Sermon Tone Analysis

!!! Church Offerings

!!!

The Greatest Gift:  They Gave Themselves 2

2 Corinthians 8:1-9

 

 

God made the sun           - it gives.

God made the moon         - it gives.

God made the stars         - they give.

God made the air            - it gives.

God made the clouds               - they give.

God made the earth         - it gives.

God made the sea           - it gives.

God made the trees          - they give.

God made the flowers       - they give.

God made the fowls         - they give.

God made the beasts               - they give.

God made the plants              - they give.

God made the people        - they?

We are in the midst of a series on “Church Offerings.”

In the first message, we dealt with “The Problem with Prosperity Preaching.”

We pointed out that

 

·        Peasants primarily populate the pages of the New Testament.

While,

·        Many of the main characters of the Old Testament are rich, by the hand of God.

·        God wants to bless His people with prosperity, but how we handle that prosperity is up to us.

·        God is *not* ultimately concerned with our financial status, but with the condition of our hearts.

·        God doesn’t mind us having riches, but He does mind riches having us.

In the second message, we covered 2 Corinthians 8:1-5.

Paul’s words point to the Corinthians as excellent examples of givers!

In our consideration of his words, we covered four principles that they exemplified:

 

I.

Principle Number One:     They Gave Graciously (vv.

1-2).

II.

Principle Number Two:     They Gave Sacrificially (vs.

3).

III.

Principle Number Three:  They Gave Voluntarily (vs.

3).

IV.   Principle Number Four:    They Gave Eagerly (vs.

4).

\\ /(We move now to the next principle that is illustrated in giving of the Corinthians.

To bring out that principle, would you please notice with me 2 Corinthians 8:1-9?

I’ll read it aloud for us./

/We see before us:)/

 

V.

Principle Number Five:  They Gave Wholeheartedly (vv.

5-6).

*This is the most important and first principle of giving*.

*The heart of the matter is the matter of the heart!*

The Macedonians first gave themselves, lock, stock, and barrel, to the Lord.

In the Bible, in the Old Testament in particular, the heart is the most important part of the person!

There are 2,856 occurrences of the word “heart” in the Old Testament, where the word and concept are central!

In addition, there is a particular construction, i.e. the whole heart, that captures the concept of giving all of one’s self to God!  David uses the term repeatedly in Psalm 119.

Let me give you just one of those instances.

Psalms 119:2 (KJV), “2 Blessed /are/ they that keep his testimonies, /and that/ seek him with the whole heart.”

Paul talks about this same thing, using a different metaphor, in

 

Romans 12:1-2 (NASB), “1 Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, /which is/ your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

In these two verses, Paul moves from the opposite direction and uses the body, which houses the heart, as representative of the entire person!

He urged the Romans, by means of God’s tender mercies to present their bodies as living and holy sacrifices, i.e. to present themselves as sacrificial offerings upon the altar of burnt offering!

However, they were *not* to be killed and flayed into pieces; they were to be placed on the altar alive!

First, if you are placed on the altar of burnt offering as a whole burnt offering, also called a holocaust offering, you would be completely consumed by the flames.

This represents everything that you are!

       Secondly, as a living sacrifice, it would take all that you are to remain over the burning flames of the sacrificial fire!

So, your sacrifice of yourself would be intentional and willing!

Do you know how many of us crawl down off of that altar as soon as we feel the flames of sacrifice?

*Be that as it may, we are to give whatever we give to the Lord wholeheartedly!*

 

       *Now,* *Paul may have been surprised by the way that they gave!

*We know that nothing seems to get carnal as quickly as raising money.*

Those who raise offerings sometime resort to all kinds of tricks to get people to give; and those who give sometimes respond with less than pure motives!

The attitudes and actions of believers around money demonstrate who is in control of their lives!*

Paul probably expected them to respond out of obedience, since He was their father in the Gospel; but they went far beyond that.

*They gave themselves to the Lord!*

 

       Ralph Waldo Emerson said, in his essay, “Gifts,” But our tokens of compliment and love are for the most part barbarous.

Rings and other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts.

*The only gift is a portion of thyself.*

Thou must bleed for me.

Therefore

 

·        the poet brings his poem;

·        the shepherd his lamb;

·        the farmer his corn;

·        the miner a gem;

·        the sailor, coral and shells;

·        the painter his picture;

·        the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.”

*The idea is we must give ourselves to one that we love.*

George Atley, a young Englishman with the heart of a hero, was engaged in the Central African Mission.

As he was attacked by a party of natives, He had with him a Winchester repeating rifle with ten loaded chambers.

The party was completely at his mercy.

Calmly and quickly he summed up the situation.

He concluded that if he killed them, it would do the mission more harm than if he allowed them to take his life.

So, as a lamb to the slaughter he was led; and when his body was found in the stream, his rifle was also found with its ten chambers still loaded.

*Giving is a very spiritual act.

It demands that you first give the ultimate gift:  yourself!*

 

\\ *They were able to give liberally once they had given themselves to the Lord.*

Perhaps this is our problem:  we have *not* given ourselves to the Lord?

So, before you can give liberally, sacrificially, voluntarily and eagerly, you must give spiritually:  because when we give with this attitude, it is a result of the gracious work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts.

God keeps saying to me the heart of the problem is the problem of the heart.

We have not given our hearts to Jesus Christ.

Lord I give you my heart!

*However, the Macedonians didn’t just give themselves to the Lord; they gave themselves to Paul and his companions, who were the leaders of the Church of Macedonia.*

These Macedonian Saints were much different than modern Saints.

Modern Saints talk about obeying God, but have trouble obeying God’s people!  *Yet, these Saints gave themselves to the Lord and to the leaders of the Church at Corinth.*

       *There can be no true followership in discipleship and no true spiritual obedience to the authorities of God, until we let Jesus be Lord of our lives.*

Are you willing to give yourselves to me and those who are in leadership with me?

 

/(But, there’s more!)/

 

       *The Macedonian Saints gave themselves to the Lord, Paul, and the church leaders, in direct keeping with the will of God!*