The Grace of Giving

Message Transcription

Well, it's good to be with you this morning. Church So glad that you are here. We are launching it to a new Take five campaign as Justin introduced just a moment ago. We're thinking some about this fall. What a wonderful time to to rethink and reimagine who it is we're trying to be and who got us calling us to be. I did not grow up in the world of drama and the stage, though. I married someone who did. But I've learned a few things just by watching and participating in from a distance even. But one of those things is what the director's role is and how important it is to have a director who is tuned in to not just the script and where the story is heading, but how the the actors and actresses are playing their parts. And every now and again, he'll notice they need a break. And so he'll call a take five. Let's take five, everybody. It's a moment for those actors, the set designers and stage directors to take a moment to pause and to reset, to refocus on the scene. Perhaps a line was given in a way that it shouldn't have been or. Or maybe someone missed a line or they missed their cue. It's a chance to kind of step back, reassess, refocus, remember what the the goal is, where we're headed, and to go in. And so as we were dreaming and thinking some together as a staff team and meeting with the Finance Ministry about where we are financially thought, hey, this would be a great moment for us this fall to take five to stop and think about who is it that God is calling us to be and how are we living into that with with purpose and intention? Or have we missed a line? Have we missed a cue? We walked right past that opportunity to step into a moment, so we wanted to take the month of September and take five.

And so you're going to be reading about not this week actually is Michelle reminded me again this morning our magazine was not able to be printed this week. As you can imagine, the supply chain struggles are still happening. And TONER was one of those on our list this week that did not come in. That was supposed to come in. So next Sunday it will be here. It'll be ready. We've challenged all of our ministries to go back into what they're doing and the work and service they're providing and invite us in five simple ways how we could step into life together in that through that ministry. This morning, we're going to focus specifically some on our giving, because that's really where this campaign came from, that some of the commitments that we make to each other are sometimes our time and our involvement, our encouragement with each other. And sometimes it's a financial commitment. Each year we set out a budget and we commit to living by that budget as best we can.

And as a staff member, I'm proud to tell you we are living within our budget. In fact, we're under budget, which is exciting, about 40, $50,000. And under our budget the challenge comes though, is we're about 180,000 behind in our giving. And what we said, hey, church will commit to give to each other and we're behind. And so today is one of those sermons. So I know there are some people out there going, oh, great, today is the the money sermon. Yeah, today is kind of the money sermon. I don't like anybody telling me what to do with my money. The good news is, church, I'm not going to tell you how to spend your money. Make sure. Here. Yeah. I don't have anything here telling you how to spend your money. That's not my job. Rather, what I think. And maybe my best service to you is to remind us of some of the commitments that we've made to each other, to being a part of family together, but also to being a follower of Jesus. I think this was at the heart of of Paul's message to the church in Corinth. If you don't know much about that city, that time, that place, I invite you to go back this week and just reread first and second Corinthians. It's kind of a wild story, just to put it real with you. There's a lot of craziness happening in that church.

It was a metropolitan city that was filled with people from all over the world. You had people coming in and out of the city who were bringing all kinds of thoughts and ideas. The church there was mostly Gentile. They were converted from this pagan lifestyle. And so you're going to see a lot of those elements. You're going to read about a lot of those themes throughout first and second Corinthians. And you'll also notice that Paul had a really challenging relationship with this church how to speak truth to people that he cared deeply about. What do you do when you get sideways with a brother or a sister? Because the church and Paul get kind of sideways. We know they they had probably somewhere at least five different letters back and forth writing about different kinds of things. And and Paul trying to speak truth into their life while at the same time showing them that he cares about them, in fact, so much so that he would not receive a dime from them in assistance. He said, I'm not going to do this for money because so many traveling teachers and preachers of that day, they they spoke to the crowd based on the money that they were given. And so you can imagine how that would shape the message that would unfold. Paul said, I'm not going to do that. And even that was a bit offensive to them because they felt like, well, is our money not good enough for you? And so Paul had a lot of work to be done.

But here in the middle of his second letter, he's going to challenge them about their giving their their life together. And I want us to hear that because this was a topic that was really important to the early disciples and to the early church, and it still is today. In fact, this was a topic that Jesus spent considerable time on. In fact, many times his parables, he would use the issue of money to get into the life of people because it was such a common issue. Now, I need you to imagine for just a moment that there was a time when the church really struggled with what to do with their money. You may have to imagine that because we don't struggle with that anymore, do we? But but imagine a time where people struggled with where and how and what to do with their money. Jesus spoke a lot about this issue. In fact, he said things like For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. And not only that, he would say this No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate one and serve the other, or you'll be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. Or maybe you remember the story back in Luke 21 of Jesus sitting outside the temple gates with his disciples, and he looks up and he sees the rich putting in their their enormous gifts into the temple treasury.

