The Practice of Giving.

Nate Schlomann

[0:00] Good morning, my name is Nate. I’m one of the pastors here at Village Church. It’s great to be with you this morning. [0:05] It’s great to see you here this morning. [0:07] We’re in the middle of a series called Preparing to Plant, Practices that Plant Churches. [0:12] And the idea behind this series is we’re looking at ordinary practices of the Christian life that ultimately lead to something extraordinary. [0:20] And that is the starting of new churches, of new gospel outposts in a community. [0:24] This series is all leading up to us as Village Church starting a new location of Village Church in the Chester area this fall.

[0:32] There are invite cards scattered throughout the seats around you. [0:35] And what those are for is next Sunday is our final preview service at 10 a.m. at Salem Church Middle School for the Chester location. [0:44] So I would just ask that you take those cards this week, grab some and think who can I personally invite that lives in the Chester area [0:50] that might want to be a part of what Village Church is doing there. [0:54] Regular services are going to start September 9th, but we want to see as many people as we can out to that preview service next Sunday, 10 a.m. [1:01] Salem Church Middle School.

[1:02] So take those invite cards if you’re not actually going to see someone who lives in Chester, but you know they might be interested. [1:07] Take a picture of it with your phone. [1:09] Text it to them. [1:10] Do what you can to invite everyone you know that lives in that area out to Village Church at Chester next Sunday. [1:16] I think it’s easy to agree that starting new churches is the best way to see the gospel of Jesus advance in the world. [1:23] It’s an easy thing to agree with.

[1:25] But then I think what happens is many of us see that as kind of an idealistic big picture thing that very few Christians actually get to participate in. [1:34] Last week, we pointed out that often we enjoy exploring what the mission of Jesus is, but very few of us ever actually get to forming a plan to participate in that mission. [1:45] And what we want you to see through this series, Practices That Plant Churches, is that it’s a commitment to ordinary practices of the Christian life that ultimately leads to mission into new churches starting. [1:58] And so if we want to see more churches planted, what we actually need to do is commit ourselves individually to these practices that plant churches. [2:06] And the practice that we’re going to be looking at this morning is the one that I know everyone is always eager to talk about. [2:11] And that is the practice of giving.

[2:12] I know for sure when you got up this morning, you thought, I hope the executive pastor is preaching instead this morning, and I hope he’s going to talk about money the whole time. [2:20] Well, you’re in luck because today is the day. [2:22] That’s exactly what we’re doing. [2:24] The truth is, if we’re talking about practices of the Christian life, we can’t avoid talking about money and about giving. [2:31] And what I hope that we’ll see this morning is this is too important to our spiritual lives to not talk about in a series like this. [2:39] What we do with our money not only has a significant effect on our relationship with God, what we do with our money also has the potential to greatly influence the amount of churches that are started.

[2:50] And so it’s a really important topic. [2:52] Jesus talked about money a lot. [2:55] 15% of Christ’s teachings were about money. [2:58] He talked about money more than heaven and hell combined. [3:01] There are 288 verses in the four gospel accounts of Jesus’s life that are directly related to money. [3:07] So we have to ask the question, why is it that Jesus talked about money so much?

[3:13] In Matthew 6 24, when Jesus wants to talk about serving God above all other things, the thing that he singles out in opposition to following after God is following after money. [3:24] Read this with me. [3:25] Matthew 6 24. [3:26] No one can serve two masters for either. [3:29] He will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. [3:34] You cannot serve God and money.

[3:37] How we use our money shows whether or not we value God over this world. [3:42] So there’s something that we need to know is that God is very smart. [3:46] He’s smarter than us. [3:48] And what God knows is that money has a unique effect in our culture and in almost every culture that has ever existed in the history of the world. [3:57] And that is money is what we use to assign value to every part of our life. [4:02] It’s just how cultures operate.

[4:03] And so I think Jesus talked about money a lot, not because it’s something evil that we need to avoid. [4:09] It’s because money is so influential in our lives and has such impact in the way we view our life. [4:15] Money is how we assign value to everything. [4:19] This is true, whether you want it to be or not. [4:21] We use money to assign value to almost every part of our life. [4:24] Money determines where we live, what we eat, what we do for fun.

