The questions that I've handed out to you,
I thought would help us just to get
our minds sort of in gear about the
whole concept of giving and sort of the
priorities that we have as Christians in giving
to the Lord and looking after the responsibility
that the Lord has given us in managing
what He has given us.
Whether it's money, possessions, our abilities, our time,
everything that we have so that we can
be properly equipped to reflect the Lord Jesus
Christ in our lives.
To give as He gave, unselfishly and totally.
A high and holy calling it is to
be able to give in the name of
the Lord Jesus and to give like the
Lord Jesus.
The subject has been a difficult one to
prepare.
You can't talk about giving without speaking to
yourself.
So, the disclaimer for this seminar is in
Philippians 4.17 I desire that fruit would
be added to your account and to mine
too.
That's the goal of all Christian giving is
that we increase in our heavenly bank account
to the glory of God.
So, when we look at these questions, and
I just want to look at the last
question.
The others are food for thought.
What is the main reason for your giving
to the Lord or the work of the
Lord?
Do we do it out of a sense
of guilt?
Do we do it out of a sense
of appreciation for what He has done for
us?
Do we do it because we're told to
do it by others or do we do
it because the Lord has asked us to
do it?
Do we do it because it's part of
the accepted thing to do, to put something
in the offering every Lord's Day?
Or do we do it because we truly
understand what the Scriptures teach about giving and
how it is not only a picture of
our appreciation, but it's also a sacrifice while
pleasing and acceptable to God and it's also
a responsibility that we have as priests to
God and it is the ultimate act of
worship.
Laying ourselves on the altar and all that
we have for the service and the glory
of our Master.
And I think that's really the essence of
Christian giving.
It's to glorify God by what we have
been given by Him.
On the handout that you have, you might
be able to see it up here, if
you don't want to keep looking down at
your paper, but the first section that we
look at is the principle that God is
the owner of everything.
God is the absolute owner.
And three basic questions I would like to
ask you today.
Why should we give?
What do we give?
And how can we give?
Or the motive for giving, the measure of
giving, and the method that we have in
giving.
If you've been like me, you have received
something in this last little holiday season.
You may have got a gift or multiple
gifts.
And you know what it feels like to
get a gift.
Now if you're like the little boy that
is on America's Funniest Home Videos, and he
opened up a package and it has just
a piece of clothing in it, and he
threw it down and just scuffed.
And he said, I didn't want to get
this from Christmas.
Well, he didn't really have a very mature
concept of what receiving is all about, or
giving for that matter.
And sometimes we're like that with the Lord.
We don't like what we've been given in
life.
And our problem is that sometimes we do
want more than what we've been given.
A little story is told of a rich
man that learned that he was going to
die in a few days.
And he thought, he figured out a way
to take it with him.
And so he spoke to his doctor and
the preacher and his lawyer.
And he said, I'm going to ask you
to take these envelopes.
And he gave each one of them an
envelope.
He put $10,000 in each of the
envelopes.
And he said, when you walk by my
casket, I want you to put it inside
my casket.
And so the preacher had every intention of
depositing the whole amount.
And he realized that the organ needed repair.
And so he took $2,000 out, and
he said, I'm sure that he wouldn't mind.
And he deposited the balance in the coffin.
And the doctor realized that his clinic needed
some funds, and he knew that the work
that he did was of the Lord.
And so he felt very comfortable in taking
$5,000 out and putting it towards the
work of the clinic that he was called
to do, and then put the deposits in
the coffin.
So the lawyer came along, and he said,
well, that makes me feel a lot better.
He said, I have a clear conscience about
it now.
He said, because I took all three of
the envelopes and put them in my pocket,
and I wrote him a check for the
full $30,000 and put it in the
coffin.
Now, that's the way some people get.
It's in name only.
But there's no reality to it.
There's no reality to it.
And that story is humorous, but true.
So the way we sometimes get is in
a very stingy and unappreciative way.
And if we can figure out a way
to get around it, sometimes we do.
Sometimes we do.
Let's look at the Scripture.
Acts chapter 20.
The final words of the apostle as he
was leaving the Ephesian elders.
We turn to these verses often because they
encourage us at the love of Paul to
his fellow elders in Ephesus.
Acts chapter 20, and begin reading at verse
32.
He says, And now, brethren, I commend you
to God and to the word of his
grace, which is able to build you up
and to give you an inheritance among all
them who are sanctified.
I have coveted no man's silver or gold
or apparel.
Yea, ye yourselves know that these hands have
ministered unto my necessities and to them that
were with me.
I have shown you all things, how that
so laboring you ought to support the weak
and to remember the words of the Lord
Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed
to give than to receive.
And when he had thus spoken, he knelt
down and prayed with them all.
Do you know what they did?
They cried.
They hated to see him go because they
knew that Paul had spoken true words to
them and he had given true ministry to
them over a number of years.
But the words of the Lord Jesus are
the words I would emphasize to our hearts
today.
It is more blessed to give than to
receive.
The Lord Jesus is the perfect example of
that, isn't he?
Though he was rich, yet for our sakes
he became poor, that we through his poverty
might become rich.
Now, today I don't want to make this
a sermon.
I would like you to ask questions.
And if I say anything that promotes a
question, don't hesitate to ask.
I would like to encourage participation.
And if you feel that you would like
to share something, please do that.
This is a seminar.
We're not in a meeting.
Both speak as far as protocol is concerned.
But I don't want you to hesitate.
If you have a question, please let me
know.
The example of the Lord Jesus is the
ultimate example in giving.
And we have to recognize that it is
because God has given his son that we
in turn can give back to God.
And so the first principle we have in
giving, as the top of your hand goes,
principle number one, is God's ownership.
