Tampa Bay Presbyterian Church

Tampa Bay Presbyterian Church Our goal is to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Please join us for worship or one of our many events. See www.tampabaypresbyterian.org for more info.

09/07/2026

2 Corinthians 8:16-17 states, “But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you. For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest he is going to you of his own accord.” Paul now commends three men who will come to Corinth to receive the financial gifts of the Corinthian believers. The first of these men is Titus. He knew and loved the Corinthian believers (see 7:15). Titus and Paul were of one heart regarding the collection for the relief of the poor believers in Jerusalem and Judea.

Paul praises Titus not merely for obeying a request but for a zeal that outran the request itself — he needed no prodding to go. Church history offers a striking parallel in George Whitefield's fundraising for Bethesda, the Georgia orphanage he founded in 1740. Whitefield did not wait to be commissioned before each appeal. Having once conceived Bethesda's need, he preached for it unbidden across Britain and the American colonies for decades, often to his own financial and physical cost, long after any formal obligation required it. Whitefield crossed the Atlantic thirteen times and made repeated fundraising trips through the American colonies for Bethesda throughout his ministry. Contemporaries and biographers alike noted that this labor sprang from his own heart rather than external pressure, much as Titus' mission to Corinth was, in Paul's words, “of his own accord.” Both men illustrate the same principle: God-given "earnest care" for others' needs converts duty into eager initiative — the kind of giving, and going, that needs no reminder.

Prayer for today: Father, I am grateful for men and women with compassionate hearts who willingly help others in need. Amen.

As we ordain and install a man as a Deacon in our church, I want to make a few comments about elders, deacons, and the c...
09/06/2026

As we ordain and install a man as a Deacon in our church, I want to make a few comments about elders, deacons, and the congregation.

09/06/2026

2 Corinthians 8:15 states, “As it is written, ‘Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’ ” Paul is referencing Exodus 16:18. When God’s people were in the wilderness following their exodus from Egypt, God provided manna for them to eat daily. Some who gathered more than they needed for the day shared it with those who did not gather enough. In this manner, everyone had sufficient manna for the day. The provision at the second exodus in Christ has also been equally sufficient between Jews and Gentiles so that each might provide for the other.

Soon after the congregation was formed in Jerusalem, many believers faced need. Rather than treating their homes, fields, and money as possessions to guard, the disciples viewed them as resources entrusted by God. Those who owned property sold it and placed the proceeds at the apostles’ feet. The money was distributed according to each person’s need. As a result, the record says that “there were no needy persons among them.” One believer mentioned by name was Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas, meaning “son of encouragement.” Barnabas owned a field. He could have kept it as security or used its value for his comfort. Instead, he sold the field and donated the amount for the relief of Christians. This true account illustrates the principle expressed at 2 Corinthians 8:15: the person with much did not have too much, and the person with little did not have too little. The wealthier disciples were not impoverished, but their surplus filled the shortage of others. Christian love created a willing equalization, not through compulsion, but through generosity. Their faith moved resources from places of abundance to places of need, so the congregation experienced God’s caring provision together.

Prayer for today: Father, may that spirit of generosity still be evident among your people today. Amen.

09/05/2026

2 Corinthians 8:13-14 states, “For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.” Paul was asking the Corinthian believers to help relieve the burden of the poor believers in Judea. At that “present time” in redemptive history, the Gentile believers can contribute financially. In contrast, the Jewish believers can contribute spiritually with leadership and the ministry of the gospel (see Romans 11:11-12, 25-26, 30-32).

