God's Piece of the Pie

You got it. I'm preaching on giving this morning and I know that's an occupational hazard for a pastor to preach on giving. Actually, the next message in the series on first Timothy is on the qualifications for Deacons and we're having a Deacon ordination service next Sunday. So we kind of had an open Sunday and I've been thinking and praying about what the Lord would have me to preach on, talk with our Deacons and other pastors and have decided that it's probably timely to preach on the subject of giving. Now that's dangerous. As I mentioned, dangerous territory for a pastor for several reasons. Number one is my salary is paid by the church. And so automatically this can look like a conflict of interest. It can, it could look like any pastor who would do this would come across as a money grabber who wants a bigger salary. I can assure you that is not my heart just so you know our staff salaries are determined by our finance committee with the approval of our Deacons. They're not, they're not authorized in any way by the pastors or the staff themselves. We, we don't have any input into that. Don't want any input into that. The only input, honestly, I ever have is when I feel like another staff member needs something that I will recommend to the finance committee. So that's the way things work. What I'm going to say this morning will have no bearing on what any of us is paid. A second reason why this is kind of dangerous for a pastor to do and I don't do it real often is I recognize that today there may be some folks who have finally decided to come to church. You haven't darkened the door of a church in 30 years and the main reason is because you think all the church wants is my money and you decided to come today. Well, if that is the case, and by the way, the last time I preached on giving was two and a half years ago and I had someone in our church come to me afterwards and say I brought a guest with me today and that is their very excuse for not having attended church in the past. Now, I thought, okay, so if you're like that here this morning, let me encourage you, please keep coming. This is not standard fair. I'll be preaching 20 of the next 23 Sundays here at the chapel and most of those with exception of a communion service and a couple of services like that. Most of them will be in first Timothy. So that is standard fair just preaching the word of God, but I'm going to preach the word of God this morning too. But that is a danger. Some of you may be thinking. Others of you may be thinking, oh, okay, John's been looking at the giving records and he knows how much or how little I give. And that's the reason he's preaching on giving. I see him. He's looking right at me. I can assure you that when I went into ministry almost 44 years ago, I made a covenant with God. I would never look at the giving records of a church I pastored of the people of that church. Now, some pastors think that's foolish. They think a pastor needs to know that information. I've just between me and God have that conviction. I will never do it. Never have in 44 years, never intend to do it in my remaining times of pastor. And the reason is I believe a person's giving is between them and God and I do not want what individuals do in the church to influence in any way the way I look at them when I preach or otherwise. So I have no clue what anyone in this church gives except for a genuine me. That's all I know. So that's not my reason for preaching this this morning. I do have three reasons for having over several months now considered preaching another message on giving. My first comes out of an immediate concern. The immediate concern has to do with giving friends. Last year we struggled all year to maintain pace with our budget ran behind all year. Some extra gifts at the end of the year helped us to come out almost in the black. But we struggled all of last year. We missed a Sunday, the second Sunday of this year due to weather and we immediately fell $20,000 behind budget, which we hope we will make up. But getting my last two weeks has been great. And so maybe we are making that up. I think you'll see as I get further into the message why that should never be a problem. If you understand biblical stewardship missing a Sunday should not make any difference in our offerings. But it does. So that leads me to believe there are some who do not understand the biblical concept of stewardship. Let me pause for a moment and say this. I know where we live. I know we're in southern West Virginia. Hey, I grew up here. I'm a West Virginia boy. I know our culture. I know our state is in financial distress, particularly the southern part of our state. And I believe that we have done as well as we have done and been so blessed by God due to his grace and your faithfulness. And as your pastor, I want to thank you for that because what I say this morning is not intended to berate good, faithful people who give generously in a climate that is a climate of financial hardship. I fully get that. But I do have that immediate concern. I would fail you as a pastor teacher if I neglected the biblical information about giving when I felt there was a need. The second concern I have and reason I preach today is because of a cultural concern. It's not just a gut feeling. This is born out by surveys and hard, fast