The Gospel and Money - 7 Principles - Part 7 - There is Joy in giving

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to 2 Corinthians Chapter 8 today as we come to the conclusion of our time exposing what Jesus says about The Gospel and Money in our fall teaching series. 7 Biblical Principles of living well in a culture of money.

TRUTH

Psalm 19:8 ESV

8 the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes;

Proverbs 11:24–25 ESV

24 One gives freely, yet grows all the richer; another withholds what he should give, and only suffers want. 25 Whoever brings blessing will be enriched, and one who waters will himself be watered.

Proverbs 22:9 ESV

9 Whoever has a bountiful eye will be blessed, for he shares his bread with the poor.

Luke 6:38 ESV

38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

PRAY

PRAYER FOR THE SERIES AND MESSAGE

My prayer for this series is and has been that we would understand from the full counsel of Scripture how the Gospel and money Intersect.

That God has created and allowed financial resources to come into your life and mine for 2 things:

1 - to advance the Gospel and

2 - Human flourishing.

That in our understanding we would know there is nothing evil about money, but there is a purpose and an intent that God has with money and that is to Advance His kingdom through the declaration and advance of the Gospel and to foster, initiate, increase and sustain and distribute the means of human flourishing.

We must not forget or in any way place into our thoughts that these principles and precepts are a matter of God’s law -

We have been set free from the Law -

But here is what we have not been set free from.

We have not been set free from the divine, supernatural working principles of God that are effectual precepts of the Heart.

Here is what I mean when I say Effectual Precepts of the Heart.

When the divine principles and precepts of God remain in our hearts by what we believe and walked out in our life by what we do -

Faith now has power to change.

and Faith lived out is powerful - Because it changes things!

It changes you and me and everyone around us and it changes all of us “to”, and it changes all of us “for” the one who loves us with and everlasting love.

SO we are not set free from the effectual working of God’s divine powerful principles being lived out and precepts of the heat being believed and trusted in.

You see the Bible say in new and the old parts that God desires to have our obedience to His principles and precepts.

He actually says “I would rather have obedience than Sacrifice”.

He says this becasue He loves us and knows what is best for us - His will and his ways for our life is what is best - His abundant life is what is best.

When we follow his principles and precepts in obedience, things and people change around us.

Here is the most important part - the biggest thing that changes is we gain is HIM.

One of the things He does is he lays before us the choice - draws us closer to abide in Him.

You see he desires obedience NOT becasue he is a tyrannical rule that says “do it my way or else”

Responding to “do it my way or else” is sacrifice - by giving up something becasue of the demands of the tyrant.

Obedience?

Our obedience is our response to the the very nature and character of who He is -

LOVE

and it is out of this love for us that the origination of the principles of life and precepts of the heart that he lays before us and calls us into His obedience to come from.

One of those subjects is navigating the financial resources that HE allows to flow through our life.

So I have been praying -

That as we navigate the subject of money in our life - as we walk out these principles and precepts-

We can look at how different our life and our influence for eternity can actually be, when Jesus is Lord of our life.

Master of our life!

AS Lord ultimately Jesus is in charge of how we distribute the financial resources that is owned by God and granted by Him.

That the redeeming work of Jesus would be at work in every area of our life - We bring the first fruits of our Time, Talents and Treasure we watch him bless and redeem the rest.

That we realize the fallen nature of money and the legacy of faith we leave as the people we influence ask “why”?

When we are faithful, Jesus will bless and multiply what He is given to accomplish His purposes and His plans.

There is a portion He calls for-

He says IS HIS -

He looks at the first 10% as HIS and it is separate in His view from the other 90%.

Because God is so lavishly generous to US we therefore use financial resources over and above the tithe in the area of offerings to be generous to others in the area of human flourishing and we live a life of abundant Generosity using the opportunity to share the generous love of God to all we encounter.

My Prayer for this message is:

We would find Joy in Jesus though obedient Giving!

That we will find, in all of these principles and precepts, as we live them out, there is real and tangible JOY that we receive trough Him.

which is the 7th biblical principle of living well in our culture of money is There is Joy in giving.

ENGAGEMENT

A very long time ago - I heard a word of encouragement - A phrase of correction

Maybe it was a saying of some old guy that I have never met.

In fact I have heard a couple of them that have stuck with me over the years.

