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Sermon on 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 Prepared by Jonathan Shradar Find

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Sermon on 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 Prepared by Jonathan Shradar Find Sermon on 2 Corinthians 9:1-15 prepared by Jonathan Shradar Find your sufficiency in Jesus. Over the last few weeks, there have been many questions and conversations about how the church should go on existing through this pandemic. Do we submit to government guidance, do we take up civil disobedience, is there some middle ground? How do we persist in preaching the gospel and caring for the wellbeing of those in the church and our neighbors? We have made our perspective clear, but the conversations had me reflecting this week on how the church is perceived by those neighbors we are called to love. Are we seen as people of integrity, honorably participating in our communities? Loving, others-oriented people. Or is the prevailing perception more one of a posture of being better than everyone else, above the law, arrogantly seeking self… As I ponder I am afraid it is far more of the latter. In this revealing pandemic season - as people latch onto ideas and perspectives that give them confidence or a sense of superiority, the church, believers have the opportunity to claim the biblically formed path. To endeavor toward Christlikeness. To have our witness emboldened by grace and the generosity of the Lord. From a text on cheerful giving, we see where we may have gone wrong and how to get back again, to be the church as the image of the Kingdom we are called to be. Find your sufficiency in Jesus. 2 Corinthians 9 Earlier this year Gustavo Bernal was giving me a tour of Point Loma University, and we were in their beautiful prayer chapel… there students were encouraged to write statements or prayer on pieces of paper and pin them to the wall or to a cross in the room. One, in particular, stood out as it said “I am enough.” I understand the sentiment, we will grant ourselves approval if we don’t find it anywhere else, but Christianity brings a different message. I am not enough but Jesus is. The statement is fitting for our cultural moment, however. With the accumulation of political views, perspectives, and niche ideas, the rugged individualism that only trusts those who align with my view as a way of gaining confidence. Compiling a list of lesser things that become the most important thing about us. “People are looking for joy and satisfaction and are realizing it’s not found in politics, in health, in wealth.” Wes Van Fleet The way of Jesus marks a different path and the church is called to exemplify it among other believers and the world around us. This is what Paul is calling the Corinthians to. This hits our moment perfectly. Lives ordered, centered on the right thing. Ditching “Jesus plus something” perspectives and committing to Jesus all or nothing. The family of believers then, as the church, is to have a stirring witness, secured sufficiency, and live stoking worship. 1. Stirring Witness Just before our text, Paul challenged the church to live up to their commitment. 2 Corinthians 8:24 “So give proof before the churches of your love and of our ​ boasting about you to these men.” (ESV) And here says essentially that he has said more than enough to call the church to their ministry, faithfulness in light of the gospel. But there is humiliating potential here, his boasting about their zeal and faithfulness could be proven wrong. Now a pastor should always talk better about his flock… but here he has not overdone it, they would just need to live up to the moment to prove their love. No pressure! Here it pertains to the collection for the poor (which is a central aspect of the life of the church), but it extends to all the areas where we are called to live differently in light of the grace of Christ. Paul is inviting the Corinthians to step inside the biblical portrait and discover a whole new identity, not simply to do something strange because he tells them to. Ambassadors of Jesus living as ambassadors. Being people of their words, backed up with action. Just before the pandemic, we talked about guarding our witness in a political world, and Paul is saying the same thing here. Don’t live in a way that prevents others from hearing the gospel. For the Corinthian church, don’t function in such a way that diminishes the faith of the Macedonians churches who look to you as inspiration for their own faithfulness. As a people our ears are itching like crazy these days, so you can find other preachers building platforms on something less than the gospel… but we will try our best to maintain logical consistency before Scripture and the call of the church. Our witness should be stirring to others - believers around us and the watching world. “The church is God’s demonstration community, his final witness to the lost world.” - Francis Schaeffer People are meant to be drawn to Jesus through us. Follow through with the collection so that your witness will keep stirring others on to obedience to Jesus, even to meeting Jesus. Their generosity is a witness that Jesus could so transform people that they would begin to care for others above themselves. That they would give away what they have because they have found a treasure of surpassing worth. 2 Corinthians 9:6–7 “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.” (ESV) This isn’t a get rich strategy but an order of life lived before Jesus. We can only live this if we are resourced right, finding the fuel, our “enough” in the Lord. 2. Secured Sufficiency “Mere giving itself is no sign of grace or redemption. It will save no one’s soul. The giving of the redeemed is a response to the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Hughes Here is the answer to our desire to be enough. 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.” (ESV) That with which we are generous, when viewed appropriately, was not obtained by us but is a gift from the God of provision. He makes us to have sufficiency in all things, at all times. Our witness becomes stirring when it reflects being anchored, rooted in Christ’s work for us, his keeping us, and purpose for us. Generosity in this way, any obedience, putting others first, taking the uncomfortable road, serving the least, is our loud declaration that Jesus is enough! That his life, death, and resurrection is of such worth that our lives can be transformed, made new, made resilient. That belief in him confirms his claim over us and union with him, ownership of his righteousness, new identity. That the God of the universe - the only God - moves into the neighborhood, where others tried to redline him out, and he calls us friends. Jesus, not ashamed to call us brother and sister. That he promises to intercede on our behalf day in and day out. That he gives his Spirit to comfort and teach us. To conform us to his likeness. And that enoughness is worth it in any circumstance… pandemic or not. Economic security or distress. Political uncertainty or peace. When the waves crash over us or when the sun warms us. Jesus is enough and rather than attempt to shore up the difficult spaces we find our sufficiency in him. I have this coin, my father-in-law gave us his coin collection to get us started, and among the coins was this 1971 Eisenhower Dollar. And I don’t know the backstory of the coin but someone has stamped on the coin’s face “$5”, and then on the back in the body of the Eagle they have stamped “Jesus.” Maybe they thought by doing so would increase the value of the coin, or make it more appealing to others. But the value of the coin is in the coin itself, not the way someone has adapted or added to it. And adding to it has actually reduced the value of the coin! Likewise, when we think we need to add extras to Jesus we color the gospel making it something less. When I need a Jesus that affirms my ways of thinking, or my desire for comfort, I am saying that he is not enough. But Jesus wants us to leave all the extras behind and find sufficiency in him alone. "We must empty ourselves of all that fills us so that we may be filled with what we are empty of." Augustine The One who is able to make all grace abound to you… Building up to the truth that Christ’s grace is sufficient for us. When we feel weakest when we face the uncertainty of the future when we don’t even know what tomorrow will hold. When things don’t go the way we expect they should. When people don’t see our perspective of things. When there is tension on the right and the left. We are content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when we are weak, then we are strong. Jesus is enough. His grace is sufficient for me. This Savior is our sufficiency. It changes us. It brings us into a life of obedience.
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