Disciplined Generosity -- FPC sermon excerpt

A week ago, a group of church members gathered for movie night, and we watched the movie “Get Low.”

At the beginning of the film, an old recluse played by Robert Duvall walks into a church. He places a huge wad of money on the table. He is looking for a preacher to do his funeral, so he says to the minister, “Let’s get low” … let’s get down to business.

The preacher says, quite correctly, “You can’t buy forgiveness. It’s free, but you have to ask for it.” The Robert Duvall character gets up, and stomps out of the church.

I begin with this little story, because I want you to know that you cannot buy forgiveness. The topic of today’s sermon is “Disciplined Generosity,” and it is the fourth in our Lenten sermon series on Extravagant Generosity. I believe that there are many important reasons for being a generous person, but our giving is certainly not what gains us forgiveness. Our forgiveness has been purchased for us by the death of Jesus on the cross, a sacrifice that we will remember as we receive the Lord’s Supper this morning.

You cannot buy forgiveness. But still, what we do with our money is certainly important. So let’s get low … let’s get down to business.

Our Scripture lessons are two brief passages from the Old and the New Testaments. The book of Leviticus is full of offerings, festivals, rules, and regulations — it’s an instruction manual for the people of Israel, as they attempt to follow God. Today’s passage speaks of the “tithe,” which is a ten-percent portion of a crop, herd, or flock. It says, “All tithes from the land, whether the seed from the ground or the fruit from the tree, are the LORD’S; they are holy to the LORD” (Leviticus 27:30).

The point of this passage is that the first tenth of what we produce belongs to God, so we really ought to give it back to God. The tithe is not our own, it is the Lord’s.

Then in his first letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul is advising the Corinthians to follow a pattern of regular giving, an approach that he had given to the Galatians. “Now concerning the collection for the saints,” he writes: “you should follow the directions I gave the churches of Galatia. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come” (1 Corinthians 16:1-2)

Paul challenges us to care for others who are in need — in his case, he is taking up a collection for the poor Christians in the mother church in Jerusalem. He asks the Corinthians to give in ways that are proportional to their resources. The New International Version of the Bible has a better translation of this verse than what is in your bulletin: “On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income” (v. 2).

So what do these brief passages teach us about disciplined giving?

- For starters, the first tenth of what we have belongs to God. The tithe is the Lord’s.

- Second, we are to set aside money on the first day of the week, the Lord’s day. Regular giving should be an act of Sunday worship.

- And third, each of us should set aside a sum of money in keeping with our income. Our giving should be proportional to our resources.