Good morning.
A man on vacation was strolling along outside his hotel enjoying the sunny Mexican weather. Suddenly, he was attracted by the screams of a woman kneeling in front of a child. The man knew enough Spanish to determine that the boy had swallowed a coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and a quarter dropped to the sidewalk.
“Oh, thank you sir!” cried the woman. “You seemed to know just how to get the money out of him. Are you a doctor?” “No, ma’am,” replied the man. “I work for the IRS.”
Well, with tax time here, some of you may be able to relate to that. And then again, some of you may feel the same way when it comes to church, and giving of your offering.
This morning we are going to continue our series that asks the question, “Why do we do what we do here at Fly Branch Church Of Christ?” We began by asking the question, “Why do we spend time in worship each week?” And then last week, we addressed the question of, “Why do we take Communion each week?” And today, we move on to the next thing that we do in our services.
So, let’s go ahead and take a look at our scripture this morning and ask the question, “Why do we take up an offering each week?”
I Corinthians 16:1-4 says, “Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made. Then, when I arrive, I will give letters of introduction to the men you approve and send them with your gift to Jerusalem. If it seems advisable for me to go also, they will accompany me.”
Every week without fail, in thousands upon thousands of churches, at some point during their worship service, ushers or servers move through the rows of the people and pass a plate to take up an offering. But why do we do that? The simple answer is that through giving, we are actually taking part in an act of obedience and worship.
But, when it comes to giving away our money, we don’t like the short and simple reasons. We want to know more. For example, if I had a brand new car up here, and I was only asking for $100 for it, I’m sure I would have no problems selling it. However, if I had that same car being a curtain, and asked for $100 for what was behind the curtain, it might be a little harder to sell that car. Why? Because we like to know where our money is going. We don’t like to give and not know why.
So, today, as we have over the last few weeks with the other aspects of our worship, we ask the question, “Why?” Why do we provide the opportunity for us to give financially? Equally as important, why do we give of our offerings when we have the opportunity, and what is it for?
In the time that we have this morning, I want to give you 3 reasons why we take up an offering each week. All of these reasons are important, but when we get to the 3rd reason, I think that you can see why it may carry a little more weight than the others.
But, before we take a look at why we give, let’s take a moment to open with a word of prayer. Let’s Pray!
So, why do we take up an offering each week?
# 1 – We give and receive offerings in order to provide ministry through the church.
God set it up this way. This is how we survive as a congregation. By taking up an offering each week, we are able to pay for the things that need to be paid for. We see this in the Old Testament with what they called the Levite offering that they used to provide for the ministry of the Temple. We see that in Deuteronomy 14:28-29 it says, “At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, so that the Levites and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.”
And in the New Testament even in the passage from I Corinthians chapter 16 that we read earlier, we find that the early church took up offerings to provide for the needs of the newly formed congregations. Without the people of the church giving, the church would have a very hard time even existing.
Each week, you give of your income as a way of supporting this church. Some of that money goes to pay me, and to pay someone to clean the church each week. In addition to that, the money you give goes towards things like heat in the winter, air in the summer. It allows us to have things like a projector, lights, and even the very electric that runs all of this.
But more importantly than all of those things, when you give of your income, you are helping to support real ministry to others. In your giving, we are able to take the youth to things like church camp, and other events that draw them closer to God. We are able to do things as a way of reaching out to the people around us who don’t know God. We are able to help people when they are in need. Because of the money you give, we are able to help support missions, and take God’s word and love to people in other areas of the world that have never heard of it before.
In fact, next week, we are going to take a look at the question of, “Why do we support missions?” You know, that is a vital part of the work of the church. To reach out and spread the word of God to those who need to hear it. And next week, we will take a better look at that.
But, in order for any of those things to be able to happen, you have to have money. And with the church, we have to be self sufficient. We take up an offering each week as a way of supporting the ministry of our church.
Not too long ago I read of a young woman who brought her fiancé home to meet her parents. After dinner, her mother told her father to find out more about the young man. The father invited the fiancé into his study. “So what are your plans?” the father asked the young man.
“Well sir, I am a Bible scholar,” he replied. “That’s great,” said the father, “But what will you do to provide a nice house for my daughter?”
“Well sir, I will study,” the young man replied, “and God will provide for us.” Then the father asked, “And how are you going to buy her a beautiful engagement ring?”
"Well sir, I will pray,” the young man replied, “and God will provide for us.” “And what about children?” asked the father. “How will you support children when they come?”
“Don’t worry, sir, God will provide,” replied the fiancé. The conversation proceeded like this through several more questions. Each time the young man insisted that God would provide. Later that evening, the mother asked her husband about the conversation.
“Well honey, there’s good news and bad news,” said the husband. “What’s the bad news?” she asked. “Well, he has no job and no plans.” the husband replied. “Then what is the good news?” she asked. “He obviously thinks I’m God.”
Sometimes, with the church, we respond like the young man. We just expect the support the church needs t just happen on its own. But it doesn’t. Yes, God will provide. But that provision comes through each one of us: praying, serving, and giving so that ministry can take place here.
So, we give and receive offerings each week in order to provide ministry through the church.
# 2 – Giving makes a difference in those who give as well as in those who receive it.
Most of us have probably never heard of the name Kenneth Behring. But Newsweek magazine told his story in December of 2003. A man who’d made a fortune as a construction tycoon, Kenneth seemed to have everything: money, family, the respect of others. But something transformed him during a trip to Vietnam in 2000.
