Sermon Transcript

When it comes to talking about money in church…I realize that’s a little weird! How many of you have ever been to a church—or maybe watched a Christian television program—and you said, “You know what? Those people talk about money wa-a-a-y too much!” Has anybody ever experienced that. . .? “It’s always about money, it’s only about money; that church just wants my money. . .” If you think the church is always talking about money, I’m going to confirm your worst fear. Today, we’re talking about money! Okay?

But there’s a balance in how much we talk about money. By the way, if you’re a person who thinks that people at church are talking too much about money, you’ve probably never been accused of giving too much in your donations at a church. That’s one extreme. We don’t want to talk about money too much.

But there’s another extreme: we don’t want to talk about money not enough. Where is the balance between talking too much about money and talking not enough about money? I think we’re safe, as long as we don’t talk about money more than Jesus talked about money. So, how much did Jesus talk about money?

Jesus told thirty-eight parables; sixteen of them were about money. Over twenty-five percent of the recorded words of Jesus had something to do with money and possessions. I feel like I’m in the safe zone as long as I don’t talk about money but once a month.

Let’s do this—this is group participation time. Trust your pastor. I want you to take out your money carrier, whatever it is you use to bring money. Husbands, pull out your wallet; ladies, take out your purse or pocketbook. I know what some of you are thinking: “I’ve never taken my wallet out in church before, and I’m not about to start now!” Well, just play along with me here. Everybody take out your money carrier and hold it up. Let’s see what you’ve got.

Now this is what I want you to do. . .exchange it with somebody you didn’t ride to church with this morning. Just go ahead and make the switch! Come on. Some of you are paralyzed at this point, like, “What!?” Good. Now, let me ask you this: How many of you feel like you made out pretty well in that little exchange? Some of you are thinking, “Wow, I’m so glad I came to church this morning! My net worth just doubled! This is awesome!”

Just hold it there. April, come here, let’s switch, what do you have? No, I want the whole wallet just give it to me. Whose is that, by the way? Very good; here’s mine.

Let’s call the ushers back and now let’s take the offering. How many of you are feeling a burst of generosity right now? “I’m going to give like I’ve never given before!” Do you feel like you could do that? Why do you feel that way? Because you know that what you’re giving doesn’t belong to you.

Question: How would it change your giving if you really believed that it – your money, possessions – really didn’t belong to you anyway? Ooooh. There was a wave of conviction that went through the room. Did you feel that? Wow! We’re going to talk about it. You’d better go ahead and make the exchange, because you’re not going to hear a word I say as long as somebody else has got your stuff. If you need to, you can count it!

Let me just say, if you are new to Harvest—if you have not yet made Harvest your church home—we are not out to get money from you. Don’t you understand what’s happening right now? Those of us who have made Harvest our home are actually spending our money on you. We don’t expect you to give anything until you’ve made Harvest your church home.

Now, for those of you have made Harvest your church home—you are members of Harvest Bible Chapel—let me remind you of a little commitment you made when you joined the church. . .do you remember this part of your commitment: “I will financially support the ministries of Harvest Bible Chapel by giving back to the Lord a biblical portion of my increase, faithfully.”? You made that commitment if you’re a member of Harvest Bible Chapel.

Now, what is happening at Harvest in relation to giving? I was curious about that this past week, and so this is what I did. I got with our Business Manager, Debbie Mullins, and I said, “Let’s just look and see what is being given.” Now let me say this: the elders of Harvest Bible Chapel will not let the pastor see who gives what. I don’t know what anybody in this church gives, except one person—me. So I don’t know who gave what, but I do know what was given, and I would like to share that information with you.

We dug through the records; everything I’m going to share with you now is just giving toward the general offering—this is not what’s given in 5G campaigns and building campaigns, and this is not what was given in cash. If you gave cash and didn’t assign a name to it, we don’t know who gave that. What I’m about to share with you is what we know of. That’s why the Friendship Register is so important; that’s why the people who come and let us know who they are, and give, we kind of know how to track that and we can give you a receipt at the end of the year.

