08/08/18 - 2Cor 8

Aug 08, 2018

Since you excel in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in love - see that you also excel in this grace of giving. 2Cor 8:7  

Giving to God is a privilege & grace - to save souls and break the power of sin in us.

Everybody wants to excel at something.  Musicians want to excel at playing or singing.  Athletes want to excel at their sport.  Entrepreneurs want to excel at their businesses.  Politicians want to excel at their governance.  Preachers want to excel at their teaching.  Moms & dads want to excel at their parenting.

Even in a church, we want to excel at something.  But the ONE thing people prefer NOT to excel at is giving.  That doesn’t mean we don’t have generous people in churches or in the world.  There are MANY GENEROUS Givers!!!  In fact, I’m blown away by the depth and commitment of the smaller percentage of people who give to the Kingdom work so faithfully.  It’s simply amazing what 20% of the Kingdom gives to support the other 80% (on average).

But here’s the thing --- who have you ever heard say they want to EXCEL at giving?  I know people who want to improve their giving, or give more, but who is committed to figuring out how to EXCEL at it?

So based on this Scripture, I wrote down some personal convictions about what excelling at giving might look like.

1.       Certainly it means giving God my first-fruits of anything I receive.  That includes gross salary, bonuses, gifts, etc.  If I want to Excel, then honoring him first in my giving is the starting point.

2.       It also means percentage giving, figuring out the percent of my income that qualifies as an excellent gift.  Abraham & the Scriptures look at 10% as the standard to shoot for, but excellent giving is about what God expects from me (maybe less at the moment, maybe more during this season of life).

3.       Excelling in giving would also challenge me to examine how I spend my income in the other areas of my life.  If I wanted to excel at it, then other areas would be minimized or even eliminated.  I would look at how I spend God’s resources, and try to find ways to bless missions & ministries that would generate a better return.

4.       Excelling also would challenge me in other areas of giving – like giving of my time, giving of my wisdom, investing of my character into the next generation. 

5.       To pursue excellence always requires sacrifice, but also generates the pleasure of knowing we fulfilled our goal.  So excelling at giving would also be goal-driven.  We would want a way to know we accomplished our intent, both to hold ourselves accountable and to know our gifts succeeded.  It would raise the bar significantly on wanting to know what people are doing with our gifts (not to the point of control, but to verify our giving was effective).

You might have a much bigger list than that, but the point is that excelling at giving takes thought, planning, and effort.  The reward is a partnership with God that far exceeds what much of the world looks for, and even the possibility of God routing MUCH MORE RESOURCES through us.  Who knows what God might do with us --- so choose to EXCEL in this gift of giving!