[4:29] The question, how much is it going to cost is something that factors into nearly everything we do or don’t do or how we do it. [4:36] And no matter the situation we’re currently in financially, this is still true. [4:40] Money affects how we use our time. [4:42] It affects how much time we can give to invest in other things. [4:46] And I think this idea that money is how we assign value to everything in life. [4:50] This idea can make us a little uncomfortable, but the amount that Jesus talks about money, it shouldn’t.

[4:56] And I want to ask this question. [4:57] What if God in his wisdom gave all human cultures money so that we could very easily identify what our hearts truly value? [5:05] What if that’s actually a grace of God? [5:08] The fact that we can monetize everything allows us to see the true value of things, especially, and this is a thing to think about, especially priceless things. [5:16] How much money would you sell one of your kids for? [5:19] For me, it depends on the day.

[5:21] If they’re, especially if you got a three year old in your house, like I do, that can vary from time to time. [5:27] We joke, but the fact that we would never sell our kids if we have a soul for any amount of money, that tells us and them of their value. [5:36] They’re priceless. [5:37] They are worth more than the entire world. [5:39] And we would never know that if we didn’t have this tool in our culture that tells us that everything in a sense is a sign of value. [5:48] You wouldn’t be able to express that the same way.

[5:50] If culture didn’t put a monetary value on everything, and I think that’s a grace of God. [5:54] And of course, also in cultures that start to devalue life, the value of life lowers and we can recognize that as an evil. [6:02] And so we only have that because of the way money interacts with culture. [6:06] The fact that we use money to assign value to everything is a big deal to God because his rightful place is to be valued above everything in our world. [6:15] And because of that, I think that’s why Jesus has so much to say about money. [6:19] If we use money to assign value to everything, then what we do with our money is going to reveal like nothing else where God actually stands in our life.

[6:29] And so the purpose of money for the Christian is not to avoid it, but to use it in a way that shows God is our highest value. [6:36] And so how do we do that? [6:37] How do we use our money to show that we value God above everything else? [6:42] We need to use our money for God’s purposes and not our own. [6:45] Wants to think about that. [6:47] We need to use our money for God’s purposes and not our own.

[6:50] Matthew 6, 19 through 21 says this, do not lay up for yourself treasures on earth where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, [6:59] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. [7:05] For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. [7:09] We prove that we value God above everything else. [7:12] When we use our money to advance God’s purposes, [7:15] we can either use our money for ourselves here on earth for things that will not last or we can use our money for God’s purposes for things that will last into eternity.

[7:23] So now that begs the question, what are God’s purposes? [7:26] And I think the things that we talked about in the first two weeks of this series are exactly what we’re talking about when we talk about God’s purposes. [7:33] Seeing the gospel proclaimed and new churches started is God’s purposes. [7:37] That’s what we should be doing with our money. [7:40] Before I want to talk about that more and kind of drill down on that idea, [7:43] there’s one more important principle I want us to notice here in Matthew six.

[7:47] And that’s the end of those verses. [7:48] We see that how you use your money will change your heart. [7:52] Look at verse 21. [7:52] It says for where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. [7:56] And notice that it doesn’t say where your treasure goes. [8:00] Your treasure goes where your heart is.

[8:02] Jesus flips it around. [8:03] That’s the other way around. [8:04] Scripture says your heart will be where you put your treasure. [8:07] And I think that this principle is a key reason that Jesus talks so much about money, [8:11] since money is what we use to assign value to everything. [8:14] How we use our money has the power to change our heart.

[8:17] How we use it can actually change how we feel. [8:21] And this is counterintuitive to how we usually think. [8:23] We think that wherever our heart is, that’s what we’re going to naturally give our money towards. [8:29] And Jesus want and that’s generally true in our lives. [8:31] But Jesus wants us to flip that. [8:33] He’s saying watch out because your heart can be manipulated.

[8:36] Your heart will deceive you. [8:38] But if you know the truth, and if we know that God is more valuable than any other thing, [8:42] that we can still act on that truth, whether we feel it or not. [8:45] And if you put your money where you know truth is, whether you feel it or not at the time, [8:49] your heart is going to follow that. [8:51] And so that’s a key principle that Jesus is saying is how you use your money can actually grow you spiritually.

