Be The Church: Give Generously, Part 1

I want to thank everyone for throwing us the housewarming party yesterday. It was so thoughtful and you guys are so very generous. Your presence alone would have been enough, but we appreciate so much the gifts that you all gave us. We loved having you guys in our home and I hope you know that our home is you’re home and that you’re always welcome.

Yesterday was the kind of warm, sunny day that reminds you that summer’s coming. We’re taking the summer off from Acts and we’ll be going through this series on what it means to Be The Church. If you remember last summer’s All Hands On Deck, this summer’s theme is Be The Church. The first topic we’ll cover is the topic of giving, which means, yes, we’ll be talking about tithing and church budgets.

Now, some of you are ready to get up and walk out right now. Some of you can handle me preaching on just about any topic, but when the preacher starts talking about money, well then we know he’s just corrupt and everyone else there is too, because, you know, they’re just looking to line their pockets.

Well, that’s really not the case, I promise you. We don’t make commission on tithes. Our pay doesn’t go up just because tithing goes up. The fact of the matter is that when we preachers preach on giving, no one is satisfied. There are some who’ll say, “He didn’t preach hard enough on giving”. Others will say “he stepped on our toes too much.”

So why am I preaching on giving? Why four Sundays on giving and stewardship? That’s a fair question. There are four reasons up on the screens. Why giving? And why now?

Why do I bring it up now?

We all have (some) money

God’s word has something to say about our money

It’s my job to teach you that and help you apply it

And we are in a position where we need faithful giving

I came across this quote from Chuck Swindoll about the Bible and money.

“Jesus talked about money. One-sixth of the Gospels, and one-third of the parables address the subject of stewardship. Jesus was no fund-raiser. He dealt with money matters, though, because money matters. It’s a surprise to many people, Christians included, that the Bible has so much to say about this subject.” [Swindoll, p231]

So, are you ready? Here we go. We’re not going to talk about money until the end, okay? First some foundation. We can’t answer the question “what should I give and why” until we’ve answered two other questions: 1) Who is God? And 2) who are we?

#1: Who is God?

God is Creator

The Bible tells us very clearly that God is Creator. It is in fact the very first thing you learn about God when you open the pages of Scripture. It is the first thing children are taught in Sunday School. God is Creator.

Genesis 1:1, the very first page of the Bible, the very first line of the Bible, says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

Genesis 1:1 ESV

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

Midway through the canon of Scripture we read in Psalm 33:8-9, “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.”

Psalm 33:8–9 ESV

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

In the NT we read this in the prologue to John’s gospel. John 1:1-2, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”

John 1:1–2 ESV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

At the end of the NT, in the book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit pulls back the curtain of heaven and reveals the worship of the triune God. What are they singing about? What is the subject of their worship? It is God as Creator.

Psalm 33:8–9 ESV

Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him! For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.

We read:

Revelation 4:10–11 ESV

the twenty-four elders fall down before him who is seated on the throne and worship him who lives forever and ever. They cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”

The Bible teaches us not only that God is Creator. It teaches also the scope of His creation: all that is that we can see or touch, He made it. It teaches us the purpose of His creation: it exists to bear witness to His glory and power. And the Bible teaches us the mode of creation: it was by His word alone. Creation ex nihilo - creation of something out of pure nothingness.

We serve and worship a God who speaks, and His word creates the reality it speaks of. He says, “Let there be light.” And light simply begins to exist.

I can announce my intention to build a wall to close off the bonus room in our house and make it a bedroom. But my announcing my intention to build a wall does not itself create the wall. No, I actually have to get to work building it, or pay someone else to do it for me.

God announces His intention to create, He declares His desire to create, and that declaration alone, that announcement alone, creates the reality it speaks about. “Let there be light”, God merely says. And the result follows immediately: “and there was light.”

God is Creator and Sustainer. Do you acknowledge Him as Sustainer?

God is Sustainer

God is also Sustainer. God does not merely create and then leave us to ourselves, as those who are deists would say. Deists say, “Oh, yeah, God created everything but then just completely turned His back on it and has left it alone ever since.” The Bible says otherwise.

Nehemiah 9:6 ESV

“You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.

God creates and God sustains, meaning He preserves creation, He upholds creation, He maintains it. Physicists tell us that conditions in this world are tailor made to support life. The tiniest of deviations in terms of temperature and distance from the moon and the sun would create catastrophic conditions on earth and it would be uninhabitable.

In Job 34:14-15 we read: “If he should set his heart to it and gather to himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh would perish together, and man would return to dust.”

God creates this universe by His word and He also sustains this universe by His word.

In Heb 1:3 we read:

Hebrews 1:3 ESV

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high,

God is Creator of this universe and He is also its Sustainer. And therefore, God is Owner.

God is Owner

God is Creator. God is Sustainer. And God is therefore Owner. The Bible teaches this too just as clearly as it teaches us that God is Creator and Sustainer.

Psalm 24:1–2 ESV

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.

In Psalm 24:1-2, we read: “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers.”

Psalm 50:10–12 ESV

For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.

