2 Corinthians 9:6-15, You’ve Got to Love It!

2 Corinthians chapter 9, we'll be reading from verses 6 to 15. Hear the word of the

Lord. 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 flowing from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for him 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.

May the Lord add his blessings to the reading of his holy word. Well, some things are so inherently obviously good that you've just got to love them.

You know, being healthy, that's one. A sweet, happy, playing child, not being too loud.

Who doesn't love that? A warm, but not hot, sunny day. A sunset over the ocean.

Maybe a day off with nothing you have to do. No chores, nothing at all that you have to do except whatever you want to do.

Nice meals out. Most vacations. Loving families.

Good music. Laughter. Fat bonus checks. As Maria sang in the

Sound of Music, girls in white dresses with blue satin sashes. Snowflakes that stay on my nose and eyelashes.

Silver white winters that melt into springs. These are a few of my favorite things.

There are some things that are so universally pleasant that everyone has just got to love them.

Advertisers try to convince us that their products, whatever they're selling, are among those things.

You know, food that you've got to love. A company calls itself Gotta Love It. It sells garlic butter.

Yeah, I like garlic butter. There are other things, though, that most of us find unpleasant.

And so we ask, you know, people who do it voluntarily, why would you do that?

Why in the world would you put yourself, you know, voluntarily, willingly through that? We might all love being physically fit and healthy, but if we knew what was required to really be on the top of physical fitness, like an

Olympic -quality, world -class level of fitness, what was required of you?

The exertion, the hours of arduous running and lifting and swimming and stretching and all those kind of things.

Pushing yourself to the pain of exhaustion, the discipline of your diet and all that. Doing it regularly, not just occasionally, but like every single day, it shapes your schedule.

You'd ask, why would you do that? Well, you gotta love it.

For me, anything having to do with a cold, I can't understand. Why would you put yourself out on the cold?

I don't get that. I have no attraction, like, to snow skiing, to ice hockey, because I don't want to be anywhere near snow or ice.

Okay, I'm perfectly happy the globe warms up a little bit and we never see snow again. Okay, I just, I don't mind.

I saw a story about a man who climbed all of Colorado's 14ers, that is mountains over 14 ,000 feet tall, in the winter, in the bitter cold.

And I thought, why in the world would you do that to yourself? I guess because he loves it.

But despite all my dislike of the cold, one day when I lived in Pennsylvania, it was zero degrees outside,

Fahrenheit, zero degrees. And I went for an hour run outside.

Okay, no treadmill in the house. Went outside in zero degrees. Why? Well, because I loved it. I didn't love the cold, but my love for running was enough to make me endure the cold.

For some, why would you spend hours and hours practicing a musical instrument? This seems so tedious.

Oh, you gotta love it. Now, sure, for some, they'll put themselves through something they really don't love.

Maybe they'll get an advanced degree or learn a skill, not because they love it, but because they love the money they can get after they've gotten the degree.

And for such people, the study is dreary, but they love the money enough to get them through. The problem with lazy people, who never seem to achieve anything, the problem with lazy people isn't that they just love leisure too much.

That's really not their problem. Their problem is they don't love something else, anything else, enough to get them moving.

They don't love money enough to go out and work to get more of it. If you want to achieve something, anything, the secret is no secret.

You've got to love it. And that's why we give. Why in the world would we want to part with our hard -earned cash when we could spend it on things?

We could save it for ourselves. We could indulge in luxuries. Why would you do that?

That's the natural kind of worldly question. Why would you do that?

Oh, if we're promised to get even more cash back, that we can understand, right? That's not even really giving.

That's just investing. But just to give it away, to promote a cause maybe, like the gospel, to give it away to something that might not fatten your wallet or your belly, or to give it to people just because, well, they have a need.

People who may not ever be able to give anything back to you. The natural question just screams, why would you do that?

Oh, for some, they think they know what it's giving is about. It's about getting

God to give you more back. So you give him a dollar, and he gives you $100 back, so some tell us.

Of course, they usually require us to give into their, quote, ministries, organizations, to make it work.

