Empowered for Kingdom Lifestyles
II Corinthians 8:1-12
I can sum life in two words: faithfulness and fruitfulness. Every day we need to get up and say, “Lord, help me to be purely faithful that I may maximize my fruitfulness for your purpose.” Life is about being faithful and fruitful for the Lord. Most folks have mastered busyness in their lives but busyness doesn’t mean anything if you are not fruitful for God’s purpose. So we should always be striving to be fruitful for God’s purpose.
What can you do beyond your job to maximize your fruitfulness with the gifts, the knowledge and the resources God has given you? One primary way we can make a difference for Jesus Christ and advance his mission of expanding the kingdom of God is through financial resources. And the only place we are going to get those resources is from your pocket and mine. You as the body of Christ become the means and the conduit through which God delivers the resources of heaven to the needs of people on earth. You are the only bank account God has. You are the only hands and feet, the only skill set and the only resources God has to build the kingdom of God. But it starts with you. Jesus calls it binding and loosing. Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.
In our Scripture today, we find four principles of giving. Paul writes of Macedonia which was a poor area in a Gentile country in Asia Minor. The area included the churches at Phillipi, Thessalonica, and Berea. These people living very modestly and from a human perspective, it had limited resources. Yet God increased their fruitfulness because of their faithfulness. In their poverty and limited resources, this church in their faithfulness reached out to the Jewish church in Jerusalem which was starving to death in the midst of famine. First is the law of faith. The Law of Faith (vs.5,7a) is the belief that everything is possible through faith. In fact, God uses finances to test us all the time. Have you ever had to make decision whether to but that new outfit or give a tithe? This is a test. God is testing you to see how much you trust him, how much you believe. There are two ways to give: You can give by faith, or you can give by fear. Giving by fear is when you say, "How much can I afford to give?". Giving by faith is when you say, "How much does God want me to give?" This is exactly what the Macedonians did. We give because we trust God that he will provide our needs. Our attitude is to put God first and believe that all things will be added.
The first verse reads, “And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.” Grace is a gift, you don’t earn it but it is given to you even though you haven’t earned it or you don’t deserve it. The grace he refers to is a clear reference to the opportunity to give of their money to the work of God. God has given you the opportunity to give to a cause greater than any other on the face of the earth. When you give to God and his work, you give to a cause whose work is greater than you and will leave a legacy that will last forever, the building of the kingdom of God.
The second is the law of miraculous increase. Verse 2 says, Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” It’s out of the most severe trials of life that God is most active. And even in severe poverty, you don’t become a damn where God’s resources pile up but a channel through which God’s blessings flow. It’s in the poverty of the Macedonian church and their faithfulness that we see the law of miraculous increase because they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. In other words, they didn’t give what they thought they could afford, they gave what God called them to give. Too often in our lives, we think we can’t afford to give extravagantly when in reality if we want God to work most powerfully in our lives, we can’t afford not to give sacrificially and extravagantly. Do you know who the most generous Americans are? Research indicates that the weakest givers are those with incomes between $40,000 and $100,000 per year. The highest percentage of income given or the most sacrificial gifts were from those who make more who make less than $20,000. The most generous people are those who make the least. Kind of reminds you of the story of the widow who gave her last two coins, doesn’t it?
Now the Macedonians gave joyously. In fact, they pleaded to be able to give for famine relief. God will increase your fruitfulness because of your faithfulness. Faithfulness is not forced. It comes from the heart. The Macedonian church wasn’t even asked because of their poverty to give to those experiencing famine so the church had to beg and plead to be able to give. And they didn’t give what others expected because of their poverty but instead gave themselves to God first and because of that, they far exceeded what was expected.
The third law is the law of love. The key was the Macedonians gave themselves first to Jesus. If you don’t get anything else this morning, you’d better get this: giving yourself to Jesus goes beyond just believing in Jesus. The Bible says, Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” Most people in the church do that but they stop right there. Believing in Jesus means trusting in what God has done in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus and the gift of eternal forgiveness. And you trust that. You know your relationship and standing before God is not dependent on your failure but your relationship with God is based on what Jesus has done through the cross and that God’s love for you is unconditional and nothing could ever separate you from the love of God. Most people in the church believe and accept that. But what God has done goes far beyond forgiveness, it’s about restoration. It’s about restoring us to the image that he intended in creation and that’s a lifelong process called sanctification. What does that look like? Jesus. When you look at Jesus, that’s what every human being was created to be like.
