Second Corinthians 9:7-11 Be a cheerful giver, not a reluctant one

Well, good morning. Well, Mike and I have been going through 1st and 2nd Corinthians. We started back a year and a half ago. It's been a while. So we're now in 2nd Corinthians. We're in the chapters on giving and receiving. So I get the privilege of these verses today are just Some have said, in looking at chapters 8 and 9, that these verses I'm going to teach about today are kind of the culmination of Paul's thought process, because he talked about the church in Macedonia, how they gave out of their poverty. He talked about the Corinthian church, how they kind of, it seemed like they kind of were first enthusiastic, but, and Paul had to really Give explicit instructions about how they should Should complete their giving but now he comes down to some kind of general principles about giving which are just really great So I'm going to talk about these today and next week a bit. So here's the So actually with Bonnie's help my wife Bonnie we decided in this this title be a cheerful giver but not a reluctant one and So, our brother Hal, even though he went to be with the Lord back in 2006, he still lives on, and I like to use a lot of his stuff. So this is an outline he developed back when he taught 2 Corinthians. So he has this kind of outline of this section, giving of oneself and financially. First, and Mike taught all of chapter 8, out of God's grace, and we see that certainly in the Macedonian church. It's a proof of His love. It's to God's glory.

And then last week we talked about this idea being the readiness of mind because Paul talked about the Corinthians and about they had a readiness of mind to giving but they just hadn't completed it. So we talked about that last week and a little bit of 6 last week. And this week we're going to talk about We're to give not grudgingly or out of necessity, but they're actually there's so much more in these verses There's just so much more about God's grace about the blessings. We have it's more blessed to give than receive We know that verse we probably memorized as children But it's just it's incredible that this section and then this will finish up next week in the chapter 9 Just praising God for his grace and sufficiency all right, so let's Let's get right into it.

So this is sort of a review from last week. I kind of went back and looked at the charts and kind of added a few more thoughts. So Paul starts off, now I say, and Macaulay kind of points out, if you look at Paul's writings, this is the way Paul likes to say, but this is the point I wish to make. This is the point I want to make. So here's his point. And what we're going to see is this.

He that sows sparingly, and reaps sparingly, and so on, is a principle. It's a principle of life, if you think about it, right? You tell your kids this, right? If you don't work hard in school, you're not going to probably graduate, and you'll get nothing out of it. You've got to work, you know? So this is a principle for life, and it's also a principle for giving. What Paul is going to do here is he is going to relate giving to sowing as a farmer sows. The paradigm is kind of cool. You don't expect when you put a seed in the ground that nothing will happen. We expect something will happen.

So when we give in Christian giving, we expect the Lord to use this in the way he has in mind. So that is kind of the idea. We'll see God's promises and these promises are the gifts that we give are for ourselves. We get a blessing as well. And the recipient gets a blessing. I like this quote by Hughes, by a constable. What is given is not lost, but like the seeds sown by the farmer, contrary to all appearances, it possesses a potency of life and an increase.

Christian giving does not make one poor but richer. And if there's one message I'd like to put out here, God is not concerned about how much you're giving. Remember the widow's mite? He said that she gave more than anyone else, and she gave very little. So it's not the quantity, it's your heart, where you are with the Lord. Whatever you give, and we're going to see, is a personal decision. And it's not to be pressured.

Paul was very concerned that When they took offerings for the saints in Jerusalem, they didn't do it on the spot. He said, I want you to take the offerings before I ever get here. Well, that idea kind of transfers over into these verses. He wants us to, as we're going to see in verse 7, to purpose in our hearts beforehand. On the spot giving, the Lord doesn't seem to bless. His word discourages that. And I'm not sure we all have quite gotten that in the body of Christ. Anyway, that's my personal opinion.

Okay. Alright, so that was a couple of those things from Macaulay there. Okay, now let's get into the verse here. Now, he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. So it's in the original there. I use the interlinear sometimes here. The one sowing sparingly. Sparingly is modifying. It's an adverb. It's modifying how you sow. So this is a stinginess, if you will. It's not plentiful, moderate.

