Money and the Wisdom of Giving

Good morning! Welcome to the Vineyard. If this is your first time, my name is Kevin and I’m the pastor here. Our vision at the Vineyard is simple - we want to embody Jesus to our neighbors. This happens by growing in three ways, through what we call our pillars.

First, is Presence. We want everyone to experience the presence of God. This is what transforms us to love him and others. God’s presence is where we become fully alive. We want you to know the Father.

Then, Formation. God doesn’t just love us; he is forming us to be his people who can carry his life and love to those around us. Formation is where we learn to embody the Jesus way of life. We want you to imitate the Son.

Finally, Mission. Being on mission is how we join God in the work he is doing to bring his reconciliation, justice, and mercy to earth. This is how he is bringing healing and renewal to the world. We want you to partner with the Spirit.

Presence. Formation. Mission. Be thinking about your next step. Where is God calling you to go deeper with him?

Suggest a way to grow in all three - become an intercessor! Sacrifice one hour to pray for our church, our leaders, our ministries and mission, our protection, and for the power of the HS.

Pray...

Intro

Finishing series… The Good Life is a life lived according to God’s wisdom.

We’re doing a kind of 3-week series-within-a-series with a focus on money. There’s two reasons for this:

Money is a big deal. Think about how much time you spend relating to money in some form - either making it, paying bills, buying necessities, eating out, deciding if you can afford something, and so on. It is probably a rare day that we don’t have to related to money in some way.

Money is spiritual. Some may think that talking about money in church is like doing a talk on how to clean a shotgun - maybe of interest but not particularly spiritual. We need to talk about Jesus! But Scripture spends much time talking about money precisely because we have to relate to it so often. This makes money and our use of money a discipleship issue.

I’ve been using John Wesley’s outline as I’ve talked about the good life and money - earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can. Today we look at the last topic - giving.

I have to admit some trepidation any time I talk about giving:

For some reason it always feels a little self-serving. I’m not sure why because my salary isn’t dependent on your giving - unless you stop completely!

Money often reveals the condition of our heart. It is an idol for many people - Christian’s included. People don’t like it when you start messing with their idols!

Mostly, I’ve seen - and you probably have too - preachers preach on money in manipulative ways. Of course, there are the prosperity preachers wearing $6,000 tennis shoes who tell little old ladies living on a pension to give above and beyond so God will bless them. But beyond these kind of gross examples, preaching on giving often contains manipulative messages about how God will bless you financially if you will give more.

On the other hand, you can’t get away from the fact that there seems to be lots of passages in scripture that speaks about blessing in relation to giving. That God does reward our generosity. And while we often try to caveat the promise with “it might not be a financial blessing”, there is plenty of evidence that very often the blessing God promises is in fact a financial one.

Case in point is the passage I’ve opened with every week: Prov 3:9-10 “Honor the Lord with your substance and with the first fruits of all your produce; then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” We’ve talked the last two weeks about how honoring God with our wealth includes how we earn our wealth and save our wealth. But the immediate context of this verse is about honoring God by our giving. Give God the first part of your earnings, but then notice what follows: “then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.” Clearly, the promise being offered by this passage IS financial blessing as a response to financial giving.

This morning I want to finish up The Good Life series by talking about the wisdom of giving, which is simply this: Blessing others brings blessing. How does blessing others bring blessing?

Financial increase

We are blessed through financial increase.

Prov 11:24-25 “Some give freely, yet grow all the richer; others withhold what is due, and only suffer want. A generous person will be enriched, and one who gives water will get water.”

We have to be careful here. We should not give simply to get, to satisfy our inner greed for more. Giving isn’t a Ponzi scheme. God won’t bless that. Yet, it seems pretty clear to me that to the person who gives from a generous and pure heart, he promises to pour out blessing on them. This isn’t an ironclad promise that you will ALWAYS get financially rewarded for giving. Proverbs are more of a truism - they are generally true when looked at over the course of your life. There is a double-edged sword in this verse. Those who give freely grow richer - they are enriched and refreshed. But the one who withholds only suffers more want. In other words, being stingy will not equate to ending up with more.

