Money Matters | 1 Corinthians 16:1–4

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Man, well, good morning and uh welcome to life. It's good to see you. It's good to be back with you this week. My name's Andrew. If we haven't met, I'm one of the pastors here at Life, and uh it's great to worship with you, great to be with you. It's Family Picnic Day. This is national holiday stuff, people. I wore my white sneakers today on stage, so I hope you'll be there today. Uh when that was announced a little bit earlier, I felt it went over a little bit uh bad. So I feel like there needs to be a little bit more energy for Family Picnic Day. Amen? Amen. So seven of us that are going, we're gonna have an incredible time. And I want you to know about it, I want you to be excited about it. It's a great opportunity for us to fellowship together. And uh again, great to be back. I had this cool opportunity over the last couple of weeks to go to Nepal. Uh, it wasn't so much on some specific uh events that we were there doing, it was kind of a survey, and while there, I was able to uh see some of the things that God is doing in Nepal. And I want to share a couple of those things with you here just for a few minutes. Before we show you a couple pictures, uh Nepal is in South Asia, it's uh right in between China and India, it's where Mount Everest is. I think uh I have all kinds of different things said to me about how it was Korea and how it was and a bunch of other countries. It was Nepal, it was uh incredible. And I want you to know that uh there's uh when the Bible says uh the fields are white unto harvest, that that's an indicator that God is at work, God is doing something, God is saving people, and we know in Revelation chapter 7 that that salvation and that kingdom is going to be made up of people from all countries and all tribes and all tongues, and he is doing a work in these places and he's inviting people to come and participate in this incredible work that he is doing in saving people. Now, that's not to say, though, that Nepal is an easy field. Uh, it is illegal to convert people uh to Christianity, so it is a persecuted church context. So when you think of Voice of the Martyrs and the persecuted church, Nepal is that it's an unreached people group, which is a way of saying that it is vast majority, less than, I think it's less than one or two percent Christianity. If a person in Nepal says, I want to know the gospel, I would love to know more about Jesus Christ, it would take some effort to try to find a church. There's not just one down the road that they say, hey, let's go check that one out. And so this is an unreached people group, and on top of that, there are villages in in the middle of nowhere uh where people are not uh able to hear the gospel, predominantly or or a vast majority Hindu and Buddhist. And so the amongst those people, though, God is saving people, and people are coming to know Christ, and churches are getting planted in these villages, uh, and it is incredible. It's a dark place. In fact, the first picture I want you to see is this is a a uh a Hindu ceremony on the shore of or at the bank of the Bagmati River, and this is a big Hindu temple, and it is their belief uh that when a dead loved one, I think it's within 24 hours uh when they die, uh they are prepared on the shore, on the bank of this river, and then they are brought to that stack of wood, and their body is burned, and the burning of the body uh turns it obviously to ashes, and then they sweep or push the ashes into the river, which then sets them up to be reincarnated. And so this is their hope. And I what I love about this picture is we have just been studying the hope of Christianity is the bodily resurrection of those who belong to Christ. And yet the hope of the Hindu religion is that maybe they did enough good things that they will be able to come back as another human or maybe an animal. We're not sure, uh, but they will go through this process of cleansing and then uh being cremated, and the family is there weeping, and people are there gathered around watching this take place, and this is the end of their story, if this is their hope, if they don't belong to Christ. And so this was just a snapshot of the darkness that is present in the country where the gospel and the light of the gospel needs to break in and change lives. And God is doing that. People are getting saved. In fact, the next picture I'll show you of a home. This is an orphanage, it's called the Loving Home. And uh there's a man in that picture somewhere who started this home. It's basically an orphanage, and these are kids who have been uh who have been rescued out of broken situations that ultimately would have ended up in human trafficking. It's one of the heavy human trafficking countries in the world. Children are sold. In fact, there's a church uh that is planted in a town near the border of India where a lot of human trafficking runs through. And this this church now, or this home, again, illegal to convert, and yet the favor of God has been with this home that now even government officials are bringing kids to this home to say, we don't know what to do with this kid. Will you take them? And when they take them, they become the legal guardians of these kids. And these kids, mostly from Hindu villages and Buddhist backgrounds and and uh dead parents or sold. Uh, some of them had already been sold that they were rescued out of, come to this home where nightly they received the gospel, and from this, lives are being changed. Two of them shared their testimonies with us that night while we were there, and then they sang songs and they praised the Lord and they thanked us for coming, and it was so encouraging. And as darkness settles into that country and lostness is present. This next picture shows you uh where they meet. This was a small group. So the members of this small group walk an hour to come to the small group. They come into, and you can see the door. It's a sheet metal door, it's a sheet metal house. And they enter in. As we walked up, we walked down this trail back into this back part of a field. And we as we walked up, we heard them singing. And they were gathered in this little uh shack, really, uh, worshiping God, studying the Bible, having walked an hour, and then when it was over, they were gonna walk an hour back home, uh, living in incredibly uh uh incredibly sobering circumstances. But praising the Lord and thankful that they got the chance to gather together as a community in a small group. So listen, your 15-minute drive does not bother me anymore to go to small group. Amen. I mean, there's a lot of reasons we can find not to, but I just was challenged by