Are you a biblical giver? In this sermon, Khaleef Crumbley examines the apostle Paul’s teaching regarding giving in 2 Corinthians 8:1-7. There, Paul uses the example of the Macedonian believers to encourage and instruct the Corinthian church. Khaleef Crumbley explains how the Macedonians are also examples for us as the Macedonians display ten characteristics of biblical giving.
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oh good morning everyone one of the things I’ve noticed um and I’ll just kind of throw this out there everyone may not know but I used to be a part of a church I guess in my early church history when I first came to Christ that wasn’t the most biblically sound or even conservative I guess you would say one of the things I noticed from coming from the more liberal side of Christianity to the more conservative side is a lot of times because we want to avoid sounding heretical will avoid certain topics one of the things I notice as it’s very little talk about spiritual gifts and I’m not talking about Calvary specifically but I’m talking about just in a church at large we seem to avoid that topic because we don’t want to get mixed in with people who talk about the two or three sign gifts that are debated over and over between continuous and cessationists so we just don’t really focus on the fact that God has given all of us spiritual gifts something else is God’s prompting or leading because we don’t want to sound like someone who says I heard God speak to me or God came down while I was shaving and stood next to me and talked to me so because we want to avoid talk like that we really shy away from the thought that God can actually lead his people and another one is financial blessings or even rewards that God gives in this life for faithfulness financially and um just a few verses and you don’t have to turn to any of them actually you can turn to Luke chapter six while I just list a few verses that talk about this Proverbs 11 24 25 says there is one who scatters and yet increases all the more and there is one who withholds what does justly do and yet it results only in one Proverbs 19 17 says one who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord and He will repay him for his Good Deed second Corinthians 9 6 now this I say he who so sparingly will also reap sparingly and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully and that is in the context of actually giving gifts Philippians 4 15-17 Paul says to the Philippians you yourselves also know Philippians that at the first preaching of the Gospel after I left Macedonia no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving but you alone for even in thessalonica you sent a gift more than once for my needs not that I seek the gift itself now listen to this but I seek for the prophet which increases to your account and we’ll talk about that a little later but Paul just said to them I am thankful that you gave me a gift because God is going to bless you for it and he even mentions later on that that God will supply all of their needs according to his riches and glory in Christ Jesus Acts 20 it says in everything I showed you that by working hard in this manner you must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he himself said it is more blessed to give than to receive Proverbs 3 9-10 honor the Lord from your wealth and from the first of all your produce so your barns will be filled with plenty and your Vats will overflow with new wine and then I asked everyone to turn to Luke and we can’t get into the full context but if you look at Luke 6 and verse 38 this is one that’s often used in talking about giving and talk about blessing um so Luke chapter 6 verse 38.
and it says give and it will be given to you they will pour into your lap a good measure press down shaken together and running over for by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return I actually want to talk about that for a second before we get into our text just to give a context I don’t want to throw that verse out because it’s not just talking about some random principle that you give and then God all of a sudden is going to dump this huge blessing into your lap but if we had time we can go through everything but if you look at verse 27 Jesus begins and this is actually a Sermon on the Mount but Jesus begins to give them instruction on how to deal with the world how to deal with and interact with unbelievers and he says but I say to you who hear love your enemies do good to those who hate you bless those who curse you pray for those who mistreat you then he goes on and verse 29 tells them someone hits you on the cheek offer him the other he takes your coat give him your shirt um if someone takes something that’s yours don’t even demand it back then he says treat others the same way as you want them to treat you then going on he says in verse 35 but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return and your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high for he himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men and there he’s just he’s not saying that do this work and all of a sudden you’re saved but what he is saying is people will recognize that you belong to God because the way you respond to their treatment and the way you treat them people will recognize that you’re a son or daughter of God by how you interact with them then verse 37 and 38 he gives four commands two and a negative two and a positive he says do not judge then he says do not condemn then he says pardon and then the verse that we looked at give and it will be given to you so he’s again talking about our interaction with even unbelievers interaction with those who will be considered our enemies those who persecute us those who abuse us who talk about us that’s who Jesus is saying to give to and when you give to them they make sure I’m saying it right yes that they will pour into your lap and the first one I thought I had that verse memorized and I always thought of it as God that the response to you doing that is God giving in this way but we see it’s the response of the people it’s the response of people that when you’re generous they’re usually generous in return and then the imagery that he gives he says they will pour into your map a good measure press down shaken together and running over and that imagery really comes from how they brought grain in the Middle East and a lot of times you know they would dress in in something that was flowing fabric like a robe and have it tied around their waist and they would pull up uh part of the fabric through the Rope so that or whatever the belt and they would pour the grain into their lap and that’s how they actually carry the grain much of the time you know they didn’t always walk around with big you know canisters or big baskets to buy the Grain in so they would do that and you see you don’t have to turn there but Ruth chapter three verse 15. uh Boaz wants to send Ruth away with some grain for her and um her mother-in-law this is what he says again he said give me the cloak that is on you and hold it so she held it and he measured six measures of barley and laid it on her then she went into the city so there we see this image of what will happen people will pour into you money people will give you money they will be generous to you if you are generous to them even if they’re the ones who are persecuting you and mistreating you and I just found that very interesting to see how much and there’s there’s hundreds of other verses in the Bible that talk much of it does talk about like in Matthew 6 throwing up Treasures in Heaven but there is a lot that the Bible says about being taken care of and provided for in this life financially so that we don’t have to worry and that we can be generous with what God has given us because he promises us to take care of us and that brings us actually to our text in second Corinthians but before we go into that I just want to uh have a word of Prayer the father and God we just thank you for your word we thank you for its richness we thank you for its fullness we thank you God that we can trust it above all things that even when the world tells us something to do even without culture places something on us God we can go to your word and we can know what your will is for us we can know how we as Believers should respond and I pray God that right now you would speak to us through your word God that you would move me out of the way and that you will let your truth go forth and that you will change all of us so that we can better reflect your glory in Christ’s name we pray amen so second Corinthians chapter 8.
