Two men were marooned on an Island. One man paced back and forth worried and scared while the other man sat back and was sunning himself. The first man said to the second man, "aren’t you afraid we are about to die." "No," said the second man, "I make $100,000 a week and tithe faithfully to my church every week. My Pastor will find me."
As most of you already know, we’re going to focus on giving in the kingdom of heaven this morning in the fourth of a series of five messages on stewardship in the kingdom of heaven. I am really grateful that you’ve chosen to be here this morning because I know that when some people know in advance that the pastor is going to preach on giving, they’ll even try to make a dentist appointment on Sunday morning so they have a good excuse not be at church. But that is really unfortunate.
You see, I’m not going to teach on giving this morning because God needs your money or even because our church needs your money. Certainly God doesn’t need it. He created the whole universe before he created Adam and gave Him the ability to produce wealth. He did all that without one penny from any man. And though our church does have financial obligations, our church can survive just fine as well because this church does not belong to me or to any of us – it belongs to Jesus and He is more than capable of providing for those needs with or without your money.
The main reason that I’m going to teach on giving this morning is because I don’t want any of us to miss out on the bountiful blessings that God has in store for those who give according to the Biblical principles we’ll discuss this morning. I want you to give like that because I want you to experience all the blessings of God that come to those who give like God wants us to give.
We’ll begin this morning with the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, so go ahead and turn to Matthew 6 and follow along as I read the first four verses in that chapter.
Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Matthew 6:1-4 (ESV)
We actually skipped over this passage earlier in our examination of the Sermon on the Mount, but hopefully you’ll recognize that this is the first of three areas where Jesus warns against outward religious practices that are performed without the right heart.
Jesus is warning here against religion that consists of merely putting on a show. The verb “to be seen” in verse 1 is the Greek verb from which we get our word “theater” in English. And the word “hypocrite” in Greek denotes someone who is an actor.
In our culture, we give high esteem to actors and actresses who play a role in movie or a TV program. But Jesus isn’t very impressed with those who merely “play a role” when it come to their relationship with God. Those who practice their religion merely to be seen by others and receive the accolades of men have received their reward in full and they miss out on the blessings with which God desires to reward them. We’ve already seen that applies to our prayer life and to fasting and we see here that it also applies to our giving.
But if we are to be faithful stewards in the kingdom of God, there are a number of other principles that should also guide our giving so this morning we’re going to take a much broader view of that topic and not just limit it to the one aspect of giving that Jesus deals with here. But before we examine the New Testament principles for our giving, I think it will be helpful for us to take a brief moment to look at the underlying reason why we should give in the first place.
WHY GIVE?
• Giving is an act of worship that puts us in the cycle of blessing
My favorite definition of worship comes from Louie Giglio in his book, The Air I Breathe:
Worship is our response, both personal and corporate, to God – for who He is and what He has done!
Throughout the Bible, giving to God is always an act of worship in which we demonstrate by what we do just how much we value who God is and what He has done. The first example we have of this principle is found in Genesis 4 where Abel and Cain both bring an offering to God. But Abel’s offering is accepted by God and Cain’s is rejected, which leads to Cain killing his brother. Now I know what you’re probably thinking right now – that doesn’t sound like much of a blessing for Abel. After all, he got killed. But the writer of Hebrews gives us some insight into these events that we just don’t find in the Genesis account:
By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks.
Hebrews 11:4 (ESV)
First we see that Abel’s sacrifice was acceptable to God because he offered his gift in faith, recognizing who God was and what He had done. And even though he was killed by his brother, Abel was indeed blessed because he was commended as being righteous by God. And through his faith, he is still being used by God thousands of years later, even though he was killed.
This same principle is confirmed by Jesus when, on another occasion He repeated much of what He taught in the Sermon on the Mount and then added these words:
give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
Luke 6:38 (ESV)
Have you ever noticed when you by something like crackers or cereal in the store that the box usually has a statement that reads something like this: Contents packed by weight, not by volume? That’s because by the time these boxes have been shipped to the store, put on the shelves and then survive the trip home in your car, the contents often settle quite a bit. So when you open the box, it no longer looks like it is full.
Jesus promises that when we give, we receive blessings back in return. And Jesus is going pack those blessings in so that there is no need to account for any settling. Before we go any further, let me note that Jesus was not necessarily promising financial blessings here. Sometimes we do receive them, but by this point it’s clear from what we’ve learned about stewardship from Jesus that the most important blessings are those that provide us with abundance in His kingdom and not necessarily here in this world, which is only our temporary home.
Not surprisingly, the apostle Paul also confirms the relationship between giving and blessings.
