II Corinthians 9:8 GEMS' Sunday
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Dearly loved people of God,
Hey GEMS,
Remind me please, what is your theme verse?
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.
(NIV)
Why is God able to bless you abundantly?
· He is God: majestic, powerful, generous
One of God’s OT preachers encouraged people to be generous with a reminder of God’s power and blessings:
Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.
(NIV)
He is Creator
everything belongs to him
everything is under his control
He designed it all
It’s springtime now. Some planting is happening; lots more to follow. Hard to imagine in the mud but, when it gets hot, the fields and gardens will get dry. Irrigation is a huge engineering challenge: how to get water from lakes, ponds, and streams to the dry fields and sprinkle it gently and evenly.
While you’re scratching your head thinking about pumps and pipes and sprinklers, God has this one figured out. Let’s make water evaporate, make the clouds race across the sky on the wind and then drop the moisture in droplets. We don’t usually call it irrigation. We call it rain!
I know all about flooding; it was an annual event when I worked in Fredericton. But if God is able and willing to provide rain pretty evenly across Oxford County and the rest of SW Ontario, blessing you abundantly is not a problem. God is willing and able to provide what you need for food, shelter, and clothing. He loves each person he’s made. He’s especially fond of each of you. Even more than your teachers, parents, and grandparents, God Almighty wants what’s best for you! Why?
When we simplify the sentence, his reasons pop off the page:
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.
(NIV)
God generously blesses you so you’re equipped and motivated to do lots of good stuff.
How’s that going for you?
Do your good actions overflow like a river at flood stage?
Are you full of good, generous, and kind thoughts, actions, and deeds? Well, sometimes . . .
There are days when we’re generous and it’s easy to be kind.
But it doesn’t happen “in all things and at all times.” You might be doing better at it than I am, but I haven’t mastered abounding in every good work in all things at all times – not yet. That’s discouraging because I certainly see God’s abundant blessing, yet I fall short of loving my neighbour as myself – “in all things and at all times.”
I don’t love God with my heart, soul, mind, and strength – at least, not “in all things at all times.” How about you?
That’s a problem. God has kept up his side of the bargain, but me – not so much. It isn’t God’s fault, either. He created people with the ability to abound in every good work. Something is blocking it though.
Do you know what the theological term for that is?
Sin! Disobedience blocks us from doing good “in all things at all times.”
We depend on God for his blessings, his gifts, his love. When sin cuts us off from God, we’re like a flower cut from a plant. Eventually we shrivel and die. That’s the natural consequence of sin. Sin leads to death and being cut off from God and all his blessings.
God didn’t want that for you. He doesn’t want that for anyone. So he did something to fix things: another gift, an amazing blessing!
Our heavenly Father sent his dearly loved Son to become human. He was called “Jesus.” He faced all the challenges and temptations that we do, but he remained obedient. “In all things and at all times,” Jesus “abounded in every good work.” He succeeded in doing what we cannot do.
The best, most generous thing Jesus did was when he took the natural consequences of sin upon himself. He suffered and wilted, he shriveled and died on the cross. God the Father put the punishment for human sin on Jesus.
But rising to life on Easter morning, Jesus proved that sin and death were defeated. Your guilt and shame are washed away in Jesus. It’s one of the biggest blessings God has lavished on people: by faith in Jesus, sin is forgiven and we get God’s help in doing good. Can you believe it?
Now God the Holy Spirit helps us obey God’s instructions to be kind and generous and good to our neighbours. The passage we read from God’s word mentions it. It’s the “obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ.”
All of it – forgiveness of sin and God’s ongoing work to make us able to love God and neighbour – all of it is part of the indescribable gift mentioned in vs. 15.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!
(NIV)
So what does it look like when “you abound in every good work, in all things at all times?”
We have to start with some good work, in some things, at some times, or it’s too big to handle.
For the preacher who wrote this, he was concerned for Christians facing famine in Judea.
For the GEMS this year:
Selling and making pies to raise funds for Esther School – girls’ school in Zambia
Shoe Boxes for Samaritan’s Purse
Christmas Cards for Maple Manor
Baby Shower for Jesus – New Start
Happy Spring Cards
I took this photo on Good Friday
Lord’s Supper left communion glasses in all the pews . . .
Cleaning church
Kentucky