All the saints of a healthy church bear the burden of ministry, and all saints of a local church should give sacrificially of their time, talent, and treasures. And brothers and sisters, we give sacrificially of our time, talent, and treasure because we belong to God and because we are motivated by grace.
2 Corinthians 8:1-7:
We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 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. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, 4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. 6 Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace. 7 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.
We Belong to God
The Corinthian church was wealthier than the others, but they were not leading the way in generosity. So Paul challenges them. The Macedonian churches (Phlippi, Thessalonica, Berea) gave what they had and then some, and it was their idea. Paul says they begged for the opportunity to take part in providing relief to the saints. Why?
Because they gave themselves first to the Lord. We belong to God.
I cannot stress this enough. When you are a Christian, you are not your own. Now, to be clear, you were not your own before you were a Christian. When you became a Christian, you confessed that the one who created you, who formed you in your mother’s womb, who loved you before the foundation of the world, has a claim on you. That you are his, and that in Christ, you have been ransomed from the prison of sin.
My only comfort is that I am not my own but belong, body and soul, in life and in death, to my faithful savior, Jesus Christ.
Any discussion of we have must first deal with who has us. Everything I am and everything I have belongs to someone else.
I belong to Jesus. Therefore, he owns everything I own. This is a simple truth, but this is a life-changing truth. Everything I have is his! Before you talk about generosity, you must talk about who owns the resources in question. Generosity is less about how much of mine do I have to give and more about how much of his I really need to keep.
The saints in Macedonia sacrificially gave to the saints of Jerusalem because they had already given themselves to Jesus. Having given themselves to God, their desires lined up with his, and Paul says by God’s will they gave to the work in Jerusalem.
We give our time, Sunday mornings and beyond, because Jesus is worth our time and already owns our time.
We give our talents, our spiritual and physical gifts, our passions, our hobbies, and our interests, to the church and the Kingdom because Jesus is the one who gave them to us. He has a claim on them.
We give our treasure–our money–to the church, to the poor, and to each other, because Jesus owns it, and because he is our treasure. We treasure him more than money!
We give because we belong to God and because we are motivated by grace.
Motivated by Grace
The grace of God leads to an abundance of joy. Belonging to God is not this sad and weary thing.
Who am I that you, God, are mindful of me? I was running my hell-bound race, living for myself, and you chased me down, surrounded me with your love and gave me life. And none of this was my doing! It was all God–it was all him. He saw me, he loved me, he chose me, he chased me down, he made me his own.
As Paul told the Galations: I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the fleas, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me (2:20).
The life I now live I live by faith through grace. Meaning, I believe in God’s unmerited, unearned love for me–that he has shown me mercy, and I live to extend that love, grace, and mercy.
This grace leads me to joy, and this joy leads me to action. Their abundance of joy overflowed in generosity.
God does not need your money. Don’t give reluctantly, don’t give under some sort of compulsion. Give joyfully and bountifully as you’ve decided in your heart.
Healthy churches are full of people who are held by the grace of God and moved to joy. And in that joy they give–not just money, not just time, not just effort–but all these things.
Church, I believe wholeheartedly that a healthy church doesn’t just know what a church should look like–but grace compels us to be a generous community, a community that sees needs and meets needs, not out of compulsion, but out of joy.
I encourage you to evaluate your current giving habits and prayerfully consider what the Lord leads you to do.
I encourage you to evaluate the time you dedicate to the church and to intentional service to others in some way.
I encourage you to evaluate your gifts, what you’re good at, what you like, and consider how you may use those to serve the church and bless the world.
We belong to God. And we are motivated by grace to give sacrificially because we have been given so much.