[8:57] Jesus says we need to put our treasure where we want our hearts to be because [9:01] whether or not we’re willing to do that reveals whether or not our hearts are actually tuned towards God. [9:07] So what’s at stake is that how you use your money directly affects whether your relationship with Jesus grows or not. [9:14] Where your treasure is there, your heart will be. [9:16] If you want your heart to follow Jesus, you’ve got to proactively put your money towards following Jesus. [9:23] So what we do with our money shows whether or not we value God above everything else.

[9:29] And so then I get back to the question, what should we do with our money? [9:31] This series begin by looking at God’s vision of a harvest of redemption. [9:36] We need to be a part of that. [9:38] And then we looked at living lives of mission and the practical steps of starting new churches [9:43] so that we can see more people saved. [9:45] And I think that’s the simple answer.

[9:47] Using our money for God’s purposes means using our money to help the church proclaim the gospel of Jesus in the world [9:54] and to see new churches started. [9:56] There’s nothing more important. [9:57] There’s nothing more needed than this. [10:00] And there’s no better way to bring God glory with our money than that. [10:04] So we need to understand that our giving and our generosity as Christians is directly related

[10:11] to the number of new churches that are started. [10:13] And that’s really what I want us to see in the midst of this series of practices that plant churches [10:18] and getting to this practice of giving is our giving is directly related to how many churches are started. [10:25] Churches are planted out of generosity. [10:28] We need to understand that. [10:29] Did you know that there is this crazy thing where the more money we spend starting new churches,

[10:34] the more new churches are started? [10:36] You’d never guess it. [10:37] It’s true. [10:38] And you can object. [10:39] You can say it’s the Spirit of God that starts new churches and he can do that with any amount of resources [10:45] or no resources at all.

[10:46] And of course, that is true technically. [10:50] All right, that is right. [10:51] But that is why it’s so important to understand the principle of putting your treasure where you want your heart to be [10:57] because God sure does seem to have this habit of working primarily through people who put their money [11:03] towards purposes that are his. [11:06] God primarily works through people who actually put their money towards seeing God work in the world.

[11:12] God is powerful to do what he wants. [11:13] And he’s also made it clear that what he wants is to work through men and women who have fully submitted [11:18] their lives to him. [11:20] And one of the ways we most demonstrate our full submission to God with our life is what we do with our money. [11:26] It’s not just common sense, but also the New Testament is very specific that it takes money given in faith to start [11:33] new churches.

[11:34] Philippians 4, 15 through 16, it says this. [11:39] In Paul’s writing, it says, [11:40] You Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into [11:46] partnership with me in giving and receiving except you only. [11:49] Even in Thessalonica, you sent me help for my needs once and again. [11:53] So we just spent 19 weeks in the book of Philippians as a church and Paul loved the church at Philippi.

[11:59] And one of the reasons that he loved them so much is because they were faithful and generous to support his work [12:05] of starting new churches. [12:07] The church in Philippi actually gave to help see the church in Thessalonica started and it took money. [12:13] Paul needed to eat. [12:14] Paul needed somewhere to sleep. [12:16] It took resources to start these churches and the Philippian church gave generously to see that happen.

[12:22] But what’s amazing about the Philippian churches, they also gave to see other churches started. [12:26] They helped the work, if not started the work in the church in Corinth. [12:31] Look at 2 Corinthians 11, 7 through 9. [12:34] It’s Paul writing again. [12:36] He’s going to get a little more brazen this time. [12:38] He says,

[12:39] Or did I commit a sin in humbling myself so that you might be exalted because I preach God’s gospel to you free of [12:46] charge. [12:46] I robbed other churches by accepting support from them in order to serve you. [12:51] And when I was with you and was in need, I did not burden anyone for the brothers who came from Macedonia supplied [12:57] my need. [12:58] So I refrained and will refrain from burdening you in any way.

[13:01] So the church in Philippi and other churches in Macedonia supported Paul so that he could serve the church in [13:07] Corinth. [13:08] And this is what it looks like to give sacrificially to God’s purposes. [13:12] The language that Paul uses here stands out a little bit, doesn’t it? [13:16] He says he robbed other churches to do God’s work in Corinth. [13:20] And the ESV is actually being very literal here.

