May 14, 2023 - The Gift of Giving
Notes
Transcript
So today we come to our 2nd sermon in this May Sermon Series...
A series which is allowing us to address specific topics within Christianity...
And it’s these topics that I feel are more foundational to the faith...
Important ENOUGH to make sure we dive into them - year after year...
And so we use the month of May to do this.
Last week we looked at the Privilege of Prayer.
This week we come to the topic of - Giving
A topic that - can be viewed as Controversial, or even threatening.
To give you an idea of our heart on this matter -
• AS YOU KNOW - we DO NOT pass a plate here at church. (let me repeat that)
• NOR will we ever do so! - and we’ll get into WHY we don’t a little later...
• That’s not what today is about!
• If you saw the post that I made this week in the church app - It was meant to be a PRIMER for this sermon.
• I pulled that content from Desiring God and John Piper - and I’ll be pulling quite a bit from Piper in this sermon -
But...
The main point of that post was this:
SLIDE:
I seek not what is yours, but you
• These words spoken by the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians....AND YET...
• I believe this is God’s heart toward us...
• Now i know how something like this can often be received...
• Some people will read this (in terms of GIVING or TITHING) - and it will cause them to breathe of HUGE SIGH of RELIEF...
• THINKING - that this means - OH, God doesn’t want or need my money....WHEW!
Well - if that’s YOU - then you should know - God DOES have something to say about this topic
And if you’re the person who believes - YOU KNOW - I give A LOT to God - I’m good - But I’m glad everyone else is here to hear this sermon...
• My response would be this:
• We ALL - - have room to grow in this.
• God wants - ALL of us (each and every one of us - TO CHANGE regarding our giving)
• Even the BEST giver - can GROW in this. (Lauren Bota - harmony that Curt couldn’t find)
And so - there’s NO ONE IN HERE - right now - who can say to God - I HEAR ya Mike - but I’m all set. We’re SETTLED with what we give.
• There’s ALWAYS a deeper resting place with the Lord! No?
• Always
• And will get into that today -
The way i want to HANDLE today is -
• to first - look at the Biblical reasons to GIVE
• And then finish by looking at - HOW we should give (getting back to that foundation)
And so - to start - let’s look at several reasons that we should be GIVERS of our money to the advancement of God’s Kingdom… (and John Piper is going to help us with this)
SLIDE: Reason 1 - Giving: Honors an Old Testament Principle
GIVING
GIVING
• SO back in the OT times, God designated one of the 12 tribes of Israel - the Tribe of Levi...
• To OVERSEE the ministry of the Tabernacle and the Temple
And so instead of giving them a portion of the Land - God decided that the Levite ministers would LIVE OFF of the tithes of the other 11 tribes...
20 And the Lord said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the people of Israel.
21 “To the Levites I have given every tithe in Israel for an inheritance, in return for their service that they do, their service in the tent of meeting,
• We can see here that it was God’s PLAN that the Levite priests would LIVE OFF of the giving of others...
• And so we can see the connection to today!
• God is still calling Pastors and Ministers - and those people do not make money in the “normal ways” of society...
They are SUPPORTED by the GIVING of others… as I am today
Now I know SOME might say - I SEE that in the OT - but what about TODAY....
• a good argument for that is...
23 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness. These you ought to have done, without neglecting the others.
• And so here we see Christ - Uphold the tithe - giving - to the church...
• He says it’s NOT AS IMPORTANT as justice, mercy, and faithfulness - but He says - DON’T neglect the tithe/giving…
Another NT example is this...
13 Do you not know that those who are employed in the temple service get their food from the temple, and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings?
14 In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel.
• Here we see Paul POINT to the OT tithe - and say in v14 - IN THE SAME WAY - those who proclaim the gospel should get their living BY the gospel!
• Paul here - supporting a TITHE in order to HELP ADVANCE God’s Kingdom by way of the Biblical Proclamation by pastors and ministers!
And so GIVING - honors the OT principle of the Tithe
Another REASON to GIVE is this...
SLIDE: Reason 2 - Giving: The Antidote to Covetousness
GIVING
GIVING
• Old Testament Law- #10 - Thou Shall Not Covet
• And MONEY is an interesting thing isn’t it?
• It can be the OBJECT OF our coveting...
• AND...
• It can be the means by which we ATTAIN what we covet!
Seems like Money can be dangerous no?
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
5 Keep your life free from love of money, and be content with what you have, for he has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”
• And so how does GIVING fight this?
