Selected Scriptures: a Generous Heart

Well, before we turn in our Bibles this morning, I want to show you a video, and
let me set this video up for you. We are this morning wrapping up a series that
we've been doing, a three -part series on kingdom stewardship and generosity. And for
those of you who are visiting, our normal practice here at Redeemer is to go verse
by verse through books of the Bible. But since the end of the holidays, We have
been going through this series because the elders asked me to teach on this subject
as we are facing here in the month of February a refinancing of our loan on this
property and we are hoping to pay off as much of that loan balance as we can
before we refinance. And that's why we've got the baskets in the back this morning,
which we don't usually have. This is our debt reduction offering this morning. But
I'm hoping that these passages that we've been looking at over the last couple of
weeks, and again this morning, are not just passages that we will hear in the
context of a debt reduction offering. I'm hoping that we will understand that these
principles are principles that God wants us to have guiding our lives throughout our
lives, not just in the midst of a circumstance like this, but these are principles
that should be with us throughout our lives. I want kingdom, stewardship,
and generosity to be a mindset in my life and in all of our lives as followers of
Jesus. We talked three weeks ago about having a kingdom -first mindset in our lives,
seeking first the kingdom and his righteousness, and storing up treasures in heaven
rather than treasures on earth. Two weeks ago we talked about how all that we have,
our time, our abilities, our assets, all of that belongs to God. We are stewards.
He is calling us to invest what he has entrusted to us in kingdom causes, invest
our lives and invest our resources in advancing the kingdom. And I hope that kingdom
-first mindset stays with us. I hope that idea of stewardship is something we carry
with us throughout our lives. This morning I'm going to talk about what the Bible
has to say about giving and generosity. And to start us off, I want us to watch a
video where we're going to see the fruit of what your generosity looks like.
Those of you who, back in November, took a name off of the Christmas tree, one of
the ornaments off the Christmas tree out in our lobby, and provided a Christmas gift
for a student at the Brinkley Heights Urban Academy in Memphis. You gave us the
$40, you wrote a note to those kids, and those gifts were delivered in December,
well, we're going to get a chance to see what that delivery looked like. I know we
got a report on it right after it happened, but here's a video that's been put
together that shows us of the kids responding to those gifts being given.
What is your name? Elena. Elena, that's a very pretty name. What was your favorite
gift that you got? The Bible. The Bible? What are you going to do with that Bible?
You're going to read it? Yeah, I'm going to read it. Every day?
To my sister. Oh, that's so cute. That's very good. So what would you like to say
for the gifts that you got today? Thank you so much.
There is a church in Little Rock, Arkansas, that has been praying for you guys and
love you guys. And we have brought a special box for each one of you and we
cannot wait to share it. Y 'all want to see it? Yes! All right.
She's not right. I'm very grateful that they give me gifts,
and I hope they have a Merry Christmas. Three,
two, one.
child is going to us shall
be on his shoulder and it's
wonderful
I want to say thank you for what you gave us and for being so kind and bringing
us it. It's really generous how you support the school as well with it.
I just want to say thank you to the Demer community and for their kids who just
keep giving more and more and more and won't stop giving.
What a picture of Jesus, right?
He just won't stop. He just blesses us and blesses us. And so I just want to say
thank you to redeemers more.
where truth and
the glories of his righteousness and wonders of
Thank you. I'm very appreciative because you didn't have to do this for me.
Thank you for everything, and thank you for coming here and praying for us, and
Merry Christmas, see you. Thank you very much for the gifts that you got me and
for all my friends. Thank you very much. Thank you, and Jesus loves you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you very much for caring about me in
the school and praying for me. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All
right. Now, are you ready to open? Yeah. Yeah? You know, I love seeing that. Those
personal cards you sent and a Bible and a blanket and a little gift for those kids
meant so much to them and impacted them on that day for them to know that there
were people who were praying for them and cared about them and those books are
continuing to impact those kids. In fact, I know that some of those kids have kept
those Christmas cards with them and continue to read those just as a reminder that
there's somebody who loves them and cares about them. That's the fruit of generosity
that we see at work. This morning, that's what we're going to talk about giving and
generosity. We're going to look briefly at two biblical examples of generosity, one
in the Old Testament, one in the New Testament, and then I'm going to have some
biblical principles that I want to share with you about generosity in general. So
with that introduction, if you have your Bible, and I hope you do, turn to Exodus
chapter 35 with me. And before we read this passage, let me give you a background
on what it is. we're going to be reading. In the book of Exodus, you know, it's
the story of God's deliverance of his people from slavery in Egypt. They come out
of Egypt. There are all the plagues. God delivers them and rescues them.
