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I would like you to turn in your Bibles this morning to 2 Corinthians chapter 8.!
And we look forward to Caleb and Charity's ministry in Jamaica. Next week will be a very special week for all of us, including Caleb and Charity and Ruth, I am certain.
And I trust that it will be one that is memorable in their lives and an encouragement to them, but also to us as well. I want us to look at 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1.
Let me read the passage to you. We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty having overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.
For they gave according to their means, as I may contestify, and beyond their means of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.
And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urge Titus thus that as he had started, he should complete among you this act of grace.
Let's take a minute and pray. Father God, for us, this business of coming to you often in prayer is never a habit.
It's never something that we do just out of mere duty or obligation, but it is an expression of our confidence in you as the giver of all that is good.
And so it's fitting that we, in our frailty, confess that we need your enabling this morning that your spirit would work in us so that we, as we attend to the word of God, may find in it the joy and the purpose and the wisdom that is there for us as your children.
That we, blessed beyond imagination and beyond our full comprehension, may be pleasing to you. That our lives would be marked by obedience.
Not dull and forced, but glad. And Lord, as we think about this subject of stewardship, we recognize that the world tends to crowd in on our thinking in this area, and we want to be submissive to that which pleases you and to know the joy that comes with following your word.
And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. As I come to you this morning, I'm curious, how many of you remember how I started last year's stewardship series?
Raise your hands if you do. Pastor Saul, do you remember what Alistair Begg said that you and I remember? Never underestimate the ability of your people to forget the really important things you said.
Last year, I started out by telling you that in the first time in my pastoral ministry, I had to come to you and say, hey, listen, we're in a surplus situation where we're actually going to begin to begin to talk about how we use the extra money that God has given.
How can you forget that? Well, you did. And it gives me great consolation that as I launch into this lesson on stewardship, even though some of you are going to say I heard it before, evidently you don't remember it.
And so it's okay. I can tell you the same things again, and it's going to be fine for you. Actually, the truth of the matter is, is that there are a number of different Bible principles that we should pay attention to regularly.
And one of them has to do with the matter of our finances. And so I have no problem this morning taking up the text and having you think with me about it.
And I would say that there are some of you here that as we look at what the scriptures have to say about the matter of biblical stewardship, for some of you, it's just going to be, you're going to be sitting there saying, right on, preach it, pastor, bring it.
You know, it's like you get fired up and excited about Bible truth. Do you follow what I mean by excited about Bible truth? How many of you know what it is to be excited about Bible truth? Bring it on.
You know, I mean, okay, some of you are going to be there saying, man, I love it every time he talks about this thing. I am with it. Others of you are going to be sitting out there saying, I never heard this before.
Where does this come from? Here's the truth, and I've shared this before. I grew up in a Christian home. My wife grew up in a Christian home. And the truth of the matter is, is that in terms of the careful exposition regarding the matter of biblical stewardship, I never heard it.
Until I was in my 30s. That was the first time that I heard someone actually lay out in a careful and reasoned fashion the exposition of scripture regarding the matter of God's people being faithful in their giving.
It was transformative for me because it moved me from being occasional and sporadic to beginning to develop with my bride.
Hi, Judith. I like it when she's in the services, in case you're wondering. I always look around to see where she is. There she is. So, you know, we began developing a pattern that we'd have to admit.
How many of you heard the stories about you begin tithing and after that, the windows of heaven open up and you go to the mailbox every week and you find that long lost uncle decided to send you checks that ten times multiplied over what you were giving away.
It didn't happen that way for us. As we began moving towards being faithful in our giving, we found that what we had to do was relearn how to spend less and use what he'd given us more wisely.
It was a profound journey of unbelievable blessing. And when I got ready to go into pastoring, pastoral ministry, I asked Randy Patton, who you can blame for this sermon in part, I said, so what are some of the things that I should know as a pastor?
He said, teach on giving faithfully. So, any of you know Randy, you can text him and say, here it goes again. Heard this before, but I forgot it, so it's okay. But, you know, pastor is doing what you advised him to do about 35 years ago.