data. And that is that giving trends are changing in our culture. One study was done recently by a particular Christian financial group that did some research on tithing. They came up with this conclusion. Six out of ten churchgoers in Protestant churches believe that tithing is a biblical mandate, but fewer than one out of ten actually give ten percent or more of their income to any cause or organization. So this Ron Sellers is the one who did this survey and he said half of all Protestants then according to those statistics believe they're commanded the tide, but simply don't do it. Now that shows something is wrong. There's a heart problem there somewhere. If there's a command of scripture, if there's guidance in scripture, but we just decide we're not going to do it, something's wrong with the heart. Another survey by George Barna indicated the impact of the great recession of 2009, 2010 on churchgiver, 2008 and 2009 on churchgiving during that time. And after that, 45% of Americans reduce their giving to their churches and nearly one-fourth of those cut their contributions by at least 20%. Other studies show that millennials have a very different outlook on giving. They would prefer to give to causes. Causes that promote social issues or justice issues that align with their feelings and beliefs rather than to a local church. Now that's not on across the board indictment of any particular generation of people, but that trend is clearly established on the part of millennials that the giving outlook, the view of giving has seriously changed. So I have an immediate concern, I have a cultural concern. I also have a pastoral concern. I believe the Bible teaches that giving is a vital part of our spiritual life and growth. I believe that the Bible is giving is the reflection of our heart. I believe that giving the Bible teaches that giving is an important element of our obedience to our Lord and to His Word. And the Bible teaches that the measure of our giving is a measure of our commitment to God's great commission work around the world. And so this is not just a financial issue, it is not a church budget issue, that's not the main motivation for this at all. The main motivation is that from time to time we need to be reminded of the biblical data, the biblical teaching on growth and spiritual life and how our commitment to Christ revealed in our giving shows that. So I want us to turn this morning to second Corinthians, chapters eight and nine. Where Paul gives the most extended instruction found anywhere in the Bible on giving. It has to do with an offering that is being taken among Gentile churches to be given and sent to the Jerusalem saints. And Paul is collecting this offering in several Greek Roman provinces and he mentions two of them in this passage. But in challenging the Corinthian church to be faithful in their giving, he gives us the most extended insight and principles into God's view of stewardship and giving that we find anywhere in the Scripture. So let's spend a little time there this morning where we will find five principles of giving. The first principle of giving is the principle of stewardship. Now this is not, I'm not going to directly draw this from chapters eight and nine of second Corinthians. This is an overall foundational principle taught throughout the word of God. There is no question in my mind from what Paul says that this informs his teaching and really is the foundation for everything that he says in chapters eight and nine. His understanding of the biblical principle of stewardship guides and directs his thinking in everything he says. It is the foundation for all giving. And the principle of stewardship really has two parts. The first part is this. God owns everything. God owns everything. This is where we have to start with an overall biblical understanding of stewardship is that God owns everything. Now there are lots of passages that teach that but it's going to throw three out of them on the screen for you real quick. Verse 24, verse 1, the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, the world and all who live in it. That's pretty comprehensive isn't it? The whole earth and everything in it and everybody in it. It's God. God is the owner. Paul would say in first Corinthians chapter four and verse seven, for who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? And James would say in James 117, every good and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of the heavenly light so it does not change like shifting shadows. So with those verses and many other passages, the Bible teaches that God owns everything, everything belongs to Him and He graciously gives us what we claim as our own. That means your house, your cars, your clothes, your food, your bank accounts, your job, your health. It's a very air that we breathe. It all comes from Him and belongs to Him. It is not ours to start with. Nothing that we have as ours. You say, well, well, well, wait a second John. I work hard for everything I get. I understand that. And I think God, if you do work hard, that's good. It's commendable. Where did you get the health to work hard? How do you even get the air to breathe that you keep going and be able to exist and live? The Bible teaches that everything we have comes from God and belongs to Him and He graciously allows us to manage it for Him. And