God or Money

Hello, you are listening to Second City Sermons,

a ministry of Second City Church in midtown Harrisburg.

This fall, we're studying the book of Second

Corinthians. Second Corinthians is a heartfelt

and practical book calling us back to the life

of the cross. We, like the Corinthians, so often

pursue glory, admire eloquence, shun suffering,

hide hurt, and hoard our goods. And yet the gospel

of Jesus tells us that resurrection comes after

a cross. that comfort comes after being crushed,

that the way up is the way down, that the way

to glory is through suffering, that His strength

is made perfect in our weakness. We'd love to

meet you, and we hope you'll consider coming

and joining with us each Sunday morning at 10

a .m. in the heart of Midtown Harrisburg. You

can find us online at secondcitychurch .org and

on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. We hope

you enjoy this sermon. God bless. We pray again.

Father in heaven we pray your blessing upon our

time in your word gotta pray for open hearts

and ears That we might receive from you That

we might grow in you that we might be blessed

by you And may the words of my mouth the meditations

the thoughts the desires the contemplations of

our hearts Be pleasing in your sight. Oh Lord

our rock and our Redeemer Amen All right, so

oddly enough, we are back in chapter 9. If you

have been tracking as we've made our way through

2 Corinthians, you may be thinking right now,

this is all a little erratic. You heard me preach

twice on chapter 6, and then Jed picked up in

chapter 8, and then I preached one sermon on

chapter 7, and then one on just the end of chapter

7, the beginning of 8, and then Jed preached

on chapter 10, and now I'm going to chapter 9,

and next week we're going to look at chapter

11. But today it's chapter 9, which works with

chapter 8, and together they make up Paul's longest

teaching on giving. And I will admit even as

I stand here now, but throughout my preparation,

I've been a little nervous and I was glad that

Jed kind of eased us into the water a little

while ago to talk about giving. And it's not

that I should be actually because our Lord talks

about our greed and our tendency towards greed

and our engagement with money more than any other

of the seven deadly sins. He doesn't mind talking

about it, it seems. but it's certainly not a

subject that we like to talk about in our world.

And maybe if you're here for the first time this

morning and you're like, oh man, I'm at a church

and they're going to talk about giving, go figure.

Well, I can tell you rather confidently that

I have never actually preached a sermon on giving

in this church, though I probably should have.

So anyway, in preparation, I messaged a number

of pastor friends around the country and I asked

them for some thoughts and some stories. And

I want to share a couple of those with you now.

Here's a thought. A friend of mine who pastors

a church in Seattle, he's been at his church

for 17 years. It's a rather large church in our

circles. He told me that over the 17 years that

he has pastored there, he has had many congregants,

many parishioners come and confess all kinds

of different sins. He has only had one person

ever come and talk to him about greed. Only one.

He said, I can give you dozens of other sins.

Only one. Couple of stories that I heard from

different pastor. Dad was trying to teach his

four year old about tithing. He laid out 10 pennies

on a table, set aside one and handed the other

nine to the kid. This one is God's, he said.

