Hebrews Lesson 83 March
29, 2007
NKJ
Philippians
We are studying the New Testament doctrine of giving. Giving
is a subject, sort of a secondary study, as we are coming out of Hebrews 7
where we have just about the only reference to tithing in the New Testament
. Tithing is one of those subjects that
for a lot of believers is extremely touchy.
I have gotten into some very heated discussions with some people in
certain denominations because they cannot understand what you mean when you say
that tithing isn’t for today. Part of
that reason is because it has become almost synonymous with giving. They can’t separate what they call
giving. They have these rather
legalistic notions about giving. It is
amazing how people can’t grasp the whole principle of grace giving. Now we have gone through Old Testament
passages the last few weeks. We
summarized those under about four basic summary principles.
The first of those was that giving even under the Mosaic Law was not a
part of the means to spiritual growth.
It wasn’t the means to either salvation or to spiritual growth. You had two different types remember. There was mandatory giving which was for the
support of the government which was the priesthood and the tabernacle and
temple and in support of the widows and orphans. But there was also freewill giving. Freewill giving was an expression of
gratitude to God and recognition within the Mosaic Law that everything that we
have is really God’s. God is the owner
of the land that He gave
The second thing that we noted was that grace doesn’t mean that you
don’t have obligation or responsibility, but that it is up to our volition to
participate in the way God has planned these things. We do have various obligations.
The third point that I made was that grace doesn’t mean that it is
free. It may be free to us, but there is
still a cost. There is still a price
attached. Jesus Christ gives us
salvation at no cost. It is free to one
and all, but there is a cost involved.
He had to go to the cross and die for our sins.
A principle that we see developed even in the Old Testament is the
principle of generosity.
Then we came over to the New Testament.
I started going through the doctrine of tithing in the New
Testament. Without going into a lot of
detail, I will summarize those points.
The first point was that tithing is mentioned in the gospels only in
reference to the practice of the Pharisees - the term that is. Tithing is only found with reference to the
Pharisees. In that sense it was a
legalistic practice. It was legalistic
because they thought that by doing it, they could gain the approbation of
God. You can have two different
acts. You can have prayer that can be
legalistic or grace oriented. You could
have attendance in church or Bible class that becomes legalistic or it is grace
oriented. You could have witnessing that
becomes legalistic or grace oriented.
Anything can become legalistic because you are doing it in order to get
God’s approval. You are doing it to get brownie points from God. Anything can be perverted. That is exactly what happened.
Remember Paul said in Romans 7 that the Mosaic Law was righteous, good,
and holy. That means that the laws pertaining to tithing were righteous, good
and holy. But, the way tithing was
practiced (Remember a right thing done in a wrong way is wrong.) by the
Pharisees was a way to manipulate the favor of God. So that’s why it became legalistic. A lot of people throw this term legalism
around in an inappropriate way. People
say about someone perhaps who is very concerned about always doing things the
right way, appropriate conduct, very sensitive to moral issues, and very
sensitive to being obedient to Scripture.
There are those who would say, “They are just legalistic.”
They aren’t legalistic. They are
just concerned about doing the right thing.
Legalism has to be correctly defined.
Definition: Legalism is
the attempt to gain God’s favor on the basis of what we do.
It is opposed to what Paul says is that in response to what God has done
we should live a life in gratitude to Him.
In some ways it may look the same on the outside, but only God knows the
heart or what the internal motivation is.
So the first principle was that tithing is mentioned in the gospels with
reference to the legalistic practice of the Pharisees.
When it came to giving, our Lord mentioned in Matthew 6:2-3 that the
principle is that is to be a private matter.
It is between the individual and the Lord. Not only should individual believers not know
how much some believer is giving in terms of either amount or percentage; but
it is no one’s business whether you are giving.
The whole thing is a private matter between the individual and the
Lord. What you see in so many churches
is where there is this emphasis to show giving.
