Giving to God Part 2 - Genesis Part 25

Now last week in our ongoing series in the book of Genesis, we looked at the very first time in the Bible where somebody, namely Abraham, uses money as a tool for worshipping God.

But we also saw last week that this was certainly not the only time. The three wise men did this in Matthew chapter 2. The church at Philippi did this. We learn about in Philippians chapter 4.

The young woman who poured the vial of costly perfume all over Jesus did it in Mark chapter 14, just to name a few. And so last week, growing out of the example of Abraham here in Genesis 14, we began a two-part series entitled, Giving to God. And last week in part 1, we learned that as followers of Christ, the focus of our giving should be God Himself. Not a church, not a building, not a parking lot, not some program. And we also learned that the purpose of our giving should be to tell God that He is number one in our life.

We love Him more than even money itself. Now, if you missed last week, I want to encourage you to get the CD out in our bookstore before you leave or to go on our website and download or podcast the message and catch up. But today in part 2, we want to answer three very important practical questions about giving to God that flow out of what we learned last week. And here are our three questions.

You ready? Number one, when should we give? Number two, where should we give?

And number three, how much should we give? And let me say what I said last week, that I understand talking about money in church is a very sensitive subject, that it's a touchy subject. And so we made a deal last week. If you remember what it is, our deal was that for two weeks we were going to talk about money, but I wasn't going to ask you for a dime because the purpose of this series is biblical education, not fundraising. You remember our deal? Alright, now our deal is still in place, yes? Alright, so with the deal in place, we're going to do part 2 and I'm not going to ask you for a dime. Fair enough? Alright, so here we go.

You ready? Question number one, when should we give? Well, 1 Corinthians 16, 2 says, On the first day of every week, Sunday, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in proportion to how the Lord has prospered you. What the Bible is teaching us here is the principle of regular consistent planned giving.

When should I give? Well, the precise calendar of that doesn't matter so much as much as it matters that it is deliberate and systematic and regular. Now you say, well, Lon, how regular is regular? I mean, are we talking weekly? Are we talking monthly? Well, folks, a good rule of thumb, I believe, is that our giving should be as regular as our income. Some people give monthly because they get paid monthly. Some people give weekly or biweekly because that's when they get paid.

Some real estate agents give whenever they get a commission check. Some young people give whenever they get their allowance. The point is biblical giving is giving that has a plan, a plan that is systematic and that is consistent and is deliberate. Number two, where should we give? Well, the Bible gives us three options as to where we can give and have it be considered by God true biblical giving. Option number one is giving to our local church. First Timothy, Chapter five, verse 17 says the elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor.

What does that mean? It means they're worthy of honor and they're worthy of compensation. For the scripture says the worker is worthy of his wages. Now, obviously, from what the apostle Paul is saying here, we see that the early church had money at its disposal. Each local church did to pay the salaries of their staff and their elders. And the only place for those churches to have gotten that money is from the giving of God's people to those churches.

And we know that the early Christians did this. Acts Chapter four, verse 34 says that the early followers of Christ in Jerusalem brought money and laid it at the apostles feet. And then the apostles used that money to meet the needs of the church family there in Jerusalem.

So that's option number one to our local church. Option number two, where we can give biblically, is to missionaries and to missions organizations. We saw last week that in Philippians Chapter four, Paul acknowledges how the believers in Philippi had sent money to him to support his missionary work. Philippians Chapter four, verse 15, Paul says, For after I left Philippi, you sent me financial aid again and again when I was in need.

And finally, option number three is giving to people who are in need. In Matthew Chapter six, Jesus called this alms giving. And the early believers did this, too. Acts 11, verse 28, There was a great famine in the reign of the Emperor Claudius and the believers in Antioch, each according to their financial ability, provided help for the poor believers living in Judea, sending this relief by the hand of Barnabas and Paul. In fact, Jesus refers to this in Matthew Chapter six, where he says, When you give to the needy, your Father in heaven will reward you. So this kind of alms giving, giving to people in need, also qualifies as biblical giving to the Lord. But there's a very important qualifier that we need to stop here and put on this alms giving. And that is in order for our alms giving, in order for our helping people in need to qualify as true biblical giving to God.

