21 minute read
Pulpit message: Give in obedience
from TT 158
by TIMES TODAY
Give in Obedience
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The economics of God can be traced way back to His own generosity, but perhaps in our practice in the time of the Jews as they were in the desert, they had been rescued from slavery and they are going into the promised land and they run out of food.
And the LORD begins to rain food on them, manna. And manna would come in such a way that on the sixth day, it would come double. So you would be able to collect double manna that would last into the seventh day, the Sabbath day.
But they were also told on the other days to be able to collect enough for what you need and if they kept it overnight it would begin to rot. They were told keep it for this day and use it. And then there was a statement that is made there that, ‘he who gathered much did not gather too much and he who gathered little did not gather too little’ and so God’s people were provided for.’
That is the same verse that we see carried into 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9, that, ‘he who gathered much did not gather too much and he who gathered little did not gather too little.’ Deuteronomy 15, says that ‘there will be no poor among you’ and you wonder what? But between chapters 1 and 15 the LORD gives the formula that will makesure that there are no poor among God’s people. He says that He Himself will provide abundantly. He will supply way beyond what they need. But secondly He institutes a way that believers will be able to take care of each other, that there will be no poor among us, because He warns against being tight fisted,- encouraging generosity.
Today we look at three points where Paul seems to be answering the question, where do your gifts go? ….
The people in Corinth had given and had pledged to give, but they had not fulfilled their commitment and so as Paul is encouraging willing giving, giving according to your ability and beyond - sacrificially, he also takes to encourage them by helping them know where their gifts are going.
In fact, he is so committed to this that he tells them, you need to prepare, and that is why we are sending Titus and others to help your prepare along this letter that is also giving you warning, you don’t just want a gift that is abrupt, therefore it will be lacking in willingness and ability and the sacrificial nature of this gift will be compromised.
But also Paul is sends this encouragement in this letter how they may be able to give. So where do these gifts go? 2 Corinthians 9:1-15
1: These gifts will be a blessing to you: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
2. These gifts will meet the needs of God’s people: 2 Corinthians 9:12
3. These needs will result in thanksgiving to God: 2 Corinthians 9:11-13
In no order of priority Paul encourages them that they will beneficiaries of their own generosity. Then he encourages them that their rich generosity is going to cascade into life and wellbeing for others, but ultimately these gifts that they give will bring many all their gathering and giving thanks/ gratitude to our God.
These gifts will be a blessing to you: 2 Corinthians 9:6-11
He has told them all about the Macedonians, about the accountability of their gifts when they are given, the gift is not going to be given to one person and then take it to those in need, no. “I am sending Titus and the brothers to prepare you, but also so that we do not carry these gifts ourselves.
So in verse six he tells them
And he encourages them to be generous.
Using this agricultural metaphor, that when you plant a single seed of maize come our one plant, but several cobs with multiple of seeds. And Paul tells them, because of your giving, your service of generosity, then God will remember you and proportionately bless you. “He who sows generously will reap generously”.
That’s a rather difficult passage of Scripture to preach in a church like this because we have been in our social media and other areas by those who preach what is called, ‘the prosperity gospel.’ You see, what is wrong with the prosperity gospel is its incompleteness and its overemphasis.
However, for us to ignore these verses that encourage us to give because God promises to bless, then we will be throwing the baby with the birth water.
The Bible is not encouraging giving in a casino gambling style. Far be it from us! But the LORD is saying that He is faithful to reward proportionately according to our giving and so as we give where do our gifts go?
Some of these gifts come back to us in material, spiritual, emotional and all kinds of blessings from our God. So he encourages the Corinthians, give generously and you will reap generously.
Ecclesiastes 11:1
But many who preach that gospel I was talking about, ‘prosperity gospel’, let’s just call it prosperity because it cannot be gospel because of it’s incompleteness. Many of them have a gambling thing where you give and you stand there waiting.