• It TRAINS us to - LAY DOWN what we COULD have bought with that money!
• It REMINDS us of the VALUE of Jesus
But what else?
SLIDE: Reason 3: GIVING: Governs Our Ever-Expanding Spending
GIVING
GIVING
I’m just going to QUOTE John Piper - as this is SOO helpful
JOHN PIPER:
There is an almost infallible human rule: spending expands to reflect the income. This is why you could have a book a few years ago entitled Getting By on $100,000 a Year. If you make more, you buy more, and the things you buy have to be stored and repaired and insured. Spending begets spending. If you have less at your disposal, you spend less. And most of the time you don't even think about it. I spend absolutely no time thinking about world cruises and $30,000 cars. But if I made two or three hundred thousand dollars a year, pretty soon things like that wouldn't seem any more strange to me than all the stuff I buy now—because I could afford it.
If this is true—if expenses almost inevitably expand to reflect the income—how shall we restrain ourselves from accumulating more and more stuff and more and more expensive stuff, and looking to the world like we have all the same values they do in our little earthly prelude to eternity? The answer is that as our income grows, we resolve to give a greater and greater percentage of our income to advance the kingdom. This puts the brakes on our natural impulse toward luxury.
• CONSISTENT Giving will always - REORIENT our hearts back to - TRUE NORTH! TO God!
• Our Money - WANTS to RULE OVER us - and so we have to FIGHT that...
• And we FIGHT that - by GIVING!
Listen to this story
Take John Wesley for example. He was one of the great evangelists of the 18th Century, born in 1703. In 1731 he began to limit his expenses so that he would have more money to give to the poor. In the first year his income was 30 pounds and he found he could live on 28 and so gave away two. In the second year his income doubled but he held his expenses even, and so he had 32 pounds to give away (a comfortable year's income). In the third year his income jumped to 90 pounds and he gave away 62 pounds. In his long life Wesley's income advanced to as high as 1,400 pounds in a year. But he rarely let his expenses rise above 30 pounds. He said that he seldom had more than 100 pounds in his possession at a time
This so baffled the English Tax Commissioners that they investigated him in 1776 insisting that for a man of his income he must have silver dishes that he was not paying excise tax on. He wrote them, "I have two silver spoons at London and two at Bristol. This is all the plate I have at present, and I shall not buy any more while so many round me want bread."
When he died in 1791 at the age of 87, the only money mentioned in his will was the coins to be found in his pockets and dresser. Most of the 30,000 pounds he had earned in his life had been given away. He wrote,
I cannot help leaving my books behind me whenever God calls me hence; but in every other respect, my own hands will be my executors.
In other words (John Piper summarizes), I will put a control on my spending myself, and I will go beyond the tithe for the sake of Christ and his kingdom.
• There is an INTENTIONALITY here that is - Inspiring?
• Scary?
• All of the above?
• Our GIVING will govern our desire to expand our SPENDING!
SLIDE: Reason 4 - GIVING: Honors the Creator as Owner of All
GIVING
GIVING
• I know that when people think about Giving to the church - they think of - TITHING
• And when we think of TITHING...
• We think of PERCENTAGES...
• and at that point - we ask - Well how much of my income should I give....
• What we need to be reminded of = is that ALL of our money belongs to God...
1 The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein,
• ALL of this is His!
• ALL of my possessions - BELONG to GOD!
• NOW - how do I know I truly believe that?!!
• Answer - I GIVE (specifically to Advance His Kingdom)
• BECAUSE i TRUST HIM!!
• I GIVE - because I trust that He’ll PROVIDE!!
• Which leads to the next point!!
SLIDE: Reason 5 - GIVING: Strengthens Our Faith
GIVING
GIVING
• WOW - I know you’ve experienced this [point] right?
• I know we ALL probably have stories to tell about how we GAVE - and God SUPPLIED!
• Rachel and I have walked thru this - going into ministry!
• We walked away from MORE income - in order to go into ministry....
• AND what have we seen over the years?...
*We've seen God provide - OVER and over again!
• We ALL have stories I’m sure - and YET - we still find ourselves - DOUBTING!
• HOLDING tightly to our money!
• GIVING strengthens our faith
GIVING does ALL of these things! - and more!
Honors an Old Testament Principle
The Antidote to Covetousness
Governs Our Ever-Expanding Spending
Honors the Creator as Owner of All
Strengthens Our Faith
What a BLESSING it is TO GIVE - and to GIVE MORE!
• REASONS to Give...
• But - HOW should we give?
