St Theodore's Sermon 1/11/98

	St Theodore's Wattle Park

Sermon of the Week

Christian Giving
Deut 15:7-11
2 Cor 8:1-15

There are 2 subjects that you'll find most people these days are uncomfortable talking about. Most people are uncomfortable with the subject of death, and equally not many people like to talk about money. Well, more specifically about their own wealth or lack of it. Think about how uncomfortable people feel when the conversation comes around, if it ever does, to how much they earn. In fact it almost never comes up does it? It's one of those taboo subjects. And the same seems to be the case when someone like me gets up to talk about giving. We immediately feel uncomfortable. Well, I do anyway. We might even feel defensive. Is he going to tell me I'm not giving enough? Is this just another case of the Church asking for more money, when I don't have enough to live on in the first place? Well, let me put you at ease. I'm not going to tell you how much to give. I'm not even going to tell you to give more. I know that some of us are giving sacrificially to God's work both here and in other parts of the world. No, what I want to do today is to give a brief overview of what the Bible teaches about giving. How each of us responds to that will be up to each one of us. What I want to do is first to outline how giving was arranged in Old Testament times and then look at what the New Testament teaches. Obviously the time available to us means this will hardly get below the surface of the issue, but I hope it'll give us enough to work on.

OT

So lets think about the people of the Old Testament. First of all, what did they give? Well, in Deut 26:1-11 we find they gave the first fruits of all they had. That is, as soon a they'd harvested their crops, the a tenth (tithe) of the first of the harvest was put in a basket and taken to the priests as an offering to God. Before they ate any of it themselves. Before they put aside grain for next years planting. The best of the crop was to be given to God.

Why was that? Let me suggest two reasons. First it was an acknowledgement that all they had came from God and so they gave the first of it back to him. But second it was an acknowledgement that they could trust God to continue to look after them. You see in a subsistence economy what you grew you ate, so to take 10% of it and give it away needed a certain degree of faith. What if the rains didn't come next year, or there was a locust plague? You might just need those few extra bushels of wheat or corn to get you through or to plant a second crop. So to give away a tenth required faith and trust in God.

But it wasn't just the first fruits of the ground that were to be given to God. The first born animals, and even the first born sons were to be dedicated to God as a reminder of the way the people of Israel had been rescued from Egypt through the death of every first born son of that land. So, according to Numbers 18:15, when your first son was born, you had to go to the temple and buy him back at a price of 5 shekels (about 55g of silver).

Over and above this required giving, they were also to give freewill offerings at times when something good had happened; when they wanted to thank God for his goodness to them. So in Deut 16:10 we find that when they celebrate the Feast of weeks, that is, Pentecost, the harvest festival, they're to "bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the LORD your God." That's over and above the tithe of the first fruits.

Similarly there were 2 occasions on which people gave gifts and offerings for the Sanctuary. Once in the Exodus when the people gave their gold and silver and bronze and fine cloths and timber that they'd brought from Egypt, so the Tabernacle could be built and furnished, and then when the Temple was built under Solomon (1 Chron 29:1-19).

Finally, they gave generously to the poor. There are a numerous references to the poor and fatherless and foreigners who don't have land. The people were to be open-handed and generous in lending to the poor. Loans were to be for a maximum period of 7 years. Each 7 years all loans were to be wiped out and a fresh start made. When they harvested they weren't to reap to the edge of the land. Rather they were to leave some of the harvest behind so the poor and the traveller could gather the gleanings. (Lev 23:22) Every 7th year the land was to be left uncultivated so that that year what grew on it was available for the poor to harvest. (Ex 23:11)

If you think about all that you find there were 3 motivations for giving: 1, because God had blessed them, 2, as a sign of their trust in God; and 3, as a way of caring for those in need. And the things that were given ranged from crops and livestock to gold, silver and precious metals, money, the use of their land and even their skills as artists and artisans.

How much did they Give?

Well, then, how much did they give? Well, that's a good question. First of all, they gave a tenth of everything. This seems to have been an accepted percentage for giving. Abraham in fact had given a tenth of the spoils of a battle to Melchizedek back in Gen 14, so tithing wasn't just something that came out of the Mosaic law in exodus 20 and beyond.