They rejoice and then they grumble because that's how people are. That's how we are.
God gives them the law on Mount Sinai when Moses goes up and when he comes back
down the mountain. The people are worshipping a golden calf and Moses gets mad and
breaks the tablets. There is a re -giving of the law on new tablets to Moses later
on. But God also, in the midst of that, tells his people that he wants them to
build a tabernacle for him. Not a temple because they are still in transition.
They are still moving. So the tabernacle is a tent. It can be set up and it can
be taken back down. It can travel with them. And he says to Moses, let them make
me a sanctuary that I may dwell in their midst. And that's not that God needs a
house. In fact, later in the New Testament, Paul speaking to the Athenians on Mars
Hill, says God who made everything that there is does not dwell in a house made by
human hands. God is bigger than a house, but God knows that his people in the
wilderness need a meeting place where they can gather and meet with him corporately
and worship him. And so he tells them to build this tabernacle.
And because the people desire to meet with God to come before him, to worship him,
to gather, when Moses tells them in Exodus 35 that they are going to build a
tabernacle that God has told him, This is how they respond. That's what we're going
to look at this morning. So that's the context. Let me read this out loud as you
read it with me. Again, let me pray as we go to God's word. Lord, we need your
spirit to be the one who teaches us from your word this morning. Open our eyes and
ears and hearts and minds to not just understand what your word is saying, but to
obey what your word says. We ask it in in your name. Amen.
This is a long passage, but I'm going to ask you to stand as we read through it
as well. So if you would stand, this is the Word of God for the people of God.
Exodus 35, beginning in verse 20. Here's what the Bible says. Then all the
congregation of the people of Israel departed from the presence of Moses. And they
came, everyone whose heart stirred him and everyone whose spirit moved him and
brought the Lord's contribution to be used for the tent of meeting and for all its
service and for the holy garments. So they came, both men and women, all who were
of a willing heart, brought brooches and ear rings and signet rings and armlets,
all sorts of gold objects, every man dedicating an offering of gold to the Lord,
and everyone who possessed blue or purple or scarlet yarns or fine linen or goat's
hair or tanned ramskins or goat skins brought them. Everyone who could make a
contribution of silver or bronze brought it as the Lord's contribution, and everyone
who possessed acacia wood of any use in the work brought it,
and every skillful woman spun with their hands, and they all brought what they had
spun in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twinned linen, and all the women
whose hearts stirred them to use their skills spun the goats' hair, and the leaders
brought onyx stones and stones to be set for the ephod and for the breastplate, and
spices and oil for the light and for the anointing oil and for the fragrant
incense, all the men and women, the people of Israel, whose heart moved them to
bring anything for the work that the Lord had commanded by Moses to be done,
brought it as a free will offering to the Lord. Okay, stop there and skip ahead to
chapter 36, and start with verse 2. And Moses called Bezal and Oholiab,
and every craftsman in whose mind the Lord had put skill, everyone whose heart
stirred him to come up to do the work. And they received from Moses all the
contributions that the people of Israel had brought for doing the work on the
sanctuary. They still kept bringing him free will offerings every morning so that all
the craftsmen who were doing every sort of task on the sanctuary came, each from
the task that he was doing and said to Moses the people bring much more than
enough for doing the work that the Lord has commanded us to do so Moses gave
command and word was proclaimed throughout the camp let no man or woman do anything
more for the contribution for the sanctuary so the people were restrained from
bringing for the material they had was sufficient to do all the work and more we'll
stop there. Amen. May God bless this reading of His word. You may be seated. The
grass withers, the flower fades. The word of our God will stand forever. What a
scene, right? Of the people whose hearts were stirred bringing all of these
provisions, all of these goods, all of the gold and the silver and the bronze, all
for the construction of the tabernacle. And I just want to make a few observations
on what we just read, this is, first of all, a remarkable outpouring of generosity.
I have been involved in a lot of fundraising activities throughout my years.