God owns everything, including me, God's ownership.
So we learn that giving is a direct
result of receiving from the Lord.
That's the first principle.
We don't have anything in our possession that
wasn't given to us, directly or indirectly, through
the provision of God.
Now, the best example of that is what
we have received spiritually.
We have been redeemed, not with corruptible things,
like silver and gold, but with the precious
blood of Christ.
God has given us his son.
His son has given us his life.
And we were redeemed with his life, with
his bloodshed.
And so the perfect example of giving is
seen in the person of the Lord Jesus
and how God has given him to us
as our provision for our salvation.
He has given us spiritual blessings, and he
has given us physical blessings.
And we read in Psalm 24, verse 1,
for example, that the earth is the Lord's.
So everything we see around us belongs to
him.
Everything.
Corrie Ten Boom said in one of her
books that one of the things that you
learn in life as a Christian is not
to hang on to things too tightly.
You kind of let them go through your
hands and not try to keep them for
too long.
And it would seem that's a good principle
to follow if we believe that God is
the owner of everything and he has given
us richly all things to enjoy.
So the first principle, God owns everything.
He gave us the earth as a stewardship.
And we have a brother who ministers on
the subject of stewardship often.
He calls the stewardship of Adam the Adamic
stewardship.
Man was given a garden to look after
and the earth to look after.
Dominion over the elements, over the sea, if
you will, over the earth.
That was our responsibility, to manage what God
has given us.
Every good gift and every perfect gift comes
from above.
And so once we understand that principle that
we don't own anything, but God owns it,
that he has given it to us, both
spiritual and physical, as a blessing and to
be a blessing to others.
1 Timothy chapter 6 and verse 10.
This is one of the most misquoted verses
in the New Testament.
And I think you can relate to why
it's misquoted.
Oftentimes people will say, money is the root
of all evil.
And they forgot to read that little word,
love.
For the love of money is the root
of all evil.
While some coveted after, they have erred from
the faith and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.
Loving money is wrong.
It is the root of all evil.
We'll look at that in a little while,
in a little more detail.
But having money is not evil.
Loving money is evil.
It is evil.
Using money is not wrong, but misusing money
is wrong.
So the love of money is wrong.
And later, Paul says in the same chapter,
Timothy, Timothy, you man of God, he says
three things.
He says, flee these things, follow after righteousness,
and fight the good fight of faith.
The fight, fright, and flight syndrome of the
nervous system of the human body is here
in spiritual sense, that Timothy was told that
he needs to flee these things of covetousness.
Covetousness, that's what Paul's talking about.
Flee these things, covetousness.
Follow after righteousness, and God's even faith, love,
patience, and meekness.
And fight the good fight of faith.
You see, the covetousness of money, the love
of money, will prevent anyone from becoming a
man or woman for God.
Everyone will be stopped dead in their tracks
if they love money more than they love
God.
Remember what Peter was asked by the Lord
Jesus?
He said, Peter, do you love me?
Peter smiled.
Yeah, I love you.
But the question was this, do you love
me more than these?
Now whether he was talking about the fish,
or talking about the disciples, Peter's heart was
shaking.
We love the Lord, but do we love
him more than these?
Do we love him more than these?
And if we love him more than what
these things represent, then we won't have a
hard time understanding that he owns all of
this, and he owns the keys.
Here's our keys.
He owns the keys, and he owns the
deeds, and he owns it all.
Do we love him more than we love
these?
When you look in the mirror, do we
love him more than we love ourselves?
Those are hard questions.
And a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ
ultimately has to come to the point where
they say, yes, I love him more than
I love these things, and I love him
more than what I see in the mirror.
And so when we talk about the joy
of Christian giving, we're talking about true discipleship.
This is what it boils down to, true
discipleship.
So we recognize that God is the owner,
and Paul tells Timothy in verse 17 a
charge.
He says, "...charge them that are rich in
this world, that they be not high-minded
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the
living God, who giveth us richly all things
to enjoy, that they do good, that they
be rich in good works, ready to distribute,
willing to communicate or to share, laying up
in store for themselves a good foundation against
the time to come that they may lay
hold on eternal life."
Being rich in this world, I wonder if
anyone in this room believes that they are
rich today, materially rich.
Well, if you have a roof over your
head, and you've been eating three meals a
day, you are rich, materially, physically.
Because there are a lot of people in
this world who don't have a roof over
their head, and who don't have three meals
a day.
I think that from the world's perspective, we
are rich.
Whether we have large or small numbers in
the bank account is really secondary.
The bigger the number, the more the responsibility.
That's the bottom line.
But truly, we are rich in this world,
in comparison to many people who are just
living an existence out, who have no other
priority except to find food and water for
another day, if they can find it.
And so we are the ones that Paul
is talking about here.
We're not looking at the people with the
Cadillacs, and the six houses, and the condominiums,
and all the other things that go with
it.
That's what he's talking about.
And of course, in that day, there were
some real class differences between rich and poor.
There were slaves and free men, and there
were class differences.
But I think in our day, we can
apply it to ourselves, because it's so easy
to get ahead in this world materially, and
yet there are so many people who do
struggle with it.
And there is a tremendous difference, even in
our culture, between those who are very rich
and those who are very poor.
But in comparison to others, we are, generally
speaking, very rich.
The ownership of God is so important to
understand.
Now, there are misconceptions in the world about
what it is to be a truly great
person.
And one of those misconceptions revolves around how
big your bank account is.
So the great people of the world are
the ones that are on the Fortune 500
list, where their names are listed as being
multi-billionaires and multi-millionaires, and so the
world looks at greatness in direct proportion to
how much money you have in your account.