and this is Paul he gave a command and we’ll see that in a minute he gave a command almost a year prior to writing this letter to the Corinthians that they help out with a collection effort for the church in Jerusalem and they hadn’t done it yet so then he shows them a model of what true giving in light of God’s grace looks like so that they would be moved to give in the same way so starting at verse one he says now brethren we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia that in a great ordeal of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and in their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality for I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the Saints and this not as we had expected but they first gave themselves to the Lord and To Us by the will of God so we urge Titus that as he had previously made a beginning so he would also complete in you this gracious work as well but just as you abound in everything and faith and utterance and knowledge and all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you see that you abound in this gracious work also so why was Paul so worried about the church in Jerusalem what was so special about their case Christians were being persecuted all over the Roman Empire so why the Church of Jerusalem well there were there were several factors that played into this uh first we see that the church was in a large part comprised of these Jewish pilgrims who had come and we don’t have time to look at it but in Acts chapter 2 if you remember they had come to celebrate Pentecost which was the Feast of Weeks so a lot of them from around the Roman Empire the Jews came had they had to come to Jerusalem to celebrate this feast yeah so in Acts chapter 2 verses 9 through 11 again you have to turn there it names 15 people groups or places that were represented and that’s only the ones who actually said why are we able to hear what they are preaching in our own tongue in our own language and that was when you had the miracle of the gift of tongues when people from other languages and other people groups understood in that in that instant what Peter was preaching so Jerusalem Church if you remember that that first day there was over 3 000 converts so they became the very first local assembly of Believers and they were the only local assembly for a while until the gospel spread so many of the people actually decided to stay in Jerusalem they didn’t go back home they didn’t have anything to go back home to you have to remember that they would have been even from other countries living in Jewish communities and these Jewish communities they were very hostile to the gospel they were very hostile to Christ any of Christ’s followers and anyone proclaiming the name of Christ were saying that he was the Messiah so many of them would have lost their jobs many of them would have lost whatever standing they had in the community and they would have been run out of town if they even go had gone back so many of them didn’t go back and the ones who chose to remain in Jerusalem and live there they were likely the ones who were poor and the reason why is because most of the ones who had businesses would have had something at least to go back to and sustain them or they would have gone back to tie up any Loose Ends they would have taken care of those Affairs they would have gone and passed their business on to someone else or tried to sell it or or collect whatever other means of wealth that they had and taken it back with them even if they knew they would have been persecuted and couldn’t stay there or they just wanted to stay with the other believers so most likely you had a lot of the poor Jewish converts remain in Jerusalem and they would have been staying in Inns or they would have been staying with relatives and neither of those things is sustainable in the long term so they would have been essentially homeless and we see that in the early church that they had to do a lot of things to be able to sustain all of these poor people being added to the church if you remember the end of chapter two in Acts they had to share everything the Bible says they had everything in common then in the end of chapter four and beginning of chapter five you see many of those who were middle class or somewhat upper class or somewhat wealthy they were selling their goods they were selling their possessions in order to take that money and then use it to be able to take care of those who didn’t have and it got to the point if you remember in chapter six there was such an uproar because the Jewish uh supposed or the the Greek converts said that you’re not properly taking care of us in the distribution you know our widows our orphans are being overlooked you know the the Jewish converts are taking care of the Jews more than they taken care of of the Hellenistic uh ones the the ones who have come from these Greek um Nations so then they said okay appoint servants to take care of this because we don’t have the time as as Elders we can’t attend to God’s word and praying for his people and waiting on tables so that’s the the beginnings of the church in Jerusalem also the ones who were native to Jerusalem would have had the same problem they would have been uh kicked out of their societies they would have been obviously kicked out of any groups they were in their families would have disowned them they would have been kicked out of their homes in most cases um the same way in a lot of Islamic countries if one family member converts to Christianity you see that they become persecuted immediately and they lose their job and everything it was the same thing in first century uh Judea and also um there was a worldwide famine that happened about 10 