and this is a gift beyond that. But again, that's not at odds with what I'm saying. The difference between conviction and compulsion is this, especially as it relates to this issue. We could technically say it about all things, but especially this. Conviction leads to virtue. Compulsion leads to vice. Okay? Conviction leads to obedience to scripture. Compulsion leads to disobedience to scripture. That's the difference. And what makes that difficult is they often feel the same way to us. We feel convicted about what we ought to do, but we rationalize it in our head and say, nobody's gonna tell me what to do. I'm gonna do what I want. It's a matter of the heart anyway. So this does make it difficult. It is a matter of the heart and it's a matter of prayer for sure. And we can use one of the many explanations that is traditionally given for the how and why God created as a motive or as a backdrop, as it were, to sharing our bounty, meaning we can look at the way God is described as creating and see that we are imitating God when we share in our bounty. Well, how is that? Because many have described the creative work of God, that he created anything, not as one of compulsion, but as an overflow of his own abundance. You ever thought about that? Why did God create? You say, for his own glory. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But let's get a little beyond that. Why? It's out of his own abundance. It's as if he was overflowing. Many earlier writers have spoken of this way. Out of God's bounty that never could be quantified, he made all things so that all things might rejoice in him. And this is what sharing our bounty is. It is an imitation of God. And it's actually a much closer analogy to apply than saying something like the incarnation is our model for handling finances and our bounty. That would be like saying we're all called to live like John the Baptist. Now I'm open to being corrected, but I don't know of a single example where Jesus actually does without. unless it's some self-inflicted situation like fasting or a very particular redemptive work leading to the cross. So when he says, for your sakes he became poor, that you might become rich, this is not a financial statement. This is not one that you lay over yourself and become poor so that others might become rich. It is about redemption. It is about standing before the Lord. If that's true for Christ, don't let anyone guilt you into thinking that you must become poor in order for someone else to be made rich financially or even made better off than you. Why is that? Because that's stealing. It's stealing from yourself. It's stealing from your family. And it's probably stealing from the church as well. Amen. Let us pray. Our Lord, we see our own failures in our handling of our finances. We, among all, waste so much. Order our affections in a way that your word lays out so that we can sow bountifully and reap bountifully to the glory of Jesus Christ. who has taught us to pray. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory forever. Amen. Amen. Please stand. Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen. Amen. Amen. Look to heaven, receiving the Lord's benediction. Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you might abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Your pumpkin roll is why I was 10 minutes late. We were all in a flurry, like trying to get out of the house and we were going to leave on time. It was literally 5, 439. If I leave my house with 20 minutes to spare, I can be here on time. I'll be walking in at five, but... And at 439, she was like, I got to do this for the pumpkin roll. So we had to do that. You bringing her to me?