So, here’s what giving looks like at Harvest. Here’s the great thing – you’re going to love this – in 2015, there were 1680 households that attended Harvest Bible Chapel. Now, that number represents maybe over 5000 people, because a household could be a single person or it could be—like my family—seven different people.

If you’ve attended and gave us your information on the Friendship Register, and didn’t want to remain anonymous, we tracked that; we know that there were that many people. Of those households, how many of those households do you think gave something? Here it is: 545 households gave something. That’s a good number. We wouldn’t expect people who show up for the first time—or maybe they’re visiting from Texas or maybe it’s an aunt or an uncle, or maybe they’re visiting a few times – “kicking the tires,” we wouldn’t expect those people to give something. Of the households that gave something, they gave over $1.6 million. Our budget last year was $1.5 million—that’s what we expected to spend—but those 545 households gave 1.6 million dollars. Way to go!

If you are part of the 545 that households gave, thank you! Way to go! Look at what we’re able to do, in a church that is committed to fulfilling the Great Commission and making disciples.

Of those 545 households that gave something, 509 of them were regular attenders here at Harvest. So, how do you measure a “regular attender?” I don’t know—I picked a random number and I said, “Debbie, how many people came to church and filled out the Friendship Register and came to Harvest at least eleven times last year?” Is that a regular attender, once a month? That’s kind of irregular, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt.

509 of those households were here at least eleven times. Of those 509 regular attenders, 406 households gave something. That’s kind of what you could count on. That’s the number of households that are actually getting things done around here financially. Are you doing some addition and subtraction? Have you found yourself in here yet?

This is the only kind of disappointing part: that means that 103 regular attending households at Harvest gave zero in the offering last year. That means they’re coming, they’re benefitting from the church, but they’re not contributing to the church. That’s a problem. I would say there’s a discipleship issue there, there’s a spiritual maturity issue there—there’s a trust issue. If you’re in that category, hey, make 2016 the year you get in the other category—and you contribute, too. Don’t just benefit from the church.

Now, those numbers are actually the numbers of a really healthy church, and I want you to see this. See the number 545 that gave something (and they gave $1.6 million)? I wanted to know how much they gave. Again, I don’t know who gave what, but I know how much they gave.

Of the households that gave something, 102 of those households gave over $5000, in the year 2015, to the church. 104 gave between $2500 and $5000; 99 gave between $1000 and $2500; 49 gave between $500 and $1000, and 191 households gave between $1 and $500. If you gave one dollar, thank you very much. Maybe it’s time for you to increase your giving in 2016.

Again, did you find yourself in there? We sent you a statement—that’s the way that we, as a community, kind of keep up with things and help each other and encourage each other. That’s really healthy! If you’re anywhere on that chart, way to go!

I asked Debbie another question: “I want to know what the largest giver gave. I don’t know who it was, but I know that the person who gave the most to Harvest Bible Chapel because I’ve always heard those statistics—“twenty percent of the people give eighty percent of the money”—I wanted to know, of that $1.6 million, I wondered if there was somebody that gave, like, a million dollars, and the rest of us just made up the .6.

And this is what it was—this is what Debbie showed me: the top giver in our church gave $29,000 last year. . .less than two percent of the total. Do you know what that means? That means that if that guy gets mad and leaves the church, we’ll be fine! We still have 98% of the income left!

I asked Debbie the next question: I wanted to know what the top ten givers gave, and this is what I found out. . .the top ten givers to Harvest Bible Chapel gave a total of $221,000—or less than 15% of the total. That means that if the top ten givers get mad and leave and take their money with them, we’ll be just fine, because everybody else is going to make up the 85% that is given. That is a snapshot of a very healthy church! God is doing a great thing here!

So, again—where would you find yourself on this chart? If I asked you this, “Would you want to be more generous? Would you want to give more?” I’ll bet every one of you would say, “Well, absolutely! I wish I could figure out a way to do that!” Well, there are ten things we can do here to reset our discipleship, going forward.

We’re in January, we have a fresh new start, zero on the slate. . .and if we’re going to go forward, what will we want to look back on in twelve months and say we’ve done, as it relates to stewardship? Here’s the principle I wanted you to see: this church is funded, not by a few people doing a lot. This church is funded by a lot of people doing what they should. And that’s a healthy church!

