Church With A Future – Part 1

Introduction

Just a couple of things I want to say before I begin. We received word that Todd Walton had a medical issue that might be of some seriousness, but we’ll have more on that tonight. We do a little digging on that. But Todd has recently left us, of course, and is worshiping in Luffkin with the Timberland Drive Church where I was. In fact, he was there on Sunday and Friday of my meeting up there. And so we’ll get more word on exactly what is Todd’s condition tonight. Also, I discovered this week, late in the week, that a friend of mine who preaches in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, David Hartzall. You may have heard the name Huey Hartzel, it’s his son David. David preceded me in Auburn. He was the preacher that was there before I came.

And I got very close with David, and I discovered that he was actually at M. D. Anderson in Houston. And he had some more brain surgery. He’s been dealing with brain tumors for quite a number of years now. And they needed to do some more surgery, and he was having seizures after his surgery. And then he became unconscious. He’s been unconscious for several days now. But they believe they’ve discovered that it’s the rare side effect of the seizure medicine that they gave him, and they are hoping that he will regain consciousness. But I had the opportunity to visit with his wife Belinda and daughter in law Fallon on Friday and see David and pray with him if he could hear me fine. But if not, prayers were prayed for him.

And the reason why I one thing I thought about that was every time I saw David while I was in Auburn, he would say, I’m praying for you every day. And that impressed me. No one’s ever said that to me. I think he knew what I had to deal with in Auburn. But he said, I am praying for you every day. And I thought, now is my time to return the favor. And to get as many of you as I can praying for David Hartzel and for his family in this difficult time. And so if you would, I would appreciate that very much.

Well, we just had our meeting with Chuck Durham, and it was spiritually uplifting. I hope you were able to take full advantage of the opportunity. The lessons will soon be on the website if you had to miss any of those, but soon be on the website, Gary, hopefully. But they were just fantastic lessons, and I was encouraged very much by the excellent teaching that Chuck did, and we were recipients of a wonderful gift in the work that he did. Now that means, since I have not preached in two weeks, that I’ve got to shake off the rust. You say you’ve got to be kidding me. You’ve been doing this for 27 years or however long, 28 years. But I’m telling you, if you go one week without preaching, you know, it’s hard to get back in the saddle.

So you’re going to have to be patient with me a little bit until I find my groove. And it may be tonight before that happens, and then maybe not at all. But I must say that where has in heavenly love abiding been. It like disappeared from, I don’t remember singing it here. It’s been so long, but that’s an excellent song, and I appreciate Scott leading it. And the cost, that was new to me. Maybe you sing it at one of those little singings you had last summer when I was gone. What a simple little song, but excellent thoughts. And I call attention to it because my lesson this morning begins with the subject of giving. Oh no, not one of those sermons. Well, we’re going to go far beyond just the monetary collection on the first day of the week, but there are so many misconceptions about giving as the Bible talks about this act of worship that Christians are commanded to engage in.

A local denomination sent out a flyer not long ago called Catch the Spirit through giving. And it cited 2 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 11 that says, You will be enriched in everything for all liberality, which through us is producing thanksgiving to God. You might notice that this statement is found in a section that relates to a monetary contribution that Paul was encouraging the Corinthians to partake in for the poor saints in Jerusalem. We’ll have more to say about this text in a moment. But this flyer went on to offer a biblical challenge, saying the Bible asked for the first 10% for God. And then begins to offer percentages to help people with this. If 10% is too big for a beginning, move up toward 10%.

Now, my first thought was if the Bible is indeed asking for 10%, why are you settling for less? But now this flyer is going to encourage them to move toward 10%. If 10% is too big, if you’re presently giving 3% of your income, give 5% or 6%. If you’re giving 5%, consider 7 or 8%. If you’re giving 7 or 8%, move to the tithe. God will bless you. It says, for most people, dividing their giving by their total income will produce a far smaller number than they ever imagined. Now, if you would just take the amount that you make each year and divide it by how much you’re giving, you’re not even giving that big of a percent. You’re going to be surprised at how small a number that is, the article is saying.

