Be Rich Part 1: Giving 

On Sunday 7_th May at our morning service, we started our series 'Be Rich' with the topic 'Giving'. In this blog you will find a summary of the talk and then some questions and reflections for you to think through on your own or to discuss in your small group.

To listen to the talk on-line, please click here.
To download the talk to listen to off line, please click here.
 

Talk Summary

Our new series is a four-parter (Giving, Serving, Loving, Worshipping) about getting people to understand Jesus’s emphasis on following him rather than following rules. One of the main emphases in his teaching was that his followers should show love towards others. Hopefully, considering this will persuade us to “be rich” in our generosity to others in all ways – the way we give, serve and love others – and thus be rich in our worship of God, who first loves us.

So don’t be alarmed – we’re not going to try to get you cornered with religious “rules” about giving, expectations about serving – it can feel like a spiritual millstone or emotional blackmail, even a threat or a stick to beat ourselves with (God won’t love me if do this…. I’ll only go to heaven if I do that…) 

As always at EBC we want to be rooted in the bible and for this series we’re looking at a letter written by the apostle Paul to his friend Timothy. Here’s where the title “Be Rich” comes from:
You can read this by clicking here.

Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.

You may say ‘Hold on! “Rich in this world”? I’m not rich!’

Really? 

We sometimes think that – I’ve got a mortgage on the house to pay, bills for the car… but then I think wait… Most of us do in fact have a house. Most of us have a car. Even our car has its own little house! And then you think of the homeless people who depend on the Night Shelter… and people in really poor countries like Sierra Leone.

Giving is a knotty one. We do have pressures on our finances – there are those things we have to spend money on… those things we want to spend money on… and those things we feel we should spend money on.

Have to: mortgage – and other bills! Food, clothes, car… 
Sometimes it can feel like a battle to stay afloat just on these fronts! 

Want to: for me that would be a TVR sports car, a large dog (and associated costs), and of course a couple more guitars (because you can never have too many guitars!)

Should do. These are the things we feel we should do (if only those pesky “have to”s and “want to”s didn’t keep interfering! Things like giving generously & sacrificially - giving to church, DST and Abs, other good causes. And clearing any debts ASAP – enabling us to give more.

The challenge is to reconsider what our “have to” and “want to” and “should do” priorities ought to be – not because of “the rules” but in response to what God is telling us. And what does God want?

Here are a couple of clues from the accounts of Jesus’s life:

Luke 11: 37 – 42 (NLT) -
37 As Jesus was speaking, one of the Pharisees invited him home for a meal. So he went in and took his place at the table. 38 His host was amazed to see that he sat down to eat without first performing the hand-washing ceremony required by Jewish custom. 39 Then the Lord said to him, “You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness!40 Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? 41 So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.
42 “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
Jesus gets cross with the Pharisees because they put the letter of the law before the spirit of the law. They make a show of giving their tithe (10%) and yet elsewhere we see them trying to trap Jesus because He heals people on the Sabbath. Jesus is angry with that attitude – we should put love of others before the rules. We’ll give and serve and love when we follow Jesus – not because the rules tell us we should, or to try and look good to God and other people but because we’ll want to!
Looking a bit further on in Luke’s account, we find Jesus telling a story.

Luke 18: 10 – 14
9 Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: 10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[b]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not like other people—cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
Let’s be clear that the things we’re looking at in this series - giving, serving, loving and worshipping – are things which flow from our relationship with Jesus and Him changing us from the inside out. We must start, I think, with humility. Not pride in our “rule keeping”. Not mean-spiritedness towards others, not tight-fistedness… but being rich in humility.
It’s about getting before God and trusting Him with your life. He knows our weaknesses already and he knows the desires of our hearts already. He knows if we’re really prepared to be and want to be rich towards others – if we really want to be His disciples and really let Him have His way in us.
In short, it’s not about following the rules… it’s about following Jesus.
 And when it comes to giving, by the way, He has all the riches not us! 

Let’s look again at that first reading –
1 Timothy 6: 17-19
Teach those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which is so unreliable. Their trust should be in God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and generous to those in need, always being ready to share with others. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may experience true life.
Last week we had feedback about the Sierra Leone trip – everyone that went gave financially to make the trip, and they gave abundantly of their time and energy whilst over there. But talk to them and I bet they’d all tell you they got the treasure – they got a bargain… an experience that moved them and changed them and blessed them in a way only God can do. They are RICHER for the experience. 

We see the same with Night Shelter, we see the same with Storehouse… you don’t lose out when you give or serve or love. God doesn’t cheat or hold back – “it is more blessed to give than to receive” as Jesus said, because God has the goodies, the riches! An eternity in paradise, let alone a fulfilling life (“true life”) today.
It’s not that God wants your money – He wants you! When we really get that, giving moves on up from that “reluctantly think I should do” category into the “I want to! I need to!” places.

So I’m not wanting to beat you up with the rules about giving. No, no – there’s a giving of treasure we’re talking about but it’s God that has the treasure – so what I’m saying is like an old pirate once said – “I have brought you to the treasure house of the world – blame yourselves if you go away empty-handed.” 

God has the riches and His church is the treasure house of the world. Blame yourselves if you go away empty-handed, or empty-hearted. Be rich – fill your boots with the treasures God has in store for you. Don’t go away empty-handed. Don’t cling so much to your money or your “wants” that you can’t extend your hands to God. 

Get involved, richly involved with what God is doing through EBC. Our aim is to have 100% of people giving regularly, and doing so as a priority! 

If you’re in debt – get on a CAP course, God doesn’t want us in debt and that can be a tension – I know it well – when we don’t want to be in debt, but want to give more… My advice is to give a bit regularly now and use the desire to give more (ultimately tithing and beyond) to fuel the fire of getting out of debt sooner.

Let’s all humbly get before God on the issue and see how He will bless our willingness just to trust Him on this and give something regularly. Whether it’s 10%, or 1% or whatever. As a step of faith, give something regularly and see what God does with that – inside you. Not because you want to want to follow the rules, but because you want to follow Jesus. You will be the richer for it. Please don’t go away empty-handed, or empty-hearted. Fill your boots.

Questions and Reflections (for you to think about on your own or to discuss in your Life Group)
 

1.    Take some time to consider, dream and pray about the things you personally have in each of the three categories: the have-tos, want-tos and think-I-shoulds.

2.    How might you reconsider and re-order the things you spend your money on, and the amount you spend on them? How would you feel if (when?) you act on this?

3.    What percentage of your total pre-tax income do you give away? As an easy guide, for every £1,000 of income you receive per month, 10% of that is £100/mth and obviously 1%        would be £10/month. Have think and figure it out.

4.    If you are not already giving regularly, are you up for the challenge of working out a percentage of your income you could give on a regular basis? Take a few minutes and work out        what 1% of your monthly income is, then commit to thinking and praying about what percentage (1%, 5%, 10%, more?) you want to give.

5.    If you are already giving regularly, what would increasing this by 1% of your income look like… and could you do this?

6.    What adjustments could you make to your lifestyle so that you could afford to “be rich” in your giving?

7.    What do you make of Jesus chastising the Pharisees (who were, after all, tithing!) for their attitude? He said: “What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the        tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.”

8.    Consider in prayer your own assessment of how you stack up on all of this – are you following the law, following Jesus… or neither?