Concerning the Collection

[I have much gratitude for Pastor David Platt who recently preached through this very passage and from whose faithful work I gleaned much in preparing this sermon.]

 

 

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Text: 1 Corinthians 16:1-4

This Lord’s Day as we approach the end of 1 Corinthians, we come to what is apparently the last question the Corinthians had for Paul and this was concerning the collection for suffering Christians in Jerusalem. So this morning I have the privilege of talking to you about giving.

It is no secret that this is a sensitive subject. Many accusations of greed and envy and thievery have been leveled at Christians and congregations and Christian leaders. While most of the time, the accusations are unfounded and false, unfortunately, that isn’t always the case.

You may have seen in the news recently that a 78 year old South Korean pastor of the world’s largest pentecostal congregation (claim: 450,000 in-house, over 1M worldwide) was found guilty of embezzling $12M and has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Also in the news right now are leaders of a large pentecostal church in Singapore who are currently facing allegations of stealing over $40M. 

In 2012 right here at Christ Fellowship when half of the congregation left, some of the individuals while leaving accused our pastor and elders of stealing. I encouraged one accuser (who is actually a police officer) to get the law involved, to go to the authorities and bring a charge but of course that didn’t happen because there wasn’t a shred of truth to the accusation that anyone stole anything.

Take those false accusations, and throw in the fact that times are tight financially for Christ Fellowship Church, and what you get is the potential for this sermon to appear to some as simply fishing for more money. Needless to say, this isn’t always the easiest and most comfortable subject to talk about. But we must not be afraid. We must not be afraid of Truth; we must not be afraid to face reality and we certainly must not be afraid to embrace the Word of God. This is where we are as a congregation, and this is where we are in 1 Corinthians.

Perhaps, this morning, you will be challenged. Some of you may be faced with unwillingness to listen and obey. Greed and envy may start to rear their ugly head as you listen to this. Some of you, the Holy Spirit may be challenging to make changes in how and/or how much you give. Or for others, to understand better why you give. Whoever you are this morning; wherever you are this morning, my encouragement to you is to lay yourself bare before Him and let Him search you. Let this Word be your refuge. Do not run from Him, run to Him.

So before we go further, let us pray, that the Holy Spirit would lead us there; that He would speak to us by His Word; that by His faith, given to us, He would make us faithful.

 Abba, Father, we need You this morning. We need You to lead us by Your Holy Spirit into the truth; to Your Son. Please speak to us. Make us like Your servant Samuel to listen to Your Word with childlike faith and expectation. Make us eager to obey Your commands. Wash our minds this morning. Would You soften our hearts this morning? Enlarge our faith this morning. Guard our fragile souls from greed and envy! Make us to burn with passion for Your Kingdom such that our possessions and relationships in this world would become worthless compared to Jesus Christ who is our treasure! Magnify Him as eternally valuable in our eyes this morning. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, for Your glory and for our good. Amen.

Read: 1 Corinthians 16:1-4

The Church in Jerusalem was apparently experiencing poverty probably due to persecution and plundering. So the Leaders in Jerusalem employed Paul to rally the Church in different regions to give relief to their brothers and sisters who were suffering.

From these verses I want us to note 4 things in particular this morning. And then from these 4 points, we are going to look, in a broader context, at what the Bible teaches about giving. That is the surface objective today, to understand fundamentally what the Bible teaches about giving.

1.  Giving is something that all of us are to do, and all of us are to do together.
2. We are to give intentionally and consistently.
3. We give proportionally. To whom much is given much is required.
4. We are to give wisely.

 Giving is something that all of us are to do, and all of us are to do together.

We don’t just give to the church, we give as the church.

In your bulletin this month there is a note about tithing.  I don’t know how many of you are familiar with that term or what it means, or if you are currently doing it. Simply put, tithe means “tenth.” To tithe is to give a tenth.

Tithing can be seen as early on in our Bibles as Genesis 14:20 when Abraham gave “a tenth of everything” to a king/priest who was a type and shadow of Christ.

Genesis 14:17-20

After his return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the Kings’ Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

Abraham goes to battle to rescue Lot and upon his return from victory, he meets the king of Salem, who was the priest of God Most High, named Melchizedek. “Salem” literally mean “peace.” and “Melchizedek” literally means “king of right” or “king of righteousness.” So this King of peace—this King of righteousness, who is a type and shadow of Christ to come, blesses Abraham and then Abraham gives him a tenth of everything. Abraham tithes. It wasn’t until generations later that tithing was codified by Moses in the law.

