Introduction
Let me begin with a discipleship question: will we trust and obey Jesus in the real decisions of everyday life? Christ forms us through truth received, repentance practiced, and obedience lived out.
Main Points
Grace and Justification
hey everybody you know just me here with my bowl of swedish fish you guys ever had a swedish fish they're red shaped like a fish delicious and most importantly about these ones is they're mine and i don't see any good reason why i should have to share them with anybody yeah i know i've heard sharing is caring but they're mine well i know it's nice to be generous but they're mine sure god's given me all the good stuff that i have but they're mine i don't want to share well maybe i should think about being a little more generous welcome everybody we are in our series unboxed where we've been discovering things about the gifts that god's given us before today's lesson let's pray god help us to be people who are excited about living generously we ask this in jesus name amen thanks for praying everybody now it's time to open up your bible today we're going to be in the book of second corinthians what do you think is that in the new testament or the old testament new testament that's right anybody know who wrote it the apostle paul very good so paul writing a letter to the corinthians is going to help us understand something because in paul's letter he is encouraging the corinthian church to be generous so if you turn to chapter 9 with me we'll see when paul was encouraging the corinthian church to bless the christians the jesus followers in jerusalem by sending them a special gift to help them out with their needs this is what it says in second corinthians chapter nine starting in verse six remember this a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop you must each decide in your heart how much to give and don't give reluctantly or in response to pressure for god loves a person who gives cheerfully and god will generously provide all you need this actually gives me an idea for a game time i'm calling this one cheerful giver i'm going to give you guys a moment to pause and go grab something maybe a bowl of candy and some snacks whatever is something that would be good to eat or munch on with a grown-up's permission of course and then come back all right hopefully you've got your goodies with you now if you don't have anything that's okay you can still play by imagining in your mind what you would be willing to give cheerfully because the goal of this game is going to be to see who can win by being the most generous and this is actually going to count because whatever we decide to give up we're going to find somebody to give this to so whatever snack or good thing you have to eat whatever you decide you're willing to give up that's what you're going to go find somebody in your house or whatever to go bless them by giving this generously so here's the first round i've got a bowl full of delicious swedish fish here and let's say i'm willing to be a little bit generous and i'm going to give somebody one swedish fish the rest of these are gonna be for me right be okay one for them plenty left over for me you take one of whatever your thing is and if you're willing to give that generously put it aside separate out your treasure of goodies to eat round two it's going to get a little bit harder i want you to look at what you have left and see if you'd be willing to take maybe about half of it would you be willing to give cheerfully half of what you have to somebody else that's a lot harder to make that choice right sometimes being generous isn't natural in us and we want to hold on to what we have for ourselves so we see why paul needs to encourage the corinthians to be generous as they promised they would be but let's take it to the next level round three let's say you're gonna take leave a couple for me almost everything all these delicious swedish fish i'm gonna give those to somebody at my house today i also have a couple left to munch on myself now you think about it for yourself can you be a cheerful giver separate almost everything leave a little bit for yourself would you bless somebody with that today can you be a cheerful giver in that way i don't know it takes a lot in us sometimes but god is so good to us that there's something in me that thinks it might be worth it to be generous in that way now the last level which pretty crazy to think about is what if i gave everything all the treats that i collected for myself what if i was willing to give them up to bless somebody what would that do well hopefully it would make them feel really special it might give them a nice surprise on a difficult day it might just be a way to show them that i love them but am i going to be sad about not having anything left for myself that's the battle we have to wrestle through so let's keep listening to what paul said in corinthians about giving generously but i hope you guys were able to at least give fairly generously if not everything hopefully you're willing to give up something to bless others giving generously can be a big challenge but when we do it's actually a big blessing and i think paul understood that and he really wanted the corinthians to understand that too paul goes on to say this in second corinthians and when we take your gifts to those who need them they will thank god so two good things will result from the ministry of giving the needs of the believers in jerusalem will be met and they will joyfully express their thanks to god goes on in verse 13 to say as a result of your ministry they will give glory to god verse 14 they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace god has given to you thank god for this gift two wonderful for words so we see in what paul's saying to the corinthians that when we're willing to live in a generous way with what god has given us when we don't hold on to it for ourselves but we use what god's given to bless other people cool things happen there are at least three things that paul mentions one is that people who are in need are going to get their needs met and that's special because god cares about everybody and when there's somebody in need especially we want to show the love of god by providing for that need if we can number two another cool thing is that these people are going to thank god and give glory to god so through an action of us being generous other people will get to thank god and glorify god which if we love god then that's what we want to see happen in other people and the third thing number three that paul mentions that is really cool and special to think about is that if we bless somebody by giving generously to them they're gonna have a special place in their heart for us they might even pray for us paul says that the church in jerusalem is going to pray for the church in corinth the corinthians because of their generous giving they'll have a deep affection for them so as we give to others generously we see that we build a relationship and we grow in love for one another and that's really a big part of following jesus so that's the challenge for us can we live generously can we take paul's encouragement to the corinthians and go and use it in our lives i'm challenging you this week to find some ways to do that push the limits of what you think you can do to live generously god's given us so much let's go bless others with it that's it for me this week i'll see you guys next time you
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.
Conclusion
We return to the opening teaching: discipleship is not just information, it is transformation through faith and obedience to Jesus. If we receive His Word and walk it out, He will shape us into people who endure and bear fruit.
Closing Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me hear Your Word, obey it with faith, and grow as Your disciple. Amen.