The Father’s Plan (Ephesians 1.3-10)

Introduction

Some years ago I was given this 1,000 piece puzzle for Christmas. So why is it still in the cellophane wrapping? I’m ashamed to say I am just not patient enough to do jigsaws of that size. If you were to open the lid of this box, you would see a bewildering pile of different coloured pieces. Where do you start? How do you go about putting it all together? Well, what you usually do is sort the straight edged pieces from the rest. Then you place the corners in position. Then, using the picture on the box as a guide, you can start to piece together the outline. Once you’ve done that, you're ready to work inwards. Is that how you do jigsaws? Well, counting the infinite and astoundingly great blessings of God is a bit like opening the lid and sorting through hundreds of pieces a great puzzle. Ephesians 1, if you like, is the picture on the box.

It’s the plan, the big picture. Ephesians 1 is God’s sweeping revelation of who he is, who we are and why we are here, in all its wide-angle majesty. It’s the bird’s eye view or, more accurately, the God’s eye view of his great purpose from all eternity till kingdom come for life, the universe and everything. And because we tend to spend most of our lives zooming in on the features of the landscape (in other words the small detail of the ups and downs of existence), we sometimes forget the big picture.

But today, that’s what we’re going to do. We’re starting a series of three talks on God’s Father Heart and we’re starting out this morning with a wide-angle view on his great plan, his grand design, his glorious scheme, lovingly conceived from all eternity, to adopt you and me into his family. We’re going to look at truth about ourselves from God’s grandstand perspective.

1) What God Says About Our Present (v1-2, 7-8)

If Ephesians 1 says quite a lot about who believers in Christ really are, from God’s viewpoint, it also says quite a lot about how we got to be there. And it gives us a tantalising glimpse of what’s in store for us in the future.

First of all, what does God say about who we are, who you are? In v1 Paul addresses a group of ordinary Christians living in Ephesus. But it could be here. He calls them ‘saints’ and describes them as ‘faithful in Christ Jesus’. ‘Saints’ is a regrettable translation, and the latest revision of the NIV uses the expression ‘holy people’ which is less confusing. The word Paul uses literally means an individual who is ‘set apart to belong to God’. It’s someone who ‘stands out’, who is ‘chosen’ or ‘distinctive’. When God calls those who belong to him ‘saints’ he means, ‘You are special to me.’ Do you see yourself in that way? Because it’s true. Don’t listen to what you say about you. Your heavenly Father says that you are truly exceptional in his eyes. Whatever you or anyone else feels or thinks, that is the truth about you.

In v7-8, God says, “we have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of his grace that he lavished upon us.” Let’s tease that out and try to grasp what it means for us.

“We have redemption through his blood and the forgiveness of sins...” says Paul. The truth is that every wrong thing you and I do, every wrong thought we think, has an addictive power that ends up controlling you. That’s why Jesus said, “Everyone who sins is a slave of sin.” People who drink alcohol excessively, or who inject drugs, or who visit pornographic websites, or who binge on chocolate, or who bet on horse races or who smoke tobacco can become addicted. We know the dangers of getting hooked on these things. But all sin is addictive. It’s equally true, for example, when I throw a temper or seethe with jealousy or allow pride to take root by making much of myself or indulge in a bit of juicy gossip. If I don’t cut those things at the root by taking authority and rebuking them and repenting of them, they can all get a grip on my life and become habitual, then compulsive. They have an addictive power, making me a slave to them.

We’ve been talking about money and giving over the last few weeks and we talked about debt in that context. Debt is a massive problem in our culture. But it was also a big issue in the ancient world – and, in fact, the stakes were higher. The last resort if you got yourself into serious arrears back then was to put yourself up for sale as a slave at the market and the price on your head would be equivalent of what you owed. For some desperate people it was the only way out of financial insolvency. If somebody bought you in the market, your debts would be cancelled, but you would become the property forever of your new master. You would be at his service, for the rest of your days. No rights, no pay, no holidays, no choices, no fun…

Suppose you’re sitting in the slave market with a price tag of £1 million round your neck. And suppose someone comes past and says, “I feel sorry for you. I’d like to help you. And what I’m going to do for you is this. I’m going to pay all your debts off in full. But I’m not going to take you as my slave; I’m going to give you back your freedom instead.” The technical term for that was redemption. They would have paid the ransom price. We use the word ‘ransom’ these days with kidnappers and hostages, but the slave market is where the word originally came from. Now, what v7 tells us is that Jesus came to secure our redemption. We were hopelessly indebted, we were slaves to sin and he came and paid the ransom price, not in cash but in his blood, by dying a horrific death in our place on a cross, so that we can walk away free.

