The Bethany Bullet Sermon Message - Week of March 8, 2020

Sermon Message: “Overflowing”

Text: II Corinthians 9

St. Paul, in his second letter to the Corinthian church (read chapter 9), reveals three truths about our giving.

Our giving is personal, purposeful and positional.

Our giving is personal.  The apostle doesn't encourage us to consider in our minds what we will give; but rather to "decide in our heart" what we will give.  While on the one hand giving is clearly a cerebral activity (you can't even give a proportionate gift without doing math) Paul associates giving as an emotional response. 

Our giving is purposeful.  We who are created in God's image and are being shaped and fashioned into the likeness of our Lord, have a spiritual compulsion to give.  After all our God is a giver and our Lord is the embodiment of generosity.  He owes nothing but pays everything; He gives all yet demands none.  Our giving is purposeful in that it draws us closer to the heart of God reveals the nature of God.

Our giving is positional.  That is, our giving puts us in the loop of how the Spirit is at work.  So that we might receive God's forgiveness, have our faith birthed and built, grasp on to His promises and experience His presence. Our God works through words, wine and water; bread and the body of believers.  He works through means, the ministry of which is funded by our giving. 

Our giving is personal, purposeful and positional...in the words of Paul, "Thank God for this gift of giving."

– Pr. Kevin Kritzer