And I was thinking, this is the way the world thinks. How much do I need to give at church so I won't embarrass myself? Right? How much do I need to give so I'll get by, so people won't think too bad of me? Well, first of all, the Lord doesn't want you to decide before you ever get to church, but sparingly is kind of the concept of the world.

So the word sparingly tells us, and I mentioned it modifies the way or the manner in which we are sowing. But the motivation is to be a gracious. We are to give graciously. We are to give because we have received. And so what goes along is if you sow sparingly, you are going to reap sparingly. You reap in like manner. If you were stingy in the way you gave, you are going to get in return. And we see this in several verses, one in the New Testament, one in the Old Testament. The one in the New Testament says, Do not be deceived. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, this will he also reap. Then in Proverbs, a little bit harder to, you have to read it kind of carefully, and this is the B part of Proverbs 11, 24.

There are those who withhold more than is fitting. So they were stingy, if you will, they were sparingly. Or what is justly due, but its result is only want. So a pretty stern warning there. Okay, so the flip side of that, and the flip side is what, this is what God wants of believers, regardless of whether they have a widow's mite or a vast fortune. It doesn't matter. He wants them to sell bountifully. And you say, well how can I sell bountifully if I don't have lots of cash? Well, hopefully we'll see that.

Alright, so this is the inner linear and our brother Hal actually had taken this and he expanded it and he actually put some additional things in there. So it's a one sowing four, it's a preposition for the purpose of a blessing or a bounty to others. So the one sowing for a purpose of a blessing to others. So that's kind of neat. The sowing has a purpose and Merriman points out Grace-giving looks at the benefit of the receiver, not the giver.

We're looking for the benefit of the receiver, not the giver. In reality, God's gift through us as conduits. We're a conduit to accomplish His ministry, His work. Also, also God is the only one who can be so blessing we aren't by giving we aren't blessing whoever receives that God is blessing them and he's using what we have done in faith to bless them and So we're not doing the blessing.

He's doing the blessing and so the the other side of this the one who sows bountifully shall also reap with a blessing and bounty and And here's a verse I quoted earlier, the one that everybody remembers. It says, Remember the Lord Jesus is more blessed to give than to receive. So the idea is that the receiver, the believer, gets blessing out of sowing. So that's one of the things that hopefully comes across today, that we're going to get a blessing out of giving. And that's the point that needs to come across.

So today's verses, so you can look at these verses and it's kind of, there's three sections if you will. Verse 7 which says, each one must do just as he has purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Well this verse is going to talk about basically, this is an admonition. The first part is an admonition and the second part is actually a warning or even a command not to give grudgingly.

Then eight and nine kind of go together and this talks about this wonderful power of God God is able he is powerful and he has and he can make all grace abound to you just some tremendous statements there and eight and nine nine is actually a Quotation for the Old Testament kind of reinforcing eight and then ten eleven go together so in ten eleven we have the idea that He's supplying seed to the sower.

And then in addition to that, He's enriching the believer. We see the idea of enriching in there. So you're enriched. So as you give, you're enriched. And of course, some people have taken this and gone off into a whole theology, if you will. But I think truly taught, this shows that we are enriched spiritually, possibly, and financially. But the goal of the financial enrichment is that we'll be able to give even more. and be available for the Lord to even be more use of the Lord than we were before. Not to enrich our pocket books and to be wealthy. Even though there are some believers that seem to be very wealthy and they handle it very well. Okay, so let's start here in verse 7. So I use the inner linear again.

Each one, so the must do has been provided. Each one must do as he has decided previously in his heart. And maybe you see why I used it because in the New American Standard it has, he has purposed, well this brings in the full definition of this word he has decided previously in his heart. The idea that this wasn't an on-the-spot decision and the idea of must do that's been provided, must do or give has been provided as a main verb.

