Laughing All The Way To The Bank

Let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart; not grudgingly or under compulsion; for God loves a cheerful giver.  2 Corinthians 9:7

Cheerful – September is the usual month for sermons on stewardship.  Congregations look over the shortfall in the budget.  They finish the estimates for the new year.  Then there is a full court press to raise money.  I can’t help feeling that God has a different way.  Real stewardship begins with laughter.

The Greek word here is hilaros.  We get the English word hilarious from this Greek root, although the Greek word is not about laughing out loud but rather about a joyful state of mind.  Nevertheless, it helps us understand the emotions that go along with giving.  You can think of it as having an irrepressible smile on your face when you are ready to give to God.  That smile comes from a heart filled with spiritual laughter; a heart that knows the blessing derived from releasing our grip on God’s gifts to us.

There is another aspect to cheerful giving that we learn from this verse.  Did you notice that Paul commends each one to do just what meets the purpose of the heart?  From the perspective of church planning, this is dangerous giving.  Why?  Because there are no formulas or rules associated with such generosity.  In other words, you can’t set the budget by determining the number of “giving units” in the membership.  No, if you are going to be an ekklesia driven by the Spirit, then you will have to learn cheerful dependence.  The other way is really an attempt at self-sustaining finances.  I wonder how many churches today, begun in humble dependence on the movement of the Spirit, are now simply human corporations, sustaining themselves without the divine breath because they learned how to manage a budget.  Here’s a news flash.  God does not want money given to Him out of obligation or under compulsion.  That is the modern day equivalent of the stink of sacrifices as substitutes for devotion.  If you can’t open your wallet to Kingdom work without joy flooding your heart, then keep the money.  Work on the motivation, not the execution.  Unless you give from a transformed life, what good did your token obedience accomplish?  You might as well be one of the Pharisees throwing in bags of coins in order to gain recognition.  God’s smile falls on the one who comes with laughter in the soul.

Yes, there is obedience.  We hear that word often applied to the obligation of the tithe.  But Paul corrects our miserly attitudes.  Did you think that tithing was enough to open heaven’s bank?  Forget it!  Jesus criticized those who scrupulously tithed even from their vegetable gardens.  It’s not action that matters.  It’s motive!  Examine the attitude of hilaros that stands behind your giving.  Then purpose in your heart to do all that is required to fill your life with laughter at God’s goodness.  You might be surprised how insignificant the tithe really is.