The Example of Faith Promise

As you find your place this morning in 2 Corinthians 8, I want to share the interweaving context of the churches involved in this passage. One year prior to the writing of this second letter, the Corinthian church promised to take up an offering for the struggling church in Jerusalem. Read 2 Corinthians 8:10

2 Corinthians 8:10 KJV 1900

10 And herein I give my advice: for this is expedient for you, who have begun before, not only to do, but also to be forward a year ago.

We don’t think much about how financially devastating becoming a Christian was for Jews in the first century. Even today if a Jew becomes a Christian they are disowned by their family, cut off financially, and so will so far as to purchase a grave plot and headstone. It was these hurting brothers and sisters in Christ that the Corinthian church promised to take up a collection for.

Perhaps their willingness to readily give to the needy church was a result of the scathing letter they recieved from Paul and they were eager to make changes, but like us today, the further they got away from the tongue lashing, the less sting they felt. Whatever the reason, their year was almost up and the offering was not yet complete.

Paul wrote this letter to encourage them to KEEP the PROMISE they had made because others were counting on them. Church, there are people, all across this globe, counting on us to keep the promise that we have made. They are praying for new promises to be made, for the faith to commit to God to be a blessing to others.

Let me ask, to whom did the Corinthians make this promise? To Paul? Themselves? Jerusalem? of to God? The truth is, the promise they made was promise to God, and they were struggling to keep it. They were believers in a large city, a wealthy city, they were not facing any open persecution, you might say they were in “flourishing economic times.” To encourage them he shared the example of not larger more thriving churches, but smaller, suffering churches, churches of Macedonia - Philippi and Thessalonica - read the opening verses with me and notice the example of faith promise...

When you read your Bible you should remember to put on your SPECS and look for...

S- sin to avoid

P - promises to claim

E - examples to follow

C - commands to obey

S - Scripture to memorize

Right here in 2 Cor. 8:1-5 we see all of this, but what I want to focus on is the EXAMPLE we are to follow. The EXAMPLE set by the struggling Macedonian churches. THE EXAMPLE OF FAITH PROMISE. Notice....

How Precious Their Example Was 1-3

Church, these verses are the heart of Faith Promise giving. I’ll come back to that later.

I want you to understand…that is what Paul meant when he said “to wit” it means to understand. Understand that:

Their giving was an expression of the grace of God

Paul says their giving to the church in Jerusalem was due to the “grace of God bestowed” upon them.

Becasue God saved them, because God loved them, because God had blessed them they wanted to be a blessing!

Church, you can’t out bless God and you can’t out give God!

The truth is you can NEVER do enough for God!

The Macedonians knew that they could never repay God for His grace, yet they wanted, they desired to do more than anyone would say was possible.

Grace is God giving you something you do not deserve.

The word “bestowed” means to have something gifted to you.

While we cannot purchase God’s grace, we certainly can support those who are on the foreign field serving in the gospel ministry, preaching about the grace of God to those who are lost and will die with Him.

The Macedonian church said, we don’t have a lot to give, but we’re going to give all we can because we want to be a blessing to some poor lost soul suffering.

Let me remind everyone of the context, the offering they were giving was for the hurting saints in Jerusalem, but the application for us is to follow their example of giving applied to missions. Their giving was an expression of God’s grace and....

Their giving was an expression of their faith in God v. 2-3

They didn’t have a lot to give.

To say they had fallen on economic bad times, was an understatement

1 Thessalonians 1:6 “6 And ye became followers of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost:”

In 2 Corinthians 8:2 “2 How that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality.”

They, Philippi and Thessalonica were facing “Great trial” - persecution for their faith.

They were in “deep poverty” -

Unlike the Corinthian believers who had plenty, they had nothing.

But they did not let this keep them from the promise they made to God!

What excuse do we have today?

They gave all they could v. 3

They were willing of themselves. Read that with me again.