[13:23] The word robbed is a direct translation of what Paul’s getting at. [13:27] The Greek word there had the sense of to pillage, to strip resources from one person to give to another. [13:34] And of course, Paul means this in a positive light. [13:36] He means this in an honoring way to those churches. [13:40] One church allowed its resources to be taken and given to the work of advancing the gospel in another church. [13:46] And that brought God glory.

[13:48] And so Paul was rejoicing in that. [13:51] Churches are planted out of generosity. [13:54] God’s people give to the work of the church so that more people can hear about Jesus. [14:00] And I think we can learn a few basic principles from these examples from Paul’s writing. [14:04] One thing I think we need to see is if we want more churches started, we need to learn to be givers. [14:10] The practice of learning to be a generous giver is directly related to church planning.

[14:14] And this is common sense. [14:16] But what we need to do as God’s people, as members of the church, is learn to connect our humble, [14:22] faithful giving to the local church with the big picture of what God is doing in the world and in our community. [14:27] And we need to learn to connect those two things. [14:30] Healthy churches need to be primarily about proclaiming the gospel and starting new churches. [14:35] Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus to the world is the responsibility of the local church.

[14:39] And there’s many ways that churches use their resources to do this. [14:42] And clearly this happens through the gathered Sunday morning worship that centered on God’s word. [14:48] So that deserves resources that deserves energy and focus. [14:52] But also equipping members of the church to faithfully follow Jesus. [14:55] That’s vital for mission that deserves resources, acts of kindness and mercy in the community. [15:00] Those are important ways that the church gains an audience for the gospel and demonstrates the love of Jesus to the world.

[15:07] So those that that deserves resources. [15:08] But in all these things, the agenda of the local church is always the spread of the gospel and the starting of new churches. [15:16] We can see in these verses that a local church should be found trustworthy of its resources to proclaim the gospel. [15:23] You should ask of any church, is this church about proclaiming the gospel and starting new churches here and around the world? [15:29] Is that what its primary focus is? [15:32] And churches that are faithful to this task need to be resourced by God’s people.

[15:36] So we strive at Village Church that the bulk of our expenses and energy is spent increasing our ability. [15:42] And that happens in a lot of different ways, but increasing our ability to proclaim the good news of Jesus. [15:48] Healthy churches would be more effective with more money. [15:52] When we talk about the practice of giving that leads to planting churches, we need to just be that to the point. [15:59] A healthy church that’s operating properly would be more effective with more money. [16:02] We could start more churches if the church had more resources.

[16:06] And I think our theological bent of holding high the majesty and sovereignty of God that sometimes leaves us in a dangerous place spiritually when it comes to our money. [16:17] Because it’s true. [16:18] Like we’ve already said, God doesn’t need our money. [16:20] God can do anything and he does do whatever he pleases. [16:25] But if we find ourselves in a place where we’re using God’s sovereignty as a justification for our apathy or indifference, [16:31] that’s a very dangerous place to be spiritually.

[16:35] I think faith actually says, I know, I know that God can do whatever he wants, but I trust that if I’m faithful to be more available, [16:43] to love more and yes, to give more, God’s going to reach more people through me and I want to be a part of that. [16:48] That’s the attitude of faith. [16:49] And that’s not prosperity gospel. [16:51] That’s just wisdom. [16:53] I think the prosperity gospel says I’m going to give more so that I will get more.

[16:56] But the true gospel says I’m going to give more because I trust that God will use it for his own glory and that that is worth it. [17:03] And that is valuable. [17:05] We need to have the perspective that our generosity in giving to the local church is a key practice that leads to the gospel being proclaimed [17:13] and new churches being started. [17:16] That perspective is just mature faith. [17:18] But once we have this perspective, an important step is that we need to personalize it.

[17:24] And it’s one thing to agree that the practice of giving leads to churches being started. [17:29] It’s another thing to ask. [17:31] What does this mean for me in my life right now? [17:34] So that’s what I want to spend the bulk of the rest of our time on. [17:38] I want to think about the idea that money reveals our hearts. [17:42] Here’s the last point that I want us to kind of settle in on.

[17:47] And I think this helps us understand really fully why Jesus talked about money the amount that he did. [17:55] It’s because how we use our money ultimately does reveal our hearts. [18:00] The powerful thing about money is that money does not lie. [18:03] That might not seem right at first because yes, it is a big lie that money will satisfy. [18:09] The temptation of money will deceive you. [18:13] But money itself is just numbers.

