Saturday, 20 September 2014

Second to One: Finances

Our vision is simple: Serving God in Our World.
Our mission is broken down into five areas:
S - sacrificial living
E - extending the kingdom
R - relationships with God and each other.
V - vibrant in worship
E - empowering people.

So far in this series we have looked at:
Second to One in our Relationships
Second to One in Our Worship
Second to One in Our Life Goals
Second to One in Our Sexuality - the response to this was so great that we are looking agin at this in our Big Questions night.
Today we are going to look at:
Second to One in our Finances
Next time:
Second to One in Our Work

There can be one thing that people with a lot of money and people with a little money have in common: the desire for more money!

For too long we have sad that money is evil.  It is not.  Money is amoral.  In other words it has no morality attached to it, it has not mind of its own, it cannot decide where it is going to go and what it is going to be used for.

The morality that money has comes from us.  We are the ones who give it its purpose.

Too often money is seen as being the purpose of people, the gaining of it.  Money brings happiness after all, right?  Not so.  Money gives options to a person, and options create a sense of well being.  In and of itself money will not make you happy.

1 Timothy 6:10: For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil.
Some use this as a proof text that having money is wrong.  Let’s look at this in context:
1 Timothy 6:6-10: But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7 For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. 8 But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. 
Let’s pause there for a second.  Paul is telling Timothy that as long as our needs are met we can be content for ourselves.  The basic needs are all we actually need!  Remember Jesus told us this and we looked at in the first message:
Matthew 6: 33: But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

We need to settle this in our hearts when we discuss money today: We don’t seek money for money’s sake.  We seek the Kingdom for the Kingdom’s cause.
Let’s continue with 1 Timothy 6:
9 Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. 10 For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.
Notice there: those who want to get rich fall into temptation… for the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.
Obviously, not all people who are wealthy are evil.  Anymore that all poor people are virtuous.  If money is our life goal we’re in trouble.
We do need enough though to be able to live, save and give.
Googling Giving
Before I continue let me address something else.
There is a of stuff on the internet that says tithing is defunct.  They will claim that as believers we don’t have to tithe and skip over some of the verses about giving in the NT.  We need to understand that what is behind this is not a desire to set believers free from an unnecessary obligation, but a result of their own hurt.  Sadly, around the world, but particularly in the USA and some parts of the African continent, financial abuse and corruption is a reality.  To give and then discover that someone at the top of the ladder is just getting rich makes the giving to God through the church an issue.  How many times have you heard it say by non-believers, “the church just wants your money!”  That’s not true, but it carries weight because of the abuse that has occurred.

Let me point out some things about giving to God via giving to Life Church.

Pastors here have no idea who gives what.

Financial decisions and commitments are made by the Oversight Team, made up of pastors and lay people.

The Oversight Team is advised by the finance team who track spending and help set budgets.

We are part of a national UK Charity, Elim, and are therefore subject to charitable law.  So how we spend what comes in is subject to scrutiny.

The pastors here are on a set salary scale.  So if the offerings increase 100 fold our salaries do not.  

Each year we have an Annual Thanksgiving Meeting and publish our accounts for you.  We’re transparent.  You need not wait until and annual meeting to ask us about giving.

What I am saying is that you can give with confidence.

Today I am going to share with you how to get more money….. to give it away.
So let’s look at some money principles based on the Bible:
The Tithe:

This subject raises its head every now and again and can be divisive in the Church (hence the stuff on Google).

There are two types of tithe recorded in the Bible.  

Firstly, The relationship tithe:

People who say we no longer have to tithe miss the point of the pre-law tithe.  It was a heart issue borne out of relationship with God.  It was never a bribe.  It was never commanded.  It was commended!
Abram tithed to Melchizedek:
Genesis 14: 18 Then Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. He was priest of God Most High, 19 and he blessed Abram, saying, “Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth. 20 And praise be to God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” Then Abram gave him a tenth of everything

Did Abram have to give to Melchizedek (whom many commentators believe to be at least a ‘type’ of Christ or Jesus Himself)?  No.  The blessing of God proceeded the tithe the tithe.  The tithe was not required but it was given.  

It showed where Abram’s heart was.  It showed that He was going to put God first.  It was a tribute.

Read the later verses and we discover something else: 
Genesis 14: 21 The king of Sodom said to Abram, “Give me the people and keep the goods for yourself.” 22 But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “With raised hand I have sworn an oath to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the strap of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich.’

Notice this: man wasn’t to get credit for wealth or blessing Abram.  You cannot manipulate God and man cannot get credit for what God is doing.  

Abram tithed out of gratitude and relationship.

Jacob alter also does a relationship tithe at Bethel.

