「神の御心にそった献金の献げ方」 十月第三主日礼拝 宣教 2024年10月20日
コリントの信徒への手紙二 (2 Corinthians) 8章1〜15節 牧師 河野信一郎
Good morning. I thank the Lord God for the blessing of being able to offer praise and worship together with you this morning. Since last week, it has been the season of Kinmokusai, my favorite osmanthus. Yet, yesterday was the latest day of midsummer in the Kanto area, and many of the small flowers of the kinmokurinoki tree, which I purchased in early spring, fell off. The kinmokusei tree at our church is still young, so its sweet smell is not so strong, but I believe that as it grows year by year, it will become a delight to church-goers. As we, Okubo Church, grow and mature through the Word of the Lord, we hope to become a church that gives comfort, joy, and hope to the people of the community by exuding the fragrance of Christ Jesus. To this end, worship, prayer, and fellowship are essential for us.
When I went for a walk last Monday, I found a young “gardenia flower” tree for sale at my favorite flower shop for the bargain price of 300 yen, so I bought it. Next June, it will have many white flowers and a sweet fragrance different from that of the golden osmanthus, but as they say, sweet fragrance can be dangerous, and we have to be very careful because butterflies lay their eggs on the trees without our knowledge, and the larvae eat up the young leaves with great vigor. It is not the butterfly’s fault. The butterflies know that the leaves are nutritious and delicious.
The problem here is that if we relax even a little, Satan will immediately approach us and lay many eggs of sin in an attempt to separate us from God. And if we let it go, we will forget God’s love and grace, remember our selfish lives, sin, and fall apart spiritually. Therefore, let us care for each other, pray for each other, and walk together loving each other so that the church will be protected, grow, and create a sweet fragrance that is pleasing to God and people.
In last week’s message, we learned from James 5 in the New Testament about the wrong way to manage and handle the wealth and property that God has given us and entrusted to us, and from Proverbs in the Old Testament about the right way to manage and use wealth and property. The right way to use wealth and property means to use it in accordance with God’s will, or to use it in a way that suits God’s will. If you missed last week’s message, you can find it on the church website.
This morning, we would like to hear from 2 Corinthians 8 about the “offering,” the giving back to God of a portion of the wealth and property that God has given and entrusted to us. Some of you may hear the word “offering” and regret coming to this morning’s service, or you may think, “Oh no, Christian churches are forced to offer money just like new religious organizations”. I would like to talk plainly about the fact that the offering of the Christian church is of a completely different dimension from the offering demanded by the nascent religious organizations.
I am going to get sidetracked from the beginning, but I would like to share about a young man and his mother that I met last month at J Church. His name is Y, and on the day I met him, he had graduated from a prestigious private university and was attending a service for youth after his graduation ceremony. His mother, a Korean Christian, loved her son next to God and Jesus and worked hard every day to save money for his future education, even though she was poor. One day, the church that this mother and son attended decided to build a new chapel. The mother was troubled. Should she give the money she had been saving for her beloved son’s college tuition to God or leave it in her savings? She prayed to God and trusting in the Lord, she gave everything she had saved all these years to God.
What happened to this parent and her son after that? Her son had never paid a single tuition fee from junior high school until he graduated from college. Needless to say, he was brilliant, but he also received a scholarship for four years at a prestigious private university in Tokyo, and graduated at the top of his class without ever having to pay a single tuition fee. Isn’t that amazing? God is faithful. When we trust in Him and entrust everything to Him, He will meet all our needs with love and truth. God blesses us. Even before we trusted God, He loved us, continued to give us His love, and showed us His truth/faithfulness through Jesus Christ. All we need to do is to trust only in the God of truth.
Some of you may be thinking, “It can’t be that good”. If you think so, why don’t you try God? Why don’t you trust God just once, pray, pray, pray, and offer your sincere thanksgiving to God in the form of an offering, and give it all to Him? Just 10% of your income would be fine. Why don’t you give it to God for a year? It is not the people around you who will bless you. The Lord God will bless you and bless those around you abundantly.
The monthly bulletin was published this morning. I am sure you have been reading our monthly bulletin, which we edit and publish as carefully as possible, and in it you will find the monthly financial and offering reports. We are halfway through the current fiscal year, and there is one item that is less than 50% of the annual budget. That is the thanksgiving offering. We are also just shy of our monthly giving. However, there are several items that have already exceeded 65% to 80%. Is there an imbalance in our thoughts and prayers to God? There may be some church members who think that attending worship services is enough and that they don’t need to give any money, but the Lord God always looks at our hearts as His worshippers, not the amount of money we give.
One person once asked me, “How much should I give in monthly and tithing offerings?” I always tell them, “Please pray to God yourself and give what God shows you with faith from your income”. If each person gives 10,000 yen per month, that is 120,000 yen per year. If you divide the annual budget of 4 million yen by 120,000 yen, you can see how many church members like yourself are needed. By the way, the current number of church members is 25. At 10,000 yen per person, we would need 34 members.
The offering is an offering of thanksgiving to God. Offerings 1) support the work of the church; 2) express my trust in God; 3) create a margin in my life so I can experience God meeting my needs; 4) remind me that God is the source of all blessings; 5) are used to build His Kingdom in the land; 6) are used for the purpose of building His kingdom; 7) money is converted into the seed of the Word and sown in people’s hearts; 8) my greed and pride are crushed; 9) I testify to all that God is first in my life
Offering is not an act of showing our generosity or faithfulness to those around us, nor is it meant to make us feel superior because our names are listed in all the offering items in the monthly bulletin. Offering is an expression of our obedience to God.
This morning, we will hear God’s will from chapter 8 of the second letter to the Corinthians, and to give you a brief background of this passage, the apostle Paul called for an emergency offering to support the brothers and sisters of the Jerusalem church who were in need due to the famine in the region. The passage informs the churches in Corinth that the Macedonian churches have taken the initiative to offer their offerings in faith as an offering to God, and gives a challenge of faith to the churches in Corinth.
Verse 1 thru 5 says,” We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, 2 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. 3 For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord,4 begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints— 5 and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”
What is an offering? What is it for? As verse 5 says, offering is 1) putting God first and offering oneself to God according to His will. As verse 3 says, offering is 2) something we do voluntarily, not something someone forces us to do. Also, as verse 2 says, an offering is 3) to give generously. Jumping up a bit, in verse 8, offering is 4) a barometer of the purity of our love for God. Also, skipping a bit, in verse 12, it is 5) a sincere offering according to what we have, not according to what we don’t have. Finally, as in verse 13, giving is to be used 6) as a force that balances the rich and the poor and together serves the Lord, and verse 14 says, “your abundance at the present time should supply their need, so that their abundance may supply your need, that there may be fairness.”
In verse 7, the Apostle Paul gives us the challenge of faith, “But as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you—see that you excel in this act of grace also.” The way to accept this challenge and give victory to this challenge is to look to Jesus alone. It is important to rejoice and be thankful that we have received the truth and grace from God through this Jesus.
What are the blessings we receive from God? It is described in verse 9.” For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”
We offer our offerings because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, offered His life to God on the cross to save those like me, gave His life to us, and made us children of God. He has given us the promise of eternal life. This is the greatest love and grace of all. Let us be people who live in response to this grace.