Committed to Generosity

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We are continuing today in our sermon series Committed Talking about Essential Habits of abundant Life. If you have your Bibles open up to 2 Corinthians 9, that's we're going to be spending most of our time today. And if you haven't been with us, what we've been doing throughout this series, we are about 10 weeks in. We got two weeks to go. Next week's going to be the conclusion of this series. We've been talking about the essential, non-negotiable, super practical commitments that we all need to make as followers of Jesus in order to grow and persevere in our faith and in order to experience the abundant life that he calls every one of us to. And we've covered a lot of ground in this series, talked about a lot of topics. And the topic that we're going to be talking about today is we're going to be talking about money.

We're going to be talking about generosity. We're going to be talking about giving every pastor's favorite thing to talk about. Actually, a lot of pastors are uncomfortable talking about this. And really I think a lot of the reason is because we've seen it done so poorly. Especially you think about Christian television, these guy, they're practically like charlatans, pedaling the gospel for financial gain. And that's not what this is about. And so just right up front in case you're worried, I do not live in a mansion. I have a nice apartment in Brooklyn. I do not fly in a private jet, but I do have a pretty nice Mazda. I'm proud of that. But I'm not after your money. I don't need your money. God doesn't need your money, right? That's not what this is about.

Psalm 50, God tells us, he says, "Listen, every beast of the forest is mine. The cattle on a thousand hills, they're mine. I know all the birds of the hills and all that moves in the field is mine. If I were hungry, would I not tell you? For the world and its fullness are mine." He says. And God's not lacking in anything. He doesn't need anything. He made it all. He owns it all. But the reason that we're talking about money today is because as much as God doesn't need our money, he does desire our maturity and how we relate to money is going to be one of the single most, the greatest contributing factors to that, to our spiritual health, our growth, and our maturity. Because we live in a world that worships money, that is obsessed with money. And every single one of us, we are either going to worship money as well or we are going to learn how to worship with our money, but we can't do both.

And Jesus, he made this clear in Matthew 6:19. He said, "Remember, do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves breaking and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither rust nor moth destroy where these do not breaking and steal for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." And then he goes on though in verse 24, he says, "Listen, no one can serve two masters. He will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other, but you cannot serve both God and money." And so we need to see money as what it is. Money's a tool and it's a powerful tool. But if we fail to learn how to use it properly, it will slowly begin to use us.

It will take us captive and enslave us. And there's danger here. The apostle Paul writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6 he warned him about this. He said, first of all, verse six, he says, "Godliness with contentment, that's great gain for we brought nothing into the world and we cannot take anything out of the world. But if we have food and clothing with these we'll be content." But he says, "Those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction for the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. And through this craving, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs." There's a warning there. But we also need to look carefully at this because this verse 10 it's up there in the list of probably the top most misquoted verses in all of scripture.

Because usually when you hear this verse, you hear it said that "Money is the root of all evil." But that's not what it says. It says that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. The money itself is not the problem. The problem is how we use it and how we use it can be either to produce great good or to cause great evil. And this is why when you look at the gospels, Jesus talks about money all the time. Actually, he talks about money more than just about anything else. Over half of his parables had to do with how we manage money. He talked about it all the time. And so we need to talk about it as well. And so that's what we're going to be talking about today. And so we're in 2 Corinthians 9 and I believe this gives us one of the most straightforward, clear, practical teachings and scripture about giving about Christian and generosity.

And so we're going to just work through this verse by verse. And as we do, we're going to be looking at seven principles of godly giving the apostle Paul teaches us this passage is packed with application. And so we're going to be looking at these seven principles. We're going to move through them pretty quickly. And the big hope, the idea is we want to learn how to wield our wealth as generous stewards and use these things for God's glory. And so 2 Corinthians 9, beginning in verse six, the apostle Paul writes this. He says, "This is the point. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver 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 as it is written, he is distributed freely.

"He's given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. 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. You will be enriched in every way, to be generous, in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many Thanksgivings to God. 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 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." This is the reading of God's word for us this morning. Would you please join me in prayer for our sermons day?

And God, we do give you thanks for this inexpressible gift that you have given us life. You have given us your word. And Lord importantly, you have given us your son Jesus Christ to pay our debt and to supply our every need to be completely sufficient in every way. And Lord, help us to know, to trust and to see you for who you really are, that you are our gracious and generous father and we ask that you would teach us as your children to live in that grace and to live lives of grace and generosity as well. And I pray this for your glory and we pray this in the name of your son Jesus Christ. Amen. All right, so we're looking at seven lessons, seven principles of godly giving today. And the very first one we see in verse six. And Paul starts out just plain and simple.