Genesis 28:20: Then Jacob made a vow, saying, “If God will be with me and will watch over me on this journey I am taking and will give me food to eat and clothes to wear 21 so that I return safely to my father’s household, then the Lord will be my God 22 and this stone that I have set up as a pillar will be God’s house, and of all that you give me I will give you a tenth.”

For Jacob he encounters God and his heart changes about money.  Now he is putting God first.  He is a deceiver.  He has stolen his brother’s birthright.  It takes God another 20 years to deal with his default setting of deception (Gen 31:38).  He had been a wheeler dealer, a deceiver, a capitalist!  He knew how to make money and accumulate wealth.  However, he has made a promise out of relationship - the Lord will be my God - to give a tenth.  

True, he might be bargaining with God, but how many of us got things right when we first met Jesus?  There was a process of growth in out relationship too.  He takes another 20 years to get this right, but at least a change has begun.

I do not believe that Jesus overturned the relationship tithe.  He castigates the Pharisees for not keeping the important points of the law:
Matthew 23:23: Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former.

You should have practised the latter (justice, mercy and faithfulness) without neglecting the former (you give a tenth).  One of the few things Jesus commended them for was the tithe.

Hollow giving doesn’t impress God.  Giving for recognition doesn't impress God.  

If you recall Abram gave a voluntary tenth to Melchizedek.  Some would say that this is an isolated incident and no pattern for today.  In Hebrews 7 we are told that Jesus is  priest in the permanent order of Melchizedek; a priesthood that is above that of Aaron’s.  I haven’t got time to unpack this but simply to say this: Jesus is worthy of our gifts and tithes out of gratitude for our salvation, not to earn it.

Giving generously and sacrificially does when it is out a relationship with God:
Luke 21: As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. 4 All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”

Again I believe those are an example of relationship giving.

I tithe.  I do so not to earn or gain my salvation.  I do so because of my gratitude towards God for Salvation.

Billy Graham put it like this:
“The Bible says that it was Christ’s love for the church that caused Him to go to the cross.  If Christ loved the church that much … I must love it too.  I must pray for it, defend it, work in it, give my tithes to it, help advance it, promote holiness in it, and make it the functional, witnessing body our Lord meant it to be,” (Peace With God).

Actually our tithes are always given to God, never a man.  They are to honour Him, not a man.  They are an act of worship from a grateful heart.

Proverbs 3:9: Honour the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops

Tithing was a feature of Hezekiah’s revival (2 Chronicles 31:5, 6, 12) and Nehemiah’s reforms (Nehemiah 10:37, 38; 13:5, 12).

Secondly, The legal tithe - law.

The other kind of tithe people talk about is enshrined in the Law.

The tithe was given to teach Israel to rely on God. 
It was compulsory but often we find the people lapsed and withheld this.
It took several forms and actually some have calculated that it ended up as 22% of total income!

1. Tithes of land and animals (Leviticus 27:30-33; Deuteronomy 14:22)
2. Firstborn - sons redeemed by sacrifice, animals sacrificed or killed (Exodus 13:12, 13)
3. Tithes to Levites who in turn tithed to high priest (Numbers 18:20f)
i.  Tithes to be given to storehouse: place of food and seed (Malachi 3:10) or the central sanctuary (Deuteronomy 12:6, 11, 17).
ii.  To withhold tithes was to rob God (Malachi 3:8)

4. Note that in Deuteronomy 14:23ff the givers were allowed to enjoy the tithes of the land themselves, while every 3 years (cf. Amos 4:4), the tithes would instead be used for the support of the Levites and the disadvantaged (14:28f, and 26:12).

5. Voluntary Giving- above and beyond the above
a. Burnt, grain and fellowship offerings of either bulls, sheep, goats, 
        doves, pigeons according to their wealth (Leviticus 1-3).
b. Malachi 3:8 speaks of tithes AND offerings
c. While tithes supported OT ministry, voluntary gifts equipped places   
        of worship (Exodus 35:4f; 1 Chronicles 29:1 f).

It may be argued that the legal tithe is no longer required.  I do not tithe because the OT Law demands it.  However the are other aspects of the OT Law that Christians do observe (Ten Commandments; Observing the Sabbath - at church).  We don’t keep these due to a legal requirement but out of a love relationship.

Whilst we do not carry out burnt offerings any more, as we will discover, the heart of the believer is a generous one.

Let’s skip forward to now to some of the problems we face today.

The Slavery of Debt

A lot of people say to me that they do not give because they cannot afford to.  Some of this is related to debt.

