Thank you for doing that. And if you're visiting, please know that we're glad you're here. We hope the service will minister to you today and that you'll come and see us again. Let's open our Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 9 as we read verses 6 through 12. Now this I say, he who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully shall also reap bountifully.
The least one do just as he is purposed in his heart, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, that always having all sufficiency in everything you may have an abundance for every good deed, as it is written, he scattered abroad he gave to the poor, his righteousness abides forever.
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God. Toward the close of his life, the English writer G.K.
Chesterton was asked the most important lesson he had learned in life. After some reflection he replied, it is to take things with gratitude and not to take them for granted. A wise answer I think that all of us could agree with. The word of God presents thanksgiving as a necessary and appropriate attitude of God's people. Even as the apostle Paul says earlier in this book, for all things are for your sakes. Now think of that.
For all things are for your sakes that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause the giving of thanks to abound to the glory of God. The apostle Paul says that God's grace is spreading through us to more and more people and the purpose of that is that God may be even more praised and glorified as a result. Thanksgiving is always appropriate for us and it is to be an increasingly prominent attitude the more that we know God and experience him.
Some of the most joyful people that I have ever met in my life have been those who have been genuinely thankful for what God has permitted them to experience in life. I have known very few millionaires but I have known a few and I want to say that some of those people have been very joyful. Not because they are wealthy but because they appreciate what they have. They are grateful to God for those possessions.
On the other hand I have known not a few who have been impoverished or who have been throughout their lives in pain and suffering. The happiest people I have ever met on that end of the economic spectrum have likewise been those who have learned to be grateful for what God has given. It is not how much we possess that makes us happy. It's our attitude toward what we possess.
It was my privilege when I lived in Kentucky to become acquainted in the last years of his life with a man named George Hipshire. George was a single career man. Back in those days they were called bachelors, not called that anymore, single career men. George at the time that I knew him was about 60 years of age. He lived with his mother all of those years and cared for her. In fact he predeceased her. She died when she was in her 90s.
George was a diabetic from early in his life and as a result of his diabetes became blind. And when I knew him he was in fact totally blind. Over the process of those two years or maybe three years that I knew him, as again a result of that disease he lost a leg and was very crippled. He could only get around in a wheelchair. And then toward the end of that period another leg was required because of the disease.
And then he had a stroke which left him completely paralyzed on his right side and affected his speech. But in all of the times that I visited George never once did I hear him complain. Indeed he was forever an example of joy because he was grateful for what God had allowed to come to his life. Beloved a thankful heart is a normal heart for the child of God. But the fact is that we don't always have one do we? There are times when we have heart trouble. How does one experience a thankful heart?
Let me just suggest some things to you. In order to experience a thankful heart I think we have to begin by saying this, that the natural heart of a person is not thankful. We see this illustrated variously in the Word of God but turn with me to 2 Timothy chapter three for a moment. And notice what the apostle says will characterize what he calls the last days.
He is not saying that these characteristics are only to be found in those last days but he is saying that these characteristics which are a part of the natural man will be especially intense in those last days. He says for men will be lovers of self. Lovers of money, 2 Timothy 3.2. Boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful. Think of the list where a lack of gratitude is found. He tells us rather than being grateful the natural heart of man is to love himself.
Our hearts are naturally selfish. I wonder if we really understand how wicked God perceives ingratitude to be. Jesus seems to indicate this in something he said in the Gospel of Luke in the sixth chapter. Here we have an accounting of one of his sermons. And he said as he did on several occasions in Luke 6.35. But love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return.
And where your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the most high for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men. Jesus tells us that the natural man is not only evil but he is ungrateful and that ungratefulness is a part of his evil nature. This word evil that he ties together with ungrateful is a Greek word that refers to the deliberate defiance of moral law for personal gain.
It is the deliberate rebellion against law for personal gain without any regard or care for the suffering and the pain that is brought to others by it. It is a word itself which refers to selfish greed. This word evil is used of Satan in Ephesians 6 and verse 16. And so ungratefulness, unthankfulness is tied together with such a word as evil, a word that is descriptive of Satan. It is not too much to say that Satan himself is characterized by lack of gratitude.
Indeed we can interpret his fall from heaven in light of that particular characteristic. And he has injected into the human race a lack of thankfulness to God. In Romans chapter 1 and verse 21 when the apostle Paul is listing the characteristics of the pagan world that is in rebellion against God, he says among other things, neither were they thankful.
Now that was true if you understand Romans 1 as I do, in those days before the flood, just before God brought that intervention of divine judgment to the world. For it is ever a part of the corruption of the human heart to neither be thankful. So if you are now going to experience a thankful heart, we have to begin there by realizing it does not come naturally to us. It is not a part of our nature to be grateful. We are by nature an ungrateful people.
And when we realize the evilness, the sinfulness of ingratitude, we need then to secondly acknowledge it to God just for what it is, as sin. And claim his forgiving, 1 John 1, 9. Just as he forgives any other sin, God does forgive the sin of ingratitude. But it has to be recognized and acknowledged to him. We have to own up to its presence. Then to bring it into a positive mode, there is a third thing that we need to do if we want to experience a thankful heart.