He says, "The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully." And the first principle that we see is that as Christians we need to get beyond this view that giving is this drudgery, this obligation that we're all bound to and actually start to see it for what it really is, which is it is an incredible opportunity to invest what God has entrusted with us, with the expectation that there will be a reward, there will be a return. The first principle is that giving is an investment opportunity. That God is not the IRS, he is not taxing you on what is rightfully yours. God is your father and he is entrusting you with what is actually rightfully his. Everything you have it's a gift from the father's hand. And he doesn't give us these things just to hoard them for ourselves.

He wants us to experience the freedom and the joy of using them, of investing them to bless others, to bless God, to seek his kingdom and invest in his kingdom pulses. "So therefore, if you sow bountifully, don't worry, you will also reap bountifully." In Matthew chapter 25, Jesus teaches one of his most famous parables on this very subject. And it's a little bit long, but I'm going to read the whole thing cause this is extremely important. This is the parable of the talents. Matthew 25:14. Jesus teaching his disciples about the kingdom of God and he says "It's going to be like a man who's going on a journey." "He calls his servants and he entrusted to them his property to one, he gave five talents to another two and to another one each according to his ability. And then he went away.

"He had received the five talents, went at once and traded with them and he made five talents more. So also he had the two talents, made two talents more, but he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and he hid his master's money. Now after a long time, the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them and he had received the five talents, came forward bringing five talents, more saying, "Master, you delivered to me five talents here I've made you five talents more." And his master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you have been faithful over a little. I will set you over much, enter into the joy of your master." And he also who had the two talents came forward saying, "Master, I delivered to you. You delivered to me two talents. Here I've made two talents more."

"And his master said to him, "Well done, good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over a little. I will set you over much enter into the joy of your master." He also had received the one talent came forward saying, "Master, I knew you to be a hard man reaping where you did not sow and gathering where you scattered no seeds. So I was afraid and I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Here you have what is yours." His master answered him "You wicked and slothful servant. You knew that I reap where I've not sewn and gather where I scattered no seed, then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers I might coming, I should have received what was my own with interest. So take the talent from him and give it to the one who has 10 talents for to everyone who has more be given and he will have an abundance, but from the one who is not even what he has will be taken away and cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.""

And one of the things that we're meant to do as we read this parable is notice the dichotomies that are going on that in this parable what we see are two very different types of servants, two different categories of servant. We have two very different destinations, but we also see two very different perceptions of the master. And that what separates the good and the faithful from the wicked and the lazy servant in this parable is not just that the good servants go and they invest the talents that the master gave them. What really separates them is this perception of who the master was, that the good servants were willing to invest their talents to go immediately, to go quickly because they understood that the master was a very joyful and generous guy.

Now the wicked servant, he didn't see that. He didn't know the master clearly. The wicked servant believed that the master was cruel and corrupt. And so he hides his talent out of fear and he wasn't willing to take any risks to make any investments with what he had because he was afraid. He's afraid that the master was cruel and that if he made a mistake, if he didn't get a good return, that the master would punish him for that. But that that's not the kind of guy that the master was. The good servants they understood this, that the master wasn't cruel, the master wasn't unjust, he was kind, he was joyful, he was generous. And then all he was really asking them to do was to take what he had entrusted them with and go out, take a risk and invest it. And we see that when the master returns, notice that he doesn't praise them for their success.

Primarily what he praises them for is their faithfulness. He says, "Well done, my good and faithful servant, you've been faithful over what" he says, "a talent" and the master says "is a little." And then from the master's perspective, apparently a talent was just a small amount, but to the average person, a talent represented like 20 years of wages. For the average person, five talents was more money than they would see in their lifetime. And yet to the master, he says, "I was just trusting you with a little and you were faithful with that." And the big idea is that how you give is ultimately a reflection of how you view God. And if you view God as stingy, as cruel, as withholding, as unjust, if you believe that God's provision is scarce, then yeah, you're going to live in fear.