You have to be careful not to overreact and go in the other way as I
pointed out last time. There are some
churches who overreact in the other direction and they’ll hide the offering box
and stick it back in the corner of the nursery under a flower pot to make sure
nobody can find it. (I am being a little
factious; but they make it almost difficult to give, impossible to give). It is hard to find how to give. You don’t want to overreact because that is
just as wrong in its way as what it is reacting against. You want to be relaxed about the whole
thing. It is between the individual and
the Lord remembering that God will always supply that which is needed.
The third principle is that the New Testament recognizes that free will
giving is based on gratitude in the soul and not some prescribed
percentage. I gave the reference from
Luke 21:2-4 about the widow giving out of her poverty.
That brought us to the fourth point which dealt with our passage -
specifically that Abraham’s tithe when he tithed to Melchizedek (gave 10%) was
a one time gift that is described in Hebrews 7:5-9. It came from the recovered plunder. It didn’t come from all of his
possessions. If you read the text it
came from his plunder, not everything that he had before that. If we were to apply this passage the way the
tithers want to apply it, they would get a lot less money than what they are
trying to get. Unfortunately we used to
manipulate people by guilt and that is a violation. If you are giving out of guilt, you are
violating various passages of Scripture as we will see this evening.
The fifth point then is that tithing is not a synonym for giving and is
not a substitute for grace giving.
Tithing was a mandatory form of giving.
Don’t use the phrase or think of it as simply a synonym for giving. Tithing was something completely different.
Now that brings us to the sixth point which is that the New Testament
principles for grace giving are located in three central passages that I want
to look at this evening. The first is
Romans 12:8. The second is II
Corinthians 16:1-4. The third is II
Corinthians 9:4-15.
So we will start with Romans 12:8.
This sets a summary foundation for the principle of giving. It is talking about spiritual gifts in
context.
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Romans 12:8 he who
exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with
diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
The context is talking about spiritual gifts. There are seven spiritual
gifts are listed in verse 6-8. They have
to do with prophecy and service and teaching and exhortation and leadership and
mercy. I left out the one we are talking
about which is giving. So it is talking
about giving and it’s talking about the spiritual gift of giving in this passage. That is specifically the reference because
it is talking about how a person should exercise that spiritual gift. The principle still applies in terms of the
use of the gift.
One thing that is interesting is that everybody has a spiritual gift.
Most of the spiritual gifts (ignoring the sign gifts since they ended with the
destruction of
So the principle for giving is as it is translated in the New American
Standard is “with liberality”. Giving
with liberality doesn’t catch the meaning of the Greek word. If you look in a couple of basic Greek
dictionaries you get something like what I have on the screen.
The Greek word translated “with liberality” is the Greek preposition en
plus the noun haplotes. It has to
do with single in the sense of being single-minded, not having an ulterior or
double motive. It is used to indicate
that which is simple or pure or sincere or faithful. It indicates
plenitude. That is a fancy word for
generosity. In the New Testament the
writer says that it is only used in a moral sense as the opposite of duplicity
meaning sincerity, faithfulness toward others, manifested in helpfulness,
giving assistance to others. It is equivalent to being faithful and benevolent. When I think of liberality I don’t
necessarily think of being faithful.
Benevolent yes, in the sense of generosity. However the basic idea of this word is of
something that is done with a genuine sincere attitude. There is no sense of guilt manipulation.
There is no sense of trying to impress God or anyone else with giving. It is giving the gift with no strings
attached, without any reservations, without any hidden agendas.
Often you have people say, “I have given X number of dollars to the
church. I don’t like the way they
painted the Sunday school building so I am not going to give them any more
money.”
They are doing something or not doing something the way you think they
ought to be doing it.
Or in giving to a seminary they say, “Well, they are not teaching the
favorite course that I think ought to be taught the way that I think it ought
to be taught so I am not going to give any more money.”
That is not grace giving. There
is no Christian organization that is always going to do it right. The church leadership isn’t always going to
make wise decisions. We’re not
perfect. Seminaries don’t to that. People are going to make mistakes. People are sometimes looking at things from a
different perspective than we are. When
we give we are supporting the mission of a ministry and supporting the
leadership of that ministry. It is given
as unto the Lord. Once it leaves our
fingers, that’s it. It is totally up to
the Lord and we should forget about it once we make that decision. I am not talking about if a school or a
ministry or church shifts their position or begins to teach that which is
erroneous or their doctrinal position shifts or something of that nature. So we give freely as unto the Lord. That is the idea there. The person who gives, gives freely as unto
the Lord without reservation. The
concept of benevolence or generosity is also present there.