that brings me to the second part of the principle of stewardship. God owns everything. But secondly, we are managers, not owners. We don't own any of our stuff, really. I mean, laws, I, in the government's eyes, you own some things. But in God's eyes, it's all His property. It's all His. We are managers of it. None of it really belongs to us. First Corinthians chapter 4, Paul describes this concept. He says this, let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Now, in this context, Paul's talking about the gospel. The gospel did not originate with me, Paul says, it's not mine, it's God. I didn't create it. I didn't think it up. I didn't discover it somehow. The gospel is God's. He entrusted the gospel to me. And I'm supposed to be a faithful steward of the gospel. Now, the word steward that Paul uses here is a word which means to oversee the property of another. So something that belongs to another, a steward is given a management responsibility to oversee it, to use it wisely. If that's true of the gospel, then if we've established in the Bible that God owns everything, then nothing that we have is technically ours in God's sight, in the Bible sight. But we are stewards of it. We are to manage those resources for his glory that goes far beyond just our giving. That informs us and teaches us that we should faithfully manage all of our resources. Everything that we have, that God has so graciously enabled us to have, we are to manage faithfully as a steward for him. Another survey that was done by Christian financial concepts among active church families came up with these figures among active church families, 40% are overspending every month, spending more than they're taking in. Of those church families, active church families who experience a divorce, 90% point to financial difficulties as being a major factor. Active church families, 40% pay $4,000 per year in interest excluding their mortgage. So we're talking about car loans, credit cards, that kind of thing. The survey showed that the average indebtedness for 28 year olds, 28 year olds, active church families, average indebtedness $112,000. Those are 2017 figures. This survey goes on to show that of active church members, 34% tie, then we'll see what that means later. 40% give 3% or less and 26% the remaining 26% give virtually nothing. And these are active church members. Now I quite frankly do not believe those statistics would bear out here at Johnson Chapel. As I said before, in an area that is economically not real prosperous, God has blessed us abundantly through your faithful giving. And so I think those figures would not really be the same here in this place. But I know that all three of those categories would be represented. Or I'm confident they would be. The principle of stewardship reminds us that as a foundation for all of our viewing of giving, really it has to do with our understanding of everything we own. God owns everything and we are managers not owners. Okay, principle number two. And this one does come from second Corinthians 8. So if you're ready to dive in, first five verses of second Corinthians 8, the principle of grace. I want you to see here the example of the Macedonians. In verse one, Paul says, and now brothers and sisters, we want you to know about, notice this. We want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches. And we back up a little bit and give it just a little bit of background. I briefly mentioned earlier that Paul is talking here about offerings that are being taken to be sent to suffering Jewish believers in Jerusalem. And Paul is appealing to Gentile believers to contribute to that offering and that giving. He's already done so among the Macedonian churches. The Macedonian churches are further north than Corinth. They would be churches like Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, those kinds of churches that Paul had established in the book of Acts. But now he's moved way further south to Corinth, which is not in the Roman province of Macedonia, but in the Roman province of Greece. And so now he's appealing to the Corinthians. I want to share with you. He says the example of the churches up in Macedonia, what they have done. But the interesting thing to me is that he refers to their giving as the grace that God has given them. And if you were to trace this out throughout this chapter, you would find that word grace or gracious working five times in this chapter. So what we're talking about here is that grace giving means that our giving is a response to God's grace to us. In fact, one of the uses of that word is verse 9. For you know, he's giving this as the ultimate example of our giving. For 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. Indicating that Jesus and his great love for us and his grace for us and desire for us to be saved left the riches of heaven, the splinters of heaven, and was born in a manger, in a stable grew up in poverty. Give up all of that white to become one of us and that was grace. Now Paul goes on to talk about what the example of the Macedonians means. So what does grace giving look like? Well, just take a look at the Macedonians and you'll see what grace giving, what giving that is an overflow of our hearts to the grace of God will see what that means. First of all, it is sacrificial. Look at verse 2. In the midst of