The Grace of Giving
Sermon #6 in Leviticus series
CHCC: June 6, 2010
II Corinthians 8:7
INTRODUCTION:
I read an interesting Biblical statistic the other day concerning the frequency of certain words used in the Bible. It seems that…
Believing is mentioned 272 times in the Bible
Prayer is mentioned 371 times in the Bible
Love is mentioned 714 times in the Bible
But Giving is mentioned 2,162 times! (3 times more than love, 7 times more than prayer, 8 times more than believing)
Evidently, God wants us to be givers! Rather than apologize for bringing up stewardship, I should probably apologize for preaching on it so seldom!
The last time I preached about giving we were in our “Finish the Task” campaign. The good news is we finished the task together and our worship center is completely paid off. Not only that, but with no emphasis on it at all, we have already collected $17,000 towards our next building program, and we have contributed almost $13,000 towards a kitchen remodeling project. I believe many of our people understand what the grace of giving is all about.
In his second letter to the Corinthians, Paul said, “Just as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us – see that you also excel in this grace of giving.” II Corinthians 8:7
You may be aware of the fact that a “grace” in the Greek language is “charis” from which we get the word “charisma” or “charismatic.” Grace can be defined in several ways such as: pleasure, favor, beauty, kindly action, thankfulness, and spontaneous generosity. Paul was urging these Corinthian Christians to give to the poor in Jerusalem out of the sheer joy and delight in being able to participate in this multi-church gift.
This was completely voluntary giving … and that is the New Testament paradigm for giving.
Next week we’re going to begin a series on Leviticus, where we’ll contrast the Old Testament LAW with the New Testament system of GRACE. Considering what we will be looking at for the next 5 Sundays, I realized that I could easily do that same kind of comparison regarding giving. Today we’re going to compare tithing under the law to what giving under grace is all about.
Tithing is a Biblical standard for giving. It was part of the Law, but it actually came before the Law. There’s a mysterious event in Genesis where Abraham gave a tithe to Melchizedek, the priest of Salem. The account doesn’t give much explanation, but it does show us that Tithing … which means giving back to God a 10th of what He has given us … Tithing was the standard before the Mosaic Law.
Tithing was a strict part of the Law when it was spelled out in Leviticus. Leviticus 27:30 says: "A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.” Then in vs. 32: “The entire tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd's rod—will be holy to the LORD.”
Under the law, the person who failed to tithe from everything he produced, whether crops, flocks --- or even garden herbs --- was violating the terms of the LAW. In fact, he was under a curse if he failed to tithe.
Malachi 3:8 says, "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings.”
In other words – if you don’t give, you’re GUILTY of robbing from God!
1. Motivation: Guilt vs. Grace
The book of Malachi was written about 400 years before the birth of Christ. This last book of the Old Testament was written to people who had broken the LAW in just about every way --- tithing was just one of the ways they had drifted away from God.
For 1,500 years under the Law System, Jewish history was a repetitive cycle of disobedience. The people would promise to obey, then they would disobey. This was always followed by oppression, then repentance, and the people would again promise to obey … and the cycle would start all over again … and again … and again.
So Malachi was written to people who had to be "GUILTED" into GIVING. Contrast that with a letter Paul wrote to some First Century Christians in Corinth. These people did NOT need to be GUILTED. They were living under GRACE --- they were filled with God’s Holy Spirit – they were already giving generously and they were eager to give more and more.
Paul wrote, “I really don’t need to write to you about this ministry of giving for the believers in Jerusalem. For I know how eager you are to help, and I have been boasting to the churches in Macedonia that you in Greece were ready to send an offering a year ago. In fact, it was your enthusiasm that stirred up many of the Macedonian believers to begin giving.” II Corinthians 9:1-2
You could read the Old Testament cover to cover and not find a set of verses like that! What makes the difference between people who have to be threatened into giving and people who LOVE to give? It’s the difference between GUILT and GRACE … the difference between LAW and LOVE.
Let me ask you this … How many of you ever bought a nice Hallmark Card, and wrote a loving note in it, and then slipped a BIG check in it … and took it to the IRS office so you could give the tax agent a big hug? Why not? Because paying taxes is giving by LAW.
And giving by law is NOT the way we give to God! We don’t tend to put our offerings in Hallmark Cards (although that might make it more interesting for Sydney Dodds when she counts the offering!) Hallmark Cards show the kind of feeling that should go with our church offerings. We have the privilege of giving voluntarily --- out of Love --- because of God’s love for us and our love for Him.
