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A Costly Commitment
2 Corinthians 9 |
January 7, 2007
Pastor Tom Marcum
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A few years ago, Stirling, Jordan
and I were at an amusement park in Florida that unexpectedly presented
me an opportunity to fulfill a long-standing desire when we discovered
a towering platform from which you could bungee-jump. A soon as I
saw the tower, I turned to Jordan and said, “Are you with
me?” And she said, “Oh, yeah!” And
before Stirling could stop the insanity we were off and running.
When we arrived at the tower
we took a seat in the grandstands that allowed curious spectators
to watch the foolhardy “take the plunge.” It
was soon obvious that many of the brave souls who signed the “release
of liability” form at the bottom of the tower began to
question the wisdom of their decision as they climbed to the top of
the tower. And each time a would-be jumper hesitated at the edge of
the platform, the crowd in the grandstands below offered encouragement
by shouting uplifting phrases like, “Jump you wimp!”
It was a very supportive crowd.
As I reached the top of the
tower and occupied the “on deck” position, the
jumper ahead of me was a 20-year-old guy was literally quaking in
his sneakers as he stood at the end of the platform. 200’ feet
below his friends were shouting their encouragement: “3-2-1
Go!” “3-2-1 Go!” “C’mon you wimp. Go!”
It didn’t work. After several minutes of indecision at the precipice,
he turned, unhooked himself from the bungee cable and, with head hung
low, began the long and humiliating walk down the stairs and into
the presence of his taunting and jeering friends.
Bungee jumping, it seems, is
among the many opportunities in life that are far easier to give verbal
commitment than demonstrated commitment. Kind of like marriage; or
exercising regularly; or eating a healthy diet. We sometimes make
verbal commitments that ultimately prove to be hollow when they are
just not demonstrated through our actions.
Last week was the first Sunday
of 2007 and I used the occasion of the New Year to challenge us both
individually and as a church family to be about our Father’s
business.
--To stay focused on the things
that matter to God.
--To make sure that His will
is always our priority.
And the only way that we can
do that is to ground ourselves in God’s word under the guidance
and inspiration of the Holy Spirit. “Father, open my eyes
and help me understand what you are saying to me in your word and
then empower me to obey it in every way.” That kind of
commitment will keep us focused on our Father’s business. And
I invited you to join me in making that commitment as we begin this
New Year…and you did.
It was a great way to begin
2007. Now comes the hard part. Honoring that commitment. Now we get
to demonstrate either the strength or the weakness of our commitment
through our willingness to make whatever adjustments we might have
to make in our lives in order to be obedient to God’s word.
And to that end, I’ve
decided to lead us, this morning, directly into the path of one of
the most frequently disobeyed portions of God’s word, namely,
that portion of God’s word which speaks to the standard of financial
giving that God expects and demands from His people. Countless numbers
of Christians who have made otherwise solid commitments to the authority
of the scriptures, absolutely crash and burn when confronted with
what the Bible says about the kind of giving that is pleasing to God.
The kind of giving that brings honor to God. The kind of giving that
God expects from His own people.
You see, here’s the point—I
don’t want to please God with some of my life. I want to please
God with all of my life. Am I alone in this desire or are you there
with me? Great. I thought so. Consequently, if He’s got something
to say to us about money…and about the way that we should manage
our money…and about how much of our money we should give back
to Him as loving, faithful, obedient children…then we need to
hear what He has to say so we can then do what He wants us to do.
And, as it turns out, this is
a subject about which God has a great deal to say. I haven’t
counted them myself, but others have calculated that there are more
than 2,000 passages in the Bible that speak to the issue of both money
and our material possessions. Clearly, this is a matter that God takes
very seriously. And as people committed to grounding our lives in
God’s word we must take it seriously as well.
Now, obviously, there’s
no way to completely cover such a broad subject in just a single sermon.
So, what I want to do this morning is to begin a series of probably
3 sermons that I’ll complete over the course of this year, exploring
some very practical giving principles found in just one bible passage,
namely, 2 Corinthians 9. Before we read it, let me very briefly establish
the context of Paul’s remarks. The Christians in Jerusalem were
struggling financially and the Christians in Corinth responded to
their need with the promise of a significant financial gift.
Now, we join the story in verse
2 where Paul writes:
“For I know your eagerness
to help, and I have been boasting about it to the Macedonians, telling
them that since last year you in Achaia were ready to give; and your
enthusiasm has stirred most of them to action. But I am sending the
brothers in order that our boasting about you in this matter should
not prove hollow, but that you may be ready, as I said you would be.
For if any Macedonians come with me and find you unprepared, we—not
to say anything about you—would be ashamed of having been so
confident. So I thought it necessary to urge the brothers to visit
you in advance and finish the arrangements for the generous gift you
had promised. Then it will be ready as a generous gift, not as one
grudgingly given.”
So, let’s review the situation.
The Jerusalem Christians are in need. The Corinthian Christians respond
to that need with the promise of a very generous gift. And Paul is
so encouraged by the Corinthian’s generosity that he tells the
Macedonian Christians about what the Christians in Corinth have done.
The Macedonians, in turn, are so inspired by the example of the Corinthians
that they respond with similar generosity. It’s a beautiful
story. But Paul realizes that there’s a potential disaster lurking
in the background of this wonderful story.
