The True and Greater Prosperity Gospel
April 26, 2026
Preached by Benjamin Vrbicek
Discussion Questions
What makes giving hard for you?
How have you seen churches talk about money in good ways? Bad ways? What effect has this had on your Christian life?
How has the generosity of others blessed you?
Do an internet search for 5 verses about money. What do you find encouraging? Convicting? Why does God have so much to say about money?
How is the cheerfulness of God in giving most displayed in the gospel? What does this say about the heart of Christ for you? How does this encourage you?
Scripture Reading
2 Corinthians 9:1–15
1 Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, 2 for I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year. And your zeal has stirred up most of them. 3 But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be. 4 Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident. 5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work. 9 As it is written,
“He has distributed freely, he has given to the poor;
his righteousness endures forever.”
10 He who supplies see dto the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God. 12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, 14 while they long for you and pray for you, because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. 15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
This is a sermon about money because it’s a passage about money. I know that can make some of our hearts feel like we’re on an airplane in turbulence, and our hearts get super anxious. Let’s pray that the Lord would allow our hearts to relax, so that we could really hear what he has to say, because it’s so encouraging to hear what he says about generosity.
“Dear Heavenly Father . . .”
Although the specifics of their situation differ from ours here in Harrisburg, the struggles in the church in Corinth with generosity are not too different from our struggles. No one in their church was anti-generosity. The church had some struggles with factions, but those factions were not a pro-generosity group and a pro-selfish group. The church loved the idea. They thought generosity could really help others. They probably imagined someday they might need to receive generosity. Generosity as a concept, generosity as a value, generosity as a goal sounded nice. But actually being generous proved a bit harder. Again, I think this is where many of us are.
We don’t hate the idea. We love it when others are generous with us. My life is drenched in people being generous to me. So many people are so generous with our family, it’s hard to even quantify. There have been one-time gifts that proved so timely. And there have been ongoing gifts that sustain us. So, I love receiving generosity.
But I also love being generous. So often my wife will get an idea, and she’ll say something like, “Hey, what if we did this for this person,” or “what if we did that for another person.” And when we follow through, we experience the meaning of Jesus’s words that it’s more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35).
But my problem, and likely your problem—and the problem in Corinth—is that being generous can also be hard. We need lots of encouragement and reminders about the goodness of generosity. That’s exactly what this chapter is: six reasons to be generous.
To remind you of the context, Paul is collecting an offering from churches around Europe to take to churches in Jerusalem. The church in Corinth knew about the plan for the gift for well over a year, and they really wanted to help. That collection was paused to work on the relationship between Paul and the church.
Let’s think about it like this. Imagine you are a mom or dad with a family of a few children, including some teenagers. Your family is going to have another family over for dinner. So, on Monday everyone agrees that this is a great plan. Some of the older kids want to go out with their friends on Friday night, and that’s great. You just need their help during the week to get the house ready for the company: you need one teenager to go to the store and grab some groceries, another to mow the yard, and a few others to clean the bathroom and living room, and so on.
On Monday, the kids are like, “Great! We’re ready, even eager, to do that. Please let us take part in this grace of a dinner party by preparing for the company.”
Then Monday becomes Wednesday. And you have to work late, so you text the teenagers, “Hey, just checking in about that dinner. Love you guys, but when I left for work, the grass in the yard looked pretty long, the fridge was not full, and the bathroom, well, it needs some work.”
(Is this hitting too close to home for some of you? We cleared this illustration with our legal department; they told us to say that any likeness to any real families is incidental.)
Okay, so you get the picture. This chapter of 2 Corinthians is just like that text message from Dad to the family on a Wednesday with a dinner coming on Friday. They already want to give, and Paul is helping them give.
But there’s one more important detail to know. This gift is not just a gift; this dinner is not just a dinner. What if I told you that one family was from the majority culture and the other from the minority culture, and they were having dinner? On the one hand, what does that matter? People are people and food is food. Sure. But what if, over the long history between these two groups, some of that history is fine, and other parts of that history are horrible, godless, evil, and super agitated? That might make the dinner a bit harder, even if it didn’t need to be. But what if I also told you that these two families having dinner had actually had some hard experiences together, directly related to their diversity, and so the relationship was fine but fragile.
With that in mind, when that family comes over on Friday, if they walk into the living room and it’s a mess, that’s no good. If there’s not a meal prepared, and Dad and Mom grab some peanut butter and jelly and bread and brush crumbs off dirty plates, that’s going to feel hurtful. If you say, “Please grab a seat here,” but you have to throw the dog toys off the couch, and there is a huge slobber puddle, that will be embarrassing.
