Three Exhortations on Giving — 2 Corinthians 8-9

0:00 Keyword for us today is exhortations. He's making three of them. You can go a lot of different ways. You could say calls, could say a whole bunch of different key words. We're going to use exhortations today because He's going to exhort us and how and what kind of a person are we in terms of not only how are we going to give and he's going to talk to us about our motivations.

0:28 You could actually have a keyword of motivations and so you could say it what what is what is it? What should we be doing? And Paul makes an exhortation in verses one through four. He makes an exhortation to selflessness. And then he makes an exhortation five through 12.

0:48 He makes an exhortation to sincerity. And then in verses the balance of it 13 through 24, he makes an exhortation to service. And so then then he's going to walk right into into chapter nine and telling us how we are to give and but this is really the motives in terms of our giving. The motives in terms of our giving and so he's going to talk to us. See, when we when we give to people, when we give to the lord and that's really what we should be thinking about and I'm not trying to steal the thunder of first or second core nine.

1:26 I'm not trying to do that. I'll let Denzel handle that. He can have the whole thing, right? But the the thing about it is it it's it's the way you do it. It's your heart.

1:38 Your heart the way you're giving it. This is exactly what he is addressing. He is addressing who we are and that's why I think in terms of the selflessness and he shows us the the churches of Macedonia, what they did was they gave out of their poverty. It is amazing. It is amazing and we're going to look at that.

2:44 They were selfless in their poverty in spite of their poverty. They knew the grace of god. They knew that even though they were very very poor and didn't have much to give, they gave out of that. Because of Jesus Christ. That's the that's the huge motivation.

3:06 I mean, that is an amazing and he's exhorting us to that same selflessness. I mean, there's a lot of examples that people can I I could give in terms of individuals being super selfless? I remember I would classify myself as a missionary and I remember a a kid in a Sunday school gave me a baby food jar with money, pennies, dimes, nickels, 0.25, a few few dollars in there, and he gave it, And his parents didn't pad it up, it didn't help him with it. He gave it. He gave what he could.

3:55 This little guy who's now an adult, I think he's even married now, but when he was a little guy, gave this and he wrote on a piece of tape on it, For you, know, Chris Schroeder. I wanted to keep that and not use it. I wanted to keep that out of out of of honoring that kid. I wanted to put that on my shelf to know what that kid was going through out of his resources and that it was I don't know how much was in there, $10, $5, something like that, you know, but incredible out of his poverty, you know. He didn't have much.

4:35 This kid was not wealthy. Parents weren't wealthy, nothing like that and he gave out of his. This is exactly what these guys were doing to the church, to the or to the Corinthians and they gave out of this and he said they in spite of their poverty, they were selfless. They thought not only of the lord but they gave liberally of their liberality. It is amazing and they gave and and this is the thing that's really amazing to me.

5:07 They gave out of their joy. So, I mean, there... We're talking financial. We're talking financial. These people gave when they didn't have it to give.

5:19 I mean, and he's going to address that later in this chapter. I can't give you... You can't give what you don't have, right? But what they did have, the little they did have, they gave it. And they did it joyfully.

5:35 You know, was listening to it, I don't know if it was a song or what, I forget, but it's very difficult, I'll just make the point, it's very difficult. It is more blessed to give than to receive, right? It's very difficult to receive, especially in our culture. It is a very difficult thing to receive. So when, let's say a missionary is, and this, you know, we get involved in the whole idea of giving to missions, etc.

6:12 Sometimes you have no idea what people need and you have to you have to rely on the lord. You have to say, lord, how much should we give? What should we do? And it's it's really gotta be dependent on the lord. You've gotta say, lord, I I want to depend on you and what you are putting on my heart to do and to give.

6:35 And I want to do this with joyfulness. I want to do it out of whatever you are leading me to do and sometimes it will cost you a lot. Out of your poverty, they gave. Out of their poverty, they gave. But the way they give and we're going to talk more about this, they were selfless in this and when when a person receives this, it is very difficult to take that.

