Gifts That Guide Us to Tomorrow II, The Gift of Giving

That very issue in your life, just after the service, there'll be a number of men up here in the front, elders of our church. Just come forward and say, you know what, when Jay was up there, I felt like I wanted to pray that. And they'll pray with you, and they'll help you to know with certainty that you've made that decision today. Not to join the church, but to come into the kingdom of God. It begins with a step on your part. Come forward at the end, and they'll pray with you. Let's turn in our Bibles, please, to Romans chapter 12, once again. Romans 12, and let me encourage you, please, to take out your outlines. And I guess I need to apologize for all the dark spots in the auditorium. That is not, you know, an encouragement to snooze, or, you know, that's the, it's because we can't control these lights, and neither can they, and so we get what we get every time it's an adventure. But the air conditioning's working today, so that's, right, and the, you know, yeah, it is better than, and nothing's flashed on us yet, Scott, so we're doing all right. And Romans 12, please, and also you may want to just flip over to 1 Corinthians 12. We'll be looking at that passage as well for just a moment. Romans 12, 6, here we go. I did quote some of this in your outline. You can read it from there if you'd like. Romans 12, 6, we have different gifts according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve, and if it's teaching, let him teach. If it is encouraging, let him encourage. We're going to talk about that gift next week. If it is contributing to the needs of others, or in some of your Bibles it says, if it is giving, let him give generously. Then flip over to 1 Corinthians chapter 12, where Paul, writing about the body of Christ, says this. I'm not hearing any pages turn. All right, 1 Corinthians 12, verse 13, or verse 12, rather, 12, 12. The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts, and though all its parts are many, they form one body. Verse 19, if they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body. Well, they ranged in age from 2 to 72, heavy and thin, black and white, low income to fairly high, skilled to, I don't have a clue, men and machines, women and work parties, shovels, saws, rakes, buckets, wheelbarrows, brooms, mops and rags, our people pooling together, shoulder to shoulder, side by side, dirty, sweaty, smiling people, contributing their resources, their energies, some of their soul, to the fulfillment of our vision to move into our new facility on October the 2nd. This was yesterday. You had to be there to really appreciate it, and this coming Saturday you have another opportunity. You'll be disappointed if you get to the end of these six weeks and you've never been to a work day. You'll feel like I missed something. This coming Saturday, once again, we're going to be there from any time after 7 30 to about noon, some stay till 4 yesterday, but what I saw happening out on that property yesterday is a picture in the physical realm, the body with all of its different parts, many of whom had the gift of helps that we talked about last week, and if you missed last week and you love to work with your hands and you feel good about being with things, go get the tape of last week. And the group that assembled yesterday, they pictured for us what God has revealed in his word is to be the way the church is to function in spiritual matters. I mean the church, dear ones, in this era, and I have to say my passion is that this would become a fully functioning body in the spiritual realm as well as it is and was yesterday in the physical realm. God wants a whole church, as I talked about last week, not just a few specific parts working well. So we're talking in these final weeks, the final countdown, how many weeks do we move? Five, Lord willing, five weeks on spiritual gifts and what God has given to each of you to make a contribution to the fully functioning wholeness of his body. Dear ones, I want to come out real quickly and say someone asked me, well, once I've identified my gift, is that all I really have to worry about? How many know you can have more than one? You can have several, you can have multiple gifts. I was so thrilled last week about 150 of you indicated that you have the gift of helps serving others and we are working, our staff is working to get you all connected with opportunities to use that gift to the glory of God. But I'm going to be focusing these weeks on the gifts I think are most important to us successfully taking on our new church facility and moving forward in fulfilling our mission. And I'm talking today about the spiritual gift of giving. Now, in my estimation, this is one of the most important and least talked about gifts in the church today. It's rarely identified. Very few of you even know if you have this gift. I'm just going to ask you, don't tune me out too early. And don't say, well, I don't have that gift. I could never have that gift. It has nothing to do with how much money you have. It has to do with God giving you an enablement. You see, folks, there is immediately, you bring up the subject of money, and I'm going to use that word because it just, that's what it's about. The Bible calls the spiritual powers that have to do with money, the forces of mammon. It is identified in the Bible as a spiritual