christianish: i give, but i’m not really...

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Transcript August 24 & 25, 2013

Christianish: I give, but I’m not really generous Aaron Brockett | 2 Corinthians 8:1-9

Good morning. Good to see you all. Hey, just a couple of things before we jump in. On Sunday night, September 15th,we’re going to be doing a night of prayer with our friends from College Park Church. So, I want to ask you to make every effort, if you can, to attend that. It’s going to be from 6:00 to 7:30 that evening at College Park. Childcare will be available for kids 2 months to 4 years old, but you need to register online for it. There is not a link on our website for you to do that as of yet. So you need to go to College Park’s website and you can register for childcare if you need it. Kids older than that, we just encourage you to bring them with you into the time of prayer. Mark and I are going to be leading out in it. Our worship teams are going to be coming together to lead us in a time of worship. We’re going to be praying over a representative from the Indianapolis Police department – just praying for our city, praying for their safety. It’s going to be a great time of prayer and worship that night. If this makes you a little uncomfortable, if you’ve never gone to anything like this before – I just want to urge you to give it a try. It could be a really unifying thing for the body of Christ. I hope to see you there. Then, secondly, I just want to take a quick minute to brag on our student ministries. Last Sunday night they had their student ministry kickoff of Catalyst and there were over 300 middle and high school students here. It was a great, great night – a good kickoff. I want to officially welcome our new student pastor, Petie Kinder and his wife Brittany and their son. They joined our team this summer – you can give them a whoo – they got one whoo. If you get a chance to meet them, just love on them and welcome them to our church family. They’re doing a great, great job. If you have a Bible, please get to 2 Corinthians, chapter 8. That’s where we are this morning. We’ve been walking our way through the second letter that Paul wrote to the church that had gathered in Corinth. This is a church that he knew and loved very much. It was a church that he started, it was a church that he pastored, and it was a church that he had wept with. They were believers, they were Christians but the issue and what prompted Paul’s first letter to them is that they weren’t acting like Christians. They were gossiping about one another, dividing with one another, they were sleeping with one another, they were suing one another, and they were divorcing one another. Paul writes this first letter to them and says, “Enough is enough here.” He didn’t expect them to be perfect after coming to Christ but that was not the issue. The issue was that they were embracing their immaturity, they were compromising their sin and they were okay with it. Paul writes this letter to them the first go around to address all of this. What he’s doing is, he’s urging them toward full maturity in Christ knowing that they have not yet arrived at perfection.

Christianish: I give, but I’m not really generous August 24 & 25, 2013

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

And see, that’s the tension in the Christian life. It’s that you and I come to this place where we would see Jesus as Savior and Lord. We give our lives to Him but we’re still going to struggle with our sin and our selfishness. But see, that’s not the thing that Paul has a problem with. The problem is that instead of turning from it – the Corinthians were embracing it. Instead of repenting of it they were compromising with it and saying, “Well, it’s okay.” Paul is urging us away from that into something called discipleship. Now, as we conclude this series, I want to make something just really clear because it’s easy for us to mess up when it comes to this issue. When we start to talk about discipleship, many times there will be people who will hear that and it either leads them to despair or pride. So despair, “Okay, Aaron. I see that you are raising the bar with us. Paul, I see as you’re writing to the Corinthians, you’re raising the bar – I don’t think I can jump over that. I don’t think that I can attain that.” Others of us hear this and are thinking, “Man, it’s about time. My neighbor has needed to hear this series for a long time.” So, we can either default on despair or pride as believers. I think it’s really important for us to clarify that you are welcome here, it doesn’t matter who you are, or where you’ve been, or what you’ve struggled with, what’s happened to you and what you’ve done to others in the past. But, wherever you are in the spectrum of not yet coming to Christ, coming to Christ but you’re still immature, coming to Christ and you are mature – wherever you are on that spectrum that you would be encouraged to take one more step toward full maturity, whatever that looks like for you. This is a place where messy people feel welcome and should feel welcome – but we’re going to urge you toward maturity. And by saying that we want you to be mature – we’re not saying that you’re not welcome. We’re saying, “You’re welcome here now move toward full maturity in Christ.” We want there to be depth and in what we do as a church – we just don’t want that depth to turn into legalism. Is everybody with me in all of that? I want to clarify all of this. On week number one, we basically said that the goal for us is not belief – that’s just the starting line. But, many times, what we have a tendency to do is think, “Well, I vaguely believe in God and just as long as I live a good, moral life in comparison to the person who I live next door to or work next to, then – clearly God grades on a curve – and so at the end of it I’ll be good.” That is not the Gospel message. The Gospel message is not that you’ve just done a few bad things to make God mad – it’s that our relationship with Him is severed completely. And God is not just a bigger version of us. God is completely Other. He is infinite, He is Creator, He is all powerful, and He is all knowing. There has been a severing of our connection to Him due to our sin and we cannot mend it back together. No amount of good works or good intentions will do it. Jesus did it for us. So, Jesus is God incarnate who came to earth – not just to teach a few interesting stories and show us a life of humility and sacrifice – but to literally through His death, burial, and resurrection, through that atonement, mend the relationship that was broken between us and God. Belief is just like one little baby step. And beyond that comes the acceptance of the fact that God is not a bigger version of us but that He is completely Other. We repent of our sins, we turn from them – we don’t embrace them any longer. We receive Jesus into our heart and say, “Make me a new creation. Give me a new set of perspectives. Give me a new set of ideals and a purpose for a life that is beyond this one. Then we begin to grow into full maturity in Him. All of this is pictured in the obedient act of