7:09 Because in our culture, here's the deal in terms of our culture. Our culture says you need to be self sufficient. You can't take that. You've seen movies and TV shows. I don't take charity.

7:26 I don't do it. I don't want your charity type of thing, right? And they're thinking, you know, don't give me any money, that kind of thing. Well, charity is not, it's love, know, it's an expression of love, really. It's difficult to receive that from somebody.

8:18 In fact, here's what I do. I try not to receive it. If that's what they're doing, and I've had that happen a few times, where somebody here and they're expecting something from you, it doesn't matter how much it is, unless it's really a lot. No. It's very difficult to take that because there's now conditions on that money.

8:50 There's conditions on that gift. And even if it's not money, if it's something else. And that's very that's that's poor giving. That's not giving out of selflessness. God looks at the motive.

9:39 It's from the lord. And we're to be thankful for the $1 We're to be thankful for the $5 We're to be thankful for because it's from the lord. So, this is he's looking at, he's exhorting us to be self and have selflessness and that really these are character issues for us. This is really character issues out and so then he makes it not only an exhortation and the question is, are we hearing and obeying the exhortation to be selfless? The lord might put on your heart.

10:17 How's this one for you? The lord might put on your heart to give your paycheck for the month to a missionary. Might do that. The lord might put on your heart to give two months. That's out of poverty.

10:38 That's all of a sudden you are really, it really hurts in the sense that you're giving it to the Lord and you're doing whatever God would have you to do. Sometimes God puts it on your heart to do that. Say, no, no, I got other responsibilities, etcetera. And the real issue with us, and I'm not saying that those responsibilities can't, should not be met. I'm not saying that.

11:00 I'm saying they should be met. But we overextend ourselves, oftentimes, that we do not give to those who really need. How's that one? I mean, I've friends of mine, I'm sorry, I'm just going to... I've got friends of mine, I know of people, who are doctors.

11:26 And if you went to their house you would not know that they were a doctor because they do not have tremendous granite tiles and all that. They don't have that. And they intentionally didn't have that So that they could give more of their resources to missions. Isn't that a kicker? I had a friend of mine who used to flip houses.

11:51 He would go in, he'd buy a house, flip the house and sell it and gave every penny to Missions. Isn't that incredible? I think to myself that they're thinking that way. You've heard of the story of Leturno. My understanding of Leturno, he would sit in a meeting like this and he would be sitting there and he'd get these ideas and he'd scratching out on a piece of paper ideas on earth movers.

12:23 You know, he was an engineer. He started doing this. He started doing earth movers. He gave away 90%. I think he was the founder of Caterpillar and he gave away 90% of his funds and only lived on 10%.

12:42 Isn't that incredible? And he did it unto the lord. He did that unto the lord and so what happens is, you know, god would give him right in the church service. I hope you're not doing this right now but during my sermon, But he would get there and God would give him ideas in terms of patentable designs for earth moving equipment, etc. And he would scratch it out and he would put it into action.

13:09 And then sell, he was rich, but he lived off only 10% of that and gave it away. The Bible tells us about that very thing in Romans chapter 12 in terms of one of the gifts is giving. One of the gifts of the spirit is giving and we're to do it with liberality. That is to say and these Macedonians, these Macedonians were doing it not only out of their poverty but with joy. Verse three, for their power to hear, to bear witness, yes, beyond their power, they are willing themselves, willing of themselves, beseeching us.

13:51 With much entreaty that we would receive the gift. Please take it and take it upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. Take this gift. Give it. I'm giving this to you.

14:04 Take it. Do it. And that is really amazing. One of the things that I had a friend of mine that came up to me and he looked at my van and he said to me, this is incredible. I was ministering in New York and I had a specially equipped van and it was getting rusty on the bottom.

14:21 He goes, Chris, you do me a favor? I said, What's that? He goes, Can I take your van back to, we're living in New York now, back to Ohio? I want to fix all the rust and repaint it. My dad and I want to do this.