these brothers and sisters who said, we're gonna walk an hour to get there and we're gonna celebrate the Lord together in a small group community. And so this was a and this was a community, go back, sorry. Don't go till I tell you, Noah. Slow down back there, homie. This was another thing about this was the um the most of the small groups can't sing because they're in a Hindu area, and uh, they would come and and oppress them, even kick them out of the community. Uh, this is a caste system, so to be a Christian means that you become part of the lowest caste, the untouchables of that community and of that area. Uh the stories of, I don't have time to tell you, the stories of people who were saved in the midst of persecution. Uh one of the pastor's wives, uh, they had the school she was going to found out she had converted from Hinduism to Christianity. Uh, he brought her before the school. The entire school said, if you don't renounce Christ, you're not allowed to come back to school. The next day she came back, he smacked her in front of everybody and told her not to come back. Then her family kicked her out and she was without a home. God saved her, God protected her. Now she's the pastor's wife in Kathmandu. And story after story of what God is doing in these contexts are that. And the hope is the fact that now you can go to the next picture. There are these are 19 churches represented in this picture. Some of them, most of these are the lead pastors that have been planted, uh, 20 to 50 people, one or two of them reach 100 people. They live on anywhere from $50 to $200 a month, and they are in their villages. Some of these brothers, in this picture, took four days to come to where we were to have a retreat and a training. They walked 24 hours to a bus station, took two buses, 12 hours each, walked the rest of the way from other parts of Nepal up in the mountains, and they came because they wanted to be trained and helped and blessed, and they had some time to do that here. And again, God at work in Nepal, I believe, in this way, through men like these who are faithfully going and serving the Lord and planting of churches. And one more picture I want you to see, and that is these uh these young people who were baptized. Now, being baptized in Nepal is the mark of conversion. So if a pastor is caught baptizing, that's when the government and the villages will know they did the work of conversion, and that is when a lot of times persecution will come. And so uh we found a river. There was a, you can kind of see in the background, way back there, there's a couple of people who were not part of our group watching this all take place. I was told there was a police substation around the corner. So we got in, got the baptism publicly. They professed, and before this happened, they stood on the shore. Pastor Timothy walked through what baptism was and made them publicly declare faith in Christ and gave them a chance right then to say, if you don't want to go through with this, now's your chance. You can fall, you cannot go through with this and not come out and enter into a low cast and potential persecution. And yet all seven of them followed the Lord in baptism and trusted Christ before that, and then made it pre-public in the Paul faith in Jesus Christ. And I had the chance to jump into that dirty water with them and baptize them, and it was awesome. So let me say this: what we are a part of is so much bigger than what's happening here in Las Vegas and in these four walls. God is at work, He is at work saving people from all tribes and all tongues and all nations. Churches are getting planted, the gospel is advancing, God is building his kingdom, and we get to be a part of that church. Amen? Amen. Praise God, we can do that. Yep. Now, that's all I have to say, though I would love to take hours and tell you about some of the things that God showed me and what was experienced on that trip. But I won't be able to do that. But in the future, we will have opportunity to go back, hear more about what God is doing in that country through the faithfulness of God's people in Nepal. One day we will meet them in glory and we will sing with them the glories of our King around the throne. It's gonna be amazing and excited about that. All right. Well, let me do what I came to do. Let's open to 1 Corinthians chapter 16. I said that rather quickly because I know everything I say cuts into my time to deliver the word, and I don't want to do that because it's family picnic day, and we want to make sure that we have plenty of time for that. But thank you, Chuck, for filling in last week. I know he did an incredible job of him unpacking the last part of 1 Corinthians chapter 15, freeing me up to go do what I think the Lord was leading us to do. And today we are considering the beginning of the end, the final chapter of 1 Corinthians. This is a bittersweet moment, isn't it? Like we're thinking, maybe some of you, man, this has been the longest book study in the history of life church. Others of you are thinking, what else can he do to offend us or confront us? And I want you to be at ease. He's able to find one more thing that's a difficult topic, and that is money. So that's what we're gonna talk about today. 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 4. Now think about this. When Paul comes to the end of 1 Corinthians, he's already walked us through some deep and important issues in the Christian life. He's addressed division in the church, he's focused in on pride and sexual purity. He talked about marriage and singleness, he talked about Christian liberty, he told us how to uh function as a church around the Lord's Supper and how to handle spiritual gifts, how to love one another with the love that we should love one another with, how to keep order in the worship services. And then in chapter 15, he gives one of the greatest explanations of the resurrection in all of the Bible. And now in chapter 16, Paul begins concluding the letter by again talking about giving. Now, if you want to know what a person loves, you don't just listen to what they say, you look at what they do with their time, with their energy, and especially what we do with our money. That tells us a lot about what we love. Money reveals the heart. In fact, Matthew 6.21 was pretty clear when it says, where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. That means money is never just financial, it is also spiritual. It is theological and it is worshipful. Where it is shows what we value, what we trust, and what we fear and what we love. And we want to talk about that over the next few minutes today. And that's why Paul brings us up here at the end of 1 Corinthians. Now, let me pray. Let me ask God to help us one more time as we turn our attention to his word, and then we'll read it and start to unpack it together. Okay, bow with me if you would. Father, thank you for the opportunity to report back with what you're doing around this world that we are in, that you are building your kingdom, and you're doing a really good job at it, and that we have an opportunity to step into the work that you are doing, to be a part of the building of your kingdom, to find the unspeakable joy of using and spending our life for this purpose, for your honor and glory. And now, as we turn our attention to your word and the topic at hand, we pray that all of that would also, again, be reinforced and strengthened as we consider what you have to say about how we as a church handle this topic of money and uh the big topic that it is. We ask for your help and wisdom in it. May these words come to bear on our lives as you intend for them to. