Today, I don’t know if anybody else is, we’re going to talk about cheerful giving, so that’ll get me more cheery, but I’m always a little sad to end a sermon series. But we’re going to end it on a cheerful note. God has given so much in the Word about how our minds are to work with God, and how God can transform our minds, how God can renew our minds, and we’ve been walking through all of that.
To end here, we’re going to talk about how in our minds we can become cheerful givers. I mean, you’ll see Paul says you just got to make up your mind to do it. You’ve got to trust in God with that.
You just have to let God work through you in giving of your time and your resources and everything that God has blessed you with. You see, Paul, in writing to the church in Corinth in 2 Corinthians, usually he wrote and he talked about issues they were having, people who were doing good, people to look to, looking out for missionaries that were going to be coming there. But he usually had an ulterior motive to his letters.
2 Corinthians was no exception. He really, the gist of this letter was building to wanting the people to give to what he called the offering for the saints. And it was for the church back in Jerusalem, for the apostles to do the ministry that was based out of Jerusalem.
And Paul’s ministry was not based out of Jerusalem. He went out to all kinds of different cities, as did the disciples, but they would always come back to Jerusalem. And he collected, he went to the different churches to take a collection.
And part of that was to make them all feel like one church, like it’s not just a bunch of different churches around, but it’s one church and they’re connected. And he was so blessed in Mesopotamia, where was it? There was a church that was so poor, they hardly had anything in Macedonia, but they gave so generously and he was so excited. And he wanted to put this same excitement into the people at Corinth.
And this is what he says, if you stand, if you’re able, 2 Corinthians 9, 5 through 15. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of 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 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 in 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 the 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 grace of God upon you. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift. The word of God, inspired by God, for the people of God.
Thanks be to God. Amen. You may be seated.
Paul says quite a bit in here about giving, and I think in order to understand where Paul’s coming from, we’re going to go back and look at the entire Old Testament history of, okay, we’ll just start in Genesis, and look at Cain and Abel. I talked about this a little bit in the newsletter, if everyone read their newsletter this week. Cain and Abel is the first time we see in the Bible about sacrificing and giving back to God, and it says in chapter four, in the course of time, Cain brought to the Lord an of fruit for the ground, and Abraham bought the first fruit of his flock and fat portions, and the Lord had regard for Abel’s offering, but Cain and his offering, he had no regard, so Cain was very angry, and he fell on his face.
The Lord just said to Cain, why are you angry, and why have you fallen on your faith? If you do well, you will be, will you not be accepted, and if you do not do well, sin is crouching at your door. Its desire is contrary to you, but you must rule over it. So, let’s just get this out there.
Did Cain listen to God? No. Didn’t work out well for his brother. Nonetheless, I’m encouraging you, just like Paul encouraged the church in Corinth to be more like Abel.
Abel came and gave a sacrifice, and it was accepted. Cain’s was not accepted, and I used to pour over that, because I had a teacher, like a Sunday school teacher, who said something like, well, I guess God liked the sheep better than the wheat, and I was like, that makes no sense whatsoever, because Cain did not work the ground, had the crops. That’s what Cain had to give.
Abel was a sheep herder, and had sheep. So, it didn’t make sense. How could God just openly refute Cain, and openly accept Abel, because Cain on the surface was doing no difference, but there’s a couple things in there, that if you dig in this a little bit, well, if you want to cheat, and use the New Testament, you can go to the book of Hebrews chapter 11, I believe it’s in verse 4 and 5, where it says, what does every verse, every section start with in Hebrews 11? By faith.
By faith, Abel gave a sacrifice that was more pleasing to God than Cain’s. So, you can see, it says two words that tell you the difference between Abel’s sacrifice and Cain’s sacrifice. The words were, by faith.
Abel came by faith, and gave his sacrifice, Cain came not as willingly. Two things came Cain, Cain delivered. One, it says, when Cain had his crops, he brought an offering of the fruit of the ground.