[18:15] And money doesn’t lie about who we really are. [18:19] This is money’s secret power when it comes to revealing our true desires and our true passions and our true loyalties. [18:26] You cannot hide from how you use your money. [18:30] This is what Jesus knew in the Gospels when he talked about money so much. [18:34] Money cuts to the heart of what we really believe like nothing else does. [18:38] It is what it is.

[18:39] It’s just numbers. [18:40] Numbers don’t argue back at you. [18:43] Numbers don’t make excuses. [18:45] You can’t negotiate and explain away and rationalize what you do with your money. [18:50] It’s just there. [18:51] And that’s why we avoid talking about it.

[18:54] Money is just there staring at us showing us what we really believe. [18:58] Remember again Matthew 6 24. [19:00] 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. [19:07] You cannot serve God and money. [19:09] You can’t serve God and money. [19:11] Do you love Jesus more than anything else in your life?

[19:15] And sure you do you say. [19:17] But what you do with your money tells you whether you’re telling yourself the truth about that or not. [19:23] What are you giving to advance the mission of Jesus? [19:25] What opportunities are you giving up to see that that happens? [19:30] And this can get really practical really quick, which is the tool that the tool of money that makes it so helpful is how practical it can reveal our life. [19:39] If we’re spending more money on wants and desires than what we’re sending out on mission, we can’t rationalize away that we really value Jesus more.

[19:50] If you spend more on your cable bill than you give to the mission of Jesus, you’re not serious about following him. [19:55] If you spend more on eating out every month than you give to the mission of Jesus, that’s not lying to you. [20:01] You can look at that and say I’m not serious about following him. [20:04] And those are some easy ones. [20:06] We can get more uncomfortable here. [20:08] That’s what money does.

[20:09] If you spend more on car payments than you give to the mission of Jesus, are you serious about following him? [20:16] If you spend more on vacations in a year than you give to the mission of Jesus in a year, are you serious about following him? [20:24] We need to understand these things in and of themselves are not bad things. [20:28] We need to be clear about that. [20:29] You see some of the most generous God honoring people that I know drive pretty nice cars and go on really nice vacations. [20:37] But those things are not and I know their lives and I can see this.

[20:40] Those things are not more important to them to the mission of Jesus and they give far, far more of their money to the mission of Jesus than things like that. [20:50] So don’t get hung up on what we do or don’t spend. [20:54] The point is how much of what we have goes to God’s purposes. [20:57] Is it in the proper proportions or are we spending most of our money on ourselves? [21:03] Imagine that most of us have work to do in order to show that our money with our money that we value God more than this world. [21:10] If you’re convicted by that, don’t ignore that.

[21:14] But there’s nothing more freeing than fully submitting to God. [21:18] And one of the gifts of money is that it allows us a specific way to fully submit to God with something that is more than just lip service. [21:26] God has given you money that you have in order to demonstrate your commitment to him. [21:31] And the only way forward is to do just that in some practical ways. [21:35] Martin Luther said this, which I think is a really interesting quote. [21:39] So there are three conversions a person needs to experience the conversion of the head, the conversion of the heart, and then the conversion of the pocketbook.

[21:47] And I’m convinced that the spiritual stranglehold of holding on to money is the thing that’s holding many people back from fully following Jesus like they know they desire to. [21:58] So where does this practically lead us? [22:00] How do we give up our money to the mission of Jesus? [22:03] This is not going to be exhausted, but I want to spend some time actually looking at some basic principles that lead us to the practice of giving that we can implement in our lives. [22:14] The first thing we can say about the practice of giving is that we need to learn to be wise with our money. [22:20] Scripture has a lot to say about wisdom when it comes to money, especially in the book of Proverbs.

[22:26] And we keep acting like Jesus died to nullify the book of Proverbs. [22:29] And he did not. [22:31] And so we need to know the wisdom of God that’s found in scriptures. [22:36] We act like the Proverbs don’t exist, like there’s no principle of generosity that will lead to a healthier life. [22:43] Giving is a spiritual discipline like any other, and it can be grown, and we can study it, and we can learn about it. [22:50] Be wise with your saving and your spending.

