Sunday Sermon: Tithes or Offerings (2 Corinthians 9:1-8)

You are listening to the teaching ministry of Gabrielle Hughes, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Junction City, Kansas.

Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature 20 minutes of Bible study through a

New Testament book. On Thursday is our Old Testament study, and then we answer questions from listeners on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to share our sermon series, presently going through the letters to the

Corinthians. This is the sermon that was preached last week from our pulpit. Here's Pastor Gabe.

The Apostle Paul writing to the church in Corinth. Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which

I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be.

Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated, to say nothing of you, for being so confident in you.

So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift that you have promised, so that it may be ready as a willing gift and not as an exaction.

The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.

As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his righteousness endures forever.

Let us pray. Our great God, what wonderful blessings you have given to us, first and foremost with the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ our

Lord. For whoever believes in him will not perish, but will have everlasting life.

And we are gathered here this morning in that one faith that we have been given, the apostolic ministry that was preached to the world and continues to be preached in the world even now.

So we have heard this gospel and we have turned from our sin and come to know

Jesus Christ as Savior. And in this way you have given to us richly, an abundance that is beyond all measure, that we could even hardly begin to speak about with our words here in this life, and we will continue to marvel at for all eternity when we enter into your kingdom with you.

You have given us every blessing in the heavenly places, as talked about in Ephesians 1.

We have been rescued from darkness and transferred into your kingdom of light, as Peter talked about.

And so we know full well as Christians, as believers in Christ, that you are a

God of abundant blessing and you have blessed us abundantly.

And so I pray that we would continue to ponder these things this morning as we have been blessed abundantly, how can we bless abundantly in return?

And certainly we must give spiritual encouragement to our brothers and sisters in the

Lord. But may we also, with a willing heart, bless one another materially as we are given the opportunity.

Help us to have a spirit that is so willing that we would not cling to the things of this world, but we know our treasure is laid up for us in heaven.

So what difference does it make to us, the things that we possess here on earth, if we're not going to take them with us?

But help us to be generous with these things, that this might be a demonstration of the generosity that has been given to us in Jesus Christ.

And it's in his name that we pray, and all God's people said, amen. Thank you, you may be seated.

A few months ago, I had a conversation with a woman who had not yet attended this church, but she wanted to consider this church as potentially a church family that she and her family could come and be a part of.

So ahead of her coming to Junction City, she called me up and wanted to ask a few questions about our church.

That's not terribly unusual, especially in the military town that we are in.

It's pretty common that we would get a call from a family ahead of their move to Junction City to say, hey,

I found you guys online. I found your website. I found your link through this website or something like that.

And so I've read up on your church, but I'd just like to ask you a few more questions if I could. And so I do my best to answer those questions as honestly as I can.

And this woman, in addition to what she read about our church online, there were two things, two marks that she considered the mark of a healthy church.

And she wanted to know if our church followed these two things. And these were make or break issues for her.

That's all right. We even ask that of those who consider membership with us at First Southern Baptist.

We'll ask, are there any make or break issues that you have? Like, you need to know right now where we stand on this doctrinal issue.

And for you, this is critical for a church to believe this. Better for you to go ahead and ask that question now, unless we would come to that, and then it might cause division or split between us.

So these two questions that she had, these were make or break issues for her. And the first question was, were we a church that had small groups?

She didn't call them that. She had a different name for them, but that was basically the gist of her question. Did we have

Bible studies in homes apart from our usual meeting times?

Sunday, church, Wednesday evening, Iwana. Did we also have Bible studies that met in people's homes outside of church?

And I mentioned my study, which met regularly, and then we had other folks that had little gatherings and get -togethers in their homes.

I don't know if I passed that question test or not. But I know we did not pass the second question.

Her second question was this. Are you a church that teaches your members to tithe?

And I responded to her, well, I tell the members of our congregation that we are to give with a cheerful heart.

Give not under compulsion. Do not give reluctantly, for the

Lord loves a cheerful giver. And that's what I teach our congregation. I don't think that answer sufficed.

What she desired for a church was a church to tithe. But many of you know where I stand on tithing.

