My name is Micaiah.
Today's scripture reading is from 2 Corinthians
nine, six through 11, page 997
and the Bible's in the back of the pews.
The person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly
and the person who sows generously
will also reap generously.
Each person should do as he has decided in his heart,
not reluctantly or out of compulsion,
since God loves a cheerful giver
and God is able to make every grace overflow to you
so that in every way, having everything you need,
you may excel in every good work.
As it is written, he distributed freely,
he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
Now the one who provides seed for the sower
and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
You will be enriched in every way for all generosity
which produces thanksgiving to God through us.
This is God's word.
God's plan for you is that you would be a cheerful giver.
God's plan for you and I is that we would be cheerful givers.
If you are a believer, an apprentice of Jesus,
a Christ honoring disciple,
then I believe that God's plan
is that you would be a cheerful giver.
Not only is it his plan, but it is his power at work in you
so that you might become just that.
Matthew chapter 16, Jesus speaking to his disciples,
he said, something to the effect of,
if anyone wants to follow after me,
let him first deny himself, take up his cross,
and then follow me.
Anyone who wants to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.
For what will it benefit me?
For what will it benefit someone if he gains the whole world
yet loses his life?
Or what will anyone give in exchange for his life
for the son of man is going to come with his angels
in the glory of his father,
and then he will reward each according to what he has done.
To follow after Jesus is to open up all areas of your life,
all areas of your life to Jesus
and to allow Jesus to reshape them,
not only our actions,
but also the motives of our heart as well.
I believe that it is a mark of a Christian
to grow in generosity.
And today's scripture says some pretty striking things
to us about this, and I believe we will be shaped by it
if we allow it to shape us this morning.
But first, let's give a quick background on this passage
that we read out of 2 Corinthians.
The background is this, the Jewish Christians
who are in Jerusalem are in dire straits.
A famine has hit the region,
and they have fallen into poverty,
and they're in great need of provisions.
Now the apostle Paul who was called to be a light
to the Gentiles and a minister to the Gentiles,
he's moved to do something about the plight
of the church in Jerusalem,
the Jewish believers in Jerusalem.
And so he went to these new churches that he had started,
which were mostly full of non-Jews,
and he was asking them, could we put together a donation?
Let's put together a donation to the church in Jerusalem,
to those Jewish believers, and this could become
a great sign of unity.
This could say we are one in Christ,
that though they are Jew and Gentile as believers,
they truly are the one new people in Christ.
And this letter, 2 Corinthians was written,
because while many of the other churches had made good
on their pledge to give, the church in Corinth
had yet to follow through.
And Paul is concerned, because for Paul,
this isn't just about the gift itself,
but there's something more, it says something more
about the church in Corinth.
It says something about have they truly been transformed
at a heart level?
Has the gospel actually reoriented their lives
around Jesus or not?
Because the heart of the gospel is just the heart,
the heart of the gospel is generosity.
In fact, Paul points this out to this very audience,
just the chapter before, in chapter eight,
when he says this, in verse nine of chapter eight,
he says, for you know, the church in Corinth,
you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty, you might become rich.
See, the gospel is about Christ giving to such a degree
that he divests himself and becomes poor,
so that you and I might become rich.
And because of this, we need this word today
from 2 Corinthians, because it goes to the very heart
of what it means to bring the gospel to life.
So let's start with chapter nine, verse six,
and our first point this morning, which is the act of giving.
Verse nine, or chapter nine, verse six says,
the person who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and the person who sows generously
will also reap generously.
Using this agricultural illustration, Paul says
that the act of giving is like sowing seed,
like a farmer would sow seed out in his field, right?
But that's kind of interesting, right?
Because a lot of people think of the act of giving as
something like this, A, I have something, B,
in the act of giving, I give it away and I no longer have it.
End of transaction.
That's it.
That's not how a farmer who sows seed
goes to the field thinking, is it?
I have seed, I'm gonna go sow my seed,
oh, I don't have my seed anymore, guess I'll go home.
All done.
Over.
Paul's using this illustration because there's something more
about the kind of giving he's talking about.
A farmer views his seed more like an investment,
that they hope and pray and expect to produce something
way more than the seed that was planted.
They hope and they pray and they expect a harvest of sorts.
And so we see that there are two ways in verse six to give.
Number one, we can sow or give sparingly.
Number two, we can sow, give generously.
