Praise No.5 Praise Him in the Offering

1 Corinthians 8, beginning at verse 1. Now, brothers, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity, for I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the saints.

And they did not do as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us in keeping with God's will. So we urge Titus, since he had earlier made a beginning, to bring also to completion this act of grace on your part. But just as you excel in everything, in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

I'm not commanding you, but I want to test the sincerity of your love by comparing it with the earnestness of others. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that through his poverty might become, that you through his poverty, might become rich. And here is my advice about what is best for you in this matter.

Last year, you were the first not only to give, but also to have the desire to do so. Now finish the work, so that your eager willingness to do it may be matched by your completion of it, according to your means. For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have.

Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. Then chapter 9, verse 1, sorry, verse 6. Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work.

It is written, he has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor, his righteousness endures forever. Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. 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.

This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people, but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God, because of the service by which you've proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everybody else, and in their prayers for you, their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Please be seated.

I see a supplementary notice here. I'm asked to draw your attention to the men's meeting, which is in a form of a car rally, barbecue next Saturday. Doug Wheeler and his colleagues especially want confirmation for folk who are coming no later than this evening's service in order to facilitate catering requirements.

Let's turn back in that passage to which John made reference a few moments ago, and although I'm not going to be expounding these scriptures, but rather lacing together the teaching of God's Word as I understand it, and in praisey fashion on the subject of giving, but let's just remind ourselves of the seventh verse of 2 Corinthians in chapter 8. Just as you excel in everything, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness, and in your love for us, see that you also excel in this grace of giving. And now the seventh verse of the following chapter. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

And then the final verse of that chapter. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. Now this little address that I bring this morning, it in effect completes the short series of studies that we've had in the whole area of worship and praise.

Of course it's not been an exhaustive attempt. There are so many gallons of teaching in scripture in this whole area that all we've done is just brought out some samples and poured them forth, so to speak, from the pulpit here. There are many, many ways in which we can praise our God.

I was glad when John in his prayer referred to not just listening to what's being taught in terms of our studies here, or was it earlier on as we met together as elders that he prayed this aspect of prayer, but he went through to say that Lord in your grace enable us to act on what is being taught. And that's so important. We're not just here to remind ourselves of biblical truths, but we're also here to allow the word to correct our misunderstanding if there has been misunderstanding, or to stimulate us into activity if we've got a mental grasp, but we haven't got a practical outworking of what's been shared in the whole area of praise.

Many, many ways in which we praise God. I was saying to folk who gathered with me last Thursday week as we were talking about the music of the church here, that in one sense, though I understand the terminology, it is inaccurate to speak of a worship group. Worship is not the sort of preamble before the man who is designated to preach brings the address.

Worship isn't everything that you do from 10.30 through to 12 o'clock on a Sunday morning. That is part of worship, but worship is a very, very big word. It's a comprehensive word, and it's best understood in one of the older hymns when we're told, and the employment of the inscription uses the word praise and not worship, but you could use the word worship as well.

We're told to praise God in the common things of life, its goings out and in. If you unpackage that, it means, ladies, when you're changing a nappy, you can do it to the glory of God. Or husbands, when you're helping your wives in that duty, or whatever it is, whatever you're about, really seriously get rid of the idea that there's such a thing as a secular.

If you're a Christian, the secular is giving way to the sacred, and everything is sacred, whatever you're doing, because it has a knock-on effect to glorify the Lord. You're a teacher, teach to the glory of God. You're a mechanic, service your cast to the glory of God.

You're an old age pensioner, then in the fellowship that you offer your neighbor, offer it in the service of God. All that we do is to praise the Lord. And in the proclamation of Scripture, as I was indicating last week, in one sense you reach the pinnacle, the summit of worship, and one hopes for people listening to Scripture, remember how I emphasized what a congregation might require of its preacher legitimately, and also what the preacher might legitimately require of the congregation.

In the proclamation of Scripture, we hear the Word of God. John Calvin, to quote him again, because he was brought to my thinking earlier, he said that proclaiming the Word of God is the Word of God. I think I want to qualify that a little, but I understand what he was saying.

Proclaiming the Word of God is, it has the content of God's Word, and you worship God as you respond to that Word, not just intellectually, but hit your mind first. You respond as you work it through in your total personality, and without that knock on, then it's impossible really to grow in the Christian faith. God has not decreed for us all to be theological students.

He's told us to be like Jesus, and Jesus grew in grace and in the knowledge of God. So we praise God in many, many areas. We praise Him in the communion service, as I've been trying to show you, and I trust that you'll be practical in your application of that when we come together around the Lord's table later this lovely Sabbath day.

