Dennis Tuuri

# Offerings in Context – 2 Corinthians Chapters 8 and 9

That was pretty good. We shall get lots of opportunity to practice that and get better at it. We may have a little bit of instruction over the next couple of weeks in the context of the meal, and we’ll be doing this for a couple of months at least. I might just explain why. The church for the last two thousand years has sort of seen the Beatitudes as reflecting the spirit of the law this side of the coming of our Savior.

So you know, it’s kind of like Jesus, of course, delivers this from the mountain as Moses was on the mountain. So it seems to be exceedingly significant in terms of a summation of the sort of blessedness we receive in the context of what we’re exhorted to be. So it’s very important. You know, we’ve kind of removed the Christmas stuff, but we still have Epiphany going on here. I don’t know how much longer we’ll have the visual representation of that.

But you know, we’re in Epiphany season unto Lent, and so this is a period of light-bearing, and we bear light when we exhibit the character of Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. And the Beatitudes are a wonderful statement of that for us, a summation of it. Now, once more, I’m promoting this. Maybe I didn’t show you how cool it all is, but this is from Rose Publishing. I’ve got more of these coming for the coming year and different topics, but these are really cool charts they do.

They’re really well done in terms of production values, and you know, they’re yours free for use personally or perhaps family worship. It’s the new year—resolutions—try to get back up on that horse of trying to do regular family worship. This would be a great way to do it. Just do a panel a day. It’s real simple. These are in the tract rack in the back. I’ll try to find better ways to distribute them to you. Maybe have a table out back or something. But you know, these are a gift from the church to you and your family.

You know, it’s kind of a standard treatment of the Beatitudes, but it’s a good one, a significant one for you to use in your family worship. Today we’re going to talk about light-bearing through money, the use of our money. I’ll actually be speaking from both 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, but I’ll begin by reading 2 Corinthians 9, verses 1 to 8. And we’ll talk about these as we go through it—these two chapters—as we consider money.

And specifically today, the goal is for you to consider possibly giving or pledging to offerings for benevolence and missions. There’s a form on the back of your order of worship. It’s the last page, so it’s easily torn off. And we would like you to consider—everyone here could consider over the next week or two—making a commitment for the coming year so that we can budget, so that groups such as JEEP and we’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes can make significant budgets for what they’re doing—informed ones, I should say.

So that’s kind of the application. So we don’t have sermon discussion questions for the community groups this week, but what we want you to do is to talk about this in the context of your community groups, specifically trying to encourage members of the group to make some commitment to show the grace of God and be light-bearers in that way. Okay. So, to that end, 2 Corinthians 9. I’m going to read the first eight verses of this chapter.

Please stand. This is the New King James Version. Later in the sermon, I’ll probably use the ESV for clarity, but this is New King James.

Okay. 2 Corinthians 9:1 through 8:

“Now, concerning the ministering to the saints, it is superfluous for me to write to you, for I know your willingness, of which I boast of you to the Macedonians, that Achaia was ready a year ago, and your zeal has stirred up the majority. Yet I have sent the brethren, lest our boasting of you should be in vain in this respect, that as I said, you may be ready, lest if some Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not to mention you—should be ashamed of this, of this our confident boasting. Therefore, I thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time and prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity, and not as a grudging obligation.

But this I say: he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.”

Let’s pray.

Father, we thank you for the generosity of this congregation. And in a way, it’s superfluous to talk about this, but we know, Lord God, that this is from your scriptures, and it’s a good thing to remind ourselves of as we make budgeting resolutions and as we think of our money for the coming year. Bless us, Lord God, that we’d be informed by your scriptures in terms of how we handle the great gift of financial stewardship. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

Please be seated.

So, you know how lots of sentences these days that you listen to in the media start with the word “so”? People ask a question and rather than just launch into the answer, everybody says “so.” I’ve noticed this a lot lately. So I got a Roku for Christmas this year and I was watching TED talks on it. TED talks have been going on for, I don’t know, fifteen, twenty years, I suppose. They’re people who are really expert in various disciplines in different directions. And I saw this particular TED talk dealing with a study that had been done on Monopoly.

Now, here’s the vision statement for TED talks: “We believe passionately in the power of ideas to change attitudes, lives, and ultimately the world. So we’re building here a clearing house that offers free knowledge and inspiration from the world’s most inspired thinkers, and also a community of curious souls to engage with ideas and each other.” TED actually stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design.

So the talks are in those sorts of disciplines. Now, it’s secular, and you can see in their vision statement what they want to save the world with is ideas. And ideas are important. Ideas have consequences. Great book. But ultimately what changes the world is a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, and his bearing his testimony to the world and the transformation of our lives through the power of the Holy Spirit. So we would disagree with their ultimate vision, but they’re a very excellent resource, although usually left-leaning, but not always.