A few years ago, I prayed with a guy who wanted to give up his cannabis habit. There was a prophetic word in a service; a picture of an axe cutting the retaining rope on a hot air balloon. And the word was, “When are you going to cut the rope and fly?” That really spoke to him so he asked me to pray with him. He had been a Christian for some time, but for years he had put off dealing with this issue in his life. He was dating a lovely Christian girl, about 30 years old, who was saying to him, “I am not going to marry you until you end this habit.” Our Father God touched him in a deep way that day and he hasn’t gone near that drug since. Last March I preached at their wedding. Because of the cross, the addiction is broken and that man is ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Last year I invited Stéphane Bertheau, who is Director of Living Waters Ministries in Paris. Stéphane came to Christ whilst trapped and confused in a promiscuous gay lifestyle. It’s been a long road for Stéphane, and he admitted that he throws himself on the mercy and grace of God every day but God has brought redemption and freedom and healing in his life. He’s now married and works as an assistant pastor. Because of the cross, he is ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven.

Do you need to be released from something that has a grip on you today? Something that you can’t defeat and just keeps coming back time and time again? Christ is here. Christ’s awesome power breaks the chains of spiritual tyranny. Christ paid the price on your head. Christ redeems all from the power and grip of those things that destroy lives. Don’t leave here today without asking the Lord to break the bonds that keep you enslaved to sin. That is what God says about who we are in the present; special to him, our debts cancelled, our addictions broken, our guilt forgiven.

2) What God Says About Our Past (v3-6)

But in v3-6 God says something quite mind-blowing about our past.

If you’ve ever received a letter or an e-mail from me, the chances are that I closed with two little words. People often sign off saying things like, “Take care” or “Many thanks” or “Best regards.” These endings can often be no more than a polite formality but the two words I used when I wrote to you were carefully chosen and they come directly from our reading in Ephesians 1; the words are, “Every blessing.” It’s become a semi-conscious habit for me when I write those words to fleetingly ask God the Father to bring whoever I am writing to into the marvellous fullness of each and every heavenly blessing in Christ that are the birthright of every believer.

Verse 3: “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.”

That verse says we have at our disposal, now, “every spiritual blessing in Christ” – which is pretty comprehensive – and he then goes on to say how that came about. And it’s quite surprising. Your story with God goes right back to before time began, before the universe, before creation, to a point when only God was. It was then that your heavenly Father chose you. Then your Father predestined you. Your Father had it in his mind even then, because he loves you, that he would be glad to adopt you into his family. That was going to be a particular delight to him. He took great pleasure in choosing you, and deciding to lavish on you every spiritual and heavenly blessing in Christ, knowing you would have good days and bad days, knowing you would turn out a sinner, knowing you would never really deserve it. All this was in his plan from the start.

Therefore your adoption has nothing to do with your value, your worth, or your gifts. Your adoption is anchored forever in God’s eternal pleasure and purpose. That means that your adoption is absolutely not insecure or conditional or fragile. God will not change his mind about adopting you on becoming disappointed with the way you turn out. He chose you and predestined you for adoption knowing you would never deserve it and never be able to earn it. That means his fatherly approval and favour towards you is firm and settled and permanent. He has predestined it from all eternity past and will hold it unshaken till all eternity future.

Do you have a problem with that? Because some people do. This is what v4-5 actually say; “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.”

And of course the difficulty people have with all this is a matter of simple logic. If God, in his love, predestines only some to become his children, that must mean he inclines others to reject his love and salvation. That makes God look terribly arbitrary, even cruel. What are we to make of this? What about Malachi 1.2-3 where God says, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated”? What about God hardening Pharaoh’s heart in Exodus? Paul said in Romans 9.18, “God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy and he hardens whom he wants to harden.” It’s not easy to get excited about predestination if it means God has predisposed us to believe and be saved, while he has pre-programmed others to disbelieve and be damned. It doesn’t seem fair does it?

We’ll have a look at the specific case of Pharaoh in a minute but first of all, let’s ask ourselves a question. What certainty could we have about life, the future, the battle of good and evil and the end of the world if God had his hands tied, wasn’t in control and left everything to chance? What if God just had to hope that it will all pan out OK in the end? What confidence could you have then that the goodness of God will finally prevail? The answer is absolutely none at all. But if God really is in total control, we know that our lives are secure in his plan and purpose, that the future is safe in his hands and that the battle between good and evil will be decisively won in the end by Christ.

If God really is in charge, you need not worry that some loose cannon will press a button starting a nuclear war that will wipe out life on earth, or that a pandemic will destroy the human race. God will trust nobody but his Son with the honour of inaugurating end of the world. So the teaching of the Bible that God is sovereign over the affairs of this universe, that he reigns and rules over the nations, and that nothing is outside the all-embracing scope of his cosmic plan, should be a source of great assurance and confidence for us. And the thing is, God’s wisdom is so great and his power is so awesome, and his designs are so excellent that he is able to weave his total all-knowing authority with our complete and real free will.

