The Church of Eleven22 - S01 E69 - Bringing

Episode Date: August 18, 2020

Hey, church family, if you got your Bibles, we're going to be in 2nd Corinthians chapter 9. We're going to study the entire chapter. And again, in case you tune in yesterday, we're talking about how we end our services. After we glorify God in worship by singing and word, then at the end of the service, one of our pastors, often me, says something like, we believe the gospel demands a response. And three ways we respond around here is singing. That's what we talked about yesterday. Bringing and praying. and when we talk about bringing, what we mean is if you have a church background, we bring our

ties and our offerings. Now, the Bible teaches what is called first fruit, faithful giving. And actually, I don't love the word giving because everything that we have is gods. And so when we bring our ties and offerings, we're not actually giving to God anything. How can you give someone something that is already theirs? Like if I let you borrow my truck and you can't. for two weeks would be way too long, but then you came back to me and say, boy, do I have a gift for you? And you gave me back my truck. I would think you don't understand what giving means. And so I think I like to use the word bring, even though the Bible talks about giving.

And again, because we understand that everything is the Lord's. And what first fruits faith giving means, we get it from the idea of the tithe in the scriptures. and a tithe literally means 10%, and sometimes Christians will ask, well, do Christians have to tithe it and tithe an Old Testament concept, which I would say no. Jesus says that we should tithe, but it's not just 10%, it's the first 10%. And that 10% should just be like a starting point, a baseline.

But as a believer in Jesus, I have good news. You don't have to stop there, that you could give way, way more. You could bring as much as God puts on it. your heart. But the reason that we bring is not for a return on investment. The reason that we bring our first and our best, our ties and our offerings, is because God is first. He is. He is preeminent, and he just doesn't do second. God went first and loved first. That God demonstrated his love for us and this, that while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us, that God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son.

Jesus says that what we do with our money is an indicator of what's going on in our heart. He said, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And he had a lot to say about money. He said things like no one can serve two masters. No one can serve both God and money. And when we bring to God our first and our best, it is a declaration that we trust God more than we trust ourselves and more than we trust what we can get out of the things of this world.

It's a releasing at the sole level of the grip that money can have on us. Some people look for their satisfaction in money, some people look for their security in money. And when we bring our ties and offerings, a part of what we're doing is we're saying to God, I find my satisfaction and my security in you and you alone. Now, the reality is that everyone tithes to something. In other words, everyone gives their first and their best to something. And the problem is, is that oftentimes when we tie to our house or we tied to a car payment or we tied to a student loan, it just cannot give us what we are looking for in that thing.

This is why Jesus commands. So seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. And then all of these other things will be added unto you, or all of these other things like food and clothing and shelter and education, they will take their rightful place. When God is the one thing that drives everything, then everything else will take its rightful place. And if you reorder your entire life and God is not one,

if Jesus is not before all things, then your whole life will be out of order. So at the end of our services, you hear somebody say, something like, and so we bring, we bring to God our first and our best, our ties and our offerings, because God first loved us by giving us his best in Christ Jesus. In 2 Corinthians chapter 9, Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, and he is going to take up a collection.

Now, we'll get to a passage that changed the way that we do the offering at our church when we get to like verses 6, 7, 8, 9. But I want to tell you, here's what Paul. is doing. Paul is giving the church in Corinth a heads up, that when he gets there, he expects a certain amount of generosity. I'll just read it to you. It says, now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for which I know your readiness. And what he's talking about here is the saints in Jerusalem needed help. And so he was going to take up an offering in Corinth and take that money to bless the saints in Jerusalem with. And so he says, for I know your readiness,

of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Akea has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them. But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready as I would have you be. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready,

we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift and not an exaction. So Paul's like, I'm going to show up and we're going to take up an offering. I want you to be ready. I do want to tell you there is no such offering coming our way at the Church of 1122. I just want to talk to you about the way, about the way we end.

our services by bringing and by being generous to the Lord. You see, my hope for us as a church is not that you would respond in generosity to a sermon. My hope is that in response to the gospel, we would just be generous people because that's what Jesus people are. Now the next section here, verses six and following, talk about what's going on in the heart of the giver when we bring our ties and offerings. He says, The point is this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. One of the things that I've heard people say is, well, the reason I don't give much is because I don't have much, and if I had more, I'd give more. And I would say, well,

maybe you don't have much because you don't give much. This is what Paul is saying. Now, I 100% completely reject what is known as the prosperity gospel. That is not how it works. It's not if if I give $100, God owes me $1,000. That is not how it works. And the heresy of the prosperity gospel is not about money and blessing. The heresy of the prosperity gospel is that I am first, and God responds and reacts to me, that I am preeminent. And if I go first by sowing seeds of fate,

I've got God painted in some kind of corner, and then he has to give me back something that he promised, and maybe he didn't mean to. You see, in that equation, he's not the same. the one thing that drives everything. I'm the one thing that drives everything and he works for me. That is heresy. And the only people getting rich off that is the liars preaching it from their pulpits. No, no, no. What he's saying is this, listen, is there a blessing in tithing? Yes and amen. There is a physical, mathematical blessing which is simply this. Every single one of us live on a

percentage of our income. You should know what that is. The average American lives on like 108% and they spend it all in themselves. That's why they're up to their eyeballs in debt. The believer, the faithful Jesus follower, is already pre-deciding, I'm going to live on less than I make. I believe that God can do more with 90% than I can do with 100%.