Now that is our first passage.
That is a summary understanding of the concept of giving in the New
Testament.
Now let’s go to I Corinthians 16.
Paul went on three missionary journeys and a fourth trip that I believe
he went on as he was taken to
At the end of the first missionary journey (Now remember this. This is one of those teaching moments that
you’ll capture chronology of the New Testament. At the end of the first
missionary journey he wrote one epistle.
At the end of the second missionary journey he wrote two epistles. At the end of the third missionary journey he
wrote (Anybody want to guess?) three epistles.
Then when he was imprisoned in
At that time he has heard that there is a famine in
NKJ
1 Corinthians 16:1 Now
concerning the collection for the saints, as I have given orders to the
churches of Galatia, so you must do also:
What is Paul doing here? This
runs counter to what some people think.
Paul is getting ready to ask them for money. Paul is going to tell them
that there is a financial need and that they have a responsibility to do
something, no matter how little it may be, to help the needy. There are some people who get the idea that
it is more spiritual not to ever mention that a ministry has certain
needs. Paul clearly rejects that. He mentions the fact that there is a
financial need in
He doesn’t just say, “Pray about it.”
He is going to give instructions about how to set aside the money on a
regular basis so that when he comes there will be the financial resource
there.
Instead of coming in at one time and saying, “We are going to have a big
fund raiser today. When I leave next
week I have to take $15,000 with me.
Let’s just surprise everybody next week.
Everybody come up with $15,000.”
He knows that it is going to be 5 or 6 months before he gets back to
everybody. It might have even been
longer.
So he says, “Start laying up money now.
Take a little out of your paycheck each week and then by the time I get
there, there will be a significant amount and it won’t hurt.”
It is very orderly. It is very
precise. He is not afraid to mention a
need.
In the middle of the 19th century there was a tremendous
believer in
Now people read that and they say, “I need to do what George Mueller
did. I am not going to tell anybody
about my needs except God. I am just
going to pray to God and He is going to answer that.”
Well, God did not direct us in the New Testament to do what George
Mueller did. There is nothing wrong with
what George Mueller did. That fits under
one of those areas that is a gray area.
While you are still in I Corinthians, I am going to flip back for a
minute to I Corinthians 8. There is a
lot of stuff here that flies in the face of certain sacred cows that we
sometimes have. In the first part of I
Corinthians 8 Paul is dealing with the principles of gray areas – the principle
of liberty in the areas that are neither right nor wrong. He is going to deal with meat sacrificed to
idols. He says at the beginning…
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Corinthians 8:1 Now concerning things offered to idols: We know
that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love edifies.
Whenever you see (especially in the New King James or the New American
Standard) this phrase “now concerning” which in the Greek is peri de, he
is shifting to a new topic. That gives
you your outline. So you have a topic
shift at 8:1, but you don’t have another topic shift again for several chapters
- not until chapter 16. Actually,
everything after that kind of floats together.
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Corinthians 8:2 And if anyone thinks that he knows anything, he
knows nothing yet as he ought to know.
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1 Corinthians 8:3 But if
anyone loves God, this one is known by Him.
He gets down here and he talks about the whole issue of doubtful things.
He says…
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1 Corinthians 8:4 Therefore
concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing
in the world, and that there is no other God but one.
Where he is going to go with that is to warn them about whether or not
they should eat meat sacrificed to idols.
Some people said “No, you shouldn’t.”
That would indicate that you are validating the idolatry, so it is
wrong.
Others said, “Idols are nothing.
They are just stone. There may be
a demon there, but they don’t have any reality there. It is fine to eat the meat.”
They were grace oriented. Others,
it wasn’t that they weren’t grace oriented.