So let's take a look at these two terms,
sparingly and generously.
Sparingly means something to the effect of in a small amount
or restricted or infrequent without wasting any.
Words like thriftily and stingy are associated
with the Greek word being used in verse six for sparingly.
I had an opportunity to go with Pastor Mike,
he's not here today, but had an opportunity
with Pastor Mike up to Portland to spend some time
with some of the people that are here today.
To spend some time with some pastors
and our national director, Jim Lyon.
And to have some great discussions,
but one of the evenings we decided we were gonna hop over
to have some dinner at Red Robin.
Now you guys, what is Red Robin known for?
Bottomless fries, right?
Bottomless fries.
So you go there and you're like, get ready,
because we're about to have a lot, a lot of potatoes.
Well, we head over there and the first order comes out
begins to come out and our plate has our burger on it.
And then the smallest amount of fries you can imagine
are on that plate.
Now it's bottomless, right?
But you know the gig, right?
Eat the burger, you're not gonna have that much room
for the fries, it's a marketing.
So me and Jackie, we look at each other
and we're like, Jackie Williams, yeah,
over at Grace Ministries.
She was there and we look at each other
and we're like, that's not enough.
No, no, no, no, no, no.
And so like, can we get our second,
maybe our third round right now?
Like just bring the fries, come on, bring the fries.
We're about to invest in this.
So we wanna dig in and we want to be full afterward.
And we went here expecting bottomless fries.
Well, that to me is generous.
Bottomless fries.
Now they tried to be stingy about it.
They tried to get me to eat my burger first
and not enjoy all those fries.
Well, we weren't gonna have that
and so we asked for more.
Can't contrast that with sowing and giving generously
as they were stingy, but yeah.
We wanna sow and give generously.
Well, generous means that it's in a way
that shows a readiness to give more of something.
A readiness to give more of something, especially money,
more than is necessary or expected.
More, these are just dictionary definitions, guys.
They're right there on Google if you wanna look them up.
More than is necessary or expected,
enough or more than enough,
and then the final word is plentiful, plentiful.
And the Greek word for generous,
it carries meanings of like blessing.
Like what does it feel like to be blessed?
This kind of bountiful, overflowing, overfilled sense.
It's like praise being given over the top.
That's what generous means.
Stingy in small amounts, restricted,
infrequent, without wasting.
Generous in a way that shows a readiness
to give more of something, especially money,
than is necessary or even expected.
So we first have to look at the act of giving.
Will it be sparingly or generously?
Will it be in small, restricted, infrequent,
stingy amounts or in a way that is more than is necessary
or expected, more than enough?
There's two ways to give.
But one thing we have to remember
is that the size of the harvest
is directly proportional to the amount of seed sown.
The size of the harvest is directly proportional
to the amount of seed sown.
So sparingly, reap sparingly.
So generously, reap generously.
This idea is not new to Paul, though.
He's really actually just drawing
from an Old Testament proverb out of chapter 11,
verse 24 and 25 of the book of Proverbs,
where it says, one person gives freely, yet gains more.
Another withholds what is really given,
another withholds what is right, only to become poor.
A generous person will be enriched,
and the one who gives a drink of water will receive water.
And so the first point is, in the act of giving,
there are two ways, generous or sparingly,
stingy or bountiful.
Next up, we come to verse seven,
where each person should do as he has decided in his heart,
not reluctantly or out of compulsion,
since God loves a cheerful giver.
The second point is the heart of giving.
The heart of giving.
In the act of giving, we talked about
the quantity of the sowing
and its relationship to the harvest,
but Paul goes deeper in this passage.
He wants the folks in Corinth to see
that what God cares more about,
he cares way more than just the moving of the body,
he cares more about the heart, the motive of the heart.
Does the giving move your heart,
or is it a mechanical dry obedience?
What is the motive of the heart in giving?
And bigger than that, what is the motive in the heart
in doing anything that is right?
We live in a culture that says things like,
fake it till you make it.
Fake it till you make it,
and it may be a great way to become a better salesperson
or a celebrity or a YouTube personality,
or the favorite one, right, the big brand one,
is just do it, right, just do it.
It may be a great motto for selling shoes,
but it's not biblical,
because God actually cares about
the inclinations of our heart.
He actually cares where our heart is seated on any matter.
To God, it's always a matter of the heart.