But on top of the tithe, and in fact there appear to have been up to three different tithes that people were expected to give, on top of those, they were also encouraged to give freewill offerings.

How were they to give?

Next, how were they to give. Well as we've just seen they were to give, generously, freely (Prov 3:27,28; 11:24,25; 22:9) not grudgingly (Deut 15:7-11) but as their heart moved them (Ex 25:2; 35:21; 1 Chron 29:17). And they were to give out of concern for the poor (Deut 15:7,8,10). Well, the last thing I want to look at from the OT is

What mistakes did they make?

The major mistake they made was to take God for granted. They started to see giving as just another religious act. Just another law to fulfill. They thought that it wouldn't matter if they cut a few corners here or there. The priests wouldn't notice if the sheep they brought had a crooked leg or if its wool was a bit too thin, or it had stopped giving milk. But Malachi 3 reminds them that they were shortchanging God, only bringing a part of what God had commanded. (Mal 3:6-12) The priests might not notice, but God did. He says they were robbing him. And as a result God would punish them. Yet if they'd bring the full tithe God would bless them. So much so that they wouldn't have barns big enough to store the crops they'd reap.

So that's the OT. But what do we find when we come to the NT.

NT

Well, when we read the NT we find that things are quite different although some of the principles are the same. Whereas in the Old Testament giving turned more and more around the tithe the further you went, in the NT the only mention of tithes is in relation to the Jewish Law which is now made redundant. For example Jesus, talking to the Pharisees rebukes them for being concerned to tithe such small things as spices while ignoring the weightier matters of justice mercy and faithfulness. (Matt 23:23) But what about positive teaching on giving?

Do you remember the incident when someone came up to Jesus and asked whether they should pay taxes to Caesar? What did Jesus say? He said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Matt 22:21) It's almost an aside, but there Jesus is reinforcing the OT principle that our giving is an acknowledgement that everything we have comes from God. When we give we're not giving God something he didn't have before. Rather what we give is God's already. We've just been looking after it on his behalf.

Now that's an important principle to start with when we're thinking about giving, isn't it? Giving to God isn't like the taxation system where we give what we've earned by our hard work to pay for services the government provides, and where if we can legally minimise the amount that's assessed as payable that's OK. No, when we give to God the only things we have to give are the things that he's provided for us in the first place. Now I know some people have a problem with that. They say "Hang on. I worked hard to earn my income. How can you say God gave it to me?" But if you think about it, where did we get the skills and talents that allow us or allowed us once to earn our income? Where did we get the good health that allows us to keep working? Even if you don't work for some reason and are on a pension, who put the government in its place to provide social welfare support to those who are unemployed or ill or on pensions? It seems to me that we're even more likely than the people of the OT to take what God gives us for granted, because we live in a secular world, because we live in a democracy, where it seems like the freedom we enjoy has come from our own efforts or those of our forbears. But we've got to be careful to remember that God is the one who in the end determines how we live, who sets governments in their place, who provides the fruit of our labour.

So what principles for giving do we find in the New Testament?

Well, first of all, as in the OT, people were encouraged to give a whole range of things to God. Their possessions. The early church, we're told in Acts 4:32, shared their possessions with each other so that no-one was in need. They distributed food to widows and other needy people in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1). We do the same with our food basket, with things we send to MMA, by recycling clothing we no longer need, by giving people lifts in our cars, etc. 2nd, Paul took up a collection of money for the Christians in Jerusalem who were in dire financial trouble. (1 Cor 16:2). People were sent from one church to another or were sent to help Paul (Phil 2:25-30; 4:16). They gave in the form of hospitality (eg Titus 3:13). This was an important thing in an age of few hotels or lodging houses. Again this is something we can do that's part of our Christian giving.

