Here For Him | The Practice Of Giving In The Church | Coleton Segars

We're in a series right now called Hear for Him.

The purpose of this series is realistically to look at everything that we do in the life of the church and bring about something new from it again so that it never becomes, well, we just do that because that's what you do in church.

As soon as that shift happens and you start doing something in the church itself, just because I don't know, this is the way we always did it, we we grow old and crusty and it's it's no longer has life and is life-giving or anything like that.

It turns into a thing that is wrote and not something that is seeking to honor anymore.

We're honoring tradition more than we're honoring Jesus.

And so trying to look at every single thing that we do in the life of the church.

And uh things like why we worship, why we preach from the Bible, um, why we uh gather.

Randy got to preach on that uh last week.

And um, yeah, just looking at all those different things.

And today, I want us to look at uh that we why the church gives or how the church gives.

Now, we have so many guests here, and it never fails that when new people show up to a church, the pastor's talking about money.

And I'm like real sorry.

Like, I just want to say that.

Uh if you're new here and you're like, I'm excited to hear what it's like, and now we're gonna talk about my like I knew it.

Um I do apologize for that.

I do think that what this talk that I'm going to give, I think it might hopefully will be very freeing and very helpful.

Um but I know if I was a new person at a church, I'd want to hear something different and not about money.

So that's just neither here nor there.

It's just something I was thinking about as I saw the new people walking in.

So that's just fresh.

But um we are here for him.

We are here for Jesus.

Everything that we do here is for him, and our giving is for him as well.

And it's not for me, it's not for anything that we're necessarily doing in this space.

It is given to Jesus for the work that Jesus wants to do in the life of our community in Memphis for this space and this time in history, so that we see the fame and deeds of God repeated in our time.

Um that's what we're gonna talk about today.

The teaching text is 2 Corinthians 9, verses 7 through 9.

2 Corinthians 9:7–9

Is what Paul writes to the church in Corinth.

He says, 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, and God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work, as it is written.

They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, and their righteousness endures forever.

This is the word of the Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Um I I like having hard conversations.

Um I don't know if it's like I grew up playing sports, and so the butterflies you got before the difficult thing, and so I like a hard conversation because you get a little nervous of like, I don't know how this is gonna go, what if they freak out?

I don't know how this is gonna, you know.

And so I enjoy that in the fight or flight thing.

I have the fight, not the flight, and maybe I need the more of the flight, not the fight.

But um I like hard conversations.

So, for instance, when I worked at a church in Wisconsin, um, there was a guy that everybody knew needed to be fired, and he didn't work for me.

He worked on an adjacent team to me.

But they didn't want to fire him, but they talked about it a lot and how they needed to fire him.

And I was like, I'll do it.

I'd love to fire him.

Super excited about it.

And I thought they'd be like, no, he's not, he doesn't work for you, it doesn't work.

They were not like that.

They were like, Great, he'll be there on Friday in your office.

And I was like, okay.

Um, Friday was my birthday.

Um, and so I was like, that's I mean, I didn't really change anything, it was just like a weird birthday gift to myself.

I'm like, I get to do this thing, it's be fun.

Um and so he walks in on Friday into my office, and uh somehow he found out it was my birthday.

And he brings the first thing he does, like he hands me a birthday card.

Happy birthday! Found out it was your birthday.

And I was like, this is gonna make it a little more difficult to fire you after you give me a gift.

And so I open it thinking, like, please don't put like any money in here or anything, like this is gonna be so awkward.

$50 gift card to Red Robin.

And I was like, uh so weird.

Um and so I get the gift card and I'm like, thanks, man.

This is great.

Um listen, I have something really difficult to say.

Like, uh, you can't work here anymore.

Um and he was like, I don't think you have the authority to fire me.

I was like, I I probably don't, but I was told to fire you.

And so that's just what I'm doing here.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna, this is what we have to do.

And you know, he asked me your your boss actually asked me to do it and to be the guy to do it.

And so thanks for the gift card.

And I'm really grateful.

Do you want it back?

Like, do you want to should we go eat together so that this isn't something?

Uh and he was like, No, it's fine.

He got kind of emotional and was just like, I don't understand.

And I and I had worked with this guy a little bit, he just wasn't under you know, under me necessarily.

And uh I was like, you know, it's a bunch of different things that kind of shaped up, and they tried to work with you for a number of months trying to get you into a space, but it's just not gonna work.

And and that was that.

And then he left, and I was just the whole time hoping he didn't snag the gift card on his way out, and he didn't.

And so Rainey and I enjoyed that from my birthday, which was such an awkward gift.

I'm like, I'm gonna get food poisoning, you know, red robin for this.

Um, but it was a hard conversation, and then uh years later, I get a phone call from that guy, and we lived in uh Memphis now.

I mean, at that point, and uh he was I didn't know what he was calling for, uh, other than maybe to yell at me or something.

But um, but he called, he's like, hey, uh, I just wanted you to know that particular conversation was was really difficult.