to 12 years after the church in Jerusalem was founded so you have all these things and actually it mentions in Acts 11 and you don’t have to turn there but I’ll just read what it says because you’ll see the beginnings of this this collection and why it was so important on Paul’s mind and why he gave the Corinthians this model acts 11 28-30 says one of them named agabus stood up and began to indicate by the spirit that there would certainly be a Great Famine over all the world and this took place in the reign of Claudius and in the proportion that any of the disciples had means each of them determined to send a contribution for the relief of the Brethren living in Judea and this they did sending it in charge of Barnabas and Saul to the elders and we see that throughout the New Testament Paul asked several churches and actually he has several churches in several regions to help out with this collection he asked the churches in Macedonia which would have included thessalonica and Berea and Philippi and many others that aren’t even mentioned in in the New Testament um he asked the church churches in Ikea we see that in Romans 15 26. he asked the churches in galatia and then he asked the churches in Corinth and and we’ll we’ll be turning to First Corinthians 16 a little so you can kind of like put your thumb in there if you want um but verses one through four of First Corinthians 16 says now concerning the collection for the Saints as I directed the churches of galatia so do you also on the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and save as he may Prosper so that no collections be made when I come when I arrive whomever you approve I will send them with letters to carry your gift to Jerusalem and if it is fitting for me to go also they will go with me so we see this this model that he lifts up um for giving and it’s a church of Macedonia and there are a number of things for us to look at and I actually wish that this could be like a three-part message or something so we can actually delve into each of these points but it can’t be and I’m sure you’d rather hear uh from pastor and Mark anyway um so we’re going to try to pack it all in uh to the next 40 minutes so if I call out verses and you don’t have time to turn to it that’s okay you’ll get it and you can watch it uh later right um so what’s the first thing that we see Paul lays out these characteristics for giving and I believe that he lists at least 10. probably more if you really delve into it but I believe he lists at least 10 things and I’m going to give you a bonus one coming from from somewhere else so um what’s the first thing he says that it should be done in light of God’s grace your giving should be done in light of God’s grace second Corinthians 8 1 says now brethren we wish to be known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia now Paul emphasized that the source of and motivation for the macedonians giving was the grace of God and it’s Works in two ways they consider their salvation they consider God’s grace and actually saving them from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light and they also consider God’s grace in their sanctification and God’s grace even empowered them to be able to give in this way they gave in a way as we’ll see you know further on that most of most humans on their own accord are not able to give in this way because we have this this mechanism in us that protects ourselves it’s just self-preservation and that usually kicks in at a certain level of of poverty or a certain level of Affliction and they were able to overcome that only through the work of the Holy Spirit and considering God’s grace empowering us Romans 8 Romans 12 verse 8 actually says that giving is a spiritual gift so there are some who actually have a spiritual gift to be able to give even greater than what God gives every single Christian there are some who have the capacity they have the the level of Faith necessary and then God also gives them the means with wish to give in abundance that would be even more than than what others can so that’s the first thing and that kind of is the foundation for everything God’s grace we’re not giving under compulsion as we’ll see we’re not giving because someone said a certain amount we’re not giving because someone uh said they’ll lock the doors until they collect a certain amount we’re giving because of God’s grace what’s the second thing so first you your giving should be done in light of God’s grace and that’s the foundation next it should be done even in difficult circumstances look at verse two he says that in a great ordeal of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality he lists two things here he says their great ordeal of affliction and then he talks about their deep poverty and affliction was look looking at the way they were persecuted and they were persecuted in ways that went far beyond the financial they weren’t just persecuted because they lost jobs they were persecuted in many other ways and as you go through there were so many Martyrs that were made people were being killed for coming to faith in Christ and in light of that they still gave and the word Affliction and actually translates a Greek word that that literally means pressure they will be impressed in they will be impressed from all sides and in that they still gave and why is that so amazing it’s because many times Affliction will cause us to look at ourselves or look at our situations and not look to Christ or his church it’s hard for us to see the needs of others when we’re suffering maybe when the suffering is over we can look back and say wow that is going to help me to have compassion on someone but while we’re in the middle of the suffering