Some Christians are troubled by the story of the plagues of Egypt because God hardens Pharaoh’s heart. Doesn’t he? Yes, he does. It’s there in black and white. In fact, it’s worse: God not only hardens Pharaoh’s heart, he punishes him afterwards.

But when you read Exodus 5-11 carefully, you find that Pharaoh hardens his own heart seven times. He obstinately refuses to cooperate with, God from his own free choice, before God starts to harden his heart further. So it was Pharaoh who deliberately and freely rebelled against God. When that attitude had become permanent, God in effect said, “If that’s what you want, then that’s what you get.”

And that is how God works with all who stubbornly rebel against his just and holy laws. In Romans 1 Paul explains that this is how God consistently operates with society. When sin goes too far and becomes endemic, God hands civilizations over to the folly of their rebellion against him. And people block their ears and hate to hear this, but this is what the Bible says happens; trash culture and sick humour become prevalent. People begin to worship the environment instead of its Designer. Unnatural sex becomes widespread and is promoted shamelessly. Respect for authority and common decency breaks down. Greed and deceit become normal. Ringing any bells? All this is an open expression of God’s righteousness and I for one tremble for our Western civilisation, because it shows all the warning signals of provoking God’s judgment right now.

But today is also a day of grace. On all who cry out to God and ask for forgiveness and appeal for mercy, he pours out his fatherly kindness. He adopts into his family, lavishing blessing upon blessing on all those who call on Christ, and place their lives in his hands. If you have never done that before, can I urge you strongly to do it today? Why hesitate? Why put it off? Come to Christ, or come back to Christ, today of your own free will – and rejoice that it is already God’s perfect plan to bless you from before time began! So God forgives and loves and redeems all those who are his special people, who he has predestined and chosen to belong to him. That’s the superb present and the surprising past. Now for the surpassing future...

3) What God Says About Our Future (v9-10)

In v9-10 Paul says that God “made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfilment - to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ.”

That’s where it’s all going. As John Stott puts it, “God’s plan is that all things which were created through Christ and for Christ and which hold together in Christ will finally be united under Christ by being subjected to his headship.”

It’s all about him, and it’s all for him. God’s plan is big scale; it encompasses with ease all wisdom and all knowledge. It includes virtue and justice. It reaches every limit of time and space, effortlessly stretching distances in the scale of billions of light-years. It starts before time began and goes on beyond time and into eternity. And if you are in Christ you have a vital and integral stake in that future.

Ending

This is the wide-angle lens through which God sees everything. It’s also the macro lens with which he sees every beat of your heart. And this is the assurance he wants you to enjoy as a confident and loved child. So if you find yourself asking, “Does God really love me?” Or “Am I really saved?” Or “Is God really in charge?” Or “What about the future?” take a look again at the Father’s plan in Ephesians 1.

God has, in his hands, all that is yet to come. If you have asked Christ to be your Lord and Saviour, then the matter is settled and you can be completely confident. You are a child of God, you are the object of his limitless affection, you are born from above, chosen before the creation of the world and predestined to be holy, adopted and treasure by your heavenly Father, rescued forever from the terrible wrath that is to come fully, but that is already being revealed in part; you are an inheritor of the kingdom of God, paid for in full, restored and healed, completely forgiven and reckoned as righteous in Christ, with every good thing from heaven at your disposal.

That is what God the Father says about you.


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 25th January 2009

First Fruits (Malachi 3.6-12 and Matthew 23.23-24)

Introduction

In 1979 the police in Rome uncovered a remarkable crime. Father Guido Antonelli, a humble parish priest, was discovered in the crypt of his church printing 1,000 lire banknotes! In his defence, he complained that he had to resort to forgery because his parishioners weren’t putting enough cash in the offering at Mass! I hasten to add that we are certainly not intending to take such a radical approach to the finances here. For a start, we haven’t got a crypt...

This is the last in our little series on money and giving. Some of the highlights of the eight talks (morning and evening) are these:

1) Remember that everything belongs to God. Sometimes people imagine that we have to resort to teach on giving from time to time because poor old God is short of cash again and we need to help him out a bit. No! In Psalm 50.9-12 God says, “I have no need... every animal of the forest is mine and the cattle on a thousand hills... If I were hungry I would not tell you.” The whole earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. That’s where to start when thinking about giving.

2) Enjoy what you have instead of dwelling on what you don’t have. Hebrews 13.5 says, “Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have.” Jesus said, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.” (Luke 12.15).

3) Understand that having much money can become a burden that blunts your spiritual cutting edge. Jesus said that “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness - note that word - the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word (of God planted in you) and make it unfruitful.” (Matthew 13.22).

4) If the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (and it is because God’s word says so) then the reverse is also true. Love for God, expressed through a generous, giving heart, gladly releasing resources for the kingdom of God, lies at the root of all kinds of blessing and righteousness.

