TITLE: They Gave Themselves
TEXT: 2 Corinthians 8:1-5
TOPICS: Total Consecration, Love Gives
INTRODUCTION
Illus: Thrifty Car Rental sponsors an annual Honeymoon Disasters Contest (www.honeymoondisasters.com), and they have received stories on everything from mudslides to Montezuma’s revenge.
For example, on their way to Nevada, Paul and Leah Lusk of Sugar City, Idaho, flipped their car into floodwaters. When they emerged, Paul, who had hit his head, couldn’t remember the accident, recognize his bride, or recall he’d just been married.
Then there is the story of Chris and Doug of Clovis, California, who honeymooned in Cancun, Mexico. They lounged by the pool, ate terrific seafood buffets, and went dancing. Back at the hotel, six-foot-three, 255-pound Doug playfully threw his bride on the bed. He fell and landed on her, braking two bones in her right leg. Three hours, one plate, and eight screws later, Chris was left with an $11,000 hospital bill that insurance wouldn’t cover.
Mae and Kyle of Richmond, Virginia, who were finalists in Thrifty’s contest last year, were forced to listen to the comedian on their cruise ship joke about the Titanic movie. Then the couple awoke to the horrible sound of crunching metal and the captain’s order to abandon ship. Their lifeboat made it to shore in St. Maarten, where the cruise line put them up at a nudist colony.
Citation: Susanne Hiller, "Honeymoons from Hell Revisited," National Post; (1-13-03); submitted by Kevin DeRaaf, Burlington, Ontario
This past Friday, many of you celebrated Valentine’s Day by sending cards and candy to someone you love and appreciate.
Legend has it that Valentine was a priest who served during third century Rome. There was an Emperor at that time by the name of Claudius II. Emperor Claudius decided that single men made better soldiers than those who were married, so he outlawed marriage for young men in hopes of building a stronger military. Valentine decided this decree wasn’t fair and chose to marry young couples secretly. When Emperor Claudius found out about Valentine’s actions he had him put to death.
Another legend has it that Valentine was an imprisoned man who fell in love with his jailor’s daughter. Before he was put to death he sent the first ’valentine’ himself when he wrote her a letter and signed it ’Your Valentine’, words still used on cards today.
Perhaps we’ll never know the true identity and story behind the man named St. Valentine, but this much is sure...Valentine’s Day ranks second only to Christmas in the number of greeting cards sent.
I find it interesting that the two biggest greeting card holidays are also both known for loving and giving.
I. Giving has always been an expression of loving.
The writer of Exodus informs readers that the Tabernacle was constructed from materials contributed by the sons of Israel who had just been released from Egyptian bondage. (See Exodus 25:2.) These gifts were to be given by "everyone whose heart stirred" them to give. (See Ex. 35:21.) The giving of the people was so liberal and abundant that Moses was forced to restrain the people from bringing more—"For the material they had was sufficient and more than enough for all the work, to perform it". (See Ex. 36:6,7.)
Perhaps their liberality was motivated by gratitude. Maybe it was an expression of thankfulness for freedom from the tyranny and pain they had experienced under Egyptian bondage.
Conceivably, their liberality may have been a tithe of the abundant wealth they had received upon leaving with Egypt’s spoils. Everyone gave a portion of what they had plenty of.
On the other hand, their liberality may have been motivated by a loving response to being loved by God.
Whatever the reason, their gifts were "more than enough for all the work" (Ex. 36:7).
If the gift given reflects the value we place on the recipient, then these people were saying that God was extremely valuable to them. They, like Moses, were declaring that He meant more to them than the treasures of Egypt.
It’s amazing how things can change over the years. This same nation, although a different generation, is addressed by Malachi the prophet. In 1:6, he wrote to them saying…
"A son honors his father, and a servant his master. Then if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is My respect? says the Lord of hosts to you, O priests who despise My name.
But you say, ’How have we despised Your name?’
