Questions About Giving

Well, we are in Missions Month during the month of November, and there are two emphases that we focus upon during this month. First of all, the missionary mandate, the last and great commission that Christ gave to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.

We endeavor to emphasize that from the pulpit, and we endeavor to emphasize that by bringing in gospel missionaries who have answered the call to go to the ends of the earth and to have them tell about their work and to challenge us for the great commission. And so the missions mandate is upon our focus, or is our focus, in Missions Month. And then secondly, the matter of financial stewardship. Obviously, those who go, we're going to have to help them go.

We're going to have to help support them financially so that they can go. And so it's a good time to focus upon the issue of giving and our financial stewardship. But as I have tried to tell you over the years, that's not the main reason why we give.

That's not the main reason why I challenge you to give. But it's a bigger issue than that. It has to do with many areas of our Christian life and many, many parts of our relationship to God. And it is very important that we understand what the Bible teaches about giving and that we submit to it and that we follow the instructions that God gives us and that we grow in grace, all kinds of grace, but especially the grace of giving as we focus upon that during this month.

And so we're going to be doing that again in our message today. We're talking about financial stewardship, and the idea of stewardship is that we are not owners of the things we possess. We are managers. We are stewards.

That's what a steward is. One who manages resources that belong to another, but they have been entrusted into his care. That's the way the Bible teaches us to view the money and the resources, the material things that God has given to us. Those resources are entrusted into our care by God for God-given purposes, God-specified purposes. And the Bible tells us what those purposes are, and many of them have to do with our physical needs. Your father knows that you have need of all of these things, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. And so we have been given resources in order to secure food and shelter and clothing and the things that are needed in order to live and to supply for our families in this material world where God has placed us and where God has designed that we shall live in this way. But a portion of these things is to be given for the work of Christ's kingdom so that those who are involved in gospel work might have food and shelter and clothing and the things which they need in order to carry out their ministry.

And so all of these resources are to be managed wisely according to the desires of the one who owns them. We sometimes get in our minds that I own them, we own them. One of the misconceptions of tithing, and I'm going to get into tithing in a moment, but I'm not going to touch on this, so I'll touch on it now, and that is tithing sometimes encourages us to believe that nine-tenths belongs to me and one-tenth belongs to God.

Wrong. Ten-tenths belongs to God. And we manage it for His glory according to His directions.

We need to understand that. Now, because I'm going to speak about giving broadly today of necessity, this is not going to be an expository sermon, it's going to be a topical sermon. I'm going to cover the gamut from Genesis, well not all the way to Revelation, but from Genesis well into the New Testament. I'm going to be quoting a lot of scriptures today. I'm going to be squeezing a lot of Bible truth into a short period of time.

I hope you have your ears on. Some of this I've covered before, but some of it I have not, but it needs to be reviewed. But these are things that I believe that God has enabled me to learn about giving over 60 years, things that I have learned from the Bible and things that I have endeavored to practice in my own life.

And I want to address these things today by asking five questions. Question number one, what about the tithe? What about the tithe?

That's the big one. A lot of people have questions about tithing. That's not as simple a question as it might seem on the surface. Some people think they have a simple answer. God commands tithing, we're supposed to tithe.

Some people think they have a simple answer. Tithing is Old Testament, we're New Testament, so tithing's off for us. I would suggest that the answer is a little more complex than either of those two simple responses, but let me try to show you what I think the Bible teaches. What about the tithe? The tithe clearly was required under the law of Moses, and I don't think any of us would dispute that.

We know that. I don't have to quote scripture to prove it to you. And the tithe is 10%, one-tenth part. And in the Old Testament, in an agricultural society, that often meant one-tenth of the crops, one-tenth of the increase of the field, one-tenth of the animals, the new animals, the additions to the herds and flocks that God gave in increasing those commodities.

One-tenth. That tenth, under the law of Moses, was given primarily for the support of the priests and the Levites. The Levites then, and priests of course were Levites, the Levites then tithed what was given to them, and that was used for the upkeep of the temple.