Secondly, these gifts were given primarily to one of 3 groups. First and foremost to the poor and needy. John in his first letter says "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?" (1 John 3:17) This is a theme that comes out strongly in Paul's letters. One of his great projects outside of preaching the gospel was collecting money to help the Christians of Jerusalem who were suffering enormous persecution and the poverty that came out of it. But also they gave to those who worked for the gospel. This was a principle that Jesus taught in Matthew 10:10: "laborers deserve their food" and it's a principle that Paul reinforced in 1 Cor 9:14: "In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." Thirdly, we're taught that we should give so that others can hear the gospel. In other words supporting organisations like CMS or the Bible Society. Jesus in his parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16 finished his story with this advice: "use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." In other words, learn from those who are wise in worldly things. They use their wealth to win friends and influence people here on earth. We should do the same, though with a different aim in mind. Rather we'll use what wealth we have to further the Kingdom of God: to win friends for ourselves in heaven.

Finally, how were they taught to give?

As in the OT, giving is to be done with generosity and an open hand. In 2 Cor 8:2 Paul speaks of how the Macedonian church's joy and poverty resulted in great generosity. Here was a church who were basically poor, yet they gave generously out of the great joy and gratitude that came from knowing Christ and his salvation. And they gave freely. Paul never tells people they have to give. This isn't a Christian duty. Rather it's a response of grace, of freedom, that arises from the grace of the gospel. Paul refers to it as their fellowship in the gospel. It's their way of sharing with others something of the goodness of God that they've experienced in their own lives. Now this is important for us to remember. Too often churches try to raise their income by working on people's guilt. By the application of some imaginary set of rules. That's one reason for rejecting the tithe as a requirement for giving. If you or I choose to use the tithe as a guideline for giving, that's fine, as long as we do it by our own free choice, but as soon as it becomes a demand or a rule, grace and freedom go out the window and we're back in the realm of law and guilt. They were also to give regularly. In 1 Cor 16 Paul suggests they put a sum aside on the first day of each week according to their income, saving it up until he comes to collect it. That's why we encourage people to use the freewill giving envelopes. So we can plan our giving according to our income.

Next, giving is to arise from our contentment with our lot. That is, being satisfied with what we have rather than being driven to get a bit more. I think it was Rockefeller who was once asked how much is enough, to which he replied " a little more than you have." But for the Christian the standard is godliness with contentment. (1 Tim 6:6-19) Otherwise we'll find ourselves serving mammon rather than God.

Finally, the bible never criticises people for being rich, though Jesus does warn about the dangers, when he says how hard it will be for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Riches are fine as long as they're used for the Kingdom and don't become an end in themselves. That is, an idol. We read a few weeks ago in Ephesians 5:3 that greed is idolatry. So if you're one of those who are considered rich make sure you use your riches to win friends for yourself in heaven not just to make yourself comfortable. On the other hand if you're not rich as the world counts wealth, think about the riches you have in Jesus Christ. Remember the widow who gave of what she had, little as it may have been, out of gratitude to God.

So what can we say from all that about giving. First of all, our giving isn't a duty, rather it's a response of love and gratitude to the God who has given us all things, including even his own Son. Secondly the model for Christian giving isn't the person next to us or across the road, it's God who gives us all things generously and without limit. Thirdly, the degree to which we give may be a sign of our trust in God. Fourthly our giving is one way we can participate in the fellowship of all believers, as we share what we have with others. Finally there are no rules. The OT rule of the tithe has gone with the old covenant. The question now is how can we give generously enough to match God's generosity to us? How can we avoid the temptation of the world to accumulate more and more possessions rather than accumulating more and more friends in heaven. There are no rules. Only God's grace. It's a generous heart and an open hand that knows how to give. We'll give, not because we feel guilty or to show others how good we are, but because we have a joy and a passion for God's Kingdom. Let's pray that God would help us to be open handed and generous in the way we give to his work here on earth.

For more on Christian Giving see "Explaining Christian Giving" by Dale Appleby in the "Explaining" Series, published by Sovereign World Books, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 0ZS, England. ISBN: 1 85240 079 X (distributed in North America by renew Books.)


