We Exist to Run Toward Needs

The Minister Who Wouldn’t Let Me Pay

For five years I served at a small church in rural Kentucky. The senior pastor there was the father of one of the guys I went to Bible college with. When I first got there, I was pretty worried about how it was going to go. I didn’t know if he was going to see me as a peer, or if he was going to see me as a kid. One of his son’s buddies from school. When I first met Chip, he was a little intimidating. He is 6'4" and he grew up on a ranch in South Dakota so he wears cowboy boots that add another two inches to his height. He is a big guy.

Little did I know, Chip would have given anything to work with his son in ministry. And so he took me under his wing.

One of the things Chip did, and I’ve never forgotten it, is that he never let me pay for my own lunch. Not once. Every time we went out, he covered it. He said he remembered what it was like to be a young minister. And then he told me something I’ve carried with me ever since. He told me to pass it on down the line.

Chip was generous. And that generosity meant something to me. It built our relationship. It told a young minister who wasn’t sure where he stood, “I’m for you. I’ve got your back.” And more than anything else, Chip’s generosity pointed me to Jesus.

Today we’re talking about the core value we call Compassionate Generosity.

We believe generosity is not just a financial practice. It is a posture toward the world that looks for needs and moves toward them, because the God we follow gave everything he had for people who had nothing to offer in return.

A posture. It’s the way you stand toward the world. We don’t move toward needs because we’re such good people. We move toward needs because God moved toward us first, when we had nothing to offer him in return.

Setting the Scene

Corinth was a busy port city in Greece. Ships coming and going, merchants, sailors, money changing hands all day long.

About a year before Paul wrote this letter, the church in Corinth made a promise. There were believers down in Jerusalem who were poor, and the Corinthians said, “We want to help.”

Think about who they were promising to help. Jerusalem was around 800 miles away. These weren’t their neighbors. Different city, different culture, different language. If you lived in Corinth, the only thing you had in common with a poor believer in Jerusalem was Jesus.

But it turns out that’s enough.

God Moves First

Before Paul says a word about our generosity, he says God is the source. Most of us hear a sermon on generosity and we immediately start thinking about ourselves. What do I have? What can I spare? Paul doesn’t start there. He starts with God.

2 Corinthians 8:9: “You know the generous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty he could make you rich.”

That’s the reason underneath everything. Jesus was rich. He had everything. And he became poor for our sake. God moved toward people who had nothing to give back. Paul says it another way in Romans 5: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.”

In the Greek, Paul uses the word “all” five times in this verse. All grace. In all things. At all times. All you need. Every good work. He’s stacking it up on purpose, like he’s trying to leave no gap anywhere.

God doesn’t overflow you so that you can sit in the overflow. The surplus has a direction. It points outward, toward the need. And when it meets the need, it points other people back toward God.

Seed and Bread

Verse 10: “For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat.”

I don’t have to explain this one too much around here. Some of what God gives you is bread. It feeds your family. It pays the mortgage and the electric bill. That’s good. God gave you that.

But some of what God gives you is seed. And seed isn’t meant to be eaten. It’s meant to go back in the ground.

Any farmer will tell you, the more seed you store back, the more you can plant next year. If you eat all of the bread, if you keep it all for yourself, then you won’t be able to plant more next year, and the harvest after that is going to be smaller.

What has God put in your hands that’s meant to be planted instead of eaten? It might be money. It might be time. It might be a skill, or a truck, or a kitchen, or a lot of years of walking with Jesus that somebody younger needs.

We Move Toward Needs

Verse 6: “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.”

I need to stop here, because this verse has been abused. Some preachers take this verse and say, “Send me a hundred dollars, and God will send you a thousand.” That is heresy.

Just keep reading. Verse 11 says, “You will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous.” The good harvest produces more seed, not a bigger barn. Jesus told a story once about a man who had a big crop and decided to tear down his barns and build bigger ones so he could keep it all. Jesus condemned that man. We are not called to build bigger and bigger barns. We are called to plant more seeds.

Verse 7: “You must each decide in your heart how much to give.”

Notice what Paul doesn’t do. He doesn’t set an amount. He doesn’t hand them a percentage. He says decide. The verb Paul uses points to a settled decision. It’s not a mood that hits you when the plate comes by. It’s something you thought about, prayed about, and settled before Sunday ever got here.

And Paul says, “Don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. ‘For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.’” God isn’t interested in squeezed-out gifts. He doesn’t want money you handed over with your teeth clenched.

Generosity That Crosses Lines

Remember who’s giving to whom. These were Gentile believers giving to Jewish believers they’d never met. For a long time those two groups didn’t eat together, didn’t worship together, didn’t trust each other. Generosity crossed a line nobody expected it to cross.

Let me bring that closer to home. In 2024, about one in six Hoosiers didn’t have reliable access to food. One in six. And for kids, it’s roughly one in five. Those aren’t people 800 miles away.

And it’s not just money. Sometimes the need is a meal. Sometimes it’s a ride to a doctor’s appointment. Sometimes it’s a yard that needs mowed.

Thanks Moves Back to God

Verse 12: “So two good things will result from this ministry of giving: the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God.”

Here’s something you’d never catch in English. The word Paul uses for “ministry of giving” is the word our English word liturgy comes from. It’s a worship word. Paul is telling the Corinthians that when they give to the poor, it isn’t just charity. It’s worship.

Verse 13: “As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God.”