If, for whatever reason, the
Corinthians failed to follow through on their commitment and didn’t
deliver the promised gift, the results could be devastating. Not only
would the Christians in Jerusalem be denied the gift they had anticipated
receiving from the Corinthian Christians, it’s entirely possible
that the Macedonians, hearing that the Corinthians had backed out
of their commitment, might decide to back out of theirs’ as
well. So, to facilitate the transfer of this gift…in other words,
to make sure that Corinthians kept the promise they’d made…Paul
decides to send a delegation to the Corinthian Church to receive the
gift.
Now, folks, there is a powerful
giving principle for us to notice here. I call it, The Principle
of Modeling and what it means is this—our giving influences
the giving of others. Generous giving inspires others to give generously.
And giving grudgingly inspires others to give grudgingly. And this
modeling principle does not apply solely to Christian giving. In fact,
it’s a basic principle of Christian growth that is frequently
addressed in the scriptures.
In Philippians 3:17, Paul writes,
“Join with others in following my example…and take
note of those who live according to the pattern we gave you.”
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul
writes, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ.”
The point is very clear—one
most effective ways to encourage and promote the spiritual growth
that God desires in His children is through our good example. But
the opposite is also true. One of the most effective ways to stifle
and stunt the spiritual growth that God desires in His children is
through our bad example. And that means that the giving model that
others see in us is supremely important.
I’ve talked many, many
times about the many, many ways that my life has been blessed by the
example and model provided me by my parents. And one of the greatest
things that my parents did for me…and this is no exaggeration,
in fact, I’ll talk more about it in my next sermon on this subject…
One of the greatest things that my parents did for me was to provide
me a clear, open and faithful model of the kind of giving that is
pleasing to God.
As far back as I can remember,
I watched my parents open their checkbook every Sunday, write a check
to the church that represented 10% of their weekly income, seal that
check in an offering envelope and place the envelope in their Bible
as we prepared to go to church.
When that task was completed
my mom would then call me into their bedroom to give me my allowance.
The ritual went like this—she would hand me a dollar and say,
“Here’s your allowance.” Then, she would hand me
a dime and say, “And this dime is your tithe. 10% of everything
you have belongs to God.” And then she’d give me my offering
envelope and I’d put the dime in it and seal it up and put the
envelope in my Bible as I prepared to go to church. And we did this
every Sunday.
And I have a very clear memory
of the day that my mom gave me $2 for my allowance (I’d gotten
a raise) and then 2 dimes for my tithe and I said, “No,
mom. If I give those two dimes, I’m not giving God anything.
That’s still from you.” And I gave her back one of
my dollars and she gave a dollars worth of change and that day, I
brought God an offering of my own.
Because my parents openly modeled
the biblical standard of the tithe, 10% of our income as the beginning
point of the kind of giving that pleases God, I continued that giving
practice through my childhood, through my teenage years, through my
years as a young adult and on to this very day as a middle-aged adult.
Models matter, folks, because
our giving influences the giving of others.
--Now, does that mean that we
should go around and boasting about how much money we give to the
church? No.
--Does that mean that I should
study the giving records of our church family to see who’s faithful
and who’s living off the faithfulness of others? No. I’ve
never seen our giving records and I never will. And I’ll explain
why at another time.
But it does mean this—if
we think that the model that we are establishing through our giving
is not influencing the giving of others we’re not only fooling
ourselves, we’re denying the truth of the scriptures which clearly
teach that models matter. We’re not just a bunch of individual
Christians who gather together for a meeting each week. We’re
the body of Christ. The scriptures say that we belong to one another.
Each of us is vitally connected to each other. Consequently, the actions
of each individual impact the health and well being of the entire
body. And if we’re giving anything less than what is pleasing
to God we’re wasting a God-given opportunity to encourage the
spiritual growth of God’s children.
It’s the Giving Principle
of Modeling.
Those of you that have been
here for a while know that I work really hard week after week to help
you see how the truths that we find in God’s word can be applied
in the most practical of ways to our lives. In that spirit, let me
offer you some very pointed questions that I hope will be helpful
to you…even as they’ve been helpful to me…as you
evaluate the giving model that you have created through your giving
practices. And let me quickly say that when I talk about our “giving
model,” I’m not talking simply about the amount of our
offering. I’m talking about the amount of our giving in relation
to the amount of our income, as well as the spirit with which we bring
our offerings and the regularity of those offerings and so forth.
All of the those factors and others taken together comprise our “giving
model.” So, with that said, let me offer some questions for
your consideration.
1. Would your giving model inspire
others to greater degrees of faithfulness and generosity?
2. If everyone in the Petaluma
Valley Family began to follow your giving model would we be able to
expand our ministries, maintain our ministries or would we have to
cut back our ministries?
3. Have you used or could you
use your giving model to teach your children about the kind of giving
that is pleasing to God?
Are you confident that your present pattern of giving is pleasing
and honoring to God?
4. If you don’t have that
confidence, would you be willing to make whatever adjustment that
God would lead you make to create a new pattern of giving that is
pleasing and honoring to God?
5. I told you a story at the
beginning of this message that I didn’t quite complete. When
we left the story my daughter and I we standing atop a 200’
tall tower. For those who were wondering, both my daughter and I swan-dived
our way into bungee glory.
My prayer, today, is that each
of us will build a giving model that gives glory to God.
© Copyright
2006 Pastor Tom Marcum
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