“God loves a giver - Sometimes - Luke 12:13-34”
Gladstone Baptist Church – 7/5/06 am
(Much of this material is sourced from Randy Alcorn’s book. “the Treasure Principle”)
Hearing sermons about money makes us uncomfortable.
I want to start a short series today on Stewardship. And I can just see you all cringing right now. Stewardship for those who aren’t quite up with the religious lingo is about using our resources wisely for God’s glory. It may be our time, it may be our gifts and abilities, it may be using our possessions for God or it may involve giving our money to God. Yep – I see some late bloomers beginning to cringe!
But while stewardship involves a whole lot more than just our money, over the next couple of weeks I want to focus in on money and how we handle our money.
Now I realise that in tackling this subject, I am taking my life into my own hands and I expect some angry letters and bomb threats this next week … although we are all keenly interested in money - we don’t like it being talked about in church.
One of the biggest criticisms of church by non-Christians is that it is just after your money. Actually that is an unfair criticism and has actually driven many churches (this one included) to talk about money far less than we should. I went back through the records that Ken Watson and his sound techs keep of every sermon and do you know the last time we had a sermon on money was back in July 2004. That is almost 2 years ago. And before that the last one was in October of 2002 on stewardship. So that is on average 1 sermon every 2 years on stewardship.
I think Jesus would be horrified at that. Did you know that it has been estimated that about 15 percent of everything Jesus spoke about related to money. He spoke more about money than about heaven, and hell combined. More about it than about love. If we were to continue Jesus’ emphasis, we would be preaching on money it once every 3 weeks (1 out of every 6 services). How would you like that!!! I wouldn’t.
To Jesus, how we view our money can not be separated from how we view our relationship with God.
But why did Jesus make such an emphasis of money? Because he knew that our attitude to our money can’t be separated from OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD. It is a barometer of our worship to Him.
In Luke 3 when John the Baptist is calling the crowds to repent, they ask him “How? What should we do then?”
11 John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”
12 Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”
13 “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them.
14 Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?”
He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.”
John didn’t tell them to love more, or to go to church more often, or to pray more. He gave
3 instructions that were all related to money or possessions. Share your clothes and food with the poor. Don’t steal by taking what doesn’t belong to you. Be content with your wages. You see, the outworking of repentance was to be first and foremostly seen in one’s attitude to their money and possessions.
What about Zacchaeus … When he repented, he said “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.” And Jesus’ response … “Today salvation has come to this house.” (Luke 19:8-9) His changed attitude to money showed he was saved.
To the rich young man who asked Jesus how to gain eternal life, Jesus said … “go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” (Matt 19:21)
You see our attitude to money is like a mirror that reflects the quality of our relationship with God. For some reason, money is one of the most important things in our lives. We can’t live without it, but it seems that we can never have too much of it also. If you think about it, a huge amount of our time and energy is spent trying to gain more money or in maintaining the things we have bought with our money. Money and possessions. – Our attitude to them is an indicator of our relationship with God. It is an indicator of our WORSHIP. Worship you see involves every part of our life including our giving. We are called to HONOUR GOD IN OUR WORSHIP and that means honouring God in our giving.
I have been challenged that in regards my giving, my worship is not very God honoring.
As I have prepared for this sermon, I want to tell you all that I have been incredibly challenged regarding my attitude to money. The challenges have come mainly through reading this little book – “The Treasure Principle” by Randy Alcorn. I want to share with you some of the revelations God has shown me over the next couple of weeks. You see, I have come to realise that I don’t think my worship of God is very honoring because of some of my attitudes to money have been wanting.
Don’t get me wrong, I do tithe. Though you might not see me putting loads of money in the collection bags each week, my tithe gets taken out of my pay. Before I even see it, I get Alison to take 10% out. Roger does the same thing. I am torn though, because I recognise that people look at Roger and I and copy us as an example. Though giving out of my pay is convenient and reliable which is the most important thing, it is invisible. I hate the fact that some spiritually immature people might look at me just passing the bag along every Sunday without putting anything in it and therefore assume if it is alright for the pastor, it is alright for me. That is why I often put in an additional $5 or $10 so I can be seen to be putting something in the bag.