being lowered into a watery grave and being resurrected as a new creation in Christ. And this is bookended by work of the Holy Spirit. He prompts you to it and He seals you for it, Ephesians 2. But, many of us get on this side of the line of belief and we kind of stop. And in Hebrews 12 and 2 Timothy 4 it urges us to run the race with endurance. And we said on week number one that we are not saved by the race that we run, or the quality of the run, but we are saved to run the race. The fancy theological word for this is sanctification. It basically means – grow, mature. You’re not going to be perfect – that’s not what Jesus is asking of you. He’s asking of you, wherever you are, to take the next step toward full maturity in Christ. So, we’re running this race toward full maturity and you and I are going to get the wind knocked out of us, we’re going to get injured. You’re going to take one to the jaw by circumstances in this world, maybe even by a group of believers who you are running the race with. It’s just a matter of time before you’re going to fall down on the track. And so, Paul mixes in analogies in 2 Corinthians. He says that this mortal body, this temporary life that we are living is like a jar of clay. And, a jar of clay is very fragile. It’s also beautiful – it’s being shaped. We house the treasure of the Gospel message in this very fragile life that we live. And right in the middle of that he mixes metaphors again and he compares our life to camping. And he says that the body that you are living in is as temporary as a tent. No wonder we are so uncomfortable. And one day we’re going to exchange this temporary tent for the security of a solid building. So, he essentially says, “Don’t tap out while you are camping. One day you’re going to get to move into a house with four walls and a roof.” So, it’s going to require others to pick you up off of the track. And it may even be that the ones who pick you up off of the track to get you running were the very ones who knocked you down. We talked about this in chapter 5. All of us need to grow through the context of a local church body. We made this really clear distinction. We’re not saying your salvation is dependent upon your involvement in the church. Our Catholic brothers and sisters miss this. I’m not trying to throw them under the bus or take a jab at them – I know a lot of good Catholic brothers and sisters who love Jesus. I’m just saying, largely, what they err on is the thought that their salvation comes through the church. That is not Biblical salvation. You come to salvation in Jesus Christ, through His death, burial, and resurrection and the catalyst for your discipleship is the church. Not because the church is perfect but precisely because it’s not. Meaning that when we come in here together that you’re going to have to put up with me and I’m going to have to put with you. You’re going to have to be forgiving, and generous, and gracious toward me and I’m going to have to be forgiving, and generous, and gracious toward you. And as iron sharpens iron, Proverbs 27:17, we will sharpen one another. It such an inspirational Proverb but it’s painful to go through because it’s shaping us together. And there is no such thing as a perfect church. We are being perfected in Christ. So, we need one another to mature and to grow. And all of this brings us to chapter 8. And I want to look at the connection between generosity and discipleship. This is what I want to contend. That it is a revealing thing. It will reveal your maturity or your immaturity in Christ dependent upon your perspective on giving and generosity. So, whatever your perspective on giving and generosity is, it will reveal your maturity or your immaturity in Christ.