I will say that the tithe was not the New Testament system for giving that God intends for His church.

But furthermore, the tithe was not the intention for giving in the

Old Testament either. And we'll talk about that a little bit more today as we come to this passage.

What is meant here by whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now it's most commonly understood that when it comes to giving to the church, you should give 10 % of your income, which is what tithe means.

It means a tenth. And if you can meet that amount,

I would say it's a pretty good goal to try to set for yourself. As a good steward of those things which

God has given to you, if you can give a tenth, give a tenth. If you have a conviction in your heart that you must give a tenth, then

I would say to not give a tenth would be to sin, for you would sin against what you believe in your heart to be the command of God.

But we do not have anything stated for us in the New Testament, a mandatory amount that we are to give unto

God. And it's not even stated that way in the Old Testament as far as our freewill giving is concerned.

And those things we'll see as we look at these scriptures here. But first I want to keep things in context with what we have been studying over the course of 2

Corinthians. In chapter 9, beginning in verse 1, Paul says, It is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints, for I know your readiness, of which

I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia, the region that Corinth was in, has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

So again, as we looked at last week when we were in chapter 8, it's been a year since Paul has sent his previous letter, which was 1

Corinthians, and it's in that letter in chapter 16 that Paul talks about taking up a collection for the ministry of the saints in Jerusalem.

Of all of the saints in all of the world, there were no group of saints that were under more persecution and more struggle, even physically and materially, than those

Christians that were at Jerusalem. Corinth and Achaia, they were a very abundant area. Macedonia, which was to the north of Achaia, was not as abundant, but they had willing hearts that wanted to give unto the ministry of the

Lord, and they were stirred all the more to want to give when they heard about the Christians in Achaia who had prepared to take up this offering that would be sent to Jerusalem.

And so because of the willingness of the Corinthians, the Macedonians are going, hey, that sounds great.

What a great witness. We want to give as well. And as we read in chapter 8, they were even begging

Paul to give. They didn't have as much as the Corinthians did, but they were begging, let us be a part of this giving also.

Paul had bragged about the Corinthians and the willingness that they had, even the stewardship, to prepare to take up this offering.

They had been preparing for a year to take this offering and send it to Jerusalem. And so Paul is boasted about them, and he says, hey, don't let me down here.

I've been boasting about you guys for a year to the Macedonians. So I'm sending these brothers to you who are going to take up the offering that you have gathered so that I may rejoice.

My boasting about you will be justified, and also your joy may be complete in knowing that you have encouraged the

Macedonians to give, and the Jewish Christians there in Jerusalem will rejoice to receive this gift that has been taken up on their behalf.

I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.

And the brothers that Paul refers to in verse 3, I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty.

These are the three men that were mentioned in chapter 8, verses 16 through 24.

The only one who is mentioned by name is Titus, but there's two other men, another brother who has zeal for the

Corinthians and their repentant hearts, their willingness to want to give to the ministry, another brother who is an evangelist and is apparently a very well -known evangelist.

I kind of wonder if it's Apollos, because Apollos was a very popular evangelist, especially among the

Corinthians. They loved Apollos. That's the guy they wanted to have come to them the most. They wanted

Apollos to come. So it could have been him, and because of his acclaim,

Paul didn't want to embarrass him by mentioning his name. So he just says, the well -known evangelist will come to you as well.

And the Corinthians, oh, finally, Apollos is going to come to us. So that's what they were looking forward to.

Previously, in Paul's letter to them the first time, 1 Corinthians, he said, I've asked

Apollos if he's going to come visit you, and he said he's not. So now, in 2

Corinthians, he may be hinting here that now Apollos is ready to come. He's heard about your repentant heart.

You're no longer divided over, well, I like this teacher, I like this teacher, this guy's better than this guy, but you understand that we're all in one spirit, we're all in one accord.

You have repented of your sin, and so now no longer divided over these things, Apollos is willing to come to you.

And he celebrates in knowing the willingness of your hearts to want to give to the ministry of the saints.

