This message applies only to Saved, Born Again Christians. You can not give or earn your way into Heaven. You must trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour. John 3:16
Let’s open to the book of Ecclesiastes, we are going to be in the 5th chapter in just a moment. Before we get there, I would like to take you back in history to the time that the Bible was written and have you just think about one thought-- a question for each of us to ponder. As we honestly look at God's Word and how the Lord has revealed His desires about our stewardship of our money – what should be our response to Him? Specifically, as we look at the Old Testament record, “God, do You really expect less of me – one who has your Holy Spirit within and lives in one of the wealthiest societies in human history – than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?” In the Old Testament, under the Law, God demanded, He told them you must do this, if you don’t you face my wrath, punishment, chastisement, you face a whole host of negatives. He demanded from them. He specified, spelled out in the 613 commands of the Old Testament what they had to give. With all that, do you think God expects less from us in whom His Holy Spirit dwells, living in the wealthiest and most prosperous era the planet has ever known?
So went the life of the farmers, herdsmen faced similar long and hard days. Sleeping most often with the flock in caves and stone enclosures, life was far from comfortable. Food as it was harvested was carefully stored for the long months when there were no crops. Pests, rodents and mold all were constant threats to the food supply. Drought and locusts could spell famine at any time. In spite of all that, God expected them and demanded them to give very specified amounts.
It is interesting after the Israelite archaeologists began to have freedom to excavate all over modern day Israel—they began digging up the past. I was reading one archaeological report from the 1970’s where they found a family tomb. In Israel when people died they would wrap them up just like Lazarus and Jesus were, lay them on a shelf like they laid Jesus on a shelf only they would leave them there until they completely reduced to bones and then they would unwrap them and move the bones into a little crypt where all the family bones were kept. Generation after generation was buried in the same family tomb area and they would just keep moving them into this depository. The archaeologists have found those depositories. They have found literally scores of years of family life that is registered by all the bones. They scooped one entire depository up and brought it to America and presented the teeth they found to a dental school and asked what they could tell about the inhabitants of Biblical Israel. The longer archaeologists work in Israel, the more they find. Old Testament burial customs involved the use of extended family burial caves where the bones were stored for generations in the back of the caves in specials crypts. The end result being that an examination of these remains gives great insight into the life of ancient Israel. One cave found in the 1970’s contained among the bones – 762 human teeth. An American dental school examined these teeth and their findings are fascinating.
So they had several generations of these people that had been buried in this family tomb. They found out that:
Those teeth represented 51 different individuals.
First, there was tithing that was required. This tithing was three-fold. The first was called the Levites' tithe (Lev. 27:30-33) that kept the whole worship system going. That’s the one we know about. They brought their tithes in to the Levites who kept the Tabernacle and all the worship and all the offerings going. That was just the first tithe or 10%. The second 10% was called the festival tithe (Deut. 12:6-7) it kept their whole national life going. It funded all the festivals, all the government, all of the national events. The third 10% was called the poor tithe (Deut. 14:28). This was for welfare of the handicapped and the unfortunate and that’s how they took care of them. All three of these were demanded like taxation, and were not free will giving to God. In addition to that, there was profit sharing on the corners of the fields (Lev. 19) and not reaping to the edges, a temple tax (Neh. 10:33), and the Sabbath land rest (Ex. 23). They were giving about twenty-five percent of their income for the funding of that government and for the caring of the land—10% for the worship and another 15% plus for the national economy. God demanded that. It seems fair to ask as we look at the Old Testament record, “God, do You really expect less of me – who has Your Holy Spirit within and lives in the wealthiest society in human history – than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?”
After all these three tithes, then God said I want free will offerings. This voluntary free will giving was a matter of freely giving Him the best, and that's what God's after . . . the choicest things. Exodus 25:1-2 says, "The Lord spoke unto Moses saying, `Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart'." This willingness of heart is emphasized over and over again. The beauty of it is that giving in this way provides more than enough. So again we see that required giving was always taxation. Free will giving was always what came out of the willing heart.
I wonder- from those poor people who worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week, 84 hour work weeks- one fourth of them didn’t live to the age of 10. Four out of 50 never made it to the ripe old age of 60. And God, those poor hard working farmers and herdsmen, you demanded 10% for worship and 10% for government and another 5% for poverty plus freewill offerings? Unbelievable.