So there was a pretty well understood system here, and it worked well when people were carrying it out. The people of God gave a tenth of their increase to support the Levites who did the work connected with the temple, the tabernacle and the temple. The Levites gave 10% of what they received to pay the upkeep of the temple, the various expenses. They didn't have to pay electric bills, but they had other bills that were involved in the upkeep of the temple.

And so that's the way it worked. And in the law of the tithing, and I don't have time to get into the details, there was also a smaller amount designated for the aid of the poor. So in the Old Testament, tithing was first and foremost and primarily for the support of priests and Levites, but secondly, not to be neglected, not to be left out of what was commanded, there was a portion that was given for the needs of the poor. But New Testament believers are not under the law of Moses. Certainly not under all of it. There is some disagreement about whether we're under part of it or not, and I don't have time to get into that now, but certainly I don't think anybody here would teach us that we are, as New Covenant believers, under all of those 673 requirements and prohibitions that Moses gave. We not only aren't under them, we couldn't even list them. We couldn't remember them. We couldn't count them. That's why Jesus said this is a weighty matter.

It weighs you down. So we're not under all the law of Moses, that's for sure. Most would agree that we're not under, for certain, the ceremonial and civil laws. When it comes to the Ten Commandments, that's another discussion, a very weighty discussion that I'm not going to get into now, but tithing is not found in the Ten Commandments. Tithing is under the law of Moses, and it must come under one of the other categories, presumably under the ceremonial law of Moses, and we know that that is not given to New Covenant believers. The New Testament contains two and only two specific references to tithing.

One of them is in the words of Jesus when He is scolding, rebuking the Pharisees, and He has a whole list of things that He rebukes them for, but here's what He says in Matthew 23, 23. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, these are little herbs from the garden, so they were meticulous. They not only tithed their money, but they tithed the produce not only of their field, but out of their vegetable gardens. You pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, the smallest details that relate to tithing, and have, and here's the problem, have neglected the weightier matters of the law, justice and mercy and faith.

And then He says, these you ought to have done without leaving the others undone. Not that you shouldn't have tithed even meticulously the herbs from your garden, but you shouldn't have been tithing that meticulously and neglecting things that are much weightier. That's the word that Jesus had, the only word that He had relating to tithing. The other reference is found in the book of Hebrews chapter 7, and I'm not going to turn to that or read that.

It's a more extended passage, verses 1 through 10. And the writer of Hebrews there recounts for us the occasion when Abraham in the Old Testament paid tithes to Melchizedek. He wants to make a particular point about Melchizedek and about the priesthood of Melchizedek, in which Jesus Christ is a priest according to the line of Melchizedek, not to the line of Levi. Jesus Christ was born of the tribe of Judah and wouldn't therefore qualify for the Mosaic priesthood. But He is a priest after the order of Melchizedek. He is our great high priest.

He is a priest of a different order. And the book of Hebrews gives us a rather expensive section about that. And one of the things that it talks about is how Abraham gave tithes to Melchizedek, and he says without question the tithes are paid by the lesser to the greater.

So that means that Melchizedek was greater than Abraham. So that's the second specific reference to tithing in the New Testament. Neither of these two passages commands tithing for New Testament believers.

It deals with it, but it doesn't command it for New Testament believers. And I say that having already pointed out that Jesus said to the Pharisees, you should have tithed those things, but I don't consider the Pharisees to be New Covenant believers. They really were operating under the Mosaic law. And Jesus said you are under the Mosaic law. You pride yourself in keeping the Mosaic law.

You tithe meticulously the herbs out of your garden. You should have done that. That's exactly what you should have done, but you shouldn't have left the weight of your matters undone. But neither passage commands tithing for New Testament believers, but neither passage specifically rejects tithing for New Testament believers. Now, I don't want to press too much weight on that because we don't teach from what's absent. That's a mistake is to put too much weight on what isn't there.