And they offered you a chart so you could clearly spell it out. If you’re making $40,000, the biblical tithe is 4,000. The chart started at 4%. Obviously, that’s about the minimum. And that would be $1,600 annually. And so they were encouraging percentages between 4 and 10. Did you get your Houston Chronicle this morning? If you did, you saw in parade magazine some of the best reading in the Sunday paper. The 30th annual report of what real people make. I’ve seen that before. I really like that little section where it goes through real people and their jobs and what they made at this time and what they’re making now. For example, Carrie Underwood, as a waitress in 2004, was making $15,000 a year. She now makes reportedly $20 million.

So the biblical tithe for Carrie Underwood is thus $100,000. And what I found interesting in this little section where they give you the chart is that the older members were not excluded. The average Social Security income, let’s make sure the older people give, is $10,800. So the biblical tithe would be 1,080 of your social security income. And so the question is asked how does your pledge compare with the biblical tithe of a Social Security income? And then this form was provided. And it had several things that you could check here. Four options here. Number one, reflects my dedication to more than God’s minimum of a tithe. Don’t they wish people would check that box? More than the minimum 10%. Well, there’s this second best, right below it.

Reflects my biblical tithe. 10%, if we can just get people to check the second box. Or three, reflects my commitment to step toward a biblical tithe. And then finally represents an increase over last year. Look, bottom line, if we just get more out of you this year than we had last year, that would be better. Well, it started with this whole biblical challenge, and the Bible asked for the first 10% to God. Really? Does it? Tithing is nowhere mentioned in the New Testament as an obligation for Christians. It’s found about a dozen times in the Old Testament. And the essence of it is described in Deuteronomy chapter 24, 26, rather. In Deuteronomy chapter 26, Israel is coming into a land that is flowing with milk and honey, and they were to give the first of the produce back to God in verse 2.

You shall take some of the first of all of the produce of the ground, which you shall bring in from your land that the Lord your God gives you, and you shall put it in a basket. And go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to establish his name in verse 13. It says, And you shall say before the Lord your God, I have removed the sacred portion from my house. And I have that underlined in my Bible. And also have given it to the Levite and the alien, the orphan and the widow. This was one way in which God could take care of the less advantaged of the Israelite community. They didn’t have welfare programs like we have. The opportunities for the one who was widowed to gain employment, very small or negligible.

So how are they going to be taken care of? This tithe would do that. That they may eat in your towns and be satisfied, it said in verse 12. And he says in verse 13, according to all the commandments which thou hast commanded me, I have not transgressed or forgotten any of thy commandments. And one of those commandments then is this sacred portion. I think it’s interesting that it’s described that way. This tithe was to be regarded as a sacred portion. It was a response of gratitude to God. God brought us into this land. He has given us so much. And now we are giving back to him, the sacred portion. Now when we start talking about our giving to God, do we view it as our sacred portion?

That we are returning to him.

The priest. In Genesis 14, it says he gave him a tenth of all. And some would even say, in regard to the Old Testament system, that once they gave the tithe, the first of the produce of the land, that was not the extent of the giving which they had to do. Because there were still the animal sacrifices on top of that for their sins, for instance. So the giving that they had to do was actually a number larger than 10%. Does your monetary giving reflect something similar? I remember being taught as a kid that tithing was an Old Testament concept. And the New Testament doesn’t mention tithing, but we’re going to get to what it does say about our giving. But I often sort of use that 10% figure to help me model my giving to God.

Because if that’s what God expected in the Old Testament, it seems like he would expect at least that from us.

And what kind of percentage do you give to God? And now let me further add that what we put in a collection plate on the Lord’s day is not the totality of our giving to God. There will be other areas where we will be called upon to give. But does it even approach 10%? And I’ll tell you, I would be a little bit concerned. Let me just throw this out there. And this we might call this the guilt section of this sermon because really we’re going to move far beyond that. I would be, I would feel personally really guilty. If I spent more on going out to eat for Sunday lunch or say on Friday night, one occasion of going to a restaurant more than what I gave to God.

