The Poverty of Riches
Opening
In 1889, John D Rockefeller was the richest man in the world. Except for the fact that his health was declining tremendously.
When he started dying, he started giving his money away.
Once he started giving his money away, his health was restored (ie: his hair was starting to grow back, he started gaining weight again, his appetite returned, etc.)
“I started living when I started giving” - John Rockefeller
Handling money is a spiritual affair.
Sermon Key Points
Paul argues that poverty has more to do with an absence of grace than it does with a depletion of funds.
To give requires grace.
It takes grace for God to shift you from the bottom to the next step.
Paul says that the church in Corinth was a gifted church (v.8) but that there was one area where they were not practicing excellence (similar to our church). Both Corinth & Progressive Baptist Church is not an excellent giving church.
Great churches demonstrated their greatness over time due to their generosity & freedom to give.
God wants us to give sacrificially (out of our poverty). What we do not have, God wants us to trust Him anyway.
Giving can be scary - What if I give and I become financially strained? Fear is motivating your lack of giving.
Fear has always been the principle enemy of faith.
Faith and fear cannot co-exist in the same human heart.
There is a lot of things in this world that we cannot control, but what we can control is whether we trust God with the little we got left.
We cannot tell what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future!
Although I cannot tell the future, I know God is good enough to provide for me everything that I need.
Giving should not just be sacrificial; it should be given with a sense of enthusiasm.
What you have is not really yours in the first place!
We come into this world naked and broke & we leave just as broke as we came.
Make your life one long gift to others because a life of giving repays.
The best we are is a manager of something (like money) that belongs to someone else (God).
If Jesus is small to you, your offering will be small to Him.
If you are not obsessed with Jesus, you will never give an extravagant & extraordinary gift
Until Jesus becomes everything to you, you will never offer everything to Him
When Jesus does become your all, you will have no problem surrendering all to Him
How much is Jesus worth to you? Your offering is the clearest answer to that question.
In a few weeks, Pastor Dates (in his concluding message to this series) will urge us to give the greatest offering we have ever given in our lives. He is not doing it because he seeks the gift; he is doing because he seeks the profit to our account.
The Sunday before Thanksgiving will be our Generosity Sunday - the Sunday where we give the greatest offering we have ever given.
With this giving, we should expect God to bless in a great way that we never have been blessed before!
Give for the both Lord and the appreciation of the spiritual leadership God has sent us to preach the Word to us, lead us, collect from us, and administer those funds to fulfill God’s kingdom agenda. (v.5)
Our giving should be sacrificial, enthusiastic, and resemble the giving of Christ.
We must abound ourself in giving because Christ gave and He gave Himself.
He gave Himself for the sake of others.
Every gift that you and I give ought to manifest the grace of Jesus Christ. In other words, what Jesus did should be seen in what we do.
Memorize This!: “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.” (v. 9)
Real riches is what Christ possessed.
He owns creation, justification, forgiveness, reconciliation, salvation and adoption.
He is rich because He Himself is our peace and the heavens bow before Him.
Yet for our sake He became poor.
When Christ became poor, He made us rich!
You can be “rich” and really be poor, or you can be poor and spiritually rich.
