God’s Mercy Endures Forever
04/6/2001 Text 2 Corin 8:1-9 Eccl. 11:1-6, Act 4:31- 37 Stewardship Sunday
Let’s suppose for a moment that you came to a fork in the road in the path of life and you had to choose a path to go down. On one side of the road was a sign pointing saying the road to receive blessings and the other side said the road to be a blessing. Which road would you prefer going down? Think for a moment, which road would probably lead to the deepest friendships, the sincerest love, the greatest peace, and the greatest challenges in life. Think which will make you more like Christ.
Will you take the road of blessings or the road of chance to be a blessing? Blessings are nice, but if we spend most of our time receiving and collecting, we will die things rich and relationships poor. That includes our relationship to family, to people and most important of all to God.
Today is Stewardship Sunday Part III of God’s Mercy Endures Forever. We are going to look at a group of churches that were more interested in being a blessing than they were in being blessed. The churches are the churches of Philippi, Thessalonica, and Berea in Macedonia. They were churches which believed God’s mercy endures forever. They had learned of a severe famine going on in the mother church of Jerusalem. People were on the verge of starvation, some dying. It was their desire to be a blessing to the brothers and sisters in Jerusalem. They felt such a gratitude and love for God in sending missionaries from Jerusalem, that they wanted to give back something.
The Corinthian church is being challenged by Paul to act as the Macedonian churches had. The Corinthian church was a very powerful an eloquent church in words, but very weak and slow to action when it came to giving. Our text this morning is 2 Corinthians 8. Let’s start at verse 1. And now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given to the Macedonian churches. What Paul is saying, let me tell you how God is greatly enriching the believers in the Macedonian churches. They have discovered God’s mercy endures forever.
Out of the most severe trials. Now severe trials may not sound like blessings, grace or enrichment but they are a part of God’s mercy. The Macedonian churches had been under heavy persecution. Some had been beaten, some arrested, some kicked out of the synagogues and some had lost all their earthly possessions because of their faith in Jesus Christ.
Somehow God has designed for our trials to go hand in hand with his mercy. God gives us more mercy in trials, because we need it more. There’s something about a trial that will enrich our faith in the way a blessing never could. Why is it the parent who has nearly lost a child to death through an illness, that truly appreciates the good health God gives to that child.
Out of their overflowing joy. Somehow in the middle of all the sorrow, the hurt, and the loss, the Macedonians found an overflowing joy. Their joy was not in their possessions, but in knowing Jesus Christ They knew what a privilege and honor it was to be chosen by Almighty God and be an instrument in his hand. How strange it is, that we accumulate more and more things and comforts, and yet in the process so often lose the closeness we once enjoyed in our families, friends, and even church. When Jesus is first, people are first in our lives and being there for them is more important than simply getting them things.
Out of their extreme poverty. These were poor churches made up of poor people who were experiencing God’s mercy. They were the ones looked upon with scorn and ridicule. The working poor. But their condition in this life, did not hinder them from wanting to be a blessing to someone else. You don’t have to be rich to be a blessing to everyone you meet. You simply have to be willing.
Welled up in rich generosity. Let’s do a simple course in addition. Trials plus poverty plus knowing Jesus Christ equals rich generosity. If that is the case why does good times plus money plus knowing Jesus Christ equals not enough money to even tithe. You know the church that’s in financial trouble with members with good jobs needs to pray, "Lord send everyone of them some trials, and let them start to lose some of the things that they have so they can be liberated to serve you."
The Macedonians were people who had every good reason not to give much, if to give anything at all. They were poor, persecuted, and small in numbers. But they had a love for Jesus Christ that made them rich in heart, big in generosity, and large in their desire to show their appreciation for what God had done for them. They could not thank God enough for what he had done.
If you set your goals high in life and be willing to give, you will be able to be a blessing to people way beyond your comprehension. The story of the little boy who gave Jesus his Lunch and with it Jesus fed 5,000 people is proof of that song, "Little becomes much when God is in it."
For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability." Here is a group of poor people, who seemed to have lost their senses in giving, out of their great desire to be a blessing. The only explanation for this is that they never stopped Jesus from having control of their money. Somebody wanted to stop the collection because it looked like some of the saints were putting in too much money.
