This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) - Walkin' through 2 Corinthians chapter nine this week. This is
day four. We're going to look at verses 12 to 14.

I'll read those verses in just a second. But before I read those, think with me
for just a moment about the power of generosity in your own life. How in your
own life you have been impacted by the generosity of another person.

Times when that person has been generous with you. It may have been a gift to
you as a child. You think way back to as a child, some generosity that someone
in your family or someone in your church or neighborhood had towards you and you
still remember it.

Or it may have been something as simple as a meal that someone brought you
during a time that you were hurting. And you can still remember them generously
sharing some food with you and how their generosity impacted you, gave you some
encouragement during that time. It might be some larger gift to help you through
a crisis or some larger gift that was given because someone believed in you and
wanted to see God at work in your education or God at work in your ministry
gifts.

Or it could be something I haven't mentioned but you know what it is. Someone
was generous and your life was impacted. Now it's not always one to one.

There are people in your church that are generous and because of that your life
is impacted every week. Your life is impacted by having a place to meet. Your
life is impacted by hearing the teaching of God's word.

Your life is impacted by being able to go out and share the good news. So the
generosity of that entire body of Christ is impacting your life. In these verses
we're going to look at today, Paul talks about the practical results of generosity.

When you're generous, there are some things that happen eternally. You are
investing in eternity. So you can count on the fact that when you're generous,
there's some things you're going to see in heaven forever and ever because of that
act of generosity.

There's some things that happen eternally but in these verses he reminds us that
there are also some things that happen immediately. In fact Paul talks about
three of them in these verses. What happens immediately when I'm generous?

When I give, not out of a grudging heart but out of a willing heart and I give
to God when I sow that seed? What happens immediately are, well let's use these
three words, provision, praise, and prayer. Those three things happen
immediately.

Listen for those three in verses 12 to 14 as I read them. This service that you
perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but it's also
overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. 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 and for your generosity in
sharing with them and with everyone else.

And in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you because of the
surpassing grace God has given you. Why should you be generous? Well I could
give you a dozen reasons.

It begins with the fact that God is generous and I want to be like God. It
continues with the fact that I want to break the grip of materialism in my life.
It keeps me focused on people and not things.

There's a lot of reasons to be generous. But three reasons to remember in these
verses, things that happen immediately, what happens when you're generous, first
thing that happens here is provision. You are supplying the needs of God's
people.

When you're generous, there are people that are blessed. The needs of God's
people are supplied. You don't always get to see that, but it does happen.

I know in our own church, I look at a time when a tsunami happens in Asia and
our church gets together and decides we're going to give, we're going to be generous
because we have a church there that we're connected to. And out of that, out of
the gift, the offering that our church took that day, it's given to that church
and all of a sudden the needs of people that have been devastated begin to be
met. They have a place to live.

They have food to eat. Provision is given. Or I think the same thing in our
church about when Hurricane Katrina comes through the US and our church takes up
an offering.

And out of that, provision is given to the needs of people who need compassion,
who need hope. I think about our peace center right now that we have on our own
campus because God encouraged people to give. We built a center where people can
come in every day and if they're hungry and don't have enough food, they can get
a bag of food.

If they're not knowing how to handle their finances, they want some counseling,
somebody can sit down with them and say here's how to begin to live in a
different kind of way. They need some legal encouragement. There's some
situations they're facing where they're really in trouble and they need a
Christ-like way of thinking about things.

There's some legal counsel for them there. None of that could happen. None of
that provision could happen except for the fact that somebody was generous.

That's an immediate impact that occurs when you are generous. Provision,
supplying the needs of God's people. Provision happens.

A second immediate impact is praise. Praise goes back to God. Thanksgiving goes
back to God.

Now Paul's very specific about that in these verses. He says men will praise
God, first he says for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the
good news. It's one thing to say I love Jesus.

