Ecclesiology: Supporting the Church

Ecclesiology’s Final Lesson on Giving

Alright, open your Bibles with me and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 9. We're going to read a very familiar passage, one that you hear me read a lot. I read this just about every Sunday right before we receive the offering.

And I want to say before we read the text that if there is a subject that I do not like to preach on, it is the subject of giving. The reason for that is not because I think giving is wrong or bad, but it is so misused and so mistreated.

And I know as soon as I plan a sermon on giving, we're going to have at least four visitors. Most of them are not going to be believers. And they're going to leave thinking the only thing the pastor ever does is ask people for money.

And I have heard pastors who do that. Who every message is about how much you're not giving and how much you should be giving and how much needs to be given. And I have seen the Scripture mistreated. But I want to say something tonight as we begin.

Sort of make a personal appeal here. We're ending our study of ecclesiology. This is the last lesson on the subject of the doctrine of the church. Next week we'll have Thanksgiving which means all of our evening events are canceled.

No karate, no anything for the week. We just take the week off because so many people are preparing for Thanksgiving. So we will not have Wednesday night next week. When we come back in December, I'm going to take a break from the theology.

I'm going to teach on the birth narratives of Christ for several weeks. Luke and Matthew. I just want to do that. Take a little break. But when we come back in January we'll be in eschatology which is the study of the last things.

And that's going to be exciting. I hope we'll have several new people come and visit because people like to hear that subject. So tonight's the end of eschatology. Ecclesiology, sorry. Tonight's the end of ecclesiology.

End of the study of the doctrine of the church. And we're ending on the subject of giving because it's necessary. Supporting the ministry is not optional. It is necessary. You guys like that you can come to this building and it's nice and comfortable and the lights are on and the air is blowing nicely.

And you have men who are able to teach and those things and time given to study and all those things. All of this is part of ministry and we like that we can support missionaries and we like that we can help people who are hurting.

All those things are part of giving to the ministry. So this is not something that we should ever be ashamed to talk about. Neither should I ever be ashamed to teach on it and I'm not. As I said my only fear is that people would think this is all I ever talk about.

And you can look I have over a thousand sermons on Sermon Audio ranging from a ton of different subjects. Brother Andy's on there. Brother Mike's on there. And in those thousand sermons you may find less than ten where I've addressed this subject.

So if you're here tonight I know we only have visitors. Lewis it's good to see you guys again. Just know that this isn't the normal thing but it is necessary. Though it's not the norm it's a necessary conversation.

And so what we're going to look at tonight we're going to look first at this passage and then we're going to discuss the different types of giving the amount of giving purpose of giving in the manner of giving.

The Cheerful Giver and What God Loves

So let's read the text. 2nd Corinthians 9 7. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. That last phrase is an encouragement to me.

And we're going to talk later about what it means to give cheerfully but just for a moment can't we just meditate on what God loves. You know this week I'm preaching Psalm 92 if you want to prepare for Sunday morning.

And it says in the beginning of Psalm 92 that it is good to give thanks to the Lord. And I've been I've been bathing in that passage all week because it's such an understatement. I almost almost titled the sermon the biggest understatement in the Bible.

It is good to give thanks to the Lord. It's such an understatement isn't it? And isn't it also an understatement to say that what what is what God loves we should love. Isn't that an understatement? What God loves we should love.

And if God loves cheerful givers we ought to love being cheerful givers. You know that's a meditation of the heart. If God loves it when I give cheerfully then I should never want to give begrudgingly.

I should always want to give cheerfully because God loves that. And if God loves the cheerful giver then my my goal in life should be to give him everything I can cheerfully. My wife and I watched a documentary I'm actually thinking about showing it here in church maybe next year sometime after the Christmas season is over but it's called The Insanity of God.

It's about missionaries who go to the deepest darkest places on earth and and give their lives for ministry. And man you know it's hard to watch some of the things but the miracles that God does and the cheerfulness with which these people give their lives and the joy.

I posted something on Facebook. I think some of you who are on Facebook saw it. I said you know some people have way more trials than we do. And yet they have way more joy than we do. Their trials are so much more than ours and yet their joy is so much more than ours.