[22:53] Wisdom in Proverbs says to live within our means, avoid debt, and save so that we can give more and be generous. [22:59] We don’t have time here to list all the Proverbs. [23:02] I’m just encouraging you to go and learn. [23:05] Learn what it says. [23:06] There’s a lot of resources. [23:07] Seek wisdom in every area of your money, because if you’re going to honor God with it, you need to know more about how to use money.

[23:16] Don’t avoid it like it’s a topic not to be discussed. [23:21] And also, we should honor those in the church who are wise with their generosity. [23:26] I think this is difficult because giving is a private thing, and generous givers are almost always humble. [23:33] That is just a trait of theirs. [23:35] But giving generously is just as much of a spiritual discipline to be honored as serving with our time generously, as we should all strive to grow in both. [23:45] But I think oftentimes what I see in the church is that generous givers, it’s considered, well, that’s nice that you did that,

[23:50] but we really honor the person who serves every single week at church. [23:55] We need to honor both in right measure, and giving generously is a very serious sign of mature Christian faith that we ought to respect. [24:05] People who give generously to the mission of Jesus literally keep the gospel moving forward and advancing in the world, and that brings God much glory. [24:15] Another principle of giving is that we should give generously out of what we have. [24:20] We can learn a lot about the practice of giving from something [24:25] Paul wrote the Corinthians about their giving to the church in 2 Corinthians 8, 8 through 12.

[24:30] So I want to look at this passage because there’s a lot we can learn about the practice of giving here. [24:35] I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine. [24:43] Paul, he’s talking about giving in this context. [24:45] So he’s saying their love is genuine because of what they give. [24:47] Says, for you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake, he became poor, [24:54] so that you by his poverty might become rich.

[24:56] And in this matter, and that matter is their giving of money to help churches, I give my judgment. [25:02] This benefits you, who a year ago started not only to do this work, but also to desire to do it. [25:08] So now finish doing it well, so that your readiness and desiring it may be matched by your completing it out of what you have. [25:17] For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what a person has, not according to what a person does not have. [25:25] So first we saw in verse 8 there that giving is proof of our love for God. [25:30] Giving is evidence that our hearts are fully devoted to God.

[25:34] But then we see in verse 10 that giving should be planned and intentional. [25:38] They set aside money for a year for this need of helping establish churches. [25:44] And then finally, and this is the thing that I really want us to see as we get into talking about our personal finances and how we can give personally. [25:51] In verses 11 and 12, we see that we should give generously out of what we have. [25:57] God expects us to give in proportion to what we have, and he doesn’t. [26:00] He says that explicitly there in verse 12, doesn’t expect from us what we don’t have.

[26:05] And so that’s a freeing, but also challenging principle of giving. [26:09] This is often one of the biggest questions that I get when it comes to giving is how much. [26:13] How much should we give is probably the most frequently asked question about giving. [26:18] And the problem is we want a lot here, but Jesus is absolutely after our hearts. [26:23] And that is clear from his teaching on money in the New Testament. [26:26] If the purpose of our giving is to show that we value Jesus more than anything else in the world, then the amount of our giving needs to match up with that.

[26:36] As a practical matter, we’ve already talked about giving more to the mission of Jesus than we spend on non-essentials in our lives and luxuries. [26:42] That’s a great first indicator that I think is one of the most helpful tools to help us see are we giving proportionally to how we value God? [26:51] Do we give more to God than things that we don’t really need? [26:54] But the teaching of the New Testament, and we saw an example of this just now in 2 Corinthians, is that we should give sacrificially in proportion to what we have. [27:03] Sacrificially means giving needs, our giving needs to be significant enough to be missed and noticed. [27:08] We need to not play around with that word sacrificial.

[27:10] It means we give enough that what we give is missed and noticed. [27:14] This quote from C.S. Lewis, I think, is really helpful. [27:17] And so I want you to look at this with me. [27:19] C.S. Lewis said this about giving. [27:20] I do not believe one can settle how much we ought to give. [27:24] I am afraid the only safe rule is to give more than we can spare.