14:37 Please let us do this. Are you sincere? Are you kidding? And he did, you know, I said sure. He made me, he's doing me an incredible favor, He made me feel like I was doing him a favor.

14:58 Isn't that tremendous? That is tremendous. You know, Carl doesn't like me talking about him, but I'm going to talk about Carl because... And also his son-in-law, you know, mister Ming, you know, how they came and came and ministered to the Ezekiel project when we first started to do the barn. We did the barn and the barn was a shell.

15:28 These guys came and put windows in and all that kind of stuff. Scott Doeringer, a whole bunch of guys came from this chapel and ministered to us and ministered to the Ezekiel project getting that that thing laid. But I remember him, NASA dude, coming and sitting in my basement, that's the only place we could put him, and sitting in my basement for hours on end laying the whole thing out to the exact centimeter. Laying the whole thing out and then we followed it. And then every once in a while, he really irritated me Carl, when you came up from the basement and said he's got this 100 foot tape, he goes let's go measure.

16:11 So I'm this measuring man, I'm doing this kind of thing. Then I went back down to his basement. I think it was three days you were down there and did the whole layout of this. It's an incredible thing. That is and and I felt like I was doing him a favor.

16:29 How's that? That's called selflessness. When those guys came and put the walls in and put the windows in, I was a little nervous because they're cutting holes in my barn and then they said, okay, we'll see you next month. No, I didn't. They put these windows in and it was just an amazing thing.

16:48 Just absolutely amazing thing. The selflessness, very, very besieged us with entreated that we would receive the gift and take it to the take it upon us the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. In other words, we'll let you disperse it. We'll let you do this. Wow.

17:27 Sincere. It's I'm going to give you my illustration first and then we'll look at we'll look at these points in terms of sincerity. Sincera is a Latin word. It comes from the Latin and when you have sincera, if you and I were in The Middle East in the old days, we're talking ancient times, and you had to get a big pot, you wanted to go get me a pot, honey, you know, and I need a big jar pot type of thing. Go to the go to the go to the market and get me a big jar.

18:10 I need one for water or for whatever. So he's a discerning guy. And so he would take the pot, he would look at the pot and he would go, oh, and he would look at this pot and sometimes it would say on the bottom of the pot, sincera. And so then what he would do is he would take that pot, he would take that pot and he would hold it up to the light, the bottom of it, and look look at this because if he if he saw crack in it, oftentimes the merchant who was selling the pot would fill that crack in with wax. Ain't that weird?

18:53 They fill it in with wax and so if you licked it up, lifted up to the light, you could see through the wax. Sincerella literally means without wax. And so when we say we're sincere, we're true. It's the integrity of our we're sincere. How do we put it that way?

19:18 We're without cracks, we're without the crack. We fill that, we're not filled in, it's not a fake thing because once you start putting pressure on that wax, it'll start to leak, right? This is not that way. We're without crack. And so we need to be sincere.

19:36 We need to be without wax. These were the believers. He is exhorting us to be sincere and so being sincere, how? Sincere in terms of the god's will. Look at verse five and this they did not as we hoped but first gave themselves to the lord.

20:40 God has provided. It's amazing to me when in the in the late seventies, mid seventies to late seventies, I I forget what year he actually passed away but Howard Hughes, you remember, ever heard that name, Howard Hughes? Howard Hughes was at that time in the seventies, 1975, '76, the richest man in the world. In fact, it was said of the United States government, the the US government borrowed money from him. He owned most of Nevada.

21:17 It's amazing. This guy, he... I mean, he was an engineer. He built the the spruce goose, I think it was called. And you can still see it in LA Harbor.

21:28 And this thing, this big air... A boat with, like, six engines on one side and Hughes Aircraft, Hughes Communication. This is from Hughes. This is from Howard Hughes. He was like almost like a genius.

21:43 And he died like a pauper. He died in a medevac plane coming from Mexico. He was a germaphobe. He wouldn't touch anybody. His fingernails were curling.