In Psalm 50:10-12, we read: “For every beast of the forest is mine, the cattle on a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the hills, and all that moves in the field is mine. “If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine.”

This makes sense, right? After all, there are two ways you can becoming the owner of something. One way is to buy it, and it’s yours. The other is to make it, and it becomes yours. If I make something, and maintain it, it’s mine.

God is Creator. God is Sustainer. God is therefore Owner. God is Owner. Do you acknowledge Him as Owner?

#2: Who are we?

It’s only in light of who God is that we can see clearly who we are. If God is Creator, then what are we? We are creatures.

We are creatures

In Psalm 100:1-3 we read:

Psalm 100:1–3 ESV

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth! Serve the Lord with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Know that the Lord, he is God! It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

What is the most basic fact about us as human beings? The most basic fact about us as human being, the common denominator for us all is that we are creatures.

After all, if God made everything that has been made, I didn’t make myself. So He must have made me. And if the Creator made me, then I am a creature. I am part of His creation.

And because God is both Creator and Sustainer and Owner, and because I am part of His creation, that means I do not belong to myself. There is a higher authority than my will or my preferences or my feelings at any given moment. I belong to the Creator.

Well, I may not like this very much, but that means I am not my own. I am accountable and responsible to Him. He — He alone — has the sole authority to evaluate my life, and He will do so when this life is over, and He will do so on the basis of whether I spent this life and all that He’s given me according to His purpose.

I am a creature. But that’s not all. I am a creature made in the image of the Creator.

We are made in God’s image

In Gen. 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 1:27 ESV

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

I am made in God’s image. I reflect Him. If being a creature is the most basic fact about who we are, then being made in God’s image is the most basic fact about what we are called to do. To image God is to reflect Him. We are walking, talking, breathing reflections of God. We reflect Him imperfectly, but we do reflect Him, with every word and with every deed.

We are creatures. We are made in God’s image. And then the final destination, where all of this is headed? God is Creator. God is Sustainer. God is Owner. And — ready? We are stewards, not owners.

We are stewards, not owners

Now after all that, I need a break and I’m sure you do too.

There’s a story about a young man who inherited a million dollars, right? But this guy had a serious heart condition. One surprise or one shock and the guy’s finished. So the deacons of the church were trying to figure out, Look, how can we break the news to him easy so he doesn’t immediately keel over? And they figured it out. The pastor would go up to the kid and ask him, casually, If you had a million dollars, what would you do with it?

So one Sunday the pastor saw the kid sitting on the second row from the front, right side. He goes over and sits down beside him and real casually says, “So, if you had a million dollars, what would you do with it? How would you spend it?”

Now the pastor is expecting him to say, “A million dollars? Alright, well I’d pay off my house, take a vacation, retire.” The pastor was not prepared for what the guy actually said. Neither was his heart. He sat back and waited for the answer and the guy said, “A million dollars? Well, pastor, I don’t know what all I would do with it, but the first thing I would do with it is give half of it, $500,000, to the church.”

The pastor actually also had a heart condition, because He keeled over dead from shock.

We’re stewards. That means we aren’t owners of our money and possessions. Instead, the Creator who owns everything has entrusted to me some of what belongs to Him, and as a steward, I am supposed to do with His money what He would have me do with it.

What would you do with a million dollars? Or “What are you going to do with the money that you actually have?” Both questions get at this idea of stewardship.

Now follow my logic, okay?

We are creatures, made in God’s image. As creatures made in God’s image, we’re called to reflect Him with our words and actions and choices, right? God is owner, so that all that I have is really His, and I’m a steward, which means I’m called to spend the money entrusted to me in a way that reflects His values and purposes.

Look at your bank statement or go to your banking app on your phone and look over all the charges for the last 15 days. What do you see? What story does your bank statement tell?

The story my bank account tells is that I like food. Shannon and I have become convicted about all the money we waste on convenience eating. Going out with friends and family to a restaurant is one thing. McDonald’s or Taco Bell is another, right?

In the Bible world, especially the NT world, a steward was actually an important position, a really well respected job. A steward is someone hired by a wealthy family to manage the house. They were to manage the house according to the head of the household’s wishes. Finances was part of this. They were to use the family resources wisely. Stewards had authority - they could make decisions. But they also had accountability - they had to answer for how they spent.

Jesus tells a parable about this in Matthew 25. There’s a man who goes on a journey. This man is wealthy, and before he leaves, he entrusts all of his wealth to three men. Each of these guys gets different amounts of money from the man based on their ability to manage it. Each man was not only called upon by the owner to keep the money safe; they were to invest the money wisely, so that when the owner comes back, they can give the owner more than they were given.

One guy gets five talents (a talent is about 20 years wages for a typical worker in the first century). He invests them, and makes five more. When the owner comes back, he gives him back 10 talents instead of just the five was given.

Same with the second guy. He was given two talents, and just like the first guy, invests the two talents so that the two talents become four talents.

But the third guy doesn’t do that. Instead, he takes his one talent he was given and buries it in the ground. He doesn’t invest it. He hides it. He doesn’t use it. He buries it. He was afraid of the owner. “What’ll happen if I invest his money and I lose it?” So he doesn’t invest it. And all he has to give to the owner is the one talent he was given.

