" LIFE TAKES GOD $ENSE "
Look Up: 2
Corinthians 9:6-7; 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Sermon preached by Dr. Wayne
Poplin, Senior Pastor of
Carmel Baptist Church, Matthews, NC
INTRODUCTION:
I am sure that I
have covered all the bases of emotions, feelings and attitudes when it comes to
giving. There are times when I have been generous and times when I have
been ungenerous in my giving. I have given freely, and I have given when I
felt forced. I have given cheerfully, and I have given begrudgingly and
reluctantly. When I was pastoring in Virginia, one Sunday evening I was invited
to preach at an African-American church. The highlight of the
service was not my preaching but the taking of the offering. They
congregation marched. As they sang, the whole congregation came row by row
to a table at the front of the church and placed their offerings there. It
was great [As I watched, I was thinking this is what we ought to do at our
church]. It was exciting. It was a celebration. That is, until
I saw the pastor nod, motioning that it was time for all of us on the platform
to march too. I hadn’t seen that coming. I reached in my pocket to
see what I had. There was a lone $20 bill. That was back when $20
was $20 dollars. Our budget was tight in those days, and I did not want to
give that $20. All of a sudden the celebration went sour [I was thinking,
why would you ever want to take an offering this way]. I knew I was going
to be forced to give that $20, and I was not happy about it. That’s when
I became very interested it what was happening at the “money table.”
By now, the table had money strewn all over it. But as I watched I saw
something going on that lifted my spirit. They were making change at the
table. Yes! I knew that I could make change at the table.
I could salvage some of my twenty. All of a sudden I felt better about
giving. But my feeling better about giving fell a long way short of what
Paul meant when he said:
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not
reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver [2 Corinthians
9:7].
There have been a lot of times when God must have been very disappointed in my
giving attitude. Things may have looked cheery and spiritual on the
outside, but inside it was a different story. Can you identify?
Knowing what a struggle giving can be, I am intrigued with the verse in 2
Corinthians 9:7 where it talks about a “cheerful” giver. I understand
giving reluctantly [let’s get a present because I know they are going to get
us one]. I understand giving under compulsion [because of position or
timing]. But can we give and truly be cheerful about it? Here is
another intriguing thing in that verse. It says that the one who gives
cheerfully—God loves that guy. Wouldn’t it be great to be able to give
cheerfully and to absolutely delight God in the process?
This verse in 2 Corinthians really ties in with our main passage in 1 Timothy 6.
If we follow the command of God and give to do good, be rich in good deeds and
be generous and willing to share, there is cheerfulness written all over that.
I know that taking hold of life that is truly life is a cheerful experience.
So, how can we give cheerfully? And what is it about that kind of giving
that delights God so much?
It is easy to think that you can give cheerfully if you have plenty.
Especially, if you have a lot and want miss it. But that is not
necessarily true. There are many people who have a lot, but giving is
anything but cheerful. There are givers and getters in the world, and the
getters don’t understand cheerful giving no matter how much they get.
They are never content. They live to get more.
Who is more content, a man with 12 million dollars or a man with 12 children?
The right answer is the man with 12 children. He knows that he doesn’t
want any more! The one with 12 million dollars may not know that.
Having a lot does not automatically make you a cheerful giver. It may even
make you more reluctant to give [Statistics show that the more we make, the less
we give].
On the other hand, it is probably hard to think that a person
can give cheerfully if they have very little. But that is not true either.
I realized that when I read about the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians. Paul
said that they gave excitedly and cheerfully out of extreme poverty.
Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme
poverty welled up in rich generosity [2 Corinthians 8:2].
You can give
cheerfully out of little! Eddie Ogan tells a story about the Smith family
giving when they had next to nothing. Here is a portion of the story.
I’ll never forget Easter 1946. I was 14, my little sister Ocy was 12
and my older sister Darlene was 16. We lived at home with our mother, and
the four of us knew what it was to do without many things. My dad had died
five years before, leaving Mom with seven [the older siblings had married or
left home].
A month before Easter the pastor of our church announced that a special Easter
offering would be taken to help a poor family. He asked everyone to save
and give sacrificially.
When we got home we talked about what we could do. We decided to buy 50
pounds of potatoes and live on them for a month. This would allow us to
save $20 of our grocery money for the offering. Then we thought that if we
kept our electric lights turned out as much as possible and didn’t listen to
the radio, we’d save money on that month’s electric bill. Darlene got
as many house and yard cleaning jobs as possible, and both of us babysat for
everyone we could. For 15 cents we could buy enough cotton loops to make
three pot holders to sell for $1. We made $20 on pot holders.
That month was one of the best of our lives. Every day we counted the
money to see how much we had saved. At night we’d sit in the dark and
talk about how the poor family was going to enjoy having the money the church
would give them. We had about 80 people in church, so we figured that
whatever amount of money we had to give, the offering would surely be 20 times
that much. After all, every Sunday the pastor had reminded everyone to
save for the sacrificial offering.
The day before Easter, Ocy and I walked to the grocery store and got the manager
to give us three crisp $20 bills and one $10 bill for all our change. We
ran all the way home to show Mom and Darlene. We had never had so much
money before. That night we were so excited we could hardly sleep.
