Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Several week ago as shoppers were preparing to finish getting presents for Christmas, there was a video that went viral as a person was asked a simple question: Would you rather receive $100 for yourself or give $1,000 to other people here in the store?

Now, think about that question yourself for a minute or two.

You’re getting things checked off your list and $100 of “free” money would be awesome… but is that better than being a blessing to other shoppers?

These situations aren’t anything new, they’ve been around for a long time, but this particular video was so touching because the man chose the $1,000 and went throughout the entire store blessing other families with $100.

He even went outside where a homeless person was sitting down and gave that individual $100 as well.

At the conclusion of giving out the 10 $100 bills, the man was emotional because he had been given the blessing of giving to help other people.

At this point, the person who asked him the question at the start of the video opened his wallet and gave the man $1,000 as well and thanked him for being a blessing to other people.

This short 2-3 minute video is a perfect mini-sermon as we know as Christians that it is always a blessing to give a gift but it’s also a blessing to receive a gift.

Just as this man was gifted $1,000 to give to others, if you’ve ever been in a situation where you were able to bless someone else, it truly is a blessing to simply give… In fact, many people would say that it is greater to give than to receive!

But we also know that it’s a blessing to receive a gift.

Whether it be a Christmas present, a birthday gift, or something from your spouse for your anniversary, it’s a blessing both ways.

As humans, we are created to give.

We give other people our time and attention.

We give our spouse our love and devotion.

We give our jobs our focus and effort.

We give our children our love and future.

We give and this is how we were created as humans.

We read in God’s Word that we are created to love and the reason why is because God first loved us.

We are made in God’s image and part of our responsibility is to reflect His image as we live our lives… this requires us to give.

As we continue looking at our church mission in 2023, we move from personal spiritual growth to persistent, not sporadic, generosity.

What does generosity look like?

It looks different for each person and each family as we’re all different!

But what does it require?

It requires us all to give.

You can’t be a generous person whenever you get what you can, can what you get, and sit on the can.

God didn’t create us to be can sitters - He created us to be generous givers.

Today we’ll be in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 as you see in your outline and we’re going to look at what the Bible tells us about the importance of giving and our motivation for giving as well.

This is a Biblical concept and where the Bible speaks, we must speak as well!

The Bible says this

God Expects His People to Give (8:1-5)

If you’ve ever studied Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, you know that this is a church that has a lot of serious problems going on!

From immaturity to sexual immorality to an unBiblical view of money, this church had a lot going against it whenever Paul wrote 1 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians, though, is a bit of a different story.

Paul has already shared the Gospel hope with them in his first letter and here he is building a solid foundation upon the Gospel and sharing how the Gospel must impact every aspect of their lives.

We see this clearly in places like 2 Corinthians 5 where Paul says this

What does the Gospel do?

The Gospel changes everything about us because we are literally a new creation!

This means that we have a purpose that is God-given and we have a responsibility that is God-centered as we do everything to bring Him glory as 1 Corinthians 10:31 instructs of us.

Many of us understand that we glorify God with the things that we say.

Even non-Christians know that words matter and that words are powerful as James 3 tells us.

We must use our words carefully because they can destroy people or build them up.

Other people understand that we glorify God with our actions and service and worship.

We know that whenever we help someone in need, we glorify God.

Whenever we gather for corporate worship with God’s people and we praise Him, we glorify Him.

Whenever we read the Bible and spend time in prayer, we glorify God.

All of these things are good and true but here in 2 Corinthians 8, Paul shares that that we also glorify God through giving.

Look with me at verse 1 in this chapter, Paul shares with these people about the generosity from the churches in Macedonia as they gave during a difficult trial where poverty was abundant.

These people didn’t strictly give a certain percentage of amount because giving isn’t based on compulsion… but they gave out of their poverty above and beyond what anyone could have expected.

They begged for the opportunity to give and serve!

These people begged for the opportunity to give while it’s so easy for us to fight to find a single reason not to give.

So many people get wrapped up in a percentage to give and the New Testament doesn’t give you that percentage.

Lots of people talk about 10% and that’s found sporadically in the Old Testament but did you know that the Jewish people actually gave closer to 30% of their annual income to the church?