But it is interesting to note the contrast. There are certain things in the law of Moses that we are specifically told that's off. That is no more. The dietary laws, we even read during the time of Jesus that when he said, the things that go into a man, what you eat, that doesn't defile you. It's what comes out of your heart. And there's this insight that says when he said that, he purified all food. The Mosaic regulations, the kosher laws, the not eating pork and so forth, when Jesus said that, that was abrogated, specifically abrogated by the New Testament teaching. So the New Testament not only does not teach that we follow the dietary law of Moses, but it specifically says we don't anymore. That's picked up again by Paul in the 1 Timothy epistle where he says, some people teach that you need to follow the dietary laws and that's heresy, that's wrong. That's not what the Scripture teaches. All things are sanctified by prayer and by thanksgiving to God.

We're free to eat anything. So specifically, the New Testament abrogates some elements of the Mosaic law that people wanted to carry over into the New Testament, but it doesn't do that with tithing. It doesn't command it. It doesn't abolish it.

It just refers to it. And in those two passages where tithing is mentioned in the New Testament, tithing is treated favorably but certainly not obligatorily. It's not an obligation, clearly. It's not an obligation. But it's not denounced. It's not rejected. It's not set aside. It's treated favorably.

This you should have done. And Abraham is commended for paying tithes to Melchizedek. One further thing about the tithe and that is to point out that tithing predates Moses. We just saw the example of it in Abraham and Melchizedek. When did Abraham live? At least 400 or more years before Moses, which means 400 or more years before the Mosaic law with the requirement to tithe, and yet he's tithing. Abraham tithed to Melchizedek. That's the only example of tithing we have in the life of Abraham, but I think there's reason to think that there might be other times as well.

We have another example of tithing that predates Moses, and that's in the life of Jacob. We read that in Genesis 28, 20 through 22 when he's running away from home. He got in trouble.

He's afraid of Esau. And he's running away from home, and while he's sleeping one night, God gives him a vision. The ladder led down from heaven.

Remember that? And the angels ascending and descending on the ladder. And that has great gospel significance.

No time for that now. But then when Jacob woke up, we read in Genesis 28, 20, Jacob made a vow saying, if God will be with me and keep me in this way that I am going, and give me bread to eat and clothing to put on so that I come back to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone which I have set as a pillar shall be God's house, and of all that you give me, I shall surely give a tenth to you. Jacob promises to tithe hundreds of years before Moses. When you take these two things together, Abraham tithing to Melchizedek, why tithe? Why ten percent? Why not five percent? Why not fifteen percent? Why tithe, Abraham? Good question. Think about that. Jacob, why promise to tithe?

Why a tenth? Where did that come from? Moses' law wasn't written yet.

Where did that come from? Well, we don't know, but it would appear that he'd seen that example in his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham. I can't prove that. I can't say that dogmatically. But somewhere he got this concept.

It seems to be a well-known general practice that an appropriate amount to give to the Lord is ten percent. Apparently Abraham had that concept. Jacob had that concept, and that was before Moses came along. You see, there were things that people were doing that they knew were the requirements of God before the law of Moses, and some of those things were encoded into the law of Moses, but they were already in practice.

Other things were not. Other things were new in the law of Moses that had not been known before. And it looks to me like tithing, though not a command, because Moses hadn't given his law yet, nevertheless was a concept, a general practice that was understood hundreds of years before the law of Moses. That's all I'm going to say about tithing. I move on to question number two. What are New Testament instructions regarding giving?

Well, I can summarize them in two areas. Number one, instructions about the act of giving, and number two, instructions about the objects of our giving. In regard to the act of our giving, we're instructed to give. I could quote all kinds of verses. This one by Jesus. Give, and it will be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom, for with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. The word of Christ has both a command to give and a promise for those who do give, a return, a reward for their giving, but it's a command to give. We're not only instructed to give, but we are instructed to give generously. In the passage I read earlier in 2 Corinthians 9, 6, But this I say, he who sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.

