Biblical Stewardship 1

All right, well, we'll go ahead and get started, and if people funnel in, they can funnel in as they will. We have been, over the last few weeks, looking at the subject of Christian ethics, and we have, from the very beginning, made the observation that Christian ethics really is just another way of saying biblical ethics, because, as Christians, we are supposed to do what the Bible tells us to do.

So, whenever we're trying to make a determination about what we should do in any situation, we should seek to understand and obey what the Bible says, the entire Bible, not just one verse. I had an interesting online conversation this week with a pastor who is a friend.

I think his ministry is excellent. I think his ministry is one that is very needed. He is an evangelistic minister, and he has a tremendous soul-winning ministry where they meet and evangelize people in their community, and he sees many souls come to know the Lord, and I'm very fond of his ministry.

But he put something as a post on the internet about how, you know, don't tell him anything about doctrine unless you can quote chapter and verse, and you better be able to go to one chapter and verse and display your doctrine.

And I said, well, I just wrote back, and I said, I think it's simplistic to say, show me one chapter and verse, because, you know, to use that logic, I can prove God has feathers, I can prove anything, because it says he girds us under his wing, I can show you the chapter and verse, but that's not what we do.

We seek to find the harmony of Scripture. What does the entire Bible say about this one subject? So, yes, we want to know what the chapters and verses say, but we want to be able to look at the entire of Scripture and know.

And I made the point to him, I said, if you want to make that logical link, you know, then you can't prove the doctrine of the Trinity, because there's no one specific verse that says God is one in essence and three in person.

And, you know, the three are co-eternal, co-equal, and co-substantial, you know. You can't find that one verse. That doctrine is based on a deduction from Scripture that God is one, and yet there are three persons who are identified as this one God.

So, again, that's an important way that we have to remember. Scripture is not made of individual sentences that are to be taken out of context. The Scripture itself is a context, and then from there you have individual books, and a book has a context.

And then within that book you have individual sections, and this section has a context. So, the old adage, how are you supposed to study the Bible? There are three rules, context, context, context. It's not really a joke.

There are really three levels of context. There's the biblical context, there's the book context, and then there's the section context that you're in. And overall, those three things make up how you're supposed to understand the Scripture.

So, based on that, we have been looking at the subject of giving. I'm sure everybody's favorite subject to study, obviously one that has been mistreated through the years. I remember R .C. Sproul told a story of when he was a young man, his uncle took him to a baseball game, and they were walking through the baseball, walking out to the stands, and he had never seen a minister before.

And he said he saw a man with a black suit and a collar. And he said to his uncle, he said, what does that mean? And his uncle said, watch your wallet. He said, that's what that means. So, you know, there has been somewhat of a bad rap that the church has gotten over the years.

The church is always sort of seeking people's money. So, anytime you preach on money, you preach on giving, you run the fear of people assuming that this is all it's about. It's just another Ponzi scheme.

It's just another way to build up, you know, build up funds for individuals. And that certainly is not what it is. But yet, at the same time, the church does have needs, and we seek to fill those needs through our contributions.

Last week, we noted that the Bible indicates to us two types of contributions. It indicates to us that there are some contributions that are mandatory, and there are some contributions that are voluntary.

We said in the Old Testament, we see that tithe is mandatory. And then we also see in the New Testament, taxes are mandatory. The Bible says in Romans 13, to pay to whom the taxes are owed. We're supposed to pay our taxes because that's mandatory giving.

The government is ordained by God, even though I think, you know, we have a disagreement sometimes about how government should function. And yes, government can be a judgment from God in that it's sometimes misused.

But at the same time, it is so much better to have government than to not have government. Anarchy is never a positive thing. It leads to the expression, the fullest expression of man's total depravity.

When there is no governing body to exercise restraint. So we certainly want to have government. We need it. And the Bible says we're supposed to support it through our taxes. Thank heaven we're in a situation where we can have a voice in the process.

Because there are a lot of Christians in a lot of nations where there is no voting and there's no ability to have a choice. And because we do have a choice, we ought to exercise our voice. You know, God has given us a land where we can have a voice.

