My pulpit message notes : Give willingly

Give willingly

My Pulpit Message Notes are extracted from the sermon preached at the Nairobi Baptist Church (NBC) Ngong Road on Sunday 12th June 2022. Preacher: Pastor Elijah Mokaya, Youth Pastor at NBC Ngong Road. Scripture: Exodus 35:4-36:7. Topic: Give willingly

- Giving is one of those controversial topics in the Church of Christ because we seem to swing between two extremes. One extreme is the one that is taught in a manner that contradicts Scriptures, or blows out of proportion what the Scriptures say about the matter. This would be the extreme of the health, wealth and prosperity.

-The other extreme is when we become suspicious of any mention of giving and treat Biblical passage that have to do with giving with a little less seriousness. Both extremes are wrong and violate the Word of God.

The ABCs of Giving Willings

1. The Act of giving willingly.

2. The Basis of giving willingly.

3. The Consequences of giving willingly.

The act of giving willingly. (Exodus 35:4-9)

“4 Moses said to the whole Israelite community, “This is what the LORD has commanded: 5 From what you have, take an offering for the Lord. Everyone who is willing is to bring to the Lord an offering of gold, silver and bronze; 6 blue, purple and scarlet yarnand fine linen; goat hair; 7 ram skins dyed red and another type of durable leather[a]; acacia wood; 8 olive oil for the light; spices for the anointing oil and for the fragrant incense; 9 and onyx stones and other gems to be mounted on the ephod and breastpiece.”

- Notice in verse 4 that Moses did not address some of the people. “Moses said to the whole Israelite community.” This was not a message/command/instruction to a chosen few. It was not just to those who were rich in the community, or the extremely religious. It was to the whole Israelite community.

- Moses goes ahead and says, “This is what the LORD has commanded”. Not suggested, but commanded. God commanded that they take an offering for the LORD. This offering was to be taken from everyone who was willing to bring an offering.

- It is easy when we hear the LORD saying, ‘Everyone who is willing to bring an offering’, so to figure, If I am not willing then I am released from that command. No. That is for you to work your heart to willingness, because giving willingly is an act of obedience and God instructs us to give and to do it willingly.

- God is not merely concerned about our external forms of worship and obedience, but He is concerned with the state of our hearts when we obey and giving willingly is an act of obedience.

- Giving is also an act of worship.

- Giving willingly is an act of gratitude, because only one with a grateful heart, a heart that acknowledges that everything one has is given by God would be able to willingly give. - God is not impressed by unwilful obedience or mere external forms of worship. He is concerned about the state of the heart of the giver/worshipper.

Giving is an act of gratitude.

- Psalms 50:7-15. It seems as though the people had gotten to the place where they were giving without an acknowledgement of what the giving represented. As though they were doing God a favour. God says,

“Listen, my people, and I will speak; I will testify against you, Israel: I am God, your God. 8 I bring no charges against you concerning your sacrifices or concerning your burnt offerings, which are ever before me 9 I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens,10 for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know every bird in the mountains and the insects in the fields are mine. 12 If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 “Sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfil your vows to the Most High, 15 and call on me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honour me.”

- Giving willingly is an act of gratitude, an acknowledgement that everything you have has literally been given by God.

- Unless we are persuaded that God had given us everything, we will not be able to give willingly.

- David seems to understand these things in ways that perhaps you and I will never understand. In 1 Chronicles 29, when David is requiring from the people to give an offering for the building of the Temple that his son will later build and he gives himself quite a lot. After everything had been collected from 1 Chronicles 29:9-14,

“9 The people rejoiced at the willing response of their leaders, for they had given freely and wholeheartedly to the Lord. David the king also rejoiced greatly. David’s Prayer 10 David praised the Lord in the presence of the whole assembly, saying, “Praise be to you, Lord, the God of our father Israel, from everlasting to everlasting.11 Yours, Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, Lord, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 12 Wealth and honour come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. 13 Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.” - And then he comes to verse 14, a man that had given so much, this is his attitude, “14 “But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.”

- Giving willingly is an act of gratitude and when you lay it at the altar you thank God that you have the privilege in the first place to be able to give such to him.

The basis of giving willingly.

There are three things from the text that act as the basis, causing us to give willingly:

Opportunity.

Ability.

Conviction

a. Opportunity.

- When the LORD gave a command for the offering to be collected, He gave such a long list of what was to be given such that multiple opportunities were created for giving.

1 Chronicles 35:5-9, there is a list of all these things that the people could give. You had the option of giving gold, or silver, or bronze. If that was too expensive you could give blue, purple scarlet yarn or fine linen. Or you could give goat hair, ram skins or any other type of animal leather. Or perhaps you could just bring acacia wood or olive oil of the light or spices for the anointing oil. There were so many opportunities for one to give and I believe that there is no one that is so poor that they cannot give. Because God has availed multiple opportunities for us to be able to give.

- Not only was the opportunity for the offering that was to be given to the LORD, or treasures that the people were to offer, but there were opportunities also for the talents that the people had. They could give from the skills that they had as well.