Needless to say, this guy doesn’t look too good compared with the five talent guy and the two talent guy. His master was not happy at all, of course. And so he takes away the one talent gives it to the guy with the five talents he invested which became ten.

Matthew 25:29 ESV

For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.

And here’s the crucial part for us: we are called to manage and invest and use what God gives us according to His wishes, not ours. It is His desires, His priorities, His values that should guide what we do with our money.

#3: What does it mean for our wallets and our stuff?

So quickly, three things:

1. Nothing you have is really yours

“Dustin, that’s hard to swallow.” I get it. It’s true for me too. Nothing I have is really mine either. Even the house we bought six months ago. The deed is in my name, but the bank still has that. And even when it’s paid off, I can’t take it with me to heaven when I die.

You can’t even take your body to heaven! You ever thought about that? Your spirit vacates your body at the time of your death. God will give you a body at the resurrection. But you can’t take the one you have now with you. Do you think God is trying to tell us something in all that?

2. You and all you have is a vapor - here today, gone tomorrow

Listen to this warning from James 4.

James 4:13–17 ESV

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”— yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin.

Church, how confidently — how arrogantly — we plan for tomorrow! It’s okay to plan. But the factor in all our planning is that the sovereign Creator God may intervene and change our plans for reasons only He understands right now.

3. So, take what you have, and invest it in what really matters

So if it’s not ours to start with, and if all we have is here today and gone tomorrow, why not invest it in what matters?

I hope you know that your contributions to our church go toward what matters. You probably doin’t know all that your contributions accomplish.

[SLIDE]

Where does your contribution go?

Pay staff salaries

Mission work at the local, state, national, and international level

Maintain grounds and facilities

Special events

Look at your screen. Your contributions go to support four main things. The smallest things are the last two: maintaining grounds and facilities, and special events.

The next is staff salaries - I’m full time, Shawn’s full time, Brandon is part-time, Kay Jones is our part-time administrative assistant.

And then, most importantly, missions. We are part of the Southern Baptist Convention. We send 10% of our annual contributions to our state convention and to the national convention, SBC.

This mission work includes:

Helping fund the IMB & NAMB

Baptist Children’s Home locations across NC

Helping future pastors pay for seminary by subsidizing tuition at all six SBC seminaries

I’ve got this on your screen too. Look at it with me.

IMB and NAMB plant churches all over the world, in the hardest to reach areas, the placest no one else wants to go. We support our missionaries 100% so that they don’t have to raise their own money. We even provide medical care and college tuition assistance to their kids so they can focus completely on what God has called them to do.

Baptist Children’s Home locations across the state and in Guatemala. Our Baptist Children’s Homes are extremely well-known and respected and trusted. DSS from counties all over the state utilize our BCH homes because they never have enough foster parents. During COVID, when a lot of foster parents didn’t want to take their kids back into their homes after going home and being exposed to COVID, our baptist children’s homes took in every child not wanted by their foster parents.

I got a seminary education with no student loam debt and the same is true of thousands of other pastors. Our six SBC seminaries are training church planters, pastors, missionaries, counselors, teachers, theologians, college professors and sending them all over the world and all over this country. Your contributions help to underwrite their tuition so that they can go to seminary for a fraction of the cost of going somewhere like Trinity Evangelical Divinity School or Wheaton.

Conclusion and call for response

According to USA Today, TWA flight 265 departed New York City and landed 2-3 hours later in Orlando, and they landed with one more passenger than they boarded with. That’s because a lady on board the plane unexpectedly went into labor mid-flight.

Now there happened to be two paramedics a doctor on board. They not only delivered the baby, but they rescued the baby from suffocating after they saw that the umbilical cord had gotten wrapped around his neck. Now listen to how this played out:

One paramedic on board the plane happened to be trained in infant respiratory distress. He used a straw provided by the flight attendant . The flight attendant got the straw from a juice box she accidentally forgot to throw away before boarding the plane. While the paramedic used the straw to suction the baby’s lungs, the doctor needed something to tie off the umbilical cord. A passenger took their shoe off and gave the doctor their shoelace. Then they began CPR.

After four tense moments of complete silence on the plane, the baby cried. The whole plane erupted with cheers and applause. The parents named the boy Matthew, which means “gift of God” or “God-sent”.

The doctor and paramedics used their skills. The flight attendant and passengers used a shoelace and a juice box straw they happened to have with them. They were stewards of their gifts, truly, because they gave themselves and their possessions to what matters most, when it mattered most.

But what if they had just sat by? What if they had stayed silent, and instead of using what gifts only they had to do what only they could do for someone when it mattered most? [Larson p239]

Friends, we do not own the things that are ours. Not really. We are stewards, God is the owner. And what God gives us — not just with money but everything — we are called to manage and invest and use it wisely. It is time for us to be the church, and what that means for us today and every Sunday this month is that we are called to give generously.

After all, God has given to us generously, because He gave us Himself. “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ”, Paul writes in 2Cor. 8:9, “that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich.”