WHAT TO DO IN TROUBLED ECONOMIC TIMES PART 3: STRAIGHT A’S IN GIVING

WHAT TO DO IN TROUBLED ECONOMIC TIMES PART 3: STRAIGHT A’S IN GIVING   Luke 21:1-4 March 8, 2009 Given by: Pastor Rich Bersett [Index of Past Messages] Introduction Message #3 in the series “What to do in Troubled Economic Times.” We won’t worry here and now about what the nation should do, but we’ll attempt to emphasize what God’s will is for us, His people during trying times. Our answer has been clear the past two weeks, and will remain clear this week: Christians do what they do in better times, and even worse times—they pray, they serve and they give, sacrificially, consistently and cheerfully. As he looked up, Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “I tell you the truth,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.” Authority Just days before Jesus had made a scene in this very courtyard, angered by the moneychangers who had turned the temple of the Lord, intended by God to be a house of prayer for all nations, into a flea market. His complaint was that they were bartering and ripping off poorer people who had just come to worship. So He upended the tables and engaged in some heated rebuke. Now, back at the same courtyard, He watches another economic event. But there is no rebuke, no condemnation, no jealousy for God’s house. Along the walls of the temple court are 13 large, trumpet-shaped offering receptacles. Into the flared end of these containers worshipers dropped their monetary gifts to the Lord. And it was okay by Jesus. What was the difference? 1) Pay the bills There is a legitimate place for offerings in the house of the Lord. The bills have to be paid. The temple upkeep was not free and someone has to pay for the expenses, like priests’ salaries, maintenance and upkeep, program expenses and so forth. God had from the earliest days given authority to the temple, and the church, for the receiving of offerings from His people for all these costs to be covered. 2) Honor God But it wasn’t just the paying of the bills God was concerned about. The free will gifts of His people were also to be a means of their worship and devotion to Him. Tithes and offerings, both in monetary form and in-kind gifts of grain and livestock, were received by God’s design, and those donations were to be considered as acts of worship to God. Those who love and serve God are not only encouraged to give, but expected to demonstrate their faith and trust in God by giving offerings. These worship tokens are, by design used to pay the bills as well. That pattern continued into the church age as well. God’s clear intent was that what the church needed for its existence and ministries were to be underwritten by the love gifts of the Christians. From salaries to stationery, power bills to promotional literature, Sunday school books to sanctuary furniture—it is all to be funded by the offerings of God’s people. 3) Meet needs And, of course, because the church is called to outreach and servant ministry to the community through evangelism and practical helps for people, collections are also used for meeting needs, within and without the church family, and in that order. God has not chosen to fund His church through divine bailouts or taxes. We don’t charge admission or sell programs and refreshments when people attend. God’s explicit plan and intent is that His people will honor Him through their giving, and that those finances would pay the bills, support the ministry, maintain the facilities and feed the poor and the pastor (the poor pastor!). I would add that it doesn’t appear that any form of manipulation or pressure by church leadership is appropriate for the purpose of bleeding the congregation for more funds. It is to God’s glory that freewill offerings, as gestures of love, thanksgiving and worship, are given through the church as a testimony of His grace at work in the hearts of the believers. So Jesus sat opposite the temple treasury watching the perfectly normal and legitimate operation of God’s house--the people of God coming with their gifts, donating them to the work of the Lord at the temple and through the temple’s ministry. And Jesus watched. Dr. John Broadus, among the greatest preachers in 18th century America, on one memorable Sunday as the ushers were about the offering, left the platform and walked down to where the ushers were beginning to take the collection and went along with them and looked on as every dime, nickel and dollar went into the plate. You may well imagine that some of the people were upset, even angry. Some were confused, some shamefaced, others filled with amazement. All were evidently surprised. When the collection was over, Dr. Broadus said, “My people, if you take to heart that I have seen your offerings this day and know just what sacrifices you have made and what sacrifices you have not made, remember that the Son of God your Savior, goes about the aisles with every usher and sees with his sleepless eye every cent put into the collection by His people.” He then reminded them of this truth by reading them the story of the “widow’s mite.” The church has bills to pay, but more importantly, we have a God to be worshiped. With our free will offerings we pay the bills that are generated in the ministry of this church, and with our free will offerings we worship God who made all things and has lovingly provided everything we need and more. It is right that we all should take our place in line with the rich folks and the poor widows, and all the others who are saved by His grace, and give our best offering as our act of worship and service. It is, after all, under God’s authority this whole operation of giving occurs. Attitude Sit down with Jesus for a few minutes longer, and together let’s notice some additional details about the scene in front of us. The one thing He tells us, and the disciples nearby, that He wants us to notice is this woman. With penetrating insight the man of perfect faith peers into the life, the purse and the heart of this woman whose husband is long since dead leaving her to live out her days in poverty. Notice as we hear Jesus describing admirable giving through the example of this dear woman. 