Three Stages of Giving
2 Corinthians 9:6-11
A man on vacation was strolling along outside his hotel in Acapulco enjoying the sunny Mexican weather. Suddenly, he heard the screams of a woman who was kneeling in front of a child. The man quickly ran over to the woman and began to listen to her screams. Soon, he was able to piece together enough of her Spanish screams to determine that the child had swallowed a rather large coin. Seizing the child by the heels, the man held him up, gave him a few shakes, and an American quarter fell to the sidewalk. Realizing that this man was an American, the woman began to speak English. “Oh, thank you sir!” cried the woman. “You seemed to know just how to get it out of him. Are you a doctor?” “No, ma’am,” replied the man. “I’m with the United States Internal Revenue Service.”
With the new year rolling around, we know that we are not far away from having to settle up with Uncle Sam. It is almost tax time again! When we get into tax time, there is one topic that is on everybody’s mind. You guessed it – MONEY. Of course, most people think about money much more than at tax time. We have multi-million dollar lotteries. Also, every year, we hear from Ed McMahon and we may have already won 10 million dollars. The newspaper and radio is full of get rich quick plans, and the television is full of commercials dealing with investing to make more money. We have got money on the brain, and it does not appear that money will take any less importance in the near future.
Now, in the world of the church, there are two roads that most churches take when it comes to money. The first approach is to talk about money all the time. They will have lengthy sermon series, mini-sermons before the offering, special Bible studies, and constant fund drives to come up with the funds they deem necessary. Well, you don’t have to be around this long until the church starts to sound like a beggar, and the people get turned off. The second road that churches take is to be silent about the subject so as not to offend anyone. This seems to be good until we come to a generation that does not know what the Bible says about giving. We are almost there.
This morning, I want to take a Biblical look at what God says about money and what we are to give. As a basis for the sermon, I want to start in 2 Corinthians 9:6-11. If you have your Bible, turn there with me now.
Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make his grace abound to you, so that in all things at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad his gifts to the poor; his righteousness endures forever.” Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you may be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God.
Now, it is clear to me from this passage, that the more we give, the more God will give back to us. If we sow more, we reap more. If we give out more, God, who is the supplier of the seed, will increase our store and our harvest. In fact, we have the promise that we will be made rich in every way so that we may be generous on every occasion. This is great news, but it still does not answer the question that is on everyone’s mind. How much should we give? This is touched on in this passage. We are told to give what we have decided in our heart to give and what we can with a cheerful heart. This morning, I want to take a Biblical look at the three stages of giving that are mentioned in God’s Word. Then, we can make an informed decision on where we are and where we need to be when it comes to giving. Before we begin, let us ask the Lord to bless our time.
Stage 1: Tithing
Two men were marooned on a deserted island. One of the men was very worried and scared. He would pace back and forth nervously, but, the other man sat back comfortably enjoying the warmth of the sun. The first man said to the second man, “Aren’t you afraid we are about to die? We are stuck here with no boat, limited food, and o prospects of being rescued.” The second man simply responded with a no. The first man could not believe it. “How can you be so calm in a time like this?” “Well,” said the second man, “I make $100,000 a week and tithe faithfully to my church every week. Believe me, my pastor will find us!”
You see, this pastor understood the importance of someone who tithes in his church. This practice was once standard throughout the church, but it has fallen by the wayside. In 1999, only 17% of church going adults claimed to have tithed their income. To make matters worse, it was found that only 3% of church going adults actually did tithe. These numbers are alarming, but they should not be when we look at one more statistic. You see, only 29% of church going adults believe that the Bible commands us to tithe. Like I said earlier, we are beginning to lose our understanding of Biblical giving.
I want to let you know that the tithe is Biblical. Abraham is the first recorded tither as he gave 10% of everything he owned to Melchizedek the high priest in Genesis 14. Then, tithing is found to be important enough to be put into the law. In Deuteronomy 14:22, we are to “Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that our fields produce each year.” Basically, their crop and livestock was their income, so they were to take a tenth of it to take to the priests at the temple. In Proverbs 3:9, we are told by Solomon, the wisest man to have ever lived, to “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the firstfruits of all your crops.” Basically, Solomon was saying to take the best of your crops and offer them to the Lord to honor Him. We are not to give God the leftovers of our crops and livestock or in our case paychecks. As soon as we get it, we should take the best, the first 10%, and give it to God.
