Sermon 2 Corinthians 8:1-11 “Giving According to Your Means”

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

New Covenant Presbyterian Church

Sermon 2 Corinthians 8:1-11 “Giving According to Your Means”

November 19, 2017

Today is Stewardship Sunday.   We remember today of all of God’s blessings.  We have received many.   The reason God blesses us is to use us to carry out His plan for our world.   So we receive abundantly from God and give out of that abundance.  We give out of our time and money.   We will look at what the Bible says about giving, but first, let’s pray.

“Grant unto us, O Lord, to be occupied in the mysteries of thy heavenly wisdom, with true progress in piety, to thy glory and our own edification. Amen.” (John Calvin)

We begin looking at a portion of a letter sent from Paul to the church at Corinth.   Paul wants them to imitate other churches in the practice of giving.

2 Corinthians 8:1 And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. 2 In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.

The churches Paul lifts up as examples for us to follow were poor churches suffering from persecution.  You would expect that given their poverty and problems giving would be very low.  You can’t squeeze blood out of a turnip.  But that was not the case.  In fact, the members of the church were quite generous given their means.  Why would this be?   Why would they give generously to the mission of God through the church given their unfortunate circumstances?  Well, we are told that it was because of their extreme joy.   They had received forgiveness of sin from their gracious God.  They had received the promise of eternal life in the resurrection from the dead.   They had received fellowship in the church.   They had received the gift of answered prayer.    They were grateful for all these gifts. They were filled with joy.  And so they gave to God’s mission through the church.   Let’s get back to Paul’s letter.

3 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, 4 they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord’s people. 5 And they exceeded our expectations: They gave themselves first of all to the Lord, and then by the will of God also to us.

Wow!  Even though they experienced great poverty and suffering they responded to God’s grace overwhelmingly.   They opened their checkbooks and gave because of the abundant grace they had received from God.   What if we counted our blessing?  How much have we received from God?   Has God blessed us with health?  Has God blessed us with family?  Has God blessed us with homes and ability to travel?  Has God blessed us with church?   Even if you are suffering financially I think you have to conclude that you have richly received abundant blessings from God.

So what are we to do about all this?   Let’s return to the letter.

6 So we urged Titus, just as he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. 7 But since you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in the love we have kindled in you—see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

The blessing of church is amazing.   Here we learn about God, who He is and what He does?  We learn about His coming to earth as a man named Jesus who loved us and cared for us like a shepherd cares for his sheep.   Jesus leads us to the Father and secures for us forgiveness of sins and eternal life.   And we learn about the Spirit, who transforms us as disciples and empowers us to do what God wants us to do.   We learn how to love God and love one another.   And our faith grows.  We learn all this knowledge and experience this reality right here in church.

But there is one more thing that we learn in church.   We learn the grace of giving.  We give in gratitude for all that God had given us.   And as we give we experience great joy because we are doing what our maker created us to do.

So we now know why we give, in gratitude for what God has already given us.  But even with this knowledge, sometimes, we just don’t give as we should.   And so sometimes we need a kick in the pants.  Let’s hear what Paul has to say to us.

8 I am not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others.

So Paul is trying to shame the Corinthian church.  Here they sit, a wealthy church.   They live in fine homes, travel to distant places, and eat the best food.   And yet their giving is not up to the standards set by much poorer churches.  And so Paul has sent Titus to Corinth to help the church realize how much they have been blessed by God and help them grow in both faith and generosity.

Let’s take a look at our church’s giving.   “On average Presbyterians give 1.5 percent of their annual income to the church–an average of about $580 annually, which results in a total amount of giving to our church of around $1.5 billion. If every Presbyterian tithed, together we would give $9.5 billion.”   ( https://www.presbyterianmission.org/what-we-believe/stewardship)   

According to statistics from the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)  New Covenant has 168 members.   We had $118,411 in regular contributions last year.   That comes out to an average contribution of $705 per member, a little more than the average for all Presbyterian congregations.   According to the United States Census the median income for Middletown, zip code 19709, is $97000.   If we assume that the members of this church are typical of this community and earn around the median income, then the average member gives .7% of their income to the church.   Individuals and families may be giving more or less than this, but these are the averages.

(https://church-trends.pcusa.org/church/11365/financials)

(https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/cf/1.0/en/zip/19709/INCOME/MEDIAN_HH_INCOME)

Now, let's suppose that members of the church gave, on average, a tithe or 10% of their income to the church.   What would happen to our budget?    If 168 members gave 10%,  $9700 each, then annually we would have a budget of $1,600,000.   With this budget, we would provide wonderful worship and education facilities for the whole community.   We would never again have to have a special offering for the roof.  We would have a Senior Pastor and an Associate Pastor for Youth and Families.    We could better support Neighborhood House, Our Daily Bread, our Kenyan partners, and Compassion International.   And we would be starting new churches in growing areas of Delaware.  

But since our budget is just a fraction of that we limp along with a pastor making the minimum, and little money left over for anything else.   The $150,000 or so we have in total revenue each year doesn’t go very far.         

Our lack of giving is especially grievous given the sacrifice that Jesus made for all of us.   Let’s listen some more to the letter from Paul.

9 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 through his poverty might become rich.

The Savior we worship is God with all the prerogatives of heaven.  He could have stayed there and enjoyed heaven.   But he didn’t.   He emptied himself of his divinity and came to earth to be with us.  Here he suffered as we do.  Here he died as we do.   But in his death, he defeated the evil one and secured for us forgiveness of sin and eternal life.   He did all of this because he loves us.   Do we love him?  Are we grateful for what Jesus did?  Are we willing to give a percentage of our income to advance God’s kingdom on earth?  A biblical tithe, 10%, would be for someone with the median income in Middletown around $800 per month, so little when compared to what Christ has done for us.

So what are we to do?   Paul does not beat around the bush.   Here is what he told the Corinthian church to do.  Listen carefully.

10 And here is my judgment about what is best for you in this matter. Last year you were the first not only to give but also to have the desire to do so. 11 Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means.

Corinth is a rich church.  But in comparison to poor churches, they are just not carrying their weight.   They have generously given in the past, but now they have to do more.    And Paul wants them to give according to their means.   They are not to give just a token amount every Sunday.  They are not to give the same amount they have been giving for the last twenty years.   They are to give a percentage of their income, maybe the biblical tithe, 10%.

So what would the Apostle Paul tell us if he came here and saw the wealth of this community?   What would he say if he visited our homes and saw our lifestyles?   What would he say when he compared our homes to this church?   What would he say when he looked at the programs of this church given the needs of this community?   I think he would tell us the same thing he told the Corinthian church.  

2 Corinthians 9:6 Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. 7 Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

Let’s pray.    Lord Jesus, you have blessed us richly with money and homes and families and travel and jobs and everything we value.   And for all of this, we are so grateful.   So now we offer a percentage of these gifts as our tithes and offerings.   We ask Lord for forgiveness for low levels of giving.  And we ask that you help us budget so that we can return to you an appropriate portion of what we have received.   This we pray in thanksgiving.  Amen.