20. The Gift of Giving

If you have been reading in Romans chapter 12, following us along this week as we have been preaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you know what's in store for today: "He who gives, with liberality."  Today when we consider the Holy Spirit's gift of Giving, the subject is primarily concerned with money.  Don't try to spiritualize it and say it's the way we "give of ourselves" for other people, and all the rest.  That's included, of course.  But it's money that's being talked about, because if you look at the other gifts of the Spirit, some of which we've already preached on, such as the gift of Helps, you discover that that's the way we give of ourselves to other people.  This is talking about money.  And that's a surprise from some people - it's a surprise that the Holy Spirit's interested in money.  It's an area where the congregation gets defensive and the preacher gets apologetic.  I think that's too bad, because it's really an exciting subject.  All of us like to talk about money.  If you doubt that, listen to the conversations that you get involved in.  How much of it has to do with the economy, the price of this, the price of that, the inflation on this and the inflation on that, what a good deal you got on this, what a good deal you got on that - our lives are wrapped up in conversations about money and so it's no surprise to me that one of the Holy Spirit's gifts has to do with money.

But a lot of people are touchy about money.  And a lot of preachers are touchy.  And I found myself, in the first service this morning - the 8:30 service - almost feeling apologetic.  I don't want to feel that way now for this service.  Part of the reason that I feel apologetic is that people that haven't been in church for twenty years continue to say to me, "Well, preachers, all they do is just preach about money.  They talk about money all the time."  Well, I have been pastor of this church starting my 14th year.  I went back in my records - this is the fourth sermon I've preached on money in 14 years.  And I need to ask your forgiveness, because I have been denying you a real blessing.  Not that the sermon's so hot, but because God's desire to bring blessings is directly related to our desire to share that which we've already received.  And if you are touchy (and I might as well get this up front) about a sermon concerning money, in all likelihood, it is because you are being disobedient in the area of your stewardship.  Right on the table, okay?

They tell the story of a man who was drowning, and he was trying to clamber up the bank to get out of the water and the bank was kind of steep and kind of high, and he just wasn't getting any place.  And he was giving up.  A man on the bank finally jumped in and tried to help him, and he pushed him and pushed him, but they guy kept saying, "I just can't do it.  I just can't do it."  And finally, in desperation, the would-be rescuer reached into the drowning victim's back pocket and grabbed his wallet, and threw it on the bank, and the guy went zoom right out of the water.  And I think we've got to recognize that that's kind of the way we get sometimes.

A man about to be baptized in the lake, started in and then when he got close to the pastor, he turned around and headed back out.  And the pastor said, "What's the matter?"

He said, "I forgot to give my wallet to my wife."

And the preacher said, "You come on right back in here, I've got too many unbaptized wallets in my congregation now."

Somebody once said that the most sensitive nerve in the human body is the one connected to the pocketbook.  Probably true.  By the way, did you know that Jesus said five times as much about money and its use than He did about prayer?  Look it up!  Five times!  Now you tell me what preacher, how much trouble he could be in if he preached five times as much about money as he did about prayer.  "Prayers are spiritual and money is so materialistic."  But you know, our faith is a very materialistic faith, if you want to be honest about it.  What other faith talks about the importance of the resurrection of the body?  Both the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the future resurrection of ourselves.

The Holy Spirit has given to the body of Christ every gift needed for the building of the body, including the wonderful gift of Giving.  And that gift is primarily concerned with money.  So let's define it.  The gift of Giving is the Holy Spirit's giving ability to a person to earn and give money for the advancement of God's work - and to do so with such wisdom and cheerfulness that the recipients are blessed and strengthened.  Long definition.  It is the Holy Spirit given ability to earn and give money for the advancement of God's work - and to do so with such wisdom and cheerfulness that the recipients are immeasurably blessed and strengthened.

Now let me break it down for you in those three parts - in three distinct parts.  Remember, we are talking about a gift of the Holy Spirit.  It is a special supernatural gift - the ability to earn and to give.  Secondly, giving is done in wisdom and joy.  Thirdly, the effects of the gift are the building of the body.  In all of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the body of Christ is to be edified - is to be built up.  None the less is that true in the gift of giving.