Now, let me just go ahead and say this. I have a love/hate relationship when it comes to preaching on money. I love it – you hate it. I’m just kidding. Actually, in all seriousness, I have a love/hate relationship and here’s the reason why. I love it because the Bible has a lot to say about the subject. Jesus taught on this subject more than any other – roughly 800 references in Scripture to it – there’s a lot of good material to work with, so I love it. The down side or the thing that I hate about preaching on money is that we have a tendency to break out in a cold sweat. And you put a death grip on your wallet because you’re wondering what my angle is. Even right now. I said this a second ago and some of you are shifting in your seat, “Where is he going with this and what’s his angle?” So, let me say that – many of you in this room – I don’t know very well and so I don’t yet have the credibility to speak this freely into this area of your life. I understand that. Others of you – we do know each other. So, I have earned the right to speak freely into this area. And, the rest of you are somewhere in the middle. So wherever you are in that spectrum, I just want you to know and to understand that when it comes to tough subjects that we have to talk about – we want the authority or the weight of what is being said to be based upon the Scripture alone. So, if I say something that really isn’t found in Scripture, I’ll usually preface it with, “This is just my opinion.” Meaning, “This is just my opinion.” I’m not going to code that up – if I say that this is my opinion then you can say, “Okay. Let me weigh it against Scripture and I’ll come to a conclusion on my own.” But, the Bible speaks a great deal about this subject and we can’t ignore it if we’re going to mature in Christ. One of my responsibilities as your pastor is to teach and to preach the whole counsel of God. And a lot of times, if we’re not careful as preachers, the Bible ends up looking a little bit like Swiss cheese because we just teach the parts that are easy, or the parts that are fun, or the parts that we know that you’ll really like, or the parts that will get you to come back. That’s not my responsibility. My responsibility is to teach the whole counsel of God, even the difficult parts. And the difficult parts are what usually prompts us toward the next step of maturity. One of my personal goals and aspirations is that I would serve this church for a really, really long time – for the bulk of my life. One of my aspirations is that I would write and preach a sermon on every chapter of every book of the Bible by the time my days are done with you. And, that is an aggressive ambition. Meaning, I better get moving if I’m going to do that. That introduction was quite long. And I’m already sweating with Leviticus 15. Can I just go ahead and tell you that? And if you don’t know what Leviticus 15 says, don’t look it up right now because you’ll be distracted and you’ll lose your breakfast. But, I’m just committed to teaching and preaching the whole counsel of God. So, I don’t see how in the world we can avoid this subject if it’s talked about so much. And the reason it’s talked about a lot isn’t because God is short on cash and it’s not because He needs your money. God isn’t after your wallet or your purse. Money is His chief competition. Money is a functional savior. Money is where we get our sense of security. I’ve heard this explained to me before, in a river or a stream as water rushes over the rocks in that stream it shapes those rocks. In a very similar way, throughout your lifetime, from the day that you got your first paper route to the day that you retire, earning money and sending it on its way washes over your heart. Whether you realize it or not, it is shaping you in some direction. And I think this is one of the primary reasons why Scripture speaks about it so much. A lack of generosity may be the very thing that is blocking your growth in Christ. And it’s usually the last thing that we detect. So, some of you in this room say, “You know, I don’t know why I’m stuck in neutral,



I don’t know why I’m not growing because I’m in three Bible studies, and I just did that group link thing, and I signed up to go on a mission trip, and I’m serving others, and I’m trying to be generous and gracious – but I don’t understand why I’m not growing in Christ.” I’ve had a number of you even email me throughout this series and you say, “I get what you are saying about Lordship. Now, how do you do it? Aaron, could you give us a three step process by Monday. Help us figure this out.” So, maybe you’ve gone through the whole check list. And maybe the last thing – the thing you never really thought to check is: What is your attitude toward generosity? This may be the very last thing that still has a grip on your heart. Here’s the kicker when it comes to generosity. You can be a really stingy person and nobody’s keeping you accountable for it. It’s such a private thing. We keep finances really close to our chest – and we should. We don’t advertise how much we make a year. We don’t advertise how much we give away because that would make our relationships pretty messy. Could you imagine if there were two little bubbles hovering over everybody’s head one number for how much they made annually and the other for how much they gave away annually? Our hearts could not handle it, could they? We’d be coming to church and saying, “Oh, hey how are you doing? Ohhh wow! Wow! Somebody thinks pretty highly of themselves.” And we would judge them, we would envy them, we would criticize them, compare ourselves to them – our hearts wouldn’t be able to handle this sensitive information. Don’t hear me say that we should advertise this. I’m saying we should not advertise this. But I am also saying that because we don’t advertise it, because it isn’t culturally or socially acceptable to do so – it’s easy to hide. So, this may be the last vice grip on your heart that you have not been willing to fully surrender to the Lordship of Christ. And, you can go for decades as a Christ follower and nobody will ever know it because no one is keeping you accountable. I’ve got brothers in my life right now who are asking me tough questions. We meet and they say, “Hey, man. How’s your marriage? You dating Lindsay? You spending time with the kids? You keeping your priorities straight? How’s your thought life? Are you staying pure?” But, nobody is asking me if I’m tithing. Nobody is asking me if I’m generous. Chances are that nobody is asking that of you either. So, if we are going to remove that thing that is blocking our spiritual artery, so to speak, we have to allow the conviction of the Holy Spirit as the word of God is taught to bring us to that place because others are likely not going to. That is my aim. That is my desire as we look at this passage together. Let’s unpack it starting in chapter 8, verse 1. Paul is really going to call out the lack of generosity in the Corinthian church and he’s going to do so, not in a way that demoralizes them, not in a way that shames them, but it a way that edifies them. In a way that should encourage them as they move forward. And as he does it, I’m going to draw two or three principles that will bring conviction and clarity for you and me today. Chapter 8, verse one, “We want you to know, brothers, about the grace of God that has been given among the churches of Macedonia, for in a severe test of affliction, their abundance of joy and their extreme poverty have overflowed in a wealth of generosity on their part. For they gave according to



