Bible Guys Classics: 2 Corinthians 9

Well, Jeff, if you ever heard the phrase God loves a cheerful giver, I have. Yes, Well today we're talking about that. Oh that's interesting. He's Chris and I'm Jeff, and we're the Bobble guys. Okay, so hey. You know we have people who comment and you know, subscribe and do all those things on social media, and so I just wanted to make a couple of comments about people. E j e JB has been our sharing rock star. I mean, so say thank you, Chris. Yeah, whoever EJB is, that's right. He has been sharing our podcast with others, is what you're meaning. That's right, sharing our posts and our page and all that stuff with all of his friends. Hey, whoever EJ is, thank you, buddy. That's amazing and more people need to be like EJ. Yeah, for sure, that's awesome. And then Kathy B said it's very encouraging to hear the daily Bible guys get into the nitty greedy of God's truth no matter what, without pretenses. Thank you for all you do for us, Kathy B. That is that is one of my favorite compliments. Without pretenses. Yeah, yeah, for sure, What does pretense mean? Without pretense? Well, I mean I would guess that it's meeting without it's. Stripping away without putting on airs. Yeah, it's it's stripping away of all that, and it's just it's just being real authentic. Yeah, wouldn't you say good? Good? Yeah? Absolutely, I was just asking so so then you know, the reality is we don't really have much to put airs on about, right, right, this is what you get right here. We are we are, We are what you see. So but we have fun doing it. And you know, the whole premise behind the podcast is we're just a couple of guys who like to talk about about the Bible and practical and fun ways. Yeah. Yeah, it doesn't doesn't mean we're the Bible theologians or the in depth study of you know. It just means we. Think that the Bible should be for practical application and everyday life. Yeah. Yeah. And it's not that it's not overly complicated. We can take the words on the page and you know, with a little bit of discussion, we can work them out and figure out what it means. Right, So that's it. Every once in a while we'll have somebody that'll go, you guys call yourselves the Bible guys. And that was a shallow, you know, approach to that. And I'm like, it's twenty minutes long, and we're not the theologian guys, right, We're just a couple of guys talking about the Bible. Well, if you think about it, the subject every day is the Bible. That's correct. So we're allowed to say what we want. That's right, that's right. And be says that we own the Bible guys dot com. That's right. That automatically makes us the Bible guys, right, right, And then hey, I love this and this might be my favorite. Sandy Za say, can't thank you guys enough exclamation point, exclamation point. I got to meet Chris in person with like ten exclamation points after it at the Christmas service for exclamation points, thank you, exclamation point. It was like meeting a celebrity with five feel the same way, Sandy. I just want you to know that every day, the privilege of being able to sit next to Chris is just it's almost overwhelming. You're welcome, Jeff, she said, thank you for all your inspiration. This is sandy Z. Nice. Hey, I just want to take a moment and see if sandy Z is listening to thank you. That's that feels very honoring. It's very nice, but certainly not the celebrity for sure. Oh well, you just don't know. And that's what we love about you is you're so humble about how amazing you are. Well, you know, I model myself after Keanu Reeves, who rides the subway like every commoner. By the way, did you. Know he's known to be one of the nicest and most down to earth celebrities that there is. Yeah, I've heard about that. Yeah, he's just super nice. And I've heard people just tell stories about how just absolutely you know what I mean. And Tom Hanks is that way too, by the way, Yeah and so and so. Yeah. I wouldn't say that pastors are celebrities, but I do think that there's a lot of people that recognize us. Sitting on my desk, rate on my desk, I've got a group of books, like a funny little library of funny titles to books, and one of them is like Yoga for the inflexible male and stuff. But I have one of them, you know, you know the phrase w W jdah. I have a book and it's titled what would Keanu Do? And the whole book is if you find yourself in this situation, do this, do that. It's so funny. But yeah, that's hilarious. Yeah, okay, anyways, that meant nothing, But I just want to be more like Chris. And so, Sandy, you said what we all are thinking. Hey, so the purpose of this segment, by the way, is to just highlight people who are active on social media with us, to highlight the fact that we appreciate the interaction. Yeah, we appreciate the sharing, we appreciate the feedback. And I think most of this came from YouTube. Is that right? I think I'm not sure. No, I think Facebook. Okay, Facebook, Yeah, Facebook, very cool. So do all the social media things. Yeah, subscribe and like and share. Thank you? Yeah. Well, hey that was really really neat. So thank you to EJ, Kathy and Sandy. Yes, okay, we are in. Second Corinthians chapter nine today. We're just gonna read through the whole chapter. He's continuing to speak about the giving and some of our listeners went, oh, no, they're talking about money two days in a row. But others you lean into it and go, oh, hey, I want to learn more. And so this is remember this is just a continuation