"…when you present the blind for sacrifice, is it not evil? And when you present the lame and sick, is it not evil? Why not offer it to your governor? Would he be pleased with you? Or would he receive you kindly?" says the Lord of hosts.
"You say, ’How tiresome it is!’ And you disdainfully sniff at it," says the Lord of hosts, "and you bring what was taken by robbery, and what is lame or sick; so you bring the offering! Should I receive that from your hand?" says the Lord.
"But cursed be the swindler who has a male in his flock, and vows it, but sacrifices a blemished animal to the Lord, for I am a great King," says the Lord of hosts, "and My name is revered among the Gentiles."
If the value of the gift given is an expression of how we value the recipient of our gift, then these people were saying that God wasn’t very valuable to them.
If the giver’s gift declares how they value the recipient, then what was the woman in Luke 7:37-38 saying about Jesus?
SONG: Alabaster Box (Play track when I begin reading text...singer and dancer on que.)
And behold, there was a woman in the city who was a sinner [an immoral woman]; and when she learned that Jesus was reclining in the Pharisee’s house, she brought an alabaster vial of perfume, and standing behind Him at His feet, weeping, she began to wet His feet with her tears, and kept wiping them with the hair of her head, and kissing His feet, and anointing them with the perfume. (Luke 7:37-38)
What did Jesus understand her to be saying?
Some, including Judas, viewed her action as wasteful—"…this perfume might have been sold for over 300 denarii [about a year’s wages], and the money given to the poor" (Mark 14:4-5).
Jesus interpreted her action as an act of love (Luke 7:47). In Matthew 26:12, He indicates that she understood the price He would pay for her forgiveness—"…when she poured this perfume upon My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial."
If the gift given indicates the value the giver places on the recipient, then this woman valued Jesus above her most costly possessions.
TRANS: I can understand this woman’s actions. What she received far outweighed what she gave, even though she gave her best, her most valuable possession.
II. God expressed His love for us by giving sacrificially.
Picture Charles and Susan walking down a beach hand in hand at the end of the academic year. The pressure of the semester has dissipated in the warm evening breeze. They have kicked off their sandals, and the wet sand squishes between their toes. Charles turns to Susan, gazes deeply into her large, hazel eyes, and says, "Susan, I love you. I really do."
What does he mean?
Assuming he is a man of decency and Christian virtue, the least he means is something like this: "Susan, you mean everything to me. I can’t live without you. Your smile poleaxes me from 50 yards. Your sparkling good humor, your beautiful eyes, the scent of your hair—everything about you transfixes me. I love you!"
What he most certainly does not mean is something like this: "Susan, quite frankly you have such a bad case of halitosis it would embarrass a herd of unwashed, garlic-eating elephants. Your nose is so bulbous you belong in the cartoons. Your hair is so greasy it could lubricate an eighteen-wheeler. Your knees are so disjointed you make a camel look elegant. Your personality makes Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan look like wimps. But I love you anyway!"
So now God comes to us and says, "I love you." What does He mean?
Does He mean something like this? "You mean everything to me. I am incomplete without you. Your personality, your perfections, your amazing wisdom, your inner beauty, your holiness, your inherent righteousness, your smile—everything about you transfixes me. Heaven would be boring without you. I love you!" That, after all, is pretty close to what some therapeutic approaches to the love of God spell out. We must be pretty wonderful because God loves us. And dear old God is pretty vulnerable, finding himself in a dreadful state unless we say yes….
More accurately, when God says he loves us, the meaning is probably more like the following? "Morally speaking, you have halitosis—your throat is an open grave and when you open your mouth you pollute the air, you don’t so much as give me the time of day, the only time you come to me is when you need something, you’ve been unfaithful with many lovers and you have an abominable personality. Your sins have made you disgustingly ugly. I love you! Not, I love you anyway, but a straight I love you, not because you can bring me pleasure, but because I value you highly and I know what I can make of you."
