Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in
full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and
poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get
back. Luke 6:38(NLT)
For the Christian there are a number of lifestyle hallmarks that aren’t
vague or up for debate. Praying without
ceasing, Proclaiming God’s Word without ceasing, and today we look at Planting
without ceasing.
To
“plant” is to drop seeds in the ground.
In order to do that you must let them go into the place where they will
grow…the soil. In the Kingdom of God the
soil is something like an offering plate; the seed is whatever God places in
your hands.
It’s
all about giving with generosity…and getting so good at it you learn to love
being a blessing with your giving like God loves you.
Jesus
said a lot about motives. And when it
comes to our motives in giving, this text gives us great insight into human
nature. Jesus knew people, and the
condition of the human heart. He knew
(and knows)
how much we are more likely NOT to
give. Especially when we can get out of
it! We are most naturally bent in the
direction of keeping, and then trying to defend why we keep rather than give. (This is the age-old ploy, do I tithe on the net or gross?)
One
Pastor probably came the closest to nailing that whole rationalization
proclivity when he announced from the pulpit one Sunday, Brethren, let us all give now
according to what we reported on this year's Federal Income Tax return.
If
you are a believer, you have heard many times how it is a Christian's
responsibility and joy to give. If you
are human, your heart probably rebelled, alerting you to the fact that you
really didn't want to
give. You might have even had the
thought cross your mind, who does that preacher think he is, telling
me I should put MY money in HIS plate?
There are three responses I've come to understand:
1. It's not my plate;
2. It's not your money;
3. The preacher is supposed to tell the congregation to put the
Lord's tithe in the Lord's plate on the Lord's Day, and in the Lord's way,
which is cheerfully!
Cheerful
giving is what I want to talk to you about today. This speaks not so much about how
much, but how we
give our gift.
I
have read the Bible, attended seminars on Biblical stewardship, studied human
nature and history. In all, I have not
been able to discover more than two basic motivations, or reasons why people
give. We either give because we have
to; it’s a legalism thing. Or we give
because we trust what God said about giving and receiving (which is how God
gives).
Jesus
warns many times that we should not elevate self. Drawing attention to self by giving makes us
hypocritical; we announce our humility.
Jesus said giving for personal glory or popularity is wrong.
In
Matthew 6 Jesus saw a poor woman humbly and quietly put two little coins in the
offering. He also saw rich folks having
trumpets blaring while they dropped in a fortune. Jesus abhorred the "blowing of
horns" because it put people on different levels. When rich people loudly gave a large
contribution, it announced to the poor person that in the Lord's house poor
folks are excess baggage.
Chuck
Swindol told about a hi-tech offering box he heard about in a church. This box has a laser that reads the
contribution immediately. When you drop
in a $5 bill or more nothing happens.
Any coins that total fifty cents or more sounds a little bell. A quarter will get you a gong; and a dime
sets off a siren. If you walk past without
giving, a camera pops-up, takes your picture, faxes it to the treasurer,
and puts a flag on your membership record.
Some churches would run out of film!
This
is why the Lord's chosen way of stewardship is tithing. No matter how much or little you earn, 10% is
still 10%. God's way is equal sacrifice,
not equal amounts.
We are to give cheerfully, but
without drawing attention. When we give
either grudgingly or with attempt to get credit for our giving we do two bad
things:
A.
We sin against those who are poor, telling them church is no place for
a poor man. And if we do that…
B.
We lose our real reward – God’s approval.
The
appropriate attitude when giving is with trust that God will not only use the
gift to build His kingdom, He will also supply our needs. To give because we trust means that we have
decided to affirm that it is right to obey God.
Trust
is a fragile thing. Sometimes our faith
grows weak, and we doubt God's wisdom in teaching us to be givers. We may want to hold back our giving because
we don't like the Pastor's haircut, or the way the choir sings. We're not certain the Treasurer or Finance
leaders will do things the way we want. We
worry that our Conference Office might give to something we disapprove. That is the problem – we think!
When
we begin to trust our own opinions, personal preferences, or base our giving on
whether we like the personalities of leadership we move into control giving,
and away from trust giving.
A
high-school grad went off to college, leaving her Mom to care for her plants
and goldfish until semester break. The
mother had a black-thumb and the plants died. The goldfish didn't make it either, and Puddles
the dog ran away from home. Mom was
dreading the call. When it came, she had
to admit to her daughter that the plants had all died. Are my goldfish and Puddles O.K.? Again the Mom had to tell the truth. After a pause that seemed an eternity, the
freshman asked, Mom, is Dad feeling OK?
Jesus said that we are to have
trust in the sovereignty of God, and give; we must entrust our giving into His
hand. We are to do it as God has so
plainly stated in His word:
·
The tithe belongs to the Lord
·
It belongs in the Lord's house (the local church where I belong)
·
It belongs in the Lord's house on the Lord's day (in regular worship)
·
It belongs there in the Lord's way
(cheerfully,
no horn-blowing)
How
can I give cheerfully if I have trouble trusting?
The
famous psychiatrist, Karl Menninger has stated that one sign of mental health
is the ability to release money, to give it away. How many generous people do you know who
exhibit mental instability? It is often
the stingy, controlling person who is neurotic.
God
created us to be healthy. One way to
contribute to your mental health is to practice generosity. Jesus did, and we are supposed to be growing
into His likeness.
Some
people give to their church, and then criticize everything that is done. That, my friends, is not letting go. That is not trusting God for the
outcome. It is also opposite to the
purpose of giving, which is to create in you a sense of trust for God's way,
and provide a tangible way of expressing your faith.
We
have choices in giving. We can withhold;
we can give grudgingly; we can draw attention to our giving...or...we can be Biblical Christians,
giving with a cheerful heart, trusting God for the outcome.
The
choice is simple: trust God, or try to
control everything.
From
experience I can tell you, it’s much better to trust God!
No comments:
Post a Comment