Remember that post I made this week in the app....
What was the point?
• I seek not what is yours, but you
• I know that most of us have probably asked ourselves this question
SLIDE:
HOW MUCH SHOULD I GIVE?
• What amount is the right amount - for us?
• HOW MUCH SHOULD WE GIVE?
With the help of John Piper again - I think - ON THIS SIDE of the CROSS....
There’s a NEW Question God wants us to ask...
SLIDE:
HOW MUCH DARE I KEEP?
• And when we begin to VIEW life thru THIS lens, I think we begin to SEE the world as Jesus saw it...
• Jesus - God HIMSELF - saw the need before Him...
• And so what did he do?
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
• Jesus didn’t just pay the bill over the phone - from Heaven...
• He stepped down INTO humanity...
• And from THERE - He invested Himself in the cause..
• It starts with the Heart...
• The CHANGE begins there....
• And BECAUSE it DOES - any giving that takes place - FLOWING from a heart ANCHORED in Jesus - will be giving that HONORS God!
The new question:
How much dare I keep?
• And so if we look at the TWO ANGLES to the question of giving, we see....
• On the one side:
• How much should I give? - THIS question LEANS toward the idea that the money I have is MINE....
• How much dare I keep? - THAT question LEANS toward the idea that the money I have is NOT MINE....but God’s.
And it FEELS as though this NEW question - is a warning.... and so deep down we may not LIKE this new question...
• But the WARNING within it is actually helpful for us....
• Because it ALIGNS us more closely with HOW we should approach our money....BIBLICALLY...
These might be hard words, but hopefully they’re FREEING and LIGHT...
SLIDE:
To Love Money is to Hate God
To Love Money is to Hate God
And so you might be thinking - WHAT?
• How does my affection for God relate to my affection for money?
• Let’s look at Luke 16 to see this connection...
13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.”
• I think the first thing to point out here is this -
• Christ could have used anything else in the world…to HOLD UP against God here!
• He could have said - You cannot serve God and man...
• You cannot serve God and satan...
• You cannot serve God and this world...
• He could have said any of these....but He didn’t....He chose to hold up GOD - and MONEY
• AND SAY - You CANNOT serve God and Money...
• And yet if we look at this verse, we can see what Christ means when He says “SERVE God”...
• When we think about the idea of SERVING God, we think - DOING THINGS for God…right? (ministry, feeding the poor, teaching a class, etc.)
• But how does Jesus define it here?
• Notice what He doesn’t say - He doesn’t say — You cannot serve two masters, for you will do things for the one and not do anything for the other…
NO - He says - “you cannot serve two masters, for either you will HATE the one and LOVE the other, or be DEVOTED to one and DESPISE the other”...
• Do you hear the AFFECTIONAL aspect of SERVING…??
• Do you see - that to PLEASE God is to not merely DO things for Him...
• BUT to JOYFULLY do things for Him...
• to DO things for HIM YES, but that those things happen as they spring forth from LOVE FOR GOD...
• Luke here equates SERVING God - with LOVING God…!
• AND when we really start to think about THIS TRUTH...
• WHAT COMES to mind is this - IDOLATRY
• THIS truth POINTS to what Idolatry is all about -
• To LOVE something MORE than God! To DESIRE something MORE than God!
• THAT’S IDOLATRY!
• THEREFORE...
• when we LOVE money, and REST in our MONEY...
• when MONEY is our:
• support in life
• comfort in this world
• pursuit of life
• when it becomes our AIM in life, our end all be all...
• we’ve gotten to a point where MONEY has become our god...
• we worship it
• WHICH leads to our next point...
SLIDE:
To Love Money is To Be a Slave To It
To Love Money is To Be a Slave To It
• So taking this back to the verses we just read, When MONEY is our god..
• Money is the Master and We are the servant...
• Meaning what? - Who controls who?
• Does the servant/slave control the Master? NO
• The Master CONTROLS the servant...
• And we become a SLAVE to MONEY....like a puppet on a string
• Now listen - this doesn’t just apply to PEOPLE WHO HAVE LOTS of money…!
• Even so - listen to this - You’ve probably heard these numbers before...
1% OF THE POPULATION HAS ALMOST THE SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY AS THE REST OF THE 99% COMBINED
48.2 percent of all of the world’s wealth is in the hands of just 1 percent of the population.
YOU MIGHT BE A PART OF THE 1%
If you make more than $50,000 a year, you are among the top 1 percent of earners on the entire planet.
