God Loves a Cheerful Giver (2 Corinthians 9)

Welcome back to coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist today. We are going to be in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9. Now I want to make a note before I go into the lesson that if you've watched the last few days You'll notice I've been doing all of these from my truck.

Redeeming the Time in the Truck

Well, this is me attempting to in a sense Try to redeem the time I've got a lot of running around this week that I've had to do and so I've decided to use this time in my truck to talk to you guys about the Bible verses that we are going to do and And today again, we're going to be in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9 and 2nd Corinthians 9 7 is Probably one of the most well-known verses on the subject of giving.

It says that each of us ought to give As we have decided in our heart not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. Now several weeks ago I did a Coffee and Calvinist on the subject of tithing and I was asking the question is whether or not we should tithe on our stimulus.

And ultimately if you go back and watch that you can get more of the context. But basically what I was trying to get around to is that under the New Covenant? we are not commanded to give a Particular percentage and that's what tithe means.

Tithe means 10 but rather in the New Covenant We can still look at the tithe as an example because certainly the tithe was given as an example throughout the Old Testament Scriptures but we are not limited to the tithe to say well as long as I give 10 that's that's my as a sense, that's what I owe and Likewise, we're not bound to the tithe either.

Ultimately this text tells us That we ought to give as we have decided in our heart now I bring up my previous video because I had somebody challenged me somebody wrote in the comments because I had said we should give what God has laid on our heart and Someone says well the passage doesn't say that and that is technically correct.

The passage doesn't say that God lays it on our heart the passage says that it's what we have decided in our heart. And yet as a person who believes in the sovereignty of God and as a person who believes that all Christians are filled with the Holy Spirit of God because Romans 8 tells us that if we do not have the Spirit of Christ We don't belong to him then I can say That if I have this desire in my heart to give a certain amount I can when I say God has laid it on my heart I I'm simply saying it's sort of a theological shorthand for saying that as a Christian believer I should be led not by my fleshly desires, but I should be led by Spiritual desires and and I believe in and and trust that those spiritual desires come from Christ.

Giving as an Act of Sovereign Guidance

So so in all sense, yes. It is correct to say that it doesn't technically say that God will lay it on our heart. But at the same time We must understand that as believers anything that we do that is for God should be seeking God's will in the matter and Hopefully by his will and by his spirit he will lead us into what he would have us do.

And to move on into the passage that I want to mention something else it says that we should give not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver this is such an important reality because I Know that even in The life of a believer sometimes Financial situations can be tough and it can be hard to to think through how much you're able to give versus how much you need to live and Sometimes we wonder am I really doing this For the right reasons or am I doing this because I'm being compelled to give and when this text tells me that I shouldn't be Compelled that I should give it willingly.

That can cause some difficulty in in our decision-making can cause some difficulty in our heart because in a sense there's There can be a sort of a guilt situation that comes into our heart and it really shouldn't be that way as believers.

Generosity That Mirrors Christ

One of the things that we need to realize is that giving is Mirroring what our Savior has done for us and it's mirroring what God has done for us for God. So loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Jesus loved us so much that he gave his life.

Yesterday we looked at the passage where it says though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor and so our Savior our God has given us an example of absolute and unfettered generosity and that he loves us and that he shares with us his Riches his heavenly glories.

And so my encouragement is to say Whatever we're thinking about the subject of giving Is to say to ourselves, you know, what is it that I see as the example from my Savior and in that sense, how ought I to live in light of that example and In that sense it should help to encourage our willingness to give rather than being compelled and The idea of being compelled is being forced and rather than feeling like we're being forced to give we should as believers seek in every area to try to to imitate our Savior to try to imitate our Lord and One of the areas in which we imitate him is in generosity because he has been so generous to us and And again, that's going to look different for everybody.

And I think that's why Paul says it the way he says it he says specifically that Each one should give us he has decided in his heart meaning that each one is going to have a different a A different level of prosperity out of which to give and he's going to give out of a different a different essentially a different pail because everyone's pail is filled a little differently and So the the one example that that we can look to from Scripture we can see when Jesus saw the widow woman who gave her might who was all that she had to give and Jesus looked to the the offerings of all the people and some of the people had given massive offerings and he says yes.

But you gave out of what you could spare. But this woman has given all that she has and so that woman then becomes the example To us of someone who is not only giving what she can spare but is also giving Willingly sacrificially not compulsorily Sacrificially or compulsively sacrificially, but she's giving willingly and sacrificially so my encouragement to you is that when you give that you're giving would be willing and Sacrificial so when it comes to the subject of giving think of it like this we ought to give willingly.

We ought to give cheerfully as the text says and I think the example of Scripture is we ought to give sacrificially. Our Lord gave to us sacrificially. He looked to the widow woman and he pointed to her and he said see she has given Sacrificially and thus she becomes an example to us and we ought to also consider.

How might the Lord use our offerings those which we give willingly Cheerfully and sacrificially to him. I hope today has been an encouragement to you I hope it's a blessing to you and I hope all every day is a blessing to you as we come to you with these Bible studies may God bless you.

Closing Encouragement and Call to Action

Thank you for tuning in to coffee with the Calvinist want to remind you that if you like what you have seen please take a moment and Thumbs up this video if you're watching it on YouTube. Leave us a comment and even subscribe if you haven't yet this helps us to reach a larger audience.

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