That’s a big number!

We don’t find that type of black and white number anywhere in the New Testament but we do see a command to give and that command is almost always placed in relation to God giving to us through Jesus Christ.

Jesus gave us everything that He had… that’s the level that we must be willing to give as well!

The question is not should I give but instead how and what should I give?

This text of Scripture tells us that this church was very poor.

But verse 2 tells us that they had an abundant joy and a wealth of generosity.

Isn’t that a crazy phrase?

They’re poor but they have a wealth of generosity.

Whenever we often think of generosity we think of people with means who give what they have left over and they’re generous with it… but that’s not the case with this congregation.

That’s not true of many house churches in other countries.

There was a missionary who told a story years ago about a church located in an agricultural area and many of the Christians were farmers.

They were having a Bible conference at a home and many of the farmers left their fields the entire week to pray and study God’s Word with this missionary - even though it meant that they would lose money for the week.

That’s a sacrifice!

The missionary was blown away, though, on the last day whenever the believers began passing an offering plate and giving money as he believed that these funds would go to the church itself only to be given these funds in an envelope to thank him for his time.

He declined the offering saying that his expenses would be covered by his organization but the believers refused and demanded he take their offering because they wanted to bless him and thank him for bringing them the Gospel hope.

They gave out of their poverty and this missionary, now wellknown pastor, David Platt, shares that this offering was one of the largest offerings he’s ever been apart of.

Not because of how much money was given, but because these people genuinely gave out of their poverty.

This is what this church is doing here and we know that with God, a couple of mites can outweigh an entire ton of gold as Luke 21:1-4 tells us

Why would this poor widow give everything to the Lord?

Notice, she doesn’t give to the salvation army here… she doesn’t give to the hospital down the road… she doesn’t give to a parachurch ministry first - she gives to her church, she gives to the temple.

Why?

Because she belonged to God and to His church and because she knew that God had first given to her.

Why does God expect us to give?

Because giving reveals our heart and what we have placed our trust in.

Giving is an act of worship just as coming to church, reading our Bible, sharing the Gospel, praying, and growing to be more like Jesus.

Giving not only reveals our heart and is an act of worship individually, but giving is also the means through which God accomplishes His purposes for local churches.

Did you know that in 2021 it was announced that $5 billion had been given all-time for the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering in SBC churches?

Those dollars have been the fuel to fund tends of thousands of frontline missionaries all around the world as they seek to proclaim the Gospel, make disciples, and plant churches for the glory of God.

Those things are only possible through the generous giving of God’s children.

Paul tells these Christians that they excel in lots of aspects, they’ve really matured!

But he encouraged them to grow and excel in the area of giving as well.

As we enter a new year, consider your own life and the life of our church.

Do you have a deep desire to give and share in the partnership of our church as we minister to our community?

If you’re not a member I don’t believe this is your responsibility at all and don’t feel guilted toward that end… but members of FBC Salem, do you desire to give yourself to the Lord and His Kingdom work?

If so, one of the things that we do is we give of our time, talent, and treasure to support what He is doing!

If we’re going to truly make a dent in Dent County for the Glory of God and the good of our community then we have to be ready to give because God has first given much to us.

The only way that we can minister to 100+ kids at Camp Joy and send mission teams overseas and help local needs in our community is by the generosity of our members at FBC Salem - not one or two people really doing all the work, but the entire body of Christ coming together in order to share in the privilege of proclaiming the Gospel and making disciples.

This is what God expects of His people, this is what He expects of you and me and praise the Lord for those of you who take this seriously but if you need a little convincing, look at what Jesus did for us

God expects us to give because He Himself first gave.

So, God expects His people to give… but why? Let’s see 2 reasons why in chapter 9.

God Honors His People When They Give (9:1-8)

Again, why do people give?

This is the question that lots of people ask regarding Christians and giving to their churches.

There are some faulty reasons behind giving that people have bought into and we have to guard against these.

Some believe that if they give in church then God will automatically bless them financially.

One preacher even worded it like this one time, “It’s time to get out your checkbook so that God can make it bigger.”

God can bless Christians financially as they are faithful to Him, but that’s not the motivation behind giving.