So, as we look at this matter of stewardship and the matter of faithfulness and giving, I would encourage you, if you don't have it all down, go ahead and take notes so you can kind of refresh your memory later on for your sakes.
We're going to rely in a large part on 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9 because in this flow of passage, we find the apostle taking time to teach the people in Corinth about the subject of giving.
Let me say also that the subject of giving is not part of the advanced curriculum for the Christian. What I mean by that is that, okay, in your 11th and 12th year of spiritual progress, one of the later lessons that you should probably learn is about the matter of stewardship, not at all.
Church of Corinth was made up of all different kinds of people who had come to faith fairly late in life for the most part, and here is Paul writing to them and giving them instruction on this matter.
Let me have you look at the passage and break it out for you. There in verse 1 he says, We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God. Stop just for a second. How many of you really are on occasion overwhelmed by the grace of God?
You really are honestly overwhelmed by the grace of God. And when we think about the grace of God, we tend, rightfully so, to think about things such as our salvation, right?
I mean, for by grace you are saved. It is not something that you or I have earned. And I would appeal to you that you as a believer should never, ever get to the place where you are kind of settled and mundane in your views of what God has done in saving you.
It's a grace. It's a work of grace. And here is the apostle using that word, and he makes this point. This business of giving is really a grace of God.
And so let me kind of give you an overarching view as we step into this. Let me say this, that God's word says much about stewardship and money. And what we're going to find here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 is just a part of the larger context.
Let me say in broad terms, there are really many, many passages on stewardship and finances. If you were to, in fact, one of the things I did as I was studying, just out of curiosity, I put in 10 commandments and money.
How many of you like the fact that you can Google things? I mean, honestly, you know, it's out there. Jared, he's not in here. He never is. I usually refer to Jared when he's in the nursery.
So track this. I did refer to you when you were here. Jared commented that we live in a day and age where whatever you say as a teacher can immediately be rebutted because they check on their little phones.
And it's like, I checked Google and I don't know where you came up with that. Anyway, I was checking on the net about giving and 10 commandments. And I was struck by how many financial 10 commandments there are.
I say this because really, God did not give us 10 commandments on finances. He gave us overarching 10 commandments.
However, two of the 10 commandments have bearing on the matter of giving. That's pretty interesting. What does it say? Don't covet. That's about money.
And don't steal. That's about money. If you also want to say that you'll have no other God, you could probably say three. But at least two to start with and maybe stretch out to three. I want you to know that there are 700 direct references to money in the New Testament.
16 of the 38 parables deal with the right and wrong use of our material possessions. One in six verses in the Gospels have some reflection or another on the matter of finances.
1 Corinthians, the letter that preceded 2 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians has 13 verses on love and 39 on money.
That's pretty interesting, isn't it? 13 verses on love and 39 on money. I want you to understand as you think about what the Bible has to say in broad terms.
Let's kind of put our hands around this. It really all is God's. And He gives us the ability to get money. I think that's a starting point. You've got to get settled in your mind. It really all belongs to God.
It's not that, well, okay, okay, I'm really going to suck it up and I'm going to go the whole distance and I'm going to let Him have 10%. Let me give you a little clue. He owns it all.
It's A-L-L, all his. He's the one who gives us the ability to make money. In Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 17 and 18 says, I'm the one who gives you the ability to make money.
And in 1 Chronicles chapter 29, verse 12 and 13, as Solomon is praying and he kind of looks at the, is it Solomon or David? But anyway, one of those two. They're praying and just saying, man, look at all this that we've given for building the temple.
Actually, it all came from you. It all came from you. So what you have that enables you to be generous is not something that you can pat yourself on the back for and say, well, listen, you know what?
I was the one who did all this and so I get all the credit. No, God's the one who gave that to you. Furthermore, not only is it all God's and He's the one who gave it to you, but it is all God's and we are really His stewards.
Do you know what a steward is? A steward is somebody that is responsible for something that belongs to someone else. I want you to turn your Bible away from that passage there in 2 Corinthians for a moment and go to Matthew chapter 25.