Abel had, with his first sheep giving birth, he brought the first born. There’s a phrase they use all throughout the Bible, called first fruits. Abel brought his first fruits.
I mean, it’s a matter of saying, that may be the only sheep I ever had, and even if that is the case, I’m going to give it to God. I’m going to bring this sacrifice before God. The first fruit says we give to God first.
Thinking of us, it’s like saying, well, I’m going to give whatever I have left at the end of the month. Or, we say, I’m going to give and take it out right at the beginning, before everything else. And I’m going to give by faith, and I’m going to trust God’s word that says, God will supply all your needs.
And I’m going to know in my mind that it doesn’t say, God’s going to give me anything I want, because I gave faithfully. But God will supply all your needs. That is a difference that we’re looking at between Cain and Abel.
That Cain gave by, he also came to the Lord with sin on his heart. We need to repent. We need to draw closer to God.
We need to take all that stuff that blocks us from God, and put it at the altar, and trust in God, and sacrifice with a holy heart before God. With an able heart. A-B-E-L, not A-B-L-E.
Able heart. 2 Corinthians 9, 7 says, Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver.
But if we are honest, we’re pushed and pulled to spend and give our money. We often give from a mindset of scarcity. We often give by saying, this is all I can do.
And it’s almost a sense of guilt, compulsion, like I need to do this. Paul talks about God loving a cheerful giver. Martin Luther put it this way.
He said, It is clear that a sacrifice must consist of praise and thanks, or must at least not be without praise and thanks, if it is to please God. And if it is without praise and thanks, he neither wants nor likes it. As indeed he says, What is your sacrificing to me? I do not want your offering of incense.
We cannot give God anything, for everything is already his. And all we have comes from him. We can only give him praise, thanks, and honor.
That’s what God wants from us. Praise, thanks, and honor. Sacrificially giving God those things in the midst of whatever we are facing, we are that faithful, is what we’re called to.
Now, Martin Luther says he pulls this from Isaiah 1.11, where it says, What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, says the Lord? I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams, and of the fat of well-fed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of goats. Then God goes on to tell the people through Isaiah, all the things they do, they put their hands out, but he hides his eyes from them.
It says, Wash yourselves, make yourselves clean, remove the evil of your deeds before my eyes. Cease to do evil, learn to do good, seek justice, correct oppression, bring justice to the fatherless, plead the widow’s case. God has so much in store for us.
That we repent, we cleanse ourselves with the blood of Jesus, and in the thanksgiving of all what God has done, we cheerfully give. Is anybody, is anybody here busy? Do you ever feel busy? It is hard to give of our time. It is hard to give and do the things we need to do, or we feel like we need to do in our lives, and give our time to God, and serve God through serving others, and serve.
We had such a wonderful crew of people who came out this week, and helped out with the projects around the church. So we appreciate that. I’m going to let you in on a little bit of our life at home.
One of the projects I had at home before I could come in and help out here, is in the backyard. It is an honor, and it is a privilege, and it is something that my family has decided that only I am fit to do. And it is to pick up the dog poo.
And I do it, not so cheerfully, but I do it because if she fills up the spot she wants to go to, then she’s more reluctant to go in the backyard. And that’s dangerous with a puppy in the house. So, sometimes early on the boys would help.
They would do this, and they just quit doing it. And I started offering money for them to help. And I even came up with this cool name.
Come on guys, this is the poo crew. We’re going to knock this out. And they had wanted nothing to do with it.
And a couple weeks ago, I finally got Colin back out there to help me. He’s every single time, he’s picking it up. He’s gagging going, whoa.
And in my mind, I’m thinking, I changed your diapers and it was no better than this. But some things we do reluctantly. Some things we don’t do with the joy and the excitement that God calls us to do in our service and of our giving of our time and our resources.
But God has so much in store for us. If we look at what Paul says, the three blessings that he mentions here in 2 Corinthians. He says, 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.
Now, you kind of wanted that to end by saying, in all things that at all times, you can get whatever you want. If you give to God, you can get whatever you want. But Paul says, You can abound in good work.