of the conversation he was having that we talked about yesterday. Hey, by the way, I just want to say this. This is the best way to talk about money, because number one, you and I are not doing a campaign. Number Two, we're not asking people to give to any specific place. Right. We do this for free, right, And this is just money in general, that's right, right, And everybody has money, that's right. Everybody. Everybody, yeah, well, I mean most everybody. Yeah. So anyways, we'll just start in verse one. We're reading from the New Living Translation. It says, I really don't need to write to you about this ministry giving for the believers in Jerusalem, for I know how eager you are to help, and I've been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you and Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving. But I am sending these brothers to be sure you really are ready as I've been telling them, and that your money is all collected. I don't want to be wrong, and my boasting about you, we would be embarrassed not to mention your own embarrassment. If some Macedonian believers came with me and found that you weren't ready after all I had told them, so, I thought I should send these brothers ahead of me to make sure the gift you promised is ready. But I want it to be a willing gift, and not one giving grudgingly. Remember this, A farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop. You must each decide in your heart how much to give, and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God gives or God loves a person who gives cheerfully, and God will generously provide all you need, and then you'll always have everything you need and plenty leftover to share with others. As the scriptures say, they share freely and get generously to the poor, Their good deeds will be remembered forever. For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, He will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way, so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two things will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God as a result of your ministry. They will give glory to God for your generosity to them and to all believers who will prove that you are obedient to the good News of Christ. And they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God is given to you. Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words. What a great statement at the end there, thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words. Yea, His appreciation is overflowing at that point, right, Yeah, isn't that great? Yeah? I love it, you know, too wonderful for words? Is you know, people often say, you know, words aren't enough to express my gratitude. And Paul's talking about this, and he's doing it in the context of the church. And I've said this before from the stage for the last thirty years, but I always find it very, very fascinating how God makes giving an individual thing, and yet at the same time it's a collective thing. So it's God's it's God's thing where and by the way, that's that's the way. It always is. Christianity in general, like our faith is always an individual thing. Our relationship with our heavenly Father oftentimes is personal. It's personal. So you know, our obedience, our gratitude, our actions, our behavior, our worldview, all of it is completely dependent. And our relationship of our intimacy with our prayer life. And our you know anyway, all that stuff. So it's all personal. And yet faith in general is a community experience. So faith is a community experience in almost every way, it affects others. It impacts others. Uh, you know, it benefits others, right, and then and then we being a part of the others also then get to benefit personally what anyway, all have to say this, Uh, the same is true with giving. And this is sort of what Paul is laying out here. He's not he's not saying it the way I am, but he's pointing out the fact that because you know, he says, when these things happen to two things will result, you know, And I always think of man whenever you write a check, and whenever you give of your resources and God says, give of the first fruits. Of what I've blessed you with. It's an individual act of faith. And you have to say instead of saying, you know, what if I need this money for other things? What if I have expenses coming up, what if I'm not saving enough? Instead of saying those things, you say, Okay, God, in faith, I trust you, uh, you know, and then and then I'll live on on the rest. And you know, you know, you give just a portion, a small portion. Well, that's an individual thing. But at the same time, God moves the church forward collectively this way, so we as a church are called to things. And as the church continues to do their individual giving, we collectively together watch. You know, big movements happen through the generosity of individuals. Yeah, so I usually differentiate between and I'm not correcting, I'm just refining the statement. I usually differentiate between individual and personal. There's not much in the Christian life that is that is for the individual, but it is personal, like your faith. Everyone in a while will have somebody who is trying to be clever and they'll say, well, you know, I don't share my faith a lot. I'm not real overly vocal about my faith. I'm kind of like an undercover Christian, and I'm always like, there's no such thing. And people could say, well, my faith is very private. I'm very private