Deanna and I also support lots of other missionaries and organizations. We personally support families working in Indonesia, Phillipines, Ethiopia, India and in Scripture Union in Australia. At the beginning of the year we sit down and we work out our income (usually from our tax return from the previous year) and we plan out where our tithe is going to be given.
I’m not telling you all this, because I am trying to get brownie points, but to tell you that although I am tithing 10% and have done so for years, I have been challenged that my attitude to giving and in turn my worship of God is not up to scratch.
Jesus once was once talking to crowds and began to condemn the Pharisees and teachers of the law even though they were tithing. He said in Matt 23:23 …
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Even though they were tithing, their attitude to giving was lacking. They had turned giving into a ritual duty and their attitude to giving of themselves – to justice – to mercy – to faithfulness – to love were missing. As I prepared this sermon, I found myself wondering whether God was looking at me in the same way. I was giving 10% religiously, but was He pleased with my giving. You see God loves a giver – sometimes. He loves a giver if the giving is GOD HONORING. Not all giving is God honoring as we saw in Matt 23:23. So today and next Sunday, I want to give you 5 characteristics of a God honoring giver.
Characteristic 1) A God honoring giver sees money as “God’s money” rather than “my money”.
The first characteristic of a God honoring focus is one that sees all money and things as “God’s” not “mine.” Now if you are like me, you know that God created everything, and therefore owns it, but when it comes to my hard earned cash, my laptop, my cars, my house, my dog, my investments – well they are mine!!!! Now I know the right answer was that they were God’s, but my attitude said they were mine.
The Bible is very clear on the fact that God owns everything!!!
Ps 24:1-2 - The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.
Lev 25:23 - ‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you are but aliens and my tenants.
Haggai 2:8 - ‘The silver is mine and the gold is mine,’ declares the LORD Almighty.
1 Cor 6:19-20 - Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
So we don’t own anything – The world and everything in it, the land, the silver and gold and anything precious and even our own body belongs to God. God gives us the very talents and skills to earn our living.
So - We are not OWNERS!!! We are MANAGERS!!! (Or Stewards).
- The money we earn is not ours – it is Gods. Ownership still resides with God. The bible says the silver and God “IS” God’s. Not “WAS” but “IS.”
- We were not GIVEN the money – we are ENTRUSTED it to us.
We are God’s INVESTMENT MANAGERS! That is a pretty incredible thought isn’t it and a correct understanding of this will revolutionize what you think about your money and what your giving is like.
Understand this – that God trusts us to manage his money. He has made us signatory to his account and we can use it all. But as an investment manager, we must manages the assets entrusted to us for the owner’s benefit. Not our own benefit. But we need to be careful that we don’t embezzle his money or misappropriate his funds for our own use because one day we are going to be called to account for how we managed God’s money. As managers we are responsible for deciding what is the best way to invest God’s money. And I use the word invest not spend here because I believe God is looking for a return on his money. That’s what I believe the parable of the talents teaches us.
How would our spending habits change if we regularly asked the question … “How should I invest this money so that God will benefit?”
Will he benefit by me buying a new car when there is nothing wrong with the old. Will he benefit by upgrading my house? Will he benefit by eating out every other night because I’m too lazy to cook? Will he benefit from expanding my share portfolio?
Now I am not saying that spending money on yourself is wrong. God trusts us to draw our own salaries from his account. But would you be happy with an investment manager who invested 10% and kept 90% as fees???? I certainly wouldn’t be.
That brings us back to the concept of the tithe… why did God say he only wanted 10% if really he wanted us to look after all of it? The answer is – He didn’t just say he wanted 10%.
The first mention of a tithe given was by Abraham to a king Melchizedek out of RESPECT. Tithing or giving tributes to important people was common in the ancient times. It was a mark of respect and servitude. The first mention of a tithe to God was when Jacob promised to give back to God 1/10th of all that God gave him. It was an act of THANKS and a recognition that God gave him everything.
Later this practice became part of the law. Lev 27:30ff…
‘A tithe of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD. 31 If a man redeems any of his tithe, he must add a fifth of the value to it. [Did you hear that – If you didn’t pay all your tithe last year, you don’t just owe God your tithe, but there is a 20% interest applied to it] 32 The entire tithe of the herd and flock—every tenth animal that passes under the shepherd’s rod—will be holy to the LORD. 33 He must not pick out the good from the bad or make any substitution. If he does make a substitution, both the animal and its substitute become holy and cannot be redeemed.’”