their means, as I can testify, and beyond their means,” meaning they gave more than what they made, “of their own accord,” meaning he didn’t have to twist their arms. Verse 4, “begging us earnestly for the favor of taking part in the relief of the saints – and this, not as we expected,” these next few words are, I think, the most important in this section of Scripture, “but they gave themselves first to the Lord and then by the will of God to us.” So what’s happening here is that Paul is not just concerned about one church, he is concerned about multiple churches. Paul was a church planter. He would start a church, he would stay there for a while, he would pastor them, he would raise up leaders, and then he would move on and start another one. And then after that he would start another one. It was a church multiplication movement. They were all for one another. And the church in Jerusalem was struggling financially. Maybe the economy had a down turn, maybe they had sent out a bunch of people to start another church somewhere and so the home church took a hit. Whatever the reason, Paul said they needed to collect an offering among all of the churches that the church in Jerusalem helped to start so that their ministry could be kept alive and vibrant. So he passes out the offering plates in all of the churches and when the offering plate comes back from Macedonia Paul is so moved by their generosity. This is a church that had a bunch of college students, this is a church where the factory had shut down in the community so the economy went down, this is a church where people were struggling to make ends meet. And the offering they gave, Paul was blown away. Now, he doesn’t give us an amount. And that’s the whole point. The point is that they gave beyond what was expected and what was even asked of them. They gave beyond their means because they had given themselves first to the Lord. He was so humbled by their offering because they sacrificed. Then he gets the offering plate back from the Corinthian church and he’s equally shocked for different reasons. He sees that there are a couple of one dollar bills, there was a little bit of loose change, there was a bubble gum wrapper, and some McDonalds coupons. And he was like, “What in the world?” Now, you’ve got to understand that, in Corinth, the people made a decent living, they were relatively affluent especially in comparison to the Macedonian church and Paul’s scratching his head saying, “Hey, guys. Why is there such a discrepancy here?” The thing that we need to understand is that Paul is not saying that the Macedonians were more spiritual than the Corinthians. So hear that. He’s not saying, “Hey, God loves them better because they were more generous.” That’s not what he is saying. He is saying that they are more mature. They didn’t have as much, but they are a little bit further down the line toward full maturity in Christ. So he is urging the Corinthian church toward maturity. He’s not saying, “Hey, man, ante up.” That’s not what he is saying. He’s saying because of this mile marker in their life, it reveals their maturity in Christ. He’s not pitting the maturity of these two churches against one another. In other words, Paul is not using this as a fund raising gimmick. Those of you who grew up in churches – do you remember the red thermometers on the white poster board? Some of you are saying, “I didn’t grow up in church. I don’t remember that.” Consider yourself blessed. For those of us who grew up in church – it was a good idea that had its time and it’s time moved on. So you had the white poster board, the red thermometer and Paul’s not holding this up saying, “Okay, this thermometer represents Macedonia and this thermometer represents Corinth – let’s