One of the greatest problems facing the Christians is debt.  Many here will have never been in debt.  Some here have and have lived through insolvency and bankruptcy.  Let me give you some quick help here about debt:

2 Kings 4:1-7: The wife of a man from the company of the prophets cried out to Elisha, “Your servant my husband is dead, and you know that he revered the Lord. But now his creditor is coming to take my two boys as his slaves.” 2 Elisha replied to her, “How can I help you? Tell me, what do you have in your house?”
“Your servant has nothing there at all,” she said, “except a small jar of olive oil.” 3 Elisha said, “Go around and ask all your neighbours for empty jars. Don’t ask for just a few. 4 Then go inside and shut the door behind you and your sons. Pour oil into all the jars, and as each is filled, put it to one side.”
5 She left him and shut the door behind her and her sons. They brought the jars to her and she kept pouring. 6 When all the jars were full, she said to her son, “Bring me another one.”  But he replied, “There is not a jar left.” Then the oil stopped flowing.  7 She went and told the man of God, and he said, “Go, sell the oil and pay your debts. You and your sons can live on what is left.”

I know we all know this passage and have heard more stories about the presence of the Holy Spirit (being oil), and all that is well and good.  I want us to think a little bit about the widow here who has debts so we can see some brief principles about getting out of debt.

  • Debt may be your fault through bad decisions or something you inherit (her husband had died).  
Either way debt is debilitating for it takes food off the 
table.
  • Debt is a form of slavery.
We read that her two sons are to be collected by the creditor (Lev 25:39).
This creditor doesn't sound like a nice person as the law prohibited treating debtors as slaves, but then when has a loan shark ever been fair.

When you are in debt it is difficult to be a generous person because the money you owe technically is not yours but belongs to someone else.
  • Ask for help.
She asks for help from Elisha.  Maybe she though she was going to get a hand out.  Instead she got a hand up.
So many decide to struggle silently on with no help at all.  
  • What’s in the house?
Often solutions are closer than we think. 
She had a little oil.  Most of us have a little of something - a talents, things we no longer need, things that are sellable.  Cut backs we can make.

  • Be counter-cultural.
She lived in a village where everyone was running out of oil.  There were a lot of empty vessels and jars!  They may have been in the same or similar boat as her.
She asks for their empty jars.  She gets a lot.  She was  doing something that others were not prepared to do.
It can be tempting to ignore the problem, not pick up the phone, refuse to answer the door, but none of that helps.  Do something!
  • Use what you have to generate income.
She starts pouring and God starts multiplying!  Be creative.  Get another job.  Restructure your finances.  If it’s really bad talk to CAP about a debt management programme.
  • Stay out of debt!
Go and sell the oil and pay off your debts.  
Change your life!  Don’t get back into debt.  Live off the profits.  

Allow God to assist you in the debt to get out of it.  Generally speaking there should only be a maximum of two areas in our lives where there is personal debt: our house (unless you can pay cash for this) and our cars (unless you can pay cash for these).  For some a credit card is bad news and if so don’t use them.

To help you further with this we are introducing in January the CAP money course and invite you to sign up.  This will help you pay the bills, give to the Lord and even save some money.

The Generous Heart

A lot of people who tell me that tithing is no longer required of us forget to mention this: everything we have comes form God!  He doesn’t want 10% believers but 100% commitment. 
  • Planned Generosity:
1 Corinthians 16:1-2: Now about the collection for the Lord’s people: Do what I told the Galatian churches to do. On the first day of every week, each one of you should set aside a sum of money in keeping with your income, saving it up, so that when I come no collections will have to be made.

Why were they to do this on the first day of the week?  Probably because that was pay day!  

Set aside a sum of money.  This is planned and disciplined.  It means that they are not going to spend this on themselves.

In keeping with your income.  Please listen to this carefully.  Our giving should be in proportion to our income, not our expenditure.  The issue here is not one of 10% (although I think this is a great bench mark).  The real issue is that we do not spend it all or live beyond our income.

Many people give in relation to their expenditure.  That is not generous.  That is placing the work of God last.  That’s not seeking the Kingdom.  

Many say to me that they will give when they win the lottery.  That’s foolhardy and not good stewardship.
A quick thought about the lottery:
  • don’t fool yourself, if you’re not generous now you wont be if you ever won.
  • don’t fool yourself into thinking that you’re giving to good causes.  Christians should take more responsibility in their charitable donations - many of the good causes that are supported by the lottery would not be things you’d give to if they approached you directly.
  • don’t fool yourself, it’s gambling and shows you’re not depending on God.
  • Incremental Generosity:
Many who tell me that the tithe is old news actually don’t want to be generous.  We need to understand that money is to have no hold on us.

I was challenged recently at Rivercamp when one of  the speakers said that they had been incrementally giving more throughout their lives.