A person may say to a child,
just do it because I said so.
Just obey.
But a parent doesn't delight in that kind of obedience.
The cold mechanical fall in line, yes sir, sergeant sir,
that may be efficient, but it's not lovely.
It may be expedient, but it's not delightful.
The matter of the heart is not a matter of love,
but a matter of the heart, the matter of giving,
must be in a certain way
for us to have the result that this verse talks about.
And the matter of giving must be decided in your own heart
whether you will give sparingly or generously.
Not reluctantly, which actually literally means
not from grief.
Oh, I don't want to, no.
I don't want to give this.
I guess I will.
Not out of compulsion, which is voluntary,
not to avoid some sort of punishment,
even social punishment, people looking down on you.
It should not be given to avoid looking bad
in front of people or in order to get praise from people.
Look how much I gave or look that I gave.
All of those are compulsion.
It should not be reluctantly from grief.
It should not be out of compulsion.
It should be whatever has been decided in your heart,
whether you will so sparingly or generously.
And then finally it says why?
Well, because God loves a cheerful giver.
God loves a cheerful giver.
Love is like that word we might say to one another,
you are my beloved.
Views as beloved, a cheerful giver.
What does that mean though?
What, that God loves a cheerful giver?
Well, Paul was talking in the book of Philippians
to that crew over there in Philippi,
and he's talking about a gift that they had sent to him
when he was in need and he needed supply,
and so they had freely sent a gift to him
to support his ministry.
And in talking to them about that, he said,
you know what, I didn't seek the gift,
but in your giving, I hoped that you might get a credit
on your account because of your giving.
And then he says this after that, he said,
but I have received everything in full and have an abundance.
I am fully supplied having received from Epaphroditus
what you provided.
And then there's a little dash there,
and it says, a fragrant offering.
A fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice,
pleasing to God.
Paul's saying that their generosity to him,
to supply for his needs, to accomplish the ministry
was like a fragrant offering, an acceptable sacrifice,
an act of worship that was pleasing God.
It pleased the Lord what they had done.
Paul is saying that God sees their generosity
as worship to him, and he sees it as honoring him.
And I think there's at least three reasons why
their generosity and our generosity
would be honoring and pleasing to God.
The first is that God loves to be trusted.
God loves to be trusted.
God loves to be telegraphed.
And God loves to be thanked.
In cheerful giving, a believer does all three of these.
God loves when his children trust him.
This brings God great delight.
Psalm 147 says that the Lord values those who fear him,
those who put their hope in his faithful love.
God values those who fear him, those who fear him,
values those who fear him, those who put their hope
in his faithful love.
Cheerful giving shows trust in God.
It isn't from grief.
No, no, no, I'm going to be without if I give.
It echoes the words of Psalm 23, which begin,
the Lord is my shepherd, and in the CSB it says,
I have all I need.
The Lord is my shepherd.
I have all I need.
Cheerful giving shows trust in God.
It says, I have all I need in him.
And God loves to be trusted.
God also loves to be telegraphed.
To be honest, I needed another T word here,
so I chose the closest one,
and you guys are like, telegraph, what's that?
God loves when we broadcast or telegraph
his character and his nature.
He loves when his people reflect his goodness.
Why?
Because God loves his glory.
That's a tough one to hear sometimes,
because we immediately think of a self-centered,
arrogant, proud person who is all about themselves.
But if you really think about God loving his own glory,
and you recognize, you trace it all the way back to creation,
and out of which God created everything,
because God is good and he saw it good,
then this magnificent being we call God
should be glorified, because his glory is our good.
His glory is our good.
And he loves his good.
Later on in Psalm 23, he says, he renews my life,
he leads me along the right paths for his name's sake.
He does it for his name's sake,
that he might be glorified,
that people might see and wonder,
who is this great God who would do such things?
He renews my life, he leads me to do right things,
and he does it all for his name's sake,
that it would be telegraphed to all the cosmos
of how great and awesome and good he is.
Nothing more good for us is his glory being great.
Cheerful givers telegraph the goodness
and the faithful love of God to all the world,
and God gets glory when we cheerfully give.
God loves when his children trust him,
God loves when his character is telegraphed
through his creation, and lastly, God loves to be thanked.
The last verse of our scripture this morning says,
you will be enriched in every way for all generosity.
You will be enriched in every way for all generosity, why?