That's about giving. You give a little, you'll get a return, but it'll be a little return, just like the farmer and his seed in the field. You just sow a quarter of an acre and put in a few seeds, you're not going to get a huge crop.

If you sow 600 acres and fill it full of seed, you'll probably get a huge crop. He who sows sparingly shall reap sparingly, he who sows bountifully shall reap bountifully. That relates to our giving. So we're encouraged to give generously, and we are instructed to give cheerfully because this passage goes on in verse 7 to say, So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly, or in necessity.

God doesn't want us to feel like this is a weighty obligation, a duty that we'd rather not do, which may be the reason why it doesn't follow the law of Moses, which was an obligation, which a lot of people resented and didn't want to do. But God doesn't want us to give that way, not grudgingly, nor in necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver, a happy giver, a hilarious giver, some have translated that. So these are instructions about the act of giving. We are to give, we are to give as generously as we can, and we are to give cheerfully. We are to be happy in our giving, glad to be able to do it.

But in New Testament instructions, number two, we have instructions about the objects of our giving, and again, they're very simple. There are two things, primarily, number one, support of gospel ministers, and number two, assistance to the needy. Support of gospel ministers.

Several texts. I'll read the one from 1 Timothy 5, 17 and 18. Let the elders who rule well be counted worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in the Word and Doctrine 4.

The Scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain, and the laborer is worthy of his wages. It's talking about money, and it tells the church to support financially those who are faithfully leading the church, the elders. Now we're not given many details about how this is to be carried out, we don't have the mechanics, but clearly this is an obligation of the church to support its ministers, and obviously churches don't have any money of their own. It's the money that the members of the church give, and so this becomes a New Testament obligation of Christians to support ministers of the gospel. But also, we have teaching about assistance to the needy.

That falls into two categories as I study the Scriptures. Number one, emergency situations, and number two, extended situations. Emergency situations are things like the Good Samaritan. Christ told the parable, he commended the Good Samaritan for seeing a need, seeing an emergency, and meeting that need out of his own pocket. That was an act of generous giving on his part.

And he was commended for that, and all of us are instructed the same way. The question was, who's my neighbor? Jesus told this parable, and he said, your neighbor is anybody that God puts across your path who has a need. Even if he's a hated Samaritan, or if you are a Samaritan, he's a hated Jew, whoever is obviously in need that God puts in your path, you have an obligation to help. Anyone brought across our path by God who has a need that's obvious to observation, and I say these things carefully. People who require immediate short-term assistance, and you can see that without any problem, when that's true, you have an obligation to help that person no matter who they are, no matter the color of their skin, no matter whether they're your kind or not, no matter what their politics, it's got nothing to do with it. Now I emphasize when the need is obvious to observation, I don't think this covers the person who calls you on the phone or calls you and gives you a sob story, and you can't see the need.

These are tougher. I don't think that's in the same category. I'm not sure we're obligated to help in that situation. It may be that we ought to do some more research and find out if the need is genuine.

Most of the time, I'll just tell you my own experience, most of the time when I've been able to do that, it doesn't appear to be one of those emergency needs. I'm thinking of one man I talked to on the phone for quite a while and trying to get a little background information. He couldn't give me information about this, he couldn't give me information about that. Well, where do you work? I work in South Carolina. Well, who do you work for?

Well, I work for so and so. Can you give me the name of your supervisor? Yeah, here's his name. Do you have a phone number?

Whoops. Why do you want his phone number? I'm going to call him. Call him and find out what he can tell me about you. I don't know you. You called me up on the phone.

I don't know you from Adam's house cat. How do I know this is a genuine need and you're not just taking me for a ride, that you're not a professional beggar? If your story's true, we can find out very simply.

Just give me the number, I'll make the call, if it's true, I'll help you. And you know what happened next? Click.

Click. So, that's not a good Samaritan type of situation. But you come across somebody who's injured in an automobile accident.

They are lying by the road. You help. You help.