1) Worship Here we learn a couple things about the attitude of giving that pleases God. We are called to the kind of attitude the widow carried into the offering encounter. Jesus put her above all the rest, referencing not so much the quantity of her gift, but the quality of her heart. She engaged in true worship as she gave. Unlike the religious folks all around her, she didn’t come to parade her piety or to gloat over her giving. When the coins were drop into these long-necked receptacles, they made a clattering sound that everyone could hear. The rich loved to throw their handfuls of coins in hard against the side of the metal containers—more rattle more prestige. Poor people got barely a tinkle and no respect from others. If giving in your church were very public like this, and you had only two pennies to give, would you even show up? As she dropped in her two last coins—the two lepta left to her name, Jesus clarifies—her attitude of worship transformed her small contribution into the greatest gift given at the temple that day. What if an angel had come to her as she arrived at the court yard and said, “God is going to take special note of your sacrifice today, and is going to applaud your faith, and, guess what! You will become famous for millennia in the future. If you would be as pleasing to the Lord in your giving as was this precious woman, make sure that your sacrificial gift to God means more to you than the opinion of others. 2) Faith But it wasn’t only her attitude of worship that so impressed Jesus, it was her faith. Jesus loved to celebrate the faith of people who in most people’s opinions did not even have faith. Of a Roman centurion He said, “I have not found such great faith in all of Israel!” (Luke 7:9) And He is ecstatic over this woman’s trust in God. He clarified to the apostles that she had just dropped into the throat of that offertory all she had to live on! Two lepta—a tenth of a cent—not enough to clang on the way down, but enough to get the attention of the God of the universe. Faith in giving means exactly this: giving of your substance, not your spare, with the result that you must trust God for your next meal. She knew more deeply than any of us here today, I imagine, what it really means to seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and to trust that all you need will be added to you. (Mathew 6:33) You see, the amount means very little to God. Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a dream. She told her superiors, “I have three pennies and a dream from God to build an orphanage.” They chided her gently, “you cannot build an orphanage with three pennies. With three pennies you can’t do anything.” “I know,” she said, smiling, “but with God and three pennies I can do anything!” 3) Love Gift The poor widow won the admiration of her Lord because her gift was decorated with an attitude of worship and faith. If ever there was a person who loved God with her whole heart it was this woman. She proved it in the sacrifice she made. Someone said, “It isn’t an offering until it hurts.” Love doesn’t give tips to God. Love gives itself, body and soul. The famous French artist Dore once studied the work of one of his students—a painting of Christ. Momentarily he said, “You don’t love Him, do you?” The student was offended. Dore explained, “If you loved Him, you’d paint Him better.” It wasn’t just the attitude that impressed Jesus, though. If we want to be totally honest, we have to admit that what Jesus noticed was also the amount of her gift. He listened to the sound of the coins dropping and thought, “Hmm, a couple of lepton.” The two tiniest and thinnest coins in Rome’s mint. We’d like it to not be about the amount. Admit it, you sort of liked all that talk about how it’s the attitude that matters, not the amount. We can fake an attitude—convince ourselves that we love, trust and worship God. Amount But we’re not as comfortable talking about the amount with God, because we know He knows how much we started with and how much we have left after we give to Him. Jesus knew this widow had nothing else to live on—the change jar at home was now empty. We are glad that Jesus knows that about her, but are not as excited that He knows how much we withhold from Him. A church member stopped the pastor and angrily complained that the church had purchased five new brooms—an expenditure that he thought was completely unnecessary. The pastor was surprised at the man's reaction and mentioned it to the church treasurer, who said, "It's understandable. How would you feel if you saw everything you gave in the past year tied up in five brooms?" 