Now if you’re in some other category and maybe you’re not doing enough or maybe you’re not doing anything—well, it’s time for you to lean in to the next layer of your discipleship and your walk with God. . .and a lot of it has to do with what we do with our money.

Here’s the first thing we can do to reset our stewardship:

 

1. I will give myself first to God. (2 Corinthians 8:5)

 

I want you to see it here in 2 Corinthians 8:3-5. Get your eyes on the page of Scripture; this is what is says, “For they gave according to their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means, of their own accord, begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints—and this, not as we expected, but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.”

Do you see that phrase, “they gave themselves first”? Underline that phrase. Do you understand this? Before God wants anything that you have, God wants you! If you’re here this morning, and you’re suspicious of church and you think it’s all about the money – listen! God doesn’t want your money. God wants you! When God’s gets you, He won’t have any problem getting anything you have.

So this morning, we want to first of all give ourselves to God in a fresh new way. Let me tell you about this passage. . .there are actually three different churches that are represented in this passage of Scripture. This is the apostle Paul; he is writing to a church in Corinth—they were called the Corinthians. That’s why there is the label, the title, 2 Corinthians.

So that you don’t get confused by all that, I’m going to take this section over here—wave at me—you, this morning are the Corinthians. That is not a compliment! The Corinthians had a lot to learn in relation to stewardship; they were a really jacked-up church; there was all kinds of sin in the church. Sorry, welcome to church—you’re the Corinthians. Paul is writing to the Corinthians and he’s trying to get them to reset their stewardship. This is what he does: he tells them about a second church, the Macedonians.

Now you people are going to represent the Macedonians. Wave at me Macedonians. Okay, that is a compliment, because the Macedonians were incredibly generous! And Paul tells these dirty, rotten Corinthians over here about the incredible generosity of the Macedonians. He says, “They gave of their own accord, begging us to participate in the contribution to the saints.”

There was a third church, and it’s this section right here. This is the church in Jerusalem. Everybody, church in Jerusalem. These guys were the pacesetter church. . .this was the first Baptist church, this was the first Episcopal church, this was the First United Methodist church—this was the first church! Here in Jerusalem. And these people were paying an incredible price for being Christians: they were being persecuted, they couldn’t get jobs, their families were forsaking them, and they were suffering for their commitment to Christ. As a result, they were in deep financial need.

So, everywhere the apostle Paul went, he would take an offering for the poor saints back in Jerusalem. When he went to Macedonia, he looked at their financial means and said, “These people are worse off than the people I would be taking the offering for! I’m not going to take an offering from these people, because they don’t have anything to give!” And yet, these people—the Macedonians—rose up and they said, “Paul! We want to give!”

Scripture says they actually begged Paul—do you see it there in the passage: “…begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints…” Listen, I have been to thousands of church services. I have yet to be in a church service where the congregation begged the pastor to take the offering: “Please, Pastor, please take the offering! We just love that part so much!!” It’s never happened around here—I’m still waiting for that day [Trent pauses briefly waiting for the people to beg to take the offering, but no one says anything]. Okay, so maybe it will happen next week.

These people were so generous, they loved to give, and they gave, the passage says, “beyond their means.” Do you see the word “means” there? “Means” is their net worth, it’s their assets, it’s what they have that they could give out of—that’s a checking account, a savings account, an IRA, CDs, liquid assets—and then beyond that, what your possessions are. Everybody has some means—even the Macedonians had some means—and they gave beyond their means because they wanted to exercise their faith, but look at the first thing they gave. Do you see what they gave?

What did they give first? They gave themselves first! So, listen—if you’re here and you have never given yourself wholly and completely to God, I beg you this morning—don’t give an offering. Give yourself! And every time we gather, it’s a new opportunity to reset our hearts on God, and to give ourselves—at the first part of our week—to God. And if God gets you, He won’t have any problem getting anything else He wants out of you. They give themselves, first, to God.