The rest are yours. The kid's response? Poor

God. Here's another short story. A guy came to

see his pastor and asked for prayer. I'm struggling

to tithe, he confessed, which is amazing. I've

never had that conversation. Why? The pastor

asked. You make great money, like 300 K. Well,

that's just it. It was easier to tithe when I

only made 30. Now that I make 300, it feels like

too much. Pray for me. The pastor bowed his head

and said, Oh Lord. Please reduce my friend's

salary Down to where he can obey you Those are

kind of funny stories, but also actually they're

very serious stories The child can actually see

how little we offer To God and the man can see

how little he wants to offer to God So we're

gonna talk about giving this morning. If you

wanna leave, you can, okay. And I wanna walk

us through this passage in Second Corinthians

chapter nine with three points, okay? Three points,

good Presbyterian sermon. First one's gonna be

coordinated giving. Second one is gonna be the

character of giving, and then comforts in giving,

okay? Three Cs. Only they were three Ps. That

would be better for a Presbyterian pastor named

Peter. Coordinated giving. Okay, so maybe you'll

remember from a few weeks ago when Jed was preaching

about how Paul was sending Titus and a couple

others to Corinth to collect the Corinthians

offering for the church there in Jerusalem, which

was part of Paul's sort of mission that he talks

about. He mentions it sort of briefly in Galatians,

and he specifically mentions it at the end of

1 Corinthians in chapter 16. Those three guys

weren't going to Corinth to persuade them to

give. In fact, you know, they had received the

first letter and we know from some correspondences

that they had agreed to this already. They said,

yes, this is a good thing. We ought to be givers.

So Paul had instructed them and they had said

they were ready to do so. But Paul here is ensuring

that readiness and he's saying it needs to be

coordinated. Follow through, plan, be ready,

and commit. Follow through. Look at me down at

verses one and two. And again, I want you to

keep your finger on this page, so we're gonna

walk through the whole passage, okay? Now it

is superfluous for me to write to you about the

ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness,

of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia

saying that Achaia has been ready. since last

year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them."

Here's what had happened. The promised giving

of the Corinthians... Okay, so Corinth is the

main city in the area of Achaia. So when it mentions

Achaia there, what he's saying is your, you know,

you guys. Okay, so the promised... giving of

the Corinthians had stirred up the churches of

Macedonia to give. And you might remember that

back in chapter eight, the beginning of chapter

eight, verse two, we read about the Macedonians

how, quote, in a severe test of affliction, their

abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have

overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their

part. Well, those folk there in Macedonia who

through their affliction and their extreme poverty

were so generous, were generous in part, we learn

here, because of the Corinthian Church committing,

being coordinated, being ready and willing to

give generously. Paul says it would be superfluous.

He says it's not needed to write to them because

You've already been ready and look at the work

that has happened because of your readiness and

your generosity. But he's still coordinating

their giving and he's still talking about it.

Why would he do this? Why would he still talk

about it? Even though it's superfluous and they've

already been ready for a year, it says. Because

he wants to ensure this. He wants it to be coordinated.

He wants it to be completed. He wants them to

follow through. So verses three and four, okay?

Imagine this, the poverty stricken Macedonian

church have given, it said joyfully, picture

them dancing as some of you have seen in parts

of the world where Christians come joyfully dancing,

giving their tithes and offerings to the Lord.

They've given joyfully out of their affliction

and their poverty. And now it's very possible

at least that the rich Corinthian church is going

to back out. Paul's saying, look at what's happened

because you've committed to this. You've coordinated

this follow through with this coordination, follow

through with this commitment. But there's something

more in this passage and it's actually more serious.

He said that the boasting about them, I don't

know if you got this, the boasting about them

would prove empty is what our translation says.

Some translations, maybe you have a different

one in front of you, it says vain. That word

is the same word that you can find in chapter

six, verse one, where this translation uses vain.

And there, maybe you'll remember what it says,

but Paul appeals to them to not receive the grace

of God in vain. That's the two uses of this word

in 2 Corinthians. But there's a connection with

being ready to give and following through with

it. and planning for it and receiving God's grace.

You could receive God's grace in vain and you

cannot follow through with the grace of giving

and it will be in vain. Anyway, Paul does not

mind pressing them in their coordinated giving

because he wants to ensure their readiness. He

also doesn't mind because he desires, he wants

to ensure their willing blessing, okay? So look

at verse five now. Verse five, so I thought it

necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead

of you and arrange an advance for the gift you

have promised. By the way, think of the coordination

there. He's going to send some folk ahead of

him and then he's going to come. so that they

can make sure this is happening. So that it may

be ready as a willing gift, not as an extraction.

So there's a word there that's mentioned a couple

times. It's twice translated as the word gift.

That word is the same word, and it's the word

eulageo. It's the word that we get the word eulogy

from, which means good, ou. Logos word, good

word, means a good word. Gift is a good word.