So these brothers are going to come to you, verse 3, I'm sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready as I said you would be.

Paul is already vouched for them once before, just a couple of chapters ago when we read about their repentant hearts.

Titus doubted that the Corinthians were truly going to be repentant. He may have even wanted

Paul to shake himself free of the Corinthians, just as Paul did to the synagogue that was there in Corinth, which we read about in the book of Acts.

Which chapter, brother, do you remember? 18 or 19, I was in there somewhere, right.

So Paul is there in Corinth, and he goes to the synagogue, the Jews won't listen to him, so he shakes his garment of them and says, your blood is on your own heads.

And then he went to the Gentiles and preached the gospel to them. So Titus had this attitude of like, you know, you should just shake yourself free of the church that's there as well.

They're sinful, they're not listening to you, they're not obeying God, shake yourself free of them just like you did with the

Jewish synagogue. But Paul vouched for the Corinthians. He said, no, I've been there, I lived there for a year and a half,

I ministered with them, I worshiped with them, I know their hearts. I'm going to tell them to repent, and they're going to repent.

That was what Paul's defense was before Titus. And then, sure enough, that's exactly what happened.

The report that came from Titus when he went to Corinth and visited them, he saw that the very things that Paul rebuked them for, they had repented of, and he came back to Paul with this positive report, and he delighted and rejoiced to see such a change of heart among the

Corinthians. And so Paul has boasted about them once, he's vouched for them before, and now he is doing it again and saying in verse 3,

I said you would be ready to take up this gift, so I'm sending these brothers to you that they would see you have been ready with it, and they're going to collect it up, and they're going to take it to those

Christians who are in need in Jerusalem. Verse 4, otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated to say nothing of you for being so confident.

So it's kind of like he's sending these brothers, just in case you haven't been taking up the offering, so that the

Macedonians would not be discouraged from their giving, which they're already preparing to give.

Verse 5, so I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to go on ahead to you and arrange in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.

Or in other words, the Corinthians would be giving not expecting anything in return. And the

Corinthians would be giving not because they were told to give, but because they had willing hearts to give.

What Paul is talking about here in these first five verses of 2 Corinthians 9 is really an integrity when it comes to giving.

We have integrity even in our giving. In other words, we say we're going to do it, and we do it.

We don't make these empty promises. Well, I'm going to give the church all of this money when I come into it.

Give what you have. Give what you can give. Don't make empty promises to give that you can't follow through on, or this future pipe dream of giving.

I'm going to become this person who's all handsome with six -pack abs and money falling out of my pockets, and when

I'm that guy, I've got a bunch of money I'm going to be handing to the church, okay? Don't be that person.

But what you know you can give now, and what the Lord has impressed upon your heart to give, give cheerfully with a willing spirit.

Have integrity even in your giving. And the example that is set before us by the

Corinthians here, the example that they gave to Achaia and also to the Macedonians, is that a person would even prepare themselves to give.

So it's not giving, like when the offering plate is coming around on Sunday and you see the offering plate coming, you go, oh, yeah,

I need to give something, and you get into your pockets, but you've prepared to give it. And understand, as I'm saying that to you,

I feel the conviction of the Holy Spirit in my own heart even as I'm saying that unto you, because when I saw the offering plates come out this morning,

I went, oh, I forgot to grab the cash off the counter before I came so I could hand it to Becky and the kids, and they might be able to put it in the offering plate.

So I was not properly prepared this morning for that. But even in our giving, we would apportion that which we are going to give unto the

Lord. We budget for it. You make ready for it. You make it intentional, deliberate giving, not accidental giving, not just what

I have in my pocketbook that day, or let's see, I can round out this number and make it to zero in my checkbook.

For those of you who still balance a checkbook, I don't know who, does anybody under 50 still balance a checkbook?

Okay, we do have a few under 50s that are still balancing checkbooks. I actually, honest to goodness,

I actually bought a ledger recently, and I don't know if it's out of fear because of the identity theft issue that my wife and I just recently had, so I can keep my own tabs of records that I'm not constantly having to rely on Internet in order to do that.

