God's Piece of the Pie

Well, as you have no doubt already guessed, I'm breaking into the series on the gospel of John this morning to do a message on giving. There are some inherent dangers in a preacher preaching on the subject of giving and I'm well aware of those this morning. One of the dangers is a pastor's salary is paid by the church and so when a preacher preaches on giving it can automatically sound like a conflict of interest and so there may be some of you thinking, oh okay I got it. John is just a money grabber who wants a bigger salary. I can assure you from my heart before God that is not the case. Another inherent danger in what I'm doing this morning is there may be somebody here this morning, maybe more than one person, you finally decided to come to church. You haven't been to church in 30 years because you have always felt all they ever want from me is my money and you came today. All I can say to you is please come back next week and for a few weeks you'll find this is not the standard fare. In fact it has been four and a half years. Actually I looked it up. March 28, 2010 the last time I preached an entire message on giving and so this is not standard run of the mill kind of thing for us even once a year much less every Sunday. A third inherent danger in preaching a message like this is that some of you may be thinking, ah-ha John has been looking at the giving records and he knows how much or how little I give. That's the reason for this message and that's the reason why I feel him staring a hole through me. I can assure you in 41 and a half years of ministry I have never one time looked at anybody's giving records in any church I've passed it. It's a personal conviction. I know there's some pastors who laugh at that and say as a pastor and shepherd of the flock you need to know where people are but I just have a personal conviction against that. I'm a sinner like everybody else as much as I would hope that it would not be the case I realized that my spirit could be affected if I knew what people gave and I don't want my preaching or my relationship with anyone else to be affected by what I know about their giving. So I know absolutely nothing about any of your giving except for genie in me that's all I know. I purposely do not look at. So that's not the motivation. There are three motivations, three concerns from my heart this morning that have motivated I believe under the leadership of the Holy Spirit for me to approach this topic and preach this message this morning. My first concern is an immediate concern. It's one that you've been noticing if you've paid careful attention to your bulletins lately we are currently in our giving behind our need for budget by $60,000. Now I know there are several reasons for that. I fully understand that. I know the economy is not good. I know where we live. I understand all of that but as a pastor I also have to be open to the possibility that there are some of us who have not yet grasped what the Bible teaches about stewardship and I would be a failure to you as a pastor if I did not at some point address that concern from a biblical perspective and so that's my heart as I come to you this morning. There's an immediate concern yes over the status and state of our giving but there are other concerns as well. Not only an immediate concern I'm preaching this this morning because of a cultural concern. There is a cultural change a definite moving away in our society from an understanding of biblical stewardship and that's reflected in any number of surveys I could quote to you this morning. I'm just going to give you three quick examples. One survey done on tithing by Ron Sellers came to this conclusion in Protestant churches six out of 10 church goers believe that tithing is a biblical mandate but fewer than one out of ten actually give 10% or more of their income to any cause or organization even including outside the church. So his conclusion is this based on those numbers half of all Protestants believe they are commanded to tithe but simply don't do it. That's alarming. Another survey which has been done by Larry Burkett among Southern Baptist we're not a Southern Baptist church but and I'm not poking at anyone this morning I would think probably the statistics here are reflected across the board in Bible believing churches. This survey was done by Larry Burkett. Now before Dave Ramsey and peace university was the guru for finances in Christian circles there was Howard Dayton and Crown Financial Ministries but the one who actually found that organization was Larry Burkett and in my day of early ministry Larry Burkett was the one doing all the writing and the speaking on focus on the family and so forth about giving and and finances from a biblical perspective. Larry Burkett did this survey in the late 90s shortly before he died among Southern Baptist the statistics among Southern Baptist show that 37% who attend church three times a month are giving nothing to the church. Only 3% 3% of Southern Baptist actually tithe and then he goes on to say when a giver over age 60 dies or moves away it takes two people under age 40 to replace what they gave to the church. That also is an alarming statistic all of those are. One other the Barna George Barna who does a lot of surveying of Christian and secular organizations but mainly for Christian organizations has come up with this since the great recession of 0809 