Now, let me say, I have got to spend some time talking about our role, as Christians, in the whole matter of stewardship.  I'm not talking here about the gift of giving - I'm talking here about our role in giving.  Remember, we have said frequently that just because we do not have a particular gift of the Holy Spirit in an area, does not excuse our disobedience to the clear commands of God in that same area.  I have found that there is NO spiritual maturity without generosity and obedience to the principles of giving that scripture lays down.  There are no exceptions to the command to give.  The well-to-do and the poor; the young marrieds with the low income and the high expenses, and those who are financially secure; those who are retired on fixed income; those who are single - in short, any who love Christ are to give and to give with joy.  And let me share three scriptures without comment.

Malachi 3:10: Will a man rob God?  Yet you have robbed Me, and are robbing Me.  But you say, 'How have we robbed Thee?'  In tithes and offerings.  You're cursed with a curse for robbing Me - the whole nation of you.  Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse that there may be food in My house.  And test Me now in this, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and poor out for you a blessing until there is no more need.

2 Corinthians 9:7: Let each one of us do as he has purposed in his heart - not grudgingly or under compulsion - for God loves a cheerful giver.

1 Corinthians 16:2: On the first day of every week, let each one of you put aside and save that ye may prosper.

Giving, then, is planned.  It is intelligent.  It is proportionate.  It is joyous.  It is grateful.  That's what the scripture teaches.

Now let me share some facts with you from American life.  In 1978 Americans, giving to all charities, all tax-deductable write-offs, all United Ways and all the rest of that, and the churches, gave 1.92% of their income.  In 1977, which was the last year for which complete figures are available to me, citizens of the state of Washington averaged $8,450 per capita income, and in the state of Washington they gave to all charities and all churches an average of 1.7% of their income - or $140.  In 1977 total expenditures in the United States for recreation was $81.2 billion.  For food and tobacco, $261.8 billion.  For alcohol, $28.2 billion.  And for all charities and all churches and all community chests, $15.4 billion.  And we have the audacity to ask, like ancient Israel, "how have we robbed God"?  When we live in the most blessed nation in the world?  When our driveways are filled with vehicles that the garage doesn't have room for?  We ask, "how have we robbed God"?  I believe that your checkbook record tells, more accurately than your church attendance, the place that God has in your life and the level of your trust and faith in Him.  I hope you're not getting angry, but so help me, this is the truth.  The Biblical taught role begins, begins, begins with the tithe.  BEGINS.  It doesn't end there - begins.  And yet, if every worshiper in this congregation were on welfare in the state of Washington and tithed of their welfare receipts, giving in this congregation would go up.  How have we robbed God?

Now lest some of you think I'm pitching for a raise - I am adequately compensated for my job.  I am not concerned with the coffers of the church - I am concerned with your spiritual condition.  And God, Who said in Christ, five times as much about stewardship as He did about prayer, said it for the same reason.  I rarely speak this bluntly and plainly about money in public, although I speak as plainly in private with many of you.  And I apologize, as I said before, for not doing so, because a lot of you are being denied the joy and maturity in Christ because you aren't even aware of the fact that this is the role that scripture describes for the Christian.  Tithing is a minimum.  When it talks about tithes and offerings, it's talking about the tithe and then the offerings above.  And it's taught by the word of God all the way through and it's not abrogated by New Testament teaching.  And the reason it is taught is because it is to keep us from the subtle and powerful temptation to covetousness.

