Today is the climactic day of our capital funds campaign. Some people would say a capital funds campaign is drudgery. For me it has been an exciting time! It is exciting to observe what God is doing in our church. It is exciting as anticipate how God will provide for needs. In order for us to experience the exciting nature of this campaign we must approach it with a joyful attitude. God wants our relationship with him to be a happy joyful experience. He does not want it to be a difficult chore.
As we wrap up this campaign I want to do a simple sermon entitled “Guidelines for Givers.” Each of us is considering the amount we will pledge to the Forward With Faith campaign. In II Corinthians 8 & 9 we find a group of people who joyfully and obediently gave an offering in response to God’s calling. The churches in Asia were taking a collection for the struggling church at Jerusalem. From these believers we learn some valuable lessons about giving.
1. Giving should be done submissively.
Submission is one of those words that tend to rub people the wrong way. The word has received such a bad reputation that we rarely use it. There are some situations were the word submission is used as a club to beat others into submission. In yesterday’s paper there was a story of a fourteen year old girl who was forced to marry against her will. This unfortunate situation came at the hands of a cult leader who abused his authority.
What is submission? It is the willful act of yielding to the power, control or authority of another. Submission is a voluntary and necessary action in the Christian life. It is a critical part of learning to be a disciple. Submission is a key concept in the Bible. To be true followers of Jesus, we must learn to be submissive. In verse 5 we find two components of submission.
• It is necessary that we learn to be submissive to God. The Bible teaches that they “first gave themselves to God.”
• It is necessary that we learn to be submissive to those who represent God. In verse 5 it says “they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us.”
Corinth had every reason to be skeptical of this offering for Jerusalem. They were separated by hundreds of miles. Most of them had never been to Jerusalem. They had this new religious leader (Paul) soliciting money for the people in Jerusalem. They did not know whether they could trust him. However, they submitted to Paul’s request and gave the offering. As a teaching point: in II Cor. 8:16-24 Paul discusses the integrity and character of Titus. Titus was responsible for the offering which Paul was collecting. Do you see the big picture? Paul was collecting an offering built around trust. In so doing, he selected a trustworthy man to handle the special offering and to deliver it to the believers in Jerusalem. This is a good model for any church. Solicitations for money should be accompanied by accountability and integrity in the one’s doing the soliciting.
2. Giving should be done willingly. Notice several verses found in II Cor. 8 & 9. In 8:3 it says they were “freely willing.” In 9:2 it says “I know your willingness.” The telling part of this passage is found in 8:4. From that verse we learn that these believers actually begged to give.
The opposite of willing giving is:
• Giving begrudgingly
• Giving out of guilt
• Giving out of fear
• Giving from manipulation
• Giving as a ritual
Illustration: The story is told of the missionary who asked a new convert, “Pablo, if you had a hundred sheep, would you give fifty of them to the Lord’s work?”
“You know I would gladly give them,” he replied.
“Pablo, if you had fifty cows, would you give twenty-five to the Lord’s work?”
“Of course, I would be more than happy to do that,” came the confident reply.
Once again the missionary asked, “Pablo, if you had two pigs, would you give one of them to the Lord’s work?”
“That’s not fair!” Pablo said, “You know I have two pigs.” Pablo was no longer willing.
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Susan Blader)
Illustration: Show cartoon clip (on power point) of a man named Charles being baptized. The pastor says “Charles, everything that goes under the water belongs to God.” As the pastor baptizes Charles you see a hand extending out of the water with a clinched fist holding a billfold. Charles was not willing.
3. Giving should be done cheerfully. There are two word plays found in II Cor. 8 & 9. In chapter 8 verse 2 it says “their joy…abounded.” He describes their joy as if it is a glass of water that is overflowing. Then in chapter 9 verse 7 it says “God loves a cheerful giver.” The word cheerful is the word from which we get our word “hilarious.” Thus, that verse could be translated “God loves a hilarious give.”
Joke: A mother wanted to teach her daughter a moral lesson. She gave the little girl a quarter and a dollar for church “Put whichever one you want in the collection plate and keep the other for yourself,” she told the girl. When they were coming out of church, the mother asked her daughter which amount she had given. “Well,” said the little girl, “I was going to give the dollar, but just before the collection the man in the pulpit said that we should all be cheerful givers. I knew I’d be a lot more cheerful if I gave the quarter, so I did.”
(Contributed to Sermon Central by Glenn Queener)
Illustration: A negative illustration of this truth is the Christmas character, Scrooge. Until Scrooge met the three Christmas spirits he had an attitude problem. His Christmas theme was “bah! hum bug.!”
4. Giving should be done sacrificially . Paul uses the example of Jesus. In chapter 8 verse 9 we read “He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.” Jesus gave up the joy and splendor of Heaven in order to give His life. He was a king but became a pauper. He was rich yet became poor. He was powerful but became weak. He was a conqueror but was willing to be conquered. We can never follow His example. However, we can follow His spirit.
Our capital funds campaign is built around this spirit. The motto of our campaign is “Equal Sacrifice, Not Equal Gifts.” God does not measure the size of our gifts, he measures the size of our hearts.
Illustration: In 1991, Billy Graham conducted an evangelistic crusade in Buenos Aires Argentina. As they were preparing they conducted a local organizational meeting. The weather was terrible with heavy rains, strong winds and hail. Nonetheless, pastors were gathered from all over the region. Halfway through the meeting a man slipped in, drenched and looking exhausted. The coordinators were concerned about why he was so late for this critical meeting. They later found out this man was tardy because he had actually walked 125 miles to attend the meeting. He did not have money for transportation, so he walked to make sure his town of fifteen thousand people was included in the evangelistic plan. The gospel was worth that kind of sacrifice for this dear man. (Illustration 382. “Something to Think About”. Compiled by Raymond McHenry)
5. Giving should be done faithfully.
Bible scholar Warren Wiersbe said “They had not simply gone through “affliction”; they had experienced a “great trial of affliction” (2 Cor. 8:2). They were in deep poverty, which means “rock-bottom destitution.” The word describes a beggar who has absolutely nothing and has no hope of getting anything. Their difficult situation may have been caused in part by their Christian faith, for they may have lost their jobs or been excluded from the trade guilds because they refused to have anything to do with idolatry.”
When we give faithfully we give what we can. The believers described in II Cor. 8 & 9 were destitute but they gave what they could. A $10 bill may be as valuable as a $100 bill if it is given in the right spirit. If it represents a person’s best, that is all that God expects.