Verse 10 ““All who are skilled among you are to come and make everything the LORD has commanded:”

- Opportunities are bound to give willingly. There are opportunities for you to give of your time, skills, money, to open your house as a gift to host. Can you spot them. - The LORD not only gave multiple opportunities, but notice that these opportunities matched up with ability.

b. Ability:

- Paul declares in 2 Corinthians 8:12, “12 For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have.”

- God does not require us to give what we do not have. What He has not already given to us. And this is crucial to understand because in instances where giving has been taught wrongly, this is not something that is emphasised.

- The opportunity is met with ability because our ability is the basis for our giving willingly and that was the case for the Israelite community. They gave what they were able to give.

Exodus 35:23 “23 Everyone who had blue, purple or scarlet yarn or fine linen, or goat hair, ram skins dyed red or the other durable leather brought them.

- Exodus 35:24b “and everyone who had acacia wood for any part of the work brought it.” -

Exodus 35:26 “And all the women who were willing and had the skill spun the goat hair.” - What one had, is what they willingly gave. - What do you have? What ability has God given you?

c. Conviction:

- Paul continuing to speak to the Corinthians 9:7 “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.”

- If we are to give willingly and not reluctantly then our giving should not be a case of compulsion, but rather a case of conviction. Our giving must be a matter of the heart. This is the same thing that we see among the Israelites.

- Some certain phrases and words when you read in the NIV version don’t come out quite as clearly, capturing this state of the heart. ESV where as NIV says ‘wiling heart, willingness , it actually seems to suggest a stirring of the heart. Eg. Exodus 35:21 (ESV)

“21 And they came, everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him, and brought the Lord’s contribution to be used for the tent of meeting.”

26 “26 All the women whose hearts stirred them to use their skill spun the goats’ hair.”

29 “All the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done brought it as a freewill offering to the Lord.”

- Giving willingly is a matter of conviction and unless our hearts are stirred to give we will not be giving willingly and neither will we be giving cheerfully as Paul encourages us to.

- Are you convicted about the needs in the house of the LORD so that then you are able to give to meet that need. Or is it a part of the Service, or of your life that just passes. Wilful giving is based on conviction.

The consequences of giving willingly.

My wife and I have this phrase, “No one ever became poor because of giving.” We constantly remind each other because the lie of the enemy is to think, if I give of my money, I will be poorer or if I give of my time, will I be able to function, I will be too tired. If I give of my skill I will be taken advantage of. There are no negative consequences to giving willingly. - There are no negative consequences to giving willingly and Biblically.

a. Giving willingly results in abundance.

Exodus 36:2-5

“2 Then Moses summoned Bezalel and Oholiab and every skilled person to whom the Lord had given ability and who was willing to come and do the work. 3 They received from Moses all the offerings the Israelites had brought to carry out the work of constructing the sanctuary. And the people continued to bring freewill offerings morning after morning. 4 So all the skilled workers who were doing all the work on the sanctuary left what they were doing 5 and said to Moses, “The people are bringing more than enough for doing the work the Lord commanded to be done.”

- The people continued to give for the construction of the sancuary, so much so that there was more than enough to do the work that God had commanded. It was so intense that the workers were distracted. How do we handle the receiving of the offerings and the work itself? There was abundance and nothing that was required for the construction for the sanctuary of the LORD was in scarcity or lacked.

- When God’s people give willingly towards a particular thing, usually the result is abundance. More than enough is received.

- Acts 4:32-35 The believers living together and they lived in such a community that the Bible records there was no poor amongst them as they gave willingly. Usually, when God’s people give willingly there is no scarcity, there is an abundance.

b. Giving willingly results in accountability.

Just because we have given to God does not mean that what has been given should not be accounted for. Moses for example had to come back to the people and stop them from continuing to give. That is what we see in Exodus 36:6-7

“Then Moses gave an order and they sent this word throughout the camp: “No man or woman is to make anything else as an offering for the sanctuary.” And so the people were restrained from bringing more, 7 because what they already had was more than enough to do all the work.”

- Everything was fully provided for and so Moses says it is enough. We have all that we need to do. He together with the workers did not see this as an opportunity to either enrich themselves or transfer the surplus to some other need. The offering collected was for the building of the sanctuary and now that there was more than enough given for its construction, the ‘funds drive’ had come to an end.

- Just because people are giving willingly does not mean we cannot be accountable. Scripture sets us an example of what that means.

- Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:19

“19 What is more, he was chosen by the churches to accompany us as we carry the offering, which we administer in order to honour the Lord himself and to show our eagerness to help. 20 We want to avoid any criticism of the way we administer this liberal gift. 21 For we are taking pains to do what is right, not only in the eyes of the Lord but also in the eyes of man.”

- If Paul could be accountable to the gifts that he received from the churches, how much more we? Giving willingly results in accountability.

-Giving willingly is an act of obedience, worship and gratitude. The basis for our wilful giving should be based on opportunity, ability and conviction. God has pointed us to the consequences of our giving willingly. It results in abundance and accountability.

- If you are not saved and have not accepted the free gift of salvation, there is nothing you can give to God that will require us giving willingly until and unless you have given of yourself first.