force that literally comes into due conflict with the Spirit of God. It has its own forcefulness, its own power. And how many of you know the buck has power over people's lives? How many of you have seen people lay down their lives for the buck? That's the spirit of mammon working on it. And this is easily in the church the most difficult subject to talk about. This is going to be the quietest sermon of the year. You already have your head down. You won't look at it. You'll be real nervous. Just relax, okay. I think there's something to learn here. And I don't feel that bad because you know what I've discovered? It's easily the most difficult subject to talk about, period. I mean, we'll talk about political commitments. We'll talk about in the 90s even our sexual practices before we talk about our money. It's just the way it kind of is out there. And you know, and we pastors, we know what's going on. I mean, some of you right now are already struggling with motive. Well, is he up there to fleece his flock or to feed it? I mean, the motives of leaders and pastors is called into question. And then I also know that many of you are struggling right now with their own financial dealings. I mean, you're under it. And you're saying, well, now you're going to talk about giving money. I'm aware of that. And I'm also, it's, you know, most pastors don't know anybody with the spiritual gift of giving. So they've never seen it operating. And so they don't even know how to encourage their church to rise in the fullness of what God's supply. We're different. And you're going to hear from a person with the gift of giving at the end of this message. You're going to meet one in person. And many of you are going to say, I might even have that gift. Now, as we matured as a church, I've come to realize how very important and very strategic this gift is. I want to say right up front, we would not be here. We would not be about to take occupancy of our facility and move our mission forward as we're going to, without the sustenance and the encouragement of those of you with the gift of giving that have been along the path of life with us here at North Way. But we just need to come to a general comfort level with talking about it so that we can hear what God has to say. Folks, let's be real candid, all right? And let's just be honest about this. Building a God-glorifying ministry that reaches out to people in need, that cares for people in the condition in which they find themselves, and makes a difference in the community is a resource-intensive proposition. It takes bucks. And it always has. I mean, money is freely talked about in the Bible. Jesus had his source of supply, and it's talked about openly. God was not caught unawares about this, you know? I mean, he wasn't scratching his head. I mean, how many of you know that God could have supplied for his church in lots of different ways? I mean, God could supply money like he supplies manna. You remember the Old Testament story about the Israelites walking out and finding food laying on the ground like dew in the morning, and that's how they ate for those years in the desert? I mean, God could do that with money. I mean, we could get up in the morning, walk out to the church property, and find 20s and 50s laying all over the property. Just gather them up, and then it comes up. Or God could send, you know, some angel on a Federal Express mission every Friday to pay the bills. And there's lots of ways God could supply. I mean, he could, on every church property in America, he could have, you know, some vein of gold or some big oil reserve underneath. I mean, we've looked. I want you to know that. We don't have any. We did have some oil, but it was toxic waste from the body shop. It didn't do any good. But instead of God just sort of, you know, supernaturally dropping money bombs, God thought of a way, a plan that would build up believers' faith while providing ample resources to carry out the church's ministries. Dear ones, I want to share a principle with you. I don't even know if I wrote it down, and it would help encourage me if you'd write it down. The principle is this. What's good for God's church is good for you. Say that with me. What's good for God's church is good for you. And this is true in every arena of your life. What's good for the church, because the church is the center point, the central activity of the Spirit of God in all of history. One day we're going to look back, and all of history will have pointed to the raising up of the eternal companion that's going to sit on the throne with Jesus Christ for eternity. That is us, the church. And so all of what God is doing in the church is good for you. And so what goes well for the church goes well for you. A healthy church is the context for healthy living. So it is true with finances. What's good for the church is a blessing is good for you. Now God's plan has two parts. I'm going to share both of them in a little bit of detail so that you can get on board and understand exactly what his vision was from the outset. And I want to talk about them because they involve you. The first part of God's plan, and it's not really a biblical term, but it's a kind of common one right now. The first way that God designed the first part of his plan to supply for the church is what I'm going to call universal coverage. Okay, well it's a word you've heard