Now about the collection for the Lord’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 your 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. (1 Corinthians 16:1-4 NIV)
As we wrap up our “Joyful Generosity” sermons today, I want us to start by remembering what we’ve talked about so far. Two weeks ago, we focused on this verse: “God is able to bless you abundantly, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work” (2 Corinthians 9:8). Do we have a God of scarcity or abundance? We have a God of abundance! Does God always leave us a little bit short, or does he provide everything we need through Jesus? He provides everything we need and more! Last week, we focused on this verse: “Where your treasure is, there your heart shall be” (Luke 12:34). There is a close connection between your heart and your money. What follows what? Surprisingly, Jesus says our hearts follow our money. If we want our hearts to be with God, we need our treasure to be with God.
So, finally, today we get to talk about this: How much? That’s the big question, right? “Okay, pastor, I get that it’s good to give offerings to God. But how much?” Well, remember how much King David gave to God? We heard about his offering last week from 1 Chronicles 29. Remember how much? About $5 billion. Wow. That’s joyful generosity! That sounds like a good starting point for our offerings too, doesn’t it? About $5 billion. Maybe you’re thinking, “I don’t have $5 billion.” Well, why not? What have you been doing with your life? Just kidding! Of course we don’t have $5 billion dollars! But God has some very practical advice for all of us.
Paul wrote to Christians in Corinth, “Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do.” The apostle Paul was in the middle of collecting a big offering for the people in Jerusalem. Somehow, the Christians in Jerusalem had fallen on hard times, and Paul invited all the mission churches he had started to participate in an offering to help them. So he gave them advice about giving that’s valuable for all Christians to hear: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income…”
If you can believe it, we’re going to spend the whole sermon just talking about that one verse! The first words that jump out at me are, “Each one of you should set aside a sum of money…” How many people were to participate in the offering? “Each one of you…” Everybody! The way the IRS works today, you can earn quite a bit of money before you have to pay income taxes. That’s not the way God works. Every single person has been blessed by God with something. So, every single person has something to give back to God. Even kids. Even widows—like we heard in our gospel lesson. Even you. Giving to God isn’t just for the rich. It’s for “each one of you.”
So how do we do it? Here’s Paul’s advice: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money…” On which day? The first day. On the first day of every week, before everything else, the Christians were to set aside their offering for God. On the first day. Not on the last day of the week, after a long week and a busy weekend. God asks us for first. God knows you’re not King David with billions of dollars. He knows that you need lots of things, and things cost money. But what God loves to hear his people say to him is, “You first!”
Throughout the Bible, there is a concept called “firstfruits.” Have you heard that word before? “Firstfruits.” It means what it says: First fruits. Firstfruit giving was one of God’s commands to the Israelites in the Old Testament. When they started harvesting their crops, they gave the first crops to God. They didn’t give all their crops to God. But they said, “You first!” When animals were born, they didn’t sacrifice them all to God, but they gave God the firstborn. “You first!” What was the point of the firstfruits? It made them trust in God. Even after a long winter, they gave the first grain to God. They trusted that God would provide so much more. “You first!”
I think there’s also a practical reason why God says, “First.” How many of you have lots of money left at the end of a pay period? Not us! “God first” easily becomes, “God gets what’s left!” Money is a little like time. It always goes. If we have it now, soon it will be gone. We need to establish priorities. When you talk to your financial planner about retirement, what does she say? Pay yourself first! Take some off the top and put it in your retirement account. That’s the only way it’s going to happen. If you don’t do that first, how much is going to be left? Nothing.
That’s how God asks us to give. With every blessing, God wants our hearts to say back to him, “You first!” When your pay gets deposited in the bank, say to God, “You first!” Before the bills. Before the mortgage. Before the fun stuff. Even before the retirement account. “You first!” Earlier we read together God’s promise: “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine” (Proverbs 3:9-10). God asks you to trust in him enough to give to him first.
Does that describe your life? What’s first? God knows. Your bank probably knows too. Do you say to God with a smile, “You first!” Or do all the other things that we feel we need overwhelm us? The house payment… The car payment… The school payment… The clothes… The bills… And then, without realizing it, what’s left? I had a professor who would often talk about the “tyranny of the urgent.” The seemingly “urgent” things in life easily push out the really important things in life. God doesn’t ask for all. He asks for the first. What’s first in your life?