Anyway, that's just kind of a side note. I'm trying to be more deliberate with my finances as well.

So in an act of worship, it's not something that we just haphazardly do whenever the plate comes around or whenever we're thinking about it when we're sitting at our computer and maybe we give online or something like that.

But there is a deliberate, a willing spirit. When we're talking about a willing spirit, it's something deliberate.

It's something planned. It's something intentional. It's something that you have set aside specifically for worship.

Giving unto God is an act of worship, that there would be integrity in our giving.

We say what we're going to give, and we give it. We don't promise what we cannot give, or we don't promise that we're going to give something and then fail to give it.

But we are intentional and deliberate with our giving as we would be in any of our worship, giving all of ourselves to God as a spiritual act of worship.

Paul goes on in verse 6 to say, The point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly.

So if you only want to give this much, I don't really want to give more than that. I've got some other things I want to spend money on myself this week, so I'm only going to give this much money.

Then what you're going to reap back from the Lord is going to be not a whole lot. And when

I say not a whole lot, I'm not saying that God is returning unto you wealth in return for the giving that you gave to God.

We've got no such promise in the Word of God that we would ever receive wealth back in this lifetime because of what we gave unto the

Lord. But instead, it would be a spiritual blessing that we would reap.

And whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. You give a lot of your material goods unto the

Lord, you will receive a lot of spiritual blessing. There are many out there, prosperity teachers, who will use passages like this to say,

If you give unto God a lot of money, He will give a lot of money back to you so that you may give a lot more unto

God. But we have no such promise. Nothing like that is given to us in Scripture. In fact, where I want to go next week when we finish up 2

Corinthians 9 is I want to take a moment to tackle some of that prosperity theology that is so prevalent, especially in our

Western world, in the Western culture, Western Europe, United States of America. The prosperity doctrine is very, very prevalent and snatches a lot of people up to believe a lot of things that the

Bible simply does not say about how God will bless us. But here, if we give unto the

Lord with a spiritual heart our material things, we will reap spiritual blessings.

Verse 7, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Now notice that the title of the sermon today is not tithes and offerings.

It's tithes or offerings is the title of the sermon.

Very common teaching, especially in fundamentalist churches, is that we must give 10 % of our income unto

God. It is one of the most common questions that I field in the ministry of when we understand the text related to tithing.

Somebody will contact me and will say, hey, I'm attending a church. They make tithing mandatory.

They will even check your bank account, and if you're not giving 10%, you will be disciplined by that church.

What should I do? My response is always the same, leave that church. Jesus himself said in the

Sermon on the Mount, do not let your right hand know what your left hand is doing. So why does this church take it upon themselves to know what you're doing with your finances?

I do not keep track of anyone's giving in this church, and I do that deliberately because in my flesh,

I don't want to look at you as someone who either gives a lot or doesn't give a lot to the church.

Now, our treasurer here at the church does keep track of what you give, and that's for your benefit.

So when tax season comes along, you can ask for a record of your giving, and that way you can file that on your income taxes, and that's totally up to you whether you want to take that or whether you don't.

But no one has ever been disciplined for their giving or not giving to this church, at least as long as I've been here.

There was a Q &A between D .A. Carson and Mark Dever, both who were at a

Gospel Coalition conference, and the two of them were up on stage, and they were taking questions that had already been written down by the congregation.

So it wasn't people coming up to a microphone and asking questions. They were all just kind of filed on note cards, and they were just handed to Carson, and Carson would ask

Dever a question or Dever would ask Carson a question. One of the questions that Dever was asked, and this came from the congregation, if a person in your church is not giving to the church, not giving of their finances to the church, how should the church respond to that?

And Mark Dever said, pray for them? And he said, if you're asking me that question to ask, should the church discipline that person?

He said, no, no, there's no mandate for church discipline upon a person because they're not giving.

There's nothing in the Scripture that tells us that we absolutely must give X amount, and if we're not giving that amount, and no one is keeping track of that amount that we are giving, therefore we fall under church discipline, and if we're not willing to give, then we're going to be booted out of the church.