Grandma Newman, and old lady in my church in Illinois, bless her heart; there was a major fund drive in our conference back in the central conference (just as the bulletin insert's announcing today a major fund drive in our conference this fall that you'll all have a chance to participate in).  Grandma Newman wasn't too sharp in mathematics and she put the decimal in the wrong place when she was figuring out what she was going to give.  She called me one afternoon in tears.  She says, "Pastor Bud, can you come over and see me?  I'm really in distress."  And I went tearing over there - I thought the old lady was checking out.  I mean, she really sounded very, very upset, and she was an elderly lady.  And I didn't want her to die, because boy she was my prayer warrior.  I would have felt like somebody cut my arms off if grandma Newman had gone to be with the Lord.  And when I arrived, she had spread out on her table little pieces of paper with numbers all over it.  It was her bookkeeping system - it was really kind of funny.  She used to cut down on her heating bills by collecting the newspapers from her neighbor.  She didn't care - the news was usually bad anyway - so she'd read it a couple of days late and then she would tack it up to her walls.  That's how she insulated her room.  Her walls must have been THAT thick with newspapers.  I'm sure glad that she didn't smoke.  And grandma Newman sat there with the tears running down her cheeks and she says, "Pastor Bud, I have tried every way I possible can to figure out how I can give what I really think, that according to my figures here, I should be giving to this major fund drive."  And she said, "I have figured out that even if I cut down my eating to six meals a week, I can't quite make it."

And I said, "Let me see your figures, for crying out loud."  And I discovered the decimal place in the wrong slot.  And I say, "Relax grandma, you can eat and still do it!"

And she says, "You know, I'm so revealed about that, but", she said, "that's not very much that I should be giving then.  I think what I'll do is I'll treat myself to ten meals a week and then I can give a little bit more."

And I remonstrated her, I said, "Grandma, you're too old a lady.  You need nourishment.  You need balanced food."

She said, "I've stored up enough to carry me for a while, and the Lord never has shorted me yet."  And then she said something you've heard me quote before.  "If I don't give it, Pastor, I get trapped into loving it."  You know what that means?  You whose income in one month equals grandma Newman's annual income?  Do you know what it means to get trapped by the seductive siren call of possessions?  The Limpic and Rayburn number which just haunts me when I hear it.  The drive and desire to consume, just for the sake of consuming.  I have never met a Christian who began to tithe with joy who later returned to the practice of not tithing.  I've never met such a one.  If you're here and you've practiced tithing and then retreated from it, I'd like to meet you.

Luke 6 says, "Give and it will be given to you, good measure pressed down, shaken together, running over, will pour it into your lap.  For whatever measure you deal out to others, it will be dealt to you in return."  Isn't it strange that when we got to a restaurant, even when the menu is overpriced and the food is overdone and the service - at best - is mediocre, we wouldn't dare leave without 10% tithe of the bill.  "But God doesn't need that..."

I've been fascinated.  As the political campaign rolls on, seeing the disclosures of financial statements and all of the rest of this - total earnings and all the rest of this - and a national figure - a prominent candidate.  This week he came out and gave less than 1% of income to all charities.  And don't get smug if you know who I'm talking about because I've got figures on both parties and they both are terribly disobedient, and they both claim to be Christians.  I am not judging them on the basis of their giving - I am simply saying that if we are to be obedient to the scripture, we must then recognize that to give less to God than we give to a waiter is a form of robbery.  I know some of you are very disturbed and you're already doing some mental calculations of "can I tithe?" and "I can't tithe" and "he doesn't know my cash flow" and I don't care.  God knows your cash flow, and perhaps your cash flow problem is because you have been robbing God.

I can tell you stories from the life of this congregation, and from my own life, but you've heard those stories.  I don't want to entertain you with exciting endings, beautiful stories.  I can tell you people who have started to tithe and they have gotten into so much trouble, like my grandma Newman, when they went down to about six meals a week.  There is no kind of a guarantee that when you begin to tithe and give offerings above the tithe that all of the sudden everything you touch turns to gold.  It may turn to brass or it may turn to dirt.  It is not what you get in return that causes us to exercise stewardship - it is because we have received so much!  Okay, that's the role.  Now I've got to get on to the gift.  And this is not going to take that long, so relax.

