Book of 2 Corinthians - Ch. 9, Vs. 1-Ch. 10, Vs. 7 (05/13/2001)

The Cheerful Giver and the Measure You Sow

2 Corinthians 9 For as touching the ministering of it to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you. For I know the forwardness of your mind, for which I boast of you to them of Macedonia, that Acacia was ready to give a year ago, and your zeal hath provoked very many.

Yet have I sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this behalf, that, as I said, ye may be ready to take up the offering before he ever arrived. Lest, happily, if they of Macedonia come with me, and find you unprepared, we that may say not, ye should be ashamed in this same confident boasting.

Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren that they would go before unto you, and make up beforehand your bounty, whereof you had noticed before, that the same might be ready as a matter of bounty, and not as of convenience, but covetousness.

He was concerned that they would give a freewill offering, not one Corinthians 9, not one that would come because somebody else gave, or because they felt coerced into giving. But this I say, he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

Bill, what's that mean?

What does the whole verse mean? All right, Dennis, what do you think it means?

Deal out. All right, does God give to us according to what we give? Does he give to us according to his riches? Jesse, do we influence God any? That's right. So that that he was going to give, he will give, but we will receive according to how we perceive it.

If we think God is giving very bountifully, then that's the way we will receive. But it does not change God any. But this I say, he which sows sparingly. So if you're going to to sow just a little bit, then you're going to look at everything the same way, and give just a little bit.

Every man according as he is purposed in his heart, so let him give not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loveth a cheerful giver. Every man according as he is purposed in his heart. Greg, what does that mean to you?

Does he want us to, well, let me make my next statement. All right, that's right, absolutely. And you can't make yourself want to, can you? You can, then you wanted to before you began. God does not want one penny from you if you would rather keep it to yourself.

The benefit of giving is lost to the giver when he does it with a grumbling heart. And as he does not do the duty of the duty in the spirit of duty, even that which he did is an abomination to the Lord.

If you give it grudgingly, if you give it because somebody else give it, if you give it because you think that it's expected of you, if you give it because it's the right thing to do worldly, God rather not have it.

God doesn't need it in the first place, does he? Who needs it? We do, but we need it with a happy heart. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you that ye always have in all sufficiency and all things may abound to every good work.

God is able to make all grace abound toward you. You believe that? As it is written, he has dispersed abroad, he has given to the poor, his righteousness remaineth forever. He sows much not merely at home but abroad.

Now he that ministers seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness. He that ministers seed to the sower. Who is that, Greg?

What did somebody else say? God. How does he do that? David, how does he minister seed to the sower? Do we have anything other than the word? Seed to the sower, both minister bread for your food and multiply your seed sown.

How does he do that, Dennis? All right. And increase the fruits of your righteousness. Verge, explain that. Is that the fruits of your righteousness? Did I catch you on high center? I'm saying, I don't know if that's what we're.

Going with it. We're increasing the bill that we're getting done from somebody else. We share with others, we get a big bill of balance. And I would say that that's right. That's right.

Therefore, in every sense, is every sense, it is God who ministers seed for the sower, multiplies the seed for sowing. And as all of this property properly comes from God and can exist only with him, does he have the right to tell us how to dispense it?

Yes. Only God can tell you how to dispense it. Being enriched in everything to all bountiful in us, which causes through us, thanksgiving to God. Now, are we all enriched in everything? Bill, we are absolutely.

Even when we think we're not, we are. Why does God give riches? Jesse, either one. That's first to bring glory to God and relieve the poorness of others. Why does God give riches to bring glory to himself?

For the administration of this service, not only supplies the want of the saints, but is abundant also by many thanksgivings unto God. When you give to a person, to a church, are you not blessed more than the giver and then the one that received?

Sure you are. If it's done in the right spirit. If it's not done in the right spirit, God doesn't want it. Yes, absolutely. That's right. While by the experiment of this administration, they glorify God for your professed subjection unto the gospel of Christ and for your liberal distribution unto them and to all men and by their prayer for you, which long after you for the exceeding grace of God in you.

They had the means of charity, those that gave, and the feeling and charitableness of heart, those that gave. But God was the author of it. God is the one that gave you the cheerfulness of heart. He is the one that gave you the means to give.

He is the one that should receive all glory for it. Any disagreement? Thanks be unto God for this, his unspeakable gift. Now, Bill, what was his unspeakable gift? That's right. He chose us. That's the most astounding thing that I know, that he chose me.

