April 26, 2026 — Giving | 1 Corinthians 16:1–4 Baptist Bible Church, Sparta, MI

Open your Bibles to the book of First Corinthians.

First Corinthians chapter 16 this morning.

1 Corinthians 16 · chapter mention

That's right.

The final chapter.

We're almost there.

I hope that our study through the book of 1 Corinthians has been profitable for you and your own walk with the Lord.

I know I certainly have enjoyed studying the text and walking through the chapters with you.

Chapter 16 contains some final greetings and final instructions.

Chapter 15 was really the last final big topic that Paul wanted to address in his letter to the church in Corinth concerning the resurrection.

Chapter 16 is sort of the end notes, the final bit of commentary, instruction, and greetings.

This morning we're going to look in chapter 16 and verses 1 through 4, where Paul gives some specific instructions regarding giving.

And notice that in verse 4, he mentions that as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

Meaning that these instructions Paul is giving to the Corinthians, he's already given to the Galatians, which I believe speaks to the universality of what Paul is teaching here, that the instructions given here regarding giving are applicable not just to the church in Galatia and the Church in Corinth, but the church in Sparta as well.

And so these instructions that we're going to look at this morning are applicable to us today and our giving.

And I've broken them down into five universal truths, five universal truths for giving that we'll notice here at the end of 1 Corinthians 16.

Let's read the text together first, then we'll pray, and then we'll dig in.

Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do.

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

And when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredited it, or whom you accredited by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem.

If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me.

Let's pray.

Father, thank you now as we open up your word.

We're thankful for the truths of Scripture.

We're thankful that they are applicable to every facet of life, that they help us to understand and to know how to live our lives in a way that's honoring and pleasing to you.

And of course, our money is not exempt from your eye, from your instruction, from your commands.

And so help us this morning.

Help us to approach the text, to approach your word with humility, with a willingness to hear from you and to learn and to grow, and to put into practice the truths regarding giving that we hear this morning.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

We notice here in chapter 16, as I mentioned, five universal truths regarding giving.

And so as we go through the text, we'll unravel each of these truths.

The very first one there, God has designed giving to take place primarily through the context of the local church.

We notice here that the believers in Corinth, like the believers in Galatia, were instructed by Paul to gather up funds for a collection, to collect funds together, and the context in which this collection took place was through the local church.

Paul was instructing the church to organize and to implement this collection.

So we recognize here that the very first thing we notice is that God has designed the church to be your primary avenue of giving.

Throughout the pages of Scripture, we notice that greediness as a disposition is condemned, whereas a posture of generosity is commended.

Scripture commends to you a posture of generosity in everything that you do, in all things, and as it relates to your own finances.

In fact, in Proverbs chapter 19, verse 17, we read that whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord.

Proverbs 19:17

Whoever is generous to the poor, lends to the Lord.

What does the Proverb mean?

What is the correlation being drawn here?

Well, think of it this way: if Jesus himself were to walk into our church this morning, and he were to come in through the doors and he were to say, Hey, church family, I just I just want you to know I'm happy to be here, but I want you to know that I'm out of money and I don't know how I'm going to eat this week.

And and the I've got just a couple dollars.

If this church would just be willing, if you would be willing to give me just a few extra dollars for me to go get some groceries this week, I would really appreciate it.

Would not every single person in this room jump out of their seats and say, Lord, please allow me to be the one to give you the money to go get those groceries?

Would not every single one of us jump out of our chairs and say, please pick me?

Would it not be the honor of your life?

Could we say it that way?

Would it not be the honor of your life to be the one to give to the Lord?

Wouldn't that not be like you could just say, hey, cash it in, I can coast the rest of my life, I'm never gonna reach that level of significance or honor ever again.

Nothing else in my life is gonna match what I just was able to do.

To give to the Lord Himself.

Come on, come on, people.

You're with me, aren't you?

I mean, that would be an amazing thing to give to the Lord that way.

And what what the what do we notice in the proverb?

The point that it's being made, the point that Solomon's making in the proverb is when you give to the poor, when you're generous, you are in fact ultimately giving to the Lord.

You're giving to the Lord.

When you give, when you are generous, you are ultimately, it's not, yes, you're giving to a person, you're giving to someone, but ultimately the recipient of your giving is the Lord himself.

Notice Jesus makes a similar point when he makes the comment when you fed me, you fed me when I was hungry, you clothed me when I was naked.