1) Sacrifice We must learn to see amounts from a godly perspective rather than a worldly one. In one of the latest studies of its kind, Time magazine reported on patterns of charitable giving in America. Poorer Americans give a greater percentage of their income to charity. Those who earned under $20,000 gave an average of 5.2 percent, those who earned $20,000 to $40,000 gave 3.3 percent, and those who earned between $80,000 and $100,000 gave only 1.6 percent. The widow was in a class all her own. In the book, Passing the Plate: Why American Christians Don't Give Away More Money, a book "about the pitifully small charitable donations of the richest Christians in history." Here’s a quick synopsis of some of the authors' findings: If just the "committed Christians" (defined as those who attend church at least a few times a month or profess to be "strong" or "very strong" Christians) would tithe, there would be an extra 46 billion dollars a year available for kingdom work. To make that figure more concrete, the authors suggest dozens of different things that $46 billion would fund each year: for example, 150,000 new indigenous missionaries; 50,000 additional theological students in the developing world; 5 million more micro loans to poor entrepreneurs; the food, clothing and shelter for all 6,500,000 current refugees in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East; all the money for a global campaign to prevent and treat malaria; resources to sponsor 20 million needy children worldwide. [The conclusion of the authors] is surely right: "Reasonably generous financial giving of ordinary American Christians would generate staggering amounts of money that could literally change the world." What will open the hands of the stingiest Christians in history? Only this: a willingness to sacrifice, like the widow sacrificed. It is clear that the whole point of the Holy Spirit including this encounter in Luke’s gospel is this: Jesus wants us to be like this widow. 2) Tithing Let me say a couple quick things about tithing. Before the Old Testament it was an honorable and appropriate act toward God. In the Old Testament Law it is a requirement for God’s people. In the New Testament it is a privilege, a place to start in considering what your reasonable giving to God should be. You will never be commanded to tithe in this church family. I don’t want to lessen its beauty by legalizing something that New Testament refuses to legalize. Nor do I want to lead anyone to believe that if you tithe, you’ve arrived. Let me just quote another teacher on this: what Christian, saved under grace, could ever allow himself to be out given by a Jew who was bound by law? Do you love Him? If the percentage of your giving is smaller than 10, ask God to help you increase toward a goal of 10%. Commensurate with your faith, your current circumstances and God’s leading, move from 2.9% to 4%, or from 5% to 7% or from 8% to 10%, and at every increment of growth, praise God for how far He’s brought you. If you currently tithe, why in the world would you park there and stop growing in what Paul calls this “grace of giving”? Some of the happiest people in the history of humanity regularly gave God 40, 50, 60% and more! And some were widows. 3) Percentage I do encourage you to analyze your giving patterns in terms of percentage—that is, what percent of your income do you give back to God? Find the number, set goals in your giving that are sacrificial, trust God, and start growing. Uh, pastor, is that a percentage of the gross or the net? (which is, being translated, please say net!”) You don’t want to ask me that, now do you? You do? I quote from Jesus, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give to God what is God’s.” On what do you pay your taxes? Conclusion Is it crazy to think that every one of God’s people will take the high road of faith and say, “You’re right, Preacher! I hear the Word and I will obey it, trusting God to care for me and my family’s needs.” Is it insane of me to think every Christian will start giving in such sacrificial ways just because they heard it in a substandard sermon on March 8, 2009? Am I nuts? Probably. But I urge you on behalf of Christ, don’t let my mental condition keep you from responding to God like this wonderful widow: in faith and love, worship and trust. Thirty-eight years ago, I heard a sermon on tithing as the Christian’s appropriate response to God. The next week we started tithing and didn’t look back. Here I am today, and I’ve obviously not missed a meal. Words like GENEROUS, COMMITMENT, SACRIFICE, TRUST, CONSISTENCY—these should not frighten Christians, but challenge them. They don’t put us off—they call us in. Yes, I am crazy enough to believe that Christians will be Word-changed believers in Christ. But I am also a realist. It would be wrong of me to try to coerce you or manipulate you, twist your arm. I say this: if the truth of scripture and love for the God who saved you from hell isn’t enough, my poor salesmanship won’t work. So, I’ll just do as I always do, and just preach the Word of God as clearly as I know how and let God’s Spirit work with His people. Some questions worth asking: In conclusion I have three questions worth asking, and one commitment worth considering. • Is my giving an act of worship? •  Does my giving adequately reflect my love for Christ? •  Does my giving lead me to trust God or to avoid trusting Him? A commitment worth considering Because I am committed to trying my best to make the counsel of God’s Word not only clear, but also practical, I want to urge you in Jesus’ Name to rob the devil of any chance at victory in these difficult financial times, and ask God honestly if He wants you to bump your giving upwards by 1, 2 or 3% or more. Before we pray: the words of Malachi to God’s people – “Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it. . .” [webmasters note: Malachi 3:10]     [Back to Top]