It is most evident that it is the work of Christ in them and not Christ himself, which is intended here. Is that the last? Yes.

That's why I did it. Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift. In the religious world today, we've lost this concept. The church thinks that we're doing everything. And that's why we have all the programs, ideas, books being written about how to do this, that, and the other, how to reach people, how to build huge churches.

And all the last part of this chapter shows how that's done. God does it. That's right.

Each day, each hour, each moment is the gift of God. Each prayer, each breath is a gift of God. Good. Glad to have you here. From Kentucky and just came over here to go to church. Well, the last verse, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gifts.

I want you to realize something. I've discussed this with a few of you. It's most evident that it is the work of Christ in them and not Christ himself. Jesus came into this world. He was the word. He was the life.

He was the light. But Jesus did not have that light as of himself. It was in him. It is, well, light here means chandelier. He carried that light. It was given to him by the father just to take Jesus by himself, did not have that light.

It's impossible to take him by himself, but if you could, so he brought that light to the world. Now to receive the light, you have to accept him. You have to receive him. You cannot receive the light without him.

This thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift, his first salvation, first choosing, then salvation as a choice that was never made because we were the only people in the world till Satan's people came.

It was very evident that Jesus Christ by the four ordained counsel eons ago was set aside as the lamb slain. So there was preparation made for sin. By the way, did sin come into the world against God's will?

No. It's important that you understand that it did not come against his will. It came for growth. So everything points to this light, this life in Jesus Christ. Now let's go to chapter 10. Now I, Paul, myself, beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence and base among you, but being absent and bold towards you.

Paul’s Meekness, Apostolic Authority, and Spiritual Warfare

Paul, just like any other man, he worked and got his hands dirty. You might say, not knowing Paul, he is no apostle. It'd be hard to look at him and tell that he was an apostle. By the way, I have to drink coffee to keep my voice going.

You might say, look at him. He's a tent maker. He's a pharmacist. He's a teacher. He's no apostle. In fact, some people would look down on him. He got dirty. He stunk. Tent making was a very, very nasty, dirty job.

He writes in the meekness and gentleness of Christ, Our Lord did not look at difference in the artist as the artist would have looked at you. So Paul writes to them and says, don't let looks fool you.

Paul had the authority of an apostle. I know a church that the pastor loved the word of God, but some of the people did not. It wasn't this church, but they carried a big Bible. I did not know what was in it.

They did not believe the word of God. If a pastor preached the word of God and does not cater to such a group, believe me, he is in trouble. The average church, he is in trouble. And that's the devil's method.

Carry a big Bible so much as it leads you to lean to one side, Dennis. But I beseech you that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh.

Paul had the problem all of his life, Christian life, of being accused of walking according to the flesh. There were those that put out letters against him, that spoke against him. Paul did not come as an ordinary man who was dependent upon the principles of the natural.

He did not come to Corinth to put on a Madison Avenue campaign. He did not come at the invitation of a Christian. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. He did not spend his time putting down everything.

He did not take up any popular issues. Though we are mortal like other men, though we dwell like them in mortal bodies and necessarily must devote some care to our temporal wants, and though being in the flesh, we are conscious of imperfections and frailties like others.

The sense is that he did not claim exemption from the common wants and frailties of nature. The best of men are subject to these wants and frailties. The best of men are liable to error. The best of us sin once in a while.

The best of us miss the mark once in a while. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. What are these strongholds? Jesse, what is our first weapon in this war?

Word of God and prayer. The second is what? What do we have in our arsenal that the others do not? Faith, the Holy Spirit, which includes faith. Then another weapon is prayer. So, the first weapon is God's word, the second, the Holy Spirit, and the third, prayer.

With those, we can conquer the world. Not physically. Yes. What is that? Yes, through God to the pulling down of strongholds. They would be strongholds as far as we are concerned physically, but spiritually, this is a spiritual battle.

Casting down imaginations in every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. My whole sermon can be taught right here.

Casting Down Imaginations and Bringing Every Thought to Christ

Casting down imaginations, every high thing, all the proud and lofty thoughts of men which lead them to exalt themselves against the gospel. Casting down imaginations. What is imagination, Dian? The wisdom of the earthly wise.

Is that all there is to imagination,.

Bill? Why not? It's all of those things created. But it's more than that. I want all of you to.