a very severe trial, they're overflowing joy and their extreme poverty, welled up in rich generosity for I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Now this is amazing giving. This is sacrificial giving. This is not after everything else had been taken care of. They've got a little less over and they're thinking about maybe giving it to God. It's not that kind of giving. This is giving that hurts on the part of the Macedonians. I'm not saying that will always be true of us, but our giving should be such that even when we are in difficult times. The giving does not stop. Let me just illustrate it simply this way. When I was about ready to get married almost 45 years ago now, my dad sat me down and showed me his budget. It was a very important lesson for me. He taught me how he handled his money and just showed me how he did his budget. I've never forgotten it. I still do it the same way he did it. It's pen and paper. It's antiquated. I still love it. I still do it that way, partly just to honor my dad. It's the way he showed me. One of the things he showed me was a piece of paper on which he had all of the items of a monthly budget, like all the bills, all the discretionary spending. He showed me, John, the very top line of your budget is your tides and offerings. He taught me the rationale for that and the symbolism of that is that it is not at the bottom of the list. It is not even in the middle of the list. It is at the very top of the list. Now the Bible teaches that in Proverbs 3. We'll get to that verse in just a little bit. But he was teaching me. That is the top. He said, John, you don't ever give that to anything else. If you can't pay all of your bills, if things are going hard, you do not use that tithe money to pay your bills. That's what he taught me. By the grace of God over 45 years, Jeanne and I have stuck to that. I'm not saying it's always been easy. There have been times, and this is one of those times in our lives quite frankly where God has been very good to us. But there have been times when it has been extremely difficult. I have cashed in a life insurance policy to pay my bills before, but I never took the tithe offering. I worked an extra job, got up at four o'clock every morning to run a paper out when I was pastoring in Indiana because things were so tight. I did that for a year. It was hard, especially on Sunday morning. You know how big Sunday papers are. And to leave the house at four o'clock in the morning, deliver papers for three hours and then get back and preach. That wouldn't easy. It hadn't always been easy to do that. But by God's grace, honestly, I'm not saying this boasting. I thank my dad for teaching me and by God's grace, he just kept that sacred to me. Honestly, I have felt that God would judge me if I ever touched that. That's his. And I'm not going to use that for anything else. Grace giving is sacrificial. Doesn't always mean that you're giving us a sacrifice. But I believe it does mean that you're willing to give sacrificial. You will not use that for other things. And we'll see later that God will take care of you. If you make that commitment, he will provide your needs. And we'll make that commitment. Grace giving is sacrificial. These people gave out of poverty, severe trial. It says, but the rich generosity, well done to where they gave even beyond what they were able to give when you put it on the balance sheets. It doesn't look like it's a workout right. But they did it anyway. Trusting that God would take care of their needs. So grace giving is sacrificial. Secondly, grace giving is voluntary. Now, I want you to see this. Grace giving is voluntary. Look at look at verse three. He says, where I testify that they gave as much as they were able and even beyond their ability. Now, here it is entirely on their own. They urgently pleaded with us for the privilege of sharing in this service to the Lord's people. Here's the deal. Paul makes the need known. Yes, there's nothing wrong with that. Paul makes the need known. The churches in Jerusalem are suffering. We need to help them. We need to take an offering. He makes the need known. But that's as far as it went. He left it up to the hearts of the people between them and God to give voluntarily. And he's saying the Macedonians, Corinthians, they set you the example. They voluntarily gave. They didn't put any pressure on them. We didn't run any contest or give away any prizes. They voluntarily gave. In fact, they pleaded with us for the opportunity to give. They're asking us, what can we do? My friend biblical giving, grace giving should not be as a response to begging. There's no indication that Paul begged them. He made the need known. And then he left it between them and God. Grace giving does not need to sell anything to raise money for God's work. Grace giving does not need to have been suppers and spaghetti dinners and all to raise money for God's work. I know there are lots of Christian organizations that have sales promotional type things. I'm not saying all that's wrong. I'm saying for the church, we need to practice grace giving. And grace giving simply said, when I see a need, I will respond out of the generosity of my heart as a response to God's grace for me. I don't need some kind of contest or promotional fundraising effort to give. I just give. And that's the way the church