And we're going to see this when we get to the second part of the verse. The me or the not is actually kind of an imperative mode. So we'll see that shortly. I actually should have had that bullet in the charts later on. I realized that, you know, too late to change it.

So each one, so here we have each person. So this is an individual thing. God is concerned about individuals. And it's everyone, none excluded, each believer. So now we're to each believer and we're now we're to see how he should give as He has decided previously to choose for yourself to prefer And you've done this purposely This is a proper motive for giving to decide previously what you're going to give And doesn't that fit really well with what we taught?

How Paul spent all that time in chapters 8 and the first part of 9 saying, I want to make sure that when I get to Corinth, we're not making a collection. I'm going to send Titus and two other guys, and they're going to make sure. I don't want no on-the-spot collections. So now he kind of gives us a principle for that in this verse here, which I thought was kind of cool.

He has decided previously. So we kind of break this down. It's perfect tense. So perfect tense is past completed action with abiding results. It's a settled state. You've decided and you're happy about it or you're settled about it. So Malloy has this, whatever you resolve or pre-plan to give, is to continue or abide. So it's with abiding results. It's not the idea that you can't change it. It's the idea that you're not vacillating.

Well, okay. I don't know. I decided that, but now the weather's... my knee's kind of hurting. You have all kinds of reasons why you might... You're not vacillating. You make a decision. I'm going to give this. And I have the funds to give this. I'm going to give this. Come rain or shine.

That's the idea. Abiding results. It's reality. And in Middle Voice, the subject is intimately involved in this action. You own that action. You decided previously what you're going to give. And it's in his heart. So this kind of speaks to the fact that it's in fellowship with the Lord Jesus. This is something that you've, through prayer and supplication, you've worked out with the Lord. This is what I can afford. And I want to give this. I want to see this ministry, whatever you're giving, I want to see it prosper. I want to see it be blessed by you.

So now we have the flip side of that is the rest of the verse. This is the improper motive. You're not to have this motive. You're to have this motive that you purposed beforehand. But now we're going to see the flip side, which is the negative side. So once again, I kind of went back to the inner linear.

And the New American Standard says, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. Well, this kind of renders it, it brings in a couple of prepositions, the out of, not out of, ek, out of grief, or not out of necessity. So it's not out of grief, so it signifies it's going to hurt. And some people have a tough time with giving, with money. Anytime money leaves their hands, they don't like it.

And that's not a bad way to be. Money is a pretty good thing to have. It's helpful down here. I think of the Christmas carol. I forget the movie now. I'm confusing myself. Oh yeah, Wonderful Life. Thank you. Wonderful Life. Comes in kind of handy down here, Bob. I remember that line.

So but but this he says you're not to have it's not to be out of that hurts It's not out of grief or sorrow Giving is to be out is not to be out of grief or sorrow and I'm Aaron says if that's the case stop giving don't give anymore You know, stop it. Don't give if that is gonna hurt like that.

Don't do it The Lord doesn't you know, it doesn't want you to you know, be that place. He wants you to be joyful about your giving these are emotions that come from within the old man and So the second part is out of necessity. So one part was from within And this part is out of necessity is like a must-do, you know, you're put Out of your you're in a situation where you're you feel uncomfortable There's a demand that comes from without someone says well, you know in this church We always give X amount of percent and we expect you brother and sister to give that amount Wait a minute, you know, what are you gonna do? You're gonna feel uncomfortable The Lord doesn't want that.

And he backs it up, right? He finishes off this verse. God loves a cheerful, hilarious giver. Well, actually, I've said that many times and taught that many times, but I think I missed the real definition of cheerful is this. Signifies the readiness of mind. I like that. We studied that before by Paul. Readiness of mind. that joyously, which is prompt to do anything. I'm ready, Lord. I'm in on this. I'm with you. I got you. I want this to go forward, and I want to support it. And that was the way the Macedonians were, right? They begged Paul. They said, Paul, we want to give. We want to be part of this. So like I said, this 7 here kind of sums up a lot of what Paul said in a lot of words beforehand.