Anyway, I belabored the point, but in this particular TED talk given in December, just a month ago, there was a fellow named Piff who was part of a Stanford University study on Monopoly. So the idea was they had Monopoly and they would have two people play Monopoly together—or a guy and a gal, whatever it is, two people—and they would rig the game. So they would give one of the two people three times as much money. And they knew it, you know, it wasn’t a secret. So they were examining, and they videotaped all these studies. They were examining people’s response to the disparity. And, you know, of course, I think in all instances, the person that they rigged to win did win, because they had the money.

But what was interesting—there’s several interesting things about it—about kind of the spirit of the game as it goes on, you know, the people who are winning and have the money sort of become in-your-face toward the other people. You might have experienced that when you play games with folks. The winners can be a little… but the most interesting thing that I heard on the talk was at the end of it when they asked the winner, you know, how he had actually won. Now, this is a guy who won because he got three times more money, right? And they ask him how he won, and he would always talk about his strategy. He really didn’t focus on the fact that he had been given three times more money at the beginning.

Now, there’s a political agenda behind that study, and you can sort of see it, and it probably is in the path with where we’ve been at since 9/11, which is a path towards socialism. And I’m not advocating that. But I am beginning this talk on money by talking about the significance of grace. And we’ll see this in the text as we look at it today. But money is important, and our response to our money and our stewardship is highly important and reflects whether you really believe in the grace of God or not.

You know, I’m up here because God somehow prepared me genetically and through my background with a mind that’s kind of analytical and I can remember things. I got pretty good short-term memory—at least I used to. But you know, so there are these giftings. And so the point of the study is we have these kind of giftings. And the idea is that if we understand that it wasn’t really, at the end of the day, our work that produced all of this, but rather the grace of God—and of course our work is significant and important—but the grace of God—that we’re going to tend to be more gracious with our money.

So as we look at these pledge sheets, I think it’s important to remember, and 2 Corinthians 8:9 will remind us over and over, that what we have is ultimately by the grace of God, and so we should be willing to share it with others. Now, money is real important, and we’re going to get to 2 Corinthians 8:9, and we’ll walk through it, just reading through it a section at a time. But I also want to, on the way to that, talk about 1 Timothy 6, and I’m going to read this chapter.

So lots of Bible today, and I’m going to read it because to talk about the significance of money—you know, I listened, I read an article by a man. It was posted on the Gospel Coalition page, and he said it was the ten things that he wished he knew when he began pastoring. He’s an older pastor now, and they all resonated quite well with myself and the people on the CRC list—CRC pastors who read it. But one of the things was he wished he had known that it was okay to talk about money more.

You know, only—you know, you want to make sure that people don’t think you’re looking for money for yourself personally—but it is okay to talk about money, and pastors have a natural reluctance to do that for whatever reason. Money is kind of the third rail, right? I mean, okay, talk to us about, you know, being good people and all that stuff, but just don’t touch our pocketbooks. Now, this congregation’s different than that.

And you know, to be a member—as Tommy and Diana entered into membership today—you actually are committing to give God his tithe. But it is a tricky topic. So let me read 1 Timothy 6 and listen to this. You could turn to your Bibles to it if you want and kind of read along or notice what I read. But here’s the deal. First Timothy is a pastoral epistle. And we know from 1 Timothy 1 and 2, he’s talking about how to behave yourself in the house of God. How do you pastor people? What should the church do and be?

And then he says in chapter 2, the first importance: prayer for authorities, that they be converted, because God is interested in seeing the manifestation of the kingdom of Christ everywhere, and rulers are significant to that process. So you know, if we look at, if we want to know what the church is about, this particular pastoral epistle is a good one, because he’s telling Timothy: this is how churches should operate. Okay? And the conclusion of it is chapter 6. So this is like the summary of it. And so the context for these instructions—it isn’t just one more thing that is being talked about, but it’s this epistle that’s driving home several key points to how the church should operate.

Okay. So he begins in verse one by talking about bondservants and doing a good job and all that sort of stuff with believing masters. He talks about that. We’ll skip over that as well, except that at the end of verse two, he says that these things that I’m saying to you, teach and urge these things. Okay? And then he says in verse three: “If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit.”

So he’s talking about the teaching that accords with godliness, and pride—conceit—would cause people to argue against this. They’re puffed up with conceit. “He understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produces envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth. And here’s the key: imagining that godliness is a means of gain.” Or another way to translate that is: imagining that gain is godliness.

So in this person’s head—the people that God is warning us against—there’s a connection between what we have, as if it’s because we’re so great, or you know that we can be good so that we can get something else, which is gold. And of course, neither of those things are true. What we get, ultimately, is the person of Jesus in this relationship. Our gold is important, but it’s not a means of gain, nor is it always related to godliness.

But Paul goes on to say: “Godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world. We cannot take anything out of the world.” Like that Monopoly game, it starts with gifts. “But if we have food and clothing, with these we should be content. But those who desire to be rich fall into temptations, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.”