5) Living on credit is a snare. Incidentally, having a mortgage is not living on credit. Falling behind on your repayments is. J. John was right when he said how crazy it is that people spend money they don’t have on things they don’t need to keep up with neighbours they don’t even like! That’s the folly of credit. Proverbs 22.7 in the Message version says, listen to this now, “The poor are always ruled over by the rich, so don’t borrow and put yourself under their power.” When you see one of those ‘buy now, pay later’ offers, remember (before you get the credit card out), that by the time you’ve paid for it you’ll no longer want it.

6) Give God your first fruits, not your last fruits. 1 Corinthians 16.2 says, “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income...” Notice he doesn’t say, give to God out of what’s left after you’ve covered all your outgoings. The term “first fruits” implies priority and precedence. And that’s the theme of this talk tonight.

1) Put God to the Test

The Prophecy of Malachi was written about 450 years before Christ. At that time, God’s people had returned from exile in Babylon and had begun to rebuild Jerusalem. There was a city wall with its gates crucial for security; there were new houses, there was a temple. All the signs of a society in recovery from trauma were there. A nation was miraculously back from the brink.

But not everything was going well. The harvest was failing – not just once but again and again. It was becoming predictably depressing. Why? Why were things not working out? It was because spiritually things had also become predictably depressing. Here are a few symptoms: In chapter 1 we discover that the people were ungrateful and the priests were doing their work carelessly and half-heartedly. Worship had become tired and stale. A season of spiritual malaise had become ingrained. In chapter 2 you find that people were getting married to unbelievers from idolatrous nations. Men were being unfaithful to their wives. Marriages were falling apart. In chapter 3 Malachi says that the people were oppressing widows, forgetting orphans, neglecting immigrants and overlooking the poor. The nation was in a state because it was becoming disconnected from God.

What single diagnosis does God give to this wide range of problems? It’s in v9: “You are under a curse - your whole nation - because you are robbing me.”

And what single remedy does God prescribe to lift the curse on the nation? It comes in the following verse; v10. “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.”

Here’s the background: The people of Israel, from the time of Moses onwards, had to give a tithe, that is to say 10% of their income. It was a compulsory tax and Deuteronomy 14 says it was levied for three reasons; firstly to celebrate the abundance of God’s provision; secondly, to give an income to the Levites in the temple who had no other way of earning a living; and thirdly, to assist the poor who had fallen on hard times. Everyone had to give 10% of their pay for those reasons.

But in Malachi’s day people were cheating on their taxes. They were trying to get away with 7%, 2%, 0%, 5%... They had fallen on hard times. When your harvests fail disastrously two, three, four years running, your economy falls into recession. I guess the people of Malachi’s day were saying, “Come on, you’ve got to be sensible, tighten the belt, make a few savings, cut back on non essentials.” But God says in v10, “Bring the whole tithe.” All of it. It’s precisely in these difficult times that I am looking to you for faithfulness in your finances.”

Time out! Isn’t God a bit severe here? Isn’t this a bit harsh, a bit insensitive? Well look what God promises to those who faithfully give back to him the first fruits, the first tenth. He talks about floodgates opening and superabundant provision and amazing blessing. He says you won’t have anywhere to put it all. And then God says something truly outrageous in v10. In case anyone was beginning to think “nah”, God says, “Come on then, try me! Test me.”

Now God had explicitly said in Deuteronomy 6.16, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.” Do not do that. Time and time again God says in the Bible, “Don’t test me.” The one and only exception is right here. When it comes to money God permits us, indeed he actually eggs us on, to step out in faith and challenge him to deliver. He stakes his honour on this. You want to see if God can be trusted? Give back to the Lord to the radical limits of your faith. Give him back the first tenth even when it’s a struggle to pay the bills. Step out in faith even in hard times. Enter into God’s anointing of glad giving and see if he disappoints you in return.

I have never met a generous giver who said, “I am dissatisfied with God’s blessings in my life. I feel short changed by the Lord. I want my money back!” God delivers.

Mike Pilavachi, pastor of Soul Survivor, often talks about his own struggles in the area of faith and finances; and he used to be an accountant! I remember him talking once about the summer of 2000. He used to write a little piece every other month at that time for Christianity magazine. In July that year Soul Survivor was just about to launch a huge mission in Manchester. With weeks to go he was told, “Mike, we are hundreds of thousands of pounds short. Soul Survivor is days away from collapse.”

And so he thought, “This is it. This is the end of the ministry.” That same day in July was the deadline day for his article for the September edition of Christianity magazine. So, feeling very depressed and dejected, he sat down and started his column with these words: “By the time you read this, Soul Survivor will be bankrupt. The question I want to ask is ‘why’. Is it because of my sin? Is it that God withdrew his hand because I got proud? Is it because we just didn’t listen to him? I don’t know why.” And then he finished off the piece with a few platitudes and generally encouraging spiritual thoughts and then sent it off to the editors.