People ask me, well, you believe in the psalm of God. Should we vote? Well, absolutely. I cook my own food. I don't plan on God just filling my stomach with food every day. You know, I exercise what God has given me and the abilities that he's given me.

This is one of those abilities that he's given me. So in the regard to giving, we said the Old Testament talks about tithing. And last week, and I don't know if this was a surprise or a new thing for some of you, but I said the New Testament does not have any mandatory giving.

In the New Testament, everything that is given is voluntary. I've heard people make the argument that the New Testament demands tithing. The New Testament does not demand tithing. The tithing system of the Old Testament was part of the taxation system of a theocracy which Israel was under.

It was a theocratic situation where the priests worked as judges and the priests worked as political leaders. And as such, they were taken care of through the taxes, which they would refer to as the tithes.

They paid two 10 tithes a year and then other smaller percentages, which ended up being about 23 of their annual pay, was given in tithing or taxing, if you want to call it that. In the New Testament, though, everything is voluntary.

So based on the fact that in the New Testament everything is voluntary, I want us this day to look at how and how much we are expected to give to the church. How and how much are we expected to give? That's going to be the focus of today, and hopefully we'll be able to get through it all.

Looking at the time, I don't know, but we'll see. So we're going to look at this in four steps. We're going to look at the amount of our giving. We're going to look at the purpose of our giving. We're going to look at the manner of our giving.

And we're going to look at the motivation for our giving. Four parts. Now, in my book that is currently being edited, The Biblically Functioning Church, which is probably going to take another year worth of editing, I have an entire chapter on giving, and this is the outline of the chapter.

So I'm going to be just giving you some Bible verses today to look up, because I only have a few more weeks and I do want to get on to some other ethical topics. So if I don't spend as much time on each one of these, just know that when the book comes out, you can go back and look at it, and you can look at the Bible verses I'm going to give you.

The Proportion of Giving and the End of Mandatory Tithing

All right, so let's look first at the amount of our giving. The first verse would be 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2. 1 Corinthians 16, 1 and 2, and I'll read these to you. If you want to try to go there, feel free.

It says, Now concerning the collection for the saints, as I directed the churches in Galatia, so you also are to do on the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up as he may prosper, so that there will be no collecting when I come.

See, Paul had made a statement of desire that he wanted to make a collection to use to go to other churches that were in need, and he said, Rather than me coming there and having to do a huge fundraiser, put something aside on the first of every week, and then when I come, I can just take what you have already saved up, rather than having to do a huge fundraiser when I arrive.

It's just prudent. It's just wise. But the key there is, he says, as he may prosper. So the first thing we note is that we are given the command to give proportionately. We give as we receive. That's part of what, you know, as we get money, we are to then be good stewards of it.

If our amount grows, then our amount of giving grows. It's part of what the Bible says. It says, Let the feet no longer steal, but let him work so that as he works, he will have something to share with those in need.

You know, as we prosper, we prosper so that we can share. Another verse to look at would be Acts chapter 11, verses 27 through 30. Acts 11, 27 through 30. It says, Now in these days prophets came down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and one of them, named Agabus, stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world.

This took place in the days of Claudius. So the disciples determined, everyone according to his ability, to send relief to the brothers living in Judea. And they did so, sending it to the elders by the hand of Barnabas and Saul.

So that right there sort of uses similar language. Each one according to his ability. Again, those who gave more were able to give more because they had more. Those who had less were able to give less.

But each one gave according to his ability, or as he prospered. Which again, similar language to the other verse that we looked at. We do not see a minimum standard here, or even a percentile given. It doesn't say each one is to give ten percent.

It says each one is to give as he prospers. Each one is to give according to his ability. And I think that's key, because if the tithing was the standard, I think this would have been one of the places where it would have said, each one of you is to lay aside one-tenth of everything that he has, so that when I get there, I'll have it.

Or each one is to lay aside one-tenth of what he has, so that we'll have enough to send to everybody. Rather than saying that, he uses the prudent measurement of, the way you are blessed is the way you are able to give.

And give as you've been blessed. Again, I think it's simple, but true. Now the most important verse in regards to how much we are to give, in the amount, I think, is 2 Corinthians 9, in verse 7. 2 Corinthians 9, in verse 7.

