Maybe you’ve put something in the basket and then wondered, “What did I just do. I want to go get it back!” For sure, we’re glad that a camera is not fixed on us when we give. We’re even more glad that no one can read our thoughts when we give.
Giving. When I teach in a clear, direct, pointed way about money and possessions, that puts me in good company. You say, “Who’s that?” Jesus. Randy Alcorn wrote a book called “The Treasure Principle” and in it he shares that “15 percent of everything Christ said relates to this topic – more than His teachings on heaven and hell combined.” So I am in good company today with Jesus in talking to you about financial matters.
A pastor in California, David Jeremiah has said, “God speaks about baptism in 40 verses in the Bible, prayer in 275 verses, love in 650 verses, and finances, material possessions, and wealth in 2,350 verses. He speaks about wealth 88 times in Matthew, 54 times in Mark, and 92 times in Luke. Jesus knew that there is a fundamental connection between our spiritual lives and our giving. The word “give” is found in the Bible 1,500 times.
If we preached here at CVCC as much about giving as Jesus talked about it, we’d devote 7.7 Sundays a year to teaching on giving. So, we are well within our limits.
I used to think that teaching what God says about giving threaten people. But I’m finding that when people start applying these truths, it’s really not threatening, but thrilling. It’s not a drudgery; it’s a delight. Learning how to give really frees us up to be all that God wants us to be. And it increases our joy!
The blessing of the Lord makes rich, and He adds no sorrow to it.
Proverbs 10:22 (ESV)
Now, you have to know that we are not teaching on this topic because we are financially strapped. We are not in budget trouble. In fact, you are such a generous people that you out-gave the budget last year. We ended the year in the black. Thank you!
And you need to know that I do not personally know who gives what here at CVCC. I don’t look in the books and I can’t even write a check.
The leaders at CVCC simply want you to grow in your wisdom regarding finances. That’s why we are looking at some truths about the wise use of money in the book of Proverbs.
This book not only talks about sharing your money, but also about using your money and #6 saving your money. You’ve already heard some of what it says about
earning your money.
Let’s face it, lots of people do not enjoy their jobs. Dilbert asks,
“How can I make my job more enjoyable?”
His answer? “Get a spouse who complains a lot and have a few kids.”
“That sounds awful.” “You won’t believe how much you enjoy being at work.”
God has a better idea about finding joy on the job.
Work diligently.
Work skillfully.
Work wisely.
Work consistently.
Work expectantly. And you do all this not out of dutiful drudgery, but you work this way by connecting the dots between your job and Jesus. He’s our pattern and our power for work. He worked in creation and redemption and He works in intercession. We look to Him and we are transformed. He gives us joy on the job.
Now, once you’ve earned your money, you’ve got to share it. In Proverbs, God doesn’t wait too long to address the topic of giving. In two verses, very early in God’s little instruction book about living wisely are answers to may of our questions about giving. Let’s read.
9Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your product;
10then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV)
We’re going to explore this verse by asking the who, what, why, when, where, how questions.
1. Who should give?
When you are thinking through a verse, it’s helpful to notice words that are repeated. In these two verses, one word appears 4 times. Do you see it?
… your wealth … your product … your barns … your vats
God wants us to take this personally! Think back to your grammar class. This is a second person plural possessive pronoun. Who should give? You – all of you! – give your wealth!
When you take it personally, God sends a blessing to you.
Blessed is he who is generous…
Proverbs 14:21b (ESV)
The word “blessed” can be translated “happy.” Generous people are happy people. And God wants that happiness for you.
Who should give? You… and me!
2. What should I give?
… your wealth
The word “wealth” here conveys the idea that you have enough goods – enough stuff – to make your life seem easy when you compare you life to the lives of the poor and the helpless. In that sense, it’s fair to say that most all of us in this room have wealth.
… your product
Today, our product is typically dollars. The word “product” in Proverbs refers to crops, grain, and fruit. Proverbs was originally written for people in an agricultural economy. The word is used in Deuteronomy 14:22.
Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year.
Deuteronomy 14:22 (NIV)
A tenth of your product is to go to God. It’s called the tithe. God says give a tenth back. Bring a tenth and return it to Him. This was to provide for the ministry leaders, the Levites.
A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.
Leviticus 27:30 (NLT)
I’ve heard people say, “We are tithing 5% of our income.” Well, you can give 5% of your income, but you can’t tithe 5%. Why not? The word tithe means ten percent.