	Contact us	Preaching Program	Home		Last Week's Sermon

	There are 2 subjects that you'll find most people these days are uncomfortable talking about. Most people are uncomfortable with the subject of death, and equally not many people like to talk about money. Well, more specifically about their own wealth or lack of it. Think about how uncomfortable people feel when the conversation comes around, if it ever does, to how much they earn. In fact it almost never comes up does it? It's one of those taboo subjects. And the same seems to be the case when someone like me gets up to talk about giving. We immediately feel uncomfortable. Well, I do anyway. We might even feel defensive. Is he going to tell me I'm not giving enough? Is this just another case of the Church asking for more money, when I don't have enough to live on in the first place? Well, let me put you at ease. I'm not going to tell you how much to give. I'm not even going to tell you to give more. I know that some of us are giving sacrificially to God's work both here and in other parts of the world. No, what I want to do today is to give a brief overview of what the Bible teaches about giving. How each of us responds to that will be up to each one of us. What I want to do is first to outline how giving was arranged in Old Testament times and then look at what the New Testament teaches. Obviously the time available to us means this will hardly get below the surface of the issue, but I hope it'll give us enough to work on.
	OT
	So lets think about the people of the Old Testament. First of all, what did they give? Well, in Deut 26:1-11 we find they gave the first fruits of all they had. That is, as soon a they'd harvested their crops, the a tenth (tithe) of the first of the harvest was put in a basket and taken to the priests as an offering to God. Before they ate any of it themselves. Before they put aside grain for next years planting. The best of the crop was to be given to God.
	Why was that? Let me suggest two reasons. First it was an acknowledgement that all they had came from God and so they gave the first of it back to him. But second it was an acknowledgement that they could trust God to continue to look after them. You see in a subsistence economy what you grew you ate, so to take 10% of it and give it away needed a certain degree of faith. What if the rains didn't come next year, or there was a locust plague? You might just need those few extra bushels of wheat or corn to get you through or to plant a second crop. So to give away a tenth required faith and trust in God.
	But it wasn't just the first fruits of the ground that were to be given to God. The first born animals, and even the first born sons were to be dedicated to God as a reminder of the way the people of Israel had been rescued from Egypt through the death of every first born son of that land. So, according to Numbers 18:15, when your first son was born, you had to go to the temple and buy him back at a price of 5 shekels (about 55g of silver).
	Over and above this required giving, they were also to give freewill offerings at times when something good had happened; when they wanted to thank God for his goodness to them. So in Deut 16:10 we find that when they celebrate the Feast of weeks, that is, Pentecost, the harvest festival, they're to "bring a freewill offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received from the LORD your God." That's over and above the tithe of the first fruits.
	Similarly there were 2 occasions on which people gave gifts and offerings for the Sanctuary. Once in the Exodus when the people gave their gold and silver and bronze and fine cloths and timber that they'd brought from Egypt, so the Tabernacle could be built and furnished, and then when the Temple was built under Solomon (1 Chron 29:1-19).
	Finally, they gave generously to the poor. There are a numerous references to the poor and fatherless and foreigners who don't have land. The people were to be open-handed and generous in lending to the poor. Loans were to be for a maximum period of 7 years. Each 7 years all loans were to be wiped out and a fresh start made. When they harvested they weren't to reap to the edge of the land. Rather they were to leave some of the harvest behind so the poor and the traveller could gather the gleanings. (Lev 23:22) Every 7th year the land was to be left uncultivated so that that year what grew on it was available for the poor to harvest. (Ex 23:11)
	If you think about all that you find there were 3 motivations for giving: 1, because God had blessed them, 2, as a sign of their trust in God; and 3, as a way of caring for those in need. And the things that were given ranged from crops and livestock to gold, silver and precious metals, money, the use of their land and even their skills as artists and artisans.
	How much did they Give?
	Well, then, how much did they give? Well, that's a good question. First of all, they gave a tenth of everything. This seems to have been an accepted percentage for giving. Abraham in fact had given a tenth of the spoils of a battle to Melchizedek back in Gen 14, so tithing wasn't just something that came out of the Mosaic law in exodus 20 and beyond.
