2 Corinthians 9:13-15

¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others 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. ¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. ¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

Parents

What lesson have you learned from your parents? God designed parents as first teachers of their children. Character exhibits priorities and preferences. Training and education are reflected in behavior and action.

And children can choose to respectfully obey parents or just not yet.

Together, let us learn from the parable of Christ in Matthew 21:28-31. ²⁸There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, “Son, go and work today in the vineyard.” ²⁹“I will not,” he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. ³⁰Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, “I will, sir,” but he did not go. ³¹Which of the two did what his father wanted? “The first,” they answered.

One son had empty words. Empty words are like listening to beautiful singing, “Yes Lord, yes Lord, yes, yes Lord!” The other son obeyed actually.

God invites us to participate in his ministry, love for him is real or not yet.

Among the 2 sons, who do you identify with? Do you love God with empty singing? If you’re praying to serve God, discover your spiritual gift. Join the right ministry that you’re called to join, and God blesses you.

How do you personally interpret what Christ declared in John 17:6? ⁶I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.

Anyone may claim, “I am Christian. I believe in God. I am a child of God. I am a citizen of heaven. I belong to God!” Naïve listeners could be impressed by such recitation but empty words cannot deceive God. Don’t be satisfied with empty claims. Prayerfully follow Christ commands.

Nobody can deceive God. He knows if we belong to him or not yet. If you personally accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, practically prove it. How? Accompany your confession of faith in Christ with generosity. What kind of generosity practically proves God-inspired generosity? God-inspired generosity is giving or sharing without expectation of returns.

1. Generosity

¹³Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, others 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. 

Does generosity really prove that we belong to God? But someone may argue, “Anyone can be generous but not religious.” True. Anyone who belongs to God is generous, and generosity is spontaneous service to him. Generous sharing with the Lord’s people and with everyone else is service to God. And as result, recipients of our generosity praise and thank God.

Additionally, we sense extreme gladness when we generously share.

How do we explain to children what Christ teaches in Luke 6:34?

³⁴If you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

Lending expects repayment. In contrast, generosity won’t expect to be repaid. So, if we share abundance and expect repayment, then we are just lending in disguise as generosity. But someone may still argue, “But could we not expect reward from the Lord for being generous to others?”

To expect repayment for generosity is just lending or giving a loan. In comparison, expecting the Lord to reward generosity is the right attitude.

We prayerfully trust God’s promise in Proverbs 19:17(ESV)? ¹⁷Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

Do you strongly trust that God supplies our seed of generosity? Do strongly trust that God will increase our warehouse of generosity? Do you strongly trust that God will also enlarge our harvest of righteousness?

The Corinthians practically proved that, in the first century Christianity until now, their generosity inspired many believers to give as service to the Lord. Learn to be intentionally generous and kind from Matthew 25:34-40.

³⁴The King will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

³⁷Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?” ⁴⁰The King will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Generosity is kindness that accompanies our testimonial confession as Christians. But who should be recipients of our generosity?

Resources are limited, so we intentionally prioritize and be generous to brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ specifically said, “Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

We can be generous to anybody but we prioritize the family of God. We can be generous to people we do not know. We pray that recipients to our generosity may eventually be reconciled to God and thank him.

God is gracious. Before God created us, he prepared everything we need to survive in this world. By his grace, we trust and obey Christ. By his grace, God transformed us so that we gladly thank him for his generosity.

2. Grace

¹⁴And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. 

The surpassing grace of God was exhibited among the Corinthians. They excelled in everything, even in the grace of giving. They’re generous toward the needy people of the Lord. Why should generosity toward the Lord’s people be prioritized? Generosity toward Christians results to praise of God; whereas, non-religious people may just praise us for generosity.

Sadly, some recipients are not even thankful . They’re not satisfied for generous gifts they may receive. Others may gossip that we’re stingy. Still some may use our generous gift to flaunt or brag their importance to us.

Relatives

Someone returned home from abroad and gave gifts to relatives. She had compassion to a pitifully pathetic relative and secretly gave him more gifts. The relative was so happy of his gifts so that he bragged to his other cousins that he received much better gifts than them. What do you think?