One of those what this -

Everything that is worthwhile in this life is difficult.

What he was saying “everything that we do in this life that is of value AND of importance is difficult.

In other words those things that are valuable and important in this life are hard and inconvenient and take a lot of effort and determination to achieve.

But here is the trick to that saying -

Everything that is worthwhile -

and Here is the other interesting thing there is an implied promise.

After the difficulty there is something valuable and important.

You see when we achieve something worth while, through difficulty, then we will find something valuable and important.

Here is another one - Keep the main thing the main thing -

You know why that is a great saying - Because keeping the main thing the main thing is worth while and there fore it is difficult.

Here is another one -

Why do we do the right thing?

Because its the right thing!

These are so very important to think through...

TENSION

Because we live in a culture of money that is saturated with the focus of self and that plays it self out ultimately in materialism which we value things and money more that people and values - all because or culture is saturated the idolization of money.

We can find following the heart of God when it come to the financial resources in our life can be difficult -

The main thing - is Jesus - Keeping Him the main thing can be difficult - But when we do we find something more important and valuable than anything in all of creation. We find Jesus.

and when we find Jesus we find ultimate Joy.

The Corinthian Church had come to this understanding.

There were a couple of things that they were able to keep the main thing the main thing -

One of those was how they had a heart of Joy in Giving.

BACKGROUND AND UNPACKING

Chapter 8

VERSE 1

Paul opens this part of His 2nd letter to the Corinthian Church by telling the “brothers” in Corinth about some specific characteristics of the churches in a place called Macedonia -

To fill in some potential blanks here - Paul, the Apostle Paul - Formerly Saul - former serial killer of Christians who actually once believed that His calling from God was to completely eliminate the Christians off the face fo the earth -

Ya know modern Islam has that in mind, but back then is was Jewish leaders who wanted this to occur becasue People had left being Jewish for being Christian.

Saul had a lighting bolt experience and met Jesus- Who changed Him completely including His name and even though this guy was a horrific sinner Jesus puts him to work.

You see that is what Paul did- When He heard the words of Jesus - Go into the world and make disciples - That is what Paul did -

Paul is a disciple maker who goes from place to place sharing the gospel - making disciples of Jesus and then assembling those new disciples into groups called churches.

He did this in Corinth - and thus the letter to them

The is a letter from the guys who spoke the gospel to them.

Now Corinth was a train wreck of a church and got almost everything wrong.

Paul planted it.

and there was a lot that Paul was writing to address.

So A couple of questions before we get too far -

What is Macedonia?

Where is it? and What is Paul doing there.

So Macedonia is a region and area -

IT is what is today what is northern Greece -

Paul is on His third trip around from place to place to make disciples and assemble them into local Churches.

So he made three big travel routs to reach the people who were in reaching distance of Paul.

So Paul is somewhere in Macedonia and HE is writing to a church in Southern Greece - for the second time -

This is about a year after His first letter.

Now there are a couple of churches that might be familure to us in the Macedonian region -

Thessaloniki - Phillipa and Berea -

We Don’t know exactly where Paul is when He writes - If he is in Thessaloniki then he is about 400 miles away - If he is in Phillipa he is about 500 miles away =

So he starts this part of His letter talking about the grace of God that is hugely evident in the churches in Macedonia and watch what he says about them:

These Churches in Macedonia - “In a test of severe affliction” -

What is going on in this “severe test of affliction” So in Phillipa and in Thessaloniki the churches were suffering great persecution.

Imprisonment - beating - Property seized and even under the threat of Death - The Churches in Macedonia were what we consider today “the persecuted church”

Here is what Paul says - The Grace of God was overwhelmingly evident in this time of persecution - Their abundance of Joy - and He says - They were in poverty - As a result of their persecution they were in poverty -

Joy was a result of the Grace of God - the Churches in Macedonia were a grateful church - grateful to God - for their salvation and for God sending Jesus to save them.

Watch how their gratefulness for the grace of God manifested it self from among the people -

It overflowed in a wealth of Generosity -

These were a people overflowing with Gods grace and they way that God grace manifested itself was through their generous life.

What did a generous life look like back then?

The same as it does today!

VERSE 3

They gave according to their means and beyond their means and Paul says “the did this “of their own accord”

In Texas we say - Just cuz they wanted to.