Every year, the Israelites were to set aside 10% of their income and give it to God. What did he do with it … He gave it to the LEVITES (Num 18:21). Instead of getting a block of the promised land to settle in and earn a living from, the Levites were to minister before God around the tabernacle and before the people. They were the first church employees and the tithe was collected to support their work. Every year, the people were to give 10% of everything they earned to the Levites. And the Levites likewise had to tithe 10% of what they were given. The money they gave went to the PRIESTS in the tabernacle. So the tithe went to fund the full time workers of God.
But the money wasn’t just given to church workers. Every 3rd year, the tithe was not sent to the tabernacle or temple for the workers there, but was kept in the local towns. Deut 26:12 tells us that for that year, the tithe was to be given to the LEVITES, THE ALIENS, THE ORPHANS AND THE WIDOWS who lived in your town. See not all Levites served at the temple. Once the temple was built and you didn’t have this big tent that was constantly being moved around the countryside, you didn’t need a lot of Levites to act as porter. So they began to settle in all the towns to minister and serve the people. They still needed supporting, because they didn’t have their own land. So the tithe went to support them, but not just them, also all those who were struggling to support themselves – the foreigners (who didn’t know the language and couldn’t get a job so were often exploited), the Orphans, the widows, etc. 10 percent was given to help the needy people.
But if you think that the tithe was all that God asked for, you are wrong. In the Old Testament, tithing was just a PART OF THEIR WORSHIP. You see, there were all manner of offerings needing to be offered – burnt offerings, fellowship offerings, wave offerings, guilt offerings. There were many festivals that the people were required to participate in and they usually meant bring an offering to God in thanks and worship. The first fruits of every harvest and the first born from every animal were to be offered to God as a recognition of God’s gifts to them. Some scholars even believe there is mentioned in the bible two or possibly even three different tithes. And then there were just the offerings given to God because people loved him – though these were not prescribed by God. It is really not unreasonably to think that an average Jew was giving over 15 or even over 20% of their income in their worship of God and possibly much more. This was expected and was the norm. If you think that God only ever asked for 10% from his people you have been misled. Following God cost far more than 10% of a person’s income – it always has and always will cost you everything.
When we get to the New Testament, the concept of the tithe is hardly mentioned except in condemnation of those who give, but don’t have the right attitude. The Pharisees and teachers of the law had made tithing such a ritual, that they had lost sight of the spirit of why it was there. Instead of preaching that people should give 10% or even 20%, Jesus taught something far more radical. “SELL ALL YOU POSSESS and give it to the poor” he told the crowds that followed him. The early church sold their belongings to share with each other. Paul encouraged the Corinthians to model the Macedonian believers who “Out of the most severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.”
The model of giving in the Old Testament and the New Testament is not just 10%, but it is giving in keeping with an investment manager mentality. Talk about how much I should give to God is actually a nonsense argument because it is all his in the first place. Many people in the past have wrongly taught that they only need to give 10% back to God. They don’t understand the Bible’s teaching if this is the case. The Bible does teaches that 10% must be released back to God, because he demands this. If we don’t we are stealing from God. Mal 3:6
“I the LORD do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. 7 Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.
“But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’
8 “Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How do we rob you?’
“In tithes and offerings. 9 You are under a curse—the whole nation of you—because you are robbing me. 10 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. 11 I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not cast their fruit,” says the LORD Almighty. 12 “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.
If you are not giving 10% you are STEALING from God. No question, no debate. God owns everything you have and has said that he wants 10% minimum. If you are not currently giving 10% you are stealing from God. But our responsibilities don’t end there. God owns everything you have and it is not a question of how much does He deserve to be given. He deserves all of it, because it is all His. The question we need to ask is “What would God have me do with all HIS money?” As his manager, we also need to consider how we use THE REMAINING 90% in order to help support the work of his kingdom.
A God honoring focus sees money as “God’s money” rather than “my money”. When we see it as his money, it is not a matter of how much do we need to keep, but how much do we need to give.
Characteristic 2 : A God honoring giver focuses on what is GIVEN rather than what is KEPT.