45% of Americans have reduced their giving to their church and nearly one-fourth of those have cut their giving by at least 20%. So there is obviously a cultural trend away from what the Bible teaches. Has the Bible changed? Does it teach anything differently? No. Has our attitude toward giving changed? Yes. If those statistics show an accurate reflection of Bible believing churches and their members attitude toward giving. So I have an immediate concern. Yes. I have a cultural concern but more than either of those I have a pastoral concern this morning. As a pastor teacher in this church it is part of my responsibility to address our spiritual lives and our walk with God and our giving is a vital part of our spiritual life and growth. Our giving is a reflection of our heart. I'll come back to that many times in this message. Our giving is an important element of our obedience to our Lord and His Word. Our giving is a measure of our commitment to God's great commission work around the world. Our giving touches and is interwoven inextricably with all of those parts of our Christian life and so we cannot fail to address this if we're going to address what it means to walk with God to be obedient to Him to be obedient to His Word and to be a part of His work around the world. I am firmly convinced that our attitude toward giving is like a light on the dashboard of your car. That light goes off. It shows there's something wrong under the hood typically. There's something down inside the inner workings of your car that's not functioning correctly and when a warning light goes off in regard to your giving it shows there's something wrong inside down in the heart. We will find in the scriptures very clearly portrayed today that our giving is a reflection of our heart and where our hearts are spiritually. So it is very much like a warning light on the dashboard of our cars for that reason because of all of these concerns. Primarily my pastoral concern for our church body as believers and where we are in our walk with God. We need to spend some time in the scriptures on this subject and there's no better place to turn than the most extended treatment of giving in the Bible which is 2 Corinthians chapters 8 and 9. In these two chapters Paul is addressing the Corinthian church encouraging them to follow the example of some believers up north in Macedonia who have already committed themselves to an offering that Paul is receiving for suffering Jews in Jerusalem. Paul sees this as an important link between Gentile believers and Jewish believers as maybe the best example in all of his ministry of the unity of the body of Christ. Jew and Gentile together in one body. So Paul is asking for Gentile believers to help their suffering brothers and sisters in Christ in Jerusalem and the churches in Macedonia that's the northern part of Greece. Churches like Philippi, Thessalonica, Burya. These churches have already committed to doing that kind of thing and now Paul's in the south, the good old south and he's at Corinth or writing to Corinth and churches like Corinth and Athens they need to also get involved in this and that's what these two chapters are all about. But in communicating with this church about what he expects them to do and what God expects them to do and they're giving he leaves us today in 21st century United States, Princeton, West Virginia. He leaves us some principles about giving. There are at least five of them. The first principle is the principle of stewardship. Now although this is not specifically mentioned in these two chapters it is in other parts of the Corinthian epistles, first Corinthians four for instance. It is the foundation of all that the Bible teaches on giving. This is the underlying premise for what Paul is teaching here and so you cannot just dive in the second Corinthians eight and nine without understanding what Paul knew that the whole scope of Scripture taught about our responsibility to God. The principle of stewardship is a two-part principle. The first part is this. God owns everything. God owns everything. The scriptures make that abundantly clear. Psalm 24 verse one just to refer to a few verses. The earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. That's pretty all-encompassing isn't it? It all belongs to God. Everything and everyone in this world belongs to God. Paul said much the same in first Corinthians four verse seven. For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? That's a rhetorical question. Obvious answer. The answer is nothing. We don't have anything we didn't receive and so Paul goes on to make this statement and if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you do not? There was how can any of us boast? Look at what I earned. Look at what I got. Look at my financial acumen in accumulating this or getting this. How can we boast about any of that because we don't own any of it? It all belongs to God. James says in James chapter one and verse 17, every good and perfect gift comes is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly lights who does not change like shifting shadows. Everything, every good and perfect gift we have comes down from above. So think of it this way. Everything in your possession belongs to God and God has given it to you. God gives you your house. God gives you your car or your cars. Even your truck. God gives you your clothing. God gives you your bank account. God