Questions to God about my giving

1. With the financial assets and opportunities you've entrusted to me, have you raised me up for just a time as this?

2. Each financial blessing you entrust to me - is it not intended to raise my standard of living but to raise my standard of giving?


3. Do you want me to adopt a "use it or lose it" approach to my current opportunities for eternal investment?

4. If I don't give now, am I in danger of my heart getting further wrapped up in earthly treasure, rather than heavenly treasure?

5. Because you called the rich young ruler to give away all that he had and follow You, is it possible you might call me to do the same?

6. What simple reminder of Your call to stewardship and giving can I make for myself?

Paul and David give insights as to how well are you giving

Paul suggests that we are to examine and test ourselves.

Examine yourselves to see whether you are living in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not realise that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless, indeed, you fail to meet the test! - 2 Corinthians 13:5

 David prayed that God would search his heart and try him, then show him anything he needed to repent of and change.

 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
    test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked^[a] way in me,
    and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalm 139:23-24

Teaching the poor to give

2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 9 are the longest passages on giving in the Bible and it starts by focusing on the Macedonians who lived in extreme poverty, yet who gave simply according to their means but they did give beyond their ability. 

God blesses giving and when we hang on to what is His, it's never in our best interest - the poor are not hurt by giving, they are helped by giving.

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in my house, and thus put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts; see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing. - Malachi 3:10

Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap; for the measure you give will be the measure you get back.  Luke 6:38

If we do not teach people about giving, we deprive them of what God would have provided if they had learned to become givers.

NT Guidelines: Give Quietly

Beware of practising your piety before others in order to be seen by them; for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven. - Matthew 6:1

The illustrations that follow include prayer and fasting, but begin with giving.

 So that your alms may be done in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you. - Matthew 6:4

Sometimes our acts of righteousness will be seen by people and even should be, such as our acts of love. Earlier in the same sermon where He says we're not to give in order to be seen by people, Christ commands us --

 In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven. - Matthew 5:16

Jesus tells us to pray in secret, and God will reward us for that.  Yet gathering for group prayer is certainly important.  God wants us to pray secretly sometimes but not others.

If leaders know how much people give, they'll be tempted to show preference to big givers and neglect those who give less and its this very trap we are warned against --

  My brothers and sisters,^[a] do you with your acts of favoritism really believe in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ?^{[b] 2} For if a person with gold rings and in fine clothes comes into your assembly, and if a poor person in dirty clothes also comes in, ³ and if you take notice of the one wearing the fine clothes and say, “Have a seat here, please,” while to the one who is poor you say, “Stand there,” or, “Sit at my feet,”^{[c] 4} have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts? ⁵ Listen, my beloved brothers and sisters.^[d] Has not God chosen the poor in the world to be rich in faith and to be heirs of the kingdom that he has promised to those who love him? - James 2:1-5

It also puts leaders in a position to judge others with incomplete knowledge.

For misrepresenting their giving, God struck Ananias and Sapphira dead - keep in mind that they were generous donors.

There is encouragement in those who follow Jesus seeing God at work in the giving of others who follow Jesus.  I have been encouraged and stimulated to give as I've heard the giving of others.

NT Guidelines: Give worshippfully

Cornelius is a great example from the Book of Acts who gave generously, but he also is noted that he worshipped God through giving.

The Macedonians would be another example from the Book of 2 Corinthians that Paul uses when taking about what sacrificial giving looks like.  Giving should be directed towards God before anyone else. The climax of the worship is "thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!"

Grace and gratitude belong
together like heaven and earth.
Grace evokes gratitude like the voice of an echo.
Gratitude follows grace like thunder lightning

We are speaking of the
grace of God who is God for man, and of the gratitude of man as his
response to this grace
....
The two belong together, so that only gratitude can
correspond to grace, and this correspondence cannot fail.
Karl Barth, Church Dogmatics , IV.1

Remember when Jesus reminded us that in the process of giving a gift we remember someone we needed to be reconciled with?  That is worship through giving.  Christian giving is not just something I do on my own.

