2 Corinthians - Lesson 9C

• Alright guys, welcome back. So, this morning if you have your Bible with you, turn to 2 Corinthians the 9th chapter. Over the last couple of teachings I’ve made a statement. One that raised an eyebrow or two, and one that I want to clear up before we move forward this morning. The statement I made pertained to Paul’s persistence about giving, specifically as it related to the Church of Corinth’s giving verses that of the Churches of Macedonia.

  • The topic of giving began in Chapter 8 and has continued on, even into today’s teaching. Now what I said over the last few weeks was, Paul is doing something that we should not do. And what was it that he did?

  • He reminded the church at Corinth of their commitment to take up an offering for the poorer church of Jerusalem. A commitment they had made roughly one year earlier. He let them know that he was sending Titus along with a couple of more men to retrieve that gift, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.

    • But after he let them know that Titus and the others would be coming, he really began wearing them out over their promise. And he did so by giving them example after example of why they should follow through on their commitment.

    • And honestly, it wasn’t until somewhere around the end of Chapter 8 and on into Chapter 9 that it dawned on me that he was moving from a place of trusting God and into a place of what I call ‘helping God out’ in an effort to give some extra oomph to the situation. Meaning, he really wanted the gift from the Church at Corinth to be a good one, and so in his writings he continued to emphasize their gift over and over and over again.

  • And as I said, that isn’t something we should do, because God is in control. God intends for the Church at Corinth to give, and they will give every dime they are supposed to give, and not a penny more or a penny less.

• Now when I say Paul shouldn’t have hounded these people for money, it doesn’t mean the scripture is wrong. It means what Paul was doing was wrong, and there are many, many stories in scripture where God’s man did something wrong, from Abraham to David to Peter and Paul.

  • So, when I say Paul should have done this or that, I am not saying the scriptures are wrong. I am saying what they did was wrong. Once again, let me be clear. I believe 100% in the inherency of scripture, that the scriptures are without error.

    • And by the way, the topic of Biblical inerrency is one of the most highly debated topics around. But for me there is no debate. God’s Word is inspired and without error and without conflict, which means if you run across something in scripture that appears to conflict or be in error, you can rest assured that it is not.

    • But if you do, then you must adhere to the old saying, one that my mentor and close friend Stephen Armstrong used to say, and that is, when plain sense makes common sense, we seek no other sense. When it doesn’t, we must dig deeper.

  • Let me say, there have been times when I have run across apparent conflicts in God’s Holy Manuscript, but there has never been a time when, after I dug deeper into the background of the book or studied the original translation, that I didn’t find the answer to the conflict.

• Now some have said, well, you want to believe there is no conflict, therefore you made sure you were able to explain it away. And if someone says that to me, well, I will tell them they don’t know me very well and they need to talk to my mother and some of my closest and long-standing friends.

  • Because they will tell you I am not a guy that will let well-enough alone, and I am certainly not a ‘go with the flow’ kind of guy. For me, when something doesn’t make sense, whether in life and certainly when it comes to the scriptures, I will not accept some Sunday School answer and quietly be on my way.

  • And so, as I said, it makes no difference to me if it’s a law, a rule, a job workflow, or a verse of scripture, I must know the why behind everything I do, and it’s been that way for me since the day I was born. So, when you hear me teach, you can sleep easy knowing that when I study I pick every last word apart.

    • As a matter of fact, I spend a large portion of my study time studying the Hebrew and the Greek. I drill down into the part of speech of the word, the transliteration of the word, the spelling of the word or words, the phonetic spelling of the word, and then of course the definition and usage, which is, in my opinion, one of the most important parts. 

    • I often use a Strongs/Exhaustive Concordance. Sometimes I even use the dictionary. How about that. But not just any dictionary. I use a dictionary written from the 1980s back. Does anyone know why?

  • Because the people controlling the meaning of words changed them over time. This was not all bad per se, but when you begin redefining words for the purpose of accommodating social pressures, if that happens you have a problem.

  • And so, having said that, if you have a Websters dictionary from the early 80s back, you are pretty safe, but if you use one newer than that it can be tricky. Also, let me say this in case we have some naysayers out there, those who might want to debate what I am saying by saying things like “everyone knows the meaning of words have changed over time, all because the way the word began being used in society changed, therefore there is no harm in that”.

    • To those folks I would say, “yes but no”.

    • Meaning, yes there are some meanings of words that changed because the meaning of the word in the original King’s English changed. Words for example like awful and awesome. The word awful was derived from the word ‘awe’ which means to “fear, terror, dread, and/or have great reverence”.

    • And interesting enough, over time the words awful and awesome became synonymous with the words ‘awe-inspiring’. Later on, awful took on a solely negative connotation, which caused the word to take on its modern-day usage, which means extremely bad.