see who can raise the temperature all the way to the top.” That’s not what he’s doing here. He’s urging them toward maturity in Christ and he’s showing them that their generosity reveals their level of maturity or immaturity. So here’s the first handle of application for us. Generosity has little to do with how much we make. A spirit of generosity has little to do with how much we make. So you can be rich and generous and you can be poor and generous. You can be rich and stingy and you can be poor and stingy. It’s not about the amount that we give but the spirit by which we give it. But if your spirit is in the right place then you’re going to be generous. This is right about the time where the little attorney who resides in each one of us is going to start to get vocal and is going to start to try to explain things away and is going to try to make some compromises. The little attorney in all of us will hear that and say, “Yep. You see right there. It’s not what we give it’s the spirit by which we give it. So, I am graciously giving these McDonalds coupons.” We try to look at this as through a loop hole and we are missing the point. The Macedonian church gave themselves to the Lord first. Look at that in verse 5. Verse 5 is key. They gave themselves to the Lord first and the result was a wealth of generosity on their part. This is what we might call Gospel centered generosity. You give, not because you’re manipulated. You give, not because you’re trying to get God’s attention. You give, not so that God will bless you back. You give as a response to the Gospel message in your lives. And this is the revealer of maturity. That Jesus gave it all therefore we’re going to have a generous spirit. I said this last week or two weeks ago – true Lordship of Christ is not a burden, but it’s a joy. That the veil gets lifted from our eyes and we begin to see Jesus for who He really is. We understand the Gospel message and so Lordship is not a burden, it’s a joy. And I would say in the same vein, true Gospel centered generosity is not a burden, it’s not something that we begrudgingly enter into, but it is a joy. And if the Macedonian churches were waiting until they got wealthy to be generous, they’d be waiting probably a really long time. The point is that they seized the moment then and there. I think that most of us in the room love the idea of being generous. I think that most of us in this room, if we were to just go around and ask each person we’d say, “Yes, man. I absolutely want to be generous, because that’s just an admirable thing to do.” And whenever you’ve been generous in your life – didn’t you feel really good about it? Didn’t you walk away and go, “Man, I didn’t really sacrifice anything. I’m the one who got blessed from that.” Have you ever been generous accidently? And then you reveled in the glory? As if you meant to do it? I was having lunch with a friend a couple of weeks ago and we were in line and the cashier thought that we were together and that I was going to pay for his lunch. And so she charged me for his lunch as well. And before I could catch it he saw it and said, “Hey, man. Thanks so much for picking up my lunch.” And I was like, “What?” How do you back out of that? You’d be just a real tool, “Hey, could you separate that back out?” So what do you do? You’re like, “Oh, man, absolutely. I love you bro. I do what I can.” Then you walk away and you’re like, “Oh, man!” It was accidental generosity. And, you felt blessed! I think that most of us understand that generosity is kind of wired into our DNA and yet we still fight and resist against it. And most of the time our reasoning is – it’s just not the right time. We’ve got these external circumstances, this emergency cropped up, I just got downsized, I just lost my job, and the kids



are ready to go to college, or whatever. We say, “After I get through this then I’ll be generous.” What ends up happening is that we spend our whole lives with good intentions to be generous but may never be generous. And so the water flows and we never get shaped. When you’re in college you’re like, “I know I should be generous. But I don’t have any money because I’m not working right now. So, let me wait until I graduate and then, after I get a job, I’ll be generous.” But, what happens after you graduate from college? You still have no money and you’ve got debt, you don’t have a job. You’ve got to buy clothes so that you can get the interview, and then you’ve got to buy a car to get to your job. So you’re like, “After I get established in my job, pay these things off then I’ll be generous. But what happens between you getting the job and getting established is that you meet someone. And that someone has a tendency to be very expensive – and completely worth every penny (Hey, she is not here right now. It’s just my own heart for you.) So you’re saving for the ring, you’re saving for the wedding. And you’re like, “Okay, once we get married, once we get two incomes, once we get settled, then we’ll be generous.” Then what happens after that? You need to buy a house, you have a mortgage payment, you want to have kids. And you read this article that each child from 0 – 18 years old costs a jillion dollars to raise. So you have to save for the kids, pay for the mortgage, and once the kids start to get a little bit older then you can be generous. But once they start to get bigger you have to upgrade your house, you have to have more square footage. And the kids are in private school and you’ve got two car payments – so after you get the kids out of the house then you’ll be generous. But then, when the kids get older you’ve got to pay for college. So you pay for the kid’s college and you’ll get them out of the house and be empty nesters then you’ll be generous. But then, once you’re empty nesters and the kids are their own then all of a sudden you become a grandparent and you completely lose your minds. You have grandkids to spoil, you have retirement around the corner, and you wonder when you turned to be this age, and you’ve got to save for this. And after all of that, once you get the grandkids on their feet, once you get the nest egg built where you feel safe to retire then you will be generous if you’re still alive. So, what we do is we spend our whole lifetime living well intentioned when our hearts needs generosity now, when the Great Commission needs our generosity now, when our hearts needs to be shaped now. This is the whole point that Paul is making. Look at what he says in verses 6 – 8. He says, “Accordingly, we urged Titus that as he had started, so he should complete among you this act of grace.” What I want you to notice is that this entire section is about money and giving and never once does Paul use the word money. He uses the word grace. He uses the words willingness and earnestness, abundance – why? Because he doesn’t want them to think that he’s some shady TV preacher trying to manipulate them into padding his salary. So he’s saying, “This is not about me. This is not about you earning good favor in God’s sight. This is not me trying to underwrite my private jet that I fly around on to all of the different churches. This is Gospel centered generosity. That’s why he chooses the words that he chooses. Verse 7, “But as you excel in everything – in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in all earnestness, and in our love for you – see that you excel in this act of grace also. I say this not as a command, but to prove by the earnestness of others that your love also is genuine.”



