Yesterday I spoke about the reasons we take up an offering on Sunday morning. I am not going to repeat the whole sermon on here, you can listen to it on the church website (adriancc.org). I did, however, want to give the final part of my sermon. I think it can be helpful to anyone considering giving.

The passage for the day was 1 Corinthians 16:1-2 “Now about the collection for God’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. [2] On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with his income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.”

From this verse I gave a simple plan for giving:

1. Give Regularly – “On the first day of every week”

Have a regular time to evaluate all of your finances. Make sure you include giving in your plan.

2. Give Personally – “Each one of you”

Giving is for every individual.

3. Give Systematically – “Set aside a sum of money”

Include giving in your budget. It is one thing to say you need to give $40 and another thing to write out a check long before you arrive at Church. You should have a plan for giving that includes, when, how much and how.

4. Give Proportionately – “in keeping with his income”

In the Old Testament, the standard was a tithe or one-tenth. We are not under the law, but it does give us a general idea about how much we should give. My encouragement is to simply “grow one.” Give a dollar more. Give 1% more. Stretch yourself and see how generous you can be.

Talking about giving is an ugly subject. I worry about how non-Christians heard my sermon on the topic. The hard truth is that believers do need to be confronted with this topic in order to become complete followers of Jesus. I hope this helps you on that journey.