Head 3: The Biblical Basis for Giving

Bible Reading

Intro

Today we are starting a short mini-series on giving and supporting the church financially. As you know we will are talking about the church’s financial situation today and as you know the picture is in many ways pretty grim.

However, I want to stress that the church council see this current situation as a distraction, not a crisis. The Lord has given this congregation a vision for reaching the lost with the gospel and as we have been praying for people to come to know Jesus, people have started exploring the faith throuhg Wonga Park.

I personally see this financial gap we have as a spiritual temptation for our congregation.

There is a temptation here to lose our focus on doing the discipleship work God calls churches to do, and to start focusing instead on fixing a budget deficit.

The real temptaiton is that we would start organising events to raise funds to help the church,

at the cost of our discipleship efforts.

So that our aim as a congregation becomes raising funds, which we need, and not discipling the nations, as Jesus commanded us.

And so to help us think throuhg this situation, we will be preaching on giving and finances for a couple of weeks. We want to thoroughly explore what the Bible says about giving, about supporting the work of the church and about helping each other out.

So we will be doing that over the next several weeks.

Today then, is a kind of overview and introduction to the topic of giving. And we are going to look at giving from 3 different perspectives.

the law of giving

the heart of giving

the sacrifice of giving

So let’s look first then at the Law of giving. And this is the passage from Leviticus we read.

The Law of Giving

Leviticus 27:30–32 CSB

30 “Every tenth of the land’s produce, grain from the soil or fruit from the trees, belongs to the Lord; it is holy to the Lord. 31 If a man decides to redeem any part of this tenth, he must add a fifth to its value. 32 Every tenth animal from the herd or flock, which passes under the shepherd’s rod, will be holy to the Lord.

Now leviticus is the book you go to in the Bible if you have trouble sleeping. It is a sleep inducing book of laws and rules that set out how the sacrificial system, and the law courts in Israel were supposed to work.

So where we are in the Bible story is that God had just saved Israel out of Egypt, and Israel is in the process of becoming a nation. They are in the process of learning what it means to be God’s people.

So where we find them in this passage is at the base of the mountain where God has been meeting with Moses. God has been laying out the plans for how the Israelites are supposed to worship him through the tabernacle, and later through the temple system.

And what we have to remember is that as Israel enters the promised land, God gives each of the 12 tribes of ISrael land to call their own. They each get a section of the country.

Well, actually 11 of the 12 tribes get a section, because teh Levites, the priests do not.

They don’t get land to work and plant crops and graze livestock. They are set aside by God to do religious work. They are to make the sacrifices work, keep the temple and tabernacle up and running etc.

But then how are these levites going to be sustained? Where do their food and shelter and clothing come from? Where do they get their income from.

Well this passage in leviticus 27, sets out the basis for how God was looking after his set aside servants.

Through the principle of tithing.

Now tithing is a word we throw about often, but it is not a word we really ever define.

So to tithe is simply to give one tenth of whatever you have.

So to give a tenth of what you earn is to tithe.

Now notice in the days of Israel, Tithing was expressly commanded. The israelites were commanded by God himself to give a tenth of everything they produced, whether grain or fruit or livestock.

God says that this tenth belongs to him.

And the purpose for which this tenth was to be used was to support the religious work of the temple and tabernacle.

God’s set aside servants were entirely dependent on this tithing.

And in fact later on in ISrael, when Israel wasn’t diligent in supplying for the needs ot the levites, they ultimately abandoned the temple and they were forced back into the fields to work so that they could eat.

Now consider how devastating that would have been spiritually. You see in ISrael the prieslty sacrificial system was what God had provided in order to cleanse the people from their sin. Of course teh sacrifices all pointed to JEsus’ ultimate sacrifice on teh cross. But, nevertheless, without priests to offer teh sactifices, without a temple and tabernacle, the Israelites’ capacity to worship God was essentially cut off.

And so to prevent this from happening, to set his set aside servants free to do the work he called them into, he commands that Israel support the levites with 1 tenth of all they produced.

Now notice what the text actually says here: It says - this tenth, belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord.

Now let’s think about this for a moment.

When we bring our offerings to support the work of the church, when we give the preverbial tenth, do we consider this holy aspect of our offerings?

To be holy is to be set apart for the Lord. When we give, we are making a concious choice to say - I am setting this thing apart for the work of the Lord.

When we do so we are dedicaitng and concecrating our offering to God. We are saying this money, this bit I am giving, is purposefully being designated for Jesus, for his purposes and for his glory.

When we do that, we recognise that God is the creator of everything, he holds ultimate ownership of everything.

When we set aside our tithe, we are agreeing with the psalmist in psalm 24:1 where he writes

Psalm 24:1 CSB

1 The earth and everything in it, the world and its inhabitants, belong to the Lord;

This still remains true till today. Sure we don’t have the temple which was there to offer sactifices and ritualistically cleanse the people of their sin.

No we have the church, which is responsible for proclaiming the gospel. Enabling, equipping and training up disciples to spread the good news that Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice that saves us.