something about. God throughout the ages has called all of his people to participate in a giving plan that involves a percentage of their resources to the ministry. Now here's how it works. When a person comes to God, when they find Christ as the one who has the answer to life's search, the one who brings forgiveness of sins and freedom from guilt and fear, they receive the Lord. They wind up in local church. When they get there, they need love. They need counsel. Oftentimes they need connected and folded and trained up. If that redemptive chain reactions to continue on down to others, they've got to get involved, right? But this edifying process requires lots of things. It requires personnel, materials, staff, and leadership, and facility, and utilities, and administrative services, especially in a larger ministry. So those individual people can be connected in the living body of Christ. And all of this is God's, in God's mind, is to multiply over and over and over again. Now rather than God coming down and saying to a few of you, well you you take care of financing that. God said no, I want every person in the local church to take part and invest a percentage of every paycheck in the advancement of my kingdom. That was God's plan. That wasn't somebody's idea at some council or some gathering of apostles. It was God's plan, actually going all the way back well before the old covenant, when Abraham gave the first 10 percent of his income to Melchizedek, who is a picture of Christ in the book of Genesis. So for all these thousands of years, God's beginning standard of percentage of giving was 10 percent. Now many people have found that 10 percent is a challenge to begin, and we'll talk about that in a minute. But others have found once they get on board at that level, it's no problem to go on even greater. And you're going to hear some stories about that as well. You see when we embrace this percentage plan church, listen, everybody wins. What do I mean? Well let me talk about the benefits to the church, and then I want to talk about the benefits to you of embracing God's plan. Number one, benefits to the church. Let's talk about that. Everyone will be involved if we embrace God's plan. In other words, as we read here in first Corinthians 12, his design was that the body should all function. How many of you know that when you get up in the morning and begin to get dressed, your whole body has to work? What happens if you get out of bed in the morning and your foot's asleep? I mean you know that it's got that tingling numbness. You can't function, right? And you got to wait until it gets the circulation going and then you get moving. Why? Because the whole body needs to function to put your shirt on. God's vision is the whole church functioning, working together in every respect, including finances. God wants everyone to feel important. No matter what your level of income, he wants you to feel a part of what's going on in the ministry of the church. Look around you. Let's look around you. This is your church. This is the fruit of your giving over the last decade. This is who we are because of your faithfulness. God wants us to be part of that team. Number two, a second benefit is that economic differences are minimized. Have you ever wondered what would happen if God had taken a different plan and just decided that we'd run the church like a country club and charge a flat fee membership? Wouldn't that be weird? Let's make it up. Let's say it's going to be four thousand dollars per person. All right. Well that's cheap in some country clubs, let me tell you. But what would happen? Well the church would quickly become out of reach for many of us and the wealthy or wealthier would find it, you know, no big deal at all. No problem. And that would put spiritual nurture on a plane where only the wealthy could receive it. And what I understand about the Bible is God's heart is inclined toward the poor. So that can't be right. There must be a better way. Well the better way that God designed is the way of the percentage plan, which helps level the field and eliminates the potential for bitterness and the sense of being left out that can happen when they have the haves and the have-nots, as you might see in some other social settings. You may not know this, but let me just help you get a feel for what this means. That means that here today in this service there's going to be some people that are going to give two dollars and twenty cents when the offering basket goes by a little. And that'll be a tie. That'll be ten percent of their income this week. There'll be some that'll be giving twenty-two dollars. There'll be some right down the road from you maybe giving two hundred and twenty dollars this week. And believe it or not, there may be just a few people here in this service giving twenty-two hundred dollars this week. That's a tie to their income. And you see what that does. That makes us all feel like we're pooling together. And that person that struggled barely to make ends meet, you know, giving that twenty-two dollars, he or she feels just as good about their part in the body as that person who's able to write a twenty-two hundred dollar check. And that's God's plan. That's how he wants it to be. So we all see that that builds unity. And that causes the differences economically to begin, at least to dissolve, you know. And this isn't easy