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October 6, 2002
Work While It Is Day - Week 2
2 Corinthians 8:1-5
Pastor Ben Berger

Give Generous Gifts

You have money. What's it for? There are really only three uses for your money. You could use your money to serve yourself, to serve your God, or to serve your neighbor. No one needs to remind us to use our money on ourselves. Certainly God gives us money to take care of ourselves. What about the other two? How much money should we use to serve God or our neighbor? We're going to have a very frank and hopefully practical discussion about money. We'll talk about why we would ever spend money on God or our neighbor and about how to decide that amount. In His Word God encourages us to Give Generous Gifts 1)because you know God's grace 2)because you want to return thanks.

Why will you use your money to serve God and your neighbor? The first reason is because you know God's grace. Listen to Paul: And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

The people in the Macedonian churches struggled through a most severe trial. You have struggled through the same severe trial. You have had to struggle with sin. From the day you were born you have had to deal with the fact that every last thing you do by nature is to please your self. You want to be happy and your self tells you that if you want happiness, you'll have to get it for yourself. Your self along with the world and the devil constantly try to convince you that you can use money to find happiness. Buy a nice house, car, jewelry, clothes and toys; they will make you happy. Buy things for other people; they will be your friend and make you happy. Money = power and power will make you happy. These are all lies. It seems the more we struggle to find happiness, the more we compound our sin and guilt. That is, until we come to know the grace of God.

Paul describes it in verse nine: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Jesus had everything! Every house, every car, all the jewels in the world belonged to him. The world itself belonged to him because he made it. There is nothing that exists in heaven or on earth that did not belong to Jesus. Even the angels and the people of this world belong to him. He was rich, but that wasn't important to him. What was and is important to him is you. For your sakes Jesus gave up everything, he left heaven and came down to earth, he lived without a house, without a car, for the most part without clothes and sometimes even without food. He became poor; he lived without so that he could live with you.

Through his poverty Jesus made you rich. He gave up his life to give you the forgiveness of sins. He left his Father to restore your relationship with the Father. He gave up his throne to give you a place in heaven. You have the forgiveness of sins, life and salvation; that makes you the richest person alive. That ends your struggle with sin and your struggle to find happiness. You know the grace of God.

That grace gave so much joy to the Macedonian churches that in spite of their extreme poverty God's grace welled up in rich generosity. They wanted to use their money to serve God because God had already given them everything they needed. God's grace led them return thanks to God.

Why will you use your money to serve God and your neighbor? The first reason is because you know God's grace. Because you know God's grace, hopefully the second reason is because you want to return thanks.

The Macedonian churches found a very special way to return thanks to God: using their money to serve their neighbors. The church in Jerusalem, who had originally sent Paul out as a missionary, was now having financial problems. Many churches began a collection for the church in Jerusalem. Listen to the people's response to God's grace: they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

Knowing how much God had given them, the people couldn't help but want to return thanks by serving their neighbors. When we come to know and understand God's grace for us, God creates in us the same urgent desire to return thanks. We can do that by using our money to serve our neighbor. We can use our money to provide opportunities for many others to hear and learn about God's grace for them.

How do I decide how much to give? Let's look at some principles of giving.

One: Give first to the Lord. Verse five of our text: And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. This is what we've been talking about all along. Anything we give is a direct response to the grace God has given to us. When we see all he has done for us, our hearts burn with the desire to return thanks.
Two: Give to the Lord first. 1 Corinthians 16:2: On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income. On the first day of every week or the first check that you write after you get paid. Jesus gave up everything for you. He didn't take what he wanted and give the rest to you. He didn't even spare his life for you. You came first; everything he did, he did thinking of you. Loving someone means putting him or her first, before yourself. God loves you. Return thanks, return his love by putting him first.

Three: Give proportionately. Back to 1 Co 16:2: each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income. Giving proportionately means giving a percentage. Tips at a restaurant are proportionate; you leave fifteen percent of your bill. The more the bill, the more the tip and vice versa. Paul encourages us to give a percentage of income as our thank offering. The more our income, the more our offering; the less our income, the less our offering. Giving a percentage takes away the guess work. It helps us to give to the Lord first. We decide what percentage to give and then we do it. We don't give what's left over or give first but try to figure out what we can afford. We give thanks. We give back a small amount of what has been given to us.

Four: Give in faith. I'll refer back to the Gospel reading. Jesus reminds us to store up treasures in heaven, treasures that last and give lasting happiness. Jesus encourages us: Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. (Mt 6:25) Giving first, always giving the same percentage requires faith. What if I don't have enough left over to pay the bills? What if there is an emergency? I might need one percent back. Oh, so many things to worry about. No, have faith. Giving first and giving the same percentage says to God, "I trust you. I am counting on you to provide for me. I'm not going to worry about having enough because you will give me all I need."

Giving in faith leads right to number five: Give according to God's promises. 2 Co 9:8: God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. When you give thanks to God from what he has given you, God will not leave you helpless. In fact he says in Malachi 3:10: Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. Does this mean God will make you rich? Yes and no. He might not make you rich in earthly treasures, though looking at the world many of us would be considered rich. God does promise to make you rich in heavenly treasures and he has already done that. He only waits to give you more.

How will you decide how much to give? 2 Co 9:7: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. What you give is really a matter of your heart, a matter of faith. Ten percent? Why not? Maybe more or maybe less. There is no rule. How much you give is not important; what matters the most is why you give. Paul encourages us to Give generous gifts because we know God's grace and because we want to return thanks.

What is generosity? Generosity is a response to God's grace. Generosity is the attitude in our hearts created by all that God has done for us. We are so thankful that Jesus was willing to give up everything right down to his very life that we can't help but return thanks. Generosity is also sincere concern for others. We have all that we need. We have forgiveness of sins, life and salvation. Most of the people in the world have nothing. Even the richest people really have nothing. Our heart goes out to them. We want to make them rich with all the blessings God has given us. Paul summed it up nicely: This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift!(2 Co 9:12, 15).