Vision Service 2010: Sowing and Reaping
February 7th, 2010 (PM). By: Rob Frame
Sowing and Reaping 2 Corinthians 9.1-15
Have you ever dreamed about winning the lottery? Have you daydreamed about what it would be like for money to be no object, ever virtually spent a few million? I wonder how you would spend that kind of money? Maybe a new house or just pay off the mortgage, a new car perhaps but were talking serious money here you need to think bigger perhaps you’d want to look after your family you could buy a whole street and name it after your family name like Michael Owen has, Owen close if your interested. Bill Gates has actually set up several foundations to spend his money for him on various humanitarian projects. Thus creating the interest job position of being employed to spend someone else’s money on good causes – sounds like a great job doesn’t it?
Why do I say all this? Well I think that job that I just described is the one Paul is advertising in these verses of 2 Corinthians 9. Paul tells us that God creates everything necessary so that we can be generous and that he then ensures that generosity results in others needs being met, a harvest of righteousness for us and glory for Him. God rewards and blesses our generosity, even though everything we have is really his. Our hearts are made free to enjoy what we have even through giving it away with radical generosity. This generosity marks us as people who understand the Gospel of grace and becomes a channel for God’s grace, transforming both us and the culture around us. We just have to decide what how much of God’s grace we want to spend for Him.
That’s what I want us to take a closer look at tonight and whilst we do let’s follow Paul’s example and use this issue of generosity to diagnose our own heart’s attitude. Let’s pray that God would help us to do that..
The importance of being generous
I want us first to notice the importance Paul places upon being truly generous in these verses. Generous in the sense of our hearts willingly wanting to give rather than giving out of guilt or compulsion. That’s our first point; ‘The importance of being generous’.
In v1-5 Paul reminds the Corinthians of their previous desire to give, he then commands them to make good on that pledge and to prepare a gift. Then at the end of the paragraph he gives this stipulation, in v5;
5So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one grudgingly given.
Paul is concerned that the Corinthians gift should not be one given grudgingly but rather generously. Paul is at pains to make this point, earlier in ch8 as Rod showed us last week, Paul explicitly states ‘I am not commanding you’. Here Paul is writing ahead to ensure the Corinthians are able to give not out of guilt or command but out of heart-felt generosity. As v7 goes on to tell us;
7Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
You might recognise that verse if you’ve been here over the last couple of weeks. You’ll see it on the screen behind me during the presentation when we talk about HTG’s giving scheme. The reason it’s there is the same as Paul’s we want to give ourselves the opportunity to give thoughtfully, prayerfully not under compulsion or guilt but out of liberating generosity. This issue of generosity is critical just look at how many times the word is used throughout this passage. Paul has just said in v7 ‘for God loves a cheerful giver’. What is it about generosity which is so vital. Let’s remember the context here, Paul is basically fund raising for famine relief, surely as long as the funds, the food get there that’s what matters. Surely Paul should be like Bob Geldoff at live aid shouting at the TV screen, using any means to guilt, shock or bully the wealthy Corinthians into giving to the poor Macedonians? Why does it matter if in Paul’s terms the gift is given sparingly or generously/bountifully as long as it is given?
I think Paul is seeing things from a wider perspective. On one level chapters 8 and 9 of 2 Corinthians are simply a plea from Paul for funds to supply the needs of the church in Macedonia. However I think Paul is looking deeper, he’s using this as an opportunity to, as he says in ch8v8; ‘test the sincerity of their love’. This isn’t just about giving to another church in need, though that is not insignificant. Paul uses this issue as a diagnostic tool to probe the hearts of the Corinthians, to test their understanding of the Gospel. Paul says as much in v13; their obedient service will prove their earlier confession of Christ. In other words their generosity will be a hallmark of genuine faith.
So the question for us is not so much will we, or are we, giving but; are our hearts generous? Does the attitude of our hearts match up with the confession on our lips? That’s the undercurrent to Paul’s famous advice in v6;
Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
Both alternatives here involve sowing, it’s the attitude that is different. Notice two that units and amounts are not mentioned but rather the heart’s attitude; does it sow generously, bountifully or does it sow reluctantly, sparingly wanting to hold back on what it can?