gives you your food. God gives you your job. God gives you the very health and breath to be able to work that job to produce the income you have which purchases the things you have. So it all really belongs to God and I think that's where we must start because that's the underlying premise of everything the Bible teaches on giving is that it doesn't belong to us to start with. It all belongs to God. I love the way Jay Oswald Smith used to say this. Jay Oswald Smith was a great preacher of about 75 years ago. He passed through the middle part of the 1900s several places but 30 years in people's church in Toronto, Canada. He was a great pastor and preacher missionary statesman wrote 35 books, wrote 1200 hymns, just a great man of God and he used to say it this way and I quote, it's not how much of my money will I give to God but how much of God's money I will keep for myself. That's the right perspective. That shows a biblical understanding of stewardship. It's not how much of my money I'm going to give to God. It's how much of God's money I'm going to keep for myself. That's really the perspective that the Bible teaches. It all belongs to him. So stewardship means that God owns everything. If that's true and it is, then secondly stewardship means that we are managers, not owners. If God owns everything, then I don't own anything. It's not really mine. It God owns it. So I'm a manager of that. I really don't own my house. The bank will tell you that too. But in reality spiritually, I really don't own my house. I don't own my car. I don't own these clothes. I don't own the food that will be on my table this afternoon. I don't own any of that but I am a manager of it. If God gives us everything we have, then we are managers of God's resources. Paul teaches this in 1 Corinthians 4, where he says, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. He's saying, we who are ministers of the gospel are stewards of the mysteries of God. We have the responsibility to handle carefully what God's given us. And then he makes this general statement that applies to all stewardship. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Now, I've used the King James version in that quote because I like the word steward. The word steward is a good word because it really captures the image of what the Bible is communicating here. A steward was in Bible times a household servant who would oversee the property of his master. Like in the Old Testament, Joseph did for Potiphar's household. He was responsible for the management of the whole household, nothing belonged to him, but he was responsible for everything and how it was managed. And so we are stewards. We are responsible for what God has given us. Now, folks, that impacts everything we have, not just our giving. If we are stewards, if we are managers and not owners, then we are to faithfully manage all of the resources that God has given us. So you see, that's a much broader principle than just giving, but it is the underlying principle on which the Bible's teaching about giving is based. So it's a key principle, foundational premise, the principle of stewardship. The second principle in Paul does deal with this one in 2 Corinthians 8 is the principle of grace. The principle of grace, look at chapter 8, the first five verses. And now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. In the midst of a very severe trial, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty, well-duff and rich generosity. For I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability entirely on their own, they urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the will of God also to us. He goes on through the chapter to talk about that. There's much more about this, but he's using the example of the Macedonians to prompt the Corinthians to give. He's saying, listen, I'm going to give you the example of the Macedonians, your northern brothers, that they have been faithful to give in a grace kind of way. He says quite clearly the grace of God that God has given the Macedonian churches. That's what motivated this kind of giving. And the greater example of Jesus Christ far better than the Macedonian churches is given in verse 9, where Paul says, for you know the grace, again, Jesus gave graciously, the Macedonians gave graciously, but Jesus gave graciously. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor so that you through his poverty might become rich. The very coming of Jesus that we are so beautifully described in the song this morning from Mary's perspective of, he's here, and he's the coming of Jesus illustrates how he gave up everything the wealth of heaven in order to become poor, to come to this earth, become one of us so they might die for us, so that we might have the riches of his salvation. So he was rich, he became poor, so that we might be made rich, grace giving. Now, grace giving, this example of the Macedonians is designed to show us what grace giving looks like, and here is what grace giving looks at. Look again at the verses and you'll see three things that Paul says, this is the way grace giving works. First of all, it is sacrificial. Look again at verse 2 a little more carefully. He says in the mids of a very severe trial. Now, just Paul's right there. A downturn in the economy is no reason for giving to stop, if what I read here about the Macedonians is true. I don't know what was the economy or just the fact