Worship Through Giving

 I had a pretty tough time when I was coming up through middle school. For one, I had another classmate that had all the latest brand name items, I didn’t, and he made sure that I knew about it – every day. To make matters worse, my parents didn’t believe in buying name brand clothing, and so no matter how hard I tried to convince them that I absolutely had to have one item or another, they just would not buy it for me. Yet, to my surprised delight, on one of our quarterly all-day trips to Gayfers, my mom gave in and bought me exactly what I asked for. You see, my classmate had just that week come to school with brand new Nike Pump tennis shoes. They were so cool because they had a little pump on the tongue (in the shape of a basketball) which you could use to pump up the tongue on your shoes. Boy, was I proud when I walked into school the next Monday with my new pumps! I thought that I would finally fit in with my classmate, but when I came near to him at break, he just burst out into laughter. He pointed out that my pump shoes weren’t Nike pumps, but some cheap off-brand shoe, and he made sure that everyone else at break knew it, too.

Though it was a painful, my embarrassment taught me an important lesson. It taught me that things, and the money that buys them, cannot bring you lasting happiness. How many times have we been told, “Money can’t buy you happiness”, and yet, the world believes wholeheartedly that it can. How many times have we read of a wealthy celebrity who was in the pit of depression despite his vast wealth, and yet, we think that it can’t happen to us. We tend to think, like one person once told me, “People tell me that money can’t buy happiness, but I’d sure like to try it for myself.”

Like anything else in our lives, money is not a neutral object. It has an affect on us. 1 Tim. 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Our wealth demands our worship. In Matt. 6:24, Jesus says, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” Because of the independence and pleasure it might bring us, we end up being willing to give up the eternal for the sake of one more dollar. The more of it we have, the more it calls us away from our worship and dependence on God.

This problem of money is ultimately a question of who our master is. This problem is ultimately a problem of worship. In Matt. 19:16, a rich young man comes to Jesus asking how he can inherit the kingdom of heaven. Jesus responds by telling him to sell everything and follow him. Verse 22 tells us the young man went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. You see, the measure of whether you are mastered by money or not is in how freely you give it away. The question is, do you worship with your money, or do you worship your money?

This morning I want to understand better how we can worship with our money by studying 2 Cor. 9:6-15. There are two points that I want you to see from this text: the Love for Giving and the Law of Giving.

Let’s consider the love for giving in verse 7 of our passage. In this section of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he is appealing to them to support a collection that he is taking up to help the Christians in Jerusalem. Here, he calls on the Corinthians to show their love for God and for their brothers in Christ by giving. There are two aspects of giving that I want you to see from this one verse.

First, giving delights God. Throughout the Bible we find that giving is a simple, tangible act of worship which reveals the faith of the giver. In Genesis 14, after receiving a blessing from Melchizedek, king of Salem, Abraham offers a tenth of all that he has to this priest-king. In Deut. 12:6, God commands that tithes be brought to the tabernacle as a part of congregational worship. In Mark 12:42, Jesus extols a poor widow who gave two copper coins because she gave all that she had, showing her dependence on God.

Second, giving is a cheerful decision to worship.  Notice that Paul calls on the Corinthians to give out of a right motivation. He states this motivation both negatively and positively. Negatively, we are not to give “under compulsion”.  Giving is a voluntary offering, not a tax. Along with the voluntary nature of giving, it is important to note that how much we give is a decision of the heart. Now, there has been no small amount of time wasted by preachers and theologians on how much to tithe, so let me just make a few comments about the amount we should give. First, the tithe of the Old Testament was voluntary. Just as Paul says here, the Israelites were to give as they felt led. Second, the tithe was to be given “from your increase”. That means, if you had 10 nanny goats, and all 10 of them had a kid, you would give one of those kids to the Lord as a tithe. But, if you had 10 nanny goats, and 2 of your nannies died while kidding and none of the others had kids, you wouldn’t give anything to the Lord. In the same way, if you are living hand-to-mouth with no profit, you are not obligated to give anything. In 2 Cor. 8:12, Paul says to give out of what you have, not out of what you don’t have. Finally, tithing in the Old Testament is more than just the 10% offering that we are familiar with. There were actually three different tithes, totaling about 18%, that Israelites were called to give.

Paul also states this cheerful decision positively by saying, “God loves a cheerful giver.” The Greek word for “cheerful” there is “hilaros”, from which we get “hilarious”. In other words, we should joyfully give to the Lord. And why shouldn’t we joyfully give?! After all, the Lord has blessed us with every spiritual blessing. He has chosen us by his good grace. He has redeemed us through the sacrifice and resurrection of his Son. He has adopted us into his family. And, he has sealed us with His Spirit. Beyond that, he has given us the blessing of our daily bread, the joy of love and bond of family, and so much more. Why would we not want to give back just a portion of all that he has given us!

The second aspect of giving that I want you to see from our passage is the Law of Giving. In verse 6, and then again in verses 8-15, Paul lays out a principle of giving that is found throughout the Bible. In verse 6, he establishes a principle of reaping and sowing. Before I get into the particulars of this principle, let me just give a warning. There are a whole host of charlatans (most of them on Christian TV), who use verses like this to say that you should give to their ministries so you can get a blessing from God. In doing so, they are using the Word of God for their own gain, and they are liars from the pit of hell. Remember, the focus of Paul’s exhortation here is on love for God and for your brother in Christ. The focus is not on giving so that God will be obligated to heal you or to increase your wealth.

This principle of reaping and sowing sets forth spiritual and physical benefits that come from cheerful giving. In effect, what Paul is saying is that the one who stingily gives to the cause of Christ will miss out on the blessings that come from cheerful giving, but the one who gives generously to the cause of Christ will experience the bounty of God’s blessings through that giving. There are three ways that God blesses through giving. First, in verses 8-11, he says that the giver is blessed because God will provide for his needs as he is faithful to give. I tell people regularly, I have never missed a dime of the money that I have given to the Lord. The Lord has always been faithful to meet my needs as I give faithfully to Him. If you are stingy and unwilling to give of your increase, you will never get to see the ways that God provides for you. But, if you let it go and give, you will find that God is always faithful.

Second, in verses 11-12 we find that giving blesses those who receive it and causes them to praise God. When you give to the church, you bless others, which in turn calls them to praise God. Your giving allows us to maintain this sanctuary, have air conditioning, care for people in loss or with a need, and give to missions that take the Gospel to hard places. All of that enables and extends worship as people give thanks to God.

Third, in verse 13, Paul says that giving is a confession of faith that brings glory to God. When you give, you are saying that God is more important that your wealth. You are confessing that your only master is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that you will not be ruled by your money.

Brothers and sisters, we are called to give cheerfully and generously because God in Christ has given so richly to us. When we give, we are, in a very practical and tangible way, expressing an act of worship to God that proves that we are dependent on him. May we give with a cheerful heart because we love him and want to see his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.