There's nothing in the Bible that says that. Rather, our giving unto the Lord is an act of worship. And so if a person wants to give a lot, that is up to them.

If they don't want to give so much, it has to do with what the

Spirit has laid upon their heart to give. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, the willing heart that wants to give.

Where did we get this concept from of giving 10 % of our income to the church? Well, you probably know.

It comes from the Old Testament. But when you go to the Old Testament and you look at the tithes that were being collected in Israel, it wasn't just 10%.

As a matter of fact, they were giving somewhere between 20 % and 30 % of their income unto

God. There was not just one tithe. There were several tithes. Here's a short list of some of those required givings that Israel had to give.

You have the Levitical tithe, which is kind of the main one, and that's the one that we reference most often when it comes to giving 10 % unto

God. Leviticus 27, 30 -33, we read about the Levitical tithe. Verse 30,

So that 10 % already belongs to God. It is already supposed to go to God.

It belongs to Him. Don't give it anywhere else. It is supposed to go to the Levitical priesthood.

In Deuteronomy 14, verses 22 -27, we read about the festival tithe.

You shall tithe all the yield of your seed that comes from the field year by year.

That's in verse 22. You go down to verses 28 -29, then you have the three -year tithe.

At the end of every three years, you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up in your towns.

And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the

Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. There's three tithes that we have right there, and already that amounts up to about 22 -23 % of their giving.

But there's more giving that they were required to give than that. Leviticus 19, 9 -10, we read about the welfare tax.

Leave the corners of your field for the poor and the sojourner. The poor did not own lands, they couldn't harvest their own lands, so they did not have bounty to live off of.

So those who owned fields and harvested fields, they were supposed to leave the corners of their fields or the edges of the fields so that the poor, who did not own fields, or the sojourner, who was traveling through, so of course they didn't own land, could glean from what was left over and be provided for.

This was the welfare system in Israel. If they dropped any grapes on the harvest floor, they weren't supposed to take them up.

They were supposed to leave what was there alone so that the poor and the sojourner would come in and take whatever was left over on the harvest floor.

Same with barley, grain, anything else. In Exodus 23, 10 -11, we read about the

Sabbath year. A Sabbath year, a giving the land rest that the poor may eat and the beasts of the field.

So you harvest your field every six years. In the seventh year, you give it rest so the poor may eat from your land and the beasts may eat from it as well.

In Exodus 30, 11 -16, we read about the census tax. Whenever a census was taken of the people of Israel, they were to pay a tax, for their lives belonged to God.

So it was as though they were paying for the counting of their very lives in Israel. This is an example of some of the taxes that they had to pay.

So altogether, you're talking about close to 30 % of what they had to pay in taxes unto

God. Israel was a theocracy. This was a government that was ruled over by God, and all of the taxes that they paid was for the function of that government.

Even the Levitical tax, even the tax that was paid to the Levitical priests, this was for the function of the temple and for the

Levites who oversaw the law. So as the law is being exercised in Israel, it would be like paying our taxes for law enforcement in Junction City.

This was the same as paying the Levitical tax. It's not exactly the same because our law enforcement are overseeing the temple of Junction City.

But nonetheless, there is a close correlation there, as the Levitical priests were the ones who taught the law to the people.

There's only one kind of giving that is mandated for us as Christians to pay in the

New Testament, and we find it in Matthew 22, verses 15 through 22, and in Romans 13, verses 1 through 7.

What is the only giving in those two passages that we as Christians are required to pay? Taxes.

That's it. That's exactly what we're required to pay, our taxes, because we pay our taxes for the function of the government.

We being a military church, you should understand that. Our soldiers here in this room are being paid by our tax dollars.

The function of government in Junction City, however dysfunctional that government might be, amen,

Leanne, nonetheless functions by our giving of taxes.

So we pay our taxes for the function of the government. Jesus said to pay our taxes in Matthew 22, and Paul says it also in Romans 13, that we pay to whom taxes are owed.

And every government that exists on planet earth has been established by God. And if we don't pay our taxes, we're actually rebelling against the

Lord. And this is the required giving that is mandated for us in the

Scriptures. You know, whenever we talk about tithes or whenever we talk about giving of our income, you'll often hear the phrase giving of our first fruits, right?