we tend to focus on ourselves and God has given us an example of those who gave in the middle of suffering because they were able to see a need and that need was greater than their own suffering he also says their poverty a poverty comes from a Greek word that means bakery or a lifestyle of begging and a noun form means to be a beggar so they were at the status of some unfortunately use the word bum in in our in English you know in a negative sense um they were begging they were beggars they were those whose Financial level was so low that they were compared to Beggars but in the middle of that they still gave and that shows us a couple of things that um actually come up a little later but one of the things that we see is that God expects everyone to have a Generous Heart no matter where you are financially you may not be able to do with what another brother or sister can do for someone but you have to have this generosity springing out of your heart and we’ll look that in more detail in a minute I ran across this quote online from Malcolm Bain and he says if you wait until you can do everything for everybody instead of something for somebody you’ll end up doing nothing for nobody and that’s usually the case right we usually say we want to wait until we get a certain level of money or we can’t welcome someone into our home until we can afford a four bedroom right so we can have our children away safely and they can have their own room so we won’t open up our homes to anybody until then we won’t open up our bank account to anyone until we’re completely out of debt and we have X amount of dollars saved and we have X amount in our retirement accounts then we can start being generous and we all the time have set these goals that are so far in front of us that says once I get to this point then then maybe I can start giving more maybe I can be generous then we get to this point well I have to get here because now my life has changed now I have a kid so I can’t be that generous as I thought I could when I got here but instead God says where you are right now you have to be looking to give so first we saw giving was done in light of God’s grace then we saw that it was done even in difficult circumstances in verse two something else also stands out it says that in a great ordeal of Affliction their Abundance of Joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality did you catch it their Abundance of Joy and I love that it’s sandwiched at least in the English it’s sandwiched in between their Affliction and their poverty they had this Abundance of Joy but overflowing with joy and there were two um two things that we see in this situation and we should see in general about our giving that should give bring us great joy first it supports the spread of the Gospel and second it supports the building up of the Saints and in some places that will be that will be reversed and some it won’t when you’re talking about missionaries are usually talking about the spread of the Gospel local churches support missionaries but are more about building up the Saints we’re an assembly right we’re called out from the world and we’re called together and our giving helps to build up one another it’s it’s almost like when we look at the Old Testament sacrifices right what what was the main point of them they pointed to Christ they pointed to the death of Christ well what about the New Testament sacrifices they point to the death of Christ as well because of what we just said they they open up the doors for people to hear the gospel and our giving our sacrifices helps to build up Christ’s Church that he died for and that should make us excited that should get us excited that should make us have joy right this isn’t something that’s like oh well yeah I get to help build the kingdom of God that’s nice you know this should give us joy just give us great joy listen I’ve never understood this this thing that happens in our culture when somebody gets either a house or they get a car they get congratulated and honestly I’ve never understood that so if anybody if any of you guys got a new house a new car I didn’t congratulate you I’m sorry but I just don’t see how getting into debt 20 000 to 400 000 is something I should congratulate you for it’s not something I get excited about we just had to get a new car recently I’m not excited I’m not excited when I have to send a payment to the bank every month right I’m not but we had to our car was dead so we had to replace it I’m not excited about that doesn’t bring me joy well bring me joy is using my money to build up the kingdom of God so why do we congratulate people and and get we don’t congratulate people when the plate goes by and someone puts money into it hey congratulations you’re building up God’s kingdom no we don’t but hey you’re in debt 400 000 is great what that’s backwards right but we do it all the time without thinking I always want why do we congratulate people we should be thinking about the right things David came up a few weeks ago and preached and told us that we should be storing up Treasures where in heaven not on Earth that’s not saying if you bought a new house of card that you’re all of a sudden some sinner but it just means that our true Joy should be found in building up the kingdom we should be happy about the things that makes God happy the things that God rejoices over and and commands us to Rejoice over like people getting saved people being delivered from their sins people recommitting themselves in their marriage people being focused on raising Godly children that should excite us the gospel being spread in countries where it’s illegal to even talk about Jesus Christ that should excite us I turned to Luke chapter 16.
