Receiving what He Wants to Give Us

In the past two weeks, we have been in a prayer and worship series. It’s our desire to be intentional in this new year to turn our eyes to the Lord. As an act of dedicating the whole year to Him, recognizing that everything we do is for Him. So we intentionally want to set aside time to patiently wait in His presence. To intentionally seek Him, asking to be filled and guided by His Spirit. As an act of humble worship, its our desire to remove distraction and be diligent about knowing the heart of God.

We all understand distraction and how we lack consistency in what is truly important when we get distracted. So in this series, as a form of humble worship.... we draw near to the Lord and ask Him, that He would give us hearts and eyes that remain focused on Him. That we would have a renewed, unwavering commitment to ensuring that there is nothing getting in the way or hindering us from knowing and worshiping God.

Let’s pray, dedicating this time of worship to Him.

If you have your Bibles with you, we are studying 2 Corinthians 9:6-15. Pay close attention as we read because after we are done, I am going to ask you to answer a question.

2 Corinthians 9:6–15 “6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

8 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. 9 As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” 10 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. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!

Before we continue, I want you to quickly turn to the person next to you and share what this passage is communicating.

Now, I know it is not fair because you have only had a moment to look it over. But the reason for doing this is simple. We often come to scripture with the wrong lens or the wrong motive. If either you lens or your motive is off, you may walk away with a singular aspect of a passage when in actuality there is a complexity of layers. The layers are good, because if we are intent on seeking the Lord, hearing Him speak to us through His word, each time we come back there is more to learn.

In this passage, what stands out is the practice of giving. In reading it through once, having to then determine the meaning, I am sure that many of you rightly identified “giving” as the theme. However, this is a far more significant passage where giving is only used as an example to reveal a far deeper reality.

In this passage, Paul is writing on behalf of a struggling church in Jerusalem, asking the church of Corinth to generously give in order to support their brothers and sisters in Christ. Paul not wanting to beat around the bush any longer, in verse 6 - 2 Corinthians 9:6

“6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

He starts with a simple reality, that work has a way of paying off. If I give a bag of seed to one farmer and three bags of seed to another farmer, which one is going to produce more crops? The one who has more seed certainly has a greater opportunity but it still boils down to two important factors. Who actually planted more? which of the two went out and did the work of sowing?

Secondly, Who was more intentional about where and when they planted?

Paul’s is calling us to work hard, to be intentionally generous with our resources.

2 Corinthians 9:7 “7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

Your giving should not be influenced by others. Your giving, should be influenced by spending time with the Lord and choosing to willingly surrender whatever He asks of you. Giving has nothing to do with other people, it has everything to do with loving God. It is a gift that comes from the heart, understanding that the gift being given is the Grace of God at work in and through your life to expand His kingdom. Thus, we give cheerfully, with joy to the Lord, understanding that in our giving, we are partnering with God in His cosmic plan of restoring all things to Himself.

In fact, when we are giving to the Lords mission with His joy in our hearts, what we find is that we are receiving far more than we are giving.

This sermon is titled “Receiving what He wants to Give Us.”

This is the piece we often miss in studying this passage. We often reference it when we are curious about how we should give and focus on what type of standards or transactions God expects of us. Thus, we read 9 verses and make a conclusion about God’s expectations for our performance in this area of giving. But that is entirely the wrong lens.

This passage is not about you.

Yes, it offers insight to giving that is helpful, but this passage hardly about giving.

Giving is simply the illustration of the deeper reality that Paul is speaking.

In these 9 verses, Paul talks about our giving in verse 7; that’s it. The other 8 are broader and focus on what God does through us. In a very real way, what Paul is helping us to see is that when we give, we are not really giving anything at all. But rather, our giving is an expression of worshiping God, by taking a step of faith with the joy of the Lord we partner with Him in what He is doing. In the end, we receive far more than we are ever able to give away.

Illustration

There is a story of a Father. He loved his daughter deeply and decided early on, to be very intentional, very purposeful. As she grew a little older, she grew quite fond of her dad and she loved him. One of her favorite games to play was dress up. For her 6th birthday, her dad bought her a necklace to help her feel like a real princess. She loved the necklace and treated it as if it were made with real pearls. She not only took care of it, but chose to wear it every day.

A few years later. Her dad came home from work. He called her to come down stairs. He asked her for the necklace. She responded by asking him why he wanted it? He said, “I think its time to be done with it. Can I have it please?” His daughter replied, “I don’t want to be done with it.” Her father leaned forward, a little more firmly he said, “Give the necklace to me.” Tears started to stream down her face as an expression of disbelief came across her face. After a moment, she took the necklace off and handed it to her dad. He took the necklace and put it in his back pocket. Then, with a smile on his face, he pulled out a little box and handed it to her. She opened the box to find a necklace made with real pearls. She lunged forward and hugged her dad, saying “Thank you daddy, thank you!”

Lets recognize that our giving to the Father is a step of obedience that leads us to new measures of knowing His mercy and Grace.

2 Corinthians 9:8 “8 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.”

First and foremost, whatever it is that you choose to give is not actually yours to give away. All of your provisions and assets have been entrusted to you to steward well before the Lord. Thus, when we are generous with others, generous towards His mission, we learn new measures of His grace in our lives. It brings us to a place where we recognize that God is all sufficient. Meaning, that we can freely give what He has entrusted us, because He has more that He wants to give us.