You're going to be afraid to take risks. You're going to be afraid to invest what he has given you. You're going to be afraid that God won't take care of you. If on the other hand you understand that God is a good father, that his resources are limitless, that as we read that creation and all the fullness thereof, that's all his. He has everything he needs, he's never going to run out. Well then you, you're set free as the good servants were to just go at once without hesitation and invest what he is giving you to invest because ultimately at the end of the day, the father's not looking for our ROI. What he's looking for is our faithfulness. He says, "Well done, good and faithful servant." The question is, "Do you trust me and are you willing to do what I say even in when that involves risk and sacrifice," and how you answer that question, it's dependent on how you view God.

And so guys, the master in the parable says, "You were faithful over a little and I put you over much. You were faithful over a little. Enter and experience the joy of your master." Luke 6:38. Jesus says, "Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together. Running over will be put in your lap for with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you." And so the first principle is we need to stop viewing giving as this taxing obligation and begin to see it as the opportunity that it is, an opportunity to take what God has given us and invest it for his kingdom, for his glory. The second principle we see is that giving is a matter of the heart. Paul says that whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

And then in verse 7, he says, "And each one must give as he is decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver." And so he says, "You got to give as you've decided in your heart." But then he also gives us the filter of how you reach that decision. How do you decide in your heart what to give? Well, he tells us. And if you were here a couple weeks ago we talked about the Venn diagram of discernment, of how you discern God's calling God's will for you. Well, this verse here, it's kind of like the Venn diagram of giving. How do you decide in your heart how much to give? And we see these three circles in the text and you're looking for the sweet spot again in the middle. And the first circle that we see is the first verse that we read that God calls us to give bountifully, to give generously, even to give sacrificially.

And the illustration that he uses is that of a farmer planting seed. Like the farmer has a decision. The farmer can hoard everything, keep it for himself and use it, eat all of the grain, all of the seed that he sort. Or he can deny himself a portion of that in order to plant with the idea that the more you plant, the more you sew, the more you will eventually reap. And so practically, when it comes to deciding how much you should give, particularly we're talking about giving to church, tithes, offerings, things like that. But also generally how do we give when God provides us opportunities to live generously with The principle is that you should be giving enough that it actually feels like a sacrifice. That in order to give bountifully, well that means you got to be able to deny yourself right now, like deny yourself certain comforts, certain luxuries that you need to decisively live below your means in order that you may be have that margin in your budget to give to God and to be generous with others.

And in the Old Testament, the principle, it began with it, the idea of the tithe, remember this, that God's people were called to give 10% of all that they had back to God as a worship offering. And in the New Testament, Jesus actually he affirms and he assumes the tithe is a good thing, something that his followers will do as well. We see this in Luke chapter 11. We see this in Matthew 23:23. Jesus is addressing the problems with the Pharisees. And he says to them, he says, "Whoa to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites. For, you tithe mint and dill and cumin." He's talking about you. You tie even the most minute things in your life, making sure that you give precisely 10% of everything. But he says, "But you neglect the way your matters of the law, justice, mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done."

Yeah, you ought to have tithed, "But without neglecting the others, you blind guides, you're straining out a gnat and swallowing a camel." So the Pharisees, they thought they were like hot stuff. They thought they were really flexing by how precisely they ties on everything that they had. But Jesus says, "I'm not impressed." You might be trying to impress others, but you're doing this and you're doing it for the wrong reason. And Jesus says he's not impressed. Yeah, you should have been tithing, but more importantly, you should be faithful. You should be, be merciful. In other words, you should be living beyond the letter of the law in order to fulfill the spirit of the law, in order to be people who's who are living radically sacrificial lives of generosity, both in their tithes and offerings to God, but also with how they, they're generous with their entirety of their lives.

Are you generous with your time? Are you generous with your talents, your skills, your ability? Are you generous with your talents, your treasures, your material possessions? And so as we try to decide in our hearts what to give, the first question is, am I truly sacrificing? Am I sowing bountifully? Or if I'm honest with myself, am I just kind of serving up my leftovers to God? Like the things that I wouldn't miss if they were gone anyway? Well, scripture calls us to give sacrificially. C.S. Lewis in mere Christianity. He said, "I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare." In other words, if our expenditures on comforts, luxuries, amusements, et cetera, if that is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, well we're probably giving away too little.

If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small, there ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our charitable expenditures exclude them. And so that, that's the first circle. But then Paul goes on, he tells us the other two, which are also important as well. In verse seven he says, "You also, you must give as you've decided, your heart give not reluctantly or under compulsion and cheerfully for God loves a cheerful giver." So give it cheerfully, joyfully, not under compulsion and not begrudgingly and sacrificially as well. And the only way that you can find that sweet spot in the middle and be able to do all that is when you understand that your giving is a response to just the incredible, abundant, overwhelming generosity that God has already shown us in his son Jesus Christ.