Give your first fruits unto God. That's an impossibility. We can't even do that. Because our first fruits have been taken by the government.

So the giving of the first fruits in theocratic Israel was that giving unto the function of the government.

And here in the United States of America, that which gets taken out from our paychecks for the purpose of funding the government, that would be of our first fruits.

But the system of giving in both the Old Testament and the New Testament has always been freewill giving.

These were the taxes that the Israelites were required to pay, but then there was also other freewill giving that they gave.

That's the system of giving in the Old Testament. It's the system of giving in the New Testament church as well.

We read about some of that freewill giving in 2 Chronicles chapter 31, when

Hezekiah brought reform to the temple. The people gave so much that they didn't have the storehouses to store it all.

There was a box in which the offering for the temple was collected, and every day the priest came to open that box up, and it was full.

They had to empty it out and set it back out again so that the people could give more money for the purpose of giving offerings unto the temple.

This was in addition to the Levitical taxes and all these other kinds of taxes that they had to pay, the tithes that they have to give for the function of the government of Israel.

So the freewill giving was on top of all of that, and we, as the people of God, we also have freewill giving.

And this is what Paul is talking about here. That we would give as we have decided in our hearts to give, not reluctantly, like, oh,

I don't want to give, but, you know. Not really with a cheerful heart.

You're just doing it because you think you have to do it. Not under compulsion. I'm doing it, again, because I have to do it.

And even for those who are tithers, if you are convicted in your heart that you must tithe, then please tithe.

But I would just ask that you not do it out of habit. Like, it's the amount that you mark off on your ledger or in your budget every single month, along with all the other bills that you have to pay.

So, oh, there's my tithe, boom, you know. So you're paying that same amount every single month, and it's not anything for you to think about anymore.

Or even if you have chosen online to give so much money per month, which, through our online system, you can even designate how much you want to have come out of your bank account every month to be given to the church.

Even if you have done that, please don't let it become a thing where it's, like, out of sight, out of mind.

It's come automatically out of my bank account, and now I don't even have to think about it. I don't even have to think about giving in church on Sunday because I know it has already been deducted from my giving.

Well, then it's no longer an act of worship. And you don't rejoice to give, and you're not consciously giving.

It's just something that you're doing reluctantly or under compulsion. But we do it cheerfully because it is our delight to give unto

God, whom we know has given us so much through His Son, Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sins so that out of His poverty, as we read about in chapter 8, we might become rich.

He became poor so that we might have the very kingdom of God for all those who believe on His name.

And so because we've been given so much in Christ Jesus, we would be willing and wanting to give so much back as an act of worship.

A few years ago, this was five years ago now, when we were kind of evaluating everything that we were doing as a church, from the top down, everything that we did, were we operating as a biblically faithful church?

And one of those things that kind of came into my radar that we needed to evaluate was how we gave, how we as a church collected offerings, how we distributed those offerings.

And I was listening to different preachers preach on passages like this, out of 2 Corinthians chapter 9, and expounding upon what

God's expectation is of us as givers. And so are we as a church, are we faithful even in our giving?

And I listened to one pastor who was talking about this, and he agreed with me that the system of giving, as we have it given to us in the

Scripture, is not the tithe. That was mandatory giving for the people of Israel, but it was not required giving for the people of God.

Yeah, right, did I say that right? Yeah, not freewill giving, as we are expected to give freely. So I was listening to this preacher talk about how they collected their offerings in church, and because they did not want anyone to give reluctantly or under compulsion, they stopped passing the offering plate around.

Instead, they just had a box in the back. Maybe they were inspired by Hezekiah. I don't know if that was why they did that or not.

But they had a box in the back that people just gave in when they came into service and when they walked out of service.

They would just drop money in the box. And so I proposed that idea. At the time, we didn't have elders.

It was just me and the deacons, and we were kind of talking about different things. We as a church, are we operating in a faithful manner?