ought to operate. Thirdly, grace giving is spiritual. It's spiritual. Look at verse five and they exceeded our expectations. They're not talking there about they gave more than I thought they would. That may be included. That's not really what it's talking about. Look at he explains it. He says they exceeded our expectations. They gave themselves first of all to the Lord and then by the will of God also to us. What he's saying is that the way they exceeded his expectations is that they voluntarily offered themselves to go serve. I'm convinced that what he's talking about here is the Macedonian believer said all it's awful about those saints in Jerusalem. Can we help you get the offering there? Can we go ourselves? Is there anything we could do to help them with needs they have? You see, their offering was not just all I'm writing check. That's easy. That doesn't require anything of me. No, they're giving out of their poverty was we give ourselves first. I will do anything I can to help these people and then that opens the pocketbook also. So they gave themselves first to the Lord and then to us. There he's talking about the offering. So grace giving is always spiritually focused. It is a reflection of our commitment to Christ. You see, our giving is a reflection and a response to the grace of God on our behalf. Again, the example is Jesus who though he was rich where our sakes became poor that we through his poverty might be made rich. And that's what grace giving is all about. There are lots of other kinds of giving, high pressured sales gimmicks, contests, all kinds of things. Grace giving, biblical giving is sacrificial. It is voluntary and it is spiritual. The principle of grace, the third principle in our giving that Paul addresses is way over in chapter 9. It's the principle of sowing and reaping. In the rest of chapter 8, Paul basically gives some further instructions about how the offering will be received, how it will be delivered to Jerusalem. Who's going to do it? Any further challenges that Corinthians to be involved? That goes all the way through chapter 9 verse 5. The next real principle about giving is found in chapter 9 verse 6. Remember this, whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and whoever sows generously will also reap generously. It's interesting that he uses the example of a farmer and farming really is a great word picture of the concept of giving. Sowing and reaping. There are really three lessons we can learn from farmers that Paul mentions in this passage. The first is this, we must sow in order to reap. You got to sow in order to reap. A farmer will not have a harvest. If he sits around all spring, doesn't plant anything. I've never been a farmer, not the son of a farmer, but my first 17 years in ministry were in farming areas in North Carolina and Indiana basically. North Carolina was chicken and pigs, but they raised corn also. Indiana, it was all corn, whole states corn. You can see anything up there but corn. I understand a little bit about how farmers work. You got sow in order to reap. I don't care how spiritual a farmer is, he's not going to get a crop if he doesn't sow some seed. If he doesn't plant some seed, in that metaphor, that word picture, what Paul is saying is that we cannot expect to reap the blessing of God. If we are not graciously giving some of our resources, by the way, to go back to my dad's teaching, which I believe was solidly biblical from Proverbs 3. A farmer doesn't eat his seed corn. He realizes his seed corn is for next year's planting. If he eats all that up, he's going to be in big trouble. Come next spring. So regardless of how tough it gets, he doesn't need a seed corn. He saves that for planting next spring. Trusting that God will use that to give him a harvest. That's what my dad taught me. Son, even if the budget gets tight, don't use your seed corn. Don't use what you've committed and made a covenant with God. You're going to give to him. So we've got to sow in order to reap. The second lesson we learned from the farmer is that we reap in proportion to what we sow. And that's exactly what Paul says there in verse 6. If you sow sparingly, you reap sparingly. If you sow generously, you reap generously. Now let me clarify the reaping here. The blessing that comes from, so obviously he's talking about giving when he's talking about sowing the whole context bears that out. So what kind of return are we expecting here? Now this passage has often been misused by the name it and claim it. Type of preachers who say, all you've got to do is really make a deal with God. You give this much, you get a car, you give this much, you get a house, you give this much, you get all your problems taken away, you give this much, he'll give you your health. And by the way, usually it ends up being you send me this much and you'll get this send me this much in my TV ministry and you'll get this or this or that or the other. That's not what Paul's talking about here. Now God may choose to bless us in return for our grace giving. God may choose to bless us physically. He may choose to bless us materially. He's not obligated to do that in those ways, but he may he may choose to do that. He may also bless us spiritually. Or here's one maybe you haven't tried on for a while. God may bless us with the capacity to be content and enjoy what