That's very convenient for them, isn't it? Why don't they, if it really works, why don't they give into their own organizations so that God will give them $100 back, and they'll get, never mind.

But that's really not the reason to give. Why do we give? Well, the reason is as simple as why we do anything that's difficult.

We've got to love it. Why we give is explained in five different ways in this passage.

Why should you give? First, you will profit. Second, you will provoke praise.

Third, you will prove yourself. Fourth, you will promote fellowship. And fifth, you will portray

God's gift. Now, first, you should give because you will profit. But isn't that exactly what

I just mocked? That we profit from giving? Well, that is what this passage is saying from verses 6 to 11.

The apostle Paul is continuing his teaching from the previous chapter and a half about giving. And think about how important that is to him.

Two whole chapters of this letter taken up with giving. He said in verse 5 that we should give willingly, eagerly, as a blessing, not as something wrenched from us by manipulation or intimidation.

You must give or you will be punished. Now, the word there in verse 5 is a blessing.

In verse 5, notice verse 5. So, I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go ahead to you and arrange and advance for the gift or the,

I believe that's the word there, blessing you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, blessing, not as an exaction.

Right? That's the word in Greek, it's blessing. And this is a passage where it's useful to know

Greek because there's some things that are not quite as clear in the English as they should be. But the word there in 5 is verse blessing.

You should give as a blessing, not as just a verbal wish, be blessed, but do good to others. And the word is that same word is repeated in verse 6 where Paul says that the one who sows, they translate it bountifully, but it's actually a blessing.

The one who sows generously or bountifully, really, the blessing. One who sows a blessing will reap a blessing.

That's the one, that's the reason you give. You will profit from it. You give a blessing, you'll get a blessing.

The degree you give is the degree you get back. The more blessing you give, the more blessing you get back. If you give a little blessing, you get a little blessing back.

If you give a big blessing, you'll get a big blessing back. So we can assume that the one who gives much, much blessing, loves getting much blessing back.

Right? That's what he's doing it for, for what he loves. The one who gives little loves keeping what he has.

Doesn't really want a big blessing back. Doesn't love so much what he could get back for himself. Giving profits.

Before you object, hey, wait, wait, wait. I know you're about to argue with me. Before you object, this is plainly what the passage says.

It goes on in verse 8 where the word of God promises that if you give, God is able to give you all. Repeated five times in various forms in that one sentence.

In verse 8. Notice the word all occurs five times, different ways.

Every is kind of a form of all. All abundance. God is able, he says in verse 8, to give you return that will profit you in all things, at all times, all that you need.

So you have all blessings, all that. How could anyone who really believes that verse? You know, people say they believe the

Bible is God's word. You believe that verse? That if you, in here it's saying that if you give abundantly, you will in all things, at all times, get all that you need.

You believe that? If so, how could anyone who says they believe it, really believe it, not give?

You would have to not love giving. I'm trying to understand. You say you believe, you give a blessing, a big blessing, and you'll get a big blessing back.

You say you believe that, and then you don't give. Well, I guess assume you don't want blessings. I mean,

I guess that's what... You would have to not love getting, if you believe what the scripture says, and yet don't give.

That's the logical, that's the only logical explanation I can think of. You know, I don't go snow skiing or climbing 14 ,000 feet mountains in the winter, because I just don't love the cold.

But some people do. And you can see that they love the cold, because they go out in it.

If you believe our sage is true, that you will receive all that you need in all things, if you give generously, and then you don't give generously, we can only assume that you don't love having all that you need at all times, in all things.

I guess. Or maybe, maybe you don't really believe the Bible, or really trust

God. Well, the word of God here tells us that giving profits, if you give generously, you get even more back.

But if you expect $100 back for every dollar you give, you're looking for the wrong return.

People who give because they love some kind of promised monetary return, that they're told that they're promised they'll have, you give to whatever, some organization, you're promised $100 back for every dollar you give.

They love the wrong thing. Here in verse 8, a little word I omitted earlier, grace.

God is able to make all grace abound to you.