Here’s the second thing:

 

2. I will give the first and the best out of what God provides. (Proverbs 3:9)

 

Proverbs 3:9 says this, “Honor the Lord with your wealth. . .” Now, some of you, you just checked out, because you are thinking, “I am not wealthy!” Yes, you are! You live in the richest, most prosperous nation on the planet at the richest, most prosperous time in history. Ninety-nine percent of the people who have ever lived think you’re wealthy. You are the one percent! And the Bible says you will either honor the Lord or dishonor the Lord with your wealth. The question is not, are you wealthy? The question is, are you honoring the Lord with your wealth?

“Honor the Lord with your wealth, and with the firstfruits…” That’s kind of a strange word—firstfruits. “…Of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” Do you see the word “plenty,” there? Plenty just means “enough.” God will ensure that you have enough when you honor the Lord with your wealth. And then even beyond that, He says “Your vats will be bursting. . .”

Now, Scripture’s obviously talking about something tangible that was happening back in the Old Testament, when everything was an agrarian economy, but “vats” could represent any number of ways that the Lord wants to bless financially, so that there will be bursting—overflowing—so that you’ll have more means to share in other ways with other people. Your vats will be bursting with wine.

Then, the passage says “firstfruits.” What’s the word firstfruits all about? There’s a principle in Scripture, related to finances, that simply is this: first things belong to God. The first day of the week belongs to God, the first minutes of our day belong to God, and the first portion of our income belongs to God. That’s the way you honor the Lord; you put the Lord first in even the most material parts of your life, so that you understand “what’s left over.”

On Wednesday nights around here, do you know what happens? We have elder meeting. We spend about three hours together. First, we usually share a meal, so we’ll have some food brought in. We never eat it all. Do you know what happens, in a church, when somebody has a function and they don’t eat all the food? There is the notorious church refrigerator that is filled with. . .leftovers! So, last Wednesday night, here was the elder meal: chicken parmesan.

Now, if Andrea and I were going to have you over for Sunday dinner after church, and we pulled out Wednesday’s elder-meeting leftovers, and said, “Here, you go”—would you feel very honored by that? Oh, come on! Would you feel very honored by that? “That’s the best you can do? That’s all you think of us—just what’s leftover?”

Listen—you don’t serve the honored guest the leftovers! Who gets the leftovers? The kids get the leftovers, right? If you’re trying to honor somebody, you give what’s best and first to them, right? Here’s the thing. . .God doesn’t want your leftovers. After you’ve paid all your bills, after you’ve gotten a manicure, after you’ve paid Verizon, after you put gas in the car…“If I have anything left, I might have a little bit to give to God” at the end of all that.

No, here’s the principle—pay God first. You live on the leftovers! And that’s the principle of someone who has reset their discipleship. This is very closely related to the next principle, and that’s that we’ll make God a priority.

 

3. I will make giving a priority. (1 Corinthians 16:2)

 

Again, Paul writes to the Corinthians. He’s got a lot to say to the Corinthians. Look at 1 Corinthians 16:2: “On the first day of every week [get it?], each of you is to put something aside and store it up [so there’s a principle of saving there, too—save so you can give], as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.”

Paul is so concerned about how the offering is taken; he doesn’t want it to be an impulse, he doesn’t want it to be a reaction, he wants it be a priority. . . “This is the way we live our lives—first day, first minutes, first portion—it goes to God, and we’re going to make sure it doesn’t get consumed by our own spending.” It all comes down to this – there is a sequence in our giving. Most of us, if we were honest, would have to say our sequence goes like this: “When I get money, I spend it; if I have anything left over, I’ll save it; if I have anything left over, I’ll give it!”

That’s the wrong sequence. Those that reset their stewardship have a different priority and a different sequence. First of all, they say, “God gives, I give; if there’s anything left, I better save some, because there’s probably going to come a time when I don’t have an income. And if there’s anything after that, that’s what I can spend.” And they shape their lifestyle based on the sequence, “I give first, save second, and I spend last.” If we would simply reorder that, then we would take huge steps in our stewardship. That’s a part of spiritual maturity!

If I ask you, “Do you want to give more, do you want to be more generous?”—you would all say, “Yes!” You’re good people! The problem is, by the time you think about giving, you’ve already spent God’s money. That’s why you don’t give more. So, in 2016, if you want to give more, make the giving part the first thing—the priority. Here’s the fourth principle of someone who resets their stewardship:

 

4. I will give with (2 Corinthians 9:7)

 

Paul writes here: “Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.”