In Corinth, when rich people gave money to the city, they got their names carved in stone. There were inscriptions all over the city honoring who gave what. Paul says the result of this gift is something different. Nobody’s name gets carved anywhere. God is glorified.

And then verse 14: “And they will pray for you with deep affection.” The believers in Jerusalem couldn’t pay the Corinthians back. But they weren’t just on the receiving end. They prayed for them. Money went one direction. Love went both.

If you have been on the receiving end of a gift, hear this. Receiving isn’t a failure. You’re not a charity case. You’re part of the family.

And then Paul gets to verse 15, and after two whole chapters about this offering, he stops talking and just says thank you. “Thank God for this gift too wonderful for words!”

Run Toward the Fire

Think about firefighters. When a building is on fire, everybody else is running out. Firefighters run in. Even though that seems crazy. Even though that puts them in harm’s way. They care so much about their community that they run in to protect people.

That is how generous we want to be here at Colfax Christian Church. We want people in this town to look at us running towards the needs in our community and say, “That doesn’t make sense.” We want people to ask, “Why would they do that?”

Because when they ask that question, we get to tell them. We do it because somebody ran towards us first.

So here’s my challenge for you this week. Identify one need in our community, and run towards it.

There are families who need food. Run towards it. There are families struggling to pay medical bills. Run towards it. There are people who are injured and can’t mow their grass. Run towards it. There are people in the nursing home who would love to see you. Run towards it. There are young people in your workplace who long for mentorship and relationship, the way I did with Chip. Run towards it.

We move toward needs because God moved toward us.

Small Group Questions

ICE BREAKER QUESTIONS

1. Who is a “Chip” in your life, someone who was generous to you in a way that shaped who you became? What did they do, and how has it stuck with you years later?

2. Think of a time when you were on the receiving end of unexpected generosity (a meal after surgery, help with a bill, someone showing up when you were grieving). How did it feel? What did it do for your relationship with that person or community?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. Pastor Nate introduced the core value of Compassionate Generosity: “We believe generosity is not just a financial practice. It is a posture toward the world that looks for needs and moves toward them, because the God we follow gave everything he had for people who had nothing to offer in return.” Why does Pastor Nate call generosity a “posture” rather than an action? How does seeing generosity as a posture (how you stand toward the world) change the way you walk into the grocery store, work on Monday, or interactions with strangers?

2. The Corinthians promised to help believers 800 miles away in Jerusalem, people they’d never met, from a different culture, who they had nothing in common with except Jesus. Pastor Nate said: “But it turns out that’s enough.” Who do you have “nothing in common with except Jesus” that you’ve been overlooking? How does our tendency to help only “our people” limit what God wants to do through our generosity?

3. Pastor Nate said: “We move toward needs because God moved toward us.” This is the whole sermon in one sentence. How does keeping this order straight (God first, then us) protect us from giving out of guilt, pressure, or performance? What happens when we reverse the order and try to earn God’s favor through our generosity?

4. 2 Corinthians 8:9 says Jesus “though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor.” Pastor Nate said: “God didn’t wait for us to deserve it... He moved toward people who had nothing to give back.” How does the gospel itself shape our understanding of generosity? What would change about your giving if you truly believed you were giving in response to grace already received, not trying to earn grace you hope to receive?

5. Pastor Nate pointed out that in 2 Corinthians 9:8, Paul uses the word “all” five times, stacking it up to leave no gap: “all grace. In all things. At all times. All you need. Every good work.” Where do you doubt that God’s grace is sufficient for your season? Where have you been hesitant to be generous because you weren’t sure God would come through?

6. Pastor Nate used the illustration of seed and bread: “Some of what God gives you is bread. It feeds your family... But some of what God gives you is seed. And seed isn’t meant to be eaten. It’s meant to go back in the ground.” What has God put in your hands that’s meant to be “planted” rather than “eaten”? It might be money, time, a skill, a truck, a kitchen, or years of walking with Jesus. What are you currently treating as bread that God intended as seed?

7. Pastor Nate addressed a dangerous misuse of 2 Corinthians 9:6: “Some preachers take this verse and say, ‘Send me a hundred dollars, and God will send you a thousand.’ That is heresy.” He clarified: “The good harvest produces more seed, not a bigger barn.” How does prosperity theology distort real biblical generosity? What’s the difference between “give to get” theology and “give because God gave to us” theology?

8. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says to “decide in your heart” how to give, not reluctantly or under pressure. Pastor Nate said: “That’s why I don’t preach on giving but once or twice a year... We want your giving to come from a decision you made with God, not from a guilt trip you got from me.” Have you ever actually sat down (alone or with your spouse) and decided ahead of time what you will give? If not, what has kept you from making that settled decision?

9. In Indiana, one in six Hoosiers didn’t have reliable access to food in 2024, and for kids it’s one in five. Pastor Nate said: “Those aren’t people 800 miles away. Some of them could be sitting in classrooms.” What specific needs do you see in Colfax, in your workplace, or in your neighborhood that you’ve been walking past? What would it look like to actually move toward them this week?

10. Pastor Nate ended with the firefighter image: “When a building is on fire, everybody else is running out. Firefighters run in... We want people in this town to look at us running towards the needs in our community and say, ‘That doesn’t make sense.’” What’s one need in our community you could “run toward” this week? Why don’t we naturally run toward needs the way firefighters run into fires? What has to change in us for this to become our instinct?