How can that be? That someone can have so many more problems and yet so much more joy is because they're so close to God. And they're giving themselves cheerfully to God. And so when God says God loves a cheerful giver we should want to be that.

We should want to give cheerfully. Everything not just money. You know not everybody has a lot of money. But we can give to God so much. We can give to God our service. We can give to God our time. And I've been so thankful the last few weeks.

We've had some people who've really stepped up around here and given God a lot of extra time for some of the things that need to be done. I've been so grateful just to see the doors open and people come in and doing things that just need to be done.

What a blessing. And they're doing it cheerfully. Nobody's demanding anything for it. They're doing it because they want to do it. They know it needs to be done. And they're laughing and smiling while they do it.

What a blessing. So that being said we're going to look at two types of giving that are described in the Bible. This is the only blanks that you have on your sheet. So I will give you the blanks. The two types of giving that are described in the Bible.

The first is compulsory giving. And the second is voluntary giving. So that is the two types of giving that are described in the Bible. Under or beside since the line goes this way you don't have much room underneath it.

But off to the side of compulsory giving you can put two words to remind yourself what I'm referring to. Under compulsory giving the first one would be taxes. Taxes are compulsory. You want to write a verse for that.

Romans 13 1 -6 It says that let every person be subject to governing authorities. There's no authority except from God. Those that exist are instituted by God. Then in verse 6 it says because of this pay taxes.

And it says in verse 7 pay to all what is owed to them. There's a lot of people who don't want to pay taxes. I don't love it. I don't enjoy the fact that we're just now fixing to move. For those of you who don't know we're moving to Callaghan.

We're in the process of purchasing a home. They sent me a letter. This is what your annual taxes are going to be. It's just more money. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But we do it. Because it's obligatory.

It's compulsory. I'm supposed to pay my taxes as a Christian. I'm not supposed to cheat on my taxes. Even if I want to argue the whole I don't know if you've ever heard of this phrase taxation is theft.

That's a big thing that's argued right now. That all taxation is a form of theft. That's a libertarian phrase that's very popular right now. We could have that conversation later. But the point is it's a compulsory thing.

The Bible says we pay it. The other compulsory giving if you will is the tithe. When I say the tithe I am particularly referring to the Old Covenant tithe. I'm going to explain the difference and how I understand the New Covenant in just a moment.

Under the Old Covenant the tithe and all the word tithe means is 10%. The word tithe actually predates the law. Anybody know the first time the tithe was given in Scripture? Melchizedek. When Abraham came back from war and he had the spoils of war it says he gave a tithe to Melchizedek.

So that's the first time we see an example of a 10 offering being given as something of a religious observance. The priest of Salem was what Melchizedek was called and so he was given that tithe. So 10 becomes a foundational standard.

You've probably heard it. If 10 is enough for God it's enough for the IRS. But the 10 becomes the baseline. Then we get to the law and we find that the 10 is not always it's a baseline but there's multiple times where we have this come up and the Levitical tithe actually turned out to be more like 23 depending on your amount of produce and how productive you are.

And there were some people who didn't give because some of the tithe was used to give to rather than take from. And so the tithe wasn't universal and it was based on the amount that you were prospering.

And so there were rules and all kinds of established things but it was compulsory. You were not allowed to not tithe. And the way that I describe the tithing of the Old Testament is I say it's a lot like the taxation of today.

It was what caused the system of government the theocratic system which became a monarchy. It was theocratic under Moses and Joshua and then through the judges but then you have the kings and the tithe is essentially how the nation is funded.

And so we have this tithing system that's compulsory. So we have compulsory giving and there's various passages. I wish we had time to read. We don't have time to read all these just like Brother Andy.

I'm going to be giving you some passages tonight but we're not going to be reading all of them. You can look up the Levitical tithe which was Leviticus chapter 27 verses 30 to 33. The festival tithe which is Deuteronomy 14 22 to 29.

And then there were smaller amounts that were required at different times in the year. Leviticus 19 9 and 10 there was an offering and then Exodus 23 10 and 11 there was an offering. That's why I say you start adding them up and it gets to be more like 23 versus just as flat tax.