Within three weeks the Lord miraculously provided everything they needed. Every penny. From the jaws of insolvency Soul Survivor completely turned round and, what’s more, God abundantly blessed the mission in Manchester with many people converted and people healed on the streets. And people were going up to Mike Pilavachi and saying things like, “Mike, how do you do it? You’re just so full of faith. You step out boldly in the direst of straits and God delivers, you’re amazing!” And I love the way Mike tells the story, he would reply, “Well, I think it’s a gift from the Lord really. You know, what God orders he always pays for!” And just as he was considering writing a book on faith and finances - guess what? They published the September edition of Christianity magazine!

Now, my guess is that this whole theme is extremely challenging for some of us. Research done in the 1990s revealed that, in evangelical churches, 20% of the people cover 80% of the budget. 30% pay for the rest and 50% give nothing. My hunch is that All Saints’ is much healthier than that and that we buck the trend. I say it’s a hunch because you should know that I make it a point of principle, as a church leader, to never access the information on who gives what so as to avoid any partiality. But I would guess that in all likelihood some of you are sitting here listening to this and taking a deep breath and thinking, “Oh my” because money, more than anything else, is the area in which you most struggle to have great faith.

So some of you might be saying, “What is God saying here? Can I afford this? What should my giving look like? How much should I be giving?” 10%? Whoa! That’s impossible! Remember the widow in Mark’s Gospel? How much did she give? “Everything she had to live on”, says Jesus, who commended her for it. He didn’t say, “How irresponsible, how is she going to pay the gas bill now?” Everything she had; her salary, her housekeeping, her benefits, her retirement plan, her savings, her stocks and shares and her pocket money – the lot! C.S. Lewis wrote: “I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.” God says here, in v9, “You are robbing me” if you give anything less than a tenth of your earnings.

2) Giving from the Heart

Yes, but isn’t this Old Testament living? Aren’t we free from a mandatory 10% tax on faith? Didn’t Jesus do away with the Law of Moses? Some of you might be saying to yourselves, “If I’m a Christian, why should I have to give away a tithe?” Or put it another way, “If I’m a Christian, am I, like the Israelites in Malachi 3, under a curse if I don’t?” After all, tithing is part of the Old Covenant which no Christian is bound by because Jesus has fulfilled it. Isn’t that right? Giving ten per cent as a legal obligation or requirement or duty was abolished when Jesus gave 100% on the cross wasn’t it?

Yes, absolutely. We live under grace and not under law. I actually think tithing is one of the great secrets of living under God’s blessing. I have never earned big money but I can testify to God’s abundant provision whenever I have done so – and much more so than when I haven’t. I recommend it absolutely. But I want to say also that there is no compulsion from God over this. The New Testament angle on this is “Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.” (2 Corinthians 9.7) Under Christ you are free to tithe. The difference is that under Moses you were not free not to tithe.

Under Christ everything you have is his and the more you give away, without counting, the more he seems to bless you - without counting. Under the Law of Moses everyone went around calculator getting the maths just right. They spent their weekends weighing the apples that they picked from the garden so they could give away exactly 1.2 kilos of the 120 kilos they collected. That is emphatically not what it’s about.

This is what Jesus commented on in our second reading. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices - mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law - justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.”

The Pharisees tithed meticulously and methodically. But Jesus said they were under condemnation, that’s what “woe” means, it’s a curse. Their tithe was just mechanical. Terry was saying last week that you can’t love without giving but you can give without loving. These guys were giving without loving. They were the epitome of evangelical exactness but their hearts were cold and their devotion was centred on their own righteousness and self importance. They were faultless in giving 10.000% of their payslip, their grants, their benefits, their bonuses and every window box herb - but they were unmoved by the kids next door who had nothing to eat because their father had died last year. God deliver us from mathematical exactness and stone faced indifference.

So yes, I want to say that Jesus did fulfil the Law. In this age of grace we are no longer under its curse. Jesus, in his innocent life, his incomparable passion, his glorious death and almighty resurrection, has taken the curse upon him, has paid the price in full, has defeated the powers of darkness, has cancelled the written code that was against us and has opened the way to know God as Father. Wow! What a God he is!

Will our spontaneous response to him under grace be poorer and stingier than under law? Surely more grace and less law should result in abundant generosity that goes beyond mathematical calculations? How could living under grace ever result in half-hearted, close-fisted, self-centred lifestyles?

Let me give you an example - this is a true story - of what giving looks like under grace. Kathie and I know a couple who are planting an underground house church in the Muslim world. I’ll call them Marie and Hassam. One day, they needed a sudden cash injection of $1,000 for their ministry. So they contacted some Christian friends in the USA, Bill and Sue, asking them to consider loaning them that sum. The reply was “Yes,” but it came with a condition. The condition was that they would not pay the money back when they had the means to do so but instead they must pass it on to someone else who needed it, stipulating the same condition; that the money be moved on somewhere else in the kingdom of God instead of reimbursed. A few months later, Hassam received an unexpected productivity bonus from the bank he worked for of... $1000. So the money was passed on to someone else in need, who in turn blessed someone else when they had the means to do so, and so it went on. The gift kept on multiplying as God blessed the spirit of generosity in his people with overflowing blessing and plenteous surprises.

