Doing the Right Thing

1. Without debate, discussion, or denial, I am convinced that the most sensitive subject that a minister ever has to deal with is not the subject of sex; it is not the subject of politics; it is not the subject of drinking; it is not even the subject of religion. The most sensitive subject that a pastor ever deals with is the subject of money.

2. One of the most difficult tasks that a pastor faces is motivating people to give to the work of God. I read some interesting ways this week in which certain pastors have tried to do that.

3. I heard about one pastor who came up with the ingenious idea of wiring all of the pews with electricity. So on Sunday morning he announced to the people that they were going to begin a multi-million dollar building program. He said, "Now I want everyone of you who will pledge $500 to the building program to stand up, and he hit a button and about fifteen people involuntarily stood up."

4. He then said, "I want all of you who will pledge a $l,000 a piece to the building program to stand up." He hit a second button, and this time about fifty people involuntarily stood to their feet. Well the pastor was getting excited now.

5. Finally he said, "I want everyone of you who will pledge $l0,000 to the building program to stand up." With that he threw the master switch and electrocuted fourteen deacons!

6. Now that is certainly a novel idea, but one that I can assure you I will not try. Over the past few weeks I have sought to communicate with you, the members of FBI, the critical financial need our church is facing at the moment. I have appealed to you through letters, leadership meetings and through the preached word, a theme we are calling our “Faith-Seed Plan."

7. I have thought a lot about our effort to approach and communicate such a delicate subject, and I have prayed. Knowing full-well that there will always be some who disapprove of public appeals for support, I have nevertheless, felt it more important to obey God than men. I believe it is right and I believe it is biblical to call upon God’s people to give when there is a need. I believe that giving ought to be systematic. I believe in making a cash gift. I believe in making a pledge to the Lord. But I do not believe that giving ought to be coerced. If any of you ever feel such a way, then you have misjudged my intention.

8. I read one time about a fellow who kept visiting his pastor almost everyday saying, "I want to do something to help you." Well he was driving the pastor crazy and finally in order to get some peace and quiet, the pastor said, "Look, here are the names of ten members of our church who are relatively wealthy and they never attend. Here's some of my personal stationery. Go write them and see what you can do with them."

9. Well a few days later the pastor could hardly believe it. He received a letter from one of the wealthiest members of the church who had not been in church for years. The letter said:

"Dear Pastor:

I realize that I have not been as active as I should have been, and I have not been attending the services regularly. Furthermore I have not been faithful financially to the work of the church. I am enclosing a check for $5,000 and I assure you that I will be at all of the services from now on.

Then at the bottom of the letter there was a P. S. that said: Pastor, Would you please tell your secretary that there is only one 't' in 'dirty' and no 'c' in 'skunk?"

10. Now again I would not resort to that type of campaign to raise money for the work of God. But in this tremendous passage before us, I believe we have a wonderful way that our God honored, thousands of years ago, to raise money for His work and for His house. I want us to examine this passage and discover together that there are indeed times in the Bible when God allows for special appeals to be made to God’s people to give during times of need.

I. The Person Who Directed The Giving

1. King Joash was an amazing man. He became king over Judah, the Southern Kingdom, at seven years of age. Here was a young man who God felt was old enough to lead a nation even though he was not even old enough to drive a chariot (because back then you had to be 16 to get your driver's license).

2. But that should not surprise you, because age is really not a factor in being used by God. For you are going to see that even at seven years of age Joash had a heart for God. I am convinced that some of the greatest Christians on earth are children, and it was his heart that made Joash, even at such a tender age, such a great leader. For when a child has a heart for God, and he is fed the word of God, he will become a man of God. What a tender heart for God this young man had.

I am just as convinced that many of us miss a wonderful opportunity to teach our children the importance of giving generously to the work of the Lord. What am I talking about? Just this, many of our children’s Sunday School classes do not collect an offering from the children each Sunday. When was the last time your child asked you mom and dad, for an offering so he or she could give it in Sunday School.

As far as I know, we have children’s church worship every Sunday, but they rarely collect and offering as a part of their worship. I sometimes watch the youth when the offering plates are passed their way. Many of them give nothing. And some of them are already working part-time jobs earning income and they are not giving. We’re missing a wonderful opportunity to teach our children to give. The Bible says, “Train up a child in way he should go and he will not depart from it.” What are we teaching our children and young people about giving?