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Excuse me. Now, this may feel like a strange turn. Like in 1 Corinthians 15, Paul has been just diving into the beauty of resurrection theology. He tells us Christ has been raised and death has been defeated, and our bodies will be raised, and that our labor in the Lord is not in vain. So he's got this big thing, don't quit, Jesus is alive, resurrection is happening, and then in verse 1 of chapter 16, he says, now concerning the collection. It's one of those like burn, burn, burn, like, come on, Paul. Like, man, you had us, and then you had to bring up money. So from resurrection glory to weekly giving, that's what he's doing. But again, remember this, it's not a random shift, it is deeply connected. Because if the resurrection is true, then he is who he says he is, and everything belongs to Christ. If death has been defeated, then money is not our security. If our future is guaranteed, then generosity makes sense. If our labor in the Lord is not in vain, then our giving in the Lord is not in vain either. So the connection is there, and so Paul is not stepping down from theology into something less spiritual and kind of one of those just let's take care of some business real quick attitudes. But he is showing us what resurrection faith looks like in real life. This is what it means when the resurrection of Christ and the hope of future bodily resurrection comes to bear on your real life. It affects your calendar, it affects your relationships and your body and your mission and your wallet. That's what we have as the connecting point, okay? So 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 4. These are God's words. Providentially delivered, supernaturally preserved for us today, that we might learn by them. So 1 Corinthians chapter 16. I'm gonna read verses 1 through 4 out loud. You follow along. Here's what he says now concerning. Remember, whenever in 1 Corinthians he starts with the now concerning, he's he's addressing a new topic that maybe was uh addressed in a letter to him. So this there's some already things that have been said up to this point, so now he's going to answer the questions that they may have been asking. Now concerning the collection for the saints. As I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. Okay, what are we to do? Well, on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come, and when I arrive, I will send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable that I should go also, they will accompany me. So at first, clearly, it it's a change of tone of sorts. Prior to this, in 15 chapters, it's been diving into theological depth and some application. And now there's a little bit of uh what appears at first, let's just handle some business. Let's just make sure that the exchange is right and there's an understanding. But remember that this is more than just a little commercial break or a little, we've got to deal with some necessary business before I close this letter out, but there's a theological connection here that has been building throughout the book of 1 Corinthians. And really, I think it might be captured best in this big idea. The church is called to gospel-shaped giving for gospel advancement. Remember, beauty in the broken is Paul bringing the gospel to bear on every aspect of the lives of the church. He's truly trying to make something beautiful out of a broken city or a church in a broken city through the power and presence of the gospel, and what he now is leaning the gospel onto is uh our giving. And so the church is called to gospel-shaped, gospel-influenced, gospel-informed giving for a purpose, and that purpose is gospel advancement. So, what does the gospel shape giving actually look like in the life of a believer? What's this look like? What's he saying here that gives us a little insight under the hood of what the gospel does to influence the way that we give as a church? Now, listen, some of you might be like, I knew it, it wasn't gonna be long until this church talked about money, and uh, I'm right again. And you are right, because the Bible talks about it quite a bit, and so we don't want to just have a manipulation of giving and try to raise some money for some uh guilt-ridden situation, but we want to have the Bible and the gospel inform the way we approach this topic of money, okay? So let's do this. Let's consider the four marks of gospel-shaped giving that we see from this instruction of Paul right here in 1 Corinthians chapter 16. Okay? Ready? You good? Say amen. All right, good. That was better than I thought it was gonna be. So excited about what's gonna happen in the next 65 minutes or so. Paul gives us four marks of gospel-shaped giving, okay? Giving is gospel-shaped when these things are true. Number one, when my giving is planned. When my giving is planned. So, what I really want you to lean into this to see is that giving that's gospel-shaped is planned, not sporadic. Verse 1 he says, now concerning the collection for the saints. So we're gonna break this down verse by verse. The collection was financial offering, clearly, undeniable. That's what he had in mind, and it was being gathered for needy believers in Jerusalem. The church in Jerusalem was experiencing poverty, hardship, persecution, and difficulty. And Paul is gathering from Gentile churches to send relief to Jewish believers back in Jerusalem. And a cool thing is happening here. This was not merely charity, this was gospel unity. Gentile Christians were giving to help Jewish Christians. These people weren't in unity, they didn't like each other, but Christ had saved them, and now gospel-shaped giving was a nationality that was not loved by the other nationality, was now giving for the good of