about my faith, and I'll say, there's no such thing as private faith. There's personal faith. But you can't grow in your faith privately. It's not possible. Yeah, that's funny. You can't grow privately or individually in all the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, gentleness, kindness, perseverance, all those kinds of things. You can't. It's not possible. You can only do it in the context of relationship with other people. You can only become a mature Christian in the context of other people, which then actually makes me understand the fact that I have responsibilities to the rest of the body. I'm a part of the whole body. And Paul, we've already dealt with that in first print things when Paul says, hey, what would happen if you cut the thumb off. It's separated from the body, It's going to rot and die. We're all part of the body. And I think it's the same thing with giving and so giving. I have a responsibility to the rest of the body, whether it's here in my local body of believers or if it's the global church. I have a responsibility to leverage the resources God's give me. But he says, don't do it begrudgingly. Do it cheerfully and by the way, God's going to provide everything you need. And even more so, when we pivot from this, how do I individually provide myself for myself too? How do I leverage my resources for the benefit of the body and take care of myself? God says He'll give you everything you need and plenty. God rewards the person who pivots their thinking from an individual financial thinking to a personal it's personal between you and God, but it's not individual. Now, I'm part of a group and we have a responsibility to move the kingdom forward. And so he kind of takes that nuance to angle with this. A little bit. Well, I'm glad. I'm glad you said that, because it's important for people to hear it the right way, because what you're saying is semantics. Yeah, So I used individual. An individual and personal, right, right, right, it's the individual. I use the literal definition of one human right, but individual. The way people hear it is they hear it semantically. They create their own definition. They think of it as independent and autonomous. Right, And as believers, we're not independent or autonomous anymore. I'm not independent from Christ and I'm not independent from the body anymore. Right, right, right, Yeah, Yeah, that's important. Yeah, And I think that's great because then he's saying, so then you don't have any to worry about. So if your priorities align with God's priorities, God only has people to work with. Right, So God's not doing you know, hey, I'm going to magically send you know, one thousand dollars to this circumstance that needs to be solved. He doesn't just. Suddenly do it and you wake up in the morning and there's money in the bank account. That's not what happens. Instead, God chooses to use people to solve financial problems. So then if your willingness to align with God's will, then God will provide everything you need and enough for you to be able to give because there's a convergence of your will and God's will, and He's going to work through you. Then, because God's looking for willing servants, and so this is why he says God loves a cheerful giver. God, God will provide everything you need. He delights in resourcing the people who delight and resourcing God's people. Yeah, that's what he's saying. You know. It's interesting how sometimes an opportunity will present itself, you know, like you're walking by. This is a crude. Example, but like you're walking into a store and the Salvation Army guy rings his bell, right, and so crude meaning like it's just a pretty detached example, right, So either you're going to be moved emotionally or something says, oh man, you really need to give to that, you know, or you're not. And so there's so many opportunities. I went through a drive through and they said, would you like to round up for the benefit of X, Y and Z, And I always feel like a heel, but sometimes I say yeah, not today, thank you, you know. And then sometimes most of the time I'll just say yeah, round up, you know. But anyway, all have to say this. I get a text last night from and I'm sure you did too, from an individual on our staff who is talking about raising money for somebody who is in need and so this this text came in like probably close to midnight, and uh, and and just sort of throw it out and just said, hey, there's a person we know that's sort of struggling, and you know, just think about this and and uh, in anyway, the opportunity. I read it, and a lot of times it's just you you read it, and you know, I mean, you get you may get one hundred of those a week or one hundred a month, right, but something inside said, yeah, you need to be a part of this. And it's hard to it's hard to describe what that is, but it's just like, you know, you just say like, yeah, I think I need to I need to be a part of this and and and really what it is, I think it's just it's recognizing that God, Uh, even though that opportunities are in front of us every day, sometimes God selects you to be a part of certain ones. And I think that that's really important because you know, it's just like what we read last week or or yesterday where it says they begged to be a part of the blessing. Remember that the church begged to be a part of it. Yeah, And I think and so I responded last night at midnight, and I just said, hey, I want to be a part of this if I