As he looked up, he also saw a poor widow and she put in two very small copper coins. Truly, I tell you, he said. This poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave out of gave their gifts out of their wealth. But she out of her poverty put in all that she had to live on. You see, Jesus was trying to reframe their idea of kingdom economics that as it turns out, in the kingdom, the size of the gift is not the important, most important part of the gift. It says there's there's an internal peace, a heart peace that's way more valuable and actually carries a lot more weight when it comes to kingdom economics. And so you hear again that echo, as Paul is writing to this young church who's trying to find their way, trying to understand how to step out of the life and the culture that they live in. Because Paul, just like Jesus, understood that how we view our money says so much about how we view our life. In fact, many would say, If you want to know what's important to you, let's let's take a look at something. It used to be called a checkbook. It may be go online and look at that money app, mint or whatever app you choose. But where do you spend your money? That often leads back to the things that we value the most.

That's not something new in our culture, though. We've made more money in our day than maybe any culture in the history of the world. But that principle has never been different. It's never changed. And so we hear the wisdom from Scripture, and I want us to wrestle some with this text. So if you have your Bible turn over to second Corinthians eight or you can follow along. We're going to take a look at some of the words that Laura read for us just a moment ago. But as you make your way there, let me ask you this. What are you most generous with in your life? Is it your money? Is it your time? Is it your talents? Your gifts? What are you most generous with these days? And on the flip side, what are you most stingy with? One of the things that's hardest for you to give up and to give away. And perhaps the same thing is on each list. When you were teaching your children, those of us who've had kiddos or or those who have ever taught children, when you're teaching them how to share, how to be generous, how do you teach them? Many of us kind of grew up on that golden rule model, didn't we? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We try to to impress that upon our children freely. You have been given so freely. We give and we're teaching our kiddos to share with those who don't have what we have.

We teach them freedom. Why we're basing it on this principle that's outside of ourselves. We say, what has been done for you? You do for others. That the reason we behave the way that we live, the way that we do. Is because what God has done for us. And so we're going to be generous with our time and we're going to be generous with our money and we're going to be generous with our gifts and especially for those who don't have. We're going to be extra generous because that's the way of the kingdom. That was how Jesus taught his followers and how his early disciples tried to encourage one another. So it's not maybe a surprise for us to hear that Paul would say this in verse one. And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. If you have a Bible with a with a pen or a marker or a pencil circle, that word, if you're highlighting a verse, invite you to highlight this verse, because we're going to come back to it here in just a minute. He says, I want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches in the midst of a very severe trial. Their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up and rich generosity. Did you hear that kingdom equation? Their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty equals rich generosity.

For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves, first of all, to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us. So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But since you excel in everything in faith and speech and knowledge and complete earnestness and in love, we have kindled in, you see that you also excel in this grace of giving three times in the first seven verses. Paul refers to this idea of grace, this grace that is at work in their life. Now, I don't know about you. Most of the time when we think about the word grace, we think of this unmerited favor right from the Lord on us, the grace of the Lord. He died for us. He shows us Amazing Grace. Paul takes this this idea and he expands it. Here. Paul uses grace not only as something God does in us or that He does for us, but grace is also something He does through us. What does it mean that he gave that God gave this grace to the church in Macedonia? Go back to verse one. I think what he's trying to say is it wasn't just this wonderful spiritual experience that they had.

Rather, he's saying they gave in this recklessly generous way because of this impulse of grace. Paul says this this crazy kingdom equation of severe trial and persecution and hardship, which often went together in the early church when you became a follower of Jesus, that often would push you out of marginalise you from your family. Many lost their families. They lost their sources of income. They lost the chance to work and be productive in the community around them in the ways that they had grown up seeing. And so those challenges were real and they were there. But not only that, they recognized what God had done for them. So they see this crazy equation of overflowing joy at who God is and what God has done. And He mingles it up with this crazy trial and persecution and suffering that they're facing. But what comes out is this amazing act of grace, this generosity. They were extremely poor and persecuted. But that didn't deter them. Their devotion to God, their desire to bless and encourage Paul to support the church. It welled up into this amazing gift, a gift that Paul calls Grace. I love the image he paints here, he says. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the Lord's people. See, the church back in Jerusalem was struggling. They had faced all kinds of persecution. And so the churches around where Paul was traveling was trying to gather up resources to send back to the home church.