 A few weeks ago I took my family to a Christian concert. It was great; we enjoyed it, we had a great time. But I knew that there would be that moment…if you’ve gone to Christian concerts, there’s always this moment…where a representative of the concert comes out and begins to share about all the needy children in India that need a sponsor. They play the video and there are cards passed out of the cute little children, and you’re encouraged in that moment not to be so selfish and go out and buy another cup of coffee, but to sponsor a child.

Our family sponsors a child—we’ve been sponsoring a child for over fifteen years. How many of you sponsor a child? Raise your hands. This is wonderful. You should all sponsor a child! Now, listen—so much of that, though, is based on impulse and compulsion and guilt. That should never be your motivation for sponsoring a child or in giving anything to God. It should be based on, according to this verse—what?—what you decide in your heart.

There is a pre-decision that, before you ever get to the place where the offering is taken, you’ve already predetermined what’s going in. The only way you can do that is to understand, “How much do I have coming in and how much are we going to predetermine is going to go out before we get our greedy little fingers on it?” Alright? So, there’s this principle of predetermination.

Now, we live in a wonderful age, where you can predetermine to give in a lot of different ways. Have you ever noticed this? There’s this black bag that goes by in every service. Can I just make an honest confession to you? Your pastor has never, at any point, put anything in those black bags. “Gasp! Moan! The pastor’s never given anything in the offering! We thought so highly of you. . .we’ve lost so much respect!”

No, that’s just not the way I give. I’ve never written a check to the church; I’ve never gotten out a checkbook, with paper, and picked up a pen and filled out “Harvest Bible Chapel” and put my name on it and then brought it to the church. “Pastor’s never written a check to the church. We had such high expectations that he would be one of those top ten givers and he’s not!” That’s not what I said.

The way I give is this: I pay all my bills online. I go to the bank, go the bank’s website—5th/3rd Bank. . .I get paid every two weeks, I always get paid on Friday. I have predetermined and predesignated that, on those Fridays, there is a designated amount that gets sent out of my checking account to Harvest Bible Chapel. And I never get my greedy little fingers on it, because it is gone before I can swipe my debit card anywhere else.

That’s a predetermined way to give. I call that “automatic faithfulness.” Because on those weeks when I’m feeling especially greedy and especially fleshly and something shiny and new comes out that I want to buy, the money’s not there for me to buy it, because it’s already gone. I would encourage all of you to do that as well. Do you know why? Because on the days when you don’t come to church, your check still arrives that way! Snow days—bam!—it’s still there. Even if you don’t show up, your money does. That helps the church, and that helps you to be faithful even when it’s difficult to get it there. So, there are a lot of different ways.

We say all that – if you’re feeling compelled right now and feeling guilty, then you’re missing the point of this verse. God loves a cheerful giver! I remember, about ten years ago, I got to preach in this large African-American church in Arlington, Texas. The pastor, Dr. Dwight McKissic…I will never forget this day—this was a paradigm change for me…it was Sunday morning, and Pastor Dwight picked up the microphone, in front of his congregation, and he shouted out, “It’s t-i-i-i-me for the offering!” And the people burst into applause! For, like, sixty seconds they just applauded. I thought, “Did he say it that great?” No, they loved to take the offering around there! That was like their favorite part of the service!

And then Pastor Dwight said this, “I want a-a-a-ll the tithers to please stand!” All these people just started standing throughout the congregation. Now, can you imagine being a member of Pastor Dwight’s church and not tithing? All those people are standing around you, and looking at you like, “I hope you enjoy that seat. I paid for that seat. I hope you enjoy Pastor Dwight. We pay his salary. I don’t know what you’re doing around here, but you’re consuming resources. We love you, we’re glad you’re here—but we would like you to become one of us!”

It was amazing. I know of some churches that actually send an invoice to their members, saying, “Pay!” We’re not going to do that…maybe it would be a good idea…but the goal is this: God loves a cheerful giver! What you don’t give cheerfully, God neither wants nor needs. So, with predetermination we understand: here’s what we make, here’s what we give, here’s what we spend.