A. A Heart That Was A Blessing To The Lord

1. " All his life Joash did what was right because Jehoiada the High Priest instructed him. " (v.2) Joash was a man of conviction. No matter what the cost he was going to do what was right in the sight of the Lord. I cannot think of a greater obituary that could be put on any man's tombstone than this: "He did what was right in the sight of the Lord."

2. Now that tells me that he did not always do what was easy, because sometimes it is difficult to do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

3. He did not always do what was expedient, because sometimes it is extremely unpopular to do what is right in the sight of the Lord.

4. He did not always do what was expected, because sometimes God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. God is not bound by man's methods. He can do things the way He wants them to be done. God is not bound by man's mind. He can do them in a way that man does not think he can or should do it. For Joash the only opinion that mattered was God.

5. This young man had learned early in life that if you please God it doesn't matter whom you displease, and if you displease God it doesn't matter whom you do please.

6. One of the reasons why we are having a special emphasis on giving next week is because it was right in the sight of God way back then. I know it was right in the sight of God because Joash did what was right in the sight of God. What was right then is right now. What is right in the sight of God yesterday is right in the sight of God today. What is right in the sight of God today will be right in the sight of God tomorrow because God never changes.

7. We need to learn that in a day of gallop polls, public opinions, and door-to-door surveys, what is right and what is wrong is never up for a majority vote. What is right in the sight of God is always right, and what is wrong in the sight of God is always wrong. If something is right it's right because God says it's right, and if it's wrong it's because God says that it's wrong.

8. William Penn, the great Quaker, rightly said, "Right is right even if everyone is against it, and wrong is wrong even if everyone is for it." If God says something is right, it's right whether you think it is or not. If God says something is wrong, it's wrong whether you think it is or not. If God says it, that settles it whether you agree with it or not. A heart that is a blessing to the Lord is the heart that wants to do what is right in His sight.

B. A Heart That Was Burdened For the Lord

1. We read in verses 4 and 5 that "Joash set his heart on repairing the house of the Lord." Joash had a broken, burdened heart over the condition of the house of God. No wonder because the temple was literally falling apart.

2. It needed to be repaired. Now the Hebrew word there for "repair" literally means "to mend." It refers to how you would mend a broken bone. The house of God was literally broken down. What should have been a showcase was a shack. The roof was leaking, the windows were broken, everything that was nailed up was falling down, and everything that was nailed down was falling apart.

3. It needed to be refinished. In the parallel account of this story found in 2 Chronicles 24, we read that the workmen "restored the house of God to its original condition and reinforced it." What used to sparkle like a new diamond ring in the noonday sun, had lost its lustre. The paint was peeling off, the iron trim was rusting, the floors were dirty, cobwebs covered the windows. It was a shame even to call it the house of God.

4. It needed to be refurbished. We read in v.14 that after the temple had been repaired they took extra money to buy "articles for serving and offering, spoons and vessels of gold and silver." Now think about it. The priest could not even carry out their duties of sacrifice and service because there were no tools. The house of God was not only falling apart, it was empty, and the king's heart was broken.

5. Now that raises a question. Why couldn't somebody else see this need? Why couldn't the preachers and the priests, the men of God who worked in the temple, and lived in the temple, see this need? Why couldn't the people who walked by that temple everyday see that need? You would have thought that they would have come to the king and said we need to repair the house of God. But instead it was the king who had to come to them.

6. Do you know why King Joash could see what they could not see? Because he had a heart for God that they didn't have. Listen carefully. You cannot separate your love for God from your love for the house of God.

7. You tell me how a man really feels about God's house, and I will tell you how a man really feels about God. You show me a man who says that he loves God but he doesn't have time for church, and I'll show you a man who really loves this world and doesn't have time for God.

8. You can tell a lot about a church and its people by the conditions of its buildings. I believe the prettiest place in the community ought to be the church. The church ought to be the best looking building in town, not be cause we deserve the best, but because God deserves the best.

Two farmers named Joe and Jim were sitting together on the front porch one afternoon. Joe asked Jim, “So what did ya get the Misses for her birthday?’ I got her a goat for her birthday, said Jim. “Where ya gonna keep him,” asked Joe. “In the pen behind the barn,” said Jim. “Where ya gonna keep him when it snows?” asked Joe. “Well, then we’ll keep him in the bedroom,” said Jim. “But what about the smell? asked Joe. “Well the goat will just have to get use to it.” said Jim.