2. System: Transactional / Relational
Now, back to Malachi --- The Old Testament Law was conditional and transactional. It was based on If/then --- Blessing or Curse --- you keep your end of the bargain and I’ll keep mine --- quid-pro-quo.
Malachi 3:9 – 10 gives a good example of this Blessing or Curse transaction: You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse…and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have enough room for all of it. Malachi 3:10
Contrast that with II Corinthians 9:7: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.
The New Testament way gives you the privilege of choosing what you will give. It’s up to you. A Tithe is not a bad starting place --- after all, that is what God commanded in the Law. But because of Jesus, we no longer live under that LAW
Let me just say, if we are still under the LAW of the Tithe, the church is in bad shape. The last statistics I read on Church giving said that across denominational lines, American Christians are giving at abysmal levels.
Less than 33% of church members give systematically. out of those, they give an average of only 2.5% and less than 5% give at a tithe level. (generousgiving.org)
This is a sad condition --- but not because it puts the church under a curse. It is tragic that the church is being held back by Christians who haven’t caught on to the Grace of Giving. It’s tragic because a lot of Christians are missing out on a lot of JOY!
In spite of those depressing statistics, I’ve discovered that many Christians go beyond the tithe … because they WANT to! I know a man here in San Antonio whose giving level is at 50%. He owns several restaurants and has created his own foundation where he gives away half of what he makes from his restaurant chain. Why does He do that? Because he WANTS to!
Most Christians who give generously are not wealthy by any means. But even though it’s not always easy for them, they give because they WANT to! Consider Mother Theresa’s advice on giving, “If you give what you do not need, it isn’t giving.”
Years back I heard someone talk about the faucet principle … and I’ve discovered that it really works. If I turn on a faucet at my house, I have the entire contents of the Edwards Aquifer at my disposal. I don’t need to worry that if I run the water I’ll end up with a trickle … unless, of course, I fail to pay my S.A.W.S. water bill. There’s more than enough water available for anything I might need. I need not be stingy with my water.
The same principle works with my giving. I have a spiritual faucet --- connected to the storehouses of heaven itself. When I turn on the faucet to give … there is an abundant supply to meet that need … with an abundance left over. I need not hoard my assets under the assumption that the reservoir might dry up. My heavenly supply is abundant --- above anything I might imagine. I can give freely, knowing that God will see to it that I can give again tomorrow.
3. Supply: Earthly / Eternal
In Malachi, God promised that IF the people tithed, He would open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. The next verse specifies what KIND of blessing God will give: “I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the LORD Almighty. Malachi 3:11
This was a farming economy and the blessings were practical farming blessings. Modern farmers would pay dearly for just such an insurance policy on crop production. But you might notice that this promise is earthly --- for the here and now. In fact, a person living under this system could tithe for entirely selfish reasons. He could tithe in order to get rich. No wonder some churches teach a doctrine of health and wealth (some people call it name it claim it … or blab it grab it.)
But compare the type of blessing promised under the Old System to the type of blessing in the new. Look at this wonderful blessing promised to anyone who becomes a cheerful giver: And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. II Corinthians 9:8
God gives us an abundance of practical and financial blessings, but His promise goes FAR beyond that. God will make all grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. I think that about covers it! What more could we ask?
Vs 11 goes on to say, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us (the ones who are taking your generous gift from Corinth to Jerusalem to the starving Christians) your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
You see, life has a way of evening things out. Stinginess comes back to us with an empty, sparse life. Generosity floods our life with ALL grace, ALL things at ALL times, ALL that we need: A life that abounds in every good work.
It has been said that God’s Multiplication begins with our Subtraction. In fact, God’s calculator has an extra button on it that our calculators don’t have. His calculator has a Blessing Button, and He pushes it every time we exercise the Grace of Giving.
I love God’s calculator more than my own, and will take His math over mine any day. It is truly impossible to out-give God.
CONCLUSION:
When he preached a couple of weeks back, Richard made a comment that our purpose here on earth is simple - to love God and help people. Our church motto says the same thing in a different way: Passion for Christ and compassion for people.
Giving is how we live this out. So I’m glad to be able to encourage you to excel in the grace of giving. No one needs to guilt you into giving. You have the Holy Spirit living in you, and he can motivate your generosity better than I will ever be able to.
Besides, I already know you are generous people. So continue to be what you already are! Keep going in the wonderful grace of giving as you have done in the past. And keep being blessed by God so you can keep being generous in every way. Amen!