Meaning, if we are faithful in our giving, then we post a sign in our church that says this, Here to help. Right? We can abound in every good work. We can say, We can help.
We are here. We can’t do everything. But we have come together.
We are faithful. And God will give us the ability to help. God will give us the ability to love others and to serve others and to serve one another when we are each in need.
We are here to help. If we are faithful to God, God will give us the ability to help one another. I think that’s even more exciting.
And I’m not just trying to make it sound exciting. I’m saying our ability to do this comes from God in our faithfulness. Also in 2 Corinthians 9, it says, He who supplies the seed for the sower and the bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
What’s the harvest? If we think of what our harvest is. Has anybody ever lived in a rural area or been around a farm? When it’s harvest time, it’s all hands on deck. It’s not like when it’s time to harvest, you can say, I don’t really feel like it.
It’s not like you can say, Tomorrow’s a better day than today. When it’s harvest time, it’s harvest time now. And it is something everybody jumps in on.
And the harvest, the way God enriches us is the harvest of our righteousness. Our righteousness, part of our righteousness, part of our discipleship, part of our holiness, part of our growing closer to God is joyful giving. That is part of our righteousness.
And you will be increased in your righteousness. The more you sow, the more you reap, the more joy there is, and the more righteous we become because it draws us closer to God. Now, the third thing that God promises as a blessing in there is you will be enriched.
Okay, you’re thinking here it comes. You will be enriched in every way. Here it comes.
For the ministry of the service is not to be generous in every way. The more you give, the more generous you can become. You thought that was going to say the more enriched, you will be enriched in every way.
And God’s going to send a check in the mail today if you just put your money in right now. But you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way through which God will produce thanksgiving to God. It’s a thank you note to God when we give back because like we’ve talked about so many times, God already has blessed us with so much.
God owns everything. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the stars and all who are in it, the animals, the people, the creation. It’s all of God’s already.
And so this is a thank you note to God. This is just saying, thank you, God. And Paul is saying, not only does it produce thanksgiving within our own hearts, but for those who are going to receive it, they’re going to be saying, man, that church in Corinth, that church in Kansas City, they are so faithful.
They care about us. And when we give and we serve and we have ministry and we share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others, then others see that and they give thanks to God. Just like Jesus said when he talked about the salt and the light, and as we let our light shine through us, that others will see it and give thanks to God because God has given us so much and we just give a portion of it back.
Gordon McDonald talked about going to a church in Africa. And he said something transformed in his mind going to this church in Africa that changed his hiding and not worrying about what anybody else did with giving and how he kind of had this under the table philosophy on giving. And he said, the process began to change when my wife Gail and I made a missions trip to West Africa.
On the first Sunday of our visit, we joined a large crowd of desperately poor Christians for worship. As we neared the church, I saw that almost every person was carrying something. Some hoisted cages of noisy chickens.
Others carried baskets of yams and still others toted bags of eggs or bowls of cassava paste. Why are they bringing that stuff? I asked one of the hosts. Watch, she said.
Almost every person in that African congregation brought something. A chicken, a basket of yams, a bowl of cassava paste. I saw them giving, whether yams or dollars is not optional for Christians.
Soon after the worship began, the moment came when everyone stood and poured into the aisles singing, clapping, even shouting. The people then moved forward, each in turn bringing whatever he had brought to a space in the front. Then I got it.
This was in the West African offering time. The chickens could help others get a tiny farm business started. The yams and the eggs could be given or sold at the marketplace to help needy people.
The cassava paste would guarantee that someone who was hungry would have food to eat. Gordon said he was captivated. He’d never seen a joyful offering before.
Obviously, my keep money under the radar policy would not have worked in that West African church. Those African believers, although they never knew it, had moved me. I began to understand that giving whether yams or dollars was not an option for Christ followers.
Rather, it was an indication of the direction of the tenor of one’s whole life. Set your mind on giving generously with joy. Give from a mindset of abundance of God’s blessings.
Trust God to bless your giving in faith.