Loving God with all our Strength - Stewardship

Introduction:

This week we are exploring the theme of loving God with all of our strength, particularly as lived out in the area of stewardship. In our ‘Encounters’ series earlier this year, we reflected on the story of the ‘Rich Fool’. Within this parable Jesus made it clear that everything we have, including the very breath in our lungs, is a gift from God…a gift on loan.

Kenneth Bailey - “This is one of the major, often hidden, truths of Scripture. Life is not a right but a gift - on loan. Human life is on loan from God. It is a gift, not a right.”

This means that we are responsible to steward these gifts well knowing that we will have to give an account for how we used them. Therefore, we cannot live ‘entitled” lives with what we have received. Practically speaking, these gifts are our time, talents, treasure, terra, and temple.

The ‘entitled’ person says, “my time belongs to me…I will spend how much I want on whomever or whatever I want. My treasure belongs to me…I will use my money and possessions however I want to…it will be my ticket to the ‘good life’. My gifts belong to me…If I use them, it will be to draw focus unto myself…to get the most I can from other people. The earth belongs to me…it exists to fulfill my desires. Lastly, my body belongs to me…I will choose what I eat, drink, wear, my sexuality, and even my gender”. Now, of course some of this sounds absurd when we say this, but how many of us live like this? Living as if we are the primary and ultimate owners of these gifts.

This morning we want to find out how we can love God with our money and possession, particularly in the area of giving.

Text commentary (2 Cor. 9:6-11):

Explain 2 Corinthians giving

1 Cor. 16:1-4 Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. 2 On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. 3 Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. 4 If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.

The collection mentioned in 16:1–4 was a significant project for Paul that included other Gentile churches. The context clarifies that the collection was an offering for believers in Jerusalem (16:3). Other New Testament passages provide a more complete picture of the offering and the reasons for it (Acts 24:17; Rom 15:25–31; 2 Cor 8–9; Gal 2:10). Each of these additional passages mention that the contribution was for the poor. The collection was a one-time gift, a voluntary contribution rather than a compulsory offering. One aspect of the gift was to alleviate human suffering, but there were theological motivations as well, namely, to solidify and strengthen the relationship between the Jewish and Gentile portions of the church thereby contributing to the unity of the church.

But what we learn from this passage is applicable for all giving, whether once-off or monthly, whether for the advancement of the kingdom through the ministry of paid staff, whether for the purposes of being a foretaste of the kingdom through caring for the poor, or whether for the purposes of being a sign of the kingdom through caring for one another.

How should we give?

Generously:

Verse 6-7- Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give...

Paul draws on a well-known analogy from farming: those who sow sparingly will get a spare harvest, those who sow generously will get a generous harvest. What does this mean? No farmer considers sowing as a loss of seed because the harvest will provide the seed for the next season. Consequently, no sower begrudges the seed he casts upon the ground or tries to get by with sowing as little as possible. He willingly sows all that he can and trusts that God will bless the sowing with a bountiful harvest. If the farmer, for some reason, holds back on the sowing, he will cheat himself of that harvest. The more he sows, the greater the harvest he will reap and the more he will have for sowing for the next harvest. Applying this analogy to giving means that plentiful giving will result in a plentiful harvest. But, he also makes it clear that the harvest is primarily a spiritual one.

If we are asking how much do I have to give? Or, what is the minimum God requires from me? Then, we have missed the point. Be generous...

Point on tithing (I am on this side of fence now :) ) - I know the debate (Could take 3-4 weeks to unpack all of that). One side says “no, its Old Testament, that was a practice of the Jews to uphold the Temple’s sacrificial system which Jesus replaced therefore it is no longer normative for us today”, the other side says “yes it is Old Testament, but Jesus did not come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law…and tithing precedes the law (Abraham to Melchizedek)…therefore we must give 10% of our income to the church”.

Here is what I want to say, whether you think it was OT and no longer relevant, or OT and relevant, the point is if people gave 10% of their income to the work of God in the Old Testament (which both agree to), then why would we give any less towards to work of God in the New Testament.

We should value our riches in Christ in this new covenant relationship so highly, and our freedom from sin so highly, and our gospel so highly, that we would simply love to give. Should we not out give those who lived under the law because we have a better covenant and a better promise. Everything is greater with Christ. We have open access to the Father through the Son, we have the gift of the Holy Spirit…the Kingdom of God has been inaugurated and we get to join God on his mission...Why wouldn’t giving be greater?

