I. Introduction
Today we are continuing our series on pleasing our King in our worship of Him as His spiritual priesthood. We will continue to build on the foundation that we have laid on the authority of our King and the spiritual nature of our worship as priests to God. Today we will be looking at what the Lord shows us about giving which pleases Him. We will talk about our giving as worship to God and what it shows about our love and faith towards others.
II. Lesson
A. OUR GIVING AS A "SACRIFICE"
1. Begins with a full self-sacrifice (Rom 12:1-2)
a) The Macedonians (2 Cor 8): give us a great example of this self-sacrifice that we need to have in our giving.
b) A heart given to the Lord will show as it does with the Macedonians. It shows in:
(1) A joyful attitude in our giving, even when it is done when we are lacking. We give graciously and joyously because of what God has done for us. If we have a attitude that gives grudgingly, how does this display a heart that is being fully sacrificed to God? Giving is not something that the people of God should feel forced to do!
(2) Generosity in our giving. We desire to give as God has given to us. We do not have the kind of attitude that asks, “How much do I have to give.” That is the wrong question to ask. Instead we have the attitude that says, “What can I give to meet your need,” even to the point as the Macedonians of begging for the opportunity to help!
2. Our sacrifice of giving
a) In the context of where Paul is giving examples of the life that has been fully sacrificed to God, he says to “Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality” (Romans 12:13). One of the many things that we do in our spiritual service and worship to God is to give to help others, especially our brethren.
b) As we give to the weekly collection and also as individuals, we are offering sacrifices in worship and service to God.
(1) Hebrews 13:15-16 – “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
(2) Philippians 4:18 – “Indeed I have all and abound. I am full, having received from Epaphroditus the things sent from you, a sweet-smelling aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God.”
B. WHEN SHOULD WE BE GIVING?
1. There are many passages we can look at in the New Testament
a) 1 Corinthians 16:1-2, 2 Corinthians 8-9, Romans 15, etc.- The majority of the commands given to a congregation in the New Testament deal with the special collection for the Jerusalem saints. For this contribution, Paul commanded them how and when to collect. He commanded them to do it every first day of the week, and this was to be done until the funds were picked up to be taken to the Jerusalem saints. Although the collection we have is not the same kind of collection that they had in these passages (ours is more of a general collection which is for many purposes), we can see in this passage that the Lord approves of us giving into a collection to meet the needs of Christians on the Lord’s Day when we come together.
b) With this said, there are some examples of Christians giving to a collection in which we are not told the day of the week. We should not limit our giving to the first day of the week if there are pressing needs that need to be met.
(1) Acts 4:32-37; 2:44-45 – In these examples we see disciples selling property and possessions and giving the proceeds to the Apostles to be distributed to Christians who were in need. We are not told the day of the week in these passages in Acts. I believe these would authorize us to pool our resources together to meet needs on other days of the week also.
c) There are also many opportunities for us to give as individuals to certain needs. There are many general commands and many examples we can point to which show that we need to be looking for opportunities as individuals to serve others with the resources that God gives us.
(1) “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” Galatians 6:10
(2) One example is the text that we looked at in Hebrews 13:16: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.”
C. WHAT OUR GIVING SHOWS TO GOD
1. Shows Our Love and Compassion For Others (2 Cor 8:8)
a) For God’s People: We show this as we give when we come together. Since one of the authorized uses of the contribution is to meet the urgent needs of God’s people, whenever we give we are showing that we care about these kind of needs being met. And when saints receive money from the contribution, they can see that their brothers and sisters care about their physical needs and do not want to see them be a stumbling block or a distraction to them spiritually.
(1) The brethren in the book of Acts (2 & 4)
(a) Can you imagine how these brethren felt as their brothers and sisters made sacrifices for them? They did not count anything that they possessed as their own and viewed it as the property of the group. This is like willful communism; a “what’s mine is yours mentality.” They had a different view of their possessions than we tend to have at times. Their love led them to give beyond their means in showing their love and God’s grace to their brethren.
(i) Even in the instructions for the Lord’s Day contribution in 2 Corinthians 8:12-14, Paul teaches this as a kind of mindset we need to have (read passage). We need to have a mindset, even in our possessions and wealth, to deny ourselves; to humble ourselves and to lift OTHERS up.
(2) Don’t limit your giving to what we do at our assemblies
b) For the Lost: Although we are not authorized to give money from the collection to those who are not saints, this does not mean that we should not be looking for opportunities as individuals to serve lost people with the resources God gives us. This is at times where we lack in our service and worship to God.
(1) The Good Samaritan: An example of “Love your neighbor as yourself.” The Samaritan saw a need and then went above and beyond the call of duty to meet it.
(2) “So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith” Galatians 6:10
2. Shows Our Love for God’s Kingdom Work
a) How much we would like to see the Gospel get out and our brethren to be equipped to serve God is reflected in what we give.
b) Giving in the collection and individually sending money to preachers, evangelists, and elders.
III. Conclusion
A. Obviously, giving financially is not the only way to show your concern and love for God’s people and for lost souls, but it is one way. The person who has given their hearts to God will learn to be more generous and joyful in our giving to the church and to individuals. It should be something that we look for opportunities to do because we know that it is something that pleases our God. As we talked about in our first lesson, this is what our aim must be as Christians. It is all about pleasing our King, and He shows us that sharing what we have with others is a sacrifice that we can offer to Him that pleases Him
1. “Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Hebrews 13:15-16 ).