It's not a flat tax. And this revenue was used to operate the nation to maintain the civil government and to aid in the needs of meeting the needs of the poor and it was compulsory. So all of these we've talked about are compulsory giving.

Voluntary Giving in the Old Testament

Now the second type of biblical giving is voluntary giving and in the Old Testament there was voluntary giving. I'll read to you one passage Exodus 25 verses 1 and 2 Exodus 25 1 and 2. The Lord said to Moses speak to the people of Israel that they take for me a contribution from every man whose heart moves him you shall receive the contribution for me.

Notice what that's saying. It's saying that it's a voluntary offering. It's not there's no percentage mentioned. There's no standard. It's as his heart moves him take the offering. That's also we see this in 1 Chronicles 29 and here's where we the only time in the Bible where we get the words free will is in regard to an offering and it says this 1 Chronicles 29 verse 6 it says the leaders of fathers houses made their free will offerings as did also the leaders of the tribes the commanders of thousands and of hundreds and the officers over the king's work they gave for the service of the house of God 5 ,000 talents 10 derricks of gold 10 ,000 derricks of gold 10 ,000 talents of silver and it goes on to give the numbers it said and whoever had precious stones gave them to the treasury to the house of the Lord and the care of JL the Gershon I then the people rejoice because they had given willingly for with a whole heart they had offered freely to the Lord David the king also rejoiced greatly.

So notice they gave freely they gave with their whole heart. They still gave a lot which is interesting. They still gave I mean thousands and thousands of talents and derricks but the point is there was compulsory giving there was voluntary giving and we see this all throughout the Old Testament.

New Covenant Giving and the Question of the Tithe

Now when we come to the New Testament here is where some debate comes in and I'm willing to have the debate when time allows for now I'm going to say my thoughts on the subject if you want to ask a question I'm willing to entertain it but it is my opinion that when we come to the New Testament that we are dealing exclusively with the voluntary gift and the reason why is because the New Testament does not provide for us the same standards of the compulsory gifts as the Old Testament provides.

So some people say well what are you saying you're saying we're not supposed to tithe. I think tithing is a basic standard of measurement one tenth but the New Testament is actually never says if you don't tithe it's a sin.

In fact I would say this within the New Testament paradigm I think more not less than the tithe is really what is expected. Think of it like this who was the person who was considered to be the greatest giver in the New Testament?

She only gave a penny. The widow. What did Jesus say? This woman gave more than all the rest because she didn't give out of her abundance but she gave all that she had to live on right? So what happens I think often with the tithe is people feel like that's all I have to give and they're thinking in terms of compulsory giving and rather than what do I get to give what should I give?

You know? What should I be giving? And if somebody says well you should give a tithe I think that that's a good foundational place but I do know this there for some people who have very little income a tithe would be very difficult a whole 10 of their income and for some people a tithe is nothing.

You see what I'm saying? And somebody says well if everybody gives a tithe everybody's giving the same. I understand the logic behind that and that is in a sense true right? But when we go back to the Old Covenant there were poor people that were the recipients of the benefits of the tithe rather than the giving side see that's the point.

We missed that part and so I do think that we have to be careful telling somebody Daisy you didn't give 10 you're a sinner right? I don't know what you give I have no idea. I'm just saying Daisy I pick on you every week.

You all remember J .C. Penney? J .C. Penney gave well above a tithe. Some say he gave 90 of what he earned to the Lord and he was a very wealthy man. I don't know that that number is entirely accurate but J .C. Penney was a wealthy man who gave and gave and gave and gave and he could have stuck with 10 and said that's good enough for me, good enough for God, good enough for me but that wasn't what he was to give it wasn't what God laid on his heart to give and so I do think that it is dangerous to say this is the standard.

I think it's a good foundational starting point and my wife and I we work through our giving in such a way that we try to give at least 10 we do. I mean this is my heart. I'm not telling you what you should do.

I'm telling you what we do as an example that's the only example I know because I don't know what anybody else gives right? I know what I give so I'm able to say ok I know how much I make and the good thing is I make an annual salary by God's grace.

