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Giving: as good as you get!
2 Corinthians 8v1-9
The context
The subject of giving is always a contentious one. All the more so if you are a church in the UK in 2011. We are in a ‘season of austerity’ as a nation and we all feel the pinch. The ‘Office for Budget Responsibility’ released statistics in 2010 showing the financial state of the nation.
- As a nation, the UK owes more than what the entire country produces in a year.
- The average household debt, excluding mortgages, is £8,600.
- Including mortgages, every adult in the UK owes an average of £29 918.
- 381 people will be declared insolvent or bankrupt every day this year.
- 1000 people are seeking financial help with their debt every day.
Surely in this context, anyone speaking about ‘giving’ is utter madness and all the more so for a church. Of all people, churches should not be money grabbing, right? After all, the gospel is about a free gift that should be mirrored in all that we are about, but so often in the media we see churches or Christians caught up in financial controversy. We need to acknowledge all of this, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t talk about finance and giving.
Everyone reading this will be in a different situation financially. Some of us will be doing OK, some of us struggling. But before we jump into the Bible, it is worth saying a few other things. I don’t know who is giving, and what they are giving to the church. I don’t know and I don’t want to know.
Of course, this subject is really addressed to Christians, people who have put their trust in Jesus, but I don’t know who is sat thinking ‘I’ve been meaning to fill a standing order form for 3 years’ and who is thinking ‘I’ve been giving sacrificially to this church, to the point that it hurts and makes life difficult for 20 years.’ I don’t know and don’t want to know.
It is also worth pointing out that Baptist churches, like most independent churches, is financially independent. We don’t have huge quantities of land that bring in revenue, or wealthy backers. There is no external source. All of our income, except the roughly 3% we get from letting the premises, comes from people giving to the work and the tax we get back on the gifts that are gift-aided. Last year around £137,000 was given to the church, and around £35,000 given back as gift-aid.
This is really, really significant and we thank God for it! There is no place for people giving out of guilt or duty here. In fact, throughout the history of the church, and in the Bible, giving which is guilt induced is condemned so we are not going there.
We will also not, as such, be thinking about ‘tithing’; the command to give a certain percentage of our income away. In the New Testament we read about generosity, as we shall be thinking in a few minutes. We are no longer under law and are free. So, give generously. But generosity for each of us will be different. For some of us a 10% tithe is more than generous. It might make life really tough. For others of us, giving 10% of our income is not generous at all. It wouldn’t make any difference to us.
Now, that is not to say that using roughly 10% of our income as a starting point is not a helpful thing to do. For many people it is, but it is not law. And we are called to generosity!
So, with those things said we are going to spend a little time looking at God’s word and then a little time thinking about what that means for where we are at now as a church.
Getting grace?
In 2 Corinthians the apostle Paul is writing to a church in the great metropolitan city of Corinth. He has much to say to them about keeping going, about heaven, about reconciliation. He even spends some time defending himself from accusation made against him, but he also talks a fair bit about giving.
He wants to inspire the Christians in Corinth to be generous, and he does so by telling the Corinthian Christians about the Macedonian Christians.
The Christians in Jerusalem and Judea have been struggling and so Paul is seeking to raise funds to support them. These funds are to be a response to the pressing needs of the Christians in Jerusalem, and also probably a sign of the unity between Gentile (Macedonian) and Jewish (believers). And the Macedonians came up trumps. But why?
Because of grace.
‘And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian Churches.’(8v1)
In this passage, grace is the origin of everything. We start with it and will finish with it in v9. Grace, the truth that God gives people things that they don’t deserve, under-pins both our faith and our giving. But it is not just past grace that we see most clearly on the cross, the grace that leads to salvation. It is present grace as God continues to work in, and through the Macedonians as they give. This is why guilt has no place. Our eyes are on how unbelievably gracious God is to us, both in saving us and in providing for our every need today. Jesus taught us to pray ‘Give us this day our daily bread’ but he also gives us the gifts to serve him, to love and be loved by our Christian family, as well as to know his Spirit at work in us, giving us hope. To understand giving we really need to get grace.
The joy equation
But we mustn’t misunderstand present grace either.
‘Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity’ (v2)
The Macedonians were finding life tough. They faced severe trials, great persecution for their new found faith in Jesus. It is interesting that when they first got grace, they also got persecution. When grace came down, afflictions went up. Severe trials came with an abundance of grace. Don’t be surprised if following Jesus leads to trials and difficulties. It always has and always will.
And they were also in extreme poverty. The example of giving that Paul uses to inspire others is a group who are themselves in desperate need!
Those who teach that financial prosperity and health are the outcome of receiving grace have got it wrong! That equation doesn’t work. Grace doesn’t mean a lack of trials and difficulties, rather trials come with an abundance of grace
But there is an equation that does work. Just look again at v2.
The grace of God hasn’t taken away trials and it hasn’t taken away poverty either, but in poverty and trial they have overflowing joy. Now, that is grace!
That is a perspective that works an abundant joy even in trials and poverty. So their hearts were set, not on a comfortable, secure and wealthy life, but on God’s grace.
Jesus put it like this.
‘Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.’ Matt 6v19-21
That is grace; the free gift of heaven. And that is what grace does for us, enabling us to live through trials and poverty for what really lasts.