They were immature. They were
weak as Paul says here in the chapter.
The principle is…
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Corinthians 8:9 But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours
become a stumbling block to those who are weak.
In other words, don’t use your liberty in front of people that you know
are weak and it will becomes a stumbling block for them to sin. In other words, be sensitive to people. It is the law of love. Recognize that some people may not be taught
and it might be a problem to them, so don’t use your liberty to put a stumbling
block in front of others.
Now most people when they deal with this issue of gray areas and
doubtful things or areas that are not specifically addressed in Scripture as
right or wrong they go to I Corinthians 8.
They talk about the meat offered to idols and they stop. They don’t go into chapter 9. Chapter 9 is just as much a part of the
discussion of doubtful things as chapter 8 is.
But, it is a different area. It
is an area of how the apostles conducted their ministry. Maybe that is a fresh idea for you. Some pastor may conduct his ministry in one
way before God and another pastor another way and both are okay. Both come under the category of doubtful
things.
That is what Paul says in verse 1.
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1 Corinthians
In other words, he is asking these rhetorical questions to emphasize the
fact that he is an apostle and he has every right and privilege that belongs to
someone who has been chosen by the Lord Jesus Christ to be an apostle. Then he follows that up with a couple of more
rhetorical questions in verse 4.
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Corinthians 9:4 Do we have no right to eat and drink?
The idea there is, don’t we have a right to enjoy life and to enjoy the
fine things of life, to eat food, to drink good wine, to enjoy all the benefits
and all pleasures of life?
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1 Corinthians 9:5 Do we have
no right to take along a believing wife, as do also the other apostles,
the brothers of the Lord, and Cephas?
So apparently all the other apostles, when they traveled, took their
wives and children along with them.
They Paul says, “Wouldn’t I have the right to do that as well?”
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1 Corinthians 9:6 Or is it
only Barnabas and I who have no right to refrain from working?
Then he goes on. I want you to
skip down to verse 12.
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1 Corinthians
That is to accept money, payment, honorariums for ministry to have their
wives and children supported in case of Peter and others when they travel.
He appeals to the fact because he has a relationship with them. He is still talking about doubtful
things.
He is saying, “Look, it is perfectly legitimate for another apostle to
bring along his family with him and to expect you as a congregation to house
them and feed them and clothe them and basically pay them a salary. I have chosen not to exercise that
right.”
Let me put it in other terms.
Some pastors out there for whatever reason decide that when they write
material, they are going to go through the standard operating procedure of
publishing books and selling books in the Christian book marketplace.
Some pastors say, “No, I am going to use a grace process and I am going
to make them available and we are not going to put any price on it.”
The point I am making is that one is not right and one is not
wrong. It is an individual decision of
whoever that pastor is depending on what the circumstances are in his
particular life and ministry. That is the
principle here. Paul says…
NKJ 1
Corinthians
That could relate to publishing through a standard publishing house or
operating on a grace ministry. It can go either way. The point I am making is that too often we
come along and we look at the way somebody did something. Paul did it where he did not ask for support
in
So we look at somebody and we say, “Look they did it this way. Look how God blessed them. Now let’s make this an absolute way and we
all have to do it that way. George
Mueller never mentioned that he had a financial need. Let’s all do it that way.”
The Scripture doesn’t say that.
That was George Mueller’s decision between him and the Lord. That was how he wanted to conduct his
ministry. It was fine and it was
wonderful. It is an incredible testimony. It is wonderful to read the stories of how
God provided. But that is not the only
way that God provides. He wasn’t
following any mandates from Scripture when he did it that way. It was just a decision that he was making
that was between him and the Lord.
I think there are those who have misapplied some things here. Obviously we live in an age when you go to
many churches and they ask for so much money and they sell everything. I have been places were you preach the
morning message and the tapes are duplicated and for sale for $10 apiece on the
way out the back door before you are ready to go home. There are all kinds of ways that people do
things.
I think that there is an overreaction to that when people say, “Oh, we
are so tired of hearing everybody trying to twist our arm about money and
always taking up a collection and putting a price tag on everything that we are
going to hide the basket back in the nursery somewhere.”