Then, in Malachi, we have the clearest passage of them all. In Malachi 3:8-10, God is addressing the nation of Israel. He tells them this. “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’ In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse – the whole nation of you – because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this, says the Lord Almighty, and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it.” When we do not take the first tenth of our income and give it to God, we are robbing God, and we are placing ourselves as a church under a curse. We are limiting what the church can do, and we are hurting ourselves financially by cutting off the blessings of God. Trust me when I say that God can stretch your remaining 90% much more than you can stretch your 100%
So, when we read back in Corinthians that we should decide in our hearts what to give, I do not believe that Paul is placing tithing in this category. Tithing was a command from the Lord, and is required of all believers. If you don’t tithe yet, I pray that you make this your first step in giving. Decide in your heart now to at least give the minimum of what God desires you to give. After all, God only requires 10% and that is far less than Uncle Sam will ask of you.
Stage 2: Offerings
How many of you remember the comedian Flip Wilson? Some of you are old enough to remember him, and others may have seen some clips from his sketches. In my favorite sketch of his, he played the pastor at the What’s Happening Now Church. In the sketch, he started out by yelling out, “If this church is going to serve God, its got to get down on its knees and crawl.” The audience was then prompted to be like the congregation, and they would yell back, “Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl.” And then, Flip would yell, “And once this church has learned to crawl, its got to get up on its feet and walk!” And the audience would yell back, “Make it walk, preacher, make it walk.” Then, Flip would yell, “And once this church has learned to walk, its got to begin to learn to run.” And the audience would yell back, “Make it run preacher, make it run.” Then, the preacher would yell out, “And in order to run, it’s got to reach deep down in its pockets and learn to give!” Then, there would be a pause, and the congregation would yell back, “Make it crawl preacher, make it crawl.”
There is some truth to this skit in the fact that the effectiveness and ability to reach out of the church are directly tied into the amount of giving in the church. Tithes in the tabernacle were used for upkeep and to take care of the priests. In order for there to be more ministry and major renovations, they depended on the offerings of the people. An offering may be talents or it may be money. When the temple was being built, many people volunteered their services and craftsmanship to help see this through until completion. This was something above and beyond the tithe. In Acts 4, we are told that the believers shared all of their possessions so that no one was in need and so that the gospel could be preached. This was their offering to God. In Philippians, Paul thanks the church at Philippi for their generous giving of offerings to him so that he could fulfill the work of the Lord.
You see, the offering is above and beyond the tithe, and it is for each person to decide on how much or what to give. You could give extra money, and the more money we get as a church the more goes to missions and other ministries that reach the needy. You could give some of your possessions to the church to be used to the glory of God. I know of people who have given vehicles and homes to be used by the church or to house the needy. The bottom line is that the more money that comes in the more we can do and the more people we can help. We must seek the Lord though to find out what He is calling us to give beyond our tithes. That makes up our offering.
Stage 3: Sacrificial Giving
Once you have decided to give your tithe and have moved onto giving offerings according to the overflow of blessings God has given you, you may then want to move on to stage 3. You see, most of the time, when we give an offering, we are giving out of the overflow of what God has granted us. An offering is usually not painful. We give a little more because God has blessed us.
Sacrificial giving is different, and it is laid out in Scripture in Mark 12:41-44. Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins worth only a fraction of a penny. Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all of the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.” This woman gave all she had even though it was not much. She gave all she had even though it was probably going to make life difficult for her. She gave all she had because she loved God and wanted to contribute as much as she could to help the church. When we give to the church until it hurts, we are giving sacrificially.
Isn’t it amazing how big a hundred dollars looks at church and how small it appears at the mall? When we give sacrificially, it is going to cost us some things. We will not be able to buy all of the comfort things that we did before. We will not be able to indulge in as many events that we did before. However, we will be much better off in the end. Remember that Scripture about laying up for ourselves treasures in heaven? This is the perfect opportunity to do this. We give up things on earth in order to give more to God’s church. When God sees our actions, he prepares more rewards for us in heaven. When we seek to give in this way, we will move beyond asking, “How much do I have to do” and we will instead ask, “How much can I do.”
I want to encourage you to seek the Lord in the area of giving because giving pleases the Lord, and the church can always put the money to good use. After all, we have costs, and we can only help more people after those costs are met. Think about it this way. On average, it takes 40 square feet of building space per person that attends church for people to not feel overcrowded. Multiply that number time $150 a foot to build, and it does not take you long to figure that someone had to pay almost $20,000 to accommodate each family of four. That does not include the fact that the church pays for utilities, literature, maintenance, cleaning, staff, and more. We cannot even begin to reach out to do more until all this is taken care of. My prayer is that we would not just have enough. I pray that our storehouses would be overflowing because everyone is tithing and giving some type of an offering.
God is calling all of us to tithe, and He is calling all of us to give some kind of offering. What is He calling you to give? I pray you will seek the Lord to find out and have the obedience to put your money into God’s house to be used for ministry. Let’s pray.