in Luke chapter 16 we find ourselves in the middle of a bunch of Parables that Jesus is giving and one of them he gives is the parable of the unjust steward and until recently I’ve always been confused about how it ended what he said at the end of it in verse 9 he says and I say to you make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails They will receive you into Eternal dwellings and I always was kind of what is this what does he mean by that use unrighteous money to make friends that are in heaven like what what is he talking about we paying off Angels what does he mean by that it it it never really resonated with me until I actually started looking at other verses that talk about giving and to look at what he meant basically we can’t go through all of it but the parable just talks about a manager or a steward who squandered whatever whatever part of his master’s wealth he was responsible for it doesn’t say exactly what he did it just says that he squandered his possessions so because of that the master said two things one you’re going to lose your job but before that you have to come and give an account of everything you’re responsible for so he says what am I going to do I I’m not I can’t dig I can’t do manual labor but I also can’t beg you know I I’m too ashamed to beg he says at the anniversary so he says what should I do okay I have a good idea I’m going to go to everyone who owes my master money and I’m going to say hey how much do you owe 100 000 all right you only owe fifty thousand pay that and your debt is clear how much do you owe 30. okay give me 15. your debt is fine see one thing just keep in mind that most of the time stewards who took care of the of the property of someone who is very wealthy they lived with them they lived on their property so he knew he was going to be homeless and without a job so he said let me make friends with all these wealthy businessmen so that when I’m kicked out I have a place to go and possibly have someone who will give me a job I don’t know about you but if somebody writes off their bosses uh losses that way that he did I wouldn’t want to hire him I wouldn’t even trust him in my home but that’s not how the world works we we again talk about the self-preservation look what he did for me I’m going to do something for him so that’s what he did and the crazy thing is in verse eight his master praised the unrighteous manager because he acted shrewdly and then Jesus adds this for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of Light then in verse 9 he says and I say to you make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness so that when it fails They will receive you into Eternal dwellings what does that mean a wealth of unrighteousness well it’s again it’s the idea of Mammon that we see in Matthew 6 where it was just a personification of wealth so they instead of talking about wealth as a thing or an inanimate object they talked about it as if it was a person so they could give it these attributes and the descriptions could be more Vivid so it’s not saying that money in and of itself is unrighteous what it’s saying is it’s a devoid of righteousness so don’t don’t think it’s saying use evil money you know go to a drug dealer and say I’ll trade you some of those dollars that have been part of a drug deal and I’m going to use that that’s not what he’s saying money itself has no morality attached to it that’s what he’s saying use this money that has no inherent righteousness and invested in the kingdom do what this man did he used his master’s money to make himself friends that would benefit him in his next stage of life and that’s what God is saying to us use your Master’s money because we understand God gives us all right God gives us a skilled ability to earn money God provides for us in many ways God is the reason why we have any money now any possessions so he says use your Master’s money to make friends for yourself and those friends will welcome you to eternally what is he talking about primarily he’s talking about the spread of the Gospel and he’s talking about being connected with other brothers and sisters and being Partners in their suffering and helping them financially I mean could you imagine the joy that will come when you get to heaven if there’s someone who doesn’t even know you they welcome you and they’re rejoicing and they say because you gave money to this missionary in Papua New Guinea I heard the gospel and I’m saved and I’m here in heaven because you took your Master’s money and invested it in the Kingdom and that’s the image here that’s what he’s saying he’s saying that you should be a shrewd as this unjust steward in that you take your Master’s money and you invested in things that matter and build up the kingdom so that when you get to heaven and that you are around these Believers that they are rejoicing over your sacrifices that you made in this life I don’t know about you but that makes me much more joyous than a car right the fact that I can first will be in the presence of God so I mean just just the the joy that we have from being with God but then seeing that we help to build up God’s kingdom even in ways that we can’t imagine I mean we have missionaries over I mean we have a missionary who we actually sent out from our church who’s doing the work of the kingdom and imagine when those people when you meet them in heaven your brothers and sisters that she is touching and she’s given the gospel if they’re going to be rejoicing over your giving and your generosity so your giving should be done with joy it isn’t just for that but it’s also look look around look at all your brothers and sisters every time you give every time you put money in that plate you’re benefiting them you’re helping the word of God go out to them you’re helping with all the things that that we need here good I don’t see anybody here with coats on the huddling because usually people complain about the code but we can only have that AC because of people give so you can even hear the word of God in Comfort Comfort they don’t have in other countries and they’re more willing to hear the word of God than here but that’s that’s another another sermon we don’t have time to talk about that but we see we should give in light of God’s grace our giving should be done even in difficult circumstances and it should be done with joy we saw all of that and we didn’t even leave verse two yet matter of fact look back at verse two that in a great ordeal of Affliction there are Abundance of Joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality the fourth thing is your giving should be done with generosity and we looked at that some already but what he says here is in the wealth of the liberality and liberally actually translates a word that literally means singleness or single-mindedness and it’s talking about and it’s usually translated generosity and it’s talking about having this Focus having this laser focus being single-minded about meeting the needs of your brothers and sisters you’re so single-minded that you’re known as being generous and we see a great example of that actually turn to Exodus chapter 35.
