Patrick: 00:13

Thank you for listening to First Today. I am Patrick Cooley. You can reach me at connect at first day dot us, where if you reach out, if you have any questions or want a deeper conversation about anything that, goes on in today's podcast or, in any podcast that we've had since 2017. So but thank you for listening and sharing. Visit, visit www.firstday.us, and you can listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts and Amazon Podcasts.

Patrick: 00:48

So go and go ahead and start in, second Corinthians chapter 9. Now it is not only necessary for me to write you about the ministry to the saints, for I know your eagerness, which is the subject of my boasting about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since the last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers in order that our boasting about you may not prove to have been empty in this case, so that you may be ready as I said you would be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians came with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you in this undertaking. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead of you and arrange in advance for this bountiful gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a voluntary gift and not as an extortion.

Patrick: 02:02

Paul wants to make sure that the Corinthian church remains the example of generosity, commitment, and faith that it had has become in the eyes of the other Greeks. Titus and the other brothers are there to encourage the Corinthians to remain motivated to fulfill their pledge to provide assistance to the church in Jerusalem. Their failure to follow through could very well hinder the mission of the apostles and damage their reputations. This is what this whole section is talking about. They are being sent ahead of Paul so that it can be ready as a voluntary gift when he gets there and not as an extortion.

Patrick: 02:48

Verse number 6. So so basically, this is just a very practical logistical part of of this letter and and and I guess of the of the Bible. The Bible does not it is not short on logistical things. But but I think it just I think it makes sense that Paul understands how important the Corinthian church is in in terms of the the the impact that it has made on other churches. And so he wants the church to look as good as it can to be as committed as much as it can so that its image might not be tarnished and it might not become a hindrance to the, advancement of the kingdom of God.

Patrick: 03:36

He wants it to continue to be, he wants it to continue to be, an example, an exemplary bunch of people, an exemplary bunch of Christians doing the best that they can for the kingdom of God. Verse number 6. The point is this, the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for god loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to provide you with every blessing in abundance, so that by always having enough for everything, you may share abundantly in every good work.

Patrick: 04:26

As it is written, he scatters abroad, he gives to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. As God's children like David, Paul says, they have, the Corinthians have, had they've been promised great blessings by God. In verse 8, Paul reminds the Corinthians again that God provides abundantly so that they may may share abundantly in every good work of the gospel. Believers must ultimately choose to give from their own hearts so that they might fulfill their call and their purpose. Those who put little effort into this work will receive little because of it.

Patrick: 05:13

In The Expanse novels, there is a saying, the more you share, the more your bowl will be plentiful. Now I know there are some rolling eyes out there and maybe even some charges of communism, but hear me out. These rolling eyes are the result of Christians keeping it real. You know, let's be honest. That's not why people really give.

Patrick: 05:42

This only works if everyone in the church shares. And and we know that this isn't going to happen. If if I've heard it once, I've heard it a 1000 times. What we do is we call this an excuse. I don't give and we don't give because people aren't going to give back to us.

Patrick: 06:02

They don't care as much about us as we do of them. So we're gonna keep it to ourselves. The truth is, I'm afraid that many in the church today, many Christians in our part of the world are happy with the church being a country club, a social club, a politically a religiously oriented 5013c. In none of these do we have to be vulnerable or to trust. We only have to worry about ourselves.

Patrick: 06:33

I think this is why Paul was very specific about 2 things. Firstly, the desire to provide must come from the person's heart. If we're giving be not if we're giving for any reason other than we actually want to give, I think Paul would probably say it might be best to not give. And secondly, the desire to give will only arise after a person devotes him or herself to the things of the lord. It's just not in as normally Paul says.

Patrick: 07:12

We give ourselves to the Lord. We give ourselves to Christ. We commit ourselves to the things of of Christ, the last chapter, and we will then grow in these other things. As the Corinthians grow in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, they will also grow in the desire to be generous. That's 2 Corinthians 87 from our last episode.

Patrick: 07:39

Or to put the opposite spin on it, a lack of generosity demonstrates a lack of faith. There. Boom. Drop the mic. Don't that's blunt.

Patrick: 07:49

That's uncomfortable. But I think it is an arguably true. We cannot be, we cannot lack generosity and claim to be full of faith. We can't do it, because faith isn't just belief. Faith is belief in action.