So we don’t have the temple, we have the church. And as much as the temple was reliant on the giving of the Israelites, so too the church is reliant on the giving of the congregation today.

The principle both in Israel’s day and in our day is the same:

The set aside people of God, set aside some of what God gives them, to support the work of the set aside servants of God.

[repeat]

Now we have to be very careful here. We do not live in ISrael.

They were commanded to bring their tithe.

It is part of teh mosaic law, part of the Law which Moses gave the people as the mouthpiece for God.

So we can’t just look directly at Israel and say - oh well, they gave a tenth, so we should give a tenth today.

It is not that simple. We do need to look at the rest of scripture to inform us better - because the church is not ISrael.

So let’s first then go to a time period BEFORE God gave this command through Moses, and then look at a time in the New Testament, a logn time AFTER this event.

Let’s go Back to Before the command of tithing, and let’s look at the heat of giving.

We are going back now several hundred years before Moses gave this law. To the time of Abraham, in Genesis 14.

The Heart of Giving

Genesis 14:18–20 CSB

18 Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; he was a priest to God Most High. 19 He blessed him and said: Abram is blessed by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 20 and blessed be God Most High who has handed over your enemies to you. And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Now again the context of this passage is important. But here we find Abraham in a very tricky situation. You see his nephew - Lot had been living in Sodom.

And Lot had been captured and had been carried off.

So when Abraham hears of Lot’s situation he gets his men together, he pursues Lot’s captors and he rescues both Lot, his family, his servants and all his stuff.

Now on his way back from the battle, which had this miraculous outcome that Lot and all that belonged to him were saved, on his way back he meets Melchizedek.

Now Melchizedek is the king of Salem (later called Jerusalem), but he is also a priest of God. Melchizedek is, I think, the only person in the old testament who was both one of God’s priests, and also a king. He is direct forshadowing of Jesus himself. And In the Book of hebrews we learn that Jesus is a priest of the order of Melchizedek.

So this king-priest pretty much represents Jesus.

And so when Abraham meets Melchizedek and they have a meal together and Melchizedek blesses Abraham.

In response Abraham gives Melchizek a tenth of everything he had. He gives the first tithe in the Bible to the priest of God.

Now did Melchizedek need the tithe? - No he was the king of Jerusalem.

But it is out of thankfulness to God, that Abraham gives his 10th.

This instance of tithing teaches us that out of our respect, our thankfulness, our gratitidude for who God is, and for what he has done for us, we should give to him.

As we said, this event happened hundreds of years before Moses instituted tithing as a legal requirement for the Israelites.

What this means is that a heart of gratitude wants to give back to God.

Giving, tithing, interacts with our faith and our gratitude.

The more gratitude we have for what God has done for us, the more we would want to give back to him. And that makes sense doesn’t it.

The more thankful I am to my wife for washing the clothes, the more likely I am to do the dishes in gratitude and love right.

But Jesus actually teaches us that the link between thankfulness or gratitude and giving is circular. It is a self-reinforcing system.

Listen to what Jesus himself says in

Matthew 6:19–21 CSB

19 “Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal. 20 But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Now what is he saying?

He is saying your wealth on earth is temporary. So use your wealth here on earth, spend it, and invest instead in the kingdom, in storing up treasurers in heaven.

To paraphrase - invest your money in the kingdom.

But listen to the reason he gives:

“For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

Do you see Jesus’ point?

The heart follows the treasure.

It is not so much that you should put your money where your mouth is, but rather that when you put your money, your mouth will follow...

that’s a bad image...

To put it a different way.

You give because you are thankful for what God has done in your life. And because you give and support the discipleship work, your heart starts loving that kind of work.

Your heart follows your treasure.

Each and every one of us need to think about where we put our treasures.

If, to take an extreme example, 100% of our treasure on earth is spent on ourselves, on our homes, on our holidays overseas, on things we enjoy doing, if 100% of our treasure is invested there, then we will love ourselves, our homes, our overseas holidays and the things we enjoy. Our heart will follow our treasure.

But when we give our earthly treasures away, to store up heavenly treasures, when we give our money to church work, to missionaries, to the Lord’s work in our community and overseas, our hearts will follow. We will love that work more, be more invested in, and ultimately enjoy that treasure forever.

The heart of giving is that the heart follows gratitude, and the heart follows the treasure.

Recognising this, we need to also realise that giving is a sacrifice.

So we saw the Law of giving - that God instituded a law in Israel to support the work of his set aside servants, and while we recognised that we don’t live under the law, the same principle applies. The set aside people of God, set aside some of their income, to support the set aside servants of God.

Secondly we saw the heart of giving - that giving comes in response to the thankfulness we have for what God has already done for us in Jesus. But that as we invest our treasures in the kingdom work, our heart will love kingdom work more and more.

So now let’s lastly look at the sacrifice of giving.

The Sacrifice of Giving

Luke 21:1–4 CSB

1 He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

Now we move to the new testament. Now we are come to listen to Jesus himself.