for some people. I was teaching on tithing in our Keys to Spiritual Maturity class several months ago. And someone who is in a wealthier income bracket came up to me during a break and said, you know, if I hear you correctly, you're saying that, and he gave me his figure, it was nearly four hundred dollars a week. I said, does that make you uncomfortable? He said, well, yeah, to tell you the truth, I don't like it at all. I said, well, you know, maybe you can kind of deal with God. Maybe there's a bargain going on. He said, how's this supposed to work? And I explained it to him again. And I said, maybe this will help you. I don't know the details of your living situation, but I'm willing to guess that your four hundred dollars a week will have less impact on your standard of living. The car you drive, the home you live in, the vacations you take, the stuff that you have, than forty dollars a week will have on some young family with two or three kids who's really just trying to make ends meet. They're sacrificing to see the church advanced. Shouldn't you have a part of that? Don't you want to be a player? And he said, well, you know, I really do. It's just hard. I said, well, go to God, take it to him. And to my knowledge, he began that next Sunday tithing and has continued doing so. You see, dear ones, it's God's way of bringing us together in this mission. Number three, the third benefit is it becomes a consistent flow of resources to the church. You see, we are called to be stewards, managers of God's resources. And First Corinthians 16.2 says very clearly that this is something that should be done on a regular basis. Each week, it says we should bring our offering to the Lord. What does that do? Well, first of all, it keeps us from hitting those big cycles, you know, feast and famine, all kinds of resources one week and nothing the next. It was God's idea to keep a consistent flow so you could manage and plan and strategically implement as the needs come up. Now, you know, it's wonderful when a family writes a check once a year for five thousand dollars, but it's much better if they write a check for one hundred dollars a week because it gives us the freedom to plan appropriately and to know where we're going to be. I think that's why Paul writes this in First Corinthians 16.2. And related to that, it also helps the church to avoid what I think has become, you know, just a bit of an embarrassment to the church at large. It's all these, you know, these fundraising things that start popping up within the local church. Now, I'm not speaking here about ministries outside the church. God has different plans for them. But for the church, I've always had an aversion to those hosts of well-intended but usually unfruitful attempts to raise money, you know, through bake sales and pancake breakfasts and rummage sales and Vegas nights and bingos. And, you know, if you've been listening to the radio, I mean, it's a hot topic right now. I mean, the lines get grayed too easily and people begin to wonder, really, what's the church all about? Is it a business? No, it's a ministry. Now, again, I'm not putting a blanket condemnation on those efforts and there's other things that need to be addressed here. But, dear ones, I mean, I even value things like work days where our youth get to build some teamwork and some camaraderie before they go on a mission trip. But I have to say to you, I don't believe it was God's best intention for the church to be selling stuff in order to raise a little bit of money. In fact, the core business of the church gets neglected when that happens. Now, what is our core business? Well, four things. I put them in sort of a little acronym for Norfolk. Nurture, I mean, edifying believers like we're doing today, worship like we did here this morning, communicating the gospel, and caring for one another. Nurture, worship, commitment, and care. That's what we talk about. That's what we are about. And when we're spending all this time raising funds, it's a diversion from God's best. We've attempted to avoid these things, dear ones. It's not always easy because there's so many needs. But I want to say this. You have been faithful. You've maintained your faithful tithing and giving. You have made it possible for us to operate this ministry with integrity and with dignity, of which I think the gospel is worthy of our best. And you know what? I have to say this. I've had one simple goal over the years, and that is no pressure, no threats, no, you know, blue underlining in our letters, no arm twisting. I just basically want to communicate the need to you, trust you to pray about it, and believe God to supply. And I know many of you respect that, and that's how you want to be treated. But it takes all of us doing our part. We can't shovel it off to the guy down the row. And I want you to know it's getting through. The message is getting through. I asked our financial department this week just to do a little study without any names. I said, tell me how we're doing with the new people. You know, studies teach us that it takes about one year for a family to join a church and then start giving. And I asked our financial department to say, well, show me what's been happening through our Discovering the Keys seminar. And they looked at the giving record of 235 families at North Way that have taken Discovering the Keys since the first of the year. Do you know 204 of those families are consistently giving to this ministry? Isn't that great? 