How strange it is that the only time people get concerned with how we spend our money is when we give it to the Lord. Tell them you paid $250,000.00 for you home they admire you. Tell them you spent $35,0000.00 on a car they admire you. Tell them you spent $350 on a dress or $400 on a suit and they wish it was them. Tell them your hair style costs $75 and they tell you how good you look.
Tell them you tithe and they’ll tell you, you’re a fool for wasting your money at the church on the preacher. Yet at his or her funeral, no Christian wants it said he spent $250,000 on his house, $35,000 on his car, $450 on his suit, $75 on his hair cut, but he only gave the Lord 2% of his income because he didn’t want to waste his money at the church on the preacher.
These poor Christians were not going to be ashamed if someone opened the books on their financial giving at their funeral. God is going to open the books at the resurrection anyway, and many of us will be ashamed at how little we gave in comparison to things we obtained for ourselves.
Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in the service to the saints. This means there was no fussing, fighting or arguing about the church talking about money. There was no need for it. Somebody got up and said, " here is the need. We need to be a blessing in Jerusalem." Somebody else said, "how much do we need to give." They got together and came up with the money.
The sad things is that the apostles almost robbed the Macedonian churches of their chance to be a blessing. When somebody told the apostles just how bad off things were, the apostles were going to leave without taking up an offering. When they got ready to dismiss, somebody must have stood up and said, "wait a minute, brothers, don’t go out of here without giving us the privilege of sharing in meeting the needs of the saints." Praise God, whereas many saints go to the bathroom during the offering, here’s a group of saints demanding that an offering be taken.
Look at the next verse. And they did not do as we expected.
the Apostles probably expected some people to start complaining about who in Jerusalem was going to get this money, and how exactly was it going to be spent or whether or not Session would have to approve of the offering. No, they did not start their decision to give with more words, they started with giving themselves to God. Look at the next part but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then to us in keeping with God’s will.
Notice that their pledge began with Lord, what do you want me to do. They’re saying Lord, we know what we can do on our own, but give us faith to see what is it that you desire to do through us. All of it is yours. Before we write your pledge, how many of you actually ask the Lord, "Lord, what do you want me to give in 2001. How many of you are willing to ask, Lord what can I do without in 2001 to increase my giving.
Do you realize that by not increasing your giving, you’re giving the Lord less. For those who gave $5 in 1990 and are giving $5 today, do you know you’re giving $2.50 in terms of purchasing power today."
We do not ask God things, when we have a feeling His answer may not be to our liking. We will not know the full mercy and love of God, if we do not allow God to be Lord of our giving. I did not say we could not know God, I said we will know Him as He wants to make Himself known to us. If we have not given our finances to God, we most certainly are not going to then turn and give them to the church. God is more impressed with how much we have left over for ourselves than He is how much we put in. Whenever we require over 90% for ourselves, something is wrong with the choice we’re making for our life styles.
Look at verses 6-7. So we urged Titus , since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completing this act of grace on your part. But 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. The word of God says for us to complete this act of grace on our part. Notice all the things they are excelling in, speech, knowledge, service or working, and love. How many times have you heard people say, well some people don’t give much financially but they give in other areas of service to make up for it?
The word here says, yes some people excel in service, and that’s great, however they are to still excel in giving as well. We are to tithe our talents, our hours, our everything. We should be willing to give God at least a tenth of that which God has blessed us with including our giving.
Do you want to excel in your giving? That’s the first thing we have to decide. We start to excel, not when we get a great job, we start where we are. We choose to be a blessing. We choose what percentage to give. We give as if this world is all that counts.
Look at verse 8. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. The word of God is saying, how does our giving to God compare with our giving for things. When you give to the church, especially this church, you’re investing in the lives of people. I don’t know how much it’s worth to have the Pioneers program with our youth. But I do know this, if it helps our children choose Jesus Christ over drugs and sex, it’s money well spent to me.
I don’t know how much Life-Sharing is worth to you, but if it keeps one person from committing suicide from the feeling that no one cares, its priceless to me. I don’t know how much the choir, the activities of the worship Committee, the Men’s Group, the Presbyterian Women and all the others mean to you, but if their activities keep a family together, a child in school and a soul out of hell, that’s priceless to me.