I've never been in a fundraising situation where anybody's gotten up and said, we
have enough now, please, you don't need to give us anymore. I've never seen that
happen. But that's what happens here. The people are responding with overwhelming
generosity. And the motivation for their giving is clear in this passage.
These people want the blessing that they know comes from dwelling in the presence of
God corporately. Coming together as God's people, experiencing his presence,
they want a place where they can be with him and meet with him and worship him as
a people, not just as individuals, but as a community. They understand they are
fully dependent on him for food, for everything. Think about, they've been in the
wilderness. God has been feeding them with quail and manna. God has provided water
from a rock when they needed water. They know how much they need him. There's an
old chorus we used to sing. I still love to sing from time to time. It's a chorus
that says, you are the air I breathe. You are my daily bread.
I'm desperate for you. I'm lost without you. And I think one of the reasons I like
singing that is because I tend to forget how needy I am. I tend to forget how
much how dependent on God I am. I can skate through the day on my own strength.
most of us I think tend to think of God's presence as something that's really nice
to have but it's not absolutely essential that's kind of how we function we can get
by without his presence oh we love it when we have it we love it when we're near
him whether it's personal worship or corporate worship we love it but then we can
leave that and go okay I'm good I got it from here but that Horus reminds us that
we are desperate for him, that we're lost without him. He is like the air we
breathe. He's like our daily bread.
These people understood their desperation enough to know that they longed for the
presence of God in their midst.
Collectively, they gave generously and abundantly so that they could meet with the
Holy God in the place of his dwelling. That was their motivation. And they were
motivated to give because of a response of gratitude for what God had done in
delivering them from Egypt. Yes, they grumbled, but when they stopped and remembered
what God had done, the grumbling went away and a heart of gratitude reemerged. Their
abundant giving was essentially motivated by their love for God and their
Let me just point out, this was, in Old Testament terms, a free will offering.
So in the Old Testament, God had commanded his people to do different kinds of
offerings. They were commanded to give. You've heard the term a tithe. The word
tithe means a tenth. And Jewish law required that 10 % of what you had,
10 % of what you earned, whether it was crops from your field, whether it was money
that you received in exchange for services or goods, 10 % belonged to the Lord. The
first 10 % was the Lord's. And so whatever you had, that money was to go to the
temple or to the tabernacle for the priests and for the operation of the tabernacle
or the temple eventually. That 10 % almost like a temple tax. You were to take your
first 10 % of what you had and give it to the Lord. In addition to that, there
was another 10 % tithe that these people were required to give,
and that was to support the feasts and the festivals that were held every year in
Jerusalem. So you needed money if you were going to do Passover, if you were going
to do Pentecost, if you were going to do the Feast of tabernacles, you had to have
the money for that. So another 10 % of what you made went for that. That was a
required offering, another first fruits offering. And then there was a third offering,
every third year, you were required to give another 10%, and that was to go to
care for the needs of the poor and the needy in the community. So the tithe,
if you were, was not a 10 % tide that wound up being a 23 and a third percent
type. That's how much of your income went to the Lord by law.
And these offerings were called first fruits offerings. First fruits meant that the
initial portion of the harvest, it meant that when you went and harvested grapes,
before you ate a grape, you took 10 % of the grapes that you harvested and you
took them to the temple and you made an offering to the Lord, and then you could
have yours. Or if you were harvesting wheat before you touched the wheat for
yourself, you took 10 % of that wheat and you took it to the temple and you gave
it to the priests. And by the way, it was not only to be 10 % that you gave,
but it was supposed to be the best 10%. You didn't find the grapes that were
shriveled. You found the best grapes and gave that 10 % to the Lord. But the gifts
we see being given in Exodus 35 and 36 are not first fruits offerings. This is a
free will offering. In addition to the 23 and a third, these people, when they
heard about the need for the tabernacle, they gave on top of what had been required
of them. And that's what's happening here. Now, let me just say, the Old Testament
system of tithing does not carry over to the New Testament. We're not a theocracy.
We're not structured that way. In the New Testament, all giving is to be free will
giving. But as you look at this example of free will giving in the Old Testament,
you see God's people giving in abundance because of their love for him and because
they long to be in his presence and because of their gratitude for their
deliverance. And I just want to suggest that I think we can learn, even though it's
an Old Testament story, we can learn from their example that our giving to support
the work of God in our world is an evidence of our love for him.