those people. Then Paul adds, as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. In other words, this was not unique to Corinth. Paul taught this in multiple churches, so giving was a part of normal Christian discipleship. Christians have always been a people who lived with open hands and generously. And then Paul adds another layer on the first day of every week. The first day of the week was the day that Christians gathered to worship in light of the resurrection of Jesus. So, do you see the connection already? The first day of the week was the day that Jesus rose. He just got done talking about the resurrection. And now the day that the Christians began to meet to worship was the day to commemorate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. And so he's connecting in that our generosity and giving to the resurrection of Christ. So Jesus rose, first day of the week. The church was gathering on the first day of the week, and what he's saying is this make it a regular rhythm of worship that when you come together to remember the resurrection of Christ and worship, that giving is a part of your gathering. See that? So giving then, according to Paul, it's not random, it's not occasional, it's not only in response to a crisis or when emotions are stirred. But giving is a planned part of worship. Paul is teaching the church then to build generosity into the rhythm of their lives. Make this a plan that when you come together, you are intentionally planning to make this a part of your worship service. Now, most people don't drift into generosity. You know, nobody's like accidentally like, I'm sorry, I just gave away too much money this week, right? Nobody does that. We drift into consumption, we drift into comfort, we drift into spending, we drift into hoarding, get all we can, can all we get, sit on the can, kind of living. That's our that's our normal default. Generosity usually requires intentionality. So you see what Paul's doing. Don't wait until I arrive, don't wait until there is. Pressure. Don't wait until someone makes an emotional appeal and plays the keys over our uh uh appeal to you or puts a Sarah McLaughlin song to a picture of puppies and you get moved. He says, set aside regularly. This is the plan. This is why it's a good plan. Just pull over practically that when you set a budget, maybe it's an old-fashioned Excel spreadsheet or some kind of app, that one of the top planned items in the expense category is what am I going to give away this month? What am I going to generously live or give this month? This is one of the most practical things the Bible teaches. Make it a plan before it becomes a feeling. Because if you're waiting for the feeling, it may never happen because there will always be another bill, another project, another desire, another trip, and another reason to wait. But Paul says on the first day of the week, come together, trained hearts to give. It reminds us that God is the owner and we are the stewards. It reminds us that provision comes from Him. It reminds us that worship is not only singing, it is also surrender. It reminds us that our money should be under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. That's what Proverbs 3.9 teaches. Honor the Lord. That's crazy. Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. The first fruits is important. God's people were not to give God the leftovers, they were to honor him first. Not because God needs our money, God owns everything. We know that. But the earth is the Lord and the fullness thereof. So God does not need our resources, but we need to remember our resources belong to him. So planned giving is not about God's lack, it's about our worship. It doesn't say in Proverbs 3:9, the Lord is running low on money. Make sure you honor him or you give out of the first fruits. No, he says, honor the Lord, therefore, this is connected to worship with your wealth and with the first fruits of all your produce. So again, it's a way of saying this plan. Lord, before I spin, before I consume, before I build my own kingdom, I acknowledge that everything I have is from you and for you. That is why gospel-shaped giving is planned, not sporadic. It's intentional. Now listen, I like what Daniel Aiken says here. In the Christian world and in the church world, many people give spontaneously. They didn't plan it, but they felt moved, so they're like, sure, I'll give some. Some people give sporadically. This is depending on their mind frame and the stock market and the activity of their 401k and whether or not they had a good month, they give. And by the way, those people who give spontaneously and sporadically often give sparingly. But the best way to give, according to Scripture, is that we should give systematically. That we should have a plan for how we're going to follow the Lord in this way in giving. So God calls on us to give generously, not reluctantly, trusting that he will supply what we need. Not for comfort, but for continued usefulness. That's 2 Corinthians chapter 9, 6 through 11. Totally should engage with that passage later on. That this is God's plan, that he will give you, and that we will give out of what he has given us. Randy Alcorn said it this way God prospers us not to raise our standard of living, but to raise our standard of giving. I think that's what scripture teaches us here. Earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can, John Wesley used to teach. Okay, so giving is planned. Paul's like, listen, I don't want you to wait till I get there and pull some apostolic card and tell you you guys should probably give to them. I just want you to have a rhythm already in motion in your spreadsheet that you put on the wall or that you put in your phone, that you already have a plan that you're going to obey the Lord in this way and be faithful in giving. Okay, that's number one. Gospel-shaped giving is right. It's this way when my giving is planned. Okay, number two, check this out. Giving is gospel shaped when my giving is proportional. Now look what he says. What Paul is teaching here is not that everyone should just give an equal amount, but verse two, the second part. Each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper. Catch that phrase? Each of you, that means that giving is not just for the wealthy, it's not only for those who have extra, it's not only for people with stable finances or large incomes or abundant resources, but that Paul says, each of you, every believer is invited into the grace of giving. And this isn't a guilt trip. Remember, he's talking about that fruit may abound, that joy may abound, the thanksgiving may rise from your activity, that you may fight, uh, declare war against the idol of materialism. This does not mean that only the wealthy should be a part of this, but that every believer gives as he may prosper. That's a phrase that would imply proportional giving. In other words, this God does not expect the same amount from everyone. God has not entrusted the same amount to everyone. A person with little may give little, but it may be deeply sacrificial. And a person with much may give much, but it may cost very little. So God sees the heart. God sees the sacrifice, God sees your trust in him, God sees what no one else can see. This is exactly what Jesus teaches us in Luke chapter 21. He talks about the widow's offering. I love this picture. Luke chapter 21, look at verse 1. Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box. Then he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. What impressed the eye of Jesus? It wasn't the portion, it was the proportion. It wasn't the amount, it was the amount that was relative to what was in possession. So Jesus watched people. The rich were giving a large gift, the poor widow gave two small little gifts, and yet he said she gave more than all of them, because they gave out of abundance, she gave out of poverty. Large gifts aren't bad. Large gifts can be faithful, generous, and sacrificial, but it means the amount alone does not tell the whole story. God does not only measure the activity of your hand in giving, he measures the posture of your heart in giving. Paul says, giving then should be as he may prosper. This protects us from pride. The person who gives a lot, thinking that they are better than the person who doesn't give a lot. And then it also protects us from comparison, as those people just don't live like I live. I'm able to give more than they give. But here he is saying, listen, I'm not asking you to all give a certain amount. I'm asking you to do what the Lord is calling you and leading you to do compared to how he has blessed you. So gospel giving is not equal giving, it is proportional giving, not equal amounts, but equal faithfulness. Not equal dollars, but equal surrender, not equal capacity, but equal obedience. By the way, we're not talking just tithe. Tithe is something that's not even really ever explicitly mentioned in the New Testament. What's mentioned in the New Testament is grace giving or regular generosity. It's what scripture teaches. And Adrian Rogers said it this way: any Christian who would give less under grace than a Jew would give under the law is a disgrace to grace. That's an interesting way to put it. So this reminds us that then giving is an act of stewardship. So I give relative to what I have been given, in accordance to or in proportion to what I have been provided with. So that tells me that giving is an act of stewardship. Now, do we know the difference here between stewardship and ownership? Ownership says, that's mine, I decide whether God gets some. Stewardship is this is God's, and I must faithfully manage what he has entrusted to me. So let me illustrate it this way. Levi, do you have uh $100? Can you give me your $100, please? He has $100, everybody. Good job, Levi. That was put on the spot right there. Levi has a hundred dollars. Seriously, you have a hundred dollars. Thank you. This is now my hundred dollars. See, look, at first glimpse, that looks like he owned $100 and I just took it from him. And you're like, dang, Andrew's a thief, right? I'm gonna go buy my picnic meal with this later today. And we're gonna get some steak, and it's gonna be great. I got I got four kids. This will get me a taco or two, I think, maybe at this point. But here's the difference. At first glimpse, this looks like ownership taken from him. But what you didn't see, some of you did, is that before the church service happened, I came up and gave Levi a hundred dollars and said, Hold on to this for me until I tell you what to do with it. And just now I told him what to do with it. So actually, this was my hundred dollars. I just got my money back. See, the difference is there, isn't it? Ownership says, this is mine, and if it was his, I'm sure Levi would have been like, I don't have a hundred dollars. Ask that guy. But stewardship is different. I trusted him for a time with my hundred dollars. I'm glad he still had it because after I gave it to him, I thought Levi could totally just like exit the building right now and not come back and put some gas in his car or something like that. But he didn't, he stewarded it well, and when I asked for him, it was easier to give than if it was his own, because there's a difference between ownership and stewardship. And here's what we get we get that what we have been given is not given for us to own and hoard and fight to white knuckle maintain, but we have been entrusted with something from God. So now we are not owners of it, we are stewards of it. And what God calls us to do is not to white knuckle it, fight for it, and make sure that we pile it up, but that we would be people shaped by the gospel, holding it with open hands and saying, God, I know that you've given this to meet my needs, but I'm trusting that if you want me to give back to this to meet the needs of others, I'm willing to do so. If God owns everything, then giving is not losing, giving is stewarding. And if God is our provider, then generosity is an act of trust. That is why giving can be spiritually revealing. It presses on our fears. We all have these. What if I don't have enough? What if something happens? What if I need this later? What if I give and then regret it because I didn't have enough to do that thing that I didn't anticipate? And all of this is addressed in Matthew chapter 6, where Jesus teaches us to not be anxious about our lives. But the Father knows what we need. He doesn't mean that we become careless or irresponsible, but it means that we refuse to treat money as our God and the thing that we are trusting in. Because money is a useful servant, but it is a terrible master. Generosity helps us break the power of money over the heart. So we ask, is my giving proportional to God's provision? Not do I give something, not does my giving reflect how God has prospered me, but has my generosity grown as God's provision has grown? Do I give in a way that requires trust? Am I trusting in my account or am I trusting in my God and that He has given me something to steward? And when He asks me to give it back to the work of the gospel or the work of the needy, I'm willing to do so because I recognize every bit of this is given to me from God in the first place. This is for me to steward. Amen? We see that, right? We're not mad about that. Scripture teaches us that. This is a difficult thing for us to wrestle with