It's actually, it's basically the same word as

what we say, benediction, but that comes from

Latin, bene, good, diction, benediction and elegeo,

eulogy. But so what he's saying is that he wants

them to be ready to bless. We're blessing. That's

actually what it means. It's a blessing. And

this blessing, he says, it's not a blessing if

it has to be extracted. It has to be pulled out

of you. There's no grace. There's no goodness.

There's no blessing in that. He doesn't want

giving to be begrudgingly done by stingy hearts.

Won't be a blessing that way. And I want to just

suggest there's actually a lot that we can learn

about in our giving from this. One thing that

we can learn about this is that giving is always

a reflection of your heart. I actually want you

to sit for a second and think about your giving.

Just think about your giving and think about

how that is always a reflection of your heart.

Ready, willing, generous giving, which is what

he's commending here, is a confirmation of the

salvation of souls, of the blessing of God to

us, the grace of God to us. Giving doesn't save,

but it's always a reflection of our salvation.

A practical thing that we can learn from this

is that we should be planning. to give. We should

think of it as a coordinated thing. Something

that takes actually coordination, working together,

maybe spouses, working together, planning, kind

of looking ahead. I've said this to a number

of you, but I think tithing, which is the practice

of giving a tenth of your income, is a really

wise practice. Though most Christians throughout

history have said that should be a base. We should

think how generous can we be? That should be

something we should build off of. But tithing,

I think, is a good number because it forces you

to budget and to plan. And that will always be

for your good. Your finances will be better if

you budget. Tithing will in some ways force you

to do so. But anyway, your coordinated planning

and your readiness will also influence your heart.

You have those conversations as you reflect on

your money. You cannot serve God money. It will

invite you into a heart conversation and that

will always be also for your good. These things

reflect and they influence where your heart is

at. So the first thing is coordinated giving.

The second thing I want to talk about that I

think this passage then kind of invites us into

is the character of giving. And when I say the

character of giving, I am not meaning generally

character. I mean, the character of Christian

giving? What's sort of in its nature? What can

we say about it? Giving that reflects Christ.

And the first thing is that it's bountiful, okay?

So verse six, let's keep going through the passage.

I thought when I was preparing this, I'm kind

of nervous enough to talk about giving because

we don't do that much, though we should. And

the easiest way maybe is just to keep going to

the passage. So we're just literally going to

walk through it. Verse six. The point is this.

Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

You can sow, which is say you can give in a way

even that is sparingly. Think of the sower who

takes the seed very carefully one and goes well

I just want to put this one right here and I

want to use too much of my seeds I want to put

that one right there and then when the seed when

spring comes harvest time comes you go Oh, there's

only some of those came up and you think of the

sower who goes I want to throw it all out He

receives a great harvest You can sow in a way

that's stingy sowing. You can sow in a way that's

bountiful sowing. And the Bible tells us actually

really clearly that one will reap a harvest and

the other will not. That's what it says. Okay,

now here's an interesting thing. That word translated

bountiful is once again the word eulogia. Different

form of eulogy. Blessing. Good word. So whoever

sows blessing which means it cannot be extracted

right can't be pulled out of you Will reap blessing

and some of you may be familiar with Adam Grant,

I hope quite a few of you are. I remember having

a conversation with Dave Riley, who used to attend

here years ago. He was reading a bunch of Adam

Grant books and he said, it's just Christianity

applied. But Adam Grant was actually the youngest

tenured professor at the Wharton School, the

business school over at UPenn. And he's written

a lot of great books on leadership and business.

And I'd commend some of those to you. He's a

very easy read, but he wrote a book called Give

and Take. And he breaks people down into three

categories in this book, give and take. He says

there are the givers, people that are free with

their energy, with their time, with their resources,

with their money. There are the takers, people

that mostly want to take from others. And then

there are the matchers. So it has to be a tit

for tat. If you give this, then I'll give you

that. Think of the marriage. If you give me your

time, maybe I'll give you. If you give me your

heart, then I'll give you my heart. And he says,

across the board, every discipline of life, the

people that succeed are the givers. It's just

exactly what Paul's saying. You sow sparingly,

you will reap sparingly. You sow bountifully.