Remember this is not a transaction you and God are having. This is the gracious God who is saying, because you are generous, not because you are arm-twisting Me. No. Because you have been generous I have chosen to bless you, because that is the only environment where you can cast bread upon waters and it comes back to you after many days.
It is only in the environment of the grace of God that He invites us to cast our bread upon the waters for after many days you will find it. That is a calling that in our generosity God in His grace chooses to bless you and I. And He is telling the Corinthians, “He who sows generously will reap generously.”
Proverbs 19:17,
I don’t know how to preach this verse, because it is one like you are walking on a tight rope. But just have some imagination with me. The LORD of lords, the God of all the heavens, has condescended Himself to have a conversation with me and is saying, If you give to the poor it is lending to the LORD.
So in the morning when God is looking at His books and the angels are there sitting, ‘So what are we doing today? (That’s a ridiculous thing to say because He neither sleeps nor slumbers and time is in Him, He is not controlled by time so He doesn’t ask what are we doing today, but since His mercies are new everyday, lets just use this example).
So in the morning He is wondering, what blessings am I going to bless my son Munengi Mulandi with? Then there are those general blessing that He gives to all the earth. Matthew 5:44-45 says that
so He tells angel, make sure that Mulandi is there because He is part of the righteous and unrighteous. A general blessing.
Then there are other blessings that are for us just because we are believers. Imagine! If you are not a believer, you do not know what you are missing. You think it is only sun and rain. There are other things that you don’t get.
Remember when the Jews were in slavery and He is saying to Pharaoh, ‘Let my people go’ and Pharaoh is resistant and Goshen and there are these ten judgements that come on the land. There comes a time that He makes and distinction and He says, for my people, while it is dark in Egypt, there will be light in Goshen. When there are all these judgements, the crying of a first born, not a sound from where the people of God are. There are blessings that are attendant to you and I because we know the LORD.
Then imagine, when they are looking through the books, so do we owe Munengi Mulandi any money, i’ll hasten to say, it is not me who says, you owe me, because really what do I have that I have not received from the LORD? But there the angels are saying, oh let me tell you, the other day he saw an opportunity to give and he just did his eyes, lefthand right.
But you see the Bible says, ‘He who lends to the poor, lends to the LORD.’ Some of you are wondering, why have I been blessed. Maybe it is an accident and a car just misses you on your side, not a scratch. Some go to your accounts and wondering, what happened? I didn’t deposit. It is just interest. Blessings that are attendant to you and I because God in his grace has said, He is going to be a borrower of those who are generous.
Some of you are wondering, I bought a piece of land at 100,000, two days later, somebody is saying, please can I pay you 1.2 million and you are wondering what is this? You lend to the LORD and He is repaying you back in His grace.
Malachi 3:10
There are blessing attended to you and I when we obey they LORD and well up like the Macedonians in rich generosity.
It is God’s Word that says in Luke 6:38 “Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over…” Let us not let the devil take this verses away, but let us use this verses in context, in completeness and appropriately.
So God says, 2 Corinthians 9:8 and 11
One of the places where our generosity goes, is by the grace of God, a blessing to you and I.
If you have been reading about this controversial dam in Ethiopia, the Renaissance Dam. There is a big tunnel in which water passes through so that it can go into the turbines and turn them to generate electricity. I wanted to illustrate 2 Corinthians 9:8 and 11 that God is saying, He will bless us so abundantly that we are able to meet our needs. Giving is not to impoverish you if it is in the LORD.
So all these stories we hear of this poor lady who was told to give by her church to give all this and now she is languishing in poverty, that is not biblical giving.
He is saying He will bless you in such a way that you are able to meet your needs, but in such a way that it will overflow and give you opportunity to be generous on every occasion. We are receiving from the LORD this kind of pipe. A tunnel of blessing. But you see, we are only being required to have an outlet (small pipe). This shows how being stingy is pure foolishness, because He is supplying us with a tunnel, but is asking us to sow generously, yet He is promising that as we do that, He is refilling.