You see, this gift Paul was raising was to show that the glory of God in the good news of the grace of Jesus Christ was so powerful, so wonderful, and so inexpressibly awesome that predominantly Gentile Christian churches around Europe could collect money and send it to churches that were predominantly formerly Jewish but now Christian. Paul thinks, and everyone thinks, that that would make the gift so awesome because the history has been so rocky. That means the stakes are so high. The dinner isn’t just dinner; the gift isn’t just a gift. It’s a show of gospel unity… or it could be. Which is why he gives them—and us—six reasons to love generosity.
1. Generosity enriches your life
The first reason to live generously is that generosity enriches your life. This goes back to the line from Jesus that it’s more blessed to give than to receive. We see this truth that generosity enriches your life in vv. 10–11. Look at those with me.
10 He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. 11 You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way…
You can see the lines directly in v. 11, “you will be enriched.” Generosity enriches you. When my wife and I do premarital counseling in our living room, when we come to the topic of finances and a monthly budget, we often look at that couple and tell them to build in generosity at the top of their budget, not at the bottom. We know, just as that couple knows, about their college debt, car debt, and the wedding might cause more debt, and that they are just starting their careers, and all of that. Still, we tell them that it’s a myth that one day, when they are sixty-five, they will wake up and be generous. Instead, forty years of life lived with built-in generosity will change them into different types of people. And to use the language of this passage, it will enrich their lives. God says he provides seed to those who sow it.
I don’t think many of us are farmers. Put yourself into the literalness of that metaphor. If you have a giant bag of seed, no farmer goes, I should not plant this. I should save it. No, if you plant a thousand apple tree seeds, you don’t get a thousand apple trees, because some don’t work out. But every apple tree you plant eventually gives you a hundred apples every year. And in every apple there are ten seeds. Do you see? The seed is for planting, not hoarding. Sowing seeds of generosity enriches your life.
Maybe you’re fifteen or twenty-five, or maybe you’re sixty-five, and if you’ve been one to hoard your seed, maybe today is a day to begin sowing. Spring is for planting. I bet something will come to mind this week that puts before you a chance to be generous. Would you even start praying about that now?
2. Generosity enriches the lives of others
The second point is that generosity enriches the lives of others. Look at vv. 12–13.
12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others…
This section is a mouthful. But one thing it says is that your generosity really does enrich the lives of others. It makes a difference. Your generosity is not in vain.
This makes me think of a story from when we sold a car. Many years ago, we traded in a minivan when we bought our current vehicle. It was a time when every dollar mattered. So my wife, bless her heart, worked so hard to clean this van. It was dirty, with slushy stains on the ceiling and melted crayons between the seats. She gave every afternoon for a week to clean it. So we’re sitting at the table negotiating. We say, “So how much for the van?” Now, we don’t exactly expect him to go out there and open the doors and say, “Oh, what a lovely, clean van,” but we kinda did. The guy leans back and goes, “That one out there?” We say, “Yep.” He says, “I’ll give you $300 to haul it away.” I’m thinking, “Come on, man, at least go walk around it and kick the tires.” Giving a generous cleaning turned out to be a waste because that van was worth $400.
Anyway, Paul’s point in these verses is that all that time and all that generosity is not wasted. There has really been a famine in Jerusalem, and every denarius they raise will really help people who need help. When we give as Christian’s, Paul wants us to know that our generosity enriches others. It makes a difference.
3. Generosity brings God glory
All this enriching, your lives and the lives of others, leads to the next point: Generosity brings glory to God. Look with me at vv. 12–13 again.
12 For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God. 13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God…
Picture a non-Christian neighbor over there in Jerusalem who is neighbors with a Christian. Both families are struggling with the famine. Then one day, the Christian family comes home from church on a Sunday afternoon, which is already strange to the non-Christian neighbor, who doesn’t have a Sabbath on Saturday anymore. And that non-Christian neighbor sees the family come home with a huge sack of food.
They are like, “Woah, how did this happen?” And the Christians look at them and say, “You’re never going to believe this. But a group of Gentiles who were saved by Jesus gave all this money, and we have this food, and we actually brought a bag home for you too.”
What a thing, right? The generosity Paul has in mind for them and for us is so wild that the watching will conclude that only God could do it. The generosity is not just generosity, and the dinner is not just dinner. It displays the glory of God.
4. Generosity lets you experience more of God’s provision
And this leads to the next point: Generosity lets you experience more of God’s provision. When you give, especially when you give sacrificially and generously, you have more opportunity to see God work. Look at v. 8.
8 And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
Note the sweeping language in this passage. “All… all… all… every.” Paul says, “God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in everygood work.” If you spend your life only giving what you deem responsible, you’ll never see God provide—and not seeing God provide is a small life. If you close your fist, you might not let anything out, but you won’t have forever to marvel at the undeserved harvest God passed through your hands.
5. Generosity displays the realness of your faith
This relates to the next point, the fifth reason to give. Generosity displays the realness of your faith. This point is sort of buried in v. 13. I’ll read it again.