because money has an intoxicating effect on us and it easily becomes an idol that we worship. But we've got to see a gospel-shaped view of our finances and understand that it is not something for us to worship. It is given to us as something to use from the God who gave it to our stewardship. So this is what we are called to do. Paul has shown us then that giving is planned. Let's just have a plan. Like, I don't know what your next step is. Maybe your next step is generosity. Maybe your next step is just initial giving. Maybe it's just like, Lord, what do you want me to do here? This is a difficult topic. I've never really engaged in this, but it is clear that Scripture has a lot to say about it. It's planned, and there's a plan in place, and it's proportional. I'm not guilty because I can't give what that person can give, but I am giving in faith based upon what God has entrusted to my stewardship. Now he adds another thing, and I want you to see the nuance of this element, and that is this. Giving is gospel shaped when my giving is prepared. It's different than planned. And I want you to think of it this way. Planned giving is forming a habit of giving. Prepared giving is about settling my giving in my heart for the Lord. Planned giving is about the activity. Prepared giving is about the heart behind it. Now I want you to see this because I think he implies this in the second part or third part, last part of verse two. He says, Let the collection happen, plan it, as according to you have been prospered, so that when I come, there's no collecting. Well, that's interesting. Paul's like, I don't want that awkward moment of me being there while you guys take up an offering. That's not what he's saying. What he's saying is the Corinthians should set aside their giving ahead of time so that the collection doesn't happen when he gets there because Paul does not want to show up and have their giving be a response to some high pressure moment because all of a sudden the apostle's there. He doesn't want giving to be by uh driven by emotional manipulation. He doesn't want giving to be what people give merely because the apostle is here. Like I wasn't gonna give, but Paul's here. Oh man, I better give because the apostle's here. He's like, no, I don't want that to be it. I don't want this to be a last minute scramble. I don't want to be like the churches that would say, hey, we didn't get enough of this offering, let's take it up again. Right? That kind of thing. I'm not gonna tell you that there's a blessing if you come and dedicate at this microphone several thousand dollars, so we can all applaud you. He's like, I don't want any of that. I don't want to manipulate you, I don't want to pressure you. I want biblical giving to be willful, thoughtful, and prepared. In fact, show you this way back in the Old Testament. This is what it says Deuteronomy 16. Every man shall give as he is able, according to, that's proportional talk, the blessing of the Lord your God that he has given you. So if you have seven acres of fields that produce seven acres of crops, then you give according to those seven acres of fields. And if you have seventy acres of fields that give off seventy acres of crops, then you give according to that. But everyone gives as he is able. And then in 2 Corinthians chapter 9, another letter written to this same church regarding the exact same topic. Here's what he says each one must give as he has decided in his heart. Not reluctantly or under compulsion. You're like, well, you shouldn't even be preaching this message right now. You're compelling us to do that. Maybe, but it's in the text, so we gotta go with it. Not under compulsion, but what? God loves a cheerful giver. Now listen, that's not natural, is it? I have never once in my flesh, dependent upon my default mode, said, I love giving my money away. But that's why this is gospel-shaped giving. That's why this is gospel-influenced giving. Because what the gospel does is it changes what we worship and what we serve and how we value things in life. And so instead of owning and white-knuckling what we have, we steward and open-handed obey the leadership of the Lord and say, God, if you're asking me to give from what you have given me to the work that you are calling me to give in, then by all means, let's go. Let's be a part of it. Notice the words, as he has decided in his heart. So Paul is saying, don't give because you were pressured. Don't give because you were embarrassed. Don't give because you were manipulated. Decide before God, prepare your gift, and then give willingly. Pressure-based giving is different. It's a kind of giving that happens when people feel guilty or because people want recognition, like Ananias and Sapphira in Acts chapter 5, or it's giving that happens because people are caught in the emotion of the moment. That song moved me, that picture moved me. Uh that that uh idea or that thought moved me. But Paul wants something better. He wants giving that comes from conviction, that doesn't come from manipulation, but comes from a gospel-shaped perspective. So prepared giving says, I have thought about this before the Lord. I have prayed about this, I have detached my worship from my possessions, I have considered what God has entrusted to me, and I have decided in my heart before God, and now I give as worship. And whenever the gospel shapes our perspective in this, it will change the way we view our possessions. John MacArthur said it well that true giving is an act of the will before it is an act of the emotion. True giving, this kind of giving, gospel-shaped giving is an act of the will in response to the gospel before it is ever an act of an emotion or manipulation. This kind of giving is what we're talking about. Paul is not calling on the church to wait for spontaneous emotion, he's calling on them to disciplined worship, prepared hearts giving, as the Lord leads us to. Generosity then is obedience and its integrity, okay? So gospel shaped. Let's think about this just for a second before I get to number three, four. The method of giving must match the message. The method matches the message, okay? Listen, the gospel is not manipulative, so giving should not be manipulative. The gospel is full of grace, so giving should giving should not be driven by guilt. That's why we call it grace giving. The gospel is truthful, so giving should be handled with integrity. The gospel is worship, so giving should be offered from the heart to honor the Lord. So the question we ask is this have I prepared my heart and my giving before the Lord so that I don't give reluctantly or out of obligation or compulsion, but I give as an act of worship. Not just what's left, not just