Giving beyond their means -

That means Giving more than they reasonably could give.

Giving more than they could replace in any reasonable time.

Giving more than they were able or had the capacity to.

Here is the phenomenal part - I personally struggle with this one - Brandi and I give - We are first fruit tithers and we give offerings to missionaries and Campus crusade people and other organizations.

But do We give beyond what we are able beyond what is reasonable?

I struggle to think about how that works out.

Here is what is even more phenomenal - You and i think in reasonable terms and we are good with it.

These people are thinking in unreasonable terms - Giving MORE than they are able - and they are Great with it!

And look how Paul says was their attitude.

They were begging!

Not just begging but earnestly begging -

Look up the word earnestly in the original language and here is what that one says.

IT is a combo of three words that would mean WITH GREAT AND POWERFUL APPEAL -

In other words they earnestly begged them for something -

Here is what they begged for - They did not beg to give - Here is what they begged for - They Begged for THE FAVOR of taking part in giving.

What is the Favor - Here is the Favor - It is to show Kindness and to manifest graciousness towards someone by taking Part in the relief of the saints-

Here is the way this COULD read -

“They gave beyond what was reasonable and what they were in reality capable of and with great and powerful appeal to us wanted to show kindness and manifest graciousness toward others by participating in the relief of the Saints -

Let me pause right here - and open the “relief of the saints”

Here is what was happening

Paul was on His third journey to go from place to place making disciples - assembling these new believers into what is called churches - Assemblies of the called out ones.

And while he was on His first journey to do this, The Leaders, the original apostles - Peter and the Boys; who most were back in Jerusalem -

Were having difficulty - Because a famine and persecution against them had broken out.

What these churches in Macedonia wanted to do was, have the favor of participating in supporting Paul while he went from place to place to collect more funds and send some of those funds back to the apostles in Jerusalem.

They wanted the favor of actively participating, through their giving, in the advance of the Gospel and to support human flourishing.

This was a huge task - remember the church in Jerusalem was huge.

Watch what Paul's reaction was to this

Verse 5

This is not what we expected - Paul was surprised by their Generosity - Paul was surprised they begged Him for the favor of Participation in the advance of the Gospel and human flourishing - in a way that was beyond their means.

Here is how this happened - Watch loved ones this is so important -

back half of vs 5 -

They gave them selves first to the Lord Jesus - First to the master -

You see no mater what we do, if the first thing we do is not to Jesus we will miss Jesus - and in all of our obedience and in all of our activity we must we must we must desire and love Jesus - We must never forget our first love.

And look after they gave themselves to the Master First - Then , by the will of God, They then gave of themselves to Paul and team.

VERSE 6

Paul then tells the Church that he began that he is some 400 miles away from - The Church that was a train wreck of a church - That He has sent Titus to continue this work of Grace among them

You see it is an act of God’s grace to give to human flourishing - WE see, we are instruments of, we get to receive favor as they did and we see God bless when we Participate in the advance of the Gospel and Human flourishing.

VERSE 7

Paul then encourages them to be faithful - when He says “as you excel in everything - In other words -

As you become Excellent in everything -

In trust in speech in knowledge in all powerfulness all in our love for you.

“See also that you are excellent in your grace of giving”

Now in the rest of Chapter 8 Here is what Paul is going to tell them.

1 - Be generous as Christ was to you. this is good for you to be that way

2 - to finish something they started a year ago and -

3. to do this as a matter of proving out your faith to others

4 - in the middle of the chapter He then says you have abundance so be generous.

In the bottom He endorses Titus as these guys were unfamiliar with Titus and Titus would be the one who would preach the gospel among them and take their giving.

LOOK AT CHAPTER 9

In the first 6 verses - Paul begin by saying “IT is way way way too much for me to write you about this.”

VS 2 about your readiness - You see Paul was confident in their readiness to Give to the ministry.

But there is something going on with Paul -

I think it is possible that Paul has a little anxiety while he is in front of the church leaders in Macedonia -

You see Paul has bragged about the church in Corinth and their planning and setting funds aside to support the churches in Jerusalem.