So, what should I give? I give a portion of my wealth, my product. And God says that biblical giving starts at 10%.
3. Why should I give?
When I give, I honor God.
Honor the Lord…
When I give, I am treating God as my top priority. What I do with the dollars I bring home from my job shows how much I value God compared to other things.
Honoring God is a big deal to God. What is it? It’s about applause. It’s about cheering God, about growing His reputation and His fame. He deserves to be cheered.
In the OT, “honor”= kabowd = glory. This Hebrew word for honor and glory means “heavy” or “weighty.” We say, “He carries a lot of weight. We mean, “He has a lot of clout.” Well, God is weighty. He’s the One who really has clout. A few weeks ago, I read a quote:
God is the most important person in the universe and He does not like being taken for granted. He does not like it when we honor someone or something else in His place.
How can I show Him that He’s important to me? How can I show Him that I don’t take Him for granted? How can I show Him that I honor Him most? When I give I honor God. Generosity always honors God.
Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors him.
Proverbs 14:31 (ESV)
The challenge of giving is one of the ways that God tests us over and over. God wants to show us what’s in our hearts. What do we desire most? What do we honor most? Do we want to advance His name, His fame, His honor? Do we really want people to applaud Him? Or do we want to keep that 10% so we can have 10% more security and comfort and fun and “stuff”? As Jesus says, “You know where your heart is by where your treasure is.”
When we give, we prove to ourselves and to our world, that God is worth more to us than TVs, than clothes, than houses, than cars, than anything!
It’s one thing to say your wife is first. It’s another thing to treat your wife as first. It’s one thing to say God is first. It’s another thing to treat Him as first. Giving is a way for us to get our values and priorities in order. When I give, I honor God.
When I give, God honors me.
then your barns will be filled… and your vats will be bursting…
Giving is not only the way God provides for His work, but it’s the way He also provides for His workers. If you don’t give, you are shortchanging yourself. He says, “Trust Me with the first ten percent and watch what I will do to meet your needs.”
There is one who scatters, and yet increases all the more, and there is one who withholds what is justly due, and yet it results only in want. The generous man will be prosperous, and he who waters will himself be watered.
Proverbs 11:24-25 (NASB)
In Malachi 3, God speaks to us about giving. And He says, “Try Me now in this. Test Me. See if I won’t bless you!”
I heard about a boy who came to give an offering to a missionary. He’d heard from the missionary about giving ten percent – that you could test God – that God would open up the windows of heaven and bless you if you gave to support God’s work. The boy had gone fishing. After a while, he came to the church and gave the missionary a fish. The missionary figure out, “Oh, this is a tithe.” He asked the boy, “Where are the other nine fish?” The boy said, “Oh, they are still in the water. But God will give them to me. I’m giving the tithe first.” This boy trusted God. His prayer was, “If I give You the first one, Lord, I know You’ll take care of the other nine.”
God is the owner. You are the manager. He is testing you to see if you will trust Him. If you prove trustworthy, then He can trust you with more. But if you don’t trust Him and prove it by giving, then He won’t entrust you with more.
Why should I give? When I give, I honor God and He honors me.
4. Where should I give?
At first glance, it looks like Proverbs 3:9-10 doesn’t address the issue of where to give. But look at what is likely the word that sounds strangest to your ears.
… with the firstfruits…
Firstfruits? What’s that? It’s really pretty simple. It’s the fruit that comes first. It’s to be given to God. Another passage tells us where that is supposed to take place.
Take some of the firstfruits of all that you produce from the soil of the land the LORD your God is giving you and put them in a basket. Then go to the place the LORD your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name… The priest shall take the basket from your hands and set it down in front of the altar of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 26:2, 4 (NIV)
The place for giving in the Old Testament when Deuteronomy was written was the tabernacle. Later, the place for giving the firstfruits was the temple. Now, in our day, the place for giving is the church.
How many requests for funds come your way over the course of a year? My mail box at home and at the office overflows with requests to support this or that. We simply can’t respond to them all. If we try, our resources will be spread out in every direction. Over the years, Maryanne and I have prayerfully decided to support many ministries outside our local church. But the primary place for our gifts has been the local church.