If you give grace by giving money, one form of giving grace as we saw two weeks ago, remember we used grace, that word, for the offering, you will get grace returned to you, grace in the form of favor with God, a spiritual power, growth, the power to change, to be more like God, a blessing, the ability, he says at the end of verse 8, to abound in every good work.

If we love being more like God, if that is why we're doing all this, that's why we're here, going to church, reading our

Bible or praying or serving, because we want to know the Lord better and we want to be more like him, then one essential key to that is to give.

Give grace. Then you'll get grace. You know why friends of Mary gave us, that is the church corporately, large sums of money?

Because years ago, Mary got grace from God and then turned around and gave grace to those friends, often in the form of discipleship, biblical instruction, pastoral care, some long late nights with them crying through some crisis.

They then gave grace back to her and it turns out to us that she's part of us.

Now, what do we do? We've been given grace or now we're to give grace.

We're abound in every good work. So we don't shut down our outreach program so we can save a little gas and electricity.

We're to give even more than we were given, abound in giving grace to all kinds of people, even if sometimes they're ungrateful and they don't end up giving us any grace back.

Paul quotes in Psalm 112 in verse 9 to tell us about the righteous person. What's he like?

What's he or she like? He distributes gifts freely, especially to the poor, people who won't be able to do anything back.

It's good for him. So it's not like a quid pro quo thing. I scratch your back, you scratch mine.

We do each other favors. This is to the poor who probably won't be able to do anything for you. He gives to the poor.

Why does he give? Because he's right with God and that's what right people do. Then he refers to Isaiah 55 where the

Lord himself is the one who gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater. That generous

God gives us beyond what we need. He multiplies our profit. But what we need for what?

People misread verse 8 thinking only of what they think they need. They think they need more money so they can go to nicer vacations, more things, more ability to indulge themselves.

But he says in verse 10, the generous God will multiply our... multiply our...

Notice the word there? If you're looking at the passage, multiply our seed. Seed's not for consuming, is it?

Let's say multiply our bread. Multiply our...

Let's multiply our seed. Seed is for sowing. It's for investing.

It's for giving. It's for planting, putting out there. It's not for consuming.

And at the end of verse 10, increase the harvest of your righteousness. Righteousness here is not only your right relationship with God, but the harvest of it, the produce of it, the product, what comes from righteousness.

All the ways your life is supposed to show that you are right with God, that you have his character, that you look like him, his love, his generosity.

You see that even more clearly in verse 11. Why should you be generous like God? So that he can enrich you so that you could be even more generous like God.

So you want to abound in a harvest of righteousness? That's probably what you're here for, isn't it? You want to hear a message.

You want to sing some songs. You want to pray because you want to harvest some righteousness. You want to harvest?

Well, give. You want to become like God who is a generous giver? Then give.

Some will say, well, I do give. But how much is generous? Some theologians particularly would get down to the nitpicky about words.

And tied up with that is often that bad question that we looked at two weeks ago. Oh, do

I have to tithe? Verse seven would seem to say, some would say that I don't have to tithe.

And if that's where your mind first goes, looking for the minimum reasons to give less.

There's a problem. The first problem isn't that you don't tithe, but with what you love, who really loves his wife.

And the first thing that comes to his mind when he thinks about her is, do I really have to be faithful to her sexually?

I mean, is that really a burden I have to bear? Who does that?

We can answer the question, but there's something wrong if you're continually asking it. Some will say, well, verse seven says, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

I can give whatever, however little I want to. Well, true,

I guess. But remember first the context of this. Paul is taking up an offering from the Corinthians and the

Macedonians and these other Gentiles, and he's going to take it to the church, the poor Christians in Jerusalem.

The Corinthians here have known about this offering for at least a year, Paul tells them in verse two.

Now, likely when he told them, he announced he's going to, I'm coming back in a year.

I'm going to give this offering. Please decide what you want to give to it. They made pledges, probably just in their own minds, privately, because he says in his heart, each one must decide in his heart.