So here’s the application. Generosity should never be forced, it should be developed. It should never be forced. You should never feel guilted, manipulated, or coerced into generosity. But this is something in your life and mine that should be developed. For some of us, the gift of generosity could be compared to any other spiritual gift. Some of you in this room have the gift of singing and you should seek to excel in that gift. Some of you have the gift of teaching. You should excel in that gift. Some of you have the gift of administration; excel in it. Some of you have the gift of hospitality; excel in it. Whatever your gift, you don’t just stay flat you grow in it. So, Paul’s making this distinction here, “Some of you have the gift of generosity and some of you do not.” The tendency is that often the two of you meet and get married. That’s what happens. And it makes balancing the check book a whole lot of fun because one of you has the gift of giving and you say, “Let’s just give, give, give,” and the other is saying, “Whoa, whoa, whoa – hold on, hold on.” And you’re holding back. Some of us have this gift and some of us don’t – the cop out for those of us who don’t have this gift is, “Well, I don’t have the gift of giving and so I shouldn’t be generous.” Paul is essentially saying, “Those of you who have the gift of generosity – it’s like you’re lifting 50 pound dumbbells. Go ahead and work your way up in weight. So, if you’re tithing 10 percent, why don’t you try 11 percent this next year.” It’s not legalistically but it’s a benchmark to work your way up in weight. Some of you are rocking with the eight pound dumbbells, over there and [pumping one arm at a time] you say, “Well, I don’t really have the gift.” Well, work your way up in weight. That’s what he is talking about. Some of us have this gift, some of us don’t. One of the things that I see happening in the church is that people with external gifts often get thanked. People with the gift of generosity don’t. So, if you’re good at singing, if you’re good with up front gifts, people appreciate you, and they thank you, and they express their gratitude. If you have the gift of generosity, nobody ever knows that – not that anybody ever should. You don’t do that to get thanks. But if you have the gift of generosity – thank you. Thank you for your gift – you don’t get thanked for it enough. Wherever you are on that spectrum – and it’s nobody’s role to judge where you are – you hear me? Nobody’s role to say where you are – you say, “Let me take one more step toward maturity. Let me work myself up in weight.” You know, statistically, that 25% of Christians in America give zero dollars a year – 25%. The median annual giving for Christians is $200.00 a year. Most Christians only give 3% of their income to their churches. Listen to this 5% of Christians give about 60% of all contributions. So 5% are giving 60%. Let’s pray that the 5% doesn’t get sick (in all three services no one knew what to do with that. Should we laugh?) People oftentimes want to know, “How much should we give anyway?” There’s this endless debate about tithing. And people hate that word and people love that word. And people want to pin this down. Those are really important issues to discuss. Largely, they miss the point. You ask the wrong questions you get sent in the wrong direction. So to argue over something like tithing is to miss the whole principle behind generosity. You with me on that? As clearly as I can spell this out – I would affirm percentage giving, but not legalistically. Tithing should be the training wheels of generosity, not the goal. It’s kind of like belief. Tithing should be the starting