Paul is no longer focused on our giving, he is focused on the sufficiency of God and His desire to give you grace upon grace. As you receive God’s grace, as you recognize God’s sufficiency in your life it inspires and enables you to enter into “every good work.” Expanding your horizon’s on what it means to work in partnership with God.

2 Corinthians 9:9 “9 As it is written, “He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.””

It is not as though God walks around handing the poor buckets of money. Rather, He chooses to entrust us with His assets so that we can responsibly live in community and meet the needs of those around us. By taking care of the poor, you are entering into the work that reveals God’s righteousness.

2 Corinthians 9:10 “10 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.”

Here Paul directly states that the seed, our assets, all belong to God and are given to us. As we joyfully give it away we enter into the work of His righteousness, but now look at the of the verse. It’s not just God’s righteousness, but it is now YOUR RIGHTEOUSNESS. How can that be, we know that we are not righteous.

Because God has a cosmic plan to restore all of creation to Himself. When we enter into His righteous work it reveals who it is that lives in us. That the Holy Spirit resides in us. That through the death and resurrection of Jesus we each get to personally enter into His righteousness.

Friends, Paul is not focused on teaching us that we need to reach some standard of giving. He is showing us that God is the provider of all of our needs, material, emotional, and spiritually.

That in God’s plan, where we are broken He is sufficient

Where we are at a loss, He knows what to do

Where we are hurting, He brings comfort

Where we are in need of materials, He provides

Where we are utterly wicked, He redeems.

Paul is concerned about making sure we see how the Gospel of Jesus is an ever flowing river of living water that will meet all of your needs. So you can freely enter into every form of generosity and good work for His kingdom, participating in His righteousness that is than transferred to us.

Do you see how in your attempt to give, to work for His kingdom to love your neighbor that God is giving you so much more than you are giving away.

He is molding and shaping you through this process to reflect everything that is pure, good, and right. He is mending what is broken in your life and turning your eyes back to Him.

2 Corinthians 9:11 “11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.”

Not only will we have everything we need, but we will also have radical impact on others who will also turn to God and praise His name. Not only is this about you receiving and participating in the gospel, this is about making God known to all people.

2 Corinthians 9:12–15 “12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”

Paul concludes this section, with the understanding that the gift that is given to us is so much more than we can imagine or hope. The way that God works through faithful servants who enter into the joy of the Lord is unmatched by anything this world has to offer.

It’s when we dive into passages like this one..... I find myself left with a sense of awe. I can’t tell you how many times I have read this passage and only thought about that fact that God wants me to cheerfully give Him money.

But the moment we begin to study it, to look under the hood, we recognize that there is layer, upon layer to the depth of this passage. Its one of the beautiful things about the Bible. That we can read it again and again and again - every time walking away refined and sharpened like never before. It’s the fact that the Bible is living and active, that we can experience and know just a glimmer of God’s surpassing wisdom. Not only is it a glimmer of His wisdom, but its truly amazing to think that He used sinful, fallen people to write it. They didn’t write a book, He used them to write the word of God. A book beyond understanding.

All of this, speaks to the greatness of God. The one that we aim to orient around. The one who we worship. Just by spending time in His presence, we are molded, shaped, challenged.

When we consider the person of God, His very nature inspires us. Any honest reflection on character or His attributes will always lead us to a deep sense of reverence. Reverence is an attitude of humility, rooted in deep respect and honor. The Hebrew word for reverence is Yare. In it’s literal sense it means to fear. Not fear of being attacked, but rather, fear because of the raw power, strength, and holiness. Fear because our all knowing God, is fully aware of every thought, every decision in your life. There is nothing that is or can be hidden.

God’s holiness is so great, that if He were to give you a front row seat, to fully reveal Himself, there would not be words for how uncomfortable we feel. The purity of His person fully revealed would instantly reveal every wicked impurity in us. In every way we would recognize the depths of our ruin.

Yet, through Jesus, God draws us to Himself. He invites us into His good work. As we seek His face, as we worship, as we surrender and give ourselves to Him, He provides a constant flow of mercy and grace where He slowly reveals himself to us. He brings us along slowly, steadily, at a pace we can handle.

God is so good.

a couple of weeks ago, Pastor Tim introduced us to this series. He shared with you that this word Reverence, is a word that we are claiming as a church. I want to invite each of you to claim it with me. That as we look forward into whatever 2024 may hold,

That we would seek the Lord with Reverence

Intentionally studying His word closely

Purposely, setting aside time to worship Him in prayer

Consistently, reflecting on the person of God

Through this we will learn to worship Him in Spirit and in Truth.

One of the phrases that we have repeated around Grace Church is borrowed from Daniel Henderson. That when we come to the Lord, we want to engage him in Scripture - Fed, Spirit - Led, Worship - Based Prayer.

What might the Lord do this year, if we as a community of His children cried out to Him, asking for Him to teach us to be reverent of Him?

How might the Lord strengthen our faith?

In what ways, would He reveal Himself to us afresh?

Hebrews 12:28–29 “28 Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.”

What if we as a church not only claimed the Reverence but also agreed to memorize this verse? As a way of saying to the Lord, “God we want to worship you in reverence and we want to stand in awe of you!”

FF Bruce - “True and acceptable worship must always be marked by a recognition of God’s majesty and holiness.