Now, this—again—is how to conduct yourself in the church of God. This is important lessons for the church. And he goes on and on here. He’ll continue to go on about the difficulties of richness and how it’s not a good thing to seek riches. Yeah. Riches are a blessing from God. I’m not against riches. But to seek them first and to think that godliness is a means to attain riches—you got it all messed up and backwards.

“The love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.” Great line that made it into a Pink Floyd song, “Money,” right? You know, and in the song they basically say, “Well, you know, people say money is the root of all evil today, but you know, nobody’s given any of it away.” So, do we believe that or do we not believe that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils? “It’s through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs. It can destroy a person’s Christianity.

But as for you, oh man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you have made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. I charge you in the presence of God who gives life to all things and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time.

He who is blessed and only sovereign, the King of all kings and Lord of all lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.”

So you see, all that last few verses a lot of times we take that out of context, and it is broad in its application. But very specifically, what he’s saying is the thing—the specific thing—that Timothy is supposed to flee is an unhealthy relationship with our money. Holding on to our money, thinking that money is the object—you know, it’s who gets the most here. And so, you know, it’s very significant to me as a pastor that the first pastoral epistle here, that tells us how to run church, says, “Hey, one of the big problems you’re going to have in your life and in the life of your parishioners are people who want to hang on to their money and hoard it.”

So that’s a problem.

He goes on to say: “As for the rich in this present age, charge them not to be haughty, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God who richly provides us with everything to enjoy. They are to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus storing up treasures for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life.”

You can’t take it with you, but the things you do with it here, your possessions and your money, actually do carry over into eternity. That’s what Paul seems to be saying here. If you use them rightly, do good things with them, to show the grace that God has shown to you in your distribution of the money that you have.

“Oh Timothy, guard the deposit entrusted to you. Avoid the irreverent babble and contradictions of what is falsely called knowledge. For by professing it, some have swerved from the faith. Grace be with you.”

So it’s significant, I think, that money is a big topic in this pastoral epistle. It’s the concluding kind of warnings and instructions that he’s supposed to give, that are said in the context of this epistle for how the church is to operate. So I think that means it’s important and significant, and we should be talking about money probably a little more than I do. And first of the year seems like a good time to do it and to encourage us into our proper use of money.

Now, on your outline today, I have—this is actually mostly—I prepared this years ago in my initial studies on money and the use of money, the tithe, and then two different kinds of offerings. So, you know, there are three things here. One is tithes. That’s how we use our money. Second is mandatory offerings. And then the third are these voluntary offerings that Paul is talking about in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, and that we’re asking you to consider relative to these pledge sheets. These are voluntary offerings.

So, you know, quickly an overview—let’s just read through this. The tithe is a tenth of the increase that God has given to us. Tithe means tenth. So, you know, tithing doesn’t mean you choose a particular percentage and then commit to give it. A tithe is God’s tax, and God’s tax is 10%. Okay? It’s that simple. To tithe—giving one-tenth of one’s income—is a response to the grace of God’s rich blessings. So if you look throughout these texts on money, the idea is repeatedly that Paul brings us back to is: what we have is the demonstration of the grace of God to us, whatever money we’ve got.

And so our response to that grace is to say, “It’s all yours. We’ll use it all for your kingdom.” And we do that through a synecdoche—which means a part for the whole. So it’s a little symbol of everything else. So we give God the tithe as a response to his grace. So we’re not working our way towards salvation by our actions in terms of financial responsibility. Just the other way around. The whole thing is an acknowledgment that God has been gracious and given us gifts and income, et cetera.

And if we really believe that, then we’ll obey God’s instruction to give 10% of it to the work of the church, ultimately.

Three: the tithe is critical to covenantal affirmation. Deuteronomy 26 won’t take the—I frequently send this out in the tithe receipt letter at the end of the year, at the beginning of the year for the previous year. And the idea is that at the end of Deuteronomy 26, when the covenant is reaffirmed, the symbol of whether or not you kept covenant with God—the whole ten commandments and all that stuff—the symbol of whether you’re really walking with Jesus, we could say, is an affirmation that you make: that you are a wandering Aramean. God graciously sought you and saved you. And your response to that has been you’ve followed the tithing system laid out for you. That’s it. That’s covenant affirmation at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.

So the most important way, symbol for God, of covenant affirmation is the tithe, and you make a pledge at the end of the three-year tithing cycle in Deuteronomy that you’ve done it.

Now, here’s a way to think of the tithe. So Abram tithes to Melchizedek as the representative of God. That predates Moses. The tithe is not a Mosaic regulation. It didn’t start there. It predates it. If Abraham’s our daddy, then we’re going to be like Abraham and tithe. But then we get the Mosaic law, right? And the Mosaic law has other things going on with the tithe. And it talks about this on your handout, but it says that a portion of your tithe is to be used to show grace to the widows, the fatherless, and the stranger.