NT Guidelines: Give cheerfully

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2 Corinthians 9:7

God delights in the one who takes delight in giving.

All the leaders and all the people rejoiced and brought their tax and dropped it into the chest until it was full. - 2 Chronicles 24:10

This is a great testimony of a time when Joash was king and the temple was in need of repair.  Whenever the chest was filled they would empty it, return it, and soon it would be full again.

There is an ebb and flow when it comes to giving.  As one part of the body of Christ has a need and receive help, that same part, one day, will be able to supply and give to another who has need --

Your present abundance and their need, so that their abundance may be for your need, in order that there may be a fair balance. - 2 Corinthians 8:14

In all this I have given you an example that by such work we must support the weak, remembering the words of the Lord Jesus, for he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’” - Acts 20:35

Why would Jesus say this?  Maybe because blessing usually affects three people while giving only blesses one. The three are the giver, the recipient and God.

If we find ourselves not being cheerful while giving, the problem will be found in our heart and the solution is in redirecting our heart, not withholding our giving. Our heart follows our treasures --

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:21

Put your treasures in God's Kingdom and a cheerful heart will eventually follow.




Guidelines for Giving

God's Guidelines for Giving

The New Testament Standard of Giving

The New Testament Pattern of “Giving”

Ten Principles of Christian Giving

Giving God's Way

NT Guidelines: Give Excellently

Now as you excel in everything—in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in utmost eagerness, and in our love for you[a]—so we want you to excel also in this generous undertaking.[b] - 2 Corinthians 8:7

Like piano playing, giving is a skill.

And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds - Hebrew 10:24

Shouldn't we be asking how can we spur on each others giving?





Is my money mine?

NT Guidelines: Give sacrificially

Paul describes the Macedonians using this description --

... for during a severe ordeal of affliction, their abundant joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For, as I can testify, they voluntarily gave according to their means, and even beyond their means - 2 Corinthians 8:2-3

 King David said these words --

“No, but I will buy them from you for a price; I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing.” - 2 Samuel 24:24

Sacrificial giving is parting with what we'd rather keep.








A Program To Encourage Sacrificial Giving

What does the New Testament say about giving?

Giving God’s Way

Biblical Perspective on Giving – Giving Cheerfully and Sacrificially

Eleven Giving Guidelines to Fight the Pull of Materialism

NT Guidelines: Give voluntarily

When Moses was tasked to lead the building of the tabernacle, the recorded attitude among the people who came to give involved a moved heart that came to give freely and willingly.  Likewise, for the special offering to the needy saints, Paul said --

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2 Corinthians 9:7

We might today be more inclined to give when we feel like it and unfortunately 4 out of 10 churchgoers have never felt like it.  In contrast the Macedonian believers --

begging us earnestly for the privilege[a] of sharing in this ministry to the saints - 2 Corinthians 8:4

When we catch a vision of God's grace, we will give voluntarily - beyond our duty.





Guidelines for Giving

Old Testament Tithing vs. New Testament Giving

NT Guidelines: Give regularly

It's this hit and miss approach to giving that the NT wants to avoid --

On the first day of every week, each of you is to put aside and save whatever extra you earn, so that collections need not be taken when I come. - 1 Corinthians 16:2

So we are not spending what we should have been giving.

Stewardship is not a once-a-year consideration, but a week-to-week or month-to-month commitment requiring discipline and consistency.  When the church wants to get involved in a worthy need-meeting project --

...now finish doing it, so that your eagerness may be matched by completing it according to your means. - 2 Corinthians 8:11

The New Testament Pattern of “Giving”

God's Guidelines for Giving

Giving God’s Way

The New Testament Church—Its Finances

Ten Principles of Christian Giving

NT Guidelines: Give generously

When a grateful woman anointed Jesus with a costly ointment, some observers rebuked her.

But Jesus said, “Let her alone; why do you trouble her? She has performed a good service for me. - Mark 14:6

 Some people may consider generous giving as fanatical, but Jesus called it love.  In fact, He was so moved by the woman's giving that He vowed --

"Truly I tell you, wherever the good news[a] is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will be told in remembrance of her.” - Mark 14:9

Those who are more calculating usually give less.