Brothers and sisters, why would we want to do less? I mean, the person who is saying: Do I have to? They are getting off on the wrong foot immediately. Everything is greater in the new covenant. We have better promises, a better covenant — Hebrews says — why wouldn’t there be better sacrifice, better giving?

NT Wright “Grace, generosity and gratitude: these are not optional extras of Christian living, but are the very heart of it all.”

Secretly: (motives)

Verse 7 - Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Although, the giving Paul was asking for was probably public, nonetheless the motive would have remained important. He says not reluctantly or under compulsion…We’re not giving to just to meet the expectations of people.

Matthew 6:1-4: “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

We give out of love for God and love for people. We seek to please our Father and we seek to do good for those around us.

Cheerfully:

Verse 7 - Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

In this text, Paul goes out of his way to avoid giving the impression that he is trying to force this giving project upon them. Rather, Paul echoes Scripture to support the need to give generously: those who give spontaneously from the heart are especially prized by God. In the Old Testament, giving reluctantly or under compulsion is portrayed as cancelling out any benefit that could be received from the gift while giving with a glad heart promises reward from God. Scripture assumes that what is crucial is the attitude of the one who gives. God, who knows and appraises our hearts, values only those gifts that come as a free expression of the deepest part of our souls. Gifts given under some sense of external compulsion will always be halfhearted at best. Also, Paul underscores this point with a line from Prov. 22:8, that God loves a cheerful giver. It is not that God does not love the one who gives grudgingly or not at all but that God loves, in the sense of “approves,” the one who is delighted to give to others. God loves a cheerful giver because that is precisely what God is, a cheerful giver.

Someone once said: “Giving is the overflow of joy in God that gladly and lovingly meets the need of another person.”

Transition: We can clearly deduct these three principles around giving (in general) from Paul’s address to the church in Corinth. I don’t think there is anything new for us…which leads me to ask another question, namely, why don’t we do that? Why don’t we give?

Why don’t we give?

Trust:

Verse 8 - And God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

God is generous and abundantly supplies us with everything necessary to have enough for our own needs and to be generous with others. The phrase “blessing” is quite broad in scope, covering the material blessings and the spiritual motivation to share them. Most people hold back in their giving because they worry that they will not have enough for themselves. Paul assures them that God will supply them with plenty for their needs at all times. Reluctance to sow generously reflects a refusal to trust that God is all sufficient and all gracious. It also assumes that we can only give when we are prospering and have something extra that we will not need for ourselves. Paul says that at all times God provides us with all that we need so there is never any time when we cannot be generous.

One reason why we don’t give is because of a lack of trust…either in the existence of God or his provision. Friends, as Christians, we must learn to trust God with money.

This we find in both the OT and NT:

Proverbs 11:28 Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

Ps. 52:7-8 Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” 8 But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.

1 Tim. 6:17 Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

Story - We have heard stories for years about businessmen jumping from skyscrapers on hearing news of the stock market crash in 1929. Today’s executives cannot jump out of windows onto Wall Street; the windows do not open. On January 5, 2009, however, German billionaire Adolf Merckle threw himself in front of a train, driven to suicide by the global financial crisis. Our wealth may not rise to billions; nevertheless we need put our hope and trust in God, not riches.

Paul is saying - Verse 11 - “You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.” Friends, don’t wait until you have ‘enough’ before you start giving…because if you wait for enough it might never come, enough is never enough.

Discontent:

Verse 10 - Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness...

Sometimes we read this “enlarge the harvest of your righteousness” and we think…umm…no thanks, I’d rather have it in hundred dollar bills. There is this thing in us in the West, that we are never satisfied…We always want more, bigger and better…thinking that then we will be happy. And because we feel empty, not at peace, will seek to fill our lives with other stuff…which causes us to withhold and not be generous.

Philippians 4:11-12 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.

Story - Ron Wayne says he is happily living on a retirement pension in a remote Nevada desert town. In the mid-1970s, Wayne had a 10% share of a new computer company startup. He decided that he didn’t want to be a part and sold his 10% for $2,300. His partners’ names were Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, and the company was Apple; today the shares would be worth about $35 billion. But Wayne is neither bitter nor sorry. Wayne says that if he would have stayed in the partnership he “was going to wind up the richest man in the cemetery.”