Now, if we look at an Old Testament
character like Solomon, he was loaded, but he
didn't ask for it.
He was given it by the Lord.
Solomon was given riches, but that wasn't the
desire of Solomon's heart.
When God asked him, what do you want,
Solomon?
You give me the wish list, and I'll
fill it in for you.
Solomon asked for wisdom.
He asked for the things that would honour
God.
And God said, I'll give you those things,
and I will also give you what you
didn't ask for.
So Solomon was blessed with material blessings, and
we see that from God's perspective, things like
self-sacrifice and self-denial are far more
important than looking at your desire to get
ahead materially.
And so God blessed Solomon.
Solomon's confidence initially as a young man wasn't
in his riches, but as we know by
his life, he ended up being taken away
into idolatry because of all the marriages that
he had become involved in, and it led
him down a path of ruin and misery.
But God's viewpoint of greatness is self-sacrifice
and self-denial, and not self-satisfaction, but
pleasing him.
Solomon is an example of how God gave
him the things that he didn't ask for.
The story is told of King Charlemagne.
Those of you who know a little bit
of history know he was a great king,
and he died, and like a lot of
these great kings die, and they put him
in his vault, and in his vault he
sat on his throne.
And all his treasures were with him, as
many as the people could conscientiously store in
these tombs.
And some years later, they found his body,
which was nothing but a skeleton, and they
found him sitting in his chair, and the
scriptures were open on his lap, if you
will, and his finger was pointing to this
verse in the Bible, Mark chapter 8, verse
36.
For what shall it profit a man that
he shall gain the whole world, and lose
his own soul?
What a contradiction, what irony!
A man among his riches, absolutely impoverished, without
any true riches as far as the kingdom
of God is concerned.
People realize this.
People would love to take the earth to
the graveyard.
They would love to, and put everything in
it, and take a U-Haul along, and
bring it all with them.
And people desperately want that.
Reading in the Words of Peace, from April
of 95, this man said, My whole life
is gone.
All of his possessions, $2 million worth of
gems, were in four little crates, and somebody
stole them.
And that was his life.
My whole life is gone.
But what did Paul say?
Paul said, But our life is hidden in
Christ.
That's real life.
It's in Christ.
This man's life was in Christ.
And that said, people would like to take
the jackpot home, wouldn't they?
Here's another good one.
I enjoyed this one, July of 95.
Jackpot.
Now there are a lot of people that
you know, and probably some Christians that you
know, who like to buy lottery tickets.
They don't like to tell you that.
But what are they hoping to get?
The big one.
Right?
They want to get the big one.
And what's the first thing that they do
after they win their prize?
They don't tell anybody.
They hide it.
Because they know they're going to get bombarded
with requests for money from family and friends,
from financial groups that are giving them some
excellent investment opportunities, and on and on.
People are afraid of winning a lot of
money, but that's what they want.
They want to get the jackpot.
Money is the root of all evil.
I think there's a lot of truth in
that.
But the love of money is what the
scripture tells us to avoid.
So the first thing that we need to
understand, the first principle is God's ownership.
The second principle is our stewardship.
Number two, God has given us the responsibility
to be faithful managers of what he has
given us.
That is our stewardship.
And being a steward is simply being a
manager.
And so the question is, what do we
give?
Our measure of giving.
What do we give?
Now, I was reading, I don't subscribe to
this magazine.
This is disclaimer number two.
But in the work that I'm in, I
have a lot of people that like to
influence me to think that they're trying to
help me.
And this is the way they think they're
trying to help me, okay?
They want me to make money.
And so I was given a magazine, money,
where to make it in 1996.
And I got thinking about that.
Thinking, yeah, that's an interesting thought.
Where am I going to make money in
1996?
And as I got thinking of it, I
thought, you know, well, really, if this was
a new issue of Publix or Council Magazine
or the Missions Magazine, it would say, money,
how to manage money for the glory of
God in 1996.
Isn't that a better way to look at
it?
How to make money in 1996.
That's what the world wants you to do.
They want you to put your full lot
in with them so that you can join
them in making a lot of money.
And if you go through the magazine, it'll
tell you, Mr. So-and-so, excellent investment
broker, earned 40% return on the following
investment.
And that's where it's at.
And they are, I mean, motivated to get
you online.
Not an online Bible to get you online
with their investment strategy.
They want you to make money.
Because if you make money, they make money.
And if they make money, that makes them
happy.
That makes them happy.
So, making money is the world's greatest motivation.
And they're not ashamed to flaunt it.
And people will pick these things up, $3
.95 a copy, and every month they run
a new issue to get you so that
you can see your investment opportunity.
1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 2 talks about
the fact that we are stewards of what
God has given us.
We are stewards.
1 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 2.
Moreover, Paul says, it is required in stewards
that a man be found faithful.
It is required.
A requirement of being a steward for the
Lord Jesus is faithfulness.
A faithful manager for God.
Now, if we look at the things that
we have been given by God, our substance
and ourselves, as not our own, but to
be vessels that are used for the glory
of God, it will help us in making
decisions as to how we can better use
the resources that God has given us so
that God can be glorified by it.
So, we need to be wise managers.
We hear a terminology in the world, an
investment builder account.
I like that terminology, an investment builder account.
And we can use that terminology because that's
what we've been given by the Lord, an
investment builder account.
We can build up our investment in heaven
by good managing here on earth.
By good managing here on earth.
Now, I am not a full-time worker,
and I have not been called to do
that at this time in my life.
I'm not a missionary.
I've been called to be an optometrist by
God.
And thus far, that is what I've been
doing.
I'm 40 years old, and I've been doing
this for 17 years.
