Scripture Lesson: II Corinthians 8:7

Sermon Transcript for October 26, 2008

By Pastor Bob Coleman and Pastor Andy Kinsey

Pastor Bob: This morning we are going to continue in a series, the third of a series, the most excellent promise that God makes. Two weeks ago we looked at time as being that gift – the most excellent promise that God gives to us. And then how we use that time. It was the chronos and the kyros time; it was the calendar which we live and God’s time which just seems to go above and beyond what we comprehend as time here. And last week we looked at gifts – the most excellent promise that God gives us gifts that we then turn in to service in response to God, service in the name of Jesus Christ.

And today yes we look at the most excellent promise of the gift of resources – monies, things that we have, in particular that which we can give to help fund and support the ministries of God’s Kingdom here on earth. There is one verse that’s tied them all together. It comes from II Corinthians, Chapter 8, Verse 7. And so I want to have, as it is displayed, we’ll read it again. And I want to ask you to read along with me this morning. “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.”

And, of course, we tie the giving to time, to service, and now to our resources. When Jesus would speak in the synagogue the couple of times it was recorded, He would stand to read from the scroll. That was considered the proclamation. We just did that. We read from God’s Word. But then He sat down to teach. And that’s what we’re doing today. Andy and I are going to share in a dialogue message—one that we have fondly called, “Tag Team for Tithing”.

Yes, folks, we are talking about tithing today, at least the understanding of what tithing means to us now. But it’s interesting, as long as I’ve been preaching, I’ve grown very familiar with the word “tithing” and comfortable about talking about it. And yet I did not grow up in a home where it was spoken of. It was never to my knowledge and awareness, and I checked with my sisters, we can’t ever remember Mom and Dad telling us how much they were giving to church. We did go to church quite regularly. The expectation was that we went and there was an offering placed in there. They encouraged us to give but there was never a sit down discussion of “Why do you give?” and “How do you give? How do you calculate what you are going to give?”

So tithing was a new word for me when it came to seminary training and that part of my life. If my parents didn’t tell me that, then how did we learn it? We learned by reading scripture. We learned, Joyce and I, by deciding that if we are going to live the life of a pastor and the pastor’s family then we ought to do what we say and ask others to do. So early on we started to tithe. Now it was not easy--Early expenses of raising children and then college and all of that. It was tough! But we just did it. We did it also because of the influence of Joyce’s parents, my father and mother-in-law, because they quietly tithed. And we just said, “That’s what you do.”

Not everyone is brought up in that way. And I would like to just simply tell you that if you can encourage your children and grandchildren to model that giving and talk about it. We talk about loving God, we talk about praying to God, but so many of us don’t talk about giving to God. I want you to become more comfortable in that way for God blesses us beyond measure and yet we don’t turn around and show our gratitude to God. Now that’s some of my reflections. So Andy, I want you to share some of your thoughts about your background and the giving and tithing in your life.

Pastor Andy: Pastor Bob’s personal reflections on tithing raise all kinds of thoughts about how we can arrive at this Biblical practice. And I always find it interesting to hear how people have arrived at that spiritual practice. As Bob mentioned, tithing is a practice. It’s something that we do as God’s people. It’s a practice that is grounded in our relationship with God and it reflects that relationship with God. And as I look back over my own life and my own ministry, I can see how God has challenged us to grow in our trust and in our giving to God. To be sure, giving, growing in our faith-commitment to God is not easy. It is not easy to develop a regular disciplined habit that sits down and says, “This is a priority. This is important.” When we were in seminary, for example, we didn’t have much. We struggled to make ends meet. We still do! With three kids the demands are great. But the point is, and this is what I would like to share, I don’t know if it’s necessarily “How much we give” as it is to give as often as we can to God. To find a level of giving, to remain faithful at that level of giving, and then to trust that God will provide!

