A Generous Spirit, 2 Corinthians 9:6

Pastor Tom Marcum , March 25, 2007

Some of you may remember that in my very first sermon of this New Year I challenged us to move through the year with this commitment—We will be about our Father’s business.

--To make sure that His will is always our priority.

--To be keenly focused on and obedient to whatever He leads us to do in both our personal relationships with Him and our corporate relationship with Him as a church family. And to put our commitment to the test, the following Sunday, I led us directly into the path of one of the most frequently disobeyed aspects of God’s will for us, namely, the standard of financial giving that God expects and demands from His people. Countless numbers of Christians who freely embrace most of God’s biblically revealed will for their lives, become resistant, defiant and disobedient when confronted with what the Bible says about the kind of giving that is pleasing to God. And the excuses that we come up with to justify our disobedience run the gamut.

Bruce Larson tells the story of a conversation that he had with a wealthy member of the church that he pastored in Seattle. The man walked into his office one day and said, “Pastor, you’ve been talking a lot about tithing recently. And I’m definitely listening and I’m growing as a Christian. But pastor, I make a lot of money. I can’t possibly tithe. That would be a huge chunk of cash.”

The pastor nodded his head sympathetically and then asked the man if he’d like to pray about it. The man said that he would and as they bowed their heads the man began to pray, “God, I need your guidance in this matter of giving. Show me what You want me to give. Amen.” With their heads still bowed, the pastor prayed next and said, “God, my dear brother here tells me that he makes too much money to tithe, so Lord I’m asking you, for his sake, to reduce his income this coming year so he can give you what You desire from him.”

It’s all just a matter of perspective, isn’t it?

So, what does God want from us in this matter of giving? What is the standard of giving that God expects from His children?

Let me tell you how I approach this subject and then let’s see if you can relate my perspective. I’m a child of God…I am the grateful beneficiary of the salvation that God made available to me through His grace and Jesus’ sacrifice…God has welcomed me into His family and secured my place in heaven for all eternity…God has faithfully and consistently poured blessing upon blessing upon blessing into my life. Bottom Line: I can never thank God enough for all that He’s done for me and all that He means to me. So, I’m not interested in pleasing God with part of my life; I want to please God with all of my life. And that includes my giving. I want to live with the confidence that my giving is pleasing to my God. And if that is your desire as well, the question that we need to ask is this: How can we know that our giving rises to the standard that is pleasing to God?

And the answer is, by making sure that our giving conforms to the standard that is clearly taught in God’s word. And to that end, this year, we are studying a passage of scripture that presents us with some very practical giving principles that can guide us to that standard of giving that is truly pleasing to God. The scripture is 2 Corinthians 9 and it will be the foundation for a series of probably 4 sermons scattered throughout the year that will help us identify and understand how we can apply these giving principles.

By way of review, let’s recall that several weeks ago in the first of those sermons we looked at the first five verses in the chapter and identified a giving principle that I called, The Principle of Modeling. It’s a giving principle that teaches us that our giving influences the giving of others. While it’s true that our giving is a personal matter between ourselves and the Lord it’s also true that our giving influences the giving of others. And to help us apply the lesson to our own lives, I asked you to honestly answer a series of questions, which included this one:

If everyone in the Petaluma Valley Family began to follow your giving model…not the amount that you give, but the amount in proportion to your income…would we be able to expand our ministries, maintain our ministries or would we have to cut back our ministries? What would be the impact on our church if we all adopted your giving model?

Obviously, if your giving is pleasing to God the impact would be positive because the church would now be filled with people who are honoring God with their giving.

On the other hand, if your giving is not pleasing to God then we would be in a world of trouble because we would now have a church filled with people who are not being obedient to God in their giving.

So, that’s The Principle of Modeling applied in a very practical way.

This morning, as we move deeper into the text, we’re going to explore another giving principle—The Principle of Generosity. And the principle is introduced in 2 Corinthians 9:6 which says,

“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

So, the first thing to notice, here, is that this verse tells us that there are two distinctly different types of givers—those who give “sparingly” and those who give “generously.” So let’s consider each type of giver and see if we can figure out which style of giving is most pleasing to God and why. But before we do so, let’s take a quick survey.

--How many of you think that God is most pleased by those who give sparingly?

--How many of you think that God is most pleased by those who give generously?

Well, isn’t that interesting? The truth here appears to be so obvious that before we’ve even begun to really dig in to the verse we’re already completely united in our sense that generous giving is most pleasing to God.

Now, let’s take a closer look at these two types of giving and let’s begin with those who give “sparingly.”

What does that word, “sparingly” mean? The dictionary offers the following as synonyms: scant, limited, meager and sparse. So, when used to describe a person’s style of giving, the one who gives “sparingly” is that person whose ultimate desire is to give the smallest amount possible and keep for themselves the largest amount possible. The one who gives “sparingly” does give, but even as they’re writing out their check, their heart is working overtime trying to hold back, restrict, limit and hold on to everything that it possibly can.