And so personally, just practically, this is what I do, this is what I think I would recommend all Christians do in our household, Kelly and I, every year or any time that our household income changes, we sit down and we update our budget. And the way that we budget our household budget is we figure out our income and then before anything else first, foremost, before rents, before taxes, before Uncle Sam gets his hands on a single penny of that income, we block out, we are giving our tithe that at least 10% of that is going straight to our local church to Mosaic. That is our offering to God. It's an act of worship. But then beyond that, you build the whole rest of your budget with that idea in mind of like, we need to leave space, we need to leave margin, we need to cut things out, luxuries, comforts that maybe we would like to have but don't need to have.

So that we have that space there to be generous when God presents us opportunities to be generous and to do so knowing that Jesus taught us it is more blessed to give than to receive. And so this is not easy to do, especially if you've never done this before. This can be hard. It can be scary to really trust God and to commit to do this. And I think that's why the next principle that we see in our text is that giving is not only a matter of heart giving is also an act of faith. Giving is an act of demonstrating what we truly believe, that at the end of the day that God is the one who cares for us. He is the one who PR has provided for us and that he will be faithful. Paul says verse seven, each one us give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And then consider these next few verses carefully, verse 8. "And God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all sufficiency and all things at all times you may abound in every good work as it is written, he has distributed freely his given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever and he who supplies seed to the sower and bred for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. And the question here is at the end of the day, do we really believe this? Do we really trust that God will take care of us or are we putting our trust in our own ability to take care of ourselves, our own ability to produce wealth? Jesus, he also taught a parable about this in Luke 12, which told in verse 13 that someone in the crowd came up to him and said, "Hey teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me."

And he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?" And he said to them, "Take care and be on your guard against all covetousness for one's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions." And he told them a parable saying "The land of a rich man produced plentifully. And he thought to himself, "What shall I do for I have nowhere to store my crops?" And he said, "I'll do this, I'll tear down my barns and build larger ones. And there I will store all my grain and my goods and I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, be merry." But God said to him, "Fool. This night your soul is required of you and the things that you've prepared, whose will they be?" So is the one who lays up treasures for himself and is not rich toward God.""

And when we are rich toward God, ultimately what we're doing is we're demonstrating that we trust that God is our provision. And that also means that we're not trusting ourselves to be that provision ultimately. And I don't think it's a coincidence that therefore the very next thing that Jesus begins to talk about with the people listening is their anxiety, their anxieties about the things of life every day, things that average people worry about when it comes to money. But we go on and you read in verse 22, he addressing these anxieties and he does so by offering just some of the most comforting words that we have in all of scripture. And so it says that, "He says then to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you in light of everything we just said in light of this call that I've given you to live richly toward God," He says, "I tell you, do not be anxious about your life. What you eat nor about your body, what you will put on life is more than food in the body is more than clothing."

"He says, "Consider the ravens. They neither sew nor reef. They have neither storehouse nor barn and yet God feeds them of how much more value are you than the birds? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour or to a span of life if then you are not able to do as smaller thing as that? Are you anxious about the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow. They neither toil nor spin yet I tell you, even Solomon in all of his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothed the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow's thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, oh you of little faith."

"You're not seek what you are to eat what you're to drink nor be worried for all the nations of the world seek after these things and your father knows that you need them. Instead, seek his kingdom. And these things will be added to you. Fear not little flock for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom, sell your possessions and give to the needy. Provide yourselves with money bags that do not grow old with treasures in heaven that do not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also."

So how is your anxiety level right now, particularly when you think about money, when you think about these cares that we all have? Well, scripture consistently draws a connection between our level of anxiety and our level of faith that Romans 8:15 it says, "You did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear. You received the spirit of adoption as sons by whom we cry, Abba, Father." That God doesn't call us to live an anxiety and fear as if we were orphans, as if we were slaves. He calls us to live as sons and daughters of the king in that safety, in that security. And what this means is that that for the Christian anxiety, it's based on delusion, illusion, it's based on deception. It's a lie of the enemy telling us that God is not good, that he is not our father, that he is not going to keep his promises, he's not going to take care of us.