Tithing is simply a biblical marker on how we gauge God’s faithfulness to us. Yes, it is about our faithfulness to God, but it is also about God’s faithfulness to us: It’s a way of testing God’s faithfulness. God says, “Set aside ‘this’ for me and you can keep ‘that’ for you.” Therefore, tithing is really about trust. It is about trusting that God will take care of you, and that God will provide for you.

As I have learned, and as I will share in a moment, it gets down to this one point: Tithing is really a measure of trust. I am wondering, though, Bob, how we can instruct persons in this church to share in this kind of practice? I know you have deep convictions about tithing and about giving, and I know you and I have been involved with numerous campaigns in the church to raise support for ministry and mission, to raise support for dept reduction and capital expenses. How many campaigns would you say you’ve been through in your ministry?

Pastor Bob: One more than I really want to be

Pastor Andy: One more than you really wanted to be in. I think the same here. How many of you folks here remember the Pony Express days? We got on that little horse and we went from house to house, right? And we passed the, what did we pass? The saddlebags! Yeah, remember those days? How many here have done phone campaigns? Called people on the phones, wrote letters. How many of you had in front of your church a thermometer at some point? And you showed how much had been given, right? In Vincennes, we had a shovel campaign to dig ourselves out of debt. And they were expensive shovels—we raised $20,000 in one Sunday. In Brownsburg we had a Christmas tree with ornaments to make sure that we would end the year on a positive note. Those are gimmicks. We’re not talking about gimmicks, are we?

Pastor Bob: No

Pastor Andy: I didn’t think we were. Okay. I’d better sit down. But how do we make this life changing commitment? Because that’s what it is—it’s a commitment, it’s a choice. It comes down to how we give, how we share, how we offer our resources to God. It’s not a gimmick. It’s about a way of life.

Pastor Bob: And that’s what makes it so simple really. It’s simple to talk about and simple to understand the “formula” or the thinking process, but as Andy said, just how to start. One of the most difficult things I have observed, particularly among younger families, is just getting started. Sitting down and determining that you are going to give regularly. And if a person is self-employed and income goes up and down and you don’t know or you just have work that comes and goes, well you give based upon that. If you have a regular income, you can do the calculation. The issue is you start--you give God the first portion. That is very, very important. You heard Nina Miller tell how she and Harry just simply, when they get their monies, they take the top first and they write the check to God first. Now to translate that “write a check to God”, not to God because banks won’t cash that, but to a church or a ministry that will help to fulfill God’s ministry here on earth.

Prayer is very important. So it’s getting started, giving to God first, and praying that God will guide you further in how you can give. And the greatest question is, “But how will we pay the rest of the bills?” And I don’t know how many people I have spoken to and how we’ve found that if you do that first, somehow you have enough left to cover everything else. Now we are going to offer a class, we’ll be offering it after January, about helping people to financially manage and budget their lives because that’s a part of it too. The whole stewardship of what we have. And we need to encourage our young families, in particular, to think more that way.

So you give God the first, you do it prayerfully, and then you take what you have and manage it to cover the rest of your needs. Remember, if you give God what is left after paying everything else is to give God the leftovers. Now a personal note: My mother is here today and if she tells me afterwards that they did talk about offering and such when we were growing up, I’ll give here the credit of remembering better than I do. But you know how it is with kids, you can tell them one thing, you can tell them twice, you can tell them three times, but they may not listen. But actions do speak. And that’s what I spoke of. I watched my parents take us to church and put their offering in the plate. That’s what I remember the most.

So simple procedures--It’s not gimmicky, it’s not complicated. It’s very straightforward. So that’s how I interpret it Andy.

Pastor Andy: My Mom and Dad are here too, Bob.

Pastor Bob: That’s right, I met them.

Pastor Andy: You met them.

Pastor Bob: Yes, so make sure your stories are straight.

Pastor Andy: They are. True. Bob raises some good points! I think the most important point to where we begin is with our relationship with God. That’s where we need to begin. Because the issue is not so much “How much I give” but “How faithful I am in giving,” How consistent am I in my giving?
For what I give comes out of my relationship with God. It simply reflects how I relate to God. That’s the first point.

