The Grace of Giving
Download MP3Invite you to open your bibles to 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. 2nd Corinthians chapter 8. We were going to part from 2nd Corinthians for a few weeks during the Advent season, but it actually dovetailed so nicely that we have we're gonna be continuing through that. 2nd Corinthians chapter 8, I'll begin reading in verse 1. We want you to know brothers about the grace of god that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means of their own free will. Begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord, and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.
Joel Brooks:But as you excel in everything, in faith, and speech, and knowledge, and 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.
Joel Brooks:So now finish doing it as well so that your readiness and 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. I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that's a matter of fairness. But that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need. So that their abundance may supply your need.
Joel Brooks:That there may be fairness as it is written. Whoever gathered much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack. Pray with me. Lord, we do ask in this moment that you would crack open some hardened hearts, that the seed of your gospel would find root in there and begin growing. During this advent season, we would see much fruit.
Joel Brooks:God, I pray that you would speak to us. No one needs to hear from me, so I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:In case you haven't been to a mall or turned on the radio, the Christmas season is upon us. I actually brave the crowds and I I never really do this, but I went out for black Friday, and I bought shoes for myself. I didn't buy anything for any anybody else, but I did buy shoes for myself, which I've learned over the years that if I'm gonna get any good presents, I typically have to buy them for myself because people don't know what to get a pastor, and, I get the worst gifts. So I can't tell you how many chicken soup for the soul devotionals or, or calendars I've gotten. How many Billy Graham angels, book book on angels I've gotten over the years.
Joel Brooks:I've gotten numerous of those. I've gotten so many 365 day calendar devotional things. And, my mom, this was, this was the jewel. She once gave me a devotional, a Georgia bulldog devotional, and which, it would it would tell a verse and then under it an inspirational Georgia bulldog football story. That apparently was the meaning of why God wrote that 2000 years ago.
Joel Brooks:Fulfilled in prophecy with Herschel Walker. Actually, I'd my mom gave us one one more worse gift. She gave my wife, my dead grandmother's nightgown. She she she knew we liked old things and loved that. And so, she gave my wife that sweet gesture, but I really I I don't want to see my wife in my dead grandmother's nightgown.
Joel Brooks:Just just no. No. Not gonna go there. And so I have found that I have to buy presents for myself. And so I did this this past, Friday.
Joel Brooks:I shouldn't be too hard on the people who do give me gifts because there's a lot of pressure to give gifts to everybody. Those in your family, those who you just feel obligated to, you gotta get them something. And so for the next 20 days, you're gonna be one of those people out there who is just frantically trying to buy something for that special somebody. It's the season for giving. Somebody actually told me today is giving Sunday.
Joel Brooks:I didn't know that, but today is giving Sunday. And and I want us to look at tonight, a theology of giving. So so when we're out and we hear the ringing of the Salvation Army bells, when we you know, you see the offerings for Lottie Moon, you see all the things that happened during the Christmas season, Really, what is our motivation for giving? Why do we do this? And at Redeemer, we have tried really hard not to make a big deal about giving.
Joel Brooks:I don't know if you if you've noticed it or not, but we don't pass a plate at our church. We don't pass an offering plate, which is common in most churches. Even though, that if you do that statistically, you get about 20% more money if you pass a plate than if you just have an offering box in the back. But but we have chosen not to make a big deal about giving here because we realize a lot of non Christians from around here or those who've been burned out from the church or burned by the church are very skeptical about churches that ask for money, and they're skeptical skeptical of the leadership and how they use the money. And so we didn't wanna make it a stumbling block.
Joel Brooks:But don't take that to mean that we don't believe that it's important. Giving is very important for us as a church and for you as a believer. Paul is going to explain that how you use your money is a test that reveals whether or not the gospel has really penetrated your heart. Tonight, I want us to look at our theology of giving, Why you give, what motivates you, what gives you the strength to give, and why it is so important for us as Christians. It's an issue that really needs to be addressed, in the American church.
Joel Brooks:And I don't wanna be just so down on the American church, but let me give you just a few statistics. This is from a book called Passing the Plate that came out in 2011, in which the author Michael Emerson cited this that American Christians give on average 2.9% of their household income, which was actually less than non Christian religious groups, which gave 3.3%. More disturbing than that, one out of every 5 American Christians give nothing at all. He said if you were actually to look at the median American Christian, not the average, but the median American Christian gives 0.62% of their household income. Don't worry.
