What We Give Away, Part 2

Have you ever given to a church or Christian ministry?

What was the attitude of your heart as you wrote that check? For God loves a cheerful giver, which by the way reverses then everything you might think about giving. Because what matters to God then is the attitude with which we give something, not the amount of what we gave. And I have said it before and I want to say it again, don't give if you hate to, give because you can't wait to. Have you ever given to a cause or even to your church because you felt you had to? Maybe someone made you feel guilty that you weren't giving. Maybe you gave in an attempt to make God like you more.

You didn't really want to write that check. We're going to gain a proper perspective on our giving today. This is Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. In this teaching Stephen explains the importance of demonstrating biblical faithfulness through the financial support of your local church. After all, God owns it all and we're merely stewards.

Let's use his resources wisely and bring him glory. Here's Stephen with today's lesson called What We Give Away. Giving that is God honoring is giving that is ultimately proceeding from the overflowing of a life that is entirely devoted to God. And the worst thing that any church or pastoral team could ever do is encourage people to give and it doesn't really matter how you're getting along with God.

That'd be horrible. In fact, as a church ministry, we've been very reticent to ask the community to give us any money. That's why we don't do the community bake sales and the car washes because we really, as we've discussed this as an older team, we don't want to ask the world to give money to us that we will give to the Lord. We're going to do that because what matters above and beyond any gift is the heart. We want people to come to know him.

And as they come to know him and grow in him, they'll develop in their discipleship and begin to give. He writes further. He says, I'm not now speaking of this command. This isn't a command I'm going to make here, but this is going to prove the earnestness of your love. That's where it comes to bear.

This really does reveal who we are. Look at verse 11, but now finish doing this. You've started.

Yes. Now finish it. There's readiness in you. I'm grateful for that, but don't just be ready to do it. Don't just talk about doing it. Don't just desire to do it, but complete it. He writes by your ability. In other words, be ready.

And that's a good thing. Be faithful, but then act. Giving that honors God carries this element of eagerness and submission that translates into faithfulness, not because, you know, I've got to, but I just, I really want to.

Now let me follow that up quickly with the second principle. It's the principle of cheerfulness. For those of you older in the faith, you know exactly what I'm talking about, but what we, when we write this here to financially support the church to be faithful, cheerful, giving, if you're new in the faith, you're going to think what cheerful, what what's that got to do with anything? Well, I remember being in a church in East Africa, by the way, in a third world context and the block building and the tin roof and a hundred plus people packed into it. And I was on a little platform and, and, and my sermon would be translated. They were speaking in a language I didn't know. And suddenly the people began to cheer. I mean, literally stood up and clapped. I mean, they were so excited.

I thought, what in the world? And here came the ushers carrying these long poles, little sacks attached to the end that they would kind of feed down the row. They were cheering because they now had the opportunity to give something to God, deeply convicted. Paul wrote this text to the Corinthians in chapter nine, second Corinthians and verse seven, let each one do just as he purposed in his heart, not grudgingly, that is I hate to, or under compulsion, I guess I have to. And this has the sense of not necessarily that you'd have the responsibility that you really want to maintain.

This has the attitude of I have to be, and I really don't want to. For God loves a cheerful giver, which by the way, reverses that everything you might think about giving, because what matters to God then is the attitude with which we give something, not the amount of what we gave. And I have said it before, and I want to say it again, don't give if you hate to, don't give if you have to, and you don't want to, give because you can't wait to. That's that Kenyan spirit that I saw.

A.W. Tozer clarified the perspective when he reminded me, as I read him, that as earthy, you know, earthy as money is, as earthy as it is, it can be converted for whatever is given to Christ is touched with immortality. I mean, the results can be forever. The church has to be careful. It can create givers out of obligation. And I want you to know, and again, this is personal, this is us, OK? This is one of the reasons I do not come out here during the offering or before the offering. I made up my mind years ago, and I'm not saying negative things disparagingly about other pastors who come out, but I just decided I wasn't going to come out here before the offering and hold up the envelope or give you a story. I just want to err on the side of this is you giving because you can't wait to give to Christ.

This is what Paul would say, you know, this is the direction we want to go. You know, it amazes me. I shared this with both hours and I've had people every hour come up and say, we heard the same thing.