	But on top of the tithe, and in fact there appear to have been up to three different tithes that people were expected to give, on top of those, they were also encouraged to give freewill offerings.
	How were they to give?
	Next, how were they to give. Well as we've just seen they were to give, generously, freely (Prov 3:27,28; 11:24,25; 22:9) not grudgingly (Deut 15:7-11) but as their heart moved them (Ex 25:2; 35:21; 1 Chron 29:17). And they were to give out of concern for the poor (Deut 15:7,8,10). Well, the last thing I want to look at from the OT is
	What mistakes did they make?
	The major mistake they made was to take God for granted. They started to see giving as just another religious act. Just another law to fulfill. They thought that it wouldn't matter if they cut a few corners here or there. The priests wouldn't notice if the sheep they brought had a crooked leg or if its wool was a bit too thin, or it had stopped giving milk. But Malachi 3 reminds them that they were shortchanging God, only bringing a part of what God had commanded. (Mal 3:6-12) The priests might not notice, but God did. He says they were robbing him. And as a result God would punish them. Yet if they'd bring the full tithe God would bless them. So much so that they wouldn't have barns big enough to store the crops they'd reap.
	So that's the OT. But what do we find when we come to the NT.
	NT
	Well, when we read the NT we find that things are quite different although some of the principles are the same. Whereas in the Old Testament giving turned more and more around the tithe the further you went, in the NT the only mention of tithes is in relation to the Jewish Law which is now made redundant. For example Jesus, talking to the Pharisees rebukes them for being concerned to tithe such small things as spices while ignoring the weightier matters of justice mercy and faithfulness. (Matt 23:23) But what about positive teaching on giving?
	Do you remember the incident when someone came up to Jesus and asked whether they should pay taxes to Caesar? What did Jesus say? He said "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's." (Matt 22:21) It's almost an aside, but there Jesus is reinforcing the OT principle that our giving is an acknowledgement that everything we have comes from God. When we give we're not giving God something he didn't have before. Rather what we give is God's already. We've just been looking after it on his behalf.
	Now that's an important principle to start with when we're thinking about giving, isn't it? Giving to God isn't like the taxation system where we give what we've earned by our hard work to pay for services the government provides, and where if we can legally minimise the amount that's assessed as payable that's OK. No, when we give to God the only things we have to give are the things that he's provided for us in the first place. Now I know some people have a problem with that. They say "Hang on. I worked hard to earn my income. How can you say God gave it to me?" But if you think about it, where did we get the skills and talents that allow us or allowed us once to earn our income? Where did we get the good health that allows us to keep working? Even if you don't work for some reason and are on a pension, who put the government in its place to provide social welfare support to those who are unemployed or ill or on pensions? It seems to me that we're even more likely than the people of the OT to take what God gives us for granted, because we live in a secular world, because we live in a democracy, where it seems like the freedom we enjoy has come from our own efforts or those of our forbears. But we've got to be careful to remember that God is the one who in the end determines how we live, who sets governments in their place, who provides the fruit of our labour.
	So what principles for giving do we find in the New Testament?
	Well, first of all, as in the OT, people were encouraged to give a whole range of things to God. Their possessions. The early church, we're told in Acts 4:32, shared their possessions with each other so that no-one was in need. They distributed food to widows and other needy people in Jerusalem (Acts 6:1). We do the same with our food basket, with things we send to MMA, by recycling clothing we no longer need, by giving people lifts in our cars, etc. 2nd, Paul took up a collection of money for the Christians in Jerusalem who were in dire financial trouble. (1 Cor 16:2). People were sent from one church to another or were sent to help Paul (Phil 2:25-30; 4:16). They gave in the form of hospitality (eg Titus 3:13). This was an important thing in an age of few hotels or lodging houses. Again this is something we can do that's part of our Christian giving.