And another portion of your tithe is to finance your yearly festivals at Jerusalem. In a few weeks, we’ll have the family camp brochure ready, and I’ll give a sermon then on family camp, and I’ll talk about Deuteronomy 14 and why we believe and teach that you can use a portion of your tithe to finance family camp, to pay for the registration. And we don’t just come up with that as “oh, that’d be a cool idea and get more people at camp.”

It’s because the Bible seems to say there’s this rejoicing aspect of the tithe. So, you know, so there’s this tithing cycle over three years. And without getting into detail now, the point is it’s like the offering system. There was a single lamb, Abel, right? Flock animal, at least. And then in the Mosaic legislation, it shows all these different offerings. It’s prismed out. The one offering is prismed out, and we see reflections of what constitute the total offering.

And then back in the New Testament, it comes back to the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Okay? So the Mosaic law, in many respects and in different ways and different areas, is a reflection of what actually is constituent in a single offering that will be made by Jesus and was prefigured by Abel’s offering. What that’s all about. So you don’t understand Jesus if you don’t understand Leviticus, because Leviticus tells us that there’s purification going on. There’s transformation of your life going on. There’s peace with God going on. There’s tribute to our King—that it’s Jesus Christ, right? Our Savior and Lord, right? So all that’s pictured for us in the offerings.

Well, the tithe is the same way. There’s this Abrahamic tithe, and by the time you get to the New Testament, that is the only tithe that’s left. But in the middle, there’s this prism of Deuteronomy 14, and it says that while most of the tithe is for Levitical ministries, there’s a grace aspect to it and there’s a rejoicing aspect to it as well.

So all this is sort of picture—I talk about this in this first third of your handout today. But the important thing to point out here is that, again, our use of our money properly—tithing—is critical to covenant affirmation, you know. So, so anyway, the purpose of today’s talk is not to talk about tithes, but when you evaluate what you’re going to do with your money this year and you make your budget, put a line in for tithing. It’s that simple.

And in Malachi, you know, tithing is not optional. No matter how much money you make, you got to tithe. Now, if you’re poor and you’re tithing to the church, which we think you should be doing, and you let us know you have needs, we’ll do everything we can to help you, you know. So, again, if you know—okay, so you might be tempted: “I don’t have as much money this year, right?” And by the way, all kinds of people are tempted that way, no matter what income level it’s at, you know. I don’t know: Are we poorer now than when the War on Poverty began or not? I don’t know. We’ve had fifty years, is it? I think the War on Poverty, and it seems like the poverty rate hasn’t changed.

Now, maybe the poverty standards have changed. I don’t know. But we spent lots of trillions of dollars and not accomplished much. But you know what God says is that no matter what income level you have, you tend to always not have enough. And so, whatever income level you have, you might be tempted to think, “Well, this year maybe we shouldn’t give 10%. Maybe we should give 8%, 6%, whatever it is.” Don’t do that. Pay the tithe. Pay the tax. Because it’s an acknowledgement of God’s grace to you.

And then if you have need, the sort of thing we’re talking about today—the voluntary offerings of the people, the grace administered through the church’s benevolent fund—we can use that to help you. And that way, you know, you’re receiving grace from the church. So we’re not interested in getting a net positive from you. We may give you more money than what you give in your tithe. What we’re interested in is that you obediently, trusting God, trust that he’ll take care of you, become—you know, obedient and continually—a regular pattern of tithing.

And so if we’re talking about money, we got to talk about that. And so we just did.

I’m going to run out of time if I don’t move ahead. The middle section of your page is mandatory offerings. You know, in Malachi, it says, “You’ve robbed me in tithes and offerings.” And you think, “Wait a minute, what’s—” Well, in the Levitical system, there was a tax, a head tax, that was used for the financing of the construction of the temple and also actually not the construction, but the maintenance of the temple.

And I’ve got a verse listed in that second section of your handout notes today that talks about that. So everybody had to give the same amount of money. This is not a percentage. This is a singular amount of money for the maintenance of the real property that God had in the Levitical system. Now, how we apply that today to buildings, not sure. I think you can make a case that the maintenance of the structure of the church doesn’t come out of tithe monies, but is a separate tax, administered same amount for everybody.

Okay? An apportionment. By the way, it was R.J. Rushdoony’s teaching on that, picked up by Greg Bahnsen, a head advisor to Margaret Thatcher, that caused her tremendous problems in England. She initiated a head tax—equal tax amongst people—for governmental purposes, and there were riots, and it didn’t go good. But that’s where that came from, in case you didn’t know. It came from R.J. Rushdoony talking about this head tax in the Bible. So how it applies today, I’m not sure. So we’re just going to leave that. You know, but put it in the back of your head. Do your studies. Read the notes.

And then the third section of the handout deals with what we’re talking about today, and these are voluntary offerings for particular purposes. And Paul, in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, this is what he’s dealing with. And as we read it, you’ll see that he makes that point over and over and over. So what we’re dealing with today is the bottom third of those instructions about your money—these voluntary offerings.

