Does Giving Matter?

1 Cor 16:1-4

( Do this as an object lesson)

Wayne Rice tells about the time Mrs. Baughman, his junior high Sunday school teacher, brought a pan of brownies to class with her: "While the brownies sat tantalizingly over by her chair, she gave each student a slip of paper labeled with an expense: house payment, light bill, groceries, entertainment, and so on. My slip had 'car payment' written on it.

"Then Mrs. Baughman picked up her tray of brownies and began naming the expenses she had written on the slips of paper. One by one we redeemed our slips of paper for a brownie. 'Car payment!' she announced, and I jumped up to get my share of the goodies as she lifted a fresh brownie from the pan.

"The last brownie disappeared, although my friend Donald still held his unredeemed slip. 'God!' called out Mrs. Baughman. And Donald, whose paper had 'God' written on it, came forward, hoping that his teacher had one more brownie hidden somewhere. With the knife, Mrs. Baughman scaped the crumbs from the bottom of the pan into Donald's napkin. My friend got a pretty raw deal, I thought--just crumbs.

"'The brownies in the pan represent your money,' explained Mrs. Baughman. 'If you don't give God His share right away,' she said, 'He probably won't get anything at all, except maybe the crumbs.'

"I've never forgotten that object lesson," says Wayne. "The day my friend got only brownie crumbs, I learned that God has first rights to everything I have. Sure, I continue to struggle with materialism, and I still have trouble setting priorities, but I'm thankful that somebody took time to teach me a little bit about stewardship while I was still young."

[Discipleship Journal, Nov/Dec 1994. Page 80.]

PRAYER

I. Giving Addressed

A. Last Sunday

1. In our elders and deacons meeting we had quite a discussion about the use of church money and understanding giving. One of the men said that we need some lessons on giving.

2. As I read the first 4 verses of this last chapter, guess what they are about. Yep, giving.

B. O.T. Giving

1. As you read the Old Testament, you see that tithing was very central to their religious life.

2. Tithing was considered at 10% of your first fruits

3. It was commanded by God to give to God as an act of worship.

4. He even made Judea suffer when they failed to give to God as he had commanded.

C. N.T. Giving

1. Giving in the New Testament seems to be very different

2. We don’t see the commandment for giving in context of worship.

3. However, having said that, verses like our text and several others indicated an expectation of giving as the saints had need.

4. And, in essence taking care of our brothers and sisters is part of our worship to God.

D. Our Text

1. Something we see in Paul’s 3^rd missionary journey was an emphasis on raising money for the poor of the church.

2. As we read letters to those churches and read in Acts, he held this project as very important to the overall health of the church.

3. He emphasized here and in Acts 20 to have the money ready on Sundays so when he arrived, all would be there and not have to go through a last minute guilt trip to get more money together from that congregation.

II. Giving and Us

A. How much should we give?

1. A man once knelt with his pastor and committed himself to God to give a certain percent of his income as long as he lived. From his first week's pay he gave $1 to the Lord. Soon his weekly offering had increased to $10. As time went on, he continued to prosper. Before long he was giving $100 a week, then $200, and in time, $500 a week. Finally he called the pastor. "Please come and see me," he said. "It's urgent!" When the minister arrived, the host said, "You remember that promise I made to God years ago? How can I get released? When I made the promise, I only had to give a dollar, but now it's $500. I can't afford to give away money like that." The wise old pastor looked at his friend and said, "I'm afraid you cannot get a release from the promise, but there is something we can do. We can kneel down and ask God to shrink your income so that you can afford to give a dollar again."

2. How much should we give has always been a heart matter.

a) Some give very little like the widow’s mite, but it means everything to them.

b) Others are able to give abundantly because God as blessed them abundantly and they want to use that money to do his will.

c) Others give to be seen and resent every dollar they put in the plate.

d) Still others give only a little because everything else comes before God.

3. Last week one of our members asked if the Bible commands 10% of our gross or our net.

4. The O.T. teaching was a tithe of their gross. In fact, when all was said and done, close to 25% of their gross assets were given back to God.

5. By doing that, God also blessed them in always having enough.

a) He wanted the gentile nations to see Israel’s dependence in God and his blessing them.

b) They didn’t work on the Sabbath and gave an unbelievable amount to God, but always seem to be blessed when not going against God’s will.

6. Some today argue that is exactly what we should do today.

7. Other’s argue that we should give as we have been prospered and that should be decided on an individual basis.

8. Still others argue we only need to give if there are needy saints in the church.

B. A deeper examination

1. God is concerned more with your motive for giving or not giving than he is with the amount.

2. In the matter of giving, some Christians are like Farmer Applegate's cow. A summer boarder once asked, "How much milk does that critter give?" The poorly educated dairyman replied with his usual drawl, "Wal, ef ye mean by voluntary contribution, she don't give none. But ef ye kin git her cornered so's she can't kick none, an able-bodied man kin take away 'leven quarts a day!"

3. Apparently some believers enjoy their salvation so little that they too have to be forced to contribute to any church-related cause.

4. We have by example of the New Testament Christians giving for several purposes

a) The money was used for the poor of the church, for missionary purposes (Acts 6:1; 2:45; 4:35; 11:29; 24:17; Romans 15:25–27; 1 Corinthians 16:1; Galatians 2:10),

b) the support of the ministry (1 Corinthians 9:14, 4–14; Galatians 6:6; 1 Timothy 5:18),

c) the other expenses of maintaining the church organization and gifts for special objects.

5. All of those things are still going on and need to be supported by the members of the church today.

6. As long as there are brothers and sisters in need, as long as the work of the church needs to be done, we should be giving as we have been prospered.

7. "The story goes that while Robert Smith was taking his afternoon walk as part of his therapy in recovering from a massive heart attack, the phone rang and his wife Delores answered. The call was from the Reader's Digest Association Sweepstakes in New York. They were calling to inform the Smith family that Robert had just won $1,500,000 and that in a few days the certified check would be arriving. Well, as you can imagine, Delores was absolutely ecstatic. Now all those dreams would come true! "But then she remembered, her husband was just getting over his heart attack, and the doctor had said no excitement over anything. Dolores was afraid that if she told him they had just won such a large sum, he would have another heart attack and die. What should she do? After some thought, she decided to call their pastor and ask his advice because he had had some experience in breaking difficult news to families. "Delores called him and said, `Pastor, I just got a call from The Reader's Digest Sweepstakes informing me that Bob has just won $1,500,000.' "`That's great,' said the pastor, `but what's the problem?' "`Well, I'm afraid if I tell Bob, he'll get so excited that he will have another heart attack and drop dead. Can you help me?' "`Well, Delores, I think I can. I'll be right over.' "So in about an hour, Bob is back from his walk and he and Delores and Pastor Baldwin are in the den having a nice chat. The pastor leans toward Bob and says, `Bob, I've got a problem and need your advice.' "`Sure, Pastor, if I can help, I'll be glad to,' said Bob. "The pastor takes a deep breath and goes on, `It's a hypothetical situation regarding Christian stewardship. What would a person--take you, for instance--do if all of a sudden you found out you had won $1,500,000? What would you do with all that money?' "`That's easy,' Bob replied. `I'd start by giving $750,000 to the church.' Whereupon Pastor Baldwin had a massive heart attack and dropped dead!"

C. No Joking Matter

1. There are so many jokes about Christians and their reluctance to give that it is sad.

2. For that many jokes to exist, there has to be truth behind the jokes.

3. What could we do here in Rochester if we gave with a heart that wanted to bless others as we have been blessed by God?

4. What would happen if we changed that dollar we drop into the plate to an amount that really showed how we have been prospered?