Matthew chapter 25, verse 14 through 30. We're not going to take our time to dive into the text in detail, but just kind of reference this fact. This parable, which is about stewardship in essence, centers in on the reality of the fact that it is God who gave, or in this passage, the Lord, the Master, is the one who gave to each one according to their ability.
And we recognize that behind the work that is being referred to of giving is the one that is being referenced is really God.
He's the one who gives to us all that we have. Let me bring up another point that I think is really, really important for us to understand. God is not dependent on our giving.
God is not dependent on our giving, nor is He obligated by it. God is dependent on our giving. Listen to me carefully. How many times have I preached on stewardship in the last year?
Does anybody remember? Can I count on this how many times I've done so? Hello? Fair question. How many times? I'm going to ask. Tom is flying right now to China.
He is a financial treasurer. Todd is the financial secretary. Financial secretary, how many times have I preached on stewardship? Once a year. Once a year. I actually do it for two Sundays.
But since we're having the Gibbs farewell next Sunday, you guys get a pass. I've got to put a lot of it into one shot. So here we go. I preach on it twice. Twice. Generally.
If you want to figure out how important giving is in telemarketing and televangelism, all you have to do is dial into any one of the favorite preachers, and there will hardly ever be a sermon that somehow or another doesn't wind its way back to what?
It's there all the time. Now, one of the things I was praying about this morning is, Tim, please don't be brassy. Sometimes I really have a called foot in mouth problem.
You know, it's like I say things that I probably shouldn't say, and inappropriate. My nature comes out. I don't want to be overly brassy, but here's the deal. If you can sit there and really, yeah, I tell you, I can't believe that Benny Hinn does that all the time or Joel Olsteen does that all the time.
Why listen to him? You've got to signal what he's after. Do you need to keep on sucking at that stuff? No. The answer is no. Okay.
So let me tell you this. God is not dependent on our giving. Anytime you hear anybody say the kingdom of heaven is going to collapse if you don't roll it out and do it, that's wrong.
God's not obligated by our giving. And when you hear teaching that plays out that level, it is manipulative and it is unbiblical. I'll tell you what.
Listen carefully. If I do not participate in God's plan, he'll find somebody else to do it. Do you agree with that? Do you understand that? You may decide that instead of being a generous giver, you're going to be a hoarder.
The kingdom of God will not collapse because you're not being obedient. He will find someone else. I kind of like the idea of Job chapter 41, verse 11.
Just kind of recite it to you a little bit here. We're talking about God's not dependent on our giving and he's not obligated by it. Don't ever let anybody give you the idea that if you shell out a couple that God is responsible to return something for it.
Do you follow that? I mean, hey, I gave God 10. I expect 100. I mean, you know, that's a Bible equation. No, it's not. Over in Job chapter 40, because you want to check me out, Job chapter 41, actually, verse 11, it says, who has first given to me that I should repay him?
Yeah. So you gave me something? Big deal. I'm God. And I don't need what you have, number one. And number two, just because you put it in a plate doesn't mean I'm obligated to do anything for you other than put my son on the cross for the sake of your salvation.
So let's kind of overarching view. The Bible has a lot to say about money. Now let's look at this passage a little more carefully. We're going back now to the passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 8.
And I want you to get this in your mind. Biblical giving is a work of grace. Now, let's deal with some statistics just for a second.
And by the way, I do not know the giving of anybody in this congregation. I don't think that is, I don't think that's, that's just because of me. I probably am more frail than some people.
I know some pastors know all the details and that's their business. I just don't know. So when I speak about the subject of the giving of this congregation, I don't know a dime of it.
Do you follow that? I don't know a dime. But the fact of the matter is, is that the giving of the average evangelical does not rise to the level of biblical expectation.
That's a fair statement. In fact, one of the curious things about giving is that proportionally, and contrary to the example and model of scripture, people of lower income are actually more generous proportionally than those of higher income.
It would seem that what happens is as people increase in their economic status, they become better spenders rather than better givers.
When you look at this issue that we are looking at here in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, Paul says this, he says, I want you to understand that this matter of giving is a matter of grace.