Most of you are familiar with this verse. Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. That's the principle of the amount. Somebody says, how much should I give to the church?

My first question is, how much do you think you should give to the church? How much is your heart leading you to give to the church? And if somebody says, well, I don't have any desire to give anything to the church, I would then ask, what do you think of the church?

What do you think is the purpose? If we're not led to give anything, that's different than not being led to give anything and not being able. There is a difference there. I'm saying, people who have and just say, I don't have any desire at all to give to God's work, or to do, you see, God's people, their needs met, or anything like that, that's different than somebody who's saying, I just don't have anything, because then I would take them to the widow's mind and say, look, she didn't have anything, but she gave everything that she had to see the Lord's work be done, and she was blessed for it.

So it doesn't matter, even if you can only give a little, that's not a big deal. But again, this verse tells us, each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion.

We are never to give out of compulsion, because such a gift is not really a gift, but it's an act of works. What do I mean by that? Well, I was talking about salvation not being of works, but of grace, right?

Salvation is by grace through faith and not of works. When we give under compulsion, the reason we give under compulsion is we feel like somehow we have to do this, because we somehow have to fulfill this obligation, and we begin looking at faith under the wrong lens, because we begin looking at it under the lens of works.

I've got to fulfill this obligation, I'm compelled to do this, because if I don't, God's going to be upset with me, and He's not going to bless me, or God's going to do something, or God's going to be angry, maybe He won't even save me, because I'm a God robber, I've robbed Him of His 10%, or what, you know, there's all these things.

We're looking at it from the wrong perspective. So I think Paul makes the point, and he stresses it twice, not reluctantly, meaning when I go to put that money in, I don't go, well, I could make change in the offering plate.

That's reluctantly, and not under compulsion. We should not have the motivation that we have to do this, we should want to do this, and if we don't want to do it, don't do it. But ask yourself why you don't want to.

You know, what is it that's keeping you from having such a desire? You know, is it the desire for worldly things? Is it the desire to fill your own barns? You know, these are all questions we have to ask ourselves.

We have to be honest with ourselves, but first and foremost, we shouldn't give under compulsion. One of my favorite stories is Dr. Billy Graham was at a church, and he was preaching at a church, and the offering plate was coming by, and he always sat up on the chancel, and he always put money into the offering plate.

Well, he pulled out his wallet that night, and he opened it, and he only had a dollar and a twenty. And he didn't want to give the whole twenty, so he reached in, grabbed the dollar, and put it in the offering plate.

He closed his wallet, and he got up to preach. Well, anyway, later that night, he pulled his wallet back out, looked in, and all he had was a dollar, because he had accidentally given the twenty. And he sort of hung his head, and his wife said, and looky there, all you're going to get credit for is the dollar.

Yeah. You know, you don't get credit for anything, but his wife was making a point. You didn't really want to give that twenty. You just, you gave it by accident. You know, and you felt bad when you realized you gave it.

You know. But I always thought that, I mean, he tells a story. It's a cute story, and it's probably, probably very, very true, because I imagine that happened to him. But anyway, the point of the matter is, you know, we are not supposed to give reluctantly.

We're supposed to give cheerfully. God loves a cheerful giver. And I want to go a step further and say this. We should not allow, we cannot allow someone to guilt us or manipulate us into giving more.

Because if this is a voluntary gift, and this is a non-compulsory gift, and this is a gift that we're supposed to give without reluctance, then, you know, we should not give out of guilt. And I think that one of the most dangerous things that I have seen in the church is the pastors, particularly my television guys who are on TV, oftentimes they use the manipulation tactics, the tactics of guilt, you know, or the tactics, the worst tactic now is the tactic of the seed promise.

Well, if you give $100, you'll get $1 ,000 because you planted the seed, you know. So it's just another manipulation tactic. So what is the amount that we are to give? Each one is to give as he has decided in his heart.

Well, how much is that? I will tell you. What you give should be in accordance with your amount that you've been blessed with. But I don't know what that is for you. I don't know what that is for anyone.