[27:28] In other words, if our expenditure on comforts, luxuries, amusement, etc. is up to the standard common among those with the same income as our own, we are probably giving away too little. [27:40] If our giving does not at all pinch or hamper us, I should say it is too small. [27:44] There ought to be things we should like to do and cannot because our commitment to giving excludes them. [27:50] I really can’t say it better than that. [27:51] I think that is the perspective of a Christian heart. [27:55] And I know some people want to know about tithing.

[27:58] Are we supposed to give 10% of our income? [28:01] And it would be much easier if I could stand up here as a pastor and say, yes, you are. [28:04] That would be good. [28:05] Do that. [28:06] But I can’t do that because as much as I would like to, that’s not what the New Testament teaches about giving. [28:13] In the New Testament, Jesus is clearly after our heart and that we would give an amount that demonstrates our heart is fully his.

[28:20] And that’s going to be different for each of us. [28:23] The truth is, and this goes to a New Testament ethic of giving, is that many of us can give 10% of what we have and not have a heart that’s devoted to Jesus because it doesn’t end up actually representing a sacrifice for us. [28:37] And the truth is also that some people find themselves without an income or due to poor choices earlier in life in a situation where even 2% or 3% of what they have is a significant sacrifice. [28:49] That is the reality. [28:51] And so scripture says that we are to give generously out of what we have, not out of what we do not have. [28:57] That is the hard standard.

[28:58] It’s a much harder standard than tithing because it requires that we are honest with ourselves and honest before God, which is one of the most difficult things to do. [29:08] I do think there’s a caution there when you think of this idea of the tithe in the Old Testament though, because I think the Old Testament teaching on a 10% tithe, and it’s actually a lot more complicated than just that. [29:18] There’s quite a few laws related to that, but that’s a good indication of the kind of lives that we can reasonably expect to live. [29:26] If we are honoring God with our money, if we are following the Proverbs with our money, if we are living wisely, we can expect that it would be a good goal to give away 10% or more of what we have. [29:37] It’s not a law, but it’s a good principle. [29:40] Our goal in giving should not be though meeting some minimum requirement, but rather being honest before God and before the way we spend our money on what is an actual sacrifice.

[29:51] And that’s why comparing what we give to other things we spend our money on is so effective of a tool of gauging our hearts. [29:58] Another question that is often asked is where should we give? [30:02] When we talk about giving, are we talking only about the local church? [30:05] Where should we give? [30:06] Well, first of all, I think that we need to be unashamed as people of the church that for the Christian, our primary responsibility is giving through the local church. [30:16] There’s no need to justify that or give qualifications.

[30:19] The proclamation of the gospel through the church is our mission. [30:22] That’s why it is critical that we are part of churches that do put proclaiming the goodness of Jesus and starting new churches as their top priority. [30:31] I think the principle of a tithe is also a good rule of thumb when it comes to considering where to give. [30:39] If God has blessed us to the extent that we can give 10% of what we have to the work of God through the church, then after that, I think it could be wise to start considering other places and other ways to be generous. [30:50] But until then, the work of the local church and the Christian mission does need to be our top priority. [30:56] One thing we also need to consider on this topic, and I’m risking getting myself in some hot water for each or even broaching this subject, is we live in a society where a good portion of our charitable giving is already decided for us by the government in the form of taxes.

[31:12] We’re a very generous people as a society in terms of our tax dollars. [31:16] That’s just a historic fact. [31:18] While I do believe that we should have much more freedom in directing our charitable giving than we currently do, it’s also, and we need to recognize this, a grace of God to live in a country that does so much for the poor, a country that gives so much to education and research. [31:35] Nations like ours would have been absolutely unheard of in most of human history, and we should see the hand of God in providing for the poor like we do here and around the world. [31:46] We are the most charitable nation that the world has ever known, and that’s just a fact. [31:51] And I think that that is a grace of God that we should celebrate.

[31:55] But given that, given that so much of our charitable giving is decided for us by the government without our saying it, Christians do have a heightened responsibility to give generously with what we have left to the work of the local church and of Christian mission. [32:09] To make that a priority in our giving, because you know the government is not going to be supporting that. [32:14] And so we have an extra responsibility because of the society we live in to give to the work of the church. [32:22] How do you start giving? [32:24] If you don’t have experience giving regularly and sacrificially, the best advice I can give you on how to start giving is the advice that was given to me many, many years ago. [32:36] Commit to giving a set amount regularly and consider it a spiritual discipline.