So, any statements that I will make from
now on do not come from the perspective
of someone who is pleading with you to
give more of your time and your substance
and yourself to the Lord, other than for
the purpose, as I said originally, of adding
proof to your account and mine.
When the bottom line comes in, we want
to hear these words, Well done, thou good
and faithful servant.
Enter into what?
The joy.
The joy of the Lord.
The joy of giving starts by managing well
what God has given us.
The bottom line comes down the road.
And so, the Lord Jesus talks a lot
about earthly possessions.
For where your treasure is, I'll say that's
where your heart is.
Isn't that something?
Where your treasure is, that's where your heart
is.
And how you handle the deposit that God
has entrusted to you, to earn interest on
it for the kingdom of heaven, to the
glory of God, is going to come to
account someday.
This is not slipping through the door and
saying, I hope you didn't notice.
He's taking notes.
And he's got little margins on it to
make comments as well.
This is what's so serious about the whole
concept of money and possessions and stewardship, is
that inherent in being a steward is the
day of reckoning that comes, the day of
accountability.
And so you see the Lord Jesus speaking
parables of stewardship.
We don't have time to go into them
in detail.
I think they are mentioned for you at
the bottom of that first sheet.
And the four parables that I've mentioned talk
about being faithful in our responsibilities, Matthew 25.
Being truthful in our responsibilities, Luke 12.
Being farsighted in our responsibilities, but more so
responsible and farsighted in our service to the
Lord.
And then the fourth one, being faithful in
our service to the Lord.
Being faithful in our service to the Lord.
So these principles that we're talking about is
based on some of the teachings that the
Lord Jesus has given us.
For instance, in these parables, the number one
principle is plan ahead.
Plan ahead.
Think of the future.
Be farsighted.
Don't think about how you're going to handle
things just for today.
But remember that what you do today will
have an impact on what happens tomorrow and
on the day of accountability.
The judgment seat of Christ.
Where we will have all the secrets revealed.
1 Corinthians chapter 4 talks about the secrets
being revealed.
The motives and giving are going to be
declared.
It's hard to look forward to it sometimes
when you look at the whole picture.
But it's a day of accountability.
The Lord wants to know and make known
why we did what we did.
There won't be anything that is hidden that
will not be made secret some day.
And so we need to be aware of
that principle.
Plan ahead.
There's a day of accountability coming.
Also, another principle is this.
In Luke 16 where he says this.
Being faithful in little things.
That's what a steward is.
A steward is being faithful in little things.
Abe Lincoln at the age of 24 had
a little discrepancy one day and ended up
$17 over.
Didn't know what to do with it.
So he put it away in a piece
of cloth and wrapped it up.
One day whoever was figuring out the book
realized that Mr. Lincoln made a boo-boo
at the post office.
And so some years later they went back
and said, Honest Abe, they didn't call him
that at the time, they thought he was
a crook.
They said, you're $17 out of your bookkeeping.
Abe goes over to the little chest.
Opens up the chest, unravels the cloth, and
he says, here's the $17.
I didn't know what to do with it.
So I kept it until you wanted it.
Faithful in little things.
Mr. Lincoln went on to do some big
things.
That's the kind of men and women they
call you.
People who are faithful in little things.
So the judgment seat of Christ helps us
to recognize that we have the possibility that
we'll be accounted for.
One of the things that we are struggling
with in life, of course, is managing our
finances.
And managing finances sometimes is a real juggling
act.
And on the chart you can see that
if you look at the first three, and
I'm looking at the center section, in relation
to employment and what you do with your
income, shelter, transportation, and food take up 59
% of an average person's income.
Shelter, transportation, and food.
And then it divides it up into these
other columns.
Retirement plan, your utility costs, mortgage, entertainment, medical
care, savings, insurance, excluded, required home 1%, and
Mr. Lincoln, your 7%.
Do you notice something missing on there?
Kidding.
Now, there's something that will affect all of
these figures.
And it's that right there.
Debt.
These figures will all be affected because if
you put the word down here, interest payment,
it's going to throw everything off on that
formula.
Being indebted is a problem.
So when you go to buy a home,
one of the questions was, is getting a
mortgage putting you into debt?
Or mortgages?
Because they've got a great deal near the
airport.
Let's say some people buy houses.
They go out and get their house, and
they thought they got such a great deal.
But the truth of the matter is sometimes
when people buy houses, they're getting it way
over their head.
Way over their head.
And I know people who have went out
and spent well over $100,000 on a
house, making $1,500 to $1,700 a
month payments, realizing that they just can't keep
it up.
And then losing all of their initial investment.
And it really affects people.
But making wise decisions will help you when
it comes to distributing your income so that
there will be something left over to give.
But is that the way we look at
giving?
Is it what's left over?
No.
We know that, don't we?
We start it the other way around, don't
we?
We start off first with the Lord's portion,
the principle of first fruit, and then we
have to fit our needs and expenses into
that formula.
The world doesn't look at it that way.
They say, here's where your expenses are.
There's no money left to give to anybody
else.
But we start off with the Lord's portion
first.
Every day, every payday, every day we buy
something.
So remember that the Lord has to get
this portion first.
And so when we get into a situation
where we're trying to help, it creates problems.
Now let me give you a quick example
of how to save a lot of money.
You go out, as Newlyweds, for example, and
you buy a house.
You say, well, we're going to start off
with a $90,000 house.
And that's a little bit above average for
most houses, I think.
I'd say that's above average.
But they want to get into it.
They've got dual incomes, and they're all set
to go.
And over a period of 25 years, at
$790 a month expenses, it will take them
all of 25 years to pay that off.
But if they went out and bought a
house for about half of that amount, they
could pay it off at the same rate
in seven years instead of 25 years.