  • Awesome, on the other hand, evolved in the opposite way, probably in or around the mid-1900s, where it came to mean extremely good. Nothing necessarily wrong with this unless those words were being used in scripture. Can you see where that would be a bad thing? Because the scriptures never change. They are timeless.

• Anyway, you get my point, and just so you know, when I think of the inherency of God’s word, I think of what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which said:

2 Tim. 3:16 All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;
2 Tim. 3:17 so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work.

• Now when you read the first 4 words of verse 16, it says ‘all scripture is inspired’. The word inspired is a Greek word (theopnesutos) (Theo-op’-nyoo-stos) (They-op-news-stews-stus), and the definition is, God-breathed or inspired by God.

  • And so, you can see how just with this one word, that there is a real difference in the meaning of the word. One is God-breathed, and the other is God-inspired. I personally believe there is a huge difference in these meanings.

  • When you say God-breathed, I think of creation. How God breathed it into existence. How He is the Alpha and Omega. The beginning from the end. Where the other word makes me feel (and this is just me), it makes me feel kind of like God did a ‘forward’, you know like a forward in a book. That he gave some oversight or cursory glance over the writing of the Word.

    • One is absolute and one seems somewhat open-ended. There is another example I use when I talk about translations of the Bible, specifically how important words are. I want to read John 3:17 from my NASB, and then read John 3:17 from the Message Bible.

• My NASB says it this way,

John 3:17 NASB For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him.

• Now let’s read it from the Message Bible,

John 3:17 MSG God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again.

• The NASB says “God came, so that the world might be saved”, and the Message Bible says, “God came to help”. This may not seem like a big difference in the use of words, but I assure you it is.

  • It would be like you drowning in the middle of the ocean, and say I pull up beside you in a boat as you desperately struggle to keep your head above water, and then I say, hey, I see you are drowning. You want me to help you out or save you? Which one would you prefer?

    • So, as you can see, words do matter, and their meanings really matter. And so, with this understanding of how I study scripture in view, let me just say, when I say Paul shouldn’t have worn the Church of Corinth out over money, I am not saying that what Paul wrote was wrong. What he wrote was what he wrote.

    • I am saying that according to Paul’s own teachings, dunning these people for money will not increase their giving. And by the way, the same applies for all of us sitting here today. If you give because the preacher or anyone else guilted you into it, you might as well not have given at all.

  • You should always give because God has convicted you to do so. And one more thing, it should never be grope or routine. Rather it should always be with a cheerful heart, out of gladness because you get to participate in what God is doing.

• Now, when I made the statement that Paul shouldn’t be wearing these people out over giving, I did that with some background in mind. Background that you may or may not be privy to, and that background will give you some insight into why Paul is so passionate about the welfare of the Church in Jerusalem.

  • And yes, it’s easy to say he was passionate because they were poor, but so were the Churches in Macedonia. You know, those churches that Paul just described in Chapter 8 as living in deep poverty. So, lots of churches were poor. Which should leave us asking ourselves, why is he so passionate about the Church of Jerusalem? Anyone know?

  • Well, let me show you why from the pages of scripture. Let’s turn to Acts 7:54-60 and then jump into Acts 8:1-3 for the answer. We will start with Acts 7:54-60, where we will read about the stoning of Stephen. And inside this story you will discover why the Church of Jerusalem had such a special place in Paul’s heart. Let’s read it really quick.

Acts 7:54 Now when they heard this, they were infuriated, and they began gnashing their teeth at him.
Acts 7:55 But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked intently into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God;
Acts 7:56 and he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”
Acts 7:57 But they shouted with loud voices, and covered their ears and rushed at him with one mind.
Acts 7:58 When they had driven him out of the city, they began stoning him; and the witnesses laid aside their cloaks at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Acts 7:59 They went on stoning Stephen as he called on the Lord and said, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit!”
Acts 7:60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Having said this, he fell asleep.

• Next, we move into Acts Chapter 8:1-3, and here’s what we read.

Acts 8:1 Now Saul approved of putting Stephen to death.
And on that day a great persecution began against the church in Jerusalem, and they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.
Acts 8:2 Some devout men buried Stephen and mourned loudly for him.
Acts 8:3 But Saul began ravaging the church, entering house after house; and he would drag away men and women and put them in prison.

• So, based on the testimony of Scripture, who was the one who broke up the Church in Jerusalem? Saul, right? Who we now call Paul, which, just an FYI to you; for the record, Saul’s name didn’t change to Paul. You hear people say that all the time, but that’s not the case. His name was Saul, but he was also known as Paul, which is exactly what Acts 13:9 tells us.