Listen carefully. That alms giving must be done in a way that is conspicuously and overtly and unapologetically Christ centered. In other words, giving to the United Way or to UNESCO or to the World Health Organization or to the Red Cross doesn't count. It's not biblical giving because even though these organizations do help people, they don't help people in the name of Jesus Christ. They don't help people for the fame of Jesus Christ, and they don't help people with the purpose of spreading the message of Jesus Christ. And, you know, sadly, there's a lot of Christian relief organizations who have fallen into this very situation for years now.

Oh, they have downplayed the gospel message so much in what they do that they've turned helping people into an end in itself instead of making it an overt means of exalting Jesus Christ and spreading His gospel. You know, we do turkey outreach, as you know, every year here at Thanksgiving. And what we do is we get a box and we put this box together, and in the box we put a turkey, we put green beans, we put potatoes, we put rolls, we put everything for a complete meal, cranberry sauce. All of it goes in there. And this past year, 2011, we were actually able to feed 75,000 people at Thanksgiving here in Metropolitan Washington. But there's one other thing that goes in that box, and that is a gospel of John.

And over the years, we've had many organizations come to us and say, wow, we'd like to get in on this. We'd like to help you distribute these boxes, or we'd like to get some of them to give to our constituents. And they said, but, you know, the only thing is we really kind of don't want to give out the Bible. You know, we want the gospel of John's out. We'll take the turkey and the cranberry sauce, but the gospel of John we want out, and we tell them, no way.

No way. Because, friends, listen, all right, no way. Because, listen, helping others is only true biblical almsgiving when it honors and exalts and promotes Jesus Christ. The gospel of John stays in the box, or you don't get the box.

So let's summarize. Where should we give? Well, we have three options. Number one, to our local church. Number two, to missionaries and missionary organizations. And number three, almsgiving that promotes and exalts Jesus Christ.

Now, before we move on to question three, I'd just like to offer my opinion on this. I believe, and Brenda and I have structured our giving this way for the last 38 years we've been married. I believe that the vast majority of our giving should always go to the local church. And you say, well, of course you believe that. You're the pastor of a church. Of course you believe that.

No, that is not why I believe that. Friends, for years before I was ever the pastor of any church, I worked for a parachurch Christian organization. And even during those years, Brenda and I gave virtually all of our giving, not to that organization, but rather to the church that we were attending.

And there are three reasons why I believe this. Reason A is that I believe that the local church is the primary instrument of God in the New Testament and therefore I have the obligation and the duty to support it above everything else. Reason B is that a good local church will use the money that we give it to cover all three areas of biblical giving. In other words, they'll use some of it for the ministry of that church. They'll use some of it for missions and missionaries. And they'll use some of it for almsgiving in the name of Christ. So by giving your gift to that church, you kind of cover all three at once. And reason C is because giving to a solid local church ensures maximum accountability for how those funds are used. You know, here at McLean Bible Church, we have some incredibly tight financial accountability in place. And it's accountability that those of you who are up close and personal here, that you can feel and you can touch and you can see. For example, our elders get a weekly financial report.

They get a monthly financial report. Our elders are on top of how the money is spent at this church like a hawk, like a chicken on a June bug. If you don't know what that means, you weren't raised in the south. My condolences to you because if you were raised in the south, you get that.

But they are. We give a financial report to the congregation quarterly at every congregational meeting every year in December. We bring into that congregational meeting our budget for the next year that the congregation discusses, asks questions, has to approve. Or we can't spend one dime without the approval of our congregation.

We have a complete independent, big, not little, big audit every single year. You want a copy of that audit, you call us, we'll be happy to send you one. As the pastor of McLean Bible Church, you may not know this, but I have absolutely no access to the money here whatsoever. I have no check signing authority at McLean Bible Church. I have no access to petty cash. If you buy a five dollar can of coffee and bring it in here and say, Lon, could you reimburse me from petty cash? The answer is no. I don't have any access to that.

Folks here, I never get anywhere near the weekend offerings. Here at McLean Bible Church, I don't even know the combination to the safe. Now, if you came up to me and said, Lon, I will give you a million dollars to tell me the combination to the safe. I couldn't tell you standing right there. But if you're serious and you give me five minutes, I'll go get the combination to the safe for you.

