Giving: It’s a God Thing

2 Corinthians 8:1-9 (NIV)

 

Introduction:

 

When a person works an eight-hour day and receives a fair day’s pay for his time”: that is a wage. When a person competes with an opponent and receives a trophy for his performance: that is a prize. When a person receives appropriate recognition for his long service or high achievements: that is an award. But when a person is not capable of earning a wage, can win no prize, and deserves no reward — yet receives such a gift anyway — that is a good picture of God’s unmerited favor. This is what Christians means when we talk about the grace of God.[1]

Let’s talk this morning about grace. Speaking to the Corinthians, Paul says, “… we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.”

 

If, like the Macedonian churches, you believe on Jesus Christ, you are a recipient of God’s grace. Our passage this morning makes it perfectly clear that there is a direct correlation between the receiving of grace and generous giving. Paul refers to it as the grace of giving. I hope to demonstrate to you this morning that giving is a God thing.

 

Paul gives us three truths about God, which make grace receivers become generous givers.

 

The first truth is this: God’s grace produces joy.

 

One of the marks of the child of God is joy. After all, to be claimed by God in Christ is to receive the Holy Spirit. It means to become a participant in the life of God.

 

Galatians 5 tells us, “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control.”[2] To participate in the life of God is to participate in the character of God the Spirit. Joy is one such characteristic.

 

As with everything else in the Christian life, joy is not a mere emotion to be enjoyed, but a motivation to action. As we take part in the life of God, we do so with a joy that spills over in generosity. Speaking about the churches in Macedonia, Paul says, “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.” In other words, grace receivers become generous givers.

 

One Sunday morning a father gave his son a couple of quarters and a dollar. “Put the dollar in the offering,” the father said, “then you can have the 50 cents for ice cream.” When the boy came home, he still had his dollar. “Why didn’t you put the dollar in the offering?” his father asked. “Well, it was like this,” the boy explained. “The preacher said that God loves a joyful giver. I could give the 50 cents a whole lot more joyfully than I could the dollar.”[3]

 

God’s grace causes joy to well up in us and we become generous givers. Yet, like that little boy, for some Christians to think about giving generously causes them anything by joy. It often causes them stress and inner conflict. What they might not know is that God doesn't want their money! God wants them to live joyously, free from slavery to the world and its attractions such as money. God wants to be at the center of life. And when God is at the center, we participate in the life of God. We give as God gives; freely and generously.

 

Giving: it’s a God thing. Grace receivers become generous givers because God’s grace produces joy.

 

 

Second: grace receivers become generous givers because God’s grace produces self-giving.

 

Verse 5 says: "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.”

A pig and a hen were out walking on day when they passed a church sign that asked the question, How can we help the poor? The hen immediately spoke up saying I know - we can offer a ham and egg breakfast. After a few moments, the pig complained: A ham and egg breakfast! That's only a contribution for you, but for me it means total commitment.

 

That is what the grace of God produces in humans: self-giving, total commitment. Have you given yourself to the Lord? If so, was it partial or total commitment?

 

You see, we cannot give joyfully and generously until we have first given ourselves to the Lord. When we give ourselves in this fashion, we secure all of our tomorrows with God. There is no better barometer of one’s spiritual health than how generously he or she gives.

 

A missionary in India had passed by a woman standing at the Ganges River looking at the water. In her arms was a sickly infant, while at her side stood a beautiful, strong, healthy child. On his return trip, the missionary saw her in the distance with the sickly child in her arms, but the beautiful boy who had stood at her side was gone. He knew what had happened; to appease her god she had thrown her child to the crocodiles in the murky river. She was sitting rocking herself to and fro, tears streaming down her face, and moaning as she wept.

 

"Oh, why did you do it?" the missionary wailed. "I made an offering to my god," she replied, "and maybe he will hear me." "But why, if you had to do it, did you give your beautiful boy? Why did you not give the sickly little one?" The woman rose to her feet, drew herself erect, and proudly replied, "We give our gods our best."[4]

 

Giving: it’s a God thing. Grace receivers become generous givers: giving God our best out of total commitment to God. God’s grace produces joy and self-giving.