Obviously, it was very hard.

Uh he goes, but that was a real turning point in my work life.

Like it it really showed me just how I wasn't uh responsible and how I wasn't that he was young and he was like, and now I'm going to be a police officer and I have been able to make it through training.

I'm at the top of my class, and I I attribute a lot of where I am now to that conversation back then that was I realized it was hard for you.

Um, but uh anyways, he was he was just calling to say thank you and to ask me to be a reference for him.

Uh and I was like, sure, man, I'd love to be a reference for you.

The guy that fired you, now referring you to be a police officer in uh Wisconsin.

So um, and that's what I did.

Um, but I thought it was this really sweet space where he and I had this really difficult conversation and the opportunity that exists in a really difficult conversation to actually spur someone on into a good space and to do something healthy in their lives, even though it's very difficult.

I think that exists in every hard conversation that we have.

And we have this idea that's like, I don't want to hurt their feelings, or I don't want to enter into that because it might do some damage.

And that's possible, that's always possible.

But I think many times entering into a conversation that's that's more difficult provides an opportunity for other things to happen and to take shape and to take form in my life and the life of somebody else that just don't present themselves in good conversations and in easy ones.

And so I say all of that uh just to say that uh I think talking about money can be a very difficult conversation.

Uh it can be awkward, I think it has been used in the church uh poorly and manipulative to manipulate.

Um so talking about money can be a difficult conversation.

And yet I genuinely believe that the opportunity that's presented here to talk about money in the life of the church is the same as an opportunity that was presented in the life of this man that I had to let go.

There's something here that can be helpful, there's something here that can be freeing, there's something here that can be life-giving, even though the conversation itself can feel sometimes like you're like, this is weird in the church.

Um, I think there's something here for us.

And so to me, even though the conversation has been talked about poorly, I just I don't think we need to run from it.

I think we actually need to just talk about it well so that we're replacing all the poor memories or manipulative memories of people using money in the life of the church to manipulate with ones that are like, actually, we should talk about it this way.

This is the way that we should deal with it.

And that is my hope, and that is my goal for today, to have a harder talk, but for it to create space of opportunity that's like, oh, okay, that that was that was different and more helpful than I thought.

I thought it would be this way, because in my experience, talks about money go this way.

Um, and so my hope is that it's actually an opportunity for helpfulness and hope in the midst of that.

So I have a conviction as a pastor, I have a conviction as a Bible reader that we have to talk about money for a number of reasons.

But here's some stats right here.

Uh, we need to talk about money in the church because 7.5% of the verses in the Bible reference money and possessions.

Second stat is that Jesus spent 15% of his three-year ministry discussing money and possessions, so around 5% a year.

And so because I'm called to only preach the Bible, I feel like there's no way around it.

I have this conviction that I at least need to preach on money and possessions five to seven and a half percent of the time every year, which works out to be like three to four Sundays a year, so it's not too bad.

The good news is it's only like three to four.

The bad news is it's happening today.

Um but I'm called to teach you to walk with Jesus.

One of the ways that we walk with Jesus is by actually walking with him with our finances, walking with him with our possessions.

He talked about it consistently, not because he was running low on money.

Jesus was never like, I need to talk about money because I don't have any.

Like, that's not his thing.

He knew there was something about our hearts and our money and our possessions that tie us into something that can do really a ton of damage or it can do a lot of good.

And so he wanted to give us a theology and a and help in processing how to deal with some of these things.

And so here's what I'm not saying today, okay?

We're gonna roll through this in kind of like four different segments.

Here's what I'm not saying, and these are very important.

Or they're important for me, take them as you will.

To me, I am not saying, please, God, give us more money.

That's not what I'm saying.

That was supposed to be funnier.

We'll work on that.

I this is not a plea for money.

Our church is financially stable, very well taken care of.

In my experience, when I hear sermons on money, it's normally money's running low.

Please give us more money.

We got to give a talk on money.

What a terrible day at church.

That's not what we're doing today.

This is not a plea for money at all.

Our church, again, we're very thankful for how you guys give so generously.

This is not a plea for money.

Um, second thing, I'm not saying, I'm not saying I know how much you give and you need to give more.

I don't know how much you give.

I have no idea and I don't care to know.

I just know that I'm called to teach you to follow Jesus with your money.

And so that's all I'm doing.

So, however much you give is between you and the Lord and not me.

I don't know.

And so it's not like I have secrets.

I don't, I have no secrets or anything like that.

So, just so you know, those are two things I'm not saying.

And I put what I'm not saying, I left that on there the entire time, just in case someone snagged a photo of that and put it online and been like, please give it in all out of context, it's please give us more money, and I know how much you give.

Like, I am not saying those things.

Take that in.

I am not saying that.

Okay.

It could be a harder talk, right?

So, like, it needs to have a little bit of levity, not a ton.

I don't think all preaching needs to be funny.

However, when we're talking about money, I want you guys to read, okay.