Does that seem to be incongruous to you? Something that doesn’t go together. Or think about this. Am I spending more on my smartphone than I am in support of the work of the Lord? Now, some of you may know that the largest section of the New Testament that deals with the subject of monetary giving is found in the book of 2 Corinthians. I want to teach 2 Corinthians in the next quarter. I am fascinated by this epistle of the Apostle Paul. It is so amazingly crafted. And in the midsection of this second epistle to the Corinthians, chapters 8 and 9, he really deviates from the main thoughts of his correspondence to the Corinthians to talk about this matter of taking up a collection for the poor saints of Jerusalem.

And yet this passage says so much more. If we get right what Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and 2 Corinthians chapter 9, I affirm to you that you will be looking at a congregation, a church that has a future and a bright future as the people of God. And so as we’re talking about this matter of giving, we’re going to go far beyond just what we put monetarily into a plate on the first day of the week to talk about some principles that will cause our church to prosper for many years to come. This is more than about material things. The things Paul says about giving in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 9 have to do with a church that really has a future.

Where are we going? That’s the Decker Prairie Church of Christ. I know we have seen some dramatic changes. I realize in just the three years that I’ve been here that probably half of you weren’t here when I came. It’s pretty incredible when you think about it. And now we’re filling up the auditorium on a lot of Sundays and we’re wondering where we’re going to go. Listen, financially, we’ve got some concerns about our future. Now, really, we need to put our faith and trust in God in terms of our future and what we’re planning to do. But as far as financially being able to go out and to build a new building somewhere and to acquire some property, I’m telling you, we’ve got our hands full of that right now.

But more than that, what are we going to be spiritually in the future? If we did build a building somewhere and move this location so that we’d have more parking, ample parking and bigger classrooms, more classroom space, and a bigger auditorium so more people could come and join us. What kind of people are we going to move from this building to that location? And are we modeling these attributes that we read about in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and chapter 9? I knew it was going to take me some time to set this up. And we’re going to talk more about this if we teach 2 Corinthians in the next quarter. We’re going to talk more about this section in detail. But I want to give you an overview of what Paul is telling the Corinthians, and I want to make just two observations this morning from this text, and we’ll get more into the meat of it tonight.

1. Giving Is a Joyful Response to God

The first observation that I want to make in this lesson entitled A Church with a Future is that New Testament giving. And I would further suggest even Old Testament giving was to be about a joyful response to God. And now I’ve gone beyond just the monetary contribution on the first day of the week. I’m talking about everything that we give to God must emanate from a joyful heart. A principle basic to tithing was the acknowledgement of God’s ownership of everything on earth. The tithe was to be, as we saw in Deuteronomy chapter 26, an expression of gratitude to God. But by legislating a tenth, 10%, a tenth of all. It could very easily be reduced to an exacting obligation. God has to get his tent. And I’ll tell you, the Pharisees were absolutely meticulous about it.

We know the verse very well in Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. That’s how I remembered it. 23. Like Matthew 4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That’s how I remember those things. Those are my tricks. Matthew 4. Matthew 23. When he says to the Pharisees in that section where he’s calling them hypocrites. Scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, snakes, brood of vipers, he calls them. How shall you escape the sentence of hell? And he says in that scathing rebuke, though he would affirm his love for them at the end of the chapter. How he longed to gather them under his wings as a mother hen her chicks. But they were unwilling.

And as a result, he says, your house will be left to you desolate. But in that text in Matthew 23, he says, you tithe. There it is. You tithe, mint, bill, coming. Down to the spice. Down to the smallest things, the produce of the land. You tithe a tenth of even those things. But he says, You neglect the weightier matters of the law. Faithfulness. Mercy. And justice. And these things you ought to have done, but not leaving the other things undone. He was not condemning them because they were tithing even of the smallest amounts that they had received from the land. He said, These things you ought to have done. But it was their attitude that was amiss. It had become exacting obligation rather than a joyful response to God.

And we must be careful that we do not begin to view our giving to God even as it relates to the assembling of ourselves together and the money we put in a collection plate as our exacting obligation. These assemblies come around so regularly. Wow, we’ve got to do some personal hygiene and we’ve got to have some proper clothes to wear and get on our Sunday vest, and all of that involves a little rig of a roll. And around here you have to fight a little bit of traffic. Not as much on Sunday morning as other days. In fact, it’s quite peaceful out there on Sunday mornings. But we’ve got to go through all of this to come to services, and it’s very easy to fall to it because we’re tired.