The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.
2 Corinthians 9:6 (ESV)
We’re going to come back to this passage again in a few minutes, and we’ll be able to clearly see that reaping bountifully is clearly more spiritual than it is material. But the same principle that Jesus proclaimed earlier is clearly seen here again – the blessings we receive from God are dependent on how well we worship God through our giving.
So with that principle in mind, we are now ready to develop some…
NEW TESTAMENT GIVING PRINCIPLES
I am to give:
• Purposefully
Let’s begin with a passage that contains several of the principles we’ll be looking at this morning. Although most of the principles are contained in only a couple of verses, I want to read the entire section of Paul’s second letter to the church in Corinth so that we can understand the entire context.
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 sowing 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 is 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. Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!
2 Corinthians 9:6-15 (ESV)
In the New Testament, there are actually two types of giving that are addressed. The first is seen in Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount that we began with this morning. He is addressing there those times when a needy person crosses our path and we have an opportunity to meet a need in that person’s life. We’ll spend some more time dealing with that kind of giving in a moment.
But there is also the planned giving for the purpose of furthering the kingdom of God which is being addressed by Paul in this passage and in several others we’ll look at this morning. Although we’re going to be focusing primarily on giving financial resources, we need to keep in mind that these same principles also apply to our time and our talents.
Paul makes it very clear here that we are to give purposefully. Our giving is not to be a spur of the moment thing, but rather it is something that we are to prayerfully consider in advance. You’ll notice that “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart…” But how are we to do that? How are we to decide in our heart how much we are to give? The remaining principles will give us a lot of help in answering that question.
• Pleasurably
In verse 7 of that same passage in 2 Corinthians 9, Paul addresses the attitude and motive of the giver. We are to give “not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”
The word “cheerful” in 2 Corinthians 9:7 is the Greek word from which we get our English word “hilarious”. That doesn’t mean that we should all start laughing hysterically when we pass the offering plate, but then again maybe it wouldn’t be so bad for us to be so cheerful in our giving that it showed.
We’re going to see this same principle confirmed again when we look at 2 Corinthians 8 in just a moment. There we’ll see that the churches in Macedonia considered it a privilege to give to meet the needs of their fellow believers. Paul writes that they actually begged to take part in that offering.
As Paul reminds us in the passage we looked at in 2 Corinthians 9, our giving is to commemorate God’s in expressible gift to us – His Son. And when we consider just how much God has given to us in Jesus, our giving should be an act of great joy, not some obligation or duty that we engage in reluctantly.
• Periodically
Let’s look at another of Paul’s letters where he provides some further guidance on our giving:
Now concerning the collection for the saints: as I directed the churches of Galatia, so you also are to do. On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.
1 Corinthians 16:1-2 (ESV)
This principle would probably be accurately described as giving systematically rather than periodically, but that would have messed up my alliteration. The idea here is that our giving is not to be haphazard. Paul instructed his audience to put aside what they were going to give each week so that when it came time to go to church, they wouldn’t be caught in a position where they were only able to give whatever they happened to have at that moment.
For us today the principle still applies even though the methodology may have changed a bit. Today, most of us get paid on some regular basis – weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. as opposed to the days of the early church when many people were paid daily for their work.
So for us, we apply this principle by putting aside the amount we are going to give whenever we get paid. That idea leads us directly to our next principle…
• Primarily
When it comes to food, there is nothing wrong with leftovers. In fact, some of the best meals I have eaten have been leftovers. But when it comes to our giving, giving our leftovers to God is clearly not acceptable.
When God gave to us, he gave us His very best – His Son. So if we are going to worship God with our giving, we need to do the same. This principle is clearly demonstrated in the account of the first offering ever given to God:
In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard…
Genesis 4:3-5 (ESV)
We see here that Cain brought an offering of some of his fruit. But there is a clear contrast with Abel, who brought God the firstborn of his flock and the fat portions. In other words, Abel brought the very best, the top portion, as an offering to God. And that offering was highly regarded by God. Cain, on the other hand, just brought the leftovers and God wasn’t too thrilled with that.
We find this same principle confirmed in the Proverbs:
Honor the LORD with your wealth
and with the firstfruits of all your produce;
Proverbs 3:9 (ESV)
We honor God when we bring Him the firstfruits of that which we have produced.
So how do we apply this principle practically? It means that when I get paid, the first thing I do is that I set aside the top portion to give to God and then I live on the remainder. This principle, in particular, also needs to be applied to our time. I need to take the very best of my time and set it aside for the purpose of getting to know God better so that I can develop my relationship with Him and serve Him well.