Our giving to support the work of God is one way that we demonstrate our love for
him. Specifically giving to support the local church says something about where your
heart is. Remember, the Bible says where your treasure is, there your heart will be
also. Our giving or our lack of giving says something about how much we desire to
gather and to worship and to express our love for and devotion to God and express
our gratitude for all that he's done for us. As you think about giving to the
church, not just this morning where we're taking this special offering, but throughout
the year. What does your giving say about your heart for God and his work in this
place? What does it say about your love or your devotion for him or how much you
desire to gather and be with God's people and worship? I think this Old Testament
picture of abundant giving, generous giving is a picture for us of what happens when
hearts are fully committed to the presence of God in our midst and seeing His
kingdom come and His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's the Old
Testament example. Let's jump ahead to the New Testament example. Turn to 2
Corinthians chapter 8. And again, let me give you the background for this passage.
This passage comes from a specific pastoral crisis that the Apostle Paul is
addressing. The church in Jerusalem was experiencing extreme poverty in a season,
and we're not sure why. Some have said it may have been due to drought that was
going on in Jerusalem, or it may have been because of persecution that they were
facing. But Paul, as he went out on his third missionary journey, went out wanting
to raise funds from the Gentile churches that could be sent back to Jerusalem to
care for the needs of the saints in Jerusalem. And when he had been with the
Corinthians, they had said, yes, we want to help support the needs of those
Christians in Jerusalem, and they had committed to taking a collection and sending
it. But Paul had become concerned that these Corinthians had begun to flag in their
support for the Christians in Jerusalem. And so he knew that their lack of
motivation was a sign of spiritual lethargy.
Let me just point that out. He is more concerned about what their lack of giving
represents about the condition of their heart than he is about whether the money's
getting to Jerusalem. He knows that their lack of giving is an indication that
they're really not all that concerned about the things of God or the people of God.
So in this passage, he is seeking to rekindle in them a desire to want to be
generous toward God as a way to refocus their hearts. And he does it by telling
them about the remarkable generosity of the Macedonian Church. So look at verse 1 of
2 Corinthians 8. Paul says, We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God
that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. 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. I just have to stop there. Their abundance of
joy and their extreme poverty overflows in a wealth of generosity.
Those are not the two things that you would put together to say, you're going to
get a wealth of generosity from people who are joyful and poor, but that's what
happened with these churches in Macedonia. Keep reading verse 3. For they gave
according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own
accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the
saints. And this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord
and then by the will of God to us. Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he started,
he should complete among you this act of grace. But as you excel in everything,
in faith, in speech, and knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you,
see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command,
but to prove the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus, that though he was rich, Yet for your
sake, he became poor, so that you, by his poverty, might become rich.
Now jump ahead to verse 6 of chapter 9, 2nd Corinthians 9 beginning at verse 6.
Paul says, the point is this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly,
and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. Each one must give as he
has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a
cheerful giver, and God is able to make all grace abound to you so that having all
sufficiency in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.
As it is written, he has distributed freely, he has given to the poor, his
righteousness endures forever. He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food
will supply and multiply your seed for sewing and increase the harvest of your
righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way which
through us will produce Thanksgiving to God. For the ministry of this service is not
only supplying the needs of the saints, but also overflowing in many thanksgivings to
God. By their approval of this service, they will glorify God because of your
submission that comes from your confession of the Gospel of Christ and the generosity
of your contribution for them and for all others while they long for you and pray
for you because of the surpassing grace of God upon you. And then finally, thanks
be to God for his inexpressible gift. Okay, again,
let me make some observations about this long passage. First, the Macedonians desire
to give generously came as a response to their understanding of God's grace in their
lives, which is how generosity begins. It begins when we understand the grace of God
and are overwhelmed by the grace of God. Look back at verse 1 of chapter 8. Paul
says, we want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given
among the churches in Macedonia. It was the grace of God that brought them to
faith, and it was by grace that they were being motivated to be generous. Paul sees
their generosity flowing out of their experience of God's grace.
And I'll just suggest here, the more you understand and the more you experience
God's grace in your life, the more motivated you become to be generous and to give.
