Excel in the Grace of Giving
Notes
Transcript
November is missions emphasis month. Why do we have a missions emphasis month? What is the point? We have several goals in mind including: to revive and increase our zeal for the Great Commission, to help you get to know, in a personal way our current missionaries, and to inspire you to give generously to our grace giving budget.
Many of you are new to the concept of grace giving. You may have heard me mention it, or seen it as a category on a budget sheet somewhere, but you don’t have a good understanding of what we mean when we talk about grace giving.
Simply put, when we talk about grace giving, we are talking about how we as a church financially support the work of missions. We support a number of missionaries on a monthly basis and all of the money that goes to our missionaries comes from our church people giving money to our grace giving budget.
Every year we hand out cards and we ask our people to pray about how much God wants them to give towards missions, and then we take that dollar amount and create our missions budget for the calendar year. At the end of this month that is exactly what we are going to do- I am going to hand out cards to everyone and ask you to pray about giving to the grace giving budget to support missions.
Before I do that however, I want to teach the biblical idea of grace giving. We didn’t make this up. Grace giving is a biblical idea that every believer needs to comprehend and apply to their life. So, my goal, over the month of November is preach a series of messages on the biblical idea of the grace of giving.
This morning we are starting with the idea of excelling in the grace of giving right out of 2 Corinthians 8.
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.
Paul was writing to the church in Corinth and he was urging them to excel in the grace of giving.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning, I want to urge you, to compel you, to excel in the grace of giving.
Why? What would most people’s answer be when they hear a preaching talking about giving money to the church?
Why does Paul view the idea of excelling in the grace of giving as so important?
What are the biblical reasons for excelling in the area of giving?
I think Paul shows us 5 reason why it is important to excel in the grace of giving.
Reason 1 for why we should excel in the grace of giving:
1. The ability to give is a grace given to us by God (v. 1)
1. The ability to give is a grace given to us by God (v. 1)
1 We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia,
What Paul is doing as he begins his teaching on the grace of giving is to highlight the example of the Macedonian churches, those in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea. Why does Paul point to their example? Because Paul loves to motivate people not just by words alone, but by example. Look at what the Macedonian churches are doing and imitate them!
What example is Paul talking about? Well, for several years Paul had been organizing a collection of money for the poor in Jerusalem.
25 At present, however, I am going to Jerusalem bringing aid to the saints. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia have been pleased to make some contribution for the poor among the saints at Jerusalem. 27 For they were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have come to share in their spiritual blessings, they ought also to be of service to them in material blessings. 28 When therefore I have completed this and have delivered to them what has been collected, I will leave for Spain by way of you.
So Paul is using the example of the Macedonians giving money to the poor saints at Jersualem as an example to inspire similar action in the church in Corinth.
And notice how Paul describes the giving of the churches of Macedonia- he calls it “the grace of God that has been given” among the churches of Macedonia.
So real biblical giving, that is the kind of giving that is an act of spiritual worship, a pleasing aroma to God, this kind of giving is only possible through grace. What are you talking about? I thought giving was giving. Are you telling me there are different kinds of giving? Different degrees or qualities to giving? Yes!
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
18 I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.
The ability to give in a way that is full of worship and is pleasing to God is only possible if God gives us this ability by means of his grace.
So we can say- real biblical worship is something that is given by God’s grace. It is a gift given to us by God. It is only possible by means of grace. There are a lot of people who give money to the church, but giving that is pleasing to the Lord comes only through His grace.
This is why we are calling this series of messages the Grace of Giving.
So why should you excel in the grace of giving, because it is one of the good gifts of God given for our benefit. The ability to give so that it is full of worship and pleasing to God is gift from God given through grace. That is reason #1.
Reason number 2 for why we should excel in the grace of giving:
2. The grace of giving results in an abundance of joy and generosity even in the most adverse of circumstances (v. 2)
2. The grace of giving results in an abundance of joy and generosity even in the most adverse of circumstances (v. 2)
Who here would like to be known as a joyful person and a generous person? How many people like that do you know? They overflow with joy and they are overwhelmingly generous. If you find someone like that isn’t it like a breath of fresh air? This is what the gift of God’s grace can do for every believer. As our Lord bestows on us his grace, and then through that grace we are enabled to give look what that produces in our lives:
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.
Notice what is true about the Macedonian churches:
They are going through a sever test of affliction. There are remarkably great persecutions going on in their lives. Notice that this is NOT an excuse for them. They do not say, “life is too hard right now, I can’t give.” Don’t we sometimes use that as an excuse? When you are enabled by God’s grace to give difficulties in your life will stop being an excuse for why you cannot give.