I know what that is for my wife and I, and I know that we work into our budget, our giving. It is the first line item on our family budget, and I've got to be honest with you. We don't always make the family budget.

We don't always balance the family books, but that's first. And I'm not saying that to build up myself or to ask you to look at me as an example. I'm just saying that is our method for assuring that we are faithful to the church, that that is an amount that we have set and we give it as the first thing that we give.

And those people that taught me to do that are simply people that are older than me in the faith and who went before me, and they did those kind of things, and they gave me the example, and I learned from them.

Patsy Hoffman tells a story of how when she was a child, her and her brother, they were taught even with their allowance, which was, I think she said, like $0 .25, $0 .50, where back then you could do a lot more than you can now with $0 .50, but they gave a nickel.

If they had $0 .50, they would give a nickel. And again, are we commanded to tithe? No, but they were being taught a principle from a very young age, the principle of giving to the church and the principle of giving first when you receive.

I think that is an important principle, but I'm not going to tell you how much to give because the New Testament does not have a commanded amount. So I would simply say, give as you are prospered. And ask yourself, if you're not giving, why?

You are prospered. Let's say that somebody has not much money and they have to pay the electric and phone and things like that, and then they usually don't have money for food. Is what they make what they're prospering?

Or, do you understand what I'm saying? I sort of understand what you're saying.

Maybe I'm not being as clear when I say as you prosper. As we receive, we are stewards of it, and we have to be stewards of what we get. I guess I'm just saying, as we receive money, we have to be diligent and good stewards of what we receive.

And as we receive it, we're prospering. We're getting something more than what we have at this point. And that is when we have to make a decision what we're going to do with what we've received. When that paycheck comes to my hand, I've got to look at what I have and what I'm going to do with it.

And I'm not going to tell somebody they can't pay their bills or whatever that they have to be giving to the church. But I have found over the years that as people are faithful with their stewardship to the Lord, that it seems as if God, and obviously the promises are there in Scripture, that he is faithful to us and that he is, you know, we'll see to it that our needs are met.

I've never met a person who is giving diligently of what they have, you know, first to the Lord. Not necessarily 10 percent, but we're speaking at the gift. That were at the same time they were giving to the Lord and they were being diligent about it, but we're at the same time, you know, having to give up paying something else.

You know, it may be that we give up trips to McDonald's or something. No, I'm not saying, and again, I don't know your situation or whoever else you may be thinking about. I'm just saying sometimes there is sacrifice to give.

But we do have, we have responsibilities outside the church. We have responsibilities to our family, we have responsibilities to our debtors, you know, or our debtors. No, we're the debtors. Our creditors.

Yeah, we do have responsibilities. And obviously we should not forgo those simply to put more on the offering plate.

So, in other words, somebody could get like five or ten dollars from their heart.

Oh, sure, sure, absolutely. I would rather see somebody get five or ten dollars from their heart than to try to meet an arbitrary percentage because they feel obligated to. I think the percentage, arbitrary percentage of ten percent has created confusion with some people because some people could give a lot more than ten percent and still be, you know, true of Kathy, the owner of Chick-fil-A.

He has, since his young days, given like 40, 50 percent of his income. You know, and that's ridiculous for me to ask somebody who's making a hundred dollars a week and give 50 of it. I mean, you know, seriously.

What would you tell a new believer, though, because if you say to go by what's in your heart, their hearts have not been trained in the Word, let's say. Absolutely. And so I know with us, there came a point where we decided that, and we hadn't heard a lot of preaching on tithing, but we decided that that was it.

And it's just, you know, I can just picture someone, you know, because our hearts are wicked, and we can't really reach down in our hearts, you know what I mean?

I always use ten percent as an example, and as I said, we practice that in our house. I am just very careful, and maybe too careful, but I'm very careful when I'm teaching on it to not make that the only standard, that this is the standard.

I tell people, people ask me, how much should I give to the church? I say, if you can begin with ten percent of your income, and again, I've never seen anybody that did that, that they weren't able to do that.

