Giving 'til It Hurts: An Example of Giving
Notes
Transcript
Introduction:
We are quickly approaching the Christmas season and while it is not here yet, the first Christmas commercials have already hit the airways.
Some of you have begun your shopping or will begin soon, checking off the names on your Christmas giving list.
Some of those names are people that you want to buy for and some are names you feel like you have to buy for. You give reluctantly in those cases.
That can be how many people view giving in the Kingdom of God. We like the other parts of the Bible and we love to hear messages on those parts, but any time the Church starts to talk about giving, we cringe.
We think it must be because of a monetary need or it’s like the radio shows when they get to the end of their giving year and start the giving campaigns.
Yet, giving is a natural part of the gospel. Giving is embedded in the most popular verse in the Bible. John 3:16 says that God so loved that He gave...
We are going to look this morning at how we can have radical generosity and give until it hurts. Now, obviously this is a metaphor, because if we give biblically, it won’t hurt but will bless us and the receiver.
Let’s dive in and see how.
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.”
Pray
1. An Example of Giving (vv.1-5)
1. An Example of Giving (vv.1-5)
The Macedonians were a group of churches that existed on the Macedonian peninsula in what is now Greece.
These were churches like those in Thessalonica and Berea and Philippi.
From Study Assistant:
These churches were responding to a critical situation in Jerusalem, where many impoverished Christians were suffering. The city attracted poor people, and Jewish persecution combined with a regional famine had severely impacted the Christian community. Paul urged his missionary churches to provide an offering that would not only meet practical needs but also demonstrate Christian solidarity—revealing the depth of Gentile concern and acknowledging the spiritual debt Gentile believers owed to the Jewish believers who had originally shared God’s revelation.
Their afflictions:
The Macedonian churches faced profound afflictions on multiple fronts. The region had been ravaged by war, stripped of its wealth by Rome, and the believers experienced terrible trials. When they accepted Christ, they were heavily persecuted—suffering afflictions that were a “great trial” to bear.
Specifically, Paul’s gospel preaching in Thessalonica stirred up Jewish opposition. The Jews dragged Christians like Jason before city officials, and the believers suffered persecution from their own people, similar to the churches in Judea2. Their “deep poverty” was a result of war, battles fought on their own soil, heavy taxation, and systematic resource stripping by the Roman government.
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So.....you think we have it bad? Not so much, right?
These churches had experienced a lot of hardship and trials. Paul had planted many of them and experienced a lot of the hardships that he will have to recount in chapter 11 in defense of his apostleship.
Yet these churches gave until it hurt! They are a model for us in how to express Kingdom Giving.
To know how we ought to give, we need take a look at a few traits of how they gave.
They Gave Generously (vv.1-2)
They Gave Generously (vv.1-2)
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.
God gave first
Grace that has been given among the churches
They had received the gospel and wanted to give
Grace in the Bible does refer to God’s gift to us of salvation, but it also refers to how that grace energizes us to let God’s love flow through us.
Application
Do you desire to give to Kingdom causes or do you do it reluctantly?
Some people will say things like, “I have to give my tithe” or “I’m supposed to give such and such.”
Do you give only because you think you have to or because you want to be generous?
Illustration:
Christian financial counselor Dave Ramsey has a plan to help people excel spiritually and one of the last of his Baby Steps is to build wealth and be outrageously generous.
You see there is a spiritual principle that is at play here. Radical generosity is a virtue.
6 The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
Imagine planting a field and being stingy with your seed. You will get some seed that germinates, but you will not get near the harvest without sowing generously.
Think about what you are giving
Generous giving is not all monetary giving, though it includes giving resources.
It also includes giving time and talents.
They Gave Sacrificially (v.3)
They Gave Sacrificially (v.3)
3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,
The Macedonian churches did not just give when they had a ton of extra wealthy laid up to be able to give.
They certainly gave proportionate to their needs, but they also wanted to give beyond.
This is sacrificial giving.
We will see later on in our study of the text that the point Paul is making is that they stretched themselves.
Paul is not asking them to go into need themselves in order to help someone else’s need.