we already have. There's a person proverbs that intrigues me. It's Proverbs 10, 22. We'll put it on the screen for you. The blessing of the Lord brings wealth without painful toil for it. Now the idea there is, especially in Old Testament times where God had made a covenant with these people. If you're faithful to me, I will bless you materially. I'll give you reigns, I'll give you good crops and there was a closer tie in that way. But he's saying basically if God gives a blessing it does not include painful toil. You know when people are eager only to make money it usually requires a lot of pain and usually results in a lot of pain. If that's your ambition in life you're going to have a lot of pain in life. But if we are generous and God blesses us in return, part of that blessing is that we have no painful toil with it. We're content, we're joyful, we're pleased with what God's enabled us to have, what He's given us. So we reap in proportion to what we sow. And then one final lesson from the farmer is this, we reap more than we sow. Verse 10, we reap more than we sow. Obviously that's true in farming isn't it? It's true in gardening. What do you put in a corn hill? Three kernels, right? Something like that? Is that all you get back? Of course not. You may get a bunch of ears of corn on that one stop. So we always reap more than we sow. Verse 10 says, now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. He's saying, I will enable you to have your needs met and to be able to continue to give and prosper and do what God wants you to do. To have all that you need to do what I want you to do is the idea. So what He's saying is you can trust God to provide for your needs. That's the principle of sowing and reaping. Quickly the principle of amount. This is a big one. The principle of amount, one that raises a lot of questions. Verse 7, each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion for God loves each yearful giver. You know what the Bible saying here? You must decide the amount. I do not have a right to tell you what amount you should give. That's between you and God. You decide the amount. That's clearly what He says. Back in chapter 8 and verse 12, He says, for if the willingness is there, the gift of is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have. In other words, God doesn't expect us all to give the same. We don't all have the same income. And so He doesn't expect us to give what maybe someone else is able to give. It's according to what we have. And He says the same thing back in 1st Corinthians 16 that were to lay a part of a lay aside a part of our income as God has prospered you. I mean, not be the same level. He's prospered someone else. So really the amount is you have to decide between you and God what you will give to Him. You said, well, John, it really helped me a lot. I'm one of those black and white guys. I like to see, give me a number. Well, let me give you a two key words that can give us some guidance. But still don't settle the issue exactly. You're responsible to determine what you give between you and God. There are two key words that may give us little guidance. One is a tithe. Now the word tithe simply means a tenth. That's what the word means. In the Old Testament Israel was required to give the first 10% of their crops to the Lord. Look at it in the Leviticus 27, 1st 30. The tithe 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. And here's the principle my dad taught me in Proverbs 3. Proverbs 3, honor the Lord with your wealth with the first fruits of all your crops. This left over with the first fruits. The first 10% went to God. That was for Israel. And what they were supposed to do with their crops. And then he promises your barns will be filled over. Floating your vats will bring them with new wine. Those promises made under God's covenant with Israel. This was a direct correlation between their giving and God's physical material blessing in the Abrahamic ends, especially mosaic covenant with Israel. So there were tithes that they gave. In fact, if you study the Old Testament closely, there are three different tithes. This one that we just saw was the tithe of all their crops, which would be given to the tabernacle later at the temple, to sustain the work of God. There was a second tithe called the festival tithe. One of the tithe to go into it. But the festival tithe was to be given for the three religious festivals of the year that every Jewish male was supposed to be in Jerusalem for. To provide the food and drink and so forth provision for all of that. There was a festival tithe. And then every three years Israelites were required to give a third tithe to the poor. Three different gifts, three different directions for three different purposes. So in actuality, a 23 and a third percent of their income went or their crops and provisions went to support what God wanted them to do. The last third of that, the last tithe was obviously their social program to take care of the poor. And that's how God stipulated they do it. Now the New Testament does not mention tithing except in the gospels where Jesus is reminding the Pharisees of the Old Testament commandments about tithing. So in the church, there's no indication of a specific percentage amount. I'm honest with you, there isn't. It really is between you and God. And every time Paul talks about giving, he says you do as you purpose in your heart. But I would certainly think if you're one of those kind of people that says, okay, I need an amount to go by. I think a tithe is a good place to start. 