We didn’t care that we wouldn’t have new clothes for Easter; we had $70 for
the sacrificial offering. We could hardly wait to get to church! On
Sunday morning, rain was pouring. We didn’t own an umbrella, and the
church was over a mile from our home, but it didn’t seem to matter how wet we
got. Darlene had cardboard in her shoes to fill the holes. The
cardboard came apart, and her feet got wet. But we sat in church proudly.
I heard some teenagers taking about the Smith girls having on their old dresses.
I looked at them in their new clothes, and I felt rich.
When the sacrificial offering was taken , we were sitting on the second row from
the front. Mom put in the $10 bill, and each of us kids put in a $20 bill.
As we walked home after church, we sang all the way. At lunch Mom had a
surprise for us. She had bought a dozen eggs, and we had boiled Easter
eggs with our fried potatoes. Late that afternoon the minister drove up in
his car. Mom went to the door, talked with him for a moment, and then came
back with an envelope in her hand. We asked what it was, but she didn’t
say a word. She opened the envelope and out fell a bunch of money.
There were three crisp $20 bills, one $10 and seventeen $1 bills. Mom put
the money back in the envelope. We didn’t talk, just sat and stared at
the floor.
We had gone from feeling like millionaires to feeling like poor white trash.
I knew we didn’t have a lot of things that other people had, but I’d never
thought that we were poor. That Easter day I found out we were. The
minister had brought the money for the poor family, so we must be poor.
All that week we went to school and came home, and no one talked much.
Finally on Saturday Mom asked us what we wanted to do with the money. What
did poor people do with money? We didn’t know. We’d never known
we were poor. We didn’t want to go to church on Sunday but Mom said we
had to. We
didn’t talk on the way. Mom started to sing but no one joined in and she
sang only one verse. At church we had a missionary speaker. He
talked about how churches in
Cheerful
giving isn’t automatic when a person has a lot nor negated when a person has
little. You can give cheerfully out of a lot or out of nothing.
Cheerful giving is not determined that way. What makes a person a cheerful
and a generous giver?
1.
Understanding ownership. When we think like owners [about what we have],
it is a red flag. I have access to an account that God has put in my name,
but I am only the manager—not the owner. How could anyone be cheerful
giving their money away? But realizing that it isn’t theirs. I
love giving away somebody else’s money. I have had the opportunity to do
that on a number of occasions. It is fun.
2.
Being freed from covetousness. I have an opportunity to give cheerfully
when the hold that covetousness has on me is being broken. We can get so
caught up in wanting stuff that giving becomes a painful experience, because we
see giving as losing our opportunity to get more. If you want to become a
cheerful giver, don’t wait until you feel cheerful to give, but start giving
to break the hold of what makes us uncheerful givers. Giving can infuse
joy into our lives.
It
is more blessed to give than receive [Acts
It isn’t bad to receive. It is a blessing to receive.
But it is more blessed to give than receive.
3.
Learning contentment. Paul says that contentment is learned.
I have learned the secret of being content in any and every
situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want
[Philippians 4:12].
Isn’t it
true that contentment is learned? Paul said that it is a “family
secret.” Contentment doesn’t just happen, but it is learned.
Haven’t most of us had enough time to figure out that stuff doesn’t bring
contentment? It makes us feel good for only a little while.
Haven’t we learned that with stuff, the chase is the most fun--the planning,
going through the catalogues, thinking about having it. Stuff doesn’t
provide lasting contentment—especially when the bills start coming in.
Contentment comes in a relationship with Jesus and an active reliance on Him. It
is understanding that He is enough in every situation. He is always enough
4.
Understanding how God has given to you.
Understand
the gift of His grace! Grace is an act and generous giving is a reaction
to that grace. Also understand how generously He has given to us. He
is the God Who said, “Eat freely of every tree”, the One Who makes the cup
overflow, Who gives “good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running
over”, and Who does exceedingly more than we can think or imagine.
Psalm 37:21 says that the godly are generous. I want to be godly. I
want to be generous like my God. I don’t believe that we can love God
with all of our hearts, minds and strength without being generous like He is.
Godly people are generous.
I don’t believe that you can follow Jesus without giving and serving.
Jesus said in Mark 10:45 that He came to serve and to give. Two things!
If we are not giving and serving, we are not following Jesus.
Those are
some of the things that make a giver a cheerful giver. I think the
Macedonians and the Smith family knew these things.
2 Corinthians 9: 7 says that when God finds a cheerful giver, He is delighted.
Why? Because that is the way He gives, and He loves to see us acting like
Himself. He loves to see us take hold of life that is truly life. He
loves to see us in on His plan. Everything He has made gives—the sun,
the trees, the clouds, ocean [evaporation], etc. And as these things give,
they are able to continue to give. When He sees that in us, He loves it.
When was the last time somebody cheerfully gave something to you? Didn’t
you love it?
Does “cheerful” describe us when we give? This series has
come at a time when we have had all kinds of giving opportunities—budget,
missions, Student Building. This series was planned before I knew the
If you are not a cheerful giver, why not? What will it
take to make you a cheerful giver? Do you need to get ownership straight?
Do you need to be freed from covetousness? Do you need to ponder the
grace? Do you need to learn how to be content?
Can you imagine a whole church giving cheerfully? Do
you know how exciting that would be? God would love it. And so would
we.