Here's what I want to say.

There is an incorrect way of giving, even when you give to the church.

There's an incorrect way of giving, according to Jesus, that even though you're giving it away and giving it to the Lord or giving it to the temple of the church, there's an incorrect way of giving to the church.

There's a correct way of giving to the church.

There's a specific amount of money that is uniquely specific to you that you should give.

But it's not necessarily based on a number or percentage, it's based on motive.

There is a numerical monetary dollar amount that you should give.

I don't know what that is, and I'm not gonna tell you what that is specifically for you because it's between you and the Lord.

We'll get to that.

Uh and then lastly, God does call you to give, uh, but there are better reasons than because I said so.

Just do it because I said so.

There's better reasons than that.

I don't know that we're gonna give to that last one today.

The worst news in the world would be that we didn't, and we have to get to it next week and do two weeks on giving.

I don't, I don't, I don't know, but it's not looking good, just so you know.

It might happen if we talk about that.

But hopefully it'll be just as hopeful next time.

But um, the first three is are really what we're gonna deal with.

But if you hear nothing else, I want I put this on here too.

Here, hear this.

You are not accepted.

Next slide here.

You are not accepted, loved, or justified by God based on what you sacrificially give.

You are accepted and loved and justified by God based on the sacrificial gift that Jesus gave.

His sacrificial offering justifies you, not yours.

It's super important that you understand that because money can be such a guilt-ridden thing.

And it's like I don't give enough, or I give, I have too much, or I do all this stuff.

It's like you cannot justify yourself in God's eyes by giving more money.

And you're not unjustified because you don't give money.

Jesus gave sacrificially, so that now you are justified in God's eyes based on his offering, not yours.

That's very, very important.

Because again, we can get tied into trying to like how much exactly do I have to give to feel like God loves me?

It's like he loves you based on what Jesus gave, not what you give.

That's very important.

Everybody with me on that?

Great.

Love it.

All right.

The incorrect way to give to the church, incorrect way to give to the church.

Jesus uses the term twice.

The tithe, he talks about it twice.

Both times, it's negative.

They're doing it wrong.

The people don't know how to tithe.

And so he talks about this twice and both times.

It's like, it's honestly, it's not great.

You guys are doing this all incorrectly.

So the first way not to tithe and to do it incorrectly is the I don't want to be obedient, so I'll just give money tithe.

That's a way not to give money to the church.

Jesus criticizes the religious leaders in his day, and he says this.

He talks about the Pharisees.

Go to the next slide here.

He says, Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites.

You give a tenth, you tithe on your spices, your mint, your dill, your cumin, but you've neglected the more important matters of the law, justice, mercy, faithfulness.

You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

And what he's saying here is he's doing these warnings and woes, like you're giving the wrong way.

So what they're experiencing is these people tithed on everything, not just their money, not just their food, not just their cattle, but they also were tithing on their spices.

And it was a space that you didn't have to tithe on your spices.

Nobody wants your salt, man.

Like you don't have to do this.

But for them, they wanted to go one level up and like everybody else is tithing this way.

We're like, we're click, we're one click above everybody else.

But they weren't doing it for the kingdom.

They were actually doing it so that they could not do something else.

It's like, yeah, I'm neglecting justice and mercy and faithfulness, but like I'm tithing more than everybody else.

And Jesus is going, that's not right.

Like you, that's you can't purchase disobedience.

You can't tithe enough to where you can be like, I know I'm not following the commands, but I'm I am doing this thing.

And it's like that doesn't take care of this.

Obedience to me is actually what I'm actually calling you to.

You can't buy your way to be disobedient.

And that's what he's speaking out against.

To them, to give a tithe in the way that they were giving it was really not to honor the Lord or really as an offering.

They were using it as a purchase.

You're just going to the temple and purchasing your ability to be disobedient.

And so it was a space for them where it was like, look, I am gonna rob the bank, but I'm gonna like tithe on what I steal.

And it's like, no, you like that that won't work, you can't do that.

Like you're being disobedient just because you give some of the money from your tax fraud, that doesn't count.

Like it doesn't make it right.

You cannot do that.

And so for us, it's the same way.

No amount of money can buy our disobedience.

You can't say, well, I know I'm supposed to forgive that person, but instead I'll just give more money to the church.

As much as the church might love that, it doesn't discount the fact that like you're actually called to forgive, you're called to reconcile.

Just because you give more money doesn't cross out like I don't want to do this, this, this, this, and this, but I got a ton of money, so I'll do, I'll give a bunch of money, but I'm not gonna love my enemy, care for the poor, do all this stuff, I'm just gonna throw money at a problem.

But it's not actually fixing your problem, which is he's called you to obedience and you can't buy disobedience.

And so that's what he's referencing, that's what he's dealing with.

If you were to say, like, I know that Jesus says I need to look to him for eternal life, I need to find my trust and satisfaction in heaven in him, but like I'll just give a bunch of money to the church, and maybe when I find my space in heaven and I'm talking to him, like, why should I let you into heaven?

