Dear Christian friends:

Today we continue our sermons on Stewardship which should help us prepare our hearts for Loyalty Sunday, November 2nd. On that Sunday we will renew our commitments to our dear Lord and Savior.

We have a very fine text this morning for that purpose. St. Paul was asking all the churches in Asia and Europe to gather money to help the poor Christians in Jerusalem. Here he is writing a letter to the church at Corinth, encouraging them to finish gathering the offering for the poor. He encourages them by reminding them of how rich they are.

We, like the Christians at Corinth are rich. Perhaps you are surprised because I say that we are all rich. You say, "I have a comfortable living, but I am not rich!" But I still say that you are rich. You may not realize it but you are very rich. Like the Christians at Corinth, you and I are very rich.

This morning I want to preach to you about that topic:


When St. Paul here in our text tells the Christians at Corinth that they are "rich" he does not mean rich with money. He means they are rich with God's blessings, spiritual riches, the true riches. He writes, "You are rich in all you have: in faith, speech, and knowledge, in your eagerness to help, and in your love for us." (verse 7)

You are rich in faith. God has given you faith. That is the first gift of God to you and it is a very precious gift. You have faith in Jesus, God's only Son, who loved you and died for you on the cross, so that you can have forgiveness of sins and eternal life with God in heaven. Now you need not fear death any more because by faith in Jesus you have eternal life. Yes, you are very rich.

Paul says you are rich "in speech." God has blessed you and given you the ability to talk. True, you may talk with your hands instead of your voice, but you can speak. What kind of speech? Speech about the weather? Speech about the Dodgers and the Astros? Speech about your new car or new TV set? No: Paul does not mean that kind of speech. He means speech about your faith in Jesus. You can sign the hymns in the choir which announce God's glory in Jesus. You can tell your deaf friends about God's love in Jesus. Yes, you are rich! You have speech!

Paul says you are rich in knowledge. God has blessed you with much precious knowledge. What kind of knowledge? Knowledge about the world? Knowledge to earn a living? Knowledge about gardening? Yes, perhaps. But chiefly the knowledge you have learned from the Bible. You have a Bible. The Bible is God's gift to you. You have a pastor who can explain and teach that Bible to you. A pastor is God's gift to you. (Ephesians 4:11) Yes, you are rich!

Paul says you are rich "in your eagerness to help." The Christians at Corinth were eager to help Paul and the other pastors to do the church work. Paul says he thanked God for them. (1 Corinthians 1:4) I feel the same way about the members here at Pilgrim. God has made your hearts eager to help with the church work. In the September- October Torch I wrote about that and I listed the names of many of our members who are so eager to help with the church work. God, by the Holy Spirit, has touched your hearts and made you become glad and eager helpers. Yes, you are rich, rich in good works:

In our text Paul also says that the Christians at Corinth were rich "in your love for us." The Christians at Corinth loved Paul, their pastor, and the assistants to Paul: Timothy, Barnabas, Silas and John Mark. And I know that you love your pastors here at Pilgrim, too. You say it in signs and words and you often show it by the many kind things you do. God has given you this love for Him and the love you have for one another and the love you have for me and Pastor Jonas and our wives. If you have God's love in your heart that is the greatest blessing of all. It is most precious. It is worth more than a million dollars. Yes, you are very rich!

Why does Paul remind the Christians that they are so rich? Because he wants to warm their hearts to help with the offering for the poor. He writes, "You are so rich in all you have: in faith, speech, and knowledge, in your eagerness to help, and in your love for us. And so we want you to be generous also in this service of love." (verse 7) The Christians at Corinth had received many gifts and blessings from God. They had generous, rich blessings from God, but they were weak in giving money to the poor. Paul wanted them to grow in that beautiful service, too. They were generous and rich in all the other services and works but weak in giving and sharing their money.

Is that true about Pilgrim Lutheran Church? Perhaps. Some of our members are very generous givers and are eager and cheerful givers. And our congregation has improved almost 100% during the past two years since we asked you to make the pledges on the past Loyalty Sundays. We thank God for this great improvement. But some of our members have not yet received the blessing of a cheerful and generous giver. And I'm sure that all of us can improve in that beautiful service. We all must fight our old nature, our old stingy and greedy heart, so we can have a warm and generous heart and spirit and be cheerful and generous givers.

In our text Paul says to the Christians, "I'm not trying to make any rules (to force you to give). But by showing how eager others are to help, I am trying to find out how real your love is. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ." (verses 8-9) Paul wanted to test their love, to see if their love for Jesus was true, real or false. He says you know the "grace" of our Lord Jesus Christ. "Grace" here means love and beautiful service. Jesus showed His "grace" His beautiful love and service by becoming poor for our sake. He was rich before He became a Man to die on the cross. He left the riches of heaven and became a poor Man on earth so that He could die for us and by His death make us rich. That is a wonderful exchange: The Rich One becomes poor, so that the poor ones can become rich: (verse 9) Jesus the Rich One, the Holy One, became the Poor One the Sinner One, that we the sinners could become the rich ones, the holy ones, and very, very rich with all of God's spiritual and eternal blessings.

Let us learn from Jesus how to have the "grace of giving," how to be a cheerful and generous giver. Then we, like the Corinthians will be rich and generous in every way. We will be rich (generous) in good works and in giving.

God has blessed us and made us rich in every way so that He can use us to bless those who need our help. In our text we see that there was a need for the funds Paul intended to gather from the Christians in Corinth. The offering money was needed to help the poor Christians at Jerusalem.

So, today, our generous giving is needed. Because of inflation the costs of a church and church work and mission work is going up and up. If you increase your offerings 10%, this is not enough to keep up with a 13% inflation rate. We need to think about increasing our offerings 25% or 30% over 1980. Then we can do more than keep up with inflation. Then the Lord's most important work can be done in every way, so we can be a blessing to others.

Amen.