I had two different couples in greenhouse class, two different classes in the last couple of years, independently of each other. They didn't know each other and they came up with the same rumor and they came up and told me, in fact, after our session on New Testament giving, which I spend a couple of sessions on this subject, explaining the tithing, the word tithe disappears when you get into the New Testament. That is the establishment of the church. And it is all grace giving.

It is what God moves your heart to give. And then you happen to pay taxes too. Just as in the Old Testament, the Israelites paid taxes. That's the word for tithe really. And there are about 25% of their annual income that went to tithes. More than one tithe. Never heard a pastor tell me that. I always thought it was one.

There's actually more than one if you want to add them up. At any rate, you have the same, and then they gave overflowing gifts of grace. You find the same thing in the New Testament.

We pay our taxes and we give overflowing gifts of grace out of love for the Lord. But at any rate, they came up to me and they said, after those sessions, they said, you know, we really came here skeptical to colonial. And we came to this class and we were expecting you to teach something differently and tell us you were going to do it differently because of what we'd heard. I said, well, what did you hear?

I know there are a lot of rumors out there. Some hurt, some are painful, some are heretical, some are tragic. And I couldn't believe this one. It was really interesting.

I couldn't think of another way to put it. They said, well, we had close friends tell us that it's okay to attend there, but just don't join. I said, well, why not? They said, we were told by our friends that if you join, the pastor is going to require that you give him a copy of your most recent 1040 tax return so that he can evaluate, so that you can prove that you are giving to the church.

Two couples had a man come up to me after one of the hours say, I was told the same thing that your pastor requires a 1040 so he can know for sure you're giving to the church. I thought that was a brilliant idea, by the way. Why didn't I think of that, huh? Brilliant. No.

In fact, I joke and then it's going to go out there. Yeah, it's true. It is not true.

It's a rumor. I can assure you of a couple of things. Number one, I don't even know what you give. I do not know what you give. We've just established the system going back to the days now 27 years ago when we hired our first pastor and I drove him immediately to the bank and I said, it's going to be your signature on this bank account and you're going to deposit the money. I am out of it. Our church was three years old. I do not know what you give.

I don't want to know. But secondly, the only tax returns that I have ever looked at to evaluate charitable giving are ours. And the reason that's important, those principles are, at least in the way I've tried to practice them as your pastor teacher, is that I don't want you to ever give thinking you're giving to me or even this church because ultimately though you do give to the church, you are giving to Christ. I mean, it would be pitiful to be led to give to man.

I mean, how shortsighted would that be? Some time ago, I read the biography of George Whitfield. He was a wonderful man of God used to fan the flames of the great awakening the 1700s and I found numerous examples of his sacrificial spirit. He preached to thousands of people primarily out in the open fields because he wasn't allowed behind the pulpits of the English churches. And most of the pastors before this awakening were unbelievers anyway and they didn't want them. So he preached in the open and they got a little portable pulpit which I've seen.

He just kind of unfolded, climb up on it and there you go. And he would preach to thousands at a time. And he started an orphanage and was always needing funds for that, always taking offerings for his children and died with very little money to his name. But at any rate, he learned that a widow with a number of children had her furniture taken away because she couldn't make the rent. And so he found out that she needed five guineas. I don't know how much that is, but there were five of them.

Okay. And so he had that and he decided he would go pay rent, get her furniture back. And she lived quite a distance away. And so he had a friend in ministry go with him.

And so they both saddled up and they began to ride to meet her need. And Whitfield's friend, his biography included the notes that his friend was a little disturbed with George because George didn't have the money to do that. He had other needs, other bills to pay. And so he was kind of chiding Whitfield as they went along that he really couldn't afford to help.

And Whitfield made this interesting statement. He said this, when God brings a case of need before us, it is that we might relieve it. In other words, there are a million needs, but what has he told you about? What has he informed you of?

Okay. There's a reason behind it. And so he said, because I can relieve it, I believe God wants me to do it. So they're traveling along and suddenly a highwayman, a robber gallops toward them and demands their money. This minister friend didn't have any and Whitfield had five guineas. So he emptied his pocket and gave the man five guineas and the robber rode away. And now his friend is chiding Whitfield with, you know, now you don't even have that.