that they were Christians who were being persecuted and lost their jobs that was common in New Testament times. But for whatever reasons, they were suffering a severe trial. Let those words sink in. Severe trial. Okay. In the midst of a very severe trial, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty, well done in rich generosity. I just kind of see those two things coming together. Their joy, their their overflowing joy kind of mixes with their extreme poverty, but what happens when those two get together, it bubbles up. It springs up in rich generosity. They gave anyway sacrificially no doubt. And then verse 3 says, where I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Grace giving my friend, giving that is prompted by the grace of Christ, leaving heaven's glory for us. Grace giving is sacrificial. And even in times of severe trial, it does not stop. It continues because you see, we're not supposed to give to God, our leftovers. And that's not what was happening here. They weren't just giving their leftovers, not like the guy cutting the pieces of pie who figured out everything he needed first to make his mortgage, car payments, play his sports and games, take care of his kids' education, everything I need first. And then whatever I want. And then if there's anything left over, God, we might consider you. You know what that is? That's not grace giving. That's not sacrificial giving. That's regifting. That's regifting. Now don't blush. I know some of you do it. You know who you are. I'm not saying it's criminal or moral wrong or anything like that. But you know what happens when someone gives you something that you absolutely do not want. You cannot use. You will not use. So what do you do? You wrap it back up and you graciously give it to someone else, right? That's regifting. You have not done anything that cost you a bit. That's not sacrificial. Not saying it's necessarily wrong. You're allowing someone to use something that you would not have otherwise used. There may be something good in that, but it's not sacrificial. It's not grace. And yet that's how we treat God a lot. Okay, God, I'm going to take care of everything. I need first. If there's anything I really don't need or want, then I'll regift it to you. That's not grace giving. Grace giving is sacrificial. Secondly, grace giving is voluntary. It's voluntary. Please notice this verse three last last part of the verse entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. This this offering that was being received by Paul, he talks more about it later part of the chapter of the nuts and bolts of who's going to send to receive the offering. So we know that's what he's talking about. And he's saying these people didn't need any arm twisting. They didn't need any bake sales or bean suffers or 5k runs. All they needed was the opportunity. And God moved in their hearts to give that is what grace giving is all about. There's no pressure here. There's no gimmicks used to try to me get something out of what I'm going to give. There's none of that in grace giving. Grace giving is entirely voluntary. They asked for the opportunity. No pressure needed. No gimmicks needed. People willingly responding to God's grace. If we ever really understand the grace of God to us and what he wants us to do in in the great commission, there would never need to be any pressure put on us to give. We would give voluntarily. We would ask for opportunities to give what these people did in extreme poverty and in a very severe trial. That was their heart. So grace giving is sacrificial. It's voluntary. Thirdly, it's spiritual. It's spiritual. Verse 5. And they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the will of God also to us. He's not even talking about their gift to the Jerusalem churches here. What he's saying is this grace giving flows out of your commitment to God. It's a natural result of you giving yourself first to him, surrendering all to him, recognizing the principle of stewardship that he owns it all anyway. And he just wants us to be wise managers of what he's given us when we recognize that then out of that relationship with God and desire to be obedient to him and respond to his gracious gift to us, we will give. It's spiritual. It's not just monetary. It's not just financial, bottom line ledger type stuff. It is a spiritual act of our relationship with God. That's grace giving. So grace giving is sacrificial. It's voluntary. It does not have to be prompted or pressured. And it is simply spiritual. And part of our relationship with God. That's the principle of grace. That's what grace giving looks like. But Paul goes on to give us a third principle. And that is the principle of sowing and reaping. Now we're going to have to skip down to chapter 9 to see this. The principle of sowing and reaping. Chapter 9 verse 6. Remember this. Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. Now let's back away from that verse to get the bigger picture first. It's obvious that Paul is using an example of farming and he's using the example of the farmer to help us understand how giving in God s work works. So that's the big picture. Here's a farming example. So take that big picture along with what Paul says here specifically about it. And I think you'll come up with this that really identifies and explains the principle of sowing and reaping. First of all, we must sow in order to reap. I mean that's kind of a given in the farming world. You're not going to get a harvest if you sit around all spring and early summer and don't plant anything. You've got to sow in order to reap. Same thing is true with your garden. I don't care how spiritual you are. I don't care how much you pray over your garden. If you don't sow any seed, you're not going to get a harvest. That's the way God has built his world to work. And that's the way he's built his work to work as well. It's just like the farming world. We will not reap a harvest if we don't sow some seed. Now please be careful here. I think you're going to see that the harvest is not just and not even primarily what we receive ourselves as benefits. That's not the idea here. The idea is the harvest of God's work. Is the harvest of souls he will speak of it later in verse 10 of the harvest of your righteousness. So it's the harvest of what we reap spiritually to start with. And then more broadly, the harvest of souls that we're able to bring in because God's word, the seed is being cast out in abundance and it's bringing fruit. People are being saved. People are growing. That's the kind of harvest he's talking about here. Now there is a little bit of personal blessing mixed into it as we'll see. But that's not the primary thought here. The primary thought is if you sow, then you reap. You get a harvest. But if you don't sow anything, you're not going to get a harvest. That's simple. The second part of this principle is this. We reap in proportion to what we sow. Not only do we sow in order to reap, but we also reap in proportion to what we sow. I mean, that's what he says there in verse 6, right? Specifically, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. It's obvious in the farming world, obvious also in the spiritual world. So much, you will tend to reap more. So very little, so very stangily, you'll reap little. The harvest will be small. That's understandable in the world of farming. It's also true in the world of God's work. Now again, I want to clarify the blessing that is being talked about here. So sparingly, you reap sparingly. A lot of people interpret that to me. If I give a lot, then God's going to give me back a lot. I don't think that's primarily what Paul's talking about here. This is not the health and wealth gospel. This is not name it and claim it. This is not word of faith movement. Okay? We're not on television. What Paul is saying is if you give abundantly, then you will have an abundant harvest. You'll be able to do more of God's work. You'll be able to impact more of your community. You'll be able to reach more souls worldwide with the gospel. You'll be able to see more people growing in their faith. You will reap an abundant harvest. We're not talking here about deals with God. We're not talking about, okay, give $500 and God will give you a new car. Give $1,000. God will give you a new house. Give $1,500. Maybe $5,000 and God will take care of all of your problems. That's the way this is often presented on the television. Nothing could be further from the truth. That's not what Paul has in mind. He has in mind a spiritual harvest, a harvest, verse 10 of righteousness, a harvest of spiritual fruit. But I will tell you this, when God does see fit and choose to bless materially when we give, he adds with it the ability to enjoy it. Did you catch what I said? You see oftentimes money is a terrible master. It creates bondage for people. And people because of a desire for things, get themselves terribly in debt. They become a slave. They're in bondage. Or because they want increasingly more and more and always live up to the level of their income, they're in bondage. When God blesses even materially, he blesses in such a way that he adds with it the ability to enjoy whatever we have, whether it is little or much. The amount doesn't matter. Look at this verse in Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10-22, the blessing of the Lord brings wealth without painful toil for it. He's not saying you're not going to have to work for what you have. That's not his point. His point is when God gives material blessing or even spiritual blessing could be included as well. But let's limit it. When God gives material blessing, he does not add to it the pain of toil in getting it or the pain of having it be our master. When God gives it, it comes with the ability also to enjoy it, whatever it may be. And again, I say whether little or much, read Philippians 4, Paul's a great example. He says, I've learned to be content in whatever state I'm in. I've learned to be content with much and I've learned to be content with little. It's not the amount that's the issue here. It's the ability to be content and enjoy whatever God gives us. So we reap in proportion to what we sow. One other part of this principle, however, is this. We reap more than we sow. Now we're not going to reap unless we sow and we will reap generally in proportion to what we sow. But as is the case in farming, we reap more than we sow. I mean, that's true in your garden, right? You put three kernels of corn in a hill and what do you get? Three kernels on the stalk? Of course not. Not even three years. You get a lot of kernels on lots of ears if it comes out right. So we always reap more than we sow in the natural world. That's true in the spiritual world too. Skip down to verse 10 where Paul says, now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for