The second point is: I believe it is important to understand how giving to Christ is deeply connected to how I view my possessions, my stuff, and my things! There is connection between what I give and what I possess. I would venture to say that most folks I know – myself included – have too much stuff! I would venture to say that most of us – myself included – have things we really don’t need.

A few summers ago our family went on our renewal leave for three and a half months. We traveled around the world. We traveled to Europe, we traveled to Canada, we traveled throughout the United States. We lived out of a suitcase for three and a half months. And do you know something? We did it! Three kids, a wife, we just got in the car suitcase and all and that’s what we did, and we survived! Our kids survived! It was amazing; it was glorious! It was something that we could do and it made us realize that we could live without many of life’s comforts.

Now, you can call me a stick in the mud this morning, you can call me a Scrooge, you can call me old-fashioned, but I think we live in a society that has its priorities all messed up. We live in a world that doesn’t have the values of Jesus Christ and it certainly has a different view of happiness that is found in Scripture. You follow? Watch a commercial Bob, for example, and you will see what I mean. Happiness is dependent upon having more stuff, happiness is dependent upon getting a new car; “good looks” is dependent upon buying a new brand of shampoo; a good night’s rest is dependent upon purchasing the right kind of new mattress. Not something Madison Avenue can tell us. And I’ve always wondered how it is that the persons sleeping on those new mattresses look like they haven’t been sleeping on them? The hair is in perfect order, the make up is on! So natural! I know that’s I look like in the morning! How many here look like that in the morning? I do NOT! It sells mattresses doesn’t it and we go for it.

But the message goes deeper, because it is a spiritual message. When our happiness depends on having or possessing more stuff or, as Pastor Bob shared last week, on having this and that, when our sense of well-being, or worth, or identity, is connected solely to what we possess or don’t possess, we fall into a trap. We lose sight of what comes from God!

David makes this point in the Psalms 24 when he says:

“The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, and those
who live in it, are the Lord’s.”

- Psalm 24:1b

Translation: All that we have, and all that we are, belong to God. Throughout the Bible, there is an emphasis on how all of life comes from God and returns to God and on how all we have in-between is God’s.

As we shared several weeks ago, God is not only a creating God, but also a giving God. And because our God is a giving God we are to be a giving people. Giving is one of the marks of discipleship. It is also one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit – generosity or extravagant giving is a sign of faithfulness (5:22). When we allow God’s Spirit, God’s grace, to operate on our hearts we move toward a Christ-like life in our giving and sharing.

It’s what Paul is saying in our passage from 2 Corinthians. Over the last three weeks, we have been referring to this passage and learning how the Christians in Macedonia, despite the poverty and suffering, despite hardships, were able to give generously to the needs of the church. And they were able to give generously to needs of the church because, as Paul writes, they had given of themselves to the Lord first. All that they gave came out of their relationship with God. Suffering, persecution, heartache, poverty – did not stop them from excelling in giving. Nothing! Nothing stopped them from giving! To be sure, they excelled in other things, too – in faith, in knowledge, in love for one another – but they excelled in giving generously.

It’s an important point:

When the going gets tough,
the Christian responds by excelling to
the next level of discipleship!

Not out of fear, and certainly not out of a sense that we need to follow one more rule, but out of a revelation; and the revelation is that

The generous life, the life of disciplined
giving, is the best life to live.

Therefore, giving to God is not a rule to be followed as it is a revelation on how to live – Not a rule but a revelation! I believe it was Winston Churchill who said that “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.” Our giving to God is not so much about following a rule, or about meeting a budget (though that is a part of it), as it is about acknowledging God as Creator and Provider and about professing Christ as Lord and Savior.