There are five characteristics of the gift of giving.  First of all, the gift has no relationship to the income of the person with the gift.  Don't think, "Well, I don't have a four-figure, five-figure, six-figure, seven-figure income, so I don't have it."  That's not the way it works.  In fact, God's work has always been primarily been supported by people of modest means.  Listen to what Paul says in 2 Corinthians 8: "Now brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God that has been given in the churches in Macedonia."  This is God's grace he's describing.  "That in great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality."  Now how does that hold together?  "their deep poverty and joy overflowed in a wealth of liberality."  How can they give out of their poverty?  But they did.  "For I testify that, according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord - begging us with much entreaty - for their favor of participating in the support of the saints."  Grandma Newman was a member of that church.  And if we begin to practice this, the ushers wouldn't get down the aisle, because you people would be saying, "Please take some more!"  Wouldn't that be a scream?

The gift of Giving has no relationship to the income of the person.  In fact, it is more common a gift among those in modest income than it is among the rich.  Jesus tells the story - and Mark records it in Mark 12 - where the rich were bringing their tithes into the temple and they were dumping it out like hail on a tin roof, and everybody's saying, "Ooh!  Wow!"  And this little old widow with her two mites (which is less than a penny) snuck in around the corner embarrassed and ashamed about the size of her gift in relationship to the rest, and she slipped it in the box and ducked back behind the post quickly.  And Jesus used her to illustrate that that woman gave more than all of those with enormous sums.  And the economy of God still works the same.

The multitude is fed, not by some catering truck rolling up, but by the freely given loaves and fishes of the selfless one who trust Him.  Thank God for the poor who know the joy of giving.  Thank God for the rich who know the joy of giving too.  But there's just a lot more of the poor that know the joy, because the rich have so often been seduced into blindness.  And they are rich in goods, but poor in spirit.

Listen to what Paul writes to Timothy: "Tell those who are rich not to be proud or trust in their money, which will soon be gone.  But their pride and trust should be in the Living God Who always richly gives all we need for our enjoyment.  Tell them to use their money to do good.  They should be rich in good works and should give happily to those in need, always being ready to share with others whatever God's given, because by doing this they'll be storing up real treasures for themselves in heaven."  That's the only safe investment for eternity.  And they will be living a fruitful Christian life down here as well.  Don't say, "I don't have enough.  I must not have the gift of Giving."  You can have the gift of Giving no matter what you've got.

Second, the person with the gift gives with crystal-clear motives.  Not only is it not related to the income of the person, but the gift of Giving is with clear motives.  That person does not give in order to get his name on a brass plate in the front of the church.  That person does not give in order to have the bottom pane of the stained-glass window carry the title and all the rest of this.  That person does not give in order to use his giving as a power play to bring control into his hands.  That person does not give in order to get in return.  But that person who has the gift of Giving gives with the motive purely of glorifying God and building the body and just has a ball.

Third, the person with the gift of Giving gives with delight and with the right attitude.  He gives not because it's Christmas and the Salvation Army kettles won't leave him alone.  He gives not because of pressure.  He gives not because there's a trustee calling on his doorstep with a pledge card in hand and an expectant look in his eye.  He gives because he wants the favor of participation in the body of Christ, and giving is his joy.  Attitude's as important as the ability to give.  If a Christian school has some fat cat come up with a half a million dollars and says, "I will give you a half millions dollars or a million dollars for a new library if you'll name it after my wife."  That millionaire is describing himself as a person who does not have the gift of Giving.  He has a lot of bucks to pass around, but he doesn't have the gift of Giving.  Now, should the school accept?  Well, of course the school should accept the money.  Name it after his wife.  Who cares as long as it serves the cause of Christ?

I had a predecessor of mine in Illinois who ran for mayor of the city and they tried to discredit the man.  This is some years before, during prohibition, and the biggest bootlegger in town gave $5,000 to his campaign chest, but had washed it through several organizations.  And this predecessor of mine in the Covenant church in Kiwana Illinois was holding a public debate with the other candidate for mayor and somebody stood up and exposed the fact that that $5,000 contribution had come from the Boswells, the biggest bootleggers in the county.  And he says, "Now, what are you going to do?"