can, and if it goes this direction, here's where I can help. But I think that I think it's just really important to pay attention to those things. Yes, And then he talks about generosity as being kind of think of a farmer with seed. Now, for most people who plant stuff in their backyard, you don't think of this, but for those farmers in that day, you had to make a decision. Are we going to eat these kernels of corn or are we going to dry them out and use them as seeds next year? R So there was a decision every time, and this would be with regard to every kind of fruit and vegetable. Everything has a seed in it, they would have to think, are we going to consume all of it? Are we going to save some back so we have seeds for next year. And then he says, so you take one seed and you plant that seed's sacrifice because that means you chose not to consume that seed, but you get the harvest that you get from that one seed is so much more. I think about that with corn, I think about that with tomatoes. You plant one seed of corn and then you get a stalk with two or three ears of corn, with hundreds of kernels of corn from that one investment. We tend to think of that sacrifice as being extreme, and God is saying, hey, it's the same principle. You plant a little and see if I don't just bless you extravagantly. And I just have to say, you know, the blessings go beyond I think financial entirely, but man alive. I just see that God keeps showing up in that way in my life, that he continues to bless. I think he'll do the same because he says in verse ten for the one for God is the one who provides seeds for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yeah, that's also God's goal in increasing your resources is to also increase your generosity. Let's do go hand in hand. Yeah. And you know, we didn't mention this yesterday because we had a lot to talk about, but Paul actually quoted Exodus chapter sixteen and he said those who it's it's He says, as the scriptures say those who gathered a lot had nothing left over, and those who gathered only a little had enough. And I think he's referring to the mana, right, Yeah, so the mana was something supernaturally given by God and the principle of the mana. So here keep in mind this is even though it's last chapter, it's the same letter. It's the same thought here where Paul was talking about, like, hey, remember the principle when when when the children of Israel were in the wilderness and God decided to provide for them food every day. But strangely enough, he actually, well, actually it's not strange. It was just unique, I guess, interesting enough, interestingly enough. Because we grow bread and we can store bread, right or you know, or not grow, but you know, bake bread and we can store bread, and we could actually have it for tomorrow. But mana was a thing where he said you could only eat it. It's only good for that day. It has a twenty four hour expiration date. So if you see much and you collect much, it's all going to go to waste. But just collect just enough, and so imagine and seeing all the food you need. But saying like I'm trained to only grab what I need for that day. So anyway, I just think that's really interesting too, because you know, there's a big difference between you know, contentment with what we have and worry about what we should have. And then there's also like woven in their comparison, comparison of like is it okay to just be content with what you have when the people that I see down the street have way more than me, right, you know, And that's a big deal too, No. It's huge, I think. Then he says, yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And then he says and then they're gonna thank God too, So everybody's benefiting from your generosity. You will benefit from your generosity because God's saying, I'm not gonna let you go broke being generous. I'm gonna make sure that I provide for you so that you can provide for others. And then the person being provided for is going to be thankful for that. They're going to praise God because they're going to realize that God provided for them through his people, and then they're gonna love you. So there's this you and God them and God, you and them and then all of you all together. Right, everybody's going to benefit from it. And it's kind of in the way saying that this investment goes so far beyond just that one little donation or gift, and so it should inspire us to be people of God that decide, you know what, we're going to take these resources that He's loaned us and we're going to invest them in ways it'll make a difference and we'll always have enough. Yeah, And keep in mind as well, when he says God loves a person who gives cheerfully, you don't always have to give cheerfully. So I mean he loves it more, right, But it's not a it's not a it doesn't. You're not feeling cheerful. Give even if. You're not feeling cheerful, go ahead and give anyway, because oftentimes in our lives, uh, you know, we do give and worry and and you know it's like, well, I'm not feeling cheerful, I'm off the hook. You know. That's not that's not what that's meaning. A lot of times when we do the right thing, our feelings follow. Yeah, right, So I don't wait for my feelings and then do it you do it, and your feelings will follow usually. Yeah, that's really good. That's good, that's good advice. Well, I think that's all we have time for. That's a good place to wrap up, and we will see you next time on the Bible. Guys,