Extreme generosity
But that joy is not static. Look what it does. It –
‘…welled up in rich generosity’ (v2b)
Joy overflows in generosity, extreme generosity! Just walk your way through v3-4 and the testimony of what the grace of God does in a group of Christians suffering trial and poverty.
‘They gave as much as they were able’ (v3a). They were not thinking about a ‘reasonable figure’ to give. These poor people were driven by grace. Every study carried out says that the richer people get the less they give proportionately. Poorer people proportionately give more. Why? Because the more you have, the more you think you need. It is what has been called the blinding and binding effects of wealth. Now of course wealth is not wrong. But this is not about how much money we make, it is about how much money we keep! But for the Macedonians it goes beyond that.
They gave ‘even beyond their ability’ (v3b). Now this feels like risky territory. I am not advocating stupidity in giving, taking no account for our financial situations and neither is the Bible. But God’s word does talk about sacrifice, even sacrifice that at times may look foolish and risky. Again, I am not advocating stupidity (neither is Paul in these verses, as we’ll see) but for most of us the question is not ‘are we being stupid’, it is ‘are we being sacrificial’?
So what does that look like in your own finances?
But again, before we feel under compulsion we are told they did it ‘Entirely on their own’ (v3c). This is what grace does. Giving all they could and more, giving sacrificially was what they wanted to do! When grace gets a grip of our hearts we are freed up to do what we want to do. That is grace.
In my early twenties I went to Zambia for 6 months, so prior to going I met with the elders of my church to talk about the trip. Both they and I had a number of things to talk about so we discussed prayer, how I would report back and what I hoped to learn and gain etc. As the meeting drew to a close, the guy leading the meeting looked at me and said, ‘is there anything else you want to talk about…like money for example?’
I had been typically bashful and typically British too! I didn’t want to address the subject of money and giving.
He summarised how we feel about it well. We all shy away from talking money. We are ashamed to ask for it, and embarrassed by it. But then he said that Christians are people who want to give because much has been given to them. More often than not they just don’t know where to give too. Christians have been made to give, and want too.
He was right, because that is what grace, being given much by God does in us.
Just look at v4 -
‘they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints’
Why did they plead and beg to be able to give? Presumably because they were passionate about the cause because of God’s grace at work in their lives, and so wanted to give in order to help. But for them to pleading then someone, even Paul himself must be saying ‘you have given enough. Don’t give any more, keep it for yourselves.’ But God’s grace had so got a grip of them that they pleaded to share in the privilege of sharing in the ministry of the gospel. This is extremely moving stuff!
But just before we think for the last few minutes about our own context, let’s just notice 2 more things.
Self-giving
The issue of generosity is actually about giving ourselves, not just our money.
‘They did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.’(v5)
The Macedonians had got grace and so they gave themselves to God saying ‘have me Lord, and all that I am. I am yours, all that I have is yours including my money…’ Have you ever said that? If not, I am not going to ask you to say it; rather I am going to ask you to consider God’s grace again. Because when Grace grips us, then we will give ourselves to God again!
But they gave themselves to the people too. The Macedonians got grace, and so they gave themselves to Paul saying ‘We are with you. We are yours. Whatever you are trying to achieve, we want to achieve with you. Count us in, whatever we can do.’ Again, have you ever said that? If not, I am not going to ask you to say it; I am going to ask you to consider God’s grace again.
Church membership is giving yourself to others. You might have been coming to this church for years but are not a member, if so consider giving yourself to others. In reality on a personal level that can be hard in a church this size, to really give yourself to 200 people. We tend to choose 10, 15 or 20 people to give ourselves to. Who are they for you? Your fellowship group? If you are not in one, why not join one?
But the practical outworking of this financially is that we need to choose who we are going to give ourselves too financially.
So, why give to Hockliffe Street Baptist Church?
The church expenditure in 2010 was £160,000 which covered all sorts of things, from ministry costs such as salaries, and services, administration, cleaning, insurance etc and coal face mission; money set aside to use for the promotion of the gospel, both at home and abroad. One of the things I love is the proportion of money this church sets aside and gives to overseas mission and home mission. In my experience it is both rare nowadays to see this percentage given elsewhere, and it is absolutely spot on. It is what we are about – spreading the grace we have received.
However, 2011 is looking to a 7% increase in that - £171,000. The main reason being the need, and I mean need to appoint an Assistant Pastor. God is at work, and the opportunities, and demands in a church like this are high. But don’t let me give the impression that we are simply seeking to appoint an assistant pastor in order to maintain what is currently happening – we need to appoint because we need to be about growth. The gospel is on the move, but can we keep up. So often we don’t, so often we are walking some distance behind at our own pace. We need to consider resourcing what God is about now.
So can I ask you to consider this, every one of us who have experienced the grace of God. Our challenge is the challenge that Paul made to the Corinthians in v7
‘Excel in this grace of giving’ (v7)
‘I am’, you may say. If so, praise God. For some of us we might need to consider God’s grace again. Paul hints at this in v8, and then goes on in v9
‘For you know that grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.’ (v9)
And so we end where we started.
The Lord of heaven gave up heaven for you and became poor. He removed himself from the real riches, the intimacy and presence of his Father and the glories of heaven so that you, through his poverty might become rich and share with him in those ultimate riches.
Psalm 16v11 says – ‘You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.’
How should that shape us?