and this is probably my favorite example of the joy that comes in giving and how generous God moves his people to be so they’re going to build the Tabernacle so they need items they need skilled men they need different things to help build a tabernacle so in Exodus 35 verses four and five it says Moses spoke to all the congregation of the sons of Israel saying this is a thing the Lord has commanded saying take from among you a contribution to the Lord whoever is of a willing heart let him bring it as the Lord’s contribution and then he starts to list all the things that they need so he just says take an offering Moses tells the people God wants an offering God needs all of these things that he lists all the way down through verse 9. God needs all of these things to help build the Tabernacle flip over to chapter 36.
this is the result of a people who have this single-minded focused laser sharp vision to look at the needs of the people and follow the commands of God chapter 36 start at verse 3.
they received from Moses and this when he says they here is talking about the builders the ones who are actually using the material collected they received from Moses all the contributions which the sons of Israel have brought to perform the work in the construction of the sanctuary and they still continue bringing to him Free Will offerings every morning and all the skillful men who were performing all the work of the sanctuary came each from the work which he was performing and they said to Moses the people are bringing much more than enough for the construction work which the Lord commanded us to perform so look what Moses had to do so Moses issued a command and a proclamation was circulated throughout the camp saying let no man or woman any longer perform work for the contributions of the sanctuary thus the people were restrained from bringing any more I mean that that’s that’s ridiculous come on they gave so much that Moses had to command them and say stop giving stop you’re too generous you’re bringing so much stuff that is getting in the way and cluttering the construction zone now he was happy he wasn’t yelling at them but but he had to tell them stop you’re too generous stop giving can you imagine this this is a challenge to everybody here and even those who aren’t here on vacation all of you no the cameras there all of you who are watching everyone this is a challenge be so generous with your giving that Dwayne can you wave quickly that’s Dwayne in the back at the Wayne Muller has to come up here one Sunday and say Calvary stop giving stop George is taking the money to the bank and he got a hernia trying to carry it all stop giving it’s too much can you imagine that now obviously this is for a project and I’ll need to ongoing so don’t stop but understand what’s happening here God moved in the hearts of his people so much that they they just kept giving and they gave was such a joy because they had this single-mindedness this liberality this generosity that’s how our giving should be even if we don’t break the bank this is what our heart should be when we give and let me just say this message convicted me maybe more than no convict convict you guys I’ve been thinking about this for weeks um and I mean I’ve been thinking about this off and on for you know 10 years but the last few weeks I’ve really God has really been dealing with me even on this do I have this hard attitude or am I one of these people who are saying I have to wait until I get into a better financial situation all right the fifth thing that that we see here and we actually get to move on to verse three now it should be done in proportion to God’s provision verse 3 says for I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord this idea of according to their ability first uh Corinthians 16 2 says it this way as he may prosper so it’s it’s saying here your given should be done in proportion to how much God has blessed you with right I don’t expect a millionaire to give as much to give as little as a college student right there is some difference in the amount we’re not saying okay we need x amount of dollars okay everybody get fifty dollars we’re not doing that right God is expecting you to give in proportion of how he’s blessed you because it’s part of the reason why that he provides for you is to then turn around provide for the work of the Kingdom I actually remember and I was telling someone this last couple weeks um so if you’re here forgive me but my wife and I were in a church and we were dating at that time went to the church in Newark and you know they collected an offering then they did a song while the ushers or whoever went in the back and collected the offering then while we were still sitting there they finished the song and a pastor came up and said all right all right stop singing we collected making up a Number 1700 today but we need three thousand dollars so they said ushers can you lock the doors well I am not joking then lock the doors every pew has to come up with a hundred dollars or we won’t move on in the service and when I say I don’t mean the whole row I mean you had to give a hundred and then you had to give a hundred oh poor mozzie yes you have to come up with it by yourself you you that’s really what he said everybody has to give a hundred that’s not what we’re doing here just just so you know I didn’t give anything I’m just just that stubborn when it comes to foolishness so I didn’t give anything and I don’t think Sherry Ann did either um but that’s the opposite of what God wants right God gives you a certain income he gives you other things other possessions he gives you a certain lifestyle and then says now bless me now give back to support the work of the Kingdom and then he lays out these characteristics so we know if I’ll give him lines up or if we’re falling short in second Corinthians 9 7 part of what it says there is that our giving should not be done grudgingly or under compulsion and actually there it talks about that our giving should be joyful as well um All Right Moving On giving should be done sacrificially that’s number six done sacrificially in second Corinthians chapter 8 verse 3 he says for I testify that according to the ability