Giving

Introduction

Tell me about something you saved up for??

I saved up for an Xbox. Guess what: it broke.

We are not called to hoard, but to give.

God has called us to give him every area of our lives, including money.

1 John 3:16–17 NLT

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister in need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?

What is love? According to John, love is that Jesus gave up his life for us.

LOVE IS GIVING.

If you love your little brother, maybe you give and don’t punch him when he steals your stuff. If you love yo girl, you give her flowers.

Which is why giving in the bible is way bigger than just money or stuff. It’s about what he says next, giving up your life for others.

I think we know this instinctively. If you love your little brother or your sister, you give up punching them in the stomach when they “borrow” your stuff. If you love yo girl, you give her flowers.

Love is Giving.

Which is why giving in the bible is way bigger than just money or stuff. It’s about what he says next, giving up your life for others. You can give your time, or your respect, or your need to be right, or any number of things.

But, here in this passage, John immediately shows us an example of this kind of giving, and he talks about money.

If you live well (if God has blessed you with money) , then you can, nay should, be like Jesus and give to others.

I think that’s because money is so hard to give up.

LOVE IS GIVING, but giving is hard.

Listen: The world cares a lot about money. You need money to live, to get what you want out of life. And the world will try to convince you, over and over and over again, that you need to earn as much money as possible and keep as much of it as possible. They will try to convince you that you need more stuff, newer stuff, better stuff.

It’s hard to give if all you care about is getting.

We don’t like sharing.

Maybe it’s easy to give up stuff you don’t care about, or stuff you have a lot of, but it’s really hard to give up something you really, really want, or when you don’t have very much of it.

I’m the guy who always forgot a pencil. There was a girl I sat next to for like a whole semester and everyday I would come in and be like, yo can I borrow a pencil? It’s easy on the first day with all your new school supplies to let me, a lame person, borrow your pencil. But it’s hard in October, when you only have two pencils left. What if I give this away and mine breaks?

There’s a story like that in the Bible, where Jesus and his bros are watching people put their money in the box (which is kinda weird, but he’s Jesus so whatever) and all these rich guys waltz in and lob in their big bags of money. But then a poor widow comes and puts in two coins. And Jesus said that she gave more than the rest of them, because she gave everything she had, while everyone else was giving more.

When you’re down to your last two coins, your last two pencils, can you give it up?

Giving is a practice

Because it’s hard, we have to practice it.

Christians, for centuries, have practiced giving as a part of their Christian faith. The most common way to think about giving is called a tithe. A tithe means giving up ten percent of what you make. So, say this summer, you mowed some lawns or babysat, and you made a hundred bucks. You would give $10 to the church. This is a weekly or monthly practice that says to God: “You own all my money, it doesn’t own me.”

And truly, thinking about giving from a Christian perspective, 10% is just a starting point. Your life should be a life of giving. That’s what John is saying: Jesus gave up his life for you, so you give up your life for others.

Here are some practices Karly and I do with our money:

We have some set aside every month for a RAK

1 “Present” at Christmas is money to give away to someone else.

But you can also give your time, or your space.

(Joshua?)

Jesus Gave You Everything

I don’t know, maybe you’re thinking, but I don’t have anything to give. I don’t have any money, I don’t have any time.

“he has given us every spiritual blessing” (Eph)

“every good and perfect gift comes from above” (James)

“he will give life to your mortal body by the same Spirit” (Rom)

Everything you have, every blessing you have ever gotten has been given to you by God, who gave up his very life for you.

Jesus gave you everything. Because love is giving. Jesus loves you, so Jesus gave you everything. So, now we also give everything to others.