He said, "Well, I spent the money."

And somebody said, "Don't you know that you've taken money from the devil?"

And he said, "Good!  The devil's had it long enough!"

In Matthew 6, Jesus warns against drawing attention to giving.  He says we're not to give letting our right hand know what our left hand is doing.  Now, some people don't know want the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing because the left hand would be embarrassed if the right hand knew what the left hand was doing.  That's not what that means.  It means that our attitude is not one of pride or legalism, but it is of humility and of grace.  R. G. LeTourneau, that many of you know about, the designer and inventor and manufacturer of those enormous earth moving machines that build our highways - there's a book written about him called "Mover of Men and Mountains".  It's an exciting kind of a book.  The assistant to the president at LeTourneau college, Nell Stetson said, "LeTourneau does not view money as something to be accumulated for the satisfaction of looking at it, counting each day to check its increase nor as a measure of man's worth.  He sees it only as a means to produce the machine that his mind has conceived or as a means to bring men to God.  Although he has made and spent millions, he is remarkably detached from money as such.  His only question is how much it can accomplish.  In fact, he often says, 'The question is not how much of my money I give to God, but how much of God's money I can keep for myself'."  And I have discovered that in the life of Christians who practice the teaching of scripture with regard to tithing that 9/10 has better stewardship exercised over it than 10% ever did.

Fourth, the person with the gift of Giving gives liberally, regardless of what that means in terms of total dollars.  In Romans 12, when it says, "Let him who gives, give with liberality" (or King James translates it "in sincerity"), that word translated "liberality" is the Greek word haplotes.  The literal meaning is "joyful eagerness".  "Let him who gives, give with joyful eagerness."  I'm having to restrain myself this morning.  I think of Barnabas in Acts 4, who sold his whole estate and turned the whole money in.  He was that kind of guy.  I remember in Alabama, they'd take the offering and the ushers would come down to the front and they would pray and they'd go out and they'd take the offering and then bring the offering plate back to the front and put it on the communion table.  And I remember the first Sunday I ever saw somebody put a dollar in in the front row and then when the usher's were coming back down the isle, flagged him down and get change.  I had never seen that before.  And I thought, "Gee that's interesting," you know.  And I watched this person and this person had one of the best farms in the area.  Most of them have five or ten acres of pecan trees and cucumbers.  This guy had 45 acres and he had it in soybeans three times a year.  He had three crops a year off that and he was a pretty, you know, comfortable guy.  And every Sunday he'd flip out that dollar bill, you know, and lay it in the plate, and nail that usher every time they'd come down and get his change.  And I still think he took a buck and a quarter back in change.  It was kind of the man he was.  A small man.  I mean you'd just see it in him.  But I remember one old lady that used to show up at the church, not very often, but every time she would, she would reach in her purse and take out a little coin purse and when the offering plate would come, she'd open the snap and just dump it.  I don't know how much was in there, but I know what was in her heart.  And she just had a look on her face that was just gorgeous when she would do that.  It was a bunch of change that fell out, probably 37 or 45 cents or something like that.  But, oh God took that little gift and He just blessed it way out of shape.  That's the way He works.

2 Corinthians 9:7 says, "Don't give grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver."  Do you know that the Greek word translated "cheerful" is the same word we get our word "hilarity" from?  Now put that together.  "Let them give not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a hilarious giver."  The offering ought to be happening not by the stony silence while we waited for my wife to find a piano.  That should have been filled up with people laughing and cheering!  Oh boy, would that be something!

Fifth, the person with the gift of Giving sees the work of God being advanced and the body built.  He gets enormous joy and satisfaction from the results of his giving.  He doesn't get credit.  There's not, you know, something named after him.  He doesn't have everybody applaud him for giving $5,000.  He's a person who gives and just gets a buzz out of seeing what God does with his money.  You see, God can do so much more with our money than you can with it.  He can take money - dirty, smelly, germ-covered money - and He can turn it into men and women whose lives are changed.  He can turn it into people like Wayne Perriman.  He did something beautiful in my life.  He can turn it into somebody like Bud Palmberg.  And you.  That's miraculous.  If I control my money, I can't do any of that.  If He has it, oh He does that and more.

