Christian Stewardship
Because of God's indescribable gift of salvation,
we should be generous with
our material possessions.
Here's Gene to explain this Principle:
It's a matter of worship, thanksgiving, and praise.
To meet people's needs, do God's work?
Yes, but ultimately our motive is what
God has given us, and we are responding
in love and thanksgiving to Him.
That's why Paul ended chapter 15 there, where he said:
Thanks [to] God for His indescribable gift.
And that's after he was talking about material blessings.
Now there's just one verse I want to pick
up here from Leviticus, which opens up a
whole section of Scripture. And here it says:
Every tenth of the land's produce...
And again this is agricultural because
that was their way of making a living.
That's the way in which they even shared--
was with produce.
...Every tenth of the land's produce,
grain from the soil [or] fruit from the trees,
belongs to the LORD; it is holy to the LORD.
Now just a quick synopsis of the tenth,
as God gave it the Old Testament:
The children of Israel were to give
10 percent [that's a tithe] of their resources
to support their spiritual leaders.
Number 2: The children of Israel were to
set aside another 10 percent to be able
to worship God as a family--
to make a trip to Jerusalem.
And there are the references.
Number 3: Every third year, they were to
set aside another 10 percent to meet the
needs of others.
And you find that in Deuteronomy.
And by the way, the total there comes to
about 23 percent, if you average it over
three years--23 percent a year.
But in addition to the tithe:
Beyond these three tithes, they at times,
gave freewill offerings.
That's how they built the tabernacle.
That's how they built the temple.
That's how they did all those things--
the special projects that God had them do.
Now that was in the Old Testament.
That's the situation in the Old Testament.
And here's a very important concept
between the old and the new.
Under the new covenant,
God established principles for giving,
not patterns which leads to a
very important question.
Now get this point:
He gives us principles, not patterns.
A pattern is the tithe--the three tithes
that we just outlined,
which was designed for Israel.
And remember, they were a self-contained society.
That would be like income taxes and
everything that went in to support this
system to make sure that it all functioned right.
And so consequently we have to
understand the context of that.
But that raises the question:
What percentage should Christians set
aside on a consistent basis from their regular income?
The interesting thing is, the New Testament
doesn't specify the pattern,
but it gives us guidelines. It gives us Principles.
For example, from 1st Corinthians we
have a Principle of generous giving:
As true followers of Jesus Christ,
we should be generous with our
material possessions, giving regularly,
systematically, and proportionately.
And then you'll notice that in this passage we read:
On the first day of the week, each of you
is to set something aside [and] save to
the extent that he prospers, so that no
collections will need to be made when I come.
Now out of that come some very
interesting observations:
Material gifts should be set aside
regularly. No question.
Though Paul mentioned "the first day of
the week," this certainly varies from
situation to situation depending on when
we receive material benefits.
Some people work on, you know,
special bonuses and so forth and so on.
Our whole culture is different.
And so he's not locking us into a pattern
but a principle of regularity.
Number 2: All believers ["each of you,"Paul said],
should be involved in giving as they are able.
And if you look at other passages,
it affirms that from this passage in Corinthians.
Number 3: These gifts should
not be given from our leftovers but from our firstfruits.
That's why they're to be set aside on a regular basis.
Not leftovers but before
we do anything else, we set that aside.
That's a Principle in the New Testament.
Number 4: All Christians should give
proportionally [as "he prospers"],
based on their capacity to give.
And so the more we have,
the more proportionately we give.
That becomes something that multiplies
broadly and significantly as God blesses us.
This is what you have in the New Testament.
In 2nd Corinthians you have a whole
series of guidelines, and I'm just going to
give you a little mini-sermon on this
very, very quickly.
The Principle of Guidelines for
Generosity in 2nd Corinthians is:
To live in God's will, we are to follow
biblical guidelines for using and sharing
our material resources.
And let me just run through these:
God wants us to take a step of faith,
trust Him to enable us to give based on
our future income.
You see that in 2nd Corinthians.
You trust God for the future. And you're going to say:
This is what I'm going to give based
upon God's making the provision.
Number 2: God wants us to plan our
giving so we can give with a positive attitude.
He wants a joyful spirit.
You see that in 2nd Corinthians.
Number 3: God wants us to give
material gifts in generous ways so that
He can bless us generously--
often in non-material ways.