Why will you be enriched?
It'll produce thanksgiving to God through us.
You will be enriched in every way for all generosity,
which produces thanksgiving to God through us.
God loves a cheerful giver,
because a cheerful giver is one who trusts God to provide,
who telegraphs God's goodness to all creation,
and because cheerful giving results in thanksgiving to God,
God loves to be thanked.
We all do, right?
When we give good things or give things to others,
we like to be thanked.
2 Corinthians 9, 6 through 11 has a few more things
that we'll say to us this morning, so let's continue.
Let's look at our third point, which is the generous person.
Verse eight, and God is able to make every grace overflow
to you, so that in every way,
always having everything in need,
you may excel in every good work.
As it is written, he distributed freely,
he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
Now the one who provides seed for the sower
and bread for food will also provide and multiply your seed
and increase the harvest of your righteousness.
A couple of things we find out about the generous person.
First, we're told that God is able to make
every grace overflow to you who are generous.
Why?
So that in every way, always having everything you need,
God can make sure that you have exactly
what you need always.
Why?
Because God is able to make everything
that you need to be able to do.
Why?
So that you may excel in every good work.
Why does he give?
So that you may excel in every good work.
God gives so that his people abound in good works.
That's why God gives to us.
That's the reason he gives.
He gives that we might abound in good works.
And then Paul quotes from a Psalm, Psalm 112, verse nine,
when he says, as it is written in verse nine.
And some have taken this quote to be talking about God
when it says that he distributed freely,
he gave to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.
But if you read the Psalm that he's quoting, Psalm 112, nine,
you'll see that the Psalm 112, nine is actually describing
the traits of a righteous person.
One of those traits is his generosity.
And his generosity is unparalleled.
He distributes freely in an unrestricted manner.
The Psalm actually begins with a macarism.
Blessed is the man.
Blessed is the man who fears the Lord,
who takes delight in his commands.
And so we're told a God-fearing person
is given so that they might give more.
Why would a God-fearing person be given from God
so that they might give more?
Well, we're told that God will multiply their resources
as they righteously use them,
and God will multiply the effects of their gifts.
God can trust a righteous person
to freely distribute his gifts
and not hoard or be stingy or thriftily with it.
For he's giving that we might abound in good works.
That's why he's giving.
But what's this seed?
What's the seed that we are given?
It's our good works, specifically cheerful giving.
And what is the harvest?
I think this is where a lot of prosperity teachers
and preachers get it wrong.
They say, give $5 and the Lord will give you $10 back
that you can stuff in your bank account
and go spend on yourself.
The really aggressive ones say, give $5 and the Lord will give
you $10 back.
The really aggressive ones say, give $5 and you'll get
$100 back and you can go spend that on yourself
and get yourself a boat or something, small boat.
No, the harvest, the harvest that is being produced
is in the recipient of the gift.
The harvest that's being produced from our giving
is in the recipient, not in us.
The harvest that's being produced is as the gift is given
to the person, thanksgiving comes out of them to God.
And the more we give, the more thanks go to God.
The harvest is an I give to you and I'm waiting
for my $10 to come back to me, bring it on.
The righteous person gives and distributes freely
because they know where the source is,
where they got everything from in the first place.
And he's not stingy, he's not withholding,
he's not thrifty.
Sorry for looking at you, Nick, right there.
Sorry, you guys know Nick, he's a very thrifty
and wise man.
The harvest produced is in the recipient of the gift,
thanksgiving and praise to God.
They become more trusting in his unfailing love
as they receive, they go, oh my gosh,
this God has provided for me.
They overflow in thanks and praise
and maybe they become a righteous person who then gives.
It produces something in the recipient of the gift.
But it also produces something between us.
It produces something in the recipient of the gift.
It produces something between the recipient and the giver.
And that's what Paul's getting at here too.
In addition to what it produces in the recipient,
which ultimately produces praise and honor to God,
it also produces something between the recipient
and the giver.
And that's unity in love.
They go, oh my gosh, we're together.
There's a oneness.
We're in this boat together, we're caring for one another,
we're serving one another,
we're loving and giving to one another.
If that's what giving is all about,
then multiplying those things, as the scripture says,
then God will have no problem giving you more
because the result will always be the multiplying
of the righteous works that he has prepared for you to do.
And the more he gives,
the more his glory increases on the earth.