Did Bill and Sue reckon that $1000 as an obligatory tithe? No. They are not under the Law. They are free from it. They are under grace. Everything they have is God’s. They joyfully released that money and set up a virtuous chain that brought blessing to many and great gladness to them.

God’s economy does not work like the world’s. The world’s economy booms and then busts in cycles that last about 12 years. It is affected by interest rates and fiscal policy. But God’s economy expands through faith and love, and contracts through unbelief and selfishness. It runs on childlike trust in God’s provision and holy joy.

Ending

So, to end, let me commend giving in All Saints’ as a worthy investment.

What might God do if every earning person would tithe and seek ways of radical liberality? The work of God would accelerate so fast you’d feel the G-force! As it is, giving here releases resources for youth and children’s work. Over the last year we have had to sit down and ask ourselves “How are we going to cope with the record numbers of young people we are getting at 360?” Just last year we had to move Big Ted to two mornings because it was full. Now both mornings are full. Some of the parents from there are doing Journeys and Alpha courses. There were so many old folk at the Lunch Club service last week we didn’t have room for them. And there’s so much more. We can hardly keep up! That has happened because God has been good to us and because people have given joyfully and open-handedly.

We’ve planted Alan and Nicky out at Stockton. We’ve invested the lions’ share of our curacy ministry out there too because God has given us so much here and we believe we’ve got to give it away. Just over a decade ago Long Newton was a dead duck, now they’re getting geared up to invite the village to healing services and bring the gospel into the village pub. I was there this morning and it is now a vibrant community of faith. I believe God has more blessing to pour out on this locality and I believe he will continue to use us in that.

God is on the move. He has graciously stretched out his hand and healed the sick, some of whom had no hope. In the short time I’ve been here I’ve seen people delivered of demons too. The Lord has added to the church new people from the last Alpha course. The kingdom is advancing. This is an exciting time and I believe there’s much, much more to come.

“Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit," says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land.”


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 18th January 2009

The Grace of Giving (2 Corinthians 8.1-7)

Introduction

A ship breaks up in a storm and only two survivors make it to a desert island. The first man starts to shout and scream and wave his arms. Help, help! We’re going to die!” he says. The second man just sits down calmly under a coconut tree and watches the waves lap against the shore... which makes the other guy even more irate. “We’re going to die here and you just sit there like a lemon looking at the beach?” So the second man says, “Listen. I earn 100,000 a month. There is no way we’re going to die here.” So the first guy says, “That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. We are marooned. We are miles from anywhere. And you talk of your pay cheque? It isn’t much good here is it?” So the second guy says, “I give 10% to the church. Don’t worry about it, my pastor will find me!”

For 2009 I wish you health, happiness and prosperity - and I mean that - but most of all I pray that this new year will inaugurate, for each of us here, me included, twelve months of growth in the knowledge and love of God, who is the source of all blessing and the author of all that endures.

It’s customary to wish people a prosperous new year – as I just did – so it is fitting that the teaching theme for first three weeks of this year here at All Saints’ is money. Actually, I wished you a happy new year as well and it seems there is a link between money and happiness. Every wit has had their bit to say on the subject; American stand-up comedian Henry Youngman, said, “What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money.” Spike Milligan put it this way; “Money can't buy happiness, but it can get you a more pleasant form of misery!” And Bo Derek gave another (perhaps more feminine) perspective on the issue when she said, “Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping!”

The Bible links money and happiness in that the word “contentment” occurs seven times in Scripture, and six times out of seven the context is money. How many fabulously rich people do you know who are truly, deeply content? We know what the writer and poet Dorothy Parker meant when she said, “If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.”

Nevertheless, common expressions like “dirty money” and “money can’t buy you love” have left their mark on our thinking. Somehow it doesn’t seem quite right to be talking about it in church. But God has lots to say about money. Jesus spoke more about money than he did about salvation, heaven and hell combined – and some of his most important teaching was on money.

It was Jesus who said that the most accurate gauge of our spiritual fitness is our attitude towards money; “For where your treasure is there will your heart also be.” (Matthew 6.21). It was Jesus who said that those who are ready to handle the kingdom of God are those who have learned to manage their personal finances. This is what he said; “If you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?”(Luke 16.11).

This is why people who don’t manage on their budget, or who hoard for themselves everything they earn, or who squander their pay packets on frivolities or who never save a penny will never be giants in faith. You see how important this is? It’s not as if we are taking a short break from the spiritual in our preaching, to flirt with the profane, and that we will return to more worthy things at the end of the month. If you want to grow in Christ, if you want to do great things for God, it starts with mundane things like your bank statement and your purse.