Does that sound like the spirit of giving that would delight the heart of God? God is so generous in His love for us that, Romans 8:32 says that He did not even, “spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all…” God could have spared his son and kept him to himself, but for our sake He gave him up. How could we even think of bringing Him a gift that represents our very best effort to give God as little as possible so we can keep for ourselves as much as possible?

So, verse 6 begins with this very clear warning—“Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly…” and then it goes on to say, “…and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” In other words, there is a connection between what we “sow” and what we “reap.” There’s a connection between the spirit of our giving to God and the abundance of God’s blessings in our lives. And the result of this connection is that spare givers can anticipate spare blessings.

Now, folks, that’s a pretty bleak picture but the picture becomes bleaker still in a closely related passage in Galatians 6:7 which says, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows.” So Paul is expanding here on the connection between our giving and God’s blessing of our lives. And he has upped the ante dramatically by saying that if we think that we can give to God “sparingly”…that we can keep for ourselves what we should be giving to God…and still be abundantly blessed we are mocking God, but God will not be mocked.

Now, you may say, “Wait just a minute. I would never mock God.” Well, I sincerely hope that’s true. Just to be sure, let me ask you a couple of questions.

Question: How many of you want to be abundantly blessed by God? You would rather be abundantly blessed by God than barely blessed by God. How many of you?

Answer: Every one of you. Obviously. We all want to be abundantly blessed by God.

Question: According to God’s word, what kind of giving does God reward with an abundance of blessing?

Answer: Generous giving. As we read just moments ago in 2 Corinthians 9:6, “Whoever sows generously will also reap generously.”

Question: Since we all want to be abundantly blessed by God…and…God’s word clearly says that He will generously bless those who give generously…why would anyone not give generously to God? On the surface, it would seem foolish to do otherwise. Think about it.

Everyone wants to be abundantly blessed by God and God promises that He will generously bless everyone who gives generously. Consequently, to be anything other than generous in our giving is counterproductive; it means that we’re working against our own desires; it just doesn’t make any sense…unless…unless…I don’t believe God. And there’s the answer to our question.

Question: Why would someone who knows that God has promised to generously bless those who give generously, not be generous in their giving?

Answer: They don’t believe God. They don’t believe His word. Instead, they believe that they can actually come out ahead by keeping as much as they can for themselves and giving as little as possible to God. And by doing so, they are mocking God. And, folks, what I’m about to say is hard but it’s also biblical—if you believe that you can come out ahead by keeping more for yourself and giving less to God you are mocking God. But God cannot be mocked. And that means that you will never come out ahead.

The key to “coming out ahead”…the key to receiving an abundance of God’s blessing is to be generous in our giving.

Verse 6 began with a warning to those who give “sparingly,” but it ends with a tremendous promise to those who give “generously.” It says—“Remember this (don’t forget this; hold on to this promise): whoever sows generously will also reap generously.” And, folks, it’s really not hard to understand why that’s true when you understand that the primary difference between the one who gives “sparingly” and the one who gives “generously” is not in the amount of their giving. The primary difference is in the attitude of their heart.

--The deep desire in the heart of the one who gives sparingly is to keep for itself as much as it possibly can.

--The deep desire in the heart of the one who gives generously is to give to God as much as it possibly can.

Key Question—What is it that ultimately accounts for the difference between the “sparing giver” and the “generous giver?” What’s the bottom line distinction between those two?

Answer—The nature of their relationship with God. Folks, the truth is, the way we give reveals with stunning clarity what we really believe about God and the nature of the relationship that we have with Him.

--If you see God as a loving Father who delights in giving blessing upon blessing to His children, you will be a generous giver.

--If you see God as a God of abundance who loves to share His abundance with you, you will be a generous giver.

--If you genuinely believe that every good thing you have and every blessing you’ve received has come from God, you will be a generous giver.

--On the other hand, if you believe that God is always looking for ways to take what is rightfully yours, you will give sparingly.

--If you believe that God is always making unreasonable demands of you, you will give sparingly.

--If you believe that the reason you have what you have is because you have earned it by your own hard work…no thanks to God…you will give sparingly.

And, finally, let me go out onto a pastoral limb and say that…

--If you think this sermon was right on target, I’m guessing that you are a generous giver.

--And if you’re wishing you were somewhere else right now…and you’re hoping that I end soon…and you think that I spend way too much time talking about money, I’m guessing that you’re not.

Folks, I don’t know what any of you give but God knows what each of us gives and that’s exactly as it should be, because your giving is not about your relationship with me, it’s all about your relationship with God. So, let me ask you a very pointed question: What does your giving say about your relationship with God?

My prayer, for each of us, is that God will be absolutely delighted with the gifts we bring Him because of what it says about the relationship that we have with Him.

© Copyright 2007 Pastor Tom Marcum