Okay, so now 8 and 9 kind of go together. So this is God's grace in the context of giving. So I use a couple of, one bubble chart here. So you start off with the premise, and the verse starts off, and God is able, He's powerful, He has the power and ability to do the following. To make all grace, so let me just back up here for a second. In this part of the verse here, which modifies He is able, He repeats it five times, this word all, which is pas in the Greek, which means all inclusive, nothing left behind, everything. So he says, to make all grace abound to you, so that always, the same original word, having all sufficiency, I'm saying always having all sufficiency in everything another use of the word all you may have an Abundance for every all again for every good deed five times. He uses that So why you say Wow?

Look what God look what God has done on the behalf of the believer He is provided and what really caught my eye as I said this more and more the idea of good deeds You think about good deeds or good works right and Ephesians there it talks about that who who? Planned those good deeds in advance did you? You know getting in the room and you pray and you decide in the good deeds you're going to do for the Lord No, he decided that right. He says he preordained those good deeds that you should walk in them So those good deeds so he's giving you the power to do those good deeds So I thought this is kind of like them the backup the Ephesians passage This is a this is a backup that gives his grace and his sufficiency in everything pretty amazing and then he gives an example of an Old Testament passage as it is written He scatters abroad. He gave to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Let me take a little sip here. So this is the only bubble chart I have today. Somewhat of an inside joke, but my wife said I shouldn't say it's a joke. I should just say it.

All right. So now God is able. So I'm just going to spend this whole chart on God is able. which is actually a pretty, if you trace it through, if you get in your computer, the day is wonderful. When I first became a believer, I used a concordance. I had this big, thick concordance. I would go through and I'd flip through and I would find, well, God is able.

Okay, I find the word and it has a number. Okay, where does that number occur? Oh, it occurs here, here, here. I'd write this stuff down. Well, now, boy, life is good. You type in the Greek word for able, that Greek word right there. Boom, you got all the ones, all the verses that have that.

So it's wonderful. God is able, mighty, powerful, present tense, continuous action. He doesn't stop being. He doesn't become unable. He's always able. God is able is described in 8 and 9. And it's expressed, I found, these are my top three verses I found. There were about maybe 15, something like that, that had the idea of God is able. A little bit different phraseology, but here are my top three. And they apply different things. Now they're all very familiar.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we can ask or think according to the power that works within us. So God is able to do abundantly beyond what we can even imagine. Next, for I know that I have believed and I am convinced that he is able to guard that which I've entrusted to him until that day. the last one I liked it kind of speaks of the believer salvation therefore he is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through him I just thought about draw near to God how do we draw near to God the Holy Spirit convicts us it says Wow Jesus Christ is who he says he he's God's son he paid for my paid for my sins we draw near to God through him since he's always He always lives to make intercession for them. So there's three uses of that word, he is able. But in the context, he's going to kind of show his abilities in the realm of giving and blessing.

Okay, so the first phrase, and I went back to the inner linear again, to cause to abound all grace to you. To cause to abound, it's Eris Passpoint fact, To make to abound the cause to abound to provide a person richly so he has an abundance so the believers Whether you're the poor widow or you're the executive of whatever You and you're a believer you have an abundance. You may not realize you have an abundance, but you do have an abundance To cause all grace to abound To cause I mean to cause to abound all grace to you and All here all of his grace to are into you as a believer It is a fact that God has taken this action toward you. He is By by his marvelous grace. He is allowed all grace to abound to you So that and here's the purpose so now he's going to tell us what the purpose of this is the purpose is that And he's going to use more superlatives of all's in here.

Always having all sufficiency in everything. And truthfully, I found it, this is a tough verse because you've got so many superlatives and so many all's. And you say, wow, your head's just kind of spinning after a while. So he's giving us here, always having all sufficiency. Sufficiency here is a satisfying, it's actually a mindset almost. You're convinced that what God has given you is sufficient. This is His sufficiency, not ours. And here's a verse that kind of supports that. Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content, or sufficient, in whatever circumstances I am.