place, not the ending place. Tithing is the training wheels to train us to have generous spirits. Because, left to our own devices we wouldn’t do it. Christians love to argue about, “Well, under the Old Testament they tithed but under the New Testament it doesn’t talk about it, we’re under grace.” True. In the Old Testament they tithed over 20% of their income. In the New Testament we’re under grace. So, if we’re under grace – meaning that Jesus has sacrificially given all – does that mean we should give less than what the poor Israelites gave or more? That argument implodes upon itself. The issue of tithing, oftentimes, misses the principle because in the Gospel of Luke, on three different occasions, Jesus affirmed three different percentages. So, in the Gospel of Luke He talks to a rich young ruler and tells the rich young ruler to give away 100% of his income. Wow! And Jesus told him that, not as a prescriptive for the rest of us but as a descriptive of that young man’s heart. It was his idol. But then later in Luke, Jesus is speaking with the Pharisees and He affirms a tithe of 10%. And then, again in the Book of Luke He meets a guy named Zacchaeus, a wee little man up in a tree, who was a tax collector. Zacchaeus gave away 50% of what he had and Jesus affirmed it. So if we’re talking percentages – which is it? In the Gospel of Luke Jesus said 100%, 10%, 50%. What is it? He’s not fixated upon a percent. He’s talking about generosity. And a spirit of generosity basically says that a tithe is just the training wheels for what God wants to develop in us. So, a single mom with three kids working two full time jobs, hospital bills up to her eyeballs, if she legalistically gave 10% it might ruin her financially. Now, it might be an opportunity to provide for her – I don’t know. But, if she treated it legalistically, it could ruin her. But a business executive making six figures and pulling down benefits – he wouldn’t even feel 10% but be puffed up with pride because he’s been tithing for two decades. Are you seeing where I’m going with this? It’s working your way up in weight. I’ll never forget, in 1997, when I did an internship with a church I stayed with a couple in the church and, as we were talking, they shared with me – they weren’t being boastful – they just shared with me, “We took on this challenge when we were in our 30s that we would start adding a percent every year and just see how God would bless and provide.” And they were in their early 60s at the time. And I said, “Well, what are you up to now?” And they said, “48% of our income.” I was so humbled and moved by that. It’s this idea that it is not a legalistic thing – what God wants to do is He wants to develop the spirit of generosity that is within us. I don’t want you to miss the point here. Jesus is not asking you to empty your checking account, He’s not asking you to empty your savings account, He’s not trying to guilt you into anything. And when it comes to emotional subjects, like money, we have a tendency to run to irrational extremes. So, let me point out two irrational, un-‐Biblical extremes as they relate to money. Here’s the first one. We should give as an investment strategy. So, we’ll quote Malachi chapter 3, verse 10. You guys know what that says? Bring the whole tithe into the store house. If you’re faithful with your tithe see if I won’t blow up your barns with blessing – I don’t even have a barn, but that’s awesome. And in Luke chapter 6, verse 38 it says give and it will be given to you. How this can be taught and most of the time – 99% of the time this is how it’s taught by TV preachers – is that if you invest a certain amount, God will bless you with another amount. And while the essence of



that may be true, that is not our motivation. That is not a Biblical motivation for generosity. The title for this is called prosperity theology. Prosperity theology says tithing is an investment plan. So take 10% of your earnings, give it to God and watch Him blow up your 90%. That is not Biblical. Here’s the second extreme. We should just give everything away. And this has actually experienced a resurgence lately in response to the 80s and 90s where we saw all these pastors flying around on their jets, and we saw Christian theme parks, and we saw way too much make-‐up. And so what we did, pendulum swing – just study church history. So pendulum swing – we saw all of this opulence over here so we pulled the pendulum over here and said, “You should feel guilty for having anything. You need to give everything away.” This is known as poverty theology. And while it is more true than the other, while it is more Biblically accurate than the other, it takes it further than what the New Testament teaches or what the Gospel allows. What we want to teach is Biblical generosity. Meaning, God has blessed you with much, so that you bless much. Open hands. God gives it; we pass it on to others. There are four problems with poverty theology. Real quickly, let me rattle them off. This has no practical end. If you shouldn’t have luxuries, who judges what is a luxury and what is a necessity? I’ll read blogs about why you should give away all of your luxuries to feed more people around the world and I’m thinking, “Isn’t the computer your writing that blog on a luxury? Why don’t you sell the computer and buy a typewriter and mail it all out to everybody? Or, why use a typewriter – just write a letter. So, it has no practical end. Some say if you have a car with 100,000 miles on it you should sell it and buy a car with 200,000 take the difference and give it to the poor. But, then you’re probably going to be in the shop just as often, or more, and you’re spending money on repairs. And then, why even have the car that has 200,000 miles? Why don’t you sell it and buy a bike? Then, that bike is pretty nice. Why don’t you sell the bike and just walk? Those are some pretty expensive shoes. Get rid of your shoes and just go barefoot. See where I’m going with this? This has no practical end to it and it will either drive you to despair or pride. So, if you’re the person who is trying to give away everything you look at others and say, “Man, you should give that away.” And so, you get prideful. Or, you think, “Man, I just can’t do this.” and so it leads you to despair. Instead of taking comfort in our possessions, it is making possessions preeminent rather than Jesus. Here’s the second thing. It assumes that God needs your money. And God does not need your money. He’s not up in heaven wringing His fingers hoping that the offering comes in good today so that we can pay all of the bills. God is not doing that. God is inviting us to respond to the generosity that He has given to us. And we get blessed when we allow His generosity to us flow through us to others. Number three. This type of giving is dressed up to look more spiritual than it is. I will say, once again, that this will lead you to despair or pride. And then number four. Poverty theology is out of sync with the whole of New Testament and Old Testament teaching. Meaning, that when you look at money and possessions throughout the whole Bible it will talk about how you need to work hard to provide for your family, that you need to save reasonably, that you need to leave an inheritance, and that you need to delight in the gifts that God gives you. Yes, God wants you to enjoy what money provides – that’s not a sin.