I know exactly what I'm going to make and so I'm able to at the beginning of the year say ok I know how much I'm going to make therefore I know how much I want to give as my base but that's not all I give.

That's just the starting point for me right. And somebody may do it differently but that's the you know and it's easy to start there and then to do what else I can as the Lord prospers or as I'm able.

So there is my thoughts on the tithe is I do not believe tithing as a compulsory gift is a new covenant command but I do think that it's a good example and a good way to start thinking about giving. And so I think that's a you know if we want to talk about because if you look at the first note is the amount of giving.

How much should you give. Right. If you want to ask how much should you give. Here's some ways I can answer that I'll give you the scriptures to answer that from a New Testament perspective. 1st Corinthians 16 1 and 2.

1st Corinthians 16 1 and 2. Now concerning the collection for the saints as I directed the churches in Galatia so also I direct you on the first day of each week each of you should put something aside and stored up as he may prosper so that there will be no collecting when I come.

Note the amount given is determined by what the amount you prosper. Right. So right there is a beginning point. Alright so you have earned this much. You have prospered this much. Therefore there's your you give proportionately to that.

Now let's talk about that for a minute because like you know I mentioned the 90 that J .C. Penney gave. I can't give 90 unless my kids go hungry. Right. If I gave 90 my kids wouldn't eat. And then I'd have to beg for money.

So we do have to be reasonable. Right. We have to say okay what is it that the Lord has provided me that I can give. Right. And somebody says oh just give it all and let the Lord. You know this is an issue with Martin Luther and his wife Martin Luther his wife's name was Katharina von Bora and he would give away all their money.

So he she had to hide money so that he wouldn't give it away. In fact there's a funny story about a vase where Luther was walking around the house and he said you know Katie this is what he called his wife Katie.

Where's the vase we received for our wedding. I want to give it to this other person. And she said no I have hidden it from you because we are going to sell it in the winter and use that money to feed ourselves that was given to us for our wedding.

He goes well I want to give it to this person for their wedding. She said no you can't do that. This is going to sustain us through the winter. Yeah it must have been some vase. But that was the heart of Luther.

Luther would give until it was until he was impoverished. But remember he was a monk. What did monks have nothing. They took a vow of poverty. Right. They were used to having nothing. But he had six kids.

So he had to consider his wife. She was the manager. What did they call her the duchess of Wittenberg. He called her the morning star of Wittenberg. No the duchess of the cloister. I've been calling Jennifer that the cloister was where the monks lived and he called her the duchess of the cloister.

And she really was like the household manager when it came to the money because he was just giving it all away. And so you have to consider that right. You all have families. Some of you are parents some of you are grandparents.

And if everybody gave all of their money away and their kids were hungry then that would be not good stewardship. So we have to consider that right. We do have to feed our kids. We have to pay our bills.

But is there times when we're being extravagant and lavish that becomes an issue of the heart. It really does. So we have to consider that in regard to our giving are we giving proportionally as we're prospered.

And then the next thing in Acts 11 it mentions giving according to our ability. I think that goes in the same vein. That's Acts 11 27 -30 and I've got to speed up a little bit because of time. But I think 2 Corinthians 9 -7 which we already read really is the heart of it because 2 Corinthians 9 -7 says each one must give as he has decided in his heart.

And then it says those two beautiful but very powerful words not reluctantly or under compulsion. So if a guy comes and he says pastor I don't want to give this. But here now nobody gives me money anyway.

Like that they put it in the offering place. I wouldn't know if they were doing that. But the attitude does matter and notice it says not under compulsion. This is why I think new covenant giving is not compulsory giving.

Even if we come to the belief that the 10 is the standard it's still not compulsory. Because if you're doing it only because you have to then you don't understand the heart of giving. We should do it because God loves a cheerful giver not because God loves a compulsive.

Find the verb compelled giver. That's an adjective actually a compelled giver God loves a cheerful giver. And when we're compelled to give it's not coming from the heart. It's coming from the sense of guilt or demand.

And that's not what we're called to do. In fact let us move now to the purpose of our giving. Because once we go from how much we then move to why are we giving this? I think the purpose of our giving tells us more about how much we should give.