Be free, open, generous. He says the same thing

that Paul says and he's not a Christian. The

first character of giving is it is bountiful.

Reaps blessing. The second character of Christian

giving is that it's marked by a cheerful willingness.

So verse seven, each one must give as he has

decided in his heart, not reluctantly, which

is almost as to say to say if you give reluctantly,

don't give or under compulsion for God loves

A cheerful giver. Cheerful giver. Some commentators

in this passage right here, they point back to

a passage in Deuteronomy chapter 15. Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 15 · chapter mention

15, 10. It says this, you shall give to him freely

and your heart shall not be grudging when you

give to him because for this the Lord your God

will bless you in all your work and in all that

you undertake. But I think maybe a better passage

that we should point to in the scriptures is

actually not from Deuteronomy, but from Paul's

book to the Philippians, where he says, for the

joy that was set before you, Christ endured the

cross. But it's a great gift of God to us, but

his very self and his life. And the Lord does

that with joy. But both verses have to do with

what God has done for us. Deuteronomy 15 is all

about the sabbatical year and how we live with

others. Part of the whole point of that chapter

is that you forgive others' debts. It's a financial

dynamic and you give freely to others. How easy

would it be to begrudgingly forgive the debt

that somebody else owes you. I think it would

be pretty easy to begrudgingly do that. The seventh

year is coming up. I was banking on that money

to pay for blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right?

And the foundation for that seventh year is that

God rests on it, on the seventh. There's a celebration

of what God has done. Cheerful giving is a reflection

of the joy that was set before Jesus and giving

Himself. He forgives willingly and he gives himself

joyfully. I read in this commentary by Kent Hughes,

maybe some of you knew that name. He was a great

preacher in Chicago for a good long while at

the college church in Wheaton. He gives an illustration

saying that this kind of fits with today's culture.

He says, there's a picture in a Victorian cartoon,

two men sitting in a London club. One is holding

a book in his hand and explains, It's a new story

by that Dickens fellow about a wealthy banker

named Scrooge who finally degenerates into sentimental

weakling. We're like, we look down on somebody

who's so free. But that freedom is a reflection

of our Lord. Pure forgiving is a reflection of

Jesus. Paul says in first Corinthians one that

the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing.

And we look at it often as foolishness. We look

at it as foolishness, right? Because we don't

follow it in its footsteps. We go, that's a foolish

way to live. But God says it's the power of God

for salvation. Pureful willingness in our giving

is a reflection of the cross. So the character

of Christian giving is belief. that God brings

about a bountiful harvest beyond what we imagine,

beyond even what we sow, but it also demands

our generous sowing. And then we also see that

a cheerful willingness to give is also a reflection

of God's own giving of himself on the cross.

So coordinated giving, character of giving. Finally,

my third point, comforts in giving. Okay, I think

that sounds like a little bit of an odd word

that there's a comfort in giving. and I'm going

to try to explain it so it makes sense. First,

I think there's a comfort in giving because it

reinforces for us that we and what we have is

not sufficient. And as much as we want to be

sufficient, as much as what we want to have,

we think is sufficient for us, I have that temptation,

there's a great gift in saying we don't have

it. We have to rely on that which is outside

of us. There's a comfort in that. So verse eight,

okay? And God is able to make all grace abound

to you, so that having all sufficiency in all

things and at all times, did you catch all those

alls? all related to God's being sufficient.

You may abound in every good work. Now the good

work he's mentioning here most immediately is

this good work of giving, but he's saying that

in all times, in all places, God is sufficient

for you. I mean, we say the Lord owns the cattle

on a thousand hills. He just speaks and things

come into being. He's fully sufficient for you.

God will always give you what you need to follow

him faithfully. You will always be rich enough

to give. Think of the Macedonians. They believe

that deep down because they gave in their poverty

and in their affliction. They knew they were

sufficient in God. But I do think there's a real

comfort in this because we are told that it is

this grace from God that allows us to give abundantly.