Paul is saying that if we understand who God is, what he is like and what he has done for us. The Gospel and if we have accepted that fully, then we will be generous. We’ll be generous with our time, with our homes, with our emotional resources and we’ll be generous with our money. Why? Because God is generous, this is the fundamental reason, God is generous and if we follow him we should be too. Rod talked about this last week, I’d encourage you to read over your notes or get a hold of the sermon because we need to dwell on this, we need to let it sink in and we need to believe it from our hearts not just our systematic theology. We need to know that God is generous and he is generous to you, if not we’ll see God as a demanding overseer and real generosity will be impossible. John Piper puts it like this;
The sparing heart has a relationship to God that feels him as a Taker rather than a Giver. If my life is being drained away by God because he is so incessantly and solely demanding, then I feel like grasping after the things of the world to meet my need. If every time I look up I see the pointing finger of God demanding, “Give me! Give me! Give me!” how can I look back down at the needs of the world and say “Take me: I will gladly spend and be spent for your good”?
O this person will give something! Because one of the draining demands that he hears when he looks to this ever-demanding, ever-taking God is: “Give something to the church!” So out comes the gift—the draining, life depleting, exhausting, sparing gift.
I hope that’s not you but perhaps that’s how we are tempted to feel. Perhaps particularly now at HTG as we present a stretching budget and stretch ourselves by adding a second morning service. If we don’t understand that God is generous, that he lovingly give us everything and chooses to use us to achieve his purposes, his passions then we will never experience true generosity. We may give under compulsion whether that’s of our money or of some other resource but we’ll always be thinking in terms of what we can hold on to rather than what we can give. That’s religion not the life, heart-transforming power of the Gospel and we’re not interested in plain religion.
God is interested in generous hearts not as a means to an end so that the necessary gifts will be given but for our benefit. Generosity is the antidote to the slavery of greed, it sets us free to enjoy God’s graceful provision. That’s beautiful, that’s what happen when we see God as he is a bountiful giver who gave up His Son for us and who wants the absolute best for us.
The impact of being generous
So we’ve seen what giving should look like, that it should be generous, coming from a heart that sees God as the one who has supremely provided for us rather than as a demanding overseer. But what is the result of this type of giving? That’s what Paul deals with next and we’ll deal with it in our second point; ‘The impact of being generous’.
I wonder if when you look at the map of Gateshead later in the giving presentation you will think; ‘You know the one thing Gateshead needs is Christians to be really generous with everything they have.’
There are many things we might think Gateshead needs; Jobs, housing, less flyovers but do we believe that if our hearts are truly generous and we act out of that, then Gateshead and beyond will be transformed? Do you believe that? I’m not sure I do, yet, but I’m being convinced by these verses. Here’s why take a look at v10; It is God who is the supplier of seed, he v11 tells us makes us rich in every way so that we can be generous and it is he who back in v10 again ensures a harvest of righteousness. In other words God is in control; He gives us whatever is required for us to be generous and it is He who ensures that our generosity produces a harvest. To go back to our previous image it’s a bit like Bill Gates giving us all his money to spend and then preparing the ground so that everything we spend produces even more, except that even Bill Gates bank balance is limited and God’s is not, he is able to spend even his only Son on our behalf.
Radical generosity is transformational. Paul says that it produces a ‘harvest of righteousness’, what is this harvest? Well part of it I think is what we were talking about earlier; hearts set free from greed and envy to enjoy what we have and yet abandon any of it for others. The second part I think we see played out in these later verses 11-15.
Paul says three times in this short section that radical generosity leads to people praising and thanking God;
v11 ‘your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God’
v12 ‘This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God’
v13 ‘Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ’
This morning Rod was talking about envy and the way that it traps our hearts, robbing us of joy and satisfaction. He also said that our society was riddled by it. Into that atmosphere we can begin to see how this radical, heart-felt generosity is so distinctive. Paul says in v13 that it proves us, proves that our confession of the gospel of Christ is true, that it has reached our hearts and that it has changed them.
When Christians are generous with their time, their money, their emotional energy, their homes whatever God has given them it points to the cross, it tells others that the cross is real and that God’s indescribable gift has become ours. What happens? People praise God, Christians rejoice in God’s grace more and people become Christians! Envy and greed and grasping are defeated and Christ is honoured. So may the words of v14 and 15 be true for us and for the culture around us;
And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
Amen.