#26 Giving On Purpose December 2010

26                                    Giving, on Purpose                       December 8, 2010

Hey, let’s take a break for a couple days from our intense study of Ephesians Ch 6 and talk about something everybody hates to talk about- money! Oh, Boy! Well, it is year end and taxes are in the news so let’s go with the topic of money and what to do with it for this episode.

The  dark side of the moon of banking is the side that gets the money back after some ’light-in-their-Gucci-loafers’ lender has fallen madly in-love with the latest fashionable finance  ‘opportunity’ and jumped over the cliff with the rest of the Lemmings[i].  If we ever want to get any of the money back from stubborn borrowers, we have to talk their legs off. Frankly, this is my favorite part of the business so asking for bucks and talking to folks about money comes as easy as breathing.

Okay, let’s get back on track. The sling-master from the Psalms gives us a very different picture of giving. He speaks of having a deep desire to do something big for his Lord.

1 Chronicles 28:2 King David rose to his feet and said: “Listen to me, my fellow Israelites, my people. I had it in my heart to build a house as a place of rest for the ark of the covenant of the LORD, for the footstool of our God, and I made plans to build it.

David had something trigger a willful, deliberate, disciplined decision and he responded. Read the chapters and you’ll see the thankful heart that overwhelmed to this commitment.  I had never heard my contemporaries speak this way so this Chronicles section jumped off the pages a couple years ago while I was preparing for a capital campaign at my church [yes, its cliché to ask bankers to work on capital campaigns and even more cliché to have them ask for the money but that’s what has happened over and over in my experience].

So, why do people give? Here are a couple possibilities:

1.     Generosity.  Some folks are natural givers. Their DNA oozes giving as a primary expression of compassion, love and caring. Tome #16 “Why Generosity “was penned about this time last year to support this reason and offers some great benefits of generosity.  If you’d like a copy just let me know. St. Paul strokes this kind of giver in 2 Corinthians 9:7  ⁷ Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

2.     Tax Avoidance.   I have to admit that there have been years where I gave money to God just to spite the Federal and or State government. I’d rather give a $1.00 to God than $0.40 to those spendthrift D.C. scoundrels. Yes, this year is one of those! I acknowledge that I may be on thin ice with Christ over Matthew 22

^18-19Jesus knew they were up to no good. He said, "Why are you playing these games with me? Why are you trying to trap me? Do you have a coin? Let me see it." They handed him a silver piece.  ²⁰"This engraving—who does it look like? And whose name is on it?"  ²¹They said, "Caesar."    "Then give Caesar what is his, and give God what is his."

3.     Obligation.  Sometimes we give just because we feel we have to and again St. Paul would say, “Stop!”  Here are a couple reasons we get caught in this miserable trap.

·         Membership requirements. Maybe it’s the church rules or our group of friends that push us to do something we might not on our own. All of us have had theis kind of pressure placed on us.

·         Traditions.  My folks were givers and I am thankful for their model but it is not enough to just want to be like dad or mom.

·         “Catholic Guilt” [got news for you guys, Jews and Baptists are just as good at this]. We have all been in church or charity dinners where we just got shamed into a pledge by a tear-jerking video or the story of a needy soul.  Yes, we should respond to worthy causes but spontaneous decisions rarely produce adequate results. The truth of the matter is that those charities don’t survive on impulsive gifts either.

·         Sometime we go wrong by worrying about a warning and miss the real blessing:

Malachi 3  Breaking Covenant by Withholding Tithes

 ⁶ “I the LORD do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. ⁷ Ever since the time of your ancestors you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD Almighty.    “But you ask, ‘How are we to return?’   ⁸ “Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.  “But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?’   “In tithes and offerings. ⁹ You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. ¹¹ I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the LORD Almighty. ¹² “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the LORD Almighty.

The danger lays in worrying about God’s wrath and trying to give enough to avoid it while missing the promises that come with having your gifts be your worship.

·         Ego. I have been guilty of showing off at charity events and I have seen some whopper gifts in my day that were nothing more than that.  Jesus warns against this in his Sermon on the Mount. 

Matthew 6 Giving to the Needy  ¹ “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.   ² “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ³ But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, ⁴ so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

Clearly the Lord says that those gifts were just about the moment and nothing more.

·         Lets make a deal. “Hey God, how’s about I lay some cabbage on you and you, you know, let me have a shim, some vig[ii], a little somethin’, somethin’ in this blessings  deal?”  There is risk is trying to use Luke 6:38 like an ATM

³⁸ Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”

·         Sound Investment advice:

Matthew 6:19-21

 ¹⁹Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  ²⁰But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:  ²¹For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Now let me finally suggest another -Purpose. David decided to do something big for God. He had a plan to build God a house. We know the story and how God had his Solomon complete the work but make no mistake, it was David’s idea, money, materials and crew that got it done. Let me ask a couple questions and believe me when I say that I am not trying to embarrass you.

·         Do you know what you’ll make next year? Have a general idea what your household income will be for 2011? How about beyond? Yes, some idea?

·         Got some idea how much taxes you’ll pay now that Obama has listened to the voters?

·         Know what your property taxes are next year?

·         Got a budget for your car payment, tuition bills and mortgage obligation for the next couple years?

·         Got a vacation planned for next summer? Got a list of places you’d like to see?

These are all important budget items that we should know, plan and commit to for up to 30 years, in the case of our mortgage. I would expect each of you to know these commitments as well as any responsible adult would. Without trying to lower the boom permit me the following inquiry:

·         How much are you planning to give God over the next year? Two years? Five?

·         What charities or causes are you passionate about?

·         If you could, what Big Thing would you do for God?

In 1983, an unemployed small business man, courtesy of Jimmy Carters 22% interest rates, was broke with a wife, small baby boy and no place to call home. Ever since then when  reading about Joseph heading to Egypt with Mary and the baby on the back of a donkey, a “ I’m feeling you, guy!” moment grips me.  One of the not entirely explicable components of my financial restoration can be tracked to decisions to be purposeful, deliberate and disciplined about God’s money he trusts me with.  Fine, I’ll confess to an excel spreadsheet budgeted five years out at mind numbing detail. The schedule plots income, debt repayment, purchases, living expense, retirement assets and, of course, charitable gifts. There are even set goals for each charity.  Now, I am in no way suggesting that any of you should follow in my maniacally obsessive footsteps. Heaven forbid! My planning obsession arises from that financial failure and the horrible sensation of being unable to give to anyone or thing. What I am trying to say is that some of my most joyful moments in the last thirty years of my stumble [lots of Christians have what they call a “walk”, a path they have travelled with God. Mine is not that poetic and has a lot more face-plants], are connected to a Purposeful response to a work, or cause or ministry need that I decided to answer and every blessing I enjoy today comes straight from His Throne. Somewhere between stupidly obsessive planning like me and reactionary, impulsive giving may be the right place of balance for you.

So let’s wrap this up. In recent years, lots of us have studied The Purpose Driven Life[iii]

by author and pastor Rick Warren.   Maybe someone could make the best-seller charts by writing, “The Purpose Driven Checkbook”.

Merry Christmas!