10 percent of our income, good place to start. Not legalistically required. But certainly a good place to start. And then the second word is an offering. Even in the Old Testament, there were offerings given above their tithes. For instance, one of the five offerings that Jews would bring to the tabernacle in temple was a fellowship offering. There was no stipulation for a reason why that should be brought. It wasn't like the sin offering or the burnt offering and other offerings that were for particular reasons to cover certain problems and sins. This one was just if you have a desire out of the gratitude of your heart to praise God, bring a fellowship offering. It's just an offering above your tithe. And then when they built the tabernacle and later the temple, we don't have time to look at those passages, but sometimes read Exodus 34 and 35. Read Second Chronicles chapter 29 and you'll find in both of those instances the people gave over and above so much so that that first Moses and then Solomon had to say, stop, stop, you're giving too much. So tithe and an offering. Let me just quickly answer a couple of questions that usually come up. One is this. Let me get in the form of a statement. If you decide between you and God that you're going to give a portion of your income to God, which I think is the biblical thing to do, it shouldn't matter when we miss a Sunday. If you're giving a percentage of your income to the Lord, that shouldn't, if shouldn't make any difference in that when we miss a Sunday because of weather, but in recent years it always has. I know that many of you, maybe most of you understand this concept. It's a percentage of my income. It's not just a percentage of my Sundays when I'm there. It's a percentage of my income. So regardless of whether or not I'm there, if I miss a Sunday, I'll make it up next Sunday. That's the concept. And most of you, I believe, probably understand that. There may be some that don't. If you understand what the Bible teaches about, give according to your income, which means I think a certain percentage decided between you and God of your income, it doesn't matter whether I miss a Sunday. I was gone for, including the Sunday that we missed for weather and then the candidate Sunday and some ministry opportunities. If I was gone for straight Sundays in January, I'm going to assure you that what we have committed to give to this church did not. Stay at home did not go anywhere else in our budget. We made that up. I think that's the biblical thing to do, principle of amount. Second question that often comes up is should I give everything I give to my church? Again, I can't tell you what God wants you to do there. I know that there's a version of Malachi that talks about bringing all your ties into the storehouse, but that again is the temple, the tabernacle, Old Testament law, when they're bringing grain and food and things like that for the feast, and they had these storehouses on the outside of the temple to store all this stuff. There's nothing to do with the church, but that verse has often been used for what's called storehouse tithing for the church. I don't think that's appropriate. Again, I'm just trying to be honest with the scriptures. It would be easy to think, wow, okay, we got a verse that says, all of it has to go to the church. Let me just share with you my own personal conviction. Again, I can't say legalistically this for everybody, but it is our conviction and it seems just to make a lot of sense to us that our regular percentage of our income kind of giving our tide needs to go to the place that ministers to us and our friends. And that we are involved in serving to support the outreach ministries of this church and the missions ministries of this church. And so we've just come to the conviction that our our tides need to go to this church offerings, then we decide some of them go here, some of them go to other ministries or missionaries that God may have laid on our heart. That's just what I chose to do. You've got to answer the God for what you choose to do and I just leave that with you the amount. Quickly, there's the principle of attitude. Look at verse seven. Each of you should give what you've decided in your heart to give not reluctantly or under compulsion, not because of pressure, not because you're reluctant to give, just give, give what you've decided in your heart for God loves. A cheerful giver. You know, if your mate said to you, I love you and you probe a little bit, well, I'm not supposed to. I don't really want to do, but I do anyway. You don't want that kind of love. You want cheerful, gracious willing love from your mate. And then that's what God is looking for. He doesn't want us to give because we feel pressured. He doesn't want us to give grudgingly like I don't really want to do this. He wants us to give cheerfully joyfully. I know that's hard for some of us. For some of you, it is an emotional experience to part with your money. One of my favorite stories is the story of Stumpy and his wife Martha. Some of you will remember it. Stumpy and his wife Martha would go to the county fair, or the