Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : July 16, 2006

Theme: Offerings from Rich Beggars

Church year occasion: Pentecost 6

Dairy farmers milk their cows every day, rain or shine or snow. A snow storm can make it a challenge. In the days before electric light it could be dangerous to try to reach the barn in the middle of howling, whiteout blizzard. You could get lost and never find your way to the barn or back to the house. Farmers solved that problem by using a guideline -- a rope tied between house and barn. As long as he held on to that rope, he went in the right direction and he didn't get lost.

This morning we will be given a guideline not to be able to milk cows, but a guideline in how we can give to the Lord in our offerings. Without something to keep us going in the right direction, as eager as we might be to serve God with the gifts he has given us, good intentions can get lost in the flurry of other activities and demands of our lives. That's what happened to Christians in 1st century Corinth. They began collecting an offering to help starving Christians in Jerusalem. But somewhere along the line they got lost. So God inspired St. Paul to give guidelines to those Christians to get them back on track. So this morning God is saying to all of us: Let's look at our offerings.

I. Let's appreciate God's offering to us
A. The Macedonian Christians
1. Offering being collected for the poor Christians in Jerusalem

2 Corinthians 8:3-4 For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

B. The Corinthian Christians
  1. Started well, but problems had caused the offering to slow
  2. Now Paul didn't come to say, "Why aren't you giving?!"
  3. He came to encourage them, not command them, to complete what they started, because God had completed what he started in promising a Savior
C. Can we get side-tracked from what we have decided to give? Yes, so we need to appreciate God's offering to us
  1. We are beggars -- spiritually in abject poverty
  2. The Old Adam still clings to us
   a. "God wants me to give to him...even more than what I'm already giving?! I won't give any more! It's mine!" Wrong.

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it

   Has anyone ever lent you something -- a tool maybe?
   b. Instead of hearing, "Let's look at how God has blessed you and me and how you and I can respond" we tend to hear, commands, threats
   c. "So-and-so should be listening to this more than me"
  3. We are rich in Christ

For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.

   a. Hymn -- "We are rich for he was poor -- is not this a wonder?"
   b. Hymn -- "Were the whole realm of nature mine, that were a tribute far too small. Love so amazing, so divine demands my soul, my life, my all!"
   c. Someone gives you a house -- doesn't want payment, but thanks
   d. Jesus bought our salvation, mansion in heaven -- how do we thank him?
II. Let's calculate an appropriate response
A. "I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others."
  1. The Christians in Macedonia were poor; the Christians in Corinth were rich
  2. No dollar amount mentioned; Paul encouraged both to be generous
  3. Concerned about the attitude of the heart
B. "Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have."
  1. When we give proportionally, we are giving from what we have
  2. Consider the Widow's mite
  3. Read Malachi 3
C. Christians at Living Word
  1. Proportional giving levels the field -- where are you?
   a. Some of us are poor -- give proportionally of what you have
   b. Some of us who think we're poor, but we're not -- maybe just poor managers -- give proportionally of what you have. Not compared to your neighbor in the US, but in the world
   c. Some are rich -- a large offering might not reflect our blessings. Give proportionally of what you have
III. Let's dedicate our offering to God
A. Start and finish our desire to give
  1. Today is Walking Together Sunday -- an opportunity to look at how we can support our Synod's work
  2. Need at Living Word -- purchasing land and facilities to spread God's Word and work here
  3. We need to dedicate ourselves to Christ; we want to, because of what he's done for us -- not like pulling teeth (if it's painful for us to give to Jesus' work, then something is painfully wrong in our relationship with Jesus)
  4. In the synod we have one goal: share the gospel -- with ourselves, with others. We can be a part of that.

God has given you the reason to do it by giving you his own Son and eternal life. We're still beggars, but rich beggars before God. We can appreciate God's offering to us. We can also calculate our response to him by giving proportionally of what he has given to us. And finally, we can dedicate our lives and offerings to him and his service. We can be grateful, wanting to give generously. May God bless you as you prayerfully and joyfully consider your response to God's grace.