This morning we come to our last message in our series called "Money Talks." Our goal has been to provide you with some significant information about what the Bible says about our money so that our lives may be conformed to teaching from God’s word. Our first talk helped us understand three basic ideas that the Bible teaches about money: God owns it all, controls it all and provides it all. Last week we talked about how we need to avoid the debt trap. In that message we explored how we get into the debt trap and how we get out of the debt trap.

Today we are going to talk about "Giving Faithfully." I know you have several reactions when I mention this. I understand that. First, though, I want to thank those of you who give faithfully to First Baptist Church. Last year you gave almost $3 million to this church through our general budget and our building campaign. Over the last three years you have given 97% or $3.3 million of the $3.4 million you pledged to "Building Tomorrow…Today!" You gave 7% more to the budget in 2008 than you did the year before. You gave over $260,000 to missions—money that went away from here to serve the cause of Christ around the world. It’s true we came up short about $75,000 in our budget; still you demonstrated tremendous faithfulness to God by giving generously to our church. So, "Thank you to those of you who are already giving faithfully!"

Some of you may be uncomfortable when I talk about giving faithfully to God through First Baptist Church. The reasons may be that you don’t understand how that works or you understand and just struggle with doing it or you understand it and you don’t like something about what this church has done or is doing. I accept that you have many reasons why you may not be giving faithfully to God through First Baptist Church. I need you to understand, though, that I would not be the leader that God expects me to be if I didn’t challenge you to make a decision to give faithfully to God through this church or the church that you feel you belong.

Recently our daughter Amy graduated from Ouachita. She now has a De-gree and a J-O-B, which is every parent’s dream. When she graduated Kathy and I gave her a very decorative box that included special memories that we had of her growing up and scriptures that we believe have shaped our lives and we pray will shape her life as well. One of those verses is the text for the morning from Proverbs 3:9-10. These verses have been an anchor for Kathy and me all of our lives as husband and wife. This morning I want you to feel like I am giving you a treasured gift of wisdom, wisdom not merely from my life experience but from the truth, life-giving truth of God’s word.

The book of Proverbs has a lot to say about life and it has a lot to say about the wise use of money. This very treasured passage gives us four valuable principles about what it means to give faithfully. These underlying principles are vital to our understanding so that we can give faithfully to God through this church or the church you call home.

The first principle of giving faithfully is: I give to God to honor him. (Prov. 3:9) The verse says, "Honor the Lord..." The purpose for our giving and for our living is that we give and we live to honor God. That is to be our highest and strongest motivation for giving and living—we want to honor God. What does it mean to "honor the Lord"? The word honor is sometimes used to describe a king weighted down with all the accessories of royalty—the crown, the robe, the jewels. When we honor God it means we weight him down. In other words, we attribute to God the place of esteem and value that would adorn him. We give him the rightful place of recognition in our lives.

There are many false or shallow reasons that we might use to give. Some are motivated by guilt. They give because they think they ought to give. Others give because they feel like they have to. They give with a grudge. Some give to gain. They give to get recognition for themselves or manipulate God. God’s word says that our giving should be out of grace—a heart that desires to demonstrate honor to God for all that he has done for us. We give not because we ought to or have to but want to give.

When we give our money we do it to say to God, "You are the best. You are deserving of everything I have and more." The purpose of our giving is to honor God. The question is: Does your giving reflect that? Is your giving "light" or is it "heavy"? Does it honor God or dishonor Him? In I Samuel 2:30 God says, "I will honor those who honor me." In the Old Testament book of Malachi the prophet was coming down hard on the religious leaders for the ways they were giving to God. They were told to only sacrifice animals that were the best that they had but instead they were offering him the very worst. Malachi says, "And when you offer worthless animals for sacrifices in worship, animals that you're trying to get rid of—blind and sick and crippled animals—isn't that defiling? Try a trick like that with your banker or your senator—how far do you think it will get you?" (Mal.1:8)

So when you are giving to God through this church are you doing it so that what you are giving honors God? Is it from a heart that is overwhelmed by his blessings or is it out of a mind that says, "God won’t really care, I’ll just give him what I think will get some of the guilt off me not to really honor him." Take a look at the contribution statement that the church sends you and ask the question about what you see, "Am I giving in a way that I know and God knows I want to honor him?" Giving faithfully starts with a choice that: I give to honor God!

If giving faithfully starts with a desire to honor God then what am I to give to him that would honor him? The answer is: I am to give to God from what he has given to me. Verse 9 continues, "…with your wealth…." (Prov. 3:9) Often when we talk about giving we quickly want to avoid the obvious and that is we are to give our money to God. It’s easier to talk about giving your time and your abilities, but there is no way to deny that we are to give God our money. The reason is because we will give our time and our abilities far easier than we give our money. When we talk about giving our money that’s where it gets uncomfortable. Your wealth, possessions and resources are to be the tangible things that we use to honor God. So the question is, "Am I honoring God with my wealth?"

There are three ways we honor God with our wealth. We can honor or dishonor God with how we gain our wealth. Some people gain wealth in ways that are dishonoring to God. We can also honor or dishonor God by the way we guard our wealth. We can guard our money so well that it becomes something that strangles our life and robs our joy. What we have sought to guard becomes what we hoard.

We honor God by not only how we gain and guard our money but also how we give it. Paul was talking to a church about how they gave their money to God and he said this, "I want each of you to take plenty of time to think it over, and make up your own mind what you will give. That will protect you against sob stories and arm-twisting. God loves it when the giver delights in the giving. (I Cor.9:7, Msg.) I love that last part, "God loves it when the giver delights in the giving." That is the place we all need to be when it comes to our giving.