They have an abundance or an overabundance of joy! This is how you know their lives are infused by God’s grace. God is supernaturally gifting them by His grace so that even in midst of remarkably great sufferings they are over-abounding with joy! How can that be? Well their minds are not on earthly things. Their hope is a living hope and it is set fully on the revelation of Jesus Christ. They are not looking at the things that are seen, but the things that are not seen. They are by God’s grace, through faith, overflowing with joy because of all of the spiritual blessings that God has done for them through Jesus. And that produces joy, and the opportunity to give and to help other believers in need, and to give so that the good news of the gospel goes unto the ends of the earth, that fills their whole beings with joy! They cannot contain the joy in fact, it overflows their hearts and their lips and it infuses their giving as well. They are joyful givers. That kind of giving is only possible through God’s grace!
They are in extreme poverty! They are dirt poor, but notice, a believer infused by God’s grace to give does not use being poor as an excuse not to give.
Yet, they overflowed in a wealth of generosity! These Macedonians despite the most adverse circumstance overflowed/abounded unto a wealth of generosity / sincerity / a sincere concern or a simple goodness in their giving.
Now think about this as a mathematical equation.
Severe test of affliction + abundance of joy + extreme poverty = an overflow in a wealth of generosity?
How does that add up? It doesn’t unless you see God’s grace moving the hearts of God’s people in a natural yet supernatural way.
This is why we all should want to excel in the grace of giving, because it results in an abundance of joy and generosity even when life is really really hard.
Reason number 3 for why we should excel in the grace of giving:
3. The grace of giving will cause you to supernaturally invest the whole of your lives in areas of eternal value (vv. 3-7)
3. The grace of giving will cause you to supernaturally invest the whole of your lives in areas of eternal value (vv. 3-7)
There are a multitude of ways to invest your life. You can spend it on all kinds of things and most of the things that we can invest our lives in are eternally worthless. I love bow hunting, but if I spend my whole life on bow hunting that would be a waste of the life that God has given me. But, if we excel in the grace of giving it will supernaturally (that is beyond our own ability) cause us to invest the most precious thing we posses (our lives) in areas that are eternally valuable!
3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,
3ὅτι κατὰ δύναμιν, μαρτυρῶ,
That according to their power/means/ability, I testify
καὶ παρὰ δύναμιν, αὐθαίρετοι
and beyond their power/means/ability, of their own free will
Because their giving was the direct result of God’s grace they were able to give beyond the normal limits of their own ability. People who are being transformed by grace do things that do not make any sense to the rest of the world. God’s grace had so captivated their hearts and moved their affections that the way they gave did make a lick of sense to “normal” people.
4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—
4μετὰ πολλῆς παρακλήσεως
With many earnest appeals/requests/pleading (earnestly and with propriety)
δεόμενοι ἡμῶν
they begged (implied urgency or indispensable necessity or need) us
τὴν χάριν καὶ τὴν κοινωνίαν τῆς διακονίας τῆς εἰς τοὺς ἁγίους,
(for) the grace/privilege/favor of sharing in the ministry to the saints,
This is every pastor’s dream isn’t it? To have an entire church beg you to give more and more so that they can SHARE IN THE MINISTRY OF THE SAINTS! That is the key. Healthy Christians- grace infused Christians, disciple-making / spiritually reproducing Christians love to give toward MINISTRY!
How is it possible that they had to beg? Isn’t that one of the reasons Paul went to Macedonia? To collect a gift for the poor saints in Jerusalem? So if that is what Paul wants, then why do they have to beg him to give? The only way that makes sense is they begged Paul to let them give more than they had already given. They gave, and then Paul looked around at their extreme poverty and said, “OK guys, that’s enough!” So the Macedonians entreated him with propriety- they didn’t grovel and drool, it wasn’t that kind of begging- they made a convincing argument. Paul, look here is how we can afford to give more, please let us give! That is the power of the grace of giving.
5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.
Here is the difference between giving according to being under law and giving according to being under grace.
What was the law in the OT? How much did they have to give? How much is the OT tithe? 10%. The problem with giving according to being under law is it created a mindset or a thinking where all I have to give God is 10%, then the rest of the 90% is mine and I can do whatever I want with it.
This verse is what giving according to grace looks like. How much did they give to God? They gave themselves (ALL OF THEMSELVES) first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. They gave everything, not just their money, they gave their whole life to the Lord. Why would they do that? Because that is what grace compels a Christian to do!
