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.

Two treasuries

“Knowing the tendency of the human heart to become unduly attached to earthly goods, Christ warned against it. The "things" which the Father gives are to be understood as provisional merely and must never be considered our real treasure. The heart always returns to its real treasure, and if a man holds corn to be a real form of wealth his heart will be where his corn is. 

Many a man has his heart locked up in a bank vault, and many a woman has her heart in her jewel box or stored at the furrier's. It is a great moral tragedy when anything as wonderful as the human heart comes to rest on the earth and fails to rise to its own proper place in God and in heaven.

Treasure, incidentally, may be discovered by this fourfold test: (1) It is what we value most. (2) It is what we would hate most to lose. (3) It is what our thoughts turn to most frequently when we are free to think of what we will. (4) It is what affords us the greatest pleasure.”

A.W. Tozer (1897-1963), excerpt from “The Transmutation of Wealth” in Born After Midnight (Harrisburg: Christian Publications, 1959).

When money and possessions are spent on heavenly treasure, the equation changes radically. The investment takes on eternal value. This because God, His Word, and people are eternal, what will last is what is used wisely for God, His Word and His people.

Christ's primary argument against amassing material wealth isn't that it's morally wrong, but simply that it's a poor investment. Even if they escape moths and rust and thieves, they cannot escape the coming fire of God that will consume the material world.

"I value all things only by the price they shall gain in eternity."
John Wesley 

“I place no value on anything I have or may possess, except in relation to the kingdom of God. If anything will advance the interests of the kingdom, it shall be given away or kept, only as by giving or keeping it I shall most promote the glory of Him to whom I owe all my hopes in time or eternity.” - David Livingston

"He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose." - Jim Elliot

 Jesus vividly described what it's like when we discover true wealth --

“The kingdom of heaven is like a [very precious] treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and hid again; then in his joy he goes and sells all he has and buys that field [securing the treasure for himself]." Matthew 13:44

Note that the central focus is accumulation of heavenly treasures, not the renunciation of earthly treasures in Matthew 6:19-24.

"As he came naked from his mother’s womb, so he will return as he came; and he will take away nothing from all his labor that he can carry in his hand." - Ecclesiastes 5:15

Be not afraid when [an ungodly] man becomes rich,When the wealth and glory of his house are increased;
For when he dies he will carry nothing away;
His glory will not descend after him.
Though while he lives he counts himself happy and prosperous—
And though people praise you when you do well for yourself—
He shall go to the generation of his fathers;
They shall never again see the light.
A man [who is held] in honor,
Yet who lacks [spiritual] understanding and a teachable heart, is like the beasts that perish. - Psalm 49:16-20

Paul spoke about the Philippian church's financial giving --

Not that I seek the gift itself, but I do seek the profit which increases to your [heavenly] account [the blessing which is accumulating for you]. Philippians 4:17

God keeps an account open for us in heaven and every gift given for His glory is a deposit in that account.





The Two Treasuries

Is materialism simply wrong?

Jesus once asked His profit-conscious audience --

What do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? - Matthew 16:26

The parable of the rich fool portrays a man who thought of himself as a successful businessman.  The essence of foolishness is that we either don't recognise the truth or we choose to ignore it.

He acted irrationally, as if he could escape death or delay it indefinitely.  He neglected to number his days and therefore failed to gain a heart of wisdom.

Scripture describes our lives like this --

... people are like the grass.
Their beauty fades as quickly
as the flowers in a field. - Isaiah 40:6

But their fame will not last. They will die, just like animals. - Psalm 49:12

We are merely moving shadows, and all our busy rushing ends in nothing.
We heap up wealth,
not knowing who will spend it. - Psalm 39:6

 “All men think all men are mortal but themselves,” wrote the seventeenth-century English poet Edward Young.

Why was the rich fool a fool?

“Yes, a person is a fool to store up earthly wealth but not have a rich relationship with God.” Luke 12:21

That is, he did not handle money in a God-centred way.

The rich fool was too busy being successful to care  about this piece of advice --

We all come to the end of our lives as naked and empty-handed as on the day we were born. We can’t take our riches with us. - Ecclesiastes 5:15

Man is born with his hands clenched; he dies with his hands wide open. Entering life he desires to grasp everything; leaving the world, all that he possessed has slipped away.  Talmud

After John D. Rockefeller died his accountant was asked "how much did he leave behind?" The accountant replied "all of it."

"You never see a U-Haul behind a hearse, Ryder.
The Egyptians tried it. It doesn't work.
You can't take the money with you."

We worship materialism at our peril

C.S. Lewis and Materialism

Critiques of Materialism