God has given some very timely warnings to us at the beginning of the 21st Century, in the most wealthy and consumptive society that has ever existed on planet earth. God says I want you to know how you should live. Please turn with me to Ecclesiastes. There are 5 books that constitute the Wisdom Literature of Israel; these books give us some powerful guiding lights for every day living.
10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
Whether he eats little or much;
But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:
Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14 But those riches perish through misfortune;
When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return,
To go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor
Which he may carry away in his hand.
If you take out your pen or pencil- I have written in my Bible as I studied this 5th chapter of Ecclesiastes. Most cults will quote from Ecclesiastes- just a little snippet of it to kind of justify some of their strange beliefs. But if you want to really see this big picture, get a good solid conservative Bible-believing language expert who will go into the depths of this poetic book and show you the wisdom.
See if these points strike you like they struck me.
1. “Whoever loves money (or silver) never has money enough” (v. 10). This is the point of this one commentary- The more you have, the more you want. Isn’t that true?
2. “Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (v. 10). The more you have, the less you’re satisfied. Isn’t that the story of so many people in America? They always are temporarily where they are because they are trying to find a better, higher paying, more benefits job. The lesson to that is the more you have, the less you are satisfied. Think about it, in America, the satisfaction level of life is down and the wealth level is up because the more we have the less we are satisfied because the more we have the more we want. It robs us of the joy and satisfaction that God wants us to have.
3. “As goods increase, so do those who consume them” (v.11). The more you have, the more people (including the government) will come after it.
4. “And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” (v. 11). The more you have, the more you realize it does you no good. There was a man that went to the funeral of his stepfather. There, the family was discussing the fact that this man died with four boats. He had a $450,000 one, a $350,000 one, a $250,000 one and a $100,000 cheap one. He had not gone in any of them in almost 15 years. He paid 15 years of dry-dock where they shrink wrapped them and kept them. They were dry rotting inside the shrink-wrap. But that man had four boats. Look back at what Ecclesiastes says “And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” The more you have the more you realize it does you no good to have so much. Why? Because you have to worry about it.
5. “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep” (v. 12). The more you have, the more you have to worry about.
6. “I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner” (v. 13). The more you have, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it. Jesus talked about that- He said don’t stack up stuff. James the earthly brother of our Lord said in James 5:3, 3Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. You ought read James 5 sometimes and be careful about hoarding. Hoarding is when we keep more than necessary for what God’s purposes are. If we keep only for our purposes, God says watch out, it is going to be dangerous for you. The more you have the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it. You can hurt your self because it says that wealth causes us to be pierced through with many afflictions. You know we are concerned about it, our family fights about it, we have to protect it, we spend a lot of our emotional energies trying to move it, sort it and store it and protect it.
7. “Or wealth lost through some misfortune” (v.14). The more you have, the more you have to lose. That’s what the wisdom literature says. Be careful what you hold on to and drag through life.
8. “Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand” (v.15). The more you have, the more you’ll leave behind. God says don’t leave it behind, send it ahead. How do you send it ahead? By giving ownership of everything we have to the Lord and by learning the Grace of Giving.
Lets turn to 1Timothy chapter 4.
Giving is essential for a Christian believer. Everywhere Paul went, wherever he founded a church, he taught them to give, because giving is an essential part of Christianity. It is not an option; it is something every Christian must do. Remember the words of Jesus, "freely you have received, freely give," (Matthew 10:8).
Do you know what the lesson for us is? If you have not received anything from the Lord, if He has not given you salvation, if He has not given you His gracious forgiveness, mercy and cleansing, please do not give Him anything. Keep your money, your resources, and your life to yourself. God does not want it nor should any ministry if God has not moved in your life. But if he has freely given to us we should be characterized by that gracious free giving back to Him. Remember you could not have bought your deliverance for any amount of money. You have received that gift of enrichment, of forgiveness, of healing of your home, or your marriage, or whatever it is, without charge to you. "Freely you have received, freely give."