It reminded me of a person I knew who was a multi-millionaire.  He had been asked many times to enter church ministry and recounted to me one occasion when he was a Bible college in the 1980’s when he was asked about his calling.  He said to me, “I’m called to make money!  I make money for the Kingdom.  My accountant tells me that I am now giving 90% away to the Kingdom!”  He wasn’t bragging.  You’d never know he was wealthy.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying we’re going to get to 90% giving.  After the Rivercamp meeting, and on reflection on holiday, we’ve put in place a plan to increase our giving.

To be generous and sacrificial in giving Christians think it has to be random, spontaneous and out of a compulsion.

Friends, generous and sacrificial giving comes from stewardship - Having a budget, having a handle on finances, so that when a need comes we cam meet it.

Remember: stewardship is not asking where all the money went but telling the money where to go!

Start somewhere.  It may be at 1% of your income.  It may be at more.  It may be that God is speaking to you right now at increasing your giving.

The Christlike Giver
Christlike giving is a work of grace within us.  God always touches and owns a heart before He owns a wallet or purse.  Here are some characteristics of Christian giving.
  • Give with the right motive
Much of today’s prosperity teaching is based on getting you to be rich.  It is based on selfishness for we give to get.  When we seek material gain we are still trusting on our own strength and security.

In contrast, Christlike giving gives because it is a work of grace in our lives (2 Cor. 8:7).

The primary motive of a Christian giver is is to give everything to God, to honour the Father because he or she desire to be generous like God.  

This type of giving is something God plants in our hearts as we surrender to Him.
  • Give Generously
2 Corinthians 9:6-7: Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously.  Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

God loves generous givers who understand the law of sowing and reaping.  That does’t mean that we give to get.  God can give us blessings that are tangible and intangible, financial or non-financial.

The idea of prosperity in the Bible was not one attached to wealth but one attached to God making your paths, your life journey, straight (Psalm 37: 3-6).

In John 12:1-8 Mary takes a jar of nard (a rich perfume) and washes Jesus’ feet with it.  It was generous and extravagant.
Jesus didn’t refuse the gift but two things can be noticed here:
  • Generosity is criticised.  Judas stated the truth when he said it cost a years wages, but he only focused on the material value.
  • Generosity brings honour to the generous - it was intended that should should have this perfume for the day of my burial.  She was stewarding what God intended for her.  Jesus accepts it.
  • Give Thoughtfully and Prayerfully
2 Corinthians 9:7: Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give.
Giving is a deliberate decision based on prayer and planning.
Christlike givers think about it, pray about it, discuss it with their spouse if they are married, and take their giving seriously.

Impulsive giving is immature giving.  We don’t give because we feel moved emotionally or because some preacher manipulates you!  You give because God has spoken to your heart, you’ve planned it and then it is done methodically.

Next month we will be sharing with you a mammoth extension to the ministry for this church which is going to come with a financial obligation attached to it.  I’m not twisting your arm but advising you to get the money on order so we can move forward. 
Giving is a skill!  It is something that we learn to do. We need to practice it to get better at it.
  • Give Willingly
2 Corinthians 7:9b: not reluctantly…
We should never give out of guilt or duress.  We should not ‘grin and bear it.’  

You may come across TV evangelists who make appeals like, “If we don’t get your gift, we’re going under this week!”  That’s manipulative. 

You will need to make a decisions on how much you are gong to give.  I believe that the bench mark is 10% and that to the generous heart that would be fine.  Some of us have a capacity to give more than that.  Some don’t due to the reasons outlined earlier.  All of us are required to give though!

Sometimes I have to pray that God will help my unbelief.  I have to as Him to help me be willing to give.  I guess for many of us our default position is to keep what we have!
  • Give Cheerfully
This is the most important characteristic of all.

2 Corinthians 9:7c: God loves a cheerful giver.

The Greek word for cheerful is hilaros; we get the English word hilarious from this.

You may have been here today, listening to the podcast in the week, or reading the notes online, and thinking, “Your having a laugh!”

The truth is giving is a joy and not a burden when we have planned it, decided upon it and do it as an act of worship.

Happy people are giving people and giving people are happy people (Acts 20:35).

Wrapping this up:
The tithe is still valid today, but out of a relationship with God, not out of legal duty.

Jesus as a priest in the order of Melchizedek is worthy of our free will tithe.

Debt and overextending ourselves puts us in slavery to creditors.  We need to get rid of debt and ask for help.

The New Testament is focusses on planned and generous giving.  Each of us should plan to give more than we currently do!


Everything we have comes from God and therefore everything we have is His.  He can ask it of us at anytime!

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