So, you know, we want you to consider voluntarily making commitments to give so much money to JEEP this year. We used to have Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, Hungary. Everything now is being funneled through what we could call a mission agency, or whatever, known as JEEP—Joint Eastern European Project, I think it is. I’m one of the three pastors that runs the thing, and I’m not quite sure of the P, but the idea is rather than each individual church having the resources to vet what’s going on over there, this way we have, as a group of churches, working through one agency.

Now, we—that agency gets financial reports from each of these people we help, right? They commit to working with JEEP by being transparent financially regularly. Jack or Gary or, used to be me, but other people that are involved with JEEP, go to these countries. They see what’s going on, boots on the ground. So when you give to JEEP, you have a higher level of confidence—particularly other churches in the CRC—that financial stewardship is being exercised in a very accountable way.

And as we’ll see when we get to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9, that’s what Paul commends to us: a group of guys coming to get their money that they’ve pledged to give to the saints in Jerusalem who are suffering because of the drought and famine going on there. So JEEP is that higher degree of accountability. Praise God for JEEP. It’s one of the ways that God is maturing the CRC and the missionary work of RCC in particular. And we’d ask you to consider giving to them, giving to India and the work that just, you know, was done over there by our team, as an example of our connection there.

God has laid on the heart of Elder Wilson, many years ago, the salvation of the Bengali people group. They’re becoming disciples—that particular nation becoming disciples—ala Matthew 28. And so we’re hooked up with people there that do that kind of work. So that’s another area that you might want to contribute to. And then general missions, where projects come up in the context of the year and we make those decisions ad hoc.

And let me just, as long as I’m talking about it, the other side of the form—and you can look at your forms on the back of the sheet. Getting this a little out of order, but the other side of the form is about benevolence things, right? And so here there are a couple of different things you can commit to.

One is the work of Love, Inc. At the prayer summit—thank you for your praying for the prayer summit of the church in Oregon City. It was excellent. I mean, one of the pastors, for instance, repented for being kind of standoffish to the CIO, commits to coming to the meetings again. I mean, I think that coming out of the prayer summit, the church in Oregon City, we’ve got wind at our backs now, and I think it’ll be a very significant year for us. So it was excellent.

We could talk more about that individually, but it was a good thing. And Love, Inc. was brought up by the facilitator who does this stuff all over the country. He’s a huge Love, Inc. guy, thinks it’s a wonderful way. Again, each individual church has a difficult time assessing needs, scams, et cetera, come through. Love, Inc., as a clearing agency for connecting—not what they have, but the resources of the church—with particular benevolent people in need is a wonderful tool for Clackamas County.

That this church was one of the core churches that started fifteen years ago, or whatever it was. And so Love, Inc. is great work. You know about the Image program we had here last—the end of last year—and now the new ones either this last Thursday or maybe this coming Thursday, starting up a new series of classes for people in various directions. So Love, Inc. is a very important work for the church in Oregon City and for our being involved in it as well.

And maybe you want to commit to giving money to Love, Inc. through Reformation Covenant here. It’s kind of like JEEP, you know? You can give with confidence, knowing that they’re vetting people, right? And they’re—Jeep hooks up churches with people in Eastern Europe and vets them and holds them accountable in the process. Love, Inc. does the same thing here in Oregon City. It hooks up churches and people in churches with particularly needy folks in our region, and it vets those people and then trains and helps mentor them as well, again, through the churches. So kind of similar.

We used to have a PRC line here. We’ve broadened it out. The next line on your pledge form, you know, we have a positive obligation—as the Meyers just entered into—you know, to combat abortion in our country. And next week is anti-abortion day of the Lord, and we’ll talk more about this. But the PRCs have done a great work across the country, ministering to pregnant moms, primarily through ultrasound, but in other benevolent ways as well, to prevent them from being tempted to kill their own children.

And now in Oregon City, we’ve got Hope 360 as well, if you live here in Oregon City. And they’re going to open their doors on February 1st. There was a report about that at the prayer summit as well. Their ultrasound was delivered a week or two ago. They’re training volunteers now. They’ve got enough money in the bank for reserves that they wanted to have before they open their doors. So it’s all ready to go.

And so when you give money to combat abortion through helping moms, you know that that can either be directly through us to PRC or to Hope 360, designating it on your checks, or it means too that if you’re giving money specifically for that area, we may then use those funds for either PRC or Hope 360.

And then the third thing on there is an education fund. It’s self-explanatory, but we want to be able to help people provide for Christian education of their kids. We don’t just want to tell people, “Keep them out of the public schools,” and they say, “Well, how are we going to take care of this problem?” Well, we don’t know, but just don’t put them in public schools. Again, the covenant statement that was read talked about this—raising our children in the culture of Jesus.

