“God’s Plan for Financing World Evangelism”
2 Corinthians 8:1-5, 10-12
This morning we come to climatic part of our mission’s conference. Today we make our commitments concerning our individual commitments to missions for the coming year. There can be no mission work accomplished through the local church apart from our faithfulness to give financially that others might hear the gospel. First Baptist Church uses a biblical plan called “faith promise” to determine how much we as a church will be able to give to world missions in the coming year. Some of you are new to the family and so this morning I want to share with your “God’s plan for financing world evangelism.” Look with me this morning at 2 Corinthians chapter eight where will find the most through examination of stewardship in the entire bible.
After waiting a year for the Corinthian church to fulfill their promise regarding their promised offering. Paul writes 2 Corinthians 8 to challenge them. In order to effectively get the message into their hearts, he begins with an example of what the Macedonian churches had done. Remember, the Macedonians had participated in this offering because of the report they had received from Paul about Corinth’s promises. Paul tells us about this in 2 Cor. 9:1-5, “Now concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you; (2) for I know your willingness, about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago; and your zeal has stirred up the majority. (3) Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that, as I said, you may be ready; (4) lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we (not to mention you!) should be ashamed of this confident boasting. (5) Therefore I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a grudging obligation.” (NKJV)
Paul begins to lay the groundwork for the Corinthian believers participation in the offering by citing to them the example of the Macedonian believers in 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, “Moreover, brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of Macedonia: (2) that in a great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty abounded in the riches of their liberality. (3) For I bear witness that according to their ability, yes, and beyond their ability, they were freely willing, (4) imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints. (5) And not only as we had hoped, but they first gave themselves to the Lord, and then to us by the will of God.” (NKJV)
As we notice the example of the Macedonians giving to the needs of others began with the recognition that they had been given a great deal themselves as recipients of grace of God bestowed on them. Paul repeats the word for “grace” seven times in the eight chapter and three more times in the ninth chapter.
Notice that Paul says that there are three parts to the equation: that the great trial of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty. When Paul added the three factors together the outcome was rich generosity. Here is a mathematical equation that make absolutely no sense to the world or even to the Christian who is not surrendered, that is affliction + poverty+ joy = liberality or generosity. The word “liberality” means to be free from ulterior motives. It is uncalculating. It was just sheer unadulterated joy of giving that motivated their hearts.
We need to note that this giving is obedience in the face of trying circumstances and overwhelming difficulties. The Macedonian churches were not giving out of their abundance: rather they were giving generously out of their poverty. The Macedonians make it absolutely clear that our stewardship does not depend upon our circumstances. It depends upon the quality of our relationship with Christ. We give because like the Macedonians we have been recipients of his amazing grace.
Verse four says, “imploring us with much urgency that we would receive the gift and the fellowship of the ministering to the saints,” another translation of this would be “begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints.” Notice that the Macedonians considered it a privilege to give to the aid of brothers and sisters in need.Nobody asked them to give – they did it on their own and even pleaded with the apostles for the “privilege” of sharing in this way.
Although the offering that is being talked of in this verse is an offering to help the poor of Jerusalem, the major thrust of Macedonian giving had been giving for missions. In 2 Corinthians 11:7-9 we learn that it was the Macedonians who had supported Paul financially while he preached in Corinth. “Did I commit sin in humbling myself that you might be exalted, because I preached the gospel of God to you free of charge? (8) I robbed other churches, taking wages from them to minister to you. (9) And when I was present with you, and in need, I was a burden to no one, for what I lacked the brethren who came from Macedonia supplied. And in everything I kept myself from being burdensome to you, and so I will keep myself.” 2 Corinthians 11:7-11 (NKJV)
According to verse five the primary key to godly stewardship, to giving in joy, is to first give yourself to the Lord. Paul says as much to his readers in Rome, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” Romans 12:1 (NKJV)
Paul says that the Macedonian believers did not do as they had expected, but rather first they gave themselves to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God’s will.
2 Corinthians 8:8 (NKJV)
“I speak not by commandment, but I am testing the sincerity of your love by the diligence of others.”
Paul says that their giving will “prove the sincerity of your love.” The word proving is an assayers word meaning “to approve by testing, to accept as proven, to approve.” As to be certified as pure gold. Paul says go ahead and demonstrate the results of your pure love for the brethren. We often think that the opposite of love is hate. But the truth is that opposite of love is selfishness. Jesus portrayed this truth vividly for us when he said in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” “For God so loved….he gave.” God proved the sincerity of his love by giving his son as the ransom for many.
Using the biblical example provided I want to speak to you a few minutes this morning about Faith Promise Missions Giving. For some of you this will be a new principle. For the benefit of those who do not understand how we finance our missions program, I want to explain what Faith Promise giving is. Simply defined “A faith promise is money that God will give through you, which he might never give to you, if he saw that he could not trust you to pass it on to others.” Let me try to clarify by answering four questions.
