On Giving (part 1): Cheerfully
Over the next three weeks, we are going to be briefly addressing the topic of giving in our word of exhortation. Oftentimes churches avoid talking about giving until they absolutely have to—maybe they aren’t making budget or giving suddenly drops off for some reason—and I’m pleased as one of your elders to say that this isn’t currently the case for us here at Emmaus. Overall, we’ve been deeply encouraged by our members’ great generosity and willingness to contribute to our church from the very beginning—to be clear, we as elders don’t have any visibility into who specifically gives or how much, we can only see that our members do give, and we praise God for this. This is a great blessing not only to us all as a church, but also to us as elders as we seek to lead and plan and steward faithfully, so let me just at the start encourage you all in this and thank you for your faithfulness in this area.
The Bible speaks regularly about giving to the needs of your local church and the broader mission of God in the gospel, and so we want to make sure we are faithfully addressing this important and yet often neglected area of church life as a preventative measure. Churches that don’t fully understand these giving principles in God’s word are churches that are vulnerable to financial difficulty, and so we would be found to be unfaithful if we as your pastors neglected to address it.
And so the first exhortation I want to bring to you this morning about giving is that the Bible instructs us to give cheerfully. Paul writes to the Corinthian church about their contributions to the ministry: Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver (2 Cor 9:7).
Our church covenant also reflects this teaching when we commit together that “We will contribute cheerfully and regularly to the support of the ministry, the expenses of the
church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel to all nations.” And so, church, I ask: why is cheerful giving such an important part of giving in the New Testament and explicitly called out as a commitment we make together in our church covenant, to give cheerfully? I mean, the lights will stay on and the doors will stay open here regardless of the giver’s attitude in giving right? So why do we care about cheerful giving?
The answer is found in Jesus’ words in another place: Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. This saying from Jesus has a kind of double-meaning. The most obvious reading of this is simple enough: We are always more than willing to put our money toward the things that have our hearts, the things we love and value. Your own budget and checking account will give us a pretty good indication of what you value the most in this world. But it turns out that the opposite meaning is equally true: whatever we start putting our money toward will eventually start pulling our heart with it. So money follows our heart, yes. And, it turns out, our hearts will eventually follow our money too. Where your treasure is there your heart will be also. Cheerful giving means your heart is here as well as your money.
And so I simply ask, church, are you giving to support the ministry of the gospel here in your own local church? If you do, has a joyful, eager, cheerful heart followed your contributions here? Or have you perhaps given dutifully, begrudgingly or maybe even without any thought whatsoever? God is ultimately not interested most in your money, he is interested in our hearts. And the church is the apple of his eye. She is the bride he has elected for his Son Jesus Christ. It’s the kingdom of Christ made visible to a lost and broken world, the pillar and buttress of the truth, the manifold wisdom of God on display. And it’s the family we find ourselves adopted into when God saves us.
Are you joyfully and cheerfully giving to sustain her with your earthly treasures—to make sure her mission and calling are maintained without hindrance? Or does your heart grumble or hesitate to release your hard earned money to her? Consider God’s word here through Paul to the Corinthians: God loves not just a giver but a cheerful giver. It’s the heart that he most cares about because a heart that gives cheerfully to the church reflects God’s own heart for his church, he gives to her cheerfully in abundance. And if you are a member and you don’t give or maybe don’t give very often—my question to you is could it be that maybe your heart is not valuing and treasuring what God values here on earth?