 

5. I will give a percentage. (Malachi 3:10)

 

Do you want to become a regular giver? Embrace the concept of giving a percentage. In Malachi 3:10…it’s the last book in the Old Testament…Malachi introduces the principle of percentage giving with this concept called the tithe. Notice the verse, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” What is this concept of a tithe? It’s a word we don’t use much, but it means simply this—tithe means tenth, one-tenth. So there was a principle that God’s people were to give a tenth.

You have to be just moderately good at math to understand this. It’s all about moving the decimal. If you made a thousand dollars last month, all you do is move the decimal one place to the left, and it shows you—right there, is what you are to give – one-hundred dollars.

Tithing is one of the most misunderstood concepts in God’s Word. That word is mentioned forty-one different times in the Bible. But do you understand that there were three different tithes in the Old Testament?

One was mentioned in Numbers chapter 18, the Levitical tithe. This was the way they paid their pastors. It was to go directly toward those who served in ministry, and to support the ministry of those Levite priests. But there was a second tithe, mentioned in Deuteronomy chapter 14. It was the festival tithe, and that’s what funded temple worship in the sanctuary; it was the celebrations and the offerings. There was a third tithe, mentioned also in Deuteronomy chapter 14—it was kind of a welfare tithe. This money went to take care of widows and orphans and strangers that lived among God’s people, but that tithe was only to be taken every third year.

So, if you’re a person that says, “It’s the tithe, it’s the tithe! If you’re not tithing, you’re sinning!”—do you understand that if you really biblically tithed, you would actually give twenty-three-and-a-third percent of your income? Now do you want to tithe? There’s nothing wrong with tithing…and I trust that some of you are giving twenty-three-and-a-third percent, or ten-percent, or whatever…but listen! It’s not about a legalistic formula. If you have a problem with ten-percent, give eleven-percent—that works, tool Nine-percent, five-percent. . .I don’t care, but predetermine a percentage so that every time God gives, you know what to give, and you don’t have to do the math. All you have to do is move the decimal, every time. . .that’s the principle.

And listen, it’s not the idea that ninety percent belongs to me and ten percent belongs to God. It all belongs to God! The tithe just reminds me that it all belongs to God. The question we ask when we give is not, “How much should I give?” but, “How much should I keep?” Because it all belongs to God. So, understand the idea of a percentage.

And know this, tithing is a test. God says, “Put me to the test. . .” Now, be careful. This is the only place anywhere in Scripture that says you can test God, but you can test God with your finances. He invites you to. He challenges you to test Him. “’Put me to the test,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.’”

Tithing is a test, and it’s a test God always passes. . .but it’s a test for you to see if you really trust that he will pass the test. Leonard Ravenhilll, famous revivalist, said this, “You have an incredible opportunity to be the first person in the history of the world that God has ever failed! So test Him!”

Do you think you’re going to be the first one? “Well, if I don’t win the PowerBall lottery, I don’t know that God really passed the test. . .” No! It may not even be a monetary blessing. You can be blessed in so many different ways—be blessed in your family—but God has never failed the test for those who honor him with their wealth.

 

6. I will bring what I give to the place of worship. (Malachi 3:10)

 

So, this answers the question, “Where should I give? Again, Malachi 3:10, “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house.” So, where should I give? Well, it mentions a storehouse. Obviously again, this is literal in the Old Testament—it was an agrarian economy—so they had places where they stored grain and they stored seed, and that was the distribution place.

But the principle applies to us as well. God invites you to bring the tithe into the storehouse. The storehouse was the place of worship, and it was the place where people were fed. Today, there is a spiritual storehouse where are people are spiritually nourished on spiritual food. Do you know what that is? It’s your local church. Giving begins with your local church.

And God may identify other ministries. If you’re like me, I get stacks of envelopes in my mailbox every month from good, worthy, Christ-honoring, gospel-centered ministries. I could put a dollar in each one and send them out, or I could pick—for us—three that we give significantly to, beyond the local church, and those people are doing good work.