In other words, our giving is not so much about living a “good” life as it is about letting God’s good life live through you! Over the last few years I have come to believe that God does not simply want our money! No! God wants to capture our hearts and take full custody of who we are. That’s first! What God wants is simply to have full possession of what his anyway! That’s what conversion is! Conversion is about acknowledging what already belongs to God and making that a reality in our lives. Do you follow? Conversion is about offering back to God what already belongs to him, thanking him all the way!

That’s why giving and tithing is not so much about finances as about faith: Do we trust, do we acknowledge, who God is and what God can do?

And so, as move into the future we do so in faith, in trust – that God will provide, that God will care for us, but we also do so with the expectation that as God’s people WE will respond, and WE will allow God’s grace to change our hearts so that we may share in Christ’s ministry and mission to the world. After all, isn’t this why we are here?

Bob, when we join the church, we promise to support it by our prayers, our presence, our gifts, and service, always thanking God for what Christ has done for us on the cross, and always realizing that God’s Spirit will sustain and keep us. As we look to the ministries of this church, we have much for which to be thankful. I’m amazed every Sunday when I hear Roger and Saraii. It’s just a gift. And after being here four months, I hope you realize what you’ve got. You are so blessed. And I know, Bob, you’ve seen a lot of changes over the last year or so, you have seen God’s hand at work day in and day out. And I’m wondering how we can be mindful of what we need to be thinking about when we make this commitment to Christ?

Pastor Bob: For those of you who do have history, we have come through a time of challenges and we’ve also come through a time of blessings. Many people, lay and staff, have worked hard to keep Grace Church vital and vibrant in its own way based upon the gifts that God has blessed us with. We are now in a new configuration for many of our staff. Some have been here twenty-eight years and some have been here about a month. We are in a position that I don’t think I’ve ever seen or that I’ve worked with in my experience where better staff configuration, plus and this is most important, a vision of this church as set down nearly five years ago that we are continuing to live under and move towards. That was good planning five years ago. We are now needing to look for the next five years. But this is a moment in time where I think we are best positioned.

Now, to be very frank with you, it would be a whole lot simpler to ask for your giving right now if we weren’t having or economic situation happen to us and around us in this country and around the world. That’s why we sent out the letter. Why would we even ask for money at this time given everything else? But the other side is still very true. That God’s ministry is going to change through us because of the circumstances of our economy. There are at least two people I know in this congregation, actually three total, who have already lost their jobs. Whether it is because of the immediate situation or other circumstances, it doesn’t matter; when you lose your job you lose it. This church is going to need to be responsive to these people in whatever way we can and maybe more before it is done. We really don’t know. The Financial Committee and Lay leadership of this church have taken a very solid stand of managing well what we do have and not spending that which we don’t have. We can’t print more money like the government can. The only sources of income that we receive for the ministries of this church are from you and from all of us together. Like pennies in the jar, we add them up together and they make a difference. It makes a difference in the way people live. It may mean we have to reshape some thing immediately for next year We don’t know until we receive the pledges and the understanding of what that will mean. But nonetheless, I believe were in a moment in time where the facilities and lay leadership and staff leadership can do great things for Christ in the next year and years to come. It is up to us though to recognize our part in that. So, Andy, that’s where we really are. It’s like another crossroads. Like I said last time, a crossing of God’s time with our time. This is the moment. How we respond will be part of the character that has already been shaped in the faith of our foundation. To be most excellent in our giving, we must first of all recognize our excellent God has been in blessing us.

Pastor Andy: And so now we come to a moment of invitation, and we invite you to make that commitment. First of all, we invite you to give your life to Christ, to acknowledge him as Lord and Savior and to let him become your Guide and Friend. We want to affirm, even reaffirm, that commitment!

And second: we invite you to take the step, if you have not done so, toward the spiritual practice of tithing, to give what God is calling you to give – as families, as leaders, as persons who want to see Grace Church fulfill Christ’s mission in the world.

That’s why we’ve come! That’s why we extend the invitation: When we all give, we all can see the increase. We can see the abundance of God’s grace. And we can see how we all will be blessed in this generous undertaking. Amen!

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