 

And that leads us to the third and final act of God, which causes recipients of grace to become generous givers: God gives to us.

 

 

John 3:16 - For, God so loved the world that he gave... very generously… God gave his Son for you and for me

 

A story from Scotland tells of a mother's dramatic rescue of her child. Workmen were blasting rock in a quarry. One day after they had attached the fuse and retired to a safe place and gave the alarm they saw a three year old child wandering across the open space into great danger. Every passing second meant death was closing in on the child. The workmen called to the child and waved their arms, but he only looked on their strange antics with amusement. No one dared run forward knowing the explosion was only seconds away. The child most certainly would have been killed, had not his mother appeared at this moment of crisis doing what her mother's heart dictated. She did not run toward her son or yell to frighten him. Instead, she knelt down, opened wide her arms and smiled for him to come. Instantly the child ran towards her. Shortly later, the area was shaken by the explosion, yet the child was safe in his mother's arms. That is a picture of the grace of God and of the cross.[5]

 

The number one reason we give is out of gratitude to for the truth that God has given and continues to give to us. What has God done in your life for which the Spirit has made you grateful? What has God done for which God deserves honor?

One of Aesop’s Fables is about the ant and the dove. An ant went to the bank of a river to quench its thirst, and being carried away by the rush of the stream, was on the point of drowning. A Dove sitting on a tree overhanging the water plucked a leaf and let it fall into the stream close to her. The Ant climbed onto it and floated in safety to the bank. Shortly afterwards a bird catcher came and stood under the tree, and laid his trap for the Dove, which sat in the branches. The Ant, perceiving his intent, stung him in the foot. In pain the bird catcher threw down the trap, and the noise made the Dove fly away."[6]

 

Just as the ant acted in gratitude to the dove for its life-saving act, so recipients of God’s grace are called to live in gratitude to God for God’s saving act in Jesus Christ.

 

Verse 9 says, “...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.”

 

Yet many Christians continue to look for what more Christ can do for them. Isn’t it clear that the better question is, “What we can do for him?” We are called to express our gratitude for his love, grace and mercy bestowed upon us. We have fallen into the raging waters of death and destruction and he rescued us by his own blood. We don’t need to look for another reason to give. We have it!

We give because God first gave to us. Jesus says, Freely have you received; now freely give.

 

Giving is a God thing. As recipients of God’s grace, we are to become generous givers because God’s grace produces joy and self-giving out of gratitude for God’s self-giving to us.

 

Conclusion:

 

If you believe on Jesus Christ, you are a recipient of God’s grace. God has rescued you from bondage to sin thereby calling you to live as God lives.

 

Two businessmen walked down the street of a big city during the Great Depression. Coming to the church where one attended, the other man commented, “Don’t you wish you had all the money back that you gave to build that church?” The godly Christian replied, “When that church was being erected, you had more money than I did. Now we are both without money. I have something to show for my life. What do you have to show for yours?’[7]

 

Many Christians measure their blessedness by what they have kept. But God says the true measure of one’s spiritual blessedness is in what he gives away.

 

Are you a recipient of God’s grace? If so, what does that mean to you to know that God’s grace produces joy and self-giving out of gratitude to God for God’s self-giving to you? We are called to give generously because that is what recipients of grace do.

 

Giving: it’s a God thing. Amen.


[1] Attributed to “John Mark Ministries, http://jmm.aaa.net.au/index.htm. Retrieved June 11, 2006” at http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=award

[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (Ga 5:22-23). Grand Rapids: Zondervan.

[3] http://www.homileticsonline.com/subscriber/illustration_search.asp?keywords=%22cheerful+giver%22

[4] Attributed to “By William Moses Tidwell, ‘Effective Illustrations’” and apparently it was therein attributed to Eleanor Herr Boyd’s book ‘The Gospel in Leviticus’

http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv? illustration+2220

[5] Attributed to “Pulpit Helps” at http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+475

[6] http://elbourne.org/sermons/index.mv?illustration+2620

[7] Adult Life and Work Lesson Annual 1993‑94, (Karl D. Babb, editor, Convention Press, Nashville, Tennessee, 1993).