$10 A DAY IS THE NORM
Most of the population of the entire world (80 percent) lives on less than $10 a day.
IF YOUR ANNUAL HOUSEHOLD INCOME IS ABOVE $9,733, YOU ARE DOING BETTER THAN MOST
The median household income for the global population is less than $10,000 a year.
• KINDA CRAZY huh? But here’s the thing....
• Can you LOVE money - even if you don’t have any?
• Yes - of course! That’s why the LOTTERY exists!
• We CRAVE money!
• We DESIRE to be rich! And even BEING rich, we desire MORE!
• But what does the Bible say about that?
• What does God say about that DESIRE?
9 But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
Why is this true?
10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
• And so here we see the connection between LOVE OF MONEY and the WANDERING AWAY FROM THE FAITH..
• AND - we see here that IT’S NOT ABOUT BEING rich....it’s about the DESIRE to be RICH!
• AND really - the DESIRE for ANYTHING…more than God!
• That’s the SIN...
• Money isn’t EVIL - we are!
• Money is not the problem....WE ARE.
• See we can turn ANYTHING into an idol…We can take anything and elevate it ABOVE God.
• And of course MONEY is the prime suspect for us...
• WHY? - because it has a FORM of POWER!
• It allows us to buy things!
• Necessities of course, but also what? LUXURIES…
• Things we don’t NEED....but WANT
• AND because it can be so easy to fall into making MONEY our Master...
• The call for Christians is to constantly EXAMINE themselves to see if they are TRUSTING in PROSPERITY!
• And so here are 3 Questions that the Bible asks us (God asks us) - In order for US to examine whether MONEY is MY MASTER
SLIDE:
Do I live in fear of losing my comforts?
If we desire worldly comforts, and fear earthly loss more than we fear God, then we will likely make decisions and plans according to what we think will keep our lives most comfortable.
• See part of having FAITH in Christ is to find our REST in Christ....REGARDLESS of our circumstances!
• The apostle Paul said this in Romans 8
18 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.
• You ever go to the Grand Canyon, or some other AMAZING place like it, and come back and try to explain it to someone that’s never been there?
• And you know that your words just fall short of it - Like...”it’s AMAZING”...
• Well - For MANY YEARS - I’ve been saying that Chili Verde is AMAZING! And that’s TRUE…and those words DO ALSO Fall Short!
BUT - There’s a NEW kid on the block - Teriyaki Madness!
Some of you already know of this culinary MARVEL…!
AND - that words fall short!
• Here the apostle Paul is saying - the GLORY that is coming for those who have FAITH in Christ...
• …is SO OVERWHELMINGLY AMAZING that i can’t even compare the sufferings that we experience in this life - with THAT GLORY!...
• And so HEARING Paul say this in Romans, it makes his life choices MAKE SENSE.
• He didn’t live in FEAR of losing his comforts… WHY?
• Because Christ didn’t live in FEAR of losing His comforts....heavenly or earthly!
• Christ came - and willingly laid down His life…and died…for you.
• That’s the OPPOSITE of living in FEAR of losing comforts!
• Like CHRIST....the apostle PAUL looked suffering in the eyes…and walked toward it!
• And his life choices REVEALED what he believed...
• His life choices revealed that he had RENOUNCED any love for money...
• Money was not his master…Christ was his Master
• And the focus of his life was not in the accumulation of wealth, but in the glorification of Christ in the lives of those around Him.
• So a Question to ask ourselves is this:
• Do I live in Fear of Losing My Comforts?
• But there’s another question to ask ourselves (to see if Money is MY MASTER), and one that the Bible asks us:
SLIDE: Question
Whether in Prosperity or Need, is Jesus Enough?
• We can have a desire to USE the Resources we have - for God’s work...
• But EVEN THEN - if God chooses to take it all away....is having Christ enough?
See I could spend my life genuinely pursuing to honor God with the money He’s given me…but He could still take it all away!
• The question is - IF that happens, how will I respond to God?
• Of course no one is perfect, and of course there are going to be times that we QUESTION God...
• NOT knowing what He’s doing...
• BUT if we lose everything, and then POSTURE UP to God, and we shake our fists at Him, and continue to do that…and continue to do that....and continue to do that...
• IT MIGHT JUST BE that what’s being revealed is that we had actually been a SLAVE to MONEY…with MONEY being our MASTER...
• And so it’s a great question for us to ask ourselves, to gauge where we’re at with God!
• Whether in Prosperity or Need, is Jesus enough?
• And you might be thinking - why is PROSPERITY in the equation here?