and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord so our giving is not just according to our ability what we can comfortably give based on our budget but it should be beyond our ability our giving should stretch us our giving should kind of hurt a little why because we’re trusting in God to provide for us excuse me commentator rch Linsky in his uh volume on first and second Corinthians he says that the giving of the macedonians were described by by these words quote they made a joy of robbing themselves into they made a joy of robbing themselves can you imagine what would happen if that was said of us what would this church look like how many more people could we reach if we could all say that that we made a joy in robbing ourselves that we gave to the point where it was actually a sacrifice we gave to the point where we actually had to start trusting God because when we have 200 left over from our paycheck every week it’s easy to give two hundred dollars and say uh okay I guess I did we just won’t go out to eat this time but it’s something else when we say you know what I guess my child won’t learn their fifth instrument because I’m going to take some of that money and devote it to the kingdom of God right I guess they won’t play these all of these Sports because each of these things costs money right I guess we’ll have to cut back one night from eating out because we eat out three nights a week anyway we start thinking that way and again those things are examples none of those things means that you’re sinful or squandering money it just means that we should be honest with ourselves and and honest before God when it comes to whether we are actually sacrificing for the kingdom or are we just doing what’s comfortable for us and thinking about the idea of sacrifice two things really come to mind first we talked about trust um we can’t turn there but Matthew chapter 6 verse 25 to 34 which will be the continuation of what Dave preached on a few weeks ago um really tell us really paint this picture of how we should trust God how we should not worry it says God takes care of the grass in the Lilies of the Field he takes care of the birds right and if he does this how much will he take care of you so don’t worry then he even says don’t worry about tomorrow has enough problems worry about today because God will provide what you need for today and there’s more that can be said about that with with borrowing and those things but but it’s sufficient to look in this situation that we should be testing God on those words will he really provide do I really trust that do I really believe everything the Bible says or just to convenient stuff and if we think we’re exempt from this in First Corinthians 16 where we looked in verse 2 Paul commands each one of you to give so it shows us that every believer is expected to give and again that that’s a personal uh commitment that you make to God that isn’t something we’re not one of these churches where you submit your your tax statements and then we evaluate and say all right this is how much you’re you’re supposed to give right you may be in a season in your life where you have very little to give you may be at a place in your life where you’re like the people in the Jerusalem Church under so much poverty that people are giving to you and what do you do in that case you come to the church because the giving of others will help to support you and there’s other things you know that go into that but um we see that I’ll get not only do is out giving support people but sometimes we’re going to be one of the people who need the support so again your giving should not be done out of guilt your giving should not be all right I can keep my lights on or give to the church well that sermon was pretty pretty rough look look at the Macedonia the Macedonia is what it gave and turned the lights off no no it’s not about that we have to be sensible but at the same time we have to be honest that we are making a sacrifice and I would say that if you have questions about that in your heart you go to someone you pray about it you pray with your family about that you go to one of the to the elders and talk to them and pray about this because no one should be giving out of guilt um and actually that’s the next thing that Paul states that you’re giving should be done voluntarily and you look at the second half of verse 3 and go into verse four he says they gave of their own accord begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the Saints so they won’t manipulate it or of course into giving but think about that they beg for the opportunity we should be begging for the ability to give more and sometimes that means our current state things have to be changed we may have to beg God for lower expenses we may have to to beg God for the wisdom to be able to know what things are cut we may have to beg God for the ability to earn more we have to maybe beg God for the ability to better manage our household finances or look for those who can help with that he’s good he raised his hand already so y’all need help you can go you can write to him um but seriously this is this is what the body of Christ is about you you look you’re looking for ways to be obedient to what God has commanded and when things are difficult you go to your brothers and sisters and there’s a lot more that that can be said about that but I will just point out um two things quickly at the macedonians they beg for an opportunity and they beg for the grace of having Fellowship in in Nas um it says it says favor that were favors were chorus it’s Grace right it’s a gift they saw it as a gift to be able to give and he wanted to have this partnership with Fellowship in any of you in home group remember the word Koinonia which means Fellowship means partnership that’s the word that’s used here with for participation in the support of the Saints they saw it as as part of their fellowship with their their brothers and sisters all right we’re almost done so we’re going to look quickly at the last uh few because I don’t believe that there’s a big um question about this because it’s expressed elsewhere in the word of God number eight it should be done as an act of worship look at verse 5.