The free will giving of God's people is very important to him. He cares about it and we'll understand why. But I do want you to understand as you think about this, that willing stewardship is not a subject for advanced studies of select saints.
It is a basic, let me say that slowly, basic element of biblical faith. It is a basic element of biblical faith. In fact, when a person resists the scripture's instructions on the matter of their stewardship, they restrict their spiritual development far more than they think.
Again, one of the things that God's people should always be keyed in on is asking the practical question, where in the world does that thought come from? Turn in your Bibles to Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16, another one of the many passages in the Gospels that deal with the matter of stewardship. Luke chapter 16, verse 10.
It's an interesting statement.
Here is Jesus telling a parable and he's telling it in the community that he is ministering to. It has his disciples there, but it also has the Pharisees present.
And by the way, just so you know from the passage, kind of put your finger on who was really irritated by Jesus' teaching on giving.
Okay? Verse 14, the Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things and they ridiculed him. It really irritated them that Jesus had the gall to teach as he was.
10 and 11, the point that I want you to understand is that learning to be faithful with that which is in your hand and God has given to you is actually a part of the process of growing in grace, growing in faith, and learning more about God.
And so if you're struggling this morning with the matter of stewardship, let me tell you on the basis and the authority of the Scriptures that your unwillingness to grow in this area is an impediment.
It is hindering your ability to grow in other areas spiritually. And by the way, what are some of the disadvantages of not growing spiritually? Everybody smile.
You are grossly repetitious with some of the painful issues of doing the same things again and again. And unfortunately experiencing the unintended consequences of your practical disobedience to the Word of God.
Well, for one, biblical giving is also a testimony of God's grace in the believer. You see here in 1 Corinthians or 2 Corinthians 8.1, and you can put your finger on the way Paul starts it out.
And I think this is very important to understand. John Stott actually comments that instead of beginning with the model of the generosity of the churches there in Macedonia, Paul begins with the generosity of God.
Isn't that interesting? I was in OSU Hospital several different times the last several days, and I encourage you to be in prayer for Carla Beal as she is going through a very difficult challenge.
We don't know the final details of her diagnosis, but it could be very serious. I remember as I was walking out after the surgery was over, and I was walking through the hallway to go to my car, and there is a gargantuan wall that is filled with the names of donors.
You know? And they're color-coded. These people gave $10 million. These people gave $5 million. These people gave, you know, whatever.
It's just go way on up the food chain, and I'm reading the numbers, and they're way beyond my zero skill set. You know, it's like, whoa. Here's the deal. Paul wants people to understand that generosity, first of all, flows out of who God is.
Do you follow that? And I think it's important for us to understand that when people get their heads around the fact that God is generous, you're overwhelmed by that.
And when you're overwhelmed by God's generosity, and you appreciate his generosity, and the wealth of his goodness to you, it ends up affecting the way you live.
Growing in grace brings growing in generosity. Can you say that with me out loud? Growing in grace brings growing in generosity.
Let's say it carefully, slowly, and kind of follow me. John, do you want to come up here and help us with some music background? Growing in grace, let's say it again. Growing in grace brings growing in generosity.
I like that. Is that a Bible truth? That's the important question. Is that a Bible truth? Growing in grace brings growing in generosity.
By the way, it doesn't say that growing in your income brings growing in generosity. It didn't say that, does it?
The Bible does not give us that indication. In fact, the greatest examples of generosity in the Bible are not incredibly wealthy people. As you read on through the passage, you see that this is played out in the church of Macedonia.
Despite their hardship, the true children of our generous God were generous beyond Paul's imagination. Now, a little sidebar. No pastor worth his salt can avoid teaching his people about money.
Why is that? Because a shepherd's heart is really interested in seeing the people that are blessed by salvation and are part of the bride of Christ growing in their appreciation for the sweetness of the blessing they have in Christ.
And so, I teach you the truth of stewardship so you can grow in appreciating what he's done for you. Now, let's stop for a second and just ask a practical question.
What would motivate impoverished and mistreated people such as those in Macedonia to be quite as generous as they were?