And I'll say the converse of that is true. The less motivated you are to give,
that may be an indication of the fact that you don't fully understand or are not
fully experiencing the reality of God's grace in your own life. This passage shows
us that generous giving is one of the evidences of the work of God's spirit in our
lives. We talk often about the fruit of the spirit as evidence of God's spirit at
work in us. And while giving is not listed as a fruit of the spirit, I would
suggest to you that the Bible teaches that generosity in giving are, in fact,
a fruit of the spirit. It is a spirit -generated, spirit -stirred grace in us to be
generous. Now, I know people can be generous for the wrong reason. People can be
generous and they're doing it for self -aggrandizement, or they're doing it for
there's a tax write -off, they're doing it to be honored by others, or there's some
sense of duty rather than delight. But the point here is that to say that somebody
is a stingy Christian, that just doesn't make any sense. That's an oxymoron.
You would never say, this man really loves the Lord, and he's so stingy. I mean,
it just doesn't sound right. It's clear that's wrong.
A generous Christian, that makes sense. A stingy Christian, that doesn't. Look back
at verses 7 and 8 in Chapter 8. Paul tells the Corinthians that they are to excel
in this act of grace also. Excel like the Macedonians. Verse eight, I say this not
as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is
genuine. Again, he's saying one of the pieces of evidence of your love for God
being genuine is that you're a giver, a generous giver. And as chapter nine makes
clear that giving should not be done reluctantly or under compulsion, it's to be
done cheerfully. God loves cheerful, joy -filled giving,
not grudging, giving.
Not, I wish I didn't have to do this, but I guess I'm supposed to. That's not the
spirit that God loves, but a thank you, Lord, for all that you've done for me, for
all you've given me, for the privilege of being able to invest in your work. You
are, what you are doing in my life and in the world is a joy,
and I want to invest in that. That's the kind of spirit -filled generosity that God
is looking for. And let me point out that there is a connection in this passage
between our giving and God's provision.
That's the passage in 9 -6, Paul says, whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly,
whoever sows bountifully will reap bountifully. Now we've got to be careful that you
don't take a verse like that and twist it like some preachers have done over the
years where they make it an exchange deal. You want to get rich? Give to God and
you'll get rich. Well if your motivation is to get rich, you're not given for the
right motivation.
That's not what this is about. But this passage is saying that those who delight In
giving, God delights in blessing them with more to give. Those who are generous in
their giving, God loves to funnel more of their direction. They're good stewards.
It's like if you've got a stock that's doing well, you put more money in that
stock.
And Paul grounds all of this in the character of God. He's actually making an
argument from the lesser to the greater. From the lesser to the greater, look at
chapter 8, verse 9, he says, you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, though
he was rich for your sake, he became poor, so that by his poverty,
you by his poverty might become rich. He's saying, if God is so generous as to
give his son for your sake, that's the greater.
should you not be generous enough to give some of what you have for his sake?
That's the argument. Generous giving is one of God's communicable attributes.
There are things about God that are not transferable. God is omniscient,
you will never be omniscient. God is all -powerful, you will never be all -powerful.
But God is kind, and you can be kind. So he has incommunicable attributes,
those he does not share, and communicable attributes, those he does share. And one
of his communicable attributes is that he is a generous God, and you can be
generous like him.
He freely,
lavishly, generously gives, not grudging, not out of a sense of compulsion,
and if we want to be conformed to his image, that's one of the attributes that we
should be looking for in our lives. When you give generously to kingdom work, you
are doing what Jesus has already done by giving himself for us.
Now with those two examples, the Old Testament example and the New Testament example,
of God's people responding with extreme generosity for the needs of the church. I
want to give you some principles that are biblical principles as it relates to
giving, because interestingly, the Bible talks a lot about money and giving. It's a
big subject here. And the list I'm going to give you is by no means comprehensive.
The Bible has much more to say about this than we could have time for this
morning. I find it interesting that the first story in the Bible after Adam and Eve
have been expelled from the Garden of Eden is a story about two people who make an
offering to God. Cane and Abel. One makes an acceptable offering, the other makes an
unacceptable offering. It leads to conflict and strife and the first murder. But it
starts off with the impulse of the children of Adam and Eve coming and wanting to
give a gift to God, make an offering to God. The law of Moses hasn't required
anything of them yet. And yet, when they harvest in the field or when they have
their lambs, they want to come and bring some of that to God because they recognize
that he's the source of it all. So again, six principles. These are just highlights,
but I hope you'll find them helpful. Here's the first principle. You need to be
giving more than the church or the ministry you're giving to needs your money.
