He gave, so we give.

We are starting a four-part series for Advent called GIVE (The word is a clever acronym for generous, intentional, volitional, and enthusiastic).  This series is not titled TITHE or DOUBLE HONOR or INDULGENCE because this is not a series designed to make up a budget deficit or launch a new building campaign. This is a series for disciples of Jesus to consider how, what, and why you give in response to a God who gave.   Good giving is not produced by “good” guilt or good goals, but from good theology.  Giving is always a response TO who God is and what He has done, not an effort to obtain a response from Him.  John Piper says it best:

“If we are refugees and exiles on earth (1Peter 2.11), and if our citizenship is in heaven (Philippians 3.20), and if nothing can separate us from the love of Christ (Romans 8.35), and if his steadfast love is better than life (Psalm 63.3), and if all hardship is working for us an eternal weight of glory (2Cor 4.17)…

Then we will give to the winds our fears and “seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6.33). We will count everything as rubbish in comparison with Christ (Philippians 3.7-8). We will ‘joyfully accept the plundering of our property; for the sake of unpopular acts of mercy (Hebrews 10.34). We will choose “rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin,” and we will count “the reproach of Christ great wealth than the treasures of Egypt.”