And then back in earlier in 2 Corinthians, Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God Sufficiency so this is sufficiency in our Christian giving so We don't doubt That what God desires that we can participate if God gives us lays it on our heart We can participate in that and the amount doesn't matter So then the last part you may have an abundance."

So now he's going to tell us that we had sufficiency, now we have an abundance. So it's interesting, earlier in the verse, in the A part, he said, he has made us to abound, that was the statement back in the A part, so that we now have an abundance, present tense. So he made us to abound and we now presently have an abundance. We always need to remember that God is the one from whom everything has come. And then Malloy and Poole, this is, we have an abundance, this is pretty straight forward, we have an abundance because of His abundance.

And it's for every good deed, and then here's the verse I referred to earlier. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. So, boy, it really helped me to think, well here, God is showing me how this is going to work out. He's provided me with this abundance and this blessing and that's how I can, that would be part of this, I am doing a good work that He planned beforehand.

So then we have the quotation from Psalm 112 verse 9. And he constantly points out this supports Paul's point of providing grace, divine enamel to the givers. So this verse, if you look in the context of Psalm 112, you'll see it's speaking about the actions of a righteous man or godly man.

So it says the following, he scatters abroad. So this is like the one from verse 6, who sowed bountifully, he scatters abroad. And you have to kind of, you know, I wouldn't say this is super straightforward, but it does fit, and it is giving us a reference. The Lord, you know, divinely gave us this reference here. He gave to the poor, so you say, well, what's that about?

So He's giving the necessities of life, and I thought about the verse in 1 John 3.17, He sees His brother in need, that speaks of a negative, and He doesn't respond to it. But when we respond to it, it's the needs of life. So he scatters abroad, he gives bountifully abroad this righteous man, this man of God. He gave to the poor the necessity of the life. His righteousness endures forever. So this verse came to mind. I have been filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.

Okay. Okay, we have two verses to go. Okay, you're still with me. Good. Not asleep. Most eyes are open. That's good. All right, good. All right, so it says, now the one supplying the seed to the sower, oh boy, I have to read this carefully, now the one supplying seed to the one sowing, both will supply bread for food and will multiply the seed to you. Okay. So this verse kind of reinforces some of the things from verse 8. So I think I went back to the inner linear here again. The one, God's supplying the seed to the sower.

So this picture, we started off with a picture of the sower sowing the seed, putting the seed out, and it doesn't just die, it has a crop, it produces things. Well now God's going to say, well who supplies this seed? You know, all this picture, all these metaphors in the farming community. Who's supplying the seed to you? So he's answering that question. The one, God's supplying the seed to the one sowing, the believer. So he's providing the seed to us. So supplying here is to, and it's fully, fully abundantly, to supply fully abundantly. So there's three aspects. If you look at this verse, there are three aspects that are mentioned. So the first one.

God will supply bread for food. So I saw this is, you know, actually Merriman says this is literal bread. And I can't disagree. This is again the necessity for life. God's going to provide, this is for the believer, He's going to provide for us the necessities of life. And He's going to go beyond that even. He's going to multiply. God will multiply the seed to you. This is to bless others. These are all future tens. okay and then the third one God will increase the fruits of righteousness to God will increase the fruits of righteousness of you I thought this was a little problematic to me and I'll show you why in a second here so the idea here is it's a it's a metaphor again fruits and it's the idea of this this vine I think says this material ministration to the needy I can't disagree with that that's probably right But I was thinking, I just stepped by and said, well, okay, every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he got a fabulous deal, right? What a deal. As we walk by the Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit is being manifest or revealed in our lives.