I will, I promise you. But I don't know what it is. Never been in there in 30 years. I've never seen the inside of the safe at McLean Bible Church in the 30 years I've been here as the pastor. I have never seen the giving records of a single person that attends this church. The only giving records I know at this church are mine.

And let me tell you why. I don't want to know who the big givers are at this church. First of all, it's none of my business. And second of all, I want to shake everybody's hand the same standing in the lobby and not give preferential treatment to somebody because they're a big giver. I don't want to know who the big givers are. Now, you say, Lon, who put all of these onerous, burdensome restrictions on you as the pastor here? I did 30 years ago when I came here.

And let me tell you why I did it. I did it, friends, because I wanted to make sure that McLean Bible Church would never, ever end up on the front page of the Washington Post because of a financial irregularity at this church. And praise the Lord, in 30 years we haven't. Praise God for that. Now, listen, most Bible believing, gospel preaching churches are just like McLean Bible Church. They have solid financial accountability in place, too, that their congregation members can actually touch and feel and see and can be certain that the money that they're giving is being used righteously and godly and in a Christlike way. And the bottom line is, friends, the farther removed our giving is from us, the less we're able to ensure that it's being used properly for the glory of God. And that's why Brenda and I always have done virtually all of our giving to our local church. You say, but Lon, what if I don't like my church enough to give all my money? What if I don't trust my church enough to give most of my giving there?

Well, then you know what? You need to find another church where you do like them and where you do trust them. That's not an excuse not to give to your church. It just means you're going to the wrong one.

Go find one you like and you trust and then support it for the glory of God. Now, question number three, how much should we give? Well, as soon as we ask this question, we're immediately confronted with a very significant biblical word. The word is tithe.

And we've all heard it and we may not all know exactly what it means. A tithe is merely an old English word that means a tenth, ten percent. And in the Old Testament, every Israelite was commanded, was obligated to tithe. That is, they were obligated to give ten percent of their annual income to support the temple in Jerusalem. And the priests, the Jewish priests at the temple, they lived off of this tithe that came in from the rest of the nation. And they used the tithe money to support the workings of the temple. Tithing was not worship giving.

Do you hear me? It was like income tax. Everybody was obligated to do it. If you wanted to give a worship gift to God, my friends, you had to give it over and above the tithe. The tithe was not worship giving.

It was taxes. Now, do we all see that? Do we all see that? Okay, that's very important because that is critical to understanding the tithe. Now, when we come into the New Testament, what do we find? We find that nowhere in the New Testament are we as followers of Christ ever commanded to tithe.

You say we're not. Well, then what are we told to do? Well, 2 Corinthians 8, 12 says we're to give according to what we have. Acts 11, 29, we saw it earlier, says that we're to give according to our ability. 1 Corinthians 16, 2, we saw this earlier. We're to give in proportion, in proportion to how the Lord has prospered us. The principle of the New Testament for followers of Christ is proportional giving. And watch, watch as the Lord Jesus right here explains this to us. I'm in Mark chapter 12.

Here we go. It says, One day Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. And many rich people were putting in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, mites they were called, worth only a fraction of a penny. And calling his disciples, Jesus said to them, I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.

You say, but Lon, she didn't. All these other people were throwing in huge sums of money. She put in two little pennies.

Wait a minute. Jesus said, for they, the rich people, all put in out of their surplus. But she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on today. Now, what Jesus is telling us here, my friends, is that God's method of accounting is radically different than ours. We focus on how much people give. God doesn't focus on that. God focuses on how much it costs us to give what we give.

God focuses on how much we give in proportion to how much we have to give. And what was it that distinguished this widow's offering from the offering of all those wealthy people? Well, the answer is her offering reached a proportion that those rich people's offering never reached.

And what was that proportion? Very simply, her gift cost her something, those rich people. It didn't cost them anything to give what they gave. Jesus said they gave out of their surplus. What they give didn't cause them to change their lifestyle one bit.

