But just as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in the love we inspired in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.But as you abound in everything—in faith, utterance, knowledge, all earnestness, and in your love to us—see that you also abound in this grace.Therefore, as ye abound in every thing, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.But as ye abound in everything, in faith, and utterance, and knowledge, and in all earnestness, and in your love to us, see that ye abound in this grace also.
3 sermons cite this verse
of generosity, four qualities of true generosity. And as we do this, again, I want you to know that this is not about how much money you give. That says nothing to do with that. this is all about wanting to see you get a blessing. Wanting to see you get a benefit. Again, as Paul the Apostle said, not that I seek a gift, but the fruit that will abound in your account. And there's a reason, by the way, that there is no title given in your bulletin or an outline with the title and the outline points as I usually do, because I know human nature. I know that when you look at that and go, oh, great, another thing I'm giving. You just switch off. And so I did that on purpose to sort of catch you off guard, but now you know. So I want to give you these four marks of generosity. And the first is that generosity is a signal. Generosity is a signal. …
… or otherwise that is never going to happen. Paul writing to the church at Corinth said something very, very interesting. He writes this, just as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, see that you excel in this grace of giving. Did you catch that? What he's saying is, if you are going to be outstanding in one thing, then let generosity be the benchmark. Let it be the thing that people point to in your life. That man, that woman, they are generous. Excel in giving. And when you choose to be that giver, here's what happens. You will begin to develop the habit of generosity. And when you begin to develop that habit of generosity, it becomes a lifestyle and you activate the law of generosity. And this is what is so significant. When you activate that law, you're going to see amazing stuff that happens in your life. Remember the proverb said, one man, the open-handed man, he gives freely and yet grows all the richer. Or to put it in Jesus' words, give and it will be given to you. In God's economy, people, you reap what you sow. In other words, your reaping is in direct proportion to what you sow. …
… scripture teach us to give what we're going to do is we're going to read two passages one in chapter 8 and one in chapter 9 and basically the first one 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 1 through 9 is an example. Paul points to these churches in Macedonia. We're going to see him kind of lift them up as an example. And the second passage we're going to look at is 2 Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 through 15. And what this is over here is basically some truths based on this example. So we're going to be all over the place going back and forth, just turning between these two chapters. But to try to get this picture, let's camp out on these two passages. 2 Corinthians chapter 8, verse 1. Paul writes, service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, and knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in your love for us, Okay, go over to the next chapter. …