Certainly, the other relatives were envious and may have thought the one who gave them gifts could be stingy bias toward the pathetic relative.

When giving gift to relatives, did anyone ask why you give others gifts better than the gift they’ve got? Some think they deserve better gifts from you. They’re not thankful for your gift. But when we give gifts to Christians, they’ll thank God for our generosity. They may even pray for us to prosper.

Let’s remember what it proclaims in 2 Corinthians 9:10-11, ¹⁰He 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. ¹¹You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Generosity is sowing righteousness that God increases and enlarges.

Intentional generosity to the family of God is overflow of his grace. A person commented, “Your church property is large. Your parking lot is wide.” I just smiled. I was tempted to expose that the church property is fully paid. In my mind, “It is by God’s grace that church members are generous givers.”

Actually, there were numerous callers who inquired, if we rent out our church building. Movie industries called if they can rent our parking lot while they are shooting movies nearby. Some realtors inquired also if we want to sell the vacant lot. TMEC property is hot commodity in the market.

Pray for our church leaders to manage our church property for the glory of God. Let’s reflect on what it teaches in Ephesians 5:18-20, ¹⁸Pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people. ¹⁹Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, ²⁰for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.

Church leaders are humans that can possibly commit mistakes. And God wants us also to responsibly support our leaders, especially in prayer. We nominate anyone we hope as God’s choice as church leaders. We pray that elected church leaders may behave and decide for the glory of God.

We pray that God gives church leaders the vision of his purpose. Is it time to improve our church property? What improvement can be done? Seriously, we pray because our church property is God’s gift to his church.

3. Gift

¹⁵Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!

To be thankful is the right attitude toward God’s gift. God’s grace is a free gift. Grace is too wonderful to describe, and it’s not easy to explain in ordinary language. No amount of human effort, goodness or religiosity can repay God’s grace. And nobody can recompense God’s priceless grace.

God’s grace is given freely just like any other gift given freely. Well, how can we receive the grace of God? Grace is intangible nonphysical gift of God that we can only receive by faith. The faith we need to receive the grace of God is also a gift that comes from God. Together, let’s reflect on Ephesians 2:8-10, ⁸For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— ⁹not by works, so that no one can boast. ¹⁰For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God created us for Christ. We are his project. God originally planned that we do good work. God designed us to follow his path of righteousness.

We behave righteously by faith—not by human effort so that we’ve got nothing to boast about. Instead, we thank and praise God for his work in us. By his grace, God transformed and reborn us into new person in Christ. Internalized what it declares in 2 Corinthians 5:17? ¹⁷If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

Reflect on the transformation you personally experienced ever since you trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. How did you behave in your old self as compared to your new self? Probably, you were scared of death before but now you have peace and not worry if you live long or not.

Maybe, you have no purpose in life before but now you want to serve the Lord for the rest of your life. Possibly, you worry about your finances, but now you live one day at a time and not affected by economic crisis. You may have tried your best to excel but now, you just want to live righteously.

Seriously, let us internalize what Christ teaches in Mark 4:15-20,

¹⁵Some people are like seed along the path, where the word is sown. As soon as they hear it, Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them. ¹⁶Others, like seed sown on rocky places, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. ¹⁷But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. ¹⁸ Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; ¹⁹but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. ²⁰Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown.

Our lifestyle exposes our priority. How concern do you have about your eternal residency? Have you discovered your spiritual gifts? Do you get involved in the ministry that God prepares you to glorify his name?

Do you believe that God situates where we may realize if we we’ve got joy, peace and patience despite difficult challenges of life? Discover the ministry where God calls you to get involved with short or long term service.

If you tried planting and your plants died, did you stop planting? If you tried fishing but caught nothing, did you stop fishing? Planting and fishing requires patience. And patience is fruit of the Holy Spirit. Christ called us to plant seed of righteousness. He also called us to fish for souls for his glory.

May the Lord inspire us to obey by planting seeds of righteousness and fishing for souls to accompany our confession of faith in Christ. Amen!

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