And so I suggested that. I said, what if we took the offering plate out of service? What if we just put envelopes in the bulletins, or we just ask people to drop in the box in the back or give online or something like that, but we don't pass the offering plate around in the service anymore?

And it was actually Brother Dave that spoke up against that. Some were in favor and some were not.

Some could see my argument. Some didn't agree with it. But Dave actually gave a good biblical defense for why we should not take the offering plate out of the service.

And he said, because the passing of the offering plate is part of our worship service.

And we put money in the offering plate as an act of worship to God.

And so since it's part of our worship service, it should stay. And it should even remain in a prominent place, not put at the very end.

So it's kind of like, ah, we're done with it. Oh, yeah, we've got to take the money. But we put it right in the middle so that there would be just as much focus on giving money as there would be singing songs or listening to the

Word of God being read. And I thought that was a very wise and biblical defense for that.

For as we go on to read here in 2 Corinthians 9, I'm going to go ahead and read it for you, but then we'll come back to this teaching next week.

In verse 10, Paul says, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

Right? Not your bank account of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

For the ministry of this service is not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

So there we have it, mentioned as an act of worship. This ministry of this service, verse 12, not only supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.

By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others.

While they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.

Thanks be to God for His inexpressible gift. So because of the gift that we've been given in Jesus Christ, our

Savior, we would be willing to give in return. We give all of ourselves. Loving the

Lord with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength. Loving God with our bodies, offering up to God as a holy and pleasing sacrifice unto the

Lord. This is our spiritual act of worship, Romans 12 .1. But as we love

God with all that we are, that would even include the money that we make, for it all belongs to God anyway.

As I've heard many preachers say, using a little bit of wordplay, but nonetheless

I think it's a very pertinent and relevant instruction, is that we would give all of ourselves to God, time, talent, and treasure.

So you have time, some of your time that you devote unto God, that you give to the work of ministry.

Talent, the gifts that God has given you, that you give back to the work of ministry. And treasure, those finances that God has given to you, that you would also even give a portion of that back to God.

But not as any given amount, and not because somebody told you to, but because you have a heart that desires to please and worship

God, even in your giving. John 3 .16,

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten

Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life.

We already have a guaranteed inheritance and reward in Jesus Christ.

And so as God has given us so much, may we have hearts that are willing to give back to Him in return.

We'll continue to talk about this some more next week. There were some things that I had even written in your bulletin passages of Scripture that I didn't even get to today.

I thought I was going to have more time to do, but did not quite get that far. So we'll come back to those things next week.

I also want to give time to warning the church about the prosperity gospel because it is so prevalent.

And even as teachers like Joel Osteen and Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar, what a name for a prosperity teacher, and Kenneth Copeland and some of these guys, even as they have been warned about, there are many in the church that understand some of these guys are snakes.

They're snake oil salesmen. We should have nothing to do with them. But there is still even a version of the prosperity doctrine that has become so prevalent that is,

I've heard Votie Bauckham refer to it as prosperity light. And it's a little more sneaky.

And if you're not cautious about it, it's some of those teachers that will still even try to guilt you into giving unto

God and giving you promises in your giving that God's Word does not actually say.

So even when it comes to giving, we must be careful and wary of those false teachers. And we'll talk more about that next week.

In the meantime, as we come to a close, we rejoice in the giving of God's Son, Jesus Christ, for our sins.

For that is the greatest gift that we could ever be given. And as we have read this morning, even in our congregational reading, that it is in Christ that we have victory over this life, over sin, over death, and hell itself.

For by His stripes we have been healed. Through His wounds our joys have not ceased.

Let hills have no slaves.

For the strong ones and the weak are the same under His blood.

For empty hand it all must come to receive

His endless love. So let all condemnation cease.

Let hills have no more slaves.

Let hills have no more pain. Let the hills hold them for the

Lamb was slain.

Thank you for listening to our weekly sermon presented by First Southern Baptist Church of Junction City, Kansas.

For more information about our church, visit fsbcjc .org.

On behalf of our church family, my name is Becky, inviting you to join us again this week, Growing Together in Christ, when we understand the text.