2 Corinthians 9
Outline:
I. \\#2Corinthians 1:1-5:21\\ Paul’s Explanations
A. \\#2Corinthians 1:1-2\\ Paul’s Introduction
B. \\#2Corinthians 1:3-11\\ Paul’s Suffering
1. \\#1:3-7\\ Truths about All Suffering
2. \\#1:8-11\\ Truths about Paul’s Suffering
C. \\#2Corinthians 1:12-14\\ Paul’s Rejoicing
D. \\#2Corinthians 1:15-2:17\\ Paul’s Itinerary
1. \\#1:15-16\\ Paul’s Purpose
2. \\#2:17\\ The Corinthians’ Charge
3. \\#1:18-2:13\\ Paul’s Answers
4. \\#2:13-17\\ Paul’s Praise
E. \\#2Corinthians 3:1-5:21\\ Paul’s Ministry Facts
1. \\#3:1-5\\ Our Converts Are Our Credentials
2. \\#3:6-18\\ We Are Empowered through the Spirit
3. \\#4:1-18\\ We don’t quit.
4. \\#5:1-11\\ We have heavenly longings.
5. \\#5:12-21\\ We are driven by the love of Christ.
II. \\#2Corinthians 6:1-7:16\\ Paul’s Commands
A. \\#6:1-10\\ Don’t Waste God’s Grace
B. \\#6:11-18\\ Don’t Be Joined to the Lost
C. \\#7:1-16\\ Don’t Reject Us.
1. \\#1-3\\ We Do Right.
2. \\#4-12\\ We Care For You.
3. \\#13-16\\ We Are Blessed.
III. \\#2Corintihains 8:1-9:15\\ The Collection for the Saints
A. \\#8:1-15\\ Fulfill Your Pledge
B. \\#8:16-24\\ Trust the Laborers
C. \\#9:1-15\\ Take the Offering
\\#2Corintihains 8:1-9:15\\ The Collection for the Saints
I. \\#8:1-15\\ Fulfill Your Pledge
II. \\#8:16-24\\ Trust the Laborers
III. \\#9:1-15\\ Take the Offering
A. \\#1-5\\ Why Paul Sent the Team
1. Questions arise when it comes to giving such as:
(a) Is the tithe valid?
(b) Should the church "push" giving?
(c) Should the church ask for pledges?
(d) How far should the church go in collecting funds?
(e) This section goes some distance in helping us to
understand that giving is part of worship, is
necessary if the people of God want to have a place
to worship and leaders to guide them, and must be
taught and preached to the people.
2. \\#1\\ "as touching the ministering to the saints" - Paul
continued to talk about the offering and referred to it
again as their opportunity to minister to the saints of
God.
(a) I counted ten different terms by which Paul called
this gift:
(1) liberality \\#2Cor 8:2\\
(2) gift \\#2Cor 8:3\\
(3) ministry to the saints \\#2Cor 8:4, 9:1\\
(4) grace \\#2Cor 8:4,6,19\\
(5) abundance \\#2Cor 8:20\\
(6) proof of your love \\#2Cor 8:24\\
(7) bounty \\#2Cor 9:5\\, used twice
(8) service \\#2Cor 9:12\\
(9) experiment of this ministration \\#2Cor 9:13\\
(10) liberal distribution \\#2Cor 9:13\\
(b) "it is superfluous for me to write"
(1) The word means exceedingly, abundantly above.
(2) Paul was saying they already knew about the
offering and it was redundant for him to
explain it again.
3. \\#2\\ "the forwardness of your mind" - Paul knew how
earnest they were in wanting to give from a previous
visit.
(a) "I boast of you to… Macedonia"
(1) Paul ‘s second missionary journey first took
him through Macedonia and then to Corinth and
back into Macedonia. It was on that return
leg of the trip that Paul had boasted of the
Corinthians desire to give to this offering.
(2) In \\#2Cor 8:1-5\\, Paul was now boasting to
Corinth how the churches of Macedonia had
generously given.
(b) "was ready a year ago" - I am not certain what Paul
meant was ready a year ago. From the details of
the third missionary journey, it had been well over
a year since Paul had visited Corinth on the second
missionary journey and since the offering was not
ready even at the time he was writing this letter,
it could not mean that the offering was ready a
year ago. Perhaps Paul had sent another through to
encourage in the offering a year ago and the
Corinthians had been very eager to give.
(c) "your zeal hath provoked very many" - Whatever
happened, it has encouraged others to give.
4. \\#3-5\\ "I sent the brethren"
(a) \\#3\\ "lest our boasting… be in vain" - Paul did
not want the offering to fail, leaving the
Corinthians looking bad.
(b) So the men were to help the Corinthians to "be
ready."
(c) \\#4\\ "we (that we say not, ye) should be ashamed"
Paul did not want them to be embarrassed. Although
Paul used the pronoun "we" to include himself, he
told the Corinthians that he was only including
himself out of politeness.
(d) \\#5\\ So Paul sent the men to:
(1) "exhort the brethren" - To encourage the
church.
(2) "to make up beforehand your bounty" - To gather
the money before Paul arrived.