So you really shouldn't have done this. Whitfield didn't respond. They're still heading toward the widow's home and suddenly here comes this robber galloping back toward them. And the robber rides up to them, brandishing his pistol and he demands Whitfield's coat. It's cold, it's winter and Whitfield had a nice warm coat and he demanded it. And so Whitfield took off his coat. And before the robber rode away, Whitfield said, sir, could I at least have your tattered coat?

It is cold. And the robber gave Whitfield his coat. So they're riding along and suddenly here comes this highwayman galloping toward them again. And Whitfield and his friend were concerned about their own safety. And so they spurred on their horses and they made it to a little village ahead of the robber and into the safety of a cottage and where they were warming themselves by the fire, thankful that they had been rescued from what, who knows what.

And as Whitfield took off this tattered coat, he discovered in one pocket his five guineas and in the other pocket a hundred guineas more. Now, isn't that the best story for sacrificial giving? Now, lest you think that, oh, here's a rumor, Stevens into prosperity theology. I'm actually, I'm actually going to use that as an illustration of that just doesn't happen. And if you think that when you give sacrificially that God's going to do that, be careful because prosperity theology will teach you that if you give to God, he's going to back the truck up and you give five guineas, you're going to get a hundred back. You can turn on the television and watch those hucksters delivering that message.

And I want to use that as an illustration. I don't even encourage you as you do sacrificial to give that God will meet your needs, not your greeds, but your needs. But he has already given to us. Do we realize that when we give to him, it isn't bargaining. It isn't, well, I'm going to give you this gift, Lord.

Now you back the truck up. No, in reality, beloved, God has already backed his truck up to us. We have been given immortality. We have been given forgiveness. We have been given grace. We have been given the promise of a coming kingdom where we will be dressed in royalty as royalty serving along with him.

We have no idea. The apostle wrote of the glory that he is reserved to be revealed in us. He's backed the truck up already. So the false promise of prosperity theology that you just give and God's just going to give you back all the more, no, God will meet your needs. But sacrificial giving does not make a demand on God.

It isn't bribery. It's simply responding to his grace for what he's already given. Now the key word in this promise is the last word and it sort of governs the entire promise, doesn't it? We promise to financially support the church, the faithful, cheerful and sacrificial stewardship. Now that word stewardship clears up so much for us. Just simply understanding what that word means, that we aren't owners stewards. We're stewards.

We're funnels. We're managers of someone else's property. I mean we can say it rather glibly, you know, God owns everything, but he really does and has given us what he has given us to manage. Now you might follow a certain percentage and I think that's strategic, whatever that percentage might be, but just don't make the mistake that if you give 4% or 6% or 10% that you own the other 96% or 98% or 90%. That God has somehow bought off with a dime on a dollar. Now God owns all of it. The question is how much are we going to use to meet the needs that we have. In fact the older I get the more convinced I am that the issue of giving revolves around understanding the difference between ownership and stewardship.

Let me just in a rather rough way illustrate that this morning. I want all the men, all the men to take out your wallet. Usher's if you'll prepare. No, no, no, take out your wallet. Anybody out here, any guy out here have bills? You have some bills in your wallet? I don't even carry a wallet. I got a debit card, okay?

That's it. But do some of you guys have, anybody here have bills in your wallet? You do? Yeah, come on up here. Oh man, am I glad you're here.

You're mistaken? No, no, no, you're here. Thank you so much. How are you doing? Outstanding. You want to say hi mom or anything to the camera?

Alright, can I have just the whole thing? Thank you sir. You know, even before I met you I knew this was my desire and I feel good about this.

In fact I actually feel cheerful about this. You do too, don't you? So here's what I want to do. I want to give you something. Thank you.

I knew you'd say that. You're welcome. Thank you, you can go ahead and be seated. No, no, no, come here.

Here you go. Alright now, take that other bill out. Here's the difference. For me to say to you, after you gave me your money, you know I'm going to give you something, and expect you to say thank you. Isn't that the issue and the description of someone who has a perspective of ownership? It's mine. It's his.

You saw that immediately. He took it out of his pocket and gave it to me. Now, stewardship means that I'm going to say, or you're going to say to me, Steven, I'm going to give you this money and what I want you to do is manage it for me. Now, if I understand that it's his and I'm going to manage it, one of the things I'm going to want to know is, what would you like to do with this?