And so we want to be able to have benevolent money saved up so the deacons could minister that money to particular people with needs to prevent their kids from having to go off to public school. And then there’s a general line as well. So this is the sort of thing that Paul—it’s based upon what Paul did. And the principles of what Paul did are articulated for you on the handout for today.

So now let’s turn to 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. And we’ll talk about it kind of verse by verse. As you’re turning or as you’re—yeah, as you’re turning in your scriptures to 2 Corinthians 8, you know, a little bit of background. These letters—1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians—were written about a year apart.

And so what had happened was a year previous—Paul was collecting pledges from churches, and city churches in terms of Corinth, which might have had several different congregations, to help a particular situation of famine in Jerusalem. Okay. So Paul’s doing his missionary journeys. He’s going to complete it and go back to Jerusalem. When he does that, he wants to take money to assist the people that are starving there, okay? The church that’s having severe financial difficulties feeding one another because of the famine that’s happening.

And what Paul does—and what he’ll be referring to here in this epistle—what he did in First Corinthians: they had asked him about this thing that he was doing. And he said, “Yeah, well, here’s the deal. Save up money, and when I come back, when I come to you finally—probably in about 6 to 8 months is what he was originally thinking—I’ll take the money you’ve saved up week by week, and I’ll take that to Jerusalem.” And the evidence, as we’ll look here in a minute, is that they committed, saying, “Well, we think we can give a thousand bucks or 10,000 or 100,000. I don’t know what it was. They made a particular commitment. And so Paul, in what we’re going to read here shortly, is calling them now to fulfill what they pledged to do. He’s bugging them about the level of their giving. Okay? He’s giving a degree of accountability and motivation through it so that they would complete what they’d committed to.

Now, remember, things between Paul and the Corinthians are kind of tense, right? Because in that first epistle, he gave them, you know, tough time about several issues. It was a rough epistle. Nearly every chapter—some form of rebuke or admonition. So, you know, now he’s got to go back to that same church, that same group of churches in Corinth, and remind them that, well, you know, you really need to fulfill your commitment. So that’s the background for this.

And so let’s just read through it here, beginning at 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And this is kind of obvious, but just so we’ll see it as we go through here, as sort of the basis for what we’re doing with these pledges for missions and benevolences. Okay.

“We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia.”

So Corinth is in Achaia, part of Greece. And up north there’s another region called Macedonia. And he’s going to tell them, you know, the Macedonians have really come through, and we told the Macedonians that you’d really come through. Now, please do it. So this is what he says.

“For in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.”

So they gave lots of money, even though they had difficulties. And he’s using the example of the Macedonians to urge the Corinthians to complete what they committed to.

“For they have, according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, on their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints.”

So they actually told Paul, “We want to help. We want to help.” “Well, you guys aren’t doing too well financially.” “We want to help. We want to help.” They begged him to help. “Give us a commitment form. I didn’t get one of those pledge sheets. Pastor Jerry, please make sure I get one, cuz I really want to help somebody, right? I want to help those babies that aren’t going to be aborted by their moms,” et cetera. So they begged for participation. And he’s telling them this to motivate them, right?

“And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us, accordingly.”

We urged God first for this offering. Then they instructed Paul about it.

“And then he says, accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.”

A year before, Titus was part of the mechanism of getting the Corinthians to make pledges for their contribution for the saints. So now he’s going to complete it. And Titus is another example. The Macedonians are an example. Titus is an example. He’s going to complete the task that he was given to accomplish at the beginning of the year: make sure you talk to these guys, get their commitment levels in, and we’re going to send you back now to make sure they actually follow through with their pledges.

“But as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you, see that you excel in this act of grace also.”

So that’s a line we could say here, right? This is a church that excels in a lot of ways—in doctrine, understanding, Bible, Bible, lots of ways, raising our kids for Jesus, et cetera. And so I would say the same thing that Paul says to the Corinthians. Well, excel in this grace also—this act of grace—in making out these pledge sheets, graciously from your heart.

“I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.”

So this means it’s voluntary, right? You don’t have to do this. You didn’t have—you don’t have to make a commitment. But if you’re going to make a commitment, follow through. Okay? So these are voluntary offerings.

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

Okay. So underlying what you do is the example—not just of the Macedonians or Titus in terms of faithfulness, but ultimately it’s the Gospel itself that motivates these pledge sheets that we’re asking you to fill out and your participation in this help. Jesus, though he was rich, became poor, that you, though you were poor, might become rich. That’s the Gospel. And it’s a Gospel talked about in economic terms. Of course, it’s far broader than that, but it talks about the coming of Jesus Christ, his advent, right? To show us what God is like. God is like somebody who decides to become poor, even though he’s rich, so that he can help someone else who is poor become rich.

You see? So it’s the Gospel itself that underpins what we do with our finances, particularly in terms of these offerings.

“And in this matter, I gave my judgment. This benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it.”

So a year ago, they made the commitment.

“So now finish doing it as well, so that your readiness in desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have.”