Guidelines for Giving
The New Testament Standard of Giving

God's Guidelines for Giving

Giving God’s Way

Biblical Guidelines for Giving

Guidelines on Giving

Tithing in the Bible - Is Tithing for the New Testament Believer?

The New Testament Pattern of “Giving”

 

Ten Principles of Christian Giving

NT guidelines: Give

In the New Testament, there are no exceptions - the expectations are that all will give, even though our amounts will be different.

Each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. - 2 Corinthians 9:7

 It is a sad statistic that four out of ten people attending church give nothing, and another two or three out of ten give next to nothing.




Guidelines for Giving

Tithing and Systematic Proportionate Giving

“The Jews were constrained to a regular payment of tithes; Christians, who have received liberty, assign all their possessions to the Lord, bestowing freely not the lesser portions of their property, since they have the hope of greater things; as that poor widow acted who cast all her living into the treasury of God.” Irenaeus of Lyons (130-202) in Against Heresies 

A few hundred years later, Augustine indicated that tithing was still practised --

“Tithes are required as a matter of debt, and he who has been unwilling to give them has been guilty of robbery. Whosoever, therefore, desires to secure a reward for himself . . . let him render tithes, and out of the nine parts let him seek to give alms.”

Note the clear distinction between the mandatory tithe and the voluntary offering of almsgiving.  Alms were to be given -- above and beyond the tithe.

Jerome said --

 “If anyone shall not do this [pay tithes] he is convicted of defrauding and supplanting God.”

Like Augustine, Jerome believed and taught that it is possible for New Testament Christians to “rob God” by withholding the tithe, just as it was for Old Testament believers. For the first four hundred years, the Church often, if not normally, considered the practise of tithing a minimum standard for giving.

And all the tithe (tenth part) of the land, whether the seed of the land or the fruit of the tree, is the Lord’s; it is holy to the Lord. - Leviticus 27:30

“Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, ‘In what way have we robbed You?’ In tithes and offerings [you have withheld].9 You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, this whole nation! 10 Bring all the tithes (the tenth) into the [a]storehouse, so that there may be [b]food in My house, and test Me now in this,” says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you [so great] a blessing until there is no more room to receive it. - Malachi 3:8-10

There were three tithes for Israelites.  One tithe supported the the priests and Levites, another provided for a sacred festival and the third tithe supported orphans, widows and the poor.

The practise of tithing began long before the law of Moses.  Abraham tithed to he high priest Melchizedek.  Jacob promised a tithe to the Lord.

Honor the Lord with your wealth
And with the first fruits of all your crops (income) - Proverbs 3:9

Reconstructing a Biblical Model of Giving: a Discussion of Relevant Systematic Issues and New Testament Principles

A BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF TITHING: TOWARD A THEOLOGY OF GIVING IN THE NEW COVENANT ERA

Understanding the Grace of Giving

THE TITHE IN SCRIPTURE

Christian Proportionate Giving

Proportionate Giving

7 Biblical Guidelines for Giving to God

Should Christians Tithe?

Money is spiritual

A steward is someone entrusted with another person's wealth or property and charged with responsibility of managing it in the owner's best interest. - Ben Patterson

A steward is entrusted with sufficient resources and the authority to carry out their designated responsibilities.

As a fundraiser I have come up with my own definition of what stewardship is - stewardship is the conscientious management of things that really matter.

God delegated to us authority over all His creation.

You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen,
And also the beasts of the field - Psalm 8:6-7

God expects us to use all the resources He gives us to best carry out our responsibilities.  A steward's  primary goal is to be found faithful by their master as the stewards uses the master's resources to accomplish the tasks delegated to them.

Our use of money and possessions is only one aspect of stewardship.  The tabernacle was built by people giving their time, energy, skills, money and possessions.  How we view and handle our money will correspond with how we view and handle our time, talents, family, church, vocation and every facet of life.

