Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

300 Illustrations for Preachers (College President Takes a $90,000 Pay Cut)

With a salary of $350,000, Raymond Burse is paid well for the challenges he faces as the president of Kentucky State University.

In August 2014 Burse took a voluntary pay cut to $260,000.

Burse directed that the $90,000 the university didn’t pay him should be used to provide $3 per hour raises to all the university’s minimum-wage workers.

When asked why he was willing to do this, he replied, “You don’t give up $90,000 for publicity.

I did this for the people.

This is something I’ve been thinking about from the very beginning.”

Caring for others is a character matter.

It is one thing to advocate with your mouth that people ought to be paid more.

It is another to put your paycheck on the line.

This is quite the gift and blessing.

It is incredible, yet it pales in comparison to the gift that we have received and why we give.

In this section of Scripture- 2 Cor.

9:6-15, we see an amazing picture of giving.

(read text)

This is found in verses 14b-15 (2 Cor.

9:14-15) “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!”

The surpassing grace of God is the inexpressible gift of Jesus Christ to us.

Jesus humbled Himself and came to earth.

He emptied Himself and Phil.

2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

He did this for us so we could receive the amazing gift of salvation.

What an amazing gift Jesus has given for us.

It is because of this gift that we give what we can.

His gift to us is why we give:

Generously and Cheerfully (6-8)

Not about us receiving glory and bountiful returns here.

It is about building the church.

When we build the church, the body of Christ up, we receive blessings because more people are believers.

We receive rewards in heaven.

Matt.

6:19 ““Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,” Paul said that the works we do if built on the foundation of Christ, when we give generously of our time, resources, or income we are building on this, our work will be made manifest in that day, the day we stand before the judgment seat of Christ to receive our rewards for the work we did here.

This is found in 1 Cor.

3:11-15.

In verse 14 we see that the works we do for Christ will be blessed with a reward.

When we give and strengthen the funds for the church, or serve more diligently in the church, we reach more people.

We free up areas where we can afford to go and do.

We can do more work in the community.

We can feed more of the poor.

We can clothe more of the less fortunate.

We can help with the education of many.

We will be the church more fully.

Again we must remember this is not only about money.

It is about all of us.

By all of us I mean our whole person.

We give our time.

We give our abilities.

We give land if needed for events or as donations.

We give money.

The list is endless of what we can give.

What Paul is saying is that we need to decide what we will give and when we do, we need to give it.

But we must not give it reluctantly or with a feel of obligation.

When we give we need to be open and seeking to give what we can.

We do not put ourselves in a bind when we give.

We must care for our homes and families.

This means we must be careful and wise with our spending and time use.

The body of Christ and the local church are very important and need to be considered of the utmost importance by all.

Back in verse five Paul tells the Corinthians that the gift they arranged and promised he urged them to have ready so it would be a gift and not an exaction, this word “gift” used twice in this verse is literally “blessing” (eulogian).

So the verse could well read, “So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the blessing you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing blessing, not as an exaction from a grudging spirit.”

(R. Kent Hughes 2 Corinthians, Preach the Word).

This is what our giving is.

It is a blessing to those who receive and a blessing to us because Giving is a Gift we have as believers.

We received the best gift in Christ, so how can we not give back some of what we have been blessed with?

When we do we see that we receive all sufficient grace abounding in and to us and we will begin to see our church abound in good works for the Lord.

More works than imagined before.

When we realize it is a blessing we will begin to realize it is:

Blessed Giving (9-11)

We see in verse 9 that God gives all what is necessary and needed for them.

This blessing from God is a blessing meant for us and for us to be a blessing to others.

Herschel Hobbs has said:

“Instead of needing our gifts, God gives us the things necessary for life—life itself, breath, and every material thing.

True, the Bible teaches the stewardship of life and substance.

However, God is not within Himself dependent on such.

Stewardship is designed to develop His people, whose very gifts are a recognition that all belongs to Him and comes from Him.”

That is what this is all about.

We have received all we have from the Lord.

This section could easily be titled “It All Belongs to God Anyway,” but it isn’t.

It is titled The Cheerful Giver in most translations.

It is titled that because Paul wants all believers to be cheerful in their giving.

He wants us to all enjoy what we give because we love others and appreciate the Lord our God for what He has blessed us with.

When we see that all we have is from Him, we will be overjoyed in our giving.

Herschel Hobbs tells another story of a deacon that told him about his experience in giving.

The deacon stated, “The first time I did it, it seemed like all the money in the world.

Now I look forward to payday, so I can give my share and more.”

He came to this realization because he realized all he had was from the Lord anyway and who was he to not joyfully give back to the Lord that which He had given him.

I want to state here that we are under what is called grace giving these days.

We are not under the OT tithe.

Many people will take us back to Malachi 3:8-10 “Will man rob God?

Yet you are robbing me.

But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’

In your tithes and contributions.

You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.

And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.”

And then try and force this on the church today.

This was an OT command to the nation of Israel.

Israel had to tithe to the temple.

Yes, the word tithe means a tenth.