It's like, well, I gave a ton of money, it's like, it doesn't do that.

It doesn't justify you.

He justifies you.

And so that you cannot give enough money to become justified in his eyes.

It doesn't, giving your money and your offering and your sacrifice of money doesn't wipe out your sin.

His sacrifice does.

We have to trust in that.

And so in this space, he's saying, you cannot purchase disobedience.

There's no way to tithe in a way that offers you the ability to be disobedient.

That's one wrong way to give.

The second is the look how much better I am than others tithe, which, you know, is fun in every category of life.

Look how much better I am than everybody else.

Uh but this is a way of giving that Jesus uh talks about.

Uh so in Luke 18, he says, To some who were confident of their own righteousness, strong start, and look down on everyone else.

Uh, Jesus told this parable.

Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee, the other a tax collector.

The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, God, I'm crushing it.

Thank you so much that I'm not like other people, robbers, evildoers, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.

I'm awesome.

I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.

But the tax collector stood at a distance.

He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

I'll tell you, this man rather than the other went home justified before God.

And so he references these two people, and for one of the men, the Pharisee, he's giving in order to be able to say that he gives that much.

It is a space of like, I want to stand in the temple and announce to the world, I give a tenth of everything I get.

It is a look at me, look how great I am, look how much I give, look how much better I am than this bro here, look how much better I am than everybody.

I tithe not just on my stuff, but on everything I get.

All of it was I'm better, I'm more important because I tithe on everything I get.

Now, it doesn't function that way really in the church.

Like there's really not a space.

I mean, I guess you could do it right now.

You could stand up and be like, hey guys, I give a ton of money.

Like it'd be really awkward.

You probably wouldn't do that.

Um and Jesus is telling a parable here.

Um, and we don't pass a plate so nobody can like see, like if you dropping hundes in there, like that we don't have that.

Um but we do have this space where this attitude still takes shape in the church.

And one of the primary ways that not not necessarily, and I'm not speaking into our church, I'm just saying the the um the temptation is for this attitude to sneak into the life of the church, modern day church, by it becoming, I give a lot of money, and so my influence, my ideas, the things that I want to do are more important than those who give less because I give so much.

And so, again, it's giving to purchase something.

It's just purchasing not something from God, but purchasing something for others.

I give a ton of money so that you have to do what I say.

I give a ton of money, therefore, my views and values and the things that I want to do are more important than anybody else in the life of the church because of how much I give.

That's what's taking shape here, and Jesus is saying that too is incorrect.

It's no longer an offering.

You're not giving this to God, you're just purchasing something at the store called church.

Like that's what you're doing.

And the church has become your new business and your new place of influence and your new place to get the things that you want.

It's no longer an offering.

We shouldn't give that way.

And that's what he's referencing.

And so the question for us in both of these categories is to check our giving.

Because I think there's a space in this where all of us in some form or like some of this lives in each of us.

He's not just talking about two specific people, and he's not just talking about those Pharisees.

He's referencing something that's universal, that this stuff can sneak in to how we give.

And so it's just a constant reminder to just check am I giving this to the Lord or am I really doing this for myself?

Because when you give things away, it's super easy to like, I'm gonna give love away so that I get some love back.

I'm gonna give this away so that I get something back.

But a true offering of what Jesus did is like, I'm gonna give my life away so that everybody receives righteousness and I take on the sin of the world.

And so it's a true offering, it's a true thing.

And so that's what Jesus references like.

These are the incorrect ways to give.

And so check your giving to consider your heart and your motive in giving.

So that's the incorrect way to give.

Anybody okay?

Are you doing okay?

I don't have any more jokes.

So if you are needing one, talk to your neighbor.

The correct way to give to the church, the correct way to give to the church.

The first is the correct way to give to the church is sacrificially, which may sound like, of course, but it's still very, very important to talk about.

Like we're supposed to give sacrificially.

Jesus says this in Mark 12, he uh this interaction, this wonderful thing that he he has with his disciples.

But he says, it says Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put.

And they watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury, and many rich people threw in large amounts, but a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a few cents.

Calling his disciples.

To him, and I love that.

He calls people to him.

Her giving caught the attention of heaven.

I think that's really beautiful.

Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more into the treasury than all the others.

They all gave out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in everything, all she had to live on.

And it's important to realize, like, he's not criticizing that they're giving out of their wealth.

There's not a space in here where he's going, they're dropping it in and like making a scene.

We don't know that.

We can we can probably assume that a little bit.

But he's not referencing like they they gave incorrectly.

Like they did fine.

But they did give out of their wealth.

She gave out of her poverty.

And I love the interaction that her motive in giving and what causes Jesus to stop the world and call his disciples and be like, y'all gotta watch this, y'all gotta see this thing that's about to happen, is not the amount, but it's the spirit, it's the motive behind what she what what led her to give.

And so this motive of sacrifice, this motive of giving out of her poverty is the thing that caused the attention of heaven.