Eleven of the thirty-nine parables of Jesus deal with finances and money directly --  

• investment
• indebtedness
• hiring procedures and wage structures
• leasing
• capital, investments, banking, and interest
• money lenders, interest and debt cancellation
• storing up
• architectural planning, building construction and cost analysis
• finding lost money
• wealth, estate planning, spending
• financial management and debt reduction
• wealth and poverty
• giving and greed
• harvest

The parables normally have one central point that should not be obscured by uncertainties about secondary issues - the steward is praised for their shrewdness in using their master's money to invest in His relationships with people.

There will be a day when we will be terminated from this life, a day in which we shall give an account for our stewardship.  Consequently, we should use wisely what little remaining time and influence we have before our term of stewardship is done.

Jesus doesn't tell us to stay away from the mammon of unrighteousness or "worldly wealth," but to use it strategically.

And I tell you [learn from this], make friends for yourselves [for eternity] by means of the [a]wealth of unrighteousness [that is, use material resources as a way to further the work of God], so that when it runs out, they will welcome you into the eternal dwellings. - Luke 16:9

Money can be a tool for Christ.

“He who is faithful in a very little thing is also faithful in much; and he who is dishonest in a very little thing is also dishonest in much." - Luke 16:10

We are continually tested in little things.

God pays a great deal of attention to the "little things." He numbers the hairs on our head, cares for the lilies of the field and is concerned with the fall of a single sparrow.  What we do with the little time, a little talent, and a little money tells God a lot.

Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of earthly wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? - Luke 16:11

What are true riches?

Having been faithful in handling our resources in this life, we are granted leadership of others in the next.

And if you have not been faithful in the use of that [earthly wealth]which belongs to another [whether God or man, and of which you are a trustee], who will give you that which is your own? - Luke 16:12

 

Prosperity: Why?

In the context of financial giving --

And God will generously provide all you need. Then you will always have everything you need and plenty left over to share with others.         2 Corinthians 9:8

For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. - 2 Corinthians 9:10

Why?

We don't have to wonder --

Yes, you will be enriched in every way so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. - 2 Corinthians 9:11

Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. - 2 Corinthians 8:13-14 

God wants us to be the conduit through which He meets the needs of others for whom He cared enough to die.

“God is not glorified when we keep for ourselves (no matter how thankfully) what we ought to be using to alleviate the misery of unevangelized, uneducated, unmedicated, and unfed millions. The evidence that many professing Christians have been deceived by this doctrine is how little they give and how much they own. God has prospered them. And by an almost irresistible law of consumer culture (baptized by a doctrine of health, wealth, and prosperity) they have bought bigger (and more) houses, newer (and more) cars, fancier (and more) clothes, better (and more) meat, and all manner of trinkets and gadgets and containers and devices and equipment to make life more fun. They will object: Does not the Old Testament promise that God will prosper his people? Indeed! God increases our yield, so that by giving we can prove our yield is not our god. God does not prosper a man's business so that he can move from a Ford to a Cadillac. God prospers a business so that 17,000 unreached people can be reached with the gospel. He prospers the business so that 12 percent of the world's population can move a step back from the precipice of starvation.” ― John Piper, Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist

 It constitutes a lost opportunity to give to what could count for eternity.  Remember this verse --

“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets. - Matthew 7:12

If you and your children were hungry, what would you want prosperous Christians to do for you?

How different John Wesley sounded than today's prosperity preachers --

“Do you not know that God entrusted you with that money (all above what buys necessities for your families) to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to help the stranger, the widow, the fatherless; and, indeed, as far as it will go, to relieve the wants of all mankind? How can you, how dare you, defraud the Lord, by applying it to any other purpose?”

Materialism: Leaders

 A number of Christian organisations have been called to account for their financial improprieties and unreported or exaggerated revenues.  These infractions are particularly disturbing when one considers that God's first disciplinary act in Church history was striking dead Ananias and Sapphira for deliberating misrepresenting their financial transactions.  Although we should be thankful that God is not striking dead large segments of His Church today, we should not be lulled into thinking He's lowered His standards of financial integrity.

11 Giving Guidelines to Fight the Pull of Materialism

Materialism, Heresy Plague Churches

Christian Business Leaders and Materialism

Even Pastors Can Be Sidetracked by Materialism