the food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. What are you saying to these Corinthian believers, if you're faithful to do what I'm asking you to do, if you give, then God will increase your ability to give. You'll have more seed corn next year to plant and have a bigger harvest. In other words, if we trust God with our giving, like these people were doing in severe trial, in extreme poverty, if we continue to give as we should out of a heart reflection of our love for Christ and a thankfulness for his grace, if we continue to give, then God will take care of us. That's what he's saying here. That's the principle of sowing and reaping. Now here's the principle you've all been waiting for, the principle of amount. Okay, how much am I supposed to give? All right? Does the Bible talk about that? Yes, it does. In fact, verse 7 of chapter 9, each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. Do you notice the first part of the verse? Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give. That I believe is the measure of grace giving. It's between you and God. You are to decide in your own heart the amount. That's New Testament grace giving. You say, come on, John, you need to give me a little more than that. Give me some guidance. Don't you have more than, yeah, I do have a little more than that. There are there are two words, two key words that can give us some guidance. Now I'm choosing my words carefully now. They give us guidance. It is still between you and God, the amount. But I think there are two key words in the Bible that give us guidance. The first word is the word tied, a tie. Now the word tied simply means a tenth. That's what the word literally means, a tenth. In the Old Testament, Israel was required to give a tenth of all of their crops to the Lord. Look at this verse in Leviticus 27, Leviticus 27, and verse 30. It's not there. It was in the first service. Okay. All right. Leviticus 27, 30. I'm going to look it up because I want you to know this is what the Bible says, not just John. Leviticus 27, 30. A tie of everything from the land, whether grain from the soil or fruit from the trees belongs to the Lord. It is holy to the Lord. Okay. There it is. Mysteriously. It showed up. A tie from everything the land produced, whether it was grain crops or fruit type tree crops. That was to be given to the Lord. Proverbs chapter 3 versus that we're familiar with made these declarations to the Israelites that were to honor the Lord, they are to honor the Lord with their wealth, the first fruits of all your crops. In other words, the first part of your crops, 10 percent, but it's to be the first part that goes to the Lord, then your barns will be filled over, flowing your vats will brim over with new wine. Remember, Israel as a nation was under what was called the Palestinian covenant. It was described in Deuteronomy 28 and 29. And God clearly promised the nation of Israel. If you are faithful to me in your giving, then I will make sure you get the reins when you need them. Your ground will be fertile, your crops will grow, you'll get abundant harvests. Now that does not necessarily carry over, specifically to New Testament church giving, grace giving. That was promised to Israel under their covenant with God. But it was a promise made to them that God would take care of all of their needs and give them abundant ability to have greater harvests. Now it's very easy for us to say, okay, that's Old Testament, that's the Mosaic Law. We're not under that, so I'm not required to give a tithe, right? Well, before you jump to that conclusion too quickly, I would remind you that 600 years before the Mosaic Law in 2100 BC, Abraham went on a military expedition to recover some goods stolen by a marauding bunch of kings. When he recovered those goods, he gave a tenth of them to the priests that represented the most high god, Melchizedek. You can read about it in Genesis 14, 600 years before the Mosaic Law. So the principle of tithing goes beyond the Mosaic Law. And anyway, why would we as New Testament grace givers who are being motivated as Paul teaches because of our love for Christ and the example of Jesus giving everything for us and his grace, why would we as grace givers want to be chinsy and stinging do less than what Old Testament believers were required to do? Yes, we are not required legalistically to give a tithe. I cannot tell you that. The New Testament says you decide between you and God, but I think that is there's some guidance there throughout the scriptures about a certain percentage of our income that we should give back to the Lord. I think the place to start is a tithe, a tenth. But the second word that gives us some guidance is the word offering. There are tithes in the Bible, and by the way, we don't really have time for this. But if you study this out carefully, actually there's more than one tithe in Israel. Read about it. In Leviticus and Numbers, there was a tithe, 10% of the crops were to be brought to the temple or the tabernacle to fill the storehouses with grain to be used in the offerings in the temple. Another 10% was to be given to the priests who were distributed in 48 towns across Israel and did not have any property of their own. And so another 10% was to be given to support the priests, and then every third year, a third 10% was to be given to the poor. Now, scholars debate whether or not it was