Now, somebody may break the rule this week, and they totally throw me out of the wall. I'm just saying, at this point, I haven't had that happen. And I would tell them, I would say, if you can give ten percent of your income to the church, I think that is a great starting point, and it's good discipline to make that the way you do.

But if you can only start with five percent, or if you can only start with seven percent, but I'm going to say this, as you prosper in your job, and as you prosper in your life, and as you grow as a, you know, you go from being employee to employer to manager, you know, whatever.

As you prosper, don't stay with the seven percent, don't stay with the five percent, you know what I'm saying? Look at how God has blessed you, and then, you know, see if you have more to be able to give.

But I use ten percent as an example. As I said last week, it was, the ten percent was there before the law, because Abraham gave ten percent to Melchizedek, and that was before the law ever came. So there's always been sort of this standard measurement that one in ten, the first tenth is the best, and that belongs to God.

So I don't have a problem telling people that, especially when somebody comes to me and they don't know what to do. But I also, I'm very quick to say that if you are doing this because you feel compelled to meet an arbitrary percentage, don't do that.

If you think, you know, I think it's wise, I think it's prudent, but it's not required for your entrance to heaven. Again, that goes back to the issue of works. And I think so many times we, especially new believers, they begin to see all these things with fresh eyes, and the scary thing for them sometimes is, well, what do I got to do to now live up to what I've received?

You don't, because you can't. You can't live up to what you've received. And just being honest with them about that. But I do start with the tithe. I think ten percent is prudent, just not required. All right, let's move from amount and let's go to the purpose of our giving.

Meeting the Needs of the Brethren, the Poor, and Christian Workers

The purpose of our giving. While there is great freedom in the New Testament concept of giving, what we also need to understand is that generous giving is essential because of the reasons why we give.

There are essentially three reasons why the scripture commands us to give. Number one is to meet the needs of the brethren. 1 John 3, 17 and 18 says, But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God's love abide in him?

Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. And you know, James says something very similar. James says, if you see someone and you know that they're hungry and you say, Go and be filled.

That's no good. You fill them. You feed them. You know, we don't just tell somebody, hey, I'm praying for you. If they if you know they're hurting or, you know, they're hungry, you know, your prayers ought to be works in that regard.

And that's why James makes that connection between works and faith. Faith is, you know, works or faith realized works or faith on display. So we ought to be doing that. And I think John makes a very parallel passage here.

We shouldn't love in word or talk, but in deed and in truth. What a beautiful thought. You know, we love indeed. A few years ago, rock Christian rock group came out with a song and the song was called Love is a Verb.

And the idea is true. Love is what we do. Love is action. So we ought to be doing those things. So we give to meet the needs of the brothers. Another good verse for that is Galatians 6, 9 and 10. Let us not grow weary of doing good for in due season.

We will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone and especially those who are of the household of faith. Our first responsibility is to one another, even before outside of the church.

People come to our church all the time, destitute and hungry. And every one of them that comes here says this, I love Jesus. My response is, why are you not in church? And I will tell them we have no one in this church who is going hungry because I wouldn't allow.

I said, if you were in a church, maybe you would be in the same situation. Now, I'm not chastising these people. I'm just trying to make the point that the community of the church is first and foremost to care for one another.

Jesus said, they will know you are my disciples if you love one another. And our first act of love towards one another is I'm not going to see you go without. I'll go sell something if it means you having something.

Not a new Cadillac, but if you're going hungry, buy a Thunder, you're going to eat at my house tonight. And that's the way we're supposed to do for each other. You know, I think that's that's the point.

If we first we collect so that no one goes without, we don't live communally, but we do live in love and concern for one another. I love Acts 434. There was not a needy person among them for as many as were owners of lands or houses, sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold.

Again, are we commanded to sell everything that we have? Not necessarily, but we are commanded to see that none of us goes without. Now, we can't we can't support everybody in the world. We can't even support everyone in this community, but we can see to it that we support one another with what we need.

And then we reach out past that. But we first seek to support the church. So we meet the needs of the brethren. That's number one. The second thing is we meet the needs of the poor. The church is called to be a philanthropic institution.

Love you. That word philanthropic is lover of people, lover of man. We're called to love people, to seek to love and meet the needs of people and display the love of Christ. Again, I point to Ephesians 4, 28.