And the only way we overcome that is through the eyes of faith. It's through the eyes of trusting and seeing God for who he really is and that ultimately our lives are safe in the father's hands, Paul talks about this in 1 Timothy 6. He's again teaching Timothy and he says, "As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. Thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of that which is truly life." That when you see reality for what it really is, when you see God for who he really, that's how you take hold of that which is truly life to not live basing your life in the uncertainty and the anxiety of earthly riches, but resting in the security of your father who as Paul says, richly provides us with everything to enjoy.

So giving is an act of faith. Fourth, we see giving. Giving is also a catalyst for spiritual growth. It's a means of growing our faith. Paul continues, verse 10. He says, "He who supplies seed to the sewer and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You'll be enriched in every way to be generous, in every way, which through us will produce thanks giving to God." And what we see is that not only is giving an act of faith, it is also a means of growing in our faith that as we sow the seed the father entrust to us, Paul says we will be enriched in every way that we will reap a harvest of righteousness. Most of us know this, that scripture tells us to not put the Lord our God to the test.

But there is actually one place in scripture where God commands us to test him, where he invites us to test him in something. And it has to do with this topic of giving ex. This comes from Malachi chapter 3:7. God is talking to his people Israel and he tells them, "From the days of your fathers, you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them." And he invites them, "Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, "How shall we return?"" And then God asks them this question. He says, "Well man, Rob God, yet you are robbing me. You say, "How have we robbed you?" Well in your tithes and contributions, your curse with a curse for you 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, I will rebuke the devour for you so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil and the vine and your field shall not fail to bears as the Lord of hosts." And then verse 12 says, "And then all nations will call you blessed for you will be a land of delights," says the Lord of hosts." I remember the first time that I read this, the first time I heard this scripture, Kelly and I, we were newlyweds, we were baby Christians and we saw this and we're like, "We don't want to miss out on this. So we're going to do this. We're going to make the decision to start tithing as a family as a couple." Now at the time I was pulling in about $25,000 a year as a entry level graphic designer.

Kelly on the other hand, she was pulling in negative dollars a year as a college student. And so things were pretty tight for us. We were getting by on chicken nuggets and fish sticks from Walmart. But we were like, we read this and we're like, "We trust God. We're going to do this. We're going to put God to the test." And so we did. And what we found is that he proved himself overwhelmingly, abundantly, faithful, not just then, but every day since then. And as we saw God's faithfulness, God's provision over and over and over, well as we saw all these examples of God being faithful to us, our faith itself grew in tandem. We were given so many opportunities to grow in our faith because of witnessing his faithfulness to us. And so giving can be a catalyst for spiritual growth. And fifth is that giving is a blessing to the church.

Paul says in verse 12, "The ministry of the service," he's talking about their the church's giving. He says, "The ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanks givings to God." And I love this because even just thinking back over the last year, we can see clearly that Mosaic, the ministry of your service, of your giving, it has supplied the needs of the saints. And it has resulted in an overflown in many Thanksgivings to God. If you don't know this Mosaic, we as a church, we tithe. And so what that means is that 90% of everything that we take in is used for the work of the ministry here in Boston to be a blessing to the saints here so that we can be a blessing to the city. It covers the cost of doing ministry and a really crazy expensive place like this.

But the other 10%, at least 10% as an organization, we send that out to be a blessing to saints all over the world. And so last year we were actually able to go above and beyond that. Last year we were able to give around $220,000. And just to break it down about 80,000 of that we were able to raise through the Ukraine fund, which directly every dollar. Well that went to support a ministry in the Ukraine that was caring for orphans, refugees. In addition to that, another $40,000 was sent to basically fund a brand new church plant in Ukraine through that same organization. And then the remaining $100,000 was used to support church planting efforts here in Boston, new England, north America, all over the world. And so I say that just to say praise God for Mosaic's generosity like this is so encouraging.

It's a blessing to us to be able to see how God uses this. And it's a blessing to saints all over the world that results in thankfulness of God. And I want to thank you, I want to encourage you in that. And then I also want to stir you up and challenge you because I think as a church that we can do more that we've been faithful over little, God wants to put us over more. The last statistic I saw reported that the average Christian in America only gives about 2% of their income away. By God's grace we can estimate the average a tender at Mosaic gives around 3%. So we're above average, but there's room to grow. Imagine, just imagine what we could do if even just the members of Mosaic started to bring in the full ti as Malachi said.