One day people will come up to you in heaven just to say thank you for having a part in their salvation. You will say I never met you, but they’ll say God told me you helped to pay for the radio program "Another Perspective" and that’s what led me back to my family and to my salvation. Somebody from Uganda is going to tell you, thank you for helping our church to be built, my family got saved afterwards. Someone will say your TV broadcast made the difference for me and my family.
How much is God’s grace worth to you. How much is good health? How much are Christian friends and activities worth to you? How much is being obedient to the word of God worth to you. You know if we go to buy a car and it costs $15,000.00, the dealer wants us all to pay $15,000.00 regardless of how much or how little our income is.
God is not like that. God says no, you pay based on what you earn. It’s 10% regardless of what it is. So poor John says you mean all I have to pay is $500.00 and I can have it. Yes. Rich Mary says you mean I have to pay $25,000.00 for the same thing. Yes. God’s way makes us all the same. The cost is shared equally by all. Yet many Christians fight this way of thinking to do the death. Well I think everybody ought to give $25.00 a week. The only problem is that $25.00 represent 4 hours of work for one person and 15 minutes of work for another. That’s not being fair when we’re talking about doing things for the kingdom of God. Time is just as important and valuable to one person as it is another.
Verse 9 Says, For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Christ excelled in the grace of being a blessing to someone else. He stripped himself of everything that He had, simply to be a blessing to you and to me. When Jesus says "I love you", there is weight behind those words because of the price that he paid on our behalf. It was through his voluntary poverty and sacrifice that we have become rich in heavenly things.
The key to our being a blessing is found in verse 12. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. The key in verse 12 is the word willingness. So often people want to give what they don’t have. I prefer the $100 you do have over the $100,000 you don’t have but would like to give. It’s amazing how quickly we become greedy when we get money. Are we willing to start where we are. Young people, if you can’t tithe an allowance, you won’t tithe a salary. If you won’t tithe at $300 a week, you certainly won’t do it at $3,000. God is always only asking for what we have.
Look at verse 7 in chapter nine. It says "Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. God is saying once we are convinced that we’re giving what He wants us to give, let’s be faithful in doing out. Not only that, do it with a smile on your face. Make God happy in your giving by being free from having to get things to please ourselves.
Let’s face it. Over the years we’ve spent so much on things that we don’t even have the space to put the things. A lot of those things are sitting waiting to be thrown out. The thrill of many of things have long since gone. The sad thing about it, is that a lot of those things were bought with money that should have been going to the work of the ministry.
I’ve been a Christian for 27 years. I came to know the Lord at age 17. I have never not tithed in all those years regardless of how little or how large my income was. I can’t tell you that because of tithing I never had a problem, or I always got back a surprise check in the mail, or I never had to go without some things to pay my bills.
But I do know this about tithing. God has helped us to be liberated from the need to try to keep up with anybody. I could care less that someone think me strange for wearing $17.99 shoes, $120 suits, and carrying a $29.00 brief case. My life is not tied up in possessions. I’m investing in things for the kingdom of God. Pastor Toby and I were blessed to give back over $15,000 last year to God through this church. That’s hard for us to believe when our salary each our first year here was only $12,500.
Has it been worth it for us. You better believe it has. We enjoy each other as much as ever in our marriage. God has blessed us with a wonderful family. We are pastors of one of the greatest churches in the world in terms of the love and support we receive from the people in it. There is nothing we are dying to have and can’t live without. The joy of knowing Christ and of having been called by Him is a far greater treasure than any investment we could have made in the stock market.
We believe that in tithing and going beyond, We have laid up treasures for ourselves that we can call upon from God and God will sends his mercy to be sufficient in our difficult moments. We also expect God to send me money from sources we didn’t even think of to meet our needs. You know there’s no use going to a bank, to withdraw funds, when you haven’t left enough funds in the bank to start with. Those of us who tithe have the right to say with the apostle Paul, "My God shall supply all my needs according to His riches in Christ Jesus." Those of us who do not can only hope despite out disobe- dience, God will yet be merciful to us.
If we let go of our desire to be blessed with things, we can become a blessing to the others and the work of the ministry. In 2001, which road are you going to travel the road to blessing or the road to being a blessing.
