A Living Sacrifice To God
Part 7
Scriptures: Romans 12:13; James 2:15-16; 1 Timothy 3:2
This is part seven of my series “A Living Sacrifice to God.”
As many of you know I grew up in a small country Church in Tennessee. While most of the older members of the Church were not the most educated from a book learning perspective, they had a true love for God and each other. Our Church was located out in the country so in order to get there, you drove all the way through town by passing all of the other Churches on nice paved roads to transition to dirt roads with a lot of dusk to enter the small Church with no air conditioning. In our Church we had wooden pews so if you sweated too much during service your clothes would stick to the finish on the pews depending on what you wore. This was the Church that I learned about God and learned to love Him.
During our Sunday worship service we received two offering. The primary offering was where people gave their tithes/offering and monies for the building fund. This was interesting because the pastor’s weekly salary was a percentage of the tithes and offering; he did not receive any portion of the funds given to the building fund as those monies went to the maintenance of the physical building. This was a source of contention because when certain members of the Church did not like how the pastor was running things or if he had said something in a sermon that they disagreed with then they would take all of their tithes and offering and give it to the building fund. This was their way of getting the pastor’s attention and getting him back in line after some small offense he committed towards them. This was the set up for years in our small country Church.
We also had another offering that was taken up shortly after the deacons’ devotion. When I was a child my mother would give us a nickel or dime to give into this offering. This offering was called the “po saints” or “penny” offering by the older people. As I grew up, I learned that this offering was actually the “poor saints” offering or what was known in other Churches as the benevolence offering. I think some of our members may have had a hard time saying benevolence so it was shortened to “po saints.” The monies taken up in this offering was used for the members the Church who were experiencing difficulties. If anyone in the Church had a need, they would go to one of the deacons or mothers and express their need and ask for help. It was not broadcast to the Church and only the leadership knew who was being helped at any given time. If the Church did not have the funds available to meet the need, then the deacons or mothers of the Church would let other members know so they could help privately. It was not their intention to put anyone on blast. I learned how to contribute to the needs of other people based on what I saw practiced by my parents and the members of that small Church, Friendship Missionary Baptist Church.
But these were not the only examples that I had. You all have witnessed me paying our kids (and some college age young adults) five dollars for every “A” they got on their report cards. My goal with this is to provide them with a reward for working hard in school to get the “A.” In a good semester I may pay out upwards of $200 depending on how our kids do. This idea was born out of a childhood experience that I had. There was a pastor who owned and lived in a store right beside my grandmother’s home. Across the street from his store was our elementary school. One year he decided that he would provide a reward for those kids in the sixth grade with the highest grade point average. This was during a time when I was actually enjoying school because I had teachers who cared about me as a person and as a student. My sixth grade teacher was Mrs. Howell and I loved Mrs. Howell. Because she was one of my favorite teachers, I worked hard to make those grade. Well one day I, along with two other students, were called to the principal’s office and we thought we were in trouble. When we got there we were each given a note and was told to the notes across the street to Rev. White, the store owner. When we walked in the store he smiled, but then he looked at me and said, “I am surprised to see you.” He knew me and my family well because our churches fellowshipped together and he lived beside my grandmother. He then proceeded to give us $7.50 each for making such good grade. That was more money than I had ever been given at one time in my childhood. That memory stayed with me.
Rev. White pastored a small Church in our city. Everyone knew what type of pastor he was and how he took care of his members. It was commonly known that Rev. White would often pay the bills of his Church members when they were struggling. I do not know if other pastors did this, but he is the only pastor at that time that I knew did this. When I announced my calling word spread throughout our community. When I preached my first sermon, both my third and sixth grade teachers were there. Also, on the very next Sunday, Rev. White invited me to come and preach at his Church. When I left Columbia to enter the military, I would write him from time to time discussing Church affairs or things I may have been struggling with in the Churches I was attending away from home. He always wrote back with honest, scriptural advice. When he died his son, whom I had never met, reached out to me because he had found the letters that I had written to his father and he wanted to meet me. He thanked me for my relationship with his father.
These were my experiences growing up as I watched the people I knew living out Romans 12:13. Romans 12:13 says “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.” The Bible tells us that we should be taking care of the needs of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This does not means that we keep pouring money down a bad hole because people keep making bad decisions, but that we should have a heart to help those in need. Part of this help will come by way of truly making a donation to help the person but it can also come by way of teaching the person how not to get into that situation in the future. Regardless of how it is done, Paul told the Christians in Rome (and us) that we should be meeting the needs of our brothers and sisters who are struggling.
It is very easy for all of us to get so caught up in our own situations and projects that we forget about those in need around us. Some even take the stance that they cannot help someone else because they too are struggling and in need of help. Others take a stance that says, “You made the bed now lie in it!” In other words, you created the situation so now you must live through the consequences. Some others just get tired of helping the same old people day after day and just give up and stop. Thank God Jesus did not give up on us when we were slow to change. Now I confess that I have had these same thoughts through the years when I have thought about helping someone and God always immediately checked my spirit because I was wrong. You see, God does not place resources within our hands just so we can spend it all on ourselves. He wants us to be a blessing to others and when we begin to live that life, God entrusts even more resources into our hands because He knows that we will be a vessel for Him to bless others. Paul said that we should be “distributing to the necessity of saints…” We are to bless people who are less fortunate than ourselves. We should seek out those that God places in our path to bless them. You may not give money to every beggar that you see on a street corner, but I believe that if you pray about helping someone if that beggar is one that God wants you to bless, then you should be willing to do it. It’s not our job to worry about what they will or will not do with the money if God tells you to give. It’s not about that person, it’s about our willingness to obey.
