It had been a hard winter in the Rockies. The snow piled deeper and deeper. The temperature dropped below zero and stayed there. The rivers froze. People were suffering.
After a long, hard day, a rescue team in a helicopter saw a cabin nearly submerged in the snow as they were returning to their base. A think wisp of smoke came from the chimney. The rescue team figured that the people in the cabin were probably critically short of food, fuel, and medicine. Because of the trees, they had to set down about mile from the cabin. They put their heavy emergency equipment on their backs, trudged through waist-deep snow, and reached the cabin exhausted … panting and perspiring. They pounded on the door and a thin, gaunt mountain woman finally answered. The leader panted: “Ma’am … we’re … from … the Red Cross.” She was silent for a moment and then said: “Well … it’s been a long, hard winter, Sonny … I just don’t think we can give anything this year.”
We have become accustomed to people constantly asking us for money. The computer recording asking us to support a certain candidate or charity. Endless pop-ups on our lap tops. The appeal letters in the mail. TV … radio … the church. The Girl Scout or those people dressed in white who stand in the front of the store. It seems like everyone has their hand out sometimes, doesn’t it?
The Apostle Paul was not afraid of conflict or controversy. He dealt with such hot button issues as immorality, false teaching, and division within the church. He dared to tackle the most controversial subject of all … money!
Apostle Paul traveled all over the Middle East preaching and teaching the Gospel. He also had his hand out. He took up collections in every church he visited for the persecuted and suffering church in Jerusalem. Usually the mother church supports the mission churches, but the situation in Jerusalem had become so dire that they needed help from the smaller churches. So Paul went from church to church urging them to give whatever they could to support those in need in Jerusalem. Paul’s instruction to the church in Corinth about giving still applies to us today.
Paul begins by motivating the Corinthians with a success story: “And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches” (v.1) … such as those in Philippi, Thessalonica, and Brea. There’s nothing like a success story for motivation. When you become a salesperson for Mary Kay or Shakely or Amway, they continually send you to conventions where you sit and listen to success story after success story … pumping you up with the notion that if they could do it, you could do it … so that you’ll get out there and sell, sell, sell!
One little boy was boasting about his big brother. “My big brother always watches out for me … takes me to ball games and movies … and always gets me something cool for my birthday.” His friend, who was listening intently, exclaimed: “Wow! I wish I could be a brother like that!” That’s the reaction that Paul was looking for when he told the Corinthians about the contributions of the Macedonian churches. “Wow! We wish that we could be churches like that and give like the Macedonian churches.” And, interestingly enough, that’s supposed to be our reaction and our desire today.
From Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, we can discover and learn three qualities of a successful giver. First of all … a successful giver is generous. Paul describes the poverty of the Macedonian churches as “he kata bathos.” The NIV Bible translates “he kata bathos” as “extreme poverty” but a more accurate translation would be “rock bottom poverty.” It means they were so poor they couldn’t get any poorer … and yet they gave what they could.
It reminds me of my trip to Cuba. I met people there who were “he kata bathos” … rock bottom poor… but they always offered us something to eat or drink as their guests … even if it meant they had to do without later. And it was considered an insult or very poor manners if you refused their gift. Sometimes poverty can make you mean and miserly. “If I give what little I have away then what will I or my family do? We’re just surviving here … getting by.” The future is uncertain and it’s certainly understandable that you might want to cling to every little bit of what you have.
Or it can have the opposite effect. “…. For in a severe test of affliction, their [the Macedonian churches] abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of liberality on their part” (v. 2). The Macedonian churches responded to the need of their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem because they knew what it was like to be poor … rock bottom poor … and how precious and valuable and important any help or contributions could be. Their circumstances helped them to relate to the circumstances of their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. And, even though what they gave as individuals may have been small, when combined with all the other gifts from the Macedonian churches, their gifts meant all the world to their suffering brothers and sisters in Jerusalem.
We are never so poor that we can’t give something. At the Feast of Purim, the Lord commanded that everyone … no matter how poor they were … to find someone who was poorer than them and give them a gift. God’s message and purpose are pretty clear … everybody has something to give, amen? And the way that God takes care of the poor is through His people … people like you and me.
Now, if these poor Macedonians can be generous with what little they have, then how much more should we, who are rich, be generous with our resources … and trust me, my friends, we are rich! I’ve been to Cuba, Haiti, Mexico, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic … and let me tell you, I’ve seen real poverty. If you make an average income in America, you’re in the upper 5% income bracket of the world’s economy. A friend of mine told me that when his mother immigrated to America from Cuba, she literally passed out when she walked into her first American grocery story. She had never seen so much food in her life.