In the New Testament, there is no explicit command to tithe. Nowhere does it say we must give a tenth of everything we have. I want that to be clear. However, nowhere in the New Testament does it say we are no longer supposed to tithe. In fact, Jesus endorses the tithe and while doing so, implies that tithing is the bare minimum—that 10% is the floor.

 Luke 11:41-42

But give as alms those things that are within, and behold, everything is clean for you. But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, and neglect justice and the love of God. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others. 

Jesus says, it’s great that you’re tithing, you should give a tenth of everything, but you aren’t doing enough. More is required of you. You are neglecting justice and love. You are looking for the line to make sure you are a mint’s leaf away but you have missed it all together.

The gospel of Mark (Mark 12:41-44) records for us a time Jesus was sitting by the offering box. He was watching everyone give and here comes a poor widow who puts in 2 coins equal to 1/64 of a day’s wage. (As a reference point, for someone making minimum wage this would be something like 93 cents.) This woman puts in these two coins and Jesus calls His disciples over and says this:

“Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”

Now I know what some of you are thinking. “That wasn’t very wise of her. How is she going to buy food? How is she going to pay her bills?” But that’s not what Jesus says. He commends her. He approves her. He approves of her “wasteful” worship.

Giving is something that everyone is to do no matter your station in life. Rich and poor contribute together. Everyone giving. Everyone sharing. Everyone prospering. The picture we have in Acts of the 1st century church is just this.

Acts 2:44-47

And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in there homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

For some of you republicans that may sound too leftist, like socialism or something. If it does, just wait till you see what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8:7-14 to the very Christians who are giving the offering in 1 Corinthians 16.

 But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also. 

I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich. And in this matter I give my judgment: this benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work but also to desire to do it. So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have. For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but as a matter of fairness your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.

Now this isn’t socialism, this isn’t leftist, or liberal communism. The root of those political ideologies is greed and envy and pride. This is Christianity. This is justice and mercy rooted in love—in the Gospel. It isn’t only a matter of mercy, it is a matter of justice, a matter of fairness, as Paul says. We share one another’s burdens. That is only fair.

Our thieving government throws around this word “fairness” and I don’t believe they really know what it means. Fairness in a democracy is two wolves and one sheep voting on what to have for dinner, which isn’t fairness at all, it is just “legal.” Our government’s definition of fairness is legal thievery. It is two poor men and one rich man voting on what to do with the rich man’s money.

Paul is talking about something very different. Paul is talking about Christian generosity. He says fairness because He knows that a Christian’s heart is like a bucket with no lid under an endless tap that cannot help but overflow. Fairness prescribes where the overflow will land. This brings us to the next point.

We are to give intentionally and consistently.

Unless we understand our giving in the context of our relationship with God and with one another, what I’m talking about this morning will be impossible to embrace without just becoming a socialist or a secular philanthropist.

We are to give intentionally. Think about giving in the context of your family. If you notice that your 4 year old daughter needs a new pair of shoes and you go out and buy her a pair without hesitation, is that socialism? No. Does the Biblical principle of “you don’t work, you don’t eat” apply there? No. Are you going to run the risk of being called a leftist because you provided for your family? No. Why? Because she’s your daughter! Because it’s your family! Because you love her and her current situation (i.e. helpless, feeble, dependent, incapable) and your current relationship, demand that you bear her burden.

What good parent is going to look at their dependent, incapable children’s needs and say, “That isn’t my problem. You don’t work you don’t eat. Get a job.” Do you know that is exactly how many conservative Christians approach poverty? They reduce the problem of poverty down to, “just get a job.” That is foolish and wicked because it isn’t always that easy and especially when we are talking about brothers and sisters in need, we have got to understand that we are talking about family.

When we are a part of a family, we are bound by love to share and to give and to bear one another’s burdens. And in all honesty, when we begin to experience the reality of family as a congregation, it will seem odd to even talk about helping one another as any kind of a sacrifice any more than buying your 4 year old a new pair of shoes could be called a “sacrifice.”

Giving promotes this kind of gospel unity. Giving strengthens and proves the bond of a family. This should be part of our intention when we give. We’re giving like Christ gave.

Our first priority and our first responsibility when we give, it to our family. And specifically for us giving here at Christ Fellowship, our first priority should be those in need among us. It isn’t that we don’t help people who aren’t Christians, of course we do. But we are to prioritize those in our family—those in the body of Christ.