it says end this not as we had expected but they first gave themselves to the Lord and To Us by the will of God in prepare for this sermon I ran across a guy who told the story of a um a church that was collecting a special offering and I guess they just thought they were going to collect a lot of money so they used these big huge baskets they didn’t use plates they walked around these huge baskets and they start you know walking down the aisles and people are giving and then they come up to a young boy he didn’t have any money but he wanted to give something so he just climbed into the basket he just you know I’m sure a week we can easily imagine here some of the boys in this church climbing into offering baskets but he actually did it as as an act of worship he did it to say I don’t have money but I’ll give anything that I have including myself and the Usher saw it and instead of you know kicking him out which I probably would have done he then took the basket walked back to the altar with the others and they placed them all there and everyone in the church even the hardened men were crying because they examine their hearts and they’re saying we don’t have the heart we don’t have the love of God that this young guy has to climb into the basket and say God I’ll give you all all that I am all who I am and so they collected the offer and again and they actually collected more the second time than the first time so I don’t know maybe we have to get uh you know Caleb or uh Titus or somebody to just jump in some some basket soon but you know it’s amazing to just see how God moves in that way and it reminds me of Romans 12 12 1 and most of us probably had the verse memorized I’m not good at that so I’ll read it therefore I urge you Brethren by the mercies of God to present your bodies of living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God which is your spiritual service of worship our bodies can’t be submitted to God separate from our finances or our gifts our possessions it’s a package the knife thing it’s done in submission to The Trusted church leaders in verse 5 it says they first gave themselves to the Lord and To Us by the will of God so this shows two things that first giving is done in the context of the local church you can’t say I’m going to give 300 a week to God but a hundred of that I’m just going to walk to a homeless man and say Here’s a hundred dollars all right God I gave to you but he has ordained the local church to collect the giving so understand that it’s not enough to say I’m going to support this Seminary or I’m going to support this radio Ministry you’re supporting your local church this is why Paul said to collect the offering yourselves so that when I come then we can send it to Jerusalem or you can have someone come with me and we’ll give it to the elders there so again you give in submission and that’s why once a year Dwayne stands before you and says this is how we’ve used your gifts for God’s kingdom and this is how we plan to use your gifts in the future for God’s kingdom and we’re able to discuss and you’re actually supposed to vote on that and say we approve of that we are in line with that we agree with that and we are happy that you’re using our gifts in that way and it also uh shows that well in Hebrews 13 17 it says obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account let them do this with joy and not with grief for this will be unprofitable to you so again it shows just more obedience it shows that you’re obeying the word of God by saying we’re going to submit to the leaders even when you give to any charity you have to trust the ones who are in charge to decide how the gifts are dispersed and the same thing happens here but we at least have a guide we know how the gift should be dispersed so number nine was done in submission to The Trusted church leaders number 10 and this is probably the quickest one it should be done in love in verse 7 he says but just as you abound in everything in faith and utterance and knowledge and in all earnestness and in the love we inspired in you see that you abound in his gracious work also so just like you abound in everything all of these things right and he’s talking to the Corinthian Church here and you abound in faith you’re bound utterance your abound in knowledge he talks about those things in the first letter and in all earnestness and you also abound in the love we inspired in you from their example and possibly from his teaching from First Corinthians 13.
where he teaches them all about what love looks like and then he sees them acting in that love and he says well if you’re acting in this love you should abound in this gracious work as well see to it so it should be done in love the last point right before we close turn back to First Corinthians chapter 16. let’s flip back a few pages First Corinthians 16 verse 2.
so this is the bonus not about how we should give but when we should give First Corinthians 16 2 says on the first day of every week each one of you is to put aside and Save so God is saying not that you’re giving has to be weakly but that it has to be regular and that it’s collected when we meet because it’s an act of worship that we just saw and we come together to worship which is why we just don’t have a box out in the vestibule that people just dump something in it’s part of the service because it’s worship so it should be done in the service and it should be done regularly whether that’s once a month whether it’s it’s once a week every two weeks that’s that’s up to you that’s personal but it should be regular so I’m going to zip through them so if anybody’s taking notes and this one you can hear them should be done in light of God’s grace done even in difficult circumstances your giving should be done with joy done with generosity it should be done in proportion to God’s provision done sacrificially voluntarily as an act of worship in submission to The Trusted leaders in love and it should be done regularly and I pray that each one of us would be able to say that about our giving that we all would go home and evaluate how we give and how we think about giving and I pray that God would really impress it on our hearts and convict us where it’s needed and encourage us where it’s needed let’s go before the Lord in prayer our gracious God we thank you for this example of giving we thank you God for the Macedonian Church we thank you God that they were willing to give in the midst of adversity and even in their poverty I pray God that we would have that same attitude not to show off not because we feel guilty are not because we’re even comparing ourselves with someone else but I pray God that we will be obedient to your word and that you will stir our hearts God that you will encourage us and convict us where necessary and that God you will get the glory out of everything that we do and I pray that you will be praised and that our hearts would be changed and we ask this in Christ’s name for his sake amen