what do I feel in the moment, not what is convenient, but Lord, what does faithful generosity look like for me? Okay? This is a discipleship question. That's what we're getting at. And R.C. Sproul said, Well, right worship is never accidental, it is intentional. Okay? We good? Say amen if we're good. All right, good. I know nobody wants to talk about money, but we're gonna do it because the Bible does. So let's just lean into it. So gospel shape giving is planned. There's a there's a rhythm of my life. This is just this is part of my life, this is part of my existence, this is part of my budgeting, this is a plan, and it's proportional. It's stewarding what God has given me and the percentage of how he's blessed me, and it's prepared. It's coming from a heart of worship, not through compulsion or guilt, but it is consistent with the message of the gospel, okay? Giving is gospel shaped, then when it does that, but he doesn't just stop there, he gives us something bigger that I think ties this all together. You ready? My giving is gospel shaped when my giving is purposeful. Grace-motivated giving is not aimless. Paul now explains what will happen with the gift. Here's what he says: he says, When I arrive, when I get there, I want this already to be taking place because I don't want to have to address this, I don't want to manipulate this, I don't want to pull the apostle card. Then he says, I'm going to send those whom you accredit by letter to carry your gift to Jerusalem. Now there's a couple things happening here. First, he implies that this gift has a purpose. It's not just aimless giving, it's not just giving so I can fly private. That's not what he's giving here. And just trust me, there's a there's a there's a purpose behind this that is clearly laid out concerning the collection for the saints. And I will have this carried to Jerusalem. So it's going to Jerusalem. This is again mercy and partnership. This is love for the body of Christ. The Corinthians may never meet many of these believers in Jerusalem. In fact, they probably won't. They may never hear all of their names, they never may never see on the screen their pictures, they may never personally see their suffering, but their gift will go where they cannot go. And then look with me at verses 6 through 11. In verse 6, he talks about how he's gonna stay with you, I will stay with you, or even spin the winter, so that you may help me on my journey. The word help is given there. It's a help word that is connected to giving, so that you will help me be able to do what God has called me to do. And then if you jump down lower into verse 11, he says, Let no one despise Timothy, him as Timothy, but help him on his way. The word help is a technical word describing the giving of the church financial to assist Paul and Timothy in their ministry. So, what was Paul and Timothy doing? This is where it gets fun. They are spending their lives preaching the gospel, establishing churches, and training local leaders. So he is describing his ministry in Ephesus here in our text as an opportunity, a wide door open to him, but there are many adversaries. And he's calling on them, asking them to have gospel shaped generosity. So that they would give to the work of caring for the needy and helping him accomplish the mission of his life, which was to establish churches with the gospel. This is missional giving. This isn't just random giving to some random need that's out there so we can make sure that we plush up our house, but this is missional giving. Again, you may not be able to go to Nepal or Ethiopia in every mission field. You may not be able to preach every sermon or plant every church or counsel every hurting person. You may not be able to feed every hungry believer or send every missionary, but through faithful giving, you and I participate in gospel work beyond our own reach. That's Philippians 4 17. Not that I seek a gift, but I seek the fruit that will increase to your credit. That's my heart. So Paul tells the Philippians that their giving produces spiritual fruit. Their financial partnership was a real gospel participation. So giving is not merely paying bills, it's not merely funding programs. It's not just what we get to do what we do around here because you give. So thank you. It's no, there's there's a kingdom being built. The gospel is moving forward. Churches are being established, and tree uh leaders are being trained, and the gospel is reaching up into the villages of the Himalayas in Nepal and throughout the world and villages all around. And there's a way in which we step into what God is doing in those areas as we obey Him with open hand generosity, giving that is gospel shaped for the purpose of gospel advancement. Giving then is missional. This isn't just a transaction. We're not just trying to present a performance or like a food for you to come and eat and then pay us for what we do. That's ridiculous. This is transformational. This is missional. This is the gospel is at work, so we are giving because it supports the work of the gospel. It meets the needs of our brothers and sisters around the world. Churches are strengthened, workers are sent, saints are blessed, and unity in Christ is displayed, and God is honored and glorified in that. Amen. That's what we're a part of. Then he finishes it with some important stuff. Verses three and four of chapter 16. When I arrive, I'm gonna send those whom you have set apart with a letter. You've basically accredited them, you've given them your uh stamp of approval. And if I need to go with them, verse four, then I will. I'll accompany them if I need to make sure that these things are handled with integrity and to make sure that nothing is taken and nobody's questioning the the stewardship and the leadership of these things. And that's we want that. Listen, as a church, we want you, especially you who give here and are part of this church, to trust the leadership and to make sure that the right men, the the non-staff pastors and the stewardship team are uh doing things we have every year and uh an outside audit done to make sure that our finances are taken care of, uh, that approved men and letters and a clear purpose and responsible uh stewardship is taking place. That's what Paul's talking about here. So he's dealing with some business, but he's connecting it to the mission that we are a part of. Man, this is so cool. So Gentile churches supporting Jewish churches by faithfully giving to the work of the gospel. There's a there's a purpose, and there's a plan, and and there's proportionate giving and there's prepared hearts because this is an act of worship. So we ask, do I see my giving as participation in gospel mission? When