Sunday afternoon, Rex Heard, one of our deacons, told me that he told our security guys, “Listen, Dave’s been gone for two weeks, and he’s going to want to preach.” I laughed. But boy, was he right. I feel bad, looking back, that Sunday’s sermon was my longest one in a very long time. If you were there, thank you for your patience. If you weren’t there, listen to the sermon, but pack a lunch😂…
Any time a pastor preaches on money, people get uncomfortable and weird about it. If I’m being honest with myself, it’s due to a lot of bad teaching about money. Manipulation and conniving seem to be the methods of the day, rather than trusting the power of God to work in God’s people. So, I get it. The ‘bad’ way it’s been done has made me shy away from preaching about money. I’ve taught about money less than seven times at CLF in 20 years.
But this past Sunday was different. I hoped to be different and to show in God’s word how teaching about money doesn’t have to be uncomfortable (convicting maybe, but not uncomfortable). For the entire sermon, I felt strongly about that. I’m not as thrilled with what I shared after the sermon in a personal/pastoral moment, but I’ll leave that in the hands of the Lord. The idea of gospel-driven generosity has stirred my heart for years. Connecting the gospel to our generosity takes the ‘law’ and ‘percentages’ out of it and goes to my heart. I believe that’s where discussions about money should be. Our purse strings are tied to our heartstrings.
Thinking Like a Farmer, Not an Accountant
One thing that stood out to me in 2 Corinthians 8-9 was Paul’s use of farming language. Sowing, reaping, and seed are throughout the text. It dawned on me that for most of my life in dealing with money, I have thought about money through the lens of an accountant. I look at the ‘bottom line.’ I consider the ‘investment’ of giving and the future ‘profit.’ But Paul doesn’t seem to think like this. He encourages us to think like a farmer. The question for a farmer is not, ‘Can I afford to sow seed abundantly.’ The question for the farmer is, ‘If I want an abundant harvest, shouldn’t I sow abundantly?’ They don’t think in terms of numbers and percentages. They think in terms of harvest.
This made me consider generosity. Most of the time, we ask questions like, ‘Can we afford to give?’ ‘Do we have enough at the end of the month to give?’ These are all good questions…for an accountant. Farmer thinking would be, ‘How can I afford NOT to give? And ‘If I give at the front end of the month (sow), will God NOT fulfill His promise to meet me on the back of the month (reap)?’
Giving to the Church and Special Giving
As I mentioned Sunday, there are two different types of giving in the Bible. In the Bible, biblical generosity is being faithful to both. There should be regular, consistent, and faithful gifts to the local church, and there should be gifts to special needs. If we want to be biblical generous, you’ll notice in the Bible that both are happening. When people join a church as a member, they agree and commit themselves to helping financially with the ministry needs of the church and special needs that might arise in that church.
But there are two misnomers that I’ve heard that I think should be addressed:
- First, a ‘tithe’ to the local church is not service, time, or anything other than money or goods. Many say, ‘I give my tithe to the church in my service.’ Or they see their tithe as using their spiritual gifts. But the Bible distinctly talks about the tithe to the local church in terms of the ‘first fruits’ of our harvest. Meaning it’s the first thing we offer to the Lord.
- The second misnomer is that people generally are willing to give ‘special offerings’ but are less inclined to give regular, consistent, faithful offerings to their local church. The biblical challenge with this line of thinking is that the offerings to the local church were intended to be the ‘first’ gifts we give off the top of what we give. Special offerings come later.
Let me add one other thought to this. When you read Acts 4:34-35, you notice something very interesting. “There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need (Italics mine).” Notice the ‘open-handedness’ of their giving. They brought it to the church’s leaders and distributed it as needed. There is a place to bring all your offerings to the church, and as needs arise, allow church leaders to help those in need through the offerings you’ve brought.
So, let me lay out how we do this at CLF:
- When someone gives their regular tithe/offering to the church that’s not designated for something special, it goes into our operating income. Operating income pays for staff salaries, our power bill, missions, and ministries in our church. It pays for the day-to-day gospel work that we do.
- If someone gives a special offering designated for something, we put it in that designated fund, like benevolence, special missionaries, or our building fund. Special funds are not funded by regular tithes/offerings not designated for that. If people chose to take their regular tithes/offerings and designate them for a special fund, it would deplete our operating income and affect the gospel ministry at CLF.
- So, to build up any special fund at CLF and keep gospel work happening through CLF, our people need to give regularly, faithfully, and consistently through their tithes/offerings, AND they need to give extra to designated funds.
- One of the confusions some of our people have is that because CLF has been very generous, they automatically assume that our building fund, for example, is fully funded. But CLF has been very generous with tithes/offerings that are undesignated. We’re lacking in the designated funds, mainly our building fund.
Here’s how Jill and I have sought to be faithful in our generosity.
- At the beginning of each year, we budget a monthly amount that we would like to give regularly to the church, off the top. Then, at the beginning of each month, that’s the first thing we write into our check register and give to the church. That’s undesignated, regular, consistent, and faithful giving to the church for the day-to-day needs of the church’s ministry.
- But we also give each month to the church’s building fund. That number varies based on a few different things, but we want to make sure that we are regularly giving to special needs in our church.
- We also give a monthly gift to missions. We have given to Sovereign Grace for about 10-15 years.
- Then, 2-3 times per year, we prayerfully consider other special needs to give to. It might be our Christmas giving to people in 3rd world countries, people we hear of that might be in need that we know or any wide range of opportunities.
- But we believe that every cent we have has come from the Lord. Since it is His money, we should use it His way.
Hard Day Sunday
Many things were working against us on Sunday. The media team was having all sorts of tech issues. The heat wasn’t on. The livestream wasn’t working. A few of us had loved ones who were dealing with very serious health issues. I have a coaching friend, a dear friend, struggling to stay alive. It was a hard day.
Part of the challenge of Sunday was because of the content we were studying. I firmly believe our adversary, the devil, will do everything he can to keep Christians from being motivated and empowered by the gospel to be generous. Generosity is one of the reasons that the gospel mission moves forward. Ministry, missions, publishing, recording, and benevolence don’t happen without money. And the way money is given…is through gospel-motivated generosity.
SGC
You’re interested in keeping up with Sovereign Grace Churches (our denomination) news, here’s a link to their website: https://www.sovereigngrace.com/home. At the bottom of the page, there’s a spot to add your email address to get monthly updates. These updates give you a ‘birds’ eye view’ of what is going on in SGC.
From the Cheap Seats
- World Series game 4 is tonight. The Diamondbacks are playing incredibly confidently and a brand of baseball that is really fun to watch (if they weren’t playing my team). We’re dealing with a few injuries. Up 2-1 in the Series, a 3-1 lead would be a dream. We’ll see!
- I have watched this swing over 20 times: https://www.mlb.com/news/corey-seager-rangers-comeback-world-series-game-1-2023
- The Rangers’ run to the World Series has done something amazing for me. It’s allowed me not to look up what the Cowboys are doing. I’ve become tired of the constant media presence and blow-hard comments from the Cowboys’ owner, and I wish they would just play football. The last two games have been a good start. But the hype drives me nuts.
Have a great week!
To watch or listen to the sermon described in this post, please click here.
In Christ,
Dave York