Let me make something very clear. You may not feel it, you may not understand it, but the reality is we really are a family. That isn’t just a nice label we stick on our relationships here. This must become a functional reality in how we give both our money, and our lives.

Do you know that you have a greater bond and more in common with an Islamic terrorist who becomes a Christian than you have with an american war-vet who is an athiest. As a Christian you have a greater bond and more in common with a Mexican national who is a brother in Christ than you have with the secular republican or democrat or ICE agent who lives on your street.

This is part of our intention when we give, to compassionately provide for our family.

Giving intentionally also, really simply, means not giving as an afterthought. Not forgetting. Not saying, “well let’s pay everything else and then see what we have left to give.” No, we are to give intentionally, first, with purpose and we are to do this consistently. This is why we collect tithes and offerings every Sunday.

Now Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16 that they were to collect, “on the first day of every week” but this doesn’t mean for instance, if you get paid monthly or every two weeks that you should space it out and give weekly. The point is, to give consistently and I would say, at a minimum, as often as you are getting paid, you should be giving. As often as you receive, give.

In the OT we see the same thing, a set time when people were to give. And this makes sense from a purely practical stance because another part of what our giving as the church is for, besides caring for the poor, is to support pastors and ministers with a livelihood.

1 Corinthians 9:13-14

Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the alter share in the sacrificial offerings? In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living from the gospel. 

 

1 Timothy 5:17-18

Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching. For the Scripture says, “You shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain,” and , “The laborer deserves his wages.”

So here at Christ Fellowship, our Pastor and myself, both get paid weekly. Our church operates on a budget, that doesn’t mean we operate like a business where our bottom line is a dollar sign. It most certainly is not. As an organization, we are a non-profit. But that doesn’t mean what we do doesn’t require money, and I know you know this. Christ Fellowship has consistent bills to pay like anyone else so if there was no consistency to our giving, it would make trying to keep things operational quite difficult. So we budget according to how we all give.

We give proportionally. To whom much is given much is required.

We give, Paul says in 1 Corinthians 16:3, as we prosper. So back to the tithe. Tithe means 10% and this is the floor of our giving. This is the minimum. So if your gross income is $100 a week your tithe would be $10 on Sunday. If your gross income is $1000 a week your tithe would be $100 dollars on Sunday. 10% is the tithe and everything above that we call an offering.

For an example, on Mission meal Sunday, if you tithe and then you go next door and give another $10 to support your missionaries, that is an offering.

So remember the widow who gave 2 small coins. Jesus said she gave more than everyone else. And why? because Jesus wan’t interested in the amount, He was interested in her heart, and the fact that she gave all of her earthly treasure, revealed where her trust was. It exposed her greed-free heart that overflowed with love.

Contrast that with the pharisees who meticulously tithed down to their spice drawer, no more, no less, all the while neglecting justice and love. Their giving exposed the greed and envy that consumed their empty hearts.

This is why the Bible says, God loves a cheerful giver, because you cannot fake that. You are either going to give cheerfully or you will not, and that is a heart issue not an amount issue, and not even strictly a money issue.

2 Corinthians 9:6-12

The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

C.S. Lewis, in speaking about social morality, had this to say about giving,

“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. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say they are too small. There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot do because our [giving] excludes them.”

We are to give wisely.

This is really important to understand correctly because if we are not careful we will try and use this point as advice for that widow to not do what Jesus commended her for doing. That would not be wisdom, it would be greed. It would not be love, it would be selfish ambition. So lets be careful to understand what wise giving actually looks like.

Malachi 3:6-12

For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need. I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of you soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts. Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts.

First, and most importantly, the thing to keep in mind is that when we do not give or give rightly, the Bible says we are robbing God. That is not a wise thing to do. If you are financially in need this morning, and you are thinking, “I cannot afford to give” these words from Malachi are for you. You cannot afford not to give, because you cannot afford to rob God.

In Acts 5, we see the story of Ananias and Sapphira, we won’t read it now, but go and read it sometime. They sell their land and bring their offering to the congregation except they thought it would be a good idea, perhaps even wise, to keep some back for themselves and just give the appearance that they are offering everything. They were robbing God, and right there in the New Testament, in the new covenant of grace, the jealous God who never changes, cut them down where they stood. They did not give wisely.

If you give your tithes and offerings because that is what a Christian must do, you are not giving wisely. A Christian is not obligated to give to God, a Christian is liberated to give to Him.