Illustration:
There is a movement among people known as the prosperity gospel. These are the churches that you often find on TBN and Daystar and networks like that. They have the Benny Hinns and the Creflo Dollars and the Kenneth Copelands. These are the well dressed, fancy talking preachers that are always preaching to sow a seed of blessing.
You will be able to recognize them because they don’t talk much about the gospel and sin and atonement. They talk about declaring things to be true and binding God to His word and His promises, as if God were trying to get out of some contract.
They will talk about generational curses and challenge people to give to break these curses.
There is a well known pastor named Costi Hinn who is the nephew of Benny Hinn and he has gone on record exposing his uncle’s ministry. He talks about how the family would live in fancy hotels and live extravagant lives and when the money would start dwindling, the business manager would call them and tell them to slow down and then the crusades would start up again to raise more money.
This is scandalous at best. These types of preachers are challenging people to give up their life savings and retirement accounts or forgo getting medical treatment to send that money in so that they can live luxuriant lives at the cost of others.
This is not the type of giving that Paul is encouraging. Paul was encouraging a type of giving that doesn’t fuel personal bank accounts, but helps those truly in need.
Yes it is sacrificial, but it doesn’t go beyond ability.
Application
Think about this for a moment.
How much do you waste on things in your budget?
Some people eat out every meal. Besides being unhealthy, there is a lot of money wasted on all the extra expenses added in that you could save if you cooked the meal yourself. Sacrificial giving might mean eating at home so you have margin to give.
Or what about all of the toys and extras we have in our life. Sacrificial giving might mean using your phone for 4 years instead of upgrading to the same phone every year.
Sacrificial giving finds ways to squeeze out money that can go to kingdom causes in order to be a blessing and help to others for the sake of meeting their needs and most importantly getting the gospel to them.
Paul was using this money to meet the needs of the poor in Jerusalem. In meeting these needs, the natural question that would arise is the same question that people will ask today. “Why are you doing this,” or “Why are you so kind?”
It is the radical generosity that opens the door to sharing the gospel, not lining the bank account of a TV preacher.
They Gave Eagerly (v.4)
They Gave Eagerly (v.4)
4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—
Notice that Paul says these churches begged Paul for the favor of giving.
Paul didn’t go to them to ask them to give, because He knew that they were already in a severe test of affliction.
It probably surprised Paul to hear them ask him for the opportunity to give. Notice the word used here.
It is a word that means to beg or to plead. Instead of the poor Macedonians begging Paul for resources to meet their own needs, they are begging Paul to let them help others.
This is the type of cheerful giving that can only come from a change in the heart brought on by the gospel. It is cheerful giving.
God loves a cheerful giver -
7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
Paul was not trying to guilt them into giving, but he was challenging them to put their money where their mouth was.
They had already said that they wanted to give, but now it was time to actually give the gift and not just say they were going to give.
They Gave Completely (v.5)
They Gave Completely (v.5)
5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
They didn’t just give their monetary resources,
but gave themselves completely.
What are some of the ways you can give yourself completely?
You can give yourself in prayer
You can give yourself in service
You can give from a right heart that is not stingily grasping on to what you give away wishing you did not have to give it
You can give your heart to Christ and be saved
Conclusion
Christ didn’t come to this world to secure funds for our bank account.
Christ left the luxury of heaven and all its splendor to give Himself completely for us. He died for our sins to make us spiritually rich.
Some people spend their whole lives trying to acquire wealth and riches.
The Bible warns against this and tells us of how fleeting money and wealth is.
It adds a whole extra level of anxiety to it because now you worry about it leaving or have to work hard to maintain it.
But what is the cost of striving after wealth? What does is profit a man, Jesus said, to gain the whole world and lose his soul.
If you could purchase your soul in the window of a store that you went shopping in, how much would you pay for it?
We just celebrated Reformation Day where one of the issues in Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis against the Roman Catholic Church was the selling of indulgences.
We cannot pay God for our souls. We cannot ransom ourselves by our own power, yet many seek to do that.
The only one who could buy you off the slave block of sin and death is the Lord Jesus. He had to give everything in order to do it. He had to lay down His life, but He willing gave Himself up for you in order to give you everything.
Will you come to Him this morning and be saved?