And then they could sell their first little
home at $45,000, getting all the cash
in hand, going out and buying their second
home at $90,000.
And in seven more years, that house will
be paid off.
So they will have paid their house in
14 years instead of 25 years.
But they had to do something really important
to start with.
They had to swallow their pride and find
something that they could afford to live on.
And that's something we don't like to do,
is take the big pill and swallow it.
We like to go and live like everybody
else.
And that thinking comes into the assembly.
We want to be like everybody else instead
of being the people of God that He
wants us to be.
And so what we practice in our private
life, sometimes we carry on in our corporate
testimony, in our gatherings.
People can waste a lot of money.
Now, there's no greater waste of money, in
my opinion, than if you keep smoking.
If you know a person that's smoking, they
probably do, they can save thousands and thousands
and thousands of dollars that could be put
into the Lord's work if they just quit
one stupid habit.
One bad habit could support a missionary or
a full-time worker or to be given
to the poor or to go into the
Lord's work, such as in printing or magazines
or whatever you may be led to do
by one foolish habit that you may have.
And it's amazing how it all adds up.
Principle number three.
The joy of giving, a job well done.
We talk about God's ownership and our stewardship.
But the joy of giving, the third principle
is this.
To end up, here are those words, a
job well done.
God's Spirit leads us to willingly give back
to God cheerfully to give Him the glory.
So the joy of giving is to do
so for the glory of God.
And that's the bottom line.
That's what it's all about.
Here are those words.
Well done.
Now give Him faithful service.
Enter into the joy.
Enter into that joy.
The world's techniques for giving and getting are
quite different.
A story is told of one particular church
where they had a lot of delinquent members.
And so the gentleman in charge of reconnecting
the lost members to the body sent out
one of the members of the body who
didn't have first class education nor was he
very tactful.
And so he decided that what he would
do is he would send a letter to
all the members in that particular group who
hadn't been coming out regularly to their church
services.
And so the elder in charge got a
letter.
And the letter read something like this.
You know, we thank you very much for
notifying us of our delinquency in coming to
church.
And we just want to inform you that
I received your letter and I want to
remind you that there is only one T
in dirty and no C in skunk.
And here's a check for $1,000.
Now that's the way some people do it.
They make you feel guilty.
They call you a dirty skunk.
You should be doing this.
And it's never that obvious, is it?
It's always a lot more subtle.
But the world will make you feel guilty
if you don't get to God.
And you know that by the mail that
you get.
And you know that by the ads that
you put on television.
And by the ads you read in magazines.
I want to look at eight areas of
Christian giving.
You see them outlined in your handout, page
two at the bottom.
And there are eight areas that I want
to look at very, very briefly.
And the first thing that you need to
do, if you have been struggling with Christian
giving, and this little cartoon illustrates it, develop
a plan.
Now these people had a plan for getting
into the bank.
And it wasn't too well developed.
They got into the wrong building.
And I think sometimes when we give, we
give with the wrong motive.
And we give for the wrong work that
is to be done.
In other words, our giving isn't effective because
we don't do it with the right reason
for giving.
And we don't put it in a place
where the Lord would really need us to
do that.
And the reason is that we haven't committed
ourselves completely to the Lord as individuals.
We haven't first given ourselves.
Now that's the teaching of Romans chapter 12,
as you know.
When God gets a man with a car
as one of his children, he's got a
car in his service.
When he gets a woman with a sewing
machine in her house, he gets a sewing
machine in his service.
And when he gets a sister who can
cook, he gets a kitchen in his service.
And when he gets a man who's got
a big bank account, he's got more money
in his service.
And that's the way it works.
God's plan is that when he saves people,
he gets the whole package.
He doesn't want just a part of you.
When you become a Christian, you and yours
belong to him.
And so the Corinthians, in 2 Corinthians chapter
8 and 9, which are the two great
passages about Christian giving in the New Testament,
among some other excerpts in Corinthians and in
Philippians, we have the example of the Macedonian
Christians who gave themselves to the Lord first,
sacrificially giving themselves to the Lord.
And so the principle of first fruits, again,
is so important in remembering that first we
give ourselves to the Lord, and when the
Lord's got us, he's got everything that we
own, all of us.
Giving is truly an act of worship, and
there could be no greater gift than to
give yourself to the Lord.
You have the examples of many young Christian
men who went off in the mission field
as young men.
Mr. Anthony Grove, some of you have heard
of Mr. Grove.
He was a dentist who left his dental
profession, went to minister as a missionary in
India, and he said this, and if you
want to have a really bad night's sleep,
read his book on Christian devotedness.
It will keep you conscious.
He gave everything to the Lord to serve
him, and he challenges us in our thinking
as far as riches go.
He says, Are not all things given us
richly to enjoy?
Yes, but it would be degrading to the
members of the kingdom of Christ to make
their rich enjoyment consist of consuming on their
own lusts like the members of the kingdom
of Satan.
Those things which they are committed to apply
to the exaltation of their Lord and Redeemer.
Be assured, my friends, the sooner we can
see our wealth appropriated to God's service and
glory, the better, for then it is gone
for the Lord and the world, the flesh,
and the devil.
Those combined cannot bring it back.
We give it to the Lord.
The enemy can't get it.
They can't use it.
It's his, and so it's like a one
-time act of dedication, putting your body on
the altar.
Don't forget to take this with you, and
the keys to the car, and the keys
to the house, and all the certificates, and
the bonds, and whatever else goes with it.
It's a package.
The Lord wants us to give ourselves.
Mr. William Gordon was called to go to
the mission field.
He had the family fortune behind him, and
he wanted to give it up.
And in his Bible, at each stage of
his decision-making, he would make a little
note, and at the first stage, he said,
no reserves, when he turned his back on
the family fortune.