Joel Brooks:I see some of you are you are kind of looking around, you know, like I'm about to lay some big guilt trip on you. Don't don't worry. I just wanna go and put you at ease. I'm not gonna start playing Sarah McLaughlin, putting up, you know, pictures of, you know, wounded puppies or starving children or something like that. The the the goal is not to get you to just open up your wallets and to give.
Joel Brooks:Okay? That that's that's not my goal here. Hear me when I say this, God doesn't need your money. Okay? God doesn't need your money.
Joel Brooks:He's he's after something much much more important than that. He's after your heart. Jesus said you can't serve 2 masters. You can't serve money and him. You can't do them both.
Joel Brooks:You cannot give Jesus your heart without giving him your wallet. And so that's that's what I'm after here is is your heart. Paul is being very bold in this chapter. He has a lot more guts than I do. We've talked some about his relationship with the Corinthian church.
Joel Brooks:It's a rocky one at best. You remember he had to run out of town before. There's been lots of fighting with the leadership in them, and and so you you would feel like he would need to walk on eggshells, and yet he devotes 2 entire chapters to how they need to give him money. I mean, I I would just of all things to bring up, this is what he hammers in to him. It's time for you guys to start giving.
Joel Brooks:And what he's saying is we have talked about a lot of theology, we've talked about the gospel in a theoretical sense, and now this is where the rubber meets the road. Really, has the gospel changed you? And so he's not backing down on this. He's he's going all in. And what Paul is trying to accomplish here is absolutely enormous.
Joel Brooks:The project that he is undertaking. At this time, you have these Jewish Christians. They're back in Jerusalem, and a famine has hit the land, and they are starving. They're they're impoverished. They are living in extreme poverty, and the poor Christians there have been hit especially hard.
Joel Brooks:And so Paul, when he sees that, he hurts for them, but he sees this is an opportunity. I I think we could do something glorious here. And as he's going around to all these gentile churches who owe their existence to the church in Jerusalem, And you're just thinking, wouldn't it be amazing if we could get these gentile Christians as an act of love and unity, and to to show what Jesus is building in his church, that we can give to the Jerusalem church. We can give to our Jewish Christian brothers and sisters. And he has this great dream.
Joel Brooks:This is what we could do. He wants to show the unity of the body here, and so he sets out to do this. Now this is an absurd and an enormous project when you look at the details of it. Because first, he's rallying a church that's been fighting him in just about everything to try to get them to give. And he wants them to give to a church they've never met.
Joel Brooks:They they don't know these people, but he wants them to give give to these people they've never met, and then he's gotta convince the Jewish people to actually receive a gift from the Gentiles, which was an extremely hard thing to do. He writes in the end of Romans, he's actually really nervous about it. He's praying that they would actually receive this money. And then he's got to account for all the money, he's got to secure the money, he's got to somehow safely transfer all the money across 100 of mile miles off dangerous territory in order to deliver it. This is a huge undertaking here.
Joel Brooks:He's dreaming big. He told the Corinthians earlier already to be collecting the offering. At the end of his first letter to them, he he reads he writes this. He says, now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches in Galatia, so you also are to do. On the 1st day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
Joel Brooks:And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. So Paul, in his earlier letter, he's already told them what to do. Every week, I want you to take an offering. I want you to store up some money so when I come, we don't have to do that. And then I'm just gonna grab that offering, and we're gonna send it to Jerusalem.
Joel Brooks:But since he wrote that back in 1st Corinthians 16, a lot has happened. A lot of time has passed by. His relationship with them has been somewhat damaged. But really, your desire to do something just naturally wanes over time. It's happening right here that they were gung ho about doing this at first, but then, I mean, as the weeks go on and the months go on and you really realize the enormity of the project, you you just stop doing it.
Joel Brooks:I was at a not forgotten board meeting this past Monday. For those of you who don't know, not forgotten is a ministry that church is partnered up with. We're trying to build a boy's home in Peru. We've been working there for a number of years. And in this meeting, we're discussing all of these structural issues, these staffing needs, these financial issues.