Because we understand why we're doing it. Why am I cheerful when I give. Because I know what the money is for. I know where it's going and what it's being used for. And I've given you three things to think about.

I'll give you scripture verses to go with each one meet the needs of the brethren 1 John 3, 17 and 18. So we give because it meets the needs of the brethren we have in the church here benevolence and benevolent giving meaning when you give a certain amount of that money is set aside for the purpose of using in case there are those within the church who have need.

I mean we've paid light bills. We have helped people in times of crisis regarding food anything. And it starts here within the church. I've said it before and I'll say it again no one in this church should be desperate and the elders not know about it.

That's our job to know those things. Don't be embarrassed. That's why we do this. There should not be desperation while the elders remain ignorant. That doesn't mean we have to tell the whole church if you're embarrassed or whatever.

But I want to say this, I don't think you should be embarrassed. Everybody has hard times. Meeting the needs of the brethren is part of why we give. Number two, meet the needs of the poor. We are called to be philanthropic.

I will say this, in the history of our nation the most active people in feeding the poor has been the church. Orphanages have been started by the churches. In fact when I adopted my two children I adopted them, well this is not a church but I adopted them through Jewish family services because adoptions at that time, this was 14 years ago.

Today is the anniversary of the day we got Ashley and Cody. By the way today is the anniversary of the gotcha day and it was three groups Jewish family services, Catholic family services and I think the Baptist children's home.

So basically those were the groups that were handling the state is over it but they're ministering out using the church in the ministry of the church because that's where the heart of this is to help the orphan and the widows.

Right. And that's the goal, the church should be about that when we give to various ministries as a church and I encourage folks to also give to ministries that move your heart. Last one, meet the needs of Christian workers in addition to meeting the needs of the brethren in addition to meeting the needs of the poor.

The elder or elders who are responsible for the labor in ministry daily labor are to be supported now I say that knowing I'm the primary one here who receives the support. So I say that carefully. But listen to this passage 1st Timothy 5 17 let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

That's their job is preaching and teaching. For the scripture says you shall not muzzle an ox when it treads out the grain and the laborer deserves his wages. I'll tell you this I wish I was independently wealthy so that I would never have to take a dime.

But I do have to feed my family and I am grateful that the church affords me a salary that I may take the opportunity to spend my life in the service of God and His church in the study of the word. That's my only job is to minister here by God's grace.

He's given me that opportunity for 15 years. I may go away one day. I may have to go paint fences or hang sheet rock or do something. Oh I hope not. I'm not really good at either one of those but the point is whatever.

I'm going to preach regardless. But right now the Lord has allowed me to do this as my primary vocation and I'm thankful for that. And I think that passages like this one allow for that for the minister to be a vocational minister.

Some people think ministers should never be paid. I mean I've been I know a lot of people and a lot of people have a lot of opinions not usually based on scripture and they say well if you get paid you're a hireling.

That's not true. If you ever want proof that I'm not a hireling. Listen to me preach because I'm willing to offend you. The hireling is not willing to offend because he's afraid that his paycheck will be taken away.

That's the very idea of a hireling someone who does what he does only because he's paid and he changes the way he does it because he is paid. That's not me brother. Jump in any time if you feel like it go on man and brother Andy he did ministry.

I don't want to tell his story. But he did ministry for a lot of years as a bivocational minister. And so he worked for Pinsky and ministered at a church and so he can tell stories about that about the difference.

So there's nothing wrong with that. There's certainly nothing wrong with bivocational ministry but I am grateful as I said that by God's grace for 15 years I haven't had to do that. The manner of our giving.

Giving Anonymously, Sacrificially, Cheerfully, and Voluntarily

If you will just indulge me another couple minutes and I'll finish with this. The manner of our giving. Four things to consider. One we should give anonymously. I base this on Matthew 6 1 -4 that says beware of practicing your righteousness before people.

It basically tells us when we give we shouldn't sound a trumpet. We shouldn't want people to see what we give. I don't think that necessarily means that we should be scared of people seeing us put money on the offering plate.

