Christian Life:

Giving

A Vicar stood up before his congregation and said " I have Good news and bad news. The good news is that we have enough money to fix the roof. The bad news is that it is still in your wallets."

Giving (whatever it is) can be hard. It is one of those spiritual disciplines that is right but Christians find it hard.

2 questions:

Is it necessary?
Have I anything to offer?

Yes. Jesus said “freely give as you have received”. Can I offer anything? Yes. Its exciting! God loves you as an individual. He has a purpose for you within his Church. He is waiting for you, to not just put money in the collection box, not just give some allocated hours each week, but to put yourself into his hands so that he can take you and use you in a unique way to build the Church of God.

So what’s the secret of successful giving? To help us unpack these ideas we will look at a group of Israelites gave themselves wholly to God, and as such achieved something amazing. They rebuilt God’s temple from scratch!

Story in context:

God’s people rebelled so violently and consistently against his rule that finally after many warnings, God allowed them to be taken into captivity. The Babylonians were fierce and ruthless. The place was destroyed and the temple was ruined. Took most back as prisoners of war to work in Babylon. But he didn't forget them and after many years he called some of them back to rebuild the temple which had been destroyed in the raid. They responded, not just in sending money, or saying they’d give some time to prayer, but they gave themselves. They made the arduous journey back. The temple was built in 2 phases altar and foundations, then, after an 18 year gap - the rest.

Phase 1 of the work (up to building the foundations). (Story is in Ezra cpt 3)

Why give themselves to building the temple rather than roads, hospitals, etc?

In contrast to the pagan nations round about it was where God’s name was honoured.
It let others know about God.

We are called to give ourselves wholly to God so he can use us in building the Church for the same 2 reasons.

God is looking for people who will stand up and say “I’m for Jesus”. I will give myself wholly to him. It costs. But love so amazing so divine demands my soul my life my all.

Note 3 things about these people who gave themselves:

1. Vision: They believed in what they were doing. A belief in what you are doing /shared vision is vital. Perhaps you haven’t got the vision. It all sounds too much like hard work. You need to get to know God. Then when you experience his forgiveness and power, and how much he has given to save us it becomes natural to want to give your life to working to build the Church for his glory and to introduce others to him.

2. Commitment: Temple wasn’t built in an hour or a day or a week. Even 1st phase took months. The people stuck at the work. They had given themselves to it and they were determined to see it through. It took self discipline and commitment are essential in anything that is worthwhile. It’s alright having the vision for something, but without commitment and self discipline we may as well not even start. There’s no point committing yourself to pray for someone if you give up after the first few days. No point having the vision for reaching young people in the area if you aren’t prepared to give yourself to the work long term.

God is looking for people who not only have the vision to give themselves to God so he can use us in building his church, but also the commitment to see things through.

3. Right Priorities: The people didn’t wait till everything was perfect until they started to use the temple for worship. In fact as soon as the alter had been built, then again when the foundations were laid they held praise meetings to glorify God. Must have looked strange – worship meetings on a muddy building site! The God of their work was more important than perfect temple and everything their work for God. Worship was their no. 1 priority. So they didn’t need a orderly and just right before they could get on with glorifying God. They got stuck in wherever they were and whatever stage they were at.

Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that a Church has to be just as you think it should be before it can use your gifts and do you any good. We live in a ‘throw away society. It happens with Churches too. People see faults in their church and too easily move from one to the other to get what they want. In the end they don’t end up building anyone up. Unless God is telling you to move, stay here, not sitting on the sidelines till everything’s perfect. But get involved. Use your gifts.

Answer these questions in an attitude of prayer:

Do I really understand what God has done for me, or does giving myself to building up the Church seem like a lot of hard work for nothing?
What is God calling me to start doing?
Am I dissatisfied with this Church? Am I willing to give myself to working here?

John Coombes

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