And the people say, What do you mean?

We never did that.

And Jesus says, When you did it to the least of these, you did it to me.

Me.

So this is a principle that transcends both Old Testament and New Testament, this concept.

There are many avenues by which we can and should be generous to the Lord with what we have.

There are indeed many avenues we are called to be generous with what we have to the Lord.

What I want us to pick up on here in the text, though, is that giving to the Lord our ultimate channel in the New Testament through giving to the Lord is meant to be through the local church.

There are multiple avenues.

There are multiple avenues.

There's the personal support of missionaries, individual generosity to those in needs, parachurch agencies and ministries, there's you know a million of those that are in existence that are all doing great work, and many other opportunities to be generous.

And we should be taking advantage of all of those avenues to be generous with what the Lord has given us.

But we notice here the New Testament pattern is that the primary avenue of your giving is meant to be the local church.

Now the question is why?

Why should the local church be the primary avenue of giving?

When there's a lot of opportunities to be generous with what we have.

Why is it the local church that God has designed to be the primary avenue of your giving?

Well, if you turn to Matthew chapter 16, verse 18, you don't have to turn there.

Matthew 16:18

You can take my word for it.

Matthew chapter 16, Jesus makes a pretty bold statement.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

He says, I will build my camp.

No, wait a second.

I will build my missions agency.

Ah, nope, not quite.

Let's think.

Somebody's got it on the tip of their tongue, don't they?

Aha, thank you.

I will build my church.

My church.

Jesus declares here that the primary institution by which he will accomplish his will, the primary institution by which you will come to know Jesus, by which you will grow in Jesus, by which you will serve others.

The primary institution that Jesus is building in this age is the church.

It's the church.

Now tell me, is the church perfect?

I'm not talking about our church.

I'm talking about the church.

Is the church perfect?

No.

Does the church have failings?

Yes.

Does the church drop the ball?

Yes.

Why?

Because you're a part of it.

And me.

So there is, the church isn't perfect.

It isn't.

But it is what Jesus is building.

It is what Jesus has declared.

I am building my church.

And therefore, it is meant to be the primary avenue through which the people of God give and fund ministry.

It's through the work of what the church is doing that's that is the primary avenue of giving.

And we notice here, Paul in these instructions is saying, give through the church.

Give through the church.

Be generous.

Be generous.

Give in many different ways, but don't neglect your giving to the local church this morning.

Don't neglect it.

Second universal truth this morning, giving is a regular form of worship.

Notice Paul says on the first day of every week, put something aside.

The first day of the week, of course, is Sunday.

It's Sunday.

So what's Paul saying here?

He's saying, when you gather for church, when you gather for worship, part of the time when you gather together, part of the time, should be a time to give.

The first day of the week was the day in which Christians worshiped.

This was a break from the Sabbath on Saturdays, which was the normal day of worship for the Jews.

Does anybody remember why the Christians changed their day of worship from Saturday to Sunday?

Anyone know?

That's right.

It's the day that Jesus rose from the dead.

So really, every Sunday is Resurrection Sunday for us.

Every Sunday is resurrection Sunday.

We come together on Sunday because it's the day of the week Jesus rose from the dead.

And so Paul is saying, when you get together, when you worship, part of your time together should be a time to give, and giving to the Lord is meant to be a part of worship.

If you notice in Philippians chapter 4 and verse 18, Paul is talking about giving.

Philippians 4 · chapter mention

He says there, you can see it on the screen, I have received full payment and more.

I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Notice the language Paul's using here.

He describes giving as a fragrant offering and a sacrifice, is the language he uses to describe the giving of the church.

Now, when you think of a fragrant smell, maybe you, your mind maybe goes like mine to the smell of a burger cooking on the grill.

That's a fragrance, isn't it?

That's a satisfying fragrance.

And you think that is, that's pleasing.

That's pleasing to me.

To smell the charcoal and the fumes of the char-broiled burger grilling.

That's a satisfying, you smell that and you say, hmm, satisfying.

And it's interesting that Paul uses this word, a fragrant offering.

He's referring here, the language he's referring to is the Old Testament sacrifices.

And so when the Israelites would go to the temple or the tabernacle and they would go to worship, part of their worship was the offering up of animals for sacrifice.

And when Paul uses this language, he's not saying that God smelled the burger cooking on the flames for the sacrifice, and it satisfied and the smell satisfied him.