Malachi says, verse 10, "Bring the full tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the test as the Lord 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 he says, "And when you do this that all the nations will call you blessed and you will be a land of delights." And somewhere around 2 billion Christians in the world today, imagine if they all tithed. Imagine if it started with us. Imagine like the work that we could do, the blessing that we could be, the reward that we could expect if we stepped up as a church to go against the odds, to go against the norm and prove to be faithful over however little, however much God entrusts with us. Imagine the thanksgiving and the glory that could be given to God as we grow together in this area.

And that really leads us to point number six, that not only is giving a blessing to the saints, a blessing to the church that giving is also a blessing to God. And we see this throughout the text. Verse 11 says, "You will be enriched in every way to be generous, in every way, which through us produces thanks giving to God for the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanks givings to God. And by their approval of this service, they will glorify God." I'm not going to say a whole bunch about this because it's pretty self-explanatory, but this is really the greatest benefit of giving that people get to see through us, that as Christians, as we live generously, people get to see a reflection of God through us. They get a picture of what God is really like, that God is generous, he is gracious, and he is trustworthy.

And this results, thanks giving results in him receiving the glory that He deserves. And then finally point number seven is that giving is the natural response to God's grace. 2 Corinthians 9:13, Paul says, "By their approval of the 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 the others 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." And this is ultimately what motivates it all. This is what's at the heart of it all, that we give God our first and our best and we do so joyfully because God gave us His first. He gave us His best, that God's greatest gift, this inexpressible gift, it's not money, it's not possessions, it's not treasures here on earth that God went so far beyond that, that God gave the very treasure of heaven itself, his son, Jesus Christ, to come and to secure our salvation, to secure our eternity.

John 3:16 says "That for God so loved the world that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." And once you've received this gift, you clinging to it for dear life. And as you clinging to this gift, this is what sets you free and enables you to hold everything else in life loosely, to hold the treasures of this world loosely and to give the treasures of this world freely knowing that you are merely giving freely of what you cannot keep. And knowing that you have found the one treasure that you can never lose, the treasure that itself has taken hold of you in Christ Jesus. I'm going to close this morning by reading from Philippians 4 because this is just a great example of getting to see this played out in real life and the relationship between the apostle Paul and the Philippian church that throughout Paul's life, the Philippian Church was a church that brought him a great deal of joy.

And it was a church that faithfully throughout the years supported him financially in the work of his ministry. And he writes to them towards the end of his life to thank them and to remind them of this partnership. And he says in verse 10, he says, "I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me. You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity to show it. And it's not that I'm speaking of being in need for, I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance I've learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Yet it was kind of you to share my trouble."

"And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except only you. Even in Thessalonica, you sent me hope for my needs once and again. And it's not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit, I have received full payment and more, I am well supplied having received from Epaphroditus, the gift you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus, to our God and Father, be glory forever and ever. Amen." This is just a great picture of godly giving, of faithful stewardship. And my hope today is that as we all walk and grow in faithfulness in this area, that we would learn the secret of contentment that Paul talks about, that we would learn that the joy of the master, that it is more blessed to give than it is to receive.

That we would learn to do all things through Christ who strengthens us, that we would press on faithfully toward that day where we will hear those words. "Well done, good and faithful servants, you have been faithful over a little. I will put you over much calm and enter into the joy of your master." And if you haven't been faithful in this area, well my challenge to you today is that you would start today. You take that first step of faith and really put God to the test and see if he will not answer with faithfulness and help you to experience all these blessings that we have talked about today. And I say that not to seek the gift, as Paul said, it's not just about the money. He says in verse nine, "It's not that I seek the gift, it's that I seek the fruit that increases to your credit."

Now with that being said, would you please join me in prayer and we'll continue and worship this morning. Lord, as we close today, I remember Acts 20:35, which tells us to remember the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. How He himself said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And we thank you that this is true and we know it is true because you have proven it is true that you are the most blessed and you are the one who has given more than any of us could ask or even imagine in your son Jesus Christ.

God, we thank you for your abundant provision in our lives. Every breath we take, every moment is a gift from your hands. And we pray that you would help us by the power of your Holy Spirit to not waste it, to steward it well, to use every ounce of time, talent, treasure that you have entrusted to us, to invest that for the sake of your kingdom and glory, willingly, joyfully knowing that you are our good Father who provides for all our needs. Help us to steward well. Everything we have to bring you, honor and glory to you, our joyful master, our generous father, help us to be faithful over little so that we can be given even more. And Lord, we do all of this as we long to hear those words. Well done, good and faithful servants. Lord, I pray that those words would be heard by every soul that is gathered here today. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.