And so David Gozik, in his commentary on this, he says, it's the sacrificial spirit of giving that determines the value of the gift more than the amount.

The sacrificial spirit of giving determines the value of the gift more than the amount.

And to me, I was like, man, what a gift.

Like that's so great.

That means that you can give a ton of money or you can give very little, but if the sacrifice is there, it doesn't matter the number.

And it just is just this space of freedom to where it's like, I don't have to compare, I don't have to think, like, what could possibly happen there?

Like, this whatever, however small it is, catches the attention of heaven.

Like the the Jesus is in heaven in advocating for us before the Father and is like, hey, hey, look at Christ Community Church, look at that, look at it, calls the angels over to look.

Like, that's really cool.

Like, I don't know, that's a better vision of giving.

I'd get excited to drop some money in the offering plate if it's like that.

That's okay.

I'm okay with that.

But I think there's a space here that's like it's the spirit behind it, not necessarily the monetary thing itself.

And so Jesus cares about much how much.

Jesus cares more about how we give than how much we give.

How we give more than how much we give.

And so the question is, how much should you give?

And I think the answer isn't a number, I think it's a motive.

You should give until it's a sacrifice.

Give until it's a sacrifice.

And again, this is not a plea for money.

It is just an explanation from the scriptures.

How much should I give?

I don't know.

We're called to give until it's a sacrifice.

That's why we're so that's that's how we're supposed to give.

C.

S.

Lewis answers this question, how much should we give by saying this?

He says, I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give.

I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.

In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusements, etc., is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little.

If our charities do not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say that they are too small.

And so how much should we give?

Give until it's a sacrifice, give until it pinches.

And nobody gets to determine that for you.

You get to determine that between you and the Lord, and that leads us to our next point.

So we should give sacrificially, and we should also give freely and joyfully.

Freely and joyfully.

Paul says this in 1 Corinthians to the church in Corinth, and uh, he says chapter 16, verse 2, he says, each of you, each one of you, should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.

I love that.

Set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.

And so a lot of people take this and think, well, he's referencing the tithe.

I have to give 10% in keeping with my income.

I'm supposed to give the tithe, and therefore, if my income is X, then I have to do 10% at that.

And that's fine.

If you give a tithe, and that's how you give your money, and I don't care, that's fine.

But that's not what he's saying here.

I don't care if you give money that way, that's just not what he's saying here.

What he's really referencing here is don't compete with one another.

Like, don't don't compare your offering to someone else's.

Just give a sum of money that in accordance with your income.

And so you don't have to look at somebody else giving a ton of money and be like, man, I don't I don't measure up.

I can't give that much money.

I feel bad, I feel guilty, I feel like I should be doing more.

He's like, don't don't allow yourself to feel good.

Just give something in accordance, just focus on your income and your giving.

Don't worry about theirs.

And then on the flip side of that, if you give a ton and then you look at other people who are only given a little bit, don't judge them for only giving a little bit.

Like just allow your experience in giving to be like, I'm just giving a sum of money in keeping with my income, and then that's it, so that you can give it freely and joyfully, so that the spirit of competition or the spirit of comparing ourselves doesn't get into the life of the church and divide us.

That we just have this space where it's like, I don't know, well, I give this much because this is the income that I have.

This also, this idea, what Paul is saying, also kind of prohibits the view in the modern church of like, I don't give money, I give my time as my tithe or my offering.

This prohibits that.

Actually, it's fine if you do that, and you can you can give your time and not money biblically, you can do that.

But the only way you can do that biblically is if you have no source of income.

The only way that you're it's allowed for you not to give money into the life of the church is if you don't have money that's coming in for you to give to the life of the church.

And so that's what he's saying.

He's like, you we you we are we are called to give a sum of money in keeping with our income.

And so to say, like, well, I just some people give their money, I give my time, it's like you should give your time, and you're supposed to give up some a sum of money in accordance with your income.

Again, I have no idea how much you guys give.

I just know that that's something that I've dealt with in my experience with with people who go to church, and it's like some people do their money, I do my time, and it's like, I think biblically I'm supposed to tell you like something.

There's some sum that that's connected here.

It has to it has to come if we're going to be biblical in this particular way.

But again, that's between you and the Lord.

Um then in 2 Corinthians 9, when he talks about this freely and giving it joyfully, he says in 2 Corinthians 9, to the same people, he says, each of you, this is our teaching text, give what you decided to give in your heart, not reluctantly, not comparing yourselves with one another, not under compulsion.

God loves a cheerful giver.

And so the answer to how much should we give is like you should give a sum of money consistent with your income that you and Jesus decided at home that you should give.

And like that, that's what you, it's not based on what somebody else has decided.

It's like you talk with the Lord, you work those things out, you decide this is a sacrificial giving, uh sacrificial gift and this space that like I feel like the Lord is is is in agreement with me and like what we're gonna give.

And then I can just, this is something I can still give freely and joyfully.

