Sermon Tone Analysis

Stand Fast in The Faith

Good morning church!

Lord willing we will be completing this letter to the Corinthian church this morning.

I was reflecting back this week over all that we’ve talked about since starting this book about 6 months ago.

Which is what I would typically do, in completing a letter written by Paul, because often times the last chapter is review, greetings and salutations to the people and not a ton of content.

This letter is different, and we really could spend a couple weeks here with Paul’s concluding thoughts.

So I won’t review the book today, I will leave that to you for homework, because Paul ends with talking about... what are three of the most important topics in the life of the Christian.

In this last chapter he talks about money, making plans for the future (and knowing God’s will), and finally how we should treat other people.

SO let’s pray together and then we’ll tackle each of them as the Lord has directed us here this morning.

Prayer: Father, Give us ears to hear and hearts to receive this morning as we open your Word.

You guys can turn to 1 Corinthians 16 in your Bibles.

If you’re a visitor with us this morning, I’m sure it is no surprise to you that we are talking about giving and generosity, but if you’re a regular attender here, you might be... as it is not something that we often do.

When we started this church, we made every effort not to, as it is simply our practice here to teach through the Word of God, verse by verse, chapter by chapter, from one cover to the other.

In fact for several years, we never took an offering corporately like we did this morning on the first day of the week.

We just had that box in the back, some call it an agape box, well, not that particular box, as we’ve had two of them stolen over the years, but similar to that.

I had seen so much abuse in various churches concerning money that we avoided the topic as much as possible.

But teaching verse by verse through the Bible the topic comes up.

Actually, it comes up allot.

I don’t have time for this, but there are people that do, or now I guess computer programs that can do it for us, but looking at some comparative analysis.

In the New Testament, the smaller of the two portions in your Bibles to the right, there are approximately 500 verses in there that talk about prayer.

Do you think the subject of prayer is important to God?

You bet it is!

There are a little less than 500 verses on faith.

The Bible tells us, without faith it is impossible to please God.

Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

As important as prayer and faith are to the Christian faith, there are over 2,000 verses in the Bible concerning material possessions and what we do with them.

So it’s a big deal.

Money itself is not evil, but the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.

Paul certainly wasn’t afraid to talk about it.

We can look around and realize that it costs money to have lights here this morning, the chairs you are sitting on weren’t free, lots of money to have heat in the state of Maine (you guys know that), a beautiful addition to our building for the children, water, electricity, a new roof on this section of the building in the very near future.

Things you don’t think about…just this past week, over $1,600 to repair and service the canapes outside the doorways that keep you dry when you enter the building.

Over $300 to service our fire extinguishers and fire suppression system in our kitchen, what else, over $500 to legally be able to project the words to songs up on the screens for our worship services and to share that with those than are shut in and can’t join us in person.

When you consider the expense required to buy, operate, and gather in a building such as this, have you ever considered why God chose to support the church through His people?

I know lots of Pastors have.

Statistics tell us that 5% of church goers give to the church.

That’s an average across the nation, it’s higher than that here, but that’s an average.

Also, anyone know what the word tithe means?

A tenth.

The average Christian that gives to their church gives 2.5% of their income…that’s down from 3.3% during the great depression.

So, rather than a tenth, its a twoth.

So why would the same God that owns the cattle on a thousand hills, the same God that can drop manna from the sky, use his people to support the church?

One reason is that when we give, when we sacrifice for others, it changes us.

Every time that I give, or am generous towards others it takes away from my selfishness and my self focus.

I personally think it would be easier if He would just drop gold bars from the sky every Tuesday morning, but His ways are higher than my ways.

Normally, I like to just plow right into a passage, but I’m going to ask you to bear with me through some more background.

Because what Paul gives us this morning is the application to what the rest of the Bible tells us about generosity and giving.

In fact, it was this passage that changed our practice as a church.

The last time we taught through this passage, about how we were to give, the application of giving, I was convicted that maybe my pride about being able to say that we never took an offering here, caused me to overlook the worship aspect and Biblical instruction how to practically put it into action.

So much in the life of Christians today gets lost between our butts and our boots.

For those of you just waking, I’ll say it again.

So much in the life of Christians today gets lost between our butts and our boots!

Gee Brian, I’ve never heard that expression before, what do you mean?

I’m glad you asked, and I hope you’re not asking for a friend.