21:55 He was just it was it was really sad if you want to put it that way. It was really sad but he was a multi multi billionaire. I mean, the guy with... I mean, who knows? After he died, everybody everybody was claiming to be a relative of his.

22:14 You know, so they could get the inheritance. Right? And then it's interesting, they're all trying to figure out how much he was leaving behind. And I knew to the penny how much he left behind. He left all of it.

22:30 You are not going to take it with you. For the Christian, for the Christian, it is our understanding and our responsibility to understand that everything that we possess is from him. Everything that we have is from him and so whatever we possess, whatever we have, we give it. Now, Barb's mom passed away in April, right? In June, right?

23:03 June 10, that's right. That's right. June 10, mom Gruber passed away and then it's amazing. Left everything. Left it all.

23:16 You know, when you have inheritances and that kind of stuff, you you you look at, you clean out closets, you clean out. My neighbor who just passed away in March, she just passed away. Her name was Rhonda. She just passed away. The executor of...

23:32 She... All alone. Their dumpster after... This is two dumpsters are in her driveway this very moment with all the junk in her house. That's...

23:45 You know, the first one they filled to the brim. Now they ordered two more, and they're going to have to get more because she was a pack rat big time. And you know, you look at this and you say, all that stuff gone. That woman is gone. They're going to take your stuff and get rid of it.

24:07 Sorry, what you cherish and think is really great, it's going to be gone. What you think is a family heirloom, you leave it. Everything that we have is his. We have to understand that god wants to maybe use that for his glory. Whatever it is for his glory.

24:36 And that's what we want to do. You know you know Murphy. Murphy lives like a Spartan. He does. I don't know what Murphy's value is, but I tell you, he lives like a Spartan and that guy is so willing to give to people.

24:53 It is just amazing and this is how they did it. They gave themselves but first gave themselves to the lord. You know the story at the breaking and it was it was not not an assembly situation but it was when they gave a they were passing the plate, you know, in this in this church. I think it was a baptist church. They were passing this plate, you know, for kids to, you know, people to give.

25:23 This kid had no money at all. So, what he did was this, he took the plate, he put it on the ground, and he stood in the plate. First gave of themselves to the lord and then they willingly everything. It's really, that's really the heart of the issue, isn't it? That's really the heart of the issue because when when mister Boss gets up next week and preaches on on second Corinth nine, you know, in terms of giving but this is the motivations that we're looking at this and he's exhorting us based on the will of god, based on the grace of god, and so much that we besought Titus that he as that he began also, he would also finish in you the same grace also.

26:13 So, the same thing would be in you. Therefore, as you abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all diligence and your love to us, see that you abound in the grace also. Do you understand who he's talking to? He's talking to the Corinthians. They had every known gift in the New Testament operational in that church and yet they were super carnal.

26:38 They had all the gifts. They had all the gifts in operation in that assembly. Look at first Cor one chapter one and they said they had all those gifts in operation yet they were lacking. They were lacking following the grace of god in terms of giving of themselves. What god wants is you, not your junk.

27:02 He wants you. That's the key. He wants all of you. He doesn't want part of you. He doesn't want ninety nine and forty four one hundreds.

27:14 He wants all of you. All the junk that we possess is just an extension of that. Isn't that true? And if our extension, in other words, if we're at the core and we're selfish and not selfless, we're not going to we're not going to minister to other people. We're not going to do it.

27:41 We're giving unto the lord. That's One of the things I love about the assemblies, and I'll say it that way, New Testament truth. New Testament truth talks about our giving. We give unto the Lord. When we pass...

27:55 One of things I love about the breaking of bread and one of the things that really attracted me to quote unquote the assemblies was that they didn't take any public offering. I was raised Irish Roman Catholic where the monsenior would walk up and down as the baskets were being paid, you know, going down and everybody's... He's looking at us, are you giving? Are you doing this? He walked up and down.