This past Sunday night after church Kathy and I were just talking and reflecting on God’s provisions in our lives and our family. We thought and talked about what a difference a year has made in all of our lives. There has been a huge amount of "knee time" and deep prayer to God in this past year. Recently there has been a huge amount of thanksgiving to God. When we talked about all that we just couldn’t help but express our joy and gratitude to God. Now I didn’t tell Kathy to run get the check book but it makes the gifts we bring to God through this church just a deeper expression of our delight in God and delight in giving. I don’t know where you are in the attitude of your giving. I have been on both sides of both guilt giving and delight giving and I’ll tell you now I prefer delight! The way we give our money is a way that we honor God. Giving faithfully means that I actually give to God from what he has given me in a way that demonstrates not only my desire to honor him but to show my delight in him.

I give to God to honor him and I give to God from what he has given me. There’s a third principle here for giving faithfully, though, and it’s this: I give to God the best that I have: "…With the best part of everything you produce…" (Prov. 3:9). Solomon uses a term that is very specific. It is the word "first fruits". The NLT translates it "the best part of everything." It meant in that culture the first seasonal produce from the soil. It was considered absolutely holy and belonged completely to God. The nation of Israel brought a portion of their produce to the Tabernacle or Temple to remind them that God was the owner of everything. While their gift of grain or fruit was only a portion, it was a necessary discipline to enable them to recognize their absolute devotion to God.

What this says to me is that I am to recognize the absolute lordship of Christ over my whole life by giving to God the best part of everything. I believe that this is what the Bible calls the tithe. I believe that the tithe begins with giving a minimum of 10% of my gross income to First Baptist Church, Jonesboro, each year. The priority of my giving is to give God what is his—first and I believe that is the tithe.

As I told you this verse has been a verse that Kathy and I have treasured as God’s word to us since we were first married. We have tithed faithfully and obediently. I’m not going to say that we have always done this with the delight that I just spoke about even though time and time again we have been shown that God honors our faith and obedience. In fact I have a note beside this verse in this Bible that was written on the day before we moved to seminary that says, "Promise 7-3-76" and then "It still works 5-4-79". What I do know is that if you do not decide that the first check you write when you are paying your bills will be your tithe you won’t do it faithfully. The practical reason is that if you wait till you see what is left over you won’t have it left over!

Here is what I know: God has provided different amounts of resources for each of us that are in this church. Our lifestyle choices may or may not be based on the amount of resources God has provided us. Some live within their means and others do not. The decisions you make about your lifestyle choices will be the determining factor as to whether or not you give God what is "the best part of everything" or what is just left over. If because of your lifestyle choices, you are giving God what is left over and not the best you will have real turmoil in your life. It is this tension that you know what God says and what is right and you are not doing it and you feel that inside of you. Sooner or later you are going to get to the place where you are tired of the turmoil and make the choice to change your lifestyle so that you can honor God with the best part of everything which is your tithe. What are you giving God? Is it the "best part" of everything or just what’s left over? Giving faithfully means that what I give to God is to be the best that I have—not the leftovers I can’t use!

There is one last principle for our giving faithfully and that is I give believing that it makes a difference: "Then he will fill your barns…and your vats will overflow…" (Prov. 3:10). These words are words of promise. They are a promise from God that when we give the very best from what he has given us to honor him that it will make a difference not only in our lives personally but in God’s church and his kingdom. The verb tense that is used here is in the imperfect tense, meaning that it is something that happens over and over again. I can say to you that for the last almost 33 years of our life God has filled and overflowed our lives over and over again. It is a supernatural event that sometimes I don’t see until I stop and stand in awe of what he has done.

When you examine the major promises of the Bible related to giving our money to God the emphasis is on the reward rather than the responsibility. God says in Malachi 3:10 about our tithing to him, "Test me in this and see if I don't open up heaven itself to you and pour out blessings beyond your wildest dreams."(Msg) In Luke 6:38 Jesus says, "Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back." Here the emphasis is on the word "then." When we honor God by our giving, "then" he creates a process for filling and overflowing!

Your giving begins a process for God to make a difference. He makes a difference in your life by promising to supply what you need. He makes a difference in His kingdom by using your resources in ways you may never know. Sometime ago I was at the hospital and a man and his son stopped me and asked if I was the pastor of First Baptist Church, Jonesboro. I said that I was. The father went on to say that he and his wife, who had died of cancer some months earlier, were faithful watchers of our televised service. He went on to say that on one Sunday when his wife was extremely ill that we sang "How Great Thou Art." Because of the degree of her illness, his wife had not been able to speak and was not coherent, but when that came on she began to sing the words. He shook my hand and said how much our service meant to him. Humbling? Touching? Grateful? You bet. Almost $50,000 a year is spent from our budget televising our services to make a difference in the lives of people we may never know. The catch is, though, if you don’t give then you are not part of the difference. You can’t go there but your giving can when give faithfully.

As I told you last week and this week’s economic news has shown we may be in for a hard year in our nation. Our series has encouraged us to remember that we can trust that God will provide for what we need. We know that we should do all we can to be free from the constraints of consumer debt and prepare for any kind of critical times we might face. With all that appears to be a challenge in the year ahead conventional wisdom would say to start cutting back on giving money away.

So, who are you going to believe? God’s word says to us, "Honor the LORD with your wealth and with the best part of everything you produce. Then he will fill your barns with grain, and your vats will overflow with good wine."(Prov.3:9-10) Those words are the wisest advice on giving faithfully that you could ever have. The principles of giving faithfully are based on these truths: I give to God to honor him; I give from what he has given me; I give the best that I have; and I give believing it makes a difference. So ask yourself: Am I honoring Him? What am I giving? Is it the best? Do I believe it will make a difference? Am I giving faithfully? Those are questions we can’t afford to ignore.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org