Now let me ask you, what were Christians living as the New Testament was written, taught about giving? How does the Bible describe that? Turn to 1Corinthians 16. What were the Christians living during the writing of the New Testament taught about giving? Not going to a financial seminar, not going to a will and budget seminar, not going to some kind of modern fund raising kind of thing. What did the average person in the first century that sat there with the Apostles themselves; what did they teach them about giving? That is how we should approach the Epistles. This portion of scripture is to real people in real places and it was God speaking to them. 1Corinthians 16:1 has the beginning of this list and I have reduced them down to little one-word reminders to me. In verse one I see two very clear words- Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders- Not suggestions, not options. The New Testament Church--
1. ORDERED: Giving is commanded, and is not an option. As you have freely received, freely give. He says I order you to be exercising the grace of giving. Paul instructed the Corinthian church, saying Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders . . . so you must do also (1 Corinthians 16:1). In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul directed the command to give in this way: Let each one of you lay something aside. Paul directed them to give this way. Who was supposed to give? Each one. Paul wanted all to give. Giving should be individual. Every Christian should be a giver, because God is a giver- for God so loved the world that He gave- (John 3:16). He gave me, individually eternal life. He gave His Son for me. So I individually need to learn to be a giver back. Giving has gotten so mechanized nowadays. Paul said Let each one of you lay something aside. There is something about training our families to give. It should be a hard thing to pass an offering by without giving something. I encouraged our children, I helped them figure out how much to give to the Lord, I give them a check or I put something in their hands because I want them to learn the joy of actually participating in giving that gift. Then they feel like I am giving to the Lord. That is what he said—let each of you. Giving is individual.
2. WEEKLY: Giving is to be regular. In fact he doesn’t just say regular. Regarding the collection in Corinth, Paul said that it should be done every week: On the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). The second teaching that those first century people had was they were to give weekly. When they came together for worship and the Word, they were commanded to receive an offering. There is something also about this regularity. Paul wanted their giving to be systematic not haphazard, not when they thought of it, not once in a while, not to get it over with. When they came together part of their worship, part of their time together was a commandment to receive an offering to the Lord. It is an honor.
3. PREPARED: Giving is to be planned or prepared. Paul wrote, Lay something aside, storing up (1 Corinthians 16:2). This has the idea of coming to church with your gift already prepared. This means that you should seek God about your gift at home, and prepare it at home. This causes us to seek the Lord more in our giving, and helps us resist any manipulation to give. Can you imagine if Paul came to that church and it was offering time and he looked at those people and he said you owe your life to me, put more in the offering. You were pagan slaves, put more in the offering. If you don’t put more in the offering I am not going to write you any more books of the Bible. Can you imagine the way he could have manipulated that group? He said I want you to prepare, to plan, I want you to reason before you come. Giving should never be humanly prompted. He says I don’t want any collections when I come. I don’t want to manipulate you. I want your giving to be from your heart that heard from God- not a response from high pressure fund raising. This is so important. Paul says we should never make a decision that is emotionally based without a definite Biblically directed focus for that giving. So much of modern day giving is driven by the impulse of the moment rather than looking at the Biblical plan that giving is ordered to be regular, prepared, proportional. Each one should give as he is prospered. That means believers that have more should give more. We should give proportionately. In other words, if at sometime you were earning $100 and you gave $10 then when you earn $200 then you should be giving much more than when you made $100. There is always a proportion and not just to income, but also to how much you need what you have. There is such a graciousness about this God says I am giving you this do that you can give to Me as I have freely given to you.
Do you think the Lord expects more or less from us who have His Holy Spirit living in us, who live in the wealthiest society the earth has ever known? Do you think He expects more or less from us then what He demanded from the poorest Israelite who worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week just to live? God didn’t give us wealth to get more and more comfortable and secure. He gave us wealth, every one of us, whatever wealth He gave us- He freely gave that we would grow in the grace of freely giving to Him.