28:19 I'm not kidding. He'd go like this. And they're passing the baskets and he's like going, are you doing it? Are you doing this kind of thing? And when they started passing a bag or a covered whatever the...

28:34 Covered basket, you know, with the elastic thing, you know, so nobody can know. I I like that, you know. And sometimes I've seen guys fake it, you know, they gave and they got nothing in their hand, you know, right? But not that I'm watching. But I tell you what, you know, you give unto the lord and there's no public offering.

28:55 I remember I remember how that influenced Barb and I to start to go to Willow Bible Chapel. I never saw that before ever. Always saw this public show of giving. We give unto the Lord. We don't do it for a show of men.

29:14 We don't do that. We give unto the lord and that's exactly how we are, that's exactly how we're doing but it's the grace of god. Sincerity based on the will of god, the grace of god, based on his son. Notice what he says. I speak not by commandment by occasion of the earnest of others to prove that sincerity of your love for you know that the grace of our lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sakes, he became poor that through his poverty might be rich.

29:48 Hey, listen. Can you beat his sacrifice? Can you beat his giving? He gave himself. This is the this is the hallmark of the Christian.

30:02 This is the hallmark of the Christian because it was the hallmark of the redeemer who redeemed us from our sin. He gave himself. So, and we look at this, we look at this and we say to ourselves, wow. He he really loved us. For god demonstrated his love towards us and that why we were yet sinners.

30:24 Right? We know that verse. Romans chapter five. Would you write this down? You cannot really love without really giving.

30:38 I can say I love somebody, but how do you know that that's a reality? By what I give you. Whether it's affection, whether it's financial, whether you know, junk or time or whatever, it's giving. I I really love. You can't you can say you can love.

31:06 You can give without loving but you cannot love without giving. And this is something that I think that is so true. We look at the extension of the love of god as found in the person of Jesus Christ who gave himself. We're to do the same. We really are and then also we see the sincerity based.

31:51 Now therefore perform the doing of it. That there was a readiness to will so that there may be a performance also out of that which you have. In other words, you say you're going to do it. You said a year ago you were going to do it. Do it.

32:21 Do it. From a missionary's point of view, a missionary is to wholly lean on the lord. This is what I love about this. I went to Moody Bible Institute. I had friends of mine who were taught how to deputize.

32:42 What I mean by that is to make deputation. They work for a mission organization. They come and they come to a place like this and they present the work and they say please in one sense, can you give? And they actually are taught how to do that kind of thing. I have a friend of mine who is with the Sudan Interior Mission.

33:03 You have to raise, on a lot of these mission boards, you have to raise x amount of money before you can go on the field. You have to raise it. You have to have a certain level. What my being might raise it, it says, will you promise to give $50? Will you promise to do and you raise this, you know, amount?

33:22 Right? Per month. My friend couldn't do it. I mean he didn't have the skill to do it. He wanted to go minister to Muslims and he just wasn't good at it.

33:42 And he never went out with Sudan Interior Mission because he couldn't raise the money. I wanted just to look at him and say, John, trust God. Trust the Lord. Go anyway. You don't need Sudan Interior Mission.

34:02 They they do a great work. Praise God for them. But you don't need them in terms of their financial standards that you need to have. You don't trust god for what you are doing. God will provide.

34:17 John, do this. And what a shame. What an absolute shame. A missionary is to go out trusting God and holy on the Lord. Ain't that a kicker?

34:33 Now, if an assembly or a church says, we're going to give you X amount of money, that's between you and the lord. That's between the church and the lord, not between you and the missionary. No way. That guy is to wholly lean on the Lord. But me as an elder in an assembly, I got to tell you right now, I am watching.

34:57 I am looking. I am seeing. If we send somebody out, we commend them to the work in the grace of God and that I am to see what their life is like on the mission field. Even if it means I go there and find out in terms of fact finding, what do they need? How is it going?