Besides, money is an urgent theme for other reasons. If this congregation today is representative of the citizens of our country most of us here owe money – lots of it. According to the Daily Telegraph in April 2008, average household debt in the UK, excluding mortgages, was £8,680. Credit Action puts the figure today at £9,600.

The Bible has things to say about debt and about how to earn money, how to spend it well, how to invest it wisely. God wants us to know his mind about how to saving and budgeting as well as giving and you know why? It’s because our approach to money, perhaps more than our approach to anything else, will have the greatest direct bearing on our spiritual heath. In most cultures, most of the time, money is the greatest idol. That’s why Jesus said, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.” (Matthew 6.24).

The Famine of 46-47AD

So over the next few weeks we’re going to be thinking about what the Bible has to say not just about money but about grace and the generous heart. And we’re going to consider the great return that awaits those who give joyfully, simply and generously. So let’s turn our eyes now to this exciting and moving passage in 2 Corinthians, chapter 8.

First of all, in order to help us understand the issues here, let’s get up to speed with the background. Acts 11.28 records a prophecy given by a man named Agabus announcing a serious famine that would blight the entire Mediterranean world and independent historical records confirm the Bible’s testimony. In the year 47, during the reign of the Emperor Claudius, the famine struck. It’s one of the most documented historical events in the New Testament. You can read more in Acts 11, 1 Corinthians 16 and Romans 15, besides here in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9.

Some areas of the Roman Empire had sufficient reserves to survive the food shortages, but others, in particular the province of Judea, (that is to say the area surrounding Jerusalem) did not. They were severely hit by the disaster and many people were suddenly faced with hunger and starvation.

2 Corinthians 8 and 9 are all about the collection of money that was organised by churches all over the Roman world to bring relief to Judean Christians facing very grave shortages.

When Paul wrote these words, the churches to the north of Greece, (that is to say in Macedonia), had already been contributing to the needs of the famished Jerusalem Christians. “They gave as much as they were able” he says in v3, which sounds generous. In fact, it was more than generous, it was sacrificial, as the verse goes on to say, they gave “beyond their ability.”

Let’s make no mistake about these people’s acute hardship. Verse 2 describes “their extreme poverty in the midst of a very severe trial.” But what a response! Paul writes about their “overflowing joy welling up in rich generosity.” Now it was time for other churches to the south, like Corinth, to show some solidarity and play their part too and that is why Paul writes to them.

What is really interesting here is that the Apostle Paul doesn’t deal with this matter as if it were a worldly trifle or an administrative detail. Not at all! For him, as for the Lord Jesus himself, giving was, and is, a key spiritual issue. We’re going to note 4 reasons why giving is so important.

1) Generous Giving Magnifies God’s Amazing Grace

Firstly, generous giving magnifies God’s amazing grace. For Paul here, giving eloquently displays our great satisfaction in God’s immeasurable generosity towards us. So when we start reading about the gracious, open-handed, cheerful giving of the Christians in Macedonia we read first of God’s untold goodness and endless kindness towards them which precedes it. Behind the big hearts of the Macedonian believers was God’s much bigger heart and his sovereign grace. Grace and generosity mean essentially the same thing. Our God is a generous God because he is a gracious God. He gives freely and he forgives without measure. He pours out gifts. And he is at work in the hearts of those who love him so that they give more in turn.

2) Generous Giving is a Fantastic Privilege

Secondly, generous giving is a fantastic privilege. Let’s try and imagine what a conversation between Paul and the Macedonian believers might have looked like. “Now look here,” says Paul. “You are so deprived y
ourselves... I would be embarrassed to even mention this to you. Don’t even think about putting your hands in your pockets. Let’s be sensible, and make an exception for you.” But v4 tells us that they insisted vociferously on giving even though their kitchen cupboard was bare. Paul says in v4, “They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people”. They literally begged to be given the opportunity to be able to give something. That would be such a privilege for them, such an honour, and they did so earnestly and with unrestrained delight. Why should having nothing be an insurmountable obstacle to giving?

What blessing there is in being able to say, “O give me the chance to express something, anything, of my gratitude to God for his great mercy towards me.” One of my children, at the age of about 5 or 6, spontaneously gave all their pocket money to a beggar they saw in the street. I remember them doing it. I remember how they walked past, then stopped, then emptied their pockets into their little hands, turned, and tipped every last penny into the man’s cup. Everett Dirksen, a former Senator of Illinois once said, “A billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.” But that child, only just at school, gave real money that day. I was so moved. The grace and goodness of God is so strong in their life to this day..!

