We've been in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9
over the last few weeks speaking about the
grace that God works in our lives when
he causes us to want to give.
Everything in our lives as New Testament Christians
comes out of God's goodness toward us.
We give because he has given and worked
and blessed in our souls.
There's no other reason.
There's no other compulsion to give other than
his goodness.
And he sets in our hearts, as truly
we know him, a burning torch of generosity
so that our hearts want to overflow.
And it's not just finances.
It's in every way.
We long to pour out our praises.
We long to pour out our service.
We long to be good to others.
We long to take every opportunity to share
the generosity that is being shared with us.
That's what grace is all about.
That's why you want to tell other people
about Jesus.
That's why he simply said to those whom
he had rescued, particularly the demoniac of the
Gadarenes, now you just go home and tell
others what God has done for you.
Go home and share the generosity with other
people who need it.
It's not just about money.
In fact, it's really not much about money
at all.
It's about much deeper things than that.
But it connects to our finances.
And I don't want to go over all
of that ground again tonight, but I want
to come back to the end of chapter
9 and do a little bit of an
overlap from where we were because we thought
about this generosity and how generous God has
been to us.
We have thought about it again tonight.
We thought about it last week.
We thought about it again tonight.
And I just want to point out to
you in closing in this chapter, the results
of God's generosity and that generosity that pours
out through us.
The results.
One of the things that Paul makes very
plain in 2 Corinthians and in chapter 9
and in verse 6 is that as we're
generous, God is generous back.
Now, that's not why we give.
Let's establish that.
It's amazing how crass and how materialistic and
how shallow Christians can be, but sometimes Christians
make it about this.
They give to God so that he'll give
back to them.
What is that?
That's not about grace.
It's about greed.
It's not what it's about for us.
Paul says in verse 6, remember this, whoever
sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.
Whoever sows generously will also reap generously.
God gets excited when we get generous.
And it's not just about our finances.
When we get generous with our love, God
gets excited.
When we reach out and go out of
our way to pour out love on someone
else, God gets excited and he loves us
back.
When we get excited about the things that
he gives us to express, like our musical
talents, then he gives back blessing.
When we started this morning, I was just
overwhelmed with the music.
And I bless the Lord for a group
of people who give themselves consistently week after
week, month after month.
But you know what?
If you were to ask any single one
of them, it is not a burden.
They're up there because they love to do
it.
And that's only one place you can serve
the Lord, but they love to do it.
It's a joy.
If it's a burden, then eventually the Lord
will take them out of there because he
loves cheerful givers.
Chad's always encouraging us.
He did it tonight before we went up.
He said, let's practice.
He's always encouraging us to be cheerful givers
in our music.
The reason they're not smiling sometimes is they're
concentrating so hard.
Bless them.
And they just need to pray that they'll
relax and even make their mistakes and grin
again.
Because that's good for us when we do
that.
But they're cheerful givers, even though they may
not look like it.
It's like Kevin when he was going to
Ukraine last week.
He's so steady, Kevin.
And he said, this is me excited.
Cheerful givers.
Judy, on the other hand, could hardly contain
herself.
I went in to see Judy the other
day on the day before they left, and
she's ready to burst.
She didn't know if she'd make it to
the next day.
She was that excited.
Cheerful givers.
It's not a burden.
You went down this morning to see the
kids.
If you had opportunity to do that.
There are people who are there who don't
want to be there.
They're not cheerful givers.
They're cranky.
But you also meet people down there who
cheerfully give.
And you know, their challenge is deeper in
many ways because they're not seen.
We're up here enjoying the message and the
worship and watching God work.
And they're down there taking care of our
kids, teaching them, blessing them, giving to them.
It's not a burden though.
Such a neat thing to meet a few
weeks ago with some of the teachers who
are involved in that.
And just listen to their generosity of spirit.
How excited they were.
How willing they were.
See, Karen this morning, she's going to be
mad at me now because I talk about
her.
See, you're dressed up.
I don't know what she was dressed up
as.
She was going to Egypt.
She's all dressed up as an Egyptian.
We didn't see that.
Kids got to see that.
Generosity of spirit.
And the thing is, when you sow in
that way, you reap back.
That's not why we do it.
We don't.
We don't do it for that reason.
God has already blessed us so richly.
What more do we need?
How much more could he give us?
Sometimes he gives us so much more we
could burst.