And the generous person will see God
provides everything they need
in order that they may multiply their generosity.
The generous person sees that God provides
everything they need
so that they can multiply their generosity.
So we've looked at the act of giving,
which there's two ways.
You can give sparingly or you can give generously.
We looked at the heart of giving.
The motive matters.
God loves a cheerful giver.
And we looked at the generous person
and what comes of them,
how God gives to them and what comes out of them
and ultimately back to God.
So lastly, we will consider number four, the generous God.
A little bit below our scripture that we read today
is verse 13 in chapter nine.
Listen to what it says.
Because, this is great,
because of the proof provided by this ministry,
the recipients will glorify God
for your obedient confession
of the gospel of Christ.
They will glorify God because you were obedient,
your confession matched your obedience
to the gospel of Christ.
And for your generosity in sharing with them
and for your kindness in sharing with them.
And for your generosity in sharing with them
and with everyone.
Paul says that the gifts that the Corinthian church
is participating in will act as a kind of proof.
A proof that they are transformed by the power of God.
A proof that they are truly Christ-honoring disciples.
He believes that the gift they provide
will result in glory to God.
Why?
Because of their obedient confession
of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Their gift is an obedient confession
of the gospel of Jesus.
Well, how is that gift an obedient confession
of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Well, do you remember in the introduction
when I read from chapter eight, these words?
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Though he was rich, for your sake he became poor,
so that by his poverty you might become rich.
Generous giving is at the very heart
of who our saving God revealed in Christ is.
And it's at the heart of what Christ did
for sinners like you and I.
Think about it.
He became poor for us.
He divested himself of glory and the riches of heaven
in order that he might freely distribute riches
to you and I, wretched, poor, naked, and blind.
Philippians chapter two paints this picture,
you guys are probably familiar with it.
That Jesus, existing in the form of God
did not consider equality with God,
something to be exploited.
But instead, he emptied himself by assuming
the form of a servant and taking on
the very likeness of humanity.
And when he had come as a man, he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to the point of death,
even to death on the cross.
This brings us back to the beginning.
Did Jesus give sparingly or generously?
Did Jesus go to the cross and give his life
from grief or under pressure to perform?
No, in fact, Hebrews 12 says,
for the joy set before him, Christ endured the cross,
scorning its shame.
What was the joy set before him?
The joy set before Christ was not the pain and suffering
and the nails going through his hands
and the spear in his side, that wasn't the joy set before him.
What was the joy set before him?
What was the joy set before Jesus?
Us.
In his heart and in mind, he saw everyone
who would put their hope and faith in him
and said, I will go, I will give it all for the joy
it is to welcome in sons and daughters into my family.
I will go and I will give it all.
Become poor, submit myself to a beating,
submit myself to crucifixion, submit myself to death.
What does Philippians 2 say next?
Therefore, God held up his end of the bargain.
God exalted him to the highest place, gave him the name.
You're gonna do that for my glory?
You're going to empty yourself and give all
to the point even of death?
Oh, I've got no problem giving life back to your body,
resurrecting you, making you the name
that is above every other name.
Now, obviously, Jesus is a little different than you and I.
He gets to be the name above all names forever
because what he did, you and I could never do.
But he went there first.
He endured the excruciating painful death for the joy
that was you and I being welcomed as sons and daughters
to glory, we are the harvest of righteousness for Christ.
And yes, Psalm 112 was talking about the righteous man,
but there was no one more righteous than Christ.
As Psalm talks about him for sure.
And Jesus said, I lay down my own life, right?
No one takes it from me, not under pressure,
not under compulsion, not from grief.
I'm not laying it down because someone's forcing me.
I lay down my own life.
I lay it down on my own initiative.
It's a cheerful giver for God's glory.
In every way, Jesus gave generously to save you and I.
Our genuineness of our gospel confession,
our following Christ is reflected in our generosity.
To the degree we are becoming generous
is to the degree we have believed and are transformed
by the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So have we been transformed by his gift of grace?
How does our giving measure up next to his giving?
There's a passage that says,
we are the harvest of righteousness for Christ.
There's a passage that says we can never exceed our master.
But what does a disciple hope to be?
Bible says a disciple hopes to be like his master.
Never exceed him, never do him better.
But could we be like him?
Does our generosity overflow through our lives
in the way that we give?
We are called to bring the gospel to life
even in our giving.