Citation: D. A. Carson, The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (Crossway), pp. 61-63; used with permission of Crossway Books, a division of Good News Publishing, Wheaton, IL 60187, www.crossway.com
Paul declared, "…perhaps there are those who would dare to die for a good man. But God demonstrated and continues to declare His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Ro. 5:7,8).
Christ’s death was not the price paid to obtain a great prize, but the price paid to redeem and restore fallen, broken humanity.
When Paul went to Corinth, the moral cesspool of his day, he said "I determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1Cor. 2:2). Why? Because Paul knew that "the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? …neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1Cor. 6:9, 10). According to Paul, this was an apt description of Corinthian society—"And such were some of you…" (1Cor. 6:11). Paul understood that apart from the message of the cross, humanity has no hope. He also knew that the cross was God’s answer to man’s helpless hopeless condition—"And such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in the Spirit of our God" (1Cor. 6:11).
God didn’t send a Valentine card to a beautiful, nice smelling, well-kept blue-eyed blond. No, He sent His son to die for a smelly, filthy, greasy, muddy, unfaithful, indifferent, knobby-kneed, cauliflower-eared woman with hairy legs, a full beard and in debt up to her kazoo. He loved a Gomer who slept with anyone and everyone and didn’t know the meaning of fidelity or personal hygiene.
And what Gift did He give? Was it a galaxy? Was it a troop of cherubim?
No, John tells us…
John 3:16, 17 – "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him."
The Son loved us so much that He gave Himself for us.
Paul wrote to the Galatians…
"Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might deliver us out of this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forevermore" (Gal. 1:3-5).
In his letter to Titus, he declared…
"[Christ Jesus] gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people…" (Titus 2:14).
III. We express our love for God by giving.
Paul exhorted the believers at Rome to "present" or "give" their "bodies a living sacrifice…unto God" as an act of "worship." (See Romans 12:1.)
Paul reported to the Corinthians that the churches of Macedonia were "…in a great ordeal of affliction," but, "their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality". Paul goes on to explain this in verses 3 and 4—"For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints, and this, not as we had expected…."
Paul didn’t have to ask them to help. Without being asked and to Paul’s surprise, they begged him for the privilege of being able to participate in supporting other believers. Their act of sacrificial liberality was motivated by agapao—love.
Jesus said, "If you’ve done it unto the least of these you’ve done it unto me" (Mt. 25:40).
The Macedonian believers were expressing their love for and to God by helping those loved by God.
Giving things, as good as it is, does not compare with giving ourselves. The greatest gift you gave this past Christmas wasn’t the remote control DVD player and 52" big screen TV. The most valuable gift you gave this past Friday wasn’t the diamond ring she now wears.
You were so broke on your wedding day that you couldn’t give her all you believe she deserved, but she didn’t complain. Why? Because she believed you were giving her you!
Paul, says that before these Macedonians gave their goods to the Lord, they gave Him something much more valuable—"they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God" (2Cor. 8:2-5).
ILLUS: Chuck Colson tells the following story of visiting Mississippi’s Parchman Prison:
Most of the death row inmates were in their bunks wrapped in blankets, staring blankly at little black-and-white TV screens, killing time. But in one cell a man was sitting on his bunk, reading. As I approached, he looked up and showed me his book—an instruction manual on Episcopal liturgy.
John Irving, on death row for more than 15 years, was studying for the priesthood. John told me he was allowed out of his cell one hour each day. The rest of the time, he studies.
Seeing that John had nothing in his cell but a few books, I thought, God’s blessed me so much, the least I can do is provide something for this brother. "Would you like a TV if I could arrange it?" I asked.
John smiled gratefully. "Thanks," he said, "but no thanks. You can waste an awful lot of time with those things." For the 15 years since a judge placed a number on his days, John has determined not to waste the one commodity he had to give to the Lord—his time.