With all that in our hearts and minds, is it fair to ask,
Let’s open to the book of Ecclesiastes, we are going to be in the 5th chapter in just a moment. Before we get there, I would like to take you back in history to the time that the Bible was written and have you just think about one thought-- a question for each of us to ponder. As we honestly look at God's Word and how the Lord has revealed His desires about our stewardship of our money – what should be our response to Him? Specifically, as we look at the Old Testament record, “God, do You really expect less of me – one who has your Holy Spirit within and lives in one of the wealthiest societies in human history – than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?” In the Old Testament, under the Law, God demanded, He told them you must do this, if you don’t you face my wrath, punishment, chastisement, you face a whole host of negatives. He demanded from them. He specified, spelled out in the 613 commands of the Old Testament what they had to give. With all that, do you think God expects less from us in whom His Holy Spirit dwells, living in the wealthiest and most prosperous era the planet has ever known?
LIFE WAS HARD BACK THEN
Let’s think about what it was like in Israel. Life was hard in Bible times. Like much of the non-industrialized world today, most men awoke at dawn, trudged to the fields where they had to scrape out--- if you have ever been to Israel-- it is one big rock pile- it looks like a quarry--- and they would scrape out the soil between the rocks, move the rocks and try and scratch out an existence farming that land. They would work from dawn to dusk and trudge home totally tired from hand laboring. They plowed with wooden yokes and plows tied on with rope and leather to oxen. Planting, plowing, pruning, and harvesting – all were done by hand. They would get home at night to where the women had also labored by hand all day just to make the clothing, gather and prepare food so they all could eat by the dim light of a smoking lamp, try to make a home for the men to come home to and sleep the sleep of the laborer. They were dead tired, they would fall asleep to get up at dawn the next morning to work a 14 hour day and to do that six days a week until the Sabbath day that they had off.So went the life of the farmers, herdsmen faced similar long and hard days. Sleeping most often with the flock in caves and stone enclosures, life was far from comfortable. Food as it was harvested was carefully stored for the long months when there were no crops. Pests, rodents and mold all were constant threats to the food supply. Drought and locusts could spell famine at any time. In spite of all that, God expected them and demanded them to give very specified amounts.
It is interesting after the Israelite archaeologists began to have freedom to excavate all over modern day Israel—they began digging up the past. I was reading one archaeological report from the 1970’s where they found a family tomb. In Israel when people died they would wrap them up just like Lazarus and Jesus were, lay them on a shelf like they laid Jesus on a shelf only they would leave them there until they completely reduced to bones and then they would unwrap them and move the bones into a little crypt where all the family bones were kept. Generation after generation was buried in the same family tomb area and they would just keep moving them into this depository. The archaeologists have found those depositories. They have found literally scores of years of family life that is registered by all the bones. They scooped one entire depository up and brought it to America and presented the teeth they found to a dental school and asked what they could tell about the inhabitants of Biblical Israel. The longer archaeologists work in Israel, the more they find. Old Testament burial customs involved the use of extended family burial caves where the bones were stored for generations in the back of the caves in specials crypts. The end result being that an examination of these remains gives great insight into the life of ancient Israel. One cave found in the 1970’s contained among the bones – 762 human teeth. An American dental school examined these teeth and their findings are fascinating.
So they had several generations of these people that had been buried in this family tomb. They found out that:
Those teeth represented 51 different individuals.
- 13 or about 25% never lived to age ten;
- Only 4 in 51 or 8% lived to the age of 60; that’s why someone that got to be 60 was thought to be really old.
- All 51 individuals their teeth showed almost complete diets of rough grain. They had actually worn their teeth down; they weren’t eating fancy soft foods.
Old Testament GIVING
A close examination of the Old Testament reveals that the Lord asked for two types of giving: required tithing and free will offerings.First, there was tithing that was required. This tithing was three-fold. The first was called the Levites' tithe (Lev. 27:30-33) that kept the whole worship system going. That’s the one we know about. They brought their tithes in to the Levites who kept the Tabernacle and all the worship and all the offerings going. That was just the first tithe or 10%. The second 10% was called the festival tithe (Deut. 12:6-7) it kept their whole national life going. It funded all the festivals, all the government, all of the national events. The third 10% was called the poor tithe (Deut. 14:28). This was for welfare of the handicapped and the unfortunate and that’s how they took care of them. All three of these were demanded like taxation, and were not free will giving to God. In addition to that, there was profit sharing on the corners of the fields (Lev. 19) and not reaping to the edges, a temple tax (Neh. 10:33), and the Sabbath land rest (Ex. 23). They were giving about twenty-five percent of their income for the funding of that government and for the caring of the land—10% for the worship and another 15% plus for the national economy. God demanded that. It seems fair to ask as we look at the Old Testament record, “God, do You really expect less of me – who has Your Holy Spirit within and lives in the wealthiest society in human history – than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?”