And you will see that, in many instances,
God blessed them and gave them grace to endure
even in poverty.
And to be generous even in poverty
with what little they had. That's grace.
That's not a big bank account.
That's grace, which is a pretty big bank account,
by the way, that God can give us.
Number 4: God wants each of us to be cheerful givers.
That's a basic repeat there, 2nd Corinthians 9:7.
God desires to meet our material needs--
not necessarily our wants--when we are
generous givers. We get that mixed up.
Number 6: When we're generous,
God will enable us to continue to be generous,
even with what little we have.
And that's amazing, because the
Thessalonians, the Macedonians, were in poverty.
And still they gave out of their poverty,
which was probably very, very little--
which was like the widow's mite.
But in God's sight it was huge and
far, far beyond those who had a lot.
See, that's the way God measures that.
Number 7: When we are generous,
we will cause other believers to praise and glorify God.
And you see that in 2nd Corinthians.
People are blessed by generous people.
Number 8: When we're generous,
other Christians will respect and love us.
Unless they're jealous.
And if they're jealous, they've got a problem.
One reason why, by the way,
people don't like messages on giving is, it makes
them feel guilty because they're not
living in God's will.
I find that people who are living in God's will say:
Preach it, Gene, preach it.
It's only the people who have a problem
that are uncomfortable.
I've learned that in 50 years of ministry.
And it's understandable.
The primary motivating factor for being
generous should be God's generosity toward us.
That should be our primary motivation. Now, question:
Why do so many Christians who could
give more give far less than 10 percent?
Well one reason is, they don't want a pattern.
They just want to give as they want to give.
And somehow they don't want to give
unless they have a pattern that helps
them to understand that.
You know, the question I raised was:
Why do so many Christians have a
problem being generous?
And the problem is that they abuse grace.
My own conviction on this--
and I've shared it with you before--
is that if God, under the Old Testament
talked about three tithes and freewill offerings
beyond that, it seems to me that
10 percent ought to be a minimum that we
ought to give under grace to support the
ministry--a minimum.
And I've shared with you that I grew up
in a family where I was not taught to give.
And that goes back again to my father
and my mother and their lifestyle.
And they did not have a regular plan and
they didn't teach me.
And so when I got married, Elaine had
parents who taught her to give.
And their model was 10 percent,
even though they were farmers.
They figured that out. And [for] farmers--
it's tough to figure that out.
That's a bit more difficult situation.
And they taught her.
And when I brought home my first
paycheck, she immediately took 10 percent,
before taxes, and set it aside to give to the Lord.
And I remember my reaction: We can't do that.
And she said: Well, I believe we should.
And I was a submissive husband and I--[laughter]
and so we started giving.
And the exciting thing for me is that
we've never missed that level.
I think there were a few times we got behind--
we made it up very quickly.
But we've never missed 10 percent before taxes.
And that we set aside. And we had to
adjust everything from that point forward.
Because I think when I got married I had
$700 saved and immediately spent it to buy a car.
And then we started from there.
And she had a few wedding gifts and we
started from there.
But we always put God first and
somehow we were able to always make
it through the month. It was tough at times.
And that was our minimum.
And I'm thankful to say that we can go
beyond that minimum now.
But to me, we need a standard.
And when we set that pattern,
we can also teach our children.
And you've heard me share how we
taught our children--
with pennies, and dimes, and dollars--
what a 10 percent would be.
And they could understand that from very small.
That if you have 10 pennies, you set aside 1 to give the Lord.
You have 10 dimes, you set aside 1.
You have 10 dollars, you set aside 1.
Anybody can understand that very early in life.
And so all of our children grew up with
that as a standard--a minimum.
And that's why I think we need a pattern.
And a lot of Christians today, as parents,
don't have a pattern.
And how're you going to teach your
children to give if you don't have a
method to help them?
They will grow up in this world with a
very materialistic attitude[s].
And that's why some Christians don't
give virtually anything to the Lord.
Because they have nothing left over.
They've not planned it. They don't take it
off the top. And they don't have anything left over.
They've spent it on themselves and their needs.
And their luxuries a lot of times.
And have nothing left over for God.
So we come back to this Principle that,
I think, rose out of the whole biblical story:
Because of God's indescribable gift of salvation,
we should be generous with our material possessions.