And he teaches us that God considers the proportions of giving, rather than actual amounts.

The principle is this: God cares more about the heart than he does about the amount.

As we saw, in both the institution of the tithe, and in Abraham’s case, which happened hundreds of years before, 1 tenth was set aside for God’s use.

But Luke 21, shows us that God cares more about the heart than the amount.

So what is happening here is that Jesus is busy teaching his disciples in teh temple courts. He sees the teachers of the law who took the tithes people brought to the temple and grew wealthy through the temple system by extorting the poor.

Then he looks up and sees the rich people of the town bring their gifts into the temple.

Let’s say they are making a million dollars a year for argument’s sake. They bring their treasure box into the temple, drop off a cool $100k.

And this 100k is going to keep the temple runnign for another year say. Or half a year, or whatever.

And then a poor widow comes in. She only has 10c. This is the last of her money. She drops this in, and the human response, the pragmatist in us says:

Wow, the 100k will go so far for the kingdom of God.

And practically that is true - it is going to support the work of the temple for months to come.

And the 10c isn’t even going to pay for a stick of chewing gum for one of the priests.

And yet what does Jesus say.

She has put in more than all the others. Why, because she gave all she had to live on.

Now, we need to be careful here. I am not saying you need to be giving 100% of what you earn to the work of the church. Not at all.

And if any preacher ever says that, you know for sure you have joined a cult...

So what is Jesus saying here?

He is saying, her sacrifice is much greater than that of the rich. Because they can give 100k, and not feel it.

But percentagewise, she gave so much more, so her sacrifice is much more.

Jesus tells us clearly. True giving to God is not about the amount given.

It is about the heart behind the giving.

What does our giving say about our heart?

Jesus’s words here are haunting:

Luke 21:3 CSB

3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them.

Jesus’ words are haunting. Because it forces us to think - using Jesus’ eyes of how giving to God works, using those eyes

How much, are you putting in?

Not how much financially, but how much sacrificially?

It is not about how much the giving is, it is about the size of the sacrifice.

That is the big picture overview of giving in the Bible. Over the next few weeks we will be exploring this a bit further.

But that gives us a bit of an overview.

So the question now is - so what? what do we do with this?

Let me give you 4 quick applications, before we meet together in our groups.

1. We should examine our motives in giving.

Virtually every church has heard people say things like: I will give you this amount of money, if you will change church to run my way.

Now most of the time it is not said exactly that way. But in essence it is what it comes down to.

What is my motive in giving? Is it out of a heart of gratitude? Is it because I want to give back to God for what he has done for me in Jesus? Do I want my heart to follow my treasure?

What is my motive in giving?

2. What is my attitude in giving?

Is my giving simply because I believe it is law. Is my giving a burdensome duty, or a joyful act?

Do we see our giving to the church as a loss? Or an investment? Or to put it another way, do we see it primarily as a loss of our earthly treasures?

Or as an investment in heavenly treasures?

What is my motive in giving?

3. Does my giving lead me to trust God will look after me?

Consider what the widow did - she gave the last of what she had to God, trusting that he would provide for her. Now again, I am not saying that that is what we are called to do…

But when we give a sacrificial gift, when it actually costs us something, we are actually expressing our faith.

We are saying - God I know you will look after me, will refresh me more, than a holiday will. You will feed me more than a restaurant meal. You will shelter me much more than a house made of bricks. You will keep me safe much more than the money I have in the bank.

So examine motives, examine our attitudes, does my giving lead me to trust God more.

and

4. Pray for a generous spirit

We will look at joy and generosity again soon. But we need to recognise that we can’t actually do any of this without God’s Holy Spirit changign us from the inside.

You wont feel thankful for the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, if you don’t have the Holy Spirit stirring your soul.

You won’t want to live sacrificially for the sake of the Gospel, unless the Holy Spirit has convinced you of the need for the Gospel to be invested in.

And your heart won’t follow your treasure invested in the kingdom, unless the Holy Spirit moves you to invest your treasure in teh kingdom.

So we need to pray that the Holy Spirit will give us a geneorous heart. That our heart will be shaped after God’s own heart. Who did not consider the cost of his own Son too high a price to pay to reconcile ourselves to him.

We need a heart that will be shaped after JEsus own heart, who did not consider the cost of his own life, and suffering the wrath of God in our place to high a price to pay, to call us brothers and sisters.

We need a heart like that of the Holy Spirit, who generously produces the fruit of the spirit in our hearts, who gives us love, goodness and kindness, who makes us Cheerful sacrificial givers.

So we need to pray for a generous spirit.

Taken together, when we see the law of giving, the heart of giving, the sacrifice of giving, when we examine our motives, our attitudes, our trust in giving and our prayes for a generous heart, when we do all these things - I genuinely believe that you will agree with me that our current financial situation is not really a problem.

It is but a distraction.

But we are gonna solve it, not by doing fund raisers, but by becomign the kinds of generous people God called us to be.

Amen.