The transcript of a sermon on 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 has been lightly edited.
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If you have your Bibles with you today, I do ask that you would turn to 2 Corinthians. We are in 2 Corinthians 9, and we will be beginning in v. 6. Let me get situated here. Now, if you’re familiar with this part of the book of 2 Corinthians, you may know that this is Paul wrapping up his call upon the Corinthian church to be generous to others.
And this is a passage on stewardship. That word we don’t typically think about around Christmas or Advent. And yet, in light of the gift that God has given to us, it is very appropriate for us to think about stewardship and generosity today.
This is not a plea because we are in trouble, but this is a reminder that we are called to be generous because God has been infinitely generous to us. And so with all that in mind, let us begin reading in 2 Corinthians 9, beginning in v. 6.
“The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every 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.”
Let’s pray. Father, it is Your Spirit who shines Your light upon these words so that we might know and so that we might understand. And so, Lord, I ask for that Spirit to be in this pulpit with me so that my words and my meditations may be pleasing in Your sight, for You are my God, my rock, and my Redeemer. And I also ask that Your Spirit would be with Your people so that they might hear and so that You might move them closer to the holiness to which You have given them and to which You have called them. I pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
INTRODUCTION
For the last few years, every year around Christmas, I listen to one of the audio versions of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.
And I have been struck as I’ve been listening to it for the last few years that many times there is a difference between the book, several differences, but one difference that stands out between the book and at least the adaptations, the movie adaptations that I’m familiar with.
In the ones that I’m familiar with, it is typically at the end of his last visitation, but the visitation by the ghost of Christmas future or the ghost of Christmas yet to come, as Dickens puts it in the book, where Ebenezer is standing there in the graveyard and the specter has finally revealed to him the name upon the tombstone. He sees his name and it’s that moment that he’s awakened to a sense of generosity and a sense of giving and goodness.
And actually in the book, that begins to happen in the first visitation as he begins to remember a time when he was more giving and other people were more giving and generous and compassionate to him.
And then the ghost of Christmas present. He begins to see the change and it’s really the ghost of Christmas future that solidifies in his heart the change. The other thing, and this isn’t necessarily quite as edifying, but the message of A Christmas Carol is really works-based.
It is the message that if Scrooge will just be more generous, more loose with his money, then everything will be fine for him in the afterlife. And that is not the answer to how we become okay in the afterlife. Many churches today, even some churches that are gathering today that are proclaiming from a pulpit will preach a law-based gospel.
We call it the prosperity gospel. Where if you just give enough, if you just have enough faith, well then, God will pour out upon you earthly blessings. And yet, that’s not what Paul is saying here.
Paul is not telling the Corinthian church give more so that God will bless you. He is calling the Corinthian church to give more because God has already blessed them infinitely through the inexpressible gift of Jesus.
And so today, what I want us to look at is we’re going to work our way toward that inexpressible gift of God.
And we’re going to work our way there by looking at Paul’s call to the Corinthian church to give. We’re also going to see that Paul calls them to not fear in their generosity. We’re also going to see how giving leads to worship before we land on the foundation of why we give, which is the inexpressible gift that God has given us through Jesus.
And since God has given us so much, we should be generous.
CALL TO GENEROSITY
First is Paul’s call to generosity. Verses 6 and 7 say this. The point is this. He’s summarizing here what he began talking about all the way back in verse 1 of chapter 8. This is kind of a two-chapter interlude in the middle of 2 Corinthians to talk about the Jerusalem church who was suffering because of famine. And Paul in his missionary journeys is going around from church to church and taking up a collection for the Jerusalem church.
And he’s calling upon the Corinthian church to help out the Jerusalem church by taking up these offerings week by week until he arrives. And he comes to the point of all of this talk and he says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”
He’s going to a farming and agricultural analogy here. At the end of every harvest, you don’t consume all of what you harvest at the farm. You hold back part of what you harvest so that you have seed to plant for the following year.
You couldn’t just go to Lowe’s or to Kroger or Tractor Supply and buy packets of seeds. You had to save back your own seeds. But the temptation was, when it came time to plant, the temptation was to think, “Well, what if this is a bad year this year? And why don’t I only plant half of what I held back for seed this year so that if it’s a bad year, I’ve still got seed for the following year?”
Well, that’s potentially a bad move because Paul says, those who sow sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. In other words, be generous in what you give.
Now, as I mentioned, sometimes people take this and they twist this to say that God will give us whatever we want if we’re just willing to send to the right pastor or to the right church enough seed money to finally make God happy with us. But we’ll see as we move on, that’s not what Paul is saying here at all, because it’s not about the answer to the question, “How much should I give?”