Think about a statement that you heard. Maybe it was part of a statement, maybe it was all of a statement, but that's all you were privileged to hear. And you started imagining the outcome of that. I can't get away from personal, but like a man that you heard that he lost his job.

He's 55, 56 years old, and he lost his job. Now, you immediately begin to wonder what he was going to do. You thought about his wife, very ill. How's he going to pay the bills? Then you extrapolated that into he's going to have to sell off this and that.

And he's going to have to do this. He's going to have to go on relief. He's going to have to use up his savings. And that goes very quickly. And it goes on until you're a nervous wreck. When all the time it was made in jest.

Didn't mean anything. That's imagination. But you imagine what's going to be. Any of you ever do that?

So if it's a lie to begin with, I think the important thing is to go to the truth and bring light and truth. And if it's exposed as truth, then it's over. But if it's never shown as anything different, I think God allows you to pray for that.

Well, he does, except it was a lie to start with.

Well, that's what I'm saying. If you know it's a lie to start with, then it needs to be exposed. You need to bring it to light and correct it so that there's no concern.

This correcting was done in your own mind, though. Don't bother other people with it. Don't go to somebody and say, well, now what are we going to do? He's going to lose his job. He's this, that, and everything.

Don't do that. Just keep quiet. Casting down every imagination, that becomes a job. And every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, that's the measuring stick. Is it against the knowledge of God, that that you know?

I think that's the real test of the casting down of imaginations. When it's not something that's not true, and we embellish upon something that's totally wrong. But when something is accurate, when we know something is true, and it is true, what we learn is that we know the outcome of the future.

We know that this is what's going on now, and we think that we know what's going to happen as a result of that. And so we start imagining the progress of time, what's going to happen. And we can't do that.

That's one of the things that we do. That's one of the things we refrain to do. You are saying, this is what the outcome of that is going to be. You just have to live with the outcome of what is now, rather than in your imagination just what is now.

Because you don't know what that is.

To the obedience of Christ. Just the obedience of Christ. Obedience. Clarence, what's obedience mean? How are we going to know, Greg, how to obey God? By study and prayer. You cannot get it by study alone.

You cannot get it by prayer alone. You cannot get it by reading the Bible. It has to be absorbed.

How to be obedient in that situation from Christ.

How to be obedient in that situation may mean to keep quiet. It may mean you go to them. It may mean lots of things. That's right. Did you all get that settled? Couldn't hear half of it. I hate it when I can't hear.

Obedience, Discernment, and Judging by Outward Appearance

In this spiritual battle, the warriors are successful. God did get the victory. Anytime we're successful, he gets the victory. And having in readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled, when you are obedient unto the Lord, you will revenge or you will do away with lots of disobedience to cover sin.

Sins that would never be in existence is the love of God. Because we love him, we didn't go off and sin a world full of sins. To revenge, punished by virtue of our apostolic authority, your obedience is fulfilled when you are true to Christ and his cause.

Have had opportunities to prove yourself by your obedience. Do you look on things after outward appearances? If any man trusts to himself that he is Christ, let him of himself think this again. That as he is Christ, even so are we Christ.

Do you look on things after the outward appearance? Too many times we see a glimpse and we form a whole theme. We see a glimpse and we can project the whole ballgame. I remember years and years ago when I was on the sideline working sound at a cowboy ballgame.

I couldn't see the game because of all the people in front of me. But I saw one little glimpse. This was where the man wasn't standing. And the cowboy went by with the ball under his arm, his feet out straight, but he was on his head.

Now if I took that and built a whole ballgame on it, it would be rather ridiculous. But that's what it means. We just see a glimpse. So we embellish and build and work everything out according to what we saw.

You can't do that. Do you look on things after the outward appearance? Dennis, should we? Why do we? What are we doing when we judge people like that? What else are we doing? What else are we doing? What else are we doing?

What are we doing when we... That's all true and everything you have said is true. But what are we doing when we judge somebody according to what they do? You're saying their salvation is by works. Don't say that.

It all depends upon the area or time in which you grew up. My wife and I grew up in depression. Neither one of us knew it. We ate bread and milk for supper because I thought that's what we're supposed to do.

She had beans and cornbread because that's what you're supposed to do. We didn't know what other people over the hill was doing. I think that was better. But those times are gone. Let's stand and Dennis dismisses, please.