Paul's point isn't that God was hungry.

This was like a pagan concept, that your pagan deity is hungry and you need to feed your pagan deity with food, and so they smell your sacrifice and it smells good because they're hungry.

Paul doesn't mean that.

He doesn't mean that God has an appetite and a physical nose, and so the smell of cooking animal is something that satisfies him in this sense.

No, the sacrifice that is a fragrant offering that is acceptable and pleasing to God was the fact that you had given something of value and worth to him in the form of a sacrifice.

Remember the instructions in the Old Testament.

Could you go to the altar and could you bring a crippled, busted up old sheep to God?

Was that allowed?

No.

No.

God said, You bring me a spotless, flawless lamb.

The most valuable part of your flock.

Remember, flocks were wealth back then.

Flocks were wealth.

And what you brought to the Lord was meant to be the very best.

The very best of the flock.

Bring that.

And so what why is this sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God?

It's not as though he smells because he's hungry.

He says, You're worshiping.

You are in a tangible physical way.

You don't just say that you love me, you're ascribing worth and value to me by saying, I'm giving this up for you, God.

This is for you.

So we notice here, we notice the connection between what Paul's describing in chapter 4 and verse 18 in Philippians, where he's describing, he's using this language.

He's drawing our minds back to Old Testament imagery, to the Old Testament sacrifices, and he's drawing a correlation and saying, we don't offer animals today.

We don't offer up any, we don't we don't measure our wealth in flocks today, do we?

No.

But what he's saying is when you give financially, when you give a gift, you are worshiping the Lord because you are giving up what is of worth and value to you, and you're giving it to me.

You are ascribing value and worth.

You are communicating to the Lord, I value you, God.

I value you more than what I have.

And so I'm giving it up.

It's a form of worship.

It's one thing to pray, it's one thing to sing, but giving is a tangible way to put actions to your worship.

Giving is a regular form of worship.

Notice the third universal truth.

Giving is for everyone.

Giving is for everyone.

Notice what he says there in verse 2.

On the first day of every week, each of you, each of you, is to put something aside and store it up.

Each.

Which is interesting when you consider for a moment the demographic makeup of the church in Corinth.

This truly was a church across the economic spectrum.

There were those in the church wealthy enough to own a large enough home that they could host the church in.

Those are wealthy people.

All the way down to, based off of the internal context of what we read in 1 Corinthians, we understand that in the church in Corinth there would have been slaves.

So you have the top crust down to those who are of the lowest economic station.

All of them are a part of this church.

All of them were a part of this church.

And yet, it's interesting to note that Paul doesn't draw a distinction here, does he?

He doesn't say top 10%.

What does he say?

Each of you.

Each of you.

I just can't.

I just don't have enough.

And it's not to diminish or to overlook difficult financial situations.

It's not to suggest that there aren't real challenges sometimes that we face.

And to say that there are times when money is really tight and money is really short.

And those can be challenging times.

But what we need to recognize and consider this morning is that if giving is a form of worship that God has called us to participate in, then giving is not optional.

It just is not an option.

It's not a choice we get to make to say, well, I'm kind of I'm light this month, I'm light this year, I don't have much, and so I can't do it.

The reality is every believer is called to give.

And of course, perhaps the most famous story related to this concept is the story of the widow's might.

So if you look in Luke chapter 21, we notice this story, Luke chapter 21, in verse 1, we read, Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box.

Luke 21 · chapter mention Luke 21 · chapter mention

And he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.

And he said, Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on.

We would certainly recognize this morning that if there was anyone exempted from giving, it would be this poor widow.

If there was anyone that there would be an exception made, we would say the widow that had literally nothing.

We would say, She surely she's excused.

She's exempted.

And yet we notice here she goes to the offering box and she puts in two small copper coins.

These would have been leptons, a Jewish bronze or copper coin.

One of those coins was worth the equivalent of 128th of a part of a day's wage.

That's an insignificant amount of money.

That wasn't contributing in any meaningful or significant way to the worship in the temple, was it?

That wasn't funding any major additions or building projects to the temple.

That wasn't paying any priests' wage.

That wasn't doing anything of any value or significance.

And so it's tempting to look at that story and say, what a like, what a worthless gesture.

What was the point?

What's the point of her even giving?

She has so little that she should have just kept it.

What it it was no, it was of no effect.

And we look at that through our physical minds, we look at that through the materialistic mindset, and we say, don't even bother.