Well then, let's just home in on the area of praising God in our finance. Samuel Chadwick, one-time principal of Cliff College, a place quite near to where I was brought up in North Derbyshire as a lad, he says this, I am persuaded that there is nothing upon which the Christian conscience is so ill-informed as the subject of Christian giving. And Artie Kendall, in a typically different fashion, he's an American, he says we're all congenitally allergic to tithing.

Well, what about this whole business of receiving money Sunday by Sunday, an act of worship? Do you think so? Do you really look upon that as being the case? Remember I've quoted George Duncan's remarks, which I paraphrase afresh, he says that revival will be around the corner when someone announces we'll take an offering and everyone jumps up and says hallelujah. I think he'd probably got tongue-in-cheek, but you know Mr. Duncan, he's preached here so often at the tab. You see, the reason why we started off, and I love that doxology in any case, praise God from whom all blessings flow, the reason why we commenced with that is because it's a reminder of what James tells you, that every good and perfect gift comes from the Lord.

So what you earn really basically belongs to God. He entrusts it to you. If you are a Christian, then you don't understand ownership in terms of some political philosophy.

There is no such thing as ownership in this world, there is only stewardship. And the difference is this, the owner has full responsibility for and control over his finances. His one objective is probably just the advancement of himself and his family.

Stewardship means that you take what is put within your grasp and you use it in the interest of God and for the benefit of mankind. That's a lofty ideal, but that's what Jesus taught, not so. You're not an owner, you're a steward.

So let me open this subject up, I better hurry up, I've been going 10 minutes and I haven't got to the first point yet. Let me open it up by taking you to what I'm calling an uncelebrated attribute of God, an uncelebrated attribute. You see, when you read a book of theology, when you read some doctrinal statement on the person of God, there will be certain things that you will be told about the Lord.

Let me briefly just split this into two. You'll be told that there are communicable and incommunicable attributes of God. You say, what on earth does that mean? Well, if you read John Calvin's Institutes, he'll tell you communicable attribute, non-communicable attributes are these.

God is eternal, not so. You can't be eternal. God is omnipotent, you can't be omnipotent.

You can't do everything. God is omnipresent. Now, you may have a class of 40 kids, but you can't be all over the class at one time, looking after each of the children.

It would be delightful if you could, but you can't. You see, there are various things about God that he cannot communicate to you, but there are various things about God which can be communicated. And when Paul, writing to the Ephesians, says that he wants them to be filled with all the fullness of God, he's referring not, of course, to his eternity, not, of course, to his omnipotence, nor indeed to his omniscience, his all knowledge.

He is referring to that which can be communicated. What can God communicate to you and me? Now, in any book of theology, you will never see, listed under the attributes of God, his generosity, but he is generous. What you will find is that lumped under the attributes of God that can be communicated are his holiness, his righteousness, and his love.

And in one sense, if you understand what love means, then it embraces generosity. You can give without loving, but you cannot love without giving. Did you understand? And God is a God of love, and one of the uncelebrated characteristics of God is his incredible generosity.

And when God gives, he gives with two things in mind. First, the appropriate nature of a gift. When I select something for my mother-in-law in South Africa at Christmas, I do overtime trying to think through what it is that she would like best.

A few years ago, my wife went out to see her, and I thought that was the most appropriate gift, so to speak, because I can't think that she'd have wanted anything better than to have Christmas with her daughter. Now, God gives appropriately. God not only gives appropriately to mankind, but he gives because our need is so great.

He gives sacrificially. What is it that you and I require more than anything else? It's the touch of God upon our lives. It's the freedom from the sins which bind us.

So the Apostle Paul, with Jesus in mind, at the end of the ninth chapter of 2 Corinthians says, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable, authorized version, his unspeakable, his indescribable NIV gift. You see, when God gives, he gives lavishly. The best comment on that actually is in Romans 8. God who spared not his own Son, how much more will he give to us all things? We're talking about God, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus.

Remember a story in David Wilkerson's book, Cross and the Switchblade. Do you remember when it came out in the late 50s? How Wilkerson was walking through the streets of New York, and he came across Nicky Cruz, who was one of the gangsters causing so much fear, so much dread to people who were normal passersby in Harlem, New York. Wilkerson, who by his own admission was just a skinny little preacher, sees Cruz coming towards him with a knife, and David said, look, you can take your knife and you can chop me up into little pieces, but you can't stop me loving you, and every little piece of me will cry out, Nicky, I love you.

Now in that sense, you begin to understand the saturated fashion in which God is, a God of love. You can give without loving. You can't love without giving.