When we hear about financial appeals, you hear about our debt reduction. Yes, we
want to be good stewards. But I'll just tell you that your need to be giving
faithfully is more important for you than it is for any benefit we will receive as
a church for that. This actually comes from what Paul says in his letter to the
Philippians. I want you to turn to Philippians. It's in the last fourth of your
Bible, the book of Philippians. And look at chapter four. The book of Philippians,
by the way, is a long thank you letter from Paul to the church at Philippi because
while Paul was in prison, the Philippians took up a collection and sent money to
Paul so that he would have resources available to him while he was in prison.
And Paul is writing this letter back to them to encourage them, but also to thank
them for their support and their generosity. Philippians 4, beginning at verse 14,
he says this. He says, yet it was kind of you to share my trouble. And you
Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left
Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving except
only you.
Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. Now look at
this. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your
credit. I have received full payment and more. I'm well supplied,
having received from Epaphroditis the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a
sacrifice, acceptable and pleasing to God. And my God will supply every need of
yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Some remarkable things in
that. I see five things in that passage that I think are important as it relates
to financial giving. First of all, the Philippians were giving to Paul because they
were concerned about Paul. They were excited to be able to support Paul because they
loved Paul. They cared about his ministry. They knew God was at work through him.
Giving to help meet those needs brought joy and excitement more than holding onto
the money for themselves. And when we stop and think about our priorities and what
brings us joy and what we're committed to, I wonder if we're more committed to our
own pleasure than we are to God's kingdom. I wonder if we're more motivated by ease
and comfort in our lives than we are by advancing the kingdom in our world. These
Philippians knew Paul was in need, and they said, of course we're going to give to
help Paul while he's in prison. Second thing, Paul says he didn't need them to
give. That's odd, because they know he's in prison, they know he has needs,
but here's why he doesn't need them to give because he says, I've learned to be
content in whatever circumstance I find myself in, back in verses 11 and 12,
and God's going to meet my needs in verse 13. So Paul's perspective is,
God's going to take care of me,
and so I don't want you to feel like if you don't give, Paul's not going to be
taken care of. I don't want anybody I hear this morning think if you don't give to
help pay down the debt or support the work of the church, it's going to fold up.
God's going to take care of our needs. He is our big donor. He just happens to
give through you. And those of you who are delighted in joining the work that he's
doing, that's how this works. Third thing, Paul says, their giving was pleasing to
God.
When you give to support God's work, God is pleased. Now, he doesn't love you more
because you gave. He doesn't set you apart. You're not more special to him. Why is
he pleased when you give? It's not because God goes, oh, I just got a little more
money from those folks. No, it's because he knows what that represents about your
heart. That's why he's pleased.
Fourth, Paul echoes Jesus' words, when he says,
God will supply all your needs. Jesus back in Matthew 6, we saw it a few weeks
ago. He said, you seek first the kingdom. All these other things will be added to
you. Paul says, you give, as God instructs you to give, God will supply your needs
according to his riches in Christ Jesus. And finally, Paul tells them that he is
more interested in the prophet that will increase to their count than he is in the
gift that he's receiving from them. In other words, Paul sees the benefit that's
going to accrue to them for being generous. It's going to be spiritually profitable
for them to be givers, and Paul is delighted to know that their giving is going to
bring a harvest of spiritual fruit in their lives, and that's what excites him more
than getting the money itself. There is some way in which there is profit that
increases in us when we are generous to give. Not financial profit,
but spiritual profit. I believe when we give our time and our talent and our money,
I believe that's a spiritually profitable activity. It is a means of grace that God
will use in your life to help you grow into the image of his son, and you will
benefit more from giving than the church benefits from receiving your gift.
And let me just say, the church will benefit, that it means a lot of us will
benefit. When we say the church benefits, it's not the building that benefits, it's
all of us who benefit from your giving. You are giving, we're giving to one
another, to keep the lights on, to keep the church going so that we can gather so
that we can worship so that we can fellowship as we do. But it will benefit you
more to be a giver than it is for us to be the receiver. Here's the second
principle. Giving should be a consistent spiritual discipline in your life.
