God’s key note!

To the early church fathers unity seems like a big deal:

And do ye, each and all, form yourselves into a chorus, that being harmonious in concord and taking the key note of God ye may in unison sing with one voice through Jesus Christ unto the Father, that He may both hear you and acknowledge you by your good deeds to be members of His Son. It is therefore profitable for you to be in blameless unity, that ye may also be partakers of God always.

 Ignatius to the Ephesian Church (4:2)

Giving alms

Giving to the poor is an essential part of Christian morality. I do not believe one can settle how much we can give. I'm afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare. In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, and amusement, is up to the standard common of those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little... For many of us the great obstacle to charity (christian love) lies not in our own luxurious living or desire for more money, but in our fear - fear of insecurity. This must often be recognised as a temptation.

C S Lewis (Mere Christianity)

The motivation for giving?

It was great to have Andrew Shearman with us at MKCC. He has been a great friend and influence to our church and leadership over many many years. He continues to lead G42 Leadership Academy in Spain inspiring many young people into the great mission of Jesus. Here are a few quotes from his message today: We're given to generosity.

• If we are going to put our head up into the arena of influence we better look like Jesus.
• Giving is not how the church raises its budget it is how God raises his children.
• Lovers are the best givers, God is love, so he is the ultimate giver.
• Tithing and giving did not come out of obligation or command but out of love and thankfulness.
• Jacob the natural grabber, after an almighty wrestle with God, became a giver.
• The deepest truth in the Bible is: Jesus loves me this I know.
• It is possible to give without loving, but it is NOT possible to love without giving

Afterwards the great people of Milton Keynes Christian Centre made their pledges to give to the vision of our church over the next year through All In.

Fooling myself and others BUT not Jesus

Sometimes you sit in a church service and go through the motions. Sunday was one of those times for me. We sang and welcomed and watched church news. Anyway I was preaching so I was running through things in my head. What was I going to say? How was I going to say it?

So I had breezed through the service looking like I was engaging but in my heart anything but. Not in rebellion but in preoccupation.

Now it was time for the offering and Mark read a passage that I must have heard a 1000 times in the lead up to an offering:

And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, "Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on." - Mark 12 v 41-44

Still in automatic mode...

Then bam!

Of the poor widow who gave 2 small coins Mark said, "It's amazing how quick Jesus spots true worship and we don't."

To all around during the last 30 minutes I looked like I was engaged, I looked like I was offering "worship". But Jesus knew different. Perspective changed!

Like the people playing out their "worship" in front of Jesus we can get so blindsided by the outward appearance while Jesus always is captivated by the motivation of the heart.

Giving at Rock Bottom

We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favour of taking part in the relief of the saints— and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us. - 2 Cor 8:1-5

As a way to encourage the believers in Corinth to be generous Paul starts to brag on their neighbouring churches in the province of Macedonia. Churches he planted on his second big missionary journey: Philippi, Thessalonica and Berea. The Macedonian communities of faith assisting people they do not know in churches they had never been too located in their natural enemy state of Greece. Maybe today akin would be Palestinian believers giving money to help Israeli believer.

But what makes this all the more remarkable is that this giving is done out of "extreme poverty". The phrase is literally "down-to-the-depth poverty" (he kata bathous ptocheia; v. 2)--or, as Philip Hughes translates, "rock bottom" poverty.

I have never been "rock bottom" and often I am anything but generous. And I cannot remember ever "begging" for permission to give but that is where these churches were at.

They didn't need the money to buy a new new PA, a new building, a new coffee machine, the latest worship CD, they needed the money to exist but they gave and gave and gave.

The key is found in v 5 - they gave themselves first to the Lord. 

When we get that right everything else fits into place.