After all these three tithes, then God said I want free will offerings. This voluntary free will giving was a matter of freely giving Him the best, and that's what God's after . . . the choicest things. Exodus 25:1-2 says, "The Lord spoke unto Moses saying, `Speak unto the children of Israel that they bring me an offering: of every man that giveth it willingly with his heart'." This willingness of heart is emphasized over and over again. The beauty of it is that giving in this way provides more than enough. So again we see that required giving was always taxation. Free will giving was always what came out of the willing heart.
- If we love God we must "Honor the Lord with thy substance and with the first fruits of all thine increase." Proverbs 3:9.
- "Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the Lord: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy." 1 Chronicles 29:9.
I wonder- from those poor people who worked 14 hour days, 6 days a week, 84 hour work weeks- one fourth of them didn’t live to the age of 10. Four out of 50 never made it to the ripe old age of 60. And God, those poor hard working farmers and herdsmen, you demanded 10% for worship and 10% for government and another 5% for poverty plus freewill offerings? Unbelievable.
WOULD GOD EXPECT LESS
So is it fair to ask, “Lord do You really expect less of me? Your Holy Spirit lives within me guiding me as I live in the wealthiest society in human history. Do you expect less than You demanded of the poorest Israelite who works 14-hour days, 6 days a week just to exist? Few people in our culture would or actually do honour the Lord in this way- it is an amazing thought. So, if we think about God’s demands on them, what does grace impel us to do?- John Wesley who wrote many of the hymns in your hymnbooks said, “Money never stays with me. It would burn me if it did. I throw it out of my hands as soon as possible, lest it should find its way into my heart.” Remember, the Lord said be careful because you can love and worship money.
- Hudson Taylor said, “The less I spent on myself and the more I gave to others, the fuller of happiness and blessing did my soul become.” America is the wealthiest and most unhappy society in the world. Look at the industrialized nations- Japan, a very wealthy and very unhappy society. Look at Western Europe- a very wealthy and very unhappy society because they don’t give, they take.
- We all know what the missionary C.T. Studd said, “Only one life, ‘twill soon be past; only what’s done for Christ will last.” . On his deathbed, his children gathered around him and he said I wish I had something to give you, I am sorry, I gave it all to the Lord a long time ago. Every one of his children served the Lord to their last days. They saw the example of his great beneficence to God.
God has given some very timely warnings to us at the beginning of the 21st Century, in the most wealthy and consumptive society that has ever existed on planet earth. God says I want you to know how you should live. Please turn with me to Ecclesiastes. There are 5 books that constitute the Wisdom Literature of Israel; these books give us some powerful guiding lights for every day living.
- God’s Instructions to us on Godly Suffering – Job;
- God’s Instructions to us on Godly Worshiping – Psalms;
- God’s Instructions to us on Godly Living – Proverbs;
- God’s Instructions to us on Godly Planning, the Big Picture, the Plan of Life/Thinking about Life – Ecclesiastes- looking on life as a whole. It’s like going to a financial planner or one of these new people you see ads for, a “life planner”, they help you plan your whole life and they supposedly know timing and how to really succeed in life. If you want to know from God’s perspective how to have Godly planning and how to think about life, the book of Ecclesiastes if filled with incredible wisdom. In 5:10-15 we find God giving us a theology of how to look on our possessions.
- God’s Instructions to us on Godly Loving – Song of Solomon.
THE DANGERS OF MONEY
Read Ecclesiastes 5.10-15.10 He who loves silver will not be satisfied with silver;
Nor he who loves abundance, with increase.
This also is vanity.
11 When goods increase,
They increase who eat them;
So what profit have the owners
Except to see them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet,
Whether he eats little or much;
But the abundance of the rich will not permit him to sleep.
13 There is a severe evil which I have seen under the sun:
Riches kept for their owner to his hurt.