Joel Brooks:We're we're going through all of this stuff in order to build a boys' home in Peru. Now, dreaming about building a boys home in Peru is fun. I mean, it's really kind of fun to do. You sit around, and you're like, man, it'd be amazing. Like, can't you just picture, like, all of these kids at this this safe home with great house parents and good food and we meet all their educational needs and their emotional needs and we teach them about the Lord, man, wouldn't that be great?
Joel Brooks:And you're like, yeah, that'd be awesome. Yeah, that'd be fantastic man. We should really do that. Dreaming about that is very easy. Taking the first steps is actually pretty easy.
Joel Brooks:Hey, y'all wanna go down there? Yes. You know, you have people waiting in line to to take a trip down to Peru. The initial giving is easy. But then as time goes on, as you start having more and more meetings and you have to raise more and more money, and, you realize that in order to see a dream fulfilled, there is lots of blood, sweat, tears, lots of documents you don't understand written in Spanish, and you're trying to figure them out.
Joel Brooks:It's hard to finish the task that God's put on your heart to start. And you need the grace of God to come in and to fuel you to finish the task. That's what Paul is reminding them. Remember back then, it was a great idea. It still is a great idea.
Joel Brooks:Finish it. Finish it. He tells them this in in verse 11. He says, so now finish doing it as well so that your readiness and desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. Paul is saying, you once desired to see this thing happen, now finish making it happen, which is going to take a tremendous sacrifice.
Joel Brooks:When I was reading these words, I could think there's probably a lot of people here who can dream of a church that is so giving. So giving that there's nobody ever here in this room, nobody in our midst who is ever in need. Perhaps a church that's so giving, we can reach out into the poor community around us. We can meet their educational needs. Maybe we can build a school.
Joel Brooks:Maybe we could start health clinics. Maybe we have even more money we we could send and we could do missions. I bet that all of you can just really dream that Paul is saying, yeah, desiring is one thing. It's fun. It's easy.
Joel Brooks:It's it's maybe it's a God given dream and desire, but you gotta finish that, and that means sacrifice. So how does Paul stir up these Corinthians to give and to finish the task that they've started? Well, he doesn't use the tools that is in most people's pockets that we talked about a couple weeks ago. He doesn't use fear, and he doesn't use pride as his motivators. He doesn't, you know, guilt them into giving.
Joel Brooks:You know, I joked about playing Sarah McLaughlin, you know, or something like that, you know, and showing pictures of starving children or wounded puppies. But, you know, that's how a lot of our giving is motivated by. We we see images like that, and we're we're laid on these guilt trips on people. And give. And Paul doesn't do that.
Joel Brooks:He does. He doesn't use fear. He doesn't use guilt. He doesn't use pride and say, if you give man, you'll be awesome, Man, just just give. He doesn't stroke their egos.
Joel Brooks:Instead, Paul goes to the gospel as his motivator. He goes to grace. He reminds them of the grace by which they were saved. One of the first things you'll notice when you read through chapter 8 and as you get into chapter 9 as well, and that these two chapters that are all about giving never once mentioned money. Never.
Joel Brooks:I mean, they're, the whole thing is about how we need to be giving, but, but you're never going to find the word money. Instead, Paul uses the phrase acts of grace, acts of grace. Because for Paul, this isn't about the money. It's about grace. It's about how we receive grace and then how we give grace.
Joel Brooks:Look at verses 6 and 7. He reminds them of the grace they've received. He says, accordingly, we urge Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 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. Paul says you're in excelling in all these things.
Joel Brooks:The Corinthian church was. The Corinthian church had, like, all of these spiritual gifts. They were flourishing in all these spiritual graces, and he said, that's great. You're flourishing in all this. Now you need to flourish in this one.
Joel Brooks:And this act of grace, which is giving. To show them what this looks like, he points to the Macedonian churches to show them how the grace of God has stirred up the Macedonians to give. Look at verses 1 through 4 again. We want you to know brothers about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. Macedonia.
Joel Brooks:For in severe affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed, and a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means as I can testify, relief of the saints. I mean, verse 2 is an extraordinary verse. It says, in severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy, and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity. I mean, rarely are you gonna find those words all in the same sentence, except for in scripture.
