Saturday, July 07, 2007

God and wallet

And now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints. And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urged Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 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.

I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality (2 Corinthians 8:1-14).

Two members of a congregation were leaving worship services one Sunday morning. Once they crossed the street, one of the men began to complain bitterly: "Well, we heard it again this morning. We’re supposed to give willingly, give regularly, give generously. Give, give, give! When will all these appeals for money come to an end?"

His friend stopped, turned to him and said, "Bill, you remember my son Jim, don’t you? When Jim came into this world, he cost me quite a tidy sum. I had to pay the doctor’s bill and hospital charges; I had to buy a crib and baby clothes for him. Money was constantly spent on feeding him, getting medicine for him, and replacing his clothes as he grew. When he started school, that added costs for transportation and school supplies, not to mention school activities. In due time, the dentist told us that he would need braces—boy, that was expensive! And then he went away to college—you can just imagine what that cost! Well, as you remember, just a few weeks before he was to graduate, he became critically ill. We tried every treatment that the doctors could think of, but it pleased our good Lord to take Jim home to heaven. Bill, ever since we buried our boy, he hasn’t cost us a single additional cent—no, not one cent!"

When we think about giving to the Church, all too often we think of it as a duty, a chore. When we give with this kind of attitude, we forget that Christian giving is always motivated by love. The father in my illustration did not spend money on his son because it was a duty or a chore—he spent his money on his son because he loved his boy. It was a tragedy for this man to reach a point in his life when he no longer had a son to lavish his love upon. For that father, giving money was just a component of giving love.

In today’s Epistle reading, Paul speaks about the giving that was going on in the churches in the area of Greece called Macedonia. Paul speaks about their giving, because it serves as a model of what Christian giving can look like. But right from the start, Paul is careful to make one thing very clear—credit for this kind of Christian giving belongs to God alone. Paul wrote, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. What Paul is about to describe is something remarkable and wonderful, but the Christians of those churches do not deserve the credit for this—it only came about through a miracle of God working in human hearts.

Paul tells us that the churches in Macedonia were experiencing tough times. He describes them as being in extreme poverty, and to make matters worse, they were undergoing a severe trial—they were being persecuted by officers of the government. Imagine belonging to a congregation that has no money saved up, no assets to borrow against, and to top that off, the government is harassing you as well. One would expect despair and bitterness in such a place.

But Paul tells us that, miraculously, these churches were filled with overflowing joy. They were so filled with joy that they were begging the apostle to accept their donations for the work of caring for Christians in far-away lands, even though they could hardly afford to give Paul anything. He says that they gave even beyond their ability. This was done entirely on their own—no one had asked them to give like this, because the level of their poverty was well known. But their joy was so great that it naturally overflowed to others.

How could these poverty-stricken, persecuted Christians know such joy? Only through a miracle of God. Paul describes that miracle this way: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. Paul is speaking of Jesus willingly leaving the glories of heaven to live among us as a man. In heaven, Jesus had the love and respect of everyone around Him. In heaven, anything that Jesus wanted was instantly accessible to Him. Here on earth, things were very different. Here, Jesus was despised and rejected by many. Here, Jesus voluntarily gave up having every comfort instantly available.

Jesus did all this out of love for us. Although we do not speak in terms of money, it cost Jesus to subject Himself to scorn and ridicule. It cost Jesus to accept a verdict of "guilty" for crimes He was innocent of, in a corrupt human court of law. It cost Jesus to accept beatings, being nailed onto a rough wooden cross, and being left out in the sun to slowly die. It cost Jesus greatly to suffer His heavenly Father’s rejection as He hung dying on that cross, as we know from His anguished cry, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46)

The cost to Jesus was the price of paying for our transgressions. Every time that we knock God down to second or third priority in our lives, we anger Him. Every time we make decisions that favor our comfort over the needs of others, we anger Him. Every day of our lives is filled with missed opportunities to speak about Jesus with an unbeliever; every day of our lives is filled with decisions to break the Ten Commandments when they prove to be inconvenient for us.

We deserved God’s anger, not Jesus. But Jesus loved us so much that He wanted to spare us from the hell that we had earned by our sinful selfishness. So Jesus accepted the sentence of "guilty" in our place, even though He was innocent. Jesus paid the hellish cost for our angering God on the cross, and when He said it is finished, those sweet words have given assurance to every Christian that we are forever freed of God’s anger, because Jesus has completely settled the debt for us (John 19:30). For us, salvation comes cheaply: ask Jesus for mercy and trust that He forgives you, and heaven is yours. Jesus paid for our sins so that heaven could be ours for free.

What a wonderful gift! No fear of God’s anger, no fear of eternity agonizing in hell. No wonder the Macedonian Christians were filled with overflowing joy! In spite of poverty, in spite of persecution, they had the certain knowledge that when the temporary aggravations of life were over, they were welcome in heaven. Moreover, they had the assurance of God’s love and assistance here in life as well—they knew that no matter what kinds of problems each day brought, Jesus was right there beside them, ready to help.

This filled the Macedonian Christians with joy, a joy that needed a way to express itself. Just as a father shows love for his son by feeding him, clothing him and educating him, so did the Macedonian Christians want to show their love for God by loving His other children of faith through feeding them, clothing them and educating them. So, in spite of their poverty, they gathered every coin they could find and sent them to Paul for use in the work of the Church. They gave out of joy and love.

When a person gives so much to God that it "hurts the wallet", that is an act of worship to God. When we give to God, our attitude is often like this: "I need to look out for my future, so I’ll only give God what I can spare". Such an attitude puts our trust in the future into our checkbook. But when the Macedonians gave more than they could afford, their attitude was this: "God is in charge of my future, so I don’t need this money for insurance against tomorrow’s problems—God will take care of me". This kind of giving shows reliant trust in God and love for others—an act of worship pleasing to our God.

In Malachi chapter 3, God chides the Jews for not trusting in Him enough to give generously to His Church: "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, `How do we rob you?' "In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse--the whole nation of you--because you are robbing me. 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," says the LORD Almighty.

Examining your giving to God is a way to assess your faith. Paul told the Corinthians, 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. I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. Look at your budget. What percentage goes to food and clothing and medicine? How big is your house payment—and is your house bigger than you really need? What percentage is spent on car payments and business equipment—and is your car an economy car or a luxury vehicle? What percentage of your budget is spent on luxury items like cigarettes, alcohol, eating out, or gambling? What costs do you have in maintaining a cabin or a boat? How much do you spend on adding to a collection of antiques? Then, compare all that to your giving to the work of God through one of the many organizations that represent His Church.

I ask you this, not to make you feel guilty, but to make you reassess your priorities. How important to you is Jesus’ sacrifice for your sins? How much joy fills your heart at the knowledge that God loves you, God forgives you, God lends you His aid every day, and that you will have eternity with Jesus and all the Christians who have gone into death before you? What does your giving say about the priorities in your heart?

Years ago, Henry Thornton, always a generous supporter of his church, once sent a check for $100 to the church treasurer. Soon after, he was notified by telegram that he had lost $10,000. Feeling the sting of his loss, he asked for the return of his check—and made out a replacement in the amount of $1,000. He said, "God has just informed me that I may not possess my property much longer and that I must use it well." It is not so much what we give to the Lord, but what we keep from Him, that makes us poor.

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