Sermon Tone Analysis

Happy Mothers’ Day to all you moms and grandmoms out there this morning.

I am so glad you’ve joined us today because we are here to express our gratitude for the moms who have made our lives what they are.

My own mother is here today.

Now all week, this day is growing closer and the sermon series on giving begins to weigh on me.

How can I continue the series on giving generously and still honor our mothers?

And then it hit me: the ketchup sandwich.

When I was growing up, I went through what you might call a ketchup phase.

I would put ketchup on some pretty weird food items — like macaroni, mashed potatoes (who needs gravy when you have ketchup).

But by far, the weirdest thing I ever did with ketchup was have a ketchup sandwich.

Yes, that is exactly what it sounds like — two pieces of loaf bread together with ketchup in the middle.

I asked my mom to make me a ketchup sandwich — and she did.

And as I took bite after bite and chewed and chewed, I began to think, “Yeah, this isn’t so good…I’m feeling a little sick.”

I don’t remember how much of it I ate.

What is important to note here is not even the fact that I actually ate it.

What’s important to note here is that I asked my mother to make me a ketchup sandwich, and she actually did.

Now she was probably just giving me the sandwich so I could figure out for myself how terrible it would be and never ask for it again.

But this ketchup sandwich illustrates my point: in many ways, to be a mother is to be a giver — even when sometimes your kids ask you for things you know they will not really like.

In fact, as I think back on my childhood growing up at home, that’s exactly how I remember my mom.

She always gave of herself.

I can honestly say I don’t have a single memory of coming to her needing something and not finding her absolutely, unfailingly present and available.

If she was physically present, I had her complete attention.

My dear wife is also a very present wife to me and mother to our kids and we would be utterly lost without her.

It is true — to be a mom is to be a giver.

You moms have my utmost respect.

Whether you work outside the home or within your home, you hold it together.

And sometimes we men sit back and watch and wonder — what motivates you to serve and give the way you do?

Of course we know the answer to that question.

It’s God who is the source of your strength.

But how does He motivate and energize us to give of ourselves and all that we have?

This is not just an issue for moms.

All of us are called to be givers if we are Christians.

How does God motivate us to do that?

And more to the point for this morning, how does God motivate us to give financially?

After all, if we’re to be all hands on deck, if we’re going to Be The Church, part of that is giving — giving generously, giving sacrificially, giving cheerfully.

So how does He motivate us when we’d rather spend the money on something else, or when we’re not sure how we’ll make ends meet otherwise?

That is the question this text answers this morning.

The title of the sermon is: “What if I don’t want to give?

How God turns tight fists into generous hearts.”

The apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians with the purpose of motivating them to give generously and sacrificially and cheerfully.

There are four ways we see here that God motivates us to give.

#1: We become motivated to give when we hear how God has provided for others

We become motivated to give when we hear stories of God’s provision for others.

Paul opens up this section in chapter eight verse one by informing the Corinthians of something.

There is something he wants them to know.

What is it?

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.”

What is God up to that Paul is so eager to share with the Corinthians?

Look at verse 2: “We want you to know…about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia” — and here it is, verse 2 — “for in a severe test of affliction” — now notice every word carefully because this is pretty amazing — “in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

The enabling grace of God in verse 2:

“a severe test of affliction”

+ “their abundance of joy”

= an “overflowing wealth of generosity”

“A severe test of affliction”, Paul says.

What was this severe test of affliction?

Well, I thought you would ask so I did some research.

At this time in the city of Thessalonica there was a huge economic depression; on top of that, land and houses and resources were being stolen by the Romans, and the chief industries of the city were being taxed oppressively by the Romans.

And on top of all of that, as if that were not enough, they were also being persecuted violently for being a Christian.

Sounds kind of like life in 2022, right?

We are going through a global pandemic that has now lasted two and one-half years.

On top of that, we are looking at the fiercest ground war in Europe since the end of world war 2. We seem to be hovering precariously at the edge of economic collapse.

We’re looking at the continued moral collapse of our nation and our institutions, and we just don’t know what the future holds.

And we’re seeing increasingly that Christians are being isolated and marginalized and we wonder what’s next.

Does all of that count as a severe test of affliction?

And yet, verse 2 indicates that it is possible to experience simultaneously two things that are seemingly at odds with each other.

Did you see that?

Verse 2, “in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

“abundance of joy” and “extreme poverty”, in the same person at the same time.

God’s word says it is possible for two things that are completely worlds apart, two emotional states that could not be more opposite from each other, to co-exist within the same person at the same time — and those two things are great suffering, and great joy.

Who but Christians could ever even say that such a thing is possible?

And yet that’s because we know that it is possible.

Many of us have experienced it.

Don’t ever say that circumstances are so bad that God can’t possibly be at work.

What this shows us here is that God is at work even and precisely in the absolute worst of circumstances.

He is at work for His glory, for our good, and for the flourishing and success of His church in the world and in our community.

We see that especially in the next sentence.

We would think that those circumstances they were facing would make them say, “You know, now is really not the time to give.

Things are fluid, money is tight, the future is uncertain.

Let’s taper our giving down.”

But that’s not how the text characterizes their giving.

Look quickly with me at four aspects of their giving:

They gave despite great suffering (v. 2)

They gave despite great poverty (v. 2)

The gave generously (v. 3)

They gave happily (v.

4)

They gave despite great suffering, as we saw.

They gave despite great poverty, as we saw.

But they also gave generously at the very time when it hurt the most.

Did you notice that?

Verse 3, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord.”

Beyond their means!

They gave even when it didn’t seem to make financial sense to do so.

And lastly, they gave happily.

“Begging us,” Paul says, “begging us” — pleading with us -- “for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints” .

So instead of closing their hands to God out of fear for the future, they open their hands and they give.

Not only did they give when things were terrible.

They gave all the more generously during this time!

Only the grace of God can create this kind of generosity.

And Paul is telling the Corinthians about this experience to motivate them to give — and to motivate us.

God will enable us to give, just as He did for them; He will give us the desire to give, just as He did with them; He will provide for us after we give, just as He did with them.

And this leads us to our first affirmation.