There’s the hustle and bustle of our lives and the rush hour around Houston. And sometimes the last thing we want to do is leave a house. But this is about what we give to God. We must never reduce it to, in our minds, exacting obligation. And that’s the joyful response that Paul is encouraging in the Corinthians and 2 Corinthians 9 and verse 7. When he speaks of this giving for the ministry of the saints, he said, let each one do just as he has purposed in his heart. Not grudgingly. God does not want our grudging giving. Not grudgingly or under compulsion. You know, the elders are twisting my arm. The preacher has high expectations. Not grudgingly or under compulsion. Look, for God loves a cheerful giver.

That’s the basis of New Testament giving. God loves a cheerful giver, a joyful response to God. We must make sure that all that we do and all that we give, even as difficult as it can be to assemble during a gospel meeting on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, in addition to Sunday. Let our response be joyful. Let our worship be joyful.

2. More About an Attitude Than an Act

We can execute all of the commands. We can sing, we can pray, we can sit and listen. And yet it may not emanate from a joyful heart at all. And this must be at the basis of a right response to God. And so before we ever start talking about how much materially we should give, we’ve first got some inward work to do. And that’s the second point. It is more about an attitude than it is an act. And even if we gave what would be considered by many to be a generous gift, like the Pharisees, they gave the tenth.

Does not the example of Ananias and Sapphira teach us this? They gave a very generous sum of money and put it at the apostles’ feet. They sold a tract of land. They gave more than the widow in Mark 12. We know her story, don’t we? She had two pennies, two mites. Put it in the plate, had no idea anybody was watching. The Creator saw it. Jesus saw her gift. And Jesus knew what other onlookers would not have known. And that is that’s everything that she had. And he told his disciples, come over here. I want you to see this. Everybody else that’s given, they cast in of their abundance. It wasn’t that God was not appreciative of their gifts. He doesn’t say that, nor imply it.

He says, but everyone else gave out of their abundance. But she gave all that she had to live on. You see, it was the attitude. And the reason why he called his disciples over is because this is going to be the essence of what he expects of people in his kingdom. These are the this is the message the disciples were going to preach. The attitudes behind it all. Now let’s go back in 2 Corinthians chapter 8. And I realize, you know, we live in economically difficult times. And some of you are encountering circumstances that you’ve never had to encounter before. And some have lost jobs and seen reductions in income. And I don’t mean to add any more discomfort to your situation. But despite some of these trials, we still have it pretty good.

And probably better than these people. Now, brethren, 2 Corinthians 8 and verse 1, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy. Mark that.

Physical poverty, affliction, and yet they responded with joy and the wealth of their liberality as a result. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave of their own accord, begging us. I’ve always loved verse 4. These people were begging to give, begging to be involved, begging to be a participant and helping these poor saints in another place, people that they had never met, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. How blessed we are to even be involved. The favor of participation. And this not as we had expected. We didn’t even have this amount of expectation, Paul says, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God.

And because of that first giving of themselves to the Lord, everything else followed. Again, New Testament giving is about a joyful response to God. It is an attitude more than an act. And so he would say later in verse 12 for if the readiness is present, it is acceptable according to what a man has, not according to what he does not have. It’s not about the income figure beside your name. It’s about the readiness of your heart. And I want to tell you this passage, these verses say everything about my response to God.

This is the bottom line about faith toward God.

Is this my heart? Joe Gibbs, who’s now more into racing than he is to football, used to say.

Conclusion

And you know our Lord does that. It’s not about the amount of talent you have in relation to someone else. It’s about giving yourself to him. Giving yourself to the will of God. And realize just how fortunate we are to be involved in all of this. We’re going to talk more tonight about these passages and how that they relate to our future as God’s people. But this really has everything to do with the invitation that we offer as well. A heart that understands, a heart that responds in obedience to the salvation of the soul, is a heart that has first come to grips with what God has given and what God has done to make salvation possible. And the person who responds in obedience to the gospel does so over joy.

That God has given so much and that we can be redeemed from our pitiful condition. So if you’re subject in any way to his call to come and to be saved, to put on Christ, won’t you respond with that ready heart while this time and opportunity allows? Let’s stand and sing together.