They drew a line, said, this is my lifestyle and I'll give them the surplus that's over it, but I'm not going to let it affect my lifestyle. Jesus said, ah, but the widow, here's what impressed him. She, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on. And that day, this woman didn't even know where dinner was going to come from now, but she gave it to the Lord anyway because she wanted the Lord to know she loved him more than she loved dinner. And that's worship. And that's what impressed Christ. Friends, the point that I want you to get is that it wasn't the amount this widow gave that turned her giving into worship.

It was the proportion she gave that did it. Now, as followers of Christ, this New Testament principle of proportionate giving places a much greater accountability on you and me than tithing does. You say, I'm not sure I understand that. Okay, think about it. With tithing, we give God ten percent, our obligation's done.

Simple. Ah, but proportional giving is not that easy. Proportional giving demands that we take a hard look at our lifestyles and that we discuss with God where the threshold is of costing us something in our giving.

Proportional giving demands that we have a conversation with God where we talk about how much is okay for us to spend on us versus how much we should be giving to God. You say, well, Lon, all I can tell you is Abraham tithed and as far as I'm concerned, if tithing was good enough for Abraham, it's good enough for me. Folks, Abraham did not tithe. First of all, tithing hadn't even been invented yet by God. It would be 700 years before God invented the tithe. And he wasn't giving to any temple in Jerusalem to support.

There was no temple. Abraham gave ten percent. Yes, he didn't tithe. He gave ten percent. Which means that ten percent is a good place for us to begin our discussions with God about what we ought to be giving.

But this doesn't mean that ten percent is automatically the right place for us to finish those discussions. The truth is for some followers of Christ, ten percent giving is way too high, way too much. If you're a single parent mom raising three children, one of whom has severe disabilities, and you're working two jobs just to scratch out enough to put food on the table, ten percent giving is way too high for you. You can reach the point where your giving costs you something probably at five percent, maybe at three percent. You say, Lon, in my whole life I've never heard of a preacher telling the people in his church not to give at least ten percent.

Well, you know what? Then you've heard some really bad preaching because this is biblical and this is what God says. Now, before you clap too quickly, let me say that for others of us, by the same token, ten percent giving costs us nothing to give that much to God. And for us, ten percent giving is way too little. Fred Smith, who used to be president of Fred Smith Associates in Dallas, said this, and I quote. He said, I led a seminar once in which the majority of those present were millionaires. In the seminar, I described tithing as using an Old Testament teaching to help the rich get out of giving.

It was quite a shock to them, and they didn't want to discuss it at any great length. Fred Smith goes on to say, I firmly believe that tithing for wealthy people is an escape from biblical giving. Frankly, he says, I'd be very happy if the Lord would tell me that I had fulfilled my responsibility if I gave ten percent. When I worked for six dollars a week, Fred Smith says, I put sixty cents in the offering plate and I felt I was giving something that was pleasing to the Lord. But today, I don't think that the Lord's excited about my giving one tenth of a seven figure income, end of quote. Folks, for us living in Washington, D.C., and for many of us here in America, we need to let the words of Fred Smith sink deep into our heart.

His words demand consideration and they demand prayer, and that's all I'm going to say about them, but they demand consideration and prayer. Now, let's conclude. We've covered a lot of ground today, so let's recap.

You ready? Number one, we asked the question, when should we give? And the answer is, according to a consistent, deliberate plan that fits our income stream. Number two, we asked the question, where should we give? And we said there are three options for biblical giving. Number one, your local church. Number two, missionaries and mission organizations.

And number three, almsgiving that promotes and exalts Jesus Christ. And finally, we asked the question, how much should we give? And we said, the answer is that the New Testament doesn't give us an exact amount and it doesn't give us an exact percentage. It gives us a principle, and the principle is proportional giving.

1 Corinthians 16, 2. We are to give in proportion to how the Lord has prospered us. Now, I can't answer the question, how much you should give for you. And you can't answer the question, how much I should give for me.

That's the question each one of us has got to answer on our knees in a conversation with the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me close with one final observation. And that is I did a little ciphering this week, a little figuring. And I figured that if the average attendee at McLean Bible Church merely tithed, merely gave 10%, based on the average income here in the Washington area, and based on the average adult attendance, not children at McLean Bible Church, I figured that our income per year would be over 80 million dollars. You know how much our income was last year?