9. The priests and the people of Judah had gotten use to the stink in the house of God. Perhaps we don’t always notice the disrepair of God’s house because we too have gotten use to the smell. But because Joash had a burden for his God, he also had a burden for his church. You cannot have a burden for one without having a burden for the other.

II. The Procrastination That Delayed The Giving

1. So Joash decides to take action. He is going to see to it that God's people take care of God's house. But then he does a very dangerous thing. We read in verses 4-6 (also see 2 Chronicles 24:5) that he appoints a committee - a committee of the "priests and the Levites," and they did what a lot of committees tend to do, they met and they met and they met, and then decided to do nothing.

2. They were suffering from "the paralysis of analysis." What they should have done quickly they had not done at all. I am sure that one man stood up and said, "Well, this is not a good time to try this. The economy is down, interest rates are up, people are out of work, I just don't think we ought to do it."

3. Another man stood up probably and said, "Look, we've tried different ways of fund raising before and none of them have ever worked. Our people just don't respond to asking for money."

4. Maybe another man stood up and said, "Well, I never have liked the idea of asking church members for money to support God's work. They don't like it, I don't like it, I think we talk about money too much anyway."

5. You see, their problem was they did not realize the urgency of the hour. Why did Joash tell these men in 2 Chronicles to do what they were going to do quickly?" Because he realized that time is short, opportunity is fleeting, people are dying, Jesus is coming, and we need to work while it is day, because the night is coming when no man can work.

6. Well that’s when Joash took action. The first time, you notice, he asked the Levites to do what God wanted them to do. But the next time he told them. Because we read that it was "at the king's commandment that they made a chest." All of that leads to the tremendous climax of this story.

III. The People Who Demonstrated The Giving

1. Now we don't know everything about these people and often what we do know is not good, but I can tell you that these people under King Joash were a great people. These people were a godly people. We know that these people were a grateful people. I know that because they were a giving people.

I want you to see that their greatness was not so much in what they gave as it was in how they gave. Now I would not at all tell anybody in this church what they ought to give next Sunday. But I can tell you how you ought to give whatever it is you give.

A. They Gave Humbly

1. They humbled themselves and obeyed God in the matter of giving. First of all, they were obedient to their leader. Notice that it was "at the king's commandment" (v.7) that they gave. These people got under the authority of God's man. What blesses me is there was no griping, no backbiting, no criticizing. Their attitude was, this is what King Joash, God's man, thinks we ought to do, and that's what we're going to do.

2. I'm sure there are some people in our church who think this whole "Faith-Seed Plan" is a silly business. I know there are some of you who are thinking right now, "I don't understand why we do this. It's the most ridiculous thing that I've ever heard of to be asked to take a Faith Seed Packet and give an additional and sacrificial offering above my regular gift each Sunday.

3. Do you know why some of you don't like the "Faith-Seed Plan?" Well on the one hand, because it's new. Someone has said, "The seven last words of a dead church are: 'We never did it that way before.'" But on the other hand, because it puts you on the spot. It forces some of you to do something you really don’t want to do. But some of you will do it because you don’t want to be different from everyone else.

4. But they were also obedient to their Lord. In 2 Chronicles 24:9 we’re told that they were "to bring to the Lord the collection that Moses the servant of God had imposed on Israel in the wilderness." Now this refers to the commandment of God through Moses to give a tithe of their income to Him. These people had learned that giving is not a matter of choice. Giving is not even a matter of money. Giving is a matter of obedience.

5. Now you may be sitting in your seat right now saying, "I am so sick and tired of the Pastor talking about giving." Well may I be honest with you, I believe God is sick and tired of you not giving your money to Him.

6. Did you know that the IRS has determined that the average taxpayer only gives 1.7% of his adjusted gross income to any kind of church or charity whatsoever? Did you know that more money is spent on dog food and chewing gum than is given to the church each year in America?

7. I want you to understand that they were not giving to a chest, or to a plan or to a budget. We’re not even giving to the church. Notice carefully in v.9, we are told, that the proclamation was to come and "bring to the Lord the collection." When you give your Faith-Seed offering next Sunday you're not giving it to a building, you're not giving it to a budget, you're not giving it to a box, you're giving it to God.