14 For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; 15 and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.
Someone who is under grace does not think I’ll give God 10% so I can keep 90. They give God everything. They realize that they have been bought with a price, they are overwhelmed by the love of Christ and they present their whole bodies as a living sacrifice to God. This is the idea of whole life stewardship. All of me belongs to God. I am just a steward. Everything I have is God’s and I want to use everything, not just my money, but my whole life for His sake, in a way that pleases Him, for things that matter to God.
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.
7ἀλλʼ ὥσπερ ἐν παντὶ περισσεύετε,
BUT just as you excel/abound in all things
πίστει καὶ λόγῳ καὶ γνώσει καὶ πάσῃ σπουδῇ καὶ τῇ ἐξ ἡμῶν ἐν ὑμῖν ἀγάπῃ,
in faith and in speech, and in knowledge, and in all diligence and in our love for you (idiom- that we inspired in you) or in your love for us (textual variant)
ἵνα καὶ ἐν ταύτῃ τῇ χάριτι περισσεύητε.
see that you abound/excel in this grace also.
See that you (Faith Baptist Church) excel in this act of grace also! Because when you do it will supernaturally cause you to invest the whole of your life in areas of eternal value.
Reason number 4 for why we should excel in the grace of giving:
4. The grace of giving is a measuring-stick of the sincerity of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 8-9)
4. The grace of giving is a measuring-stick of the sincerity of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 8-9)
In other words when someone gives money to promote gospel centered ministry, it is a proof of the grace of God working in their lives. And when we are infused with grace to give towards gospel ministry that is an indication of the level of our sincere love for Jesus Christ.
8 I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
I say “this.” What is the this? It is the beseeching or the urging or the imploring that he just gave (not an imperative)- “excel in this grace also.” Paul is saying to the Corinthians- I urge you to excel in the grace of giving, but I am NOT commanding you to do so.
NT giving is not an imperative. The tithe is not a NT imperative did you know that? There is no law given in the NT telling believers to give of their money to the church. You are not breaking a commandment if you do not tithe or give to the missions budget or give to the deacon’s fund or the building fund. Why? Because you are not under the law- you are free from the law because you are in Christ. A lot of preachers get heart burn when that kind of a statement is made. But, it’s true. There is no law forcing you to give, to tithe.
Preacher you can’t say that! If you say that no one is going to give money to the church. Well, I have to say it, because God says it in His Word. God does not want people to give because they are forced to do it by a command. In fact, God hates that kind of giving. Instead, God loves a cheerful giver.
Well preacher, if there is no commandment telling people to give then what is there to motivate people to give?
“I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your LOVE also is genuine.”
What is Paul saying? Paul was actually comparing the earnestness of the giving of the Corinthians with the earnestness of the giving of others (Macedonians)- and he was using this comparison as a test to prove the genuineness or the sincerity of their love.
You could say it like this- the earnestness of the giving of the Corinthians was in direct proportion to the sincerity of their love. The more sincere their love the more earnest their giving. In other words, they did not need to be commanded to give, because they were compelled to give through LOVE.
What love are we talking about?
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.
What compelled their giving? What is more powerful than law? Grace! And what does being under GRACE mean? It means that we are constrained by our love for Jesus Christ to give- and we give freely! We don’t need a law commanding us- because we are so compelled by love we actually give more and more. As we dwell on the love Christ showed us- how poor did He become? Why did he do that? How rich did Christ make us?
(By the way:) This is not physical wealth! Jesus did not shed his precious blood so we could have nice houses and fancy cars! The prosperity gospel is an abomination to the message of the gospel. Jesus shed his blood to give us eternal spiritual blessings! Far greater than anything earthly.
And as we understand all that Jesus did for us- we supernaturally, enabled by grace, imitate our Savior. We give because he gave for us. We are compelled by love. Jesus gave so much for me, now I want to give so that others can know about this amazing love.
How much should we give? The Macedonians gave their whole lives to the Lord as they were compelled by love. How much money should we give? There is no set percentage give to us. Rather as you grow in the sincerity of your love for Christ so to will your eagerness to give.
So how well you excel in the grace of giving actually becomes a measuring-stick of the sincerity of your love for Christ. If there is no desire in your heart to give toward gospel ministry what does that say about your heart? What does that say about your love for Christ? My friends, out of love for Christ, let’s excel in the grace of giving!