And if it ever shifts to I can't give this freely and joyfully, then I would say just cut it down a little bit.

Or if it's not freely and joyfully, maybe add to it.

I don't know, maybe that'll make you more joyful.

I have no idea.

Um but that's the space here that he's saying.

He's like, each of us should give how much in keeping with your income in the space that you and Jesus decide that you can give joyfully and freely, so that your experience is joyful and free inside this community, where you're supposed to experience the presence of the Lord that brings joy and the freedom of the Spirit, because where the Spirit is, there's freedom.

And so that's what we're supposed to experience in this particular space.

The early church, their practice consistently was to emphasize freedom in Christian giving.

Freedom in Christian giving.

And so there was all these different spaces in history where people would come in and be like, no, no, no, you gotta give 10%.

It's gotta be 10%, and they would reference all these verses to try and do that.

And consistently it would always be like this this kind of shift back to the tithe, and then all the saints would be like, no, I don't think that's what we're supposed to do.

I think we're supposed to emphasize and focus on freedom in Christian giving.

And so Augustine says this about that.

He says, Find out, this is how you should give.

Find out how much God has given you and take from it what you need.

The remainder is needed by others.

And this was the practice.

Like, you got some money, cool.

Take from it what you need, and then other people need the rest.

Or other people need some of the rest.

And like it was like, and we're not gonna tell you any more than that.

Like, this is the practice, emphasizing just a freedom in it.

And the space was supposed to be this like really life-giving plank thing that was like, look, we're just gonna trust the Lord that he builds the church and that he's gonna place on your heart and the hearts of other people that they're gonna give this particular way, and if he gives this amount, then it's like great, we're gonna do the work of the ministry with this amount.

If he gives a lesser amount than that, then great.

We're gonna do the work of the ministry with this amount and just trust the Lord.

And so the church is this constant space where people are being encouraged to give, but then also encouraged to live in the boundary lines that the Lord sets up.

And like David, they could say, like, the bound, surely the boundary lines have fallen for us in pleasant places.

Just because we don't have like, well, we were hoping for this, and now we can't do X, it's like maybe the Lord's kindness to you is that you can't do that thing because He actually wanted you to do this stuff down here.

And the beauty of that was supposed to be like, look, take from what you're offering, what you take from your money what you need, and then give the rest to those who actually have need for it in other places so that the church can flourish, but maybe it can't do every single thing.

Maybe it's just seeking actually to stay in communion with the Lord, to trust the Lord so that they're able to do the ministry that the Lord wants, not what people in the church want to do for the Lord.

Does that make sense?

Okay.

To two people.

Awesome.

It's great.

I think we can get trapped into trying to figure out how much exactly God wants us to give for him to be happy with us.

Uh, how much should I give?

And this is why we systematically do things.

It's like, I will, I will do this and God will be pleased, and I will cross this T and dot this I, and then I know that I'm righteous and I'm good and I'm obedient.

And I get that, but in that you're seeking to justify yourself before God.

And the idea is he has justified you by his sacrifice and his son and his work.

It's not yours.

And so trying to pinpoint a number that realistically will probably shift and change over time, week by week, month by month, I don't know.

But the idea is that it's supposed to be I am constantly in communion with Jesus and talking with him about the amount of money or whatever I should give to this church or to these needs in the life of the church.

And it's not like I'm doing this and I'm not going above it, I'm not going below it.

And again, I recognize that maybe that's type A personality and that's the way we want to, we want to do that.

But if if you're only doing that because it's like this is the right way, and God will not be pleased with me if I don't, he is pleased with you based on someone else's sacrifice.

He is not pleased with you based on yours.

Hey, it's great, yours is awesome, and we want our church to flourish and to be funded.

We really do want that.

But you have to understand the goodness of the gospel is you are not righteous because of I give the perfect amount and everybody needs to align with mine.

No.

You're righteous based on Jesus' sacrifice.

Alright.

Supposed to be sacrificial, joyful, and freely given, and then last, consistently and intentionally.

Our giving should be consistent and intentional.

1 Corinthians 16 again, Paul says, now about the collection of the Lord's people, do what I told the Galatian churches to do.

It says on the first day of the week, of every week, each of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income.

So, two things real quick about this that I think are important because you could read this and think, oh, I'm supposed to set aside money every week.

I should do that thing every week, I should give to the money box every single week.

This is contextual for what's happening in this particular space.

So two things to understand about what Paul is asking me to do.

One is they were paid daily, not weekly.

Like we're paid, I don't know how you guys are paid, it's like I don't know if it's bi-monthly, I don't know how it goes, but they were paid every day.

And so every single day, they were paid for their daily wage, and then they would go to the church on the first day of the week and then give their offering.

And so it was a very different space for them.

And so what Paul is telling them to do is you need to give every single week, the first day of the week, which was Sunday, you need to give that day.

But what he's doing is he's giving them a practice of consistent sacrificial giving.