It's not doing anything.

And yet, notice what Jesus' response is.

What does he say?

He praises her.

He praises her.

Her giving is praiseworthy by Jesus Himself.

And why?

What's the point Jesus makes?

Her sacrificial giving honors me.

It honors the Lord.

Her sacrificial giving honors the Lord.

Because she gave out of her poverty.

It was a true sacrifice.

He says, all of these people that are coming and they're giving, and they may give a significant portion of money, but it's not costing them anything.

They're not giving a real sacrifice.

But this poor widow, she did.

So Jesus looks beyond the physical dollar amount and he looks to the heart and he looks to the and he looks to the bank account.

And he says, Giving that is sacrificial, where you're actually giving something up to then give to me, we notice here is what.

Is honoring to the Lord.

The metric for giving that is worthy of Jesus' praise.

Do you give out of abundance or do you give out a sacrifice?

Do you give out of abundance or do you give out a sacrifice?

And this is what this is what enables giving to be an act of worship for every single person in the church.

Every single person in the church can put this into application in how they give.

Those who have very little to nothing to those who have much.

This is how we worship the Lord in our giving.

Worship, or giving that is worshipful, is giving that is sacrificial.

Our fourth universal truth this morning, giving must be planned for.

Giving must be planned for.

If you go back to our text, he says, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, meaning plan for it.

Be intentional with your giving.

We notice that for us today, giving should be something we're intentional about.

That there's planning and purpose here in the text.

As you plan your budget or when you receive your wages, be intentional about taking some out, setting some aside, storing some up to be given on the Lord's day.

In today's terminology, we would say, budget your giving.

Budget your giving.

It's meant to be a financial priority.

We see that here in the text.

Okay, last one here.

Giving should be in proportion to God's blessing.

Give in proportion to God's blessing.

Notice what he says there.

He says, Each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper.

As he may prosper.

There's our final phrase we're going to look at this morning.

The word for prosper originally referred to a merchant who would have gone to another town and traded his goods and made a profit.

And that's how that word was used in that context.

We would say that was a prosperous journey.

A prosperous journey, a prosperous business transaction took place.

And what's interesting about how Paul uses the word here is that he puts the word in the passive, not the active sense, the passive.

Meaning that this isn't as you yourself are producing prosperity.

It's what he's saying is, as someone else, fill in the blank who, as someone else is prospering you, as someone else is prospering you, Paul says, you then give in return.

The passive tense indicates to us that the source of your income, the money that you pass possess, everything you own, has been given to you out of God's abundance, from God's abundant hand.

This is not a unique principle here in the text.

In fact, this theme pervades the text of Scripture.

It's everywhere.

Deuteronomy chapter 26, we just don't have time to get into all these this morning, but Deuteronomy chapter 26 describes the first fruits offering.

Deuteronomy 26 · chapter mention Deuteronomy 26 · chapter mention

The first fruits offering, it was one of the seven offerings and sacrifices the Israelites were called to bring to the temple.

The first fruits offering was one of them.

And we've looked at that term first fruits before, haven't we?

What is the first fruits?

In agricultural terminology, it is the very first harvest, the very first crop that comes up, and it indicates that there's much more to come.

And so it was called the first fruits offering because the Israelites were instructed to say, hey, this abundance, everything that we have that has grown up out of the ground, has come from God.

It's God's direct blessing to us.

It's come from his provision and his abundance in our lives.

And so the very first thing we do is we take that very first harvest and we give it to the Lord because we are acknowledging whose hand it came from.

And just think about if you were a first generation, second generation, third generation Israelites, where you're just getting into the land, the land itself, the very place where you dwelled and planted your crops, came from who?

Came from God.

God gave you the land.

And so this was a direct acknowledgement of saying, everything we have, God, it's from you.

So we're gonna take the first fruits of that and we're gonna give it back to you as an acknowledgement of that.

We read in our Bible meditation this morning, or 1 Chronicles chapter 29.

1 Chronicles 29 · chapter mention

This was the temple collection.

This took place at the end of David's life, and we noticed the benediction in our scripture reading that David gives, that amazing declaration, that acknowledgement that everything that we have is from your own hands.

He says, What have we to give?

It's all yours to begin with.

It's all yours.

It's all directly from you, given to us.

And so we're simply just giving back to you a portion of what you already own.

And then 2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Let's look at this one just really quickly.