Now, what we’re going to do with these pledge sheets with your names on them, we’re going to record it. We’re not going to come to you and bug you about it. But we have been asked to provide quarterly updates as a reminder to you—”Oh yeah, I made this commitment”—as a reminder to you. Okay? And we think that’s legitimate based upon what Paul is doing here. He’s reminding this church: this is what you did. Now, please fulfill it.

You know, we’re not going to be bugging you or asking you to fulfill it, but we are going to be giving you a little reminder, which we’ve been asked to do by members of the church, of what you committed to and how well you’re doing—three months, six months, nine months, at the end of the year. Okay? This is what he does here.

“For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what he does not have.”

“For I do not mean that others should be eased and you burdened, but that as a matter of fairness, your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.”

Strange word—fairness. It’s only used a couple of places here and in Colossians. And in Colossians, it talks about the master-slave relationship—an existing one—by treating each other. The master treating his Christian slave right, Christian slave treating his Christian master right. He doesn’t get rid of that. But he says you should have good attitudes toward each other so that there would be fairness. This same word.

So he doesn’t mean here a total equalizing of all wealth. But he does mean that something along that line. Okay? He does mean that if you’re rich, if you’ve got more resources, you should be willing to expend those resources on people that don’t have as much, that there’d be, to some degree, a oneness as this thing manifests itself. Okay. It’s an interesting verse. Don’t have more time to talk about it, but that’s the goal that’s set out.

I mean, it almost sounds socialistic. It’s not. But it’s also not raw capitalism without some regard for the disparity of incomes. We have something to say in the social justice discussion and how to do justice. And it’s not just laissez-faire. “Let it all hang out, and whoever wins, whoever gets the most chips, wins, and that’s that.” That is not the message with us. We believe in freedom. We believe in liberty. We believe in people being productive and hardworking and reaping the fruit of their work.

But we also believe in the grace of God that underpins all of this. And ultimately, we began—the Monopoly game—with the election of God of us and him giving us the ability and talents to make wealth. And that means we want to share that wealth, particularly with those of the household of faith. So, you know, there’s two ditches in the social justice discussion. Let’s not fall in either one, okay? Because we’ve got a great message to engage with those who are given to social justice, but of a leftist variety, right? Of a left-leaning variety. We’ve got a great message, and it isn’t just jumping to the right-hand ditch out of the left-hand ditch.

This text is exceedingly important in terms of motivation and how we see money and the distribution of money amongst people. Okay?

“As it is written, ‘Whoever gathers much had nothing left over, and whoever gathered little had no lack.’”

So, uh—ha—very conservative guy, right? Charles Hodge, he said, “Property is like manna. Okay? It doesn’t bear hoarding. You tried to hoard enough manna together and save it for a couple of days, it’d get destroyed. It’d just go away.” So what Paul is reminding us here is that it’s the same with people that have been given grace by God and, through their hard work—which is also the grace of God—have accumulated property. Don’t hoard it. It’s like manna. You can’t use it that way.

Now, you could accuse, you know, Hodge of being some kind of socialist, but of course, he wasn’t. But he was seeing the truth of what this text is talking about. Our financial resources are like every other resource we have. Freely Jesus has given to us. Freely we’re to give to others. And when we don’t give to others—that’s why it’s such a huge thing—is because it seems to portray a lack of comprehension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is a Gospel of grace. Okay?

“But thanks be to God, who put into the heart of Titus the same earnest care I have for you.”

“For he not only accepted our appeal, but being himself very earnest, he is going to you of his own accord.”

See? He’s an example. You do this out of your own accord. He’s doing that of his own accord.

“With him, we are sending a brother who is famous among all the churches for his preaching of the gospel.”

So a brother who is famous for his preaching ability is being sent as part of this benevolent delegation to get the monies from the churches and take back to Jerusalem.

“And not only that, but he has been appointed by the churches—another big deal, right? Who’s taking care of this? A parachurch organization? No. An organization like JEEP or Love, Inc.? That’s all they’re doing is connecting churches with particular needs. And the churches are the ones who send this delegation that Paul is talking about here to travel with us as we carry out this act of grace that’s being ministered by us for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill.”

“And make this course. We take this course rather so that no one should blame us about this generous gift that is being administered by us.”

“For we aim at what is honorable not only in the Lord’s sight, but also in the sight of men.”

Financial accountability through this team of men that Paul is sending is part of the teaching of this text. And it says that when you give to some agency, you better make sure that they’re doing, like Paul did, that it looks good in the sight of men, that there’s financial transparency to what your money is doing. And so, you know, that’s part of Paul’s message.

Some believe this is actually the center of these two—chapters—and at the heart of it, Paul wants to make sure that his apostolic ministry to call men to the Lord Jesus Christ and form churches, that his reputation isn’t damaged by them failing to put their money in or by himself being involved individually with the oversight of lots of money. His apostolic ministry itself seems to be one of the hearts of this text that Paul is trying to maintain. So, so again, it ties the use of our money and the way we handle money to the greater sense of what God is doing through the proclamation of the Gospel, evangelism, and church planting.