one of those other 10% that was diverted to the poor or whether it was an additional 10%. But Israelites gave at least 20%, maybe 23% and a third% of their income to the Lord. So at any rate, is 10% is a tithe really an evidence of grace giving? I think it's at least a beginning. The offering, an offering in the Bible is any voluntary gift above the tithe. We don't have the time, but I could give you a couple of Old Testament examples. In the building of the tabernacle, read about it in Exodus 35 and 36, where God told the Israelites, bring the materials, donate the materials that are needed to build the tabernacle. Now, this is not the 10% first fruits of their crops. This is not the crops that will go to help the Levites in priests. This is above that. In fact, it is clearly called an offering. And you know what happened? They brought the materials, the wood, the metals, the embroidery, the cloths and so forth that would be needed to build the tabernacle. And they brought so much that in chapter 36, Moses had to say, stop, stop, don't bring anymore. You're bringing too much. Wow. You know what that sounds like to me? That sounds like grace giving. That's way above the tithe. Same thing happened when the temple was built. You can read about it in 1 Chronicles 29, where David is calling upon the Israelites to bring it offering. And the word offering is used several times in that passage in 1 Chronicles 29, because it's clear this is not your tithe. This is above your tithe. An offering of materials to build the temple and the same thing happened. The workers finally came back to David, read about it in 1 Chronicles 29. They came back to David and they said, call them off. Tell them to stop. We got more than we need. Wow. That's an offering. That's an offering. Now here's my point for going into that explanation. If as I believe the Bible teaches, I am required, or at least from the bottom of my heart and my grace giving response to Christ and his grace for me, I want to give a certain percentage of my income to the Lord. Then that's the way it operates. A certain percentage of my income is going to be given to the Lord. It doesn't matter whether I miss this Sunday or next Sunday. That's still that's going to be made up. We don't give just because we are here. We give because a certain percentage of our income has been dedicated to the Lord. And if I'm not here this Sunday, then I'll make it up next Sunday. Now the reason I say that is because I mentioned earlier, were $60,000 behind budget. Almost 40,000 of that happened last winter when we had to miss some Sundays because of weather. And if you looked carefully at the offerings, you noticed the week that we were all able to be back together, the offering didn't go up. There were no spikes. There were no bumps, which leads me only to one conclusion. I'm sorry if I'm wrong, but it leads me to the inescapable conclusion in my mind that some of us are not giving regularly a committed amount of our income to the Lord. We're just giving when we're here. And then when we're not here, we keep it. I don't think that's what the Bible teaches, my friend. The Bible is teaching a percentage of my income goes to God regardless of whether or not I'm here. So the first chance I'm here, I'm going to make that up if I've missed it. That's the principle of amount. Now quickly, the principle of attitude. Now in all of this on giving, we can develop the attitude very easily. Oh man, I got to go home and refigure my budget. I got to go home and start figuring out something to cut. Really, you mean, John, I got to go home and figure out percentage of my income. And that's why Paul ends with checking our attitudes. Look at verse seven, each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give. Now notice the next words, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves a cheerful giver. You've probably heard it said before that the word cheerful is a word we get our English word hilarious from God loves a giver that's laughing all the way to the church. Cheerful about it loves to give. He does not want us to give reluctantly or under compulsion under pressure. He doesn't want us to give that way or for that motivation. You wouldn't want to receive a gift like that, would you? You wouldn't want someone to give you a gift at Christmas, kind of throw it across the floor. That's as I hear it is Christmas. I'm supposed to get you a gift. Come on, open it up there it is. You wouldn't want a gift like that. And neither does God. God wants giving from cheerful hearts. You know, some of us are so tight. Parting with our money is an emotional experience. I love one of my favorite stories. I've told you before I'll tell you again, sorry, about Stumpy and Martha. Remember Stumpy and Martha? They're the older couple that would go to the county fair every year. And Stumpy would see this antique biplane, you know, that had the double wings and he would say to Martha every year, oh Martha, I want to ride that biplane. And Martha would look at him and say, Stumpy, that ride costs $10 and $10 is $10. And so they wouldn't ride every year, same thing. I want to ride the biplane. Stumpy, that ride costs $10 and $10 is $10. So they wouldn't ride. Find that they go back one year. Stumpy looks at Martha. I want to ride that biplane. I'm 81 years old. If I don't ride this year, I may not ever get another chance. Martha says Stumpy, that ride costs $10 