And then he went and left home, and
he put down in his Bible, no retreats.
And finally, as he was diagnosed with cerebral
meningitis, they read in his Bible later on,
no regrets.
He died a young man, but he was
on the altar.
He was ready to go, to give himself
as an offering.
But he had no reward.
He said he'd given up the reserves first.
And we need to do that.
I know a brother who went into the
Lord's works, and he said, Peter, he said,
in 19 such and such, the Lord called
me to full-time service.
He said, and I knew it would be
right if I gave it all to him
at the beginning.
And so I was prepared to do that.
Give him every dollar, because I couldn't rightly
be a servant of the Lord, depending on
my bank account.
And he said, that's exactly what he did.
And the minute the last penny was gone,
that's the first time I received fellowship from
another believer through the hand of the Lord,
when all the reserves were gone.
We have brothers and sisters who are in
the Lord's works full-time.
And they don't live like kings.
But we read in the scripture, if you
look at the Corinthian believers, Paul said, you're
living like kings?
What about us, he said?
We're the apostles.
We get spit on.
We get rocks thrown at us.
We get treated like scum and like dirt.
And you people are living like kings.
And he wasn't telling them that to lay
the big guilt chip on them.
He wanted them to know the responsibility that
they had, and how the Lord had called
them to that work.
And he could say later on, he says,
I preach the gospel, and I live by
the gospel, because I make the gospel of
no charge to people that need it.
That's why people who are called to the
Lord's work, who've given themselves and put themselves
on the altar, why they've done it is
because it's the gospel.
And the gospel doesn't cost people anything, because
they've cost God everything.
God paid for it.
His son paid for it with his own
blood and blood.
The gospel cannot be with charge.
It doesn't work that way.
So the purpose of our Christian giving is
affected by the fact that it is without
charge that the Lord has given us freely
all things.
The gospel is given freely without charge.
And so those who live by the gospel,
who've laid their lives down on the altar,
do it without charge.
But we know that they have needs.
We know that they have bills that come
in.
And so who has the responsibility to help
those who are in the Lord's work, who
are on the mission field?
We do.
You've heard the story told of a missionary
who came home on furlough.
She sat at the back of the church,
and one of the church members said to
her, you know, that dress you're wearing isn't
really very nice.
And she said, well, it's the one you
sent me.
Right?
Isn't that the sad truth?
I know a brother who's gone to be
with the Lord now, and his wife bought
a new coat from her mother, and it
was used, and it cost her $10.
And what were the Christians saying?
Oh, she went out and got a new
coat.
They must be doing good finds.
And this is super disparaging.
She said, my wife was so hurt by
those words that it wounded her for years,
the uncaring, unkind comments of Christians.
We have people among us, they are ministering
to us today, and they have given up
whatever secular employment they have or could have
had because it's more needful for us, because
the Lord has called them to live worse.
We have a responsibility to give to the
Lord, and the responsibilities sometimes are so obvious
before us, and we live like kings as
we shouldn't be living, but there are others
who are going without.
And I think the first problem that we
have is that we haven't done this first
step.
We haven't given ourselves completely to the Lord,
because if we did, the Lord would certainly
be talking to us about the needs of
our brothers and sisters.
That's certainly the first step.
Our home is family, number two, in giving
to them.
It sounds like a strange thing to give
to your home and family, but this is
in the area of where your heart's affections
are.
If you had people come into your house,
brothers and sisters, and they looked at what
was in your house, it would tell them
what was important to you.
It would tell them what you've spent your
money on.
I've had a brother share a good example.
He walked into the brother's library, there were
no books, but there was a great video
game on the computer.
What does your house tell people about what's
important to you?
How have you spent your money?
Do they come in and see one toy
after another and all kinds of elegant things
that really don't have a place in your
home?
Or do we live meager lives?
And I say that with tongue-in-cheek,
because I probably don't live as meagerly as
I could.
And maybe you don't either.
There are ways that we can probably change
our living habits.
And furthermore, our homes should be places that
are just like hospitals for the saints.
The hospitality of the home.
Giving isn't just of your financial resources in
the sense of giving directly with your money,
but in terms of using what the Lord
has given you.
Your homes are wonderful hospitals for people to
be brought into.
That's what hospitality is all about.
Bring the saints in.
Bring a sister home who's discouraged, and give
her a meal or give her a treat
by taking her out of the house instead
of having her prepare dinner.
Or take her home after the meeting and
encourage her.
Hospitality to the saints.
Lodge a visiting preacher.
Lodge a traveling Christian.
One night, we got a call from one
of the elders in the assembly, and he
said, we've got some visitors coming through.
And when we had finished visiting with them,
they stayed a couple of nights, we never
heard from them again.
And we were sure that we were visited
by angels.
We were sure.
It was such a blessing.
If you've never exercised the gift of hospitality,
open up your home.
It is the most wonderful privilege and blessing
that you have as Christians.
I know a sister who housed us one
time when we were traveling, and we were
brought in as total strangers, and she told
me the story.
She said, we were going to sell our
house, but we decided not to because we
knew the Lord wanted us to use our
big home to entertain the saints and to
house visitors like yourself.
And so they didn't sell their home and
move into a smaller home, which could have
been more convenient for them because they believed
the Lord was using them in that ministry
of hospitality.
Use your own.
Hospital work among the saints.
We need it.
Thirdly, in the area of, we'll go to
the assembly.
And in the assembly, 1 Corinthians chapter 16
talks to us about the need of giving.
The collection, as it's called, for the saints.
The collection for the saints.
This was primarily a collection in coordination with
Paul's teaching in 2 Corinthians chapter 8 and
9.