Doesn't matter who they are, you help. That's one assistance to the needy. But the Bible also teaches us about extended support. First of all, for our personal family, we have a responsibility. And secondly, to the deserving needy. To our personal family. I'm shuffling a little bit until I get back to 1 Timothy chapter 5, verse 3.

Well, let's see here. Personal family, 1 Timothy 5, 8. But if anyone does not provide for his own, and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

That's a responsibility, isn't it? And the same passage also talks about the deserving needy that are involved in care by the church. Honor widows who are really widows. Not just because a lady has lost her husband doesn't necessarily mean she's a needy widow. What the Bible calls a real widow. It's clear from this passage that Paul isn't defining widow simply by someone who lost the husband. He's defining widow more by the common characteristic of that day of widows who are left in a destitute situation by their widowhood.

Needy widows. So honor widows who are really widows. He says in verse 9, Do not let a widow under sixty years of old be taken into the number. And not unless she has been the wife of one man, and so forth.

It goes through the responsibilities. Then it says in verse 16, the requirements of the person you're considering helping. And then in verse 16, If any believing man or woman has widows, let them relieve them, and do not let the church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are really widows. So there's a responsibility to take care of our personal family, take care of our own, don't deny the faith, be worse than an infidel. That would be a financial responsibility outside the church.

And then there are the deserving needy in an extended support program, not an emergency situation. And that is a church program. If they have family, let the family take care of them and let not the church be burdened, let not the church be responsible, so that it has resources to take care of those who are genuine widows, who don't have anybody to help take care of them. So Paul is clearly here talking about a church program. Widows who have been vetted carefully, the need is genuine and obvious, the church has a responsibility to help, and if the church has a responsibility to help, the members of the church have a responsibility to give to help the church meet the need.

It's pretty obvious, isn't it? So instructions about New Testament giving in regard to the act of giving, we are to give generously and cheerfully. In regard to the objects of giving, we are to support gospel missionaries, that would include gospel ministers, that would include missionaries, and assistance to the needy under those situations that the Bible defines for us. Which, it strikes me, is the same basic obligations of Old Testament giving. What was the tithe for in the Old Testament? To care for the priests and Levites, the religious workers of that day. And what else? The poor and the needy. Same thing.

In the New Testament, it's not under the law of Moses, but we've got something that parallels it pretty obviously here. Question number three, moving along. Are there rewards for giving?

Yes. First of all, there's a general blessing. Since my sermon today is not expository, I had trouble deciding what I would call my text. Whenever I file these sermons, I file them under text. What's my text going to be today?

I'm going all over the place. Well, my text today is Acts 2035. Paul, speaking to the Ephesian elders, says, I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus that He said, it is more blessed to give than to receive. More blessed to give than to receive. Most people think it's more blessed to receive than to give, but the Bible says it's more blessed to give than to receive. There's a special blessing of God upon those who give for the right reason, with the right motives, a general blessing. There's a reward for giving, a general blessing.

It's more blessed to give than to receive. There are also rewards in heaven. Jesus spoke about this in the Sermon on the Mount when He said, chapter 6, verses 19 and 20, Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

He's talking about money and other material resources. But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where moth and rust do not destroy and where thieves do not break in and steal. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? We know how to lay them up on earth. We buy things. We bank money.

We have ways of storing up on earth. How do we lay up treasures in heaven? By giving. By giving. By giving to the Lord. By giving to the work of His kingdom. By giving to gospel workers.

By giving to the deserving needy. That's the way we lay up treasures in heaven. When we lay up treasures in heaven, we have treasures in heaven.

When we get to heaven, there they are. So there's this general blessing. It's more blessed to give than to receive. There's a specific blessing about rewards in heaven. But beyond that, the Bible teaches us that there are rewards on earth as well.

That passage I read, that verse I read from Jesus in Luke chapter 6. Give and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be put into your bosom.

For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. That's talking about material giving. It gains material rewards.

It gets reward in kind. And likewise, the text I read in 2 Corinthians. He that sows sparingly shall reap also sparingly. He who sows bountifully shall reap also bountifully.