That is we need to allow our hearts to be dominated. To be dominated by the Holy Spirit and to be dominated by the word of God. We have already studied together in previous months, Ephesians 5, 18, in the context immediately following. Where it says, and be filled, that is be empowered with the Holy Spirit. Or be dominated by the Holy Spirit. Then he gives the results of that and among the results is this one, thankfulness. And be thankful to God, he says.
Thankfulness is a result of the Holy Spirit dominating our lives. When the Holy Spirit is not controlling us, ingratitude will be expressed. And when the Spirit of God is controlling us, he will produce in us a gratitude to the Lord. But that is coupled together in Colossians 3, verse 16, with the word of Christ. Where he says, and let the word of Christ richly dwell in you. That word dwell means more than just that we read the Bible, it means that the Bible actually becomes a part of us.
He is saying there, let the word of Christ, that is what God has said about his Son. The word about him and which has been written by his apostles. This book, in other words. He says, let the word of Christ, the word of God settle down and be at home in your lives. Where he says, when it is, it will produce in us, and you follow the verse down, again, gratitude, thankfulness. Spurgeon said, so long as we are receivers of mercy, we must be givers of thanks.
As you and I allow the word of God to richly be at home in our lives, we will come to more and more understand how merciful God is to us. And as we perceive that mercy and the goodness of God and his gifts to us, it will produce in us, because of the Holy Spirit's presence, gratitude. How do you experience a thankful heart consistently? Well, by realizing how wicked ingratitude is, confessing it is sin, and then allowing the Holy Spirit to dominate your life along with the word of God.
That will produce a thankful heart. But a second question comes to mind, how do you evidence a thankful heart? How is a thankful heart expressed in the life? Well, there might be several things suggested, but I want to point out one this morning that I think is absolutely crucial. I think it is a central teaching of the word of God. And that is this, that a thankful heart is expressed by giving. That's right. Why do you think it's called thanksgiving? Because the two go together.
If I truly am a thankful person, the result of that in my life is that I will also be a sharer, a giver. It is impossible, it is impossible for a grateful person to also be a selfish person. For a person who is appreciative is one who is also generous himself. His spirit will demand that he be a sharer. Earlier in the service we referred to Hebrews chapter 13. Would you look there for just a moment?
It says in verse 15, through Jesus Christ then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God. It is the fruit of lips that give thanks to his name. Those are the thanksgiving. But notice what he ties together with thanksgiving. And he says, do not neglect doing good and sharing. So do you see that the word of God teaches that part of thankfulness is giving. Part of being grateful is being generous to others.
Now we come back to the text that we read earlier in 2 Corinthians chapter 9. Keep in mind that the Corinthians had a year before the writing of this book made, shall we say, a faith promise. They had told Paul what their intentions were. They said, we intend together, together an offering for the poor saints in Jerusalem. And so they made what we did this morning, a faith promise. And now after this time had transpired, they had failed to come forward with the actual gift.
And so the apostle writes to them in these chapters to remind them gently of what they had said that they would do and to urge them to complete their gift. He reminds them that they had received themselves the free grace of God as a gift. Notice what he says in chapter 8 and verse 9, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. He reminds them of what God had done for them.
God had richly poured out his grace upon them. He concludes chapter 9 by saying, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. And so he reminds the Corinthians, even as he reminds us, of what God has done on our behalf in Christ. And therefore it was anticipated by Paul that they would be grateful and would show that gratitude by giving freely. And he tells them that the more that they would give, the more grace would abound to them.
The more that they would again give, the more that God would give grace. And so there was a cycle of giving and grace, giving and grace, which was producing, says Paul, an abundance of thanksgiving to God. The apostle Paul explains in the context of the passage we read how a thankful heart will be evidenced in Christian giving. How should a thankful Christian give? Well, he tells us the principles in these verses.
Even as earlier he illustrated most of these principles by pointing to the Macedonians who had already given a gift. There are five characterizations of a thankful heart in its giving. In the first place, a thankful heart will give, says Paul in verse 6, generously. Because a person will understand the principle of sowing and reaping. You sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. But if you sow bountifully, you also reap bountifully.
Now he had pointed out already to them in chapter 8 and verse 2 how the Macedonians had practiced this principle. Notice that he says regarding the churches there in Macedonia that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty, Paul puts together a couple of words that says there that they were down to the very rock bottom in their ability to give and yet they gave. And they gave in a way that overflowed in the wealth, he says, of their liberality.
He doesn't give the dollars and cents. It's not the point. He was saying that in the depth of their poverty, their gratitude to God caused them to give generously. Now he is saying to the Corinthians and he exhorts all of his readers, including us 2,000 years later, give generously to God. You cannot out give God. If you sow bountifully, then God is going to cause you to reap bountifully because God blesses liberality.
And the second principle is this, that one who is giving with a thankful heart will give purposefully. Look at verse 7, let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart. One who is a thankful person is one who will carefully consider what he's doing. He will not casually reach into his billfold or into the pocketbook and reach for a bill, whatever it may be, and flop it in the offering plate.