• Proportionally
Back in 1 Corinthians 16, we found that each person is to store up what he is going to give “as he may prosper.” The idea is that each person is not expected to give the same amount, but rather that our giving is to be proportional to how much God has blessed us financially. Not surprisingly, we see this same principle confirmed in another of Paul’s writings:
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. 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.
2 Corinthians 8:1-5 (ESV)
Once again, we find that the people in these churches gave according to their means – and then even beyond that. So there is no doubt that we are to give in proportion to our means, but exactly how do we determine that?
Some would argue that the Old Testament tithe should be applied in order to determine how much we are to give. But we need to keep in mind that the tithe was actually more of an obligatory form of national taxation to provide for the theocracy of Israel. The word tithe literally means a tenth. There were in fact, actually three different tithes prescribed in the Old Testament, and depending on exactly how you interpret the passages that deal with them they actually totaled 20-23% of the increase in a person’s wealth.
But the New Testament passages that we’ve looked at this morning make it clear that Christ followers are no longer bound by the law and the related legalistic tithe. However, as we’ve seen with other areas of the law, Jesus actually held His followers to a higher, not a lower standard, when it came to applying the principles of the law.
So while we are not bound by the Old Testament principle of tithing, the idea that we are to give proportionally is still confirmed in the New Testament. And while we don’t want to be legalistic about it, it seems like 10% of our income is probably a pretty good place to start with as a minimum amount we ought to give to God. We’ll discuss this some more when we get to our last principle. But the words of Peter Marshall certainly give us some food for thought here:
Give according to your income, lest God make your income according to your giving.
• Privately
Now we finally get to the principle that we find in the words of Jesus that we began with this morning. Here, Jesus is primarily dealing with those unplanned opportunities that we have to meet the needs of others. You’ll notice here that He is not really dealing directly with giving to God’s work through the church, but rather with giving directly to the needy in order to meet their needs.
It seems that James may have very well had these words of Jesus in mind when he addressed the issue of giving to the needy:
If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?
James 2:15-16 (ESV)
But when those opportunities arise, Jesus is literally saying that we are to give without “tooting our own horn.” We’re not to give in order to try to impress others. In fact, our right hand shouldn’t even let our left hand know what we are doing. The idea there is that we’re not to even congratulate ourselves when we give to meet the needs of others. As one commentator put it: It’s very hard to clap with just one hand.
There are a lot of really generous people in our society. Many of them are not even believers. But far too often their giving is done for the purpose of making them look good to others or even just to make themselves feel good. But Jesus implies that meeting the needs of others when we have the ability to do so, should just be so natural that we don’t give it further thought.
• Plentifully
A recent study by a Christian research agency found that in 2009, members of mainline and evangelical Protestant churches gave an average of only 2.38% of their income to the church, down from 3.11% in 1968. [“The State of Church Giving through 2009,” Empty Tomb Inc.]
That discouraging statistic shows just how far we fall short of God’s plan for our giving as we’ve seen it described in Scripture this morning. God desires that His people give generously, even sacrificially. The people in the churches in Macedonia, for example, gave well beyond their means.
This idea that we are to give generously is confirmed by two examples, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament.
The first is found in the account of David readying to build an altar to the Lord so that God would not punish Israel for David’s sin of numbering the people. Araunah, the owner of the threshing floor offered to give David both the threshing floor and the wood and animals for the offering. But here is how David replied to that offer:
But the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will buy it from you for a price. I will not offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God that cost me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver.
2 Samuel 24:24 (ESV)
What are you offering to God this morning in the way of your time, talents and treasure? Are you merely bringing Him that which costs you nothing, that which requires no sacrifice on your part? Are you merely bringing Him the leftovers? Or are you bringing to Him a generous, sacrificial gift?
The second example is found in the familiar account of the widow’s mite:
And he sat down opposite the treasury and watched the people putting money into the offering box. Many rich people put in large sums. And a poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which make a penny. And he called his disciples to him and said to them, “Truly, I say to you, this poor widow has put in more than all those who are contributing to the offering box. For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on.”
Mark 12:41-44 (ESV)
Even though others may have given much more, the widow was commended because she gave sacrificially. She didn’t just give 10%, she gave 100%. While Jesus certainly doesn’t require that we give 100% all the time, He does expect us to give generously and sacrificially. I can’t tell you how much that is for you, but we would all do well to follow the advice given by C.S. Lewis:
I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.
Our giving is a direct reflection of how much value we place on God – who He is and what He has done for us. How are you doing with that? Are you giving…
• Purposefully
• Pleasurably
• Periodically
• Primarily
• Proportionately
• Privately
• Plentifully?
