Satisfied - Pt. 5
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Inro:
Welcome back to our 5th lesson in our series entitled “Satisfied.”
We are learning how the scriptures drive home the truth and the ability to be:
Content with our Possessions
Content with our People
Content with our Position in Christ
Over the past several weeks we have looked at the truths of:
- CONTENTMENT, which is defined as:
Internal satisfaction which does not demand changes in external circumstances.
- Comparison is the enemy of Contentment - because it rarely focuses on what we have.
It focuses on what somebody else has and, in comparison, what we lack. Comparison demands, “Why them and not me?”
- Identity - and that for those of us who follow Jesus, We belong to Him and that changes things.
Last week we learned how:
Affluence (our abundant wealth) often detours us from properly placing our hope.
We tend to grow arrogant in our abundance - looking down on those who don’t have what we have
or
We tend to trust or expect our abundance to somehow fill a void that only God can fill.
We think that the many family or friends will fill the void - BUT PEOPLE FAIL.
We think that more stuff will satisfy the emptiness - BUT STUFF FAILS.
We think that more recognition will make us feel better - BUT OPINIONS CHANGE.
So, this is why Paul directs Timothy to:
17 Instruct those who are rich in the present age not to be arrogant or to set their hope on the uncertainty of wealth, but on God, who richly provides us with all things to enjoy.
18 Instruct them to do what is good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and willing to share,
And with these blessings we enjoy in mind, lets turn to 2 Corinthians 8.
Now 2 Corinthians is the second letter written by Paul to the church at Corinth. In his first letter, he urged them to unite together, and in the second, he addresses some of the same issues as 1 Corinthians, but makes a strong defense of his apostleship. In 2 Corinthians we find one of the most revealing letters of Paul’s heart and spirit in ministry.
Corinth was a strategic center for commerce and trade. By the first century, Corinth had eclipsed Athens as the most important city in the region.
Paul had previously asked the Corinthians to assist with a famine relief offering. The Corinthians had promised their eager support, but they had not yet given as they promised.
1 Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia:
2 that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality.
3 For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing,
4 imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints.
The Macedonian church Paul is writing about was born out of affliction and deep poverty, not abundance. Yet they were freely willing to give to meet the needs of others.
5 And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.
6 So we urged Titus, that as he had begun, so he would also complete this grace in you as well.
7 But as you abound in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, and in your love for us—see that you abound in this grace also.
8 I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.
9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
10 And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago;
11 but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have.
12 For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have.
13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened;
It was not Paul’s intention, nor God’s plan, for them to give what they did not have. In fact,
14 but by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may supply their lack, that their abundance also may supply your lack—that there may be equality.
There is a spirit of mutual need meeting.
Paul understood that God is the giver of all good gifts, and just because he has blessed one specific person with abundance does not mean it is exclusively for that person.
And we also find that Paul mentions that the previously benevolent spirit of the Corinthians has spurred others to want to give too.
Illustration:
Walking by the bell ringers at a Store. Sometimes when everyone else is giving, I just want to hop in line too.
Movie of a naive man who went to an auction for the very first time. In all of the commotion and excitement, he learned it became more intense and exciting with the raising of the numbered card each person had. So without any money to his name, and a misunderstanding of how it all worked, he raised his card pushing the auction prices higher and higher.
A few years ago, there was a young lady attending here - not yet a member, but came to our monthly business meetings. Several months in, when asked for someone to make a motion, she raised her hand. From that point on throughout the night, she would raise her hand to make motions, and at one point, even said, this is fun!
I didn’t think she had joined yet, so we looked back, and sure enough she wasn’t a member. So, we had to go back and re-motion all of her fun because she wasn’t yet a voting member.
Sometimes the giving spirit of others spurs us on to to be generous too.
Paul mentions that in 9:1-2
1 Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you;
2 for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority.
Their generous spirit was contagious.
And Paul takes that generous spirit and adds to it with some teaching principles on giving.:
6 But this I say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
7 So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity; for God loves a cheerful giver.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
9 As it is written: “He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”
The Action
Give of our wealth
Possessions, People, and Position in Christ
Intentionally 9:7
Proportionately - 8:3
“according to their means”
Sacrificially - 8:3
“and beyond their means of their own accord”
Generously
As you pursue the generous life, you are simply responding to a generous God.
The Hinderances
Fear - Will i have enough?
Delay - There is one lethal word that can paralyze generous giving, and that’s the word “later.”
Do not become a victim to well-intentioned delay.
Begin somewhere — begin now — to set aside a portion of your income for giving.
The Attitude
Trustfully
Growing in the art of generosity will require that we grow in the art of trusting God.
Cheerfully
BECAUSE WE KNOW that:
gifts are not losses, but participation in something much larger — a cycle of trust and divine care.
There are at least three participants in the cycle of trust and care that Paul describes: the giver, the recipient, and God.
Illustration:
We are not to be simply collectors of God’s blessings, but conduits.
Sure we are to enjoy the blessings He gives, but we must not place our hope in these things, or assume they belong exclusively to us.
It all belongs to God anyway - in fact, He set the perfect example for us in giving.
As Timothy Keller puts it in his book Counterfeit Gods - “Jesus, the God-Man, had infinite wealth, but if he had held on to it, we would have died in our spiritual poverty. “
Homework:
This week’s project: For the next month, raise your giving by 1 percent.*