You see in verses 3-4-5 Paul basically says - If they were not ready to Give - Then Paul and the church in Corinth would suffer embarrassment - Actually he uses the word Humiliated -

VERSE 5

I think its funny what he says in verse 5 - its almost as if he says “so since I am anxious and worried about your following through on this I thought it was necessary to urge Titus and crew who are coming to you to go ahead and arrange for the gift in advance -

He says this in this frame - That it would be a gift not an extraction.

In other words - It would be in your hearts something you gave not something someone took -

In other words it would be out of your obedience not out of a sense of sacrifice.

VERSE 6

Paul then lands the Plane so to speak -

He begins Vs 6 with “here is the point”

Paul says “this is what all of this is about -

Then in the back of Verse 6 He wraps it up by laying on them the principle of sowing and reaping that Jesus laid down!

Give and it will be given to you.

Luke 6:38 ESV

38 give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”

He shares the promise of God in the principle and precepts of God -

“You sow sparingly you reap sparingly you sow bountifully your reap bountifully” -

In other words - you put a small amount of seed out there you will get a small harvest -

You put a large amount of seed out there you get a large harvest.

Loved ones! this is a principle that goes across many many things in our life -

You put a little love out there you will get little love in return.

You put a large amount of love out there you will get a large amount of love

You share the gospel a few times in your life time you will see very few people come to faith -

You share the Gospel everywhere you go - With Anyone, Anywhere, Any time

You will see many many people coming to Christ.

This is the principle of Sowing and Reaping and it applies to how we use financial resources as well.

VERSE 7

Paul then says that Each person should Give - as He has decided in His heart -

Paul qualifies this in two ways -

1. Not reluctantly - Meaning not under the thoughts of Should I or Shouldn't I - Or I don’t know”

2. “not under compulsion - In other words Not with a sense of being forced or manipulated to give or manipulating by your giving.

The Paul says “God loves a cheerful Giver -

interesting thing about that phrase - In all of the Bible - If you search the phrase “God loves” this is the only time it is used in conjunction with Doing something! IN face in all of the Bible the phrase “God loves” this is the only time it appears in that way.

Then in verse 8 Paul related the promises of God under our giving bountifully -

I want us to speak these promises!

God is able - God is able!

to make all grace abound in us - To make all grace abound

so that having all sufficiency - Everyone say all sufficiency -

In all things - Everyone say all things -

at all times - Everyone say at all times -

We may abound in every good work - in every good work.

Here is what is phenomenal about this principle of Joy in Giving!

IT is an ancient principle of God and precept of the heart -

God people in the days of the Kings experienced this Joy in giving out of their outpouring of the Grace of God.

1 Chronicles 29:9 ESV

9 Then the people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly.

King David had amassed great wealth and gave it to the Lord for the advance of His kingdom and the eternal proclamation of the Gospel and He called the people he lead to do the same and they did -

The Prayers of King Dave after the people gave is not a thanks giving for the resources but a things giving for the Grace of God. They were joyful!

600 years later - The Promise of God to support Human flourishing was given through the prophet Isaiah

Isaiah 58:6–8 ESV

6 “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? 7 Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? 8 Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you; the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

IMAGINE

With me loved ones the Joy in Jesus we can express through our obedience and the favor of showing kindness and being gracious to others that we will receive when we give bountifully out of our earnest desire to partake in the advancement of the Gospel and Human flourishing here in our area and around the globe -

Imagine what we will see when people who are far away from God come near to God, to the Body of Jesus, the church and we will by the very promises of God able to make all grace abound

We will have all sufficiency - -

In all things -at all times abounding in every good work -

PRAYER TEAM!

BAPTISM

1. Do you believe that Jesus physically died on the cross of Calvary and His blood satisfied the wrath of God against you for your sins against Him: And that by His death Jesus has forgiven ALL of your sins?

2. Do you believe that after His death Jesus was raised from the dead by the Power of the Holy Spirit and in being raised, He defeated Death for you?

3. Have you decided to Follow Jesus and Him only?

4. Are you telling all of these witnesses of your faith that you will follow Jesus for the rest of your life and never turn back?

5. Are you committing to being a fisher of men as Jesus said you would be if you followed Him?

6. As a follower of Jesus, a fisher of men, when they make fun of you, ridicule you, miss treat you: when the day comes that they come to your house and arrest you, possibly throw you in prison and threaten to kill you, will you still follow Jesus?