35:21 What do they... Without them asking me to do that or without the assembly being asked to do that, This is the key. This is really a key and I've seen this in operation. I've seen this in operation. When we were in New York, our commending assembly in Maywood, Illinois, they sent out two to three elders and they stayed with us in our little dinky apartment.

35:50 What do you need? How can we help? What do you what do you... You know, and then they went back, You know, and the lord was lord was really gracious. The lord was tremendous and that's that's something that is so important.

36:07 And so when you look at this and this is exactly the faithfulness of god. And then in terms of our sincerity, so selflessness, the exhortation to selflessness, the exhortation to sincerity, and then also to service. And we see this in 13 through 24. It's an interesting thing. We see service explained.

36:51 This is not communism folks. This is not. This is giving out of a grateful heart to god. It's giving out of a grateful heart to god and ministering to those individuals. You know, and we see the, you know, it's surface exemplified with Titus.

37:08 We see how Titus was coming. He was doing exactly what Paul was exhorting the Corinthians to do in terms of how he was ministering and giving himself to do it. You know, it's an interesting thing. Titus' name is mentioned 16 times in the New Testament. Three in the book of Titus, the epistle to Titus.

37:30 Right? Three times. You've got it 11 time or 10... Yeah, 10 times in this epistle alone. And in this chapter, three times his name is mentioned.

37:44 So he's dominant in the Corinthian church. He's a dominant name. They would know who Titus is and he gave of himself. He exemplifies the issue of service in terms of godly service and ministering to their need and ministering and helping them as an extension of Paul. As an extension of of the ministry that Paul was ministering to the Corinthians at this time and he's telling them this and we see this exempt explained and exemplified and he's really time is going to is eluding us here but when you look at these verse 19 a and then you look in the 21 through 22, he is really talking about our hearts and the way we are giving.

38:36 He's bringing it right back. He's going to talk specifically chapter nine. God bless mister boss for next week but he's talking and he's setting us up and telling us, listen, hear me now. Here's how you are to do it. Here is how you're to do it.

39:21 And this place has been very generous. The saints here have been extremely generous, wonderfully generous. One day I came here and somebody had a box for me with wrapping on it, you know, just wonderful. A blender. But not any kind of blender.

39:44 You could take a two by four and run it right through there. You know, one of those blenders, those, you know, supercalifragilisticexpialidocious blenders, you know? You know, I mean, one of the and there's a blender, you know? So, it's going to handle strawberries. You know, it's going to do that kind of thing and we still use it.

40:03 We use it every day, you know, and are thankful to the lord for that. Makes a big difference. You've been very generous but what god is doing is okay, where is our hearts? Where are we? Are we without wax?

40:25 Are we sincere? Are we selfless in terms of this? Well, if we know that we've been redeemed by the blood of the lamb, absolutely we know this because we know of his selflessness. True? And we don't have any strings tied to it.

40:45 None. None. And sometimes we give when we feel like we don't have it. We give almost till it hurts but we give to the lord and he puts it on our and we do it. You're going to see a verse in the next in the next week.

41:08 God loves a cheerful giver. Hilarious giver. Not that we're laughing high, you know, uncontrollably and high like a hyena, you know, but we are glad to do it. The key for all this is that we have given ourselves. Just like the Lord Jesus gave of Himself, we give ourselves to him.

41:41 I wanna ask you a question. Have you done that? I'm not talking in terms of if you've not trusted Christ, you need to trust Christ as your savior. You need to receive him as your personal savior. But those of us who have done that, does he have everything that you are and have?

42:08 I can't answer that. I can only look at my own life. Does he have everything that you are and have? And is it at his disposal? To give to where...

42:28 To whomever you want to give it to. Father, we just ask you that you would just really help us with our heart attitude and our love for you that it would be exemplified by a willingness to do and to give what you would have us to do and give. And we ask you that you would work in this till we see your son's face to face... Son's face with our own face and we ask you lord that you would really bless our time and we just thank you. We we thank you.

43:12 Thank you for your love and your grace and we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.