Well, Paul, as we look at this, and you look at verse 5, go back there if you would to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. Paul in verse 5 says this, I want you to recognize that when people are moved by the generosity of God, they grow in generosity, but they also grow in their sensitivity to where God's word and character leads them in that.
So, let's think first, biblical giving is a matter of the work of grace. The second thing is that biblical giving is the will of God. Look there at verse 5. I can't tell you how many times as a pastor I've had people tell me, I just want to know what the will of God is.
Do you follow that? Now, I've got to tell you that the will of God is not quite as complicated as some people make it. In fact, it's not quite so mysterious.
Let's just try this. I can rattle off a couple things and you'll know. It is the will of God, your sanctification, that you don't live in immorality. How's that? That's not complicated, is it?
God wants you not to live an impure, unholy life like the unbelieving world. It's the will of God that you are generous as a reflection of who He is. And that's really what we're dealing with here.
And when you find people that are touched by God's grace, they give themselves to God. They put it on the table for God. You cannot come into the glorious presence of our gracious and generous God without being drawn into a profound relationship with Him.
And that relationship turns you from being an unhappy and self-focused person into being a person who has their needs satisfied satisfied with the person and relationship you have with God.
And it makes you move from being self-focused to being Him-focused and then focused on the people that He puts you into relationship with. So, let me put it this way, in broad terms.
If you spend most of your time thinking about yourself, you're not thinking about God. And one of the indicators that you're usually thinking about yourself is you're keeping kind of a rolling score in what you're not getting out of things.
Do you follow that? I'm not respected at work. Or I don't have enough friends. Or people didn't talk to me. Or I didn't... Kick, kick, kick. We've all got these little things that we're keeping track of.
That person is not thinking about the unbelievable, undeserved richness of God who loves them unconditionally. They're not overwhelmed by the glory of the grace of God.
And as a result, their scorekeeping is a pretty miserable status or a reflection on where their thinking is. Now, let me say this secondly. When you are given to God, you give yourselves to others.
Put your finger, if you would, you're in verse 8. It says this. They gave themselves first to the Lord. Hey, everybody smile. Look at me just for a second. It's very easy to say, I've given myself to the Lord.
Do you follow that? It's pretty easy to say that. But Paul backs it up. Follow the logic. He says, they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
A right relationship with the Father drives us to relationships and being spent in the lives of others. Can I... I want you to get this. A right relationship with the Father drives us to relationships and being spent in the lives of others.
Hey, one of these days, we may, as an answer to prayer, end up calling another man to be a pastor here. Do you understand that? And we're going to have an interview time. And one of the...
We always question and answer. One of the big things at Marinathlete. We do that. And so we say, so why are you interested in coming here? And the guy says, well, you know, I've been thinking about a career advancement and I'm hoping you guys will pay me more than where I was last and I really want my needs met.
Bang! Huh? Everybody said, amen! That's a Baptist amen if I've ever heard one.
Okay. Okay. You're looking for someone who'll come here and pour his heart out, right? Amen. If you want that in the pastor, don't you think Jesus wants that in you?
Hmm? Maybe. So when was the last time you were spent for the well-being of the bride of Christ?
When you've given yourself to God, you give yourself to other people. When you've given yourself to God, you give yourself to other people.
I understand that unbelievers keep long lists of the failures of other people and disappointments they have in relationships. I understand that. I understand unbelievers saying fairly regularly, I'm not getting my needs met.
But when I hear that from believers, I'm always thinking, so who are you really connected to and who really counts? Do you follow that? Let me make my point textually.
I mean, there's no better argument than the Bible, right? So let's go to 1 John 3, verse 16. I love this logic. By the way, what pastor can't love the logic of the Bible, right?
I mean, that follows pretty easily. 1 John 3, verse 16. This is a real zinger. You know what I mean by a zinger? It's the one that's got teeth in it. Verse 16. By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us.
And now underline the other part, because that's where it really kicks in. We ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. Hey, when was the last time you put it on the line for someone else in the family of God without expecting anything in return and without letting everybody else know how sacrificial you are?