Joel Brooks:Extreme poverty. There's this overflowing joy. The abundance of joy overflows in a wealth of generosity. And and the picture that Paul is painting here is, you know, they are so filled with joy. So filled with joy that when you try to ask them to to find joy in material possessions, there's actually no room left for that.
Joel Brooks:So the overflow of that is that they give it away. There's simply no room left in their heart for those material things. They are so overflowing with joy that the natural response to that is just to give it away. Because if they were to take those things on, they'd have to squeeze some joy out. So in extreme poverty filled with joy, the gospel had liberated them from materialism, from trying to find value in things.
Joel Brooks:Now, the closest that I have ever seen this happen, it's been on a much smaller scale. This Christmas, probably a lot of you will travel. A lot of our neighbors, they travel, you know, during Christmas or or this happens also when they travel for the summer for extended wiles. One of our neighbors will come over and be like, hey, here's some eggs, Here's some milk. Here's some bread.
Joel Brooks:Here's some yogurt. And you start just, like, piling all these groceries on us. They're like, all this stuff is gonna go bad, And, and so take this. I'm like, I really don't like that cereal. Just take it.
Joel Brooks:It's gonna go bad here, you know, and they just, they, they give us all of this food before they leave. And what they're doing is as they realize as they they are journeying on to a place where they're not gonna have cook and they're gonna be getting much better food, what what they're doing is they're getting rid of their perishables. These things are gonna perish. We get rid of them because we're going to a place where we're gonna eat like kings, and so they they load us up. And when I think of that, I start praying, god, show me what's perishable.
Joel Brooks:Give me eyes to see what is perishable. In verse 15, Paul alludes to the fact that we too are going on a journey. Verse 15, he says, for it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people. Sorry, I'm in the wrong verse. 15, wrong chapter.
Joel Brooks:As it is written, whoever gathered much had nothing left over and whoever gathered little had no lack. Paul's actually quoting from Exodus chapter 16 when the Israelites are on a journey. That's what this is from. When he says, whoever gathered much had let nothing left over, whoever gathered gathered little had no lack. This is a time when god had delivered the Israelites from slavery, and he's placed them on a journey where they're going to the promised land, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Joel Brooks:But until then, he rains down manna on them. And they gather it up each day, and and if you gathered a lot, you share it with a person who gathered a little, but you are completely dependent upon god's grace for your survival as you're going on to the promised land. And Paul, he quotes this verse here not just to talk about, hey, we need to be fair, and we need to share our things. He wants to remind the people of who they are. Says, you're also on a journey.
Joel Brooks:You are a redeemed people on a journey, and you are going to a better place. Far better than a land of milk and honey, you are going to the kingdom of god. Therefore, share what you have. Share what you have. I mean, if you think about it, this command here was given to the Israelites, and whom the Holy Spirit had not been poured out on.
Joel Brooks:These were Israelites who when they were given a command, they didn't really have the power, the changed heart to obey that command. And Paul is saying for us who have now received the Holy Spirit, how much more generous should we be as we journey through this life? Now for Paul, the real motivation behind all giving needs to be the gospel. He says that giving both demonstrates the gospel and is fueled by the gospel. Giving demonstrates the gospel and is fueled by the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Look at verse 9, which is the central verse in this text. 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. This verse is what the Christmas season is about. The son of God left his heavenly home. He left extraordinary wealth and comfort, and he descended down to us.
Joel Brooks:He came to earth to be born poor. He he was born as a poor and a fragile helpless baby. I mean, who does this? Do you know anybody who, who tries to condescend like that? You know, do you work really hard at your job in order to go down the corporate ladder?
Joel Brooks:Do you work really hard to, to move out of a neighborhood with a great school system and into a place where, you know, you're gonna be in a horrible school system, or place that's safe into a place where there's crime. You know, who, who does those things? Jesus does this and we can't fathom the level in which he descended. I mean, he literally became poor. This wasn't just, like, spiritual poverty.
Joel Brooks:Paul's not talking figuratively here metaphorically. It it he really became poor. He was born in a stable, a place that was reserved for animals. After he was wrapped in swaddling clothes, he was laid in a manger, laid in a feeding trough. That's it's unthinkable for us who have every type of baby gadget you could possibly imagine to to to keep a child, you know, safe and and happy.