God blesses everyone; God blesses in a special way those who give generously. Mal 3:10 “Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing.” This is one of the few places in scripture where God invites us to put him to the test. In short, you will not be able to out give him.

Protection and preservation

We are blessed with protection and preservation.

Prov 28:27 “Whoever gives to the poor will lack nothing, but one who turns a blind eye will get many a curse.” What is the curse talked about? Does God curse us if we don’t give? I don’t think so. I think it works something like this: I think by my giving my money is protected from the setbacks others face. My car lasts longer without a major repair. My appliances run longer than normal. I buy less “lemons”. In short, the curse that the whole world is under - which also affects our wealth - is held off to some degree by my giving. It’s not magic; it is God’s blessing that holds back the curse that would otherwise affect us. I don’t know that I can prove this conclusively, but it is my experience.

Participation

We are blessed by participating in God’s kingdom.

Paul, in his farewell speech to the Ephesians, said, Acts 20:35 “In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ” We have no record of Jesus saying this, though it is possible that it is a saying that was passed down among the apostles that didn’t make it into any of the gospels. But what he could have meant by this statement is that is essentially serves as a summary of Jesus’ entire life and ministry. Jesus said, Mark 10:45 “For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.” Jesus came to give, and his life found its greatest blessing in what he gave, not what he received.

I don’t think we are ever more like our heavenly Father then when we are giving to others. There is a blessing that is contained in the act of giving itself. Blessing others IS the blessing. And it is a blessing that doesn’t make us feel robbed but fills us with joy for having gotten to participate with our heavenly Father in his kingdom work.

Conclusion

God is a giver. The most famous verse in the Bible declares this: John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” The apostle Paul will later write, Romans 8:32 “He who did not withhold his own Son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not with him also give us everything else?”

Before we close on giving, we need to talk about receiving. Have you received God’s gift...?

God’s nature is that of giving. He is the great giver, and all our giving is simply a response to him and is enabled by him. God blesses, and as I hope I’ve shown, he blesses those who bless others through their giving. Blessing carries its own reward.

Jesus told a parable about a man who went on a trip, and he gave his servants some money to steward according to their ability. When he returned he asked for an accounting. The first two servants had used the money wisely and multiplied it. To each of those servants he said, Matt 25:21 “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and trustworthy slave; you have been trustworthy in a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’” But to the third servant who didn’t use the money wisely he said, Matt 25:29-30 “For to all those who have, more will be given, and they will have an abundance; but from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away. As for this worthless slave, throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’”

Weeping and gnashing of teeth is a Jewish way of describing regret. Those who use God’s money unwisely will have regret. Those who don’t obey God about giving, just like those who don’t obey God about anything else, will suffer regret. I’d be delinquent in my duties if I didn’t tell you this.

But I want to end by focusing on the faithful servants. Notice that to each of them the Master says, “Enter into the joy of your master.” This is the invitation offered to us. To enter into God’s joy by how we earn, how we save, and especially, how we give our money. Joy is not found in the folly of selfishly hoarding. It’s not found in withholding help from others or of keeping everything we make for ourselves. Rather, it’s found in using our money wisely and giving generously from what God has given us. Blessing others IS the blessing.

Unless you are up for the job of elder, I don’t look at your giving. I don’t know what you give. So if I’ve looked at you during the message it’s not because I know something and am shooting guilt-arrows at you. I could give you all kinds of reasons why you should give - it’s a command, it’s part of being a disciple of Jesus, it’s how the church supports its ministry. All this is true. But I don’t want you to give out of guilt or compulsion - I think that negates the blessing. God wants cheerful givers. Rather, I want you to give because I’ve never been sad about giving. I want you to enter into the joy of this work and experience it for yourself.

God won’t curse you if you don’t give, yet there is sufficient evidence in scripture to suggest that giving brings with it special blessing. Jesus himself promised: Luke 6:38 “give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.” Amen.