What happens when you go beyond believing in Jesus to loving and giving yourself to Jesus? It’s in that moment that God’s purpose can be most fully realized in our lives. The life of one, Jesus, through the process of death, takes over the life of another. This happens when we give ourselves to Jesus. When you do that, something in you must die. Paul writes, “all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Romans 6:2-4, 6-7 It’s when we die to our old selves that we come to know the power of God in our lives and that becomes our soul desire.
Paul writes in Phil 3:10, “I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain the resurrection from the dead.” I want to know the power of the resurrection in my marriage, in my career, in my relationship with my kids, in my friendships and I want to know it in my financial life. But for that to happen we have to become like him in His death, having our old ways and desires die, before we can ever experience the power of the resurrection. So to have the power of the resurrection in my money matters, I have to die to selfishness, self-focus and self-ownership. This is the key to the law of miraculous increase to the Lord. Because of their faithfulness, God increased their fruitfulness.
The law of love leads us to sacrifice. We give because love compels us. Ask this to yourselves right now: Why we can’t give to the needy although we have money? Because we don’t love them. Why can we give our love ones or children whatever they ask though we have no money? Because we love them so much! That’s the law of love. True love compels us to do because this love comes from God. We can give during trials because of love, we can give despite of our financial incapacity because of love, and we can give beyond our ability because of love. We can do everything because love compels us to do!
Now turn to 2 Corinthians 9:8, “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: "He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” We don’t need to fear being sacrificially generous to others and to God because God will see that you have everything that you need. God wants you to be generous to others because that gives Him glory and our witness to Him. But here’s the thing: God never asks us to give out of our abundance. He always asks us to give out of what little we have so that then it is an act of faith and God has to opportunity to provide fruitfulness in the midst of our faithfulness. “You will be rich in every way” means far more than financial, it means your emotional, your relational, your vocational and your spiritual. God acts in the lives of the needy through you and me.
Fourth is the law of the harvest. sowing and reaping-that everything we sow, we reap. Remember this: "Whoever sows sparringly will also reap sparringly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously" The purpose of fruitfulness is so that you can be fruitful on not just some occasions but every occasion. Fruitfulness increase is based on faithfulness and faithfulness is sowing. God can increase the fruitfulness of your life but first you have to give yourself to Jesus. When you give yourself to Jesus, we can have the mind of Christ. It’s then that the Spirit begins to guide us. No longer do you have to wrestle over decisions and fret over which is the right way to go because now you have given yourself to Jesus and you know the heart and thoughts of God. Jesus said, the Holy spirit would remind us all of the teachings of Jesus and it becomes so much a part of you that you no longer need the WWJD bracelet and you don’t even need to ask the question, because you now have the mind of Christ. It’s not until you give yourself to Jesus that you are going to experience the fruitfulness of miraculous, that’s the law of the harvest and the law of miraculous increase in your life.
Not only does God bless us through the law of fruitfulness by giving us the mind of Christ but he also gives us the power of Christ to loose what God has. Jesus said, “All who have faith in me will do the works that I have been doing and they will do even greater works than these because I am going to the Father. Jesus turned water into wine, raised Lazarus from the dead, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind. And we are going to do even greater things than these! Now listen, when we become faithful in the little things like bringing the tithe, then we will be able to do even greater things than Jesus, even raising people from the dead. That’s the power of Christ to loose the resources of heaven here on earth.
We have the power together to be Jesus to each other. We have the power to loose the resources of heaven here on earth. It’s through our fruitfulness that we become a witness to God’s presence and love. 2 Cor. 9:12 says, “This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God’s people but is 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.” Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, people will praise God becauae of your profession of faith in Jesus Christ and because of your generosity and in sharing with them. The surpassing grace that God has given you is the miraculous law of multiplication. Because of your faithfulness, God has increased your fruifulness.
Life is summed up in two words: faithfulness and fruitfulness and when you are faithful, God will increase your fruitfulness and you will experience the law of faith, the law of miraculous increase, the law of love and the law of the harvest.