There are rewards on earth. I think about the question of the disciples in Mark chapter 10 where Jesus talked about being willing to give up to sacrifice for the cause of Christ. And in verse 28, Peter began to say to him, See, we have left all and followed you. And in one of the other gospels he says, So what do we have? What do we get for that?

Right? So Jesus answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sister or father or mother or wife or children or lands giving up material things, relationships but also material possessions, for my sake and the gospels who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life. But there the emphasis of the reward as far as the return on what was given is in this world. So general blessing, rewards in heaven, rewards on earth. And finally, and I think one of the most blessed rewards is the increased capacity to give. When you give with the right heart motive, God gives you back so that you can give more. So that God gives you back more so that you can give more so that God gives you back more so that you can give more.

Sometimes when people haven't thought about that, haven't realized that before, they look at you like, oh come on now you sound like Kenneth Hagin or somebody like that. Joel Osteen. Hey, I didn't write it, I just quote it. God is able to make all grace abound toward you that you always having all sufficiency in all things may have an abundance for every good work. As it is written, He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. Now may He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food supply and multiply the seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness while you are enriched in everything for all liberality. And it goes on to say that those who give will be blessed by God to be able to give more. That's one of the rewards of giving that the Bible teaches.

Question four. How should we view prosperity? That's a touchy one with some people. Is prosperity to be sought in this world? And it's clear from the Bible that as the main goal of life, the answer is no. That's not our main goal in life, to pursue prosperity. Well, is prosperity to be expected as a Christian birthright? Here we get into Joel Osteen and Kenneth Hagin and so forth. This is every Christian's birthright. If you'll just trust him, you should be wealthy. Is that what the Bible teaches?

No. We're not to expect that either. But is prosperity to be shunned? And some people have this wrong attitude about it. That there's something fishy about a person who's got money. I don't think they got it honestly. I don't think they got it righteously.

I think they lied and cheated and connived to get it. I don't think anybody ought to have much money. Well, you didn't read your Bible, did you? Because an awful lot, an awful lot of the main characters in the Bible turn out to be wealthy people. Abraham was one of the wealthiest men of his day. Job was one of the wealthiest men of his day. And on and on and on it goes. In the New Testament you find many wealthy believers in the New Testament churches who, for example, opened their homes to become the location for the church to meet.

That wasn't a 20 by 20 hovel. That was a big mansion, big enough to take care of the church gatherings and so forth. And you see a lot of this in the New Testament.

Wealthy people who have given themselves and what they have into the work of the Lord. So, is prosperity to be shunned? Is it a shameful condition? No. No. No. No. Is prosperity to be enjoyed when it has been righteously obtained and has been honorably managed as a steward?

Yes, it is to be enjoyed with cautions. I'll give you some scripture in a moment. But here's what we know about prosperity. Number one, God controls prosperity. He decides who becomes prosperous. We don't have any trouble believing that, do we? We believe that God is sovereign over everything. Here's what Hannah prayed in her wonderful prayer in 1 Samuel 2. The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

He brings low and lifts up. Is that right? Is she right?

Yes. God is the one who determines these things. If a Christian is wealthy, well if anybody is wealthy it's because God made them so. If a Christian is wealthy, then God has prospered them no doubt that they might use it for His kingdom.

If a wicked man is wealthy, and some of them are, God has purposes in that. Don't you be envious. Don't you covet. Don't you fret about it.

Don't you wonder about it. Don't you question God. You're not God. God did it for a reason. If anybody's wealthy, God made them wealthy. If anybody's poor, God made them poor. If anybody has experienced both during one lifetime, that's because God did that.

The Apostle Paul talks that way in Philippians 4. I have learned how to abound. I have learned how to be abased. I've learned how to have a lot. I've learned how to suffer need.

I have learned in whatever state I am therewith to be content. I can be as happy, poor, as rich, but there's nothing wrong with being rich. Sometimes I've been rich, and I thank God for it and try to handle it properly, says Paul. And other times I've been poor, and I trust God to take care of my needs, and I've never starved to death.