David Jeremiah is a pastor in Southern California who has a radio ministry. He obviously wants people to donate to support his radio program. But even though His radio ministry depends on donations from people who don’t attend his church, here’s what he says, “You should give where the center of your spiritual life is. That’s your church. The church has to be the center of your giving.”
Where should I give? In the Bible, God has always had a place and that place in the NT is the church.
5. When should I give?
Let’s consider one more time this word “firstfruits.”
… with the firstfruits…
Emphasis… first! You don’t let all the apples fall from the tree and then hope God doesn’t notice that you are trying to give Him the spoiled and rotten ones. No. You give to Him the first apples.
The truth is that the most common kind of giving in a church is leftover giving. After I meet my needs and my wants, then I’ll give to God whatever I have left. Come on. What do we really expect God to do with left-overs? He’s saying, “How about some Pepto-bismal?” Leftover giving upsets His stomach. He’s thinking, “Is that all I’m worth to you?”
To make sure we don’t give Him leftovers, God gave us some practical instruction.
On the first day of every week each of you should put aside some of your money. Give a certain part of what you have earned.
I Corinthians 16:2a (NLV)
You have to just decide that the first thing you will do with your paycheck is give to God. It’s part of your worship. It’s why we’re not embarrassed to pass the offering baskets.
On the way home, some of you need to have a conversation like this: “We need to do this.” “I don’t see how. We are struggling right now.” “I don’t exactly know how it will all work out either, but we can do it.” “When do we start?” “We’ll start with the next check. Every payday, God gets what belongs to Him first. After all, it’s all His anyway.”
You have to decide. Just do it! That’s how it starts. It takes what is threatening and makes it thrilling.
6. How should I give?
I will give expectantly.
Think about it. This is a promise. Honor God with your giving and your barns will burst and your vats will overflow. God said it and you can count on it! He says it in other places in Proverbs, too.
Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed. Proverbs 19:17 (ESV)
Lends to the Lord. I like the sound of that. I think God will give you a good interest rate – a good return on your money! He’ll repay you!
I like to think of it this way: We have a small shovel and God has a big one. When you shovel your resources to Him, He shovels His resources back to you. And He always wins that shoveling match!
I will give generously.
The righteous gives and does not hold back.
Proverbs 21:26b (ESV)
Don’t hold back. Let go! If you took a 10 percent pay cut, would you die? No! If you gave to God more in 2005 than you’ve ever given before, would it kill you? No! Don’t hold back!
In recent months, I’ve begun to give online. I set up our online bill pay and made CVCC an account payable. I type in number. The temptation is “No. Don’t do it.” But I say, “Money, you don’t own me. I own you. I’m not holding back.” And I push enter. And when I do, God shows up.
I will give joyously.
Think about it. If my barns are filled and vats bursting, I’m going to be happy about that.
God loves a cheerful giver.
II Cornithians 9:7b (ESV)
We gather here once a week to worship from glad hearts. Giving is not to be seen as a duty, but a delight. When the basket comes by you aren’t thinking, “I better grit my teeth and do what God says so I make it to heaven.” No. Remember that Jesus thought the Pharisees were worse than the prostitutes.
Giving is a glad-hearted act of worship. It’s a spill-over of gratitude from a heart that is stunned by a glorious, saving God. When we give, we ought to think things like: “I can hardly believe You saved me. I can hardly believe You love me. You are beautiful beyond description. This 10% is a pitiful token of what my heart feels for You.”
* * *
I’ve asked our ushers to pass the baskets. I want you to take something out. How’s that for a twist on things? When the basket comes by, take out one of those bills.
Randy Alcorn wrote a book called “The Treasure Principle.” In the book, he talks about the Civil War.
What if you were a citizen in the South during the Civil War? What if you had a boatload of confederate money? And what if you saw the writing on the wall that the North was going to win?
If you were wise, you’d develop a strategy around managing your confederate currency. If it became clear that your cause was going to end, you’d be wise to turn your confederate dollars into US dollars. You’d keep just enough to live on and turn the rest into US currency. You see, confederate currency was, of course, worthless after the Civil War. I’ve even heard stories of how it was burned for heat after the war.
Look at that bill in your hands. The heroic General, Stonewall Jackson, is on the front. It was printed in February, 1864. It says, “Deo Vindice,” “God, the defender!” This bill is brimming with hope. But Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April, 1865. Just 14 months after this $500 bill was printed, it was absolutely worthless.