They never mention money and never tell what is going on because if you
even do that you have got to be wrong.
It is an over reaction in the other direction. It is legitimate to I think on the basis of
what Paul does right here in I Corinthians 16:1 to tell people about legitimate
needs as we did at the congregational meeting in February. We let people know
that we have a plan. Our plan is that we
would like to buy land and we would like to buy a building. It is not going to be free. It is going to cost something. We put that out and the Lord is going to
provide. The Lord provides through
people. It is legitimate for ministries
like Jim Myers ministry or Moses Onwubiko or any number of other missionaries
to let people know what it is that they need.
How many of us have ever seen any headquarters operations of any of
these ministries? How many of us know
how many computers they need, how many printers they need, how much it costs
for them to have internet hookups, how much secretarial help they need? We
don’t have any idea because we aren’t local there. Some of these places have been given
houses. I know of ministries that have
houses and yards and they have to pay landscapers to come in and cut the grass
and everything else. We don’t know what
is needed.
It is helpful for ministries to say, “Pray for us about these things.”
There is nothing wrong with doing that.
Some people have reacted to that.
That is exactly what Paul is doing here.
He is saying, “There is a legitimate need in
So he is identifying a need and telling them ahead of time that he will
be taking up a specific collection for them.
In verse 2 he gives them the principle.
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Corinthians 16:2 On the first day of the week let each
one of you lay something aside, storing up as he may prosper, that there be no
collections when I come.
Notice he didn’t say, “Lay 10% aside.”
He didn’t give any qualifications – just something. It is between you and the Lord how much you
are going to set aside. This wasn’t for
the support of the local congregation. This was money that was to be taken back
to
In other words, it is not on the basis of a percentage. It is on the basis of how God has provided
for you and how God has taken care of you and how you handle it.
In other words, he is not going to take up a collection when he
comes. The money is already going to be
set aside.
What is interesting to me is sociological studies. They are interesting every now and then. You don’t make policy as a church based on
those. You don’t base your evangelism
methodology on them which is the standard operating procedure in church growth
today. But it is interesting.
I am familiar with this situation that is not too far from here. There was a church for sale. They had about 3 ½ acres and they had 5
buildings on it and a parking lot. They
were asking around $4 or $4 ½ million for it.
It was a tremendous set up and a nice church plan. A couple of those buildings had been built
within the last 15years or so. One was
their office building. I think it was
three floors. It was a nice set up. It was bought for I think $3 ½ million
recently by a Korean Baptist congregation that has been meeting for a number of
years over at Tallowwood. Now this
church that was for sale had a membership.
I know at one time they ran three services in their auditorium and that
auditorium holds about 800. The church
that bought it had 100 people in it.
They paid cash. Why did they do
that? Because they were Koreans and
Koreans give percentage wise about 6 times more than what Caucasians do. Blacks give two or three times. It is interesting. Different ethnic groups give differently in
their congregations just because the way they approach from their world view
and in their culture how they handle money and prosperity and personal and
material possessions. It is
interesting. Here is a church that is
about 15 years old and 125 members and comes up with $3.5 million cash to pay
for this church. I think that is
fascinating.
The principle is as He may prosper.
Every person and every group is going to handle that somewhat
differently.
Paul says in verse 3…
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1 Corinthians 16:3 And when I
come, whomever you approve by your letters I will send to bear your gift
to
So we see a couple of important principles here. First of all there is a principle in verse 2
of regular giving. Now that may be
weekly. Maybe you get paid twice a
month. Maybe you get paid once a month. But, there is regularity to it. There is a decision beforehand. You sit down and budget and analyze your finances. You make a responsible decision before the
Lord and pray about it. Then you lay it
aside, set it aside for the Lord. The
principle of the percentage is as the Lord prospers you.
Then there is a responsible handling of the money by a responsible
individual chosen by the congregation.