Joel Brooks:I mean, some of you parents are about to travel over the Christmas holidays, and you're gonna realize after you've packed all of your baby's stuff in the car, there's not room for your baby. You've just you've crammed it all in there, all the stuff that we see as essential. Jesus wasn't laid into a new crib in a nice freshly painted nursery. He was laid in a feeding trough. He was born into a poor country, a country that had been conquered, humiliated.
Joel Brooks:Israel was seen as a nobody on the world stage. He was born to poor parents. Joseph and Mary were so poor that when they later go to the temple to make a sacrifice, they can only offer 2 pigeons, which was the sacrifice for the extreme poor. They couldn't do anymore. And so, if you want to get a modern picture of Jesus's poverty, the picture I have is a child born in some rural, obscure village, maybe in the Congo or Sudan.
Joel Brooks:Just just place you wouldn't even think about, and raised in place of constant danger of of disease and hunger, helpless of the powers at hand around him, poor in every sense of the word. That's what Jesus was. He became poor, and the reason he did so was so that we could become rich, so that we might enjoy life forever with him in his kingdom. And so Paul says, you want a motivation to give? Think of that.
Joel Brooks:Think of that. Your generosity needs to model that. It needs to model the gospel. When we descend like Jesus, we model the gospel and we show who he is. When we give like he gave, we show people the gospel.
Joel Brooks:And we're empowered to do this because of the gospel, because of the grace that god has given us. He he has given us a wealth that is imperishable in order that we might give away wealth that is perishable. You know, Lauren and I were recipients of someone who really was like the Macedonians and gave beyond their means one time. I had we had just finished seminary. We were pretty poor, at least by, you know, American standards.
Joel Brooks:We had borrowed wicker furniture for the inside of our house. You know? So we were pretty poor. And a old lady who my dad had known many years back, Lauren who lives in Mobile in a house that she built. She's only about 4 foot 9, maybe.
Joel Brooks:She is a teeny woman. You go into her house, the ceilings are about 6 feet tall and she had ceiling fans. And so it was like going in a Hobbit home. You, you, you actually had to crouch down as you walked in there. And Lauren and I, we, we went, we would visit her and, and she had nothing, just dirt poor.
Joel Brooks:And and she came to me, she she got out a lamp because she didn't use banks. And she opened up the bottom of the lamp, and she started pulling out money, and she gave me $5,000. $5,000. And she said, I want you to have this because you're in ministry and you need this. And then somebody else gave us $5,000 So we had 10,000 we were dirt poor, $10,000.
Joel Brooks:We used it for a down payment of a house here in Crestwood. And it enabled us to buy a home here, which we're able to sell that house after a couple years, buy the house we're in. And I look at that teeny little fruit, that sacrificial fruit. I mean, she had nothing, and she gave that to us. And I think of how the gospel has been manifested through that gift over the years.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I almost wanna raise a hand, who's been in our house? But the Lord has has used that. He he he placed this there very strategically, hopefully to to be a light on a hill and to to try to reach this area. And and that goes all the way back to a little old lady who wanted to demonstrate the gospel and how she gave. And so, so and even when I look at this in a very personal way, it has affected me and it's affected you because I wouldn't be here without just a simple little gift.
Joel Brooks:It's why we give. When she gave that, there wasn't a hint of sadness in her heart. She was bursting with joy. It's almost like there was no room for this material stuff because I've got so much joy there, I need to just give it away. I'll always remember that and how we should give in order to both demonstrate the gospel and as a way of showing that we have received the gospel.
Joel Brooks:Pray with me. Lord, there's gonna be a lot of gift giving over the next few weeks. For Lord, we could give a lot of things and it can mean nothing. We can actually give our bodies to be burned and it would profit nothing if it wasn't done out of love for you. And so God, I pray that this season as it unfolds before us, that you'll be Lord of our hearts, Lord of our wallets, Lord, that we would truly believe in the imperishable you have given us and that would prove itself by the releasing of the perishable to those around us.
Joel Brooks:May we demonstrate the gospel that you have so gloriously given us, the grace by which we are saved. We pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.