But for Paul, it was more than just a financial opportunity. What he wanted the church back in Jerusalem to see was there were all these other Christians that they at one time thought were on the outside looking in who actually cared for them. That they same they serve the same Lord Jesus. And one of the tangible proofs of that was they said, we're going to give sacrificially to make sure you're okay because we know you're struggling and you need help. See, for Paul, it wasn't just about money. In fact, he didn't mention money one time in chapters eight and nine, when he talks about gathering up this collection that had started, Titus had started it back in in the first letter, and he's hoping to complete it here in the second. This amazing challenge, maybe Paul remembered that story in Luke, 21 of that widow who put in those two small coins. And saw this amazing outpouring of generosity that now he's trying to encourage the young church or maybe he remembers that story of of the five loaves and the two fish and how Jesus taking them and blessing them, praying over them, breaking them and distributing them. He feeds thousands of people from five loaves and two fish. You see, kingdom economics. The size of the gift is not the most important part of the gift. Heart of the gift.

That's what matters. You see, no matter what size the gift Jesus can can exponentially increase it. If we have willing givers, people who are willing to be a part of the kingdom. To not live in the culture of scarcity that certainly was alive in their day. And it is still alive. Friends in our day today that there's a sense of you only have so much. Right. And we feel the weight of that, don't we? Has anyone noticed the price of gasoline lately? Has anyone noticed the price of groceries lately? Have any of you faced or lost consciousness looking at your utility bill lately? Goodness gracious. Right. That money's got to come from somewhere. Carl, it doesn't grow on trees. Right? Absolutely. Every one of us has to look at the reality of our existence right now, and we have to make some hard choices because it's forcing us to realize, okay, what matters most? What's most important to us? See Church. Here's the challenge. It's not just true for you and me individually. It's true for us as the church. At that same increase in your utility bill was also passed on to the church. The challenge of providing online services that that raise in your Internet bill, it was passed on to the church. We all are facing that together. And so one of the challenges that we have to deal with, we have to to wrestle with this is how are we going to respond to this challenge? What's going to be a first importance? So we hear Paul challenging this church to join in on this kingdom.

Investment, he says, is so important. I'm not going to commend you, he says. I'm not going to tell you what to do. That's not my job. Instead. I just want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it. But the earnestness of others 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, through his poverty, might become rich. And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. I don't know about you. Sometimes I missed that verse. I read these passage, this passage, and I think about Paul's kind of now he's guilting them, right? He's using the number one church answer Jesus, giving Jesus. How much do you give? Jesus gave it all right. What are you supposed to say to that preacher? You're just trying to make me feel better. I don't think that's what he was trying to do. I know we've heard that. I don't think that's what Paul was getting at. Instead, I think he's trying to to honestly have them evaluate and assess. Here's what it was so important to Jesus. He was willing to do this. He didn't have to be cajoled out of his throne in heaven.

I guess I'll go. Cheers. Like He really loves you. Like David said, he really loves you. For him, it was a willing sacrifice. It was not. I'm going to do this so that you'll. You'll follow me and feel bad about how piddly your gift is. No, no, no, no. In fact, Paul says it's not the size of the gift. It's the heart of the giver. He said last year. Church You were willing to do this. In fact, you were first in line. I think our elders would say the same thing. Church Last year you came through when we needed it, you came through. Unfortunately, that's kind of become our pattern, though, right? We say, yeah, we're going to give to that. Mm hmm. And then about halfway through, we go. Hmm. Vacation time. Other things, right? I'm in the same boat. I'm not judging. Come out of summer. It's been crazy this the first summer we've had in a long time to get to do stuff. We come back and say, okay. 480,000 behind and are giving. What are we going to do? I think Paul would remind us. He would draw us back to the first things says, hey, it's not it's not a matter of not wanting. We desire that we want the church to succeed, to continue doing ministry to all the amazing people in our city. What are we willing to do to finish that work? He says. So that you're eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it according to your means.

For the willingness is there. If the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable. Acceptable according to what one has not according to what you don't have. You talk about Grace? All right, Paul says. So if you're willing and just give what you have. Not what you don't have, not what you wish you have, but give what you have. Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time, your plenty will supply what they need so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. See, the goal is equality as it is written. The one who gathered much did not have too much. And the one who gathered little did not have too little. I married an oldest child. Some of you are oldest children. Now legend has it of stories of my wife and her sisters trying to figure out equality. And some of you older kiddos know where I'm going with this, right? It's never equal. It's never equal. How can it be at one point to solve the problem and say, all right, Caylee, you cut and sister gets to choose first? Oh, not fair. It's never equal. He says the quality is what we're going for. Equally. When we get in arguments, and it's very rare that this happens. But when we do, we're both wrong.