[32:41] I do think that that is a heart issue for a lot of us is we don’t think about giving as a spiritual discipline the same way that we think about praying, the same way that we think about reading our Bible, the same way we think about participating in community. [32:54] And it is giving is clearly taught in the New Testament as a spiritual discipline. [32:59] So it’s something that we need to put thought and time behind and to commit to doing regularly. [33:06] If you’re trying to figure out how much do I need to start giving, be honest with yourself to look at some nice round numbers until you arrive at one that is enough that you’ll miss it. [33:17] And that was the advice that was given to me as a young, I was about 24 years old, had never given a dime in my life. [33:23] And that was super helpful advice to me then is to find a number that’s big enough that I know that I will miss it.

[33:30] Find a number that is enough that you can imagine what you could have bought instead and then give that joyfully to show that Jesus is more and to show that you find him faithful. [33:41] If you do that regularly and consistently, it might become too easy. [33:46] So you got to be ready to be honest with yourself about whether you might need to give more to be able to give sacrificially. [33:52] But what you’ll find is that when you give an amount that is sacrificial and you give it regularly, Jesus just change your heart very quickly when you follow him like that. [34:01] His words in scripture are true. [34:04] Where your treasure is there, your heart will go.

[34:06] And it’s one of those things that you can say as a pastor. [34:10] And even before I was a pastor and had experienced some practice in giving that your heart’s going to change when you follow Jesus in this. [34:17] But you got to experience it. [34:19] You can’t just believe it without experiencing it. [34:22] You’ve got to actually and that’s the power of money in our society is money is how we assign value to things. [34:29] And so once you say because I’m leading with my head and I know Jesus is worth more than anything else.

[34:34] And once you say that I’m going to commit my money to his mission. [34:38] Once you do that, you will find that he changes your heart so fast. [34:43] It’s amazing. [34:44] And it is absolutely worth it. [34:46] You’ll find that scripture is true. [34:47] Where your treasure is there, your heart will be giving is worth it.

[34:51] And that’s kind of the last thought that I want to leave us with this morning. [34:54] It’s simple in a short one giving to the mission of Jesus is worth it. [34:59] Sacrificing to help the church proclaim the gospel of Jesus is worth it. [35:02] This is what Jesus had to say right after he told a rich young man in the gospels that he needed to give up his riches in order to show that Jesus had his heart. [35:12] Luke 18, 29 through 30. [35:14] And again, this came in the context right after he just told the guy you need to give up all that you have to follow me.

[35:19] And then Jesus said this. [35:21] He said to them, truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time and in the age to come eternal life. [35:37] Sacrificing for the mission of Jesus is worth it, but you’ll never know that. [35:42] Like I said, until you experience it, you’ve got to put your treasure where you want your heart to be. [35:46] So be generous with your money to show that Jesus means more to you than anything else in the world. [35:52] Take that as a challenge.

[35:53] If that is not something that you’ve never done before, I would just challenge you that if you have never practiced giving sacrificially consistently, that is likely one of the things that is holding you back from experiencing the work of God in your life. [36:08] And you’re never going to know that until you just do it. [36:11] When we learn the practice of giving more churches will be planted in the mission of Jesus will advance. [36:19] And that ultimately is the reason why it is so important that each of us see this as a spiritual discipline to do our part to give, because if we want to plant more churches, it takes resources and healthy churches, ours, but also others throughout the world that we partner with are going to plant more churches as God’s people learn the practice of giving and give sacraments. [36:40] And that is why we need to be more sacrificially to see the work of Jesus go throughout the world. [36:44] As we move now into a time of communion, we consider that what Jesus has done to reconcile us to God.

[36:53] There are tables in the front and there are tables in the back with bread that represents Christ’s body broken for you. [37:00] The cup on these tables represents Christ’s blood poured out for you. [37:04] And as we think about generosity and living a generous life and showing that we value God more than anything else, we need to first consider that we can only do that because God was first generous towards us through his son. [37:20] We can only love God because he loved us first and he died for us. [37:24] And so reflect on that reality that any generosity that we can have is only because of the ultimate generosity of God who gave his son for us. [37:35] So reflect on that. And if you’re a believer in Jesus, these tables are open to you.