14 But those riches perish through misfortune;
When he begets a son, there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came from his mother's womb, naked shall he return,
To go as he came; and he shall take nothing from his labor
Which he may carry away in his hand.
If you take out your pen or pencil- I have written in my Bible as I studied this 5th chapter of Ecclesiastes. Most cults will quote from Ecclesiastes- just a little snippet of it to kind of justify some of their strange beliefs. But if you want to really see this big picture, get a good solid conservative Bible-believing language expert who will go into the depths of this poetic book and show you the wisdom.
See if these points strike you like they struck me.
1. “Whoever loves money (or silver) never has money enough” (v. 10). This is the point of this one commentary- The more you have, the more you want. Isn’t that true?
2. “Whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with his income” (v. 10). The more you have, the less you’re satisfied. Isn’t that the story of so many people in America? They always are temporarily where they are because they are trying to find a better, higher paying, more benefits job. The lesson to that is the more you have, the less you are satisfied. Think about it, in America, the satisfaction level of life is down and the wealth level is up because the more we have the less we are satisfied because the more we have the more we want. It robs us of the joy and satisfaction that God wants us to have.
3. “As goods increase, so do those who consume them” (v.11). The more you have, the more people (including the government) will come after it.
4. “And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” (v. 11). The more you have, the more you realize it does you no good. There was a man that went to the funeral of his stepfather. There, the family was discussing the fact that this man died with four boats. He had a $450,000 one, a $350,000 one, a $250,000 one and a $100,000 cheap one. He had not gone in any of them in almost 15 years. He paid 15 years of dry-dock where they shrink wrapped them and kept them. They were dry rotting inside the shrink-wrap. But that man had four boats. Look back at what Ecclesiastes says “And what benefit are they to the owner except to feast his eyes on them?” The more you have the more you realize it does you no good to have so much. Why? Because you have to worry about it.
5. “The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether he eats little or much, but the abundance of a rich man permits him no sleep” (v. 12). The more you have, the more you have to worry about.
6. “I have seen a grievous evil under the sun: wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner” (v. 13). The more you have, the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it. Jesus talked about that- He said don’t stack up stuff. James the earthly brother of our Lord said in James 5:3, 3Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days. You ought read James 5 sometimes and be careful about hoarding. Hoarding is when we keep more than necessary for what God’s purposes are. If we keep only for our purposes, God says watch out, it is going to be dangerous for you. The more you have the more you can hurt yourself by holding on to it. You can hurt your self because it says that wealth causes us to be pierced through with many afflictions. You know we are concerned about it, our family fights about it, we have to protect it, we spend a lot of our emotional energies trying to move it, sort it and store it and protect it.
7. “Or wealth lost through some misfortune” (v.14). The more you have, the more you have to lose. That’s what the wisdom literature says. Be careful what you hold on to and drag through life.
8. “Naked a man comes from his mother’s womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand” (v.15). The more you have, the more you’ll leave behind. God says don’t leave it behind, send it ahead. How do you send it ahead? By giving ownership of everything we have to the Lord and by learning the Grace of Giving.
Lets turn to 1Timothy chapter 4.
BIBLICAL PRINCIPLES FOR GIVING
Do you know what the lesson for us is? If you have not received anything from the Lord, if He has not given you salvation, if He has not given you His gracious forgiveness, mercy and cleansing, please do not give Him anything. Keep your money, your resources, and your life to yourself. God does not want it nor should any ministry if God has not moved in your life. But if he has freely given to us we should be characterized by that gracious free giving back to Him. Remember you could not have bought your deliverance for any amount of money. You have received that gift of enrichment, of forgiveness, of healing of your home, or your marriage, or whatever it is, without charge to you. "Freely you have received, freely give."