Equally. Right. Paul says it's a it's about being equal here, not not in total amounts. It's not. You give five and I give five. No, no, no. What he's saying is you give what you can give based on where you are and when you are and what God has poured out into your life. And you you let the Lord settle that. My responsibility is to give mine. And that's why I'm here today. Not to tell you. You need to. That's between you and the Lord. How has the Lord blessed you? How He's challenged you, where some of the challenges you're facing, how can you take what you do have and be willing and giving that money, that gift? And again, he keeps pointing us back to our model for, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor so that through his poverty you might become rich again. This kingdom economic equation of of poor and rich don't look the same as it does in our world. It says, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus. A grace that is not just in you and for you, but. But God wants to pour through you to make a difference. So as I said before, we're about 180,000 behind in our giving. We committed to giving 28 a week. We're at a little bit over 22 a week. Those numbers are not the same and we're starting to feel the squeeze.

And so we go, okay, let's take five. Church, take five. And step back for a moment and ask what's really important. Let's get refocused. We want to keep doing this incredible ministry that God has pouring through us here at Broadway. What can we do? Well, our finest team put together a couple of ideas I wanted to share with you this morning as I finish up. Just five simple ways for you to think about how could you take five, you or your family this week as you sit back and you think about your gifts and your offerings? Maybe for some of us, it's number one. It's just to start giving. They say, you know, there are a lot of other things in my life that I have by the grace of God, and I'm not committed to just giving regularly. Maybe that's for you. That's the start, is to start giving something. Maybe it's to increase your giving. For those of us who have already made that commitment to say, we're going to give we're going to give 5% or maybe $5 more a week. Remember in the kingdom economics. No gift is too small. No gift. Remember, five loaves of bread and two fish fed thousands that kingdom principle still at work. Maybe for you it's to give it a multiple of five. Let's say I'm going to take $5 times each person in my family, and that's what I'm going to give extra this month. Maybe for some of us, it's to give up something.

To take our Netflix that we don't really watch that much. Or to take an eating out and say, what if I chop that down a little bit? 5%. Maybe I could think of something different, something I could sacrifice. And again, think about tapping into that incredible equation. Overflowing joy. And poverty. See, Jesus adds those up to overwhelming generosity. Again, no gift is too small. Or maybe it's you want to choose a ministry. I kind of added this one in if finance is looking at it and going, Hey, we didn't do that one. Yeah, I know. I'm on finance though, so it counts technically. Maybe you want to choose a ministry. They say, I really believe in what carpenters is doing. I really believe in what Celebrate Recovery is doing. I want to give specifically to that. So I'm going to I'm going to give my tithe my offering each month, but I'm also going to choose a ministry to come alongside of and say, how can I help financially? Maybe it's to give some time, maybe it's to give an effort, maybe it's to say, Hey, each week at the end of the month or at the end of the week, I look at what I have kind of left over and I've set that aside so I can give a monthly gift to that ministry. I'm not sure what it is for you. I just know. And the kingdom. Economy.

Got this amazing things. I've been here for ten years now. Church You've been stuck with me for a decade. Not once have we missed our budget. Not one time. I have multiple friends in ministry who can't say that. I have some who've lost their job because of that. Church. We have never missed it. Which is amazing thing. Thank you, Lord. And we're not expecting to miss it this year either. Instead, what we're trying to say is, could we could we try meeting it more regularly than waiting until December 31 to see did we make it? How has God inviting you to take five this week? To just remember. Though he was rich. For your sake. For my sake, for our sake. He became poor. That through his poverty we might become rich. That perhaps there's someone in our life that if we were willing. To let go of some of our wealth. To embrace a little more poverty that that someone else might become rich in the Lord as well. I don't know what that looks like for you, and I won't begin to to offer it. Instead, I'll just ask the question. Would you take five this week? Next week, we're going to continue this theme. The next couple of weeks, we'll think together about some different ways that that taking five can impact our life. I invite you to do that this week. Let's pray God, thank you so much that you were willing to do for us what we couldn't do for ourselves.

We couldn't earn our way into heaven. We couldn't buy it and said it was a free gift. The only thing you ask out is that freely we have been given. Would we freely give? Again in the midst of of persecution and struggles. And we're feeling the financial squeeze and pressure on us these days is at an all time high. Father, would you remind us of of the amazing work that's happened in and through us, by Your Grace? Would you help us to step into the flow? To be part of paying that same grace forward. Would you remind us that that no gift is too small? Yet for some of us, we need to to take our giving more seriously and really commit to more regular giving. It's just a tangible way of expressing our gratitude to you that we want to be good stewards of all that you've given. God. For some of us, we want to take it up a notch. Take the next step. God for others of us, we need some creative ways because the numbers are pretty tight, pretty close. God, would you remind us no gift is too small. Because not the size of the gift. It's the heart of the giver. So we got Mayor Hart's be full this week. Jesus. Thank you for your life. Thank you for showing us the way. May we take our next step in following you? We pray. In Jesus name. Amen.