And so, because it happened on Sunday, that means the week before, on Monday, they got paid, and they would have to immediately take from their pay that they got on Monday and snag some and set it aside.

And then on Tuesday, they got paid a little bit of money, snag some and set it aside, and then Wednesday and so on and so forth until Sunday, and then on the first day of the week, they would give whatever they saved and they would give that to the space.

The reason he did that isn't because there's only one way to give, and you gotta give every Sunday on the Sunday.

It's not that.

He was seeking to put a discipline and a practice into their life of living sacrificially consistently.

I want you, you are formed by what you do consistently.

And so he is seeking to place in them a consistent practice that where they would consciously and constantly had to go, like, okay, I just got money, I need to set some aside, I need to set some aside, so that they were being formed into the likeness of Jesus.

So that they're being formed into people who live sacrificially.

That's what he wanted for them, and that's what he wants for us.

Second thing you need to understand is that the first day of the week for them was Sunday.

They gathered on Sunday as a church, like we're doing right here.

They used to gather on Saturdays, and then Jesus resurrected uh on the first day of the week, early in the morning on the first day of the week.

And so they began gathering on that day to remember Jesus and his sacrifice and his resurrection.

So they shifted when they started meeting for church.

And so they brought their sacrificial offering on Sunday, and it wasn't like this is the only time to do it.

It was like we're remembering Jesus' sacrifice, and so now we're also sacrificing, we're making our sacrifice today too, financially.

And so for them, it was a way to remember what Jesus has done for us, a sacrifice for us.

So now what we are doing is sacrificing for him, versus we're just gonna sacrifice for Jesus to try and get his love.

It's like, no, no, no, let's remember.

We're here on Sunday, we're here to remember that Jesus died and resurrected on this day out of his great love for us.

And so now from a place of love, we give our sacrifice as well.

It's a very different switch in their minds that he's trying to make here.

And so for them, it was like, I want it intentionally.

I want you to give your money on these days, not because this is the only day that works and it's all this stuff.

I want you to give your money intentionally on this day so that you are reminded of the great love that Jesus has for you, so that every time you sacrifice, you're not sitting there going, like, well, I'm I'm giving a lot.

It's like, no, no, you're you're being reminded of what Jesus has given, and your sacrifice is like his in that particular capacity.

And so consistent and intentional.

For us, I don't think that you have to do it every week.

I don't think you have to do it every day.

I don't think you have to do it every month.

I don't get it.

I think there's freedom here to go find a practice that allows you to be consistently formed into the image and likeness of Jesus, which is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.

And so to practice something consistently that teaches you to sacrifice every single day so that the consistent practice of what you do habitually shapes you into the type of person that looks more like Jesus tomorrow and next year than you do currently today.

And so the idea isn't you've got to do it weekly.

For some of you, it might be, hey, I do this weekly.

For some of you, it might be, I do this monthly, for some of you it might be like I do this annually, or I do it bi-annually.

I don't know all the words that you can break the year or quarterly, I have no idea.

The point isn't there's one right way to do it.

The point is I want to be shaped and formed into his image, and I want to consistently, every time intentionally I give, whether it's through an app or in the box or wherever, I want to intentionally take time to be reminded.

My offering does not make me righteous.

We have been blessed by someone's offering.

It was just his offering of his body for us.

We have been has have received love and gifts from somebody's offering.

It's just his offering, not ours.

And so ours comes from a place of love, not to gain God's favor and love, okay?

And that's the that's the idea.

So those things sacrificially, freely and joyfully, and then consistently and intentionally so that we're formed into the image of Jesus.

This is the biblical way to give of our offerings and of our tithes.

And again, there's a lot of freedom here, and it's supposed to be that way because you're supposed to be in a relational dynamic where you're talking to a person that's actually allowing you and helping you and shape the way that these things take place in your own life.

So that's the way that we're called to give.

This, and I'm gonna finish with this, and I'm sorry, I'm gonna have to teach on why we give next week.

Please come back.

We'd love for you to come back.

It's gonna be so it's gonna be so good.

I promise you, it's gonna be really good.

Um, and there's only, you know, there's only, you know, if I only preach on it four times, I'm knocking out two of them just right up right away.

Um but the reason these three things are so important for us, and again, I'll finish with this.

Um all of all of the offerings, all of them, from the Old Testament, if you ever read the scriptures from the Old Testament to the New Testament, every offering was always supposed to be something that pointed to Jesus.

And so if you've ever read the Old Testament, they were always supposed to bring offerings, but they were supposed to bring their first fruits, their firstborn, their best choicest uh spotless lambs and cattle.

They were supposed to bring everything that's like the best they could possibly do.

And all of that, what the Lord is asking them to do in the Old Testament is give your best and allow that to be a thing that alludes to what I'm going to do eventually.

That one day I will give my firstborn son, I will give my spotless lamb, I will give my offering for the sake of the world.

So the Old Testament sacrifices and offerings were supposed to be that, the first fruits.