We're taking up a special offering this morning. I'm suggesting that giving should be
something that you do consistently, regularly. When I was in college, I had One
summer, I had three part -time jobs. I was a hamburger cook at a restaurant called
the library restaurant. It was called the library so that it was by our college,
and you could go get a burger and shoot pool at the library restaurant. And when
your parents called, they said, where you have been? You say, I've been at the
library. Right? So that's why they named it the library restaurant. So I was a
burger cook there, and then I was a janitor at night in an office building, and on
the weekends, I worked the overnight shift at a radio station. I'd go on at 10 o
'clock at night and get off at 8 o 'clock the next morning. So those were my three
jobs. First time in my life that I had regular paychecks. And I don't know where
I'd learned it or heard it, but when I had a regular paycheck, I thought I'd need
to be giving to a church. And so It just became a practice. You get the paycheck.
The first thing you do is you write your check to the church from that paycheck.
And I didn't know how much, but somebody had said 10%, so I said, okay, I guess
that's what I'm supposed to do. So I started writing 10 % to the church. And,
of course, my first thought was, should it be 10 % before taxes or after taxes?
Have you had that, right?
So I didn't know how to, I knew how I wanted to answer that, but I didn't know
what the right answer was. So here's what I wound up doing. I wound up giving 10 %
of the net amount of my income to the church, and then I gave the other remaining
percentage to other ministries. So, for example, like if I made $1 ,000 one month, I
would give $800 net, we'll say $1 ,000 gross, 800 net. I would give $80 to the
church, but then I had another 20 to give somewhere else to some other ministry.
That's just how we operated doing that. And then when Marianne and I got married,
we kept that same pattern going in our marriage. And I can tell you, there were
some months in our marriage over the last 40, almost 47 years now, that we were
not able to swing the 10%. I mean, I came home and said, if I'd do 10 % this
month, I don't know how we're going to pay this. So we gave something to keep it
going, and I looked for an opportunity and make it up on the back end later.
That's just how we did it.
We always gave something. And if you're not giving something each month faithfully,
regularly, let me both urge and challenge you to start supporting the church and
other ministries with a portion of your income. And that really leads to this third
principle. This is the pattern I would suggest you to encourage you to follow with
your money. Give first, save second, live off the rest.
This goes back to the Old Testament idea of the first fruits. When you get your
check, the first fruits go in giving, whatever percentage amount you're going to do.
The second percent, and in our case what we've done is we've said, whatever we're
given to the church, we're going to save an equal amount. So that second amount
goes to savings. So if you say, okay, 10 % of the church, 10 % to savings, now
we've got to live off the other 80%. And then you budget for your expenses,
not based on your salary, but based on that portion of your salary that you're
living off of. So
let me show you up one passage that supports the idea that this is what we ought
to be doing. It's in the book of Malachi. You don't need to turn there, but the
book of Malachi is God's people coming to the prophet and saying, why is God not
blessing us? And the prophet says, I'll tell you why God's not blessing you. And he
ticks off the reasons. You're not honoring your marriage. The priests aren't doing
what they're supposed to be doing. But in Malachi chapter 3 in verse 8, he's saying
one of the reasons God's not blessing you is because you are not being faithful to
pay your tithe he says will a man rob god yet you are robbing me the lord says
but you say how have we robbed you in your tithes and contributions you are cursed
with a curse for you are robbing me the whole nation of you bring the full tithe
into the storehouse that there may be food in my house and thereby put me to the
test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you
and pour down for you a blessing until there's no more need. Now, you might say,
well, that's Old Testament. We're not under the Old Testament. You're right. You're
not under that. But the principle is still a clear principle. What you sow
sparingly, you will reap sparingly, but what you sow to the Lord's work, you will
reap bountifully from that. And that leads to principle number four, because this
question comes up, what do I do if I'm in debt? Because some of you are going,
we'd love to give, but we've got to get out of debt before we can give. Well, let
me say two things about that. First of all, if you're in debt, get help. Don't
just try to tough it out on your own. Get help with folks who can come around you
and help you understand why you're in debt, help you figure out a plan to get out
of debt and a plan to stay out of debt. We've got people in the church who will
be happy to meet with you to sit down with you and review your budget and say,
what have you thought about cutting here? Now, getting out of debt will be hard and
painful. Anybody who's listened to Dave Ramsey, has heard Dave Ramsey scolding people
about this is going to be hard and you're going to be eating beans for a while,
but do it, stick to it, and you'll be glad you did. But there are things we can
do. We can help you turn the corner if you're in a debt situation. But the second
thing I'd say is give something to the church each month. Give something.