But he is one who carefully weighs what God has done and who then with purpose of heart as an act of his will says, God, I will give this. And notice again in verse 3 of chapter 8 that this characterized the Macedonian. Paul says, I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord. In other words, they decided that because God had been so good in blessing them that they were going to give X amount. They purposed in their heart what they would do.
And that, my friend, is part of the basis of a faith promise partnership. It is a biblical principle, faithful giving never occurs spontaneously. Faithful giving always occurs because it's planned, it's purposed in advance. And then a third characteristic that he lists of the giving of a thankful heart is that it's sincere. One who gives thankfully gives sincerely. Notice how the apostle puts it there in verse 7, not grudgingly or in the compulsion.
In other words, what's put in the offering plate is put there without any resentment, without any begrudgment, nor is there any arm twisting, but it is done sincerely. And notice again in chapter 8 and verse 4, here's the attitude of the Macedonians. Paul says, they were begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. They were begging, Paul, let us in on this. Have you ever seen anybody do that in the service?
Stand up and say, preacher, hey, you forgot the offering. Pass the offering plate. We want to give this morning. I've forgotten the offering sometimes. I've never done that here. But there have been times when I have forgotten the offering. That is devastating. I've never had a single person ever stand up and say, preacher, you forgot to pass the plates. But you see, that's how the Macedonians were. They say, hey, Paul, hey, don't forget us. We want to give something.
And Paul is saying, oh, God loves that when we give sincerely without any begrudging, when there is no compulsion, that we give from an inward sense of joy. And that brings us to the fourth characteristic. One who gives out of a thankful heart gives joyfully. For God loves a cheerful giver, it says here. And again, the Macedonians, look at verse 8.
It points out the fact that in the great deal of affliction, their abundance of joy caused them to give generously to God and to the needs of the saints. And so one who gives gratefully gives joyfully. The world says this, give till it hurts. Right? Give till it hurts. It's not biblical. God says give till it quits hurting. Give till it's fun to give. Give until there's joy that comes from your heart, because that pleases God.
And then the final principle, one who gives with a thankful heart gives expectantly. Expectantly. He doesn't see this just as an end in itself, but he has a long-range vision. He gives expectantly. What does he expect? Well, in the context of what Paul says here in verse 8, he expects grace for his own sufficiency. In other words, as he gives generously, purposefully, sincerely, and joyfully, he expects that God in fact is going to meet his own need.
That's the context of Philippians 4.19, isn't it? My God shall supply all your need according to his riches and glory by Christ Jesus. But it's because the Philippians themselves had given just the way Paul has described. They could expect God to meet their needs. Then in verse 8 again, they expected abundance for sharing if they gave the right way. In other words, liberality would even increase their ability to give, because God knows that that person is not going to be stingy and selfish.
Therefore, he would pour into that person's life an ability to give even more than they expected. They expected righteousness for harvest in verse 10. The godly man is described in Psalm 112, which is quoted in verse 9, the godly man. Giving generously, giving purposefully, giving sincerely, giving joyfully produces character in a person. We can expect then that there will be righteousness in our lives for a harvest as we give right. And finally, we can expect glory to God in verse 12.
When we give with thankful hearts, as the apostle tells us to, we can expect that God is going to be glorified. The praise will be finally and fully only to him. We don't give in order to be recognized. We give in order that God may be praised. I would imagine you can agree with me. I've never met a thankful person who is also a miser, have you? Nor have I met a miser who is also happy. It is no accident that those words, thanksgiving, are together in our language.
A thankful heart is a giving heart. And the thankful heart can always find some cause for gratitude. Henry Ward Beecher said this, if one should give me a dish of sand and tell me there were particles of iron in it, I might look for them with my eyes and search for them with my clumsy fingers and be unable to detect them. But let me take a magnet and sweep through it. And how would it draw to itself the almost invisible particles by the mere power of attraction?
The unthankful heart, he says, like my finger in the sand, discovers no mercies. But let the thankful heart sweep through the day, and as the magnet finds the iron, so will it find in every hour some heavenly blessings. Only the iron in God's sand is gold. My fellow Christian, let your heart be filled with gratitude to God and let it sweep through the day and gather to itself the blessings of God. And then let that gratitude be expressed in the biblical way and be a giver. Let's bow together.
Do you need a thankful heart? We can talk to the Lord about it. Are you having trouble today arguing with God? Are you mad at God? We can't be mad at God and be truly grateful at the same time, can we? Let's let this be a thankful season of the year. And then, if you are a thankful person, are you looking for ways to share, ways to give? For that is the expression of true gratitude.
Father in heaven, I pray that we, each of us, each man, each woman sitting here in this auditorium at this time, will be able to look to you and say, Lord, create in me a thankful heart and let that gratitude be expressed by giving in my life. God, make us, I pray, thankful givers, those practicing the principles of your word that we may expect these great blessings that Paul has reminded himself in our text this morning. And to you be the glory, in Jesus' name. Amen. Бустан.