FBC Morning Light – May 17, 2022

A good Tuesday morning to you. Hope your week has gotten off to a good start. Your Monday went well and you're jumping into Tuesday ready to do that which

God's given you to do and to do it with all your might. Yesterday in our devotional, we talked about some of the areas of religious practice where we can take great pride.

One of them that we mentioned had to do with our giving levels, giving to the church and so forth.

Whatever that level is, we can take great pride in it. We hear statistics like the average

American only gives like one to two percent, less than two percent to charitable contributions of any kind, to anything.

You can look at how much you give and if it's anything over that, you can take great pride in that.

I don't want to dwell on that, but in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, one of the passages in our reading today, the

Apostle Paul deals with the giving of God's people. He's writing to the church at Corinth to follow up on an earlier need that he expressed to them about the church in Jerusalem, that the believers in the church in Jerusalem were in pretty dire straits and they really needed help.

He was calling on some of the churches in the Roman Empire and asking them to take benevolence offerings for the church in Jerusalem.

The church at Corinth was eager to do so. You read that as the chapter begins.

He says, I know your willingness about which I boast of you to the Macedonians, but a chaos was ready a year ago and your zeal has stirred up the majority.

Paul says, I've talked to others about your eagerness to give to this fund that stirred up other people and they've been eager to give as well.

But now he says, it's time for you to put your eagerness into practice, to put feet to your prayers, if you will, to your commitment.

It's time now to give. As he talks about this, receiving of this offering, there are several different principles that come out when it comes to the matter of our giving to the work of the

Lord. To be correct in the context here, just so we understand,

Paul is talking about a benevolence offering. Offering that's given over and above and beyond the giving that they would need to do in their local church for the sustaining of that ministry in Corinth.

These are funds that are being raised to send to another place to help meet the needs of other people.

But nonetheless, as he talks about that, he brings out several principles. I just want to note them here in chapter 9.

One of them is that that giving should be voluntary. It should be voluntary. He says,

I know your willingness, but, and your zeal has stirred up many, but I want you now to follow through on that.

He says, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go ahead to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised.

And here's why, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity, not as a grudging obligation.

In other words, I'm wanting you to give, to have time to know that this offering is going to be received in a few weeks.

And I want you to be able to give voluntarily as this time for giving actually comes.

I'm not coercing you into anything. I'm not twisting your arm. I'm not pressuring you into anything.

I'm not manipulating you. I've let you know the need. You said you want to help. Okay, now the opportunity has arisen.

It should be voluntary. Then a second principle is that it should be purposeful.

So he says in verse 7, so let each one give as he purposes in his heart.

It should be purposeful. In other words, there should be some thought behind it.

There should be some intentionality about it. It's not a matter of, you know, waiting until the day that the offering is going to be received and then you pull out your wallet and you see what you have in there.

You say, oh man, you know, all I have is $20 bills and I don't want to give 20 bucks.

You know, that kind of, no, this voluntary contribution should be purposeful.

You should purpose in your heart ahead of time what you're going to give. Thirdly, he says it should be individual.

It should be individual. He says, let each one give as he purposes in his heart.

So there's not a set amount that everybody is expected to give.

It's every individual believer needs to take the time and individualize his voluntary purposeful gift.

It should be coming from his heart and it should be coming as he determines or purposes in his heart.

It's individual. And then also notice it should be cheerful. He says, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, not being forced or compelled, for God loves a cheerful giver.

A cheerful giver. So let me ask you, do these things reflect your practice of giving?

Again, the longer that we've been believers, this problem of giving, this matter of giving,

I shouldn't say it's a problem, it's not a problem. The matter of giving can become a problem to us, whether we're young believers or old believers, whether we've been saved a short time or a long time.

The challenge for young believers is to realize that God's work needs the giving of God's people, and that's an adjustment for them.

They're used to living on 100 percent of their income, and now they've come to know the

Lord and they appreciate the ministry of the local church, and they want to be supportive of it, but they haven't never thought before about how much to give, and whether or not they need to give or they should give.

And they grow in this understanding, yeah, I really do need to. Well, then it becomes a matter of,

I want to. It's not a matter of need to, it's a want to. And so there's some issues like that for young believers, but some who've been believers for a long time can fall into more of a trap of routine and habitual practice, where you don't even think about it.

You don't meditate on it, you don't think much about what you give, you just give the same thing all the time.

I had a man in the church years ago who had a really interesting approach to his giving, and he said, every year when

I get a cost of living increase or get a raise, if I get a raise that's over and above the cost of living, then that amount that's over and above the cost of living,

I just purpose to give that to the work of the Lord, because I don't need it to live on.

I'm not suggesting that's what anybody should do, but what I am pointing that out, the reason

I'm pointing that out, is that here's a man who took the time to think about his giving.

He just didn't take it for granted year after year. When you give in that way, it fosters a sense of cheerfulness, that I really want to do this,

I want to be helpful to the Lord's work and to God's people. It should be cheerful. Then it should also be confident.

Your giving should be confident. What I mean by that is what Paul goes on to say, after he says, let each one give as he purposes in his heart, he says,

God is able to make all grace abound to you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.

The verse before that, he said, he who sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

In other words, we can give willingly, purposefully, cheerfully.

We can also give confidently, knowing that God blesses that kind of giving.

We don't have to give fearfully, that if I give, are my needs going to be met, am

I going to be okay, and so on, and wringing our hands about how much we've let go out of our wallet.

No, when God so works in our heart, and we as an individual purpose in our heart to give whatever amount to the

Lord's work or to God's people who are in need, and we give that cheerfully, we can be confident

God's going to take care of us. God's going to take care of us. So, we encourage you to think through your giving to the

Lord's work and to the needs of God's people. Our Father and our God, we live in a society that can be very selfish and self -oriented.

Deliver us from that, Father. Help us to be faithful stewards of all those good things that you've given to us, and help us to give in a way that pleases you, we pray in Jesus' name.