They made pledges how much they want to give. And Paul expects them to keep that pledge, even if it's just privately in their own minds.

It's a matter of integrity. You make a commitment, even if it's just in your heart to God, you keep it. Here, this time, in a day when most of your wealth, for them, their wealth isn't in cash, and they can write a check and the bank transfers the money.

But in this day, people had some wealth, had some resources. It was in things that could be sold.

You would have to sell, like land or jewelry. It would take a while to liquefy the assets.

In other words, it would take a while to find a buyer and sell it to him and go through that process.

Some of them would have planned. So here, they've heard this announcement from Paul that's going to be this offering.

They decide, yes, I want to give to that. They decide how much they want to give. They said, hmm, I have 10 acres.

I can sell for so much so I can give that money. Some of them would have planned to give so much. But then when it comes time, now

Paul is saying, I'm sending Titus and these others to take up that offering. Make sure you're ready. And they began to think, whoa, wait.

You know, it's coming now time to sell those few acres or that red, red ruby you love so much.

It's second thoughts. Then he said to themselves, you know, I think I'll hold on to this after all. And so when

Paul is telling them to be generous, he's first saying, keep your original pledge. You said, even if just in your heart to God that you would sell those extra acres or that ruby.

Now, follow through. Do what you decided to do. Give as you originally decided when we told you about the offering.

What Paul is saying here when he says each one must give as he has decided in his heart is to fulfill what we mentioned last week.

Remember, planning. They had original planned to give something.

We could probably now we would call it budgeting. They made a budget. They budgeted, I can give so much. Now they should fulfill their plan, keep their budget.

So for us, it doesn't mean, well, everyone gives whatever they feel like it at the moment. And no one can tell me if it's too little.

It means decide to give, make a plan, devise a budget that has giving as a part of it.

And keep to that budget. That means make a resolution about your giving and stick to it.

Don't wait to be badgered about giving or manipulated into giving with emotion. That's the reluctantly or under compulsion paying a bill mentality.

Rather, you have budgeted to give, decided in your heart to be generous. And so now you do it.

You stick with your budget because you love it. Second, notice that little sentence at the end of verse 7.

God loves a cheerful giver. Now, some imagine that verse 7 is saying, you know, we're free from the tithe.

We can give as much or as little as we want. Whatever strikes me in my complete autonomy as a good gift to give and no one has a right to criticize me for it.

It has to be so little that it doesn't hurt me to give. But Paul doesn't say God loves people who give however much they feel like, even if it's a pittance.

God loves people who drop in a few extra dollars in the offering plate after a week of spending on themselves. God loves givers and non -givers.

He doesn't say that. Look at verse 7 as a whole. Each one of you should give as you have committed to give when you made that resolution and you budgeted.

But don't do it grudgingly because you were required to. But because, that's the word there in Greek, for, is establishing the reason that we should give without it being grudging or without pressure being applied.

That's why here, by the way, and you know, I hardly ever speak on giving. Speaking on here because it comes in the passage.

We're not doing this to manipulate you and to put on the pressure. You know, every few, every year we have a, we have a fundraising month to do that.

We don't do that because we figure you need to, you budget, you resolve, and you give.

Don't do it because of pressure being applied. But you, you love to give, so stick to your plan, your budget, and even when it is hard, and the reason we do that is based on the fact that because God loves a cheerful giver.

You must give, you must give generously. There's no way around that and you must, you must love it.

Someone will respond, but generous then is defined by what I love to give.

Even if it's just a dime, I love to give that dime. That's generous, right? The bottom line is, they would say,

I don't have to, quote, pay a tithe. First, that is true. We don't have to pay a tithe. That whole way of thinking, pay a tithe, is wrong.

I think this passage shows that here. It doesn't even occur to the person who is a generous, cheerful giver. We don't pay our church like we pay our other bills.

You know, you don't have electricity and water, insurance, church.

That way of thinking is the necessity or compulsion, he says, that should not influence our giving. Even the phrase, pay your tithe, doesn't occur in the

New Testament, but that doesn't mean then, since we're free from the law and the tithe was part of the law, and we're free, as in the misreading of the first part of verse 7, forgetting that last sentence, that we're then free to be, we're just free to be led by our own feelings.