But here’s the thing: if Harvest Bible Chapel is primarily the place where you are spiritually nourished then this should be the place where you bring your first gift. If you have found this place to be a trusted place of spiritual nourishment, and your kids are getting fed and you are getting fed and gaining strength for your journey, and we’re multiplying ourselves in you so that you can multiply in others, this should be a place where you don’t have any problem giving.

 

7. I will invite God’s presence and His protection with my generosity. (Malachi 3:10 and 11)

 

In Malachi, again, 3:11 reads, “I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.” What is this idea of rebuking the devourer? Do you know what God does for you? He rebukes the devil from devouring stuff that belongs to him and his people. But do you know what happens when you don’t give? God withdraws his protection, and it’s almost if—in a sense—God is giving the devil the right to collect what you failed to give. You say, “How does that happen?”

Remember that roof you put on your house that was supposed to last thirty years, and it was worn-out and burned-up after twelve years? Do you remember those tires you put on your car that were supposed to go fifty-thousand miles, and they only went twenty-three thousand miles? Remember that waterproofing you did in your basement—and your basement flooded? Those are all ways that, somehow, we spend money—that maybe God might have protected us from spending. He says, “I will rebuke the devourer.”

You say, “I just can’t afford to give. . .because the economy’s bad, and I’ve lost my job, and things are so hard and so tight. . .” That’s the time when you can’t afford not to give! That’s the time when you need God’s protection and His presence the most! Did you notice what happened in our economy, in the stock market last week? It took a nose-dive. Maybe you were thinking, “Man, I better hold on to some of this!” Listen! That’s the time we need God’s protection the most!

 

8. I will give expectantly. (2 Corinthians 9:6, 10)

 

Do you notice how many of these things apply to the Corinthians? “What’s wrong with you people—don’t you get this?” Paul says, “Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” This verse is the verse that’s probably been the most abused by TV evangelists and radio evangelists. You’ve got to watch the radio preachers—they’re the worst! They come up with this formula, “You’re out there and you’re listening, and you need a blessing and you need a promise from God, and if you’ll just send a hundred dollars,” basing their appeal on this verse, “then—I guarantee, God will send back to you a thousand dollars!”

I’ve always wanted to get on the phone with those guys and say, “Well, if that principle works, why don’t you send me the hundred dollars, and God will take care of you by giving you a thousand!” Click! Yeah, it really doesn’t work for them, does it? And it doesn’t work for us either. We can’t somehow “handcuff” God, that he’s obligated to do something based on something we do. No! That’s an abuse of this principle. We don’t believe in a prosperity gospel.

But listen, we also don’t believe in a “poverty gospel,” that somehow money is evil and money is worthless and we should just get as far away from money as possible. No—the Bible tells us to do what with money? To sow, to plant, to invest so that we can reap a harvest.

The passage goes on and says this, verse 10, “He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness.” How many of you grew up on a farm? Are there farmers out there? Did you eat the seed? No, you knew, “As hungry as we are, we can’t eat the seed!” What do we have to do with the seed? We have to get rid of it, put it in the ground and say good-bye to it, and pray real hard that, over a season of time, that seed is going to produce something we can eat.

So, listen—we don’t give to get. That’s the wrong motivation. But this is what this verse teaches us to do: we give. . .to get, to give. . .to get, to give. . .to get, to give. If you ever land on the “get” and you never get to the “give,” you stop the whole process. And so, I will give expectantly, knowing that if I invest, God is going to return and honor that investment.

If you have a financial advisor, and you invest in stocks or whatever, what does your financial advisor tell you to do? Invest in that which will bring the highest and greatest return over the longest period of time. Do you understand that investing in spiritual things will bring the highest and greatest return over the longest period of time – like eternity?! If I could get you to believe this, some of you will come up and thank me in a thousand years, because you will still be getting, then, a return on the investment that you made while you were down here. So, give expectantly, expecting a great eternal reward.

 

9. I will believe that if I don’t have it, I don’t need (Philippians 4:19)

 

“And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” This is one of the most often-repeated phrases in our home. Years ago, before I was pastoring this church, when I was getting married and starting a family…I’ve told this to you…we served in Life Action Ministries. That means we were self-supported. We were some of the people that sent out the letters inviting people to invest in the ministry God had given us. We just believed that God would lay upon people’s hearts twenty-five dollars or a hundred dollars and just send it in. That made up our income. Well, that was not a lot of income.

