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
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