We have a treasurer. We have a
policy that when money is collected it always goes back and two of the deacons
are together and they are back there to
witness each other to make sure that they double count the money. All of these safeguards are in place. I know of some cases where the collection is
taken up and the money is taken back and put on the pastor’s desk. I know in this one particular case that the
pastor goes in and takes all the cash out and puts it in his pocket. He deposits the checks in the bank. It is a
doctrinal church. I won’t say anything
more about that. That is what happens.
When Jim Myers put the slide up (if you missed it) the second morning of
the conference, $16 billion a year is embezzled in churches by deacons and
pastors and elders. $15 billion is given
to missions. So, you have to have
safeguards. A church has to have men who
have integrity who are appointed to handle the money so that it is all done in
an honest and above board way where there are checks and balances. Everybody has sin natures and can be tempted
especially in the area of finances.
It has to be somebody with honesty so that they don’t decide to take a
vacation to
Then Paul says…
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1 Corinthians 16:4 But if it
is fitting that I go also, they will go with me.
“If you think it is necessary, I will go in attendance.”
That is I Corinthians 16:1-4.
Now the longest passage, the most detailed passage on giving in the New
Testament is in II Corinthians 9. Again
this is dealing with the same basic background issue of giving to the churches
and their need in
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2 Corinthians 8:1 Moreover,
brethren, we make known to you the grace of God bestowed on the churches of
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2 Corinthians 8:2 that in a
great trial of affliction the abundance of their joy and their deep poverty
abounded in the riches of their liberality.
In other words the Christians were going through persecutions.
Paul doesn’t just say, “ Their poverty.”
In the depth of their generosity, they didn’t have much to give; but
they gave a tremendous proportion of it.
It wasn’t based on the fact that they were wealthy and that they had
plenty. They had very, very little yet they gave a tremendous amount. So Paul appeals to that as an example of
giving.
He gives another pattern in verse 9 of chapter 8.
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2 Corinthians 8:9 For you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes
He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich.
So the standard for grace giving always goes back to that great gift of
salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
He goes on to talk in verse 16 of that chapter about the collection that
he had taken up before that was taken to
In verse 5 he says…
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2 Corinthians 9:5 Therefore I
thought it necessary to exhort the brethren to go to you ahead of time, and
prepare your generous gift beforehand, which you had previously
promised, that it may be ready as a matter of generosity and not as a
grudging obligation.
That is referring to the collection of that which he had instructed them
about in I Corinthians 16. He sent men
ahead in order to collect that gift. It
was made up of money which we might call pledges. Sometimes that is a very abused system in the
way a lot of churches give. But it is
not necessarily or inherently wrong.
Paul points out here that it is a gift that they previously
promised.
“It was based on your generosity.”
It wasn’t based on guilt or arm twisting or any of that. That is what happens too often in situations
today.
Then he gives a principle related to giving in 9:6.
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2 Corinthians 9:6 But this I
say: He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows
bountifully will also reap bountifully.
That is in terms of
giving remember.
He is expressing the principle once again of generosity in giving in
support of local church ministries. As
we give we become partners with those ministries and we can have a special
blessing and privilege to watch how Jim Myers ministry grows and expands or
watch how Chafer Seminary grows or expands or when another missionary goes
somewhere and we read the reports of how so many people and so many pastors
were instructed and so many people learned the Word. So many were saved that we had a part in
that. The reality is that every ministry
runs on money. It would be nice if it
didn’t, but every ministry runs on money.
It is even more so today.
I was having a conversation with someone this week who was commenting in
observation on how many different ministries that we have seen over the past 10
or 12 years sort of merge together so that they can benefit from the finances
because of the cost of computers. Every
ministry has to have computers and internet and printing and all of these
overhead costs that soar. If you could
combine some so that if they could combine their overhead then it would make
things a lot more efficient. So we
always have to be mindful of all of those things. The government comes along and you have to do
all of the accounting and bookkeeping and all the things related to taxes. Even if you are a non-profit organization,
there is always paper work. You frequently have to hire the professionals to
come in and do that. So, all of that is
part of overhead and doing business in today’s world.
In verse 7 Paul makes the statement that we are all familiar with.