Patrick: 08:10

We cannot we cannot lack generosity, but claim to have faith. Verse number 10. 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 for your great generosity, which will produce thanksgiving to god through us. For the rendering of this ministry not only supplies the needs of the saints, but also overflows with many thanksgivings to god.

Patrick: 08:47

The more you share, the more your bowl will be plentiful. Now this is not I'm not going back on what I said about the televangelists in the last episode or or maybe it was the episode before that. You give in order to get back. That's not the point. Paul here says, we give in order that god's work and the riches of god might overflow in abundance.

Patrick: 09:16

We give not in order to give back. We give in order that god might give more and fill and and that God we we sow. We give in order that the one that causes the seed to grow will grow it up so much that it becomes overflowing. It's still all about the heart. We don't give in order to give to get back.

Patrick: 09:41

We give in order that those that have little can receive much. And God, who is a God of that is generous, who is a God that produces growth, the the a God that increases, the increases the harvest. God will then make that overflow, and we will happen to be the passive beneficiaries of it. I think maybe that's just the best way to look at it. We we give and we will receive from it passively.

Patrick: 10:16

We don't give to actively get back. God makes no promise of blessing without the willingness to sow, without the desire to be generous. So God's promise comes at a price. God simply doesn't give because God wants to give. Not not not it's not what Paul's talking about here.

Patrick: 10:38

For what Paul is talking about here is we must first be willing to be generous, and then God will give it to us. I've said this in this couple of series, several times across the series that we've done so far, on on the podcast. Sometimes we, Christians, make an assumption that we were that we received the power of the Holy Spirit just because. We don't. We receive the power of the Holy Spirit to perform and execute the call to which we have been called.

Patrick: 11:12

If God tells us to jump and we choose not to jump, we shouldn't expect him to give us the strength to be able to get off the ground if we're not planning on jumping into the call. That's that's what Paul is saying here about giving. This this generous act, God blesses us when we choose to give. God just doesn't bless here simply to give stuff to us without the desire to be generous. God's promise, god's promise of blessing, well, doesn't apply.

Patrick: 11:56

God's promise of blessing only applies when we are giving generously, and it's our desire to give generously. I hope I'm, you know, not completely confusing people here, confusing you this time. But I I think Paul's Paul's much more clearly saying this than I am. But again, as we grow in faith, if we are growing in faith, we will want to be generous. That kind of the ending of faith here is generosity.

Patrick: 12:31

So if we are truly taking hold of the heart of Christ and seeking these things of God, we will ultimately want to be generous. This will take the 3 c's, courage, commitment, and Christ. We when we do, this ministry provides for the needs of the saint, the spreading of the gospel, and brings thanksgivings to God Through generosity, through our willingness to share, we share the mind of Christ. So if we know this to be true, it's right here in the Bible, why don't we do it? If we know this to be true, that the ultimate expression of faith, of our faith, is generosity to others, or as Paul puts it in other letters, the the whole law can be summed up in love our neighbors as ourselves.

Patrick: 13:33

If that's got anything to do other than generosity, well, we'll have to talk about that when we get there. Loving our neighbors as ourselves is an is the ultimate act of generosity. Our faith is ultimately expressed in generosity. We know this to be true. So then why are we not generous with our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and our resources for the sake of others?

Patrick: 14:00

Verse number 13. Through the testing of this ministry, you will glorify God by your obedience to the confession of the gospel of Christ and by the generosity of your sharing with them and with all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God that he has given you. Thanks be to God for this indescribable gift. The Corinthians' opportunity to minister to the needs of the Jerusalem church is a test. Does this not apply to the church always and everywhere, even here and now?

Patrick: 14:42

This test of faith is expressed in generosity. In verse 13, Paul appears to link the Corinthians' willingness to be generous with their confession of faith in Jesus Christ. Faith without generosity, once again, is not faith. Thank you for listening to FirstDay. I am Patrick Cooley, pastor of Northport Methodist Church.

Patrick: 15:06

You can visit the podcast website at firstday.us. You can reach me there at connect at firstday.us. And you can listen and share and subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Amazon and Spotify. Thanks for listening and goodbye for now.