You say, you mean don't pay my debt? Give something to the church. Give a dollar
to the church. Give $5 to the church. Instead of paying off your debt,
give five bucks to the church.
I want you to start that practice of making giving a priority.
And if you give five bucks this month, see if you can do six next month, and
seven the month after that. And you say, well, I don't have that. Well, let me
just ask you, could you skip a meal, fast for that meal, and give whatever that
food would cost you to the church? That's one way to do it, because there's another
principle from scripture, Principle number five, giving should cost you something.
In 2 Samuel 24, King David had sinned against God, and God tells him to build an
altar and make a sacrifice. And so he's going to buy a threshing floor to build an
altar from a guy named Aruna, the Jebusite. David goes to Aruna and says, I want
to buy your threshing floor to build an altar. And Aruna says to David, here, take
what you need. Here are the oxen for the burnt offering. Here's the threshing sledge
and the yokes. You can have all of this, king. And David says to Aruna, no, I'm
going to buy it from you because I will not give to God that which costs me
nothing.
He's not going to give a gift that doesn't have some sacrifice attached to it. And
I think there's a principle here. The Puritan Thomas Manton said, the sacrifice that
cost you nothing is worth nothing.
He says your religion is worth nothing if it costs you nothing.
So giving should be sacrificial, not just a tip or an afterthought. If it costs you
something, it will mean more to you. As you think about the Lord's work, are you
giving that which costs you nothing? I think there should be a level of sacrifice
involved. Here's the last principle. seek to excel still more in your giving. I told
you we started early on with that 10 % going to the church back when I was in
college, and I'm sure that that token amount that we were giving to the church was
not doing a whole lot for the church. You know, my income was not great, so my
$50 or $80 or whatever it was that month, I'm sure it didn't help out, it helped
a little, but it was really more important for me to be doing it than it was for
the church to be receiving it because it started a pattern in my life. But at some
point in our marriage, and I'm not sure when, we started to think, what if we gave
11 % this year? What if we gave 12? What if we every year could step it up 1%.
And so we have been trying to be more aggressive in our giving as we are able to.
And our experience with being consistent and seeking to be more aggressive in our
giving, our experience has been that God has blessed us in ways we can't even
imagine. Again, I'm not talking about financial blessing, but I look some days at
the stock market going up and thinking, is that because I gave, you know? Is that
just God's way of said, I'm going to, you gave? I'm going to make the stock market
go up for you. So If you're not giving start, if you're giving, ask the Lord,
should I be doing more? Is there more I could be doing? Am I being generous? Am I
being sacrificial? And I say all of this not to make anybody feel guilty. That's
not my objective, because the Bible does not say God loves a guilty giver.
God loves a cheerful giver. But I want you to give in response to the Lord's
leading. I want this to be between you and him. I want you you be guided by his
word. And if we can help, we want to do that. I'll just wrap up with this.
I think most of you know that it has been our decision over the life of the
church that I don't take a salary from the work that I do here at Redeemer. And
that's a choice that we made back when Redeemer was getting started. And we've been
happy to continue in that pattern as the church has grown. And I'm not saying that
to pat myself on the back or to say, look, how noble I am, I'm telling you that
to say, I don't have any personal vested interest in whether you give to redeem her
or not, because none of it's coming to me. My motive here is this,
as far as I can judge my own motive, is because I want you to experience the joy,
the blessing that comes when we give regularly and sacrificial to the Lord's work.
And that giving should be in response to your recognition of the grace of God in
your life and what he's done for you. In fact, it's that realization that led Isaac
Watts to write these words. Were the whole realm of nature mine,
if I owned everything,
that were an offering far too small. If I owned it all and gave it all to God,
it's still too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands my soul,
my life, my all. Pray with me.
Father, we thank you for your word, even when it steps on our toes, even when it's
convicting. Lord, I pray that nothing I've said here this morning will have stirred
any guilt or bitterness in people's hearts.
But, Lord, I pray that as we hear the words of Scripture, we will be stirred
afresh to want to be about your work and to support your work as we see your
spirit at work in your kingdom, in your kingdom. We pray these things in your name.
Amen.