Now let me ask you, what were Christians living as the New Testament was written, taught about giving? How does the Bible describe that? Turn to 1Corinthians 16. What were the Christians living during the writing of the New Testament taught about giving? Not going to a financial seminar, not going to a will and budget seminar, not going to some kind of modern fund raising kind of thing. What did the average person in the first century that sat there with the Apostles themselves; what did they teach them about giving? That is how we should approach the Epistles. This portion of scripture is to real people in real places and it was God speaking to them. 1Corinthians 16:1 has the beginning of this list and I have reduced them down to little one-word reminders to me. In verse one I see two very clear words- Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders- Not suggestions, not options. The New Testament Church--
1. ORDERED: Giving is commanded, and is not an option. As you have freely received, freely give. He says I order you to be exercising the grace of giving. Paul instructed the Corinthian church, saying Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders . . . so you must do also (1 Corinthians 16:1). In 1 Corinthians 16:2, Paul directed the command to give in this way: Let each one of you lay something aside. Paul directed them to give this way. Who was supposed to give? Each one. Paul wanted all to give. Giving should be individual. Every Christian should be a giver, because God is a giver- for God so loved the world that He gave- (John 3:16). He gave me, individually eternal life. He gave His Son for me. So I individually need to learn to be a giver back. Giving has gotten so mechanized nowadays. Paul said Let each one of you lay something aside. There is something about training our families to give. It should be a hard thing to pass an offering by without giving something. I encouraged our children, I helped them figure out how much to give to the Lord, I give them a check or I put something in their hands because I want them to learn the joy of actually participating in giving that gift. Then they feel like I am giving to the Lord. That is what he said—let each of you. Giving is individual.
2. WEEKLY: Giving is to be regular. In fact he doesn’t just say regular. Regarding the collection in Corinth, Paul said that it should be done every week: On the first day of the week (1 Corinthians 16:2). The second teaching that those first century people had was they were to give weekly. When they came together for worship and the Word, they were commanded to receive an offering. There is something also about this regularity. Paul wanted their giving to be systematic not haphazard, not when they thought of it, not once in a while, not to get it over with. When they came together part of their worship, part of their time together was a commandment to receive an offering to the Lord. It is an honor.
3. PREPARED: Giving is to be planned or prepared. Paul wrote, Lay something aside, storing up (1 Corinthians 16:2). This has the idea of coming to church with your gift already prepared. This means that you should seek God about your gift at home, and prepare it at home. This causes us to seek the Lord more in our giving, and helps us resist any manipulation to give. Can you imagine if Paul came to that church and it was offering time and he looked at those people and he said you owe your life to me, put more in the offering. You were pagan slaves, put more in the offering. If you don’t put more in the offering I am not going to write you any more books of the Bible. Can you imagine the way he could have manipulated that group? He said I want you to prepare, to plan, I want you to reason before you come. Giving should never be humanly prompted. He says I don’t want any collections when I come. I don’t want to manipulate you. I want your giving to be from your heart that heard from God- not a response from high pressure fund raising. This is so important. Paul says we should never make a decision that is emotionally based without a definite Biblically directed focus for that giving. So much of modern day giving is driven by the impulse of the moment rather than looking at the Biblical plan that giving is ordered to be regular, prepared, proportional. Each one should give as he is prospered. That means believers that have more should give more. We should give proportionately. In other words, if at sometime you were earning $100 and you gave $10 then when you earn $200 then you should be giving much more than when you made $100. There is always a proportion and not just to income, but also to how much you need what you have. There is such a graciousness about this God says I am giving you this do that you can give to Me as I have freely given to you.
Do you think the Lord expects more or less from us who have His Holy Spirit living in us, who live in the wealthiest society the earth has ever known? Do you think He expects more or less from us then what He demanded from the poorest Israelite who worked 14 hours a day, 6 days a week just to live? God didn’t give us wealth to get more and more comfortable and secure. He gave us wealth, every one of us, whatever wealth He gave us- He freely gave that we would grow in the grace of freely giving to Him.
With all that in our hearts and minds, is it fair to ask,
Lord do You really expect less of me?
Your Holy Spirit lives within me guiding me,
And as I live in the wealthiest society in human history.
Do you expect less of me than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?
Your Holy Spirit lives within me guiding me,
And as I live in the wealthiest society in human history.
Do you expect less of me than You demanded of the poorest Israelite?
Thank You for visiting this site. If we can be of help in any way, please do not hesitate to ask. Much Blessings on you and yours, Dr. Joseph A.Carson Northland Baptist Ministries
No comments:
Post a Comment
Please leave us comment or question and we will endeavour to reply as soon as possible. Thank You.