In May 1941, Britain faced a wartime problem. Factories that produced dresses, suits, and shoes were making weapons, while ships carried food and mu*****ns instead of wool and cotton. Clothing could have become the privilege of those wealthy or quick enough to buy first. The government therefore introduced clothes rationing under the slogan “Fair Shares.” Every person received sixty-six coupons for a year. A dress cost eleven coupons, trousers eight, and socks three. Money was still required, but money alone could not secure an unlimited wardrobe. The system was imperfect, yet its guiding principle offers a picture of Paul’s teaching in 2 Corinthians 8:13–14. Those with greater purchasing power were restrained so that scarce goods remained available to others. The purpose was not to make one group destitute while another lived comfortably. It was to prevent abundance at one end from producing deprivation at the other. Christian generosity is voluntary, unlike government rationing, but the moral resemblance is clear. God does not ask believers merely to exchange places with the suffering. He calls those enjoying abundance to recognize another person’s need and respond. Resources become a trust, not simply a possession, and sharing creates the “fair balance” Paul commends.

Prayer for today: Father, help me to be generous with what you have given to me. Amen.

09/04/2026

2 Corinthians 8:12 states, “For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.” Paul was encouraging the Corinthian believers who wanted to give financially to support the poor believers in Judea to give what they could give. He did not want them to give what they did not have. Believers should give as God prospers them. They should not promise to give an amount that they do not yet have, hoping that God will prosper them. This is putting God to the test (see Luke 4:12), which believers should not do. The more usual problem, however, is that believers do not give from what God has already generously provided to us.

In 1995, Oseola McCarty, an eighty-seven-year-old laundress from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, made a gift that astonished the nation. For seventy-five years, she earned a modest living washing and ironing other people’s clothes. She walked rather than owned a car, lived, and saved what she could. When arthritis forced her to retire, her savings totaled about $250,000. McCarty might have concluded that her money was too little compared with the fortunes of wealthy philanthropists. Instead, she considered what she possessed. She kept enough for her needs, remembered her church and relatives, and designated $150,000 to the University of Southern Mississippi for scholarships. She wanted students facing financial hardship to receive the educational opportunity she had lost after leaving school in sixth grade to care for an aunt. Her gift became remarkable not because she competed with richer donors, but because she willingly offered from what she had. McCarty wished only that she had more to give. Her story illuminates 2 Corinthians 8:12: God does not measure generosity by comparing our resources with someone else’s. He looks first at the willing heart, then accepts the gift according to what a person has. A modest gift, freely offered, can carry love and lasting influence.

Prayer for today: Father, help me to be generous with what you have given to me. Amen.

09/03/2026

2 Corinthians 8:11 states, “So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.” Having just commended the Corinthian believers for their desire to participate in financial giving to relieve the poverty of believers in Judea, Paul now exhorts them to complete what they had started. Their initial desire would be meaningless if they did not complete what they had said they wanted to do.

One of the most frustrating parts of ministry is when believers don’t follow through on what they say they’ll do. I learned this as a young minister. I was leading a class on evangelism training. The class lasted sixteen weeks, and participants were asked to commit to at least two cycles of training; one as a trainee and the second as a trainer. I remember one man starting the class, but after about six sessions, he dropped out. I soon learned that he had regularly volunteered to serve in a ministry, but after a time he stopped serving there. Over the years of my ministry as a pastor, I have noticed that there are people like this in every church. The Lord wants believers to complete what they set out to do.

Prayer for today: Father, help believers to complete what they say they want to do in ministry. Amen.

09/02/2026

2 Corinthians 8:10 states, “And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it.” Paul acknowledges that the Corinthian believers started giving financially a year earlier. They did not give out of compulsion but voluntarily. They gave financially because they wanted to. Their hearts had been changed, and that caused them to empty their pockets.

In 1885, the Statue of Liberty arrived from France, but America had not raised enough to complete its pedestal. Wealthy donors had not solved the problem, so newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer appealed to ordinary citizens. He promised to print the name of every contributor, however small the gift. People responded freely. Workers, shopkeepers, immigrants, and schoolchildren sent what they could. Some gifts were a few cents. Most donations were $1 or less, yet roughly 125,000 people participated. Within six months, their offerings exceeded $100,000, enough to finish the pedestal. No law compelled those citizens to give. No collector stood at their doors. They chose to take responsibility for the project. Their stewardship was voluntary, but it was not vague or sentimental. They turned willingness into action and brought an unfinished undertaking to completion. That is the practical wisdom of 2 Corinthians 8:10. The Corinthians had already desired to give and had begun doing so. Paul did not force them. He urged them to finish what they had willingly started. Genuine stewardship begins in a willing heart, then faithfully follows through. A small gift, freely offered and completed, can join with others to accomplish something enduring.