We didn’t have a house, the first twelve years of our family. We were homeless. We had a forty-foot or a fifty-foot RV travel trailer that was borrowed—that’s the way that we lived. We went from church to church, parked it on church parking lots, plugged in the electricity because we needed to mooch off the church’s electricity. We ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the church, that was provided for us. We had very little income.

As a matter of fact…I don’t tell people this a lot of times…we qualified for government assistance, and we actually took advantage of that. We’d go to the grocery store and pull out the card or whatever it is, and we’d get some milk and cheese and stuff for the kids. And you know what? There were a lot of things we thought we needed, and we prayed real hard for God to meet every need. And when those things didn’t come in, we got up from our knees and we looked at each other and we said, “If we don’t have it, we must not need it—because we believe this verse. If God hasn’t supplied it, it must not be a need—it must only be a want. If we don’t have it, we don’t need it. We’re fine. God has promised to supply every need.”

Throughout that entire time, do you know what we were doing? We made giving a priority. We gave away cars. We gave four thousand dollars to plant a church in India. I think our annual income that year was twelve-thousand dollars. I’m not saying that to puff ourselves up—I’m just trying to say, God has honored that gift, and he will honor that as well. If we don’t have it, we don’t need it.

Here’s the last thing:

 

10. I will give in response to God’s inexpressible gift to me. (2 Corinthians 9:15)

 

“Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!” What is the motivation for all giving? What would motivate people to pry their fingers off of money that they made, and that has their name on it? It’s only this: it is being overwhelmed with the thought that God has given me a gift beyond all value and all worth – the gift of eternal life!

If you are a person who really struggles to give, I know what your problem is. It’s not a financial problem; it’s a spiritual problem. You do not understand the gospel! What did God give? He gave his highest and his best gift—his Son.

On the cross, Jesus took my place. He died the death that I should have died to give me the gift that I could never buy or purchase. Has that become a gift that you’ve taken possession of? How do you get that gift? It’s not by buying and it’s not by giving money. It’s by having the attitude expressed in this verse – “Thanks be to God! I’m so unworthy of His gift! There’s not a reason in the world that God would place value on me. I have rebelled against Him, I have ignored Him, I’ve tried to be my own God. Yet God has given me His Son and given me eternal life. God has given me the promise of forgiveness and the hope of a home with Him, in Heaven, for all eternity.” That’s what motivates every gift!

So, if you have a reluctance about giving, it shows you may not understand the gift that he’s given. Would you understand, this morning, that God actually wants to give you something? He’s not asking you…we’re not going to take an offering at the end of the service…God wants to give you the gift of His Son, a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you’ve never done that, there’s no better time than just right now to open up your heart and receive the gift that God wants to give you.

Why don’t we just bow our heads? Let me just talk to those of you who may have never understood the inexpressible gift that Jesus Christ wants to give you: forgiveness of sin, a home in Heaven, eternal life. How do you get that gift? By faith believe that you don’t deserve it, by faith believe that his death was for you. By faith embrace, receive that gift. Lay down your attempts to pay for it. Lay down your lifeless religion. Receive the grace that God wants to give you. . .a fresh new start.

You say, “Well, if I receive him, what does he want from me?” He wants your heart! He wants you to set your heart on him, and if he has your heart, nothing else he wants from you will be hard to get.

For others of you, you know, this is a challenge maybe to set aside some time this week—maybe get a date with your spouse. Pull out the bank statement, pull out the checkbook and say, “What did we give last year? What do we want to give this year? If we give more, what are we going to have to spend less on?” Those are predetermined decisions that happen outside of a church service. Maybe you need to set up “automatic faithfulness.” I don’t know what God may say to you, but praise God for the generosity of this people, who provide a place for this message to get out—for Jesus to be exalted.

Father, thank you for your presence here this morning. Thank you for being the model of giving. You so loved the world that you gave your only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe in him would not perish but have everlasting life.” God, thank You for the community of people who believe that promise, and I pray that even as we sing here in just a moment, our hearts would be set and reset on you. We pray in Jesus’ Name. Amen.