I'm still here talking about it. God has taken care of my needs. I've learned both ends of the spectrum, and God's the one who controls it. God's the one who makes people wealthy and poor.

So God controls it. Prosperity increases obligations to give. The Bible teaches that. 1 Timothy 6, 17 Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy, let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share. If God has made you rich, God expects you to be a generous giver with what He has entrusted to you. And that same text teaches us that prosperity ought to be enjoyed with gratitude. That little phrase stuck in that text I just read, the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Some people act like God doesn't want anybody to enjoy anything. Thinking about a story.

I'm looking at the clock. It was back in the 1800s. Dutch Reformed Church in the state of New York. The man's, or whatever they called their house for the minister, was a mile or more away from the church. During good weather, the parson would ride his horse down to the church or walk down to the church on the Lord's day, but in the winter sometimes the snow in that part of the country got up pretty high. And the parson discovered, or realized, he didn't discover it, but there was a creek that ran behind his house and ran also behind the church and connected the two. And he said, you know, in the wintertime that creek is frozen solid.

I can ice skate to the church. And so he started ice skating to the church. But the consistory was not happy about that. It looked like recreation on the Sabbath. And so they debated this back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, and they talked to him about it and they debated some more. And finally they called him in and they said, we just have to ask you one question. This is going to settle the issue.

One question alone. When thou skadeth to the church on the Sabbath day, dost thou enjoy it? If you don't enjoy it, it's okay. If you do enjoy it, you can't do it anymore. That's kind of a dour attitude that some people have, isn't it? And here's God who giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Stuck that little phrase into the text. So, prosperity ought to be enjoyed with gratitude.

Now, number five, and I'm running close on time. How can we know when our giving is generous? So much of our spiritual health depends upon right giving, right attitudes toward giving.

And this is an important question. How can we know when our giving is generous? We know that our giving ought to be generous and cheerful, but the question is, when it really gets down to it, how do we accurately evaluate generosity? Because of our wayward hearts, we have trouble with that, honestly, really.

And I'll give you an illustration, hypothetical, using figures that are just very general. Take the man who's supporting a family on a salary of $50,000 a year, and he's giving a tie, 10%, to the Lord and taking care of his family on the remaining 45 and probably having to budget pretty carefully to do that. Is he being generous in his giving?

I would say he is. He's giving 10% and he doesn't have a lot to give. Take another man whose God has greatly and richly blessed, and his annual salary is $500,000. If he tides, that's going to be $50,000. That's going to be $1,000 a week that he's dropping in the off-road plate. And he's got $450,000 to take care of his family and to buy a good many extras, too. He's not struggling to feed his family and house them and clothe them. He's going to be able to buy a nice house on a vacation home, he's going to be able to buy nice cars, he's going to be able to do a lot of things with that $450,000. But here's the thing, I've discovered over the years that the man who's giving, say, $100 a week, $5,000 a year, doesn't really think of that as giving much.

I think God does, but He doesn't. It doesn't look like much. It's the best I can do. The man who's dropping $1,000 a week in the offering plate, it's real easy for the devil to get up and whisper in his ear and say, that's an awful lot. You really don't need to be giving that much.

Cut it back down. $500 would be plenty. I mean, $500 a week you'd be giving more than almost anybody else, probably more than anybody else.

Come on now, you don't need to give that much. And it's very easy for us to think that, in his case, $500 would be a very generous amount of giving. When I think the way God evaluates it, it would be a very stingy amount. A man who's making $500,000 a year, if he can't tithe comfortably and do more, there's something wrong.

Don't you agree? But the problem is, we have a hard time of evaluating this objectively. So how do we evaluate generosity?

Do we do it by subjective evaluation? I feel like I'm giving generously. So does a man making $500,000 a year who's giving $500 a week. He thinks he's giving very generously. It sure looks like it to him. Or is there any objective evaluation that we can use to measure this by?