13 By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ, and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others…
The phrases I have in mind are “they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ.” Note the phrase, “that comes from your confession.” The point is this: When you come to Christ and confess you are a sinner in need of grace, when you need him to die in your place on your behalf, and when he forgives you and saves you and pours out his Spirit into you, then the realness of that change produces a life of generosity.
You’ll notice it doesn’t say, “They will glorify you because you gave.” It says they will glorify God because you confessed faith in Jesus, and that faith in Jesus you confessed changed you into a person who might give to people you don’t even know. A pastor has said before that it’s surely biblical to say that when we receive something good, it is a blessing from God. It’s also biblical to say gifts are a test, an opportunity to show our faith is real. God is not looking for giving units. He has all he needs. God is training disciples, and when he increases our wealth, it’s so we can give cheerfully.
6. Generosity works best when it’s happy and not forced
Here’s the final point. Generosity enriches our lives and the lives of others. It brings God glory, lets us experience more of his provision, giving us chances to see him work among us, and it shows us the reality of our faith. Here’s the last point Paul wants us to know: Generosity works best when it’s happy, not forced. Look at vv. 5, 7, and 15.
5 So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction…. 7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver….15 Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
This line about the cheerful giver can be funny. It’s like, “Oh man, it’s hard enough to give, but now I have to be happy about it too?!” That’s not exactly what it means, but I can understand the feeling.
Last week we had lots of children and parents on stage and we did child dedications. Most of them are too young to walk yet. I know little Violet Norton can’t walk yet, and certainly not Eisley Stone. But in the blink of an eye, there’ll be a moment when Violet or little Ezra or Mason will stand up holding on to a chair, and Dad will be holding out his arms and saying, “Come here, buddy,” or “Come here, sweetheart.” That child will take two steps, then they’ll fall on their padded diaper bottom, let out the hugest giggle, and Dad will shout, “Did you see that! My boy took a baby step! My girl can walk!”
No marathons will be run by those children on the stage anytime soon. It will be years before any of them can put two hundred pounds on their shoulders and do a set of squats. But our Father is happy about baby steps. This is the meaning of God loves a cheerful giver. You can’t impress God with your giving, not if you gave away a billion dollars. But while he’s not impressed, he will be happy. God loves a cheerful giver.
Conclusion
I don’t have time to read the passage in Romans (15:22–29). But did you know that after Paul wrote this letter of 2 Corinthians? He does travel down to Corinth, takes up the collection, and it wasn’t an extraction. It was a happy gift. And from Corinth, Paul writes a letter to the church in Rome, boasting about how awesome the Corinthians are and how he’s coming to see them soon while he’s on his way to Rome and Jerusalem.
Which is my way to tell you that his text message on Wednesday got the yard mowed, the groceries bought, and the bathroom cleaned, because it helped them do what they already wanted to do, and the families got together and had an awesome dinner.
We’re not in a building fundraising campaign, so this is easy to preach. I can’t say for sure, but it’s possible that twelve months from now we’ll start raising a few million dollars. I don’t know because the planning is too early. If things keep going well, we might be six months away from saying that we’re six months away from raising money.
I don’t want to talk about that now. For now, I want to leave us with a wonderful truth. We read that God loves a cheerful giver. But did you know that God is a cheerful giver? We read in the book of Hebrews that Jesus went to the cross “for the joy set before him” (Heb. 12:2). Oh, not the joy of giving his life on the cross by itself. But the joy of what the cross would produce in enriching the lives of others, the joy of making disciples by his death, the joy of bringing glory to his Father, the joy of seeing his Father smile. God is a happy, cheerful giver to you.
I know some of what I said could sound like what people call the prosperity gospel, which is the idea that we follow God and serve God to get more stuff. And some of what I said could sound like that. Some of what I said could sound like we just sow more to harvest more. Plant an apple seed, get a thousand apples. That’s not it at all.
The prosperity gospel would be like that little child letting go of the chair and walking to his father’s arms, and walking right past his smiling father to take one dollar out of his father’s wallet and then to keep walking right on by his father, indifferent to him, the father who would have supplied everything his son every needed, if he only had first been happy with his father’s smile.
I’ve heard it said before that the problem with the prosperity gospel is not that it promises too much, but that it promises too little (R. Albert Mohler, Jr., “It Promises Far Too Little — The False Gospel of Prosperity Theology,” AlbertMohler.com, August 18, 2009). That’s what I want to leave you with. Paul says in v. 15, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” He can say that because when we come to know God in the true and greater prosperity gospel, we don’t merely get more material blessings, we get the inexpressible blessing of knowing God himself.
If you’re here and you don’t know God, we don’t want you to give because your giving of money doesn’t get you God. He wants your heart. And if you give that to him, he’ll give you more than you ask or imagine.
I’ll invite the music team forward so we can have a time of response through singing. Let’s pray.
“Dear Heavenly Father. . .”