25 million dollars. Now, what does this tell you? You say, well, Lon, what it tells me is that a lot of us are making a lot less than you figured. That's what it tells me. No, no, friends, that's not what this tells us. No, wrong, wrong. What this tells us is that a lot of Christians have never been taught how to give biblically.

Or if they have, they're not doing it. And you say, well, wait a minute, wait a minute, I understand what you're saying, but Lon, listen, it's still 25 million dollars. Friends, I want to tell you something. You don't know how grateful I am.

Please hear me. You don't know how grateful I am for the incredibly generous giving that this church does. 25 million dollars is a lot of money. Yes, but folks, just think for a moment of the impact we could make on this city if under the leadership and the power of the Holy Spirit we had more than three times the resources that we've got right now.

Just think. You say, well, Lon, if I made more, I'd give more. Folks, please don't delude yourself into believing that. Please, listen, Jesus said, Luke 16, 10, He who's faithful in a little will be faithful in much, and he who's unfaithful in a little will be unfaithful also in much. Folks, just getting more money won't change your walk with God. If Jesus Christ isn't Lord of your finances when you got a little, he's not going to be Lord of your finances just because all of a sudden you get a lot. You know, when my wife and I got married, I was working at Giant Food as a cashier, and my take-home pay, I was going to seminary at the same time, my take-home pay since I worked there part-time was 50 dollars a week. Literally, 50 bucks a week.

That's what I brought home. And I decided, because I was a brand new believer in those days, that I was going to put God to the test. He says in the Bible, test me and see. So I said, I'm going to put God to the test, and every week I gave 10 dollars, 20 percent, to the Lord.

Now, no church is going to rise or fall based on my 10 dollars a week. You understand? But that wasn't the point. The point was not what I was giving. The point is God was teaching me the principles of biblical giving. And I watched as God kept his promises. I watched as God did unbelievable things in return. You know, I learned you can never out-give God. I had heard people say it, but I experienced it. And God blessed and rewarded my life, not just in monetary ways, but in all kinds of ways, including giving me the absolute best wife you could ever imagine in your life. You say, well, Lon, she'd have to be to marry you if you were only making 50 bucks a week.

Well, okay, but she did. And you know, because I learned as a young Christian, I only had a little, but I learned solid biblical giving habits. Those habits have blessed me for 40 years of walking with Jesus. Now listen, if you only have a little, it's okay.

It's okay. What matters is whether you have a little or you have a lot, that you handle it biblically and in a Christ-like way. And if you've only got a little, that's a great time to learn the principles of biblical giving and practice them and see God be true to what he says. Because when we're faithful in a little, many, many times, God decides to give us a lot because he knows he can trust us with it. We proved it with a little. It doesn't matter whether we end up with a lot or whether we end up with a little. What matters is how much we transfer to heaven, proportionately to what we've got.

And so let me just say we're at the end. Next week we're not going to talk about money. No more money. You don't have to come in here like this. We're not going to talk about money anymore.

Okay, we're done. And I hope I've handled the subject with integrity and I hope I've handled it righteously. And my true motive, folks, has really not been to raise money from McLean Bible Church. My true motive is we need to all know how to give biblically. Biblically. Because that's where the best blessing of God lies when we give biblically to him. And I hope you'll take what we've talked about and really give it consideration in your life.

Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you for allowing us to talk about money. It is a very touchy subject.

I understand that. But Father, we can't avoid talking about something in the Bible just because it's touchy. And so I hope that we've done it here in these last two weeks in a way that honors Christ, in a way that is focused on teaching the Word of God with no ulterior motives. And Father, I pray, my prayer for every person in this church is that we will end our lives, maybe not with three houses, maybe not with two swimming pools, maybe not with a boat or a vacation home, but that we will end our life here on earth with much treasure in heaven. And that we'll be able to look back and anticipating that treasure in heaven, we'll be able to say thank you, God, from McLean Bible Church. And thank you, God, for that guy, Solomon, who kept encouraging me to use my funds biblically because now I've got treasure in heaven to look forward to. Lord, do this in all of our lives. Use your Word today to change the way we live and the way we give. And we pray this in Jesus' name. What do God's people say? Amen. .