84% are getting on board. That says to me that God is moving us as a body in the direction of sharing the responsibility for financing the ministry. How about you? Are you just assuming that someone else is carrying your part of the load? Or are you right in there, a player, participating in God's plan? I've got to ask you up front. I'm not embarrassed to ask you because I know the benefits to you will far outweigh the pain you think it's going to cause you right now. Let me talk about those benefits. First one to you. And remember, God wants to raise you up as a believer. That's more important to Him than raising up finances. The first one is you have an opportunity to give a tangible demonstration of your love. You know, when you love someone, even in the natural, don't you want to show that you love them? I mean, it's one thing to tell them. It's another thing to kind of like imply it in some way. But it's another thing to show them that you love them. This last Tuesday was Carol's birthday. And we wanted to just show her that we loved her. Well, I mean, it was a busy day and we're all going lots of directions and so on. But as we got down near dinner time and well, Carol got home and we went out and we bought this gigantic four pound ice cream cake. I think there was some other motives there other than showing love. But it was really beautiful and card and balloons. And we got some clothing articles that she needed. And you know, I know about other guys. How many guys have a difficult time wrapping things? I mean, I'm not real good at that. You know, but I bought this beautiful bag, you know, all nice. Yeah. And I put, you know, I don't know, I put this one article and we go out, walk out and she pulled out, you know, and I take the bag back in and put it up. And it worked really well, guys. It works well, because it looks beautiful. And, you know, Carol, she played it right along. She didn't. And she said, great. You know, she opened it like she was ripping open. But we wanted to show our love. And God says, show me your love. You know, all the way back in Genesis four, verse four, the Bible says that God was pleased with Abel's offering. And when you give your offering to the Lord, it pleases him. Because you're not just saying it or singing it, you're showing it with what you give. Number two, the second benefit to you are the kingdom dividends that you share in. I don't know how many of you own stock, but you know something of dividends. When the company does well, you share in the benefit of that. Dear ones, when the kingdom of God advances, you who give share in the dividends of that kingdom advancement. I was talking to one of our family members who committed a fairly large sum to the gym, the family ministries wing. And I said, why did you want to do that? And they said to me, well, I just wanted to know that every time a young person went in there to play basketball or made a new friend there at some activity, every time someone found meaning for their life or an answer to a tough question or came to the cross of Christ during a get-together in that wing, that I had a little part in helping their life to find the center of God's will. And I don't even care what the reward is in heaven. I'm just glad I could be part of that. Dear ones, I want to say, I don't remind you of this enough. Every one of you who faithfully give week after week, give your tithe, give your offering, no fanfare, no accolades, no parading up and down on the platform, no walking in front of a box, you give faithfully. I want to say every single time you do that, you are part of what's happening in our children's ministry as those kids are receiving biblical instruction for life. You're a part of what's happening in our youth ministry as kids meet and praise God together and learn how to stand in a very difficult context of peer pressure and find God's will for their life. You're part of the mission effort going around the world in one of the best mission-led teams that I've ever seen around the country. You're part of every single conversion that happens. And I want you to know, in just a few weeks when we sit in our chairs in that new auditorium and we watch people go down to that baptistry, you're going to be able to say, I had a part in seeing their lives change for eternity. You're part of it. And it is so important that you know it wouldn't happen without you. Dear ones, at the same time, God says, I'm going to keep supplying for you. I know you have needs. And God says, you take care of what I put before you. I'll take care of you. And I'm going to know that's the way to get your needs met. Honor God. He'll honor you as you'll hear in a moment in your testimony. That's not why you give. You don't give in order to get. But dear ones, when you do give, God does supply. The third benefit to you is growing faith. A faith that grows. You know, it's one thing to hear about someone else's victory in their finances. But how many of you know, it's another thing altogether when you experience it, whether that's healing or anything, but even in this whole area of our finances. When you participate in God's plan, he shows you his power. Financial stewardship and obedience is part of maturity. You know, you can fool a lot of people about your