Three hours of giving with a small pipe, even if He gave you five minutes of filling you with the tunnel, will not all your needs and my needs be met? And yet with an ability to meet the needs of God’s people.
Our money to God goes to three places, one; by His blessing to us, two; a blessing to the people of God, meeting their needs.
Paul says,
Remember we said that the church had began in Jerusalem and then a time of persecution came and they had been distributed all over. Then a small community of faith begins to blossom in Antioch and there they say, ‘Set apart for me Paul and Barnabas to take my gospel to all these lands and they begin planting all these churches.
But as that is going on there is a famine in Jerusalem and these churches, although they are going through a hard time, the ones in Macedonia, because of the colonisation by the Romans, they decide, we benefitted spiritually from Jerusalem, we can be able to bless Jerusalem materially and so the Macedonians give what they are able and even beyond their ability and now the Corinthians are being invited to do the same. And we see God’s people having their needs met because others were generous.
Today I hold in my hands two cheques from the monies that you have given by the grace of God that are going to two Christians organisations this week that focus on families that are going through a hard time because of COVID and businesses that have collapsed. Two child-focused organisations that are moving in the areas of famine and ensuring the wellbeing of children. We partner with many organisations, but i’ll mention just these two; Compassion and World Vision that NBC is giving something because you gave and is going to result in ‘where do your gifts go?’ Meeting the needs of God’s people.
I remember once with such gratitude to God. I was an intern in this church and I was walking around the parking on a weekday and then I met this young man, maybe 20 /21 years of age and just because I was walking around I greeted him, 'hi, how are you ? Are you a member of this church etc?' and he said my mother is there (pointing across the road). Long story short, he had just become a total orphan in a city that is cold without relatives who could come around him. His mother had just died and was ‘just there’ at the City Mortuary, the funeral home that is across the road.
And he said, I don’t have too much, myself I am not working, I’m just joining college, mum is the one who was doing all these things etc. I asked him if he had a faith community, to which he answered, no. ‘So I was just walking around as they finishing things because mum has just been brought she is just there’, he said.
I remembered the pride of belonging to a church, that because they give, I did not need to ask anybody for permission to take up that young man and walk with him through that journey, because you gave.
Today that young man is one of the business luminaries in this city. The only reason I don’t contact him regularly is because I don’t want him to think that because NBC was giving, now it was his turn to repay. No.
NBC was doing it freely with no obligations that you even have to become a member although we didn’t share the gospel with him. Walking with him for no less than six years continuously from when, “My mother is there’. I am proud of this church, because where do your gifts go? God blesses you.
There are blessings that God decides to shower on us because we have been faithful to be generous.
These gifts will meet the needs of God’s people: 2 Corinthians 9:12
I remember many years ago when we were meeting in the small sanctuary and there was a tall gentle man who had just lost his father and finished his O levels and was interested in the area of IT and was involved here and there just beyond casual level employment.
I remember because of being in NBC church and needing no signature, and we as a church being able to walk and take to our prestigious school in Njoro, St. Andrews Turi, he among others of the interns who were taken there as part of a chaplaincy programme that we had. This one who was not ‘who’s son, or connected to who, the church stood with them and the School said, that we will only be able to accept these if the church will continue to provide training for them.
Your giving allowed us to walk with those, including our Pastor Ochola who was one of the chaplains there in the latter parts of that programme, but to walk with these young people. In fact the one that I am talking about was not only able to further his education, but is serving there today as the deputy headmaster, because you gave. Glory to God!
Three things that happen when you give. First, there are blessing that are attendant to you and I because he who sows generously will reap generously. But there are blessings that just cascade to others in difficult situations.
I know places where when I go in NBC name, people greet me with a hand of respect, young as I am, but I notice, their eyes are in the sky because they know, it is not this man. There are people behind him who bring the force that God has channelled. Huge tunnels of blessing.