(3) "that the same might be… of bounty, and not
as of covetousness" - Paul did not want their
giving to become a matter of the leaders
needing the money but of the givers wanting
to give from their abundance.
Note - All of this teaches us that both the giving by the saints and
the collecting by the church should be thought out, prayed over,
done gracefully, but encouraged and taught as right and proper. We
are to give on purpose.
B. \\#6-15\\ God Will Bless the Givers
1. \\#6\\ Your blessing are tied to your giving.
2. \\#7\\ Rules for giving
a. "as he purposeth in his heart?" - The tithe was a
command for the Old Testament. It is not repeated
in the New Testament. Instead a myriad of principals
are given to encourage the believer to give as the
Holy Ghost leads, which will usually be MORE than a
tithe.
Acts 20:35 I have shewed you all things, how
that so labouring ye ought to support the weak,
and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus,
how he said, It is more blessed to give than to
receive.
Gal 6:6 Let him that is taught in the word
communicate unto him that teacheth in all good
things.
Matt 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures
upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt,
and where thieves break through and steal:
20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in
heaven….
Luke 10:7 …for the labourer is worthy of his
hire….
Matt 5:20 For I say unto you, That except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Ro 5:20 Moreover the law entered, that the
offence might abound. But where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound:
b. "not grudgingly" - If giving will make you ill, keep
it.
c. "not of necessity" - If someone must shame or force
you into giving, keep it.
d. "God loveth a cheerful giver" - We should give with
a happiness and an excitement that we are able to
further the work of God, like those of Macedonia
\\#2Cor 8:3-4\\.
3. \\#8-15\\ But if you give willingly….
a. \\#8\\ "God is able to make all grace about toward
you"… having all sufficiency."
(1) Grace is God working. No one can tell what God
might do with those who demonstrate their faith
and love to God in tangible ways.
(2) Sufficiency - Paul did not say that God would but
that God was able to make all kinds of grace
come your way.
(a) God knows that if He promises to provide
all things for us just because we give,
we would use the promise to sin!
(b) But God is promising that we will never do
without because we gave what He told us to
give.
b. \\#9\ God will never forget our giving.
(1)Paul quoted from the Old Testament.
Ps 112:9 He hath dispersed, he hath given to the
poor; his righteousness endureth for ever; his
horn shall be exalted with honour.
(2) The fact that Paul quoted from the Old Testament
proves that Old Testament principals and
lessons still apply in the New Testament, even
regarding giving.
(3) This verse is being used to say that God never
forgets the righteous gifts given by the
obedient.
c. \\#10-11\\ God will be a Fiend in your corner. The
God we give to is the same God who…
(1) \\#10\\ Gives "seed to the sower"
(2) Gives "bread for your food"
(3) "multiplies your seed" when it is sown
(4) "and increases the fruits of your righteousness"
(a) Throughout that verse and section, Paul was
referring to both physical and spiritual
seed and fruit.
(b) The meaning is that when we give, God
blesses us both spiritually and
physically.
(5) \\#11\\ Enriches us "in every thing to all
bountifulness"
(a) Again, God generously gives us blessings in
every area of our life.
(b) "which causeth through us thanksgiving"
So that the giver is given much cause to
thank God for His generosity.
(c) Hence a saying I have heard Brother Gaston
make on many occasions, "You will never
out give God."
(6) Would you not rather have this God working for
you instead of against you?
d. \\#12\\ You help meet the needs of the church.
(1) It "supplieth the want of the saints" - It meets
the need of those who do not have enough.
(2) "it is abundant… by many thanksgivings unto
God" - It is the source of many people thanking
God, not only those who received it but also
those who gave it. God is making that a
promise.
e. \\#13-14\\ You become part of the ‘experiment."
2Cor 9:13 …the experiment of this ministration…
(1) \\#13\\ Of all the names Paul referred to the
offering by, this one seems the strangest.
(a) He called it an "experiment." Why?
(b) Because everyone who gives must first give
by faith.
(c) It is their own personal experiment to see
what God will do.
(d) Paul did not know what God would do for
those at Corinth that gave, but he knew
God would do much more for them than they
would do for Him.
(2) And the giving of the church would cause others
to "glorify God." Why?
(a) Because of your "subjection unto the gospel
of Christ." This tells us that giving is
part of being subjected to the gospel.
Even though there are no commandments that
you must give, if you have a submissive
spirit to Christ and His gospel, you will
give.
(b) "and for your liberal distribution" - When
others saw the generosity that God had
given to the Corinthians, they would
glorify God for it.
(3) \\#14\\ They will remember you:
(a) "And by their prayer for you" - They will
pray for you.
(b) "long after you" - And they will remember
you kindly because of the "grace of God
in you."
4. \\#15\\ Paul expresses thanks to God for His gift.
a. Paul did not specifically say what the gift was.
b. He does call it a gift so great that its blessings
are ‘unspeakable."
c. Some would say the unspeakable gift is the to give,
but I rather think it is the whole process.
(1) It is the giving…
(2) …which ministers to those in need…
(3) …which returns a great blessing to the
giver…
(4) …all of which causes everyone to praise and
glorify God!
d. How amazing our God is to work out such an
opportunity for us.
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