	Secondly, these gifts were given primarily to one of 3 groups. First and foremost to the poor and needy. John in his first letter says "How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help?" (1 John 3:17) This is a theme that comes out strongly in Paul's letters. One of his great projects outside of preaching the gospel was collecting money to help the Christians of Jerusalem who were suffering enormous persecution and the poverty that came out of it. But also they gave to those who worked for the gospel. This was a principle that Jesus taught in Matthew 10:10: "laborers deserve their food" and it's a principle that Paul reinforced in 1 Cor 9:14: "In the same way, the Lord commanded that those who proclaim the gospel should get their living by the gospel." Thirdly, we're taught that we should give so that others can hear the gospel. In other words supporting organisations like CMS or the Bible Society. Jesus in his parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16 finished his story with this advice: "use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings." In other words, learn from those who are wise in worldly things. They use their wealth to win friends and influence people here on earth. We should do the same, though with a different aim in mind. Rather we'll use what wealth we have to further the Kingdom of God: to win friends for ourselves in heaven.
	Finally, how were they taught to give?
	As in the OT, giving is to be done with generosity and an open hand. In 2 Cor 8:2 Paul speaks of how the Macedonian church's joy and poverty resulted in great generosity. Here was a church who were basically poor, yet they gave generously out of the great joy and gratitude that came from knowing Christ and his salvation. And they gave freely. Paul never tells people they have to give. This isn't a Christian duty. Rather it's a response of grace, of freedom, that arises from the grace of the gospel. Paul refers to it as their fellowship in the gospel. It's their way of sharing with others something of the goodness of God that they've experienced in their own lives. Now this is important for us to remember. Too often churches try to raise their income by working on people's guilt. By the application of some imaginary set of rules. That's one reason for rejecting the tithe as a requirement for giving. If you or I choose to use the tithe as a guideline for giving, that's fine, as long as we do it by our own free choice, but as soon as it becomes a demand or a rule, grace and freedom go out the window and we're back in the realm of law and guilt. They were also to give regularly. In 1 Cor 16 Paul suggests they put a sum aside on the first day of each week according to their income, saving it up until he comes to collect it. That's why we encourage people to use the freewill giving envelopes. So we can plan our giving according to our income.
	Next, giving is to arise from our contentment with our lot. That is, being satisfied with what we have rather than being driven to get a bit more. I think it was Rockefeller who was once asked how much is enough, to which he replied " a little more than you have." But for the Christian the standard is godliness with contentment. (1 Tim 6:6-19) Otherwise we'll find ourselves serving mammon rather than God.
	Finally, the bible never criticises people for being rich, though Jesus does warn about the dangers, when he says how hard it will be for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. Riches are fine as long as they're used for the Kingdom and don't become an end in themselves. That is, an idol. We read a few weeks ago in Ephesians 5:3 that greed is idolatry. So if you're one of those who are considered rich make sure you use your riches to win friends for yourself in heaven not just to make yourself comfortable. On the other hand if you're not rich as the world counts wealth, think about the riches you have in Jesus Christ. Remember the widow who gave of what she had, little as it may have been, out of gratitude to God.
	So what can we say from all that about giving. First of all, our giving isn't a duty, rather it's a response of love and gratitude to the God who has given us all things, including even his own Son. Secondly the model for Christian giving isn't the person next to us or across the road, it's God who gives us all things generously and without limit. Thirdly, the degree to which we give may be a sign of our trust in God. Fourthly our giving is one way we can participate in the fellowship of all believers, as we share what we have with others. Finally there are no rules. The OT rule of the tithe has gone with the old covenant. The question now is how can we give generously enough to match God's generosity to us? How can we avoid the temptation of the world to accumulate more and more possessions rather than accumulating more and more friends in heaven. There are no rules. Only God's grace. It's a generous heart and an open hand that knows how to give. We'll give, not because we feel guilty or to show others how good we are, but because we have a joy and a passion for God's Kingdom. Let's pray that God would help us to be open handed and generous in the way we give to his work here on earth.

	For more on Christian Giving see "Explaining Christian Giving" by Dale Appleby in the "Explaining" Series, published by Sovereign World Books, Tonbridge, Kent, TN11 0ZS, England. ISBN: 1 85240 079 X (distributed in North America by renew Books.)

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