Recently we had a mum from very far who was hospitalised in a certain hospital and by the grace of God got well. Mother has one daughter who had a job that was not very stable. They had paid the bill but had a balance. And I remember NBC issuing cash that we went and paid for this lady to be released and she asked, ‘But you people don’t even know me.’ We know Jesus, Jesus knows you. End of transaction.
Our social worker who works with us just spoke to the headmistress of a school in the famine stricken areas that has 380 pupils who have said that some of their pupils are not going to school because the school was not part of the feeding programme and the children are starving to death.
One person used to come to church here, but has relocated to the coast called and asked, what can my church do? How can we partner, my organisation and the church do to be able to provide for that need? You now understand why I am a proud member of this church because by God’s grace, your giving is meeting the needs of God’s people where they cry to him day and night.
Among us there are people who are struggling financially. There are people whose businesses have gone down, especially SMEs and those who have the small businesses and this church is standing with them.
But I want to tell us that if anyone asks you for money after the service please direct them to any of our pastors because on any Sunday we are able to give then First Aid and then direct them to come back during the week first to be able to vet if this is genuine, something that our qualified social worker, who is able to be compassionate and check if this is a true story and not only give them something that will help them eat fish today, but to be able to learn how to fish, sustainable philanthropy to the glory of God. You are supplying the needs of God’s people.
These needs will result in thanksgiving to God: 2 Corinthians 9:11-13
Your giving is resulting to people who thrust their hands into ours saying thank you and with much respect, but with their eyes to the sky saying, I asked this from the LORD and it has come from them.
So we don’t have too many places out there with plates saying, ‘done by NBC etc. Our youth have two or so children’s homes, OVCs that they visit every holiday, and they have no plate there, ‘done by NBC, because they go there, clean, play with the children, cook lunch and leave sufficient food for them. Their own giving and they are doing it to the glory of God. Those children are glorifying the God who visited them.
Like the Corinthians are being told here in 2 Cor 9:12
You see these people know something 1 Corinthians 4:7 asks, “What do you have that you did not receive?” They know Psalms 50:10 “Every beast of the field is mine,” says the LORD. mIf He were hungry He would not be consulting you and I, He has resources that are beyond you and I.
I wonder, if you realise that Paul from 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 uses the word ‘grace’ not less than three or four times because this generosity that blesses us, that meets the needs of others, that results in thanksgiving to God is an act of grace. That is why last week we said in 2 Corinthians 8:5 that these Macedonians did the right thing. They first gave themselves to God and then to us.
The old preachers used to say, ‘you cannot give your substance to God before you have given yourself to God.’
This professor went to a class with a bottle and put in rocks and filled the bottle with rocks to the top then lifted it up to the class and asked them, is it full and they answered yes.
Then he went ahead and filled it with pebbles and shaking it until it was full of pebbles. Then he asked the class is it full and they answered yes. Then he took some water and the same bottle that had rocks, pebbles and filled it with water and asked, is it full, and they answered, yes.
Try and imagine with me if he had done it in the reverse way. If he had filled it with water, would he have been able to fill it with rocks and pebbles?
The illustration concludes this way; Even in giving, there has to be priority. The big rocks have to go first, then the pebbles, then the sand, then the water.
Brothers and sisters in the LORD, I am inviting us to a season of generosity that we are going to conclude on July 31st. I want us to give willingly, according to our ability and beyond sacrificially. I want us to give in a way that God is going to bless us with His blessings by His grace.
He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, but I want us to sow generously that we may reap generously. We want to give that will cascade to many people who are going through difficult times that this church wants to walk with them.
But we want to give in a way that people when they receive these gifts will raise their eyes to the LORD and say, ‘I look to the hills and where does my help come from, my help comes from the LORD.’
But we cannot give to that extent and that generously unless we put the rocks first. We cannot give from our purses, our pocket books and our wallets before we give our hearts to Jesus.