Judging for ourselves what luxuries we need to give as little as we can and not feel really bad about it at all.

Generous is the New Testament rule for giving. You want a rule for giving? There it is, generous.

But I don't see how we go from the Old Testament rule, which was 10%, starting with Abraham and Jacob in the book of Genesis, who gave a tithe when

God gave to them. Now, how do we go, how do we go from the tithe, 10 % being the rule, to now generous being the rule, and your percentage goes down?

Really, how does that, how does that work? Here, Paul tells us that we must give generously and do it because we love it.

Some don't give because they are attracted to the half -truths. They're really half -truths about being free from the tithe.

Not because they're happy to be free from the law. Have a problem. The problem is with what they love.

What do you love? Well, what should you give? Because second, you will provoke praise to God.

Verse 11 says that. We give as we become generous. Thank God for the ways your generosity has touched them.

And verse 12, he tells them that this offering that he's taken up is not just about, it is about alleviating poverty.

It's not only about alleviating poverty among the Christians in Jerusalem. It's also aimed, even higher than that, than just being a social work kind of project.

It's also aimed at overflowing in praise to God. That you put, that what you put in the offering basket isn't just a practical, a practical way to, you know, keep us afloat, so we pay our bills.

It's an act of worship. Produce praise in us. Now, imagine that. Remember that story. We were depending on one source of the money.

We had planned, we had worked to have one source of the money to pay for this building. But then when it was pulled away, another came through without our planning.

Exactly $1 ,200. And we're promised the day after, the very day after the $1 ,200 was, was taken away from us.

And then we got $25 ,000 to make up for the whole sum that we were denied. Now, surely we can't hear that without inwardly or outwardly thanking

God. And that's not only large sums that should provoke praise. The poor girl who walked two miles other than riding the bus was able, so she could save $5 a month.

That was generous. She could, she should provoke praise.

If we love God, we want to praise Him, to increase His praise.

And one way we do that is by giving. We give because we love.

Well, third, we give to prove ourselves. ESV is, the translation here is not quite clear.

The Greek says that this offering, because this ministry is proof. And he's taking up this offering, and he calls it here the ministry.

It literally says through this proof in Greek, through this proof that is the offering, people will glorify

God. Praise will be provoked by the proof that they are providing with money.

I believe here Paul is working his way to what is the overarching theme of this entire letter, that some of the

Corinthians need to examine themselves to see if they're really in the faith, whether they're saved at all. Now one important tell -tale evidence we give of that is our generous giving.

Generous giving is proof that we really are Christians. It's tangible evidence of our conversion.

Verse 13 says that they have a confession of the gospel. They claim verbally to believe it.

But that is not enough to provoke praise. They also need obedience that accompanies their confession.

They need deeds to back up their words. And those deeds come into the offering basket.

Martin Luther said that we need to be converted three times. First our head, then our heart, then our pocketbook.

Or to put it another way, the last part of the person to be converted is his bank account.

Your checkbook is one of the most unmistakable testimonies to your salvation. If it shows generous giving, then it likely also shows that your heart and your head have already been converted.

We give to prove that we're new creatures. Commitment is spelled

M -O -N -E -Y. Giving is an indicator of where a person is with the

Lord. If they're giving generously, they're probably also faithful, dependable, enjoying

God's blessings. They may be going through some trials sometimes. But you can be confident that they'll make it.

But if they're giving ungenerously, or maybe just giving legalistically, less than they would be, or maybe they're just stingy giving less than they would be under the law, then that is a disturbing sign that something is seriously wrong with them spiritually.

Christians who are giving little are showing signs of a spiritual sickness.

That something is wrong with their relationship with God. Like taking vital signs of a patient in an emergency room.

Someone's blood pressure, pulse, temperature are all proofs of health or sickness. Giving is a proof.

A vital sign. Verse 13 says so. Is your giving generous?