It's another thing to give. It's another thing to give sacrificially. And when
people see you giving sacrificially, most of the world, first of all, they
scratch their head at that.

And they think what, why would you even do that? I mean, are you on drugs or
something? Is that church like mind controls or hypnotism going on there?

But when somebody actually sits down and talks with you and realizes you're
being unselfish, you're giving because you want the needs of the community to be
met. You're giving because you want the good news of Christ to get out. All of a
sudden, there's a thanksgiving to God that goes out through that.

Even in people who don't yet know Christ, but especially in those who know
Christ 'cause they know what's going on. Minimal praise God for the obedience
that you have. Everybody can see that.

And Minimal also, Paul says, praise God for your generosity and sharing with
them. You met a need in my life because you gave. Thank you, God.

Thank you, God. Because people know, they know it's not about you. It's about
the God who motivated you to give.

So the thanksgiving in the end goes back to God. When you and I give, it shows
the world what God is like. That's what glorifying God means, by the way.

You've heard that phrase, we want to glorify God with our lives. What does it mean
to glorify God? It means to show the world what God is like.

God is a God of glory. God is glorious. But how do I see that?

When you glorify God, one of the ways is as you give. There's a hundred other
ways to do it, but one of the ways is as you give. When you give, it causes
people to remember the incredible generosity of God, that he's given everything.

So giving causes provision to happen. Needs are met. Giving causes praise to
happen.

God is thanked. Now, those are two that maybe you could probably very easily
figure out even on your own without reading these verses. Yeah, that's going to
happen when I give.

The third one is a surprise to many people. Third one is a new thought to many
people. A third thing that happens when you give is prayer.

Others will pray for you. When you give, when you're generous, it actually
increases the prayer power in your own life. In their prayers for you, Paul
says, their hearts will go out to you.

What happens is your giving results in a connection between you and another
person, you and another church. And out of that connection, you're now praying
for them, and they're now praying for you. And we have no idea in this world,
the incredible blessings, the incredible benefits and power that comes into our
lives through the prayer of others.

I certainly don't. I want to walk by faith and not by sight. I want to see things by
faith, but I have to admit, one of the things I do not see like I want to see is
the incredible power of other people praying for me and me praying for others.

Even though I don't necessarily see it every day, I know it because God's word
talks about it again and again. So one of the benefits of you giving, of
generosity in your life, is now you've built a prayer connection between you and
another person. One of the things that we get when we give is the prayers of
those that we give to.

And that is a greater blessing than you'll ever know until you get to heaven.
Now we've been talking these last few days. We've reminded ourselves that
generosity results in true riches.

It results in riches that last. When you're generous, what happens? Through your
generosity, you're investing in eternity.

Through your generosity, you're saying no to this materialistic age. Through
your generosity, you're strengthening your own faith and the faith of others.
Through your generosity, you're meeting the physical needs of others.

Through your generosity, you're showing the world what God is like. Through your
generosity, thanksgiving goes out to God. Through your generosity, others pray
for you and you pray for them.

Through your generosity, you're building a true legacy for life. Through your
generosity, you're changing the world. But don't forget this, through your
generosity, you're changing your own life.

Our Father, cause us to be more generous than we ever have before. Help us to
resist the temptation to look to the past and think about how generous we've
been. Instead, let us look to the future and think about how generous we can be
with whatever you've given.

Our Father, instead of being selfish, we want to be generous. Instead of being
centered on us, we want to be centered on you and others. So give us a heart,
give us a spirit of generosity.

Bring people into our life to encourage that and help us to encourage others in
generosity in our lives. You are a generous God. We want to be like you.

Bring generosity into our lives in a way that's above and beyond what we ever
expected could happen in our lives. That's above and beyond what we ever
anticipated could be us. Make each of us, Lord, I pray, a generous man, a
generous woman, generously giving so that an abundance of praise can go back to
you, so that glory can go back to you.

We ask this in the name of Jesus, amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look together at
the gift that tops all of them.