3) Generous Giving Blesses the Giver

...Which brings me to the third thing. In v7 Paul says, “See that you excel in this grace of giving.” “This grace of giving” means that generous giving blesses the giver as well as the recipient. A friend of mine, when she was a student, felt that she should put her last banknote in the offering one night, knowing that she would have nothing left to live on for the next ten days. She thought, “I’m only young once. This will be fun. Let’s see what God does now.” The following evening she arrived home to find an unexpected cheque in the post. God’s economy is not subject to the usual laws of supply and demand. It responds (with interest) to the stimuli of joyful big-heartedness and adventurous faith.

If you give back to God what belongs to him he will undertake to pour out on you an overabundant blessing that outstrips your gift on every scale of measuring. God says so. “Test me in this” says God, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit. Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land, says the Lord Almighty” in Malachi 3.

It’s the only place in the Bible where God invites anyone to test him on any matter. “Come on,” he says, “you can on this one.” The promise of God here, it seems to me, is clear and beyond dispute. God stakes his honour on it. If I give away the first fruits of my wealth, liberally, selflessly, freely and generously, with joy in my heart, then God will undertake to fill me with spiritual blessings and will see to it personally that I will never lack anything I need to live.

The passage from Malachi is about the tithe; the giving of the first tenth to God, which has been a useful rule of thumb for many Christians – and it has at times in my own life. But I need to say that the tithe is part of the Law of Moses and, as such, is not compulsory in the New Covenant. Most church treasurers keep quiet about that! But Jesus fulfilled this Law by giving, not 10, but 100% at the cross and in doing that he abolished forever the mandatory 10% tax on faith. That’s Old Testament living. For us, since we are infinitely blessed by the uncountable riches of God’s grace in Christ, all we have is God’s and we are free to give back to him much more than a tithe - as every church treasurer will happily affirm!

4) Generous Giving is More than Money

Fourthly, giving is about money. But giving is more than just money. Look at v5. Speaking again about the Macedonian Christians Paul says, “They went beyond our expectations; having given themselves first of all to the Lord, they gave themselves by the will of God also to us.” They gave... themselves. That is to say their time, their gifts, their experience, their service. Everything was made available to God (first) and then to Paul and his team.

Giving is about all of life. So some questions: Do I give joyfully and freely of my money to promote the work of the Gospel and to support the weak to the glory of God? Am I satisfied that I put to use the spiritual gifts God has given me for the building up of the Body of Christ? Do I offer my time gladly so that the kingdom of God can advance? Could I do more?

Speaking personally, I can. I can do much more and this passage is a real challenge for me. I can fan into flame the gifts God has placed in me. I can spend more time investing in the kingdom through intercessory prayer. I can give more. Kathie and I usually review our giving at the beginning of each year. We haven’t sat down and done it yet but we make it our aim to give away more and more each year. We are so happy and we have been so blessed. Lord, increase my faith to test you again in my finances! Challenge me once more on using my free time, and releasing the gifts that you have so kindly entrusted to me!

I mention spiritual gifts, and the recipients of this letter in Corinth were spiritual gift champions. They spoke in tongues (a lot), they prophesied, they were passionate about the gift of faith and zealous for words of knowledge and wisdom. All that is good. I want to see more, not less, of the ministry of the Holy Spirit here. I want us to shine in spiritual gift excellence. I say that because Paul, in fact, commends it in v6; “But since you excel in everything - in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you - see that you also excel in this grace (or gift) of giving.”

Every Christian is called by God to witness, though some are gifted as evangelists. Every Christian is called by God to care for others, though some have a gift for pastoral ministry. In the same way, every Christian is called by God to a life of generosity but some, and usually those who are blessed with significant financial resources, have a spiritual gift of giving.

Dennis Bakke is a successful American businessman, who is also Bill Clinton’s golfing partner. Dennis is a Christian believer who puts 95% of his salary into a trust called the Mustard Seed Foundation to finance evangelism, church planting and relief projects around the world. He has a spiritual gift of giving. Some might say, “Well it’s alright for him, he can afford it.” Maybe, but how many people on his income would live in a modest house and drive a second hand Ford like he does? That really is a gift...

Ending

To finish, I want to encourage you to ask God here this morning, or perhaps when you get home later, “Lord, how do you want me to express the grace of giving in my life this year? What gifts have you given me that lie dormant? Lord, I want to offer back to you the first fruits of all you have given me (not under compulsion or through guilt, but joyfully and freely). How much should that be this year, Lord? How much time do you want me to free up specifically for serving you gladly in your church? In all my giving, Lord, let your kingdom come in this place and in your world.”

Let’s be ambitious in asking God to pour out a spirit of grace and generosity upon us here at All Saints.’ “It is more blessed to give than to receive” said Jesus, and since he gave everything, he knew what he was talking about.

Finally, this; I don’t know who gives what here and I make it a principle never to access that kind of information. But if you should ever find yourself marooned on a desert island, I want you to know that I will do everything I can to come and find you!


Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 4th January 2009