Make an impact today
Support our mission by contributing a donation.
OR
Drop your offering in one of our
offering boxes in the Sanctuary
Drop it off at the church office on Monday
Mail a check to the church
Online banking
If you have online banking with your bank, set Gibsonia Baptist Church up as a payee and they will mail us a check for your monetary gift. They will only send the amount that you specify and only when you tell them. This option is free to you and to the church. You don’t even pay the postage. You will need to set up the church as a payee with the following information:
Gibsonia Baptist Church
5440 US Hwy 98 N
Lakeland, FL 33809-0519
Why should we give?
Gratitude for Jesus’ Sacrifice
The entire Christian life could be summed up as a grateful response to the Good News about Jesus Romans 12:1-2. We should do everything we do because we are responding to who Jesus is and what He has done for us. Therefore, our giving should be in response not just to the immediate need to which we are giving, but in response to the gospel.
In the first-century, the church in Jerusalem faced a time of desperate need. Paul collected money from several congregations to help the poor Christians in Jerusalem. He told the Corinthian church their giving was evidence of their obedience to their “confession of the gospel” 2 Corinthians 9:13. He wanted them to give out of gratitude. He wanted them to give because they were in Christ.
This is why we say our giving is an act of worship. We give because God has already given us – and continues to give us – an “inexpressible gift” 2 Corinthians 9:15 in Christ. We give to the church each week because we are incredibly grateful for what Christ has done for us.
The Mission of the Church
First-century Christians seemed to understand being converted to Christ wasn’t JUST going from being lost to being saved; it was also being recruited to the cause. Jesus was turning the world upside down through the preaching of the Good News and every Christian who came on board needed to somehow support the mission of reaching the whole world with the Good News. In Philippi, when a woman named Lydia was converted, she understood faithfulness to Jesus meant even her house now belonged to the cause (Acts 16:11-15).
Paul said, “The Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel” 1 Corinthians 9:14. Prophets, apostles, evangelists, shepherds and teachers were God’s gift to the church Ephesians 4 the church was taught she had a responsibility to financially support their work of making disciples.
We should give because we have been recruited to the cause. We should want to support disciple-making in our own congregation, in our city, and in the remotest parts of the world. We should want every ear to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ and to be taught everything Jesus has commanded. We should all see ourselves as a part of that mission.
New Testament Teaching
When Paul was making plans to come to Corinth to collect the money for the Christians in Jerusalem, he told the church how to prepare for his arrival. He told them, “On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper” 1 Corinthians 16:2. In other words, he seems to be saying each member should bring some money to the assembly each Sunday and they should store it up until he arrives later to collect it.
I understand Paul is giving specific instructions for a particular situation, but it seems to me we should follow this teaching for the ongoing needs the church has today. After all, Paul gave the same instructions to the churches in Galatia (1 Corinthians 16:1). Don’t you suppose he would give us the same instructions today for supporting the needy and the ongoing disciple-making efforts of the church?
We should give on Sundays because we are devoted to following New Testament teaching. Jesus appointed Paul and the other apostles to give instructions about how to be Jesus’ church and we have no other instructions to go by. Wouldn’t it be presumptuous to say, “Well, that only pertained to the need at that time. That doesn’t apply to me today.
Personally, I would rather walk by faith and say, “If this is the way Jesus’ ambassadors told the first-century church to meet the needs of that time, then it is the way I will do it as well.”