Pentecost 10                     July 28, 2024
2 Corinthians 9:8-11          Pastor Wolfe

God’s Gracious Plan for Giving

I pray that our little worship series on meaningful ministry has been helpful for you. Other than remaining true in Scripture’s teaching, I don’t think there’s a more important thing for our church (and for the Christian church in America as a whole) than for regular members to take up the mantle of active faith. To be the witnesses God calls each of us to be. We’ve heard how to do that in this series. To be bold as we speak with God’s authority. To be firm in standing on the truth. Last week as we saw Jesus as compassionate shepherd, we saw that we speak this truth not with pride but with love. I’ve loved the themes of this series so far and I sincerely mean it when I say that I’ve prayed it’s not just words from a pulpit but a message for how we all live.

In today’s readings we’ve seen that God provides the resources to go and carry out this meaningful ministry. It gives us a chance to talk the right way about a topic people don’t usually want to talk about. Money. Offerings. What we call “stewardship” in the church, because we recognize we’re just caretakers, or stewards, of the blessings God gives to us for a time. They’re never really ours, are they? When we leave this world, or even before that, God will bring whatever resources we have to someone else.

What I love about this text from 2 Corinthians though, is that it speaks of our giving to the needs of others not as an order but as a result. Scan those verses over again and you’ll see that the primary giver in of what I’m calling “God’s gracious plan for giving” isn’t you. It’s God, isn’t it? We’re called into ministry to give of ourselves, but we do it knowing that we’re only giving a part of what God has already abundantly given to us.

When a pastor friend of mine preached a sermon on this reading a few years ago his theme was “There’s more where that came from.” He compared God’s giving to us to time at Grandma’s house. If your grandmas were like mine, then you know how perfect an illustration that is. You don’t have to ask for seconds at Grandma’s house. It was ready. All the time.

“There’s more where that came from!” Can’t you picture the disciples saying that as they handed out the five loaves of bread and two fish which Jesus had miraculously multiplied to feed over 5,000 people? Can you imagine the master of ceremonies at the wedding feast in Cana telling that to the surprised guests drinking the wine Jesus had turned from water? Imagine the disciples thinking it to themselves as they saw Jesus healing diseases in person after person after person. Our God is generous beyond comparison. And he gives to us so much more than we need so that we can in turn give to others. That’s the point the Apostle Paul wanted the Corinthian Christians to grasp as he encouraged them in their life of stewardship. “There’s more where that came from” is a perfect way to describe God’s plan of giving. Giving to us and giving through us.

Our sermon text comes from Paul’s second letter to the church in the Greek city of Corinth. That’s notable because when this congregation heard about a famine that gripped Jerusalem, they vowed to send help and were the first congregation to make that promise. Now the time had come for the Corinthians to make good on their promise. Verses 6 & 7 here say: “Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

It’s not surprising to hear Paul urge the Corinthians to give generously and cheerfully, and our verses today explain why Paul was certain they would. He knew God was at work in their hearts and that they knew how generous God had been to them. Look at verses 8 & 11: “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…” The God who had given them everything to begin with, would continue to ensure that the Corinthians had enough for themselves. In other words, there was more where that came from.

God has given us that promise too, but Satan loves to make us forget. When opportunities to give, to church or to others, comes up, haven’t you ever thought, “That could have been a car payment.” “That could have been the braces the kids need.” “I could have enjoyed a decent night out with that money.” Martin Luther once wrote that our wallet is the last part of us to be converted. Sure, we trust that Jesus has forgiven our sins, but do we also trust that he will keep his promise to provide for us even when we give generously and cheerfully as he wants us to do?

This summer you’ve grown as God’s ministers in the world. Now I pray you grow in God’s plan for us to be generous and cheerful givers. Whether you’re helping the needy directly, or you’re helping them through your gifts to the church so that we can help them that way, there’s always more where your gift comes from. Picture again that dessert scene at Grandma’s house. As she scoops ice cream from one of those huge, five-quart buckets, your job is to hand the bowls of ice cream down to your hungry siblings and cousins. Were you ever reluctant to hand the bowls over? I mean did you ever think that there wouldn’t be any ice cream left for you if you just kept giving it away? No. Because you could see the big bucket and you knew that Grandma wouldn’t let you go without.

Whenever you give an offering here at church you’re simply doing what you do at dessert time at Grandma’s. You’re handing on that which God first gave to you. And just as you don’t have to worry about not getting any ice cream at Grandma’s, you never have to worry about not having enough money for yourself because you gave an offering. There’s always more where that came from.

How can you know? Count up how many times Paul repeats the words “abundant” and “all” and “every” in the verses in front of us. Ready? “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work…11 You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…”

God’s grace never has off days. God isn’t like the Oak Park Heights Walmart that is out of 2% milk every other time I go there. You can always count on God’s grace in every situation. What this means, brothers and sisters, is that you can be a generous and cheerful giver whether you’re at the height of your earning power, or on a fixed income, or only receiving money on your birthday. If God has given you any money at all, he’s inviting you to pass some of that along generously to help someone else. He wants you to do this trusting that there’s more where that came from.

Trust. That’s really what this is about. God doesn’t need your money. God isn’t a beggar; he’s an investor. He gives his resources to us so that we may share in the joy of his work. In that way God is like Grandma again. When she’s dishing out the ice cream she could do all the work herself. But she recruits you to hand out the bowls of ice cream so that you can share in the joy of serving, and delight in the words of thanks people give when they receive their dessert. That’s the point of the last verse of this text. God gives generously to us, and we give generously to others so that, “your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”

That happens when Christians help the needy and make it known that they do it because they’ve experienced God’s generosity first. Because of what I do and where I work, I’ve pretty regularly had people in need come to me and ask for help. Sometimes there are church funds and sometimes there aren’t. But when the need was real and I had a chance to help, I did. And maybe my wallet was a little lighter but I’ve always found two things true. God has taken care of me. And my generosity to others resulted in their thankfulness not just to me but to God as well.

Think about your membership at Salem in terms of gifts from God too. We belong to Salem to hear of God’s grace in the most important ways. Sins paid for by Jesus on the cross. Eternal life promised in his resurrection at Easter. A home in heaven already set aside. A family of faith to share life and eternity with. How graciously God gives to us here! And this gift too God generously gives so that we can generously give it to others. Our generosity in church results in thanksgiving to God too. Others here and around the world give thanks when we use our time to work together at church to share Jesus with our kids and our community. They give thanks when we give our offerings to pay for missionaries and pastors and teachers and books and bibles.

Brothers and sisters, I pray that part of the meaningful ministry you’re growing in this summer includes growing in this area of giving as well. I know I keep going back to it, but God is even more loving and more generous than Grandma. And if she didn’t run out of ice cream, we can trust God won’t run out on us. God’s gifts are meant to be shared. They’re meant to be shared because there’s more where they came from. God’s gracious plan of giving is a plan to give to us, and a plan to give through us. May we be generous and cheerful in it, and may our gifts result in thanksgiving to God. Amen.