Giving and the grace of god (Sermon at FFPP on 24/7/16)

Giving and the grace of God

1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,2 for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints- 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 But as you excel in everything-in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you-see that you excel in this act of grace also. 8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. 9 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. 10 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. 11 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. 12 For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. 13 For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness 14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness. 15 As it is written, "Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack." (2 Cor 8.1-15)

Introduction

When I return to my home town, Penang, I see many huge Buddhist temples and statues. Non-Christians have been generous with their giving. Why do they give? For many non-Christians, giving is to earn favour with God (or the gods). In this way of thinking God requires and is pleased with gifts of money, and He will trade you this for success and absence of harm. Giving is a means to an end – the goal we consider desirable. How then is Christian giving different from non-Christian giving?

One major difference is perhaps bad news: the Christian God is not “served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything” (Ac 17:25). We cannot bargain with God, and we have nothing to offer Him for leverage.

We must give for the right reasons. Our God does not need our giving. It is we who need God. That leads us to the first point:

1.      Giving is an act of grace: the ground of our giving

God’s grace to us is the reason we give

Our God, the God of the Bible is a giving god. When the Bible tells us “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Co 9:7), it also teaches us that that is because He is a cheerful giver (Ro 8:32, Lk 11:13), Christian giving is rooted in the giving character of our God. We do not deserve anything God has to give us, except judgement. And so God’s giving to us is out of grace – undeserved favour. Our giving must be motivated by the grace of God shown to us in Christ. 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.” ( 2 Cor 8:9) Jesus is our supreme example of selfless giving to us that we did not deserve.

Grace lets us understand that giving is a privilege

When we experience God’s grace, giving becomes a privilege. It is not an unwanted obligation. We want to give just has we have received, freely (Mt 10:8). The Macedonians “begged earnestly” for the “favour” of giving. We do not deserve to be able to contribute to God. David said, “Who am I and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own we have given you.”(1 Chr 29:14) You think God wants your money? Are you worthy to give it to Him? God, the Bible tells us, does not need us. “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine.  “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.” (Ps 50-11-12)

Grace enables us to give with a pure heart

Grace changes us. Grace alone enables giving that pleases God. When it is at work in our lives it turns our sense of priorities and values upside down. We no longer think in terms of gains and losses and we stop being calculating. It is not the way of the world to give because we become poorer in terms of our financial worth. Grace makes us give without compulsion, out of love. We are never to give to God out of guilt or obligation. We are never to give out of pride or desire for man’s approval. Every time we give, God knows whether we have given in a clear conscience, freely and without resentment.  When King David was collecting contributions to the building of the Temple in Jerusalem, he said, “I know, my God, that you test the heart and have pleasure in uprightness. In the uprightness of my heart I have freely offered all these things”(1 Chr 29:17)

The account of Annaias and Sapphira in Acts 5 is instructive. They misrepresented themselves as being more generous than they really were and were “slain in the Spirit” for their deception. They were more concerned with the appearance of generosity than being really generous. For them, giving was a way of getting a reward from people, not from God.

Because of grace, Christian giving is not motivated by thought of reward. It does it expect material prosperity in return, or comfort, or happiness. It is to be freely given in gratitude for grace. It is not given to repay God for grace. If we do that we show that we have not understood grace. We think we still have something to contribute to what God has already done for us in saving us and changing our lives. Trying to pay God back for what we do not deserve dishonours Him.

Grace allows us to give with and from joy

Because of grace, giving comes out of abundant joy and results in abundant joy. (1 Chr 29:9) “The people rejoiced because they had given willingly, for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the LORD”. This kind of joy does not follow worldly logic. Only God can create it when we lose material possessions for His sake.

So giving is a response to grace shown us and an act of grace from us to others. We give because God graciously gave to us. We give because God graciously enables us to give.

The question is: have you felt the grace of God working in your life? Do you know what it means to owe a huge debt you cannot pay, but to have that debt completely covered? Or to receive blessings when you know deep down you deserved punishment? Have you received from God?

2.      Giving is an act of sacrifice: the extent of our giving

A sacrifice is the surrender of what is valuable to the giver (c.f. David “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing”. (2 Sa 24:24) cf. the game of chess.

We should give sacrificially, because God gave sacrificially. We do not offer to God what we can spare, because this does not honour God. Remember what Jesus said about the poor widow (Mk 12:43). God is not impressed by what we give but He sees what we have left behind.

How much we give is not dependent on the resources of the giver, because the motivation is grace, not because we are wealthy and we have spare money and we can afford it.  We do not give out of poverty so that God will bless us with riches.  Or to get tax exemptions (although I believe in tax exempt giving – so we can give more!). We give because of grace, There is no calculating attitude in Christian giving. God was not calculating when He saved us.

Paul had an equation for the Macedonians' giving: extreme poverty + abundant joy = wealth of generosity .This testified to the grace of God in their lives. They gave “according to” and “beyond” their means. Their poverty was not a hindrance to their giving, but an opportunity for generosity. Before the Macedonians gave a cent of their money, they gave all of themselves to God first. And then they gave not only financially, but to those people like Paul in ways that were according to God’s will. True generosity begins with this idea – that all we are and all we have belongs to God. We are disciples!

How much do we give? – all of ourselves to God and to His people, according to His will. We are to give out of a ready heart, according to our means. Don’t go into debt to give. The extent that we give must not be limited by fear or mean-heartedness, only by God-given wisdom.

I don’t see a 10% tithe here. The blessings we have in Christ are far greater than the blessings of the Israelites under the Old covenant and the law of Moses. 10% is a good guide, but we should be ever so willing to give more.

Jesus said these tithing is not a weighty matter, but is not to be neglected. (Mt 23:23)

My question: are you giving at least 10%? Youth – if you cannot give 10% of your $10 pocket money now, do not hope that when you earn $10000.00 a month you can give 10%!

3.      Giving is an act of will: the timing of our giving

The Bible recognizes that we can give regularly for special needs (1 Co 16:1-2). We are to take care of the poor (Gal 1:10, Ro 15:25-26). We are to support the work of missions and evangelism (1 Cor 9) and we are to support those who work in the local church, and by extension the ministries of the local church (1 Ti 5:18)

Giving can be encouraged by example

It is right to encourage Christians with the example of others (v. 1)

This applies to leaders (David), who then can encourage others (1 Chr 29 2-5 “I have a treasure of my own of gold and silver, and because of my devotion to the house of my God I give it to the house of my God… Who then will offer”)

Giving can be wrongly delayed. The Corinthians had begun to give, and had developed desires to give, but they had not followed through. Good intentions alone are meaningless when we fail to convert them to good deeds give the chance. Sometimes we need people to encourage us to make our intentions concrete. Giving should be encouraged with the thought that God does not expect us to give what we do not have. Don’t compare your giving with that of someone else’s! And don’t be shy to give when you only have a little to give.

Giving can be motivated by seeing the needs of others who are less fortunate. We can be told of needs of the less fortunate so that there is fairness.

Conclusion

God is never grudging with us, even at the greatest cost to us. Why must we be grudging when we give Him what is His?

We must ask ourselves: do you see God as a Taker or a Giver?

Ro 12:1 "I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. - lay yourself down as a sacrifice, then give your money.

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