2 Corinthians 9:8 ~ 20191103 ~ Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org

11/03_2 Corinthians 9:8; I Shall Not Want; Abounding Grace for Abounding Generosity; Audio available at: http://www.ephraimbible.org/Sermons/20191103_2cor9_8.mp3


Abounding Grace for Abounding Generosity

2 Corinthians 9:6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Abounding grace for abounding generosity. God will freely give you what you need so that you can freely give. Notice the 'abound' word – twice in this verse. It starts with all grace abounding, and it ends with all good work abounding. And notice the comprehensive 'all' words three times in the middle; all, always, all. This verse is symmetrical and comprehensive. It begins with an overflow of God's grace to us, and it flows out in our good works.

Here's a rough literal translation to help you see the symmetry and repetition in the verse:

'Now mighty/able [is] God, all grace to cause to abound to you,

in order that in all,

always,

all self sufficiency having,

you will abound in all good work.'

God's Ability

This verse begins with God's ability, God's abundant grace. God is able to make all grace abound to you. Let's just soak in that statement for a moment. God is mighty. God is strong. God is able. He is powerful. He is fully capable. Omnipotent is the theological word – all powerful. Nothing is too difficult for the Lord. Nothing is beyond his ability. He is able to do all that he wants to do.

God's Eagerness

And God loves a cheerful giver. The one who scatters seed bountifully will also reap bountifully. God loves a cheerful giver because he is a cheerful giver. And he loves to create cheerful giving in us. What he wants to do is to make all his grace abound to you. So that you will overflow with cheerful giving. Paul held up the Macedonians as an example of this in the beginning of chapter 8.

2 Corinthians 8:1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed [abounded] in a wealth of generosity [simplicity] on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor [grace] of taking part [fellowship] in the relief [service] of the saints—

God gave the Macedonian believers his grace, and it created abundant joy and overflowed in abundant single-hearted simplicity. God gave his grace to them, and God will give his abundant grace to you too.

God is able, and he is willing. He gave us the ultimate proof of his willingness.

2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.

This is abundant grace indeed! That God himself, God the Son, being eternally rich, would enter into our poverty in order to make us rich with his presence forever! If you ever doubt his goodness, his grace, you need only look to the cross.

All Grace Abounding

Look carefully at what this says. Savor this! God is able to make all grace abound to you. It does not say that he will merely give you grace (as if that would not be enough). Not just sufficient grace, not some grace, but all grace. All grace! God holds nothing back! He gives us “the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus” (Eph.2:7)! All grace, every good gift we don't deserve and didn't earn is ours in Christ Jesus!

But he doesn't even stop there, in giving us all his grace. He is able to cause all grace to abound, to overflow to you! All his grace in unending, overwhelming, abundant supply.

Ephesians 3:14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, ...16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Glory! We need his supernatural strength to comprehend the depth of his goodness toward us! All his undeserved grace in abundant supply! Worship!

The Purpose of Abundance

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

There is a purpose statement here. 'So that' or 'in order that'. God's grace is abundantly given to us for a purpose. It is so that in all things, at all times, we would have all sufficiency to abound in all good work. God's abundant giving is to be mirrored in us. God gives abundantly to us so that we will become abundant givers like he is.

God's purpose in causing all his grace to abound to you is not for you to store it up and horde it. It is not for you to become a a septic tank, where everything goes in and nothing out, where the good water flowing from the kitchen sink gets stagnant and smelly, until it gets too full and too foul and needs to be pumped out.

God's design is that you be a fresh mountain reservoir, with direct access to the ever flowing springs and streams of God's goodness, filled to overflowing so that it can freely flow out to bless others.

Paul tells the elders from Ephesus:

Acts 20:35 In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

We are blessed in order to bless others. By working hard we must help the weak. He writes to the Ephesians:

Ephesians 4:28 Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.

The contrast here between stealing and working is not merely a contrast of how wealth is gotten. It is also a contrast of purposes. Not stealing to have more to spend, not stealing to supply his own needs, but working hard in order to have something to share with anyone in need. The heart of the thief is transformed. His goal for his income honestly gotten is radically different.

Paul writes Timothy:

1 Timothy 6:17 As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. 18 They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.

The rich are not condemned for being rich, but rather are exhorted to not believe in, trust in, set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches. They are exhorted to use what they have been blessed with to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share. This is how to truly enjoy wealth. This is truly living!

The author of Hebrews says

Hebrews 13:5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Free! Freedom to be content with what you have. Content with the promise of God's presence. He goes on to say:

Hebrews 13:16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

The privilege of pleasing God. We have the awesome privilege of pleasing God with what he has given freely to us.

Abundant Supply for Every Good Work

God's purpose in causing all his grace to abound to you is that you might reflect him by abounding in all good work. We might ask 'What good work? Which good work am I supposed to abound in? I certainly can't do everything.' This is similar to the lawyer's question when Jesus affirmed that the law requires that we love God and love neighbor as oneself.

Luke 10:29 But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”

We want off the hook. So we say 'Which good work?' Jesus told a story about a man who had been beaten and robbed and left half dead, and three different people's responses to seeing this man in need. Jesus' question was:

Luke 10:36 Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?”

Jesus turns the question around from 'who is my neighbor' to 'where is your heart?' What kind of a neighbor are you to the people in your life who have need? Are you miserly, eager to protect what you have, focusing on your own potential loss, or is your heart overflowing, seeing the need around you and leaping at the opportunity to bless as you have been so abundantly blessed?

This passage simply and clearly answers this question with one simple word; all. Every. So that you may abound in all good work. Every good work.

In fact James goes so far as to say

James 4:17 (KJV) Therefore to him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.

If you're anything like me, you hear this and you say 'but I don't have sufficient resources to do it all! Every good work? This surely must be hyperbole. It can't mean literally every good work, can it?

Sandwiched in the middle of this purpose statement are three more 'all' words. Inside the 'In order that ...you may abound in every good work' are these six words: 'in all, always, all sufficiency having.' To our 'but I don't have enough, I won't have enough' God says 'you will have all you need, all the time, in everything.'

In another passage where Paul is thanking a church family for sending him support, he says:

Philippians 4:19 And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.

When I am focused on my lack and begin to doubt, I need to ask myself 'Is Jesus enough?' What is it that I really need?

Our thinking tends to be stuck in categories of giving monetarily. And that is a valid category. But we need to be open to thinking outside our boxes, as Peter and John teach us in Acts 3. They were on their way to the temple to pray when they were interrupted by a lame beggar asking for money. Here it is in the old King James, the way I first heard it:

Acts 3:6 (KJV) Then Peter said, Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

He was asking for money. Not many of us can honestly say 'Silver and gold have I none.' But we do hold the life-transforming treasure of the gospel in these jars of clay. Peter and John could have said 'Silver and gold have I none' and felt off the hook to walk by and do nothing. But instead their time with Jesus had transformed their vision to see beyond what he was asking for to his real need, to the hope of all things made new. What has Jesus freely given you that you can share freely with others?

2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

Let's end by savoring these familiar words together:

Psalm 23 (KJV) 1 A Psalm of David.

The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul:

he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil:

for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies:

thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life:

and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

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Pastor Rodney Zedicher ~ Ephraim Church of the Bible ~ www.ephraimbible.org