But we shouldn't be sitting there looking. I'm making it rain in the offering plate. That's not the attitude we're supposed to have. Look at what I give. Because why would anybody do that. Because they want other people to be impressed with what they give.

And what did Jesus say. They have received their reward. They got the people to be impressed by it. They've received their reward. So we give anonymously not necessarily strictly. We don't want anybody to see us do anything.

But we don't walk around holding up a banner for ourselves. Number two. We give sacrificially. I go back to the widow's mite as an example of that. I always try to ask this is my giving really costing me anything.

Am I making a sacrifice or am I just giving out of my abundance. I think that's a question only you can answer. I don't know what you have and I don't know what you give. So I can't tell you if you're giving sacrificially.

But that's a good question to ask. Is what I am giving costing me anything really. Number three. We should give cheerfully. 2 Corinthians 8. Listen to this. As Paul describes the churches of Macedonia.

He says this we want you to know brethren about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia. For in a severe test of affliction their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part.

For they gave according to their means as I can testify and beyond their means of their own accord begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints. And this not as we expected but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.

Notice they begged for the opportunity and they were poor. It says there they were impoverished themselves. And yet they begged for the opportunity to be a part of what God was doing. Let us be a part of what God is doing.

Do we feel joy when we give. Do we really feel like we're being a part of what God is doing. Or are we reluctant. Do we wonder is God really at work. Do we wonder if what we're giving really matters in the grand scheme.

And lastly we should give voluntarily. And that's the crux of the lesson. Right. All of our giving to the church is not under compulsion. No one stands. I don't stand with the offering plate walking by.

And when you don't give enough I reach down and twist your arm. You know. Or when the offering plates go out and they come back up I look down and say that's not enough. Send them again. You know that's you can't go out until we get a little more.

Our motivation for giving is love for Christ love for his church and a desire to see his work prosper. Love for Christ love for his church and a desire to see his work prosper. The New Testament teaches we are to be generous sacrificial and cheerful.

That's the heart of New Testament giving. And I would ask does that describe the way you give. Do you give generously generously sacrificially and cheerfully. Many people do not. And I'm going to end with a little.

Did you want to say something brother. I have a lot to say. That's right. None of us go in and see what anybody has given. We're very particular about that. We just had a turnover new treasurer and all.

But you know it's the finance committee. It's the treasurers who get that information. The elders know how much is given so that we can know how much is able to be distributed and used. But we're not walking around looking at anybody's account.

And we do that for several reasons not. The least of which is that no one would ever feel as if they have a hold over us. Well you know how much I give. No I don't. Years ago I had a lady tell me. She said you need to make your givers happy.

I said well by God's grace. I don't know who they are. I looked at her face I said I don't know who they are. I said. And I'll tell you this the people that I often think are the best givers are usually the worst.

That's just the way it is. According to the Barna research group one out of every six Christians gave nothing to their church in 1999. That was the last time this was done. So 20 years ago I don't think it's got any better one in six people who attended church gave nothing and 4 gave 10 or more.

According to Barna research a big huge study was done. I know it's a 20 year old study but I think it still holds. One in six gave nothing. 4 gave 10 or more.

Go ahead. I think it never talks about money or you know we were in a very nice little church but they put the basket out by the door and you put the money in there and you did or you didn't and it's not to me anyway.

It's not like that what you do as being a church member what you do as being a Christian and it's a teaching just like everything in the Bible is a teaching so it shouldn't be.

Inferior to other teachings. Or it shouldn't be shameful. It certainly is something we should not be ashamed to talk about. And the problem is all the false teachers have made it harder. But it shouldn't be.

I do like that. We have it as an act of worship in worship. That it's not simply just do it. Walk by the basket on your way out. Well I hope that was helpful. Here's my final thought. Giving is not about obligation it's about opportunity.

We have an opportunity every week to give to the Lord. And it should be something that we look forward to. It shouldn't be something that we have to twist our own arm to get our wallet out of our pocket.

But we should be thankful that the Lord has given us the opportunity to give and to be used of Him to serve in His church. Thank you all for being here. If you would like to pray about anything I'm going to close my eyes and give you a few seconds.