And I can promise you, if you learn to live on less than you make, you will always have more than enough. There is just an economic blessing there. And then I cannot deny to you, that when we put God first in all areas of our life, heart, soul, mind, and strength, when we put in first in our finances, God gets involved in our finances. And oftentimes, the bountable blessing that we sow isn't more money

because what begins to happen is our hearts begin to change and the things that matter to us change. Like for $38 a month, we begin to realize that sponsoring a compassion kid is more meaningful to me than a $38 bill at Chili's. That that begins to change. And so he says, the point is this, whoever so sparingly will reap sparingly. The problem in America is most of us are rich and we think we're generous. And in reality, we're not very generous and we are very rich. It's a tough combination. He keeps going. Verse seven. Each one, this is you and me, must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

For God loves a cheerful giver. If you've ever been to an 1122 service, you know we don't pass a plate, we don't pass a bucket, we don't take up an offering. Because we don't want to take. We want you to bring. And so you should, as an act of worship, decide in your heart. And you may say, well, how do I decide in my heart? You need to give us a priority first and best.

You need to pick a percentage. Again, a good place to start is 10% and you may look at your budget and say, there's no way I can start at 10%. Okay, no problem. Then pick a percentage and start there. You didn't get where you are overnight, and so it might take you a few weeks, months, even years

to get to a place where you're faithfully bringing to God your first and best, okay? So you pick a priority, you pick a percentage, and then it should be progressive. Some of you have been given the same amount your whole life, and at this point it doesn't require very much faith because to give by faith takes more than a good budget and a sharp pencil and a calculator. It means that we bring to God first.

And so decide in your heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, not in response to a sermon, and not because a big, shiny, silver plate is in your face. I don't want you to ever feel that way. but God loves a cheerful giver. And then look at God's response. And God is able to make all grace abound to you

so that having all sufficiency in all things and at all times you may abound in every good work. As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. He who supplies the seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness, you will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way,

which through us will produce Thanksgiving to God. Do you see this? Will you be blessed? Oh, my goodness, you'll be blessed. And God may expand your finances, but not so that you can get more stuff for you, not so I can buy more junk for me, but so that we can grow in our generosity. One of the questions I love to ask us is this,

if you were God, would you give you more money based on the way you have been spending money? I mean, you know what's important to God, and you know what you've been spending money on, and if you were God, would you give you more money? God says, trust me in this. For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but also overflowing with many thanksgivings to God.

So when we give in and of itself, it glorifies God, then God uses our ties and offerings for supplying the needs of the saints. In other words, it fuels all the ministry we do, but we're not primarily giving to a thing, giving to a cause. We are primarily giving from a place of response of worship to what God has done on our behalf. Verse 13, and by their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission. Do you realize those of you? you who bring your ties and offerings, your first and best, there are people around the world,

like over 600 of them so far this year. And they have met Jesus through the ministry of the Church of 1122 that you support. And they will glorify God because of your submission that comes through your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all the others. That God is using your faithfulness. to change eternities. While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you, thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.

Not thanks me to God for my gift because I bring X about a money a week. Thanks to God for his inexpressible gift, namely Jesus Christ. So when we end the service and say, we respond by bringing our ties and offerings, then you pray. Be a good idea for you to pray before you come to church, you pray. And you decide in your heart what God is leading you to give or to bring to him out of an attitude of gratitude.

And without compulsion and without reluctance, we cheerfully bring our first and best of him. Because he gladly gave to us his first and his best in Jesus Christ. And it is an act of worship. when we bring to God our finances. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, I pray that the Holy Spirit will continue to comfort and convict your children. Maybe it's just the air we breathe

and the water we live in and the push of the culture that we're in. But, and maybe that's been true for thousands of years. Because God money seems to have just a tight grip on the heart of all people, even your people. And Lord, I pray, I pray that you would release that grip. I pray that we would treasure you above all the treasures of this world. And what we do with our finances and resources would be a reflection of what you have done for us, that you sent Jesus to die on the cross, that you

are first, that you love first, that you went first, and that we would put you first in our lives, in all areas of our lives, including our generosity. And God, most of all, we thank you for your generosity, that you would pour out yourself for us. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.