Now listen carefully, remember the context for the utilization of all the spiritual gifts is first of all the local body of Christ.  Some of you are going to get upset about this.  But the reason I have a particular gift is to exercise it within that body.  I believe the Bible indicates in a number of places that the tithe belongs to the church.  The offerings - that can go any place.  "Bring your tithes into My house that there might be meat in My house and to spare."  I believe that because it keeps us from giving for the wrong motives - from giving to every appeal at the cost of short-circuiting the cause of Christ in the ministry, locally.  It prevents us from giving to emotional or foolish appeals, giving carelessly, or indiscriminantly.  You know the Boy's Town in Omaha, Nebraska?  That's my home town.  I used to go down there and compete in invitational track meets they used to hold at Boy's Town.  I used to come home from Boy's Town and wish I was to goodness that I was an orphan sometimes so I could live at Boy's Town.  Every year we'd get mailings with stamps, you know.  It has a picture of a little ragged kid holding another on his back.  You've heard it: "He ain't heavy father, he's my brother."  Oh that tear-stained letter.  And little old ladies and little old men on fixed incomes all around the country send in their dollar to Boy's Town.  Do you know that seven years ago there was an investigation of Boy's Town and they found they had an endowment fund equivalent to $257,000 per boy?  "He ain't heavy father."  He's carrying the money!  And it is the giving to those kind of emotional appeals, without having access to the facts, that makes it so dangerous to give indiscriminately and unwisely, and to scatter gun to every appeal.  My mailbox is cluttered with appeals.  And I know if I gave $10,000 to that appeal, it wouldn't even pay for that slick mailing.

Did you know there is a document from the second century called the "Didiki", which says "Let thine alms sweat in thy hand until thou knowest to whom thou givest."  The body of Christ must exercise responsibility.  And we are to exercise our giving and our gifts for the building up of the body with wisdom and discrimination.  Now I've got to close.

Maybe this is a central area in your life where you have been disobedient to your role as a Christian.  Maybe you've really been uncomfortable - in fact you're a little bit steamed.  You've been slightly amused, but you're a little upset.  Perhaps you ought to obey.  Maybe you have been given the gift of Giving but you've never used it because you keep reading your balance sheets all the time.  And Satan has made you fearful.  Let me throw out a challenge to you.  Let me challenge you to give proportionately.  If you already tithe, increase the proportion.  If you don't, for goodness sakes at least get up where you belong to start.  Offerings build on that.  If you are serious about Christ as Lord of your life, then promise your obedience to Him and demonstrate your trust in Him.  Don't tell me about the economy.  Don't tell me about the cash flow.  I'm in the same economy.  I've got the same cash flow.  Tell Him.  The question is: do you trust Him enough to be faithful to Him?  Test it out in a practical way.  I would like to challenge you to experiment for a minimum of three months.  You won't get your finances in order in less than that.  Start to tithe now.  Not because we need the money, but because you need to give.  Paul wrote to the church at Corinth, this is what he said and this is the closing challenge, in 2 Corinthians 8: "You people there are leaders in so many ways.  You have so much faith." (gift of Faith)  "You have so many good preachers." (gift of prophecy, plus others)  "You have so much learning." (gifts of knowledge and of wisdom)  "You have so much enthusiasm." (gift of exhortation) "So much love for us." (the gift of helps and mercies, etc.) "Now," he says, "I want you to be leaders also in the spirit of cheerful giving." (the gift of giving)

Go into a world whose sense of well-being and blood-pressure is tied to the Dow Jones averages as men and women who are storing for themselves treasures in heaven and having a delightful time sharing their treasures on earth for the furtherance of His Kingdom and the incredible joy of seeing others born into it.  God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit will be with you in your ministry and grow in obedience in giving this week, and with me in mine 'til by His grace we're together again.