The word “distributing” in the Greek is the Greek word koinoneo, which means “to share some kind of contribution; to give a financial contribution.” In the Greek tense, this was not a one and done. It was something that was a regular, consistent and habitual response to seeing someone in need. It shows a heart that is always willing to give, versus the heart that says “I gave at the office!” The Greek word for necessity is a word that simply means “need.” You all know that there is a difference between a need and a want so we have to be certain. If you are hungry, you have a need to eat something. The need is food. However, if you have peanut butter, jelly and bread and you do not eat it because you have a taste for pizza, the pizza is a want. So if you called someone and said that you were hungry and all you had was food to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich but you what you really “needed” was a pizza, I hope that Christian brother or sister or family member would tell you to enjoy that peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The need was food. The want was the pizza. We cannot get this confused. When God leads you to help someone, He leads us to meet a need, but we have to be open to being led. If you are never in a position where you can help someone else, then that’s where you start. Start setting something aside for the “po saints” as my elders used to say.
I want to stress that this type of giving is over and above what you might donate to organizations that collect things for the needy. This type of support for someone else is very personal. You see the person and you empathize with their situation. You have a desire to meet their need because of the love of God flowing within you. If you see someone in need and all you tell them is “God bless you” as you walk on past them, do you not know that when you do this you have shamed God? Do you not know that for you, as a Christian, that was sin? James said, “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, ‘Depart in peace, be warmed and filled; yet you give them not those things which are needful to the body; what does it profit?” (James 2:15-16) Also Proverbs 14:31 says, “He that oppresses the poor reproaches his Maker: but he that honors Him has mercy on the poor.” Giving to the needs of others should not be a chore, it should be a lifestyle.
The rest of Romans 12:13 says “given to hospitality.” During the New Testament times it was a fact that many Christians and church leaders were very mobile. First, many became mobile because they had been evicted from their homes and lost all of their property because of persecutions. Second, the early believers were mobile because they were carrying the Gospel to those who sat in darkness. Because the Early Church was constantly on the move, it became necessary for believers to adopt an “open-home” mentality. In other words, they had to be willing to take in displaced Christians or missionaries who were passing through on their way to take the Gospel to a new region. This open-home mentality was so important that Paul included it in his list of requirements for church leaders when he wrote to Timothy. First Timothy 3:2 says “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach.” The Church leaders were expected to be hospitable.
The word “hospitality” in both Romans 12:13 and 1 Timothy 3:2 comes from the Greek word that means to love a stranger or foreigner like a friend. So Paul was not telling the Early Church (and us) to be kind, friendly or open-hearted with a known associate or friend in need. No he was telling us to show compassion and kindness to those we do not know at all. All of us know that it is easy to open our homes and show kindness to people we know, but it is a different thing altogether to be hospitable to those we don’t know, especially in our current times. For an early believer to be hospitable he literally had to open his home to receive those Christians who had been displaced or who were traveling through the area. In that day there were no hotels like there are today so opening one’s home was the only way to show oneself hospitable. This was also the practice in the black churches in the south at one time. It was common for a visiting minister or evangelist to stay in the homes of the local congregation members because they were not allowed to stay in hotels or the Church could not afford to pay for their hotel stay. We do not see as much of that now because the expectation is that if you invite someone to travel to your city and speak at your Church you have to cover all of their expenses. Times have truly changed.
Today we can still take travelers into our homes but we could also show our hospitality by renting a room for traveler for several nights. The world has trained us to be fearful of strangers, even those who are Christians. We have been taught that the world is unkind and harsh and that in order to make it in this world we must focus on protecting ourselves and those around us. The world tells us that if we allow strangers in our home that they will rob us or potentially try to kill us. Based on what we constantly see published in the news. I am not saying that the world is wrong. What I am saying is that there will be times when God will place someone in our path to assist and we must be willing to do it. I told you the story before about a friend of ours from Arkansas who woke up one morning and prayed and asked God to allow her to be a blessing to someone that day. Later that morning as she was walking down the sidewalk alone a dirty beggar appeared and asked her for a donation. She was immediately scared and told him she had no money. He asked her a second time and she repeated that she had no money. He then let her past. Immediately God spoke to her spirit and reminded her of her prayer. She felt convicted and turned around to give the man some money but the man had disappeared. She told us that this experience changed her life. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 13:2, “Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.”
Paul said that we should be “Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.” (Romans 12:13) We should be about our brothers business. No one member of a Church should be suffering alone if they are active members and people know of their situation. Help can come in many forms, from classes to learn about financial management to family therapy. But we cannot ignore the fact that sometimes what people need is a financial gift to help them through a tough time. Yes it could very well be their fault that they got into the situations, but who are we not to help them because they made a costly mistake? You have to have a heart that is ready for this and I pray that we will one day be at that point where people will give freely to the need of others without stressing about how many times someone has asked for help. In our helping those within our midst we need to do our due diligence in helping them not to repeatedly stay in a situation, but our hearts should be aligned to help. What God has placed within our hands should not only serve us, but others in need.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
