The Principles to Giving, Part 1

Tom Shrader introduces a multi-week study of 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, focused on Paul's teaching about financial giving. He addresses the common objection that churches talk too much about money, explaining that the passage itself demands the topic since the church teaches expositionally through Scripture. This first session covers verses 1 through 15, with subsequent weeks planned to address the remainder of both chapters and a final summary.

“What we talk about is the Word of God, and we work our way through it chapter by chapter, and verse by verse, and we're in chapter 8, and this is what he talks about.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: 2 Corinthians

Recorded: 2003 at East Valley Bible Church

Duration: 1 min

Themes: giving, money, generosity, stewardship, finances, biblical giving, offering, church giving, struggling with finances, skeptical of church, new to church, new believer, questioning tithing, feeling pressured about money, young adult, regular attender

Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15, 2 Corinthians 9

Theological Themes: stewardship, expository preaching, biblical stewardship, sanctification, grace giving, scripture authority, biblical finances, christian responsibility

Full Transcript

Introduction

Turn your Bibles, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 8. We are going to spend three weeks looking at chapter 8 and chapter 9, and then a summary time. This was a difficult passage for me to get my arms around, not in terms of content, but in terms of how to teach it — how much now, how much later. We are going to look at verses 1 through 15 this morning, and then we'll come back next week. We'll do the balance of chapter 8, all of chapter 9, and then I want to do a week to summarize this.

Paul is talking here about giving. Now, it would be very easy to have this talk about service. We talk about giving in so many different ways — time, energy, effort, and money. Service is important, there is no question about it, and that is a part of the way you interact with us. But what I want you to understand is that he is not talking about service here. He is talking about money.

It may be that when we start talking about giving, you begin to respond a certain way. If you are with us here, maybe for the first time, or you have only been here a couple of times, you might be thinking, "I knew it — they are just like everybody else. All they talk about is money." That is simply not the case. What we talk about is the Word of God. We work our way through it chapter by chapter and verse by verse, and we are in chapter 8, and this is what Paul talks about.