Now listen, our current American currency is one day going to be just as irrelevant.
Maybe when you meet with your doctor, you’ll hear some news about your health that will shake you to your core and you’ll know then, just how irrelevant your dollars are. One day, Christ will come and set up His kingdom and we’ll all see just how meaningless our money really is.
What we ought to do is figure out how to turn anything of value in this life into something that will have value in the life to come. Once the kingdom comes, what you have in your wallet or purse or bank or IRA or house will be worth nothing.
We need to ask ourselves, “Am I using this ‘confederate’ currency I have in a way that will impact the kingdom?” Jesus once said,
I tell you, use your worldly resources to benefit others and make friends. In this way, your generosity stores up a reward for you in heaven.
Luke 16:9 (NLT)
You are either moving away from your treasure or you are moving toward it. If your treasure is on this earth, you are moving away from it. If your treasure is in heaven you are moving toward it.
* * *
Some of us need to trust the Lord enough to test Him. He says, “If you will bring the full tithe in, I will open the windows of heaven.” Do you believe God tells the truth? Would He tell us the truth about salvation and then lie to us about giving?
David Jeremiah tells a story about a man who just couldn’t bring himself to trust God when it came to his money. He told his pastor about his doubts. “I can’t give ten percent.” His pastor said, “If I personally promise to cover any shortfall for you because you gave ten percent would you tithe for one month?” [Now, I have to stop right here and tell you, this is just a story. I don’t have any personal plans to put this in operation at CVCC!] But the pastor asked this man, “Would you trust me?” The man said, “If you promise to make up the shortfall, I guess I could try tithing for one month.” The pastor was a wise man. He said, “That’s interesting to me. You will put your trust in me. I’m a frail, fallen man. I’m a sinner. And I have so few resources. Yet, you’ll trust me, but you won’t trust in your heavenly Father who is omnipotent and eternal and good and wise and who owns it all!” The man got the point. He began to tithe and has been tithing ever since.
Listen, if you are a Christ-follower, you’ve based your eternity on God and His word. You are trusting God with your soul. But if you won’t give, you’re saying, “I’ll trust You, God for my eternal future. But I can’t trust You for my financial future.”
A point to ponder: Giving proves and improves my delight in the Lord.
Recently, God has been speaking to me about what it means to obey Psalm 37:4. “Delight yourself in the Lord…” God wants us to be happy, joy-filled, people who live lives of delight! And giving is a way for us to both 1) get delight and 2) show that Jesus delights us.
Verses to remember: Happy is he who is gracious to the poor (Proverbs 14:21, NASB)
He who is generous will be blessed (Proverbs 22:9, NASB)
A question to consider: What will I change about my giving that will get me more delight?
I hope that you can see the connection between generosity and Jesus. He is our pattern and our power for generosity. He was and is a giver! The Bible says Jesus gave His life as a ransom for many.
Read story…
When Jesus died on the cross, He gave of Himself. Our lives were distorted by our sin. But Jesus curved His lips to meet ours. He bent down to kiss us, to save us. This is a gift. He is a giver.
And so we give… not only our treasure, but our very lives.
I want my sons at ages 23, 17 and 11 to learn that there is not a direct connect between having many things and being happy. A life of simplicity by controlling your spending while giving to advance the kingdom will be a far happier life than a life of luxury.
If you are a child, a teen, or a young adult, please learn these things early. Statistics show that the young are less likely to give anything than the older. Statistics show that the single are less likely to give than the married. You do not need to be old to be smart. And you do not need to be married to be Christ-like. Here at CVCC, we need to have such a passion for joy in giving that we prove the pollsters wrong.
You will be tempted to resist these truths today. You will be able to come up with reasons why this doesn’t apply to you. But know this, you will never have the joy God meant for you to have until you deal with this issue once and for all.
You can trust Him. God does not lie. He is the truth. You just have to believe Him.
I realize that some of you are here just checking things out – not the church, but also the Lord. You are wondering “What would it be like to be in God’s kingdom?” You are wondering, “Do I really want in on what I’ve heard about today?”
I pray you do want in. This is not something that you have to check off on a list before you come to God. You don’t have to say, “OK. I’ll watch Christian TV or get a quilted Bible carrying case.” But if you come to Christ, He will forgive you and change you and make you a glad-hearted giver.