1 Tim. 6:6-8 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

Story - A study by Belgian psychologists has furthered the theory that money cannot buy happiness. In fact, they say it may be just the opposite. The study gave evidence that richer people aren’t as capable as poorer people of savoring small pleasures. The small pleasures were simple things like a piece of chocolate or the thought of completing a task or enjoying a hike. Not only is the love of money a root of all kinds of evil, the presence of money may be the root of discontentment. We do know that real wealth is the presence of contentment with godliness.

We need to learn how to be content in life, I believe that abundant generosity will flow out of that. But when we are discontent, we hoard.

CHALLENGE: Every time you buy something this week or go to the shops, tell each other “this won’t make you happy”.

Why we should give?

Produces Joy:

Verse 10 - Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness...

Jon Bloom (Co-founder of Desiring God) - Paul isn’t trying to manipulate the Corinthians into giving more. Nor is he promoting an equation that says if one gives more money, one will get more money. No, this is an economy that produces grace fueled joy. Joy in God — joy in the grace of forgiveness and reconciliation we’ve received from God, and joy in the grace of God we see in others — is the return on the investment of gracious giving.

The Corinthians knew Paul didn’t mean that giving generously would ensure they would become wealthy. Reading all of 2 Corinthians (as well as 1 Corinthians) makes that clear. Rather, as he wrote in a letter to Timothy, he wanted the Corinthian Christians not “to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly provides us with everything to enjoy . . . to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.” (1 Timothy 6:17–19)

Paul calls us to invest in the economy of God by giving to meet the needs of others in order to have “that which is truly life” — that which truly gives joy. And that is true prosperity. The point is this: in God’s economy of grace, generous giving to meet the needs of others is a means of investing in joy — our own and others’.

Marshall Segal - “Investing in heaven does not mean forfeiting present happiness. It means relocating and deepening our happiness.”

Participation in the Kingdom:

Verse 11 - You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

Friends we are called to be a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom of God. Money is an important tool for us to be able to do so. Moreover, it gives us an opportunity to “put our money where our mouths are”.

Dallas Willard “Giving is a primary step in life in the Kingdom of God but most people don’t know that. It is participating in what God is doing for good in their surroundings.”

Story - With a salary of $350,000, Raymond Burse is paid well for the challenges he faces as the president of Kentucky State University. In August 2014 Burse took a voluntary pay cut to $260,000. Burse directed that the $90,000 the university didn’t pay him should be used to provide $3 per hour raises to all the university’s minimum-wage workers. When asked why he was willing to do this, he replied, “You don’t give up $90,000 for publicity. I did this for the people. This is something I’ve been thinking about from the very beginning.”

Caring for others is a character matter. It is one thing to advocate with your mouth that people ought to be paid more. It is another to put your paycheck on the line.

God provides the means to be generous. We are enriched to give us every opportunity to be generous with others. God is generous in giving people wealth so that they may be generous with others. What we do with our money, then, becomes a litmus test for our relationship to God. If we try to hoard it or to spend it all on ourselves, that should set off alarm bells that our relationship with God is out of balance.

Antidote to greed:

Francis Bacon - “Money is a great servant but a bad master.”

The Antidote to Covetousness - Giving away some of our income as a sign, instrument and foretaste of the Kingdom of God is an antidote to covetousness.

The last of the Ten Commandments says: "You shall not covet." Jesus said in Luke 12:15, "Beware, and be on your guard against every form of covetousness [or greed]." And in Colossians 3:5 Paul calls covetousness "idolatry." Wanting things too much is incredibly dangerous for your soul. Hebrews 13:5 says, Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have.

Every time you give, whether in tithe or generosity, you must deal with the desire of what you might have bought for yourself. To give is not to buy. We must fight covetousness almost every day. And God has appointed an antidote: giving. He tests us again and again: what do we desire most—the advancement of his name or a little bit more security and comfort and fun? As Jesus says, You know where your heart is by where your treasure is. Giving is one of God's great antidotes to covetousness.

Thanksgiving to God:

Verse 11 - You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.

These texts remind us that our conduct, even with money, witnesses to those around us in the same way our words do. In Paul’s letter he mentions that ‘men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ’. Likewise, Jesus said ‘let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.’

Our God is not an abstract idea…he is not an old grandpa living in the clouds. Our God is and will always be (as Bonhoeffer) put it, the God who became human. He got his hands and feet dirty…he walked this earth, he touched people physically. He loves to meet people in the reality of their lives. Giving is one of the main ways in our culture that people can experience God in a real way.