“And with them, we are sending out brothers who we have often tested and found earnest in many matters.”

So the people that oversee gifts are people that are tested in financial matters, right? So Jeff oversees a lot of our finances. He’s a tested guy. He’s an accredited guy. We know he’s good. We know he’s not, you know, going to do bad things with your money. We set up systems where receipts are handled by one group and dispersals by another, in an effort to do what Paul is talking about here—financial wisdom and stewardship.

“As for Titus, he is my partner and fellow worker with your—for your benefit.”

“And as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.”

“So give proof before the churches of your love and of our boasting about you to these men or our boasting about you, rather.”

Then chapter nine:

“Now it is superfluous for me to write to you about the ministry for the saints.”

Seems right. He just did that. Why is he doing it again? Well, I don’t know, but it’s worth repeating, apparently.

“For I know your readiness, of which I boast about you to the people of Macedonia, saying that Achaia—that’s the region Corinth is in—has been ready since last year, and your zeal has stirred up most of them.”

We have an obligation, by our zeal, to do what God wants us to do with our money, particularly benevolence-wise, to stir up other people. One of the duties of the deacons in this church is to stir up a benevolent spirit amongst the people of the church. And this text is one of the reasons why we think that’s appropriate. But the text sort of shows us that it’s a little broader than that. Our community groups should be places where, for instance, the grace of God administered through benevolence and by our money, this is stirred up in our members.

“But I am sending the brothers so that our boasting about you may not prove empty in this matter, so that you may be ready, as I said you would be.”

Get the money ready. We’re coming to collect it. Follow through on what you committed to, please.

“So that everything’s great. Otherwise, if some Macedonians come with me and find that you are not ready, we would be humiliated—to say nothing of you—for being so confident.”

“So I thought it necessary to urge the brother—others to go ahead to you and arrange it in advance for the gift you have promised so that it may be ready as a willing gift, not as an exaction.”

The point is this:

“Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

It’s the grace of God at work. And the point he says, in this matter, in the matter of these pledge sheets, we ask you to give and to give abundantly, to help the babies, to help the churches in Eastern Europe that are in very difficult financial times, and to plant other churches over there. We would ask you to remember the point: the point is, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly. Whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

“Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or out of compulsion, for God loves a hilarious giver.”

The word in Greek there is hilaria—the root of our word hilarious, hilarity—joy in giving, even if it’s somewhat difficult for you to follow through on. This is the model. We don’t want stingy givers. God doesn’t want that. He wants you hilarious and joyful, recognizing, as you give, the repeated lesson that God has given to you through the work of Jesus.

“God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that, having all sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”

“As it is written, ‘He has distributed freely. He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever.’”

I mean, our righteousness is tied here to our application of what Jesus did in giving to the poor. If you don’t give to the poor, it calls into question your righteousness. That’s a bold statement. What are you talking about, Dennis? “Isn’t justification by faith, not works?” Yeah, I know that. But this word justification and righteousness—these words—they’re used in lots of ways in the New Testament. And here, particularly, it says that our righteousness is somehow related to our gifts to the poor. Why? Because of what I said earlier. It’s a practical demonstration that you believe that it’s the grace of God that has brought you to where you are, and not your greatness, not your glory, but the greatness and glory of God and his grace through the Lord Jesus Christ.

“He who supplied seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.”

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

“For the ministry of his service is not only supplying the need of the saints, but is also overflowing in many thanksgivings to God.”

“By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your submission that comes from your confession of the Gospel of Christ and the generosity of your contribution for them and for all others, while they long for you and pray for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you.”

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift.”

So the end result of the whole thing—the great culmination—is thanksgiving. It’s community. It’s communication, not just of physical needs, but of spiritual thanksgivings for one another, and the whole thing redounds to thanksgiving for God and the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.

May God work in our hearts. I pray that you would go home or maybe you’re ready to fill it out now. If you do, put it in the offering box. Bring it back next week, though. Pray about it. Talk about it. Maybe reread 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Talk about it with your wife or with your husband, with your kids. Get them, maybe, to also contribute some of their offerings this year for particular needs. Small ways. Small ways will be an efficient way for them to remember the grace of God toward us.

May the Lord God grant that as we make these new year resolutions going into 2014, that we might resolve to work out the implications of the Gospel of Christ’s grace by being gracious and benevolent to others, and particularly these particular others that the elders of your church and your deacons, in concert together, have produced a list of these particular needs about who we are here.

Let’s pray.

Lord God, we thank you for the gift of benevolence, the ability we have to enter into this blessedness. Help us to be as the Macedonians, begging to be able to make contributions for these things. And help us, Father, to be those who look forward to your oversight and your blessing as we bless you with what we have. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.