Citation: Charles Colson, A Dangerous Grace (Word, 1994)
How foolish we are to believe that giving things to the work of God can take the place of giving ourselves to the Lord.
The Macedonians gave what cannot be purchased, not even by the blood of Jesus. Oh, you may be able to buy a person’s body and make them your physical slave, but you can’t buy who they are. What they gave first, themselves, was the most valuable gift they could have given.
CONCLUSION
Although your tithes bless the work of God, please remember that heaven’s streets are paved with gold.
Your singing, when it is the expression of your heart, blesses God, but heaven is full of singing angels.
The one thing that God wants more than anything else is…U!
What God really wants is U!
ILLUS: Michael, a nine-year-old boy, lived in a rural area of Tennessee. Tim, the bus pastor of a local church, knocked on Mike’s door one Saturday afternoon. Mike answered the door and when asked if his parents were home, the small boy informed Tim that his parents were away for the weekend and had left him at home to take care of his little brother. The bus pastor was so shocked by the answer that he asked Tim to repeat it. "Mom and dad go off some weekends," Mike replied, "and they leave me here to take care of the house and my little brother, but I don’t think they’d mind if you wanted to come in."
Tim walked into the living room and sat down on an old couch between exposed springs and bits of foam rubber.
"Mike," Tim began, "Where do you go to church?"
"Church," Mike responded, "I’ve never…I’ve never been to church anywhere."
Tim, still reeling from shock asked, "Our church is only three miles from your house. Are you sure you’ve never been there for a visit? Not even once?"
"I sure haven’t", came Mike’s answer.
"Well," Tim asked, "more important than going to church, have you every heard the story about Jesus and how he died for our sins?"
"No, sir, I sure haven’t" said Mike.
Tim spent an hour or so telling Mike the gospel story. The Spirit of God tenderized and touched Mike’s young heart. "I’d like to know this Jesus," Mike requested. The boy and the bus pastor got on their knees, Mike asked God to forgive him and invited Jesus into his heart. Both the boy and the bus pastor were crying when they got up.
Tim was drying his eyes as he asked, "Mike, would you like to attend church with me tomorrow?"
"You bet," replied the nine-year-old.
Mike and his little brother were waiting on the porch when the bus pastor stopped in front of his house. They got on the bus and three miles and thirty-minutes later they were standing in church for the very first time.
Mike was amazed at the music, but didn’t know what to expect next. When the pastor told everyone they were going to be given an opportunity to give their offering to Jesus, Mike was embarrassed. These people were going to give money to Jesus and he didn’t have any. As he frantically searched his pockets, first the front one and then the back ones, the offering plate was being passed down the pew where he was sitting. When it got to where he was, he just grabbed it and held on. When he let go, he watched with tearful eyes as it moved to the end of the pew and into the hands of the tall usher. His eyes were glued on the plate as it passed back and forth, back and forth all the way to the rear of the sanctuary.
If you had been watching, you would have known the moment the idea hit him. This little broken hearted nine-year-old boy, in front of God and everyone in attendance got up out of his seat. He walked to the back of the church, grabbed the usher by the coat and asked to hold the plate one more time. Some who had been watching him thought, surely, he’s trying to steal money from the offering plate. To their surprise, Mike did the most astonishing thing. He took the plate, placed it on the carpeted church floor, lifted his head up and whispered, "Jesus, I don’t have anything to give you today, except for me. I give you me!", and with that he stepped into the money filled offering plate.
COMPLETE
Andrew Ulugia © 2001 Parachute Music
Here I am Oh God, I bring this sacrifice.
My open heart, I offer up my life.
I look to you Lord.
Your love that never ends, restores me again.
So I lift my eyes to you Lord
In Your strength will I break through Lord
Touch me now, let Your love fall down on me.
I know your love dispels all my fears
Through the storm I will hold on Lord
And by faith I will walk on Lord
Then I’ll see beyond my Calvary one day
And I will be complete in You.
Continue with Worship!!