If all the resources we have at our disposal are actually God’s and we are in charge of managing them wisely in order to give God a return for his investment, then our focus should not be on how much we give to God rather than on what we keep for ourselves. We’ve already stated that We wouldn’t be happy with an investment manager that invested 10% for him and kept 90% as fees. But that is what we are saying when we say I’ll give my tithe and not a cent more.
That is what I have essentially been doing and what the Pharisees that Jesus condemned were doing. I’d meticulously work out my income, before tax of course, divide it by 10 and that is what I’d give to God. There’d be the occasional thanksgiving offering which was extra, so essentially I’d invest let’s say 11% into God’s kingdom and use the other 89% for David’s kingdom. My focus was on my money and what I was keeping. My focus was on how I could maximize the return on my money – the 89% I kept.
I saw the tithe like a bill I owed. I wasn’t too concerned about where it went, but I sure was concerned about what I kept. I didn’t understand that my focus should have been on what I was giving, not what I was keeping. I wrongly believed that the money I earned was mine – but I was wrong.
A good investment manager will minimize his costs and spend all his effort in trying to maximize THE RETURN on the investment for the owner – because that is what is important. Jesus told that parable about the talents to show us that he is interested in gaining a return on the investment he is making with us. The focus is not on what is kept as fees but on what is invested. Why? Because and investment manager is looking after someone else’s money and trying to make an impact in the kingdom.
I believe that God is looking for faithful stewards who are wise money managers and who will limit their own lifestyle expenses so they can maximize the investment in the kingdom of God and make it count.
Many people in our Western churches believe they can’t even give 10% because the cost of their lifestyle – their mortgage, their mobile phone bills, their holidays, the running costs of their cars, the food they eat, the cost of their clothes means that they struggle to live on 90% of their wage.
The Southern Cross Magazine published by the Sydney Anglicans in June 2003 had an article in which Trevor Thomas, associate director of financial planning group Ethinvest, explains that pressure to maintain lifestyle is a contributing factor for people not believing they can give even 10% to God. He said
“Lifestyle is so important these days. And buying a lifestyle dream in Sydney can have serious ramifications for church giving. This generation is the richest they’ve ever been, much richer than their parents, but ministers tell me that their congregations certainly don’t feel it,” he said.
He says lack of disposable income, coupled with society’s expectations of having the latest material comforts, makes people very sensitive to day-to-day cash flow. “Borrowing has gone through the roof, squeezing people to the limit. This commits you to a certain level of income and expectation of quality of life, limiting disposable income. And economic uncertainty post-September 11 has seen more people, especially baby boomers, locking away their funds into shares, super and real estate, limiting the amount people can give to ministry.”
We expect and live a lifestyle that has demanded its pound of flesh and we have allowed it to squeeze out our giving. In the last National Church Life Survey done in 2001 (we are due for another one next month), it was found that 65% of Baptists do not give even 10% back to God. 65%!!!!! That is like the equivalent of these 2 blocks in our church not tithing. You have made life choices not to give back to God even 10% and as a result God says you are a thief.. You are stealing from God. I would argue that 10% is not a minimum figure that is supported in either the New Testament or Old Testament. We should be giving much more because we are managing God’s money. 65%!!!! No wonder we never make our budget – look at the back of our bulletin sheet – we are currently $16,000 behind where we should be. Virtually every Christian organization I know of struggles to raise funds because people are focused on what they keep rather than what they give.
They are worried that they won’t have enough to live on or to maintain their standard of living and next week I want to talk a little bit more about God’s answer to this worry. But today, I want to encourage each one here to put a governor on our lifestyles. Let’s LIMIT our lifestyles to honour God. If we don’t control our lifestyles, there will always be more things we can buy that really we don’t need. Let us live life simply so that we can give back to God more than we ever could dream of. I don’t expect that many of you will sell everything and give the money to the poor. But I could imagine some of you leaving meagerly so that you could give 30% or 40% of your income to God. God honoring givers don’t ask – “is what I am keeping enough?” they ask “is what I am giving away enough.”
So these are the first 2 characteristics of a God honoring giver …
1) they know that the money they have is “God’s” not their own. This understanding will revolutionize how they look at their money. They will ask what God would like done, not just with the amount they give him whether that be 10% or more; but they’ll ask what God would like done with all the money they have and all their possessions.
2) they focus not on how much they need to survive, but on how much can they give.
Next week I want to talk about 3 more characteristics of God honoring givers.