And if so, what is it? And that brings us full circle right back to question number one again, which was what? What about the tithe?

And this is the point. The only objective biblical standard of giving that I can find is the tithe. Yes, it was commanded under Moses and it's not commanded to New Testament believers, but how do we guard our heart against being deceitful? How do we guard our heart against covetousness? How do we guard our heart against materialism? How do we betray ourselves into thinking we are generous givers?

Because the amount looks big, but when it's compared with the total available, it's very small. How do we do that? I would suggest this is the conclusion I've come to over the years. I would suggest that the tithe becomes a standard. In other words, to tithe is to give sufficiently. It's to give sufficiently and in certain cases it would be to give generously. To give beyond the tithe is certainly generous giving.

And here's the point. When our giving is truly generous, not just subjectively so by our probably flawed subjective evaluation, but when our giving is truly generous, we can enjoy some of the extras with a clear conscience. As we delight in God's reward to enable us to do additional giving. As we give, God gives back. We can give more, but along the way we move out of the category of poor to the category of comfortable and sometimes even to the category of wealthy. Like a good steward, like somebody who manages somebody else's affairs well, there are financial rewards for that. You get bonuses, you get rewards for doing a good job.

God does the same thing. I'll give you some things to enjoy, but guard, don't become covetous. Don't become a lover of money. You're still a steward, but yeah, you're a good steward and I'm going to give you some extra things to enjoy. Therefore, I come to this conclusion.

Here's my recommendation. If you're not currently tithing, make that your goal to work towards. Not because it's commanded, but as a way to know you are giving sufficiently. You are trusting God. You are not being materialistic.

You're not being covetous. You are endeavoring to give a long-standing standard that goes way before Moses in your giving to the Lord. And the faith promise card will help you get started. I don't have time to explain that now, but that's where that card begins.

Your name, your signature, no identifying personal information is on it, but it's to help you with this. Number two, if you are currently tithing, make giving beyond the tithe your goal. Because giving generously is taught in the New Testament as honoring to God.

And you're not going to lose by doing that. I am convinced by many years of experience and observation that those who give with the right heart and motive end up usually with more than people who didn't give. In other words, show me two people with the same salary over, two Christians with the same salary over 25 years. One is tithing and giving above the tithe.

The other one is not. They're pension and pension and trying to save and build up their own wealth. And at the end of 25 years, I promise you that in my observation, the one who's been giving generously is going to have more than the one who's been hoarding. You say, explain that and let the banker explain how that works. It doesn't work with the banker, folks.

It works with God Almighty and Heaven above. He's in control of all these things. He's the one who's able to multiply. He's the one who's able to make smaller amounts go farther.

He does that. So if you're currently giving beyond the tithe, endeavor to increase your giving year by year. Keep your attitude of stewardship. It doesn't belong to you. It belongs to God. You've already experienced God's faithfulness to His promised rewards, which has no doubt encouraged you to do more. And so you ought to be wondering how much more will God enable me to give?

How much more will God interest me with? This is pretty exciting. I'm giving amounts to the Lord's work today that 10 or 15 years ago I would have thought impossible.

And yet God has made it possible. That is exciting. That is exciting. There ought to be joy. There ought to be hilarity. There ought to be cheerfulness. And writing those big checks, even as there was faith and trust in God when you're writing those small checks, God has made that possible. Finally, if you know you are giving generously and have experienced financial prosperity as God's reward, don't be ashamed to righteously enjoy some of the surplus. You can do so with a clear conscience, even as you continue to increase your giving to the Lord. Guard against covetousness.

Guard against loving money. Enjoy whatever prosperity God gives with gratitude to the One who gave it as you find great delight investing more and more in the work of Christ's kingdom. And the Faith Promise Program is very deliberately designed to help you do exactly what I have described. Let's pray. Father, help us to grow in the grace of giving. Help us to honor You with our material resources. Help us to take Your word at face value and to believe it and to act upon it. Help us, Lord, to be good and faithful servants. As we ask it in Jesus' name, Amen.