God loves, so he gives. John 3, 16 boxes it all in, doesn't it? So very, very beautifully. Professor Tasker says about that final comment in 2 Corinthians 9 and 15, thanks be to God for his indescribable gift, the divine gift which inspires all gifts.

An uncelebrated attribute of God is his generosity, but let's dip in because the apostle Paul does as he brings together his teaching in 2 Corinthians 8 and 9. Let's dip into the Old Testament, and in the Old Testament, what do you discover? Well, you find that the Jewish people and the founder of their race especially were very diligent when at least things were right between them and God in the area of tithing. There's a mysterious character that you come across in Genesis by the name of Melchizedek. In one sense, he's a type of the Lord Jesus.

You don't know of his origin. It seems to be a divine origin. It's obscure.

It's mysterious. It seems to be somewhat supernatural. He's clouded in mystery, but you've got the idea of Abraham coming along, paying tithes to Melchizedek, tithes being one-tenth of what he earns.

And you find that that principle of giving to the Lord one-tenth of what you earn is sustained throughout the whole of the Old Testament. Now, you know there were 12 tribes, not so? 12 tribes that owed their ancestry to Abraham. When they were in Egypt, God released them miraculously, saved them, so to speak.

Grand illustration of redemption. And they went back to the promised land. What happened to the territory? Well, they divided it.

They divided it into 11 sections. Why not 12? Well, you see, one of the tribes was to receive nothing. Actually, to quote A. W. Tozer, the 12th tribe received everything.

It was enriched more than any other, because God said to the tribe of Levi, I will be your inheritance. But the practical outworking of this was that the other 11 tribes were responsible for the well-being of the tribe of Levi, which was basically the priesthood of Israel. And so the sacrificial system, the maintenance of the tabernacle, which you remember gives way to the temple, it all comes within the auspices under the control of the responsibility of the tribe of Levi.

But they were buttressed by the givings of the people. Now, when Israel was in a state of revival in Old Testament times, you could always say this of a certainty. People were giving properly to the Lord.

When the temple was in a state of disrepair, when sermons were not preached, when the cultic system had given way to superstition or almost gone completely to zero, that was the occasion when Israel spiritually was so far removed from the Lord. And time and time again, the prophets, who really are the Old Testament equivalent of New Testament preachers, the prophets came along and they analyzed why it was that Israel was in the condition in which they found it, in which it was found to be at that time. Because the preacher's job is analytical, not just analytical.

He doesn't write prescriptions alone, but he wants to cache those prescriptions across the chemist's counter, the chemist's counter of heaven, so that people will take the antidote and correct what is wrong in their society. And so you discover from time to time that the prophets coming along and they pinpoint the weaknesses of Israel, and none more so than the prophet Malachi, of whom you read in the third chapter of the book that bears his name, the last prophecy in the Old Testament, you remember. He accuses Israel of robbing God.

In what way have we robbed you? Well, you haven't brought your tithes into the temple. The temple's in a state of utter disrepair, and the priesthood, they really are working on two cylinders instead of six. There's a great deterioration in the nation, and one of the contributory factors is this, that the blessings God has given to you materially, you have taken yourself and used them wrongly.

And when you take what God gives you and use it wrongly, ultimately you suffer spiritually and also economically. Here's a political comment. I mean this quite seriously.

One of the reasons why I'm not a politician, for at the human level, I would love in some senses to have been in the decision-making process of our country. But one of the reasons why the political arena has had little attraction for me is because I believe that basically what is wrong with our own country is outside the province of the politicians to put right. Any economic problems we have, any social problems that we have, any breakdown in family problems that we have is basically not politically caused, but spiritually caused.

It is a lack of commitment to the Lord. I really do mean this. The way for our nation to prosper economically, the way for it to retain greatness if such is an honorable pursuit in our world today, is by coming back to the God who has prospered the country in years gone by.

That's why I'm a preacher and not a politician, because I believe that right to my toenails. So Malachi analyzes the situation and he says, you have robbed God by mishandling your finances. Prove me now, says Malachi even more daringly, speaking on behalf of God, first person singularly, and see if I will not pour out a blessing the like of which you cannot contain.

I don't believe that Malachi is saying that you can buy God's blessing, because again, if I can go down a tangent for a moment, your tithing is not for the benefit of God, it's for your benefit. Do you understand that? What you give to God does not enrich God. It's all His to start with.

You transfer, if you like, from one hand of God's to another hand of God's. The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. There's not one tract of land in the world that God does not look down upon and say, mine, mine, it belongs to me, the gold is mine, the silver is mine, the cattle of a thousand hills, they are mine.

You don't tithe to enrich God. Your tithing, your handling of finances correctly, enhances your spiritual life. It helps you in your growth.

