2 Corinthians 8 – Brandon Hatmaker “Kingdom Come”
Wednesday, July 16th, 2008
“And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter: Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.” 2 Corinthians 8:10-12
So this is church planting, huh? Whether you’re at a new church or just a believer pushing through the journey of life, this is a reminder to all of us of our nature to start strong and finish… well, to limp to the finish. Here, Paul, reminding them that they are in the early years of their young church and yet they had already relented in their efforts.
What does he ask? To maintain the heart and desire to give of ourselves, to show an eager willingness to finish strong, to endure in giving according to what we have been given… that’s a reminder to carefully steward our gifts, our abilities, our passions, our time, and our love. Why? To see the Kingdom of God, His rule in our hearts, be realized on earth as it is in Heaven.
“Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name, Your Kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Amen.”
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It seems that Paul found a weak point in the finishing part of the church project. We seem to be weak there in our time as well. Whether we are talking about church projects of points of focus or other professions. Seems like in education we are always coming up with some new cutting edge program to do EVERY year. If we don't finish a project, how can we see if it had an impact or not?? I think the focus is lost when we loose sight of your closing prayer. The Lord's prayer says "YOUR will be done on earth as it is in Heaven." It does not say OUR will be done. We forget that we are just living in HIS world. HIS plan for our lives is what matters most. We get all charged up saying we heard God tell us to go this direction or that direction and then when we get bored or don't see imediate results we all of a sudden stop doing what God supposedly told us to do. IF God TRULY spoke to us, who are we to stop doing what HE told us to do?
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