Reason number 5 for why we should excel in the grace of giving:
5. The grace of giving guards us from possessing too much or too little (vv. 10-15)
5. The grace of giving guards us from possessing too much or too little (vv. 10-15)
There is a very real danger of both possessing too much and too little. And all believers can guard their hearts from such a danger though the grace of giving.
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.
If God gives you the desire to give make sure that you faithfully follow through by completing that desire- notice, out of what you have. This is important.
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
Some people may get the impression that because the grace of giving is so wonderful, then we should give everything we have to the Lord. I am not saying that you should go out and empty your bank accounts. Some preachers will tell you that. They will say give more than you have and trust God by faith to take care of you. That is not what Scripture teaches.
We are told to give according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For (Paul says in v. 13)- “I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened.” What is the point of that? The Macedonians and the Corinthians we giving to help the poor saints in Jerusalem. What good would it do if in their giving the gave too much so that they themselves became poor? This is literally robbing Paul to pay Peter.
What Paul is concerned about is a “matter of fairness.” The idea of fairness is equality.
14 your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.
If you have an abundance you should use that abundance to help supply the need of others. And this will promote a partnership so that when the shoe is on the other foot- their abundance may supply your need. And again the issue is- “that there may be fairness / equality.”
15 As it is written, “Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.”
Quotation of Exodus 16:18 from when the Children of Israel used to gather manna in the wilderness.
Ὁ τὸ πολὺ οὐκ ἐπλεόνασεν,
Whoever (gathered) much did not possess too much,
καὶ ὁ τὸ ὀλίγον οὐκ ἠλαττόνησεν.
And whoever gathered a small amount did not have too little.
I think the greatest danger most of us face living in America is the risk of possessing too much. Pastor, is there a danger in having too much money?
24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
What is so dangerous about money? It causes us to depend on it rather than God and it causes us to have earthly treasures instead of heavenly ones.
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
If we will start seeing things with eyes of faith, if we will start looking at the value of things with an eternal perspective it will change our entire lives. And giving towards ministry can help you do just that. And it will guard us against having too much. What do I mean?
John Owen:
What we love is what captures us. The great contest between heaven and earth is to see which of them can most draw out our love.
Whoever has our love has the whole of us; love causes us to give ourselves away, as nothing else can. Our love is like the rudder of a ship—where it is turned, there the ship goes.
If we have too much stuff the danger is that we will begin to love the stuff.
Seth and I drive by the car dealership in Johnson Creek all the time and every day they have a new super car out in the lot. And every time I think it would be cool to drive one of those cars, but they cost like 200,000! Meanwhile, I am driving my 2005 Pontiac Vibe. But what if I had 200,000 and I decided to buy one of those super cars? I invested all of my money in that car. What is the danger in doing something like that? What have I made the treasure of my life? A super car. What’s the danger in that? Wherever my treasure is there will my heart be also.
Whoever has our love has the whole of us; love causes us to give ourselves away, as nothing else can. Our love is like the rudder of a ship—where it is turned, there the ship goes.
I don’t want to waste my love on a car! Because, then I will waste my life on a car. And what is going to happen to that car one day? And so then what will happen to my life one day?
What if instead I took some of that $200,000 and invested it saved it to provide for the needs of my family- because God doesn’t want us to be poor so others can be rich right? But what if I took a major sum of that money and gave it to ministry? Now what is my treasure? Where is my heart going to be?
Folks most of us are rich according to the worlds standards. We have far more that most people in the rest of the world. And if we cannot afford to give towards ministry it may be because we have earthly treasure and therefore we love earthly things.
But if we will give toward the gospel, if we will make our treasure the ministry of the good news of the gospel, then Christ will be our greatest treasure and we will long for more of Christ and of seeing people come to Christ. That is what the grace of giving can accomplish- it can guard us against having too much- and then our abundance will make sure others don’t have too little. And we wont’ treasure earthly things, but things in heaven- eternal things! Christ will have our heart as He should.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, this morning, I want to urge you, to compel you, to excel in the grace of giving.
Why should we excel in the grace of giving?
1. The ability to give is a grace given to us by God (v. 1)
2. The grace of giving results in an abundance of joy and generosity even in the most adverse of circumstances (v. 2)
3. The grace of giving will cause you to supernaturally invest the whole of your lives in areas of eternal value (vv. 3-7)
4. The grace of giving is a measuring-stick of the sincerity of our love for the Lord Jesus Christ (vv. 8-9)
5. The grace of giving guards us from possessing too much or too little (vv. 10-15)
Friends, just as you excel in all things, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all diligence, in love, see that you excel in this grace also.