Right? I spoke to three people in the lobby. Do I get extra points for that? Okay. Okay. Enough of that. Remember I talked about pray that the pastor isn't brassy.
I need your prayer. Last thing. And this is how you know real Bible preaching. Are you listening to me? Bible preaching can never get away from the fact that Jesus is really the center of the story.
Right? And Paul, great Bible preacher that he is, he's talking about giving, but, oh, guess what? By the way, when we really get down to the nuts and bolts of it, Jesus is in the picture.
I love that. So here we are. If you look at 2 Corinthians 8, verse 9, biblical giving follows the model of Christ. And I love this passage.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, that you, by his poverty, might become rich. Now listen to me.
Here is Paul, pouring out his heart to people that he desperately loves. Do you know what Paul wants from the Corinthian church? He doesn't have any interest in having a better jet.
He is not interested in having a bigger house. He is interested in them giving to other people that Paul has no connection to other than that they're part of the family of God.
And he says, listen, let me bring you around to Trump in this argument of why you need to be generous. You need to look at Jesus. Seeing Jesus will cure the natural self-focused selfishness of your heart because you can't get your eyes fixed on Jesus without ending up having it affect the way you think.
What did Jesus do for me? Well, as the passage reflects, he who was rich became poor.
And those simple words carry a profound depth of meaning. He left the glory of heaven.
He left that rightful place of honor. He left that sweet communion that was absolutely unhindered to take my sins and die on my place on the cross and say the words that no other living human will ever say with the same sense that Jesus said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
He who was rich became poor that I might have everlasting life. And so really, when a shepherd preaches on stewardship, that's what I'm doing, he should talk about Jesus.
Isn't that right? And when you think about your wallet, I got mine back here somewhere. Move my Mr. Rogers sweater out of the way and we'll do it. Okay, listen.
Hey. When Jesus has my heart, he has my wallet. Would you agree with that? Not your head? Yeah. When Jesus has my heart, Jesus has my wallet.
Can I tell you something? A pastor can do no better than to care about your relationship with Jesus.
Many of you here know Jesus, but somehow or another you've moved away from the incredible sweetness of having all of your sins forgiven and just being overwhelmed and enthralled with the joy of a relationship in which you were in communion with a lover of your soul.
And for some of you this morning, the issue of stewardship really is an indictment of the fact you've lost your first love.
I'm not interested in your wallet. I'm interested in your love. That's what Jesus says. And when your love is where it needs to be, your wallet comes right after it.
I had somebody in this church actually tell me one time, you spoil your wife. That's not entirely true, but it's awful close. Do you know why?
I love her. And when you love Jesus, your giving will change. But that brings me to one other thing.
A message on stewardship in which Jesus is the center cannot help but talk about salvation. I am not interested in your wallet.
I am interested in your eternal destiny. And the truth of the matter is there are some of you here today that do not know Jesus. And I am not interested in your wallet.
Christ Jesus came into the world to pay the penalty for your sins and for my sins.
And he died on the cross to make a way that I, believing on his finished work, could have complete forgiveness for all of my sins.
I have said to so many people, Tim Kenoyer is a lifetime debtor to Jesus. And if you're here this morning and you do not know the freedom and the blessing of having all of your sins forgiven because you have come in broken faith and asked him to save you and you repented of your sins, you're still living under the shadow and cloud and the fear.
And I would plead with you this morning, trust in Christ. Receive him as your Savior. Let's close in prayer. Beloved Father, this morning as we think about a secondary issue, namely the matter of stewardship, we can't help but come back to the centrality of our Lord Jesus Christ who is the author and finisher of our faith, who is our Savior, who is the one who paid the penalty for our sins and offers complete forgiveness to all who will believe on his name.
We, who are your people, want to grow in our love and we are willing to ask you to do whatever it takes to distance us from the carnality and the selfishness that so easily sucks the oxygen out of our spiritual life.
Make us a people that are ambitious for the glory of Christ and long to see him lifted up and let all that we do reflect that. We pray for those that are here today that do not know Jesus that as we give this invitation, your Spirit would draw them to see the hopelessness of their state and that they would cry out for Jesus as their Savior.
We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.