As you realize, as many people, alas, in the materialistic 20th century world today, fail to comprehend that everything you are, you are because of Him. Therefore, you give back to Him as He has given to you. And as men and women do this in great numbers around the world in every century, in every generation, it is one of the facets that helps to build together a mature Christian community that knows the power of the Spirit of God and is blessed as a result.

Now I can demonstrate this for you historically. I could take you to the Protestant Reformation, but I'll bring you, if you like, to modern times and shake some of you. Do you know which section of the church has contributed more in terms of mission advance these last 80 years than any other? A section of the church that didn't really exist, at least by denominational label, at the turn of the century.

I'm referring to the Pentecostal churches. Wherever you go on the frontiers of the kingdom, you'll find these people committed to the doctrine of the Spirit, shared now with many, many more people in more conservative evangelical circles. What's the hallmark of Pentecostalism? You say, speaking in tongues, you don't understand.

Not a bit. That may be a characteristic, but it's not the hallmark. The hallmark is an incredible generosity, an incredible generosity.

I've been in India, in the backwaters of Calcutta. I've seen what they've done there. I've seen down in Latin America.

Now I'm not just saying, of course, that that section of the church is the only one who understands tithing and giving properly, but I am saying because credit must be given to where accomplishments have been achieved in the service of God. These people rediscovered many, many things and also what it was to give to the Lord and how you couldn't outgive God, for he always gives more by way of return. So there's the Old Testament example with a modern illustration.

The Israelites as they should have been, the church as it ought to be. Let's move to the teaching of Jesus. Do you know that Jesus taught 36 parables, 17 of them had to do with money and the direction of property.

Our Lord Jesus speaks very clearly about how you give. It's not just what you give that's important. What's more important is what's left actually, not what you give, but how.

You remember in that great sermon that's never been bettered and never will, the sermon on the mount Jesus refers to those who come along and unpublicly do their arms, quoting the authorised version. In other words, the trumpeter's sound and along comes this affluent Jew and everybody sees the largesse with which he gives into the temple coffers and Jesus spectates and he says it's not worth, it's not worth a mite, it's not worth a penny because his giving is wrong. He's not giving in proportion to what he has and it's such a show when you give, don't let your left hand know what your right hand is doing.

Jesus then went on to speak, you remember later on in Mark's gospel, a couple also in Matthew's gospel about a widow who gave one mite, just a penny, and Jesus said that her giving was far superior to the largesse that the rich man had donated to the temple. And now I use illustrations which are well known to you but it's good for us to come back to these basic scriptural principles. Do you know what Jesus taught about the two spoons? Jesus said that the blessings that God come your way in one sense are determined by you.

He said, I said two spoons, actually one spoon. He says in Luke's gospel and chapter six and verse 38 that it's with the measure that you meet so it will be measured out to you. In other words, stinginess is returned by stinginess.

That might be the conclusion that one could draw, though I think that God is so incredibly generous that sometimes he breaks his own rule. Those who give largely, those who praise God in the way they handle their finance, they in effect have determined the way that God will bless them. Now you can pervert that scripture into a sort of squalid prosperity gospel but don't evacuate the scripture of what it means.

I know men who have and women who have been blessed incredibly at the financial level simply because God has given them the spoon size and they have never forgotten the size of the spoon in the way that they give back to the Lord. But there are very few people who can handle this in such an area because a great amount of finance more often than not robs people of spiritual power. Let's rush on.

The teaching of our Lord Jesus, he doesn't blush about telling us about tithing. In fact in Matthew 23, 23 he tells us that tithing is something that we ought to do. But what about the practice of the early church? The early church was born in poverty physically.

Did you know that? Church at Jerusalem, so many people converted on the day of Pentecost, so many people unemployed as a result. I'm not making this up. You read it through, read the context, read imaginatively with a sanctified mind as you work through the social implications of what it meant to be a Christian in Jerusalem in the first few years of the Christian story.

And so what did these poor people do? They shared what they had and someone who got a little bit more than anyone else they gave. It was a sort of communist society not necessarily to be imposed upon the church at all times but there are occasions when that sort of practice ought to be worked out. And it was a church in Jerusalem that was constantly in need, not only because of the political and economic pressures that were peculiar in Jerusalem upon the redeemed community, the church, but also because of great pressures that came as a result of famines and so on and so forth.

And it's that that Paul has at the back of his mind, is it not, when he writes the eighth and ninth chapter to the church in Corinth and says, hey you people, God's blessed you through these Jews. Their spiritual riches have been passed on to you through the proclamation of the gospel. Now you have got at least enough and some of you to spare, therefore will you give of your extra so that these people might have sufficient.