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2 Corinthians 9:7 So let each
one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity;
for God loves a cheerful giver.
That is, in his
thinking. It is not emotional. It is a
thought concept. It is thought out ahead
of time.
This is a problem
that you have in the way money is raised for too many ministries. Guilt is put on people or there is some other
kind of manipulation that goes on. This is very objective. This is where the individual should go home,
look at their finances, look at their budgets and think about their own
spiritual life, their gratitude. All of
these things come into play. Then make a
decision about how much they are going to give in support of local church,
missions and how they are going to plan it out.
The bottom line is that God loves a cheerful giver. The idea translated “cheerful” is the idea of
someone who is grace oriented and generous.
It is a synonym for the word we saw over in Romans and it has that idea
of liberality to it, of generosity and benevolence. It’s given without any strings attached.
Verse 8 is the underlying principle that God owns everything that we
have.
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2 Corinthians 9:8 And God is
able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all
sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work.
Notice how many times you have the word related to “all” here. In Greek the root word is pas. Sometimes it has a different ending so we
have the phrase pante pantote pas right in a row.
Remember the exercise we did when we went through Genesis 8 and we
circled every time there was a use of “all” or “every” during the time of the
Noahic flood and all the mountains were covered and all life was killed. It indicated universality there. That is the same idea here. God’s grace is sufficient for
everything. He will provide for the
believer who is involved in grace oriented giving.
This isn’t to be taken to the irresponsible extreme of the health and
wealth crowd that says, “If you give so much, God is going to be obligated to
give it back to you ten-fold.”
But God is going to supply the need for the believer. That is exactly what Paul is saying in this
particular verse. There will be a
provision, abundance for every good work.
God will provide that which is needed.
Then he quotes from the Old Testament in verse 9 from Psalm 112.
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2 Corinthians 9:9 As it is
written: "He has dispersed abroad, He has given to the poor; His
righteousness endures forever."
So in verse 9 and on we see the principle that God is the one who
ultimately supplies the gift.
In verse 10 we read…
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2 Corinthians 9:10 Now may He
who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, supply and multiply the
seed you have sown and increase the fruits of your righteousness,
So the giving is under the category of a fruit or production of
righteousness. That means it flows out
of the integrity of the believer’s soul, not manipulated, not out of guilt, not
out of any of these other false motivations.
In verse 11 he concludes by saying…
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2 Corinthians
So what we see here is that Paul is not afraid to talk about
giving. One reason I want to make that
point is that I also see that in some pastors, especially in young
pastors. I know when I was young I had a
certain hesitancy about ever talking about money. One reason is because we live
in this culture where you have a lot of preachers who are always talking about
money. So we have this problem of going
to the other extreme. But what we see in
Paul is that when it is time to talk about giving and money and there is a
need, then you need to talk about money and giving and what the need is. There
is nothing wrong with that whatsoever. There is nothing wrong with challenging people
to the fact that there are financial needs.
God doesn’t drop money out of heaven.
God supplies the need through believers who are grace oriented and are
responding to that particular need.
There is a responsibility on the part of believers to be involved in
giving. That is not legalism. That is still part of grace. Nobody is telling you how much. Nobody is looking over your shoulder. Nobody is twisting your arm. Giving is part of the responsibility of the
spiritual life of every believer.
Now the problem that we have in our culture is materialism. Paul
addresses this in I Timothy 6:6-11, 17-19.
NKJ 1
Timothy 6:6 Now godliness with contentment is great gain.
This is really addressed to people who have a trend in their sin nature
toward materialism lust and a desire to amass possessions.
That is spiritual growth, spiritual maturity. That word eusebeia
in the Greek has to do with god-likeness (which the old English had).
God-likeness is to have the image of Christ in you. So it is the concept of
spiritual maturity. Spiritual maturity
with contentment or happiness is great gain - to be happy with your
circumstances. Paul addresses that in Philippians 4 when he talks about...
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Philippians
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Philippians
Now a lot of you memorized that verse all by itself. I remember singing that as a chorus in Sunday
school.
You think that the “all things” means anything I want to do. Right?