Remember, it's singular fruit. It always kind of hurts me. I've taught this before. I haven't taught it right. I'll say singular fruit, but then I'll say fruits. We got the singular fruit with nine aspects, love, joy, peace. So my whole thought process here, I wanted to kind of distinguish between that singular fruit, which has all these wonderful things. Is there a difference between that fruit and what Paul's talking about, fruits, plural, in this passage? So that's where I'm headed. Maybe I overcomplicated it. Me and Michael take me aside later on and say, Roger, it's really easy. You missed this point. Anyway.

And also, positionally, we have the very righteousness of Christ. So what's he trying to tell us here? So Merriman says that righteous acts have fruits. And I guess I can't disagree with that. If you're led by God and you do something good, there are fruits that come out of that. But God says here, He's going to increase these fruits, plural.

So what do these fruits look like? Well, how about this? I have some ideas. And actually the gentleman up there, I think it's fine. Material ministration to the needy. So I can think of some that might be. But why don't you think about it for next week? Okay? That's a homework assignment. So what do these fruits, plural, look like? We know that we have, every believer has a fruit, singular, of the Spirit. And we know that we have the righteousness of Christ. So what do these fruits look like that he's talking about here? That's a homework assignment. Okay, last verse.

You will be enriched. So based upon it, you'll be enriched. You being enriched in everything to all generosity. Boy, just look at the superlative. All these, you have all, all, all, and you'll be generous. You're enriched. My goodness, you think, wow, I'm a walk out of here, but you know, I'm special. And you are. Being enriched. the passive voice this is another really cool thing here in the passive voice to be enriched or richly supplied and It's followed by this in everything. So the combination of being enriched in everything Is the idea that meaning in every way and everything we're being enriched in everything in every way to all generosity Wow Okay, so here's what I found. So I said, well, let's look at this word enriched. So I got my computer. I typed out that word, that Greek word there, which I didn't attempt to pronounce. I typed that Greek word in there and I got a bunch of references. And this is one of the references. And this is really cool.

In 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4, it says, I thank my God always concerning you for the grace of God which was given to you in Christ Jesus just incredible that in everything here's our word you were enriched in him in two ways this verse says in all speech and knowledge but what's neat is this gives a third one so we're in so take that verse Wow put in the bank that's our bank account in all speech and all knowledge and to be enriched to all generosity Wow. Okay, pretty cool stuff. So now the believer has been enriched in all generosity. I thought that was just connecting those guys together. Just really cool.

So what's the response to that? Which through us is producing a thanksgiving to God. So we're going to see the last part of this chapter is all about thanksgiving to God. This kind of kicks it off here. Which produces through us a thanksgiving to God. The Amplified Bible rendered it this way, and your generosity as it is administered by us, Paul, will bring forth thanksgiving to God. And I thought, as we sow bountifully, thanksgiving will be given to God.

Not to us, to God. So our gift results in God being praised, not us. The thanksgiving culminates in the very last verse, just a beautiful verse. Thanks be to God for his incredible gift and we're going to look at that in detail next week You know, and that's our wonderful Savior Okay, I like to have a final thoughts chart only one today Okay, and this comes from This comes from constable a few thoughts Maybe you had he says notice that what God promised is seed for sowing the opportunities and resources to make further investments of good works and are good deeds.

He did not promise wealth for our own consumption. Some try to teach that. God's going to make you rich. Materially rich. In everything, we saw earlier, implies that God made... I'm having a hard time here. In everything implies that God may give generous Christians... God has given to generous Christians more material resources that they can pass it on to others. So the Christians that are generous have demonstrated their generosity. He may give more so they can pass it on to others. However, we should remember that the context is primarily dealing with righteousness that comes back to the person who sows righteous acts, not Rolls Royces or Rolex watches.

Alright, so let's close. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you so much, Lord. We thank you for your marvelous plan and giving. It's just incredible. It totally is of your doing and you've demonstrated in the churches that Paul visited how he was very strict about that and you desire that we plan ahead of time. We plan what we can give by your grace and you promise to bless us just beyond what we can even imagine. We thank you for that. In Christ's name.