Paul was getting a gift from all the
churches in Macedonia, Corinth included, to bring to
the poor Christians in Jerusalem.
So the first mention of a collection in
the scriptures is for the poor.
That's the context of it.
For the poor.
For the poor saints.
Paul wanted to show the solidarity of the
Christian movement as it had extended into the
pagan world and how their expression of love
in this practical gift was going to be
brought back to the poor Jewish Christians in
Jerusalem to show that the gospel truly had
broken down the middle wall of partition between
the Jew and the Gentile.
What better way to express the unity that
we have in Christ by saying, I love
you and I want to help you.
That's what it's all about.
And that's what the collection was for.
And so the assembly should be looking at
the needs of the poor.
When we talk about assembly giving, most of
us think we're talking about Sunday morning offerings
and we know that the building has to
stay open, we know that somebody has to
pay for the eating and the phone bill
and the insurance and other expenses that are
incurred.
But that's not giving.
That's not giving.
Those are like saying, I'm giving to the
work of my health being open because I
paid my hydro bill last month.
You've got to pay the bills.
That's not Christian giving.
It is giving to the Lord, but it's
not giving above and beyond what we need
to give in order to keep even our
buildings open.
That's just the basics.
We have to look one step beyond that.
So giving to the assembly isn't just with
the view of paying for the basic bills
that a building has incurred for day-to
-day use.
But it's to be divided up, I think,
using the principle of Acts 1-8.
You notice the Lord Jesus said, Be my
witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the
uttermost parts of the earth.
And so giving should be localized, first of
all, Jerusalem, Judea, and then in your immediate
area, Samaria, and then in the uttermost parts
of the earth.
And I think that principle in Acts 1
-8 is a valid way to look at
our Christian giving.
We should be most interested in the needs
that we have locally, and we should be
interested as well in the foreign field.
So the assembly is a tremendous place to
be able to give.
You'll notice the question there, tithing versus giving.
How many of you feel that tithing is
still 100% applicable today?
Well, most of us like to think that
that's a little steep.
Isn't that true?
Mr. Groves in his book says, you know,
if a person was to give 100 pounds
or 1,000 pounds, using Mr. Gooding's terminology,
that they would feel they had really done
service to the Lord.
I know of a man who, as a
businessman, was blessed with so much that his
policy was to give 90% to the
Lord and only keep 10% for himself.
For whom much is given, much is required.
And so we need to be careful.
We need to be storing up in heaven
and not storing in, you know, the Bank
of the United States or the Bank of
Canada.
The assembly giving is certainly important, and we
need to, as assemblies, as part of our
worship, bring offerings to the Lord, bring offerings
to the Lord to present to Him for
the needs that they work.
And certainly those responsibilities are handled by those
who are deacons in the assembly and the
elders in the assembly, and it is appropriate
for those who have been given positions of
responsibility in local churches to carefully and carefully
consider the management of those funds.
And it is no small thing.
So in our assembly, for example, we have
a regular meeting.
The men get together and we pray about
where the Lord would meet us in Guinea.
Also in our assembly, each Lord's Day is
designated as to where the funds will go
so that you can pray about where the
funds should go.
So on the first Sunday of the month,
the funds that's in there are for generals
and the second Sunday of the month, the
funds are used to fellowship with those who
are full-time working in our assembly.
The third Sunday of the month, the money
that is brought into the offerings is given
out in missions.
And the fourth Sunday of the month, we
even have fellowship with those who may come
in as visiting preachers or those who we
know have needs who are preachers, where we
would be able to send a gift to
them.
And we even have fifth Sunday offerings, which
are special offerings, which we pray that the
Lord will give us wisdom in where to
use those specific funds in specific areas.
So we've identified those areas in our assembly.
Sometimes in assemblies, the offerings are just taken
in generally, and then the deacons and the
elders will decide how those funds should be
dispersed and how they should be handled.
But whatever way it is done, it is
to be done carefully and carefully.
In assemblies, too, we get into this whole
area of, do we go out and buy
beautiful $650,000 buildings with a beautiful mortgage
attached to them, or do we live within
our means?
And I think that common sense would prevail
in telling us that it would not be
prudent stewardship to go out and take a
large mortgage on a building.
I can give you an example of an
assembly which brought the matter before the assembly
as far as the need of a building.
And as they prayed about it, the assembly
laid in store, as the Lord had promised
them, the principle of 1 Corinthians 16.
And when it came time, the money was
there.
People had laid in store and decided that
they were going to give to the work
of the Lord so that when it came
time, the building would pay for it.
Now, if you're going to buy a huge
building, it's not going to work unless you've
got 1,000 people in your fellowship.
But if you're like most fellowships that are
between 40 and 140, it's not going to
happen.
You're not going to be able to build
a 500-seat auditorium.
Even a 200-seat auditorium might be a
little big.
So we need to be careful about the
whole idea of going into debt.
Scripture makes it clear we're not going into
debt.
One of the things that hindered the work
of the Lord in the book of Nehemiah,
if you go to chapter 5, was usury.
Brethren loaning money to other brothers and sisters.
Loaning them money of interest.
If you have a brother or sister that
needs money and you can give it to
them, give it to them.
Don't loan it to them.
Give it to them.
If you've got money to loan, then you
probably have money to give.
This idea of Christians loaning money to Christians
is absolutely nonsense in my opinion.
Totally without any biblical basis.
If a brother or sister is in need,
they are in need.
And the principle of 2 Corinthians 8 is
that the Macedonians needed to give to the
Jerusalem Christians and one day the Macedonians might
need to receive from the Jerusalem Christians.
You sow in one field and you reap
in another.
And if you sow spiritual things, you're going
to reap spiritual things.