No, if you look at the context what Paul is saying in verse 12 is that
he knows how to be poor.
“I know how not to have anything.
I know how to have prosperity. I
know how to abound.”
What is the “all things” in the context?
“I can handle prosperity or adversity.
I can handle abundance or need. I
can handle wealth or poverty because I can handle every situation through
Christ who strengthens me.”
He goes on to say in verse 19 a great principle related to giving.
NKJ Philippians
Now when Paul comes to I Timothy 6, he is talking about that spiritually
mature attitude that we can relax because we know that God is the one who
supplies all of our financial needs.
NKJ
1 Timothy 6:7 For we
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry
nothing out.
Now he is not contradicting the proverb that says the wise man leaves an
inheritance for his children’s children.
He is saying, “Don’t try to keep it all.”
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1 Timothy 6:8 And having
food and clothing, with these we shall be content.
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1 Timothy 6:9 But those
who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many
foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.
Notice it is desire to be rich here.
It is a desire to be wealthy for the sake of being wealthy because you
are placing your happiness in a detail of life.
Why? Because, they are thinking
that something in the cosmic system will give them happiness and meaning and
purpose. They make an idol out of money.
In Colossians 3 Paul calls that greed idolatry.
Now this isn’t talking about men who desire to be successful. There are many men who desire to be
successful and amass incredible amounts of wealth for the sake of supporting
the local church and missionaries. I had
the privilege to know some men like that.
Recently I was introduced to another individual like that. He is the president of his own company. He builds some kind of machinery and is very
wealthy. He has no children. He lives to give. He and his wife love to give money to
missionaries and various ministries.
Paul is not talking about that.
He is not saying it is wrong to amass wealth or to be wealthy. He is saying it is wrong to have the wrong
attitude toward it. There have been men
of tremendous wealth that God has used to supply the needs of local churches
and ministries and missionaries. It has
been a wonderful thing. But he is
warning there. Don’t put your focus on
the wrong thing.
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1 Timothy 6:10 For the love
of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed
from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.
The love of money – not money – that materialism lust, greed is the root
of all kinds of evil.
It is a warning against putting your emphasis on the wrong thing. He warns Timothy as any pastor not to focus
on wealth but to pursue …
NKJ 1 Timothy
Then at the end of the chapter in verse 17 he says…
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1 Timothy 6:17 Command
those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, nor to trust in
uncertain riches but in the living God, who gives us richly all things to
enjoy.
That is the problem as you start trusting in your money rather than in
God. I remember a number of years ago a
man who was listening to doctrine and studying the Word for many years told me
to make sure to tell people that the biggest test, the toughest test is the
test of prosperity.
Most people think, “Ah! Just give
me the test of prosperity.”
He said, “When I didn’t have anything and I wasn’t sure if I could pay
my bills or pay my employees at the end of every month, I listened to a tape or
two a day and I prayed a lot. I depended
upon the Lord conscientiously day-by-day.
But when I got successful and had one of the biggest companies of my
kind in my state and had a tremendous amount of wealth, I forgot to listen to a
tape everyday. It was hard. I didn’t feel like I needed to do that every
day.”
It is hard to keep those priorities straight because your survival isn’t
dependent upon it. But the reality is
when you are wealthy, your survival depends on it even more because you need to
pass that prosperity test.”
In verse 18 Paul puts the focus on the right thing.
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1 Timothy
That is that grace orientation.
NKJ
1 Timothy
That is the issue of utilizing our resources. Whatever that treasure is whether it is our
homes, our talents, or finances whatever it is to further the ministry to
minister to the body of Christ and to support one another in the correct
application of doctrine. The ultimate
reality is what happens at the Judgment Seat of Christ, not what happens at the
bottom line of the bank account at the end of life.
This is the biblical doctrine of giving.
It is not based on tithing. It is
not legalism. It is based on grace. I remember years ago reading a book on giving
by Dr. Ryrie.
He said, “The person who believes in grace giving really ought to give
more simply because they understand the dimensions of what happened at the
cross.”
Let’s bow our heads in closing prayer.