B. They Gave Happily

1. We read in v.10 that "all the leaders and all the people rejoiced." They were tickled to death at the opportunity to give an offering to the Lord. You can tell a lot about a man by his attitude toward giving. Sam Jones, the old Methodist evangelist, said, "If you want to know how mean a man really is, go at him with the collection plate."

2. Everyone of you knows the kind of giver that God is looking for. II Corinthians 9:7 tells us, "God loves a cheerful giver." The word cheerful in the Greek language gives us our English word "hilarious." God loves a giver who is hilarious about his giving.

3. Please do me a favor. When you bring your Faith-Seed offering next Sunday don't come down here like you're going to the gas chamber. Don't walk down here like you're going to the gallows. You come down here with a smile on your face, a bounce in your step, a twinkle in your eye, and joy in your heart. Do you know why these people were so happy to give? Because they knew what kind of church they were giving to.

4. We are told they were giving their money for the "tabernacle of witness." (v.6) In other words, they were giving to a soul-winning church. That's what this church ought to be, a "tabernacle of witness." I personally believe it is a sin to ask people to give to a church that is not winning souls. But I also believe it is a sin not to ask people to give to a church that is winning souls.

C. They Gave Heartily

1. We are told in v.11 that they brought "much money." Furthermore, "they gathered money in abundance." Now notice carefully. These people did not give a token nor a tip. They gave a sacrificial offering. Now we cannot all give the same thing. We cannot all give the same amount. But we can all give sacrificially. I will guarantee you one thing. Everyone in this church can give more than we think we can.

2. One of my favorite stories is of a pastor who was trying to raise several hundred thousand dollars to pay off the church debt. This older couple came by, dressed rather poorly, and said to the preacher after the service, "We'd like to come and see you tomorrow. We have $12,000 we want to give to the church."

3. Well the pastor made the appointment. The next day the couple showed up with a gallon jar stuffed with money. They emptied it on the pastor's desk. They counted every bill, and the amount came to $11,999.

4. Well the old farmer said, "Pastor, that has to be wrong. I know there was $12,000 in this jar. Let's count it again." The preacher said, "Oh, that's alright. I'll just put in the other dollar." The farmer said, "No, I know that there's $12,000 in this jar."

5. So they counted it again, and the amount was still $11,999. Well the preacher was getting kind of nervous and he said, "Look sir, don't worry about the other dollar. I'll put it in." The farmer said, "Pastor, I know there's $12,000 in that jar. I have counted it several times and I'm not going to give any of it until I can give all of it." He insisted they count it one more time.

6. Well the result was exactly the same. There was only $11,999 in the jar. All of a sudden the wife's face brightened up and she looked at her husband and said, "Honey, I know what's wrong. We brought the wrong jar!"

7. Now all I ask is that next Sunday please remember to bring the right jar.

D. They Gave Harmoniously

1. Now this is the part that blesses me the most. "Then all the leaders and all the people rejoiced, brought their contributions, and put them into the chest until all had given." (v.10) Nobody gave the same thing, but everybody gave something. When the roll was called, and the offering was taken, everybody had given something.

2. Now you can come up with all kinds of excuses why you cannot give anything. But I want to say this morning everybody, everybody, can give something. I have heard people say on occasion, "Well, if I had a million dollars I would give half of it to the church." Well who wouldn't. I mean, if somebody gave you a million dollars tomorrow and you gave half of it to the church, you'd still have a half a million yourself.

3. I heard about a man who asked a friend one time, "If you had a million dollars would you give me half of it?" His friend said, "Well sure I would."

4. He said, "Well if you had a thousand cows would you give me half of them?" His friend said, "Sure I would."

5. He said, "Well if you had five hundred hogs would you give me half of them?" He said, "Yes I would."

6. He said, "Alright, if you had two hogs would you give me one of them?" His friend said, "Now that's not fair, you know I've got two hogs."

7. Now you may not have much to give God. But you can be sure of one thing, the Lord will never ask you to give what you do not have. You may only have a widow's mite, but you ought to give that widow's mite with all of the might of your heart.

8. I can give you this personal testimony this morning, and it's true from the depths of my soul. It is not a duty nor a burden; it is a delight and a blessing that I can give to the work of God. I pray on our "Chest of Joash" or our Faith-Seed Sunday that we will rejoice, we will bring our contributions, we will put them into the chest which are our offering plates until everyone has given something, so that we will get the victory and God will get the glory. Let’s all do the right thing!

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