But if you sow carnal things, you're going
to reap carnal things.
So we need to be careful.
The Lord's servants at home, number 4.
I am most distressed when I get letters
in the mail like this.
Please continue to remember us in your prayers.
Remaining financial support, 20.5% monthly at
$7,100 for outside passage, spiritual and mental
preparation for the cross ministry, etc.
4.
Over the past several years, my faithful prayer
partners and financial supporters have gone to me
with the Lord.
Others have had to reduce or stop supporting.
Will you consider supporting me now?
Okay.
You've got letters like this in the mail?
You ever got letters like that?
However, the financial support needs required before we
can return are critically high.
Our concern is for our current deficit of
$500 in monthly Christ support.
And then they even give you prayer cards
with lines and circles and dots with little
swivels in them to add your financial dollar
amount to them.
And our special Christmas project is this, and
our picture has a little magnet on the
back You can put that on the fridge
so that it will keep looking at you
until you send us money.
That's the way the world does things.
That is not Christian giving to respond to
that.
People who write you and solicit for funds
are using the world's techniques.
The servant of the Lord depends on the
Lord for his provision.
And I cannot stress enough, I am fully
persuaded from the Scriptures that it is wrong
for people to solicit for funds from the
Lord's Word.
If the Lord isn't providing funds for you,
I have some shocking news.
It means you're not to go.
That's the way it works.
And it means not now.
It doesn't mean not ever.
It means not now.
We can look at 1 Corinthians chapter 9,
but our time is running out.
But the Lord's servants are supported by the
Lord.
And the Lord's people are responsible.
Paul rebuked the Corinthians soundly in 1 Corinthians
chapter 9.
And he said, when an ox treads grain,
you need to feed the ox.
Don't we deserve that from you?
Don't we deserve to see that our brothers
and sisters who are serving the Lord full
time are given what they need?
One brother wrote a little book, and it
was quite interesting.
He said that people who are supported by
the Lord full time shouldn't be living above
the average Christian or below the average Christian.
And this may seem a little radical.
But we don't expect our brothers and sisters
who are in full time service to live
below the poverty line, do we?
Yet how many of them do?
It's a rebuke to us.
We need to change our ways, we really
do.
We need to be like KBI and say,
consider your ways in this particular area.
These few thoughts that I've shared with you,
I've brought on the third page some suggested
addresses that you can write to as far
as being able to find help.
Find help in your giving.
There are organizations, so-called organizations, who will
take the funds that you believe the Lord
has led you to give and will give
100% of those funds to the people
that you have been led to give.
Groups like Missionary Service Committee and Christian Missions
in Many Lands produce material like the Missionary
Prayer Handbook.
They also have books that describe for you
the states and the provinces and the workers
that work in those provinces, and also help
Canadian Women's Missionary Service Committee and the Missions
Magazine that has other help.
They will help you in your giving.
If you really do want to increase your
giving to the Lord, and you're not sure
where to do it, and I find this
is quite common, people say, well, I don't
know who to send it to.
I really, I'm not sure.
Or like one of the initial questions, has
the Lord ever spoken to you about someone
who may be a missionary or full-time
worker?
Has he brought their name or their face
to your remembrance?
He's talking to you about them.
There's something that you need to pray about
to ask the Lord to show you that
you can be used to help them.
And so the Prayer Handbook, the Missions Magazine,
we see even in the magazines like Uplook,
for instance, or other materials that we have,
where we hear of conferences like this conference
where a lot of the speakers are full
-time workers.
These are our men and women who are
in the work of the Lord.
And one thing you won't hear from them
is, the Mass is over in the fall.
Come and help us.
You won't hear that.
But they need our help.
But they are so convinced of New Testament
principles when it comes to giving, you will
not hear that from them.
Because they believe that we know what the
book teaches.
And if we're not in the book, how
are we going to know what the Lord
expects of us?
The book of Nehemiah closes in chapter 13.
I'd like you to look at that as
we close this seminar.
Nehemiah chapter 13.
We do have a responsibility to those who
are called to the work of the Lord
in foreign fields.
We have a responsibility to those who are
poor.
And the Lord Jesus taught us, the poor
you always have with you.
But in Nehemiah 13, Nehemiah had gone back
to the palace and had returned back to
Jerusalem to sort of have a look at
what's happened since the walls went up and
things got going again in the land.
And this is what he found.
He said, verse 11 of 13, Then contended
I with the rulers, he said, Why is
the house of God forsaken?
And I gathered them together and sat them
in their place.
And then brought all jute of the tithe
of the grain and the new wine and
the oil onto the storehouse.
And I made treasurers over the storehouses.
Shalamiah, the priest and Zadok, the scribe and
of the Levites, Hedayah.
And next to them was Hanan, the son
of Zachar, the son of Mataniah.
For notice, they were counted faithful and their
office was to distribute unto their brethren.
This is how Nehemiah's biography closes.
That the work of the Lord was going
to go on by people who were going
to be faithful distributing to their brethren.
And I would encourage you and exhort you
today consider the joy of giving, the joy
of hearing the master say, Well done, well
done.
Be good and faithful to him.
Enter into the joy of your Lord.
We didn't get a lot of questions and
answers.
My grandfather was told a book that was
published in Italian.
He never knew how to spell.
But we're going to have to end and
we'll just ask the Lord to bless our
time.
Our Father, we would thank you this day
for the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
who became poor for our sake.
We thank you that he gave up all
that we might have, everything.
We know our Father that we do reign
as kings now for we are seated in
the very heavenly places with our Savior.
We pray that you'll expand our capacity for
loving and that in turn will help us
to give as we should in appreciation for
what you have given to us.
Bless our brothers and sisters in this room.