Latest / The Daily Word / April 9 – Give with the Right Heart
Transcript
- Cory Barnes: Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good wee hours of the night, whatever time you are joining us, welcome to the Daily Word podcast from Lakeshore Christian Fellowship. My name is Corey Barnes and it is my privilege to pastor our Catawba campus. I'm excited to be sitting down with you for another Daily Word episode where we are going to be diving into the New Testament portion of our reading plan for today, April the 9th, which is 2 Corinthians Chapter 9. Now, 2 Corinthians 8 and most of Chapter 9 is dealing with the fact that Paul, the Apostle Paul, is writing to the church at Corinth and he is asking them to give financially. He is collecting an offering for the church in Jerusalem where there has been a drought and people are struggling. financially, so he is connecting with not just Corinth, but a number of churches that he has relationship with, and he's sending people around to collect offerings to go and support the believers, the Christians that are suffering in Jerusalem. Now in chapters eight and nine, Paul gives a really, really solid appeal. He really, really like does a great job asking them. holding them, the church of Corinth to the standard that Jesus gave everything for you. So you should in return, you know, we should be responding generously when we see a need because Jesus generously took care of our needs. Now with that comes a passage that I really love because as Paul is giving this strong appeal, he also balances it out. in 2 Corinthians 9 verses 6 through 8. It says, remember this, I'm reading from the NIV translation, remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but whoever sows generously will also reap generously. So what you give to the Lord, he is able to work with. just like when you plant a seed in the ground, if you plant one seed, you're going to get a certain amount of fruit. If you plant lots of seeds, you're going to be able to reap a lot more fruit. That's kind of that same balance there. And that's an appeal for a generous gift to this church in Jerusalem. But then in verse seven, he, he brings in that balance there. 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. And 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 Now I tell you I have been going to church the majority of my life in excess of 20 years I've been to a lot of church services and different Traditions of Christianity I'll never forget a time that when I was in high school I went to I was dating a girl and I went to church with her for a night service or something and they had a guest minister there and I will never forget that he got up and he took an offering and when they counted the offering he asked how much it was and he was not happy with that so he passed the offering plate again and when he got the new total given to him he still was not happy with the amount that was given. So he started proclaiming that the Lord had told him that the offering should be a certain amount. And he said, we're not going to move on from the service until somebody gives the amount that we need to balance that out. Now, I know that sounds crazy and that's because it kind of was. I don't know that minister. I don't know the condition of his heart. I don't know why he did what he did. But I can tell you that based on this verse from second Corinthians nine and verse seven, each should give as you have decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion. I can tell you that because of that, that minister was an error. He was missing it. He wasn't doing what he should have done because we are not supposed to give out of being forced or compulsion. It is the Lord that tells people how much to give and we should all give what the Lord puts in our heart. Now the Lord loves a cheerful giver and he will bless those of us who respond to him when he puts a need in front of us and ask us to take care of that. And we have the means to take care of that. Yes, we want to be able to jump in. We want to be generous. We want to start responding well, but Never allow emotions, a really good appeal, someone ⁓ ringing your hand, someone sending you all those emails and junk mail asking for donations. Don't let those things dictate the external things dictate what you're giving. Allow the Lord to tell you what to give. Allow him to move on your heart. and give based on that and don't feel guilty when you can't give or don't give when he hasn't put a burden on your heart for that thing. We want to be generous givers, but we want the Lord to direct that giving for us because he knows the good soil he wants us sowing our seed into. So don't give out of compulsion. Don't give because someone's pulling on your heartstrings or cracking a whip. Give because the Lord is good and there are needs around us that do need to be met. And sometimes the Lord taps us on the shoulders to be the one that gave it. So let's talk about a little bit of application with that. Have you opened the dialogue with the Lord to even have those kinds of conversations with you? Have you talked with him? You know, Lord, you say that when I give, you're going to generously give back to me what I sow. you are going to generously give back. if I'm looking at my sewing, am I conditioning myself? Am I setting myself up by living a generous lifestyle of responding when the Lord put something on my heart so that I can reap generously just as I'm giving generously. Have you had that conversation with the Lord of start showing me how to do that? Start giving me the desire to do that and just start following that leading. when he touches your heart and starts giving you opportunities to sow into the people around you. The Lord's calling us to live generously because there are a lot of tangible physical needs around us that until those needs are met in the lives of people, they may never hear someone tell them that Jesus loves them. It's hard to hear that when you're hungry. It's a lot easier to hear that when you have a full belly, when your needs are met. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you. We thank you that you, Jesus, you came and you gave everything for us. You were so rich. You were the wealthiest in all the universe, sitting with your father in heaven, speaking things into existence. You created, you are the creator, Jesus, and you took all of that and you put that aside and you came to earth and you became poor for us and you gave. all that you had to give for us. So when you ask us to give and to sow into other people and you put that in your heart, we can follow that faithfully. We know you will return. You will not let us go hungry. You will provide for our needs as you use us to provide for the needs of others. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to distinguish your voice when you put that on our heart. and the voice of the world, the voice, the noise that would try to be getting into our pockets that don't belong there, Lord. You have control over our pockets, not them. We praise you and we thank you for who you are. We love you, Jesus. I thank you, Lord, for helping us to be cheerful, generous givers here at Lakeshore. In the name of Jesus, amen.