How would you like it managed? Is there anything that maybe he wrote down that gives me some principles or perspectives? Yeah, we call that the New Testament in this analogy, right?

Because I want to please him because this is his. In a sense, we are managing God's portfolio. Some of us have more than others and it isn't because, well, we just deserved it.

We were just better. No, God just chose that and now we manage his account. So I'm going to give this back to you and let you let you sit in. I know that you could afford to give it to me because I've seen your tax return. No, I haven't. Thank you.

Would you give this guy a round of applause? That's how rumors get started, right? Like the rumor that I hate cats. I have people asking me about that.

Yeah, that's the truth. All right. Let me make three very quick personal challenges from this, okay? Make a realistic assessment of your spirit. Make a realistic assessment of your spirit.

Nobody can answer this but you. Do you give because you have to and you don't want to? Do you give even though you hate to or do you give because you can't wait to? You want to. Secondly, make a realistic assessment of your record of giving.

Don't just allow it to float out there. You know, it's real easy for us to think that, oh, we're doing something and well, really are we? You've got the data. Do the math. And let me tell you this, nearly every study in American church culture today establishes the fact that the average Christian, I don't know if they're Christians or not but that's how they say it, church goer. The average believer in this country is giving less than 2% of their income to charitable causes. It's right at about 1.5% on average across the board. So we're not at 10%, we're not at 8%, we're not at 12. The average is 1.3 to 1.5%. Let's just quickly do a little math here.

Put up a slide. We put together a little graph for you. Let's just, we're going to start at 4% because colonial is way above and beyond the average, okay? So you kind of look up there, try to find where you are, monthly income, if you bring home 3,000, we're just talking about take home. I have people ask me, are we talking gross or net or whatever?

Whatever you bring home. It's 3,000, some of you don't get anywhere near that. But 4% would be that last month, think about last month, not today but last month. You gave $120. 7% meant you gave 210. 10% would be 300. If you brought home 6,000, maybe that's your household income, the average income in carry is about 6 to $7,000. So if that's it, then if you gave a check for $250, you gave right at 4%. If you gave $420, you gave 7%. 600 would be 10. Some of you might bring home 10,000.

So if you wrote out a check for $400 or whatever or 700 or 1,000. So try to find your place there. And I'm doing this not because I know or want to know but I want to lead you and me into a realistic assessment so that we can see where we really are. If you went to your job tomorrow and they said you know we've got problems, issues, we don't want to cut anybody but we're going to cut everybody's salary 2%. Would you quit?

Probably not. You would probably make a way to live off 2% less. And I can tell you that in my own personal life, if I live off 98% of what I bring home, I can tell you where I am, that would indicate to me that I haven't caught what I would call a Macedonian spirit. If we together as a congregation spend 98%, 99% on our family, our house, our automobiles, our education, our retirement, our stuff, we've got to accept a teaching and a realistic assessment of what it means for God's spirit to work in us, the Macedonian attitude.

Here's a third challenge. Make a realistic assessment of changes that you might want to make. Have conversations. Pray about it.

Do a little ransacking of the scripture. Because here's the key, beloved, we're not talking about money. That's just a reflection of our heart. We're talking about attitude and submission and joy and anticipation and the building of the church and the disseminating of the gospel and the reaching of our world.

We're talking about all of that. I know it's earthy. It's a $20 bill. It's earthy. But it touches, it can touch immortal things. The reason that $20 bill can touch immortal things is because when we make that money available to God, He uses it in powerful ways.

But as we've seen today, the way we give makes all the difference regarding how God views our gift. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey. With this lesson, Stephen concludes his series on the church called Upon This Rock.

We've taken the series and packaged it as a set. If you'd like to get a copy, it's available as a set of CDs, or you can download the audio lessons and the written manuscripts. Call us today for information. We're at 866-48-BIBLE or 866-482-4253. You'll also find this resource on our website, wisdomonline.org. And I'll remind any pastors, elders, and deacons one last time that Stephen preached this series just prior to the church revising its constitution and doctrinal statement. If you'd like to see a copy of that document, call us. Have a great weekend and join us back here on Monday for more wisdom for the heart. You're listening to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Davey, and we'll see you next time.