Acts 13:9 But Saul, who was also known as Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, stared at him, 

• So why does he have two names? Because Saul was his Hebrew name, and Paul was His Greek name. Anyway, back to my point. The Church in Jerusalem held a special place in Paul’s heart because he is the one that reeked “t-total havoc” on them and broke them up.

  • And no doubt he felt a special kind of responsibility toward them, and therefore, he really wanted to take care of them. Which tells us why he is pushing the Church at Corinth so hard to give sacrificially.

  • Now, with all that said, inside Paul’s words lie spiritual truths that are tied back to giving. Which means, even though we shouldn’t be dunning people for money, the spiritual blessings that are manifested through sacrificial giving are no less the truth. And that’s where we will head next in Paul’s writings. Listen to what he says in 2 Cor. 9:6-15:

2 Cor. 9:6 Now I say this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously.
2 Cor. 9:7 Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Cor. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; 

• Last week I gave you verses 6-15 as focus verses for this week. But I am going to pause here with verse 8 for just a moment, because we could spend multiple Sunday’s teaching on the spiritual truths found in verses 6-8. But before I delve deep into these verses, I would like to point something out, and that is Praise be to God for backing up the statement I made over the past couple of weeks.

  • The one that said we shouldn’t be dunning people for money. I’m going to get out of order here for a moment, but I want you to look really quick at verse 7 again:

2 Cor. 9:7 Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

• Paul, in his own words, says you should never give under compulsion. But the question for me is, is that what the Greek says? No, it says, “each as he purposes in the heart, not out of regret or of necessity; a cheerful giver loves God”. The usage of the word can mean constraint, compulsion; there is need to; force, violence.

  • And so, the sense of the word means to force or compel. And so, even though the word used in the Greek manuscript says necessity, when you study the word, it can be translated to mean compel. Which tells us that if someone gives out of regret or compulsion, their gift is for the wrong reason.

  • And so, the question that lingers in my mind is, will God accept it if we give because someone compelled us, or guilted us? Will God accept that gift? Well, according to the testimony of scripture the answer would be no. And just one example of this shows up in Genesis, all the way back in the very beginning, specifically with the story of Cain and Abel.

    • Do you remember that story? If you don’t remember, I will paraphrase it for you really quick. As most of us know, Cain and Abel were the children of Adam and Eve. Abel was a shepherd and Cain was a farmer.

  • Over time, and by and through the revelation of God, Cain and Abel came to the understanding that in order to please God, they must make sacrifices. They must give sacrificially of what they had, and so for Abel, his gift would come from his herd, and the scripture says he gave of the best portions of the first-born lambs from his flocks.

  • Having said that, Cain on the other hand, according to Genesis 4:4, “He gave of some of his crops”. We aren’t told exactly what “some of his crops” means, we just know that God rejected Cain’s sacrifice while accepting Abel’s. Therefore, we can infer that Cain’s sacrifice wasn’t the best he had to offer.

    • Which tells us something, and that is, giving sacrificially, which is giving in a way that means something to you, meaning, if when you give, you don’t give with a little bit of trepidation, or with a little bit of a heavy heart maybe, as in ‘man oh man I’m going to miss this, or ‘man oh man this hurts a little’, then you are not giving in a sacrificial manner.

  • And what is interesting is, this type of giving is a “mono e mono” type of giving. Meaning, it’s between you and God, because only you and God know what sacrifice really looks like to you. Another way to say it is, only you and God know what causes you to have heart burn. No one else knows.

    • Which means other people may look and see what you have given, and they may think to themselves, wow, look what that person did. But the reality is, and (once again), based on the testimony of scripture, if you see someone give a large gift, their gift may be not even be considered a sacrificial gift by God. It might look sacrificial to you, but you and I have no clue what sacrifice looks like to that individual.

  • You know, throughout my life I have often heard about wealthy people who give a lot of money, and not just to churches but to other charity organizations as well. And I hear people brag about them, how much they have done for the community, or about how much they gave to some group.

    • And immediately when I hear that, I always think to myself, well, that’s awesome, but I wonder if it was a sacrificial gift, or was it just a small portion, or minor overall portion, of their net worth.

  • In other words, when they wrote that check did it hurt a little when they gave, or was it a tax write-off, money they weren’t going to receive anyway, therefore, they had a choice; they could give it to charity or give it to the government, so they opted to donate it to charity.

• Now it’s not always that way, but many times that is the case. And let me tell you how you can know if that’s the case or not. If an extremely well-off individual gives, and wants everyone to know what they gave, then most of the time it wasn’t a sacrificial gift, it was a tax write-off. Not always, but most of the time.

  • And let me also say, that’s okay, because the organization receiving the gift or gifts probably needs the help. And so, you might say, well if that’s the case, then who cares why the individual gave. From a world view we don’t. I am just saying there is a big difference between giving and sacrificial giving in God’s dichotomy.