In the Gospels it says that the rich young ruler walked away sorrowfully when Jesus told him to sell all that he had, give it to the poor, and come follow Him because he had great wealth. Well … think about this. In spite of his “great wealth,” he could not ride in a car … have any surgery … turn on a light … buy penicillin … check into a hospital … hear a piano or an organ … watch TV … listen to a radio … wash dishes in running water … dry his clothes in an electric dryer … type a letter … mow a lawn … ride in an airplane … surf the internet … look at his wrist to tell the time … sleep in an airconditioned house on an inner spring mattress … call someone on the other side of the world with his cell phone. If he was rich, then what are we, amen?
Putting $20 in the church offering might be generous for some but it is miserly for others because God does not evaluate the value of the gift by its amount but according to the ability of the person to give. Later one, in verse 12, Paul says: “For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.”
In the Old Testament days, God had a standard fee for the Jewish people. They were to give a “tithe” … 10% of their possessions to God. In the New Testament, God says we’re under grace, not the law. He has given us Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the fellowship of the Church … and Paul says that we should give as we have prospered. Question: Would you expect the Christian under grace to give more or less than the Jew under the Law? The fact is that the average Christian gives 2 to 3% of their income to the church. We’re either doing a terrible job of communicating grace or we’re just plain disobedient. I suspect it’s both, don’t you?
Successful givers are generous … and successful givers have a positive attitude about giving. “For I testify,” says Paul, “that they (the Macedonian churches) gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints” (v. 3-4).
Amazing … Paul says they pleaded with him for the privilege of sharing in this service. Paul’s awareness of the Macedonians’ situation seems to have kept him from asking them to participate in the offering. He knew they couldn’t afford it and he wasn’t going to ask. Yet they pleaded with him to let them give what they could to help their brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. They did not plead poverty to evade any obligation. Instead, they begged Paul to let them join in this service. By contrast, Paul had to plead with the more affluent Corinthians to follow through on their first pledge.
We must give joyfully. The root of the word “stingy” is what? “Sting”! We think it “stings” to give. The very idea pains us. But, as Christians, we know the that the opposite is true, don’t we? The more we give, the more joy we have within. I challenge you to prove Jesus’ claim wrong when He promises that it is more blessed to give than receive. The Macedonians knew this spiritual truth and they begged … not to get … not to receive … but to give.
In Exodus 36, God instructed the Israelites to bring voluntary offerings to pay for the building of the Tabernacle. Morning after morning, the offerings poured in. Finally, the craftsmen and workers told Moses that they had more than enough gold, silver, and expensive cloth to complete the job. And so, Moses had to make an unprecedented announcement for a pastor: “Stop giving!” “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary, and so the people were restrained from bringing more” (Exodus 36:6-7). Preachers read that and say: “Wow! What a congregation!” Congregations read it and say: “Wow! What a preacher!” Something got into those people. What was it? A positive attitude towards giving. They considered it a privilege to contribute to the work of the Lord.
How many of you have experienced the “Walk to Emmaus”? A weekend of unconditional Christian love. Awesome! But you don’t get the whole experience until you serve on an Emmaus weekend. Being served leads to serving. We have been offered a way to experience this same phenomena of being served and then serving this coming March.
This past summer we had a number of mission teams come and serve in our area. If you remember, we … this church … put on a special evening for the mission team from Hartselle, Alabama. Remember them? They gave of their time and financial resources to come here and work. And it was a blessing for us to house them and worship with them and get to know them. And now God has turned the tables on us and we have been given the opportunity to go to Hartselle and give of our time, our talents, and our resources and for them to be blessed by housing us, worshipping with us, and getting to know us better.
Right now we are in the planning stages. We need to find out how many on are going on the trip before we can figure out the cost of food and transportation. We also asked the folks from the First United Methodist Church of Pahokee and The United Methodist Church of the Palm Beaches to join us. One of the things we’re going to be doing is taking up a special collection to offset the total cost of the trip. The more we collect from you the less the mission team members will have to pay down the road. Your contribution will bless the team members, who will then bless the folks we’re going to minister to in Hartselle … and they will, in turn bless us and we will bring the blessing back to you … Promise.
Something got into those mission volunteers from Hartselle, Alabama. Like the churches in Macedonia, they consider it a privilege to work for the Lord … and I know that the same attitude is in us as well, amen?
While the gift is important, the Bible teaches us that the attitude of the giver is even more important than the gift. We can give generous amounts but if they aren’t given in the right attitude, the gift is unacceptable to God. Even though a person gives all that he posses to the poor, says Paul, if he or she doesn’t have the right attitude it profits them noting.