It says, let the thief no longer steal, but let him labor doing honest work with his own hands so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Why do we labor? Not to amass for ourselves, not to build our own barns, but so that we might share with those in need.

All right. So we meet the needs of the brethren. We meet the needs of the poor. Another purpose for giving to meet the needs of Christian workers. First Timothy 5, 17 and 18. Let the elders who rule well be considered worthy of double honor, especially those who labor in preaching and teaching.

I've heard a lot of people say, well, pastors don't work. They only work twice a week and all they do is get up and talk for 30 minutes. Well, the Bible calls it labor. So I'm going to call it labor. Preaching and teaching is work.

And there is labor involved. And it goes on to say, verse 18 for the scripture says, you shall not muscle an ox when it treads out the grain and the labor deserves its wages. Obviously, the ministers of the gospel are to be are to make their living through the gospel, not by ill gain.

But we are. You know, I have a lot of people who say, you know, because I do have a second job. I work as a substitute teacher. And a lot of the kids will say, Miss Foskey, is this what you do for a living?

And I say, well, no, I, I, I work at this school so that my wife doesn't have to work. I have a second job so that she can be home with the kids. And they'll say, well, what do you do? What's your main job?

And I'll say, well, I'm a pastor of a church. And they'll say, pastors get paid. Pastors get paid to do that. Well, not all of them. And I'm quick to point that out that some churches, some churches don't have means to pay a pastor full time.

They are only able to pay a pastor part time. Some are not even able to do that because they're so small that they just have the ability to meet the burden of their building and whatever else they have.

So I feel very blessed to be in a church that is able to support me and support my family and that I get to devote the majority of my time towards the ministry here at the church. That's a wonderful thing and a blessing to be able to do that because I know so many men don't have that blessing.

And again, I appreciate God doing that in my life. But again, it's not something that I feel bad about. Some people you ever feel bad about taking a check from the church. No, I don't, because this is what God has called me to do.

And the passage here says this is if I labor in this, this is where I'm supposed to be paying. That's fine. I don't have a problem with that. Again, I have a problem with guys who, what's the word, fleece the flock.

You know, the thieves that take to the pulpit for ill-gotten gain. But that's not the same as receiving a wage for the ministry. I know I've been mentioning Billy Graham a lot today. I don't know why.

I just have to be able to remind, I guess. He had a standard rule in the BGA, the Graham Evangelistic Association, that he was kept by the board from making over a certain amount over all those years.

His rule was he would never take a larger paycheck than was the standard paycheck for a pastor of a large church. And I don't know how they made that arbitrary, what's a large church. Because, you know, 30 years ago, 500 people was a large church.

Now it's 5 ,000 people, you know, depending. But still, he had a group of men on a board that was responsible for ensuring that he would not become so consumed. Because the BGA, the Billy Graham Evangelists, you know, you're talking about a ton of money that they receive in gifts.

And it would be very easy for him to become, you know, to become fascinated with how much he could spend. Now Billy Graham's not hurting for anything, don't get me wrong. But at the same time, there was diligence early on, knowing, you know, how sinful we can be.

You know, I don't set my pay at this church. My pay is determined by the executive committee, which is made up of our elders and a few other people who are in responsible positions, trustees and elders.

And they give it to the congregation to approve. And I say thank you, that's it. But again, I want to mention one other thing, and this is going to have to be the end, we'll have to do the last part next week.

And I'm sorry, I don't mean to keep stretching this out, I just, I go and go and I can't help it. Y 'all want me to finish today in like five minutes or you want me to wait next week? The last thing I want to mention on purpose, because we said meet the needs of the brethren, meet the needs of the poor, meet the needs of Christian workers.

I know what my mind thought, because I was looking through the Bible, what I was looking for, what does the Bible say we give to do? And that was the three things that I found. And the thing that caught my attention was nowhere does it say that we give to meet the needs of the church building.

But under the economics of the early church, there was no such thing as a church building. The economics of the early church was the church met in homes. There was not a building, a facility. So I've had people say, well, does that mean we should not necessarily have a facility?