Do you like leftovers? I really do like leftovers, except for one thing: Leftover taco salad. Do you ever eat taco salad? It’s good! Meat. Sauce. Cheese. Lettuce. Chips. All together. Yum! Except for the leftovers. We’ve learned that you have to eat taco salad all on the first day. Old lettuce and soggy chips and melted cheese all stuck together… No thanks! It’s the same ingredients. But it isn’t the same. What is it we’re offering God? “You first” or “Here’s the leftovers”? Even if in the end it might be the same stuff, it’s not the same. “You first” and “leftovers” are a world apart.
What’s amazing is that God is the one Father who never gives us leftovers. Remember how I said that God commanded his people to give the firstfruits? That’s exactly what God has done. God gave us his firstborn. He gave us Jesus. “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16). Jesus died because he put you first. For every time we’ve put us first, Jesus said, “You first!” when he died to forgive our sins on the cross. God invented the phrase “You first!” God has put you and me first, even when it came to his own Son. So how can we not say to God, “You first!”
But how much? That’s the other big question, right? How much should I give? God never gives us an amount. He says: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money”—now here’s the key—in keeping with your income…” God doesn’t give a number, because every person is different. He doesn’t want us to compare. He doesn’t want us to give what somebody else gives. He wants us to look at what he’s given us and give in keeping with our income. God has blessed each of us differently, so each of our offerings will be different too.
But how much? Imagine this scenario. What if you went to the bank to talk about a mortgage for a new house. Let’s say $200,000. What if the banker looked over your salary and your credit and finally said, “I’ll give you $200,000 on the condition that you pay me back whatever you want.” What would you say? First, you’d probably say, “Did say I needed $200,000? I meant to say $800,000!” Would you say, “What? You want me to pay back some of what you gave me?” No way! I think you’d leave saying, “This is a pretty cool bank! This is way more than I deserve! I want to give back my best.” Isn’t that the way it is with God? We want to give God our best.
“In keeping with your income…” God encourages percentage giving. In the Old Testament, God commanded a certain percent—10% or a “tithe.” That was the law for the Israelites. 10% of crops, herds, everything. They were to look at what God gave them and give back the first 10%. Some churches still demand 10% today. The problem is that the tithe is part of God’s Old Testament laws meant just for the Israelites. If a church today demands 10%, it should also have daily sacrifices, celebrate the Sabbath Day, and not eat pork, because all those laws go together. Today God doesn’t command a certain percent, he just says, “in keeping with your income….”
When we hear we don’t have to give 10% anymore, however, there’s a problem. A lady once asked me if our church demands that people give 10%. I said, “No.” She said, “Good, because who would want to give 10% to God? I have other things I want to spend my money on!” When we hear we don’t have to give 10%, what do we often think? “Good! I don’t have to give much at all!” That’s our sinful nature talking. Ask yourself this: Do we have less reasons to give to God than the Israelites did? Don’t we have more? We’ve seen Jesus! We know the whole story.
Remember this: “God first. My best.” King David’s best was $5 billion. I’m not sure what percent that was, but it must have been more than 10%! That poor widow’s best was two little coins. And Jesus praised her in front of everyone. The widow gave a few pennies. David gave $5 billion. In God’s sight, they both gave exactly the same! This is what makes God’s way of giving offerings so great. He doesn’t want you to compare yourself to anyone else. He just reminds us that every person has been blessed. Everyone has something to give. God first. My best.
I told you about this practice of “firstfruits.” The first of everything always went to God. In the Old Testament, there was actually a special Festival of Firstfruits at the beginning of the harvest season. When the first sheaves of grain began to ripen in the spring, they were to take them to the temple during Passover week on the day after the Sabbath—on a Sunday. They didn’t eat those first heads of grain. The firstfruits belonged to God. They trusted that more would follow.
There was a big event that happened one Firstfruits Sunday. Do you know what it was? Easter! Jesus rose from the dead on the Sunday after the Passover. As Jesus was rising from the dead, all Jerusalem was filled with people bringing their firstfruits to God. “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive. But each in his own turn: Christ, the firstfruits; then, when he comes, those who belong to him” (1 Corinthians 15:22). Jesus is the firstfruits! When you see Jesus rise from the dead, you know that more will follow. Everyone who believes in him. Me. You. We have a great God! A great God who has put us first in every way. So we say back to God, “You first. My best.”
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