In fact, I want to spoil my kids. Some of you are thinking, “Well, you’re an okay pastor but you’re a bad dad.” I want to spoil my kids – I just don’t want them to act spoiled. There’s a difference. So, I want to generously love on them and give to them. And, I want to take my son to McDonalds behind his mommy’s back – I want to do those things. But I don’t want him to grow up thinking that he’s entitled. Last night, my son was at a friend’s house and I took my wife – this is one of those illustrations that just popped into my head. So, I don’t know if this is going to go anywhere. After church I took my wife and my three girls to McAlister’s and I got this plain sandwich. My daughter got a giant, cheesy spud. And I didn’t think I would like it but when it came out I was like, “Oooh.” She drenched it in butter and salt and pepper and I was like, “Hey, can Daddy have 10%?” She was like, “No. You have a sandwich.” And I was like, “Who bought that?” That was an awesome illustration. Every command of God is a blessing of God in disguise. Every command of God is a blessing of God in disguise. So, you look at all of the Ten Commandments and God is commanding us this – it’s not because He’s trying to limit us but because He wants to bless us. The same is true when it comes to generosity. You don’t worship your wealth – you worship with your wealth. So, let me give you three better questions to ask. Number one: What does your spending reveal about your affections? What does your spending reveal about what you delight in? It’s not a bad thing to buy a new set of golf clubs, or get some new clothes, or to go on a nice vacation – but look at what you’re spending annually. It’s a good thing to do at tax time. Just look back and say, “Okay. If I didn’t know anything about myself other than what this paper says, what would this say about what I care about?” That’s a convicting question to consider. So, what does your spending reveal about your affections? Number two: What does your saving reveal about your sense of security? What does your saving reveal about your sense of security? So, the good rule of thumb here is live modestly, save reasonably, and give generously. There is a difference between hoarding and saving reasonably. Number three: What does your giving reveal about whose Kingdom you are building? In chapter 9 – and I’d encourage you to go read this later this afternoon – Paul describes the entirety of our whole life as a seed. Life is as temporary as a seed, isn’t it? And while we are here we are being planted to reproduce something. So, that’s everything. What I love about the subject of generosity is that is that money is just one slice of it. It’s your gifts, it’s your time, it’s your energies, it’s your passions, it’s your resources – your life is a seed and at the end of your life, what have you produced? Whose Kingdom are you building? Look at verse 9 with me as we finish this up. This is the key verse in this section of Scripture. Paul says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though He was rich, yet for your sake He became poor, so that you by His poverty might become rich.” Guys, that is the Gospel message. That Jesus was rich and He became poor so that through His generosity you might become rich. Can we all just agree that Jesus experienced a significant downsizing when He went from heaven to earth? He went from the penthouse to the basement. Jesus went from riches to poverty. He went from glory to humility. He went from being served to serving others. And this is the essence of the Gospel message. Jesus gives and we receive. So, this is why Paul would say in verse



5 that the Macedonians had given themselves first to the Lord – meaning that they were serious about the Lordship of Christ and the result of that was generosity, not because they made a lot of money but because they had been given much by Jesus, Himself. Generosity is a response to what Jesus has done for us and what He desires to accomplish through us as His church. As we enter into this time of communion, this is not a time to collect your things and look around and get ready to go, this is a time to really come before the Lord and say, “Okay. In the last 45 minutes Aaron said some things that I didn’t agree with. Lord, he said some things that I’m not quite sure about but I’m processing them. So, Spirit of God, would You just do a discerning work in me now.” If I am wrong then you can dismiss whatever I said that was wrong and wasn’t in alignment with God’s word. If I am right and you just don’t like it, would you ask God to do some spiritual surgery on you right now? Here’s the victory for us today. Wherever you are in this, you can take one more step to maturity in Jesus Christ. And listen to me. This is not about what you are putting into the offering basket. It’s about your perspective and response to the Gospel message. So, as we take communion together we just want to invite the Spirit of God into the room right now to work within us. And John and Shawn are going to come out and just lead us in a response. We do worship in the end, not because we don’t know how to close the service. We do worship in the end as a response to what we’ve heard. So this is not your chance to unplug, this is your chance to respond. Let me pray. Father, we come to You right now. Thank You for this time and for this teaching. God, if there is anybody here that heard something different than what I really desired for them to hear, I pray that Your Spirit would discern that in their thinking right now. God, if there’s somebody here who has had an exposure to some bad teaching in this area, I pray that You would bring them to healing. God, if there’s anybody here, maybe like me, who is wrestling with this, it’s convicting, it’s clarifying, I pray that You would bring them one step closer to maturity in You. That their sole motivation to be generous in every area of life would be out of a response to what You have done for us. We look for You to meet us in this place. We ask this in Jesus’ name. And the church says, Amen.

christianish: i give, but i’m not really...

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