When I first surrendered to preach we were attending Woodfern Baptist Church. There’s a lady that attends that church that will always have a special place in my heart. She was a widow who lost her husband a few short years after they were married. She is pushing 80 now probably and has been a widow since her twenties. Let me tell you she was a prayer warrior! When we had a serious need she is the one we went to because we knew she would pray. She was on a fixed income, and let me say, money was tight for her. One Sunday, not long after I started Bible college, she came to me and said “Brother Todd, God has placed on my heart to help you out. It’s not much, but maybe it’ll help put gas in your car or buy you a meal. She then proceeded to put a $20 bill in my hand. I of course refused it, but then she got serious and with tears in her eye she said, “Don’t rob me of my blessing.” From that day she handed me a $20 bill every month. She never told a soul, and I never have either, until now.

$20 may not seem like a lot of money to you, and I know it doesn’t go as far today as it used to, but that $20 was a lot to that poor widow. That is the heart of FP. Giving what you can and trusting, having faith, that God will take care of the rest. How precious was their Example. Number two...

How Purposeful Their Example Was 2-4

Right now some of y'all are making excuses for why you cannot give any more than you currently do and we’re not even finished with the first message in this series. If Church, any Christian, at any time in history had a real excuse for not giving it was the Macedonians.

Facing severe persecution. Facing deep poverty, they were able to look beyond themselves and to see the need of a far away city they’d never visited, of brothers and sisters in Christ they’d never met and were willing to give ‘Beyond their power’ to help meet the need. The word power has the idea of ability. Notice their:

Sacrificial Attitude v. 3

Faith is not required to give from available resources.

If I had 100 $1 bills and you needed $5, it would not take faith to reach into my wallet and pull out 5 bills for you.

If, however, I had $100 in my wallet to pay a bill or that I was planning on spending at the grocery store, and you came to me and said, ‘Pastor, I am $100 short of paying my car payment this month, if I lose my car I’ll lose my job, if I lose my job, I’ll lose my house, etc.”

It would take GREAT faith for me to reach into my wallet and to give my last $100 to help meet that need.

This is the type of faith the Macedonians were showing.

They were not compelled

They were not coerced

They “Willingly” gave of themselves. Notice also their...

Selfless Attitude v. 4

Paul did not have to beg them to GIVE, but he did try begging them to KEEP.

How opposite they were from Corinth

Corinth who was rich and capable of sending a large offering had lost their fervency in giving

They had to be reminded

The Macedonians didn’t have two nickles to rub together and refuse to keep the money for themselves.

They begged Paul to take their offering.

Do not miss the context here.

This type of giving is not to raise money for the church budget, but for MISSIONS

They Macedonians understood that the money would go to help people they did not know and would most likely never meet, and they were thrilled to give.

What is the purpose of FP? To give to others. Whatever amount you prayerfully decide to give, when you give it 100% of that money will go to FP missions. That is a promise. It will not go to pay a single bill of this church, not a dime will go to pay for salaries, everything will go to support missions. Amen, and amen! We’ve seen how precious their example was, how purposeful it was, and lastly lets see...

How Powerful Their Example Was 5

2 Corinthians 8:5 KJV 1900

5 And this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God.

I said at the beginning of this message that these verses are the heart of FP giving. Here’s what I mean: God doesn’t want your money.

God doesn’t need your money.

God wants you.

Did you know that the Bible talks about money more than heaven or hell. Do you know why? Of course you do. It’s because as long as we have money everything is OK, but the second that is taken away what are we left with? Who is the first person we turn to in a time of need.

Church, the Corinthians had plenty of money. They were comfortable, they were content, but they were out of the will of God. They had made a promise to God to give to the poor in Jerusalem, but they had slacked off and time was running out.

God had to use a poor church that was willing to give beyond their power to those they had never met and they were WILLING to do just that, not because they had plenty of money, but because they had plenty of faith. They were willing to give anything and everything they could to God, starting with themselves.

Conclusion:

When it comes to FP giving, that is exactly where God wants you to start: with yourself. I beg you not to shut me out, not miss a message in this series, not tune out what is being said because it makes you uncomfortable. I beg you instead to spend time with God in prayer, to discuss this with your spouse, to begin to seek His will in how much you can give to this ministry.

Let’s bow for prayer...

The greatest need anyone has in this world is to know Jesus Christ. If you believe that will you raise your hand? If you raised your hand just now then you have admitted before God Almighty just how important the missions ministry of this church is to you. What are you willing to do about it?

How many of you are willing to commit some time this month to praying about how much you can give? You don’t have to raise your hand, but right where you are as Gwen is playing softly, promise God that you will pray about this.