Our attitude towards giving is critical. I read a story once about a man who pledged a $1,000 to his church’s building fund. In the next week’s bulleting it said that he had pledged $10,000. On Monday he called the church office to explain that he had only pledged $1,00 and get what was clearly a typo corrected. “I didn’t make a $10,000 pledge,” he told the office administrator. “I only pledged a thousand.” “Okay, no problem” said the office administrator. “We’ll print a retraction in this Sunday’s bulleting saying that you only pledged a thousand dollars.” Realizing how that sounded he told the office administrator to leave it as it was and he would give the amount printed in the bulletin. But you see, this man still wasn’t giving from the heart but from pride and ego. The Bible says that each person should give what they decide in their heart to give (2nd Corinthians 9:7) and not what he or she has been shamed or pressured into giving … “for God loves a cheerful giver,” amen?
Imagine, my sisters, if your birthday rolled around and your husband came home from work with a crumpled brown bag, tossed it on the table, and said: “Here! Here are those diamond earrings you’ve been harping me about. I can’t afford them … didn’t want to buy them … you don’t deserve them … but I know that if I didn’t get them for you I’d never hear the end of it … so, Happy Birthday!”
Imagine, my brothers, if you birthday rolled around and your wife slapped a new 5-iron on the table … unwrapped … and said: “Here! Here’s that new club that you’ve been hounding me for. I couldn’t afford it … didn’t want to buy it … you don’t deserve it … but I know that if I didn’t get it for you I’d never hear the end of it …. So, Happy birthday, Sweetheart!”
Now, let’s imagine a different scenario. Suppose your spouse came home with a birthday present that they took great pains to wrap themselves. They sit across from you, look you in the eye, slide the present towards you, and say: “Baby … I know this little bottle of perfume … or this bottle of aftershave … isn’t much … you deserve more … but I hope that you’ll accept it as token of my love.
Which would you rather have? The diamond from husband #1 … the 5-iron from wife #1? Or the perfume or aftershave from spouse #2? I know … you’d rather have the gift from spouse #1 and the spouse from scenario #2! You’ll at least concede that the value of the diamond or the 5-rion was greatly diminished by the attitude of the spouse in the first scenario and the value of the perfume or the aftershave was greatly enhanced by the attitude of the spouse in the second scenario. Attitude makes all the difference, amen? A positive attitude about giving transforms common money into a fragrant offering, an acceptable offering, an act of worship.
One church had offering plates set by the door. One particularly wealthy man always gave one dollar but one day put a five dollar bill in the offering plate by accident. When he reached in to take it out and replace it with a one dollar bill, the usher objected: “No, no … you put in but you don’t take out.” Flabbergasted, the wealthy man said: “O well … I guess I’ll get credit for in Heaven” … to which the usher replied: “No … you’ll only get credit for the dollar.”
Successful givers are generous. Successful givers have a positive attitude about giving. And, finally, successful givers are secure. “… and [the Macedonians] did not do as we expected,” says Paul in verse 5, “but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.” I believe that this is perhaps the most important verse in this chapter and the key to this whole issue of successful giving. Paul says the Macedonians surprised him. He wasn’t even going to ask them for a collection, remember? And then for them to give so much! And then it dawns on him. The good people of Macedonia gave so much because they first gave themselves to the Lord! They gave themselves to the Lord first ... and once they had done that, everything else they had followed.
A track coach told his pole vaulter: “Son … just throw your heart over the bar and the rest of you will follow.” When we seek first the Kingdom of God, then our time, our talents, and our treasure will follow, amen? None of us will ever be successful in the grace of giving until we settle the lordship issue. God doesn’t want a hand out … He wants our hands. He doesn’t want a tithe, 10 percent … He wants the tither, the whole person.
If I belong to Christ, I give … period! That’s why Paul says in the first verse of chapter 9: “There is no need for me to write to you about this service to the saints.” Why? Because it’s superfluous … it’s redundant … giving is just a part of what it means to be a Christian.
In Luke 20, Jesus was challenged by His enemies with a trick question: “Is it right to pay taxes to Caesar or not?” Jesus said: “Show me a coin. Whose portrait and inscription are on it?” They replied: “Caesar’s.” He said: “Then give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”
Caesar’s portrait and inscription were on the coin. The coin belonged to Caesar. Whose portrait and inscription is on us? God … “for in the image of God He created him; male and female, He created them.” We are made in God’s image. His image and inscription are etched on your heart. Give it to God and the rest will follow. What is mine is the Lord’s and I will share it with others whenever there is a need.
Paul does not leave the bar set where the Macedonians put it. Rather, he raises it to a height beyond compare … to the incalculable level set by Jesus Christ Himself. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” he writes in verse 9, “that though He was rich, yet for our sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich.” Jesus’ love for humankind is expressed in His gracious act of giving Himself for our salvation. Paul does not expect believers to leap to the heights of Jesus’ love. However, he does expect Jesus’ love to energize us to unparallel expressions of love well beyond what we could imagine for ourselves. The self-emptying of Christ for us should lead us to empty ourselves for others … if only in proportion to what we have.
So … let’s turn to page 13 in your hymnals and experience the self-emptying giving love of Christ once again …