So often we sit on our butts and read our Bibles, or listen to sermons, receiving instruction, conviction, motivation and direction, and it doesn’t ever make it to action!

It’s all good when we’re on our butts, but it never makes it to us putting boots to the ground and actually doing it.

Converting intention into action.

There was some animosity, some friction and division among Christians at the time Paul wrote this letter.

I know that’s hard to imagine today, but remember it was something that Paul addressed in the beginning of this letter, specifically between Jewish and Gentile Christians.

Remember many of the Jews who had been under the Old Testament religious system before Jesus came, thought, well if these Gentiles want to become Christians, they need to become Jews first.

And the Gentiles well, they would come into the church potluck dinners with their bacon cheeseburgers and milkshakes, and the Jews would says that’s not kosher.

The gentiles didn’t get circumcised, in fact they didn’t follow any of the Jewish traditions.

The Jews were upset about that…then Paul said in the book of Acts, it seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon them no greater burden than these necessary things: that they abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

If you keep yourselves from these, you will do well.

The Apostles were Jews, the early church was mostly Jews, the church in Jerusalem certainly was, and then you’ve got these Corinthians and others that were not.

And with this tension and friction in the church, Paul knew that one of the ways that you change hearts is to give, to serve, and sacrifice for another.

The church in Jerusalem was struggling.

And they were suffering financially, and there were a number of reasons for this.

The book of Acts tells us that there were a number of widows that they were caring for, too many really,…and Paul later clarifies who and when the church should be helping people.

But they had a number of widows, they were suffering from a famine, as new converts would come, they would invite them to stay, thinking Jesus should be returning any minute now, so just stay with us and well sell some stuff to take care of you and then stuff ran out.

So with the friction and problems, and the significant need, Paul said, man, if there was ever a place that needed to get their eyeballs off themselves, and become less selfish by giving to others, its that messed up Church in Corinth, along with some of these other gentile churches would benefit immensely from being given an opportunity for boots on the ground, taking action, caring for one another…softening their hearts toward this church in Jerusalem.

So Paul instructed them to take up an offering.

Remember, this is a letter that Paul was writing in response to a letter with a bunch of questions.

So, back to business, concerning the collection for the saints in Jerusalem, now the word that Paul uses here for collection, wasn’t a tithe, it wasn’t a mandatory tax on the church, it wasn’t their regular giving to the Lord to support the ministry in their church.

It was a non compulsory, which confuses some toward the end of the verse when he says, so you must do also.

That applies to the church.

You must take this extra offering, its up to the people on whether to give or not to it.

That’s something else that has changed by time and tradition in the church.

In the Old Testament, they were required to give a tithe, a tenth, and not just a tenth of their total income, it was a tenth for this and a tithe for that, some estimate that it totaled somewhere between 30-40% of their total income.

That’s why there were times, when the people were told, OK that’s enough we have more than enough.

Those doing the chronological reading through the Bible came across that this week.

In Deuteronomy 26 we find that the tithe went to the Levites, remember the Levites didn’t inherit the land, the Lord told them He would be their portion.

The Levites were the priests and servants in the temple, the equivalent to the church staff today, the tithe went for the care of the alien, or foreigner, or stranger, same word translated in differently, the fatherless or the orphan, and the widows.

In the New Testament the church is to help the truly needy, the widows and the orphans.

The bible gives some guidance in that.

The church is to examine and see if someone is truly needy.

If a guy can work, and doesn’t work, he shouldn’t eat.

If he can’t then he is truly needy.

Even concerning widows, if she’s under 60, or she has family, then it is the responsibility of the family, if not there should be some expectation of service in the church, even if it is just faithful prayers, and just for the basic needs of food and clothing.

To do these things there is a responsibility to give.

In the old testament they were under obligation, it was part of the old covenant law.

The people would bring their tithes to the temple for the priests, the ministries of the temple, the alien, the fatherless and the orphan…even when the temple was a mess, the people gave because they weren’t giving to man, they were giving to God.

That was their obligation, and it was God’s obligation to deal with how it was to be distributed.

Another thing was that they gave from their firstfruits.

We talked about Jesus being the first or the firstfruits of the resurrection last week and the firstfruits offering.

It was the same with their giving.

In proverbs we read...

That means off the top, it means God comes first.

And they were to plan wisely and save.

Not to store up treasures on earth, but in order to have in times of famine or when stuff breaks, to provide an inheritance for their children, and the rest went to expenses and generosity.