What does it prove? And is it generous because you love it? Fourth, we give to promote fellowship.

At the end of verse 13, again the key word is koinonia. Remember that word? We saw that in Acts. They shared all things in common.

They had fellowship. They shared for each other's needs. They didn't actually share everything in common. They shared for each other's needs.

Okay, they weren't this communist society that just pooled everything to live in these communes. But when had a need, they would share.

That was koinonia. Here it's translated in the ESV as contribution. And the NIV is sharing.

When the Corinthians give, the poor Christians in Jerusalem will, he says, they will long for them.

When your money gets to them, Paul's saying, they'll want to meet you. They'll want to know you. They'll be attached relationally.

And they will pray for them. Don't you now feel attached, more attached to some of the

Christians in Singapore who gave to you? The same is true of the church. Now, in the church, our contributions are essential for fellowship, for a church united around a fair meeting of needs.

If it's just following on a few people who give and some others aren't giving, that's resentment begins to come in.

But if we don't give, we don't each of us share what we can, then we're just a talking shop.

We talk about the giving love of God. We talk about sharing in fellowship.

We say we believe in a generous Lord and then we deny Him by our stinginess.

Something that fellowship and unity in the church is just about feeling good about each other. Small talk after the service.

A meal occasionally when we can get back to having them hopefully soon. About not being easily offended, not taking each other, talking each other down behind their back.

But here, generous giving promotes fellowship. It's an expression of solidarity, of unity, that being of one body isn't just an otherworldly concept, just a spiritual, mystical kind of thing.

But here it's a reality that we believe and we believe it so much, we give to the needs of the other parts of the body.

We have things in common, including an equal load. So some members don't have to sacrifice a great deal while others are just giving just a little few extra dollars here and there.

It's not good enough to say you love the church and the people in it. Talk not backed up by giving creates suspicion and cynicism, really poison for fellowship.

You've got to show it in your giving. Your generous giving promotes fellowship. Fifth, finally, your generous giving portrays

God's indescribable, what Paul here says is that indescribable or in ESV inexpressible gift, something so great

God has done. We can't express it. It's beyond our means. A picture, they say, is worth a thousand words.

And here the apostle Paul says that God has given us a gift that can't be described with a million words, but we can portray it in our giving for two chapters.

Now, the apostle Paul has been striving to get them to do two things, give generously and love it.

He began at the start of chapter eight with the example of the Macedonians. Just as now we have the example of those who've given generously to us.

We have an example of a poor girl who walked two miles one way so she could scrounge together $5 a month to give and wouldn't be refused.

We have before us the example of those who worked hours and hours on this building to make this place decent, giving their time and sweat and energy and body to bruises and cuts and falling 17 feet onto hard concrete.

We have the example of musicians preparing music ahead of time during the week and then coming an hour early on Sundays so that they could give their best, even spending hours and hours to try to learn a song in Mandarin.

That's pretty good, isn't it? We have some great examples here, but the last example is the greatest.

Here in this passage, the example of the generous God who gave a gift so great that we can't finish describing it.

No song is beautiful enough to do it justice. No preacher can possibly exhaust how great it is.

Our superlatives, our adjectives are not sufficient to describe it. That we who had nothing to give, we who could add nothing to our salvation except our sin, our need for it.

We who could do nothing for God except defend him. We have been given everything.

Blessings, salvation, now a relationship with the Father, the riches of the

Son himself, the presence of the Holy Spirit. We've been given life, the world, the present, the future.

We've been given the status of heirs of God. All things are ours and we are

Christ's and Christ is God's. With that example, that generosity beyond our words, we give to portray it.

The generous God is described in words and stories and prophecies in the Old Testament, but in the

New, he is portrayed in him giving himself for us.

There was nothing that we could give him except our sin and our poverty, but Jesus gave himself.

Why did he give? Because he loved. He loved us.

He loved the Father who loved us. For the joy set before him, he was the joyful giver.

And now seeing that generosity, that indescribable gift of God, how can we then not give ourselves to him?

We give not just our money, but our lives because we love to.