Prayer for today: Father, it is so encouraging to see your people give financially to advance your kingdom. Amen.

09/01/2026

2 Corinthians 8:9 states, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.” Paul cites the example of Jesus. However, he was not thinking primarily of economic poverty. Paul was thinking of Jesus’ humiliation in the whole drama of redemption. Jesus set aside the glory of heaven, took on human flesh, was born of a woman, endured suffering, rejection, betrayal, ridicule, and persecution. And just as Jesus’ poverty must not be understood in primarily economic terms, so must his riches also not be understood in primarily economic terms. The riches that Jesus makes available to believers are not material prosperity in the present. It is salvation from sin, adoption into God’s family, and the indwelling Holy Spirit, who empowers holy living.

In 1873, priest Joseph De Veuster, known as Father Damien, volunteered to serve people with Hansen’s disease who had been isolated on Molokai’s Kalawao. He arrived at a place where suffering people had been pushed out of society. Rather than ministering from a distance, Damien made their settlement his home. He learned Hawaiian, built houses, helped construct a water system, organized schools and choirs, provided medical care, and buried the dead. The healthy priest shared life with those others feared to touch. After years of service, Damien contracted the disease. He refused to abandon the community and continued working until his death in 1889. Damien’s sacrifice is an imperfect reflection of 2 Corinthians 8:9. Christ possessed the riches of heavenly glory, yet willingly entered our poverty. He did not rescue humanity from a distance. He came among us, accepted our weakness and sorrow, and ultimately gave His life so that bankrupt sinners might receive the riches of grace, forgiveness, adoption, and eternal life. Father Damien entered an isolated colony and shared its suffering to bring dignity and hope. Jesus entered our fallen world and bore our sin to make us eternally rich. That is grace: the Rich One becoming poor for us.

Prayer for today: Father, I am so grateful that Jesus, though he was rich, yet for my sake he became poor, so that I by his poverty might become rich. Amen.

08/31/2026

2 Corinthians 8:8 states, “I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.” Paul was not commanding the Corinthian believers to give financially. He wanted them to do so voluntarily. If giving was not voluntary but a command, he would have told them to obey what God had set down for them to give. Who are the “others” in the expression “the earnestness of others”? Paul was referring to the Macedonian believers’ giving. He wanted the Corinthian believers to prove that their love was genuine by the way they gave financially.

While teaching at Oxford, John Wesley earned £30 in one year and lived on £28, giving away £2. As his income later rose to £60, £90, and £120, he continued living on £28 and gave away the increase. Wesley’s generosity was not merely a sermon topic. It became a visible pattern in his life. That true account illustrates Paul’s purpose in 2 Corinthians 8:8. Paul did not issue a legal command or demand a fixed amount. Instead, he pointed to the earnest generosity of other believers as a test of the sincerity of the Corinthians’ love. Genuine love does not remain a feeling or an impressive claim. When another person has a real need, sincere love willingly accepts a cost. Wesley could have increased his standard of living each time his income grew. Instead, he increased his giving. His choices provided practical evidence that his concern for others went beyond religious language. Likewise, Christian generosity is not a competition in which believers try to outgive one another. The example of earnest givers asks a searching question: Is our professed love genuine enough to affect what we keep, what we surrender, and how readily we help others?

Prayer for today: Father, give me a genuine love for you and others, reflected in my giving. Amen.

08/31/2026

John M. Revell | Tampa, Florida

Address

19911 Bruce B Downs Boulevard
Tampa, FL
33647

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Monday 8am - 5pm
Tuesday 8am - 5pm
Wednesday 8am - 5pm
Thursday 8am - 5pm
Friday 8am - 5pm
Sunday 9am - 12:15am

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