And Paul sets down here the basic principles about giving, how to give. He tells us that we are to give positively and by that he means in the fifth verse in the eighth chapter with a whole heart. They did not do as we expected but they gave themselves.

You never give properly unless you have the fullness of the spirit, did you know that? They gave of themselves. They were prepared to offer themselves in the service of one another. You see, God doesn't ask for the fag ends of your time, the fag end of your checkbook.

He's in for larger measure than this. He wants you, you as a person, just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come. Do you remember you sang it some of you 20 years ago, 30 years ago? That's the beginning of giving and the retention of the right attitude is a realization that always God is asking you for yourself first, not your checkbook.

You, wholehearted commitment to the Lord and then they gave not only wholeheartedly but they gave systematically. They gave not out of duty but out of delight. They gave out of love.

When did you last buy your wife a bunch of flowers? I don't want to embarrass anyone by asking them to get up and say, oh what is the equivalent of a bunch of flowers? I mean perhaps she prefers a sticky bum or something, I don't know. When did you last tangibly show that you loved your partner or your close friend? Yesterday? Well, congratulations. How wonderful to think that we're all so very, but why? I mean what's the point of my illustration? Simply this, why do we show our love to one another? Because we have to know, because we want to.

It's part of the wonder of human relationships being able to surprise someone, not so and don't you understand that that's part of our giving to God? Not because we have to, Old Testament maybe, but not New Testament, we give because we want to. Lord you love me, you gave yourself for me, here is my life, I hand it on a plate to you. Once you can hand your life, it's easy enough to hand all that goes with it within the decrees of God, so we give positively.

And Paul puts up some negatives, he says he doesn't want us to give reluctantly. Each man should give what he has decided, verse 7 of the next chapter, chapter 9. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion. He who gives only when he has to has waited too long, says one old Puritan preacher.

Did you hear that? If you give when you have to, you've waited too long, not reluctantly, not under compulsion, squeezing it out. You've got to get some dynamic preacher in to get as much money as you possibly can out of this congregation. I'll tell you something, that sort of giving stinks in the nostrils of God.

I really do mean that, I really do, I don't apologize for my language, I use it to shock you. We give not because of the preacher, we give because he gave. Without him, you would never be, you are not anything at all.

But in him, you live, you move, you have your being. And every time you take some money and you give it to the Lord, you're saying, Lord, that money symbolizes what you have given me. You gave me an education, you gave me a free country in which I could study, you gave me good parents, you gave me a good wife, you gave me good friends, you gave me health and strength.

Lord, all this symbolizes my reaction to what you have done for me. That's how you give, that's how you handle your finance. Don't do me the injustice of thinking I'm trying to soup up the finances of Worthington, I couldn't care two hoots, quite frankly, about Worthing Tabernacle finances as an individual just looking on.

What I am concerned is about the spiritual well-being of people in Worthing Tabernacle. Our God can keep this place going on for eons to be without your help. He has the reserves, he has the ability, he can warm the heart of Ahasuerus so that the temple gets built in Jerusalem, you remember? He can warm the heart of Cyrus so that Cyrus gives to the Jewish people.

God is not impoverished by our reluctance to give, but we are impoverished by our reluctance to build into our lives these basic principles as to how we look upon our car, our home, our material possessions. You think that they belong to you and you've blown it. There is nothing that belongs to you.

If you're a Christian, it all belongs to him. And he places it within your stewardship and he says, my servant, my child, with the intellect, the intelligence that I've given you, you work through your lifestyle and when you should give and how you should give and realise that one day you'll stand before me as to how you handled what I entrusted you with. Praise God, my friend.

Praise him with your finance. Praise him with your home. Praise him with your heart.

Praise him with your intellect. Praise him in your relationships. Let all that is within me praise the Lord.

But don't just hear the preachers telling you, do it. Amen. The last hymn John Wesley sung before he went to be with the Lord was not one of his brothers.

It was one of Isaac Watts. Let's sing it. Number 52.

I'll praise my maker while I breath and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers. 52. While I breath and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers.

While I breath and when my voice is lost in death, praise shall employ my nobler powers. 52. Stewardship is not leaving a tip on God's tablecloth.

It is the confession of an unpayable debt at God's calvary. When a man dies, he clutches in his hand only that which he gave away in his lifetime. Teach us how to handle all that you give and may what you give not be a stumbling block to us, but be a means that we can use in the extension of your kingdom.

Bless this dear congregation. Help us all to get right the teaching on worship in our lives and as we assemble together as a company. Amen.

Good morning. God bless you. 52.