2 Corinthians chapter 9.

2 Corinthians 9 · chapter mention

Verses 10 and 11.

2 Corinthians 9, verse 10, he says, He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for grow for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.

2 Corinthians 9:10

You will be enriched in every way, to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God.

There's a lot here.

What I simply want us to acknowledge and notice here in the text is once again who's the supplier of the seed and the bread?

It's the Lord.

He supplies the seed, he supplies the bread, and notice for what purpose God gives to you so that you can then turn around and be generous with what you yourself have been blessed with.

It's all over Scripture.

There is one word in my house that if I could eradicate it, I would.

Mine.

Mine.

It is uh it is a plague.

It's a plague.

I don't know if we're just going through it right now in the fuller household, but it's a plague.

Mine, mine, mine.

The source of all kinds of fights, of squabbles, of conflicts.

One child wants to play with a toy.

One child refers to it as my toy.

The other child is quick to correct the record.

As if there is some official record in our house that says that it must be recorded with accuracy.

Let's take notes.

That's not actually yours.

You can you can play with it sometimes.

It's not actually yours.

It is mine.

Thank you, thank you.

So thankful for you correcting the record.

We're all very happy that you took time to ensure that everybody knew that that's my toy.

It's an attitude of selfishness.

We'd say it's childish.

It's childish and irritating.

You want to know what I say?

I've begun to actually officially correct the record.

You want to know what I tell my kids anytime this comes up?

I say, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on, hold on.

That's actually not yours.

You know what I say?

It's mine.

It's mine.

And they're like, what?

I said, I bought that.

That toy, that thing you have, whatever it is, I bought that with my money.

And I gave it to you because I love you.

And I didn't give it to you for you to just selfishly hoard it and to start fights about it.

I gave it to you because I want you to have joy and to enjoy this wonderful blessing of this good thing, this fun thing.

I want it to bring joy to your life because your joy brings me great joy.

And I gave it to you to bless you and to love you.

But let the record state it's not yours.

It's mine.

Given to you for your goodness and for your happiness and for your blessing.

And I just can't help but think that sometimes God wants to have that same conversation with us.

What do you mean you're gonna use that money to buy that or to spend it on that or to do that?

Don't you know?

It's mine.

I gave it to you to bless you.

And how often do we do we consider our possessions, our wealth, our bank accounts, and we say, it's mine.

And I'm gonna use it for what I want.

And maybe I'll give a few crumbs to God.

Just a token, you know, maybe it's legalistic, just a I so I'm just supposed to give, so I give.

But really, it's mine.

God's saying, don't you forget it's mine.

This is called stewardship.

It's the concept of stewardship.

It's the simple concept, the simple principle that everything you own is actually owned by God, lended to you, entrusted to you.

And we will give an account one day for how we utilized what God has given us.

Are you ready to give that account this morning?

Are you proud of that account this morning?

Not in a sinful, prideful way, I mean, but could you stand by it?

We are called as believers this morning to acknowledge God's goodness, God's provision, God's abundance in our lives by giving back to Him what is already His.

And it is this kind of attitude in giving that is what truly honors and pleases the Lord.

Our God is good.

Our God is generous, He's kind to us.

Would you agree with that this morning?

If you agree to that this morning, wouldn't you just say, Amen?

He's a good God.

He's a good God.

And I think no matter where we're at financially, I think every single one of us this morning would have to acknowledge God has abundantly blessed me with more than I deserve.

More than I deserve.

And so let's honor him.

Let's respond in what is only right and good.

Let's respond to his goodness and honor him in our giving.

Father, thank you for today.

We're thankful for this opportunity we've had to dig into the text and just reflect on the topic of money.

The topic of money.

Maybe some people didn't like the sermon this morning.

I don't know.

I hope everybody this morning could take some truths away as we are reminded of just the importance of money.

Money's talked about a lot in scripture.

You have a lot to say about it.

It's significant, it's an important part of how we live.

And we're called not to neglect it, not to neglect your instructions on what we're to do with it, how we're to use it in a way that honors and pleases you.

Truly, Father, you have given us so much.

You've given us so much more than we deserve.

Please fill us up with gratitude and thanksgiving.

Guard our hearts from selfishness and greed.

Father, may we truly seek to give back to you what is already yours as an acknowledgement of our thankfulness, our gratitude, and a way for us to honor and please you in our giving.

We love you, Father.

We thank you for loving us.

It's in Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.