It’s the answer to the question, “What does my heart look like when I give?” Look at verse 7. We add the words “must give” to verse 7 because it doesn’t make sense as a complete sentence if we don’t. But the original language just says “…each one, as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly, not under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
Have you ever asked yourself when you thought about giving to the church or to a ministry that is serving people within the community, have you ever thought to yourself how much is going to make God happy? Well, that’s not the question.
The question is “Am I being cheerful and joyful? Am I avoiding reluctance? Is my heart attitude in the right place?” For some of us, 10% is the goal. For some of us, 10% is too much. It’s going to keep us from being able to pay the bills, so we joyfully or without compulsion give enough that we feel that we’re cheerful to give it without putting us in danger of defaulting on other obligations that we’ve made.
For some of us, 10% is too little. And it shows a reluctant and a stingy or a sparing heart.
And so, Paul tells us generosity is the key. Cheerful generosity is the key to giving to support the church and other ministries of God.
A CALL TO TRUST GOD’S PROVIDING
But Paul also understands that there might be fear of generosity. And that’s our second point as he calls us to not fear.
I’m going to read v. 8 again and I want you to listen for the all words. A-L-L words.
“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 good work.”
What does God provide for us? All. Everything we have. Every house, every car, every penny in our bank account comes to us because God has provided all things for us.
Paul goes on, quoting from Psalm 112, verse 9, and I would encourage you to go back and to read Psalm 112 later today to see the faithfulness and the generosity of God. But he says, God has distributed, what? Stingily? No, he says:
“God has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. And 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.”
God supplies all of our needs. Now notice I did not say He supplies all of our wants. A lot of times I talk about I want a Lamborghini, and that’s not true. I’m a Ferrari guy. I would much prefer a Ferrari. So Christmas is coming up Wednesday. Go back and watch old reruns of the 1980s. Tom Selleck, Magnum P.I. If you’re wondering what to give me, that Ferrari will work. Perfect.
But we look at this passage sometimes and we’re tempted to think, well, if I’m generous, God will give me that Ferrari that I want. Or maybe we’re a little bit more humble than that. I’ll settle for a Mercedes. Or a BMW. Or just a bigger house. Or maybe nicer clothes. Or better jewelry.
And I’m just going to give and give and give until God gives me what I want. That’s not what Paul’s saying. When he says that God gives us all sufficiency, He gives us what we need. And He takes care of us.
I remember, I’ve told this story before, but it was about the time Gregory was laid off. No, Gregory was born. I was the one that was laid off. Two or three. Three or four days after Gregory’s first birthday, I was laid off from my job. And I come home and a couple days after the shock wears off, Michelle and I are sitting down and we’re going through the budget. What can we shave off the budget in order to survive until I can get a job? And we looked at the cell phone.
It was a lot easier to live without a cell phone 30 years ago. We got rid of that. We got rid of cable. And I came to the item at the top of the budget. I saw that 10% up there and I said, “We should probably not give that. We should probably stop giving to the church until we get back on our feet.”
And Michelle, not because she’s holy, not because she was more sanctified than me, but because she was thinking more clearly than me at that time, said, “No, that’s a non-negotiable.”
And you know, we never lacked anything. Our landlord gave us breaks. She let us split our rent up and give half at the beginning of the month, half in the middle of the month. Every now and then, we would get gifts from people that would help us out. We never lacked for anything. We had enough food. We didn’t have to turn the heat off. Everything we needed, God provided.
And that’s why we can be generous to God. In fact, He says that He is generous to us so that we will be generous to others. Verse 11, “you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way.”
Why does God give us stuff? So that we can be generous to others? Matthew 25:21 in the parable of the talents. Jesus says this, “His Master said to Him, Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over little. I will set you over much.”
As we are generous with God, He is generous to us. And as we are faithful with the little bit that He gives us, well, according to His will and according to His glory, He will give us more, not so that we can have what we want, but so that we can be more generous.
And so Paul says don’t fear generosity. We fear generosity because we don’t trust God. We fear generosity because we don’t think He’s going to take care of us.
And Paul says, just as God takes care of the plants, just as God brings in the harvest, just as God provides seed and food, God will take care of you and you need not fear.
GENEROSITY AND WORSHIP
Well, then he links generosity to worship beginning in the second half of verse 11. Talking about being 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.”