• Here’s why - Because if I’m constantly seeking Jesus when things are BAD…
• BUT then when things turn to the GOOD, I no longer seek Jesus...
• Again, it would point to the very real possibility that Christ isn’t my MASTER…but instead the THINGS He gives me...
• and as we read before…that’s IDOLATRY!
• That’s elevating GIFTS above GIVER!
• And so - the QUESTION is important....the answer more important!
Another question we should ask ourselves:
SLIDE: Question
What Legacy Am I Leaving?
• And this question really points to our priorities...
• Am I pouring all of my energy, and time, and effort into things that will last…or into temporary things?
• Am i pouring my life into raising my family’s standard of living 20 years from now…so much so that I have no time whatsoever to build them up spiritually?
• Men - are we so entrenched in our work, that we’ve lost sight of building up our wives in the Lord?
• Have we lost sight of the things that matter....
• the things that are ETERNAL?
• What example are we giving our kids....because they.are.watching!
• MORE OFTEN that not, Our pursuits in life....become THEIR pursuits in life...
• What Legacy Am I Leaving?
• important question...
• And so all of these questions are important for us - to examine ourselves to truly see if - We are a slave to MONEY.
To see if Money is our god
AND SO - What have we seen so far?
• We’ve seen that:
1. To Love Money is to Hate God
2. To Love Money is to Be a Slave to Money
• Now, if this is true…which we’ve seen, ACCORDING to God in Scripture - it is...
• Then that would point to this - Our last MAIN point today:
SLIDE:
To Love Money is to Worship Our Own Destruction
To Love Money is to Worship Our Own Destruction
• Again, don’t forget....money itself is not evil...
• EVEN having money is not evil...
• It’s in our DESIRE to have money where the danger lies...
• But listen - If I desire to have money, SO THAT I can use it for God’s purposes...
• then GREAT!
• But if my HOPE is in my bank account...
• If my JOY rests in my bank account…OR if my JOY rests in the PURSUIT of MORE MONEY (maybe i’m poor*)
• Then I’m revealing that I’m a SLAVE TO MONEY…like a puppet on a string
• And it’s REALLY a foolish pursuit! - WHY?
1 Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you.
2 Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days.
4 Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you.
• We all know this to be true right?
• That old saying - “You’ll never see a hearse towing a U-Haul”
• We can’t take anything with us…
• v3 here says - Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you
• Who is this talking to?
• Who’s the YOU in this verse?
• It’s the person who would live out… (Luke 12:13-21)
13 Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”
14 But he said to him, “Man, who made me a judge or arbitrator over you?”
15 And he said to them, “Take care, and be on your guard against all covetousness, for one’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”
16 And he told them a parable, saying, “The land of a rich man produced plentifully,
17 and he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?’
18 And he said, ‘I will do this: I will tear down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19 And I will say to my soul, “Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry.” ’
20 But God said to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?’
21 So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”
• See - we have our own understanding about what makes sense...
• THE WORLD has its own understanding of what COMMON SENSE would tell you...
• See the world would tell you - Do ALL you can to earn as much money as you can…SO THAT in retirement (that last 20 years of life), YOU won’t have to worry about anything...
• And so the WORLD just stays SOOO Surface Level: it doesn’t get deep enough.
• But Christ is constantly looking at us and saying - Think Again!!
• “get a wider....DEEPER view of life”
• And so that’s our call!!
To look at the MONEY that we have - and know that it’s not OUR MONEY…it’s GOD’s MONEY...
•The question is - How am I handling God’s money....?
• It’s a good test to see where our HEART is....
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
How Much Dare I Keep?
Today we’ve seen some hard truths about...
- Why we should GIVE of our money to advance God’s kingdom...
AND
- We’ve seen hard truths about the LOVE of MONEY!
We’ve seen that...
OUR GIVING....
Honors an Old Testament Principle
The Antidote to Covetousness
Governs Our Ever-Expanding Spending
Honors the Creator as Owner of All
Strengthens Our Faith
This is WHY we give…
• BUT HOW do we do it?
• With a HEART anchored in LOVE FOR Jesus - - BECAUSE....AFFECTIONS MATTER!!
Why Do Our Affections Matter?
To Love Money is to Hate God
To Love Money is to Be a Slave to Money - Money is our MASTER
To Love Money is to Worship Our Own Destruction
I’m just gonna read the text...
Matthew 6:24 ESV
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
The new question for us today is this:
SLIDE:
How much dare I keep?
Let’s pray