state fair every year. And every year Stumpy would see that biplane, that old classic antique biplane, and he would say to Martha, Martha, I really want to ride that airplane. And Martha would say to him every year, Stumpy, you know that airplane cost $10. And $10 is $10. Well, every year this would happen over and over again. Finally, they go one year to the state fair. Stumpy sees that antique biplane over there offering rides. And he says, Martha, I'm 81 years old. If I don't ride that airplane this year, I'll never get to ride it. And she says, Stumpy, you know that airplane ride cost $10. And $10 is $10. Well, the pilot happened to overhear them this time. And so he came up to them and said, I couldn't help, but over here your discussion, he said, hey, I make you a deal. So I'll take you both up. And it was one of those old planes that had, you know, pilot seat up here right behind it was a passenger seat, right behind that was another passenger seat. And I'll take you both up. And I'll make you a deal. If I don't hear any screaming or any word at all from you, the ride is free. I won't charge you anything. But if I hear a piece out of you, it's $10. So they agreed and up they went. And the pilot tried every trick in the book. Dives, rolls upside down in versions, all kinds of stuff never heard a sound. So he thought, okay, I'll do it again. So we tried all these tricks again. Still, nothing, no sound. So he finally landed the plane, turned around to Stumpy and said, I can't believe it. I tried every trick in the book to get you to yell out. And I didn't hear a thing. Stumpy said, yeah, well, I was about to yell something when Martha fell out, but $10 is $10. For some of you parting with $10 is that hard. God loves a cheerful giver. The blessing for a cheerful attitudes in verses 8 through 11, we've already seen some of those verses. Basically says God's able to bless you at all times. In fact, he's able not only to reimburse what you've given, but to give you even more so that you can continue to be useful and fruitful for him. 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. It will bring spiritual blessing. And so what God is saying to us is that to be willing to give brings great spiritual blessing. A harvest of righteousness. As we see God use what we give to further his work. Little Chad was little boy went to elementary school who was a little socially awkward. And so the other kids kind of neglected him. And so his mom would see the kids walking home from the neighborhood school and there would be a bunch of kids walking down the sidewalk and Chad would always be by himself. The other kids just didn't pay much mind to Chad. And so it troubled her when Chad said to her one morning in February, I want to make a Valentine for every kid in my class or 20 of them. And she just had a seeking feeling like he's going to do all this and he's not probably going to get any Valentine's from any other kids. And her heart was breaking. She just kind of knew what would happen. But she went out and got the materials and they worked hard and made some beautiful homemade Valentine's. And he proudly took them off to school one day and she just knew that it was going to be a disappointing day. And so she had decided to make his favorite cookies and have them ready for him when he got home from school. She could hear the noise of the kids in the afternoon walking down the sidewalk. And so she went to the window and looked out sure enough, just like always. Group of kids joking with each other, having a great time Chad by himself following along her heart broke. She took back the emotion as she opened the door. And before he could say anything, she said, I have got your favorite cookies for you. They're warm just out of the oven. Come on, let's go have a snack. But he hardly heard a word. She said with a beam on his face and his chest swelled up with pride. He said, not a one, not a one. I didn't miss a one. I gave them all out. He didn't have one Valentine card. But he was so happy and pleased that he had done what was in his heart to do. God loves cheerful, joyful givers who know that he will reward and take care of their needs. If they're faithful to him, would you pray with me, please? Father, thank you for your word. Thank you that your word is so clear about the joy that we can have. And our responsibility to give for the furtherance of your work. Help us, Lord, to do that in a gracious way, in a cheerful way. I pray, Father, that you would bless our people. Lord, I know there are people in this church. I'm thinking of a lady right now, Lord, who committed recently to giving a tie of her income. And it meant that she wouldn't sure she'd be able to buy food. And yet, Lord, you provided for her. And I think of her as one of those Macedonians. And I know there are lots of folks like that in this church. And I thank you for them. I'm humbled when I think of the faithful, generous, grace givers in our church. I know there must be many. But there may be some of us who've not yet learned these principles. And I pray that you would seal them home to our hearts, not so that a church budget can be met. But so that we will have the joy of knowing that we are in line with your word and your work. We can see you bless those gifts throughout the world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.