And it's because God is, God Himself is sufficient

for all the good work that He calls us to do.

So the challenge for us is not to say, oh, I

got to figure it all out. The challenge for us

is obedience. The sufficiency is God's, the obedience

is ours. Everything comes from our Father above.

I think it's important to say that this comfort

is tied to sufficiency also because we do have

this temptation to find our sufficiency in ourselves

and these things that we have. And I think this

is exactly why Jesus very explicitly says, those

things, the things of this world is the place

where moth and rust are going to destroy, where

thieves are going to break in and steal. And

he says, for where your treasure is, He's calling

out specifically like our material stuff and

our pocketbooks, our money, where your treasure

is, there your heart will be also. He's calling

this out. And I think there's a real like sort

of a practical comfort in this idea that sufficiency

comes from God because he knows that the temptations

of our heart are to put our protection in these

things, right? Our protection for our future.

Our future is going to be okay if our 401k balances

blah, blah, blah by this age, blah, blah, blah,

blah, right? My future is protected if I got

this job that will allow for this kind of pension.

You don't know the time of the day when you will

be called home. No, it's not that we shouldn't

plan for those things, but our temptation is

to put our trust for our future in them. And

that's not where we should be putting it. The

temptation of our hearts is to put our peace

in those things, right? Our provision. in the

presence of those accounts or whatever have you,

the stuff that we hoard and take. And the Bible

always tells us the only place you're going to

find that protection and that peace is in the

presence of God. That is it. That's the only

place. So if you want to free yourself from the

great temptation of your hearts, our hearts,

let me tell you this. Give your money away. Okay,

turn with me in your bulletin. Let's look at

the first quote. Okay on our meditation quote.

I think Jacques a little Has a really good word

for us here Okay, let me read this for you How

do we overcome the spiritual power of money?

Get more of it. No, he says not by accumulating

more money not by using money for good purposes

even, not by being just and fair in our dealings.

The law of money is the law of accumulation of

buying and selling. That's why the only way to

overcome the spiritual power of money is to give

our money away, thus desacralizing it and freeing

ourselves from its control. To give away money

is to win a victory over the spiritual power

that oppresses us. I'm telling you, it is a comfort

is the comfort to give your money away because

it actually takes away its power and it says

your sufficiency is in God alone. Okay, another

comfort we have in giving is actually righteousness.

Okay, so I'm going to read verses nine through

10. As it's written, He has distributed freely.

You heard this earlier. This is Psalm 112. He's

given to the poor. His righteousness endures

forever. By the way, if you follow along in that

Psalm, at the end it mentions the wicked briefly.

The wicked one is the stingy one in that Psalm.

He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for

food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing

and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

So like I said, this is a quote from Psalm 112,

but then interestingly, Paul also kind of sort

of quotes from Isaiah 55 and then alludes to

at least Hosea chapter 10, but the point of it

Hosea 10 · chapter mention

all is that God supplies the seed that we sow,

but as we sow, it's a reflection of His righteousness.

As we mirror Him in our sowing, we're actually

reflecting the righteous one and we are actually

called the righteous. Okay, so there's a comfort

given here with the idea of righteousness, which

is to say there is a degree in which you can

have an assurance of your salvation, which is

a tricky thing, right? That's the Holy Spirit's

work, but there's a degree in which you can see

the fruit of your salvation through how you interact

with giving. So again, an assessment is Where

am I at with God? Well, where am I at with my

money and God? Giving doesn't earn salvation,

but it shows it. Let me put it this way, there

are no scrooges in the kingdom of God, none.

Okay, finally, the third comfort we get. in giving

is communal thanksgiving. So I'm gonna read just

the rest of it for us, okay? But I want you to

listen for how communal this is here. You will

be enriched in every way to be generous in every

way, which through us will produce thanksgiving

to God. Through us will produce thanksgiving

to God. For the ministry of this service is not

only supplying the needs of the saints, but is

also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

By their approval of this sacrifice, they will

glorify God because of your submission that comes

from your confession of the gospel of Christ.