Why do I tell that story about Michelle holding fast to tithing when I was laid off from work? Is it to make Michelle look good? Michelle, sorry, no, it’s not. It’s to give honor and glory to God because it wasn’t Michelle. It definitely wasn’t me. But it was God being faithful to us that allowed us to continue to be generous towards Him and generous toward His church.
And we’re not any holier because of that. We’re not any better than anybody else because of that. It is all the grace of God. When people gave us gifts, it gave us opportunity to worship God for the gifts that people had given to us.
And as people were generous to us, and since then, we’ve had an opportunity to be generous to other people. It allows us to worship God for what He has given to us.
Generosity within the church. Stewardship within the church is not about what I get. It’s not really even about what I give. It’s about showing God’s faithfulness and worshiping God and using what He has given to us for His glory and for His honor.
And so, we look at what we have, or at least we try to look at what we have as not ours, but God’s. Yes, we are faithful to the obligations in this world that we have made. We have obliged ourselves to pay our electric bill on a monthly basis, and we do that. We have obliged ourselves to pay Kroger for the groceries we get from them, and we take care of that.
But because we also want to honor and glorify God, we take opportunity. All of us should take opportunity to be generous to those who are in need.
CONCLUSION: GOD’S GIFT IS THE END OF THE MATTER
And then Paul brings it home to us. He’s shown us that the point is that we are to give generously. That we need not fear in the midst of our generosity. That we give and we are generous because we want to worship God. And then he brings it home to us with this short sentence. Verse 15.
“Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift.”
Is Paul talking here only about what God has given them as far as money, as far as time, as far as talents? No. Because those gifts are expressible. We can put a dollar value on those gifts.
What is the inexpressible gift? The inexpressible gift is Jesus. And that’s why this is a Christmas sermon.
I’ve been going through in the videos John 1:1-18. John’s prologue to his Gospel that he just builds off of. It is the foundation of his Gospel and he builds off of it throughout the rest of his Gospel.
Bruce is walking us through that in our Sunday School class, and I would encourage you to take part in that if you are able, and to hear as Bruce and Dr. Duguid go through the inexpressible gift of Jesus.
But it talks in there in v. 14 and in v. 17-18 about the grace and truth that has come to this world through Jesus. And that grace and truth is an allusion back to that passage in Exodus 34:6, where God stands before Moses, or passes before Moses after Moses has been hidden in the cleft of the rock.
And he goes through the Lord, the Lord, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and bounding in love, full of steadfast love and faithfulness. And then he goes on to talk about how God also will not allow the guilty to go unpunished, and punishes sin wherever he finds it. Grace and truth, steadfast love and faithfulness came to this earth in Jesus.
He took on flesh to dwell among us, not simply so that He might be a baby in a manger, but so that He might be a toddler, and then a young boy, and then a teenager, and then a young man. Going through all of those stages of life, being tempted in every way as we are, yet without sin. And then, walking that road to the cross.
And being lifted up to glory upon that cross so that my sin might be paid for. So that the sin of everyone who believes might be paid for. So that that dual truth that God forgives and God is just can meet together at the cross.
God promised redemption in the garden after Adam and Eve fell. And Jesus is that promised redemption. And that is the inexpressible gift.
We talk about how much should we give. Well, think about what’s been given for you. If you were to add up everything that you have given in a generous act to God through tithes, through offerings, through time spent volunteering at ministries within the community, at time spent ministering within the church, if we added all of that up for everybody in this room, even if every single one of us had given 100% of what we have and 100% of the time that we have to the service of God, it would not equal a subatomic particle in a drop of water in the middle of every single ocean in this earth compared to the gift that we have been given by God through Jesus.
We don’t know, we cannot know what it means to be generous in the way that God has been generous to us. And yet, Paul calls us to give because God has already given to us. And that’s the key.
That’s why this is not a prosperity gospel. You already have the blessing in Christ. You have the blessing of salvation. You have the blessing of sanctification. You have the blessing of your future glorification when we stand fully glorified before God, worshiping Him and serving Him for all of eternity. Those blessings are yours in Christ.
And thanks be to God that He is glorified in the little pittance that even the most wealthy of people could give toward His service in this earth. So the point is this, you have been given more than you could ever think or imagine. Be generous.
Let’s pray. To the Great Father above, we do thank You for the generosity that You have given to us that we are going to celebrate in the Lord’s Supper. Lord, help us to be generous because You have already shown us grace. We pray this in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Let us leave with this blessing from God.
“Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of His eternal covenant, equip you with every good thing that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.”
He who testifies to these things says, yes, I am coming soon.
Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.
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