Grace
Giving: Part I
Motivation for Giving
2
Corinthians 8:1-15
Introduction
For the next couple of weeks, we will be talking about giving…Never
before have I been a part of a church where the people have said, “we not only
want to hear about the church’s finances, but we want to hear about what the
Bible says about our own finances and our financial responsibility from the
pulpit”.
The truth is that in most churches, people do not want to hear about
giving; they do not want to have a “guilt trip” laid on them.
But there’s the rub—we are not to give to the Lord’s work out of guilt. No, there is a greater motivation to
give and we will talk about that this morning.
God opened my eyes to “grace giving” a very long time ago and it has made
a great difference in my life. No
longer under the Law as manifested by the “tithe”, grace giving is freeing, it
is joyous, it allows us to really be generous. I know this view may be new for a number of you—but don’t
call me a heretic until you’ve heard me out.
While 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 addresses giving to relieve the needs of the
Jerusalem church, it is also the most extensive treatment of giving to the
Lord’s work in the NT. It is not
being ripped from it’s context this morning, but provides us with the guidance
we need from God when it comes to giving to the Lord’s work. Before we dive in there, we need to lay
a little foundational background…
Stewardship
Now, we often hear the word “stewardship” used in church—it does not mean
“giving” or “tithing”. The word
stewardship conveys the idea that we are responsible for the proper use of what
God has given to us. After all, it
all belongs to him—time, treasure and talent. None of it—no matter how much we try to convince ourselves
of it—belongs to us. Psalm 24:1
tells us, “1 The earth is the LORD's and the fullness thereof, the
world and those who dwell
therein…” That includes you
and me! Paul echoed the same
sentiment in 1 Corinthians 10:26.
So what we
have belongs to God, who we are belongs to God—he lets us use the
things we have, and we have the responsibility to manage those resources, to
manage our very lives for his glory. Get this: despite the fact that so many people tie their identity to
what material possessions they have, our money is not ours, and our money is
not us! It does not define us!