Jesus tells us a parable in Matthew of the sheep and the goats and about the final Judgement.

Read: Matthew 25:31-46

Wealth is a ruthless master who will require you to work your hands to the bone for the hope of gaining even the slightest degree of her favor and approval. But God is a merciful master and a loving Father, who freely gives you all things. And when He calls you to become His child, He calls you to an everlasting inheritance. He frees you from the cold and dark dungeon of obligation and requirement—from a hunger and thirst that can never be satisfied, and He carries you into His Kingdom where He satisfies you. He feeds you and clothes you. No more do you live for obligation and requirement, now you live for desire—you live from God and for God and through God. This is being liberated to give.

You who have been shown mercy, give mercy. You who have been forgiven, forgive. You who have been loved, love. You who have received, give.

Luke 6:38

Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

Mercy and love trump obligation and requirement. When we live in mercy and love, we will not feel a shred of obligation to generously overflow. When we live in mercy and love, we don’t have to give, we get to give.

Think of the rich young ruler. This man was tormented because he knew that there was something missing in his life, some requirement that was still unmet. So he asked Jesus what he needed to do. And what did Jesus tell him? Give everything away. And this rich man went away sad for he had great wealth. He went away bound when Jesus was offering him freedom.

If your mindset today is hopelessly stuck in this idea of requirement or obligation—of “what must I do?” “How much do I have to give?” Probably Jesus’ advice to the rich, young ruler would be a good place for you to start. You need to see and experience grace. Sell everything you have and give all of your money away, then follow Jesus.

Giving is an act of obedience but mainly it is an act of worship—an overflow of desire and affection for Jesus. An outworking of grace. Because when we give to the least, we give to Christ, and when we withhold from the least, we are withholding from Christ.

1. Giving is something that all of us are to do, and all of us are to do together.
2. We are to give intentionally and consistently.
3. We give proportionally. To whom much is given much is required.
4. We are to give wisely.

Now this morning I am talking in the context of money but this principle applies to your entire life. Possessions, service, work, time, play, leisure, your gifts and talents. This is what it means to be a disciple of Christ, to live a life that is not your own by His faith He’s given you as a gift by grace. By His breath He’s given you as a gift. By His provision that He’s given you as a gift.

Your life and your money are not really yours. You are only the steward of someone else’s stuff. You are only borrowing them and one day you will be required to give a full accounting for what you did with it all. Will you have been wise like the poor widow or will you be found wanting like the rich, young ruler?

So this morning instead of passing the buckets around, they will be in the back as you leave and you can give on your way out, or not. I want to do it that way today because I want you to be very careful that you are not just being moved emotionally by some fading buzz. I don’t want you to even consider giving, or giving more this morning if you are doing it out of obligation or guilt simply because that is what this sermon was about.

Do I want to see Christ Fellowship Church prosper? Yes. Does that mean we all get richer? No, probably not. But what I do know is that it most certainly means that we all give more. Of course I want you to give this morning, I pray that we would see the patterns of Christ Fellowship Church’s giving—of our giving, increase and increase. But I want that to be because we are giving something that we cannot just toss into a bucket on our way out to appease a guilty conscience. I want it to be because we are giving our hearts and our lives.

I know that our congregation prospering means that as the Holy Spirit sanctifies us, Jesus will have more and more of our affection, and our trust, and our money, until our mission is accomplished. Christ, in all of life, for all the world.

So I am going to pray for us and then I invite you to lift your hands with me and sing the doxology (the words will be on the screen), and then I am going to present the charge and benediction and finally you will be dismissed. At that point if you have any question or would like prayer, you are welcome to come. Let us pray.

Father, we need the innocent faith of a child. We confess that we worry about money too much. That we make it the center of our focus too often. God, make us eager to obey Your commands and help us to know that they are not a burden, but that they are a joy and a delight! So wash us clean of greed and envy and selfish ambition and fill us up with Your generous love and mercy. Enlarge our faith and make us to burn with passion for Your Kingdom such that our possessions and relationships in this world would become worthless compared to our Jesus who is our treasure. Help us to see and know and experience His eternal value and worth. We ask these things in Jesus’ name, for Your glory and for our good. Amen. 

The charge is this, freely you have received, so freely give. Someone once said money was like blood, as long as it keeps flowing, it is life giving, but as soon as it stops moving, it will kill you. So let it flow. Be generous to others as your Father has been generous to you. God invites you to test His faithfulness in this area, so do it, and give as you have received.

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip you with everything good that you may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.