I. WHAT IS THE FAITH PROMISE PLAN?
First, we need to understand what faith promise giving to missions is not! It is not the same as your tithe. The Bible not only instructs us to give a tithe (which is returning to God the first tenth of our income) but we are also told to give an offering. When these tithes and offerings are not given the word of God charges us with being robbers. The prophet Malachi (3:9-10) hundreds of years earlier had said, “Will a man rob God? Yet you have robbed Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings. (9) You are cursed with a curse, For you have robbed Me, Even this whole nation. (10) Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the LORD of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.” (Malachi 3:8-10 NKJV).
Neither is faith promise the mere reassigning of a part of our tithe to missions. For simplification let’s suppose that my weekly offering is $12.00, and now that I have been convicted about missions this week, I decide to divide my offering giving to $5.00 to the general fund, $ 5.00 to missions and $ 2.00 to the building debt. It does not take a rocket scientist to understand that the end result is still a total of $12.00. Nothing has actually been giving to missions, there has been no increase!!!
Faith promise is an agreement made by you to God. It is an act of faith, whereby you are willing to say, I am trusting God to provide an amount that I have determined through prayer, that I may in turn give it to missions. It is a offering made of your own freewill and it is a commitment for one year. The nature of a faith promise is that I have to pray about it and ask God how much He would have me to give and then trust Him for it and month by month go to Him in prayer and ask Him for the amount promised, and wait upon Him until it comes in. How can a church know how many missionaries to accept for support unless you make a Faith Promise? If you are really interested in reaching lost men and women with the gospel of Jesus Christ then you should be involved in giving to the missions program of the church.
II. DOES EVERY BELIEVER GIVE TO MISSIONS THROUGH THE FAITH PROMISE PLAN?
The terrible truth is that some Christians do not give anything to God. They do not tithe and they do not give to missions. Others give to God but they simply give out of their abundance. Some are convicted about giving to God but they relegate to Him whatever is left, if any.
There are many reasons that believers do not give. Some are “babes in Christ,” new Christians that have not yet grown sufficient in the Lord to understand their obligation. Sadly, many of God’s people are too materialistic and consumed with possessions to give anything to the Lord’s work.
III. WHAT STEPS SHOULD A BELIEVER FOLLOW IN MAKING A FAITH PROMISE COMMITMENT?
According to the principles found in 2 Corinthians 8 a “faith promise” was God’s plan of financing world evangelization. It is simply up to us to recognize and accept our responsibility as individuals to give. We find out God’s plan by being open to God’s guidance. We are to pray about the part that God would have us to play.
1. We need to make a commitment by taking the card in the bulletin and marking down the amount that God has laid on our hearts. Not everyone can give the same, but everyone can give something. Our goal is to give $100,000.00 to missions this year, it will take all us giving to reach that goal.
2. Follow through with our commitment. Set the amount aside weekly and give it! Some church’s count their commitments counting on 75-80% to actually come in. I glad to report that as of last week 96% of our faith promise commitment for last year has come in.
3. Continue to give as you have promised for the entire year. The truth is that some of us start out with the Macedonian’s attitude, and then we find ourselves wearing out. We want to be generous, to offer ourselves and our gifts to his service, but after awhile it seems to become more of a burden than a joy. This is nothing new. Paul found it necessary to give some advice to the Galatians concerning burnout. He wrote, “Let us not become weary in doing well, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.” (Gal. 6:9-10)
IV. HOW DOES GOD SUPPLY AFTER I HAVE MADE MY COMMITMENTS?
God is God and is therefore not limited in the ways that He can supply your faith commitment to missions. It may be that God will give you the grace to sacrifice something in order to give. It may be that God will reduce your expenses in some area in order that you might give.
It may be that God will enable you to make more money in order for you to give Deut 8:18 reminds us, “And you shall remember the LORD your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth…” It is God we gives the bounty that we enjoy.
God may even supply it supernaturally in some way that you cannot even imagine. The question is will you trust him? Will you step out on faith? Will you prove your love?
The benefits of faith promise are many. Just as was pointed out in our text, giving faithfully to missions allows us to prove our love. Just as the Macedonians, we are through our giving to missions given the privilege of having a part in reaching the world with the gospel. Giving through faith promise also allows us to evaluate our priorities week by week.
2 Corinthians 8:10-12 (NKJV)
“And in this I give advice: It is to your advantage not only to be doing what you began and were desiring to do a year ago; (11) but now you also must complete the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to desire it, so there also may be a completion out of what you have. (12) For if there is first a willing mind, it is accepted according to what one has, and not according to what he does not have
Something to Think About
God gives to some more than they need in order that they might have the joy of giving to those who are in need. I think there are times when God withdraws our abundance so that we can understand how it feels to receive from others.