While helping a relief organization bring food and medicine to a village there, Kenneth personally delivered a wheelchair to a little girl, a 6 year old polio victim. The girl’s reaction changed his life. “She got a big smile on her face,” Kenneth later reported. “She couldn’t believe somebody would help her that way. It was a sensation of joy I’ve never experienced with anything else,” he continued. “And I knew that couldn’t be the end of it.”
Inspired by the sense of making a difference for that little girl, Kenneth created the Wheelchair Foundation, an organization that today delivers 10,000 wheelchairs a month worldwide to people who need them.
You know the most wonderful thing about what he did? It changed her life and it changed his. His generosity of time, money, and energy gave her a way to get around where before she had none. It also made him a more joyous, more fulfilled, and more complete person.
You see, giving your offering gives you the opportunity to do that each week. It changes the one who receives the gift and the one who gives it. When we pass the plates each week, we give you the opportunity to take part in ministering to someone else. Right now, we support a variety of Christian colleges and universities each year. We support several camps and children’s homes.
We support Abraham Thomas and his mission work in India. We also set some money aside to go towards paying for things for the Youth Group. Right now that looks like a lot of money in the Youth Account, but by the end of the summer, we will use most, if not all of that money sending kids to events and camps that bring them closer in their walk with God.
So, for every dollar that you give, you are helping our own church family, local missions, other missions in other states, and also assisting in the work of foreign missions.
And the thing that we need to realize is that what we give in the name of God carries the potential to change another person’s life. And by doing that, you change your own as well. I don’t think I have ever been on a youth retreat, a mission trip, or taken part in any other service project where I didn’t get something meaningful out of it myself. Yes, when we do those things we are helping others, but we are also gaining a lot out of it ourselves.
I love the way II Corinthians 9:11 says it as Paul speaks of what a person’s generosity does for him or her. Paul says in II Corinthians 9:11 that, “You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.”
God makes us better people when we give. When we take an offering each week, we provide the opportunity for each of us to make a difference in the lives of someone else and in our own spiritual growth as well.
# 3 – And the most import reason we give our offerings, is because it allows us to express our gratitude to God!
Take a look at Psalm chapter 66 with me. In that chapter, we listen to a grateful man as he speaks of God. Psalm 66:5 says, “Come and see what God has done, how awesome His works in man’s behalf.” Notice the Psalmist didn’t praise God for a life of ease and comfort; a life without hardship and struggle.
Instead, in verses 10-12 he goes on to write, “You, O God, tested us; you refined us like silver. You brought us into prison and laid burdens on our backs; You let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and water; but you brought us to a place of abundance.”
Sometimes we seem to believe that God deserves our praise and our offerings only when God blesses us with good things, only when our path stays smooth and easy. But the Psalmist praises God even when tough times come, when the day grows dark, when the journey becomes steep.
Here’s how he responded, in spite of the hardships of life. Verses 13-15 says, “I will come to your temple with burnt offerings. And fulfill my vows to you; vows my lips promised and my mouth spoke when I was in trouble. I will sacrifice fat animals to you and an offering of rams. I will offer bulls and goats.”
This man brings his offerings to God because of what God did for him, the way God brought him through the difficult hours, the way God provided for him every day of his life. Listen to verses 16, and 19-20, “Come and listen,” he says. “Let me tell you what He has done for me. . . .God surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!”
You see, giving an offering is about gratitude, honor, sacrifice, and love. Giving an offering is not about duty, need, pressure, or guilt.
Rick Stacy puts it this way, “I believe in tithing or giving one tenth of your income, not because of a law God decreed, but because it is a principle of life that is right and works when it is done cheerfully out of love and gratitude.”
He continues and says, “I believe in giving sacrificial offerings not because of the need for a new building, salaries for the staff, or new materials for the Children’s ministry, but because it is how I can give to God part of my life with an attitude of humility as I am allowed to participate in the work of His kingdom.”
And he finishes off by saying, “I believe in giving not because of what I will get back, which really does happen, but because of the privilege of participating in something that is so great when I am so small.”
Now, allow me to say this as gently as possible. God doesn’t want your check or your cash in the form of a pressured gift. What He wants is for you to love Him, worship Him, and give Him the gratitude He so richly deserves from us. We at Fly Branch Church Of Christ want you to choose to give as an act of love and worship, out of gratitude and a desire to honor God.
Our offering, our giving, is an act of worship that comes from the depths of our inner being.
It is displayed each week when we take up an offering, II Corinthians 9:7 says, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver!”
I would like for us to be so overwhelmed by the love of God, so in love with Him for what He has done for us, that we will be willing to give whenever, wherever, however, and whatever it is that God wants us to give.
So, what has God done for you? This week, last week, through your whole life, in the good times and the tough ones?
Hear this today, every good and perfect gift comes from God, and when we pass those plates and give you the opportunity to give something each week, we are giving you the opportunity to worship Him by giving back to His work.
So, to answer the question of, “Why do we take up an offering each week?” is to realize that it is done to be able to provide ministry through the church, to make a difference in the lives of those who give as well as those who receive, and as a way to express our gratitude to God.
So, keep that in mind the next time we pass those plates. And keep in mind that, “Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver!” Let’s Pray!
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