  • And just a side note. According to scripture, when you give and you let the world know, the blessing you receive comes from this life, not from the one to come. Jesus said it this way in Matthew 6:1-4:

Matthew 6:1 “Take care not to practice your righteousness in the sight of people, to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven.
Matthew 6:2 “So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, so that they will be praised by people. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.
Matthew 6:3 But when you give to the poor, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,
Matthew 6:4 so that your charitable giving will be in secret; and your Father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

• Pretty cut and dry, isn’t it? Give and let the world know and you will receive all the rewards you are ever going to receive here on earth, but give in secret and your Father in Heaven will reward you. And I assure you, that reward will be far greater than any reward you will receive here and now.

  • Moving on, and we will close with these verses. Going back to verses 6 & 8.

2 Cor. 9:6 Now I say this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously.
2 Cor. 9:7 Each one must do just as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
2 Cor. 9:8 And God is able to make all grace overflow to you, so that, always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; 

• In verse 6, Paul makes a statement that creates a spiritual truth. Honestly, it creates a “Spiritual Law” of sorts. And it’s interesting because not only does it apply to believers, but it also seems to apply to the world as well. It’s the Law of “Sowing and Reaping”.

  • Paul says, the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows generously will also reap generously. The Law of Sowing and Reaping is a simple concept really. The concept is based on the fact that money is cyclical. And by the way, money is not the only type of sacrificial giving. There are other types of giving, for example labor or time, but for this exercise we will use money.

  • So, money is cyclical, and the concept is this; when you give (I didn’t say spend), I said give. When you give as a believer with the right motivation, money seems to always find its way back to you. But when it returns, it multiplies. Isn’t that interesting. It’s really fascinating, especially when you think about investing in your future.

    • Because this Law tells us that there is no better investment than that of giving. If you want to see your net worth increase, then become a closed-door, private, sacrificial giver. Which, just so you know, is a giver who gives, never expecting anything in return.

• Now, as I said earlier, I think what’s even more interesting about this Law is how God has also allowed this Law to be available to the world as well.

  • Throughout my career I have read many stories where wealthy men and women (who were not necessarily believers), even some who were atheist or agnostic, have testified to this whole “Sowing and Reaping” concept. So much so that some high net-worth individuals set out to give away most of their earnings.

  • Some even have said they vowed to give away 90% of what they made, and they themselves said the more they gave the more they earned, almost as if they couldn’t give it away fast enough.

    • Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, falls into this category. He said his goal was to give away the majority of his 124-billion-dollar net worth during his lifetime. Warren Buffett understands this concept all too well. So much so that he and Bill Gates’ family came up with a concept known as the ‘giving pledge’, where wealthy people sign up and pledge to give away all their money during their lifetime.

  • Now, someone might say, well Pastor, the Buffets and Gates are signing that pledge because they are good people and want to help people. I agree. They certainly may be good people, but I assure you early on, they learned about this law, that the more they gave the more seemed to come back to them, and that’s what led them to this whole giving pledge thing. In other words, they didn’t start out their careers that way. They didn’t start out exercising the giving pledge. No, they figured it out over time. Slowly they discovered the more they sowed the more they reaped, which gave them more ability to sow.

• I’ll digress on this point, but before I do, here’s the final thought of the day. Why did God allow this Law (His Law of Sowing and Reaping) to be available to the world around us? Meaning, why didn’t He limit it to believers, to His children, to the Church?

  • This is just my opinion, which means you can do with it what you want, just don’t say that I said it was the truth. My opinion is that even though this world is not of God, that Satan is the ruler of this world, God’s Grace still extends to the just and the unjust. And where in the world did I get that opinion from? From Jesus in Matthew 5:43-48, where Jesus said this:

Matthew 5:43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your enemy.’
Matthew 5:44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
Matthew 5:45 so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Matthew 5:46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same?
Matthew 5:47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same?
Matthew 5:48 Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

• What Jesus is telling us, is God allows unbelievers to receive blessings simply because they are part of His Sovereign Plan. Essentially, as He blesses believers, the overflow from that will touch unbelievers as well.

  • I also believe the Law of Sowing and Reaping extends to the unbelieving world for another reason as well, because this is how God set it up, so that all mankind can be taken care of while the earth still exists. This Law of Sowing and Reaping is real, I promise you it’s real, and I want to encourage you to study it for yourself.

  • Maybe even think back to a time when you gave, and low and behold it came back greater than when it left. God put this Law in place so that those who would believe and obey would be the ones that He would use to provide for the needs of others. And in return, they would be the ones who would receive a blessing. And as we have discovered over these past several weeks of teaching, many times, those blessings return back to the giver in the form of an abundance of true joy.