we were in uh Nepal, we were at the pastor's gathering. There was 19 churches represented in this room with some other leaders there that weren't necessarily the lead pastors, and Timothy, who kind of leads that organization. I just want you to think about this for a second. This is a group of pastors who live on about $50 a month, maybe $200 if they are in a bigger city area and it costs more. And so uh me and the guys that I was with here from the States were out of the room, and Timothy gets up, and we think he's closing out the little gathering, just gonna pray together, and we're gonna go to lunch and all sit around and eat together. And he's taking a long time, and we look back in, and somebody began it translating for us and saying, here's what he's doing. He's taking up an offering. And what he's pitching is that he wants to make sure that they, the churches in the Paul, give to us as we go back to the states to make sure that other churches that are getting planted through our network have adequate resources. I thought, oh my goodness. Like, turn that money back around, is go give it back to them, right? But this was not, they don't want that. They wanted the blessing. Here's what they wanted: the blessing of stepping into what God is doing around the world through the planting of churches and establishing gospel outposts. And that is exactly what Paul is calling us to be a part of. Is money difficult to talk about? Heck yeah. Try to be this guy up here talking about it. Nobody wants to deal with it, but the gospel is clear when it shapes us and comes to bear on us that we cannot be a people truly shaped by the gospel and it not affect the way that we handle our money. Money, money too quickly becomes a god and too quickly becomes an idol, and too quickly becomes what we trust in rather than something that we have been given to Steward and put back into the work that he is doing around the world. And I love what Jim Elliott says here. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose. What we are investing in is something that will outlast anything our money can buy. It is the glory of God and the building of the kingdom and the saving of lost souls to come to know him. And there is nothing that can decay that or rob that or take that from us. This is the glory of God that we are a part of. So 1 Corinthians chapter 16, verses 1 through 4 tells us that we should have gospel-shaped giving. And that is giving that is planned, not sporadic. It's built into the rhythms of life together. That giving is proportional, not equal, that every believer gives according to how God has provided, that giving is prepared, hearts that are fit for worship, not just what I do with my hands, but the posture of my heart. And that giving is purposeful, not aimless. It joins the mission of God and it serves the people of God. And underneath all of this is the gospel. Because Christian giving does not begin with what God wants from us, it begins with what God has given to us. God gave his son. Jesus Christ did not give out of abundance while staying comfortable in heaven. He humbled himself. He came to us, he took on flesh, he went to the cross, he bore our sin, and he died in our place, and he rose again. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 8, in the topic of giving, Paul says, 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. The foundation upon which Christian gospel-shaped giving comes from is a recognition that we have been given the most amount from Christ when he came to die for us. The foundation of Christian generosity. We don't give to earn grace, we give because we have received grace. We don't give so God will love us. We give because Christ, God, in Christ, God has already loved us. We do not give because the church needs money, we give because Christ is worthy. The gospel frees us from clinging to our possessions as if they can save us. The gospel frees us from fear because our Father knows what we need. The gospel frees us from selfishness because Christ gave himself for us, and the gospel frees us from joyful, faithful, generous worship, or two those things. The gospel does. So the question is not, do you give? The question is what does your giving say about your heart? Now let me say one last thing. Tim Keller said it this way The way to deal with heart is to direct it, not just express it. And giving is a way of directing our heart to its proper place in recognition of who He is in response to the gospel. Amen? All right. Quick four things I want to throw on the screen for you. Number one, what does my life say about what I am trusting? Am I trusting Christ or in what I possess? Money cannot save you, security cannot save you, success cannot save you, only Jesus can save you. So if my giving is a reflection of what I'm trusting, what is it saying about what I'm trusting in? Come to Christ and be freed from the bondage and the master of possessions. Number two, what keeps me from regularly giving? What are the biggest hurdles in my life that keep me from obeying this call that he is giving to me today? That's number two. And number three, how is my generosity advancing the gospel? Are we giving in that way? Are we advancing the gospel? I pray that this is true of us as a church because here it is, the big idea. The church is called to gospel-shaped giving. That's the wrong one. We talked about this. Thank you. The church is called to gospel-shaped giving, for gospel advancement. That's what we're called to. Amen, church. We okay with that? Let's go. Let's be a part of it. Let's live open-handed for what he has called us to. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that deals with every aspect of our life together. And as difficult at times as it is to be called out or be confronted with things that we cling to, thank you in your grace from for showing us these truths and delivering us from the cruel bondage of materialism. We live in a place and in a context where it is easy for us to get attached to these things as if they are the thing we trust in. But we are a people who have been gospel shaped and gospel influenced, and your grace has come to bear on us. So free us from the dependence upon our possessions and help us to steward them, not live as if we own them. And advance the gospel and the purpose of the gospel in our world. And calling us into that, thank you for that, Father. And those among us who are not saved, I pray that you would deliver them from trusting in anything other, including finances, anything other than Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Save them today, and we'll give you the praise, the honor, and the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.