and $10 is $10. Well, the pilot happened to overhear them this time. So we walked over to them. You said I couldn't help it over here. You're talking about the cost of this plane ride. Tell you what, make you a deal. I'll take you up. And if you don't utter a sound, don't scream, don't yell, don't utter a word. The ride is free. But if you make any noise, if you scream, if you yell, if you utter a word, it's $10. So he took them up. He did every roll, every turn, every dive, every trick. He could possibly think of, not a sound. So he did it all again, trying to coax something out of them, but not a sound. So he lands the plane. He looked back to Stumpy who was sitting in the seat behind him. He said, how did everything I knew to do to get you to yell and you did not utter a word? Stumpy said, well, I thought about saying something when Martha fell out of there, but $10 is $10. I hope you're not that tight. I hope we're not that tight. The importance of a cheerful attitude. God says, I love cheerful givers. Maybe right now, be good time to take the offer. Just forget that. But notice if you will, the blessing for a cheerful giver quickly and in closing, the blessing that's promised to a cheerful giver, verse 8, and God is able to bless you abundantly so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. Just talk about everything you need to do the work of God. As it is written, they have freely scattered their gifts to the poor, their righteousness and doers forever and then, verse 10, which we read earlier. Now look at verse 11, you will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion and through us, your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God. God blesses cheerful givers. The principle of attitude. Rebecca St. James is a familiar, well-known Christian music artist. For the last 20 years, she's been producing great recordings. Her first recording was done when she was 15 years old, but you may not know the story of her family. Her family came to the United States from Australia. Her father was a Christian songwriter and a promoter of concerts in Australia. His name was David Smallbone, but he had done a national tour in Australia, which severely went under expectations and they lost $250,000. He had nothing left. So someone in the States offered him a job of promoting their Christian concerts and he came to the States with his family. It was his only hope for a job that he had that happened in 1991. They moved to Nashville. They lived in an unfernished apartment for a while, had one mattress which the mother slept on, the rest of them slept on the floor. By the way, Rebecca St. James has two brothers that have now started a Christian band for God in Country and they're very well-known now. They may have been at Winterfest at some point. I'm not sure, but anyway, they're very well-known in the United States now. What they did is these two boys' mod yards, Rebecca and her mother took care of houses, cleaned houses. They did everything they could just to keep body and soul together. And finally, a recorder, a Christian recording promoter, John Moore, who also used to sing bass with the Gator Vocal Band, I have him on some recordings. Decided he was going to take them under his wing. He provided them a job in the Christian music industry. He got a recording company to listen to one of Rebecca's recordings and they gave her a contract and her first recording was done at age 15. I still have it. It's a great recording. John Moore provided them a van to travel in, bought them a van and gave it to them to allow them to travel and do some concerts and so forth. And of course, Rebecca St. James ministry just took off and she is a very godly lady. Took off and now her brothers have gotten into the industry and they've just taken off too. And these have gone well for them. John Moore ended up leaving Nashville and going to Ukraine as a missionary. David Smallbone, the father of these kids that went into music, made a commitment to John Moore that he would give 50% of all the royalties from her recordings to John Moore in his missionary work. So every six months John Moore receives a check which underwrites his ministry in Ukraine. The reason I told you that story is because it's a beautiful example of what God says he will do here. If you are faithful to God to give to his work, then he will bless you as well. He did bless the Smallbones and Rebecca had taken an old family name St. James to use as a recording name. He blessed that family and in turn they were able to turn back around and bless the person who had given to them. And the harvest of souls in Ukraine and beyond through both of their ministries is a testimony to what it means to be faithful to give to God's work. It's pray. Father, help us to be faithful to you, to love you, to respond to your grace with gracious giving back to you. Help us to recognize Father that all that we have really belongs to you. And we're just managers of what you've given us so graciously. May we in turn be grace, grace givers, graciously giving back to you and your work so that the harvest of righteousness can grow so that we can see more outreach in our community, more gospel spread through the world, more being done even in this very building to build up believers and saints. I pray, Father, that you would move in all of our hearts to be the kind of givers you would have us to be in Jesus' name we pray. Amen.