So it was pointing to, I'm gonna do this one day.

And now in the New Testament, and in this new age that we're in, new covenant, we now are called to give sacrificially, joyfully, freely, intentionally, because this is how Jesus has given to us.

So he says about himself, the Son of Man came to give his life as a ransom for many.

Sacrifice.

I came to sacrifice my life.

And then joyfully and freely, for the joy set before him, Jesus endured the cross.

It was with the joy of spending eternity with us that Jesus was like, let's go.

Let's do it.

I'm excited to do that.

And so our giving is supposed to honor and point back to that.

And we give the way that He gave.

Not because it's like I'm trying to earn something, but because we're seeking to remember it and remember like this is the good news of the gospel for us in our time.

And so this is why.

Jesus gave freely, joyfully, willingly, and sacrificially as himself as a sin offering for us.

And so we give joyfully, freely, and sacrificially.

And if we're doing it to purchase something for ourselves, we're doing it wrong.

But if we're doing it as sacrifice, it's not that it necessarily is like, oh, now it really, really pleases God.

Now he really loves you.

It's not that.

It pinpoints and it points back to what Jesus has done and it reminds us consistently of what he's done for us.

And so, how much should you give?

I don't know.

That's the truth, I don't know.

But I think it looks like this we should give until it becomes a sacrifice.

I think we should need to give what we believe Jesus wants us to give and what we can joyfully and freely give.

I think we need to give in a way that forms us into Jesus' likeness as someone who lives sacrificially so that we become like him, so that people can catch what he's like and the sacrifice of what he's like just by being around us.

And I think we need to give in a way that intentionally reminds us of the gospel and what Jesus has done for us.

We forget that we are loved while we were yet sinners.

Christ died for the ungodly.

Like we just forget that.

And we think that we are pleasing to God and God loves us because we're good.

And it's like, man, that is just that's not good news because I'm I'm not good all the time.

Good news is he loved us while we were still sinners, and that his offering has free, freed us, and given us, and blessed us, and made us righteous and justified before God.

And now we get to operate in this space.

It's like now I make an offering, and I don't have to worry, am I gonna get slapped or blessed or punished because it was too much, too little, too whatever.

It's like it's not that.

We get to give from a space of joy, and so I encourage you to give that way.

That's how we should give.

Let me pray.

Father, thank you for your word.

Thank you for this space that we get to really just look back.

Um the only reason we are able to give, we you offered yourself for us and now we offer to you.

We you loved us first and now we love you.

Um and so it's from that that we are able to give back.

There's no way we could repay the debt, there's no way we could repay, and you don't ask us to in giving tithes and offerings.

You just want us to be constantly reminded of the goodness of God in our time.

And every single time we open our checkbook or open push pay or give to the needy or find something, uh, Lord, that we're just reminded this is who you are, this is what you you're like, this is what you have done for me.

And so, Father, I pray that uh the spirit and the heart of our giving would be to encounter you more and to know you better, and that we would be shaped and formed into your image and likeness, so that other people in this world could actually see what you're really like even through uh our giving.

Would you do that in Jesus' name?

Amen.

Um we're going to uh do a different communion liturgy today based on uh this message.

Um there will be words uh that are bolded that I'd love for us to say together.

Um if you helped set up communion, y'all can go ahead and come on up.

And then we're gonna be on the side.

But I want us to say this together.

Uh I'll read the normal parts and you guys can read the parts in bold.

In truth, I have nothing but you, O Christ.

Nothing that I might call my own.

Let the generosity of your sacrifice teach me to treasure you, Jesus, above all things.

Father, you have loved me so well by giving all things in Christ.

If you are my shepherd, then I am free to live generously, knowing that I will never want for any needful thing.

Let your joyful sacrifice teach me to live with open hands and a joy-filled heart.

Jesus, you are the giver of bread and wine, body and blood.

All that I have is yours, Lord Christ.

All that I have is you.

Take some time in your seats just to consider the beauty of the sacrifice that Jesus did for us, his body, his blood broken for us.

And then I'd love for you to come and take and partake of uh Jesus' body and blood.

Uh there'll also be, after we take communion, we're gonna have a time of response and singing.

There will be um some men and women on the corners here near the banners that would love to pray for you.

They'll be over here as well.

Um, but Barbara and our prayer team is gonna be over there.

So if you want somebody to pray for you, if you have a need, it's great.

Corey Tinboom says every time that we pray, we enter into the space where God does the impossible.

Like, I want to enter in that space daily.

Um, and so for you, if you're like, I got that need, that impossible need, great.

Enter into the space where things that are impossible begin to happen.

Um, and have somebody pray for you.

Randy talked about it last week.

You need that, and uh, and I need that.

So uh Barbara and uh I believe Sally will be over here.

I'll be over here uh well, I think with Patty.

And so if you want us to pray for you during the time of response, please come.

We'd love, we'd be honored.

We'd love to pray for you.

But take some time and then come forward and receive communion.