spirituality. You can fool me because I don't know what you give or anything else. But there's two people you can never fool about your spirituality and maturity. God, the Father, and yourself. And Jesus said, how can I entrust you with spiritual riches if I can't entrust you with earthly riches? It's simple. Being a good steward of resources is a stepping stone to true spiritual maturity. Luke 16 11. You can look that up. You can read about others and their victories. You can celebrate with Pat Robertson because they get their resources and their needs met or, you know, world vision or whatever it might be. But dear ones, when you experience God moving on your behalf, it is a trip. It is exciting. And there comes a time in every believer's life when the Holy Spirit nudges you, and for some of you it may be this morning, that you're going to take the step and get involved in the percentage plan. Not just in flipping a five in the basket, but in the percentage plan that God ordained. And you know, when a believer organizes their budget and gets online and starts that process, can I promise you one thing? You're going to get trials. The first thing the devil is going to say to you, fool, why are you doing that? And you know, something will happen, and the car will break down the next day. You say, this is what I get for tithing. Can I tell you something? It's just a test. You persevere. And over the long haul, you will be amazed at the faithfulness of God. You will be absolutely astonished at how God comes through for you. And you know what you'll be able to do? You'll be able to assemble a scrapbook. How many of you have scrapbooks of your wedding or college experience? How many have scrapbooks? Your grandkids? I have a mental scrapbook of all the times that God came through and delivered me and delivered this church financially. I have a scrapbook of moments when rescues, you know, when I didn't know where he was going to come. And God came through. I'll never forget standing there under the old portico of the Bradley house with a very limited amount of money and all these wealthy businessmen there, one of them in a Rolls Royce convertible, ready to buy the building out from under us and keep our church basically, you know, in a nomadic state. And I watched God move. I watched him silence the mouth of those bidders and enable us to buy that building for less than half of what we'd offered six months before. It's the snapshot. You see, it was God. And I have those same kinds of things in my own household. And you can have them too. And it builds your faith and it builds your ability to trust God and to worship him and to love him in his goodness. Do you have that kind of little scrapbook going or is it just all sort of me talking and you saying, well, I don't know. I'm, you know, God wants you to trust him because he's trustworthy. Now, if you're a new believer, this all may be information you never heard before. What do I do? Well, you start God's plan by just, you know, if you can arrange your finances to give that 10% start today, next week. If you don't have that, then work your way into it. Start with 3% or 5%, but build up to at least participate so that we're all moving together. If you have begun at one point to give and now have dropped back, and that's not many people, but if you have, be encouraged today that God is freely inviting you to get back on board. But I want to say to most of you, and this is the majority, you've been faithful. I don't need to exhort you because you have found out for yourself that God can be trusted. And I guess I need to say this, you know, as for me and my house, it's a done deal. I mean, we're not going back. I didn't learn to tithe in the first seven or eight years of my walk with God, just like some of you. I put it off because no one ever taught me, really. But once I learned God's plan, I got on board. Carol and I agreed together. And when we launched North Way 13 years ago, I mean, we had three young children, a little tiny house, gave up all the security of, you know, denominational credentials and all that stuff, and just trusted God through eight couples. And we've tithed ever since, and God has been faithful beyond our dreams. We're not going back. Our family, we're committed. And I invite you all to join in that little parade of people who have the courage to trust God. What about the other part of the plan? The spiritual gift, the unique ability to be a giver? Well, I see these people as kind of like, you know, incendiaries in the kingdom. People like little gasoline to be sprayed on the rest of us, sort of glowing embers to charge us in our giving. These are really something else, people with this gift. You see, those of us without the gift of giving, we tend to glamorize money and many times to give it more power than it has. You know, we think if we had more, we'd be happier. I've said this before. I think I should say it again right now. Some of the most unhappy people I personally know are very wealthy. Doesn't get you there. We think it'll buy us freedom and security and independence. It doesn't necessarily do that at all. But people with a gift of giving, they know what perspective to hold money. And they're very good at not letting it control them. And they have broken the yoke of the power of mammon. That spiritual force has no power over their life. They have the ability to ke