Isn't that interesting that he connects giving

with confession of the gospel? And the generosity

of your contribution for them and for all others

while they long for you and pray for you because

of the surpassing grace of God upon you. Thanks

be to God for His inexpressible gift. You see

how it's mentioning so many different people,

you and us and they over there. Our hearts are

connected in our giving. You are brought closer

to one another in your giving. Let me turn your

attention again to the quote in the bulletin.

This second one is from NT Wright. When human

beings give their heartfelt allegiance to and

worship that which is not God, they progressively

seek to reflect the image of God. One of the

primary laws of human life is that you become

like what you worship. What's more, you reflect

what you worship not only in the object itself,

but also outwardly to the world around. Those

who worship money increasingly define themselves

in terms of it and increasingly treat other people

as creditors, debtors, partners, customers, rather

than human beings. One of the ways, brothers

and sisters, that we will knit our hearts together,

that we will be one body, instead of looking

at each other as separate units, is actually

giving collectively. Your heart will be changed

as you give and it will be changed towards one

another. That's what this passage is saying at

the end. It's they and us and we're all offering

it up and thanksgiving, but we're also thanking

God for one another and how he provides for us

through one another and all this kind of stuff.

Churchwide comfort in the communal thanksgiving

of giving. Now I rather hate that as soon as

Halloween was done, Christmas ads went crazy.

Can I get an amen? It really bothered me this

year for some reason. I was just like, I was

scroogey about all that. How all of a sudden

you go to a store, it's like Christmas stuff

everywhere. I'm like, where's just the Thanksgiving

decorations? But I also really do love the act

of giving and receiving that we practice at Christmas.

We give to those we love and receive from those

we love. And as we do, so our hearts do come

a little bit closer together. as we receive something

from one another. I mean, we're going to do that

tonight. You know, as you bring something or

as you just receive what somebody else made,

our hearts will come closer together. It just

naturally happens. There's an affection that

grows as we release what is ours and we give

it away. It's an affection for God that grows

and it is an affection for one another. So we

have a comfort because we have a communal Thanksgiving.

All right, let me end by telling you a story.

It's a short one again. Two men were marooned

on an island. One man paced back and forth, worried

and scared, while the other man sat back and

enjoyed the sun. First man asked the second man,

aren't you afraid we're about to die? No, said

the second man. I make $100 ,000 a week and tithe

faithfully to my church every week. My pastor

will find me. Okay. I only have like three more

sentences. I got to get to it. That's a funny

one. Brothers and sisters in Christ, I am not

out to find you. I actually don't know what any

of you give, but I hope that you can say from

your heart that you cheerfully give generously

and, and more, maybe, maybe more next year or

maybe more even this week than you gave last

week because it is for your good. I promise you

it's for your good. Like open, open it up, give

away more than you think you should. It will

be for your good. And if this is true, then you

will be blessed through it. The one who sows

sparingly will reap sparingly. The one who sows

generously will reap generously. Coordinated

giving, reflecting the character of Christ is

for our individual and for our communal joy.

which is exactly why Jesus came. Let me pray

for us. Lord, I pray that today we as couples

and individuals and as families will think long

and hard of your words that we cannot serve two

masters and ask ourselves, how can we more faithfully

and joyfully and cheerfully serve you? And maybe

today hear that the best way to do that is to

give cheerfully and generously. God, please,

would you do that in each one of us? We all know

the collective things that we hear. And it's

not even unique to our culture because Jesus,

you spoke about it so much that we're so tempted

to grab onto our pocketbooks and keep it in our

pockets. And I pray that we'd fight that temptation

by being wildly generous and giving eagerly.

And that we would also expect that your word

is true, that your grace is sufficient for us,

that your power is actually made perfect in our

weakness, that feeling a little uncertain may

be actually for our best. God, please do this

in us. And in so doing, God, conform us to the

image of our Lord before the joy who is set before

him endured the cross, despising its shame and

bringing us to salvation. Amen. Thank you for

listening to Second City Sermons podcast. We

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